Nice One Brownie

Who's side is this dickhead on anyway?

That's the Superintendent of the CPD criticizing Minnesota police for arresting one of our fine Medill "School of Activism" stringers for disobeying police orders in what is essentially a war zone up north.'

How about just keeping your mouth shut Brownie and not exposing brown-stain ass for everyone to see?

Everything Delayed

We're all in the same boat.

Again.

Stay safe. Watch your ass and your partner's ass.

Don't get out of the boat.

And in case you didn't hear it already, Fuck you Brownie.

Cancelled Days Off

So we get home at zero-dark-thirty and finally get a message, issued at 2330 hours last night, that Days Off are cancelled and twelve-hour shifts are in effect.

So the "no OT" thing is over finally?

And a special salute (single finger) to the media who didn't once breeak into active programming yesterday afternoon while downtown burned and hundreds of rioters arrived via bus from Indiana.

If you aren't wired in to social media, and we mean a bunch of it, you missed the biggest disaster to befall Chicago since the first Bulls riot. Complete mayhem, unpreparedness on display. The broken glass and destroyed storefronts, not to mention who knows how many disabled and burned squad cars towed away....and the media "missed" at least 95% of it.

Make no mistake, the media is complicit in what is obviously a pre-planned event.

Hey Groot?

Fuck You

Busy at Work (UPDATES)

As we stated yesterday, posting is going to be sporadic and delayed. Bear with us. In the meantime, we are appalled at how badly the administration and "leadership" has failed during these riots.

First up, everyone keeps saying "Protest." These aren't protests.

Second, there is no cohesive plan:

• Groot threw together some sort of parking ban downtown, but then someone scattered cops all over the place in groups of ten or fifteen, leaving pockets of isolated officers when hundreds and thousands of assholes descended on them;
• dumpsters being wheeled into the streets as barricades....for the rioters. Streets and San should have been out all night with flatbeds sweeping these things up and parking them at Soldier Field;
• squads parked so close to the line of march that guerilla attackers slashed dozens tires rendering them inoperable for moving officers around anywhere and easily set ablaze...and tow trucks were unable to access the area;
• the 10-1's all over the radio were only a hint at what a disaster this is turning out to be;
• Cops losing equipment, hats, cuffs, vests;
• A sergeant with a broken wrist yesterday, and other with a broken arm Saturday;
• cops being dragged into the crowd and beaten;
• not to mention eggs, bottles, rocks, etc....and no helmets until Saturday;
• rioters attempting to flip multiple occupied wagons - something that hasn't been done since the Humboldt Park riots of the 70's we think;
• Car 44 refused....REFUSED....to send Area 4 Incident Teams downtown until after 2030 hours

Last we heard before heading in tonight was the CTA was still running and the bridges were down, enabling rioters free access to pretty much wherever they could get to. Did no one see Batman Begins? It was filmed partially in Chicago and to contain an out of control eruption of violence, Gotham raised the bridges. (UPDATE: Some bridges up after 1900 hours)

Gas Teams? Pepper Ball guns? LRAD? Not a one. (UPDATE: Gas team(s) deployed around 1930 hours)

The pepper ball guns were used to great effect by the Denver Police yesterday. Check out the videos if you can find them. And after rioters surrounded two precincts in New York (84th and 88th?) the NYPD laid them out like stunned mackerel.

But here, we're cannon fodder for Groot's progressive order.

UPDATE: Michigan Avenue is trashed.

This is Amusing

That "Downfall" clip that everyone parodies, with Hitler in the bunker as the Russian Army closes in on the remnants of his failed Reich? Someone made one after last week's Memorial Day massacre:

• You'll have to go to this link here

Trying to put names to the characters makes viewing a good time.

Blog Birthday

Not the celebration we were hoping for:

But thanks for the thoughts, visits and readership.

You are what makes the blog possible.

Gas Teams

Took long enough you idiots.

CW Dispatcher tried to tell off Car 100, and 100 told him to stuff it.

This after something like a dozen cops are in the hospital with broken bones and limbs.

Are the bridges up?

UPDATE: Heard on CW 6: buses full of Antifa coming in from Indiana?

UPDATE: Curfew at 2100 hours? Too little too late Groot

Overnight Mayhem

We were kind of busy last night. You might have heard about it?

Everything is delayed today. Maybe tomorrow even.

Stay safe.

UPDATE: Anyone know why the media is reporting "broken windows and property damage" but nothing about the looting that took place at half a dozen stores? We're just curious.

UPDATE: (Saturday afternoon) Anyone listening to their scanners? CW6? It's a total disaster. Groot and Brownie have dropped the ball completely.

Putzker Loses Big

He folded like a cheap suit.....it took a while because to be frank, it was a very large suit:

• Governor Pritzker, during today’s Daily Briefing, announced new guidance for religious institutions in Illinois.
  
  These “guidelines” effectively remove any previous mandates he thought he had placed on them, and replaced the mandates with “guidance.”
  
  This move was hours prior to his response deadline to the United States Supreme Court in the case of Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church and Logos Baptist Ministries v. Jay R. Pritzker, which was seeking an emergency injunction prior to May 31, 2020. Read the Emergency Application for Writ of Injunction to the SCOTUS

US Supreme Court Associate Justice Kavanaugh ordered Fatass to have a brief before him no later than 31 May explaining in detail how Fatass's "executive orders" weren't in direct violation of the First Amendment of United States Constitution.

Rather than explain, Fatass had a new set of "guidelines" drafted regarding church services, none of which are enforceable by police. He also had Illinois AG Raoul file the report of the changes made (i.e. the complete and total surrender to Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church). Upon doing so, the Court dismissed the injunctive relief.

A massive victory by the Romanians.

By the way, among the filing attachments was Dr. Arwady's declaration of the church as a "public nuisance," which doesn't bode well for taxpayers. Or Groot. Or the Deputy Chief who cited the church under whatever unconstitutional orders he was given. Here's to hoping the Romanians go for blood.

The Tribune finally adds some spin to it by posting Fatass's claim he was lifting the restrictions anyway, so there's no need to sue him.

Again with the HQ "Dumps"

This is about the eighth or ninth HQ "dump" we've covered over the years.

• The Chicago Police Department is adding 100 officers to patrol the streets beginning next month, pulling them from desk jobs, officials said Friday.
  
  The new assignments come as the warmer weather brings the threat of more violence. During the long Memorial Day weekend, more than 50 people were shot in the city. The following day, at least 28 more people were shot.
  
  Fifteen percent of sworn officers currently working at police headquarters will be permanently reassigned to the city’s 22 patrol districts on June 7. This will not include officers working on functions related to a federally mandated consent decree to improve the city’s policing practices.

But it's not really "permanent:"

• Officers tapped to work the streets from headquarters will be deployed “on a rotating two-week schedule,” according to a statement from the department.

Because everyone knows that gang violence operates on a two-week cycle. Brownie and Groot have consulted with someone - probably Malinowski or Lemmer - and the next cycle begins promptly on 07 June.

One hundred officers working on two-week cycles is fifty officers per deployment. Divided among 22 Districts is about 2.2 officers per district per two week cycle - one entire car. Since the mice are already on days, they'll be ordered to be left on days so as not to disturb their sleep cycles.

They'll also have weekends off....unless they're unlucky enough to already be assigned to Friday/Saturday or Sunday/Monday day off groups....you know, exactly when the extra manpower would be most helpful to the Districts. Real big help this is going to be. We're better off with the hundreds dumped out of Homan Square.

After eight different Reductions in Force, there can't be anybody left at HQ, right?

