Crimesha Lies and Lies and Lies

Crimesha wrote an Op-Ed for the Tribune, released on Friday at 2010 hours, a Chicago tradition for burying information you don't want heavily publicized. You don't even want to imagine the skid-marks being left here.

She lies about the evidence being shaky - then doesn't mention what was shaky.

She lies about the "sealing" of the records being Smellitt's choice, when his lawyers deny they ever requested such a thing and she herself claimed it was an "error" not even forty-eight hours ago. If that's so, release the records.

She lies about a Grand Jury her office convened, presented evidence by members of her office, and said evidence being sufficient enough to sustain sixteen felony charges, is similar to "5,700" similar cases her office has dismissed and sealed. No one has seen even a single one of those yet.

She also lies about how Class 4 Felony cases are handled. Yes, many end in no prison time. But they are bargained down to some form of a misdemeanor charge that involve

• an admission of guilt,
• some token jail time (usually the time held in custody while you post bail),
• and a court date a year in the future so the judge can make sure you've complied with the sentence.

This is all done under the supervision of a judge and not in a closed door hearing with under two hours notice for involved parties.

She also manages to lie about the McDonald shooting where the cover up began with Rahm, McCompStat and then Chief-of-Patrol Special Ed. We're thinking Special Ed's recent bus driving over the Department and insistence that everyone move on is a direct result of this little reported fact.

Go read it if you want - the lies are incredible and the Tribune ought to be ashamed for not questioning a few of the more obvious ones before giving her a platform with which to spread her bullshit.

Campaigning on Dead Children

This is low, even for a democrat:

• A new TV ad released by Chicago mayoral candidate Toni Preckwinkle's campaign is drawing ire from the family whose tragedy is at the center of it. The ad, Preckwinkle's first in more than a week, attacks her opponent, Lori Lightfoot, over a 2004 fire on the West Side that killed three children in the Funches family. The family says they were never contacted or consulted about the ad.
  
  Preckwinkle's ad goes after Lightfoot because she was the chief of staff at the Office of Emergency Management and Communication when the fatal fire happened. With dramatic music playing in the background, the Preckwinkle ad shows the fire on Chicago's West Side that killed three Funches children and another boy.
  
  "A tragic fire, made worse when the 911 call center run by Lori Lightfoot, allegedly botched the response," the announcer says at the start of the ad. A judge had ordered Lightfoot to preserve 911 tapes after questions were raised about how the 911 calls were handled, but some of the tapes were destroyed.
  
  Lightfoot criticized the ad herself Wednesday night during a televised debate with Preckwinkle on CBS. "The notion that you are going to try to score political points in a tragedy where four young children die is really, I think, a new all-time low," she said

Desperation.

FOP Backtracking?

Is this more internal politics spilling into public view or someone trying to undercut support?

• According to a board member, Squire Graham received a phone call from Special Ed who asked the Squire to cancel the protest. The Squire has ordered the VP’s to not talk to the press. A vote of no confidence in the Squire is being discussed. He screwed up big time on the consent decree, and might be the worst President in the history of the FOP. He’s starting to make Dean look good.

Our usual sources at FOP are oddly quiet.

Also, supposedly there is a counter-protest being planned by someone? Who has that information?

Dear God

Another State Trooper killed in a head on collision near Libertyville:

• An Illinois State trooper was killed early Saturday morning by a wrong-way driver who struck his vehicle on Interstate 94 in the westbound lanes, according to a release from Illinois State Police.
  
  About 3:25 a.m., Trooper Gerald Ellis, 36, was on-duty in his squad car traveling home on I-94 near mile post 166.75 in Green Oaks when a wrong-way driver who was driving eastbound in the westbound lanes, struck Ellis head on, the release said.

Godspeed Trooper.

And Once Again....

Special Ed throws everyone under the bus:

• Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson on Friday made the case to keep his $260,044-a-year job even after the retirement of Mayor Rahm Emanuel — and acknowledged that some officers “look the other way” when it comes to reporting police misconduct.
  
  [...]
  
  On Friday, Johnson acknowledged for the first time that there is a code of silence among some officers in the department even though he hesitated to use that exact term.
  
  “Do I think there might be officers that look the other way? Yeah, I do. … There are a lot of reasons why cops might not report misconduct. If they see their partner engage in misconduct, they may look the other way,” he said.

Someone want to tell us how many cops Special Ed turned in for misconduct over the years? We all know he was sleeping with one of them and never said a word.

Discounting the cops nailed for DUI's, sex crimes, and theft (because nearly all of this misconduct is undertaken on an individual basis), how many other scandals can you name where a "partner" kept his/her mouth shut?

• 002 tact, 007 tact, 015 tact, Marquette 10, Special Operations, the roll-drunks-on Milwaukee crew, Miedzianowski, the current Gang Crimes caper, etc

The "partners" kept their mouths shut because the partners were ass deep in the scandals themselves.

That isn't a "code" of anything. They had a particular interest in keeping quiet. These teams or co-conspirators weren't broadcasting their illegal activities and they took every precaution they could to avoid honest cops because they knew the "code" didn't exist where criminal conduct occurred.

In most of these scandals, the phrase, "no honor among thieves" was at the fore with the first one to talk usually getting a better deal. In the 002 scandal, the first one to talk actually got promoted numerous times, ending her career as a Captain because she flipped on certain people and covered up for other heavier people.

But until Special Ed flips the test cheaters and others, his word is hypocritical bullshit, like much of his career.

Funeral Coverage

From the Tribune:

• Hundreds of sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders from Jane Addams Elementary joined in honoring Rivera before the start of the Mass, waving small American flags to honor the officer.
  
  The students, led by Assistant Principal Daniel Alvarez, walked quietly along crowded sidewalks to the music from bagpipers.
  
  “I see future officers standing there right now,” Alvarez said.
  
  A handful of the students have expressed an interest in joining the police force, he said.
  
  “He is one of us,” Alvarez said of Rivera.

Hopefully, by the time these kids are old enough to apply, all of the current regime and their ilk will be long gone.

Godspeed Officer Rivera.

Prickwrinkle's Appointees Turn

This is telling:

• Three members of the Cook County Board of Ethics, appointed by County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, have contributed to Preckwinkle’s opponent in the Chicago mayor’s race.
  
  Board members Margaret Daley, Juliet Sorensen and David Grossman have donated in total nearly $8,500 to former federal prosecutor Lori Lightfoot’s campaign for mayor, state election records shows.

Political creatures who ought to owe their very existence to Prickwrinkle are turning on Prickwrinkle. Usually bought and paid for appointees stay bought and paid for. The fact that they aren't, and are willing to go around her publicly doesn't sound good for Toni's political future at the Board either.

Look What We All Forgot

Any reports on how Mass Transit did at CompStat yesterday?

Any word on the take home car controversy?

Any openings for one of the most chronically understaffed units in existence? And why is that anyway - all the supervisors there seem as popular as Lemmer, so we can't imagine why people aren't beating down the doors to get there.

Did you know they erected a statue to Lemmer in 011 marking his reign as Captain?

It just goes to show the amount of respect on can command on this job.

Another Trooper Killed?

Why are people driving into ISP troopers? This is like the fifteenth incident of troopers or their cars getting clipped on the highways just this year and the second trooper losing their life:

• Ever since an Illinois state trooper was hit by a car and killed in January near Northbrook — followed by a spate of other crashes into stopped squad cars — officials have been on a campaign to get drivers to slow down and move over for emergency vehicles.
  
  Those pleas were repeated again Thursday when, despite recent public awareness efforts by law enforcement, another state trooper died when she was hit by a truck while conducting a traffic stop west of Rockford.
  
  “None of this had to happen,” Illinois State Police Acting Director Brendan Kelly said Thursday while announcing the death of Trooper Brooke Jones-Story. “These troopers are just doing their job trying to protect everyone. How many times does this have to happen? How many more have to be hurt or killed?”
  
