Here Comes a Storm

Lord only knows that the truth is in this mess:

• The Chicago Police Department is investigating allegations of sexual assault involving two North Side officers, police said Wednesday night.

  A 22-year-old woman was walking along Broadway near Granville Avenue in the Rogers Park Police District shortly after midnight Wednesday when two uniformed officers from the Town Hall District in a police SUV offered her a ride home, a police source told WGN-TV. The source said the woman got in the vehicle and was driven to her apartment.

  The woman reported the officers followed her inside to her first-floor apartment and sexually assaulted her. The source said the officers left behind parts of their uniform and a cellphone.
  
  The investigation was initiated after the department was notified of the allegations Wednesday, police said in a statement.

  There was no immediate explanation why the officers were outside their assigned district at the time of the alleged incident.
  
  The two accused officers have been relieved of their police powers pending an investigation.

What a clusterfuck this one is going to be.

Kass Fluffs J-Fled

Just a few points about the Kass fluff piece on J-Fled yesterday:

• When J-Fled was here for three years running the joint, why didn't he call for an independent investigation of the Venecko incident? He was all eager to refer the Cozzi incident to the US Attorney;
• Whiners? How about legit criticisms leveled here and elsewhere that J-Fled was nothing but a figurehead doing Shortshank's bidding - remember how Masters Masters Masters was assigned as J-Fled's Chief of Staff to make sure J-Fled knew when Daley was on the phone? Can't have a superintendent who wouldn't answer Richie's calls;
• "Gotta run" and the poor follow-up excuse that he'd be a "distraction" to an ongoing investigation? Truly a notable pile of bullshit in a regime full of bullshit;
• The "morale survey" that never saw the light of day. Remember that one?
• Demote and re-promote a cadre of reverend beholden hacks and borderline criminals - these were people who are part and parcel of the "Machine" that Kass holds in such low esteem.

Instead of the roses and rainbows article that was written, how about something a bit more pointed? The comment section is a better read than the end product published.

The Inspector General?

What authority does this office have for any of this?

• The Chicago Police Department’s handling of a 2004 homicide case involving Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko — a nephew of Mayor Daley and White House Chief of Staff William Daley — has come under scrutiny by a second outside law enforcement agency.

  City of Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson’s office began seeking documents about the case from the police at least two weeks before the Illinois State Police agreed Friday to do its own review at the request of Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

Seriously, the IG, which can't even investigate aldercreatures by statute, is poking around in something that is should probably, eventually, be investigated by a federal agency. We aren't sure if this qualifies as "smoke" or "mirror," but we can't see it doing any good.

Happy Day!

Many coppers wondered if they'd ever see the end of this societal disaster. Wednesday, it began:

• Demolition is set to begin Wednesday at the final Cabrini-Green public housing high rise on Chicago’s Near North Side.

  The last families in the building on North Burling Street moved out in December. It will take eight weeks to tear down the structure.

A lot of history, not much of it good happened there. And a lot of special employment was earned there. So is this the last of the big buildings in Chicago? Is anything left that isn't senior buildings?

Cops Kill Dogs

Four-legged ones:

• Chicago police shot and killed two pit bulls after their owner ordered the animals to attack the officers, police said.

  Police were investigating a report of gunshots in the 2500 block of North McVicker Avenue about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday when they went to the home of 23-year-old Ivan Bernabe.

  While inside talking with Bernabe’s parents, the officers saw him outside, so they walked outside and asked him to come over and speak with them on a porch, police said.

  Instead, Bernabe opened a gate and let two pit bulls loose before saying, “Go get them — sic ‘em,” police said.

What's kind of amazing is the comments in the SunTimes article - they run mainly pro-police and blame the asshole for sending the dogs to attack. There were even a few that made it past the review board saying they wish the police had lit up Ivan for being such an asshole. Someone must be asleep at the switch over there.

Officer Defends Home Successfully

An armed citizen and police officer successfully defended his home and his life from an armed invader early Tuesday morning:

• An off-duty Chicago police officer shot and killed an armed intruder in his home in the Fernwood neighborhood on the Far South Side, police said.
  
  The officer was not injured, Chicago police said.
  
  The suspect was a man in his 40s, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
  
  The incident happened at about 7:50 a.m. in the 10000 block of South Princeton Avenue. The intruder made his way into the officer's home and attacked the officer with a "cutting instrument," according to Chicago Police [News Affairs], citing preliminary information.
  
  Fearing for his life, the officer fired his gun at the intruder, hitting him, police said.

And thereby ending the asshole's chosen career path of home invader, burglar and oxygen thief. Well done Officer!

Inaction = Death Penalty?

Maybe we were wrong about Anita. Maybe not charging murderers, even when there is enough circumstantial evidence to run something by a Grand Jury, because it will sort itself out in the end, putting a de facto death penalty back into play:

• When Chicago police went to the South Side home of 17-year-old Mokece Brown over the weekend to tell his mother and her fiance that he was found fatally shot, they were startled to hear the shooting could be payback for a murder the youth may have committed last summer.
  
  [...] Brown was a suspect in a shooting in August in which Troy Brown, 15, was killed and a 13-year-old girl was wounded in the 4900 block of West Iowa Street, law enforcement sources said Monday. A few weeks later, an eyewitness identified Mokece Brown — no relation to the 15-year-old — in a police photo array as the gunman, one of the sources said.
  
  [...] However, one of the sources said prosecutors then interviewed the eyewitness and eventually decided not to charge Brown because they felt the witness account wasn't strong enough. He was released without charges.
  
  A Cook County state's attorney's office spokesman confirmed that it rejected charges against Brown "due to insufficient evidence," but he declined to elaborate.

"insufficient evidence." Where have we heard that before...? Oh yeah, the Vanecko case.

Could it be that the State's Attorney is covertly winking at vengeance killings as a way to exact justice for the bereaved? By arresting this person, putting him through the paces, then releasing him back onto the streets, Anita and her people pretty much painted a target on him as much as if they had covered him in gravy and sent him into the wolf exhibit at Lincoln Park Zoo.

We can't say we're unhappy about it - it's kind of poetic in its own way. So who will Anita condemn to death next? We could make a list if it would help.

Gunfire Lights Up Englewood

Well, that could be the headline any night of the week. But this was in broad daylight:

• As diners at a busy South Side restaurant looked on in horror and dove for cover Tuesday morning, a gunman in an SUV peppered the street with bullets, forcing a fleeing car to speed through a red light and slam into a packed CTA bus.

  Eleven people were hospitalized — two with serious injuries — after the No. 75 bus was rammed into a light pole at the intersection of 75th and Vincennes in Gresham at 9:35 a.m., authorities said.

• “The guys in the black car were arguing real loud in the street with two men in a red truck,” he said. “Then two guys got out of the truck with an Uzi. It was probably drug related, but I wasn’t trying to listen to what they were saying, if you know what I mean,” he added.

  The gunman escaped in the red SUV, he said. Police had made no arrests as of Tuesday evening, police said.

And wonder of wonders, the reverends were there to see their flock running amok. You know you can't swing a dead cat around by the tail without hitting a reverend in Englewood...or a dope fiend...or dope dealer... or, well, you get the idea:

• Rev. Chester McLaurin, of Emmanuel Bible Church, was one of 10 pastors enjoying a cup of coffee at Ryan Anthony’s when the shooting began right in front of him.

  “The Lord just saved us,” he said.

We wonder what Sunday's sermon is going to be about. Blaming society probably.

