Blago Offers State Police to Chicago

By Margaret Lyons in News on Jul 16, 2008 10:05PM

Governor Blagojevich is offering to dispatch the Illinois State Police to help stem what he called "out of control" violence in Chicago. "Something is wrong, and this violence has to stop. And we have to do something constructively to try and make that violence stop," he said. "Maybe, we can play a role and provide more manpower so that the mayor doesn’t have to make that choice between taking a police officer from, let’s say, the North Side and putting that police officer on the street in the South Side."

Initial reports were that Blago had also offered to send out the National Guard, but a spokesman for the governor says "No National Guard troops are being considered." That's...a relief?

A spokeswoman for Mayor Daley says the city "welcome[s] partnerships with the state," but that "it is, at the very least, a little disconcerting that we're only hearing about this as the media does."

The governor also suggested rehiring retired cops for the summer. [S-T, AP]