Nice Weekend

The wheel never stops turning, especially when the weather turns warm:

• At least 26 people were shot, 2 fatally, in shootings across Chicago this weekend beginning Friday afternoon.

Nearly 500 shot so far this year, too.

Homicide Discrepancy

HeyJackass has it at 102.

Channel 7 quotes the Department claiming it's "only" 95.

• Since late Friday afternoon, two people were killed and at least 17 others have been wounded in shootings across the city in what is already shaping up to be a violent year in Chicago.
  
  There have been 95 homicides in Chicago since the start of the year, according to Chicago Police Director of News Affairs Anthony Gugliemi. The number is almost double the 48 reported at this time last year.
  
  [...]
  
  A previous version of this post incorrectly stated that there have been 102 homicides Since Jan. 1.

Quite frankly, we trust HeyJackass.com more than the Department (which has every reason to lie) and certainly more than Channel 7 (who wants "access" and has proven time and again that they'll toe Rahm's line to get it).

First Tour LOD Death

Tragedy in Virginia:

• The Prince William County Police Department swore in Officer Ashley Guindon on Friday, tweeting a photo of her and another new recruit and including a message: "Be safe!"
  
  Twenty-four hours later, on her first day on the street, Guindon, 28, was one of three officers called to respond to a domestic-violence incident in Woodbridge, Virginia.
  
  As they approached the front door of the single-family home on a quiet residential street, Ronald Williams Hamilton, 32, an Army staff sergeant stationed at the Pentagon, started shooting, officials said. Police do not yet know why. But all three officers were shot.
  
  Guindon's wounds were fatal.

We read somewhere that this is the 10th Line of Duty Death by gunfire already this year.

Watchdogs Our Ass

This appeared in the Slum Times just now:

• A real estate venture created by President Barack Obama’s onetime boss and a nephew of former Mayor Richard M. Daley squandered $68 million it was given to invest on behalf of pension plans for Chicago teachers, cops, city employees and transit workers, a Chicago Sun-Times investigation has found.
  
  The five public pension funds haven’t made a dime on the investments they made nearly a decade ago with DV Urban Realty Partners, a company created by Obama’s ex-boss Allison S. Davis and Daley nephew Robert G. Vanecko, records show.
  
  In fact, the financially troubled pension plans have lost most of the money they gave DV Urban, which used the money to invest in risky real estate deals, primarily in neglected neighborhoods.

This is news now? Seriously? A decade later? Are you fucking kidding us?

• It invested in eight real estate deals that, for the most part, had gone belly up by Dec. 31, 2015, when the investment deals with the Chicago pension plans expired.
  
  Though the pension funds lost out, DV Urban and its affiliated companies got about $9 million of the pension money for management fees. And they were in line for more until pension officials, facing losses, got a court order in 2012 to remove Davis and Vanecko from managing the retirement investments.

And this is news that these bitches got paid anyway? Paid up front for squandering $68 million of our pension dollars? Did the media just get clearance to print this tripe or what?

100...101...

It just keeps climbing....and climbing....and climbing:

• A woman was fatally shot and at least nine other people, including a 16-year-old boy, have been wounded in separate shootings since Friday afternoon on the city's South and West sides, Chicago police said.
  
  The woman, Shari Graham, 30, of the 7700 block of South Paulina Street, was pronounced dead at 10:31 p.m. Friday at Stroger Hospital of Cook County, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
  
  Graham is at least the 101st person to be killed in 2016 with the second month of the year not over yet, according to data kept by the Chicago Tribune.

And from HeyJackass, a hint of things to come:

• 1997 was the last time Chicago put up 100+ homicides in the first two months of the year, and that year wrapped up with 761. Nothing to see here folks…

With medical advances and the speed of notification via cell phone, we thing 761 is a high bar to shoot for (literally). However, we'll bet on at least 600.

Buy a Gun

Oh No!

• Illinois residents have been on a gun-buying binge.
  
  In December, the Illinois State Police did more than 60,000 background checks on firearms purchasers — an all-time record for any month in Illinois.
  
  Last June, August and November all posted records for those months.
  
  And on post-Thanksgiving’s Black Friday, Nov. 27, more than 5,000 background checks were done for gun sales — the most ever for a single day in Illinois.

Nice to see Illinois gun owners doing their part.

Looking Fetal

This graphic appeared in the Tribune Friday:

The article goes on to describe a great "frustration" of officers. Go read it all.

We take issue with a lot of the conclusions in the article, especially the parts blaming the rank-and-file for cover-ups that everyone here and elsewhere knows were perpetrated by the clouted at the behest of other clouted and political powers. No cops covered up the McDonald video. No copper took home Vanecko file.

We've stated here time and again that there are at least three tiers of discipline....

• one for the blue shirts (hammer time)
• one for the white shirts (a smaller hammer)
• and one for the clouted (a very small hammer, made of feathers)

....and everyone comes on knowing exactly where they fall on that scale.

The last paragraphs are going to frustrate a lot of people, but not officers:

• Still, in Chicago, some officers feel federal intervention could ultimately help the Police Department.
  
  A South Side patrolman recalled how officers in past years could be moved to an undesirable shift or denied time off if they didn't make enough street stops, citations or arrests. Officers risked making unconstitutional stops just to meet what amounted to a quota, he said.
  
  "It did more harm than good," the rank-and-file officer said. "For the first time, we're not being bullied into doing stuff."

Except for the clout units being bullied into making more stops or losing their spots - maybe De-Escalante is about to rethink that entire "accountability" thing to start generating numbers in direct violation of what the ACLU wants?

Superintendent Names Leaking

And surprise, we have a trial balloon being sent up to see if it's acceptable to the "community:"

• The African-American public safety director of DeKalb County, Georgia, outside Atlanta, has emerged as a front-runner to replace fired Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy, sources said Thursday.
  
  Cedric Alexander is a high-ranking official in the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives and holds a doctoral degree in clinical psychology and a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy.
  
  His resume includes stints as police chief of Rochester, New York, deputy commissioner of the New York State Police and security director for the Transportation Security Administration at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

Golly, another outsider. It's almost like the past decade of incompetent "merit" promotions have driven away anyone actually capable of advancing through the ranks. If that doesn't tell you everything you need to know about this Department at the moment, nothing will.

True? Rumor?

Anyone have the RD number?

• True story from 3rd district, a police officer gave gang banger POS a receipt after a street stop. Said gang banger used the receipt to google officer and found his home address. Gang banger the next day threatened to go to the officers residence and harm officer and family. Misdemeanor charges on gang banger. All this bc of the receipt, no one cares if you and your family get hurt cops lives don't matter to Rahm Aclu aldercreatures rev runds, etc, just another law of unintended consequences

Yes, we know that they can get your name half-a-dozen ways, and search for it half-a-dozen more, but if actually tied to an ISR receipt, why would anyone ever do one again?

How about you put the name of the Lieutenant, XO, Commander or Deputy demanding activity unless you want to lose your spot?

Suspending a Windfall?

Only in Illinois:

• llinois lawmakers are considering suspending late fees for license plate renewals that have caused a windfall for the state after it stopped sending reminders to residents to save money.
  
  Not mailing the notices has caused a dramatic increase in fees. The Associated Press reported Thursday that drivers paid more than $2.7 million in fines from Jan. 1 through Feb. 22. That's $1.2 million more than a year ago.

So Illinois saves money by not sending out renewals, meaning people are supposed to responsible for the own renewals. This results in a savings of nearly half-a-million per month. The fines for NOT being responsible rack up an additional $1.3 million in additional revenue, meaning Illinois was getting nearly $2 million extra.

