Cop Shot After Car Chase

Initial reports at Damen and I-55. No word on condition.

Updates as we get them.

UPDATE: MSF copper working in 011. Breaking News story here. Injuries said to be non-life threatening. Offender may be in custody, alive, and no extra holes.

UPDATE: Correction - 010 District cop wounded, not MSF.

Happy Halloween

The Bears Won't Lose

At least, that's what the Crystal Ball Unit is saying this week.

They might be onto something.

Open post for Sunday.

Fioretti to Drop Out?

If anyone doubted the fix was in, this ought to put it to rest:

• Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd) is reconsidering his plans to run for mayor because of what sources close to him are describing as a “health concern,” the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

  Fioretti will announce his intentions for the Feb. 22 municipal general election “no later than Wednesday,” when the full City Council meets after Tuesday’s statewide election, a source close to the alderman said.

  “He will be seeking elected office,” the source said of Fioretti — an indication that if Fioretti doesn’t continue his campaign for mayor, he will seek re-election to his aldermanic seat. Under city election law, Fioretti cannot run for both offices.

If this isn't the most blatant example of crooked Illinois/Chicago politics we've seen in decades, we don't know what is. Just about every single viable candidate has been removed from the field before the nominating petitions are even filed. It sure would be interesting to see what promises were made, what dirt was dished and how much money has changed hands.

Guilty Plea in Metra Cop Slaying

Some closure:

• Jeremy Lloyd, 22, pleaded guilty to murder for acting as a lookout in Cook's slaying in September 2006. He also pleaded guilty to attempted murder for his involvement in a shootout with a Harvey cop earlier that same day.

  Cook was sitting in his squad car outside the 147th Street Metra station in Harvey late at night when he was shot in the back of the head at point-blank range. He was killed instantly, and his .357-caliber service weapon was stolen.

40 years and he cooperates against the gunman. We suppose it's necessary to get the other jagoff, but it doesn't make us feel much better.

Foot Pursuit Training

Just when you think Chicago is goofy, Philly one-ups us:

• A federal jury has ruled that a Philadelphia police officer who killed an unarmed man after a foot chase in 2006 has to pay the man's family $138,000.

  The jury did not, however, find that the city or former Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson could be held responsible for the death of 25-year-old Raymond Pelzer.

  At the heart of the case was the argument that the Police Department should have established written rules and provided more training on foot pursuits, after being warned in a 2005 report that officers often used dangerous tactics while chasing suspects.

• Three separate investigations - by the District Attorney's Office, the police Internal Affairs Division, and the Firearms Discharge Review Board - all ruled the Pelzer shooting justifiable.

And yet, the cop has to come up with $138,000 for a known shithead wanted on a probation violation who wouldn't show his hands until he was cornered following a chase.

Airport Bids

It appears that 1987 was the cutoff date, meaning a 23 year minimum just to get the bid. No word on the non-bid spots. No doubt a few surprises.

Cadet Program Shortchanged

So can someone tell us what was the point of the "cadet program" that the Department has been pouring money into?

• The Chicago Police Department said it has raised the minimum age for applying to become an officer to attract more mature candidates and also is offering a new hiring preference for military veterans, officials said Thursday.

• One pool of potential recruits is particularly upset at the increase in the minimum age for applicants.

  The department's cadet program allows people between 17 and 21 to work in districts and learn how officers do their jobs. One cadet, who is 23, said he works in a North Side district and was shocked to see that he must wait two more years before he is eligible to apply.

  "I get paid $9 an hour," he said. "I put my life on hold. I passed up better- paying jobs. Knowing how to write a report is not really useful in the outside world. I don't think it's fair."

We're pretty sure "fair" never entered into the equation. And the way the Department treats you right at this instant? That's the way they are going to treat you for the next 20 or even 30 years.

Avoidable Nonsense

Here's the Channel 2 coverage:

• Sources say that four Chicago police officers who were stripped of their police powers this week allegedly claimed credit for an arrest they didn’t make.

  The four officers are the focus of an internal police investigation and were placed on desk duty on Wednesday. Sources said Friday that the four officers claimed in court that they made an arrest they did not actually make, which could expose them to perjury charges.

  Police at a local university are the ones who actually made the arrest, sources said.

Evidently, they've run out of criminals on the south side? And this is going to cost people time? Money? Jobs?

Odds and Ends

All sorts of stuff in the comments today:

• OT AS of the 1st period the 62 and 63 tact teams will report to the area they are in. They will be deployed from there at the direction of the Chief of Patrols Office . The 61 team will remain in the district with new hours 1600-0100. Big changes coming

Quite a few variations on that one. Seems like a chance to get rid of tact lieutenants and the take home cars. Once again, a suggestion brought forward here for years now.

We thought that the article about cracking down on gangs, specifically the black souls, sounded a bit too pat. Here's why

• I haven't seen anything about this yet on the blog, but I have seen this on TV news and in today's Sun Times. How J Fled and his group of merrymen (David Kenney from John Jay College) and Command Staff try to take credit for this is a joke. "Cops make good on threat to gang banger", and lock up 66 Black Souls after one of thier members gunned down (Killed) a rival, within 2 weeks. First of all prior to this big gang meeting there were at least 4 different gang investigations going on. Now for the rest of the story, it had already been determined that who ever the Police could ID as an offender in a gang shooting or Homicide was the gang that was going to be the target. If anyone thinks that the Police can put together an investigation and complete it within 2 weeks, that gets warrants for 66 people from one gang for drug offenses and 1 for murder they are drinking the kool aid. It doesn't happen that way. To see J Fled and the rest of his merry crew try to take credit for something he knowns nothing about makes me sick. I know this to be true because like the fly on the wall, I was there.

Take credit for subordinates' good work; run as far and as fast as you can when they screw up. That's been the way of exempts for years now, decades even. J-Fled didn't invent grabbing credit. He's just taken to it like a duck to water.

• Wow! 6 days ago, SCC publishes that an entire southside tact team is about to get stripped. This morning, it happens. Word is that former Commander Doty, head of the U of C police, turned over an entire 003 team for snatching an arrest from his cops and falsifying official reports to say it was theirs. Nice going idiots. You've sounded the death knell for tact teams city wide.

Again, we didn't predict it. We highlighted someone else's prediction. The Crystal Ball Unit does fortune telling.

Join the Police Department

Once again, the smartest readers in the world read the SCC blog, and they predicted that the next police exam would be administered on 11 December. Behold!

• The Chicago Police Department has raised the minimum age for becoming an officer to encourage a more mature force — and is offering a new hiring preference for military veterans, officials said Thursday.

  But the department is not scrapping a requirement that applicants complete at least two years of college — something the chairman of the City Council’s Police Committee had sought to “level the playing field” for minorities.

  Police Supt. Jody Weis announced the department will administer a written entrance exam on Dec. 11 — the first test in four years. The department will accept applications through Nov. 26.

J-Fled sure seems to be rushing things. After all, we haven't had an exam in four years, only hired three or four classes of recruits, haven't made a detectives class in three years and made maybe four total promotional classes during J-Fled's tenure. Now suddenly, an exam is in the offing and will be thrown together in under 30 days. Can a class be far behind?

This smells badly of desperation and although J-Fled doesn't directly control hiring, he could have been making a stink about low numbers three years ago when he got here.

