Why is This Guy Employed?

File this one under "clout:"

• A 20-year Chicago Fire Department veteran allegedly pushed his nemesis and then grabbed the young man’s arm so his son could repeatedly pummel the man’s face, prosecutors alleged Tuesday.

  Then, Eduardo Castro Sr., 48, and his namesake son continued punching and kicking the 20-year-old man, who only moments before was pushing a stroller with a friend’s baby inside, prosecutors said.

  Saturday’s beating stemmed from an ongoing feud between the victim and Castro’s son, according to attorney, Richard Friedman, who is representing both Castros.

Regardless of the history, a dozen arrests? And still employed by the city? No one saw what a loose cannon this guy was, is and will continue to be? Who is this guy's whack? Because they really deserve a public slap for covering up for this idiot for 20 years.

Pension Reform "Working"

If "working" means "it's going broke slower:"

• Reforms implemented three years ago to bolster the retirement plan for CTA employees are working satisfactorily so far, according to the results of a state audit released Tuesday.
  
  The pension code requires that the funded ratio of the retirement plan not fall below 60 percent in all years through 2039. While still above 60 percent, the funded ratio decreased from 74.8 percent as of Jan. 1, 2010 to 70.1 percent as of Jan. 1, 2011...

That doesn't really solve the problem as far as we can tell. And it certainly doesn't explain the current City Administration fighting tooth and nail to purposefully underfund the pensions.

Makeshift Flamethrower

Once again, a Chicago asshole acting the fool in the 'burbs:

• A 24-year-old Chicago man is in custody after he used a makeshift flamethrower on a police officer responding to a domestic battery this morning in far northwest Woodstock, officials said.
  
  Willie Dunigan III is being held in the McHenry County jail and awaiting a bond hearing after being arrested and charged today after he eluded police for about four and a half hours, said Woodstock Police Sgt. Chip Amati.
  
  
• When police showed up at the woman's apartment on the 500 block of Central Parkway, Dunigan met them at the door with an aerosol can and a lighter, Amati said. The man then used the lighter and can "as a makeshift flamethrower against the officers."
  
  
• Dunigan was charged with aggravated arson, aggravated unlawful restraint, domestic battery, aggravated battery to a peace officer, aggravated assault, reckless conduct, endangering the life of a child and resisting a peace officer, Amati said. Other charges are pending, Amati said.

McHenry doesn't usually mess around, so this jagoff is going away for a bit.

Crossing Guard Supervisors

Another useless spot eliminated:

• Just out. Crossing guard supervisors gone as of TODAY. No plan on how to handle the missing crossing guards tomorrow morning. No order on who gets to handle "I gots the snuffles" calls, who does the A&A, nothing. How f---ing stupid are the people making the decisions. You better walk your babies to school for awhile since they is gonna be corners withs no crossin guards der.

How about shifting the Crossing Guards to the non-sworn Traffic Management Authority people? They cross children, right? The direct vehicles, right? That all sounds like "Things Involving Traffic," right? Why hold down beat cars or police officers directing what is generally a civilian function?

Trial Continues

More bad publicity:

• A member of a violent Chicago drug-trafficking crew told a federal jury Monday that he carried out kidnappings, robberies and home invasions with the help of a Chicago police officer who wore his police star and a protective vest during the crimes.
  
  Fares Umar testified that he first paired up with Glenn Lewellen, a former cop who is on trial on federal racketeering and conspiracy charges, on a kidnapping on Sept. 11, 2001. In subsequent kidnappings, Umar said, he tried to look the part of cop by donning a blue windbreaker. But it was Lewellen who took the lead, he said.

Honest to god, we have no idea what the alleged attraction might be to assist dope dealers, home invaders or run your own robbery/burglary/jewel theft ring. You get caught way more often than not and then there's the Federal time you end up doing away from friends, family and everything you've known your entire life.

These accomplices are always going to rat you out - you're the ace-in-the-hole. We have yet to meet a prosecutor at any level who wouldn't make a deal with every sort of scumbag if they knew there was a dirty cop at the end of the line somewhere.

"Don't Shoot!"

What's this drivel?

• David Kennedy thinks he knows how to stop gun violence in America’s cities, and he says, contrary to public debate and popular opinion, it's not that hard.

  Kennedy, a criminologist at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, is being taken very seriously by the Chicago Police Department; they have been implementing his ideas about violence reduction, which appear in his new book, Don’t Shoot.

  The CPD began implementing Kennedy’s Violence Reduction Strategy in two police districts; Chicago police officials expected to add a third district in the next few weeks.

  WBEZ’s Robert Wildeboer recently caught up with Kennedy at Chicago’s police headquarters during a recent visit with officers and command staff to discuss how to bring down local homicide numbers.

  He said the traditional answers to gun violence, such as improved schools, job programs and gun control, have not worked.

Um....ok. How about more prisons? How about keeping these violent offenders off the streets for years and decades instead of months, weeks or even days? Someone want to let the readers know which Districts got hung up in this silly shit? The article is very vague.

Off Duty Shooting

Late last night, ended up north:

• A 30-year-old Niles man was charged with misdemeanor weapons charges after he allegedly pointed a gun at an off-duty police officer early this morning in the River North neighborhood, police said.

  Mirza Grosic of the 9100 block of W. Terrace Drive, was charged with two misdemeanor counts of Aggravated Assault with Gun, Knife, or Other Dangerous Weapon, police said.

  The officer was outside a bar near Erie and Orleans Street when he saw two men beating up a third man and began walking up to them to intervene and stop the beating, said Patrick Camden, a spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Police.

  As the off-duty officer, who is assigned to the Near North district, began walking up to them, the two men jumped into a nearby vehicle, said Camden.

  While the men drove past the officer, the passenger pointed a gun in the officer's direction, which resulted in the officer discharging his weapon, said Camden.

The officer managed to wound the dumbass in the hand.

More Rumors

Rumor mill is on fire!

• O.T. but important. Rumor mill has been blowing wild lately! Of the ones I have heard of I have checked into many of them and those who know or are in the know gave me "the nod" so I know they are true. I can't tell everything because they will know where it came from, so pick them up from here, sift through...
  
  The 024th district will be the next to close and be absorbed into 020.
  
  A new system will be put into place to be on tact. No longer will the commander have a say so in it, it will be based on how many handcuffs you can get onto your duty belt...
  
  McCarthy will look just about dead on this job after his scandal grows into the media. Just when it looks like he is gone he will suggest combining fire and police duties, that's right cross training! The idea is to reduce both fire and police numbers to save money.
  
  The 009th district will have their man power reduced by 10% and the extra bodies will be sent to 015
  
  The new unit rumors are TRUE and there will be a new unit put together by March to train exclusively for G8 NATO, they will be the go to team for any problems.
  
  Hollywood comes to CPD, in the early part of 2012 look for an order authorizing ride alongs for a few Hollywood celebrities. It seems that there is a big CPD movie in development and Speilberg is donating bucks to the city coffers to have stars get realistic experiences, Eric Bana and Zoe Saldana are rumored.
  
  The 019th district will still be in existence in a small way, the Tact teams will still be up and available under the old moniker of "19", this will be done because of the G8 NATO summit, shortly after the department will formally "disband" this unit of 30 by sending them where needed, thus keeping withing the contract.

At least half of this is questionable. The rest?

The Lost Decade

A detailed look at how Chicago, Cook County and Illinois have managed to completely screw themselves into near-financial ruin:

• Cook County lost more than a quarter of its manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2010, according to a new analysis.

  Cook lost some 89,100 jobs, more than any other county in the United States except for Los Angeles County, which saw 113,000 jobs disappear. Detroit’s Wayne County lost 84,000 manufacturing jobs, according to a Scripps Howard News Service tally.

