Gang Team Arrested

Once again, a phone call unit is going to bring unimaginable heat and disgrace to the Department. One sergeant and two-to-four PO's out of Area Central if initial reports are correct. Here's a clue boys and girls:

• Money or drugs just left in a car rarely happens in real life. At least, not in the amounts that snared you. And now you'll be going to prison.

You aren't the first and unfortunately, you won't be the last, who think that they're smarter than the system. Thanks.

Fire Rescue

Great job Officers:

• A woman was screaming and holding three young children as she ran toward the Chicago police officers just after midnight on the West Side. “There’s a fire! There’s still family inside,” she yelled.
  
  Harrison District police Officer Jason Fong and his partner ran into the burning home in the 3900 block of West Congress Parkway in the East Garfield Park neighborhood early on Monday. Two other officers about half a block away also went into the home to make sure no one else was trapped.
  
  “The fire was intense,” said Fong, 37, recounting the experience at an early morning news conference Tuesday. “I could feel the flames. It was kind of like burning and irritating our faces. It was very hard to see.”
  
  Officer Julio Ruiz, 45, said he was concerned more children could be inside. The first woman’s children appeared to be 5, 2 and 1 month. He chased after an older woman who was trying to run back inside to find relatives.
  

Two other Officers, Siler and Baretto, were also lauded as heroes.

No Victim, No Crime

Rahm's and Ed's new crime fighting "strategy?"

• A 911 call was made at 11:09 p.m. on October 15, 2015, to report a battery incident involving a relatively minor use of force. Police arrived nearly a half-hour later, found no evidence of a crime having occurred, and went on their way.
  
  The reality of the situation, however, was quite different, according to a report on the incident later published by The New Orleans Advocate. In actuality, a car had blown through a stop sign just after 11 p.m. in the popular Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans. A 64-year-old man visiting from San Diego was nearly hit by the car and exchanged angry words with the driver, who a witness says subsequently assaulted the tourist. The victim was ultimately paralyzed.
  
  According to an EMS report provided to the Times of San Diego, the emergency medical service arrived at 11:22 p.m., 13 minutes after the 911 call was placed. The ambulance left with the injured tourist at 11:30 p.m., eight minutes before a police officer reached the scene. Finding no victim, the officer marked the call “unfounded” — meaning that he or she found no crime had occurred — in the police department’s Calls for Service database.1
  
  This incident is a particularly egregious example of the effect that lengthy police response times2 can have on a city’s crime totals. Over the course of the hundreds of thousands of incidents that take place each year, long response times can lead to officers recording fewer incidents as crimes, which in turn can hurt the reliability of crime totals tallied by the FBI when the agency compiles national statistics. And ultimately, these delays can erode public confidence in the police.

We've recently seen a few comments that the Inspection Division is gigging cars for not hitting the "en route" and "on scene" buttons on the PDT's because there is some audit (or an FOIA) going on that makes response times look bad.

Anyone have info?

CTU Jumps the Shark (Again)

Remember, these people (or folks) are not our friends:

• During the week of February 5, 2018 National Black Lives Matter at School Week will be observed in cities around the country. The Chicago Teachers Union House of Delegates voted unanimously to join National Black Lives Matter at School Week at its January 10, 2018 meeting.

The CTU supporting an organization founded on a series of lies which has advocated for the killing of police officers.

Expanding the "Brass"

Here's Ed putting out the bullshit he's been told to put out:

And here's the announcement of what's been appearing in our comment section for a few days now:

• Three high-level civilian employees have been hired to oversee reform, strategy and finance for the Chicago Police Department in a continuing shake-up ordered by Supt. Eddie Johnson.

And the $428,00 in salary for these three new positions?

• OT cuts, especially in the Areas. No VRI only gets you so far

The justification is amusing, too:

• “We made a commitment to change the way CPD does business and to put these reforms into place. We weren’t just saying we were going to do it. We’re actually going to do it. So this is just another mechanism for us to ensure that we’re basically policing ourselves. I need the sworn personnel to focus on the crime fight. For so long , what law enforcement would do is pick a police officer and say, ‘You’re in charge of this’ with little or no expertise.”

That's called the "merit" system Ed. You were raised in it, you benefited from it, you continue to hand out the undeserved product of it. And Ed is already setting up the force-feeding of it to the rank-and-file:

• Johnson openly acknowledged that cops don’t trust civilians and, as a result, there might be resentment to three new bosses.
  
  That’s particularly true of Classen, given his role on the Task Force on Police Accountability that portrayed the Chicago Police Department as racist and was promptly denounced as “biased” by the Fraternal Order of Police.
  
  “I’m sure there’ll be some resentment. But if we want to be successful, we need expertise in certain areas. So, we’re bringing in experts,” the superintendent said.

Rest assured, there will be consequences for resisting the assimilation.

Alderman Support

Some support from an unusual quarter:

• The GoFundMe campaign set up as a legal defense fund for Chicago Police officer Robert Rialmo has raised more than $6,000 of its $50,000 goal in less than a week.
  
  Among the 112 donors so far: Ald. Nick Sposato (38th), who kicked in $100 last Friday.
  
  GoFundMe allows donors to give money anonymously if they prefer, but Sposato said he put his name on his money in the hopes that others would follow suit.
  
  “Hopefully my police and fireman friends see this and I hope they jump in and help as well,” Sposato said. “I’m not trying to hide anything.”

Thank you alderman. Nice to see someone in your position supporting those who would be railroaded for Rahm's political gain.

You can donate, too. The link is down a few days.

Masters Masters Masters - Take 2

This doesn't sound like fun at all:

• The beginning of the end: Special Ed is not making changes as fast as Rahm wants so Walter Katz made him hire Lori Lightfoot’s assistant Maurice Classen as director of operations. They literally told Special Ed this guy is going to sit next to you on 5 and to let him run the department and for Eddie to stay out of his way. I thought Eddie was doing a good job being Rahm’s bitch but I guess not good enough. Maurice starts Monday with his SJW marching orders from Walter. Be ready for some big changes in pro-COPA policy very soon.
  
  
• Speaking of Snowflakes, The man who directed the Police Accountability Task Force, Maurice Classen, will be starting as Assistant to the Superintendent for Diversity on Monday. Every decision Johnson makes has to be passed through him so the city can weigh in on it just like Masters Masters Masters. Even got 3Ms office directly across from Johnson. He says his mission is to make sure CPD is focused on real justice not just criminal justice.
  
  
• SCC I confirmed Maurice Classen will be Director of Strategy for the Chicago Police Department. A former assistant to Leftist Senator Patty Murray and failed candidate for Seattle Councilman, Maurice Classen will be taking over Jim Roussels office and position as a second chief of staff with control over policy. Classen was most recently employed by Lori Lightfood to head the Police Accountability Task Force where he signed a sweeping indictment of systemic racism in the enforcement of law against acts of violence and use of weapons in African American communities. Classen is seen by City Hall as the right person to guide the department priorities in the election season. 

Here's the bio on this Classen guy.

And here's one on Katz from a year ago, who's pulling the strings on behalf of the 9.5 fingered midget.

We are about to head down a very dark road. Be vary very aware of what is going on around you boy and girls.

These Jokers

There's a full fledged Ethics Investigation on Burke:

• City ethics officials are looking into whether longtime Ald. Ed Burke, 14th, violated ethics rules when he sidelined an effort to increase the property taxes paid by the owners of two buildings his law firm represents, according to the alderman whose effort he blocked.
  
