Holy Shit

Looks like the rumor has some foundation:

• Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration is leaving a West Side police commander in his post despite an April recommendation by the city’s Independent Police Review Authority that his police powers be stripped.
  
  The recommendation followed a DNA test bolstering a complaint that Harrison District Cmdr. Glenn Evans, 52, assaulted a South Side arrestee.
  
  The complaint, according to sources close to the case, alleges that Evans threatened to kill Rickey J. Williams, 24, and jammed his police pistol into the man's mouth. The sources spoke on condition they not be identified because they are not authorized to speak with the media.
  
  The DNA test, described in an April 17 laboratory report from the Illinois State Police, found that material swabbed from the weapon “matches the DNA profile” of Williams.

A DNA match on the gun? And Rahm is leaving him in place? 100-1 says he's gone by the close of business Friday. Jason Ervin is going to have a field day with this one.

Again with the SOS Scandal

The scandal that keeps on giving:

• Two of Chicago’s dirtiest cops are at the top of a list of police officers who had generated more than 10 misconduct complaints between 2001 and 2006, according to newly released records.
  
  Keith Herrera and Jerome Finnigan were members of a crew of rogue police officers convicted of home invasions and rip-offs of drug dealers.
  
  Finnigan was convicted in federal court of seeking to have a fellow officer murdered because he thought the cop was a rat.
  
  Herrera was cooperating with law enforcement authorities investigating the crew. He served a short prison sentence, and Finnigan remains behind bars

So the FOP last ditch effort failed. It was a long shot anyway.

The list makes for interesting reading. Quite a bit of it is out of date, assignment-wise. There's at least one exempt on there and a south side lieutenant who has managed to take 55 days suspension time for assorted violations. A number of females. More than a few resignations and guests of the Illinois Department of Corrections, too.

You can bet plaintiff attorneys are burning the midnight oil combing through this document dump.

No Shortages.....But....

McCompstat, Rahmbo and various exempts keep claiming there are no shortages of police, that we're up to strength and every district is fully manned. We've run some numbers and although it seems we're almost up to strength in white shirts, blue shirts are still a bit on the short side.

And then there's this:

• All RDO's cancelled 01-03 Aug. $$$

Fiesta del Sol and Lollapalooza mean there isn't a team getting a day off. Or a night off for that matter. And next weekend is Billiken. And the entire overtime budget was gone in May, so who knows where all this money is coming from.

But hey, no shortages around here.

More Tribune Anti-gun Stuff

This could all be covered in one or two paragraphs (registration required):

• An 86-year-old man who attempted to help police foil an armed robbery at a Crestwood phone store by firing at the fleeing suspect may not have broken the law, but firearms trainers say he ignored a basic rule of carrying a gun in public: Don't try to be a hero.
  
  The man, who has a permit to carry a concealed gun in Illinois, won't face charges for firing two shots outside an ATT store in Crestwood, according to the Cook County state's attorney's office. A police officer pursuing the suspect had to duck for cover, not knowing where the shots were coming from, Crestwood police said. No one was injured.
  
  Officials refused to identify the permit holder involved in the incident Saturday but described him as a "model citizen" in the southwest suburban Cook County village of 11,000 residents.

But the Tribune writers go on for 30 paragraphs and two full pages about how this has "re-ignited" the Concealed Carry debate. Huh?

• This is the second time in a month a concealed carry permit holder has fired a weapon in public in the Chicago area.

"...the Chicago area." Not even Chicago city limits for this one, but by golly, this is out of control! Meanwhile, if you hop over to HeyJackass.com, the July count of NON-Concealed Carry Permit shootings stands at three-hundred-twelve....forty-one of whom have died. Kind of a big difference there.

At first glance, it would appear the Concealed Carry holder is guilty of bad judgement, pursuing an armed offender and firing at him. Had he hit anything, he'd be guilty of a lot more. Had the copper shot the Concealed Carry holder, he'd most likely be justified, but second guessed to death. All that being said, we don't know the details and can only trust the judgement of the Crestwood Police Department and their investigation. The Tribune fails to do that and instead gets all anti-gun preachy.

CHA is Loaded

No wonder they're spending money on $3,000-a-month Gold Coast condos:

• On the day a think-tank publicly released a report that says the Chicago Housing Authority has been socking away hundreds of millions of dollars instead of using it for housing for the poor, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has asked the agency to do more.
  
  “Since HUD learned of the level of the reserves, it has prompted CHA to issue more vouchers,” said Brian Gillen, a spokesman in the Chicago office, in a written statement.
  
  HUD’s push for the CHA to improve its utilization of the housing choice voucher program came as activists gathered outside a City Council hearing Wednesday to demand elected officials and local leaders step in to better monitor the agency.

You know, that $300+ million would cover half of the $600 million balloon payment due to the pension funds.

Oh, and for a chuckle, read down to the last few paragraphs. Another entitled single mother of four wondering where her check is. She blames the CHA for her lot in life, not her inability to stop having kids she can't afford.

WBBM Picks Up Story

Mike Krauser from WBBM NewsRadio was trolling here evidently:

• Mike K said...
  
  Mike krauser, WBBM Newsradio, trying to reach officer Mathews' son. 312-636-9065
  
  7/29/2014 08:06:00 AM

He must have gotten the info from somewhere, because:

• Joey Mathews can still name all five men convicted of killing his father, Chicago Police Officer John Mathews, in Hegewisch 26 years ago, and he’s furious one of them has been coaching youth baseball in the same neighborhood, years after finishing his prison sentence.
  
  WBBM Newsradio’s Mike Krauser reports Joey Mathews was 4 years old when his father was beaten to death by a group of young men near Wolf Lake on the night of May 21, 1988.

There really out to be a good turnout tonight.

Nonbinding Waste of Money

Thanks Quinn and Madigan for wasting everyone's time:

• Gov. Pat Quinn today signed into law a measure to put a non-binding referendum on the fall ballot asking voters whether millionaires should be taxed at a higher rate — a move aimed at helping drive up Democratic turnout.
  
  The measure represents a Plan B for Quinn, who had supported efforts initiated by Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan to have a binding constitutional amendment placed on the ballot to require millionaire incomes to pay an additional 3 percentage points above the current individual income tax rate. That plan went nowhere in the General Assembly.
  
  The ballot proposal signed by Quinn at a Berwyn elementary school asks voters if they think the constitution should be amended to give schools, based on their student population, money from a 3 percent tax on millionaire incomes. The state Revenue Department said such a tax would generate about $1 billion. It would not have the force of law, however.

These tools put this on the ballot so as not to have to face an actual resolution for something feasible, like term limits. You ask people, especially low-information voters, if they'd like to take millionaires' dollars by force via the government, what do you think they're going to answer? And when that happens, who do you think can actually afford to move out of state? Or declare residence in another lower tax location? Has anyone noticed the factories and assembly lines being built across Illinois? There aren't any. And there won't be any millionaires here shortly if this continues.

Did you notice the second paragraph? The plan went nowhere in the General Assembly, so this is a waste of time. The General Assembly is made up of....more than a few millionaires, and they aren't about to cut their own throats.

We were certainly amused to see this poll released Tuesday:

• Gov. Pat Quinn on Tuesday dismissed a recent poll giving his Republican opponent Bruce Rauner a 14-point lead as “phony-baloney” and suggested it’s a bit early to write his political obituary.

Potato-head is in trouble.

Witch Hunt at FDNY

Wasting money hunting down whistleblowers:

• FDNY firefighters are fighting the department’s snooping into their personal phone records to hunt the source of news leaks.
  
  Outraged by FDNY tactics — including subpoenaing cellphone records — the Uniformed Fire Officers Association “strongly recommends” that members not give the department their numbers and delete them from their personnel files, The Post has learned.
  
  The department needs cellphone numbers to reach off-duty personnel in a major emergency. But recently it has been searching phone records to check if members called reporters.

