Take the Initiative

They're begging to get arrested - grant their wish:

• Organizers planning an anti-violence march that could snarl traffic along its route from Lake Shore Drive to Wrigleyville during Thursday’s evening rush hour — before a Cubs game and on the first day of Lollapalooza — went to City Hall Monday and made it clear they don’t want Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s backing for their demonstration.
  
  Standing outside Emanuel’s office, the Rev. Gregory Livingston said it would be ridiculous to seek Emanuel’s approval since they are marching in part to call for him and police Superintendent Eddie Johnson to step down because of their inability to get the city’s violence under control. Livingston said he expects arrests at the march and did not rule out marchers attempting to force their way into Wrigley Field, where the Cubs are set to play the San Diego Padres that night.
  
  [...]
  
  Acree and Livingston said they expect arrests.
  
  “We have people who are committed, who are ready to get arrested,” Acree added. “And those who don’t, they’ll stay back. But certainly, people are going to get arrested. And we will have attorneys and people who will provide resources to bail them out.”

Rahm and Mr. Fenner have surrendered the streets to any Tom, Dick and Harry who imagine they have a grievance for a situation created by their own constituency. This is probably the only chance to recover the ball fumbled on the Dan Ryan.

Lemon the Fake Hacktivist

Curious company that this mope keeps:

• Lemon Record the goof live streamed a traffic stop on his Facebook account in which CPD officers found a gun on the passenger and even put the gun out in the open so that he can record it.
  
  What does he do? He turns his live stream away from the gun until it’s no longer in view and then starts spitting out legal advice and proceeds to narrate his video as one can only expect.
  
  Not one thank you to the officers for taking a gun off the street. It’s time to expose this guy for the fake attention seeking money hungry whore he is.

Is it this asshole who has Special Ed's cell phone number? Or a different asshole? Because we're having trouble keeping all of Mr. Fenner's asshole pals straight lately.

Ambulance Shortage?

Don't need an ambulance on the north side:

• Minutes count when you are having a heart attack, but it took the Chicago Fire Department more than 40 minutes to get a 56-year-old man to a hospital for help earlier this month. As CBS 2 investigator Pam [NewsTroll] reports, it was mostly because once again there were no ambulances available nearby.
  
  It’s the kind of call that the fire department gets every day.
  
  Caller: “My Dad’s having a heart attack and I need an ambulance right now.”
  
  That call was received at 2:09 p.m. on July 3rd.
  
  Dispatcher: “Is he currently awake?”
  Caller: “Daddy are you awake. Yes he’s awake but he’s laying down on the ground.”
  Dispatcher: “…they should be there soon.”
  
  State standards require fire departments to provide advance life support assistance within six minutes. A fire engine arrived nine minutes after it was dispatched with a paramedic on board, but by that time…
  
  “I found him in this chair, he was slumped over to the side and had started vomiting,” said Christine Marnul, the wife of the patient. “He was in and out of consciousness, was mumbling words and just holding his chest, having extreme pain.” Because a fire engine can’t transport a patient to the hospital, the family waited helplessly. “The firemen were saying there was a delay because there were just no ambulances available,” said Marnul.

Make sure your Last Will and Testament is updated.

New Contender - Stupid Award

Does no one on the west side own a television or a radio? Do they not listen to the news?

Or are they just morons?

• Neighbors in Lawndale said gun violence is so bad, they have to hide their children inside. There are calls for help after two suspects fired into a crowd of children playing basketball. The shooting wounded three children and one adult. People living in the neighborhood are desperate for help and want action from police, the mayor or even the feds.

And what form would this help take?

• Some residents say the problem is much bigger than finding the suspects in this one shooting. And they will keep their kids inside until they see more police outside. “It’s time for the police to walk the street like they used to,” said Mason.

Walking police - like the ones that found this?

How about you people (or folks) (A) stop shooting, (B) stop covering for shooters, (C) stop electing assholes who get money from shooters, (D) clean up your neighborhood, (E) start snitching, and (F) stop whining about the bed of shit you've created for yourselves.

Bad Weekend Shaping Up

As of this writing, the 2018 weekend has nearly matched 2016, 2015 and 2014.

Per HeyJackass.com:

• 9:00a Shoot-o-Rahm-a Tally: 5 killed, 27 wounded
  2017 weekend tally: 5 killed, 32 wounded
  2016 weekend tally: 7 killed, 48 wounded
  2015 weekend tally: 4 killed, 36 wounded
  2014 weekend tally: 5 killed, 25 wounded

By the end of the weekend (about one minute ago) it may have surpassed a few of those.

Mayoral Field Shrinks

Not exactly shrinks, but one less challenger on the horizon:

• Cook County Commissioner Bridget Gainer said Saturday that she will not join the race to unseat Mayor Rahm Emanuel in the 2019 election.
  
  For months, Gainer had appeared poised to jump into the crowded field of contenders. She was viewed as a major potential threat to Emanuel who could draw votes from women as well as residents of both the Northwest and Southwest sides — and who had more cash in her campaign coffers than any challenger.
  
  “I love Chicago and want to move it forward, and for me the biggest part of the decision is, where can I have the most impact?” Gainer said. “Right now, I think i can have most impact on the outside.”

Rahm must have decided he had enough splits among the white voters.

Successful Ride

You couldn't have asked for better weather for the 14th Annual Ride to Remember:

• Current and former police officers joined members of the community for Sunday's Ride to Remember Memorial Motorcycle Ride.
  
  The motorcycle ride honoring fallen officers started at about 9 a.m. and traveled from the former Area Four Detective Headquarters, 3151 W. Harrison St., on the West Side to the Gold Star Families Memorial along the lakefront.
  
  A group of Gold Star families participated in the ride. Shelly Perez's husband was killed in the line of duty in 2002 and she said Sunday's ride shows just how supportive the community can be to the families of fallen officers.
  
  "It means a lot to all of us, that our loved one is never forgotten, that these officers and these other motorcycle riders want to show their support for law enforcement and those that have paid the ultimate sacrifice," Perez said.

Stay safe.

Cops Shoot Three Kids

Out of control cops destroy the futures of three minor children:

• As family and friends gathered outside Stroger Hospital awaiting news of three children taken there following a shooting in Lawndale in which a 20-year-old man was also injured, more ambulances rushed into the parking lot.
  
  [...]
  
  Three children and one man were shot Friday night in Lawndale. From down the block, two people fired shots just after 8 p.m. into a group gathered on the 1100 block of South Troy Street, police said. Police said they have not yet determined whom the shooters were targeting, and no one was in custody. A 14-year-old boy shot in the head was in critical condition, a 10-year-old girl shot in the shoulder was in good condition and an 11-year-old boy shot in the ankle was in good condition at Stroger Hospital, police said. A 20-year-old man shot in the hands and hip had been stabilized at Mount Sinai Hospital.

Oh. Wait. What? It wasn't the police?

Golly. Sorry about that. We just assumed it was the police gunning down kids. We mean, that's the narrative the media, pfleger, assorted other "revrunds" and community activists (like those #blm people...or folks) have been pushing.

No Parole for You

This guy needs to run for something:

• Last January, Illinois inmate Dewayne Roby won the rarest of endorsements.
  
  Seeking parole after four decades in prison for a murder, rape and robbery he committed as a 16-year-old, Roby won the vote of Illinois Prisoner Review Board member Peter Fisher.
  
  In more than three years on the board, Fisher has voted against parole 160 times and in favor just once, according to an Injustice Watch review of the board’s parole votes since January 2013. Roby, now 57, was the only prisoner whose petition for parole got his support.
  
  Fisher is the least likely member of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board to vote for parole but not the only one to routinely lean against release. Several of the board members typically vote against releasing any of the roughly 120 prisoners who are locked up for crimes committed more than 40 years ago, before Illinois law was changed to largely abolish parole. Eight current board members have voted to deny parole in about four of every five cases heard since 2013.

No idea why he decided to break his streak -we're all for prisoners dying behind bars if they have time left to serve. But the state needs a few people like this who adhere to the rule of law.

