Another Panic Attack Inbound

The entertainment value alone would be a wonder to behold:

• President Donald Trump Friday suggested that federal troops could be deployed to Chicago amid his efforts to crack down on crime, repeating a threat that both Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson have said would be illegal.

  During a news conference Friday in the Oval Office, Trump said Chicago could be next to receive federal intervention, similar to Washington, D.C., where nearly 2,000 National Guard troops have been deployed to address what his administration has described as a surge in violent crime, even though D.C. officials say crime is falling in their city.

  “Chicago is a mess, you have an incompetent mayor, grossly incompetent, and we will straighten that one out next,” Trump said referring to Johnson. “That will be our next one after this, and it won’t even be tough.”

  In a statement Friday afternoon, Johnson said deploying federal troops to Chicago would be against the law and “undermine” the city’s progress in reducing crime.

"Progress" means under-reporting and misclassifying crime numbers. Yes, we're aware that shooting and homicide victims are down from recent highs. But property crimes and such are still out of control, and if you talk to citizens on the street, the perception is that crime and disorder are higher than what is considered "normal."

But this isn't the purpose of the Administration's statements and quite frankly, we're amazed the dumbocrats keep falling for it:

• this is an 80-20 issue - people want less crime, so they support efforts to stop crime, even if those efforts are nothing more than statements that have no chance of actually occurring; 
• Trump is on record supporting Law Enforcement efforts, he can actually do it in Washington DC by Law, the efforts are showing positive results, he gets good publicity;
• democrats in blue state shitholes make statements that are interpreted to the effect that they are supporting criminals over citizens who want less crime

And that's a bad look....which Conehead and Fata$$ are embracing.

Avoiding Taxes

Paging through the Illinois Policy website, we ran across this article from a couple weeks ago about "26 Tax Ideas" that Conehead is looking to impose. No idea how we missed it, but we thought we'd bring it to people's attention, seeing as how you are (and we were) required to live here while employed:

• Here are nine of the worst ideas from the list of 26:

  Corporate excise tax ($1.5 billion)

  The most dramatic idea was a new corporate excise tax that would target businesses with over $8 million in annual payroll in Chicago. The tax would levy 5% of the payroll costs for employees earning over $200,000 per year. This proposal has already met heavy opposition from business leaders, with Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce president Jack Lavin stating the tax is a “direct deterrent on companies locating here, staying here, creating jobs here.”

  High taxes have been a primary contributor to the city losing at least 10 major headquarters since 2020 including three of the largest companies In the U.S.: Caterpillar, Boeing and Tyson Foods.

And those three companies alone account for a massive hole in Conehead's budget with even more on the way should this proposal pass.

• Charge sales tax on services (up to $305 million)

  Similar to an idea proposed statewide for Illinois, a sales tax on services would extend taxes to items such as haircuts, plumbing, lawncare and more. Taxpayers already have to contend with a city sales tax rate of 10.25%, one of the highest in the nation. This change would require action from the Illinois General Assembly and approval by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who has already voiced reservations about broadening the sales tax.

We already get haircuts outside of the City, our plumber is a good friend who takes cash off the record and we pay a neighborhood kid to do the lawn. We imagine the big downtown law firms would raise the biggest objections to this tax....and as they contribute mightily to the dems, would lobby pretty damn hard against this.

• Garbage tax collection (up to $296.9 million)

  Chicago’s garbage collection fee has been $9.50 since 2014, with strong opposition whenever fee bumps were discussed. Chicago currently collects $68.8 million in revenue each year to cover garbage collection, against an annual cost of $167.2 million. To bridge that gap, city leaders are again eyeing higher fees, with proposals ranging from a $15.50 per month fee up to $55 per month. The highest option would cost families about $550 more per year, a big boost in a city already dealing with high property taxes, rising rents and inflation.

And what if we don't use the garbage collection? What if we just took our trash and dumped it on the west side? Who'd notice? Would we be entitled to partial refunds?

• Other tax and fee ideas

• New congestion surcharge: $90 million
• Tax on restaurant meals: $20 million
• Bottled water: $27.9 million
• Checkout bags: $13 million
• Extending amusement tax to ticket resellers: $38 million
• Imposing a city tax on sports betting: $17 million

Well....:

• we don't go downtown
• we don't eat out in the city
• we haven't bought water in the city since the first tax
• we got those reusable bags when it was all the craze
• we don't like crowds
• we have a VPN that seems to indicate we're betting from Nevada 

As you can see, there are dozens of ways to avoid these projected taxes. The "expected" revenue from each are pure fantasy numbers and as people realize how easy it is to avoid most of them, will only decrease over time. Then more businesses will leave Chicago, resulting in decreasing tax revenues, meaning larger deficits and more tax hikes, etc, etc.

The simplest explanation of the Death Spiral. 

Sanity Arrives at COPA?

Amazing what happens when you get rid of the anti-police AWFL in charge:

• Chicago’s new police oversight chief has repeatedly wiped out or dramatically scaled back recommendations to fire officers following pushback from the city’s top cop, the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ have found.

  The reversals by the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability follow acrimony and infighting that roiled the agency, culminating in the resignation of its chief administrator, Andrea Kersten, after a tenure marked by internal accusations of mismanagement and anti-police bias.

  In March, Kersten was replaced on an interim basis by LaKenya White, who has worked for COPA since the agency was established in the wake of the police killing of Laquan McDonald in 2014.

  White’s administration has since walked back the disciplinary recommendations for six cops — four it said should be fired and two for whom it said firing should be considered.

  In each case, COPA adopted recommendations made by police Supt. Larry Snelling, who had publicly assailed Kersten over her handling of the police shootout that killed Dexter Reed.

As we stated months ago, COPA had a bad habit of e-mailing "investigative updates" to Larritorious's office. Then, mysteriously and completely coincidentally, certain reporters would file FOIA requests for Larritorious's e-mail records that were very Very VERY specific in their wording, keying in on the Subject Lines of e-mails, almost word-for-word if you can believe it. They would then write articles "revealing" internal communications, alleging cover-ups and all sorts of scandal.

