Blame the Judge? (UPDATE)

Judge Nowinski is racking up the body count:

• The man police believe is responsible for fatally stabbing his wife in Portage Park on Tuesday afternoon was later found dead inside a parked car near the attack site. Court records show prosecutors asked a judge to keep the 57-year-old in custody last month after they charged him with kidnapping and aggravated domestic battery by strangulation, but the judge, Thomas Nowinski, rejected their request.

  The man, who has not been publicly identified by officials, was arraigned on a five-count true bill related to the October allegations on Monday morning, court records show.

  At about 2:23 p.m. yesterday, an off-duty Chicago police detective intervened upon seeing a man stabbing a woman in the 5600 block of West Leland, according to CPD. The officer fired shots toward the attacker, who fled the scene. Police said the officer also suffered a graze wound to his leg during the incident.

No mention of the murderer having a gun or shooting at anyone - so we assume the leg wound was a ricochet or a negligent discharge of some sort. Things happen in the heat of battle, even to war-tested veterans.

But the judge is following Fata$$'s SAFE-T Act and no-bail directives to the letter. It doesn't matter that this guy had a previous domestic battery case and possibly a third one in Michigan from a little while back....what's three separate domestic battery cases among friends? 

But he also released the jagoff who went to his ex-girlfriends house in Edgewater, chased her around with a knife and stabbed her 11-year-old son to death. 

Now the lefties are angry:

• A day after a man allegedly killed his estranged wife and was found dead blocks away in Portage Park, a Cook County judge faced heavy criticism for refusing to hold the suspect in custody as he faced charges in an earlier attack on the same woman.

  In a harshly written letter, advocates for domestic violence survivors urged Chief Judge Timothy Evans to reassign Judge Thomas E. Nowinski to prevent him from hearing similar domestic cases. Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, meanwhile, pushed Nowinski to resign, noting that she wouldn’t “trust him with a traffic ticket at this point.”

Again, he's ruling in accordance with the dictates of the governor, the Cook County Board president, the state legislature, the media, and left-wingnuts in general.

What's a politically beholden judge supposed to do?

(UPDATE: wrestling over the pistol? Story keeps coming out in drips....it makes us think there's Venezuelans involved in Section 8 housing or something)

Please Don't be True

Rumor in the comment section that the Commander of 006 (Tate) skipped the funeral for Officer Martinez....who worked in 006?

Confirmation if anyone has it?

Hey Porky?

A number of readers noted this quote from Fata$$:

• “I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: No attempts to restrict the freedoms and opportunities of Illinoisans will be tolerated."

And the readers were quick to point out that:

1. Fata$$ couldn't wait to lock down Illinois during COVID, denying all the freedom to associate, visit, worship, get a freaking heaircut, etc while he shipped his family AND their horses to residences and shows in Florida and Wisconsin, and
2. the ongoing indefensible denial of Second Amendment Rights for a rifle that is in common use across the nation.

He's so full of $shit that he looks like he's going to explode one of these days.

We should be so lucky.

Another Rumor

This could be a political earthquake if true:

• I heard a rumor that Obama is back in town with big mike trying to run things and start over since his defeat in the presidential election...can anyone confirm?

Since Sparklefarts' machine just got disemboweled by the Clinton/Biden/trump onslaught and he used to bank over an Giannoulias International House of Finance and there's Durbin's Senate seat coming up for re-assignment, could he be coming back play referee to the Machine that birthed him?

Again, RUMOR, posted for entertainment purposes.

Off Duty Wounded

Trying to save a woman being stabbed in broad daylight:

• An off-duty Chicago police officer was shot, while attempting to intervene when a woman was being stabbed on the Northwest Side Tuesday afternoon, CPD officials said.

  The incident took place in the 5600-block of West Leland Avenue in Jefferson Park. Just after 2:20 p.m., an off-duty detective assigned to the Area Four Detective Division saw the woman being attacked, and fired shots at the suspect, police said.

  The detective suffered a graze wound to the leg, while trying to stop the suspect, police said.

  The suspect remains at large Tuesday evening.

And the woman died, so yet another homicide in a formerly quiet northwest side neighborhood that isn't so quiet any more. How many is 016 up to now?

Best wishes to the Detective, trying to do the right thing.

UPDATE: suspect dead - apparently, the Detective got in fatal shot.

This A$$hole?

Mary Ann Ahern has a rumor:

• Sources are telling me prominent members in Chicago labor, business and civic community are actively trying to recruit IL Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias to run for Mayor of Chicago - February ‘27

Giannoulias? This goof is a consummate Machine insider since the days of Shortshanks and Sparklefarts. Not only that, his family bank (Broadway Bank) was involved in some questionable (shady) loans back early 2000s and ended up costing taxpayers nearly $400 million in FDIC payouts.

Just what an already bankrupt Chicago needs!

(the other rumor is that he's running for Turban Durbin's Senate seat shortly.)

Conehead's Bad Few Weeks

It must be rough, having an approval rating hovering around 14% and even your voting base hates what you've done to their communities:

• Ahead of a Chicago City Council vote unanimously rejecting Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed $300 million property tax hike, local residents addressed the council and the mayor, criticizing Johnson to his face over trying to raise taxes while catering to illegal immigrants.