  Jones-Story, 34, was outside her car about 12:20 p.m. when she was fatally struck in Freeport on U.S. Highway 20 near Illinois Route 75, state police said.

Deepest sympathies to Trooper Jones-Story's family, friends and co-workers.

Rivera Wake

Funeral scheduled for today:

• Family, colleagues and neighbors are paying their respects to slain Chicago Police Officer John Petty Rivera on the Far South Side Thursday.
  
  A line of mourners could be seen entering the Elmwood Funeral Home, 11200 S. Ewing Avenue, for Rivera's wake Thursday afternoon. Rivera, 23, was off-duty when he was gunned down in River North early Saturday.
  
  Rivera and a small group of friends had just left a restaurant on the 600 block of North Clark Street around 3:30 a.m. Saturday, and were sitting in a car nearby when they were fired upon. A 23-year-old male friend of Rivera’s was also critically wounded.
  
  CPD Superintendent Eddie Johnson described the attack as a hate crime since Rivera was targeted; not because he was a police officer, but because he was Latino. Police say his alleged killers had a run-in with some Latinos on a party bus earlier, and after failing to locate them and retaliate, opened fire on the first Hispanic man they saw.

It is certainly unfortunate that the Smellit circus is obscuring from the even worse story that a person charged with a Class X felony of Home Invasion with a gun, who wasn't even close to complying with the terms of bail, was released by a crooked judge, abetted by a corrupt state's attorney, managed to commit a hate crime by attacking a random stranger, who happened to be a cop.

RIP Officer Rivera.

Monday Protest

This shouldn't just be police, but any and all citizens outraged by the blatant double standard espoused by Crimesha Foxxx's office:

No, this isn't an April Fools' joke.

Rahm Bills Jussie

When you've pretty much finished with the anger, send in the bill collectors:

• The city on Thursday laid out the cost of the investigation into the alleged hate crime against actor Jussie Smollett and demanded the “Empire” star pay the city more than $130,000.
  
  The city on Thursday laid out the cost of the investigation into the alleged hate crime against actor Jussie Smollett and demanded the “Empire” star pay the city more than $130,000.
  
  In a letter from the Chicago Corporation Counsel sent to Smollett’s lawyers Thursday afternoon, officials said the total cost of the overtime the Chicago Police logged to investigate the crime was considerably more than the $10,000 Smollett agreed to forfeit after charges against him for allegedly staging the attack earlier this year were dropped Tuesday.
  
  Specifically, the cost was $130,106.15, Corporation Counsel Edward Siskel wrote to Smollett.

That last fifteen cents is going to be the deal breaker.

More Charges Dropped

Dropping sixteen feonly charges is nothing. After getting a call from another politically connected entity, Crimesha dropped thirty-three felonies on a well known precinct captain:

Mr. Gacy was not available for comment.

Maggot Misstep

In the creepy POW interview (check out his beady eye twitching!), Joe Maggot made the following statement:

• "In the last two years, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office has referred more than 5,700 cases for alternative prosecution. This is not a new or unusual practice," the office said in a statement. "An alternative disposition does not mean that there were any problems or infirmities with the case or the evidence.

Some commentators have suggested an FOIA blitz for some of these cases, seeing as how no one could recall any of these "alternative prosecutions." Either they inspired someone or the CWB blog has triggered some investigative reporting (click for larger version) by Dan Proft:

The actual Chief of Criminal Prosecutions for Crimesha can't recall any "alternative prosecutions" either and is actively seeking people on staff to help find even a single instance among the supposed 5,700 cases, so Crimesha can claim there is some sort of precedent for dropping the 16 felonies for a $10,000 bribe.

Crimesha's office is leaking like a sieve all of the sudden. Perhaps the Prickwrinkle Machine is in a state of revolt?

Well Played CWB Blog

The Crime in Wrigleyville and Boystown blog stole a march on Crimesha, filing an FOIA request and getting all the Smellit files before Crimesha could successfully seal the records.

And they posted it all here.  And here. Sixty pages that Crimesha attempted to and continues to attempt to keep from public view. There are a bunch of redactions, but you can get the gist of it all and see that this was a rock-solid case for False Reports.

CWB is the ONLY outlet doing actual investigative reporting lately.

Magats - Fall Guy

Did anyone see the interview with Joe Maggot? We've seen broadcast interviews with P.O.W.'s in Vietnam that looked less nervous than this goof did.

And some of the statements being made by various tools in Crimesha's office?

• Dropping the charges did not mean that Smollett was a victim of a crime, or that the case against him was somehow flawed, Magats said emphatically.
  
  “Absolutely not. We stand behind the CPD investigation done in this case, we stand behind the approval of charges in this case,” Magats told the Sun-Times. “They did a fantastic job. The fact there was an alternative disposition in this case is not and should not be viewed as some kind of admission there was something wrong with the case, or something wrong with the investigation that the Chicago Police did.”

Really? Then someone owes taxpayers and voters an explanation over what the Hell just happened. Someone named Crimesha.

Or this "to smart for prime time" bit of bullshit:

• Actor Jussie Smollett’s willingness to fork over his $10,000 bond to the City of Chicago Law Department was a key factor behind prosecutors’ decision Tuesday to drop all charges accusing him of staging a fake hate crime against himself.
  
  “There would be no nolle without the forfeiture,” Kiera Ellis, a spokesperson for Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, told the Chicago Sun-Times.

You know what we call that out here? That's a BRIBE - a guaranteed result for an exchange of cash.

Rahm is still speechless (faking or not?) and making noise about suing Smellit. That would most likely necessitate unsealing the supposedly sealed court records, but what the heck? Might as well. Smellit is allegedly making noise about suing the CPD (why not? everyone else does) and that would again, mean unsealing previously sealed records.

Feds Coming?

Looks like Crimesha has attracted the attention of the FBI:

• The FBI is reviewing the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of criminal charges against "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett, two law enforcement officials confirmed.

Now, we personally don't trust feebs. We've railed against them for years, and history - recent and past - justifies our inherent distrust of them as an organization.

But we did point out that they are desperate to rehabilitate their image after the past two years and knocking off a lot of low hanging fruit will instill the trust that has been lacking since Sparklefart's Reign of Error. At least among the lower information voters.

Crimesha just provided them with low hanging fruit.

So Who Benefits?

Crimesha doesn't have the power or authority to make such a boneheaded move on her own. In fact, she sent her deputy, the person nominally in charge of the prosecution since Crimesha "recused" herself, and let him take all the heat for the "decision." So who did? And who benefits, especially with a mayoral election mere days away.

• The obvious choice for finger pointing is Prickwrinkle herself. She's losing badly in every single poll, nearly 60% to low 20%. She needs to shake up her base. Is she trying to rouse the "community"? This might backfire and the decent people are sick and tired of the connected people using them as props.
• Rahm? He put on a decent performance, but he has connections in Hollywood, needs a new gig away from politics for a while while he plots to take Dickhead Turban Durbin's spot. Special Ed is Rahm's prop - the Accidental Supernintendo who didn't even apply for the job ends up on every TV show and interviewing constantly - but to what end? A new gig? Preserving his old gig? Doing what he was told by other powers, namely Rahm?
• Maybe a Crimesha power play to remove herself from Prickwrinkle's orbit and losing election apparatus? She was in Hollywood for the Oscars making all sorts of connections and ends up getting text messages from Mrs. Obama's Chief of Staff asking for political favors resulting in her recusal....which ends up not being much of a recusal.

We get the feeling something else is going on here.

What Relationship?

There isn't one, and hasn't been for a few years now:

• The Chicago Police Department’s dress-blue graduation ceremony was winding down at Navy Pier on Tuesday when Superintendent Eddie Johnson and Mayor Rahm Emanuel hurried off the stage for some jolting news: The case against “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett, meticulously pieced together by more than a dozen detectives, had been abruptly dropped by prosecutors.
  
