ALERT ALERT ALERT

W-2s are Downtown. Units have been notified to pick them up.

Where's Our W-2s?

And other Quick hits:

• The newest City payroll scandal is hitting the media and of course, it's not nearly as big as we think it is. It's only cops getting overpaid or not getting paid on time. No one really cares. Sun Times here. Lieutenants Association here.
• Is there a pattern here? A second large blaze in the Little Village neighborhood in as many weeks. Any Bomb and Arson dicks have info? Channel 7 coverage.
• Three shot near Schurz High School. Channel 2 and Sun Times and Channel 7
  
• Big Brother approaches - CTA buses will be trackable on line so you can see how far the next one is and time your walk to the bus stops AND the mayor has decided that more cameras make everyone safer. Assume you are always on camera boys and girls - because if you aren't, you soon will be. It's a new reality. The new Department Notice came out regarding squad car cameras this week, so take 5 minutes and go look it up. It'll save you grief later.
  

Howard Dean in Trouble

From GatewayPundit Blog

• DNC Chair Howard Dean, January 8, 2006- "The Democrats are not involved in this."
• DNC Chair Howard Dean, January 29, 2006- "That's A Big Problem, And Those Democrats Are In Trouble, And They Should Be In Trouble."

Looks like Howard's insistence that the Abramhoff scandal was a "republican" scandal is starting to wear a bit thin - and people are noticing. And that's not all.

DRUDGE is reporting that the national democratic party (that installed Dean as chairman in part because of his phenomenal success at fundraising) is nearly out of cash! They only have $5.5 million in the bank compared to the republican party's $34 million. Which means A LOT less ads for democratic challengers in the coming election season. The 2006 election is looking more and more like a republican win - which would be one of our predictions incorrect for the year - but we can stand being wrong about this one.

The Biggest Shifts

The biggest shifts in history are the ones that everyone misses. Looking back, everyone says, "Gee, we should have noticed something that huge," but at the time, no one did say that or notice anything unusual.

Yesterday was probably one of those days, and almost everyone missed it. The far left wing of the democratic party threw a huge hissy fit over Judge Sam Alito being given an up or down vote in the Senate and attempted a filibuster. Almost HALF of the democrats in the Senate broke with their party and sided with the republicans, saying that Alito deserved and up or down vote. The count was 72-25.

What does it mean? Well, for starters, most of the big names in the democratic party threw their votes in with the lunatic fringe - Kerry, Clinton, Reid, Kennedy, Durbin, and Obama (if we aren't mistaken) sold their collective souls to the far left wing. At least 3 of the above listed senators have presidential ambitions. We might be seeing the beginnings of a HUGE fracture in the democratic party that will doom them to minority status for the next generation or more.

Coverage by the Tribune; CNN; Analysis by Captain's Quarters

Big Time Police Department

Now that we have a helicopter, we guess we could be accused of actually being the big time police. Welcome to prime time boys and girls.

Speaking of the big time, is it true that we now have only ONE single solitary radar car operational in the Traffic Section? If that's true, WOW! How do we enforce traffic in this town? We guess it's just another case of the city wanting their guaranteed parking revenue and screw the police making any sort of actual court appearances. And that's a bit less interaction with the public we suppose. Anyone from Traffic care to comment?

New Job

We are again retiring from blogging and leaving the daily grind of police work for greener pastures. Today's Trib headline says that a Federal Appellate Court has upheld that a politician can promise the world to voters and isn't obligated to fulfill any statement made as it is all "classical political puffery."

We therefore declare our intention to run for governor.

We promise a chicken in every pot, free gasoline for all vehicles, a corporate tax rate of 0% and the abolition of any personal income tax. Upon our election, everyone will get a check for $10,000 and an additional check every month thereafter. Work will be optional and we will provide airline tickets to the vacation spot of your choice. Food will be free as well as alcohol. It'll be like one giant party! Even Lefty can join in.

Saddam's Trial

We found this picture the other day. It is looking more and more like Saddam's trial is turning out to be the circus that everyone thought it might be. Defense lawyers getting killed, judges resigning under pressure, the defendant storming out in a snit. Maybe everyone would have been better off if the soldier had just dropped the grenade into Saddam's hidey hole and put the lid ... and ... wait a minute ... Alright - Who sent us this picture!!??

Man, we have some funny readers.

More Flak for the Mayor

Once more into the breach of divisive racial politics.

The mayor is taking heat for the lack of minority representation in "policymaking city jobs." Now, we don't know about the rest of you, but we don't really care that much about city policy - it always seems directed at emptying our wallets and filling up some politically connected hack's bank account who would be hard pressed to get a job shoveling shit at the circus.

That being said, we are rather of the mind that the jobs should be filled by the person most qualified to do the job. If that person has three arms, one eye, no teeth and is colored green, they ought to be doing that job. This entire business of "entitlements," "set asides," and other such nonsense only further contributes to the slow decay of our major cities and the destruction of any common ground between people. But of course, promoting qualified people has never been the city's strong suit - or the Department's.

Besides, any minority that has seen how quickly the mayor and his cronies throw minorities under the bus as soon as the heat gets to be too much would be idiots to even work for the City in any circumstance.

And Speaking of Mistakes ...

... we saw this thread taking off in the comments section and decided to link it here (sun times; tribune; Channel 5)

Doesn't the city hire actuaries? There is no way in hell this guy would have ever earned $9,000,000 dollars in 10 lifetimes. Sorry, fact of life. We're not being racist, but this guy was on a fast track to nowhere. Does he deserve something for his 11 years in the joint? Maybe. We've been reading comments throughout the day and hearing stories yesterday that present all sorts of questions as to what this guy did, when did he do it and whether of not he might actually be responsible for some truly heinous crimes.

But $9,000,000? The city is playing jackpot with these types of cases and not even taking them to trial. Someone else posed this question and we will summarize it here - why isn't the County on the hook for a bit of this coinage? We didn't convict him. We didn't sentence him. Once our people collected the evidence, it was turned over to the state that made the case. Maybe there ought to be some fingerpointing over that direction? Because according to other stories we're hearing about the St. Agatha's priest molestation case, the state said they had a weak case and wouldn't proceed with it, enabling the molester to continue his crimes with relative ease and giving the Cardinal an out for the Church's part in dropping the ball.

Mistakes Were Made

Yeah, no shit Cardinal.

We're big fans of the "innocent until proven guilty" premise that is just about exclusive to American law. Most other countries begin with a presumption of guilt and it's up to you to establish innocence - and then, the state can retry you as many times as needed to get a conviction. However, in certain situations, action MUST be taken. It doesn't have to be punitive action, but in the cases of the molestation of children, allegations must be examined and investigated quickly and thoroughly. Quickly and thoroughly might seem mutually exclusive, but they don't have to be and efforts must be made to standardize investigations such as these.

Channel 2, Channel 7 and the sun times report that the Cardinal is admitting mistakes were made during the run up to the arrest of a priest at St. Agatha's on North Lawndale. These mistakes permitted the molestation to continue for additional months. This is truly unconscionable, especially in light of how much resistance the Church put up for years denying and moving known molesters around to avoid detection and prosecution. What is it going to take for the Catholic Church to admit they have a HUGE problem that no one seems to want to address? Personally, we're hoping for huge multimillion dollar settlements that eventually bankrupt the church. Then maybe they'll realize how far they've strayed from their original mission of saving souls instead of damaging and destroying the lives of children.