We imagine this is about the recent story of an unqualified FDNY recruit being carried throughout training without being able to pass the physical rigors of the process. It's not like the public should expect a firefighter to be able, you know, climb ladders, drag hoses, extinguish fires or anything physically demanding. "Don't worry about the building burning down around your ears - a capable firefighter will be there shortly!" It's not as if anyone would actually die in a smoky stairwell in a County Building because the fire lieutenant was unable to climb to where people had taken refuge against a door, right?

It's been whispered in our ears that McCarthy has been (and continues) doing something similar. We don't doubt it simply because we know that Barb West conducted an illegal First Amendment investigation once already and Dave Harris gave a speech where he said he was going to shut down the blog because it is "detrimental." The Department hasn't acted on the info acquired because they can't justify a legitimate government need to, but supposedly people with a habit of posting here have been denied management transfers to better spots and one has even been dumped from a decent spot.

Be aware that this isn't a New York phenomena.

FOP Tries a Last Shot

Probably a desperation move, but a move nonetheless:

• The union that represents Chicago police wants to halt the release of internal investigation files for alleged police misconduct.
  
  In an injunction filed Monday in Cook County circuit court, the Fraternal Order of Police claims the release of the information would “unfairly and vexatiously harm the individual officers named therein.” The FOP wants to keep the city from releasing the lists until it has reviewed them for accuracy, according to the injunction. The union claims in the injunction that it’s aware of at least 12 officers whose names are improperly included in some of the files.
  
  A three-judge panel of the Illinois Appeals Court ruled in March that such files would not be exempt from the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. The appellate court’s ruling found that records related to citizen complaints of police misconduct are a matter of public record.

Given that sloppy paperwork that is typical of any large bureaucracy, the City of Chicago has taken notoriously inaccurate record keeping and shoddy paperwork to a science. If the FOP found 12 officers with inaccurate records, you can bet that there are at least 120.

We even heard that there was once a mayor who kept almost no records at all of crooked contracts and such, and when he got a friendly doctor to say he was a bit forgetful, there was hardly a scrap of paper to hang him on or contradict his nonexistent testimony.

As we said - a long shot, but one that could save a hundred or more guys and gals from being painted with an undeserved brush.

Action Over Freed Cop Killer

This was covered in the comment sections and the FOP even put up a post:

• Hey guys, kinda looking for a short notice quick favor. I'm a Cicero Firefighter now, but I am the son of a Chicago Police Officer that was killed in the line of duty on May 21, 1988. He was killed down the street from the house we lived in in the Hegewisch neighborhood. All of his killers have been released from prison, the last two were paroled on March 25, 1999. One of those men, Dean Chavez, one of the more brutal of the five has since come back to the neighborhood and has been coaching youth baseball in the Hegewisch Babe Ruth League, we were able to have him removed on June 23 of this year by the President of National Babe Ruth Leagues (the local charter there is run by his friends). Dean has been claiming that we are violating his civil rights by having him removed from his position and has gone to the media (nothing has been printed or aired yet, but he is trying).
  
  On July 30 at 7PM the Babe Ruth League is having an open meeting at Steve's Lounge in Hegewisch (13200 S Baltimore Ave, Chicago, IL 60633). Dean is planning on bringing family, friends, players, players parents (the few players/parents that DO support him) to the meeting to show support for him and why he deserves to be a role model to these young kids. My family is hoping to reach as many police and firefighters as would be able to make it to the meeting to show the Babe Ruth League that we will not stand for murderers mentoring young minds, I would also like to pressure the entire Babe Ruth Board to step down due to their gross negligence in keeping Dean in as a coach while having full knowledge of this man's history, especially in the neighborhood that he caused so much harm to. Officers, if you can help me get the word out, that would be much appreciated. Thank you!

A cop killer should pretty much rot in hell as far as we're concerned. He certainly shouldn't be coaching coppers' kids in what is widely known as a cops' neighborhood. And that Board ought to be truly ashamed even having this guy on their radar.

There's a few trolls that have been baiting in the comment sections lately. Spare us the crap about "he paid his debt" or other such nonsense - some debts are never repaid. Your comments will be deleted without ever seeing the light of day.

Get to Hegewisch.

Officer Will Recover, but...

A worrisome quote from the Supe:

• Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said he knows the injured officer personally. The veteran was shot in the left bicep, McCarthy said.
  
  “He’s OK,” McCarthy told reporters late Monday morning. “He’s in a lot of pain.”
  
  The officer, assigned to the downtown “entertainment detail,” was just getting off his shift when he saw a man trying to break into a construction site close to the officer’s home, McCarthy said, confirming other reports that the man was armed with a screwdriver.
  
  “It’s not clear how [the officer] got shot,” McCarthy said. “Whether the gun got taken away from him and he got it back, or whether or not it discharged while he was fighting with him.”
  
  The officer may have suffered some permanent damage, McCarthy said.
  
  “He may have some long-term problems with that,” McCarthy said. “But he’s in good spirits in the hospital. He’s obviously upset about the incident and having to take somebody’s life.”

"long-term problems" is never good news. Hopefully, the miracle workers at rehab can get the officer up and running well enough to qualify and serve out his career. Everyone is certainly thankful it wasn't worse, but a long road ahead for our brother officer. Best wishes and good luck.

Aldercreature DUI

Another shining example of leadership:

• A Northwest Side alderman was arrested early Friday morning and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, an Illinois State Police spokeswoman said today.
  
  Ald. Rey Colon, 35th, was stopped about 1 a.m. Friday on the Eisenhower Expressway near Homan Avenue, police spokeswoman Monique Bond said. Colon was charged with misdemeanor DUI.
  
  Colon, 53, was stopped after his 2006 Honda was seen drifting between westbound lanes without signaling as he prepared to exit the highway, Bond said. After being given field sobriety tests, he was arrested and charged with DUI, driving on an expired license, improper lane use and failure to signal.

Expired license? Ray too busy to stand in line? We're just surprised that an aldercreature drives himself around.

Off Duty Wounded (UPDATE)

Word of an Officer in 014 wounded in a shootout.

Suspect was also hit.

No word on what's going on yet in the media.

UPDATE: Tribune has it:

• Police officers are gathering at John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County this morning after a police-involved shooting in the Bucktown neighborhood.
  
  The shooting happened about 3:30 a.m. in the 1600 block of North Marshfield Avenue, Police News Affairs Officer Ron Gaines said.
  
  The Office of News Affairs could not immediately confirm reports an officer and a suspect were both shot.

Memorial Horses

Fundraiser from the Police Memorial people:

• A charity that provides financial support to injured Chicago police officers and the families of those killed in the line of duty will install as many as 100 life-size horse statues throughout downtown Chicago this fall, organizers said Sunday at an event honoring fallen officers.
  
  The program is modeled after the Cows on Parade public art installation, which began in Chicago in 1999 and has since traveled the globe, raising more than $25 million for nonprofit organizations.
  
  The horse sculptures, manufactured at a Logan Park statuary, are designed to resemble Chicago’s Mounted Patrol Unit horses. Each will be decorated by a local artist and named for a fallen officer, according to organizers. The sculptures will be placed at tourism destinations, corporate atriums, parks, plazas and private businesses from September through November.
  
  Sculpture sponsorships will start at $2,500 and the statues will be auctioned off to the public after the display concludes, organizers said. Net proceeds from sponsorships and from the auction will go to the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation.

We'll post pictures of the finished products if we run across any. We'd also suggest that people/coppers be aware that these will undoubtedly be targets for ::ahem:: wilding yutes at some point - that isn't a pessimistic view, that's a realist observation.

Nicer Than You Could Afford

As long as everyone else is paying, why not live high on the hog?

• The high-rise at 500 N. Lake Shore Drive is the second-most expensive in the city, with rents for a one-bedroom apartment approaching $3,000 a month, well beyond the reach of most Chicago residents.
  
  But that's not too much for the Chicago Housing Authority, which has used federal tax dollars to pick up most of the tab for four lucky residents in the year-old building, with its sweeping views of Lake Michigan, a concierge and a dog-grooming center.
  