Well, we can't have that!

• One proposed measure would suspend the $20 fine for motorists until the state ends its 8-month-old budget deadlock. The Secretary of State's office stopped mailing reminders in October to save an estimated $450,000 a month on postage.
  
  Rep. Jaime Andrade is sponsoring the legislation. The Chicago Democrat says the surprise cost is unfair to residents living on their own tight budgets.

Because actually being responsible for your own life, actions, car, etc is just sooooo difficult. It's not like you don't walk by the rear plate of your car two, three, ten times a day. So of course, in Illinois, a state $100 billion in debt, it makes perfect sense to forgo actual revenue.

New ET's? And New FTO's?

They snuck this one in on a Thursday night.

Congratulations to all.

Blame Who Now?

If you needed any more indication that this Department is doomed and that De-Escalante is not going to be the next Supernintendo, this is it:

• Chicago violent crime statistics are hard to stomach these days — shootings have skyrocketed and murders have doubled compared to this time last year — but interim Police Supt. John Escalante isn’t shying away from the numbers.
  
  Chicago’s temporary top cop plans to expand on CompStat, the data-driven policing strategy brought to town by his predecessor Garry McCarthy, by adding a layer of crime-statistic crunching to the Police Department’s three area outposts.
  
  “Building on CompStat’s ability to provide the Chicago Police Department with important information about police operations and crime trends, we are expanding its scope by implementing area-specific CompStat meetings for Areas North, Central, and South,” Escalante said.
  
  [...] Now, police sergeants will be judged by the effectiveness of officers under their supervision.

So....if the officers aren't doing, let's just say....ISR's because the mayor and everyone else has thrown them under the proverbial bus, then the sergeants are going to be blamed? And held accountable? For a policy or policies they had no hand in developing and are told to accomplish with no manpower, no equipment and no support from on high?

Is this a Unit thing? Because we know a few crusty old sergeants who are bid to Districts, bid to watches, and seriously will tell the brass to stick it where the sun doesn't shine if they're "judged" by anyone who never had a bad assignment in their careers. We pay good money to see them at CompStat, too.

Here's an Interesting Idea

From a retiree and published in Crain's:

• Last week, a 25-year-old California woman named Aaren O'Connor was shot in the head and killed while sitting in her car on Chicago's 21st Street in broad daylight. Then, this past weekend, 32 people were shot in Chicago, including a 3-year-old. Where is the outrage? When is enough going to be enough?
  
  With a victim list growing by the day, it's time to realize we are in a war. Gangs are spreading fear and violence at will. The shootings are no longer a midnight-to-5-a.m. occurrence; they are happening in almost all of our neighborhoods and at any time. We have lost control.
  
  To regain control, we have to get our police department back to a professional force that has the respect of the communities it serves. I am a retired Chicago Police Department lieutenant who was with the force 33 years, and I was one of the department's SWAT coordinators. I've also been a private consultant to several universities and campus police departments on emergency response and tactics. Here's my view.
  
  Right now the gang shooters and their affiliates are having their way with little or no interference from law enforcement. Gone are the specialists who kept intelligence on all the leaders, emerging leaders and their turf; they knew the gang colors and the signs and who the main leaders were. Former police Superintendent Garry McCarthy broke up those units, saying he was putting a stop to “cowboying by specialized units.” Now those officers are out of the neighborhoods and back in the districts answering calls of dog bites and domestic issues.

We know that we're going to get a lot of nonsense in the comment sections, deriding the author, complaining about the units being "clout heavy," the seemingly endemic corruption that followed certain units. Those comments will be summarily deleted for the time being.

What we want here is a discussion on the idea - that a citywide response unit, staffed and equipped properly, might actually have an impact on the rising crime rates, specifically aggravated batteries, sex assaults, burglaries and homicides.

Of course, this means the Department would have to actually put manpower up to 13,500 officers again, something Rahm has studiously avoided his entire term.

ACLU Flyer

Here's what the ACLU has been posting everywhere they can:

Word from a few e-mailers is these flyers are being posted on lampposts up and down Garfield Boulevard and other venues. A picture or two of that would be appreciated.

Here's an amusing idea, not that we'd ever endorse or suggest such a thing:

• What if someone created a fake ISR? Fake name, fake profile, fake stop and some shady reasons for the stop. Then have the contact number go to a "burner" phone manned by an interested party...someone with an interest in proving the ACLU is using this police provided information to sue the police and steer complaints to IPRA in order to "prove" their allegations of a Department out-of-control.

Of course, this would have to be recorded, a certain violation of wiretapping/eavesdropping statutes. But it would be funny as hell.

Never to be Spoken

Every so often (actually more often), the comment sections here reveal a nugget or three of real wisdom buried among the hundreds we moderate daily. Here's one that, although politically incorrect, is true far more than anyone would like to admit:

• The percentages of ISR's completed should reflect (A) the population of the District you work in and (B) the population of described offenders in the District you work in.

Seriously, who else are you supposed to be stopping? Is this what they want?

• "Damn, I'm down three brown people this week...better find someone to hassle!"
• "Hey, anyone know where I can find a white guy?"

That seems to be what they want. And we guarantee you will never heard that truth spoken aloud by a politician, by a supervisor above the rank of sergeant, or by a lawyer (Corp Counsel, ACLU, plaintiff attorney).

99.....99.....

Three killings overnight has put Chicago on the verge of 100 for the first seven weeks of the year.

How very proud Rahm, Mr. Six and the ACLU must be.

Dig Deep Zach

We haven't watched the video yet, but Chicago Tonight has a summary of their recent interview with US Attorney Zachary Fardon:

• As the U.S. Department of Justice carries out its investigation of the Chicago Police Department in the aftermath of the Laquan McDonald shooting, U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon joins “Chicago Tonight” to discuss updates on the probe, the recent spike in gun violence gripping the city, and some of the high-profile cases his office has handled over the last few months.
  
  Just a few weeks after the city released the police dashboard camera video of the controversial McDonald shooting, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced in December the launch of an expansive investigation into patterns and practices of the police department. Since 2008, the Department of Justice has opened 23 similar investigations throughout the county, including one in Ferguson, Missouri after the police shooting of Michael Brown that set off protests for weeks.
  
  A “pattern or practice” investigation evaluates whether a police department has systematic problems that result in constitutional or federal violations. For Chicago, Lynch said the probe will specifically examine the police department’s use of force and its policies regarding police accountability.
  
  Fardon said on “Chicago Tonight” that he could not comment on the specifics of the ongoing federal investigation into the Chicago Police Department practices.
  
  “It is a deep dive, it is the opposite of superficial,” Fardon said. “I will say it’s an important historic opportunity we have to take a look at these issues at the Chicago Police Department. It is a terrific and important law enforcement organization, and the city deserves it to be as great as it deserves it to be.”

Should be an interesting spring and summer, though with democratic appointees investigating a democratic run city where a democratic president hails from, let's just say our expectations are kind of low.

Why All the Stabbings?

NYC having some issues with knife attacks:

• The frightening wave of slashing attacks terrorizing New York since the year began has gripped both hardened city folks and tourists with fear and left experts searching for an explanation.
  
  Through Sunday, the NYPD had recorded 567 slashing attacks, some 20 percent above the pace set in early 2015. Police and criminologists have identified no single pattern for the slashings, which have plagued the city’s subway system as well as both trendy and tough neighborhoods.
  