One of Those Days

Ever have a day where you just don't feel like posting anything on the blog? If you actually have a blog that is. Yesterday was one of those days - we just didn't feel like doing anything. Football season is on hiatus until next week, baseball season is two months away, hockey season is non existent, we don't really follow basketball and the greens are months away from actually being open. Plus, the weather just sucks in general. We didn't even feel like photoshopping any pictures - and that's usually good for a little bit of our time. We've got a few excellent ones up our sleeve for special occasions.

Anyway, that was our day yesterday. Today is a new day. We cleaned up a few posts, caught up on some reading, got our marching orders from Karl Rove and stand ready to do the bidding of the neo-con cabal that runs it.

You can use this as an open thread in the meantime.

Some Entertaining Quick Hits

Some of which prove that we are on the right side of history ... and yes, we mean right in both senses of the word:

• The decline of the "dead tree" media continues - New York Times earnings fell 41% compared to a year ago. Soon, the SCC control of the media will be complete! ::evil laughter:: Then, we will see what we can do about getting all those lawyers up against the wall. (hat tip to Ace of Spades)
• Did the WMD get shipped over the border to Syria? The New York Sun says maybe. We've seen reports like these in a number of places around the blogosphere for over two years and it never gets play anywhere. It's something that ought to be covered a little more regularly by the dead tree media - even the Duefler Report (cited by dems as PROOF that Bush lied about WMD's!) states that "The CIA'’s chief weapons inspector said he cannot rule out the possibility that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction were secretly shipped to Syria before the March 2003 invasion, citing "“sufficiently credible"” evidence that WMDs may have been moved there." [emphasis added]. We'll find out soon enough. (hat tip to Ace of Spades)
• ANOTHER prediction of ours is coming true! China is moving to "strike hard against rising unrest." We predicted that the Chinese would be slaughtering thousands of their own citizens to keep freedom in check. We hate to be right about this one, but 2006 might be a bloodbath in China. We're batting 1.000 right now in the forecasting category. (hat tip to Ace of Spades; hell, it's an Ace of Spades kind of night!)
  
• Two idiots. A gun. A case of the hiccups. Do the math and you get two dead idiots. (hat tip to Ace of Spades again)

Union Post Revisited

Here's the post we wrote back on 25 Jul 05 about Unions. We were only getting about 20 or 30 visitors a day back then but we thought we made some good points. It was actually during the WalMart controversy right after the whole deal went south. Our position was that the day of the union is in the past and unions do more harm than good.

And as we stated in the Comments section previously, FOP is a fraternal organization, not a true union that can bargain and threaten the city. The only reason we get anything in negotiations is because the city agrees to give it to us OR the arbitrator gives it to us.

Breaking Omerta

We've been noticing a bunch of "outfit" references in some of the recent Sun Times articles. Is it true? Are there mob connections in this city? We never knew! Hahahahaha. Excuse us while we call our bookie for next weekend's games ...

Where were we? Ah yes, the "Outfit." Here's the kicker to the latest scandal - the mayor's brother's brother-in-law (aka John Daley's wife's brother; aka John Briatta) was indicted for taking $8,000 dollars in bribes after being fired last year for a ghost payrolling scheme where he and others swiped in and out for each other. This is all tied into Clerk Laski's indictment last week. From the article:

• Briatta has been a city employee for decades, landing the job soon after his sister, Mary Lou, married John Daley in 1975. The wedding sparked controversy because Mayor Richard J. Daley's son was marrying the daughter of Louis Briatta, described in press accounts at the time as a Loop gambling boss for the mob.

Goodness gracious! Next think you know, there will be allegations of mob influence in the police department! We mean aside from the former superintendent and the jewel thief and the captain caught in the house of gambling and certain officers running card joints up north. Geez, the list does go on and on.

It Must be Nice

It must be nice to be so beholden to labor unions that you decide you don't need an economic engine like WalMart in the city. It must be nice that your schools are so well off that you can reject over $1 million dollars a year in property and sales taxes. It must be nice to have such successful institutions like schools, libraries and museums that would otherwise benefit from the largesse that flows from a project like WalMart.

What's that? 24,500 Chicagoans applied for jobs at the new WalMart in Evergreen Park? But we thought everyone in the city had jobs? Well, good thing the City is flush with money so they don't have to close schools - what's that? A $328 million dollar deficit and they're closing four schools? But we thought the schools had money? Well, at least the museums are successful - what? Attendance is down at the museums? And the parking garages can't support their own bond issues?

Well, golly - this city must be run by incompetent fools! Why else would they turn down a guaranteed money maker like WalMart? They bring jobs, revenue, and are notoriously good neighbors to the surrounding community, regularly sponsoring team sports at schools, classroom projects and all sorts of stuff.

But they're non-union. So we hope the aldercreatures and mayor (that caved into union pressure at the expense of what could have been a large economic windfall for the city) accept their union donations, they do it with a smile.

Post #666

Aaaaaahh!!! The post of the Beast!!! Or what Karl Rove sees on his caller ID when the Prince of Darkness calls. We'll just call it an Open Thread to start the day. We passed 150,000 visitors a few days ago. Total page visits have topped 770,000! We surpassed our December numbers and we're topping 30,000 visits a month. Shortly, we could be averaging more visitors a month than the Blackhawks do - which is kind of sad.

Thanks to everyone.

Morale in the D Unit

Well, what started out as a post about Osama discussing leftist talking points with the likes of Moore, Kennedy and Kerry, predictably turned to other subjects and one of them seems to be generating a lot of back and forth discussion.

This article today by Frank Main - Crime Reporter, focuses on the anemic clearance rate and a few of our readers are taking the Chief of Dicks to task for the direction, if not the actual policy, being forced upon them.

So we say, Hey Detectives?! What's the real deal? Is the D Unit as short handed as Patrol? Is Morale as bad as some of the posters say it is? How about the new rules - pretty horrible? OT? Are the ASA's to blame? Because we noticed this story about the molester priest at St. Agatha's and how the State wouldn't go forward with the case because it appeared "weak." How much can be laid at the feet of the State?

Let's get some input here - because we know for a fact that a few bosses at 35th Street read this site. Maybe more than a few. Because it is humorous that when the heat about improper details out of district died down, they went right back to doing it - we saw a certain "low crime" district rapid car reporting for duty in a "higher crime" district just the other week, leaving us to wonder, who is covering that sector again? We're calling the Aldercreature to check on it.

Wah Wah Wah

Oh Boo Hoo. Leftists are upset because Chris Matthews (he of the vapid and rapidly sinking MSNBC ratings disaster) pointed out that Osama bin Laden is sounding more and more like Michael Moore, John Kerry and Ted Kennedy.

Gee, could it be the democratic party's defeatist attitude for the past few decades that is encouraging the islamists and bin Laden to ape their every move, argue their every talking point and espouse their very beliefs?

Guess what? Americans are awakening to the fact that everything America does isn't about oil. Everything America does isn't bad. Americans aren't to blame for everything that goes wrong in the world and are actually responsible for a helluva lot of good things. You don't see boatloads of people waiting in line to get out of America - they wait in lines and defy their governments to get into America.

Is this the wake up call the dems need to try to return to their glory days of actually standing for something instead of selling out to every special interest group in existence? Probably not.

City Hall? 35th Street?

