Geez...Again with this Crap?

Mop-rah must be writing the headlines again:

• Autopsy: Man killed by police in Pilsen was shot in back

Really?

• A 29-year-old man killed by Chicago Police early Saturday in the Pilsen neighborhood was shot in the back, an autopsy has found.
  
  The Cook County medical examiner’s office identified him Sunday as Rafael A. Cruz Jr. of the 1900 block of South Jefferson.
  
  Ogden District Cmdr. Frank Valadez and an officer assigned to the district were on patrol near 23rd and Wood about 1:30 a.m. when they saw someone firing shots from one vehicle into another, according to a statement from the department’s News Affairs office.
  
  Valadez and the officer pursued the vehicle in their squad car to the intersection of 19th and Ashland, where the vehicle hit several parked cars, according to police.
  
  They got out of their squad car and moved in to arrest the suspects when the driver “purposefully reversed” the vehicle to hit Valadez and the officer, police said.

He just hit two police officers with his car -a few thousand pounds of blunt object. He might have run them over again if the escape route had a downed officer lying in it. Quite frankly, we don't give a single fuck where the bullet hit him after that, and neither should any other intelligent individual.

For the ignorant Sun Times editors:

• II. Department Policy
  
  A. A sworn member is justified in using force likely to cause death or great bodily harm only when he or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary:
  
  1. to prevent death or great bodily harm to the sworn member or to another person, or:
  
  2. to prevent an arrest from being defeated by resistance or escape and the sworn member reasonably believes that the person to be arrested:
  
  a. has committed or has attempted to commit a forcible felony which involves the infliction, threatened infliction, or threatened use of physical force likely to cause death or great bodily harm or;
  b. is attempting to escape by use of a deadly weapon or;
  c. otherwise indicates that he or she will endanger human life or inflict great bodily harm unless arrested without delay.

The dead asshole seems to have fulfilled sections II-A-1, 2a, 2b, and 2c, thereby justifying his own removal from the shallow end of the gene pool by the officers.

A Description....and a Sketch??

Didn't those racists over at the Tribune get the memo?

• A search is underway for a man police are calling “very dangerous” after they say he stabbed and sexually assaulted a woman during a home invasion Saturday afternoon in southwest suburban Willowbrook.
  
  The victim, a woman in her 20s, was loading her vehicle in a driveway in the 700 block of 73rd Court at 1:11 p.m. Saturday when a dark blue Nissan Altima, possibly a 2006, pulled up and a man approached her and asked for money, Willowbrook police said during a news conference Sunday.
  
  She refused and went into the home, but the man began knocking on a side door and asking to use her phone. He then forced his way inside, where a struggle ensued and she was stabbed multiple times with an unknown sharp object, police said.
  
  Additionally, Deputy Chief Mark Altobella confirmed there were reports of her being sexually assaulted and said he has heard nothing to doubt those reports. The woman remains in intensive care at a local hospital, her family said.

And the story provides a detailed description along with a sketch artist's drawing of the offender. It's been a long time since we've seen anything like that. We're sure Jesse is drafting a letter to the editor right now.

Supporting the Chaplains

This coming Satuday:

• Chicago Wingfest, a Buffalo wing competition thrown by Rush Street/Division Street bars featuring live blues music, carnival games, craft beer and a flea market, returns on Saturday, 05 SEP!
  
  This year, the Wingfest sponsors have named Police Chaplains Ministry as one of only two charity partners. We are very excited by this show of generosity by Chris Ryan and his colleagues at Rush and Division.
  
  The shenanigans go from 1:00-7:00 p.m. on 05 SEP, at Bailey Auditorium, 1340 W. Washington Blvd. More information can be found [at] www.WingFest.net.
  
  Hope to see you there!!! Please spread the word.
  Fr. Dan Brandt
  CPD Chaplain

Hope to see you there.

What's This Shit?

Seriously? This gets media coverage?

• Hundreds of people rallied in downtown Chicago Saturday to protest killings of African Americans by police.
  
  Police officers patrolled as protesters marched from Federal Plaza to City Hall Saturday afternoon.
  
  Organizers say the march is meant to send a message to political figures that black lives matter.
  
  The protesters also held a mass rally at Daley Plaza.

Let's just point out that Chicago Police have been involved in how many shootings this year where someone got hit? Twelve. It is historically low. And persons killed by the police? Four. Another historic low.

According to HeyJackass.com (the place SCC goes for stats), there have been 324 homicides in Chicago this year as of tonight.

77.8% of the victims have been black. 18.7% Hispanic.

305 out of 324 dead are minority.

Where the shooter is known, 87% are other minorities.

But police are the problem?

That's the Bears We Know

As the preseason winds down, the Bears are approaching mid-season form already:

• The final score wasn’t as bad as last year’s thrashing by the Seahawks in the third preseason game. But the Bears starters’ dress rehearsal against the Bengals still was disheartening.
  
  From a growing list of injured players to a sluggish, unproductive offense to breakdowns on defense, little looked good for the Bears in a 21-10 loss Saturday night at Paul Brown Stadium.

But hey, the Cubs.....oh wait, they're stalling. And the less said about the Sox, the better.

Must Be the Weekend

But then again, who could tell?

• A man was killed and at least 11 people have been wounded in separate shootings since late Friday across the city, police said.
  
  A man was shot to death and another man was hurt in a shooting around 4:10 a.m. Saturday in the Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side, said Chicago Police...

And that was just Friday. Add in another few Saturday, the two fire deaths in an arson and we're looking at another banner weekend of double digits for Garry's Mr. McCarthy's Body Count Extravaganza.

Officers Shoot Assailant

On-view of a drive-by and a chase ensued:

• Chicago police officers shot at least one person early Saturday in the Heart of Chicago neighborhood on the Lower West Side after witnessing a drive-by shooting, police said.
  
  About 1:30 a.m., 10th District Cmdr. Frank Valadez and a police officer assigned to the 10th District were on routine patrol when they saw someone fire shots from a vehicle into another occupied vehicle near the corner of 23rd and Wood streets, according to a statement from the Chicago Police Department.
  
  Valadez and the officer pursued the vehicle, and near the intersection of 19th Street and Ashland Avenue, the vehicle struck several parked cars, according to the statement.
  
  As officers tried to intercept, the suspects deliberately reversed their vehicle to strike the commander and the officer, police said in the statement.
  
  The officers fired their weapons, striking at least one person who continued to flee but was later taken into custody after striking additional vehicles, the statement said.

The commander and officer suffered "minor" injuries. Sounds like a good job all around.

Secret Recordings Jeopardize Prosecution

Not good, not good at all:

• Attorneys for a man charged with shooting a Chicago police officer in 2012 dropped another potential bombshell Friday: the existence of a recording that could contradict the sworn testimony of a Cook County prosecutor.
  
  The disclosure further raises the chances that the judge hearing the case could throw out the arrest of Paris Sadler, who is charged with the attempted murder of Officer Del Pearson, Sadler's attorneys said.
  
  The defense disclosed at a court hearing Friday that they had just learned that Sadler's mother, using her iPad, had secretly recorded video and audio of an approximately 30-minute interview of her by prosecutors a day after Pearson's shooting.

This would be a complete cluster-fuck of immense proportions.

Useful Tip for Police

This is the kind of stuff we're looking for while we're compiling the list of "Things Police Shouldn't Stop Minorities For." This is actually helpful:

• An administrator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggested at a recent roundtable conversation that, in order to combat “overpolicing” in the community, police should no longer respond to shoplifting claims at large stores such as Wal-Mart, and shouldn’t agree to prosecute people caught stealing.
  
  “I just don’t think that they should be prosecuting cases … for people who steal from Wal-Mart. I just don’t think that, right?” said UW-Madison director of community relations Everett Mitchell. “I don’t think [with] Target or all them other places, them big box stores that have insurance, they should be using justification, the fact that people steal from there as justification to start engaging in aggressive police practices, right?”
  
  Everett’s remarks were made Tuesday as part of a UW-Madison panel on the topic of “Best Policing Practices.” Everett argued that community police shouldn’t prioritize enforcing the law, but instead should focus on achieving “safety” as it is defined by a local community, even if that definition includes allowing some stores to be robbed with impunity.