Parting Shot Advice

Some good words for Brownie to use should he choose to head off into the sunset:

• He’s still holding some cards. The best play for him is to be straight up, call out Lightfoot and say, “I took this job with the intent that I would be able to run the department, not the mayor run the department using me as a mouthpiece. If she has a better idea, with all of her vast experience being a police officer, maybe she should just appoint herself mayor AND superintendent of police, because that is what she is doing now. And she can enjoy the failures of trying to do the impossible for the ungrateful.
  
  We have so many great people in Chicago, but those individuals, the ones who are doing their duty as citizens, neighbors, parents, Mayor Lightfoot is not concerned about those people. She is only concerned about those who will never follow rules, laws, or basic elements of human decency, and misplaces the blame on the police Department instead of where it actually lies, in entire communities of individuals who have no regard for common decency or human life.” There you go, superintendent Brown. I wrote your speech for you. If you came out and said that, her firing you would appear retaliatory in nature setting you up for amazing public image and maybe some coin coming your way.
  
  You are holding an Ace, play it.

We won't even ask Brownie to pay for the advice.

57 and Climbing

The tally keeps climbing:

• Two 19-year-old women were shot to death Thursday while sitting in a parked vehicle in South Chicago.
  
  They were in the 8700 block of South Essex Avenue about 8:36 p.m when someone opened fire, Chicago police said.
  
  One woman was shot in the back and hand, police said. The other woman was shot in her head.

Anyone seeing any marches or riots or protests over this? Because we remember a time when this wouldn't be tolerated by ANY community in Chicago.

"Room to Destroy" (UPDATE)

We've heard this one before....Baltimore, wasn't it?

• ....sent this evening from commander of area central
  
  Good evening all,
  
  The Department will no longer use force to disperse large gatherings. Until further notice, large gatherings will only be monitored until the crowd disperse on it's own. Please ensure that all supervisors under your command are made aware of this instruction.
  
  Thank you,

You have your orders boys and girls, from an Area Commander no less.

UPDATE: Verified (and another $50 to the Chaplains from SeeBS. They can afford it with all the layoffs this week:

• Chicago police officers have been ordered to “no longer use force to disperse large gatherings,” as tensions mount over the months-long stay-at-home order, and protests continue nationwide over the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who pleaded for air as a white police officer kneeled on his neck
  
  “Until further notice, large gatherings will only be monitored until the crowd disperse on it’s own. Please ensure that all supervisors under your command are made aware of this instruction,” top brass wrote in a memo to commanders and officers Thursday night.
  
  In addition to mounting protests over Floyd’s death, the order comes amid a statewide stay-at-home order that prohibits gatherings of more than 10 people.

So no one can gather in groups of 10 or more.....but the Department won't give us any tools to "enforce" the "order."

Brilliant leadership once again. Lift the lockdown Groot.

Psssst!

Word from HQ that the Sooper-Sekret Study Groups have received their pamphlets outlining Part II of the delayed Sergeant Exam. Nothing like getting a leg up on the competition.

We however, haven't received one. Have you?

Groot's New Co-Pilot

Aldertool Taliaferro wrested the wheel away from Groot for a moment and reversed that bus right over Brownie:

• David Brown failed his first major test as Chicago’s police superintendent because he was more concerned with cutting overtime than fighting violence and failed to share his Memorial Day weekend plans with local leaders, an influential alderman said Thursday.
  
  Mayor Lori Lightfoot has condemned the “out of control” violence that turned Memorial Day weekend into a “bloodbath” and held Brown personally responsible. The chairman of the City Council’s Committee on Public Safety went even further.
  
  Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th), a former Chicago Police officer, said the former Dallas police chief turned his first holiday weekend in Chicago into “a fail,” as Lightfoot put it, by putting hundreds fewer moonlighting officers on the street than the 1,200 additional officers who worked last Memorial Day weekend.

Somehow, this runs in direct contradiction with Groot's proclamation just 24 hours prior:

• In her afternoon news conference, Lightfoot blamed disgruntled cops upset about cuts in police overtime for spreading a false rumor that there were 1,000 fewer police officers on the street. But she also contradicted Brown, saying “In fact, there were more officers on the street this weekend” than in prior years.

So which is it? Cops are disgruntled liars or Groot is a serial fabulist making up bullshit to direct attention away from her own incompetence? (hint: it's Groot - there were hundreds less officers. Interested reporters can FOIA the Attendance and Assignment sheets from previous years at their leisure).

Back to that big ol' bus running over Brownie:

• According to Taliaferro, the edict was on full display over Memorial Day weekend. There were “hundreds” fewer officers on the street when there should have been at least as many as last year, maybe more, to “saturate” South and West Side police districts plagued by gang and gun violence, the alderman said. The Chicago Police Department should also have used “outside units” from the State Police and Cook County Sheriff’s office, Taliaferro said.
  
  “The mistake was cutting back on officers. There were a lot fewer. … It did not rise to the level of what we had the last several years. And that’s why we saw an increase in violence,” Taliaferro said. “You need to have those officers on the street during holiday periods — especially when we’ve been sheltered in place for two-and-a-half months. We can worry about cutting back on overtime Tuesday through Thursday.”

Point of Order Chris - maybe you don't remember this, but ISP and Cook County don't get "used" by CPD. They are separate entities with their own command staffs. And if they are anything like our command staff, they'll resent encroachment on their territories and officers. They might deign to "assist" Chicago, but in case you don't remember, we're currently under a Consent Decree. Our rules and regulations are a bit more involved (and restrictive) than theirs might be. Their training is different. Their policies are likely different. Their liability is most certainly different. And if they have half a brain, they wouldn't put any of their officers anywhere near the Chicago shitshow, and certainly not under the command of any of Groot's incompetent minions.

The "New Normal"

Not really that new, but more brazen to say the least:

• For the second straight day, a large crowd confronted Chicago police officers as they arrested someone on gun charges.
  
  The latest incident happened about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday as police were dispersing about 100 people attending a memorial in the 2700 Block of West Flournoy Street in the Lawndale neighborhood. Officers saw a man with a gun who ran from them and threw the weapon underneath a car, police said in a statement. They took him into custody and placed him into a police car, but a crowd surrounded it “and began pulling on the doors in an attempt to release the offender while interfering and obstructing the officers,” police said.
  
  The car was able to leave the scene and no injuries were reported. Five people were arrested on charges ranging from aggravated battery to a police officer to resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. The suspect initially taken into custody was charged with unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, police said.

This after officers were pelted with bottles following a gun arrest on the block where a five-year-old was shot the day before. Anyone hear some condemnation from Brownie? From Groot? From a single "revrund" or community activist or violence interrupter? Maybe Chump the Wrapper?

All of the above assholes get calls daily from citizens and alderassholes about violence in the 'hood. So cops go there attempting to quell violence by their presence and manage to spot people (or folks) actively breaking the law running around with guns, so they do the heroic thing and pursue, capture and arrest them. The thanks for their efforts is crowds of people (or folks) throwing bottles at them and attempting to release the criminals.

Someone in the administration want to explain this to us? You aren't inspiring us with any confidence at this point and your "leadership" is a bad joke.

Virtue Signaling Received!

For something we've all received training on already, and in fact, is covered every single year in the new "Procedural Justice" and "Use of Force" modules:

• Chicago Police Supt. David Brown has ordered all Chicago Police officers to undergo mandatory training on “positional asphyxiation” in light of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
  
  “I want to make it clear that this behavior is not acceptable in Chicago, will not be tolerated under my command, and quite frankly has no place in law enforcement anywhere,” Brown said in a statement Thursday.

Now, for the record, we agree training is good. We have bitched here for years that training was inadequate. We've also outlined how the City fought training every single step of the way, refusing to grant Contractual training days as proposed by the FOP back in the 1990's.

We also agree that going over Use of Force is good and necessary. The scenario based training is decent, could be better, but the City tries to do everything on the cheap, and it shows.