The New Futility

Beginning in California:

• There is so much ridiculous news coming out of California these days – jail time for providing plastic straws, driver’s licenses for illegal aliens, sanctuary cities…it’s almost too much to keep up with. There is so much insanity that Americans might not be aware of another Krazy Kalifornia™ measure that has been burdening the state and law-abiding citizens since 2014.
  
  Prop 47 – deceptively (of course) monikered as the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act – reduced the threshold for felonies, categorizing most non-violent crimes as misdemeanors in an attempt to reduce the prison population. The result has been an increase in petty crimes as most go unpunished. Police are unable to hold those committing petty crimes and thus the perpetrators are simply released back into the population to continue their offenses. Petty criminals know this and have been offending with near complete impunity over the last few years.

Prop 47 required a downgrade in jail-able offenses. And what happened?

• Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer says that he has no doubts at all that Prop 47 is creating a crime wave that he’s witnessed personally as a law enforcement officer.
  
  “There’s an individual we have arrested 83 times since Prop 47 has passed, all on petty thefts, 83 times,” said Dyer.
  
  Dyer will never shy away from his feelings about Prop 47, especially during a time where there’s 18 fewer murders in the city compared to last year, Dyer is seeing a spike in thefts.
  
  He says it’s happening everyday. “That’s their job, that’s their career, there embolden [sic] to do it because there’s no consequences.”

And Chicago is currently in the thrall of it also.

"Consent" Decree

We'll spare you all the details - you can read it at most of the media links on the right hand side of the blog. Here's a few bits of amusement for you though (not the funny type):

• Meanwhile, the FOP, whose leaders want the litigation over the consent decree dismissed, are seeking to intervene in the case, though Dow has yet to rule on whether the union can get involved.

So one of the parties to the decree, the one that will have to operate under it, suffer the consequences of violations, and who are the only parties with actual police experience, aren't even allowed input. That's going to make for some interesting results.

And this:

• In March, city officials and Madigan’s office agreed to allow groups including the ACLU and Black Lives Matter Chicago to give input and criticize the proposed order, and those groups can seek to use the courts to enforce the final consent decree.

Has anyone even seen a hierarchy chart for this blm group? Who's in charge? What is their mailing address? Tax filing numbers? Someone tried to sue them in state court (Texas we think) but there wasn't anyone to serve with papers. At least the ACLU has a mailing address.

Wouldn't it be humorous if the US Attorney General's office refused to be a party to this disaster? Because we don't see Rahm getting piles of federal money to institute the training and equipment requirements that inevitably come with federal oversight. Los Angeles spent billions.....billions Chicago doesn't have and isn't likely to get any time soon.

Court Insanity

Once again, reality is stranger than fiction in Cook County:

• So, what is an appropriate bail for a five-time convicted felon who’s caught roaming the city with her electronic monitoring bracelet plugged into a car outlet? In Cook County, the answer was….electronic monitoring!
  
  [...] Here’s what happened:
  
  Back in March, 28-year-old Regina Whitaker was released from prison after serving half of a narcotics sentence. She was put on electronic monitoring as part of her parole plan. On the Fourth of July, she was arrested and charged with selling crack cocaine to an undercover cop on the West Side. Judge Stephanie Miller released Whitaker on a recognizance bond and told her to stay inside from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.
  
  Then, around 9:30 p.m. on July 13, police stopped a vehicle on the West Side for having an apparently altered temporary license plate. Officers approached the car. Regina Whitaker was in the driver’s seat with her home monitoring device (the part that is supposed to be, you know, at home) sitting on the passenger seat, plugged into the car outlet, according to a police department spokesperson.

But as the CWB blog discovered:

• When Whitaker appeared before Judge Mary Marubio on the escape charged last Saturday, the court’s Pretrial Services Division was prepared with a recommended bail: electronic monitoring. Again.
  
  Marubio seemed to give that a brief consideration before ordering Whitaker held without bail.

We have no idea what criteria the Pretrial Services Division uses for their recommendations, but it's obvious that they aren't holding previous bad acts against arrestees.....no doubt at the direction of Kim and Toni with the complicity of Tommy and Timmy.

Nice Bikes Rahm

He's certainly making it easier for criminals to get around:

• Oh, Divvy. What are we going to do with you?
  
  Police are looking for the man who robbed a woman in the Loop early today while he rode past on a Divvy bike. The 35-year-old woman and three friends were walking in the 700 block of South State when the Divviot pedaled up on his baby blue bike around 2:20 a.m.
  
  A struggle broke out when he grabbed the woman’s purse, causing him to crash the bike. After gaining control of the woman’s orange Coach clutch, the man ran away, leaving the Divvy behind. The victim and her friends chased after the man for a moment but gave up. No one was injured.

On the brighter side, for the couple of bucks the victim lost in her purse, taxpayers got a bike back valued at $1,200. She and her friends ought to get a medal.

Heroic Effort

Quick decision by responding officers:

• After a 3-year-old girl was shot Wednesday afternoon in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, responding officers had a narrow window to act. Should they take the child and her father — believed to be the intended target — to the hospital themselves, or wait for an ambulance?
  
  Their decision, to immediately rush the girl, who was shot in both legs, to Comer Children’s Hospital was one any officer would likely have made, said Officer Luis Saldana, one of four police officers who sped the pair to the hospital in a police squad vehicle.
  
  “We wanted her to survive,” said Saldana, speaking at a Thursday afternoon news conference at the Chicago Police Department’s Deering District station. “I don’t want anyone to lose their child.”

A very good job officers. Hopefully she regains the ability to walk, jump, and run that all children ought to be able to do.

But why was a three-year-old targeted for multiple gunshot wounds?

• A 3-year-old girl seriously wounded on the South Side Wednesday afternoon was shot by a gunman apparently aiming at her father, a gang leader with a long arrest record, according to Chicago police.
  
  The girl and her father, 34, were in the 1900 block of West 48th Street in Back of the Yards when someone walked up around 2:50 p.m. and fired, police said. The gunman ran off and possibly got into a black sedan waiting nearby.

Golly, it's almost like her life didn't matter.

Nice Pensions

Pretty good deal for what is listed as a "part time job:"

• Of the 38 former elected Chicago officials currently receiving pensions, 15 former aldermen see yearly payouts exceeding $100,000, according to documents from the Municipal Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago, or MEABF. Two additional aldermen receive annual pension payouts just a few thousand dollars shy of $100,000.
  
  On average, the 15 former aldermen collecting six-figure annual pensions have accumulated $768,500 in total gross pension benefits. Four of those ex-aldermen have accumulated more than $1 million in gross benefits.

Here's the attached chart (click for larger version):

Truly a wonder.

Amusing Sticker

It seems this sticker is making an appearance here and there:

You can buy them here (click link)

Very creative.

Fix is In?

Looking like the Machine can't risk a change of venue:

• In a highly unusual move, attorneys for Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke want a different judge to decide whether the trial over Laquan McDonald’s shooting should be moved outside Cook County, saying the judge presiding over the hot-button case made up his mind long ago to keep it in Chicago.
  
  Even though Judge Vincent Gaughan has scheduled a hearing on the issue for early next month, the filing Wednesday by Daniel Herbert, Van Dyke’s lead lawyer, said the judge has made clear his intentions to refuse to move the trial.
  
  “Any further proceedings would be nothing more than a show, much like a professional wrestling match wherein the outcome has been pre-determined,” Herbert wrote.
  
  As evidence, Herbert noted that Gaughan set a trial date earlier this month before hearing any substantive arguments about moving the trial — a signal, he contended, that the judge already knows how he will rule.
  
  The filing also briefly quoted from a sealed transcript of a closed hearing in June — sure to draw the ire of Gaughan, who has taken extraordinary measures to control the release of information in the case.

Given the historical corruption that has riven the Cook County courts and government (Operations Silver Shovel, Incubator, Lantern, Gambat, and Safebet) it's obvious to even the casual observer that a politically charged trial like this is more than likely susceptible to outside "pressures." Gaughan has been overly secretive, perhaps to a fault, but certainly more than what is considered the norm and he probably shouldn't be in the decision loop regarding a change of venue.

The "Sticking Point"

You think street stops are down from the "ACLU effect?"

• City Inspector General Joe Ferguson Wednesday said he favors requiring Chicago police to document incidents in which an officer points a gun at a person.
  