Interesting Lawsuit

Some explosive allegations contained within. It's also a step-by-step primer on how white shirts from sergeant all the way up to deputy chiefs can screw with you:
018th District Lawsuit

We're sure J-Fled will want to get right on with stripping the involved supervisors, sending everyone to call back or IDent or wherever they send stripped exempts. Maybe even relieving a few people of command spots? We mean, this has at least 100 times the evidence of the unsubstantiated accusations he used to strip the coppers down south who weren't even on the scene of the most recent alleged smackdown.

UPDATE: Once again, reading comprehension seems to be in short supply. We've taken out a few personal attacks on the officer. Go read the lawsuit - he wasn't being "punished" for being a dog. He was punished for daring to tell a fellow officer about how a white-shirt was talking about him.

If he was a "dog" after being assigned to this "punishment car," can you blame him? Especially if he's documented the uneven treatment as extensively as the complaint seems to indicate.

Another Candidate Out?

Rahm continues to clear the field:

• A federal grand jury has issued subpoenas for records involving dozens of state grants for after-school, job training and other programs, some of which were sponsored by state Sen. Rickey Hendon, a Chicago mayoral candidate.

  Federal investigators were seeking any state agency records about dealings with more than 50 individuals and nearly 40 entities, according to copies of Aug. 3 subpoenas to the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Illinois State Board of Education that were obtained by the Tribune.

  The Associated Press reported Thursday that the grand jury subpoenas also were delivered to three other state agencies.

It'll be interesting after Rahm is crowned to see where all these supposed challengers end up in the new administration. A lot of surprise promotions and cabinet positions we're sure.

Bye Rod! Bye Tom!

Blago's appeal continues to falter:

• A federal judge on Wednesday refused to throw out former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's lone conviction from his trial last summer.

  U.S. District Judge James Zagel rejected the defense contention that prosecutors brought an overly complicated case that confused the jury and then damaged Blagojevich's right to defend himself by limiting his lawyers at every turn.

  The jury convicted Blagojevich of a single count of lying to the FBI but deadlocked on all 23 other counts. He is set to be retried on those charges April 20.

And Tom Dart drops out / is forced out of the mayoral race:

• In a stunning turnaround, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has decided not to run for mayor of Chicago.

  He was not willing to spend the time away from his five young children, he said.

  “I was convinced that if I ran I could win as mayor,” Dart said. But he said he decided it would be “impossible’’ for him to be mayor and also manage the responsibilities of being a husband and father: his kids are all between the ages of 1 and 9. To be mayor would mean to “be less of a father,’’ Dart said at a news conference from outside of his offices at the Cook County Jail Wednesday.

So we've got "reverend" Meeks, who might not even live in the city, Mosley-Braun who is a product of the Machine and known moron, Chico who has enough baggage to perform as a Samsonite commercial and Fioretti, an aldercreature/lawyer who has a lucrative law office that will keep him from starvation.

Oh yeah, and Rahm. We are so doomed.

"Street Talk" Suggestions

What if those "chosen" or "volunteered" just show up and say nothing? Let Ernie give his speech, then sit there and don't give him or his minions a word.

Or maybe have a whole bunch of KMA old timers tell Ernie exactly what the problem is. Manpower, Manpower and more Manpower. Honest to pete, what a waste of time this is.

Pay Box Thief Caught

Not quite Robin Hood - just another crack head:

• A West Side man told police he stole and then busted open four 200-pound pay-and-display parking meters from city streets so he could support his drug habit, authorities said.

  “I dropped my crack pipe,” Jeffery Kaput, 38, said when he was pulled over late Monday in the 5500 block of West Augusta, a police report alleged.

  Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. ordered Kaput held in lieu of $200,000 bail Wednesday on four counts of felony theft. Kaput, of the 5500 block of West Cortez, was also charged with misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia.

You'd think the dope boys would get tired of some hype paying for his rock in quarters. Their pants were already down around their thighs. After Jeffrey stopped by, they were around their ankles and they couldn't hop fences worth a damn.

Police Limit

Priceless...and dead on:

Such is the dichotomy of police work. Well played Mr. Mckee

J-Fled Sued for Libel

Now this sounds like a winner of a suit:

• Two Chicago police officers are suing Supt. Jody Weis, alleging the city’s top cop defamed them when he stripped them of their badges after a high-profile internal investigation was launched into a group of officers who allegedly beat a handcuffed suspect.

  A global-positioning device in the officers’ squad car showed the Gresham District Tactical Unit officers, Lynn Meuris and Jason Vanna, weren't present during the alleged Oct. 11 beating and they were returned to street duty .

  But the two are now suing Weis, alleging the damage was done before they got their badges back last week. That includes Oct. 15 when they were taken from the district where they worked to police headquarters at 35th and Michigan and “escorted past a group of reporters and news cameras through the front entrance and to the Internal Affairs Division where they were officially stripped of their police powers.”

The Tribune also covers this:

• The lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, alleged that Weis held a news conference about the beating on Oct. 15, after which Meuris and Vanna were taken to police headquarters, where they were "escorted past a group of reporters and news cameras through the front entrance."

  Though Weis never identified Meuris and Vanna by name to the news media, he published their names in an internal communication sent to others in the Police Department, said their attorney, Daniel Herbert.

Something along the lines of $310,000 per officer sounds like a fair starting point. Go up from there. A public apology and flogging also sound good. This ought to be yet another nail in J-fled's career coffin. We can only hope he never gets any other job in law enforcement as is evidenced day-by-day.

NW Side Aldercreatures Not Happy

J-Fled's "reallocation" appears headed for trouble:

• Police Superintendent Jody Weis' proposal to redeploy officers from safer neighborhoods to high-crime areas drew outrage from a Northwest Side alderman, "concern" from a police sergeant running for the 41st Ward City Council seat, and a wait-and-see attitude from the district commander.

  "At this point I really don't know what to say," said Jefferson Park (16th) District Police Cmdr. David McNaughton, two days after Weis floated the idea during City Council budget hearings "We haven't been given any information yet that would lead us to believe we'd be one of the districts they'd be drawing from."

  That's even though the 16th is the largest district in the city, with one of the lowest crime rates.

Again, the gist of this article is that criminals will go where the police aren't at. The same is true across the city. This appears more and more to be Shortshank's final flipping of the bird to the decent neighborhoods he couldn't completely ruin over 20 years of mismanagement.

Street Talk

Once again, from the "brilliant minds" running the Department, we have the latest version of "Town Hall" meetings:

BOP_ 10-241[1]

Everyone remembers what happened last time someone tried to solicit input from the front line troops? The bartender was taking notes, at least one officer lost their assignment, we got lots of "umm...," "oooh...," and "we'll look into that and get back to you" answers, none of which resulted in actual change or actual addressing of concerns.

Expect more of the same.

Funeral Coverage

Channel 2/Newsradio 780 picked up the story, we have no idea from where, and had a piece on the news:

• Chicago Police are burying one of their own Tuesday: a 62-year-old retired officer and Vietnam veteran who died alone – and ended up unclaimed at the medical examiner’s office.

  His name was Bruce Cummings, and he was a Chicago Police Officer. He lived in a North Side nursing home and apparently had no visitors. Not even from whatever family he had.

  Chicago Police Chaplain Tom Nangle says officers found out Cummings died alone earlier this month and was unclaimed at the morgue.