During one module (Use of Force of PJ I), the instructor pretty much talked us through one arrest scenario, step-by-step."OK, I'm down, cuff me; Cuffs are on. Search me; I'm searched. Roll me to my side. Positional. Positional." Safety Officers reminded us constantly, "He's down, he's not resisting, don't knee him in the back, don't break his arm, put him in a sitting position."

That's decent training to start. Most people learn by doing, doing it repeatedly, and doing it correctly with coaching throughout the process. That way, in the heat of an actual fight, the officer is going to hear that voice coaching them though the incident making sure steps are followed that protect (firstly) the officer and (secondly) the arrestee.

Brownie is obviously running scared at this point (and receiving bad advice from his appointed inner circle) by telling the media what he's doing, even if all of his officers know they've been getting this training going on a third year now. He's virtue signalling to the press (and Groot) while losing the Department who can see the strings being pulled on this puppet.

Media Covers for Chump

Don't look for this one to make the media. This is a picture of Chump the Wrapper last year at Wentworth Gardens:

Wentworth Gardens, you may recall, is where the five-year-old got shot a few nights ago, and where Chump tweeted that the "militarized police" should stop coming to the 'hood.

Do you know why the police were in Wentworth Gardens? It seems that the individual on the right side of that photograph is a recently-deceased (02 January) known gun offender and suspected shooter in a number of violent acts. It was his birthday, and to celebrate, two hundred jackasses gathered resulting in numerous shots fired calls and the five-year-old catching lead. At least two guns were recovered, including the one that led to numerous officers being pelted with bottles and rocks.

For this, Chump broadcasts his ignorance to the world, and the Chicago media lets him get away with it without any sort of context pointing out exactly why the crowd of two-hundred was there....and why the police were summoned to the scene. Trust us, the cops didn't go looking to be outnumbered 100-to-1.

Notify Sean Penn!!!

We're getting a bunch of emails and comments about the Academy set-up of Alternate Response and/or the integrated Command Post is suffering with no air conditioning as of late and CFD ambulances are making near daily trips there to remove heat casualties.

We're also told that they're forbidden from tipping off the media lest it cast Groot's handpicked command staff to undue ridicule.

Another Midget Dictator

After the debate over yesterday's picture - is it a nazi or Il Duce - we got this one:

How come no one is making memes out of these?

K9 Dispersals?

Report from the southside two nights ago:

• Dispatch is actually sending canine to disperse crowd in 003.
  
  "Surge" cars and 006 at 75th and DRexel for a crowd of 200 plus

Following in the traditions of Bull Connor (D-Alabama). We expect CFD will be next with the deck water cannons.

Did the Weekend Ever End?

Someone must have forgotten to hit the OFF switch:

• The violence that marked Chicago’s Memorial Day weekend spilled into the week, with 23 people shot between Tuesday afternoon and early Wednesday, including a 5-year-old girl and two teenage boys.
  
  [...]
  
  The shootings occurred from the Far South Side to the Northwest Side and a follow a long holiday weekend that saw at least 10 people killed and 40 others wounded. It was the deadliest Memorial Day weekend in five years, and prompted Mayor Lori Lightfoot to publicly rebuke her new police superintendent, a little more than a month on the job.
  
  Five men were killed over 10 hours Tuesday and early Wednesday across the city.

So HeyJackass.com has the weekend total at 10 and 42 over the three day weekend. And over the course of something like thirty-six hours, Chicago racks up half again as many casualties?

That would make us think that Groot's criticism of Brownie has some merit. He's failed this weekend and the failure continues into the first warm week.

But then again, Groot is the one actually running the Department, refusing to let Brownie make any substantive changes, sticking him with a roster of cheaters and corruptocrats that would embarrass any so-called "reformer."

Since Brownie is already under the bus. who can she blame now?

Mixed Bullshit Messages

Groot must have been told she fucked up, because she was making apologetic noises yesterday (see yesterday's posts regarding tweets from Groot and Chump the Wrapper):

• The accusations against the police department prompted a response from Mayor Lori Lightfoot who said they are fundamentally untrue.
  
  “Those dispersal orders are happening all over the city – and yes, in white, areas, Latinx, in monied areas,” Lightfoot said. “Why the media doesn’t cover that I think there’s some answers to that.”

The media doesn't cover it because Groot told them not to. After all, the crowd was throwing bottles at the police who had just arrested a man with a gun in the area where a five-year-old was shot. Reporting that might make the police look like heroes.....and the community look like assholes. Can't have that.

Fred Waller got into the "act" with backhanded praise:

• Chief of Operations Fred Waller defended the Chicago Police Department’s handling of crowd dispersals. “CPD was also on hand for a large gathering Monday in Grant Park,” Waller said. “As you can see, our officers were busy in all parts of the city. We need to do better and we will do better.”

Gee Fred, what could we have done better? We didn't shoot anyone all weekend while the community shot over fifty. We recovered 216 guns. A normal boss not looking to suck ass would call that a pretty good weekend.

And bringing up the rear, almost doomed to irrelevancy over the past year, pfather pfaker found a dim spotlight he can jump in front of:

• However activist and Catholic priest, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor at St. Sabina in Auburn-Gresham, said the difference in tactics is clear as black-and-white. “We’ve got to end that culture, whether its two different ways people are treated based on your race and the color of your skin,” he said.

The pfake pfather sees everything through the lens of race and color. He conveniently leaves out (as all libtards do) the deciding factor for all police actions:

• behavior

Guess where a five-year-old wasn't shot? Or where people were wearing masks, playing their music at a reasonable volume during reasonable hours, drinking anywhere but on the street corners, and not shooting fifty people over a three day weekend (almost eighty over four days.)

That, and that alone, dictates where the bulk of police resources are sent, and they aren't sent there of their own volition. There are politicians who make those decisions.

Mendoza Runs Interference

Even with the media embargo on the pay raise Illinois legislators were due for, the story was gaining massive traction downstate and in the more enlightened parts of the electorate. Enter the Machine's Susana Mendoza:

• Seeking to knock down a Republican talking point on the $40 billion state spending plan passed over the weekend, Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza released a video Wednesday declaring that legislators won’t be getting raises in the budget year that begins July 1.
  
  “Some state legislators seem to think they’ll be getting a pay raise this year,” Mendoza says in the minute-long video. “The answer is: No, they won’t."
  
  As debate over the budget stretched into the early-morning hours Sunday, some Republicans in the Illinois House and Senate objected to the lack of language specifically blocking the automatic cost-of-living raises legislators are granted under state law.
  
  [...] While it’s true that no such language was included, the budget lawmakers approved would not provide any money to cover the cost of legislator raises, which means they won’t be seeing a pay bump, according to Mendoza, a Chicago Democrat whose job includes writing lawmakers’ paychecks. “Here’s how much money the General Assembly appropriated for legislator raises … in this year’s budget: Zero," Mendoza says in the video. “Which means, here’s how much more money I will be putting in their paychecks this year: Zero.”

We think that Mendoza is positioning herself for another shot at the mayor's office. She was our bet last year in the crowded field and seeing as how Groot is cratering in every metric of being an actual leader, it'll be another toss-up race in three years. Unless she's got her sights on the Durbin's Senate seat?

Contact Tracers

Someone brought up a good point in the comments:

• These "contact tracers" are a ready made patronage army to run around and "harvest" absentee ballots in democrat-rich sections of Chicago

With an expected workload of seven-point-five phone calls expected from them every day, they'll have plenty of down time to concentrate on election stuff....and at $20 per hour, too.

Someone also commented that all the data these tracers collect - contact points, areas people visit, places they hang out, frequent people they meet - it's just a civilian version of the old gang database. And didn't Groot campaign on destroying that?

Sad Face Emoji

So very sad to see this:

• Longtime Chicago investigative reporter Pam Zekman’s 39-year run at CBS 2 Chicago ended Wednesday.
  