  Whether they should have to is the lone sticking point in negotiations between the city and the state attorney general's office over a proposed court agreement intended to govern reforms in the Chicago Police Department.
  
  Ferguson said Wednesday he had a gun pulled on him by a robber who stuck up a gas station where he worked as a youth — and then had police pull their weapons on him minutes later when they responded and thought he might have been the culprit. He contended it’s a life-altering experience.

So was getting robbed you idiot. In the meantime, everything now becomes a TRR, removing multiple officers and supervisors from the street to fill out paperwork that just gets more extensive, more involved and more nit-picky by the minute.

You know what cops hate? Extra paperwork.

And you know how cops avoid extra paperwork? By disengaging.

You think it isn't happening already?

Munoz's Last Hurrah (UPDATE)

One last pander to the gang that spawned him:

• An alderman introduced a plan Wednesday to force the city and Chicago Police Department to rein in the department’s use of a massive gang database, giving people whose names are listed notice and a chance to make the case they aren’t gang members.
  
  Ald. Ricardo Munoz, who himself was once affiliated with a gang during his youth in Little Village, introduced his proposal after a coalition filed a federal lawsuit last month arguing the Police Department gang database contains inaccurate, out-of-date and racially skewed information on thousands of people.
  
  Under Munoz’s ordinance, the Police Department eventually would be prohibited from keeping the database unless the city inspector general’s office determines doing so has “a legitimate law enforcement related purpose that outweighs the harm caused to individuals who are designated as gang members.”
  
  In the long term, Munoz, 22nd, also wants to require “individuals included in the database receive notice and an opportunity to challenge their designation,” and to determine the designations “are free from racial discrimination,” according to his ordinance.

We're surprised the Tribune mentions the gang ties. Munoz wasn't just "affiliated" - he hid guns for the latin kings. His father and mother ran "Foto Estudio Munoz," a notorious center for fake ID's (micas) for illegals and a lucrative source of income for the kings who ran a protection racket that the Tribune estimated brought in $30,000 per week in protection money. Amazingly the entire operation was consumed in a fire at 26th and St. Louis one night many years ago, just as the feds were prosecuting (and convicting) his father on assorted charges.

He was the king's aldercreature, not to dissimilar to Daley Sr being the Homberg's politician back in the day - except it's hard to pass off the kings as a "social club" like Daley Sr did with his group. And on his way out the door, Munoz is attempting to (once again) hamstring a perfectly legitimate law enforcement tool.

UPDATE: We didn't even think of this - why does the Department have to get rid of the gang database, but up until a few months ago, they Department was still releasing CR records dating back 40 or more years?

Divvy Bike Scandal

The Department came out with guidelines on how to determine if a Divvy bike is stolen and how to properly document, arrest and write up a arrest for the theft. Crime in Wrigleyville and Boystown has done some good reporting on it all:

• It has been less than two weeks since CWBChicago broke the news about a massive theft problem that is affecting Chicago’s Divvy bike-sharing program. Thieves have learned a technique that will release bikes from the system’s docking stations without paying, we reported.
  
  Now, a local TV station has aired footage of the technique. We can confirm that what you will see in the video is the same general method used by two Divvy thieves that our staff personally saw in action during late June and early July.
  
  The ever-present blue bikes are the property of Chicago taxpayers, not Divvy. So, every bike that is stolen comes out of your pocket, not the company’s.

That last paragraph is particularly galling - taxpayer own the bikes? Then why weren't we all consulted about where to put the docking stations? Because we'll tell you right now we have a problem with where about half of these stations ended up being placed - in fact, we pointed it out here years ago when the stations started appearing all over the ghetto....what the fuck did Rahm and Divvy think was going to happen?

Now you have some other company wanting to put actual free bikes out all over the place - no docking station at all, and another outfit who thinks some sort of "scooter sharing program" will be the next big thing. These people are morons, but some politico (or dumbass mayor) will see a chance to spend more tax payer money irresponsibly without any input from the people footing the bill.

Helping One of Our Own

A GoFundMe page for a member who suffered extensive losses in a fire:

• A few weeks ago a close friend to many and a warm soul known by all had an unexpected fire in her home. We thank god everyone is ok; however, she along with her daughter and mother have been displaced during the repairs. Currently, she is paying her mortgage, bills and now rent at another location. Her insurance company estimates there is over $75,000 worth of damage. While insurance will cover the majority of that amount, she now has additional bills to be concerned about. We ask that you share and to the extent you are able donate (no amount is too small) to help her and her family.

Read more at the link above.

Comments closed here - informational post only.

Police Board President

To get clouted into certain Department positions, you have to pass a rudimentary financial background check, purportedly to make sure you aren't susceptible to bribery. Clout can get you around it of course, but you'd think someone in an actual position of responsibility might have a bit stricter check done on them:

• Ghian Foreman is Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s handpicked Police Board president and a prominent Chicago real estate developer. In 2005, he borrowed $50,000 from Karyn Usher’s mother to help finance a Bronzeville condominium project. The units sold but the Usher family has waited 13 years to be paid.
  
  “He owes this money and I want him to pay this money,” Usher says.
  
  Usher says her family was close with Foreman’s, the reason her then 73-year-old mother, Ann Marie Usher, entered into a legal limited partnership and loaned Foreman the money. “Mother had known them all her life and so she, of course, wanted to help Ghian,” Usher says.
  
  Foreman rehabbed the four condos and sold three for a total of more than $1 million. By 2007, he owned the fourth and final unit free and clear. Usher’s attorney says Foreman could’ve paid off the debt. “There were proceeds from these sales,” says Phyllis Price. “[But} Ms. Usher got not a dime.”

Mrs. Usher died some time ago without receiving any of the loan repaid. Her estate isn't happy and we have to say that someone with that sort of outstanding debt is definitely susceptible to all sorts of outside pressure.

Thought Provoking Comments

Saw these scattered around in the comment sections - and we know everyone doesn't read the comments. It's long, tedious, and repetitive sometimes:

• regarding the OPS/IPRA/COPA accusations of misconduct: "Every case that Fairley had oversight of should be overturned and the Officers should be awarded millions...
  at least that’s how it worked against Burge"
• regarding swiping: "If we're not hourly employees, why is our furlough time/days calculated by the hour?" (That would be a good question for the FOP - make all OT pensionable retroactively to the switch to furlough hours)
• regarding marching: "Not a good idea to disrupt the lives of honest hardworking people who actually work for a living in order to galvanize them for your cause. As SCC alluded to Sam Kinnison in an earlier post: " Why don't you people move to where the food is?" Why not march around City Hall where the lawmakers "work"? Why not march around the Criminal Courts Building where judges let repeat offenders off scott free to inflict more mayhem on the people whom you allegedly care about?
  
  Why not march around Rahm's domicile? You have the beef with him, let him feel the wrath! Same goes for Foxx and Preckwinkle Dart etc. They want everyone out of jails & back into your communities. Let them know it's not working. Why can you get large amounts of people to march but yet you refuse to march thru the neighborhoods where all the shit actually goes down?"

Always an interesting take by the readers.

Nice Tunnel Builder Rahm

Yeah, this guy can build a tunnel without government money:

• Electric car manufacturer Tesla has asked suppliers to simply give it money back in order for the company to stay afloat According to the Wall Street Journal, a Tesla memo calls the payments “essential to Tesla’s continued operation.”
  
  The Wall Street Journal reports that Tesla has asked some of its suppliers to refund the electric car company money that it previously used to purchase parts and supplies for vehicle production. According to a leaked memo, the company is requesting money back from suppliers to help the car company become profitable, as if this is the responsibility of the company’s suppliers. The company reportedly asked suppliers to return a “meaningful amount of money” from the companies payments since 2016.
  
  The memo was sent by a Tesla global supply manager and described the monetary request as “essential to Tesla’s continued operation,” and “characterized it as an investment in the car company” according to the Journal. Tesla declined to comment on the memo, but did confirm that they have been seeking price reductions from suppliers for their recent projects.

Rahm's supposed business acumen is looking pretty tattered right about now. How did he ever made any money in the private sector if it wasn't handed to him via crooked Clinton contacts?

March! March! March!