  Then Chicago Police Captain Thomas Lemmer of the 23rd District got involved.

A number of readers are trying to give us credit for the 100 or more coppers and retirees who showed up, on and off duty for the funeral. While we appreciate the praise, we were merely giving a larger voice to the efforts of the 023 District and Captain Lemmer. Without their efforts and the efforts of Drake and Son Funeral Home, Officer Cummings was more likely than not destined for an unmarked pauper's grave.

At least now, our brother got a better send off and hopefully, somewhere, he's at peace.

Here's a picture from the funeral:


We had one or two more via e-mail, but the files are a bit large for blogger to accommodate.

Bumper Sticker

We saw this on a black SUV in traffic the other day:We figured it was one of those ethnic types advertising their national origin. Then we saw the plates, saw the fancy off road tires, observed the "go-fast" equipment and the serious looking driver with the booster seat in the front passenger side and we realized, "It's J-Fled!"

And the "GR" sticker? It was so obvious when we thought about it.

Gotta Run.

Really JJJr?

Anyone else not see this coming?

• Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., whose career and personal life have been buffeted by political controversy in recent months, said Monday he would not run for Chicago mayor in 2011.
  
  In a statement, Jackson said he has "many friends and colleagues" that might run for the office and that he will not be making an endorsement in the Feb. 22 contest to succeed Mayor Richard Daley, who is not running for re-election.

JJJr. is finally getting some good advice - shut up and fade into the background. Too bad he wasn't listening to that advice about three months ago.

Oh No! Wind!

Gee, you'd think there was never an autumn breeze in Chicago the way the media is going on and on about this "storm." Isn't there an election or something on the horizon?

• They’re already calling it “The Great Lakes Cyclone” — so get ready for a windy Tuesday.

  A high wind warning is in effect for Northern Illinois, with gusts expected to surpass 55 mph Tuesday and sustained winds coming in between 35 and 40 mph.

  It’s all thanks to a low pressure system cyclone moving down from northern Minnesota, bringing storms we have seen in decades, experts say.

  “It will rank among the most powerful cyclones in the last hundred years,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Allsopp.

Honest to god, we thought Tommy Skilling was going to explode on live TV last night. All this means is that (A) we're going to be raking up the neighbors leaves from half a mile a way instead of ours and (B) the west side will be cleaner than it has been in years as the garbage blows into the lake.

It's weather. It happens all the time around here.

It's the Politicians, Right?

How are they keeping track?

• If you smell a rat, chances are good you're in the Loop — and not necessarily near City Hall, according to a recent survey of Chicago residents on the city's "rattiest" neighborhoods.

  That's according to a survey of city residents conducted by Sentient Decision Science LLC, on behalf of d-Con, a rodent-control brand.

  Other neighborhoods where rat sightings were prominent include the South Loop, Lakeview/Wrigleyville, Lincoln Park and West Loop. At the bottom of the list of 21 Chicago neighborhoods in the survey were North Center and Lincoln Square.

Also tops on the list, anywhere Ike Carothers happens to be.

Cop Dies Alone

A sad story, but maybe something positive can come out of it:

• Subject: Fw: Drake & Son Funeral Home
  
  Subject: Drake & Son Funeral Home
  
  This was sent to the 20th District to be placed in the CO book. I thought I would send it out to the Old Timers to see if anyone knew this copper or might want to show up to pay their respects.
  
  Friday, October 22, 2010
  
  To: 20th District
  
  I thought I would contact everyone at the 20th District being you all are so close to our Funeral Home about Retired Police Officer Bruce S. Cummings, who died October 7 at Weiss Memorial Hospital. Apparently a police officer recognized him in the hospital and followed up on him and found that he had died and his body was taken to the Cook County Morgue and was unclaimed because he has no family. Bruce was 62 years of age.
  
  His death was reported to the Police Department and we were contacted by Captain Thomas J, Lemmer, Watch Commander, 3rd Watch 23rd District to ask if we could assist to give Officer Cummings a respectful funeral along with the CPD which we are glad to serve.
  
  There will be a short service here at the Funeral Home, 9:00 Tuesday, October 26, 2010 and he will be buried at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery with honors. Fr. Tomas Nangle-Chaplin of the CPD will be conducting the Funeral Service.
  
  I just thought you might like to know about this situation and if possible maybe a few officers from the 20th could come by on Tuesday for a few minutes to pay respects. There is no wake before the funeral. Visiting will be at the time of the service.
  
  Bob Hinkey - Funeral Director

Hats off to Mr. Hinkey. And thank you for your service Officer Bruce Cummings. Hopefully, this reaches a few people who would have wanted to pay final respects.

Open Post

We're tired, it's late, we haven't had an open post in a bit. Plus, there just isn't that much going on.

Squad Stolen?

True or not?

• Is it true someone stole a Chicago Police car?
  
  According to many witnesses a Chicago Police car was stolen then crashed into a pole in the Clearing neighborhood of Chicago. We were told that the beat car was crashed into a pole on 63rd St near Austin... tire marks all over the place and the door wide open.
  
  That may explain extra police presence here today... which is highly unusual

Someone got some 'splainin to do!

UPDATE: To the unpublished dumbshit - the info is already out there asshat. See the link at the top? It goes to a media site. They have it already. We're "insignificant," remember? Try to keep up here short bus.

Party All the Time!

Obviously, a learning disability:

• A man who had an illegal party in a shuddered West Side church with a DJ and strippers was locked up two nights in a row.

  Early Saturday police responded to a call of a fight on the street, on the 4700 block of West Washington , according to a Harrison District police lieutenant.

  When police broke up the fight and used pepper spray or a Taser to control some the suspects, the officers realized the group had “poured out” of an illegal party at a closed down church at the Washington address, according to the lieutenant.

  When they found the party’s host didn’t have the proper licenses to have entertainment such as a DJ and strippers and there was a cover charge to get in, 41-year-old Tony R. Jordan was arrested, according to the lieutenant.

• Jordan, who resides on Drake Avenue in southwest suburban Bolingbrook, had another similar party early Sunday at the same church, but there were no strippers.

  So Jordan was arrested again and charged with having no business license and no public place of amusement license, according to t[he] lieutenant.

Well, since he didn't have the strippers the second time, he probably guessed it was all ok?

Bears by 3

We're just not feeling it. No heart.

They're blowing the games their supposed to win and struggling to finish the mediocre teams that they should win handily.

UPDATE: SIX consecutive possessions that the Bears end up turning over? What the hell?

And to the person asking, the "Bears by 3" headline is the Vegas line, not our prediction.

They Weren't Lying, Were They?

Interesting:

• A lawyer abruptly withdrew Friday from representing a Northwestern University journalism professor in a court battle with Cook County prosecutors.

  Richard O'Brien, a partner with the law firm of Sidley Austin, didn't say why he was stepping down as counsel for David Protess but told the judge he had been incorrect when he previously said all the promised documents had been turned over to the state's attorney's office.

  "Upon further investigation, I've determined that is not completely accurate," O'Brien, who had been hired by the university, told Circuit Judge Diane Cannon.

• Prosecutors found the evidence unconvincing. But when McKinney's attorneys sought to overturn his conviction in 2008, the state's attorney sparked a controversy by subpoenaing the students' grades as well as their notes, memos and recordings of witness interviews.

