2 Years Young - and a Thank You

Happy Birthday to us! Can you believe it?

• 730 days of blogging
• 2321 posts
• almost 1.2 million visitors on 6 continents
  
• well over 4.1 million page views
• tens of thousands of comments
• countless hours of fun for us and our readers

Thank you gentlemen, ladies and others. Without your visits, we wouldn't even think of putting the effort we do into this site, little though it may be.

Also, we owe a belated thanks to a fellow blogger for a few thousand visits from around the globe over the past two days. Hop over to "The Other Side of Kim" and surf around his site. He was kind enough to write about and link to a couple of pieces we wrote. Chicago lost a real citizen of the world when Kim left town for Texas. His essays on the mayor are a joy to read.

Careful Please

Sometime Wednesday afternoon, an Admin Fax came out that stated officers shouldn't be riding on the backs of squadrols in any circumstances. We also saw a couple comments that referenced an incident that probably led to the fax being issued.

Hopefully, the officers involved recover fully. This could have been way worse than it was.

State Budget

Bend over people - here come the democrats again!

• The Illinois House approved Wednesday night the revenue portion of Speaker Mike Madigan's budget proposal. It includes $300 million in new business taxes and no new casinos.

That's not the worst of it though:

• The plan could run into opposition from the governor, and from Senate President Emil Jones.
  
  They favor a bigger spending increase.

$300 million isn't enough - they want more.

• The House Democrats' plan does not make full pension payments that are due to state pension funds. It raises taxes on businesses by closing some exemptions that are worth several hundred million dollars, and it leaves Mayor Richard M. Daley facing potential cut-backs and lay-offs at the Chicago Transit Authority and Chicago Public Schools.

Gee, raise taxes and still, the pensions don't get funded. And the CTA won't get any more money to piss away? Quick, someone call Huberman!

• Huberman detailed four other plans that CTA staff considered before recommending cutting service on 63 bus routes and the Yellow Line and Purple Line Express routes and introducing a new fare structure that would charge rush-hour commuters up to $3.25.

  One plan involved closing the CTA's $97.5 million budget gap almost solely by raising fares. Under that plan, riders would pay $7 to ride buses and trains during peak hours.

  Another option -- if the CTA didn't divert any capital dollars to its operating budget -- would have been to increase fares to as much as $5.50 during peak hours, while eliminating 107 bus routes and all CTA L lines except Red and Blue.

$7 dollars a ride? Eliminate 107 bus routes and every train line except the Red and Blue lines? Bwahahahaha. This brilliant idea is from the mayor's golden boy? Bwahahahaha. Oh lord.

Obama - Moron

This goof is unbelievable:

• Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Tuesday offered a plan to provide health care to millions of Americans and more affordable medical insurance, financed by tax increases on the wealthy.
• Obama didn't mention how much his plan would cost and the campaign refused to provide a total figure. A memo written by three outside experts and distributed by the campaign after his speech said the plan would cost an estimated $50 billion to $65 billion a year once fully implemented. That amount, however, is after deducting what the campaign says Obama's plan would generate through improved efficiency and other federal savings.

Has this fool ever taken an economics course? Ever? Never, in the entire course of history, has raising taxes on the wealthy resulted in anything except economic ruin. The wealthy will always pull investment income out of the equation, move it overseas, create tax shelters, etc., in order to keep their wealth safe. Then, factories will close, unemployment rises, layoffs ensue, and recession takes hold.

And we love how his campaign people can't come up with any estimates for total cost. Because that would put a nail into his ambition instantly. And what government has Obama worked for where he thinks that efficiency and savings could EVER be generated by the Feds?

Mark Brown Has the Answers!

Not the answers to society's problems.

The answers to the Lieutenants Exam!

Well, not the answers per se, but the scenarios.

• I'm sitting here looking at the seven test questions that lieutenant candidates for the Chicago Police Department will face next month if they choose to retake the oral portion of their promotional exam.

  The irony of me having these questions in my possession is that the oral exam is designed to test their ability to think on their feet in a spontaneous situation.

  But I already have the test questions because they already have the test questions because they already took the same test once -- which means there won't be anything spontaneous about it.

  If that doesn't make sense to you, then join the club.

It doesn't make sense Mark, because you're dealing with the City of Chicago. It doesn't have to make sense as long as the connected and people with the correct birthright get promoted.

Of course, now that the media has a hold of the questions (or a reasonable reconstruction of the questions) any fig leaf of an excuse that this exam is supposed to test the ability of Sergeants to "think on their feet" can be dismissed as absolute bullshit.

Thanks Mark Brown for finally bringing some light to a thoroughly corrupt promotional process. Now how about asking Noelle Brennan where her Federal monitors are at, how much this is going to cost taxpayers and if this is how a test is given for supervisory positions, what is truly the state of the Department that is supposed to serve and protect the citizens of Chicago? There's at least half a year worth of columns for Mark Brown in our comment sections and our archives. All it takes is knowing what questions to ask.

Meeks, Shut the Hell Up

If Illinois doesn't have a budget passed by midnight tonight, a super-majority is needed to pass any budget proposals. This actually empowers the tiny Republican contingent, which is adamantly against Blago and the dems attempts to jack up taxes across the board. In spite of the fact that the dems control the House, Senate, Governor's mansion, and every other major state office, they couldn't get together on a budget.

We just located this little tidbit. We have no idea how long it will be until someone pulls it off of the Channel 2 website, but here it is in all it's glory:

• The South Side's Sen. James Meeks fears the Chicago Public Schools that are his top priority will not get the big funding increase he says they need.
  
  "We need to call it what it is: racism. We need to return to the marches and protests of the '50s and '60s. And say to Springfield, enough is enough," Meeks said.

Racism? Where? The democrats control EVERYTHING in Springfield. Everything. How in god's name is this racist in the least? Where is the media outrage, hell, even the public outrage, when Meeks was using his position to blackmail the governor into a $4 billion dollar increase in school funding by raising taxes?

Meeks is a one trick pony and corrupt race baiting piece of garbage. For an alleged "man of god," his moral compass sure could use a tune up.

Family Affair

We can only hope that the family that sells fake ID's together, has provided tens of thousands of fake identification documents to illegal aliens, and as a side note, provided the latin king street gang with the opportunity to garner hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal shakedown and/or protection money eventually will go to prison together.

• Elias Munoz, the father of a Chicago alderman, has been charged in connection with a Little Village raid last month. Federal authorities claim a photo shop was producing phony identification documents.
• The complaint also alleges that undercover informants posing as fake ID sellers used the Munoz photo shop to make phony Social Security cards, green cards and drivers licenses. The government also claims that on busy days the shop would complete well over 100 orders a day for photos that ultimately would be used for phony identification cards.

If they could just tie it into illegal campaign contributions or maybe even a wiretap of the aldercreature, we'd be more than happy to see another of these mopes go to prison.