  “New York has been shocked by a spate of stabbings and slashings in the subway system,” the Manhattan Institute noted in a new report. “After two decades of lower crime, New Yorkers have gotten used to safe subways, but riders are now being warned to exercise a level of caution that harks back to an earlier era.”

We're going to go out on a limb and blame it on some screw up by the delBlasio administration. New York is averaging 10 attacks a day. Hopefully, someone comes up with some form of knife-control or a knife registry to stop this madness.

Judge is "Disappointed"

Seriously? You sit on the bench and you're "disappointed"?

• Cook County Circuit Judge William Raines was in California last week when he heard the news: The 64-year-old woman he'd hoped to never see in his courtroom again was arrested once more at O'Hare International Airport.
  
  Marilyn Hartman has earned national notoriety as a stowaway for trying to sneak onto jets without a ticket.
  
  "I can't tell you how disappointed I am right now that we're facing this issue," Raines told Hartman on Tuesday in a Chicago courtroom.

Here's what really got our blood boiling - again:

• "We've sat down and we put a lot of time and resources into trying to make this work," Raines said. "And if it's not going to work, then guess what we need to do? There's a punishment factor that comes in. I don't want to even address that until we have more information, but this is really kind of the last opportunity, I think.
  
  "And I said that the last time, that this was the last opportunity. So maybe this is the last last opportunity," the judge said.

What the fuck does "...last last opportunity" even mean? It's just another bullshit lib-tarded means to excuse deliberate and repeated misbehavior on the part of not just this nutjob, but thousands of criminals across the system.

This is why Dart is emptying the jail at every opportunity, giving repeat felons "last last" opportunities.

This is what Quinn was doing, releasing somewhere around one thousand convicted felons on parole that ended up committing numerous assaults, batteries, rapes and at least two murders we know of.

And this is exactly why we vote "NO" on every single judge up for retention in this crooked political system we have here today.

Local 2 Infighting

Problems over on the fire side of things:

• SCC,
  
  The FOP may have it's issues, but at least they are not going out of their way to expel or suspend from the union. Seven CFD paramedics (including a paramedic Field Chief) or being put on trial by IAFF Local-2 for creating a political action committee to support Jesus "Chuy" Garcia (prior to Local-2 endorsing Rahm Emanuel). The charges were brought up by a retired member of the CFD and the hearing is being supported and financed by Local-2, with firefighter & paramedics from the Rockford area being brought in by Local-2 to act as hearing officers. Their hotel bill for the hearing officers will be paid by Local-2 (from dues paid by members).
  
  It's a hard pill to swallow when I see problems within our FOP, what Firefighters Local-2 is doing, is downright disturbing!! This is what the Mayor wants, destruction from within our ranks.
  
  Stay safe

That's one of the biggest complaints about unions. They forcefully collect dues and then spend them on things you vehemently disagree with. Example - CPS sending pizzas to the Ferguson protesters and buses full of know-nothings supporting a felon. We've met hundreds of teachers who are furious about this, but they have no voice in their own union. We know dozens of firefighters who wouldn't (and didn't) vote for Rahm, but their union endorsed him. Now they're paying a political price.

Too Little, Too Late?

Something about this sounds so very familiar...almost like the brass is getting all their feedback from some place we've heard about....somewhere...insignificant::

• Interim Chicago Police Supt. John Escalante said Tuesday he hopes to counter a severe downturn in street stops by responding to cops’ complaints about the “burdensome” reports they’ve been filling out since the beginning of the year.
  
  Escalante told the Chicago Sun-Times that officers will start using a new, streamlined form on March 1.
  
  Escalante has met with officers for almost two weeks to hear their complaints about the “investigatory stop report” implemented on Jan. 1. He said he listened to their concerns at roll calls and at police headquarters.

Or maybe he read it somewhere. Proactive Policing is dead for all intents and purposes.

Hey, here's a bright f#$%ing idea no one downtown has ever heard of before:

• How about you ask for and receive the input from the end users of this ACLU shit show? You know, the Patrol Officers? Not desk jockeys who haven't seen or smelled the inside of a blue-and-white for three, five, ten years or more. No Academy "instructors." No one from a Unit or a HQ spot. And absolutely no one who "volunteers" for a panel discussion about this crap in order to land a spot.

You come out to District Roll Calls and you ask the boys and girls what's what, what works, what's nonsense and what's wasting their time. Start treating Patrol like the backbone it's supposed to be instead of the handing us the ass end of the stick time and time again and telling us it's a sweet smelling rose.

Just because you avoided Patrol by dint of birthright, political connections, or who you happened to be sleeping with doesn't mean Patrol doesn't have valuable insight into how to run the Department efficiently and yes, better than you're doing right now. It wasn't Patrol that got us into this DOJ mess right now - it was the connected, the politicians, the clouted, running it into the ground where survival is the name of the game.

Of course, it's easy to forget where you came from - especially if you were never there.

Dart's Electronic Monitoring

Anyone want to bet on how many crimes these types are committing?

• [Officers] arrested subject Watson, Jerome DOB 9/3/7*. about two weeks ago. Jerome has 38 prior arrests including numerous felonies. Criminal history stated Jerome is a registered violent murderer in a moving status. Gang alert stated Mickey Cobra. Jerome had a Cook County Sheriff Electronic Monitoring Bracelet on his right ankle. He stated is was placed on him for a another recent charge of burglary and he already served the mandatory probation for the murder charge. [T]he Sheriff's E.M. unit [...] response was shocking to say the least. They informed they were NOT going immediately charge him for violating his EM conditions and if he bonded out on the new charge they would "catch up with him later." They informed us Jerome was basically a needle in a hay stack and they have thousands of such cases. Is this nuts or what.

This is what Dart is letting run around Cook County - multiple felony arrestees, all because Prickwrinkle wants him to empty the jail, and woe is the unarmed citizen who runs across this piece of shit climbing in their window one night.

Stay Off the 606

Did anyone not see this coming?

• A cyclist who was riding on The 606 after it closed for the evening late Friday was attacked and mugged by a group of men, police said.
  
  The incident occurred around 11:30 p.m. Friday in the 3200 block of West Bloomingdale Avenue, on the western end of the 2.7-mile long elevated path that runs from Bucktown to Humboldt Park.
  
  The 25-year-old victim, whose cell phone, wallet and bike were taken, was not seriously injured, according to Officer Janel Sedevic, a Chicago police spokeswoman.

Well, the "victim" was actually trespassing on Park Property after closure, but even we predicted months ago that this place would end up a hangout for undesirables - isolated, out-of-sight, minimal patrols, understaffed Police and Park District personnel. Anyone have any reports on graffiti and vandalism going on up there without a constant police presence?

[UPDATE: Might not have been actually trespassing. Numerous persons say you can cut across parks as long as you are using it as a direct line of travel after hours. Still, one has to question the wisdom of using an isolated set of former railroad tracks, out of sight/sound of regular patrols, and in fact un-patrolled after hours]

Chicago to Return $$$?

Rahm might have to dig deep:

• Chicago violated the “fundamental principles of justice, equity and good conscience” by denying due process to motorists issued red-light camera and speed-camera tickets, a judge has ruled, declaring those tickets “void.”
  
  In a harshly worded ruling handed down late Friday, Circuit Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy kept alive a lawsuit seeking hundreds of millions dollars in refunds for motorists ticketed since 2003 after City Hall “skipped a step” mandated by the city’s own municipal code.
  
  The lawsuit filed nearly a year ago accused the Emanuel administration of violating the requirement to issue a second notice of violation before issuing a determination of liability against motorists issued speed-camera and red-light camera tickets.

