Sneedlings

Obviously, Sneed is being used to further Groot's agenda:

• Sneed hears Mayor Lori Lightfoot has drawn up a Chicago Police Department exempt-rank purge list of at least six names, one of whom was a college buddy of fired former Chicago top cop Eddie Johnson.
  
  Sneed also hears rumbles Melissa Staples, chief of the detective division, may also be on the chopping block and word is the mayor is seriously contemplating disbanding the Organized Crime Unit to get more cops back on the street — which is causing a lot of CPD angst.

That isn't just angst - that's a lot of people headed to First and Third watches across the city via some sort of twisted process where Patrol holds a "super bid" to half-a-dozen undesirable Districts and then freezes movement by not offering bids anywhere nicer for a year or two. We wrote about it nearly ten years ago after the Department disbanded TRU and MSF, trapping all sorts of people far from home and far from assignments they might have otherwise made. Are we returning to those bad old days?

Sneed also hears that one completely unqualified civilian is on the chopping block:

• Finally, Sneed is told one of the names high on the “removal” hit list is a well-known former female Chicago media personality who is a CPD community relations liaison.

Robin Robinson somehow managed to nominate people for promotion as some half-assed "director" at six-figures. Her "nominees" were always connected to some higher-up (sometimes by certain "intimate" body parts) that the bosses couldn't nominate on their own lest the wives find out. The mayor might want to look into the backgrounds of Robinson's nominees to spare herself embarrassment down the road.

And finally, Sneed drops this bomb - the return of Granny Clampett?

• Does Lightfoot have her eye on Anne Kirkpatrick, the former Spokane, Washington police chief who now heads the Oakland, California police department? The former head of the Chicago Police Department’s Bureau of Professional Standards, she is a highly qualified female top cop, who is credited with breaking up the notorious Oakland Police Department frat house.
  
  Kirkpatrick was a member of the top three finalists chosen by the Chicago Police Board headed by Lightfoot before Rahm ditched the list and chose Johnson as his top cop.

We certainly hope this would be true - the material would keep us occupied for the remainder of our careers. But Lightfoot, for all the hassle we give her, isn't a moron. Granny threatened to sue Rahm for going outside of the prescribed process and she was given the Professional Standards spot to derail the lawsuit. She accepted the "payoff," but was never granted actual staff or power to effect change, so she started shopping her resume anywhere else, and bailed at the first offer.

Lightfoot values loyalty. Kirkpatrick has none, and is merely an alternative lifestyle mercenary. We have a ton of unused material from Granny's last trip through town. She would be a useful idiot for the mayor, that's for sure.