Police in Chicago Give Black Hero his Gun Back

On April 17th of 2015, John Hendricks reacted quickly and accurately to stop a mass shooting, likely saving numerous lives.  John Hendricks is a black man who was exercising his Constitutional rights in Chicago, a town where they had been suppressed for generations. 

Hendricks was taking a break from accepting Uber fares when he saw a man rack a slide on a pistol across the street.  Then the man began firing at a group near him.  Hendricks acted rapidly and accurately.  He fired about six times and hit the attacker three times, an excellent record of 50%, much higher than the average police shooting.   Hendricks took the tactically correct situation and left the area once the threat was down.  He returned to give an account to the police on the scene.  From buzzpo.com:

Hendricks returned to the scene when police arrived and held his arms in the air, concealed carry and firearm owner identification cards in hand.

He said it was a common-sense approach after what had transpired.

“A shooting just happened,” Hendricks said. “I’m the one that called, and I’m the shooter.”

“At the time, I remembered I still had my firearm on me,” he recalled. “I let them know that my firearm’s on my right side.”

The police took Hendricks gun.  This is a very common situation in self defense situations.  I have often taught concealed carry students to expect their gun to be impounded by the police while they sort out the situation.  That is what happened in Chicago.  From the chicagotribune.com:

Hendricks said police took custody of his firearm that night, after he called 911 following the shooting, and that repeated phone calls regarding the status of his gun had gone nowhere until recently.

The South Sider said he was contacted Monday and received the required paperwork to claim his weapon.

He said he went to a police facility on the West Side Tuesday, and that it took about an hour to get his gun.

It took time, but Hendricks had his defensive firearm returned.  This bodes well for Chicago and the rule of law.  It is a strong indicator to black people that the rule of law applies to them as well as to other citizens.  It completely counters the false meme of "racist police"  that Black Lives Matter and the radical left pushes.  It is an effective counter that the police should highlight.  If the Chicago police could rise above their institutional, leftist, bias, they would give Hendricks an award.   John Hendricks should be the Chicago poster boy for concealed carry.

From buzzpo.com: 

Hendricks who owns “quite a few guns” claims to be a stickler for following every concealed carry law. He told a story about visiting an University Village Quizno’s. There was an employee out front who was sweeping. Hendricks told the employee that he was armed and the employee said to just go inside anyways. Hendricks said he still refused.

He explained, “It says ‘law-abiding’ for a reason. I’m going to abide.”

 This is exactly what those who push the "racist police" meme oppose and denigrate.  Their claim is that if you are black, abiding by the law does not matter.   Their approach exacerbates the crime problem and expands it.  It is a feedback loop that makes crime worse.

If the high crime rates in black urban areas are going to be reduced, people in those areas must come to understand that the rule of law is real and will be enforced in their neighborhood.  It is precisely what has worked in the approach pushed by David Kennedy from Harvard.  Pushing the idea that black people cannot rely on the rule of law creates the conditions that multiply crimes and criminality in black neighborhoods.

John Hendricks should be held up as an example of an armed hero, who happens to be black, to the entire United States.

 ©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
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