So our idea of having an actual list wasn't as far-fetched as some people thought. This guy is actually laying it out for everyone to see...and he's teaching kids who have play-doh for brains and zero life experience to think this is the way to combat "overpolicing." We can barely wait to see the rest of his ideas.

CFD Relents

After rafts of bad publicity....and a phone call from Rahm:

• The stubborn Chicago Fire Department brass finally cracked under pressure Friday and dropped their opposition to paramedics wearing bulletproof vests over their uniform shirts.
  
  I'm told that Mayor Rahm Emanuel was furiously angry — even for him — with fire officials who made it quite easy for me to write two columns on the issue, and now a third.
  
  It is a victory for Patrick Fitzmaurice, the tough paramedic field chief who drives the dangerous West Side alone at night. He's been wearing his vest outside his shirt for years, until Deputy Fire Department Commissioner John McNicholas pushed back and ordered him to stop.
  
  The mayor interceded and resolved the matter, as mayors are wont to do when they're receiving heat for something they didn't cause.

A victory for common sense.

Now how about another boatload of bad publicity regarding the pensions that Rahm is refusing to pay into until he get the "reform" that will leave pensioners waiting in soup lines and living in alleys.

Lottery I.O.U's

Priceless:

• When Susan Rick’s boyfriend called her to say they won the Illinois Lottery, she didn’t believe him.
  
  “He’s an avid player. He always says ‘Honey, I’m going to win the lottery tomorrow,” Rick, of Oglesby, said.
  
  But on July 19, Rick’s boyfriend, Danny Chasteen, picked up a $250,000 winning Cool Cash scratch off ticket.
  
  Rick and Chasteen were told the money would come within four to six weeks. But on Monday, about five weeks after the big win, they received a call from the Illinois Lottery.

Anyone know if Madigan has missed a check yet? How about the Lottery pays the winners interest for every day past the six-week window?

Sun Times Outs Officer Home Address

The officer who was in the motorcycle accident earlier this week, died. The Sun Times attempts to give his home address, enabling burglars of all stripes to show up at his home to loot the property:

• An off-duty Chicago Police officer died Monday after a motorcycle crash in the Washington Heights neighborhood on the South Side.
  
  About 4 p.m., Jonathon Ho was driving a motorcycle that collided with another vehicle near the intersection of 95th Street and Vincennes Avenue, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
  
  The 35-year-old officer, assigned to the 6th District, was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead at 5:57 p.m., authorities said. The medical examiner’s office listed his home address in the 3500 block of South Michigan.

Thankfully, Officer Ho registered his info to Police Headquarters, so anyone showing up to burglarize his home found himself staring at a building full of police, but for fuck's sake:

• why is the Medical Examiner giving out home address info - knowing he was a cop?
• why the fuck is the Sun Times printing it - knowing he was a cop?

Hey Dean? Get off your ass and start asking some fucking questions. Garry, you too. You want assholes showing up at dead cops houses?

And everyone should look into registering their cars, bikes, etc to HQ as provided for in the General Orders and State Law.

RIP Officer Ho.

No Vests for You!

Morons at the Fire Department:

• The bosses at the Chicago Fire Department have just issued a particularly stupid and dangerous order:
  
  Chicago paramedics can't protect themselves by wearing bulletproof vests outside their uniform shirts, a policy that makes them all but unwearable.
  
  The city has been lucky in that no paramedic has been shot in the night violence of deadly neighborhoods. But the foolish order from Deputy Fire Department Commissioner John McNicholas is final.
  
  No vest.
  
  Paramedics pay for their vests out of their own pockets. And still, McNicholas' order stands, the department said on Wednesday.
  
  "So they've given me a direct order, no vest," said Patrick Fitzmaurice, a paramedic field chief who supervises 10 ambulances each night on the ultraviolent West Side, driving alone, many times first to the scene of anger and blood and guns.

Firefighters and paramedics do some thing we wouldn't do on a bet:

• run into burning buildings
• cut out the roof they're standing on
• show up at shooting scenes with no gun and no vest

You can tell this boss must be a pansy of the highest order and probably never worked in the ghetto.  How about you negotiate something that looks decent, is easily differentiated from the police vests, and protects your paramedics? Or would that make too much sense?

Tribune Piles On

Creating news where none exists:

• The Chicago Police Department has launched an internal investigation after a video appears to show a white officer saying Michael Brown "got what he had coming," referring to the unarmed black teen shot and killed by a police officer in a St. Louis suburb.
  
  Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the investigation was ordered last week after the video surfaced. It's not known when the incident took place.

The Trib doesn't even bother to link to the video, and not a single mention of the guy filming saying the cop ought to be shot in the face.

You know what we'll remember most about this era during our golden years? All the racial healing that president Sparklefarts promised would come from his election. It'll keep us warm at night.

Countdown to Lawsuit in 3...2...

Let's place the blame exactly where it needs to be:

• A 26-year-old man has been charged with first-degree murder and other crimes after he allegedly led police on a South Side chase this week that ended with the death of a man working on his stalled pickup truck, police said Wednesday.
  
  Paul Forbes, 26, of the 10300 block of South Rhodes Avenue, is expected to appear in Cook County bond court Thursday, Chicago police said in a statement Wednesday evening.
  
  He was charged with murder, aggravated fleeing, aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, all felonies. In addition he was charged with driving on a suspended license, a misdemeanor, disobeying a red light signal and driving without registration.
  
  Forbes was arrested and charged in the fatal crash that happened Monday at 7:35 p.m.
  
  Police had stopped Forbes for a traffic violation in the 7500 block of South St. Lawrence and he allegedly fled in his vehicle at a high rate of speed as police officers were approaching his vehicle.

But you know who'll get blamed anyway.

There They Go Again

The bodies aren't even cold yet, yet Shrillary and Sparklefarts spokesweasel are calling for gun bans and whatnot after the reporter and her cameraman were killed on live TV and the shooter managed to upload his own first-person-point-of-view video of the act. Here are some quotes from the killer:

• “I’ve been a human powder keg for a while….just waiting to go BOOM.”
  
  
• “Why did I do it? I put down a deposit for a gun on 6/19/15. The Church shooting in Charleston happened on 6/17/15…”
  
  “What sent me over the top was the church shooting. And my hollow point bullets have the victims’ initials on them.”
  
  
• “Also, I was influenced by Seung–Hui Cho,” Flanagan wrote. “That’s my boy right there. He got NEARLY double the amount that Eric Harris and Dylann Klebold got…just sayin.’”

The ranting of a sane individual? We think not, but we'll be hearing about this for years.

We've also been amazed at the contortions the media has been going through when confronted with the following - an allegedly aggrieved minority (black, gay) lashes out at his alleged assailants (white, straight) who happen to be part of a "special class" (media) with a gun (evil!) he somehow acquired despite being obviously mentally disturbed (his heroes are Seung-Hui Cho and Klebold/Harris who were mentally disturbed poster children for the anti-gun crusaders.)

Welcome Back Amer!

Look who came back to town:

• Former Chicago comptroller Amer Ahmad has been extradited from Pakistan, nearly nine months after he was sentenced in absentia for his role in a kickback scheme at the state treasurer’s office in Ohio, federal authorities said Wednesday night.
  
  Ahmad was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison in December 2014 after pleading guilty to bribery and conspiracy charges. But he fled to Pakistan to avoid punishment, where he remained jailed on immigration violations.
  
  On Wednesday, Ahmad was extradited from Pakistan and flown to Columbus, Ohio, where he will appear for a hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Michael H. Watson at 10 a.m. Friday, according to Eric Gibson, a U.S. Justice Department trial lawyer who helped prosecute Ahmad.

Maybe someone can ask Amer how he managed to land the job in Chicago while under federal investigation in Ohio? Or would that be asking too much of the "watchdogs" Rahm has on a tight leash?

Even if You're Correct....

...you will be railroaded:

• The Chicago Police Department is investigating an incident in which a white, plainclothes officer on duty in an African-American neighborhood was videotaped saying, “Mike Brown deserved it.”
  
  Police spokesman [...] said Tuesday the department has identified the officer recorded making that statement regarding Michael Brown, the black teenager whose shooting death by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, sparked riots last year.
  