Newspaper Comments

We covered this a few days ago in the post titled "More Shots Fired at Police." But here's someone in the comment section who really did some homework on this concerted effort by the media to slant their coverage in a certain direction - most of the time, that direction is anti-police or anti-responsibility-for-a-crime:

• anyone else notice that on chicagobreakingnews.com that when there is a story about the police the comments section is always enabled but when there is a story about a criminal and the terrible crimes they had committed all comments are disabled? This is the case almost everytime. This story about the sos thing has commenting allowed. The story about the officer shooting and killing the burglar to his house has comments enabled. The story about the cop who saved the man from the burning car had comments disabled. The story about the parolee charged with agg batt and csa downtown has comments disabled. The story about the feds who are getting sued for wrongful arrest has comments enabled but the story of the teen that got kilt for retaliation of a murder he had committed over the summer but was released without charges has comments disabled. coincidence?? I think not. The media loves to get people talking and bashing the police on stories that involve police. if it involves the poor criminal who was just confused then they dont want any comments that might be negative.

This is exactly why we canceled all our newspaper subscriptions and only read them free online. These people can't go out of business fast enough to suit us.

Opportunistic Lawsuit

Another scandal that just won't die:

• On a summer evening six years ago, Jose Fematt and his younger sister did what most kids do as the day fades — they changed into their pajamas and planted themselves on the front-room couch to watch television.
  
  Outside the three large windows of the first-floor apartment, Jose, 13, who was baby-sitting his sister, heard a commotion and saw the glow of flashlights in the dark. Suddenly, the family's apartment door crashed open, and plainclothes Chicago police officers barged in with their guns drawn and yelling at the stunned children, according to a recently filed lawsuit.
  
  The officers were part of the Special Operations Section, or SOS, an elite squad that investigated drugs and guns. They were also rogue cops who were later convicted of terrorizing numerous residents with home invasions, illegal searches and trumped-up charges in one of the department's most infamous scandals. The unit was disbanded in 2007.

So the incident occurred in 2005, the unit was disbanded in 2007, anyone doing jail time finished serving their sentences two and three years ago aside from the "ringleaders." The rest of the case is stagnating six years after the fact and this lawsuit just gets filed now?

This is telling:

• The family didn't report the break-in at the time because they were so frightened, according to their lawyer, Torreya Hamilton, who declined for Fematt, now 19, to be interviewed because she hasn't even let city attorneys question him yet.
  
  Fematt's account came to light only after Chagolla filed his own federal lawsuit. In January the city contacted Fematt after he was identified as a potential witness in court filings. Concerned about what the city wanted, the family contacted an attorney. What they learned was that Fematt could still file a lawsuit because he was a minor at the time of the break-in. The two-year time limit to file a civil suit had begun just a year earlier when Fematt turned 18.

We aren't excusing dirty cops doing home invasions on dope stash houses, but this has all the hallmarks of a gold digging lawsuit.

Just Nasty

And surprise surprise - another parolee charged:

• A man on parole for armed robbery was charged Monday with beating and sexually abusing a 65-year-old man with a tree branch downtown.

  Cortez Foster, 45, of the 1400 block of South Canal Street, was charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault, armed robbery and aggravated battery, according to Cook County State’s Attorney’s office spokeswoman Tandra Simonton.

  Foster, who was serving a 20-year sentence at the Centralia Correctional Center for a 2000 armed robbery conviction before being paroled last May, is scheduled to appear in bond court today.

Twenty years, out in ten. Someone somewhere is going to have to work on some tightening of "truth in sentencing" laws.

And how is it that the newspapers were running with the victim was a homeless guy (as if that excused the particularly heinous nature of the crime), but now that it turns out to be some guy from Schiller Park, coverage suddenly drops into low gear? It couldn't have anything to do with this line that appeared in the original Sun Times story, then disappeared from on-line versions of the story shortly thereafter:

• While Guerrero said there was no reason to believe the attack was racially motivated, he questioned what could drive someone to harm a homeless person in such a heinous way.

Things that make you go, "Hmmm."

Here Comes the Warm

Spring temps in full force this weekend:

• Temperatures in the Chicago area are expected to stay well below normal levels this week and might not reach more seasonable levels until the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

  The normal high temperature for Chicago for March 28 is 51 degrees, but temperatures at O'Hare International Airport and at the lakefront hovered in the mid-30s this afternoon, said Evan Bentley, a meteorological intern at the weather service's Romeoville office.

All the tact teams are in uniform just in a nick of time it seems. Anyone wanting to outdo the Crystal Ball Unit can post predictions here.

Police Week Info

Important news if you are attending the Police Memorial Events in Washington DC this year:

• Police Week 2011 information: In our 15 years attending, we have never seen this many officers from Chicago going on the wall. I hope that we have a record turnout from our department.
  
  Please help honor our FIVE brothers in blue as well as the other men and women being added to the National Law Enforcement Memorial Wall in Washington DC.
  
  Airfare: This is code is valid for 10% off the lowest published airfare for travel from 09 May to 19 May 2011 on American Airlines.
  
  The Promotion Code you will need to enter is 5251DH. Book asap as gas prices rise, so will the fare.
  
  We will be hosting a party again at Clyde's in Chinatown. All Departments are welcome to attend. The party will take place on May 14th, 2011 from 7-10pm. Tickets are $65 each and are available from Marikay O'Brien Unit 124 773-677-4397 (northside) or Sharon Colby Unit 640 773-544-2908 (southside).
  
  Tickets must be purchased prior to May 6th.
  
  We had over 75 people purchase at the door last year. This year we need to have a more accurate headcount for room space and food and beverages. We must insist no tickets will be sold at the door. If you did not receive a info packet, please let us know. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to call either one of us or email CPDPOLICEWEEK@aol.com
  
  Thanks and we hope to see you there!

Hero Cop

Good job Officer:

• Peter O’Hagan was lucky his blue-clad guardian angel was nearby when his van caught fire on I-55 as he drove in Chicago.

  As O’Hagan tried to remove his welding gear from the burning van, Chicago Police Officer Claudio Salgado dashed up and pulled the Oak Lawn man away seconds before the vehicle exploded.

  On Sunday, the two men exchanged handshakes — then hugs — at the Central District station where Salgado works as O’Hagan thanked the veteran officer for rescuing him last Tuesday.

And this isn't the first time he's gotten a Lifesaving Award:

• The four-year department veteran will be nominated for a lifesaving award, officials said Sunday.

  He received that award last year for preventing a person with Alzheimer’s disease from jumping into Lake Michigan, said his boss...

Good habits are hard to break.

Right To Carry News

The powers that be are coordinating with the anti-gunners to deny Illinoisans any access to being able to protect themselves. Some of our friends over at IllinoisCarry.com gave us this head's up:

• I’m hearing from insiders that the anti-gun national and state groups are beginning to gear up to try to stop right-to-carry legislation. Specifically, the Brady Campaign hired Government Navigation Group to lobby for them about two weeks ago and registered Chris Carr. I don’t know much about Carr, but I’ve heard him described by another lobbyist as a “Blago retread.” GNG is owned by Paul Rosenfeld, whose name came up in the Blagojevich investigations, and it seems to specialize in lobbying one unit of government on behalf of another, as Byzantine as that sounds.
  
  Now the rumor is that on Tuesday, there will be a press conference, probably in Chicago, at which Illinois politicians willing to go on the record against RTC will be trotted out. Apparently that means Anita Alvarez, she of the famous “I think there should be a law that nobody can buy a gun” interview.
  
  If any of your readers or contacts get a chance to get to the presser and take photos, I have a use for them down here in Springfield if they’re willing to pass them along; we’d like to do a compare/contrast with IGOLD. Thanks!
  
  Don Gwinn

As Mr. Gwinn notes, he'd like any photos taken from the press conference forwarded to his organization. The IGOLD (Illinois Gun Owner Lobby Day) was a spectacular success, drawing thousands to Springfield for a rally, march, informational meetings and face-to-face lobbying with legislators. It will be interesting to see how few people show up in a metropolis the size of Chicago to support something that 49 states other that Illinois have already decided is a good idea.

TRU Deployed....Downtown?

