Failure Theater

More summer-like numbers....in November:

• 8:00p Peaceful Tally: 11 killed, 27 wounded
  2019 Thanksgiving weekend: 4 killed, 28 wounded
  2018 Thanksgiving weekend: 4 killed, 20 wounded
  2017 Thanksgiving weekend: 8 killed, 37 wounded
  2016 Thanksgiving weekend: 11 killed, 64 wounded
  2015 Thanksgiving weekend: 9 killed, 22 wounded
  2014 Thanksgiving weekend: 5 killed, 23 wounded
  2013 Thanksgiving weekend: 4 killed, 12 wounded

The 2020 numbers are subject to updates, but the number dead has equaled the 2016 bloodbath - and Chicago is only fifteen killings away from surpassing that entire year. 

Guess which District is leading the carnage for a seventh year in a row?

• To get a measure of just how bad crime is on Chicago’s West Side this year, one good place to start is about 350 miles away — Minneapolis.

  Minneapolis has struggled with violence since May when a police officer knelt on George Floyd’s neck and he died, setting off protests, looting and rioting that spread across the country, including in Chicago.

  Floyd’s killing shattered the friendly, stoic image of that city of 425,000, which is dealing with a growing murder problem. Through mid-November, Minneapolis has had almost 75 killings — stunning for a city with fewer than 50 killings in all of 2019.

  But the violence alone in Chicago’s 11^th police district, also known as the Harrison District, is worse.

Just for comparison purposes, 011 has more homicides than all of Nashville (62), all of Minneapolis (75), more than riot-torn Seattle (59), even all of San Francisco (50). 

011 started the weekend at ninety homicides. As of 2000 hours Sunday, the number was at ninety-three, tying their totals from 2016 and according to one of our archivists, the highest total since 1996 when they topped one-hundred. 

Groot sure knows how to pick a command staff.

Nice Bail and Charging Procedures

Did your cell phone Amber Alert feature go off this weekend? CWB tells us all why and guess who's to blame (again)?

• A suspected double-murderer who sparked an Amber Alert across Chicagoland on Friday evening is on bail for allegedly killing a woman while fleeing police and for two separate Class X felony armed habitual criminal gun crimes.

  Clarence Hebron, 32, had been held without bail on those cases for over a year until a Cook County judge agreed to release him on just $15,000 bond in July.

  Hebron has not been charged with Friday’s murder of 26-year-old Jessica Beal and her brother in Riverdale, but police identified him as the suspect in an Amber Alert after Beal’s 1-year-old boy went missing following the homicides. The boy has since been located.

And....you know what's coming: 

• Incredibly, Hebron was also on bail for the two armed habitual criminal cases when he allegedly killed a woman while fleeing police in April last year.

  Hebron is awaiting trial for two separate major gun cases in which he is charged with a total of two counts of Class X armed habitual criminal, five counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm, and four counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, according to the Cook County sheriff’s office.

The number of dead bodies directly attributable to Crimesha's refusal to prosecute, Timmy insane bail procedures and Tommy's quick release policies is staggering. And they all belong to the Prickwrinkle Machine.

Killing Illinois

Why is Putzker borrowing more money (see 12:01 AM post below)? 

Because the Illinois economy has disappeared:

• After Black Friday comes Small Business Saturday, when Americans are encouraged to support their local retailers. But there will be over 11,200 fewer Illinoisans running retail stores on Nov. 28, thanks to COVID-19 and state-mandated lockdowns.

  And when it is time to take a shopping break to eat and drink, there will be nearly 17,600 fewer Illinois bar and restaurant owners to serve you.

That's almost 29,000 fewer small stores, bars and restaurants. We don't know what these businesses would have generated in Sales Taxes, but think about this:

• each of these places carries some sort of License to Operate - state or county or local - or a combination of all three;
• casino gaming machines at a bunch of these bars are licensed individually;
  
• Chicago requires separate licenses for food, liquor, tobacco, signage, etc

29,000 businesses are not generating tens of millions in these fees alone, and that translates into hundreds of millions in sales taxes, not to mention associated businesses, parking, hotels across the entire state.

Go read it all.

More Debt via Putzker

He isn't just destroying the Illinois economy. He's vaporizing it:

• Illinois has announced $2 billion more in additional borrowing from the Federal Reserve Bank’s Municipal Liquidity Facility (MLF). Gov. J.B. Pritzker has informed the Fed of the state’s intention to borrow the funds before the facility expires at the end of December. The facility was put in place by the CARES act as a backstop for governments hit by financial market disruptions due to COVID.

