Pissing into the Wind

Big raids after the 4th of July nets repeat offenders:

• Chicago Police officials announced Friday that officers had made dozens of arrests overnight that targeted the “sources that are leading the gun violence in the city.”
  
  Noel Sanchez, chief of the bureau of organized crime, said that 106 people were arrested overnight as officers executed 21 narcotics-related search warrants across the city. Of the arrestees, 104 are facing felony charges.
  
  Seventy-six of those arrested had been previously convicted, 24 of whom were on parole, Sanchez said.

Extensive amounts of drugs were recovered, but curiously, not a single gun was listed. We guess Special Ed didn't want Google-me using the same picture three tweets in a row. The Department suddenly has 1,500 "extra" officers on hand:

• Supt. Eddie Johnson said the raids were part of the department’s strategy to tamp down shootings over the traditionally violent Fourth of July holiday weekend, which also includes an influx of more than 1,500 additional officers.

Long time readers will realize how they're getting to the number 1,500 - if CPD hires back 300 officers on 02 July, and another 300 on 03 July, that's 600 "extra" officers. In other words, they're not counting actual officers, but what we'll call "officer-days." Cumulatively, there's your 1,500.

Ed then pleaded for stiffer sentences:

• For his part, Johnson has repeatedly called for stiffer penalties for repeat gun offenders. Those pleas have come even after Gov. Bruce Rauner signed a bill last year that aimed to do just that.
  
  The Sun-Times found that, since that law went into effect last January, there hasn’t been a single case in Cook County in which a judge has meted out those extended sentences for repeat gun offenders.

Without sentencing according to the laws of the land, nothing will change.