  Ald. Ricardo Munoz, 22nd, said the Chicago Board of Ethics told him it would take up the issue as soon as next month.

This is hilarious that Munoz is the face of this effort, given that he (A) used to hold guns for the latin kings, (B) has actually physically attacked a voter, and (C) covered for his parents illegal ID business on 26th Street for years before it mysteriously burned to the ground.

And then this crooked asshole:

• Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios filed a lawsuit Friday that challenges a county ordinance limiting campaign donations, saying it unconstitutionally restricts the free-speech rights of contributors.
  
  “I plan to make sure that every resident in Cook County is afforded the opportunity to exercise their First Amendment right when it comes to contributing to their candidate of choice, whoever that may be,” Berrios said in a statement.
  
  Berrios also maintains that the Illinois Constitution gives governing authority over election issues to the state and that Cook County does not have the power to set its own limits.
  
  The lawsuit against the Cook County Board of Commissioners and its Board of Ethics opens a new front in a battle over the contributions Berrios accepts, particularly from property tax appeals attorneys who seek to lower real estate assessments through his office.

You mean like Madigan? And Burke? And Cullerton? And how many relatives has Joe hired this year for the Assessor's office?


Amazing how much of this corruption is centered around Property Taxes, the assessment of same and collection of.

You're ALL Qualified

Who is steering this disaster into the iceberg?

• How about the latest FTO volunteer update first us regular patrolman are too stupid to be FTO's because we aren't on the Sgt list. A week later nobody volunteers and now we are magically qualified to be volunteer FTOs. Wtf is headquarters smoking write this down "nobody gives a fuck about the FTO program". Stop with the job announcements nobody cares. Either make it detectives pay or face the facts that nobody will apply.

Nothing like setting a bar, then removing the bar completely when no one wants the job.

Airport Arrest (UPDATES)

Guess who was locked up at the airport again.

Even after THREE WARNINGS.

Well done Judge.

UPDATE: Tribune story (originally at 1045 AM)

UPDATE: Sun Times report (originally at 0552 PM)

Looks like $100 to the Chaplains as we had it up at 0630.

Pay up deadbeats.

This Guy Again?

Sure, why not? Can't be as bad as what we have now:

• (via Sneed): Paul Vallas continues to set the stage for a run against a formidable Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
  
  Vallas, who was appointed by Gov. Bruce Rauner to help restart a financially beleaguered Chicago State University, tells Sneed he plans to step down from that job soon — a clear reminder of what he has done politically in the past: not hold a public job while running for public office.
  
  “My job is done,” said Vallas. “Although my contract ran until July 1, I now plan to leave March 31,” he said while also repeating an earlier report by Crain’s Chicago Business columnist Greg Hinz he was “seriously considering” running for mayor.
  
  Trust me: The decision by Vallas to leave early is a huge indication he hopes to run for mayor.

Fun times.

Shots Fired at Police

Missed this one from a few nights ago:

• Four people were in custody Thursday afternoon after shots were fired at officers in the Gresham neighborhood on the South Side.
  
  The shooting happened about 3:20 p.m. in the 8000 block of South Sangamon, Chicago Police said. No injuries were reported.
  
  Police could not immediately say if officers returned fire.

No one hurt, so that's a good thing.

Escape to Chicago

Even murderers from other states are coming here due to the low clearance rate:

• A man wanted in a murder warrant in connection with the beating death of his 10-month-old child in Las Vegas was arrested Friday at a Greyhound bus station in Chicago, authorities said.
  
  Eric Chu, 31, was arrested Friday afternoon by the members of the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force, which includes FBI agents, Chicago police officers and Cook County sheriff’s deputies, according to Chicago FBI spokesman Garrett Croon.
  
  Chu, of Las Vegas, who records show has previously lived in the south suburbs, is charged with murder in the death Wednesday of his child, whose name and sex authorities have not yet released, according to a news release from Las Vegas police. Court records show a murder warrant for Chu’s arrest was filed in Clark County Court in Las Vegas on Friday.

Didn't work out so well this time though. And let's not catch anyone claiming this as a "Cleared/Closed by Arrest."

Snowflake Says What?

This is the link to the CBS website. About halfway down is the WBBM Newsradio report and in it, Bob Roberts elicits this comment from a DePaul student regarding the four armed robberies in the course of minutes the other day:

• "They are doing what they can do to survive and I definitely have compassion for that so I don't feel like I'm in danger of anything."

Seriously? She's making excuses for shitheads sticking a gun in people's faces and relieving them of their personal property. We remember a time when victims were outraged that this could happen in their "nice" neighborhood. They called aldercreatures and complained that streetlights were out, parking was crowded, seedy types were hanging in alleys and on street corners. They expected a certain level of safety.

Now this flake has "compassion" and thinks she isn't "in danger of anything." Better hope they aren't feeling a little horny there buttercup. Or do you think they're entitled to that as well as your property?

Asshat.

Nice Highway Rahm

Picturesque. Scenic. Immortalized in song.

Shooting gallery:

• No one was shot, but a lot of people had the bejeezus scared out of them yesterday morning on North Lake Shore Drive.
  
  At least six callers dialed 911 around 11 a.m. Thursday to report seeing an occupant of one car open fire on another vehicle as the two traveled southbound on Lake Shore Drive between Montrose and Irving Park Road.
  
  A woman who was standing in the 4100 block of North Marine Drive heard six shots ring out and a man who was in traffic with the two involved vehicles called moments later to say he saw the gunfire happen.
  
  According to that man and four other drivers, an occupant of a red Dodge Charger with a sunroof, tinted rear windows and a Pennsylvania license plate fired multiple shots at a black Pontiac Grand Prix.
  
  The Grand Prix is believed to have exited at Irving Park. Police were unable to find the car.

And what's being done to stop it?

• But, cops in the 18th District reported seeing the Dodge Charger running through red lights near Ohio and Wells about 15 minutes after the gunshots. Unfortunately, the officers didn’t know that the car was wanted for gunplay and—following the police department’s “no chase” policy—they didn’t try to stop it. Only later did they hear that the car's occupants had been firing in traffic.

Nothing.

Shotspotter = Body Spotter?

Interesting how the paper phrases it:

• A man who was found dead after Shotspotter technology lead officers to the scene has been identified.
  
  Devin L. Hill, 21, of the 400 block of North St. Louis Avenue, was found dead around 6 a.m. Wednesday on the 400 block of North Pulaski Road in the West Side’s West Garfield Park neighborhood, police said.
  
  Hill died after suffering multiple gunshot wounds, the Cook County medical examiner's office determined following an autopsy Thursday.
  
  Officers were called to the 400 block of South Pulaski Road by gunshot detection technology, police said.

Because no one on the west side would bother to call 911 over a dead guy lying in the street. Via advances in technology, valuable minutes were saved locating yet another corpse in the killing fields of Fillmo'.

New City Program?

The City has spent how many tens of millions sound-proofing houses around Midway and O'Hare? Perhaps it's time for the Rahm to offer to bullet-proof buildings around the Gold Coast?

• Chicago police responding to a shooting discovered two bullet holes in a window of Northwestern Memorial Hospital in the Gold Coast Friday morning, Chicago police said.
  
  No one was injured. Police responded to the shooting in the 200-block of East Erie Street at about 4:18 a.m.
  
  Northwestern said it was a random incident and the projectiles hit the outpatient pavilion on Erie Street. The office was closed at the time.

And after the Gold Coast gets their windows, Rahm can start on the west and south sides.

