Cop Injured in Rollover

North side:

• A Chicago police officer was injured when her police car flipped over on the North Side Monday afternoon.
  
  The accident happened about 1:20 p.m. at the intersection of Montrose and Ashland avenues, according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.
  
  The officer was pinned in and paramedics got her out, said Langford.
  
  Chicago Police Department News Affairs Officer Jose Estrada said the officer was taken in serious condition to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.

This is the vehicle (picture via the Tribune):

A speedy recovery wished to the injured officer.

How to Spin the Data

HeyJackass.com shows everyone how it's done:

• Hey SCC - Since the honor students wouldn't stop shooting on a school night, it took a little longer than usual to compile the final numbers.
  
  Weekend: 8 killed (5 shot, 3 stabbed), 44 wounded
  Last year: 1 killed, 15 wounded
  
  September now stands at 42 killed and 197 wounded. Last September tallied 42 killed (inc 2 PO involved) and 154 wounded.
  
  Expect the month end press release to focus on year to date homicide numbers and to ignore September and the increase in shootings.
  
  Illustrating Chicago Crime, Murder and Mayhem at heyjackass.com

That's quite an increase over last year's same timeframe - 800% in killings and nearly 300% in maimings. And there's still a full 24 hours to go in September and Englewood has been on fire since Friday. CompStat is going to be amusing this week.

Let's Burn the Money!

Here comes once of the stupidest ideas ever - we covered it a few months ago, but the City is still going through with it:

• In the beginning was the notebook, and the notebook was filled with dreams, and those dreams, against all sorts of odds and in the face of red tape, carping, money-hunting and alterations, will come to fruition Saturday with an event that will become either an annual enrichment of our lives or an expensive one-time-only experiment in bread and circuses.
  
  It is called the Great Chicago Fire Festival, and it is the doing of Redmoon Theater and the city of Chicago, supported by $350,000 from city coffers and more than $1.5 million from the wallets of a couple of dozen sponsors and donors such as the Pritzker Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Allstate, WMAQ-Ch. 5, Boeing, the Chicago Fire soccer team and Wendella Boats.
  
  That's a lot of money, and there are some who would tell you that there are better uses for it: public schools, potholes, more police officers … the list is long.

If private citizens and their foundations want to spend money on this crap, more power to them. If publicly held companies feel like blowing through their bottom line, they answer to stockholders. But $350,000 in taxpayer cash? For this debacle? And calling it "art?"

• So, judge for yourself Saturday. It all starts at 3 p.m. with a bazaar along the riverfront featuring crafts, food and entertainment from some of Redmoon's neighborhood partners. At 8 p.m. the real action begins, as "fire caldrons" will be lowered from bridges onto boats waiting below in a river filled with kayakers pulling flaming buoys and prairie gardens. The boats will take the fire to three floating sculptures meant to evoke 1871 homes. These will be set ablaze, burning to reveal symbolic interiors. It all will take place on the water between the State Street and Columbus Drive bridges, and will involve a couple of hundred performers, singers and volunteers. It will culminate with a fireworks display. It's all free.

It ain't free - it's $2 million being lit on fire - $350,000 of it belonging to taxpayers, and Rahm still has a lot of bills coming due soon.

Just What You Want The Tourists To See

Look Ma! What's that?

• Two drunken men got “superficial” cuts after fighting each other Saturday night near Buckingham Fountain in the Loop, police said.
  
  The incident happened around 10:15 p.m. in the 500 block of South Columbus Drive, according to Chicago Police Department's Office of News Affairs.
  
  The men, whose ages were not immediately available, were both intoxicated, police said. One of the men refused medical attention, and the second man walked away from the incident.
  
  Both did not file a police report, and no one was taken into custody as a result, police said.

Be sure to tell all your friends that you saw a gen-u-ine Chicago knife-fight!

3 Killed, 30 Wounded, 55 Embarrassed

A messy weekend - again:

• Three men were killed and at least 30 other people have been wounded in shootings across the city since 2 p.m. Friday.
  
  The most recent fatal shooting happened about 6:15 a.m. Saturday in the Back of the Yards neighborhood.

And the Bears got pasted by Green Bay.

UPDATE: Now it's listed as 5 dead and 43 wounded.

And the Sun Times isn't counting the double homicide by knife up north - only shootings make the weekend totals evidently.

At Least We Aren't Miami

Anyone catch this over the weekend?

• A shooting sent terrified patrons scrambling from a Miami nightclub early Sunday and left 15 people wounded, including an 11-year-old child, authorities said.
  
  When Miami police and rescue crews arrived at a club called The Spot around 1 a.m., they said they found chaos among the large throng of adults and teenagers gathered there. Rescuers found wounded people inside and outside the club, some too hurt to flee, Miami Fire Rescue Capt. Ignatius Carroll said.
  
  [...] One male was found unresponsive and not breathing when emergency responders arrived. Five girls between 11 and 17 years old also suffered gunshot wounds, Carroll said.

A nightclub for 11-year-olds? That might raise some eyebrows in Chicago...maybe...probably only for a second and only for the first time. After that, it'd be accepted as normal as everything else that happens around here.

Da Bears

Packers. Bears. Noon.

Packers favored by 1.5 and an over/under of 51.

Cops for Public Office

Someone said there are a number of cops (and firefighters) running for city office this election.

Who are they and which office are they running for? Might as well drum up some support for them here - anything they do will probably be a step up from what exists at the moment.

CompStat Returns

This past Monday, we mentioned that the evidence seemed to be mounting of a McJersey exit in the offing. Included among the "clues" was the complete lack of a CompStat meeting for a month during a stretch of shootings and homicides that boosted numbers across the board.

Guess what they had this past Thursday? A CompStat meeting! Area Central got their butts dragged through the wringer.

Can they do it two weeks in a row though?

Did You Vote Yet?

What are you waiting for?

In the meantime, someone or many someones are trying to post multiple comments about how "preliminary vote totals" show an overwhelming YES vote taking place.

Bullshit. If you've attended and observed multiple contract votes, it goes something like this:

• You vote, you seal your vote in a Secrecy Envelope, you mail it in the included envelope. You do not mark the either envelope or deface it in any way - this may void your ballot.
• The ballots are collected at a PO Box or a firm that specializes in elections. They are held there until the counting day.
• In recent years, the Lodge has allowed in-person voting the morning of the count. There is a process in place to ensure you aren't able to double vote - probably scanning the bar codes on the secrecy envelopes (hence the "don't mark anything" rule).
• The company running the election brings the ballots and machines to the Hall. The envelopes are counted and oriented. A machine counts and slices the tops of the envelopes and the secrecy ballots are extracted and scanned. Hopefully, this eliminates the ineligible voters (sergeants, retirees, etc). These envelopes are then sliced open by machine, the ballots are stacked and counted by machine in view of any interested parties.

The whole process takes a few hours. No pizza is provided but sometimes the bar is open for refreshments. It's all rather boring.

PLEASE NOTE: This may not be the exact process - thing have progressed since we observed our first vote counting - modern methods and all that. But it's close enough to get the idea.

Not Terrorist Acts

Amazing how they can determine this so quickly:

• Brian Howard, 36, of Naperville has been charged with one count of Destruction of Aircraft or Aircraft Facilities after he allegedly set a fire in the basement of an Aurora FAA facility, cut the feeds to the radar and damaged the communications system, forcing a ground stop at Chicago's O'Hare and Midway international airports, ABC7 sources said.
  
  "This is a local issue with a contract employee," Aurora Police Chief Greg Thomas said. "There is no terrorist act."

Aside from the fact that air traffic ground to a halt in the midwest for hours, over a thousand flights were canceled, tens of thousands delayed, and it might be weeks before the Aurora facility reopens, but hey - no terrorism here!