  While the presence of the Fed facility is credited with bringing stability to the municipal markets, the reality is only one state or city in the entire country has borrowed from the facility since its inception: the state of Illinois. All others have successfully raised billions from the traditional markets during the pandemic (New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority is the only other government [entity] in the country to borrow from the MLF.)

  Illinois’ increased reliance on borrowing follows the public’s rejection of a $3.1 billion tax hike referendum on Nov. 3. More debt, in the absence of major spending reforms, means a junk rating is increasingly likely for Illinois. No state in modern history has ever been rated junk.

We're still waiting for those "painful cuts to government" that he promised. Borrowing more money isn't a cut by any means, and we seriously have to question the sanity of lending more money to any state government that (A)can't make cuts and (B) can't control its spending.

Heavy Heavy Metal

An amusing arrest:

• A Chicago man is facing felony theft charges after police allegedly found him hauling $14,263 worth of stolen sewer lids in the back of his pickup truck Thanksgiving morning on the West Side.

  Lashawn Powell, 52, admitted that his friend pays him to collect the sewer lids from city streets so he can sell them to scrapyards, prosecutors said.

  Cops responded to a call of a suspicious vehicle carrying stolen sewer lids in the Garfield Park neighborhood around 4:55 a.m. Thursday. It wasn’t long before they spotted Powell allegedly driving around with 31 manhole covers in his truck bed.

  In case you’re wondering, sewer lids weigh about 249 pounds each, according to Wikipedia. So, 31 lids would weigh about 7,700 pounds. The city values them at $460 each, prosecutors said during Powell’s bond court hearing Friday.
  

Sounds like a dangerous pasttime - people might fall into one, and a vehicle hitting a hole that size will result in massive damage to the car and occupant(s). So what happens in Timmy and Crimesha's "justice system"?

• After reviewing the allegations against Powell, Judge Susana Ortiz rattled off several factors she considered while settling on his bail amount.“Most importantly,” she said, is “the danger that it creates, removing sewer covers from the street. Heaven forbid someone should fall into an open sewer.”

  She then released him on his own recognizance with electronic monitoring.

An I-Bond? Good thing he wasn't a hardened criminal!

• Powell has eight felony convictions, including thefts, burglaries, and a robbery dating back to 1990.
  

Oh. Well, so much for that theory.

Where's Wal....Brownie

Comment appearing a couple places:

• Brownie MIA the entire week - seven days and counting

We certainly hope he isn't traveling in violation of mayoral and gubernatorial directives.

Although the rumor is he went to Texas, from this pic, it looks like he's in New York:

 He's flexible for a middle-aged guy.

More Hidden Bodies

In addition to the CST and CIRT teams (and summer, autumn, winter mobile details) shorting District law enforcement actual bodies, we're told another hidey-hole is overstaffed:

• If you think that’s bad, someone should ask why there are over 240 officers and 41 sergeants assigned to the training division, yes you read that correctly, when there is hardly anyone at the academy and training is limited due to Covid. 240 officers and 41 sergeants!!! Are you fucking kidding me?!?!? When districts are running bare bones with multiple downed beat cars and 1 sergeant working the street in the entire district!!!

One sergeant? See Friday's CWB post and there are districts operating with ZERO Sergeants on the street. That's ridiculous.

According to the Consent Decree, supervision is supposed to be 1-to-10. 

Those numbers are close to 1-to-6. 

And if you only have one class of 26 recruits, there ought to be a staff reduction in the offing as the other classes move out. Additionally, the remote classes we've attended were either taught by civilians in close quarters or remotely by computer.

CWB Homerun on Manpower

Building on the manpower shortage that we've been mentioning for months now, the only actual investigative reporters in Chicago put together this bombshell of a report:

• Sunday evening, officers in one of Chicago’s largest police districts worked their entire shift without having a single sergeant on the streets to supervise them.

  And cops who worked the next shift in the same district also patrolled without any sergeants supervising.

  The lack of oversight was not a scheduling snafu, according to two sources. The district simply doesn’t have enough sergeants to cover all of the shifts, they said.

  After hearing about that — and confirming the situation by reviewing schedules from the station house — CWBChicago took a look at CPD’s staffing numbers. We found something incredible.