Wait, what? The City doesn't follow the rules it puts in place and expects everyone else to follow? Who would've thunk it? So all those hundreds of millions of dollars, all of it spent already, might have to be refunded.

And what does this mean going forward, seeing as how these things were put into place with a crooked City Council vote, greased by bribes of up to $2,000 per camera installed, and are currently being sued to the tune of hundreds of millions?

Look Who's Noticing

The media is starting to notice the streets running with blood:

• Four homicides over the weekend and two more Monday morning pushed Chicago's homicide count so far this year to double the same period last year.
  
  The city has recorded at least 95 homicides since the first of the year, compared to 47 last year, according to data kept by the  Tribune. The city has also more than doubled the amount of people shot - about 420 this year compared to 193 last year.
  
  Thirty-two people were shot in Chicago over the weekend, the youngest among them a 3-year-old boy shot in the leg in the Englewood neighborhood.

This will almost certainly be the fastest tally to 100 in some time, possibly decades. And the numbers for Robberies of all types, Sex Assaults of all types, and Burglaries (along with the downgraded Theft stats) are skyrocketing. We haven't seen a single press conference recently about how crime is "down" except for the CTA report, and we dismiss that out of hand as barefaced lie - "reported crime" is down, but there isn't a snowball's chance in Hell of actual crime being down on the CTA.

Another CPR Save

This time at O'Hare:

• A Chicago Police officer saved a woman’s life Saturday afternoon at O’Hare International Airport.
  
  At 3:41 p.m., a 21-year-old woman collapsed and lost consciousness inside the airport. A Chicago Police officer assigned to the Airport Law Enforcement District responded immediately and performed CPR, police said.
  
  The officer, a 19-year Chicago Police Department veteran, requested an AED, but the woman regained consciousness before the equipment arrived, police said.

Well done Officer.

Coppers Injured

Sorry we missed this one from a couple days ago:

• A crash on the city's Northwest Side injured two police officers and critically injured another man, officials said.
  
  The crash occurred when police attempted to pull over a black van near West Belmont and North Long just after 1 a.m. Sunday in the city's Belmont Cragin neighborhood. The van resisted and sped off, running a red light and hitting a police car head-on, police said.
  
  The van's 35-year-old driver was hospitalized in critical condition; the two officers were transported to local hospitals with non-life threatening injuries.

The van "resisted." That a new one on us. Were TRR's completed?

• "He was drunk and he didn't have a license," said Cameron Stegenga, a passenger in the van who spoke exclusively with ABC7. "But the cops even told us that if he would have stopped and said, 'Look, I'm drunk, we're going right here,' they would have let us go and none of this would have happened."

Really Cameron? And your basis for believing that was what exactly? Especially with in-car cameras, body cams, street cameras everywhere. Those days are gone.

• Stegenga said he watched his friend fly through the windshield.

Well then you'll have a great story to tell at the reunions we suppose. Best wishes to the injured officers after being rattled by these morons.

Silly Calls - Continued

We're bored talking about the shot and dead people. How about some dumb 911 calls?

We've all been to that one - though we probably shouldn't be.

Again, this speaks more to your parenting (or lack of it) that your daughter would bring this home. Maybe Dad could put him out?

And who the hell is cashing $500 checks for a 10-year-old?

Nice Building - Again

Word from 35th Street is that the Medical Section people are all worried because some bean-counter is looking to downsize the entire operation. If we had to look at this, we'd want to get as far away as possible from the building before it collapsed:

We hope that's just a leaky pipe, because there are 4 stories above this office, and if it's leaking from the roof, well, we suppose it's just another in a long list of problems to go along with the collapsing floors, buckling walls and drainage issues.

Naperville?

We've been told for years on the blog that Naperville is a veritable paradise. A haven for law and order. A fed living on every single block. But then this:

• A Papa John's pizza store was robbed Saturday night by a man armed with a gun, Naperville police and store officials said Sunday.
  
  The suspect, described as a white man wearing a gray hoody, entered the 1220 W. Ogden Ave. business at about 7:10 p.m., displayed a handgun and obtained an undisclosed amount of cash before fleeing, police Cmdr. Jason Arres said in a news release.
  
  The robbery marks the fifth to have taken place in Naperville since Jan. 18, when 7-Eleven stores at 351 E. Bailey Road and 1490 E. Chicago Ave. – about three miles apart – were held up between 3:55 and 4:15 a.m., according to Naperville police. The suspect in both cases is believed to be the same person, described as a white man in his mid-30s standing about 6-foot-2 and weighing about 200 pounds. He wore dark clothing and a hat, partially covered his face and carried a dark-colored handgun or weapon, police said.

Sounds like Naperville is a hell-hole of gun crime run amok....like Englewood, except that the media can't wait to tell you the description of Naperville's armed robbers.

Warm Weekend

So of course, the carnage count is up - a three-year-old:

• A young boy was rushed to a South Side hospital after police said he became an innocent victim of gang violence. Relatives identified the victim as 3-year-old Ayden Deer.

A nightclub patron who probably won't make it:

• Two people were injured - one critically - in a shooting outside a South Loop nightclub, police said. Third Ward Ald. Pat Dowell said The Shrine is now closed permanently as a result of the shooting.

Too little, too late there Pat - we certainly hope this isn't another case of the manager bribing the aldercreature after the place had been shut down by the Department of Revenue for licensing....you know, the way certain west side establishments remained open after hosting election parties?

Chicago is well into double digits for people shot:

• At least nine people were wounded Saturday in separate shootings on the South and West sides, according to Chicago police officials.

On top of the 6 or 8 shot Friday night. HeyJackass has the numbers at 2 dead and 20- wounded so far with Sunday yet to come.

There's a Proper Bail

Zero:

• A routine traffic stop in an Englewood parking lot quickly turned into a scuffle as a Jackson Park Highlands man punched and kicked three Chicago police officers, grabbing for one of their duty weapons before he was arrested, prosecutors said Saturday.
  
  Terrence L. Strong, 28, was ordered held without bail Saturday during a bond hearing at the Leighton Criminal Courts Building.
  
  Strong, of the 6700 block of South Constance Avenue, faces a number of felony charges including several counts of aggravated battery to a police officer and attempting to disarm a police officer in an incident that injured a veteran police captain and two female officers, authorities said.

Anyone noticing a lot of "enhanced" weed floating around? We've heard of a couple other similar attacks, though we've been lucky enough to avoid first-hand experience.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery to the injured.

DOJ Ride-Alongs?

From a regular e-mailer:

• It seems the Dept of Justice has been asking to do ride alongs in certain south side districts. The FOP advises that if you are not comfortable with these gas-bags riding along with you, you are within your rights to refuse. We say ask for that cage car and stick them in the back.

Anyone actually seen a DOJ representative riding along in a district yet?

Stats Keep Rising

Chicago doubled the January 2015 homicide totals, and now Chicago is about to double February 2015:

Yes. Now go sit down and shut up.

Controversial to Whom?

More attacks on established law:

• Before they entered the darkened house, Justin Doyle and his friends checked to make sure it was empty. They knocked on the front door and cased the exterior. Then they threw a rock through the window.
  
  The three teens knew the owner of the house they planned to burglarize that night in 2008 was in the hospital. They had not anticipated that his friend was asleep inside. Awakened by the breaking glass and fearful for his life, the man grabbed a gun from a dresser drawer. When one of the teens opened the bedroom door, the man fired.
  
  The youngest of the three intruders, a slight 14-year-old in a red hoodie named Travis Castle, was killed.
  
