Time for Weis to step it up or out

At some point, Jody Weis will have to start earning his fat paycheck.

So far, he has not been doing that. We are waiting on Mayor Richard Daley to explain how Weis, who has no experience as a policeman, and no credibility with the police force he heads, is reduced to having his officers clean up violent crime scenes, instead of doing something–anything–to keep the crimes from happening.

We are halfway through the summer, and each morning brings bloodstained streets, shootouts with police officers, innocent bystanders shot, and funerals being planned. During Fourth of July weekend there were an estimated 63 shootings in Chicago. That is Wild West proportions. Another spate of shootings just the other night, with two deaths and at least seven injured.

Police officers were carried off to the hospital for serving an arrest warrant. A nine-year-old was sitting in his house watching television when an errant bullet pierced his reverie and hit him in the head. He will live, but no one should have to live like that.

Weis has no answers. He has no strategies. He expresses concern and compassion, but we wonder what he would be doing, what City Council would be doing, what the mayor would be doing, if these shootings were taking place in Bridgeport, or Lincoln Park, or in the Loop.

The crime wave would have been ended before an innocent child was shot in his home.

We certainly do not begrudge Weis his salary. If Daley thinks he is worth that much money, then obviously, the mayor is within his rights to pay him that much.

But Weis is a public employee, not just a mayoral employee, and he has to answer for performance.

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