Many reports coming in about a huge out-of-control "wilding" incident Saturday night. Anyone from the Central Control Group want to chime in here? We're hearing a few 10-1's were called along with dozens of arrests. Mostly juveniles coordinating on Facebook and other social sites.

Police Kill Assailant in 011

A man wielding an illegal firearm was removed from this mortal plane by officers in the 011th District tonight:

• A man was fatally shot by Chicago police this evening on the city’s West Side, said Independent Police Review Authority Deputy Chief Carlos Weeden.

  No police officers were injured in the police-involved shooting, police said.
  
  The shooting occurred at 7:18 p.m. on the 4100 block of West Lexington Street, said Weeden. The IPRA investigates shootings involving Chicago police officers.
  
  Police at the scene in the Lawndale neighborhood said officers exchanged fire with two men in the alley of the residential area lined with bungalows and row-houses.

All police are OK at this report. Well done officers.

Cop Killer Denied Parole

Someone woke up and smelled the coffee:

• Federal officials denied the parole request Friday for Henry Michael Gargano, whose pending release for the 1967 murders of two Northlake police officers generated outrage from law enforcement and the public.

  "Mr. Gargano's prison record, on top of his lack of remorse for the crimes that led to his imprisonment, showed that his release would be incompatible with public safety." U.S. Parole Commission Chairman Isaac Fulwood Jr. said in a prepared statement.

  Gargano, 79, pleaded guilty in 1968 to the shooting deaths of Northlake Officers John Nagle and Anthony Perri while robbing the Northlake Bank on Oct. 27, 1967, with two other men.

  A judge sentenced Gargano to 199 years in prison. At a January 2010 parole hearing his case manager indicated Gargano was a likely candidate for release, and the commission tentatively set his parole for Sept. 3.

Convicted in 1968 and sentenced to 199 years. So how is it that 43 years later he almost walked out? Even at "day-for-day" credit (which we're pretty sure the feds don't do), that's still 56.5 years earlier than he should have been released.

At 79, we're hoping he dies of a rapidly painful illness in short order. But the only way he leaves prison ought to be feet first and in a pine box.

Shots Fired at the Police Again? (Nope)

The formerly outrageous act is now officially commonplace:

• Two men appeared in court today after a prosecutor said one of them opened fire on a Chicago police sergeant who wanted to question the pair about a robbery he suspected they had committed in the Grand Crossing neighborhood.
  
  Cook County Circuit Court Judge James Brown set bond at $900,000 for Philip Cooper and $500,000 for Michael McCullum on charges of attempted murder and armed robbery in the early Friday chain of events.
  
  
• Within minutes, an anonymous 911 call came in to police describing the robbers, and a police sergeant saw two men who fit the description in the 700 block of East 79th Street — about two blocks from the scene of the robbery, Creppel said.
  
  As the sergeant, who was in uniform, approached the men, Cooper pulled out a gun and fired four shots, Creppel told Brown during the bond hearing.
  
  The sergeant was unharmed and fired back twice, but both Cooper and McCullum ran away. Police arrested both men about five minutes later about a block away, Creppel said.

Ah, the Cook County justice system - still granting bail for attempted murder of police officers.

UPDATE: Evidently, this is the same incident as yesterday, but the point about granting bail to people who attempt to kill police officers stands.

The First Cut

Just a small one:

• Nearly 400 officers assigned to specialized citywide units and district tactical teams will don uniforms to boost police visibility on the streets with the approach of warmer weather and the increased violence that comes with it, the Chicago Police Department said Friday.

  More than 70 other officers already have been moved from specialized assignments to strengthen patrol operations, Interim Superintendent Terry Hillard said.

  "Patrol is the backbone of the Chicago Police Department," Hillard said at a news conference at police headquarters. "Every other unit in this police department, even the superintendent's office, is a support unit for patrol."

No one disbanded. The "tact in uniform" is a replay of a few years ago. We're seeing smoke, maybe a little bit of mirror here. Again, this isn't a criticism of Hillard. He doesn't do the testing, screening and hiring. He also has been in charge for barely two weeks and any changes will be narrow in scope.

Patrol may be the backbone, but it's still being treated as the ass.

23,000 Jobs on the Line

Caterpillar has been based in Illinois for decades. It is one of the Dow Jones Industrial Average companies. And now, thanks to Governor Quinn, all of that is in danger:

• The chief executive of Caterpillar wrote a letter to Illinois Gov. Patrick Quinn raising the possibility the heavy equipment company could move out of Illinois because of concerns that the direction the state is heading isn't favorable to business.
  
  In a letter to Gov. Pat Quinn obtained Friday by The Pantagraph of Bloomington, Doug Oberhelman said officials in at least four states have approached Peoria-based Caterpillar about relocating since Illinois raised its income tax in January.
  
  "I want to stay here. But as the leader of this business, I have to do what's right for Caterpillar when making decisions about where to invest," Oberhelman wrote. "The direction that this state is headed in is not favorable to business, and I'd like to work with you to change that."

There seem to be only two ways for this to go. One, Quinn grants all sorts of tax breaks to Caterpillar, all of which reduce the amount of money coming into government coffers. Or two, Quinn says "No" and Cat leaves Illinois, thereby reducing the amount of money coming into government coffers along with costing up to 23,000 people their jobs, all of whom will want government relief in some form or another.

Another step on the road to Detroit, Michigan.

Rahm Reads the Blog?

Evidently, it's true:

• Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel has broached a touchy subject during private meetings with aldermen to solicit their ideas on budget and ethics reform: cutting the nation’s second-largest City Council in half.

  Several aldermen, who asked to remain anonymous, said they were stunned when Emanuel opened the discussion by asking them point-blank, “What do you think about going down to 25 aldermen?”

  It was a bold opening line for a mayor-elect who will need every vote he can get to reorganize the Council, pass his programs and solve a budget and pension crisis that literally has Chicago on the brink of bankruptcy.

There was a blog hereabouts that took this effort to the next level a year or so ago. In fact, they collected just over 11,000 signatures in a matter of weeks in October/November of 2009 and garnered more than a few media mentions in their efforts.

Since Rahm must have his people scouring the internet for bright ideas, if they just follow this link here (from 26 October 2009), they can find a handy little petition already created that can force the issue to a vote.

Does anyone think Rahm wants some input for the Superintendent's job?

More Shots Fired at Police

Can we call this an "epidemic" yet?

• Chicago police exchanged shots with two armed robbery suspects early this morning on the 7800 block of South Cottage Avenue in the Chatham neighborhood.

  No one was wounded, and the suspects were arrested, said Police News Affairs [...].

  The officers were responding to a report of an armed robbery about 12:55 a.m. when the suspects opened fire on them, [...]. The officers returned fire.

No damage, so almost no coverage in the media. But still a hairy situation.

And once again, if the story involved police officers shooting at a suspect or suspects who are making an attempt to kill them, the Tribune Company closes the comments section so no words of encouragement or praise might be heaped upon the officers doing their jobs.

Grau Gets State Police Job

Nice to see so many retirees doing so well:

• Gov. Quinn on Friday appointed a former Chicago cop and high-ranking aide to Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez to head the Illinois State Police.

  Hiram Grau will fill the post vacated in February by Jonathan Monken, who was Quinn’s 2009 choice to head the state law-enforcement agency but was moved to the Illinois Emergency Management Agency after being unable to win Senate confirmation as State Police director.

  [...] Grau is a 27-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department and had been mentioned as an interim successor to former Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis, who stepped down earlier this month. Grau, who had been a finalist for Chicago’s top police job when Weis was hired, had been a street patrolman, sergeant, lieutenant, commander and first deputy within Chicago’s police department.

So he worked for CPD, worked for Anita Alvarez, and now runs the State Police (pending approval).

How's that Vanecko investigation looking now? Remember - it's all about the appearance of impropriety.