  The tenants moved in over the past two years as part of a push by the CHA to expand its housing voucher program so that more low-income residents can leave the city's roughest neighborhoods and start a new life in places with low poverty and crime and close to good schools and jobs.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but $3,000 a month is probably more than double a vast majority of mortgages in most parts of the city. And those receiving these "super-vouchers" have done exactly what to earn a nicer address than 99% of Chicagoans will ever see?

More "Free" Stuff

Once again, more money to pay for the pandering Rahm has to do:

• Sneed hears Mayor Rahm Emanuel is this/close to rolling out a plan to fund free preschool enrollment for 4-year-olds from low income families.
  
  “Watch for the mayor to build on his expansion of full-day kindergarten to all Chicago children,” said a mayoral source.
  
  “Roughly 1,500 4-year-old kids from low income families who qualify for the federal school lunch program have no access to half-day pre-K,” said a mayoral source.
  
  Sneed is told the mayor plans to close this gap with an investment of $6 million “by initiating a new social impact bond, a financial tool designed to invest in social programs saving government money in the long run — and looking for more efficiencies in the city budget,” said the source, who added that capital costs will be paid by the Chicago Public Schools.

We never have understood where the media touts the leftist (but we repeat ourselves) line that everything the government does is somehow "free." Just because you don't see which hand or wallet the government is stealing from, doesn't somehow make it "free." Spreading around the pain doesn't make it "free." What it actually results in is a situation where every man, woman and child in Illinois owes something like $80,000 or some other obscene number because of all the "free" shit that Daley, Madigan, Rahm and Quinn have been giving away.

Oh, and that additional 1,000 illegal aliens that Rahm wants to house in Chicago? Yeah, it's now 1,500, on top of the 1,500 Sneed mentions as getting "free" pre-K.

Keep letting Rahm dig that hole Chicago.

Is This Illegal Now?

Just a question about a rumor we keep hearing:

• Sticking a gun in someone's mouth and rattling their teeth while threatening to kill them....is that still frowned upon by the Department?

If we did something like that, we'd expect to be at callback, stripped and facing an indictment.

We were just curious.

Best Sgt Exam Observation

This is genius:

• 132.1513 is the atomic weight of the clout atom.

We literally couldn't stop laughing at that one.

Can someone explain why the exam was based on a cumulative score of 132.1513?

Does the mayor have something against whole numbers since he is only able to count up to 9.5 on his fingers?

Stop With the Lies Again

The posthumous expunging of a dead criminal's record continues:

• A 13-year-old boy was killed and six others were wounded in a drive-by shooting Friday evening in the West Side East Garfield Park neighborhood, according to fire authorities.
  
  [...] One person was dead at the scene, according to a Chicago Fire Department spokesman. Relatives identified the fatally shot victim as Samuel Walker, 13.
  
  Walker’s aunt, Maribell Ruiz, says the teen would have been 14 next month. She described him as a studious teen and called his death senseless.

Studious? He was in summer school, which kind of belies an "un-studious-ness" about this supposed scholar.

And at the advanced age of 13, he already had 5 arrests, 3 of them for felonies. PCS, PCS with Intent, PCS/Manufacturing along with misdemeanors for Battery and Assault.....this kid was obviously a dope dealer and most likely the intended target along with one or more of his hooligan friends.

Far from being a "senseless" death, this one makes perfect sense to the individuals who want that corner.

1,000 More?

Rahm is pandering again, sucking up to the left and assisting Obama in destroying the border:

• Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a former Obama administration chief of staff, wants to expand the city’s efforts to house young illegal immigrants from Central America, reportedly proposing to shelter an additional 1,000 of them by year's end.
  
  "The influx of unaccompanied child migrants is a growing humanitarian crisis that we can no longer ignore," said Emanuel, according to The Chicago Tribune. "While we have our own challenges at home, we cannot turn our backs on children that are fleeing dangerous conditions.”
  
  The mayor’s office says the federal government will pay for the youths’ shelter, education, health care, food, safety and social services.
  
  However, officials are trying to get Chicago lawyers to provide free legal services for the youths, who arrived in hopes of staying with U.S. relatives but now face federal deportation hearings.

The feds will pay? You mean with ... our tax money? Money that might be better spent on domestic issues, like crumbling infrastructure, non-existent border security and bailing out hospitals/schools/prisons currently overpopulated with illegals? Not to mention the crime and disease that are popping up with alarming intensity at "processing sites" across the southwest. Sure, let's bring in 1,000 more people who will be a drag on the economy.

Three Year Old Shot

The hits just keep on coming for McCompStat's strategies:

• Three people are in custody Saturday in a Southwest Side shooting that left a 3-year-old boy critically injured Friday evening, police said.
  
  Jason Ares suffered a through and through gunshot wound to the abdomen about 10 p.m. Friday in front of his home in the 4400 block of South Sacramento, according to police and family members.
  
  Sandra Steve, the boy's aunt, said her sister and the boy's father heard gunshots and peaked between two homes when someone fired shots from the front of the home, striking the toddler.
  
  A group of two females and a male walked past Jason and his family, and when they reached the end of the block, the male turned around and fired, striking the boy in the right hip and abdomen, police said.

Gang related again, but sure to be blamed on the gun and not a culture that believes it perfectly acceptable to shoot in the hood at people walking with children no matter who or what is in the path of the bullets.

A Seven-fer?

Following on the heels of five-fer last week in 015, 011 comes through in a big way:

• A 13-year-old boy was killed and six others were wounded after a shooting Friday evening in the West Side East Garfield Park neighborhood, according to officials.
  About 6 p.m., multiple people were standing in the 700 block of South California Avenue when they were shot, police said.
  The boy, who was shot in his head, was dead at the scene, officials said.

And that's in addition to at least one other shooting earlier in the day. The west side has always been a sort of a failed social experiment, but this year it's coming to the fore again.

Technical Issue (UPDATE)

Having a small issue here with the computer. Comments will be delayed for a short time. Don't worry, we'll get to it shortly.

UPDATE - We've plowed through half of the backlog on a backup computer. The rest will be up in a little while. Don't worry, your comment hasn't been lost, merely delayed.

CPS Grads Get Five Points

Why?

• Union firefighters are threatening to sue over a city initiative that gives graduates of Chicago Public Schools preferential treatment in city hiring, just as Mayor Rahm Emanuel trumpets a new round of recruitment for the Fire Department.
  
  Emanuel's office made a point Wednesday of drawing attention to an online application for the Fire Department open through Sept. 16. It costs $30 to apply, with a written exam set for December for qualified applicants.
  
  The job description makes clear that those who already have completed fire or police training receive preferential treatment for firefighter and police positions, as do relatives of those who died in the line of duty as police officers, firefighters or military personnel. It also states a hiring preference for veterans and CPS high school graduates.

For the most part, say about 100% of the time, a child has no input into where his/her parents send them to school. Some go to private schools for religious reasons, some parents think that private schools do a better job educating kids, some think (with quite a bit of evidence) that Chicago Public Schools suck.

So why penalize perfectly qualified applicants for the decisions of the parents? There is no special talent that CPS students have for climbing ladders, cutting holes in buildings or putting out fires. All of that is taught at the Fire Academy. A simple Civil Service exam gets you a qualified applicant, then you teach him how to become a firefighter. It's really quite simple everywhere except here.

Arrest Made

And once again, just some asshole shooting at some other asshole:

• Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said witnesses have identified [Tevin] Lee as the gunman who fired four or five shots toward that building last Friday night “without care or regard for the safety of anyone else.”
  
  Lee, described by McCarthy as a known gang member, was trying to retaliate against rival gangbangers after an associate of his had been beaten up in a fist fight a few hours earlier, McCarthy said.
  
  “Unfortunately, his intended targets were standing beside the home in which Shamiya and her friends were innocently playing,” the superintendent told reporters at a packed news conference at police headquarters.

Well done to all the involved parties - coppers, detectives, support units. A hell of a heater case handled efficiently and professionally. You don't nearly hear that enough.

