Another Shotspotter Miss

We smile every time these pop up:

• A man was found shot to death inside a vehicle in Gresham on Friday night, but witnesses who heard the gunfire didn’t call police until they saw the man slumped over in his car about an hour later, according to an officer at the scene.

  The shooting happened in the 8800 block of South Lowe Avenue in a neighborhood that used to be covered by the city’s now-shuttered ShotSpotter gunfire detection system. If the system had still been active, it could have alerted first responders even though no one who heard the gunfire called for help.

It's amusing that Shotspotter might have helped.

It's even more amusing that the neighborhood doesn't care enough to call in "shots fired" for over an hour. 

This by itself should be justification for Larritorious to pull every officer out of that District and send them somewhere that actually wants the police around. 

Where's Waldo?

Where's Heiniken for that matter?

We've gotten a bunch of pictures sent to us, so we're posting some for your amusement.

Number One!

And again, not for anything good:

• Chicago’s 10.25% combined sales tax currently ranks second among major cities, behind only Seattle’s 10.35%, but a 0.25-point hike for transit will make them the highest in America.

  The new Regional Transportation Authority funding bill, which increases the Chicago metro area sales tax by 0.25 percentage points, has passed both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly and now sits on Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk. Once signed, it will give Chicago the highest sales-tax rate of any major city in the nation at 10.5%.

And what do Chicagoans get for these massive taxes?

• failing schools
• rising property crime
• declining services
• less police coverage
• increasing wait times for ambulances
• fleeing businesses

And Conehead. 

New Award Ribbon

 

"We'll Be Back"

The Border Patrol is leaving for the winter, but will return in full force after operations on the west coast:

• Fifty-six days have passed since U.S. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino announced on social media, “Well, Chicago, we’ve arrived!”

  Since then, it’s been eight weeks of chaos and fear. Of downtown patrols and boat tours. Of tear gas and pepperballs, even while children played and pastors prayed. Of defiance and violence and a hunt for “the worst of the worst” and several use-of-force incidents that a judge said “shocks the conscience.”

  Now Bovino and many of his agents are expected to leave Chicago, signaling a downshift in the Trump administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz.” That is, at least, while winter descends on the city. But the federal presence could return four-fold in the spring.

It's also been eight weeks of the media revealing themselves to be insurrectionists and traitors, supporting violence and excusing law breaking with assorted propaganda. They're barely covering this:

• Customs and Border Protection officials said Latin Kings street gang leaders have issued a “shoot on sight” order targeting agents involved in immigration operations in Chicago, NewsNation has learned.

  “Officer/agents are reminded to maintain heightened situational awareness and exercise extreme caution when conducting enforcement activities,” the agency’s internal warning said.

  News of the alert comes after shots were reportedly fired at federal agents during an immigration enforcement operation in the city’s Little Village neighborhood on Saturday. The Department of Homeland Security says a group of people also threw a paint can and bricks at a Border Patrol vehicle.

There's a name for this sort of behavior and The Contrarian calls it out:

• The shots that rang out last week resemble those fired on Fort Sumter which started the Civil War

  The shooting has started. 

  A federal law enforcement source has now confirmed that a Chicagoan opened fire on federal officers. Whether this is the first volley or merely the latest escalation, it follows an obvious trajectory: When city leaders wink at lawlessness and when newspapers sanctify defiance, blood is the next headline.

  Our local press corps has abandoned skepticism for sermonizing. They’ve become propagandists — much like the newspapers of the South in the years before the Civil War — stirring emotion, arousing grievance, and normalizing rebellion against our own federal government. They no longer cover the news; they choreograph it.

If this is the new "normal," well.....good luck.

Crimesha Pissed Herself

The Root Beer Trial concluded a few days ago and we barely heard a peep about it. Seems the media is still covering for Crimesha's political abuse of her office (summarized from the CWB report):

• William Swetz, the man accused of backing his pickup toward former Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and throwing a Big Gulp of root beer in her face during a roadside confrontation, quietly went on trial last month in Markham. The two-day bench trial was held before Judge Tiana Blakely, with the Illinois Attorney General’s Office prosecuting Swetz on felony counts of aggravated assault with a motor vehicle and aggravated battery in a public place.

  [...] The case stems from a June 2024 confrontation near Foxx’s home in Flossmoor. Then still in office, Foxx was out for a morning walk around 10:30 a.m. when Swetz drove by in his GMC pickup.

  Foxx, who was walking along the edge of the roadway instead of the sidewalk, told police that Swetz yelled, “Get the f**** off the road b****!” She responded by flipping him off. Swetz allegedly drove a short distance, then threw his truck into reverse, zigzagging toward her in the opposite lane and forcing her to jump onto the curb to avoid being hit. When he stopped, the two exchanged more words before Swetz allegedly hurled the contents of his Big Gulp cup in her face.

  [...] Assistant Public Defender Michael Herzog, an attorney supervisor in the Felony Trial Division, saw things differently. He called it “a regrettable incident but noncriminal encounter between my client and a uniquely empowered complaining witness.” Herzog and co-counsel Colleen Gorman argued that the case was treated differently because of who the complainant was. “We’re looking… at a misdemeanor elevated for inappropriate reasons,” Herzog said.