No Risk Investing

More stupidity from downstate. Jones and Blago specifically:

• Nearly two dozen female and minority investors in the failed Emerald Casino could get bailed out of their multimillion-dollar, bad investment under a massive gambling expansion backed by Gov. Blagojevich and Senate President Emil Jones.
• Tucked within the 218-page gambling bill is a controversial provision that could allow the clout-heavy group to recoup $32.8 million lost on the Emerald deal and have an ownership stake in one of four new casinos proposed for Chicago and the suburbs.
• "When you invest, whether in a casino or stocks, you are taking a risk. . . . When you invest and lose, the state shouldn't be bailing you out," said Cindi Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.
• Emerald investors include Sandra Degnan, wife of former mayoral aide Tim Degnan; Chaz Ebert, wife of Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert; Connie Payton, widow of Chicago Bear Walter Payton, and former Chicago Bear Shaun Gayle.

Wouldn't it be great if the state would reimburse us for all the non winning lottery tickets we've collected over the years? Or the losses our Deferred Comp took throughout the late 90's and early 00's? Or even the swampland we own across Florida that hasn't really appreciated in value over the past decade?

These connected folks thought they had a fail safe way to increase their millions. The trouble is they ended up hooked in with various Organized Crime figures. Too bad for them - they gambled and lost. Why are Illinois taxpayers on the hook for their bad research and poor business acumen?

Another "Beating"

Channel 2, Channel 5, Channel 7, Sun Times, Tribune.

We're going to summarize a few comments that caught our eyes in the various comment sections:

• The "victim" has been named as a gang member in a number of comments and it's been reported so by a number of news outlets. BUT, we are noticing more and more of the news reports are deleting that allegation. One outlet has even posted a variation on the "innocent altar boy" theme saying that the "victim" can always be found playing saxophone at his church. This media whitewashing is especially troubling.
  
• The Officer was the subject of a hit attempt, the cause of a Zero Tolerance operation against a street gang, and continues to have a price on his being wounded or worse. His kid has been the victim of a number of confrontations, assaults and attacks.

We've also heard the "victim" didn't live in the neighborhood and the Officer has been praised by neighbors as always looking out for everyone.

We don't purport to know which of the above is truth or rumor. We don't know what happened in that alley among which persons. We don't know anything for a fact at all. What we do know, and what we learned since an unfortunate incident much earlier in our career, is this simple advice:

• If you touch them, they go to jail.

That's it. Simple words, yet so often ignored. The second you lay hands on anyone, a case report should be generated, an arrest report completed and a TRR filled out. It is worrying that this doesn't happen as a matter of routine, but it would have saved a bunch of people some grief in recent incidents.

Unprepared - Part II

Someone posted the following in the "Unprepared on Purpose" thread somewhere below this one:

• Well, the average Joe knows now that we're not prepared...Thanks to this stupid ass post and blogsite.

Actually, in a fantasy world opposite of Daley-land, the average Joe being appalled at the state of our unreadiness could be a good thing. Then they could complain, raise a little hell, maybe advocate for more actual hands on training of officers, upgraded weaponry, better equipment, radios, batteries that hold a charge for more than 5 hours, cars with less than 120,000 miles on it, etc.

In reality, we're just screaming into the Internet void. This site isn't going to change much. The powers that be will continue to short change the average street copper in terms of training, continue to steer crooked contracts and land deals to their buddies, continue to promote incompetents based on who knows/blows who.

Until the big one happens and citizens see firsthand how inadequately prepared their public safety personnel (through little fault of their own) were trained and equipped, we will continue to get the short end of the stick. Over and over again.

As to this site being stupid and the referenced post being stupid, stop coming here boss. We're probably screwing up your spot somehow.

Hmmm

From SecondCitySarge, we heard about this interesting survey on the Lieutenant website:

• Would you approve a wage reduction of 1-5 percent in exchange for living outside of the City of Chicago, but within Cook County?

At last count, the numbers were running 38% yes and 62% no (42 to 69).

The survey is completely open to anyone who stumbles across the Lieutenant site and therefore is immediately suspect. We voted in it twice, once for each side. But it does raise an interesting question:

• Is the Lieutenant's Association seriously looking into making residency and issue?
• Who else is going to?

Discuss.

Caption This Photo

From an amusing reader of ours:

The fun never ends at SCC.

CW Out? Rumors Abound

Rumors are reaching our ears that Chief of the Patrol Div.... we mean the Deputy Superintendent of the Bureau of Patrol has suddenly been removed from any and all consideration for the top spot.

And another top vote getter is voicing some disinterest in the job, due to certain political realities on the ground.

Post your best rumors here - share them with your friends. We're taking it easy for the holiday anyway, so why not have some fun.

A Miracle Cure

The casinos are coming:

• Gov. Blagojevich and Senate President Emil Jones embraced a new $5 billion plan Friday that would bring four casinos to the Chicago area and impose additional business taxes to fund health care, schools and mass transit.
• Under Jones-backed legislation that advanced out of a Senate committee by a vote of 8-5, three riverboat licenses would be authorized for Waukegan, the south suburbs and some point within an eight-mile radius of O'Hare Airport. Additionally, Chicago would get a casino.

And of course, nothing would be complete without Emil Jones getting his filthy, dirty, corrupt fingers in some part of the pie:

• Republicans attacked the proposal, in part, because it would divert 2 percent of revenues from the four casinos to Chicago State University, potentially handing the school a $40 million windfall that would double its take from the state.
• In committee, Jones initially said Chicago State wasn't in the legislation. But the GOP pointed out the specific language in the 218-page bill that would assure the university a multimillion-dollar windfall, prompting Jones to quietly tell a dissatisfied and surprised Senate Democratic colleague that the bill could be amended.

How about a proposal to divert 2% of the funds toward unpaid pension liabilities? Or even 5% or more? The underfunded portions would be paid off in a few short years and could even be used to make the funds self sufficient - meaning the state wouldn't have to pay another dime into them ever again and could actually - GASP!! - cut taxes, thereby making Illinois once again attractive to industrial investors and people who might want to build factories and create jobs here.

Oh wait, that makes sense. We apologize.

That's Going to Leave a Mark

Ick:

• Police were investigating Saturday the grisly death of a 44-year-old worker who was cut in half by equipment at a Chicago Tribune printing plant.

OSHA violations?:

• The man apparently was cleaning under an elevator when it descended and he became wedged between the elevator and the conveyor belt that carries newspapers to the building's dock area.

Gun Order Delayed?

From one of our regular readers, we get the following info:

• The ADS of Research and Development is allegedly taking input from a former range officer. This officer is associated with a business that stands to make a bunch of money as one of the agencies that would be allowed to qualify officers on their new weapon. This is also contributing to a hang up in the final signing of the weapons.
  
• A bunch of gun manufacturers are about to discontinue their lines of all metal guns (S&W, Beretta and Ruger). That would leave SIG Arms as the only producer of approved weapons shortly.

Anyway, the bottom line is that petty Department politics and squabbles are about to leave this Department high and dry in terms of outfitting new officers and even further behind the curve in terms of firepower arrayed against us. So very typical.

UPDATE: Since someone pointed out the fact that R&D doesn't have an ADS, we'll just name the exempt in the letter that was sent to us who is allegedly holding up everything - Anne Egan.

