In the past few weeks fans of the evening news, have seen the many faces of ACP Chester Williams, from fatalistic, to exasperated, to downright "glassy"...indeed, he is a man under pressure - not just from the criminal element on the Southside, but also from his own department, who he says isn't giving him enough materiel and manpower to truly hold down crime on the southside.
And this afternoon around 2:00, if you heard something snap, it was Chester, the supercop, super frustrated. He threw up a facebook post saying, quote, "I am delighted to see that a number of experts have emerged and are speaking out on the issue of crime and violence. In light of this I have decided to step aside and leave this type of work for the experts and will be going into the practice of law…." Ok, so…he's a lawyer, right..? And going into the practice of law, well that can only mean private law practice, right.
Wrong!
When we spoke to Williams about the deliberately vague post, he said as a policeman he practices the law everyday. Long story short, he isn't going anywhere and Williams said as much in a subsequent post, quote, "I just want to say that my post never alluded to the fact that I was resigning from the Police Department."
But what he is doing is taking a break from organizing the social programs such as family days that he has become well known for. Williams says ongoing initiatives such as the inter-neighborhood basketball tournament will continue.
In fact, we get the sense that everything will continue, but it's just one more swipe at those who have recently been critical of police peace-making efforts.
Of course, that's just a part of the frustration, since we know that Williams is under his own pressures in the police department where the relationship with his northside counterpart, ACP Dezeree Phillips is badly frayed.
Email
Print