What J-Fed Says?

A bird at 35th Street has this comment:

• INFO FROM 35TH STREET.......
  yes I admit it, I am an administrative "desk bitch" at 35th street. But before you make fun, I have 20 years on this job and I did do my time on the street (010, 011, SOG). Even though me eye sight is going it seems like my hearing is getting better. I know it doesn't seem like you working coppers who "stopped" working aren't getting under J-Fed's skin....but YOU ARE. So much that J-Fed has been holding "secret" meetings EVERY week since first week in July. I have recently seen "Big bird" and "inspector Brown" attend a few of these "secret meetings"
  J-Fed is FUMING that police officer's have stopped producing...I have heard him screaming these word for word excerpts in the past few weeks from his office:
  
  *"It's like they are all on strike! What can we do to make these people do there f*cking job"
  
  *They don't want to work for me because I'm a federal agent then F*ck them all...I will fire EVERYONE on this god-damn department and bring on people that will work!
  
  *(meeting with Inspector's) "These officer's don't want to work then I want you to start hammering the shit out of all of them district to district...they will get the picture then"
  
  *"If I have to fire every last one of them before they get the picture ..then I will"
  
  I think everyone is getting the picture...KEEP UP THE good...I MEAN NO WORK!! The plan IS working and I have seen it first hand. Now Daley is TRYING to fuck with us with this mandatory 3 day NO PAY bullshit....Believe me when Shitcago turns into the next Detroit and we DON'T get the Olympics...then we will have VICTORY. "NO WORK" does NOT mean not backing up fellow officer's so watch each others back and let the City burn.......and Daley and F-fed will be responsible!!!
  .....and for you asshats that are still "PRODUCING" numbers and giving the city REVENUE you are total IDIOTS. And any TRU-TARD that is bringing in the "MANDATORY" (1) head a day are in my book a "puppet". They are making your elite Unit a "make -up" squad for numbers. TRU..(AKA: J-Feds little bitches, AKA: Daley's Cronies) But feeding your heads that you guys are the BEST and the next SOS...and the funny thing is your are believing that B.S.

Is it true? Who knows! Sounds good. Explains much of the disconnect. It's becoming common knowledge that just about every gold star at HQ has issues with J-Fed. Rival camps are beginning to resemble armed fortresses as each attempts to protect their own fiefs from infringement and poaching. The "O.W.Wilson experiment" is failing miserably, and with it, a whole bunch of credibility on numerous levels.

"May you live in interesting times" is an old Chinese saying. We're certainly seeing those recently.

UPDATE: post updated at the insistence of our Chinese translators.

Another Lawsuit

And again, involving a promotion exam where the fix is in:

• The union that represents Chicago police sergeants wants its members to have a third crack at a lieutenant's exam, contending in a federal lawsuit that a retest violated a court decree restricting patronage.
  
  After problems with the administration of the original test surfaced, the city offered to have all 660 applicants retake the exam.
  
  The city said it would accept the better of the two scores. But applicants weren't told their scores on the first exam or whose scores were invalid, making it difficult for many to decide whether to retake it and risk a lower score, the suit, filed last week, said.

The fact that Mark Brown of the Sun Times published all the questions for the re-test that was supposed to gauge how well supervisors think on their feet was hilarious.

Schools across the country run exams with less BS than Chicago. Other government agencies don't have even .00001% of the problems Chicago has with any tests. It supposedly costs $4 million to run any promotional test. And damn near that again to defend it in court. Follow the Money Mr. Fitzgerald. Someone is getting rich of this.

On Our Turf?

What this all about?

• this may be off the topic, but for the 1st time in many years i've never been completely embarrassed to be a chicago police officer. i came into the 015th dist and saw that our parking lot was taken over not by caps personal not by the Austin citizens but by thug gang bangers. for a basketball tour. I have no problem with that. however to go and finish up a arrest into where i work (as it was hot enough already) and see all of these thugs with their hats tilted to the right and left and yelling neg things about the police is absolutely a disgrace. i will never do anything pro active for this department ever again. this is what you get That is what caps has done.

There are dozens, if not more, underutilized parks in 015. There are probably a hundred or more citywide. Yet if we understand the comment correctly, a police department parking lot was used a base to disrespect cops? We're sure the CAPS office's thinking went somewhere along the lines of, "Well, at least they won't be shot playing basketball in a police department lot." But what about all the officer's personal cars, now easily identifiable? What about gangs representing on CPD property? These people barely want us in their neighborhoods in 015 and now we're inviting them to pull their crap in our parking lots?

Who has the complete story here?

City Quick Hits

Bad news all around for citizens, courtesy of Daley and his merry band of thieves:

• The City Council agreed Wednesday to dramatically expand Chicago’s Big Brother reach — with surveillance cameras on street sweepers and a revolutionary hook-up that adds private-sector cameras to the city’s vast video network.

Ah yes, more cameras peering into every single aspect of life on the public way. Not to make you safer, oh no no no. To generate revenue. Daley doesn't care if you live or die in acid attacks, gun fire or beatings. But if you park where they put up street sweeping signs, run a red light to your doom or any other fine-able offense, Daley is going to demand he get his cut.

And how about this?

• Motorists with just two delinquent parking or red-light tickets would face the dreaded Denver boot, under a revenue-generating plan introduced by Mayor Daley Wednesday that infuriated Chicago aldermen.

  Under the mayor's proposal, 208,273 vehicles would currently be eligible for the boot.

Aldercreatures are reacting warily to this plan. But we're pretty sure the mayor will force it through anyway. Nickels and dimes. And the reason for all this?

• Struggling to close a $400 million budget gap, Mayor Daley on Wednesday nixed non-union pay raises, offered cash buy-outs to entice resignations and took the unprecedented step of postponing the city’s preliminary 2009 budget until Sept. 30.

  Like the mayor’s mandatory furlough plan for non-union employees, the new cuts turn up the heat on union leaders to agree to similar concessions.

The FOP responded thus:

• Fraternal Order of Police President Mark Donahue was asked whether rank-and-file police officers still waiting for a new contract would be willing to take a pay cut or unpaid days off.

  "If the city can convince my members of the dire necessity of such a move, the membership would be willing to listen," Donahue said. "They’d be willing to consider anything the city can convince them is necessary."

It'll be a cold day in hell when that happens. Trust us.

Poor Daley. Evidently he never studied Econ 101. Continue to raise taxes, impose fees and make it difficult to afford to live here, people will shop elsewhere, be more careful about incurring fines and finally, move out of the City. Cut taxes, pare down government and cut wasteful programs and spending and people (and businesses) will flock to the City and your tax cuts produce more revenue. It's called a Laffer Curve and it is proven to work.

In the meantime, Detroit looks across the lake and sees it's past in Chicago's near future.

Documented Waste?

Interesting article coming up according to a reader:

• Waste!!!!could we have a posting on the new (Cook County Magazine)!!
  
  You have to hear about this one!!!
  
  Stroger pays an incompetent shithead ...must be a friend of the family!! $24,999 to start a magazine that is postive about his administration.
  
  First off if he gave $25,000 he would need County board approval, so he stays under by $1
  
  Then the shithead he gave all the money to puts out a magazine (5000 copies) full of grammatical errors, and incomplete sentences..
  
  Ebonics at its finest...
  
  So none will be distributed..
  
  This is why we have the highest tax rate in the fuc%in country..
  Idiots running shit ...
  
  This is all documented in the Sunday Scumtimes!
  
  Stroger spokeman Mullins says he will not distribute them and need a way to get rid of them!!
  
  I'll take them asshat...Then I'll run for County board president with some more ammo against this piece of SHIT

Might the media horde be finally catching on and doing their jobs? If this is written by Fran Speilman, we'll just write it off as Daley weakening Stroger a bit more and kicking Beavers in the teeth. We'll have to see.