With all the hot air and wind generated by these two buildings, they ought to be able to power more than a few houses in the neighborhood. Aeroturbines are coming to Chicago and we would love to see some of the wasted energy put to good use. If they could find a way to harness bullshit, we'd be completely free of foreign oil dependence - at least in this town. Who else has an energy saving idea? You could get a city contract and spend time in the Federal pen after a few years.

FOX News Tonight

We've been listening to the radio today and FOX is running commercials about "A weapon in the War on Terror - the Rapid Response Car." Sounds like someone has been feeding WFLD a line of ... well, a line of something. We might be near a TV at 9 PM and we might not be. But we can use this thread as a kind of open forum to discuss the "feature" on FOX.

What next? "Tonight on FOX, the Footman - stealthily ticketing your car and doing walk and talk with business owners." Or how about "The 008th District - They're who Phil Cline calls when he needs the police (but that's because he lives there) Tonight on WGN". Come up with your own new "Feature" for sweeps week. Keep it clean though.

Really Really Annoying Stories

Long Post Warning.

We read the Sun Times yesterday and there were just so many stories that irritated us. It was like sand under your eyelids, reading all this crap. For example:

• Stroger takes donations from county watchdogs. OK - is there any more corrupt organ of politics that the Cook County system? Yes, we know Chicago comes close, but Cook County has completely outlived it's usefulness. It is a separate layer of bureaucrats taxing us and spending money frivolously to enrich themselves. NO ONE would miss county government if it disappeared tomorrow - there is no more unincorporated Cook County that even needs county services. There's only the jail and the Courts. That's it. Everything else could be absorbed by municipalities.
• 2 Firms linked to gov vie for lottery pact. Gambling was supposed to help fund education as we recall. Now we have politically connected firms that just happen to be connected to the state governor via lobbyists and contributions looking to reap millions in additional gambling revenue? We wish after Fitzgerald finishes off the mayor and his cronies, he looks south for a while.
• Investigators take another look at Huels. Novak and Warmbir reporting that the Hired truck scandal is far from over. Far far from over. If they're digging up Huels again, someone is talking. We are by no means suffering from scandal fatigue, but how far can this thing go without another big name? We know where we'd like it to end up though.
• Illinois Tollway chief to leave post. The fourth most corrupt organ of government within the borders of Illinois (Cook, Chicago, State, Tollway). Weren't these things promised to be freeways after the bond issues were paid off? Now they just sit there and provide payroller jobs to political animals and pick our pockets while enriching construction companies, who in turn make contributions to politicians who again, refuse to pay off the bonds and instead, raise tolls to "maintain" the roadways, enriching more construction companies. It's a closed loop system.
• And the schools - the fifth most corrupt organization - Over 1,000 teaching jobs face ax. We could go into school HQ tomorrow, slaughter 1,000 bureaucrats with a chainsaw, and guess what? They'd still open the schools tomorrow and want to cut 1,000 teaching spots. The schools demand more and more money every single year and we get more and more of a diminishing return. This is a stellar example of a broken system.
• [Lisa] Madigan: Hike charity health care. Lisa is starting her run for governor about 4 years early, building her spending credentials by proposing a program that has nothing to do with being Attorney General. Guess who pays for programs like these? You and us. Why are we always the ones getting screwed because we're ambitious enough to actually go out and get decent paying jobs? We can barely afford to live in the city anyway and don't even talk to us about private school tuitions.
  

All of this - sandpaper on the eyeballs. We apologize for inflicting it on you, but someone had to take the hit.

Any Scapegoat in a Pinch

From the Mad Max Car thread comments section:

• So much for keeping to the subject! Hey SCC, can't you moderate this thing to the subject at hand? 30 somethin' posts about Isreal and other Bullcrap, not much about a useful subject like the squads we spend 8 hours a day in! [sic]
  

Well, not like we have anything better to do than check this blog 24 hours a day. We just spent 20 minutes going through the thread and deleting about 34 various comments, mostly about the Middle East, Israel in particular. We make ONE freaking sarcastic comment about nuking Iran and creating a vast wasteland to drive our new "Road Warrior" mobiles around, and the nazis come out of the woodwork.

Listen up people - Jews do not control the media. Jews do not control the US Government. Jews did not invent AIDS and give it to the CIA. It is not the Jews fault you have a small penis (unless there was an unfortunate accident at the bris). Jews do not - oh fuck this - you goofs sound like Farrakhan for chrissake. Any scapegoat in a pinch, eh? 99.9999% of the time that something gets screwed up, or someone gets promoted, or a building falls down or a war starts in the Middle East or you fail at something, IT WASN'T THE JEWS! Guess what else? IT PROBABLY WASN'T THE BLACKS EITHER! Probably (hell LIKELY) you didn't plan or you failed to anticipate something or you made an error in judgment. YOU! YOU!!!

Grow up - get out of the cult of victimhood - and TRY TO STAY ON TOPIC DAMNIT!

Election Day, eh?

Canada is holding early elections today, and all indications are that the ruling Liberal party is about to get their butts handed to them. A huge number of scandals have rocked the party and the Conservatives are widely expected to garner enough seats to form a government completely on their own - no coalitions with the Greens or similar fringe groups.

Michael Moore is beside himself and can't believe that Canadians might wish for a change. Captain's Quarters has been covering the entire election process, all the way back to the scandals that caused the government to fall. If you're a political junkie like we are, the Captain should be covering the election all day and commenting on what it means to American security issues along the world's longest undefended border.

UPDATE: Conservatives win (via Drudge) an outright majority. And Portugal elected a Conservative president today also. Cool.

Mr. Rockatansky? Your Car Sir

Now this is cool:

We figure that we are within 5 to 10 years of a true "Mad Max" type automobile. And after we finish nuking Iran, we can ship a bunch of these over there and patrol the wasteland that was Persia. The oil will still be safe underground, so it truly COULD be like a "Mad Max" type of existence. (hat tip to Ace of Spades)

Just Because We Can ...

... and because the US Government says we have to have "Truth in Labeling" laws - and the title says "Sarcasm and Silliness," doesn't it?

We decided to take another look at the picture from last Friday:

Have these new Sergeants started school yet? Have they told them how not to step in a pile of shit yet? We'd like to see the syllabus for that classroom exercise.

The Danger of Dealing with Terrorists

Remember the German woman held hostage in Iraq? And the killer of a US Navy diver that was released shortly before she was? And the German government denying that his release from "Life Imprisonment" had anything to do with her sudden freedom? And the German government flatly swearing up and down that no ransom was paid?

Guess who was discovered with a portion of the marked bills used to pay the non-existent ransom? If you said "the hostage," give yourself a pat on the back AND a gold star. (hat tip to LittleGreenFootballs) So it looks like the German government gave away a convicted murderer of a US Serviceman for a fraudulent kidnapping scheme.

Tell you all what - we know where there is a busload of German tourists staying in town RIGHT NOW. How much do you think we could split with them if we "kidnapped" the whole lot? European appeasers continue to doom the continent to irrelevance by 2050.

Weekend Quick Hits

Again, sorry about the slow posting these past 2 or 3 days. We'll make it up to you someday. Maybe. We'll see.

