The Wrong Buy Back Program

Evidently, the mayor has it all wrong:

• Police are investigating Monday a fatal shooting that took place during a dice game in the West Side's Austin neighborhood.

  According to a report from the police First Deputy Superintendent's office, a gunman approached a group of people "playing a dice game of chance" on the street and fired a handgun multiple times. The gunman was dressed completely in black clothing, Banks said.

And in another incident:

• Two men are in stable condition early Monday after being shot while playing chess late Sunday in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side.

From these reports, it would seem that dice and chess are the leading cause of violence on the south and west sides. The mayor is meeting with various "reverends" and community activist in order to sponsor a "buy back" of these dangerous plastic toys of death. Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers are being strong armed...we mean "requested" to provide Visa and American Express platinum cards and/or travelers checks to those communities hardest hit by the violence of board games gone bad. Initial proposals have dice being "bought back" at $25 a pair and $50 for a set of chess men. Checkers will also be accepted at certain locations, but only for $10 per complete sets of 24.

Harrah's and Trump Casinos have decried the anti-dice movement, claiming that they run legit businesses in various states of the nation and there has never been an act of violence in any of their casinos (aside from recent events in Vegas and Atlantic City where people happen to have gotten in the way of stray bullets somehow). This is widely seen as an effort to stave off threatened marches by "reverends" Jackson and Pfleger.

Another Disgrace?

From the Comments:

• 3 shot in 008>> 1st watch >>in one night. one dead,two wounded (dont really give a f#%k), over this past weekend....what makes matters worse .....beat 811 calls a 10-1....a battery in-progress...one of the offenders caught pouring gas over a citizens car is getting is ass kicked...and here comes momma....an odpo (10 dist 2nd watch) to save the day....what does she do??? she lets the dog loose (a pitbull) on the 811/813...her shit bag son runs inside the house.....sarge on-scene..orders her to give up her son...she responds in her hill-billy way...and sure as shit begans fighting with the police....now she's in for obstruction/resisting.....and all the 1st watch will soon be called on the suit.(p.s.....shes the one who fell of the wagon in 18 doing CHA....)

And from a letter we received not even two hours ago:

• This goof should have been fired years ago. Not only did she fail the shooting at the Academy, she failed the gym portion, too. She was failed by two different Patrol Specialists in the 010th District before a third passed her. Then she gets not one, but two DUI's, one involving her locked up in the burbs and lying to her WC about why she had gone on the medical. A third DUI she was never charged with was when she plowed her personal car into 833 on midnights and injured both officers on her own block (ask 008 people why she was never charged with destroying city property almost five years ago.) She calls herself "Detective" and had cards printed up because she tells everyone, "I'm a preliminary investigator." She took 30 for driving an offender to ATM machines to withdraw money to pay back a victim because she was too lazy to lock his ass up. Isn't that kidnapping and armed robbery like what the SOS guys are charged with? Her kid is a gang banging piece of shit pouring gas on cars and now she sics dogs on responding officers and refuses direct orders? Who the hell is this crazy woman's clout that she can act like this for 12 years? This is the poster child for political bullshit on this job!! Someone please tell us who has been covering her dumb ass behavior for over a decade now!!!!!!

We were going to ask the same thing. Everyone (well almost everyone) agrees that Abbate ought to be fired. The disagreement arises from the severity of the charging. The Jefferson Tap video is subject to all sorts of interpretations, again, the major disagreements coming from the disparity in charging. But then you have all of this alleged bad behavior, supposedly swept under the rug for over a decade, culminating in someone allegedly siccing dogs on fellow officers? What the hell is going on?

Where Did THAT Come From?

Just :::POOF::: out of thin air!

• Mayor Daley has a whopping $217.7 million hole in his 2008 budget that can only be filled through tax increases, employee layoffs, non-personnel spending cuts or a painful combination of the three, aldermen were told today.

  The shortfall is the second-largest in 10 years in the city’s corporate fund alone and is coupled with smaller but still sizeable gaps in the city’s water and sewer funds.
  

  It comes just five months after Daley breezed to re-election on a budget that froze the city’s property tax levy for a third straight year, held the line on all other taxes and fees, and used $94 million of the $1.83 billion Chicago Skyway privatization windfall to finance an array of neighborhood and social programs.

We'll just point out to Fran Spielman that Daley using $94 million out of $1.83 billion for pet projects still leaves over $1.736 BILLION unaccounted for. We realize some of the money went to retiring old debt and refinancing other bond issues. But for Fran to point out $94 million and not think that the average citizen doesn't own a calculator is just her carrying water for the Daley administration again (as she so often does). How about asking some seriously HARD questions Fran? Like where the real wasted money goes? Like how many useless contracts get handed out ripping off taxpayers? Like where the money budgeted to hire more cops goes as we're still over 1,000 bodies short of budgeted strength? Do a little digging please.

And everyone else, keep voting democratic - tax raises for everyone! Everyone who actually pays taxes that is.

Sue the Gangs?

Do we really need to enrich trial lawyers this badly?

• Fed up with deadly drive-by shootings, drug dealing and graffiti, cities nationwide are trying a different tactic to combat gangs: They're suing.
  

  Fort Worth and San Francisco are among the latest to file lawsuits against gang members, asking courts for injunctions barring them from hanging out together on street corners, in cars or anywhere else in certain areas.

  The injunctions are aimed at disrupting gang activity before it can escalate. They also give police legal reasons to stop and question gang members, who often are found with drugs or weapons, authorities said. In some cases, they don't allow gang members even to talk to people passing in cars or to carry spray paint.

We can just imagine what law firms the mayor would choose to attempt to collect from the gangs. And how would the City define gang bangers assets as liable for seizure?

We don't doubt that certain aldercreatures who used to belong to certain gangs would attempt to carve out some sort of exemptions for their former buddies. Or license and grant geographical limits (franchise fees if you will) defining exclusivity rights to their wards - like the right to extort protection money for photo "estudios" to provide fake documentation for illegal aliens...oh wait, that one already exists!

It's the Chicago way after all.

Ride To Remember

The 3rd Annual. A good time was had by all reports (this one from the Tribune):

• On a West Side street Sunday morning, a single motorcycle engine sparked to life. Before long, it was joined by a chorus belching forth a deep, throaty rumble.
  
  Soon a concussive procession of chrome, leather and tattooed arms was speeding past, as hundreds of bikers rode through the 3200 block of West Harrison Street to the awe of pedestrians.
  
  But if the noise was deafening, at least it was for a cause.

Channel 5 and Channel 7 also had coverage. Tribune photo gallery here.

Die Already You Miserable Prick

This lovely story from Channel 7:

• The inmate who's been in prison longer than anyone else in Illinois is up for a parole hearing this week.

  Seventy-eight-year-old William Heirens was sentenced to three back-to-back life terms for crimes he committed in the 1940's. He's spent 61 years in prison.

  Heirens was convicted of the 1945 killings of two Chicago women and the 1946 kidnapping, dismemberment and murder of a six-year-old girl.

  He was 17 years old when he entered the Cook County Jail. In his time in prison he became the first Illinois prisoner to earn a degree while in jail.

  On Thursday, the Illinois Prisoner Review Board will decide if Heirens is rehabilitated enough for release.

In jail for 61 years and no one has ever shanked this piece of excrement? The fawning profiles we saw all over the news today turned our stomachs. And now he's eligible for release?

