Low Class Wysinger

We're actually thinking of changing Al's name to "Weis-inger" if he manages to get to the top spot.

In the meantime, Al demonstrated just how far he's gone down the kool-aid highway by taking a very public swipe at Gene Williams after McHighStress got called away for an important phone call:

• McCarthy will be admitted to Jackson park soon, even Chief Treacy knew he was losing it. Funny how just when it was getting even crazier Mcwhackjob got a message on his blackberry and had to leave.
  But good ole Al maintained the madness by telling gene Williams that his head was on the "chopping block" over this time due issue. There is some feud between the two of them but Al needs to be a man and a good boss and handle that shit in private. Degrading a subordinate in front of others never accomplishes anything. I understand that's the way they do it in new york, but this isn't new York you group of morons.

This certainly isn't New York, and acting like a low-class asshole seems to be the new "in" thing at ConStat meetings. But that shit in Chicago just doesn't motivate us at all.

Profound Thoughts

From a number of comments over the past day or so. First up is a comment on the decision to destroy without testing any and all of the weapons turned in.

• Where's the media on this?
  
  What if we threw out 5,000 rape kits w/o testing them? The liberals would go into a tizzy ....

Where indeed. The collective outcry would be enough to deafen the most tone-deaf politico. Nice catch.

Next is about the "Who raised you" quote by 9.5:

• Rahm, who raised you? How were you raised?
  
  You're in charge, but you don't do anything to fix the problem.
  You don't hire police, you reward gang bangers.
  You don't hire police, you enrich your buddies by buying cameras.
  You don't reward and support the few police you have, you try to undermine them and make their lives more difficult at every turn.
  Buy a mirror Rahm, step up on a stool and gaze into it.
  You'll get a terrific view of the problem.

It's almost like a bunch of philosophers are reading the blog.

NATO Numbers

They go up. They go down. Sideways is next. And no two sets seem to match:

• Policing the NATO summit last month racked up about $15 million in overtime for Chicago Police officers, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration said Friday as it released documents seeking reimbursement for the costs from the federal government and the summit host committee.
  
  The city sent letters dated June 29 to multiple government agencies asking for the release of funds earmarked for the city’s NATO costs. That includes $7.5 million designated by Congress when the NATO summit received National Special Security Event status, as well as another nearly $4 million in federal grant funds.

This will go on for years, and Rahm will nickel and dime everyone to death.

Hey Rahm? Who Raised This Kid?

Yeah, it's Evanston. But it's a legit question:

• A 13-year-old boy held a gun to the head of a cabdriver and stole $200 and a cellphone from him, Evanston police said Friday, announcing the boy’s arrest in that and another robbery this week.

  Wednesday about 1 a.m., the boy grabbed a cabdriver around the neck and robbed him at gunpoint in his taxi near Hovland Court and Emerson Street, said Police Cmdr. Jay Parrott. The boy stole cash and a cell phone from the driver, police said. No weapon has been recovered.

  Police said the boy also is accused of punching another juvenile in the face and stealing his headphones about 2:30 p.m. Monday near the corner of Church Street and Dodge Avenue.

  Authorities are pursuing robbery and aggravated assault citations against the boy in juvenile court, police said.

We're guessing it may be a single parent household to start....

"Snapped"

Is this an affirmative defense?

• A South Side man told police he “just snapped” when he killed his 62-year-old mother for being “a nag,” prosecutors alleged Friday.

  Earnest McGee, 34, told police Aletha McGee was driving him crazy when he shot her six times earlier this week while she sat in a recliner in her basement in the 9000 block of South Dobson, assistant Cook County state’s attorney Jamie Santini said.

  “I just snapped, that’s all,” Earnest McGee said, according to prosecutors.

We wonder who raised him.

Oh wait, it's the dead woman. Sorry about that.

Fuck You Wysinger

First up, thanks to SCC for letting us run the site today as they were en route to the hidden bunker.

Secondly, can anyone reach over and slap Wysinger for us? Talk about forgetting where you came from. We got this after the CompStat meeting today:

• CompStat is out of control today SCC. McCarthy raked ol' Carrothers over the coals again for some low performing Area teams. One team that produced only 1 arrest and 105 Contact Cards in a month was recommended for immediate dumping. Wysinger concurred stating, "Maybe they should go back to a slow district where they don't have to do anything." While I understand teams are a good spot if you produce for the boss, why be so deliberately negative toward traditionally slow districts? Are they looking to cut manpower ever more in the slow parts of town?
  
  Then it got real bad.
  
  McCarthy and others kept harping on manpower considerations. McCarthy actually asked if Time Due should be removed from the Watch/District control and given to the Areas for granting/denying time off. Then Wysinger, in a kool-aid induced fit, actually stated to the assembled gold stars and other attendees of all ranks that "There should be NO TIME DUE GRANTED FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE." I didn't get to write down the exact quote, but Wysinger told everyone that the city had given the Department the "4 on - 2 off" schedule, so Time Due shouldn't even be an issue. After all, you get 15 extra days off a year. No need to take off Saturdays, Sundays or plan for family days, ball games, whatever.
  
  This place is truly circling the drain.

OK, so no more Time Due for anyone? All summer? All year? Fuck you Wysinger. You were a worthless cop when we knew you, a multiple-time promoted merit hack, a thief of awards that better cops than you have paid for in blood and you've only gotten worse with age. Now you're drinking the Rahm/McCarthy koolaid by the barrel full and we're pretty sure that isn't a sugar glaze on your face. You disgust us and we're damn glad all we see of this Department is in our rearview mirror.

Anyone who was at this meeting ought to be calling FOP and asking if the Department, specifically Al Wysinger, can deny you time off that you've earned. Time Due means that it's "DUE" to the men and women who have it. Stop fucking with the troops.

What Can You Say?

Leaving aside the time of day, no 7-year-old should catch a stray round:

• Late Wednesday night, Banks' 7-year-old daughter Heaven was sitting next to Banks as she sold snacks and snow cones when someone opened fire down the street around 10:45 p.m. A stray bullet hit the little girl as she ran back to her house in the 1700 block of North Luna Avenue, police and family say.
  
  Heaven was shot in the back and died half an hour later.

This, however, is completely asinine:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Thursday lashed out at the gang thugs who shot and killed a 7-year-old selling lemonade under her mother’s watch in the latest example of the gang violence that’s driving a 38 percent spike in Chicago homicides.

  Emanuel clearly seems to be running out of things to say when innocent kids are caught in the gang crossfire or when bodies and shooting victims pile up after each summer weekend.

  So he took a new tact after the Wednesday night murder of Heaven Sutton, a 7-year-old Austin girl who had begged her mother to move after several recent shootings in their West Side neighborhood.

  Instead of defending gang strategies that don’t appear to be working, the mayor went on the offensive against the cold-hearted gang members engaged in a shootout around a kid selling lemonade on a summer night and a mom who was right there watching.

  “This is not about crime. This is about values. Take your gang conflict away from a 7-year-old. Who raised you? You have a 7-year-old selling lemonade. You’re a member of a gang coming to get lemonade and another gang member is driving by. Where were you raised and who raised you? Stay away from the kids,” the mayor said, his voice rising.

Who raised them? No one did Rahm. This is what half-a-century of LBJ's "Great Society" has left us with - dead 7-year-old kids.

Ex-Politicians Arrested

And one was a previously convicted aldercreature:

• Former Cook County Commissioner Joseph Mario Moreno and ex-Chicago Ald. Ambrosio Medrano have been charged with bribery, federal officials said today.
  