  Both Johnson and Emanuel were infuriated, not just because the charges were dismissed but because prosecutors had not informed investigators first. Johnson said the decision allowed Smollett to hide behind a secret deal. The mayor was more blunt: "This sends an unambiguous message that there is no accountability."
  
  The relationship between the Police Department and the state's attorney's office has always been uneasy and often tense as investigators gather evidence and prosecutors decide whether it's enough for charges. Over the years, Chicago detectives have complained their work has resulted in too few defendants being charged or the charges being reduced or, as in this case, dismissed altogether.
  
  But the Smollett case now threatens to deepen the distrust and suspicion.

Yeah, that distrust was predestined as soon as the incompetent lawyer supported by the Prickwrinkle machine and Soros money was elected. It's amazing how many people don't know that this is by design, in all the blue parts of the United States, electing unqualified "progressives" to positions where they can do the most damage.

Judge Claps Strikes Again

CWB blog has the full story - once again, doing the job that Chicago media refuses to do:

• On March 8th, Menelik Jackson was standing in front of Cook County Judge Joseph Claps to address a violation of probation motion that prosecutors had filed against the 24-year-old South Sider.
  
  After pleading guilty to attempted burglary last August, Jackson was ordered to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet and to observe a 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew for six months. But, prosecutors say Jackson violated those terms by allowing his monitoring system’s batteries to drain out last month.
  
  Jackson had nothing to worry about. Judge Claps would be treating him with the same kid gloves that Jackson had grown accustomed to enjoying in the Cook County justice system. Rather than punish Jackson for violating the terms of probation—rather than extending the monitoring and curfew period or sending Jackson to jail or prison—Claps ordered the curfew and monitoring to be terminated immediately. There would be no punishment for Jackson’s failure to live up to his probation terms.
  
  Two weeks later, off of electronic monitoring and on the streets well past his former curfew time, Jackson would violate his probation again by obtaining a handgun. And he’d use the gun to shoot and kill an off-duty Chicago cop in River North and gravely wound that officer’s friend, according to prosecutors.

This after being charged with a Class X felony - the highest of felonies. And he gets Electronic Monitoring (which he violated), a curfew (which is unable to be proven he ever followed), and a free pass from Judge Claps. As a reader notes:

• Let me see if I have this straight? It was Judge Claps who wrongly convicted Sergeant John Herman of raping a crack addict. Setting the addict up to win $1.5 million for the city. Then because of Claps wrongful conviction of Herman, the verdict gets overturned some 6 years later and Herman wins a $4.5 million award from the city. This is the same Judge Claps who was charged with carrying a loaded handgun in the court building. He gets that charge tossed when a another judge believes that 2 sheriff's deputies can't recognize a gun when they see one.
  
  Now Judge Claps lets a violent criminal out on the streets and he murders a cop.

The incompetency of Cook County Courts never ceases to amaze.

Good Question

It was in the job description:

But we guess when you make up law as you refuse to prosecute repeat offenders, who knows what your purpose is?

Justice for Sale

And it's cheap, too.

$10,000.

And you get to pretend to be the victim, too.

Where Are All the Charges?

Officer Rivera's killers have been charged and bail denied:

• Jackson and Battle were charged with one felony count of first-degree murder and three felony counts of attempted first-degree murder. Jackson also faces a charge of resisting arrest.

But then we saw this picture of the crime scene (click for larger version):

That's a lot of crime scene markers - we see numbers up in the twenties - and while some of them undoubtedly are marking other evidence, most are expended brass, attesting to the savagery of the attack.

So where are all the individual Aggravated Battery charges (on top of the murder charge) that Crimesha leveled against a recently convicted individual? We mean, that's the standard now in Cook County, right? Every shot is a separate charge.

There aren't two standards, are there? One political and one more political? Once again, demonstrating that the police can never be a victim, even when ambushed, off-duty, with friends for the mere crime of being Hispanic.

Fuck you Crimesha, you crooked two-bit incompetent pretend lawyer.

More Popcorn!

So the celeb lawyer Michael Avenatti got indicted on both coasts for extortion, bank and wire fraud. His (as yet) un-indicted co-conspirator?

Jussie Smellit's lawyer, Mark Geragos.

Somewhere, someone ought to be asking, "Just how big is this pile of shit that Crimesha stepped in?"

Prickwrinkle Defends Racist

Prickwrinkle's butt-sniffers have been all over the blog telling us how racist Lightfoot is going to be. We delete most of it because it's repetitive (see Rule #5), but some goes through. We don't see them defending this though:

• In 1987, legendary Chicago judge R. Eugene Pincham was roundly condemned for warning that “anybody south of Madison Street” who didn’t support re-electing Mayor Harold Washington “should be hung.”
  
  Now, U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush is fanning the flames of racial division in a city notorious for it to promote Toni Preckwinkle and describe Lori Lightfoot as a protector of police officers who use excessive force.
  
  Only this time, Preckwinkle is standing firmly behind Rush and refusing to condemn the racially-incendiary language.
  
  “Congressman Rush is a community activist — a civil rights activist — who is expressing his concerns about issues relating to police and community. Those are legitimate concerns in African-American and Latinx communities. … Those concerns are ones I share,” she said.

The Slum Times is showing that they are all in for Lori though:

• Preckwinkle was asked if she agrees with Rush that “the blood of the next young black man or black woman who is killed by the police” would be on the hands of Lightfoot voters if the former police board president is elected mayor.
  
  “Look, Congressman Rush stated his own views and I’ve stated mine,” she said, without answering the question.

No word from either camp on whose hands blood is on for roughly five hundred black-on-black homicides every year, nor for the death of Officer Rivera.

Party! (UPDATE)

Remember, these are our betters. Our rulers. And if they want to be loud, then they get to be loud:

• Chicago police officers responded late Saturday to a call of a loud residential party with city officials in attendance.
  
  Officers were called about 10:32 p.m. to the residence in the 4500 block of North Damen Avenue, Chicago police said. City officials were confirmed to be present at the gathering, but police declined to confirm their identities.
  
  Governor J.B. Pritzker was also in attendance at the party but his spokesperson says he left at 10:15 p.m., Rich Miller of CapitolFax said in a tweet.
  
  Officers coded the call after responding, police said, meaning that no paperwork was submitted to document the incident. City ordinances state that officers can’t issue citations for noise complaints before 11 p.m. on weekends, police said.

But good neighbors might be winding things up at a residential party in case any neighbors had to be up early Sunday for work or church or hustling for votes, right? Just whose home was this at that JayBee the Hutt was in attendance?

You want to be loud and obnoxious, it's only fair that neighbors know who exactly is hosting. Besides, if they're heavy enough to have the governor around, they're heavy enough to get the streets plowed, paved, trees trimmed, etc.

UPDATE: It was Huberman's wedding. Big surprise. Why wasn't Shortshanks there?

Shooter Arrested

First up, fantastic work by the detectives and officers involved:

• Multiple sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, have stated that a former candidate for the Chicago Police Department is being questioned in connection with Saturday morning’s slaying of off-duty Officer John P. Rivera, 23, and the critical wounding of another 23-year-old man in River North.
  
  CWBChicago is withholding the name of the man being questioned because he has not been charged with any wrongdoing in connection with Saturday's events.

Second, guess who wrote about this murdering jagoff almost two years ago, regarding the dropping standards to hire Rahm's mythical 1,000 officers?

• This is exactly what our readers were warning about months ago:
  
  A new recruit, hired by CPD, in the academy, was arrested at the training academy for home invasion. Tried to escape and found to have a fully loaded weapon in his car! So, this is the new and improved Police Department!?! wtf!
  
