Bad Omen?

This was the Friday afternoon total at HeyJackass.com:

And a full moon on tap.

Nicely Played

This kid wins Halloween, but....

....the parents should be immediately investigated for Child Abuse.

Plywood Forests Return

So downtown...and numerous other business corridors...have spent the last two days boarding up windows and doors, removing expensive merchandise and  pretty much closing down this weekend. It's almost embarrassing that it has come to this, but in the blue cities, this is what years of voting to excuse certain behaviors and taking it easy on crime have wrought.

Groot has a plan though:

• Under pressure to avoid a repeat of this summer’s civil unrest, Mayor Lori Lightfoot unveiled a 10-day preparedness plan aimed at preventing looting and chaos on Chicago’s streets around Halloween and next week’s presidential election.

  As part of her plan, Lightfoot will increase police patrols across the city while deploying 60 to 300 garbage trucks and other heavy city vehicles to key neighborhood corridors to be used as a blockade on wheels. The Office of Emergency Management and Communications also has held a number of trainings aimed at severe weather, COVID-19 outbreaks and protests related to the election, city officials said.

  The city’s been planning for the election “really since late summer,” Lightfoot said, by taking into account “humbling” lessons learned from the summer’s civil unrest. No matter who wins the elections, Lightfoot urged people to channel their emotions into peaceful protests. "We need to de-escalate from this long difficult year,” Lightfoot said.

De-escalate? This crap again? We've de-escalated into a societal breakdown unseen since the 60's. And how about instead of encouraging protests, you encourage people to sit at home for a while - we mean as long as we're talking "de-escalation" and all. Did anyone reading get "special training"? Or maybe a briefing as to what's expected? Or we're just supposed to blindly follow a bunch of dopes who let the city burn all summer, failed to protect property citywide and allowed homicides to spiral into one of the highest numbers in years?

This made us chuckle:

• Brown also said the public would not see the Police Department’s presence of undercover officers, its efforts to investigate crimes on social media and its engagement with concerned merchants.

Hahaha. You won't see them because they don't exist. Those teams got disbanded a long while ago. That's why there's a Summer Mobile and an Autumn Mobile now, along with that "Community" whatever officers that stripped dozens of officers from high crime Districts and why Groot is defunding the budgeted strength by a few hundred officers.

Promotions Approved

Word coming from Fort Fellatio that the following promotions have been set for 16 November:

• 40-45 sergeants
• 15-20 lieutenants 

What isn't clear is if Groot has re-instituted "merit" to even things out. Someone will have to check with the appropriate unions to see if this is a rank order class or a "mysterious merit" class since we haven't seen any requests for nominations and the existing letters on file are well over a year old.

UPDATE: A sergeant writes to us to say, "There are 75 Sgts retiring this year alone." The promotions aren't even keeping up with attrition - which seems to be part of Groot's plan.

Another Commercial for O'Brien

If his campaign just cited incidents like this, he'd probably win in a walk:

• Chicago’s upside-down justice system has churned out a real doozy. As usual, when CWBChicago asked the various authorities who were involved in the case to explain what happened, they pointed fingers at each other.

  The case involves a 19-year-old man named Romell Brown. In May 2019, prosecutors charged him with felony reckless discharge of a firearm after he allegedly opened fire on a Far South Side street. He was released on an affordable bail to await trial.

  Not even six months later, on November 2, Brown was arrested again after police on the Far South Side said they found him carrying a handgun on the street. At the time, he was still awaiting trial on the reckless discharge case. Prosecutors charged him with felony unlawful use of a weapon, and he was held without bail until COVID hit.

  That’s when he was released by authorities who were anxious to reduce the jail population as the pandemic took hold in April, according to sheriff’s department records.

  Guess what happened last week?

We don't want to spoil it...and the CWB blog deserves a click on the link up top....but we're pretty sure you can guess:

• think felony charges denied and Crimesha's office blaming everyone except the ASA's who refused to (A) appropriately charge based on the plain language of the law and (B) refused to elaborate on what additional investigation needed to be done so a THREE TIME Gun Offender wasn't allowed to walk out of court.

Go read it all, tell your friends, time for Crimesha to go.

Another CPS Scumbag

Is being an asshole a prerequisite to be a brain washer of children?

And if the map is correct, Ebinger is located almost dead center in Edison Park - pretty much Cop Central along with thousands of other city employees.

Seems like they need a new "art" teacher.

Anyone know if the last comment on the thread (Lowe) is also a CPS teacher?

A Sense of Perspective

Someone brought up the military the other day. Somewhere in the neighborhood of two-million men and women, living and training in close proximity to one another, you'd think COVID is completely out-of-control, right?

• There have been seven deaths in the military due to Covid-19 and 40,026 cases as of September 9, according to the Defense Department.

This link shows the total has risen to eight since last month. Eight - out of two-million. 

Anyone want to guess why the military doesn't use "positivity rates" for things?

UPDATE: As an aside, almost 231 active service members have taken their own lives this year. THAT should be the priority, not a virus with a 99+% survival rate.

An Educated Voter

If you haven't voted yet and you're even entertaining the notion of voting for Biden, do yourself a favor and do a quick internet search for "Bobulinsky" and educate yourself.

Or click some of the sites we list under "Right Think Links" and scroll through a few. Those are the places actually covering the massive scandal that you aren't going to see in the local media.

About Damn Time

Actually, way late to the game and perhaps too late to make a real difference:

• Signaling a potential crack in Democratic support for Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, Republican challenger Pat O’Brien on Tuesday picked up the support of Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd).

  The downtown alderman voiced his concerns about Foxx’s response to looting in his ward this summer, but he’s now officially backing O’Brien. Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd), who also became disenchanted with Foxx, said he’s sitting the race out.

  Reilly — whose ward includes parts of the Loop and the Streeterville, Gold Coast and River North neighborhoods — told constituents in a text that he supports the former Cook County judge for state’s attorney and urged ward residents to vote early or drop off their mail ballots at polling locations.

Two views on this: 

1. He really means it, or
2. he's seeing some internal polling numbers (some of which we've shared here) and Crimesha is dragging parts of the local ticket down.

Get out and vote. It might actually mean something locally this time around.

Again, Nice Hero

So we saw the video of the knife wielding almost-assassin in Philadelphia the other day. He chased officers around a vehicle before being justifiably shot. The usual riots then ensued over a multiple convicted felon, with the ignorant masses claiming Officers should have used non-lethal methods when being confronted by lethal force - which is contrary to all training and all existing state law in all 50 states.

Here's the "hero" of the "communerty:"

• 27...with nine children. We're sure he supported all of them adequately;
• in 2013 pled guilty to assault and resisting arrest after hitting a police officer;
• Four years later he pled guilty to robbery, assault, and possessing an instrument of crime after kicking down the door of a woman and putting a gun to her head;
• another dozen arrests in intervening years;
  
• another musical "artist" who rapped about shooting police officers and other people.

This was the third time in a single day that PPD had responded to calls about him.

Following extensive looting, thirty injured cops and ninety or so arrests, eleven other people were shot, mostly after they looted stores and someone else robbed them - which we find darkly ironic.

So looting, shooting, burning and destruction might be an appropriate legacy for someone who contributed nothing to society and almost as much to Philadelphia. 

He may have pushed Pennsylvania into the Trump column though, along with this moron:

So now we have to take a knife along with a few bullets before we can protect ourselves? Fuck democrats, one and all.

Contrarian vs Fergie

Writer Florian Sohnke has a take-down of Groot's IG, Joe Fergie, and his history of slapdash, half-assed and generally sloppy investigations covering up crimes for the Machine. This article starts with the Special Ed investigation and works backward a little bit.

