‘Twerking’ trio on top of police cruiser puts Chicago Police Department on the hot seat

There have been more than a million views of a viral video that surfaced several days ago showing three women “twerking” on top of a Chicago police SUV cruiser as it rolled down the street trailed by cellphone paparazzi.

There’s a lot of interest in seeing half-clothed women gyrating. I get that.

But recently, in this city, a 14-year-old girl was chased down and fatally shot while walking her dog, and a 7-year-old girl was gunned down while sitting in a car with her father at a McDonald’s drive-thru.

We should all be in mourning.

Instead, the young women on top of that police SUV were putting on a show for the very people who mock them in terms unfit to put in a family newspaper.

And they aren’t the only ones.

This appears to be some trend.

In Rochester, New York, two women talked a uniformed police officer into letting them twerk on his parked squad car.

Although the person who posted the video of the interaction called it “positive,” it drew a reprimand from the police chief.

Twerking on top of police vehicles has happened in Jackson, Mississippi, St. Louis, Seattle, and Miami Beach, and is largely viewed as an offensive act against police.

What makes the Chicago incident so interesting is the police SUV was slowly rolling down the street as if whoever was driving was in a parade.

A spokesman for the Chicago Police Department said the incident is under investigation.

Frankly, if allowing young women to climb onto a police cruiser and gyrate is part of the new community policing strategy, the police must go back to the drawing board.

Because if one of the women had fallen off the SUV and been run over, not only would the city be facing a huge lawsuit, but there is a real possibility that the partiers would have turned violent.

It is also disconcerting that residents in some neighborhoods, like Park Manor on the South Side, have been recently under siege by noise, loud music and inappropriate behavior.

“There seems to have been a coordinated effort to disrupt the 7400 blocks of Calumet and Prairie. There were hundreds of cars, trucks and motor vehicles parading down our streets until 4 a.m. playing loud music, using profanity and displaying all types of anti-social behavior such as urinating in bushes near Salem Church at 74th and Calumet,” said Niena Feme, a 6^th Ward resident, in an email.

“As president of the 7400 Calumet and Prairie Block Club, I hope we can get some attention brought to this situation that is affecting the quality of life of our residents. We are stakeholders; we pay mortgages, taxes and are expected to maintain our properties. Yet we cannot enjoy a level of peace that any community would desire,” she said.

These community stakeholders are hosting a meeting at 6 p.m. June 17 at Salem Lutheran Church to air their concerns.

Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6^th) told CBS-2 he intends to beef up patrols, safety checks and tow illegally parked cars.

Given the violent battles between protestors and police officers that erupted after George Floyd was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis last year, getting worked up over women using a police SUV like a stripper pole may seem petty to some of you.

But it is not.

Frankly, Chicagoans, especially those living on the South and West sides, live with more lawless behavior than I’ve ever seen.

More motorists run red lights leading to more car crashes. Carjackings are becoming the norm. Expressway shootings are making us feel like targets.

Obviously, after being cooped up in their own homes for more than a year, young people are ready to cut loose.

And it is a shame that there are too few safe spaces for them to do their thing because of the ongoing violence.

Still, police are paid to keep the peace, not to facilitate the mayhem.