  Among these angry locals were several supporters of President-elect Donald Trump, who, while wearing MAGA gear, gloated about how Trump’s victory means Johnson’s liberal policies – particularly those assisting illegal immigrants – will face a reckoning.

  “The feds need to address you! The DOJ needs to address you! And hopefully Donald Trump will address you, because you’re gonna protect the undocumented, while you’re gonna allow for the citizens in Chicago suffer under your, what? Three percent?” Chicago resident Tyjuan Sims told the mayor on Thursday night.

  Clips of the council meeting can be viewed here.

Some people are unhappy at the "redistribution" of taxpayer money they consider theirs for whatever reason. But even more are just plain unhappy with unfulfilled promises and being exploited and lied to for years. 

Democrats have run Chicago for over one-hundred years and there hasn't been a citywide Republican office holder (even an aldercreature) since that alcohol challenged individual left office over a decade ago. And now they're waking up.

Conehead is lashing out at a reporter because he can't confront his (shrinking) base:

• As reporter William J Kelly pressed Brandon Johnson on his prioritization of migrants, the mayor demanded he call his wife ‘first lady’.

Kelly has a knack for triggering Conehead, but this is just bizarre. Kelly calls Mrs Conehead by her given name (Stacie) and Conehead gets bent out of shape. As we recall the mayoral ballot, Stacie wasn't on it, Stacie didn't run for anything and Stacie just got nearly $100K in office furnishings for an spot she wasn't elected to. "First Lady" is also a term we don't recall being used for anyone except the wife of the President, not the mayor of a dying city with a 14% approval rating.

Stacie Stacie Stacie.

Wall of Blubber

Fata$$ is setting himself up for a presidential run. We don't see it ending well for him:

• It would be comically hypocritical if weren’t so tragically destructive. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker last week appointed himself co-chair of a new group to save democracy. Fortunately for other states, however, he’s getting almost no support.

  It’s called Governors Safeguarding Democracy, formed to counter the incoming Trump Administration and Republican Congress. “What we’re doing is pushing back against increasing threats of autocracy and fortifying the institutions of democracy that our country and our states depend upon,” Pritzker said of the effort. “I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: No attempts to restrict the freedoms and opportunities of Illinoisans will be tolerated.”

The trouble is what Fata$$ considers an "Illinoisan." Illegal aliens from South America and $hithole Caribbean failed nations don't really qualify as anything but "occupants of space" and we're hoping to see massive deportations in a few months. So are actual "Illinoisans of Color," a term we just made up to represent those ticked off minority communities who are the subject of this "voter replacement" underway across the state.

And the main weapon in FAta$$es arsenal? Trans soldiers (at taxpayer expense):

• Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) pledged to launch a campaign to boost radical sex change procedures in his state in response to Donald Trump’s landslide election.

  Pritzker used Transgender Awareness Week — November 12 to 19 — as a platform to showboat over the issue, Fox News reported

  “This Transgender Awareness Week, I want you to know that I see you and have your back as governor,” Pritzker wrote on X. “Illinois has enshrined protections for gender-affirming care to meet this moment — and because of that, you will have a home here always.”

Anyone else thinking he might have misread the electoral message two weeks ago? The rightward shift was unmistakable to all but the most ignorant. And if DC cuts federal funding for insurrectionist states, you can bet Fata$$ will be groveling in short order. People who can move out, have moved out. And the rest can't pay the cost of living, so they're more likely to vote for whoever promises more tax cuts.

RIP Officer Martinez

Final Honors granted to the fallen Officer:

• The 26-year-old was shot and killed in the line of duty on Nov. 4, while conducting a traffic stop in East Chatham. A 23-year-old man is charged with first-degree murder in his death. He is a convicted felon who was out on electronic monitoring when police say he shot and killed the officer.

  Details of the encounter got much attention in the days afterward, but Monday was the day to celebrate the officer, despite some back and forth about whether or not some dignitaries would be there.

  As the service for Officer Martinez was to begin, so did the rain. Amid the clouds and rain, family and friends mourned the fallen officer.

A sad day indeed with the weather reflecting the mood. 

RIP Officer Martinez.

Retiree Wounded

Sounds like he was caught in the crossfire:

• A 74-year-old retired police sergeant was shot and badly injured after stepping out of his car in North Center on Monday morning, officials said. The gunman remains at large.

  The retiree stepped out of his maroon Jeep in the 2000 block of West Berteau, at the intersection with Lincoln Avenue, around 8:58 a.m., police said.

  Two people began shooting. One bullet struck the victim’s left arm and the other grazed his neck. Police said he was in critical condition.

One of the suspects has since been apprehended.

Hopefully, Sarge is on the way to recovery - gunshot wounds at any age are tough, but at seventy-four? Here's to hoping he's still in line for many more pension checks.

Who's Faking the Stats?

Why, it's the fbi!

