Is This for Real?

Immediately following the attack on the off-duty copper, this transmission was allegedly heard on the radio:

• That was embarrassing to listen to on the radio. The lazy do nothing female that gets on the air and says "I see him but I can't get my car down the bike path." Here's an idea, get your lazy A$$ out of the car and go after him!!!

Oh dear lord, please tell us this is a bad dream.

Also heard was that the almost-victim gave quite a accounting of herself and put a rather large hurting on her assailant. Very very well done Officer. Now let's find this predator and stick him where he won't be preying on any less capable persons.

50 Speed Cameras by Year's End

A list over at the Tribune site:

• Just as most Chicagoans were heading into the holiday weekend and tuning out the news, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced the full list of 50 locations where the city will put up ticket-issuing speed cameras near parks and schools by the end of the year.
  
  The Emanuel administration previously had announced 12 of the locations where one or more of the cops in a box will be keeping an eye on motorists during school and park hours. A news release issued Friday afternoon includes the other 38 sites.
  
  Each camera, like those already up, will trigger warning tickets during the first 30 days. After that, drivers exceeding the speed limit by between 6 and 10 mph will get $35 tickets in the mail. Those exceeding the limit by more than 10 mph will get $100 tickets.

Watch the lead feet - no need to give Rahm any of your money.

Sergeants' Out-of-Grade

We guess the PBPA won one:

• Sergeant's WIN DSS Arbitration
  
  Late yesterday afternoon, we received a favorable award in the DSS grievance.
  
  Arbitrator Roumell ruled that sergeants assigned as the DSS are in fact performing substantially all of the duties of a lieutenant and should be paid out of grade for the time worked as the DSS.
  
  There are a couple issues that need clarification, though, and Tom Pleines has already notified Arbitrator Roumell.
  
  Unfortunately, he is not available until next week.
  I’ll have more information and will inform you when we receive clarification from Arbitrator Roumell.
  
  This grievance award is a big win for our members and further protects the collective bargaining agreement from the Department in their attempts to circumvent the contract.
  
  The award in the interest arbitration for our successor collective bargaining agreement should be out pretty soon as well.
  Arbitrator Bierig related that he would have the award out sometime after Labor Day. Hopefully we’ll have it within a couple of weeks. Again, I will update everyone when we receive the award.
  
  Have a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend,
  
  Jim 

Wait a minute - Pleines is working for the PBPA now?

No wonder they remembered to send the letter.

All Those Murders? You're Imagining It

And all that drug activity? Those are bags of powdered sugar.

Bobby Rush (D-Moron) and Mark Kirk (Rino-Idiot), the stroke twins, toured Englewood today, and Rush came up with this whopper:

• As U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush gave Sen. Mark Kirk a guided tour of Englewood from the safety of a bus Thursday afternoon, they rolled by the aftermath of a shooting outside a school at lunch time, punctuating the problem the South Side community faces.
  
  “I would like to crush the Gangster Disciples as an organization,” Kirk said after the tour. “I think the federal government should have the capability to do that.”
  
  Rush brushed off Kirk’s comment and said the idea of the Gangster Disciples as an organized group is a “myth” and a “figment of Kirk’s imagination.”

We can only hope there is a higher power that is going to smite Bobby at some point, because a statement like that is a slap to hundreds of innocents maimed and killed by the gangs over the years. Granted, there are thousands of  "not-so-innocents" who managed to get themselves killed during the same period, but to say that they aren't an "organized group?"

Just how much money is Bobby taking form the gangs?

Pass Immigration Package....

....or women are going to be raped - Luis Gutierrez says so:

• Representative Luis V. Gutierrez "Today, someone is going to die in that desert, trying to return to their families, women and men are going to die in that desert; someone’s going to lose a finger, a hand, an eye, a life today because an unscrupulous employer is going to put them in harm’s way, someone’s going to die; there’s a woman that’s going to be raped in a field somewhere in America today because she has no rights in this country, and we need to end that; there are children who are going to cry and there are marriages that are going to be destroyed because someone is going to be deported, and there are going to be children that are going to be left orphaned in this country."

We didn't find this outrageous quote in any of the local media - we must have missed it, because an allegation like that, well, we'd better let 11 million illegals in before all of this bad stuff starts happening. As the president and Rahm would say, "If it prevents one bad thing from happening, it must be worth it."

Of course, arming the citizenry has/can/will probably work even better preventing crime. Does anyone think Luis listens to his own bullshit?

Off-Duty Attacked

North side, an attempted rape:

• An off-duty female Chicago Police officer was the victim of an attempted criminal sexual assault Thursday afternoon on the Northwest Side, authorities said.
  
  The officer fought off her attacker, who was described as a male Hispanic riding a bicycle, said police spokesman Adam Collins.
  
  The officer, who was jogging between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. near Peterson and Pulaski, was taken to a hospital with minor injuries. Officers are searching for the attacker....

Midday, too. The criminals know no bounds. Quick recovery wished to the Officer

End of the Beat Car?

No manpower, minimal hiring, beat cars being downed.

The solution? Scrap the Beat Car system. This rumor popped up a few days ago and we've been getting a couple of e-mails about it. Like this one:

• ....hearing rumors about a pilot program happening in 012 beginning in Sept. I've heard that they are moving us into "squads" run by the sergeants. The Squads will cover specific areas and will take the place of the beats. Our d.o.g.s will be changed and partners will be broken up to accommodate this shift. When requesting time off, we are competing against the people in our squad instead of the whole watch. 

From what we can figure, it works something like this:

• Instead of Beat Cars, you end up with something like "Sector Teams" or mini-TRU units that are deployed to hot spots identified by computers, commanders and political phone calls. 
• All non-emergency calls are phone jobs and "the report is in the mail."
• All property crime is shitcanned - no follow up because no evidence is collected (look at the E.T.  shortages).
• You don't need to man beat cars any more, so safer neighborhoods will see even less visible police presence.
• What manpower shortage? You aren't tied to 9 or 12 or 15 beats, so everyone is a rapid response car or mini-team hitting violence zones and the like.
• You aren't producing numbers? We have a foot post just for you! Lots of foot posts actually. It saves Rahm money in vehicle expenditures.

Someone else called it "Team Policing," an experiment that was pretty much discredited as unworkable in the 1970's and 80's.We found a paper written (we're still reading it) about it at this link here and it seems plausible that this could be in the works based on the current political climate and efforts by the Department. Failure doesn't mean that Chicago can't make it fail even more spectacularly.

If nothing else, it's an interesting topic.

Blame the Victim - A New Low

World War II veteran beaten to death by two punk teens who were robbing him. Leaving aside the ugly racial undertones (victim a white veteran who survived the Okinawa campaign, offenders black teens with extensive criminal records), the excuse given by one of the charged yutes is a real show of desperation:

• One of the two Washington state teenagers accused of murdering a World War Two veteran said he beat up the survivor of the Battle of Okinawa after the 88-year-old man tried "ripping him off" in a drug deal, court documents in the case said.
  
  Kenan Adams-Kinard, 16, made the statement to friends as he was being sought in the beating death of Delbert "Shorty" Belton, according to an affidavit filed by a Spokane police detective in support of a criminal complaint against the suspect.
  
  Adams-Kinard said he "was trying to buy an ounce of crack cocaine from 'Shorty' and 'Shorty' tried ripping him off," the affidavit said in paraphrasing an account related to police by an unidentified witness. Adams-Kinard said he then punched Belton and took his money back, the affidavit said.

Police say there is absolutely no evidence of this, the family calls it ridiculous, friends are appalled anyone would would even associate this 88-year-old soldier of being involved in narcotics.

But it's ultra-liberal Washington - it might just fly.

Assailant Charged

No bail for this asshole:

• The uniformed Chicago Police officer who was viciously beaten by a baseball bat wielding man was trying save a woman from being hit by the man when he was whacked in the Englewood neighborhood over the weekend, Cook County prosecutors said.
  
  When the officer tried to come to the aide of the woman who was allegedly being hit by Tythia Thigpen in the 5700 block of South Winchester, Thigpen took his bat and went after the cop early Saturday morning, Assistant State’s Attorney Amanda Pillsbury said.
  
