Culmination of "No Chase"

Friday night is now "Carjacking Night:"

• Police issued an alert Saturday warning of several vehicular hijackings that happened Friday on the North and Near West sides. In the carjackings, victims had their vehicle taken at gunpoint or stolen while their car was running, unlocked and unoccupied, Chicago police said.
  
  The spree started at 9:45 a.m. Friday in the 800 block of North Michigan Avenue. About 10:20 a.m., another car was taken in the 1700 block of Wabansia Avenue. Five more vehicles were taken shortly after the Wabansia carjacking:
  
  • At 11:19 a.m. in the 700 block of West Hubbard Street.
  • At 2:46 p.m. in the 3500 block of North Clark Street.
  • At 6:45 p.m. in the 1900 block of North Lincoln Avenue.
  • At 7:05 p.m. in the 700 block of North Armour Street.
  • At 9:05 p.m. in the 1300 block of North Bosworth Avenue.

That's not all:

• An auto garage was broken into early Saturday in the River West neighborhood.
  
  About 2:30 a.m., the offender or offenders broke into an auto garage in the 600 block of North Green Street, according to Chicago Police.
  
  It was not immediately known whether any vehicles were stolen, police said.

And that's still not all:

• SCC, numerous car-jackings around the city last night - 012, 014, 018 and 019. They also hit a well known luxury car dealer last night and got a bunch of BMW's that are driving around the west side now. Seems all the cameras in the dealership are "BART Specials" as in "fake." None of them work. This is the second time the dealership has been hit for multiple cars. It seems no one learns.

Remember, if you want more bad behavior, reward it with no consequences. Armed robbery, rape, car theft, murder.

What a Bargain!

Loses nine felony counts to plea to a misdemeanor, then claims he still didn't do it:

• After pleading guilty Thursday to resisting arrest at a Taste of Chicago protest last summer, activist Ja'Mal Green still insists he's innocent.
  
  "I know I'm fully innocent and I did not commit those crimes," Green said in a phone interview Friday. "I never tried to hit a police officer. I never tried to grab a gun. All of those charges are made up."

And his reasoning?

• "I had to make a decision," Green continued. "Was I just going to take this [deal] and go on with my life, or would I go to trial and wait another year [for the case to be resolved]?"
  
  Green saw two options: Plead guilty to a misdemeanor now or risk a felony conviction later.
  
  Green took the plea, court records show, and Cook County Judge Charles Burns sentenced the activist to two years of probation and three days of community service. Green will also have to pay $399 in fines.
  
  "The criminal justice system is so messed up that I just pleaded that way [guilty] to take the stress away, to know I wasn't looking at any jail time," Green said.

Yeah, sure, or the state's case was so air-tight and Jamal still has political ambitions that a felony conviction might derail, that this gift from Kim Foxxx couldn't be turned down.

What's "messed up" is that he doesn't do any time for nine felony counts. Thanks for nothing Kim.

Dart Pizza Party

People think we're joking about Dart throwing pizza parties for inmates. We aren't:

That's for a Friday night party. There are undoubtedly tens of dozens more "authorizations" floating around out there.

We're not sure this is a wise spending of taxpayer dollars - perhaps Dart ought to be making sure the jail is adequately manned before spending money on parties?

No Money - I Swear!

So were Rahm's people lying then? Or is Rahm lying now?

• First, the good news: Chicago Public Schools will remain open this spring until June 20, as scheduled. Students, parents, teachers, principals, you may now exhale.
  
  Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that decision late Friday. But follow the still unexplained millions of dollars required to achieve that end

Rahm's current school chief - the one not currently headed to jail - said the schools would shut down 01 June because they would run out of money. CPS then sued the state of Illinois claiming "racism" instead of "criminal fiscal mismanagement." Claypool and CPS lost that argument.

Now Rahm has promised to keep the schools open, lest there be hundreds of thousands of extra targets around for the gangs to kill:

• So Emanuel now has to find that money. At this writing he hadn't announced where.
  
  But he did directly address Chicago students and parents: "You will be in school to the end of the school year. We will be here working to find the resources to make those payments."
  
  Emanuel acknowledged the growing parental angst about whether schools would close early, saying that parents "have to have peace of mind" knowing kids will be where they belong — in school.

We're imagining Rahm's magical money tree will come up with the dollars...or he'll just short someone's pension payment.

Dishing Dirt

Portions of the lawsuit regarding the mayoral detail are made public in this article:

• When one of then-Mayor Richard M. Daley’s daughters lost her ID in Mexico, a member of Daley’s Chicago Police Department security detail was sent to get a copy of her passport from a City Hall safe so she could return to the United States.
  
  When another of Daley’s police bodyguards was accused of asking First Lady Maggie Daley for help getting his kids into a school, he was banned from driving her around town.
  
  And when that same bodyguard learned he wouldn’t keep his job once Mayor Rahm Emanuel took office, he refused to drive Daley home on one of his last days as mayor.

Two thoughts:

1. It's a fucking DETAIL. There is no guarantee you'll be there tomorrow;
2. What a bunch of whiny bitches

The entitlement of these politically heavy connected hacks is stomach-turning.

Weekend Begins

Friday night and already three dead today.

April is six ahead of last year as of this moment.

Bring It

This might be the entertaining story of the summer:

• The fuse has been lit. When and if the bomb goes off, prestigious Chicago institutions — Northwestern University, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, prominent media outlets — and people — a sitting judge, a former state's attorney, prominent journalists — will have more than egg on their faces.
  
  That's why it's hard to imagine that a lawsuit filed against Northwestern and onetime prominent journalism Professor David Protess on behalf of a man wrongfully convicted of murder will actually go to trial. Too many have too much to lose — this is a scandal that has to be buried deep.
  
  But what a scandal it is — ironic corruption from the deeply compromised city with an "Ubi est mea" ("Where's mine?") mind-set.
  
  Here's the original storyline.

We aren't going to spoil, it, so click over and read the article, but suffice it to say, no one in any of the listed institutions comes out looking good. In fact, everyone listed ought to be assessed significant monetary damages for the complete perversion of the justice system.

Scapegoat #1

That was quick...maybe a little too quick:

• O’Hare Airport security chief Jeffrey Redding was fired Thursday from his $118,020-a-year job for failing to fully disclose the sexual harassment allegations that prompted the Illinois Tollway to get rid of him.
  
  Redding has been on the hot seat ever since three of his aviation police officers boarded a United Airlines jet on April 9 and dragged a bloodied and flailing Dr. David Dao down the aisle for failing to give up his seat for a United crew member.
  
  The incident is the subject of dual investigations by Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans and Inspector General Joe Ferguson.
  
  But Redding’s firing has nothing to do with the viral video that has damaged Chicago’s reputation as an international tourist destination.

You know what else "damaged" Chicago's reputation? 1,000 people shot in under 120 days.

The viral video also seems to have nothing to do with someone (anyone!) in the media actually looking into city hiring practices, whereby clouted problem children are shunted from one taxpayer-funded job to another when they do something stupid to bring heat down on the Machine and themselves. We still don't believe for a second the story being spread in our comment sections about this guy leaving IAD on his own, especially in light of the corruption we've been pointing out there for years, up to and including the testing scandal.

This guy is shit-canned after a seven day investigation? Odds are there's something else in the background that Rahm doesn't want exposed, and Redding being front and center only increases the odds of it leaking.

He'll land another government job before Christmas.

Chicago Values

Values like these Rahm?

• A 79-year-old man who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl on a CTA bus in Logan Square was able to escape, even after the bus driver locked the doors, when another passenger told him to pull the emergency handle over the back door, according to prosecutors.
  
  Carlos De La Torre ran away, but police were able to track him down after recognizing him on the bus surveillance video, prosecutors said in court Thursday. The bus driver also identified him in a photo lineup, they said.

Assist the sex offender in escaping the bus - was the passenger charged? Or was the passenger just another "social justice warrior" assisting an oppressed illegal alien in evading the INS?

FOP Victories

Certainly wins, carried over from the previous administration:

• The newly elected president of the Fraternal Order of Police claimed victory Thursday in two early skirmishes with the city, likely to set the tone for contentious contract negotiations.
  