  Moreno, who was first elected to the County Board in 1994 but lost re-election in 2010, was charged with allegedly taking a $5,000 payoff in connection with a waste transfer station in Cicero. He was also linked to a bribe scheme involving the sale of bandages to Stroger Hospital and other public hospitals, authorities alleged.
  
  Medrano, who was convicted of bribery as an alderman in the 1990s, was charged with offering a bribe to an undercover informant while working as a staff member for Moreno.

So do we get to count Medrano twice in the "convicted aldercreatures" column?

Alder-Asshole Said What?

It's amazing these idiots can bathe and breathe on their own:

• The Chicago City Council overwhelmingly voted today to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana possession.
  
  Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s proposal passed 44-3, allowing Chicago police to issue pot-possession tickets starting Aug. 4. The move makes Chicago among a growing wave of states and several of the largest U.S. cities to adopt reduced penalties.
  
  The ordinance gives Chicago police the discretion to issue citations between $250 to $500 for someone with 15 grams or less of pot.
  
  
• Several of aldermen spoke about how the black and Hispanic communities are disproportionately affected by the city’s current policy to arrest people who possess small amounts of marijuana.
  
  “If you had been white and privileged, marijuana has already been decriminalized,” said Ald. Howard Brookins, 21st,who spoke in favor of the measure. “The only people arrested for these crimes have been black and brown individuals. . .This is a way to potentially level the playing field.”

Level the playing field for what? Fixing the damage done by years of pandering politicos, free ghetto giveaways, lack of parental responsibility, no pride of ownership and a complete inability to provide even the most basic standard of living for themselves and their spawn?

Oh, you just mean the over-prevalence of dope smoking slum dwellers with an entitlement attitude while contributing nothing to a functioning society. That kind of "level playing field?"

Brookings is about the biggest racist out there as evidenced by his claim.

Suspend It All!

Crime will be documented, but it will not be solved:

• The Ivory Tower had decreed that Detectives will have a report on all handouts within 5 days!!
  OK let see how fast you can say suspend.
  Thw word is that in NYC all cases are suspended and only the victims who demand follow up get some

Tie this into the upcoming list of jobs we won't even be responding to and we foresee a tremendous drop off in crime numbers. We also see a massive drop in the Clearance rates, though "massive" is a relative term if you look at the actual numbers right now.

Bad Timing

They couldn't wait a few days:

• Sneed hears a monumental seizure of marijuana — 16,000 pounds — was intercepted Tuesday evening by a Chicago Police Department/DEA strike force in the Chicago area.

  Sneed has learned the huge pot shipment, shipped via Mexico through Texas, was seized the night before the Chicago City Council passed a controversial city ordinance decriminalizing small amounts of pot.

  Sneed is told the cache of pot was part of an ongoing strike force investigation “and was designated to be taken to a warehouse in the greater metropolitan area when seized,” according to a police source.

  No arrests were made. A press conference by the Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and DEA officials is scheduled for Thursday morning.
  

No arrests - but about 1,000 tickets were issued.

Thanks for the $$$ Rahm

This has been going on for a few years now and every year it makes us smile, sometimes even laughing out loud at the stupidity of Chicago democrats:

• On Saturday, June 23, three of Guns Save Life’s intrepid members, Chris Betley, John Sutter and Steve Fuller drove to Chicago to participate in the city’s annual gun “turn in” event titled, “Don’t Kill A Dream Save A Life.” In short, the sum real-world value of the guns we took up to the Windy City would have been calculated by most people – ourselves included – solely on their scrap metal value. To the gun-hating do-gooders up there, though, they were worth big dollars; $100 for each firearm and $10 for BB-guns and replicas. No questions asked. So, to take advantage of this artificial market for accumulated rust and machined parts, we sent our three members up north with sixty “guns” and four pellet pistols . . .

  This was a larger and more organized endeavor than our 2007 trip where Guns Save Life sold $2300 worth of rusty scrap metal to these same do-gooders who live by the lake. In more recent years, Mayor Daley was only offering $50 for guns, so GSL sat those events out.

  But we didn’t take those years off. We’ve been busy collecting non-firing junk donated by our GSL members almost non-stop, earmarking the rusty, broken-down clunkers for the self-defense eschewing gun-haters in Chicago. And it’s all for a good cause: the children.

Ah yes, the children. The children will be the beneficiaries of a nice little NRA summer camp where they learn gun safety and ::gasp!!:: actually fire guns in a supervised environment. Paid for in part by $6140.00 from Rahm Emanuel and other misguided souls.

Thanks.

Forbes Magazine

Everyone seems to have a Chicago angle lately. This one was pointed out by Forbes Magazine:

• Here in Chicago we are fretting about crime. Philadelphia is hosting a jump in violence, with an 86 percent rise in homicides in June alone. But, otherwise, we are mostly alone. Other major cities are continuing the decades-long decline in crime rates, while Chicago has seen a nearly 40 percent spike this year. (You can see a nicely visualized breakdown of the city’s crime, by ward, with this newly released interactive tool.)

  The spike recently spread to the Magnificent Mile, the squeaky clean shopping district downtown. It led one Alderman, granted anonymity perhaps to escape the wrath of Mayor Emanuel, to suggest that these shootings in safe areas mark “when we start becoming Detroit.” That taps into a huge fear here—turning into the gutted city up north. Lines like that, though, are usually associated with simple, sensationalized ideas about urban violence.

  One person who has spent much of his career dispelling these easy notions of crime is Jens Ludwig, a researcher at the University of Chicago. He has an op-ed in Crain’s this morning laying out three reasons why Chicagoans should be concerned with crime.

Good reads about the current unpleasantness.

"Sneedling"

How come Sneed didn't catch this one? She has spies everywhere:

• Durbin the turbin was with tiny dancer at yolk in the south loop. I wonder what they were plotting. No body guards. Hhhhhmmm

Well, maybe that's one she wants to keep secret for some reason.

Obama Out as Grand Marshal

Evidently, someone in the Obama "choom gang" stopped taking hits off their primo weed stash and realized that Illinois is already in the bag for Obama and he doesn't really have to waste valuable campaigning time catering to the Billiken crowd.

WBBM NewsRadio 780 just reported that the president is not coming to Bud Billiken and won't be the Grand Marshal of anything this August.

An invitation extended to the president doesn't automatically mean the president accepts it - especially after a Secret Service review of the situation on the ground.

McCarthy Watch Continues

Could this be the end game?

• McCarthy is gone August 1 and Wysinger will be the new Superintendent.
  
  In the next few weeks, City Hall will play up how terrible crime is in Chicago. Expect the Times and Trib to headline any murder drama that pops up.
  
  Rahm told McCarthy that the Cease Fire partnership was going to happen and Garry told Rahm he would have nothing to do with it. Garry refused to be at the press conference and said he would not tarnish his reputation by taking part in this. Rahm was forced to make this announcement today after the NY Times ran a cover article about Chicago's homicide rate. Rahm again called McCarthy and basically begged him to go to the press conference. McCarthy told him No Way! Rahm was himself supposed to go to the press conference but sent a lackey because he didn't want to answer questions about McCarthy's absence.
  
  McCarthy has basically dared Rahm to fire him. If Rahm's reporter-supporters can get the public screaming about crime, then McCarthy is gone August 1.

This ties in perfectly with the points we made in the post right below this one about Wysinger being placed front and center while McCarthy is nowhere to be seen and Rahm isn't around for the announcement that the Chicago Police Department has been forcible partnered up with gang bangers.

$1 Million Pissed Away

Brilliant fucking move Rahm:

• Despite skepticism that’s been voiced by police Supt. Garry McCarthy, the Chicago Police Department announced plans Tuesday for its first-ever partnership with the CeaseFire anti-violence group.

