Kass Explains Rahm's Nightmare

We touched on this a few days ago in a post.

Kass takes it to the logical end:

• But there was a murder in Chicago the other day.
  
  And now it has become a political story. It is a political story because of where it happened and how.
  
  A suburban man was killed in downtown Chicago after a wine tasting Saturday evening, on the sidewalk at the edge of Millennium Park, the city's tourism jewel.
  
  Thousands gathered over the weekend to take advantage of the pricey Gourmet Chicago foodie event. This wasn't some fried dough on a stick deal. This was an elite food and wine festival, and city dwellers and suburbanites, some who support Trump, others who support Clinton, purchased pricey tickets to attend.
  
  [...]
  
  So the fact that it happened at the tourist mecca of the great Democratic city was one thing. And details about the shooting suspect, which feed into a common voter understanding about lenient judges and impotent law, is another.
  
  Pagan, police said, had been arrested 39 times, had four felony convictions and had pointed a gun at people twice during arguments. He was wanted on a warrant for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
  
  And just like that you could feel the wind getting knocked out of the city.

If the victim had a record (and it looks like he might have had a shady past), that isn't going to matter to the suburban tourists and out-of-state visitors. They see the headline the first day and don't bother with the follow-up report days and weeks later, if they care at all. And the witnesses and wine tasters are going to go tell their friends, "Yes, I was right there!" even if they were an hour gone on the Metra back to Kenosha or Crystal Lake or motoring back to Iowa.

And yesterday's expressway carnage isn't going to help things:

• Two men were killed and a woman was wounded in two separate shootings on the Eisenhower Expressway in Chicago within six hours of each other, according to Illinois State Police.

Shutting down the Ike twice in one day for homicides isn't going to instill much confidence in people coming in for a day trip.

Here's A Gun Runner

Suburban female, no criminal record, minimum wage job, clean record:

• A northwest suburban woman with a valid FOID card has been charged with buying guns and selling them on the street for profit.
  
  Simone Mousheh, 22, of Mount Prospect, was charged with two counts of illegal transfer of firearms, and two counts of selling a firearm to someone without a valid FOID, all felonies, according to Chicago Police.
  
  Mousheh bought a Glock pistol and reported it stolen, police said. It was later recovered from a juvenile in the 10th District. Mousheh called a Firearms Investigation Team sergeant and asked how to get her stolen gun back.
  
  The team investigated and found that Mousheh had bought four Glocks in the last six months, police said. Each cost about $600.
  
  She also made a $1,000 cash deposit on a firearm designed for the military that is capable of firing a round that can pierce a bulletproof vest, though she works in a chocolate factory with no additional source of income, according to police.

But according to sources, she'll get.....probation! For violations of Federal firearms laws. When ten years per count is the norm and might actually deter others from, you know, dealing in firearms.

Subsidizing Englewood

We don't shop at Whole Foods - it's way too expensive for our budget. But if you do manage to spend money there, now you can feel extra good about yourself!

• ENGLEWOOD — You might want to skip your local Whole Foods and head to Englewood the next time you go grocery shopping.
  
  When plans were announced to open a Whole Foods in Englewood, a South Side food desert, officials said prices would be more affordable. On Wednesday, when the doors finally opened, the store put its money where its mouth is.
  
  Compared to prices at the Whole Foods' Lincoln Park location at 1550 N. Kingsbury St., prices on many Englewood Whole Foods items were far cheaper.

The differences are significant.

• Eggs are $1.99 in Englewood vs $3.099 in Lincoln Park
• Milk is $1.99 vs $4.19
• Gallon of vanilla ice cream $3.99 vs $5.99

There's a whole chart - it might be worth it for the Lincoln Park Trixies to get their Concealed Carry Licenses and head to Englewood to do some shopping. In any event, there's no way the corporate parent company can make anything close to their "per store" target numbers with these prices. Either they're going up in short order or Whole Foods is operating at a loss so Rahm gets to say he has cured the "food desert" on the south side.

Stupid Games, Stupid Prizes

And another shooting catching heat, this time in California:

• A black man reportedly acting erratically at a strip mall in suburban San Diego was shot and killed by police after pulling an object from his pocket, pointing it at officers and assuming a “shooting stance,” authorities said.
  
  One of the officers tried and failed to subdue the unidentified man with a stun gun before the other officer fired several times, El Cajon Police Chief Jeff Davis said at a late night news conference. Davis would not say what the object was, but acknowledged it was not a weapon.

Well, you do something stupid like this, you're bound to get shot:

Time to roll out that "Shoot, Don't Shoot" scenario training again for the tiny brains who don't get it. You "make a play" like this, you're getting shot, whether it's scenario training, Academy role playing, live fire exercises or real life dumbassery.

Not a Good Start

At 5:30 AM yesterday morning, a Starbucks opened in Englewood to great fanfare.

At 8:30 AM yesterday morning, a Whole Foods opened up in Englewood.

At 6:17, the Starbucks was stuck-up.

At 9:45 the first dispatch of "Shots Fired" was called in at the bakery, supposedly over some "pumpkin spice muffins." Or heroin.

You know, for a second there, you believed us.

Spilled Drink = Bloodshed

Makes perfect sense!

• A Champaign teenager paroled two weeks ago from boot camp for a shooting offense has been charged with first-degree murder and aggravated battery with a firearm in the death of a bystander in a shooting early Sunday morning in Campustown.
  
  “It all appears to have stemmed from a spilled drink,” State’s Attorney Julia Rietz said of the convoluted facts that led to the savage beating of one man, the fatal shooting of a visitor to Champaign, and the wounding of three others.

And a parolee? He got eight years for a gun charge, managed to get diverted to "boot camp" over the objections of the local States Attorney, and served less than seven months before being paroled, acquiring a gun (illegally) and killing an innocent bystander while wounding three more. Illinois "justice."

1967?

What the fuck?

• In October of 2014, department members were notified that lists containing information related to complaints lodged against officers would be released in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed by journalists from the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. At the time of the requests, the time frame for the information sought was January 1, 1967 to present.
  
  The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) and Chicago Police Sergeants' Association (PBPA) petitioned for and were granted injunctive relief by Judge Flynn in the matter of Fraternal Order of Police, Chicago Lodge No. 7, et al. v. City of Chicago, et al., 2014 CH 17454. In July of this year, the injunction was vacated by the Illinois Appellate Court. On today's date, the Illinois Supreme Court denied the Petition for Leave to Appeal filed by the Fraternal Order of Police, Chicago Lodge #7.
  
  In that all appellate avenues have been exhausted, the City of Chicago will release complaint history information from January 1, 1967 to October 17, 2014. The information to be furnished includes the names of current and former sworn Department members with complaint histories maintained by the Department. The lists also include unit, date of appointment, initial and final complaint category, complaint number, incident date, complaint date, closed date, final finding of the investigation and any action taken.

There is no plausible reason to even have these files exist. By numerous Contracts, they should have been destroyed at various points in the past decades. There isn't a single officer on the job now who was hired in 1967. Many are deceased. We can think of only a single use of these files and that's to paint the Department with the same tar that certain players have been spreading around for the past few years.

Detective Results Out

After adjusting the results for the past seven months, the Department finally got the numbers back to everyone.

Amazingly, the top three scorers were also the top three scorers on the current Lieutenants exam.

Special Ed had no comment.

UPDATE: 5-and-a-half months? Seems like years. We must have counted back from the announcement.

Darn Statistics

You mean "assault rifles" aren't assaulting that many people?

• The FBI’s 2015 Uniform Crime Report (UCR) shows nearly three times more people were stabbed or hacked to death than were killed with rifles and shotguns combined.

Gee, what else is deadlier than "assault rifles"?

• The FBI’s 2015 Uniform Crime Report shows approximately twice as many people were killed with hands and fists in 2015 than were killed with rifles of any kind.

So it's time to ban knives and ban fists. Anything less would be irresponsible!

Rahm's Nightmare

A boycott that gains some traction:

• Peter Fabbri was one of the hardest workers at Matt Lativsky's coating business in the western suburbs.
  
