Morton Grove Police Make History

On Saturday May 11, as the spring Farmer's Market kicks off near Harrer Park in Morton Grove, people are invited to gather near the flagpoles at 10 a.m. to honor police officers killed in the line of duty. 

They'll be observing the Morton Grove Police Department conduct a flag ceremony on the occasion of National Peace Officers Memorial Day and National Police Week.

Afterwards, the public is invited to step inside the Morton Grove Historical Museum, which is just steps from the Farmers Market, and see an exhibit on the police department. It will feature badges, weapons, radar guns, uniforms, a fingerprinting machine, an early computer, ammunition, sand-filled punching gloves and other items.

Get Niles and Morton Grove news in a daily email from Patch.com. It's like getting a free newspaper. Learn more. 

Mary Busch and Tim Mayse-Lillig of the Historical Museum were assembling items for the exhibit Thursday, and said one display case would be devoted to items connected with Morton Grove's first-in-the-nation ban on handguns in the early 1980s.

"It got started when a group of residents were upset about a plan to open a gun shop in Morton Grove," said Busch, echoing the explanation of a 1982 article in Life magazine about the ordinance. 

Mayse-Lillig was sorting letters written to the village from around the country and the world on the divisive issue. "This stack is critical," he said, pointing to a pile topped with a handwritten letter from a female Texas shopkeeper who said she didn't like the idea, "and this stack is positive," indicating a letter from a London, England woman who praised Morton Grove's action.

Don't miss a thing. Like Niles-Morton Grove Patch on Facebook