• 24 degrees below zero. That ain't the wind chill folks - that's the temperature in Moscow these days. Temps in the hinterlands may be a bit cooler and wind chill is out of this world. 31 dead so far and no let up in sight.
• Only France could be such giant pussies for the past 5 years, then pretend to actually have balls enough to pull off a threat of nuclear retaliation if someone pulls off a terrorist attack on their soil. Hey Chirac? How about those 24,000 cars burned in your country last year? Why not nuke the slums? Asshat.
• Ozzie a US Citizen. Now, can he be the first manager to win back-to-back titles as a foreigner and then a citizen? Or has that one been done before? (Channel 2 and 5)

The Missing Police Car Caper

From the Tribune:

• A West Side woman was arrested Friday morning after allegedly driving off in the squad car of the officer who had just arrested her for driving under the influence, police said.

And speaking of missing squad cars, (we've told people we have a memory like a steal trap - we used to run the boards playing trivia and we were NTN Trivia champs in a couple of bars), anyone know what happened with this story that we wrote about way back on 19 July 2005 concerning the missing 014th District squad car? Anyone ever catch any time on that caper?

More Media Bias

Even more proof that not only are the media on the wrong side of the War on Terror, they are actively involved in undermining the will of the American people. From the New York Times a few days ago, they published this photo:

The photo was captioned, "Pakistani men with the remains of a missile fired at a house in the Bajur tribal zone near the Afghan border."” This is the area of the recent missle strike that killed at least 3 high ranking terrorists. Note the old dude and the young child in the photo. (We wonder why they couldn't find a woman to represent the other oppressed demographic) Now, about 20 seconds of research by some intrepid bloggers produced this photo:

Look familiar? This is a 155mm tube launched artillery shell - nothing that would be carried by a Predator Drone, but don't expect the readers of the New York Times to know that. All they know is George Bush knocked down that poor boy's house and now he and his grandfather have to live in a cardboard box untill they can find a new home. TIME magazine actually has gone to press with this photo. Once again, the Main Stream Media takes another step down the road to irrelevance and shoots their own claims of superior fact checking and ability right in the foot. The demise of the print media (the NYT especially) cannot come too soon for us.

Anyone out there have some good media stories? Stories about reporters really stepping in it on scenes or anything? There have to be a few.

A Program we Might Get Behind

Will Other City Officials Lose Police Guards? From our buddy Fran Spielman. Why do some of these people even need guards? Former Mayor Sawyer? C'mon now, Janie doesn't even rate one. And Laski gets four? Burke gets how many? What a waste of manpower, dollars and time. Just to stroke some egos. Let's end this BS right now - today even.

Another Good Call

Looks like that intelligence saying a safe house in Pakistan had some interesting characters inside. From ThreatsWatch (via Instapundit):

• The final results of from the airstrike in the Pakistani border town of Damadola are now known. In addition to Abu Khabab al-Masri, who was al-Qaeda‚’s chief bomb maker, head of the WMD program, and former terror camp commander, two other al-Qaeda commanders were killed in the strike. ABC News confirms that Khalid Habib [or Khaled al-Harbi] and Abdul Rehman al Magrabi perished in the attack.

Go read the whole article at ThreatsWatch - these were NOT little fish and were definitely not civilians. That makes FIVE major al-Queda figures "neutralized" over the past 5 weeks. Good job all around by our military and intelligence services.

AND HOW ABOUT THAT OSAMA TAPE TODAY? What was it this ass said years ago about strong horse vs. weak horses and people preferring the strong horse? Guess who's looking like the weak horse all of the sudden and is trying to offer a truce? Certain figures throughout history have always called for a "truce" or a "cease fire" while they re-equipped, rearmed, resupplied and rested their forces. This appears to be just that. We're winning and even Osama is seeing it. Now he wants us out of Iraq and Afghanistan and he'll leave us alone. Bullshit.

Keep up the good work Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Halliburton, Neo-con warmongers, oil stealing Texas petroleum consortiums, the US Military and not least of all, the Iraqi and Afghani peoples who are turning the tide against these scumbags.

Laski Tales

Laski loses his police bodyguards. Here's a question for all you connected people - is four bodyguards a lot? We mean, how many does everyone have? Four for a Clerk seems excessive, but we don't know. What really ticks us off about this story is the following passage:

• "He's not Joey the Clown [Lombardo]. He's not going to take off. That surprised and shocked him," said a Laski confidant, who asked to remain anonymous.

We know Laski isn't Lombardo - Laski is worse. At least when you look at Lombardo, you have an idea what he's about. You don't go to "the Clown" expecting a certain amount of honesty. He's a vicious human being. Laski on the other hand, is an elected official. You expect a certain amount of honesty. Granted, in Chicago, it's a tiny little microscopic amount of honesty, but it's more than Lombardo would have. Especially when you run as the "anti" corruption guy. Because you destroy people's faith in the system. We hope Laski gets the "Quarters" Boyle treatment.

Light Posting

Sorry about the light posting. Running a low grade illness here and we're not the only ones. We're going to be posting early and late for the next couple of days, so we apologize in advance if that doesn't suit everyone's schedule. Days are just difficult to get to a computer right now. Feel free to use the posts as open threads (as everyone usually does). We are now surfing for postable material.

When it Rains, It Pours

Local cops in the news all over the place. Some good, some bad:

• Former Commander pleads guilty (Sun Times; Channel 7). Usually, when you switch your plea this quick, it's because (A) they have you dead to rights and you're hoping by sparing them the expense of a trial, they'll go easy on you, or (B) you're cooperating. Anyone out there nervous?
• Bad accident on the South side (Tribune coverage). The two cops injuries are "not life threatening," but that doesn't mean everything is dandy. We read in one comment that one might be paralyzed. Keep them in your thoughts people.
• Police shootout in 025 (Channel 5; Channel 7). Robbery pattern cleared and one bad guy dead. Not a bad night's work and a boatload of awards for people down the line. Good job.

Do We Have a Learning Disability?

Language Warning

What the fuck people? Can't we go a couple of months without someone getting DUI'ed and killing civilians? Seriously. We are majorly ticked off right now. It's not enough that the one guy gets 12 years for killing two kids at 159th & Harlem in the suburbs while DUI off duty (the truly sad part of the story? THAT copper was training in the 010th District when another 010th District guy got sent up for killing another civilian DUI, off duty.) Now we get a guy in Indiana (allegedly DUI), running into another guy (who is also allegedly DUI) and another dead civilian.

If we were the Superintendent, we'd be asking "What the fuck?!" In fact, we'll bet that is EXACTLY what the Supe is asking. And before anyone downtown gets the bright idea that more training videos is going to suddenly make everyone jump onto the wagon and start attending AA meetings, think again. You don't need a training video - you need testimonial videos. The one video that made us wear a seatbelt was the one of that copper that lost an eye when he wasn't strapped in. You get a video of some of these convicted coppers talking about life on the inside, how they can't believe they killed someone, how they wrecked their careers, their lives and can't believe it turned out like this for them, maybe you'll see some people sit up and take notice.

We remember some old timer saying that his star opened up a world that no one else ever saw. Maybe he got to stand on the pitchers mound at Wrigley or jog the base paths at old Comiskey when no one was there but the groundskeepers. Perhaps he meant going to the very top of the Sears Tower - the roof, not the observation deck. Maybe he got to sneak into a Bears game for a few minutes when he was supposed to be directing traffic or hang around the players lot at the Chicago Stadium and get a few autographs.