Hey Prisoner Review Board? Guess who isn't around to give testimony about poor William Heirens? Two Chicago women and a 6 year old girl. Let this bastard die in prison. Sometimes, society needs its vengeance. Too bad dying in prison is the best we can hope for.

Chase Policy Revisited?

Well well well, lookie here. As predicted, the "no chase" policies enacted by various Departments have had the effect that police predicted they would:

• The two men in the silver Infiniti were pulled over only for having tinted windows -- so when the driver hit the gas and fled, the state trooper had no choice but to let them speed away.
  
  The trooper was just following an Illinois State Police policy that allows officers to chase drivers only when they believe someone is in danger or when a violent crime has occurred.
  
  After fleeing from the traffic stop, the men inside the car allegedly went on a crime spree in Illinois corn country, fatally shooting a sheriff's deputy and then taking hostages at a small-town bank. They were arrested hours later.

So a "no-chase" policy resulted in at least one Officer being killed. Once you forbid the police from being the police, criminals will establish behaviors and footholds where they once didn't have the courage to do so:

• no felony charges for attacking the police = more batteries to PO
• no traffic enforcement = more people drive with impunity
• no disorderly conduct charge = more people actually being disorderly
• no chase policy = more people fleeing at the drop of a hat

Society gets the police it deserves and when they spend their time emasculating the police and tying their hands, one really has to wonder what they expected.

A Worrying Phenomena

It's been touched on before, but always brings a pause to thoughts:

• Evidence of gang culture and gang activity in the military is increasing so much an FBI report calls it "a threat to law enforcement and national security." The signs are chilling: Marines in gang attire on Paris Island; paratroopers flashing gang hand signs at a nightclub near Ft. Bragg; infantrymen showing-off gang tattoos at Ft. Hood.
  
  "It's obvious that many of these people do not give up their gang affiliations," said Hunter Glass, a retired police detective in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the home of Ft. Bragg and the 82nd Airborne. He monitors gang activity at the base and across the military.

Imagine some of these bangers with some basic small unit tactics and proficient with automatic weapons. It sure seems like a good thing that Daley has personally removed each and every gun from the City Streets.

Anyone See a Pattern Here?

Anyone? The media spotted it already.

• BURR RIDGE, Ill.---- Three masked robbers broke into the suburban Chicago home of New York Knicks forward Eddy Curry early Saturday, according to police.

  The robbery took place a little over two weeks after Miami Heat forward Antoine Walker was robbed at gunpoint at his Chicago town house.

  In the incident Saturday, the offenders restrained Curry, his wife and an employee with duct tape as they went through the house looking for valuables, according to Deputy Chief of Police John Madden.

How did we ever solve crimes before the media helped out? Seems there's at least one crew around targeting high wealth and high spending sports figures who are more likely to have large amounts of cash lying around. Anyone wonder if it could have anything to do with.., oh let's just say, certain gang affiliations? Yeah, we don't wonder either.

Rescued by the First Deputy

Love him or hate him, it's nice to see he did what we're supposed to do:

• The top ranking Chicago police official behind Supt. Philip Cline and another officer rescued three people this afternoon from a burning building on the far South Side, authorities said.
  
  First Deputy Supt. Dana Starks and the other officer were treated for smoke inhalation at St. Francis Hospital and Health Center in Blue Island, and later released.
  
  The three people rescued, two men and a woman who were approximately 40 years old, were not hurt, police said.

And let's face it - we need the good publicity regardless.

NOTE: Keep the BS to a minimum - we've taken gratuitous pot shots at the First for a long time. Doesn't mean we can't say "good job" when it happens.

Nothing Better To Do

We can just imagine this one:

• A Navy man who got mad when someone mocked him as a "nerd" over the Internet climbed into his car and drove 1,300 miles from Virginia to Texas to teach the other guy a lesson.
• As he made his way toward Texas, Fire Controlman 2nd Class Petty Officer Russell Tavares posted photos online showing the welcome signs at several states' borders, as if to prove to his Internet friends that he meant business.
• When he finally arrived, Tavares burned the guy's trailer down.

Almost reminiscent of the astronaut woman driving a thousand miles to kidnap and kill a supposed rival. Them southerners are crazy sometimes.

State's Attorney's Protest

We were going to leave this one alone, but it took on a life of it's own in the comments sections.

An alleged ASA came onto the blog recently and asked for our (CPD's) support during their informational picketing that is supposed to be held some time this weekend. Normally, we stay out of these types of pissing matches, but in this case, we'll hop in:

• Hahahahahahaha

Seriously, after so much BS coming down our way by over zealous political hacks in that office looking to make a name for themselves? The fact that CPD had to embarrass and humiliate Felony Review to show some consistency in charging people who attack off duty cops as they do when cops are allegedly the attackers? Or a Simple Battery case becoming a Felony for no good reason? Or various downgrades to preserve the conviction rate?

We're sure we'll hear from some offended ASA's who'll claim that they go out of their way to get charges approved for shaky cases all the time. Or that the political winds blow ill from time to time and their hands are tied. We'll take those hits for now. But that traffic flows both ways. And we have a feeling we know who'll win that one.

Baseballs's Shame

No, we aren't talking about the Sox in last or the Cubs making waves. We're talking about this:

• Hammerin' Hank, he's within one now. Barry Bonds hit his 754th career home run Friday night, and needed just one more to tie Hank Aaron's record. Bonds sent a 2-1 pitch from rookie Rick Vanden Hurk over the wall in left-center in the first inning for a solo shot against the Florida Marlins, his 20th homer of the season.

It's obvious to just about everyone that Bonds cheated for years. But they are still letting him make a run at the record and are planning all sorts of celebrations around it. Mark McGuire was denied a Hall of Fame shot recently and his numbers don't look to get any better because of the taint of steroids. Is Major League Baseball looking to let Bonds break the record then deny him a spot in the Hall?

What ever they decide, it still smells to high heaven and cheapens the game. Which is one more reason we stopped following baseball years ago.

Promotion List

We heard there's a list of 50 Sergeants floating around out there. Post it if you got it. Congrats to the qualified individuals on the list.

How Could This Happen?

Oh, the humanity!

• A 17-year-old man was reportedly shot to death Wednesday night after shaking hands with the gunman on a Near West Side street.

  The man was shot in the back after shaking hands with a man, believed to between 18 to 20 years old, in the 1100 block of North Wolcott Avenue about 9:15 p.m. Wednesday, police said.

  The gunman is unknown, but the shooting is possibly gang-related, police said.

A shooting? In Chicago? Well, we certainly hope that this fine young altar boy and honor student's family sues the mayor and the city at large. After all, there isn't supposed to be any more gun violence on the streets after over 6,000 guns were taken off the streets. At least that's the impression we got from all the publicity.

Anyone have the rate of homicides that show before and after? Any change? Or was the gun turn-in just another illusion of attacking the problem?

Open Post

We're taking a break tonight. Use this as an open post.

SHUT UP MONIQUE!!!

Everyone saw this in the Sun Times? We'll gloss over the first part of the story as we know nothing about it and if a Search Warrant was signed off on by a Cook County judge.... whatever. But this is just more stupidity from Bond:

• Bond said officers fill out contact cards only if someone is doing something wrong, such as littering, drinking in public or hanging out in a park after hours.