  Doyle, then 15, was charged with murder in his friend's death.

The "felony murder" charge, now under attack because, by golly, it's just not fair that people who didn't actually kill someone, are charged in the deaths of those people, usually their accomplices-in-crime. This hasn't been "controversial" that we can ever recall. In fact, it should be taught in every school andbroadcast in every media outlet, that if you participate in a crime that results in any death, you'll be charged in that death, based solely on your stupidity. This entire removal of personal responsibility is unacceptable.

Nice Job Officers

A great idea (defibrillators) came in handy the other day:

• Chicago police officers spoke exclusively to ABC7 about how they saved the life of a fellow officer. The life-saving heroics were made possible by a state law that now requires all police stations to be equipped with defibrillators.
  
  A defibrillator is the simple device responsible for saving countless lives, including the life of a 59-year-old officer at the 11th District police station. When the officer went into cardiac arrest Saturday, it undoubtedly helped save his life, along with the fellow officers who jumped into action.

Someone commented that the combined time on the job for these three heroic officers is something under five years. In that case, we feel confident there will always be men and women stepping up when needed.

A job very well done.

12 Year Old Shot

Again, is anyone really surprised?

• A 12-year-old boy was shot in the chest in Chicago's Gage Park neighborhood.
  
  His family said he was playing in the street in front of his father's home near West 54th Street and South Sacramento Avenue Thursday night. Police said around 9 p.m., a gunman pulled up, opened fire and then drove off.
  
  A neighbor who did not want to be identified says the boy was shot because he didn't throw up a gang sign.

Because why again?

• The five boys were taking advantage of the mild night Thursday and playing tag on their Gage Park block when a red SUV pulled up.
  
  "Raise the crown," someone inside yelled, meaning give the gang sign for the Latin Kings, according to one of the boys in the group.
  
  A 12-year-old froze. A shot went off and the boy collapsed on a metal grate as the SUV sped off, according to police and neighbors. The boy was hit in the chest and taken in critical condition to Mount Sinai Hospital.

And this makes perfect sense in what world? Presenting hand-signals for a group of misfits who provide exactly nothing to civilized society when they aren't thrown by a child, who was doing what kids his age should be doing - playing tag in the twilight?

ISR to Change?

We aren't holding our breath, but desperate times require desperate promises to make the police think that Rahm has their backs (nevermind all those knives sticking in them or those tire tracks up and down your bodies):

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel has asked for a “look into” the new detailed reports officers must fill out when they stop people — after a cop told him similar forms in the suburbs are “half the length as those in Chicago.”
  
  The Fraternal Order of Police and rank-and-file cops have complained that officers must fill out far more information on the new “investigatory stop report” that replaced the department’s old “contact card” system on Jan. 1.
  
  Officers say they’ve conducted far fewer stops this year because of the new reporting system. Meanwhile, crime has shot up.

Gosh. Cops are complaining. No real surprise there, we do it, too - but that doesn't mean there isn't a basis behind the complaints. We aren't bitching to bitch, we're bitching because the system is seriously fucked up:

• Under state law and an agreement with the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, Chicago officers now must report far more information about stops — including whether they frisked the person and if an arrest was made.
  
  A retired federal judge will review the Chicago reports to ensure the stops are passing constitutional muster.

Does everyone recall what these reports entail? School information, employment information, all vehicle information (even if no tickets are written), potentially three different narratives. Seventy-something boxes to complete...per person stopped. On a good day, that's 20 minutes per report, twisted in a unnatural sitting position to type on a screen smaller than a standard laptop. Draw your own conclusions.

Remember, here's what the mayor supposedly wanted according to rumors the other day:

• Heard through a little birdy that Mr. 9.5 flipped out the other day when he got the numbers from the month of January. Supposedly he started demanding answers as to why no one's doing ISR's and when told that no one wants to do a 2-page report that the ACLU is getting their hands on, he demanded that R and D fix it and fix it immediately.

And here's what the ACLU says:

• "We are pleased that there are going to be fewer stops."

So who are you going to put your trust in? A mayor that has repeatedly thrown the Police Department under the bus and driven it over everyone including the supernintendo whose back he had not even 48 hours before firing, or the ACLU who has made no secret of its institutional hatred of police?

This is part of what the PAX 501 from the boss says:

• The Department has not relinquished any control of our policies and procedures to the ACLU. The agreement does not provide the ACLU with any role whatsoever with respect to individual officers' compliance with the Department policies.

Except for the fact that the ACLU gets copies of every single ISR report - that isn't a "relinquish[ing]" of anything, right? Who are you shitting John? At the FOP meeting Tuesday, it was discussed that the ACLU is mailing surveys (and has created a flyer) for persons stopped by the police. They have also contacted stopped persons at home, are asking leading questions, and providing guidance to the CR process in order to get complaint numbers on officers. No reporter will touch on that - the ACLU, a private organization, is getting data collected by government agents (the police) in order to sue the government collecting the data.

The fact is that the ACLU is getting these files and is reviewing them for reasons to sue the Department and individual officers, and anyone who says differently, from the mayor, the Acting Superintendent and on down the line, is lying - plain and simple.

SCC Holmes

Elementary Dear Watson:

• After receiving an anonymous tip this week that her son's body was near the tennis courts in Avalon Park on the South Side, Bonnette Jernigan and her family set out to find him.
  
  "We called police. About 10 cars came out, but they couldn't find my son," she said. "They told me they would look again once the sun came up if I wanted."

Ten cars - we've been on shooting scenes that didn't get a ten-car response.

• Jernigan's ordeal started Dec. 22 after her son went missing from the Far South Side. Iaron Brooks, 23, had gotten a ride from his uncle and a group of unknown men, Jernigan said. It wasn't until Wednesday, when the Cook County medical examiner's office determined Brooks died of multiple gunshot wounds, that what had happened to him started to come into focus.
  
  After Brooks missed Christmas with his 3-year-old daughter and an appointment to get rehired at Wal-Mart, Jernigan already knew something was wrong, she said.

So he's been missing six weeks....after a ride with an uncle and a bunch of unknown folks (or people). You think that Uncle has suddenly become a person-of-interest?

• About 4 p.m. Jan. 5, someone called police and reported seeing a body in the bushes at Avalon Park, but when canine units were called to the scene, no body was found.

That's one search - for a body now:

• In the days after the initial search at Avalon Park, Jernigan's relief dissipated when she was told her son might be in the Auburn Park lagoon near 79th Street and Normal Avenue.
  
  "The water was frozen, so there was only so much that could be done. But we never gave up. We went to the lagoon with chisels and tried to punch holes, hoping something would float up," Jernigan said.

Another search, though foolhardy, by the family. But now they're definitely getting information from someone somewhere that they aren't looking for a live person any more. But no one in the 'hood will give the police definitive info to locate said body - "no snitching" and all that.

• Weeks went by, and there was still no word about Brooks' whereabouts, until one of Jernigan's sons received an anonymous tip Monday, saying his youngest brother's body was near the tennis court by the abandoned tracks near Avalon Park, she said.
  
  The tipster said he overheard a group of kids talking about Brooks' body being left in the area near the tracks, Jernigan said.
  
  The family contacted the police, and Jernigan said at least 10 police cars came out.

Very specific, but again, don't call the police. Call the family and have them call the police so as to distance yourself from actually snitching:

• When the police left, Brooks' uncle walked through the area searching for his nephew.
  
  "He hollered out, 'Bonnie, Bonnie, he's here. ...I feel his spirit, he's here,' " she said. But they found nothing.