  The battles stem from what FOP President Kevin Graham called the “unilateral expansion” of body cameras to all Chicago Police officers, and the Chicago Police Department’s proposed “disciplinary matrix” for “complaints registered” against officers.
  
  Graham’s predecessor, Dean Angelo, filed a pair of unfair labor practices complaints stemming from those actions before losing to Graham in a runoff election for union leadership.
  
  The Illinois Labor Relations Board could have dismissed the complaints after reviewing evidence presented by both sides. But instead, the board ordered an administrative law judge to conduct a formal hearing to determine whether the city violated state labor laws when it unilaterally implemented two new policies and failed to negotiate them with the FOP.

One has to admire how Rahm's media knob-gobblers describe the city having to follow the Contract as paving the way for "contentious...negotiations." There isn't going to be anything "contentious" for at least another year as the City will refuse or reschedule negotiating sessions like they have the past four or five contracts.

Again, Nice Jail

Chronic under-staffing and guess what happens?

• Two Cook County sheriff's officers were stomped and seriously injured Wednesday night by three prisoners in the maximum security section of the County Jail, according to a spokeswoman for the office.
  
  The attack happened about 8:30 p.m. while two officers tried to secure a patio space on a Division 9 tier, according to Cara Smith, policy chief for Sheriff Tom Dart.
  
  "As they were securing that door, the detainees sort of rushed at the officer — appears to be to try and prevent them from shutting the door, a little hard to tell," Smith said. "That’s when it started."

We heard Dart ordered a Division 9 pizza party and checked to make sure the new microwave for the prisoners was working properly immediately after the attack.

Best wishes to the injured and hoping that some sort of spotlight can be thrown on the under-staffing issues.

As Heard on the Blog

Rumor? Or truth?

• Hey SCC,
  
  You wrote about the Academy stopping classes all summer in order to train everyone on the new "Use of Force" model a few weeks ago?
  
  The announcement just came down - the next four months of hiring has been frozen to "facilitate" training. No idea how this will affect Rahm's numbers, but someone told us 250 more cops are retiring by 15 May.

Confirmation?

Is There a Policy Yet?

Because the media is seeing an issue and running with it:

• Body cams are on the way to becoming as common equipment for police as batons and bullets. They’re sold to the public as a tool to improve accountability. But community activists are increasingly pushing back against police department policies that allow officers to view their cop cam video before writing their reports, even when force is used.
  
  “They may look for some reason to make the interaction within policy or a legal interaction in the first place,” said Fe Lopez, executive director of the Seattle Community Police Commission.
  
  [...]
  
  Among the changes aimed at improving officer conduct and transparency, every officer will be outfitted with a body cam. But the city and its court-appointed police monitor are battling in federal court over Seattle’s policy to let officers view the video before writing reports in all but the most serious use of force cases. In a court brief, monitor Merrick Bobb wrote: “Officers may get an inappropriate opportunity to ‘get their story straight’”
  
  Harlan Yu of Upturn Research has been studying body cameras and says they are not living up to the public’s expectations. “What Seattle and other police departments across the country are doing right now is creating an uneven playing field where officers get a structural advantage where they get to view footage and other eyewitnesses don’t,” Yu said.

God forbid you actually see a recording before making statements that might be used by armchair quarterbacks to judge an encounter that unfolds in tenths-of-seconds. Here's the issue we see with cameras:

• the camera is pointed in a fixed direction - it doesn't swivel around like your head would in a dynamic situation;
• the camera will be used to skew your interpretations of events - any deviation from something interpreted months later will be used to Rule 14 you and fire you;
• anything missed by the camera will automatically be called a "cover-up" and used to impeach testimony, recollections, interpretations and the bottom feeding lawyers will claim every omission was deliberate, thereby smearing you and tainting all future testimony.

We see that all the time already with in-car cameras - why believe, even for a second, that body camera footage (or lack of) will be treated any differently?

What's in a Name?

Everything we suppose:

• The union representing Chicago aviation police officers is accusing the city of violating its contract — and jeopardizing the traveling public’s safety — by stripping the word “police” from the force’s uniforms and vehicles in response to the dragging of Dr. David Dao off a United Express flight at O’Hare Airport.
  
  The rebranding of the Department of Aviation police department began in full force last week, with its SUVs being repainted so they say “security” instead of “police.” In January, aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans ordered the department to remove the word “police” from its uniforms — but the order was never enforced.

We suppose this has more to do with the possible disbandment or re-structuring of the DOA and the resultant Federal dollars and how they're spent / accounted for.

Conviction

Good news from the Courts:

• Cook County prosecutors say that Officer David Blake had trusted his girlfriend's brother, showing him his extensive gun collection locked up in a safe inside his South Side condo.
  
  But for weeks, Bernard Williams, then 18, plotted to kill the officer in order to steal and sell the guns, prosecutors alleged.
  
  On Nov. 22, 2010, Williams lured the off-duty officer to drive him to a secluded spot on the Southwest Side known as "Dead Man's Alley," where Williams shot Blake six times in the head at close range inside the officer's Dodge Durango, prosecutors said.
  
  Six and a half years later, a jury deliberated less than 3 1/2 hours on Tuesday before convicting Williams, now 25, of first-degree murder and armed robbery.

Six years is a long time to wait for resolution. We certainly wish there was still a death penalty around for scumbags like this. Good work by all involved bring the killer to justice.

Rahm Loses Big

Why doesn't the FOP have something like this?

• Thanks to an apparent loophole in the contract Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s staff signed with the police sergeants union, a sergeant facing a year’s suspension over the handling of the David Koschman case can bypass the Chicago Police Board and have an arbitrator decide his punishment, a judge has ruled.
  
  Cook County Circuit Judge Anna Helen Demacopoulos ruled Monday that the contract allows sergeants to have an arbitrator, rather than the police board, rule on any suspension of more than 11 days. The police board, whose members are appointed by the mayor, can not only uphold or dismiss disciplinary action recommended by the police superintendent, but it also can issue a harsher punishment.
  
  On Tuesday, an attorney for Sgt. Samuel J. Cirone — one of six Chicago cops who faced firing or suspensions in the botched Koschman investigation — moved to dismiss the police board case.

This is rather a big deal - it takes the most politically charged cases out of the hands of Rahm's appointees - who will do exactly what benefits Rahm - and places it in the hands of an outside party not beholden to the Machine. It's brilliant, and it's amazing that only the Sergeants have it. Who negotiated that and why aren't they on the FOP payroll also?

Statewide Soda Tax?

Yet another bad idea:

• A penny-per-ounce state tax on sugar-sweetened beverages could raise $561 million a year in new revenue for Illinois, while also saving millions in health care costs associated with obesity and diabetes, according to a new study released Tuesday by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
  
  Such a tax would likely would face tremendous opposition from Big Soda, particularly given the recently passed penny-per-ounce tax on both sugar- and artificially-sweetened beverages in Cook County that goes into effect July 1. The Harvard study's revenue projection factors in an expected drop-off in sales once the county's tax kicks in.

Chicago proposed and passed a water tax, resulting in a business boom for surrounding suburbs mega-stores.

Philadelphia saw shoppers flee the city and experienced layoffs when they started taxing soda at the retail level.

Prickwrinkle is about to provoke another such exodus in two months when her county-wide soda tax takes effect.

Now Illinois is going to create a black market for soda as hundreds of small businesses start shopping over state lines the way they do for smokes and gas in just about every state surrounding the black hole that is Illinois.

Another Tax?

Rahm campaigned on ending the "head tax," yet here it is again, popping up at what works out to be a 1650% increase:

• Chicago aldermen introduced a proposal April 19 to charge employers $33 for each employee on staff to drum up revenue for Chicago Public Schools, or CPS, budget shortfall.
  
  [...]
  
  Chicago had a head tax from 1973-2012 until Mayor Rahm Emanuel phased out – and ultimately ended – this job-killing tax. The employer’s expense tax was a $4 per employee tax levied on employers of more than 50 full-time workers in the city of Chicago. Mayor Emanuel made it a centerpiece of his election in 2011 to eliminate the head tax entirely. By 2012, the tax was reduced to $2 per employee, and the tax was completely repealed by 2014. The tax applied to companies with 50 or more employees.

It's a proven job killer.