The Contrarian writes in rather large paragraphs, so attempting to quote something specific would only detract from the entire tapestry the crew over there puts together.

Go read it all.

Gutless Groot

Tuesday, this:

• Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday clashed over his order for tighter restrictions that would prohibit indoor dining and bar service in Chicago, with the governor saying they’re needed to help stop the coronavirus spread and the mayor indicating she’ll try to change his mind.

But by Wednesday, Fatass crushed Groot:

• A day after indicating she would try to talk Gov. J.B. Pritzker out of tightening coronavirus-related restrictions in Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Wednesday she had met with the governor and won’t try to block his order to ban indoor bar and dining service in the city.

Obviously, some wheeling and dealing. Besides being gutless, Groot has destroyed any sort of working relationship with the aldercreatures, and she would give it all up for an appointment to Durbin's seat. Fatass has national ambitions and may have been offered some sort of Biden cabinet position pending the election. 

Along with the Madigroin investigations, Fatass might be the top pol in Illinois at the moment.

Now THIS is Stupid

What world is this bonehead living in?

• Portland, OR – Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has told area law enforcement agencies that they need to develop “strong mutual aid agreements” with the city in order to prepare for anticipated rioting on Election Day.

  While Portland Police Bureau (PPB) officers dealt with over 100 consecutive nights of rioting this past summer, city officials banned them from using tear gas, defunded the department by $15 million, eliminated three specialty police units, and repeatedly accosted officers for the ongoing violence.

  Portland city commissioners are currently considering a new proposal that would eliminate 42 sworn officer positions and would also cut the understaffed PPB’s budget by another $18 million.

Add in the fact that Portland officials have promised to prosecute officers(instead of actual criminals) over violations of Portland's stupid and dangerous Non-Use of Force rules, and you have a perfect opportunity for these agencies t tell Wheeler to (A) get fucked, (B) you made your bed, now sleep in it and (C) get fucked again.

Bauer Murderer Sentencing

You can watch remotely, since Court audiences are banned (click for larger version):

RIP Commander.

UPDATE: Life, which may or may not mean "life" in Illinois.

Stat Guy Strikes Again

It helps to have someone interested in the tiny number that run everything. 

Here are some numbers Groot is using to shut down Chicago:

• 48 confirmed Covid patients are on ventilators. (10 unconfirmed aka "PUI" Patient under investigation. But let's not count those since they apparently haven't tested positive.)

  So out of 2,059 ventilators available. That's 3%.

• 126 ICU beds in use by Covid confirmed patients

  Out of 1,275 ICU beds available. That's 10%

And these ridiculously tiny numbers - not anywhere near overwhelming the system -  are what Groot and her staff are using to justify shutting down an already dying economy.

Where do these numbers come from?

• The City of Chicago Data Portal

The system isn't anywhere near being overwhelmed. This is just another step in the scam.

Clout Forever

Thank goodness these guys found gainful employment in their golden years:

• Two high-ranking former cops have taken a well-worn retirement path from the Chicago Police Department to private industry — landing at the politically connected Monterrey Security.

  Anthony Riccio and Fred Waller have become executives at the Chicago-based firm, according to a company announcement Tuesday. Riccio was the No. 2 official in the police department, overseeing daily operations. Waller’s job included supervising the city’s 22 police districts.

  Riccio and Waller will join other former ranking Chicago cops already at Monterrey including Hiram Grau, once the No. 2 official in the police department and director of the Illinois State Police, who is a vice president of Monterrey, and former Cmdr. Bob Klich, the company’s director of special operations.
  

They won't be staving to death, that's for sure.

Safety? Are You Kidding?

The lies fall from Groot's lips like drool from Joe Biden:

• Mayor Lori Lightfoot and top financial officials in her administration on Monday stood by their proposal to widen the criteria for issuing speeding tickets next year, saying they did so primarily as a public safety measure.

  Lightfoot’s plan to close a $1.2 billion gap in the 2021 budget includes a $38.8 million hike in fines, fees and forfeitures over 2020, including by ticketing drivers who exceed the speed limit by more than 6 miles per hour. The $35 citation, first reported by the Tribune, would be sent to drivers who are twice caught by cameras driving between 6 and 9 mph over the speed limit. The first infraction would incur a warning.

  The mayor, who campaigned in part on ending the city’s reliance on ticketing to balance its finances, said during a press conference Monday the added fines are “about keeping communities safe” following a recent increase in “speeding-related accidents and deaths.”

What's the phrase? Oh yeah - "Won't somebody think of the children?!??!"

Even the Tribune calls bullshit on this one:

• But a Tribune analysis found total crashes are down from the first nine months of 2019, when there were 88,757 compared with the same period in 2020, when there were 69,480.

  And it’s not clear how many fatal crashes were caused by speeding, the Tribune reports. 

Groot needs money. And if she gets it by lying instead of being a responsible steward of public funds, then so be it.

Here's something someone sent us:

 

And as far as we can tell, not a single government employee laid off. Not a single service cut. Not a single ward boss or aldercreature asked to give up a dime.

But fines and property taxes? Raise them all.

Why Are Taxes So High?

This was mentioned in the comment section a few times:

• If anyone is interested in "The Pappas Study: A 20-Year Property Tax History," Click on this link.

We're told it's quite eye-opening and outlines quite a bit of why taxes are increasing over the rate of inflation.

Nice Mag Mile Groot

Wasn't the one-hundred-cops-a-day supposed to stop this crap?

• A 26-year-old man was shot during a carjacking attempt near the Magnificent Mile on Saturday evening, according to Chicago police. No arrests have been made.

  The man told investigators that a gunman got into the passenger side of his vehicle and demanded control of the car around 6:30 p.m. on the first block of East Chicago Avenue. Police said the offender fired shots at the victim, and one round caused a graze wound to his left thigh.

Look where he turned up: 

• After the shooting, the victim sought help at the nearby Chicago-State Red Line station, but he ran from the scene before police arrived. The victim resurfaced about an hour later when police and EMS workers responded to a call of a person shot on the 6900 block of South Eberhart in the Grand Crossing neighborhood. There, the victim told police that he had been shot at the Chicago Avenue location.
  

Eighteen person have been shot on the Mag Mile or River North this year.

Coming Soon!

On the heels of Halloween cancellations, this is what California is trying:

• 1. Attendance
• Gatherings that include more than 3 households are prohibited. This includes everyone present, including hosts and guests.Remember, the smaller the number of people, the safer.
• Keep the households that you interact with stable over time. By spending time with the same people, risk of transmission is reduced. Participating in multiple gatherings with different households or groups is strongly discouraged.
• The host should collect names of all attendees and contact information in case contact tracing is needed later.

• 2. Gather Outdoors

• Gatherings that occur outdoors are significantly safer than indoor gatherings. All gatherings must be held outside. Attendees may go inside to use restrooms as long as the restrooms are frequently sanitized.
• Gatherings may occur in outdoor spaces that are covered by umbrellas, canopies, awnings, roofs, and other shade structures provided that at least three sides of the space (or 75%) are open to the outdoors.
• A gathering of no more than three households is permitted in a public park or other outdoor space, even if unrelated gatherings of other groups up to three households are also occurring in the same park or other outdoor space.  If multiple such gatherings are occurring, mixing between group gatherings is not allowed.  Additionally, multiple gatherings of three households cannot be jointly organized or coordinated to occur in the same public park or other outdoor space at the same time – this would constitute a gathering exceeding the permitted size.

There are plenty more "rules" at the link up top. Can you imagine trying to pull this off in the Midwest? Outdoor only, no singing or shouting, having a maid or spinster aunt stationed in every bathroom to sanitize it after Uncle John spends some quality time in the shitter.