Of course it was elevated for inappropriate reasons. What we had here was two assholes running across each other, except one was a legally incompetent (but politically powerful) Soros-funded DEI hire with the usual sense of entitlement that comes with being able to physically abuse her husband and get away with it. 

There's also zero video evidence of any of what Crimesha alleges, essentially he said/she said, none of which rose to the level of a felony (according to eight years of Crimesha not charging thousands of criminals.) Oh the irony!

But the BIG revelation at trial:

• Herzog questioned whether Foxx was truly horrified during the incident.

  “At the time of him backing his vehicle up to you, you were not in fact afraid for your physical safety?” he asked.

  Foxx replied she “was absolutely afraid for my physical safety. I was horrified.”

  “You never told the police that, correct?”

  “I described to the police what happened. I didn’t tell the police that I wet my pants, but I’ll tell you,” she revealed.

Nothing like a last-second addition to her story in an attempt to sway the bench trial her way.

Swetz is likely going to be found guilty of something - this is still Cook County and the connected take care of their own. Crimesha still has ambitions for another election, so the system will work in her favor. 

Arrest in I.C.E. Shooting?

DHS says it's in "relation to the shooting." 

No idea what that means, but he's an ILLEGAL ALIEN of all things - with a previous weapon charge that probably should have gotten him deported a long time ago:

• A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said agents were shot at on Saturday during an operation near 26th Street and Kedzie Avenue in the Little Village neighborhood.

  On Monday, DHS told NBC Chicago they arrested an undocumented man from Mexico in relation to the shooting. Authorities said he has a prior conviction for unlawful use of a weapon, although they hadn't released his identity as of Monday evening.

So what is he still doing on this side of the border? 

Another one of Fata$$'s and Conehead's sanctuary beneficiaries?

Best Performance?

We can't tell if the CWB writers are being humorous or not:

• Thirteen people were shot in Chicago over the weekend, four of them fatally, marking the best performance for the same weekend since 2017, according to HeyJackass, a website that tracks Chicago violence using official and open-source data.

So does "best performance" mean lowest number of shootings?

Or do they mean the kill percentages are getting better along with the aim of the ne'er-do-wells? Because a 30% success rate is almost unheard of these days.

It's a bit of unintentional dark humor - and we appreciate it. 

Government Shutdown Ending!

Thank goodness! We don't know what we would have done if it had gone on for another forty days!

Guess who voted to open the government back up?

• Sen. Dick Durbin is once again under fire for voting on a Republican-led measure that would end the government shutdown — angering Democrats who say the extension of health care subsidies must be part of any deal with Republicans.

  Durbin on Sunday joined a group of moderate Democrats in a 60-40 vote toward passing a bill to fund the government and to hold a later vote on extending Affordable Care Act tax credits that expire Jan. 1. The agreement would also reverse mass firings of federal workers that began Oct. 1, the day the shutdown began, with workers to receive back pay.

This was all political theater with dems blaming republicans for their shutdown, while everyone with a brain knew it would take 60 votes in the first place:

 

That was the vote pretty much every time it came up for the past month, with dems attempting to (A) get free healthcare for ILLEGAL ALIENS and (B) subsidies for the "affordable" health care. 

They got neither and Dickless Durbin - who's retiring - knew he wouldn't face voters again, so he caved along with a bunch of other senators in vulnerable seats. Now everyone can get back to grafting tax money.

Chickens Come Home to Roost

Jon PP Heiniken is still being kept out of the public eye:

• When Chicago’s top cop spoke to the media after a Border Patrol agent shot a woman last month on the city’s Southwest Side, he addressed a growing political firestorm over the department’s role in the incident.

  Supt. Larry Snelling’s right-hand man, Patrol Chief Jon Hein, was facing a flood of criticism — from ex-cops, internet trolls and members of his own department — after radio transmissions showed his officers were ordered not to respond to the Oct. 4 shooting scene, as an angry crowd gathered to protest and confront federal law enforcement.

  Snelling defended Hein, saying reports that Chicago police were told to stand down were “absolutely not true.” Dozens of complaints were filed against Hein over his response to the incident, but all but one has been closed out.

That "one complaint" is being held open for two reasons:

• so COPA/Conehead/IAD/Larritorious can continue to hide any CPD video of a shooting that was likely 100% justified (shades of LaQuan), and
• because the dispatch audio, OEMC notes and the radio transmissions by CPD supervisors sustain the charge, therefore Hein is guilty....and we can't have that after Larritorious' gallant defense.

Whatever. It's all political at this point. The important thing is that the bars in Edison Park are experiencing a noticeable downturn in their bottom lines and that has an impact on tax revenues.

What we meant by the headline up top is this paragraph in the Slum Times "report":

• The afternoon became emblematic of the federal response to demonstrators and neighborhood residents shouting, blowing whistles and at times throwing objects in protest.

Throwing objects isn't and has never been a legitimate form of protest. Ever. Not in Illinois and not in any country we know of. Yelling, waving signs, making noise, blocking streets (within certain parameters), even property damage (again, within recognized limits) are - for better or worse - recognized as protesting actions.

Battery and Aggravated Battery are not. 