COPA Plays Politics

Even Special Ed recognizes a railroad job:

• Family members have been pressuring Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson to fire the police officer who killed Quintonio LeGrier and bystander Bettie Jones, but they might have to wait a while longer for the superintendent’s decision.
  
  Johnson is accusing the Civilian Office of Police Accountability of withholding information he needs to decide whether to concur with COPA’s recommendation to fire Officer Robert Rialmo for a shooting the oversight agency has ruled “unjustified.”
  
  The rare behind-the-scenes dispute over investigative files is aired in Johnson’s Jan. 11 letter to COPA’s interim chief administrator, Patricia Banks.

There isn't a jurisdiction in the nation that doesn't recognize a baseball bat as a lethal weapon. And COPA's ridiculous "investigation" doesn't appear to follow any recognized protocols or legal precedents. COPA has hidden (so far) 42 videos along with the Boston lieutenant investigation from the Supernintendo's review process.

It's 100% political, which makes us wonder what Ed is playing at.

Three Warnings

This is sure to work:

• For a few moments Thursday morning, as a Cook County judge waited for Marilyn Hartman to step into his courtroom, it looked as though she might have eluded authorities once again.
  
  But unlike in an airport lounge, the slight, bespectacled woman with a tidy silver bob was hard to miss amid the dour inmates and beefy sheriff’s deputies, most of whom towered above her.
  
  The serial stowaway had no need for deception, though, because shortly after she was led into Cook County Judge Donald Panarese Jr.’s courtroom at Grand and Central, he told her she could go free — but not before warning her, three times, to stay away from O’Hare and Midway.

This is at least her third strike concerning trespass to airport property and attempts to board aircraft. Suffice it to say she isn't learning her lesson.

You know what the Courts ought to try? Warn the ne'er-do-well's THREE TIMES to stop committing crime, burglarizing houses, shoplifting in stores, robbing pedestrians and shooting each other.We'll bet that the Bond Court could do away with bail altogether if this was done properly.

Someone notify Dart, Evans and Prickwrinkle.

Nice Campus Rahm

The increasing number of muggings continues apace:

• DePaul University and Chicago police sent out safety alerts after six students were mugged within minutes early Thursday on or near the North Side campus and another victim was robbed on the Near West Side, apparently by the same robbers.
  
  Four or five young men committed at least three robberies on or near the DePaul campus and another not long after on the Near West Side between about midnight and 12:40 a.m., according to police. The group used a white Audi SUV to get around, took out handguns and robbed the victims at gunpoint, according to a Chicago police alert.

Perhaps DePaul University ought to look into opening the city's first shooting range and start training students not to be victims.

Time for Drastic Action

We've heard of this. We don't know why it didn't occur to us earlier:



Could solve a lot of problems all at once.

GoFundMe Request

A couple people mailed this in - a GoFundMe page to assist in defraying the legal costs for the COPA railroad job on one of our fellow officers.

• Click here to read and help out

COPA is hunting down drunken assailants and bullying them into signing complaints in a blatant effort to build a case to justify a finding that they can't hope to sustain in court.

Conflict of Interest

Didn't we just speak of this the other day?

• Influential Ald. Ed Burke has sidelined an effort to increase the property taxes paid by the owners of two buildings his law firm represents on assessment appeals, a move one Chicago City Council colleague and ethics experts say could violate conflict-of-interest rules.
  
  The issue arose last week after 22nd Ward Ald. Ricardo Munoz, joined by nearly two dozen aldermen, introduced a measure that would force Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration to take legal steps to try to increase the assessed property values of seven prime commercial buildings. Munoz contended the properties were sold for more than twice as much as Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios valued them.
  
  [...]
  
  Shortly after Munoz introduced his proposal on Jan. 17, Burke put up a potential roadblock. Munoz had asked that the measure be assigned to the Housing and Real Estate Committee, led by 49th Ward Ald. Joe Moore, who had planned to give it a hearing. Burke intervened, saying the measure instead should be sent to the Finance Committee. That’s where Burke holds great sway as chairman, in part by deciding whether a proposal ever gets a hearing.
  
  When there’s a dispute on which committee should consider a measure, the matter automatically goes to the Rules and Ethics Committee. Known as “purgatory” at City Hall, that’s the place where controversial legislation often withers on the vine.

If you start messing with aldercreatures' side-money....

So Much for "Transparency"

COPA bringing in ringers to investigate?

• The City agency that conducts investigations into allegations of police misconduct paid more than $17,000 to an outside party as part of the agency’s investigation of a controversial 2015 fatal police shooting, the FOP has learned.
  
  Attorneys working on behalf of the Fraternal Order of Police obtained documents in a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request indicating that the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) paid a Boston based police lieutenant in connection with the agency’s investigation of a 2015 police shooting in which two people died.
  
  In December, COPA ruled that the shooting was not justified. The FOP denounced the ruling and advised its attorneys to review COPA’s investigation. The FOP also requested that the City’s Inspector General investigate what the FOP claimed was a pattern of suspicious media leaks of confidential information about the agency’s investigations to various news outlets, including the Chicago Tribune.
  
  According to the records submitted by COPA, the agency paid Lt. Robert Harrington from the Boston Police Department through the Chicago law firm of McGuire Woods LLP.

And the Boston Lieutenant's qualifications are what exactly? He is well versed in Illinois Law? Chicago Ordinances? CPD training (such as it exists)? CPD Use of Force?

COPA seems to be shopping "experts" with expensive tastes.

Weed Good, Soda Bad

Nice to know Prickwrinkle has her priorities straight:

• State lawmakers heard an earful from both sides at a Monday hearing on legalizing recreational use of marijuana.
  
  Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle told lawmakers she supports legalization because, right now, law enforcement focuses a disproportionate amount of energy on pot smokers in black and brown communities.
  
  “Rarely do we see white college students, or young professionals, suburban high school students or their prosperous parents, arrested or detained for the use or possession of marijuana,” Preckwinkle said at a House-Senate public health hearing on legalizing marijuana in Illinois.

Everything is racial to Prickwrinkle, indeed to most democrats - it's their defining characteristic. That being said, this will be an interesting social experiment should recreational marijuana be legalized. The disruption to the cartel distribution networks, gang hierarchies and street-corner "territories" is going to be amusing. That's a big income stream suddenly cut off and a lot of inner city entrepreneurs without pocket money. They can't all become safe passage workers at $10-an-hour.

Prostitution Ended?

So if the numbers fall for a particular arrest category, does that mean that the crime has been eradicated?

Does CPD even have a Vice Unit any more? Because we have a hard time imagining that all the hookers suddenly stopped plying their trade. Or is Backpage.com all paid up with the appropriate connected people? Because 018 with zero prostitution arrests is kind of hard to believe.

Off Duty Jacked

No one is safe:

• 1950 N. Wolcott, off-duty detective carjacked at gunpoint. No injuries to the Detective.

Be careful, stay alert.

UPDATE: media coverage:

• Two people stole the vehicle of an off-duty Chicago Police detective at gunpoint Tuesday morning in the Bucktown neighborhood on the North Side.
  
  A 43-year-old man was sitting in his black 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee at 11:29 a.m. in the 1900 block of North Wolcott when two males wearing overalls and hoodies walked up and demanded the vehicle at gunpoint, according to Chicago Police.
  
  The man complied and the suspects drove away west in the stolen Jeep, police said.

Carjackings are still out of control in Chicago. Our Statistic Guy came up with this chart:

Even higher than last year..

Seriously Tribune?