Unprepared on Purpose

Is the Department being willfully blind by under training it's officers? From the comments section:

• I actually tried to recertify this year with the shotgun certification program but since Im no longer on a gang or tact team I was denied, even though I stated in my TO/FROM that I'd even go on my own time. I work midnights and thought it might be good to have an officer or two that was trained and certified with the shotgun since the gang and tact teams are all done by two, God forbid something serious were to happen where a shotgun would help out. Thats how much the powers that be really want to be prepared.
• I recently left a certain unit(yes voluntarily) in which I was shotgun and heavy weapons certified to go back to a district and work the first watch(family reasons, couldn't do the rotating shifts anymore) and was told by the first watch W/C that I would not be able to re-certify because these things "were not needed on the watch." I guess being prepared and officer well-being is not needed on the watch.

Any W/C that would take this attitude is really begging to be put in the cross hairs of a post incident debriefing. Sadly, this isn't a unique attitude. Probably under a half a percent of the Department is shotgun qualified at any given time, and the shotguns supplied are pretty ancient Remington 870's. Fortunately, the Remington is a fairly low maintenance shotgun because the condition of some that we've seen is pretty sad. But still, unless you train with the gun regularly, you're more of a danger to your co-workers than bad guys.

We remain of the opinion that there ought to be gun safes in at least one or two sergeant's vehicles in every district with a couple of long guns, rifles and shotguns. There also ought to be at least 10 people trained on every single watch to handle these weapons. When you need these types of guns, you need them right away, not 10 or 12 minutes later. This is a simple, cost effective way of getting a little edge on the street in the event of a real emergency.

Missing the Point?

What is it with these aldercreatures?

• Already overflowing with bars and booze, Wrigleyville has finally had enough of what a community leader once called the "Bourbon Street atmosphere" around Wrigley Field.

  On Thursday, Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) took the first of two major steps designed to turn off the spigot.

Isn't this the point of Wrigleyville? People want to be close to the "party town" atmosphere? We can understand cracking down on overly loud party-goers, but didn't most of them move there for this purpose?

Where else are the city ambassadors going to take International Olympic Committee members for a good time? Bridgeport? Talk about trying to kill the golden goose.

Pay for it Yourself!

From a "concerned citizen" in our comments section (no word on if this citizen is the police or civilian). As usual, we'll respond piecemeal:

• A few questions from a concerned citizen to the Real Police who have obviously given a lot of thought to these issues-
  

Thanks for your time and effort

• -Does Chicago utilize the CERT (Civilian Emergency Response Team)concept? There is federal grant money available for this. Interested community members get trained in first aid, SAR, disaster response, etc. I don't think anything would preclude sworn officers and their families from taking this training, even if it was offered only by suburban or outlying first responder agencies/fire departments, etc.

We don't know if Chicago actually utilizes the CERT concept. Federal money means Federal oversight and with 3 or 4 separate task forces solely dedicated to Chicago political corruption, we doubt that the Administration wants any more "oversight." And of course, nothing at all would preclude officers from seeking training on their own... except life obligations, money, family, court, second job, school, etc.

• - For major emergency use only, could an interested officer purchase and keep in their car trunk their own protective mask and related MOPP gear, and related articles that they know work properly and know how to use?

Again, nothing at all prevents us from doing this. Unfortunately, most of this MOPP gear has expiration dates unless stored in temperature controlled environments. Some involves quite a bit of training. Much of it is prohibitively expensive to outfit a single person and if you've read the board lately, cops can barely afford the housing prices in the City and usually have to get second or third jobs to send their kids somewhere where they might actually get an education.

• - Rechargable batteries for portable, two way radios are not overly expensive. Could one not keep a couple of new "reserve" batteries in one's bag, charged and ready to use?

We barely have enough batteries to outfit the next watch coming on duty. The batteries we have don't hold a charge for more than 6 hours. Batteries are expensive, so the City, in it's ultimate penny pinching wisdom barely keeps enough on hand. We have cars with over 120,000 miles being used on a day to day basis, many without any sort of battery adapters or cigarette lighters because they're either broken or destroyed by the computer mounts and over use. And again, asking coppers to outfit themselves is not really going to fly.

• - Could relevant training be taken on one's personal/vacation time? I knew an officer who did this, and went to an excellent WMD response course sponsored by the USG.

OK, we're pretty sure that this writer is a civilian at this point. Why is it all of the sudden the officer's responsibility to get all this training on his or her time? On his or her vacation? On his or her dime? Have we missed something here? Most of us AREN'T the police 24/7. We don't exist to solve every problem that comes up in the world. This is a job and like most people with jobs, we like time off, time away from the BS, time to relax. We aren't automatons that are living, breathing and sleeping how we can suddenly leap into action to protect the civilian population from threats or incidents.

• You shouldn't have to use your own time and money to address these issues, but it's better than the alternative of hope for the best.
  
  Comments?

But that's exactly what you've proposed in just about every single one of your points above. None of them make sense standing alone and taken together, perpetuates some sort of Utopian ideal that will never be reached and if it could be reached, would end up looking like something out of Stalin's Soviet Union.

We've known officers who have taken additional course because they wanted to. They've spent their own money. They've sacrificed time with family, time for vacation, time for life to this end. And in 99 cases out of 100, do you know what the City has done for them? Zero. Zip. Nada. They're pushing beat cars or driving desks, meaning the knowledge they acquired and could use to make everyone a bit safer is completely wasted. So they're out money, time and are unappreciated.

What's not to love?

Silly City Accounting Practices

This is just like the City:

• Dog owners have been thumbing their noses at the city’s mandatory dog license for decades. Chicago has roughly 500,000 dogs. It sells only 20,072 licenses despite years of threatened crackdowns.

  Why, then, did the Daley administration quietly impose a five-fold increase in the annual license fee for dogs not spayed or neutered — from $10 to $50?

Lets just review the math here:

• 20,072 licenses at $10 per = $200,720 in fees
• 479928 unlicensed dogs at $10 per = $4,799,928 in uncollected revenue

Almost $5 million - that covers half of the mayor's $10 million dollar budget hole, just by taxing DOGS at the old rate. You jack that up to $50, you now have $23 million in UNCOLLECTED revenue - two and a third budget shortfalls.

The reason the city would rather crack down on the law abiding is simple - because they obey the law. Until we start confiscating or destroying the dogs that run loose across the city and actually start levying fines against the owners - COLLECTIBLE fines - the dog population will continue to grow and the population of people who don't buy licenses will, too.

CTA Cuts

It must be nice to be the anointed one for this Administration. If you hold your nose long enough, you can do all sorts of dirty work for various Departments:

• Channel 5 - CTA President Ron Huberman said drastic cuts will be necessary to comply with a directive from the RTA as a contingency plan to balance its 2007 budget. He said in a release that he will recommend a plan calling for further administrative cuts, fare hikes, a 13 percent reduction in bus and rail service, and the transfer of nearly $57 million in capital funds intended for renovating buses and rail cars.
• Huberman said he is recommending this approach because of all the scenarios evaluated, it lessened the immediate impact on customers. 58 percent of the necessary funds would come from a transfer of capital and only 15 percent from service reductions and 21 percent from fare increases. Every scenario included 6 percent from administrative reductions.

6% Adminstrative reductions? Bwahahaha. You could cut out an entire layer of redundant bureaucratic middle managers at the CTA, not to mention the CPS and god only knows how many spots at our own 35th Street and probably save the taxpayers hundreds of millions. We haven't read how he's going to gut pension contributions yet, but it's coming.

