Wilding Downtown

Right in the heart of the tourist area. Estimates of up to crowds of 400.  The radio is squawking about State and Chicago, Huron, Ohio, Orleans. Wagons have been called in from at least 4 districts. The Mounted Unit has been clearing streets and breaking up crowds of "youths" for the past few hours.

Channel 2 actually covered this somehow. We're amazed Rahm didn't stomp on them yet:

• Chicago police made several arrests Saturday evening following another “wilding” scene instigated by young people along the Magnificent Mile. Photographers shot chaotic video of police officers and vehicles swarming Michigan Avenue near Huron and detaining several young people around 7:30 p.m. Some of the disturbance leaked onto Chicago Avenue near State Street on a relatively warm night with temperatures in the 50s.
  
  Chicago Police News Affairs confirmed officers arrested “a number of offenders” and said charges were pending. Details weren’t available.
  
  But community activist Andrew Holmes, who happened to be shopping with a relative in the upscale retail district, described a scene in which hundreds of young people misbehaved, with some of them harassing and attacking people on the street.
  
  “They assaulted a Chicago police officer who was on a mounted horse. And all of a sudden, they assaulted the citizens walking the streets – just normal citizens shopping, enjoying the weather,” Holmes told CBS 2’s Chris Martinez. “I caution those parents if their child has been arrested … You need to think about your child. Just don’t say the Chicago police picked on your child, when we watched all the assault going on, especially by teen women.”

Let's see - 55 degrees tonight (slightly cooler by the lake) and spring break.

Hey McCompStat and Tiny Dancer? This has been predicted here for how long? Years? Your "more-with-less" strategy sucks and is a direct result of these failed policies. Preckwinkle and Alvarez - No punishment, no deterrence, no reason not to act like animals. This is on your doorstep, too. Holder - you ready to have that "discussion" on race yet? We can start in Georgia and work our way north if you like.

This is the first warm weekend of the year - summer is going to be a fucking disaster.

Stop the Violence!

Now we're hosting "youth summits" to inform the "children" about not being naughty:

• The Chicago Police Department hosted a town hall meeting to educate the city's youth about the recent rise in violence in some neighborhoods.
  
  ABC 7's sportscaster Jim Rose was the host and keynote speaker of Saturday's event on the South Side in Ogden Park.
  
  Kids aged 8-12 years old attended the event to learn how to stop violence and gangs in their areas.

But something must have been lost in translation if you read the story at the top of the page today. Perhaps more jails? More orphanages and debtor prisons? More work farms?

Sorry....we've been reading Dickens lately as inspiration.

1 Dead, 13 Wounded (So Far)

And still one more day to go:

• One man was shot in the chest and another injured Friday night in a shooting in the Logan Square neighborhood, one of several shootings that left at least nine others injured Friday night and Saturday morning.
  
  In the weekend's sole fatality, a 23-year-old man was killed while walking with his step father around 8 p.m. in the 1800 block of North Francisco Avenue, police said.
  
  Eugene Solano, who has alleged gang ties, was shot in the chest and pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.

So what's different about this weekend in relation to every other weekend this year.....hmmm.

We'll ask Tommy Skilling tomorrow when we see him.  That guy has tremendous insight you know.

Tattoo Money

We've heard of some half-assed reasons for killing people, but this is definitely in our top ten:

• Bail was denied today for a 19-year-old man accused of fatally shooting his grandfather as the older man left his home for an early-morning dialysis appointment earlier this month.
  William D. Strickland, of the 400 block of East 95th Street, shot his grandfather six times in the back and used money stolen in the attack to buy tattoos, gym shoes and other items, Assistant State's Attorney Amanda Pillsbury said at the bond hearing.
  The judge denied bail on charges of first-degree murder and armed robbery with a firearm and set his next court date for Monday.

On the brighter side, now he can get all the tattoos he wants in prison (if Anita can convict him that is)

Police Shooting - South of Course

Coppers are unharmed:

• A person was critically wounded this afternoon in a police-involved shooting in the Pill Hill neighborhood on the South Side.
  
  The shooting happened in the 9400 block of South Jeffery Boulevard, according to fire officials.

Nice job Officers. Warm weekend ladies and gents - pay attention.

Trooper Visitation & Funeral

Visitation will be Monday 2:00 - 8:00 p.m. at The Hills Funeral Home, 10201 South Roberts Road, Palos Hills. A funeral service will be Tuesday at 11:00 a.m. at Morraine Valley Church, 6300 W. 127th Street, Palos Heights.

UPDATE: Word is the wake may be moved to the church now due to expected crowds.

Interested Retirees

Anyone up for a radio show?

• I am a retired Cook County ASA living now in Will County.  I was picked by the ISRA to argue their case with the a top NRA lawyer last year before the Illinois Supreme Court in Wilson v. Cook County.
  
  Now I have been tasked by David Lombardo to find two retired Chicago Police Officers who would be willing to join me as a guest of host David Lombardo (retired Will County Deputy Sheriff) on the WIND AM 560 radio talk show On Target on Sunday, April 21, 2013 from 9:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. to talk about Chicago gun ordinances, transporting a gun in Chicago, having a gun in the home or office in Chicago, how guns are confiscated, how to get confiscated guns back, whether Chicago Police Officers are pro-Second Amendment or not, and that sort of thing.
  
  The show has a listening audience of about 10,000 persons each Sunday night. The show usually takes and answers a few callers questions during the hour. We are looking for retired officers who would be free to frankly talk about the problems gun owners have in Chicago. A retired Chicago Police Officer suggested I contact you. I appreciate what your blog does and any help you can give.
  
  Edward Ronkowski
  eronkowski@hotmail.com

Drop him a line if interested.  Anyone that promotes and defends the Second Amendment is good.

Hubcaps?

And no marches?

• A 52-year-old man was charged today with assault on a federal officer for his part in a hubcap theft this week during which an FBI agent shot into a car trying to run down officers, authorities said.
  
  The suspect had fled the crash scene Monday but surrendered to police Thursday after being identified by a passenger in the car who apparently was wounded during the gunfire, the FBI said.

Hopefully this turns out okay.

State Trooper Killed in Wreck

Bad wreck claims the life of a Trooper:

• An Illinois state trooper awarded a lifesaving medal as a cadet was killed in a fiery collision between his patrol car and a semi on Interstate 294 south of Willow Road, authorities said.
  
  James Sauter, 28, was on duty in his squad car when it was struck by a semi shortly after 11 p.m. Thursday, state police said. Both vehicles burst into flames and Sauter was pronounced dead at the scene.
  
  Sauter was stopped on the shoulder of southbound Interstate 294 when the semi struck him from behind...

Godspeed Trooper.

Sympathy and prayers only in this thread please. Arrangements will be posted when we get them.

141 Counts?

We're all for justice - but this is kind of ridiculous:

• Two suspects in the high-profile fatal shooting of Hadiya Pendleton pleaded not guilty today to dozens of counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder and other charges.
  
  Michael Ward, the alleged shooter, was indicted on 141 counts of first-degree murder alone, prompting his attorney to blast Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez.
  
  "I want to ask (Alvarez): 'Why are you doing this?' " said Jeff Granich, Ward’s lawyer. "It's ridiculous and stupid. It's an extremely cheap way of getting attention. It's a waste of paper.
  
  "It's a stunt," he said.

It certainly is, and it might point to underlying weaknesses in the case itself, so they indict everything they can think of and hope the jury gives them something.  Just remember - Anita Alvarez.....not the Chicago Police Department.

$100 Million Loan

At what rate of interest? Collateral? How is this to be paid back?

• A $100 million federal loan to build an urban playground along the Chicago River downtown is a "done deal," outgoing U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Thursday.
  
  Appearing along the river with LaHood, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he expects groundbreaking for the extension of the Riverwalk to take place in 2014. The six-block project would run along the south bank from State Street to West Lake Street.

The national economy is tanking, our pensions system is broken beyond almost all chance of repair, Illinois credit rating is in the tank and Rahm is pleading broke with every union in the city.

But he can secure $100 million for this?

And This Matters Why?