UPDATE: As pointed out by numerous readers, this was published this past Sunday. Since we canceled all our newspaper subscriptions, we miss some of the funnier stories here and there. Small price to pay as we watch the Times and Tribune circle the drain into oblivion. Plus, we can pretend to care about the environment as we size up the living room for another polar bearskin rug.

Rivalry Overkill

Who knew baseball could bring out such violence?

• Three Chicago Cubs fans could spend up to five years in prison if found guilty of beating up a Gurnee White Sox fan so badly that he lost his right eye.

  Robert Steele, 32, of the 1800 block of Wedgewood Drive was at a birthday party for his fiancée's 2-year-old niece on July 19 in Huntley when three of his friends started teasing Steele about Cubs-Sox rivalry, said Huntley Deputy Police Chief Todd Fulton.

• As the day went on and the men consumed more alcohol, authorities said the teasing continued this time about Steele's missing teeth.

  Around 10:45 p.m. that evening the argument escalated, and the men began to fight. Steele was pushed to the ground and kicked several times, with one kick striking him in the right eye.

We never see hockey fans acting like this. Mostly because we sit in the cheap seats.

Amazing Nanny State Idea

Just when you think Chicago has a corner on the stupidity market...

• foie gras banned and un-banned
  
• failed attempt to ban transfats
• no smoking for stage plays
• ban zip-loc baggies to stop drugs
• eliminate private waste hauling and grant monopolies
  

...Los Angeles steps up to the plate and one-ups Chicago:

• The Los Angeles City Council has approved a one-year moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in a low-income area of the city.

  The moratorium unanimously approved Tuesday is a bid to attract restaurants that offer healthier food choices to residents in a 32-square-mile area of South Los Angeles.

  Councilwoman Jan Perry says residents at five public meetings expressed concern with the proliferation of fast-food outlets in the community plagued by above-average rates of obesity.

No fast food restaurants in minority areas because minorities are too fat and also, since they can't make proper lifestyle choices, Los Angeles will just remove the temptation from them. How typically liberal - we will make the choices for you. Nanny state-ism at its finest.

Just so Everyone Knows

Thirteen months without a contract. Arbitration ought to be filed for shortly. Perhaps that's why the mayor is screaming "poor"? Even with arbitration, we'd guess we're a year away from anything anyway.

Um, How About "No!"

Years and years of financial mismanagement are coming to the fore:

• In the latest of what could be many moves to plug a significant budget deficit, Daley administration officials are seeking to force city workers to take as many as three unpaid furlough days this year.
  
  City officials declined to specify how big of a shortfall they are anticipating. But legislation authorizing the furlough days refers to "a continuing decrease in revenues" that will create a deficit unless cost-cutting measures are taken.
  
  Under the ordinance, which will be considered by a City Council committee Tuesday, all non-union city workers who are paid $75,000 or more a year would be required to take three days off without pay before the end of the year. All non-union workers who make less than $75,000 would be forced to take two furlough days.

"a continuing decrease in revenues"? Does this mean that taxing the bejeezus out of people will cause them to shop around outside the City (and county) to pinch every penny? We went to a large retail "club" chain the other day in the suburbs and guess what we saw that we'd never seen before? Water. Skids and skids of nothing but name brand water in every conceivable size container. Does anyone else think that this suburban retail store is seeing a boom of unprecedented proportions due to the City water tax?

We'll make the standard demand of holding the line here:

• In previous years, City Hall has sought furlough days from unions representing the vast majority of workers, but the unions have rejected such requests. Daley aides have begun discussions with some union leaders aimed at seeking concessions that could help the city save money.

Concede nothing. And instead of addressing the upcoming budget "shortfall" by cutting school waste, crooked land deals, fixed contracts, Hired Truck scandals, monument face lifts, selling City assets, twenty-two bodyguards, pay off every lawsuit and any number of other wasteful Daley brain farts, did anyone catch what the City Council debated today? Whether to allow "Jersey Boys" to use actual cigarettes in the stage production. What a brilliant fucking legislative body we have here in town.

This Would be Entertaining

The "reverend" Meeks has an idea:

• Community activist and Illinois State Senator James Meeks is calling on Chicago Public School children to protest the schools' lack of funding by intentionally skipping the first day of school.
  
  Meeks, who is pastor of the Salem Baptist Church on the city's South Side, wants parents of city public high school students to try to get their children enrolled at New Trier Township High School in Winnetka.
  
  Meeks has been a longtime critic of the Chicago Public Schools and their lack of funding. New Trier is well-known for its high spending for student and academic excellence.

And what an idea it is! Wow. Can you imagine the faces on all the Winnetka citizens? Oh lord. And this from a guy who built a mega-church on the backs of how many poor folks, was looking to buy his own airplane, and gets free security and traffic enforcement from the 005 District tactical teams every single weekend?

Can't you just smell the hypocrisy? Anyone else wondering how many untraceable $20,000 state grants went to a certain south side church?

Check that Engine Boys

Apparently, these idiots didn't have AAMCO:

• An alleged gang member was critically injured when he was stabbed after the van he was inside broke down in rival gang territory early Sunday in the Back-of-the-Yards neighborhood on the Southwest Side.

  The victim, in his 20s, was traveling back home after attending a party and was inside a van with five other people about 6 a.m. near the intersection of West 43rd Street and South Winchester Avenue when the incident occurred, according to a Deering District police captain.

  The driver of the van stopped when a rival gang member was allegedly seen outside and the six got out and allegedly began to beat the person outside. Afterwards, they jumped back into the van to flee but became stranded in “enemy territory” when the transmission failed on the vehicle, according to the captain.

Jumping out and lumping a rival gang banger on his own turf because you outnumber him 6-to-1? Priceless.

Having one of your home boys stabbed nearly to death because you forgot to have that "Check Engine" light looked at before you got trapped behind enemy lines, maybe outnumbered 20-to-6 at this point? Priceless-less.

Heinous Battery

There really ought to be an "Officer Awareness" bulletin put out about this:

• Police are seeking two female suspects who threw "caustic liquid" in a woman's face during an armed robbery Monday morning in the Logan Square neighborhood on the Northwest Side.

  The incident occurred about 6:30 a.m. in the 2900 block of West Altgeld Avenue when two females of an unknown age, threw caustic liquid on a woman's face during an armed robbery, according to Shakespeare District police Capt. Marc Buslik.

  The woman was seriously injured and will probably need plastic surgery, according to Buslik, who said she was transported to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in serious condition.

How many times do we walk up on cars and see a cup or bottle of coffee, soda, whatever? If you watch the video (over at Channel 2), these jagoffs were carrying something in open cups and then they scarred this woman forever. Watch yourselves.

Double Standard? Or Not?

From the comments:

• Why does J-FED have out of state plates and no city wheel tax sticker on his Harley. Where is Big Bird when you need him. He was overheard saying that he has a house out of state. Does this mean I can now register all my vehicles to my place in AZ and not buy anymore wheel tax stickers? IAD can you confirm this. A lot of people were taking pictures with their cell phones. Someone please post.

Going back over the archives, it would appear that J-Fed's first official day in office was Friday 01 February. The City requires you to reside within the City by your date of hire. According to another commentator, you have six months to transfer over all your plates and stickers (state law and local ordinance). That'd be 01 August.

Anyone over in Auditing and Internal Control keeping an eye on this? Big Bird?

Another Festival Homicide?

But it happened outside the fest boundaries, so there's nothing to worry about.

Another of Chicago's premier outdoor events -- Venetian Night. Another large crowd of people downtown.

A 3-on-3 fight turns into a 3-on-1 beating in which the victim is thrown onto the CTA rails, later dying of his injuries at an area hospital.

Nope. NO ONE is getting the picture. Again we say: Bring on the Olympics! Chalkie is waiting!


Tribune and Sun Times links

Rumors Everywhere

Might as well start the week with a couple:

• Fully two-thirds of the tactical lieutenants across the city will be shuffled, replaced, moved, or whatever the current euphemism is for "dumped."

Not surprising. As it was, commanders were moving their administrative staffs around since the shake up, sergeants right afterwards. Lieutenants were next on the block.