Yet Another Downgrade

No end in sight:

• The outlook for the state of Illinois' credit rating has turned negative, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services warned today in a report.
  
  The credit rating agency affirmed the state's worst-in-the-nation A- bond rating, but its outlook, which had been raised to "developing" earlier this year after enactment of pension reforms, went back to negative.
  
  That means that the state's credit rating could be downgraded within the next two years unless its finances improve, S and P said. A lower credit rating translates into higher borrowing costs.

Perhaps we should amend that to say "no end in sight that doesn't mention the word 'Detroit'. "

Sgt Results in Your E-Mail

Yup, they're out there.

Now what?

Sgt's are up to strength, so no classes for a while? Or are they going to over-promote a first class in anticipation of a Lieutenants class? But Lieutenants are up to strength, too.

At least we've got some results.

Nice Resume` Builder

Isn't this special?

• Yesterday, after a three-year-long investigation, the federal government appointed a monitor to oversee the police department in the city of Newark, New Jersey, after the U.S. Justice Department uncovered a “pattern and practice of unconstitutional policing” in recent years—including during the years that Chicago’s police superintendent Garry McCarthy served as that city’s top cop, from September, 2006 to May, 2011.
  
  The Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey announced its investigation on May 9, 2011, just days after Chicago’s newly sworn-in mayor, Rahm Emanuel, selected McCarthy to run the department here. (Investigators in the U.S. attorney’s office first began looking into allegations of brutality, racial discrimination, and police misconduct in 2010. The New Jersey chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union that year also petitioned the Justice Department to begin an investigation into hundreds of complaints of police brutality, wrongful arrest, improper stops and searches, and false arrests.)

Thanks goodness nothing like that could happen here!

Hey Rahm? You having second thoughts about this hire? It's okay to admit it may have been a mistake - the healing process requires that you acknowledge mistakes.

Has any Chicago media outlet even touched this?

Daley - Untouchable

When your father builds the political structure from the ground up and you continue the habit of granting favors and boons to the political class, it pays off down the road:

• Former Mayor Richard M. Daley isn’t going to have to testify in City Hall’s lawsuit to break a sweetheart contract the Park Grill restaurant awarded under Daley.
  
  After reviewing affidavits on Daley’s medical condition behind closed doors, the Park Grill’s operators and lawyers agreed Wednesday to withdraw their subpoena to put the former mayor on the witness stand.
  
  Park Grill operators Matthew O’Malley and James Horan had been relying on Daley to be their star witness to rebuff the lawsuit Mayor Rahm Emanuel filed in Cook County Court three years ago.

So no one will be held accountable for the millions, even billions squandered during the reign of Shortshanks. Teflon has nothing on this asshole.

Again, Boo Hoo

Hopefully, this is becoming a trend:

• An Arizona inmate took almost two hours to die by lethal injection on Wednesday and his lawyers said he "gasped and snorted" before succumbing in the latest botched execution to raise questions about the death penalty in the United States.
  
  The execution of convicted double murderer Joseph Wood began at 1:52 p.m. at a state prison complex, and the 55-year-old was pronounced dead just shy of two hours later at 3:49 p.m., the Arizona attorney general's office said.
  
  During that time, his lawyers filed an unsuccessful emergency appeal to multiple federal courts that sought to have the execution halted and their client given life-saving medical treatment.
  
  The appeal, which said the procedure violated his constitutional right to be executed without suffering cruel and unusual punishment, was denied by Justice Anthony Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Let us be among the first to hope that every single inmate on Death Row suffers a tiny fraction of the agony they inflicted on their victims and the families of their victims via a botched execution.

Failing that, bring back Ol' Sparky. We'd happily throw the switch on every one of those, too.

Arrangements for Officer Rodriguez

Wake: Friday July 25th 2pm-8pm
Mt. Auburn: 4101 S Oak Park Ave, Stickney IL

Funeral: Saturday July 26th Procession starts at 930, the mass starts at 10am. Church: St. Pius, 4314 S Oak Park Ave, Oak Park, IL

--------------------

Informational post only - comments closed here.

--------------------

Donations are being accepted at the following link to assist the family with  immediate expenses.

CFD Contract Ratified

Congrats to the hose-pullers (we kid):

• Chicago firefighters will get $32 million in back pay within 75 days—and the city will get a dramatic upgrade in ambulance care — under a five-year contract advanced Tuesday that opens the door to even higher pay raises.
  
  The agreement ratified by the City Council's Committee on Workforce Development guarantees 4,645 firefighters, paramedics and emergency medical technicians an 11 percent pay raise over five years, but ends free health care for those who retire between the ages of 55 and 65.
  
  After Dec. 31, those retirees will be forced to contribute 2 percent of their annuities toward the cost of their health insurance until they're eligible for Medicare.

Not a perfect deal. But Rahm didn't get any of the manpower cuts he was pushing.  About as good as could be expected.

Check Your E-Mail

It was addressed to everybody, so you probably got one if you were employed by the Department during the pertinent time frame:

Let the witch-hunting begin.

Look - Consequences!

This will cost Maryland untold hundreds of jobs:

• Beretta U.S.A. Corp., located in Accokeek, Maryland, announced today that it has decided to move its manufacturing capabilities from its existing location to a new production facility that it is building in Gallatin, Tennessee. The Gallatin facility is scheduled to be opened in mid-2015. Beretta U.S.A. had previously planned to use the new Gallatin, Tennessee facility for new machinery and production of new products only.
  
  “During the legislative session in Maryland that resulted in passage of the Firearm Safety Act of 2013, the version of the statute that passed the Maryland Senate would have prohibited Beretta U.S.A. from being able to manufacture, store or even import into the State products that we sell to customers throughout the United States and around the world. While we were able in the Maryland House of Delegates to reverse some of those obstructive provisions, the possibility that such restrictions might be reinstated in the future leaves us very worried about the wisdom of maintaining a firearm manufacturing factory in the State,” stated Jeff Cooper, General Manager for Beretta U.S.A. Corp.
  
  “While we had originally planned to use the Tennessee facility for new equipment and for production of new product lines only, we have decided that it is more prudent from the point of view of our future welfare to move the Maryland production lines in their entirety to the new Tennessee facility,” Cooper added.

At least 300 skilled machinists plus support staff and ancillary jobs. And the tax base gets eroded, too. What forward thinking by the politicians in Maryland. Illinois might be able to learn something from them.

Name in Lights

Haha:

Let's Have a Meeting!

But don't let the general public know what's going on in it:

• After yet another bloody summer weekend in which four people were killed and 39 people were wounded, Mayor Rahm Emanuel held a closed-door summit Monday with community leaders and law enforcement officials to discuss violence that continues to grip Chicago.
  
  “I think everybody here knows this is a deeper conversation. It’s more complex than how many ATF agents we have and how many kids we have enrolled in our mentoring program,” said Emanuel, before reporters were escorted out of the conference room at Chicago Police Department’s South Side headquarters.

No need to let reporters see what's going on. Rahm will treat them like mushrooms (kept in the dark and fed bull shit) and they'll run and print what he says to print, especially during an election year. Don't want ot lose that all important "access" you know.

• The summit was held just hours after a crowd of mourners poured out into a West Side street Sunday to hold vigil for Shamiya Adams, an 11 year-old girl who was killed Friday night when a stray bullet that flew into an apartment during a slumber party. So far, no arrests have been made, but police Supt. Garry McCarthy said detectives have some “good leads.”
  
  “The case is progressing nicely,” said McCarthy, who added that he couldn’t discuss specifics. “We have a lot of information and the case is developing quickly.”

"nicely" if you don't count that fact that an 11-year-old caught a bullet in the head in the middle of the "lowest crime stats in decades."

• “Often times you feel like you’re being talked at, or being told all the great things that are being done,” said the Rev. Michael Pfleger, the outspoken South Side pastor of St. Sabina Catholic Church, on his way out of the conference room.
  
  But this time Emanuel opened the floor for community groups, allowing them to air their concerns and grievances — a move Pfleger called “refreshing.”
  