What they discovered is that every single police district in Chicago - except 016 - is down double-digit percentages, in some cases 20% and more. 016 is only down 6% - so all 22 Districts are down.

So where did they all go?

• In total, there are 1,376 fewer officers assigned to districts now than in April. Where have the cops gone?

  According to OIG, the department lost 354 of them to retirements and other separations. CPD’s five detective divisions have gained about 79 investigators.

  But most of the rest appear to have gone to citywide teams that Brown created when he redesigned the department in July.

These are the CST and CIRT teams we've been pointing out that are stripping manpower from what Brownie called "the backbone of the Department." Brownie probably ought to be referencing a body part about six inches lower than the spine. 

CWB has tables and links to all sorts of information that any media source (or citizen) could FOIA and see how Groot, the Department and even aldercreatures are either lying or being lied to. Remember that aldercreature who traded a vote for a property tax hike in exchange for cops? He was lied to:

• In 2015, Lakeview Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) voted in favor of a major property tax increase after he said he received assurances that the Town Hall Police District would receive 35 more police officers, to a total of at least 366 cops.

  Tunney began sending copies of the district’s monthly staffing numbers to his constituents in a weekly email. The last time he did that was on June 19, when Town Hall had 391 officers.

  Since then, the district’s manpower has fallen every month to its current strength of 329 officers, according to OIG. That’s far below the 366-cop minimum that Tunney said he was promised in exchange for his property tax vote five years ago. [a 10% reduction - SCC]
  

This post by the CWB blog is everything an investigative report ought to be - in depth, focused, citing numerous sources, and holding government to account. Anyone calling themselves "reporters" ought to study this post and attempt to emulate it. Go click on the link up top and give them some eyeballs.

Interesting Development

Finally, another branch of government stepping up to the plate:

• This fall, Cook County prosecutors reversed course on two men accused in a decades-old double murder. The cases against Wayne Antusas and Nicholas Morfin were on shaky ground, they said. The judges should throw out their convictions, and in turn prosecutors would drop the charges and the men would be freed.

  It is a common enough story for a state’s attorney’s office that boasts a progressive record reversing wrongful convictions. It usually ends with the inmate’s joyful release from custody, and later, a lucrative lawsuit.

  But instead, the judges presiding over Antusas’ and Morfin’s cases made an almost unheard-of move. They disagreed with the reversal plan.

  It is ultimately judges’ responsibility — not prosecutors’ — to decide if convictions should stand, they said. "I do not think it is good practice for a judge to rubber-stamp an agreement the parties have entered into on something the court, not the parties, have province over,” Judge Timothy Joyce said in court.

Imagine that - judges who actually stand behind the system and insist on (in one of these cases) an evidentiary hearing to assist in determining if this is just another attempt by the county prosecutors to side-step their responsibility to prosecute crimes. And (in both of these cases) apply the felony murder rule where everyone involved in the crime is held responsible to the Law.

Great Idea

These look fun:

If these are real vinyl window "clings" someone is going to make a bunch of money.

Mayor Ignoramus

Happy Thanksgiving from Groot:

Anyone who doesn't think this is deliberate is delusional.

Such a small, petty, ignorant, shallow being.

Gun Probation to Attempted Murder

We thought that there were restrictions in place when you got convicted of gun crimes, the first one being "Don't have a gun anymore." Did Crimesha forget the Pinkie Swear part?

• On March 10, police arrested 21-year-old Kamari Pleasant after allegedly finding a handgun in his car during a traffic stop. On November 2, he pleaded guilty to unlawful use of a weapon in exchange for a sentence of probation from Judge Carol Howard.

  Nineteen days later, on November 21, Pleasant fired 19 rounds from an automatic-firing handgun at cops who were chasing him on the Far South Side, prosecutors said Tuesday. He’s now charged with three counts of attempted murder of a police officer.

  “I’m quite certain Judge Howard will be interested in seeing you,” Judge John Lyke told Pleasant after hearing the latest allegations.

Actually, we're pretty sure Judge Howard won't be interested in seeing this asshole. She wasn't interested enough to give him actual jail time on the other charge - No Punishment, No Deterrent.

The story is from the CWB blog....and is the second in a series of posts they describe thusly:

• There is never a shortage of stories to tell about people being accused of heinous crimes while free on affordable bail or parole. But Tuesday’s bond court hearings in Chicago produced a cornucopia of examples. Legitimate turkeys of justice. We’ll be telling you about them today. Example one is available here and number three is here.