  But [the police spokesman] would not name the white, male officer, who also is heard making other racially charged remarks in a video posted on YouTube.

As far as we can tell, there isn't a single "racially charged" remark in the entire exchange. We've pointed this out a few dozen times, maybe a hundred - if the neighborhood is 95% black, then guess who is getting stopped 95% of the time? That isn't profiling, that's reality in Chicago, the most segregated big city we can think of.

And according to the Grand Jury in Missouri, Mike Brown, a 6'04" 300+ pound behemoth who attacked a uniformed officer in a marked squad car in broad daylight and actually left a piece of his finger in the squad car during the initial discharge of the officer's weapon, was completely at fault for his own death. Those are the facts, and no matter how politically incorrectly the officer stated it, he is in fact, correct on the facts.

But you don't get anywhere exchanging opinions with the catered-to-grievance-mongers in these times. You should be a drone, a robot, with no opinion and no voice. But hey, don't forget to get those "community interaction" event numbers...and fill out a Contact Card....don't forget the receipt with your name and star number printed in bold so even a 8th grade dropout can read it and let IPRA know who they talked to.

Hopefully, the FOP can take time out from selling the membership down the 10-hour-day river to confront this nonsense.

As Predicted

Are our readers the smartest people in the world or what?

• New vri rules coming out per the LT.
  
  1. No more requesting partners
  2. The activity will be doubled to get vri. 10 cc, 10 parkers, 10 movers, etc
  3. Assisting arrests won't count in the arrest stat, you need to be box 1 or 2
  4. Clean shaven, bump cards don't apply for VRI since it is voluntary
  5. Mandatory inspection every roll call, inspector will be assigned.
  6. All ticket books will be required to be on hand while working vri.

When VRI began, we along with many other predicted that they would get all the people they could attracted (or addicted) to the money, then jack up the numbers - the proverbial "foot-in-the-door." The numbers were minimally enough that the old timers grabbed all they could while the numbers were low. Now, as the old timers retire or burn out, the younger kids who haven't had a taste of the moolah are willing to jump through any hoop the Department sets.

Until the 10-hour days arrive, then VRI will be cancelled altogether.

Slow Responses?

Here's a clue - it ain't just Dallas:

• The head of the Dallas Police Association tells CBS 11 News that longer 911 response times can be blamed in part by officers being mentally beaten down.
  
  “The bottom line is response times are up, violent crime is up, and officers are fed up,” said Ron Pinkston, president of the Dallas Police Association.
  
  Many of the 3,000 officers he represents are moving slower because of concerns over safety and fears about violating department policies, Pinkston said.
  
  “The motivation is a little lacking,” he said. “I think it’s just the fear of doing the right thing and that they are going to get disciplined for doing that.”
  
  Pinkston said officers are too often being reprimanded for the way they drive during high speed chases or for the difficult decisions they have to make when using deadly force.
  
  “The only way we are going to get this response times to turn around is get a different management style or get a different manager,” Pinkston said.

And this is Texas, where a high percentage of the citizens are already armed and willing to take steps when the cops aren't around. We're surprised no one has asked for response times around here lately, but Rahm probably told them not to, seeing as how the Department is down double-digit percentages from just a few years ago....or didn't anyone notice the $100 million on police overtime the past three years running?

Lighter Sentences = More Crime?

Golly, color us surprised:

• California’s Proposition 47 of 2014, The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, which changed some drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, has coincided with a rise in crime in parts of the state.
  
  Conservative columnist Debra Saunders, who is the lone conservative columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, argues in her latest syndicated column that the release of roughly 3,700 inmates has decreased public safety.

The statistical evidence is pretty damning - in San Francisco:

• car theft has risen 47% from the same period in 2014;
• robberies have increased 23%; and
• aggravated assaults have risen 2%.

And in Los Angeles:

• the city saw a 12.7% increase in overall crime;
• violent offenses climbed 20.6%; and
• property crime increased 11%.

If only someone was around who could have predicted this! But we suppose they have someone there, too, who says loudly and weekly, "Crime is down!" despite all the evidence to the contrary.

"Horses of Honor" Closes

And the pieces are to be auctioned off:

• You won’t be seeing the ‘Horses of Honor’ for much longer on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. The 20 horses, all named for a Chicago police officer killed in the line of duty, will be removed Wednesday and auctioned off online. All of the money raised will go to the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation.

We understand the auction will be on EBay - the link will probably be on the CPMF website.

And Once Again....

Police post a warning, and the media does their thing:

• Chicago police issued a warning of robberies where people are being knocked or punched to the ground in the city's South Loop.
  
  One of the robberies happened across from Grant Park near the Columbia College campus along one of Chicago's best-known boulevards.
  
  Nicole Pernic moved to the South Loop, in part, for its safety. She is among many concerned about a recent rash of violent robberies and other crimes she's heard about citywide.
  
  "They've stolen their wallets, their phones, their bikes, they've held them at gunpoint, so I'm terrified," she said.
  
  No gun was shown in the most recent robberies in the 900-block of South Michigan Avenue around 9 p.m. Saturday or another robbery the night before, just after midnight nearby on Printers Row.
  
  In both cases, two or three men swarmed their victim, punching and kicking the person even after they were knocked to the ground. The men then stole wallets, cellphones and computers.
  
  "I'm very surprised," said South Loop resident Bill Wigoda. "Maybe I'm nave [sic] and should worry about it but I don't. But I don't let me wife walk the dog at night."
  
  Police have only a general description of the men wanted in the recent robberies.
  
  In the 1st Police District, statistics for the year to date show robberies up 6 percent, but citywide robberies are actually down 7 percent.

The police "have only a general description," but the media will be damned if they actually give it to you, the lowly reader. And they still parrot the CompStat lie that "crime is down citywide" even as they quote a 6% rise in 001.

Baltimore Passes New York

Give them "space to destroy" and by golly, they took her up on it:

• Baltimore has surpassed New York City for homicides this year.
  
  A New York Police spokeswoman said the city had seen 208 homicides as of Wednesday. Baltimore recorded its 213th homicide Wednesday night.
  
  It's a seemingly impossible milestone -- New York has more than 8.4 million people, Baltimore just 620,000.

Adjusted for population, the numbers are staggering:

• Adjusted for population, Baltimore's murder rate through Aug. 19 is 34 per 100,000 people, while New York's is so far this year 2.5 per 100,000. If New York had Baltimore's murder rate, it would have seen 2,874 killings already this year.

The writers manage to get a zinger in on Chicago, too:

• Chicago has seen the most killings of any city, with 284. With 2.7 million people, Chicago's homicide rate is about 10.4 per 100,000 people so far this year.

Take that McCompStat - ouch!

Eight on a Monday

This time, a couple of 70-year-old grandpas:

• Eight people have been injured, including two men in their 70s, in shootings on the West and South sides, police said.
  
  [...] About a half-hour earlier, a 76-year-old man was shot in the 2700 block of South Karlov Avenue in the Little Village neighborhood, said [...] a Chicago police spokesman.
  
  The man was shot in the knee during an armed robbery attempt at 5:30 p.m.
  
  [...] A 34-year-old man was shot in the chest and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in serious condition. Police said the man was a known gang member.
  Shooting at Division and Keeler
  
  Police use liquor bottles found nearby to stop evidence markers from blowing away at the scene of a shooting that left two wounded near West Division Street and North Keeler Avenue on Aug. 24, 2015. (Megan Crepeau, Chicago Tribune)
  
  The 71-year-old was shot in the ankle during the same incident and was taken to Mount Sinai, where his condition had stabilized, police said.

All kidding aside, we're pretty sure the elderly aren't out there representing and slinging dope, but that's 3 senior citizens shot in what, three days? Let's put this in a way that even the mayor can understand:

• these people go to church, they vote, and they're getting shot.

Time for a shake-up Rahm.

Cook County Courts Again?

One thing Garry might have gotten right -the courts are fucked up:

• SCC- Dig into this story, 5 days prior to this incident 007 locked this a-hole up for UUW with a 30 round clip(yes 30) , judge found they had no PC, he was just released that day to try to pull off armed robbery which was another Craigslist gone wrong, or in this case gone right

This was the incident we posted about the Concealed Carrier shooting and wounding the guy who stuck him up. So the wounded criminal not only got out when a judge tossed a gun charge, he was able to acquire another weapon within a day so he could.... (get this) .... break the law again! And still no information on his FOID Card and Concealed Carry License he used to acquire the second gun.