  “I don’t usually leave meetings feeling this good and I felt good today. Obviously ... action has to take place now, but to be able to lay it out on the table, I thought was very good,” he said.

Well, you know if Pfather Pfleger left the meeting "refreshed," then there must be hope for the whole situation. After all, look at what great strides St. Sabina's has made in turning around that neighborhood - hardly a murder to be seen.

Anyone else get the feeling that their pockets just got picked, their Rights just got trampled and we're going to be told to smile-and-eat-shit in short order?

Illinois Still Bleeding Jobs

Dead last in the nation:

• In June, Illinois suffered the largest monthly workforce loss in recorded state history.
  
  June’s workforce loss was worse than the worst month of the Great Recession. Overall, 21,700 Illinoisans gave up and left the workforce in June; in September 2008, 17,500 Illinoisans quit the workforce. (Bureau of Labor Statistics data go back to 1976.)
  
  This hefty workforce loss has driven state’s unemployment rate down to 7.1 percent from 7.5 percent, creating a superficial appearance of improvement. And Gov. Pat Quinn says Illinois needs to “keep the momentum.”
  
  Keeping up this sort of “momentum” would be disastrous.

Disastrous indeed.

Off Duty Killed

Motorcycle accident on the Ryan:

• An off-duty Chicago Police officer was killed in a crash Sunday afternoon on the Dan Ryan Expy., Illinois State Police said.
  
  The Chicago Police Department identified the officer Sunday night as Probationary Police Officer Tito M. Rodriguez, 28, who had been with the department since May 2013.
  
  “We are truly saddened by the loss of Officer Tito Rodriguez who perished in today’s tragic accident,” Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said in a written statement. “On behalf of the entire Chicago Police Department, our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time. Whenever we lose one of our own, it has an effect on each of us, and we will be sure to honor Officer Rodriguez’s memory and spirit appropriately.”

RIP Officer Rodriguez. Arrangements will be posted when they become available.

Forty Again

There's that number:

• Violence continued to strike the Chicago area this weekend with at least 18 people shot in a little more than 12 hours overnight, bringing the number of people shot since Friday to 40.
  
  Four people, including an 11-year-old girl at a sleepover with friends, have been killed, police said.

Did you know that there are cities in Illinois, across America even, where 40 people don't get shot in a month? It's true. And we've heard there are smaller towns and villages where 40 people don't get shot in a year even, sometimes, many years!

Copper Injured

Charges filed for Agg Battery and other assorted charges:

• A 24-year-old man is in custody after he allegedly struck a Chicago Police officer with his car during a motor vehicle stop, officials said.
  
  The incident happened at about 10 p.m. 6500 block of South Langley Avenue in the West Woodlawn neighborhood, said Chicago Police News Affairs [...].
  
  Anthony M. Turner of the 6700 Block of South Langley Avenue was charged with one felony count of aggravated batter of a police officer, a felony count of attempting to elude police and two misdemeanor counts of leaving the scene of an accident and misdemeanor reckless driving.
  
  He also was cited for driving with a suspended license, failure to reduce speed and operating a vehicle without insurance.

A speedy recovery wished to the Officer.

Like Clockwork

The robbery on the Orange Line is falling perfectly within McCompStat's script:

• high profile event occurs;
• powers-that-be acknowledge the brazen event;
• counter with statistics that crime is really down

And right on schedule:

• Orange Line rider Jennifer Carter said she’s been frightened ever since she heard two armed men robbed a train car on that line earlier this week.
  
  Kathleen O’Donnell has instructed her teenage daughter to ride with friends and to keep her eyes open.
  
  But Luis Gaspar isn’t worried about more crime on the train line, which goes from the Loop to Midway Airport.
  
  “It’s not really frequent on the Orange Line,” he said. “This is uncommon.”
  
  Crime data shows just that.
  
  In the past 12 months, compared to the 12 months before that, overall crime on trains and at stations has been down on the Orange Line south of Roosevelt Road, according to Chicago Police Department data.

We're sure that's a great comfort to the riders who had a gun stuck in their faces along with the woman who got pistol-whipped. And the media (aside from Chicago Magazine) just accepts these numbers at face value despite knowing that the CPD numbers are pretty much pulled out of someone's ass.

We don't really care what they think McLiarLiarPantsOnFire says the numbers were last year. This year, two assholes climbed on a train and stuck it up between stations. And why did they feel so safe doing it? Because they rode the trains for a few hours, figured out where the cops weren't and pulled off the brazen holdup. No cops, no heat, no danger to them. Great system.

11-Year-Old Killed

A stray round finds an innocent victim - again:

• Shamiya Adams and a group of her friends were getting ready to make s’mores during a sleepover Friday night when a bullet crashed through the window and struck the little girl in the head.
  
  “It was going to be a little sleepover,” a tearful Rosemarie Jones said hours after the 11-year-old girl died from her injuries.

This was one of seven people shot in 011 yesterday, twenty-plus citywide, easily surpassing the standard "20-per-weekend" in just under a day. We're going to go out on a limb here and say that once again, strategies aren't working and we're going to see another weekend of 40 or more shot. Anyone care to bet against it?

Cops Shoot Assailant

Points gun at police, gets shot:

• A person was shot by Chicago Police officers Saturday morning in the West Side Little Village neighborhood.
  
  About 6:15 a.m., officers from the Ogden Police District responded to a call about a male with a gun in the 2600 block of South Hamlin Avenue, police said in a statement. Police later found a male -- whose age was not immediately known -- at the corner of 27th Street and Avers Avenue pointing a gun at officers, the statement said.
  
  Officers shot him and he was taken to a hospital, police said.

He might even live, but we can't say we care one way or the other.

A Five-Fer

It's shaping up to be another bloody weekend - but crime is down!

• Five people were shot, one of them fatally, in an attack in the Austin neighborhood this evening.
  
  A 21-year-old man was pronounced dead at West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park after he was shot in the head in the 900 block of North Massasoit Avenue about 6 p.m., said Ana Pacheco.
  
  Three other men and a woman were injured in what may have been a drive-by shooting, Pacheco said.

And amazingly, Garry still has a job, while Rahm's numbers tank.

Election Ploy Fails...for Now

Rahm says, "Quick! Find some black guys to split the vote!"

• In the wake of Cook County Board Chairman Toni Preckwinkle’s hasty exit as a possible mayoral contender, Sneed is told there is a move to fill the void with two male contenders in the black community: State Sen. Kwame Raoul and former Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Jr.
  
  Sneed is told that top African-American business and civic leaders are scheduling a meeting in August with Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, who has formed an exploratory committee, but a top source tells Sneed that Raoul should be regarded as a “bona fide contender.”
  
  “There are a lot of bad feelings in the black community that Gov. Pat Quinn passed up Kwame as lieutenant governor, and that could hurt Quinn in the election,” said a top Sneed source familiar with the process of selecting a black consensus mayoral candidate.

Notice that Sneed doesn't say a "qualified" candidate, just a black one. But one of them has other ideas though:

• State Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, said Friday there is no movement in the black community to draft him to challenge Mayor Rahm Emanuel and he wouldn’t respond to a draft, even if there was one.
  
  “When I’m ready to do something else — and I’m sure that day will come — I will say it before anybody else says it. This is not the time,” Raoul said.

He's a tool, and has been for years, but he's trying to be a tool on his own terms, not The Machine's.

Parking Feud?

DNAInfo.com says there's an ongoing feud with CPD versus the Parking Enforcement drones:

• A running feud between Chicago Police and city workers who write parking tickets — known as parking enforcement aides — has gotten so bad that city leaders are now trying to iron things out, a watchdog report issued Thursday says.
  
  The quarterly report from Inspector General Joseph Ferguson said an investigation into a "public screaming match ... between a PEA and a sworn police officer" laid bare "the existence of a more widespread discord" between the city's Police Department and the Finance Department employees.

The "screaming match," if we recall correctly, involved a Parking Enforcement Aide writing street cleaning tickets in an area of responsibility usually patrolled by a regular traffic car. This lead to hurt feelings and possibly a CR number being filed along with complaints about the Parking Enforcement bureau.