This was a practice honed and perfected by the Sparklefart people in DC during the weaponization of government against citizens and political opponents. Kersten and her minions were using this to hamstring legit investigations, steer them in a political manner, and empower the "consent decree" people. Larritorious finally got fed up with it and (righteously) raised numerous objections that turned the political heat the correct direction.

If you want to read about some of the specific cases, click the link up top. You'll agree that most of the actions taken by Police were perfectly legal and in accordance with General Orders and Rules. The politicization was rampant.  

Businesses Still Fleeing

And taking hundreds of millions in tax revenue with them:

• Chicago had fewer licensed businesses operating in the city in 2024 than during any year in the past decade, thanks to 17% of its businesses disappearing since 2015.

  Analysis of Chicago business license data shows the city was home to 54,135 businesses with an active license in 2015. A decade later, that number has dropped to 44,840.

  Among Chicago’s neighborhoods, the Magnificent Mile community on the Near North Side saw the largest percentage decline in active business licenses during the past decade, with the number falling from 1,600 to 784 last year – a 51% drop. 

So who are you going to believe, your own lying eyes or Coneahead's sycophantic shills? Downtown is a resembling a ghost town every single day.

You know, it's stories like these (with accompanying facts, figures and graphs), showing the overall incompetency of the political structure that could provoke a panic attack in some mentally stunted individual.

Zero Homicides in One Week

Not Chicago of course. We're lucky if we get a homicide free day lately:

• As the wailing and gnashing of teeth over the Trump administration’s takeover of the Washington DC police force begins to fade, the results are coming in, and they are nothing short of extraordinary.

  As of Wednesday afternoon, the nation’s capital has had no murders for seven days, something that had not been achieved since March and something I can find no recent record of in summer months when the murder rate is typically at its highest.

It's stories like this that could induce a panic attack in a mentally unwell individual, knowing that you're so bad at your job.

The Well is Dry

But the CTU thinks the money tree is flourishing:

• The Chicago Teachers Union slammed Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday for shutting the door on more state funding for cash-strapped Chicago Public Schools, deriding his thumbs-down as the “wrong answer.”

  The two-term Democratic governor laid down a marker that the CPS path to balancing its budget wouldn’t be coming through Springfield anytime soon because of the state’s own financial strains, aggravated by federal funding cuts.

  “What CTU and the mayor are talking about which is, you know, providing another billion or billion six for Chicago Public Schools, that’s just not going to happen,” Pritzker said Wednesday. “And it’s not because we shouldn’t. We should. We should try to find the money. But we don’t have those resources today. And we’re not going to see the resources from the federal government level either.”

  At a South Side school Thursday, CTU President Stacy Davis Gates seized on the governor’s message of financial sparsity, asking incredulously whether Pritzker really meant to deny more state resources for CPS.

There are no "state resources" left. The cupboard is bare, the well is dry. Any money is either going to come from massive tax hikes, which will drive out businesses and taxpayers or from cost cutting. 

Someone pointed out yesterday that Taft High School on the Northwest side has SIX assistant principals. SIX? For what? Obviously, to pay off political favors, but we can only imagine that this is system wide. And we still haven't seen Step One taken closing down underutilized buildings which would provide tens of millions in savings at a minimum.

You know, it's financial irresponsibility like this that might trigger a panic attack in someone who isn't even qualified for the position of grade school teacher who was suddenly stuck in a executive role.

More Panic Attacks?

Somehow, the media is missing this "open secret" for a while now:

• ....apparently our fearless leader, Brandon Johnson, has been hospitalized for approximately 40 panic attacks this year alone. Awhile back Brandon started the CARE Program (Light Blue Sprinter Vans with Chicago flags) to help mitigate the Mental Health Crisis by having a special team staffed by hand chosen personnel to strictly handle these types of calls after being integrated into the existing 911 system. Turns out they actually do nothing all day and at least one of those vans follows around Brandon AT ALL TIMES. 
  
  
  These vans are staffed with CFD EMS personnel AND a doctor. In order to fly under the radar, he requests to be seen at Loyola Hospital in Maywood and Northwestern downtown. I’ve heard that Northwestern has some sort of tunnel system where people can enter directly into the hospital and circumvent the street level entrances. 
  
  
  Once he gets admitted, to avoid a paper trail, gets registered as a John DOE, but still uses his actual birthdate. Anyone with a connection can verify that by looking it up. I guess the stresses of running this city so poorly are getting to him. 

Is anyone actually surprised? Kass has been using this articles nicknaming Conehead "mayor panic attack" for years now, but no one else is looking into it?

This Explains a Lot

Crimesha wrote a letter. Here's the first part of it - check out the last line of the last paragraph at the bottom (click for larger version):

 

 

Once you get past the "progressive" gobbledygook, it says this:

• "What if we became willing - strategically and morally - to absorb some harm in the service of a greater good?"

That explains probably 100% of her refusal to prosecute crimes based on the race of the offenders. And if you (the victim) weren't willing to "absorb" the harm inflicted on you by some of the "community," well by golly, she'd make you absorb it by refusing to prosecute!

Anything to not do the job she was elected for, resulting in a complete loss of trust in the system. 

UPDATE: As a few commentators said, does this include "absorbing" root beer? We mean, she's pretty much been a sponge her entire life, living off taxpayer money in Cabrini Green before grifting into government work. Anything like that Crimesha?

JCat is Angry

And he let everyone know:

• So at the fop meeting our president blasted the blog and pretty much saying Carlos is an innocent victim and everyone is picking on him . Let’s see he leaves the scene and before he called the cops he called commander Tate . A few days later he doubles down on his stupidity and tries to get surveillance video of the incident . Not once in his speech did catanzara acknowledge the pain Krystal Riveras family is going through . Carlos baker is going to be protected by the upper exempts and the fop because of his clout .

So we have Tate as his main phone call, his mother is supposedly a "staff assistant" in CFD, his sister is allegedly over in Finance handling ambulance waivers, and some consent decree sergeant as his personal babysitter. 