But that star can open up a hell, too. And if you've got that star and you kill someone DUI, you're going to ride that piece of tin into hell and they are going to crucify you on it. For god's sake people, sleep it off somewhere. If you're drinking near the station, sleep it off in the locker room - you won't be the first guy or the last to do it. We're old enough to remember some copper sleeping it off in the cell next to some jagoff waiting for the morning bus to County. Find a friend's house and walk there. Call a friend to get you. Do anything except get behind that wheel and fuck over your job, fuck over your life, fuck over your family and fuck over everyone else who wears that star.

Or fuck over someone else's family who doesn't even know who the hell you are except some asshole with a star who killed their loved one, drunk and off duty.

BOMBSHELL at FOP Meeting

Residency is on the table.

Let us repeat that: Residency is ON THE TABLE.

The FOP has instructed it's lobbyists to draft language amending the State Law that allows all cities with a population of over 1,000,000 to remove residency from the realm of collective bargaining. As the law is written, it applies to one single city - Chicago. The FOP is taking it's cue from other Lodges that have fought AND WON the right to make residency part of their collective bargaining contracts. This would make Illinois State Law into just about every what other single state in the union does already.

Of course, the City won't play ball on this and Mark Donahue admitted that it might be hard to line up sponsors for the bill (until the mayor goes away at least) and it will probably be a long hard road, similar to what we went through for over a decade to get HB 218 to pass in Congress, but it's a start. Let's see where they go with it.

Hypocrite - Thy Name is Ted

If hypocrisy were dollars, Ted (the swimmer) Kennedy would have more money than Bill Gates. Glad to see he has finally started living up to the barest minimum of what he expects from a Supreme Court nominee.

And just in time for the new book publishing season, this selection from Fark.com.

Did everyone see the interview where Teddy admits to naming his dog "Splash"? We can't decide if that's for the splash he puts in the bourbon or the last sound heard by Mary Jo.

More Proof ...

... that they don't pay us nearly enough money as it is. A couple of police related stories - one local, one national, one international:

• Naked passenger fights police in an "el" train. After juicing him with OC and shocking him with a TASER, he still manages to fight and injure a pair of cops. Must have been a helluva floor show for the locals.
• Songs and prayers for teen killed by cop. The media keeps showing their innate anti police bias with statements like "after a deputy gunned him down in a school bathroom. (emphasis added)" Excuse us, but the deputy was (A) acting in self defense and (B) protecting hundreds of children from what everyone believed was a real gun. We saw some story (which we can't find now) of a woman at the school holding a sign up that said "Stop the Violence." The officer did - the perpetrator is dead. Good for the boys in blue and we hope he's getting support from his co-workers.
• In Britain, "A DETECTIVE is facing disciplinary action by his force for referring to a career criminal as "pondlife" in a private conversation with another officer. The detective constable, who faces possible dismissal from his job, has been told that the criminal "might have been offended"” had he heard the remark, although he was not present at the time." The saddest part of this whole thing is that it took place in Nottingham, so you know the past Sheriff of Nottingham is spinning in his grave at what pansies his formerly feared force has been reduced to.
  

Wow!

Seems like our new friends in New York are driving a very large traffic spike our way. Yesterday, we topped 1,600 hits for the first time in a long while - and this time it wasn't because someone linked us to a leftist website trying to make us look bad.

Glad to see CPD and NYPD getting along so famously. We're looking to update the links on the right hand side to reflect our new friends sometime in the next week or so. Perhaps we can start a few cross country discussions regarding police procedures, political pressures, promotion fiascos and a comparison between benefit packages and union representation. What say the readers?

Finally Giving Up

Yes, we have decided to give up blogging forever and open a chain of Tarot Reading Rooms, Crystal Ball factories and a sideline in Stock Market predictions. Once again, we are looking like Jeanne Dixon, Carnac the Magnificent and Nostradamus rolled into one. To wit:

• SHANGHAI A week of protests by residents of a town in China's southern industrial heartland exploded into violence last weekend with thousands of police officers brandishing automatic weapons and using electric batons to put down the protest and seal off the village, residents said Monday. (International Herald Tribune)
  
• A 13 year old girl may have died in another violent police crackdown on protesters in southern China: Up to 20,000 people from several villages in Guangdong province's Sanjiao township near Zhongshan city gathered on a highway just after dusk on Saturday to continue protests that had begun earlier in the week. "Between 30 to 50 people were injured as police were attacking anyone they saw," one villager named Tan, told AFP. "There is a lot of talk that a 13-year old middle school girl student was killed in the attack."China had 74,000 protests in 2004. (GatewayPundit)

We know many (hell, most) of our readers care little for the situation in China, let alone the price of tea, but we just wanted to point out another of our predictions is on the verge of reality. Fear our Blog!

The Lost Opportunity

• if they don't win next week, we can't see this season as anything but a missed opportunity - a failure even.

That was our position a week ago and we don't see anything mistaken about it. Despite having the Best Defensive Player and the Coach of the Year, the lack of offensive power couldn't overcome what was probably the only bad week the defense had all year.

At least the most of the team is under contract for a few years, so maybe they can build on this if they can land an additional receiver or two. The missing link seems to be a long game - a big play offense. Did the Bears ever bust out a big 70 or 80 yard pass play this year? If they did, did they ever do it more than once? If they had a credible threat AND popped off 6 or 8 plays like that in a years time, watch out NFL.

SunTimes; Tribune; 2; 5; 7.

Welcome NYPD

Someone (we know who, but he prefers anonymity) posted a few links over at the NYPD Rant bulletin board and we've been getting a few dozen visitors from New York here. We've also noticed people posting the link back to their board. It's good to see coppers reaching out across the country and exchanging pleasantries.

So, to NYPD people looking around, welcome! Feel free to visit some of the CPD links on the right side and post in the comments sections. We're sure we have a lot to talk about.

Da Bears - Da Playoffs

Bears are 3 point favorites. Not that we advocate gambling in way, shape or form in light of recent events in the 016th District. But a friendly wager among friends involving no monetary compensation whatsoever isn't wrong, is it? Posting may be light today. Use this as an open thread - which everyone seems to do any time we put up a thread anyway.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

A big congratulations goes out to the Superintendent and the entire Chicago Police Department. As of last night, there have only been 5 murders for the year 2006. If we extrapolate out those numbers over the course of the year, the murder tally for 2006 will be 130.4 homicides.

WOW!

Down from 446 last year. Incredible. We all deserve a raise. A big raise. Hopefully before summer rolls around and someone messes up the curve.

Time to Slap Lefty Again

How about these two quotes:

• “Iraq was not a breeding ground for terrorism. Our invasion has made it one. We were told Iraq was attracting terrorists from Al Qaeda. It was not.” - Senator Ted Kennedy 16 October 2003
  
• "Iraq was not a terrorist haven before the invasion." - Senator John Kerry 24 September 2004

Oops - A Very BIG Oops that ought to be on every front page

• THE FORMER IRAQI REGIME OF Saddam Hussein trained thousands of radical Islamic terrorists from the region at camps in Iraq over the four years immediately preceding the U.S. invasion, according to documents and photographs recovered by the U.S. military in postwar Iraq. The existence and character of these documents has been confirmed to THE WEEKLY STANDARD by eleven U.S. government officials.

Evidence, mountains of it, including "handwritten notes, typed documents, audiotapes, videotapes, compact discs, floppy discs, and computer hard drives" show that Saddam was training Islamic terrorists at a rate of up to 2,000 per year from 1999 until 2003. And it also disproves the leftist talking point that Saddam was a secularist who wouldn't work with theocratic muslim fanatics. Just to tie in some more, here's a list of high level contacts between the Iraqi government under Saddam and al Qaeda that the democrats and the media say never happened. It was published on Newsweek's website two weeks ago.

