"I know what gangbangers look like, and these were not gangbangers," stated Tactical Sergeant Mark Zenere, who was on duty at Ford City Mall during the incident and who came to the CAPS Beat 834 meeting at Bogan High School, apparently to offer his firsthand insights to the roughly two dozen local men and women on hand. "These were not thugs. These were exuberant youths with a couple of bad actors among them, acting like teenage boys sometimes will."
Video of the incident, as well as eyewitness testimony showed some of the 200 jumping on and damaging cars, looting a Best Buy store and intimidating innocent men, women and children.
Zenere, a veteran law enforcement official, said he was on duty at Ford City because CPD was aware that Mindless Behavior would attract a large crowd. He added that CPD "...had intel that there might be conflicts" between gang factions from the Englewood area at Ford City that day.
He claimed that the situation "...got blown out of proportion by the news media" and by individuals posting videos of the mob action of YouTube and discussing the situation on social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter.
He stated that he was inside the mall for much of the time and praised Ford City officials for good planning and organization inside the building as they accommodated as many as a thousand young fans of recording artists Mindless Behavior, who were invited to the mall to conduct a meet-and-greet to promote their music, movie and merchandise.
He added that the large majority of the Mindless Behavior fans were young girls and their mothers.
Despite the fact that Ford City officials, on CPD advice, evacuated and shut down the mall a short time after the Mindless Behavior event ended, Zenere insisted there was an adequate police presence on hand, saying that roughly 50 units responded. "There were more than enough police. It was not out of control," he said. Regarding the now-infamous videos shot by the teens themselves and posted on YouTube, Zenere said "One kid, took one chair, and hit one car."
"I saw no great threat," he added, telling the group that there was no significant level of injuries to people. (According to city officials, two people injured at the scene were transported to local hospitals with minor injuries, including a CTA bus driver who took glass shards to his eye when a young thug smashed the bus windshield.)
CPD Sergeant Allen Cain, head of the Eighth District CAPS Program and seated next to Zenere at Thursday evening's meeting, supported Zenere's assertions by stating that what occurred around Ford City paled by comparison with the West Side riots that occurred after the Chicago Bulls NBA championship triumphs in the 1990s. "We were there," Cain said. "We saw people turning over an ambulance---with people inside."
Zenere also likened what occurred at Ford City to rock and roll concerts of the mid-1960s. "This was literally like the Beatles," he said.
Most of the audience members sat in silence during Zenere's remarks. Several seemed skeptical, and several others agreed aloud with him that the news media blew the incident out of proportion.
Cain ended the discussion by assuring the audience that CPD officials at multiple levels, Ford City security representatives and others have met in debriefing sessions since the February 23 incident to learn from the experience.
(Editor's note: coverage of the rest of the CAPS Beat 834 meeting, items other than Ford City, coming later.)
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Rahm making him a merit Lt. at the next promotions
ReplyDelete1. From the videos it looked like WAY MORE than 200 youths.
ReplyDelete2. I didn't see a whole lot of news media on the event, I saw the you tube videos, and I don't think I blew anything out of proportion.
3. "[N]o great threat." Just "[o]ne kid, took one chair, and hit one car." - Bull, cause if that was the extent then what about the injuries?
4. No significant level of injuries to people. Just 2 injuries, one a CTA employee (who probably won't say anything so they don't lose their job) with SHARDS OF GLASS IN HIS EYE from an "exuberant youth" smashing a windshield.
5. Was this the same "exuberant youth" with the chair who hit the car?
6. And was he the same "exuberant youth" who kicked the side mirrors on a car?
7. If "no great threat" existed than why did CPD advise mall officials to "evacuate and shut down" the mall?
8. The mall invited this presence into the area and once it lost the carrot on the stick that was pacifying the crowd it sent them out into the surrounding public to begin "jumping on and damaging cars, looting a Best Buy store and intimidating innocent men, women and children". Perhaps CPD should have advised officials to closed the mall with the exuberant youths" contained inside?