And the reasoning behind it is simply astounding:

• Standing across the street from the Chicago Cubs’ bright red marquee, community activists said Tuesday they’re planning to bring the city’s North Side to a standstill next week to “redistribute the pain in Chicago.”
  
  And that’s why they’re planning to shut down a stretch of North Lake Shore Drive during evening rush hour to make way for an anti-violence march that will wind its way to the fringes of Wrigley Field as the Cubs prepare for a night game there, organizers say. The late-afternoon march Aug. 2 could effectively shut down portions of the city as traffic already will be heavy with Lollapalooza getting underway in Grant Park.
  
  “We are going down commercial strips and if people are upset about us disturbing their entertainment and their cafe life, human life is more important than recreation,” said the Rev. Gregory Livingston, one of the organizers. “We all need to recognize that.”

Really? Because last time we checked, the entertainment aspects of the city were tax revenue generators while the "communities" these pretend "revrunds" purport to represent were tax leeches. Years of observation have shown us that people don't like when you fuck with their down time, and that includes enforcing laws on the books about public drinking, smoking weed, pitching pennies and playing dice.

Their words would have more impact if (A) the community treated human life as more important than the dope trade, (B) as more important beating/robbing people in quiet neighborhoods, and (C) more important than carjacking pregnant women. That would involve cooperating with removing the violent segments of their own neighborhood. What was it a simple carpenter said once?

• First remove the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye. (Matthew 7:5)

Much of Chicago recognizes human life as valuable. That's why homicides are rare in those areas, and in direct contrast where certain other areas where the bodies are littering the streets seven at a time.

Get a load of some of these other quotes, both at the linked article above and this gem from the Tribune Editorial Board:

• “So on Aug. 2, everybody, we march against Rahm Emanuel,” Livingston said. “We march against Eddie Johnson. We march for consent decrees, and we march against empty lying promises.”
• “We are inconvenienced every day by the shooting and killing of our children. So join us in being inconvenienced,” he said. Livingston says he wants to take his marchers to the North Side before a Cubs game to share some pain: “We have to bring the suffering to where the powers that be actually listen to people’s complaints and cries”

If they truly wanted to "bring the suffering" to quiet neighborhoods, they'd start shooting yuppies. But that moment isn't nearly as far into the future as Rahm hopes it is.

Cook County Flush with Cash

Every branch of government has money, but they're always pleading poor and demanding tax increases:

• Tax-increment financing districts in Cook County brought in a record-breaking $1 billion last year, according to Cook County Clerk David Orr’s annual TIF Revenue report.
  
  That’s nearly 18 percent more than 2016, the report shows. The county is comprised of 447 districts, with 143 located in Chicago. The city’s districts generated $660 million in tax revenue last year, a $99 million, or 18 percent, increase over last year.

So again, we ask Prickwrinkle, what was the purpose of the soda tax? County is flush with money according to your own accountants.

Chicago Flush with Cash

One of our favorite quotes about democrats in government:

• “We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much.” - Ronald Reagan.

It came to mind today especially:

• Nearly a third of property taxes now collected by City Hall go into 143 special taxing districts controlled by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and aldermen, according to a new report by Cook County Clerk David Orr.
  
  Orr said a record-high $660 million poured into tax-increment financing funds last year, which was more than 31 percent of the $2.1 billion-plus that city government collected. The veteran clerk called the percentage “stunning.”
  
  “This is a real pot of gold,” he said of the $660 million, noting that nearly half of it goes into TIF districts in more affluent city neighborhoods. “The fundamental question is: Are we spending it as wisely as we could, given that we really do have a tale of two cities here in Chicago, given massive wealth in some parts of the city and massive amounts of (poverty) in other parts?”

This improper allocation of tax money is probably the biggest scam running. Pensions are sicker than ever, retirees are being stripped of health care, but by golly, $660 million in 143 special TIF's for whatever Rahm want to dole out is right there for the taking.

Bombshell

You know all those stories about police planting guns? Guess where they get their start?

• A former longtime police misconduct investigator claims in a new lawsuit he lost his job last year after he refused to give false testimony to make a shooting by an officer seem like it was not justified. Kelvin Lett made the claim in a complaint filed Sunday against the city of Chicago, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the Independent Police Review Authority, AFSCME Local 654 and Council 31 and others.
  
  Also mentioned throughout the lawsuit, but not named as a defendant, is Lori Lightfoot, the former Police Board president now challenging Mayor Rahm Emanuel for his job. The complaint alleges that Lightfoot, in December 2015, told then-IPRA head Scott Ando she “wanted to fire that motherf—er Lett.” Lightfoot could not immediately be reached for comment, nor could a COPA representative. A spokesman for the city’s Law Department said it had not yet received a copy of the lawsuit and therefore could not comment.
  
  [...]
  
  Then, in June 2016, Lett alleges Fairley ordered him “to alter his reports so as to lie about his findings on a particular case regarding an officer-involved shooting of a civilian.” He claims Fairley said “he had to have a more ‘devious mind’ to do this job and that he needed to lie about his findings in such a way to reflect that the officer shooting was unjustified.” Specifically, Fairley allegedly “ordered Lett to lie in his reports that a gun was planted on the victim by the officers involved in the shooting.” The lawsuit says “Lett protested and refused to do so because he had no evidence to support that finding.”

This isn't the first time OPS/IPRA/COPA has tried to railroad an investigation for political purposes. They have to keep the lie alive in order to exploit it for political gain.

Sick Building

And they do training here?

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been ordered to take “immediate corrective action” to remedy serious safety violations endangering police trainees at a shuttered North Side school used as an auxiliary training site.
  
  The demand from Illinois Occupational Safety and Health Administration Director Ben Noven stems from a July 12 complaint filed by Fernando Flores, a Chicago police officer assigned to O’Hare International Airport. Flores also serves as a Fraternal Order of Police trustee.
  
  Flores alleged that the building at 1450 N. Larabee St. — formerly the Near North Career Metropolitan High School — has inadequate ventilation, temperatures exceeding 100 degrees, roach and rodent infestations and high levels of lead and asbestos.
  
  The following day, Noven fired off a letter to Emanuel that was obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.

OSHA isn't coming out of course - they just "demand" that Rahm fix everything his inspectors find. We'll bet that happens almost instantly!

This is one of the "sickest" buildings in the entire system and it's shameful that they actually use it for training. The air is dead and stale - no movement whatsoever - and we doubt there's any sort of functioning ventilation. When we went through, there were portable wheeled air conditioners in the rooms and a few hundred feet of hose to vent exhaust out a hole in the wall. It was a very pleasant 85 degrees outside that day.....and about 98 inside. The staff helpfully provided free water bottles since you'd have to be insane to try drinking from a water fountain in the building. The bathrooms flooded three and four times a day. The cockroaches and water bugs are at least as big as potato chips.

The staff mentioned the building is scheduled for demolition this year and the clouds of asbestos-laden dust should be a welcome addition to the neighborhood. Perhaps a few hundred IOD reports for exposure would grant the police victims class-action status?

Oh Boy, Is This Great!

The city devolves into satire:

• Taking a page from the Rev. Michael Pfleger, a group of community activists plans to shut down a stretch of North Lake Shore Drive as part of an anti-violence march that will end at Wrigley Field next week.
  
  About 4 p.m. Aug. 2, groups that include the Coalition for a New Chicago and Violence Interrupters plan to march on Lake Shore Drive near Belmont Avenue and then proceed to Wrigley Field, said the Rev. Gregory Livingston, one of the group organizers. The Chicago Cubs have a home game scheduled for 7:05 p.m. that day against the San Diego Padres.
  
  “Oftentimes, the cries of complaints from poor people aren’t heard,” Livingston said. “We have to go where the cries have to be heard.”
  
  Livingston would not say if the group plans to get into Wrigley Field, but more details are set to be released about the protest at a news conference Tuesday. He would not say what route the group plans to take, and he did not yet have an estimate of how many people could take part in the demonstration.

Of course, the leading elements of the poor people are already making inroads into the areas in and around Wrigleyville, Boystown, Lakeview and Lincoln Park. One only has to read the CWB blog and other occasional hints from the lame stream media to see where the poor are attempting to redistribute wealth from pregnant yuppies.