None in Oklahoma either:

• A fired Oklahoma food processing plant worker who had tried to convert some of his co-workers to Islam beheaded one co-worker and seriously injured another before the owner of the plant shot him, police said Friday. After he was terminated from Vaughan Foods in Moore, Alton Nolen, 30, drove to another part of the facility where he attacked Colleen Hufford, 54, police said. He used a “standard” knife to behead her, police said. He then allegedly used the same knife to repeatedly stab Traci Johnson, 43. Some co-workers told police that he had recently converted to Islam and had been trying to convert them.

No terrorism here! It's not being grown in US prisons, no sirree! Just your spontaneous all natural head-chopping.

A Crooked Senator?

The Machine strikes again:

• An attorney for a Chicago man charged with illegally lobbying on behalf of the Zimbabwe government alleged in federal court today that Roland Burris, while a U.S. senator, was involved in a shakedown of a businessman seeking military contracts.
  
  Burris is scheduled to be a key prosecution witness at the trial beginning next week of C. Gregory Turner, who is charged with trying to persuade U.S. government officials to push for the lifting of sanctions imposed on top Zimbabwe government officials.
  
  The allegations against Burris were contained in court papers turned over by the government on Thursday to Turner’s legal team.
  
  Turner’s attorneys did not lay out specifics of the alleged shakedown in court, but one of the lawyers, James Tunick, later told reporters following the hearing this afternoon that the businessman alleged Burris offered to promote military contracts for his business in return for being paid $250,000 a year as a financial adviser once he left the Senate.
  
  The businessman, who lives in Illinois, made the allegations against Burris in 2012, Tunick said. According to the information turned over by prosecutors, at least one other witness corroborated the allegations, according to Tunick.

Maybe Burris can have "Federal Convict" chiseled on that mausoleum he build for himself before he dies.

Proof Rahm Lied

...and McCompStat and everyone else had a finger in selling this lie to the public:

• No doubt, you've heard City Hall, certain aldermen, and the police department itself issue endless statements about Chicago having “more police on the beat” than when Rahm Emanuel took office in 2011.
  
  Well, that's not true and the police department’s own documents prove it.
  
  
  

You can click on the map for a larger version. Or read the original article and map over at the Crime in Wrigleyville and Boystown blog here.

Retirees Sue

And the Games begin:

• Chicago’s 28,000 retired city workers and their dependents are asking a federal judge to block Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to save $27 million in 2015 by raising monthly health insurance premiums by anywhere from 30 percent to 79 percent.
  
  Arguing that the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision to preserve health benefits for state retirees “substantially increased” their chances of prevailing on the merits, retirees want to compel the city to roll back monthly payments to 2013 levels.
  
  That’s when Emanuel announced plans to save $108.7 million a year by phasing out the city's 55 percent subsidy for retiree health care and forcing retirees to make the switch to Obamacare.

Remember - D E M O C R A T S are voting to fuck you right now or are actually doing the screwing as we speak. This is your future retirement - nearly 80% increases to your healthcare, a constant diminishment of benefits and court battles so you don't end up on the street.

Giant Fire

The second one in three days and both off Pulaski Road:

• No one was seriously injured in a massive fire at commercial building in Lawndale that sent heavy plumes of black smoke over the Eisenhower Expressway just before the afternoon rush, Chicago fire officials said.
  
  Huge flames shot out of the roof, where the fire is believed to have begun around 3:30 p.m., CFD spokesman Larry Langford said. Chicago Fire Department spokesperson Will Knight says the cause of the first is under investigation, but no foul play is suspected.

Firebug on the west side? Or urban renewal by flames? No firefighters hurt, so there's that good news. Another giant vacant lot born in a Ward full of vacant lots, so there's that, too.

Hey Media? Want a Scoop?

Did you know that Rahm/Garry stopped manning the Safe Passage routes with HQ police officers over a week ago?

It's true!

It's also true that someone then got shot on a Safe Passage route....a student....the first casualty ever on a Safe Passage route that wasn't covered. Look it up - maybe check out the HeyJackasss site for a clue where it was.

The obvious conclusion is that Rahm hates African-American children.

Imagine, If You Will....

Play along for a minute. We have no idea if this could happen, but going over the comments as we do every day, we began to formulate a scenario. Someone far smarter than we are might tell us if this is a possibility:

• The Contract passes;
• the city decides (along with Springfield) to raise the pension contribution from 9+% to 12%
• the FOP exercises the clause in the Contract to request reopening of the wage schedule;
• the city, of course, says "No." 

Does anyone think that the city would even think of saying yes? Please report to Random Drug immediately. Continuing:

• the Lodge files for arbitration or whatever;
• the city lawyers turn to Springfield with the argument that as the FOP has exercised a Contractual Clause in regard to the Pension, the Pension has now ceased to be regulated by State Law and is now in the realm of a Contractual Agreement. Oops.

Plausible? Possible? Probable? Again, these are ramblings over a pizza, beer and darts. We aren't lawyers or labor negotiators. But we can smell bullshit and spot a different perspective once in a while. With a hundred-plus years of police experience and a few centuries of Chicago living under our belts, we know better than to trust the Machine to ever play fair.

Opinions?

A Study in Contrasts

Scenario A - suburban Chicago:

• (HILLSIDE) A west suburban high school was temporarily placed on lockdown Wednesday afternoon after a bullet was found on the floor of the cafeteria.
  
  Police initiated the precautionary lockdown at Proviso West High School at 4701 Harrison St. in Hillside about 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, according to an alert on the School District 209 website.
  
  A single bullet was found on the floor in the cafeteria during lunch, the alert said.
  
  The lockdown has been lifted as of about 4 p.m., and one juvenile is in custody for possessing ammunition, Hillside police said.
  
  School buses have arrived and students are being dismissed.
  
  The school district said during the lockdown that no students or staff members were in any danger.

Help Us!!! A single bullet was found! Won't someone think of the children??!?!?!!??

Scenario B - New Hampshire:

• DURHAM — An upperclassman who forgot he had ammunition in his pocket caused quite a stir at Oyster River High School Thursday morning.
  
  According to Superintendent Dr. James Morse, the student was in a classroom when the bullets fell from his jacket pockets and onto the floor. He had been at a firing range practice shooting with his father Wednesday night, Morse said.
  
  The classroom teacher acted quickly and a school resource officer from the Police Department was called in, Deputy Chief Rene Kelley said.
  
  The resource officer worked with administrative staff from the school to determine there was no ill intent on the behalf of the student. Kelley said no charges will be brought against him.
  
  Morse said it is against school policy to bring ammunition onto the property, but given the nature of the case, the student will not face severe punishment.
  
  “It was truly just an accident,” Morse said.

Golly. An appropriate measured mature response. In neither case was a weapon actually on school grounds. In the A scenario however, the words "lockdown," "alert," and "custody" appear prominently. The B scenario is marked by "worked with staff," "no ill intent," and "accident." The B scenario also involved "multiple" rounds, not just a single bullet, but the response was still calm and controlled.

Amazing, isn't it?

Rumor - Unit Reps Didn't Vote?

This is a rumor that ought to be addressed by someone - the FOP, the Trustees, the Unit Reps, anyone who went to the meeting. Again, this is a RUMOR. We cannot confirm it but it popped up in our comment section and should be quashed immediately or addressed appropriately.

Can someone verify if this is true or not? Did something change?

• At the general meeting Dean was asked if the Unit Rep's had voted on the agreement. He said he didn't know. Several Unit Rep's in attendance shouted out that they hadn't. I have now learned from talking to several reps that no vote was taken. Per our By-Laws(Article 5 Section 3 -page 8)the Unit Rep's are to vote on this before the Board of Director's does. That didn't happen. Also there was no quorum at the Board meeting when the directors voted on this. How could this go out for a vote?  

