Daley defends keeping police list secret

The Chicago Tribune reports:

Mayor Richard Daley today defended City Hall’s effort to keep secret the identities of police accused of brutality and other wrongdoing and skewered aldermen who are trying to make the names public.

Officers who have been the subject of citizen complaints don’t deserve to have their names besmirched if they haven’t been found guilty of doing anything wrong, Daley said. And the aldermen are taking an easy political path to go after officers, he said.

“Kick ‘em when they’re down. Keep kicking ‘em. See your name in the press. Sign a petition. I guess that’s what you do in life...They should not be kicked up and down the street," the mayor said.

The Police Department has been rocked by videotapes that appear to show an off-duty officer beating a female bartender and, in another barroom incident, several other off-duty police assaulting four businessmen.

Meanwhile, the U.S. attorney and Cook County state's attorney are conducting an investigation that so far has led to charges of robbery and kidnapping against seven members of the police Special Operations Section. One of the officers, Jerome Finnigan, recently was charged with plotting to murder a former special operations officer who had begun helping investigators. Starks earlier this month announced that he was disbanding the controversial unit.

In a court filing yesterday, 28 of the City Council’s 50 aldermen asked Federal District Judge Joan Lefkow to order the city to release the names of 662 officers who have had more than 10 citizen complaints lodged against them over the last five years.

I guess Mayor Daley doesn't care about citizen complaints against police officers.