But....years and years of CPD being ordered to stand down, retreat, surrender control of the streets and pretty much become punching bags to those claiming "we're protesting!" have led us to this - where the media "reports" that committing battery is now "protesting." 

We saw it across the board in 2020. We see it regularly on the west coast with pantifa and transtifa. We saw it at the Columbus statue. And we see it at every ICE deployment. 

And Hein's order is the culmination of the dumbass "duty to retreat" bullshit. Hopefully, he pays a professional price for his stupidity.

Getting Thinner

Missed this from a couple days ago, but nothing really new here:

• Chicago will slow police hiring to roughly 50 recruits per month — and put no classes through the training academy again next summer — to generate the $91 million in “turnover” savings needed to help erase the city’s $1.2 billion budget shortfall, police officials told City Council members Wednesday.

  Two months ago, Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling vowed to resist any attempt to eliminate 984 police vacancies — even after Mayor Brandon Johnson ordered all of his department heads to cut 3% to 5% from their 2025 budgets.

  Instead, Snelling said he would meet the cost-cutting mandate by holding open those 984 police positions, but budgeting less money for those vacancies he knew the city would not be able to fill.

So we're already short those 984 spots. Rahm cut 1,200+ spots from the budget a decade ago. Groot did similar numbers. 

We've been sounding the alarm for years, pointing out that where we used to have eight or ten rapids up along with a second wagon and a traffic car, those haven't been seen on a regular basis for nearly twenty years now. Not to mention Chicago closed three entire Districts. So that "10,000" number is and has been a fantasy for a long time. Depending on what happens in New York City and knowing that CPD steals every NYPD idea (no matter how bad it it), we might even see a further drop.

This amused us though:

• But Ryan Fitzsimons, deputy director for oversight coordination, said police hiring will be “staggered” throughout the year. “We will be pausing some of our recruit classes over the summer, which we did this year, to allow us to better allocate resources out into the field and also tamp down those overtime expenses,” Fitzsimons said.

  If police hiring needs to slow down, Snelling said the “best time for that to happen was during the summer.” “We have less recruits in the academy during the summer. That’s when we have most of our [special] events. We have sworn officers working in the academy. Those people we could use now to go out to some of these events. It reduces overtime,” the superintendent said.

"pausing...recruit classes"? Like hiring them and then what? Laying them off? Forcing them to work details? Because as readers know, the training process is six months long. Someone you hire in January isn't on the street until June. Moving forward:

• February hirees come out in July
• March hirees come out in August
• April hirees come out in September

That covers the summer months. So when does the "pause" occur?

May is also the first opportunity for FOP members to retire and many take advantage of it. You're shortages are going to peak right when hiring is "paused"? 

And that calls this into question:

• For years, the city has allocated $100 million for police overtime, only to blow through it — to the tune of $282.8 million in 2023 and $238 million last year.

  Johnson’s budget caps police overtime at $200 million and requires Council approval for spending that exceeds the cap.

We shall see. 

"...cleared..."? Maybe....

 But maybe not:

• Chicago police union president John Catanzara faced a mutiny by opponents who claimed he misused money; but an internal investigation has cleared him of wrongdoing, several sources tell WGN Investigates.

  “City Hall and [police] headquarters are going to have to wait a little longer to get their way,” Catanzara quipped....

But according to two different people we talk to (neither involved in filing the previous allegations), after the Board meeting where Catanzara's hand-picked committee excused his actions, federal agents showed up at the FOP office for a copy of the meeting transcripts.

Why would they want transcripts of the meeting? 

Are they comparing what was said at the meeting to what was said somewhere else? Or how what was said lines up with what any paperwork shows? 

Conehead Wants....the U.N.?

This moron is delusional:

• Arguing that “no country should be above international law,” Mayor Brandon Johnson urged the United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday to hold President Donald Trump’s administration accountable for what he called a “worsening human rights crisis in the United States.”

  In a virtual appearance before the panel’s members meeting in Switzerland, Johnson invited U.N. experts to come to Chicago to witness firsthand abuses committed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during raids he said have wreaked havoc in neighborhoods across the city and suburbs.

  “That is why I call on this council to hold the federal government of the United States to the same standards of accountability you apply elsewhere in the world,” Johnson said, urging the group to consider holding a special session on the matter. “Human rights are universal — or they are meaningless.”

Mayor slave Conehead would be shocked and highly disappointed if the rules in other countries were applied here:

• most of Europe, Iran - 1 to 3 years
• China - 1 year
• Russian - 2 years
• Iraq, Japan, Taiwan - 3 years
• South Korea, Malaysia - 5 years

All sentences are followed by immediate deportation. Caught again and most sentences double. 

Funny how Conehead wasn't calling for any of this while tens of thousands of minorities were being gunned down in the streets the past few decades - after all, those people (or folks) vote, too - probably as reliably as the ILLEGAL ALIENS.

NYPD Downsizing

With the demo-socialist being elected, New York City is about to witness first-hand how big de-policing can go:

• Former New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told Newsmax that New York City should prepare for a smaller police department.

  Kelly told "Saturday Report" that the reason is the mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. "It looks like Mr. Mamdani is going to reduce the size of the NYPD significantly," Kelly explained.

