Eight days after a Chicago police officer was killed and his partner critically wounded inside Swedish Hospital, some of Illinois’ most active social media politicians went almost completely quiet about the shooting, the pretrial release of the accused gunman, and whether the laws that put him back on the street need to change.
Prosecutors say Alphonso Talley, a seven-time convicted felon who had escaped electronic monitoring and was under arrest for armed robbery, used a concealed firearm to shoot Officer John Bartholomew dead and gravely wound Bartholomew’s partner while Talley was receiving a CT scan at the hospital.
For several legislators whose social media feeds normally run at a near-constant clip, the silence has been conspicuous. To speak up, they might find themselves doing something they don’t find politically useful: supporting the Chicago Police Department and, maybe even suggesting that they will look to create laws that could minimize the chances of another tragedy…