Cozzi Appeal Denied

Bad news.

For decision, go to www.ca7.uscourts.gov In left column, click on "Opinions". Enter Case # 09-2648

UPDATE: Post moved up from 5:26 hours Friday.

CrimeFile has the entire opinion up on his website and a pretty good argument that Police Officers' Garrity Rights have just gone out the window.

West Pullman Shooting

Violent crime is down across the board, so says J-Fled.

In the meantime, this has to be one of the worst cases of mistaken identity we've ever seen or someone isn't telling the whole truth:

• Police on Friday said that tips from witnesses have pointed them toward a suspect in the slaying of a 13-year-old boy, but investigators are still seeking additional help.
  
  Also, police said they couldn't verify claims by the family of the victim, Robert Freeman Jr., that Wednesday's shooting might have been a case of mistaken identity.
  
  Robert, who had been a student at Oglesby Elementary School, was shot 13 times in the 11500 block of South Perry Avenue, police said. Several witnesses have come forward to identify the gunman, acting Calumet Area Cmdr. John McMurray said.

The "falling crime rate" has to be a tremendous comfort to the family. The Sun Times comes up with the quote of the day though:

• Neighbor Cola Townsend, 80, said that after he heard the gunshots Wednesday, he looked outside and saw “the boy was lying there in the street and 10 little kids in white T-shirts were running away as the cops arrived, like they always do.

  “I’ve lived on this block 35 years, and it’s never been this bad.”

"Crime rates" don't mean squat. The "perception" of crime is what matters, especially in election years. And right now, the perception is that things haven't been this bad on the block since 1985, which was around the height of the "crack wars." That's a hell of an indictment of J-Fled's tenure.

More Proof Daley is Running

All the signs are there:

• Mayor Daley has ruled out a pre-election property tax hike — but other tax increases, layoffs and a raid on previously sacred economic development funds are “on the table” — to erase a record $654.7 million budget shortfall that could rise considerably.

  "There's nothing off the table, other than the property tax increase," Budget Director Gene Munin said Friday, insisting that spending cuts would come first.

So expect more debt, more service cuts, less hiring, outdated and unrepairable equipment and a continuation of crooked and fixed contracts flowing out of City Hall.

Chicago is so screwed.

Can We Do This?

Obviously, the point people on something like this should be the FOP, but would they actually do something similar?

• Police officers in Bay City, Mich., are being called domestic terrorists after renting billboard space to trumpet that the layoffs of five police officers in the town could lead to more shootings, stabbings, robberies and beatings. The police say they paid for the two billboards that went up last week to bring attention to the impasse in negotiations between its union and city officials, who are seeking a 10.8 percent reduction in labor costs from eight unions to tackle a $1.66 million budget deficit for the fiscal year that began July 1.

Depending on whom you believe, the Department is down anywhere from 700 to 2,200 officers as a de facto hiring freeze over the past two-plus years combined with an uninterrupted stream of retirements has reduced manpower levels to unprecedented lows. We also have a hated leader, near constant backlogs of radio jobs, a shooting rate that keeps climbing (despite protestations from the political end of theings) tied to a homicide rate that rivals war zones while the anemic clearance rate cannot find a floor to rest on.

A couple of billboards, especially on the roads leading in from the airports, with messages to the effect of "We cannot guarantee your safety while visiting Daley's Chicago" or similar wording would drive Daley's already pathetic poll numbers into the ground.

We realize there is no contract under negotiation at the moment and the FOP has been historically loathe to embarrass the Machine, but there are still pension bills being argued and Shortshanks has never done us any favors in Chicago, Springfield or Washington. One would have to argue, "Why not?" at some point.

Memory Lane

We remember reading copies of the "Chicago Police Star Magazine" back in the day when it turned up at home. Especially the crossword puzzles.

This brings back some memories. It would seem to be links to every single issue of the publication, in addition to newsletters, annual reports and other documents. We scanned a few of the older issues and were amused to see how many names we recognized over the years and saddened to see how many other names have gone on to retirement and even more who have passed on.

Just a bit of historical trivia.

$2.7 Million?

That's it?

After every dime is counted, every crooked contract awarded, every single bit of graft and corruption is tallied up, $2.7 million is all that's left in the bank? We're going to quote a bunch from this article, but you can click on the link to read the whole thing.

• Mayor Daley closed the books on 2009 with just $2.7 million in the bank, having added $461 million to the mountain of debt piled on Chicago taxpayers, year-end audits show.

  As low as the unreserved cash balance is, it’s more than ten-times higher than the $200,000 the city had left after 2008.

  The figure does not include dwindling long-term reserves generated by the parking meter and Chicago Skyway leases that Daley could tap once again to erase a projected $700 million shortfall.

• The cash cushion is somewhat scary for a city with an annual budget of $6.1 billion. It’s tantamount to the average homeowner letting his or her checking account dwindle down to pennies.

  Ten years ago, the city had an $80.6 million cash cushion. Experts recommend at least $200 million in reserve for a budget the size of Chicago’s, according to Civic Federation President Laurence Msall.

  “The city is in a very precarious financial position. … It’s going to call for a major restructuring of city services. Everything will have to be on the table,” Msall said.

• “It’s a very, very difficult economy. Walk down anybody’s block and talk to people. Yesterday, four people came up to me and said, ‘Mayor, where am I gonna get a job?’… People can only survive so long. They’re out of work, or they’re getting cut back,” the mayor said.

Well gee Dick, there's a family of ten headed this way right now with zero prospects of jobs at all. Still think that "sanctuary" idea is paying off?

• The audits also include some troubling numbers that have nothing to do with city finances.

  The number of “physical arrests” by Chicago Police continued their steady decline — from 227,576 in 2006 and 196,621 in 2008 to 181,254 last year.

  The downward trend coincides with a hiring slowdown that has left the Police Department more than 2,000 officers-a-day below authorized strength. It also coincides with allegations of “de-policing,” a condition that exists when police officers “stop doing their jobs” because they're afraid nobody has their back.

  Police Department spokesman Roderick Drew said the department “doesn’t measure the success of crime-fighting strategies simply by the number of arrests.” He argued that the “true measure” is the reduction in reported crime that Chicago has experienced over the past decade.

  “In fact we have experienced 18 consecutive months of lower overall crime in Chicago dating back to January 2009,” he said.

But hey, nine people shot in a single incident, aggravated battery numbers climbing, while clearance rates start digging holes in the ground, you can just ignore those. Those are "anomalies." And as a wag asked in our comment section, if arrest numbers don't matter, why is Downtown Ernie Brown asking for lists of the "worst ten performers" in every district?

And of course, Fran Spielman wouldn't be Fran Spielman if she didn't make sure she was earning her Daley bread:

• The Sun-Times reported last week that Chicago is facing a record budget shortfall — approaching $700 million when the cost of police and fire contracts are factored in--setting the stage for another raid on the parking meter and Skyway reserves.

Damn those police and firefighters anyway! Why don't they just do their jobs for free in Daley's Worker Paradise?

Arizona Law Fallout

Immigration continues to be a hot button issue. And guess who's going to pay the piper shortly?

• Andres Dominguez and sister Andrea Palacios (R), residents of Phoenix help carry out the sold family items out of their apartment. The family sold everything they owned in order to leave Arizona without being detected and fearing the passage of the new SB 1070 law. The family of ten is moving to Chicago where they feel they will not be targeted because of the color of their skin.

Let's just read that again:

• The family of ten is moving to Chicago where they feel they will not be targeted because of the color of their skin.

Leaving aside the fact that the Arizona law never targeted anyone for the color of their skin (it only permitted Arizona officials to check immigration status when people were stopped for other offenses - which was allowed under existing US statutes anyway), there is now a family of ten illegals headed to Chicago with no job prospects in a state with an unemployment rate hovering near 11%.

Don't worry though. There's plenty of free education, health care, housing and who knows what other subsidies awaiting their arrival. Right taxpayers?