• As the DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Statistics explains, “The United States uses two national data collection systems to track detailed information on homicides.” These consist of:

• death certificates collected by the states and compiled by the CDC.
• reports by local law enforcement agencies compiled by the states and aggregated by the FBI, which also generates estimates for agencies that don’t report.

• Death certificates have always provided broader and more accurate data than the FBI’s figures, but the gap between them has grown sharply under the Biden administration. This may indicate that local law enforcement agencies, states, and/or the FBI are undercounting murders.

Because the fbi has been politically compromised for years now(decades even), completely selling their souls to the leftists under Sparklefarts in his desire to have an unaccountable Stasi stifling dissent and jailing political enemies.

All the more reason to disband them and start over from zero.

And they're really getting nervous in DC:

• FBI officials committed perjury, lied to the FISA Court, hid evidence of crimes, persecuted Trump's allies, invaded the former president's home, invented cases, and, in one case, left the Justice Department to lead the prosecution of Trump in New York. The FBI opened an investigation based on the Steele Dossier, which they knew to be a hoax.
  

There need to be severe penalties handed out to these corrupt assholes.

Another National Embarrassment

If there was any doubt about how bad things are currently in DC, Biden is currently in Brazil at the G20 Summit. After wandering away from the podium mid-speech the other day, there was a group photo being taken of all the leaders....guess who wasn't there?

And guess where he was? Wandering among the palm trees, unescorted and completely at sea. The foreign media was laughing at his absence from the picture at these links here:

• Link 1
• Link 2

So who's actually in charge? Because it ain't that guy.

Four-Hundred Thousand?

It's NYPD, but it's still ridiculous:

• A 19-year NYPD veteran earned more than $400,000 in earnings, topping all of her superiors by working more than 100 hours of overtime every month.

  According to a NY Post article, Lt. Quathisha Epps makes a salary of $164,000 and made an additional $204,000 in overtime pay. Epps is responsible for administrative tasks and has no arrests attributed to her employment record.

Trained as an Officer, but a Legend among house-mice. Not a single arrest to her name.

They couldn't have civilianized the position?

Skip What Now?

The previous temptation to kick this can down the road has led directly to the financial crisis Chicago finds itself in.....and you'd think that the morons in charge might learn a lesson about that.

Nope:

• The harried search by the City Council and Mayor Brandon Johnson for ways to avoid raising property taxes — and in turn, the ire of their constituents — is leading them back to a question all too familiar in the halls of power in Chicago: Should they spare taxpayers financial pain and themselves political headaches now, even if it costs far more down the road?

  Some officials are rallying around the idea of diverting surplus dollars from past years’ budgets that were set aside to keep the city’s pension funds afloat. The “advance” or “supplemental” pension payment Johnson wants for 2025 is $272 million, just shy of the $300 million tax hike he called for then abandoned last week in the face of an overwhelming council revolt against it.

  Cutting that pension payment is among the most straightforward fixes floated to fill the gaping property tax hole in Chicago’s budget. But there are plenty of warnings against skipping it, including from Johnson’s budget team and municipal finance experts.

Wasn't there a State Law passed that required payments to the pension funds? Are the FOP and the PBPA and Firefighters Local keeping track of this? there's legal recourse if they start skipping payments, yes?

It sounds like the government eggheads are going to claim since this is "supplemental" that it isn't part of the regular payments and can be redistributed at Conehead's will?

• Regardless, the city will make its regular, required pension payments to its four funds in 2025, totaling roughly $2.6 billion.

  “When you say supplemental it sounds like extra,” Chief Financial Officer Jill Jaworski said. But the city’s four pension funds are in such dire straits, the supplemental payments only help stop the bleeding, she said. Continuation of the smallish payments now would help shrink the city’s pension contribution tab by $3.9 billion through 2055, according to Jaworski.

Sounds like they're about to play fast-and-loose with some major cash in the knowledge that they're all going to be out of office when the bill comes due.

Rumors Become Reality

A while back, we received this info:

• Promotions Demotions abound…
  1. Deputy Chief Shemash to Street Deputy. She requested the transfer because she can’t handle the job, so we’ll put her in charge of our most important critical incidents?!?! Literally broke down crying at a deployment from the stress. WTF.
  2. Deputy Chief Calderon to Deputy Chief A3 (replacing Shemash). He’s a much better critical incident supervisor than manager. Again, WTF!!
  3. Cmdr Betancourt to Deputy Chief (replaces Nieves)
  4. Cmdr 025 to Cmdr 010. He was only visiting 025 for a few periods.
  5. Lt. LA (189) to Cmdr 025. Lt. is the working police despite his connections.
  6. 2 Captains promoted. Was originally slated for 5 Captain promotions. (nfi)
  7. Cpt. Fenner moved outta 005 (to make room for a competent Captain to help the new Commander get promoted to Deputy by April 2025 )
  8. Cmdr DH 001 retiring in May 2025 (instead of being demoted). His ppl are negotiating a lateral (lol) until retirement. This guy survives it all (like a cockroach).
  9. Cmdr YP 002 being demoted since she hit the medical during the DNC.
  10. A few more gold stars to be shuffled but the list is not complete.