  Every county in the Chicago area lost manufacturing jobs in that time span — more than 125,500.

  Statewide, Illinois in 2010 had 742,089 manufacturing jobs, a 20 percent decline from 2000, according to U.S. Census figures.

Now tie that into this report:

• A hotly debated tax break package designed to prevent two major Chicago-area companies from moving operations out of Illinois took clearer shape Sunday, with legislators scaling back its scope to ease concerns about its potential costs.
  
  The focus of deal is giving tax incentives to Sears Holdings Corp. and CME Group Inc., parent company of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Board of Trade.
  
  
• The slimmed-down package, crafted by Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, chairman of the House Revenue Committee, and Rep. David Harris, R-Arlington Heights, the committee's GOP spokesman, would cost the state an estimated $250 million a year, compared with the estimated cost of $800 million or more on the earlier package, which stalled.
  
  The cost would be completely offset by a resurgence in state corporate income tax receipts that is expected with the expiration of a tax break that allows businesses to accelerate their deductions for capital investments through 2012, Bradley said.

So these tax breaks cost Illinois $250 million a year, but they expect to make it up with an expiring tax break? What's to stop corporations from merely abandoning Illinois for greener pastures and telling Quinn and company to take their expiring tax break and sticking it where the sun don't shine?

Da Bears

The Caleb Hanie era begins:

• The Chicago Bears have been playing as well as just about any team in the league over the past month, but it now appears a thumb injury will keep Jay Cutler sidelined for the next several weeks.

  The Oakland Raiders experienced a similar setback last month when Jason Campbell suffered a broken collarbone. But while the Bears are turning to an unproven quarterback to lead them down the stretch, the Raiders perhaps upgraded, handing the offense to a two-time Pro Bowler.

  Caleb Hanie will make his first NFL start for surging Chicago on Sunday when they visit Carson Palmer and AFC West-leading Oakland.

Raiders are favored by 3.5. Should be interesting.

Rumors of Promotions

From the comments:

• Looks like they finaly getting along to a Sgt list. Look for merit packets in the next 2 weeks. They have to use money that was set aside or lose it. Word is enough money for 120 from the last 2 budgets but would expect closer to 75 or 80. Supe wants them to have some time at grade before the G8/Nato summits next summer.
  
  Budget is the same thing for Dics however Supe wants to wait until all the reorganization is done so not to retrain new promotees again. Probably not gonna happen for a while then get put on hold for the summits.
  
  GoodLuck all that have been waiting forever.

However, the naysayers are in full force, pointing out that promotions were not mentioned in the City's most recent budget, combining Districts is going to produce an excess of supervisors for existing positions and the lack of hiring translates into a lack of promotional opportunities.

It may just be wishful thinking on someone's part

Another Nuisance Suit

By everyone's favorite lawyers:

• A federal lawsuit filed last week against Chicago police alleges officers wrongly shot a West Humboldt Park man suspected of wielding a gun.
  
  The lawsuit, filed by the firm Loevy & Loevy on behalf of the suspect's family, says Pedro Gonzalez III, 21, was unarmed when police shot him multiple times in the back June 15. Three officers on patrol saw Gonzalez had a gun in his waistband near Kolin Avenue and Hirsch Street, officials have said, prompting two of the officers to chase him on foot.
  
  Gonzalez pulled out a gun and officers fired at him, fatally striking Gonzalez, police said.

So a gun was recovered, the dead guy was at a memorial for another dead gang banger, and everyone wonder's why cops are so cynical.

Saturday Open Post

Just a semi-weekly open post to address the issues of the week.

Wisconsin Concealed Carry

They can't even keep up with the requests:

• Wisconsin's concealed carry law isn't even a month old, but thousands of your friends and neighbors already have permission to pack heat and they're buying up the hardware to do it.

  Wisconsin became the 49th state to allow residents to carry concealed weapons this month. Questions about liability still linger, but gun sales have increased across the state and the state Justice Department has been deluged with so many permit requests it's already scrambling to keep up.

A long time coming. And as crime spirals here, maybe we'll see it in our lifetimes.

Scumbag Media Changes Story

Here's how it read before:

• As for the female officer, ABC7 is told she was treated and released from an area hospital after suffering injuries to her hand and presumably injuries to her face, if in fact she was punched.

Here's how it reads now:

• As for the female officer, ABC7's Jason Knowles was told she was treated and released from an area hospital after suffering injuries to her hand and face.

No note about how things were altered. Just a change and a hope that it all fades down the memory hole.

Next, we're sure one or both of the credited reporters (Jessica D'Onofrio and Jason Knowles) will claim it was an unnamed editor who wrote this piece and they had nothing to do with the offending passage. If so, then (A) have your name removed from the piece or (B) resign, seeing as how that person has destroyed any credibility you have.

Anyone who has a listing of ABC 7 sponsors to boycott, post them in the comment section.

Um....Duh?

Stupid is as stupid does we suppose:

• Seven people were hospitalized with carbon monoxide poisoning after someone used a charcoal grill inside a Chicago home for Thanksgiving.

  The Chicago Tribune reports (http://trib.in/t8Zdnz) that ambulances were called to a home on Chicago's North Side before 11 p.m. Thursday. Twenty people reported symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning.

No one thought this was a bad idea?

Scumbag Media Reporting

Hey jackasses? Your bias is showing. Channel 7 hits a new low:

• A Chicago family is searching for answers after police fatally shot a man early Thursday morning.

  Devon Ross, 27, was shot and killed by a Chicago police officer in the Englewood neighborhood. Authorities say Ross punched the officer several times in the face while trying to take her gun away after a foot pursuit.
  
  Supporters of Ross admit he ran from police, but they say, that did not justify the shooting that ended his life on Thanksgiving.

Yeah, because these people actually know the law, were witnesses to the event, or have some fucking blinding insight into the events of the evening.

• "He tried to climb the gate. She pulled him down by his dreads. He was on the ground. He got up. She shot him and killed him; she murdered him," said witness Khristian Triplett.

  "She snatched him down by his dreads. He said, 'I ain't got nothing.' He didn't get down fast enough...boom, boom, twice. He went down, and she shot him a third time," said Kenneth Cobbin, also a witness.

  [...] "My son wasnt like that he was a good young man, working hard, trying to get his life back on track. He had problems in the early stages of life," father William Ross said.

Not a single one of these people was there. And the problems he had during the "early stages of life" must have just ended a month ago when the assailant was acquitted of multiple weapon charges in a bench trial.

If anyone has the name of that judge by the way, post it here.

• "He's an excellent father, working for the government as a postal worker. He never had any type of run-ins with the law," said William Beck, suspect's cousin.

Aside from those weapon charges you mean.

And here's the scumbag comments of the year by Channel 7's very own Jessica D'Onofrio and Jason Knowles. Remember those names boys and girls - they are police haters, plain and simple:

• As for the female officer, ABC7 is told she was treated and released from an area hospital after suffering injuries to her hand and presumably injuries to her face, if in fact she was punched.

What the fuck sort of comment is that? A cop does a fantastic job retaining her weapon and dispatching an assailant with a lengthy criminal record who would have done god knows what had he successfully disarmed her and Channel 7 prints and broadcasts this crap? What a load of shit.

Nothing to See Here - Move Along

We wouldn't want anyone thinking that crazy people could just walk into police stations with rifles and wreak havoc. The media is eating up the bullshit the Department is feeding them:

• A man was hospitalized for medical evaluation after walking into a West Side police station on Thanksgiving — armed with a fully-loaded rifle and declaring martial law.

  The man entered the Harrison District police station at 3151 W. Harrison around 4 a.m., carrying an AR-15 assault rifle and a loaded 30-round magazine, police said. Police said the man told them he was declaring martial law, but he did not point the gun at anybody or fire it.