Anyone know if the judge found Probable Cause this time?

Another Bloody Weekend

Don't the aldercreatures or Rahm ever get tired of these headlines? We mean, the silence from these characters as their constituents are filled with lead and buried every weekend is mind boggling:

• Six people were killed and at least 31 others have been wounded in shootings across Chicago since Friday evening.
  
  The most recent homicides happened within minutes of each other Sunday night on the Southwest and West sides, according to Chicago Police.

Nearly 40 maimed and wounded in a weekend. We don't think this even counts the guy who was doused in gasoline and set on fire on the west side. What was the total for the week - 60? 70? And Garry storms out of CompStat because Contact Cards would have stopped every single one of these shootings, right?

If even a quarter of this happened in, let's just say, Boystown or Beverly or Jefferson Park or Michigan Avenue or any other of half a dozen parts of town, there would be hell to pay. But hey, black and brown folks (or people)? Barely a peep, even when a 65-year-old grandmother catches a round.

Memorial Event

This Tuesday, some names will be added to the wall:

• Please join the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation this Tuesday, August 25, 12:00 PM, at Gold Star Families Memorial and Park
  
  At that time, the CPMF will pay tribute to three fallen Chicago police officers whose deaths span several decades by adding their names to the memorial wall. The names of Chicago police officers Laubet Zaccard (7/23/1946), Charles Stine (4/21/1952) and John Lynch (12/19/1969) will be displayed for the first time and will join an honor roll of 574 other Chicago police heroes who were killed or died while serving their city. The additions come as the result of research conducted by volunteers who interview surviving family members and ancestors and comb over old police reports, news accounts and pension board files to determine whether officer deaths were related to their duties as Chicago police officers.
  
  All are welcome to attend.
  
  John E. Gordon
  Project Manager
  Chicago Police Memorial Foundation

God bless the Fallen.

Charges for Assailant

As a juvenile, so he won't learn a thing:

• A 16-year-old boy who was shot by Chicago Police Friday evening in the West Englewood neighborhood on the South Side has been charged.
  
  The teen was charged as a juvenile with aggravated assault of a peace officer with a weapon and unlawful use of a weapon, according to Chicago Police. His name was not released because of his age.
  
  Englewood District tactical officers patrolling in the 1600 block of West 71st Street about 7:30 p.m. Friday saw a group of males standing in the alley and, as they approached, one teen ran away while holding his side, according to a statement from police.
  
  The officers gave chase and during the pursuit the teen turned and pointed a gun at the officers, prompting one to shoot him, police said.
  
  A “young male adult” was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in critical condition, according to Chicago Fire Department Cmdr. Frank Velez.
  
  A weapon was recovered at the scene and no officers were injured in the shooting, police said.

Notice how the media calls him a "16-year-old boy" while the CFD brass correctly calls him a "young male adult." We'd also add "multiple felony arrestee and veteran of the system" to be more accurate.

Grandma Was Representing?

Even the elderly aren't safe from bullets:

• Six people, including a 15-year-old boy and a 65-year-old woman, were wounded in shootings Saturday afternoon on the South Side.
  
  [...]
  
  During another shooting that happened about 2:25 p.m. in the 7000 block of South Merrill Avenue in the city's South Shore neighborhood, a 21-year-old man and a 65-year-old woman were shot, said [...] a spokeswoman for the Chicago Police Department.
  
  They were standing near a corner when an assailant exited an alley and fired shots at the man, hitting him in the abdomen and twice in the thighs [....]. Gunfire also grazed the woman, who was not the target, in the back....

We wouldn't be too sure about that. Grandma might have been the brains behind whatever operation is running over by 70th and Merrill.

Up past 20 shot again this weekend. Well done.

Battle of the Bands

We certainly wish someone had mailed this to us weeks ago:

• It was a battle of the bands between some of Chicago's finest on the city's Northwest Side Saturday night.
  
  Bands made up from the Chicago police and fire departments rocked out to take top honors in Battle of the Badge.
  
  Proceeds raised will benefit organizations that help families of fallen police officers and firefighters.

We certainly hope it was a good turnout and people were generous with their donations.

Connections Earn $$$$$

Is anyone really surprised?

• For 30 years, Steve Brown has been the voice of Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan — a press secretary whose pronouncements often provide the only insight into the thinking of one of the state’s most powerful politicians.
  
  But Madigan’s top aide has never been a state employee, unlike the people handling similar duties elsewhere in Illinois government.
  
  Instead, Brown works for Madigan under a lucrative contract that lets Brown also do consulting work for other clients that rely on Madigan and the Illinois General Assembly for funding, records examined by the Chicago Sun-Times show.
  
  Brown’s clients include a state agency and a state university. They also include a private nurse-assistant training program called New Start Inc. whose state funding more than doubled over two years, records show.

Lots of coincidences in Illinois politics. The only question we have is, "Why now?" and the answer comes to us, "Because Rauner has made it his mission to paint Madigan and his cabal as the bad guy." To which we say, "Long overdue - and good luck."

Two in a Row!

Maybe a winning season in the offing?

• Jimmy Clausen’s two second-half touchdown drives trumped Jay Cutler’s three first-half field-goal drives Saturday night.
  
  Chicago’s backup quarterback threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Joshua Bellamy to give the Bears the lead midway through the third quarter, then took advantage of a Colts turnover to lead the Bears to another TD and a 23-11 preseason victory.
  
  First-year coach John Fox has won his first two preseason games, though this was hardly a beauty.

Neither was our first wife - hey-oh!

In other sporting news, the Cubs started selling playoff tickets.

Another Shooting

Again, on the south side:

• A Chicago police officer shot a 16-year-old boy on the South Side on Friday night after he pointed a gun toward police, authorities said.
  
  Citing preliminary information, Englewood District tactical officers were on patrol when they saw a group of people standing near 71st Street and Marshfield Avenue in the South Side's West Englewood neighborhood, authorities said.
  
  One person from the group, a 16-year-old boy, noticed the officers and ran away from the group while holding his side, authorities said.
  
  Officers on foot and by squad car went after the teen as he fled down the block.
  
  Authorities said the teen then pulled a gun out of his waistband and pointed it toward at least one of the officers. One officer then opened fire on the teen, striking him in the right flank as many as three or four times, authorities said.

Gee, a 16-year old - probably not eligible for a Concealed Carry permit, but we'll await Garry's inevitable announcement.

And yesterday a 14-year-old. Both armed with guns they couldn't legally own, carrying them where they couldn't legally carry them. It's almost like something dysfunctional on the part of a certain segment of society....but that couldn't possibly be, because we'd be racist for observing that.

Concealed Carrier Stops Crime

Well lookie here:

• A man with a concealed-carry license used his gun to stop two men trying to rob him and a companion in Englewood late Thursday, police said.
  
  At 10:05 p.m., a 24-year-old man was with a woman in the 7400 block of South Morgan Street in Englewood when they were approached by two men who said they were robbing them and had a gun, said [...], a Chicago Police spokeswoman.
  
  The man being robbed, who has concealed-carry license, drew his gun and shot one of the men in his chest....
  
  The would-be victim was shot in his leg....

We're pretty sure that the offender did not have an FOID card, nor a Concealed Carry license, because Garry would have been on the news announcing it if it had happened that way.

A speedy recovery wished to the citizen.

Slow Down Gar

We could name a couple people fitting this profile right now:

• If you're putting in more than 55 hours a week at work, the chances are good that you're working toward having a stroke, researchers say. A study involving more than 600,000 people found that people who work that many hours have a 33% higher stroke risk and a 13% higher risk of coronary heart disease than people working 35 to 40 hours a week, the Guardian reports.
  
  The researchers, whose study is published in the Lancet, say that the risk goes up with every hour worked on top of 40 a week, with those working up to 48 hours increasing the risk by 10% and those working up to 54 hours by 27%.

On the other hand, you might be improving the overall health of the pension by not collecting any money.

CompStat Meltdown?

Seems McCarthy lost his shit at the meeting and stormed out, never to return.

Who's got the scoop?