  CeaseFire will get $1 million through the city’s Department of Public Health to target crime in two Chicago police districts under a pilot program, to begin July 13.

  The money will put 20 additional CeaseFire workers in each of those two districts.

But here are some of the entertaining parts:

• Privately, some Chicago police officials say they worry about CeaseFire staffers continuing in a life of crime.

  The Chicago Sun-Times reported last month that six of them have been charged with crimes over the past five years while on the CeaseFire payroll.

  Tio Hardiman, the head of CeaseFire Illinois, responded that he fires staffers when he learns they engaged in criminal activity. He described the six former CeaseFire workers mentioned in the story as “bad apples,” saying every organization including the police department has them. They constitute less than 2 percent of the 300 staffers hired by CeaseFire, according to the group.

  Sources say the partnership with CeaseFire is being driven by City Hall — and not the police department.

Less than 2%? Impressive. Now how about some one in the media total up the number of coppers who have gotten in trouble over the past few years. Even if it ends up being 100 coppers (which it isn't anywhere near) that's less than 1%.

Now try that with the aldercreatures. Or former Illinois governors. Oops. Not so impressive all of the sudden, is it? And Rahm is taking advice from everyone except the coppers as far as CeaseFire goes.

And how about this from Tio himself:

• Police sources said CeaseFire initially balked at some of the department’s demands, including requiring CeaseFire workers who learn of brewing violence to notify the Chicago Police Department and having CeaseFire undergo the same sort of tough evaluation that police commanders are subjected to under the department’s CompStat system.

  The agreement made public Tuesday included the CompStat requirement, but not the reporting requirement.

  “We are not going to be informants or snitches for nobody,” Hardiman said when asked about it Tuesday.

Well then what's the point Tio? Oh yeah, the million dollars. We forgot. As soon as those words left Tio's lips, or even crossed his mind, Rahm ought to have yanked the funding and dumped it back to wherever he stole it from. Hardiman and his people are unrepentant gang bangers with an agenda and their fingers are in a lot of pies that are being overlooked. Tio is refusing to even pretend to be a good citizen, because last time we checked, CeaseFire was not a duly authorized law enforcement agency authorized to take actions to stop the mayhem on the streets.

And we love how Wysinger is out front on this one. Either (A) McCarthy is having nothing to do with this, (B) Al is being groomed to take over the number one spot in short order or (C) Al is being set up as the fall guy should Tio and his followers prove as inept as supposed by ourselves and many others.

Why Does This Sound Familiar?

Something about this rings a bell. Can you spot it?

• A Lemont man accused of throwing a punch in a fit of road rage more than a year ago has been charged with second-degree murder after authorities said that punch killed the other driver.

  Will County Judge Sarah Jones arraigned 40-year-old Christopher M. Yeoman on the new charges Tuesday. He was indicted on aggravated battery charges in July and his bail was set at $75,000.

  Jones raised that bail Tuesday by $25,000 and deputies took Yeoman into custody. Clifford Johnson, his attorney, didn’t deny his client punched Frank Egas, who was 64 when he died, but he said he did so in self-defense.

Gee, we can't imagine why the Will County authorities would charge someone with Second Degree Murder for just throwing a punch, even in supposed self defense. It's almost like they think they have enough evidence to proceed and trust the jury to sort out the details so that justice might be served one way or the other.

Something like this would never happen in Cook County, right?

::cough cough:: Vanecko ::cough cough::

Self Control Issues

Looks like he didn't learn his lessons in prison:

• A South Side man out on parole for attempted murder is accused with fatally shooting another man in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, Chicago police said this morning.

  Anthony Smith, 26, was charged with first-degree murder in the Sunday morning slaying of Hansen Jackson, police said in a news release.

  After hearing gunshots near the intersection of Chicago and Ridgeway avenues just before 2 a.m. Sunday, police officers actually saw Smith fire multiple shots at the 29-year-old victim, authorities said.

And how's this for irony?

• Gunned down across the street from an anti-violence mural, Jackson was one of 15 people shot -- and second fatality -- during between Saturday night and early Sunday morning.

  Police didn't offer a motive for the slaying.

We're going to guess dope. Call it a shot in the dark, but we're on pretty firm ground here.

NY Times on Chicago Violence

The mouthpiece for the national democratic party has discovered Chicago is having crime issues:

• Rahm Emanuel’s first reading material each morning, at 5:30, is not a budget update, a legislative proposal or a packet of headlines. It is an e-mail from the Chicago Police Department listing the crimes that were committed during the night that just ended. By 7 a.m., he is calling Garry F. McCarthy, the police superintendent. That is unlikely to be their final conversation of the day, or even of the morning.
  
  Mr. Emanuel listed safer streets among his top three priorities when he became mayor a year ago, but Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city, is now testing that promise. Homicides are up by 38 percent from a year ago, and shootings have increased as well, even as killings have held steady or dropped in New York, Los Angeles and some other cities. As of June 17, 240 people had been killed here this year, mostly in shootings, 66 more deaths than occurred in the same period in 2011.

Once the New York Times starts making Chicago a talking point, Rahm's national ambitions are going to be sharply curtailed.

Cop Injured

Hopefully, no loss of mobility to his hand:

• A Bronzeville man was charged in connection with an attack in the Lakeview neighborhood that left a man battered and a police officer injured while trying to make an arrest.

  Witnesses fingered Steven L. Harris as the man who attacked another 31-year-old man in the 900 block of West Belmont Avenue at about 2:30 a.m. Monday, police said.

  When a Town Hall District officer attempted to question Harris, police said that Harris started struggling and fell through a glass window at a yogurt shop, police said.
  
  The officer suffered a severe cut to his right hand...

Bronzeville resident in Lakeview. At 2:30 AM. Following one of the larger events in the city populated by heavily intoxicated victims participants. Okay.

Get well soon Officer.

Oh Dear Lord

A security nightmare:

• President Barack Obama, who's used to running the free world, will get a chance to lead a Chicago institution this year.
  
  Obama has been slated to act as Grand Marshal for the the 2012 Bud Billiken "Back to School" parade.
  
  This marks Obama's second run as Grand Marshal of the long running South Side parade. In 2007, Senator Barack Obama led marshaled the parade. Obama's presence at the August 11 parade comes roughly three months before voters head to the polls to decide between him and presidential challenger Mitt Romney (R-Mass).

We sense a mass cancellation of time off, furlough restrictions and maybe even a "emergency declaration" a la NATO.

The Secret Service has actually signed off on this?

UPDATE: Got to love the line, "...used to running the free world..." Seems they don't remember Obama's stated strategy of "leading from behind."

Delayed Homicide

Every so often, the miracle workers at our local trauma centers lose a battle, and McJersey must be pissed as hell because his newest strategy can't really prevent these, but they still show up as a death during the week:

• A man has died after he suffered a gunshot wound while riding in a car with several other people in the Back of the Yards neighborhood in late April, authorities said.

  Armando Garza, 27, of the 5300 block of South Kilpatrick Avenue, was declared dead at 10:02 a.m. Sunday at Mount Sinai Hospital, after suffering a gunshot wound to the spine, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

  The victim was shot late in the neck on April 30 in the 4500 block of South Throop Street, said Chicago Police News Affairs...

And here comes the summer heat.

UPDATE: We know what the last paragraph says - the Tribune wrote it, not us. Thanks to everyone pointing it out, but we post things exactly as the media writes them.

Speed Cameras Arriving

But not too soon - fall at the earliest:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel put out a call to companies interested in bidding for the city's speed-camera business, providing the first detailed look at how Chicago plans to operate the system.
  
  Speed cameras can be installed in up to 300 areas in the city, which would allow the administration to cover nearly half of Chicago. The city intends to install a minimum of 25 cameras over the life of the contract, according to the request for proposals, and no more than 50 in the first year.
  