$98 Million Bond Issue

Buying votes = Daley is running again:

• Mayor Daley on Wednesday proposed a $98 million city subsidy to make way for “a new city” on the site of the old U.S. Steel South Works plant — and earned a surprise political endorsement in the process.

  Ald. Sandi Jackson (7th), wife of U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), said she ran for aldermen in 2007 with the $397 million development project as “the marquee behind me.”

"City subsidy"? The city has $98 million lying around? A $700 million hole in the budget and Shortshanks pulls almost $100 million out of some hidden TIF fund and buys a Jackson endorsement?

We especially wonder about this part of the article:

• Assuming there are no hang-ups in environmental clean-up, construction of Phase One is expected to begin in 2013 and end four years later, creating 1,500 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent jobs.

Assuming no hang-ups? That's a hell of an assumption for a site that was pretty much a devil's cauldron of industrial metal fabricating for decades. We're going to lay money it doubles in price before they get halfway through. Check back here in two years.

Whoops!

Purely unintentional, right?

• Mayor Richard Daley was nearly hit with a flying bat at Wednesday night's White Sox game against the Mariners at U.S. Cellular Field.
  
  The longtime Sox fan was sitting behind the third-base dugout when in the fourth inning left fielder Andruw Jones struck out and let go of his bat. Daley flinched, the bat landed in the aisle and into the hands of a woman in the next row. No one was hurt and television replays showed the mayor having a laugh over the close call.

Missed him by ---> <--- that much.

McDonald Applies for Gun Permit

Otis McDonald applied for a permit the other day - and he's not really happy about some aspects of it:

• Two years after filing a lawsuit that ultimately forced the city to dismantle its 28-year-old handgun ban, Otis McDonald walked into a police station Monday and applied for a permit allowing him to keep a gun at home.

  The process took only 20 minutes, but McDonald said some of the requirements to obtain the permit seemed excessive. And though a gun permit was worth any price for him, he said he is concerned that the $100 fee could deter some law-abiding citizens from buying a handgun.

Future court decisions will hopefully strike down the Shortshanks' provisions.

Reading the article through, you find this tidbit:

• As of Monday, police said they had accepted 83 applications for gun permits since the process started two weeks ago.

Eighty-three permits? That's it? Are Chicago citizens exercising civil disobedience by not even bothering to apply for gun permits? Or are the sheeple so disconnected that they are going to continue to wallow in their potential victimhood?

We did notice that not a single gangbanger applied for one of the eighty-three permits though.

Half a Million?

We guess it could have been more after reading the allegation:

• The City Council today agreed to pay $500,000 to the family of a man who died in 2005 after being Tasered by a Chicago police sergeant.

  The sergeant used a Taser on Ronald Hasse, 45, for 62 seconds when he resisted police trying to take him into custody. Hasse later died from “electrocution due to taser application” with crystal methamphetamine intoxication as a “significant contributing factor.”

"Excited Delirium" is the name being bandied about. Of course, 62 seconds on the trigger could be 62 seconds of paralysis of the diaphragm and respiratory musculature leading to death. And then there's the "being a meth-head" factor.

Does anyone know if TASER Inc. is fighting the "electrocution" allegation?

City Stickers

That time of year again, but half-a-month later than usual, thanks to the wonderful world of connected low-bid contracts for poor quality workmanship.

And although there aren't any inspectors (maybe there's one) left to gig you in the parking lot, don't give the city the easy one. Daley has proven he can't be trusted with our tax dollars. No need to give him any more than usual.

Just a reminder.

Daley Backtracks

Skidmarks everywhere!

• Mayor Daley said Tuesday it was his notorious impatience — not a desire to denigrate the FBI — that prompted him to complain the federal government was not doing enough to combat gang violence.

  “I said, ‘Finally, they did it’ because, for a year-and-a-half or two years … they’d come in and talk to me about their investigation. I want it completed right away. I’m like that. You know that. I want it done,” Daley said.

  Asked if he planned to apologize to the feds, the mayor said, “It wasn’t derogatory to them.”

When you insult your FBI handlers like that, it's only natural that they should slap back at you. And seeing as how the FBI probably has Shortshanks on any number of wiretaps for whatever reasons, well...

As for Daley's "notorious impatience," we've been feeling that way for years about his going to jail ourselves - we'd just like it done.

Officers Rescue Eight from Fire

Nice job officers!

• Police rescued eight people including a 56-year-old woman who suffered smoke inhalation when a fire erupted at a rowhouse in a Near West Side public housing development early Tuesday.

  The fire started about 12:40 a.m. on the first floor of a three-story building in the 1800 block of West Lake Street, according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman [...].
  

  [...] The eight people rescued from the rowhouse were three women ages 32, 33, and 56 and two men ages 34 and 53, said police News Affairs [...]. Three children were also rescued, two girls ages 15 and 3 and a 4-year-old boy.

  Wood District Patrol Officer Manny Espinoza and his partner Officer K. Cunningham said they were first on the scene because they were only two blocks away from the CHA public housing complex known as West Haven.

What could have been a tragedy was averted by their actions.

Except in Cook County

Does anyone think these charges will stick under Anita Alvarez?

• Making a false 911 call is now a felony under an Illinois law sponsored by state Rep. Lisa Dugan, D-Bradley, and signed Monday by Gov. Pat Quinn.
  
  Dugan introduced House Bill 6101 in response to the bogus emergency telephone call that led to a car crash that left Kankakee County Deputy Sheriff Dave Stukenborg severely paralyzed.
  
  Stukenborg and his family joined Dugan, Quinn and others at the bill signing Monday at the Rehab Institute of Chicago.

We can hardly wait to see how the CCSA Office screws up this law.

France Surrenders Again

Oh wait, did we say "surrenders?"

• PARIS (July 27) -- France has declared war on al-Qaida, and matched its fighting words with a first attack on a base camp of the terror network's North African branch, after the terror network killed a French humanitarian worker it took hostage in April.
  
  The declaration and attack marked a shift in strategy for France, usually discrete about its behind-the-scenes battle against terrorism.
  
  "We are at war with al-Qaida," Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Tuesday, a day after President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the death of 78-year-old hostage Michel Germaneau.

Well gee, welcome to the war - 9 years later. This will last about a week before the Paris slums start rioting in earnest for the autumn car-burning season and France will once again surrender.

Are You Voting?

Here is an astute observation in our comment section:

• Just as the gangs are no longer afraid of police power, neither are the judges in Crook County who are elected and stand for retention every six years. The judges are far more concerned about being criticized in the media and that criticism being taken up by the braying jackass reverends than by being criticized in police circles.
  
  There was a time when the reverse was true and the judges genuinely feared that the police, 13 thousand strong and their families, voting as a bloc could end their careers if they were targeted for a "No" retention vote. However, the police voting bloc due to either apathy or lack of focus is no longer really a bloc and has lost its power to create consequences for bad judges.
  
  On the other hand due to the media's constant onslaught against the police which is taken up and amplified by the race baiting reverends, the judges are far more concerned about minority voters who religiously vote as a bloc rather than any voting backlash from the police.

And that's why you'll most likely never see a Republican winning anything of significance in Chicago.

More Uptown Support

In the form of Officer Safety Alerts:

• Officer Safety info: 023.
  Sheridan Rd. 4500 block, Red hat gangbangers(Vice Lords) had beer hidden along curb side of white Buick, concealed under the vehicle was a huge can of Sabre red OC spray ! Sorry for not posting sooner.

Thank you friend! Make sure you give all that info to the call taker at 911 when you dial it in. We might take a while to respond due to ongoing shortages, but that bit of info might save Officers a lot of trouble.

Crime Fears Blown Out of Proportion

Channel 2 has video up of J-Fled saying violent crime is relatively flat and the media is feeding fears of an out of control situation. We can't embed the video, but here's a link to the Channel 2 site.

Meanwhile, here in reality land, nine people got shot about three hours ago in a bus stop near 79th and Western:

• Officials said that nine people were shot at a CTA turnaround in the Wrightwood neighborhood this evening.