As we correctly pointed out in October of 2009:

• Compliance violations (front/rear plates) and meters (surprise!) showed large increases while Rush Hour and Street Cleaning tickets (both traditionally police written) had double digit decreases. And as the manpower shortages continue to leave police running from job to job and unable (or even unwilling) to perform ticket writing duties, we expect a bigger shift toward "revenue" writers rather than police.

DNAInfo.com says this makes the blog "...notoriously snarky..." We'd say it just made us observant more nearly five years ago, and as it turns out, completely correct.

Anyone know if we're still actively feuding with the PEA's? We haven't noticed and we'd like to know if we have to tell everyone to pick it up a bit.

Relax, the Feds are Here

Our problems are solved!

• Seven additional agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearm and Explosives will be sent to Chicago to help combat the city’s violence.
  
  U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced plans Thursday to send additional agents to the city following his recent visit, where he participated in a roundtable discussion with Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
  
  The new ATF agents will coordinate efforts with U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon as well as federal, state and local law enforcement and community partnerships to reduce illegal gun trafficking and gun crime, according to a release from the Department of Justice.

Seven! Count 'em, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 additional ATF agents! We certainly hope there's enough office space for them all and they're able to find a locker for their stuff..

This is Bold, but Crime is Down!

No word on the massive shortage of officers at Mass Transit, but hey, this has to be a coincidence:

• Two armed men robbed multiple passengers on an Orange Line CTA train heading into downtown Wednesday afternoon, police said.
  
  The robbery happened at 4:13 p.m. as the train traveled between the Halsted and Roosevelt stations, said Veejay Zala, a Chicago Police spokesman.
  
  Two armed suspects took various items from multiple riders, Zala said. No one was in custody.
  
  According to a police source, one of the suspects pulled out a blue steel revolver. The other yelled at riders to give him their belongings, then began collecting items from riders and putting them in a black backpack, as the man with the revolver pointed the gun at the victims.

Evidently, these two rode the train for hours prior to the holdup. We certainly hope that when they are apprehended, Rahm sits them down and tells them that they must have missed the signs saying, "No Guns!" on the CTA.

Sgt Fired

After dragging this out for five years, you knew Rahm was going to have the Police Board make a statement:

• In a highly unusual move, the Chicago Police Board has overruled police Supt. Garry McCarthy and fired a police sergeant whose gun was used in the shooting death of a Northwest Side woman five years ago.
  
  McCarthy had recommended suspending Sgt. Steven Lesner, a 20-year police veteran, for 60 days. But on Thursday night, the board unanimously voted to fire Lesner, 48, over the 2009 incident in which he bought alcohol for the woman he’d just met while on duty — and for failing to secure his weapon when he returned to her Northwest Side apartment after his shift had ended.

You'd need two or three pieces of paper to list the bad choices made throughout this episode.

Guns Lowering Crime!

Not here of course - Chicago criminals are uniquely immune to cause-and-effect according to Rahm, Garry and other morons. But in Detroit, the reality is catching the attention of the Chief:

• [Detroit Police Chief James Craig] “Detroit has experienced 37 percent fewer robberies in 2014 than during the same period last year, 22 percent fewer break-ins of businesses and homes, and 30 percent fewer carjackings.
  
  ...Criminals are getting the message that good Detroiters are armed and will use that weapon. I don’t want to take away from the good work our investigators are doing, but I think part of the drop in crime, and robberies in particular, is because criminals are thinking twice that citizens could be armed.
  
  I can’t say what specific percentage is caused by this, but there’s no question in my mind it has had an effect.”

All that without CompStat either.

Reporter Speaks Truth - Pays Price

We weren't going to cover this at all at first. We figured it was another moment where the media gives all sorts of air time to police haters and lets them spout their bullshit to the masses. But then things took a curious turn:

• News 12 reporter Sean Bergin has been suspended after he argued on the air that the “anti-cop mentality that has so contaminated America’s inner cities” is largely the result of “young black men growing up without fathers.”
  
  A source with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed to TheBlaze on Monday that Bergin has, in fact, been suspended over his remarks about the black community and may end up being fired. The source said Bergin was asked not to come in Monday and Tuesday as the news station figures out how to handle the situation.

The interview of the spouse of a cop killer was somewhat astounding in that she said her now-deceased husband should have killed more cops before he died. He had stolen a gun and then ambushed responding officers, killing rookie Police Officer Melvin Santiago. It seemed bad enough that the media broadcast her bullshit, but then reporter Sean Bergin related the following:

• “We were besieged, flooded with calls from police officers furious that we would give media coverage to the life of a cop killer. It’s understandable. We decided to air it because it’s important to shine a light on the anti-cop mentality that has so contaminated America’s inner cities. This same, sick, perverse line of thinking is evident from Jersey City, to Newark and Patterson to Trenton.”
  
  “It has made the police officer’s job impossible and it has got to stop. The underlying cause of all of this, of course: young black men growing up without fathers. Unfortunately, no one in the news media has the courage to touch that subject.”

Of course, telling the truth cannot be allowed and he was promptly suspended, had his hours cut and has since resigned rather than work under the restrictions of his station. More importantly, he hasn't shut up about the entire incident:

• “I broke the rules, but I broke the rules because I was doing the right thing,” he told TheBlaze. “You can’t fix a problem if you don’t talk about the problem. The truth is, 73 percent of African-American children grow up without fathers. It’s a topic that needs to be handled delicately — and really, this situation could have been used as a way to explore that.”
  
  But no one in the news media wants to touch the subject, Bergin argued.
  
  “I’m in these housing projects all the time, and it’s all for the same thing: black men slaughtering each other in the streets. Why is this happening?” he continued, adding that it’s nearly impossible to cover the issue in-depth and accurately when surrounded by “stark raving liberals who masquerade as journalists.”

Don't we recall a few years ago when someone who likes to run guns to Mexican narco-traffickers, obstructs Congressional oversight and refuses to prosecute perjurers said something about Americans being cowards over racial issues and it was time for some sort of national discussion on the subject? How, we wonder, can you have a national discussion when one side refuses to approach the subject in any mature way, shape or form? If Holder and his ilk wanted to have some serious discussions, we'd be talking about:

• [29 June] - One person was killed and at least four people were injured in a shooting during an after-hours event ahead of  the BET Awards Sunday in East Hollywood.
• [30 June] -  Police continued searching Monday for two men who exchanged gunfire on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter, leaving nine people shot in the crossfire, including two who were in critical condition.
• [05 July] - A gunman opened fire early Saturday morning in Indianapolis, sending victims scrambling for cover in a trendy neighborhood and leaving seven people injured, one critically, police and witnesses said. 
• [05 July] - Six people were injured at Houston music festival early Saturday morning, authorities said. Several thousand people had gathered at an arena for a Fourth of July party at the Houston Caribbean Festival, which was supposed to run until around 5 a.m., Houston Police spokesman Jodi Silva said.
• Not to mention the 77 people shot in Chicago over the holiday.
  

But lord forbid that people talk about something as mundane as race. We're being inundated with all sorts of distractions in order to avoid talking about this issue while Mr Bergin points out that the emperor is indeed wearing little more than a smile. We salute his effort though.

The Next Policy Change

Since CPD ends up stealing every new idea that comes out of New York (and stealing NYPD brass, too), we imagine this is going to be a "Next Big Thing" shortly:

• The NYPD is making a big push to bring the city’s rising crime numbers down — and they’re doing it one rookie at a time.
  
  On Tuesday, [New York] CBS 2 [...] spoke exclusively with Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, who outlined his plan.
  
  At the height of the summer, the number of shootings is up 8 percent city-wide from last year. But with a class of 600 cops just graduated from the Police Academy, Bratton is changing things up.
  
  Gone is the practice of putting rookies out on the streets in pairs. Instead, they get a veteran partner to fight crime.
  
