What Makes Them Special?
- Emails and text messages sent and received by Chicago aldermen on their personal accounts and devices generally may not be subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, a Cook County judge has ruled, partially thwarting an attempt by a Chicago lawyer to uncover what he believed were efforts by his neighbors to use connections to a Chicago alderman to allegedly improperly block him from obtaining a permit for a home improvement project.
Cook County Circuit Judge Celia Gamrath denied Ameer Ahmad’s request to force Chicago 1st Ward Alderman Joe Moreno and the city of Chicago to provide him access under the FOIA law to certain emails and text messages, which Ahmad believed would show Moreno had essentially allowed Ahmad’s neighbors to hold up the work on his home project and caused him to be fined by the city.
In her ruling, issued Nov. 28, 2017, Gamrath said she did not believe an individual alderman could be considered a “public body,” under the terms of the state’s FOIA law, and thus, unless an alderman had sent or received such messages as part of an official city action, their personal messaging accounts could not be considered public documents discoverable under FOIA.
So why is IAD, COPA and assorted lawyers confiscating and subpoenaing cops personal phones and emails, despite there being no proof the personal device was used in an official capacity? In fact, when you go to Corp Counsel nowadays, they want all of your social media information, just because. No matter if you are scrupulously using it for non-police purposes - they want it all.
But not aldercreatures. Oh no. They can conduct "public business" on all sorts of accounts (remember, Rahm used non-city e-mails to thwart government record keeping laws...kind of like Sparklefarts and Shrillary did) and now they have legal precedent by a Cook County judge to hide behind.
We'll certainly be citing this ruling next time we appear at Corp Counsel. As stated before, cops are not above the law, but neither are we below it, and that should go double for the crooked pols.
But not aldercreatures. Oh no. They can conduct "public business" on all sorts of accounts (remember, Rahm used non-city e-mails to thwart government record keeping laws...kind of like Sparklefarts and Shrillary did) and now they have legal precedent by a Cook County judge to hide behind.
We'll certainly be citing this ruling next time we appear at Corp Counsel. As stated before, cops are not above the law, but neither are we below it, and that should go double for the crooked pols.
Labels: county, un-fucking-believable
posted by SCC at 12:03 AM
43 Comments:
So does this mean police officers who had their private cell phones taken and scrutinized can file a
lawsuit for violating the 4th amendment?
Aldercritters are not subject to random drug testing either. The rationale is that positive results can be used as ammunition by their political "enemies".
A whole nother set of rules for the political class.
What country are we living in ?
We'll hopefully, if the FBI leadership is changed and they actually start working, maybe they will start working on all the blatant, political corruption in Chicago. The old Inspector General has plenty of files they would not act on. Maybe, if someone new is in charge, heads will roll here!
SCC
Are you kidding??
To paraphrase the movie Chinatown -
"Forget it, SCC, it's Chicago!" - A cloutocracy where NOTHING happens - unless you have clout.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cWnubJ9CEw
Next case.
Of course...expect anything different from Scum Democrats?
The Chicago way once agin bites a citizen in the ass. This should be appealed.
Another ruling from a clueless democratic hack. Vote them all out.
Really, like Terry Gainer and Sean Malinowski using personal cell phones to direct the department and going around the Supt.
Personally, I can't see why anyone would give that information to anyone without a court order. But, then again, I still carry a jitterbug flip phone. Start refusing to give them that info and please let us know how it goes. Better yet, leave the phone at home and go into the station to make any job related calls. Or let the dept. start issuing phones. They have so much money.
This is why I registered my phone in the account name of my mom and gave the department my mother's phone number. I told my mom to call me if someone from CPD ever calls. My UOA has my wife's phone number.
They can have all my social media information. I hope they are not weak of heart.
Now, kees me you fool!!!!
I have two social media accounts. Guess which one CPD will get? People are crazy still coming on this job lol. Yet morons still line up for this job. They could say your pay is 3 lbs of horse shit on the 1st and midmonth and people would still take this job. I told my 20 year old daughter NOT to come on job and my 7 year old has no recollection of me being CPD and won't. You guys who stay on this job any no longer than necessary are whacked.