  Chicago Police News Affairs [...] said the shootings happened on the 7900 block of South Western Avenue at about 9:14 p.m.

  Chicago Fire Deparment spokesman [...] said three of the people were in serious-to-critical condition and six were in fair-to-serious condition. The victims were taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center, Stroger, Holy Cross Hospital and Mount Sinai hospitals...

But don't worry, violent crime rates are flat, which we are sure is a great comfort to the nine people currently getting patched up at our fine trauma centers.

First of Its Kind?

This sounds familiar:

• Today Supt. Jody P. Weis announced the results from a first-of-its-kind joint operation targeting criminal activity in several Chicago neighborhoods. The operation consisted of Chicago Police personnel and teams from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; Federal Bureau of Investigation; US Marshals Service; Illinois Department of Corrections; Illinois State Police; Cook County Sheriffs Office; and Cook County State's Attorneys Office.

We recall a number of these joint operations being run back in the late 1990, early 2000's. They involved the Sheriffs, ISP, and IDOC? Maybe a few other agencies? Tact teams and Gang teams did warrants, Streets and San came out and cleaned blocks, trimmed trees, ran the sweepers up and down the blocks and basically made lots of photo ops for the aldercreatures. This isn't exactly a new concept - if you put a shitload of police into a defined area, there isn't going to be much in the way of crime. But here are our leaders taking all sorts of credit:

• Operation Return to Owner began at 8 a.m. Friday and ended at 5 a.m. Sunday, focusing on suppressing crime and quelling violence in the South Side Englewood District and the Albany Park and Grand Central districts on the Northwest Side, according to a release from police News Affairs.

  There were no homicides or aggravated batteries with firearms in those districts during Operation Return to Owner, the first joint operation of its kind, according to the release.

You know what else happened starting Friday that may have had a tiny little effect on the shooting totals?

• seven inches of rain

So a few hundred cops, many from outside Chicago, a rainfall total approaching the first hour of Noah's infamous downpour and suddenly, the manpower shortage isn't an issue anymore - we've got Chicago under control people! Nothing to see here, move along!

Budget "Windfall"

That kool-aid must be mighty tasty the way the media keeps drinking it up.

• Chicago taxpayers could be in for a $10.5 million-a-year windfall when bridge houses along the Chicago River are decorated for the holidays by private companies in exchange for the right to display their corporate logos, aldermen were told Monday.

  Without knowing precisely how large those corporate monikers will be, the City Council’s Transportation Committee gave Lincolnshire-based Fresh Picked Media the go-ahead to launch a “public service sponsorship” program that could some day extend to the riverwalk.

• For $1 million-a-year-per-bridge, companies will be free to decorate bridge houses at those locations for the month-long period preceding four major holidays --- Halloween, Christmas, Easter and 4th of July.

• With Chicago facing a record $700 million budget shortfall, aldermen jumped at the chance for a $10.5 million-a-year windfall.

For those calculating at home, $10.5 million is 1.5% of the $700 million dollar shortfall.

Mmmmmmmmm - the kool-aid tastes so good!

Another Grand Slam

Garry Mckee at Police Limit:

Click on the comic for a better view.

Anyone want to speculate why this isn't something the media picks up on?

They Start So Early

It's just sad how young today's dope addicts start:

• PCP and cocaine was found in a sick 1-year-old baby who was brought to a West Side hospital by its parents early Sunday, police said.

  About 3:20 a.m., the parents of a sick 1-year-old baby arrived at Mount Sinai Hospital where it was discovered that there was PCP and cocaine in the baby’s system, according to Harrison District police. The baby's condition was unknown early Sunday.

  The parents live in public housing on the 3600 block of 5th Avenue, police said.

One-year-old and already strung out on PCP and coke. Probably started out on cannabis at 3 or four months, moved on to heroin by 8 months old and now doing PCP and cocaine. Is there no level to the depravity of mankind?

What's that? Parents' stash? You mean...oh. Oops, sorry. our bad. We were confused. Carry on.

Manpower Again

From Saturday's comments:

• For everyone's information today:13 P.O'S &1 Sgt. only will be on the street in 011 for 2nd Watch. No rapids, and 2 beats will have no car.
  
  
• Same is 003 except 003 is 12 beats with a couple of foot post. and 003 has a higher population than 011
  
  
• 7 one man cars on third watch in 20 on 3rd watch.

Be careful out there.

Ride to Remember

900 bikes and a beautiful day to ride:

• The large showing of support means a great deal to the victims' families, said Donna Marquez, president of Chicago Police Department Gold Star Families, which represents the families of fallen officers.
  
  Marquez echoed the demand that officials made at Bailey's funeral. "We need to help our neighborhoods and our communities. We cannot be afraid, and we cannot be silent," she said.

God Bless all of the Fallen.

An Interesting Take on Things

From a CPD Lieutenant:

• Everyone in Chicago knows it. Almost everyone in America knows it. In fact, a lot of people throughout the world know. Chicago is a city at war with itself - fast tracking to anarchy.
  
  
  Leading us there have been two major root causes - public violence and public corruption. While Chicago has been under attack with its people fearful and hiding, its police department was twisted into paralysis by organizational decimation, incompetent leadership, self-serving politics and corruption.
  
  
  After three dead cops in less than 60 days, the men and women of the Chicago Police Department are saying, "Enough!!!" We are sickened that our world-class police department has deteriorated into ruin in only a few short years. We are tired of a leaderless department. We are angry at an unsupportive mayor.

He names names, blasts Carothers, Masters and Weis, and generally outlines problems with an eye toward solutions. A bit on the "rah-rah" side, but a decent summation of the uphill battle we face.

Don't look for this guy on any exempt orders in the near future.

Why They Won't Stop Shooting

Big article in the Sun Times pointing out how a weekend in April of 2008 involving over 40 shootings has resulted in zero prosecutions:

• This is the story of why they won’t stop shooting in Chicago.

  It’s told by the wounded, the accused and the officers who were on the street during a weekend in April 2008 when 40 people were shot, seven fatally.

  Two years later, the grim reality is this: Nearly all of the shooters from that weekend have escaped charges.

We'll spare you the anticipation and let you know exactly who's to blame - according to one of the honor-roll altar boys who got hisself shotified:

• Gamble also said authorities should have done a better job of investigating, putting together a stronger case and getting their facts straight since a judge might not believe a guy like him.

The "guy like him" has an extensive rap sheet and a history of not cooperating with the police, but of course, it's our fault he's out there slinging dope and rubbing elbows with other "pillars of society."

And it's funny how we've been sounding the alarm (along with our readers) about the clearance rate and manpower issues for the past few years, but until some shitheads with rap sheets miles long start mouthing off about how the authorities should have done a better job protecting them from their dumbass lifestyle choices, the Sun Times is finally seeing the light? What a bunch of asshats.

A Blog Supporting the Police?

Seriously. Someone sent us a link and everything:

• I went on the blog today to read about the gang fight between the Vice Lords and the Black P Stones that occurred at the intersection of Wilson and Broadway at 4pm on Thursday, July 22, and to my surprise it wasn't mentioned.
  
  Two Vice Lords were arrested, one was tased. Both are convicted felons. A few "concerned citizens" actually went to the 023 police station to complain that police used unnecessary force (tasing) on the young poor black kid (a convicted felon who detectives believe did a shooting two months ago on Magnolia against the Black P Stones).

The comment section is alive with praise for the police and accolades for the one who tasered the resistor. It's kind of refreshing to see some citizen support for the CPD.

Reward Rises

And it's going to take a reward seeing as how the "subjects of interest" were released earlier today:

• Hoping for any clue or connection to Chicago Police Officer Michael Bailey's killer, roughly two dozen Chicago Police Department employees and volunteers spent Saturday distributing reward fliers near the slain officer's Park Manor home.

  Bailey was shot to death July 18 as he returned from guarding Mayor Richard Daley's home, making him the third Chicago police officer to be killed in two months.

  The reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of Bailey's killer was raised Saturday from $70,000 to $100,000, after the FBI contributed the extra money--on top of $20,000 the agency had already pledged, officials said.