Just more and more stories about how Crimesha releases violent criminals back onto the street, day after day after day. And voters ask for more of the same, year after year after year.

Mystery Unit

So the Community Safety Teams (CST) have been stealing manpower from the Districts for a few months now. Guess how big this unit has gotten?

• A current search of A and A’s / assignment roster has their manpower listed at get this:
  
  
  
  799 PO’s
  
  And 65 Sgts.   
  
  
  
  That’s doesn’t include the 100 or so assigned to recently added CIRT unit either

That's nearly three entire Districts worth of manpower.

Doing what exactly? 

• 720 dead
• 3200+ maimed

And get a load of these carjacking numbers (click for larger view):

When is someone (Brownie) going to answer for this mismanagement?

Minneapolis Lawsuit

Interesting, seeing as how Groot just cut 600 spots from the Department with plans to "defund" another 1,000 as retirements continue stacking up:

• Minneapolis residents have standing to sue the city over an alleged police staffing violation, Hennepin County District Court Judge Jamie Anderson has ruled. Anderson’s order rejected the city of Minneapolis’ attempt to throw out the lawsuit because the city said residents lacked standing to sue.

  Anderson said he didn’t have enough information yet to decide on the outcome sought by plaintiffs.

  Still, Anderson cited McKee v. Likins, in which the Minnesota Supreme Court held that “[t]axpayers are legitimately concerned with the performance by public officers of their public duties. Accordingly … a taxpayer suing as a taxpayer has standing to challenge administrative action which allegedly is rulemaking adopted without compliance with the statutory notice requirements.”

  Eight Minneapolis residents sued the City Council and Mayor Jacob Frey in August, arguing they violated the charter requirement to staff roughly 743 officers for the 425,000-person city. The lawsuit argues that the number of licensed police officers has dropped from 825 at the start of 2020 to about 634.

In this case, the City Charter actually dictates the number of Officers to be utilized to keep order, so the defense cited by municipalities (DeShaney vs. Winnebago and Town of Castle Rock vs. Gonzales) regarding "No Duty to Protect" does not apply here - Minneapolis has a legislated Duty to Protect into its actual charter. 

Oops.

Happy Thanksgiving

As usual, posting and comment moderation may be delayed. 

Use whatever excuse you like:

• family dinner - but safely masked and no more than 6 people
• trip to a non-COVID restricted place to do some paddle-boarding
• day off cancelled and we're deployed with everyone else
  

Happy Thanksgiving and Stay Safe.

Encrypted Radios?

Coppers have been advocating for this for a long time. SWAT has them, but every other communication is out there in the open.

Until recently we're told (via email):

• Have you seen the orders where Supervisors are required to bring a radio with the "EVENT 1" setting programmed in? This is the new P25 encrypted band rolling out in the newer radios. It's something to enable secure communications (finally) while moving the troops to confront antifa and rioters who were always a step ahead of the CPD.

This should have been done nationwide after 9/11, and was done in numerous smaller departments where they didn't need to buy a few thousand radios. NYPD muddled through something like this, but the infrastructure was always the stumbling block. Anyone know if they got it running and CPD is following NYPD (again)?

UPDATE: Digital....but not encrypted? We aren't tech geeks by any stretch, so someone explain please.

The Story That Won't Die

We don't even want to quote it:

• here's the link to Special Ed's drama

Wheezie refused everything but a report and the matter has been closed criminally. There's a Grand Jury somewhere subpoenaing every report in existence though.

And Commander Jerome, who already took a 28-day suspension for the DUI incident (even though he was home in bed) showed up at the scene of this disaster.

Anyone know what City Hall is attempting to distract from this time?

FOP Walks Away - Arbitration?

He gave them every opportunity to negotiate:

• Brothers and Sisters,

  As I previously informed you, the city was told to respond by 3pm today on whether the 11.5% offer was achievable or not and what it would take to make that happen. Clearly they have not been bargaining in good faith. They waited till EXACTLY 3PM to send they reply today. They have rejected that offer as unreasonable. In return, a response was sent to them.

  The city was informed that the 11.5% is now off the table for good and we are reverting to our original counter offer of 17%. Any and all discipline reform talks are also now off the table going forward. Those 2 issues will end up in arbitration at some point. We will continue to negotiate parts of the contract wherever possible. When we a hit wall on all matters, we will then proceed to arbitration on whatever has not been resolved.

