"Training Districts" Flaw?

Someone correct us if we're wrong:

• Six Districts to train officers. Even in the unlikely event they graduate a class of more than 75 in the next few years (which doesn't look likely in the face of no hiring and no test on the horizon), that's like a dozen officers going to 004, 006, 008, 010, 024 and 025.
• These PPOs serve their eighteen months, rotate watches for a bit and work with their FTO's for whatever period of time. At some point they are going to get bumped by another class coming up behind them, right? If we happen to have two classes graduating within a short time frame, these six districts are going to be buried in PPOs - 20 or more recruits in a single district.
• According to Aunt Bea's latest directive, PPOs off their cycles cannot work anything but 1st and 3rd watch.

So potentially, we have no one working with their partners anymore in these "training" districts on 1st and 3rd watches due to the overflow of PPOs. That doesn't make for a very happy watch. And if they ship them all over the City following "refresher" training, it's like having them as PPOs all over again since a conscientious Watch Commander is going to have to break up partners to do familiarization training.

And someone trained in 024 afternoons isn't going to like being shipped to 007 midnights much. The "culture shock" alone is going to be a rude awakening and a potential safety issue.

CPD Beats CFD

Good publicity:

• Chicago's police defeated its firefighters 13-4 in the annual charity baseball game Saturday at U.S. Cellular Field.
  
  This was the 9th edition of the charity baseball game pitting Chicago's Bravest against Chicago's Finest, with the money raised to benefit charities supporting survivors of firefighters and police officers who died in the line of duty.

A great time was had by all. Good job guys.

Father of the Year

Really nice:

• MUNCIE, Ind. -- A man was sentenced to 18 months in prison after admitting he forced his 7-year-old daughter to kill the family cat by holding a knife in her hand and making her stab the pet.

  ''I am extremely sorry for what I did,'' Daniel J. Collins said during his sentencing Thursday. ''Everything is my responsibility.''

His excuse?

• The girl and Collins' 11-year-old son said their father ordered them to stab the cat because he wanted them to ''learn to kill.''

We often wondered where Stephen King got some of his more twisted ideas. "Children of the Corn" must have gotten its start here.

J-Fed Blinks - Again

Where is this guy getting advice from? Because, we'll be quite frank here, it sucks. The latest misstep?

• General Order 08-01: Secondary Employment
• Item IV - Restrictions: Secondary employment is prohibited under any of the following conditions:
  
• Section G: When the secondary employment would exceed twenty hours per week. This restriction included both secondary and voluntary secondary employment combined.
• NOTE: This restriction does not apply to secondary employment during annual or compensatory time furlough periods.

This was issued 06 August 08, despite the fact that it conflicted with years worth of labor agreements. One would assume that J-Fed had actual lawyers or at the very least people who could read working for him to point this out. They must have been working "Back to the Beat" or whatever they're calling "Closed Market" these days. Not even three weeks later, a AdMin Fax came out and the General Order was amended noting that Section G had been rescinded.

Would anyone care to list the policies instigated by J-Fed and his merry band of idiots that have had to be rescinded because they were illegal, unlawful and in direct violation of existing contracts? Here's a starting list:

• Felony Review to be notified in the event an officer was arrested for any charge whatsoever;
• The SCC Post of 25 April noting how a large number of Sergeants had been moved out of their districts on the issued transfer order and then reinstated to their districts, not once, but TWICE;
  
• FOP Officers stripped in violation of the CR process and in the face of a scheduled Arbitrator hearing.

There are others, but we're sleepy.

Let's Get Ready to Rumble

Evidently, Meeks took our criticism to heart and he's strapped on a pair:

• Time's up, the Rev. James Meeks said Thursday.

  The three-day boycott is on.

  "No more time. The window has expired," Meeks said.

It figures to be a short trip though:

• "To most responsibly accommodate a group of this size, the New Trier High School and Sunset Ridge Elementary school districts will hold a single registration process," Laura Blair, spokeswoman for New Trier's District 203, said in a statement.

  CPS students can enroll, Blair said, but "the first step in the student registration process is to provide proof of residency."

Oops. Game over before it even started. Have a nice trip back home "reverend."

Anyone Hear About a Meeting?

A meeting with the supervisors?

Our friends over at SecondCitySarge missed the meeting and their comment section isn't as lively as ours. The "official" Sergeant and Lieutenant websites are dead. We count over a hundred supervisors among our regular readers - anyone have anything substantial from the meetings? Or was it J-Fed and a bunch of crickets chirping?

FTO Disaster Drill

The more we think about it and read the comments, we realize once again that the readers probably have it correct:

• This seems to be a blatantly obvious attempt to get as many FTOs to resign in preparation for a "new and improved" FTO test and promotional process by killing the existing program.
  

Of the six listed districts (004, 006, 008, 010, 024 and 025), one shouldn't even be listed, but they had to list something north. Others are conspicuous by their absence. If they include 010, they need to include 011. If 025 is listed, 015 is a natural companion. How can anyone think that 007 and 009 shouldn't be included if 004 and 006 head the list?

And don't think for a moment that a "POWER" test isn't going to part and parcel of the new FTO program. We'd almost bet the farm on it.

Goodbye FTOs

From the comments section. We're still looking for confirmation:

• Found out today that there will only be six, yes, six, training districts: 004, 006, 008, 010, 024 and 025.
  
  The order comes out on Tuesday. First round of FTO bids to these districts are on the 12th and the second round on the 19th.
  
  After the shit they pulled with those guys in 014, with some of them being sent to 009, I believe, now they are doubly fucked. They even have to leave 009. (That is if they went to begin with.)
  
  How the hell is this a morale booster? I do not know of one person who took the last FTO test without the reasonable expectation of returning to their district. Everyone, I mean EVERYONE, I talked to who took the test wants the D2A pay AND to be working in their district!
  
  Yes, this is the way to show that FTO's are the backbone of the department's future!

Once again, the Department (or J-Fed) fail to realize that District of Assignment is the most important deciding factor. Back when they did "Furlough by Watch" they expected all the old timers to bid to faster districts on 3rd Watch and Midnights so they could get their 6A/B and 7A/B furloughs. The end result then was almost no one moved - the old timers took their 5A/B and 8A/Bs if they had to...as long as they stayed in their districts.

Expect the same thing with FTOs - we predict 60% of the people earning D2 will resign rather than move.

This is a Surprise - Not

The connected make money again:

• A New York financial services firm that employs Mayor Daley's nephew stands to make millions if the mayor gets his way and the Chicago Children's Museum moves from Navy Pier to Grant Park.

  Plans call for the museum to take 400 parking spaces in the East Monroe Parking Garage -- one of four underground garages the city leased to Morgan Stanley months after the firm hired William Daley Jr., the mayor's nephew, as an investment banker.

Tim Novak of "Hired Truck" fame continues to chip away and expose the daily corruption of the Daley Administration. But it sure seems like a lonely trek - he's just about the only one doing any reporting on anything related to municipal corruption.

Dogged Detective Work

Still paying dividends:

• A second teenage girl has been charged with throwing acid in the face of a 48-year-old woman during a street robbery in the Logan Square neighborhood last month.
  
  The girl, 15, was arrested Wednesday in Cicero and was cited in a juvenile petition with armed robbery and heinous battery. She is being held at a juvenile detention facility awaiting a hearing, Chicago police said.
  