  "He wants to start another agency. It's a community safety agency, but he wants it to be a billion-dollar agency.

  "So the only place where that money is, is in the NYPD budget. And New York City police, their budget, 95% of it is personnel. So if you're going to take a large amount of money out of the NYPD budget, it's got to be a reduction in headcount.

Supposedly, 5,000 NYPD personnel are eligible to walk out the door as of 01 January, although it is expected that a "mere" 3,000+ will retire in 2026. Combine that with a hiring freeze and you'll see numbers dwindle even faster.

We don't know if HeyJackass.com has ever looked into a New York offshoot of its operation, but there might be a financial opportunity there for an enterprising capitalist.

You Want More I.C.E.?

 Because this is how you get more ICE:

• Someone fired shots at Customs and Border Patrol agents on Chicago's Southwest Side, the Department of Homeland Security said. A responding Chicago police officer was injured during the incident, according to another CPD officer at the scene.

  The incident happened as federal agents launched several operations Saturday in the Little Village neighborhood as part of Operation Midway Blitz, possibly detaining at least two people. In a statement posted to X, DHS said agents were conducting operations near 26th Street and Kedzie Avenue in the Little Village neighborhood when the shooting happened.

  An angry crowd gathered after federal officer allegedly detained a young woman near 26th and Kedzie. Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino was there. He could be seen in cellphone video with an apparent tear gas canister in his hand. Residents demanded the detained woman's release while in pursuit of their caravan.

  During the incident, DHS says an unknown male, who was driving a black Jeep, fired shots at agents and fled the scene. DHS also said "an unknown number of agitators" threw a paint can and bricks at Border Patrol vehicles.

Um, that isn't a protest - that's unlawful interference. You don't get to "demand" the release of arrestees on the street. There's a process on place for that defined in the Illinois Compiled Statutes and in legal procedures. Throwing things is Aggravated Battery. Shots fired is another felony. That's also how you get shots fired back at you.

We're getting close to the point of military intervention and justifiably so. 

Hide the Criminals

On one hand, certain misdemeanors shouldn't be held against you for your entire life:

• Nearly 2.2 million people in Illinois might see eligible criminal records sealed following passage of the ‘Clean Slate’ Act during last week’s veto session. The bill would require law enforcement agencies to automatically seal eligible criminal records every six months. Excluded from the measure are convictions for sexual violence against minors, DUIs, reckless driving, cruelty to animals and serious violent crimes, including any that would qualify for sex offender registration.

  “We are not adding any crimes that are not currently allowed to be sealed by petition, we are just making the process automatic,” bill sponsor Sen. Elgie Sims Jr., D-Chicago, said during discussion on the Senate floor.

  After an earlier version of the bill failed to clear both chambers during the spring legislative session, House Bill 1836 now awaits only a signature from Gov. JB Pritzker to become law. The legislation passed 39-17 in the Senate and 80-26 in the House during the fall veto session.

  Law enforcement, courts and other relevant agencies would continue to have access to sealed records, but the public and private background check entities would not. Automatic sealing would apply to convictions as well as dismissed or reversed charges and arrests.

  Advocates of the bill say it will give Illinoisians a second chance to participate in society and will open new opportunities to work, vote and secure housing.

And therein lies the problem - in Illinois, it's never just a "second chance." It's third chances and fourth chances and twenty-seventh chances. How many time are we reading about someone with an arrest record running thirty and forty pages, with extensive misdemeanor arrests and convictions.

But how many other times are those misdemeanors the result of half-a-dozen felony charges being pled out? We'll bet it's well over half, probably closer to seventy percent. You can't trust criminal records to reveal anything close to the truth any more, thanks to democrats.

Sergeant Assignments

As requested (click for larger versions):

 

When in Doubt....

....create another tax!

• Chicago residents and businesses would pay $1.25 for every package they have delivered — whether from Amazon or another business — under a proposed ground delivery tax that could generate as much as $275 million a year.

  Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th), chair of the City Council’s Committee on Economic and Capital Development, wants cash-strapped Chicago to follow the trail blazed by Colorado and Minnesota, which have imposed similar delivery fees.

  Villegas’ ordinance calls for a ground delivery tax of $1.25 per package that would be imposed “on the purchaser of the tangible personal property being delivered … without regard to the number of items within” each package.

We'll just have everything delivered to our suburban dwelling offspring. Then we'll get to visit the grand kids more. Or Amazon opens up a bunch of those drop-off lockers at suburban sites that are just over the border - Oak Lawn, Oak Park, Bridgeview, Elk Grove, Niles, Norridge, etc. and you pick up your stuff there for free.

Science for Sale

It's almost as easy to buy a scientist nowadays as it is to buy a politician:

• A prominent U.S. virologist who collaborated with the Wuhan Institute of Virology before the COVID-19 pandemic privately informed the U.S. intelligence community in January 2020 that the Chinese lab may be responsible for the outbreak. But in his public remarks to congressional staffers one month later—and after meeting with former White House health adviser Anthony Fauci—the researcher stayed mum about the Wuhan lab and lent credence to the discredited wet market theory.