Does anyone really care?

• The Chicago Police Department radically underestimated the number of protesters that marched against the closing of dozens of public schools.
  
  The department and its chief spokesman, Adam Collins, said Wednesday after the march that the number of protesters was between 700 and 900.
  
  But a Chicago Sun-Times analysis Thursday found that number could not possibly be right, counting 2,750 people in a photo of the protest at Daley Plaza.
  

You have to read a few more paragraphs in to find the teachers union estimated the crowd at 5,500 to 6,000 - a ridiculous number.

Perhaps we should go back to not estimating any numbers at all and leave it to the media to do headcounts rather than engage in some stupid "gotcha" game that we won't ever win.

Ten Years Later

An amusing footnote to Shortshanks' reign:

• The mastermind behind it has moved to rural North Carolina to raise goats and make cheese. The field general works for an electrical contractor after being jailed for public corruption. And the boss who ordered it is now a retired mayor with a lucrative career in the private sector.
  
  Ten years ago Saturday, Richard M. Daley sent in bulldozers under cover of darkness to carve giant X’s into Meigs Field’s only runway.
  
  Daley initially claimed he did it to protect Chicago from a terrorist attack.
  
  But he later acknowledged the obvious: He had wanted to convert Meigs into a park as far back as 1995 and seized the opportunity when he could, reneging on a handshake agreement with then-Gov. George Ryan to keep Meigs open until 2024.
  

The only terrorist in the entire story was Daley himself, unchecked and arrogant beyond belief. And he's still a free man.

Not a Staged Photo (Really! We Swear!)

Golly, he's so.....so.....Bloomberg-esque

And white before Memorial Day?  Tsk tsk.

How many security people can you count just standing around?

NOT the Weather

Channel 7 had a weather report Tuesday afternoon that stated this was the 13th coldest March on record. We understand the data goes back over 100 years or so.

McStreetlights immediately rebutted the assertion that weather had anything to do with his amazing police strategies:

• Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy has an answer for some critics who insist on crediting chilly temperatures for the drop in the city’s murder rate so far this year.
  
  In fact, McCarthy told the Sun-Times that his policing strategies have Chicago on track to finish one of its best quarters since 1959 — more than a half century ago.
  

If this guy saw Jesus walking on water, he'd claim to have taught Him how to do it.

NATO 3 Lose Motion

These guys are still in jail:

• A Cook County judge Wednesday rejected the so-called NATO3 activists’ motion to dismiss terrorism charges stemming from the out-of-town protesters’ arrest last spring.
  
  Judge Thaddeus Wilson said the Illinois terrorism statute is “constitutional on its face” and a “reasonable” law that “cracks down on terrorism.”
  
  However, the judge also said in his 33-page ruling that Brian Church, Jared Chase and Brent Vincent Betterly’s attorneys can still argue that the statute is unconstitutional as applied to their specific case when the matter goes to trial in the fall.
  

Remember - they were just brewing beer.

Are they still in isolation from the general population?

Protestors Ticketed

That'll show em!:

• A rally to protest school closings led by the Chicago Teachers Union at Daley Plaza in the Loop this afternoon included a march to City Hall and planned civil disobedience during a sit-in.
  
  The official police crowd estimate was 700 to 900, according to the department’s News Affairs office, while a city official on the scene estimated the crowd as up to 2,000.
  
  [...] Police soon began detaining protesters, leading more than 50 people away one by one to a holding area outside a building just south of Washington Street. Those in the holding area stood with their hands behind their backs chanting, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Rahm Emanuel's got to go."
  
  In all, 127 people were briefly detained and ticketed, said Chicago Police spokesman [...].

Let's see if there's a follow-up on how many of the 127 pay their scheduled fines.

Pothead Charged

Bad luck for this idiot:

• A man who crashed into a police SUV, injuring two officers, was arrested on drug charges after several bags of marijuana were found in his car, police said.
  
  The accident happened at 7:20 p.m. Tuesday in the 6900 block of North Sheridan Road as the officers were responding to a call, according to Chicago Police News Affairs [...].
  
  They were driving north and approaching the intersection of Sheridan Road and Morse Avenue when David Kreutz made an illegal left turn, [...]. Kreutz's 1998 Toyota Camry struck the front of the police SUV, he said.
  
  Kreutz, of the 1600 block of West Catalpa Avenue, told police he had smoked marijuana in his car. He received two citations for driving under the influence, a citation for not having insurance, and for making an improper left turn and failing to yield the right of way.
  
  Police found two baggies of marijuana in his car containing more than 50 grams of marijuana, and he was charged with the manufacture or delivery of marijuana.

No ticket for you!

Cops Injured in Crash

Last report has them "stable:"

• Two officers were injured tonight in a crash on the Far North Side in the city's Rogers Park neighborhood.
  
  Preliminary reports said a police vehicle was responding to a call in the area of Morse Avenue and Sheridan Road when the crash occurred, according to Fire Media information.
  
  Two officers were taken to Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston where their condition has been stabilized, according to fire officials.

Speedy recovery wished to both Officers.

90th Out of 90?

Kind of embarrassing, seeing as how Illinois has the strictest gun laws, yet can't be bothered to have the feds prosecute anyone:

• Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association’s executive vice president and CEO, who appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday morning, asked host David Gregory why the network doesn’t focus on the poor enforcement of federal gun laws in Chicago.
  
  “I mean, let me give you the real sad thing, though. Let me hold up a mirror right now to the whole national news media and the White House,” the NRA official began. “I just got the track data from Syracuse University on enforcement of federal gun laws. Last time I was here, I brought it from 2011; it just came out from 2012.”
  
  “Do you know where Chicago ranks in terms of enforcement of the federal gun laws? Out of 90 jurisdictions in the country, they ranked 90th,” Mr. LaPierre continued.
  
  “Why doesn’t NBC News start with: ‘Shocking news on Chicago. Of all the jurisdictions in the country, Chicago’s dead last on enforcement of the federal gun laws?’” he asked. “Why doesn’t the national press corps, when they’re sitting down there with Jay Carney and the president and the vice president, why don’t they say, ‘Why is Chicago dead last in enforcement of the gun laws against gangs with guns, felons with guns, drug dealers with guns?’”

Well obviously, Obama and Eric Holder don't care about black people. They'd rather ship a few thousand untraceable guns over the border to Mexican drug cartels than enforce federal gun laws in Chicago.

Mattress Pads and 2 Degrees

Couple of items forwarded to us this week.

First up, the D-unit is now required to supply mattress pads to prisoners they keep overnight. This isn't that big a deal as the district lockups already have to supply sleepy prisoners with pads following a court settlement from a year or two back. Rumor is that some lockups are asking prisoners their "sleep number." We guess if they're keeping someone on the camera for an interrogation, it makes sense lest some wise-ass lawyer claim that the prisoner's discomfort led to them confessing to a crime. Anyone else missing the days of the old Maxwell Street station with the trough cut in the floor?

More interesting is the "2 Degrees of Separation" strategy we've started hearing about. It's exactly what it sounds like - a poor-man's Kevin Bacon game, but with some statistical backing. The theory as we understand it is that persons with two-degrees of separation from recent homicide victims are more likely themselves to be victims and shooters. Individuals are given a "heat" rating, as in "how close are they to being sent to the hell they've surely earned."

Our inner cynic says, "No shit Sherlock" seeing as how like attracts like and decent people aren't likely to be hanging around on dope corners with dope dealers slinging dope and getting shot for their troubles. So is this the ultimate endgame with Contact Cards? The more often you connect with a past/present/future Chalkie victim, the more....what exactly? Are we going to start babysitting these idiots? Are we going to snatch them off the street for their own safety? Are we going to put signs on their lawns?

We just wonder at the deterrent aspect.

That Was Quick

Sneed says the Gacy search is over....and has been for days:

• Sneed exclusive: The Gacy file . . .
  
  It’s over.
  
  There was no Geraldo moment.
  
  The search for victims of mass murderer John Wayne Gacy in the Northwest Side apartment building where Gacy’s mother once lived turned up squat . . . nothing.
  