We looked up the By-Laws - here is the pertinent section:

• Section 3. It shall be a duty of the Unit Representatives to review any negotiated agreement and to vote for or against the adoption of said agreement, this vote shall be advisory only to the Board of Directors to assist the Board of Directors in their decision to recommend the ratification of said collective bargaining agreement to the membership or a return of the negotiated agreement to the bargaining committee for further negotiation. 

We can imagine one scenario where this wouldn't have occurred - the Board would probably have had to vote to waive the Unit Rep review step. It's an advisory step only, but why keep it secret from the Unit Reps? These are supposed to be the go-betweens for the Board and the Officers....Unit Representatives...get it? If the Board skipped this step, there ought to be a very good reason for it. We don't recall anything in the newsletter or on the website.

Ballot Problems

Quite a few popping up in the comment sections. We aren't picking on the FOP per se here, but this rush to pass a Contract only magnifies what would usually be minor errors:

• Sergeants are getting ballots - so are retirees?

It would seem that no one ran an actual active duty roster in the days leading up to the ballots being printed. The last sergeant class was months ago and there are guys retiring every day. You think it would be incumbent upon the FOP to have the latest list of active duty personnel to mail out ballots properly - especially for such a contentious vote. Guess not.

• "Propaganda" included with the ballot?

We got this complaint:

• ...the letter included in the ballot package. It seems as though our representatives at FOP are in a "rush" to get this done and over with. Furthermore, the writer does not hide their support for this contract and even attempts to steer the members to vote yes. That is inappropriate and points should be made stating the positives and the negatives for the members to understand so that we may be able to make a informed decision.

There's a time and a place for this - the newsletter, the website, the meetings, the district/unit visits. In the ballot mailing though? No.

• The "propaganda" has a glaring error?

Everything we've seen up until now has 11% as the offered monetary raise. Commentators are saying that it's listed as 14% in the ballot? And finally:

• How come the ballots are in the mail and we are supposed to vote and the last word the FOP President said about Tier 1 and Tier 2 hospitals is "We will get the information regarding which hospital is on which list to the membership as soon as we (FOP) get it?" How do they recommend a contract for vote and neither they nor we have the complete list of Tier 1 and 2 hospitals?

You see, you have to vote FOR the contract to see what's IN the contract. They must have learned that one from Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Obama. It's the new normal you know - trust them, they know what's best for you.

More Help?

But....we're up to strength, aren't we? That's what we keep hearing. But the sheriff has police helping out, the ISP has troopers helping out, ATF sent extra agents and now the feebs want to get in on the act:

• Sneed has learned that the feds plan to dispatch 65 FBI agents to the streets in high-crime areas on the South and West Sides in an all-out battle against gang crime.
  
  The 65 feds are part of a group of 100 Chicago agents already assigned to curb gang and violent crimes.
  
  “This is a new tactic the FBI is using in fighting crime,” an FBI spokeswoman said, “by working in a concentrated area and a concentrated time on the street — although the FBI has been working hand in hand and day in and day out with the police department."
  
  A top police source tells Sneed the FBI agents, who will be working in tandem with the Chicago Police Department, will be assigned to do gang suppression missions on Thursdays and Fridays for at least the next three to four weeks.
  
  “It’s mind-boggling,” the top police source said. “It’s almost unheard of.”
  
  “I thought the mayor and the police superintendent had said they don’t need more police on the streets,” the source added.

This on the heels of the ISP announcing that they're sticking around twice as long as anticipated:

• Forty state troopers — dressed in plainclothes and riding alongside Chicago Police officers in unmarked Chicago Police Department vehicles — will start serving fugitive warrants Thursday, under a partnership that could last for 60 days, twice as long as originally planned.
  
  The troopers will be assigned to overlapping, ten-hour shifts — starting at 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. — in four high crime Chicago Police districts: Englewood, Austin, Calumet and Gresham.
  
  Sources said the troopers will be housed in an undisclosed suburban motel during a 30-day deployment that could double if the partnership succeeds in getting known criminals off the street.

Great - so now we're paying to house the troopers, too? How much is that costing Illinois taxpayers? How much is being sucked out of the trooper budget for this? How many ISP squad cars could this have bought?

Decriminalize EVERYTHING!

We quoted McCarthy a few days ago when he complained that criminals who shouldn't even be on the street, are out committing crimes with astounding regularity. We pointed out that if there are no penalties, criminals will almost invariably re-offend.

Guess what Rahm wants?

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel today called on the General Assembly to decriminalize marijuana possession statewide and to reduce the penalty to a misdemeanor for those caught with 1 gram or less of any controlled substance.
  
  During 90 minutes of testimony before the House-Senate Joint Criminal Reform Committee in Chicago, Emanuel encouraged lawmakers to challenge the “assumptions that are embedded in the criminal justice system.” The mayor argued that reducing the penalties for minor drug possession would allow the city and state to focus their efforts on more violent crime.
  
  “It’s time, in my view, to free up our criminal justice system to address our real public safety challenges and build on the progress that has been made,” Emanuel said.

Way to pander Rahm! Maybe next we could lower the threshold for Burglary - you can have one Weber BBQ Kettle and one car radio before felony charges kick in. Drop the dollar total for Theft, too. Everything becomes Theft of Lost/Mislaid Property, even if that property was "mislaid" in your locked garage.

Ballots Arriving

The Contract ballots are arriving, which is odd, because when the FOP came to our part of town to give the contract spiel a couple weeks ago, they told us that they still had to print out the City's proposals and then go over it line-by-line to ensure that there weren't any "alterations" by the City that might affect the final product. We were assured this would take at least a couple months, which sounded about right.

Now, the ballots are arriving and have to be back by 16 October - and the latest (or last) info meeting was just held five hours ago? A little jumping the gun there? This calls to mind a comment from a few days ago regarding the informational meetings:

• FLOP getting pissed said...
  
  Dean Jr. was running his mouth and let the cat out of the bag tonight after the Northside town hall meeting. Said ballots for the vote on the contract were ready to go out last week but the labor attorneys strongly urged Dean Sr. to hold off on mailing them out after they saw how much members are ripping it to shreds on "that G-d damned blog". Also, they werent happy with how members reacted at yesterday's FOP meeting and especially after the cold reception they got tonight trying to sell this stinker of a contract. They're very nervous and scrambling because no one is buying the story they're selling us. That's why they picked the Southside location that they did. It's a small joint and won't hold too many angry coppers. Dean Jr. also got visibly angry and said how 'that fuckin' SCC is fucking things up for my Pops'.

Again, this brings us back to the opening paragraph above - it seems like there is a big push to "get this done." Sorry, but these informational meetings should have been scheduled first thing. As soon as the Contract was ratified by the FOP Committee in fact. Waiting until the FOP meeting? Almost half the Department couldn't make a third watch meeting and the fact that it ran FOUR HOURS means First Watch couldn't stay. It also tells you that there are issues to hammer out among the membership.

As for "that G-d damned blog" and "that fuckin' SCC [...] fucking this up for my Pops," that isn't our doing. That's a failure of leadership to sell this thing to the members. That means questions aren't getting answered to the satisfaction of those asking. This is a forum. Read everything we've written over the past two weeks. We have ventured NO opinion on the Contract. We have told NO ONE how to vote. We've highlighted a couple of questions that people posed and we felt deserved more answers. We've pointed out the perceived "rush" that many many other commentators brought to our attention. That isn't "fucking things up" - that's attempting to make the membership take an active interest in something that is going to affect them for the rest of their careers, maybe beyond.

The president has his newsletter article up early on the FOP website. It heaps compliments on the involved parties and brags of the accomplishments contained within the agreement. Rah rah rah. We'll close with reminding everyone to vote. Keep asking questions, read the opinions here and elsewhere, talk to your co-workers, and vote.

Read the Fine Print!

Good stuff:

Pedal powered for extra green-ness!