  Officers immediately tried to calm the 28-year-old man and were able to disarm him without a struggle and defuse the rifle, police said.

  Police said the rifle was in full view, and the man made no effort to conceal it when he walked into the station. The man, who “appeared to be a bit unstable,” told officers he found the rifle a few days ago after seeing someone throw it over a fence, police said.

No mention of the additional ammunition on his person.

No mention of any previous criminal record involving weapons.

No mention the safety was off and a round was chambered.

It's not like crazy people haven't gotten a hold of weapons before and inflicted horrendous casualties on the unsuspecting before.

Just a simple weapon turn-in at 4 AM.

On a side note....

Anyone want to buy a bridge?

800 Tons of Contamination

Nothing like building a new police station on a potential EPA superfund site:

• There are allegations that the City of Chicago is cutting corners when it comes to safety at the site of the new 12th District Police Station. The dispute concerns the handling of asbestos, and whether the city's actions have put workers and nearby residents at risk.
  
  When it's done, the city says the building itself will be "green" -- energy efficient and environmentally friendly.
  
  In the meantime, though, DT Boring owner Tom Shelton, who is helping to build the station's geothermal heating system, claims the project has become an environmental nightmare. Shelton has 36 years of experience, and he said he has never seen a project mismanaged as badly as the Chicago Public Building Commission, or PBC, has handled this one.

And the final outcome?

• "We've encountered hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs, we've had to lay off our employees, we're basically on the verge of being broke," Shelton said. "We are a fifth generation company, and this may be our last project."

More unemployed workers, thanks to City incompetence.

Former Chief of Detectives Clark Dies

A lot of old timers might remember him. Arrangements are as follows:

• Visitation Saturday Dec 3, 9:00AM until time of Mass at 10:00 am at St. Mary of the Woods Church, 7000 N. Moselle, Chicago, IL. Interment Private.

  In lieu of flowers donations to the Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Chicago, 17 N. State St. Suite 1300, Chicago, IL 60602 www.epilepsychicago.org would be appreciated

Condolences only in this thread.

Maggie Daley Dies

Nothing else to say.

Comments closed for now.

Secure the Stations - NOW

Thanksgiving tragedy averted:

• Overnight in 011, a subject walked into the 011th District Desk with a fully loaded AR-15 strapped to his chest and equipped with multiple magazines. Only pure luck and quick thinking allowed an officer or two to jump him before he was able to cut down the entire desk crew and responding officers.

Can someone please secure the station lobbies, lock the doors and make sure that our brothers and sisters aren't sitting ducks for the next psycho?

And lose the idea that manning the desks with civilians is a good fucking idea.

Remember this?

One Dead, Officers Safe

Busy night, as usual.

• Chicago police shot and killed a male this morning following both a vehicle and foot chase in the city's Englewood neighborhood, authorities said.

  An officer received a minor hand injury that was being treated at Holy Cross Hospital, according to fire department officials.

  The shooting occurred at about 1:50 a.m. in the 7300 block of South Emerald Avenue, police said.

  The Cook County medical examiner's office confirmed the shooting death, but had no other details on the victim.

  A police spokeswoman couldn't say how the shooting occurred, saying a formal statement would be released later today.

  A police source said the shooting appeared to have stemmed from a police pursuit, where a vehicle with several male occupants inside refused to pull over.

  During the pursuit, the vehicle pulled over and the males bailed out of the vehicle, fleeing on foot.

Good job, Officers.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all. We'll be enjoying the holiday with co-workers, friends and family during different parts of the day. Hopefully, everyone reading can do the same. Be safe.

Another Photo

NBC 5 covers the recent NIU murder in depth (go view it before they take it down again):

• A Markham teen has been charged in the shooting death of a Northern Illinois University student at an off-campus party, DeKalb Police said Wednesday afternoon.
  
  Chaz Thrailkill, 19, is accused of getting into a fight with Steven Agee II, 22, early Wednesday at an apartment complex at 809 Edgebrook Drive, police said. Agee, a sociology major and student leader on campus, was shot three times in the chest around 2 a.m. and later pronounced dead at Kishwaukee Hospital.
  
  Thrailkill was charged with first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and aggravated discharge of a firearm. Thrailkill was arrested at 10:42 a.m. in the 1100 block of Varsity Bl., police said, and is being held on $3 million

UPDATE: We're being told the hand signs the victim is posing with is an actual fraternity along with the colors he is pictured wearing. While we have no idea why a fraternity would condone emulating what gets hundreds, if not thousands of people killed every year in cities across the nation, we'll remove the sarcastic portion of our posting along with the photo for the time being.

Interesting Proposal

One way to skin a cat:

• A state Republican legislator has introduced a bill to the Illinois General Assembly to separate the Chicago's county from the state--effectively making the midwestern city the 51st state in the union.

  The bill, filed by State Rep. Bill Mitchell of Decatur Tuesday, would "enact legislation dividing Illinois and Cook County into separate states" because county residents "hold different and firmly seated views" on "politics, society, and economics" from people in the rest of the state. The bill's supporters point to higher tax rates and strict gun laws in the Chicago area and contend that the northern county is out of step with its Illinois neighbors.

  "These liberal policies are an insult to the traditional values of downstate families," Mitchell told the Decatur Tribune. "When I talk to constituents, one of the biggest things I hear is 'Chicago should be its own state . . . .Our voters' voices were drowned out by Chicago."

Abolish "home rule" and a sizable percentage of Illinois' problems with Chicago disappear overnight. Then you can apply the rules evenly across the board and start making Chicago pay its own way.

Double Dip in Full Swing

In case you were wondering:

• Stocks suffered a sixth straight day of losses on Wednesday as frustration over the euro zone's debt crisis, coupled with weak Chinese factory data, further dented investor sentiment.
  
  A weak German bond sale sparked fears the debt crisis was even beginning to threaten Berlin, with the leaders of France and Germany still at odds over a longer-term structural solution.

And somehow, those darn economic numbers keep getting revised downward. The media always says it's "unexpected," but after three years of Obama-nomics, "unexpected" seems to be very commonplace.

Naming the New Unit

We didn't even know there was a competition. And now, thanks to our readers, there won't be one. If this supposed new unit comes into existence, and they manage to trick, cajole or BS numerous officers into manning it with empty promises and lies, then they shall forever be known as this:

• New Unit=Garry's Kids.....

That is all.

End Of Unit Parties

You've heard of the "Watch Parties"? Now come the parties at the end of a Unit's existence:

• Area Four (1976-2011)
  End of Watch Party
  13 Dec 2011
  
  Paddy-O-Fegans
  Lake/Halsted
  8 p.m. to Close
  
  Drinks, Food and Entertainment
  $40 Per Person
  All 640s (past and present) are invited.

Area 5 has a parking lot memorial up:

We have a feeling the humor is just beginning.

Orton?

We could see this working out. Maybe:

• The last time the Chicago Bears lost an injured starting quarterback for an extended period, Kyle Orton stepped in and helped the team enjoy a remarkable season that ended with an NFC North crown.
  
  Although the Bears will replace injured quarterback Jay Cutler with backup Caleb Hanie for Sunday's game against the Oakland Raiders, they're still looking for a veteran backup, and Orton suddenly is available.
  
  The Denver Broncos waived Orton on Tuesday, making him available to the Bears and 30 other NFL teams. A league source confirmed to the Tribune that the Bears are interested in reacquiring Orton.

Funny how things come full circle.

Rezko Gets 10+ Years

Now that's a sentence we can smile at:

• Pale and thin, his legs shackled and bare forearms tightly crossed in a frigid federal courtroom, an unsmiling Tony Rezko on Tuesday looked a faded portrait of the man who stood trial before the same judge 3 ½ years ago.