Call us cynical, but it sounds like the students and professor lied to their attorney, the attorney found out, then removed himself from the case after giving the judge a heads up that his clients were a bit less than truthful about their documentation.

From there, it's just a tiny leap to wonder if the documentation that didn't get turned over might be something along the lines of manufactured evidence? What other reason could there be for withholding documents a judge has ordered to be turned over? It isn't illogical to guess it's something so damaging that the defendants are better off trying to avoid it even seeing the light of day because it would end up tainting any cases, past, present or future, that the "Wrongful Conviction" people might be working on.

End of Cabrini Green

For those of you who didn't get a chance to patrol these monstrosities, you really have no idea what you missed:

• It almost seems forlorn in the surrounding emptiness, a 15-story hulk of concrete with telltale, steel-fenced, open-air galleries characteristic of old public housing.

  This is 1230 Burling -- the last Cabrini-Green high-rise standing.

• On Oct. 15, 27 families received 90-day eviction notices from the Chicago Housing Authority, bringing the end in sight for what once was one of the nation's most notorious public housing projects.

There certainly aren't many of the old places left; Taylors, Stateway, Ida B's, Ickes, Rockwell, Horner, Altgeld. The sights, the smell, the entire atmosphere of being in an entirely alien world where everything about you was unwelcome. Don't touch the walls, don't touch the handrails, don't use the elevators. And always look up.

Where's the Decency?

Stuff like this is just a sign of how far society has fallen:

• As funeral processions go, the one making its way through Logan Square earlier this month started out plainly enough -- with a line of cars heading to the cemetery.

  But then it was interrupted by a car accident. And that's when the funeral took a violent turn, with one funeral goer repeatedly punching the 63-year-old woman and 64-year-old man whose car crash disrupted the procession, authorities said Saturday.

  Before the incident was over, another male mourner had broken a bottle over the elderly man's head, authorities and lawyers involved in the case said.

Beating old people? For a fender-bender? Too bad the victim couldn't be packing a gun - they could have held another funeral in a couple of days for these jagoffs.

Recruit Injured Helping Motorist

While doing his week of "District Familiarity" training:

• Daniel Vazquez, a newly minted police officer, was on his way home from a South Side district when he noticed a car had just crashed on the Stevenson Expressway and stopped to help.
  
  Vazquez got out of his car to check on the uninjured driver when he was hit by another car at about 12:45 a.m. today at Damen Avenue, according to the state police.

  He suffered head injuries and was reported in critical condition at Stroger Hospital. His family said this afternoon he had been bleeding from his brain and was under sedation.

First reports had him walking himself to the ambulance, but the injuries were a bit more serious that initially thought. Hopefully, not serious enough to keep him from a career he obviously wanted very badly. Best wishes to you kid - we need you out here.

New Uniform Configurations

With all this new stuff coming out (fleece, MOLLE vests, nylon web belt) and the restrictions of what you can wear with what other clothing items, might we suggest the following?

• Garanimals

This easy to follow system of labels and cute animals permits the officer to coordinate hats (baseball, wool dress, Rocky-the-Squirrel, etc.) with exterior garments (reefer, blouse, cordura, Spiewek, fleece, sweater, etc.) and with pants (wool, 80/20, shorts, cargo, etc.)

It's a free idea for the uniform stores.

Where's That Tax Bill?

We won't be seeing those until after the election you know. Kass explains:

• Here in Madiganistan — once known as the Land of Lincoln — taxpayers are routinely slapped in the face by the political warlords.
  
  And now the Democratic Party bosses are adding a twist. They're slapping you in the face with a Cook County property tax bill you haven't yet received.
  
  That's right. You haven't received it yet. But they're slapping you with it just the same. Here's why:
  
  The bill won't come until after the Nov. 2 elections. And that surely helps the Illinois Democrats and the supreme warlord of Madiganistan, Michael Madigan, the Illinois House speaker from Chicago who also runs the state Democratic Party.

Amazing how that all works out, isn't it? The combine does what it wants and runs on the myth that everything is OK and don't worry about that giant fucking you're about to get.

Cut Aldercreatures' Budgets?

Never! They stole that money fair and square:

• Mayor Daley’s corruption fighting inspector general said today he has prepared an analysis of cost-cutting “options” that could help solve Chicago’s financial crisis, but aldermen whose spending could be in the crosshairs questioned the timing.

  Joe Ferguson plans to release the report on Monday, midway through City Council hearings on a 2011 budget precariously balanced with a trick bag of one-shot revenues that includes another raid on parking meter and Chicago Skyway reserves.

  [...] High on any cost-cutting list could be the $19.5 million-a-year it costs to maintain 50 aldermen and the $4.7 million annual price tag for having 19 standing City Council committees.

  Whether or not Ferguson targets those items, aldermen appeared concerned about it.

Everyone else is being forced into sacrifices. But not them. Not their "discretionary" funds. It's exactly this sort of thing, along with ol' Hogballs stealing money, because Chicago voters are inured to the outrage of politicians stealing their money.

We really need someone inspirational to get this crap under control - disband county government, cut the aldercreatures to 25, create a business-friendly environment that isn't based on favors and bribes.

Officer Suicide

Once again, we appear to have lost one of our own to a suicide.

Officers - please please please reach out for help. Employee Assistance, a friend, the chaplains, whomever. There is always a solution. It might be a long hard road, but with help, it can be traveled safely.

Suicide is not the answer. And the people you leave behind hurt more than you know.

No information regarding the officer will be posted at this time. Prayers, thoughts and encouragement for family, friends and co-workers only.

College Media Covers Bea

We'll just interpret this as further proof the mainstream media is in the bag:

• A Cook County judge late last month found a man not guilty of dealing cocaine after police found drugs and weapons at a condo owned by Chicago’s highest-ranking female police officer in February 2009.

  Casey Crawford, 30, was charged after police found nearly 170 grams of cocaine stuffed inside a PlayStation console at 4553 W. 56th St. Police also found four stolen firearms hidden in a closet, ammunition and a digital scale. According to the court file, the cocaine had a street value of $21,875.

• According to the arrest report, Crawford cooperated with police and voluntarily told them that anything illegal in the apartment was his. Police initially acted on a tip from a criminal informant who said Crawford had illegal firearms in the residence. The search warrant didn’t mention drugs or Cuello.

  At trial, [defense attorney] Pissetzky said, Circuit Court Judge Michael Howlett found that Crawford’s statement, by itself, was not enough to prove that the drugs were his. Because police failed to follow up on the statement, by seizing clothes or mail or fingerprinting the PlayStation or digital scale, Pissetzky said, prosecutors couldn’t prove their case.

Funny how none of this was covered by the major dailies, TV stations or radio. It's almost like a conspiracy of silence and college students have to cover it. And that judge seems like a real winner, too. Anyone know if we're voting for judges this year?

ASA's Pressuring Densey Cole?

Is this true? Someone has to know:

• The entire system is a joke. P.O. Densey Cole who within moments of his on duty accident had a "Good Citizen" in broad daylight jump in the vehicle to rob him of his money & gun. Turning him on his sides to get at these items & threatening to kill him with his own weapon. But now the officer keeps getting calls about giving this "IT" a deal of 4 years! This cop got a life sentence, but this only 4 years? Hey guys & girls should we not call the union & start a fight on his behalf? This could be one of us or a family member. Will we continue to STAND FOR DENSEY? I hope & pray.