  “I had some great partners who really caught me before I started developing bad habits early on in my career,” Bratton said. “I want these young kids as they come out of the academy to have a similar opportunity to learn the right way and if they make a mistake, they have the mistake corrected before the mistake becomes a habit.”

That would seem to be the intent of the FTO program, but directly contrary to what is practiced once the kids head out to "Operation Ghetto Foot Patrol" where they are nearly completely unsupervised in any meaningful sense of the word. It's a miracle none of them have been seriously injured or worse what with the bad habits they are ingraining into their daily routines....like shooting down dark gangways....and being surprised when someone shoots back down the gangway....if you catch our drift. Closer supervision may prevent incidents like these.

Imprinting

Defined as follows:

• impress or stamp (a mark or outline) on a surface or body

Reasonably observant folks can tell when someone is carrying something in a pocket. Really observant individuals can spot "tells" when someone has a gun in their waistband. There was even a training scenario years back where a crowd was filmed in a parking lot after a disturbance and people were asked, "How many guns were on scene?" Most coppers spotted at least two or three - the total ended up being five or six.

Someone sent us this photo and we had to do a double-take:

What's that in your pocket Pfather Pfleger? We suppose it might be an emergency exorcism kit or a traveling Crucifix. But it would be amusing as all hell if it was....something else. Anyone know if this goof has a Concealed Carry permit?

Electronic Monitoring Hack

This is amusing as heck:

• The Cook County Sheriff’s office is warning its officers to watch out for state parolees who have tampered with their electronic monitoring.
  
  The heading says: “Officer Safety Alert” – and it’s from the Cook County Sheriff’s Office to all patrol and street units – warning about state parolees on electronic monitoring who have tampered with the device and are driving around undetected.

But it isn't a "significant" issue:

• Tom Shaer, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Corrections, says  state parolees interfering with their electronic monitoring is “not a major problem” and he says there’s been no recent uptick in incidents.
  
  “We are not encountering a significant issue here.”

We don't know about that - any time someone "paroled" to electronic monitoring who is able to circumvent the restrictions supposedly placed on them through human ingenuity....well, that pretty much means they're getting away without being punished. That IS significant to any thinking person.

And how are they accomplishing this?

• But Shaer says the state has told the Cook County Sheriff’s office to watch out for any state parolees driving with a monitoring box plugged into their car – a device that should be at home.

So they've somehow adapted the monitor box to be able to be powered by the car cigarette lighter. The sheriff's automated calling system buzzes the box, the "inmate" scans whatever he has to scan into the box, the sheriff thinks that the "inmate," (actually an "out-mate" now) is at home behaving. No GPS in the boxes, so no one is the wiser...until they get caught outside after curfew.

Wisconsin Joyriders

This made us smile, so we're sharing it:

• Police are seeking child neglect charges against the mothers of two boys who have stolen vehicles twice this summer and taken them for drives in the countryside north of Milwaukee.
  
  The mother of the 9-year-old driver is the grandmother of the 4-year-old, so the two thieves are uncle and nephew, according to West Bend Police Captain Tim Dehring. Both families live in the same home.
  
  Police are seeking a charge of child neglect against a third adult at the home, the live-in boyfriend of the mother of the 9-year-old, Dehring said.
  
  After the latest driving incident Sunday, police officers took the two boys into protective custody, he said. "This has got to stop," Dehring said.
  
  The move to protective custody and the request for charges against the adults are intended to reinforce that message, he said. "Our concern is for the safety of the community," Dehring said.

The community obviously doesn't really care or someone would have smacked the tar out of some 4-and-9-year-old asses.

Hubbard and Aberdeen

Is this graffiti? It's near the intersection:

Someone at Chicago Magazine having some fun at Rahm's expense? Or coppers?

Feds Tell Springfield "Back Off"

Another set of elected officials headed to jail?

• The top federal prosecutor in central Illinois today sent a reminder to state lawmakers on the eve of their hearing about Gov. Pat Quinn’s troubled anti-violence program: Stand down because a criminal investigation is in the works.
  
  U.S. Attorney James Lewis, based in the central Illinois office a few blocks from the Capitol, made it clear that he wants a legislative panel to hold off 90 days before receiving testimony or conducting interviews of individuals connected with Quinn’s program, known officially as the Neighborhood Recovery Initiative.

So are the state lawmakers interfering to protect their fellow legislators? Or to help Rauner? Or damage Quinn? And can we have this investigation wrapped up with indictments delivered before the election? Special Elections to fill offices formerly occupied by imprisoned officials are expensive.

Dart Moves In

In light of Preckwinkle announcing she won't be running for mayor, Dart makes a move to increase his profile:

• Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart will focus on catching people wanted on arrest warrants for violent crimes in Chicago to help quell gun violence in the city, officials said Tuesday.
  
  Dart’s office will also boost its supervision of criminal defendants who have been released from jail on electronic monitoring, said Cara Smith, executive director of the Cook County Jail.
  
  Sheriff’s officers are being shifted from south suburban Robbins — where the sheriff has been concentrating on reducing violence — to the city of Chicago, Smith said.
  
  “We will be focused on Chicago warrants — as opposed to countywide warrants — for some period of time,” she said. “We’re aware of crime trends. We respond accordingly.”

Our readers have been pushing this info for a few days now. Dart is sending up to 200 sheriffs into war-torn hoods to "assist" in stemming the violence.

Ten bucks says if crime goes down next month, even a little bit, Dart will claim his efforts are leading the way. We can't wait to see the look on Rahm's or Garry's faces when that happens. So is Dart running for mayor? And who planted him there to siphon off Rahm support?

Preckwinkle Leaves the Field

She won't run against the Machine that created her:

• Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle declared Tuesday that she won’t run for mayor, leaving union and community groups angry over Chicago’s violent crime, school closings and teetering finances searching for a credible candidate to take on Mayor Rahm Emanuel next year.
  
  The decision is a boost to Emanuel’s bid for a second term and ensures he won’t have to square off against a popular, countywide elected official capable of uniting disparate voters from the South and West Sides with lakefront liberals.
  
  For months, Emanuel’s detractors had lobbied for Preckwinkle to become the movement candidate that rode to office on a groundswell, overcoming Emanuel’s enormous campaign fund, political pedigree and support of the city’s elite.

Karen Lewis's numbers just jumped significantly.

So a short, 9.5 fingered, lying, anti-union socialist one-percenter versus a short, loud-mouth, commie, racist. Sounds like another win-win for Chicago.

Only 500?

We're thinking "undercount:":

• Cook County prosecutors said today that nearly 500 people had gathered Sunday afternoon for an unauthorized concert at Montrose Beach that turned into a melee after police officers attempted to shut it down.

Of course, theses numbers probably come from the same people who think they counted 1.1 million people at the Taste this year

Garry Melts Down...

...and an aldercreature spouts stupidity:

• Sunday’s violence on the North Side prompted fresh questions about police staffing and crowd control tactics just a week after a bloody Independence Day weekend left scores of dead and wounded across the city. At a press conference meant to highlight the Police Department’s gun seizures, Superintendent Garry McCarthy grew frustrated as reporters kept questioning him about what went wrong at Montrose Beach.
  
  “I'm trying to tell you all about gun violence here in the city, which is our number one thing,” McCarthy said at the Grand Crossing district station on the South Side. “We had people who died over the weekend, and a disturbance at a park is something that we'll fix moving forward, no two ways about it. But we have a problem here, and I'd like to bring attention to it.”

Spin spin spin. Redirect redirect, redirect. Look over here at all these shiny guns! Never mind that they look the same as the ones trotted out a few weeks ago. And the same as the ones from a few months ago. Don't look at the dates on those inventory tags! Get away from those tables!

And then this is among the stupidest things we've heard an aldercreature utter - and we've been listening to them for more than a few decades:

• Meanwhile, Ald. James Cappleman, whose 46th Ward includes Montrose Beach, praised Sunday evening’s police response but expressed concern that nearby Chicago Park District parking lots allow large crowds to gather at Montrose Beach more easily than at other lakefront beaches.
  