Any bets on when Groot and Fatass will try this?

NYPD Shortage

Every Department is having trouble filling vacancies, but just in terms of sheer numbers, NYPD takes the cake:

• New York City currently has roughly 4,000 fewer uniformed police officers than it did at the same time last year. That’s probably not as massive of a figure as it sounds because the NYPD still has more than 33,000 cops, comprising one of the largest police forces in the world. But it’s still a significant reduction, coming at a time when the city is experiencing rising violent crime rates at levels not seen in decades. In an effort to combat this issue, the Chief of Police recently announced that they will be recruiting 900 new applicants to the police academy for the class starting next month. But will that be too little and too late?

Short answer: Yes, it's too late. They might be able to catch up eventually, but for the immediate future, police numbers are going to be down and crime is going to be up. Without recruits in the pipeline (and it takes well over a year to train someone to be an officer) you are going to have shortages.

You can see it in Chicago. We're told the most recent class to enter the Academy here was about thirty recruits. That doesn't even cover a month worth of retirements and from what we're hearing out of Personnel, these thirty are from an entrance exam so old, almost three-hundred people turned down the job or refused to answer e-mails and phone calls before there were enough to begin a class.

More Shrinkage

Anyone think this is yet another reason why taxpayers are fleeing?

• Property tax income for Cook County governments has nearly doubled since 2000, far outpacing the rate of inflation and growth in average wages, said a study issued Monday by Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas.

  The report shows where governments’ tax appetites have grown the fastest in the city and suburbs. It’s accompanied by a tool on the treasurer’s website that lets property owners see the growth in their individual bills.

  Pappas, whose office issues the tax bills and receives the payments, called the findings “a sobering reminder” of property tax burdens. “In the midst of a pandemic and a recession, local governments should take their foot off the gas pedal and stop raising property taxes,” she said.

  It’s a challenging message for local government leaders, including Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who has proposed raising property taxes, cutting certain spending and refinancing debt to close a projected $1.2 billion budget gap for next year. The pandemic-induced recession has hammered revenue for state and local governments.

When you have entire divisions of government sitting at home, "earning" money for not working - instead of judicious and temporary layoffs when revenues are down - and then you attempt to raise taxes on everyone else, who (if they're lucky) are working reduced hours if at all....well, that's a recipe for disaster and more than a few people moving where taxes are lower and jobs are available.

More County Money Wasted

And there's a name to blame this time:

• The Cook County Sheriff’s Office said Monday it had mistakenly rejected and returned 1,000 judicial election guides that Injustice Watch sent to eligible voters detained at Cook County Jail.

  The guides, produced by Injustice Watch and printed in collaboration with the South Side Weekly, were mailed to the jail earlier this month to help people in pre-trial detention complete the long and often obscure judicial section of their ballots. Injustice Watch has produced Cook County judicial election guides since 2016, but this year marked the first time the organization sent print copies of their guide to voters currently detained in the jail.

  Emails show Injustice Watch had been in touch with county officials about mailing the judicial guide to jail detainees since early September. One official wrote on Sept. 24 that she would “advise the mailroom” about the incoming guides.

  But on Monday, Hanke Gratteau, director of the Cook County Sheriff’s Justice Institute, notified Injustice Watch Executive Director Juliet Sorensen that the delivery had been botched at the jail...

Gratteau is one of the many media spouses/children/pin cushions that Dart hired (at six-figures) so he would get positive media coverage, in this case, the wife of gadfly Mark Brown. 

This was an easily avoidable fuck-up, as stated by another of Dart's six-figure media hirees:

• Cook County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Matthew Walberg said in a statement the guides had been mistakenly rejected “because the mailroom erroneously believed there was a ban on distribution of newspaper.”

  “This absolutely should not have occurred as our policy specifically allows for mail printed on newsprint to be disseminated to detainees. We are working to determine where the error in judgment took place,” Walberg said. “We have expressed our sincere apology to Injustice Watch leadership for our error, and we will be working with them to find ways to make this right to the fullest extent possible and to ensure that it does not happen again.”
  

It isn't difficult to get ballots or election materials to-and-from people who aren't going anywhere as they await trial.

But then again, it isn't hard to actually follow the rules as written to guarantee Officers in the department their due process either, and we see how Dart screwed the pooch on that one, costing taxpayers potential millions.

Rules for You, Not Groot (UPDATE)

Bars closing, restaurants going bankrupt, schools doing remote learning even though children are among the least likely to suffer any sort of adverse effects from COVID. Then this:

• Lightfoot had her security detail sent over to 025 in an unmarked last night (Friday evening). Called in extra manpower from the district, so her daughter could partake in a lovely sleepover slumber party.

  That's nice. While businesses are closing, livelihoods are being bankrupt, children are being shot and killed, downtown is boarded up like it's hurricane season in Florida, schools are shut down and the city tax base is being eroded.... Groot thinks it's safe for her daughter to go to a slumber party? DId all the younglings wear masks? How about the parents? Did they all have their sleeping bags 6 feet apart, with no more than 6 younglings at a table?

  All with extra manpower that should've been patrolling the streets, preventing crime. Meanwhile there was a homicide last night around a half mile from the slumber party.

We don't know about all of you, but our kids haven't seen their friends except on a computer screen for about....oh, seven months now.

We'll start believing that this is a "serious disease" when the people in charge start acting like it's a "serious disease."

By the way, we'll bet an additional $50 over the $50 we send every month to the Chaplains that the media doesn't even mention this story for some reason. Any takers?

UPDATE: We're told this may be an off-shoot of the unknown, unauthorized and unbelievable "Escamerit CAPS Babysitter Program." As a reward, Escamerit will once again be promoted to Commander and he will be rewarded the Couch that formerly sat in Special Ed's office.

Hey Reporters? Hey Brownie?

Hey media - here's a free one that we won't even charge you for:

• An Illinois state representative was robbed at gunpoint while on a jog near the University of Chicago Wednesday afternoon. State Rep. Curtis Tarver, of the 25th District, was jogging Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. in the 6300 block of South Woodlawn.

  “I decided to turn left and maybe three seconds later, one of the gentleman was behind me with the firearm right behind my right ear,” Tarver said.

"Gentleman"? Interesting description. Now here's where it gets interesting:

• “It was unexpected in my district,” Tarver said. “I’m at a point where I can’t drive in my district because I get pulled over by six Chicago police officers and get harassed. I can’t run in my district because I get robbed by offenders with firearms.”

Seriously? Okay, we'll take you at your word Curtis. Lord knows a politician from Chicago Illinois wouldn't lie. Six Officers it is.

Reporters?

• Every time Curtis gets stopped, it has to be recorded. In-car cameras, body cams, cameras on almost every major street in Chicago;
  
• In addition, every time someone gets stopped on the street for traffic or a non-consensual contact, it has to be recorded on a Blue Card (the Sparklefarts TSSSSSSSS Card) or one of those two page Contact Cards;
• Furthermore, there will be a PCAD Event Number generated for the stop.

Now get those FOIA requests rolling all you wanna-be investigative reporters. There are all sorts of documents and video available to prove beyond any sort of doubt that Chicago Police are harassing an elected official, based on nothing but the color of his skin in the United States of America.

And Brownie? You have two choices:

• Acknowledge that cops are harassing this man, investigate and suspend them all or;
• Point out that Curtis is as full of shit as Juicy Smell-it is.

Well Brownie? Time to fish or cut bait. Can you prove you aren't a gutless putz?

Channel 9? You posted this without asking the most basic of follow-up questions? 

Catanzara? Maybe there's grounds for a lawsuit or some way to embarrass this asshole?

