Is Dexter Reed the next George Floyd?



After the Chicago police shooting of Dexter Reed, the left seems to have found its next George Floyd.

Reed, a 26-year-old black man, was pulled over by police officers for not wearing a seatbelt. After the stop escalated into an altercation where he pulled a weapon and fired on police officers, one cop was injured and Reed sustained fatal injuries.

“I think that the mainstream media is trying to turn this into, like, the new George Floyd,” Sara Gonzales says before reviewing the body cam footage — which tells a different story than the accepted narrative.

Reed is seen initially complying with an officer’s order to roll down his window before rolling it up and refusing to comply. When the officer attempted to get him to open his car door, Reed began shooting at officers.

“It’s a lot of shots being fired at the cops,” Gonzales notes.

Eric July believes it’s not as black and white as the media is painting it. “If we look at it with zero nuance,” he says, we’ll see that a “person got shot and killed over seat belt.”

“That’s how essentially it’s going to be worded, though that’s not entirely accurate, and it’s just a little bit more complicated,” he says, noting that to go from not complying to attempting to shoot and kill someone is never the right move.

“That is the ultimate, utmost escalation,” July says.

While July didn’t believe the cops' reaction was right either, he believes the media’s reaction makes it worse.

“I hate that the conversation immediately goes to race, because then at that point, what it does is absolve them of everything,” he explains.


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Retired Chicago police officer shot while attempting to stop a robbery



A retired Chicago police officer is in serious condition after he was shot while attempting to stop a robbery in the city's South Side Thursday morning.

The shooting happened around 7:30 a.m., outside a currency exchange business on 71st Street and Wentworth Avenue, WGN-TV reported.

Police said that a 58-year-old female employee was opening the currency exchange when a car approached her. Two men got out of the vehicle and attempted to rob the woman.

The currency exchange security guard, a 60-year-old retired police officer, intervened and tried to assist the woman. Police said there was an exchange of gunfire and the retired officer was shot six times.

The man was transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he's listed in serious condition, according to WGN. The woman was unharmed. It is unknown whether any of the suspects were injured.

The Chicago Police Department released surveillance video of the shooting on Friday. The video shows a gray Dodge Durango pulling up to the currency exchange and two men exiting the vehicle as the female employee was opening the business. One of the men approaches the woman, while the other suspect approaches a parked car, which WGN reported could be the retired officer's vehicle.

CPD spokesman Tom Ahern said it was not clear who fired the first shot, according to the Chicago Tribune. After the shooting, the suspects fled in the vehicle, Ahern said.

An investigation to into the shooting is ongoing and no arrests have been made.

Police said the retired officer's actions were "heroic."

“Even as a retired officer, he did his best, he did his job and he saved a person’s life,” CPD Deputy Chief Fred Melean told reporters at a news conference.

"There's three offenders in total," Melean said. "We don't know exactly at this time how many shot. But you're talking — when somebody's attempted to rob [you] with a handgun, shooting multiple times, definitely that person's life was saved."

The shooting comes two weeks after another retired Chicago police officer was injured in an exchange of gunfire with carjackers outside his Lawndale home. A 17-year-old boy was charged with attempted murder after the retired officer was shot four times.

Sixty-six people were killed in Chicago last month, bringing the total number of homicides in the city up to 448 in 2022, according to police department data. Shootings are down compared to the same time last year, but the number of homicides is still higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Here's more from WGN-TV:

'There's no value for human life here': Fox News' Gianno Caldwell blasts Chicago's 'soft-on-crime' policies after brother's murder



Fox News political analyst Gianno Caldwell ripped Chicago's "soft-on-crime policies" after his younger brother Christian was shot dead on Friday.

"To say heartbroken wouldn't even measure it. My family is shattered right now," an emotional Caldwell told WFLD-TV in an interview Monday. "The fact that this continues to happen in this city, one in which I grew up in and one which I love, is utterly disappointing, disgusting. There's no value for human life here. That value has been eroded over the years."

Christian Caldwell, 18, was shot along with two other people on the 11400 block of S. Vincennes Ave in the early morning Friday, police said. The other shooting victims were an 18-year-old female who took a wound to the torso and was pronounced dead at the scene, and a male victim, 31, who was listed in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the torso as of Saturday morning, Fox News reported.

The suspect in the shooting is an unidentified male who opened fire and then fled in a black sedan going east, the Chicago Police Department said.

\u201cto bring the people who murdered my baby brother to justice. If you know people in Chicago please ask them to watch & spread the word. We want these men caught immediately. Thank you.\n\nGianno Caldwell\u201d
— Gianno Caldwell (@Gianno Caldwell) 1656330964

Chicago, a city notorious for gun violence, has seen 300 homicides so far this year. While that number is slightly down from this same point last year, that fact is little consolation to the victims' families.

"Living in Chicago should not come with a death sentence, but it does for so many people that live here," Caldwell said. "There used to be a time where the violence was concentrated on the south and west sides, but you can walk out of the studio and something happens. That tells me that something needs to change urgently."

"If it wasn’t my little brother, would I be getting all this coverage for him?" he asked. "Would people even know his name? No.

"What about the 5-month-old girl who was just murdered on Friday?" he added. "You don’t even really know her name. It’s just the fact that it happened to an infant that we’re reading about it."

Caldwell said that people in Chicago have become "desensitized" to the violence and the murders. But, as a believing Christian, he also said there can be "purpose to this pain" if criminals are brought to justice and given a chance to be rehabilitated after they serve their time.

"I’m leaving the studio to go plan a funeral for my baby brother," he said, breaking down into tears.

"As we think about not just him, but the violence that has been created in Chicago, and some of the policies which have systematically – the soft-on-crime policies which we’ve seen in the city – they have to come to an end," Caldwell said.

He argued that Chicago officials need to "unhandcuff the police" and allow them to go after criminals, saying there can be a balance between criminal justice reform, police reform, and stopping crime.

"At this point criminals are unafraid of the police, they’re unafraid of the prosecutors, they won’t capitulate to the laws," Caldwell said. "So what do we do next? You're going to have to throw the book at them. And I understand that we have compassion for people, as we should. But at the same time, if we don't, your family could be next. Then what? You want to be Gianno Caldwell on Fox 32 talking about his baby brother who was just murdered? Do you want to be that person?"

He called on Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the police, and other officials to take note of what happened to his brother and crack down on crime.

"I want justice for Christian. That is all I want for my baby brother."

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