Officer Shot

Officer injured in a shooting on the south side. More details as they become available.

Wishing you a speedy recovery, Officer.

Oh Mope-rah, You Hack

Mary Mitchell, columnist and member of the Slum Times editorial board, weighs in on the recent shooting of a 13-year-old gang banging thug. Predictably, she begins with a non sequitur that has nothing to do with current events in order to "bolster" her argument of a "lack of respect" between the police and members of the black community. She continues by showing off her ignorance:

• Now we are faced with a police shooting that is national news because a Chicago police officer put eight holes in a 13-year-old boy who was allegedly carrying a BB gun.

  No matter how you see it — whether you believe Jimmell Cannon was unarmed, or whether you believe he toted a BB gun that looked like an AK-47 — the bottom line is a police officer shot a 13-year-old boy eight times and what was recovered was a BB gun.

An AK-47? Huh? Let's go to the tape!

The recovered weapon

An Avtomat Kalashnikova 47

Nope. Not seeing any resemblance at all. But Mope-rah had to get in her anti-gun credentials though and resorts to exaggeration.

• I don’t blame the police officer for what happened. After all, six Chicago police officers were killed in the line of duty last year. If a suspect points a gun at a cop, you should expect the cop to start firing.

  But when a 13-year-old boy is shot eight times, and police have to admit it was because he was aiming a BB gun at them, then that seems to be the time to express regret.

Express regret? For what? For following Department Orders? For following the Illinois Statutes? For raising a miniature gang banging piece of crap and future drain on society as a whole? Oh wait, that would be the parent(s) who should be expressing regret in that example. Never mind.

Anyone want to clue us in as to what the police have to express regret for?

• Instead, on a popular blog, Second City Cop, written by a police officer, the shooting victim is described as a “dumbass kid.” The site also posted a photograph of Jimmell and claimed that he confessed to “shooting out windows at the Piccolo School and a van in the 11th District before he pointed it at an officer.”

  “That dumbass kid is lucky to be breathing in the hospital instead of pushing up daisies at Burr Oak, though that will probably happen soon enough anyway,” the police officer wrote.

Well Mope-rah, that photograph was given to media by the family, and it quite obviously shows Jimmell holding a "blunt" in one hand and throwing up for the vice lord nation with the other hand. The Tribune and other sites ran the photo for hours and hours before someone whispered to them what the item and hand signals were all about, then suddenly, the media developed a bad case of amnesia, cropped the photo and pretended it didn't exist. The trouble was, we saved the original and will continue to use the uncropped photo seeing as how it shows two things - (1) what Jimmell is all about and (2) what hypocrites the media are.

And he's still a dumbass. Thanks for the mention though - any day now, we won't be as insignificant as J-Fled thinks.

• Obviously, I support the First Amendment, but how is it helpful to have a police officer denigrating the victim of a controversial police shooting, especially when the victim is a juvenile?

  Moreover, when did police get the alleged “confession?”

  Jimmy Porter, Jimmell’s father, claims that police officers “crowded” into his son’s hospital room and questioned him without a parent being present.

Glad you support the First Amendment, so the rest of your sentence will be ignored, since it attempts to infringe on exactly that Amendment. You can publish a column full of lies and half-truths exactly because of the First Amendment. We can call you on it for the same reasons.

As to the alleged confession, we're sure the family's lawyers will attempt to paint anyone except that individual responsible for his own predicament as blameworthy as they always do. Juveniles are handled in a very specific manner, so we highly doubt anyone "crowded" a hospital room as the doctors/nurses might object. As to the circumstances of the questioning, you better brush up on the law lest you appear more ignorant than you already do. Youth Investigators can stand in during questioning for absent parents - you know about absent parents, right?

• If that happened, it would appear to violate the juvenile’s rights. But more than that, under the circumstances, such aggression seems cruel.

  Police “are trying to make my son out to be a problem child and trying to set it up like he gave them a reason to shoot him eight times,” Porter told me.

  “I don’t know anybody walking around here that would have to be shot eight times to be subdued.”

Question a subject is not "aggression." Grow up Mope-rah. He just broke out thousands of dollars worth of windows within speaking distance of a party being held by his family and pointed a gun at a cop. Where are the questions for them about Jimmell being out at past curfew with a gun? As to "dad," what he "don't know" would probably fill two or three sets of encyclopedias. Mope-rah concludes:

• But what is really needed is a level of dialogue about this issue that fosters respect.

  Without it, many of the people in neighborhoods most affected by police shootings will see this incident as another stone tossed onto a growing mountain of distrust.

Well, it's kind of hard to "respect" a community that praises the criminal and refuses to accept responsibility for the actions of spawn it has produced and failed to raise within the norms of a civilized society. You work on that and then come back so we can talk, maybe in about thirty of forty years. Jimmell will just about be finishing his sixth or seventh stint in prison about then.

501 Openings

We haven't seen this many openings up for bid in years:

• District - # of Openings
• 002 --- 3
  003 --- 71
  004 --- 75
  005 --- 73
  006 --- 68
  007 --- 74
  008 --- 43
  009 --- 5
  010 --- 2
  011 --- 37
  012 --- 1
  014 --- 3
  015 --- 28
  017 --- 2
  018 --- 5
  019 --- 1
  022 --- 1
  023 --- 1
  024 --- 3
  025 --- 5

Looks like Area 2 is getting the lions' share. We fully expect the "super bid" to cover only those districts where double-digit vacancies have been posted and then there will be minimal openings posted thereafter until the end of the year. Rahm and Garry don't want anyone moving once they get assigned.

More Police Shootings

Again:

• Authorities have arrested a suspect who prompted a police shooting on the Southwest Side Saturday morning in the Marquette Park neighborhood.

  At 11:06 a.m. Chicago Police tactical officers saw a suspect who was shooting at a vehicle in the 6600 block of South Campbell Avenue, according to police News Affairs [...]. The officers fired shots but no one was struck...

And our comment section reported another shooting yesterday in 008? So that's three shootings in two days? No one hit though. Frank Main is disappointed.

Missing Media Report

From the comments:

• OMG, just on Ch. 5 news at 4:30. West side ministers picket 35th St., say police are only trigger-happy in the black neighborhoods. Saying police are so scared to do their jobs that they have to shoot people.
  
  They are sending a letter to the dept. of Justice demanding an investigation into police shootings in Chicago.
  
  Now I've seen everything.

Unfortunately, we didn't seen it, although a bunch of our readers did. The outcry against this supposed piece of "reporting" must have been instantaneous and considerable because NBC 5 has done a good job of scrubbing their website and archives of any reference to the item. Someone mentioned it may have been an interview with "reverend" Hatch, a known police hater, racist and agitator. If anyone can point us in the direction of this hit job, we'd appreciate it.

Trigger Happy Cops Again

Darn those police anyway. Can't we just blow whistles and shout loudly instead of defending ourselves and the public from murderers?

• Two people died after being shot this afternoon by a gunman who then exchanged fire with Chicago police officers in the South Side’s Chatham community, officials said.
  
  Neither the officers nor the gunman was wounded. The gunman and an alleged accomplice were both being questioned Friday night by detectives, but no charges have been filed.
  
  The shooting occurred around 3:30 p.m. near 82nd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue. As many as three beat patrol officers were talking outside a bank near 83rd and Cottage when they saw a man shoot a woman, then open fire on a man she was with, officials said.