Ramsey Article

A well written article about Ramsey's tenure in Washington DC that should give pause to anyone considering how he might be a good idea:

• The changes began in 1998 with a Washington Post series on DC police that described “a pattern of reckless and indiscriminate gunplay.” Chief Charles Ramsey had just taken over the department. Shocked by the newspaper series, he became the first police chief in the nation to invite the Justice Department in to review the police department’s use of force. In 2001 Justice drew up a memorandum of agreement with the DC police revising the regulations governing the use of force. The result put in place a system for controlling and disciplining cops, including the creation of special divisions and an outside monitor to investigate police behavior.

  The apparatus seems to investigate cops with more rigor than it investigates criminals. What started in 2001 as a system to monitor cops who used their weapons too often has developed into a blunt instrument that punishes some of DC’s best and brightest and allows criminals to use the system against officers trying to make streets safe.

The article was written in 2007, immediately after Ramsey left DC for Philly. While we realize Washington is a hotbed of all sorts of political intrigue, is inviting the Justice Department into your bailiwick when your city was vying with Detroit for Murder Capital of the USA to second guess your police shootings really a good idea?

Alvarez - Investigate the Police

More rough weather ahead:

• Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez asked the Illinois State Police on Thursday to investigate the Chicago Police Department’s handling of a homicide case involving Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko, who’s a nephew of Mayor Daley and White House Chief of Staff William Daley.

  “I think there should be an independent police investigation,” Alvarez said.

  She pointed to a series of stories in the Chicago Sun-Times this month that raised questions about the police investigation into the violent death of David Kosch­man seven years ago.

So Anita is recommending the Illinois State Police investigate? Whose name did we just see being floated by Sneed as the next head of the ISP? Oh yeah, former CPD exempt Hiram Grau. That's going to go over like a ton of bricks.

And aren't there large portions of the file missing from Anita's office already? Files when Devine was in charge? Devine, who was Daley's right hand when Shortshanks was State's Attorney?

And no one over at Devine's office thought to go for a manslaughter indictment? A Grand Jury would have eaten that one up.

Yeah, nothing to see here folks.

Juror Backgrounds

An interesting side note to one of the cases won last week on behalf of officers:

• The city of Chicago's top attorney came to federal court Thursday to address concerns raised by a judge about a recent criminal background check that the city did on a juror who had already been questioned and seated for a police misconduct trial.

  In the end, Corporation Counsel Mara Georges did not address the court, but U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly told her and other city attorneys that he will allow background checks on jurors in another police misconduct case pending before him only during jury selection, not after.

  The unorthodox criminal check happened last week before another judge in federal court who was presiding over a civil trial in which a South Side family had sued the city and two police officers over an alleged false arrest and physical abuse. It took place on the trial's second day — after the jury had been selected.

  Private attorneys representing the city said they became suspicious about a juror's demeanor and had city investigators run his arrest record. The check revealed that the juror had allegedly concealed an arrest history with Chicago police, and the judge in the trial removed him from the panel. He was one of only two African-American jurors on the panel. The remaining seven jurors ruled in the city's favor and didn't award any money to the family.

The juror concealed an arrest history of not one, not two, but EIGHT different arrests by the Chicago Police Department. And of course, the lawyers are whining that bumping him off the jury makes the verdict somehow illegitimate.

Here's a question - why aren't jurors screened as a matter of course in any trial? Someone willing to lie about their arrest history is someone willing to award ill-gotten gains in some frivolous suit.

More Disbanding Rumors

Hillard's moves getting more and more play in the media - and of course, it has to have a racial angle in Chicago:

• African-American aldermen said Thursday they’re all for interim Police Supt. Terry Hillard’s plan to reassign officers from specialized units to the patrol division — but only if those freed-up officers go to high-crime districts.

  Supt. Jody Weis resigned earlier this month before delivering on the police re-allocation he had promised.

  So the next best thing might be Hillard’s plan to siphon 100 officers from the 260-member Mobile Strike Force — and possibly pull officers from other specialized units such as one that focuses on seizing guns from gang members — the aldermen said.

We see a lot of people getting shifted to crappy districts, then the Department not opening up bids for a few years like they managed to do during large parts of J-Fled's reign.

Someone Getting Disbanded?

Or downsized?

• Interim Chicago Police Supt. Terry Hillard is chipping away at the legacy of his predecessor — Jody Weis — by changing the department’s command structure and preparing to move cops to the patrol division from specialized units, sources said Wednesday.

  Hillard is considering moving 100 officers from the department’s 260-officer Mobile Strike Force back to the patrol division. He is also looking to move officers from other special citywide units to patrol, sources said.

  That would be a big step toward Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel’s campaign pledge to put 1,000 beat officers on the street.

Notice no one is saying "hire a thousand" cops. We're of the opinion that the days of 11,500 blue shirts are far behind us and the days of 9,000 are here to stay. All of it means less chances for advancement and "doing more with less" for the duration of everyone's career. A few bits of good news finally confirmed:

• Sources said one of Hillard’s first priorities as interim superintendent was to return the department to the chain of command that existed before Weis took office in 2008.

  Weis’ chief of staff Michael Masters — a civilian with a law degree from Harvard University — had served as one of the main gatekeepers for Weis’ command staff. Weis didn’t rely as heavily on his two assistant superintendents, James Jackson and Beatrice Cuello.

  Hillard has returned to a system in which the police brass report directly to Cuello, who is in charge of administration, and Jackson, who runs law-enforcement operations.

  Some of Hillard’s moves have the whiff of a purge. Masters left the department last week and Robert Roman, a commander assigned to Weis’ office, was forced to resign Wednesday, sources said. Other Weis loyalists such as Cmdr. Frank Gross have been moved out of the superintendent’s office and placed in districts.

It looks like actual sworn officers are running the department again. But be careful out there - the line keeps getting thinner.

FOP Calls Out Captain

Over on the "Current Updates" section:

• On 16 March 2011, our Bill # SB1874 was scheduled to be heard before the Senate Pension Committee in Springfield. This bill, if passed, would allow for at large elections for the Chicago Police Pension Board.The bill would pool the three representatives of active rank Lt’s and Above, Sgt’s, and those below the rank of Sgt. Retirees would retain their one representative. It would also require that all three of these elected members would be assigned full time to the Pension Board.
  
  Opponents of this legislation were all Sergeants and above including: Sgt’s Association; Lt’s Association; Captain’s Association; Latin American Police Association representative; PBPA; and a host of others. As this issue has been introduced before and was opposed then by some of the same individuals, their opposition was expected. What was not expected was the level of indignation towards those of us below the rank of Sergeant by their “chosen spokesperson” Capt. Mark Buslick. He began with a several minute long oration about himself and his educational background which caused many in the room to wonder where he was going with that. They didn’t have to wonder long as Buslick then went into a tirade about the lack of necessary intellect of those whom the FOP represents. Buslick felt that those who attain rank in the Police Department are the ones who are qualified to serve on the Pension Board. Buslick extolled on the vast number of reasons for opposing this bill and when asked by a Senate Member of the Committee to give him two examples he said that if a captain were to appear before the Pension Board seeking a disability pension and there was a patrolman on the Board who had a grudge against him, the Patrolman would vote against the Captains disability. When asked for a second reason by the same Senator, Buslick could not think of another at that time.
  
  So the affect of his testimony was that even though the ranks of Lieutenant and above who number about 260 have one vote on the Board, and the Sergeants who number about 1200 and have one vote on the Board, and all those below the rank of Sergeant who number about 11,200 and have one vote on the Board is fair because they are smart enough to run the Board as it needs to be and the FOP shouldn’t be asking for the change because it may impact on those of superior intellect.
  
  We would like to thank Buslick for his testimony because although we did not feel as though we had the votes to get this out of Committee, the Committee Members recognized the virus that was his testimony.
  
