All cliches about a picture being worth a thousand words are certainly valid in the photo of two former Chicago police officers posing with a black man with deer antlers on his head. The message is clear: The officers are the hunters. The man is their prey.
Cook County Judge Thomas Allen released the Polaroid this week over the objections of the Chicago Police Department and Tim McDermott, one of the former officers in it. They said they wanted to protect the identity of the African-American man in the picture.
McDermott was fired in October, but he wants his job back. A court hearing on the matter will be held next month.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said, “As far as I’m concerned for that officer, good riddance. You don’t belong in the Police Department. Our whole idea of a police department is to serve and protect, and the values expressed in that photo are not the values of the people of the city of Chicago.”
The picture was taken sometime between 1999 and 2003 and was uncovered during an FBI investigation of the other officer in the photo, Jerome Finnigan. Finnigan was convicted of shaking down drug dealers with other cops and stealing thousands of dollars. He was even convicted of plotting to kill another officer.
The photo is receiving a lot of attention given the recent string of incidents pitting white officers against black suspects with many of the suspects losing their lives even though they were unarmed.