• Is it the Contact Cards numbers?
• the shootings?
• the killings?
• the massive failure of CompStat to hide enough homicides and violent crimes by downgrading?
• that he was called out not knowing Chicago doesn't have a gun registry any more?
• is he still said about Leo leaving?
• or being forced to promote morons, thieves and degenerate gamblers?
• did someone call him Garry again?

Or, heaven forbid, was it the blog?

Not a Photoshop

Even the Secretary of State gets in on the act:

Thanks to the e-mailer who spotted this one.

Police Shooting (UPDATE - 14 Year Old Assailant)

Just a little while ago:

• A person was shot by Chicago Police late Thursday in the South Chicago neighborhood.
  
  The shooting happened about 10:20 p.m. near the intersection of 91st Street and Commercial Avenue, according to Independent Police Review Authority spokesman Larry Merritt. The agency investigates all officer-involved shootings.
  
  The police department’s News Affairs office did not immediately provide more information. No other details were available.

No officers injured, so that's good. Best to all involved.

UPDATE: Details emerging:

• A Chicago police officer shot and wounded a 14-year-old boy late Thursday evening on the South Side after authorities say the boy ignored officers’ commands to drop a gun.
  
  South Chicago District tactical officers responded to the area of 89th and Escanaba at about 10:35 p.m. for a call about shots fired in the 8900 block of South Escanaba Avenue in the South Chicago neighborhood, according to police.
  
  Witnesses told the officers the shooters were on bicycles. When police pulled up, they tried to stop a boy on a bicycle. The boy fled after telling officers that a bulge they noticed in his pocket was a cell phone, police said.

Let's just get this timeline out there for the morons:

• Responded to shots fired
• Told shooters were kids on bicycles
• Located kids on bicycles
• Questioned kids (remember, no frisk at this point)
• Kid fled, chase ensues, gun comes out, BANG!

A textbook case of profiling if ever there was one!

Mama pleads ignorance on the whole thing, so we'll see how it plays out. In the meantime, we're still waiting on Garry's pronouncement of Junior's FOID card status and Concealed Carry license number.

Fit to Stand Trial

Another one trying to fake his way out of responsibility:

• A Cook County jury deliberated a little more than an hour Thursday before deciding that a man charged with killing off-duty Chicago police Officer Thomas Wortham IV was mentally fit to stand trial despite his alleged amnesia.
  
  The decision came after an unusual three-day hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. Attorneys for Marcus Floyd had asked that a jury decide an issue usually reserved for a judge.
  
  Judge Timothy Joyce set Floyd's trial for Oct. 13.
  
  Floyd, who was severely wounded in a shootout with Wortham and the officer's father, suffered "retrograde amnesia" when his brain was deprived of oxygen after losing massive amounts of blood, his attorneys contended. He also suffered two heart attacks and spent a week in a coma.

Too bad we can't enforce a "retrograde abortion" on this waste of protoplasm.

Honor Students - We Swear!

Good job idiots:

• The judge shook her head at the young men before her, all of them charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
  
  One was a Whitney Young Magnet High School graduate with a 4.3 GPA who was bound for California Polytechnic State University. Another was the son of a lawyer who also graduated from Whitney Young and had been accepted to the University of Michigan.
  
  The third had an ACT score three points higher than his defense attorney, the lawyer joked. The fourth was a graduate from Lincoln Park High School who hoped to be an actor.
  
  Four adults and a juvenile have been charged with Class-X felonies after police a man trying to sell a bike was attacked with pepper spray, baseball bats and a metal pipe.
  
  Their crime, according to prosecutors: Pulling up in a Mercedes SUV with tinted windows and beating a man with bats and a metal pipe to steal a bike he was trying to sell for $500.

In Daddy's Benz, too? Anyone think these offenders were both high and drunk when they decided this was a good idea?

SCC Blog Appears at Bail Hearing

So evidently, we're significant again:

• A reputed gang leader who won a whopping $25 million verdict just three years ago for his wrongful murder conviction was paying out $50,000 recruitment bonuses along with guns and cars to bring new members into his gang, Cook County prosecutors alleged Wednesday.
  
  
• In urging bail be set, Jimenez's attorney, Scott Frankel, tried to tell the judge about Jimenez's wrongful conviction at 13 for murder, but prosecutors objected. Frankel then attempted to reference a post about his client on the Second City Cop blog, but prosecutors objected again and Chiampas cut him off.

Seriously? A blog post is somehow relevant to a bail hearing for a career criminal who had something like 20 arrests by the time he was 13 and convicted for murder? That's general knowledge.

That he was paying gang members to switch allegiances for ten of thousands of dollars, up to $50 grand if they got facial tattoos? You can subpoena any west side asshole with "SCR" on their faces and ask them why they got the ink.

The luxury car fetish? Ask 011, 015, 025, even 016, Niles and Park Ridge about how many times they chased his cars. Plus the suspended license.

The guns? We still haven't heard from Garry about how those were acquired - any FOID card or Concealed Carry axes to grind there Gar? Or we won't touch on the fact that criminals will always acquire the weaponry they need while private citizens cower in their homes and retreat from their streets at night and even daylight.

We didn't even touch on the private jet chartered to Miami strip clubs, but we suppose everyone has to have a hobby.

What could any of these things have to do with a bail hearing, just because they were mentioned on a blog?

Oh, maybe the lawyer meant the "he's probably safer in County than the street right now" jibe we made due to the fact that many many gang leaders want him removed from the playing field? Well that's just the price of business. We would respectfully suggest that the lawyer get paid in advance though - that's just our opinion, and completely inadmissible in a Court.

Free Garbage Pickup?

The media is already framing the debate so Rahm can ram this through the City Council:

• Suburbanites have grown accustomed to paying a garbage-collection fee in addition to their property tax bill. It looks like Chicagoans will soon face a similar pain in the wallet.
  
  One week after his budget team held closed-door meetings with aldermen, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is all but saying that a garbage-collection fee is coming to Chicago.
  
  
• Chicago would almost certainly have to start smaller to get residents of 600,000 single-family homes, two-, three-flats and four-flats used to the idea of paying for a service they’ve grown accustomed to getting for free.

Free? Then why were we paying property taxes all these years? We figured that covered an entire swath of city services - lights, streets, cops, fire, etc. Now we find out it was free?

:::cough cough bullshit! cough cough:::

Any guesses as to how impassable the alleys become in certain neighborhoods where the residents already don't use garbage receptacles provided by the city? What about the exploding rodent populations? And that fire pit we weren't using much lately just got a new lease on life as a backyard incinerator. Hell, we might start fly dumping on the Ryan coming in to work.

Wow, Good Estimate!

This is quite the odd coincidence:

• More than three months after aldermen approved a $5.5 million fund to provide reparations to victims of police torture, the deadline to apply for restitution has passed, and the process has begun to decide who gets a share of the pot.
  
  “We’ve received approximately 57 claims back,” said Daniel Coyne, a criminal law professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law, who was appointed to screen the applications and conduct an independent review to determine the legitimacy of all claims.
  
  In May, the City Council approved a deal to set up a $5.5 million reparations fund to pay restitution of up to $100,000 each to people with credible claims of torture by disgraced former police Cmdr. Jon Burge and his detectives.

Gee, $5.5 million and 57 claimants. If each is awarded the maximum of $100,000, that works out almost exactly. Figure a couple cases are going to get less, but still....amazingly accurate.

And remember, these claims were all determined to be past the statute of limitations, yet somehow, $5.5 million is located and set aside for something that was never even proven to have taken place.

Anyone Notice This?

We noticed something cropping up in the FOP newsletter that arrived last week. We've noticed it quite a bit lately, not just in the newsletter, but in casual conversations and such:

• President's Report - Tattoo Arbitration Update: "...the grievance challenges the Department's decision to unilaterally issue the Order without bargaining with the Lodge"  [...] All of these are mandatory subjects of bargaining which the Department could not change unilaterally."

But somehow, the Department did change the rules, essentially challenging the FOP to grieve and/or sue them.

• 1st Vice President Report - Mistake or Intentional? "...the Lodge became aware that the Department published a Directive (Department Approved Semiautomatic Pistols and Ammunition, U04-02-01) without the input from the Union, or the Uniform and Equipment Advisory Committee."