  An update shortly thereafter said:
  
  Wasn't hired yet! Was in the process. Sorry for the misinformation... Was told if he beats this arrest he is still eligible to be hired
  
  Unfortunately, we think that's probably true, seeing as what Human Resources has been pushing through the past few years.
  
  You'd think it was amazing that he even managed to enter the building as an applicant....

So he was arrested for home invasion AND a gun was taken from his car in the Academy lot AND he was convicted of a felony charge in the ensuring months. THEREFORE, he was ineligible to have/own/possess a gun. We're sure this will make for interesting excuses by assorted gun grabbers.

No R. Kelly Concerts?

Well well well, look who was lying. Again:

• Dubai's government on Sunday forcefully denied a claim by R&B singer R. Kelly that the artist had planned concerts in the sheikhdom after he had sought permission from an Illinois judge to travel there despite facing sexual-abuse charges.
  
  In a rare statement, the government's Dubai Media Office also denied claims by his lawyer in court that Kelly had plans to meet the sheikhdom's ruling Al Maktoum family.
  
  "Authorities in Dubai have not received any request for a performance by singer R. Kelly nor are there any venues that have been booked," the statement said.
  
  It added Kelly "has not been invited by the Dubai royal family for a performance."

If the judge has half a brain, he or she is going to throw a few extra restrictions on this jackass's ability to move around.

FOID Card "Unconstitutional!

This is going to the Illinois Supreme Court, and probably the US Supreme Court. From the Illinois Carry website:

• This is a case in my own circuit court that we have been monitoring for the past year. The court ruled the FOID Act unconstitutional in regards to the licensing and taxing requirement to be in possession of a firearm or ammunition in your own home. The IL Attorney General has appealed the case to the IL Supreme Court.
  
  Cliff notes: Lady with a clean record, in possession of a single shot, bolt action rifle .22 in the home for personal protection. No FOID but otherwise eligible for a FOID. Judge ruled requiring a license and charging a fee/tax to exercise a Constitutional right in the home unconstitutional.
  
  We were in contact with the attorney for this case and discovered he was retiring and will not be representing Ms. Brown at the IL Supreme Court level. We have sought legal representation for Ms. Brown and believe the case will be in good hands. More news to follow!

Sounds like a bunch more taxpayer money to be wasted courtesy of the democrats coming up soon!

Special Ed in Dubai?

Special Ed spent some time in the Mid East recently....the exact same place R. Kelly is trying to flee to do concerts:

• Eddie T. Johnson, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department, thanks #DubaiPolice for the invitation & being part of #DpSymposium. Superintendent Johnson believes that some of the practices he has seen at #DubaiPolice will be of benefit to his police department in the fight against crime.

Special Ed picking up pointers from a third world Arab kingdom stuck in the middle ages? Are we going to start caning ne'er-do-wells? Chopping off hands? Stoning adultresses and the LGBTXYZPDQ community? Maybe a few beheadings?

Because if Ed is trying to push Chicago style fetal policing on them, they're no doubt laughing behind his back.

Death Spiral Continues

It's moving out of the "spiral" phase and turning into a dive:

• Since the turn of the century, Illinois has been in the midst of a perfect demographic storm. Residents are leaving the state in record numbers. The number of Americans moving into Illinois has hit new lows. Net foreign immigration has fallen by half. And the number of births has dropped by more than 20 percent.
  
  These demographic forces have all combined into a single troubling fact: Illinois is shrinking. The state has lost population five years in a row. In 2018 alone, the state lost 45,000 people, the second-biggest population drop in the country.

The accompanying graphs and charts ought to frighten any correct thinking citizen. Illinois cannot survive it, and even the influx of illegals is tapering off - foreigners don't want any part of Illinois.

And now JayBee the Hutt is talking about doubling the gas tax from nineteen cents a gallon to thirty-eight cents per gallon. We're suddenly struck with an image of gas stations sprouting up on the Indiana, Missouri and Iowa borders as big rigs fill up at one border, then drive completely across Illinois without stopping to refuel at the opposite border.

Oh wait - that's already happening.

Stop Using Your Phones

Your personal phones that is. You think it isn't going to be subpoenaed? You think it isn't discoverable?

• Read This Link Here

Be sure you see who and what Loevy and Loevy are demanding to be produced, and when it isn't produced, demanding $1,000 per day fines for contempt.

Off Duty Killed

In 018. Details very scarce at the moment.

Prayers all around.

UPDATE: Second person wounded was NOT an officer. An officer was in the back seat but was not wounded. Headline has been changed to reflect this information.

UPDATE: Second person upgraded to critical. It was looking very grim for a while.

UPDATE: Random attack? What the fuck?

UPDATE: Twenty-three year old John Rivera, nephew [corrected] of a retired Chief, senselessly murdered.

Tribune

Sun Times

1,479 Days

And the streak ends!

• The city of Chicago went more than a full day without a reported shooting this week, from late Wednesday night to early Friday morning.
  
  No gunshot victims were reported between 10 p.m. Wednesday and 2 a.m. Friday, according to Chicago police and Sun-Times records.

Not to worry - Chicago is already on its way to a new streak with two in a row so far. Check back in about four years from tonight.

Where's Our Car?

Must be nice to marry well:

• Is the Mass Transit secretary who is married to a Deputy still taking unmarked car home everyday....?

We had no idea secretaries were getting cars now. We must have missed that announcement. Anyone know where they're handing out keys?

Granny Clampett in the News

Thank god she left here:

• The Coalition for Police Accountability is calling for the firing of Oakland Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick in the wake of the 2018 police killing of Joshua Pawlik, a homeless man who was shot 22 times by four officers.
  
  The coalition is directing its demand toward federal court-appointed Compliance Director Robert Warshaw, who has the power to fire the chief under the court-supervised Negotiated Settlement Agreement (NSA), which has governed Oakland police reform efforts since 2003.

What moron hired her for that short stint here again? To avoid a lawsuit she would have lost anyway?

Next Week CompStat

Supposedly, Mass Transit is up, with the "number one scoring" lie-tenant - Hall-Wysinger - in the hot seat.

Any bets on how Lemmer pussyfoots around her, perhaps offering a cool refreshing beverage and a back rub? After all, you can't mess with the wife of someone who signed off on all of your "merit" promotions.

We also heard that someone slipped her the answers already.

Feds Piling On

Desperate to rehabilitate their image after being shredded at the national level (and more to come when the lies told in FISA Court are exposed), the FBI is hammering low hanging fruit:

• college bribery scandal ensnaring Hollywood types;
• upcoming indictments for mail threats of Smollett;

And these two:

• Additional federal charges have been filed against two Chicago police officers already accused of lying to judges to obtain search warrants and then stealing cash and drugs from the properties they searched.
  
  The indictment on Wednesday accuses Xavier Elizondo and David Salgado of conspiracy to violate civil rights and obstruction of justice. Elizondo is also accused of trying to persuade Salgado to conceal evidence.
  
  U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly scheduled a Tuesday arraignment on the new charges for the officers.

This is going to be especially difficult for the FBI to explain, seeing as how there is a national scandal about to erupt over their lying to federal judges over a FISA warrant (renewed four times) based on falsified documents, paid for by Hillary and leaked to the media by all sorts of Sparklefart holdovers.

But as we said below, when the feds have you, they really have you, regardless of the shame they ought to be feeling over their own illegal acts.

Cochran Pleads Guilty

Because when the feds have you, they really have you:

• South Side Ald. Willie Cochran pleaded guilty Thursday to a felony charge of wire fraud for misusing his campaign funds for gambling and other personal expenses, including tuition for his daughter.
  
  Cochran, 66, appeared before U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, where federal prosecutors outlined his plea agreement. Cochran pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, which accused him of withdrawing money from the 20th Ward Activities Fund — meant to go to children and seniors — and used it for personal expenses.
  