And so far:

• #1 done
  #2 done
  #3 done
  #4 Stayed in 025
  #5 went to 010
  #6 Lt Artz to Captain (005); one more to go. 
  #7 Captain Fenner to 376
  #8 Papers submitted
  #9 Waiting on permission from MLAS/OLA. 
  #10 Commander Collazo to 376 instead of demoted to Lt for refusing to go back to a District as a Commander (must be nice).
  

And the reason for the "slow rolling"?

• Balance of changes are happening on 12/1 but most were quietly implemented piecemeal to avoid this insignificant blogs post

Thanks for noticing us Larritorious.

He Makes Sense

We thought Paul Vallas wasn't running for anything any more, but the way he lights up his X/Twitter page with stats and such, he certainly seems like he's laying the groundwork for another shot at office:

• Police Superintendent Snelling says that since 2020, a shocking 330 police officers have been shot at, 38 were shot, injured, or killed. Average annual number of police shot at since 2020 is almost FIVE TIMES what it was in 2019 and most years before. 
  
  
  What happened to help cause this?
  
  
   • Police strength dramatically reduced 1,700
  
  
   • Unreasonable restraints placed on proactive policing 
  
  
   • Anti police rhetoric among city leaders escalated
  
  
   • Safe-T Act and pre-trial release returns thousands of dangerous and repeat felons to the street 
  
  
   • Safe-T did nothing to increase penalties for threatening police, witnesses or crime victims. 
  
  
  Officers increasingly take great risks as they fear being punished for defending themselves while criminals are emboldened by reformers who increasingly treat criminals as victims, blaming society for their violent behavior, while portraying police as oppressors.

Maybe he's trying for an appointed spot? Or a staff spot somewhere? Because he's nailing the statistics part of it.

Even Off Duty

Did she interrupt a mugging?

• No one was injured after an off-duty Chicago police officer exchanged gunfire with two people in the South Loop early Saturday morning, according to Chicago police.

  A man, 25, was on the sidewalk in the first block of West Polk Street at 3:45 a.m. when two people approached him, police said. A woman, a 25-year-old off-duty Chicago police officer, approached the group in a car, and one of the two people who had approached the man on the sidewalk shot at her before she shot back at them.

  No injuries were reported, and no one is in custody, police said.

Hopefully, she was just looking out for her companion. It could have been far worse than it turned out.

But as the saying goes, "Nothing good happens after two AM."

We might have to move that back to "...after sunset."

Catch-and-Release Continues

We were told this wasn't a problem:

• The Chicago Police Department reported having arrested more than 30 members of the dangerous Tren de Aragua Venezuelan street gang, only to find the courts releasing many of them right back out onto the streets.

  Dozens of these gang members have been arrested over the last two years for an array of offenses, including drug dealing, human trafficking, gun charges, theft, and other charges, the New York Post reported.

  However, thanks to the recent state-wide implementation of the SAFE-T Act, which eliminated cash bail in most cases, many of these gang members were released right after being arrested.

  The records were uncovered after a Freedom of Information Act request by America First Legal.

"Diversity is our strength" goes the story, but we have something like fifty or eighty major gangs with a few hundred subsets and splinters, so we really don't need diversity amongst the ne'er-do-wells. 

And since they haven't (publicly) been taking over apartment complexes and charging occupants rent, the reporting is at a minimum....never mind that they're running a few sex trafficking operations out of shelters and Park District properties. 

But as the (hopefully) soon deportation efforts begin, rest assured there will be some violent responses in the offing. Be careful.

Throwaway Post

Sometimes we like to get a little "inside baseball" when talking politics. This is one of those articles that we enjoy and like to share:

• Yes, many Chicago voters shifted right this election, but even more of them didn’t show up to vote blue.

  A WBEZ analysis finds that a large part of Trump’s doubling support in Chicago was due to a staggering dropoff in Democratic voter turnout rather than an increase in Trump voters.

Trump actually won the 41st Ward (corrected), once a bastion of Right thinking city workers and for years, though that has faded over time. 

• Citywide, former President Donald Trump saw a roughly 16,000 vote bump compared to 2020, but Vice President Kamala Harris’ vote total was more than 205,000 votes behind President Joe Biden’s in 2020.

  “The real story is you have fewer people voting and that Trump got the same number of votes in 2024 than he got in 2020,” said Delmarie Cobb, a Democratic political and media consultant.

  The city’s overall voter turnout — 65.02% as of Friday — was the second-lowest it’s been in a presidential general election since 1944. In that span, only once has citywide turnout fell below that mark — 63.17% in 1996.

  A steep decline in voter turnout, especially in the areas of the city that most reliably vote blue, show that a vast number of Democrats who stayed home this election played a significant role in Chicago’s rightward shift this year.

Though Trump lost Illinois by half-a-million votes, it was his best showing in three cycles and the best for a GOP candidate since Bush Sr in 1988. Illinois was almost in play, and if there had been an appearance or two here, probably would have been much closer.