  He's also the main reason Lativsky no longer wants to visit downtown Chicago after police say his friend was shot dead over the weekend near Millennium Park by a man with a long record of gun arrests.
  
  "I take my family into the city quite often, but I'm at the point where I'm ready to boycott the city of Chicago," said Lativsky, who lives in Glen Ellyn. "That someone can't go to Millennium Park -- with someone who should be in jail, with a warrant, 39 arrests, two times for pointing a gun into someone's face -- this scumbag is out on the street when he should be in jail.
  
  "Instead, he's got an illegal gun, and now my friend is dead, his life is gone," Lativsky said.

Rahm has been downsizing the Department for years now, accelerating the decline Shortshanks started via non-hiring, then cutting the budgeted manpower and claiming a savings - a saving that resulted in no rebate to taxpayers, but rather a redirection of funds. Chicago is reaping a bloody harvest that isn't slowing down anytime soon, and may speed up once the teachers go on strike and there isn't studying to occupy the masses.

Biggest Probe Ever!

We're number one!

• The federal probe into the Chicago Police Department is ongoing, but results could come soon, US. Attorney Zachary Fardon said Monday. “We’re not done yet, but we’re working at a record pace,” Fardon told the City Club of Chicago.
  
  In December, the U.S. Justice Department launched an expansive investigation into the “patterns and practices” of the CPD.
  
  “I believe what we are going through now with CPD was inevitable and essential,” he said.
  
  “We’ve analyzed tons of data, interviewed tons of witnesses, held public forums, conducted ride-alongs with patrol officers, reviewed CPD policies and procedures, scrutinized CPD training, conferred with top experts across the country,” the prosecutor said. “This is the largest pattern and practices investigation in the history of the Department of Justice.”

Just a place-holder article from CBS reminding everyone that something is happening, even if there isn't anything fresh to fan the anti-police flames.

Once Again....

Lax sentencing is the key:

• ....a man charged with shooting and killing another man near Millennium Park on Saturday was reported to have a criminal record that should have precluded him from even being on the street. The suspect, Paul Pagan, 32 had been arrested 39 times and was twice convicted for pointing a gun during an argument. He has convictions for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, reckless conduct, marijuana possession and possession of a stolen motor vehicle. He had a warrant out for his arrest. Yet he was back on the street, allegedly with a gun.

But keeping someone off the street who refused - at least 39 times - to live within the rules of a civilized society, twice with a gun, would be.....what exactly?

Toni? Anita? Tommy? You guys want to answer this one?

Procedure!

You want to know where they're going to hang coppers with cameras? We're seeing it in the shooting of the car thief who tried to kill numerous officers with a stolen car on the south side....now we're seeing it in Charlotte:

• Crucial evidence in the police shooting death of Keith Scott is not available because one of the officers failed to activate his body camera as soon as he responded to the encounter, in violation of department policy.
  
  The department released two videos late Saturday after four days of sometimes violent protests here over the death of Scott, who police said had a gun. Neither video is conclusive on that question.
  
  [...]
  
  But none of those moments in the first 30 seconds of the bodycam video have audio. All are silent, denying investigators and the public key details of what happened immediately prior to the shooting Sept. 20. That indicates the officer, who has not been identified, did not turn on the camera until after the shooting, when audio begins.

This is a dynamic situation unfolding in mere seconds and tenths of seconds. Nevermind that the police recovered a gun with the offender's fingerprints and DNA on the weapon. Nevermind that the gun was cocked and the safety was off. Pay no attention to the empty ankle holster visible on the video and the continuous failure to obey lawful orders shouted five, eight, ten times. And the outstanding warrants, felony record, diminished mental capacity of the offender, all of which preclude him from even owning a gun.

No, the media is obsessed with "the camera wasn't on immediately so the police must have done something wrong or hidden something or whatever.

Your deviance from procedural guidelines will be what the media, the activists, politicians, etc judge the entire incident on, regardless of the legal outcome or justification. Guidelines overlooked in the tenth-of-a-second it takes to notice an empty holster, an arm held at the side concealing a possible weapon, the disregarding of verbal direction given while you are un-holstering your sidearm in the completely reasonable assumption that your life, your partner's life and the lives of innocent civilians may be at immediate risk.....you forgot to turn on a camera, ergo, you must be guilty of something....oh yeah - "procedure."

This after everything that went through your head was found to be completely and utterly, 100% true.

Avoid Getting Shot

Here's what we see, more and more:

"Resist the Police."

As any first year law student will tell you, and as most first year legislators should know, there is (almost) no right to resist the police (Indiana tried to write something that was roundly mocked). It's written into the law that way in most states and federal statutes so that people don't get killed unnecessarily.

Even an arrest that you know to be unlawful, there is no right to resist. The recourse to the violation is the Civil Courts, which have been more than generous to those supposedly wronged by the police, especially here in Cook County.

Author Jack Dunphy, formerly of the LAPD, corresponds with us on occasion and he wrote this piece just a day or so ago titled "How to Avoid Getting Shot by the Police."

Lesson 1 - don't resist:

• Break out your pencils, gentle readers, it’s time for a pop quiz. What do Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Walter Scott, Laquan McDonald, and Paul O’Neal have in common? Yes, they are all black men who died under controversial circumstances at the hands of the police, but you get only partial credit if your answer was limited to those facts. To get full credit, you must have included the point that they all would be alive today had they merely followed the lawful directions of the police officers who were trying to arrest or detain them.

Go read it all. He is a voice of reason in a world gone stupid.

The Onion

Great headline over at The Onion:

• Rahm Emanuel Concerned Gun Violence Could Spread To Parts Of City He Gives Shit About

A whole lot of truth there - witness this weekend downtown.

• Speaking with members of his staff in private Monday after receiving the most recent municipal crime statistics, Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel is said to have expressed his concern that the metropolitan area’s gun violence problem might soon spread to the parts of the city he actually gives a shit about, sources reported.
  
  “Listen, we’re at 3,000 shootings this year and counting—it’s only a matter of time before this violence migrates from the areas of the city I don’t give a fuck about into the areas that actually matter in my eyes,” the second-term mayor reportedly said, adding that it would be devastating to see such senseless shootings affect residents outside of the large swaths of Chicago he has written off entirely. “If we don’t do something soon to keep guns off the streets of those particular neighborhoods that I consider worthwhile, things could really spiral out of control. Enough is enough when it comes to the parts of this city that I choose to serve.”
  
  At press time, Emanuel was breathing a sigh of relief after learning that six Chicagoans killed overnight were shot dead in neighborhoods he couldn’t care less about.

Pretty much sums it up.

CPS Strike Coming

We've been here before:

• The Chicago Teachers Union said Monday that 95 percent of members who participated in a poll last week have agreed to authorize a strike this fall.
  
  Some 90.6 percent of eligible teachers, clinicians and aides signed their names on petitions circulated last week at schools and CTU headquarters, according to the CTU.

We don't see nearly the amount of community support this time around though.

On the bright side, there will be a few extra bodies in the 2nd watch cars for a while.

A Memory Stirs

Back on 03 September 2010, a lieutenant promotional list was out. On it were a number of "merit" promotions - the so-called "best and brightest" that were just too damn dumb to actually, you know, score high enough to get promoted. The names were as follows (along with their sponsors):

• 606 Cesario, Robert C. by Cmdr Eddie Johnson
  610 Duffin, Kevin B. by Cmdr Patricia Walsh
  111 Hamilton, Raymond J. by Cmdr Robert Roman
  189 Ramirez, Jose G. by Cmdr Genessa Lewis
  193 Sanchez, James R. by Cmdr Joseph Gorman
  189 Sanchez, Noel by Cmdr James O’Grady
  196 Valadez, Francis A. by ADS Steven Georgas
  193 Waller, Fred L. by Cmdr Walter Green
  153 Watson, Larry W. by Cmdr James Roussell

On 13 January 2014, we revisited those names and discovered that fully 7 of the 9 had been bumped up yet again, to Captain or Commander, with one being pulled out of Captain class to be made Commander. At that point, the other 21 poor saps, the ones who actually scored high enough to get promoted, not a single one had been promoted beyond the rank of lieutenant.

