Maurer Launches Broadsides

Shortshanks calls him "disgruntled:"

• The former chief of security at O'Hare International Airport alleged in a lawsuit Wednesday that his repeated pleas to improve security lapses went ignored by superiors more concerned about moving forward on costly plans to modernize the airport.
  
  James Maurer, who was appointed to the post four years ago after rising to deputy superintendent during 41 years with the Chicago Police Department, called security at the airport "easily defeatable" and claimed O'Hare ranks as the "least secure airport in the country."
  
  His lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, seeks more than $2 million in damages from the city for his dismissal last September.
  
  
• Mayor Richard Daley defended O'Hare's security, saying it's "a good airport." He brushed off Maurer as "disgruntled."

Maurer lays out a bunch of charges, including unsecured buildings, poor location of sensitive infrastructure, security violations, 28 miles of easily breached chain link fencing and a manpower shortage.

Maurer will be harder to shake off than most "whistleblowers." He knows way too much as he was part of the inner circle for years - his predecessor was Townsend for pete's sake. You don't just land that job by accident. And Shortshanks' curt dismissal as "disgruntled" is probably going to come back to bite him in the ass. This ought to be a hell of a donnybrook if it goes the distance.

The Tribune and Sun Times stories are linked here.