A double murder in front of three officers and not one of them blew a whistle or waved their arms or used a Vulcan Nerve Pinch to stop the gunman and his accomplice. For shame you trigger-happy police.

P.S. - good job officers, but don't tell Frank Main we said so.

No Police Cuts?

Really Rahm?

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel vowed Friday to make the tough choices Chicago has avoided for a decade — without raising taxes, cutting police or using one-time revenues — to erase a $635.7 million budget shortfall that will rise to $790 million by 2014.

  “We have come to that moment of truth as a city. We now must make the tough choices to deal with that [in] a structural and fundamental way,” Emanuel said.

  The bleak outlook in the new mayor’s preliminary 2012 budget and three-year financial forecast will require fundamental changes in the way the city delivers services and elimination of other functions.

We had no idea that Rahm was going to put 400 or so recruits through the Academy before the end of this year. Because that's a ballpark figure on the number of retirees going into December. The number of recruits currently in the Academy is in the neighborhood of zero, so just via attrition, we're down 400 this year, and almost as many last year, and the year before that.

Is anyone in the media going to call bullshit on Rahm any time soon? He has the Department deploy officers already on the streets back to those very same streets and claims it's an increase of 500, 50 recruits come off their probationary period on the streets and he claims they are redeployed to the streets, now he's promising no police cuts while there are no recruits in the pipeline and the ones that might be there by September aren't coming out until April. It's a slam dunk story, but the media has forgotten how to play ball.

Flisk Honored

At 001 Friday:

• Friends and family met today to honor the late Chicago Police Officer Michael Flisk at the motorcycle garage at the Central Police district.
  
  A 20-year veteran and member of the CPD Solo Motorcycle Unit, as well as an evidence technician, Flisk was gunned down in November 2010 while investigating a break-in to a vehicle in a Southeast Side alley. The car's owner also was slain, and a teenage parolee has been charged in the slayings.

And speaking of motorcycles, someone told us the Ride to Remember is this Sunday starting at Area 4. We usually get a reminder out to people with the basic itinerary, so if anyone has the specifics, post them in the comments, especially last minute registration info.

SCC Exclusive

Is this real?


It sure looks real.

Now what if someone pointed it at you? Would you defend yourself?

We certainly would. And we wouldn't blame anyone else who did. Guess what?

That's exactly what happened. With that specific gun. You see, that's the gun used by this kid...


...to shoot out a bunch of windows at the Piccolo School and a van in the 011 District before he pointed it at an officer, who then shot him. The gun pictured was recovered and inventoried and the subject made a full confession.

So the next time the Slum Times says police are "trigger happy," remember that first photo. That dumbass kid is lucky to be breathing in the hospital instead of pushing up daisies at Burr Oak, though that will probably happen soon enough anyway.

Hey Sun Times? Up Yours

This is what passes for "unbiased commentary" at the Slum Times:

• The number of shootings by police this year, as detailed by Chicago Sun-Times reporter Frank Main, is disturbing. And we know there will always be cops who are too quick to pull the trigger.

Really? Can the Slum Times cite an example this year of cops being too quick to pull the trigger? As we recall, at least 40 out of 41 shootings have been with armed subjects. And it's been literally years since a Chicago Police shooting has been found to be unjustified by IPRA, OPS, the Department, the Police Board and by any court in the area.

What should be disturbing is the doubling of attacks on police from 2001 to 2011. Almost 2,000 attacks a year on the very people tasked with keeping society safe. We won't even mention the neighborhoods where 80-90% of these attacks occur because the Slum Times readers might be offended by something resembling the truth.

We detect the unseen hand of Mope-rah as this tracks with her typical anti-police agenda and she sits on the Slum Times editorial Board and happens to have people shot on her block every month or two. That's probably the fault of the police, too.

How about an appearance by Pat Camden rebutting this slanted, biased and ridiculous attack on law enforcement? Stuff like this should be countered as soon as it hits the streets.

Shots Fired; Barricade

Earlier Thursday morning and not by the "trigger happy" Chicago Police Department:

• A U.S. deputy marshal serving a narcotics arrest warrant in the Logan Square neighborhood this morning fired a shot at a fleeing gunman, law enforcement said.

  The suspect, a member of the Maniac Latin Disciples street gang, jumped out a window in the 1800 block of North St. Louis Avenue when at least four marshals, accompanied by Chicago police, arrived to serve the warrant at about 7 a.m.

  The man pulled a gun from his waistband and one of the marshals fired a shot at him, according to John O'Malley, chief deputy U.S. marshal for the northern district of Illinois.

Isn't this the gang that was targeted for "obliteration" recently? How's that coming along? And how is it that the marshals can be slinging lead around the neighborhood and the Slum-times isn't accusing them of being "trigger happy?" Almost seems like there's a double standard at work painting the CPD as out of control.

Another Killer Denied Parole

Rot in prison jagoff:

• Parole was denied Thursday for a man convicted of killing a Chicago Police officer in 1973.

  A contingent of Chicago cops traveled to Springfield on Thursday morning to attend the parole hearing for Joseph Bigsby, who was sentenced to more than 200 years in prison for the 1973 slaying of Officer Edward Barron and the attempted murder of another officer.

  Bigsby has been in custody since the date of the murder on Sept. 28, 1973, according to the Illinois Dept. of Corrections. He was sentenced in June 1975 to 200 years for murder with intent to kill or injure, 50 years for attempted murder and 20 years for armed robbery.

  Police officers attended the hearing “in support of the fallen officer and to assure that the individual responsible for these crimes serves his full sentence and that early parole is denied,” a statement from police said.

A two-hundred-year sentence, yet we still have to send people to these hearings to ensure some useless democrat appointee doesn't get the idea that this piece of trash ought to be waslking the streets breathing the air again.

R.I.P. MSF/TRU

It's official:

• The Lodge has finally been given information regarding the fate of the MSF/TRU Officers that were detailed to various District Law Enforcement Units. The MSF and TRU will cease to exist on change day, August 18, 2011
  
  Recognized vacancies will be posted by the Department on Friday, July 29. These openings will likely be in Districts 003, 004, 005, 006, 007, 008, 011, and 015. A very limited number of openings in Northside Districts may be made available. MSF/TRU Officers may participate in this round of bidding. Those MSF/TRU Officers who participate and are successful bidders will be locked into these bids for one-year period.
  
  
• This is the reward for these Officers who exhibited professionalism and a dedicated work ethic in areas that most officers would prefer not to work. Please keep this in mind when the Department offers another opportunity to work in another non-bid unit. The risks outweigh the rewards.

The countdown to a new citywide deploy-able non-bid unit begins in 3....2....1....

No More CTA Special?

Bunch of people posting about CTA Special employment being ended. Then this popped up in the media:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to hire 50 full-time police officers to patrol rail and bus stations around the city.
  
  The officers will come from the fall class of the Chicago Police Academy and will be detailed to public transportation by the spring of 2012.
  
  "It brings a level of security that is comprehensive. . .so people going to and from neighborhood to neighborhood can feel safe," Emanuel said at the Ashland and Lake Green Line stop. "In this case, we are putting more police on the platform."

So is this a new Unit? If so, doesn't it have to be filled by seniority 80/20? There is something about that in the contract we think.