  All this after the Mayor twisted enough arms to get her budget passed this afternoon which not only increased property taxes but also cut over 600 CPD sworn job from our budget. That is a quasi defund the police move. 29 Alderman voted for that budget. Their names will be published tomorrow.

  John Catanzara Jr.
  

This is a good fight to have - we've been working through the "pandemic," having days off canceled and pretty working every holiday.

Teachers got how much and they haven't been in a classroom since March? And they're still only contributing 2% to their pensions.

How about start running more police officers for aldercreature? The "defund" movement is a failure nationwide...even here in Chicago. Los Angeles record ed its 300th homicide after years of declines. Start hammering the issue. Instead of offering endorsements, start running candidates. Even if we're splitting votes, we might be affecting incumbents.

Council of Cowards

Groot's "pandemic budget" passes by the narrowest margin in decades:

• Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Tuesday savored her hard-fought budget victory, even though her winning margin was the narrowest in decades and could spell trouble when it comes to making the tough decisions ahead.

  The mayor’s plan to raise property taxes by $94 million, followed by annual increases tied to the consumer price index, passed with only two votes to spare. The roll call was 28 to 22.

  The “No” votes were cast by 11 white aldermen, including some of the mayor’s closest allies, along with seven Hispanic and four Black aldermen. They were concentrated in wards that comprised Lightfoot’s political base.

That last paragraph doesn't make sense - if these "No" votes were her "closest allies" AND they represent her "base," who exactly did she get the 28 "Yes" votes from? Her enemies who represent voters who went for Prickwrinkle? 

And somehow, there weren't 3 votes to flip?

By the way, the Vallas post from a few days ago was 100% accurate - future property tax increases are built into this budget so aldercreatures can claim "I didn't vote for a property tax increase" when it's automatically tied to the rate of inflation or the cost-of-living increase. This also means that pretty much every "raise" all of the unions negotiate from this point forward is merely a slowing of salary reductions. 

Follow the Science

But what if the science says this?

• A new study published in the journal Nature has found that people who are either asymptomatic or undergoing a secondary illness of COVID-19 are simply not infectious, and don’t give the virus to others.

  In other words, it appears that the only time people can infect others is when they have the virus for the first time, and only when they are symptomatic. Lock downs and the use of masks by the healthy accomplish nothing. All you need to do is quarantine the symptomatic patient, as human societies have been doing for centuries and centuries.

  To once again emphasize this point, wearing masks if you are healthy and not sick protects no one. Social distancing if you are not sick protects no one. Shutting down businesses, such as reducing capacities at restaurants so they can’t make a profit, protects no one. Curfews protect no one.

  When you see someone on a hiking trail, it is not necessary to run ten feet off the trail, put a mask on, and bow your head away in fear and terror of that other person. That they are on the trail guarantees they are not sick. They can’t infect you. And that you are there also means you can’t infect them.

  Burn the mask. Smile. Live like a human again. And most of all, stop being afraid all the time.

Anyone know what the unions (and Civil Rights groups/lawyers) are going to do when the government tries to force the vaccine on people?

Great Intel

And a great job keeping the leaders in the loop:

• A veteran police lieutenant was reassigned last week after a one-day trip to Chicago by Attorney General William Barr caught Chicago Police Department leadership and the mayor’s office by surprise.

  Sources told the Chicago Sun-Times that Lt. Patrick Quinn was pulled from his position in the Crime Prevention and Information Center in police headquarters and sent to the Rogers Park District on the North Side after Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CPD brass learned of Barr’s visit during a conference call Nov. 17 — just a day before Barr, the nation’s top law enforcement officer, was scheduled to arrive in Chicago.

  Quinn could not be reached Tuesday and representatives for the CPD lieutenant’s union did not respond to inquiries. Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office referred questions to the CPD, which declined to comment on Quinn’s move.

  “All personnel decisions are made by the Chicago Police Department Superintendent and his leadership team,” mayoral spokesman Pat Mullane said.

It would only have been funnier if Barr made it in and out of town without CPD even knowing about it.

The report says he didn't meet with any of the local federal prosecutions team, so no one knows what's up....and that makes Groot's people nervous.

Officer Found Deceased

No word on what  happened. 

• A Chicago police officer was found dead inside his South Side home Tuesday morning.

  Paramedics found the officer unresponsive in the 9400 block of South Wabash Avenue, according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.

  The man, in his 40s, was pronounced dead at the scene, he said.

  His cause of death has not been determined by the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
  

Prayers for his family and co-workers in 005.

