Lake County Gazette

Republican state Senate candidate Chris Kasperski agrees the time for action on police reform is now.

“The outcome of the senseless killing of George Floyd should be an opportunity for reflection and reform,” Kasperski, who is now running against longtime incumbent state Sen. Melinda Bush (D-Grayslake) in the 31st District, told the Lake County Gazette. “We should reflect on the consequence of having too many laws that are unjustly applied and inconsistently enforced. I support reforming police practices to focus on de-escalation techniques, increased community outreach, and think that it should be balanced with statutory reforms that direct enforcement procedures that are proportionate to the crime.”

The movement to dissolve police departments across the country appears to be growing by the day in the wake of the death of Floyd in Minneapolis on Memorial Day, sparking protests and violence across the country. Minneapolis City Council members were among the first to broach the possibility of permanently doing away with their city's Police Department, and the idea quickly gained the support of U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) and more recently the leaders of the Chicago Public Schools.

Kasperski is hoping protesters don’t allow their actions to be totally fueled by emotions.

“We should defund a lot of things in our government; however, I don't think people are looking at the right problem,” he said. “After voting for decades for more government intervention into our lives, perhaps it is now the moment that they will realize that they have voted for the people who put in place those laws that end up harming them. If they want a change, then they have to change the way that they vote.”

Kasperski places some of the blame squarely at the feet of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

“I think the governor and mayor are deliberately misleading the public by making the erroneous claim that police officers are not licensed,” he said. “Police have to undergo months of rigorous training, pass tough examinations. They work under constant surveillance and observation, and the overwhelming majority of police interactions with the public conclude as prescribed by the law. The governor's and mayor's messages indicate that the buck does not stop with them.”

In his mind, Kasperski said the path going forward seems clear.

“I would like to see reforms to the ways that we interact with police officers and vice versa,” he said. “I would like to see us reform the way that police officers are treated and remember the service and sacrifice that they have given to our community, state and nation. We need to reform our understanding of who the police are, what they are supposed to do, and how we approach our interactions with them as we ask that they do the same for us.”