  "It kind of serves as a warning," she said.

  Wallace called that a "lie," saying police regularly fill out cards on residents and visitors who are just minding their own business.

  Bond defended the cards, saying they are a way for police to keep track of interactions with citizens and that the information has proved useful in solving other crimes.

We've been told for years now that Contact Cards are an investigatory tool. Something by which searches of known associates may be tracked, the names of people who may have been in the area of a crime, or intelligence gathering in the case of known narcotic and gang hang outs.

Now the "Official Police Department Spokesweasel" has declared Contact Cards to be "a warning."

Does anyone in power know the potential damage she just did to the system? Anyone? If we we're some scumbags lawyer, we'd be typing up subpoenas right now for every single Contact Card made on our clients. Instead of it being used to show a pattern of behavior on the gangbanging shitheads, they'll use it to show a pattern of harassment. And we can just see the dollar signs lighting up the eyeballs of the people fighting for CR records to be released.

More Heroism

Fair and balanced coverage? What gives?

• Police rescued residents, including an elderly woman, from a burning South Side home Wednesday night.
• Officers were en route to an unrelated call about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday when they noticed smoke and flames coming out of a residence in the 3600 block of South Calumet Avenue, police News Affairs Officer Amina Greer said.
• The officers alerted residents that the building, 3622 S. Calumet Ave., was on fire, Greer said. The officers then assisted in the rescue of the residents, including carrying an elderly woman safely outside.

Another routine act of heroism by people who do it every day.

Nonsense Speaking

Starks appears in front of the City Council and somehow, a Burge hearing turns into a bash the CPD hearing:

• An elite Chicago Police unit dogged by complaints and at the center of a cops-as-robbers scandal "needs more supervision," a top police official said Tuesday.

  First Deputy Police Supt. Dana Starks acknowledged the need to rein in members of the Special Operations Section under questioning at a City Council hearing on police torture by former Lt. Jon Burge.

  Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) opened the can of worms when he called the behavior of S.O.S. officers "another form of abuse of power. ... It happened 20 years ago and it's happening today."

Um, wasn't Beale one of the "brave" aldercreatures who exercised their new found "muscle" by voting unanimously for Daley's new OPS system? How about we let this new system take hold and see what it does before beating dead horses for no apparent purpose?

Heroes Again

If it was us, we probably would have let the jagoff drop the 10 stories:

• Several Chicago police officers found themselves faced with a life and death situation for civilians and themselves on the North Side.
  
• "The offender had dropped the young lady he was beating and started racing toward the window," said Sergeant Michael Wilson of the CPD. At that point, he dove through the open window."
• Rooney says as the man was dangling more than 10 stories above the ground. Rooney almost went out the window with him, until his partner jumped onto both of them.

Good job guys.

Still Grau?

From Sneed on Tuesday:

• The police blotter: Rumor circulating among Chicago Police Department wags is Deputy Supt. Charles Williams has asked for packing boxes to be brought to his office. Hmmm. Does moving out mean moving up . . . to the top spot? Stay tuned.

First up, the last time someone was this obviously the "front runner," Daley did a 180 and picked Hillard over Ramsey, leading to all sorts of hurt feelings and resignations.

Second, since when has Daley ever done anything someone like Sneed says he will? Daley uses tame columnists like this constantly to deflect attention from various mini scandals constantly brewing.

Third, why would Williams need moving boxes? After the Superintendent is sworn in, he just has to walk out of the media room, grab the first 10 coppers he sees in the hallway, ask them if they like where they're working, then have them move everything across the hall to his new office. Trust us, when they name a new Superintendent, there are going to be a boatload of coppers lined up outside the room who will move all manner of file cabinets just because they want to.

If Williams is asking for moving boxes, hopefully, he's moving out.

Result Being Felt

The Mette case is making waves that are being felt over the border.

THOnline is covering the coverage - columns by John Kass are being reprinted in Iowa papers and the Iowa media is starting to print some really half baked responses. We still need a BIG national outlet to pick up on this story though.

Keep up the support. Somewhere, somehow, this has to break into the forefront. This isn't just an issue of a court and a district attorney going too far - this is a case of an American citizen's right to self defense being under attack.

Gun Turn-In Follow Up

A reader asks a question:

• SCC,
  You missed one really huge problem with this gun turnin.
  
  What occurs when a gun is ballistically tested and it was used in a homicide or aggravated battery?
  
  How does this affect the chain of evidence?
  
  What protocols are in place to trace the weapon back to the source of origin or to the offender?
  
  What is the timeframe to test 6,700 weapons?
  
  What if a weapon is destroyed prior to a criminal trial and the defense asserts their right to independent ballistic testing?

Actually, we don't think we missed this one. We think we addressed it at the gun turn-in last year, but maybe we saw it in the comment sections - kind of like this one. Anyone from E&RPS want to address this? Or one of our Range readers? Are they going to attempt to trace origins? Are they going to do test fires on every functional weapon? Are they going to return stolen guns to rightful owners if stolen from outside of Chicago?

We already know that they're going to melt down the $18,000 museum pieces.

Good Point

From the comments section:

• Tax hike for the schools. Just look inside their dumpsters and see all your tax dollars at work.... all new books, work books, work sheets and school supplies (brand new, never used) in the trash. Open your eyes TAXPAYERS.

This isn't the first time we've heard this complaint. We've talked to people who work in the schools (cops, teachers, engineers) and they tell stories of storage rooms full of textbooks still wrapped in plastic, brand new laptops and desktop computers still in the factory boxes, literally TONS of supplies to equip hundreds of class rooms, squirreled away as if for a nuclear emergency.

Why can't some media types do an actual expose on some of the millions (billions?) that are wasted by the monster that is the CPS? Maybe make the effort to look out for the citizens in light of the recent soap opera playing out in Springfield which will no doubt result in the taxpayers getting the shaft again. How about they send some of their minions over to dig around in the dumpsters and find out what we already know. Maybe become the public watchdog instead of the mayor's lapdog?

The "Perception" of Crime

There was study a few years back, we don't even recall by whom and for what purpose it existed (probably there was some spare Federal money lying around). But the gist of the study was that it didn't really matter what the crime rates were measured at - what mattered was the public perception of crime in determining how safe people felt in their neighborhoods.

Politicians pick up on this all the time. Republicans run as "tough on crime" by promising to build more prisons and increase the mandatory sentencing guidelines, run with great effect during the 1980's. Democrats had Clinton promising 100,000 new police on the street, most of which seem to have ended up in Community Policing and other "feel good" preventative type programs. In spite of all this and regardless of who was running the show, the real numbers were driven by such things as how many times you interacted with the police, heard about someone seeing the police around and how many times you saw the police in your neighborhood.

Hence, the cameras.

Cameras are not the police. However, the mayor (or the mayor's people) dress the cameras up in a uniform (white with a big old blue star on it), they put a flashing blue MARS light on top (just like a squad car), and they put it in a neighborhood where crime is prevalent.

Ta-da! The perception of police service! You think we're being overly simplistic? How many cameras did they just put up at Durkin Park?

Cameras are only as good as the system that runs them though and, wonder of wonders, we just heard that the servers that are supposed to be used for the cameras were only built to handle something like 50 cameras. They're currently running between 200 and 300 cameras and are really having some very bad technical issues. Someone closer to the source can tell us the real stories we're sure. It's supposed to be pretty sad.