And in case you wonder about the timing:

• Channel 2 - "We would have to develop plans to inform customers of the proposed changes. Basically, the timing of this announcement was driven by a number of factors. I point that out because some of you may jump to the conclusion that we are making this announcement in order to put pressure on the state legislature. Let me be very clear that this is not the case," Huberman said.

Ron, stop lying. This is exactly you putting pressure on Springfield - or rather, Daley acting through you. Even though we haven't sat down with an actual CTA Bus and Rail map yet, we notice a large number of the cuts appear to be in certain communities that tend to vote straight democratic. The puppetmaster continues to pull all the strings.

Don't Worry - We're PREPARED!

This will make us sleep better at night:

• New details released on Wednesday revealed just how well prepared Chicago might be for an emergency.
• In January, a federal report ranked Chicago ranked Chicago low among cities for disaster preparedness, but the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications said a staged evacuation of more than 3,000 people from four buildings last September went well.
• "The results of the exercise were positive," said Cortez Trotter, the city's chief emergency officer. "It was a good report."

Great. So 3,000 civilians know what to do. 3,000 people from buildings that rank kind of low on the target hierarchy if we recall. Buildings when the security guards propped open the doors and made sure there weren't any crushes of people clogging the exits. We feel much better.

By the way, has anyone gotten their updated orders on how to operate in a terror attack zone? How radio communications will operate? What will happen if a biological, chemical or nuclear device is detonated? How gang, tact or incident teams will be mobilized? Whether or not Detectives will be put in uniform and if they will be used in a support capacity for the Feds?

Remember, it isn't feasible or necessary to train every first responder according to an exempt patrolman. All the bosses know exactly how to deploy coppers instantly. In most cases, they were BORN to command.

From the Comment Section

From the comments:

• Hey S.C.C, tomorrow on change day all A/2 tac teams start the new hours of 2000-0430. Thanks Dep. appreciate going to court on no sleep.

Well, isn't that a volunteer spot? Aren't teams subject to changes in hours, days off, assignments, details and all sorts of things? This has happened the past few summers anyway, though mostly on Fridays and Saturdays.

Our sympathy meter isn't really registering here. Let's check it out:

Nope, we're just not getting a reading at all. It's getting to the point where a beat car is actually a desirable spot. Remember, they can't make you work tact. Frankly, we're still surprised people do.

Educating Stupid People - Again

Why does it appear that our lot in life is to explain things to people too stupid to actually hold part-time jobs that pay way more than we'll ever earn. In this case, we have to explain things to stupid aldercreatures:

• Chicago aldermen are demanding city council hearings into last year's report on alleged police torture of murder suspects by John Burge and members of his police unit. The aldermen want the authors of the court-ordered report to explain why Burge has never been indicted or stripped of his police pension and why Mayor Daley, who was state's attorney at the time, hasn't been held accountable for not filing charges against the Burge unit.

Let's save everyone a little time and a whole lot of wasted taxpayer dollars:

• Point #1 - Burge was never indicted because the State's Attorney at the time was building up a law-and-order record to run on and didn't want Burge indicted. The State's Attorney then is the current mayor now
• Point #2 - Burge was never stripped of his pension because to do that, you need a criminal conviction. See Point #1 again
• Point #3 - Three words the City Council better learn in a hurry: Statute of Limitations. Its the reason a bunch of current aldercreatures still have jobs (according to Bob Cooley's book anyway)
  
• Point #4 - Since when has Daley been held accountable for anything? Crooked land deals, fraudulent "minority company" contracts, massive cost overruns, questionable hiring practices, "mericloutorious" promotions of all stripes, etc
  

Come on. This City, County and much of the State are run by crooked Machine politicians, a complicit republican "opposition" party and not a little bit of Organized Crime. The new members of the City Council really ought to worry about laws they can change - like the foie gras law.

Global Warming Debunked

As more and more scientists disassociate themselves from Al Gore's propaganda, real scientific evidence, backed up by actual research, is revealing so much of the green's and the left's argument as BS. Via The Other Side of Kim, we get this commentary and chart from the Bidinotto Blog:

• The environmentalists cherry-pick their temperature data. It's easy to declare an increasing temperature trend by starting your measurements in a very cold period, then plotting a subsequent graph that shows temperatures climbing upward out of that trough. Environmentalists choose to start plotting temperatures over the past 150 years, because 150 years ago we were in a cooler period than now. Thus, voila! Graphic "proof" of "global warming."
  
  But what if we start plotting temperatures earlier than that -- much earlier?
  
  It's easy to see their manipulative scaremongering when Earth's temperature changes are viewed over a VERY long-term perspective...like 425,000 years.

Sure looks like the earth is actually cooling to us. In fact, an overly warm Earth seems like an anomaly in and of itself. The Earth's natural state is actually much cooler than it happens to be today. And a cooler Earth only means one thing to us:


More Hockey!

Worrying Statistic

In light of the offer to legalize upwards of 12 million illegals, this ought to give everyone pause:

• One in four younger U.S. Muslims say suicide bombings to defend their religion are acceptable at least in some circumstances, though most American Muslims overwhelmingly reject the tactic and are critical of Islamic extremism and al Qaeda, a poll says.
• While nearly 80 percent of U.S. Muslims say suicide bombings of civilians to defend Islam cannot be justified, 13 percent say they can be, at least rarely.
• That sentiment is strongest among those younger than 30. Two percent of them say it can often be justified, 13 percent say sometimes and 11 percent say rarely.

Even if 1% of the illegals happen to belong to the "Religion of Pieces," that's 120,000 people, 30,000 of whom would approve or support suicide bombings. One percent too generous? Half a percent makes it around 15,000 supporters. Even if those 15,000 aren't willing to strap on a device, think you could run a halfway decent clandestine terror cell with 15,000 potential supporters for money, material, safe houses and the like?

And remember, the head of the Department of Homeland Security has already asked that the provision for back taxes be waived because it would be too difficult to figure out who had been in the country and for how long. They probably won't be able to enforce the "go home for one year" provision either. How the hell are they going to identify security risks among an unknown number of illegals who support suicide bombing in any way, shape or form?

Don't Worry Phil

We're sure that Richie's got you covered on this one:

• Retiring Police Supt. Phil Cline on Monday urged Mayor Daley to choose an insider as Chicago's next top cop.

  Cline said he has nobody specific in mind, at least not a name that he plans to share with the public. But he strongly disagreed with those who believe the bench is thin at the Chicago Police Department after a wave of retirements of top brass.

  Cline announced his retirement April 2, but he has agreed to stay on until his successor is chosen later this summer.

Merit Pay?

This is humorous. First, the schools are burning through $50 million Federal dollars for all sorts of specialized tutoring that is showing just about zero in terms of results.

Now, they're up for another $28 million in "merit" pay from the bottomless Federal money pit:

• Some Chicago teachers are receiving merit pay for the first time. In all, 10 schools will participate, and even the teachers union and the mayor are supporting the plan.
• Teachers at Lawndale Community Academy on the city's West Side welcome the idea of a bonus in their paycheck, which, along with nine other schools, will be the first to participate in the merit pay concept, the money coming from a $28 million federal grant.
• First, a school's entire staff has to agree to the merit pay concept. Test score improvement is a must, but everyone on the staff - from the lunch workers to teachers - will mutually benefit.