  Thigpen, 29, hit the cop twice in the head and was heard saying “f--- it” before he struck the officer again, Pillsbury said.
  
  When other officers arrived at the scene, they found the beaten cop lying face down on the concrete in a pool of blood desperately trying to stay conscious, Pillsbury said.
  
  The officer went into a seizure when he was being rushed to Stroger Hospital.
  
  He suffered blunt trauma to the head, a brain bleed and bruised ribs, Pillsbury said.
  

The officer continues to improve slowly. Well done to the investigating/arresting officers and detectives.

For the Children...Again

An amusing aside from one of Rahm's tools:

• About 200 people — including 20 to 30 students — rallied outside Chicago Public Schools on Wednesday, as the Board of Education on Wednesday approved the district’s annual budget, which includes hundreds of millions in cuts.
  
  CBS 2 [...] reports the students were boycotting school for a day to protest school closings and budget cuts at CPS.
  
  Community activists who organized the protest rally and boycott said it would serve as a real-life lesson for students.
  
  
• But [Barbara] Byrd-Bennett said children belong in class, not at a rally to protest district policies.
  
  “I think to use children as a protest tool, and not to attend school is reprehensible,” Byrd-Bennett said. “Our children need an education. Our children need to be in school, and if we have differences, then the adults should come to the table and have those conversations.”
  

Really? Because everything Rahm has been doing for the past two years is "for the children." Children are a prop, to be used when necessary and ignored when not useful to the cause.

Rahm also had a quote that isn't in the article about how if the parent had a problem with him, they shouldn't protest but rather confront him in the courts, which shows a shocking lack of knowledge about how a Republic is supposed to work and how the separation of powers was originally written. That was from a live quote on the NewsRadio segment that we can't find any link to.

FOP Damage Control

This hit is below the waterline and the pumps aren't keeping up:

• Fraternal Order of Police President Mike Shields has suffered a major blow in his effort to recoup from an embarrassing paperwork mistake that threatens to deny rank-and-file Chicago Police officers a retroactive pay raise.
  
  The executive director of the Illinois Labor Relations Board has dismissed the unfair labor practices complaint Shields filed against the city after Shield’s oversight gave Mayor Rahm Emanuel an opening to declare that if the FOP wants a pay raise retroactive to June 30, 2012, they’ll have to give up something to get it. It will no longer be automatic.
  

Not good at all, and numerous comments say that phone calls to the Hall are not being provided any substantive answers. September meeting right around the corner - might be some fireworks. And everyone who may have been delaying retirement in anticipation of some sort of bump? Drop those papers now.

Use of Force Question

If someone attempts to swallow dope in an officer's presence, is it permissible to grab the suspect by the throat to prevent the destruction of evidence?

And after grabbing that person by the throat, is it permissible to not complete a Tactical Response Report in regard to the Use of Force?

And after not completing that report, is it permissible to dump the entire arrest in the lap of a Tact Team that happened to respond to the scene of the confrontation? Why wouldn't your driver be tasked with some of the paperwork?

We're just wondering, seeing as how this might come up on a promotional exam shortly.

On a completely unrelated note, this comment popped up yesterday:

• SLIGHTLY OFF TOPIC:
  
  Did anyone catch the arrest which put McCarthy choking someone who swallowed dope? Resisted arrest, no charge for resist? Interesting...

Interesting indeed.

Signed Up for Sgt. Exam?

Only three more days. Get signed up ASAP so if there are any issues, they have time to straighten out the problems.

Payment of "fees" is due before the first weekend in September.

Payment to aldercreatures is due shortly after that.

Expect some sort of letter with test dates and location(s) within the next 60 days, after the summer crime finales.

Suspect in Custody

Being questioned at this time:

• Authorities are interviewing a ‘person of interest’ after a Chicago Police officer was hit in the head with a baseball bat while trying to break up a fight in the West Englewood neighborhood early Saturday police said.
  
  No charges have been filed yet but detectives are interviewing a person of interest, police said.

Updates as we get them.

Safe Passage Success!!

Everything worked out fine!

Thank goodness for small favors.

And don't pay any attention to that dead body they found off the Safe Passage route. He was killed sometime the night before, so no worries

Job Action at NYPD

Of course, even advocating action like this here will get you brought up on charges and fired, but this is a helluva move by the NYPD Union:

• Nypd beat cops posted a police-union warning in every precinct yesterday instructing officers not to go above and beyond the call of duty — or risk losing their jobs because of the new stop-and-frisk laws, The Post has learned.
  
  “All officers should take action if he or she sees a crime in progress, or if he or she sees that his or her life or the life of another person is in danger . . . [But] all officers should be careful not to initiate any law-enforcement action that could be construed as violating the new legislation and subject the officer to legal action,” read the memo by Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association president Patrick Lynch.
  
  Several rank-and-file cops said yesterday that they plan on following Lynch’s advice rather than risk their careers.
  
  “We are being told not to look for perpetrators of crimes because then we are opening ourselves up to a lawsuit and the job isn’t going to represent us,” a police source said.
  
  “Crime is about to skyrocket. We are going to show up and take reports. This was the safest city in the country . . . Now most crimes will go unsolved.”
  
  Another source added: “These rookies are just getting on the job out of college. They’re not going to risk their pensions. Arrests are going to drop, and crime’s going to soar.
  
  “It really puts a wrench into law enforcement. They’re going to be second-guessing everything they do.”
  Another cop agreed that fear of being sued will hinder investigations — even in rape cases.
  
  “If someone gets raped and says it was a black male, I’m going to be handicapped to stop someone because I could get sued for racial profiling. So now I’m just going to take reports,” the cop said.

Our first thought was, "Hey look! NYPD is copying Chicago this time!" instead of the other way around. We imagine New York will rapidly begin to experience the joys of wildings and armed robberies in broad daylight as Chicago has.

Injured PO Recovering

From the comments:

• Dear SCC, this is the wife of the officer that was attacked on Saturday. I want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers. He is home recovering.

Godspeed Officer.

Rahm Takes a Page From J-Fled

Run away!!!

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel was scheduled to lead a group of children from Cather Elementary School on the West Side to a nearby community center for after-school programs after classes let out this afternoon.
  
  But after protesters from the grassroots group Action Now turned up at Cather with a bullhorn and pamphlets, urging a boycott of Chicago Public Schools, Emanuel abruptly dropped that plan, got back in his SUV and left.
  
  Action Now member Windy Pearson said the group thinks the Safe Passage plan is inadequate, given the violence that occurs in many Chicago neighborhoods at all hours of the day. "We have people dying in our communities in Safe Passage zones," Pearson said.
  
  The mayor headed instead to nearby UIC College Prep High School, where he watched a geography class for a few minutes, then shook hands with students and teachers when the school day ended.
  
  Afterward, Emanuel made a brief statement to reporters, hewing to his frequent themes of the importance of a longer school day and the improving graduation rates for CPS high school students.
  
  The mayor did not respond when asked why he cancelled the short walk with Cather students.
  

Um....because he's a bully? Because he has no problem confronting naked congressmen in the showers, but peons with a bullhorn make him quake in his leotards?

Safe Passage Routes "Put to Test"

Of course, they leave out the fact that most of the "safe passage" shootings are occurring at night when the schools are closed and the kids are home sleepi....we mean, getting shot on their own front porches:

• The eyes of the city were on Chicago Public Schools “Safe Passage” routes Monday morning as a 28-year-old man was shot along one of the routes and a 14-year-old boy was shot to death near another one, the day before school starts.
  
  The 14-year-old boy was shot and killed within a block of a welcoming elementary school, Melody Stem School , 3937 W. Wilcox. It’s at least the third fatal shooting along or near a Safe Passage route since mid-August.
  
  About 12:20 a.m. Sunday, the boy, Lavander Hearnes, was standing outside in the 4000 block of West Wilcox Street with several other people when he was shot, authorities said.
  
  He was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital at 9:04 a.m. Sunday, the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office said.

Gee, another kid out past curfew.....seems like a trend.

In the meantime, how do you compete with neighborhood attitudes like this?