And if it is being built from the ground up, how many CTA rail and bus stations are there around the city? Just off the top of our head, we could name well over 100. And they're open on all three shifts. So what manner of bullshit is this coming from City Hall?

The only good thing is it confirms a fall class of recruits going through the Academy.

An Admission

Word from the street is the 13-year-old gang-sign flashing shortie made a full confession to having the BB gun and shooting out the windows of the Piccolo School and a nearby vehicle before pointing his gun at the police. Just thought everyone would like to know seeing as how the media is still attempting to make this moron some sort of saint.

What's This?

The Machine in action yet again:

• Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn on Wednesday gave a highly paid position to the daughter of the Illinois Supreme Court justice who swore him into office and a powerful Chicago alderman who was a major campaign donor.

  Attorney Jennifer Burke, 41, was named to the Illinois Pollution Control Board, a post that pays $117,043, Quinn’s office said.

  She is the daughter of Justice Anne Burke and 14th Ward Ald. Ed Burke, chairman of the City Council’s Finance Committee. Jennifer Burke works for the city as an assistant corporation counsel supervisor. As of last month, her annual salary was $99,948.

The Illinois Pollution Control Board?

$117,000 per year?

Anyone have a calendar so we can start planning the revolution?

IAD Lieutenant Blows Positive?

We had no idea that the people running the Drugs Testing unit had already begun taking breathalyzer samples from people. Then we asked around and found out it starts for blue shirts next year but supervisors have been tested since the beginning of the year.

No idea if this rumor is true or not, but it would certainly call into question a lot of investigations if a higher-up in such a sensitive spot was in the bag during working hours.

Dave's Not Here Man

Once again, the proposal to ANOV small amounts of weed pops up:

• Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who boldly declared last month that the war on drugs has failed, said she’s talked with Chicago’s new police Supt. Garry McCarthy about halting arrests for low-level drug possession offenses.

  Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who boldly declared last month that the war on drugs has failed, said she’s talked with Chicago’s new police Supt. Garry McCarthy about halting arrests for low-level drug possession offenses.

  “It’s pretty well known within the criminal justice system that the judges will dismiss those charges [involving] very modest amounts of illicit drugs,” she said.

  “I suggested to him that although the law is pretty clear that such possession is a violation of the law, that since the judges routinely and almost universally dismiss such low-level drug charges that the police might stop arresting people for this since it clogs up our jail and these people their cases will be dismissed out anyway,” Preckwinkle told reporters after Wednesday’s Cook County Board meeting.

In other words, so many people are doing it and the justice system has failed to address it, so we might as well go with the flow and de facto legalize it without the bother of having to go through the legislature - have we got that right?

Look, we're all in favor of streamlining the court system and making sure real evil-doers get punished. And we realize that small amounts of weed don't seem to be that big a deal, but the face remains marijuana is still illegal. If you want to reduce the court backlog and save money, go the full route and advocate legalization, not this half assed surrender. Stop being a political hack...oh wait. We see the problem.

If we had our way, only high potency weed would be legally sold because the more you smoke, the more sterile you become and you eventually breed the abuser out of existence. At least, that's the theory.

What Was That Noise?

Another police shooting, this time involving an off-duty cop up north:

• An off-duty Chicago Police officer shot a 38-year-old man in his hand Tuesday night on the Northwest Side, police said.

  The man was shot around 10:30 p.m. in the 4400 block of West Armitage, police said.

  He was later taken to an area hospital and was arrested, police said

  Police did not provide further details.

  But Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden said the shooting happened while an off-duty narcotics officer was trying to help a driver during an auto accident.
  The man approached the officer and asked if he had a “f------- problem,” Camden said. The officer replied that he did not have a problem but was an officer.

  The man then tried to open the officer’s unmarked police car and reached into a waistband, Camden said. The officer responded by shooting the man, Camden said.

  The man did not have a weapon, Camden added.

Point of order Mr. Camden - the man did not have a weapon....yet. If he gets control of that officer's weapon, who knows what could have happened. That close, in a confined space, shooting the shithead was most likely the only option, but you see how the media played it already - "The man did not have a weapon." Hopefully, Camden did say this and the media is just up to its old tricks.

Otherwise, Camden continues to do a fine job getting the word out.

Bailey Killer Charged

Good news in the wake of yesterday's debacle:

• A 24-year-old man was charged today with gunning down an off-dutyChicago police officer who was about to retire after 20 years on the force, authorities said.
  
  Officer Michael Bailey was cleaning his new Buick – a retirement gift to himself – outside his South Side home in July 2010 when he was killed in an exchange of gunfire with a would-be robber, police said. He was still in uniform after just working an overnight shift.
  
  The suspect, Antwon Carter, was charged late today with first-degree murder and attempted armed robbery, according to Sally Daly, spokeswoman for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
  
  The charges come about three weeks after Chicago police questioned Carter about the veteran officer’s murder -- a development first reported by the Tribune.

Now let's see a conviction on this scumbag.

McCarthy Apologizes

The only question is, "Why?"

We get that he's the head of the organization, but he wasn't even on our radar for an apology. He wasn't here. He had nothing to do with this report. No disrespect, but he probably wouldn't know Officer Bailey's name in any event and quite frankly, we wouldn't expect him to. He has no ties to our fallen except in passing as a part of the thin blue line in cities across America. We wouldn't presume to know the names and circumstances of every NYPD copper who was killed in the line of duty.

We would, however, expect our own exempt staff to remember Officer Bailey's name. Especially with the surrounding publicity after his murder. Part of Daley's bodyguard detail; killed a month prior to retirement; one of three officers murdered in a particularly short period of time; eulogized by the mayor himself. We have no reason to believe McCarthy would have known any of this.

But a whole bunch of other people should have. And they are the ones who should be apologizing.

UPDATE: The video of McCarthy addressing this debacle was in the Tribune "beta video" section, which we now can't seem to find. Anyone have the link or did the Tribune pull it like the rest of the media has been pulling the gang banger photo?

Media Cover Up Continues

As posted in the below UPDATES to the "Another Shooting (And Another!)" post, the media continues to either remove or crop the photo of the 13-year-old offender in an effort to alter its meaning. Here's what they show:

And here's the actual photo, given to the media by the family before someone told them this might be a bad idea to have floating around:


It has been pointed out to us by a number of commentators that he is representing one of the most violent street gangs ever to grace the streets of Chicago, namely the vice lords. It has also been mentioned that the nearby Piccolo Elementary School has suffered a rash of windows being shot out by BB's over the past week along with neighborhood cars. Also, the time of the shooting (after 2300 hours) indicates a curfew violation. But none of this is being covered in the media reports now. All we're hearing is how police are too heavy handed, Jimmell was a good boy, there was no gun, blah blah blah.

Two words for the media - Yummy Sandifer.

You think this isn't still happening today? You think the media is doing anything but abetting the next juvenile delinquent by cropping the only decent photo the family had of Jimmell (and it's him throwing up for the nation)? You think making the police the enemy of a community so dysfunctional that their children are amassing felony records before they can legally drive is going to suddenly....

Ah screw it. We can only point out the media hypocrisy and their inept reporting skills for so long before we throw up our hands. Maybe some of the extra visitors we had yesterday will drop back in, see what the media is truly up to, become so disgusted they cancel their subscriptions and the entire dead-tree media dies that much faster.