We've also heard that this is being piloted at a bunch of schools where they can't keep teachers on staff. Tying it to test score improvement would be a good thing if the state didn't keep moving the goalposts all the time to make passing easier and continually pumping more and more tax money into a system that is beyond broken.

Again, WTF?

From our comment section [note - we realize the spelling and grammar isn't the best in this comment, but that's how it appeared]:

• OFF TOPIC; put very interesting... saturday night one of the aldermen contacted the 008th District and ordered that all of the drag racers around 43rd and pulaski get the cars towed and posssible arrests.
  When 008th district officers arrived they were told to carrall all the cars into a private parking lot in the area and not allow them to leave.
  Officers were then told not to do tow reports on the cars, but that the private towing company thats used in the parking lot will be making the tows....total cars towed 169.
  Interesting thing is since this is a police matter why was E&R towing not used and a private tow company was...not to mention this private tow company is owned by a captain of police brother.
  Still curious just who it was that got there palm greised for this brash stunt.

First up, where does an aldercreature get to order police around?

Second, corralling cars without any sort of evidence that they were anything but spectators? Disorderly conduct, maybe. Various public morals or alcohol violations, possibly. But impounds? 169? By a private tow company? With no paperwork?

This story might be 100% BS for all we can tell. But if it happens to be true, any supervisor that allowed PO's to be put in this trick bag by confiscating cars with no paperwork, or by blocking exits to private lots so a private tow company could steal illegally parked cars deserves to be castigated, suspended and ridiculed. If we recall correctly, by state law, if the owner of a car is on scene, a private tow MUST drop the car, period. No exceptions. So each and every car taken if the owner was on scene and the police were blocking egress from the lot, can generously be called a stolen car.

Reports from the scene? Taxpayers better hope that this didn't happen because some smart lawyer will get damages for every car if he can track down enough people for a class action suit.

Essay Question #4

Final question:

• Do you believe it necessary to have greater diversity in the makeup of the Department’s
  sworn personnel? If yes, how would you increase the percentage of sworn members from under-represented groups?

We answer: Define diversity for us.

We know coppers of all stripes. We know white cops, black cops, oriental cops of a dozen or more origins. We know hispanic coppers from ten or more Central and South American countries. We know arab coppers, a couple indians and coppers who try to pass as any of the above listed groups. We know males, females, and a couple that we have questions about. Straight, gay, and a whole boatload of freaks. We know cops with eight or nine fingers and one who used to have eleven. We know hard workers, average cops and some of the laziest people to ever wear a uniform. We know a couple of dead cops and a few that went to prison, too.

What is diversity? If the city is looking for one armed, one eyed, wooden legged representation, we'd say that's a bit overboard. This is a pretty diverse Department as it stands. Diversity for diversity's sake is typical liberal stupidity.

You know what? There probably isn't enough money in crooked land deals and city contracts that could get us anywhere near this Superintendent's job. Good luck finding someone who can hold onto their own self respect and personal morality to take what is probably one of the most thankless jobs on earth.

A Sad Day

Over 230 years since we threw off the chains of living under an unelected king, taxation without representation and the severe curtailing of civil rights, and we still have to put up with this:

• Daley and the city's 50 aldermen were sworn in Monday afternoon at City Hall.

Revolution anyone?

In Case You Were Wondering

The Duke Lacrosse Team just made the Final Four.

Nice to see that the rush to prejudge, the cancellation of an entire season, the firing of their coach, and the media & faculty slander hasn't kept the team from a run at number one.

Ouch!

That had to hurt:

• Authorities said a 24-year-old man may have been fatally stabbed inside his Marquette Park home with an unlikely weapon -- a house key.

  The victim, Coty Jackson, was pronounced dead at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn early Sunday morning.

  Jackson, of the 6400 block of South Artesian Avenue, suffered an apparently fatal stab wound to the back of the neck.

Someone had this idea in the comments section, but we also heard that from now on, everyone in the City will be required to leave their homes, garages and cars unlocked so as to stop this deadly key menace in our midst.

A counter protest group has sprung up, the National Key Association, under the banner that "When keys are outlawed, only outlaws will have keys." The NKA promises to fight the key ordinance every step of the way.

Essay Question #3

Just in case anyone missed us over the weekend, we held off on the essay questions. We continue with the application process to become Chicago's next American Id.... we mean Police Superintendent:

• Chicago has experienced a record decrease in homicides and other serious crimes over the past four years. What steps would you take as superintendent to continue this success? How would you address those areas of the city that have experienced less success than others, and address the persistence of gang-related violence?

First of all, we'd ban all guns in the City. That'd drive the homicide rate down to near zero, right? What? Someone thought of that one already?

Well, we'd be sure we devoted adequate manpower and forensic services to actually solving crimes and putting murderers away so at least the perception of not being able to get away with murder might deter... What's that? The clearance rate is somewhere near 36%? What's up with that? Aren't we deploying manpower effectively?

Speaking of deploying manpower, how about hundreds of seatbelt mission, outdoor roll calls and wolfpack missions. That way citizens could see the massive amounts of manpower that is available to prevent shootings and ... What's that? Someone is doing all those things already?

Well, then how the hell can there even be a homicide in the City anymore?

Interesting Reading

From our very own comment section:

• Approximately a month past the Feds provided a document called a "Santiago Proffer" to the court. This document laid out what the Feds believe they will prove in the Family Secrets trial.
  
  In the middle of this document they indicate that someone paid off two high ranking CPD officials routinely in the past. The names have been blacked out but it appears they will be released at trial.
  
  The "Santiago Proffer" can be reviewed at
  www.chicagosyndicate.blogspot.com

We hopped over to the chicagosyndicate blog and let's just say, that is some interesting reading. Seriously. Quite a bit of it is articles lifted wholesale from various publications and by using Google to search key words and phrases, you can pull up more articles including the actual Santiago Proffer mentioned.

More Money Pissed Away

The Sun Times asks:

• Are Your Tax Dollars... Going Down the Drain?

And it's accompanied by a photograph of the new bathroom down in Springfield that's off limits to anyone who isn't a State legislator of some sort. We're pretty sure the editors would have rather used our headline. In any case, the State reps have a spending program in place that would do the Pentagon proud, or any other large bureaucracy looking to spend money that isn't theirs. We note the following:

• A $38,000 clock. Four-hundred-dollar doorknobs. Redecorated bathrooms for state legislators and staff — more than $444,000.

  Those are among the hidden costs of a multimillion-dollar makeover of the Illinois House and Senate with opulent showpieces re-creating the look of the chambers in the late 1800s.

Hell, in the late 1800's, we're pretty sure everyone still kept a chamber pot next to their beds, but we don't see legislators running around with any new pottery. But the best comment is this:

• “Certainly, the chamber has to be nice and to befit a state of our stature. It’s not like we’re Mississippi. We’re a rich state,” said Rep. Jack Franks (D-Woodstock). “But it doesn't mean we should waste taxpayers’ money. You see these types of expenditures, and you have to question whether we could have gotten the same effect for a lot less.”