This one has some big rumblings behind it though:

• Someone has to fall on their sword during August. Someone high up.

The Taste debacle and the continuing downward spiral of numbers coming out of Patrol are leading to the inescapable conclusion that this Department is damaged, perhaps beyond repair. This past weekend's homicide and shooting numbers continue to spotlight the failed leadership of Team J-Fed. Our guess? Cuello is on borrowed time. Patrol's failures are her failures; her nonsensical ramblings and lack of answers at the J-Fed hearings spoke volumes; her recent threats against certain spots not being "birthrights" shows a complete disconnect. She's in over her head and her managerial style (as if piloting the Titanic into an iceberg can be classified as "style") leave much to be desired.

Look for the deck chairs to be rearranged shortly. The only question we have is will she be dumped or promoted out of the way?

Ride to Remember

Once again, the Memorial Ride:

• They may be gone, but they'll never be forgotten. Remembering fallen police officers was the reason behind a motorcycle ride in Chicago Sunday [...]
  
  Gold head lights come into focus as the first of nearly 700 bikers approach Gold Star Memorial Park. It's called the "Ride to Remember."
  

Channel 7 also covered the event. The weather certainly couldn't have been better. Tom Skilling deserves another award in addition to the Crime Reduction one he ought to be getting.

And Speaking of Guns...

The count is climbing!

• Chicago Police say more than 6,800 guns were collected Saturday during the city’s gun turn-in program.

Wait for it....wait!

• That number exceeds last year's total of 6,705.

There it is! Just like the Taste attendance figures or the 03 July Fireworks totals or even Jerry Lewis's telethon numbers - always just over last years figures to maintain the illusion of success.

However....

Disturbing rumors are reaching our ears. Rumors of way more BB guns than anyone is letting on. Rumors of people coming up from Kentucky with non functional guns and turning them in for a quick $100. Sixty-six guns at one location as a matter of fact. And that's only the biggest total mentioned. How is this going to make Chicago streets any safer? Answer - it won't. The whole gun turn-in thing never has and never will. It's all theater for Daley, Pfleger, Meeks and the rest of their ilk.

Has anyone seen a breakdown of real guns vs. BB-type guns? Because $100 times 6,800 guns is $680,000 and $10 per 6,800 BB guns is only $68,000. That's a whole lot of leeway for donated debit cards and given the City's past accounting practices, let's just say more than enough room for "error." Good thing they have J-Fed on tape praising the turn-in. It's all legit because a former feeb says so.

Guess This Gun Wasn't Turned In

A completely preventable occurrence:

• [...] an 8-year-old Rockford boy, is dead after being shot in the chest by a 9-year-old as they played with a gun in the backyard of an apartment building. [His] death is being called an accident. Investigators are trying to learn who brought the gun to the backyard and how it was obtained. They're also hoping to question the weapon's owner.

So where were the parents? Why wasn't the gun locked up or rendered safe?

Questions that ought to be asked instead of the shrill screams from Blago and Daley we can expect over the coming weeks.

Rifles on the Street

But unfortunately, not in the hands of police. From the comments:

• Chalkie was in 011 this afternoon!
  "Units in 011 and ciytwide- Man shot in the head and chest with a .223 round- lots of calls coming in-Units use caution as you are out gunned".

Another comment describes the head of the deceased as sporting a rather large hole. If we aren't mistaken, a .223 will go completely through a vest and anybody wearing it. How many coppers did we have to bury in the 80's before we got semiautomatic pistols? And even then, the Department fucked that up beyond all comprehension

ATTENTION J-Fed, Bea, Mike and Jim and every other member of the Command Staff. Get off of your collective asses and get some fucking rifles and shotguns on the street. And spare us the bullshit about passing a "power test" to carry these guns. Find and qualify people to carry these guns on the street NOW.

• Not tactical guys who are detailed out of their districts more often than you admitted to the aldercreatures and the press;
• Not detectives closeted in the Areas with the guns tucked away in safes;
• Not SWAT teams miles away from any sudden outburst of rifle fire;
• Not the midnight Gang/Gun/Saturation teams or even the TRU people who work nights.

This shooting happened in broad daylight. Lord knows how many 10-99 units are working in 011 on days, but if it's anything like the rest of the City, it's a lot. And if some poor copper drives around the corner into a firefight involving rifles and all they have is a 9mm or a .45 pistol, we will make sure that every single citizen in this city knows that YOU sent them into harm's way over a bullshit physical fitness test that has ZERO to do with the ability to handle the appropriate tool for the job at hand.

And after that, we'll really start to make your life miserable.

Thank Goodness for Seniority

Police layoffs?

• Mayor Richard Daley Saturday predicted tough times ahead financially for the City of Chicago and pointedly declined to rule out layoffs of police and other municipal employees.
  
  Asked about a published report that the city is likely facing layoffs because of a $400 million-plus shortage in the upcoming 2009 city budget, Daley noted that the city -- unlike the federal government -- doesn't have the option of running up the deficit to fund its programs. Daley sidestepped a direct answer but left the possibility of layoffs on the table.

He's always specifically ruled out "public safety" layoffs. Now in the face of a rising crime wave, no hiring and a budget shortfall predicted to reach $400 million, he's going too lay off police? What could possibly have brought on this change of heart.

We'll probably never see layoffs, but we sure as hell aren't going to see the recruit classes pick up any time soon. Cuts via attrition are working just as well.

Gun Turn In Totals

6,000 weapons. A far cry from the 14,000 J-Fed wanted. As of this time, we haven't seen any count of actual weapons versus lookalikes.

And we doubt we'll ever see a count of functional versus rusted out junkers, but the highlight reel didn't show too many high quality firearms that we could see. We're sure there are one or two museum quality pieces worth ten or twenty thousand dollars - there always is. The rest might not even be worth their weight in the scrap steel they contained.

Drew Peterson's Next Story

If he had only done this, he'd be in the clear:

• MORRISTON, Fla. (AP) _ Authorities say a Levy County man accidentally shot his wife while trying to hit a fox that had attacked her. The couple told deputies they had spotted an animal in their yard Friday morning and went outside to see what it was.
  
  The fox bit the woman on the left leg and wouldn't let go, so she told her husband to get a gun.
  
  The man fired a .22-caliber rifle seven times, killing the animal but also hitting his wife in the lower right leg.

No blue barrel, no empty bathtub, no media frenzy.

Is anyone else getting the nagging suspicion that these goofs who wore a wire on Drew are actually part of his inner circle looking to pollute the jury pool? That alleged "confrontation" in the parking lot was just a little too cute.

Water Water Everywhere

And drinkable it seems:

• Lake Michigan's water level has risen 8 inches above the same period a year ago. Once just 6 to 12 inches above all-time lows, lake levels are up in response to the same downpours that caused many area rivers to flood. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which monitors the Great Lakes, predicts the higher levels are to hold through the coming months, though, barring new waves of heavy rains, the biggest rises have probably already occurred. Interconnected Lakes Michigan and Huron are unlikely to change significantly in the next month.
  
  The corps reports other Great Lakes have experienced increased levels as well, with Lake Superior 16 inches higher than a year ago. The rise in Lake Michigan means the lake has added approximately 3.12 trillion gallons since a year ago.

That's a lot of water. Al Gore has to be overly unhappy about this. And we know he's really unhappy about stories like these that keep popping up:

• ABNORMALLY COOL ALASKAN SUMMER: ANCHORAGE'S 6TH-CHILLIEST SINCE 1917

For all the environmental wackos reading, measurable "Global Warming" stopped in 2001. NASA said so. It seems a complete lack of sunspot activity has a bigger influence on the ecosystem than carbon emissions. Why is a cop blog writing about this? We're bored and thought we'd share our boredom with the readers. You're welcome.

