Good Question

Is Groot mentally fit for office? This guy says probably not:

• Chicago activist Brian Quinn strongly questions if newly elected Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is in the right line of work.
  
  “Not only is Lori Lightfoot a cop hater but she’s also anti-male,” Quinn recently posted on Twitter. “Watch her tell this rabbi that “As a man, he has no right to tell her what to do. Lori [you picked] the wrong job if you have no respect for your constituents. You serve us.”

Napoleonic complexes aside, she's obviously overcompensating for her clownish appearance:

Politicians who hold voters and employees in contempt usually have rough careers.

Not Following Policy?

Who would have thought that the Department brass and upper level management would have actually followed rules and policy?

• Chicago's inspector general has found that the city's police department did not follow its own orders that call for lieutenants to inspect the body cameras officers wear to make sure they're working correctly.
  
  In a report released on Tuesday, the office says a review revealed that the watch operations lieutenants did not review one recording daily across all of shifts between November 2017 and March 2018.
  
  Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi says steps have been taken to ensure compliance with the policy and that commanders are assessed on their compliance every two weeks.

Is that a quota?

We kid! We kid!

But seriously - with all the built in fuck-off time, lieutenatns across the city couldn't be bothered to review one single video per day? It's not like they're allowed to cherry pick the shortest one available or even one of the officers that they know is always professional and does his or her job appropriately without any sort of oversight.

Justified - Three Years Later

Expect the usual whining from the usual people:

• Chicago's police oversight board has determined a sergeant was justified in killing a fleeing 19-year-old three years ago because the dead man was carrying a gun as the officer claimed.
  
  No gun was found at the scene on the November 2016 day that Kajuan Raye was shot in the back by [...], who claimed the suspect pointed a gun at him. [...] was chasing Raye after a report of a battery in progress. A gun found under bushes in front of a house and recovered by police three months after the shooting was linked to Raye.
  
  Public Radio WBEZ reports Civilian Office of Police Accountability on Monday concluded a combination of circumstantial, physical, testimonial, and social media evidence make it "likely and reasonable" the gun was in Raye's possession at the time of the incident.

Amazing how the powers-that-be insist on rushing to judgement in so many cases, but drag out other cases for years on end.

Don't be Lazy

Believe us, we understand the "stay fetal" movement. That doesn't mean be stupid though:

• No mention about the area noth gangs chasing a hot car then the driver as he fled, tasing him, taking to the hospital then to 19 where he sat in a holding room at times alone until the dicks and victims came out to sign complaints and ID the fool. Once charged and taken to lock up in 19 they (lock up) find a 9mm between the offenders legs. How many hands touched this offender? How many different POs took custody of this offender? How many people could he have killed? On scene, in the hospital, at 19???

Every time a prisoner changes hands or buildings, he ought to be searched as a matter of course. That means, if he's arrested by one officer and searched, then passed to a transport vehicle, he ought to be searched again. If someone else takes him to the hospital, he ought to be searched. When he hits the lockup, he's searched anyway. And we've seen the big transport vans search who bunches of prisoners before they load them up for the court runs....and Cook County searches them again upon arrival at 26/Cal.

Eight and Forty

So compare the coverage of the recent California mass shooting (it's national everywhere!) to this past weekend in Chicago:

• At least 48 people were shot — eight fatally — in incidents of gun violence within city limits over the weekend.
  
  Shootings escalated as the weekend went on: Nine people were wounded Friday after 5 p.m., 15 were shot Saturday and Sunday saw 24 people shot.

And then wonder why no one in the media seems to care about black people living in a democratic rat and rodent infested shithole.

Funny Story

Forwarded to us by a regular:

• A couple of exempts were discussing how much longer Special Ed could hang onto his job, given the constant state of Chicago's gutters running with blood.
  
  One exempt said Groot was a great fan of Special Ed's - he does what he's told, shuts up when he should, takes the blame for all sorts of stuff that would demoralize a lesser man with an actual spine.
  
  In fact," said the exempt, "Ed is the only Johnson she's ever liked."

We're here every day folks. Try the veal....and don't forget to tip your waitress.

Groot and Media Stir the Pot

Did you ever notice how the left always accuses conservatives of living in the past and thinking "progress" is a bad thing? Anyone want to opine on this?

• The 1919 race riots are a “bitter and shameful chapter” of history that represents not only Chicago’s past but its present, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday, vowing to chart a more equitable future.
  
  A ceremony at Dunbar Vocational High School on Monday marked the city’s official celebration of the “red summer.”

Sometimes the past is best left in the past. We as a nation and city have moved far beyond the confines of 1919. Formerly oppressed peoples have held every position in government - up to and including the highest office in the land. Portraying yourself as a victim based on some one-hundred year old history doesn't seem to be the way to "progress" yourself into prosperity.

Geez Wod....WTF?

Indiana troopers must be a bit irritated to release this entire tape:

• New surveillance video from the dashboard camera of an Indiana State Police car shows the trooper racing to pull over Chicago Police Commander Edward Wodnicki last month.
  
  The video also shows the squad car pulled up in front of Wodnicki’s. The video does not show the high-ranking commander, but he can be heard on the tape.
  
  Wodnicki was allegedly traveling with his blue emergency lights on at speeds of 114 mph last month, leading troopers on a high-speed chase as he refused to stop.

And once pulled over, he begins to lie his ass off:

• “Put your hands where I can see them! Right now,” a trooper can be heard saying on the tape. “Get out of the car. This is not an emergency vehicle.” Wodnicki responds, “Oh please, come on guys. I’m a f****** policeman. I swear to God I thought you were giving me support.”
  
  “A policeman where?” the trooper asks.
  
  “Chicago,” Wodnicki responds.
  
  “Is this Chicago?” the trooper replies.
  
  “Sir, I am heading to a call,” Wodnicki can be heard saying.
  
  Wodnicki said he thought the troopers giving chase were there to escort him back to the city. The veteran officer said he was rushing back to interview suspects already in custody.

Sure. Because Indiana troopers routinely escort unmarked, non-municipal plated, fleet-type vehicles, with no exterior markings, equipped with flashing lights that we can find on the internet for a few dozen dollars. Makes perfect sense. But he really must be a hands-on commander if he actually interrogates prisoners in custody. Why, his overtime checks for Court must run into the tens of thousands of dollars!

• What was the Chicago Police Department’s head of detectives doing in Indiana about 40 miles from Chicago anyway?
  
  “I’ve been working all day,” Wodnicki can be heard saying. “I’m a f****** policeman. I don’t drink at all. I just had a f****** meeting.”
  
  But Wodnicki initially told a different story to CPD command staff, saying he was buying ammunition across the border.
  
  “You are in custody,” the Indiana trooper said on tape. “Anything you say, as you know, can be used against you, and I’ve been recording this whole time.”

Pretty sad that a commander of police has to drive all the way to Indiana, depriving Prickwrinkle of her nickel-per-bullet tax, just to get some plinking ammo. We certainly hope he took ammo orders from everyone in the Division. After all, if you're going to travel that far for a few hundred rounds, might as well make it an even ten thousand or so.

And in a city car using city gas, all paid for by the taxpayers? This is YOUR command staff Groot. They are a reflection of you....and your incompetence.

Like we said - someone in Indiana is very unhappy.

Drive-By Gone Awry - Again

This seems to be becoming a regular occurrence - good:

• Prosecutors say a participant in a botched drive-by shooting in Chicago will likely face murder charges for allegedly fatally wounding the driver of the vehicle he was shooting from.
  
  Matthew Gibson was pronounced dead earlier this week at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. Cook County prosecutors say Jake Lee, the passenger who allegedly shot the 26-year-old Gibson, is charged with aggravated battery with a firearm and is facing murder charges.
  
  Prosecutors say Gibson on Sunday pulled alongside an SUV and Lee, seated in the front passenger seat, began firing at the SUV with a handgun. During the shooting, Gibson was accidentally shot in the head.