  Zekman was among 12 or more reporters, anchors and other employees laid off by the local CBS television affiliate WBBM, as first reported by the Daily Herald’s Robert Feder.
  
  Other layoffs included news anchor Erin Kennedy, sports anchor Megan Mawicke, meteorologist Megan Glaros and reporters Mike Puccinelli and Mai Martinez.

Zekman's best days are far behind her and the SeeBS brand has fallen so far in recent years that you would need a microscope to even see the remnants of it. Hopefully the rest of the "reporters" can Learn to Code.

Getting Crowded Under the Bus

We can't stop laughing - Groot took Brownie, and just tossed him under the bus - and he hasn't even been here a month yet (Tribune story):

• Mayor Lori Lightfoot publicly scolded her new police superintendent Tuesday for not coming up with a good enough strategy to contain violence over the Memorial Day weekend, the deadliest in five years, though she acknowledged the department is facing its greatest challenge in decades.
  
  “While I know that there was a lot of energy and coordination among a variety of groups, what I said to the superintendent this morning is this was a fail,” Lightfoot said. “And whatever the strategy is, it didn’t work … This weekend’s violence was out of control.”
  
  At least 10 people were shot to death and at least 40 others were wounded by gunfire over the long weekend, despite a statewide stay-at-home order and a plan by Superintendent David Brown to step up patrols and better coordinate their deployment across the city.

Chump the Wrapper chimed in with Groot:

• Yo I seen HUNDREDS of ppl at millennium park and and pics of even more at the parks on the north side. Outside, no masks, no social distancing, enjoying themselves. Please stop sending large groups of militarized police into our neighborhoods exclusively

Of course, Chump has to resort to lies to make his point. Most people were wearing masks, most were social distancing, and they were enjoying themselves without drinking on the public way, blasting loud music, decidedly lacking in gunfire and openly brandishing of weapons. Those factors alone would mean less police presence.

In the meantime, guess whose fault all the mayhem was? If you answered "the community," slap yourself with a cocobolo nightstick.

It was The Police of course!!! (Sun Times story)

• In her afternoon news conference, Lightfoot blamed disgruntled cops upset about cuts in police overtime for spreading a false rumor that there were 1,000 fewer police officers on the street. But she also contradicted Brown, saying “In fact, there were more officers on the street this weekend” than in prior years.

False rumor? Really? More than prior years? Perhaps Groot would care to explain this from our City Hall spies:

• After a meeting at City Hall two weeks ago to date, Brown calls West and Riccio to his office. He demands a cost-benefit-analysis of manpower vs. shootings v. OT because LL has given him marching orders to curb ALL overtime. Hence this weekends bloodbath.

Hey Brownie, it's not to late to be your own man. Reclaim your balls, pack your bags, and leave town while burning every bridge behind you by revealing exactly how Groot is running the Department, leaving incompetent lackeys in place, restricting your ability to make actual changes and demote the morons who have cheated their way to the top spots.

Lightführer

Groot went national over the weekend, between church raids and nearly a dozen dead and forty wounded:

Picture from Ace of Spades.

We also saw where the citizens of Kentucky hanged their governor in effigy as a political protest. We were going to try the same thing here, but the rope kept breaking as the effigy was just too damn heavy.

Where is This Money From?

It's another fucking miracle:

• Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced $56 million in funding to go towards a request for proposal to expand contact tracing in Chicago.
  
  Mayor Lightfoot said the money is coming from the Illinois Department of Public Health and the CDC and that 85 percent of the funding will go towards at least 30 community organizations that serve communities experiencing high economic hardship.
  
  [...]
  
  The neighborhood organizations will hire a workforce of 600 contact tracers, supervisors and referral coordinators, who will have the capacity to trace 4,500 new contacts per day.
  
  The contact tracing process begins with interviewing a person who tested positive and then identifying people who they were in contact with. Public health officials will then get in touch with those individuals to urge them to get tested and, if necessary, self-quarantine. It also allows the state to track the progress of the virus and its spread.
  
  Contact tracers can earn $20 an hour with supervisors earning $24 an hour. All positions will also come with full benefits.

$56 million....for a virus infection less deadly that the seasonal flu....and that's already burning itself out.

We certainly hope the FOP is keeping track of all these miraculous dollars that keep reappearing when Groot wants to fund some pet projects.

Quick - Name This Tune

Anyone recall this?

• “We will shut you down. We will cite you and if we need to, we will arrest you and we will take you to jail. Period. Don’t make us treat you like a criminal, but if you act like a criminal and you violate the law and you refuse to do what is necessary to save lives in this city during a pandemic we will take you to jail, period.”

We're having a hard time with remembering exactly who said this. It must have been someone semi-important though. It seems very matter-of-fact and meant to intimidate lawbreakers into reconsidering their evil ways. We certainly hope that this person had the Department's back and didn't throw anyone like the Supernintendo under the proverbial bus.

In the meantime, did everyone see that CPD got something like 215 guns off the street this holiday weekend? The jail must be overflowing with felony arrests. Because you couldn't possibly get two hundred guns off the street without two hundred people facing some sort of charges, right?

It's such a great time to be living in Chicago.

Tweet Update

Yesterday we posted Groot's tweet about how she was more worried about the officers wearing masks that the fact that numerous officers were injured at a ghetto mini-riot.

The followup tweet (which we didn't have at the time) was even more tone deaf (click for larger version):

So she admits in the tweet that she's the one sending officers into the hood to enforce social distancing (see post above for Chump the Wrapper's complaint about cops breaking up crowds). How do you create "racial equity" when only one certain community is not following the directives? And now she is getting questions about how CPD is accomplishing the mission - a mission that the entire community seems dead set against complying with.

Again, don't trick bag yourself or your co-workers enforcing a dictate that (A) was never passed into law and (B) will only result in your facing Department Charges in the very near future. Look at what she just did to Brownie (see top post).

Right Under the Bus

Groot interjects herself right into the driver's seat:

The video that we've seen (of course) starts right at the point where an officer throws a punch. Not a second of any provocation, not a millisecond of anything that could be proven to be self-defense. Nothing. Just a completely out-of-context punch. And there's the Groot, telling everyone that the top three things that will be looked at are tactics, rights and "face coverings."

Guess who will be taking time for no masks?

Did you know that during times of extreme exertion, even the simplest mask can cut blood oxygen levels anywhere from 5% to 25%? Running, biking, fighting a non-social-distancing crowd who are out partying in violation of all sorts of "orders."

We also notice Groot didn't mention the officers injured attempting to enforce her and Fatass's "orders." Anyone one want to guess exactly where cops fall on her radar? Here's some words we haven't reminded everyone of in a while - Stay Fetal. The job you save might just be your own.

"Deadliest" Memorial Day Weekend

In at least five years according to the media:

• Nine people are dead and 30 others wounded so far in weekend shootings in Chicago — the deadliest Memorial Day weekend since 2015, when 12 people were killed.
  
  Despite the state’s stay-at-home order, the weekend’s death toll has already surpassed last year’s holiday weekend, when seven people were killed and 34 were injured during the period from 5 p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. Tuesday.
  
  In 2018, seven people died and 30 others were wounded. In 2017, six people were killed and 44 others were wounded. In 2016, six people were killed and 56 wounded.
  
  At the beginning of Memorial Day weekend — the unofficial start of summer — Chicago Police Supt. David Brown announced opening a Summer Operations Center to centralize police resources in an effort to tamp down on summer gun violence.

And it looks like the Slum Times is taking its lead from the blog, recognizing that the weekend doesn't encompass the usual time frames. Theirs is from 1700 hours Friday through 0500 Tuesday.

There was a "mass stabbing" of four Sunday, none dead. We don't think knife woundings have ever been tallied in weekend totals, but knife homicides count.