Now the FOP president is taking sides? While we agree he is entitled to representation for the Departmental investigation into the shooting, we're pretty sure his behavior since involving a battery and investigative interference fall outside of the Legal Defense Fund obligations. 

Maybe John ought to be looking out for the entire membership?

It's Working

Bad news for democrats:

• The D.C. Police Union released new crime statistics on Monday, showing an 8% drop in overall crime in the nation’s capital following President Donald Trump’s announcement of a federal takeover of the Washington, D.C., police force last week.

  According to the union, which represents the Metropolitan Police Department’s 3,000 personnel, carjackings are down 83% since federal control was enacted, while robberies dropped 46%.

  Violent crime fell 22% in the seven days since federal law enforcement began patrolling D.C.’s streets, and car theft came down 21%. Assault with a deadly weapon and property crime are also each down 6%.

Those numbers cover seven days. Seven.

And democrats are screaming about it. If you watch the protest footage, it's all old white ex-hippies trying to recapture the heady days of the Sixties before they finally get involuntarily committed to retirement homes.

Guess who isn't protesting and are actually supporting the Law and Order efforts of the administration? 

Another City Hall Rumor

In the same place that words like "bankruptcy" are being whispered, this is also being discussed openly:

• Department proposes to City Hall that all command staff receive a $13,890 raise to create parity amongst the ranks. City Hall responds with the possibility of “non-paid furlough days” for all exempt ranks in 2026. Who would want to be a Commander!?!

How about cutting some costs instead? Maybe get rid of the gold braid pension since no one in a command spot actually passed a test to earn an inflated retirement benefit....and 95% never passed a promotional exam at any level.

Retirees Wanted

And the bonus money is impressive:

• Uncle Sam. Miami Vice. When it comes to recruiting new Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, the Trump administration is getting creative.

  A social-media campaign launched late last month touted immigration enforcement as an opportunity for father-son bonding and to “deport illegals with your absolute boys,” a slang term for close friends. The Department of Homeland Security has invoked world-war-era imagery and touted 1990s Superman actor Dean Cain in an all-out blitz to persuade Americans they should join ICE’s ranks.

  The federal government also offered hefty incentives: up to $50,000 in signing bonuses and up to $60,000 in student loan forgiveness. No undergraduate degree is required. DHS also lifted the age cap for law-enforcement roles, opening a deportation officer position specifically for people over 40, and tried to woo back retired law-enforcement officials with a “return to mission” campaign.

  “America has been invaded by criminals and predators,” the agency says on its recruiting website. “We need YOU to get them out.”

No idea (yet) if you have to relocate or you can serve your time here, which would be hilarious seeing as how Conehead and Fata$$ have sworn to protect ILLEGAL ALIENS over citizens, but now you'd have Federal credentials. We imagine there will be a minimum time of service to qualify for the entire recruitment bonus.

So far, over 110,000 people have applied nationwide, many retired cops.

Mother of the Year

A mother in Joliet doing what is necessary:

• A burglar shot and killed by a mother as she hid her baby in a closet during a home invasion was a serial criminal who'd only recently been freed from jail.

  Shelby Hurd, 36, died last Tuesday after being blasted in the head with a bullet while entering the unidentified mother's home in Joliet, Illinois.

  Patch reported that Hurd was only freed on parole in February this year over a slew of previous burglary convictions.

  In 2024, he pleaded guilty to two separate burglary incidents that took place 10 days apart in March 2022. 

  Hurd was sentenced to four years with 170 days credit for time served. It is unclear how he ended up being freed back onto the streets in early 2025.

Well, this is Illinois, where democrat prioritize criminals over actual citizens. You don't really expect criminals to serve out sentences. Fortunately, this time someone was willing to do what democrats won't do - hold criminals accountable for bad decisions.

Nice shooting Mom. 

Feed the Animals

This has nothing to do with police work, but it amused us nonetheless - you'll see why in a moment:

• Hold your horses. A Danish woman donated her daughter’s pet pony to a zoo in Denmark — so it could be eaten by lions.

  Pernille Sohl reportedly gifted her teenage daughter Angelina’s German riding pony, Chicago 57, to the Aalborg Zoo in the country’s northern region. Zookeepers have said they’re hoping to mimic the natural food chain of predators by feeding them smaller donated pets.

  “It might sound very dramatic and bizarre that you would feed your pet to animals in the zoo,” Sohl, 44, told the Times UK. “But they are going to be put down anyway and it is not like they are alive when they are given to the predators.”

That's right - the pet pony was named "Chicago 57," and after being put down, was given to the lions to scavenge. That just amused us.

There's an allegory in there somewhere.

UPDATE: Comment of the Day so far:

• So when will the Pony be home from its trip to the zoo Uncle Lar?
  Well, Littile Tommy, I'm afraid the pony will be staying for dinner at the zoo tonight. 

The Actual Changes

So the rumor posted was a bit off, but the comment section got most of these correct (click for larger versions):

Just shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic while Conehead backs up for another run at the iceberg.

We Could Support This 100%

When the justice system fails, the public shouldn't be blamed for taking the law into their own hands. It's pretty much an obligation.

But what to do when the criminal is out of reach?

• People have showered an alleged car thief in a California jail with donations after she beat up a fellow inmate who is charged, along with her husband, with torturing and killing her eight-year-old stepdaughter.

  Donors in Bakersfield, where details of the horrific child abuse case have been highly publicized, have maxed out the inmate account of Anita Doron at the Kern County jail after she pummeled 27-year-old stepmother Graciela Bustamante on August 8.

  Doron told local outlet KBAK what triggered the beatdown, which resulted in a trip to the hospital for Bustamante before she was returned to jail.

  “Some of the girls had seen her not taking it too seriously,” Doron said. “She had come back from court, and she was laughing and giggling and stuff, and they were just like, ‘Why, what’s funny?’”

This is why we aren't to concerned when we hear of a gang banger or a robber who likes to beat elderly people or some short-eyes getting a bit of prison justice headed their way.