Now, with the pending return of Hamilton (following a five year Leave of Absence) the potential for a clean sweep arises once again, as 8 of the 9 have already been promoted at least once, some twice, one maybe three times. We are told that one recently passed away, which is regrettable, but that hasn't stopped his classmates from rocketing to the upper echelons of the command structure. By the way, 2 of the 21 other lieutenants made exempt rank - a 9% success rate - as opposed to the 88% success rate of the "chosen ones."

Any odds on how soon another gold star is issued to the 9th "merit" pick? If they can make a guy a Commander after being found "not credible" by a United States' Federal Judge, why not a guy off the job for 5 years?

Weekend Gets Worse

Via HeyJackass.com, 8 dead and 41 maimed as of earlier tonight.

Included in the Butcher's Bill, this one:

• A man was shot and critically injured Saturday night following a dispute just outside Millennium Park, authorities and witnesses said.
  
  A 54-year-old man was shot in the head about 7:35 p.m. at the northeast corner of Michigan Avenue and Monroe Drive after a dispute with a man who fled on a bicycle, authorities said. The victim was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in critical condition.

Assorted news reports have him listed as "brain dead" and "non responsive." Another one laid at the feet of Rahm's criminal mismanagement of the Department, allowing manpower to dwindle to unsafe levels, not to mention a chronic mismanagement of available manpower in one of most visible and vibrant sections of the city, dependent in no small measure on tourist dollars and residents looking for a night out.

Champaign?

Downstate is not immune:

• A Mundelein man on the verge of starting a career as a registered nurse was killed in an early Sunday morning shooting near the University of Illinois in Champaign that left three others wounded, authorities said.
  
  George Korchev, of Mundelein, was a bystander who was shot and killed after an argument at a Champaign apartment party carried into the street and turned violent, authorities said. Korchev was supposed to start work as a registered nurse Monday at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, according to a hospital statement.

And this:

• Four people were shot, none of whom were involved in the fight, police said.

Hopefully, no Chicago connection.

Weekend Starts with a Bang

And a bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang:

• Six people were killed and at least 15 others were wounded in shootings between Friday afternoon and early Saturday in Chicago, police said.

Englewood and Harrison both clocked in so far, continuing their virtual tie for the Homicide 2016 crown, Johnson in the lead with Johnson close behind.

Special Ed Johnson had no comment - but word is he has one of those two districts in the Ghoul Pool.

Parole Still a Bad Idea

But the Department of Corrections keeps handing it out:

• A man on parole in a 2013 Valentine’s Day robbery has been charged with murder in the killing on Valentine’s Day this year of two men he knew, according to police and records.
  
  Marquise Hollerway, 22, faces first-degree murder charges in the deaths of Jeremy Hunter, 25, and Steven Tate, 26, who were found shot to death in their apartment in the 5000 block of South Champlain Avenue about 10:40 a.m. on Feb. 14, 2016. Cook County Judge Laura Marie Sullivan ordered him held without bail.

How about a "truth in sentencing" type movement? You get ten years, you serve ten years. And no counting the time spent waiting for trial, especially if your side is the one asking for continuance after continuance after continuance, hoping someone doesn't show up. If the State is ready, you go to trial. Any delay is just wasted time, not "credit."

And we promise to stop acting surprised when felons become repeat offenders.

Rahm Running Again

Not for office.....at least not yet:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel is out for a three-mile run this morning with some Chicago police recruits.
  
  This comes just after he delivered a major policy speech Thursday evening with his plan to combat Chicago’s growing problem with street violence.

There's a photo gallery here....if you want to see a sweaty mayor.

But you can tell he cares. That's why he's going to hire how many new bodies? with how many promoted? And how many retiring? Until we see solid numbers, the Department is still facing reduction by attrition.

New Order in Los Angeles

We'd almost believe this was a made up article - except the Department of Aviation Police in Chicago have been told the same thing:

• The Los Angeles Police Commission wants LAPD police officers to run away when a suspect confronts them with a weapon, warns the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the labor union of the city’s police officers.
  
  The organization posted a blog post critical of the commission’s recent decision to find that fault lay upon an LAPD officer who used deadly force when a female suspect, Norma Guzman, came at him and his partner swinging a large knife.

Los Angeles has a commission made up of 5 representatives of the "community" appointed by the mayor and city council, none of which are required to have any police experience or legal background. They determined, by a 4-1 vote, that policy was violated in a fluid, dynamic situation where an officer was left with two choices when a knife-wielding madwoman had him trapped between two cars - (1) shoot to end the threat to his own life or (2) run away and allow her rampage to continue, possibly against other officers or innocent citizens.

More Third World Crap

Nice city you got there Rahm:

• A worker found what was believed to be a human head Friday morning in a bag in the McKinley Park Lagoon, leading to the discovery of other body parts in the lagoon, officials said.
  
  Police were called to the lagoon, 2210 W. Pershing Road, about 10 a.m., after someone working at the lagoon found what were appeared to be human remains in the lagoon, said [...] a police spokeswoman. Area Central detectives were conducting a death investigation.
  
  Police News Affairs would not detail what was found, but officals [sic] said what was believed to be a person's head was found in a bag. It was not known if the head was that of a man or a woman, a source said.

So now....

• the Marine Unit gets some more practice searching for the rest of the body, 
• the K9's get to practice cadaver sniffs,
• the city engineers get to practice draining another lagoon, a la Garfield Park last year,
• the Detective Division gets to open yet another "death investigation"

How soon until they get around to draining that other lagoon? Where the shooter drew a map to the location of yet another dead body? Oh yeah - that one is just classified as a "missing" and McCompStat wasn't looking for extra bodies for that year.

Finally, Some Guidance

We've been begging for this for years now - a list of rules, laws, ordinances and societal norms that certain "communities" aren't going to be expected to follow. That way, we can get away from all this "profiling" nonsense that pervades the liberal progressive leftist narrative of the day.

Now a court in Massachusetts has begun the arduous process of listing those actions that all you naughty police should refrain from considering based simply on the color of one's skin:

• Black men who try to avoid an encounter with Boston police by fleeing may have a legitimate reason to do so — and should not be deemed suspicious — according to a ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
  
  Citing Boston police data and a 2014 report by the ACLU of Massachusetts that found blacks were disproportionately stopped by the city's police, the state’s highest court on Tuesday threw out the gun conviction of Jimmy Warren.
  
  [...] In its ruling, the court made two major findings: The justices said police didn’t have the right to stop Warren in the first place, and the fact that he ran away shouldn’t be used against him.
  
  On the first point, the court said the description of the break-in suspects’ clothing was “vague,” making it impossible for police to “reasonably and rationally” target Warren or any other black man wearing dark clothing as a suspect. The court said the “ubiquitous” clothing description and the officer’s "hunch" wasn’t enough to justify the stop.

Tie this into Cook County's great strides in reducing prison sentences by bonding everyone who can write their name, electronic "monitoring" everyone else, allowing offenders with multiple gun charges to go to "boot camp" (in violation of sentencing laws), permitting felony shooters to plea to lesser charges, time served, day-for-day credit, etc, etc, etc...

"Totality of the circumstances" doesn't mean a thing any more in Massachusetts - coming to a state near you.

Rahm's Violence "Plan"

Delivered at Malcolm Ten college to an invite only crowd - how brave:

• With the city pulled apart by gun violence, public trust in the police at a “breaking point” and a “fractured” criminal justice system, Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Thursday proposed a multi-pronged solution that included everything from more cops on the street to job training to mentorship programs.
  
  Emanuel’s speech to an invitation-only crowd at Malcolm X College included details of his master plan to address the city’s soaring crime rate that City Hall had released earlier this week: hiring nearly 1,000 additional police; investment in struggling neighborhoods and millions in funding for youth mentoring programs.
  
  From the dais in the Malcolm X gymnasium, Emanuel peppered those points into a speech heavy on emotional anecdotes, pulled from some of the most chilling of the 500-plus murders so far in Chicago.
  