Again, if the Department (and the City) can't do this, then how are they doing it?

We bring this up because of the following:

• Field Representative Report - 005th District Survey: "We are compiling data from the FOP 005th District survey and the results will be posted on our website. The participation from the 005th District personnel has been outstanding and the hope is that the concerns from the 005th District personnel will be heard and worked on. A pilot program evaluation committee has yet to meet and we will be requesting one immediately after our results are tabulated. The Department has promised dialogue regarding this issue and we will hold them to this."

Really? We have a Contract in effect regarding the other two issues and the Department/City violate it constantly, forcing us to grieve and sue them to follow the language written. Now, the FOP expects them to (A) answer a phone call requesting a meeting and (B) "hopes" that the concerns are "heard and worked on."

Seriously? After the city already took their own survey and have had the numbers for months now with plenty of time to massage the data so thoroughly that it will sit up and do tricks if Rahm wants it to? The FOP couldn't even stop the baseball or winter hat from getting axed.

How about this data - from an e-mailer, we have information that the Homan Square Black Site has been told in no uncertain terms that a major consolidation is about to be undertaken among the units that will result in hundreds of officers being dumped from the building back to districts and 10-hour days are starting the First Period of 2016. There have been meetings among the Commanders/Commanding Officers and lists are being drawn up right now

The FOP is admitting in two cases that they aren't consulted on major policy changes, then hoping that the biggest policy change in recent memory is going to have "input" from the Lodge. The FOP has rolled over so often, we imagine that they're going get rolled on this, too.

Here a Tax, There a Tax

Everywhere a tax tax:

• When Mayor Rahm Emanuel asked aldermen to share their cost-cutting and revenue-raising ideas with his budget director, some City Council members smelled a rat.
  
  They figured the mayor was trying to spread the blame around for the avalanche of tax increases that will be needed to solve the combined $30 billion pension crisis at the city and the public schools that has dropped Chicago’s bond rating to junk status.
  
  But fear of wearing the political jacket did not stop aldermen from doing their homework and giving Budget Director Alex Holt some very real ideas to generate the $754 million in new revenue the city needs, even under the best-case scenario.

And what a selection of tax increases they're looking at:

• the always popular property tax increase
• a fee for garbage pickup for all residents
• Uber surcharges
• "congestion" fees for downtown drivers
• bicycle licenses
• jack up gas, sales and income taxes

Not a single spending decrease, only increases. And various other fees on goods that will accomplish one thing - drive businesses, jobs and people out of Chicago.

Asshole is Still an Asshole (UPDATE)

Even if he won $25 million in a the ghetto lottery:

• A reputed gang leader who won a whopping $25 million award just three years ago for a wrongful murder conviction from his youth was charged Tuesday in connection with a shooting on Chicago's Northwest Side, authorities said.
  
  Police said they took Thaddeus Jimenez and a second man into custody Monday morning after officers spotted the pair speeding in a Mercedes convertible blocks from a shooting scene in the Albany Park neighborhood.
  
  Jimenez, 36, a reputed leader of the Simon City Royals, was expected to appear in bond court Wednesday on charges of aggravated battery and weapons offenses, all felonies, authorities said Tuesday.
  
  State driving records show Jimenez has more than a dozen vehicles registered to him, many of them luxury cars like Lamborghinis, BMWs and a Bentley.

He also spent a pile of money on recruiting efforts, paying people to switch to his gang and paying extra if they got gang tattoos and such. According to various people (or folks), his $25 million has dwindled to under half-a-million dollars in the intervening three years and the price on his head is significant enough that jail is currently the safest place for him now. We'd venture to say that given his history as a known shooter, the arrest that netted him $25 million was probably dead-on correct, but you know the Corp Counsel - give that money away!

UPDATE: As of this moment, Garry hasn't stated whether Thaddeus and his accomplice are holders of valid FOID cards or in possession of Concealed Carry Licenses. We are expecting that information shortly./

So....the Law Failed?

A couple of red flags that would seem to forbid this guy from carrying a gun:

• A 45-year-old man who shot his girlfriend to death before killing himself last week at a Loop business possessed a valid Illinois concealed carry permit, but the semiautomatic handgun he used was not legally registered, police said Monday.
  
  Richard Idrovo had an “domestic violence history” with his girlfriend, Alma B. Hernandez, in southwest suburban Tinley Park where they lived.....

Once again, where would he register the gun?

And shouldn't "domestic violence history" preclude him from owning a gun? Carrying a gun? Qualifying for a CCL? Here's where the democrats start screaming that "Another law would have saved this poor innocent!" and every sane person says, "Um, he didn't follow the rules/laws in place already - why would he follow another?"

Cops Don't Kill Black Man

This could have ended badly:

• A man was charged with assaulting peace officers after pointing a gun at police early Sunday morning, according to a news release from the Chicago Police Department.
  
  Officers responding to a burglary call in the 1900 block of South Trumbull Avenue at 4:17 a.m. Sunday found Bernal Eubanks, 39, who matched the description they were given of the burglar, police said.
  
  Eubanks refused to follow orders and then pulled a gun on the officers, police said. The officers got the gun away from him and took him into custody.
  
  Eubanks, of the 3300 block of West Congress Parkway, was charged with two counts of aggravated assault to a peace officer, one count of trespassing and one count of unlawful use of a weapon.

The police won't get nearly the amount of credit that they should for not killing this jagoff, especially considering how much grief they would have gotten had they (justifiably) shot him.

And once again, no word from Garry if the felon had an FOID card or a Concealed Carry permit.

A Dozen on a Monday

It doesn't even need to be a weekend and double-digit numbers of shooting victims:

• Two men were killed and at least ten other people were wounded in shootings citywide since Monday morning, police said.
  
  A man in his 30s was found shot dead on a porch in the East Garfield Park neighborhood Monday night...

And the list goes on from there. But crime is down!

Shooting on the Kennedy Now?

The north side just had to get in on the act:

• No one was injured when someone opened fire on a car on the Kennedy Expressway Monday morning but lanes were closed as authorities investigated, according to the Illinois State Police.
  
  The shooting occurred around 5:10 a.m. when someone fired at a white Toyota Camry near  Sayre Avenue, officials said. The lone person in the car was unharmed but the car was struck, they said.  It pulled over at Higgins and River roads.
  
  No one was reported in custody, but state police said they were looking for a blue Chevy Trailblazer.

Why doesn't Ric Flair do something??? Oh wait, State is as shorthanded as we are. The highways are fast becoming a free-fire zone.

400%?

Why isn't this guy running our pension? With smarts like these, we'd be solvent by the end of the year:

• The property doesn’t look like much — a weed-strewn eyesore at the northwest corner of 21^st and Prairie in the shadow of McCormick Place.
  
  But the vacant piece of land proved to be very profitable for Drapac Group LLC, Australian developers who hired Langdon D. Neal, one of the city’s most politically connected lawyers.
  
  Neal was a registered lobbyist for Drapac when it paid $1,020,000 for the 21,857-square-foot property in the shadow of McCormick Place in May 2013 — its first deal in Chicago.
  
  [...] McPier paid Drapac $5,473,750 — meaning Neal’s current client helped his former client make a 400 percent profit in just 14 months, records examined by the Chicago Sun-Times show.

That sounds waaaaaay better than the Vanecko deal that cost us what? Tens of millions or so - plus the transaction fees Vanecko undoubtedly charged at the front end. If the Australians can make 400%, why not the pension fund? At least we're local.

"For Safety." Remember?

Another Rahm lie comes crashing down:

• Red-light cameras have churned out 2.2 million tickets and generated $284.9 million in fines since Mayor Rahm Emanuel took office, a revenue source the cash-strapped city simply cannot afford to relinquish, records show.
  
  The biggest conveyor belts of those dreaded $100 tickets are the red-light cameras at Lake Shore Drive and Belmont, $8.1 million since May 2011; 4200 South Cicero, $7.46 million; Van Buren and Western, $6.3 million; and 87th and Lafayette, $5.8 million, according to records released to the Chicago Sun-Times in response to a Freedom of Information request.

Who would have thunk it? A politician lying for money. If only there was a way to remove these lying sacks of crap from the positions they hold.