Talk about your bullshit stories:

• More than 30 shot, 6 fatally, in most violent weekend of 2018

Wow. That's horrible. And how many weekends have there been in 2018 so far?

• Three

So what are they going to report the rest of the year? You know, when it's actually in the 80's and 90's and the body counts end up in the 50's, 60's and the occasional 70?

Conflict of Interest

This might be something:

• Gov. Bruce Rauner has issued a ban on legislators financially benefiting from state property-tax appeals.
  
  Rauner issued an executive order Friday calling such representation "a clear conflict of interest that must end." It is effective immediately.
  
  Rauner has often accused Chicago Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan of benefiting from high Illinois property taxes because his law firm deals in tax-assessment appeals. Madigan has maintained he operates by a strict code of ethics and within the law.
  
  The order directs the Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board to prohibit lawmakers from participating in appeals before it.

A lot of pols have side businesses that financially benefit themselves, including law firms. After all, who is going to get you a better deal in front of the Tax Appeal Board?

• Madigan and Getzendanner
• Thompson Colburn LLP (John Cullerton)
• Joe Schmo Abogados

Rauner is making it personal by attacking Madigan's side business. Now if he could do something about Klafter and (Ed) Burke.

Run to Remember Registration

Now open at this link for the 05 May 2018 event.

Use promo code "JAN2018" before the end of the month for a discount.

(comments closed here - informational post only)

Aldrecreature Arena Games

Might this be a misuse of Department resources for political purposes?

• Alderman Arenas office filed a CR number against any officer that openly opposed his housing development on his Facebook page. Leslie Perkins who is employed by Alderman Arena's office, is the complainant on the CR#.
  
  Arena's office claims that the officers who opposed low income housing, on the Aldermans Facebook Page, are racist. Alderman Arena allowed, and most likely encouraged, his paid protestors to openly threaten law enforcement officers on his City endorsed Facebook Page. Alderman Arena also allowed community members to be threatened, harassed and stalked by his henchmen if they did not support his agenda. Even officers who kept their profession hidden and used screen names, were not safe from the wrath of Alderman Arena.
  
  The Alderman had his staff run the plates of individuals who were present at gatherings opposing his development, get their information and run it through a city data base to find out if they are police officers. The CR number names numerous officers, alleging they made "racially charged comments against low income housing." Anyone who made a negative comment concerning Arenas housing projects, even if it was just comments concerning overcrowding, were labeled racist by Arena, his wife and his paid protestors. Numerous individuals who were threatened on his Facebook Page, a page that he controls and content he is responsible for, contacted the Aldermans office through phone, email and social media, all of which went unanswered.
  
  Even if Arena didn't make the threats against law enforcement, he obviously condones it since he never deleted them from his social media, nor did he condemn them. These officers voiced their concerns as community members, not police officers. Now that the community has spoken and Alderman Arena has been denied state funding for his housing project, he needs someone to blame and who better than the police.

Gee whiz. Weaponizing IPRA / COPA / IAD for a political end. Where could a Chicago politico have gotten the idea to use government resources against someone whose Constitutionally protected viewpoints differ from his own? Can you imagine the scandal if someone in the White House used, let's just say "the IRS," against conservative groups that opposed the political aims of the Executive Branch? Why, people might think we were living in a Communist shithole.

Hey Inspector General? Hey FOP? Hey media? Are you looking into this? Shouldn't be too hard to find with the "Invisible Institute" making FOIA requests for every CR number in existence.

UPDATE: Coppers have been fired for running plates and handing the information off to other parties. Should ISP be notified of this possible misuse of the database? Perhaps they should revoke CPD access to the database until the investigation is complete.

Safe Passage....Expanding?

How can this be if Chicago is so safe?

• Students from 14 more Chicago Public Schools will now benefit from the Safe Passage program designed to keep kids safe on their way to and from school.
  
  Mayor Rahm Emanuel and CPS officials announced Sunday that the program will be expanded to include 14 more elementary schools: Sidney Sawyer, Ashe, Frazier International Magnet, Park Manor, Morrill Math and Science, Myra Bradwell, Richard J. Daley, McKay, Joplin, Lewis, Martha M Ruggles, Irma C Ruiz, Sherman School of Excellence and Warren Park.

But shootings are down. Homicides are down. Carjackings and muggings are up, but grade school kids don't drive and they don't have much money. So what's the deal?

Oh yeah - "volunteers" get paid.

• The Board of Education are expected to vote Wednesday to increase spending authority for Safe Passage by $1 million to pay for the expansion, according to a statement from the mayor’s office and CPS.
  
  The Safe Passage program began with 35 schools in 2009. It will now serve more than 75,000 students at 159 schools. The program involves 1,400 Safe Passage personnel trained by the CPS Office of Safety and Security.

That's another few hundred more "volunteers" getting $10 an hour to watch kids go to school - something most parents and neighborhoods usually did for free. But there's an election coming up soon and Rahm needs to make sure there's pocket money floating around.

How Crowded?

How crowded is the Academy now?

This crowded:

• They have the new 18-01 class at the academy starting at 1600 and until 0025 all this week. Pretty sure that’s the first time being done.

The Department was having trouble finding enough instructors to work the late shift last we heard. Anyone have the inside scoop?

Shooting

Cops fired to save a woman, possibly being stabbed curing a domestic:

• Chicago police officers shot and injured a man who was attacking a woman early Saturday on the South Side, according to police officials.
  
  The shooting happened around 5:40 a.m. in the 7600 block of South Ada Street in the Gresham neighborhood, according to Chicago police spokesman Anthony [Google-me].
  
  [Google-me] said officers shot the man after they were called to a home for a domestic disturbance and arrived to find the man attacking the woman.
  
  The man and woman were rushed to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in serious condition, but they have been stabilized.

Good job Officers.

A Political Decision

Herbert has been saying this for months. Turns out, he was completely correct:

• Former Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez has repeatedly denied that her decision to charge Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke with murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was motivated by a looming election — an allegation most recently leveled in court last month by Van Dyke’s lawyer.
  
  But before her announcement on Nov. 24, 2015, that the white cop was being charged with killing the black teenager, Alvarez’s political campaign consultants weighed in on how to present the decision, and she was given key talking points, according to emails obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.

Now lets's see if the Sun Times manages to stumble into some Garry/Rahm e-mails regarding the shooting? Any communication between the brass on scene, maybe a certain Chief Johnson?

Assorted news stations are reporting that the defense is hiring a polling firm to determine if there can be an unbiased jury located in Cook County. We'll go out on a limb and say, "Nope."

Road Trip!

Anyone interested in going to this? Maybe a retiree or two?

• The Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), the city of Chicago’s newest civilian police oversight agency, will host its first community event. COPA Community Nights will give residents of the city of Chicago an opportunity to meet leadership and staff from the new agency, learn about COPA’s investigative process, as well as ask questions and provide feedback.
  
  Join us Tuesday, February 6, 2018, at Hope Community Church 5900 W. Iowa in Chicago, IL from 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM.

Make your reservations now!

(we're kidding about the reservations)

Stop Already

Remember this training bulletin?

So why do this?

• A high-speed chase of a carjacked Mustang that lasted nearly 45 minutes early Friday resulted in the arrest of two people in the South Side Gresham neighborhood.
  
  The 2014 lime-green Ford Mustang was taken from two men, ages 21 and 22, in a carjacking at 9:14 p.m. at 116th Street and Church Street in the Morgan Park neighborhood, according to Chicago Police. They were sitting in the car when the suspects walked up to them and forced them out at gunpoint, then stole the car with their belongings inside.
  