  Sneed hears the elaborate, sophisticated search for more Gacy victims — conducted by Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s office, and exclusively reported by Sneed months ago — was for naught.
  
  The much-ballyhooed search, the end result of Dart’s two-year battle with the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, ended quietly last Wednesday when . . .

But after publishing this first article at 15:25 on 26 March, Sneed posts a completely separate article at 21:18 to tell everyone the FBI picked up the entire cost of the search.

Seems odd, the timing and all.

Chicago Magazine Covers Clearance Rate

And it ain't good:

• Only 132 of the 507 murder cases in the city last year were closed last year. That makes for a homicide clearance rate of 26 percent—the lowest in two decades, according to internal police records provided to Chicago. (The true picture is even worse; more on that later.) To put it another way: About three-quarters of the people who killed someone in Chicago in 2012 have gotten away with murder—so far, at least. “Those stats suggest a crisis,” says Arthur Lurigio, a criminologist at Loyola University Chicago.
  
  It’s a crisis every bit as pressing as the city’s high homicide rate, because the former feeds the latter. If murderers aren’t apprehended, they’re free to kill again. If other bad guys get the feeling that there are few consequences for their actions, they too will be emboldened. “The word has to be out [on the street] that the cases are not being cleared,” Lurigio says.
  

26%? We thought one-third was bad. A quarter is even worse.

• Given the record low clearance rate last year, more than 30 police sources, including current and former top commanders and 15 detectives, agreed to talk about the problem. These interviews—combined with the internal police data provided to Chicago—reveal a detective force that is undermanned and overextended, struggling against reluctant prosecutors and a notorious no-snitch code. Last year’s department-wide consolidation and reorganization, initiated by Superintendent Garry McCarthy, has made a bad situation even worse. As one South Side detective put it: “It’s a perfect storm of shit.”

That is quite the understatement.

The article explains in detail how Detective Areas were closed, manpower scattered across unfamiliar neighborhoods, and a complete lack of promoting detectives hamstrung the D-unit over the course of years. J-Fled is quoted along with Tommy Byrne (he loves the reorganization by the way) and numerous anonymous detectives. We haven't heard the clearance rate this year, but we're sure anything above 30% will be touted as brilliant planning by McConsolidation and his staff.

It's Monday!!!

And you know what that means? A New Strategy was Announced!

• It’s an old idea: The cop walking the beat.
  
  But that classic policing strategy is the latest tactic Chicago Police are adding in their ongoing battle against the city’s spiraling violence.
  
  Supt. Garry McCarthy is confident it will be an important part of the department’s new “strategic saturation” crime-fighting approach. And he showed reporters a photo of some gang graffiti officers found that suggests the gangs agree.
  
  “F--- the foot police,” it read.
  
  “Apparently they’re having some sort of impact on gang members there,” McCarthy told reporters.

Or they just had a spare can of paint and wanted to let everyone know they could spell "police."

The article touts the low homicide totals for February and March without once mentioning the lack of 70 and 80 degree days that permeated the late winter/early spring of 2012.  And while we're sure Rahm, Garry, the aldercreatures and brass are more than happy to claim the credit for lower numbers of killings, they better step up and accept the blame if it goes south in June and July.

Det. Dorsch (ret) Asks for Help

Over at the JohnWayneGacyNews.com site, he writes a lengthy missive.  As usual, politicians are playing games with this hot potato, so he asks for some help:

• It was not until the January 11, 2013, that Dart announced that Alvarez had finally approved a search warrant. Of course it was far too cold by then to do anything with the frozen ground.
  
  Now the ground is thawing, and this is why I can use your help. I have been retired since 1994 but I do know that it is you–the beat officers, tactical teams, and regular street cops–that cannot be fooled. You have not sold out to promotions and you probably don’t expect to be promoted anytime soon because you don’t have the clout. I need you to keep an eye on that site.
  
  What I fear is that one Friday afternoon Dart will go on the evening news and announce that the site has already been searched and that they found nothing. Case closed.
  
  You and I know that neither the Chicago Police or the Sheriff’s Dept. has the equipment nor the expertise to do the search. What Dart has repeatedly said is that he believes that more of Gacy’s victims could be buried in other states but he stays away from mentioning the Miami location. His spokesperson has said that he expects that the search will not take more then ONE DAY. Gacy is known to have killed 33 people, we have the bodies, but he always said there are more. ONE DAY is better then the two hours devoted in the Nov 1998 search but who is kidding who here? The spokesperson went on to say that a radar scan would be done (only the FBI has the experience) and then they would push rods into the ground and then allow the rods to be sniffed by a dog. He said that if the dog does not alert then the investigation is over.

The entire letter covers the stonewalling and games being played with Cook County officials saying one thing, then doing the opposite, or worse, nothing at all. Go read it all.

If we were a homeowner there, we'd want a thorough search just to see if we were sitting on a grave site. And if anyone we knew was a victim and we knew where to dig, we'd be out there with a pickaxe and shovel already. It isn't going to cost that much to re-sod the area.

FBI Shooting

Over by the Medical District yesterday:

• Two people were hospitalized after a shooting near the University of Illinois at Chicago this afternoon that involved an FBI agent who fired a weapon, authorities said.
  
  The shooting occurred around 12:40 p.m. in the parking lot of a Jewel food store in the 1600 block of West Roosevelt Road in the Illinois Medical District, officials said.
  
  One person was shot in the hip and taken in serious condition to Stroger Hospital, officials said. A second person was also injured and taken to the hospital, but no details were available.
  
  The FBI agent was not injured, according to agency spokesman Joan Hyde. She could not say if the agent hit anyone or why the agent was in the area.

Actually, the feebs have a building right there, too. They are being close-mouthed about the whole thing in any event - no Camden-type speaking for them. Glad to hear the agent wasn't injured.

Millions More Gone

Yet another gift from Shortshanks:

• Yet another legal time bomb left behind by former Mayor Richard M. Daley exploded in Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s lap Monday — and it turns out to be a $6 million snow job for Chicago.
  
  U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle ruled Monday that Chicago must reimburse the federal government for $6 million in snow-removal costs incurred at O’Hare and Midway Airports during 1999 and 2000.
  
  After years of claims and counter-claims, Norgle sided with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the dispute over whether the city should be ordered to repay the money.
  

If there's someone who's always going to get their money, it's the feds.

Watch for Rahm to blame the firefighters for this one somehow. It's their turn.

Another Delayed Homicide

Delayed twenty years:

• The July 1993 article started the way too many still do. Three people, including two teenagers, had been shot over the weekend, the reporter wrote. Police hadn't arrested anybody. One of the victims, a teen named Keith Cunningham, was in critical condition. Officers said he might not have been the intended target.
  
  Cunningham, 16, was relaxing on a porch on Chicago's West Side as Saturday, July 24, faded into Sunday, July 25. About 12:45 a.m., two gunmen approached on foot and fired several rounds, police said at the time. Bullets landed in the high school student's neck and back. Back home, his mother answered the phone and heard the news.
  
  Like most of the young men struck by gunfire each year in Chicago, Cunningham's name quickly faded from the headlines. But his story didn't end.
  
  After living almost 20 years as a gunshot victim, Cunningham died Friday. The immediate cause of death was sepsis, a complication of the quadriplegia he developed from the shooting. The Cook County medical examiner's office classified the 36-year-old's death as a homicide.

That's a long time. McNotAnAccountant was overheard to ask if it was in the box, and then ordered the officers working that spot to be written up.

Cash for Stolen Phones

Another brilliant idea by people who have no idea what drives crime:

• Here’s an easy way to get some cash: Drop a used smartphone in any of the 13 ATM-like kiosks at shopping malls around the Washington region and, within minutes, the machine will spit out as much as a few hundred dollars.
  The process is so simple that local police fear these ecoATMs are fueling one of the nation’s most pervasive criminal trends — cellphone theft.
  The kiosks have become a particular thorn for police in the District, where 40 percent of all forced robberies last year involved a cellphone, the highest percentage in the nation.

The company claims to run phone serial numbers against known stolen phones, but it isn't their fault the lists are less than comprehensive and does nothing to address freshly stolen phones.