We're kind of liking this trend. Takes the corrupt Cook County system completely out of the loop.

Fake Alligator Crimes?

Better than committing real crime we guess:

• An area man prompted thousands of page views when he appeared in a Facebook Live video claiming to have captured a second alligator in Humboldt Park Lagoon on Saturday night.
  
  The move also netted him an arrest.
  
  Authorities detained two people on suspicion of filing a false police report as officers investigated how the alligator came to be in the lagoon, though no charges were filed, the Tribune has learned.
  
  According to a police report, officers first learned of the alligator when a crowd gathered near the lagoon and one person notified an off-duty officer who was working park security. One of the men in the video, whom the Tribune is not naming because he has not been charged with a crime, said he observed an alligator the day before — more than a week after the gator affectionately known as “Chance the Snapper” had been removed.

We heard Crimesha demanded both arrestees released after she was seen sporting a new alligator skin bag.

Off Duty Injured

Drunk driver on the highway:

• An off-duty Chicago police officer was injured in a crash on the Dan Ryan Expressway. According to Illinois State Police, the driver of the vehicle that struck [the officer's] vehicle was arrested for DUI.
  
  The incident took place at 79th Street just after 4 a.m. Sunday. State police said [the officer] Gaeta was transported to an area hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Not much you can do to prevent this except thank Providence it wasn't worse. Get well soon Officer.

That Was Expensive

Big whoops there:

• A Lamborghini traveling at a high rate of speed blew a traffic signal and crashed into a squad car early Saturday morning on Michigan Avenue, injuring a police officer, Chicago police said.
  
  Shortly before 4 a.m., a police vehicle was eastbound on Illinois Street when a southbound Lamborghini traveling at a high rate of speed blew a red light in the 400 block of North Michigan Avenue and crashed into the driver’s side door of the squad car, Chicago police said.
  
  The officer was taken to a local hospital, and was treated and released.
  
  The driver of the Lamborghini was cited for speeding and disregarding a traffic signal, police said.

Is there a Personal Injury attorney in the house?

Nice Weekend Groot

Six in sixteen hours:

• A 29-year-old man was found slain Saturday afternoon on the South Side, the sixth homicide in about 16 hours.
  
  It happened about 2:35 p.m., when officers responded to the 6700 block of South Wabash Avenue, police said.
  
  The victim, an unidentified 29-year-old man, was found unresponsive with a gunshot wound to the forehead.
  
  He was pronounced dead on the scene, and police offered no further details.

HeyJackass.com has the city just six homicides short of Three Hundred.

Lieutenant Class

Ten?

Only ten.

Someone has the list?

We're told civilians nominated two of the three "merit" picks.

Investigative Alert? Gone!

Another long standing (and completely legal) practice struck down:

• A divided Illinois appellate court on Thursday struck down a longstanding Chicago police department practice in which supervisors could order police to arrest suspects they encounter on the street without the need for a search warrant or the officer observing any crime.
  
  That practice, called an “investigative alert,” violates the state constitution by obtaining “approval for arrests without the one thing the framers of the Illinois Constitution thought most essential—the presentation of sworn facts to a judge,” states the majority opinion, authored by Illinois Appellate Judge Michael B. Hyman.
  
  Hyman noted the issue was not one of speed: “The alerts are not issued instantaneously; in many cases, investigative alerts take the same or more time to procure than a warrant.”
  
  While such an arrest might be warranted under the U.S. Constitution, which focuses on whether probable cause existed at the time of arrest, the majority focused on the more narrow interpretation of search and seizure law under the Illinois constitution.

So the leeway granted under the US Constitution is tossed to the side while the Illinois Supreme Court grants even more freedom to the lawbreakers.

Expect arrests to plummet even further when even more victims don't want to stick around or appear in court to swear out an actual warrant.

In completely unrelated and un-coincidental news, Groot and other assorted lib-tards are still supporting anonymous complaints against police officers, disregarding the Sworn Affidavit law - you know, like actually swearing to the facts.

Sorry, Not Sorry

As predicted just about everywhere:

• Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Friday she’s said all she intends to say about being caught on an open mic calling the second vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police “this FOP clown” and will not be rushed into negotiating a police contract.
  
  National FOP President Chuck Canterbury has demanded that Lightfoot apologize to rank-and-file Chicago police officers and “conduct herself with more dignity and less immaturity.” Canterbury contended if Lightfoot is “truly sorry, she needs to do something to improve her relationship” by bargaining “in good faith” with the officers, whose union contract expired more than two years ago.
  
  The mayor was asked Friday about the controversy of her own making at this week’s City Council meeting that overshadowed her two legislative victories on ethics reform and predictable scheduling for low-wage workers. “There’s no more to say about that. I said what I said the other day. It’s something I shouldn’t have said out loud. And I think we’ve got bigger fish to fry,” the mayor said at an unrelated news conference.

There's no trust. Both sides have dug in and an impasse is the only certainty. Better to force the arbitration issues than be the last one in a long line of unions bucking for better contracts and being told the cupboard is bare - again.

10th Circuit Says "Be Fetal"

This decision is from earlier in the year, but here's a link to it.

As we read it, if an officer arrives at a situation where information was directly available (in this case, a CIT incident where the caller/wife had information directly applicable to the mental illness of her husband), then it is incumbent upon  officers to safely assess the situation, gather the information, then address the situation. Otherwise, you will be held liable if shit goes sideways.

The Department is calling it something along the lines of Time as a Tactic. We're calling it "Smart Policing in an Uncertain Environment."

Either that or "Avoiding the Ghetto Lottery Trick Bag."

011, 015 - Be Careful

So this hit the news:

• Labar “Bro Man” Spann, the notorious boss of the brutal West Side gang the four corner hustlers, was nervous. It was late 2014, and he feared that some of his closest associates could turn on him, records show. If it came to that, Spann said, he would not go easily.
  
  “Bro Man will kill you while I’m right here with you, boy,” he said, referring to himself in the third person, court records show.
  
  Spann had good reason to be worried, according to a 110-page court filing by federal prosecutors in Chicago in a sweeping racketeering case in which Spann and 10 other members of the four corner hustlers have been charged. The filing — which offers a preview of the evidence and testimony prosecutors might use when Spann and other gang members go on trial — reveals that three of Spann’s co-defendants have agreed to cooperate with the prosecution.

Three cooperating witnesses? Labar is going away for life plus at this rate. And the resultant internal strife is likely to paint the west side red in short order.

Be very aware West Side coppers.

National Lodge Makes Noise

Nice gesture guys and gals - but Groot don't care:

• The national Fraternal Order of Police demanded that Mayor Lori Lightfoot apologize after a hot mic caught her calling a local police union leader “this FOP clown” during Wednesday’s City Council meeting.
  
  “How does she expect to work with the police department if she regularly disparages their leadership and refuses to communicate honestly with them?” Chuck Canterbury, president of the national FOP that represents 348,000 law enforcement officers, said in a statement. “We respectfully suggest she conduct herself with more dignity and less immaturity."
  
  At Wednesday’s City Council meeting, Lightfoot was overheard on the dais saying, “Back again. This is this FOP clown," as local FOP Vice President Patrick Murray approached the microphone available for the public to speak.

How about pushing the local boys to do a little bit more?

Once Again, Who Is The Problem?

And once again, words escape us:

• Three teens have been charged in the attack of a girl with a mental disability that was recorded on cellphone video after she refused to engage in sex acts.
  
  Three girls — ages 13, 14 and 15 — were charged with aggravated battery and mob action, according to Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
  
  The three turned themselves into police with their parents Wednesday night, according to Cook County prosecutors and a police source.

Get a load of "Mom's: excuse:

• The 14-year-old, who wore her hair long to her shoulders, was released to the custody of her mother and ordered to be placed on electronic monitoring.
  