  [...] While painting a bleak picture of life in Chicago neighborhoods beset by gangs and violence — by way of calling for programs that would offer opportunity to youths who live there — Emanuel’s remarks did not include a critique of black fathers that had apparently fallen flat with African-American leaders who heard an earlier draft.

So instead of holding a mirror up, Rahm holds up excuses with promises of more money, more blame on the system and, oh yeah, more of those oppressive police that the "community" doesn't want around and don't cooperate with anyway. Sounds like a brilliant plan.

One reporter at the Slum Times points out Rahm's two-faced-ness:

• The recruiting surge was a reversal — or perhaps a re-reversal — for Emanuel, who campaigned for his first term on a pledge to add 1,000 officers, then shifted the goal to putting 1,000 officers “on the street” by dissolving special tactical units and shifting officers off desk jobs and onto patrol. In his run for a second term, Emanuel mocked rival Jesus “Chuy” Garcia’s campaign promise to add 1,000 officers, calling the proposal “fairy dust” and warning that there was no money to pay for that many new officers.

As far as we could tell from the tape, no one asked Rahm where he found the "fairy dust" to pay for the new police though.

It's Getting Better?

Just in case you thought it was getting better:

It isn't.

Everything down. No cars available.

Again with This "Strategy"?

Donald, you're a few months (or years) late - Rahm already fired that guy:

• Donald Trump on Thursday said Chicago needs to employ controversial “stop-and-frisk” police practices to stem violence, continuing his critique of policing here a month after saying the city’s crime problem could be stopped in a week if police were “very much tougher.”
  
  “Chicago is out of control, and I was really referring to Chicago with stop-and-frisk,” the Republican presidential nominee told the television show “Fox & Friends,” responding to criticism for earlier appearing to suggest the tactic should be used nationwide. “They asked me about Chicago, and I was talking about stop-and-frisk for Chicago.”

We understand that "Rahm" and "Chicago" are going to be used as punchlines for the next few weeks leading up to the election. But "stop and frisk" was dismantled in New York as soon as the current communist was elected and he directed the New York city attorneys to drop the suit defending it. And Chicago never really had a "stop and frisk" policy as much as a "stop everyone to get a name for the contact card so McCompStat won't rip the boss and we might lose our spots" policy....or something like that.

The violence issues go way deeper than a simple catch phrase.

Fuzzy Math Again

Our readers caught it immediately:

• The Chicago Police Department will launch a two-year hiring blitz that will add 970 police officers to confront a 50 percent spike in homicides and improve detectives’ ability to solve crimes, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
  
  The hiring surge — the biggest since the mid-1980s — marks a turnaround for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who has relied on police overtime in a failed attempt to stop the cycle of gang violence on the streets.
  
  Over the next two years, the police department will add 516 patrol officers, 92 field-training officers, 112 sergeants, 50 lieutenants and 200 detectives.
  
  The first-year cost will be $138,000 per officer including salary, benefits and supervision. So the 970 additional officers will carry a price tag of almost $134 million.
  
  Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said he has no idea how Emanuel plans to pay for the extra cops.

As our readers have been pointing out all day:

• 200 detectives will come from the patrolman rank
• 112 sergeants will come from the patrolman and detective ranks
• 92 FTO's will come from the patrolman rank

That's 404 bodies that will need to be replaced, so the 516 seems to be down to 112. And that doesn't even count the retirement numbers - at last report, passing 700, 800 and fast approaching 900 due to the Contract expiration.

But last time we checked, the Academy took 6 months to complete - unless Special Ed gets this going pretty soon, these kids aren't going even be on the street before the killing season is in full swing for 2017.

Increasing Liability

There was a reason this wasn't allowed:

• Rising crime Downtown could mean more off-duty police officers moonlighting in uniform.
  
  Some off-duty police officers would be allowed to wear their CPD uniforms while working private security through a new ordinance introduced last week by Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd).
  
  While many Chicago police officers work security and other second jobs, allowing them to do so in uniform would help prevent future violence as crime rises across the city, Hopkins said.

So....insurance? Liability? Indemnification? IOD? Lots of questions. Not to mention the pay scale and burnout rate.

7,000 Cameras

So the total number of body-cams is supposed to be around 7,000:

• The Chicago Police Department announced Sunday that it will spend about $8 million to buy body cameras for the rest of the force, a rollout officials unveiled though it won't be complete for years and they aren't sure who will get the new equipment next.
  
  [...]
  
  The Police Department started issuing body cameras to officers as part of a pilot program in the Northwest Side Shakespeare District at the beginning of 2015, and about 2,000 cameras are now in use in seven of the city's 22 police districts. Johnson said the department will use "CPD's operating budget, as well as grant funding" totaling about $8 million to buy about 5,000 additional cameras.

Correct us if we're wrong, but Rahm keeps spouting the line that CPD is manned at 12,000 officers. Every officer is slated to get a camera - not like radios that are passed along watch to watch with a fresh battery. So that's just over half of our manpower to be equipped with a body camera.

We read once that the US military needed six soldiers at the "tail" to field a single fighting soldier at the "teeth." CPD isn't fighting an overseas battle far from friendly shores and flying in supplies, ammo, armor, etc., so that nearly 1-to-1 that CPD appears to be operating at seems a bit....inefficient.

And yes, we know about the 700 detectives. It's still a ridiculous ratio of hidden bodies.

Bug on the Wall

This could get interesting:

• It would have been a good idea to put cameras on those working at 35th Street. But that has not prevented the IG from actually uncovering proof of a cheating scandal on the Lieutenant's exam. Yes folks, it is true, and when it is made public, the fall out will be significant. Its far reaching up and down. Some will be charged criminally because they have profited from the cheating and some will be fired. If you accepted the promotion, and you cheated, you are getting locked up. If you cheated, and not yet gotten promoted, you will be fired.
  
  Much of what has been assumed here is true, some is not. What is true is that the cheating occurred, proof has been obtained and heads will roll.
  
  bug on the wall.

So the allegation of money changing hands might some truth to it? And that they used Department e-mail to set up the study group and payment?

Rat Killing on the Cheap

Doing more with less again:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel is turning to a rock-and-roll stage prop in his Sisyphean fight against Chicago rats, kicking off a limited-trial program to see how well dry ice kills the beasts.
  
  With the mayor looking on in a Near North park Tuesday afternoon, a Streets and Sanitation crew jammed the ice into a few rat holes and covered them up. The torturous idea: As the ice melts, it turns into carbon dioxide — suffocating any animals inside.

This might be effective against a rats nest with a single entrance/exit, but years of observation in various alleys across this fine city has led us to the conclusion that rats seldom rely a single exit. This is borne out by some quick research over at this site, which describes an average burrow as having up to 6 exits.

Maybe something like this would be effective.

Or this.

More Depravity

Who does this?

• A body found burned beyond recognition in a West Side alley over the weekend has been identified as a 15-year-old freshman at Steinmetz High School.
  
  Demetrius Griffin Jr.'s body was found after police got a call for a trash fire about 1:30 a.m. Saturday in the 5500 block of West Cortez Street in the South Austin neighborhood, officials said.

Probably some of those police funnin' again.

What is He Running For?

This guy sounds like a politician now:

• Former Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said Monday he would not have released the dashcam video that showed the fatal shooting of a teenager by a city police officer — not that anyone asked what he thought.
  
  “If I was asked, and I was not, I would have recommended to not release the Laquan McDonald” video, “because the case was still pending,” McCarthy said at a City Club of Chicago luncheon.
  
  [...]
  
  “Just because people want it, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea,” McCarthy said. “Releasing videos in not going to build trust.” It does, however, compromise ongoing criminal investigations, he added.

Something we and many had been saying for years.

Then he comes out with this:

• Non-compliance with police officers is becoming standard, he added — as is a defensive posture by police, which limits their effectiveness because the aren’t as likely to be proactive.
  
  “Why would you stop anyone if you’re a police officer today in Chicago?” McCarthy asked. “Officers are getting mixed messages on how to do their job.”

Which is as ironic as fuck, seeing as how his entire policing strategy was "Numbers numbers numbers!" and ripping on bosses whose troops didn't produce the adequate number of stops.