Any of these things in Chicago? Apple-pickers would be burning them up like mad.

Ripped From the Headlines!

Actually, it amuses us to no end:

Hat tip to Mr. McKee for another fine capture of what street cops experience daily.

Gacy Excavation

Ever wonder what it looked like back when they had to excavate a crime scene that looked more like an archeological dig site?

Wonder no more - this link will take you to an extensive collection of photos.

If they ever get around to properly digging up north, we expect something similar but without the bulldozed house.

Aggravated UUW Unconstitutional?

Looks like it might be - and by a Cook County judge no less. From our friend Todd Vandermyde and the people over at IllinoisCarry.com:

• there is a new case I received in the mail today so some of the legal types might want to pul it up and post it here.
  
  People v. Donta Mosley
  decided 3/15/13
  cook county criminal division
  12-CR-5646-01
  Judge Michael Brown
  
  20 year old on a AG UUW. Judge says sentencing guide lines require mandatory 1 year, because minor with gun, NO FOID.
  
  But finds that 18, 19 & 20 years olds can't sign for their own FOID and creates due process violation and declares 720 ILCS 5/24-1.6 6(d)(2) unconstitutional.
  
  thy also find the disproportionate penalties and again declares the AGG UUW unconstitutional
  
  WOW
  
  then goes onto say unconstitutional on its face AND as applied
  
  he gets a Class A at the end of it. 

The discussion gets rather involved throughout the message board, but a number of people with more info than we have say this has major ramifications for any number of bills currently up for discussion, including Concealed Carry - ramifications that will hinder the gun-grabbers.

Check back with IllinoisCarry.com and the ISRA website for updates as the legislature stumbles through their dog-and-pony show.

And look for a bulletin from Legal Affairs about this - they'll have to address it in short order.

Metra Disaster

You thought we had it rough? Metra takes the cake:

• Do you think security is all it could be on Metra?
  
  Think again.
  
  Sneed is told Metra, the system of 11 rail lines connecting Chicago to six counties and 241 stations in Northeastern Illinois, may not be as safe as you think it is.
  
  “We have been derailed by understaffing, poor equipment and leadership without a mission,” said a Metra police source.
  
  “And we were carrying guns we weren’t certified to carry for three years until January.”
  
  “If you think you are safe on a Metra train, you are not,” he said.
  

The entire piece is a a story of a completely neglected department, undercut at every turn by misappropriation of funds, poor hiring practices and outright neglect.

Fundraiser

Our fellow brother, Officer Chuck Odegard star 13258, class of 02 January 1992, has recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. A benefit and gun raffle has been planned to help defray his incurred medical expenses. The benefit will be held on 28 April 2013.

Chuck is currently assigned to the 020th District and has also worked in the 014th District and Mass Transit.

We didn't post the Ticket Committee info seeing as how a lot of cell phone numbers are there. Instead, get a hold of the 020 Desk for info.

Mayor Murder

And he's racist, too!

• The Chicago Public Schools’ plan to close 53 schools and 61 buildings, mostly in black neighborhoods, has some West Side residents vowing to fight the Emanuel administration until the end.
  
  As WBBM Newsradio [...] reports, to hear some tell it on the West Side, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is a racist liar who doesn’t care about the kids. And they’re just getting started.
  
  “I don’t see any Caucasians being moved, bussed, or murdered in the streets as they travel along gang lines, or stand on the steps of a CPS school,” said activist Wendy Matil Pearson as opponents of the school closing plans protested outside Horatio May Elementary Community Academy in the Austin neighborhood.

You don't see that for an assortment of reasons Wendy - those schools are overcrowded and seem to lack shootings. But of course, when you can't manage to take responsibility for your own life, neighborhood or children, there's always the "racism" card to throw around.

And this was humorous also:

• Valerie Leonard, co-founder of the Lawndale Alliance, accused the mayor of trying to drive African Americans out of the city.
  
  “He says that he wants to turn around the city of Chicago, make a new Chicago. Does that new Chicago mean no black folks?” she said. “Where are people going to go? They’re not going to stay around in the community if there are no schools!”

Yeah, have you seen the census figures lately Val? Upwards of 200,000 "black folks" as you put it, have already fled the city as of 2010. Rahm only got here two years ago.

CTU president and part-time communist Karen Lewis got in a good shot at Rahm though:

• On Thursday, CTU President Karen Lewis said the plan was both “racist” and “classist,” and she called Emanuel “the murder mayor.”
  
  “He is the murder mayor,” she said, referencing the city’s recent problems with gun violence. “Look at the murder rate in this city. He’s murdering schools, he’s murdering good jobs. He’s murdering housing. I don’t know what else to call him. He’s the murder mayor.”

Also gutless, as he fled town again while the closing announcements were made.

"Cleared" Convict at It Again

After the NYPD cannibal incident, at least we can say this goof wasn't planning on eating anyone:

• A former Chicago cop already accused of plotting a macabre kidnap, murder and extortion scheme is now charged with plotting to kill a second man for cash — and of roping his wife into a cover-up from behind the bars of a federal lockup.
  
  Former Death Row resident Steve Mandell, 61, was charged late last year with one of the grisliest plots in recent Chicago history.
  
  The feds arrested him on Oct. 25, just moments before they say he planned to abduct, torture, extort, murder and dismember an unidentified businessman in a purpose-built killing chamber.
  
  His alleged accomplice, Gary Engel, committed suicide in prison less than two weeks later.
  

And once again, he's identified as a "former cop" even though he was fired back in 1983 - like he hasn't been doing anything except passing himself off as CPD for the past 30 years. At least someone identified this guy as a problem back in the day and launched him.

He's Baaaack

Or at least he wants to be back:

• With the ink barely dry on William Beavers’ guilty verdict form, another familiar name is angling to replace the disgraced Cook County commissioner.
  
  Former Cook County Board President Todd Stroger told the Chicago Sun-Times on Friday he wants in.
  
  “Actually, I do have an interest,” in replacing Beavers on the Cook County Board. “I am going to reach out to all the committeemen this weekend,” Stroger said in a phone interview.

Replace one thief with another? Well, why not?  Toddler already has a proven record of corruption, tax-and-spend, nepotism and a board president's pension.

Giant Parking Garage Payout

This is ridiculous:

• Chicago is on the hook for $57.8 million for violating a contract with a company that operates city-owned garages by allowing a competing garage to open north of Millennium Park, according to an arbitration ruling in the case.
  
  A panel of arbitrators ruled last month in favor of Chicago Loop Parking LLC, finding that the city violated terms of a $563 million 99-year lease with the company to operate four garages under Millennium Park and Grant Park.
  
  The city should not have granted Standard Parking a license in 2009 to run a public garage beneath the Aqua Tower because it is within a “competing parking area” where then-Mayor Richard M. Daley agreed not to allow new garages, according to the arbitrators’ ruling.

This total alone far surpasses the payouts for alleged "police misconduct" that the news has been running with the last few months.  Tack on the $61 million in still disputed parking meter monies and the $55 million being spent on "Mrs. Shortshanks Park" and you begin to see a method to Rahm's trying to paint First Responders as the bad guys and undercutting Second Amendment protections - he needs distractions from the fact he's steering Chicago right into the iceberg, then backing up and doing it again and again.

Ladner Lawsuit Gaining Steam

From our comment section:

• I learned that Atty Dan Herbert has been contacted by hundreds of candidates that Queen Tracey disqualified for no other reason than they were police family or military. Of those hundreds there are about 120 so far that he will be representing. If you know of anyone who failed for no other reason than they were police family have them contact his partner Terri.ryan@herbertlaw.com with a brief synopsis. Apparently they have several of the directors staff on the list to be deposed and talk is they aren't going to take a hit for her. 

Anyone know if these folks have the opportunity for back pay, damages and seniority along the lines of the hundred-plus firefighters who recently won their hiring lawsuit? A lot of new PPO's might be at the back of the pack longer than they had expected.

Slapping the Beaver

Prison time for the hog with the big nuts:

• The Hog looks like he’s heading for the pen.
  