Final Totals per HeyJackass.com will be posted upon their verification later this morning.

UPDATE: Ten and Thirty-nine.

HeyJackass.com has the weekend totals as Ten and Forty-two, but within the hours we set, three are outside the boundaries.

Cops Injured

That "stay at home order" is paying dividends for Groot:

• Two Chicago police officers were injured while trying to disperse a crowd Sunday in Englewood on the South Side.
  
  They were responding to the gathering about 9:42 p.m. in the 7000 block of South Lowe Avenue, Chicago police said. One officer noticed a male holding a gun, and a chase ensued. He was taken into custody a short time later.
  
  Shots were fired in the area, and a second male was taken into custody, police said. No one was hit by gunfire and a gun was recovered.
  
  During the incident, two officers suffered minor injuries and were taken to hospitals in good condition, police said.

Anyone know why hundreds of people (or folks) were out violating the "stay at home" order?

Another Officer was hit by a car:

• A Chicago police officer was hurt after being struck by a vehicle during a traffic stop Monday in Woodlawn on the South Side.
  
  The female officer tried to grab documentation from a female driver about 2:20 p.m. in the 6300 block of South Vernon Avenue when the driver sped off and struck the officer, Chicago police said.
  
  She was taken to a hospital in good condition with non-life threatening injuries, police said.

Nice biased "reporting" there by the Slum Times. How about the officer was "reaching" for the documentation when the offender sped off, striking the officer.

Best wishes for speedy recoveries to all of the injured.

Insanity

Here's the Dumbest of Dumb ideas it has ever been our displeasure to run across:

Seriously. Turning off traffic signals during a holiday to "deter" crime? How is that supposed to work exactly?

And worst of all, KNOWING and PREDICTING an increase in traffic crashes at these intersections? We're thinking of returning to Law School just so we can sue the City and whomever came up with this asinine idea.

All of these intersections are in 003. Was it elsewhere or was this stupidity of the localized variety?

A Bit of Perspective

From what we can tell, the numbers are pretty close to what the CDC has been releasing:

Someone will nitpick it for sure, but it's a pretty close representation of how certain blue cities are driving the shutdown....and driving the economy into the shitter.

UPDATE: Los Angeles is included. Click the picture, zoom, in, you can see the faint lines delineating the County borders.

Consent Decree During COVID-19

The Chicago Contrarian's take on the Consent Decree and the political machinations behind it:

• With likely hundreds of millions to be raked in from the taxpayers in a purported quest to restore constitutional policing in Chicago, several recent crises are quickly revealing that the consent decree imposed upon the Chicago Police is one of the greatest frauds ever perpetuated on the city.
  
  And it’s about time those who created it and oversee it, like court-appointed special monitor, Maggie Hickey, be held accountable.
  
  Even in its gestation, anyone with any political sensibility could see the move to impose a consent decree on Chicago had nothing to do with the Constitution and everything to do with the politicization of the Justice Department under President Obama and his lackey attorney generals. As the DOJ under Obama announced an investigation into the police on the claim that officers regularly violate constitutional rights, the report revealed no methodology or serious statistic gathering, just the usual collection of arbitrary numbers and anecdotes manipulated to claim the police are racist because they are more active in certain minority communities than others.
  
  The report conveniently left out the crucial fact that the increased police presence was a response to increased violent crime. Rather than conduct a fair, circumspect investigation, the DOJ report employed the race card that has become the sole bargaining chip of the political left, particularly Obama’s administration.

An interesting read from a former FOP VP. Give it a read.

On the County Side

Prickwrinkle is looking at a $200 million shortfall...minimum. We got this from one of our many County readers:

• In 2017, well before COVID hit and just before the clusterfuck that was the "pop tax," CCDOC officers signed a contract with the county board. Not including some gains they made in language to the Contract, on the financial side (the side negotiated with Preckwinkle not Dart), they agreed to defer step increases for everyone, for 3 fiscal years. This caused over 65% of the correctional staff and supervisors to receive no step increase for that time. They got a $1200 bonus the first year, then a 2% raise and then a 2% raise again. That's it. Their initial proposal will be even more draconian, but this is what the county will eventually demand from the union this summer:
  
  - Health care premiums will double (as a percentage paid every check)
  - Step increases deferred for an additional 2 years, then only 2 step increases allowed in the last year (meaning if you got hired new and haven't received a step increase and are expecting say 3 of them, you only get 2... further deferring raises and driving down unfunded liabilities in the future).
  - Dramatic increase in 12-hour shifts (less officers needed by 30% for the same post, etc).
  - A one-time medical buy-back of 100%, up to 200 hours, per officer. (Intended to deplete the amount of medical each officer carries on the books, making it harder for them to call in medical in the future over time).
  
  And the kickers?
  - TWO unpaid furlough days, PER MONTH, for a year.
  - NO Raises over 3 years...... $1500 bonus each year instead.
  
  If not: 10% layoffs for every merit rank (ie: 300~ OFCs, 20-25 SGTs, 10 LTs), and mandatory 3-4 unpaid furlough days per month, for everyone. Hiring freeze and promotional freezes to follow (not counting bosses). And even scarier, civilian directors will run divisions and units. The county figured out that with the reduction in inmate population, you could close several divisions and need less bosses. Superintendents will be a thing of the past. Civilian directors will oversee everyone, working largely as a panel group, instead of direct control over a specific group of people.

This partially explains more of Dart's emptying the jail - it justifies massive cuts among the deputies. But we still don't see cuts in the rest of the otherwise redundant Cook County government ranks. There isn't a single function aside from the jail and forest preserves that isn't (or can't be) covered by other local governments.

Wow. Just Wow

These assholes voted themselves a pay raise? With almost zero dollars coming in, they voted themselves a pay raise? With unemployment in Illinois topping 16% and well on the way to 20%, they voted themselves a pay raise??

• State Representative Charlie Meier (R-Okawville) was disappointed with the Illinois General Assembly’s action following the emergency session which ended after midnight on May 24th in Springfield. The legislative session ended with lawmakers receiving a pay raise, a budget which spent billions the state doesn’t have and they skipped town without a vote to safely reopen Illinois earlier than Governor Pritzker’s ‘Restore Illinois’ plan.
  
  “With less revenue for state government and record unemployment, it makes zero sense for the legislature to give themselves a pay raise and spend money the state doesn’t have,” said Rep. Meier. “I voted against the state budget because it makes promises the state can’t afford to keep. With billions in debt and less revenue for the state, now more than ever must our state government tighten its belt and stop digging ourselves deeper into debt.”
  
  The State of Illinois owes more than $7.4 billion in unpaid bills, with 74,064 invoices waiting to be paid. Illinois’ estimated revenue for Fiscal Year 2021 which begins July 1, 2020, and ends July 1, 2021 is $36.8 billion. Yet, the Democrat-controlled legislature approved a $42.8 billion budget which included borrowing $5 billion. The legislature anticipates Governor Pritzker will sign the budget very soon.

That's not a budget - that's a roadmap to disaster.

Here's how almost everyone voted (click for larger version):

The final tally might have changed as the eleven "not voting" came off the fence.

No More Specialty Cars?

Specifically, no more 05 cars?

• SCC,
  
  In order to have more bodies answering calls and have a greater presence on the streets, to go with the disbanding of Narcotics, 05 cars are now a thing of the past along with "security" cars and stuff. Each beat car will be responsible for the parks on their beats.

All well and good. Many street level problems begin in parks, so this is just CAPS in action.

However, weren't 05 cars Federally Funded? Where is that money going or is the City returning a block grant to the Feds?

Church Raid?