  According to the plea agreement, while Cochran personally donated more than $32,000 to the fund, he withdrew approximately $14,285 more than he gave, and converted it for his personal use. Cochran spent the funds on gambling at Ameristar Casino, his daughter’s college expenses, and goods for his home.

Anyone know when they're going to attach GoPro's to aldercreatures?

UPDATE: Watch for the "former Chicago cop" old saws to start up again.

DCFS Abets Child Killer

Wasn't this the norm a few years ago?

• The state’s Department of Children and Family Services says it is investigating a caseworker assigned to the family of a 2-year-old boy who was beaten to death Monday at his Washington Park neighborhood home.
  
  The toddler, Ja’hir Gibbons, was found unresponsive by his mother at their home in the 6500 block of South Prairie Avenue after he was repeatedly struck by his mother’s boyfriend, Dejon Waters, according to Cook County prosecutors.
  
  Waters, 21, is charged with first-degree murder in Ja’hir’s death and was ordered held without bail during his initial court hearing Thursday afternoon.
  
  Cook County prosecutors said the DCFS caseworker assigned to the family had been to the home only two days before Ja’hir died.
  
  On Thursday evening, DCFS announced the caseworker was being investigated for allegedly falsifying records.

There was a rather huge-ish scandal back at the beginnings of our careers involving DCFS, falsified records and a couple of dead kids. One kid might have been missing for months before the caseworker asked after him. It was actually standard practice at one time that DCFS was the LAST place you called because kids were in more danger with them than the abusers.

Looks like we're headed to those bad old days again. Maybe Kwame will prosecute someone?

On Going HBT

This was still going on last night before we headed out:

• A man barricaded himself inside a home Thursday afternoon after police officers responded to a call of shots fired in the South Chicago neighborhood.
  
  About 2:50 p.m., officers responded to the report of gunfire in the 8100 block of South Brandon, Chicago police said.
  
  When they arrived, they found the 24-year-old barricaded inside of the home and a SWAT team was called to the scene, police said. As of 5 p.m., he was still inside the residence.
  
  No injuries have been reported, police said. Police previously reported that shots were fired at officers.

Hopefully it all ended well.

UPDATE: It did.

UPDATE: The Brandon/Crandon confusion is the media, not us. Go complain to them. We posted and linked what THEY reported.

Mental Health at Center Stage

We see lips moving, but we don't think the message is reaching people who need it:

• Responding to that trauma is now a top challenge for the Chicago Police Department, where alarms are sounding after six officers killed themselves over the last eight months.
  
  Last week, after the most recent suicide, Superintendent Eddie Johnson convened a small meeting of command staff and told them officer wellness was now his priority. To keep neighborhoods safe, his officers need to be healthy, he told the group.
  
  Johnson formed a task force to examine the department’s mental health services, according to his spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi, who was at the meeting.
  After killing an armed suspect, a Chicago cop — and his department — struggle with PTSD
  
  And in a sign of changing attitudes, Johnson also sent his officers a note about the latest death, saying, “we must do everything we can to ensure that our fellow officers have the support needed to get through the challenges of this very difficult job.”

Support? From this administration? Are you joking?

Two years without a Contract (three for supervisors) and no meaningful negotiations. Not to mention that the City only wants to gut Contract protections, making it easier to lose our jobs, which is stressful enough without the added pressure of being fired for offending the "community."

Meaningless training for officers instead of demanding the "community" behave properly - and no meaningful punishment (like prison) when they don't.

Little-to-no opportunity for advancement....unless you possess the proper DNA, are willing to sleep around or service certain persons, or you manage to cheat in a secret study group - again, available only to the chosen or those who choose the appropriate bedroom partner.

And speaking of partners, how about if/when you find someone worth working with, some asshole lieutenant or captain can break up car assignments for activity reasons that no one is willing to put down on paper. At least in the old days, we could bribe the Watch Secretary to work with a regular partner.

Special Ed's "changing attitude" isn't really believable seeing who he has promoted and who he has protected.

Mientras el Mundo Gira

Chicago's very own Telenovela took another turn yesterday:

• Ald. Ricardo Munoz, charged with misdemeanor domestic battery, will once again be barred from returning to his Little Village home, a judge said Wednesday — three weeks after his wife, seeking reconciliation, invited him back in.
  
  Things have soured. A situation made clear by the middle finger accompanied by the parting words “Hey, Rick, f— y–!” that Betty Torres-Munoz offered her husband as he waited for elevator doors to close after the Cook Country Domestic Violence Court hearing.
  
  The order of protection banning Munoz from the couple’s Little Village home was reinstated Wednesday at Torres-Munoz’s request.

We don't think Rick is going to serve any time, but we certainly hope the ex-Mrs takes him to the cleaners.

I Believe I Can Fly....to Dubai

If we were broke, we wouldn't be flying to Dubai:

• R. Kelly wants permission to hop on a private jet to Dubai next month for a series of concerts that would mark his first performances since his arrest on sex abuse charges.
  
  Kelly, who surrendered his passport last month and cannot leave the state without the court’s permission, filed a motion Wednesday requesting permission to fly to Dubai to perform three to five concerts in April. Kelly’s lawyer Steve Greenberg said he turned over a copy of the request, as well as details of the singer’s travel arrangements to Cook County prosecutors, and will ask Judge Lawrence Flood to rule on the matter at a previously scheduled status hearing on Friday.
  
  “(Kelly) needs to be able to work like anyone else who is free on bond, and the law needs to be adaptable,” Greenberg said.

Adaptable? Sure. Like letting him fly to a Middle East emirate that permits 14-year-olds to marry. Sounds right up Bob's alley, doesn't it? And no extradition treaty with the UAE? Perfect! What could possibly go wrong?

Kwame Fails

Politically based prosecution suffers a set-back:

• The Illinois Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a bid to resentence former Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke in the murder of Laquan McDonald.
  
  Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Special Prosecutor Joseph McMahon filed a petition with the court in February seeking a new sentencing hearing for Van Dyke.
  
  Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan gave Van Dyke 81 months behind bars in January. A jury in October found Van Dyke guilty of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm.
  
  The judge chose to sentence Van Dyke only on the second-degree murder count, finding it to be the more serious crime. Raoul and McMahon challenged that decision in their petition.
  
  The state Supreme Court denied the bid for a new sentencing hearing without explanation Tuesday. Justice P. Scott Neville Jr. wrote a dissenting opinion. Justice Thomas Kilbride also dissented in part. Both suggested a supervisory order would be appropriate.

So Kwame.....any word on the Farrakhan-connected sergeant who shot the nonthreatening, unarmed mentally challenged child from his automobile? Or is that a politically based prosecution you don't want to touch?

Prickwrinkle Conceding the Field?

This is NOT the act of someone who thinks they're about to win an election:

• With two weeks to go before the April 2 runoff election, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s mayoral campaign has stopped airing TV commercials — an unorthodox move that raises questions about the viability of her campaign in the race’s closing days.
  
  Preckwinkle, who is the Cook County Democratic Party chair, has reported raising nearly $1.6 million to rival Lori Lightfoot’s $1.9 million since Feb. 27, records show. Those sums include fundraising in the past week, during which Preckwinkle has reported raising nearly $360,000 to Lightfoot’s $1.1 million.
  
  “We’re making strategic decisions to put us in the best place to win this campaign,” Preckwinkle said Tuesday during an endorsement event with U.S. Rep. Danny Davis when asked to explain why her campaign has gone off the air.

Someone has speculated to us that in the week following the election, Prickwrinkle is going to get a knock on the door at 0600 hours by some federal employees in suits, and she's saving money needed for bail and lawyers.

More 'Splaining for Toni

How long until Prickwrinkle ditches the constant embarrassment Crimesha has become?

• Mayoral candidate Toni Preckwinkle defended her political protégé on Tuesday amid allegations that State’s Attorney Kim Foxx acted inappropriately when she tried to persuade Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson to transfer the investigation of Jussie Smollett’s claim of being the target of a hate crime to the FBI.
  