  The city is looking to sign a five-year contract with a vendor. It's also willing to extend the contract to up to three two-year periods — making it a potentially lucrative long-term deal. Red-light cameras generated $69 million for the city in 2010, and speed cameras likely would increase ticket revenue considerably.

Driving taxpayers out of Chicago, one camera at a time.

Exhaustion?

Or tired of being chased by the FBI and the House Ethics Committee?

• U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.’s office disclosed Monday that the veteran Democratic congressman has been on medical leave from Congress for the past two weeks and is being treated for exhaustion.

  The 17-year Illinois congressman’s office declined to say where he was being treated or when he is expected to return.

• Just last week, a longtime friend of Jackson’s, Raghuveer Nayak, was arrested on federal fraud charges involving Nayak’s surgical centers. Nayak was at the center of the U.S. Senate seat scandal that sent former Gov. Rod Blagojevich to prison.

How about a resignation to assist in the recovery. He might need his strength for the upcoming trials.

Section 28.1 Letter

We've gotten this something like 20 times in the past two days. Can someone explain it to us? (scroll through all 3 pages):



It would appear that all the rumors about the FOP dropping the ball on the timely notification are on the money. It would also appear that the City is looking at blowing us off for at least a year should circumstances make it possible for them to do so.

That could be good. It could also be very very bad, especially if Rahm wins at the negotiating table with every other union because he'll use their concessions to negotiate or force (via arbitration) some major changes to our Contract.

2 More Dead, 13 Wounded

And how many of these happened in 003?

• 1400 E 67th St
• 2500 E 74th St
• 6600 S Hoyne Ave
• 9700 S Harvard Ave
• 6300 S Francisco Ave
• 7500 S Stewart Ave
• 800 N Ridgeway Ave
• 6200 S Rhodes Ave
• 6100 S Cottage Grove Ave
• 6700 S Maryland Ave
• 4300 N Central Park Ave
• 3700 N Kedzie Ave

Looks like 003 is due for a new Commander after this disastrous weekend. Combined with yesterday's totals, the Sun Times says the weekend stands at 4 dead, 26 wounded.

"Perception problem." Remember that - it's all in the perception. Those words of comfort should be spoken at every funeral this coming week.

And did everyone see the long term forecast? 80's and 90s most of the week, almost 100 degrees on Thursday and another weekend of 90 degree heat.

Suburban Shooting

Officer is uninjured:

• A dispute between neighbors in south suburban Riverdale ended with police shooting a man fatally.

  Police say they got a call about a disturbance between neighbors at approximately 9 p.m. Saturday. According to police, an officer saw an armed individual shooting at another person and ordered the suspect to drop the gun. When he refused, police say the officer --fearing for his life -- shot the suspect.

  The man died Sunday at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

  Police say that shooting is under investigation.

It appears pretty straightforward and an excellent job by our suburban brethren. Well done Officer.

5,500 "Weapons"

Once again, the Department doesn't differentiate between actual firearms and lookalikes anywhere in the article:

• The gun was one of more than 5,500 weapons — including several large, military-grade machine guns — replicas and BB guns turned in at the city’s annual gun buy-back program. Those handing over working weapons were given a $100 MasterCard gift card, while those who brought in replica or BB guns received $10 gift cards.

  There were so many firearms turned in that police ran out of gift cards and said some people would have to come back next week to collect.

  While officials were pleased with the number of weapons turned in, the total didn’t surpass 2007, when a record-breaking 6,700 guns were brought in to nearly two dozen churches.

So shootings and murders are up, but less guns are being turned in? Hmmmm.

Quite a few old, rusted, dangerous and non-functional firearms were turned in. Many had only the potential to be bludgeons.

And while we appreciate that people uncomfortable with guns feel the need to turn them in for a quick $100, a safety course could alleviate a lot of that awkwardness around weapons and maintain the security of a household that a gun provides.

"...the trend is actually turning"

The June totals continue to rise, surpassing last year's totals. Almost 20 more shot:

• A teenage boy was killed in the South Side Hamilton Park neighborhood and at least 17 others were wounded in shootings throughout the city between Friday and Saturday nights.

Garry continues to spin so fast he looks like an Iranian centrifuge:

• “We have a lot of violence in the city of Chicago,” Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said Saturday afternoon at a South Side church where he announced three big drug busts. “The trend is actually turning. You would never know it, but the trend is actually turning.”

Yeah, sure Garry. It's turning so fast that we've actually gone past 180 degrees and we're coming full circle. Do you even bother to read the year-to-year stats instead of the "we had 50% less shootings during the noon to 3PM stretch of 22 June 2012 than 22 June 2011."?

We're running out of ways to say that McJersey and his bean counters are full of shit.

On a side note, nice job on the long term investigation that took down almost 50 members of six different gangs:

• Forty-nine people are facing charges after three separate investigations on the West and South sides uncovered cash, drugs and in one instance, a weapon used in an assault against a police officer, authorities said today.
  
  The multiple investigations targeted drug markets in the city’s Wentworth, Englewood and Harrison Districts, police said.

Now let's see Anita get these assholes some real prison time.

Another Perception Problem

This is just ignorant:

• In what police are calling gang-related road rage, a man was shot and seriously wounded near the corner of Michigan Avenue and Ontario Street early this morning after he got out of a car and used a pipe to break the window of an SUV.
  
  
• When asked what the incident says about violence in the city, [First Deputy Superintendent] Wysinger replied: “I don’t think you can really attribute it to anything. You have two guys that seemingly got into some argument or traffic-related incident. They stopped, exchanged words and the person inside the damaged vehicle took offense.’’
  
  “This could have happened anyplace in the city or suburbs,’’

But it didn't happen "anyplace" Al. It happened at Michigan and Ontario, close to the heart and soul of the Chicago tourist industry. Add to that the recent beating in Wicker Park, the throat slashing in Wrigleyville, the car jacking by Goose Island, the like-clockwork beatings at the beaches and still barely covered weekend wildings downtown, we think it's safe to say we've moved beyond a "perception problem." We're safely into a "reality problem."

Off Duty Thwarts Robbery

Bad timing on the offender's part:

• A Chicago Police officer who was off duty interrupted an armed robbery of a Near West Side gas station last night – foiling it and catching the culprit, police said.
  
  Donald Davis, 23, of the 7600 block of South Morgan Street, was charged with attempting to disarm a peace officer and attempted armed robbery, police said.
  
  
• As the officer was trying to place him into custody, Davis tried to disarm the officer and escape but the officer was able to keep control of the weapon and detain Davis with the help of the staffer, the report said.

Sounds like Donald could have used a little extra "ventilation."

Regardless, nice job Officer.

Cop Injured

Minor injuries only, but it made the papers:

• A motorcyclist fled the scene after running into the Chicago Police officer who pulled him over for causing a disturbance at the Museum Campus late last night on the Near South Side.

  The female officer was not badly hurt and has been released as of this morning from Northwestern Memorial Hospital, authorities said.

  It was about 11:30 p.m. when the officer tried to stop a man on a motorcycle who was wanted for causing a disturbance with a park security officer in the 700 block of East Solidarity Drive between the Adler Planetarium and Soldier Field...

Some comments suggest that this offender was part of a group of bikers who meet near the museum campus prior to setting up illegal races up and down the drive.

Best wishes to the officer.

Do You See The Light?

Someone is noticing. Actually, a whole lot of someones are noticing:

• A man was shot and critically injured early Friday near the Magnificent Mile — a rare crime for that area.

  The police superintendent called it a “road rage” attack. Other police sources said it was gang-related.