  Her name was not being released because she is a juvenile, but police said she and the other charged teen could be charged as adults.

Good job Detectives.

UPDATE: Spelling corrected

Five More Days

The Meeks countdown begins in earnest. Negotiations for the proper amount of extorted tax money continue around the clock. And New Trier plans to restrict who can protest where:

• ...New Trier Township school officials said Thursday they will open only one campus next week to an expected influx of city students attempting to make a statement about the financial inequities in Illinois schools.
  
  City students who attempt to enroll at New Trier Township High School's main Winnetka campus on Tuesday will be directed to the 9th-grade campus in Northfield, as will elementary students who report to Sunset Ridge School in Northfield, according to a news release.

One hundred twenty-five buses are on standby. At forty students per bus, that's five thousand kids missing school as part of a political stunt. Meeks will be arriving by private limo no doubt. Has any member of the media asked Obama what he thinks of Meeks contributing to the delinquency of five-thousand kids?

Citizens Being Beaten in the Streets

The only amazing thing here is the lack of coverage:

• First up - Some tourists say they were attacked at Chicago's Navy Pier while security guards look on. Two couples say it happened as they were coming off of a midnight cruise at the pier. Tonight, they tell Lilia Chacon how they were jumped, beaten and robbed. It's a Fox Chicago news exclusive.
  
• Next - A homeless couple was charged for a Monday night robbery and beating in the South Loop that reportedly left a woman in a drug-induced coma. [...]
  

  A fight ensued and the homeless man allegedly grabbed the woman celebrating her birthday and threw her to the ground and beat her in the head, knocking out most of her upper teeth and leaving her critically inured. She was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where she is in a reported drug-induced coma, the source said.

It's getting so that the tourists are going to be too damn scared to come by - Navy Pier? That's the number one tourist spot in the state. Downtown at Roosevelt and Wabash? Right off the museum campus and Soldier Field.

How will Daley ever make up the lost tourist revenue?

Motivational Poster

From another reader:


Ah Martinez, your stupidity will live forever onward thanks to the Internet.

"100 Things" Author Dead

In a home accident:

• Dave Freeman, co-author of "100 Things to Do Before You Die," a travel guide and ode to odd adventures that inspired readers and imitators, died after hitting his head in a fall at his home. He was 47.
• The book's recommendations ranged from the obvious — attending the Academy Awards and running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain — to the more obscure — taking a voodoo pilgrimage in Haiti and "land diving" on the Island of Vanuatu, which Freeman once called "the original bungee jumping."

Died after hitting his head? Perhaps he should have re-ordered his list and made "Buying a decent helmet to wear around the house" as his number-one priority?

Rats Abandoning Ship

Love him or hate him, he always provoked discussion. Which is his job after all:

• Jay Mariotti, the opinionated and polarizing sports columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, told the Chicago Tribune he resigned on Tuesday after 17 years with the paper.
• Commenting on his 17 years at the paper, Mariotti said he loved every minute of it. But he said that with the troubled times newspapers face, it was time to consider a new future.
• "I'm a competitor and I get the sense this marketplace doesn't compete,'' he said. "Everyone is hanging on for dear life at both papers. I think probably the days of high stakes competition in Chicago are over.
  
  "To see what's happened in this business...I don't want to go down with it.''

Anyone paying attention has seen what Zell is doing to the Tribune and the Sun Times is currently on the block for pennies per share. We figure it's only a matter of time before Chicago joins the ranks of one-newspaper towns. Whether it's a merger or an out-and-out bankruptcy, we'll see. At this point, we aren't shedding any tears over it. The dead-tree media has been circling the drain for a while now. Whether or not Mariotti is provoking discussion or having a hissy fit, it shows where the media is heading.

The Investigation Continues

Sources in the D-unit have snuck us a photo.


It's good to see they're still bringing in suspects in an effort to solve this spate of shootings. We're sure they'll have it solved in no time at all. Lawyers for the accused have been circling the building for hours, so expect some writs to be issued soon as the 48-hour mark approaches.

Restricting Information?

Can anyone else verify?

• The Quick Stat report has been disabled. The reason, Chicago is one murder below New York. New York's population: approximately 9 million. Chicago's population: approximately 3 million.
  
  Jody knows this site is monitored by the media and he does not want these facts to get to them. TOO LATE.

Doesn't J-Fed realize who our readers are? We've got more lieutenants than we can count, captains who quote the site at roll call and at least three gold stars who e-mail us occasionally. If we want the Quick Stat reports, we'll have no problem getting it.

How About a Garbage Rebate?

Everyone catch this trial balloon being floated by the Daley people?

• Chicago should impose a garbage collection fee -- similar to the freight suburbanites have paid for years -- to close a $420 million budget gap without massive layoffs and service cuts, an influential union leader said Monday.
• A fee of $10 a month from the 600,000 Chicago households that get city garbage pickup would generate $72 million a year. A $15 fee would produce $108 million.

• Aldermen may call it a back-door property tax increase and claim Chicagoans expect refuse collection costs to be covered by their tax bill.

  But the case can also be made that Chicago can no longer afford to provide a free service that costs money almost everywhere else.

We'd like a fee rebate if we don't fill our garbage cans every pick up day then. We compost all of our yard waste, saving the City money. We recycle metal, plastic, paper, cardboard and just about everything else even remotely reusable. If we can sneak a few bags into the neighbor's cans, we can go eight or ten weeks a year without a single pick up.

Or maybe Daley could stop giving away money, crooked contracts, no-show jobs, aldercreature raises, and any of a hundred more schemes and programs that serve no purpose? Or would that make sense?

FOP? Add this to the negotiations where being required to live in the City costs us way too much to keep up with the "raises" that end up being reductions.

Obama Pisses Off Liberals

And by "liberals" we mean Cubs fans:

• We all knew Barack Obama is a Sox fan, but he took it a bit further in an ESPN interview.

  Obama joked about the stereotype of Cubs fans, who probably are tired of being described as partying people-watchers instead of serious fans.

  "You go to Wrigley Field, you have a beer, beautiful people up there,'' Obama said, according to ESPN transcripts. "People aren't watching the game. It's not serious. White Sox, that's baseball."

Wait a minute - did he just call Sox fans ugly? We think he did. What next? Calling Blackhawks fans toothless trailer-dwellers? Well, that part may be true, but our dentist says the bridgework should be in next week.

Meeks You Pussy

What a stroke:

• State Sen. James Meeks offered Monday to drop a three-day school boycott if top Illinois Democrats -- Gov. Blagojevich, Senate President Emil Jones and House Speaker Michael Madigan -- agree to publicly back a new $120 million, three-year plan to reform the state's most seriously ailing schools.

  Meeks, pastor of Salem Baptist Church, said he is flying to Denver today to meet Madigan and Jones at the Democratic convention, where he hopes Blagojevich also will join the discussions.

  In 2006, Meeks dropped a threat to run for governor in exchange for assurances that Blagojevich would find more money for education. The governor's funding plan never made it out of the gate.

Seems he's dropped his blackmail threat from $4 billion to a mere $120 million.

If Blago holds out a little bit longer, Meeks will be paying HIM not to boycott and the budget crisis will be solved! Hooray, that sawed-off runt is brilliant!