Imagine That - A Tax Hike

The solution to EVERYTHING!

• Chicago homeowners could see their property tax bills rise by 40 percent over the next three years if the Illinois General Assembly follows House Speaker Michael Madigan’s lead and phases out a 7 percent cap on annual assessment increases, a dozen aldermen warned today.
• The 7 percent cap was imposed in 2004 to quell a property tax revolt triggered by skyrocketing assessments in 2003, the most recent Chicago reassessment. For more than a year, Mayor Daley and Cook County Assessor Jim Houlihan have sounded the alarm — and urged lawmakers to renew the cap.

• Madigan’s version, approved by the House and awaiting Senate action, would phase out the 7 percent cap on property assessment increases over a three-year period and grant new deductions to people with less than $75,000 household income who have lived in their homes for at least 10 years.

  Daley has reportedly signed off on that version as part of the legislative horse-trading that, he hopes, will produce sorely needed funding increases for education and mass transit.

So Daley and Madigan have already agreed in principle to stick it to the middle class again. Keep voting for democrats.

Morale Worse Elsewhere?

At St. Roger's hospital?

• A new survey found that many physicians plan to leave Stroger Hospital amid Cook County budget cuts. The poll was taken last week at a retreat for doctors with Stroger Hospital's internal medicine department.
• Given the current budget problems, the memo states that 75% of internists may leave the hospital. County doctors have always had the reputation of being some of the best in the state.
• "A lot of good people, professionals, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, are leaving because they feel a lack of respect. They are demoralized," said Cook County Commissioner Anthony Peraica.

Sound familiar?

And of course, the only solution is to get $100 million from the state (i.e. the taxpayers). Personally, we hope everyone leaves and St. Roger's goes under.

The Nanny State - Omnipresent

The Nanny State has just become, if anything, more oppressive than ever. Long the dream of democrats everywhere to regulate every single aspect of peoples lives, Illinois joined the ranks of the truly feeble minded who surrender every single important decision to government bureaucrats:

• Public places in Illinois will soon be forced to go smoke-free.
  
  In an historic move, a state-wide smoking ban was signed into law Monday. Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed the legislation, surrounded by health care professionals, anti-smoking advocates and cancer survivors.
  
  The new law goes into effect January 1, 2008 and prohibits smoking in all public buildings. Smoking will be allowed in private homes and cars, but that's about it for those looking to light up indoors. Smoking will be allowed outside, with some restrictions. There are two exceptions for businesses: retail tobacco shops and a limited number of hotel rooms.

Haven't these people ever heard of the free market? If you minimize governmental interference in businesses, balance is achieved with consumers. Non smokers can drive an entire market to cater to them, just as smokers can. Businesses will adapt or go under. Companies will be created that will invent entirely new ways of filtering the smoky air inside of bars or find environmentally friendly methods of getting the smell out of clothes. By removing market forces from the equation, innovation is stifled.

On the other hand, no more huddled masses outside of buildings, which was always a source of great amusement to us.

Who's going to enforce this anyway?

The State of the Department

If everything pans out as we hear it will, the new boss will be named before Friday, possibly as early as Wednesday.

Let's face facts here. This Department is in bad shape. We're not going to go out and call it completely broken, because that might imply that it's beyond repair or redemption. We don't think that.

What we do think however, is that the next Superintendent is going to be the make or break guy. This is no "caretaker" spot now, no treading water. Either the new guy makes some serious headway into addressing problems and issues or it's pretty much game over. And we'd hate to see that as we still have a number of years to go until we actually get to retire.

What can the Superintendent actually address that might affect the average street guy or gal? Certainly not the lack of a contract - that's decided by the mayor. "Merit" promotions and clout movement? A City Hall issue. Decent cars and PDT's that work the way we've been promised they'll work? Again, political issues that are systemic of a large bloated bureaucracy.

How about a few of the little things? Things that might reduce bloat:

• The "house mouse" issue. Too many office staffs are too huge. We hear of purges at 35th Street where they'll cut 10 or 20% of the manpower every few years, but it always seems to creep back upwards. We thought we were supposed to be a paperless Department seven years ago but we're going through paper faster than ever before. Do you have any idea how many people's sole job it is to just make copies? How about restructuring entire Bureaus so you cut office staff by 40% or more and eliminate paper copies of everything. Someone had the right idea with the TRR's - we used to make 8 copies every time, now only OPS wants a copy - everyone else adapted to the lack of paper copies.
• An overhaul of how we're dispatched to jobs? There is no way we need to be rolling on 90% of the "Assist Fire" calls that we do. Or the "Domestic Disturbance" calls involving a 9 or 10 year old kid who doesn't want to go to school? Or the jobs that ought to be duped over to any one of a number of other City agencies - Animal Control, Streets and San, Department of Buildings, etc. Start a new policy and tell citizens "THIS ISN'T A POLICE MATTER." Then stick with it. They'll learn.
• And how about the "detailed out of District" assignments that run for years at a time? Either assign these people to where they actually work or get them back to the Districts so that we can stop getting Personal Days denied. 60 to 80 people out of 350 detailed from the District isn't just a service issue - it's a safety issue.
  

These are just three simple issues that, if corrected, would significantly alleviate the manpower shortages at the District level. And it's issues that the Superintendent can actually advocate for.

6,700 Guns

Wow. Great. Stupendous.

At last, children can play in the parks without fear, citizens can ride through Englewood with their car doors unlocked and the windows down, coppers in 015 and 011 can put away the bullet proof vests and relax in the warm summer air.

If there is a single homicide in the city from this point forward, we can only hope that Pfleger, Jackson and Daley all commit hari-kari.

A question or two though:

• Do these $100 gift cards have a 6 month expiration like we heard the last set did?
• What exactly is the supplier of the gift cards getting out of this anyway? For $670,000 it seems a bit steep in terms of advertising. Or is the city refunding part of the money for every homicide or future gun confiscation that takes place? What's the angle?
  

chicagodispatch.blogspot.com

We wish these guys would post more often. Especially in light of recent events. But they have two articles up as of this past Friday, both dealing with the Durkin Park incident from the other side of the radio:

• Durkin Park
• Keep Your Damned Criticism

The second link is the one taking a local editorial to task for basic ignorance of the way the system works. All in all, a good read.

More Kass Coverage

John Kass writes about Mette again.

• Michael Mette—the young Chicago police officer sentenced to an Iowa prison for 5 years for the crime of defending himself against an angry drunk in Dubuque—wanted to thank the readers of this column.
• "To all the people who read your column, words can't express how it makes me feel to have this much support," Mette said. "Everybody is calling. It's in the news now, and it's tough to describe how good the support makes me feel. I just want people to know that I appreciate them."
• A defense fund has been established, the Michael Mette Defense Fund, at the Northwest Community Credit Union, 7400 N. Waukegan Ave., Niles. And Chicago's Fraternal Order of Police—the police union—has come to his side.

Hopefully, this will help drive some big name national attention Mike's way. And some donations to defray what have to be enormous legal bills.

UIC Survey

An interesting survey from the brain trust at UIC.

Wait until you get to the part about the cameras on page six! We were laughing our asses off. Statements like "Cameras cause criminals to move to other locations to commit crimes" and "The police are watching what occurs within the camera’s view" are to be rated on a scale of Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree.

And after page six, it really gets good

Go do the survey and comment about it here.