  While several people have been questioned by police, police said no one was in custody one week after Bailey's slaying.

Keep plugging away detectives. Someone is bound to crack eventually.

Three Arrests in Bailey Murder

We're thinking some very unkind thoughts about now, but we will endeavor to remain professional. We urge everyone else to do the same in our comment section:

• Just hours after the funeral for slain off-duty Chicago Police Officer Michael R. Bailey, three South Side teenagers were arrested on suspicion they were involved in his murder Sunday outside the officer’s Park Manor home on the South Side.

  [...] The three males, 16, 17 and 18, were all placed in custody at Calumet Area headquarters, 727 E. 111th St., late Friday afternoon on the suspicion they had some involvement in the officer’s death, according to police.

An arranged surrender? Details to follow eventually.

Easy Weekend

We aren't going to try too hard this weekend. We'll be in and out, moderating comments and such, and we'll even post a thread or two as usual. But we are some kind of tired lately. We're sure it has to do with the heat, the funerals, the general malaise around these parts.

Open thread for you all to post questions, information or rumors. Keep it reasonably clean.

Empty Words

This is insulting:

• Supt. Jody Weis spoke as well, and he drew applause when he vowed justice would be done.
  
  "These individuals who hide in the night and look to exploit any advantage they can have thrown down the gauntlet and invited a fight; not one that we asked for, but one that will accept," he said. "I have one piece of advice for those who think that they can attack the police and the community and get away with it: lay down your arms and run."

Sorry if our readers disagree, but nothing J-Fled has done since he arrived in town encourages any sort of belief that he would ever (A) give the order to take back the streets or (B) have our backs once that order came from Shortshanks.

The car cameras are still operating, right? The pods are up and running? IPRA exists? The mayoral appointed Police Board, long rumored to be accepting "donations" to reinstate the politically-connected still meets monthly?

That's what we thought. And every one of those thing isn't there for "officer safety," as J-Fled and his minions insist. It is there to bear witness should you step out of line. Don't believe us?

• (from the Sun Times) - "If some police officer comes out and starts whacking people around here, you'll have an outrage," [Daley] said. "We are a country of laws."
  
  
• (from the comments) - J-Fled also gave a good speech, just didn't know when to keep his damn mouth shut. All that talk about bringing justice for Mike was fine until you just had to go on about doing it "lawfully and justly and within the boundaries of the law"

They don't want us to "take back the streets." They want us to smile and eat shit every time an officer is hurt, wounded or killed.

More Layoffs

Won't somebody think of the children?!?!

• The Chicago Public Schools plan to lay off 400 classroom teachers and 200 support personnel by the end of the week as the district deals with a record $370 million budget deficit.
  
  Notices began going out Wednesday to the affected employees, who work in about 200 elementary schools that start their year earlier than most schools, on Aug. 10.

And there's another 1,000 layoffs in the pipeline, as Daley continues to drive the City into the ground.

Wake/Funeral Remembrances

Final goodbyes for Officer Michael Bailey:

• A visitation Thursday for slain Chicago police officer Michael Bailey included a continued call for witnesses to come forward and break the code of silence.
  
  Colleagues, family and friends gathered Thursday afternoon at the A.R. Leak and Sons Funeral Home, at 7838 S. Cottage Grove, to bid farewell.

RIP Officer. We are truly sorry you were denied the chance to enjoy your golden years with your friends, family and community.

Ignorant Comment

This one appeared in our comment section the day before yesterday in response to someone wanting certain units disbanded to bolster patrol:

• to the dirt bag saying disband the units:
  
  F*** YOU, units are the only ones doing anything out there. if you arent making an arrest a day working a beat car you have no room to talk s***.
  
  go have your 3rd lunch of the day and come back to talk to me. yes, we are short on officers, but that doesnt mean we put "working officers" on meaningless beat cars to handle back logs.
  
  -working copper

As far as we're concerned, there's only one dirt-bag in this conversation.

"Working officers"? "Meaningless beat cars"? These are the words of an idiot and a clout baby who spent little to no time in a beat car. And claiming anyone gets three lunches? Newsflash Einstein - units not tied to the radio are those beneficiaries, not us in the trenches. Asshat.

Daley Not Running?

So claims Skippy:

• I was here two nights ago, talking about Mayor Daley running or not running for re-election and how every politician in town is talking about it, including the mayor's brother, Bill, who is the only person in town -- other than the mayor himself and his wife, Maggie -- who knows what Rich Daley plans to do.
  
  I reported that brother Bill has been saying, in private, that the mayor is intending not to run.
  
  Bill Daley called me and the Channel 2 news director and said angrily it's a lie, that he has never said to anyone his brother intends not to run, and he asked me to retract what I reported. I told him no because I trust my source, who has no reason to lie. But to be fair to Bill Daley, I should report tonight that he says he believes his brother will run for re-election.

Ten bucks says Skippy is being played by the mayor. And twenty bucks says Shortshanks is putting his underwear on Jacobson's head the way the Cubs used to do when Skippy was their bat-boy

Another Photo Op?

Really?

• Holding up a five-inch thick stack of work orders to fix jail doors, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart on Wednesday hailed a new law making it a felony for inmates to jam objects into cell doors to prevent them from locking.

  Gov. Quinn signed the bill into law Wednesday at a news conference with Dart in a maximum-security wing of the Cook County Jail.

  "It is no small issue for us," Dart said.

Did anyone think that prisoners aren't going to damage things, make life difficult for guards, not try to move contraband in and out of cells?

Of course, this could probably be nothing more than another photo-op for Dart and has aspirations for higher office.

Ch - Ch - Ch - Changes Coming

We think this was originally written in English, but we aren't sure. But it was emailed to a bunch of bosses, a number of whom forwarded it to us:

• Deputy Superintendent Brown is requesting a meeting with the Chief along with his perspective Deputy Chief's and their Commanders. The meetings will be scheduled by the Deputy Supt's Office.
  
  Commanders should be prepared to discuss the following
  Acting Commanders will respond if the Cmdr is furlough.
  
  1. Comprehensive law enforcement strategy for each district.
  2. Most problematic area in district
  3. Strategy from each sergeant.
  4. Worst 10 performers in district.
  5. DOG balances
  6. Watch balancing
  7. Tactical activity (misdemeanor vs felony)
  8. Deputy Chiefs should be prepared to discuss:
  SAT team deployment
  Gun team deployment
  In-depth crime analysis of each district
  
  Any questions please call.
  P.O. L[...] C[...]
  Secretary Patrol Group A

"perspective Deputy Chiefs"? We're hiring Walter Jacobson?

"Worst 10 performers in district"? Get those Grievance forms ready!

Gun teams? Did anyone tell HQ about the "McDonald v Chicago" decision?

Strap in boys and girls - The "Era of Ernie" has begun!

Funeral and Visitation Arrangements

Officer Michael Bailey:

• Funeral services and visitation for slain Chicago Police Officer Michael Bailey will be held at the end of the week.

  Officer Bailey's wake is scheduled for 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday at A.R. Leak and Sons Funeral Home, 7838 S. Cottage Grove.

  The funeral will be at 10 a.m. Friday at St. Sabina Church, 1210 W. 78th Pl.

Comments closed here. Informational post only.

Management By Crisis

An apt description of what we're going through:

• The panic button's been pushed again!
  
  The fax came out this afternoon, cancelling all elective time off, for the 2d and 3d watches, on Saturday 14 August, even if it was previously approved, for ALL Bureaus.
  
  I'm sure your readers will remember, this is the day those "in control" scheduled the Air & Water Show AND the Bud Billiken Parade!
  
  They must be in full panic mode. They must have seen that the manpower is so low, they're going to have a hard time pulling this shit off.
  
  Another case of management by crisis.

Management by Morons might be another appropriate description. We can't wait to see what the brain trust comes up with here.

Ed Burke Reads the Blog

Ed is stealing exact quotes from our comment sections...unless ...unless Ed Burke is the guy leaving the comments! Good God! We're famous!!!