  That’s the likely fate of Cook County Commissioner William Beavers after a jury took less than two hours Thursday to find him guilty of being a tax cheat.
  
  But the self-proclaimed “hog with the big nuts” went down swinging — repeating his claim that he’d been unfairly prosecuted by the feds for refusing to wear a wire against fellow Commissioner John Daley.
  

That's looking like a pretty short-sighted decision then, isn't it? Should've worn the wire dumbass. What can Daley (any of them) do for you now?

Let the whining commence:

• Under state law, Beavers’ conviction means he will automatically lose his seat on the County Board. His attorneys — unhappy at a series of rulings Judge James Zagel made — said he will appeal.
  
  And Beavers himself blasted Zagel, saying the judge who ultimately will sentence him was “really unfair.” Beavers told reporters he did not testify because Zagel had it in for him.
  
  “Look, if I had taken the stand the judge wasn’t going to let me do what I wanted to do,” Beavers said.
  
  “The judge was really unfair. That’s why I didn’t take the stand because he was never going to let me tell what I wanted to tell.”
  

Yeah, right. Zagel wasn't going to let Beavers get up there and spin a bullshit yarn without being subject to cross examination, whereby Beavers would have talked himself into a perjury charge within 18 minutes according to someone running a pool in the federal building.

Seventy-eight and headed to prison. About freaking time.

Conflict of Interest Par for Chicago

The Inspector General has just become a complete waste of millions of taxpayer dollars:

• Illinois' highest court made it clear Thursday that when push comes to shove, City Hall's top corruption buster answers to the very mayor he's supposed to keep watch over.
  
  The state Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling that Inspector General Joseph Ferguson cannot independently go to court to enforce a subpoena for documents from the mayor's administration.
  
  Instead, he must ask the corporation counsel, the city's top lawyer who reports directly to the mayor, to enforce those subpoenas. If the lawyer refuses, the dispute must be settled by the mayor.
  
  "With today's ruling, the public and the City Council should now know that the inspector general has access only to the records and materials the mayor and his corporation counsel wish to make available, when they decide to make them available," Ferguson said in a statement.

Time to resign Joe. Every check you cash from here on out is a piece of your soul sold to the Chicago Machine. And some aldercreature ought to make a proposal defunding the IG office.

Guess who the two-faced rat-bastard was who cut off the IG's balls?

• [Ferguson] noted that in December 2010, when Rahm Emanuel was in the early stages of his campaign, he stood alongside former Inspector General David Hoffman and said "any efforts to block the inspector general from getting information will not be tolerated."
  
  Instead, Emanuel and his corporation counsel, Stephen Patton, fought the case to limit subpoena enforcement all the way to the Supreme Court, after an appellate court concluded Ferguson did have the authority to enforce subpoenas.
  

Oh Rahm, you sly devil.

Surprise - NOT!!!

Might as well stage the ambulances just up the block since this happens all the time:

• A manager for rapper Lil Mouse said the teenage artist left a South Side nightclub before seven people were shot early Thursday at a rap video release party.
  
  Police said three people pulled out handguns and started firing shots both inside and outside Mr. G’s Supper Club and Entertainment Center at 87th and Ashland about 1:13 a.m.
  
  The Auburn Gresham neighborhood shooting was gang-related, said police News Affairs...

Lil Mouse is a big advocate of the "no snitching" culture. Oh yeah, and he's 13. He left two hours before the shooting, so he's probably in the clear. No arrests though, so the silence from the community continues. No "reverends" stepping up either.

At What Cost?

Proving once again that more police results in crime numbers bring driven down and that McJersey's CompStat is just so much BS smoke-and-mirrors:

• Chicago police are trying to combat the city's homicide rate with an effort to flood some of the city's most dangerous neighborhoods with officers working overtime.
  
  After about seven weeks of sending at least a couple hundred extra officers out at night, there have been 23 homicides in the city. That's less than half the total from the same period a year ago.
  
  Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy won't say the overtime work is the reason for the drop but says it's one of the department's top crime-fighting strategies
  
  But the expense is enormous for the financially strapped city. The tactic could cost millions each month and eat up the department's entire overtime budget by fall.
  
  McCarthy says paying overtime to officers on the force is cheaper than hiring new ones.

Cheaper until the burnout rate climbs....but that's months away.

We notice that no one is mentioning that last year it was about 70 degrees throughout March. This year, not so warm. In fact, it hasn't gotten much above freezing this entire month.

But as long as the checks clear....

CPD Shooting in the Burbs

Cops are okay after a subject attempted to hit them with a car:

• Chicago police said officers shot and killed a man in south suburban East Hazel Crest on Tuesday, after the man rammed a police vehicle.
  
  Undercover Chicago police officers shot and killed 27-year-old Ryan Rogers as he and his girlfriend were leaving their apartment in the 1900 block of West 171st Street.
  
  Chicago police said Rogers rammed a police vehicle, and the officers feared he would run them over with his car, so they opened fire.

Of course, everyone on the block was out in the 20 degree weather (with a wind chill of 7 degrees) and saw every single moment of the entire episode. CBS finds an assortment of "witnesses" who didn't hear the police identify themselves and a boatload of commentators who have no idea how Chicago Police are permitted to operate. Here's a hint - long term investigations aren't restricted by city borders.

In any event, expect the usual ignorant comments to continue.

MegaSports Blows

MegaSports isn't a place we'd spend a dime at - especially now.  The following is an e-mail we received from a concerned reader:

• I was just at Mega Sports in Plainfield. I live just inside the Cook County border and Mega sports is the best gun store/range within a reasonable distance from my house. So I'm at the counter on Sunday and want to take a look at a Daniel Defense AR-15. When they do the obligatory FOID card check, the guy behind the counter asks what county I live in which they had never done before. I say Cook County, and he tells me they are prohibited from selling me any semi-auto rifle (in Libtard-speak = assault weapon). I ask why, and he says there is a Cook County law/ordinance that prohibits them from making the sale. Being well versed on the 2nd Amendment issues and laws, I tell him there is no such law that prohibits the sale of any otherwise legal firearm to a Cook County resident. I explain that even if Cook County prohibited possession of a certain firearm, I am nevertheless permitted to buy the gun and keep it outside of Cook County (which I did for numerous years with my 92FS Barretta while living in Chicago). He then backtracks and says it's a new store policy dictated by the owner. When I ask for the reasoning behind this new policy, he has no further information but snidely says I can still hold the rifle, but cannot make the purchase.
  
  Now my bullshit antennae are up because I sensed that other things were off in the store, namely that they "carded" me when I walked in the front door meaning I had to show a FOID to walk inside which never happened on prior visits. There was also a camera next to the "doorman" taking photos of everyone coming in, which I think is new but may have not noticed on prior visits. There were also numerous signs prohibiting all cell-phone use, even in the bathroom, which was never prohibited in the past because I had used my cell on my last Glock purchase not 3 months ago to consult with my brother right at the counter prior to making my purchase.
  
  I thought you might find this interesting and worth investigating or posting about.  Not sure why Mega Sports is so paranoid lately or whether Cook County is putting unfair pressure on them or using intimidation tactics, i.e. threats of sting operations, prosecutions for "straw purchases," etc. But, based on the new policy, I would bet that not even police who live in Cook could buy a semi-auto rifle. I think the whole situation is complete BS and Mega Sports is cowing down to leftist pressure and infringing on the 2nd Amendment rights of Cook County residents.

So MegaSports is denying the exercise of your Second Amendment Rights based on non-existent laws and some "company policy"?  We'd have to recommend finding some establishment happier to accept your hard earned money.  Recommendations are encouraged in the comment section.

Running Gun Battle

No cops injured:

• One man is hospitalized in critical condition with a gunshot wound suffered in a late-afternoon confrontation on the South Side.
  
  Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden said officers ducked bullets to track down two suspects.
  
  Camden said that the two Englewood District tactical officers responded at about 4:35 p.m. Tuesday when hearing shots fired in the vicinity of 59th Street and Princeton Avenue. He said the officers spotted a man wounded on the sidewalk as two men with guns ran from the scene. Each officer pursued one of the gunmen.
  