Gimme My Balls!

Two ways to attempt to claim your balls back after your boss has cut them off and stuck them in a jar in her office (click for larger version):

When Groot wanted Special Ed to jump, she told him to claim Trump didn't embody Chicago values. No idea what she was thinking having Special Ed make that announcement, but she did and Ed merely said, "How High Mx. Mayor?"

Oh, here's the second way to tell Groot you want your testicles back:

We're betting he won't do that, but he might vote that way. Anyone know where Brownie is registered to vote? 

Thanks to our Stat Guy for the pictures.

Homeowner Defends Property

Great job Citizen:

• A homeowner shot and killed a suspected burglar Sunday in Marquette Park on the Southwest Side, according to Chicago police.

  About 11:15 a.m., the man, believed to be in his 40s, was shot by the homeowner during a burglary in the 7100 block of South Mozart Street, police said. 

We're telling you, there's great publicity to be had by gifting successful CCL and Home Defense efforts with a gift card or $50 worth of ammo. A guy could run for office based on this.

Yet Another Connection

No only does Dart hire relatives of media folks for six-figure jobs, Crimesha has her own little cottage industry going with the media:

• The Sun-Times had an interesting scoop last week: Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx was losing the campaign fundraising war to her Democrat-turned-Republican opponent on the Nov. 3 ballot, Pat O'Brien.

  O'Brien's lead in collecting cash didn't last, though — thanks to Sun-Times' ownership. The Sun-Times seemed to foreshadow the turn of events in an Oct. 14 headline: "With contribution limits blown by the Republican's self-financing, donors are now free to give as much as they want to either candidate."

  Sure enough, by Oct. 16, Sun-Times investor Michael Sacks and his wife stuffed another $111,600 into Foxx's campaign war chest — a total of $807,250 since September 2019, state records show. That helped boost the campaign contribution total to Foxx from Sun-Times owners — Sacks, Elzie Higginbottom and the Service Employees International Union, among them — to more than $1.3 million, public records show.

  You won't find a word about that in either the newspaper's story about the fundraising race in the Cook County state's attorney election or its editorial board's endorsement of Foxx.

As a blogger far more famous than we once said, if you just think of reporters as democratic party operatives with by-lines, everything makes a lot more sense.

True

These are humorous:

We want to run right out and buy these costumes. 

And this is exactly true:

Don't open that door to a billionaire governor who ripped toilets out of one of his mansions in order to saddle everyone else with $300,000 worth of what he owed.

Pay Up Dart

And by Dart, of course, we mean Taxpayers:

• The Illinois Supreme Court ruled that officers who were suspended while undergoing disciplinary proceedings can sue the Cook County Sheriff’s Office for backpay lost during their suspensions.

  In the 4-3 decision on Thursday, the state’s high court upheld an appeals court’s ruling allowing officers to sue Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s office over the legitimacy of the merit board before the decisions in their disciplinary cases were made. The merit board investigates disciplinary matters involving police officers.

  The court also determined that the officers can resume their lawsuit seeking repayment for lost wages during their suspensions, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Dart (and his handler Prickwrinkle) fall back on the excuse that all scumbag politicians do when doing wrong: 

• The sheriff’s office bemoaned the decision, saying it will significantly increase the time it takes to discipline an officer for misconduct and make it more difficult to fire bad officers.

  “Today’s Illinois Supreme Court decision is a catastrophic blow to law enforcement accountability,” sheriff’s office spokesman Matthew Walberg said in an emailed statement. “The decision rewards employees who engaged in criminal, unethical and despicable conduct at the expense of Illinois taxpayers.”
  

Isn't this Walberg the guy who used to be Kass's go-fer? And now he's another one of Dart's six-figure former media goons? Has Kass disowned this tool?

But notice how they fall back on "accountability"? Not that they want to do the best investigation possible and come to a legally sound and just finding - they want the ability to undercut Contractual protections and shortcut due process in order to sacrifice accused officers on the altar of political expediency. 

It's too bad that Dart's stupidity is going to cost taxpayers tens of millions, but if he had followed the rules in place, none of this would have happened.

Pay Up Media

It's amazing more reporters aren't starving to death:

• (Tribune): Chicago police were called to the South Side home of former police Superintendent Eddie Johnson Friday night for a report of a domestic battery, sources familiar with the incident told the Tribune.
• (Sun Times): Chicago police responded to an alleged domestic incident that occurred at the Bridgeport home of embattled former CPD Supt. Eddie Johnson Friday night.

  According to sources familiar with the matter, officers were dispatched to Johnson’s home near 33rd Place and Racine Avenue around 9:30 p.m. after a “verbal altercation escalated” and Johnson allegedly shoved his wife.

Sources familiar = blog five hours before the media.

Car 900 On Scene

You aren't going to catch The Jerome twice for a 28-Day-Suspension:

• Saga is alive and well, there was a domestic at Johnson and wheezy house today, rd was pulled, commander responded, et was ordered.
• a certain cheating LT. formerly married to johnson’s johnson and currently running A/2 into the ground with her incompetent fuckery was the ”victim” of a 0486 prompting 900 and several beat cars along with an ET to respond to her bridgeport residence tonight (23 Oct 2020).  

What's that saying? 

"Where there's smoke....." 

Maybe Fergie can cover up this one, too.

Gunman Killed by Police in 010

The Slum Times actually put the work "armed" in their headline - is this progress?

• A man was fatally shot in Little Village Friday afternoon by Chicago police officers responding to a report of shots fired, officials said.

  About 12:30 p.m., Ogden District officers went to 2600 block of South Hamlin after a ShotSpotter detected gunfire in the area...

One subject was shot, another detained and two guns were recovered. No police were injured. All around, a great job preventing another maiming/homicide in Groot's Chicago.

By the way, we were being sarcastic asking, "is this progress?" Of course it isn't. The races of the involved offenders and officers don't fit the narrative the media is trying to spin, so it will be downplayed.

It Ain't Over

The Saga of Johnson's Johnson will continue for the foreseeable future:

• A Cook County grand jury has requested extensive documents about the night that ultimately led to former Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson’s firing, an indication that prosecutors are considering criminal charges against one or more players in the saga.

  A subpoena obtained by the Tribune demands that the city inspector general’s office send over all of its reports about the October 2019 night Johnson went out drinking with a subordinate, then was found asleep at the wheel near his Bridgeport home.

  “Said files must include all reports, handwritten, typed and computer generated notes, and memorandums, and all recovered and supporting evidence including phone records, photographs and videotapes” related to their investigation of Johnson, the subpoena, issued last month, reads.

  News that Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office has sought the reports as part of a grand jury investigation could also ratchet up pressure on Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot to release the full IG report. A spokesperson for Foxx’s office declined to comment, as did Lightfoot’s office.

  A Chicago police spokesman declined to comment on the subpoena, referring all inquiries to Inspector General Joseph Ferguson’s office.

Hahahahaha. 

Crimisha, who can't indict real criminals? 

Groot, who has been covering for more criminals that we can count and whose ethics have recently been called into question? 

IG Fergie, who has covered up bigger scandals to ensure he gets a bigger budget and less oversight from the politicians?

Just another move by the Prickwrinkle Machine to break Groot.

Groot Wants MORE Money

And instead of getting it by opening the economy, she's going after your wallets:

• Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who campaigned on a pledge to end Chicago’s “addiction” to fines and fees, is counting on a big increase in city collections from speeding tickets and other violations to balance her 2021 budget.

  And she wants part of the boost to the bottom line to come from speed cameras across Chicago issuing speeding tickets to drivers caught going as little as 6 miles per hour over the posted limit.