  “She’s a good girl when she wants to be,” the girl’s mother said after court. The mother added that older girls in the neighborhood were a bad influence on her daughter. “I’m not for her beating on anyone. I’m just so irritated with all this,” she said.

The female parental unit isn't a mother - she's an enabler. "...good...when she wants to be"? What the fuck is that? A child is good because they are told to be good and are rewarded for being good. And when they aren't good, they get punished. Repeatedly. Until they learn. By mom...AND dad.

And guess why they surrendered?

• The older girl, who wore her hair short, was ordered to be placed on electronic monitoring, but she will be placed at the Saura Center — a temporary shelter for juveniles who would otherwise be kept in juvenile detention. That girl’s mother had told the judge that she feared for her family’s safety if she returned home.
  
  “I’m fearful for my life and for my daughter’s life,” the woman said. “I don’t think she’d be safe to leave out this courtroom.”
  
  Both parents told the judge they have received multiple threats against their daughters and their families. Prosecutors had asked for both girls to be held in juvenile detention “for their safety.” Sharkey encouraged the families to report any threats to the police, which they said they had already done.

Hey lady? Call 3-1-1 for your report. You aren't getting any bonus points for ditching your spawn to the system.

And if that wasn't the icing on the cake:

• Chicago Police News Affairs Office Jose Jara said Wednesday detectives are also looking into the possibility that the girl was sexually assaulted while she was missing “based on initial testimony from the victim herself.”
  
  Of the videotaped attack Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said Thursday, “The hate that we all saw is an affront to who we all are as Chicagoans.”

Oh Special Ed, please stop. This is EXACTLY what certain parts of Chicago have become - and it's by design. Look at what your political master said the other day. Look at your command staff in assorted districts, especially 025. You reward misbehavior, expect a lot more of it.

Narrative Crumbles

Amazing how a leftist "truism" collapses like a house of cards when subjected to actual study:

• Reports of racially motivated, fatal shootings by police officers have garnered extensive public attention and sparked activism across the nation. New research from Michigan State University and University of Maryland reveals findings that flip many of these reports on their heads—white police officers are not more likely to shoot minorities citizens than non-white officers.
  
  "Until now, there's never been a systematic, nationwide study to determine the characteristics of police involved in fatal officer-involved shootings," said Joseph Cesario, co-author and professor of psychology at MSU. "There are so many examples of people saying that when black citizens are shot by police, it's white officers shooting them. In fact, our findings show no support for the idea that white officers are biased in shooting black citizens."
  
  The findings—published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, or PNAS - are based on an independent database Cesario and his team created that catalogued each police shooting from 2015. The team—led also by co-author David Johnson from University of Maryland—contacted every police department that had a fatal police shooting to get the race, sex and years of experience for every officer involved in each incident. The team also leveraged data from police shooting databases by The Washington Post and The Guardian.

Heather MacDonald has been covering this non-existent shooting narrative for years and written books - that were ignored by the mainstream media because Sparklefarts and his agenda/narrative were far more important.

Rest assured, they will continue to ignore this even though the supposed bastions of knowledge (i.e. Universities) are the ones verifying what MacDonald and cops have been saying for years.

Groot Eats Her Own Foot

There she goes, exposing her true feelings:

• Mayor Lori Lightfoot suffered a public embarrassment Wednesday that could hamper her efforts to establish a dialogue with the Fraternal Order of Police she needs to negotiate a new police contract.
  
  It happened as the second vice-president of the Fraternal Order of Police was speaking during the prelude to the City Council meeting. As Patrick Murray spoke, Lightfoot was picked up by a live microphone calling him “this FOP clown.”

Well well well. And when confronted by the media, she refused to apologize:

• That’s apparently why the mayor made no attempt to deny the remark during the news conference that followed the council meeting. “It was not appropriate for me to say that out loud,” Lightfoot said.
  
  Is the mayor planning to apologize to Murray or to the union with which she is now attempting to establish a dialogue and needs to negotiate a new police contract? "I think I just did. I think I said I shouldn’t have said that out loud,” she said.
  
  Is the mayor sorry she said it or is she sorry the derogatory remark got picked up on a hot mic? “I’m sorry that I said it out loud,” she said.

So the only time she even uttered the word "sorry" was that it was said out loud. Not that she was actually sorry - she was sorry she got caught. That's not an apology by any definition we've ever seen or read.

The FOP has refrained from personal attacks. We of course, don't, and aren't obligated to. Neither are our readers as we represent no one. So, now that Groot has shown her ass in public and proven she is not an impartial party when it comes to negotiating a Contract, when does the FOP plan to file for arbitration?

UPDTE: Does Groot realize that Murray represents probably well over 3,000 black cops? And probably another 3,000 brown ones? And many of those cops have families?

Birthday Bash

And a fundraiser for the one of only two police organizations we send money to:

FUNDRAISER TO BENEFIT POLICE CHAPLAINS MINISTRY

(and it's Father Brandt's Birthday!)

Tuesday, 13 AUG

6:30-9:30 p.m.

Old Crow Smokehouse

149 W. Kinzie, Chicago

$40 donation includes food and refreshments

Raffles, entertainment, good company

Tickets and more info at www.ChicagoPCM.org

Rumor is Rabbi Wolf will jump out of the cake.

Something Missing Here

What could it be?

• A 15-year-old boy was killed and two young men were wounded in a pair of shootings in less than an hour Monday night in the Roseland neighborhood.
  
  Police said the boy and a 20-year-old man were driving in a stolen white Jeep near 114th and Lowe shortly after 9 p.m., when someone in a passing white pickup truck opened fire.

So what's missing? Did you spot it? Of course you didn't....because the media won't report it:

• On 22 July 2019, a 15 year old career Car Jacker/auto thief was arrested around noon in the 22nd district in a stolen vehicle which was stolen from  the south suburbs.  He was screened and given a court date and released to family in the early evening. About 90 minutes later he and 2 other teens were in a stolen newer model jeep. While  joyriding  in the jeep, a pickup pulls up next to the drivers  side where the recently released career Car Jacker was being the wheel. Guns are pointed from each car and the shooting begins. The front passenger begins firing over the driver where the recently released career Car Jacker is behind the wheel. It seems the front passenger failed to inform the driver to duck, and ends his career as a car hacker with a shot to the head.  The front passenger is shot 3 times in the back. The other teen escaped being shot.

So he got blasted by his own buddy in the front seat. If only he was held somewhere, somewhere in a secure facility where he couldn't get hold of another car. But he was headed for a bad end anyway, right?

Apology Issued, But....

So the Department issued an apology of sorts for this:

• Chicago police issued an apology one day after a Chicago Tribune story revealed that the department has compiled profiles on citizens who spoke at public meetings of the city’s police disciplinary panel since at least 2013.
  
  The practice drew outrage from Chicago Police Board members, past Police Board speakers, the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois and Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who told the Tribune on Tuesday that she had ordered an immediate stop to the background checks and that the Police Department owed the public an apology.
  
  Late Wednesday, the Police Department issued a brief statement reaffirming its commitment to the right of individuals to privacy and apologizing for “any mistrust that this practice may have caused.

We're told however, that if you want to speak at the City Council meetings, the exact same background check is done and has been done for years. It seems to be true as we've talked to people who know these things.

As a side note, it's kind of hypocritical that Groot demands the Department apologize when she won't even begin to apologize for her recent statements.

He's Baaaaack!

Groot demonstrating again how little she cares for the unions who helped elected her, decides to employ an asshole that voters wouldn't re-elect:

• Former 45th Ward alderman John Arena may be back on the city payroll. Several aldermen say Arena has been offered the job of labor relations director in the city Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection. The hiring reportedly is contingent on the processing of final paperwork.
  
  The job offer reportedly took place over the objections of department commissioner Rosa Escareno, but the Lightfoot administration has pushed for Arena’s hiring, according to several City Hall sources. A department spokesman said that the department does not comment on personnel matters.
  