  “Kim Foxx was my chief of staff for … a little more than two years. She ran for and was elected state’s attorney. I’m very grateful for the good work that she’s done there,” Preckwinkle told an unrelated news conference on the West Side.
  
  “I think that she makes the decisions that she believes are in the best interests of the office.”
  
  The Fraternal Order of Police has demanded a federal investigation of Foxx’s behavior in the Smollett case.

It certainly isn't speaking well of Prickwrinkle's personnel decisions that they constantly step in shit of their own making.

As for the FOP, perhaps getting Crimesha disbarred would be an easier job.

Comments Up Shortly

Sometimes, even SCC works late and has to be at court in the morning.

What Happened in 015?

Bunch of reports that an armed mob freed a handcuffed arrestee from custody?

Have we reached that point already?

When do we start with the vigilantes? Because at some point, those acting like mobs are going to get themselves shot, by cops or by fed up citizens.

UPDATE: 015 District units on the 011 side of Cicero and Gladys. There are some links to the radio traffic in the comments.

Prickwrinkle is Looking Bad

Every poll shows Lightfoot running away with this thing, and the Slum Times is going all in on making Prickwrinkle look bad:

• Mayoral candidate Toni Preckwinkle owns a Hyde Park condominium where Chicago police have repeatedly responded to domestic-disturbance calls involving her 37-year-old son — and some residents say she doesn’t seem to have done anything to address their concerns.
  
  Chicago police officers visited the condo in the 5100 block of South Cornell eight times since January 2018, and one resident sought an anti-stalking order against Preckwinkle’s son, Kyle Preckwinkle, according to police and court records. Police didn’t make any arrests.

And Prickwrinkle and her people aren't shy about going negative lately, which is a definite sign that they're feeling the heat:

• Lori Lightfoot jokingly refers to herself as a “triple-threat” because she is an African-American woman vying to become Chicago’s first openly-gay mayor.
  
  Now, her sexuality is the subject of a dishonest and deceptive flyer distributed to parishioners at black churches on the South Side and elsewhere.

This is turning out to be one of the more entertaining elections in recent memory. Too bad it's likely to accelerate Chicago's death spiral no matter who wins.

Who has the FOP endorsed?

Another Dumb Idea in Springfield

This is what passes for intelligence from our political "masters" in Springfield:

• Creates the Peace Officer Accountability Act. Provides that before a peace officer is permitted to carry a firearm in the unit of government in which he or she is employed, the peace officer must either: (1) live in the unit of government in which he or she serves; or (2) complete 200 hours of specified work or training.
  
  Provides that the unit of government shall require each peace officer employed by the unit of government before entering upon the officer's duties to have a liability insurance policy.
  
  Provides that the public shall have access to all documents concerning promotions, which documents are subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.
  
  Provides that each peace officer, before discharging his or her duties as a peace officer, shall sign an affidavit declaring that he or she will report all unethical and unlawful conduct of other peace officers immediately to the internal affairs division of the department.
  
  Provides that the exclusive representative of a peace officer bargaining unit may not enter into a contract or collective bargaining agreement with the department that permits unconstitutional conduct by peace officers. Amends the Illinois Police Training Act.
  
  Provides that the minimum standards for police academies shall include 20 hours of race relations training, acquaintance with the youth residing in the unit of government in which the officers will serve, when discharging a firearm, the avoidance of the use of deadly force except when necessary to protect the life of the officer and on methods of using less than deadly force to disarm a suspect.
  
  Provides annual 20 hours of training of peace officers in race relations and constitutional methods of the use of force. Amends various other Acts to make conforming changes.

We never seem to see any training for the "community" though.

They'll stack requirements on top of requirements and write vague bullshit that serves only to strip officers of any job protections, negates Constitutional Rights, and creates insurmountable obstacles (financial and otherwise) to actually doing the job we swore to do.

This is Interesting

Remember Mrs. Obama's former Chief of Staff who called Crimesha Foxxx to interfere in the Smollett investigation?

• The Southern Poverty Law Center has tapped Michelle Obama’s former chief of staff to lead a “top-to-bottom” examination of its workplace culture, less than a week after the anti-hate nonprofit fired co-founder Morris Dees for misconduct and its staff complained of discrimination against women and people of color.
  
  Tina Tchen, who began leading Buckley LLP law firms’s Chicago office after serving in the White House, will lead a review that reports to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s board of directors, the nonprofit announced Monday.
  
  The left-leaning Montgomery, Ala., organization, which tracks extremist groups across the U.S., is scrambling on two fronts to address employee unrest over working conditions, while also patching the hole left by Dees, whose firing last Thursday for undisclosed misconduct caught many staff members by surprise and delighted some of the center’s far-right adversaries.

The left certainly has some strange bedfellows, what with all the ethically compromised scrambling they're doing.

Shrinking Government?

Something we can get behind - except it seems to have disappeared:

• Amends the Cook County Forest Preserve District Act. Provides that 91 days after the effective date of the amendatory Act: (1) the forest preserve district board's authority to appoint and maintain a police force is terminated; and (2) the Cook County Sheriff's Department shall exercise primary jurisdiction over the territory within the forest preserve district. Effective immediately.

The Squirrel Police are yet another needless patronage-heavy drain on taxpayer dollars. It ought to be phased out via attrition and it's duties rolled into the sheriff department. We have no idea why the bill isn't appearing at the link, but it either moved forward or was withdrawn - which would be a shame. Any chance to shrink County government is a good thing.

Summer Numbers Coming

Spring in Chicago:

• Three people have been killed and at least 12 others wounded in shootings across Chicago since Friday evening.
  
  Friday night saw three people shot, one of them fatally; eight people were shot and one killed Saturday; and four people have been shot on Sunday, one of them fatally.

Just under the average for the past few years, so we're sure Special Ed will be bragging "crime is down" as if an average of one dead and four ventilated is a good thing.

Pension Issue Again

Was this guy ever sworn? If yes, did he ever work the street? If not, why is he in our pension fund? (click for larger version)

We're just curious.

Trooper Wounded

Downstate Staunton, IL:

• A carjacking suspect was killed and an Illinois State Police trooper was wounded during a shootout Saturday evening on I-55 near downstate Staunton, police said. Around 3:45 p.m. Saturday, the Glen Carbon Police Department informed state police about an armed carjacking in which the suspect fired shots in the area of the Glen Carbon Sam’s Club, according to ISP.
  
  A responding state trooper found the suspect’s car going northbound on I-55 and tried to pull it over. Instead, the pursuit took them into Staunton, then back toward the highway, police said. Staunton police joined troopers in following the suspect, who drove off the roadway and got stuck in the median near the intersection of Staunton Road and Interstate 55, according to ISP.
  
  The suspect got out of his car and started to run, according to state police. The state trooper ran after him. He took out a handgun and shot at the trooper, who was hit, police said. The trooper fired back, hitting and killing the suspect, police said. The suspect was identified as male but had no identification on him and has not been identified, police said. Police said a handgun was recovered at the scene.

Well done Trooper. Wishing a speedy recovery to you.

COPA "Not Qualified"

File this one in the "no shit Sherlock" folder:

• The union representing Chicago police officers says the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) is violating state law by investigating fatal officer-involved shootings, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in Cook County Circuit Court.
  
  The officer union — Fraternal Order of Police Lodge no. 7 — is seeking an injunction against the city to ensure that COPA investigators are state-qualified law enforcement officers, which the lawsuit claims they are not.
  
  COPA is designated to lead investigations into fatal encounters with Chicago police.
  
  The lawsuit alleges that COPA’s lead investigators in those encounters are not trained “law enforcement officers,” in violation of the Illinois Police and Community Relations Improvement Act.