(comments closed here - informational post only)

Officer Injured Overnight

Dragged:

• A male police officer was seriously injured during a traffic stop near the 95th Street Red Line “L” station on Monday evening, according to the Chicago Fire Department and Chicago Police Department.

  Officers pulled over a Chevy Impala in the 9500 block of South Lafayette Avenue in the Princeton Park neighborhood, according to Chicago police. The driver started to drive off with an officer on the driver’s side door, dragging the officer.

  The Impala then hit a concrete pillar, causing the officer to be thrown from the driver’s side door, police said. The officer hit a “fixed object” as he was thrown.

Officer is listed in "Good Condition" at latest report. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Here's a Mystery

This is Groot voting earlier in November:

The thing is, she's voting at Colletti's. We're told it's a well-known Italian bistro type restaurant on the far northwest side - Elston and Central. 

That's no where near 014, no where near Logan Square and very much closer to Sauganash. Groot is far too smart to be committing voter fraud, so we're going to guess she moved north and didn't tell anyone. In fact, Google Maps tells us this is just two miles south of Dick's Sporting Goods that she bought a paddle board at the other day.

We'd hate to think that concerned citizens weren't having their voices heard if they're protesting at an empty house. After all, the essence of the American system is that politicians listen to the citizens, right? 

Who's got a copy of 017's sheets?

Sgt Exam Announcement!

The news is as follows:

• Keep waiting

Seriously. 

That's it. 

This was a Citywide fax sent out.

Maybe something will happen late in the First Quarter next year or it won't. COVID you know. 

Keep studying.

More Taxes

Has anyone seen a single proposal to cut spending? Besides the one where they defund the CPD and everything becomes rainbows and unicorns. Because this is getting seriously dumb:

• An alderman introduced a plan Monday to tax deliveries by companies, such as Amazon, as the City Council also capped fees third-party delivery services charge pandemic-stricken restaurants and teed up Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s 2020 budget for a Tuesday vote.

  Bridgeport Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson wants to charge an additional $1.25 for packages delivered by ground to addresses in the city that weigh 50 pounds or less, and $2.50 for heavier deliveries. Prescription medicine and food deliveries from restaurants would be exempted from the extra tax under Thompson’s plan.

Ruin businesses across the city, county and state, then raise taxes when everyone is sitting home not working and not getting paid. At least those not working for the government aren't getting paid.

Stay Home! No Vacations!

Meanwhile, one of our fans sent us this:

That's Groot (top left) getting off the escalator at Dick's Sporting Goods in Skokie Niles, Illinois. Multiple Choice Quiz as to what Groot was buying there:

1. ammunition for the pocket derringer she carries
2. running shoes to flee inquisitive reporters
3. a paddle board

Answer:

1. silly reader - Groot doesn't buy ammo
2. silly reader - reporters don't ask Groot hard questions
3. correct

And as we don't see a paddle board being of much use in Chicago between the months of November and late May,  it's probably safe to conclude that once again, Groot is leaving town while you are ordered to stay and quarantine and work canceled days off.

Also, nice to see Groot supporting suburban big box stores instead of something actually in the city that she is driving into the ground.

UPDATE: This is very close to Sauganash. Did Groot go through with that house purchase a bunch of people said fell apart? If so, why is 014 so short of manpower still?

More Shortages

 014, Third Watch (click for larger version):

It's kind of blurry, but everything is a one-man car....except for those three cars that are unmanned.

Ammo Shortage?

We hear about it all the time.

We just aren't seeing it reflected in the HeyJackass.com numbers:

• Peaceful Tally: 4 killed, 44 wounded

These are numbers for a slow summer weekend, not a chilly November.

Tax Dollar Shortage

Thanks in part to Tommy Dart again:

• Cook County commissioners on Thursday unanimously approved a $14 million payment to settle a lawsuit alleging that a pattern of “masturbation attacks” orchestrated by Cook County Jail inmates against assistant public defenders created a hostile work environment that the public defender failed to address.

  A separate lawsuit by jail employees against the sheriff’s office is ongoing.
  

The complete lack of consequences for such behavior in the jail guarantees that it will continue. The fact that Dart tried to bargain pizza parties for non-beating-off behavior only encouraged more and will undoubtedly cost tax payers even more tens of millions when the jail employees lawsuit proceeds through the system.