You Ignorant Assholes

This one goes in the "un-fucking-fucking-believable" category. Chief Tina Skahill of the Office of Compliance came out with a report on 12 July. The report is titled "Officer Activity - Central Control Group." In it, the report identifies officer activity in relation to the nature of their assignment. The report directs District Commanders to take an officer's work history into consideration when completing Officer evaluations. Here's the report (click for full size):

Leaving aside that this is proof positive that the rating system is nothing more than a numbers counting game which will eventually lead to "quota based" policing, we're royally pissed off at the content of the report. Get a load of this:


Check out that name right at the top of the report. The "Beat Relief Officer."

• Michael Bailey, Star 13970

Do any of you fucking morons at headquarters have any fucking clue as to why Officer Michael Bailey, Star 13970 might not be generating any fucking activity for your oh-so-fucking-precious ratings system?

• HE WAS KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY, YOU FUCKING ASSHATS!

We are speechless with rage just about now.

For starters, there ought to be an apology issued by Tina Skahill if there hasn't been one already to Officer Michael Bailey's family. Then there ought to be an apology made by each exempt signing off on this piece of crap report who didn't bother to read it and sent it through without catching Officer Michael Bailey's name - Juan Rivera, Beatrice Cuello and of course...:



And after apologizing to the family, each and every officer ought to get an apology that so many out-of-touch, meri-clout-orious, useless bosses would defile the name of an officer Killed in the Line of Duty by including it on an activity report a year after he died.

And then start demoting a few of these assholes.

"Bureau of Professional Standards" our asses.

Another Shooting (And Another!)

Move along! Nothing to see here. Crime is down. All is well!:

• A man was hospitalized in critical condition after he was shot by police in the East Garfield Park neighborhood, officials said.

  The shooting occurred on the 3200 block of West Ohio Avenue at about about 8:10 p.m., according to Chicago Police News Affairs [...].

  The shooting victim, who was described as an adult, was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, in critical condition...

Um, media dumbasses? The "shooting victim" is the officer involved. The wounded shithead is the offender in a Unlawful Use of a Weapon crime. And the victim was actually "touring the DOC" or "gang conflict area" or whatever they're calling it nowadays when he confronted the armed subject. Good to see some bosses actually base their logs in reality.

Add this one to Frank Main's totals.

UPDATE: 011 kicking it into high gear tonight:

• Chicago police on late Monday shot and wounded a 13-year-old boy on the city's West Side, the second police-involved shooting of the night.

  No officers were injured in the roughly 11 p.m. shooting in the 1000 block of North Kedvale Avenue in the West Humboldt Park neighborhood, authorities said.

  A source said the wounded person was 13, but a spokesman with the Chicago Fire Department would only confirm that he was a teenager.

Watch yourselves out there.

UPDATE II: Amazingly, this is the photograph provided to the media for the story of the 13-year-old carrying what may turn out to be a BB gun:

Thanks to the family for making the police case for us. We don't even have to try on this one.

UPDATE III: The media cover up begins. TV stations are cropping the photo and the news sites have removed it entirely. Cowards one and all.

Once Again, Faulty Logic

Cameras will save us all:

• High-tech security cameras could be coming to some Chicago Public Schools.

  The system would beam images directly to Chicago police, an would be installed at schools with the most security issues, in a bid to create a safer atmosphere in the nation's third-largest school district, with more than 400,000 students.

  CPS Superintendent Jean Claude Brizard said the system would be worth the $7 million is would cost, even though CPS is currently experiencing a $612 million deficit.

  Eighty security cameras will be installed in 14 troubled high schools in the city.

  Security cameras were installed at Fenger High School in a pilot program, following the beating death of Derrion Albert in 2009.

But if memory serves, the infamous snuff video was taken by a hand-held cellular phone before being obtained by the police department. Security cameras would have had nothing to do with the case as the fight happened a block or more away from the school.

And this paragraph is just ignorant:

• Fenger has more than three dozen cameras at entrances, hallways and outside the building. Those cameras have helped police arrest a suspect in several burglaries. The school has seen a 59 percent drop in misconduct, and 79 percent drop in arrests since the security cameras were installed.

Gee, that couldn't have anything to do with the fact that the entire district is held down at Fenger for upwards of an hour around dismissal time, leading to an artificial police presence that, while keeping the assholes at Fenger under control, dooms the rest of the district to a backlog that won't be solved for hours and denies other victims of crimes any sort of police response whatsoever?

The same situation can be found at many other high schools where the entire watch ends up babysitting these future doctors, lawyers and astronauts - Clemente, Hyde Park, Sullivan, Morgan Park, Orr, Marshall, Dunbar, Tilden, Bogan, Wells, Senn, Juarez, Julian and Farragut. But don't worry:

• There has also been a proposal to reduce the number of police officers present at these schools, to re-deploy them to the street. These cameras could end up replacing cops at schools.

Good luck with that.

Nice Save

If we hadn't seen so many similar incidents with our own eyes, we'd be doubtful. As it is, we can only shake our heads:

• Police were called to a domestic disturbance at about 12:30 a.m. Monday in the 1500 block of South Pulaski. While en route, the call was upgraded to a kidnapping, according to a police report. When the officers got to the scene, witnesses pointed to a man in his 20s who they said had taken a baby, who was less than a year old.

  The officers approached the man, who was walking down the middle of the street with the child in his hands. He then turned and threw the baby at an officer, who caught the child.

  As the officer returned the baby to the waiting mother, the suspect began punching the other officer. A fight between the two officers and the suspects began and lasted several minutes before the man was arrested, police said.

Human shields, punching bags, footballs. Is there any indignity that a child on the west side isn't good for?

No Cover Up

Just lots of files with legs moving from location to location:

• In the latest twist in the high-profile homicide case involving a nephew of former Mayor Richard M. Daley, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned that the Chicago Police Department’s original files from the case were missing for months — possibly years.

  It’s the second time that law-enforcement records turned up missing regarding the violent death of 21-year-old David Koschman of Mount Prospect, who succumbed to brain injuries days after getting punched in the face by Daley nephew Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko during a drunken confrontation in the Rush Street area in April 2004.

Unfortunately, this crime might be irreparably damaged to ever be fully investigated and prosecuted. But the alleged cover-up might still manage to take down a few people.

A Simple Fix

An interesting comment:

• "Triangle of Death"
  
  It has been speculated that the street gangs in California are training their members to shoot law enforcement officers at night by aiming for the highly visible patch of white t-shirt exposed above the top of officers’ vests and uniform shirts. Commander Michael Richards of the Mundelein Illinois Police Department decided to test the theory with an experiment.
  
  Commander Richards took six officers from his department deemed as “average” shooters and ran them through a quick 18 round low light course. A 6 ft tall mannequin target wearing a blue uniformed shirt with a white sheet of paper behind it to replicate a white t-shirt was positioned approximately 10 feet from the firing line. The officers were to step to the left or right and draw and fire three rounds as fast as possible. The “t-shirt” was changed for each officer to track the hits.
  
  More than 80% of the rounds shot by all of the officers hit in or immediately around the exposed t-shirt despite the fact the officers used in the experiment are trained to shoot center mass. It is believed that the officers overrode their training and focused their shots on what was most visible. All of the officers in the study confirmed after the end of the exercise that the patch of white had drawn their aim.
  
