Exclusive: Chicago Cop's Death on LSD Raises Big Questions

Update 2/24/2010: Funeral Details for Sgt. Alan Haymaker  

Update 2/23/2010: Who Really Killed Sgt. Alan Haymaker?  

Update, 2/25/2010: Man Charged in Burglary That "Killed" Sgt. Alan Haymaker  

R.I.P., Sgt. Alan Haymaker

Monday, February 22, 2010 - The tragic and untimely death of Sergeant Alan Haymaker just past 5:00 a.m. today has been blamed on "icy conditions," but that - and our exclusive photos below - raise more questions. Chicago News Bench visited the crash scene, and it left us wondering if CPD is telling the whole story of what really caused the accident.  

Note: Our photos, below, clearly show what the other media have not shown: That Sgt. Haymaker's car was never on the exit ramp, he did not attempt to take the exit ramp, and that he transitioned over the curb from Lake Shore Drive in a straight line with NO spin-out.  

In short, Sgt. Haymaker completely missed the well-lit, well-marked, easily visible Irving Park off ramp, and instead drove straight over the curb on Lake Shore Drive (LSD). He did not lose control on the ramp - in fact, he never entered the ramp. As he jumped the curb, his car continued in a straight line, knocking down a light pole and slamming to a stop when it hit a tree. It is not known whether Sgt. Haymaker was actually trying to take the Irving Park ramp - it seems very unlikely, however, because it was many blocks north of the burglary to which he was responding.  

Sgt. Haymaker was still well north of where he should have been getting off, which should have at Belmont to approach the burglary at 3167 N. Clark. Belmont is 3200 north. The Irving Park exit ramp, actually at Bittersweet and Marine, is 4100 north.  

The public "explanation" given so far by Chicago Police Department’s Major Accidents Unit is puzzling and insufficient in light of photographs (below) taken by Chicago News Bench on Monday afternoon.  

The photos we have seen elsewhere, like the one here by The Chicago Tribune, do not show the tire tracks of the car as they leave LSD, go over the curb, and straight toward a tree. Our photos show that. According to CPD, Sgt. Haymaker was driving south on Lake Shore Drive as he was en route to a report of a burglary scene at 3167 N. Clark Street, several blocks west and more than 10 blocks north of the Irving Park off ramp. Lake Shore Drive is well lit. While "icy conditions" were named as a reason for the accident, visibility was not mentioned. The stretch of LSD southbound lanes is long and flat in the approach to the Irving Park off ramp, so nothing should have been obstructing Sgt. Haymaker's view of the wide and well-marked off ramp.  

Our questions for the Chicago Police Department:

There is no mention in the reports visibility being a factor in the accident; what was the ground visibility at that location at that time?

Was Sgt. Haymaker attempting to enter the Irving Park exit ramp?

How fast is it estimated that Sgt. Haymaker's car was moving when it went over the curb?

Even if ice was a factor in the accident this morning, why did he steer his car off of Lake Shore Drive, over the curb, and into light post and tree, with NO sign of any spin out prior to leaving the pavement of LSD?

Was Sgt. Haymaker's blood tested for drugs and for alcohol?

Is CPD saying that Streets and Sanitation had not salted LSD and all off ramps by the beginning of the morning rush hour? Is CPD saying that a major road (LSD) was icy more than eight hours after the snow storm began?

Is it CPD's policy that officers drive at very high speeds to a burglarly at a retail address at 5:00 a.m., when there is no threat to life at the burglary scene?

The car seems to have spun after leaving LSD and before striking the light pole; had it continued straight it would probably have missed the pole as indicated by the tire tracks still clearly visible in the snow at 3:15 p.m. today. This indicates that the car may have fishtailed, most likely as Sgt. Haymaker tried to steer and/or brake on the slippery snow-covered grass of the median on which he suddenly found himself.  

Our photos below clearly show the path that Sgt. Haymaker's car took as it mysteriously went over the curb. There seems to have been no spin out prior to jumping the curb. We saw no skid marks on Lake Shore Drive anywhere near the accident scene.