The "Outsider" Label

As predicted here and elsewhere, the fawning label of "outsider" has taken hold of the media and they are running with it:

• Minutes after the City Council unanimously approved his plan to sever the Office of Professional Standards from the Chicago Police Department, Mayor Daley on Thursday did something he seldom, if ever, does: He appointed an outsider, this time to lead the agency charged with weeding out rogue officers.
• Rosenzweig, 38, said the fact she is an outsider who owes no one and knows nothing about the "culture of the Chicago Police Department" will be beneficial at a time when public confidence in OPS has hit rock-bottom.

As we stated before, the City council sure showed a lot of backbone in giving the mayor exactly what he wanted and doing it unanimously. Here's the thing about "outsiders" though - they soon learn who wields the real power:

• Mayor Daley has already turned down cold a request from his corruption-fighting inspector general for 10 more investigators to police hiring abuses in the wake of the city hiring scandal.
  Now Daley wants to create a new city Office of Compliance that Inspector General David Hoffman considers an attempt to undermine his authority.
  In a press release issued after an action-packed City Council meeting, Daley insisted that "The primary responsibility to investigate allegations of misconduct would remain with the inspector general and others."

This Hoffman was a former Federal prosecutor brought in amidst great fanfare of being an "outsider" and "reformer" and not subject to undue influence from City Hall and the mayor. Excuse us while we laugh - Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

And the truly remarkable thing about about the two articles we quote above - one touting the outsider and one showing exactly how Daley will undercut the outsider once he can't control them? Both appear in the Friday Sun Times and BOTH were written by Fran Spielman. Truly amazing stuff.

Everything Old is New Again

Way to steal ideas from a dead man Eddie!

• Moved by the death of a 4-year-old boy run over by an SUV while frolicking in the water from an open fire hydrant, an influential alderman suggested Thursday that inner-city parks be turned into water playgrounds.
• At Thursday's City Council meeting, Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th) proposed a solution to the chronic problem. He introduced a resolution that calls for City Council hearings to explore the possibility of adding "recreational sprays and water devices."
• Burke's resolution calls for "significantly improved public access to water recreational activities which could deter fire hydrant openings." The program would be targeted to "areas of greatest need that feature the highest concentrations of incidents" of open hydrants.

As one of our more astute readers pointed out, the 4 year old child who was allowed to play unsupervised in the criminally opened hydrant, lived four blocks from Ogden Park - location of a brand new million dollar spray and splash park. The fact that his parents and neighbors were a bit too "unwilling" to maybe organize an outing for the children instead of illegally opening a hydrant speaks volumes.

Back in the 1960's, during the MLK marches, Old Man Daley started a program of portable pools, sprinklers and spray devices in the poor inner city. The late Mike Royko quoted civil rights activists as saying that perhaps Daley wanted them all to grow gills and swim away. Burke just appears to be pandering for votes.

Early Posting

We're posting this a bit early tonight because we have a previous obligation to be at. We'll leave you with a couple of articles and this open post. We are working on a very large and very involved posting for Monday morning.

Keep scrolling down for the Mette posts - there are TONS of great comments and ideas there. The address for his defense fund is included throughout and we could still use everyone's help in forwarding our posts to the big blogger and media names we've listed. Our readership has climbed 20% or more this week, mostly based on people looking for information to help Mike out. We also hear that there might be more media attention brought to the fore this weekend.

Don't stop pushing the issue boys and girls.

This Changes What Now?

We're still looking at this OPS revamp. Here's what we can gather:

• An outsider has been named to head the "new" agency. This is Daley's gesture to "outsider" appointments and breaking the "insider" charges. Since he's covered that base, the new Superintendent will be a local inside guy.
• Daley is now part of the process. The superintendent, who is a Daley appointee and serves at the pleasure of the mayor, is still part of the process. And the Police Board, which is appointed by Daley, remains part of the process. It looks a lot like Daley just interjected himself into the process a little more closely.

Local ambulance chasers are outraged, so that's a good thing. Coverage at Channel 2, Channel 7, the Tribune and the Sun Times. Opinions?

The Trib article has this humorous line:

• The City Council, flexing newfound muscle, pushed to strengthen the measure beyond Daley's original proposal and approved it by a vote of 48-0.

How is voting unanimously for something Daley wanted and making him an integral part of the process "flexing newfound muscle"?

Hey John and Pat!!

Dear John Henry and Pat Camden,

We guess we can figure out exactly where the media goes when they want to get the opinions of real working police officers. And it isn't your site:

• The Daily Southtown -"An 8th (Chicago Lawn) district unit was not dispatched to Durkin Park until after another police unit from outside the district inquired over the radio about a possible disturbance at the park," the OEMC release said.

  Ruiz said he didn't know who that other officer was or how he knew about the fight. He referred questions to the police department, but police spokesman Monique Bond said she could not provide any more information Wednesday afternoon.

  Several anonymous posts on a local police blog say the first officer to arrive was a patrolman on special assignment in the Gresham District who got a phone call from a family member at the scene, pleading for help because no police were there.

• Channel 2 - On the Second City Cop blog, which is written by Chicago Police officers, some have objected to the release of the list, saying it was not appropriate to expose complaints that are found to be without merit. Under the plan to release the list, "The mere fact that a complaint was filed means you are guilty, guilty, guilty. How are we supposed to be disciplined 'meaningfully' if the complaint was without merit in the first place?" a Second City Cop blogger wrote.

Now perhaps John can remove himself from his $60,000 a year job rewriting sanitized press releases for a blog no one reads and start pushing a beat car out here with the rest of us? And Pat can push Skeletor Bonds into the background again?

Priorities

You want to know what our manpower is being wasted on? We got this letter from 011 today:

• Unbelievable call on Zone 10 today. No wonder we have no cars available -

  OEC - 1112?

  1112 - 1112, go

  OEC - Assist the citizen having an asthma attack. She doesn't want an ambulance, she just wants someone to come and remove the cat from her room.

  1112 - uh, 99 squad

  1120 - Squad, who the hell is taking these calls?

  OEC - We just give them out sarge, we don't take them.

  1120 - (sarcastic) yeah, well, be sure you send back up with him for those, ok?

Removing cats - that's what the Department has been reduced to on one of the busiest radio zones in the city. Someone had to actually take that call, type it up and send it to the zone, where it sat and waited for an available car, which then responded.

Maybe it's about time for the Department brass and at OEC to revisit and revamp the priority system by which calls are dispatched.

The FOP Speaks

From Thursday's Sun Times:

• Police union officials say a five-year prison term handed down last week in Iowa to a Chicago Police officer was "an unjust sentence" that "smells."

  Michael Mette, 30, was found guilty of assault with serious injury. He was off duty visiting his younger brother at the University of Dubuque in 2005 when he got into a fight with Jake Gothard, who was hospitalized for head injuries.

Just keeping this in the front of everyone's minds. Keep on helping out, writing letters, donations, forwarding Mette's plight to sympathetic media outlets.

It's the Manpower, Stupid

Will someone PLEASE address the massive shortage of personnel on the watches?

• The commander of the 8th District promised to get to the bottom of the incident, which many believe would have never happened had 9-1-1 operators dispatched police.
  
  The first call came into the 9-1-1 center at 10:19 Saturday night. The caller reported an assault in progress but an officer did not respond until 10:45 � 26 minutes later.