Gulags of America

Remember the "tolerant left"?

• When Gawker’s Adam Weinstein wrote of his desire to imprison people who disagree with him politically, publishing an essay under the very straightforward headline “Arrest Climate-Change Deniers,” I noted that this was part of the Left’s ongoing, worrisome drift toward authoritarianism. The response was nearly unanimous: that it was unfair to tar the entire Left with the views of one knucklehead writing for Gawker, a man who should not be taken seriously writing for an outlet that should not be taken seriously. While I am sympathetic to that line of argument, the fact is that as a practical matter we do have to take all sorts of foolish and backward people and institutions seriously.
  
  Now that the would-be gulag warden is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., speaking to what everybody loudly assures me was a cheering throng of historic proportions, what will they say? That the world’s largest climate-change march, and those who participated in it, are insignificant? Mr. Kennedy, who has been kept out of one of New York’s Senate seats only by happy circumstance, says that he believes his opponents to be guilty of “treason” — his word — and wants them convicted of crimes — “They ought to be serving time,” he says.

RFK Jr gave this speech just this past weekend at the Climate Change Summit in New York City. Three-hundred-thousand applauded and cheered. Jailing dissenters, people with different opinions and interpretations. How very banana-republic of him.

Chicago Getting a Bad Rap

A bad rap from Chicagoans:

• Two-thirds of Chicago-area residents would stay in the Chicagoland area, even if money were no object, according to a new poll from Charles Schwab.
  
  That’s despite the fact that about three-quarters of Chicagoans rate the metropolitan area as “one of the worst” in the country in terms of crime and tax rates.
  
  >The Charles Schwab poll, “The View from Chicago,” was conducted with a representative sample of 1,000 Chicago-area residents, ages 21-75.
  
  Chicagoans rated their city highest on diversity, innovation, and opportunities for young professionals. They rated the region lowest as a place to raise a family, get an education, and retire.

More at the link.

So What?

Once again, the media being all dramatic:

• The 42-year-old Army veteran who scaled the White House fence Friday and got through the presidential residence's front doors had 800 rounds of ammunition in his car, prosecutors said in court Monday.
  
  Omar J. Gonzalez was ordered held without bond Monday, pending an Oct. 1 detention hearing, after prosecutors argued he was a flight risk -- he is facing felony weapons charges in Wythe County, Virginia.
  
  Federal prosecutor said Monday in court that Gonzalez had had a map with the White House circled during that incident.

Dude has problems. Everyone, from his friends to his ex-wife, all verify that he has major issues related to PTSD while overseas. He needs help, and lots of it. But instead of concentrating on that aspect of it, the headline literally screams, "He Had 800 Rounds in the Car!" But he didn't drive the car into the White House. He didn't have the rounds on him while trespassing (he had a pocket knife). If you read the article, there isn't even a mention of a gun being on scene. So what's he going to do? Throw the ammo people?

How about they get this guy some help, enforce the existing laws so he can't get a gun or ammo, maybe build the White House fence a little higher (or make a trench), get the Secret Service some caffeine and lock the front door?

McCarthy Out?

Adding the evidence together and it certainly looks like he's leaving shortly:

• Exhibit #1 - there hasn't been a CompStat meeting for a month now.

He's in town, he's been seen here and there, he's been quoted in the paper. But his favorite pastime of belittling and humiliating the Command Staff has ceased to be for the past four weeks.

• Exhibit #2 - Candlelight Vigil. McCarthy sat by himself and none of the regular sycophants approached him at all, instead congregating in their own little herd and studiously ignoring the Supe.

That is very telling - not needing to impress or be noticed by the boss because he's not really in charge any more. That's very typical Chicago - the guy on the chopping block is usually the last to know. Or knows and is just going through the motions for a hefty paycheck.

• Exhibit #3 - Election time. Rahm needs votes. Shaking things up will produce the illusion of change and Rahm can say, "Look what I'm doing!" and there are enough stupid people that will believe he's actually changing things. 

Put all of this into the bozo-puter and we'll set the over/under for a change at the top at early November - call it Election Day when the national and state races are over and Rahm's race really begins.

Police Limit

Short and simple (click for larger versions):

Something our readers have been talking about for years

And this one just made us laugh:

Weekend Numbers

Only two dead, but nearly thirty wounded, in keeping with the HeyJackass.com motto of "More Lead, Less Dead:"

• Two people have been killed and at least 29 others wounded in weekend Chicago shootings on the last weekend of summer.
  
  The weekend’s first homicide took place around 4:10 a.m. Saturday in the city’s West Garfield Park neighborhood, in the same block where three others, including a 12-year-old boy, had been shot late Friday night.
  
  
• Just before 7 p.m. Saturday, a 21-year-old man was fatally shot while driving on the city’s Northwest Side.
  
  Police were flagged down in the 3300 block of West Chicago Avenue and discovered a 21-year-old man had been shot in the chest in the 3900 block of West Ferdinand Street. The man was transported to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition but was later pronounced dead.

Does anyone at NBC even look at a map? Northwest side? It's 011....in fact, both homicides were in 011 if we're reading this map correctly. Still, thirty-one shot isn't a bad showing for the last weekend of summer.

Hahaha

Self defense works - even if it's a knife:

• A Chicago man has died after he was stabbed by a man who he and several others tried to rob on Friday, officials said.
  
  Dimitre Beck, of the 7300 block of South Peoria Street, was pronounced dead at 2:46 a.m. Saturday, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. An autopsy conducted today determined that Beck died of multiple stab wounds at Advocate Christ Medical Center and his death was ruled a homicide, according to the office. The office said he was 21, while police said he was 22.
  
  According to police, Beck was with a group of people at about 10 p.m. when they approached a male on the 7300 block of South Halsted Street and attempted to rob him, said Chicago Police News Affairs [...]. As Beck and the others began beating the victim who attempted to resist the robbery, Sweeney said. The victim fell to the ground and at that point the victim took out an "edged instrument, possibly a knife" and stabbed Beck before running off, police said.
  
  The others fled when they saw the weapon, police said.
  
  Police continue to investigate.

The article doesn't say the victim stuck around after doing society a service. We certainly hope the focus of the investigation is to present the victim with a Certificate of Achievement, a medal, and a key to the city.

Friday Night Mayhem

At least 2 dead and 16 wounded according to this article:

• Two people were shot to death and at least 16 other people have been wounded in weekend shootings across the city, police said.
  
  The most recent fatal shooting happened Saturday evening in the Humboldt Park neighborhood.

And the Tribune seems behind the tallies - 1 dead and fourteen wounded. But scanning the Tribune, it looks like not a single person over the age of 37 managed to catch any lead. A 12-year-old, a couple 15-year-olds, your usual number of fools between 18 and 25 and a few outliers in their 30's.

The juveniles were out after curfew when they got shot and reports from 011 are that their fatal was Contact Carded at the scene of a previous shooting before becoming a statistic himself 4 hours later.

Jets Favored by 3 Monday Night

Sure it's a day early - but we didn't have much to write about.

Open sports post - the Blackhawks opened training camp in South Bend this past week.

A New Week, A New Contract Post

Open post for Contract debate.

Airport Again?

Bid openings posted today:

• 004 - 10 openings
• 005 - 5
• 006 - 5
• 008 - 8
• 009 - 3
• 016 - 5
• 017 - 5
• 019 - 8
• 024 - 2
• 050 - 7 openings
• 051 - 3 openings

Gee, it's almost like someone from the Federal government asked how the millions of dollars they sent Rahm for transportation security were being spent and no one had a good answer, especially as the Airports were 40 or more people short.

And since the Airports are 50% bid and 50% management now, should everyone be making those phone calls?

Another Great Reason to Shoot Someone

Anyone shocked anymore?