The key words in this article are "Cook County judge". Did you expect,Justice? or fair play? Come on SCC you have been here long enough to know the game if rigged! It's the Chicago way, Hooray for me and F YOU!
Vote no on retention case closed
True !!!!!! If it applies to them it applies to officer ...,,,, theses judges are so corrupt, just like the politicians.
Do as I say, not as I do. If Proco Joe is using his personal email to hear constituents complaints and/or lobbying for projects in his ward, he needs to come forth. Of course he won't.
Same goes for all of these Twitter accounts that the Mayor and Aldermen have. I would think in the case of their Twitter and Facebook accounts, they should have two separate accounts. A personal account to that serves as a separate from their duty and another that serves as an official account, wherein they generically say "Mayor of Chicago," "Alderman 1st Ward," etc... Instead, they are using they're blurring the lines between campaign and official public servant. That should be a big no-no.
In the case of the Mayor, he has how many people on his Public Relations team? They put out X amount of news related to the Mayor each day, touting what he is doing. This should not be. The lines need to be drawn, and under no circumstances should they be allowed to use that account as a tool to be re-elected. But they do...
I am sure this fair and impartial "Judge" owes her seat to the aldercreatures. I hope this lawyer appeals this ruling and wins.
What makes them special? Aldermen have enormous power to pass laws for everyone else abide by under penalty of fines or imprisonment for violations, but so many laws for the unwashed masses clearly do not apply to the scheming aldermen. Aldermen use their authority to exempt themselves and their annointed staffs from investigations conducted by the Inspector Generals Office into their day to day affairs. No investigations suggests a crime free body worthy of unbridled, unchecked power to tax, to regulate and to exercise their control at will.
Aldermen have the ability to steer contracts to connected firms with impunity with an in your face attitude that even the likes of the Public Corruption squads at the FBI cannot touch. Aldermen can spend their annually appropriated ward funds as they like denying personal accountability giving a middle finger to frequent Freedom of Information requests for financial transparency. What about T.I.F. funds which local government controls as a behind the scenes off the books spending account? Maybe a Crook County judge can block attempts to audit the T.I.F. monies to providing oversight to verify adherence to all the applicable laws on the books codified by similar elected legislative bodies such as the City Council. Detractors demanding adherance to ethical standards or local public official accountability to Make Chicago Great Again are in bed with Russian collaborators who Hope to Change the standard operating procedures or business as usual at shitty hall.
The aldermen are part of a larger fraternal organization, namely the democrat party, which has absolute control over all prosecuting bodies, the courts via the "democrat" party sponsored judges, law enforcement or investigating agencies at all levels, the legislative bodies at the state, county and local levels who write the laws all in a tightly controlled system of an "fair" and "just" government. Aldermen have enormous power deciding who are in command of the Chicago Police Department rewarding those who are loyal to the party with a behind the scenes merit set aside promotional considerations. Command equals control. If you should ask what makes aldermen special, one could write a doctorate dissertation on the aforementioned themes.
The door swings one way and it seems to strike us in the face while giving the pol's a pat on the back. Alder-dummies should have nothing to do with home remodels unless the home in question is in a historic district and then it would go the Landmarks Commission.
Fifty alder-dummies for a city; State house of Representatives 118; State Senate 58
US Congress 18, Senate 2
To many Alder-dummies Acting as lords of the land over paid for part time job with benefits
as a retired police officer, I am shocked that IAD and COPA and defense attorneys are getting away with demanding and getting your private e-mails, text messages or social media information. I think that I would refuse to provide this. The FOP should be hiring an attorney to fight these requests. This cannot be allowed to stand as a blanket request. The city should have to show cause, at least.
DO not ever give corp council your cell number or any social media info, make them subpoena it and go through a hearing to obtain it. FOP should be instructing its members regarding this, you DO NOT have to voluntarily give this to them. The Alderman is a public body and any device that is used a private or government issued is subject to FOIA if work related business is conducted on it. So just appeal it to the next higher court, once you get out of cook county courts things change.