  Research from the Force Science Research Center at Minnesota State University-Mankato has shown that people in stressful situations scan a scene quickly and grasp at little pieces of information. The process is automatic and almost instinctive. People will gravitate to a particular item that has caught their attention such as a body part, piece of clothing, or movement. In a shooting situation, people will shoot at what they can see; this is exacerbated in low light situations. Depending on the amount of time one has to process the situation, it is believed that shooters will shoot at whatever is most noticeable. With more time, a shooter will be able to draw conclusions from what he sees and use that information as a guide. For example, the contrast between an officer’s undershirt and uniform shirt will initially draw the focus of the shooter. With more time, he will be able to identify what he is looking at and use it as references to shoot below it. This concept is not limited to white undershirts, but also includes patches, badges, flashlights, and even skin tone.
  
  Based on his experiment, Commander Richards now urges all of his officers to wear dark undershirts under their uniforms. This seems like a relatively easy uniform change that could have a significant impact on officer safety and in the most unfortunate of circumstances, save a life.

Gee, buy some darker colored T-shirts for a couple of bucks or make everyone who spent a few hundred non-refundable bucks on vest covers and embroidered patches eat the money.

Why Are Shootings Up?

Yesterday, Frank Main's nonsense fluff piece asks why police shootings are up.

Maybe it's because of assholes like these running loose?

• Three men have been charged after police say one of them pointed a gun at an officer who then shot at him early today in the South Shore neighborhood early this morning.

• When the officers went up to the car, they saw Lipsey, who was of the passengers in the car, put something under one of the car seats, according to the statement.

  Davis, another one of the passengers, then got out of the car and pulled a gun out of his waistband. One of the officers told Davis to drop the weapon, and when he did not, the officer fired a shot toward Davis, who was not hit, according to police.

  Police found two guns, and all three men were arrested at the scene, according to police.

The Tribune headline calls it a "confrontation" instead of attempted murder of a police officer.

We're sure these three were sitting in their car at 12:25 AM following a rough day at Children's Memorial Hospital saving babies and then standing on their feet for a few extra hours ladling out soup at the Salvation Army right before starting the graveyard shift at the University of Chicago atom-splitting project, but those damn police have to keep up their quota of shooting ghetto dwellers you know.

Anyone have look at these guys' records?

South Side HBT

This guy has lots of problems:

• A Roseland man disguised in women’s clothing shot a neighbor, then smashed the man’s car windows and set the vehicle ablaze early Saturday, according to police and prosecutors.

  Police say Lepaul Williams quarreled with his neighbor over an ex-girlfriend, then donned a black wig, pink halter-top, blue pajama pants and armed himself with a handgun, according to police reports.

  Thus disguised, Williams, 35, walked up to his neighbor, Bryan Stalling and a group of men shooting dice down the block from his home on the first block of East 102nd Place around 1 a.m., according to police reports. Williams shot Stalling in the chest once, then walked to Stalling’s car, smashed out the windows with the butt of his pistol, doused the car in lighter fluid and set it on fire, witnesses told police.

  [...] Williams then barricaded himself in his house and was removed by Chicago Police SWAT Team members, police reports state.

This story has everything! Great plot, lost love, arson, gunfire, a cross-dressing maniac and a dramatic police confrontation. Word is that James Cameron has bought the rights and Ebert has given it 3.5 stars already.

Dumbass

Priceless:

• Leaving your ID in the back of a cab can be an inconvenient mistake, especially if it was a cab you just robbed.

  Prosecutors allege Antonio Crawford, 29, offered up his ID when he tried to use a credit card reported stolen in an earlier robbery pay for a cab ride from Arlington Heights to the 1200 block of South Ashland around 6:35 p.m. on July 19.

  When the card was denied, Crawford pulled out a 9-milimeter handgun and took $100 from the center console of the cab and fled, prosecutors said Sunday in Cook County Central Bond court.

  But while making his getaway, Crawford left behind his ID, authorities said.

Slam dunk arrest and conviction. Now he can plead guilty to "theft" and be out by next month.

Black Vest Covers

This has been in the comment section all day long:

• BREAKING NEWS!!!
  
  This just in. . .
  
  Apparently the Superintendent has decided that black vest covers are not a good thing, and is going to restrict them to being worn underneath the shirt.
  
  In his opinion, offenders are aiming for head shots when firing at police because they know the officers are wearing bullet proof vests. He apparently had this ephipeny on the scene of the 011th District shooting this past week.
  
  At the Compstat meeting, he opened the floor to discussion of the matter. It was reported that Cmdr Kennedy nearly jumped out of his seat to agree with McStupid. Once Kennedy broke the ice, a plethera of other exempts also agreed with his finding. The only exempt to disagree (in a nice way) was Leo Schmitz.
  
  The Superintendent then concluded that he will discuss the matter further in committee, but it appeared that his mind was made up. No more wearing of the vests over the shirt. Expect the order to come down shortly.
  
  Interestingly, he didn't even think of the possibility that exterior vest covers help to protect against "friendly fire" against plain clothes officers, in that they are readily identifiable to other officers arriving on the scene.

This would appear to be a "distraction" of some sort, designed to rile up the rank-and-file for no apparent purpose while something else is going on. Continue the ongoing discussion of this alleged event, but also, what's going on in the background?

Shootings Up

No shit Sherlock:

• Chicago Police officers have shot 40 people this year, nearly as many as in all of 2010.

  No one knows for sure why police-involved shootings are up.

We have a pretty good guess. Low manpower. If the shitheads don't feel pressure on the corners, they're going to act up, guaranteed.

And here's a statistic that ought to give everyone pause:

• Police point to statistics that show aggravated assaults and batteries on police officers have risen from 739 in 2000 to 1,789 last year.

Up well over 100% in just 10 years. That ought to tell you something.

And someone agrees with our take on things:

• Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden was more certain of why police-involved shootings have climbed this year, leaving at least 16 people dead — compared to the 13 people killed in all of 2010.

  “There’s no fear of the police,” Camden said.

  He also said a shortage of police officers is a factor.

  “Trust me, when you have more visibility, when you have more two-man cars, this kind of thing doesn’t happen as much,” he said.

The whole article is a lot of fluff and offers nothing in the way of a realistic explanation as why so many criminals are deciding to go gun-to-gun with the police. We can't decide if Frank Main is cheering for the criminals or what.

South Side Violence

Honestly, it would be a rare night that less than 5 people get shot lately:

• A man was left dead and eight others were wounded in separate overnight shootings on the city's South Side, officials said.
  
  
• As of 3:20 a.m., no one was in custody for any of the shootings. Wentworth Area detectives were investigating.

Crime is down, now drink your kool-aid.

Free Passes From Governor

You'd think that after a parolee just shot and almost killed two Chicago cops, the governor would just maybe delay making this sort of announcement. It's obvious that his part of the criminal justice system needs a second look - parole hearings, clemency boards, pardons for violent offenders:

• Rosa Young-Bey Williams said she had been praying for what happened Friday, the day Gov. Pat Quinn made her one of 50 people getting pardons for past crimes.
  