Mark Brown from the Slum Times sees a politician in the making:

• Usually when New Yorkers working in Chicago are shown the door, there’s no question of it hitting them from behind on the way out, so eager are they to depart.
  
  Former Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy has proven an exception, a matter sure to draw political conjecture after a Monday speech to the City Club of Chicago that drew a mostly adoring crowd to hear his don’t-blame-the-police message.
  
  Sounding almost Donald-Trump-like at times, McCarthy took a couple of swipes at Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and decried the “lawlessness in America” that he said has been created by a “culture today that is investigating police instead of criminals.”
  
  McCarthy told his listeners he’s not interested in being a politician, but the enthusiastic applause for his views indicated he’d find some support if he wanted to try his hand.

We're pretty sure he's still playing the role Rahm assigned him - distraction to the masses. Distracting the "community" that Rahm hid the video from for months. Being loud and brash, (properly) blaming the criminals while distracting from the fact it isn't the police releasing them from prison and proper sentencing. It's an interesting message, but it's different from the line he was preaching and practicing when he was actually in the big seat. Remember:

• his first major speech was at St Sabina
• he tripled the number of Deputy Chiefs
• he closed 3 districts and 2 detective areas
• the clearance rate cratered
• death "investigations" skyrocketed under his regime
• and the routine "reclassification" was all that "drove down" crime stats

The consistent double-digit "reductions in crime" should have resulted in negative crime numbers owed to future generations and were a source of constant amusement to the blog and some interested reporters at Chicago Magazine.

Mourning Bands

The Inspection Division came out with an Administrative Fax Message the other day about how Mourning Bands were not authorized to be worn since June or so, and all supervisors should be enforcing the proper wearing of the uniform.

This, the day after Sheriff’s police Officer Jason Gallero died during a training run, something considered "in the performance of duties" for years.

During this horrible year for law enforcement, is it too much to ask we acknowledge the sacrifices of other agencies, especially one we work in close contact with on a daily basis?

Another #blm Moment

Darn those police!

• A pregnant 19-year-old woman was shot to death in front of her mother's home in South Chicago Sunday evening, but relatives said doctors were able to save the baby.

And the media, specifically Mope-rah, is whining that Rahm doesn't have the moral standing to lecture the "community" about his only seeing one father in all the times he's visited shooting victims in hospitals. At least Rahm's kid is only taking suspicious phone calls from college counselors at 2300 hours and not killing pregnant women.

Echoes of Masters Masters Masters

Bad memories returning to CPD?

• Mike Master's tool Ray Hamilton's vacation at county homeland security appears to be over.
  
  Greedy s.o.b. got called back or else his pension a pissed away.
  
  This is worse than putting at deskjockey/housecat on the streets.

If you leave for that many years as a mercenary for PRickwrinkle's machine, does CPD really need you back? And those undiscovered financial mismanagement incidents - is this really what Special Ed wants around?

Off Duty Killed

Hit by a drunk driver while on his motorcycle:

• An off-duty Chicago police officer was killed in a motorcycle crash in suburban Forest View about 2 a.m. Sunday, sources said.
  
  A motorcyclist, whom law enforcement sources identified as off-duty Chicago police Officer Charles Barango, stopped at a red light at Central Avenue after exiting the Stevenson Expressway, according to Steve Good, Forest View chief of police.
  
  The light turned green, and Barango drove forward. A northbound vehicle then ran a red light and hit him, officials said.

Deepest condolences to his family, friends and co-workers

CCL Shoots Burglar

While checking on his house that was being rehabbed:

• A 61-year-old man shot at two intruders, 11 and 16, injuring the older boy during a burglary Sunday morning on the South Side, police said.
  
  The 16-year-old was hit in the lower back and right hand and was taken to Stroger Hospital, where his condition has stabilized. The 11-year-old suffered a laceration to the back of his head, possibly while fleeing, and was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, police said.
  
  Charges are pending for both boys.
  
  The man, who had a valid concealed carry license, was not injured during the incident, which happened about 8:25 a.m. in the 6600 block of South Rhodes Avenue, in the city’s West Woodlawn neighborhood, police said.

If those kids had been in church and not out burglarizing....ah, never mind.

Media, FBI in the Bag

Ridiculous headlines all day:

• FBI investigates Minnesota stabbings as possible terror act

Really? What was their first clue?

• A man in a private security uniform stabbed nine people at a Minnesota shopping mall, reportedly asking one victim if they were Muslim before an off-duty police officer shot and killed him in an attack the Islamic State group claimed as its own.

That and the reports he was yelling the usual "Aloha Snackbar!" must mean something, though the feebs aren't saying what it could possibly be. The off-duty copper who ended this rampage put the guy on the ground three separate times before he stayed there.

Then you have the New Jersey / New York bombings:

• N.Y. Gov: Bomb blast does not appear to be linked to terror

Amazing how he reached that conclusion without any sort of training or investigation. It's almost like he doesn't want New Yorkers to feel unsafe with a presidential elections looming shortly.

Meanwhile, this picture is making the rounds of the non-liberal media sites:

What appears to be a crescent and star drawn on the un-exploded pressure cooker. Nope, nothing to see here folks. Move along. You're perfectly safe.

UPDATE: 5 arrests, suspects of .... Middle Eastern origin. But that could be anybody.

Cameras

Everyone to have one...except the mayor's detail we'll bet:

• Chicago officials have decided to expand the use of police-worn body cameras throughout the city following a pilot program that began in 2015 but has raised questions about whether officers always turn on the devices.
  
  Police Supt. Eddie Johnson is expected to announce Sunday that all 22 police districts will be equipped with body cameras for every officer on every shift. The number of cameras will rise from 2,000 now to about 7,000 by 2018. The expansion is expected to cost $8 million, paid for through city funding and grants.
  
  The pilot program began in January 2015 in the Shakespeare District on the Northwest Side. This year, the department expanded the program to the Austin, Wentworth, Deering, Ogden, South Chicago and Gresham districts.
  
  “Body cameras have proven to be a valuable tool in promoting departmental accountability and trust while providing a firsthand look into the dangerous situations Chicago police officers face every day to protect our communities,” Johnson said.

In addition to no cameras on the mayor's detail, we heard there won't be cameras at CompStat, at HQ and not at any promotional testing sites or secret study groups.

Bombs

A couple disturbing incidents out East today. First, a Military event targeted in New Jersey:

• A pipe bomb exploded in a New Jersey shore town Saturday shortly before thousands of runners were to participate in a charity 5K race to benefit Marines and sailors.
  
  No injuries were reported in the blast in Seaside Park around 9:30 a.m. Saturday, said Al Della Fave, spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor’s office. He said no surrounding structures were damaged.

The FBI has taken over that investigation and reports are a number of other devices were "neutralized," either by the initial blast of by police.

Then, something exploded in New York City:

• Police and firefighters are at the scene of a possible explosion in New York City.
  
  The Fire Department says the blast was reported shortly before 9 p.m. Saturday on West 23rd Street in the Chelsea section of Manhattan.
  
  No information about injuries or about the extent of the damage was immediately available.

Upwards of 25 people have been injured.

The new "normal."

More Ambushes

Philadelphia:

• Philadelphia's police commissioner said Saturday that a 25-year-old gunman who killed a civilian and injured two police officers before he was shot and killed by police had left behind an angry, rambling note that showed he was "hell-bent on hurting a lot of people."
  
  The gunman, identified as Nicholas Galent, had an extensive police record and in the note ranted against his probation officer and police, Commissioner Richard Ross Jr. told reporters Saturday afternoon.

Two cops were wounded, a hostage was wounded, two other random people shot, one of whom died. The gunman was eventually cornered and killed by police.

Texas:

• Two Texas police were shot while responding to a call about a suicide in Fort Worth, Texas. The man who fired on the police officers was killed when the officers returned fire.
  
  Fort Worth Police Officers Xavier Serrano and Ray Azucena responded to a call Friday night about a suicide. Officers had previously been called to this home on multiple occasions for domestic disputes. When the officers arrived they found a man inside the house who was “unresponsive from a gunshot wound,” NCBDFW reported. The officers were told a man who witnessed the shooting was outside in a shed.
  