• The City Council’s most powerful alderman urged Mayor Daley on Wednesday to ask off-duty police officers to work their days off to combat gang violence akin to “urban terrorism.”

  Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th), chairman of the City Council’s Finance Committee, said Daley’s plan to ease a severe manpower shortage by hiring 100 more officers will take too long and fall far short.

  If 100 recruits enter the police academy on Sept. 1, it’ll be 24 weeks before they complete their training and hit the streets, he said.

  “If you divide that 100 by 25 districts, you have maybe four officers-per-district. Divide that by three shifts and what have you got?” Burke said.

We'll tell you what you've got Ed - you've got Dick! Dick Daley that is.

And how's that bodyguard detail working out for you Ed? Is it six coppers at the moment or more? Each "earning" sergeant pay for "alleged" threats received how many years ago? Vague undefined threats that no one has ever actually substantiated?

We wonder what would happen if everyone actually said, "No" to this overtime offer. Would the shootings skyrocket? Would the streets run red with blood? Would Shortshanks actually find a fiddle to play?

Don't Release Cop Killers

It's ridiculous that this even has to be done, but it does, and it's important that it be done:

• As a manhunt continued for the killers of the third Chicago police officer to be gunned down in two months, half a dozen officers gathered Wednesday to make sure another cop slain decades ago wasn't forgotten.
  
  In a sparsely furnished conference room at the Cook County court complex at 26th Street and California Avenue, a video camera silently recorded their anguished stories as they pleaded with the state parole board not to release Charles Connolly, who was convicted of killing Officer Tom Kelly.
  
  
• Connolly is serving a sentence of up to 150 years in prison for the murder of Kelly, 26, and the wounding of his partner, Tom Neustrom, 23, during a traffic stop in March 1970. The two were on a break to pick up tuxedos for Kelly's upcoming wedding.
  
  Connolly shot Kelly between the eyes, then shot Neustrom in the chest and back. Connolly walked around the car to finish off Neustrom, but his gun was out of bullets, police said.
  
  Connolly is one of about 10 inmates convicted in Cook County of the murder or attempted murder of police officers who, under outdated sentencing laws, still have a chance at getting out of prison.
  
  In recent years, as these cases get older — and relatives and partners can no longer attend — police are making an effort to ensure the officers are still represented at parole hearings.

If no one shows up, we end up with a situation like we covered last week where the killer of a Northlake Police Officer is set to be released back into society in part because there was no one listed on the victim's side to protest the decision.

This is a Surprise?

Headline - Gunfire Erupts Inside Humboldt Park:

• Police are looking for a gunman who opened fire from a van striking a man inside another vehicle at a traffic light in Humboldt Park early Wednesday on the West Side.

  At 2 a.m., a maroon-colored conversion van was northbound on North Humboldt Drive when a gunman inside shot a 22-year-old man in the arm as he was stopped at the traffic light in the 3000 block of West Division Street, according to a police News Affairs release.

And every copper reading, along with every resident within a mile of Humboldt Park, says, "Tell us something we don't know." We'll bet there are coppers who can't name a day that gunfire hasn't occurred within the bounds of Humboldt Park over the past 30 years. We say "30 years" because the guy with 35 years just quit last week.

This isn't news. This is filler.

Threats Against Police

Watch your backs:

• A frightening warning has been sent to police on the street: their lives could be in danger. It comes while Chicago police are still looking to make arrests in a case that's personal for them: the murder of Chicago Police Officer Michael Bailey.
  
  Thomas Wortham IV, Thor Soderberg and Bailey are three police officers murdered in Chicago in the past two months. CBS 2 [...] reports on the threat being made to police in the Chatham community.
  
  "More police will be shot...gang bangers in the area are passing the word...every night they will be ambushing police in the Chatham area."
  
  That was the key part of the text message sent Monday, to police commanders, watch commanders, sergeants and police officers by the department's Mobile Strike Force, the group concentrating their efforts in high crime areas.

But of course, the minute we take appropriate, logical and reasonable actions against some mope sneaking in to look for a quick payday, J-Fled will be right there with a bus to run us over. Does anyone doubt that for even a second?

In the meantime, how about two cars for every call, don't wave off your assist and fuck the backlog.

Lies, Damn Lies, .....

...and Statistics. This is what passes for reporting nowadays:

• Mack Julion has always been in love with Chicago. A Southwest Side resident, he swore he would never flee to the suburbs, playfully mocking friends as not being "real Chicagoans."
  
  But now, crime in his neighborhood and across the city has worn that devotion thin.
  
  [...] Julion's sense that Chicago's crime problem is growing worse is shared by nearly half of the city dwellers who responded to a new poll for Tribune/WGN. But the reality is that overall crime in Chicago is down when compared with last year and homicides are nearly flat, with no significant uptick compared with recent years.

"Overall crime" is a misleading statistic since upticks and surges in certain crimes mask declines in others. Batteries may be up while rapes and arsons are down. In fact, the Tribune cites these types of statistical shenanigans in the article:

• Overall crime, including violent crimes such as criminal sexual assault and robbery, are down, according to official crime statistics through the end of June. For instance, shootings are down slightly compared with January through June of last year. The facts, however, have done little to prevent perception from becoming reality for people in all parts of the city.

Let's hop over to the Sun Times for an interesting paragraph:

• Police statistics suggest it's getting increasingly dangerous on the street for officers. Nearly 3,160 officers reported they were victims of assault and battery in 2008, almost double the 1,583 officers who said they were attacked in 2003. About 35 percent of those officers in 2008 were injured, according to the department.

Almost double the number of officers attacked over a five year span, and that was two years ago. Yet "overall crime" is supposed to be down? We're supposed to believe that Chicago Police Officers are the only category of victims that has increased at a rate far outpacing society at large?

So it comes down to citizen perceptions? And who are you going to believe? The "statistics" released by a mayor desperate to prop up his reelection chances and the chances of his heirs? Or your own goddamn lying eyes?

Hold on for Those Reinforcements

Not even 24 hours after promising Chicago he'd hire 100 more officers to stem the shortage of 2,230 officers and the 100-plus retiring every month, Shortshanks is admitting he doesn't have the money:

• The city needs to hire 100 more police officers, Mayor Richard Daley said today, but should not fund their salaries from a tax program reserved for promoting economic development.

  "You have to hire a hundred new police officers," Daley said at a news conference to open a new Target store in the Uptown neighborhood.
  
  But hiring more officers will only partially address the problem of crime in Chicago, Daley said.

We guess it will be a little while longer until we can bid for that 13B furlough if there's no one coming up behind us.

And this quote is just freaking priceless:

• If the officers were hired as some aldermen have suggested by tapping money from the city's tax increment financing program, it would throw the budget out of whack because those funds run out after a fixed number of years, the mayor said.
  
  "To balance your budget, if you start taking TIF money only once, then what do you do?" Daley said.

Hmmm. We don't know Dick. What happens if you take all the money from a 99-year-lease on parking meters and blow through the entire amount in less than three years in some bizarre attempt to win a global sporting event that hasn't made a profit (and won't be making a profit) in 32 years?

Oh wait. That did happen. And we're seeing the results each and every day here in Chi-troit II.

Contradictions Abound

Frank and Fran outdo themselves is this article:

• Sources said the Police Department was analyzing surveillance video, and officers were "hitting the gang-bangers hard" to shake loose any information about the killing, one of three slayings of Chicago Police officers in two months.

But in the final closing paragraph:

• Despite the attacks on police, Daley said he's not about to turn a blind eye to officers who engage in excessive force. "If some police officer comes out and starts whacking people around here, you'll have an outrage," he said. "We are a country of laws."

We're still waiting to see if there's any fallout from the Commander of 001 saying the police have to be unhandcuffed, the FOP president saying the police have to be unhandcuffed, and the Chaplain saying the police have to be unhandcuffed. If we were betting people (which we are), we'd lay odds J-Fled is on the ropes here as a scapegoat.