What a Bitch

So after inflicting needless emotional trauma on the family of a slain Police Officer, Conehead shows his yellow streak and flip-flops:

• Less than 24 hours after his office insisted that Mayor Brandon Johnson would attend Monday’s funeral for slain Chicago Police Officer Enrique Martinez despite the grieving family’s wishes, Johnson reversed course Saturday.

  Johnson’s office now says the mayor will not attend.

Conehead is a gutless bitch. Plain and simple.

And before someone gets their panties in a bunch saying we attacked him for saying he was going and then continue attacking after he says he's not attending, you've missed the point: a typical spineless turd of a politician can't even take a position and then stand on it. Kind of like a recent presidential run by a Kackling fool who was pretty much a blank canvas for whatever special interest group wanted to paint on her.

He did the same thing on the property tax - ran on not raising the rate, reneged on that promise, then agreed to "negotiate" from a new position of weakness after losing the City Council 50-to-0.

Dick Move by Conehead

Can anyone legally prohibit him entry to the building?

• Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson will attend the funeral for fallen Chicago Police Officer Enrique Martinez on Monday despite a claim that the family doesn't want him there, the mayor's office told ABC7 Friday.

  Officer Martinez died in the line of duty earlier this month during a traffic stop near 80th and Ingleside.

  According to the Fraternal Order of Police, the officer's family does not want the Chicago mayor or Illinois Governor JB Pritzker to attend the funeral.

  Governor Pritzker has said he will not attend.

But guess who is more important than the grieving family?

• Mayor Johnson's office said, "The Mayor of Chicago will attend all honors funeral services for every Police Officer, Firefighter or EMT who loses their life in the line of duty, and that it is the mayor's honor to support the officers of the entire Chicago Police Department, especially in moments of grief."

Any of the 116 bodyguards who escort this piece of shit to the funeral ought to be expelled from the FOP and denied legal representation from this point forward.

And put Conehead's ass in the back of the church.

Clinicians Re-Funded

One of Conehead's lesser known budget cuts was reversed:

• Police Supt. Larry Snelling strongly reaffirmed his commitment to constitutional policing Friday, saying he convinced Mayor Brandon Johnson to reverse at least one of the cuts that could undermine the Chicago Police Department’s effort to comply with a federal consent decree.

  To improve officer wellness and prevent police suicides, the police department needs a mental health clinician in every one of its 22 police districts, according to the department’s initial budget request. Currently, only 13 districts have a clinician whom officers can talk to about the post-traumatic stress disorder they regularly experience.

  Initially, those nine additional positions were on the chopping block as part of the 3% cut in all city departments ordered by Johnson to erase a nearly $1 billion shortfall.

  But under questioning Friday at a City Council budget hearing, Snelling told Police Committee Chair Chris Taliaferro (29th) that the nine job cuts had been reversed.

Why would Conehead cut something that's been sorely lacking for decades and was finally starting to see the light of day? We understand cutting the Bureau of Constitutional Policing staff (political house mouses scared of the street and who really ought to be returned to what they were trained for) but a program that is working to put a dent in the record number of suicides across this Department?

It's almost like Conehead doesn't care (which he doesn't as you can see in the article directly above this one).

Time for Anonymous Tips

So Fata$$ has declared that no Illinois law enforcement officers will cooperate with Federal authorities regarding the planned expulsion of illegal aliens. There are articles all over the place and Fata$$ actually saying that INS will have to "go through him" to get to illegals.

(word of advice to INS - bring a lunch and plenty of help because that's going to be an all day job seeing how thick the governor is)

But in the meantime, CPD cannot enforce immigration law - you have been forbidden, and until we start charging and imprisoning these quisling democrats, they can make your life miserable administratively should they decide to. 

But that doesn't mean you can't tip off INS anonymously as many of us did back in the last non-cooperative days, letting INS and the Border people know when an illegal was in Cook County Jail and ready for an easy pickup. 

It's practically your patriotic duty and as the left so often preaches, resistance is patriotic, right?

Congratulations Hero

Keep an eye on the Department mail:

• Now add to this the AMC from Novalez saying that because the city is so far behind in giving out awards, you--the Officer who earned said award--will have it mailed to you. No ceremony, no having your family see you receiving it, no media. What an asshat.

What's the opposite of a warm and fuzzy feeling?

50-to-Zero

We haven't seen a loss this bad since the (pick your Chicago sports team here):

• Mayor Brandon Johnson got the message on the first day of budget hearings that his $300 million property tax increase wouldn’t fly. But just in case it wasn’t abundantly clear, the City Council delivered that message again Thursday in the loudest of political terms.

  The increase that would have broken one of Johnson’s fundamental campaign promises was shot down, with no debate, 50-0.

  The unanimous vote was largely symbolic. Negotiations to reduce or eliminate the property tax increase and replace it with a mix of new revenue and reprogrammed federal pandemic relief funds began last weekend.

As the article says, "largely symbolic" but still, not a single aldercreature even threw him a sympathy vote. 

Now would be the perfect time to propose and pass (by a 50-to-zero vote) a recall mechanism into Law for times when a mayor has lost the entire confidence of the Council and the electorate. A veto by Conehead would be overridden 50-to-zero.