COPA also has an anti-police agenda when they should be looking for facts and truth. Everything, every single action, is interpreted to put the police in the worst possible light and satisfy a political end. That was evident in its creation and the complete disregard for existing law that is always so prevalent in Chicago politics.

Ants and Grasshoppers

Do lib-turds realize how this sounds to workers facing JayBee the Hutt's progressive income tax?

• For at least a decade, most Illinois residents who receive food stamps have been exempt from a federal law that requires them to work or risk losing their benefits.
  
  But a proposal that would make it harder to obtain those exemptions — a move designed to encourage people to find jobs while unemployment is low — has social service agencies in Illinois, like elsewhere, worried that the poor will only plunge deeper into poverty.
  
  Some 38 million people nationwide use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP, to buy groceries. Mostly, they are children, the elderly or people with disabilities.
  
  But many other recipients — about 8 percent — do not have such disadvantages: they are considered able-bodied adults, under 50, who do not have children or other dependents. Federal law limits them to three months of food stamps during a three-year period unless they are working, volunteering or in job training for at least 80 hours a month.

No kids, no disabilities. That frees up a lot of time. So what's stopping them from working at cleaning up highways and byways if they want to eat?

• Of the 1.8 million people receiving food stamps in Illinois, about 162,000 are able-bodied adults without dependents, according to the Illinois Department of Human Services. That able-bodied group expands to some 400,000 people who enroll in SNAP in a given year as they cycle on and off the program.

And here we are, working 40 hours a week and in many cases, one of our days off, along with some volunteer work at church/school to support a functional community...and (it looks like) a couple of able bodied individuals who refuse to even do twenty hours volunteer work or get a part time job.

We're thinking bureaucrats are fearing cuts that would mean downsizing government as much as lazy assholes fear actually working. There aren't many greater motivators than hunger. If you're working, you're usually too tired to be an asshole, which means crime goes down, too.

And if you starve to death, oh well.

Brown for Inmate!

Why is Dorothy not in prison already?

• The owner of a Pennsylvania debt collection business was indicted Friday on federal charges alleging he steered money to Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown’s office and campaign in exchange for government business.
  
  Donald Donagher Jr. donated thousands of dollars to Brown’s campaign fund, paid $5,000 into the clerk’s scholarship and community development fund and directed one of his employees to make hundreds of thousands of robocalls for Brown’s campaign in an effort to obtain debt collection contracts from the clerk’s office, according to the indictment. Donagher also underwrote the office’s 2014 Women’s History Month celebration, according to the indictment.
  
  Brown, who was first elected to the clerk’s office in 2000, has been the focus of a federal corruption probe centered on bribes-for-jobs allegations in her county office. She repeatedly has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged.

The subject of numerous allegations since 2014 involving land exchanges, pay-to-play donations, and alleged out-and-out bribes, Brown still manages to stay out of prison for some reason.

Wow. Just Wow.

We're just an "insignificant blog." We've been told so many many times. But yesterday we wrote about a fallen Brother's wife running a Marathon in his memory this coming Autumn. She had completed the 2018 Marathon with him just last year. We noted that she was a mere $200 from her goal and asked people to check out her story and her site.

Less than twenty-four hours later, she is nearly $3,000 over her goal.

You magnificent men and women. You are amazing. There's something to be said for "insignificance," and you prove it each and every day. Very VERY Well Done.

Kass on Crimesha

We've been pointing out for a couple years now the all-around incompetency of Crimsha Foxxx and her office of clowns. Her disregard for the Law as written, her making up thresholds and bars to jump over for charging, her complicity in releasing felons and those charged with felonies onto the street to further victimize the "community."

And the silence of the media in being the supposed "watchdog."

But now?

• As TV actor and want-to-be-victim Jussie Smollett pleaded not guilty on Thursday to staging his very own fake hate crime, I thought about someone else on trial in this case:
  
  Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.
  
  The state’s attorney hasn’t been charged with anything and won’t be. She doesn’t have a formal role in the Smollett fake-hate-crime case, now that she’s recused herself owing to a conflict of interest. But she stands in the court of public opinion after a remarkable Tribune story by reporters Megan Crepeau and Jeremy Gorner.
  
  It is an account of how Foxx was contacted in the Smollett case by a politically connected lawyer close to Chicago’s most prominent political families, the Obamas and Emanuels. That lawyer, Tina Tchen, was chief of staff for former first lady Michelle Obama, and she is a friend of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s wife, Amy Rule. Tchen was apparently a go-between for someone in the Smollett family.

The media, as much as any other entity, bears a tremendous amount of blame for neglecting their primary duty to the public and becoming agenda driven hacks. Kass has been fighting a losing battle for years against a rising tide and politically beholden editors who undoubtedly axed many stories that should have been printed.

This might (BIG "might") be a break in the wall surrounding the Machine. We won't hold our breath just yet. But it is a refreshing hint of a breeze.

Alderasshole Still At It

He [Arena] is endorsing a fellow communist/progressive named Murphy for the 39th Ward race.

So that means vote for the other person - Samantha Nugent.

Lemmer Award

The Special Service Award is described as follows:

• ...is granted to any Department sworn or civilian member whose service contributed to any event that has a significant impact upon the historical direction and operations of the Department.

Now imagine being this disliked and garnering this little respect from the people you are supposed to be leading (click for a larger version):

The Department neglected to mention if the "significant impact" was positive or negative and the submitting supervisor obviously took it in a negative direction. The supervisor also took a three day suspension for his warped sense of humor and we are told he took it with a smile.

But how big of an asshole do you have to be that people are willing to take suspension time over your inability to lead? This award (#8099999) was deleted a few years after submission at the insistence of Lemmer, in case anyone ever discovered how little respect he had from the rank and file. And now, he makes his bones belittling men and women who have done more police work than he was ever a part of.

Run a Marathon??

Are you kidding?

Well, sort of.

We aren't running it, but the wife of one of our most recent fallen is, and she's almost at her fundraising goal:

• On October 13, 2019, I will be running the Bank of America Chicago Marathon with TEAM CPMF. Please help me support the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation by making a donation through my page, and please feel free to send this page to any friends you think might be interested in donating.
  
  I lost my husband, Police Officer Eduardo "Lalo" Marmolejo this last December, and it hurts my heart every moment of every day that I lost him and so suddenly. We met and fell in love when we were only teenagers, but we knew early on that life was going to be hard and often a struggle. We both worked hard and found ourselves relishing in life's every little moment. We never took for granted what we earned, but we never stopped encouraging each other to be the best version of ourselves. So naturally, it became our thing to set a goal after one was completed.

They did run the 2018 marathon together...and planned to run this year's event before tragedy struck. Maria Marmolejo is a mere $200 from her posted goal, but we're sure our readers can put her over the top and perhaps beyond.

CLICK HERE for her page, her story and a quick donation.

(comments closed here)

Inadequate Training?

Another body blow to the Department, but this one is directly attributable to the brass-holes and politicians running the show:

• Eyewitness testimony was shaky, so Cook County prosecutors relied on a fingerprint lifted from a laptop as their key evidence in the trial of a juvenile charged with robbery. The strategy did not go well.
  
  Presiding over the 2016 case, Judge Stuart Katz ripped into the competence of Chicago police Sgt. [TD III], the forensics expert who testified that he had matched the print to the defendant.
  
  “He seems oblivious and doesn’t seem concerned about educating himself as to what’s going on in his own field,” Katz said before finding the youth not guilty. He added that [Ds’] shortcomings were a symptom of a much bigger problem with Chicago police and fingerprints.
  
  “The Chicago Police Department procedures, where they have no audits, no verification of their procedures, no participation — they don’t follow the FBI rules — casts a doubt on their whole departmental procedures,” the judge said.