• At Melody Stem School, several parents didn’t seem overly alarmed at the news of the shooting.
  
  Some parents said shootings aren’t unexpected in the neighborhood, while others weren’t ready to judge Chicago Public Schools’ plans on the first day of school.
  
  “I don’t really feel too threatened,” said Vicki Brown, 29, a parent with two kids at Melody. “It’s a relative thing. You can’t control the violence.”
  
  Kaylyn Williams, the children’s father, agreed.
  
  “I feel the kids are relatively safe,” he said, as sirens wailed in the distance.
  

Words to live by....or die by we suppose.

Drugs Inc: Windy City High

If you have a little less than an hour and you missed the National Geographic special about the drug trade in Chicago, check this out:

They reference "Chi-raq" in the first 5 minutes and use the phrase "Murder Capital," too. Rahm has to be thrilled.

Retro - Looking for a Link

Any sort of info on this would be appreciated by some 9,600 coppers and retirees:

• Labor bd just ruled against fop and said shields should have sent the letter. Thanks to Shields, his attorney Geiger, and Geiger's boy Doherty, we are out any retro we would have received among other things. 

We certainly hope that this isn't true. But if it is, look for someone to negotiate a 0% increase for the first year of the contract (the year already passed). Then they can argue no harm done.

Hush Now Reverend

Safe Passage begins!

• The eyes of the city will be on Chicago Public Schools “Safe Passage” routes Monday morning as thousands of children walk unfamiliar sidewalks to newly assigned schools in the wake of massive school closings.
  
  “We’re ready,” said Alice Henry, principal of Johnson School of Excellence in North Lawndale, which is welcoming about 60 students from the now-shuttered Pope Elementary. “We’re in good shape and I’m confident this is going to be a smooth transition.”
  
  Mayor Rahm Emanuel and CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett, who’ve been navigating the rocky aftermath of closing 47 elementary schools this year, also insist the program is ready. Emanuel has declared it an “all-hands-on-deck” scenario in which every adult in Chicago — especially city workers — should lend a hand.
  
  Last week, at a rally held to pump up his troops and showcase them to the media, Emanuel — who plans to visit the Safe Passage routes Monday morning — told the safety workers: “You are our front line.”
  

Just hope that the "front line" isn't like the Eastern Front in 1942.

But someone in the hood is smelling what Rahm is shoveling:

• But Pastor Marshall Hatch of New Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church, who fought school closings, questions the program’s substance.
  
  “I’m concerned that much of it is more of a public relations campaign than a safe passage plan,” Hatch said Sunday night. “Signs don’t protect people, and I don’t think there’s enough of a community partnership to have something that is effective over the long run. But we’ll have to try to make the best out of a bad situation.”
  
  Ald. Bob Fioretti (2nd), who has slammed the Safe Passage program as having been thrown together at the last minute, was hopeful Sunday night that the saturation of city resources would be effective.
  
  “It should be a safe day for kids tomorrow and the next couple of weeks. . . . I just think we need to be vigilant in what we do,” Fioretti said.

This from a member of the legislative body that was supposed to "vigilant" over funding our pensions.

Of course, the weather is going to be perfect.....perfectly awful:

• Highs in the 90s are predicted for the area on Monday and Tuesday with higher humidity potentially pushing the heat index into the 100s, according to the National Weather Service. And there's a good chance that temperatures those days will approach the record highs of 97, both set in 1973. Tuesday looks like the hottest of the two days.

Maybe everyone can hold parasols over the children so they don't get sunburned?

11 Year Old Shot.....at 4 AM

Surely she was in her bed when the bullet traveled through the exterior wall and wounded her?

• One day before she expected to return to school with thousands of Chicago children, an 11-year-old girl from the Northwest Side was instead recovering after being shot on her front porch early Sunday.
  
  Her stepfather and neighbors said an unknown female walked by while the girl and three others were gathered around 4 a.m. on the stoop after a party in the 2300 block of North Kostner. The woman later returned and fired a gun five times, they said, wounding the girl in her side.
  
  It was among 15 shootings across the city this weekend, two of which were fatal.
  

Gee, sitting on the porch with one of the "parental units" at 4 in the morning. What could possibly be wrong with that?

And once again, shootings approaching 20 for the weekend. Crime is down!!!

Whoops

Not the first time it happened and probably won't be the last:

• Handcuffs didn’t stop a man, who had just been arrested, from making off with a Chicago Police squad last week, authorities say.
  
  The incident happened around 12:45 p.m., after police arrested 42-year-old Marquette Fisher during a traffic stop in the 4100 block of West Adams Street, said Chicago Police Officer Ron Gaines, a department spokesman.
  
  While he was handcuffed in the backseat of a squad car, he managed to get his hands in front of him, jumped into the front seat and drove off, Gaines said. He left the car a short distance away and was later arrested.

An outstanding warrant leads to a desperate escape attempt leads to multiple felony charges. Shit happens. Learn from it.

Safe Passage - Spare no Expense (UPDATE)

This is getting ridiculous.

First up, the Safe Passage orders are ridiculously long and involved. Seems the entire day watches in select Districts are getting shifted around. If they move your start time by more than 2 hours, you're entitled to a bit of cash per the Contract. Your Unit Rep of the FOP can help you on that front. Word is all the PPO's and maybe even the recruits are involved, too.

Second, they're sending a few hundred non-essential personnel from HQ to 007 and 011 to make sure that the Safe Passage has an incident-free week at least, two weeks on the outside. Where do they keep digging up these "non-essential" persons? We thought they emptied out HQ during the last two purges. Guess they missed a few, because we still can't find parking when we go down for our regularly scheduled IAD dates.

Third, we saw the order for something like 40 or more pieces of fire apparatus to be deployed on Safe Passage routes. We assume they'll be free to leave should the next Great Chicago Fire break out, and you know everyone loves a firefighter. But this is getting ridiculous.

And finally, the City is telling non union employees from all departments that they will be assigned to a Safe Passage for 2 weeks (from 0600 to 0900) before reporting to their regular job for the day. Streets, Water, Park District, Sewers, etc. The City mean EVERYONE will have a spot to park and watch the children on their way to school. That means all sorts of regular city services will be delayed at least the first 3 hours of the day and the delays will most likely stack up all week. If they have to complete certain projects or pickups like garbage, is that going to mean another pile of overtime money burned through in short order?

Everything about this screams, "Overkill!"

UPDATE: True or false?

• Everyone in OCD was given a 2 day notice that their hours would be changed to school open & close hours & some RDO's will be cancelled (switched without pay). I guess the "leaders" don't think police officers planned to walk their own children to school. Now we have to cancel our VRI days. Thanks leaders, I can't wait to go buy more crack!!!  

On one hand, that's life in a Unit kid - "voluntary" change of hours and if you bitch about it, back to the District you go.

On the other, getting shafted out of pre-planned VRI dates, short notice cancelled RDO's and/or start times when you might be taking your own kids to school (you know, like a responsible parent, instead of watching someone else's kids) is wrong on a number of levels.

Anyone recall how many kids have been shot, maimed or beaten on the first day of school in the past? Yeah, we can't think of any either. That usually happens after school has been in session a few weeks and the gangs have reestablished their old feuds and started their heavy recruitment.

Overkill.

Other Attacks on the Police

The most serious one you probably read about or saw on the news. We've hard from a couple of people that the Officer is improving slowly and looks to have a bit of a recovery ahead of him.

We hadn't heard about these other incidents though. From the comments:

• is everyone also aware of the canine unit who was shot at in the 5000 south block of winchester on 23 aug between 15:00 and 16:00 hrs.

And from dnainfo.com:

• A police car was shot at late Friday night in the city's Chicago Lawn neighborhood, police said.
  
  An officer was driving an unmarked police car in the 6600 block of South Oakley Avenue when the officer heard shots fired, [...], a police spokesman.
  
  Several bullets hit the undercover car, but no one was injured in the shooting...

First up, will someone please explain why the Officer in 007 was working by himself? The FOP is making some noise, but we need a lot more:

• The officer was working alone in his squad car, Camden said. He said the officer arrived to the scene to find people fighting and called for backup. While he waited, he saw a man try to hit a woman with a baseball bat, Camden said.
  