"We're a rich state." Hmmm. But isn't everyone talking about pension shortfalls? Tax hikes? Didn't Blago just lose some tax hike by a 107-0 vote or something similar? Nice to know we're a "rich state" next time you bastards in Springfield start tossing more of our money into $1,000 toilets.

These guys talk out of three sides of their mouths, don't they?

Pix

Some pictures forwarded to us from Washington DC. Can't post all of them because these things are HUGE files. But this is a nice sampling of some highlights.

He Needed the Money

John Rambo is back and via AceofSpades, here's a link to a trailer for the movie. Warning! It's a little gory.

Sly must have made some really BAD investments over the past few years if he's remaking Rocky and Rambo flicks. We're just saying.

And then today, he was fined some $10,000 dollars for importing vials of Human Growth Hormone into Australia along with vials of testosterone.

Amnesty by Any Other Name

Unbelievable:

• A provision requiring payment of back taxes had been in the initial version of a bill proposed by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat. But the administration called for the provision to be removed due to concern that it would be too difficult to figure out which illegal immigrants owed back taxes…

Michael Chertoff - Bush's head of the Department of Homeland Security - says it'd be too difficult to keep track of who owes what back taxes. And this is the Department in charge of making sure 10 million illegals go back to their own country for a year before returning for a visa. And it gets better according to the HotAir site:

• The real reason they stripped it is because they know illegals wouldn’t comply with it, just like many of them aren’t going to comply by paying the $5,000 penalty. Which is why that’ll end up being stripped too.

The Administration is signaling it's complicity in this joke of a bill.

Thanks Richie!

We guess when you don't have to actually pay for gas, and probably have NEVER ever paid for gas in your entire life, you don't realize the bite it puts on a household budget.

• In chicago, where prices are among the nation's highest, prices rose a penny, to a record average of $3.55.

  Daley said gasoline taxes pay for needed road repairs. He offered motorists this advice.

  "We want more and more people to use public transportation," said Daley. "And maybe this is the year that people realize that -- I don't care where you go -- you need public transportation. You have people driving in-- one in a car-- that really, basically, clogs the expressways. They can only take so much."

Too much of municipal and state budgets are built into projected revenues, so any interruption in that formula would delay projects and programs for politicians. So be it. We'd never expect a democrat to actually reduce taxes. But how about advocating a new refinery or three to increase gas availability? Maybe getting rid of these superfluous EPA blends that limit and just about destroy refinery efficiency for months on end?

Are We Psychic or What?

We scare ourselves:

• There's a new lead in the disappearance of Lisa Stebic; it comes as friends and families mark the missing woman's birthday.
  
  The Naperville Sun is quoting an unnamed police source saying police found a tarp in Craig Stebic's truck which has tested positive for his wife Lisa Stebic's blood.
  
  The Will County State Attorney's Office will neither confirm nor deny that, saying the warrant is under seal.

We still haven't received the $20,000 reward from the authorities. We don't recall if it was for information leading to the return of the victim alive and well or just information leading to her location. We still think we're in line for a little bit of scratch, though.

Outfit Confessions

This is simply unheard of in Chicago underworld circles:

• The star witness in the government's case against a dozen alleged Chicago mob figures pleaded guilty Friday to taking part in a conspiracy that included 18 slayings.
• Nicholas W. Calabrese -- under heavy security -- admitted that he took part in planning or carrying out 14 of the slayings, including that of Tony "The Ant" Spilotro, long known as the Chicago mob's man in Las Vegas, and Spilotro's brother.
• Calabrese said little at the hearing. But when U.S. District Judge James Zagel asked what he did for a living, he said: "Aside from illegal activities, I was a rigger at McCormick Place," the large exposition hall on Chicago's lakefront south of downtown.

Gee, a mobster working at McCormick Place? No show? What else goes on there?

Liar Liar, Pants on Fire

Ted Kennedy's quest to destroy America continues:

• 1965: "The bill will not flood our cities with immigrants. It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society. It will not relax the standards of admission. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs."
  

  1986: "This amnesty will give citizenship to only 1.1 to 1.3 million illegal aliens. We will secure the borders henceforth. We will never again bring forward another amnesty bill like this."

  2007: "Now it is time for action. 2007 is the year we must fix our broken system."

The only time this ass told the truth was 1986 - "We will never again bring forward another amnesty bill like this." He must have meant an amnesty as "small" as 1.3 million. The current bill threatens to legalize well over 10 million people.

Comments Back On

Little glitch in the posting of comments. Comments are now opened in the below posts

Essay Question #2

For some unknown reason, the previous links to the Application for Superintendent of Police have been altered slightly. This means our previous links to the Police Board website are currently dead until we change them. We would hate to think that this tiny little website makes the people who run the Police Board website nervous enough to actually go and alter web addresses to divert traffic.

Anyway, on to the second essay question:

• What specific steps would you take to continue to address allegations of police
  misconduct and to build greater public trust of the Police Department?

And we answer:

• Address the misconception, perpetuated by the politicians and aided by a complicit media, that every single misstep by police officers is willful, felonious and grounds for gratuitous payoffs from the city treasury.
• Allow Seiser to show everyone what serious misconduct might really look like - and why he never allows it to occur.
  

Officer Down - Kenosha

Traffic stop gone really bad:

• A Kenosha County, Wisconsin, sheriff's deputy was shot and killed during a traffic stop Wednesday night. Police are questioning a suspect taken into custody after a massive manhunt. The deputy was shot during a traffic stop.

Prayers and thoughts only

Lawsuit Filed

No surprises here:

• Chicago officials botched the scoring of the police lieutenant exam in January and have devised a retest plan that is unfair to the 660 test-takers, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
• City officials are offering a retest on June 23 to anyone who took the January exam. But the sergeants are uncertain whether to sign up because city officials won't identify whose exam answers were lost, according to the suit filed in Cook County Circuit Court.
  
  The sergeants also allege that the retest will feature the same videotaped scenarios and questions as the Jan. 6 exam, giving repeat test-takers an advantage.
  
  "It's almost ludicrous, that you're going to give the same scenarios again," said John Pallohusky, president of the sergeants group. "It's like giving people the answers to the test beforehand. A lot of our people put so much time and effort in, it's just demoralizing."

Typical City shenanigans. SecondCitySarge and the Sergeant's Association have coverage.

Daley's $10 Million Shortfall

The first we're hearing about this:

• Mayor Daley has ordered 3,250 city managers to take one unpaid furlough day, cut off non-emergency overtime and suspended hiring unrelated to public safety to plug a $10 million hole in his 2007 budget.

  The question is whether those belt-tightening measures will be enough to close the mid-year gap -- or whether Chicagoans must brace for a post-election tax increase.

  "I can't tell you that at this time. What we're doing now, rather than look at tax increases, is controlling expenses through the end of the year," city Budget Director Paul Volpe said today.

The article goes on to say how the budget projections were off by a bit here and there, like the increase in the cigarette tax that we predicted would result in a massive shift of revenue to surrounding suburbs, counties and Indiana (and we were 100% correct). And then there was the cold snap that resulted in massive overtime charges against the Water Department when long neglected water mains and pipes burst. When you neglect infrastructure and spend the "savings" on crooked construction deals, land deals and Olympic proposals, you're going to get hammered down the road.