  “Just looking at you physically is evidence of the great fall that you have had,” U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve told Rezko.

  At that, the pallid Rezko flushed, his eyes welling up.

Boo hoo hoo. This is way better than the 18 months or 2 years too many politicians were getting in Illinois.

We could lay the blame for a lot of things at Rezko's feet.

You know what would be even better now? Blago getting 20. And Shortshanks getting 30.

FOP Sues Sun Times

Late yesterday:

• The Fraternal Order of Police is suing both the city and the Sun-Times over the publishing of photo lineups that included the names and faces of police officers with former Mayor Richard Daley’s nephew and his friends.

  The Sun-Times published the photos in Monday’s newspaper with an article about how the lineups were conducted. The lineups included several police officers, then-Mayor Daley’s nephew, Richard J. Vanecko, and two of Vanecko’s friends.

  [...] The paper also published the names of the officers in the lineup, along with their height, weight, hair color, eye color and dates of birth.

  The lawsuit, filed Monday, alleges the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) had reason to expect the city would not release the photos and the Sun-Times would not publish them. It also claims the city was in breach of contract because of a shared collective-bargaining agreement, and that the city should have prevented the Sun-Times from publishing the photos.

Once again, idiots in charge of the Department who never read or lived by a contract, making decisions in violation of that agreement and as a result, may end up costing the city hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Police Shooting

Starts as a rail car burglary, but quickly went south:

• One person was in custody after he was shot by police in the Austin neighborhood following a pursuit that started with the looting of rail box cars on the West Side that ended with an armed suspect confronting officers, authorities said.

  Officers fired on a suspect about 7:30 p.m. in the 5300 block of West Harrison Street, said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Daniel O'Brien. His injuries were not life-threatening.

No cops injured, so that's a bright spot.

The subject was immediately shipped to Area 2 for "processing."

Hoff Extends Olive Branch

This is why we have to separate the behavior of one boorish CFD captain from the rest of our firefighter companions:

• An Alsip man was charged with a felony after attacking a Chicago Fire Department paramedic as they rode to a South Side Hospital, police said.

  Mohamed Natour, 31, of the 4800 block of West 121st Place, was charged with one count of aggravated battery, a felony, said Chicago Police News Affairs [...].

  Mike Nolan, who is a nine-year department veteran, suffered head, facial and leg injuries injuries in the attack that occurred following a traffic accident at the intersection of 76th Street and Racine Avenue this morning, police and fire officials said.

• Fire Commissioner Robert Hoff credited police for acting quickly to subdue Natour.

  “I would like to personally thank the many Chicago Police officers who quickly came to the aid of Paramedic Nolan," said Hoff, in a statement. "Their rapid response stopped a further escalation of the incident which could have resulted in more injury to Nolan and hospital staff at Holy Cross.”

McCan'tKeepHisMouthShut was overheard saying "there are things you don't know about this incident" and "someone is getting indicted over this" and "This isn't f#$%ing New York City."

New Unit?

Anyone with half a brain could see this rumor starting up:

• Over heard talk of a unit opening up second period, 120 Officers, 6 sgts and 2 Lt.s you need to be carbine and riot trained to apply. Going to be used as a misson team when things go bad, and lets face it in this city things go bad fast and often. Downtown wants a unit they can call up and dispatch to a busy district with zero notice, intereasting sounds like what sos and msf was for but since we have new bosses we will have a new name for the uint and new clouted know it alls in it.

Someone else one-ups the totals:

• There will be a new unit, but it will be closer to 180-200. All current sat and gun teams will be the members. They will try and break into 3 teams, 60-70 each, 1 sgt for each team and 3 Lts total, with an xo running the show.

In the meantime, following the disbanding of SOS, TRU and MSF, there are no openings posted for transfer for the fourth month of the past five. None, not a single opportunity to move. Which of course, leads us to agree with those who say volunteering for this unit is just begging to have it broken off in your ass a few years down the line. Chicago isn't hiring in any great numbers, Rahm wants a 9,000 man department at the maximum, and all the politicos have to do to staff a district properly is disband a platoon or two to somewhere far away from home and then close the openings.

Someone Explain Please

The article about the two cops arrested the other day ends with this quote from McJerseyShore:

• At a news conference at the federal courthouse in Hammond, Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said the department felt “violated” by the alleged corruption.
  
  “It's unspeakable, and it's something we cannot tolerate,” he said. “It reminds us that we must redouble our efforts to ensure the integrity of our officers.
  
  “I'm glad these officers were arrested. I'm glad they are off the street. ... We draw police officers from the community at large. Therefore, we do not always get the highest quality.”

Really? We could say the same thing about 85% of the exempt staff, including the head case in charge.

Write to Bill

The holidays approach and Bill Cozzi remains in his work-release status. No word on a welcome home party yet, but when if happens, you'll hear about it here.

In the meantime, Bill could use some letters and cards to remind him we haven't forgotten and we look forward to the day we can all meet up and celebrate his return.

The address remains in our sidebar and stamps are still cheap.

Whoops 2

Remember, trouble strikes in threes:

• A 62-year-old man held on aggravated assault charges apparently hanged himself early Sunday at a Far South Side police lockup.

  It was the second apparent suicide at the facility in four days. A man charged with murdering an Aldi security guard hanged himself in the same lockup Thursday.

  Police said the man found Sunday — identified by the Cook County medical examiner’s office as 62-year-old Melvin C. Woods Jr. ­— was taken into custody shortly after midnight on aggravated assault charges.

  Woods was found about 1:20 a.m. hanging in a cell in the Calumet District police station at 727 E. 111th St., police said. He apparently hanged himself with his underwear.

On the bright side, the lockup is getting extra good at doing those "unusual occurnace" reports.

Bears Go For Five

The playoff push is in full swing:

• San Diego's struggling offense is having trouble protecting the ball, and not surprisingly, the Chargers have lost their last four games.

  In a matchup of teams heading in opposite directions, the Bears look to continue their playoff push Sunday when they open a stretch of four straight games against AFC West opponents, beginning with the Chargers at Soldier Field.

  Chicago's playoff hopes seemed slim Oct. 10, as a 24-13 loss to Detroit dropped it to 2/3 and three games out of first place in the NFC North. The Bears (6-3) haven't lost since, however, and are in possession of the conference's final wild-card spot.

Favored by 3.5.

CPD v CFD Hockey

Two weeks from today:

• CPD vs CFD
  December 4, 2011 5:00 P.M. (3E EMS 4)
  At the United Center
  Tickets are $5.00 presale and at the Door
  Gates Open at 3:30 P.M.

Anyone with further info from the team can post it here.

Fall Crime Break

Crime is down, so only 8 shot in under 12 hours is a good thing:

• One man is dead and seven others were wounded by gunfire during a bloody eight hours throughout the city Friday night through Saturday morning.

As far as we can tell, open investigations on everything.

Impersonator

How about a picture? A description? Anything that might clue police and the public in about this scumbag? Because evidently, she's got a habit and we'd hate to access the actual arrest report online and be accused of misuse of Department property:

• Despite the badge she's worn hanging from her neck, the loaded handgun she's carried and the Chicago police logo embroidered on her hat, Lucretia Kibble is not a Chicago cop — no matter how many times she has allegedly told people she is, Cook County prosecutors said today.

  Kibble, 52, of the 990 block of South Crandon Avenue, was charged with impersonating a police officer while working as a security guard for a South Side restaurant, just like she was last year, authorities said. She also faces charges of illegally carrying a loaded 9-millimeter handgun.

  Her bond was set at $50,000.

Only $50,000? Ridiculous.

Again?