A four-year-sentence for most likely crippling Officer Cole for life? How about this piece of filth gets out of prison sometime after Densey can walk again? That would be a start.

More Scandal

In case you were wondering, the FBI Civil Rights people have been notified for the sergeant slapping.

And rumors of another tactical team on the south side facing "thirty pending" are popping up in e-mails. A former CPD exempt in a cushy retirement spot has started the ball rolling downhill and it might pick up half-a-dozen bodies as it reaches the bottom.

Public Safety Building?

We've been hearing the rumors for months now that background checks will be done by a private company, most likely one run or owned by former Superintendent Hillard. Now this rumor pops up and it sounds as plausible as anything else we've heard lately:

• Off topic: I heard today that police HQS will be renamed The Public Safety Building and the fire department is taking over the entire 3rd floor. The city is going to eliminate the personal division and outsource it to private industry. I heard this from a very good source.All pre-employment background investigations will be done by private detectives.

Of course, the parking situation would be a nightmare. Maybe it isn't so plausible.

Class Acts

Missed this one yesterday, but once again, the Chicago Blackhawks step up to the plate:

• The event was the inaugural fund-raiser for the Brotherhood for the Fallen, a not-for-profit organization of Chicago police officers committed to attending the funeral services of officers slain in the line of duty across the United States and giving their families financial donations.

  [...] The Hawks contributed a Dave Bolland package: an autographed jersey, tickets and a meet-and-greet with the pesky center of the defending Stanley Cup champions. What they didn't expect was that Bolland and defenseman Duncan Keith were going to attend.

We don't know why the Sun Times covered this 40 days after the actual event. In any case, thanks to the Chicago Blackhawks for stopping by to assist a worthy endeavor.

"Hog" to be Slaughtered?

Another poster child for why we need stronger sentencing for public corruption - something along the lines of 10 and 20 years behind bars:

• Cook County Commissioner William Beavers says he's not concerned that the feds have subpoenaed expense account reports that outline how he spent a monthly stipend earmarked for out-of-pocket business expenses.

• For years, county commissioners have quietly collected as much as $1,200 a month on top of their $85,000 salary. They are required to submit reports on how they spend money from the expense account -- labeled a "slush fund" by commissioners who refuse to accept the contingency cash.

  While it's unclear how some commissioners have spent the money, some have reported using it to lease luxury vehicles and pay for graduate-school tuition.

  Beavers, who calls himself "The Hog with the Big Nuts," has been upfront about pocketing the cash. In 2007, his expense report contained just one sentence: "Commissioner Beavers will claim his FY 2007 contingency as income." On Wednesday, Beavers declined to answer questions about the contingency fund or whether he claimed payments as income on his tax returns.

Cook County is a useless layer of government. Aside from the courts and the jail, there isn't really a purpose for Cook County government aside from giving pigs like Beavers and their spawn salaries they'd never be able to even get a whiff of in the real world.

He's another one that needs a good slap from the electorate along with a stretch in the federal pen.

Rush to Judgment

J-Fled couldn't wait to show everyone how tough he was again. It seems the Department has gone into survival mode, so opportunities for him to flex his giant "anti-corruption" muscles have been few and far between (unless there was never that much corruption in the first place, just a media driven perception?).

Anyway, J-fled once again proves half-assed investigations lead to half-assed results:

• Two of the seven Chicago police officers put on desk duty after the alleged beating of a handcuffed man have been reinstated, apparently in light of evidence indicating they weren't at the scene.

  The Independent Police Review Authority, which investigates police misconduct, recommended the two unidentified officers be restored to full duty because both have been "excluded from the investigation," police officials said.

  "Based upon this information, the department took swift action to restore these officers' police powers and return them to field assignment," said a statement from the department's office of news affairs.

Wow! Imagine that! An actual investigation leads to actual evidence that actual people with lives and careers were actually innocent! You would think that maybe a superintendent that was so eager to throw someone (anyone!) under the bus based on an incomplete and open investigation might have had something to say about jumping the gun on this one - you would be wrong of course. Apologizing for fucking up is a foreign concept to a feeb.

And the driving force behind J-Fled "premature emasculation?" Rumor says that his name rhymes with "plasters plasters plasters" and he pushed for J-Fled to get some camera time in this midst of this completely unknown and unpublicized incident. Now the question is did he do it to put a final nail in J-Fled's career coffin?

UPDATE: As someone opined earlier this week, maybe this is also why J-Fled is sitting on multiple "thirty pending" files so he can show everyone how tough he is holding multiple press conferences and firing people in waves.

More Disbanding?

Lots of rumors popping up in the comments sections. A sampling:

• Gang enforcement will be either disbanded or severely cut in half. It will happen before the end of the year... But king leo will lie to all of you and say how it is not true etc. he will have another senseless meeting and blow smoke up your asses all the while screwing you all for only his benifit. You heard it here first folks.

Any comment that says, "You heard it here first" is subject to cynicism of the highest order. However....

• Rumor has it that all the tactical teams in the city will be disbanded soon. They will return all those officers to the watch for a period while they pick large numbers of officers to be assigned to the new and improved tactical unit, which will be based at Homan Square or some other such facility. This will beef up the watches and also allow for the new teams to be sent citywide just like MSF. It will avoid beat/district realignment and will also avoid contract problems associated with detailing officers outside their assigned district. The end result will be a few extra officers on the watches in the slower northside districts and a whole lot of extra officers available for assignment to the busier south and west side districts.

That make a bit more sense. You'd have another unit made up of "volunteers" that aren't subject to certain contract provisions, including start times and assignments. You could continue to man the beat cars at the current low numbers and maybe actually improve the manning situation if officers didn't want to volunteer to be working straight afternoons/evenings in shitholes.

J-Fled isn't making any secrets about wanting to "change directions" and this is a way to accomplish it. Something is in the works.

Radio Zones Down?

We happened to be off, but a bunch of comments popped off around noon yesterday saying multiple zones went down for some reason. Anyone have any info? The city saving money by skimping on maintenance again?

Nice One Hubie

"Required" contributions:

• Aspiring "principals for a day" were asked this year to give Chicago Public Schools something more than their time.
  
  The registration form for the Thursday event asked participants to pledge at least $1,000 in cash or services to their assigned schools, a move that has prompted 40 to 50 calls to CPS headquarters.
  
  But while the form explicitly says "REQUIRED," district officials said they were just strongly suggesting that participants cough up some support as part of the newly launched "Say Yes to CPS!" campaign.
  
  Schools chief Ron Huberman said the school district is not trying to force any of the volunteers to pay for their participation.

Huberman was on the wrong end of a recent federal court decision regarding hundreds of teacher layoffs conducted improperly. Then there's that fixed OEC radio deal with Motorola keeps popping up whenever crooked contracting is mentioned - Huberman's signature is all over that paperwork. It's a wonder he hasn't been indicted federally yet.

Did the mayor come up with his "charitable contribution" to be principal of the west side high school he always goes to?

Taxpayers About to Get Screwed

"Screwed Harder" we mean:

• Without using the dreaded term "beat realignment," Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis said Tuesday he would "reallocate" police resources by the end of this year from lower crime districts to those that need more officers.

  Testifying at City Council budget hearings, Weis vowed to finally deliver on a promise made and broken by at least four of his predecessors.