  Camden said in both cases, the men being pursued turned and fired on police, who managed to duck the bullets. In both cases, Camden said, the suspects were taken into custody without further injury and the guns recovered.

Very well done Officers.

Another Side Job for Cops

An interesting proposal, not too dissimilar from one proposed years ago for major sporting events being hosted in Chicago:

• Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) has a plan to prevent a repeat of the ugly mob attacks that have plagued River North and downtown Chicago the past two summers: moonlighting, uniformed police officers paid for by local merchants.
  
  Reilly wants to let local chambers of commerce, business improvement districts and “special service area” taxing districts hire off-duty Chicago Police officers to supplement regular police patrols.
  
  Currently, Chicago Police officers are permitted to wear their uniforms only when they are working for the city or moonlighting for the CTA or Navy Pier.
  
  Reilly’s ordinance, quietly introduced at last week’s City Council meeting, would allow off-duty officers to wear their uniforms while being paid $30 an hour by local businesses to work a minimum of six-hour shifts.
  
  The arrangement would be open to commercial strips across the city. But it’s clearly timed to prevent a spring and summer rerun of the ugly mob attacks.
  

At least someone is thinking ahead.

We recall Daley killed a deal that was supposed to be modeled after Boston's program where major sporting venues hired off-duty cops through the FOP to run traffic control and security. Daley didn't want cops making money, so he created the TMA disaster to undercut the proposal. This is the reason why whenever Chicago teams are out of town, you have these political mopes "directing" at intersections controlled by traffic lights - after all, how many votes can a traffic signal deliver? And here you have a patronage army ready to screw up downtown foot, bike and vehicle traffic.

This is America?

Police and social services raid a citizen's home over a picture?

• New Jersey officials, including police and the Department of Children and Families, are on the defensive today, after they raided the home of Shawn Moore, a firearms instructor for the National Rifle Association, demanding to see his guns after he posted a photo on Facebook of his son, Josh, 11, holding a rifle his father had given him as a birthday present.
  
  "Someone called family services about the photo,” said Evan Nappen, an attorney who represents Moore. “It led to an incredible, heavy-handed raid on his house. They wanted to see his gun safe, his guns and search his house. They even threatened to take his kids."
  
  [...] When the police confirmed they did not have a warrant to search his home and after a social worker refused to identify herself, Moore asked the officials to leave.
  
  They adhered to his request.

Classic liberal overreach. We certainly hope that Mr. Moore is successful in his lawsuit and collects damages from every single person involved in this blatant violation.

In other Civil Rights news, the National Assault Weapons Ban is dead:

• After a meeting yesterday with Harry Reid (D-NV), Sen. Dianne Feinstein learned that her controversial assault weapons ban mess will not be part of the gun control bill package heading to the senate floor next month.
  
  The AWB could be offered up as an amendment, but the bill was already considered a long shot, as senate democrats will be facing a competitive election cycle for 2014. Many face constituents back home who do not support such legislation.

Join the fight - links in the right hand sidebar for the NRA and ISRA.

Here's Why the Pension is F@#%ed Up

Read the whole thing and be amazed that no one is going to jail:

• Monday's humiliating accusation that state officials intentionally misled investors about a ruinous pension debacle easily justified the Tribune's front-page headline: "Illinois is guilty of fraud, SEC says." But that narrow accusation by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission underplays the far more damning tale that unfolds on page after page of the agency's cease-and-desist order.
  
  The order documents how Illinois politicians systematically have cheated public workers who trust in their pension system, investors buying bonds under false pretenses — and taxpayers left holding the bag for untold billions of dollars in unfunded pension obligations.
  
  The SEC order details how, beginning 19 years ago, Illinois pols laid the foundation for today's pension mess — evidently so they could keep spending what should have been pension fund contributions on other things. But the agency doesn't have jurisdiction over most of that chicanery; as an agency official put it, "The SEC is not involved with whether the state is doing a good job or bad job in terms of managing its pensions."
  
  We wish it did. Instead, the feds essentially are limited to describing securities fraud that suffused the information given, or intentionally not given, to potential buyers of Illinois bonds from 2005-09. It's as if a generation of Illinois pols have been caught committing armed robbery ... by a meter maid who can only ticket them for overparking.

Under any normal rules, Blago would have plenty of roommates in prison right about now, starting with Edgar and running through the majority of the State legislature.

Again, it's not that long of an article and an easy read. Print it out and carry it around. The litany of broken promises and outright criminal acts should cost all these thieves their jobs.

Seek Help

A decent article about the suicide of one of our own.

Read it.  Seek help if you need it.  Please.

Employee Assistance (EAP) is always available.

Comments closed here.

Seiser Still Runs It

Sometimes, being a hero is just being in the right place at the right time:

• Four-month-old Jordyn Rose was baptized Sunday at Chicago's Holy Name Cathedral. But on Saturday, she was rescued in a different way.
  
  What started out as normal crying turned into her parents' nightmare when Jordyn's face turned white, her lips grew blue and she gasped for air, struggling to breathe.
  
  [...] "I could sense the panic," said Talbott [Hotel] doorman Dwayne Neff, who would often greet the couple when they left the apartment.
  
  [...] "I looked to my right, and I saw two officers who I recognized immediately," Neff said. "And as soon as I ran up to the squad car, they ran right into action."
  
  Those Chicago police officers — Karen Wojcikowski and Michael Seiser — put the panicking couple into their squad car, turned on their sirens and wove through jammed traffic to Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, just blocks away.

Nice job to both officers.

The Story Changes

A lot of what was reported in the media was incorrect:

• Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said Monday that the father of a 6-month-old girl slain last week on the South Side was not changing his daughter's diaper when she was fatally shot, contrary to what police told the news media on the day of the shooting.
  
  Speaking at an unrelated news conference, McCarthy said Jonathan Watkins, the father who was wounded in the gunfire in the Woodlawn neighborhood, is cooperating with investigators but could be more helpful.
  
  "At this point, we think there's a lot more that he can help us with, but he is, in fact, cooperating with the investigation," McCarthy told reporters at a Southwest Side police station. "We think that there's more that he can tell us."

Golly. Who'd have thunk it? Someone did mention to Garry that this would be "snitching," right?

This is odd though:

• McCarthy said the baby was shot once, not multiple times as published in some reports. The bullet, though, injured several organs. She died the next morning. Her father suffered wounds to his buttock and left side and was released from Northwestern Memorial Hospital on Thursday.

Only shot once? But the family listed five distinct wounds suffered by the child. And while we've all seen multiple entry-exit wounds from a single bullet, the listed wounds make conspiracy theories look possible:

• His young daughter was hit five times: in the thigh, shoulder, lung, liver and bowels, the family later said.

And you thought the JFK/Governor Connally "magic bullet" theory was far fetched? It looks completely plausible in light of this "shot once" statement. So the questions must be, why even mention this as it weakens the State's case and why is there an effort to rehab the image of an unmitigated and unrepentant asshole who dealt dope with his child in his lap and most likely used her as a shield? And why is the media slurping it up?

Release Everyone!

After all, it's almost full:

• Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart says the jail is nearly full, and he’s concerned the facility will be bursting at the seams as summer months approach and arrests typically rise with the mercury.
  
  Late last week, the jail at 27th and California was almost 96 percent full, with a daily population of 9,721. The capacity is about 10,150.
  
  “That will become a humongous problem for me come June, July and August,” Dart told the Chicago Sun-Times in a recent interview.
  

Yeah, and it might be a huge problem for all those actual victims of crime who expect their attackers, muggers, robbers, and thieves to actually, you know, stand trial for their misdeeds.

But Dart is worried about "his" problem, not you little people.

Want to Win A Gun?

This is a good move to raise money for a Little League:

• An Illinois Little League insists there is no political agenda behind its fundraiser raffling off an AR-15 rifle.
  
  Owners of Atwood Armory and the Atwood-Hammond Little League Atwood, Ill., came under media scrutiny in the past week following the start of their AR-15 raffle to raise funds for the financially struggling Little League.
  