But this....this is a whole other level whereby the disgusted citizens can reward the inmates for taking care of business when they know the "justice system" is probably going to fail society. And in California, it's almost a given that it will fail.

Obviously, you can't go out soliciting a beating (that would be criminal). But rewarding a justified beating? Nothing the matter with that. 

Illegal Cannibal

When they say "migrant," they usually mean ILLEGAL ALIEN:

• A Venezuelan migrant accused of attacking an 85-year-old woman in her Gold Coast building and later targeting other victims in the Loop and Boystown has been detained following his arrest at a downtown pawn shop.

  Ignacio Linares-Rodriguez, 40, allegedly trailed the elderly woman into her building in the 100 block of West Oak Street around 7 a.m. on July 25. Once inside, he allegedly tore a bracelet from her wrist, tried to grab her necklace, and attempted to steal her ring. When the ring would not come off, prosecutors said, he resorted to biting her left ring finger in an effort to pry it loose. The woman managed to resist, and Linares-Rodriguez fled.

Eighty-five years old, and she has to deal with this piece of shit trying to bite off her finger to get a ring she probably had for sixty years.

Anyone call ICE? 

First Day of School!

And right off the bat, we get this:

• A Chicago Public Schools student is in police custody after bringing a firearm to the first day of class at Whitney Young Magnet High School on the Near West Side, officials said. No injuries were reported.

  In an email to the school community, Principal Rickey F. Harris said, “a gun was identified during our standard entry screening” at the school, 211 South Laflin.

  The weapon was “immediately secured and did not proceed further into the building,” Harris wrote.

  A Chicago Police Department spokesperson confirmed that officers responded to the school around 8:13 a.m. to handle a weapons violation. An “offender” was taken into custody and charges were pending, the spokesperson said.

This is a selective enrollment high school, supposedly populated by the best-of-the-best students that Conehead is currently trying to discontinue, believing all students should be dumbed down to the slowest admitted pupils lest the idiots feel like underachievers. 

As usual, no one will be expelled or held accountable to some extent.

Also, this gun did not disappear from a CPD gun turn-in event....that we know of.

Second Time in a Few Days

The Slum Times steals our post without any sort of attribution.

It's not like they cost us money (we do this for free and have for twenty years now) and we don't really expect anything better than that from bottom feeding scumbags.

We just like everyone to know that they do. 

Just Write the Ticket

How many times does this have to happen before Officers stop generating numbers to make the exempts look good, but end up in Federal court for years afterwards?

• Officers on a Chicago Police Department tactical team are facing a new lawsuit this week over a traffic stop turned search that the driver claims was unlawful and racist.

  For years, the ABC7 I-Team has been reporting on a controversial CPD tactic that critics call "pretextual traffic stops," or stops for minor traffic violations turning into drivers handcuffed and vehicles searched, moments after pulling them over.

  It's a police practice that city leaders have vowed to overhaul.

At this point, the only people wanting to see Blue Cards via traffic stops are plaintiff attorneys, because they know the City will pay them tens of thousands for unsubstantiated allegations long before a single deposition is taken or in-car camera / body camera footage is viewed.

Just write the ticket, make sure it's a mail in citation, and move along. If you get notified for Traffic Court, take the deviation if it won't result in suspension time. Is Zoom still an option for Traffic Court? Just stop with the TSSSSSSS bullshit.

He Said, She Said

Here's the other side of the story via a Case Report, just so no one thinks we aren't being fair (click for larger version):

 

And just a friendly reminder, distribution of case report narratives is strictly prohibited and will result in suspension if caught. Your digital footprint is tracked throughout the process of logging in, viewing and printing. 

They can't do any of that to us any more....especially if they haven't taken all of our log in credentials out of the system yet. 

Good Question

A rumor in the comment section....whispers over at City Hall that Conehead is saying the word "bankruptcy" to people. 

A bunch of comments refute that, correctly pointing out that the process isn't permitted under State Law as currently written. The City would have to open the books across the board, letting daylight into places that daylight hasn't seen in decades. And from a purely accounting point of view, the City would have to prove that liabilities exceed obligations, and they'd have to prove it to a forensic accountant most likely at the federal level, which wouldn't be pleasant under the current administration.

No doubt some of this was triggered by a recent article in The Chicago Contrarian:

• First comes moral bankruptcy. Then comes fiscal bankruptcy. That’s the order of things, and if you’re looking for a real-time case study, look no further than the City of Chicago.

  Chicago has been morally bankrupt at least since the advent of the Lightfoot administration, when ideology, incompetence, and cowardice collided to produce one of the most disastrous mayoralties in city history. But in fairness to Lori Lightfoot, she was just one link in a long chain of political cowardice. Her predecessors and their compliant City Councils laid the groundwork: authorizing pension holidays, underfunding obligations, kicking the can down the road, and pretending the math would never catch up to them.

  It has. And the bottom of the cliff is now in sight.

As usual, go read it all. It seems to cover all the bases - good, bad, ugly and really really ugly. 

ShotSpotter to Return?

Or some version of it. The correct political conditions seem to be appearing....there must be a Conehead nephew who landed a job there or something:

• The city of Chicago settled a lawsuit Friday that claimed police used the ShotSpotter gunshot-detection system as a pretext for unlawful stops — even as Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration considers bringing the technology back.

  [....] Johnson campaigned on getting rid of ShotSpotter and has referred to the technology as “a walkie-talkie on a pole” and a waste of taxpayer money. He made good on his campaign promise when he let the ShotSpotter contract lapse in September 2024, but his administration has since opened up bidding on a new contract for gunshot-detection technology.

Most of the article deals with a pair of lawsuits that ::surprise!!:: the City paid off to go away. If you really want to read it all, click the link up top, but suffice it to say the lawyers really twisted themselves into pretzels on this one....and Corp Counsel barely put up a fight.

There are currently eight companies bidding for the Contract, including SoundThinking, the parent company of ShotSpotter, that has the advantage of years worth of data on hand to make their bid very attractive from a financial standpoint.