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill virologist Dr. Ralph Baric warned the Office of the Director of National Intelligence during a closed-door presentation with the agency’s Biological Sciences Experts Group on or around Jan. 29, 2020, that the Wuhan lab, which was conducting risky gain-of-function experiments on bat viruses similar to the one that causes COVID-19, may have accidentally released the virus into the human population. Baric’s presentation, which the Washington Free Beacon obtained from a whistleblower, went beyond mere speculation: Considered one of the world’s foremost experts on coronaviruses, Baric experimented with coronaviruses in 2015 with the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s top researcher, Shi Zhengli. Later, in early 2024, he testified to House investigators that he had privately warned Shi that her lab lacked sufficient biosafety protections and that he always believed a lab leak origin was possible.

  But Baric had nothing to say about the Wuhan lab in his public remarks during the early days of the pandemic as the press cast Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) and other proponents of the lab leak theory as unhinged conspiracy theorists.

Every day, those "conspiracy theorists" turn out to be batting far closer to 1.000 than anyone pushing the jab or mandatory masking.

As a side note to those complaining about our harping on the COVID stuff:

• there's a scroll button so you can move past it without reading;
• do you have any idea how illegal and improper and hypocritical those in power were attempting to make you to surrender bodily autonomy, restricting your freedoms and turning you - the police - into a totalitarian force to suppress dissent?

Wake up - you don't want to be on the wrong side of that one. 

Nice Shot Sarge!

Good to know some things never change:

• great inspection in 2 today which is all merit bosses and the king of the hill never passed a test high enough to get promoted but has enjoyed 1k in medical days. He insisted on everyone getting dressed for inspection and his fraternity goof sgt pal discharges his weapon - hello anyone see barney cause he fired his gun off again! no reported injuries except a bench

Hope it was a Sig so he can blame the gun instead of the lack of proper weapon handling abilities.

Of course, even that narrative is falling apart. 

SAFE-T Act Works Again

And by "works" we mean "fails":

• Two men who who teamed up to mug a passenger aboard a Red Line train were both wearing ankle monitors for pending cases, officials say, and one of them successfully beat a robbery charge just hours before the attack.

  Prosecutors said Shannon Stephens, 23, and Jamari Gray, 21, confronted a 41-year-old man while riding a southbound Red Line train near 47th Street early on September 12. During the holdup, Stephens allegedly cut the victim’s left wrist and palm while Gray struck him in the face. The men allegedly pulled out a chunk of the victim’s beard and got away with his bookbag.

  Stephens and Gray ran off after the attack, but police detained Stephens nearby and arrested Gray when he returned to the train platform carrying the victim’s bookbag — and wearing an ankle monitor, a CPD report said.

  Judge James Murphy III ordered both men detained on charges of robbery and aggravated battery, citing their ankle monitors as a point of concern. Stephens’ arrest came barely 12 hours after prosecutors dropped a separate robbery charge filed against him earlier that month.

Maybe if they packed the ankle monitors with a couple ounces of plastic explosives that could be remotely detonated. 

If they returned to a life of crime after that, even we could probably catch them.

Ambulance Stolen

We can chase ambulances?

• A driver led Chicago police on a wild chase through the West Side Friday afternoon after stealing an ambulance from Loretto Hospital. 

  Cicero police said three paramedics were taking a patient to Loretto Hospital in the city's Austin neighborhood around 4 p.m. One paramedic was still inside the hospital, the second was standing by the ambulance's back door, and the third was inside the vehicle as a different patient was being escorted out of Loretto by security. That patient ran to the driver's side door of the ambulance, jumped inside, and drove away with the third paramedic still in the back of the ambulance. The paramedic was able to jump out of the ambulance about two blocks away, Cicero police said. 

  The paramedic who had been standing by the ambulance called 911 immediately, Cicero police said, allowing Chicago police to quickly respond and give chase. 

Thank goodness no shots were fired!

• The driver then led police on a chase through the city's West Side. At one point, police were able to stop and box in the ambulance near Jackson and Central, but the driver barricaded himself in the ambulance and rammed into squad cars to escape again. There are reports police opened fire on the driver when he rammed the squad cars, but there are no reports of any vehicles or people being struck by gunfire. 

  The Civilian Office of Police Accountability confirmed they are investigating an officer-involved shooting.

And they didn't hit the ambulance? Seriously? It's a giant freaking box, roughly forty times the size of a qualification target....and no reports of any hits on it?

No one seriously injured, but an Officer did go to the hospital after the offender rammed a squad car.

Tax Bills Coming!

We guess they finally rigged the tax multiplier numbers enough to send out bills how many months late?

• The second installment of Cook County Property tax bills will finally be going out to homeowners.

  Cook County property tax bills for 2024 are set to be released by next Friday, Nov. 14. Payments are now due by Dec. 15.

  The mailing of the second installment bills was delayed due to issues upgrading the county's property tax system, so the window between issuance and payment is tighter than normal.

You can bet next year's first installment will be on time though.

How About Some Cameras?

If any other profession was facing accusations far less sinister than some of these, people would be demanding accountability and video surveillance so that they could judge the actions of these so-called public servants:

• A former Chicago Public Schools contract employee accused of sending a series of sexual messages to a 13-year-old student has been ordered detained after a Cook County judge said his actions showed a “lack of self-control” and a risk to children.