  It happened at 12:33 a.m. on Ontario Street just a few feet away from North Michigan Avenue — the city’s marquee shopping district.

  Violent crime is rare in that area. In the police beat that covers the scene of the shooting — covering about a square mile — there were a total of 108 violent crimes in the past 12 months, none of them involving a shooting, police statistics show. Crimes in the area included just one armed robbery with a gun.

  “When you start having that [violence] in a place where people generally feel safe, that’s when we start becoming Detroit,” said one alderman, who asked to remain anonymous.

We couldn't believe how quick it was leaked that the "victim" was in fact, the aggressor at an incident earlier, and then how the media "discovered" his arrest record was what one would call "extensive." The spin machine was in full force this morning:

• Asked whether tourists, shoppers and area residents have reason to be afraid when they’re out on the Magnificent Mile, McCarthy said, “No, they should not. We are deployed there. We had officers deployed when this happened. Officers work late at night. I was just on Michigan Avenue myself. There are cops all over the place. There’s cops down there everywhere.”

  McCarthy scoffed at the unnamed alderman’s comment likening Chicago to Detroit in terms of violence.

We aren't going to "become like Detroit" because we're already most of the way there. Spin Spin Spin.

Firefighters Get Hammered

Rahm's stooges over at the Sun Times are doing their work well:

• The city of Chicago is paying fire department employees more than $80 million a year for perks that boosted their salaries by an average of more than $15,000 apiece last year, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis finds.

  The salary-boosting extras aren’t reflected in the online database of city workers’ pay that Mayor Rahm Emanuel created in what he described as an effort to provide greater transparency for taxpayers about how City Hall operates.

Transparency? You mean "data manipulation," right?

All of these things were duly negotiated by Rahm's predecessor's people. In most cases, these "perks" were given in lieu of pay raises so the City wasn't on the hook for the pension portion of the salary. It's a trick that allowed the city to pretend they were giving us (and the firefighters) a raise during the good years, but the large benefit went to the city because they didn't have to worry about the longer term money layout.

Of course, looking forward from this point, it appears obvious that the City has (and probably had) no intention of ever making the contractually mandated pension payments and Rahm's tools over at the Times are abetting his efforts to screw the Teachers, the CFD and you can bet, the Police once our turn comes up.

Reward Offered

Have they hit a dead end in the investigation?

• Chicago police today announced a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the conviction of whoever shot an off-duty officer last week on the South Side.
  
  The 38-year-old officer was shot in the legs about 1:27 a.m. June 15 as he sat on a back porch with other officers in the Longwood Manor neighborhood.
  
  The shots apparently came from Metra train tracks near the home in the 9700 block of South Genoa Avenue, police said.

Spread the word. Someone might flip for ten grand.

Dispatch Change Coming?

When? They've been talking about this for a year. We've covered it time and again for years beyond that:

• Chicago has quietly embarked on a dramatic change in 911 dispatch to free police officers to respond to the most serious crimes, Police Supt. Garry McCarthy disclosed Thursday.

  McCarthy let the cat out of the bag while testifying before the City Council’s Committee on Public Safety on Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana.

  It happened when West Side Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) asked when Chicago was finally going to abandon an outdated dispatch policy that sends police officers to 70 percent of all 911 calls received, compared to 30 percent in other major cities.

  McCarthy replied that the change was already under way, with the goal of creating, what he called “beat integrity.” That means leaving police officers to patrol their assigned beats, instead of chasing their tails by running from one 911 call to another at the behest of dispatchers at the Office of Emergency Management and Communications.

Beat integrity? We did that. 1993. And no one left it alone. What else ya got?

• McCarthy said a more dramatic change is coming soon, when the Chicago Police Department determines “which jobs we’re not gonna respond to” anymore.

  “That’s a call that I’m going to make — and there’s going to be some wrankling about that,” he said.

  “We don’t need to respond to calls for service because, ‘My children are fighting over the remote control.’ We don’t need to respond to calls for service because, ‘My son won’t eat his dinner.’ Unfortunately, believe it or not, those are calls we actually respond to today.”

Ok, that's a step in the right direction. Can it be done?

• OEMC Executive Director Gary Schenkel has acknowledged that it won’t be easy to ween Chicagoans of the habit of dialing 911 at every turn. It will require a major public relations campaign to divert lower priority calls to 311 or convince crime victims to file their reports online.

File reports online? We sense a potential problem here. What types of reports? And if these are actual crimes, crimes where there is no danger to life or immediate danger to property (just discovered garage burglary, stolen bikes, etc), what are the chances that they'll be categorized off the radar and under-reported? Knowing Chicago, we'd say pretty good. And lower crime numbers will play into Rahm's hands of lower police manpower.

Amended VSWO Order

Evidently, there won't be any criteria for the Overtime Initiative now. Seniority will be the sole determining factor in the "weekend" special employment.

Is that because no one qualified, meaning the numbers are such crap because the Department as a whole is lying down? Or was this a slam dunk grievance for quotas?

Murders Up in June

Delayed casualty:

• The second of three people shot over the weekend in the Cragin neighborhood on the Northwest Side has died, authorities say.

  Santiago Delgado was with two other people standing on a porch in the 2300 block of North Laramie Avenue early Sunday when a gunman approached and began “firing indiscriminately,’’ Police News Affairs [...] said.

  Delgado and another man in his mid 30s were struck in the chest, and a woman in her mid-50s was wounded in the leg, [Police News Affairs] said. The two men had been visiting the woman’s home.

So all six months of 2012 have shown an increase over last year. That means Rahm will be announcing a new class of recruits, maybe as many as 200, by the first week of July.

Which means that they'll be out on the streets, ready to Serve and Protect just after Christmas.

And that means McCompStat can pretty much write off this entire year as a lost cause. We don't care if they're killing each other at a slower rate - the numbers are up. Period.

Retiree Killed in Afghanistan

A dedicated veteran of the CPD:

• Friends recall that Tom Boyle faced many deadly situations on the streets of Chicago during more than 30 years as a police officer. More than a decade after retirement, at age 62, he was training police in war-torn Afghanistan how best to keep the peace when he died this week.
  
  Eager to make another part of the world safer, Boyle took a job as a security contractor, according to his wife, Pauline Boyle. He trained police in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, she said.
  
  Pauline Boyle was notified by his company and a military chaplain on Monday of her husband’s death in Afghanistan that day.

Tom Boyle couldn't sit still in retirement and continued to try to make a difference. He will be missed.

Remembrances only here.

Outlaw Knives!

Of course, the pro-knifers will say that "if you outlaw knives, only outlaws will have knives."

• Police have issued alert after a man walking his dog was attacked and his throat slashed in the Lakeview neighborhood on the North Side.
  
  The man told police he was attacked around 11 p.m. Sunday in the 1200 block of West Byron, according to a community alert issued by police.
  
  The attacker walked past the victim, grabbed him from behind and cut him on the throat with a knife, the alert said. The man was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life threatening. The suspect fled on foot.
  
  The attacker was described as black, about 30, 6-foot-1, dark complexion with an afro hairstyle and a white T-shirt with black stripes and black shorts, the alert said.

Whoa! A description? And a sketch of the offender at the link? Who let all this through at the Tribune? Racism!!!

Representing

A sharp eyed reader caught this in the NBC interview of lil Herbie (it appears at 1:21 of the linked video):

Can anyone think of a reason for holding his hand like that? Besides debilitating arthritis? We can think of a few, one of which involves habit, as in he habitually makes gang signs with his hands and can't help himself when the subconscious takes over.