Good Job Officer

Never much good news about cops just doing their jobs, day in and day out....but no doubt, some people are thankful:

• Air and water show. CPD officer Spotted this elderly lady have difficulty walking . Took the time to help her to her daughter’s car.  Wish the media would show more of this

Sometimes, it's the little things.

Shorting Illinoisans Again

Remember, democrats hate all normies and Fata$$ is their standard bearer:

• Gov. JB Pritzker signed a new law Friday that guarantees undocumented students in Illinois have access to student financial aid.

  House Bill 460 makes financial aid accessible to all Illinois residents, regardless of their legal immigration status.

  “If you live in Illinois and are pursuing higher education, you should have access to the same opportunities as your peers,” said Villanueva (D-Chicago), who introduced the bill. “This law is about making sure no student is left behind because of where they were born.”

Chicago is how broke?

Illinois is how far into debt?

But hey, ILLEGAL ALIENS are still at the top of democrat lists for money that ought to be spent on Illinois kids.

Changes?

Someone posted this in a comment:

• Tate to area 3
  Starks out back to Lt
  Hawkins area 4
  Mcgarry youth
  Connelly 001
  Jerome out 

Did any of it actually happen?

Why Didn't We Think of This?

Has everyone seen the video of the guy throwing a sandwich at a Federal Officer in Washington the other night? turns out he was a DoJ deep-state lib-tard and is currently facing a Federal felony change....and filling out unemployment paperwork.

Today, this popped up in our newsfeed:

• Illinois Governor JB Pritzker reportedly joined the fray as a law enforcement officer in the nation's capital in hopes of getting a sandwich thrown at him.

  Sources said the governor sprang into action today after hearing that a federal officer was assaulted by a man who threw a Subway sandwich at him during a confrontation, joining the D.C. Police Department and requesting immediate duty.

  "Oh man, I've got to get down there right away," Pritzker reportedly said after seeing the viral video of a man assaulting a Customs and Border Protection agent with a subway sandwich. "Baxter, hold all my calls. Tell them I'm on an extended lunch!"

The accompanying picture was great:

And we didn't even make that connection. 

We're getting slow in our advancing age. 

Gun Story Goes National

It was only a matter of time:

• Twanda Willingham is suing the city of Chicago after being shot with a pistol that had been “relinquished to Chicago police at a gun turn-in event,” according to the NRA-ILA.

  FOX 32 reported Willingham was shot in August 2023 with a Glock 21 “surrendered months earlier at a Chicago Police Department gun buyback.”

  Willingham subsequently filed suit against Chicago, after it was discovered the gun had allegedly “disappeared while in transit between the [location of the buy back event] and a nearby police station—just blocks apart.”

This is the gun that disappeared at the 006 "buy back" event and ended up being used another shooting....the event that is receiving renewed attention due to the off-duty behavior of a certain moron.

The hits just keep piling up. Good thing we have a "consent decree" in place for accountability and all that shit, right? 

Skynet Laughs

Yesterday, we wrote about the Oak Brook PD deploying drones....drones that will be semi-autonomous at some point, responding to calls faster than actual officers in order to observe and video crime occurring until police arrive.

Someone with a far better memory than we have posted this story from 2016, by Cuck Goudie of all people. It's about the time former Dallas Chief and Chicago Supernintendo authorized the robotic execution of a five-time-cop-killer:

• When Dallas Police improvised the use of a remote control robot to blow up a shooter, it was heralded as a new frontier for law enforcement. While that may have been the first time a robot was sent in to stop and kill a criminal, the I-Team learned Tuesday night that Cook County's bomb squad has long had a similar attack plan in its playbook.

  [...] The robot delivered a pound of c-4 explosive close enough to the shooter to blow him up, a tactic that Sgt. Larry Drish, commander of the Cook County Sheriff's police bomb squad, always has available.

  "We have been practicing this sort of thing for years, we have the capability in our response trucks and in the response truck with the robots to immediately deploy explosives, with whatever technology we have to immediately end the threat," Drish said.

  Cook County's three robots are funded with Homeland Security money.

Honest to God, we have no idea how we missed this story at the time. There was even a Tribune article! Cook County with robots, armed with an anti-personnel device, with a plan in place, and practicing to use it? In fact, the robot has a bean bag gun, a Taser, and a shotgun barrel - usually used to disable/detonate a explosive, but which can be aimed and fired at a person.

And now Oak Brook is deploying a semi-autonomous drone. 

How soon until they give it a gun? Or maybe a grenade like those Ukrainian drones?

Caught Red Handed (UPDATE)

By the media no less:

• Already under investigation for the on-duty shooting of his partner Krystal Rivera, Chicago Police Officer Carlos Baker may have misrepresented himself and violated department policy in the aftermath of a bar fight in Wicker Park last weekend. Baker is being investigated by the Chicago Office of Police Accountability after police were called to DSTRKT Bar and Grill on North Milwaukee Ave. around 11 p.m. Sunday where a 29-year-old woman, also an off-duty police officer, alleged she was attacked by multiple people including fellow officer Baker.

  While reporting on the initial incident, CBS News Chicago learned from an employee at a neighboring business that Baker called their shop, identified himself as a police officer investigating the bar fight — in which he is actually listed as a suspect — and asked for access to the surveillance cameras.

  The employee showed CBS News Chicago the business' caller ID, which showed Baker's last name and phone number and a time stamp, 3:01 p.m. Wednesday, as news was breaking about the bar fight.

  When a CBS News Chicago reporter called the number and left a voicemail, she promptly received a call back by a man who identified himself as Carlos Baker. He asked if "our restaurant" cameras are working and if they had video of the Sunday night incident.

  When told he was speaking to a reporter, Baker hung up. 

These aren't the actions of an innocent victim. 

These are the actions of a crooked asshole trying to cover his tracks. And it opens up another can of worms that Larritorious, IAD and the political structure is desperate to cover-up....but Baker kind of lit that entire effort on fire.