  One can be sure that his testimony as to the lack of intellect in non-white shirts is not adopted by the vast majority, but the fact that these organizations used this person as the channel for their opposition is inexcusable and they should be embarrassed. As much of our morale problem in this Department is often attributed to differences between management and non-management personnel, the vile testimony of this one person is proof that we have a long way to go in addressing that problem.

Very interesting. The City's method of "divide and conquer" continues to pay dividends. And the captain, who received quite a bit of support from readers here when he got railroaded for protecting his facility and doing the right thing concerning overly aggressive media trolls, seems to have some explaining to do.

What Were They Thinking?

You know the cameras are there. You see the gathering crowd of shithead gang bangers. And you keep the doors open so they can film someone in your back seat?

• At least two Chicago police officers have been stripped of their police powers and placed on desk duty after a videotape was made public in which the officers stood by as a crowd taunted a youth sitting in a squad car, the department said today.

  The police internal affairs division is investigating the incident, the department said. Police would not say how many officers were suspended pending the investigation, but two uniformed officers can be seen in the video, which appeared to be shot by a cell phone camera.

There's a video link at the story. We aren't going to embed it because is has a bunch of liberal claptrap at the beginning and the eggheads are speculating on all sorts of nonsense. But once again, this appears to be a number of preventable missteps that can be completely misconstrued to fit some liberal fantasy of misconduct. But no one was hurt except for some gang banger's feelings. Close the squad car doors and there's no story here.

City Pushing Too Hard?

You know you're doing right when the lawyers start whining:

• Christopher Ries thought he’d finally won.

  A jury awarded him $4 million for neck and back injuries he suffered after he was hit by a stolen Chicago Police squad car in 2002. Jurors faulted the police for leaving the suspect alone in the back of the squad with the keys in the ignition — and for then chasing the suspect.

  But the city appealed, claiming the officers should receive immunity. And last month, the city won in the Illinois Supreme Court, canceling out Ries’ award.

  Chicago is getting more aggressive in fighting lawsuits against police officers — a strategy that’s winning approval from the rank-and-file who believe the city settled too easily in the past.

  But some plaintiffs and their attorneys complain the city is going too far.

Boo-fucking-hoo. So a bunch of law school hacks who couldn't cut it in the real world, aside from quick payouts from an overly generous Corp Counsel, are going to have to work for their money. Maybe they'll stop taking the frivolous suits and actually work at making a living for once. We can't say we'd cry if a few hundred lawyers went out of business

Thanks for Nothing Ryan

What an asshole:

• For the first time since 2007, former Gov. George Ryan’s voice can be heard from beyond prison walls, after the city released an audio interview of the former governor late Monday.

  The unprecedented March 2010 deposition, given from a Terre Haute, Ind. federal prison, captures a frustrated, forgetful, but often impassioned Ryan as he fields questions about one of the inmates he pardoned while in office.

• “I mean, I pardoned guys that I knew were guilty or at least thought they were, but I didn’t want any innocent people killed,” Ryan says at one point. “But I don’t have to tell you why I did it, what I thought about it any more than I have to tell you why I thought why he should have it or shouldn’t have it. I just used my judgment like I did on a lot of things I did in the time I spent in government. That’s called leadership.”

Leadership? No it isn't. It's a callous disregard for the victims and it makes everything he said in the past about it being a careful, deliberate process nothing but a bald faced lie. This was a cynical attempt to pollute the jury pool because he knew an investigation was ongoing and he might be facing charges. By his blanket pardons and commutations (and hopes for Nobel Prize consideration), he re-victimized thousands of people while betting that even a single vote might hand a federal jury.

Rot in hell George. Dying behind bars would be too good for you.

CPD Shooting

One of those ones that pops up on the radar, then just as quickly, falls to the bottom of the news cycle:

• Chicago police said they wounded a male suspect in the leg who pointed a gun in their direction in the Englewood neighborhood early this morning.
  
  Police said officers responded about 12:35 a.m. to a call of shots fired in an area known for gang and drug activity. In the vicinity of 5900 S. Princeton Ave. they saw a suspect with a gun in his hand who then turned and pointed his weapon at the officers, according to a police statement.
  
  The officers both fired, hitting the suspect in the leg, police continued. He was arrested and taken to an area hospital. None of the officers was hurt.

Englewood, early morning, leg wound, gun recovered, nothing to see here folks. Move along. This should be bigger news once again, but it has been a pretty busy March across the city. Best wishes to the involved officers.

Suburban Shooting

Good job by some of our suburban brethren:

• Responding to a 911 call about a suicidal man, two Naperville police officers shot and killed a man who came at them with a large knife early this morning, police said this afternoon.

  William Ladew, 47, of the 500 block of Lake Street in Aurora, refused an order to drop the knife, police said.

  The officers -- a police sergeant on the force for 19 years and a 10-year veteran officer -- have been placed on administrative leave per department policy, police said.

We roll out the dark humor whenever some deserving jagoff is rightfully shot by the police, but "suicide by police" is one of those things that ends up with the involved officers second guessing a lot of things. Hopefully, the officers get the support they need and we're damn happy you went home safely.

DUI Before a DUI Hearing

This guy has problems:

• Just hours before he was scheduled to appear in court for a DUI-related offense, a motorist was arrested for driving while intoxicated early Tuesday on the South Side, police said.

  John Jackson, 62, was behind the wheel of a vehicle going south on Halsted when police saw him without any headlights and pulled him over at 12:44 a.m. in the 7300 block of South Halsted Avenue, according to a police report. An officer noticed he appeared to be drunk and he did not have a valid license or proof of insurance.

  “I’m suspended,’’ Jackson allegedly said to officers as they tried to steady him as he exited the vehicle from the passenger side. When an officer asked him if he’d had anything to drink, he allegedly said: “I had a little, I’m not drunk. I’m suspended for a DUI, I go to court tomorrow,’’ the report said.

Felony Aggravated DUI - so at least we know he made it to court on time. Just not to Traffic Court.

Shortshanks Loses His Mind

Strap in, because if you don't tie yourself to your chair, you'll probably run screaming from the room as Shortshanks butchers the English language and runs with some bizarre rendering of history that even a conspiracy theorist would have trouble following without killing himself:

• Click here to view the insanity

Wow. Just wow. And this guy is in charge of the third largest city in America? In fact, he's scheduled to get $50,000 per speech at some point following his retirement. We just love this part of the speech where he's talking about the CHA high rises (starting around 2:10 and running for a few minutes):

• ....you have to be poor to live in there, so if you're working, you automatically had to leave. So if you decide to get a job you had to be leave. So what happened? They didn’t get jobs…if you work, you have to leave your housing...
• ...if you have any public benefits, and you get married, oh that’s a no-no, so single mother shows up....it was government policies...

We don't recall any government policies like those Daley claims existed. We do recall studies that show if you reward bad behavior, you get more of it. That seems to be the Machine's method of business in any event. How the hell did this idiot keep winning elections for so many years?

Channel 2 Covers Cozzi

No idea why this would be news to anyone outside of SCC readers, but Channel 2 has always been anti-police, so this must have been an opportunity for the police haters to vent their spleens:

• Some Chicago Police officers have started a letter-writing campaign, in an effort to get the Federal Bureau of Prisons to move one of their own to a prison closer to home.

  As WBBM Newsradio 780’s Mike Krauser reports, Officer William Cozzi was sentenced in 2009 to 40 months in federal prison for beating a man who was handcuffed and shackled in a wheelchair.
  

The comments are full of haters, but the police supporters make an impressive showing also. In any event, it becomes all the more important to maintain decorum when writing to the Bureau of Prisons to ask the director to reconsider Bill's prison assignment. Polite and to the point is the best course of action.