For the millionth time - WE HAVE NO PERSONNEL AVAILABLE!!! People are writing to us about no rapids up on 3rd watch in half a dozen districts every single night, about two and three midnight beat cars down daily in assorted other places. We've already written numerous posts on all the teams being detailed out of their districts, resulting in even more manpower shortages that completely negate the dispatching priority matrix (beat car, rapid, tact/gang car, beat supervisor, tact/gang supervisor, field lieutenant.)

The Department is going to end up shouldering the brunt of the public perception of blame here, despite the fact that OEMC (or OEC, OEM or whatever they're calling themselves this week) didn't get the call out for 20+ minutes and is suspending people tonight, but the citizens think call takers have direct access to squad cars:

• At least 1,000 parents and neighborhood residents packed the crowded church hall Wednesday night demanding answers from police and the head of the 9-1-1 center. It took police 26 minutes to respond Saturday night and two dispatchers have now been placed on administrative leave. Two 9-1-1 supervisors are also under investigation.

  "I'm very unhappy with the way the dispatchers handled the situation," said Tony Ruiz, acting director, OEMC.

So is everyone else Tony.

It's Grau - Part II

Of course, if we're wrong, we're sure everyone here will remind us constantly for months on end:

• Chief-of-Patrol Charles Williams is the favorite to replace retiring Chicago Police Supt. Phil Cline, but one-on-one interviews with Mayor Daley this week could alter the odds, City Hall sources said Monday.

  In 1998, then-Deputy Supt. Charles Ramsey went into the interview process as the front-runner, only to have Daley choose Terry Hillard. It happened after the mayor and Hillard developed a comfort level during multiple interviews.

Hopefully, Fran Spielman has just administered the "Superintendent Sweepstakes Kiss of Death" to the "front runner" and we can all get back to contract talks and Mette issues.

Oh, and Fran? There is no Chief of Patrol anymore. There isn't even a Patrol Division. We're all Bureaus now and Williams is a Deputy Superintendent.

Become a Victim - Surrender Your Gun

Gun turn in day:

• The city's holding the third gun turn-in event at 23 different locations around Chicago, this Saturday, July 21.

  People who give up their guns will get a pre-paid debit card worth $100. No questions asked

Meanwhile, on the south side, vigilantes assemble:

• Extra Chicago Police patrolled a tense Scottsdale neighborhood Monday following a series of violent incidents that culminated with the savage beating of a 16-year-old boy in Durkin Park on the Southwest Side over the weekend.
• Neighbors expressed frustration that someone had to be beaten for the neighborhood to get police attention.
• "Parents are talking about taking things into their own hands," he added. "If police can't help us, we'll do what we can to protect our kids."

The thing is, it'd be easier to defend yourself and your kids if you had ... um, you know... a few guns. Especially as OEMC isn't dispatching the jobs to shorthanded district cars. Welcome to the future of Chicago.

Complaint List (minus names)

More silliness:

• Two days before a key City Council vote on the way claims of Chicago Police misconduct are investigated, the Daley administration quietly provided aldermen Tuesday with a controversial list of 662 officers with 10 or more complaints against them over the past five years.

  But there was a catch: the names on the list -- which the administration has been fighting in federal court to keep secret -- were blacked out.

Um, yeah. Because there's an appeal in the works. Whatever city lawyer or negotiator came up with the idea of keeping not sustained and unfounded CR numbers active for 7 years in the last contract instead of the usual 5 years - well, let's just say we hope there's a special place in lawyer hell reserved for them.

Channel 2 and Channel 7 also cover this.

Who Would Have Thunk It?

Golly, we're shocked:

• Outfit hit man Nicholas Calabrese on Tuesday implicated a close friend of Mayor Daley's, Fred Barbara, as taking part in the bombing of a suburban restaurant in the early 1980s.

  Calabrese is the star witness in the Family Secrets mob case and testified that Barbara, now a multimillionaire businessman, was one of six men who split up into teams to throw bombs on the roofs of two restaurants.

We're shocked, shocked that gambling... oops, we mean Mob influence .... is prevalent in City government. Of course, typical response from the guy in charge:

• A spokeswoman for the mayor could not be reached for comment.

Big surprise there.

Mette Speaks

Mette grants an interview to Channel 2's Mike Parker:

• "I've never been attacked before and not been afforded the right to defend myself," Mette said.
  
  Two days ago, Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass called it, "An Iowa criminal case that smells of a thousand hogs."
  
  "I know I've got to do the time," Mette said. "My biggest consoling factor is that even if I do end up going to prison, I still know that I didn't do anything wrong that night."

Go read the whole thing. Then scroll down and read the past few days of our postings for where to write to in order to express your outrage and some steps you can take.

Guilty Until Proven Guilty

Once again, we have less rights than the people we arrest:

• The list will show if a complaint against an officer was "sustained" and if it resulted in discipline -- or if the department deemed it to be "unsustained" or "unfounded" or determined the officer was "exonerated."

  The records will identify some officers who have received more than 30 complaints but who did not face any "meaningful" discipline, Loevy said. The documents also will identify the police units with the highest concentrations of cops with 10 or more complaints against them.
  

So evidently, there is no longer any difference between sustained, not sustained, unfounded or exonerated anymore. The mere fact that a complaint was filed means you are guilty guilty guilty. What the hell? How are we supposed to be disciplined "meaningfully" if the complaint was without merit in the first place?

As we've stated before, a civilian's criminal history cannot be brought into play except for purposes of (A) setting bail or (B) sentencing following conviction. Any other mention is overly prejudicial to the legal process. This lawsuit to produce the list of accused officers without taking into consideration the lack of appropriate standing of the complaint is asinine at best. We don't even want to think about what it is at the worst.

Channel 2 and Channel 7 also cover this BS.

How is This a Story?

It's starts out typically:

• A 14-year-old boy is recovering Tuesday after being shot by a police officer on the South Side, and authorities are calling the shooting unintentional.
• Officers pursued Kantrell Reese because they thought he had a gun on his hip, police said. They said they chased him for more than a block and the teen had at some point taken shelter in some bushes.

Ok, bad things happen sometimes. That's why we have the civil courts - to remedy wrongs. Channel 5 even has tons of quotes:

• "If the officer's set to shoot him and he didn't have no weapon, that's wrong, and I want to know what the city's going to do about that," Langdon said. [the teens father]
  
• "An accident considered to me is when you're bumping up against somebody. An accidental shooting? That's not an accident when you shoot somebody," said neighbor Tabitha Floyd.
• "I don't think it was handled that well, for them just to release his weapon and shoot the 14-year-old," said Sylvia Coffee.

Then we get this statement in the SEVENTEENTH PARAGRAPH:

• The gun police said Reese was carrying was not found on or near him and although they searched for hours Monday, it wasn't until Tuesday morning that authorities recovered the alleged weapon near the scene.

Um, what? The police FOUND the gun? So we have a 14 year old asshole - sorry, alleged asshole - spotted running with a gun. He disappears, then pops out of a bush and suddenly everyone is surprised when the police shoot him? Pardon our bluntness, but it seems to us that this kid needed to be shot, or hasn't anyone heard of ambush shootings?

God forbid we have a couple of media types shot. Granted, it'd thin the gene pool out of complete morons, but it might actually generate some sympathy for what the police experience day in and day out.

Name the Trucking Firm!