  Arena supported Mayor Lori Lightfoot during her mayoral runoff campaign against Toni Preckwinkle, allowing Lightfoot to use his campaign office at 4709 N. Milwaukee Ave. Arena’s support of Lightfoot came as a surprise to some political observers because Preckwinkle and Arena had been close allies in the past. Arena, who could not be reached for comment, needs 2 more years on the city payroll to become eligible for a city pension.

Maybe he'll be wrapped up with indictments regarding his shady zoning practices and alleged shakedowns of northwest side businesses by that time.

Budget Problems Solved!

Everything must be funded, all debts settled, pensions secure for the foreseeable future if Groot is chasing convention business out of Chicago:

• Mayor Lori Lightfoot and immigrant rights groups have sought to get Marriott hotels to cancel or move a trade conference hosted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection out of Chicago — but the convention will likely start on Tuesday as planned.
  
  The agency is set to hold its annual trade symposium at the Marriott Marquis Chicago in the South Loop on Tuesday and Wednesday.
  
  [...] “As soon as I became aware that the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection would be holding a Trade Symposium in Chicago, I sought the movement of this conference to a location outside of Chicago,” the mayor said in a statement. “When it became clear that Marriott was unable to accommodate our demand, I mobilized city resources to facilitate the peaceful protest against the conference, ensure the protection of First Amendment rights and to safeguard all guests and visitors on the McCormick Place campus.”

Let's get one thing straight Groot - you can't afford to decline any legitimate business or government enterprise wanting to hold their events here. In fact, you should be begging for more of them (that's part of your job you know), seeing as how Shortshanks and 9.5 failed to adequately keep up with Florida and Nevada convention centers.

Expensive "Reform"

Not that we disagree with all of it:

• Mayor Lori Lightfoot proposed several reforms to how Chicago handles fines and fees, including no longer suspending the driver’s licenses of people who haven’t paid parking tickets and reducing vehicle sticker penalties.
  
  Lightfoot’s proposed overhaul, which will be introduced at Wednesday’s City Council meeting, also includes creating a six-month payment plan that reduces required down payments and gives those with ticket debt more time to pay. It also allows people to request a 24-hour extension to pay their fines in full or get on a payment plan after their vehicles are locked with a Denver boot, though the plan does not ban use of the controversial device that has been the bane of many motorists’ existence.
  
  The proposed reforms will end the doubling of city sticker ticket prices from $200 to $400 for failure to purchase within the required time, and the city won’t issue tickets on the same or consecutive days for sticker violations, Lightfoot said.

The doubled fine was pretty obscene. If you couldn't afford the $200 for whatever reason, you aren't going to be able to afford the $400. But responsible people budget for completely predictable expenses....like a city sticker payment that comes around every single year.

That being said:

• From 2007 to 2016, only 1 out of 3 tickets were paid, Valencia said. The city is owed more than $200 million in city sticker debt alone, she said.

That's the flip side. Chances are Chicago will never see any of that $200 million without an effective stick to collect itm and that's only the City Sticker portion. Is Groot writing that money off? Because she ain't making it up in convention business if she's working to shut down government conferences (see post directly above this one).

About That Policy

A bunch of people have said the Firearm Pointing Policy is no big deal. It's a radio notification that doesn't even require a name or star, just a beat number. No paper needed.

So why collect it at all?

Did you know that the Department is currently under a "no destroy" order for any paperwork at all? That means Supervisor logs from the past three to five years exist somewhere in storage. Attendance and Assignment sheets are electronically safe forever. OEMC tapes (digital media actually) is stored at tremendous expense.

The government collects NO data without some table being created and saved for eternity. Look at the CR release letters we still get every year about records being released in most cases from twenty or more years ago. Some of the dates cover the careers of the officers who taught us twenty-plus years ago, and this is AFTER the FOP had a contractual agreement to destroy Not Sustained records after 7 years.

Have you seen what the Department has been doing for years?

• Chicago police have for years compiled profiles on every citizen who spoke at public meetings of the city’s police disciplinary panel, a process that included running criminal background checks and internet searches on activists, a police union official and even relatives of an innocent woman killed in a high-profile police shooting, the Chicago Tribune has learned.
  
  Documents obtained by the Tribune under a public records request show the Police Department gathered the details on nearly 60 people in advance of their speaking at monthly meetings of the Chicago Police Board since at least January 2018. A police spokesman said the background checks go back further, to at least 2013.

Why? We can understand not wanting convicted felons or sex offenders or people with warrants showing up unknown to the Police Board Meetings, but everything else? Sounds like Rahm had a hand in some Clinton-esque shenanigans.

If someone wants the data collected, it's not because they want to give everyone medals.

Wise Words

From the Public Feedback post a few days ago, this is the best explanation of the "pistol pointing" directive so far:

• The policy has been discussed and approve. Now they seek public input and discussion to legitimize the policy and implement it. Most likely this will occur when the new Poodle of a Supt. comes on board. This will slide in under the hoopla of reorganization, streamlining operations, building trust within the Community, social justice reforms and the ever popular term "for efficiency'.
  
  The Murder Mayor will laud this as part of her reform and accountability of the Police Department. You go girl. You are going to get your way. Sadly, the Community will continue to shriek and wail in the night as their family members are murdered and maimed [....]. They ain't reforming or reckoning and they ain't accountable to no one, especially YOU.

The longer one stays on the job in this corrupt city, one realizes every outcome is predetermined and everything prior to the release of a "decision" is merely smoke being blown up the collective asses of the public.

New York, We Have a Problem

Words escape us:

• Humiliating videos surfaced online Monday of NYPD officers being doused with water by groups of jeering punks in separate incidents — and in one case, hit in the head with a bucket while trying to make an arrest — while refusing to confront their tormenters.
  
  The viral clips, which appear to have been shot in recent days during the city’s heat wave, enraged NYPD cops and had the city’s top police unions blaming New York politicians and their “anti-police rhetoric” for the officers’ lack of response.
  
  “Our anti-cop lawmakers have gotten their wish: the NYPD is now frozen,” Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch fumed. “It’s not the fault of these police officers. It’s the end result of the torrent of bad policies and anti-police rhetoric that has been streaming out of City Hall and Albany for years now.
  
  “We are approaching the point of no return," Lynch said. “Disorder controls the streets, and our elected leaders refuse to allow us to take them back. As police officers, we need to draw a line.”

We know New York coppers. We like New York coppers. And if they're cowed into not taking some sort of action, then New York has a very big problem on its hands.

This Sounds Like a Good Idea

And applicable to Chicago:

• As South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg commands national attention with his media-savvy presidential bid, the firestorm back home over an officer-involved shooting shows no sign of settling soon -- with the mayor facing criticism not only from protesters but police who say his handling has crushed morale and risks a “mass exodus” from the force.
  
  “Morale around here has been terrible. We do nothing,” one police officer, a 20-year veteran of the force, told Fox News. “We call ourselves firemen, we sit around in parking lots until we’re called and then we go to the call, because if you say or do something wrong, then you get hung.”
  
  “At an all-time low,” another officer said of morale. “It’s been really demoralizing and hard to come to work lately.”

It looks like Rahm's "fetality" is taking hold nationwide. Self-and-job preservation is a real thing.

What's with the Uniforms?

Is this some summer initiative? OR a new direction for the D-Unit?

• For some unknown reason we were notified that as of this morning we in RBT and SVU But Not HGCSU, are in uniform this week. Not sure why but a rumor is the DOJ and Consent decree know it alls, will be in 005 and the Area telling us how to be the Police and Investigate crimes. Maybe you have a source as to why this is happening?

Anyone know?

Whoops

Someone pushed the wrong button?

• A phone alert regarding police activity on the South Side was sent in error Monday afternoon by the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications.
  
  The alert was mistakenly sent at 3:36 p.m. to phones within a one-mile radius of Guaranteed Rate Field during a routine weekly test of the system, according to OEMC spokeswoman Melissa Stratton. She said the alert was meant to be internal.
  