  “Look at Oak Street Beach. Do you see this many parking spots there? Look at Lincoln Park. There just aren't this many parking spots in such a concentrated area in other parts of the city,” Cappleman said. “I want the Park District and the police department to come up with a plan to discourage that many people from driving down there and parking.”
  

Go back and read that again - an aldercreature is actually suggesting that people DON'T come down to the lakefront, that the Park District tear up parking spots so that people can't enjoy the parks.

Wow. Talk about your misdirected solutions. Parking lots must now be banned as they lead to unlawful and permit-less gatherings of people determined to be assholes. You can see exactly how this relates to the gun "debate"in liberal minds:

• Guns are evil and are the source of evil, so we'll ban law abiding citizens from being able to own them. No word on disarming criminals because that might be dangerous.

 How about hiring police and adequately staffing the districts? How about Summer Mobile? How about a city-wide response unit? How about some effective fucking law enforcing against the criminal element so decent people can enjoy their city?

Taste...Going...Going....

The perfect opportunity to cancel it forever:

• After powerful storms led to the cancellation of Saturday’s festivities at the Taste of Chicago, final attendance numbers for last weekend’s event also took a bath.
  
  Roughly 1.1 million attended the annual food and music festival in Grant Park this year, according to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office. That’s down 400,000 from last year’s attendance number of 1.5 million.
  
  Attendance also was slightly down when compared to 2012, when 1.2 million people went to the festival.
  
  Overall, however, attendance numbers for the festival – which was first held in 1980 — have been on a skid since the heyday of the mid-2000s. An estimated 3.6 million people attended the festival in both 2006 and 2007.

Rahm and Garry lucked out with Saturday's rain-out, as "wilding" youths were expected to be in full force according to insiders who monitor the social media sites for indications of, shall we say...over-exuberance? And in light of what wasn't/couldn't be prevented at Montrose Beach, perhaps a strategic withdrawal is in Rahm's best interest.

New Links (UPDATE)

Seeing as how it took the major media outlets hours to come up with actual info on the recent happenings at the lakefront and the actual heavy-lifting and reporting was done by bloggers with a scanner, we've added the CrimeInWrigleyville + Boystown" blog and the UptownUpdate" blog to our local news links. They're doing at least as good a job as the mainstream media.

Now if someone could just discover why the YouTube video disappeared so quickly. Luckily, bloggers saved the recordings and continue to post them where they can be discovered by those who wish to be informed and not fed a pile of crap from certain directions.

UPDATE: Since we use so many of their statistics, we added the HeyJackass.com website also. We meant to do that a while ago, but it got lost in the shuffle here. Apologies to the hard working crew over at WH Thompson's site.

Karen in the Lead

Are the wheels falling off the Rahm-mobile?

• For the past couple of weeks, Karen Lewis has been saying she is “seriously” considering running for mayor.
  
  It turns out voters are taking the fiery Chicago Teachers Union president’s potential candidacy seriously as well.
  And Mayor Rahm Emanuel probably should, too.
  
  At least that’s what a surprising new Early and Often Poll suggests.
  
  If the mayoral election were held today, the lightning rod union leader who was the architect behind a 2012 teachers’ strike would beat Emanuel by 9 percentage points in a head-to-head contest, the survey found.

And Prickwrinkle stomps Rahm by a 24-point margin according to the same pollsters. Rahm is going to have to do some major league pandering to regain lost ground...and what better way to pander than throw some New York carpetbagger under the bus?

Lakefront 10-1 (UPDATES)

Gas teams mobilized, all bikes and nearby tactical teams sent to Montrose beach. Officer injured and coppers being bottled. What the hell is going on?  The Sun Times barely covers it:

• Two Chicago Police officers were injured while trying to break up a fight Sunday night at Montrose Beach.
  
  Police responded to the fight at Montrose Beach in the 4400 block of North Simonds Drive about 7:37 p.m., said Ana Pacheco, a police spokeswoman.
  
  While police tried to break up the fight, someone threw a bottle and struck an officer, according to police and fire officials. The officer was taken to Weiss Memorial Hospital in good condition, according to a fire department spokesman. He was treated for his injury and released.
  
  Another officer was injured during the fight but refused medical treatment, police said.

That doesn't explain the gas teams. The Tribune says even less than the Sun Times, burying the lakefront breakdown in a story about Sunday's shootings. Something is seriously wrong in Chicago. No one in the media has a scanner?

UPDATE: CrimeInBoystown blog has much better reporting that the major media outlets, including radio transcripts they typed up.

UPDATE: Video of the mayhem beginning. See it, save it, before they take it down and it disappears at the behest of Rahm.

UPDATE: They removed the video - but it'll turn up soon we hope. The internet is forever.

UPDATE: Channel 7 has portions of the video, including a copper getting hit in the back by a thrown bottle and debris. We can't imagine why Rahm or Garry wouldn't want this video broadcast far and wide - it would justify a crackdown of ....oh....wait...."crackdown," right. Can't have the police defending themselves and making the community safe for the decent law abiding taxpayers.

UPDATE: CrimeInBoystown (and Wrigleyville) blog has the video and other video as well.

Miami Police: Get a Gun

When seconds count, the police are only minutes away:

• John Rivera, president of the Miami-Dade Police Benevolent Association, has warned Florida residents to arm themselves because the police are not coming.
  
  Speaking to WSVN News, Rivera said, “If the mayor’s not going to provide security, then my recommendation, as an experienced law enforcement officer for nearly 40 years, is either buy yourself an attack dog, put bars on your windows and doors and get yourself some firearms because you’re going to have to protect yourselves.”
  
  The comments were made after Mayor Carlos Gimenez decided to cut $64 million from his 2014-2015 budget resulting in a possible loss of 600 police jobs to the county.

That isn't scare tactics - that's reality. Anyone with a brain realized that police can't be there all the time. A visible presence is a deterrent in most cases, but being in exactly the right place when a crime is occurring is a rarity you see mostly on television. You want protection, follow this guy's advice, especially in this era of "austerity" where police budgets are concerned.

Victim Meets Rescuers

Just passing through town last year and ended up having a memorable stay:

• A man nearly died at O’Hare Airport going through security a year ago when he had a heart attack. On Friday, the victim got to meet those who stepped in and saved his life.
  
  [...] For Wade Anderson and his wife, Diane, they appeared relaxed and were able to smile this week. It was no laughing matter last July 9. That’s when strangers were all desperately trying to save Wade’s life after he collapsed from a heart attack as he and his wife approached a TSA screening area. The couple watched surveillance video of the event for the first time this week.
  
  “I thought he was gone and they were like angels out of nowhere,” Diane Anderson says. “If it wasn’t for those people who stepped up right away, he wouldn’t be here today.”
  
  TSA worker Regina Swain was one of the first to help. “I looked down and he wasn’t breathing,” she says. She called for an ambulance and started performing CPR. Her colleague Jacob Neal rushed over to help and quickly took over. “You look at it like someone is part of your family, and you know he probably has kids and family,” Neal said.
  
  Officer Patrick McGrath and off-duty nurse Raquel Prendkowski also stepped in to help as his wife watch on in shock. It didn’t look good for Anderson, even after a defibrillator was used twice. On the third attempt — to the amazement of everyone – they got a heartbeat.

Between the TSA people, the copper and the nurse (a copper's wife) they managed to avert tragedy. Nicely done folks.

Did You Lock the Door?

No, I thought you did it. Whoops!

• A dead body on a gurney fell out of a coroner's van when a door malfunctioned, sending the corpse into the middle of a busy roadway in Pennsylvania.
  
  The Bucks County Courier Times reports the accident happened around noon on Friday near a shopping center in Feasterville, Pennsylvania.
  
  A photo on the newspaper's website shows the corpse, wrapped in what appears to be a white sheet, lying in the street as cars buzz by. The Bucks County Coroner's Office says the driver realized immediately that the door had opened and retrieved the body within minutes. The office says it "deeply regrets" the incident.

Now that's a bad day.