Sex: Male
Date of Birth: November 12th, 1942
State and Region: Illinois/Great Lakes/Midwest
Political Party: Republican
Biography:
Joe Marshall was born in a working-class family in Chicago's urban sprawl on November 12th, 1942. Early in his life he lost his father to the guns of World War 2 and practically lost his mother to the many jobs she had to work in order to keep a roof over their heads. Marshall had to grow up quickly, and grow up quickly he did as he took a job in a local manufacturing plant the moment he was old enough for the lowest pay he was allowed. He forewent any sort of higher education when he turned 18 in 1960, continuing his job at the factory until tragedy struck two years later and the building was burned down by an arsonist, a disgruntled employee just laid off.
Where other men may have simply found another factory to work at, Marshall was inspired to make sure nobody ever had to deal with the problem he had just faced and aspired instead to join the police force. Still young, even if without formal training, Marshall managed to get into the police academy and afford both caring for his mother and his own apartment's rent on a few odd-jobs done on the side. He would go on to excel in the academy and to do the same once he was hired on to the full Chicago Police Department. He rose through the ranks over many, many years fighting both the crime on the streets and in many cases corruption and bigotry within the department. Finally, in 1980, Marshall found himself elevated to become the city's chief of police. As chief his focus was on detaining the biggest offenders and removing them from society before the traffic tickets came out, a policy he dubbed "peace through power".
The approach was popular all around, popular enough that in 1988 his local Republican Party drafted him to run for his normally unwinnable seat in the state assembly. A long-time Democratic incumbent had just left the seat, and with its opening the party recognized that with a candidate like him they might actually have a chance. While reluctant to give up his chief of police job, Marshall believed that the people who he protected needed him in the capital as much as they needed him here and took "peace through power" to the campaign trail, winning a narrow victory against his Democratic challenger and serving in the state legislature since.