So thank you NBC for being part of the problem, promoting gang culture over that of actual civilized society. And thanks for some goddamn awful reporting where you call the symbolism "gangster disciple" in nature when your own embedded links from the spring identify it as "maniac latin disciple." Your fact checking sucks as bad as your alleged "reporting." Our readers did far more research and linking to gang websites than you idiots did.

And be sure to catch Luis wiping away some crocodile tears at the end of the tape. What a phony. You know he's just hoping no one caught Herb's slip up with the hands - Luis saw it, he's reaching into the camera frame to end the interview and keep Herbie's hands down out of the shot.

Crime is Down....Still

Homicides totals in Chicago, 2012 compared to 2011

Month 2011 2012
January 28 40
February 24 28
March 23 53
April 30 40
May 38 50
June 33 33
Total 176 244

So the next "killing" will be the record breaker for June.

Weapon Turn In Weekend

That time of year where the opportunistic souls bring in all sorts of damaged, outdated and non-functional firearms to Chicago churches. Then they take the Visa gift cards and head over to the local gun store to purchase ammunition and functional guns with taxpayer funds.

And this is OK why again?

No Time Due for You

Rumors about all time off being canceled in 008 on the weekends.

And the weekend runs from Thursday night until Sunday at noon.

This would appear to be an egregious violation of the Contract. It would also appear to be yet another nail in the coffin of policing in Chicago.

Is the FOP on top of this one?

Again, Why Was He Out?

Another murderer, not serving a full sentence, manages to kill again:

• A Bridgeport man accused of murder 15 years ago has been charged with fatally stabbing a man during an argument in his home earlier this week, Chicago police said.

  Joseph "Joey" Lacyniak, 34, was charged with first-degree murder in the Monday morning death of John Hughes Jr., police said.

• Lacyniak was previously charged with first-degree murder and aggravated battery with a firearm in 1997, according to court records.

  The following year, the then-20-year-old received concurrent 50- and 25-year prison sentences following a jury trial before Judge Michael Toomin, court records show. But an appeals court ordered a new trial for Lacyniak in 2004.

  In 2006, Lacyniak pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but was later allowed to withdraw his guilty plea, records show.

Concurrent 50 and 25 year sentences means a minimum of 37 years. A guilty plea to 20 years and he's out in 10 - call it time served - and he's allowed to withdraw the guilty plea.

Cook County courts are a joke.

More Bad Moves

Why is it that every single move the Department has made during this re-investigation is 100% the wrong one? Anything that would lend any credence to there NOT being a coverup is done completely the opposite so that it's like throwing kerosene on blazing fire:

• Chicago Police Department officials exchanged a total of 297 emails — an average of six a day — during last year’s reinvestigation of a 2004 homicide case involving a nephew of then-Mayor Richard M. Daley, newly obtained records show.

  The police refuse to make public those emails concerning the case of David Koschman, who died after being punched in the face by Daley nephew Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko, an act they decided was self-defense. The case is now the subject of a probe by a special prosecutor appointed as a result of a Chicago Sun-Times investigation.

  Transcripts of the emails exchanged in January and February 2011 total “several hundred pages of documents,” according to the police, who rejected a public records request for the emails.

  Citing an exemption in the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, they said the newspaper’s request would be “unduly burdensome” to fulfill. They estimated that “reading, redacting and reviewing” those emails would take officials at least 40 hours.

Wow. Forty whole hours. There isn't one single person downtown that could gather that info in a week lest they miss some CompostStat deadline? Not one daytime dolly that isn't busy? Maybe they could pull someone out of the Academy for a few days since that class of 200 isn't going to start for another couple of weeks. Or that promotional class they keep hinting at in hopes of catching the leaker(s).

Every single move has been the wrong one.

Economic Impact of Crime

Remember, crime is down...except for that pesky homicide and shooting rate (unless McCompStat is just counting the last ten minutes - then shootings are down. Whoops! Nevermind, they're back up again.) In any event, what is it costing taxpayers?

• Chicago’s sharp spike in murder rates could prove very costly if it lasts, according to a national study released Tuesday.

  Violent crime costs Chicago about $5.3 billion a year, the study concluded.

  A 25 percent drop in murders would result in home values rising $5.5 billion, according to the Center for American Progress, which studied eight cities including Chicago. Murder in Chicago is up 36 percent this year through June 10, according to the police department.

  Researchers came up with $1.1 billion in direct costs of violent crime for Chicago by looking at spending on police, prosecutors and jails — as well as medical expenses and lost income of crime victims and the lost income of locked-up criminal defendants.

Wait a minute - "lost income of locked-up criminal defendants"? Are they joking? They're counting dope money as "lost income?" Or are they counting the thimbleful of actual legit victims?

Herbie's Dad

Question:

• Did Herbie Pulgar Senior ever return to the United States to face the charges on file? Or is he still on the FBI's fugitive list?

We only ask because you have the spawn and ex-wife of a known dope and weapon violator being invited to Washington DC, where they'll be touring the White House, the Capitol and other significant DC landmarks. It just seems to send the wrong message.

Maybe the National FOP ought to be contacted?

Gun Ban Fails Again

It sure looks like this guy has read and understood the Constitution:

• A federal judge in Chicago on Tuesday struck down a portion of the city’s firearm ordinance, calling it unconstitutional.

  U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan ruled in favor of a Chicago man who challenged a section of the city’s gun law after he was denied a permit because of a misdemeanor conviction.

  Der-Yeghiayan, in a 30-page ruling, called that part of the Chicago Firearm Ordinance “unconstitutionally void for vagueness,” and said it violated Shawn Gowder’s right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Rahm will continue to throw up roadblocks and he will continue to lose, wasting untold millions that Chicago can ill afford.

Walter Again?

Walter must being going through our archives:

• I know I’m not the only Chicagoan who’s angry about guns, and the murders on our streets; two more shot dead Monday night.

  That makes it ten dead and more than 40 wounded in acts of violence since Friday, and City Hall is spending more time worrying and whining than stopping it.

  Ask a cop, any cop on any street, what the neighbors need and the answer you’ll get (I’ve been getting it) is that cops need more cops.

  In the past two years, about 1,000 Chicago cops have retired, replaced by only 150 new officers hired in that time.

Keep digging Walter. You still have a very large historical hole to dig yourself out of with us, but you may make it in a few more years.

Party Bus Problem

Funny how it takes an accident to bring this to our attention:

• The driver of an SUV was charged with DUI after he sideswiped a bus rented out for a party on the inbound Eisenhower Expressway, injuring 19 people, Illinois state police said.

  Fiftee people on the bus and four people in the beige SUV were injured when the SUV hit the left side of the bus and rolled over around 2:30 a.m. near the Ashland Avenue exit, state police said. Most of the injuries were minor, but one person suffered a broken leg, authorities said.
  
  The bus is owned by a private limo service that chauffeurs customers around the city in customized buses and SUVs with flat screen televisions, stereo systems and even a dance floor, according to the company's website.

We got a letter about this later this same morning:

• SCC, you've heard about these party buses? They travel the west and south side, loaded with guns, drugs, gang bangers and strippers. They are traveling problems, coming to a ghetto corner near you.

Be aware if you come upon one of these buses that you are badly outnumbered and quite possibly outgunned.

Shooting South

Woodlawn:

• Chicago police shot a person Monday evening in the Woodlawn neighborhood, and another suspect apparently was struck by a car, authorities said.

  The shooting happened a little before 8 p.m. near 64th Street and South St. Lawrence Avenue, police said, citing preliminary information. At least two suspects were involved in the incident, with one of them shot, the other apparently struck by a car, police said. The incident happened about 7:42 p.m., according to police News Affairs.

No cops listed as injured, so it's a good night so far.