  Under the mayor’s proposal, as part of her 2021 budget package, anyone caught by a camera driving from 6 to 9 mph above the limit would get a warning. Getting caught on camera a second time would prompt a $35 ticket in the mail.

  Currently, only those caught driving 10 mph above the limit get the $35 tickets. Tickets of $100 are issued to drivers caught speeding by 11 mph or more above the posted limit. The city has the authority to issue the tickets at lower speeds, but has never used it.

Groot ran on a promise to break the City's habit of relying on fines and fees. But in the midst of a disaster of her (and her party's own making) she's using what has been used by previous administrations - along with "voodoo" numbers she pulls out of her ass:

• According to budget documents released this week as the mayor unveiled her spending proposal for next year, the city expects to bring in $381.5 million in 2021 from fines, forfeitures and penalties. That’s about $38 million more than Lightfoot’s administration projected for 2020.
  

Did you follow that? Her budget just comes up with an additional $38 million THAT DOESN'T EVEN EXIST, and decides, "Hey, Speed Cameras can generate this revenue" without any actual evidence it will work. That would be like you or us saying, "We're going to buy a summer house, motorcycle, boat and jet ski this year. We need $400K. Our salary is currently $85K. The rest will be paid by our blackjack winnings at the Horseshoe in Indiana." 

Never mind that we don't have anywhere near the stake necessary to pull it off....and we don't play blackjack well enough to win. We've know what we want, so we'll just go out and take on monstrous debt instead of maybe cutting some household costs and taking on a third job.

How Many Days?

In light of Fatass's and Groot's new declarations that we;'re headed to yet another indeterminate lockdown, someone posted this in the comments:

• Weren't the lockdowns just supposed to "flatten the curve"? Weren't they just supposed to be for a couple of weeks?
  
  How much more flattening is left??

So we got into our Way-Back Machine and looked it up. On 15 March 2020, we were told by all sorts of experts that we had 15 days to "flatten the curve" or else all life on Planet Earth would be extinguished forever. Remember, these were the experts advising the national, state and local governments.

• This means we are currently in Day 223 of "flattening the curve."

Meanwhile, Illinois has some bullshit "positivity number" that seems to be based in nothing but political wish-casting and being used solely to destroy the economy. Here are some Illinois numbers from a reader:

• Of 9,387 Illinois deaths......only 1,233 are UNDER 60 YOA......With a population of 12,700,000 here, that is .00009 percent

  One last statistic......only SEVEN (7) persons under 20 have died....Now WHY won’t the CPS CTU open the schools???

With suitable precautions, Illinois could be open tomorrow, generating tax revenue and enabling students to attend class and people to earn a living. There appears to be some political consequences brewing - maybe a revolt?

• [...] Influential restaurant and bar owners don’t appear to be willing to take this lying down. Several have made a big public show of remaining open to indoor service in defiance of the new prohibitions.

  Opponents of the new mitigations say that bars and restaurants and other venues shouldn’t be singled out when the “real” problem is in nursing homes. But these venues are more interconnected than you might think.

It seems Pritzker is jealous of the body count Cuomo racked up in New York City sending sick people back into nursing homes and killing tens of thousands of elderly.

Finally, a Bright Idea

We've been proposing exactly this for years:

• RICHMOND, VA- The pure “genius” of the Virginia General Assembly knows no bounds.

  One of the leading indicators of a drunk driver at night is a car that is operating with no lights on. Criminals who are casing neighborhoods for burglaries also like to cruise around with their lights off.

  Under a law passed by the General Assembly, police officers would no longer be able to use operating without lights lit as probable cause to conduct a traffic stop. There are numerous other equipment violations that are included as well.

A democrat governor - the one who dressed up as a klansman - has started to come up with a list of laws that the "communerty" doesn't have to follow and police can't stop them for. 

We mean, what are the purpose of headlights anyway? Or tinted windows? Or obstructed views, cracked windshields, no brake lights, invalid plates. Those are just reasons to keep the "communerty" down.

But it sure makes policing in Virginia a lot easier.

More Crimesha Failures

O'Brien, some more commercials for you: 

• A River North man who faced attempted murder charges after prosecutors said he tried to kill his girlfriend by forcing her to consume a large amount of Tylenol has reached a plea deal with prosecutors.

  According to court records, Shane Limbacher, 47, agreed to plead guilty to one count of aggravated domestic battery by strangling in exchange for a 54-month sentence. In turn, prosecutors dropped two attempted murder counts along with multiple kidnapping and aggravated battery charges.
  

He shoved 70 pills down her throat and pled multiple Class X felonies down to 4-and-a-half years. Has anyone contacted the #metoo people?

Here's another one:

• A 21-year-old man faces misdemeanor charges after three people were stabbed Monday in McKinley Park on the Southwest Side. Philip Tan allegedly attacked the people about 7 p.m. in a kitchen in the 3300 block of South Claremont Avenue, according to Chicago police.

  A 59-year-old man was stabbed multiple times and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition, police said. A woman, 49, was taken to the same hospital with stab wounds to her neck, face and body. She was also in critical condition.

  [...] Tan faces three misdemeanor counts of domestic battery.

Misdemeanors. For butchering two people bad enough to be listed as Critical.

Is there any crime at all that Crimesha would even consider charging appropriately?

Good Job Citizen

More please:

• A licensed gun owner shot someone who allegedly broke into his home Wednesday in Albany Park on the Northwest Side.

  The 46-year-old man heard what sounded like a break-in at his home at 4:52 p.m. in the 4800 block of North Kenneth Avenue, according to Chicago police. He went to investigate and was confronted by a 58-year-old man who doesn’t live there.

  The homeowner shot the man in the forearm during a scuffle, police said. The 58-year-old ran away but was later taken into custody and brought to Swedish Covenant Hospital in good condition.

  A police source said the 46-year-old has a valid FOID card and concealed-carry license.

We don't think you need an FOID card or a CCL to shoot someone who is illegally in your house. It's kind of a freebie.

This has been proposed here before, but perhaps the FOP (or a civic minded organization) can get homeowners who successfully defend their homes and loved ones some sort of gift card for ammo at one of the finer gun stores NOT located in Prickwrinkle's jurisdiction. Say $50. 

The FOP holds a press conference and says since Groot is eliminating police officer vacancies instead of hiring more officers, the FOP is getting behind an effort to ensure law abiding citizens can defend their homes and be reimbursed for their troubles. Tell citizens since a bullet is cheaper than a cop, you better get a lot more bullets.

The publicity alone might drive down the crime rate by five or ten percentage points.

More Restrictions....as Predicted

Anyone want to bet Groot cancels Halloween shortly?

• Citing the recent rise in COVID-19 cases in Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said a business curfew in the city will start Friday October 23 for non-essential businesses and go for two weeks.

  Lightfoot said the city is in the second surge of COVID-19. The business curfew goes for two weeks “in the hopes of stemming the spread of this disease.”

  Starting Friday October 23 at 6:00 a.m., all non-essential businesses will be closed to the public from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. And all liquor sales will stop after 9:00 p.m. Essential businesses like grocery stores, pharmacies and restaurants with take-out delivery services are exempt. Lightfoot said she would not hesitate to roll the city back into Phase 3 or a stay-on-place if things get worse.
  

Liquor sales? 10:00 PM? It seems Groot has discovered that the COVID virus is a 12-year-old child subject to curfew and running around with a fake ID trying to buy beer. And closing down inside serving as the nightly temperatures are dipping down into the 30's with autumn rapidly setting in.

Fatass has to get in on the act, too:

• Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Thursday that Illinois State Police will start patrolling bars and restaurants in regions of the state where coronavirus numbers are surging, and establishments that disregard his new restrictions could face sanctions including the loss of their liquor or gambling licenses.

