CAPITOL NEWS ILLINOIS PHOTO BY JADE AUBREY
The mom of Chicago police officer Luis Huesca on the Illinois Peace Officers Memorial Ceremony on the Illinois State Library in Springfield on Could 1.
9 Illinois law enforcement officials who misplaced their lives within the line of obligation in 2024 have been honored at a ceremony in Springfield Thursday.
The Illinois Peace Officers Memorial takes place yearly on the primary Thursday of Could to honor officers who died on the job within the prior yr. Households of the officers are given a plaque honoring their member of the family’s service by the state’s constitutional elected officers and the officers’ names are inscribed on a memorial outdoors the Illinois Capitol.
“They wakened each single day understanding that they could be known as on to face excessive uncertainty, that on a second’s discover, they could be required to place themselves in hurt’s option to save one other,” Gov. JB Pritzker mentioned.
This yr’s occasion honored DeKalb County Deputy Sheriff Christina Musil, Division of Corrections Sgt. Andrew Faught, Chicago Police Officer Luis Huesca, Prepare dinner County Corrections Deputy Sheriff Rafael Wordlaw, Chicago Police Officer James Crowley, Illinois State Police Trooper Corey Thompsen, Chicago Police Officer Enrique Martinez, Oak Park Detective Allan Reddins and ISP Trooper Clay Carns.
This yr’s occasion additionally honored Okay-9s for the primary time, together with Okay-9 officers that died within the line of obligation from Rockford, Lake County and Alton final yr.
“The households that we induct at present by no means requested to be part of this somber membership,” Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton mentioned.
Treasurer Mike Frerichs additionally gave an emotional speech honoring his cousin, a California police officer who just lately died. Frerichs’ workplace gives a school scholarship fund for kids of first responders who died on the job.
Former ISP Trooper Kim Cessna, who leads a nonprofit for members of the family of fallen law enforcement officials, gave a private remembrance of her colleague Thompsen, who was killed in a crash final October.
“We take these recollections with us, permitting them to information us, reminding us the sweetness they introduced into our lives,” Cessna mentioned. “We feature their love in our hearts, and we let that love grow to be a supply of power.”
CAPITOL NEWS ILLINOIS PHOTO BY JADE AUBREY
A big American flag is draped over home windows of the Illinois State Library in Springfield throughout the Illinois Peace Officers Memorial Ceremony on Could 1.
Kathleen Rittmanic-Emme, the sister of Bradley Police Officer Marlene Rittmanic who died in 2021, described the emotional toll that court docket instances tackle households following an officer’s dying.
“4 years of hell to get what you name justice is completely heart-wrenching and ridiculous,” mentioned Rittmanic-Emme.
Rittmanic’s killer was sentenced in January to life in jail.
Martinez’s dying was on Comptroller Susana Mendoza’s thoughts. Martinez was shot and killed throughout a visitors cease final November on Chicago’s South Facet by a person with an illegally modified gun, in accordance with prosecutors.
But it surely was the suspect’s felony historical past that Mendoza mentioned bothered her probably the most. Block Membership Chicago reported the person was on digital monitoring when he killed Martinez and had a number of prior convictions, together with battery, fleeing the police and aggravated discharge of a firearm. He was additionally awaiting trial on drug costs on the time of the homicide.
“Chicago Police Officer Enrique Martinez could be with us proper now and never on this button or the memorial wall outdoors if the monster that murdered him was locked up as a substitute of out committing crimes whereas out on digital monitoring,” Mendoza mentioned.
Mendoza, a Chicago Democrat and sister of a Chicago Police officer, blasted parts of the SAFE-T Act – a 2021 police reform legislation championed by Democrats after Geroge Floyd’s homicide in 2020. She mentioned as an elected official, she must do extra to talk out in opposition to insurance policies she believes jeopardize officer security.
Mendoza known as on lawmakers to take away a provision in state legislation that requires individuals on house confinement with or with out digital monitoring to be given two days of motion.
“Once we give extra rights to the criminals than we do to our law enforcement officials, we find yourself with useless officers and elevated crime in our communities,” Mendoza mentioned, incomes applause from the officers and households in attendance.
Capitol Information Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan information service that distributes state authorities protection to lots of of reports retailers statewide. It’s funded primarily by the Illinois Press Basis and the Robert R. McCormick Basis.