Northside Shooting?

Shaved is reporting another CPD shooting up north. We'll try to get some details up as they become available. If we can't, here's a link to Shaved's blog.

UPDATE: Tribune coverage. Gun found, cops OK.

Suburban Shooting, Cop OK

Once again, anyone who has a condescending attitude toward our suburban brothers and sisters really ought to realize that this crap surfaces everywhere at some point:

• One man was killed and a Skokie police officer was injured in a possible shootout Monday night in Lincolnwood.

  About 5 p.m., Lincolnwood fire responded to a Skokie officer injured after being involved in a chase that ended near North Kilpatrick and West Estes avenues, according to a Lincolnwood fire commander.

  The commander said someone fired shots at the officer, but the officer was not shot. He was taken to Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston to be treated for some injury, the commander said.

Wishing a speedy recovery to the officer.

Chalkie Travels

He had a busy weekend:

• A woman has died after a shooting that also wounded a man late Sunday on the Far West Side, police said.

  The incident occurred just before 11:30 p.m. in the 300 block of North Cicero Avenue, according to police News Affairs.

• A man and a woman were shot early Sunday in the Englewood neighborhood. Five other people were wounded in separate incidents late Saturday and early Sunday in the same South Side neighborhood.

The north side wasn't immune:

• Ferris had been shot in the face by a shotgun-wielding thief sometime after 3 a.m. in the rear yard of the building that he owned and also called home, in the 4300 block of North Western Avenue, according to a Belmont Area homicide detective and another source close to the investigation.

South again:

• Two 17-year-old men were shot Sunday night in the South Shore neighborhood.

Age was no restriction:

• An 8-year-old girl was shot while playing on a West Side porch Sunday morning in the West Garfield Park neighborhood.

Whenever ten or more people get shot anywhere else in the country, it's called a tragedy. In Chicago, we call it the weekend.

An Incredible Asshole

Surprise surprise - a civil rights attorney:

• A Chicago civil rights attorney is pushing for an independent civil review board to investigate allegations of police misconduct regarding the Aug. 13 police shooting of a Waukegan youth.

  Lewis Myers, Chicago counsel for New York City-based National Action Network, a civil rights organization headed by the Rev. Al Sharpton, said the group is monitoring such incidents across the country.

Ah yes, the "not so Sharp-ton" connection. It gets better:

• Myers, who teaches criminal justice as a professor for City Colleges of Chicago, said that a cursory check into the facts of the incident show that Lewis was fighting with his brother, not the police.

  "I have no reason to believe that officer's life was in danger," Myers said. "No one was trying to kill or injure him. We're waiting for the results of the pathology report. The angle of the bullets shot by the officer is going to be very revealing."

Except for the other officer lying bleeding on the ground with a skull fracture. How is this asshole going to explain away that? And the fact that Illinois law permits officers to use deadly force to protect the life of themselves or another. Since the dead jagoff still had a hammer and had shown an inclination to use it, we're pretty sure any competent judge with toss this on a motion.

The best part is an aldercreature making some sense. A Waukegan aldercreature (it would be too much to expect a Chicago aldercreature to make any sense whatsoever):

• [Cunningham] said he will announce a proposal at the Sept. 2 City Council meeting for a program to educate Lake County youth on how to safely interact with police. His idea is to "stage" incidents including traffic stops and domestic disturbances.

  "A lot of our young men and women don't know how to respond when a peace officer approaches them," Cunningham said.

"Shut up, listen and stop acting the fool" would be a good first lesson. "Don't up with a pistol" could be lesson #1A. Perhaps he can plan a class for the Chicago citizens?

SCC's Readers Scoop Media?

From the media regarding the shooting where an armed 16-year-old offender pointed a weapon at police:

• "He was a good kid . . . he just needed a little guidance," Arnold said. "He fell behind the wrong crowd and he just did some wrong things. But we all make mistakes, and he didn't deserve for the Chicago police to take his life. He didn't deserve it . . . he was just a regular kid."
  
  Arnold drove to the scene of the shooting on Saturday to see it for himself.
  
  Although police said they found a gun nearby, Arnold said [Martinez] Winford was not known to carry a weapon.

From one of our readers, we get this:

• Just was on the suntimes blog and found that someone had posted a link to show what an ass this kid was. all the interviews said he was a good kid and never had a gun. check out this link three pics, with different guns in each. Hope someone lets the A/2 Det or involved officer know about this so they can print them up and put them in the file. would really screw up any wrongful death suit.... heres the link http://www.imeem.com/liltinez

And from the listed link:



That would appear to be Martinez Winford, aka "liltinez," the recently deceased honor student, altar boy and proud father at sixteen, throwing up for the nation and armed with one, two, three, four different weapons! Golly, and he was just about to turn his life around, fix his bad choices and cure cancer or some other such nonsense.

Arrest in 003

003 District Commander held a press conference:

"We are proud to announce an arrest in the recent spate of shootings surrounding some of our finer gang conflict resolution centers. We brought in a well known professional to assist us and we had a break through last night."


Thanks to a long time regular fan for these.

Doc Marks Ride

Might be one of the last chances to ride the bike before the Toys for Tots ride.

• Hey S.C.C. I know this is not a board that we usually do this but its for kids. Can you please post the following.
  
  The 9th annual Doc Marks Ride For Kids is 5 Oct 08. This ride is a motorcycle ride where the riders bring in toys or donate $25 and these toys and donations go to handicapped kids. For more information please visit the Doc Marks website at www.docmarksrun.com
  
  its a great time for a great cause. I appreciate it very much. And I hope to see you all at the ride.

If someone sends us a reminder, we'll post again closer to the date.

Lincoln Park Drive-By

Daley has to be shitting bricks:

• A man attempting to break up a fight was shot Friday night in the North Side’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.

  The shooting happened about 10:15 p.m. at 1642 N. Vine St., according to Fire Media Affairs spokesman Richard Rosado.

  The victim observed two unknown people having a verbal altercation when he approached and separated them, police News Affairs Officer Daniel O'Brien said. The two went their separate ways, and one of them got into a maroon-colored vehicle, O'Brien said.

  As the vehicle fled, shots were fired, striking the victim.

Downtown, Lincoln Park, Rock and Roll McDonald's. Tourists and yuppies - the people he can hit up for taxes, fees, fines and other money - all in danger of fleeing or staying away. But he'll let his puppets play their political games, attacking the union, shuffling duties, creating six-figure spots for idiots.

Trib Late - J-Fed Backtracks

The Tribune comes late to the game, publishing their story at almost 7pm on Saturday. And now the J-Fed isn't calling it a "removal of responsibilities:"

• Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis said his No. 2 man will no longer deal with administrative personnel duties, giving him more time to focus on day-to-day operations.
  
  Weis said Saturday that the changes are not a criticism of First Deputy Supt. James Jackson, but merely part of an ongoing effort to separate administrative activities from daily crime fighting.

Things must have been going hot and heavy between the west side "reverends" associations and City Hall to get J-Fed to hold a press conference on a Saturday. Here's the facts on the ground for anyone doubting what this was:

• This was released late on a Friday night, the time when all unpopular changes, smear jobs, hidden promotions and anything the powers-that-be don't want to be around answering questions for.
• Somehow, Frank Main and Fran Spielman had enough for a Saturday story. That means Jackie Heard, the mayor's media mouthpiece called these two and leaked the entire story to them. It obvious to anyone not entirely ignorant that the Tribune was shut out of the loop, probably because of recent Kass articles.

