How can a member of law enforcement be that irresponsible? You take an oath to protect and serve.

Now I have been completely hammered many times, many times. If an officer does not have the ability to control themselves AT ALL TIMES, then they should not be in charge of defending the constitution. It is more than a "9-5."

My condolences to the families of the victims

Cory, many of the Cops in my neighborhood have the biggest drunk parties. They say the stress makes them drink so much, its just another drunk excuse and they are usually aholes in the morning.........

Drinking is fine. Partying is fine. Responsibility is most important at that point. Last time I checked, all major cities have public transportation...

There was no information regarding possibleprobable charges in the case as of 5:30 p.m. Friday.

There! Fixed it for you!

Surely, he had some Ethics and Conduct classes while in the police academy that teaches and requires police officers, due to their Positions of Trust, are held to a higher Standard of Conduct - - - and drunk driving is NOT following this standard- - nail him!!!!

Off-duty cop. 4 am. Alcohol? <sarcasm>

cory1980

How can a member of law enforcement be that irresponsible? You take an oath to protect and serve.

I think it has become obvious that oaths are mostly meaningless. To many on the force being a police officer is just a job and not something they desired to do in order to protect society.

Wait he kills a couple of people and is placed on administrative leave. What's wrong with this picture.

Seven2Seven: American a-hole complaining about the armpit.

Sorry you live in a shole Alf, it's ok to push up on the sewer lid. Free yourself.

many of the Cops in my neighborhood have the biggest drunk parties

That is because they can get away with much more than you or I could ever think about getting away with. It's that cop takes care of cop thing that happens everywhere. Killing while drunk may be the limit though.

There was no information regarding possible charges in the case

Or his possible run for office......

Apparently it is necessary to remind people that crime, even violent crime, occurs all across the nation, not just Chicago.

Let's see . . . wasn't there a recent situation in CA where an ex-cop went off the rails, made a hit list, and began shooting people? And what was that about a cop in New York wanting a foray in cannibalism? Or how about this non-cop story? 4 teens shot in California park, 2 dead? And that mom that jumped from an 8th story window? Not Chicago.

Take a reality check ~ crime is nation wide; we've got serious problems with cops everywhere; the U.S. has wallowed in violence from the get-go. Ignoring what is going on in your town, state, region while finger-pointing elsewhere only exacerbates the problem.

Maybe he was half drunk!! Cops in Chicago are allowed to be half drunk, it is a Union law!!

Chicago = America's producer of nothing but crap!

Yup it's sad that an outside cop came to Chicago to get drunk and take innocent people's lives.

I hope the Chicago Police gave that North Chicago cop a nice sobering.

We need to ban automobiles, it will save lives!

You mean drinking and driving laws Bubba. Yes, they enforce them and bury you but it's all a way to get revenue and not help the person. Drink your green beer at home or get a DH and you will be cool.........

99% of drunk driving can be prevented by simply forcing auto makers to incorporate a breathalyser into every car. Make it mandatory, like air bags. Problem solved. *And if your going to say some thing like "They could have someone else blow for them". Then the sober person should be the one driving! But I did leave that 1% open....

And unlike gun nuts, I wouldnt complain about "criminals" impeding on my law abiding citizens rights...

Sam-1938777

And unlike gun nuts, I wouldnt complain about "criminals" impeding on my law abiding citizens rights...privileges.

Fixed that for you Sam... 2nd Amendment is a Right. Driving is a privilege. Show us where in the US or your state constitution that you have the Right to drive, so of course you wouldn't complain about your rights being infringed... I'm sure you would whine about the cost to install, maintain and repair that device and curse to high heavens the first time the interlock failed and you had to have the vehicle towed. Presuming you drive that is.

don't get me wrong I'm against DUI but there are better ways such as real prosecution of first time offenders ... The typical DUI driver who is convicted has been DUI 87 times prior to getting caught. MOST DUI fatalities are caused by REPEAT offenders (as in found guilty in previous citations).

When EVERYONE gets it out of their heads that driving is a Right and we start actually putting teeth in to existing laws DUI deaths will plummet. As it is roughly 40% of all traffic fatalities involve DUI.

"The right of the citizen to travel upon the public highways and to transport his property thereon, either by carriage or by automobile, is not a mere privilege which a city may prohibit or permit at will, but a common law right which he has under the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Thompson v. Smith, 154 SE 579

Trust - I would not really complain about maintenece on it. I dont complain about any other maintenance on the rest of my car. But I get what your saying. You dont want to spend a single penny to eliminate DUI's. Its not your problem right? It clear by your post tahat you advocate for faster and better punishment. However, like any murder, that does little to for the intial damage/result.

Sam - How is that breathalyzer interlock working on your car? What? You don't have it installed yet? Since you are such a proponent of their use why aren't you setting the example and being the first on your block to get one?

How about this? We treat drunk drivers like the crimnals they are - lock them up if convicted, have them serve time, require registration like child molesters, deny licensing, deny vehicle ownership, etc.

There are cases here locally where drunk drivers have had 18-19 drunk driving convictions and not spent more than a single night in jail at any one time. One person finally got to serve a 10 year sentence because he ran over 6 bicyclists and killed three of them and seriously injured the other three.

Think harder!!! 17,000 KILLED yearly due to drunks!! Lawyers making millions keeping them out of jail. Judges, probation officers, corrections officers, court clerks, pay for profit jails. ALL make a fortune off of drunks. They don't want this to end!

All of these people make a living of these killers, yea I called the drunks killers, as that is what they could be and will be if given enough chances.

How much money could we save if we put these "workers" out of a job with a breathalyzer interlock???