Inconveniencing even more taxpayers seems like a bridge too far as the saying goes, especially liberal ones who like their baseball and drinking. And Wrigley Field is private property if we recall, so any attempts to get in without a ticket would be unwise.

But Special Ed (and Rahm) opened the door for this bullshit, and when you reward bad behavior, you get more of it. Good thing we're on furlough the next two weeks.

Here's Some Money!

Vote for Me!

• Mayoral candidate Willie Wilson apparently did not violate election law by handing out more than $200,000 in cash and checks Sunday to people at an event he attended with Gov. Bruce Rauner at a South Side church, according to the state elections board.
  
  Wilson campaign spokesman Scott Winslow said the millionaire businessman gave the money to people to help them cover the cost of their property taxes and other expenses as part of his long-standing philanthropic work through the Dr. Willie Wilson Foundation, a registered nonprofit. Wilson gave out the money Sunday at an event at New Covenant Missionary Baptist Church, where he was joined by Rauner.
  
  Speaking at an unrelated event in Wheaton on Monday, the re-election-seeking governor said he was at the church with Wilson to speak at the pastor’s request. Rauner said he gave Wilson, a friend of his, $100,000 last year and another $100,000 “in the last month or two” to help struggling families pay their property taxes but did not approve of Wilson handing out cash at the church.
  
  “I think the idea of handing out cash if you’re a candidate for office is outrageous,” Rauner said. “It should not happen. I learned after the fact and I was pretty upset when I heard it was going on.”

Sure, nothing like giving away money at what turned out to be a campaign event in disguise. We mean, it's not like he was giving away chickens at the polling places after the ward boss made sure you had voted for the correct democratic candidates.

Wilson obviously has to be schooled in the gentle art of the "connected bribe" usually performed via lofty promises, a few unmarked envelopes, a contract steered to certain businesses who then make "voluntary donations" to the Foundation. It's all legit.

Swiping Begins

Bad news always arrives on a Friday after the newsrooms have emptied out, and this Friday was no different.

Swiping is here, but with a twist. You only have to swipe in, not out, UNLESS your finish time involves OT. So late arrests, court on off-hours, District specific OT, etc., will be tightly regulated, so the old "padding" of slips is now a thing of the past. If anyone was paying attention, it already was a thing of the past in most places. There just aren't many bosses who might toss you an little extra for the ride home due to rampant stupidity of a few softballs.

We've also been told (not verified) that the reason we aren't all swiping in and out is because then we are hourly employees, not salaried, and for hourly employees overtime is pensionable. Hopefully, this has been run by the labor lawyers - local, state and national - and it's above board, because other people are claiming that payroll will be attacked to this beginning in 2020.

There's a lot of info out there, some more reliable than others. Start with the General Order, start asking the timekeepers questions and gather info for the unions.

Nice Tunnel Guy Rahm

Good thing this isn't supposed to cost taxpayers a penny:

• One disastrous tweet has finally revealed Elon Musk for what he is: a fraud.
  
  Enraged that a British cave diver called his idea to rescue the Thai soccer team for what it was — “a p.r. stunt [with] absolutely no chance of working” — Musk took to Twitter and called him a “pedo.” Just like that, Tesla’s market value plummeted by $2 billion.
  
  Musk has been in business since 2002. His stated goal is nothing short of transforming humanity through his products: his electric cars, space travel, and an underground high-speed Hyperloop system. He has yet to succeed at anything but somehow spins every failure into proof of imminent success. His only accomplishment has been this decades-long Jedi mind trick.

This is the type of ego maniacal madman Rahm thinks can dig a tunnel from downtown to O'Hare at no cost to taxpayers?

We're wondering if Rahm is even going to be around to shoulder the blame for this one.

What Matters Again?

We've heard the phrase - we just don't believe it any more:

That's about half of the expended casings recovered in 012 at the scene of seven people shot in the park. Not mentioned in the media for some reason is the vehicle used was hijacked from a white lady who had to beg two armed subjects (no descriptions available) to allow her to retrieve her child from the rear car seat.

Fun Fact #1! Six of the seven shot have SSL (strategic subject list) scores in excess of 300. Anything over 250 means your odds of getting shot are better than 2-to-1.

Fun Fact #2! Did you know that there wasn't even a single call from the "community" for a loud party in the park for a crowd in excess of 100 people? It's true! Not one citizen cared enough to call until the bullets started flying and the bodies started falling. What does that tell you about things?

Pritzker Meets Who?

To write the blog, sometimes we have to venture into some seedy places (we do it so you don't have to) and we bring back info that you aren't going to see in most of the lamestream media:

• Chicago activists and residents are moving forward with their fight to force Mayor Rahm Emanuel to resign after the fatal police shooting of Harith “Snoop” Augustus on Saturday, July 14.
  
  Emanuel, who Chicagoans have protested against for several years because of the Chicago Police Department’s troubling history of brutality, made himself look even worse during a visit to a city cafe Thursday. The mayor, who was there to meet controversial Illinois gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker, was caught on video ignoring mothers of police shooting victims, a Black Lives Matter Chicago video posted to Facebook revealed. Several mothers were at the unnamed eatery to meet Pritzker to talk about police shootings.

No, you aren't imaging things - progressive democrat billionaire J.B. Pritzker is meeting with black lives matter groups. Nothing about supporting law and order, maybe a few well placed words for calm and patience with ongoing investigations. No, just meetings with people who have openly advocated for violence and murder of police.

If Rauner's people have any sort of intelligence, they're producing the commercials right now.

Nice State

No, not Madiganistan:

• INDIANAPOLIS — State government spent $100.4 million less than it took in during the 2018 budget year that ended June 30, even after Gov. Eric Holcomb funneled $327.1 million in additional funds to the Department of Child Services.
  
  Data released Thursday by State Auditor Tera Klutz shows Indiana collected $15.8 billion in taxes and fees over the past 12 months, and spent $15.7 billion providing services to the state's 6.6 million residents.
  
  "As the state's chief financial officer, I am pleased to report that Indiana remains financially strong," said Klutz, a Republican.
  
  Adding in the 2018 budget surplus, Indiana now has an ongoing budget reserve of nearly $1.8 billion, or 11.3 percent of annual spending.

Amazing how success is located so close to total catastrophic failure.

Onion Article Comes to Life

We posted the gag picture from The Onion yesterday about shootings spreading to neighborhoods that Rahm actually cares about. Carjackings are already in those neighborhoods, so it's only a matter of time until one goes bad:

• A couple was carjacked at gunpoint Friday morning outside their garage in the North Side Bucktown neighborhood.
  
  A 33-year-old man was taking out the garbage about 9:30 a.m. in the 1700 block of North Wolcott while a 33-year-old woman pulled their 2018 Range Rover out of the garage, according to Chicago Police. A silver car pulled into the alley and two males got out, pointed guns at them and ordered the woman out of the Range Rover. Several personal items were also stolen.
  
  The carjackers got into the Range Rover and drove north from the alley, while a third suspect drove the silver car away south, police said.
  
  One of the carjackers was about 6-foot-3 and wore a black hoodie and black pants, police said. The other was about 6 feet tall and wore a white T-shirt with black jeans. They were both armed with handguns.

The Sun Times provides pretty much zero usable descriptions. Channel 5 has zip also. Channel 7 adds these tidbits:

• Nearby residents were shaken by the crime.
  
  "Everybody starts questioning when this stuff happens, if you should live in the city," said Bucktown resident Chad Wells. "And my wife's now sitting here telling me, 'should we move?'."
  
  
• "I think the immediate answer is we need the officer count that we had several years ago to come back up," said Alderman Scott Waguespack (32nd Ward). "Yes, we've seen a handful of officers come in here and there, but it hasn't been enough to stem the tide of these carjackings and other types of crimes."

Manpower shortages? And after all those promises. Along with the always popular:

• The Chicago Police Department said that carjackings are down by approximately 12 percent since this time last year after the formation of a carjacking task force in recent months.

Ah yes, the ever present "crime is down" nonsense.

The woman driving the car is eight months pregnant by the way. If she convinces her husband to move out, that's two taxpayers gone and perhaps a future CPS student. Not exactly the picture of stability that Rahm wants.