The attorney;s bringing suit against you and the city are going to be able to obtain this information to discredit your sworn
statements in court, this is a well known fact. It's for your benefit that the lawyer who is representing you knows this information before you start to testify, it's for our benefit. Your premise sounds good and I would agree if the opposing lawyer was not allowed to view all of your media for the purpose of discrediting your statements. Don't be a goof and hinder the
lawyer who is hired to represent you. Also the corporation council. represents the City of Chicago, that's another problem, so
if you can afford it hire your own lawyer if in doubt. But aggravating the City Lawyer without any knowledge of the law can get
you hurt in a lot of cases. The vast majority of them really do their best to protect your interests. Been there done that, have some experience.
It’s right up there with the question “why don’t aldercreatures have an inspector general with the same authority as any other investigating inspector?”. It’s a double fucking standard and is proof positive of the corruption that is this shut home of a city! Transparency? Fuck no! I’m a Chicago politician! Wink wink, heyyyy it’s the Chicago way!! This place is a joke
Ahhhhh....The Ruling Class strikes AGAIN.....
This ruling needs to be tested in higher court, because I doubt it's "constitutional protection". Given degree of aldermanic corruption, FOIA'ing emails is a fundamentally-necessary legal search.
Shrillary....good one!
Remember,it's all legit.
Just ask all the merit hacks.
someone run to reduce alderman from 50 to 12 , get a referendum on ballot and let voters reduce number of the overpaid rubber stamps .
Why are we not surprised? This judge is allegedly related by marriage to former mayor RMD, allegedly her mother married one of the brothers of former mayor RMD. An elected alderman is not a public body?
One set of rules for them, another for us.
I hope the citizen can win on appeal.
They should have to live by their own rules!
J.J.
Big difference between a subpoena and a FOIA request. You're comparing two totally different things.
One more judge to vote NO to retain.
fucking judges make them special.
the black robed high priests of illinois answer to nobody.
Showed up at St. John Fisher Pancake breakfast fund raiser .
How many coppers are short $2800 a month for retiree health insurance?
Thanks to ballerina , did he pay $5
This judge, Celia Gamrath, has major connections. She was first appointed (who gets appointed but the well connected?) to fill a circuit court vacancy in 2010. She ran in the 2012 election for a full term. Rahm threw a fundraiser for her, raised $180K. She is allegedly connected to the Daley clan. Allegedly Celia Gamrath's mother married one of the brothers of former mayor Richard M. According to ballotpedia, her term ends in December 2018.
Personal , city telephone , emails must be released in van dyke case . Who knew what and when .
The tiny dancer is gone , done .
Maybe Superintendent Eddie Johnson should run , he is a good cop , selected by Rahm and he didn’t apply for the job .
That alone is a Rahm endorsement on his qualifications to run Chicago .
Eddie will get votes from 95% of Police Family and black vote .
Just one of the many reasons I'm glad I moved out of Illinois. Life is so much better in Texas. People are friendly, they love their police, CCL is a one day affair. Yep! I'm home.
Keep blindly voting for the Democrats for more of the same!
Can't get private cell phone data from Cops without subpoena power of some sort. Not really fair to compare that to Freedom of Information Act request
Lol on IAD wanting to see my social media accounts. I have my settings set to where you can't find me unless you are a friend of a friend and then you can't see anything unless I approve your friend request and I never approve one unless I am 100% on who it is. And I do mean 100%. I make sure it's not a cloned, dummy account by calling that person first, lol Fuk U IAD and COPA and good luck on getting my emails too. I also have my phone registered in the suburbs under my mom's name and the department has my wife's phone number as well NOT mine. I even changed her VM to make it sound like it was our mutual phone number.
Anonymous said...
Showed up at St. John Fisher Pancake breakfast fund raiser .
How many coppers are short $2800 a month for retiree health insurance?
Thanks to ballerina , did he pay $5
2/18/2018 07:19:00 PM
Come to Costa Rica guys. Insurance here is $200/month plus any supplemental plans you opt for. I know, I know. You like the cold weather and crime of the city and next here come the "grandkid" comments next. My reply is advance: Airplane.
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