  Prosecutors said 41-year-old Mycale Ford worked as a special education classroom assistant at the Gresham School Of Excellence, 8524 South Green Street, through a CPS contractor. He is now charged with one count of grooming. 

It's far past time for CPS to have cameras installed in all classrooms and teachers to be required to wear body cameras when interacting with students. The public deserves to know exactly how their tax dollars are being spent and what their children are being taught....and by whom.

Griffin Unloads

This guy is a successful hedge fund manager who took billions in assets (and tax-generating money) out of Illinois, so it might pay to listen to the reasons:

• Billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin took aim at Chicago again on Wednesday, calling it “a failed city-state” during a business conference in Miami.

  Griffin, who announced in 2022 that he was relocating his Citadel Securities headquarters from Chicago’s Loop to Miami, made the remarks at the American Business Forum. Citadel manages more than $65 billion in assets.

  “Dinner in Chicago would be about crime, about cronyism, about failed policies in the state,” Griffin told the audience. “It is so refreshing to be in a city where people talk about tomorrow.”

  He went on to contrast his new home with Chicago.

  “Do you know how great it is to go to dinner and people talk about their children, and they talk about their future, and they do so with excitement and enthusiasm?” he said. “We lost that in Chicago in the last 10 years.”

A business-unfriendly climate contributes to a precipitous downfall as much as any other cause. Blue-state shitholes could learn a thing or two about that. 

Head over to CWB for the full post.

We Want Some Answers, Too

As long as someone is asking the right questions:

• Parents and their advocates say the immigration arrest of Diana Patricia Santillana Galeano, a day care teacher at Rayito de Sol Spanish Immersion Early Learning Center, has shattered their sense of safety, and they’re demanding answers.

  Protesters gathered Thursday for a news conference organized by SEIU Healthcare Illinois, outside Reliance Relocation Services, 161 N. Clark Street, a real estate company that was awarded $7.8 million over five contracts in 2024 to relocate employees with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

  The group called for transparency from the federal government and an end to immigration operations at child care centers and higher education institutions.

Um....why would anyone call for an end to immigration enforcement?

Shouldn't people be asking other more pertinent questions? 

• where are all these ILLEGAL ALIEN workers coming from? 
• how are ILLEGAL ALIENS getting hired?
• who is doing the background checks?
• what Social Security numbers are being used?
• are proper tax payments being rendered to the government? 
• are there illegal document factories supplying fake credentials?

Quigley (D-ILLEGAL ALIEN) is eager to make sure someone who (A) fled a traffic stop, (B) committing numerous traffic violations along the way, (C) endangering the lives of countless passers-by, and (D) hiding in a school after a foot pursuit is more important than the following actual Rule of Law.

Oh,, and it turns out that this particular ILLEGAL ALIEN (with likely forged documents) had her children smuggled into the United States a short while ago, most likely for the purpose of making it more difficult (politically speaking) to deport her when apprehended. 

Shooting Videos Released

As always, CWB has the links up:

• The Civilian Office of Police Accountability on Wednesday released videos and other materials related to the fatal shooting of a man by an on-duty Chicago police officer in Austin on September 6.

  According to COPA, officers were responding to a burglary in progress involving suspects who were inside a vehicle. When officers encountered the vehicle in the 800 block of North Waller Avenue, it struck their squad cars, the agency said. One officer then fired his weapon, killing one of the individuals inside. Another suspect was arrested at the scene, and a third fled and has not been apprehended. COPA said a gun was recovered.

Hop over to the link up top and use CWB's links to the COPA site so they get the traffic numbers.

And remember - situational awareness and tactical positioning is important - a car is a couple thousand pounds of weapon that you don't want to be in the way of. 

No Meeting?

Our usual contacts for FOP info are radio silent.

One single comment claims:

• The meeting has been canceled! New time and date TBA

So....does this mean the decision didn't go the way someone wanted it to go? 

Did something else necessitate the delay, like half the Board came down with food poisoning and a quorum wasn't present?

Alien abductions? 

Or even worse....I.C.E. abductions?

"Hot Pursuit" (UPDATE)

Despite the "sanctuary city" status, schools aren't actual sanctuaries:

• Federal immigration agents entered a North Center day care and arrested a teacher Wednesday before searching each of the rooms without a warrant, a local alderperson said.

  Video captured two agents pulling the woman out of Rayito de Sol Spanish Immersion Early Learning Center at 2550 W. Addison St. around 7 a.m.

  The woman, known as “Ms. Diana” to parents and children, is heard in the recording telling an agent that she has documentation, but she was still detained. “Yo tengo papeles,” she says in the video.

  Ms. Diana had been stepping out of the passenger seat of a car when she was approached by agents and she ran inside the daycare center. The agents followed her inside before forcing her outside and putting her into another vehicle, according to Ald. Matt Martin (47th).

And if you flee from authorities who aren't bound by "no foot chase/car chase" policies, then US v Santana applies until such time as the current cases pending in the appeals process play out, probably a few years from now. 

UPDATE: Turns out the media and congress-asshole Quigley (D-Tijuana) lied. Authorities attempted to curb the vehicle, which led to a short pursuit (fleeing and eluding) and then a foot pursuit into the school. 