  On another record-setting day for new COVID-19 infections, Pritzker announced the police patrols in four area of the state. The officers will be authorized to disperse crowds and issue citations for violators.

Good thing he and Groot solved the issue of expressway shootings and an increasing homicide rate.

Assailant Shot - Waukegan

And of course, he's the "victim" according to the morons:

• About 100 protesters gathered outside a Waukegan police station Thursday and called for justice for Marcellis Stinnette, who was fatally shot by police in the northern suburb.

  [...]

  Relatives and demonstrators cast doubt on the Police Department’s version of what happened.

  The incident began shortly before midnight Tuesday when an officer went to investigate a vehicle near Liberty and Oak streets, Waukegan police said in a statement. The car drove off from the officer but was found moments later by another officer. As that officer walked up to the car, the car reversed and the officer fired his pistol out of “fear for his safety,” police said.

  No weapon was found in the car, police said.

The weapon was THE CAR assholes! It's a chunk of metal and plastic weighing a few thousand pounds and which is known to kill over 38,000 people a year in the US alone.

Here's a little trick we use when we're in other jurisdictions if we're unfortunate enough to attract the attention of the local constabulary: 

• Stop; remain stopped; listen to the officer(s); follow directions;
  
• Don't drive off; don't be pursued; don't reverse into Officers
  

It's too bad these dead assholes aren't man enough to take their punishment, but prefer to endanger their passengers, family members, passersby, officers and anyone else in the way.

Six-Hundred-Eighteen Down....

And no plans to make up the shortages:

• Mayor Lori Lightfoot has been under pressure to defund the Chicago Police Department ever since the death of George Floyd triggered civil unrest and a racial reckoning that swept the nation.

Again, begging the question why a drug addict who had a heart attack is lionized by the "community" and has any bearing whatsoever on Chicago Police? 

• In her second budget address, Lightfoot threw several political bones to those activists, even as she declared police officers are “not the enemy” and ignored broader calls to dramatically reduce CPD’s $1.6 billion budget.

  The first and most tangible concession is the mayor’s decision to eliminate 618 police vacancies, nearly all of them sworn officers, at a time when the pace of retirements has escalated and disgruntled police officers are walking off the job, fearing the mayor doesn’t have their backs.

"...fearing"? No, it's pretty much a done deal. She proves time and again she doesn't.

• The second was her promise to test what she called a “co-responder model” that begins the painstaking process of “building the infrastructure for an alternative means of response” instead of requiring police to be the “first and only responders on every call for help.”

  Lightfoot warned such a system must be “tested on the streets” and “built over time.” There are “no magic wands to wave, no snapping of fingers or catchy slogans” to get it done. It must address Chicago’s “urban realities and not those of some other city that does not reflect our diversity.”

Have any of these "activists" actually sat down and figured this out...meaning the cost of this?

• Police work is a 24/7/365 profession. This so-called "co-responder model" is going to necessitate a 24/7/365 civilian "response" team. Mentals aren't losing their marbles during business hours, and they aren't exactly evenly distributed across the city. And that doesn't even take into consideration someone non-diagnosed undergoing a crisis. As Groot and Fatass continue to wreck the economy, guess what's going to rise exponentially?

And Groot really jumps the shark with this one:

• The third and more symbolic concession was Lightfoot’s decision to openly acknowledge what she called the “complicit role” police departments have historically played in “brutally enforcing racist, Jim Crow laws, depriving Black and Brown people” of their “full rights as citizens.”

  She added: “These are not just ancient times, but recent history, right here in Chicago. And so, in breaking down these barriers, we must also continue to closely scrutinize all policing practices and policies to eliminate any and all bias,” she said.

Does Groot even know what a Jim Crow law is? It's state and local laws enforcing racial segregation. And it was almost exclusively in the south - where Groot doesn't run any police departments.

The laws themselves were struck down in 1965. There isn't a single cop on the job who was working in 1965 and we'll bet over two-third of the Department wasn't even born in 1965. In short, since 1965, there have been legal remedies to any attempt to carry out Jim Crow laws. We'd ask Groot to cite any "recent local history" regarding the practices, but she (and we) know she's pandering (badly) to morons instead of being an adult.

UPDATE: We know were going to get a bunch of tiny brains screaming we're denying racist behavior by the police. This is why you are tiny brains. No one is denying that there were shameful instances in CPD history, That would be dumb. Go back and read what was typed - "recent local history." Then bring back an example.

Who Would This Be?

From the comments:

• Did anyone hear about the young lady who has been stealing trump and support police signs from the Mount Greenwood and Beverly neighborhoods. Turns out she is a product of the Chicago Public Schools, her father is the police and she is in college with a scholarship from F.O.P. Her Facebook page is all about hating conservatives and police. 

She certainly doesn't need any of our dues money then, correct?

Highway Attack?

Sounds suspicious:

• Two Chicago Police Department members were hurt Wednesday after a vehicle crashed into their squad car on I-290, sending them veering into a wall on the Near West Side.

  The hit-and-run happened about 11:20 a.m. on the inbound lanes near Ogden Avenue, according to Illinois State Police.

  The squad car was in the left lane when a vehicle in the right lane suddenly veered left and struck the side of the squad car with its front end, state police said in a statement.

  The impact caused the squad car to strike the left concrete median wall, state police said. The driver and passenger were taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.

Anyone have any info on the striking vehicle?

Irresponsible Spending

Another reason to vote No on Fatass's "fair tax:"

• Get out and vote no on Fatass's JB putzker's income tax hike ..Nov 3rd..Out of the supposed $3.5 Billion raised from higher income hike..only $340 Million will go into pension funds ..The other $3 Billion from tax hike? JB Putz will spend it all

Last we heard, Illinois was $129 Billion (with a B) in the red regarding pensions. Fatass wants to raise taxes $3.5 Billion....and then spend $3 Billion of it on new issues instead of retiring old debt and catching up on what is already owed?

And that's just the income tax - there is already another $3-to-4 Billion in new fees on the drawing board and we haven't seen where that's supposed to go.

Does anyone have an actual breakdown of where all of this new spending is supposed to go?

Corrupt Groot?

Violating rules that her administration put into place:

• Months after a new law took effect banning elected public officials from lobbying Chicago City Hall, Mayor Lori Lightfoot exchanged emails with a lobbyist who would have been barred under the new standards had they been enforced, the Tribune has learned.

  Flossmoor trustee Gyata Kimmons emailed Lightfoot in August on behalf of Unibail‐Rodamco‐Westfield, a real estate company he lobbies City Hall on behalf of tenants at O’Hare International Airport, records show.

  The back-and-forth occurred months after Lightfoot introduced her own plan that would have rolled back part of the city’s lobbying ordinance that prohibited elected officials such as Kimmons from lobbying city officials while keeping his suburban elected post.
  

One might be forgiven for thinking that Groot put the rules in place to cut down on the competition.....and then ordered the rules unenforced so she'd have a clear shot at whatever it is the lobbyist was offering.

He Did What Now?

This is on the CWB Twitter feed and someone was kind enough to put it in our comment section:

• @CWBChicago · 24m  BREAKING: The man who suspended himself from the side of Trump Tower in a 14-hour standoff with @Chicago_Police SWAT negotiators just escaped from a private ambulance, saying he has a mission to complete.
  

No idea how this ended or if it's still ongoing. 

Keep your eyes peeled - he might be dangling from some other high rise shortly....or falling.

Um, Duh?