We haven't been able to verify this via regular means and the website is not among our regular reads, but this seems like an escalation of large proportions.....if true:

• Courtney Lewis, the pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Chicago, was in the middle of his sermon when he heard loud banging on front doors. It was the police and they were denied entry into the sanctuary. Mayor Lori Lightfoot had dispatched three squad cards and two unmarked cars filled with armed officers. A representative from the mayor’s office was also present.
  
  [...] Pastor Lewis said the intent was to shut down their Sunday services. It was “like the Soviet-style KGB,” he said. “The only thing she hasn’t done yet is beat the doors down and arrest our members,” the pastor said.
  
  Pastor Lewis tells the Todd Starnes Radio Show that the men of the church were instructed not to open the doors during the services — per protocol.

Someone on the southside has to have first hand info and/or pictures of the incident, again, if it actually happened as the pastor says. The church is at 1210 E 62nd St.

CWB Posts What Media is Afraid to

As reported here three days ago:

• A Chicago Police Department commander this week was reminded of a very important rule: Never get on the mayor’s bad side. The consequences for Commander of Narcotics Ronald Kimble have been swift and unmistakable. CPD is famous — or perhaps infamous — for giving “soft landings” to connected leaders who go astray. Assigning the wayward executive to a do-nothing placeholder post is common.
  
  But Kimble has taken an exceptionally hard landing. He’s been demoted to lieutenant, moved to the midnight shift, and reassigned to the 24th District in Rogers Park — giving him a daily 23-mile cross-city commute from his home on the Far South Side, according to a CPD source.
  
  [...]
  
  Kimble’s boss in narcotics, Deputy Chief William Bradley, has also been returned to the rank of lieutenant. He’ll now be reporting to work at a district station on the Northwest Side.

Might be a couple more coming up after the weekend.

A Casino Bill?

Kind of an awkward time to be passing something that should have been done years ago:

• The Illinois House on Saturday passed legislation changing the tax structure for a Chicago casino that Mayor Lori Lightfoot has been pushing for the past year.
  
  The legislation also would extend from two to six years the amount of time casino’s owners would have to make a reconciliation payment, another change Lightfoot has pushed.
  
  That legislation now heads to the Senate, where its future is uncertain, as lawmakers work into the holiday weekend to attempt to pass a state budget during a special pandemic-driven session.
  
  There was some bipartisan support in the House for the casino bill Saturday, when the measure cleared with a 77-32 vote. It’s the furthest Lightfoot’s proposed Chicago casino changes have gotten in the General Assembly to date.

This is good, but after destroying the convention and tourist industries, we don't know how they expect this to make a single dime.

Also, we don't know if there is a management company that even wants to operate a casino in Chicago. The taxes and fees would have made it impossible for them to turn a profit for years, decades even, and it killed any sort of interest last time around.

Sun Times coverage here.

Gee, Another Parolee?

Those offenders that tried to stick up an off-duty sergeant outside of 019 are no strangers to the system:

• Two men and two juveniles are charged with trying to rob an off-duty Chicago police sergeant just steps from the 19th District police station in Lakeview. One of the accused adults, a long time menace in the Boystown area, is on parole for robbery and for stealing the wallet of a dying man at the Loyola Red Line station.
  
  [...]
  
  In January 2018, [multiple convicted felon Derrick Robie] was charged with robbing a man at the Morse Red Line station. Even though Robie was charged with Class X felony armed robbery, Cook County Judge Stephanie Miller released him on his own recognizance with electronic monitoring.
  
  A few days later, detectives arrested Robie after they determined that he stole a wallet from a man’s pants pocket while the victim lay dying at the Loyola Red Line station earlier in the month. The victim was alone when he fell down the station’s staircase, lost consciousness, and later died, police said at the time. CTA video captured images of Robie and another man rifling through the dying man’s pockets, stealing his wallet, and leaving him without summoning help.

Yet another success story by the Cook county criminal "justice" system. Pat O'Brien, are you cutting campaign commercials for this yet?

Four and Ten...So Far

Per HeyJackass.com.

They have the count at four and twelve, but two were early birds, happening before the close of business, though thinking about it, there isn't much business actually going on nowadays. But we aren't going to alter the rules in the middle of the weekend.

All day Sunday and Monday to go.

Groot Says What Now?

Harold Washington called this "hubris - that's arrogance gone wild"

• That means Chicago has to move slow to prevent the virus from spreading and more lives being lost, Lightfoot said. She emphasized Thursday she doesn’t care if nearby cities like Evanston or bordering states like Wisconsin are opening up, saying all of Chicago’s reopening decisions would be made using data and science to protect people.
  
  “When I find myself in the circumstance of calling the survivors of people who have died, I don’t want their deaths to be in vain because we are so fixated on a moment of pleasure that can impact our city for a lifetime,” Lightfoot said. “And, yeah, I will say the same thing that I tell my 12-year-old: I don’t care what other people do. You’re my kid.

Listen close and listen well:

• You are a flunky hired by the voters on a temporary basis to oversee the day-to-day functions of government - picking up the trash, clearing out the garbage, making sure the streets are swept, trees are trimmed, sewers are draining, snow gets plowed, fires get put out, cops behave. You designate people to run these departments on our behalf - they report to you (the buck stopping at your desk and all that). If you don't do it, we vote for someone else who will. "Consent of the governed" is an important phrase you might want to learn.
  
  You are not our ruler.
  
  You are not our master.
  
  We are not twelve, you are not our mother and we are rapidly tiring of your bullshit.

The CDC, Fauci and the science has now said masks are hardly necessary and shutdowns are deadly, economically and socially. Other states, entire other countries, are opening up and there is no spike or secondary infections of any significance. Do the correct thing and open up the city so everyone can get back to work.

Readers in 007

Is this true? Regarding the asshole who fired his gun off-duty triggering a Shot Spotter alert, heavy police response and attacked responding officers?

• A lieutenant and 4 POs were stripped in 007 last night. It turns out the rocket science LT decided to "release without charging" the piece of shit copper that fired off his weapon and battered several of the POs last week.
  
  He felt 4 white cops on a black OFFENDER was racist on the part of the white coppers. He convinced the 4 POs with no time on the job to not sign a complaint.
  
  The moron has only been a lieutenant for 2 weeks.

Not good if true. Not good at all.

Brownie Double Talk

You know what makes a good leader? Not saying one thing and then doing another.

This is what Brownie has been sending to everyone in their e-mail:

And this is what Brownie does at a presser:

He's losing the Department as fast as J-Fledger did.

Where's the Beef?

A lot of noise....but little meat on the bone here:

• Point by point, the judge in downstate Clay County on Friday ticked off the many ways he found Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order had devolved into “insanity” and become “completely devoid of anything approaching common sense.”
  
  Clay County Judge Michael McHaney complained that recently legalized pot shops had been deemed essential over generations-old family businesses. People had been led to believe they could avoid COVID-19 at Walmart but not at church.
  
  And to top it off, McHaney complained that Pritzker’s family members had traveled between Illinois and Florida and Wisconsin during the coronavirus pandemic, contrary to Pritzker’s own stay-at-home order. The judge said, “when laws do not apply to those who make them, people are not being governed, they are being ruled.”
  
  “Americans don’t get ruled,” McHaney said.

And after all that righteous bloviating:

• Despite that fiery speech given in a courtroom 230 miles south of Chicago — pleasing many in the gallery — McHaney declined to undo Pritzker’s stay-at-home order statewide. He instead ruled narrowly, granting a temporary restraining order only to an individual Clay City business and its owner.

Thanks for a whole lot of nothing there Judge.It's looking more and more like the federal courts are going to have to step in.

Good Question

A reader writes in:

• Chicago won't be ready May 29. Why not? What has Groot been doing these last 2 months? Why no recovery plan?