  Some media outlets have reported that the rifle is similar to the one used in Newtown, Conn., in December when 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
  
  The Little League’s commissioner, Steven McClain, 33, denied that it was the same type of gun and said he did not factor in the Newtown massacre into his decision to raffle the gun.
  
  “I have kids. Every board member of the league has kids,” he told ABCNews.com. “I’m deeply saddened about what happened. But we don’t believe it’s the gun’s fault.”

So far, the Little League has raised $10,000 - their last fundraiser netted them ten bucks for a hog. So this is definitely a step in the right direction. If you'd like to buy a ticket, they're on sale until 28 June. The drawing is 29 June. And since most of our readers already have an FOID and have passed background checks, you're already qualified to win.  Here's the info (it's from their open source Facebook page):

• RAFFLE #2 INFO: This is for the Atwood-Hammond Little League Raffle. We are raffling off a ROCK RIVER ARMS TACTICAL OPERATOR 2. Last day to purchase tickets is June 28 as the drawing is June 29. Tickets are $20 each and can be purchased at ATWOOD ARMORY or by sending a check or money order made out to ATWOOD ARMORY, 65 E CR 1175 N, Atwood, IL 61913. You can purchase if you live out of state, however, we will not ship this firearm to a restricted area. It is your responsibility to know the laws for the state or area in which you live. Thank you so much for your support!!

As Rahm would say, "It's for the children," so you know it can't be bad.

UPDATE: They are also raffling off a second AR-15 to raise money for the Camden Foundation to fight childhood cancer. That drawing is 30 March. The specifics:

• RAFFLE INFO:: Raffle #1 is for the Camden Foundation, a local non-profit organization that helps the families of children who are dealing with childhood cancer. The last day for ticket sales is March 29 as the drawing is March 30. We are raffling off a ROCK RIVER ARMS ENTRY OPERATOR AR15. Tickets are just $20 each and can be purchased in person at ATWOOD ARMORY or via mail by mailing a check made out to ATWOOD ARMORY, 65 E CR 1175 N, Atwood, IL 61913. Please designate that you would like it to go towards the Camden Foundation Raffle. Thank you for your support!

Specify the raffle you are entering if you send them a check. Both are worthy causes though.

It's Building...

Double digits again in woundings:

• One man was beaten to death at a CTA station, a 16-year-old boy was fatally shot and eleven other people were wounded in separate acts of violence across the city this weekend.
  
  Police said the 37-year-old beating victim died from injuries suffered in a fight with another man on the platform of the 43rd Street CTA Green Line station on the South Side, about 11:30 a.m. Saturday.
  
  Sanchez Mixon, of the 3300 block of South Michigan Avenue was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he died at 12:13 p.m., police said. No arrests had been made by Saturday evening.
  
  At 7 p.m. A 16-year-old boy was shot in the back and shoulder in the Gage Park neighborhood on the South Side Saturday night.
  
  Police said the teen was in the 2400 block of West 58th Street when he was shot.
  
  Arrell Monogan, of the 7900 block of South Escanaba Avenue, was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 8:23 p.m., according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.
  
  No arrests have been made as police continued to investigate.

The snow and chill is keeping numbers low - or lower than last year. But you can see it brewing every time the temps climb above freezing. This isn't the first week of double-digit maimings lately. Be careful and watch your backs.

Police Limit

Deep thoughts while working VRI this week:

But those checks look awfully good.

Once Again, Ban Trains!

Yet another crime, completely prevented by cameras:

• Three people were assaulted aboard a Red Line "L" train Friday when a group of men stormed a car shouting their gang affiliation, prosecutors said Sunday.
  
  Cameron D. Griggs, 19, was the only person arrested, though four other males also participated in the attack, said Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Rusch. Griggs, who prosecutors believe boarded a train at the 47thStreet Red Line station, was arrested just before 11 p.m. Friday at the 69thStreet station on the South Side. The other men fled the scene.
  
  Griggs, of the 1300 block of North Hudson Avenue in the Old Town neighborhood, faces a charge of of felony aggravated battery in a public place. Griggs is accused of punching and kicking a 57-year-old man after an unknown person struck the man in the face with a handgun, Rusch said. The victim was treated and released from St. Bernard Hospital, according to court records.
  
  Another attacker punched a woman who pressed the train’s emergency button, Rusch said, and a third victim was punched four times. Rusch said the attack was captured on surveillance video.

Did we say, "prevented by cameras?" Sorry about that. We meant "recorded for posterity by cameras." And the bystanders who attempted to alert the motorman? Also beaten.

But as a consolation (and as a lovely parting gift suggested by our readers), a framed, autographed-by-Rahm copy of the assaults will be available to the victims and presented by our very own McStreetlightAssassin!

Straight Up Robbery

Obama wants to be "...more like Europe." Can't wait to see what happens this week across the pond:

• Shocked and angry residents of Cyprus on Saturday morning rushed to their banks and ATMs to withdraw their savings, but it was too late. The ones who had been lucky enough or smart enough or frightened enough to have withdrawn their money earlier in the week lost nothing, but the ones who believed the Cypriot and European politicians who said that all bank deposits are safe were screwed.
  
  In the wee hours of the night, the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers agreed to bail out Cyprus, after a year of negotiations. Cyprus needed a 17 billion euro bailout loan for its banking system, but the Eurogroup was only willing to come up with about 10 billion euros, so the difference had to be made up by penalizing depositors: 9.9% on deposits above 100,000 euros, and 6.75% on smaller deposits

It's a good thing we've been keep all of our cash under the mattress and converting everything we can to precious metals.

Might be some bank runs overseas today. Might be more "instability" here at home.

Ban Trains!

We don't know why this obvious step hasn't been taken before, what with all the apple-picking going on:

• A 37-year-old man was beaten to death on a platform of the Green Line late Saturday morning in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side, according to authorities.
  
  The victim, whose identity was not being released Saturday night because his family was not notified yet, was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 12:13 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
  
  It was not immediately clear what sparked the attack, but one "large" man walked up about 11:30 a.m. and started beating the victim, who was standing on the platform in the 300 block of East 43rd Street, according to police.

And if you thought the CTA was bad, even the police aren't safe in Metra stations:

• One person is under arrest, accused of stabbing a Metra police sergeant who was breaking up a fight at Union Station Saturday night, Chicago police said.
  
  A fight erupted near the food court inside Union Station and the male sergeant was stabbed three times in the leg while trying to break up the altercation, police said.
  
  Metra spokesman Tom Miller said the fight happened outside a McDonald's restaurant in the upper level of the station.

Best wishes to the Metra officer for a speedy recovery.

Momma Must be Proud

Is it too soon to "turn his life around?"

• A 9-year-old boy arrested and charged with armed robbery at a McDonald's last month was one of four people arrested Thursday night in connection with a carjacking.
  
  Police said charges were denied against the 9-year-old, who was arrested for breaking out the window of a business in January in addition to the armed robbery last month. The 9-year-old was released into the custody of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, police said.
  
  He was in the car with two 15-year-olds and a 14-year-olds Thursday night, when the four were arrested in a carjacking that began about 9:30 p.m. in the 11000 block of Avenue D in the East Side neighborhood on the Southeast Side, police said.

Sounds like he's got his role models all picked out and a career path charted.

And as soon as he gets lit up by someone for being a jagoff, we'll hear the usual suspects asking why anything wasn't done.

They're Making.....Farmers?

Um.....isn't this what they're doing in Detroit as they shrink the corporate boundaries as the city dies? Maybe Rahm is trying to get ahead of the Detroit-curve?

• The city of Chicago wants to turn vacant lots into urban farms.
  
  Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Friday the city will launch Farmers for Chicago over the next three years, with help from private donors.
  
  The new program will make up to five acres of city-owned lots available for urban farming.
  
  Chicago is partnering with the local urban agriculture organization Growing Power.
  
  Local nonprofit organizations also will train residents - many with limited work history - in urban farming and skills. The food from the farms will be distributed to up to 20 farmer's markets, corner stores, restaurants and grocery chains.