The Road to 600

The crime wave continues to swamp the nicer zip codes:

• A suspect is on the run after shots were fired at a hotel in downtown, Chicago police said.

  The shooting happened at about 5:11 a.m. at the 500-block of N. State Street in the Near North neighborhood.

  ABC7's cameras were at the scene. Video shows police focusing the investigation at The Royal Sonesta hotel.

We have a difficult time picturing these addresses because we never worked in the higher class parts of town. We were doomed to the rougher neighborhoods, and then found out it was enjoyable in a dark sort of way. Our seniority never looked as good as it did in the places no one else wanted to be assigned.

These downtown and uptown addresses where streets have names instead of numbers are appearing constantly in crime reports nowadays. 

So the big question - will Chicago hit 600 murders this year? With a little over six weeks to go, the total sits at 543....and with Chicago is averaging over a killing a day, it would seem to be well within reach....weather permitting.

$250 Fine?

Sorry about the picture quality, but it's what we got (click for lager version):

A $250 fine for not completing Ethics Training?

First of all, it's an un-failable test. If you get a wrong answer, you just go back and click the other box to go forward. The biggest hassle was the embedded videos and they got rid of those a year or two ago.

Second, we used to post the answers here because it was a complete joke. And back in the Districts, we would post the fastest time on the bulletin board as sort of a challenge to the Watch.

Third, we're pretty sure there are Contractual Rules that forbid monetary fines as discipline for this bullshit. That's why we have a SPAR system. So unless something changed, they can take that threat and stick it where the sun don't shine.

Kwame Gets Kwazy

Blue on blue threats are always amusing:

• Chicago risks being held in contempt of court if Mayor Brandon Johnson insists on slashing spending and staff integral to the Chicago Police Department’s court-ordered reform push, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul warned this week.

  In a letter to Johnson dated Tuesday and obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times, Raoul expressed “grave concern” about cuts targeting CPD units responsible for implementing sweeping changes mandated in a federal consent decree.

  Raoul bluntly told Johnson, “I strongly urge you to reconsider these proposed cuts.”

As numerous readers have pointed out for years, this isn't a real Consent Decree. In a real Consent Decree, the feds send million of dollars to the municipality/department to pay for reforms. We wer supposed to be under a real Consent Decree, and Sparklefart's people tried to force it though, but then Shrillery lost and Trump's DOJ refused to fund it.

But the scam was too good to just let it die, so Lisa Madigan "sued" Chicago and they drafted a retired Federal judge to "supervise" the "decree," and they agreed in court to soak taxpayers for the millions and form an entirely unaccountable government agency to "reform" the CPD. Hackey's law firm is pulling in $3 million per year for this bullshit. Remember, these things last for a decade at least.

When did the "Consent Decree" take effect?

• It was 2017

And what does the linked article admit?

• The latest progress report issued by Hickey’s team found CPD had fully complied with only 7% of consent decree provisions by the end of 2023.

Seven years and CPD stands at seven percent? So only another ninety-three years to go!!!

Conehead should zero out the Office of Constitutional Policing but he has no balls to speak of.

Cash Grab Tickets

Our friends over at The Contrarian notice something that the rest of the media ignored during the election:

• With little fanfare, the Chicago City Council took a break last week from attempting to ban gas stoves, bravely denouncing hate speech, and other empty virtue signaling, and voted on October 30 to reduce the citywide speed limit from 30 to 25 mph. Despite the huge impact this ordinance will have on Chicago residents, it has received surprisingly little press coverage. Perhaps the Chicago media were more focused on Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed $300 million property tax increase, or his appointment of disbarred anti-Semitic attorney Reverend Mitchell Johnson as president of the Chicago Board of Education (disbarred for taking money from his client).

  The ordinance takes effect on January 1, 2026.

We (and many others) rightly called this a cash grab, despite stringent denials from City Hall and Conehead. But The Contrarian points out how a simple reduction in speeding fines would potentially generate tens-of-millions, if not a hundred-plus-million in short order.

Go read it all and be amazed at efforts to alter your fine based on your income tax return.

And then go read this article from the Illinois Policy people about ticket inequity:

• Red-light cameras on Chicago’s South Side issued the most tickets per intersection during the 12 months through September, more than 2.5 times as many as red-light monitored intersections on the North Side.
• Red-light cameras on the South Side issued an average 9,132 tickets between October last year and September 2024, or 5,521 more tickets than each camera on the North Side.

• Despite the high volume of tickets per intersection on the South Side, drivers on the North Side were issued nearly 100,000 more tickets worth nearly $10 million more than the South Side fines.

  North Side drivers were issued more than $16.2 million in red-light tickets. The North Side has 45 of the city’s 150 red-light monitored intersections, while the South Side has seven.

  West Side drivers incurred the next most tickets, with red-light cameras at 33 monitored intersections issuing nearly $14.2 million in fines.
  

We're going to guess the West Side has the lowest rate of paying though, as many plates aren't even registered to actual mailing addresses.

Conflict of Interest?

Just wondering, but why is the 016 District commander allowed to run a real estate business in the District he supervises?