  The alert read: “Test: CPD activity in your area. Remain indoors until further notice. Chicago OEMC.”
  
  Another alert was sent by OEMC about 5 p.m. to correct the previous one.
  
  The alert read: “Disregard previous alert message re: CPD activity in area. This was a test sent in error.”

In OEMC's defense, the first word in the alert says, "Test," so all the snowflakes who flooded the 911 switchboards with calls really need to brush up on their reading comprehension skills.

Taste the Irony!

Or as the Germans say, "schadenfreude" (link fixed)

• One of the newest top additions to the Baltimore Police Department was robbed at gunpoint alongside his wife over the weekend, according to officials.
  
  Deputy Commissioner Daniel Murphy and his wife were walking Friday night around 9 p.m. near Patterson Park in the southeast part of the city when a white SUV with four people inside pulled up next to them, police told FOX Baltimore.
  
  Two black males, believed to be about 18 years old, then got out of the vehicle and showed a handgun while demanding the victims hand over their property, police said.

And just who is this latest edition to the Baltimore PD?

• Murphy, who is listed as the deputy commissioner for the compliance bureau in a Baltimore Police Department organizational chart, was hired earlier this year by Commissioner Michael Harrison. Murphy previously worked as the deputy superintendent of compliance for the New Orleans Police Department, where the two previously worked together, according to the Baltimore Sun.

So he's a professional "compliance" officer - a liberal social justice mercenary (if there is such an animal.) The jokes write themselves sometimes.

Public Feedback

Only nine days left to have your opinion heard.....and ignored while Groot and her minions do whatever the Hell they want to:

• Thank you for visiting the Chicago Police Department’s public comment forum for the Firearm Pointing Incidents policy. As part of our ongoing mission to grow trust within the communities we serve, CPD will take comments from the public on the Firearm Pointing Incidents policy for 15 days beginning on July 16th, 2019. This public comment period will close July 31st, 2019, and CPD will take public comments into consideration before finalizing the policy. Below you will find the draft of the Firearm Pointing Incidents Policy in its entirety as well. Thank you again for your continued partnership in building a safer Chicago.

Give it a try and try to be polite.

Remember Who the Problem Is

It's the police, right?

• A 12-year-old girl was shot soon after her father argued with the gunman at a North Side store, police said early Sunday.
  
  About 2:30 a.m. officers were called to the 3200 block of North Kimball Avenue for a report of a drive-by shooting in the Avondale neighborhood. They learned the 12-year-old had been shot in the leg and was listed in good condition at Swedish Covevant Hospital, where her father drove her for treatment after the shooting, according to an online media notification.
  
  The girl’s father told police he had been in a verbal argument with the suspected gunman minutes earlier as both visited a store. It wasn’t immediately clear what the two men were arguing about, but authorities believe the gunman was aiming for the man when he missed and hit the child.

Chicago can correctly be described as a "free fire zone."

Is This Something Cool?

It's designed to keep you cool for starters:

• Police officers, military and security personnel all need to wear bullet resistant vests which are mostly made from high density materials such as kevlar. While effective for stopping bullets, it is also completely airtight, causing heat build up and sweat (skin rashes and chaffing for some!) This combination can lead to a very uncomfortable shift for the wearer. Supporting this campaign is one way you can make a huge difference in the daily lives of those who provide protection for all.
  
  [...] Those who wear protective vests are all too familiar with the feeling of sweating through their shirt and having to wear it, wet, all day. This campaign will allow me to bring to market an effective product that will help alleviate that problem and to provide it at an affordable price for all police, military and security personnel. It is the first of it's kind that is removable, washable, extremely light weight with a very low profile. It's simple yet highly effective. Inflate when needed, deflate when not. By supporting this campaign you will help to greatly improve the daily lives of thousands of Officers who put their lives on the line to provide protection for all.

Jump over to the link and check it out. Interesting to say the least.

Nice Lakefront Lori

This would be yet another "mass shooting" by certain definitions:

• Seven people were left with injuries after two groups exchanged gunfire outside Theater on the Lake in the Lincoln Park neighborhood early Saturday morning.
  
  According to Chicago police, a “group of individuals” was walking toward the lakefront while another group was leaving at about 3:30 a.m., near the intersection of Fullerton Avenue and Lake Shore Drive. A verbal altercation broke out between the groups and escalated to gunfire, with individuals from both groups firing handguns at one another.
  
  Seven individuals were struck by gunfire and transported to area hospitals, police said, and Area North detectives are currently investigating.

Wait a minute - 3:30 AM? Aren't the parks closed at 11:00 PM?

Wait a minute - park district property? Isn't that one of those "No Gun" zones?

Wait a minute - five female "victims"? Aren't they the "gentler" sex?

Wait a minute - doesn't Summer Mobile patrol the lakefront parks? Or VRI? Weren't they clearing out the parks before quitting time?

Wait a minute - three (four?) of the seven "victims" were convicted felons? Where did they get guns?

We have so many more questions than answers.

So does Groot.

How About "Fuck No"?

Long post - sorry.

Where do these morons spawn?

• If crime victims, witnesses and perpetrators can make immediate statements, Chicago police officers involved in shootings should be required to do the same, the head of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability said Friday.
  
  COPA chief administrator Sydney Roberts wants to eliminate the waiting period written into the police contract that critics contend makes it “easy for officers to lie” by giving them 24 hours before providing a statement after a shooting.

Um, what the fuck is she talking about? Here's a newsflash dumbass - victims, witnesses and perpetrators DON'T HAVE TO MAKE STATEMENTS TO POLICE. EVER. Where the Hell are you getting your completely and utterly incorrect information?

• Fraternal Order of Police President Kevin Graham wants to do more than just retain the 24-hour waiting period — he wants to triple it to the 72 hours that federal agents are afforded after a shooting, on the grounds that “it takes you a while — especially when you’ve been in such a traumatic incident.”
  
  On Friday, Roberts shot down the trauma argument. “When police do investigations, they are speaking to people who are traumatized. They are traumatized because they have been victimized. They may be traumatized because they witnessed something. They may be traumatized because they were the perpetrator,” she said.
  
  “The trauma that the officer goes through . . . is no different than the trauma that other people go through. We still do those interviews. . . . If that is legitimate justification to bar an interview, it should apply across the board.”

Wow. You know why the FBI grants 72-hours? It based on actual scientific studies. And again, victims, witnesses and perpetrators DON'T HAVE TO MAKE STATEMENTS TO POLICE. EVER. They have far more protections that cops do, and more avenues to seek redress should it be determined their Rights are violated.

• Mayor Lori Lightfoot is a former Police Board president. She co-chaired the Task Force on Police Accountability that demanded changes to a police contract that, it claimed, “codifies the code of silence” that former Mayor Rahm Emanuel famously acknowledged exists at the Chicago Police Department.

And once again, we demand that these assorted assholes point out the specific Contractual language that "codified" any so-called "Code." They can't because it doesn't exist. It's a political phrase made up to demonize something the politicians don't like. They promise their voters something that can't be defined and expect the cops to give up established protections based on their false premises.

• The City Council’s Black Caucus has threatened to hold up ratification of any police contract that continues to give officers 24 hours before providing a statement after a shooting. The Caucus has also taken aim at anonymous complaints and the portion of the police contract that allows officers to change statements after reviewing video.
  
  Graham is adamantly opposed to allowing anonymous complaints on grounds that there needs to be a way to “establish that people are not just trying to get police officers off the beat so crime can flourish. . . . If these allegations are true, put your name to it.”

We don't think the caucus has the votes by themselves to hold up diddly-shit, but arbitration is our friend in that case. Seventy-two hours isn't twenty-four, so we'll agree to that. What makes the local politicians think they're better than the federal standards?

As for baseless accusations, they mean so much more than the Constitutional Right to confront your accusers in a public Court of Law.....and sue them for slander when the bullshit is exposed as bullshit. These people (or folks) are morons.