  He's not calling it beat or district realignment, which would entail a complete redrawing of the boundaries of the 281 police beats to coincide with crime and population changes.

  That will have to wait until "Phase 2"-- after ward boundaries are redrawn, the superintendent said.

So not only have all the districts been gutted by creating all these "specialized units" that sap manpower from actual physical beats, now if you don't have crime statistics high enough, you're going to lose what little protection you have.

And let's just throw this out there - all criminals aren't all stupid. Where do criminals commit most of their acts? Where there are so many police that they are tripping over them wherever they look? No, they go to where the police aren't.

If you live in a nice area and you don't have a gun, you better get one. Get two. Get a safe. Train the spouse. Fuck Daley and his anti-gun outlook. You are responsible for your own safety and sorry, but we're shorthanded and coming from two miles away.

Hello Detroit.

Shut Up Dick

With all the questionable convictions surfacing from Shortshanks' tenure as State's Attorney, you'd think this asshat would maybe just let justice run its course in terms of completing investigations:

• Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis did the right thing by stripping six officers and a sergeant of their police powers because one of them stands accused of punching a suspect in handcuffs as the others “watched,” Mayor Daley said today.

  “That’s unacceptable conduct. That’s unacceptable here or anyplace else. . . . I’m glad the superintendent did what is necessary,” Daley told reporters after dedicating a $10 million campus park at Marshall Metro High School at 3250 W. Adams.

  But the sergeant accused of beating the suspect doesn’t appear to have done anything wrong, according to his attorney, Robert Kuzas, who spoke to him after he was stripped of his police powers Friday.

  “This is the superintendent’s office putting the cart before the horse without any investigation,” Kuzas said.

Seeing as how the Department is run by a bunch of horses' asses, this isn't that surprising.

Poor Baby

Boo-freaking-hoo:

• A 12-year-old boy who was shot by an elderly South Shore homeowner after he allegedly threw bricks at her is in psychiatric care, recovering from the trauma of being shot, his mother said Tuesday.

  The boy did not appear in juvenile court along side his alleged 13-year-old accomplice Tuesday morning because he has been in the hospital since Oct. 3. That is less than a week after he was shot in the shoulder outside the woman’s home on the 7600 block of South Cole September 28, his mother told Judge Andrew Berman.

  “You’re gonna have vigilantes all over the city taking matters into their own hands,’’ the boy’s mother said after the hearing. “A 12-year-old boy getting shot? Wouldn’t you be traumatized?’’

Well mama, how about the elderly lady, who probably doesn't have a rap sheet as long as our arms? Do you think she was traumatized the way your 'lil thug was terrorizing the 'hood? Since you didn't do society any favors raising this little turd into a productive citizen, it's going to fall on the police and armed citizens to flush him down the toilet of life, hopefully before he spawns more dumbasses like himself. And you.

Probation?

Yet another shining example of why Illinois and Chicago politics will never be cured of its filthy stench:

• A former associate of “Tony” Rezko was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay $2.3 million in restitution Tuesday for his role in a bank fraud scheme involving the sale of Rezko’s pizza restaurants.

  Abdelhamid “Al” Chaib of La Grange Park was indicted on federal charges of taking part in a scheme to fraudulently obtain a $3.4 million loan.

  On Tuesday, he was sentenced to three years probation and fined $50,000. He was also ordered to pay $2.3 million in restitution, U.S. Attorney’s office spokesman Randall Samborn said.

The article first states "three years in prison," then backtracks and says "three years probation." Until these politicians, fixers, and money-men start getting a decade or more behind bars, nothing will change. The short term money to be made far exceeds the costs of doing under 4 years in jail.

Hunting With Tahoes

Sounds like a plan to us:

• Go ahead — eat that deer you just ran over with your SUV.
  
  But first, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources requires that you now give it a call before converting that woodland creature into steaks or jerky. A DNR spokeswoman says the new policy is intended to help officials keep better track of "roadkill deer."
  
  Until this year, motorists planning to turn lemons (front-end damage to their vehicle) into lemonade (venison stew) only had to notify the state if they took the deer to a taxidermist.
  
  [...] Deer-vehicle collisions in Illinois accounted for nearly 25,000 accidents that injured 846 people and killed five in 2007, according to the most recent data from the University of Minnesota's Deer Vehicle Crash Information Clearinghouse.

That was one of the complaints about the Crown Victorias we heard constantly - you just couldn't get a good hit on deer. Too many times, you'd clip one and they'd run for miles, usually out of your district. The Tahoes however, you get a much better hit, especially with the higher and blunter front end. Very humane.

Trust some cheeseheads and others to ruin a good thing though:

• Meanwhile, neighboring Iowa and Wisconsin somehow say the number of reported deer carcasses is much higher than the number of reported deer-vehicle accidents.
  
  In 2008, Iowa had 7,252 crashes that produced almost 8,900 deer deaths, while Wisconsin had 15,821 crashes accounting for almost 32,000 roadkill deer, according to the University of Minnesota Web site.
  
  Could they be driving over entire herds?

Um, could they be poaching maybe? That's a bit more likely.

What's This?

Can anyone confirm?

• "Be careful what you do to an IPRA employee's son. If he is an asshole or not, momma is gonna protect her baby."

Some might claim IPRA shouldn't be investigating if someone they employ has an axe to grind. They'd have a good argument in that case.

Hello Again Anthony

A special one-finger salute goes out to Channel 2 tonight for their airing the Anthony Abbate tape yet again to demonstrate the fiction that the entire CPD is out of control.

What a bunch of assholes. Way to push an agenda.

In the meantime, J-Fled's press conferences are generating more questions and seem to be a desperate attempt to paint himself in a favorable light with the up-and-coming powers.

• Six more Chicago police officers have been stripped of their duties in the wake of the alleged beating of a suspect in police custody last week, the Chicago Police Department said Monday.

  The move comes just days after Supt. Jody Weis announced that a police supervisor had been relieved of his police powers in connection with the case.

  [...] “This conduct, if true, is inexcusable, and is completely out of the line of the standard of professionalism with which our members are expected to conduct themselves,” Weis said last week. Weis said he learned about the incident only Friday, when the Independent Police Review Authority told him about it.

We can't remember any incidents remotely similar where a high ranking member made any comment beyond something like, "An investigation is underway and the results will be released when a conclusion is reached."

A quick "We cannot discuss an on-going investigation" ought to suffice.

No Shit Ed

Welcome to the party pal:

• Mayor Daley was accused Monday of ignoring a “ticking time bomb” for Chicago taxpayers: four city employee pension funds that will run out of money by 2030.
  
  During opening day of City Council hearings on Daley’s final city budget, Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th), chairman of the Council’s Finance Committee, homed in on the pension crisis that will force Chicago taxpayers and city workers to dig deeper..
  
  Daley has vowed to push legislation in the Illinois General Assembly’s fall veto session that would extend a two-tiered pension system to newly-hired police officers and firefighters.
  
  But, Burke said that’s nowhere near enough to diffuse [sic], what he called a “ticking time bomb.”

Nice to see Burke catching up. Too bad he'll solve exactly nothing.

Less Tickets; Unusual Excuse

Are there any editors at the Sun Times that might catch these inconsistencies?

• Chicago is writing fewer parking tickets, but slapping more vehicles with the wheel-locking Denver boot.