Some people never learn (allegedly):

• Two Chicago police officers were indicted in northwest Indiana on charges they were paid by Latin King street gang leaders to shake down rival drug dealers, according to charges unsealed today.
  
  Fifteen people, including Latin King leaders from Chicago’s South Side and northwest Indiana, were charged with racketeering in connection with 19 gang-related homicides and drug trafficking.

Fortunately, they waited until Friday afternoon to release this news, so it'll be old news by the time the rest of Chicago hears about it Monday morning.

The Sun Times also has coverage.

XO Order

We've been perusing the "draft" order for the "XO Program." A bunch of changes, a bunch of questions. It seems to outline the elimination of the Captain rank, all out-of-grade for Lieutenants, Desk Sergeants being eliminated but a "District Station Supervisor" being named.

Who the hell comes up with this crap?

Scary Stuff

In our own back yard:

• Federal investigators are looking into a report that hackers managed to remotely shut down a utility's water pump in central Illinois last week, in what could be the first known foreign cyber attack on a U.S. industrial system.

  The November 8 incident was described in a one-page report from the Illinois Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center, according to Joe Weiss, a prominent expert on protecting infrastructure from cyber attacks.

  The attackers obtained access to the network of a water utility in a rural community west of the state capital Springfield with credentials stolen from a company that makes software used to control industrial systems, according to the account obtained by Weiss. It did not explain the motive of the attackers.

We're sure Chicago officials are rushing to ensure that the region's water facilities are safe, up-to-date and impregnable to attacks of this sort.

Grievance Lost?

Can anyone confirm? We can't seem to find it on the FOP site:

• The FOP has lost the first portion of the abritration grievance to the cancelation of the 5th period furloughs.
  
  The word is they are not going to fight it.

Anyone with the decision?

What Does This Mean?

And how does it affect the upcoming contract battles next summer?

• Chicago firefighters and paramedics have agreed to sign on to a healthcare plan for city workers that Mayor Rahm Emanuel has pushed as a way to drive down costs by keeping employees healthier.
  
  But the move might have implications beyond firefighters' physical well-being. It comes about seven months before the Firefighters Union Local 2Ö contract lapses, and negotiations on a new deal could be contentious. Emanuel has refused to rule out seeking to close firehouses and reduce the number of personnel on each truck in order to cut costs.

So they've signed on....but Rahm hasn't ruled out closing, consolidating and reductions.

Gee, sounds like a win-win for Rahm.

And does this mean we're fighting on our own? Has Rahm's divided and conquer worked yet again?

Police, Fire Kill 21

All part of a giant conspiracy by the Police and Fire Departments:

• A day after a court threw out their convictions in a nightclub tragedy that killed 21 people, two business partners accused the city of using them as scapegoats for a "botched rescue effort" by Chicago police and firefighters.

"botched rescue effort."

If the club hadn't been opened and overcrowded, none of this would have happened. But because certain people in society feel the rules don't apply to them, well, too bad, so sad for the victims.

And if any of the people involved have some sort of insight into how to get over 100 people stacked like cordwood out of a single double door, we'd love to hear that one.

Civilian Lockup Keepers

Has any of this been discussed?

• An all-civilian lockup operates under different rules. Different union protections. Different investigatory paths. We don't think there is a CR process for civilians, so if property goes missing in the lockup, what happens? If someone alleges that they were physically mistreated, what happens? The accountability for wrong entries in the computers, who takes the fall?
• What about attacks in the lockup? Are civilians subject to our Use of Force rules? Do they even know what they are? Are there going to be Tasers in the lockups? Do civilians get trained on how and when a Taser is permitted? Are the civilians even obligated to use force if a prisoner becomes combative or are they permitted to retreat in the face of willful action by a subject in custody?

We hope this is being addressed somewhere in the switchover. Especially in light of yesterday's unfortunate occurrence.

Whoops

Justice delayed is Justice denied. No delay here:

• A suspect in the fatal shooting of a guard at a Far South Side grocery store was found hanged to death in a police lockup early this morning, hours after he was charged, authorities said.
  
  Develt Bradford, 52, was found in the Area 2 lockup at 727 E. 111th Street at about 1:30 a.m., according to police and the Cook County medical examiner's office.
  
  He was in a holding cell and apparently used his sweat pants or pajama bottoms to hang himself, according to Police News Affairs

Tie up the loose ends and put this one in the Exceptionally Cleared Closed file.

Prepare to be Screwed

Rarely if ever, have we seen a politician so openly contemptuous of a Department, so much so that he has no qualms about telling everyone exactly what he plans:

• By pitching a shutout in his first big game on a new field, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has strengthened his hand when it comes to tackling the next big challenges ahead: pension reform and winning contract concessions from police and fire unions.

  Emanuel’s $6.3 billion 2012 budget — and the $220 million in taxes, fines and fees needed to pay for it — scored a 50-to-0 vote in the City Council on Wednesday.

• Moments after the final vote, Emanuel warned aldermen from the rostrum that it was only “the beginning” and that “hard decisions” await. Police and fire contracts expire June 30.

• Aldermen swallowed the mayor’s plan to more than double water and sewer rates over the next four years and lock in annual cost of living increases after that.

Evidently, that's not all the aldercreatures swallowed.

Upcoming contract negotiations are sure to be the worst ever, with 0% raises offered and all sorts of give-backs sought by the city. Arbitration is almost a certainty as the city cannot be trusted to bargain in good faith. We certainly hope the negotiators are doing their homework on this one.

Cops Hurt in Crash

Statistically, the most dangerous part of the job many of the past few years - driving:

• Citations were written for a motorist driving a pickup truck that collided with a squad car, injuring two Chicago police officers inside late last night on the Far South Side.

  Xavier Morris, 29, of the Far South Side, was cited with failure to yield to an emergency vehicle and driving without insurance, according to police News Affairs [...]

  [...] The collision took place about 11:53 p.m. at 108th and State streets in the Roseland neighborhood as the officers were answering a call to assist other officers, said Police News Affairs [...].

Get well soon Officers.

Toothless Watchdog

A complete waste of money:

• The Chicago City Council today appointed an attorney from New York today to investigate accusations of wrongdoing by aldermen -- but not before several council members dismissed the watchdog as essentially toothless.
  
  About an hour after all 50 aldermen voted in favor of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's 2012 budget, a relatively acrimonious debate broke out as they considered whether to name Faisal Khan as the city's first legislative inspector general.
  
  
• Under standards set by the City Council, Khan will only be able to initiate investigations after he gets the go-ahead from the obscure city Board of Ethics, a body that has not found a single instance of wrongdoing by an alderman in 24 years. More than 20 aldermen have gone to prison in that time.
  
  And accusers would need to sign complaints against aldermen, opening them to retribution. Aldermen said Khan, 38, will work part-time for his $60,000 salary. And he will be reliant on the Board of Ethics staff to help him with investigations.

$60,000 for a part time job where he won't be able to investigate a thing. That's more than a full time copper makes starting out, and the cop probably arrests more criminals in a year than this guy will do in a career.

No Awards for You!

We suppose they just mail them to your unit now:

• Off topic:
  
  Can anyone confirm the rumor that approx 20 coppers and their families were asked to leave award ceremony at headquarters today cuz they weren't wearing their shiny dress shoes???
  
  If true, can morale get any lower on this job?

On one hand, we don't think it's that big of an effort to dress properly when accepting an award from the Department, especially the big ones. There are uniform standards for a reason and it isn't like they're a big secret.

On the other hand, some people may have pulled kids out of school or their spouses may have taken a day off of work, fought traffic and struggled to find parking. It isn't too much to expect a photo of you getting the award from somebody, right? The picture we got once doesn't even show anything below the belt line.