Set Up in 007

This has appeared in a few comment sections. Remember, cameras are everywhere and this bit of film, if it exists, will be edited down and made to show CPD in the worst possible light:

• OT: 10-1 in 007 on 3rd watch due to two yuppie liberals marching down 56/winchester and telling people over a bullhorn to f$#k the police and kill the police. naturally the fine citizens responded by pouring out of their homes, surrounding the officers onscene and throwing bottles. one guy northside white liberal. guy 2 was white liberal from arizona. lawyers in 007 before officers arrived with the idiots (geez, was this premeditated?). liberal 1 claims he did nothing and was beat on for no reason. just hanging out. fake pastor sitting with the two lawyers. commander tells pastor that if u call for death and violence to the police, gloves come off. good to hear. when i left, lawyers bitching that they haven't seen their clients yet. of course whole thing videotaped. city will prob pay this idiot. commander and mcnulty going for felonies. hope these idiots spend some good time in county. be careful out there. i'm sure these idiots will be hitting 005, 010, 011 etc soon looking for their next paycheck. stay safe

We completely agree that this traveling circus of fools is going to hit all the hot districts. Watch your asses.

Daley Idiocy

More from the moron-in-chief:

• Chicago is fighting tooth and nail to keep its 1982 handgun freeze, in part to protect first-responders, even as suburbs such as Wilmette and Morton Grove are throwing in the towel, Mayor Daley said today.

Because that handgun freeze has worked so very well in protecting everyone so far. "Won't someone think of the first responders?" Ok Helen Lovejoy - thanks.

• If the nation’s highest court says it’s OK to keep guns in your home for self-defense, what’s to prevent those guns from being used against police officers and firefighters who respond to a domestic quarrel or other emergency, the mayor said.

Nothing at all. Just like nothing at all is keeping all those "ILLEGAL GUNS" already in the hands of the citizenry from being turned on anyone. The criminals never obeyed the law in the first place, so how is a ban going to protect anyone in any case?

• “What does a policeman do when there’s a domestic battery [call] and they’re both armed? Do they enter the home or apartment or do they wait outside?

They do their job. We'll bet we've been to hundreds, if not thousands of domestics where there were guns other than the ones we and out partners brought along in that very house. But we acted professionally, kept people where we could see them, didn't let them move from room to room until we were sure the situation was under control.

• How ‘bout the neighbors? How ‘bout the postman — all the other issues that go with people coming into your home or close to your home?

You encourage responsible gun ownership...you know, like they do in 48 other states where people are allowed to own handguns. We don't see those areas suffering anything near the Chicago homicide rate. We wonder why that is?

• Whose responsibility is it when your son takes the gun outside and police come by?” Daley told reporters at a senior citizen development in Roseland.

Um, that'd be (A) the responsibility of the gun owner to keep the gun safe, secured and locked up from someone who shouldn't have it and (B) the asshole who took the gun outside. And if they point it at police, they should be killed out of hand.

• The mayor’s laundry list of questions does not stop at the safety of first-responders. He wants to know just how far the Supreme Court is prepared to go to protect the 2nd Amendment.

  “It’s just not allowing people to arm themselves. How many guns do you have — 50, 60? Can they have a .357 Magnum? Can they have ammunition that will go through a wall? What is the liability of the owners? … Do you have to have insurance if you have a gun? How much ammunition can you have if there’s a fire? If a fireman is going to your home and you have 40 weapons and 1,000 rounds, do we have a responsibility to notify all the neighbors?” Daley said.

Only a thousand rounds? Geez, why so few? Just more intrusive BS from the Chicago Machine. Hey Daley? Μολὼν λαβέ

UPDATE: We're almost too embarrassed to admit this, but we confused Maude Flanders with Helen Lovejoy. Post corrected.

Oh Boo Hoo

Too bad, so sad:

• Lost behind the epidemic of violence claiming the lives of minority kids on the South and West sides is how their mostly poor parents pay for burials.

Sorry if we're heartless bastards, but the County will provide a pine box and a free burial for the homeless, we're sure they'll provide it for gang bangers if the body stays at the morgue long enough.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, there are exceptions. Decent people die sometimes. And sometimes they die indigent. But for the most part, those people die old. We have no sympathy for some thug that catches a few rounds after living a short violent life of crime inflicting damage that will last generations on their communities. If their parents...sorry, parent...had done their job and made better life choices, perhaps they wouldn't be begging for money when junior meets what he had coming to him for years already.

Cradle to grave. Sorry, but we're posting drunk and we have very little sense of humor where these stupid stories are concerned.

Sanctuary Laws Kill

Daley seems so eager to ban guns because "guns kill" or some other such liberal nonsense. Readers have pointed out numerous instances of knives, bats and cars being used to commit homicides, yet we don't hear anything about banning them.

Here's something else that kills citizens, yet Daley embraces it:

• The scene repeats itself daily on city streets: a driver gets stuck bumper to bumper, blocking an intersection and preventing another car from turning left.

  But authorities say that was enough to cause Edwin Ramos to unload an AK-47 assault weapon on a man and his two sons, killing them.

  The deaths immediately drew public outrage, which intensified when authorities revealed that Ramos, 21, is an illegal immigrant who managed to avoid deportation despite previous brushes with the law.

  The case has put San Francisco's liberal politics to the test, setting off a debate over its sanctuary law that shields undocumented immigrants from deportation.

Three murders over traffic by someone who should have been deported after being convicted of not one, but two separate felonies in the early 2000's. But the mayor still forbids you to ask the immigration status of anyone stopped for investigation.

Death Toll Climbs

Bloody night is Austin the night before last:

• One man was sitting in a car near a corner where drugs are sold every day. Another man may have quarreled with an acquaintance before someone pulled a gun. And yet another man was with friends in a parked car when a group walked up beside them on the sidewalk.
  
  Within about an hour around midnight Wednesday, three men died—and two others were wounded—in three shootings in the Austin neighborhood, yet another flash of street violence in a summer that has seen murders increasing in Chicago after five years of decline.

Hurry State Troopers! Hurry National Guard!! Hurry non existent recruit class to cover the dwindling manpower numbers!!! We can't hold this place together long enough for the Olympic bid to succeed!

Ignorance in Action

Can anyone believe this person graduated from law school?

• Chicago’s gun laws have been challenged in federal court since the Supreme Court’s decision on the D.C. ban. But, City Corporation Counsel Mara Georges has told two City Council committees she’s confident Chicago’s law will stand.
  
  Georges tells Aldermen the Supreme Court’s decision on Washington, D.C.’s handgun ban shouldn’t apply to Chicago, because previous Supreme Court rulings have said Second Amendment "right to bear arms" doesn’t apply to local governments, like Cities. She says D.C. is a federal jurisdiction.

The right to bear arms doesn't apply to local governments? Are these local governments not part of the United States? Is the United States Supreme Court not the ultimate law of the land? And then she's spoon feeding this bullshit to aldercreatures, each of which is authorized by local ordinance (without regard to training or criminal record) to carry a firearm.

This must be what happens when you spend too much time believing the bullshit that comes out of Daley's mouth rather than actually reading and understanding the rule of law as intended by the Framers.

UPDATE: A question for our legal eagles - If an officer enforces the Chicago gun ban based on Mara's stupid comments, and the NRA prevails in court, what liability is there on the part of the Officer?

History to Repeat Itself

The democrats come full circle:

• DENVER (KJCT) -- A new kind of warning has come up about protesters gearing up for the Democratic National Convention.

  Denver firefighters have learned of a house full of urine being stored to throw at police. An internal memo is warning first responders that disgusting acts are a significant concern.

  Protesters in other cities have used urine and feces filled balloons to throw at police and there are concerns that could happen during the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Democrats sold their souls in the late 1960's giving the idiots a voice at the convention. Now these people think they control the levers of power when all they really do is cheapen the debate and make the rest of the party look like idiots. Here's a little reminder to Denver how to handle this sort of behavior:
We look forward to having that part of history repeat itself.

How, Pray Tell?

Another tax hike for this idea?