  Records released during opening day of City Council budget hearings showed the city issued just under 1.66 million parking tickets during the first eight months of this year, down 11.6 percent or 219,664 from the 1.88 million tickets written during the same period a year ago.

  Ticketing was down, primarily because crime-fighting was a higher priority for Chicago Police officers. Even so, police still led the pack with 747,648 tickets, compared to 631,170 for Revenue Department parking enforcement aides and 227,740 for a private contractor hired to assist the city.

Hasn't Fran been writing semi-regularly about how we're down 2,000 officers on a daily basis? Might those numbers have anything to do with the 11% drop in tickets? Or is that too big a leap for Fran to make if we don't draw her a map?

So This is "Why a Press Conference?"

As we have said before, police brutality should be condemned in all its forms.

WBBM radio is now reporting that 6 more officers have been stripped pending IPRA investigation.

• Six more Chicago police officers have been pulled off the streets as the Independent Police Review Authority investigates allegations that a suspect in police custody was beaten.

  On Friday evening, Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis said a sergeant was being put on desk duty over the alleged beating. Now, he says six more officers may have been involved.

Hang on, folks. We're in for a long ride no matter the outcome of IPRA's investigation.

Another Recycled Idea

No more Saturation Teams, no more Midnight Gang Teams, but we're going to expand "outreach" programs?

• Chicago police are expanding a high-school outreach program to prevent gang violence after the initial program appears to be making inroads, Police Superintendent Jody Weis said at a news conference on Sunday.

  The program, which started March 8 in high schools in the police department's Area 1 -- roughly from 2200 to 8700 south and from Harlem Avenue east to Lake Michigan -- has resulted in students seeking to get tatoos removed and to leave their street gang, police said. Students are transferred to new schools when necessary.

  Though it is difficult to measure prevention strategies, Weis said, the high schools in Area 1 had no students murdered in gang violence from March through June, compared with five murders in that same time period of 2009.

We remember when there were people who raised their kids, knew who their kids played with, went to school meetings, kept an eye on stuff in and around the neighborhood, and generally made sure things ran smoothly. They were called "parents." Why are the police "parenting" again?

Okay, granted that any reduction in murders is usually a good thing, but five whole murders prevented? By the time March rolls around, gang recruitment season is over, most of the people who want to be in school are there and the others are gone, and the internal conflicts about who is going to sell what dope in which hallway has just about worked itself out.

We used to have a unit that actually went to schools, knew the players, could talk to the kids, was able to elicit decent information about on-going or emerging conflicts, was able to mentor and refer problems to social services, etc., etc. It was called "The School Unit."

Someone is reinventing the wheel.

A Gallon of Pills

This guy was pretty observant for a "revenue agent:"

• A Berwyn man and a woman were charged after authorities found a revolver and about 1,500 codeine pills on sale for $5 apiece at a corner store on the West Side last week, police said.

  A revenue agent on a routine check to ensure cigarettes were being sold properly and not being bootlegged, stopped into the H & Y Food Store, 3825 W. Chicago Ave., about 1:30 p.m. Friday, according to police.

  The agent subsequently spotted “in plain view of the public’’ a large candy jar behind the counter filled with about 1,500 hydrocodone pills, which contain codeine, police said. The pills were being sold for $5 each, and a revolver was also found at the store, according to police.

Stop in for the loose cigarettes, stay for the controlled substance. On the downside, this guy might not be paying city taxes and fines for a while, contributing even more to the budget shortfall.

Police Limit

It sounds like your typical "money saving" idea that every government bureaucracy has come up with. Maybe they'll create a computer program to "simplify" it or a new unit to run it.

Anyone else wish this was a daily cartoon? Like "Dilbert" for cops and government workers?

Bears By 6, Maybe 7

The offensive line has to make sure Cutler's noggin doesn't take another beating against the second worst pass defense in the NFL. That's not too big an order, is it?

UPDATE: Evidently, it was too big an order. Cutler's been sacked 15 times now in two games?

Did We Miss Something?

What's all this?

• Chicago police officials have moved about 150 officers from one of the department's crime-suppression units into the most dangerous districts to focus on the violent crime plaguing those streets, officials said.

  The so-called saturation teams have been divided across the department's five geographic areas and float around the districts as needed when crime heats up.

  But a recent review of arrests for the teams showed they were not always tackling the violent crimes happening in the communities they were assigned to. Officials said they were also concerned that the teams were often operating under the direction of a sergeant, not an ideal for monitoring officer conduct.

  So now the teams -- 145 officers and 12 sergeants -- are being assigned to the districts with the most calls for police and the highest rates of violent crime. They will answer to district commanders, who will decide where to send them, police said.

We thought their details were canceled. That means the officers returned to their districts of assignment. What the Breaking News site is reporting sounds an awful lot like what the Department just disbanded - an Area wide team that responded to hot spot.

And what the heck was this quote?

• Officials said they were also concerned that the teams were often operating under the direction of a sergeant, not an ideal for monitoring officer conduct.
  

And who exactly do the anonymous "officials" think the officers were reporting to? Have they no knowledge of the chain of command? Officers report to Sergeants. Sergeants report to Lieutenants. Lieutenants fall under the oversight of Captain. It's called a "chain of command." Who wrote this press release and how drunk were they when it was released?

Cops, Firefighter Injured

First, a squad car accident:

• Two Chicago Police vehicles responding to a call collided early Saturday on the South Side.

  The police vehicles were responding to an assist call when they collided with each other about 12:40 a.m. in the 4700 block of South Halsted Street, said police News Affairs [...], citing preliminary information.

  An unidentified number of officers were taken to area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries...
  

Watch those intersections boys and girls.

And a firefighter was hospitalized after responding to a call:

• A Chicago firefighter was transported to a hospital after battling an extra-alarm blaze this afternoon at an apartment building in the North Side's Edgewater neighborhood.

  The firefighter was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston to be treated for "exertion," and is expected to be OK, said [...], a spokesman for the Chicago Fire Department. No one else was hurt.

  About 100 firefighters responded to the fire in the three-story, six-unit building at 1241-43 W. Granville Ave. about 4:15 p.m.

Get well soon. We need everyone healthy lately.

Typical Cook County Justice

From the comments:

• Yet a high ranking police official is caught with guns and drugs in a condo she owns that her daughter uses and no press conference or no one is stripped
  
  dont know if everyone heard or not but they had the trial for that search warrant a few weeks ago and the bench trial resulted in......NOT GUILTY!

Well you know we can't have a high ranking police official tainted by an actual positive search warrant on her property. Anyone care to verify?

Media in Trouble

A couple of people sent us this YouTube video of Jay Levine hassling someone who dared to question Rahm Emanuel about his place of residency:



Now it seems that there is an arrest warrant with Jay Levine's name on it:

• In a video that quickly circulated around the internet, a CBS affiliate correspondent in Chicago can be shouting down a WIND radio talk show host as he tried to ask hard-hitting questions of former White House chief of staff and current mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel.

  Now, Chicago Police say that CBS2′s Jay Levine must be held responsible for threatening the radio host with physical assault and have reportedly issued a warrant for his arrest.

We've heard from the Crystal Ball Unit that Levine has stated he won't be taken alive. We are attempting to verify this.

Eliminate Middle Management

Here's a good idea....finally:

• With the departing of Roberto Zavala there are rumors that many if not all Deputy Chief positions will be eliminated!! The Commanders will report directly to Eugene Williams in the very near future. Buckle your seat belts the road is getting very bumpy for all gold stars.
  