But wait, it gets better:

• Eighteen aldermen signed on to legislation that would introduce the “head tax” to Chicago employers with 50 or more employees. However, employees who reside in one of approximately 30 neighborhoods would not be subject to the tax. These neighborhoods were chosen based on being in the top 20 in violent crime or the top 20 in hardship index.

We're guessing these neighborhoods not paying the tax aren't in your typically zoned "light industrial" areas of the city, but somewhere else.

Has anyone in the City Council actually ever run a business? Or taken Econ 101? We're betting the answer is "No."

1,000 Shot (so far)

Virtually the exact same pattern as last year:

• The number of people shot in Chicago this year is nearing 1,000 after a violent weekend left seven dead and 31 others wounded, according to data kept by the Tribune.
  
  As of Monday morning, at least 992 people had been shot in Chicago this year. Last year, the city passed the 1,000 mark on April 20 and had reached 1,054 by this time, the Tribune data show.
  
  The pace of homicides is virtually the same as last year. There have been at least 179 homicides so far this year compared with 180 this time last year, according to the data.

179 versus 180 - down a single homicide from last year. And that doesn't even count a bunch of "death investigations" that might still be reclassified, half-a-dozen on life support that we know of, and at least one expressway homicide that Special Ed's people say didn't take place in Chicago because the Illinois State Police are investigating it.

Crime is down!!! Because Rahm's and Ed's trolls say so.

Coming Soon!

To a CTA platform/train near you:

• BART police are beefing up patrols at Oakland stations after dozens of juveniles terrorized riders Saturday night when they invaded the Coliseum Station and commandeered a train car, forcing passengers to hand over bags and cell phones and leaving at least two with head injuries.
  
  The incident — the first of its kind in recent memory — occurred around 9:30 p.m. Saturday. Witnesses told police that 40 to 60 juveniles flooded the station, jumped the fare gates and rushed to the second-story train platform. Some of the robbers apparently held open the doors of a Dublin-bound train car while others streamed inside, confronting and robbing and in some cases beating riders.
  
  “At least two victims suffered head/facial injuries requiring medical attention,” said a police summary prepared after the incident.
  
  Alicia Trost, a BART spokeswoman, said Monday that seven people were robbed — with the victims losing a purse, a duffel bag and five phones. Six people were robbed inside the train car, with a seventh confronted on the platform, she said. Police received no reports of guns or other weapons being brandished.

BART has an extensive network of cameras, so there ought to be hundreds of pictures of offenders circulating in the media and in the "community" to apprehend these law breakers, right?

• The images cannot be shared publicly, she said, because the attackers appear to be minors.

Oh....and the cameras? Many of them are fake. Decoys. They don't record anything because they're empty boxes that give the impression of making citizens safer. You know what might stop a brazen mass robbery like this? Armed citizens, but you can't carry a gun on CTA property lest you interfere with these boisterous youths turning their lives around.

Any bets on how soon this starts in Chicago? One CTA conductor/driver and no Mass Transit cops? We'll guess sometime by July.

It Must be Warming Up

"Smash and Grab" season is in full swing:

• Thieves made off with several items during a smash-and-grab burglary early Monday at the Louis Vuitton store on the Magnificent Mile.
  
  Just after midnight, a dark-colored car struck a vehicle driving north in the 900 block of North Michigan Avenue before repeatedly smashing into the revolving doors of the upscale retail store, according to Chicago Police.
  
  Five males then got out of the vehicle, broke into the store and took several items of merchandise, before jumping into a dark-colored SUV, which sped away, police said.

No descriptions, probably because there are no working cameras on a high-traffic, high-tourist, high-end street like North Michigan Avenue.

Anyone know what time Michigan Avenue Special Employment runs until?

"Dad of the Year" Candidate

Remember, police are the problem:

• A reputed gang member hid a loaded handgun under the car safety seat his 8-month-old son was riding in Friday in the Roseland neighborhood, prosecutors said Saturday.
  
  Arron Woods, 24, of the 10100 block of South Yale Avenue, faces charges of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, unlawful possession of a firearm by a street gang member, child endangerment and marijuana possession. He was ordered held in lieu of $100,000 bail after a hearing at midday Saturday.
  
  Police stopped the gray 2003 Toyota Camry in which Woods was a passenger just before 6 p.m. Friday when they noticed the driver wasn't wearing a seat belt.
  
  After curbing the car in the 100 block of East 111th Street, police say they noticed the two rear-seat passengers, one of them Woods, take the child out of the baby seat, place a black, wrapped T-shirt into the car seat and then saw the baby put back into the seat, authorities said.
  
  During a search, police found a Smith & Wesson firearm loaded with 14 live rounds wrapped in the shirt and one bullet in the seat itself, authorities said. Police also confiscated $63 worth of marijuana and $440 cash from Woods, whom they identified as a member of the Gangster Disciples.

Figure it's only a matter of time before the little one catches a bullet intended for dear ol' Dad. Dad is packing heat because he knows someone will put a bullet in any available body part if they can, and he's using the baby for cover. But hey, don't worry about junior - if he gets kilt-ed, ol' Dad will just make another.

Good Job

Homicide arrest:

• An Englewood man fatally shot a man driving on a Dan Ryan Expressway ramp before making off with $600 cash, but was caught nearby by police, including an off-duty officer who saw part of the robbery in his rearview mirror, according to police reports.
  
  Jeremiah Holt, 20, of the 7300 block of South Aberdeen Street, was ordered held without bail Saturday in the shooting death just after 5 p.m. Wednesday of Jeremy Scullark, 28, on the northbound Chinatown exit ramp from the Dan Ryan Expressway. Scullark’s family on Friday held a vigil at the site of the shooting and said he was an entrepreneur.

"entrepreneur"? Five bucks says no one in the family can even spell "entrepreneur." Or define it.

• The off-duty officer, who was stopped in traffic on the same exit ramp farther north, heard about seven gunshots, looked in his rearview mirror and saw Scullark fall to the ground, as the 19-year-old ran south on the ramp, according to the reports. Several other people saw Holt fire the shots, both into the car and after Scullark got out.
  
  The officer saw Holt, who had a gun in his hand, “quickly rummage through the driver’s seat area” of the Mercedes, then saw him run west toward Wentworth Avenue, according to a police report. The officer drove after Holt, calling 911 as he drove and requesting backup.

Good heads-up work by the off-duty and responding units from CPD and ISP. Word is it was a planned robbery, with the shooter stalking the deceased for a bit before making his move. It was just his bad luck the off-duty was nearby. Very good job.

More Pension Bad News

Most people check out the front page of the paper, then move on to the sports section. Others go through the entire paper...editorials, comics, and the business section. Then they forward us stuff like this:

• Millions of Americans are expecting to receive a pension from the city or state that employs them. Many will be in for a terrible surprise, according to the nonprofit organization Truth in Accounting.
  
  It surveyed 237 municipal pension plans across the country, using newly required reporting data about pension underfunding. Although it has taken decades for many of these pension funds to get into such bad shape, only now are the details being revealed, says Sheila Weinberg, president of Truth in Accounting and a CPA who has dedicated her life to requiring full and useful disclosure of federal, state and local debt obligations. (I am a board member of Truth in Accounting.)
  
  This newly collected data should be frightening to those counting on a state or municipal pension. The latest numbers are available at http://www.statedatalab.org/pensiondatabase. There you can search by state to find both state and local pension statistics. The report for each city and state includes the amount of pension plan assets, the amount of plan promises, and the dollar amount and percentage of pension underfunding. Every plan also receives a letter grade, from A to F.

You'll never guess what city is in the biggest trouble.

The article is written by Terry Savage, who from our previous knowledge, has a halfway decent handle on financial matters. Prepare accordingly.

And it Begins

Strap in:

• The Justice Department on Friday took its first steps to strip Chicago and Cook County of some crime-fighting grants as part of a drive to deny federal money to so-called “sanctuary cities” shielding illegal immigrants.
  
  Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle were two of nine local officials sent a Justice Department letter setting a June 30 deadline to declare compliance with federal laws or risk losing $3.2 million in Justice Department grants.
  
  Mayor Rahm Emanuel remained defiant: “Neither the facts, nor the law are on their side,” he said.
  
  Besides Chicago and Cook County, letters were sent to officials in New York City, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Miami, Milwaukee, and California.