• Businesses, high-rises and even private homes with exterior surveillance cameras could share their video with Chicago’s 911 center to create a panoramic view of disaster scenes, under a plan advanced Wednesday that could dramatically expand the city’s Big Brother reach.

  No other city in the nation would have more surveillance cameras at its disposal if banks, bars and convenience stores take the city up on its unprecedented offer.

  London has 500,000 cameras monitoring virtually every public move its citizens make. Chicagoans could someday approach that total, thanks to the ordinance sponsored by Mayor Daley and advanced by the City Council’s Police and Fire Committee.

Cameras, as has been stated here and elsewhere, are next to useless. Unless someone is watching them, they prevent nothing, deter no crime and have to date, never apprehended a criminal. Unless there are enough "boots on the ground" to operate off the camera's data collection, nothing will ever be accomplished - aside from the aforementioned tax hike.

Drew, You Idiot

All signs point to a desperate move at some point:

• Drew Peterson said two friends who reportedly worked with police to secretly record him were only trying to profit on their relationship with him, and any recordings they made will only serve to bolster his claim that he had nothing to do with the death of his third wife or the disappearance of his current wife.
  
  Len Wawczak and his wife, Paula Stark, claim they wore a wire for the Illinois State Police for roughly six months, ending in June, according to a published report in Wednesday's Joliet Herald News.
  
  Police consider Peterson a suspect in the October disappearance of Stacy Peterson, and are conducting a murder investigation into the 2004 death of Kathleen Savio.

This guy loves being the center of attention, whether public, media or private. And if the net is closing in, he's likely capable of some truly crazy action. It explains why he's talking to anyone at all instead of becoming a hermit. He's pathological and desperate to prove how much smarter he is than anyone else.

Save the Date!

Only four more months of this tape being played day after day after day:

• Anthony Abbate — the Chicago police officer whose videotaped beating of a female bartender was seen around the world — will go to trial on felony charges Nov. 19.

Finally, after 19 November, we'll never ever have to see the Abbate tape again. The story will be old news and the media will archive the video.

Right? Please don't tell us that some local hack outfit actually ran the Abbate video over a story about the towing scandal. That would just be so very asinine.

Tow Truck Scandal Arrest

Again we ask: where's the learning curve?

An arrest has been made this morning.

It's a Secret, See?

Who was it who said it was "impractical" to train each and every Chicago cop in evacuation plans for the City?

• Emergency response officials and mass-transit agencies in Chicago need to do a better job of planning for the evacuation of the elderly, the disabled and the poor in the event of a terrorist attack or serious natural disaster, a new federal report concluded Tuesday.
• "[Chicago-area] transit providers believe they have adequate personnel and equipment to handle all but a very major emergency incident, such as the terrorist attacks of September 11 or detection of chemical, biological or radiological agents in the [central business district], which could trigger a major evacuation requiring extensive support from outside agencies and resources," the report said.

Well golly, we better pray that no "major" events occur here. It's not like we're planning on hosting the Olympic Games or anything. And we're not the birthplace of the atomic bomb. And we don't have the largest commodities exchange in existence. Or the tallest building in this hemisphere. Or anything else that could be a potentially attractive target.

Nothing to see here people. Carry on.

It's a Trick!!!

Don't do it Chicago!

• Local leaders are asking Chicagoans to turn in their guns. They're hoping for a big turn out at the city's latest gun turn-in day.
  
  "And what we're doing in America, we're basically killing our own, especially younger people," Mayor Richard M. Daley said.
  
  As more than a dozen of Chicago's at-risk kids stood nearby, the mayor and the police superintendent announced another gun turn-in day in the city.
  
  "Today I'm asking every resident of Chicago to turn in their firearm -- shotgun, rifles, automatic, semi automatic, pistol, revolver… No questions asked," Daley said.

Because god forbid you have guns around when the crime running rampant across the city comes to your home. After all, didn't the governor just say he's going to send the National Guard and State Troopers to the City because it's out of control? Yeah, we know he backtracked a bit, but J-Fed still had his first meeting with the troopers to see how an agency short 500 officers is going to expend the manpower necessary to shore up another Department that's short a few thousand street officers.

If you've got a piece of crap gun that's rusted shut and wouldn't fire if you soaked it for a week in a vat of machine oil, go get your $100 card. Use it to buy a decent gun. But Daley's gun laws are going to come tumbling down around his ears in short order. No need to give away decent guns for $100. You know the criminals aren't.

Dumber Than a Bag of Hammers

Who would earn this most coveted of titles? The feebs of course:

• Federal authorities in the landmark Family Secrets mob case estimate the Chicago Outfit has raked in more than $20 million from illicit activities since the 1960s.
• [...] In documents filed Monday, the government estimated the Outfit made $20,258,556, to be precise, chiefly through gambling. Calling the figure "very conservative," authorities said it was compiled from all the witnesses at last summer's trial.

$20 million? Wow. Let's just assume for the moment that they're talking about 1968 through 2008 - a round 40 years:

• $20 million divided by 40 years equals $500,000 per year.

Now lets divide that by the number of members in the Chicago Outfit, estimated by Wikipedia to be 150 persons:

• $500,000 per year divided by 150 members equals $3,333.33

So evidently, being a mobster pays a bit less than one would think, given the glamorous lifestyle depicted in the movies.

Yes, we know that the estimate is "very conservative" as stated in the article. But why even release this to the media with a straight face? The Outfit pulls in more for a single crooked land deal. Or a demolition contract. Or a city department selling old squad cars for $200 per and then parting out the wrecks for a few thousand a piece.

A GREAT Idea

This is nothing short of brilliant!

• Cook County's pothole holidays are over.

  An internal audit prompted by a Sun-Times report found that County Highway Supt. Rupert Graham's order requiring road repair crews to observe "no-drive" days twice-a-month to save on fuel was a waste.

We think this could be adapted to the CPD no problem.

• District Commanders designate a sector to "stand down" for the tour - Mon/Thurs the 10 sector; Tues/Fri the 20 sector; Wed/Sat the 30 sector. Between 3 and 5 cars don't move for the tour except for 10-1's or shootings. The manpower is available at the District just in case, and the savings is gas is amazing.

We also loved this stat from the same article:

• The audit also found that of 164 highway maintenance employees, only 92 work on road repair crews.

  The other 72 employees are supervisors and administrative staff.

This is our county government hard at work. How many miles of county road are there that aren't actually served by another jurisdiction? Or that couldn't be subcontracted out to a nearby suburb? The way we see it, that's 164 jobs that ought to be cut out of the budget right about now.

They Found What Now?

We're thinking the writers over at "CSI: Chicago" are just scratching their heads at this one:

• A cleanup crew found a knife Monday near where a 9-year-old girl was found stabbed to death last week in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood.
  
  An intern with Cleanslate, a nonprofit beautification business, found the "kitchen-type knife" while raking in a vacant lot about 100 feet from the alley where Mya Lyons' body was found, said Audrey Geddis, a crew chief.
  
  Geddis said the knife looked relatively new and had what appeared to be blood stains on it.

Channel 2 and Channel 7 also cover the story. Another CPD blog (wink wink) has an interesting take on the situation and wonders why the media beat police to the scene in what is probably one of the bigger "heater" cases in recent years. We don't think you can directly lay this one at J-Fed's feet, but it calls into question our evidence collection techniques.

And what do you mean there's no "CSI: Chicago"?

Got Your Back?

An empty suit...and an emptier promise:

• Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis says as long as the actions of his police officers are reasonable, he'll be there for them. WBBM'S Jennifer O'Neill asked Weis about his perceived image problem among some of the rank-and-file and a feeling by some that he might not have their back, as he addresses a recent increase in violence five months into the job.

Which (as has been stated here, elsewhere and by people far wiser than we) is exactly when we don't need a supervisor to have our backs. We got a letter along with this story quote from an anonymous copper:

• I don't need a boss when I'm right. I barely need a boss when I'm 99% right. I need a boss who's willing to stick it out there on the line and defend me when I'm 93 or 95% right and my intentions were good. I'm not looking for absolution for sins not yet committed. I'm looking to keep my house and my car and my job when some bloodsucker comes looking for a big payout because I did what cops have done for generations - kept decent people safe from assholes.