Hey Bubba ,I'm sure if a drunk driver hit a vehicle occupied by Obozo's family or administration,there would be harsh laws.

The right of the citizen to travel ......

says NOTHING about a Right to have a license.. only the right to move upon... the privilege to drive can be denied or revoked with little fanfare.. They can also require FEES for the privilege.. The Right to Vote, Free Speech, Religion, Firearms, Trial by peers is "free", though it has untold costs being defended.

The guy was off duty, so this does not apply.

So he can only be half drunk and drive ON DUTY!!

Aren't UNIONS ARE GREAT!!!!!

My condolences to the family and friends of these innocent victims.

Less compassion for guilty victims?

Roast him.......Good idea....

Slap wrist, tsk-tsk placed in his "file ", transferred to different precinct or town.....Reality....

Well I've been seeing an increase of these people. I really hope that nobody does that when I'm driving on the highway. If they want to kill themselves, they shouldn't take innocent people along with them.

Could you now consider a motor vehicle as an "assault weapon?"

@ Jobseeker: This is FAR from being a "...new way for someone to kill himself...". Look up Judy Kirby and her wrongway accident from March, 2000 near Martinsville, IN. She was one of the two survivors of an accident that took SEVEN lives - including three of her own children. There are so many accidents like this and probably impossible to determine most of them as a suicide. My own son attempted this shortly after returning from Iraq - but by the grace of God survived (with a few scars) and no other vehicle involved.

What's a Chicago cop gotta do to suffer the same consequences we would, kill somebody?

Not be represented by a police union. They will tell you he is innocent until proven guilty. That rule only applies to the police because a common citizen would be locked up and would not be earning pay from a civilian job while he goes through the legal process.

You can't lay off a policeman without pay because this could turn out to be nothing more than a misunderstanding and then he would get back pay.

Chief James Jackson said Garrett, off-duty at the time of the crash, was arrested and immediately placed on administrative leave.

That means he was a common citizen; therefore, he should be on unpaid administrative leave, not accruing time towards retirement, etc.

Well, first of all, he's from North Chicago, which is fairly famous around here for tasering innocent people, and police brutality. As it stated in the article, the police chief himself was nabbed for having $140,000 in drug money.

I'm not sticking up for anyone here. Drinking and driving is bad. But Chicago is bad enough and North Chicago is a ways away from the big city, so please don't lump them all together. There are several towns around here with the name "Chicago" in them.

What? You don't think drunk driving is already a crime?

If there wasn't a chicago cop driving in a Jeep

Trouble with reading comprehension?

Terrel Garrett was in an SUV that crashed into a Jeep and a Toyota Scion...

We must ban cops in Chicago

For the number of murders in Chicago, I thought they already had.

Yeah, it starts small like traffic laws don't apply. Pretty soon they think NO law applies to them. Have to be a really serious crime for one cop to arrest another.

Right on cue, pathetic baggers line up to politicize something that could've happened anywhere.

that could've happened

The conditional word being "could". The reality of it is it DID happen there.

A very, very large number of the cops I know, or knew (and I used to work at the headquarters of a large city police department), are some of the heaviest drinking people you could ever meet. The goal after getting off duty was to consume as much alcohol as possible, without actually having to be hospitalized for acute alcohol poisoning. Then the next day, they had to complain about and struggle through the inevitable hangover, which in and of itself can be impairing almost as much as being drunk can. You don't want to get pulled over right after shift change, or you will be confronting one very cantankerous and angry cop, who will look at you as the reason their headache is so bad right now. So it's not just a few bad apples, and in some cases, you need to throw the whole crate away.

Everyone is always so quick to blame law enforcement. Remember that you only hear about the bad apples and never the good stories of the good ones.

All you have to do is change the term "law enforcement" to "common citizen" are translate this from a drunk driver to a gun shooter story. Why is it okay to demonize all gun owners as criminals because of the actions of a few but defend cops despite the actions of a few.

Agreed. Cops are held to a higher standard, just like many people in other professions. Doctors and nurses are held to higher care standards, bankers are held to higher financial standards, etc. If this had been Lips McGillicuddy, employed at Ace Plumbing Supply, he would have been locked up until his hearing or posting bail, placed in a non-pay staus at work rather than administrative leave (accruing pay and benefits), etc. That is what is riling the public - the police (union) protecting the police. Would the local pipefitters union have such protection for Lips?

This one cost lives and he should be held accountable for it.

Agreed! But accountability starts at the onset of his troubles, not after the union has exercised all of its protective actions. He had been a member of society for an unknown number of years, a police officer for more than a year and he didn't know it was illegal to drive while drunk or to minimize it - the risks of driving drunk.

This was no accident for the cop. Accidents are the result of a series of events that result in completely unanticipated results. The cop didn't acidentally drink too much. He didn't accidentally get in his car, start it and drive away. He didn't accidentally drive down the street the wrong way. They were all conscious actions on his part. They were all part of his "risk assessment and risk acceptance" for his actions. The other drivers and passengers were involved in the accident. They suffered from unanticipated results of the cop purposefully drinking and driving drunk.

I never said it was an accident... there are only crashes. All "accidents" start with some wrong decision so it makes it a crash. And I agree that this cop is completely wrong.

As for pointing out other professions... do you see their jobs listed when they get arrested for drunk driving. Typically no. And I know many that still retain their jobs without any penalties. As for accountability, from knowing many law enforcement officers, most likely this individual is not on paid administrative leave. And every person that is arrested gets the same process of posting bail and being locked up til they see a judge and/or magistrate.