9. I don't remember hearing about Beatles fans looting stores and intimidating families, but the Beatles broke up before I was born, I'm just a husband and father trying to look out for my family.
10. I concede this isn't the worst riot ever seen, but what meets the level for residents to be concerned? Assaults, rapes, stabbings, shooting, Molotov cocktails?
Take away: these Chicago Police are lying, they are down playing a mistake that granted could have been worse, but that can be said of any bad incident.
Zenere on the riots: "One kid, took one chair, and hit one car."
ReplyDeleteMe on George Zimmerman: "One guy, took one shot, and hit one thug."
bs
ReplyDelete"One kid with one chair hit one car" "It wasnt a threat"...then in that same paragraph says that a CTA bus driver received shards to his eye when a young thug smashed the bus windshield. Clearly more than one kid hit a vehicle.
ReplyDeleteI'd take that as a threat to my safety.
Since when is it acceptable for teenage boys to intimate innocent people, loot stores and damage personal property. That is not exuberant youths, that is criminal activity. Trying to under mind and play down what really happened to make the mall and Chicago area look better only makes you lose your credibility.
ReplyDeleteWas this guy at the same event? Or was he watching Disney on ice? Everyone can see the Videos on YouTube I wish these exuberant teenagers would party in his backyard
ReplyDeleteWeren't there 'Exuberant Youths' that arrived in Chicago for the NATO summit which warranted all CPD to wear riot gear? Also, what about the 'Exuberant Youths' in Grant Park in '68; as I recall there were lots of skulls cracked (ah, the good old days of zero tolerance).
ReplyDeleteThis soft approach to crime is what has caused the law abiding, tax paying citizens in Chicago to lose faith and respect in the Police.
These clowns aren't fooling anyone. They lost control of the situation and got LUCKY that no one was killed. I've seen the videos and heard the police scanners. This BS can not continue. Why do you think they want to disarm the public.
ReplyDeleteI remember my younger days as a strapping young lad, roving around in a pack at the mall acting like a jagoff intimidating people because my favorite rap group that nobody else had ever heard of was there. Stop pandering to these sub-human savages!
ReplyDeleteHey Sergeant Zenere,it is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Englewood. I went through riots in 62 almost got shot in 67 when I was 13 in Puerto Rican Cross fire at 57 and Halsted. Also went through neighborhood riots from 56th and Emerald. Got sent home from High School during King Riots. Went through Bulls Riots GETTING SHOT AT FOR 45 MINUTES. Went through riots at Grant Park. These ARE not disruptive teens. This is a full blown riot. How would you like it if you baby was in the car that the chair got thrown through. Let's hear what happened to the bus driver with the glass in his eyes. Is he OK or does he have some damage. What happened to the bus at 76th and Pulaski that they tore up. Get a scanner and listen to the truth. When they started going into Scottsdale and were stopped before they hit the neighborhood, how nice for those residents. The gall of them sticking up for these scums. Please Sgts., let your children hang out at Ford City with these "disruptive" teens that aren't so bad they're just like the kids that watched the beatles. And they wonder why citizens don't want to waste their time with CAPS meetings. I know you want to protect your job but come on, do you think we're all that dumb! WE ARE SO DOOMED!
ReplyDeleteREALLY SGT SO THE GANG SIGNS OF THE GROUP OF KIDS WITH THE GUY WHO THREW THE CHAIR THROUGH THE SUV AN ABERRATION! DON'T BE TELLING FIBS TO THESE GOOD CITIZENS. THEY'RE NOT THE TYPICAL ANIMAL OF THE GHETTO. THEY ACTUALLY PAY TAXES.... AN OTHER WHITE SHIRT THAT HAS BEEN DRINKING THE COOL AID THICK OF SUGAR FROM HQ ! ........OH AND TRAVON MARTIN 3 PAGE RAP SHEET AND GANG TIES AND BIG FAT TAT ON HIS NECK MAKES HIM A GOOD KID TOO RIGHT OHHH YAH AND WAIT THE OLD PICTURE FROM HIS 5TH GRADE GRAD IS HIS CURRENT PHOTO TOO. ,NOT HIS 6'0 HEIGHT PIC RIGHT OHHHH ..