  The officers approached the shed and a person inside the structure opened fire, striking Serrano and Azucena, Fort Worth Police Spokesman, Sergeant Marc Povero told reporters during a late-night press conference. The officers were able to return fire on the suspect.

Best wishes for speedy recoveries to all the involved Officers and bystanders. Stay aware and alert.

County Training Death

Too young:

• A Cook County sheriff’s police academy instructor died earlier this week after collapsing during on a run at the sheriff’s training facility in Maywood, authorities said Saturday.
  
  Sheriff’s police Officer Jason Gallero, 45, was pronounced dead at 8:30 a.m. Thursday at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in Melrose Park following the incident near Fifth and Chicago avenues in Maywood, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Sympathies to the family and all our brothers and sisters over on the County side. RIP Officer.

Re-opening Old Cases

Anyone think that the government isn't hunting scalps?

• A Chicago police officer has been indicted on federal civil rights charges for shooting into a car full of teenagers, marking the first time federal authorities have brought charges against one of the city's officers for a shooting in the last 15 years.
  
  Officer [...], 41, was captured on video shooting repeatedly into the car as it backed away from him on the South Side in December 2013, wounding two teens inside.
  
  In an indictment announced Friday, [the officer] was charged with two counts of deprivation of rights under the color of law alleging he used unreasonable force. He is free on his own recognizance and due to make his first appearance in federal court Thursday, court records show.

Nearly three years later. We don't know about you, but stories like this make us want to go right out and stop everything on two legs or four wheels, regardless of the consequences, because gosh darn it, this city, these politicians, this "community" is worth it!

Nice Background Check

The other day, we hinted at something hinky in the self-defense shooting. The original shooter was in a hot car, circling the block, opened fire, wounding a private ambulance worker, who returned fire, killing the shooter.

Self defense, right?

Well, sort of:

• For 10 years, Michael Arquero built a new life after leaving prison. He changed his name, found a job he loved, married a woman he loved even more, had two sons and settled into a nice home in Avondale away from the streets where he ran with gangs.
  
  But a split-second decision last weekend threatens to tear all that apart.
  
  Arquero, 33, was at a food stand in the Humboldt Park neighborhood on Sept. 9, on an errand for his pregnant wife who had a late-night craving for tacos, according to police and his family. Just before midnight, a Honda Civic circled the 2500 block of West Division Street two or three times before someone inside started shooting, hitting Arquero, according to police and court records.
  
  Arquero fired back, killing the 18-year-old driver, police said. Two plainclothes officers heard the gunfire, pulled up and fired at Arquero, possibly hitting him too, according to police.

So a convicted felon and gangbanger changes his name and ::PRESTO!:: he can pass a background check in Illinois to get a Concealed Carry License? Pardon our French, but what the fuck? Seriously? Someone recognized him and tried to kill him, regardless of his name. And the "tacos after midnight" story is just a little too pat - a hundred toothpicks will get you decent odds he was still banging on the corner after dark.

And the anti-gun crowd will use this as some sort of twisted example of how the system failed, so every other law abiding citizen should be punished for someone who is willing (and abetted by the State) to break the law.

No One Signing Up?

So has the Department demoralized everyone so badly that no one is signing up for various Voluntary Special Work Opportunities?

They just re-opened the Chicago Marathon Special Employment sign-up for an additional week because they didn't fill the slots. It's time-and-one-half, but with a possibility for a long day.

So what's the real story?

Openings for Everyone!

Explosive Canine Handlers:

• 050 - 2 openings
• 701 - 1

Field Training Officers:

• 001 - 1 opening
• 002 - 3
• 003 - 4
• 016 - 2
• 017 - 1
• 018 - 1
• 020 - 1
• 022  -2

Lieutenants:

• 001 - 1 opening
• 002 - 1
• 004 - 1
• 005 - 1
• 006 - 1
• 007 - 2
• 010 - 1
• 015 - 1
• 016 - 2
• 018 - 1
• 024 - 1

Police Officers:

• 001 - 6 openings
• 002 - 4
• 003 - 3
• 012 - 6
• 016 - 6
• 018 - 6
• 020 - 4

Not only that, but the Department posted Captain openings:

• 001, 002, 005, 007, 014, 019

 meaning they'll be making Captains and shuffling the deck again in the upper echelons.

Half a Win

But not really, seeing as how the Department just made 55 FTO's so there isn't any "shortage" now:

• The Arbitrator concludes that the O’Neill(Don)/Aguilar (Rich) testimony clearly establishes that any claim for compensation based upon alleged past practice as to the application of Section 26.1 prior to January 11, 2013 fails as not being factual.”
  
  However, the Lodge, realizing the testimony of Rich Aguilar was not ideal, attempted to persuade the arbitrator by referencing Section 20.2-Compensation for Overtime.  In this we were successful as you can verify through the Arbitrator’s ruling:
  
  “The best this arbitrator can do in terms of remedy is to find that Section 20.2 is applicable in the appropriate case, …that he or she is entitled to overtime compensation over and above the 30 minutes by applying the provisions of Article 20.2 on the basis that the actual overtime was necessary to prepare the required multi-DOR’s and Cycle Summaries.”
  
  To summarize, this grievance was partially granted.  The arbitrator ruled that since past practice was not proven, there will not be any retroactive payments to the affected FTOs.  However, going forward, if an FTO has multiple recruits in the future and it takes more than .5 hours to complete the DORs and Cycle Summaries, he is to submit an overtime slip to his Supervisor for the the amount of time over .5 hours it took to complete these forms.

So, even though they took advantage of the FTO's once, they promise never ever to do it again (the beaten wife defense) and the City does what it should have done before and promoted a bunch of FTO's, thus never paying the FTO's for doing double work.

Coffey Stripped

Word coming in from downtown:

• Superintendent "Special Ed" Johnson announced that he has stripped former Deputy Chief Fred Coffey of his star and retirement powers pending the outcome of an investigation into yesterday's shooting.
  
  "I have viewed the reports and found a number of 'disturbing' inconsistencies in the stories of all parties involved. To investigate, I have taken it upon myself to appoint a panel of three high scoring lieutenants from the most recent test. They know how to memorize and repeat what they're told, so they'll go far in sorting out this mess.

Apologies to whomever we stole this idea from in the comment section.

One Out - And One Wants Out

One felon out:

• Former Chicago Ald. Sandi Jackson, the wife of former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., has been released from a federal prison, according to Bureau of Prisons records.
  
  Sandi Jackson, who turned 53 on Wednesday, had been serving her one-year sentence in a West Virginia facility and had been scheduled for release on Oct. 18, records show. It is a common practice for federal prisoners to be sent to a halfway house near the end of the sentence.

Hopefully, JJJr was able to move the blonde mistress out before Sandi arrived home.

And someone wants consideration for cooperation:

• Corrupt former Chicago cop Jerome Finnigan says he has fed the government details about crimes involving a variety of people — from other cops to a U.S. border agent to a doctor — since he was charged almost a decade ago for plotting to kill an officer he feared would expose his own misdeeds, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
  
  Finnigan and 10 other Chicago Police officers have been convicted in connection with crimes they committed while they were members of the department’s now-defunct Special Operations Section before the scandal broke in 2006.

Everyone else gets consideration, so you know an ex-cop won't.

Darwin Again

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes:

• Police in Columbus, Ohio, were investigating how a 13-year-old boy wanted for questioning Wednesday night in an armed robbery ended up fatally shot by an officer.
  
  The child — later identified by Columbus police as Tyre King — had "pulled a gun from his waistband" when officers attempted to take him and another male into custody, the Columbus Division of Police said in a statement. As the encounter unfolded, an officer shot King "multiple times."
  
  The weapon recovered from the scene was determined to be a BB gun with an attached laser sight, Columbus Police Chief Kim Jacobs said at a news conference Thursday morning.

Wanted for questioning, was the describe offender in an armed robbery minutes before, laser sight on the gun - but it'll all be the fault of police because, you know, he was just turning his life around, blah blah blah.