Gang Art Goes to DC

If there was any doubt in anyone's mind that Luis Gutierrez is a gang supporter, this should put it to rest:

• A teen's piece of art that was chosen, and then disqualified, to adorn Chicago's vehicle stickers amid concerns of gang imagery is headed to the complex of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
  Herbie Pulgar, 15, and his mother will travel to D.C. this week at the request of Rep. Luis Gutierrez. The Chicago Democrat chose Pulgar's design, which the teen said honors police officers, firefighters and paramedics, to represent the district as part of the 2012 Congressional Art Contest.
  “Herbie is a great kid who deserves recognition and praise for this wonderful and positive piece of art. I think it’s a credit to Herbie and his family that he chose to honor Chicago’s first responders and I’m very proud to have his artwork represent the Fourth Congressional District in Washington, D.C.," Gutierrez said in a statement.

No mention of Herbie's arrests. Numerous arrests that is. The ones where he admits to being a gang banger. And his gang is going to get national recognition. Gutierrez needs to be shown the door next time he runs for reelection.

Another Scandal Winding Down

The towing scandal:

• A former Chicago police officer was sentenced Monday to two years in federal prison for steering work to tow truck drivers in exchange for cash bribes.

  James Wodnicki, 50, is the sixth Chicago cop sentenced to prison or probation as part of an FBI probe code-named Operation Tow Scam, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Donovan. Another officer's case is pending. The investigation exposed how Chicago police regularly extorted cash payoffs from tow truck drivers to steer business to them at crash sites.

  Three tow truck drivers also were convicted as a result of the investigation.

Can we please stop doing stupid shit that makes everyone look bad?

How's That Strategy Thing Working?

The later the day goes, the bigger the Sun Times numbers seem to get:

• Shakaki Asphy’s family says the 16-year-old girl was at the wrong place at the wrong time when she was murdered over the weekend in West Englewood on the South Side.

  Judging by the level of crime in the area, it would be difficult to figure out the right place to be.

  [...] Asphy was among the six people killed and Cunningham was among at least 31 people wounded in Chicago from Friday night though Sunday.

Six and thirty-one? Sounds like it's time for a new strategy.

Priceless

Here's why McNumber's crime stats don't mean a thing:

• Garry's Perception Issue said...

  Would anybody believe me if we had 300% more homicides on June 17 this year compared to June 17 last year?
  
  Well, we did.

You can't buy humor like that folks - it has to be created.

Summer Furlough Rumor

Articles like this....:

• The streets of Chicago are officially more dangerous than a war zone: Homicide victims in the Windy City outnumber U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan this year.
  
  While 144 Americans have died in Afghanistan in 2012, a whopping 228 Chicago residents have been killed, and the murder rate is up a staggering 35 percent from last year. That’s a rash of homicides quadruple the rate of New York City’s, and police and crime experts fear it may only get worse.

....lead to rumors like this:

• The city's new priority in the next contract has changed.
  
  Priority #1 is to cancel ALL summer furloughs in the department. The old priority was changing the medical policy.
  
  The city is going to leave the medical alone and possibly offer 2% annual raises if the FOP agrees to NO 6, 7, 8, or 9 furlough selections for ANYONE. This will keep the city from having to hire more officers when all they need (they think) are more officers in the summer.
  
  The city knows it will be hard to get this in arbitration, so they are already planning concessions to get the FOP to agree.

There are exceptions already built into the contract - we believe the Mounted Unit already can't have summer furloughs and one of the restrictions in place from the old days was Summer Mobile people couldn't have a furlough segment during their details. A wholesale ban on summer furloughs though? Not really in the cards that we can see.

UPDATE: Someone said that the Mounted Unit can get summer furloughs since last contract.

Lowest of the Low

Let's see if we can't find these assholes:

• Police today offered a $3,000 reward for information leading to conviction of the person responsible for vandalizing the Chicago Police Memorial in the city’s South Loop neighborhood.
  
  Graffiti was discovered about 6 p.m. Thursday on the memorial located near the intersection of 18th Street and McFetridge Drive, police said.
  
  The memorial honors officers who have given their lives in the line of duty.

Someone somewhere saw something, and $3,000 might open a few mouths. Didn't they have cameras there at one point?

Happy Fathers Day

Open post for now. Comments and the like may be delayed as we celebrate.

Still Ongoing

Nary a break in sight:

• One person was killed and a dozen others were hurt in shootings across the city from Friday afternoon into early Saturday, police said.

And then Saturday afternoon:

• At least five people were wounded this afternoon and evening in separate shootings on the city's South and Far South sides, officials said.

Can't even take a day off with Obama in town. If the rain hold off....

Poor Use of Manpower

Sneed spanks the powers-that-be:

• Sneed hears the Chicago Police Department, which is battling a recent rise in homicides and violent crime, has new marching orders this weekend.

  Provide security for a private wedding!!!!!

  How about them apples!

  In the midst of a recent homicide spike and prediction of a weekend weather scorcher, Sneed is told somewhere between 100 to 200 police officers will be dispatched to help “secure the perimeter” of a high-profile wedding in Kenwood.

And she stumbles upon at least one high profile misrepresentation:

• “The cops will be pulled from all districts in the city,” said a source. “Overtime will not be involved.”

Really? We must have misread that announcement in the CO Book that specifically said "time-and-one-half" for the Presidential Detail. That must not include the District draw that is sending at least one cop from every district to do traffic control in the area of the wedding. Just a wee bit of shading to the truth here.

And speaking of OT, the Overtime Initiative that began this weekend only managed to get 40 volunteers for 120 spots. That resulted in at least one south side tactical team getting it's days off canceled for the expected weekend upsurge in violence.

So we've got the Humboldt Park fest, Obama in town, 90-plus degree days on tap and Rahm has left town. You can almost hear the fingers being crossed at City Hall and HQ.

Good Observation Skills

Missing man found:

• A man with dementia is safely back with his family today thanks to an alert police officer, a mobile phone and a story on the Chicago Tribune Breaking News page.
  
  Deering District Officer Dominick Catinella used his iPhone to check the Breaking News page on the Chicago Tribune while he was waiting for roll call to start before his evening shift in the district, and saw a story that was updated this morning with a photograph of 75-year-old James Gardner, Catinella said this afternoon.
  
  Gardner had disappeared from his home in the Marquette Park neighborhood about 10 p.m. Wednesday, after recently moving from the West Side, and hadn’t been seen since then by his family.

It would be even more impressive if we were able to get photos like that on our mobile computers instead of relying on our personal phones. We could get pictures of wanted cars, real time pictures of wanted offenders, all sorts of stuff. Nice job in any event.

The Officer also has a iron-clad tax deduction this year.

He Chose Poorly

Having money and a second chance didn't work out:

• A man who was 7 when he and another boy were the youngest people in the country to be charged with murder was sentenced today to 52 years in prison in a 2006 double-shooting, prosecutors said.

  Romarr Gipson, now 21, and the other suspect were later exonerated in the 1998 slaying of 11-year-old Ryan Harris.

  But in 2010, he was found guilty of attempted murder and other charges in a 2006 double-shooting in south suburban Calumet Park. Markham Branch Court Judge Brian Flaherty today sentenced him to 52 years in prison, for which he must serve 85 percent of his time, said Andy Conklin, a spokesman for the Cook County state's attorney's office.

Of course, if he and his partner in crime hadn't knocked Ryan Harris off her bike by crushing her skull with a brick, Floyd Durr wouldn't have been able to do the things he did to the body. Hillard sold those detectives down the river on that one.

Off Duty Shot

An ambush?

• An off-duty Chicago police officer was shot in both legs early Saturday morning the 9700 block of South Genoa Avenue, according to authorities.
  