People with a "limited work history" aren't going to make very good farmers. Farming is a difficult and involved job, usually involving early hours, back-breaking labor and endless days. There's usually machinery involved and complicated directions for mixing chemicals, planting crops, applying pesticides, many of which are heavily regulated substances.

What's that? Not real farming? Gardeners? Part-time gardeners?

How much is this costing taxpayers? Or is this some sort of return to "plantation politics?"

Another Police Shooting (UPDATES)

The weather must be breaking:

• A man was shot and killed after he fired a gun at Chicago police early Saturday morning in Albany Park on the city's Northwest Side.
  
  The man was driving east on Wilson Avenue about 2:55 a.m. and hit an SUV as he crossed Kimball Avenue before hitting several other parked cars and coming to rest in the middle of the block.
  
  An unmarked police SUV was behind it – it's not clear whether in pursuit or just following – and the car's driver fired out of his car toward police after the car stopped perpendicular to the parked cars on each side of Wilson.

Two officers suffered minor injuries diving out of the line of fire. An excellent job all around.

UPDATE: Usually reliable reporter Peter Nickeas falls into the typical liberal Chicago media trap of calling the attempted murderer of police officers a victim though:

• Dan Gamboney, 63, was inside his SUV driving east on Wilson Avenue after having stopped at McDonald's. He saw the car "flying" toward him from the west side of Kimball Avenue and pulled close to the curb to avoid it – but he was still sideswiped.
  
  Gamboney said the victim's car then bounced off a few others.

Assailants of citizens and police officers are not "victims." They are criminals, assailants, offenders.

UPDATE: The Tribune post has been corrected, removing the inappropriate word "victim" from the narrative.  Hat's off to Mr. Nickeas once again for being one of the only reporters who seems to get it.

Open Post

Yes, we know what weekend it is.

Open post to discuss things.....reasonable things.

Things that don't involve FOP lawyers.

You Know What Might Have Worked?

A gun:

• Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran said that a Mundelein man killed his ex-girlfriend on the street in front of her father’s Antioch home this morning, then escaped to a nearby trailer where he committed suicide.
  
  Curran identified the victim as Diane Kephart, 57, of Vernon Hills, and said that she recently had taken out and renewed an order of protection against her ex-boyfriend Paul Neff, 57, of the 1900 block of West Lakeview Avenue in Mundelein.
  
  Neff had been charged with aggravated battery in a Feb. 17 incident involving Kephart, Curran said. Two days later, she filed an order of protection, according to the sheriff. That order expired March 12, he said, the same day Kephart filed to have it renewed for another two years.
  
  An order of protection, though, “is a piece of paper,” Curran said. “It does not (stop) a person who is hell-bent on destruction and, ultimately, on murder.”

But Illinois, in it's wisdom, denied this woman the opportunity to defend herself, unless she happened to carry a police officer in her pocket. Or anyone else the chance to help, unless they actively broke the law.

Quite frankly, we'd recommend breaking the law.

Anita Gives Away $645,000

These are the types of brilliant legal minds we want running Illinois, by golly!

• Cook County taxpayers will be on the hook for a $645,549 legal bill tied to a court fight between the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois and the county’s top prosecutor over the highly contentious — and now essentially dead — ban on people recording police officers on the job.
  
  The Cook County board will take up the matter on Wednesday.
  
  In 2010, the ACLU of Illinois sued Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez to halt prosecution of ACLU staff members recording police officers working their beats in public places.
  
  While the case was initially thrown out in federal court in Chicago, the ACLU of Illinois and state’s attorney fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In November, justices upheld a lower court ruling that said the Illinois’ eavesdropping law violates free speech rights when it comes to audio recording police officer working the beat on a city street, park or any other public space.
  
  The case was effectively tossed back to the federal court in Chicago and in December U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman issued a permanent injunction, barring Alvarez from prosecuting cases where ACLU staffers are recording officers in a public space.
  

Anita knew better. Or took advice from people who should have known better. And is doing the same thing again in regard to 2nd Amendment Rights in Illinois. And it just cost Cook County nearly three-quarters of a million bucks. We have a dozen or more beefs with the ACLU and the criminals they represent, but the First Amendment is their bread and butter - they don't screw up that one too often.

Remember RULE ZERO

The first rule about Paul Geiger is that you don't talk about Paul Geiger.

(Please note that any mention of Paul Geiger in the comment section will be flatly denied by Paul Geiger as having any grain of truth to it and he's going to sue you because his feelings are hurt.)

Meanwhile, here's a picture of a kitty so Paul Geiger feels better about himself and doesn't allegedly lash out at any females working for the FOP.....again:

Nice kitty.

Mini Quick Hits

Couple of interesting stories:

• New York, March 13, 2013 -- Moody's Investors Service has downgraded to A3 from Aa3 the rating on the City of Chicago's (IL) $181 million of outstanding rated motor fuel tax debt. The outlook has been revised to negative.

Not a good sign of the direction things are still going.  All the talk of a "recovery" is just so much bullshit.

=====

In other news, batten down the hatches:

• As Chief Keef was released from juvenile detention Thursday after serving 60 days in custody, police said they were concerned about a post on his Facebook page that taunts a street gang over a 2011 murder.

• Now police are concerned about a post Thursday morning on the rapper’s Facebook page saying: “F--- a TOOKA gang!!! BITCH IM 3 Hunna.”
  
  
• The Rev. Corey Brooks, known as the “rooftop pastor,” told the Chicago Sun-Times last month that he planned to baptize Chief Keef after he was released from juvenile detention.
  
  “He is an entertainer, that is how he sees himself. But at the same time, he has a God-consciousness. He is not some terror who is wreaking havoc,” Brooks told the newspaper.
  

The "reverend" enabling another piece of crap yet again. The over/under has him dead before autumn.

====

Gabby Giffords, ex-representative from Arizona needed to "toughen her image" in a gun-friendly state. So what did she do? Palled around with a semi-automatic rifle, the exact type she and her husband are working so hard to ban now:

• Mark Kelly's campaign against "assault weapons" such as the AR-15 rifle has sparked a local backlash. On March 13, a Tucson, Arizona radio host published a photograph of former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords holding an AR-15 rifle at a gun range. Giffords has since confirmed that the photograph is authentic.
  
  
• The source, who is a member of the law enforcement community, told Breitbart News:
  "We were told she wanted to toughen her image. She asked to come out and she wanted to shoot a rifle. She had one of our guys out there to show her how to shoot an AR-15."
  

Back when she needed gun "credentials," the AR-15 was her friend. She was recruited to pass herself off as a "pro-gun" democrat. But not any more.  Hypocrisy is the default setting for all leftists.

Paul Geiger Does Not Approve This Comment

But it was funny as hell:

• OT: I was just standing in line at the library behind Paul Geiger. He was returning Collective Bargaining for Dummy's. It was 1 year overdue and he blamed the librarian.

Good stuff.

UPDATE: Paul Geiger wrote to say that he doesn't go to the library and doesn't even own a library card. He uses Kindle when he wants to get a book. In fact, it's a very nice Kindle. He got it at Border's on clearance.

"Violate General Orders" They Ordered

Fantastic:

• Off topic New VRI rule.
  
  recently I was assigned to the 1800roll call VRI at 61st and racine. As usual the Lt in charge gave his nightly speech about the daily changes to VRI and you wont believe this change.
  
  It seems that there was a shooting in one of the "boxes" and Gerogas and Pattison wanted to know where the car was that was assigned to the affected box was at during the shooting. So after Gerogas and Pattison find out that the car assigned to the box where the shooting occurred was inputting contact cards from their VRI tour the following change has been implemented.
  
  Officers who work VRI will not be allowed to leave the "BOX" to relocate to the closest district to input contact cards initiated during VRI. Instead, Officers will instead input the VRI contact cards during their next regular tour of duty. WOW!
  
  I recall a General Order that states, "officers will complete all reports they initiated during their tour of duty prior to the end of their tour of duty".
  
  SO now Georgas and Pattison(kool aid drinkers) are rewriting General Orders at their whim?
  
  YOu cant make this shit up.

Makes you wonder how these guys passed a test.

UPDATE: Paul Geiger has no opinion on this post.