Well, when you've spent the last fifteen or twenty-plus years placing incompetent "merit" picks in key positions - not because they know anything, but rather because they know someone - and then you neglect training, do you really expect different results? Solving crime hasn't been a priority here for at least all of Rahm's term and likely can be traced back to Cline's reign. In fact, one could make the argument that all of Forensic Services is merely a place to hide high salaries of connected people and collecting, processing, analyzing and testifying to the evidence is of secondary (or worse) concern.

How many inside spots at Forensics are filled by fully trained Evidence Techs who never hit the street? We've heard anywhere form eight to twenty. Ask around - they're connected to all sorts of heavy hitters. Cutting their spots would save hundreds of thousands that could be spent on training to make their testimony something better than what Judge Katz ripped them on a few years ago.

Officers Honored

From a couple days ago:

• Lying on his belly, at a distance of about 70 yards, a Chicago Police SWAT team member fired his rifle and ended the mass shooting at Mercy Hospital that shocked the city in November.
  
  On Tuesday, Officer Elvis Turcinovic was honored for his bravery alongside several other officers who rushed toward the gunfire that day.
  
  [...]
  
  Officer Bernardo Quijano was trying to pull a wounded doctor to safety behind a squad car when he felt “two punches” hit his right hip — bullets that went through his holster and lodged in his gun. He was uninjured.
  
  “We did the best we could that day, regardless of the outcome,” Quijano said.

An amazing job under horrible circumstances. Well done Officers.

Scumbag

These trolls pop up every so often, but seeing one of these in far suburbia is rarer than finding them here in the city. This was forwarded to us by a bunch of people following the funeral of Deputy Keltner:

This asshole is the actual owner of Many Clouds Smoke Shop [corrected] in Woodstock. And like most keyboard commandos, he took the posting down as soon as he started experiencing some backlash that would undoubtedly affect his business and attempted to grovel.

We would certainly hope that McHenry County makes it abundantly clear that this type of sentiment has no place in their community, especially right after a Deputy gave his life in the line of duty.

New Academy Approved

Rahm attempting to shaft his successor with an underbid, poorly constructed campus built on what may be a toxic piece of property with inadequate parking and inconveniently accessible:

• With time running out on his mayoral reign, Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday locked in two building blocks of his development legacy: the $6 billion Lincoln Yards development and construction of a $95 million police and fire training academy in West Garfield Park.
  
  First up was the 38-to-8 vote to approve an $85 million contract with engineering giant AECOM to design and build a new police academy on vacant land at 4301 W. Chicago Ave.
  
  For more than a year now, Black Lives Matter movement and other young people, organized under the #NoCopAcademy label, have made that project a symbol of Emanuel’s misplaced spending priorities.

We find it amusing that the "progressives" and communists claim police need more training, then attempt to deny them the most basic infrastructure to accomplish that training. It's like their handlers are afraid this might reduce the lawsuits filed against the police.

It's also amusing (as a frequent e-mailer points out) that the NYPD just built an academy that cost over $950 million and Rahm thinks that he can build a combined police/fire academy for one-tenth of the price. We'll go out on a limb and say that the final cost tops $300 million and the buildings start to collapse within a year. By 2050, we'll start seeing the first lawsuits from a cancer-cluster centered around the campus.

Deputy Keltner Funeral

A final sendoff to a slain Deputy:

• Friends and colleagues of slain McHenry County Deputy Jacob Keltner remembered him at his funeral Wednesday as a brave and tenacious fugitive hunter who, when the workday ended, transformed into a lighthearted husband and tender father.
  
  Officials said about 3,500 people, including hundreds of uniformed police officers from around the country, attended the service, filling two gymnasiums at Woodstock North High School. Keltner’s flag-draped casket rested in front of a stage decked with photos of the deputy and his family as other law enforcement officers shared their memories.

RIP Sir.

Hey Kwame

Is this something you ought to be investigating?

• At the urging of a politically connected lawyer, State’s Attorney Kimberly Foxx asked Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson to turn over the investigation of Jussie Smollett’s reported attack to the FBI, according to communications provided to the Tribune.
  
  Foxx reached out to Johnson after Tina Tchen, former chief of staff to first lady Michelle Obama, texted Foxx saying the actor’s family had unspecified “concerns about the investigation.” Tchen, a close friend of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s wife, said she was acting on behalf of the “Empire” actor and his family. A relative later exchanged texts with Foxx.
  
  The exchanges began Feb. 1, three days after Smollett claimed two men approached him near his Streeterville apartment building, yelled racists and homophobic slurs, hit him and put noose after his neck. It would still be 2½ weeks before he was charged with making the story up, but some media outlets were already starting to question the actor’s account, citing unnamed police sources.
  
  “Spoke to the Superintendent Johnson,” Foxx emailed Tchen back on Feb. 1. “I convinced him to Reach out to FBI to ask that they take over the investigation.”
  
  The same day, Foxx texted with Smollett’s relative, whose name was blacked out in copies released by her office.
  
  “Spoke to the superintendent earlier, he made the ask,” Foxx wrote. “Trying to figure out logistics. I’ll keep you posted.”
  
  “Omg this would be a huge victory,” the relative replied.
  
  “I make no guarantees, but I’m trying,” Foxx wrote back.

Obviously, this is corruption at the highest levels of Cook County government. Private citizens don't get to influence police investigations....at least, they aren't supposed to. And to attempt to shovel it off to an already compromised FBI that is still reeling from the Sparklefarts years of weaponizing government against political foes, this one just reeks.

With the FBI attempting to rebuild its sullied reputation with largish indictment of Hollywood types bribing colleges, they might just jump at an opportunity to indict and jail a politician in the most corrupt state in the nation.

They might also be looking for a slam-dunk case involving terror threats through the US Mail, so a double win all around.

Two Years on a Wire

There isn't enough popcorn in the world:

• A bombshell court filing made public Wednesday shows the FBI spent more than two years investigating alleged corruption schemes by longtime Ald. Daniel Solis, secretly recording meetings with other politicians and power brokers and listening in on thousands of phone calls as the alderman solicited everything from campaign donations to sexual services at a massage parlor.
  
  The 120-page search warrant affidavit was filed under seal in May 2016 and made public after the Chicago Tribune successfully argued in court for its release. It was first obtained in January by the Chicago Sun-Times after it was inadvertently left on the public docket because of a mix-up by the clerk’s office.
  
  The explosive document lays out in exhaustive detail a laundry list of alleged federal crimes the FBI had compiled against Solis by the time he was confronted and agreed to cooperate with the investigation.
  
  Solis had received a “steady flow of personal benefits” in exchange for official action as an alderman or the promise of official action, the affidavit alleged, including Viagra pills and prostitution services from a political operative who represented a company seeking an exemption from the city’s water ordinance.

Plenty more where this came from and lots more big names.

Additional coverage at the Sun Times.

Sposato Lobs a Bomb

This guy is rapidly becoming a fan favorite here:

• The ‘s—‘ hit the fan in the City Council chambers Tuesday between two aldermen on opposite sides of the mayoral race.
  
  Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) and Ald. Nick Sposato (38th) exchanged words — and tweets— after mayoral candidate Lori Lightfoot accepted the endorsement of a union Sposato is a member of last week.
  
  In a thread on Twitter, Ramirez-Rosa said as he entered Council chambers for a committee meeting Tuesday, Sposato said “Hey Carlos, I got something for you to tweet out. Tweet out that Ald. Sposato said you’re a pile of s—!” The tweet also includes a video of Sposato repeating the remark.
  
  The incident — and tweets — come a week after Lightfoot accepted the support of Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2, standing with Sposato and 41st Ward Ald. Anthony Napolitano.

Sposato certainly isn't wrong in his assessment of the 35th Ward aldercreature. Sposato earned the ire of the progressives after opposing a "legal defense fund" of taxpayer dollars for illegals facing deportation, which actually ought to qualify him for a Cabinet post in Washington.

We can almost forgive him for being a democrat.