• Four reputed gang members have been charged in the fatal shooting of an innocent 9-year-old boy, apparently gunned down because they thought he was shouting a warning to two rival gang members, police said.
  
  "This didn't have to happen," Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said at a news conference Friday afternoon to announce charges in last month's slaying of Antonio Smith, the youngest victim killed in gun violence in Chicago this year.

Garry then says something stupid:

• McCarthy said the gun used to kill Antonio had been used in other shootings. "Chicago's murder problem is a gun problem," he said. "It's too easy to get a firearm."

Then he starts making some sense again:

• Allmon had just gotten out of jail in August after serving 18 months of a 3 1/2-year sentence on a weapons charge, according to McCarthy.
  
  "He should not have been on the street to commit this murder," McCarthy said. "The real kicker to this entire case is that it didn’t have to happen."

Gee Gar - you ever think that there might be a correlation between those two thoughts? You seem intelligent at moments - more intelligent than some of Rahm's handlers give you credit for. Plus, you used to be a cop of sorts...a cop with a golden ticket, but you must have met actual cops at some point. If a criminal has little-to-no-fear of CONSEQUENCES, then he's going to...

Going to...

Come on now...going to...

Repeat? Re-offend? Keep doing the same damn thing over and over? Eighteen months on a gun charge is a fucking vacation from the mayhem of the south side. This guy probably welcomed the break.

Oh, and can we assume that he legally and properly bought the gun at a shop with his FOID card and took the classes and got his license to carry? Because you don't mention how the gun got into his hands otherwise - you know, like a ... a criminal act or something, seeing as how he already had weapon convictions in his background and was therefore ineligible to own a gun

We Got Nothing

Another in a long line of scandals comes to a close:

• A veteran Chicago cop has been fired, after a run-in with a cab driver five years ago.
  
  Karl Clermont recalls the booze-fueled encounter he had with an off-duty Chicago police detective in April 2009. He drove the man he says was obviously drunk to Armitage and Damen.
  
  The passenger left the cab and refused to pay the eight dollar fare.
  
  “So he goes like he’s going in his pocket and I think now he’s going to pay me,” Clermont says. “He pulls out a weapon and draws it at me directly and says to me, ‘You choose. Either I don’t owe you (expletive) or you get out of the car and see what happens.”

Compare that to today's other story in the paper:

• Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said Friday Grand Crossing residents want him to reinstate their indicted former district Cmdr. Glenn Evans and he would consider it if Evans is exonerated.
  
  One day after Evans was formally indicted on aggravated battery and official misconduct charges, McCarthy talked about the impressive show of support that one of his most trusted commanders received at Thursday night’s Police Board hearing.
  
  “There was 20 or 30 people who came. They presented a petition in support of Commander Evans while at the same time saying, 'Look, we’re not even addressing the allegation. We’re just talking to you about the character' “ of the man, the superintendent said during a taping of, “Connected to Chicago,” to be broadcast at 2 p.m. Saturday on WLS-AM Radio (890).
  
  “That was really telling because it’s the same group of people that, when I moved him from the 3^rd District to the 11^th District, came out to the Police Board meeting and protested….I complimented them. It’s easy for people to come and complain. When people come in support of somebody, it’s really telling. Commander Evans does have widespread support in the community because he’s one of the hardest-working people we have.”

You have to go in five paragraphs to find this:

• McCarthy stressed that, if true, the charges against Evans are “obviously reprehensible and intolerable in a police agency.” But he also condemned the rush to judgment by the news media.
  
  “Everybody has Glenn Evans as guilty right now,” McCarthy said.

Nobody "has [him] guilty" Garry. The outrage in the media is that he was left in place while under investigation, a privilege granted to only the favored few. But these expressions of support and outright praise are kind of creepy for a guy under indictment for behavior out of a crime fiction novel. The message we're hearing is, "The ends justify the means." That's a dangerous message...and a slippery slope.

Justice of a Sort

In a roundabout way:

• Jason “J. Rock” Austin thought he got away with murder, authorities said.
  
  But six years after prosecutors dropped state charges that he’d gunned down an off-duty Chicago cop and his female friend, the 32-year-old drug dealer was finally held to account Thursday in federal court.
  
  Saying it was “very likely” Austin had killed Det. Robert Soto and social worker Kathryn Romberg on the West Side in 2008, U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow sentenced the high ranking Travelling Vice Lord to 35 years in prison.
  
  “You destroyed two innocent lives and deprived their families of their loved ones, deprived children of their parents, friends of their friends,” Lefkow told Austin in front of a courtroom packed with police officers and relatives of Soto and Romberg.
  
  Though they’d had asked for a life sentence, the 35-year term was a triumph for authorities. They in 2008 had failed to convict Austin of the murders after multiple witnesses recanted, but over the course of a week long hearing earlier this month, convinced Lefkow to take the slayings into account when she sentenced Austin for a drug conspiracy.

Expect appeals. Federal time is over 80% if we aren't mistaken...maybe 85% minimum? It's 27 years or so he won't see the streets. This miserable fuck and his scumbags torpedoed the original investigation via threats and intimidation. He was proven to be a community scourge in the worst way at trial and ruined untold hundreds, maybe thousands of lives. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Nice to be Connected

How much time would you or we have gotten?

• Gene Lee, a onetime top aide to former Mayor Richard Daley, has been a fixture in the civic life of Chicago’s Chinatown for more than four decades.
  
  He organized the bustling neighborhood’s annual summer fair, marshaled resources for Chinese culture and the arts, and founded the Chicago Dragons Athletic Association, a sponsor of youth and adult basketball and traditional dancing and music credited with keeping underprivileged children off the streets.
  
  But while Lee, 65, was busy promoting Chinatown, he was also stealing from the charities that were supposed to help the community, federal prosecutors say.
  
  On Thursday, Lee was sentenced to five years of probation for stealing more than $90,000 from 2007 to 2010 and using much of it to pay for personal expenses such as suits, ties, travel and meals at fancy restaurants. The conviction -- Lee pleaded guilty in April to theft and filing a false tax return -- had nothing to do with his duties as a deputy chief of staff to Daley.

Hell, how much time did Blago get? And he never sniffed a dime.

You Have a Funny Story?

Can you turn it into an act?

• On Tuesday, September 30th, you have the right to remain laughing AGAIN! After the success of last year’s competition, Laugh Factory is once again inviting the police officers of The City of Chicago to try their hands at standup comedy! They may be known for their service and bravery, but how will these civil servants stack up this year at Laugh Patrol - a competition to find the funniest police officer in the Windy City!
  
  Laugh Patrol is a night of "all-cop comedy" which will be open to Chicago's finest in all 23 districts, and is hosted by comedy legend Tom Dreesen (The Tonight Show).
  
  During the evening, a dozen Chicago police officers--along with Fr. Dan Brandt and Rabbi Moshe Wolf from the CPD Chaplains Unit--will have 3-5 minutes on Laugh Factory’s world famous stage to serve up some laughs for the community. All of the night's proceeds will go towards the 100 Club of Chicago, providing for the families of law enforcement officers and firefighters killed in the line of duty. Contestants will be judged by a panel of professionals, and prizes will be awarded.
  
  To see last year's show again, click here, then on the link: www.ChicagoPCM.org

Some of the cutups at roll call ought to give it a try.

Second Arrest in Retiree Slaying

The investigation proceeds:

• A 16-year-old Indiana boy was ordered held without bond Wednesday for his alleged role in the murder of an elderly retired Chicago Police sergeant.
  
  While his mother sat next to him, Jeremy Mendez admitted to detectives that he forced himself into 73-year-old Elmer Brown’s home the night of the incident last spring, Cook County prosecutors said.
  
  Jesse Kazmierski, of Hammond, Ind., was charged with the deadly home invasion earlier this month. He also is being held without bond and is awaiting trial at Cook County Jail.

