Marked Cars Torched

First burglaries of houses, now take-home cars being lit on fire:

• The Chicago Police Bomb and Arson Unit is investigating the torching of two locked and parked police vehicles on the Northwest Side early this morning, police said.
  
  The first instance occurred about 2:15 a.m. in the Big Oaks neighborhood, according to Chicago Police News Affairs [...]. In that case a marked 2006 Crown Victoria K-9 unit vehicle was set on fire, police said.
  
  About five minutes later in the Jefferson Park neighborhood, an unmarked police vehicle was set on fire, police said.

The Channel 5 link is labeled "Crazy-Night-for-Cops."

We don't think it's "crazy." It's a culmination of factors:

• politicians and reverends painting the police as enemies;
• a broken judicial system that gives probation for battery and weapon offenders instead of years behind bars, even when they attack police;
• abetted by the media who play a notable incident thousands of times on TV (Abbate) without putting it into perspective (he never should have been hired in the first place, but clout got him through) or covering the fact that 99% of cops were appalled and disgusted by his conduct, and finally, implying he got away with something when he got probation, which is all anyone gets in Cook County Courts.

Here's what's really crazy - someone at Fleet mentioned that the one Canine vehicle has the windows replaced 5 or more times a year because the officer is required to park in front of his house, which makes it a prime target of opportunity on the major thoroughfare he lives on.