Consent Decree "Close"

And the countdown to unplugging the life-support machines is entering into the final seconds:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan are close to unveiling a proposed court agreement intended to govern reforms in the Chicago Police Department, attorneys said Friday in federal court.
  
  The lone sticking point, attorneys said, remains whether the department must document incidents in which an officer points a gun at a person.
  
  Attorney Cara Hendrickson of Madigan’s office said the parties have been “intensely negotiating” and reached consensus on most of a draft consent decree spanning more than 200 pages that covers topics including use of force, training, supervision and officer accountability.
  
  Hendrickson suggested the draft would be released to the public soon but cited no specific timeline. She also indicated that the draft could be released before the remaining issue is decided.

We already linked to the Fox News article that had some of the pages. We're have a lead on getting the entire file. We'll see shortly. This really ought to be a wake-up call to anyone still chasing. The documentation aspect of these "agreement" is only there to screw you in the event of a complaint.

Time for a New Strategy

CAPS is dead. Scarecrow policing is a failure. Actually incarcerating criminals has fallen out of favor with the current crop of morons in the courts. Time for the "opt out" plan. It works like this:

• The "community" dislikes the police. Snowflakes are ambivalent - they know they need the police but they aren't quite sure why. Normals like the police.
  
  So every ward should have a binding referendum. "Do the residents of the (??) Ward want the police to maintain a presence in the neighborhood? A simple Yes/No answer is all that is needed. The results are tallied and the results are law for a four year period. The Normals vote for police service. The snowflakes probably vote against it. The "community," too.
  
  The Districts/Wards that want manpower probably get heaps of it, something they haven't seen in a decade. The savings in facility costs alone would pay retiree health care for years. The snowflake part of town becomes the Happy Hunting Grounds of the criminals. And the anti-police parts of town.....well, they get what they asked for, and they get it good and hard. Dissenters can be placed on a "Response Call List" if they so desire and police will respond to their registered phone number, but no proactive police-work will be undertaken in the Wards that voted for no police. Eventually, the wanna-be-Normals will move to better policed areas or leave town.
  
  In four years, the remaining snowflakes will realize the error of their ways and vote to return cops to the neighborhood. Anti-police areas are suddenly full of vacant lots and dilapidated housing stock that has to be bulldozed and plenty of room for real economical development. Eventually, the area becomes Normals.

Certain volunteer fire departments do something similar where if you aren't a "subscriber" to the local Fire Protection area, you don't get service when your building catches fire. You see the articles here and there that a fire department didn't save someone's building - they just stood by in case it spread to one of their subscribers. We think it might be time to try something similar in policing. We'll call it the Darwin Method.

Chicago #1 Again

Rat Capital of the nation:

• Chicago has found itself at the top of a ranking that residents likely won’t be too thrilled to read about.
  
  According to Renthop, Chicago is the “rat capital” of America, with over 50,000 rat-related complaints last year.
  
  The data compiled by the website shows a 55 percent increase in rat complaints over the last four years, with nearly 2000 complaints per 100,000 residents in 2017.
  
  The worst neighborhoods in Chicago for rats are Logan Square, Englewood, and West Ridge, according to the website.

Somehow City Hall escaped the neighborhood rankings.

Stoners Welcome

Keep lowering those standards:

• The Chicago Police Department has quietly relaxed its hiring standards to eliminate past marijuana use as an automatic disqualifier, provided candidates have not smoked pot in the last three years, the chairman of the city’s Human Resources Board disclosed Friday.
  
  Testifying before the City Council’s Committee on Workforce Development, Chairman Salvador A. Cicero also disclosed that the three-member board is seeing a lot of appeals from police candidates who have been disqualified for using Adderall.
  
  That’s an addictive drug that works as a stimulant and is used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and the sleeping disorder narcolepsy.

How about a compromise? If cops can smoke dope, they'll all be waaaaaaay to mellow to chase criminals. And if they increase their Twinkie intake, they'll be too overweight to chase anyway.

And they'd die earlier which would save the pension! Holy crap, we're GENIUSES! Someone call Rahm.

Free Money Again

Remember when Rahm cut retiree and widow health care? But someone found money for this crap?

• It’s called a Universal Basic Income. The idea is to give poor people money — with no strings attached— at public expense. It’s designed to counter the nagging problems of stagnant wages for many Americans, almost non-existent savings and the prospect of joblessness driven by automation or trade.
  
  A pilot program, proposed recently by Ald. Ameya Pawar (47), would put Chicago in the vanguard of those exploring a UBI by giving $500 a month to 1,000 Chicago families.
  
  A resolution introduced by Pawar, a progressive torch-bearer on City Council, directs the mayor’s office to create a task force to explore a universal basic income for Chicago, starting with the 1,000-family pilot program. The resolution has more than 30 cosponsors, although it’s far from clear if it will be ever become a political reality.

We could use an extra $500 a month with no strings attached. Where do we apply?

You can bet that if this comes to pass, that 1,000 will rapidly become 5,000. And guess who they're going to be beholden to, and therefore, vote for? Whomever promises them more money of course. 5,000 votes can swing elections around here.

How about something written into the law that when you accept government handouts, you surrender your Right to vote? You've obviously become compromised and the government is obviously buying your loyalty.....with tax money. It's only fair.

Satire, but True, Too

The Onion hits close to home:

It's already there though.

Parade of Dumbasses

At Rahm's house - isn't residential protesting banned by Ordinance?

• Five days after a Chicago police officer shot and killed Harith “Snoop” Augustus, protesters brought their cries for justice, and a letter laying out their demands, to the front steps of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Ravenswood home.
  
  “There is no reason that Rahm Emanuel should get to sit in his ivory tower, unscathed and unbothered by this moment,” said Tanya Watkins, an organizer with Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation. “His neighbors, his friends, his colleagues and community members cannot turn a blind eye to the injustice taking place in communities of color and the abuse we are suffering at the hands of CPD.”

At last count:

• 248 gun homicides in Chicago; 1,300 maimed
• 4 killed and 9 wounded by police

That works out to 1.6% of all the dead can be laid at the feet of police along with 0.69% of the wounded. In other words, of the people walking around (or buried) with extra lead in their system, a mere 0.83% is the result of an encounter with CPD.

• “You hold no one accountable for black death in this city except for the dead,” said Hesna Boukom, with the Southsiders group, addressing Emanuel. “For you, for these aldermen, for police, all Harith had to do was be black to deserve to die and we’re not going to stand for that.”

The lies just keep on coming.  Listen here dumbass - the police account for UNDER ONE PERCENT of the totals. Now go look up the numbers for black offenders. You might be surprised.

A Tale of Two Shootings

Heather MacDonald writes it more eloquently that we could:

• Last Sunday, a 59-year-old woman on the West Side of Chicago was killed by a would-be carjacker. The felon walked up to the driver’s side of the car, which was being driven by a 71-year-old man, and pulled his gun. The senior citizen refused to surrender the vehicle and kept driving. The would-be carjacker opened fire at the car, striking the woman in the head and killing her.
  
  The night before, on the South Side, a Chicago officer killed a 37-year-old man whom the officer’s patrol partners had observed behaving in a manner suggesting that he was carrying a gun. The officers tried to question Harith Augustus, and he appeared to pull something from his wallet, according to police body-camera footage, possibly his firearms owner-identification card. One officer tried to grab Augustus (the police report said that he became combative), but he pulled away and ran into the street, where he appeared to reach for the gun holstered on his right hip. One of the officers opened fire and killed him. Augustus’s gun was recovered at the scene.
  
  True to script, the officer-involved shooting sparked violent street anarchy on Saturday night, instigated by Black Lives Matter, the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, and other anti-cop activist groups. Protesters threw rocks and bottles, some filled with urine, at officers. Four officers were injured. Chants included “How do you spell racist? CPD [Chicago Police Department],” and “Murderers.” Protests have continued, drawing intense local media and political attention. “This department is racist . . . and we’re tired of it,” said one of the organizers.
  