An uncle....where have we heard that before? Oh yeah, he accepted a ride from an "uncle."

• The next day, the family set out once again searching for Brooks. About 20 minutes in, Jernigan heard her brother yell, "He's here ... we got him."

Mom's brother found the body.....that would make him....an uncle? Golly, and was this the uncle who gave him a ride? And was he the one who "[felt] his spirit"? And the one accepting the "anonymous" calls? We're going to bet a lot of coincidences are coming to the foreground right about now.

• "I'm so furious. We gave (the police) every clue we had, but we had to find him," she said.

Whoa whoa whoa....where the hell did that come from? Even the Great Sherlock Holmes didn't see that coming out of left field. Nice gratuitous shot at the police to close out the article, as if we killed him or something.

Dead Broke

Would you like to see the scary road that Chicago is headed down? Read this article.

• Chicago Schools Are Dead Broke
  
  There you have it. The Chicago Public School system (CPS) is broke. Even after Mayor Rahm Emanuel took a knife to the CPS budget last summer, cutting away almost half a billion in spending, the system still faces a $500 million shortfall.
  
  District officials have come up with the brilliant solution to fund their operations by issuing bonds, as if that will bring in more tax revenue or lower their expenses. Bond buyers would have the promise that CPS will use its “full faith and credit” to repay the bonds.
  
  There’s only one problem. It’s a lie, and the district officials know it.
  
  The term “full faith and credit” means that a borrower will use all assets available to repay a debt. But Chicago’s school system, in the footsteps of Detroit two years ago and now Puerto Rico, has no intention of foregoing other expenses to pay bondholders.

Read it all.

Meanwhile....

Up on the north side:

• A man was wounded in a Sauganash shooting early Wednesday morning, police said.
  
  The shooting was the first in at least decade in the neighborhood known for million-dollar homes decked with lights every Christmas, according to data compiled by DNAinfo.
  
  At 3:10 a.m., a 22-year-old man was in a car heading east on Peterson Avenue with friends when an argument took place and the man was shot twice, said [...], a spokeswoman for the department.

Over ten years since the last recorded shooting. The good news is it was just someone driving through the neighborhood on Peterson, so no need to move out. It might be another ten years before there's another.

In other good news, Englewood just went 10 minutes without a shooting! North Lawndale almost went ten hours without someone being shot.

NYPD in Hot Water....3 Years Later

This doesn't bode well for our future:

• An alarming number of New York police officers are performing unconstitutional "stop and frisks," despite court orders to end the practice three years ago.
  
  A report that reviewed hundreds of New York Police Department street stops in 2015 found that in almost a third of the cases, the officer failed to document the suspicion that prompted the stop.
  
  In practically every instance, the officer's supervisor signed off on the officer's paperwork and noted there was "sufficient basis for the stop, frisk or search."
  
  The problem persists because officers aren't being properly taught about the department's reforms,according to the report, which was released Tuesday by federal monitor Peter Zimroth.

That isn't surprising seeing how the ISR roll-out is going here. We haven't gotten straight answers at training, we keep getting different answers from different people since the training is so inconsistently applied across the board, we've got bosses and the mayor screaming for more "citizen contacts" completely ignoring the fact that 80% of the Department isn't trained and the "quotas" they won't put on paper are the exact thing that got the Department in trouble in the first place.

Third Time to be the Charm?

You know, most people go through life without even being shot once:

• Beat 1522 10:40 p.m. Tuesday
  
  For the second time in a month, the young woman in the dark jacket walked out of her South Austin house and learned her childhood friend had been shot.
  
  The first time, in late January, her friend was shot in the foot in the 5200 block of West Congress Parkway where they have lived all their lives. The bullet was still lodged inside when he was shot again around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday while driving to a store.
  
  He was hit in the side and thigh and was reported stable at Mount Sinai Hospital.
  
  "Two times in a month?" the woman said, shaking as she smoked a cigarette. "What’s the problem?"

We'd say that the problem is someone keeps missing. Twice in a month?

Anyone got this scholar's IR number and criminal record? We're betting it's extensive.

Remember, police are the problem!

Why Are Pensions Broke?

This might be one reason:

• It is little known because it has been even less reported that during her lucrative time working among the Chicago political elite, current Obama White House Senior Adviser/de-facto President Valerie Jarrett was for a brief period a part-time member of the Chicago Transit Authority.
  
  The CTA is in Chicago circles known to be an entity meant to reward those for services rendered, a political payback enterprise that offers a lifetime of future riches courtesy of the Chicago taxpayer. None has benefited more than one, Valerie Jarrett…
  
  Jarrett was appointed the CTA Chair in 1995 by then Chicago Mayor, Richard M. Daley – Jarrett’s boss at the Mayor’s Office. Like so many times before, the CTA position was a likely reward for a job well done. Valerie Jarrett took care of business and kept her mouth shut, thus, it came as no surprise to find her given the $50,000 a year part-time position.
  
  Jarrett then stepped down from the CTA in 2005. This was around the same time she was accelerating the political career options of Barack Obama, a man she had groomed in Chicago and Illinois politics for the last decade.
  
  Up to that point, Valerie Jarrett had invested just over $11,000 into her CTA pension fund. To date, that fund has paid out to her over $300,000 and will continue doing so for the remainder of her lifetime.

Nice rate of return, isn't it? Like Hillary's turn in the futures market, Rahm's stint in the world of finance, Jamie Gorlick's job at Fannie Mae, and Mrs Obama's run at the University of Chicago.

Rush Rush Rush

Gotta get that mob riled up while the blood is still boiling ya know:

• The city of Chicago promised Tuesday to start more quickly releasing footage after police shootings, while activists critical of how authorities handled the videotaped fatal shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald sought to have a special prosecutor take over the case.
  
  They're the latest reactions to the shattered public trust in police officers, prosecutors and City Hall: One by attorneys, clergymen and some elected officials who say they've lost faith in Cook County's top prosecutor, and the other by a mayor trying to restore people's confidence in his office and police department.
  
  Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who has heard repeated calls to step down, said he supported the new video policy recommended by the task force he created after the McDonald footage was released. His spokesman, Adam Collins, said the recommendations would be implemented immediately.
  
  The Independent Police Review Authority, which investigates officer-involved shootings, plans to release videos and other evidence in all new cases as well as current investigations. The videos and other evidence would be released within 60 days, but law enforcement agencies can seek to delay that by another 30 days.

This is a purely political move, based solely on appeasing certain elements who favor a rush to judgement, no matter what it means in regard to actually putting together a case that will stand up in court and withstand repeated appeals.

Remember what happened in Ferguson - every single witness interviewed, sometimes multiple times, every single bit of video, methodically dismantled, analyzed and broken down by frame, a full blown investigation by not one, not two, but three different law enforcement organizations. And the end result? The officer was completely exonerated of every allegation made against him, but he still will never find work in his chosen profession.

That takes too long for the race-baiters and the "rush-to-judgement" crowd. They don't want an actual investigation that will take months and months and might actually prove the police acted within the scope of the law. They want a lynching, plain and simple.

Where Are All the Cars?

In the suburbs we're told - Bensenville:

Literally, dozens and dozens of squads. Probably all waiting for cameras or something. Or maybe a hiring wave so there are coppers to drive them.

The Wheels on the Bus....

They go around and around:

• Two call takers from the city's 911 center were suspended without pay for failing to send police to a West Side residence from which Quintonio LeGrier was calling for help.
  
  LeGrier, 19, called 911 three times on the morning after Christmas from his father's apartment. But it wasn't until the third call that the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications sent a squad car to the 4700 block of West Erie Street to check on him.
  