  The 64-year-old Williams now lives in Vista, Calif., but she said her teaching career was cut short when she was convicted for the Glendale Heights shooting of her ex-husband in the arm and shoulder during a 1988 domestic dispute.
  
  “One day I just told myself I wasn’t going to take any more beatings,” she recalled Friday. “I didn’t kill him. I just shot him.”

Because that's what people do. If you want to get technical about it, her break came when she beat the "attempted first degree murder" charge. To only have been convicted of aggravated battery and armed violence was a gift. Everything afterwards is on her. But not anymore thanks to Pat Quinn.

And if this is the case the media highlights, we can only imagine what the other 49 cases look like.

Total Cost Was....?

Ah, the good old summer time:

• City crews scrambling to turn off nearly 2,000 fire hydrants opened by residents seeking relief from the heat required a police escort to protect them from gang members and others upset with the shutdowns.

  CBS 2 found one city crew being followed by a police sport-utility vehicle as they crisscrossed neighborhoods, turning off a total of 1,921 hydrants as of Thursday evening.

  “It’s a waste of water, and I have to do my job,” said 20-year Water Management Department veteran Richard Quarles.
  

We even heard that some districts are putting up a "hydrant" car for the first time in years on third and first watches.

And we'll bet the city still wants to meter every house though, right? How about splitting this bill with the homeowners in the hood?

Wasting More Money

Your tax dollars, hard at work:

• Chicago Public Schools has ordered a principal who threw out dumpsters-full of unused school supplies to retrieve the boxes of tape, glue, test-prep books and reading books out of the garbage bins and bring them back into the building.
  
  District officials, who are facing a $612 million deficit, said they learned of the discarded school supplies at Northwest Middle School in the Belmont-Cragin neighborhood on Thursday. They plan to pick up the supplies, determine what can still be used and then distribute some of the items to other schools in need.
  
  “School supplies should never thrown away unless they are completely unusable or unsuitable for the classroom, and this certainly was not the case in this situation,” said CPS spokeswoman Becky Carroll. Carroll said the value of the items had not been calculated.

We remember writing five or six years ago about entire store rooms in certain Chicago schools that were just packed with unused stuff - pallets of textbooks, boxes of unused computers, enough supplies to open an OfficeMax branch. It seems not much has changed in the intervening years.

Felon/Parolee Charged - Comments Closed

Once again, why was this asshole on the streets? Oh yeah, democrats in charge:

• Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy praised the “character and courage” of two officers who were wounded in a West Side shootout with an alleged drug dealer who was today ordered held without bond in connection with the incident.

  Speaking at a news conference at the Cook County Criminal Courts Building, McCarthy said that Harrison District Officers [RDV] and [JF] were both ex-U.S. Marines and Iraq War veterans.

  The two were out of Stroger Hospital and expected to make a full recovery.

Full recovery? They're both carrying lead around in their bodies. And one of the officers may be permanently disabled due to his wound.

This is an amazing story though:

• In the chaos that ensued, [F] was able to give responding police a good description of the suspect before being taken to Stroger. [DV], who was treated and released from Stroger that night, returned to the scene “with the bullet still lodged in his arm” and led detectives on a walk-through of the crime, McCarthy said.

  That information, along with descriptions from a witness, led police to Jones, who was arrested at home about five hours later, according to police and prosecutors. A gun that matches the description and caliber of the weapon used in the shooting was found in an abandoned home a few doors away.

  Both officers identified Jones as the gunman in police lineups, authorities said.

And again, Quinn, Alvarez, even Devine and others need to answer why this asshole was on the streets:

• Jones was on parole for a drug conviction at the time of the shooting and has five other felony convictions in his background, including a 2006 conviction for possessing a gun, court records show.
  
  The Illinois Department of Corrections Web site indicates that Jones was imprisoned at Pinckneyville Correctional Center before being paroled on July 28. His parole was set to terminate next Thursday.

We're going to go out on a limb here and say Jones has never contributed in any way, shape or form to society in any legal manner whatsoever. Yet he roams the streets, dealing dope, shooting cops and who knows what else. He needs to be put down like the rabid animal he is.

Oh, and the Tribune closed comments again.

Anita Panders

First up, a fitting sentence for an unrepentant criminal:

• Shandra Kidd didn’t realize her gun was empty when she tried to shoot a Chicago Police officer.

  All the bullets fell out when she was running from the officer.

  Unfortunately for her, the officer’s gun was loaded. And the officer shot her in the buttocks.

  On Thursday, Kidd was sentenced to 55 years in prison for attempted murder and unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon.

And get a load of this bullshit:

• “This is a fitting and a just sentence for anyone who would be so bold as to fire a gun at a police officer,” Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said. “We are grateful that this officer was uninjured in this incident and we will continue to prosecute violent crimes against police officers to the fullest extent of the law.”

Unless of course, she's in Hawaii and can't get camera-time for charges against a cop killer.

Job Creation

This will probably be interesting only to policy wonks and a national audience concerned for the future of the United States. It will drive leftists, liberals, Rahmulans and Obama supporters absolutely bat-shit crazy:

• Earlier this month, analysts were dismayed by the nation’s anemic job creation numbers. On Thursday, state officials were pleased as they released data that showed more than half of the net new jobs added in the US in June came from Wisconsin.

  “We have made difficult decisions in our state, but they are beginning to payoff,” said Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R). “The national job figures remind us that we can not rest after one month of good news; while there will be ups and downs along the way, we must help lead the nation to recovery.”

  Using seasonally adjusted data, the 12,900 private-sector jobs created in June marks the largest one-month gain in Wisconsin since September 2003. The state’s net new job gain for June is 9,500 jobs, more than half of the nation’s net gain of 18,000 jobs for the same month.

Interesting. We wonder how many more jobs Illinois lost during the same period.

UPDATE: Link added

Hypocrite?

Maybe. Maybe not:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel Wednesday told CBS that he would send his three children to the University of Chicago Lab School in Hyde Park and not to a Chicago Public School.

  It's the same private school that President Barack Obama's children attended when he was an Illinois Senator.

For being such advocates of the CPS though, we can only be amazed that they aren't good enough for the children of politicos.

Discuss.

Good Point About the Medical

Someone who's paying attention:

• Let’s just say they do take away our medical and give us 24 days a year. These medical days would trump all other comp time and they would have to give the person taking the day off because of medical reasons. Sooo take a wild guess what would happen on Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years eve, Bud Billiken, Gay Pride, Rican Fest and all the other f*cked up festivals that no one wants to go to and holidays that everyone wants to spend with their families? IM SICK.
  
  Also, what happens to my 24 sick days after the year is over? You say I’m going to lose them huh? Well I’m going to start to get sick each December because I’m not giving anything back to the city after they took the medical away from me.
  
  This would happen citywide in every district with disastrous results. The city has more to lose if the medical is taken away and they know it.
  
  They should concentrate on the 1% of the dogs abusing it and leave it alone.

Well said.

Robber Beaten?

Any truth to this rumor popping up in the comments?

• Do you have any "inside scoop" on the would-be iPod robber who got the shit kicked out of him (left on a stretcher and the CFD had to hose the blood out of the car) at the Roosevelt Station on the CTA's Green Line last night around 9ish? It's a story we can cheer at.

If true, you'd think that the media would report citizens are finally getting fed up and vigilantism is starting to pop up in Chicago. Or maybe not - it wouldn't fit in with the "all is well, crime is down" mantra being chanted in the hallways of power.