Ten-to-one her "papers" are forged and probably bought from Foto Estudio Munoz or a similar 26th Street enterprise. You know, the "former" latin queen aldercreature's father who was protected by and funneling protection money to the gang for decades before the whole building burned down one night under "mysterious circumstances."

Oh No, Snow!?!

The media is getting ready to start with the "climate" crap again:

• A big pattern change is on the way for the United States with a blast of Arctic air set to bring a first taste of winter to millions.

  It all starts this weekend as a cold front allows December-like air from near the North Pole to start spreading into the northern US. This front will push farther south and east through the weekend, and temperatures could drop 10 to 15 degrees below normal almost everywhere east of the Rockies by Sunday night.

This is going to be a three day event (if that) before everything reverts to seasonal norms again. If you've been in Chicago for any length of time, you know it has snowed as late as May and as early as October. Seasonally, it's been as little as a foot to well over a dozen. It's all part of midwestern living. Calm down.

Info for Retirees

From a long time reader of ours:

• I retired about 7 years ago. I was treated for a hernia and had a ct scan. About a month after the scan, I received a letter from Coglan Law, LLC. Thinking it was a law firm phishing, I tossed it. 2 weeks later, I received another letter informing me that failure to contact them will result in suspension of my insurance benefits. I called Blue Cross and confirmed that this was legitimate. Apparently, the city has a policy that if they think you might have been in accident, they immediately contact their subrogation unit, Coglan law. I suspect that this is motivated at least in part as a way to suspend insurance payments. The cynic in me thinks that once your benefits are suspended, that it will be extremely difficult to have them reinstated. Please inform our brothers & sisters that letters from Coglan should not be ignored.

Keep an eye on these types of letters and follow up appropriately. You don't want to be fighting to get benefits restored.

Command Staff Changes?

From the comments:

• CCG DC: Neckerman
• A3: Baier to DC
• A3 Det: Jim McGovern to Cmdr 
• 022: Rhonda Anderson to Cmdr
• 001: Mannion to Cmdr
• CIRT: Berlage to Cmdr 

Wow. 

Light Posting Tonight

We're a bit under the weather and we have a few things on tap coming up.

Open post for now.

We'll try to get a post up after the Board Meeting if there's anything worth reporting.

We have our doubts. 

Deep Fake

This AI stuff keeps getting better and better:

• Twitter Link

Don't worry, it plays as a stand alone. 

Someone is Going to Prison

Former fbi director James Comey's lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the current charges against him, calling them political weaponization.

The DoJ filed an extensive reply including this exhibit:

 

That's a memo, in Comey's handwriting, on fbi letterhead, confirming the veracity numerous e-mails (which were also included as exhibits) about HRC campaign manufacturing the Russia hoax and Comey's appointee meeting with and leaking classified info to the media. 

This memo and the emails directly contradict testimony before Congress - each one a felony. The corruption demonstrated in these documents is astounding to say the least.

Board Meeting Tomorrow

What is the decision going to be?

Frankly, we'd be surprised to see actual accountability.

We'd be less surprised by criminal indictments in the not too distant future. 

Vallas on the "Great Displacement"

We were told that this was all our imagination:

• Whether by accident or by design, the “Great Displacement” is already underway. Illinois is experiencing a colossal demographic upheaval — losing affluent residents through outmigration while gaining relatively poorer ones through both interstate and international migration. This shift is largely the product of the state’s so‑called progressive policies. High taxes and fees remain the primary reason Illinoisans cite for leaving, followed closely by hopelessly failing schools, rising crime, limited economic opportunity, and expansive sanctuary measures that encourage low‑income in‑migration.  

  According to Wirepoints, Illinois continues to hemorrhage wealthy residents. Since 2000, the state has lost roughly 1.6 million people — third most in the nation, behind only California and New York. Chicago’s population, even with the recent influx of migrants, is now at its lowest level in nearly a century. Almost every county in Illinois has experienced a decline in population.  Even more troubling, Illinois isn’t merely losing residents — it’s losing income.

  The IRS reports that in 2022 alone, 87,311 residents left Illinois, taking with them $9.9 billion in adjusted gross income. The real damage runs deeper: The outflow disproportionately includes residents in their prime earning and spending years. This brain and income drain erodes the tax base, shrinking critical property, sales, and consumption tax revenues that support state and local budgets.  

People far smarter than us were warning of this ten and twenty years ago. We were new to the scene back then and Vallas is a mere toddler where this is concerned.

Now, with multi-billion dollar businesses and their associated tax generating capacities fleeing for friendlier jurisdictions, the panic has become real, even among the leftists who are going to end up having to make difficult choices between their pet programs and their legal obligations.

Still Discovering Side Effects

In the 1950's, after a medical disaster where ten children died after receiving a faulty polio vaccine, the entire world-wide immunization effort was put on hold until a cause was determined and corrected.

Compare that to the COVID "vaccine" effects that are still coming to light:

• Vaccines against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have demonstrated strong efficacy in preventing symptomatic disease, but adverse cardiovascular side effects have been reported. This study investigated whether noninvasive arterial pulse waveform analysis could help identify cardiovascular responses following administration of Moderna's mRNA-1273 vaccine.