"Groups of Teens"

Once again, the media failing in their job to inform:

• Chicago Police are warning West Side residents after a series of armed robberies carried out by groups of teenagers earlier this month in East Garfield Park and Humboldt Park.
  
  Teens have walked up to people and shown a handgun while demanding bicycles, wallets and other items, according to a community alert issued Sunday night.
  
  The robberies happened:
  — Aug. 3, about 8 p.m. in the 3700 block of West Lexington;
  — Aug 3, about 11:30 p.m. in the 1100 block of North Homan; and
  — Aug. 4, about 7:45 p.m. in the 3600 block of West Thomas.
  
  Groups of between two and five teenage boys committed the robberies, which police think are related.

Just teens. That's it. And those addresses cover a sizable swath of neighborhoods that are black and brown, so all you citizens out there, just profile everyone!

McCarthy didn't say if the boys with the gun were properly carrying their FOID cards and Concealed Carry licenses.

Police Shoot Assailant

Using a 2-ton hunk of steel and plastic as a weapon:

• Gresham District officers were conducting a traffic stop of a suspected stolen vehicle in the 7800 block of South King Drive around 7:45 p.m. when the driver reversed, hitting another vehicle, then accelerated towards the officers, according to a police statement.
  
  As the vehicle approached them, the officers were boxed in between the suspect and traffic stopped at a red light. "In fear of their lives," one of the officers fired two shots at the vehicle, striking the driver, police said.
  
  The driver, an adult male, was taken to Stroger Hospital in "stable" condition, police and fire officials said. A Fire Department spokesman said the man was in serious-to-critical condition.
  
  The passenger was arrested with a loaded firearm in his waistband, police said. Officials did not release the ages of the two males.

McCarthy didn't state whether or not the assailant had a drivers license, nor whether the gun offender had a valid FOID card and Concealed Carry License.

Good job by the Officers.

If Charged, is This a Murder?

West side:

• A 17-year-old boy has been charged in connection with the death of a 14-year-old girl who was fatally shot while they were playing with a gun Wednesday on the West Side, police said.
  
  The boy, whose name was not being made public by police, was charged with involuntary manslaughter and is slated to appear for a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building on Monday, police said.
  
  The victim, Tracy Davis, 14, was found with a gunshot wound to the head around 2:20 p.m. Wednesday in the 700 block of North Homan Avenue in East Garfield Park. She was dead on the scene, officials said.
  
  She and the teenage boy were playing with a handgun when the weapon discharged and she was fatally shot, according to a police statement. The offender fled the scene after the shooting, the statement said.

Unreported was that the shooter staged the scene to look like a suicide before he fled, leading to a short-lived manhunt. He was charged in the death and the M.E. calls it a homicide. So the question becomes does this count in the stats or is this another one of those "mystery murders" that disappear into the CompStat graveyard of Death Investigations. Like that hooker tied to the chair and found in an advanced state of decay. "Can't determine what killed her, must be a mystery!" like she tied herself to the chair with wire before dying.

Oh, and Garry didn't release whether the gun was properly registered, whether the shooter had an FOID card and if a Concealed Carrier was located within half-a-mile of the scene.

More Anti Gun Posturing

A tragedy in the Loop, twisted for political ends:

• Hernandez, a 44-year-old mother of four, also was a clerk at a Loop loan store. She was working Friday when her ex-boyfriend walked in around 2:30 p.m. and shot her twice before turning the gun on himself, Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said at AmeriCash Loans in the 100 block of West Van Buren Street.
  
  “This does not look like a robbery but a domestic murder-suicide,” McCarthy told reporters.
  
  
• McCarthy said the shooter had a concealed carry permit, but it was not known if he was registered to carry the gun he used in the shooting.

Really? And this was important why? Because the I-Team just had a report about how Concealed Carry license holders are a surprisingly law abiding bunch:

• Crimes committed by concealed-carry gun owners are rare in Illinois, which has been issuing concealed weapons permits for less than two years.
  
  When the first concealed-carry permit was issued in the state on December 18, 2013, there were predictions that Illinois would turn into the Wild West.
  
  That, of course, hasn't happened. Friday's apparent murder-suicide involving a licensed concealed weapon owner is unusual.
  
  There are now more than 120,000 concealed-carry licensees in Illinois and it is extremely rare to hear about a permit holder being involved in any violent crime, much less a murder. Friday's was the first of 2015 according to police officials, if not the first at all here since Illinois passed concealed carry.

Whoa whoa whoa - we can't have citizens thinking that Concealed Carry is a good thing. Better get McStreetlights out there telling everyone how bad guns are, especially concealed guns and the people who carry them. This was a pointless bit of information released solely to smear citizens who choose to exercise their Rights. Unless we're going to see McRahm'sTool start releasing information on all the west side and south side shooters of late? That'd be interesting.

Bad Hour

You know it's bad when the media breaks it down by the hour:

• At least eight people were wounded within one hour in separate shootings on the city's Northwest, South and West sides Friday.

And that doesn't even count the murder/suicide in the Loop Friday, so Chicago is in double digits even before Saturday begins.

Um, This is a Lawsuit?

They are fleeing, crash into a squad car, careen into a building, die, and it's the fault of the police?

• A lawsuit filed Friday claims an unnecessary Chicago Police pursuit caused a crash that killed two suburban men last year on the Southwest Side.
  
  The suit was filed in Cook County Circuit Court on behalf of 21-year-old Jahaziel Duron, one of two men who died in the crash on Oct. 19, 2014.
  
  At the time, authorities said that Duron and 27-year-old Hugo Rodriguez were in a vehicle speeding in the 4000 block of West Ogden when it struck the back of a squad car, then crashed into a building.
  
  Duron, of Berwyn, and Rodriguez, of Elgin, were dead at the scene, authorities said. A sergeant in the squad car was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital with injuries not thought to be life-threatening, police said at the time.
  
  But the lawsuit claims that the vehicle was actually fleeing from police before it crashed with the squad car.

Their court filing even admits they were fleeing! The only ones who died were the fleeing assholes, but someone has to sue on their behalf. They're worth more dead than alive. In a just world, this would be laughed out of court. And when the Revolution comes, the lawyers filing this suit would be the first up against the wall.

Buyer Beware

People learn not to trust the internet:

• A woman is using a social media application to arrange meetings with men in the Greater Grand Crossing Neighborhood on the South Side, where the victims are instead beaten and robbed by a group of men.
  
  On at least three occasions in the last two weeks, the last on Wednesday, men have been “lured to locations through the use of social media” only to be attacked, an alert from Gresham District police said.
  
  In all three cases, “the victims made contact with a female utilizing the website Skout.com, where they would make plans to meet,” police said. “Upon arriving at the designated location, the victims discovered the female offender was not alone, but rather in the company of several other males.”
  
  The men are then beaten and robbed.

Well duh. They certainly aren't going to get what they thought they were arranging when they made the appointment.

Now Dean is Concerned

Welcome to the party pal:

• The head of Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police is warning that a new state law requiring officers to record more information about the people they stop could drastically reduce the time they spend patrolling the streets.
  
  Gov. Bruce Rauner on Wednesday signed a sweeping law enforcement reform bill that lays out guidelines for the use of body and dashboard cameras. The bill also requires officers to fill out cards that document information about the pedestrians and motorists they stop and provide them with receipts in some cases.
  
  “This will burden the officers with more paperwork and keep them from being proactive,” FOP President Dean Angelo said Thursday. “They won’t be out there as much as they used to be.”

How about this scenario - you stop some dope boys, based on a tip, a phone call, a hunch, whatever. You frisk them all and, seeing as how you didn't really have a surveillance set up to see where the work was hidden, you issue a Dispersal Order and write Contact Cards. But let's not kid anyone - you know they're dirty, they know they're dirty, the neighborhood knows they're dirty, but they didn't have the work, so they get a pass. You also hand them a receipt with your name and star.

These guys aren't stupid. They know who the workers are who are willing to get out of the car and disrupt business for a while. They know they have to be smart and not keep too much work nearby, the lookouts have to be tight, the gun has to be at a bigger distance, all the perils of the dope trade. But they have an ace now - your name and star as a known officer who will make problems. So now comes the call to IPRA:

• "Officer Squarepants stopped me today and hassled me, frisked me, threatened me and by golly, I'm just an altar boy standing on the corner at 2 A.M. minding my business while taking night classes in nuclear medicine. He didn't even give me a receipt. Here's his name and star number."