Layoffs - and Expanded Government

We think Rahm is speaking out of both sides of his mouth. Again.

• Story #1 -Mayor Rahm Emanuel today sent a letter to city employees explaining why he’s decided 625 of them need to be laid off.
  
  Harkening back to his campaign, Emanuel said that as a candidate he told Chicago residents he would be honest, tell the hard truths and make the tough choices.
  
  “Last Friday, I had to make one of those tough choices,” he wrote
  
  The layoffs, which will save an estimated $10 million to $12 million for the rest of the year, will help Emanuel close a $30 million shortfall he inherited from former Mayor Richard Daley.
  
  
• Story #2 - Calling them the "lifeblood" and the "economic engine" of the city of Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday announced a new office to help immigrants open small businesses.
  
  One out of every five Chicagoans, the mayor said, are immigrants, and they're 50 percent more likely to start a small business.
  
  The new office -- The Office of New Americans -- will "drive the other pieces," said Emanuel, including licensing and permitting, and will make sure immigrants feel welcome and are aware of the services available to them.
  
  How does he plan to pay for it? The administrative cuts he made to his office shortly after he was inaugurated will cover the new expenses, he said.
  
  "There's money in the budget to do this because I made dramatic cuts for this, with this in mind," he said.

"dramatic cuts" must mean "625 layoffs."

Fraudster at City Hall

Honestly, when we heard that someone had been led out of City Hall in handcuffs, we had high hopes for an aldercreature, a treasurer or maybe even a former mayor who was visiting for the day. Seems it was someone else though:

• A high-level City Hall official was arrested at work Wednesday on charges he was involved in Medicare fraud unrelated to his city job.

  Mohammed K. Rashed, 45, of Chicago, is one of three men charged in an alleged scheme involving a home healthcare business Rashed owned with one of the other co-defendants, Bahir H. Khalil, 33, of Palos Hills.

  Rashed — a $102,552-a-year coordinating engineer for the city’s Department of Transportation — was arrested Wednesday morning at his city office at 30 N. LaSalle and led out in handcuffs, stunning co-workers.

With all the graft and corruption at City Hall, we'd think they would be more surprised this wasn't happening more often. Especially at the Department of Transportation.

"Person of Interest" Questioned

Hopefully, charges pending:

• Authorities are questioning several people about the Monday night shooting of two Chicago police officers in the West Garfield Park neighborhood, authorities said.
  
  At least one of them being questioned is a "person of interest," authorities said, but no charges have been filed.

In the meantime, the Westside Reverends Association released the following statement after this latest attempted murder of police officers:

And "pfather" Phleger held a press conference and related this statement about the recent spate of attacks on police officers on the south side:

And "reverend" Meeks couldn't wait to express his thoughts:

Seven, count them, seven shootings in under three days involving the police. And the howls of outrage? The protests in the streets? The expressions of support from Rahm, the "revs," or the media asking what the fuck is going on in certain communities?

Deafening silence.

But hey, that pension legislation is coming up soon. We're sure they'll have lots to say then.

New Communications Director?

We assume this is Rahm's pick, but what's a "communications director" for the police department?

• Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's senior press secretary announced today she is leaving Los Angeles for her native Chicago to be the communications director for that city's police department.

  Sarah Hamilton will step down from the Los Angeles mayor's staff on Friday. She will start her new job in mid-August.

Are we creating spots again? And how many hundred thousand is this job worth?

"Heat," Bacteria, Fog?

How the heck did Rahm pull this one off?

• All but one of Chicago's beaches were under swim bans today after lifeguards determined they could not keep swimmers safe because fog was limiting visibility.
  
  The bans were posted just before noon and will be lifted when the fog burns off, according to Jessica Maxey-Faulkner, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Park District. Check the district's online beach report for updates.
  
  At first, the Park District said only North Avenue and Oak Street beaches were closed because of fog. But at about 2:25 p.m., the ban was extended to all city beaches. As of about 6 p.m., all the beaches had swim bans except for the 12th Street Beach.

Reports from one of the beaches tell of a sulfurous stench, not unlike that associated with satanic worship, which would actually explain quite a bit of Rahm's deal making abilities.

Government Raises

First up, Jesse White gives away 6% raises:

• At a time when pay raises are a distant memory and unpaid leave a reality for many area government workers, Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White has handed out pay hikes exceeding 6% to his entire executive staff.

  According to payroll data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Better Government Assn., Mr. White in the 12-month period ended May 31 gave 4% and then 2% raises to roughly 250 non-union administrative personnel, almost all of them policymakers, supervisors or their clerical assistants.

  The hikes collectively are costing taxpayers an extra $78,000 a month.

And Quinn is finding out what the word "contract" means:

• Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn violated the union contract with nearly 30,000 state workers by refusing to give them a pay raise July 1, an arbitrator ruled Tuesday.
  
  Edwin Benn ordered Quinn to start paying the 2 percent increase and provide back pay within 30 days.
  
  "As a matter of contract, the state cannot simply refuse to pay the increase," Benn wrote in his opinion.

Quinn has promised an appeal, enriching another generation of lawyers.

Crime Still Down; 3 Shot

Mmmm...Kool-Aid:

• Three people were shot, including an 18-year-old man fatally shot in the chest, in an attack this afternoon in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side.
  
  Also injured was a 17-year-old boy and a man, 87, who was sitting on a porch, authorities said. The boy was shot in the stomach and the 87-year-old man suffered a graze wound to the arm, said Chicago Police News Affairs [...].
  
  The shooting happened at about 4 p.m. near the intersection of 70^th Street and Parnell Avenue.

Police involved shootings aside, it's been a mess these past few days. Anyone got the totals for the heat wave so far?

Condensation Killing

This one will rank right up there with "chicken wing," "turkey leg," and many others:

• A dripping window air conditioner led to the execution-style killing of a West Side man, police said Monday.

  Charles Sims, 28, shot Jimmy Parker eight times about 2 a.m. on June 2, police said. Sims appeared in court Monday on a charge of first-degree murder. He is being held without bond.

  Sims’ sister had complained to him that Parker dropped water on her from the window of an apartment building in the 5600 block of West Washington, police said.

This story has everything! Drama. Suspense. An unforgettable cast of characters. And another example of exactly what's wrong with Chicago's 9-1-1 system:

• The warm water fell on Sims’ sister when she returned home to the building shortly before midnight on June 1, police said. She called police to report the incident.

The ghetto understanding of thermodynamics notwithstanding, how in the hell was this a police matter (before the shooting we mean)? Air conditioners drip. They also hang out windows and are difficult to move quickly, so she had to have looked up and seen it wasn't Parker, but a machine in the window. And someone took this call. Amazing.

And here's a miracle of sorts:

• Six witnesses have identified Sims as the shooter...

That has to be a rarity. We would have labeled this entire piece "un-fucking-believable," but in actuality, we aren't even surprised. Judging from the comments in the Sun Times though, plenty of people are surprised. Welcome to the real world.

More Shooting

92nd and Justine, shots fired at the police.

Numerous calls for assistance. No word on anyone hit yet.

Very bad start to the heat wave.

UPDATE: Bad guy hit.