		Click images to enlarge
		Photos by Tom Mannis

Chicago Police Need Customer Service Training

A friend and I were discussing my post from Monday, "Uptown Gang Shooting, Police Confusion, Panic," and the rude behavior of so many Chicago police desk officers at districts' headquarters. She excused their rudeness with, "Well, they're kinda like paramilitary and under a lot of pressure." My response was "so what?" Police officers take a lot of abuse on the job, no doubt, but they are also public servants. Not that most public servants are known for stellar customer service; generally, they're rude and not very helpful. The police motto, "Serve and protect," does not include "insults and secrecy," and even in time of war our soldiers home on leave tend to be more polite than the average cop. I've called the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard, FBI and other agencies, all of which are under pressure, too. In none of those experiences were the people on the phone rude to me. Sometimes they answered questions, sometimes they didn't, but they always did so politely. If they didn't know the answer to my question, they usually referred me to someone who did or simply said, nicely, that they didn't know. It's been unusual for them to not return my calls. For the average concerned citizen, a returned call from the Chicago Police Department is about as rare as a six-legged dog or, for that matter, a returned call from most Chicago aldermen. Chicago police officers, far too often, ask you what business it is of yours, who you are, why you want to know, and do so impolitely. Not every officer, certainly, but far too many and far too frequently. For all the talk of openness and reaching out that we hear from Mayor Daley to district commanders to officers who sit in on CAPS meetings, we never hear the phrase "customer service." Police officers get "diversity training" and anger management counseling, but after all these years and hundreds of thousands of instances of secretive, rude refusals to answer basic questions from city residents, nobody in the City of Chicago's government seems to have considered good old customer service training for police officers. The kid working the fryer and taking your order at a local fast food restaurant is under pressure, too, and also takes abuse from customers all day. He's insulted by rude and impatient diners, yet he's more likely to politely answer your questions than are many police officers. That kid doesn't have a contract either, he makes a crappy wage, and he has no gun to protect himself in the event of the restaurant being held up. His customer service training - all 30 minutes of it - is worth more than all of the hollow talk of better community relations that we get from the Chicago Police Department and Mayor Daley combined. It's true, obviously, that the police officers risk their lives every minute that they're on duty, and they do so to protect you and me. But the same can be said of truck drivers, on the highways where over 30,000 people are killed annually. That's far more than the number of police who die on duty. It's true that police save lives, if they're able, but it's also true that power company and gas company repair crews do the same. The odds of being struck by lightning while standing on a ladder in a lightning storm is far greater than being shot while you're a cop on duty. Still, the average repair crew member is more polite and willing to answer questions than many cops. The dangerous nature of their job, and the good work that they do every day, is something for which we should respect police officers. Their wages are paid by our taxes, however, and without our cooperation they could not do what they do. Your calls to 911 are their eyes and ears. The seem to forget that, however, when they answer a question with "What business is it of yours?" It's entirely our business, yours and mine. Isn't that what CPD keeps telling us? Also see Chicago Cops Don't Know CTA Photo Policy, about CPD officers and a CTA employee who harassed me for all the wrong reasons. Hint: They did not know the CTA's own policy about photography on CTA property. Leave a Comment on our Guestbook! CommieBama Hats and More Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Follow ChiNewsBench on Twitter

Harassing Local Bloggers

Harassment of bloggers and repression of free speech is a growing worldwide problem. Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid The dangers of blogging for democracy Bloggers becoming an important political voice MORE BLOGGERS ARRESTED ~ The clampdown is not confined to ‘undemocratic’ regimes: in the last four years, British, French, Canadian and American bloggers have also been arrested. Italian blog closed by Police ~ Bloggers have been arrested for having exposed corruption in government, abuse of human rights or suppression. Global Voices Advocacy » China: Political blogger arrested ... Canadian Dimension Blog / More Bloggers Arrested Record Number of Bloggers Arrested Threat Level from Wired.com By the numbers: arrested bloggers csmonitor.com Greenpeace - Making Waves: Blogger arrested - blog him out of jail!! Bloggers Arrested Worldwide In Record Numbers - Technology - redOrbit Human Rights » Blog Archive » Bloggers arrested ~ The Committee to Protect bloggers says at least 344 have been detained in Burma alone... Global Voices Advocacy » Tunisian blogger/journalist arrested Governments step up blogger arrests Greek blogger arrest infuriates world The Register Blogger Arrested by South Korean Police Japan Probe

EXCLUSIVE: HUGE CPD DRAGNET IN ROGERS PARK

ROGERS PARK, CHICAGO - In a daring operation early this evening, a group of Chicago Police officers swooped down on a man and stopped him. Even with gang members and petty thieves, the usual domestic batteries, sex offenders and a large assortment of other criminals walking around looking for victims, the brave police officers chased down a... ...local blogger (no, not me). They ticketed him for allegedly riding his bike on the sidewalk. All that while THIS was going on. Nice work, CPD! We all feel safer for your harassment of local bloggers. Keep up the good work. Commander Caluris must be so proud of you!