And more news:

• Chicago Police officials said Wednesday they are waiting to extradite the third suspect from Indiana.

Hopefully, we find out what gave these savages the info on a safe and a quantity of money that led to the home invasion and murder.

Open Post for Contract Stuff

FOP has had a couple "townhall" type meetings. We want to keep this at the forefront of everyone's minds, so here you go.

Traveling Bank Robber

This guy popped up in a DOC Bulletin. Turns out, he has his own website.

Well, it isn't his actually. It's the Chino California PD's site. But he's the featured player and he's moved out from the west coast and was last reported in Nebraska heading eastward:

He seems to have moved down to small towns with smaller police forces, but you never know.

Most Dangerous

Once again:

• It boasts President Obama as its son, features a swaggering mayor in former Obama aide Rahm Emanuel and cheers for the 2013 Stanley Cup winners, the Blackhawks.
  
  But America views Chicago as something different — America’s most dangerous city.
  
  In the latest YouGov.com poll, Chicago tops Los Angeles and New York, with 53 percent of Americans saying that the city is “unsafe” to 33 percent who call it “safe.”
  
  New York was called “the second most dangerous,” followed by Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
  
  Texas' major cities of Dallas and Houston were called the safest.

Not like this isn't a surprise to anyone paying attention - but crime is down!

Sniper in PA

Identified after killing one trooper, wounding a second and missing a third:

• The suspect in the shooting of two Pennsylvania state troopers is a sharpshooting survivalist who specifically targeted cops and was out for mass murder, authorities said.
  
  He's a skilled shooter who "doesn't miss," his father, a retired U.S. Army Major, told police. The father also told police that he was missing two weapons, a .308 rifle with a scope and an AK-47, according to court documents released today.
  
  Suspect Eric Matthew Frein, 31, from Canadensis, Pa., practices survivalism -- the ability to survive without the help of government or society, and often storing food and guns, Pennsylvania police said today. Police who searched his home found a copy of a book entitled Sniper Training and Employment, according to the court documents.

Nightmare scenario. Bless the fallen and wounded and may the powers-that-be watch over everyone hunting/pursuing this offender.

Maybe.....More Cops?

We wonder if anyone has looked into the possibility of hiring more police:

• A fatal shooting in Uptown this week is fueling concerns about gang violence in the North Side neighborhood, with the alderman calling on police to step up patrols.
  
  Christopher McGee, 22, was shot in the chest around 11 a.m. Monday a block north of his home in the 4400 block of North Magnolia Avenue, authorities said. McGee was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in critical condition, where he was later pronounced dead, according to officials.
  
  The shooting marks Uptown's third homicide of the year, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Gee aldercreature, we'd love to "step up patrols." Only there's nobody to do the steppin'. Rahm and Garry have been stealing cops from your neighborhood to patrol the crappy 'hoods. And guess what? The crappy hoods are still crappy and a bunch of the crappy-ness is moving to the less patrolled areas! Who wouldn't thunk it? Besides us we mean - we've only been sounding this alarm for years now.

Thank goodness downtown is safe from the mayhem:

• A high-end fashion boutique in the Gold Coast neighborhood was the scene of a dramatic burglary early Monday morning.
  
  Police say the burglary occurred around 3:45 a.m. and they believe three vehicles were involved, with one being used to drive into the storefront. The team of thieves then grabbed three to four racks of expensive clothing and left in less than a minute.
  
  In video shot soon after the heist some fur products that apparently were dropped and left behind could be seen on the floor of the Milan based high-end boutique.
  
  [...] It’s not the first time there have been smash and grab burglaries around the Mag Mile recently.
  
  Just three weeks ago, a batch of cell phones was taken from the Best Buy at the John Hancock Center after windows were smashed to get inside and in in April, thieves used a similar m.o. to hit the Saint Laurent Paris store on Walton getting away with hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Oh. Maybe they're not so safe after all. Maybe, just maybe, they need more police, too? Those "entertainment" details can't be everywhere we guess.

Illinois Sucks

Run by corrupt politicians:

• SPRINGFIELD -- A new subpoena seeking records about Gov. Pat Quinn's botched 2010 anti-violence program has been issued, this time from a federal grand jury based in Chicago.
  
  The request marks the first subpoena issued by Chicago-based federal authorities in the probe into Quinn's $54.5 million Neighborhood Recovery Initiative. Numerous prior subpoenas had come from federal authorities in Springfield.
  
  The federal grand jury in Springfield has subpoenaed emails from the governor's former chief of staff, Jack Lavin, and several others heavily involved in implementing the program.

...taxed beyond reasonableness:

• The next time you complain about taxes in Illinois, take some comfort in knowing your complaining is justified — at least according to a new report on the fairness of tax systems across the U.S.
  
  The study from Wallethub focused on federal tax policy and analyzed and ranked each state based on the fairness of its state and local tax system, which included income taxes, property taxes and sales and excise taxes.
  
  Where does Illinois fall? No. 47. Arkansas, Hawaii and Washington are the only states with more unfair tax structures.
  

...and in a nonexistent recovery:

• Among the many metrics that show Obama's home state is struggling to break the Great Recession, a new report shows that applications for food stamps in Illinois is greater than its creation of jobs.
  
  Illinois has had the worst recovery from the recession of any state in the country, the Illinois Policy Institute reported this month "There are nearly 300,000 fewer Illinoisans working today than in January 2008, and 170,000 fewer payroll jobs. "
  
  "For every post-recession job created in Illinois, nearly two people have enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps," the Institute wrote. “In the recession era, the number of Illinoisans dependent on food stamps has risen by 745,000."

And democrats still hold a lead in every major political race this year?

A Good Point

(We read a comment that really made us think today - it's buried somewhere, so we can't quote exactly, but this is the thought it provoked in a lengthy roll call/squad car conversation)

Retro.

Former president Shields fucked up. Whether by accident or design, he failed to send in the letter to commence negotiations. Every other negotiating party did, but not FOP. There were plenty of people who could have (and might have) told him that the letter had to be sent. Certain persons insist they were never told, other persons insist that they told Shields and he ignored them. As a result, charges were hurled back-and-forth, grievances were filed and the FOP lost each and every one of them. Retro for 2012-2013 was gone.

Now it's back?

Sorry, something doesn't make sense here. Pardon our doubt, but Rahm isn't that kindly. He knows cops aren't going to vote for him. He knows the teachers are a lost cause. Firefighters have no great love for him. So why reward the cops with retro that they had already lost? Rahm is a political animal - emphasis on the "animal" part of that. He doesn't fight something tooth-and-nail, have his spokes-weasels say "the cops are going to have to give up something big" to get retro, and then after he wins every battle, just give it back.

Something is rotten in Denmark and the noises coming out of various labor entities pushing "retro retro retro" bring to mind the bad old days of Bill Nolan telling everyone, "Enjoy your retro!" as if that made up for the massive screwing we got in the 1990's contracts. And guess who Nolan's Chairman of the Board of Trustees was during those years? If you said, "Dean Angelo," pat yourself on the back.

Is This an Option?

This popped up in the comments:

• Why the City of Chicago is even involved in our medical benefits? We have 12,000 active members, 5,000 retires and how many dependents? Why can’t the FOP handle our medical benefits? The plus side would be the City can no longer use medical benefits as a contract negation point tied to any other parts of the contract, also we could no longer use the City of Chicago Benefits Management Division and deal directly with a real company and or a health insurance broker. Why do I have to call the City if I have problem with Blue Cross and not call Blue Cross directly? I would pay more for insurance if retires had free health care, because we are all going to be there someday. It’s a benefit for members that should be controlled by members not the City.
  
  I'm glad you brought this up. I have been working on an alternative insurance plan for our retirees anticipating something like this would happen. Hope to have something soon. Stay tuned.
  