More contradictions:

• Mayoral press secretary Jacquelyn Heard said the hirings were set into motion weeks ago, before Sunday morning's slaying of Bailey, whom Daley knew personally and called "a wonderful guy."

But just two days ago, Heard was saying Shortshanks was "familiar" with the officer who guarded the mayoral residence so the Daley's could sleep safely.

And a belated "Welcome to Our World" to aldercreature Lyle:

• Ald. Freddrenna Lyle (6th), whose South Side ward includes the Bailey shooting, said the violence stems from a lack of respect for police officers she saw during a recent "ride around" in her ward with a district commander.

  "The commander got out and asked this young man to get off a woman's porch. He did it nicely -- by putting his hand on the guy's shoulder. And the guy got all riled up and said, 'Why are you touching me?' I was shocked. I never in my life thought people would respond that way," Lyle said.

  "I had a female officer tell me they called her b---- so much, she thought her name was b---- by the end of the day. That goes to the total lack of respect."

And who's teaching this lack of respect? It couldn't possibly be the reverends, race-baiters, poverty pimps, combined with the utter lack of parenting and coping skills prevalent in an entire swath of the south side, could it?

If brains were dynamite, these idiots couldn't blow their noses. And that includes the mayor, the supernintendo, the aldercreature and the "reverends." Combined.

Help is On The Way!

Just hold out for 6 more months!

• A day after off-duty Chicago Police Officer Michael Bailey was killed, City Hall revealed plans Monday to hire 100 new cops, and the FBI joined the hunt for the killer.
  
  Sources said the Police Department was analyzing surveillance video, and officers were "hitting the gang-bangers hard" to shake loose any information about the killing, one of three slayings of Chicago Police officers in two months.
  
  A shortage of officers is emboldening criminals, said a former high-ranking Chicago Police official who said he's "terrified" for officers because felons no longer fear the police. A two-year police hiring slowdown has left the Police Department understaffed by more than 2,230 officers a day, below the city's budget-authorized 13,200

There's a number we haven't seen yet - 2,230. That's a BIG number for those of you keeping score at home.

And that "six months" is just an estimate seeing as how they haven't even sent out a letter for the POWER test and other procedural hurdles to actually hiring officers.

Figure at least nine months until help arrives...and then it'll be 1.3 officers per watch.

No Big Deal

A very well written column about societal norms being skewed:

• Thor Soderberg was a Chicago Police officer who was just finishing his day of doing his job in the afternoon of July 7th. He got jumped and shot just outside a police facility on the Southside of Chicago by a man who some now say is mentally unstable. They struggled. The man grabbed his gun, shot him in the head and ran away. (Later, he got shot and was captured by police. He turns out to have a lengthy criminal record.)
  
  Many in society have become numb when it comes to a tragedy like this involving a police officer and there are huge consequences when that happens. I guess it’s “no big thing anymore” to many people and it’s just taken with a shrug of the shoulders as the person is more concerned about “more pressing issues” like, “What team did Lebron James choose?”

The column is even more disturbing seeing as how it was written on 13 July, mere days before a second Chicago Police Office lost his life.

So much time has been spent demonizing the police, it isn't all that surprising we barely rate a full week of coverage when we're murdered on the streets.

Medical Roll

Is there some new policy that allows officers to work with a cast on?

We're only wondering because we've gotten a whole bunch of letters that the Central Control Group Deputy is working with a leg cast and the 011 District Commander is showing up to work with a broken arm.

The second one is kind of silly because she has to re-qualify regardless of which arm got broken. If she has to re-qualify, that means she can't carry a gun in the mean time. If she can't carry a gun, she shouldn't be working - at least not as the police.

Two sets of rules again?

Hello? Society? Are You Listening?

Or are you asleep at the wheel - just like the past few decades?

• A domestic fight led to a shooting that critically wounded a little girl in stroller in a Grand Crossing park early Monday on the South Side.

  At 12:06 a.m., a 1-year-old girl was shot “through and through” the shoulder in the 7600 block of South Dobson Avenue, according to police News Affairs[...].

  The little girl was in a stroller outside in a park at the Dobson address when she was shot, and left in “very, very critical,’’ condition, a Calumet Area detective said.

  A group of people including several relatives were in the park when the incident began. Two men who both have children with a young woman who was also on the scene began arguing, according to a Gresham District police lieutenant.

Two sperm donors meet up with their breeding receptacle and assorted other relatives and begin to discourse the worldly events of the day (gold prices, BP oil, the coming double-dip recession) , when one pulls a gun and blasts a one-year-old child AT ONE O'CLOCK IN THE FUCKING MORNING.

Anyone else see a whole laundry list of problems here that isn't being addressed by Jesse, Al, Phluck-head, Meeks and the rest of the "holy rollers" and poverty pimps?

Bike Ride for Slain Officers

A pall was cast over the whole event by Sunday's tragedy:

• A normally somber event here was even more so Sunday as police officers gathered for an annual bikeathon to raise funds for families of slain officers following news the third Chicago police officer this year had been gunned down that morning.

  “We really lost an absolutely terrific man, not just a great police officer, but a great man,” said Chicago Police Sgt. Darren Easterday, who worked with Bailey at the First District for about three years. “It’s crime without fear,” he said after hearing that he was in uniform when he was killed.

  Police officers and families of slain officers took part in the ride.

  “It’s like a real bad nightmare, but it’s real,” said Donna Marquez, whose brother, officer Donald Marquez was shot and killed in the line of duty in 2002. “The department is in shock. We don’t know what to say.”

  “It’s really hard to get over the trauma. It seems like the trauma is continuous,” said Chicago police officer Yolanda Nowells.

  Angel Mendez, who has been a Chicago cop for 10 years, lamented what he labeled the emergence of a new type of criminal over the years.

  “Unfortunately in this day and age right now, criminals that are out there, they don’t have any respect for life, let alone for police officers,” he said.

Respect? We'd settle for a healthy dose of fear and 2,000 more cops so we weren't running 33% empty beat cars on midnights.

Remembrance Post

We gave everyone pretty much free rein in yesterday's thread to vent their spleens in regard to Officer Bailey's death. It's been a rough two months here and it doesn't look like it's getting any better in light of the headlines we have just below here.

Prayers and thoughts for the fallen only in this thread. RIP Michael Bailey.

Bad News All Morning

Just perusing the headlines and it's damn depressing:

• On Sunday, five men were charged in attacks Saturday that left three police officers injured, including a correctional officer.

  Charles Rush, 23, is charged with aggravated battery with a firearm in a shooting that left an off-duty Cook County correctional officer hospitalized with a bullet in his stomach...
  
  The officer showed his badge and Rush walked off the porch saying, "I've got something for the police," before returning shirtless with a gun, Tristan said.
  

• About two hours later in the Pilsen neighborhood, an off-duty Chicago Police officer was attacked by three reputed gang members, police said.

  One man struck the officer with his fists while two others came at him with a manhole sewer cover,...
  
  
• Saturday afternoon, an officer was slashed in the face while responding to a domestic disturbance on the South Side.

• Police took two people in custody Sunday night for firing a weapon in their direction in the West Woodlawn neighborhood.

  About 11:23 p.m., police pulled over a vehicle during a traffic stop in the 6100 block of South Eberhart Avenue, said Police News Affairs

• Police fired shots at a suspect they say pulled a gun on officers during a traffic stop this morning in the city's Lawndale neighborhood.

  The shooting happened about 12:05 a.m. in the 4200 block of West 21st Place, said Police News Affairs

We don't give a fuck what numbers J-Fled and Shortshanks are pulling out of Masters Masters Masters' ass - we are under siege, badly undermanned and the enemy is inside the wire.

Kass Connects Cost of Corruption

Phil Cline puts it into words:

• Chicago's political class can't admit to losing control. They dare not even hint at it, particularly the mayor, what with his election coming up and his poll numbers tanking.

  But just about every cop in the city must feel it, with the murder Sunday of veteran Chicago police Officer Michael Bailey outside his home.
  