You think the number of false complaints is high now? It's about to go higher. We'd bet money that names and starts will be circulated so more than a few complaints can be generated to make it seem like you're a rogue officer intent on violating civil rights by not issuing receipts for every person you stop.

The Department remedy is sure to be a hassle at least, a nightmare at worst. And you can guess what the coppers' remedy is when you have to drop paper monthly...or weekly...or more.

Expedited Pension Hearing

A short date for a hearing:

• The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to quickly consider an appeal of a lower court ruling that struck down pension fund changes Mayor Rahm Emanuel engineered to lower taxpayer costs but also hit current and retired city workers in the pocketbook.
  
  In a brief order, the court agreed to a sped-up briefing cycle that would lead to oral arguments in November — a schedule city attorneys hope leads to a final decision before the year is out.
  
  Last month, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Rita Novak overturned a 2014 state law that reduced cost-of-living benefit increases for retired city workers and laborers and increased contributions by current employees. Those changes were coupled with increases in taxpayer payments to the pension funds.
  
  Novak based her decision on a unanimous state Supreme Court ruling in May on a similar pension case. The court struck down a law changing state pensions, saying the Illinois Constitution's protection against "diminished or impaired" pension benefits for public workers and current retirees was absolute. Novak concluded that ruling provided "crystal-clear direction" in the city pension case.
  
  Although union representatives and lawyers for retired workers have urged the city to drop the appeal, Emanuel has defended it, saying city pension changes "will stand the test of time."

Besides, it isn't like Rahm is spending his own money - he's spending the money that might have been used to actually help pay the total owed to pensioners - past and future.

Revenge Served Hot

We thought revenge was best served cold, but this guy had other ideas:

• Suspects from an armed robbery are now in jail, but a bad decision by the victim has him facing charges as well.
  
  Video from a New Mexico home caught two men running down the street when a black car hits them, launching one of the men into the air.
  
  Police tell ABC affiliate KOAT-TV that Quinn Chavez, 18, was behind the wheel.
  
  "Oh that could have been a fatal injury, very easily," said Rio Rancho police Capt. Paul Rogers.
  
  Police say just minutes before the crash, Chavez and his passenger were robbed by two men they hit. The robbery took place at a nearby park.
  
  Police say the men robbed Chavez and his passenger at gunpoint before taking off on foot. Police say Chavez then followed the suspects in his car, and used his vehicle to run them over.

The video is priceless:

We'd call this payback for all the times these assholes got away with their behavior.

Too Early for Superbowl Hopes?

As long as the Bears are playing everyone else's second strings, we're going to go out on a limb and predict another parade in February!

• Chicago passed the time between Cubs games by watching the Bears backups beat the Dolphins reserves 27-10 in the exhibition opener for both teams. Not since 2008 in this city has preseason football distracted us from excitement over postseason baseball, so nobody's complaining. Not as many people are noticing the Bears either; at kickoff roughly 20,000 seats remained empty because of either rush-hour traffic or indifference, maybe both.

We're already making reservations for Santa Clara.

And There it Is

Buried in the "body camera bill:"

• A new Illinois law sets standards on how police departments use body cameras and when the public can see those recordings.
  
  Deadly confrontations involving police officers have spurred calls for police body cameras across the country. On Wednesday, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed into law wide-ranging law enforcement rules for police body cameras, bias-free policing and more data collection on arrests. The new law doesn't mandate body cameras, but does specify how they should be worn, when they have to be turned on and how long recorded videos should be kept.

And the proactive policing killer:

• The new law goes beyond cameras in an effort to address concerns about police conduct. It requires departments to collect data on people who police "stop and frisk" and give those people a detailed receipt explaining why the encounter happened.

Apparently this will include your name and star number. Goodbye street stops, hello report writers. And thanks for chiming in on this one FOP and PBPA. We can see this issue was covered so well and thoroughly on your websites.

You can read the entire 174 page monstrosity here.

Police Limit

We haven't linked to some of these in a while:

Truth in a four-panel cartoon.

Some Still Defend the Police

A decent article sent in by a few readers:

• As the first anniversary of the fatal Ferguson, Missouri police encounter approaches, we can expect activists and opportunists to return to the small town and take to their soapboxes to stage protests, disparage law officers, and call for additional limits on the police. Sadly, the anniversary of this watershed moment in policing finds a much degraded image of law enforcement in America, increasingly polarized views on crime and policing, and concerning increases in homicide in cities across the country. While clear-headed opportunities for positive change have been ever-present, conflict and negativity have ruled the discussion
  
  Fueled by negative media reports and an Administration-led political agenda, it is now fashionable to vilify your local police, loudly and often, regardless of the facts. As the trend expands, we will inherit the obvious result - good men and women already doing difficult, often thankless, work opting out of the profession; young prospects taking other paths for their careers; rising crime rates as beleaguered cops retreat from proactive policing.

Go read it all. As some have said, the darkest days may still lie ahead for policing in general and the country in particular.

Thug Had a Gun

There's even video of it at this link:

• Police in Ferguson on Tuesday released surveillance video that they say shows a teenager appear to pull a weapon from his waistband before he was later shot and critically wounded by plainclothes police, NBC News reported.
  
  The surveillance video, given to police by a local business, shows a panicked crowd running for cover and then a young man in a white T-shirt appearing to be holding gun running off screen and pointing the weapon. Police identified that man as 18-year-old Tyrone Harris. The video appears to dispute some recent reports and witnesses who said Harris was not armed.

Of course, the ignorant masses will still parrot the lies spouted by the family of "unarmed," "innocent" and "victim" to aid and abet an agenda. Dumbasses will be dumbasses.

"Under the Radar" Story

Remember, all guns are evil - the president says so. So why is he arming terrorists?

• A gunman killed during his attack on an Islamic prophet Muhammad art show in Garland, Texas, reportedly bought a pistol through a botched federal firearm sting.
  
  Nadir Soofi bought a 9-mm pistol at a Phoenix gun shop in 2010, one report said, that sold illegal firearms through ATF’s heavily criticized Operation Fast and Furious to track firearms back to Mexican drug cartels.
  
  The Senate Homeland Security Committee wants to know if that same pistol was used five years later in an alleged Islamic State-sanctioned shootout targeting right-wing blogger Pamela Geller’s event, according to a memo obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Arming Mexican drug cartels who killed at least one US law enforcement officer, dozens of Mexican cops and many hundreds of civilians over the border was bad enough. Now arming radicalized jihadist on American soil? This story got buried pretty quickly.

Stay Classy Ferguson

Riots again...all over a thug:

• Gunfire erupted in Ferguson, Missouri, late Sunday, setting off a chaotic chain of events that ended with police shooting an 18-year-old man on the anniversary of the death of Michael Brown.
  
  The events unfolded following a day of peaceful demonstrations remembering Brown, the unarmed black teen shot and killed by white police officer Darren Wilson, sparking protests across the country, and shining a spotlight on police tactics.

Give us a fucking break. We're getting damn sick and tired of this "unarmed teen" bullshit. Here, for comparison purposes, are the heights and weights of some individuals that no one would want pounding on them:

• Mike Singletary: 6'01" 232
• Brian Urlacher: 6'04 258
• Dick Butkus: 6'03 245
• Sonny Liston: 6'01 219
• Ali: 6'03 236

Although all of these men operated in arenas governed by strict rules of the sport they played, we wouldn't want to be on their bad side.

Michael Brown, a known felon, strong armed robber and scourge of the neighborhood, was 6'04...as big as any of these guys, and was in excess of 300 pounds. He was going up against unarmed shopkeepers, not fellow athletes in a stadium. He was also operating in an arena where there are no rules. And while we wouldn't be too worried if he was chasing us, if he was trying to get in an open window of our car and actively disarm us, knowing that we had a gun, we'd be a bit worried.

This is the "hero" of the Ferguson community - an individual so guilty, that Obama's Justice Department, after a months long investigation, couldn't find a single charge that would stick under any law at the local, state and federal levels.

Welcome to the new normal.