ReplyDeleteANONYMOUS THIS IS JUST THE TYPICAL IDIOT BOSS WITOUT A CLUE NOT WHAT REAL POLICE SEE. YES HE'S A TAC SGT YES HE WORKS IN PART OF THE GHETTO BUT THIS GUY CLEARLY DOES NOT INTERVIEW MANY ARRESTS OF HIS TAC OFFICERS IF HE DID HE WOULD SEE HOW HE LOOKS.
ReplyDeleteI SO agree with everything that everyone has said so far. It is simply appalling that the city goverment and law enforcement officials (and the reps they send to local meetings, like this Zenere fellow)are spinning this from the equivalent of metal shards to marshmallows.
ReplyDeleteIs THIS the 'new normal' you expect to shove down our collective community throats now?!
Is this a new police tactic: to try and mollify the community with lies, to convince everyone to deny reality and agree with you that nothing untoward happened at Ford City and the surrounding area that day? If so, it is truly pathetic and is definitely going to backfire in less and less trust and cooperation with local police (ironically, probably most of whom would agree with me).
Tell me, what is the use of attending a CAPS meeting, if we are going to be fed this pablum and propaganda. The police officials may be hardened from what they have seen an saw over the years, but hey, you choose this profession. And your profession is to protect the public and keep the trust with them-- our taxes are paying your salaries. We
ought to at least expect that from you. And not the flim-flam negation of violence and criminal activity being passed off as 'just boys being boys' (I'm SO sick of hearing that stupid excuse for societal failure to bring up their kids correctly. You feed in violence to their minds
(e.g. Mindless Behavior), you get violence as an outcome.
Police, because you are now dealing with drug cartel honchos shooting victims in the head gangland-style, does not mean you can deny what you consider 'lesser' forms of crime and violent actions among communities that have, up until now, never faced such chaos, criminal elements and eruptions that are increasingly spilling over into their long-upstanding communities. We don't deserve this, and city gov't. and police officials better stop insulting us and almost 'blaming' us for being outraged and concerned about such criminal perpetration.
As someone else said: If you refuse to tell the truth, at least don't insult us by trying to manipulate it and us into believing you. Just go do your damn jobs!
P.S. I WAS in the hundreds of kids crowd when the Beatles landed at Midway Airport. Absolutely NO violence happened! NO comparison, folks....
This guy is an idiot, a joke and should not be allowed to be in the position he is in. He is just trying to downplay the event to cover his own ass for the piss poor job in handling the situation and letting it get out of control. This is why good people are moving out of Chicago. Someone needs to get these idiots out of office.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right!
DeleteZenere and Cain should be ashamed of themselves. Do they think that the people of the SW side are so ignorant that we can't figure out what is going on? They are trying to convince us that this wasn't a RIOT, when it really was. Exuberant youth? They were thugs intent upon intimidating as many people as possible and destroying as much property as possible, just for the fun of it as witnessed by their joy at being recorded breaking the law. Were they punished...NO. Were they arrested.....NO. Were their parents required to make restitution......NO. Since they were only exuberant youths, when are Zenere and Cain taking their families to the Ford City Cinema? After all they want us to think that it is safe, so perhaps they should lead by example.
ReplyDeleteAll the you tube videos were shot by the thugs themselves, not the innocent bystanders. The media did not blow this incident out of proportion, for once, they told it like it was.
If Cain is going to represent the Police Department at CAPS meetings in 8, he should do so honestly and share all relevant facts about all situations. As taxpayers whose taxes pay his salary he should treat us with the respect we deserve instead of his disdain and we should demand that he do so.
From one cop to another Zenere - stop drinking Rham and McCarthy's Kool-Aid.
ReplyDeleteIf they'd have thrown a chair through my car window, they'd have been shot.
I don't know if Ford City had a sale on hair gel while you were there, but don't insult the residents of the 8th district by talking to hem as if they're idiots. They deserve more respect.