• Roberts strongly disagreed, citing the “chilling effect” that the demand for sworn complaints has on victims of police wrongdoing. She also wants to eliminate that portion of the police contract that, she claims, ties the hands of COPA investigators. “There’s a restraint on how COPA investigators can investigate. That needs to be lifted. We should not have any investigative restraints on who can ask questions and when,” she said.

What's "chilling" about discovering the truth? And these so-called "restraints" are rules to protect all parties involved, including taxpayers from overzealous COPA investigators who have been proven, time and again, to have manufactured evidence, coerced statements and outright lied in the Courts.

The article goes on for a while more. It's complete bullshit and ought to be treated as such. There is a target on your back - and your front. No one has our best interests at heart. Remember that.

Monumental Patience

Another release of body cam footage and once again, the police did everything humanly possible:

• Videos released Friday by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability show the tense negotiations between Chicago police officers and a bipolar man before they fatally shot him during a standoff earlier this year inside a Woodlawn home.
  
  The police oversight agency released six videos and seven audio clips from the May 22 encounter that ended in Myles Frazier’s death in the 1300 block of East 61st Street. A man called police about 10:15 a.m. to report that his son, who had bipolar disorder, was armed and distraught, [spokes-weasel] said at a news conference after the shooting. He asked for police to help.
  
  Officers arrived and tried negotiating with Frazier, 22, who was barricaded inside a second-floor bedroom, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Police body cameras captured their hourlong negotiation, during which an officer assures Frazier he’s not going to jail.

A hour of negotiations, while the subject was doing what?

• At one point, an officer says, “Nobody’s gonna die today,” to which Frazier replies, “Really?” before firing a shot. Later, from the bedroom, a crying Frazier tells them about the death of his daughter, and an officer opens up about his late grandmother, video shows.
  
  Tension escalates about 30 minutes in as Frazier fires more shots. “Myles, don’t point the gun at nobody else!” an officer yells.
  
  Frazier fired at least five shots, Valdez said. Some of those shots went outside the house.

This offender is firing numerous shots out the window, each capable of wounding or killing officers, passersby, neighbors. And the officers still tried to talk him down. There ought to be a medal just for the patience exhibited on scene.

The outcome was dictated by the guy shooting the gun out the window.

Area 4 Ride to Remember

One of the larger motorcycle memorial rides around:

• The 15th Annual Area 4 Ride to Remember Memorial Motorcycle Ride is July 28, 2019.
  
  When: Sunday, July 28, 2019 - 9:00 a.m.
  
  Where: Former Area Four Detective Headquarters, 3151 W. Harrison - Harrison & Kedzie - West Parking Lot, Chicago, Illinois 60612
  
  Registration: 7:30 - 8:30 a.m. sign in and line up. Online registration is available for a small convenience fee.
  
  Pre-Registration: Register by July 15, 2019 to ensure t-shirt delivery on the day of the ride.

Sorry about the late notification, but we were just made aware.

(comments closed here)

Another $100 to the Chaplains

The Tribune stealing once again, 1901 hours Friday:

• The decision to fire four Chicago police officers for the cover-up of the fatal Laquan McDonald police shooting in 2014 means no one above sergeant will be disciplined or prosecuted for a conspiracy that arguably reached into the highest ranks of the department.
  
  [...] Ferguson’s office ended up recommending the firing of 11 officers in all, but the two highest-ranking — Deputy Chief David McNaughton and Chief of Detectives Eugene Roy — both quietly retired before Superintendent Eddie Johnson acted on Ferguson’s recommendations.

No mention of Special Ed being the Chief of Patrol on scene that night though. The word from Groot's office must be that only herself (and Prickwrinkle) are allowed to put the boots to the Accidental Superintendent - not lowly reporters.

Gordon Memorial

Coming up soon:

• My family would be honored if you could join us in remembering my brother, Chicago Police Officer Michael Gordon, who was killed in the performance of duty 15 years ago. A ceremony will be held on Wednesday, August 7, 2019.
  
  
  P. O. Mike Gordon Memorial Ceremony
  Wednesday, August 7th
  10:00 AM
  CPD Education and Training Academy
  1300 W. Jackson Blvd.
  Chicago, IL
  
  
  The program will be brief and should wrap before 11AM. Food and drink will be served inside the vendeteria immediately following the ceremony. Parking can be challenging at the Academy, so attendees are encouraged to carpool.

Hope to see you there.

(comments closed here)

Now, the Lawsuits

A poor decision based on politics and not evidence:

• The Chicago Police Board fired a sergeant and three officers Thursday night over the alleged cover-up of the murder of Laquan McDonald by a police officer.
  
  The decision appeared to turn on infamous police dashboard camera video of the fatal shooting that contradicted the officers’ police reports.
  
  The nine-member board found that the officers exaggerated the threat posed by the 17-year-old McDonald in order to justify the actions of Officer Jason Van Dyke in shooting the teen 16 times. McDonald was high on PCP when he refused police commands to drop a knife while walking away from officers on a Southwest Side street in October 2014.
  
  The board voted unanimously to fire Officers Ricardo Viramontes and Janet Mondragon as well as Sgt. Stephen Franko for several rules violations, most importantly making false statements. All but one board member voted to fire Officer Daphne Sebastian as well for bringing discredit to the department and preventing the department from achieving its goals, though the board held that she did not make a false statement.

And the bosses (above sergeant) escape any culpability - even then-Chief of Patrol Special Ed.

Keep your ears open for any fundraisers to defray the costs of a lawsuit, one that will put Special Ed, McNaughton and Roy on the stand under oath. We will publicize them to the maximum of our ability.

Statewide Popcorn!

Looks like we now know who the main target is:

• The FBI has raided the downstate home of a high-powered former Springfield lobbyist who for decades served as one of House Speaker Michael Madigan’s closest confidants, the Chicago Tribune has learned.
  
  The raid of Mike McClain’s home in Quincy took place in mid-May, around the same time the FBI executed search warrants at the homes of two other Madigan associates — former 23rd Ward Ald. Michael Zalewski and political operative Kevin Quinn, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.
  
  It’s unclear what agents were looking for when they searched McClain’s house in Quincy, which is about 100 miles west of Springfield along the Mississippi River.
  
  But the search warrant indicates that federal investigators are probing connections to possible criminal acts by some in Madigan’s inner circle. To obtain a search warrant, federal law enforcement must convince a judge there is probable cause to believe a crime has been committed and that evidence of that crime exists in the home.

This would probably also explain why Lisa Madigan abruptly retired without seeking further political office following a stellar career of never indicting a single Illinois politician while her father ran the state into insolvency.

Teachers Union in...Venezuela?

What exactly can these "teachers" learn in this South American basket case?

• This spring, the Chicago Teachers Union Executive Board and House of Delegates each unanimously passed a resolution condemning Donald Trump and U.S. intervention in Venezuela. Resources that never seemed to find their way to our classrooms are being used to intervene in the democratic processes of other countries instead.
  
  This blog represents the members delegation of the Chicago Teacher’s Union that are currently in Venezuela to learn from educators and activists on the ground. The rest of this week, we will be reporting on what we learn and see while we are here.

Um, how about union resources that azren't finding their way into representing their membership first of all? Resources that appear to be supporting all out suppression.

Second, what "intervention"? There aren't any US troops there and the economic sanctions are in place against a regime that refused to recognize the results of an election that threw the socialists out.

It's a communist shithole where government officials are running over protestors in the streets with armored personnel carriers...supported by their fellow travelers - the useful idiots of the CTU.

Don't forget to read your property tax bill to see where your tax money is going, via teacher salaries, to support world wide communist suppression of the downtrodden, elections be damned.

How to Steal 75 Cars

Snowflake Car Rentals learned a valuable lesson:

• April 15, a Monday, should have been sleepy this year for the Chicago team at Car2Go, a car-sharing service that automaker Daimler AG introduced more than a decade ago. Weekdays were generally slow, and Chicago’s streets were slushy the day after an unusual late-season winter storm. Who wants to deal with a rental car in the snow?
  