Have stores and shops been given guidelines on how to clean/sterilize their work spaces in order to open on time? Can they hire back employees to assist in cleaning larger work spaces? How about tax breaks? The businesses haven't been generating income for nine weeks or more now, meaning a massively negative cash flow. What breaks are employers getting so that they can actually re-open or are they just expected to magically have cash appear the way City Hall seems to find mysterious pots of money all the time?

Place Your Bets

Memorial Day Weekend is upon us, which means it's time for us to play Over/Under as we do most summer holidays.

Seeing as how we're in uncharted territory, we're going to be a bit more cautious than in years past:

• 12 dead, 35 wounded

The count will be tallied from 1700 hours Friday 22 May through 2359 hours Monday 25 May.

The only totals accepted are those appearing on HeyJackass.com, updated on Tuesday.

Groot Steps on Fatass

A rather largish break from a formerly united front:

• Doug Dunlay was “absolutely thrilled” when Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Wednesday that restaurants could start serving customers on their patios as soon as May 29, the day his current stay-at-home order expires.
  
  Dunlay, the owner of Smoke Daddy in Wicker Park, said he and his team immediately sprang into action and started mapping out the restaurant’s patio to adhere to the state’s social distancing guidelines. After struggling for months after the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, he said the announcement marked “the first time we actually had any hope.”
  
  So when Mayor Lori Lightfoot told reporters Thursday that she doesn’t think Chicago restaurants will be ready to reopen by next week, Dunlay said he felt as if she “pulled the carpet out from under us.”
  
  “I think it’s short-sighted and I think it’s a slap in the face or a gut punch,” said Dunlay.
  
  While Lightfoot said she hopes to have restaurant patios up-and-running by next month, she noted that the process has to be done safely and steps must first be taken to maximize the revenues of restaurants that have been hit hard by the pandemic and will now have to limit capacities.

Our thought - Fatass was facing an internal revolt from downstate lawmakers that would have jeopardized Madigroin's super-majority, so they devised a "compromise" that loosed the leash around the necks of businesses (that continues to strangle tax revenues) just enough to give themselves some cover. The plan remains the same - keep Illinois closed as a political ploy to attempt to effect the national election - but now the Illinois Combine has a fig-leaf as cover.

Groot however, doesn't have Putzker's problems. She has 50 democrats in the Council, at least 33 of which are perfectly willing to vote against the interests of taxpayers and award a multi-convicted felon a few hundred grand for being caught with a gun (again) and in a hot car.

But a new study might completely blow a hole in Fatass's and Groot's totalitarian efforts:

• We were told that states lifting their lockdowns would bring about untold tragedy, death, overflowing hospitals, and general destruction of civilization, yet according to a new study by JP Morgan, it would appear that the states lifting lockdowns are getting better, not worse.
  
  CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla posted the bank’s research that shows a fascinating decline in infection rates by states ending their lockdowns.
  
  “JPMorgan has a devastating piece arguing that infection rates have declined — not increased — in states where lockdowns have ended, “even after allowing for an appropriate measurement lag.”

This isn't unique to the USA. It's worldwide. So what about this science? Because all we're hearing from the politicians is they "follow the science." Science is seldom actually settled - it evolves and changes as more data and experiments refine thinking, and the more data that becomes available, the less deadly this "pandemic" turns out to be. And the engineered destruction of the best economic picture since the Reagan Recovery is exposed to be a democrat political operation to deprive Americans of their most basic Rights.

Demotions?

From the comments:

• OT...sources at hq report that [Brownie] was forced to demote Ron Kimbal and Bill Bradley by Groot. [Brownie] WAS NOT happy about doing it. He’s complaining to our sources that Groot is running the show and making personnel decisions without any input from him. He’s saying that he’s regretting his decision to take this job.

We find it hard to believe he didn't know he was being hired as a figurehead / fall guy. It's no secret and every single day here ought to be another clue.

Another rumor gaining traction is Riccio is out and Tirado is up for the new First Deputy.

Interesting times....interesting times.

What Are You Thinking?

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution begins as follows:

• Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;

Article VI, Paragraph 2 (The Supremacy Clause) states the following:

• This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

In plain language, "It provides that state courts are bound by, and state constitutions subordinate to, the supreme law." There is ample case law regarding this.

Meet Exhibit A in an upcoming Federal Lawsuit (sorry about the double pic - it was sent to us like this):

• Following through with Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s promise to take action against churches that violate social distancing rules, the Chicago Police Department issued $500 fines to three separate houses of worship that held services over the weekend, city officials said.
  
  Police cited Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church, Philadelphia Romanian Church of God and Metro Praise International for their services.

Willie Wilson is said to be paying all the fines at this point in time - $1,500 for hundreds of thousands in free publicity.

Executive Orders are not laws. Even Putzger knows this as evidenced by his attempt to get more power this week in Springfield (which he withdrew - see post a few below this one) and previous legal briefs written by (can you believe this?) Lisa Madigan.

Ticket issued by Unit 215, Star 70. That's a Captain's star, isn't it? So the Federal Lawsuit is going to read:

• Defendants: City of Chicago; Mayor Lori Lightfoot; Superintendent David Brown; Captain Whoever; et al

Better start making a mental list of all of your assets Captain - property, salary, vehicles, deferred comp, pension. We recall those days...and not in a good way.

Surprise Settlement

No, not this one. This one is lucky it wasn't far more:

• Chicago taxpayers will pay $2.25 million to an unarmed, developmentally disabled man shot by a Chicago Police sergeant in 2017.
  
  Five months after the Chicago Police Board authorized a six-month suspension for Sgt. Khalil Muhammad, the City Council’s Finance Committee will be asked next week to authorize the settlement for Ricardo Hayes.

The City got off light on that one, as did taxpayers. When you're connected to Calypso Louie and you spend months hiding in Barb West's office after being caught lying in direct contradiction to video tape and only get 180 days suspension, blasting a mentally disabled kid is completely an inbounds-play.

No, we're talking about this one near the bottom of the article:

• The $2.25 million settlement is one of two on the Finance Committee agenda tied to allegations of police wrongdoing.
  
  The other one, for $300,000, goes to Pierre Green, who spent four years in prison for possession of a stolen vehicle and felony possession of a firearm after a conviction, he claims, was based on evidence “fabricated” by Chicago Police. In 2013, the charges against Green were dismissed.

Pierre was pulled over when Officers misheard the license plate information given over the air in a flash message. Misheard. A mistake as simple as any other human being makes on a regular basis.

Never mind that the car was actually stolen. And Pierre is a convicted felon, not allowed to be in possession of a gun. The judge said there was no Probable Cause, not even considering the officers were operating in good faith, and Pierre was an armed felon in a hot car.

To their credit the following 16 aldermen voted "No" on the settlement:

• Dowell, Mitchell, Beale, Lopez, Quinn, Moore, Curtis, Tabares, Reboyras, Cardona, Sposato, Nurgent, Napolitano, Reilly, Gardiner, Sivlverstein.

The other 33 alderassholes voted to give away $300,000 in taxpayer to a multiple convicted felon. No idea who the missing vote was.

Putzker Folds

It would seem that the massive amount of letters and phone calls had an effect:

• Gov. J.B. Pritzker's administration has withdrawn the emergency rule it adopted Friday that made it a crime for owners of certain businesses to operate in violation of executive orders he has issued in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  
  State public health officials confirmed the change Wednesday at a meeting of the Illinois General Assembly's Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, or JCAR, which consists of six Democrats and six Republican. A vote by eight members of the 12-member committee would have been required to overrule the emergency rule.
  
  The public health rule change filed Friday made it a class A misdemeanor — punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine — for owners of bars and restaurants to allow indoor consumption, for fitness and health clubs to allow customers on site, or for barbers, cosmetologists and other "non-medical personal care services" to provide on-site services.
  