The appearance of impropriety brings up reminders of when that Commander in 011 and the Deputy Chief of Area 4/former Commander of 015 were running "traffic stop missions" on the streets where they owned property?

Someone (a Chief?) is looking out for this mope, probably hoping to get a deal on a bungalow up north?

Windfall Elimination Passes

It only passed the House. Now it goes to the Senate:

• Today, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 82, the Social Security Fairness Act, by a vote of 327 to 75.

  H.R. 82 has been a top priority for the IAFF. The bill eliminates the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), provisions that unfairly punish retired fire fighters, police officers, teachers, and other public servants.

  “Today’s vote was a major step toward ensuring fire fighters and other public servants receive the full retirement they’ve earned and paid for,” said General President Edward A. Kelly. “While we’re proud of the work our team did to get this bill through the House, this is only half the battle. Now it’s time for Senators to step up and send this bill to the President’s desk.”

The National FOP released this:

Of course, this is a lame duck post-election session of Congress. There is exactly zero impetus to get it done and no votes to be bargained with at this moment. Plus, someone has to wake up Sleepy Joe, inject him full of Adderall and pharmaceutical meth so he can sign it. 

But it can't hurt to contact Durbin's and Duckworth's offices and let them know you're paying attention.

No Politicians Invited

Good for the family:

• The family of slain Chicago Police Officer Enrique Martinez does not want Mayor Brandon Johnson or Gov. JB Pritzker to attend his funeral next Monday. That’s according to a video message posted by John Catanzara, president of the police union, representing Chicago’s front-line “blue shirt” cops.

  The union boss called Martinez “yet another bright star” of the department’s future “snatched way too soon by a piece of garbage who should’ve never been on the street.”

  Officials have said Darion McMillian killed Martinez and the driver of a vehicle McMillian was riding in by spraying automatic gunfire during a traffic stop on November 4. He was on electronic monitoring for matters pending in Will County and cut off his ankle bracelet while trying to run away from cops, prosecutors said.

  Catanzara said Martinez’s family made it “very clear” that they do not want the mayor or governor to attend. While the governor quickly acknowledged and honored the request, Catanzara claimed Johnson had not done so.

Conehead is a classless buffoon and tried to force attendance at a previous Line of Duty wake and funeral with assorted brass threatening P.O.s and the 35th street tools hinting that they might revoke the Honors Funeral if Conehead wasn't allowed to pose and preen.

Funeral Info:

• The wake for Officer Martinez will be Sunday Nov. 17 from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Blake-Lamb Funeral Home in Oak Lawn. The funeral service will be at 10 a.m. Monday Nov. 18 at St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel in Chicago.

Good

The gravy train is in trouble:

• The former federal prosecutor overseeing the Chicago Police Department’s court-ordered overhaul warned Tuesday that drastic budget cuts proposed by Mayor Brandon Johnson could amount to a “devastating blow to future CPD reforms.”

  Maggie Hickey, the monitor tracking CPD’s compliance with a slow-moving federal consent decree, said Police Supt. Larry Snelling has prioritized the reform push and insisted that “Chicago cannot afford for the pace to slow down.

  “The proposed budget cuts would be a step backward for the CPD reform process at a pivotal point — just when progress is starting to be felt,” Hickey said during a status hearing in the federal court case.

Really? Because all we've been hearing for a few years now is how far behind CPD is in compliance, never hitting more than 25% of the "targets" and the monitor asking for (A) more money and (B) more overpaid non-working positions to be filled by political lackeys.

Do more with less Hackey. That's the message going forward and DC isn't bailing anyone out for a few years now. 

And with Conhead's $300 million tax hike being cut down to a mere $135 million (or less) there might be even bigger cuts to the "reform" scammers.

South Side or Burbs?

The Bears are still playing political games, trying to get a boatload of taxpayer money (that doesn't exist) to get a stadium deal for a team that sucks and an ownership group that has no good  plans to improve it:

• The Chicago Bears are considering an alternative to their proposed stadium on the city's lakefront. It's the former site of the Michael Reese Hospital, which has been closed for 16 years. The 48-acre site in Bronzeville is still ripe for development.

  [...] In the past, the Bears have rejected the site, saying it was too narrow and presented engineering and security challenges because of Metra tracks on the property.

  In April, the Bears released plans for a new state-of-the art stadium on the lakefront next to Soldier Field, their current home. They offered up more than $2 billion of their own money to build it, but said they also needed at least that much in public funding.

  And that plan has gone nowhere among lawmakers in Springfield. "I think they are just recognizing there's not a lot of political will behind them for the south lot," said Danny Ecker, with Crain's Chicago.

  While the Bears stadium focus has apparently shifted again, they still own the $197 million 326-acre site in Arlington Heights. And the mayor of Arlington Heights said the town remains in talks with the team about building on the former home of the Arlington Park race track.

From a business standpoint, the suburban site makes the most sense. The Bears would own a massive footprint full of future hotel space, sports bars, club and casino space and they wouldn't have to split parking revenue, concession money, ticket sales or any on-site stores/merchandise establishments. It has all sorts of easy transportation infrastructure in place....and it's still in Cook County, so Prickwrinkle would have all sorts of influence over it without Chicago's issues.