This is far beyond the pale....it is far past time to put him into a no-pay status, file appropriate administrative AND criminal charges, and move for Thirty Pending. 

UPDATE: Step #1 underway:

• The Chicago police officer who accidentally shot and killed Officer Krystal Rivera while chasing a suspect earlier this summer has been relieved of his police powers, according to the Chicago Police Department.

  CPD did not release any more information as to why the officer was relieved of his powers.

Because not only is he stepping on his dick, he's jumping up and down on it with metal cleats.

Juicy Blames....Rahm?

He just won't go away....and the media keeps giving him play:

• On the eve of a comeback to TV, actor Jussie Smollett is again claiming he did not hoax a supposed hate crime perpetrated against him in 2019 and is renewing his attack on Chicago and its police department.

  Six years after his career fell came to a halt, Smollett is set for a TV comeback in a new competition series this fall entitled, Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.

  But ahead of the debut of the new series, Smollett is unsurprisingly facing questions over his hoax hate crime all over again. And he is still denying that he engaged in a hoax back in 2019 despite the evidence.

  “The villains are the two people who assaulted me, the Chicago Police Department and, if I may be so brave, the mayor [then Rahm Emanuel,” Smollett said according to Variety.

We could get behind this speculation, solely for the reason it would completely derail Rahm's national ambitions. But unfortunately, the Detective Division did such an outstanding investigation, there's nothing to hang that theory on. 

We won't say what this video link is, but [WARNING] don't listen to it with the volume too loud.

DC CompStat Numbers

Evidently, DC Police were lying about crime for years:

• The District of Columbia has quietly settled a lawsuit from a sergeant who accused Metropolitan Police Department leaders of misclassifying offenses to deflate the district's crime statistics, court records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show. Police brass repeatedly told officers to downgrade theft cases, knife attacks, and violent assaults to lesser offenses, according to internal MPD emails, depositions, and phone call transcripts the Free Beacon reviewed.

  Former MPD sergeant Charlotte Djossou sued the department in 2020, alleging that police leadership punished her for speaking out against the scheme. Djossou, who joined the force after serving honorably in Iraq, accused MPD brass of attempting to "distort crime statistics" by "downgrading a number of felonies to misdemeanors, so that there will be 'fewer' felonies in the statistics." She also provided records showing that police leaders explicitly instructed their subordinates to underclassify certain instances of theft to keep them out of the crime stats the city reports to the public.

And now they paid her, mere weeks after a command staff member was suspended for doing what was obviously DC policy for years.

That was the entire point of CompStat when New York started it - downgrading crime so politicians could run on the "crime is down!" platform. 

We found the book and the post we wrote back in 2012 about the numbers game: 

It might even still be available. 

Skynet Smiles

When there aren't enough cops, send the drones:

• Cutting-edge drone technology is now online in metro Chicago. The Oak Brook Police Department is deploying a fully autonomous drone to assess situations, and, more often than not, beat uniformed officers to the scene.

  The newest eye in the sky is billed as a vital tool for everyone's safety.

  The first responder drone made by Flock Safety is housed on the top of the department, and sits at the ready to take flight in an instant anywhere in the 8 square miles of the village.

  "So, the drone to get to any scene within a minute and a half, they're going to get that real in-progress real-time information, video data, license plates, offender information and relay that in real time," Oak Brook Police Chief Brian Strockis said.

  He said the new technology is not seen anywhere else in Illinois. Inside the station, operators in their "new real-time crime center" can deploy the drone at their discretion, based on scanner traffic. It then flies at 200-400 feet above roads and red lights, without a human operator.

  Eventually, the drone will be able to deploy itself, based on specific emergency calls that come in. "It'll get there, nine times out of 10, before an officer will arrive. And it'll be the best camera angle and the best view of that situation, as it's evolving," Strockis said.

We believe we mentioned this somewhere years ago:

• with the massive prevalence of cameras, police might not be able to respond to every 911 call, but by golly, they'll record you being robbed, shot, stabbed, raped or murdered.

The Department will even play the highlight reel at the Christmas parties, complete with the Yakety Sax musical accompaniment. 

FOP Insurrection?

Something is attracting attention over at the Hall, and it has the potential to cause some heavy duty issues. We got a couple emails outlining some concerns about the upcoming By-Law vote in September. Here's the newsletter article (click for larger version):

One of the emails expressed their concerns thusly:

• I just read the president’s piece on the bylaw changes, and I couldn’t help noticing how much it sounded like a self-congratulatory infomercial for himself. It’s being sold as progress, but the only thing really expanding here is JCat’s ego.

  He says this isn’t controversial, but one of the changes he “definitely” wants to pass would expand who we represent — not because our members are clamoring for it, but because he wants more territory,more dues, and more personal power. [...]

  He paints this like we’re some kind of “corporation” that needs to “grow our brand” to stay relevant. Let’s get real, we are a union, not his personal start-up. We don’t exist to expand his market share, we exist to protect and serve our current members. The only “corporate” thing about us lately is how much of our dues he blows on luxury vacations and pricey artwork.

  He’s also been very vocal about wanting to break away from the National FOP — and surprise, surprise — growing our numbers outside Chicago gets him one step closer to running his own “union/cult” completely unchecked. Once that happens, he answers to no one but himself.

  He ends by saying this expansion could make us so big “nobody would touch us.” Translation: so big nobody could touch him. That’s not a plan for member representation, that’s a blueprint for one man’s vanity project. There’s a difference between “expanding our brand” and inflating one man’s ego.

A second email is even more pointed....with a stark warning:

• Article I Section 3 of the by-laws clearly state that "No member shall be simultaneously a member of Chicago Lodge #7 and any other Subordinate Lodge". Which means when he tries to pull CPD members out, they will lose their affiliation with FOP. Word is, John is trying to grab all the departments represented by the Metropolitan Alliance of Police in the state of Illinois.