  Illinois State Police troopers saw the vehicle at 1:13 a.m. and pursued it, but the Mustang got away near Grand Avenue and Lake Shore Drive, police said.
  
  CPD officers later spotted the car at South Blue Island Avenue and Damen Avenue in the Heart of Chicago neighborhood, police said.
  
  A chase led to the 8700 block of South Union, where the Mustang crashed into a parked SUV in front of a home, police said. The two people inside the car got out and ran, but were caught and arrested.

We're pretty sure the last CPD car with an actual pursuit rated engine was retired from the fleet in the 1970's. 99 times out of 100, you aren't going to catch a Mustang. And the odds of any sort of crash, whether incidental or catastrophic, are almost as good given that these are

• winter streets, 
• untrained criminal drivers (usually in their teens or early twenties), 
• hopped up on something,
• and looking no further than the likes or eyeballs they can get on social media.

Balancing Test people. This one screams "NO!"

Define "Tourist"

Rahm comes up with some extraordinary numbers again:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Sunday that the city has reached a goal of attracting 55 million yearly visitors two years ahead of schedule.
  
  The number of visitors to the city was up by 1.5 million in 2017, a 2.5 percent increase over 2016, according to a statement from the mayor’s office. Last year, 55.2 million people visited the City in a Garden.
  
  “Tourism in Chicago means jobs throughout Chicago,” Emanuel said in the statement. “By continuing to set new tourism records and bring millions more people to Chicago every year, we are generating economic opportunities that reach every Chicago neighborhood.”

Averaged over a year, this is 150,000 daily visitors. Granted, weekdays are going to be lower, winter months are going to be lower, non-convention weekends might be lower still. Holidays and big events might be larger.

There are only a certain (limited) number of locations that tourists would frequent, probably less than 25% of the actual square mileage of the city - maybe as low as 15%? In other words, it's going to be more crowded in these areas - noticeably more crowded than usual. And we haven't seen it or heard about it.

We're not claiming ghost towns, but we aren't believing Rahm's numbers for even a minute. And given Chicago's propensity to exaggerate numbers for every event in the city, the media shouldn't be believing it either.

How High Boss???

You know all those Gang and Saturation teams with their "special skill set" that the Department is always looking for? When the boss says, "Jump!" you know what the response is:

• Tonight all Gang and Sat teams (across all areas) babysat “VIP’s civilians” for the entire tour by driving them around and showing them the City. What a great use of manpower, especially specialized units. Why not get HQ and Area inside officers to shuttle these liberal fools around?! Another great idea brought to you by the brass (or should I say their puppet master).

Special Ed must have figured without any murders for six days, he could spare the teams for Rahm's Dog and Pony Show.

Acting FTO Extension

Due to the "overwhelming" interest in becoming an Acting FTO, the deadline for applying has been extended to 02 February.

Actually, we heard the number of interested people stopped somewhere around 25.

Rahm needs around 200 to train the alleged "1,000" being hired this year.

Real Secure Airport

Remember this woman?

• A woman who has repeatedly tried to sneak aboard airplanes has been arrested in Chicago twice in as many days, the latest incident while trying to get through security without a ticket at O'Hare International Airport.

That was in July of 2015.

This time, she got to England if our commenters have it correct:

• On another subject, have not seen this on the news, but it happened at O'Hare: Everyone knows or has seen on the news, that crazy old homeless White woman who gets on planes without a ticket. Well, she stuck again, and this time she got all the way to London! The Security at O'Hare, is a joke! This woman's photo has been all over the news. So how was she allowed to hang around the airport for over a day before boarding her flight to London without a ticket or passport? I have actually seen TSA stop an elderly veteran of Korea or WWII, and make him remove his artificial leg. Yet they cannot even stop a serial airport stowaway!

Makes us feel so very secure with the TSA on the job.

Jinx

You'd think that after reading the blog for over a decade, someone would get it:

• For the first time since March of last year, Chicago has gone six full days without a fatal shooting.
  
  The city’s last fatal shooting happened at 11:30 a.m. Jan. 11, when 33-year-old Uriah Hughes was killed and a 26-year-old man was wounded in an Austin neighborhood shooting on the West Side.

Tempt fate and see what you get?

• Two people were killed Thursday morning in Chicago's first deadly shooting in six days.
  
  Two men, ages 27 and 36, were sitting in a car in the 6600-block of South Evans Avenue in the city's West Woodlawn neighborhood around 2:50 a.m. That's when police said someone walked up to the vehicle and opened fire.

Of course, the usual low temperatures would have nothing at all to do with the pause in killings. people are still getting shot at a pace of five or more a day.

Good Question

The primary qualification for "acting up" as an FTO appears to be that you are on the "Sergeant Eligibility List" for promotion, meaning you had to score as well as the dumbest clout hack that Special Ed wants to promote, so somewhere in the vicinity of 57%. If you scored 58%, you might never get promoted legitimately, but you can qualify to teach someone how to be the police.

Is there any actual additional training? We don't plan on finding out, so we'll need to hear from someone in the process. Because teaching isn't easy. You have to make the material interesting and applicable to real life situations. We can do that with a blog, but we aren't being modest when we say we doubt our ability to teach it to another human being. Sure, we can help someone fill in a parker or write a mover and our case reports would win screenwriting Oscars.

 But the stuff that only comes with experience would be far harder. The only way to get that experience is to ...well, experience it. And keeping an eye on a green rookie (or two) along with the situation we're in the midst of, and actually use it as a learning experience while it's going on? Not our cup of tea.

Admiral Clampett

California is begging to be the test case for the Federal Government jailing local officials over supremacy laws:

• Officials from several Bay Area law enforcement agencies said Wednesday that federal officials haven’t looped them in on any plans for major sweeps for undocumented immigrants, and added that they didn’t plan to help with any such operations.
  
  The response from local jurisdictions came after The Chronicle reported that U.S. officials are gearing up for a major dragnet in Northern California, during which they will seek to arrest more than 1,500 undocumented immigrants.

But the picture accompanying the article caught a number of our readers' eyes:

No wonder she left Chicago. Look at all those stars! There are like 19 visible stars on that uniform. And the sleeves...like big gold bands. And are those shoulder pads filling out the blouse? We never met Kirkpatrick, but was she really that blocky?

How Bad Was the Soda Tax?

We've been hoping someone would run the numbers. The Daily Herald finally did:

• Cook County's short-lived penny-per-ounce tax on sweetened beverages not only failed to bring in as much revenue as projected, but it might also have cost the county millions in sales tax revenue as consumers crossed county and state lines to buy their groceries.
  
  In a revenue report released ahead of today's county board meeting, receipts from the first three months of the ill-fated tax show it generated $46.4 million. That's less than the $55 million the tax initially was expected to raise during those three months, though projections later were revised to $49.8 million.
  
  Meanwhile, the county's home-rule sales tax revenue was off by $12 million for the year, the revenue report shows. Cook County Board Commissioner John Daley attributed that to consumers angry about the sweetened beverage tax shopping elsewhere.
  
  "I've never heard so much animosity to a tax than this," Daley said. "People were telling me they'd go to Indiana to buy soda, and they weren't just buying their sodas there, but all their other groceries, too."

The most telling number that drove the panicked Board members to repeal?

• Sweetened beverage tax revenue shrank each month of its existence, according to finance bureau records. The county received $16.6 million in August, $15.3 million in September and $14.4 million in October. The decline in tax revenue from August to September is the equivalent of nearly 2 million fewer 2-liter bottles of soda being sold.