Learn to Code Media

The legacy media is dying, and as we've been cheering it on for years now, it's a long time coming:

• CNN is planning to wield the axe on some of its high-paid staff after dismal election ratings that cap off a disastrous period for the cable news network.

  According to an explosive new report from Puck, network executives will unleash sweeping lay-offs in a bid to save the network's flailing reputation.

  It comes after the departure of stalwart Chris Wallace, and amid reports senior stars like Wolf Blitzer and Jake Tapper have both been denied raises.

And not just CNN, but Comcast is looking to unload money losers:

• Comcast said it was considering spinning off its cable networks that include CNBC and MSNBC into a separate company, as the media industry grapples with a decline in traditional TV viewership due to cord-cutting by consumers shifting to streaming. 
• The potential spin-off would exclude the NBC broadcast network and the Peacock streaming service. The company, however, is interested in seeking a partner for Peacock to help grow that business, Comcast president Mike Cavanagh said on Thursday.

For those who don't know, "seeking a partner" means they're looking for someone to split the losses with so it  doesn't affect they're bottom line as badly.

They're mostly propaganda machines for  the left and that didn't work out so well for them this cycle.

Tax Hike in Trouble?

 You don't sit down to "negotiate" if you're winning, and Conehead isn't winning:

• Mayor Brandon Johnson said during a press conference Tuesday he is willing to continue negotiating with City Council members who are working to defeat his $300 million property tax hike. It comes as a special City Council meeting is being delayed.

  Aldermanic sources said, at this point, behind-the-scenes budget negotiations could result in the property tax hike being reduced to $135 million, or maybe even $100 million. The mayor would not confirm any figures, but said he's willing to work with the Council.

There are already enough aldercreature votes to tank the entire thing, so everyone is looking for their own angle before selling their vote to Conehead and the CTU.  They're looking at taxing all sorts of "cloud" services and other business taxes....things sure to push already fleeing businesses toward the exists even faster, which will result in more taxes....which in turn....

You get the idea - death spiral. Instead of closing twenty or so underutilized high school buildings and selling the property which would close the budget gap for the next few years.

It's Happening Again

The wheels move slowly, but they certainly move:

• A jury awarded more than $12 million Friday to a woman who lost her job at a Michigan insurance company after declining to get a COVID-19 vaccination.

  Much of the award — $10 million — is for punitive damages against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, according to the verdict form.

  Lisa Domski, who worked at Blue Cross for more than 30 years, said she was a victim of religious discrimination. The company in 2021 did not grant an exemption from its vaccine policy, despite her insistence that it clashed with her Catholic beliefs.

Readers will recall that after a Canine Officer discovered that CPD was being denied 99% of requests for religious exemptions while the rest of the city employees were succeeding at something like 70% acquiescence, he raised Holy Hell and got a lot of Groot's bullshit stopped.

Now we're finally seeing corporations being held financially accountable. Government cannot compel corporations to do things that the government is forbidden to do (like violate Civil Rights and bodily autonomy) but Joe and the Ho attempted to do just that....and Groot embraced that fascist authoritarian dogma like a bitch in heat.

Tourism to be Saved!!!

Tourists might actually return to Chicago....and instead of being victims, might start assisting drive down crime rates:

• In a powerful statement over the weekend, President-Elect Donald Trump reaffirmed his commitment to protecting the Second Amendment by announcing his push for national concealed carry reciprocity.

  This proposal would mean that concealed carry permits issued in any one state would be recognized in all 50 states, allowing gun owners to travel without worrying about crossing state lines with their legally owned firearms.

A driver's license issued by a state is valid in all fifty states - and driving is a privilege, not a Right.

So a CCL - a Right listed in and protected by the Constitution - ought to be valid in all fifty states. 

Illinois recognizes exactly ZERO other CCL permits from any other state. If Trump really wants to f#$% with democrats in Illinois, California and New York, this would be a great start.

We'd have to arrange visits to the morgue to look at the surprised faces on all the corpses that would start rolling in after the first week or three of National Reciprocity.

Defund Sanctuary Cities

Conehead spent somewhere over $200 million housing illegals. Fata$$ pitched in a bunch of money from the State coffers secure in the knowledge that Washington DC would print more money (driving inflation) to "pay" for it.

These people are living in a fantasy world:

• President-elect Donald Trump's plans for mass deportations are raising many concerns from leaders in Chicago's immigrant communities to the halls of Congress.

  There are calls for President Joe Biden to act before leaving office.

  The plans by the Trump administration to begin the mass deportation of millions of immigrants lacking permanent legal status are setting off alarm bells in Little Village and other communities with large immigrant populations. 

They're not looking to deport immigrants - they looking to deport ILLEGALS - people who don't belong here, broke the Law to get here, remain here in violation of the Law. And this media/leftist driven fantasy of mass deportations of all immigrants is driving Hispanic voters toward the right. It's also driving black voters the same direction because it's their job opportunities disappearing.

When Illinois, Cook County, and Chicago taxpayers have to foot the entire bill, we might see real change. Real soon.