So far, the DOCEX operation has translated only 50,000 of the over 2 million articles recovered from the Saddam regime. As more and more becomes available, more and more "surprises" will pop up and prove more and more of the democratic talking points are driven by nothing but Bush Derangement Syndrome. But you'll only hear it on the right side of the dial.

New Job Offer

Among the papers turned up in a cave in Afghanistan was a stack of job applications for al-Qaeda. That's right - job applications. And according to the Miami Herald (via Michelle Malkin) Jose Padilla's was among the applications recovered. The full document (and translation for those of you who don't read arabic) is at this link here.

For everyone else who wants to read something funny, Captain's Quarters has a new and improved al-Qaeda application here. Among the humorous stuff:

• Reason For Interest In al-Qaeda (circle all that apply):

  a. Hatred for everything Western, except those hot babes on Baywatch
  b. Suicidal impulse but lacking the skills to carry it out
  c. Inability to get women to date me
  d. Want to travel and see the world before I realize my ambition to destroy it
  e. Having 72 inexperienced young girls later sounds better than dealing with one nagging woman now

Anyone else have a list of job skills necessary to join al-Qaeda?

Oh No! Quick Hits!

Well we missed quite a bit taking the evening off. Here's a lovely selection in case you've been living under a rock - which we were doing tonight.

• A not so funny clown. Joey Lombardo in custody! We guess we'll be seeing him die behind bars soon. Sun Times; Tribune; Channel 2; Channel 5; Channel 7; hell, everyone is covering this.
• A not so funny clown. Laski indicted! Hopefully, we can see him serve a large portion of time and maybe even flip on some bigger fish. Sun Times; Tribune; Channel 2; Channel 5; Channel 7; everyone again!
• A not so funny clown. Man shot by police after he tried to run down a sergeant. This is one of a couple shootings last night.
• A not so funny clown. Mayor deposed over firing of his cousin. We like to see another couple of depositions all around over by City Hall. Could this be the first of many?
  
• A not so funny incident all around. Former cop gets 12 years for killing two in a DUI. Tribune; Channel 5; Channel 7.
• A not so funny bunch of clowns on ice. Blackhawks win! OK, so their record over the past 13 games is 2 wins and 11 loses - but if you just look at the last 3 games, they're 2 and 1, winning 66% of their games and well on their way to securing a playoff berth (ha!)
  

Once Again, We Need FACTS

A bunch of people got taken in (ourselves being among the worried ones) by the rumors abounding yesterday of the Sergeant's test being cancelled or postponed. Turns out it was BS and the only fax that came out yesterday was about military personnel being eligible.

Now we read about superbids coming out for Housing. Let's get some FACTS posted here on this one before everyone runs with it. Thanks.

Another Victory for FOP Looming?

• Chicago Police officers on neighborhood patrol could once again be reassigned to direct traffic at Bears games, McCormick Place and other lakefront events, under surprise legislation quietly introduced by Mayor Daley this week.

That is the first paragraph in today's Sun-Times article by our (one, two, three, four, ...) FIFTH favorite reporter, Fran Spielman (Fran, you know we kid - we love ya). Anyway, for those of you unfamiliar with the story, in 2003, the mayor introduced legislation taking away the police duties from large scale events and handing them over to civilians. The FOP sued saying the contract did not give the city the right to subcontract out work previously performed by the police.

The FOP won. Not only did they win, they won big. The Labor Board ordered the city to rescind the ordinance AND pay any lost overtime to officers adversely affected. (In a scene reminiscent of a CTA bus crash, hundreds of officers immediately announced that it had been their intention to work every single voluntary detail previously posted in the CO Book regardless of days off, furloughs, birthdays or funerals.) The city's request for a stay was denied and the appeal is still pending.

The mayor is attempting to rescind the ordinance quietly without addressing the Labor Board decision. The FOP is again protesting and once again, the FOP is probably going to win big. It looks like the mayor is getting bad advice on this one and is going to cost taxpayers even more money in the long run. The FOP has come forward with two proposals, both of which involve (horror of HORRORS) police officers making money off duty, which means it will be a fully staffed, fully operational, fully functioning enterprise within 5 minutes of being constituted as we have yet to see a copper turn down earning decent money on a day off.

Hello Persia

Our 2006 predictions are coming true at an alarming rate - we might have them all covered before August! Laski ties into our "bad year" locally prediction. And this little item makes our "groundwork will begin for a new Mid-East war" speculation look like something Nostradamus might have predicted:

• Members of the Fort Wayne-based 122nd Fighter Wing are scheduled to leave for Southwest Asia about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday from the unit'’s headquarters on Ferguson Road. It represents the wing'’s largest single deployment since it was called to Chambley, France, in 1961 during the Berlin Crisis. This deployment is in support of ongoing operations in the U.S. Central Command Air Forces (CENTAF) area of responsibility, which includes Southwest Asia. The unit will deploy fighter pilots, as well as maintenance and support personnel.

We're going into Iran - soon. Hat tip to Ace of Spades

Let the Punishment Fit the Crime

A former aldercreature is attempting to get his law license back despite having:

• picked up biweekly paychecks while working as a ghost payroller for three City Council committees
• earn[ed] more than $100,000 per year as an attorney.
• served five months in prison and repaid the city $91,000 in wages and benefits. He was voluntarily disbarred in 1998.

First of all, if you pick up a city check for 7 years without doing a lick of work, you ought to be fired (and spare us the jokes about Streets & San, Dept of Trans, Park District, certain coppers, etc). If you're earning over $100,000 dollars a year AND still nickel and diming the taxpayer, you ought to be up against the wall and shot.

This is hubris. This is greed run amok. Five months isn't NEARLY enough time for this jackass to have spent behind bars. And paying back $91,000 isn't nearly what he should have been fined.

Tell you what - he spends 7 years digging ditches, or 7 years working retail, or 7 years actually EARNING a living, we'll think about letting him have his law license back. And we don't give a rat's ass if he's 60 years old today - better men than he (and trust us, there are billions of better men than he) have re-entered the workforce at his age. When we were in the private sector, we were lucky to see $100,000 over three years. And this ass earned that plus what he could steal? Sorry - no sympathy here.

OK, We NEED Facts

We signed onto the Sergeant's Test website at 0930 hours this morning, flew thru the application process and downloaded our "How to" guide. Now we are reading comments all over the place about the test was cancelled?

Someone get that fax and type it into the comments section ASAP please. What the hell is going on out there?

We (and we mean we) want to know if we just got shafted out of $25 bucks.

Another One Bites the Dust?

James Laski, City Clerk, is allegedly on the verge of resigning. The Times and Channel 7 tie him into the Hired Truck scandal and believe it or not, Laski is supposedly negotiating with the Feds to keep his pension.

Unless (and this is a BIG unless) Laski has a huge fish to fry (and we do mean HUGE), fuck this goof. Everyone else is getting years in the pen and anything over a year means a felony conviction and a felony conviction means NO PENSION. If the Feds have him dead bang on a wire, screw this weasel. The entire political structure in the burg is corrupt beyond belief. The way you fix it is you put away the big names. Make them do real time; real penalties. They've been shafting the taxpayers for years. Time for them to get a little of what they've been handing out. Offer him 7 years unless he names names. He balks, go to trial. He'll get 10 at sentencing. He'll come up with some names then. Supposedly Segal is talking. Hopefully, Quarters is next.