We also got a letter from a west side copper who related they had spoken to the First Deputy's office people and they had no clue this story was even in the Sun Times today. True? We wouldn't doubt it in the least - we certainly wouldn't put anything past the current political and Department regimes.

More Waste Discovered

Too bad there aren't any real investigative reporters around any more. They could really do some damage to the mayor by doing a little poking around. We received the following e-mail:

• Dear SCC,
  
  There was recently a rash of thefts on the west side. The big iron grates the city puts on the ground around trees were disappearing. CPD caught two of the thieves with the help of a recycling yard owner who called and delayed the scrappers.
  
  During the investigation, officers were informed that the value of the iron as scrap was about $40. When the officers called Streets and San, they asked for a retail value for a felony upgrade. It appears the landscapers who do business with the city charge them $1,000 for a set of these things. I have to get into the landscaping business.
  
  Keep up the good work.
  
  [name withheld by request]

$1,000 for $40 bucks worth of scrap? No wonder the mayor is $420 million in the hole. Anyone else have similar tales of waste?

First Deputy Stripped

Starks Redux?

• Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis stripped his first deputy of key personnel powers in what critics call a show of no-confidence in the man he chose to oversee day-to-day operations of the Police Department.

  The Aug. 12 special order means First Deputy Supt. James Jackson, who is African-American, will no longer chair the Merit Board charged with making merit promotions to the rank of sergeant, lieutenant and captain.

  Instead, the board will be headed by former mayoral aide Ted O'Keefe, the civilian deputy superintendent of administrative services now developing an evaluation system for police officers for the first time since 2002.

First up, the top paragraph is a lie - Weis didn't choose anyone to oversee anything. J-Fed came in knowing no one and was told who to put where.

The last paragraph shows exactly what's going on - Ted O'Keefe. Guess this roller coaster still hasn't hit bottom yet boys and girls. Hold on.

Police Shooting

South:

• An armed man was shot and wounded Friday by a Chicago police officer during a confrontation on the South Side, police said.
  
  The shooting occurred about 7:45 p.m. in the 600 block of East 87th Street after officers responded to a call of a man with a gun, police said. A gun was found there after the man was shot, police said.

Cops OK at last report.

Follow the Law, Not Emotion

This case is obviously going to raise a bunch of strong emotions on both sides.

We state the following:

• In a fight with mutual combatants, we don't just charge the last person standing. We investigate and charge the person on the wrong side of the law.
• in a crash with two sets of allegedly intoxicated motorists, we don't charge the survivor - we charge the "at fault" motorist, who as fate would have it, is dead.
• In any criminal case, the Constitution of the United States guarantees the right to not give evidence against one's self.
• the results of an Administrative Order against one's self interest should not be admissible in a court of law.
• The bartender verified to investigators that he was serving shots of water on the night in question. The video wouldn't even stand a cursory motion in court.
  
• any media driven "counts" are immediately suspect and are inevitably part of a witch hunt.

Like we said, this case is sure to rile people on both sides. Especially dealing with a crooked court system in Cook County. We won't be publishing ad hominem attacks on ourselves, the blog, the Department, etc. Learn to argue the facts at hand and your post will see the light of day.

Tax Hikes Producing Less?

Once again, the Laffer Curve rears its head:

• Despite higher ridership, the CTA is leaking money due to higher fuel and labor costs, while losing out on expected revenue from the real estate transfer tax and from an increase to the local sales tax. Both increases were part of the bailout that averted massive service cuts this year.

• Last January, the state legislature found new revenue for the CTA, Metra and Pace by increasing the sales tax in Cook and the collar counties by a quarter of a percent. Chicago increased the real estate transfer tax by 40 percent, for an expected $100 million in new annual revenue for the CTA.

  But because of the real estate slump, the transfer tax is bringing in only about half of what was expected so far this year, according to Joe Costello, chief financial officer for the Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees the CTA, Metra and Pace.

Oops. But again, completely predictable in a competently run government.

Who Didn't Take Days Off?

Why, the mayor! And at least thirty aldercreatures!

• Mayor Richard Daley and the City Council have forced city workers to take as many as five unpaid days off in the last two years, but the mayor and most aldermen have not shared in the hardship.

  Unlike the workers, elected officials are not required to skip paychecks but could do so if they want to show solidarity as the city struggles through its worst budget shortfall in decades.

  According to records obtained by the Tribune through the Freedom of Information Act, only 20 of the city’s 50 aldermen have taken furlough days since the beginning of 2007. The mayor took none.

Way to lead from the front Mayor!

Who Wants Two Hours Pay?

Administrative Fax # 083987

• The Mayor's Office has issued a memorandum (see attached) regarding the City's policy allowing employees to be excused for 2 hours leave in order to accompany their children on the first day of school, Tuesday, 02 September 2008.

The memorandum states that "Salaried employees may take such leave with compensation." How do we all get two hours pay for this? Why, per Section 11.4 of the Contract:

• Section 11.4 - Special Compensation Time.
  
  If, as a result of a declaration by the Mayor, all employees of the City of Chicago except for police and fire department employees are given a day off or portion thereof with pay, then all officers who are required to work during such excused time shall be given compensatory time off at straight time rate equivalent to the hours worked during such excused time.

It seems that all salaried employees are being given a portion of the day off with pay. If nothing else, it's a great theoretical argument. Would someone like to be the first to file a Grievance so the entire Department can get two hours on the books? We promise to spend the first half-hour of money earned on (non-alcoholic) drinks for the successful Grievant.

An Interesting Proposal

Why not adapt the Fire Department solution to the Police Department? From our e-mail:

• Hey SCC...I have a contract question. I've scanned the FOP website and looked at the contract, but don't see a "minimum manning clause" anywhere in there. Maybe I missed it, but this could resolve safety issues in Districts. On the Fire Dept. we have that which makes a lot of overtime. Maybe minimum manning by each District in the contract? Example..1st District 1st Watch, 2nd Watch, 3rd Watch.. shall have a minimum of xxxx officers...2nd District 1st watch...etc. Create overtime lists, make a lot of money...etc.. Just an idea from an outsider...

He further explains:

• On CFD, the city or "employer" can have up to 30 Variances, which could be acting or manning. 4 man companies would be a Manning variance, while a firefighter "acting" as an officer is an Acting Variance. This also includes EMS. Once the 30 are used, the city must then re-hire. I could see this in CPD and would be one hell of a victory for FOP. Allow the city a "maximum number" of 1 person units, then they have to "re-hire" by a list to man the cars. Safety in numbers. Side jobs??? Wait for the OT...!
  

Opportunities to work days off for OT, better staffing on the watches, what's not to like? It could be adapted on a District-by-District basis so you're working the streets you know and if further refined, could even be shift specific.

Has this even been looked at? Feel free to discuss.

J-Fed's Town Hall Meeting

Take 2 - now he's meeting with supervisors:

• 27 August
• 10 September
• 30 September

All at Headquarters, all at 1900 hours. Seeing as how at least one of the louder complaining PO's got dumped after he was identified as a malcontent, we'd imagine that these will be the quietest meetings in history. We're looking for a few reports from the scene this coming Wednesday.