Actually, Rahm, the law is on their side. It's a Federal law that Sparklefarts refused to enforce, but never actually got rescinded in Congress. You remember Congress, right Rahm? Laws and stuff are passed there. Usually.

And the facts are that illegals cost cities, states and the nation far more than they "contribute." And they are about to cost Chicago/Cook County taxpayers another $13 million plus in much-needed crime-fighting dollars...unless there's been some unnoticed drop in crime we haven't noticed.

Rhode Island

The insanity is spreading:

• Backed by social justice warriors and civil rights groups, the Providence (Rhode Island) city council unanimously approved the “Community Safety Act” on Thursday, which makes their community significantly less safe. The new law places restrictions on police actions which are much more strict than the law otherwise allows.
  
  Civil rights groups have been following a trend recently where they are less concerned about defending people’s actual constitutional rights, and more caught up in trying to secure additional rights for criminals. Legal and ethical investigative techniques used by police officers are more commonly becoming prohibited by police department policies in order to avoid lawsuits which improperly claim that police officers are violating people’s Constitutional rights.
  
  It is already the job of state and federal courts to make rulings on what police officers are legally allowed to do, and what they are not allowed to do. Unfortunately, because the Constitution doesn’t afford criminals the level of protection that these groups would wish, they are now trying to pass laws which place those additional restrictions on police officers. In Providence, they succeeded.

Go read the entire laundry list of prohibited actions along with the actions that will get coppers sued if they fail to do them. It's extensive.

More Handcuffs on Police

The Department is about to lose another tool:

• When the police pulled over the white Buick Regal he was riding in, Roderick Franklin told them he “was just getting a ride to have Easter breakfast.” The officers didn’t dispute that. They arrested him anyway.
  
  The cops — members of a “saturation” team working to suppress violence in West Humboldt Park — said they pulled over the car in April 2014 because its taillights weren’t working. But when the police checked the names of everyone in the car, they learned that Franklin, a 45-year-old who struggled with a heroin habit, was on parole for drug possession. And they said one of the other passengers was a “self-admitted” member of the Four Corner Hustlers street gang.
  
  To the officers, that meant Franklin had committed a crime just by sitting in the car: “unlawful contact” with a gang member while on parole. In Illinois, that’s an offense punishable by up to a year behind bars, even if no other crimes or gang activity occurred.

Kim Foxxx is already refusing to file this charge, and IDOC almost never issues a warrant for parolees caught violating the terms of parole - which is something you never see in the media. Ever.

So this is on the political radar, and 'lo and behold, a Soft-on-Crime democrat has already taken up the cause for those poor parolees who are just trying to turn their lives around by associating with other felons/gang bangers:

• “It’s like a trap,” says state Rep. Kelly Cassidy, a North Side Democrat who has proposed changes to the law.
  
  Cassidy says the law restricts the movements of people trying to find work and turn their lives around after leaving prison. She says she’s heard of people concerned even about accepting a ride to work with a member of their own family for fear that could result in their arrest.
  
  Cassidy also says the law does little to hinder gangs. “It doesn’t make us any safer because it doesn’t take anyone off the street who was doing a crime,” she says.

Evidently, Bleeding-Heart Cassidy doesn't realize that upwards of 80% of crime is committed by repeat offenders, and something like 90% of homicide victims are previous offenders and/or known gang bangers.

But hey, take away a useful tool for taking criminals off the street - you see how well the ACLU "fixed" the Contact Card situation.

Loud Mouth

Should have kept his mouth shut:

• A North Park man who followed a Chicago police officer from court and shouted “We’re going to get you!” had more than 20 pounds of marijuana, 1-1/2 gallons of liquid THC, numerous other drugs, more than $14,000 in cash and 20 silver or gold bars at his home, police said.
  
  Reggie Catayong, 44, of the 5100 block of North Troy Street, was arrested Thursday in the alley behind his home after he followed the officer from open court, according to a news release. Lincoln District tactical officers who were tipped off about drugs at Catayong’s home later executed a search warrant there and found the drugs, cash and other valuables. He faces charges of harassing a witness and numerous drug-related charges, and was ordered held without bail in a hearing midday Saturday.
  
  The officer left Cook County Municipal Court, 2452 W. Belmont Ave., about 2 p.m. Thursday, and was followed to about 2800 W. Catalpa Ave., where Catayong, who was riding in a car driven by someone else, shouted “We’re going to get you!” at the officer as the two vehicles were in traffic, according to police.
  
  Officers called to the scene arrested Catayong in his alley, according to the release. The driver of the car, Jack Artinian, 42, of the 2200 block of West Farwell Avenue, also is charged with felony harassing a witness and is being held in Cook Count Jail in lieu of $1 million bail after appearing in court on Friday, according to police and jail records.
  
  When the tactical officers executed the search warrant, they found about 20 pounds of marijuana, about 200 ounces of liquid THC (the primary chemical that causes the marijuana high), about 13 ounces of narcotic mushrooms, 3 ounces of cocaine and almost 20 ounces of liquid steroids, according to a police spokesman. Other drugs included 153 miscellaneous pills, 46 steroid pills and 17 MDMA or ecstasy pills.

Hopefully, the stash wasn't all his, and his "employers" take it out of his skin. They'll have longer memories than Kim Foxxx's office will.

Any Retirees Busy?

We'd be interested to hear her "plan:"

• May 22: Questions for Kim? Join us!
  
  Kim Foxx is the first African-American woman to lead the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office – the second largest prosecutor’s office in the country. She took office in December 2016 promising to transform the office to one that is more transparent and accessible and helps rebuild trust with the community.
  
  Join us for a conversation on her plans to tackle Chicago's gun violence and reform the criminal justice system. There will be many opportunities for questions from the audience.
  
  This event is free and open to the public but an RSVP is required. For more information, call Annum Haider at (312) 821-9031 or email at ahaider@bettergov.org.

We're sure it involves emptying the jail and refusing to prosecute. It's been a rousing success so far.

Unwanted Attention

Just when you think a scandal has run its course, something else pops up:

• Chicago's inspector general has issued a subpoena to the Illinois Tollway regarding a top airport security official whom the tollway fired after a female employee accused him of sexual harassment, several sources familiar with the situation told the Tribune on Friday.
  
  Inspector General Joe Ferguson subpoenaed the tollway, the sources said, before the Tribune reported Friday that Jeffrey Redding, a point person in the city's investigation of the United Airlines passenger-dragging debacle, was terminated in 2015 for what tollway officials called "multiple violations of Illinois Tollway personnel policy and procedures."
  
  The female tollway employee had alleged that Redding sought sex and money in exchange for work-related favors.

So we have definitive evidence that someone who is accused of a substantial breach of workplace rules doesn't really suffer the lose of a job in Chicago, they just get shuffled to another spot.

Our readers have long memories, too:

• So here is a guy who did not make 20 years on CPD was working for the inspector general, and iad reporting and and maligning coppers they gets a big job at tollway huge salary bump, but says he is not guilty yet leaves the tollway takes a pay-cut at aviation and yet he is in charge of aviation security? this would be laughable if not true! attention media here is low hanging fruit from where you get your news look into who is this guys clout, talk to the women that made the complaints they deserve a nice amount of money after what bouncing ball guy cannot hold a job is moved?
  
  Questions to ask:
  A) Why did he leave iad? was he involved in something?
  B) why did he leave inspector generals office?
  C) How can a patrolman rank get this huge pay boost and job at tollway?
  D) Says he was not guilty but gets another great job no experience in this type of work and takes tens of thousands of dollars in a pay cut?
  E) How did ginger interview him and miss this? Who put him in and pulled gingers strings?

Golly, another IAD scandal that was covered up maybe? That entire Bureau seems to be populated by a lot of shady characters - almost like a culture of corruption that might lead to.... exam cheaters.

Corruption is never "rooted out" in Chicago - it's just moved around. And the media won't put two-and-two together lest they upset their "access."

Make a Deal Rod

He ought to be writing to Trump and Sessions on a daily basis:

• Things looked bad for Rod Blagojevich from the start this week.
  
  Before a word even was uttered in a courtroom, it was announced his appeal would be heard by the same three justices who said in July 2015 “it is not possible to call 168 months unlawfully high for Blagojevich’s crimes.”
  