  The by-law change proposal is the next step in pulling out of FOP. And pulling out of FOP means losing all the protections that come along with national representation. The logical reason for this is because the National FOP can't stand John and effectively blocks everything he tries to do because, and I quote, "No way are we doing anything this asshole wants". So when John can't get what he wants, he tries to manipulate the system to get his way. His ability to run again for President is coming to a close, and John doesn't want to give up the purse strings. And an uninformed membership only makes things easier for him to continuously control our dues money without the members knowing how money is being spent.

  This by-law change proposal is DANGEROUS. It will give J-Cat far too much power to manipulate the system that is supposed to represent the best interest of CHICAGO police officers. Did we learn nothing when the Credit Union opened up their membership to those outside of CPD? What a shit show that became. This is where things are headed unless this by-law change is stopped.

Anyone familiar with By-Law meetings knows that they are crooked as Hell and easily manipulable. We attended a number of these back in the day when Bill Nolan tried to force through contentious issues (this is our recollection of a really bad Nolan meeting):

• the changes, which have already been "vetted" by the Lodge committee, are read to the attendees. Unwanted proposals have been killed by this committee on procedural grounds as well as spelling and grammatical errors;
• the president calls for a voice vote, Aye or Nay, and the declares the winner. No counting, no raising of hands and counting, the president just says, "The Ayes have it" and attempts to move on;
• this particular time, there was a massive outcry over an issue we don't recall right now, but demands were made to "Divide the room," Ayes on one side, Nays on the other, so everyone could see how the vote played out;
• after being declared out of order and other such nonsense, the room was divided, and Nolan still claimed the vote went his way.

That was when we got discouraged by the entire procedure, because the president could just make up the vote, pack the Hall or straight up lie. Old timers will recall that under the following administration, the FOP actually sent out ballots to everyone regarding by-law changes....and even with a self-addressed stamped envelope that cost cops nothing but two minutes to vote, participation was atrocious, maybe one-third of the membership? One quarter? It was bad.

If these speculations are true, this could be far worse.

The Spotlight Goes On

The media picked up on the building calamity that (if it all goes south) will likely end a number of careers and drag a few politicians down with the ship:

• Carlos Baker, the Chicago police officer who shot and killed his partner Krystal Rivera during a foot pursuit earlier this year, allegedly attacked a female officer late Sunday at a bar in Wicker Park, the Chicago Sun-Times and Illinois Answers Project have learned.

  The officer who was injured in the attack filed a police report while she was being treated for a split lip at Rush University Medical Center, alleging that Baker and another woman beat her late Sunday at DSTRKT Bar & Grill, 1540 N. Milwaukee Ave.

  Baker and another woman approached the 29-year-old officer while she was waiting for a rideshare vehicle in the bar’s vestibule and pressured her to delete videos taken on her cellphone, according to police sources. During an argument over the videos, Baker and the woman allegedly “hit her in her facial area.”

  The injured officer escaped, with the help of others, and had a friend take her to Rush Hospital, where she got two stitches to close a cut on her swollen upper lip, sources said. An evidence technician documented the officer’s injuries at her home.

  She told investigators she wasn’t at the bar with Baker or the other woman, and didn’t identify herself as an officer during the attack, sources said. It’s not clear what’s on the videos.

We recognized more than a few quotes in the Slum Times coverage, because we also received the same information, to wit, the Case Report narrative. Anyone who has used the CLEAR system knows it only records in upper case, so you'll have to deal with it. All spelling and grammatical errors are not ours:

• VICTIM RELATED TO RO 'S THAT SHE WAS BATTERED. VICTIM RELATED TO R/O'S THAT SHE WAS LEAVING DSTRKT BAR AND GRILL (1540 RTH MILWAUKEE AVE) AND WAS WAITING OUTSIDE IN THE VESTIBULE FOR AN UBER. VICTIM RELATED THAT SHE AS THEN APPROACHED BY [O] BAKER, CARLOS (WHO SHE STATED WAS AN OFF DUTY CHICAGO POLICE OFFICER) ND HIS POSSIBLE GF [0] UNKNOWN 1, UNKNOWN 1 ABOUT A VIDEO/VIDEOS SHE TOOK WHILE SHE WAS IN THE BAR.
  CTIM RELATED THE OFFENDERS DEMANDED SHE DELETE THE VIDEOS THAT WERE TAKEN ON HER PHONE. VICTIM ND OFFENDERS THE GOT INTO A VERBAL ALTERCATION OVER THE VIDEOS WHICH THEN BECAME PHYSICAL WHEN OTH OFFENDERS BEGAN TO HIT HER IN HER FACIAL AREA. VICTIM RELATED SHE WAS ABLE TO ESCAPE THE )FFENDERS WITH THE HELP OF OTHER UNK INDIVIDUALS THAT WERE ON SCENE.. VICTIMS FRIEND, WHICH SHE VOULD LIKE TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS AT THIS TIME TRANSPORTED HER TO RUSH HOSPITAL FOR TREATMENT FOR ГНЕ INJURIES SHE SUFFERED IN HER FACIAL AREA. VICTIM RELATED TO R/O'S THAT SHE IS ALSO AN OFF DUTY PO FOR CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT AS WELL [assignment censored by SCC]. R/O'S ASKED THE VICTIM IF THE OFFENDER KNEW SHE WAS A OFF DUTY P.O. OR IF AT ANY POINT SHE RELATED SHE WAS A P.O. TO THE OFFENDERS IN WHICH SHE RESPONDED NO. R/O'S ASKED THE VICTIM IF SHE WAS THERE WITH THE OFFENDERS IN WHICH SHE REPLIED NO SHE WAS WITH HER OWN FRIENDS. R/O'S REQUESTED A SUPERVISOR TO THE SCENE DUE TO THE VICTIM BEING A OFF DUTY P.O. AND THE OFFENDER BEING AN OFF DUTY P.O. AS WELL. BEAT 1220 ARRIVED ON SCENE. VICTIM SUFFERED A LACERATION TO THE LEFT UPPER SIDE OF HER LIP WITH REQUIRED 2 STITCHES. VICTIMS LIP WAS SWOLLEN AND SHE RELATED SHE HAS PAIN IN THE FACIAL AREA BY HER NOSE. VICTIM WAS TREATED FOR HER INJURIES BY DR WEBER AND IS IN GOOD/STABLE CONDITION AND BEING RELEASED. DUE TO VICTIM BEING TREATED AND RELEASED NO E.T. WAS ORDERED AT THIS TIME. VICTIM RELATED SHE WOULD CALL FOR A E.T. WHEN SHE ARRIVED HOME. R/O'S ASKED VICTIM IF SHE WOULD LIKE FOR US TO KEEP OUR BWC OFF DUE TO BEING IN A HOSPITAL AND PATIENT PRIVACY IN WHICH SHE STATED IT WAS OK TO KEEP BWC OFF AT THIS TIME. VICTIM RELATED SHE NOTIFIED HER SGT [censored by SCC] OF THE INCIDENT ALREADY. VICTIM STATED SHE POSSIBLY LOST HER PNC DEBT CARD DURING THE ALTERCATION AS WELL. VIN GIVEN AND EXPLAINED. R/O'S ASKED OEMC IF THERE WERE ANY CALLS FOR A BATTERY OR DISTURBANCE AT 1540 N MILWAUKEE AVE BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 2230-2330 HRS ON 10AUG25 IN WHICH THEY RELATED THERE WERE NONE. CL #2025-4027 GENERATED FOR INCIDENT.