Good thing the mayor can order people to eat vacation days, eh?

Why Even Have a Border?

Or laws? Or rules? Or procedures? On the bright side, maybe the government can save money by completely disbanding the INS, Border Patrol, and any other bureaucracy that was once dedicated to securing and protecting the borders. As it is, we seem to have a blanket amnesty every 15 years or so which only encourages more illegals to flood the border.

You want to see a meltdown in progress? Check out the following links from the right side of the blogosphere:

• Michelle Malkin - Amnesty could cast the US $2.5 trillion - trillion with a "T"
• Hugh Hewitt - "comprise" means no meaningful fence will ever be built to protect the borders
• Red State reveals that there ISN'T even a bill in existence! The Senate will be voting on a bill that doesn't exist and won't even be reviewable until some time AFTER the vote on Monday
• Ace of Spades on denying contributions to the Republican party, Ace of Spades on the $2.5 Trillion, Ace of Spades on switching parties, Ace of Spades on Fred Thompson; Ace is all over this.
• National Review sees this as a disaster
  

The Republican base is furious over this collapse. McCain has probably just lost any shot at the nomination by throwing in with this bill. Nothing in this bill promises border security. It does nothing to dismantle so called "sanctuary cities" (hello Chicago!). It immediately legalizes upwards of 12 million illegals. It will doom our already sagging social safety net to years of tax increases to cover shortfalls.

You think the illegal problem is bad now? Starting tonight, the rush for the border is going to become insane as hundreds of thousands more people pour over the border to take advantage of this amnesty. We're not at all looking forward to the next few years - especially as Conservatives stay home and President Hillary takes over.

Essay Question #1

The first essay question on the application to become Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department:

• Describe and discuss the three most significant accomplishments in your professional
  career that you believe make you well-qualified to serve as superintendent of the Chicago Police Department.

We answer thus:

• We run a reasonably well known blog that provides officers with timely gossip and information necessary to fill the 8 hours spent in a squad car with a partner who might not be in a position to fulfill the otherwise painful gaps in conversation;
• We put up with the garbage dished out by this City and political administration on a daily/Daley basis, served countless tours in surroundings that would make the EPA blush, in buildings that would overly excite an OSHA inspector, in vehicles often touted as having failed just about every Federal safety standard in existence, often with co-workers who would give the Psychiatric Association an attack of the vapors. Running the asylum would be a welcome break.
  
• We haven't pissed off Seiser that we know of - and he truly runs it anyway.

Sarcasm AND Silliness people. You know we appreciate every single one of you. But what makes YOU qualified to run the circus?

This is Goofy

First up, Daley claims millions in Federal "tutoring" funds are being well spent:

• Fifty million federal dollars for after-school tutoring to produce only negligible gains was money "well spent" by the Chicago Public Schools, Mayor Daley said today, arguing that, "You can't do miracles in one year."

  "Anybody can do a lot of gain. We've seen people in the past [tell students], 'You didn't take the exam this week. That's alright. We'll wait for another couple of weeks. We'll see how well you do. We'll put you on a list of working with you,'" Daley said, apparently referring to gains he viewed as inflated under the regime of former Schools CEO Paul Vallas.

Daley couldn't wait to sing Vallas' praises until Vallas almost upset the apple cart by running for Governor and upsetting the statewide combine.

Then later, we wonder about where all the money seems to go that is earmarked for schools and where the billions that Blago wants to tax us out of are headed. And we read this:

• Some public employees make more in retirement than they did on the job. Hundreds of them in Illinois are now being paid six-figure pensions.
• The top pension paid to a public employee in the state of Illinois last year was nearly $1,000 per day, more than $350,000 a year in retirement pay to a single public employee.
• "Ninety-four are educators," said Bill Zettler, state pension critic.

Now does everyone see how the teachers union manages to get residency issues brought to the forefront and can bully the entire state government into billions of dollars worth of tax hikes and any number of things that we can't seem to bring up anywhere?

Problems Solved!

All we need is a casino. And lucky for us, it's on the agenda. Again.

• A proposed casino for downtown Chicago is back on the table in the State Capitol Wednesday night.
  
  Mayor Richard M. Daley hosted a mini Taste of Chicago in Springfield. Earlier the mayor met the capital's top leaders.
  
  Sources told CBS 2 Daley signed off on a tentative deal that could, after years of discussion, finally bring a casino to downtown Chicago, as well as to south suburban Cook County, north suburban Lake County and a site still to be determined within 8 miles of O'Hare Airport.

We'd be more than willing to support a casino with the following condition:

• 50% of the projected $200 million annually that is to be the City's share is directed into underfunded municipal pensions until the pension is funded at a level considered acceptable by a reputable accounting firm.

Of course, Daley buddies and mob connected front companies will get all the money before our pension funds see a dime. As usual.

Apply Here!

Application for the position of Fall Gu... we mean Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department.

You have until 12 June 2007 at 1700 hours to submit the application and resume (10 copies please).

Stupid Comment

We can't believe someone actually posted this in the comments section, but we thought we'd throw it out here for everyone to enjoy:

• I learned from a friend that a co-worker of his got locked up in 023. So I checked out the arrest, only to find that it was a GANG team who locked him up for .4grams of weed. That is about a $2.00 street value. Since when do gang teams start locking up professionals for bullshit. We wonder why we can't find a jury to side with us when we are victims. We give more breaks to shitheads every single day. Are these two P.O's afraid to lock up a gang banger??? I don't know a thing about these two coppers but unless there was something more involved these two should have a stern talkingto by their SGT and LT.

First up, isn't .4 grams of weed a crime? We didn't know that the City had enacted the "ANOV for Cannabis" ordinance already, but we'll be sure to look that one up real soon.

Second, anyone who says in a public forum that they give out breaks for anything that isn't traffic related is as soft as baby shit.

Third, in this age of video, audio, camera phones, blue light cameras, GPS, squad car cameras, and IAD/OPS greasing the skids for ANYONE and EVERYONE who steps out of line, why in god's name would you even think about dumping .4 grams of weed anywhere except in an Inventory Envelope? If dumb ass was stupid enough to get caught with .4 grams and didn't have the presence of mind to eat it or dump it, he can sit in the back until his prints clear and get his I-bond like every other dumb ass that gets locked up. He'll beat it in court somehow.

And finally, if you don't have any idea that gang teams (and every other team in the city) is numbers driven now and this idiot was just another number, we wonder what inside spot you've been hiding in for the past few years. Their Sergeant and Lieutenant are probably happy that they aren't getting paged at 0400 in the morning for some really stupid shit.

Surprise Surprise

Anyone not see this one coming?

• Police executed a search warrant at the Plainfield home of Lisa Stebic, who has been missing since April 30.
• Officials said some items were removed from the home, which Lisa shares with her estranged husband, Craig.
• Police are also searching two vehicles owned by the couple.
• Stebic's family has offered a $20,000-reward for information leading to her return...

The husband did it! The husband did it!

We'll take the $20,000 in cash please. Forward it to SCC.