  When the officer confronted the man with the bat, he was attacked and hit in the head.
  
  "Fortunately, help was arriving at that point," Camden said. "[But] had he been in a two-man car in the first place, that wouldn't have happened."
  
  Camden said the incident underscores the union's concern that there are not enough cops to keep both the public and police safe.

Has McJersey visited the Officer in the hospital yet? We've had a number of comments saying he hasn't.

Nice Toy

Another government give-away?

What's the gas mileage on something like that?  And does it ever park on Rahm's block?

Officer Hit With Bat

Serious condition at Stroger:

• Someone hit a Chicago police officer in the head with a baseball bat after the officer responded to a battery-in-progress call in the Englewood neighborhood, according to authorities.
  
  The officer is in serious condition at John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County.
  
  He was hit about 12:40 a.m. in the 5700 block of South Winchester Avenue. It's not clear if the officer was hit on purpose or was accidentally while trying to break up the fight.
  
  It's not clear if the officer was working alone, and other circumstances leading up to the attack weren't immediately clear.
  
  No high-ranking police department supervisors spoke to the media at the scene or the hospital and the department's News Affairs office released only a brief statement about the incident early Saturday morning.

On purpose or accidentally? We're going to go out on a limb and say if someone is wandering around Englewood with a bat, at one in the morning, they're not looking for Rahm's Midnight Softball Leagues. They're looking to beat someone and it doesn't matter who gets in the way. We charge people who shoot, maim and kill victims, regardless of who the intended target was.

Prayers for the Officer.

Bid Openings

Opportunities to move around the Department, expand your horizons and break the monotony of years ion the same location:

• 10 Openings in 005

That's it.  So everyone who wants to get out of Englewood, Calumet is calling your name. Everyone else can just shut the hell up.

Safe Passage Sidewalks?

Can't have the little darlings stumbling, tripping and falling where they might scrape their knees:

•  In addition, I noticed my neighbor was getting new sidewalks based on the white spray painted arrows. So I called 311 to inquire about them. The F/2 that answered was quite friendly and said, oh, I don't think that's the 50/50 sidewalk program, they are fixing sidewalks all along the safe passage routes. (You know, for the children, so they don't fall). I said, umm humm, I'm pretty sure in MY neighborhood it's the 50/50 program, not safe passage. She checked the address, Sure enough, it was the 50/50 program.
  
  So, not only money for signs, but sidewalks as well. No end to the free shit for the children

Is there anything that Rahm won't give away to the catered to?

Rahm is a Micro-Manager?

Who'd have thunk it?

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel is a “master” media manipulator, but he’s also a control freak who needs to “let go” and “allow his managers to lead,” according to his ousted Chicago Public Schools chief.
  
  Nearly one year after being sent packing with a $291,662 severance package, Jean-Claude Brizard is opening up to an education think-tank about the mayor’s management style and about mistakes the mayor made that set the stage for Chicago’s first teachers strike in 25 years.
  

None of this is a surprise to anyone who followed Rahm's Washington DC antics. "Control freak" is an understatement by every stretch of the imagination. His disdain for the common folk is palpable as if it's their fault for not making the connections he did and exploiting them to the fullest.

We're surprised Fran Spielman was even allowed to write the article in the first place.

Where Are the "Snitch Boxes"

Has anyone even seen one of these things yet? It's been how many months since "The Rahm and Garry Show" touted these things as the next big crime fighting tool? They were going to boost the clearance rate and make inroads into all sorts of crimes that sit unsolved over at the D-unit. Get a line on drug runners, gun dealers and all manner of criminal behavior they said.

This was going to revolutionize policing!

To date we haven't seen a single box in the hood - and we've been looking while working VRI across the west and south sides. No one has tipped us off to a box location in any of the districts, and that's disappointing , because we have a letter ready to go outlining all sorts of nefarious deeds perpetrated on the citizens of Chicago by aldercreatures, gangsters, legislators, even from the 5th floor of City Hall.

We just hope the letter fits in the slot.

Bonuses?

First up, we don't agree with any sort of bonuses for any city employees. You get a posted salary. Opportunities for extra money come through extra work (VRI, Special, CTA) or hours spent doing what is actually your job outside of regular hours (overtime, court, cancelled RDO's).

This kind of annoys us:

• Chicago Public School principals have spent a painful summer distributing pink slips and cutting back art and music programs.
  
  In spite of those 3,168 layoffs, 134 principals will be getting fatter paychecks.
  
  For the second straight year, Mayor Rahm Emanuel doled out bonuses Thursday — ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 apiece — to principals credited with boosting academic growth.

Granted, it's not taxpayer money, and many of the principals are going to dump the money back into their schools in some form or another, but after laying-off thousands and raising property taxes to the limit for how many straight years, this just sends the wrong message.

Rahm is tone-deaf once again, but he gets to dole out money and play the big man on campus, so it must be great.

Traveling Memorial Appearance

This is the only pic we were sent. There have to be others. Anyone?

And does anyone have his next stop?

CDC Says "Guns Aren't That Bad"

They might be a source of good:

• The White House asked the Centers for Disease Control "to research the causes and prevention of gun violence."
  
  We're pretty sure that what the CDC found wasn't what the White House was looking for. The Democrats, and their media allies, obsess over some shootings while ignoring many others.
  
  Kill innocents in a school or theater in large numbers, and the media will fixate on the tragedy while Democrats wail about America's "gun culture."
  
  Shoot a minority who's wearing a hoodie and the left twists the story into something it isn't while the media turn the shooter into a "white" man, though he, too, is a minority — and an Obama supporter with a mixed ethnic background.
  
  It was under these raw and highly charged circumstances that President Obama asked the CDC in January to perform the study. He was surely looking to manufacture a crisis that he could take advantage of.
  
  What that study revealed, though, does not fit in with the media-Democrat message.

 In fact, the CDC confirms most of the findings that the NRA regularly publishes concerning defensive uses of guns, the deterrent value of guns and the ineffectiveness of gun "turn-in" programs.  Imagine that.

Insignificant Blog

Yesterday, we pointed out how Eric Zorn conferred upon on us the power to influence the Cook County State's Attorney.

Now WGN points out that we're influencing Mayor Rahm Emanuel, too:

• For the first time publicly, Mayor Emanuel talked about his now indicted former city comptroller Amer Ahmad.
  
  Emanuel was not happy with questions about his indicted ex-comptroller during what was supposed to be a happy ribbon cutting at a new prep school today.
  
  “It’s not like the justice department gives you a heads up,” he said.
  
  The mayor expressed his frustration with his former comptroller for not being forthright with him.
  
  “He had a responsibility to inform the Mayor’s Office of what happened and what were the questions. That is where he violated the trust,” Emanuel said.
  
  But the question remains did the mayor’s office miss some red flags?
  
  In 2010, a nasty campaign for the treasurer’s office was being waged in Ohio.  Ahmad’s boss got hammered because of Ahmad’s questionable ties to a lobbyist.
  
  It’s those ties that are now the basis of the federal indictment against Emanuel’s hand-picked choice to be the comptroller
  
  Just last month, a month and a half before the comptroller’s corruption charge, WGN asked to speak to the mayor about Ahmad’s role in Ohio after a police officer blogged about the comptroller’s troubles.
  
  The mayor’s office cancelled a scheduled interview saying it doesn’t respond to right wing bloggers.
  
  Soon after that, Ahmad resigned.

Last time we checked, we were American citizens. And up until Barry got elected, the libs said that it was the duty of all patriotic Americans to question their government and that "dissent was the highest form of patriotism." But evidently, when an insignificant blog with right-leaning tendencies actually points out the questions that aren't being asked by the supposed media watchdogs, well, that's just not worthy of consideration. WGN actually lost access to the mayor, which we think ought to be a bigger deal than it is being played as. A public official not answering questions in the public interest? Hammer that fucker.