  [...] One of the call takers from OEMC was given a three-day suspension for failing to send a squad car after the teen claimed in his first 911 call at 4:18 a.m. that his life was being threatened, OEMC spokeswoman Melissa Stratton said Tuesday. The call taker who picked up LeGrier's second 911 call, at 4:20 a.m., was suspended for one day after also failing to dispatch police, Stratton said.
  
  LeGrier's third call was made at 4:21 a.m., and a different OEMC dispatcher sent the police. A fourth call at 4:24 a.m. was made by LeGrier's father, Antonio LeGrier, who said his son was trying to break into his bedroom with a baseball bat.

Rahm wants heads, so the administrators will provide him with a bushel-basket full so they can keep their jobs.

Did We Miss This One?

This is from two weeks ago:

• A woman fatally shot a man who broke into her home and beat her early Sunday in the Woodlawn neighborhood on the South Side.
  
  About 5:15 a.m., the 30-year-old man broke into a home in the 400 block of East 62nd Street and began to beat the woman who lived there, according to Chicago Police.
  
  The 28-year-old woman was able to grab a handgun and shot the man to death during the struggle, police said.

Once again, a gun helps prevent a crime. Imagine that.

Police Memorial Week

From our e-mail:

• Dear SCC,
  
  As you have graciously done so in the past, I'm again asking for consideration to have a post for the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington DC, for our CPD attendees. My 2016 Chicago Police Information Guide is attached.
  
  [..]
  
  The month of May remains tight for hotel reservations, so I again want to get a jump on the availability for our attendees.
  
  Thanks for your personal time and dedication involved in all that you do on our behalf.

Here's the electronic version:

Police Memorial 2016 by sccmaillist

Plow Faster Damnit!

It's come to this:

• Here it is, the most Chicago news item of winter 2016 and also of human history: A Chicago Streets and Sanitation Department driver was shot at while clearing the streets in a snowplow on Sunday [...]
  
  No one was injured.
  
  The incident took place around 2:30 p.m. in West Garfield Park, near the intersection of West Lake Street and North Kostner Avenue.

At first, we imagined it was a pedestrian firing at the plow, since everyone in the ghetto walks in the street at the first sign of a snowflake. Then we heard it was probably a drive-by from a previous altercation, so we thought, "Who the hell would want to go anywhere fast under Lake Street?" That is some seriously suicidal driving on dry pavement...and with Rahm's bike lanes reducing the available acreage by half? Once a month to gas up the VRI car is plenty for us.

In any case, that neighborhood doesn't want the police around. Now they don't want the plows around. We pull CFD out of the 'hood and we can start shutting off the lights in the non-taxpaying portions of the city...like Detroit.

Someone Snitching?

Not anything admissible in court of course, nothing that the police can use, but an interesting development:

• After a 25-year-old Pilsen woman was fatally shot earlier this month, a Pilsen house was tagged with graffiti saying, "Aaren O'Connor's Killers."
  
  The words were scrawled in blue spray paint on the home accompanied by an arrow pointing up. DNAinfoChicago is not naming the exact location of the tagged Pilsen house because individuals living in the home have not been charged with a crime.
  
  [...] Police Detectives are aware of the graffiti — a photo of which was first posted to Reddit Sunday — and are taking all information into consideration, said [...] Chicago Police Department spokesman. Police would not say whether individuals living in the house are suspects in the case.

Maybe the neighborhood could do a little vigilantism - the chances of getting away with it are better than even.

Conflict Resolution Skills

This guy ain't got 'em:

• A man ran over and killed his father and hurt two other people Saturday evening after a domestic-related incident in the North Austin neighborhood on the West Side, police said.
  
  The incident happened around 11:15 p.m. in the 5400 block of West Kamerling Avenue, said [...] a Chicago police spokesman.
  
  Police said a 19-year-old man hit his own father and two other family members with a rental car as he tried to drive off after a domestic fight.

Ruled a homicide by the M.E. Let's see what column it ends up in as Rahm and De-Escalante are desperately attempting to put a lid on the murder count by any means possible - aside from actually putting a lid on it.

Crime is Down! (sometimes)

Remember this "feel-good" story from about two weeks ago?

• Overall crime across the CTA dropped by 25 percent in 2015, officials announced Wednesday.
  
  In 2014, the Chicago Transit Authority reported 4,691 criminal incidents on buses, trains, rail stations, parking garages and rail platforms. In 2015, that number dropped to 3,512.
  
  Crime on the transit system has dropped nearly 50 percent over the last four years, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said at a press conference during the Wednesday morning commute at the Cermak-McCormick Place Green Line station.

The media never specifies "reported" crime. Because when stories like this one pop up, it kind of jars the narrative:

• A group of people trashed a Downtown 7-Eleven before brutally attacking a CTA passenger with a hammer, prosecutors said Friday.
  
  The CTA victim, who'd been riding the Blue Line to work, suffered a broken orbital bone and may have permanent vision loss, Cook County prosecutors said during a bond hearing Friday.
  
  Police arrested six suspects early Wednesday, including a man who's wanted for allegedly raping and robbing a man with cerebral palsy in Grant Park on Feb. 2.

These criminals aren't riding the CTA because they feel like they're going to get busted. They're riding the rails because they know there is no police presence, and the likelihood of them ever getting caught is minuscule.

From the Chaplains

Date night (Father Brandt is unavailable for dates):

• Have you seen the movie "Fireproof" yet?  The Chaplains Section, in conjunction with the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation, will host a movie night for CPD married couples on Monday, 29 FEB, 6:30-9:30 p.m., in the north atrium of the academy. Date night will include pizza, popcorn and refreshments.
  
  This is a free event, and FREE ON-SITE CHILDCARE WILL BE PROVIDED BY PO'S.
  
  For more information, please contact Chaplain Kimberly Lewis-Davis at 312/771-6638. RSVP by Tuesday, 16 FEB.Fireproof your marriage...and never leave your partner behind!

In fact, check out the entire Chaplain's website for many upcoming events.

Bad Week for Law Enforcement

And silence from DC:

• When convenience store robber Michael Brown was shot and killed by a white police officer, the President quickly offered an official statement. He did the same for Trayvon Martin. And again for Laquan McDonald and pretty much every other time a black suspect has wound up on the wrong end of a lethal force situation on the part of the cops. Each case is unique, with some of them raising serious questions about the actions of the cops involved and many, many more being shown to be legitimate, though unfortunate resolutions to violent conflicts.
  
  But those aren’t the only people being shot and killed these days. There’s been a severe spike in the deaths of law enforcement officers in the line of duty this year. Eight dead by the second week of February, with nearly half a dozen in just the last week.
  
  If you follow the news on a regular basis you’re probably detecting a difference in the response from the White House. There’s been essentially none. And people have begun to notice, with Fox News referring to it as a deafening silence.

Well, it's obvious who and what the White House supports and it isn't law and order by any stretch.

God bless all the fallen.

Ironic

Very very ironic:

• Matthew Williams was a passionate anti-violence activist who moved to Chicago in search of a "new life," a friend said.
  
  But Williams, 21, was shot and killed early Saturday while inside a friend's home in Park Manor. He was playing video games when a man, who had earlier gotten into an argument with someone else inside the home, "decided to shoot the building up," fatally wounding Williams, said friend and activist Ja'Mal Green.
  
  Williams had campaigned against that kind of violence for months. The 21-year-old, who was born in Chicago but raised in Virginia, moved back to the city a year ago, Green said. He became a passionate activist, speaking out against police brutality and gun violence while calling for a better public education system, Green said.
  