The study showed that of those taking the Moderna "vaccine," ninety-one percent suffered measurable, adverse cardiac issues, from accelerated heartbeats to a measurable hardening of the arteries to dying.

NINETY-ONE PERCENT and they never stopped administering it.

And they tried to force everyone to take it, threatening jobs, livelihoods, schooling, social interactions to get you to comply, Groot and Snelling leading the way here in town and in this Department. And no one ever held accountable.

Who is Violent Again?

And where is it coming from?

• M3 Strategies surveyed 459 likely 2026 Democratic primary election voters in Illinois
  from October 23rd – October 25th.

  Among the key findings:

• 42% of Democratic primary voters say violence is “sometimes” or “mostly” acceptable to stop ICE, while 39% stated that it’s appropriate to physically pull ICE officers away while they are trying to handcuff someone.
• 81% of Democratic primary voters agree with the statement that “Trump and many of his supporters are like Nazis.”
• The vast majority (71%) of Democratic voters support Governor Pritzker doing “whatever it takes” to keep ICE and other federal law enforcement out of Illinois, and to stop the Feds from picking up and deporting undocumented immigrants in Illinois.
• The vast majority (71%) of Democratic primary voters want ICE officers to be prosecuted when Democrats take back control of the federal government.

This is a survey of "likely democrat voters." Where do you think they are getting their ideas to be so....insurrection-y? And before you answer, go down a couple posts and check out the alder-dumbass trying to open a police car.

Fata$$ Projects....Again

Porky learned a swear word and couldn't wait to try it out:

• Gov. JB Pritzker told President Donald Trump and his Republican allies to “f--- all the way off” during a speech last month before Illinois’ largest teachers union.

  Video of Pritzker’s F-bomb started gaining traction on social media Sunday, two weeks after the Democratic governor and potential 2028 presidential contender got a standing ovation for his profane takedown of Trump administration education policies.

Yeah, we know the President swears, too. It's not the best look.

But then Porky starts the usual dem trick of projecting his own party's behavior onto his opponents with no sense of irony:

• “Books are being banned. History is being erased. Republicans want to take billions away from public schools and pump it into private institutions. They want to punish teachers for telling the truth. They want to criminalize educators for supporting LGBTQ students. They want to turn classrooms into cultural war battlegrounds.

What a crock of shit this bag of shit spews:

• books aren't being banned - they're being evaluated for age-appropriateness and parental approval;
• history IS being erased - by the left tearing down statues across the country, renaming military bases, cancelling holidays, etc;
• teachers already turned classrooms into cultural battlegrounds - they're just getting pushback for the first time ever, and they can't handle that 

Perhaps the country will finally hold teachers accountable for kids being unable to read or do math at grade level and base any future pay raises on measuring their success .... or failure.

Charges Filed, Charges Missed

A bunch of politicians have been charged criminally for interfering with ICE enforcement actions:

• Illinois congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh and five other protesters have been indicted on federal charges, accused of damaging an ICE agent's vehicle while trying to block it from driving into the immigration processing facility in Broadview, Illinois, last month.

  Abughazaleh and five others were indicted on two counts each: conspiracy to impede or injure a federal law enforcement officer; and forcibly impeding, intimidating, or interfering with a federal law enforcement officer while engaged in official duties.

  The other defendants include Catherine Sharp, who is running for a seat on the Cook County Board of Commissioners; Michael Rabbitt, who is the Democratic committeeman in the 45th Ward in Chicago; Brian Straw, who is running for Oak Park village trustee; Andre Martin; and Joselyn Walsh. According to the indictment, Martin worked for Abughazaleh. In addition to running for Cook County Board, Sharp is the chief of staff for Chicago Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th).

There idiots better not be charging taxpayers for their legal bills.

But they've missed at least one that has more photographic evidence attached:

There's alder-dumbass Rosanna Sanchez attempting to open an ICE vehicle to free a handcuffed arrestee. Remember, this is the alder-dumbass who was in a Streets and San vehicle, chasing ICE, speeding, running red lights, and committing numerous traffic violations that could have maimed or killed any number of civilians, passers-by or law enforcement personnel.

We really need to see more arrests, more charges, maybe more than a few restraining orders. There's a giant under-utilized prison camp in Guantanamo, Cuba that could serve as a temporary detention center for federal detainees.

Northside Shooting

Remember when this used to be a nice neighborhood?

• Four people were wounded overnight in Lakeview when at least one gunman opened fire on Clark Street, just two blocks south of Wrigley Field.

  Chicago police said officers responded to reports of gunfire around 1:45 a.m. in the 3400 block of North Clark Street, a busy nightlife area lined with bars and restaurants. They found three victims at the scene and a fourth victim later walked into Thorek Hospital for treatment.

  Surveillance video reviewed by an officer showed the suspected gunman, described only as a man wearing a red hoodie and light-colored jeans, escaping in a white Chevy pickup truck that headed north on Clark Street.

There was another multiple-victim shooting on the west side this weekend, but that was only three, so it doesn't technically count as a "mass shooting."

Still, another weekend of almost twenty shot.