Avoidable Shortage

Typical incompetency by the CPD administration:

• A friend tested positive for Covid and was given 26 NOV as his return to work date. When he called the medical section last week (after a total of 19 attempts since they stopped answering the phone the week before), he was told he wouldn’t be able to return til 30 NOV “because of the holiday”. So does that mean the medical section will be closed thurs thru sun, during a manpower shortage because of a pandemic? What?
  
  
  
  Another friend had to call the medical section 32 times before someone down there answered the phone last Monday, his 14th day of being off after testing positive. Medical section told him to just return to work on his next working day after the two week period. Ummm mostly any and every other employer require two negative tests to return to work and you can’t show ANY symptoms. The medical section and CPD apparently couldn’t care less if people are returning to work still sick, which will just continue this cycle.

This has been hinted at and complained about in the comment section for a week or more now. Everywhere is short, but part of it is a failure to release healthy people back to work. The other part appears to be bypassing protocols so infected people don't return to work, and this further exacerbates the most recent outbreak.

Manufactured Shortage

Something bigger at play here?

• The Illinois Department of Public Health quietly removed thousands of available hospital beds from their data showing how much capacity Illinois’ medical centers have. 

  The number of available hospital beds is closely tracked by the state as a barometer of how much stress the COVID-19 pandemic is placing on Illinois’ medical system. The state has more than 30,000 total general use hospital beds. The lower the number of free beds, the worse the COVID-19 pandemic is becoming. 

  For overall hospital beds, the state lowered the number of free beds to 8,132 from 10,232 from Nov. 18 to Nov. 19. IDPH removed 495 available ICU beds in the same time frame, taking the number from 1,113 to 618 free ICU beds.
  

So to make it look worse and push the COVID panic, the IDPH "removes" beds from circulation, driving up the percentage of occupied beds.

If there was actually some sort of "shortage" then Fatass would be re-opening the McCormick Place Mobile Hospital and be pissing away another $80 million in scarce taxpayer funds.

Hey Media

Here's another story for you to steal without attribution:

• This week, a brand new academy class, 20-4, started over here at Fort Fellatio.. ahem, sorry: Fort Covid.

  The city went all-out, dug deep, pulled out their big guns and raked in huge numbers for this new class. They searched all across the city, county, state and great land of ours to find these new jacks. And found a grand total of... 26 people, to become the newest members of our big blue family.

  26 recruits. 26. Twenty-six....... That’s all the city could come up with.

  You can’t cover a month of retirements with 26 recruits. You can barely cover a fucking baseball team. The last class was under 40, the one before that under 40, the one before that under 50. God help us.

The Department is literally a year away from a real crisis. You can see it in these numbers (people taking and passing the entrance exam by date):

• Dec 2010: 6,428
  Dec 2013: 12,714
  Apr 2016: 8,921
  Apr 2017: 7,437
  Dec 2017: 6,361
  May 2018: 3,720
  Dec 2018: 3,964
  Jun 2019: 897
  Aug 2019: 779

Fun Fact! The last eight exams have been the EXACT SAME EXAM. And no one knows their scores. If they pass, they get a lottery number, so the Academy might get someone who has failed the exam seven previous times, but finally drew a high number this time.

At this rate, we won't even be getting our RDOs off.

11th and State

Any old timers here remember this?

That beacon used to light up the night sky for miles around.

Anyone know where it ended up?

From Paul Vallas

We're told this was copied from his social media page - it seems to check out:

• MERRY CHRISTMAS CHICAGO, YOU’RE ABOUT TO GET “THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON TAKING”, AN AUTOMATIC ANNUAL PROPERTY TAX INCREASE “FOREVER”.

  So, the Finance Committee has passed the mayor’s proposed budget that includes an automatic annual property tax increase, without future City Council approval. The automatic tax increase will be five percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. This does not prevent the mayor from going to the city council for an even greater increase. Chicago will almost certainly need that in the future, given that 80 percent of Lightfoot's budget is balanced by borrowing, unspecified “efficiencies,” and yet-to-be negotiated contract savings. And don’t forget the city’s unresolved pension funding issues.

  Taxpayers would be wise to recall the impact automatic cost-of-living adjustments (COLA’s) have had on pension systems and on property taxes, if they aren’t already frightened at the thought of the city indexing their property taxes. Memo to the fearful: the mayor has described her property tax proposal as a demonstration of leadership. Far from it. It’s a politically clever proposal to increase property taxes every year for eternity or until hell freezes over. Clever, because it’s a way to get out of having future property tax debates, especially in the proposal’s second year, when it will be election season.