Sneed Was Right

Frank Gross was in line for a new title:

• Commander of 013 instead of Commander of Special Events

It seems Gross and Martin are switching spots. And it appears like this is going to be Hillard's legacy - exempts screw up, and they just get moved around until the heat dies down and the new guy comes in. Henny Penny gets "demoted" to a spot that removes her from public view, is actually a pay raise, and relives her of any responsibility for meetings. Frank gets moved to one of the quieter districts in the city that actually can run itself 80-or-90% of the time.

Why punish Commander Martin though?

Another Felon on the Streets

Another case supporting the need for "Three Strikes" laws:

• An 11-time convicted felon opted for a simple smash-and-grab job to get at dozens of cartons of Newport 100s cigarettes at a Loop Walgreens this morning, Chicago police said.

  Unfortunately for Robert Hilson, an off-duty gang enforcement cop saw the whole thing.

Following a foot chase and fight, the off-duty was assisted by a citizen and managed to hold the felon for responding officers. But really, an 11-time loser shouldn't be on the streets. Rehabilitation obviously passed this piece of shit by and he has no desire to live within the rules. We don't really care if the liberals drum up some studies about how "three strikes" laws don't work We certainly don't see 11 trips to the joint working on this jagoff either.

We're more than willing to have garbage like this serve out their time breaking rocks and hopefully eating unhealthy prison diets so they die faster.

Get Out Your Pens

Time to write a letter, this time to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Bill Cozzi has been incarcerated for just over 18 months now. He has a clear conduct record and is eligible for transfer to a prison closer to home. Unfortunately, the Bureau of Prisons is denying him this relief, citing "overcrowding." For some reason, this hasn't stopped other inmates from receiving transfers though (imagine that).

In any event, here's where to write:

• Mr. Tom Short
  C/O US Department of Justice
  Federal Bureau of Prisons
  South Central Regional Office
  4211 Cedar Springs Road, Suite 300
  Dallas, Texas 75219

IMPORTANT!!!

• The letter should cite Bill's ID# 40222-424;
• This letter is solely to support a transfer to a prison closer to Illinois;
• DO NOT cite legal issues or opinions as to Bill's predicament. It has ZERO bearing on the transfer issue;
• As always, be polite and respectful. The object of our ire isn't the Bureau of Prisons, but rather the recently departed administration

For the cost of a stamp and 10 minutes of your day.

Another Hit from Police Limit

Ain't that the truth?

Another Nominee?

That Sneed - she's pimping big time for the Rahmulans. She's jumping in with both feet big time:

• Sneed hears rumbles John Timoney, 62, the Irish born former top cop of Philly and Miami, is being floated as a possible pick for Chicago Police superintendent.

  Translation: “He’s highly regarded and served with the New York Police force (from 1967 until 1998), where he rose to the No. 2 spot,” said a Sneed source. “He was also a protégé of LAPD Chief Bill Bratton, when Bratton was New York’s Police commissioner. (Sneed is told Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel is a big fan of Bratton, who expressed no interest in leaving LA.)

  Backshot: Emigrating to America in 1961, Timoney served as Philly’s Police commissioner from 1998 to 2003 before leading Miami’s police force from 2003 to 2010. Timoney “was recruited to be chief in Miami by the business community to reduce police-related shootings,” a source said. He turned around the scandal-ridden department, the source said: “He was highly successful.”

  The kicker: Timoney, who is now serving as an advisor to a home security company, is also a close friend of Philly’s police commissioner, Charles Ramsey, who has been reported to be a top contender for the Chicago job.

To "reduce police related shootings"? We'd hope that means encouraging stiffer sentencing for jagoffs that shoot at police and more training for police so assailants never get the opportunity to shoot at the police again. Or breathe again for that matter. Because anything else is too stupid to even contemplate.

Geez Frank

Is this another J-Fled pick in hot water again?

• Hmmm: Sneed hears Chicago Police Cmdr. Frank Gross, the department’s movie coordinator, might be in hot water again. Gross was reprimanded by former Police Supt. Jody Weis after video footage surfaced of officers posing for a photo with a handcuffed, kneeling college student arrested in the 2009 G-20 economic summit in Pittsburgh.

  The buckshot: Sneed is told Gross had drawn the ire of the new police interim regime for putting in for $19,000 in overtime for his work during the filming of the movie “Transformers 3,” which was shot in Chicago amongst mucho publicity last year.

  The backshot: The Chicago cops in the controversial video, which included Gross, used personal time to serve as part of the G-20 summit security detail.

  The flipshot: “I was on personal time during the filming of the Transformers movie during July and August of last year,” Gross said. “Paramount paid the city more than $160,000 for the filming of that movie and out of that came the $19,000 I was paid for working during off-duty time. It didn’t cost the city any money.”

  The buckshot: Is Gross in line for a new job title?

Gee, we don't know. Henny Penny can end up with her name all over the news for domestic related incidents and suffer no consequences. What's a mere $19,000 among friends?

It is kind of amusing that while the blue shirts hunkered down after getting the message of what J-Fled was brought in to do, it's the white shirts and gold stars running amok with startling regularity.

Bombs in 023?

Safety alert:

• I just got off of the phone with a 023rd district police officer, who informed me of the following:
  
  Three devices were found in the alley behind the McDonald's Restaurant at Wilson Avenue & Sheridan Road.
  
  One was a dud or intentionally not working. The other two were live and filled with about a gallon of acid, which when the bomb squad detonated them from a safe distance, blew in every direction.
  
  The theory now is that the first one was to lull first responders into a false sense of security so they'd be lackadaisical and careless in defusing the other two.

We're getting this from a number of e-mails and a couple of comments.

David Orr Takes Aim at Daley

Everyone is getting in on the act evidently:

• About 150 teachers, parents and activists marched into the Grossinger City Autoplex and demanded a check for $4 million Saturday.

  That would be the “TIF” money — protestors [sic] called it “The Mayor’s Slush Fund” — diverted from the public schools and given to developers such as those who built the autoplex.

• “There’s a giant myth being spread all across this land ... that local governments have no money, they need to take it out of the backs of teachers, take away their pensions,” Cook County Clerk David Orr told the cheering protestors [sic]. “Chicago ain’t broke. Chicago has put $2 billion tax dollars that the public doesn’t know about into these TIFs and there’s another $500 million being added every year. There needs to be a moratorium on these TIFs because there has been enormous abuse. They are supposed to go to blighted areas. It’s gone to Willis Towers. It’s gone to Grossinger. It’s gone to other major corporations. As we uncover the mayor’s slush fund, which this is, we’re going to discover that money can go to help the schools.”
  

Again, stuff that should have been reported on and pointed out while the corruption was going on so the political administration could face the voters' wrath at the time. But of course, the media and politicians being bought and paid for, everyone kept their mouths shut until now.

Crazy Time

The moon is so close, it's affecting the tides in our glass of scotch:

• If the moon looks a little bit bigger and brighter this weekend, there's a reason for that. It is.
  
  Saturday's full moon will be a super "perigee moon" -- the biggest in almost 20 years. This celestial event is far rarer than the famed blue moon, which happens once about every two-and-a-half years.

There was some study not too long ago that claimed the widely held belief that the mentally disturbed come out more during a full moon was unsupported by the facts. Maybe the crazies were just a little more crazy than usual, so it was just a different brand of nuttiness, but some of our favorite stories from the old timers involved a full moon.

More Shortshanks Revelations

Remember when Shortshanks insisted the City Council wasn't a "rubber stamp"? That they could think on their own and vote any way they saw fit? Yeah, not so much actually:

• Dissenting perspectives on Chicago's City Council over the last four years were limited to a handful of aldermen, a new analysis of council voting patterns finds, allowing outgoing Mayor Richard Daley to press his agenda with huge voting majorities.