We would remind everyone that unauthorized viewing and distributing of CLEAR reports is punishable by suspension. Just ask anyone who looked at the Case Report involving the son of the 9.5 digit midget who averaged one-to-three days.

And after yesterday's comments,  "How could you do this?" we'll just say GTFOH with that bullshit:

• He and his companion are (allegedly) beating a woman in a bar over an alleged video taken in a public venue....and you're asking why we'd dare to warn people of this loose cannon? A loose cannon with an (alleged) suicidal threat in the past few weeks? We said maybe he isn't getting the assistance he needs, but maybe it's darker than that and someone needs to step up to stop it.

How many years has it been and we're still hearing the name Van Dyke whenever there's a question about a shooting? Or Abbate when someone gets a DUI and fights at a bar? Or Finnegan when  allegations of thefts pop up? 

Jeez, it's been thirty-two years since Burge was fired, he's been dead going on seven years, and we just saw his name last month in the papers.

No Charges (Finally)

Good news after eighteen months of bullshit:

• Charges won’t be filed against the four officers who shot and killed Dexter Reed after he wounded their partner during a traffic stop last year in Humboldt Park, Cook County’s top prosecutor announced Wednesday.

  Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke’s office found the officers were in reasonable fear for their lives when they pulled Reed over on March 21, 2024.

  Reed fired first, striking one of the five tactical officers in the hand in the 3800 block of West Ferdinand Street. The other officers responded by firing 96 shots at Reed in less than a minute— hitting him 13 times.

  Prosecutors determined the evidence presented to them didn’t warrant criminal charges — a decision upheld by an independent appellate review.

Of course, COPA is still looking to railroad these guys for assorted imagined and procedural offenses, most (if not all) that could be corrected by training and policy amendments.

Were their tactics by the book? They could be improved on.

Was their marksmanship stellar? It never is under pressure.

Was the stop justified? Certainly.

Was the use of Deadly Force authorized, legal and ethical, after ol' Dex started blazing away with his illegally possessed handgun at Officers in an easily recognizable unmarked squad car, with oscillating lights, siren, in car camera, body cameras, vests marked with CPD insignia and duty gear? Abso-f#$%ing-lutely.

But COPA, being a politically motivated group of hacks, will drag this out. 

Frankenstein Opioids

Safety warning for everyone:

• On a Missouri February night, 21-year-old college student Blake Barklage was found unresponsive by his mother. She had Narcan on hand and used it immediately. 

  Then again. 

  And again. 

  Seven doses later, Blaek still wasn’t breathing. Later, toxicology revealed a synthetic opioid was in his system that's up to 43 times stronger than fentanyl: Nitazene.

Already ravaging Europe, it's crossing the US southern border and is just now being linked to potentially hundreds of deaths. No one had been testing for it specifically....until the Narcan started failing.

We remember when the fentanyl crisis began, skin absorption was the big warning for law enforcement. We would assume this is still an issue? Australia has begun prosecutions for Nitazene vapes, so this stuff is easily transmitted between mediums.

Philadelphia has had limited success with Narcan doses, then emergency medical treatment, followed by more Narcan since the drug seems to overwhelm the Naloxone doses. 

Be aware of what's out there. 

Sigs are Done

Reimbursement may still be on the table for those taking the $95 "trade-in" option:

• Most of the roughly 1,450 Chicago police officers who carried Sig Sauer P320 handguns have replaced them following safety concerns raised this year about the weapon, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

  [...] On Monday, department spokesperson Maggie Huyhn said officers using the P320 were given a July 14 deadline to submit proof of buying a new approved weapon. The Chicago Police Department has about 11,600 sworn officers.  “More than 1,350 affected officers are now in compliance with the phase-out process, with about 100 members not in compliance,” said Huyhn, who declined to address the safety concerns about the P320.

  The department’s firearms training section had scheduled 20 days for those officers who owned P320s to meet with vendors to buy other department-approved guns and equipment, Huyhn said. “Additionally, CPD worked with Acme Sports, a regional Sig Sauer distributor, to secure a ‘trade-in’ option that allowed affected members to pay $95 to trade in their Sig Sauer P320 for another department-approved Sig Sauer model,” she said in a statement.

Those 100 "not in compliance" ought to get into compliance pretty quick, because we all know the City will refuse to indemnify you for actions unauthorized by Orders or policy, and this IS NOT the political atmosphere to tempt that fate.

We would also repeat our concerns about training. Firearms training is a significant chunk of Academy time, because you want to know your weapon well enough that handling it under duress is instinctual. Studies have shown you revert to training habits in an Officer-Involved-Shooting incident - both good habits and bad habits. It's not something you can switch out in a session or two or even ten. Habits take time to learn.