Building on John Kass's column and comments from fellow bloggers, we're attempting to find out what trucking firm Officer Mette's assailant's father is the owner of.

We're just curious. How many trucking firms could there be in Iowa owned by someone named Gothard?

UPDATE: At the request of the MMDF (Michael Mette Defense Fund) Committee, SCC is closing posts with information considered "SENSITIVE" or that would compromise any covert investigation. Add that all deleted info will be forwarded to the MMDF and that ALL future info be confidentially forwarded DIRECTLY to ten1mm@aol.com.

The Outfit Lives?

One might wonder:

• A sport-utility vehicle exploded early Tuesday in the River North neighborhood, and the vehicle's owner says someone did it on purpose.
  
  The fire and explosion happened around 3:20 a.m. in an SUV parked in the 300 block of West Erie Street, police said. The Buzz nightclub is located on that block.
  
  The SUV's owner says he believes the blast was part of a long-standing dispute he's had with another man.

Things that make you go "Hmmm."

Early Evening Post - Mette

We're getting lots of extra hits yesterday and today, mostly from our regular referrers (SecondCitySarge, Crimefile, etc.) Yesterday, we topped 4,100 visitors for the first time in a month or two.

We've started to see links and visitors from new sources, too. The Volokh Conspiracy did a nice little write up about the "duty to retreat" doctrine that still exists in a few overly liberal areas of the United States - a hold over from English common law predating the "Castle Doctrine" and the rights to self defense. The author, Eugene Volokh doesn't reference SCC directly, but points to the Kass article and writes a pretty good case against "duty to retreat." We're also seeing a couple of anti-police sites referring visitors here, but we don't really care - their comments never see the light of day.

Here's what we need for all our readers to do today, tonight and tomorrow. We're going to try to take the Mette case nuclear:

• Everyone who surfs here needs to click on the little envelope at the bottom of the posts titled "SCC Exclusive," "More on Iowa," and "Iowa Stupidity" (linked here for your convenience.) Forward these three posts to your personal mail lists - lists of coppers, retirees, friends, families.
  
• ALSO, to any media types who might be sympathetic to the cause - O'Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh, whoever.
  
• AND some of the right leaning links in our right hand tool bar - Instapundit, AceofSpades, CaptainsQuarters, RightWingNews, Kim du Toit, every single one of them. All of them have contact e-mails on their front pages.

Is this blatant link whoring? Sure. But if we get a couple of the big bloggers to take notice, we could get tens of thousands of hits within hours. And there are bound to be a boatload of sympathetic persons willing to join in the fight to get this into the national spotlight via their own readership, letter writing, etc (FOXNews, talk radio, whatever.)

If we can up our visitors by 33% in just a day by championing Mette's cause, then the whole lot of us can make this effort to blow it wide open. Go for it ladies and gentlemen.

Mette Defense Fund

Here you go:

• Michael Mette Defense Fund
• C/O Northwest Community Credit Union
• 7400 N. Waukegan Road Niles Illinois 60714.
• Checks payable to:Michael Mette Defense Fund

FOP also has an article. Does anyone think they might read this site?

Time to Move Monique

This woman is just incompetent.

First up, she looks bad on camera. A number of people have commented on the flop sweat and the first thing we thought when we saw the news was, "Damn, who's the forehead?" She just gives out the aura of someone completely ill-at-ease in front of the cameras.

Second, she can't make a coherent statement to save her life:

• Police arrived to find a woman waving a shotgun on the stairwell outside a second-floor apartment, and they could hear her reloading, Bond said."The offender was fatally shot by one officer in an attempt to restrain her from continuing firing," Bond said.

As the first portion of the paragraph isn't in quotes, yet is attributed to Bond, we can only imagine what garbled statement actually came out of her mouth. Doesn't Pat Camdem leave some cue cards lying around for Monique to crib some words that might make a quotable statement a reality? Maybe he should.

The part of the statement ("an attempt to restrain her from continuing firing") is just half baked. What should be said is that "The offender disregarded verbal direction and when she attempted to reload her weapon to continue the felonious assault/attempted murder of three Chicago Police Officers, she was fatally wounded." The officers didn't try to restrain her from firing - they attempted (and succeeded) in neutralizing a threat on their lives.

Wait for the civil suits - Monique's nonsense is going to come back to bite the taxpayers in the ass.

Water Water Everywhere

Just expounding on the recent Tribune article:

• Chicago meter readers will be able to measure residents' water use by driving down the street instead of walking up to the homes under a $40 million program to install electronic transmitters in 162,000 commercial and residential properties, city officials said Thursday.
  
  The three-year program to convert manual-read meters is a precursor to installing water meters citywide in homes and small apartment buildings that don't have them.

Aside from the $40 million contract that's going to enrich a bunch of connected plumbing contractors, a bunch of this water business annoys us.

• We were reading how the Millennium Park Crown fountain uses a couple million gallons of water.
• Those concrete fountain monstrosities that adorn various neighborhoods and public buildings (like in front of 26/Cal) that use thousands of gallons on a regular basis.
• The median planters that are watered regularly to maintain the greenery Daley so loves - we've watched those trucks fill up at city hydrants every morning for years now.
• Wide open hydrants across certain neighborhoods, sometimes leading the injury and death of children playing in them.
• Construction projects that hook up to hydrants with specially made adapters for on-site water service.
• Private pools being filled by certain connected city workers.
• The tens of millions spent on reflecting pools in Douglas Park and other Park District properties, many of which are filled with garbage and algae and end up breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

Would it be wrong to hope that all of these problems (which probably waste a few billion gallons of water) have been rectified and the bills are being sent out to violators as we type? Or should we just assume that the law abiding taxpayers are, once again, taking it in the shorts to supply connected crooked contracts to politically connected entities?

We'll figure it's door number two.

SCC Exclusive!

At least we haven't seen it anywhere else. The complete ruling by judge Ackley. We weren't sure how to post it online appropriately, so we did it as photos:

The judge is really stretching here - saying the jackass was in danger of dying, but the ruling states he was snoring after being hit once. Kass writes that he was out golfing low scores shortly after this incident and didn't even come to court for most of the trial. He was also DUI'ed.

Again, head down to our previous posts and fire off some e-mails to the appropriate authorities decrying this miscarriage. Then forward a bunch of e-mails to your copper buddies, any media personality who is remotely sympathetic to the police, and all your family and friends.

Any bosses speak up in public yet? Or are they waiting for the mayor to come back from Rio and tell them what their opinion is?