  Kevin Kilmer
  Financial Secrerary [sic]
  Fraternal Order of Police.

We recall a similar proposal years ago....we think it was referred to as the "Philadelphia Plan" where their bargaining agent actually ran the health care system, eliminating dozens, maybe hundreds of nonsense city jobs and kept it in house at a huge savings.

It might be time to revisit this suggestion and cut Rahm (and the city patronage jobs) out of the equation entirely.

Farewell Officer Schultz

Farewell Brother:

• MERRILLVILLE — Images of Merrillville Police Officer Nickolaus “Nick” Schultz flickered past on the screen at the Star Plaza Theatre — as an apple-cheeked toddler playing in the bathtub, a boy preparing to launch a throw in a Little League game, a teen excelling at football, hockey and golf, hanging out with family, friends and his girlfriend, and celebrating graduation with a cigar.
  
  A picture of him in his Franklin College football jersey graced the stage alongside his Merrillville Police dress uniform, mementos and a bevy of flowers.
  
  All of it was a reminder of a life that ended far too soon.

A sizable city, county, suburban and state presence from this side of the border. Thoughts and prayers to our Indiana brethren who have been having a very rough time of it.

Explain Please

From the Comment Section:

• My Two Cents said...
  A few quick points why I and everyone I know will be voting NO. This is referencing the literature FLOP posted on their website:
  
  Section 2 - Wages, Section D. "Pension Legislation Reopener":
  
  says the Lodge "can" reopen the Agreement and renegotiate salary, percentage increases and duty availability pay. Doesn't say they "WILL" or that they "HAVE TO". If/when we wind up exceeding 9% of our pay for our pension, watch for them (FLOP) to say something along the lines of "the city ain't gonna budge and it ain't worth fighting/going to arbitration".
  
  THE PENSION IS A STATE ISSUE AND SHOULD NOT BE INCLUDED IN ANYTHING RELATED TO THE CITY / OUR CONTRACT.
  
  Section 3 - Duty Availability Allowance
  
  The fact that they want to keep new hires after 01 Jan 15 from duty availability pay for 3 1/2 years is total bullshit. These kids are the first ones to have to be 'available' for the worst of assignments via reverse seniority. They do the same job we all do, they shouldn't have to lose this perk. PLUS THIS IS PENSIONABLE, SO THIS 'TEMPORARY' LOSS ACTUALLY EQUATES TO MUCH MORE THAN APPROX $10K.
  
  Section 10 - Time Due
  
  States in part: "Accordingly, for officers assigned to District Law Enforcement" and "approval of which shall not be unreasonably denied".
  
  A) This language suggests that people in units and detectives won't have any recourse when denied the use of elective time
  B) Define "unreasonably" until the "minimum set percentage" of officers allowed off on any given day is established
  
  Section 11 - Police Department Vehicles
  
  Should have NEVER been a contract proposal since the employer has to provide us with the tools necessary to do our jobs. Says city "intends" to purchase 400 cars by years end and an average of 200 for each additional year of contract. Also says how city and FLOP will form a committee regarding repair, maintainance and mandatory retirement of vehicles.
  
  A) Are there repercussions if they DON'T buy those cars? "Intends" is doublespeak for "NOT mandated".
  B) How about ensuring any new cars bought first go to PATROL AT THE DISTRICT LEVEL. NO UNITS, HOUSE MICE OR BOSSES GETTING THE NEW CARS WHILE WE GET HAND-ME-DOWNS.
  
  Oh yeah, the 11 percent over 5 years is an insult. Especially since, by Rahm and Garry's own repeated admission, crime is at record lows across the board (sans agg batts with firearms). You can't justify paying teachers, streets and sanitation folks and every city labor union employee from window washer to painter a higher percentage in wage increases than first responders.

Anyone from FOP want to address these specific concerns?

Dealbreaker?

Someone want to address this?

• For officers getting ready to vote on the new contract, please be aware of the 2-tier provision RE hospitals. Certain hospitals are listed as tier 1 hospitals. Costs for treatment at these hospitals will be paid at 90/10%. Hospitals NOT on the list will be considered tier 2 hospitals. Costs for treatment at these hospitals will be paid at 75/25%. I am told there are NO Advocate hospitals on the tier 1 list. That means Christ, Illinois Masonic, Lutheran General and Trinity (among others) will cost you 25% of the bill instead of 10%. This means that any hospital services incurred while traveling will cost you 25% of the bill instead of 10%. I am not asking anyone to vote 'yes' or 'no' on the contract. I just want everyone to be aware of one of the lesser talked about provisions of the new contract.

We don't know about anyone else, but this is going to end up having an impact on more than a few health care decisions we make in the future - St. Roger isn't an option we were even remotely considering.

Is there a full list floating around? That "death panel" rhetoric in the last election isn't looking so far-fetched anymore, is it?

Hey FBI....

....this might be an interesting investigation:

• A deal involving the federal government’s most expensive lease in Chicago produced millions of dollars in profits for a development group that included Penny Pritzker, a top campaign fund-raiser for President Barack Obama who is now his commerce secretary, a Chicago Sun-Times / Better Government Association investigation has found.
  
  The developers also included Jack Higgins, a friend and political backer of former Mayor Richard M. Daley.
  
  Over the 14-year term of the lease, the government will pay $280 million in rent and operating expenses for the Near West Side property, which houses the FBI’s Chicago headquarters.
  
  That’s more than double what it cost to build the complex at 2111 W. Roosevelt Rd., which opened in 2006, records show.

Didn't the FBI have something like three or four separate task forces investigating public corruption in Chicago? New York City had one and so did Los Angeles. Even New Jersey had one for the whole state, but Chicago had at least three. And there they are in a building paying rent to the Pritzkers and Higgins that will net their families untold millions.

Evidently, the feebs have zero shame and no sense of irony.

Dangerous Highways

North and south:

• Shootings on two area expressways left two young men wounded overnight, according to police.
  
  A 24-year-old man was shot during a chase between two cars heading south on the Dan Ryan Expressway about 3:15 a.m. Sunday, according to police.
  
  The 24-year-old suffered a leg wound and was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center, where his condition stabilized, police said.
  
  A witness saw two cars speeding down the highway and then gunfire, police said. The man was dropped off by his friends at 79th Street just above the expressway in the Chatham neighborhood on the South Side.
  
  Earlier, about 1 a.m. Sunday, a young man whose age wasn't available was shot on the Kennedy Expressway near Armitage Avenue in the Bucktown neighborhood on the North Side. Police shut the outbound lanes to search for evidence.
  
  The man was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in good condition.

Must be the Troopers' fault since we don't patrol the highways. McCompStat probably won't count these either since we aren't there.

Church Isn't Safe Either

But seeing how every other building in that part of town is a "church," this isn't surprising:

• As the pastor and several other members of the One Way M.B. Church in the city's North Lawndale neighborhood were enjoying lunch Sunday afternoon, they were interrupted when shots rang out on the other side of the small brick building.
  
  Outside of the church, a 28-year-old man lay critically injured on the sidewalk in the 4100 block of West 16th Street on the West Side, one of at least three victims of shootings and a stabbing on the South and West sides of the city. The man later died, according to police.

Maybe more churches would slow down the bloodshed? It'd give everyone something solid to hide behind at least.

Officer Hit by Car

Stable at last report - suspect was shot during the incident:

• A Chicago police officer was hit by a car and the suspect shot on the Near West Side Saturday night, officials said.
  
  The incident took place about 10:12 p.m. in the 2300 block of West Lake Street, according to said Police News Affairs [...].
  
  The officer's injuries were not believed to be life-threatening, Gaines said. The officer was struck by a vehicle and police fired shots, hitting a suspect, who was shot in the leg.....

Best wishes to the Officer for a speedy recovery.

Thanks for Your Service!