Couldn't there be some sort of compromise? Not a public acknowledgement since you aren't in the proper dress blues, but they have that smaller media room at HQ. Run the other people through for a quick photo-op with the First Deputy or something.

Rumor has it Al will supply the donuts since he's gotten so many coupons recently.

Story Grows; Cover-up Too?

If only we all had the clout of the Altman family. We'd be able to commit batteries against the police, then watch as the Fire Department brass appears to stonewall and obstruct an investigation:

• Earlier this week, Altman, a captain assigned to the fire department’s Squad One, answered the door at his Northwest Side home and said the Nov. 1 incident — now being investigated by the Internal Affairs Divisions of both departments — “really was” overblown.

  He refused to discuss specifics, telling a BGA investigator, “You have to go through the Fire Department.”

  Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford would confirm only that the incident was the subject of an internal investigation.

• Adding further intrigue to the incident is a Nov. 9 e-mail to Fire Department brass from District Chief Joshua Dennis, executive assistant to current Fire Commissioner Robert Hoff. It states, “Per the Fire Commissioner, no correspondence, documents, interviews or other requests from the inspector general shall be honored unless approved by the Fire Commissioner. Any contact initiated by the Office of the Inspector General should be directed to the Office of the Fire Commissioner.”

Really? Maybe someone will answer questions in front of a Grand Jury at some point. The cover up is almost always worse than the crime, especially something like this that probably could have been headed off two weeks ago with an apology and a "decline to prosecute" type deal.

Fortunately, the men and women of the CPD and CFD (the unclouted ones) realize this is more or less one out-of-control fire captain trying to stuff the ten pounds of shit he spilled into a five pound sack.

Meanwhile, the Tribune took down their comment sections (again) because, amazingly, some people actually pointed out that police can be victims of batteries and the fire captain was committing a felony.

Channel 2 has the first public comments by McHeadcase:

• “It’s an internal investigation … we’re not going to talk about it now,” McCarthy said Tuesday.

So evidently, Rahm's gag order on McBlabbermouth remains in effect. Lord only knows what he would have accused the Marine Officer of if he had been allowed to talk freely.

The Narrative

The media wants to know if this is legit. We said probably:

• IN SUMMARY: R/O'S RESPONDED TO A CALL OF MARINE DISTRESS. UPON ARRIVAL, R/O'S ALONG WITH CFD BEGAN A SEARCH OF THE AREA FOR ANYBODY IN THE WATER. R/O'S LOCATED TWO UNK M/4'S IN THE WATER AT THE RIVERS EDGE STRUGGLING TO STAY AFLOAT. CFD PLACED A LADDER IN THE WATER ATTEMPTING TO RESCUE VICTIMS. AT THIS TIME THE VICTIM, A CPD MARINE UNIT OFFICER, RELATES HE WAS SQUATTING, ATTEMPTING TO ASSES THE SITUATION AND ASSIST IN THE RECOVERY OF THE VICTIMS WHEN THE NOW KNOWN OFFENDER BEGAN TO YELL " GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE, GET THE FUCK BACK". THE VICTIM FURTHER RELATES THAT HE IDENTIFIED HIMSELF AS A MARINE UNIT OFFICER AND THE OFFENDER REPLIED " I DONT GIVE A FUCK" AND PROCEEDED TO GRAB THE VICTIM AND THROW HIM DOWN TO THE GROUND. THE VICTIM FURTHER RELATES THAT AS HE WAS ATTEMPTING TO STAND UP HE WAS PUSHED BACK DOWN AGAIN BY THE SAME OFFENDER. VICTIM STATES AFTER HE WAS PUSHED HE SUSTAINED MINOR INJURY TO THE BACK OF HIS HEAD. THE VICTIM WAS IN HIS MARINE UNIT ULTILTY UNIFORM. THIS WAS WITNESSED BY LISTED OFFICERS. UPON FURTHER INVESTIGATION IT WAS REVEALED THAT THE OFFENDER IS AN ON DUTY CFD CAPTAIN FROM SQUAD 1, FIRST DISTRICT, SECOND SHIFT. ACCORDING TO VICTIM AND WITNESSES, AT NO TIME DID P.O. SMITH PROVOKE OR TOUCH THE OFFENDER. ON DUTY WATCH COMMANDER MADE NOTIFICATION TO ON SCENE INCIDENT COMMANDER, CHIEF BATTALION 3 . AT THIS TIME NO ARREST HAS BEEN MADE.
  CFD ON SCENE:
  AMB 23 AND 53
  ENG 2 AND 4
  DIVE TEAM 688, 681, 687
  SQUAD 1
  TRUCK LADDER 10
  BATT CHIEF 3
  CPD ON SCENE:
  1433R, 1471R, 1431R, 1410R, 1823R, 1320R, 1499

Make of it what you will.

Amazingly Bad Luck

Phone First! But make sure you have the correct number:

• Text messages about buying drugs mistakenly sent to a Nebraska state trooper led to the arrest of a 23-year-old man on marijuana possession and other drug charges, police said on Tuesday.
  
  The Nebraska State Patrol said that one of its troopers started getting text messages last week from a person who was looking to buy drugs. The trooper continued to correspond through text messages until a meeting place was set up.
  
  The trooper, dressed in civilian clothes, arrived at the agreed upon location and arrested 23-year-old Aaron Sartin of Kearney, Nebraska, police said.He was charged with driving under the influence of drugs, possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Additional charges were pending.

Now that's just some bad luck and bad timing all around.

Another CFD Captain Attacks Police

Oh wait, our bad. This happened way back before 03 November.

But since the Tribune is just getting around to reporting it now, we figured it must be a new incident. We mean, why would the media hold onto a story involving the son of a former Fire Commissioner for almost two weeks?

• The Chicago Fire Department has launched an internal investigation after a captain was accused of pushing a Chicago police officer to the ground as both departments answered a rescue call for two men who had fallen into the river near Goose Island earlier this month.
  
  The scuffle apparently did not hinder the rescue, and the two men were pulled from the water at about 1 a.m. Nov. 1 near the 1200 lock of West North Avenue. The police officer, assigned to the marine unit, later filed a report.
  
  No charges were filed, but Fire Department internal affairs investigators are looking into the conduct of the fire captain and other fire officials who were on the scene, officials said.

Would the Tribune like some more help determining who was on the scene? Because we have a list:

• CFD ON SCENE: AMB 23 AND 53; ENG 2 AND 4; DIVE TEAM 688, 681, 687; SQUAD 1; TRUCK LADDER 10; BATT CHIEF 3

In fact, we have the complete narrative of the case report, and unless the Department has locked it down (which they may have), it can be located under RD# HT-569154 (use at your own risk).

Remember, this is one out-of-control politically connected individual who attacked a police officer - not the entire Chicago Fire Department.

Short Leash?

How about "short leash, tied to cinder blocks and tossed in the river"

• With a $60,000-a-year budget, no staff and his hands pretty well tied behind his back, former New York City inspector general Faisal Khan got the go-ahead Monday to spend the next four years investigating City Council corruption.

  The Rules Committee approved Khan’s nomination after being assured that Chicago’s first-ever legislative inspector general would be a part-time employee without benefits paid $250 to $300 an hour who intends to practice law on the side.

  Khan acknowledged that the ground rules aldermen have established for the job are dramatically different from the restrictions he faced in New York.

  In order to investigate Chicago aldermen, their staff members and committee employees, Khan will either need a signed and sworn complaint and prior authorization from a Board of Ethics with a do-nothing track record or the OK from the City Council’s Rules Committee to investigate an anonymous tip.

Which means that pretty much, the City Council and Rahm are pissing away $60,000 a year plus $250-300 per hour should anything of substance magically materialize. If God himself actually appeared in the form of a burning bush and told the litany of corruption that goes on in the City Council, this inspector general still couldn't investigate shit.