Meeks All Over the Map

Excuses and whatnot:

• Meeks and several supporters met Senate colleague Jeff Schoenberg (D-Wilmette) and north suburban school and police officials at the Northfield police station. They then took a bus tour of the elementary and high school campuses in New Trier Township which are expected to be the focus of the protest.

  Meeks said the intent was to get a better sense of the logistics that would be involved in bringing the students to the North Shore to attempt to register for classes.

  He said he saw no point in bringing students to the suburbs before Chicago's opening day of school, Sept. 2, even though most north suburban districts are starting school this week or next.

  “If we'd had them here today, no one would have paid attention to it,” Rev. Meeks said, explaining his decision not to try to begin classes on the same timetable as north suburban students.
  

Newsflash Meeksie - most people aren't going to pay attention anyway. The media might fawn over your theatrics, but if you've noticed, they're laying off people left and right and don't have the pull they once did. Northfield PD might pay attention for a while, but that's only prudent. New Trier might pay attention as you march around the campus, but until state law changes, no one is going to let any of your kids sign up, not unless they live in the district.

You want to make school funding more "equitable," change the formula. We have 30 years of data backing up the assertion that throwing money at CPS doesn't work.

Rumor Has It......

Meter Maids, or Revenue Agents, have been hitting the mostly quiet neighborhoods pretty hard the past few weeks. Places where City workers hang their hats.

We did hear there was a hiring push recently for these people. They work for peanuts, have ticket quotas and are more likely to be spotted wandering the quiet streets rather than the more "violence prone" areas. And the people ticketed are more likely to pay their tickets rather than risk the boot or wage garnishment.

Most cops are already legit as we have Inspectors wandering the lots looking for easy movers, but that doesn't mean they won't be nickel and diming the pimpy charges. Garage your car, stay up to date on stickers, park legally. Don't give Daley the easy money.

Hey "reverend" Meeks???

Bad news dude. All those kids you were going to bus out to Winnetka to illustrate the disparity in school funding by making them miss the first day of the 08-09 school year?

They just missed the first day of classes at New Trier.

So not only are they going to be behind in terms of funding, they're already behind in terms of learning. Again.

On the bright side, you've wrapped up the "Asshat of the Month" award given out semi-regularly here at SCC.

Poll Results

As of this writing, with around 2,000 votes, the poll results are as follows:

• 7% - Yes
• 93% - No

Based upon this poll, we'll expect J-Fed to be stepping down shortly. We hereby offer our services to the mayor, the Police Board and the citizens of the City of Chicago in finding an actually qualified candidate to run the Department properly.

Instead of running it into the ground.

City Blinks

Actually, they backed down when someone with a modicum of intelligence actually read the contract, realized they screwed up, then saw a calendar with an arbitration date not even 8 days away and realized they really really screwed up badly:

• The city blinked Tuesday in a standoff with the police union over action the Chicago Police Department took against union leaders for failing to complete an annual shooting test.

  [...] But on Tuesday, the city agreed to restore their police powers and have an arbitrator decide the issue...

Whomever is advising J-Fed is doing a rather bad job at it.

And since once again, Frank Main is stealing story ideas from the blog, we've got another idea for him to write about:

• Please check with the Academy Firearms instructors and get the dates and times of all the aldercreatures who qualified this year.

We'll let you know that it's only a Pass/Fail course, so you won't be getting any numerical scores, but it would be interesting to see which aldercreatures had to take the test more than once. It would be even more interesting to find actual eyewitnesses who saw the qualification attempts, not to mention a verifiable miracle. We're just saying...

Ten Years

Ten years ago tonight, Michael Ceriale succumbed to his wounds from a shooting five days previously. We remember well the lines and lines of coppers outside the hospital donating blood, meeting with the family, standing vigil until late that afternoon when the radio crackled with the bad news.

Hopefully, he continues to watch over everyone here.

Dumb Criminals

In the suburbs, but that's not the strange part:

• Five Chicago teens were arrested Sunday and charged with burglarizing a northwest suburban video game store. Two of them were caught after trying to hitch a ride in a police car.

  Norridge police received an anonymous call about 2:40 a.m. Sunday from a resident who heard glass breaking at Video Games Then and Now, 4351 N. Harlem Ave., Deputy Chief Jim Jobe said.

That's not what's odd. Check out where these jackasses were from:

• Ronald Pickett, 18, of 5205 W. Congress Parkway
• Michael Gonzalez, 18, of 1651 W. 17th St.
  
• and a 16-year-old, also from Chicago
• Juan Oropez, 18, of 939 N. Ashland Ave.,
  
• and Domonique Cunningham, 17, of 1519 W. 73rd St.

Quite the assortment of street addresses there coming together to burglarize a suburban video store. We can't imagine that they just met on a bus, or in a school or even at a church event. Back in the day, our neighborhood groups were just that - from the neighborhood. We didn't hang out with anyone who lived father than we could ride our bicycles. These kids are miles and tens of miles away from one another. What gives?

Support the Olympic Dream!

Here's the website where you can spend all sorts of money on overpriced items to support Daley's desperate legacy bid:

• CLICK HERE

As a number of readers have pointed out, you can submit your own videos and complete the sentence, "Chicago is..." to be part of some computer generated mural or something. We were thinking of submitting the YouTube Third of July videos where the bullet traveled through that couple's hotel room and maybe a few of the gang beatings at Buckingham Fountain.

No Confidence Vote

Have at it boys and girls:

Do you, as a reader of the Second City Cop blog, have full and complete confidence in Jody "J-Fed" Weis, to lead the Chicago Police Department?
	Yes
	No
pollcode.com free polls

Alert the media.

UPDATE: So far the poll is running 94% No Confidence. Not really surprising. Readers have said that there are some pop-up ads when you vote, so beware.

We Don't Need No Books

But they'll spend another million on cameras:

• The Chicago Public Schools have beefed up security at some of its most troubled schools, improving emergency procedures, and adding security personnel and surveillance cameras.

  School officials said Monday the new measures are being implemented in the wake of 26 students being killed during the last school year.

And how many of these "honor roll" students were killed on school grounds during school hours or at a school event? We can think of the one at Crane at dismissal, the cop's son who died protecting another student and...

And that's the only two we can recall. There might be a few more, but not many. The vast majority of the "students" killed were out after curfew, out slinging dope, or out gang banging. How about advertising that fact CPS, media, and politicians?

Soto Funeral

RIP:

• As Rev. Donald Nevins brought the funeral mass of Chicago Police Detective Robert Soto to a close Tuesday, the quiet was interrupted by a police car's blaring siren, a fitting punctuation to a service honoring the 23-year veteran slain last week.
  
  Police officers in formal dress, including Supt. Jody Weis, and Soto's friends and relatives filled the pews of St. Francis of Assisi Church on the Near West Side Tuesday to pay tribute to Soto's service and easygoing spirit.

And of course, the wrong person was arrested:

• Outside the courtroom, Austin's aunt, Sharon White, said police arrested the wrong man.

  "My thing is, let's find out the truth," White told reporters after the bond hearing. "Don't just assume or just pick somebody 'cause you want it over with. . . . My nephew didn't do it."