CPD Shoots a Few More

North side:

• An armed suspect who a detective shot in the legs following a reported gang-related shooting late Monday in the West Side's Humbolt Park neighborhood was in custody early Tuesday.
• "He [the detective] got out of the car and identified himself as a police officer and tells the offender to drop the gun," Camden said. "The offender turns and points his gun at the detective and the detective opens fire."

South side:

• In one incident that began late Monday night, South Chicago District undercover police officers saw three people standing on a corner near 78th Street and Burnham Avenue, said police spokesman Pat Camden. As the officers approached, the three began running. Police officers chased them and caught a teenage girl by the arm, Camden said.
  
  "She puts a gun to his chest and pulls the trigger," he said. "The weapon didn't fire."
  
  Camden said the officer knocked her to the ground and drew his gun. As she got up, she again pointed the weapon at him, he said.

This second incident especially could have been a very bad situation. According to this report and others, the offender's pistol made contact with the officer's vest. If this offender had actually chambered a round, the blunt trauma alone from a hit that close could have killed the officer even if the vest stopped the round.

The lessons learned here are numerous.

• Everyone on scene needs to be safely detained. The runners (or rabbits) are often just speedsters meant to draw off coppers from the people holding the actual work or, in this case, weapons
• We always hear about females being used to hold weapons or contraband. Welcome to reality
• We also hear from more and more coppers that females are much more likely to fight than not and we've observed the same thing. They are also more likely to be carrying an edged weapon of some sort and very much more likely to use it. Introduce some guns? In this case, the subjects unfamiliarity with the weapon probably saved a copper a world a hurt.

In any case, an excellent job by all parties involved. Watch yourselves.

Jefferson Tap

Coverage at Channel 2, Channel 5 and Channel 7.

Lori Lightfoot is representing one of the officers? Former OPS head Lori Lightfoot?

From Lightfoot's biography at the University of Chicago website:

• Perhaps it is this backbone that City of Chicago mayor Richard Daley recognized in Lightfoot earlier this year when he appointed her to work in the Office of Procurement soon after it came to light that certain companies that had been certified as Minority Business Enterprises or Women Business Enterprises were fronts, created in order to benefit from the city's "set aside" program.
• Lightfoot's reputation for fairness and integrity began to be widely known during her tenure as Chief Administrator of the Office of Professional Standards for the Chicago Police Department. Lightfoot said the biggest challenge in this position was "walking a difficult line between maintaining the integrity of the department and handling complaints against it." One memorable incident occurred in April of 2003, when a van was stopped by police because of an outstanding warrant. The occupants initially refused to get out of the vehicle and the situation rapidly escalated as several squad cars and a large crowd gathered. The police eventually broke the windows of the van and sprayed pepper spray inside. When the driver exited the van the police pushed him to the ground to handcuff him, and even though he was not resisting, excessive force was used. [...] Ultimately, OPS recommended the lead officer be fired, and he ended up facing criminal charges.
  

So a lawyer involved in providing political cover for the mayor after the mob connected Duff family was found to be posing as a "minority" firm (as covered by John Kass in numerous Tribune columns) and providing political cover for the mayor as the head of OPS while dishing out what we've heard described as blatantly uneven disciplinary findings is now defending an officer?

We'll let everyone draw their own conclusions, but we're thinking, "Hmmmmmm."

Wrong Actions - Wrong Lessons

This is just plain silly:

• Hundreds of students walked out of a South Side high school this morning to honor a classmate who was shot and killed on a CTA bus last week, and to protest gun violence in their community.
  
  Three female students at Julian High School planned the demonstration, one organizer said. And others students e-mailed or text-messaged each other this morning to spread word of the walkout. At 10 a.m., they began streaming out of the school, blocking traffic as they walked in 103rd Street toward Lowe Avenue.
  
  "We will not lose another one of our friends to gun violence," said senior Brittney Reynolds, an organizer of the walkout.

Noble sentiments, no doubt. According to bishop Larry Trotter, 12 Chicago Public School students have been killed this year. Arnie Duncan says it's 20. But how does missing a day's worth of education honor Blair Holt? Shouldn't some of these reverends and school officials maybe be telling the kids and members of the community to cooperate with police in finding the illegal guns? Maybe they ought to step up and tell their sons and nephews to stop selling dope? Maybe they ought to be out there helping point the tact teams, gang teams, even TRU to where the bad guys are hiding?

And then, the liberal press helps spin the Brady propaganda:

• Describing their neighborhoods as "under siege," they called on lawmakers to enact tougher controls on the availability of handguns.
  

Can someone explain to us how a "tougher" law would have stopped these two criminals from wreaking the havoc they did? Neither had an FOID card. The gun was unregistered, probably stolen, and we don't even know if it's been recovered. The two offenders completely disregarded the laws that are in place, so what do they care if there's another fifty laws? That's why they're criminals - they ignore laws!

This knee jerk reaction is, once again, pathetic, and will do nothing at all to stop the next innocent from getting shot.

A Billion Here, A Billion There

Remember a few years back, the $1.5 billion dollar bond issue the City Council passed to improve the bottom line of connected construct.... oops, we mean improve O'Hare Airport?

And just a few months ago, the mayor promising about $500 million to the Olympics in order to guarantee certain construction comp.... oops, we mean certain capital improvements and venues could be built on time?

Now, the mayor is asking for another $1 billion bond issue for O'Hare, financed partly by a $4.50 ticket surcharge. Unsaid is that if air travelers don't flock to O'Hare (and they've been avoiding O'Hare more and more), then the local tax levies will guarantee the bonds.

Anyone else wondering why the mayor and his lackeys can't float a billion dollar or two bond issue to maybe bring our woefully underfunded pensions up to something over 48% or whatever insanely low number it's at lately?

We're just saying....

More Black Eyes

Yet again:

• A Chicago police officer was found guilty today of running down a 15-year-old boy with his Cadillac and later claiming the car was stolen.
  
  Cook County Criminal Court Judge Michael Toomin found Charlton McKay, 34, guilty of reckless homicide, leaving the scene of an accident and falsely filing a police report in the death of Edward Lucas.

The article says he's on administrative leave, but earlier reports last week said he had resigned over a year ago.

And now the Jefferson Tap incident reaches its culmination:

• Six Chicago police officers are accused of beating a group of businessmen at a bar in the Loop. On Tuesday, some of those officers will turn themselves in to face criminal charges.

And if the rumor mill is to be believed, another gun team is about to run into a buzz saw of its own and who knows what the casualty count is going to be on this one or who it's going to take down? Man, we hate this shit.

Pic From Washington

No description or explanation, but it looks kind of cool:

Send more if you got them.

Officer Shot

Detective chasing a subject:

• A Wentworth Area detective is hospitalized in serious condition after being shot in the back during a South Side pursuit early Monday.

  Meanwhile, a suspect was in custody for a separate police-involved shooting early Monday on the Near West Side.

  A Wentworth Area detective was shot in the lower back about 12:50 a.m. near West 50th Street and South Peoria Avenue, according to police News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro.

  "The detective saw an individual and approached to conduct a field interview," Alfaro said. "The individual ran and the detective gave chase."

  During the pursuit, the detective was shot in the lower back, Alfaro said. It was unclear who shot him and nobody was in custody at 3 a.m., Alfaro said.

The article mentions a second shooting, but doesn't say officers were wounded. Any info?