Retiree Shootout

And not just any retiree:

• A shooting occurred Wednesday morning in the South Chicago neighborhood, with a victim exchanging gunfire with an offender near 81st and Essex.
  
  A 73-year-old retired Chicago Police officer was talking to someone, when an offender was said to have attempted to rob him in the 8100 block of South Essex at 9:35 a.m., [...]
  
  “Gun offenders in Chicago do not discriminate,” Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said in a statement.
  
  Retired Deputy Chief Fred Coffey was shot first, in the shoulder by the offender. He returned fire, shooting the suspect in leg.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery to the retired Deputy.

Disturbing Video

Just in case you thought people liked the police again:

• Surveillance video shows the moment a man allegedly attacked three police officers with his car early Tuesday morning.
  
  Three officers with the Phoenix Police Department were standing outside a gas station convenience store around 1:45 a.m., just after they investigated an unrelated assault case, Public Information Officer Sgt. Jon Howard told ABC News. It was the first day on the job for one of the officers, so they were discussing the incident they had just investigated. Howard said.
  
  The video shows a red sedan accelerating from the opposite end of the parking lot and attempting to run them over before crashing into the store.
  
  The suspect struck two of the officers before crashing into the squad car and then into the convenience store, causing "extensive" damage, police said. The video shows one officer remain on the ground next to the squad car after he was hit, while another officer is seen being thrown in the air by the impact of the crash. The third officer was able to jump out of the way, police said.

Convict, police fighter, black panther, #blm, etc. The video is disturbing to say the least and they're lucky no one was killed. Best wishes to the injured. Watch your backs at all times.

What a Bargain!

Try wrapping your mind around this one:

• Reginald Hester told detectives he was angry that a woman who agreed to perform sex acts on him in exchange for $10 took his money and never returned.
  
  So he decided to “scare the b—-” and set her South Chicago building on fire, Cook County prosecutors said Wednesday.
  
  The woman escaped and called 911, giving police a description of “Church,” the man she knew as selling loose cigarettes in the neighborhood.
  
  But before it was over, Hester’s fiery handiwork claimed the lives of four others, including three children....

$10 for sex, turns into a "Theft of Services" and four people die in a building fire.

This is one of those "What the fuck?!??" moments. Just when you think you've seen it all.....

#blm and all that jazz.

COPA Funding

What could go wrong?

• Chicago’s new Civilian Office of Police Accountability will not be “starved for resources,” a top mayoral aide declared Tuesday, though he refused to be pinned down to a specific dollar amount or budget percentage.
  
  Corporation Counsel Steve Patton also assured aldermen that the agency that replaces the Independent Police Review Authority will have authority to hire its own independent counsel.
  
  Patton said specific language of the compromise has yet to be finalized. That’s why the City Council Committees on Budget and Public Safety took no vote on the mayor’s police accountability ordinance at Tuesday’s joint meeting.
  
  But Patton said the final language may well involve creating a “pool” of law firms with expertise conducting police investigations that are “pre-qualified” to “meet our standards.” That way, a Law Department charged with defending police officers and negotiating the police contract can keep hands off.

So the City is going to be paying both sides? We can see problems with this already.

Hire Everyone!

This is the second good thing Special Ed has done:

• Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson is seeking to remove a man from the department’s list of potential future police officers, citing his previous arrests in incidents of alleged domestic violence.
  
  In a Monday Circuit Court filing, Johnson said the city’s Board of Human Resources incorrectly reversed the police department’s April 2015 decision to remove a man from its list of people eligible to become probationary police officers.
  
  The man is not currently on the city’s payroll.
  
  Johnson said the police department initially removed the man from consideration because he had twice previously been arrested in incidents of domestic violence, once in 2003 and again in 2014.

The first good thing Special Ed did was point out that unless the system keeps gun offenders behind bars, then they are going to continue to shoot and kill.

Attempting to keep known domestic abusers with criminal records off the Department is the second.

The Board of Human Resources though has been forcing the Department to hire (and re-hire) each and every single person who files an appeal after being removed or terminated for failing some stage of training:

• Say you fail the classroom exercises and are removed from the Academy? Appeal to the Board of Human Resources and you get retreaded;
• You fail the gym? Appeal it and get reinstated;
• Control Tactics? State Exam? Course of Fire? There are recruits who have failed each of these stages and appealed to the Board of Human Resources and been reinstated. It's 100% true. The Academy is NOT ALLOWED to fail anyone over the past two years.

Even a long term medical condition that would negate you being able to drive a squad car and fire a weapon is not a hurdle to the Board of Human Resources forcing the Academy to instruct and pass you, putting not only other Officers at risk, but the entire population of the City of Chicago should you be required to utilize your sidearm.

We'll bet we get a dozen comments about that paragraph.

Tribune Smoking Crack Again

We about threw up when we read this headline:

• Electing Cook County's top prosecutor: It's rare to have this good a choice

Wow. That must be some good drugs going around the Tower.

On one hand, you have Prickwrinkle's handpicked tool who has already had ethical problems, been assessed fines for her illegal election activities and is currently embroiled in another Conflict of Interest scandal.

And on the other hand, you have an underfunded Republican with two decades plus experience prosecuting actual criminals, which means he won't get a fair shake from the most ethically corrupt politicians and morally bankrupt press.

More Retro Coming

Buried at the bottom of an article about how the City is once again, settling winnable lawsuits, is this bit of information:

• The third settlement — for $937,000 — will resolve a class-action lawsuit filed by Chicago Police Officer [R.B.]
  
  The suit claims that the city violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by excluding “all overtime pay” from retroactive pay hikes tied to the five-year police contract that expires on June 30, 2017.
  
  “Plaintiff [R.B.] and the putative class worked in excess of 171 hours in at least one, 28-day pay period and were not paid their full overtime compensation,” the lawsuit states.

This stems from the FOP caving to Rahm's demand that retro pay not be applied to overtime earned. This was against Federal law, something that the FOP, the FOP lawyer missed completely. And far be it from Rahm to point out his legal team was winning due to the ignorance of the other side. Five years later, and a mere 9 month before this Contract expires, some people will be getting money owed.

More Than Two Wars

What do you call a municipal entity that has had more violent deaths in 20 years than US Military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan combined?

Chicago:

• 500 people have been murdered in Chicago this year, more than Los Angeles and New York combined. The number of homicides has hit a 20-year high and the city hasn't experienced a single day without someone being murdered since February of last year. A BBC report on the violence in the Windy City compared the number of deaths there with U.S. war dead in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Actual combat zones pale in comparison to the Windy City.

Car Burned

An officer's personal vehicle was torched the other night near 67th and Kostner. Written on the back of the car in marker was "Fuck the Police."

We have no idea if there were any outside indications that the car belonged to a member of the law enforcement community, but this should be a pretty strong clue to remove any and all police medallions, stickers, hatbands, etc.

Vigil as a Target

We thought a "vigil" was supposed to be a peaceful remembrance of a recently deceased individual. Evidently, it's just another version of "target selection:"

• A woman was shot to death Sunday night at a vigil on the same Brainerd neighborhood block where a man was killed a day earlier on the South Side, officials said.
  
  The 18-year-old was among three people shot at 8:07 p.m. in the 8900 block of South Justine, according to Chicago Police. The group was standing outside at the vigil when a grey minivan drove toward them and two people got out and began shooting. The shooters then got back inside the van and drove away.

We guess we had it wrong all these years. Unless it's the "community" that has it wrong?

Just Some Thoughts

So if you saw someone collapse, in medical distress, don't you think you'd probably send them to a hospital and not their daughter's apartment?

And if you knew you had been diagnosed with pneumonia, many forms of which are contagious, would you allow yourself to be brought to where your two grandchildren are located?

We were just wondering.

Typical Cook County

Conflict of interest? The appearance of a conflict? No problem:

• Democrat Kim Foxx is doing consultant work for an influential Chicago law firm, but she insisted Monday there would be no conflict of interest for her to make decisions on lawsuits brought by that firm against Cook County should she be elected state's attorney.
  