  "The Last of the Daley Years," a report released this morning by University of Illinois-Chicago political science Professor Dick Simpson and his staff, tracks how often the city's 50 aldermen split from the Daley administration's priorities. The report only measures aldermanic agreement or disagreement with Daley on divided roll call votes, where at least one council member cast his or her ballot against the executive branch's position on an ordinance before the council; it does not judge the contents of an ordinance or resolution.

  Daley's power to keep aldermen by his side increased over the last four years versus the previous council term. "The 2003-2007 city council voted with the mayor on average 83% [of the time] and the current 2007-2011 city council has voted with the mayor 88% of the time," the report says. The mayor lost no votes over the past four years. He never used his veto power to reject any council-driven ordinances.

Never a better argument for term limits.

And it is certainly amusing that all these stories critical of the way Shortshanks ran things, covered up things, drove the entire city to the verge of bankruptcy, are just now seeing the light as his reign of incompetency comes to an end. The fourth estate pretty much proved useless over the past two decades.

Another Opinion on Pensions

Opinions are like lawyers - or is it something else? Here's another lawyer talking about pension guarantees:

• The people who wrote the 1970 Illinois Constitution knew they were guaranteeing public employees that their pensions would not be reduced once they started working, according to a new legal analysis by the Senate Democrats’ top lawyer.
  
  The 76-page report – complete with 630 footnotes – attempts to refute arguments by the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago that the legislature has the power to change future benefits for current employees.
  
  Over the last eight months, Eric Madiar, chief legislative counsel to Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, reviewed the debates at the constitutional convention, related court cases and the papers of Henry Green, one of the sponsors of the constitution’s pension clause, which are at the University of Illinois.
  
  “In sum, welching is not a legal option available to the state,” Madiar concluded.However, the state could negotiate a reduction in future pension benefits for current employees, he added.

Those are going to be some contentious negotiations - should they ever take place.

Sign of the Times

Shortages in the Big Apple:

• New York City's firefighting staff would fall to the lowest number since 1980 while its police force would be cut back to its 1992 roster under Mayor Michael Bloomberg's austere budget plan, a report said Friday.
  
  Bloomberg, who has ordered 10 rounds of budget cuts since 2007, pins the city's fiscal health and its future on ensuring its residents' safety and improving public school education.
  
  Budget cuts risk imperiling these priorities, reducing the number of firefighting staff to 10,282, and the number of uniformed police officers to 34,413. Bloomberg's $65 billion budget plan also includes just under 5,000 teacher layoffs.

Ensuring safety? Improving schools? By cutting everything evidently. Everything except entitlement handouts, but that's a nationwide problem coming to a head rapidly.

Let Him Fry

Literally:

• Police answering cries for help on Friday found a screaming burglar dangling from a ceiling air vent over a hot fat fryer at an upstate New York restaurant.
  
  "He said he thought he was going to die," said Lt. Michael Brown, spokesman for the police in Rotterdam, New York.
  
  A grease-covered Timothy Cipriani, 46, of nearby Schenectady was pleading for help when he was discovered wedged into the ventilation duct at Paesan's Pizza in the early hours of the morning.

Flicking handfuls of water into the grease bins would have added to the entertainment.

We're going to have a weekend of posting some lighter stuff. Nothing too serious unless necessary. Enjoy.

No Consequences Again

It must be nice to live a charmed life. Fuck up constantly and suffer none of the repercussions that you or we would for constantly violating the contract, belittling subordinates, showing up to work without a gun or vest, harassing and threatening exes, physically attacking co-workers in the locker room, being in the media for allegations of child abuse, not being in the media for allegations of animal abuse, and generally bringing disrepute on the Department by violating the Rules & Regulations from here to eternity.

Now let's put this embarrassment in charge of making sure everyone else follows the rules that she refuses to acknowledge. In fact, let's create a spot that never existed before so we don't have to humiliate the reverends who recommended this whack-job as being fit for anything aside from a poster child for how to get ahead without actually being qualified.

Commander Henny Penny of the Inspection Division? This is what we've come to? Anyone, and we mean anyone, currently at callback for anything even remotely resembling what this person has been accused of, has grounds not only for appeal, but for promotion. Past precedent and all that.

Three Wins

Quite possibly the only good that came out of the J-Fled era:

• The city won three cases in federal court on Thursday, all involving allegations against the police department.

  The legal victories are evidence that the city’s strategy to aggressively fight “meritless” lawsuits — rather than settle them — is working, said an attorney whose firm won two of the verdicts for the city Thursday.

  In 2009, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Supt. Jody Weis ordered that the city fight more cases against police that were considered frivolous.

• Since the strategy went into effect, the number of new lawsuits filed alleging police misconduct dropped by 47 percent last year, according to city officials.

Hiring competent outside attorneys and vigorously defending officers, not only for their completely legal actions, but for their reputations sake, has saved the city millions and frightened off more than a few frivolous suits.

FOID Privacy Advances

Once again, Illinois taking the long way around the block:

• A measure that would keep the state’s list of registered gun owners private has advanced in the Illinois House.

  The House Judiciary Committee voted 9-1 on Wednesday to exempt the list of Firearm Owner’s Identification (FOID) card holders from the state’s Freedom of Information Act.

  Earlier this month, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan ruled that the Illinois State Police must release the names of the state’s registered FOID card holders because it is public information not exempted from FOIA access laws.

Here's a better idea - get rid of the FOID card. Illinois stands alone among the 50 states as requiring this inane piece of documentation. We don't know what politicians think is so unique among our citizenry that having this little piece of plastic somehow impacts gun violence but we can say that among the many gun arrests we've seen, made, participated in, etc., the number of people with valid FOID cards is well under ten, probably under five. It's an unnecessary government intrusion on a basic Constitutional Right.

And we're trying to figure out this comment by a supposed republican that doesn't seem to help our cause:

• Citing nervous gun owners who are “up in arms, literally,” State Rep. Richard Morthland (R-Moline) sponsored legislation that would exempt the state’s FOID card list from FOIA requests.

We don't see anyone "up in arms" over this issue. We aren't wild-eyed gun nuts looking to overthrow the established order by force of arms. Statements like that, whether intentional or not, don't do us much good if it can be twisted into something other than what was intended.

We know that the regular left-tard anti-gun trolls will be checking in here again. Try not to waste your time - we won't be publishing your comments. We advocate concealed carry and responsible gun ownership for all Americans as the Founding Fathers intended. If you don't want to own a gun, don't. But don't expect us to kowtow to your willingness to surrender a Constitutionally guaranteed right. And before you start screaming "censorship!" we remind you that censorship is a government function. We aren't the government. No one is stopping you from starting your own blog and advocating your position to the best of your ability. We're just stopping you from polluting this bandwidth.

Spring is Still Here

Up to nine shot over two days?

• The warmer weather has been a great relief to winter-weary Chicagoans, but it has also carried the byproduct of increased violence on the city’s streets.

  Between 4 p.m. Wednesday and 1 a.m. Thursday, at least nine people were shot all around the city.

Not quite up to a summer weekend totals, but not bad for March.

And we wouldn't be surprised if this actually happened down at the ivory tower (from the comment section):

• I was told at a recent meeting of the exempts a certain exempt member with 5 yrs on the job, mmmm i wonder who that might be, can anyone predict...ooops i mean guess...anyways he stood up and said "I can tell you based on the numbers, it appears that there is more violence and more activity in the summer months than there is in th winter months" wow this dumb fuck figured that all out on his own and with the help of dell.....this is the kind of dumbshits we have running this department....

Wow. Really, just wow.

Another Promotion Rumor

They keep getting more and more amusing:

• Exempt Promotions: SCC any truth to this?
  
  I have a friend in Rahm's camp who said the mayor elect is infuriated with the current police brass. They feel the ranks are too top heavy and way too many unqualified bosses.
  