  On that day, apparently, a lot of people did. There was a spike in rentals for Car2Go’s higher-end cars, Mercedes CLA sedans and GLA sport utility vehicles. And these rentals lasted much longer than Car2Go’s average 90-minute ride—in fact, many of the Benzes weren’t being returned at all. Instead, employees at Car2Go headquarters in Austin watched on a digital map as dozens of their vehicles congregated on a few blocks in West Chicago, in a neighborhood right outside the company’s coverage area.
  
  Car2Go sent several workers to retrieve the vehicles, only to find that a group of thieves had claimed them as their own. Some blocked the vehicles in to prevent repossession; others threatened the company’s employees, according to someone with knowledge of the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity. Car2Go has the ability to remotely disable vehicles, but the confusing situation made it tough to know which ones to target in time to do much good. Previously unreported accounts of the few days that followed from people with knowledge of the thefts, along with police reports and contemporary social media posts, offer a surreal lesson in the risks of businesses built on smartphone-enabled car-sharing. “This was a unicorn incident for us as a company,” says Kendell Kelton, a Car2Go spokeswoman. “We’ve never seen this type of fraudulent activity at this scale ever, ever.”

The entire article is a cautionary "how to" completely miss what the real world is capable of when they put their minds to crime.

Now imagine if a scooter company or ten did the same thing with two-wheeled transports covering the exact same neighborhoods that didn't think twice about taking automobiles worth tens-of-thousands of dollars. But there couldn't be that many stupid companies in the city, right?

Losing the Streets?

Note Groot's quote - then note how the media twists it in the headline:

• Mayor Lightfoot had some tough words for the Chicago Police Department on Tuesday while attending a leadership training program in New York City. After one of Chicago’s bloodiest weekends of the year -- more than 40 people shot, nine of them dead – Mayor Lightfoot discussed the ongoing issue.
  
  One weekend does not make a trend,” said Mayor Lightfoot. “But we've now had a couple weekends, where it feels like we are losing the streets.”
  
  Lightfoot's concerns about losing the streets came as she and dozens of other mayors from around the world opened a yearlong executive training program in New York. Funded by billionaire former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, it's designed, according to Harvard University's website, "to equip them with the tools and expertise to effectively lead complex cities."
  
  Given last weekend's bloodshed in Chicago, is the current police superintendent an effective leader? “I do continue to have faith in Supt. Johnson,” said Mayor Lightfoot. “But it's no secret that I’m pushing him and his leadership team to do better.”
  
  The Mayor said she's aware of the growing speculation that she'll soon choose a new police superintendent, but would not discuss it, insisting that what's most important is to reduce bloodshed.

Groot doesn't say police - she says "we." But the media has an agenda and the Special Ed countdown begins now. We say he'll be gone around Labor Day.

Just for reference, we didn't "lose" anything - the streets were taken from us. Check out the mirror Groot.

Meanwhile, the mayor missed yet another "Accountability Monday" meeting. We could have sworn she was elected to lead Chicago, not spend time with Bloomberg, but maybe we missed something. She's been out of town virtually every single weekend since inauguration.

Again with the Google-me Stupid

Building upon his previous dumbassery, Google-me sent out another e-mail, this time praising the 011th and 025th Districts for certain community efforts. All well and good. However, the unusual part is the portion of the letter that congratulates Escamerit:

• Commanders [011] and Escamilla have made frequent and productive use of their CAPS and Neighborhood Policing Initiative (NPI) teams

Correct us if we're wrong (we aren't) but didn't his "use" of one CAPS officer cost Escamerit his marriage? And wasn't he also recommended for firing based on his "use" of other CAPS officers?

And Google-me posts a letter praising this embarrassment of an exempt?

No wonder no one respects Google-me or the asses he is kissing via department e-mail.

Casino Sites

Five choices, all of them less than ideal:

The Reese and Pershing sites have limited access and potential.

The US Steel property is an ecological nightmare. Why stop there when you can go five minutes away to Indiana?

Harborside isn't convenient to much.

And a casino in 011? At least it's closer to the suburban customers and near 290 for downtown access. Twenty-five years ago, that site was under a few billion tons of rubble from the Dan Ryan project that Bill Henry took $5,000 in bribes for.

But there's a connected contract to hand out:

• Mayor Lori Lightfoot is floating five sites, all on the city’s South and West sides, as possible locations for a Chicago casino, her office said Wednesday.
  
  A state-hired consultant will study the economic feasibility of the sites and report its findings to the state and city. City officials stressed that the casino won’t necessarily wind up at one of the five spots, which they characterized as test sites, but the choices suggest that Lightfoot seeks to fulfill her campaign promise to direct growth to the city’s struggling areas.

Anyone have something better?

Meow! Cat Fight!

Prickwrinkle deflecting blame from her States Attorney and Court system:

• An angry Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has sent a letter to Mayor Lori Lightfoot, seeking to discredit a “false narrative” she says Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson is promoting that portrays the county’s bail reform efforts as “the root cause for gun violence.”
  
  The city’s top cop and the Fraternal Order of Police have “promulgated” a narrative that pins the violence in the city on the county, “county judges, county prosecutors — and their failure to do their job and that’s simply not true,” Preckwinkle told the Chicago Sun-Times.
  
  “It’s a false narrative, and they know it, and it’s infuriating,” she said.
  
  Preckwinkle accused Johnson of finger-pointing to evade the real root of the city’s crime problem, his department’s “clearance rate for homicides … one of the lowest in the nation.”

We don't know what rock Prickwrinkle has been living under since her humiliating election loss, but we'd refer her to the almost daily articles on the CWB blog about low bail / no bail, gun offenders with multiple felonies released on I-bonds, the broken parole system that releases violent criminals back into society without rhyme or reason and the multiple hundreds of inmates supposedly on Electronic Monitoring that Dart hasn't seen hide-nor-hair of in months and / or years.

We'd say that that isn't a false narrative - that's the uncomfortable truth of progressive politicians purposefully fucking up the system.

Groot Rescinds Residency

Precedent is a powerful thing:

• Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday justified allowing a City Hall consultant who lives in Wilmette to skirt a city residency rule for public employees, saying she’s known the woman for a long time and thinks her involvement will “add value” to the administration.
  
  Lightfoot was asked why Lisa Schneider-Fabes can work as a top executive at the quasi-governmental agency World Business Chicago — which has declined to say how much it’s paying her — while living in the tony North Shore suburb and acting as a key adviser in Lightfoot’s administration, despite rules that require city employees to live in Chicago and the mayor’s promise to bring more transparency to city government.

What the FOP (or the PBPA for that matter) needs now is someone maxed out, of retirement age who can quit tomorrow to move out of the city and file the Change of Address form to show suburban residency and dare the city to bring a charge against them.

It's a slam dunk win. By waiving the rule, Groot has negated the City's ability to fire anyone for residency. The city rule makes no allowances for mayoral appointments so what's good for one is good for all.

Who Watches the Watchers?

Corrupto-crats it seems:

• A city employee who investigated misconduct allegations against Chicago police was forced to resign for improperly accessing investigative records on cops she knew and for falsely reporting that a co-worker planned a mass shooting at work, a report by the city’s inspector general revealed Tuesday.
  
  The report by the office of Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson did not name the employee, but Alison Yohanna was later criminally charged by Cook County prosecutors in connection with the alleged false report.
  
  Yohanna, 35, accessed the records of her brother, boyfriend and some of the boyfriend’s relatives — all Chicago cops — almost 70 times while working as an investigator for the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, Ferguson’s office said.
  
  The report did not explain the purpose behind Yohanna’s searches but said she also failed to reveal to COPA the personal ties to the officers that posed a conflict of interest for her investigative post.