Is there a script that floats around the west and south sides that says whenever someone is arrested for murder, the offender's family starts right in with their bullshit? It's authored by a bunch of phony "reverends" and directed by bottom-feeding lawyers. We have to get a copy of this crap.

Supervisors to be Written up?

From the comments:

• I heard something very interesting today. The focus of Inspectors is going to shift towards writing up supervisors instead of P.O.'s! Uniform infractions and staying down on jobs, etc, is going to be addressed with the bosses because there is a general feeling that sergeants and even Lieutenants have ceased taking any kind of supervisory actions. A few "failure to supervise" beefs might make everybody's lives a bit more miserable.

How is this going to play out? We had one e-mail describing how an Inspector wrote up a Sergeant at a crime scene because of "improper taping" of the inner and outer perimeters. Sounds like a brilliant ploy to unite everyone against the City.

Go Granny!

Someone buy this lady a drink:

• An 85-year-old great-grandmother from Lake Lynn, Fayette County kept an alleged burglar at bay using a .22-caliber pistol. According to police, a 17-year-old suspect was attempting to burglarize Leda Smith overnight. That's when Smith grabbed her gun and told the teen that she would shoot him if he moved, police said.

They showed Grandma's gun on TV. It was some ancient top-break .22-caliber revolver, 9 shots if we aren't mistaken. Still, enough to do some damage if Grandma was provoked. Channel 9's talking heads went on and on about how happy they were that this elderly woman was able to protect herself.

What about all the tens of thousands of elderly folks around here that can't protect themselves without running afoul of Daley's anti-gun agenda? These media hypocrites have blinders on.

Attack on the Union (see updates)

Is this a concerted effort to break the Union? From this comment it would appear so:

• Assuming for the sake of argument that this actually happened, it's brilliant. If they failed to qualify, they are subject to decertification by the State Police Board. Doesn't matter what the contact says about progressive discipline. If the Reps are decertified that can't be employed by the CPD as police officers. If they can't be employed as PO's then they can't be members of the Union or run the Union according to the Union's charter.
  
  Like I said, a brilliant way to get rid of the "loyal opposition" without doing anything but complying with State law.

In the middle of contract negotiations and after an Arbitration date was set to address the issue, J-Fed and his band of merry idiots (at least two of which are "lawyers" - Kirby and Skahill) decided to disregard the CR process, disregard past precedent and disregard their own rules and policies and just try to strip members of the Negotiating Committee.

We're still trying to decide if this is yet another example of the complete arrogance that all feebs have toward us poor ignorant backwater hicks or possibly the ignorant advisers he's surrounded himself with - just about the entire command staff has never operated under a contract since they were in units that are excluded from contract protections, so they think they can do anything they want.

This comment was great however:

• The best part is that when two LT's from IAD went to strip them, they were threatened with arrest for trespassing and kicked out of the building!

That would appear to make it a direct attack from J-Fed and Kirby. It certainly makes us want to run right out and do good work for these bosses!

UPDATE: On a personal note, we here believe that if you want to carry a gun, you ought to practice and qualify annually as a citizen and more often if it is a primary tool for your job. That being said, it is not disingenuous to call this an attack on contract protections. It is.

UPDATE II: We can't say we agree 100% with the FOP's stance on their qualifying because we don't. But J-Fed fucked up or was given fucked up advice when he moved to strip the Lodge officers without a CR investigation as delineated in the annual qualifications order. That made it a contract issue of the highest importance.

Try to see the big picture - imagine J-Fed (or any future superintendent) with the ability to strip you on the spot based entirely on some "reverend" whooping and hollering about some scumbag who was just about to turn his life around. The process must be followed all the time or else shortcuts will undercut protections.

This wasn't a big deal until J-Fed made it a big deal.

Reality Imitates Blog

Are we psychic?

• Two men were shot -- one fatally -- outside a River North McDonald's restaurant Monday morning.

  The shooting happened at the northwest corner of North Clark and West Ohio streets about 4 a.m., where a police officer on the scene said several shell casings were found.

  The McDonald's restaurant, commonly known as the "Rock ‘n’ Roll McDonald's," because of its musical themed decor, is located at 600 N. Clark St., at that intersection. It is open for business 24 hours a day.

The humorous wags among us will give out descriptions of a man wearing a crown and adorned with a fine beard. The reality ought to be a bit more sobering to politicians - this was the Rock and Roll McDonald's, a restaurant located in the heart of the Ohio Street tourist strip. Granted, it was 0400 am, but at 0400 am in that part of town, a lot of tourists are just getting out of the popular night clubs and a whole bunch of Chicagoans are heading to work or heading home.

How long until someone who doesn't deserve to get shot catches a bullet? Sun Times coverage here.

Twist to Heinous Battery Case

Regarding the woman burned with sulfuric acid, anyone want to speculate on this one?

• Wait until you hear. The little [offender's] family won the ghetto lotto, 3mil. Hope the victim's family get an attorney and put a lien on their cash.

Very odd turn of events if true. What'd they win the $3 million for? It certainly explains her ability to flee to California on short notice.

Someone Owes Us an Apology

From the comments:

1. Hold on, roumors spread faster on this department and on this blog faster than the clap in a whorehouse. Lets see Mon/Tues. One of the FOP might just come on here and confirm/deny.

   8/18/2008 01:18:00 AM

2. I'm calling B.S.

   8/18/2008 02:01:00 AM

3. NOT true. Sounds like a fun rumor to start- but never happened. Good try though!

   8/18/2008 07:02:00 AM

4. Your entertaining of the ridiculous rumors is really making this blog look like shit. I understand the whole rumor mill, but you are obviously giving these morons fuel to make up more crap. File these away and bring them out later when they become true.

   8/18/2008 01:42:00 PM

And as it turns out, the blog was 100% accurate - proven by this FOP posting.

Listen up readers - we know that quite a bit of what goes on in the comment section is BS. We've stated in numerous posts that nothing here can be proven to come from actual police officers and we've come to terms with the fact that people will treat this like a bathroom wall at times.

We attempt to weed out the craziest crap. We read it all. As trained BS detectors though, we can pick out some things that ring true or bear a bit of investigation, which is why we asked for information on this incident.

In short, don't blame the blog for crazy stories. Coppers have been telling them since the beginning of time.

Cops OK - Gunman Dead

Garfield Ridge:

• A Chicago Police officer shot and fatally wounded a gunman Sunday in a CHA development in the Garfield Ridge neighborhood on the Southwest Side.

  A Chicago Lawn District police officer shot and wounded an armed male who confronted the officer in the 4900 block of West 45th Street about 10:10 p.m., police News Affairs said in a statement.

Good job officers

003 Killing

In last night's post, The King was seen cradling Jack's severed head. Tonight, "The Burger Wars" erupted in full force:



Oh god Lillie, what have you done???

What's This?

From the comments:

• J-Fed has lost his mind. Letters were placed in the mail boxes of F.O.P. Officers, Greg Bella, Tim Fallon, Sidney Davis and Bill Dougherty that they were being stripped of their police powers by J-Fed for failure to complete annual firearms training. They were notified to surrender their badges and identification cards next week.

Last time we checked, failure to qualify was the basis for a Complaint Register investigation. The CR process has many numerous and well defined steps that must be adhered to. The Superintendent circumventing the entire process without any form of investigation, process, rebuttal and appeal is unprecedented.