  I guess a plan is underway to send a bulk of the exempts back to their highest rank attained. Their positions will be replaced by a private sector police contractor. Their employees will have to meet certain qualifications ie...retired commander from another agency etc...
  
  This is being done to change the face of the department from the Top Down approach. It will also lead to a more transparent promotional process for future bosses because these outsiders will conduct the promotional process and most won't know many people to leak the test answers out too. Also they will not be able to wear a CPD uniform unless they worked for CPD at one time or another as a sworn officer
  
  A special ordinance has been drafted and is waiting approval of city hall.
  
  I got to say that I agree with this.
  
  Whats everyone else's take?

Our take is Rahm's people are trolling for something palatable that might be accepted by the rank-and-file. We for one would welcome a transparent and fair testing process whereby the people who work for the so-called "subject matter experts" weren't stealing the top spots in the past three or four promotional exams. The number of high scores coming out of the HQ building defy any sort of statistical explanation, especially when compared to who they worked for and what sort of input those people had on creating promotional exams.

Spring is Here

Not by the calendar of course. But by the number of unpredicted shootings:

• Several people suffered gunshot wounds in various parts of the city Wednesday as the mild temperatures began to take hold, officials said.
  
  The first shooting occurred on the 5100 block of South Calumet Avenue at 4:23 p.m. and resulted in a 38-year-old man being shot in the left side of his body, police said. The man was taken to Stroger Hospital where his condition had stabilized, police said.
  
  The man was on the street in the Washington Park neighborhood when two men standing across the street pulled out a handgun and fired several times, striking the victim, police said.

Additional shootings in Englewood, two in Rogers Park and another at 69th and Yale.

In somewhat related news, an AdMin Fax is out saying that all crime predicting data will be released ONLY through the D.O.C. and CPIC. Nothing at all about the Crystal Ball Unit (Predictive Analytics). Have the boys and girls over at the CBU been clipped?

Begin the Charade

Here's the veneer of legitimacy to Chicago hiring:

• The Chicago Police Board said today it has begun accepting applications for a permanent successor to former police Superintendent Jody Weis.

  Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel has said he hopes to name a new superintendent when he takes office on May 16.

  The applications are being accepted on the police board’s web site, ChicagoPoliceBoard.org, until April 11, Demetrius Carney, the board’s president, said in a statement. The police board is responsible for nominating three candidates for superintendent.

  The application requires candidates to describe their qualifications, “address important challenges facing the police department” and reveal if they have ever taken the 5th Amendment in a court proceeding.

  Among the four essay questions, applicants must explain how they would improve the morale of the department, a sore point for Weis, a former FBI agent seen as an outsider during his three-year term. Applicants are also asked how they would build on the department’s success in fighting violent crime. Last year murders were at their lowest since 1965.

And here's the link to the actual application. As stated above, the deadline is 11 April. Rahm already has his pick, so unless you have received the call, don't bother filling out the application. We did hear that at least three applications have been filled out in SCC's name, one of them by J-Fled himself who scrawled at the bottom, "If these bastards think they can do a better job...."

We don't know about better, but we couldn't do it worse. And we could do it cheaper, too.

County Workers Must Sacrifice

So says Toni Preckwinkle:

• Acknowledging she used a lot of one-time funding sources to balance her first budget, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle says that a spending overhaul in the coming years will require sacrifice from the roughly 23,000 employees on the county’s payroll.

  While refinancing debt, drawing on tax-increment-funding dollars, even handing 10 unpaid days off to most county employees helped plug a $487 million hole in this year’s $3.1 billion county spending plan, Preckwinkle said long-term solutions will likely mean county employees will have to pick up a larger share of health-care costs and pay more for pension benefits.

  “We pay about 4 percent of our health-care costs. I think that over the long term, that’s just not sustainable. We have to step up as employees and pay a greater proportion of our health care,” Preckwinkle told reporters Wednesday...
  

Anyone else think Toni is reading this article and seeing rough times ahead?

• Voters swept Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez out of office by a stunning margin Tuesday, capping a dramatic collapse for a politician who was given increased authority by voters four years ago to clean up much-maligned county government but was ushered out in the largest recall of a local politician in U.S. history.

  The spectacular fall from power comes after two years of missteps, ranging from granting top staffers big pay hikes to construction of a publicly funded stadium for the Florida Marlins to implementation of a property-tax rate increase that outraged an electorate struggling through an ugly recession.

  Alvarez tried to fend off ouster by twice filing suit to block a recall vote. After the lawsuits went nowhere, he defended his record in speeches, radio and television appearances and paid advertisements, arguing that he made the tough calls to preserve vital services for residents.

  But voters responded by handing the mayor a humiliating defeat: Nearly nine of every 10 voted to remove Alvarez from office.

Along with the mayor, the most powerful commissioner was also recalled by a 90-10% margin in heavily democratic Miami-Dade. That'd be like Ed Burke getting trounced in his own backyard. Florida voters finally got fed up. So when will Chicago voters wake up?

Residency Considered...

...and any changes rejected out of hand. Before being sworn in, even before sitting down with the elected representatives of the Police and Fire Departments. Thank goodness we're ruled by an emperor:

• Chicago’s 92-year-old residency rule for city workers will apparently live on long after Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel takes office.

  After reconsidering the requirement at the request of police and fire unions, Emanuel concluded Tuesday that police officers, firefighters and teachers are neighborhood “anchors” Chicago cannot afford to live without.

  “They are more than police and fire. They are anchors in a neighborhood. They’re the Little League coaches, the hockey coaches, the volunteers at the place of worship. They are anchors — not just in their block, but in their community. That’s an investment I’m not ready to turn my back on,” Emanuel said.

  “I’ve heard what they have to say [about wanting to be free to live outside the city, but] I have to represent the whole city and its interests. ... My perspective is how important the individual members — and the group as a total — play in the city’s neighborhoods and anchoring the ... middle-class.”

Kind words - especially as he lays the groundwork for painting us as the greedy bad guys and gals over the burgeoning pension crises sweeping across the city and state. Remember, we've been contributing over 9% of our salaries and the city has refused to alter their share for decades, leading to the current ill health of the funds. But we're the anchors of society?

Nine thousand cops and two thousand firefighters in a city of 2.8 million - a mere 0.4% - are holding the whole thing together. Someone write that down for the next contract negotiations.

St. Baldrick's Thank You

Lots of shiny heads out there lately, but all for a good cause:

• St. Baldrick’s 2011 has come to a close for the Chicago Police events and was an outstanding success! 343 brave participants (42 more than last year) shaved their heads in solidarity with the kids who lose their hair during chemo while raising a preliminary number of $120,000!!!! That total will increase as late donations and matching gifts from companies trickle in, so I fully expect we will surpass last year’s dollar total of $130,270 once everything is tallied up by St. Baldrick’s. There are also several CPD members and family members that participate in events at their schools or other local establishments who are to be commended for their involvement as well.
  
  Thank you to all who participated, contributed and volunteered to help, this is only as successful as the people who make it happen. The volunteers at all three events ROCK!
  
  Also, a special thanks from me to Anne Zamzow and Bill Murphy for coordinating the Area 5 and Area 2 events which keep getting better every year. Thank you also to you SCC for all of your help getting the word out again this year. Ten people walked in to the Area 2 event and registered in a direct response to your last posting and countless others signed up as well after your other postings about the event.
  
  New this year, we had outstanding help from students at Arlington Academy, a beauty school in Buffalo Grove, and from Trucoci University of Beauty Culture in Chicago who made the experience better than it’s ever been for the participants so thank you to all of the staff and students that came to help out.
  
  The children who benefit from the advancements made in the life saving research that is funded by St. Baldrick’s are the beneficiaries of all of the effort put forward and on their behalf, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
  
  Bill O’Reilly

Well done Officers! Truly a worthwhile and fun event.