The numbers were dropping every month as people realized how easy it was to shop outside of Cook County, and not just for soda - groceries and gas, too. We're still doing it. Score one for the citizens.

Crime Fighting Conference?

Touting the massive "reduction" in crime:

• Police leaders and prosecutors from 22 cities are in Chicago today to get some advice from the Chicago Police Department. Crime fighters from across the country are at the University of Chicago Crime Lab for a 2-day conference. They'll be taking field trips to see the technology and meet the people that have helped Chicago reduce its gun violence over the past year. Over the last few years Chicago has become the poster child for gun violence. Homicides surged in 2016 to 764, the highest number this city has seen in nearly 20 years.
  
  The CPD asked Los Angeles police for some help implementing a successful crime fighting program which was proven there. It consisted of technology, policing, and a collaboration with a local university to analyze data.
  
  A year later, Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson says, “We’ve got a lot of questions from around the country about what worked here.” “We’ve created a model so powerful, along with our officers," he said. "Chicago saw 22 percent less shooting and 16 percent less murders in 2017 compared to 2016.”

That's a good question - what worked here. And the answer, believe it or not, is happenstance.

Sure, the numbers look good if you compare 2017 to 2016. But what if you compare them to 2015? or 2014? Oh yeah, it's trending upward. We've said it before and we'll repeat it here for the tiny brains:

• 2016 was the aberration.

And if you look at our posts last week, we point out the robberies and carjackings are through the roof. Up 200% and then some in some categories. So while homicides and shootings are down from last year, almost everything else isn't. And the clearance rate continues to circle the bowl. Crime isn't getting solved.

But hey, come to Chicago and marvel at the lack of dead bodies in the streets.

Plowing

Rahm is waiting for the warm weather again to melt the snowfall. As numerous readers noted, the snowplows were out in the "quiet" neighborhoods, but driving around in the "blade up" position, which is great for making deep truck tire tracks on the side streets. But it does nothing to actually clear the streets, which melt and re-freeze into a smooth glass.

Does anyone know if hiring at Streets is anemic like CPD? Or if he's "saving money" by not paying the drivers 12 and 14 hour days plowing?

Hey Dick?

You've forgotten what your job is:

• Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) says his sole focus in Congress is making sure illegal aliens are given amnesty to remain permanently in the United States.
  
  In comments on Monday, Durbin said it is illegal aliens, not his Illinois constituents, who he is working “full time” and around the clock for.

You serve....SERVE....the citizens of the State of Illinois. For a sitting US Senator to acknowledge that he is ignoring the laws of the United States and forsaking his sworn duty to the citizens who elected him means it's time for Dick to Depart.

Faster Please

Hopefully, the recent silence on Chicago, Cook County crime coming from Washington DC means this is going to come here first:

• Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen confirmed Tuesday that her department has asked federal prosecutors to see if they can lodge criminal charges against sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with federal deportation efforts.
  
  “The Department of Justice is reviewing what avenues may be available,” Ms. Nielsen told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Perhaps this is something?

• ICE Director hints a showdown is coming at the Cook County jail. Just last week Dart released two rapists from his jail (one a child molester) wanted by ICE. Dart also slandered the Feds/Justice department recently in speech saying they were incompetent long before the Trump administration.
  
  The interviewer asked ICE Director why federal agents wont demand entry into the CC jail. The director chuckles and hints the showdown is coming!

Dart facing Federal charges would be a good start to restoring the rule of law to Cook County.

Priorities

It doesn't seem to be the free flow of traffic - you know, commerce, trade, buses and people actually trying to get to work:

The bike lane is plowed, but the traffic lane isn't. Thank goodness Rahm took out a full lane of traffic against the curb where plows might be able to actually remove snow from the roadway and give it over to the bicyclists who are nowhere to be seen during another sub-freezing day.

Room 302 Follies

This asshole needs to be removed:

• Judge Hooks in room 302 at 26th Cal had all the police officers check their guns in before coming into "his" courtroom today. If they didn't comply with "his" order, he had the Sheriffs remove the police officers. I never agreed with the disarming officers at Markham and Bridgeview. If you're the police and working (court), why disarm officers and put them in harms way and make them an easy target. The entire courthouse is filled with defendants that hate the police and it wouldn't take much for things to go sour with officers having no means in defending themselves from weapons used against them. I think we have all seen the lack of security at these courthouses and how unsecure the weapons check in areas are at times as well. Now we have to deal with leftie lib judge that is no fan of the police disarming us at 26th Cal? I know the courts are a different entity but I hope our union and the department step up to the plate and get involved.

They've tried this before, and with all the cutbacks to personnel that Dart has been making, there's no way to guarantee Officer Safety by relying on an undermanned Sheriff Department. Is the FOP going to address this?

Acting FTO's Again?

Wasn't Rahm hiring a boatload of FTO's to handle the 1,000 hirees?

The WC's are reading this at Roll Call again in a desperate attempt to get people to teach the new kids because no one wants the FTO spot. At least you get to stay in your District of Assignment if you do the "temporary" thing, but you can't bullshit coppers - they know the FTO program is a failure and aren't buying into it, and these new kids are losing out due to the poor quality of the training.

Shot Fired

No one hit:

• One person was injured in an exchange of gunfire involving Chicago Police Monday afternoon in the Burnside neighborhood on the South Side.
  
  Officers were responding to a home invasion around 3 p.m. at 90th and Ellis. There were reports of shots fired, but police say they did not strike the offender.
  
  A sergeant on the scene said officers were chasing multiple offenders. Multiple are now in custody.
  
  One of the suspects suffered a dislocated knee but was not shot, as was initially thought, by police.

Watch yourselves. An e-mailer thought that there was another set of shots fired at the police this weekend in 015, but we can't find any reports of it.

Movin' On Out

Yet another article about the shrinking/fleeing population:

• Illinois, New Jersey, and New York were the top states in the nation for outbound moves in 2017, according to data from United Van Lines.
  
  United Van Lines, which tracks state-to-state migration patterns, found that Illinois was the top state for outbound migration with 63 percent of moves going out of state.
  
  "The Northeast continues to experience a moving deficit with New Jersey (63 percent outbound), New York (61 percent) and Connecticut (57 percent) making the list of top outbound states for the third consecutive year," the report states. "Massachusetts (56 percent) also joined the top outbound list this year."

Why would everyone be leaving these mismanaged, corrupt, broke, democrat-run shitholes?

Shithole

From the national scene:

When Dick "Les" Durbin is your primary accuser, a healthy dose of doubt is a necessity.

Another "No Bond" Debacle

What the fuck judge?

• Authorities said a Northwest Side man with 12 felony convictions claimed to be a Chicago police officer when security guards at a Walmart stopped him as he tried to leave the store with more than $90 in cigarette lighters tucked inside his coat.
  
  Police said Cristobal Villarreal was inside a Walmart in the 4600 block of West Diversey Avenue around 2 p.m. Thursday when a cashier saw him stuff several packs of Bic lighters into his coat and walk past the last point of sale without paying for the items.
  
  When three security guards approached him and asked whether he paid for the items, Villarreal — who was dressed in a Chicago Cubs cap, a Chicago police shirt and coat adorned with police patches and an empty blue bulletproof vest cover — told the men he was "the police" and kept walking, according to Cook County prosecutors and police.
  
  Two of the guards then told Villarreal that they were also Chicago police officers working security at the store and all three guards tried to take him into custody after noticing several items concealed under his clothing, according to an arrest report.
  
