DES PLAINES, Ill., Dec. 4 (UPI) -- Des Plaines, Ill., police officials say firing an officer for threatening and name-calling anti-abortion protesters sets a tone for good conduct.
"We can't have officers treat people like this," Police Chief James Prandini told the Chicago Tribune.
Eleven-year veteran Des Plaines police officer Dick Lalowski was fired Monday for a May 2006 incident. He allegedly threatened protesters outside a medical clinic with arrest if they made contact with anyone. Lalowski returned, off duty, and called one protester a "fat (expletive) cow," the Tribune said.
Lalowski's attorney had argued the protester's graphic signs of aborted fetuses triggered post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by his client from shooting and killing a man on duty in 1995, and that his comments to protesters were protected by free speech rights
"The guy had a good career here," Lalowsi's lawyer, Richard Reimer, told the Tribune. "I think there could have been another decision short of discharge. They could have given him a lengthy suspension."