Chicago ain't ready for reform.

More of This Please

You want to cut the crime rate? Arm citizens:

• A rifle-wielding homeowner shot and wounded a burglar early Monday as the man scavenged through his backyard in the South Chicago neighborhood, according to police.

  Responding to a call, police found the burglary suspect on the ground near 91st Street and Commercial Avenue. They followed a trail of blood back to the home where the burglary occurred, police said.

  A resident in a home in the 3000 block of East 91st Street shot the man during a burglary, although it wasn’t immediately clear if the suspect took anything, police said.

• Police are questioning the homeowner, who is not expected to face charges.

A couple hundred more shootings like this and we'll start to see reductions in crime that would give McJersey wet dreams.

Another Burke Political Job

Maybe we missed the local coverage on this, but someone was helpful enough to forward us a link to the St. Louis Today website:

• The Illinois Senate today confirmed a nominee to a high-paying state panel whose political connections are a virtual trifecta: Her mother is a state Supreme Court justice, her father is a powerful Chicago alderman, and her uncle is a state legislator.

  Gov. Pat Quinn's nomination of Jennifer A. Burke to the state's Pollution Control Board passed 43-11. She is the daughter of Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke and Chicago Ald. Ed Burke. State Rep. Dan Burke, D-Chicago, is Ald. Burke's brother.

  Jennifer Burke, previously assistant corporation counsel supervisor for Chicago, will make $117,043 annually on board.

Was this covered locally? Regardless, it sure is amazing how the connected few keep managing to land on these $120,000 a year gigs while the rest of society struggles through the double dip recession.

Thanks Channel 7

We wrote about the 6-year-old getting shot during a game of Cops & Robbers earlier today. But only Channel 7 could inadvertently make the story even better. Did anyone see the picture that accompanied the story?

Here's the link to the video story. Hurry and watch it before it disappears down the memory hole.

Changes Today?

Might be. Might not be either, but might be a preview of things coming up shortly:

• Here's one for ya, per a very high ranking, un-named source,the order for Executive officers and Station managers will be out Monday.
  
  All Captains will now be XO's and are basically an assistant to the Cmdr.
  
  The Station Manager will be a Lt. and will be in charge of the watch and station operations during his/her tour of duty. If no Lt. is available the position will be filled by a Sgt. The orders thus eliminate the position of Watch Commander and, thus, eliminate the opportunity for Lt's to be paid out of grade pay for conducting W.C. duties.
  
  Bonding officers will take care of bonding prisoners and taking reports at the desk.
  
  Desk Sgt's are being eliminated and all Sgt's will be assigned to the street.
  
  No word about Det's or the consolidation of the areas, but it was stated that there probably wouldn't be any promotion classes anytime soon.
  
  Hang on tight boys, it's about to get rough.

We can see the grievances already being filed over some of this. And disaster written on the face of more.

Homicide Task Force

Is this for real?

• The Homicide Task Force lists are real. The Chief of Dets is not aware because McNutty doesn't want him aware. The Homicide Task Force will not report to the Chief of Dets, they will report to Chief of Compstat, Tracy.
  
  Burne will handle the burglary and robbery BS along with the homicides no one cares about. The Homicide Task Force will do McNutty's bidding directly by working on any and all high profile cases.
  
  McNutty hates the way the D Unit is run. He thinks there are way too many Dets. McNutty is moving the D Unit out of the D Unit and putting it directly under his control.
  
  Don't be surprised when the next contract proposal eliminates the D2A pay for all "detectives" except those on the Homicide Task Force. Everyone else will move down to D2.
  
  One more thing from your new boss. Absolutely NO overtime for robbery/burglary dicks assigned to Districts.
  
  Things are about to change big time.

And someone else is going to have to change a lot of stuff back in a few years.

Cops & Robbers is Dangerous

Especially when you play with real guns:

• A visit to his grandfather’s house turned into a possible life-threatening situation for a 6-year-old Sunday morning in the Morgan Park neighborhood.

  Marshown Means was allegedly playing “cops and robbers” when his 13-year-old uncle accidentally shot him in his chest in the home in the 1700 block of West Steuben, according to an adult uncle, Jerome Triplett.

  The shooting happened about 9:55 a.m., said police, who would not provide details of the shooting.

  The two boys were playing when they found a gun owned by the grandfather and it went off, said Triplett who was told about the shooting by the victim’s mother.

Because guns just always go off by themselves and hit people. Let's just review:

• unsupervised kids
• find an unsecured loaded weapon
• it goes off?

Hopefully, the child suffers no long term ill effects, but there are lessons here to be learned by all participants, not the least of which is the obvious anti-gun bias of the writer.

Detroit Looking to Sweep

But the Bears are winners of three straight:

• The Chicago Bears haven't lost since a Monday night last month against the Detroit Lions. Improved play from the offensive line has keyed the turnaround, and now that unit gets another big test from the Lions.

  Detroit will look to knock around Jay Cutler and slow down Matt Forte on Sunday while pulling off a season sweep of the Bears, winners of three straight.

The Bears are actually favored by about 2.5 points.

Coupons for Al

This is brilliant:

• Rumors Rumors Rumors anyone? I heard a good one that made me laugh out loud the other day. Apparently the 1st Deputy made an ass out of himself at a meeting somewhere in the 19th district. I believe he remarked about COPS with nothing to do hanging out at Dunkin Doughnuts. The 1st Deputy did not appreciate the Dunkin Doughnuts coupon book that was sent to him through Department mail. I will be sure to forward all my future Dunkin coupons to him and hope you all join me as well. I think this butt hole need to show and say he is sorry for his dumb ass remarks.

What's the Unit number for the First Deputy? Toss a few Dunkin Donuts coupons in a Department envelope and mail them off to HQ. The Tribune or Sun Times has coupons today, there might even be a few for Dunkin Donuts.

And calendars! Did Dunkin Donuts have a calendar with the coupons? Maybe Al would appreciate a couple of nice shots of glazed donuts to hang in his office.

Speed Cameras Coming

How soon until we see these?



Has anyone seen these locally yet?

Weekend Open Post

Haven't had one in a while. Keep it clean.

TASER Lawsuit

Another one, imagine that:

• After misidentifying him as a wanted man, Chicago police shocked a motorist with their Tasers 11 times in four minutes, the man alleges in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday against the city.
  
  Accusing the police of conduct that "amounted to torture" following a May 2010 traffic stop, Chicagoan Josue Tapia on Thursday recalled the intense pain of the Taser shocks, saying, "Every inch of my body was being brutalized, with no explanation why."

And buried at the end of the article?

• Tapia has a prior criminal record, including a conviction on a 2006 charge of aggravated battery on a police officer, for which he served two years of probation, court records show.

So he's got a history of confrontation with law enforcement. Big surprise.

But the even bigger surprise is that...wait for it... the Tribune left the comment sections OPEN as they always seem to do when there is an anti-police story. Never when looking for the community's assistance.

How About Screening Jurors

We're willing to bet that the defense knew precisely what they were doing by leaving a juror in place with a felony convictions:

• Court officials acknowledge that information revealed by the Tribune appears to show that a member of the federal jury that convicted Springfield power broker William Cellini concealed two felony convictions.
  
  Attorneys for Cellini said the information may be used in seeking to overturn last week's verdict.

But leaving the juror in place gives them perfect grounds for a vacated verdict and a retrial. And with the amount of money spent of private attorneys, we're sure that they were steps ahead of the state in doing background checks for jurors.

New Prison Math

Only in Illinois can 30 years in the joint equal 13 years:

• A parolee who fatally beat and robbed an elderly nurse in Bridgeport last month used the dead woman’s engagement and wedding rings to propose to his girlfriend, Cook County prosecutors said Thursday.