  And now, in a stunningly swift decision, those three judges have affirmed the 14-year prison sentence that Blagojevich was handed last summer by U.S. District Judge James Zagel. It took the judges only three days after hearing arguments to reach their decision. Last time around, it took the same panel nearly two years to give their answer.

Blago still has around five years to go on his sentence. Five years of missed family birthdays. Five years not seeing children's graduations. Five more years without hair dye. Five more years of sitting on information that could have brought down a presidency before it even began.

Does he really think the Machine is going to give him any sort of post-incarceration employment when he gets out? Certainly nothing that would pay close to a governor's pension. His name is mud in Illinois, so his best hope is a book deal and whatever money Patti is thrown by her Machine connections. Unless he's saving himself for Patti's continued employment?

It's International

Evidently, the Dart-Prickwrinkle Syndrome has spread beyond the borders:

• The Paris prosecutor's office got a tip in January that the gunman behind a shootout on the Champs-Elysees that left one police officer dead and two others wounded was amassing an arsenal and that he had made death threats against law enforcement.
  
  There was good reason to investigate 39-year-old Karim Cheurfi — he had already served 11 years in prison for trying to kill another police officer, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said Friday.
  
  [...] Now, a day after Cheurfi ambushed a trio of police officers and was shot dead while trying to escape, police are questioning his mother and two other relatives. Authorities are trying to determine how he got his hands on the Kalashnikov rifle he used in the deadly shooting, Molins said.
  
  Cheurfi, who was a French citizen, was convicted in 2005 of trying to kill a police officer and sentenced to 15 years in prison, said Molins. He was released in 2012, despite a history of violence behind bars that included a conviction for "violence on civil servants" and beating up a cellmate.
  
  But a year later, Cheurfi was back in prison for violating parole and wasn't released until October 2015, after which he was required to regularly report his whereabouts to police, Molins said.

Parolees committing crime worldwide.

But it's So Quiet Here

Less so lately:

• A woman was shot early Thursday during a robbery on the Northwest Side, near O’Hare International Airport.
  
  The 55-year-old was walking home about 12:20 a.m. in the 5400 block of North Chester when two males walked up and demanded her purse, according to Chicago Police.
  
  A struggle ensued, and one of the suspects pulled out a gun and shot the woman in the abdomen, police said. The males then took the woman’s belongings and ran to a waiting vehicle, driven by a third suspect. A description of the vehicle was not available.

It sure used to be a quiet neighborhood....before the Section 8 buildings popped up and police manpower dwindled. Kind of like what that Arena character is attempting to import up north again.

History repeats.

Nice Pistol There Tex

Search Warrant served in 010 the other day:

Much hilarity ensued:

• A Chicago Police Department tweet showing off the spoils of a drug and gun bust — including a long, antique pistol — launched a series of Twitter jokes about the shared photo.
  
  The guns have a, shall we say, "vintage" look about them, and the tweet set off a storm of dozens of people questioning whether Jesse James, Jack Sparrow or Billy the Kid had been captured.
  
  The tweet ended up getting more than 300 responses, most of them jokes.

Still, people have been killed with guns just like these and other objects you wouldn't necessarily think of as "deadly." Even an ugly gun can kill, and two guns less is two guns less.

Corrupt Practices Continue

Don't touch "our money!"

• City Hall's top watchdog on Thursday took aim at a program treasured by aldermen, recommending the city stop letting each of them control $1.3 million a year spent on construction projects in their wards, but the idea was swiftly rejected by Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration and City Council members.
  
  Instead of allowing the 50 alderman to decide how to spend the so-called "menu money," the Chicago Department of Transportation should determine which street, alley, sidewalk, street light and bike path projects are needed, Inspector General Joseph Ferguson concluded in his audit of the program.

Each aldercreature gets something like $1.3 million with which to bribe connected companies, reward precinct captains and pretty much spend as they see fit without oversight. That's not going to go away easily.

Sounds Familiar?

Family calls, tells dispatcher that the family member is armed, guess what happens? Of course, this is in DuPage, not Cook County:

• No charges will be filed against a DuPage County sheriff's deputy who fatally shot a 17-year-old boy near Villa Park after responding to calls that the teen was threatening family members with a knife and destroying their home, the state's attorney for the county said.
  
  State's Attorney Robert Berlin issued a statement Thursday saying the shooting of Trevon Johnson by the deputy was justified.
  
  Berlin said that when the officer arrived at the home shortly before midnight on Jan. 1, dispatchers had received multiple calls from distraught family members who said the teen was armed with a knife and was threatening family member while trashing the residence.
  
  As he approached the home, the deputy heard the sound of breaking glass and drew his weapon before entering the home, according to the statement. After entering, he saw one of Johnson's relatives at the top of the second-floor landing and asked him to come down.
  
  While searching the relative for weapons, he heard the sound of footsteps and looked up to see Johnson leaping down the stairway toward him with "a pointy 3-4 inch, 1/2 to 3/4 inch wide dull grey metal knife-like object" in his raised right hand, according to the statement.

We guess the State's Attorney actually follows the written law out there.

Burke is ANGRY!!! (and a Hypocrite)

He thinks someone lied to him:

• Whoa!
  
  Ald. Burke is still fuming over the way he claims the City Council was misled by the Chicago Police Department’s press office, which Sneed reported Wednesday.
  
  The Irish pol was so angry, he blasted CPD’s Director of News Affairs, Anthony Guglielmi, during a City Council meeting Wednesday, claiming the budget appropriation for his department was $343,746 — but the actual total expenditures for salaries was $2,535,468 because more than two dozen police had been dispatched to CPD’s press office.
  
  “I don’t know about you, but I frankly am embarrassed that I have been fooled in such a dramatic way,” said the alderman. “Why do we spend hour after hour, day after day, week after week, sitting here in budget hearings only to discover that we have been deceived and played for fools?
  
  “It is clear beyond any doubt that we simply can believe nothing that the police department tells us. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Henceforth, I will never agree to take testimony from witnesses unless they are placed under oath.
  
  “We should demand an apology from whomever presented this phony budget — we should demand that these police officers be sent back to the districts where they belong to fight crime, and if this press posse needs 28 people — which I do not believe — they should be civilian employees.

Remember, this is a guy who has been violating the Contract for years, detailing people to the airports in violation of the bidding process for years.

And if Sneed gets off Burke's junk for about five seconds to get oxygen, she might remember that up until 3 years ago. Burke had at least three full time CPD drivers who would drive him everywhere, including out-of-state for golf outings...in a city car. That could have been done by civilians, too.

Expect a bunch of News Affairs dollies to be sent back to inside spots away from Googlyme. Depending on his clout, Googlyme might be gone, too.

What Could it Be?????

Is he really this dense?

• According to Chicago Police Department statistics obtained by Sneed, there were only 168 Chicago traffic citations for the improper use of mobile devices in 2016 — compared with 45,672 two years earlier in 2014! So what gives?
  
  “It seems hard to believe, but when we received these shocking statistics we were stunned,” said Ald. Edward Burke (14th), who said Chicago traffic citations and violations in 2015 had already started dropping dramatically to 26,092!
  
  “But the dramatic dip not only went down to 168 in 2016 — but as of April 2017, only 74 have been issued!
  
  “Something happened,” Burke said.

Yeah Ed, something "happened." If you can't figure it out (and obviously, Sneed can't either), maybe you ought to go read some headlines, some articles, ask New Affairs....oh wait, they lie to you.

Cops Injured

Reportedly not "life threatening," but no word on "life altering:"

• Two people were wounded, one of them fatally, in a shooting in the Chinatown neighborhood Wednesday evening, while two police officers were injured in a crash not far south, while they were responding to the shooting, authorities said.
  
  Two people were wounded, with one of them dead on the scene and the other taken to a local hospital, in an attack near Cermak Road and Wentworth Avenue, according to a Chicago Fire Department spokesman. The shooting, which took place about 5:10 p.m., may have taken place on a feeder ramp to the Dan Ryan Expressway, and Illinois State Police were investigating the attack to see if took place on the expressway, according to Chicago and state police.
  
  Two Chicago police officers and two other people were injured in a crash that took place soon after near 31st Street and Shields Avenue, the spokesman said. The officers were being taken to Stroger Hospital, while the two other people were being taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, also initially in serious-to-critical condition. None of the injuries were not believed to be life-threatening, and their conditions were stabilized, according to fire officials.