We tend to agree. The world isn't all black and white - there are a lot of gray areas out there. Bosses understand that. J-Fed, being a supervisor/manager, obviously does not.

Anyone Else Confused?

We're short people, right? We have beat cars operating 99 on midnights and afternoons, right? We're downing primary beat cars more often than is safe, right?

Then why is it with this "Back to the Street" program, Officers are NOT to be assigned radio calls? We mean, isn't this the most obvious sign that we're short handed - the number of backlogs that occur almost daily? Wouldn't another car answering calls make somewhat of a difference, even if it's just punching out a few reports? Hell, a dedicated paper car might be the actual way to go.

This comment from a 010 District reader begs for a few questions though:

• More scams in patrol. Good thing some idiot came up with back to the streets for the inside people because that really helped in 010 on 3rd watch. 1 Sgt and 2 PO's are now being detailed off the watch to headquarters so they can go work back to the street and come in with some sort of numbers while the back to the street police go out as some call number that is not part of the watch and doesn't have to respond to radio calls. Who knows how many other districts had to detail working PO's to back to the streets from their watch also to pad numbers?
  
  More smoke and mirrors... Meanwhile now they have been denying people time off again in 010 because of this bullshit...and they have been averaging 7/9 cars down a night. Whats up with the lawsuit FOP?
  
  And then the Commander has the nerve (i'm sure ordered by Supt) to come to roll call and preach how the department has your back, PLEASE!!! DO AGGRESSIVE WORK!!!

We aren't sure we're understanding the entire process described - people detailed off the watch to HQ so someone in HQ can come back and work the street with no radio calls? This can't be Aunt Bea taking care of her old command, can it? Would someone please describe this situation in greater detail, because this sounds like a new low, but we aren't sure.

Oops, Sorry Dude

Hey, at least they apologized to the guy:

• A Modesto [California] man was hospitalized in serious condition today after gang members broke into his south Modesto home, stabbed him, then apologized and said they attacked the wrong person, police reported.

• Three other adults -- a boyfriend and a girlfriend and a single female -- were upstairs when the attack started, he said. They heard the commotion downstairs and went to see what was going on.

  "They saw these individuals in their home attacking their friend," Gundlach said. At some point during the attack, the men realized they had the wrong house and told the victim they were sorry. "The gang members tried to apologize for what they had done and they left."

The article doesn't say whether or not they ever found the guy they were looking to stab, but we certainly hope they didn't give up looking.

More Reinforcements

AP -(Chicago) - In an effort to keep the "out of control" Chicago situation from spilling over into the entire Great Lakes Region, President Bush has taken a cue from Governor Rod Blagojevich and activated part of the Suisun Bay Naval Reserve Fleet to assist other states bordering Lake Michigan:
This would appear to be necessary after Superintendent Jody "J-Fed" Weis unsuccessfully attempted to introduce an amphibious squad car program headed by Air and Sea Commander Harry "Harold the Hat" Hohm:


Mayor Daley rejected the President's offer stating that he wasn't mad at Mr. Bush, but that he, "would have to live with his words." There was no report on how this might affect the Olympic bids.

UPDATE: correction for spelling

UPDATE #2: The second photo appears to be part of a collection of police car pictures and one of a series of 3 shots of Hohm's car in the surf. Here are links to picture #2 and picture #3. If you'd like to see a pictorial history of CPD vehicles, from the days of horses to the latest Tahoes, head over to copcardotcom.com.

Hello?!? It's STOLEN Money

This ought to be impeachable for pure stupidity:

• A fire-ravaged Bronzeville church that has been waiting two years for a $1 million state payout -- promised by Gov. Blagojevich in the heat of his re-election bid -- may have to wait even longer.

  That's because atheist activist Rob Sherman filed suit in a Downstate court, saying the grant deal with Pilgrim Baptist Church violates the constitutional separation between church and state.

• ...the money he had promised the church went to a politically connected private school displaced by the fire from space it had rented from Pilgrim Baptist -- a snafu Blagojevich attributed to a "bureaucratic mix-up" by his administration.

  The school used the money to buy space in a Loop office building but has yet to hold classes, triggering reviews of that deal by the state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and Attorney General Lisa Madigan. The House also voted unanimously to have Auditor General William Holland study the whole transaction.

That's $1 million just given away to someone who it never should have been given to. There has also been zero effort to recover the money and when they went through the paperwork, they found an previously unknown criminal pardon tucked into the grant. We mean, how obvious does it have to be that this was Blago-abetted theft? And combined with the other crap Hendon's been spearheading with Emil Jones? There ought to be a while bunch of vacancies in the political order.

Double Standard Again

From the comments:

• I'm suprized there is no mention of the protesters outside of operation push demanding the resignation of Jesse Jackson- I don't read the papers or watch the main stream media but I thought I would have at least seen a mention of it here.

Why would anyone be protesting the "reverend" Jackson? He's a man of peace, love, beer distributorships, corporate extortion, and cutting the balls off of presidential candidates.

Why would the media ignore such a story? If it was on a blog, the Secret Service would be knocking on our doors right now. Oops, there's the doorbell - we'll be back.

Darwin Award Nominee

An early leader:

• GARY, Ind. - A man apparently trying to steal parts from cars was fatally crushed when the jack he was using to lift one car failed and the vehicle fell on him, police said.
  
  An employee at I-80 Auto Parts found the body of 54-year-old Terry Davis on Friday morning in the parking lot outside the Gary business.
  
  A spokesman for the Lake County Coroner's Office said Davis died from blunt force trauma. His death has been ruled an accident.

Always make us chuckle.

"Reverends" Going Down?

Tribune article this Sunday morning:

• The state is squandering taxpayer money on dubious after-school grants, including many that rewarded one lawmaker's political supporters, a Tribune investigation found.
• Powerful Senate Democrats quietly gave out the money to handpicked nonprofits, schools, businesses and churches. The lawmakers funneled the money through the Illinois State Board of Education, which rubber-stamped the choices.
  
  But a Tribune investigation found that nearly half of the 48 groups that got money this past school year were running dubious programs, or declined to show how they spent the money. Only 11 of the grants went to established programs with a history of tutoring or mentoring school-age children.

Any federal charges forthcoming? This is a Tribune investigation and it hammers Emil Jones' people. We'd love to see the crumbling of the Machine begin with the Illinois branch. Nothing wrong with hoping.

Here's a question the Tribune fails to ask:

• What did Illinois state senator Barack Obama know about these crooked giveaways and when did he know it? And why does a police blog have to do the heavy thinking for investigative journalists? Again?
  

Thanks Joe

Another county heard from:

• DuPage County State's Attorney Joe Birkett is jumping into the governor's controversial offer to put state troopers on Chicago's streets to fight what the governor called "out of control" crime.

  "I urge you to stop disparaging the Chicago Police Department, who, in my opinion, have done an outstanding job in their fight against street gangs," Birkett told Gov. Blagojevich in a letter today.

We appreciate the support, but we were disturbed by the rest of the release. Birkett mirrored J-Fed's call for the governor to reinstate the State Police gun tracking unit. This idea being repeated by a politician brings up a question or two:

• J-Fed is learning how the game is played. Do what Daley says and be spared embarrassment.
• Blago is on the verge of impeachment and/or Federal charges. That mean Lisa Madigan is running for governor.
• Madigan occupies the spot that Birkett ran for a few years back.

Sorry to be so cynical, but Birkett repeating a J-Fed statement so soon after J-Fed got his ass chewed by Daley make us wonder if Birkett is making deals with the Machine for a shot at Attorney General when Madigan runs for Blago's spot. Hmmmm.