If true, it would be a massive contract violation of the highest order. Can anyone confirm?

Heinous Battery Arrest

Tenacious work by detectives:

• With help from a surveillance tape and Cicero police officers, Chicago Police nabbed a 16-year-old girl for robbing and throwing acid on a Logan Square woman last month.

  The teenage girl, who did not act alone, was charged as a juvenile with armed robbery and heinous battery for the July 28 incident, police announced Sunday. The girl had thrown a caustic liquid at 48-year-old Esperanza Medina as she left her home on her way to work.

  "She has given a statement implicating herself and another juvenile offender," said Grand Central Area Detective Commander Joseph Salemme.

Hopefully, they pick up the others involved and charge everyone as adults. An excellent job all around.

Arrest Imminent?

Tribune is reporting at least one in custody:

• Police were questioning a man Saturday in connection with the double slaying of a Chicago police officer and a DCFS supervisor, sources told the Tribune. Police picked up the man Saturday morning after three days on the trail of an alleged robbery crew investigators suspect committed the murders, according to law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation.

Keep your fingers crossed.

003 Shooting - On Video!

It's getting bad over there:



Looks like Commander Crump-Hales's dream of a peaceful resolution to gang conflict is crashing down around her ears. Jack is dead and BK is looking for revenge. That team building (burger building?) exercise has led to new conflicts of frying vs flame broiling, McMuffin vs Croissan'wich and a resumption of the dreaded "French Fries Wars" of the early 80's.

Good Riddance

One down...:

• One of two men shot Wednesday evening while attempting to rob a Southwest Side jewelry store died Friday morning from his injuries. Both men have been charged with attempted armed robbery and attempted murder. Three others were wounded in the incident.
  
  Marvin Groves, 40, of 1751 E. 67th St., was pronounced dead at Stroger, Hospital of Cook County at 7:52 a.m. Friday, according to a Cook County Medical Examiner's office spokesman, who said Groves died from multiple gunshot wounds.

Maybe the other offender will do the right thing, too.

Delayed Homicide

Despite all the efforts of medical personnel, regardless of the deployments of extra units and bodies, in spite of every single variable being accounted for in endless meetings, sometimes you just can't stop the numbers from going up:

• A man battered with a stick last month in the Garfield Park neighborhood has from his injuries, authorities said.
  
  Regenald Johnson, 34, of 634 N. Ridgeway Ave., was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital at 4:15 a.m. Friday, said the Cook County Medical Examiner. A Saturday autopsy determined Johnson died of sepsis, craniocerebral injuries and assault. The death is ruled a homicide.
  
  Johnson told police an unknown male struck him on the right side of the head with a stick as he stood outside at 4326 W. Wilcox St. about noon on July 30

Layoffs Coming

And no one is ruling out police layoffs. Except us, our readers, and anyone with half a brain. Look at it logically:

• Crime is up - violent crime, property crime, murder. Arrests are down, tickets are down, numbers are down.
• Who brings in the current numbers? Young guys and gals, tact, gangs, people bucking for a spot.
• Who gets laid off first? Low seniority people - the young folks.

You might see buyouts. You'll see hiring freezes. You might even see them redraw the District maps and eliminate a few.

We doubt you'll ever see a layoff.

Chicago's Newest Crime Fighter

Presenting:

The brainchild of 003 leadership. Here's the King reaching out to an impoverished neighborhood youth:

The new CAPS motto? Bullets to Burgers! Turn in your guns for a free Whopper! Fries extra. Maybe after the District Commander retires, she can get a job flipping burgers - oh wait, BK flame broils. No flipping.

Nowhere is Safe

First the warm up act:

• Two people were wounded Thursday in a shooting on Chicago's North Side, and a third person was hurt after running into a wall while trying to escape the gunfire, authorities said.
  
  The shooting occurred about 3 p.m. in the 1600 block of North Orchard Street in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, a few blocks east of the North/Clybourn Red Line station.

Then, the main event:

• Two people were killed early Friday morning in what police said apparently were separate drive-by shootings on the Northwest Side.
  
  The first shooting happened about 1 a.m. when the victim, [...] was standing with a half dozen friends in the 1900 block of West Crystal Street in Wicker Park as a vehicle slowly pulled up.
• Separately, about 5 miles away, a man was shot and killed about 3 a.m. in the 3400 block of West Diversey Avenue in Logan Square.

It's looking like that 20% rise is going to be 30% by the end of the year.

Wasting Money

Daley is looking to pinch every penny or so we've heard. Have to close that $420 million gap.

You know those heavy duty trash bags? The ones touted for construction waste? Pretty expensive, right? We're getting reports of a huge pile of these things used by the CTA to gather waste, trash, debris on the el tracks and guess what's embossed on each and every bag?

A full size CTA logo.

How much do these "specialty" bags go for? And why advertise on something that's either going to be buried in a landfill or burned in an incinerator?

Meet Your Commander

From the Tribune:

• When incoming Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis cleaned house in March, replacing all but four district commanders, he promised to give his team autonomy.
  
  After five months in the posts, the new commanders face many daunting challenges. Crime is up, arrests are down and many citizens and police officers alike are concerned. In responses to a questionnaire from the Tribune, commanders in each of the 25 police districts across Chicago detailed their experience, specific challenges they see in their districts and their plans for tackling them.

Some of the pictures are just priceless. And the resumes? Priceless-less. We haven't seen that much padding since high school prom. Any word on when the Deputy Superintendents are going to post theirs? Or the rest of the gold stars?

Daley's Wild West

It was bound to happen:

• A shootout at a jewelry store during an attempted armed robbery left four people shot -- including the two would-be robbers -- in the Marquette Park community on the Southwest Side Wednesday evening.

  No charges have been filed as of early Thursday and the two attackers are hospitalized.

The third person shot seems to have been a jewelry store worker; the fourth, a driver in a car outside NOT involved with the robbery. Anyone want to lay money on whether of not Daley claims this is exactly why we can't have guns on the streets? Innocent people get shot and won't someone think of the children?

Here's a fact buried near the end of the story you'll never hear any of the gun grabbers talk about though:

• Police recovered three guns on the scene...

Three guns. If the store owner only had one gun, where did the other two come from? After all, aren't handguns still outlawed in Chicago? It certainly isn't possible that two individuals bent on committing a breach of Illinois law would dare to carry unlicensed unregistered handguns into a place of business, is it?

If this store owner didn't have a gun, would we be reading another story about how police investigating a "check the well being" call at a local jewelry store found the owner and two workers bound together and shot in the head at close range? Small comfort. Good thing this guy had a gun.

Since All Politics is Local...

What does this mean?

• Illinois employers eliminated a total of 9,700 jobs statewide during the month of July, state officials said today, pushing the Illinois unemployment rate leaped from 6.8 percent to 7.3 percent -- the state's highest jobless level in almost 15 years.
  
  The national unemployment rate was 5.7 percent.

Gee, one of the top tax rates in the nation, and businesses don't want to open here, locate here or do business here. Who'd have thunk it?

Some more amusing stats:

• The hardest-hit sector in July was the "professional and business services" group, which shed 3,200 jobs, falling to 876,800.
  
  Trade, transportation and utilities employment dropped by 2,000 to 1,219,200; and construction employment dropped 1,100 to 260,900.
  