We know you inherited it Groot, but it's yours now. This is the same organization that had to be sued over hiding exculpatory expert findings of police shootings, paid for by taxpayers and who leaked "evidence" to the media regarding a set of false charges against a commander.

Weekend Plans?

Here's something for you:

Anyone know if former alderasshole Arena is making an appearance?

(comments closed here - info only)

Speaking of Bail....

Another great move by Tim Evan's Cook County Courts:

• An Albany Park man who’s accused of threatening his daughter with a stolen handgun was released on a recognizance bond even though the daughter showed police video footage of the crime, according to police and court records.
  
  [...] According to police, the daughter showed them cellphone video in which the father is seen in their garage “menacing his daughter” with the handgun, waving the weapon in the air and yelling, “you want to see who the a**hole is?” The father was seen walking toward the daughter in an aggressive manner that caused unnamed witnesses to restrain him, police said.
  
  The daughter said the father later pointed the gun directly at her after she stopped recording because her hands were shaking.
  
  [...] A defense attorney argued the father should be released without having to pay a bond because he should enjoy the benefits of the presumption of innocence.
  
  Judge Susan Ortiz apparently agreed as she released the father on a recognizance over the objections of prosecutors.

Stolen gun and a signature bond. Good to know.

Gator Makes Bail

As predicted:

The gator was immediately granted sanctuary status.

Gator Captured Overnight

Press conference at 1000. Any bets on who shows up to take credit?

Seems they hired the right expert - it took him less than 24 hours? Hope he got a flat fee and didn't charge by the hour.

Pol Says "Get a Gun"?

Is this Bizarr-o World?

• After another violent weekend that saw eight people killed and at least 32 others wounded, one lawmaker is taking action by encouraging his constituents to arm themselves.
  
  Bullets from a shooting that left a 22-year-old dead in the Austin Neighborhood on the West Side Sunday also found State Rep. La Shawn Ford’s (D-Chicago) car. Bullets were also found down the block, lodged in a love seat in a nearby home in the 800 block of North LeClaire Ave.
  
  Ford tells The Mancow Show on WLS-AM 890 that he is encouraging his residents to arm themselves against the violence.
  
  “I think about it all the time,” Ford said of the shootings that plague his community. “That’s why I’m working with a concealed carry instructor and we’re going to go through the neighborhood and we’re going to encourage people to get their concealed carry license because it makes no sense for people not to have the protections that they need.”

Well this is going to throw a wrench into all sorts of anti-gun plans.

School Cop Training (UPDATES)

We don't know where to even begin quoting this article.

Go read the link above and comment below.

The bullshit is deep and the condescension is heavy.

UPDATE: As some readers/commenters are pointing out, the school officers are being placed into an environment where, many times, the kids have already been taught to hate the police.

Not only that (and we've written about it) there's a curriculum in place that teaches distrust and promotes hatred of the police in schools based on nothing but innuendo, fiction and lies.

And finally, the Chicago Teachers Union which, though not all of them, actively promotes a "fuck the police" attitude as demonstrated at many of their public appearances and chanted from the podium by their speakers.

UPDATE: Anyone know if the students and teachers are being taught to (A) obey the law or (B) respect the law or (C) respect the police?

Gator Loose?

Trying to capture the alligator on the cheap and look what happens:

• Chicago animal control officials have closed the eastern half of Humboldt Park and hired an expert from Florida as the search for an alligator in the park lagoon enters its second week.
  
  The closure, which includes streets near the park, was done on the advice of the expert, Frank Robb, and is aimed at making the area around the lagoon as quiet and free from distractions as possible, according to Chicago Animal Care and Control.
  
  “It is likely that residents who have been watching from the lagoon banks and paths in the park have been influencing the animal’s behavior," Kelley Gandurski, executive director of CACC, said in a statement. "We are taking these steps in an attempt to create an environment that lends to the animal’s safe capture so we can quickly reopen the entire park to activity.”

So Gator Bob is gone? And numerous rumors in the comment sections think the small predator may have moved on to quieter areas.

Thanks for the Money Groot

Once again, funding Gun Safety programs far away from Chicago:

• Guns Save Life members netted our second biggest haul ever as we once again turned in broken-down, often rust-laden junk for perfectly good cash at a July 13th Chicago gun “buyback.”
  
  GSL will use the proceeds from this event to fund organized youth shooting programs, including sending young people to the nation’s longest-running NRA Youth Shooting Camp in Bloomington.
  
  I serve as GSL’s executive director. On Saturday morning, I and an undisclosed number of my fellow GSL member patriots turned in 23 guns and three pellet guns. Staff at the event mistook one of the pellet guns for a real gun and issued us a total of 24 $100 debit cards and two $10 cards, for a total of $2,420.

We have to wonder if Groot will find it amusing that Chicago taxpayers end up funding an NRA program. If you don't regularly follow The Truth About Guns website, you ought to.

Good Job Sarge

Teach kids sports and sportsmanship and you change lives:

• Wilkerson and the other coaches know this game represents more than runs and outs, winning and losing. The players on this field in Austin are among nearly 500 kids organized into a league by a Chicago police sergeant and community leaders who believe teamwork can change the lives of children who face crime and economic hardship every day.
  
  They raised more than $15,000, got companies to donate equipment and signed up volunteers from police stations, churches and local organizations. The 20 teams play every Saturday in parks across the West Side, in some of the most violent areas of the city.
  
  “These are the kids that we are out here trying to protect,” Austin District Sgt. Jermaine Harris explained one evening at another game, this one at Columbus Park, where the rumble of cars on the Eisenhower Expressway mixed with cheers from the stands.

Cops are almost never just cops - they're neighbors, parishioners, community leaders and coaches. And we were doing it before Groot said CPD has to "reconnect" with the citizenry.

Oops

And Chicago surpasses last year's Shot/Killed numbers:

• 2018 weekend tally: 7 killed, 23 wounded
  2019 @ 5:00p Stupidity Tally: 8 killed, 32 wounded

Stats via HeyJackass.com.

And there were still seven hours left and Citywide was hopping tonight.

Two More "Mass" Shootings?

The news notes, without comment, another multi-victim shooting:

• Three men were killed, and at least 16 other people were wounded in city shootings since Friday evening, including five shot in a single attack in the Gresham neighborhood, Chicago police said.
  
  In that shooting, shortly before 3 a.m. Saturday, the five people were shot in the 7900 block of South Loomis Boulevard in the South Side’s Gresham neighborhood.

And then, four people shot over at 4600 W. Erie.

This, after a Fourth of July weekend that saw FIVE separate mass shootings (four or more victims.)

• 3100 W. Iowa
  1600 E. 67th
  4600 S. King
  600 W. 61st
  5600 S. Paulina

We're sensing some hypocrisy on the part of media and anti-gun organizations that add seven "mass shootings" in about eleven days into their databases to attack legal gun owners while completely ignoring where in the city these shootings occur. Is it just us or is there something about those seven locations?

Fun With Gators

Seen in Humboldt Park:

And he's brought friends:

Just thought we'd share a few of the e-mails we're getting.

Fourth Follow Up

Summer killing season in full swing:

• 2018 weekend tally: 7 killed, 23 wounded
• 6:00p Stupidity Tally: 4 killed, 18 wounded

A bad Saturday night/Sunday and Chicago will have passed last years numbers.

Again.

Is there a "reckoning" on the horizon?

Nice Red Line Lori

Remember when we used to have an actual Mass Transit Unit?

• A man was stabbed to death on a CTA Red Line train Saturday, police said.
  
  Chicago police said officers were called to the platform in the 100 block of West Cermak Road at 2:53 p.m. when a 54-year-old man riding the southbound Red Line got into a verbal fight with someone else on the train who took out a knife and stabbed him.
  
  The man suffered deep cuts to his upper body and was pronounced dead on the platform, police said.

This one is going to be hard to explain at "Accountability Monday...or Tuesday...or What's Accountability?"

At least the "No Guns" signs are working - he wasn't shot.