Looking forward to many many more stories like this:

• We’ve already seen two instances where the police in Aurora, Colorado have “stood down” when facing violent felons. The first incident involved a guy with a lengthy rap sheet who was exposing himself to young girls, destroying property, and threatening harm to the residents of an apartment complex. The cops stood down twice in two days rather than taking him into custody. The more recent incident involved a child abuse suspect with multiple warrants and who was on parole, who barricaded himself inside his home with one of his children and some firearms. The cops walked away that time also and the perpetrator is still on the loose.

  After that discouraging encounter, I pondered whether people would begin to notice the fact that the men and women in blue who are supposed to be protecting and serving don’t seem to be doing as much of either these days. I also noted that their new Chief of Police had publicly announced an agenda of having fewer “conflicts” with suspects where her cops might have to use force against a dangerous criminal. As it turns out, some of the locals have indeed noticed this pattern and they’re telling reporters about it.
  

And hopefully they keep complaining to reporters so we have yet another opportunity to say, "What the Hell did you think would happen?"

COVID Spreading; Economy Cratering

On the heels of yesterday's post about the spike in Department-wide cases:

• The Near West Side offices of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 have been closed because of the coronavirus.

  “Due to COVID-19 related issues, the FOP offices will be closed until further notice,” read a Monday message on the website of FOP Lodge 7, which represents more than 8,000 rank-and-file Chicago police officers.
  

Coincidentally, the "positivity rate" is going up in Illinois and is being used by Fatass to further stifle the economy:

• Roughly a third of Illinois’ 102 counties and a quarter of its residents soon will be living under stricter rules aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus as the state attempts to rein in a resurgent pandemic.

  Starting Friday, indoor service at bars and restaurants will be prohibited in DuPage, Kane, Will and Kankakee counties, an area that’s home to more than 1 in 6 Illinois residents, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Tuesday.

  While the governor lamented that the rollback was needed, restaurant owners worried the latest wave of restrictions would make it even more difficult to stay in business as winter looms and outdoor dining becomes less of an option.

We seem to recall this being predicted here by many readers, right around Election Day in fact. Imagine that. Anyone want to try to explain why a "positivity rate" necessitates shutdowns? Has the death rate gone up? Hospitals being overrun? People dying in the streets?

Here's an tidbit that will send HQ into a tizzy:

• one of us had it, here, at SCC

You know what? We were miserable. For three days. And after that, we felt better, resumed a normal routine, and returned to work after a couple weeks off. That's it. 

But there's Groot and Fatass attempting to drive the economy into the ground once and for all:

• Chicago’s convention industry, one of the city’s major sources of tax revenue, might not return in any significant fashion until 2022, dealing a prolonged financial blow to the city as it struggles to make up a $1.2 billion budget shortfall.

  Mayor Lori Lightfoot is scheduled to present her plan to close the city’s budget deficit Wednesday, which might include increases to property and gas taxes, as well as city worker layoffs.

  With COVID-19 cases on the rise again and business and international air travel depressed, trade show organizers continue to examine plans for next year. Already, eight shows scheduled at McCormick Place through April have been canceled, and one has been rescheduled for later in 2021.

How soon until Fatass starts shutting down election sites?

More Shortages (UPDATE)

In the 003 District:

Five cars down, two 99 units, and 313 doubling as the wagon.

But Groot got her three cars for downtown. 

UPDATE: We missed this - not a SINGLE SECTOR SERGEANT on the street. 350 is headed downtown for the detail and if 306 is a real car, he's covering everything in violation of hte Consent Decree.

Greedy Greedy Greedy

The schools got a windfall, but it isn't enough - they're still crying broke:

• Mayor Lori Lightfoot was accused Tuesday of “defunding” the Chicago Public Schools by declaring another record tax-increment-financing surplus to generate a $189 million windfall for CPS, but snatching back $55 million of that money by shifting pension and crossing guard costs from the city to the schools.

  “Folks were irritated by the [proposed] defunding of the police, yet we have watched year-after-year, decade-after-decade of our public school system being defunded. The irony is not missed on me,” said Stacy Davis-Gates, vice-president of the Chicago Teachers Union.

  “All summer long, you had young people who attended Chicago Public Schools saying they felt safest when police officers were not in their school communities. Now the dollars that are supposed to fund their school communities are going to go to prop up a bloated police budget. That is irresponsible. It is tone deaf.” 
  

This is why you don't give young people a vote - they're morons, easily led, and have no idea what is good for them. Kind of the same reason you don't give drunks and drug addicts money.

As for schools being "defunded," we went over a few years of our property tax bills and guess what? Every single year, the allocation for schools went up the maximum allowable under the law. Every single year. And this bitch is whining about covering Crossing Guard costs - something that appears in no other Department's budget and only is used in the schools. Why wouldn't they cover the costs now and why weren't they covering them for years already?

Any word on the 4% layoffs coming up due to a 4% drop in enrollments? Then maybe we can get a 4% refund on our property taxes.

Everyone Getting Sick

So a number of Districts and Units are seeing a big uptick in positive COVID tests.

The common denominator?

• Training

Seems there is a link among people who have attended training at off-site locations or the Academy, they take the virus back to the Districts/Units and suddenly, Medical Roll use is skyrocketing.

And even though the Department has pointed this out to Groot, she has threatened everyone that if the next Consent Decree compliance numbers aren't "significantly" better, heads will roll among the command staff.

Nice Save

The original headline was:

• Trump Throws Mentally Handicapped Man Off of Building

It turns out that wasn't quite the case:

• Chicago police said Monday morning they had “resolved peacefully” a standoff at Trump Tower more than 13 hours after a man suspended himself with a rope and harness from the 16th-floor landing of the downtown high-rise.

  “Situation resolved peacefully by negotiators,” tweeted police spokesman [...]. “Suspect in custody. No injuries.”

  A police SWAT unit and the Chicago Fire Department had responded to a call of a man threatening to kill himself at the Trump International Hotel & Tower, 401 N. Wabash Ave. in the Near North neighborhood, about 5:30 p.m. Sunday, according to police. Ahern said the man rappelled down the outside of the building; he was seen hanging by a rope several feet below the ledge to the right of the large “Trump” sign on the building.

Under the new SWAT rules, they probably should have left him hanging there to let weather and gravity solve the situation. But being dedicated public servants and unwilling to let passersby be pelted with body parts and/or human waste, they talked him into surrender. Good job all around.

Rumors of Downsizing

Some of Groot's proposed "cuts" to balance the budget and achieve her dreams of a police force of under 8,500:

• Layoff 150 civilian data entry employees :
  
  Remove 200 vacant civilian positions from the Budget;
  
  Remove 1000+ vacant police positions (875 police officers, 75 Sgt’s & 50 Lt’s);
  
  2-3 unpaid furlough days for all exempts depending on rank.

If you don't think this is real.....

• Anonymous said...Grout sent the word out to all Aldercreatures to STFU about CPD coverage or else. Cowards are obeying the Dwarf not a peep from any

Anyone hear an aldercreature bitching lately about District manpower? 

No? Ask yourself, "Why not?" 

Then go back and read this post again.

Abandoned

You think businesses don't notice the lack of cops in the neighborhoods?

• One of the West Side’s main commercial corridors was in freefall after the one-two punch of the pandemic and looting that devastated many businesses.

  Now an uptick in street violence and drug sales in broad daylight threaten to be the final nail in the coffin for businesses along Madison Street in West Garfield Park, business owners said.

  Business owners and chamber of commerce leaders said police officers are nowhere to be found along the corridor, which has become too dangerous for customers.

Where might this little slice of heaven be located?

• In the Harrison (11th) Police District, which includes the stretch of Madison Street, shootings are up 50 percent, murders up 26 percent and robberies up 15 percent compared to this point in 2019, according to police data.
  