  The powerhouse personal injury firm Power Rogers and Smith has sued Cook County and Chicago on cases ranging from medical negligence to wrongful police shootings, winning several multimillion-dollar judgments and settlements.
  
  And while she's been a consultant for the firm since leaving the county payroll a year ago as she's run for the county's top legal post, Foxx said Monday that collecting checks from the firm now doesn't present a conflict for her in making decisions on cases Rogers Power and Smith files against the county in the future.
  
  Her reason: By then, she'll no longer be getting paid by the law firm.

Golly, she's got that whole election thing already wrapped up. And when you get that registered envelope from Rogers, Power and Smith for your next lawsuit, you can rest assured that Ms Foxx isn't getting any money from them...because she said so.

Brain Surgeons

Silly suburbanites are becoming victims of complacency....and car thieves:

• Wealthy suburbanites, you may want to put your car keys away.
  
  South Side thieves have targeted luxury cars in 40 wealthy towns across the Chicago area from Lake Forest to Barrington to Hinsdale, officials say.
  
  The bandits slipped into unlocked cars and drove away using keys or fobs they found inside cup holders or consoles.
  
  Authorities believe at least 70 vehicles — BMWs, Audis, Range Rovers and Infinitis — were pilfered by a loosely organized Chicago theft ring this year.

But they aren't stealing the cars for profit:

• Police have arrested about 15 suspects, most of them juvenile gang members. Detectives believe they were using the cars while committing armed robberies and shooting at rival gang members.
  
  [...]
  
  Oddly, the ring wasn’t selling the cars to chop shops for parts. Instead, they were using them in crimes and then dumping them, [Chicago Police Lt. Ed] Wodnicki said.
  
  After they would steal cars, “one of the other things these brain surgeons did was burglaries in liquor stores,” Wodnicki said.

One of the cars is suspected to be the one that was used to almost run down a copper on video, resulting in the car thief being ventilated and numerous coppers facing termination.

Nice to be Rich

You can buy protection if Rahm won't provide you any:

• A Chicago man, fed up and frustrated with what he says is the rising crime in his neighborhood, takes matters into his own pocketbook — shelling out thousands to pay for private street security.
  
  [...] Security firm owner Howard Greer, also a Chicago cop, patrols the 1100 block of North LaSalle. It’s his off-duty job, paid for by this De Mudd.
  
  “I’ve been watching my neighborhood deteriorate over the last couple of years,” Mudd says.
  
  Police, he says, couldn’t keep up. So, Greer and fellow off-duty officers now walk the Gold Coast pocket with guns and handcuffs — six days a week, eight hours a day.

Maybe other blocks can have bake sales and chocolate bar fundraisers to pay for extra cops?

016 HBT

Standoff on the northwest side last night:

• A man was arrested early Sunday after an hours-long hostage situation at a 7-Eleven store in the city's Jefferson Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side, police said.
  
  The man held two store employees hostage inside the store; they were not hurt.
  
  At about 9:30 p.m. Saturday, a SWAT team was responded to call about a man who barricaded himself in the store in the 4800-block of North Milwaukee Avenue.
  
  SWAT units used flash bangs to get the man out. At about 1 a.m., they entered the store and arrested him.

Reports say he didn't actually have a gun.

Reports don't say that during the incident, 016 had exactly 3 cars working. So no idea who did traffic control and outer perimeter security.

10-99 Units Returning

More cars up, but thinner coverage:

• Chicago police officers no longer have to work in pairs, as department leaders Friday announced said they would lift the order imposed after attacks in Dallas and Baton Rouge, La., killed eight officers in July.
  
  All units will be returning to regular deployment as of Monday, after the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to a Chicago Police Department statement. Officials blamed the partner requirement for slower response times to incidents in the city during a particularly violent summer.

Opinions?

Fifteen Years

Watch That First Step

It's a doozie!

• A 17-year-old boy suspected in a west suburban carjacking jumped to his death from an Eisenhower Expressway overpass while trying to run away from authorities Friday night, according to Illinois State Police.
  
  About 8:15 p.m., state troopers joined Hillside police in a chase on Interstate 290 after four people stole a vehicle at gunpoint earlier in the day.
  
  The vehicle stopped on the overpass at Harlem and the four suspects got out, police said. One jumped down to the expressway and died.
  
  The teen was identified by the Cook County medical examiner’s office as Tyrece Coleman of the 7400 block of South St. Lawrence in Chicago.

Another aspiring astronaut and heart surgeon cut down just as he was turning it all around. We heard that car would have put him through grad school.

Shots Fired

A convoluted story to say the least:

• It's uncommon for police officers to witness a killing, but Friday night, Chicago police say, gang unit officers watched a fatal shooting unfold on the streets of Humboldt Park.
  
  Before it was over, officers intervened and fired shots. A second person was injured by gunfire, possibly from police, though ballistics testing will be needed to confirm that, according to a police source.
  
  About 11:30 p.m. Friday, officers near Division Street and Maplewood Avenue saw a vehicle drive by a restaurant and at least one occupant open fire, according to a law enforcement source. A male — who was standing in front of the restaurant or had just left it — pulled a gun and began firing toward the vehicle, according to the source.

Sounds like self-defense.

• Soon after, a teen was found fatally shot in a car farther west on Division Street, police said. He is believed to have been killed in the gunfire that the officers originally witnessed, police said.
  
  Police said the victim was a 17-year-old boy, but the Cook County medical examiner's office identified him as Louis Rodriguez, 18, of the 1300 block of North Oakley Boulevard. Family members declined to comment Saturday.
  
  The teen was seen circling the area prior to shots being fired, according to police. Police also said the vehicle was stolen, and the teen was a documented gang member.

Um, the dead kid was the "offender." Shooting at the victim at the restaurant is illegal last time we checked. Tribune reporters - you really should be making the effort to get that part correct.

So the dead guy was seen in the hot car, circling the block? Definitely self-defense then.

And more to come.

Description, Description, Description

Great description by Channel 7 again:

• Robbery victims were forced to unlock their phones and reset them to factory settings by armed male offenders in Chicago's Loop and South Loop neighborhoods, police said.
  
  The two offenders were carrying a semi-automatic handgun and demanding cellphones, wallets and purses in three incidents from Aug. 29 - Sept. 1.
  
  [...] One offender was described as between the ages of 15 and 17 and wearing a black hat with yellow writing on it. The other man was between the ages of 17 and 22 and also wearing a black hat with a Batman logo on it. Both were wearing dark or black clothing.

So just stop all teens/young men in dark clothing. Seems to make sense.

Evanston Nonsense

We heard this story today on NewsRadio, and it struck us that this Evanston aldercreature exemplifies everything currently wrong with the country:

• An Evanston alderman wants the city to re-think its enforcement of an ordinance that requires lights on bicycles at night.
  
  It’s not that 9th Ward Ald. Brian Miller is against the ordinance that mandates lights on bikes, he says. It’s the way it is enforced. He says it’s one thing to stop a bicyclist and issue them a warning.
  
  But last summer, he says, when a juvenile was stopped for not having a light, he got upset and police charged the teen with resisting arrest.
  
  “To me, if a kid doesn’t have a bike light and they end up charged with resisting arrest, that’s ridiculous,” Miller says. “We shouldn’t be having that much of an adverse impact on a kid’s life because they didn’t have a bike light.”
  
  Ald. Miller says he wants to start a discussion and come up with a policy directive from the Evanston city council on how the bike light ordinance is enforced.

First up, the Evanston City Council obviously thought the issue was important enough to pass an ordinance, correct? They held a hearing, solicited community input, established the law and attached a penalty to those who broke the law. And the police took the word of the elected representatives of the people and enforced the law as written, correct? No allegations of misconduct on the part of the police that we read.

And some juvenile law breaker "got upset." No description of how he was "upset," but now he's got an aldercreature looking into how the law is applied.

We're thinking the aldercreature should be looking into how the juvenile behaved during the entire encounter rather than how a law that was proposed by the community, passed by the Council, signed off on by the village executive and presented to the police department for enforcement.

The "adverse impact" isn't the fault of the process - it's the juvenile failing to follow the laws of society. And it sounds very very familiar.