They're Back!

The Helicopter Unit that is. Using a chopper acquired from the Chicago Fire Department (a second one is hopefully on the way), this week sometime the Chicago Police Department will return to the skies for the first time since 1980.

Now, about those Air-to-Surface Mavericks we asked for...

UPDATE: One a lighter note, the Blackhawks started another losing streak last night. God, we wish Wirtz would sell the team already, but it's probably a tax write off at this point.

Rumor? Or Fact?

We've been burned by rumors occasionally. We're glad that we didn't put up anything about the coal miners in West Virginia being alive because we would have looked kind of foolish the next day. We're especially glad we didn't put anything up about the farmer tossing a field mouse into a burning trash pile and the flaming mouse running back into his house and burning it to the ground.

But we're going to take the plunge on this one anyway: New Sergeant's Test? 25 March? We've seen the rumor in a couple places on line; CJR Study Groups is hinting at the strong possibility of a test soon; phone lines are buzzing and so is 35th Street; and now someone claims there's an announcement out?

Let's get some confirmation people. Because we heard there was a Lt's test first and we hate being wrong.

UPDATE: FOP has it up on their site - registration begins tomorrow. Good luck people. Who knows where we can get copies of the orders?

More Food for Thought

We've been following the comments in a couple thread and the "Food for Thought" one is producing a bit of well thought out dialogue. Here's a little more to keep it going - Firstly, we took no position on GPS. We tried to appear neutral on the issue and frame it in a manner that would provoke discussion. Personally, we think it can be a tool for good or evil (good being efficient police work, evil being bosses using it to pick on people). Note the words "pick on."

We were aware that the Fire Department trucks have been equipped with GPS for years. Their reasoning is that in the event of a large structure fire, they needed to be able to see where and what type of equipment was set up - and that makes sense. They also need to be able to cover the rest of the city efficiently in the event that 50 pieces of apparatus are concentrated at one location. Point taken.

Same thing with Streets & Sanitation. Yes, they are about the most politically connected of all departments, but when it snows, they have to get the streets clean and GPS makes sure that each plow is following it's route, in it's assigned ward and making the required number of passes to keep traffic flowing.

Police work is "random patrol" some of the time and "directed patrol" other times. Is GPS something that would assist in directed patrol? Sure. Random patrol? Only in the sense that it could be used to make sure you were in your assigned area. You have a great deal of freedom in a car - no one is looking over your shoulder - which coincidently is also the problem - no one is telling you what to do. You can take the initiative on certain problems or you can drive around burning city gas.

In our opinion, manpower shortages need to be addressed first before they try to slap a GPS band-aid on the whole situation. But we aren't holding our breath assuming they'll do it.

Tales of Woe

No, we aren't talking about the department right at this moment:

Yes, the Blackhawks finally ended their 10 game losing streak yesterday. They tried to keep it going of course, jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first 23 minutes before blowing the entire thing and needing overtime to dispose of the Washington Capitals - one of the few teams with a worse record than Chicago. We've gotten away from reporting on the Blackhawks because (1) there didn't seem to be much interest in it and (2) they suck. People don't want to follow a loser - well, except for Cubs fans - and they're mentally challenged anyway. Seriously. Have you ever talked to them? They're like Lefty and Shady are with George Bush - mental.

Anyway, we hated to bore you with even this little entry, but we needed material and someone was busting on us for not mentioning the Hawks more. We prefer to enjoy our misguided pain and misery privately and dream of years past when we'd make the playoffs every so often.

Ex-Squeeze Me?

Baking Powder? Huh? We jokingly (sarcastically even) thanked the governor yesterday for picking our pockets (and yours) to the tune of $150,000 dollars to cover the hurt feelings of a preacher to whom the truth means less than slamming the police for headlines. Now Rod "Free Money" Blagojevich has pledged a million dollars to rebuild a church? We're sorry, but did the state knock down the church? Did an employee of the governor's office set fire to the building? Perchance did a state rep or senator carelessly fling a cigarette into a vestibule?

We didn't think so. Doesn't the church have insurance? Isn't Conrad Roofing (the company who's blowtorches have been determined to have started the blaze) a properly licensed and bonded construction company? Do they have experience in church restorations? Did THEY carry insurance?

Sorry again, but the purpose of government isn't to bail out churches that burn to the ground. If the governor wants the state to maybe provide a low interest loan of some form to the church, we're sure he can talk to some banks for them. But pledging a million dollars of our money to a church we don't attend, have no interest in visiting except possibly as a historic landmark, and is of no interest at all to 99.9% of Illinois' 12.4 million people happens to be a little out of his realm. This is a blatant political stunt with our money and we aren't happy about it. Channel 2 and Channel 7 and SunTimes and Tribune coverage at the links.

UPDATE: Good Lord - Eric Zorn takes the same position? We guess the Cubs are a lock for the World Series this year. The world is ending.

Food for Thought

Speaking of cameras and tracking the police, does anyone have any solid information on GPS in cars? We know for a fact that the Park District uses GPS - the locators are in their Nextels as someone pointed out a few weeks ago. We did a little research/had a little research done as to how authorized personnel can pull up an entire history of where people drove, how long they stayed at locations, and other such stuff. It can be superimposed on a map and looks cool. Then we looked into tracking vehicles and guess what? It's getting cheaper and it's tracking in real time. Tracking stolen money? No need for dye packs anymore. Tracking sexual predators? It's easy!

How hard do you think it would be to toss one of these in every squad car? Simple? And then program a big board down at 911 and maybe set off an alarm every time you leave your beat? your sector? your district? Beyond simple? How about tying it to your radio? The you can cover the foot guys, too. Can you see where this is going? Can you say "accountability?"

Citizen complains she never sees the beat cars? "Why yes ma'am, I can see that the car has only been on your block twice in the past week. I'll speak to those officers about their patrol patterns." String of garage burglaries? "Hmm, I wonder why this beat car is always at the 7-11 when these incidents are occurring." Trying to prevent retaliatory shootings? "Squad, give me three more cars to cover the west edge of this DOC area." How about police chases? "Officer, while working Beat 9999, you were given a direct order to terminate the chase that killed my client's wife. Why didn't you stop chasing? Your Honor? Could you instruct the Officer to answer please."

Don't kid yourselves people. Big Brother is coming. The Inspection Division alone could use this 9 ways 'til Sunday ferreting out all the previously undiscovered "holes," not to mention how long it took you to get to calls, how long you stayed, and why did it take you 2 hours to come clear when you left 90 minutes ago? Accountability Meetings just took on a whole new meaning. Be Aware. Be Very Aware.

Official Homicide Count

According to the Sun-Times, Chicago had 446 homicides total for the year 2005. That's DOWN from 448 in 2004. We suppose a drop is a drop no matter the cause. We only wonder if it may have been even lower if the City wasn't short 1,000 officers in the Districts?

And now we are going to be concentrating on Property Crimes. Any suggestions? We have a few. Bring back a few Burglary mission teams. Staff them with experienced burglary people. If you have to, hire back a few of the old Burglary dicks or PO's and have them teach some of the younger guys. The "Brain-Drain" on this department in the past decade is incredibly huge. We lost so much experience, it's no wonder that clearance rates are so poor. Up the number of ET's, train them up right and supply them with the equipment necessary to do their jobs.