  Coming soon:
  Here's something thats not a rumor, Each Patrol Area on 2nd watch will have One Captain that approves all arrest reports for the area, and TRR's etc... while the Lt's will become Watch Coordinators to handle roll call and A and A's thus having to pay only 6 Captains WC pay during 2nd Watch. Be careful what all you people calling for downsizing ask for.

This would make sense seeing as how the Area Teams have been trimmed back. Word is the remaining teams will be stripped from the Deputy Chiefs' control by January of next year.

We had beers with an L.A. copper years ago and he commented on Chicago being awfully top-heavy in the middle manager area. If we recall, L.A. districts are run by captains, commanders run areas and the individual watches are run by lieutenants. We also remember hearing writing that J-Fled appeared to be taking his early cues from the Booz-Allen report of yesteryear. Has he finally dusted off his copy and is trying to look like a reformer again?

Why a Press Conference?

Police brutality should be condemned in all its forms.

But allegations of police brutality should be investigated very thoroughly because by the very nature of our work, we come into contact with people who will make any allegation, tell any story, twist any situation in an effort to avoid punishment to themselves, be it fines, community service or prison.

So why is J-Fled holding a press conference on Friday night to address what seems to be a brand new investigation into a nonspecific incident?

• Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis says he has placed an officer on desk duty while authorities investigate allegations about the possible beating of a suspect while in custody.

  Weis said he found the allegations being investigated by the Independent Police Review Authority were disturbing, and involved an officer in a supervisory capacity. He said the incident reported to the IPRA allegedly occurred earlier this week.

Channel 7 also covers this.

We can name 30 or 40 incidents during our career when allegations of brutality were leveled and no one got stripped and placed on a desk. We can name another dozen where officers were relieved of police powers and spend time at Callback. A few even got fired.

But at no time did a superintendent get on TV for the sole purpose of telling the media that an investigation was underway. Is there some Abbate-type footage that necessitates what appears to be a first strike by J-Fled? Something that might embarrass him and make it impossible for him to hang onto his job?

FYI - We won't be posting any comments that purport to identify the sergeant or incident seeing as how the investigation is just underway.

Twitter Everything?

The police department in Manchester, England is "tweeting" nearly every incident over the course of their days in an effort to shine a spotlight on the work that they are expected to do in the face of massive budget cuts:

• From stolen cars to suspicious smells, one of Britain's biggest police forces is tweeting every incident it deals with over a 24 hour-period to prove a point.

  The online Twitter campaign aims to show the pressures that police are under as British officials prepare for deep budget cuts.

• The project, which began at 5:00 a.m. Thursday, has already racked up more than 1,300 different incidents. Among the first tweets: An alert about a stolen vehicle thought to be headed for Manchester, the arrest of an aggressive shoplifter, and a report that "a man appears asleep at bus stop.''

• Many tweets covered domestic incidents, traffic accidents, stolen cars and missing people. There were calls about animals, complaints about a man urinating against a school wall, and a report of someone smoking on an incoming flight to Manchester Airport.

  There were also dozens of false alarms.

Someone from the 911 building can get specifics, but this 2007 article says Chicago handles something like 5.5 million calls a year. That averages to over 15,000 calls a day and we know the volume hasn't gone down. And in case anyone here needs reminding, the number of officers has gone down. Significantly. Especially on the streets and since we're the only major department in existence that still sends a car to 95% of the calls, guess what that means?

We aren't big fans about starting up a "twitter" unit - people would start calling them "twits" in short order - but maybe the Crystal Ball Unit could "twitter" in their spare time seeing as how they haven't predicted anything yet aside from two Bears victories. 5.5 million "tweets" are a lot of event numbers.

Hey Obama Fan

Yeah you. We've been deleting your nonsense pretty steadily for a few weeks now. Your slobbering on the president is kind of embarrassing. Your bashing of the previous administration is entertaining in the way only flaming leftists can make it - all based on lies, bullshit and wishes:

• "Illegal wars," that were authorized not only by the United States Congress, but by the United Nations you seem so eager to submit to;
• "Wars for oil" while we pay $3 and more for a gallon of gas - where's the cheap oil you think we stole?
• Whining about Warren Buffet only paying 17% of his income while Buffet's secretary pays 35% - never mentioning that Buffet's 17% is probably something like 10,000 times the amount of his secretary's. Maybe she needs a new tax preparer - we paid way less than 35% with itemized deductions;
• All your BS about Limbaugh, Beck, Tea Parties - we've never listened to either of those people and never written a word of support about the Tea Party;
• Accusing McCain of being a coward - how many years did you spend in Vietnamese prison camps? We didn't like McCain as a candidate (but he was better than the alternative) and figured him for a flip-flopper. He might be a lot of things, but "coward" isn't really one of them;
  
• Your baseless accusations of racism, class warfare, yadda yadda yadda - you're boring us here;

But your constant refrain of how President Sparklefarts "saved" this country? We present this:

Go grab your calculator - that's back-to-back years of trillion dollar deficits. And the funny thing is, those two years surpass Bush's eight-year totals. Obama is about to lose over 60 seats in the House alone. He might lose upwards of 80, and control of the Senate hangs in the balance.

Anyway, how about taking a trip over to the D.U. or Kos where they might appreciate your confidence in spite of reality. There is about to be a lot of gnashing of teeth and such on the left very shortly. You aren't getting published here.

To our regular readers - sorry you had to read this.

UPDATE: We just knew we were going to suck in a few of these trolls - they're so predictable. And so naive. They claim that the Bush deficits don't include the cost of two wars. Here you go:

You lose. Again.

Honored Star Case Turns 100

Four-hundred-seventy-seven stars:

• Bagpipers opened the ceremony on the 100th anniversary of the superintendent's honored star case.

  The case in police headquarters holds 477 police stars, the badge of each officer who died in the line of duty.

God Bless all the fallen.

They Cheered?

What a bunch of morons:

• Mayor Daley delivered his final budget address to the City Council on Wednesday and got a nearly two-minute standing ovation that evolved into cheers.

  No wonder. He’s using one-shot revenues to hold the line on taxes, fines and fees in 2011 — and provide modest head-tax relief to business — making life easier for aldermen facing re-election, but more difficult for his successor.

Difficult indeed. How about these paragraphs?

• “It’s kind of like a homeowner that has to sell their dining room set in order to pay next month’s rent. It doesn’t sound like a good idea. But if they don’t get next month’s rent, they don’t have a roof,” said Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th), chairman of the Council’s Finance Committee.

  The mayor also is counting on $32 million in savings generated by a full year of union concessions not yet negotiated. The deal for unpaid furlough days and comp time instead of cash overtime expires June 30.
  

So non-negotiated concessions are helping balance this "budget?" Along with selling the dining room set and pawning the silverware. Amazing. We think we're just going to write a whole bunch of rubber checks based on non-existent overtime payments.

And instead of doing something positive with his last few months in office, he's going down to Springfield to screw everyone over one more time:

• The only tough issue the mayor even attempted to tackle was the city’s pension crisis. He said he would introduce legislation in the General Assembly’s fall veto session that would extend to newly-hired police officers and firefighters the two-tier pension system imposed on other newly-hired employees.

And so the end begins.