Two Cops Shot - "Not Life Threatening"

Besides the fact that they both have more holes in them than they started with:

• Two Chicago police officers were shot late Monday and a third person wounded in the West Garfield Park neighborhood, authorities said.

  The shooting occurred at about 10:45 p.m. near the intersection of Gladys and Karlov avenues, police said, citing preliminary information.

  Both officers suffered non life threatening wounds, officials said. A third man suffered a gunshot wound to the head, officials said. His role in the shooting wasn't immediately known.

No word if the wounded person was the intended target or the offender.

UPDATE: Depending on the veracity of the post directly below this one, this may be the sixth shooting in under 72 hours involving the police. Be very very careful out there. No relief in sight from the heat. Or the assholes.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery for the officers.

UPDATE: Ongoing manhunt according to Shaved. His top comment section has a play by play of the past hour or so.

A Fifth Shooting?

Several comments during the day today about a shooting in 010. Anyone have details? That would make five separate police involved shootings in under 30 hours.

All That Tax Money....Gone!

Rahm has to be figuratively kicking Daley in the shorts:

• Illinois' 10th casino opened in Des Plaines today after years of legal and regulatory fights over its gambling license -- and the result was so successful that casino operators would like people to stay away ... at least for now.

• The traffic jam earlier had local police warning people to steer clear of the area if they can.

  Police said traffic was at a standstill from drivers heading to the casino, with the area near River Road and Devon Avenue jammed up, especially southbound on River from Howard Street, which is north of Touhy Avenue, police said. They expected the situation to continue tonight.

Of course, the newness will wear off in a bit, but being so close to Chicago will continue to bring in people from the northern suburbs too nervous to go to Gary, Indiana and who wouldn't come into Chicago lately.

Come to think of it, Rahm is probably cursing Quinn right about now, too.

Double Counting Again

Rahm's campaign pledge to put 1,000 more officers on the street continues to gather a smell around it, not unlike the alewives that wash ashore on beaches across Chicagoland:

• Ninety-two police officers from administrative positions and some new recruits will be placed on street beats, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Police Dept. Supt. Garry McCarthy announced Sunday during a press conference at a Far South Side park.
  
  [...] Of these 92 officers, 53 are graduated recruits from the Chicago Police Academy.
  
  
• Starting July 21st, the 53 Probationary Police Officers, who graduated from the Police Academy last spring, will be deployed to districts 4, 6, 8, 10, 15 and 24.
  

So 53 of these officers, who have already been on the street since last spring, are finally off probation, so Rahm's going to count them as "on the street"?

Just where the hell did they serve their probation then?

Redeploying almost 500 officers from a couple of street unit into districts might give the districts more flexibility in terms of addressing localized problems, but it isn't putting officers "on the street" by any stretch of the imagination. Neither is this.

Unless of course you're the Chicago Sun Times sucking on Rahm's ass in an attempt to build up his record for a future senate or presidential run - then it's gold, especially to the uninformed.

This is a Bitch Move if True (UPDATED)

It certainly seems illegal, not to mention childish:

• Time:16Jul11
  Where: 023rd Dist 3rd Watch
  When : 1400 hrs, 1530 hrs, 1700 hrs
  
  Capt TJL walks into roll call and breaks into a crazy rant about recent Medical Roll Abuses, 2 officers hit the Medical prior to start of tour 2day, ( alleged)... This Capt. of Police goes into a rant and reads EVERY OFFICER ON 3RD WATCH, WHO IS ON THE MEDICAL/IOD, READS Their names , and Their ailement , and then goes on to give his own medical opinion of whether they are really Ill/Injured or just malingering.... UNF***ING BELIEVABLE. Then this Capt. says that he will put all officers who use the Medical on a Rapid Car, since they obivously need rest before starting work......... This guy calls out Officers by name and says specifically that if they were " to be working on a loading dock with a bad back, they would show up to work on the loading dock to work with their bad back",,, This Capt. TJL then says thAt OUR MEDICAL ROLL POLICY IS DONE, OVER, ITS ANTIQUATED, AND DETRIMENTAL TO POLICE FUNCTIONS IN ITS CURRWENT FORM AND THAT MAYOR EMANUEL WILL SEE TO IT THAT IT'S ABOLISHED"..........He was loud, ranting, obnoxious, and read EVERY OFFICER'S NAME ON THE MEDICAL IN FRONT OF OFFICERS AT ROLL CALL AND SAID BASICALLY THAT ALMOST EVERYONE WAS MILKING THE SYSTEM EXCEPT FOR SOME HE SAID HE WISHED WOULD GET BETTER...... Hey SCC, FOP, is this a grievance???? I know you could get 20 plus To/Froms supporting this post.... Just asking?

  7/17/2011 01:44:00 AM

Someone has to start the ball rolling by stepping up and filing the proper grievance, most likely one of the parties named during the roll call. They'll also have to have a few of the attendees step up and put pen to paper since they didn't actually witness the violation of HIPAA.

Even if it isn't a HIPAA violation, it is definitely a misuse of a Department database. What possible use could there be for a Department supervisor to use specific individual medical records at a Roll Call? This doesn't appear to be for training purposes, but rather to humiliate and denigrate, both of which are violations of the Rules and Regulations.

If they can threaten to discipline coppers for simply looking up a case report, they ought to be able to fire a captain who violates individual employees' rights to privacy.

UPDATE: To the individual attempting to post one or more of the officers' circumstances for being on the Medical Roll, nice try.

To the other asshat or two claiming the blog defends the dogs, you've lost sight of the big picture again. There should be a process in place to address Medical Roll abuse. The fact that the Department lacks the balls to do anything about it due to certain "considerations" isn't the issue. The issue is the blatant violation committed by the captain.

Two More Police Shootings

It's getting crazier out there:

• Chicago police exchanged gunfire with a gunman on evening Sunday in the city's Southeast Side, officials said.
  
  No one was injured during the brief encounter that happened at about 8 p.m. in the 2500 block of East 82nd Street, police said.
  
  Patrolling officers followed the sound of gunshots to two men, who each fled in separate directions upon seeing the officers...
  
  One of the the men pulled and handgun and fired at the pursuing officers, who returned fire...

And again:

• Chicago police shot and wounded a person late Sunday night on the Northwest Side Cragin neighborhood, authorities said.

  Police had few details on the shooting that they say happened in the 2900 block of West Lotus Avenue, police said. Only one person was reported wounded and no officers were reported injured, a police spokesman said.

Four shootings in two days? Those damn police is out of control!

In any event, continue to make sure it's us going home every night.

Orange One Earning His Green

Pat Camden making another appearance tonight at a second police shooting within 12 hours:

• Police shot and killed a man when he took a woman hostage outside of a club in the Gresham neighborhood on the South Side early this morning, police said.
  
  At 12:40 a.m., police received a 911 call of a man with a gun near South Ashland Avenue and West 80th Street, said Pat Camden with the Fraternal Order of Police. Gresham District officers responded and saw a large group of people coming out of a club in the area. The officers saw a man who had taken a woman hostage, Camden said. "He had his arm around her neck and was holding her in front of him," Camden said.
  
  Officers began to struggle with the man during which the woman was able to get away, unhurt, Camden said. The man reached for a weapon in his waistband which prompted police to fatally shoot the man, he said.

So once again, best wishes to the involved Officers. Watch yourselves.