  Raymond Harris, 36, showed the rings off at a party just hours after he attacked Virginia Perillo in her garage in the 3300 block of South Parnell, assistant state’s attorney Melissa Howlett said. In addition to her rings, Harris also took Perillo’s purse, Howlett said.

  Perillo, 73, was discovered by a neighbor in a pool of blood with severe head injuries and defense wounds to her forearms on the night of Oct. 22. The brain-dead woman died at Stroger Hospital two days later.

• Harris was paroled in May after serving 13 years of a 30-year sentence for his 1997 attempted murder and aggravated arson convictions, Howlett said.

And this isn't the first time he violated parole:

• In that case, Harris broke into a woman’s home, raped and beat her for several hours, Howlett said. He also threatened that victim at knifepoint, cut her neck and set three separate fires in the woman’s home, Howlett said. The woman woke up with her legs on fire and suffered third-degree burns.

  Just three weeks before that attack, Harris had been released from prison for a 1993 armed robbery, vehicular invasion and burglary. In that case, Harris brandished a gun at a woman getting outside of her car outside her home, Howlett said.

Obviously, this piece of shit doesn't learn from going to prison.

And just as obviously, the Illinois Parole Board and the Bureau of Prisons haven't learned that some people are beyond redemption and reform. Where's the outrage? Where's the outcry that yet another violent offender isn't serving even 50% of his sentence before being loosed upon society once again to maim and kill.

Hester's House Burgled

Nice to know the neighbors are looking out...but we guess they're looking out for the thieving bastards who did this:

• And the animals that prowl in her neighborhood, hit her house last night. Heard on Zone 9

Victimized in life and in death.

Does anyone have the funeral arrangements?

Fire Captain to Surrender?

On one hand, we have this rumor:

• The capt was notified to turn himself in. His lawyer is in negotiation with dicks for the right time, so look for it to be around 3-4 am Sunday . Low profile, and in and out of the lockup. no big hoopla.
  
  The victim officer and his teammates have been pushing hard for the arrest, harder then any another incidents I can remember.
  
  One of the guys called every Alderman in the city for help with this justice.
  
  All this while their C/O Buried his head in the sand and never even addressed his officers at roll call about the incident,just slipping out the back door.

Then we have this:

• The officers from 014 who witnessed the incident were questioned by IAD last night.
  
  .;;...............----------------------------.-.-..-.-.-.-..-....-.-.-.
  
  That's because the fire capt in a attempt to save his own ass filed a CR number against the officer.

We haven't heard from any of our downtown sources yet, so keep the vitriol heavily moderated until we can get confirmation from our contacts.

Closing a Loophole

This was a long time coming:

• It looks like the department has taken steps to make sure no one can pull up arrest reports of high profile individuals such as the case were 2 on-duty P.O.s from 023 were arrested.
  
  Check out the new order revision:
  
  Special Order S06-01-11
  
  8. Confidential Arrest Classification
  
  a.The designation of an arrest as confidential limits access to sensitive information within the CLEAR system to members of the rank of lieutenant and above. A confidential arrest status obstructs (shades out) the arrest record's sensitive information.

And we'll bet they have some sort of "key logger" program that will tell them exactly what people manage to access the report. If Lieutenant XYZ of 005 pulls an arrest report from Area 3, he better have an excuse ready to go because someone is going to be asking questions at some point - especially in a heater case and especially if it leaks out to the media.

Redistricting Coming?

We don't doubt that there is a wholesale plan to redraw all the beat boundaries at some point in time. The question is when does Rahm pull the trigger? Uptown Update has a clue to the future. Maybe. We're going to post the whole thing:

• We received this from someone who wants to remain anonymous. We don't know how true it is. We trust this person has contacted the appropriate alderman about his/her concerns.
  
  
  
  "I am a police supervisor who has been studying the department's proposal to consolidate police districts, specifically 19 and 23 come the first of the year. When that happens us Uptown residents will barely see a police car. Now, the 2 districts have a total of 18 beats. When consolidated, the new district will have only 15 beats, a loss of 3-6 officers per watch.
  
  Uptown, now comprised of 3 police beats from 23, will become a single beat in the new district. This means a loss of 3 (on days) and 6 (afternoons and midnights) officers per day. And let's not even talk about the tactical teams who will now be working an area 3 times in geographic size.
  
  All alderman should know, and the public too, that the mantra from the police brass that "buildings" don't police is a smoke and mirror job. The further a beat car is from its police station, the more downtime that car must have. Larger geographic districts increase response time. Imagine someone shot in Uptown. The beat car is down on an arrest and the nearest other beat car to respond is at Western and Irving. This WILL happen.
  
  And please don't believe that ALL the police in 19 will be assigned to 23. If that happened, 23 would have the largest manpower contingent in the city - 400 some cops. That's more than in Englewood and Harrison, districts that lead the city in murders and violent crime. That will not happen. Trust me, if the consolidations go through, you will see a lot less cops on the streets.
  
  Finally, our neighborhoods (Uptown, Buena Park, etc) built a brand new police station with a state of the art lock-up (jail) that has been CLOSED by the department. All prisoners from 23 go to Belmont & Western for processing. How senseless. And it is an increase in downtime for the officers who have to transport prisoners across a larger geographic area.
  
  This will also occur on the near west side when 13 closes and the near south side when 21 closes. Closing a police station is a big mistake and all citizens should be complaining about it. And so should the aldermen. But they are not.
  
  - A cop who Lives in Uptown too."

Prices for homes around the local Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks just started climbing.

Pension "Reforms"

We don't profess to be up-to-date on all the pension legislation currently being debated in Springfield, but we can understand how everyone, including people with no horse in the race, can get confused about pensions.

Tom Cross, the Oswego republican, who has no Chicago constituents in his district boundaries, is the stalking horse for Rahm's attempt to gut the pension system, and he's calling it "reform" to make it more palatable to the masses:

• A major overhaul of the way Illinois government handles pension benefits for current workers won a key victory Tuesday, but its fate remains uncertain because of heavy union resistance.
  
  House and Senate lawmakers also advanced proposals to crack down on pension abuses uncovered in Tribune/WGN-TV investigations, including efforts to undo a law that allowed two lobbyists to be eligible for sizable teacher pensions after substitute teaching for a single day.
  
  The sweeping pension changes, presented by House Republican Leader Tom Cross and Democratic Speaker Michael Madigan, would establish three retirement options for government workers to choose from going forward. State employees could keep their retirement benefit in place but pay more; take smaller benefits but pay no more; or set up a 401(k)-style plan that would give employees more control of their investments but also see them roll the dice on the markets.
  
  Employees would hang on to the benefits they've built up to this point, an attempt to address concerns that the state constitution doesn't allow pensions to be scaled back in midstream.

Who could possibly be against reform, right? But it isn't the rank-and-file causing the problems. It's assholes like these:

• In other action, the panel approved a bill that would rescind a 2007 law that allowed lobbyists Steven Preckwinkle and David Piccioli of the Illinois Federation of Teachers to get in line for sizable state teacher pensions. They merely had to work a single day as substitute teachers. They had no prior teaching experience, prompting sponsoring Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, to call their arrangement "obscene."

Lobbyists work a single day and manage to be pension eligible? This reminds us of the Huberman stunt where he attempted to remain part of the Police Pension Fund even though he had stopped being a police officer (as if he had ever started actually) years prior.

The Tribune has an entire series of articles about pension abuses, but interestingly, none of them seem to involve regular beat cops, rank-and-file firefighters or even front-line teachers. It's a lot of higher up, politically connected mucky-mucks from other unions feeding at the trough and screwing the supposed beneficiaries.