This scandal is getting some (tiny) legs. Kass is pointing out that the connections to Rahm's political structure. And now it's coming to light that Ahmad got paid for unused vacation time when he had (and withheld) knowledge of the investigation, the FBI interviews and possibly the anticipated indictments. If anything, it's putting another nail in Rahm's national ambitions.

J-Fled Hired - Then Fired

A number of folks, including NRA Lobbyist Todd Vandermyde, alerted us to the fact that J-Fled got hired, by firearms and firearms accessories manufacturer Troy Industries.

Needless to say, this provoked quite a bit of outrage from various quarters seeing as how J-Fled spend a largish portion of his tenure here attacking the Second Amendment and attempting to delay and derail the Rights of American citizens to keep and bear arms, as that was his master's wish.

Gunsavelife.com immediately jumped all over this news:

• Troy Industries announced in recent days the hiring of Jody Weis, the former anti-gun head of Chicago PD, as an instructor with their training division, “Troy Asymmetric”.
  
  Imagine that:  A high-profile firearms and firearms accessory manufacturer hiring a raving anti-gun political hack and touting it to the world!  Even worse, hiring a coward at that.
  
  Why do we say Jody Weis is a coward?
  
  Because he ran from the sound of gunfire, post haste, when shots erupted as he was winding down a press conference in Chicago during his stint as police superintendent.  It was so blatant that the officers at Chicago PD gave him a new nickname: J-Fled.

They link to the blog, the Higgins cartoon, CrimeFileNews and even the New York Times account of his infamous fleeing the Englewood shooting.

Under this maelstrom, Troy Industries announced that J-Fled wouldn't be collecting a check from them any time soon:

• Troy Industries is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. In recent months, we have been more vocal about our beliefs, choosing to align ourselves with companies and individuals who are like-minded. In response to the reaction of our customer base, Jody Weis will not be joining the Troy Asymmetric cadre of instructors.
  
  We value the thoughts and concerns of our loyal customers. Troy Industries and its affiliated companies are strong supporters of the Second Amendment and will continue to promote this right through our products, statements, actions and affiliations.
  
  Thank you
  
  Allyson Ranelli
  Troy Industries, Inc
  151A Capital Dr
  West Springfield, MA 01089

Of course, we hope this doesn't mean he's extending his stay in town, but chances are the opportunities for an unemployed police superintendent, with anti-Second Amendment leanings and a tendency to run from gunfire, are lacking anywhere except liberal bastions of blue states.

New Addition to Sign

We forgot something.

Luckily, a reader's daughter noticed it, too, and had her dad add it:

That's better.

Traveling Memorial Comes to Town

From an e-mail:

• One of our retired Sgts., Dave Perry, has been traveling the country with his trailer hauling his refurbished Ranchero around. The trailer has a mural on it that was done by one of our officers honoring our two detectives murdered this year. The brotherhood has helped him take pictures as he travels. It would be great if any of you with spare time could come buy and see him tomorrow, Thursday, when he has pictures taken next to your fallen officer's memorial. Apparently some you are going to help him but I am sure he would appreciate more of the brothers and sisters showing up, even just to say hello.
  
  If you see him tell him 148 sent you.
  

Here's a picture of him visiting Reno:

We don't have a time he's supposed to be arriving at the Memorial. Maybe someone from the Brotherhood of the Fallen has specifics? If you get a moment and you're nearby, stop in.

Anger Issues (UPDATED)

This guy has 'em:

• Preston Smith was sitting outside in his Washington Heights home, drinking with a friend of more than 40 years, when the two "had a couple of words" and the friend came at him with a chainsaw, according to family and police.
  
  Smith, 55, was badly cut on his hand and rushed to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was undergoing surgery today in hopes of saving his fingers, according to his mother Mildred Smith.
  
  "You can't tell him that it's going to be all right," she told reporters.
  
  Preston and the friend were in the backyard in the 1000 block of 103rd Street when they got into an argument around 2 a.m. today, police said.

Subject was not in custody, so if you see someone wandering around with a chainsaw and he isn't looking at trees, be aware.

UPDATE: In Custody.

Amazingly, when the arresting officers did a pat-down, they found TWO MORE chainsaws and a spare magazine chain for one of the saws. The suspect will also be charged with having an expired Chainsaw Owner Identification Card.

New Signs for Rahm

For the south and west sides:

For Michigan Avenue:

For just about anywhere:

Zorn Misses the Point

Evidently, we've popped up on Zorn's radar:

• A one-week gap in the timeline of the Sonia Antolec story suggests that Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez is more concerned with currying favor with police officers than standing by her prosecutors when they do the right thing.
  
  Let's review: On July 10, Antolec, a Cook County Juvenile Court prosecutor in the criminal delinquency division, met with the two victims of a "wilding" attack on the CTA Red Line in March and determined that they would be unable to identify any of the eight young women who were that day facing trial. Antolec dropped the charges and made notes to that effect in her daily report to her supervisor.
  
  Seven days passed. Antolec said she was then summoned by her supervisor's supervisor and told that "downtown" was unhappy with the "bad press" her decision was getting.
  
  Alvarez's spokeswoman Sally Daly denies that Antolec was told this. But the only "press" on the decision had been a glancing expression of indignation the day before, July 16, on Second City Cop, an anonymously written blog purporting to speak for rank-and-file Chicago police officers.

We've never purported that Eric. We speak for ourselves and we happen to be cops. We have insight into cops' thoughts by dint of our association and experience. But you keep building that straw man so you can knock him over.

We've also made no secret of our disdain for Anita. She's incompetent, a political tool, a publicity freak and her opinion is shaped by the prevailing wind of the day. This episode is a microcosm of how she runs her office. Anita wants votes and she doesn't care who votes for her. "...currying favor with cops"? Hardly. And not "standing by her prosecutors when they do the right thing"? Did you just get here in town Eric?

• Under the headline "All wilding charges dropped," the blogger relayed "an email we got this weekend" about the disposition of the case and griped, "welcome to justice, Cook County style. Not a consequence of any sort."
  
  The blog mention "perhaps triggered discussion about these cases within and outside of this office," Daly said.

So now we influence the State's Attorney's office? Wow. We shall strive to use this power for the betterment of all mankind. Perhaps Anita might find it in her tiny brain to look into the countless acts of political corruption during her tenure perpetrated by the members of the Stroger, Daley, Burke, Beavers and Preckwinkle clans?

There's a bunch more nonsense and drama. It closes with this:

• Alvarez's office has also fired back that Antolec was actively looking for another job outside the office in the months before she quit.
  
  This happens to be true, though she remains unemployed today. But it's relevant only in that it gave Antolec the courage to walk away and to call attention to the infamous fashion in which Alvarez not only failed to back a member of her team when a cop blogger came huffing and puffing, but also prioritized public relations and protocol over justice.
  
  The buck stops not with Alvarez, but with those way down in the ranks who are generally least able and willing to fight back.
  

Again we ask, which turnip truck did Eric Zorn fall off of? This is Chicago, Cook County, Illinois Anita isn't here to prosecute criminals. She is a political animal, plain and simple, and her main purpose is to forestall investigations of her political sponsors. She exists solely for public relations and its attendant benefits.

As for Sonia Antolec, it's too bad her new job fell through while she made a "principled stand." The economy is rough all over and the massive surplus of lawyers doesn't assist her search. But we didn't call for her resignation, we didn't demand heads roll, we didn't even know her name.  We merely pointed out that Anita's people cannot (or will not) put certain criminals behind bars or even document their criminal acts (which dovetails nicely with Preckwindle's political stance on things if you notice.) It sucks to be Antolec, but we can name almost 50 cops off the top of our heads who took a few days suspensions for minor transgressions (nothing remotely criminal) ranging from accidents to uniform infractions to forgetfulness to procedural errors they were ill-informed of and they all took their medicine without landing in the unemployment line.

Stats and More Stats

Channel 7 had a feature on crime in Boystown the other day:

• Trouble in Boystown is prompting new tactics by Chicago police to combat crime in that section of Lakeview.
  Some residents complain that social service agencies are attracting people who come to the North Side neighborhood to cause problems.
  Boystown is known for its tolerance. But many residents say they will not tolerate being No. 1 when it comes to robberies in Chicago.