  There were no protests against the taking of the carjacking victim’s life. Carjackings have nearly tripled in Chicago since 2015, averaging two per day in 2017 and close to that in 2018. In August 2016, officers tried to pull over a car involved in an earlier carjacking; someone inside the car opened fire and hit one of the officers in the face. The shooter was on parole for attempted armed robbery. In January 2017, a teen carjacker ambushed a 34-year-old mother in an alleyway where she had been parking her car. His initial blow to her head with his gun was so severe that it temporarily blinded her. “Quit trying to kick back, you white bitch,” the assailant said as he pistol-whipped her. Before the attack, the mother had noticed a van suspiciously idling in the alleyway, but decided to continue about her business, likely second-guessing herself about “racial profiling.”

Go read it all. It's just too bad the people who need to read it never will - the truth hurts.

AlderAsshole Update

So is this new info or re-hashed info?

• Alderman John Arena’s office recently filed complaints with oversight agencies about social media comments by police officers and dozens of government workers who oppose a mixed-income housing project.
  
  The City of Chicago recently released documents showing Arena's office collected information on roughly 70 individuals who expressed crime-related concerns about the proposed housing complex that will be located at 5150 N. Northwest Highway.
  
  These individuals included police officers, firefighters, retired teachers, a Chicago Park District employee and Chicago Public Library worker.

It seems like alderasshole has filed the formal complaints now, meaning a government official, in the United States of America, has attempted to suppress free speech based solely on actions taken as private citizens.

Where's the fucking ACLU now?

Time to sue for damages ladies and gentlemen.

Consent Decree Leaks?

Fox News has pages purportedly from the as yet unreleased decree:

• The Chicago Fraternal Order of Police is fighting to get a pending consent decree it considers heavily anti-police tossed out before the document is enacted and potentially brings a dramatic overhaul to the city’s police policy.
  
  “The consent decree will make the simplest police duties and actions rife with ambiguity, and set up officers for discipline no matter how professional or appropriate their conduct,” Chicago FOP Vice President Martin Preib wrote in a statement to Fox News.
  
  Fox News obtained what is believed to be a draft of the consent decree, which has been years in the making and is expected to be unveiled for the public in the near future.

This thing has disaster written all over it:

• Police say one proposal they’re most concerned about would require officers to fill out a report every time they point their gun at a person.
  
  A portion of a decree draft reads, “Any time a CPD officer points a firearm at a person, the incident should be documented in a written report containing: the subject’s actual or perceived race, ethnicity, age and gender; the officer’s badge number, rank, and unit; the date, time and location of the incident; the outcome of the incident, including whether an arrest or citation was issued; and a narrative describing the reasons for the officer’s actions.”

You young kids might not have been taught this, but do you know why there is no written order dictating when you can or cannot unsnap and unholster your pistol? Because the Department, Courts and intelligent people realize that they cannot dictate an Officer's perception of danger. Dumbasses, like Lightfoot, Madigan, and democrats in general think that everyone else can dictate hurt feelings, perceived racism, assorted phobias and complain about it - but not a police officer's professional observations of when something is about to go sideways.

Lightfoot wasted no time blaming the FOP:

• Mayoral challenger Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday demanded that Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration ask a presiding federal judge to investigate the leak of what was described as a draft consent decree outlining the terms for federal court oversight over the Chicago Police Department.
  
  The former Police Board president who co-chaired the Mayor’s Task Force on Police Accountability demanded the investigation after Fox News posted a story contending that the network had obtained a draft of the consent decree being negotiated between City Hall and retiring Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
  
  Lightfoot hinted strongly that she believes the source of the leak was the Fraternal Order of Police, which tried again last week to slow down negotiations aimed at forcing federal court oversight over the Chicago Police Department just as an attorney representing Black Lives Matter and other groups was saying the “clock is ticking” on a consent decree.

We're of the opinion that the supposed "carve outs" aren't going to be enough to hang onto contract protections. If the FOP did leak it, good job. This thing needs to be derailed, or at least delayed until after the election. We're hearing very strong whispers that Rahm won't even be around.

This Idiot Again?

Lemon Record is attempting to stay relevant...and failing:

• I just filed a complaint against Chicago police officer Fernando Flores for racial profiling against District Commander Gloria Hanna. The details of my complaint is below which is now in the hands of COPA (Civilian Office of Police Accountability).
  
  MY COMPLAINT: Chicago police officer of the Fraternal Order of Police Fernando Flores has filed a complaint against Chicago Police South Chicago District Commander Gloria Hanna for claiming she was out of uniform the evening/night of Saturday, July 14, 2018 during a protest in the South Shore community on the 7100 block of Jeffery and Chapel after a Chicago police officer fatally shot and killed a 37 year-old barber who worked in the South Shore community name Harith Augustus.
  
  As a Chicago resident and a United States citizen, I'm filing this complaint against Officer Fernando Flores for racial profiling and for not spending his time on focusing on the bigger picture which is keeping my community of South Shore safe from violence. As a district commander, her responsibility is to represent the department/district in the field, supervise major crime scenes, public safety incidents and other events. She was and is hired and assigned to assist with community ordeals in that area, and that's exactly what she was doing. She was doing her job.
  
  Without her belt and uniform shirt, she had on her bulletproof vest which gave residents a indication that she was the police and was in fact in uniform. Her identity was not mistaken by residents. Officer Fernando Flores states in a Chicago Suntimes article that 'Any time you're in the public, you're supposed to be in uniform."
  
  According to the Chicago Police Department Uniform and Property U04-01 Personal Appearance, Uniform/Citizen's Dress and Equipment, all sworn and uniformed civilian members are required to wear or carry ONLY PRESCRIBED, ALTERNATE or OPTIONAL items authorized by the Department WHILE ON DUTY. District Commander Gloria Hanna optionally made a decision to only wear her bulletproof vest during the protest which other officers who was present ensured her safety as well.
  
  I, Lamon Reccord was present during the protest and physically saw District Commander Gloria Hanna in her bulletproof vest keeping the peace between protestors and officers by approaching the crowd and listening to the cries, concerns and frustration of the residents. If District Commander Gloria Hanna was a person non of color and was only in her bulletproof vest, its a guarantee officer Fernando Flores would have never filed a complaint.

The ridiculousness of this entire complaint should mean it gets unfounded as soon as it arrives. None of what she was wearing is "alternative" or "optional." She's getting $150K and a free car - how much effort does it take to keep a spare uniform in the car? We keep one in our locker just in case we get mud, blood or other crap on it. It isn't difficult at all and we don't make anything close to her salary.

And if she was carrying her gun in her sweatpants pocket (as numerous sharp eyed readers are saying) that is an entire new set of violations.

And you have to laugh out loud at Lemon's contention that a guy assigned to the airport is somehow responsible for the South Shore community. His allegation of "racial profiling" is a joke unless he thinks he is actually a mind reader - he may have been idiot profiling, but racial?

It's truly sad that stupidity isn't painful.

Is This a Joke?

Rumor Central:

• I heard from a reliable source that the Sup is really mad at SCC and is mad at all the posts making him look bad. He is just trying to do what’s good for everyone. He said all the changes he implanted is for our own good and we should be happy. When he joined the protest on the expressway was to show the community he understands them. He wants to start having new recruits do some community service so they can get more involved with the community they serve and learn the joy of helping others. He believes the problem with the department is older officers are resisting to changes that the city needs to foster positive relationships with partnering with the community. He also wants to revisit the use of force policy. He thinks it should be scaled back more. Also he wants uniforms to blend in more with the community. Not having the community feel like they have been taken over by an occupied force. He said he wants to get all this done before February.

Special Ed is looking bad because he's a moron, a puppet, and attempting to straddle a fence that should not be straddled. Stop calling the families of dead assailants and start releasing statement of support for the police. Maybe point out that the "community" has certain responsibilities, too.

Special Ed also shouldn't be worried about what insignificant blog readers are saying and worry about how he's going to lead a department that is so far gone, it has almost ceased to function as a law enforcement agency.

Once Again....

Dancing around the obvious - did anyone call Eric Holder?

• As the number of jobs downtown rapidly increased in recent years, the number of people with those jobs who also live in Chicago’s vulnerable, African-American communities declined, a new study shows.
  