Now bend over while I "balance" the budget:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Friday dropped another financial bombshell on Chicago’s 25,000 retired city workers and their dependents: their monthly health insurance premiums will be going up by a whopping 40 percent — in spite of a pending lawsuit and a precedent-setting Illinois Supreme Court ruling.
  
  Last year, Emanuel announced plans to save $108.7 million a year by phasing out the city’s 55 percent subsidy for retiree health care and forcing retirees to make the switch to Obamacare.
  
  For the city, the Year One savings was $25 million. For retirees, that translated into an increase in monthly health insurance premiums in the 20 percent and 30 percent-range.
  
  On Friday, city retirees and their dependents got hit again — only this time, even harder. The city notified them of a 30-percent to 40-percent increase that will cost most of the retirees between another $300 to $400 a month.

At this rate, no one will ever be able to afford to retire - except politicians....you know. like Rahm.

Officer Saves Child

Right place, right time, right training:

• A Chicago Police officer performed CPR on a newborn baby to help save his life Friday night in the Bridgeport neighborhood on the South Side.
  
  About 8:15 p.m. the officer, who works the evening shift in the Deering District, heard a radio call from a dispatcher asking “if anyone on the zone knew how to perform CPR on a newborn baby,” according to a police statement.
  
  She went to a house in the 3100 block of South Lituanica, just west of the Deering District station, where the 2-day-old boy’s great-grandmother was holding him, police said.
  
  The baby was blue in color and not breathing, and the officer began performing chest compressions for several minutes until he began to breathe on his own, police said.
  
  Paramedics arrived and took the newborn to Mercy Hospital, where police said his condition was stabilized.
  
  The officer is a 14-year veteran who recently had been CPR certified, police said.

Very well done Officer.

Bob Runs

The first challenger - or the second? More to come?

• Alderman Bob Fioretti jumped into the race for mayor of Chicago Saturday with an attack against Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the mayor's campaign fired back.
  
  Fioretti launched his campaign with a website and a campaign video.
  
  The two-term City Council member wasted no time criticizing current Emanuel, painting him as out of touch, unwilling to listen, and divisive, a politician of broken promises on jobs, crime, and education, and attacked his administration's policies like charging not-for-profits and churches for city water.
  
  "But our schools are being gutted, our streets are not safer and so many are missing out on economic opportunities and jobs," Fioretti said.
  
  The Second Ward alderman made his announcement Saturday morning before a crowd of about 100 supporters at East West University in the South Loop.

Channel 7 says former aldercreature and Machine tool Robert Shaw has filed to run and of course, Karen Commie Lewis continues to make noises from the sidelines. The anit-Emanuel forces split the protest vote three ways and Rahm slips in on the liberal, alternate-lifestyle and outright fraud vote totals.

Seven the Other Way

Last week, Bears were 7 point favorites. This week, they're 7 point dogs. And with all the obituaries being published this week, we're surprised it isn't 10.

Contract Videos

FOP Prez Angelo explains certain aspects of the proposed Contract in a number of short videos available over at the FOP site (link on the right hand side).

Go.

View.

Discuss here. Hopefully, it dispels a lot of rumors - and undoubtedly, will provoke a few others.

Horse of Honor Unveiling

There will be a number of these events in upcoming days. We'll try to get to any that are forwarded to us:

• Dear SCC and SCC (Retired):
  
  We would very much appreciate a post on Second City Cop tomorrow inviting current and retired members of the Chicago Police Department to attend the unveiling of a Horse of Honor dedicated to the memory of Off. Michael A. Ceriale.
  
  Saturday, September 13
  12 pm
  Hyatt Regency Chicago
  Chicago 60601
  
  The life-size horse statue was designed and painted by artist and Chicago Police Officer Peter Bucks, a high school classmate of Off. Ceriale.
  
  Horses of Honor is a public art campaign to raise awareness and support for the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation. This horse was underwritten by the Officer Michael A. Ceriale Memorial Foundation. 

A lot of upcoming events. Hopefully, everyone can make one or two.

Candlelight Vigil Coming Up

Tuesday, 16 September:

• The 2014 Candlelight Vigil will be held on Tuesday, September 16 at 7:30 PM in Gold Star Families Memorial and Park. All police officers, their families and friends are invited. The ceremony is expected to last an hour and will take place rain or shine.
  
  As is the tradition of the Candlelight Vigil, the names of all Chicago police officers who died in the line of duty will be read. Those who wish to read the name of a fallen Officer should email Beata.Staszewski@chicagopolice.org.
  
  Gold Star Families Memorial and Park is located on Chicago Park District grounds near Waldron Drive (in the shadow of Soldier Field). Uniformed CPD personnel will direct attendees to the parking lot at the 18th Street exit off of Lake Shore Drive.

Hope to see you there.

Charity Softball Game

Featuring one of our favorite Chicago sports teams:

• The Chicago Blackhawks Alumni Association is busy planning the 7th Annual Blackhawk Alumni and Friends Charity Softball Classic presented by BMO Harris Bank.
  
  Chicago Blackhawks current players and alumni "face-off" in a 16" softball game with members of the Chicago Police and Fire Departments. The event also features the annual CFD vs. CPD City-Wide 16” Softball Championship.
  
  The event benefits the Chicago Firefighters’ EMWQ Retirees’, Widows’ and Children’s Assistance Fund and the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation and related police and fire charities.
  
  [...] Plan to join in this premier event on Sunday, September 14, 2014 from 11:30am – 3:30pm on Ferrell Field at St. Xavier’s University, 3700 W. 103rd Street, Chicago.

Website here.

He'll Steal Your Soul!

Hilarious pic of Rahm someone snapped on the CTA:

Here's the article about how it was taken.

It must have been a slow news day over at the Sun Times, too.

Casper Lauer Motorcycle Run

14 September - here's the flyer:

Informational post only - comments closed here.

Coldest in 74 Years

Setting records:

• Chicago seemingly switched from summer to fall overnight.
  
  Temperatures plunged from a high near 80 degrees on Wednesday to the mid-50s on Thursday, and by mid-day the area set a record low for high temps.
  
  On this date in 1940, the coolest high temp was 61 degrees. On Thursday, O'Hare Airport recorded a high of 56 degrees.

And in further climate news:

• The speech by former US Vice-President Al Gore was apocalyptic. ‘The North Polar ice cap is falling off a cliff,’ he said. ‘It could be completely gone in summer in as little as seven years. Seven years from now.’
  
  Those comments came in 2007 as Mr Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for his campaigning on climate change.
  
  But seven years after his warning, The Mail on Sunday can reveal that, far from vanishing, the Arctic ice cap has expanded for the second year in succession – with a surge, depending on how you measure it, of between 43 and 63 per cent since 2012.

And as we exit the 17th consecutive year with no measurable global warming, you may have noticed that the peak Atlantic hurricane season passed with zero named storms.

CHIdeas

Man, have we got a shitload of these:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel is starting an online community forum to engage directly with Chicago's residents and business owners.
  
  In a city of more than two million, the chance to sit down and talk about important issues is rare. The chance to sound off to city officials directly may not be an option for everyone, but a new website opens that possibility to anyone with a computer or smartphone. Chideas.org went live on Thursday.
  
  "The technology allows to create that community forum 24-7, throughout the process, all year round," said Emanuel.
  
  Emanuel says he will respond directly to some of the comments, and have city commissioners do the same.

We left the link in the paragraph above - be sure to contribute.

Thirteen Years

A day of remembering all that had gone before and all that has happened since.

God bless all.

Street Sign Dedicated

Bunches of people sent us photos. We're using a small selection, so please don't be offended if we didn't use yours:

A lot of people showed up, reps from all over the Department - Mounted (and the CFD):

Bikes and the old-time restored squad:

Pipes and Drums:

A very nice presentation all around. A salute to all involved.