Yeah, well, the nearby neighborhood voted for Helen Schiller for years while she moved more halfway houses into the area than any other ward in the city, so you know where that blame lies - with the police (partly):

• Residents are also complaining about slow response times and say there are not enough officers to respond to all of the calls.
  
  Nolden says he called 911 twice in recent months and says both times waited 15 minutes for police to arrive.
  
  "They were very apologetic for showing up late, that due to staffing issues this kind of fell low on the priority list," Nolden said.

Don't let Rahm hear this. Or McJersey. We're policing smarter now. Manpower is fine. Don't you know murders are down 80% in Roger's Park?

• The murder rate in Chicago remains two-and-a-half times higher than the national average, but, compared to a quarter-century ago, the total number of killings has actually dropped by more than 50%.
  While violence is a major problem in Chicago, one neighborhood has made real progress against it. A new study reported that, since 1990, the biggest drop in homicide anywhere in Chicago has been in Rogers Park's 24th Police District. The study found 80% fewer killings.

All crime looks better when compared to a quarter-century ago - that was near the peak of the "crack wars" if we recall.  This is just more of the ":statistically, things could be worse" type stories that McRahm'sPuppet and Rahm love to run with.  They are applying CompStat to the past.

Guess Who Was Out on Bail?

Wonder of Wonders:

• A 15-year-old boy jumped from his bike and opened fire after a passenger in a car issued an apparent taunt, but the bullets struck a 7-year-old child who had just returned from riding bikes with his cousin, authorities and family said Tuesday.
  
  Cook County prosecutors said Lavante Jackson was tied to the Sunday night shooting on the West Side by two eyewitnesses and the GPS bracelet he was wearing as part of his bail on juvenile drug charges.
  
  At a bond hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, Jackson appeared dazed as Judge Donald Panarese Jr. had to repeat his name twice before the defendant acknowledged it was him. Jackson was charged as an adult with aggravated battery with a gun.

Standard disclaimer:

• "He's not a bad kid," Jackson's mother, Erika, said while sobbing outside court.

Except for the fact he illegally obtained a gun, was blasting away at a vehicle in the hood and managed to nail a 7-year-old who had nothing to do with any of it. Other than that, we're sure he's a paragon of virtue in his school, church and community....oh, and that drug dealing charge he originally made bail on.

And Mama can't wait to tell everyone what a good boy her 15-year-old is:

• His mother repeatedly expressed sympathy for Tyvion's family for the shooting but said she could not believe her son fired a gun in a neighborhood filled with his friends.
  
  "He just lost his best friend over there," she told reporters. "He got it tattooed on his forehead, on his face."
  
  Court records show Jackson has a tattoo near his right eye that reads "RIP" and another near his left eye that reads "Tonio."
  

Tattoos on a 15-year-old's face. That just screams, "I'm completely without ambition, I'm never leaving the hood, never exiting the welfare rolls, and unemployable for the duration of my short, brutish, useless life."

An Insightful Article

Children running amok in the streets, wilding downtown, catching bullets left and right.  If you'd like to read something insightful about the entire situation, try this article.  Here's one of the better observations in the whole thing:

• Many people can and do succeed in the midst of family brokenness, of course. Yet the risks of failing are far too high when kids are raised in the context of relational instability. Socioeconomic mobility and multigenerational poverty are empirically linked to family stability like never before.
  
  Family is society writ small, where one builds basic human capital, social capital, and skills. In Schulz’s calculation, family is a basic, vital economic unit—the X factor. Family builds empathy and self-control, which in turn shapes character. Character fosters human capital (“knowledge, education, habits, willpower”) and social capital (assets “created and maintained by relationships of commitment and trust”), which ultimately generates economic growth. You could practically build a formula out of it.
  
  Empathy in particular is linked to social capital, while self-control informs much of human capital, allowing individuals to be invested in the long-term good rather than short-term gain. We also see this influence in an assortment of non-cognitive skills, such as delayed gratification, which, as Walter Mischel established around 1989, is a core factor in individual success.

We just thought it had some pretty astute observations and thought we'd share the article with the class.

Tribune Details Own Shortcomings

Royko used to say something along the lines of "It isn't a scandal until the other guy finds out about it." It described the Machine politics of the 1950's and 60's. Daley-the-Younger embraced this philosophy throughout his career and made sure the media had plenty of other crap to talk about. Rahm has used this extensively as the Sun Times has aptly danced to the tune the mayor sings on a near-daily basis.

Now the Tribune beclowns itself by detailing how they and others fell a bit short in their "watchdog" duties:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration on Monday produced a letter showing it knew about questions surrounding Amer Ahmad and a controversial government contract in Ohio before the mayor hired him as Chicago's comptroller in April 2011.
  
  The letter was released as the administration attempted to show how it vetted Ahmad, who pleaded not guilty Monday in federal court to a kickback scheme stemming from his tenure as Ohio's deputy treasurer. Ahmad, 38, abruptly resigned from his City Hall job nearly a month ago. The administration has said Emanuel didn't know about Ahmad's federal problems until the former aide was indicted last week.
  
  In a letter to the Emanuel transition team dated April 1, 2011, attorney Vincent Connelly said he had interviewed Ahmad about an Ohio contract awarded to an East Coast bank and found Ahmad "acted appropriately." The bank was awarded a lucrative contract in 2010 after hiring a friend of Ahmad's as its lobbyist, a deal that led to Ohio newspaper reports and a campaign attack ad against Ahmad's boss questioning the arrangement.
  
  "We find no reason that he should not be considered for the position" of comptroller, Connelly's letter to Emanuel administration official David Spielfogel reads.

First up, this Connelly attorney ought to retake any ethics courses he supposedly passed in law school. This "appropriate" conduct appears to be the exact case that Ahmad was indicted for.

Second, no one thought to read up on the extensive newspaper articles written after this contract was awarded? It was a big fucking deal in Ohio evidently. Ohioans must never have seen anything like the quid pro quo hiring/contracting scandal before, and the Chicago media has been conditioned to think that everyone in the country does it like the Chicago Machine, so they didn't think to mention it in their pages.

Uptown Safe Passage Route Very Unsafe

Reminding you once again what a great deal you folks are getting voting straight democratic for the past few decades:

• Five people were shot, one fatally, this evening in the Uptown neighborhood along a Safe Passage route outside a church that was holding a prayer service at the time, officials said.
  
  The shooting happened at 5:57 p.m. on the 4500 block of North Sheridan Road, police said.
  
  Police said a white, four-door car pulled up in front of the Uptown Baptist Church at Wilson Avenue and Sheridan Road. Someone from inside the car opened fire at a group of people standing in front of the church, killing one of them and wounding four others, police said.

Even the churches aren't safe.

Ban Beer!

Oh wait, they already tried that one:

• A man who had contributed money to buy beer along with his friends became angry when he did not get any change back and fatally shot one of those friends and critically wounded another over the weekend, officials said.
  
  Gumaro Torres, 31, was ordered held without bail after being charged with the shootings that happened on Aug. 16, at about 11:30 p.m., officials said in court today. He was charged with first degree murder, attempted first degree murder and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

What happened to the "I'll buy, you fly" rule? Has that one been revoked? Because he isn't entitled to change in that case.

Senator Kirk is So Street!

Illinois' RINO senator gets down with McStreetlights:

• U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk adopted the language of the street Monday morning, telling reporters “one guy got popped” when he went on a recent South Side ride-along with Chicago’s top cop.
  
  The senator — who was recently criticized by U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush for suggesting an “elitist, white boy” solution to the city’s gang problem — used the street slang for a shooting as he appeared alongside Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy and a handful of top suburban cops to tout his push for a federal anti-gang coordinator in Chicago.
  
  Kirk joked during the news conference at the Union League Club that McCarthy had “edjumacated” him about gangs during the July visit to Auburn-Gresham, which he initially confused with the neighboring Englewood community. “We had an interesting ride-along,” he said, later adding, “one guy got popped” — phrasing that prompted a smile from McCarthy.

We can't decide if the stroke made him stupider or what. He's writing campaign commercials for the democrats with these quotes and his push for "federal....coordinator(s)" reeks of touchy-feely left-wing nonsense solutions.