  It means that even as more residents obtained well-paying downtown jobs, fewer of those workers were living in communities where their salaries could have benefited neighborhoods that are hurting economically, the study’s authors said. Some long-struggling communities like Englewood, West Englewood and Auburn Gresham haven’t benefited from Chicago’s downtown jobs boom, the study found.
  
  “This speaks to the cost of segregation,” said Alden Loury, director of research and evaluation for the Metropolitan Planning Council and one of the lead authors of the study. “It’s not that nobody who lives on the South or West Sides works downtown. It means that as the number of jobs have grown, these neighborhoods just haven’t benefited. The basic question for us was: While there was dramatic growth and economic development downtown, what was participation for communities that have long struggled look like?”

The Slum Times has even more:

• Downtown Chicago has experienced significant job growth since 2010, but a new analysis shows the number of residents from majority-black Chicago communities who work in the city center has decreased.
  
  The new analysis, produced by the Metropolitan Planning Council, found that the Loop, the Near North Side and the Near West Side added 65,000 new jobs between the start of 2010 and the end of 2015, with the number of jobs in those three areas totaling 715,000 as of 2015.
  
  Yet the number of those jobs held by residents who live in majority-black communities on the South and West sides dropped. During the five-year period, the number of employees working downtown who were living in those communities shrunk by nearly 1,500.
  
  Residents of these communities made up only 10.6 percent of the workforce downtown at the end of 2015, the analysis also showed.

Gee, who was president during this decline in community jobs? 2015....hopefully it wasn't anyone from here. That'd be embarrassing to have a president come from Chicago, Illinois and have the entire city and state end up even worse off than when he started.

And these well paying jobs - did they require an actual diploma or GED? Did the City Colleges anticipate this emerging job market and push an educational agenda that would have benefited the economically depressed communities neglected by the then-president's administration?

As Special Ed is fond of saying, we have more questions than answers.

Meme of the Day

From readers too numerous to count:

Thanks to everyone who sent this one in.

Manufactured Protests?

Our old blogging friend Jack Dunphy turns his eye (and his national platform) to Chicago:

• Will anyone in Chicago be embarrassed by this? Will any of the perpetually and professionally outraged say, “Gosh, maybe we were too quick to judge”? Will any of them look at the police body camera footage and say, “Yes, the guy had a gun and was trying to pull it out on the officers, so they had to shoot him”?
  
  When Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., nearly four years ago, the fable quickly spread that he had presented no threat, that he had said to the officer, “Hands up, don’t shoot” just before he was mercilessly cut down. Investigators learned this was false within an hour of the shooting, yet the myth of Michael Brown as martyred hero was allowed to persist, and even when it was proven false beyond any doubt by the local investigation and that conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice (headed by Eric Holder, remember), the roots of the myth had grown so deep that, sadly, there are many who still believe it.
  
  Despite the myth’s foundation on a lie, riots and protests continued for months in Ferguson and throughout the St. Louis area, with similar protests occurring across the country. Those protesters, I said at the time, were deluded fools, and I pointed out that a march in downtown St. Louis passed along a route that took them within a block of the scenes of two recent murders, both of which had claimed the lives of black victims. In St. Louis, it seemed, the only black lives that mattered were those taken by the police.
  
  Which brings us to recent events in Chicago, where foolish delusion appears to have reached new heights (or lows, if you prefer). On Saturday, Chicago police officers on foot patrol in the South Shore neighborhood approached Harith Augustus, whom they suspected was carrying a gun. What happened next followed a script that has been repeated over and over, with only the details changing from one incident to the next. Augustus refused the officers’ commands and ran away while trying to pull the gun out of a holster. To protect [him]self and [his] partners, an officer shot and killed him.

Which brings us to this "tweet" by Tribune reporter Will Lee (reader screen shot):

You can see another Tribune reporter - Peter Nickeas - "retweeted" it. Maybe the Trib reporters are discovering the "protests" aren't as grassroots as they're meant to be viewed?

Where Are These "Protests?"

Another lovely weekend in Chicago:

• Weekend gun violence left five people dead and at least 22 others wounded in Chicago, including a man who drove himself to a gas station before dying of a gunshot wound on the South Side.

The HeyJackass stats tell a slightly higher story - 7 dead, 23 maimed. And Chicago will pass 300 this week.

And not a single protest scheduled for any of these shootings, aside from the justified one.

Uniform Complaint Filed

Make the untouchable live by the same rules:

• A Chicago Police officer who is a Fraternal Order of Police trustee has filed a complaint with the Civilian Office of Police Accountability accusing the commander of the South Chicago District of being out of uniform during a tense stand-off between citizens and police that followed Saturday’s police shooting of Harith Augustus.
  
  Police Officer Fernando Flores said Commander Gloria Hanna endangered herself and her fellow officers by showing up at the protest unarmed without any of the equipment she needed to make an arrest or protect herself.
  
  “Any time you’re in the public, you’re supposed to be in uniform,” said Flores, a police officer assigned to the unit that protects O’Hare Airport.
  
  “She’s out of uniform. She doesn’t have a uniform shirt on. She doesn’t have her duty belt, which consists of a firearm, handcuffs, possibly some mace and a baton. She doesn’t have what she would have to affect an arrest. Not only did she endanger herself in a near-riot situation. But, the people now have to look out for her to make sure that she’s safe.”
  
  Hanna could not be reached for comment.

You can bet Special Ed and Rahm are hiding her until shit blows over. Perhaps they ought to have a special review session at the Academy?

Earned not given.

Groundhog Day

So pflakey saw the shadows of dollar bills the other morning.

Six more weeks of highway protests.

Or this:

Go for it Mikey.

If you want to see Mikey get his ass handed to himself, check out this video over at Fox where our old friend Todd Vandermyde dismantles the phony pfather, gets in a hilarious "pfaker" mispronunciation and goads Mikey into mentioning the blog. Mikey denies denies denies, but that doesn't make all of our information 100% accurate.

Out on Bail, Out of State

And killed being an asshole:

• An Uptown man who has been awaiting trial for multiple weapons cases in the North Side neighborhood has died in rural Calaveras County, California, after he jumped from a moving SUV that had been used in the robbery of a large marijuana shipment, according to media reports.
  
  Donter Essex, 29, was free on bond while awaiting trial in Chicago for two separate gun charges in Uptown. Now, it looks like he took his criminal show on the road while Cook County’s wheels of justice turned.

Correct us if we're wrong, but one of the conditions of bail is to not leave the state, especially in the case of a felony charge. You'd think with Class X felony charges, bail might be a tiny bit high, but no.

The California report is a marvel of understatement:

• The robbers sped off in the pot-filled van and several other vehicles, including a Range Rover that was driven by Essex. Minutes after the robbery was reported, a local deputy saw a caravan composed of vehicles matching those used in the robbery.
  
  When the deputy and the California Highway Patrol tried to pull Essex over, the Chicagoan accelerated and then “exited out of the Range Rover while it was still traveling at a high rate of speed,” according to the report. Essex was pronounced dead at the scene, and robbery evidence was found next to his body.

We certainly hope there is in-car camera video of this event and it ends up in a highlight real somewhere. But how did he even make bail on these charges?

• Back home, Essex has been awaiting trial for throwing a gun onto the roof of an Uptown Dunkin’ Donuts while being chased by police. He was charged with Class X felony armed habitual criminal; felony unlawful use of a weapon by a felon; two felony counts of aggravated battery of a police officer; two felony counts of resisting police; and misdemeanor resisting arrest. A “friend” posted $10,000 for him to go free awaiting trial.

Nice system you got there Tommy, Timmy, and Toni.

Isn't It Ironic?

So the protestors were getting ready for a third night of protesting the police stopping and shooting a feloniously armed individual around 71st and Chappel. You'll never guess what happened:

• Police are responding to shooting in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood.
  
  The incident happened near 71st and Chappel around 5:30 p.m. Monday, about one block away from where a fatal police-involved shooting happened over the weekend.
  
  Police say a man was shot, possibly hit in the leg. It is unclear what happened or if anyone is in custody at this time.
  
  There is no reason to believe the incident is related to the shooting over the weekend.

Sure there's not. A shooting, just two or three blocks from where there was just a shooting.Can't be related at all. Maybe they can have a two-for-one protest march?