According to internal CPD counting, 011 just had it's eightieth homicide last week. 

You read that correctly - 80.

And aldercreature Ervin, who "represents" most of that area (along with crack houses in Maywood) is strangely silent - almost like Groot told him to shut up and not mention all the cops stripped out of the west side and sent downtown.

And yes, we know downtown is an economic engine supplying tons of tax revenue. But there are still actual people who live in Lawndale and Austin and Garfield Park who are paying a steep price for Groot's mismanagement.

Single Digit Gap?

Hey, cops can dream, can't they?

• Cook County Republican Party Chairman Sean M. Morrison commissioned the polling firm Ogden & Fry to conduct a county-wide poll this past weekend on the race for Cook County State’s Attorney featuring Democrat incumbent Kim Foxx versus GOP challenger Judge Pat O’Brien. Ogden & Fry’s previous poll from September 5 had Kim Foxx at 48.1%, Pat O’Brien at 33.8%, and 18.1% Undecided.
  
  The latest Ogden & Fry poll has Judge O’Brien surging in the final weeks of the campaign and now within single digits of Kim Foxx. What is extremely troubling for Foxx is that she remains under 50%, falling slightly from last month’s poll as Undecided Voters are breaking sharply for O’Brien.

It's still the longest of long shots in Cook County. Turn out is going to be key and blatant corruption may carry the day.

On a side note, if the Cook County State's Attorney race is this close, what does this mean statewide? 

Is Illinois in play?

HUGE FOP Victory

Suck it Groot:

• The labor board general counsel issued 2 rulings on Friday that bolster our protections and negotiation position. These are declaratory rulings. Simply put:
  
  
  #1 Sworn affidavits are part of state law and cannot be part of mandatory bargaining.  Any arbitrator that potentially was to get our contract COULD NOT even entertain to remove the sworn affidavit protection from our current contract.
  
  
  #2 Section 9.1 of our contract says termination cases cannot be grieved (arbitration) and must go to the Police Board. The Labor Board General Counsel ruled that language could be removed from the  contract going forward. The Lodge proposal was to give an officer the option of arbitration or the police board.
  

This also means the PBPA pretty much wins their lawsuit against the City and Arbitrator who ruled out Sworn Affidavits in their Contract.

155 Recommendations

Hopefully this works as planned.

This is a link to what we will call the Index Page. 

As you scroll through, there are more embedded links that take you to different documents, including General Orders and related documents, some of which are then annotated in different forms.

We'll be frank here - it's tedious. 

It's also obvious that many members of this group had a tenuous grasp of the English language and even less understanding of legal terminology. People made fun of Slick Willie for saying "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is." But he understood exactly what he was doing and demonstrated exactly why lawyers get rich litigating what a lay person would think is an obvious phrase or clause. 

This working group uses loaded terms on every single page, looking toward the day when they would have to prosecute an Officer using inflammatory language in front of a jury composed of Cook County voters. And - if you can believe it - the proposals include numerous unrealistic deadlines undercutting just about every Contractual protection currently in place. There are also more than a few technological impossibilities, such as thinking body cameras can run far beyond the manufacturer's battery specs.

It's no wonder the Department is only undertaking five of these proposals at the moment.

700 and Gone?

Rumor is if Chicago hits 700 homicides this year, Brownie is going to be fired.

We realize by saying this, Groot will be backed into a corner - she can stick to her alleged shit-talking and look like she's taking direction from the blog or back off because her security detail is leaking like a sieve.

But it gives us something to write about and speculate over until 31 December.

More Hints at Election Day

They've been "planning" if you believe the scuttlebutt:

• Chicago police and other city departments said Thursday they have been devising plans over the past few months to “respond to any situation” on the city’s streets for the upcoming presidential election, including civil unrest.

  [...] With 19 days until the election, city officials spoke to reporters mostly in generalities about their plans at an afternoon news conference Thursday. But they sought to assure the public they’re better prepared than they were earlier this year when peaceful demonstrations gave way to looting and vandalism on Chicago’s streets following the Memorial Day death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minnesota.

Do tell!!!

• Brown said he has no plans to impose departmentwide cancellations of time off for the election.

  Instead, only select units in the 13,000-member Police Department will be commanded to work and the shifts extended, he said.

The current rumor is Tact, Summer Mobile and that Community Safety Thing running until mid-December, but we'll see orders and counter-orders trickling out over the next week or so.

And then a final decision will be announced 03 November at 2100 hours to be implemented at 0600 hours on 04 November.

The Future is in Los Angeles

And it's almost certain to come with a body count:

• The Los Angeles City Council has unanimously voted to created a pilot program to send “unarmed response” teams to nonviolent calls which are currently handled by the city’s police department.

  Every election we see a majority of voters in California cast ballots against their own interests, but its fascinating to watch elected Democrats not only vote for something with an obvious flaw, but to celebrate doing so.

  The decision to explore keeping police officers away from some calls by the Democratic-run council was made this past week and hailed by the council’s president, Nury Martinez, according to KTTV.

  Martinez said of the decision in a media release, “Today marks a seminal moment in our City’s history in our efforts to reimagine public safety.”

And as soon as the first social worker gets beaten, robbed, raped, maimed or killed,some asshole will ask, "How could this happen? Where were the police?"

Just a Thought

But maybe all the FTO's should resign en masse to protest Dumbass Brownie alleging that they're all crooked and incapable of teaching the new kids.

We know if our integrity was called into question by a political tool like Groot's tool, we'd tell him to shove his job.

Liberal Bullshit

So there was this article the other day:

• The Chicago Police Department is accepting five proposed changes to its use of force policies, out of a total of 155 changes recommended by a community working group that met weekly for months to help update the department’s rules on when and how officers can shoot their guns, deploy tasers or use their batons.

  The use of force working group consisted of 34 members, including activists, civil rights leaders and politicians. They met for three hours every week since June. It was part of an effort by the department to increase community participation in policymaking, as required by the court-enforced police reform plan known as a consent decree.

  Now, members of the working group are calling the entire process a “sham.”

Of course they are - because they didn't get their way. And they're seizing on the "Five out of one-hundred-fifty-five" as their rallying cry.

Question - Has anyone seen the list of one-hundred-fifty-five proposals?

Answer - No. There are only a few "examples" to show how unreasonable the CPD is being, like this one:

• As an example of the kind of changes that were rejected, Tendaji said there were some that focused on not allowing officers to carry weapons in certain situations or restricting when officers were allowed to draw their guns.

You cannot dictate when an officer feels he or she is in potential jeopardy. It is a legal impossibility and there's plenty of precedent and law on our side with that one.

• Department officials said some recommendations were rejected because they would run afoul of state law or collective bargaining agreements, or because they were deemed “not operationally feasible.”
  

They proposed banning chokeholds - which are already banned by policy, ordinance and state law - even in instances of last resort to save the life of an officer or a citizen.

Do you want to know what one of the other proposals was?

• Police are not allowed to use handcuffs to restrain individuals because it reminds black people of the "shackles of slavery"

This one might not have made it into the final one-hundred-fifty-five (we haven't seen the list either) but it was discussed as a serious proposal in this "policy making" group. It was not laughed at, ridiculed or labeled as unworkable. It was a serious effort to restrict the use of the simplest restraining device.

And for being actually logical, commie gadfly and all around anti-police pussy Craig Futterman gets to fire slings and arrows at the Department before a single version of the one-hundred-fifty-five inanities is even public knowledge. 

Because we all know that NPR and the libtarded press will spotlight these completely moronic proposals in a week or two to even out the coverage...right?