  The 57-year-old Villarreal insisted that he was a four-year member of the department, prosecutors told a judge Saturday at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

Twelve Felony CONVICTIONS along with something like forty misdemeanors, in a slapdash police uniform, claiming to be the police, and what's his bond?

• Judge Stephanie K. Miller released Villarreal on a personal recognizance bond, but gave him a curfew from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Boy, that curfew is sure going to deter this asshole.

Interesting Video Series

This was e-mailed to us yesterday:

So far, parts 10 (Back of the Yards) and 9 (Greater Grand Crossing) have been released, with the remaining coming out over the next few weeks. The videos we've seen so far give a short historical background of the neighborhood before delving into how and why it headed downhill. There is also extensive crime scene footage.

It will certainly be an interesting series to say the least.

Comedy Break

Funny commentators making us laugh:

• Yah, squad I'm a F/2 with long blonde hair chasing an M/1 juvy with a gun. Are my characteristics ok to continue the chase?
  
  Negative, 2644, according to the 'characteristic table' you may offend the Community. Terminate the chase.
  
  '99 squad, have 2610 meet me at the termination point to download my BWC and ICC.
  
  Hold me down reviewing the footage with the WOL while I do my FPR. (Foot Pursuit Report-- CPD 11.915)

It's getting this bad.

Sheriff Blog

We've linked to a few stories at this Cook County Sheriff blog. Some recent headlines (that the mainstream media has barely covered, if at all):

• Inmates attacking jail personnel
• Fights inside the Markham Courthouse
• A child rapist released on Electronic Monitoring, rearrested within hours when it was discovered there were multiple other victims
• A missing EM subject who is currently taunting the Sheriff via social media

If the media covered even half of these stories, Dart wouldn't even be mounting a re-election campaign. Don't be shy about spreading the word about this site.

Another Unworkable "Solution"

Seems like another waste of money:

• In a bid to crack down on car crashes caused by people texting while driving, Chicago aldermen on Thursday discussed the concept of arming police with devices to tell how recently drivers had used their cellphones.
  
  So-called “textalyzers” could allow officers to scan phones and tell whether they were in use at the time of an accident, Ald. Edward Burke said.
  
  “In many ways it’s the digital equivalent of a Breathalyzer,” he said. While a handful of government agencies around the country are looking at incorporating textalyzer technology in police investigations, none has done so yet, he said.
  
  The 14th Ward alderman, however, did not propose that the Chicago Police Department start using the devices, nor was a vote taken. Burke, the longest-tenured and most powerful alderman, sometimes holds hearings merely to discuss headline-grabbing ideas.

Maybe this goof should keep his bullshit to himself for a year or two and see if actual problems get solved.

Foxxx Quid Pro Quo

Gee, who would have thunk this?

• In August, nine months after she took office, her staff struck a deal with Burke’s firm: It settled three lawsuits, agreeing that various local governments Foxx’s office was representing would refund nearly $2 million in property taxes that AT&T had paid between 2013 and 2015 on a 105-acre campus in Hoffman Estates that now sits vacant.
  
  That is the biggest tax settlement that Foxx’s staff has approved during her first 11 months as state’s attorney, according to a Chicago Sun-Times review of data released by her office in response to a public records request.
  
  It’s a fraction of the $16 million in refunds that Burke was seeking when he filed those lawsuits, asserting that Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios and the Cook County Board of Review had overestimated the value of the AT&T campus for three years.

It's never ceases to amaze how politicians managed to get other politicians elected to spots that benefit the original someone's side business.

CCL with a Knife?

This made us smile:

• A 35-year-old woman stabbed a man who was trying to sexually assault her Friday afternoon in Chicago's Austin neighborhood, the Chicago Police Department said.
  
  Police said at around 4:10 p.m., the 30-year-old man was attempting to sexually assault the woman when she took out a weapon and stabbed him in the forehead.
  
  The attack happened in the 1000-block of North Lawler Avenue, police said.

It is a rare human being who can plunge a knife through someone's forehead. She probably should have stabbed a bit lower and would have prevented a repeat offense one day. Nicely done though.

The Changes

Interesting:

• Anthony Riccio from Chief of OCD to First Deputy
  Noel Sanchez from Cmdr 004 to Chief of OCD
  Michael Pigott from Capt 001 to Cmdr 001
  Elizabeth Collazo from Lieutenant 025 to Cmdr 004
  Susan Moss from Lieutenant 012 to Cmdr 017
  Elias Voulgaris from Commander 017 to Cmdr OEMC (lateral)
  William Clucas from Lieutenant 001 too Capt (XO) 001
  Carlos Mostek from Lieutenant (???) to Capt (XO) 022

And maybe some more on the way. Rumors getting stronger of Special Ed prepping his exit speech.

Follow This Money

Not shocking, but disturbing if true:

• Would the media care to investigate this tasty morsel? [...] here's a low hanging banana for ya:
  
  Applicants who fail any portion of the Power Test can - FOR A FEE - register for a PE class at one of a few of the local City Colleges.
  
  There, they (ostensibly) receive additional physical conditioning from gym instructors/personal trainers until they (in theory) "pass" the power test under the watchful eye of City College employees. Now here's where it gets good...
  
  These applicants get a certificate saying they passed the Power Test to bring back to the Personnel Division and get right back where they left off in the hiring process line WITHOUT HAVING TO PASS THE POWER TEST AT THE ACADEMY.
  
  Another slickster money grab hatched by crooked ass scum for a crooked ass job in the crookedest city in the USA.

This is from commentator IFIYGD, who has posted some other connected stories before. Sounds exactly like something Rahm would sanction.

Even CSA Goes Unpunished

Cook County won't even house teen sex offenders:

• A Cook County judge sentenced two teenage boys Wednesday to five years of probation and ordered them to register as sex offenders for the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl broadcast live on Facebook last March.
  
  Judge Patricia Mendoza, assigned to the juvenile division, had signaled she would impose the probation sentences when the two pleaded guilty in November to a single count of child pornography.

And the justification?

• Prosecutors had sought sentences for both boys, now each 15, in prison facilities for juveniles.
  
  In court Wednesday, the judge noted the serious nature of the crime and its impact on the victim but said a potential lifetime as registered sex offenders would have more repercussions for the teens than spending several more months in confinement.
  
  “It’s time for you gentlemen to start adjusting to your new life,” Mendoza told them.

Really? A "potential" for being inconvenienced one day a year to register as measured against the very real damaged and broadcast humiliation they inflicted on a 15-year-old is a "repercussion"? And she called them "gentlemen."

Liberalism is truly a mental disease.

COPA Again

COPA continues to build up "credibility" by recommending firing again:

• Two Chicago Police officers have been recommended for termination for firing at a car as part of traffic stop just before the fatal 2016 shooting of an unarmed black teenager, Paul O’Neal.
  
  Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson “concurred with the findings” of investigators with the now-defunct Independent Police Review Authority, and in November 2017 recommended officers Michael Coughlin Jr. and Jose Torres for firing, CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.
  
  Two other officers involved — including the one who fired the fatal shots — were not recommended for firing by IPRA, Guglielmi said.

Readers may recall that the videos of this incident were disturbing to say the least. One of the involved officers is seen firing across the car toward where his partner was standing, then firing downrange where bullets hit an approaching squad car. This led directly to the officers in that car to assume they were being shot at by occupants of the fleeing vehicle and eventually shooting and killing the unarmed subject.

There's no getting around that this was ugly on many fronts and ran counter to numerous orders. The process grinds forward.

Open Season on Everyone

So Candidate, what's your stand on crime now?