Also no word if the homicide is being pushed off on the State Police and out of the Chicago stats. HeyJackass.com will place it into the correct totals as usual while Special Ed's special bean-counters will pretend highways exist in an alternative reality unattached to Chicago.

Best wishes to the injured for a speedy recovery.

Rahm's #3!!!

We always thought of him as #2, but #3 is close enough:

• Graft and felonious activity aside, we have ranked America’s worst performing mayors of the country’s 50 biggest cities. The factors we took into account are a combination of hard and soft data, including the rankings of the best-run cities across America, mayoral approval ratings, peer recognition, and the assessments of a panel of political consultants and media pundits of all political stripes. Note that this isn’t a list of the worst cities. Some very troubled cities, such as Detroit, have solid leadership in the mayor’s office.
  
  The consultants and pundits, many of whom requested that we keep their identities disclosed, were asked who they thought were worst mayors. Surprisingly, there was quite a bit of consensus among those surveyed.

Coming in turd....we mean third:

• Chicago Magazine called Rahm Emanuel the “The Least Popular Mayor in Modern Chicago History.” With an approval rating that at one point sunk to 18 percent, the Emanuel mayoralty, now in its second term, has never been able to get on track.
  
  To be fair, the famously foul-mouthed Emanuel, former chief-of-staff to President Barack Obama and brother of Hollywood insider Ari Emanuel, inherited a city already teeming with problems; however, under his tenure, many of those problems have metastasized. The murder per capita has nearly doubled, and his handling of the aftermath of an untimely police shooting death sparked widespread anger. Adding fuel to the fire about policing tactics was the 2015 discovery by The Guardian that the Chicago police department was running a secret black site for interrogation.
  
  Meanwhile, with the pension system billions of dollars underwater and the city’s credit rating among the worst in the country, Emanuel has found himself immobilized amidst an intractable web of crime and continued financial shortfalls.

There's that "black site" lib-turd fantasy again, but hey, it's the "Observer." It's not like real journalism or something.

Perhaps Rahm will be able to move up to #2 in next year's rankings. Like we said, he's already #2 in our hearts.

Once Again, It's Over

Observed with a gun.

Video existing of him tossing the gun, then going back to get it.

Nothing the officers did or said cast any doubt on these two facts.

And yet, $350,000 for managing to become worm food:

• A Cook County jury awarded $350,000 in damages Tuesday in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the mother of a black teen fatally shot by a Chicago police officer during a chase on the Fourth of July nearly four years ago.
  
  In ruling the shooting of Christian Green unjustified, jurors found that Officer Robert Gonzalez did not "reasonably believe" that his life was in danger when he unloaded 11 shots at the 17-year-old from his police SUV, striking him once in the left side of his back.

So a jury of semi-intelligent human beings can somehow tell you exactly when your life is in danger without having a single shred of physical proof, video evidence or life experience? A shooting found to be completely justified and one that actually dragged Special Ed out of his hidey-hole to define and support the time-tested Use of Force model.

Stop chasing rabbits boys and girls. It won't end well.

D.O.A. to be DOA?

We might be seeing the last of the Department of Aviation security:

• Viral video of a bloodied man being dragged off a United Airlines flight underscores why the city’s aviation security officers should not be armed, Mayor Rahm Emanuel maintained Monday, saying he would await the outcome of a broader review to determine whether the city force should exist at all.
  
  In his first public comment about the embarrassing fiasco, Emanuel branded the incident involving Dr. David Dao as “totally, all-around unacceptable.”

And with United revealing none of their employees will face termination, that leaves only one group to face the hangman alone. That "private security" rumor that's been percolating for a few months here is looking more likely all of the sudden, even if it isn't the McCarthy group.

Oh JJJr, You Tease

There's a crack in the Machine - start prying it open:

• While on home detention in 2015 for looting his campaign fund, former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. told prosecutors of other possible crimes “by him and others” and offered to secretly record conversations as part of a federal investigation, according to a Justice Department letter obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.
  
  “Mr. Jackson has informed the government of potential violations of law by him and others,” reads the Aug. 16, 2015, letter from Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel C. Richenthal in Manhattan to Jackson attorney John Colette.
  
  Jackson “has indicated that he desires to undertake certain actions, including participating in monitored and/or recorded telephone and/or email conversations and meetings, with the intention of providing the government with additional information regarding these potential violations of law,” the letter also states.
  
  It wasn’t immediately known what the other investigation entailed, what possible crimes Jackson might have told prosecutors about or whether the cooperation deal was formally entered into.

Is JJJr still on parole? Pull him in, ask him some questions, if he refuses to cooperate, guess who goes back for another stretch in the federal system?

Desperation?

This is just pathetic:

• The suspect in the random killing of a retiree posted on Facebook made his living mentoring teens in Cleveland, but his life appeared to be unraveling under the weight of gambling debts and trouble with his girlfriend.
  
  Rambling videos he shared showed his despair, saying he was out of options and wanted to kill as many innocent people as he could.

The Associated Press is attempting to make people feel sorry for an asshole who went out, confronted an old man, made the old man say his ex-girlfriend's name and then executed him, claiming it was her fault he killed and was going to kill again.

Seriously, what the fuck? Just when you think the media couldn't sink any lower, they find a way to do it. How about some sympathy for the dead guy, who had just finished Easter dinner with his grown kids? We're supposed to be sad about a guy who was running through a rough patch and decided to take it out on a complete stranger?

Parolee Crime

Gee, it's almost becoming routine:

• A man on parole for armed robbery is accused of raping and robbing a Lakeview woman he followed home from a Wicker Park bar over the weekend.
  
  Alexander Carter, 46, was sentenced in 2005 to 25 years in prison for armed robbery, aggravated battery with a weapon and aggravated unlawful restraint, court records show. He was released on parole in June.
  
  Carter was back in court Tuesday — this time on allegations he raped a 24-year-old Lakeview woman he first met at Nick's Beer Garden late Saturday.

And word from the street is that one of the two homicides this past weekend was committed by....ANOTHER PAROLEE! That "empty the jails" and "don't charge anyone with crime" strategy is sure paying dividends.

ExamScam.....Three?

And here's the cover-up of ExamScam II - Ferguson thinks there was an issue with....the Sergeant's Exam - not the current one...the one from 2007ish:

• Inspector General Joe Ferguson disclosed Monday that he has uncovered “procedural and compliance issues” tied to a merit promotion process in the Chicago Police Department condemned by officers interviewed by the U.S. Department of Justice as a “reward for cronyism” and clout.
  
  The new allegations, contained in Ferguson’s quarterly report, surround 2013 merit promotions to the rank of sergeant.
  
  According to Ferguson, an officer assigned to the security detail of then-Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy was promoted to sergeant, “despite having failed the written portion of the sergeant’s exam.”
  
  Only after sergeant training was completed and hiring packets were forwarded to the city’s Department of Human Resources was it discovered that the officer in question was “ineligible for promotion” and the promotion was rescinded, Ferguson said.

This followed a long history of Superintendent's promoting their drivers. It was an expected bump after driving the boss around and keeping your mouth shut, and yes, it was all political. Most of the "merit" process is.

But this "scandal" was pretty much out in the open at the time. There's been a Sergeant exam since then which hasn't even had a whisper of the stink that covers the existing Lieutenant exam:

• Wysinger's wife scoring #1 - perfect score if rumors are true;
• Johnson's finance scoring top three;
• 6 people from IAD scoring top 10;
• a secret study group at HQ, tipped off by an IAD sergeant;
• who then happened to be one of the top 10;
• violations of the confidentiality agreements for Subject Matter Experts, including the exchange of money for access to the exam material, all nicely documented in Department e-mails;

Somehow Ferguson missed this?

Four Felonies = No Jail

Another Foxxx special - we think it may have been mentioned a bit ago, but the case concluded last Friday:

• A Mount Prospect woman pleaded guilty to selling guns illegally and was sentenced to probation.
  
  Simone Mousheh, 23, pleaded guilty Thursday to the illegal transfer of firearms in exchange for 12 months probation and 15 days in the Cook County sheriff's work alternative program, according to court records. S.W.A.P. allows judges to sentence nonviolent offenders to manual labor in lieu of jail time.
  