• "This has just been a terrible year, and I don't remember anything this bad, maybe if you go back to the early '70s when we came on and we were losing, what, maybe 10 guys a year? And that was before bulletproof vests," former Chicago police Superintendent Phil Cline said.

• "I think what you're seeing is that the gangbangers have lost their fear of the police — and that's not a good thing," Cline said. "The balance we always wanted was that the good citizens in the neighborhood to like the police, the gangbangers to fear us. Evidently, we've lost that.

  "And that's something the department is going to have to work on, to take back the street from these gangs. The city is going to have to bite the bullet and hire more police."

We're coming to the realization that no matter what happens in the next few weeks, months or years, the streets will never be ours again. Not like it was 30, 20, even 10 years ago. We can't do it. Even if we had the ability to project that amount of force (which we don't), we wouldn't be permitted to exercise it.

We've given Phil a pile of shit over the past years for promoting incompetent and unqualified hacks into positions where they could do a lot of damage to this department, and we still believe it to be deserved. But J-Fled has torn the heart out of this place, albeit at the direction of the demented dwarf, but it's his name on the door.

We are so screwed. It isn't going to take years to fix this place - it'll be decades. And it will never be the same.

Mayoral Challengers

Who's up?

• Freshman Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) said Friday he’s seriously considering running for mayor — whether or not Mayor Daley seeks a seventh term — because he’s fed up with the corruption, waste and mismanagement that have dogged the Daley era.

  A new poll released Saturday suggests he may not be the only one.

Many of the names we cited the other day popped up in the Sun Times article.

But here's the serious question - how many of our readers are registered to vote? Because unless we have a presence in the voting booth, we aren't going to have any impact on the election and the any input on the direction of any changes that might happen.

We heard FOP was going to have Unit Reps as deputy registrars or whatever they are calling them nowadays. If true, we have yet to see any concerted effort to have cops (and their families) registered to vote. If the under-25% number is correct, then the registrars really ought to be busy as hell over the next few months getting people signed up.

Anyone have any info?

Poll Numbers Don't Matter

So says Shortshanks:

• Mayor Daley is defending his performance in light of a new poll that shows he has record low job approval ratings.

  When asked by reporters about the Tribune survey of Chicago voters that had his approval at 37 percent, the mayor initially brushed aside the subject saying the numbers don’t matter.

  Instead of worrying about poll numbers, Daley said politicians should focus on their actions.

Oh. OK. Let's do that. Explain McCormick Place. Explain the parking meter fiasco. Explain TIF corruption. Cost overruns at Millennium Park, the Monroe garage, the O'Hare expansion, just about every project under the sun, illegal hiring of unqualified minors, inspectors, blatant cronyism and fixed promotions.....

Do you really want to go there Shanks?

Off Duty Killed

In front of his home, in uniform. And retiring next month:

• An off-duty police officer was shot and killed near 74th Street and Evans Avenue at about 6:20 a.m., police said.

  A police detective on the scene said the officer was pronounced dead at 6:41 at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and that he was coming home from a midnight shift.

  He was outside cleaning the glass of his recently purchased 2010 black Buick when three suspects approached the detective said.

Sun Times coverage here.

Last Night's Totals

Not out of line with the past few Friday nights:

• Two people were killed and at least 15 people were wounded in a spate of shootings across the city late Friday and early this morning, Chicago police said.
  
  A man was fatally shot in the head at 12:34 a.m. on the West Side in East Garfield Park, according to police News Affairs Officer Ron Gaines. The shooting occurred in the 3900 block of West Wilcox Street. The 28-year-old man, identified as Reggie Coles, 1200 block of North Keeler Avenue, was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital.
  
  Separately, a man was killed and a woman wounded in a shooting that happened about 10 minutes later in the 2100 block of North Springfield Avenue in the Logan Square neighborhood, police said.

And it continued throughout Saturday:

• A man believed to be in his 50s was shot and killed this afternoon in the West Side's Lawndale neighborhood, Chicago police said.
• A man about 18 years old was shot in the neck in the South Side's Parkway Gardens neighborhood tonight, authorities said.

The "Ernie Brown Watch" has officially begun.

Cop Stabbed

Going to be OK, but more than a few stitches:

• A Chicago police officer was stabbed in the cheek this afternoon by a suspect while responding to a domestic-related call in the Far South Side's Morgan Park neighborhood.

  The officer was taken to an area hospital, before being treated and released. The suspect, meanwhile, was in custody.

  The officer responded to the call in the 1000 block of West 115th Street, police said.

  No charges have been filed against the suspect as of this afternoon.

Speedy recovery Officer.

Blago Ring Tones

They're free:

• Now you can enjoy the profanity-laced tirades of Illinois’ least-favorite son when you’re on the go. Beginning today, The State Journal-Register is offering free Blagojevich ringtones for your (bleeping) phone.

We don't know if the ringtones are bleeped out or are in all their uncensored glory, but it would certainly be an amusing to have Blago mouthing off whenever the phone rang.

Command Changes

How does that ass taste J-Fled?

• Chicago police Superintendent Jody Weis named a 27-year police veteran today to oversee the department's patrol division a few weeks after his predecessor was reassigned after a surge of weekend shootings and homicides.

  Ernest Brown got the official nod as a deputy superintendent three weeks after he was appointed acting head of the patrol division. He succeeds Dan Dugan, who was reassigned after one weekend last month in which more than 40 people were shot and eight killed.

  Weis also promoted Brown's deputy chief, Nicholas Roti, to head the organized crime unit, and Lt. Anthony Carothers to commander of the Englewood police district on the city's South Side.

Has any reporter even done a cursory search of Cook County court records about Downtown Brown? Or a LexisNexis search on certain "resumè problems?"

And don't even get us started on the former aldercreature's brother - has Ike even reported to prison yet? We can only assume the commander spot is a family payoff for Ike tipping the rest of the City Council and mayor that he was wired for sound all those months. God knows how many aldercreatures were spared prison time by Ike taking one for the team.

Hey J-Fled? Want to spout off again about how "qualified" your staff is? Or maybe the "Earned, Not Given" motto created in direct contrast to what we all see with our own eyes? Because you seem to be "giving" out quite a bit of bullshit today. What a joke.

Low Polls, But No Challenger

No challenger yet, hopefully:

• More than half of Chicago voters say they don't want to see Mayor Richard Daley re-elected next year should he decide to run for a record seventh term, a new Tribune/WGN poll shows.
  
  The mayor has been buffeted by a spate of summer violence, a weak economy and a high-profile failure to land the 2016 Olympics. Dissatisfaction abounds, the survey found, over Daley's handling of the crime problem, his efforts to rein in government corruption and his backing of a controversial long-term parking meter system lease.
  
  As a result, the poll found only 37 percent of city voters approve of the job Daley is doing as mayor, compared with 47 percent who disapprove. Moreover, a record-low 31 percent said they want to see Daley re-elected, compared with 53 percent who don't want him to win another term.

But who's in the wings? Daley has managed to keep any potential challengers either out of the city or moved around internally so as to prevent any consolidation of power. Look at a partial list of potentials:

• Vallas - out of town
• Santos - felony record
• Dart - baggage
• Jesse Jr. - Washington DC and Blago damage
• Hoffman - election loser
  
• Emmanuel - Obama baggage
  
• assorted aldercreatures - jail, baggage, etc.

There just isn't a strong contender at all.

No, we aren't running either.

Who Doesn't Love Dogs?

Mayor Daley evidently!

• Chicago's Animal Care and Control Department should not be demonized because four dogs were wrongly put to death at the city pound four years ago, Mayor Richard Daley said Friday.

  The West Side compound handles huge numbers of dogs, the mayor said. He called on the media not to overreact to the cases of mistaken euthanasia between February and July 2006.

  "Mistakenly? Four. Four," said Daley, who leaned into the microphone when asked about the issue. "Look, mistaken, it's an accident, so they corrected it."