Final Weekend Tally

Pending removals from life support for at least one that we heard of:

• The mother of a 7-year-old boy who was shot by stray gunfire says he is "traumatized" and now frightened to leave his West Side home.
  
  Tyvion Jackson was carrying his cousin's bicycle into his West Garfield Park neighborhood home when he was shot under his left arm and his shoulder, said his mother Tasha McDuffie. The boy had just returned from a picnic with his family around 9 p.m. Sunday. He was released from Mount Sinai Hospital this morning.
  
  "He's doing fairly well. He's just traumatized and he's afraid to come outside," a visibly frustrated McDuffie said today on her front porch.
  
  Tyvion is the 10th child age 7 or under to be shot in Chicago in less than two months, according to a Tribune analysis. His shooting capped off another violent weekend with more than 30 people shot, 6 fatally.

Hey Mama? He should be frightened. Terrified even.

Monday Press Conference

Can't wait to hear all about Monday's presser by McCompost:

• Five people were killed and at least 22 others have been injured in shootings across the city since Friday night.

Then he can tell everyone how "overall crime is down" and the media will eat it up and nod their heads as they gulp the kool-aid. Not a word will be spoken about how July numbers were up over last year, nor that this August seems to be running ahead of last August so far.

Another Child Shot

Was it three or four years ago that everyone was up in arms that so many school age children ended up getting shot? Something like 170 or so kids got shot - and that's using a very generous description of the word "kids" as some of the CPS scholars who caught rounds were well over the age of 18, but repeating grades.

We seem to be missing the sense of outrage at kids under the age of ten are catching lead lately:

• A 7-year-old boy was seriously injured in a shooting Sunday night in the West Garfield Park neighborhood.
  
  The shooting happened about 9 p.m. in the 4200 block of West Fifth Avenue, according to Fire Media Affairs.
  

We'll bet the marches held for these primary aged children will be about as numerous as raindrops are in July in Death Valley.

Apple-Pickers Plucked by Citizens

We suppose it's good that people are getting involved and assisting their fellow citizens. It isn't so good that police presence is so sketchy, scattered or non-existent that the wilding teens are under no pressure to cease their misbehavior:

• Five people have been charged after three separate iPhone robberies Saturday, two of which occurred at Oak Street Beach during the Air and Water Show, police said.
  
  One robbery, which was thwarted by a Chicago Park District lifeguard, happened about 4:25 p.m. Saturday during the Air and Water Show. The victim, a 48-year-old Lyons man, had been robbed near Oak Street Beach in the 1000 block of North Lake Shore Drive, police said.
  
  
• The third theft was foiled by a valet from a North Rush Street restaurant who chased down the suspect  after he'd snatched an iPhone 5 worth about $600 from a 39-year-old Morton Grove man about 12:50 p.m. on a sidewalk in the 0-100 block of East Superior Street, police said.

The story also misrepresents a theft as a robbery, in essence upgrading what Rahm and Garry want downgraded - which is amusing if you stop and think about it.

Off Duty CPD Dies (UPDATE)

The guys over at TrueNewsUSA had this item:

• A off duty Chicago Police Sergeant suffered a fatal heart attack while driving his motorcycle in Willow Springs, IL late this evening. The Sergeant in his 40's was driving with his fiancee as the rear passenger when the heart attack occurred. The fiancee was uninjured. The name of the Sergeant is being withheld until all family members have been notified.

Prayers for the family.

UPDATE: The death of Jean-Pierre Borja, 44, from the Garfield Ridge neighborhood, has been ruled an accident, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Initially, authorities said Borja, a 21-year-veteran of the department, had apparently suffered a medical emergency late Sunday while riding on LaGrange Road by Archer Avenue in west suburban Willow Springs.

Half a Weekend Totals? Doubled Overnight

Just overnight from Saturday into Sunday:

• Shootings left three men dead and at least 14 others wounded from early Saturday afternoon to early morning Sunday, according to authorities.

And the silence from 35th Street is just deafening.

Shooter Shoots, then Shot with Shotgun

This is fantastic:

• A 17-year-old boy with a semiautomatic pistol walked up to an 18-year-old man Friday night in the Little Village neighborhood, pointed the weapon toward his face and squeezed the trigger, police said.
  Within minutes, someone else who had seen the shooting shot the 17-year-old with a shotgun, police said, and both young men shot were in critical condition at Mount Sinai Hospital.
  Police said the two were found lying near each other in the 2600 block of South Ridgeway Avenue about 10:10 p.m. Both identify with conflicting gangs and were shot on a street painted with graffiti from those gangs, which use Ridgeway as a border.

If only everything came together like this one. And we imagine that unless the shotgun was illegally modified, the second shooter would have a pretty strong case for "defending the life of another" and face reduced or no charges at all. Cleared/Closed.

Totals for Half a Weekend

Three dead and 12 wounded:

• The two shot on Ridgeway were among at least 14 people shot since Friday afternoon, two of whom died. A third person was killed in Chicago since yesterday afternoon – a 75-year-old man was found dead with head trauma inside his home about 9:50 p.m. in the 5600 block of South Racine Avenue in the Englewood neighborhood.

And this doesn't even count the ones in the papers since Saturday afternoon, of which there were at least another three we heard of while watching the lamest Air & Water Show in recent memory.

Bill Daley to Run as Outsider?

Seriously?  The biggest insider there ever was, is now an "outsider"?

• Cook County’s top Democrats overwhelmingly endorsed incumbent Gov. Pat Quinn for re-election Friday in a repudiation of the primary challenge offered by an absent Bill Daley, the son and brother of two former mayors.
  
  [...] Though Quinn’s endorsement by county Democratic slatemakers wasn’t surprising, the totality of its backing was. Some Democratic officials had expected a hefty number of votes to not endorse a candidate for governor in favor of an open primary contest — particularly while state Sen. Kwame Raoul of Chicago ponders whether to become the lone African-American candidate in the campaign.

And this line is just freaking hilarious:

• Quinn, who launched his public career as an outsider more than three decades ago railing at political insiders, said the slatemakers are part of the grassroots politics that he advocates.

After 3 decades, you aren't an outsider any more. We're just saying. Especially when you're endorsed by the insiders.

Illinois is so screwed.

Hey Look, Another Bond Cut

Something similar to all of these.  We just can't put our finger on it:

• Moody's Investors Service has cut its general obligation rating for Cook County to A1 from Aa3.
  In issuing the downgrade, Moody's cited growing pension liabilities.
  
  The credit ratings agency also kept a negative outlook on the lower rating due to "formidable" challenges facing the county in getting pension reform through the Illinois legislature.
  
  Moody's said the county's pension contributions fell short of actuarially required contributions. While Cook County reported an unfunded pension liability of $5.6 billion at the end of 2012, Moody's said more conservative assumptions would raise that liability to $12.7 billion.
  
  It also noted that the county, the largest in Illinois and the second largest in the United States, shares about half of its tax base with Chicago, "resulting in a significant overlapping long-term liability burden."

Who's else is pulling these strings?

Tio Needs a Job

So why not elect him to something?

• When his wife decided not to pursue a domestic battery charge against him last month, a feisty-sounding Tio Hardiman — the former head of the anti-violence group CeaseFire Illinois — promised a “comeback.”
  
  Here it is: He’s running for governor of Illinois.
  
  “I plan to run a very positive campaign,” Hardiman told the Chicago Sun-Times Friday morning. “This is not a decision I made overnight. I always wanted to run. I was too busy trying to run CeaseFire.”
  

So who's backing Tio? Quinn of Daley? Who benefits from Tio drawing away the alleged domestic violence voter?

Chicago Comptroller Indicted in Ohio

We have no particular training in journalism, mostly because we didn't feel like taking that route as a career. But we do have a career of more than a few years being taught to see things that others miss, questioning strange coincidences and sensing bullshit.  

So when we pointed out a few things on 03 July that smelled funny surrounding Rahm's Comptroller, and TrueNewsUSA highlighted his shady associations with terrorism, and especially his background in Ohio, we had no idea that this was on the way:

• When Amer Ahmad abruptly resigned as city comptroller about three weeks ago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel heaped praise on his hand-picked aide for helping him "reform government" in Chicago.
  