Tent People Living On Rogers Park's Beaches

At least one person, and quite possibly two, are living in tents along the Lake Michigan shoreline of Chicago's northern Rogers Park neighborhood. The life guards don't care. And two 24th district cops lied to The Bench about one of them.

As reported on June 24 by The Bench, a man has set up a tent at water's edge on the south end of Loyola Park, in the fenced off space reserved for wildlife.

Today, The Bench spoke with the Loyola Park beach dweller. He calls himself "Rainbow" and describes himself has a staunch liberal. He told me about his experiences as a prisoner around the country.

"Let me tell you," Rainbow said, "county jails are worse than regular prisons. You only get an hour a week for excercise in the county jails. It sucks."

But Rainbow learned valuable skills in those lockups. He showed me, for example, how to make a marijuana pipe out of the foil wrapping on a colored artist's pencil.

Rainbow keeps a "memorial" in the sand, in which a candle is kept lit to memorialize "everyone who dies everyday."

He says he eats well. "You should see the eight or nine dumpsters behind Devon Market," he told me. "Yesterday I got ham hocks right out of one. Still good. I bought a can of beans there and cooked it all up here, on the beach."

Do the lifeguards mind him being there? "They don't mind," he said, "I earn my keep by cleaning the beach." Litter all around his camp site, Rainbow said this with a straight face.

Meanwhile, up on Jarvis Beach, a police dispatch went out just as I was finishing my interview with Rainbow. Somebody living up there called 911 to report that somebody was living in a tent there. So I race up, camera ready.

I arrived at Jarvis Beach just as CPD squad car 2422 pulled to the end of the street. I snapped some photos of a tent, not exactly on the beach but on the grass of the small park. I asked the cops if they were there for the guy living in the tent.

"Why do you want to know?" one officer asked.

"There was a 911 call about it," I said.

"It's not illegal to pitch a tent," one cop said. He covered his name plate.

"Then why are you here?" I said. "Why was a car dispatched here, for a tent?"

It was so sadly typical. Two jerk cops who wish they were James Bond, protecting national security secrets, acting like bigshots. I won't bore you with details. In short, the two cops left without telling me anything, without getting out of their car, without inspecting the tent.

So the cops don't care enough to get out of their car and inspect a tent at Jarvis Beach that they were dispatched to look at, and the lifeguards don't care about a squatter littering and smoking dope with a huge spread in the wildlife space on Loyola Park beach.

Nice.

RELATED: One Classy Beach

Rogers Park Initiation (Welcome to the Hood)

The Glenwood Bar's initiation into Rogers Park came just past midnight. Open for less than a month, they're already getting a feel for the hood.

At a quarter past midnight, a bartender at The Glenwood was "having trouble removing a drunk customer," according to the 24th District dispatcher. Not the typical customer behavior at The Glenwood, a friendly and cozy pub on a quiet back street.

At 12:20 a.m., a marked and an unmarked car were in front of the joint. Across the alley, next to Ms. Eggroll, a drunk young man was whining his predictable protests to CPD officers. It ended without incident, but...

The Bench snapped a photo while standing on quiet, lightly traveled N. Glenwood. Suddenly, for the detective on scene, I was the main attraction. Oh man, I thought, as the big detective walked toward me, here we go again. Another cop on a power trip, allowing himself to be distracted from the task at hand by an itch on his ego.

"Why you taking pictures of my vehicle?" he asked.

"Your vehicle?" I asked, silently thinking that he doesn't own it. We do, you and me.

"Web sites, newspapers, whatever," I asked. He moved a tad bit closer, enough that I could see "F----" on his little brass nameplate.

"You can't be in the street," he said, authoritatively.

"Am I breaking some law by standing here?" I asked.

"You're creating a public nuisance," he said, adding, "If you get hit by a car it's my problem."

"Seems your problem is that drunk over there, F----," I said, immediately adding, "What is your rank?"

"I'm a police officer," he said.

"Yes, well I don't want to disrespect you by calling you 'F----.' I'd rather call you 'Sergeant F----' or 'Lieutenant F----.' So what's your rank?" I stared at his name plate.

"It's F----," he said, noticing my stare, "F-*-*-*-*. Make a note of it."

"Oh, I just did, Officer F----. I just did."

Fortunately for F---- and the other two cops on the event, the drunk didn't suddenly go crazy, pull a weapon, and hurt anybody. If that had happened while Officer F---- was allowing himself to be distracted by a citizen exercising his First Amendment rights on a quiet cobblestone street in the calm of a Sunday night, it would have been a much bigger problem than me having to casually step out of the way of an oncoming car.