It isn't the mistake that's the problem Shortshanks. It's the incompetence displayed by your administration, your appointees and the cover up that followed. And we highly doubt it was only "four" animals.

Is this the opening salvo in an effort to demonize Daley as an animal hater? Or is it just a slow news Saturday?

Soderberg Memorial

Final remembrances of a good cop:

• The widow of slain Chicago Police Officer Thor Soderberg told his fellow officers this morning to smile when they thought of her husband, and she said her husband knew he could always count on his brothers in blue.

  "I know you always had Thor's back," Jennifer Loudon said, speaking at the University of Chicago's Rockefeller Memorial Chapel. "Thor always knew you had his back." Loudon spoke without tears, wearing a red dress she said her husband had helped her pick out.

Rest in Peace Thor Soderberg, until we meet again.

No Range for You!

If the "greenies" get their way:

• Environmental groups have put a bull's-eye on Southeast Side landfill property the Chicago Police Department hopes to develop into an outdoor firearms range for its officers.

  The city is proposing to build the range in a landfill at 134th and Jeffery near the Calumet River. City officials are negotiating a lease with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago and plan to start operating the range in the spring, Chicago Police Sgt. Ray Hamilton said.

  Hamilton said the nearest city neighborhood is about a mile away and the nearest suburbs are about three-quarters of a mile away. Studies have shown the range wouldn't create noise problems for those residents, he said.

  The plan is to build an earthen wall at least 20 feet high and fire bullets into it, Hamilton said. A front-end loader would periodically excavate several feet of soil and the bullets would be sifted from the earth to prevent the possibility of lead leaching into ground water, Hamilton said.

  But the Southeast Environmental Task Force didn't know about the proposal until it was placed on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District's agenda in June, said Peggy Salazar, the task force's interim director.

  The task force has sent letters to the city's Department of Environment and to police Supt. Jody Weis with questions about possible noise and lead pollution, Salazar said. She also said the task force envisioned the property becoming open land for recreational use.

Last we checked, shooting was listed as a recreational sport. But now that the "green" movement is dead set against having the police well trained and adept at weapons usage, we expect Shortshanks to shit-can the project.

The link is from PoliceOne.com, but this article was written by Frank Main of the Sun Times. Not sure where we missed this one. It even quotes Ray Ray of policy group fame and the allegedly "legitimate" SWAT testing processes. That "legit" process lasted about all of twenty seconds.

Sound Familiar?

We certainly hope not:

• The advisories were issued as the Chicago area sweltered through a second day of heat indexes hovering at 100 degrees. It was the hottest-feeling day of the year, with O'Hare Airport hitting 90 degrees and Midway Airport 92, according to the Chicago Weather Center blog.

  There may be little relief from the stifling heat the rest of July, according to the weather service. "It looks like we could see this hot weather for an extended period," said Andrew Krein, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.
  
  According to WGN Channel 9 chief meteorologist Tom Skilling, supercomputer model projections through the remaining two weeks of July indicate a steady string of 90 plus-degree days.

Remember this?

• This week marks the 15th anniversary of the 1995 Chicago heat wave, a five-day scorcher that was blamed for more than 700 heat-related deaths.
  
  That week, the heat index reached 119 degrees at O'Hare and 125 degrees at Midway Airport.

It rings a bell when we saw this tonight on the news:

• About 150 people were evaluated by paramedics for heat-related ailments they suffered while waiting for a bus outside the Loop's Union Station on Thursday.

  Fire personnel responded to 315 S. Canal St. about 5:15 p.m. on a report about 150 people suffering from heat exhaustion, Fire Media Affairs spokesman Quention Curtis said.

  The people were standing outside Union Station awaiting a bus, Curtis said. A CTA cooling bus was sent to the scene and paramedics evaluated the people.

We haven't hit a stretch of 100 degree heat indexes yet. This time around though, the body-snatchers might be doing the brunt of the work, with wagon crews earning D-3 (or E-3) as they picked up the slack for private haulers. Assuming the watch has enough manpower to put up a wagon that is.

Another Layoff Article

These things keep coming to our attention, via comments and e-mails:

• FORT COLLINS, Colo. (July 13) -- The sheriff will be walking the streets again in San Luis -- the oldest community in Colorado. But it's not a return to the Wild West; the town fired its entire police force to save money.
  
  Around the country other towns -- large and small -- are also eliminating their police departments. The Los Angeles suburb of Maywood, Calif., fired its officers, as did rural Bethel, Maine. Near Pittsburgh, Fallowfield, Pa., also voted to disband its police department.
  
  The towns have been turning law enforcement over to county sheriffs, a decision that Jim Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police, called "penny wise and pound foolish.

While we don't see this is Chicago's future, the fact is we're doing more with less, somehow, some way. We don't know what Daley's floor is, but it's down here somewhere. Can redistricting be far behind?

199 Years = Just 43 Years

This must be part of the "new math" we always hear about:

• When Robert Nagle learned recently that the man who murdered his father was scheduled to be paroled, Nagle's first thought was about whether Henry Michael Gargano was still a cold-blooded killer.
  
  "And then I was surprised at the justice system," Nagle, 49, said Wednesday. "Then again, I know that the justice system doesn't always serve justice."
  
  On Oct. 27, 1967, Gargano and two other men unleashed a torrent of gunfire at police officers during a robbery at the Northlake Bank, killing Detective Sgt. John Nagle and Officer Anthony Perri. Two other officers were wounded.
  
  
• But also astonishing to Northlake police and the relatives of the two dead officers was news that the U.S. Parole Commission had set Gargano's release date for Sept. 3 without notifying them. Gargano and the other two men each had been sentenced to 199 years in prison, and the victims assumed that meant they would remain behind bars the rest of their lives.
  
  Two weeks before the Northlake killings, the men had wounded two Ohio police officers in a similar shooting during a grocery robbery.

And people wonder why cops are always so down on prisons, courts, early parole and society in general. It's for reasons like this where an asshole who killed two cops, wounded four others and never expressed an iota of remorse isn't dying in a concrete box where he was scheduled to rot decades ago for robbing a community of its protector, a wife of her husband and children of their father.

Mugged on Michigan Avenue

An eye opener - if you haven't been paying attention for the last few years:

• Here's what went down: I walked up to the bus stop at the corner of Michigan and Grand to take the 151 to my home in Lakeview. I sat down on the black metal railing that fences off one of the large flower gardens, put down my bag of groceries and pulled out my new iPhone to check my e-mail and send a text message to my wife letting her know I would be home soon.
  
  The sidewalk was packed with tourists and shoppers, but I felt a strange energy when a kid, probably about 14, sat down close to me on my left while the guy he walked up with stood on my right. It just felt wrong.
  
  Then, literally in a flash, the kid on my left grabbed my iPhone and tried to bolt. I had heard all of the warnings about people snatching iPhones and iPods, but because the street was so crowded I never thought it could happen there and then.

Did anyone who isn't reading here right now not see this one coming two years ago? Anyone? Bueller? We didn't think so. This is almost a daily occurrence nowadays.

Now imagine you're Bob or Suzie Yuppie without a newspaper column to bitch about being strong-armed in broad daylight on what is one of the top three pedestrian avenues in Chicago.

But here's the kicker - the writer, someone named John D. Thomas - even after getting attacked and knocked around and robbed, manages to get in a dig at police officers!

• I went after the two kids, still gripping the T-shirt I had torn off one of them. I saw them go east on Ohio Street and I booked it in hot pursuit. When I got to St. Clair, I didn't see them, but my lifetime of watching TV cop shows told me they had sprinted down a dark alley next to the Dunkin' Donuts.

Even though it is Shortshanks that has allowed the number of police on the streets to dwindle to the point where strong arm robbers feel little-to-no hesitation in mugging people in broad daylight on Michigan Avenue, John D. Thomas has to throw in the tired old saw about "Dunkin Donuts" and cop shows.

At least he didn't go with the "poor downtrodden under-privileged youth who don't know what they're doing and I probably deserved to have my personal property forcibly removed from my person" route. That would have been a bit too much.