  She was also ordered to pay $679 in fines.

A "nonviolent" offense.....leading to how much violence?

At least we know if Mrs SCC starts running guns for extra cash, she'll be home in time to make dinner.

Baltimore

This is what a Consent Decree looks like:

The ACLU declares it to be so.

New Jail Policy

This just came out a few days ago:

• Don't forget the new rules for prisoners starting may 1st.
  
  $ has to be heat sealed and signed by 3 people, only one layer of clothing allowed, only 1 ID allowed, couple other things. Of course our administration just caved to all this, even though some of it is against our orders. So I guess at the last minute we will have to do more inventories, can see a lot more duty judges and OT coming.
  
  I can see them charging us to house the prisoners next.
  
  Dept put out a boo but really no other mention of it.
  
  This will be a huge safety issue for the wagons, take them to jail, but get rejected cause they have a t shirt and a sweatshirt on, now they have to take them back to station, feel sorry for the areas and 1st district.
  Thanks waller for signing off on this....

So what provoked this change? Could the jail be short-handed at intake?

And what moron agreed to this on CPD's end? Someone who obviously never ever worked lockup or drove a wagon we'd say.

Rumor

Wheezie's kid got locked up again?

In 011?

Anyone confirm?

Anyone know how the investigation of the entitled is going?

Dart the Jagoff

Let's see if Mark Brown says a word about this, seeing as how Mrs. Brown has a six-figure job in Dart's office:

• Numerous guards were hospitalized last night when inmates in division 9 tried to set them on fire. Same inmates who tried to burn down division last month. Dart gave them access to microwaves after that incident. They used the microwaves as an ignitor to try to burn guards last night.
  
  Over 200 CC jail guards have been attacked and injured since beginning of year. 587 last year.. Jail source says 75% of guards from 9 and 10 are IOD (injury on duty status) or have quit in last year.
  
  Source says jail administrators are pleading to Dart to put the problem inmates on 24hr lockdown but he refuses. Jail source says under 20 inmates responsible for the vast majority of the attacks on staff and Dart refuses to take any action against them

We guess along with three different Divisions being shuttered and torn down, Dart must've closed the solitary cells where problem inmates could look forward to 23-hours a day locked down and meals through a door slot away from the general population.

No such thing as a bad boy, right Tommy? Just misunderstood potential voters.

What Rahm Wrought

Think about this for a second:

• Two people were shot at 31st Street Beach on Saturday night as families enjoyed the grassy lawn and bicyclists rode down the adjacent pathway. A 27-year-old man and an 18-year-old woman were sitting near the shoreline in the 2800 block of South Fort Dearborn Drive when they heard gunshots and realized they were hit about 10:30 p.m., Chicago police said.
  
  The man was struck in the right leg and the woman was struck in the right hand, police said. Both were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in good condition. Officers shined flashlights on the dark path and beach as they scoured the grounds to find shell casings. They closed a portion of the lakefront trail with crime scene tape.
  
  A man who pulled up to the beach with friends in a car just after the shooting said he saw the swarm of police and paramedics rush to the shoreline where a man was lying on hay-like grass.
  
  The man, who did not want to be identified, said he was shocked violence would spill into the family-friendly area. "This is like neutral ground. There's a lot of kids and families out. When it's nice, people come to have a barbecue. This is not a place where you expect things to go down," said the man, 23, of Bronzeville. "It's away from where people are getting killed. That's the crazy thing."

"Neutral ground?" In a city that had 4,400 people shot last year with nearly 800 of those dying. A city on pace for a second straight year of 700 dead and over 4,000 shot. We're pretty sure there is no such thing as "neutral ground."

But who is defining this so-called "neutral ground?" It isn't the politicians - that would mean admitting parts of the city are war zones.

Not the police - we know "neutral ground" is imaginary.

It's the gangs and the people affected by the gang warfare. Rahm has essentially conceded almost every District, almost every neighborhood, nearly every formerly "safe" part of town to the shooters, the criminal element, the lawless. That friends, is Rahm's legacy.

Casualties Pile Up

The marksmanship is nothing to brag about, but the body count is impressive:

• Four people were shot in three separate daytime incidents, marking at least 33 people shot since Saturday afternoon in Chicago.

Pending the late totals, HeyJackass has the totals at 1 killed, 39 wounded/maimed, an impressive 40 people with extra holes in their bodies....on Easter no less.

UPDATE: 1 and 41

Foxxx Wrong Again

Seriously Kim? This is your "crime fighting" idea:

• Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx has a wish list to fight crime in Chicago. And deciphering the scourge side of social media is on the list.
  
  Sneed is told Foxx sent the list via a letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions late last week in hopes of snagging Trump regime resources to combat the violence crippling “the Chicago region.”
  
  Calling out “a city plagued by the worst gun violence in 20 years and two of the city’s police districts,” Foxx cited the Trump administration’s interest in prioritizing efforts to address violent crime, outlined key funding areas to keep “our communities safe,” and singled out the explosive growth of social media “and its role in crime” by requesting tech support and social media analysts.
  
  She underscored the need for greater tools to combat crimes committed on social media by citing the recent case of an 18-year-old disabled man and the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl that were streamed on Facebook Live.

Bad news Kimmy - social media isn't to blame. The crimes most likely would have been committed whether or not there was Facebook or Instagram or Worldstar. The social media aspect just allowed the assholes to brag about to a wider audience.

You know what stops crime? Access to victims...as in "criminals behind bars" and not out on bail or missing from Electronic Monitoring (like the 500 people Dart doesn't have tabs on). Sessions ought to tell her to try keeping criminals behind bars and see if crime drops.

Murders up 50%

Well, actually, not unless you're looking at the long term trends. This article doesn't quote the statistics very well, but hey, when has accuracy had any place in the Chicago media?

• The city is once again on pace to see more than 700 murders this year.
  
  There have been 855 people killed or wounded in 682 shootings so far in 2017. The violence is significantly worse than what previous years saw: There were just 597 people killed or wounded in 506 shootings on average in 2012-2016 by this time of year.
  
  There have also been significantly more murders in Chicago than average: There were 170 people killed Jan. 1-April 13, while there were an average of 112 murders over the same period 2012-2016.

The author uses the words "on average" a lot more than she should and it leads to the impression that killings are up - they aren't this year, though the numbers within 20 or so. But on average, the latter half of this decade is showing a significant rise in violent crime.

Weed "Illness"?

So first, weed was supposed to be a "miracle cure" for all sorts of illnesses. Now, weed is causing "illness" in users?

• For more than two years, Lance Crowder was having severe abdominal pain and vomiting, and no local doctor could figure out why. Finally, an emergency room physician in Indianapolis had an idea.
  
  “The first question he asked was if I was taking hot showers to find relief. When he asked me that question, I basically fell into tears because I knew he had an answer,” Crowder said.
  
  The answer was cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, or CHS. It’s caused by heavy, long-term use of various forms of marijuana. For unclear reasons, the nausea and vomiting are relieved by hot showers or baths.
  
  “They’ll often present to the emergency department three, four, five different times before we can sort this out,” said Dr. Kennon Heard, an emergency room physician in Aurora, Colorado.
  
  He co-authored a study showing that since 2009, when medical marijuana became widely available, emergency room visits diagnoses for CHS in two Colorado hospitals nearly doubled. In 2012, the state legalized recreational marijuana.

CHS? They just made that shit up. Next thing you know, excessive Twinkie cravings, a desire to sleep all the time and the inability to get/keep a job will be further "symptoms" of this imaginary illness. And we can almost guarantee that Colorado will come up with some for of "disability" payment for the afflicted.

It's State-wide

Parolees are safer behind bars serving their full sentences as prescribed by law:

• A man has been charged in connection with the fatal shooting of a parolee in southwest suburban Minooka Friday night while he was celebrating his release from prison earlier that day.
  
  Nathan A. Hofkamp, 29, was celebrating with family members about 11:25 p.m. when "a disturbance broke out" inside a home in the 25000 block of Canal Road in Minooka, according to a statement from the Will County sheriff's office. James F. Hess, a "live in acquaintance" of Hofkamp's mother, got upset and fired a gunshot, striking Hofkamp in the chest.