Going to the Well - Again

But the well seems to be drying up:

• Mayor Daley wants to raise $1 million to buy back guns and remove them from Chicago streets, but the latest in a string of corporate fund-raisers got off to a slow start.

  Sources said former Board of Education President Michael Scott was asked to co-sign a wave of fund-raising letters and make fund-raising phone calls after the initial response was lukewarm from a business community that's also being called upon to bankroll Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid.

We really resent the continued use of children and the Board of Ed people to front for Daley's manic anti-gun agenda. Naive children are used as props while people who owe their continued employment to Daley must play along or get out. We are forcibly reminded of Maude Flanders from "The Simpsons" screeching "Won't somebody think of the children?" every time Daley starts to spout his canned speeches.

Even if corporations are becoming aware that the mood in the country is decidedly pro-gun, they are also tired of being hit up for "contributions" whenever the mayor has a "shortfall." Most notably, the massive cost overruns at Millennium Park we covered by equally massive corporate "donations" and people like Oprah dropping a few million. This is hardly the only case, just the biggest we've ever heard of. Different CPS schools, charter and the like, are "sponsored" by corporations big and small under the guise of training the up-and-coming workforce. In reality, Daley wanted to avoid massive tax increases to satisfy union demands, even in the face of substandard results.

The corporate well drying up could mean taxpayers get stuck with many more of the Olympic bills coming up. That might mean a taxpayer revolt soon.

Holy Batman Batman!

Evidently, there is a scene in "The Dark Knight" that will make every Chicago copper spew their beverages in the theater. With crime running completely out of control, Lieutenant Gordon turns to a subordinate and states, "We need the National Guard." The scene then switches to a pair of National Guard helicopters flying down the Chicago River on their way to some mayhem.

It would seem that Blago got an advance screening copy of the movie and watched it before his latest foray into the land of stupid. The coincidences are just too darn scary.

CFD (Not a Scandal?) Scandal - UPDATED

So we're assuming that we can count on a nationwide search for a new Fire Commissioner to rein in a Department totally out of control?

• Eight inspectors from Chicago's Fire Prevention Bureau are likely to be fired for allegedly accepting cash payments in exchange for making weekend pump inspections at high-rise buildings, City Hall sources said Thursday.

  "Businesses were paying overtime for them to come in and do a job on Saturday or Sunday. That is wrong. Employees are not to be paid by anyone other than the city," said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.

If they've got one-hundred Fire Inspectors, there doesn't seem to be a reason some couldn't work nights, some work weekends, maybe even some on midnights so as to spread out the workload and minimize building disruptions. One-hundred Inspectors working 9-to-5 Monday through Friday just seems shortsighted.

UPDATE: from the comments:

• This has been a deal that CFD agreed to for years. The building owners don't want to do the fire pump tests during the week, CFD doesn't want to pay OT, so they agreed that the building owners would pay the inspectors directly so they could do the tests on weekend and CFD wouldn't have to do paperwork. It's a really shady procedure, but CFD brass was on board with it.
  
  What happened was that Skinny Sheahan at McCormick Place got into a beef with the head of the fire inspectors, and to screw him, blew the whistle on this. Then CFD brass was shocked, shocked, that this was going on.
  
  Expect a whole bunch of lawsuits out of any disciplinary action that comes out of this.
  
  Meanwhile people will die because the fire inspection bureau is turned upside down so Skinny can do what he wants at McCormick Place.

And:

• SCC,
  Talked to some guys,this deal is another m3dia creation. The CFD guys did nothing wrong,followed an old protocol and are being shafted.
  
  The building managers used to issue a check to cover the CFD OT because they didn't want inspections conducted on weekdays. The CFD turned the check in to the department and received thier OT,apparently some individuals were slow in turning the checks in. It sounds like a bunch of hooopla over nothing significant...

Daley has his media lap dogs trained well. And his impeccable sense of timing of being "out of town" when scandal or imagined scandal breaks, remains intact.

SUV's?

Supposedly, 165 Tahoes are parked at 51st Street:

• The Chicago Police Department will quadruple its fleet of gas-guzzling Chevrolet Tahoe SUVs this year -- to more than 200 -- under a contract in the works sure to please Supt. Jody Weis.
  
  Weis has argued that the Police Department's fleet -- 36 SUVs and 2,753 sedans -- is in "horrible" condition and that SUVs make more sense to get through Chicago's winters.
  
  The average beat car is 2.6 years old and has 50,622 miles on it. The average unmarked vehicle is 2.9 years old with 41,285 miles.

What most coppers wouldn't give for a vehicle with only 50,000 miles on it. Fleet claims the mileages are comparable between Tahoes and Crown Vics. A quick google search shows Tahoes at 14 mpg city/19 mpg highway, Crown Vics at 17/25 mpg and Impalas at 16/24 mpg, so once again it seems that Fran publishes what Daley wants rather than what the facts are.

We'd like new cars, don't get us wrong, but it'd make more sense to spend wisely in these economic times. And speaking of spending wisely, you'd think it would make sense to have our own metal working shop that could build or adapt existing computer mounts to get the Tahoes out to the street quicker. You might be surprised to learn that that's exactly what we used to have when the Department ran the garages. Not anymore though. A mount must be designed, submitted for bid, granted to the low bid connected contractor, subcontracted out to someone else and then installed.

Aren't these SUVs supposed to be the ones with the rifle racks?

Cop Injured

Suspect shot? Eisenhower completely shut down for hours:

• Early reports had indicated that the officer struck by a car was a bike officer, but all officers involved operated cars, said Chicago police spokesman John Mirabelli.
  
  After hitting the officer, the suspect's vehicle fled and entered the Eisenhower Expressway, where it traveled east in the westbound lanes, police said. Officers in another vehicle attempted to arrest the suspect, resulting in a crash, Avila said.
  
  When both officers stepped out of the car, the vehicle "moved in the direction of [one] officer" and his partner fired, Avila said.

The articles are unclear if the driver was also apprehended. Best wishes to the Officer, who is said to be resting at home.

Weis Learning the Game

After being roundly spanked by the aldercreatures, J-Fed takes some cues from the mayor:

• A key Chicago alderman blasted Gov. Blagojevich on Thursday for insulting Chicago with his offer to put state troopers on the city's streets to fight "out of control crime."
  
  But police Supt. Jody Weis was more diplomatic, inviting the State Police to "come on down" and work with Chicago cops.
  
  "I would welcome a partnership with the Illinois State Police," Weis said in a news conference Thursday. "They are a professional, top-notch law enforcement agency. If they are willing to send more folks to come down here and work with us, I would say 'Please come on down.' "
  
  But Weis questioned why the State Police have yanked other assistance from Chicago. "Their gun-tracking team was discontinued before I got here," he said of a State Police unit that worked with the Chicago Police. "In talking to some of our folks, that was the one thing that the Illinois State Police did a fantastic job at."

Aside from telling the ISP to "come on down" (it should be "come on up to Chicago"), J-Fed disingenuously accepts the governor's offer with one hand while subtly slapping the ISP with his other for pulling their gun-tracking team. Of course, it's safe for J-Fed to accept the governor's offer because ISP is short 500 troopers, has worse cars than we do and would pretty much be limited to helping out their own backlogs on the Chicago interstates rather than District law enforcement. If it never happens, Blago looks like the ass, not Daley.

The article states Daley is "out of town" again, so draw your own conclusions about that one.

Nonsense Enforcement

From the Hyde Park Herald, bastion of liberal thinking, comes the story of officers attempting to enforce an alleged swimming ban at Promontory Point. The article claims two squad cars, a bike officer and our very own police helicopter were utilized to write... wait for it... an ANOV!

If someone feels the need to write an ANOV for what might be illegal swimming, we aren't going to tell them not to. But be a man about it and go in after the swimmer yourself and drag them to the shore to write them the ticket, don't waste the helicopter's time and gas. During the time wasted they could have gotten like eight or more real event numbers for orbiting Area 1 crime scenes.

