Other Media Notices BS

A nice find by a reader:

• There used to be wisdom among police officers that said something like this: Don't take credit for things when they are good unless you are ready to take the blame when things go bad. In the "Hooray for Hollywood" mode that Chicago has been since Rahm Emanuel's Grant Park inauguration in May 2011, however, even an act of God can be spun, at least temporarily, as the work of the mayor (and his "team"). So, as temperatures dropped in Chicago on January 18 and January 19, 2012, Rahm Emanuel announced, via the Office of the Mayor, in a press release, as follows:

We're not going to reprint the bullshit press release. Needless to say though, certain Department personnel had their tongues so far up Rahm's backside, it was hard to tell where one ended and the other began. The story continues:

• This one ranks in the "You've got to be kidding" department. Every cop and every citizen knows that Chicago experiences fewer crimes when the weather gets bitter cold for two reasons. One, there are fewer people on the streets. Two, many of the crimes, gun and otherwise, are taking place indoors and aren't discovered until later.

  Rahm Emanuel has made a bigger and bigger joke of the relentless publicity stunts he has been touting since he took over as mayor in May. The place where the most ludicrous of these has been at Chicago Public Schools, where "The Outsiders", a team led by former Rochester Supt. Jean-Claude Brizard and The Wilmette Wonder Tim Cawley, have re- re- re-invented every wheel. But at the Chicago Police Department, under former Newark, New Jersey, top cop Garry McCarthy, the touting and stunting is almost as big. We don't know whether Garry warned Rahm that taking credit for less street crime in bitter cold weather was a bad idea, but we can't wait for next summer. Will Chicago's corporate media ask Rahm, as the hot weather moves through July and August, about how many "no gun violence days" he's responsible for then?

Unsaid in all this is that there were plenty of gun crimes during the time frame quoted. We responded to at least two calls ourselves that day - "Man with a Gun" and "Shots Fired." In both cases, no crime was observed, no scene was located, no offender or victim came forward. Does that mean it didn't happen? Maybe. But equally as likely is that the offender fled and no report was generated - 19Paul.

Taking credit means taking the blame at some point, and we're pretty sure everyone reading here knows that isn't going to happen.