Though we must say, the long term savings on additional trials and sentences must be studied to see if it is a net positive or negative to society.

Taking the Night Off

SCC is busy, maybe we're out of town, and we're going to take the night off.

Use this as an open thread for now and feel free to comment on previous threads. We'll get back to posting shortly.

Right now we're celebrating a happy occasion and blogging is taking a back seat to life.

Time to Step Up FOP

The lines are being drawn:

• A day after the election of a harder-line Chicago Fraternal Order of Police president, an array of black elected officials Thursday called for Mayor Rahm Emanuel to demand police contract changes they say would make it easier to report misconduct by cops without fear of reprisal.
  
  City Council Black Caucus Chairman Ald. Roderick Sawyer, 6th, said the 18-member group he leads will vote against a new police contract if those changes aren't included. He also said he has enough support from aldermen outside the caucus to kill a proposed deal.
  
  "The FOP contract has been preserving and protecting a culture of racism and violence in our Police Department for far too long," Sawyer said while standing with African-American federal, state, county and city officials. "Now is our chance to change that once and for all, and I would challenge the FOP to contact us and meet with us to discuss what's beneficial for the entirety of the city of Chicago, not just the rank-and-file members of the Police Department."

Point of order - the FOP represents the rank-and-file members of the Department, not the city. Representing the city is the aldercreatures job, and a piss-poor job they've been doing for five or six decades now, with about half their number jailed for various offenses, more enriching themselves at the expense of taxpayers, selling their votes to the highest bidder and the mayor.

Could Rod point out to us single instance of how it's supposedly "difficult" to file a complaint? IPRA takes everything that knocks on the door - even things that are specifically banned from being registered as complaints. IPRA takes it all, throws it at the wall, and sees what might stick.

Could Rod also point out a single instance of "reprisal"? We can't recall a single one...except those gotten by police on supervisors for hostile work environments. Those are notoriously common, but never seem to be sustained anywhere because the connected don't live by the same rules as the common folk.

Time for the FOP to demand the City follow the Federal rules regarding investigations for starters.

So....Not Cops?

The hearings at the City Council are typically "Chicago:"

• Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans on Thursday expressed her “extreme regret” about viral videos of a bloodied passenger being dragged off a United Airlines flight by Chicago aviation police, but her evasive testimony at a City Council hearing exposed broader questions about the state of security at O’Hare and Midway airports.
  
  Under questioning by Ald. Edward Burke (14^th), Evans revealed that she had ordered aviation security officers — who have been lobbying for the right to carry guns with Burke as their champion — to remove the word “police” from their uniforms.
  
  “In a directive in January, we ordered them to not use the word ‘police.’ To use the word ‘security’ on their jackets,” Evans said.

So now they aren't the police...as declared by a bureaucrat. Amazing.

And the Sun Times further clouds the issue with this:

• After Thursday’s hearing, the role of the aviation security cops seemed murky, though.

What the hell is an "aviation security cop"? Did the Sun Times just invent this term? At Rahm's behest? Are we about to see the Aviation PD disbanded? And will we be able to bid to the airports?

Has anyone thought that maybe this entire episode is being used to pry the airports from out of Ed Burke's iron fist?

Rahm: "Raise Taxes!"

Typical democrat - never met a tax he didn't like:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Wednesday that the federal gas tax should be raised by up to 10 cents per gallon during a discussion of the $1 trillion infrastructure plan being touted by President Donald Trump.
  
  The mayor was speaking at a Wall Street Journal-sponsored breakfast in Washington when an audience questioner proposed a 5-cent gasoline tax hike.
  
  "I'm for your nickel and I'll up you a nickel," Emanuel responded. "I'm for a dime, you want to do a nickel, whatever."

Anyone know when the last time it was that Rahm paid for a gallon of gas? How about slashing government - all this "Assistants to the Assistant," Deputy Chiefs, layers of bureaucracy, etc. Oh wait....Chicago. Sorry.

Wrong Headline

Rahm is withholding information again:

• The Better Government Association has sued the administration of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, seeking records related to lead testing of drinking water at the Chicago Public Schools and city efforts in 2016 to manage media coverage of it.
  
  The watchdog group filed the lawsuit in Cook County circuit court after the city redacted or withheld several records following a June 2016 open records request submitted as lead tests were underway in city schools. Those tests ultimately would find high drinking water lead levels at more than 100 facilities
  
  Emanuel’s health department assisted in the school lead testing program, and the BGA’s records request filed under the Freedom of Information Act sought emails swapped between Health Commissioner Julie Morita, the mayor and top mayoral staffers.

Why doesn't this headline read "Rahm hates Children, Poisons Them with Toxic Metals"?

You know it would be exactly that if it were the Police Department denying Andy Shaw's people information.

FOP Coverage

More on the FOP Election:

• Tribune
• Sun Times

When Rahm starts playing the games of "canceling" scheduled Contract meetings and such, we hope the FOP plays hardball and goes right for the arbitrator - don't play his bullshit games.

Negotiating as "gentlemen" only works when both sides act gentlemanly, and Rahm is a petulant sawed-off runt who runs his entire organization by the "news cycle." Undercut him at every opportunity. If he demands concessions in line with an imaginary federal Consent Decree, then demand job protections in line with federal officers - 72 hours, full representation, data review, etc. He can't object without looking like a failed tyrant and guess what he loses?

The news cycle.

One Down

Charges on the judge killing:

• Chicago police say the attempted armed robbery of a slain Cook County judge and his injured girlfriend early Monday was not a random act while announcing murder and other charges against the first of several suspects.
  
  Police also revealed that shell casings found outside the judge's Far South Side home matched ballistics evidence from an attempted armed robbery in the early morning hours three months ago. The victim was shot and wounded.

So...not random, as in targeted.

And targeted why? Judges aren't usually notoriously rich.

Sources say that the rap sheets for this and the other two being sought are....shall we say, "extensive." And amazingly, they weren't spending many decades in jail for some reason. We're sure that will be right at the top of the next media story.

Really Jesse?

Anyone in the lame-stream media going to point this out?

• The family of the passenger injured after he was dragged off of a United Airlines flight at O'Hare Airport released a statement Tuesday afternoon saying they are "appreciative" of all the support they are getting.
  
  Meanwhile, outraged continued to grow following the treatment of Dr. David Dao, a doctor from Kentucky, on Sunday aboard the Louisville-bound plane.
  
  The Chicago City Council's Aviation Committee said it's working on plans to call United's CEO and Department of Aviation officials before the committee. Also, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition are scheduled to protest at O'Hare on Wednesday.

The convicted felon doctor was Chinese. At least one of the cops doing the dragging was black. So what is Jesse protesting?

We don't see Jesse protesting at the site of the Judge's murder. We don't see Jesse protesting at the scene of the 66-year-old and two twelve-year-olds who got shot the other day. We don't even see Jesse protesting at the father-son-who -let-the-dog-out killing. Why is that, do you think?

Oh yeah - no money in those protests....just minorities shooting and killing minorities. United Airlines is a multi-billion dollar corporation that might sent Jesse some plane tickets to go away, or maybe give one of his family members an airline to run into the ground like the Budweiser distributorship. That's the only reason Jesse is around.

Agenda?

You think the media doesn't have an agenda? Local media asshole Mark Brown wrote a big article about the United Airlines fiasco. We haven't really talked about it because it doesn't involve CPD and it was a dumb move to get cops involved in what was essentially a dispute over a contractual issue (read the accompanying paperwork when you purchase an airline ticket.)

But Brown just could resist throwing in this non-sequitur (no links for assholes):

• As we’re trying to find the proper level of outrage here, maybe we should keep in mind that this sort of thing really doesn’t happen much, meaning there is no trend, unlike say, African-Americans getting shot by police during traffic stops.

Could Brown point out the supposed "trend?" What makes a trend? There are hundreds of thousands of cops interacting with million of citizens. Does Brown quote the percentages? The per capita numbers? How about the justified shootings as opposed to unjustified? Does Brown cite a single one of these metrics? Well that doesn't fit the lib-tarded agenda you know. So Brown just gets to throw out a paragraph based on exactly nothing factual.

You know a trend we've noticed? Spouses and spawn of media members working at six-figure jobs for assorted politicians....like Mrs. Brown for one.