  Illinois lost 2,200 jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector, where employment dropped to 530,200.

As a happy side note though, Todd Stroger's family, extended family, play family and assorted hangers-on achieved 117% full employment - the extra 17% comes from all the double-dipping Toddler's been handing out.

Mayor Whines

We're betting Meeks will fold at some point, just like when he blackmailed Blago into a $4 billion dollar increase in school funding over 4 years in exchange for Meeks' promise not to run for governor. But it's still entertaining and educational to see Daley grovel for votes:

• Mayor Daley says Rev. James Meeks’ called-for boycott of Chicago Public Schools the first day of classes is not the way to go about getting his point across about the way public education is paid for in Illinois. [...]
  

  Mayor Daley says he and others have felt for decades the same way as Meeks that relying on property taxes to pay for public education is not fair. The mayor says urging children not to go to school in protest is not the thing to do.

Actually, it's probably the best thing in the world for the Machine to encourage kids not to go to school - it keeps them ignorant, uneducated and needing government handouts to survive ... typical democratic voters.

Budget Shortfall Gets Bigger

It's up to $420 million now:

• “In fact, as we look toward 2009, we will meet the most challenging budget the city has faced in decades,” Chief Financial Officer Paul Volpe said as he released the preliminary budget estimates.

A property tax hike is off the table (allegedly), so expect higher user fees, fines, permits, stickers and other standbys. Oh yeah, lots of layoffs, too. But where the hell did they get this number?

• Currently, the city employs 38,760 people. Volpe said that figure is nearly 2,900 fewer than in 1990, despite the addition of 1,000 officers to the Police Department.
  

1,000 officers? Over what period of time? 1,000 officers 18 years ago doesn't do us much good when we've had over 4,000 retirements over those same 18 years.

RIP Robert Soto

As of 0300 hours, Bobby Soto passed.

• A veteran Chicago police officer who was shot Wednesday morning in an apparent robbery gone bad on the city's West Side died early Thursday morning from his wounds, police said. A woman who was sitting in the off-duty officer's sport-utility vehicle during the shooting was dead on the scene.
  
  The shooting woke up residents on the 3000 block of Franklin Boulevard and when police arrived they found Kathryn Romberg, 45, and Robert Soto, 49, an off-duty 23-year veteran of the Chicago police force, bleeding from gunshot wounds.

RIP.

Where Did This Money Come From?

Is everyone paying attention?

• Despite a budget deficit estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars, the Daley administration is giving raises for 50 politically appointed Streets and Sanitation ward superintendents.

  The move angered labor leaders, who have been told by the administration that unionized city workers must make sacrifices---or even face layoffs---to balance City Hall’s budget.

  "They are asking our people for concessions, yet giving their bosses a raise," said Chicago Federation of Labor leader Dennis Gannon. "It leaves a bad taste in your mouth. It's just not rational."

Mr. Gannon, using the word "rational" in anything to do with Daley, the Machine and the City of Chicago is a hanging offense in these here parts. We urge you to withdraw the statement and just keep going to the media to point out the base hypocrisy on display by the mayor.

Lesson for Media Asshats

Unless you think suburban cops run around with skull fractures, we think you can drop the use of the word "allegedly" in this case:

• Waukegan police shoot boy, 17, who allegedly hit cop with hammer
  
  He and brother were fighting in front lawn, police say; officer has skull fracture

Good shooting by suburban cops to save the life of a co-worker.

Also as a quick lesson:

• People shot by the police aren't "victims." The cop is the victim - the shot individual is the "offender."

Try it.

Who's the "Ho" Now?

Ah Arenda. Can you savor the irony? Here's former aldercreature Troutman on tape:

• The FBI ran an undercover sting recording Troutman as she asked for payoffs, capturing her on tape saying: "Most alderman, most politicians are 'ho's.'" At another point she told an informant: "I have to have money in order to survive."

And here's the government filing Wednesday:

• Former Ald. Arenda Troutman and a gang chieftain were "romantically involved" and worked together on a crooked real estate deal, federal prosecutors allege in a new court filing.
• When the FBI searched Troutman's home and office last year, they found photos of her with Jehan. He previously was spotted driving her SUV. And Chicago Police envelopes addressed to her were found in his home, sources said.

We still haven't heard how all these Chicago Police envelopes ended up at her home and office along with copies of CPD Search Warrants.

And the scandal seems to still get bigger:

• Monday's court filing also alleges that the Rev. Gregory Hall, another Troutman staffer, told a developer in 2004 that he needed to make a $1,500 political contribution to the alderman to get her to act on the developer's request to rezone a building in her ward.

Nice to see the storefront "reverends" getting a little light shone on their activities.

Scandal Grows

Up to a dozen implicated?

• A widening federal probe into cops taking payoffs tied to insurance or towing scams has led to fraud charges against a third officer.

  The probe could reach at least a dozen police officers, sources have said.

Damn that Indian burial ground.

Your New Best Friend

This or something similar.

If you're going to be "evaluated," you better make a diary or series of notes about backlogs or on-view problems you may encounter during the tour. Any "CAPS related" activity? Log it. Assist a citizen, even if it's giving directions, log it. That station run for the desk? On-line training? Log it all. And this goes for Supervisors, too. Ride on jobs? Run missions? CAPS paper (if it still exists)? Log everything. Because we think it's about to get stupid with accounting for your hours and questions about why you didn't do anything "proactive" during the tour.

"Proactive" = "$$$ for Daley." Learn this equation - it may save you a lot of heartache.

Officer Shot

Officer shot while off duty.

UPDATE: Officer is not doing well as of this update. Thoughts and prayers ONLY for the officer and his family.

You Better "Measure Up"

The J-Fed and Aunt Bea Show continues:

• With murders up, arrests down and officers writing fewer parking tickets, Chicago cops will soon have to measure up in performance evaluations for the first time since 2002, top department officials said Monday.

  The department hopes to have a new evaluation system in place by the end of the year, said Beatrice Cuello, deputy superintendent of patrol. Officers, sergeants and watch commanders will be evaluated.

Everyone is going to be called on the carpet evidently.

• The department is considering annual evaluations, said Ted O'Keefe, deputy superintendent of administrative services.

  "The superintendent thinks a performance evaluation system is a key part of every organization to identify the people who are your top performers," O'Keefe said.

And what will the top performers get? Extra points on exams? No, that's reserved for the clout people. Besides, then the City might have to reveal what the actual standards of "merit" actually are. Maybe they'll get first crack at "elite" units? No, that's for phone call people. So what exactly are people going to get evaluated on?

• Officers, meanwhile, have written about 84,000 fewer tickets than last year. If that pace continues, the department will end the year with about 1.49 million tickets, down 9 percent from the 1.63 million police-issued tickets last year.

  At $75 per ticket, the 84,000 ticket falloff would cost the city $6.3 million. If the fines averaged $100 a ticket, the loss would be $8.4 million.

Ah, the truth of the matter - we aren't the police anymore. We are money generators. We exist to feed the Machine. Law and order be damned as long as Daley gets his money. Anyone want to point out that the fewer arrests and fewer tickets are directly attributable to the fewer officers fielded by the Department?

We certainly hope the FOP, the media and the citizens are paying attention to what the Police Department is becoming. Or what it has already become. The crime rate doesn't lie.