  “He wanted a new life. He wanted to experience something different. While he was here we started protesting, and he wanted to be involved,” Green said.

Well, he certainly experienced "something different."

Now we wonder, who did his friends call once the gunfire started?

• And Williams knew when to have fun — at the rally near Trump Tower, the last time Green saw him, Williams was playfully pushed to the ground by activist Lamon Reccord as they pretended Reccord was a police officer...

Ah yes....ol' Lemon Record. Well, we guess that rules out everyone calling the police, right?

Okay, Last One

We mean it:

And whoever keeps whining about "leave him alone, he's gone" that is true, but his legacy will be something we're digging out from under for years. You're welcome to scroll by the offending picture.

Please do ISR's! Please

Rahm is angry (from our e-mail):

• SCC,
  
  Heard through a little birdy that Mr. 9.5 flipped out the other day when he got the numbers from the month of January. Supposedly he started demanding answers as to why no one's doing ISR's and when told that no one wants to do a 2-page report that the ACLU is getting their hands on, he demanded that R&D fix it and fix it immediately. Have you heard anything similar

From another little birdy at CompStat, ISR's are down 96% as compared to Contact Cards for the same period as last year.

As a result, De-Escalante sent out the most recent PAX 501 to everyone in the Department begging them to initiate contacts with criminals, who will then contact the ACLU and sue you for everything you own. Check your e-mail - it's entertaining...if you like desperation.

We were also told by certain lieutenants that the Department is desperately trying to re-vamp the ISR report - something we told them had become too cumbersome. Suburbs merely added a line or two to their existing Contact Reports which are all still the size of a 5-by-7 index card and not a two page monstrosity.

But the ACLU isn't budging - they have their hammer and they are going to use it to prove, one way or another, that CPD is a racist organization stopping too many minorities. They couldn't do it with the blue "TSS cards" so they got the Combine politicians to extend what was supposed to be a two-year program into an unending bullshit study that has begun its second decade now.

Why would the ACLU negotiate with a bunch of candy-ass bosses and politicians who collapsed and threw their entire Department under the proverbial bus? The entire command structure is nothing but a bunch of craven cowards and Rahm is the head bully.

This is the result. Welcome.

One Armed Bandit

This is priceless:

• Authorities say a 17-year-old had his arm torn off after a man he was allegedly trying to steal sneakers from hit him with a sport utility vehicle, pinning him against a fence in Brooklyn.
  
  WNBC-TV says it happened Friday afternoon in the Canarsie neighborhood after the boy arranged to meet a 39-year-old man to purchase a pair of Air Jordan sneakers.
  
  Authorities say that once the teenager was inside the man's car, the boy pulled out a gun, took the shoes and walked off.
  
  Surveillance video shows the SUV speeding up behind the teen and running him down.
  
  Investigators say the teenager was being treated at a hospital.
  
  Police say charges were pending against the driver Friday.

Charges pending? How about a medal? Or a thank you letter. It's not like he killed the thief. And he was armed....well, one-armed now.

This Guy Looks Familiar

Hmmmmmm:

• Police have released photos of a man they believe witnessed several crimes around the Chicago Museum Campus in December and January, including assault and theft.
  
  “Police are seeking to question the unidentified subject believed to have witnessed multiple misdemeanor incidents that took place in the vicinity of the 1400 Block of Museum Campus Drive,” states the alert issued by police Wednesday.
  
  The incidents took place between Dec. 26 and Dec. 31, according to a police crime database.

Witness? Hahaha......sure. Maybe we were on to something back then.

Detective Exam Announced

Sign up begins immediately.

Test is 07 May.

Parts One and Two will be given the same day.

What? Why? No break? No waiting months for Part One results before being eligible for Part Two? This is unusual.

We've heard the paid study groups are scrambling.

The "invitation only" groups at HQ are in a dither as to how their "students" are going to memorize twice the data in half the time.

Expect a lot of long weekends (and weekdays) studying.

Massacre Re-Visited

Eighty-seven years later:

• In looping black fountain pen on paper now browned and cracked at the edges, a grim story unfolds:
  
  “Both thoracic . . . cavities contain a large amount of blood, the lungs are perforated 12 times, there is laceration of the thoracic aorta, laceration of the liver and of the diaphragm.”
  
  That’s what became of Reinhardt Schwimmer, a North Side optometrist charmed by the trappings of gangster life and slain in one of the grisliest chapters in the city’s history: The St. Valentine’s Day massacre of 1929.
  
  For decades, Schwimmer’s autopsy report — as well as those of the six other victims in the massacre — had been all but forgotten, gathering dust in a metal file cabinet in a Cook County government warehouse.

And then suddenly, one day, they just re-appeared in a file cabinet at Area North!

Sorry, we couldn't help ourselves.

Koschman Lt Quits

Like a game of musical chairs:

• Lt. Denis Walsh has resigned from the Chicago Police Department one week after interim Supt. John Escalante moved to fire him over his role in the 2011 reinvestigation of David Koschman’s killing — a case that was closed without charges against a nephew of then-Mayor Richard M. Daley.
  
  Walsh’s resignation ends the disciplinary case that Escalante filed against him with the Chicago Police Board, which decides punishments for cops.

So as all the big-wigs escape investigation and retire to nice pensions, the ones left without a chair are looking at a year off with no pay. Seems completely fair.

Cold Weather - No Problem

The numbers keep on climbing:

• One man was killed and five others were injured in shootings Thursday on the West Side, according to Chicago Police
  
  The fatal shooting happened at 5:20 p.m. in the Humboldt Park neighborhood.

On a night when the temps dipped near single digits, people still managed to get shot and killed.

Well This is Just... (UPDATE)

...something:

• The hatred for police is showing strong in Obamaland. The Chicago Parade committee has recently ruled against a pro police display for their St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Obama’s home town even turned down Toys for Tots who were going to ride bikes in the parade for donations, simply because they were standing up for police. Simply put, Obama’s home town isn’t the place to show pride for police, but #blacklivesmatter displays, they are perfectly fine.
  
  When a group of people who wanted to show support for law enforcement while raising money at the same time, this is the answer Obama’s hometown gave them:
  link broken
  

So a pro-police marching unit is banned from the St. Patrick's Day Parade? Is this is some sort of bad joke or something?

UPDATE: Some legit questions about this "group" and their fundraising practices popping up in the comments. "Opportunist" is one of the words that comes to mind. We'll see how it all plays out.

The Hits Keep Coming

And we keep smiling:

Good lord.

Get Rahm on the Stand

He sure seems to know an awful lot about "Codes of Silence:"

• Lawyers for a woman alleging that Chicago police covered up a 2007 road-rage incident involving an off-duty officer want Mayor Rahm Emanuel to give sworn testimony about the so-called "code of silence" within the Police Department.
  
  A federal jury in December found that Officer William Szura used excessive force on Nicole Tomaskovic during a traffic altercation on the shoulder of the Stevenson Expressway that turned violent.
  
  In addition to awarding $260,000 in damages to Tomaskovic for her pain and suffering, the jury ruled that Szura had acted in the scope of his employment as a police officer, allowing separate claims to move forward alleging the city has a de facto policy of covering up the bad actions of officers.
  
  On Wednesday, Tomaskovic's lawyer filed court papers asking U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis to force Emanuel's deposition about his knowledge of the code of silence.

Get Rahm under oath and start asking about politicians' codes of silence. We can hear the sphincters snapping shut all over DC and downtown.