Burglars aren't one-job guys. They have hundreds, if not thousands of crimes in their backgrounds. Nail them on a few and we'll guarantee the property crime numbers drop as fast as homicide numbers did a few years ago.

One Month Anniversary

Today is the one month anniversary of one of the stupidest stunts in the history of the Chicago Police Department. We are talking of course about the e-mailing of the SouthWest Airlines/Midway Photography Incident - SWAMPI for short (see our December archives for numerous posts and photos). We've heard that there was a CR investigation, but cannot confirm it. We don't expect updates from IAD or OPS, but it would be nice to know something was being done. Otherwise, we have to keep posting photos like this one, tying up all the loose ends of the Kennedy assassination:

Or this one (be sure to read the sign next to Scarecrow):


Or just making up funny shit like this one.


This is the joke that will not die people. We're sure someone is just hoping this incident will go away and everyone will forget about this boneheaded move, but WE never forget anything. Opportunities to bust balls like this only come along every 10 years or so.

Study Group! Short Notice

Anyone here remember Capt John (ret) and ADS Charlie Roberts (ret)? Everyone remember the Roberts Study Groups? They consistently produced top scores in every promotional exam for which they ran a group. Well, on their website they think that the rumors about a new Sergeant's test coming up are "strong." We're going to go out on a limb here and say that if John or Charlie think that rumors are "strong," you aren't going to make money betting against them. Here's the big news though -

• The registration and orientation session will be held on 11 JAN 06 from 1730 -– 2100 hours on the 3rd floor of Whitney Young High School (across the street from the CPD Education and Training Division -– enter on Laflin Street side).
  
• There will be TWO registration sessions:
  
• From 1730 to 1830 hours we will first register anyone who contacted us over the last few months and asked to be placed on our class list. From 1830 to 1930 hours we will register all other police officers who wish to register but who have not yet gone to our web-site (cjrstudygroups.com) and used the "“Contact Us"” button to send us an E-Mail asking to be placed on our class list. (You may still contact us before 11 JAN 06 and be placed on the class list)

You have two days to sign up for the class. Of course, the people "in the know" have been on their waiting list for some time already, so space is no doubt limited. Go. Sign up tonight! YOU could be the next supervisor to bring this department kicking and screaming into the 20th Century (no, that isn't a typo.)

Hooray! More Cameras!

A great big "Thank You" for Governor Blago reaching deep into your pocket (and ours) to find $150,000 dollars to spend on cameras because some preacher felt that he was above such piddly hassles as obeying traffic laws. How can we say such things? Because we remember that the driver WAS GUILTY! We can't recall if he pled guilty or was found guilty, but it doesn't matter. Guilty is Guilty. Not only that - the Sergeant was CLEARED of racial profiling. IT DIDN'T HAPPEN!

But the reverend meeks can't be bothered with such trivialities. He has elections to run and headlines to garner and an entire cult of victimhood to perpetuate. Coverage at Channel 2; Channel 5; Sun-Times. What a crock.

Make Your Phone Calls - Soon

"Merit" nominations for career service rank of Lieutenant are now being accepted until 15 February 2006 1500 hours. No word on class size, but the rumors that they were going to do one more class turned out to be 100% true. Imagine that.

Get those papers in people.

Good News

We don't know about anyone else, but this story is nothing but good news for Chicago Police Officers. Only one of the twenty eight original Robert Taylor project building is still standing as of today - and that one is scheduled to come down at the end of the year.

Last month, the final two buildings of Ogden Courts (2710 and 2650) started undergoing demolition. The low rises behind the Courts were gone years ago. The ABLA Homes are a shell of it's former self - last time we checked, 3 of the 6 remaining high rises were fenced off and set for destruction. About half of the ABLA low rises have been bulldozed and another portion is slated for destruction. We drove by the Ida B Homes a few weeks ago and saw a bunch of those gone, too. Horner fading fast. Stateway almost. Rockwell not long for the west side. What's left? Dearborn? Lathrop? Altgeld?

We have no doubt (though few mention it) that the relocation of dope operations from these buildings contributed mightily to the homicide rate of the late 90's early 00's. As the "market forces" establish themselves and "territory" is sorted out, expect the rate of killings to continue a slow fall.

UPDATE: Post corrected for Ida B instead of Ickes. But we read that Ickes are coming down anyway soon.

Let's Try Something Different

We've tried friendly warnings. We've tried stern warnings. We've tried deleting garbage. We've even explained about IP addresses, "sniffer" programs, electronic fingerprints, etc.

Now we'll go farther. At the bottom of all comments posts, there is a word verification box. To post on this site, you will have to enter the word or set of letters as it appears in the box. This is not only a "spam" preventer for robot programs that surf the internet (they can't read the words) - this can also be cross referenced to a specific IP address that is logged.

Coppers fuck up more nice things for each other than 100 shitheads could fuck up in a year. This isn't directed at all our readers, but the few tiny brained jackasses that are suddenly 800 pound gorillas behind a keyboard and just can't shut their fucking yaps.

Here's an incentive to straighten up and fly right - you behave and the word verification comes off after a bit. You really DON'T want to see what the next step is.

Bear Down, Chicago Bears!

Yeah, we know they don't play this weekend, but their next opponent does. Any thoughts? Who would the Bears rather face? In any case, after Urlacher winning Defensive Player of the Year yesterday & Lovie Smith being named Coach of the Year this morning, if they don't win next week, we can't see this season as anything but a missed opportunity - a failure even. That's the harsh reality.

Here's the main ESPN site for a game breakdown.

The Subtle Bias

Whenever we talk about "Media Bias," some people think we mean "Air America" or NPR type garbage where they constantly scream at the top of their lungs that Bush is to blame for this and that and Republicans are evil, etc. But the bias is insidious in numerous other ways, many times unrecognizable. And it tries to shape your views and the views of others in indirect ways. Take this statement from a recent Fran Spielman article titled "Mayor Takes Another Shot at Gun-Control":

• But Daley thinks that at the very least, there's a good chance that a statewide ban on assault weapons will pass this spring. Since the federal ban on assault weapons expired in 2004, Chicago Police officers have seized 519 assault weapons.

The entire article is a fluff piece on the mayor's crusade against guns for the past 17 years and how he thinks the tide is turning against the NRA. And a typical civilian will think, "Wow, what a great mayor. He hates guns because guns cause so much pain. And look at all those assault weapons the police have taken off the streets. We're safer because of the mayor. Let's build him a statue." We won't even go into the skipped studies that PROVE gun ownership reduces crime. Did you notice the last sentence?

• Since the federal ban on assault weapons expired in 2004, Chicago Police officers have seized 519 assault weapons.

519 might seem like a lot of guns. In 2004, we took 10,000+ off the streets. In 2003, we took 10,000+ off the streets. In fact, if you get a hold of the numbers, we'll bet we regularly took 10,000+ a year off the streets. How many were "assault weapons?" As the definition of "assault weapon" is so vague as to be meaningless, we'd still bet each year we took 519 at a minimum. See what we mean? Fran has no context to her statement comparing assault weapons to any other type of confiscated weapons. Her bias is the mayor's bias against ALL weapons and no one calls them on it. This is typical slipshod reporting and typical media bias. And almost no one ever catches them at it or recognizes it for what it is. But we do.