  Due to begin at 10:30 a.m., the meeting was delayed by nearly three hours as Democratic lawmakers met behind closed doors. According to Rep. Tom Demmer, the Pritzker administration agreed to repeal the rule in response to "significant opposition" from members of the joint committee.

We weren't the only people encouraging readers to call, write, send telegrams. It was a concerted effort by many many more people than our limited reach. A very good job all around. But we need everyone to pay attention and continue to pay attention, because dictators hate to be thwarted.

This is only a single battle.

Situational Awareness Lacking

If you're going to rob someone, you really ought to look at the neighborhood you're in:

• Four men are in custody after they tried to rob an off-duty Chicago police sergeant within steps of the 19th District police station in Lakeview early Wednesday. A fifth offender got away.
  
  The 40-year-old sergeant was on the 900 block of West Addison when five men approached him and demanded his valuables around 2:18 a.m., according to a CPD spokesperson and a source.
  
  All five offenders fled the scene when the sergeant pulled out a handgun and announced that he is a police officer, according to the department. Cops searched the area and detained four suspects on the 900 block of West Fletcher about 30 minutes later.
  
  The attempted hold-up unfolded about 100 yards from the front door of the Town Hall District station at 850 West Addison.

Thankfully, Crimesha will release them all on minimal bail that they'll pay with the proceeds from previous robberies and they can continue to turn their lives around.

Quite a bit of restraint on the Sergeant's part though.

Three Percent

Five-hundred-three is the current number (out of 13,000 if you believe the city numbers):

• Chicago police announced one more COVID-19 case Wednesday, bringing the number of cases in the department to 530.
  
  Of the confirmed cases, 503 are officers and 27 are civilian employees, police said. All of the cases have been confirmed by the department’s medical section.

Scary numbers, right?

So how many are recovered? Because we personally know over forty...and they're all back at work.

But that wouldn't stoke the fear in the citizens.

Profiting Off the Dead

So not only was no one ever found resposible for chopping up a 2-year-old child, now someone is looking to profit from it:

• A man who was acquitted in the heinous murder of a toddler whose dismembered body was found in the Garfield Park Lagoon is suing the city of Chicago.
  
  Kamel Harris, 45, filed the lawsuit Monday in Cook County Circuit Court, accusing the city of a malicious prosecution that led to him being behind bars for more than two years while he awaited trial.
  
  A jury cleared Harris of all charges last year.
  
  Harris said his ties to the case caused him to lose custody of his daughter and son and that he continues to have a difficult time finding work because of the accusations against him, according to the suit.

For some reason, the article doesn't name the law firm retained, and let's just say we have an awfully difficult time believing this guy is representing himself.

Sure You Are Groot

This is laughable:

• Under pressure to loosen her iron-fisted grip, Mayor Lori Lightfoot says she’s working on a plan to reopen the lakefront in a way that protects Chicagoans oblivious to the need to maintain social distance.

Nobody is oblivious Groot. Everyone knows - nobody cares. And "iron-fisted"? Fran must be bucking for a raise from City Hall.

• “I go back to what led me to close it. We had a lot of education around social gathering, the danger of clustering in too large a group. We talked over and over and over again and people just flat-out ignored the guidance,” the mayor told interviewer David Axelrod during a taping of his CNN podcast, “The Axe Files.”
  
  “What I want to do is, when we re-open the lakefront — and we will — we do it in a way that’s smart. … Unfortunately ... we have to play to the lowest common denominator: the person who’s just not gonna pay attention. What do we do to make sure we keep that person safe and minimize the risk they’re gonna pose to other people?”

"...lowest common denominator." Whenever we let that one go through in the past, we were endlessly accused of racism (dog whistles to social justice warriors you know), so we've been deleting it regularly for years now. And here's the mayor of all people using this loaded term. We're going to have to revamp our Rules again.

You know why Groot is making noises about opening the lakefront now?

• Memorial Day Weekend

And we will bet one-thousand toothpicks right now that barbecues, picnics and gatherings are going to run rampant. Guess who else is "planning" to restrict holiday parties?

• The Cook County Forest Preserves officials announced Monday that they plan to close additional parking lots for the Memorial Day weekend in an effort to curb crowding.
  
  Dan Ryan Woods and Schiller Woods will join a list of six sites that have already seen their parking lots closed over the weeends due to concerns about social distancing and other public health guidelines. The parking lots at the other six preserves — Busse Woods, Maple Lake, Saganashkee Slough, Catherine Chevalier Woods, LaBagh Woods and Bunker Hill — were already closed Fridays through Sundays in April and will remain closed on Memorial Day itself, a statement from the county agency said.

Any guesses if we are going to see wholesale disobedience to the dictators of Chicago, Cook and Illinois? And what will the police be tasked with doing?

Who's This Ass?

Clouted people somehow get through CPD's "rigorous" background checks...again:

• Speaking of 3-year wonders, any word on the copper from 006 who was arrested on Thursday in Englewood for discharging his weapon while in front of his house, causing the shot spotter to go off. I’m hearing he was arrested and charged with failure to identify himself as an officer, Agg discharge, battery to the four officers who were arresting him, and assault for saying he was “going to kick their ass”.
  
  Hearing Tina Skahill directed the arrest. He must be some connected idiot since I’m hearing he shouldn’t have been on the job to begin with after his background check was flagged, but he still managed to get through. Who was in charge of the unit doing background checks at the time he can on your ask? Well none other than merit LT. Petit and Chief West.

Well golly. Looks like Brownie has his first scandal to handle. Granted, the building blocks were laid long before he arrived, but the guy/gal in the Big Chair is responsible from this point forward. Supposedly, this dumbass is shortlisted on the CFD hiring list, too.

So what's it going to be - more of the same-old same-old?

Be Prepared

Just a heads up to readers.

We're irritating a lot of people these days with our advocating an adherence to Constitutional law enforcement, disregarding illegal "Executive Orders," pointing out Exempt stupidity (or criminality) and really laying into the Groot about her fascistic tendencies.

At some point it may be that you fire up the browser and the blog is missing without explanation. Facebook, Google, YouTube and other leftist tech-sites are de-platforming those with right-leaning tendencies and especially those advocating disobedience to the All-Knowing State.

If you aren't already reading the "Right Thinking" links on the sidebar, start checking them out (and bookmark them) so you don't feel completely cut off from like-minded individuals. Though we (and you) are deep behind enemy lines here in Shitcago, Chi-raq, Crook County, Hellinois, or whatever you like to call it, remember that one-hundred miles outside Chicago, there are bunches of decent people.

And outside of Illinois, there are millions.

Contrarian Posts

They've been busy over at the Chicago Contrarian with a couple good posts this week already. The first involves Groot's increasingly unhinged attacks on Constitutional norms:

• The salutary lesson future Chicago Police officers glean from the visit to the Holocaust Museum could not be clearer:  Beware of politicians who would leverage the power of police to deprive residents of their Constitutional rights, control the population, and fulfill executive fiats.  In essence, individual rights and freedom are noble goals worth defending, do not permit elected lawmakers to erode either our cherished freedoms or our understanding of truth and falsehood and what is right and wrong.

The second is a very specific torching of known ultra-liberal fabulist and serial liar Zorn:

• It might seem far away and unrelated to Chicago, but the scandal surrounding the actions and motives of the Obama Justice Department against General Michael Flynn might shed more light on Chicago than any bumbling articles that pass for journalism in the city. In particular, this scandal might provide more insight into one of Chicago’s most influential media figures in the last thirty years, Eric Zorn, a columnist whose rise coincided with that of former president Barack Obama.

We like the part tying him to Sparklefarts, but as we've stated, Zorn was a big supporter of some of the most vicious west side gangs that brought misery, death and destruction to some of the best looking neighborhoods in Chicago throughout the Crack Wars of the 1980s.