  Two off-duty police officers assigned to the Central police district were on the back porch of one of their homes in the 9700 block of South Genoa Avenue when gunfire came in their direction from the tracks, police said, citing preliminary information.
  
  One of the officers, 38, was hit in both legs and was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
  
  Police said there were at least two suspects they were looking for who may have fled west from the scene. It's unclear if the gunfire was directed at the officers.

A cop in his own yard, on his porch, and someone fires from the tracks at his house?

Get well soon Officer.

Shots Fired At/By Police

On view shots fired on the south side:

• Police exchanged gunfire with a suspect officers may have seen shooting at someone else late this afternoon in the West Pullman neighborhood, police said.
  
  Officers saw someone firing a gun from a car near 116th Street and Yale Avenue about 5:10 p.m., and when they tried to stop the car, someone in the car shot at them, said Chicago Police News Affairs [...], citing preliminary information.
  
  No police officer was hit.
  
  Police returned fire, but apparently did not hit anyone...

One in custody, but no weapon according to the news.

As Predicted

Ghetto lottery ticket:

• Attorneys for a pregnant woman who was shocked by a stun gun during a dispute with police in the parking lot of a Far South Side Walgreens filed a lawsuit in federal court today.

  Tiffany Rent, 30 and eight months pregnant, said a Chicago police officer used a Taser on her last week after she tore up a ticket in the parking lot of a Walgreens in the 10300 block of South Michigan Avenue in the Roseland neighborhood.

  Police say the officer warned Rent he would use the stun gun if she drove away after tearing up the ticket, throwing it at his face and yelling, "You ain't arresting (expletive)." The officer fired the stun gun as she put her SUV into gear, according to a police report.

Assault, battery if actual contact was made with the litter, resistance, escape, general assholery. Oh wait, that last one isn't a charge. She's made statements admitting to part of the behavior so there isn't any reason to doubt the rest of it.

The doctors over at the Slum Times also cover this:

• Rent, who is visibly pregnant, said the officer showed a “lack of concern” toward her.

And this:

• One of her attorneys, Keenan Saulter, said no matter what his client did during the dispute with the officer, he should not have responded with physical harm in what they contend was solely a verbal dispute over Rent having her car in a handicapped parking spot.

The verbal dispute escalated because why boys and girls? Ah yes, the behavior of the offender. And we still can't find that part of the Illinois Compiled Statutes that allows pregnant people immunity from parking laws, arrest and resisting charges based solely on their temporary physical conditions.

Hospital Warnings

Nice to see someone recognizes the out-of-control situation up north:

• People who live and work in the Streeterville neighborhood are being warned to be on alert after two doctors were attacked outside Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

  The doctors were confronted by a group of people as they walked home alone from the downtown medical campus around 10 p.m. In both incidents, the doctors were roughed up, but there was no demand for property, and neither physician was robbed. The victims were not seriously injured.

  Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the new Lurie Children's Hospital sent safety memos to their employees this week, alerting them of the attacks.

And the traditional liberal solutions are in full evidence:

• The alerts offer some tips. For instance, don't confront an attacker, comply with demands for personal property, and try to remember as many details about the attackers that you so you can.

Just enjoy it as part of the new traditional Chicago experience.

Less Cops at Fest

This should be interesting:

• As the debate continues over police staffing in the midst of fears over flash mobs and muggings along the Magnificent Mile, Chicago’s neighborhood festivals began Thursday evening with one of the biggest seeing its traditional allotment of police officers slashed.
  
  The annual Puerto Rican fest in Humboldt Park has traditionally been flooded with hundreds of police, a precaution made in previous years because of the volatile combination of rival street gangs and hot summer nights.
  
  The surrounding neighborhood has been marred by gang fights and shootings in past years, and police have responded with scores of tactical officers and gang units.
  
  This year, police manpower is down citywide, and with demands for officers elsewhere, Puerto Rican fest will receive fewer officers. The news was not well received in a neighborhood where security fears were already high.'

The word is that gang bangers are thrilled however. With the hot weekend on tap and everyone looking at the lakefront and Gold Coast problems, your usual suspects are seeing this one as a giant freebie. We shall see.

Confidence is High!

Rahm knows we can handle it all!

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel was trying to reassure the public that Chicago Police are moving quickly to stop the kind of mob attacks which occurred this past weekend, as well as the spike in gang violence this year.

  The mayor said he’s talked with Police Supt. Garry McCarthy about doing what’s necessary to stop the mob attacks downtown, and gang violence wherever it occurs, to make sure the streets are safe.

  “We’re going to make sure that – it’s not just Michigan Avenue – I want it in every part of the city. I want to make sure that our kids can again reclaim the streets, and our lawful citizens,” he said. “I will not rest until it happens.”

Thanks Rahm. Are you going to honor our contract while you express this so-called "confidence?"

Or are you going to, how did your minion put it..."stick it in [our] ear" over a supposed missed deadline?

Between the death of the tourism industry and a teachers' strike on the horizon, Rahm might be losing a bunch of sleep this summer.

Tribune Takes Notice

Mary Schmich writes what has to be the most disjointed and shoddy opinion piece ever to appear in the Tribune:

• But Chicago is two cities.

  The violent city is one that visitors — just like residents of safe Chicago — are unlikely to visit. Last weekend most of the violence, as usual, occurred there.

  The stricken neighborhoods, on the South and West sides, happen to be mostly black and Latino; their ethnicity is far less relevant than the fact that in those neighborhoods, jobs are scarce, gangs are seductive and common, and poverty, entrenched through generations, is as pervasive as the grief wrought by the violence.

  What scares many people outside the chronically afflicted neighborhoods is that last weekend's violence extended into picture-postcard Chicago.

Evidently, she hasn't been paying attention that past few years. We couldn't make heads or tails of her entire article.

Carlos Sadovi writes a play-by-play of the set-up to steal an iPhone:

• Someone in the group began yelling at the girl, causing her to walk away, then began hitting another teen in the group, the man said Wednesday.
  
  "This was right next to my friend, so I put my arm over her to make sure she wouldn't get hit," said the man, who asked not to be identified out of concern for his safety.The man's wife stood up to get away from the group but left her iPhone on the seat. One of the teens snatched it up and said, "I'll take this." The man said he told the teen to give the phone back, but the teen ran for the door and the man lunged toward him.
  
  "Then I got swarmed by the whole group," said the man. "They were just pounding me. I was just trying to protect my head as much as I could, I knew there was nothing I could do about it. I was stuck. They did a number on me."

Kass does a column, writing about the doctor from Northwestern :

• The doctor has a name, but I'm not going to give it to you. He's the victim of a crime and asked that his name not be used, and we're going to keep it that way.

  But he did want to tell you his story, because something is happening in Streeterville, the quiet downtown neighborhood of urban professionals who must have once believed that wealth and geography could insulate them from things.

  There were similar attacks in Streeterville last year. News organizations at first called them "flash mobs," but that made the police angry. These young people didn't mob up to dance. They mobbed up to hit people.

  And, in at least two separate incidents last weekend, the one involving the doctor and another in which a Michigan man's jaw was broken, robbery was not the motive.

  They didn't rob them. They beat them for fun.

Kass applies feather-lite touches and dances around the subject, never quite coming into contact with it, but he's close with that last line.

• They beat them for fun.

This is the generation of no parents. No supervision. No order. No limits. These are the ones that are bringing back dog fighting in a big way. That have no conflict resolution abilities. That have no moral center. The end result of "immediate gratification" and "if it feels good, do it" that has been polluting society since the 1960's.

These are the broken, and quite frankly, we don't see a fix that doesn't involve putting thousands of them in prison and hundreds in the ground. Our opinion of course, but we're the ones on the front lines seeing it each and every day.