  On Thursday, Ahmad was indicted in Ohio on federal corruption charges in what prosecutors described as a more than $500,000 kickback scheme involving state investment business while he served as deputy treasurer and chief financial officer there.
  
  Emanuel spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton declined to answer specific questions about Ahmad, but she issued a statement saying the administration did not know about the investigation until the indictment was announced.

So the media, Rahm's media, failed to notice anything funny, odd or out-of-place about this guy's background, any one of a number of red flags that should have at least rated a question of Chicago's (and Rahm's) desire to hire him for the sensitive job of Comptroller.

Anyone else think that's kind of sad?

Under the Gun

Crime is down.

We hear it constantly. But the media keeps throwing up sites that count and track homicides. Now the Tribune has put together a bunch of sites rolled into one called "Chicago: Under the Gun." Homicide maps, shooting maps, crime by neighborhood, an extensive collection of crime scene photos and videos.

But remember, crime is down. And evidently, good for business as far as the media is concerned.

Get Gov't Money? Follow the Rules

Remember, you need to pass a drug test to work for the City of Chicago.  You want to smoke dope, you are welcome to work somewhere else - no one is stopping you.

Then there's this guy:

• A Chicago man who objects to having to submit to drug testing as a condition of living in an apartment that he rents from the Chicago Housing Authority filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the policy in federal court.
  
  Joseph Peery, 58, has lived in the Parkside of Old Town mixed-income housing development on the Near North Side since 2010. Drug tests are required of all renters before they move into the complex and every year on renewal of a rental agreement, Peery said.
  
  "It's humiliating, embarrassing, stigmatizing, and it's unfair," Peery said in an interview. "I think it needs to end."

This certain housing development is a mixed-income private/public partnership affairs where the developer is supposed to make a certain number of units available to those of lower economic status...one of those liberal initiatives that attempt to bend the laws of economics. In an effort to protect their investment and that of their actual paying clients, the companies try to ensure that those receiving "free" tax money are people with the actual drive to improve their situations.

We're pretty sure no one is stopping this guy or anyone else from taking their voucher to another location that doesn't screen their residents for drug use.

Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming

Feats of perseverance to raise awareness of the sacrifices of fallen officers:

• A police officer swam 24 miles overnight through the frigid waters near Catalina Island toward California’s shoreline.
  
  His feat was meant to raise awareness for fallen officers and complete a prestigious trio of long-distance swims, but two hours into the 12-hour mission, he nearly gave up.
  
  Nial Funchion, a 19-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department and high school swimming coach, completed the swim Tuesday morning.
  
  
• Not only did the swim honor Funchion’s fallen brethren, it made him the 70th person to ever complete The Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming – a trifecta of challenging aquatic treks that includes a 21-mile swim across the English Channel, a 28.5-mile swim around Manhattan Island and the Catalina Island swim.

Very well done Officer Nial Funchion. Congratulations.

VRI Cutbacks

All good things come to an end - or at least get cut back in anticipation of cooler weather and manpower relief.

Eligibility to work VRI is being cut back to a total of 4 days per month and zero consecutive days off. In other words, once per set of days off. We're assuming that this will apply to furlough time, too.

The notice (AdMin Fax #209772) also says if you signed up for September, you have to resubmit your requests before 21 August to be placed on the VRI work list.

Carry on - open post for the moment.

Church, State Question

We hadn't thought of this until someone pointed it out in the comment section:

• Isn't there the whole "separation of church and state" conflict with Pfaker allowed in the mix?
  
  This aside, Michael Pfleger has repeatedly demonstrated racist tendencies and favoritism to the demographic that comprises his congregation. Is he capable of unbiased contribution while serving on this committee? I highly doubt it.
  
  Hell, he even called for civil unrest after the Zimmerman verdict. Are the citizens of Chicago to trust a man who openly exhibits such disdain for the law of the land with making such weighty recommendations?
  
  Continuing, can't there be a perceived conflict with Hillard in the mix? If I was Joe Citizen I'd be very suspect of having a fellow/former top officer responsible for finding who is to investigate complaints of excessive force and other alleged wrongdoing within my former department.
  
  Oh, I forgot. Consequences for indiscretion and impropriety only effects us peons. Rahm will do what he wants, damned be anyone else.
  
  And how much are these clowns getting paid to be on this committee? Hopefully enough for "Fatha Mike" to renew the vanity plates on his pimp ride in which to cart that select handful of young males from St. Sabina to Carmichaels for steaks after Sunday service.
  
  Don't forget to claim whatever that amount might be as income, Pfather Pfakeass.

Here you have a notorious grievance-monger and alleged priest in a position to influence the city's political policy, not by marches or speeches, but through direct appointment by the mayor. We aren't completely sure, but isn't the Catholic Church a tax-exempt organization? Up until very recently, they didn't even have to pay water bills, and might still pay at the lower "charitable organization" rate. And without dispensation by the Cardinal or the Pope, pfather Pfleger is permitted a direct hand in political policy.

Something is rotten in Denmark. And Chicago, too, but we knew that part. Maybe someone ought to revisit the Church's tax exempt status...you know, to help Rahm close his budget shortfalls - unless they're still too busy targeting Conservative groups. And maybe dig out the Phleger Dollars again for the collection baskets.

See Ya Later Junior

If you've been hidden in a cave all day, you might have missed this:

• They were congressman and alderman, candidate and campaign chief.
  
  They are also husband and wife, father and mother.
  
  And on Wednesday, in an extraordinary sentencing hearing, Jesse Jackson Jr. and Sandi Jackson added another layer of complexity to their relationship: Both will be prison inmates.
  
  Former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. was sentenced to 2 1/2 years behind bars for stealing $750,0000 from his campaign fund while former Ald. Sandi Jackson (7th) is to serve one year for filing false tax returns.
  

So JJJr. goes to prison, same as his predecessor Mel Reynolds. And Sandi adds to the stellar legacy of aldercreatures who have ended up serving time, something like 30 or more in 4 decades.

Good riddance.

Chicago a Punchline to NY Joke

The fall of "stop and frisk" casts a bit of doubt on the legality McCompStat's crime fighting strategies, but now we have to read about New York worrying about becoming "like Chicago:"

• Chicago police became a punching bag for a New York politician and cops after a federal judge this week stopped a controversial NYPD tactic, prompting predictions that crime in New York would soon be as bad as Chicago’s.
  
  “Welcome to Chicago,” the New York Post quoted one anonymous Bronx police officer as saying after a federal judge on Monday ordered a federal monitor to oversee the New York Police Department after finding the city’s stop-and-frisk policy was unconstitutional.
  
  Former New York Gov. George Pataki pronounced on national TV that policing in Chicago “leaves a lot to be desired.”
  
  Pataki, a Republican, was defending the stop-and-frisk policy and blasted the judge’s ruling. On Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” he fired a barb at President Obama and his Chicago hometown.
  
  If Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder want to investigate a police department, Pataki said, “why don’t they look at Chicago, where the civil rights of young African-Americans are being not only taken away, but they’re being murdered in record rates on the South Side of Chicago?”
  
  He went on to say of Chicago: “The policing there leaves something to be desired when it comes to protecting the constitutional rights of young African-Americans to walk the streets with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Actually George, in your haste to blame policing, you miss the fact that it's other "young African-Americans" committing most of the mayhem and depriving all sorts of people of all stripes from enjoying the Rights enshrined in the Constitution.

And George also fails to note the lies and falsehoods that the original CompStat program is based on and the less-than-stellar record it has in various minority communities. If this isn't the pot calling the kettle black, we don't know what is. Bloomberg's insistence that "...they put the police where the crime is..." completely misses the fact that crime is in the minority communities because that's where and who the majority of the criminals are.

But of course, even stating that makes you a racist and the cycle continues, grievance-mongers get grants and legalized bribes, and everyone goes along pretending that the statistics don't mean what they actually show. And then Chicago gets blamed for New York's inability to effectively argue a point of law in front of a liberal court.