Manpower Questions

Someone in the Comments Section for the post entitled "More on Iowa" left this comment (we post it as they posted it - warts and all):

• OFF TOPIC - 10-1 LAST NIGHT IN 008 AT DURKIN PARK (008) AS GROUP OF OUTSIDEER KIDS JUMP OUT OF CARS & FIGHT GROUP OF KIDS FROM NEIGHBORHOOD - DOESN'T SOUND TOO BAD UNTIL YOU SEE THAT RESIDENTS CLAIM TO HAVE CALLED POLICE AND NO ONE ARRIVED FOR 20-30 MIN. IT TOOK A RESIDENT TO CALL HIS DAD WHO WAS WORKING OVER IN 006 TO RESPOND AND BE THE 1ST CAR THERE, WHO IN TURN CALLED 10-1. MOST OF THE CARS THAT ARRIVED TO HELP WERE OUTSIDE SUPPORT UNITS...6- 7 PEOPLE INJURED, SOME SERIOUS AS ONE THE THE CARS TRYING TO FLEE SCENE DROVE HEAD ON INTO CROWD OF KIDS/PARENTS RESULTING IN SOME PRETTY SERIOUS INJURIES....ANGRY PARENTS/RESIENTS SHOUTING AND DEMANDING ANSWEERS TO WHY NO MANPOWER IN 008, IN ST. BEDES AREA TO RESPOND...SHOWING PROOF OF MANPOWER SHORTAGE AND HOW SOME NEIGHBORHOODS IN 008, 022, 016 ETC. GET NO POLICE SERVICE...EVERYONE'S PULLED OUT TO THE DOC...THEY WANT ANSWERS, STAY TUNED TO SEE IF THE NEW CMDR. CAN HANDLE THE HEAT AND EXPLAIN WHY NO SERVICE..........THE CIRCUMSTANCES ARE SIMILAR TO BEVERLY PARK INCIDENT, ON A BIGGER SCALE.....Hate Crime????? STAY TUNED...

We did a little research and found this article in the Sun Times:

• Multiple people were seriously injured Saturday night after a street fight on the South Side. An EMS Plan 2 was called for the fight that started at the 8400 block of South Kolin Avenue at about 10:25 p.m. and sent seven people to the hospital, including six in serious to critical condition

If that response time is true, someone has a boatload of explaining to do. We couldn't possibly address the allegations of manpower shortages. Or at least we didn't think we could until an enterprising soul forwarded us this scan of a Bureau of Patrol Division order posted in the CO Book (click to enlarge - sorry about the quality):

Are we missing something? We can't recall an order like this being posted at any time in recent years. One of the contenders for the number one slot is all but admitting we're having trouble covering the Beat Cars on weekends when there are details to be filled and posts a directive as to how the Department will man the cars somehow. What the hell is going on?

Quicks Hits - CPD Edition

News you should know about:

• Police shoot a man who, after being caught with a 30 round Glock, attempted to disarm a cop and got shot for his troubles. Sun Times, Channel 5 and Channel 7 coverage. Of course, Channel 7 has to throw in the neighborhood bullshit about how the police disrespected the offender after shooting him and the standard alleged beating is included.
• Charges in the death of Wayne Smith. Sun Times and Channel 7 stories at the links.

We noticed a number of New York visits. Return the favor and hop over to NYPD Rant - New York lost an officer the other day, too. Let them know CPD shares their pain.

Officers Shot

Channel 9 just had a breaking story.

Two CPD coppers shot in the 5000 block of Adams. One en route to Mt. Sinai. No word on the other or conditions. Updates to follow as available.

UPDATE (2145 hours): Woman with a shotgun was firing at officers. Both hit with pellets - stable condition. Offender shot dead.

We still haven't gotten word from Iowa if the officers will be arraigned in Dubuque. We'll let you know as soon as information becomes available.

UPDATE (2220 hours): The Tribune is starting to flesh out details. The number of officers hit has climbed to THREE total.

More on Iowa

John Kass in the Sunday Tribune brings some much needed publicity to this travesty:

• In an Iowa criminal case that smells of a thousand hogs, a young Chicago police officer was sentenced last week to 5 years in prison for defending himself against an attack by two large, drunken men, even though he testified that he repeatedly tried avoiding a fight.
  
  There is a U.S. Department of Justice office in Iowa. What is happening to Chicago police officer Michael Mette bears some serious federal inquiry.

Go read the whole thing. Kass identifies the political connections of the family involved and takes a number of people to task. People have fired off letters to other media members. Other blogs (like PatHickey's site) are beginning to take up the cause. SecondCitySarge has numerous contact e-mails and telephone numbers at which to register your displeasure (be polite, yet firm - don't come off as an asshole if you write, call or e-mail).

Michael Mette himself has contacted us and offered to provide a complete .pdf file of the judge's poorly written decision. We'll try to figure out a way to post it for everyone to read. We've also offered to give Michael a platform if he needs to get the word out for anything. We get about 2,800 visitors a day. If each one took the time to fire off an e-mail to your friends, family or co-workers outlining Michael Mette's plight and encouraged them to contact media, politicians, and others in their address books, we could create quite a groundswell of support and pressure.

Last year, we called on a boss, any single boss, to take the lead and speak up in support of our dead in trying to derail aldercreature Haithcock's proposal to honor scumbags who supported killing the police. Typically, no one boss stepped up, though we got a few letters that told of quite a bit of dissention taking place among the exempts at 35th Street following our articles calling them out.

We're making that call again. Someone, anyone from downtown, don't you think you ought to stand up and support an innocent officer being railroaded? We're sure the midget running the show will tell you what your opinion will be at some point in time, but with a new Supe on the way in, maybe before you resign to your golden parachute of a pension, you could get a statement out to Kass or Goudie and maybe show the guys and gals out here that deserve your support can get it once in a while?

Off Duty Deaths

Not a good weekend for the Department.

• Bob Rawa, Canine Handler, passed from a brain aneurysm Friday night
• Wayne Smith, PO, died in a motorcycle accident

It's always tragic when an Officer dies in the Line of Duty - there is much pomp and circumstance to accompany the funeral. But when Officers die in the course of ordinary events or unforeseen medical emergencies, it seems to strike particularly hard.

Prayers, Well-Wishes and Remembrances only in this thread.

Oh God, No.

Thank god Daley is out of the country right now:


From the LA Times:

• Britain is attaching cameras to the caps and helmets of police officers, tightening a web of video surveillance that is the most extensive in the world.
  
  The country has a network of about 4 million closed-circuit cameras, and privacy advocates complain that the average Briton is recorded as many as 300 times a day

We saw that SecondCitySarge spotted this story a bit before we did. SCS also has a bunch of articles up we found particularly interesting:

• TASER shotgun rounds (with video!)
  
• City water meters for revenue

And a bunch of other stuff. Head on over and visit SCS.

Iowa Stupidity

What the fuck?

• A Chicago Police officer has been sentenced to five years in prison. He says he was defending himself against a drunken attacker while off-duty in Iowa. A judge in Dubuque, Iowa, says the police officer should have simply run away.

So now we're required to run away from attacks? Even off duty?

• This is not just a question of whether the punishment fits the crime. Chicago Police Officer Mike Mette says there was no crime. Nevertheless, a judge in Iowa this week sentenced Mette to five years behind bars for slugging a Dubuque college student, even though the judge admits Mette was being attacked at the time. No one is disputing the facts of the case of what happened that night, only the outcome is being questioned.
• When the case went to a bench trial in December, Dubuque County Judge Monica Ackley found that Chicago Police Officer Mike Mette "was not the initial aggressor of this incident," Jake Gothard was. Nevertheless, Judge Ackley ruled that Mette was guilty, because even after Gothard struck him three times, Mette should have just ignored it and retreated.

We're hearing rumblings that John Kass is going to make this a column on Sunday. This would appear to be a case of an over zealous prosecutor attempting to make a name for himself and a complicit judge abetting this miscarriage.

One would hope that after Goudie's piece on the news Friday night and if Kass covers this Sunday that the next step would be a public statement of support from the Superintendent's Office and maybe a few more exempts. This is some of the stupidest crap we've seen come out of Iowa in a long time.