• A candidate running for Illinois attorney general was robbed at gunpoint while he was taking promotional photos for his campaign Thursday afternoon in the Northwest Side ward where he’s also the Democratic committeeman, according to his campaign manager and authorities.
  
  Aaron Goldstein, 42, and several members of his campaign team were in the middle of taking publicity shots when the robbery happened, according to Goldstein’s campaign manager. The robbery took place about 3:25 p.m. in the 4600 block of North Albany Avenue in Albany Park, when three men in their early 20s approached them, according to a law-enforcement source. One of the men flashed a handgun and demanded the camera equipment and other personal belongings from the team, according to police.
  
  The gunman and two other men robbed Goldstein and four others of camera equipment and their cellphones before they ran away, the law enforcement source said. As of Thursday evening, no one was in custody, police said.

And then the usual media reporting:

• Police described the three suspects as between 20 and 24 years old. They did not release a detailed description of the suspects.

So if you see anyone between the ages of 20 and 24, call the police!

Thursday afternoon the temperature was well above 50 degrees. The chances of one of the multiple victims not noticing something as obvious as clothing or exposed skin tone is next to zero. Therefore a description exists. And if a description exists, it was broadcast in some form over the radio and in the form of a press release, especially with a political candidate being stuck up, unless the candidate asked it not be for some unknown reason.

Foot Pursuit Bulletin

Ask and you shall receive:

This seems like common sense. But who knows what they're teaching in the Academy nowadays? The restrictions on everything along with a complete lack of direction and an all-too-obvious absence of political will just demonstrate that the cemetery plot for proactive police work is filled and the daisies are growing.

More Trends

Don't listen to the "crime is down" mantra this year like the bosses did all last year, comparing 2017 to 2016. Look at the multi-year trends - like these (click for large versions):

A 21% increase in robberies over four years.

A 41% increase in homicides over the same four years.

A 209% increase in car-jackings? Over four years.

2016 was the aberration. The trend is four years of increasing crime.

Tribune Amazing Discovery!

Thank goodness there's some investigative reporting going on at the Tribune!

• Over the last 17 years, at least 75 women have been strangled or smothered in Chicago and their bodies dumped in vacant buildings, alleys, garbage cans, snow banks. Arrests have been made in only a third of the cases, according to a first-ever analysis by the Tribune.
  
  While there are clusters of unsolved strangulations on the South and West sides, police say they’ve uncovered no evidence of a serial killer at work. If they are right, 50 murderers have gotten away with their crime.

Wow. A 66% chance of getting away with strangling someone in Chicago. Who would have thought it was that easy?

Meanwhile, at HeyJackass.com, this graphic has been up for almost half-a-moth now:

Almost 9 times out of 10, a killer gets away with murder. But that fact might be embarrassing to someone running for re-election while he is desperately filling Department spots with a rainbow of political hacks who couldn't find their way out of a wet paper bag.

Federal Complaint

If you want to read the actual complaint for the promotion lawsuit, head over to this link. They summarize the allegations.

The lawsuit can be read here.

No P.O.W.E.R. Test?

That's kind of a stretch - it seems that you still have to pass the POWER test to get into the Academy. That's a rule set forth by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board. You don't pass, you don't get in.

However, Chicago actually had a good idea at one point, making recruits pass the test at intervals during training and to exit, meaning a recruit had to maintain some modicum of health while proceeding through training.

But now, it's one and done if our comment sections are correct.

Foot Chase Policy?

A couple people commented that the Department released a new Foot Chase Policy training bulletin around 1000 hours on Monday....and rescinded it by 1300 hours the same day.

We can only imagine what a glorious example of cluster-fuckery and utter ignorance it must have been for someone to (A) author it and (B) have to pull it in under three hours. Their combined street time must be measured in minutes.

We didn't manage to grab a copy, but someone must have one. E-mail address is in the top right column. A hundred Tact Teams wait with bated breath.

Cleveland - A Rough Town

Someone wrote to us with something that appeared on social media - it has to be a joke. We mean, it sounds like a joke - something made up. We certainly hope it's BS:

• Future of CPD....I heard the mommy of a recruit came to the academy and spoke with a supervisor to complain that her son was sore after a "welcome to the gym day" and they need to tone it down on the physical stuff......anyone with inside academy knowledge confirm?

It has all the hallmarks of a joke and a few elements we've seen in other supposed, "It's TRUE!" stories. And with recent "snowflake" stories, it's most likely the culmination of a well-played troll campaign.

This came over in our e-mail a day or two ago and it is so opposite of the above paragraph we have to wonder if they're connected somehow:

• Eight Cleveland police cadets were hurt last month during a hand-to-hand combat training exercise at the Ohio State Highway Patrol's police academy in Columbus, officials said.
  
  Six of the cadets -- four men and two women -- went to a hospital for treatment. One cadet dislocated a shoulder and five cadets suffered concussions, said Cleveland Police Det. Steve Loomis, who was president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association when the incident occurred Dec. 12.
  
  One recruit remained at the hospital because of a previous injury but was released less than a week later. The other five recruits were treated and released, Ohio State Highway Patrol spokesman Lt. Robert Sellers said.
  
  Two other recruits suffered concussions during the training but were not taken to the hospital, Loomis said.

Geez, did Marsh start running the Cleveland Academy? Maybe a few other sadists from years gone by? Marsh would deck recruits in the hallways who weren't sufficiently aware of their surroundings. Frost was an amateur boxer who would rattle teeth given half a chance. There were others but we'll leave them to the comments sure to roll in. Still, you don't want recruits damaged before they hit the street - that will come with the career.

Twins?

A job VERY well done Officers:

• Two Chicago police officers were named “Officers of the Month” after helping deliver twins at a CTA train station.
  
  Officers Lucyna Murawski and Therese Puchalski responded to a call for help at the Roosevelt Red Line station on the morning of Nov. 1.
  
  The officers were patrolling the train station when the young mother went into labor. Both babies were delivered at the station before paramedics could take the mother to the hospital.
  
  The officers say they were just doing their jobs.

We can think of a lot of places we wouldn't want someone to give birth and a CTA platform ranks among the top three. But the Officers, in the right place at the right time, stepped up and did what needed to be done. Again, a very good job.

Military Service Safer than Chicago

Not only did Trump reduce homicides by over 100 without setting foot in Chicago, he reduced military deaths to under 100, something that doesn't reflect well on Rahm's policies:

• If you’re a young man, you are safer in the military than you are in the most dangerous neighborhoods of Chicago.
  
  In 2017, in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago, which has roughly 98,000 residents, there were 467 people killed or shot. In the city of Chicago in 2017, over 3,500 people were shot, and 675 homicides were committed.
  
  Meanwhile, guess how many military members were killed in the U.S. military in 2017? According to data from the Chicago Tribune and from the Department of Defense’s press office, 37 service members, as CNSNews reported.
  
  Among military deaths, some were combat-related; some were non-combat related. As CNSNews pointed out, Chicago citywide had 17.9 times more homicides than the U.S. military worldwide in 2017.

Time for Rahm to go.

Uh Oh

VRI is over, right?

• Five people were killed and seven others were wounded Tuesday in shootings across Chicago.
  
  The five people gunned down were the latest of 13 shooting deaths in the city in the first nine days of 2018, according to Chicago Sun-Times data.
  
  The violent night wrapped up with a spate of shootings that left seven people shot — three fatally — over the span of four and a half hours.

How many of those shootings were in VRI "boxes"? 

Is downtown going to bring it back now?