If some yuppie Hyde Park liberal wants to take their life into their own hands swimming in an unregulated, un-lifeguarded portion of the lake, we are of the opinion that police service ought to be limited to the Marine Unit pulling out the dead body when it resurfaces. Then bill the estate for the cost. Otherwise, live and let live.

Why No Outcry?

Interesting:

• Police were investigating late Friday the shooting of a woman in a section of the West Loop frequented by restaurant-goers.
  
  The woman was waiting for her boyfriend about 1:45 a.m. Friday in the 800 block of West Randolph Street when two men approached her, said Capt. Hootan Bahmandeji.
  
  One demanded valuables, which she refused to turn over, police said. After a struggle, the men grabbed unspecified items and fled. As they were leaving, one of them shot her, police said.

This happened just outside of where the largest Chicago event of the weekend will be going on, "The World's Largest Block Party." Have the troops been notified? Have days off been canceled? Is Car 47 aware?

And why is the description of the assailants limited to "two men...in their 20's"? Tourists everywhere need to be asking if it's safe to be in Chicago any more.

Tribune Editorial

The Tribune quotes SCC extensively:

• "Daley, Weis and the 'meri-clout-orious' Command Staff have done something unheard of in the history of the Chicago Police Department. They've taken a diverse group of people who, for the most part, want to make life better for hundreds of thousands of citizens, and just about completely beaten the desire to serve out of each and every one of them. . . . Manpower? Down. Tickets? Down. Arrests? Down. Revenue? Down. Guns? Down. Search Warrants? Down. Crime? Up—and up double digits with no end in sight."
  
  Second City Cop blog, July 11, 2008
  
  What's this? Routine kvetching on the Web blog that Chicago cops most often read?
  
  Or does the current avalanche of often detailed complaints from officers about inept management—poor leadership within the department but also from politicians at City Hall—suggest that Chicago has serious policing problems? That, for whatever reason, the CPD is less effective at fighting crime than it has been in recent years?

The Department is rotting from the head down - and by "head" we mean City Hall. The Department is merely reflective of the constant political corruption pouring out of Chicago, Cook and Illinois politics.

Go read the entire editorial. It brings up some valid points. However, it missed a big one:

• Kvetching, whether from blogging cops or preening aldermen, won't accomplish anything.

Actually, blogging cops have accomplished something that hasn't been done in years - uniting a large segment of the population into realizing there is a problem, something a Free Press should have been doing all the years they were eating up the crap politicians were serving.

Are you in for the long fight Tribune Editorial Staff?

Other Fish to Fry

Now we know why Fitzgerald has been ignoring the City lately:

• Unnecessary deaths and amputation, grossly inadequate medical care, systematic prisoner beatings.

  These are just some of the findings from a 17-month probe of the Cook County Jail by the U.S. attorney’s office.

Gee, sounds almost exactly like what's happening in Iowa right now.

We certainly hope that Fitzgerald isn't ignoring the constant stream of crooked contracting, political shenanigans and assorted wrongdoing in the City Hall building just because a certain fed ... a certain J-Fed ... is now "in control" over at the CPD. Professional courtesy in the face of wholesale political corruption is no favor to the taxpayers of Chicago. Besides, weakening the Toddler merely strengthens the Machine.

Numbers and Questions

Interesting take:

• Our boss told at roll call the other day:
  
  13,322 total sworn
  
  Only 9,161 Patrol Officers (job title code 9161 by the way).
  
  Figure close to 2,000 admin spots and you've got barely 7,000 in the districts which means an average of 280 per district. This actually soun[d]s like a legit breakdown.
  
  Now do 2/7ths regular day off, 7% on furlough, 3% medical, IOD or CU and you see why everyone's working 99.

Someone has got to have real numbers somewhere, even if it's just the District totals. Manpower assigned to a District minus the people Detailed out. If anyone wants to send totals off of the District worksheets, we could figure out how many 99 units are working any given midnight and we could tally up the number of times we're downing primary cars. Same thing for cars being sent out of District.

The political front is cracking and the brass are quaking. Citizens are noticing and media are being forced to ask questions of the Administration. Finally.

OK "Boss"

Where do these idiots come from?

• we can be fully staffed,have brand new equipment,win a great new contract. get rid or merit and SCC would still hate the police and have something negative to say
  

Four things that will never happen under Daley lead you to a completely wrong conclusion? you must have been the pride of the CPS Debating Club. How do you make the extraordinary leap that if we point out how politicians and "merit" brass have ruined what used to be the greatest job in the world, then we must "hate" the police?

How about this:

• SCC can point out stupid decisions, massive shortfalls, double standards regarding discipline, promotions and assignments, incompetent bosses, political animals and all manner of bureaucratic nonsense, and there will still be some clout-driven asshat claiming it's not the fault of the Department - it's SCC's fault for pointing it out.
  

Doesn't Get It

From the comments:

• oh my god, quit fucking whining and crying about watches being short. you are a fucking mental midget if you think its ever going to change. "do more with less" has been the credo in private industry for years, if not decades. ill break it down for you morons at scc, accounting wise, the department is modernizing. put down the guns and ammo magazine and get educated. this blog sounds like a broken record, time to employ a few new writers.

Doing "more with less" isn't really feasible in the Police Department though, and if you think it is, you're the idiot. Fewer cops means less visibility, reduced enforcement, emboldened criminals. It also means more people willing to take their chances fleeing or even fighting.

The Department has been preaching modernization for at least a decade now and we still aren't seeing it. Remember the old arrest reports? Five pages with carbon paper. Now we "upgraded" to Automated Arrest. Have you ever arrested someone who decided to fight the police over a bullshit traffic warrant? When you finish the TRR's, IOD's, print the warrant, and submit all the charges, that Arrest report is about 14 pages long. And you need multiple copies. This is modernization?

Automated Case Reporting? AIRA is coming on line after 5 years and it's looking like the bugs are going to bog down this system worse than ever. CAPS? Full to overflowing. Ticket clerks? Still sorting by hand. 35th Street? Still can't find parking spaces when we go down there. Physical inventories of Department equipment? Pencil and paper to check numbers. The list is endless

Bureaucracy is alive and well in the Department. We aren't doing more with less - we're accomplishing less with way less.

Blago Clarification

Seems all those clips running on the news of the big Chinook troop transport helicopters landing during troop exercises unnerved the governor. This clarification was issued:

• As mentioned at today’s press conference, Gov. Rod Blagojevich said it was “highly unlikely” that the Illinois National Guard would be sent out to help the Chicago police. The more likely scenario involves the Illinois State Police. The Governor is meeting with law enforcement officials later today to look at options on how the state can help Mayor Daley with more personnel.

  The National Guard will only be attending the meeting today for informational purposes.

  The only way the National Guard would be involved, if they are involved, is with the use of tactical helicopters that are currently used in narcotic operations. No National Guard troops are being considered.

Given that the State is short 500 troopers from barely a few years ago, we don't see ISP coming in to the rescue. That isn't a slam at ISP, it's just that operationally, even sending 200 troopers to Chicago wouldn't do a thing except inconvenience 200 troopers.

On a lighter note, Michelle Malkin and her readers are having a field day with Blago's statements:

• Gov, offering troopers to help the local police/security forces….??? Wouldn’t that constitute a “Surge”??? Just sayin’…….LOL
• Yes, and we all know a “surge” will just make things worse.
• You know, the gun-toting, Bible-carrying folks in the rest of Illinois seem to get along just fine. Maybe someday though those same folks in the rest of the state will start paying attention to elections rather than continuing to elect such idiots as the governor, Durbin, Obama, etc.
• …Chicago Public Schools officials say more than two dozen students have been killed by gunfire since last September. Are they talking about Chicago or Kabul?
• Chicago = Anbar Province (About 18 months ago that is..Today’s Anbar Province is safer than Chicago)

Welcome Olympic Committee! Our city can screw up a one-million-person event that ran smoothly for the previous 20 years. We're sure we're ready for the Olympics. Just take this suitcase full of dollars, euros and gold.