  The entire budget process has shown a lack of leadership. Deferring $926 million in debt payments due this year and next to future budgets and refusing to identify the so-called budget efficiencies or the yet-to-be negotiated contract savings that will supposedly save the city $430 million is not leadership. Caving in to the Chicago Teachers Union by giving CPS $187 million in Tax Increment Financing (TIF) surplus revenues that could have been used to help finance city employee pensions is not leadership. Chicago is already the only city in the state that picks up the employee share of its public school district's teacher pensions.

  Leadership would be directing the mayorly-controlled school board to use its own share of the TIF surplus (54 percent) to partially fund its own teacher pensions. That would allow the city to reduce its teacher pension contribution by the same amount and put those revenues into other underfunded city pension funds in dire need of them.

  The surplus windfall to the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is particularly cowardly considering the union’s uninterrupted recalcitrance to the reopening of school campuses to pre-school children and children with special needs. Those students, in particular, desperately need in person attention. How can more city funding for the schools can be justified when they are in their eighth month without in-school instruction.

  Further, CPS has been provided a historic record setting budget, despite seventeen straight years of reduced enrollment including almost 15,000 students lost just this year. And, CPS is likely to see a significant increase in federal support when the next federal COVID-19 stimulus package passes. Both Democrat and Republican proposals call for schools to receive more than five times the amount received in the CARES Act. In spite of all of that, Mayor Lightfoot is awarding $187 million in TIF surplus to the schools That is almost twice the Mayor’s proposed property tax increase!

  The proposed 2021 budget, like last year’s budget, is simply an attempt to buy time and political cover while hoping for another massive federal economic package. This places the City Council at a critical juncture. Cave in and pass it, knowing exactly what City Hall is up to. Or, exercise a “profile in courage,” reject it and demand a responsible budget, not dependent on any bailout. Biden is already calling on the Congress to pass the next aid package. When it arrives, treat it as a windfall and carefully strategize its use to improve the city’s long-term financial condition. This of course would require some real courage, not to mention vision and skill, and those, I am afraid, appear to be in short supply.

This guy should have been mayor. Or governor.

"Approaching 700"?

Bwahahahahahahaha. Chicago passed that number almost a week ago:

• Chicago is on pace to pass 700 homicides this year as the city faces a 50% increase in gun violence from a year ago.

  Since 1998, it’s a milestone reached only one other time, in 2016. So far, Chicago has more murders this year than during the same period in 2016 — Chicago’s most violent year in recent memory.

  As of Thursday morning, 694 deaths in Chicago have been ruled homicides, according to a Sun-Times analysis of Cook County medical examiner’s office data. The city had 680 murders by this time in 2016, according to Chicago Police Department statistics.

Then they print this - don't they have editors?

• The medical examiner’s office, which tracks homicides by the date of death instead of the time of injury, has recorded 715 homicides so far in 2020. That number includes police-involved shootings and other self-defense shootings that the Sun-Times’ count omits.
  

Which of course is where HeyJackass.com (the only accurate source of homicide statistics in Chicago) draws their number from AND gives lie to the very first paragraph where they claim Chicago is "on pace" to pass 700. The only authority that can determine a homicide is the Medical Examiner's Office. The Slum Times doesn't get to "omit" homicides.

Pick a Strategy Please

It's not that the CPD is rudderless.....it just is led by people with no sense of direction, nor any ability to actually come up with an effective strategy:

• The Chicago Police Department plans to add as many as 100 officers to its citywide narcotics unit, police confirmed Thursday, signaling a policy reversal from earlier this year when top officials placed more of an emphasis on supporting neighborhood patrols.

  No time frame has been disclosed for when the narcotics unit would be expanded, but police sources said the process would be underway shortly.

  Police spokesman [...] confirmed the unit would add about 80 to 100 more cops and said Superintendent David Brown wanted the unit to focus more on lengthy investigations into “mid-level” and “upper-level” drug dealers.

We're pretty sure they were already doing that, and one might make the argument that diverting resources away from that led directly to the massive uptick in murders this year (see post above this one).

We're betting that too many connected persons were entrenched that the current command couldn't move out of their spots, so they launched almost the entire unit, and now they'll fill it with their chosen ones.

More Non-Punishment

This must be some more of that "mostly peaceful looting" everyone was talking about:

• A shoplifting team that has repeatedly targeted the Macy’s store at Water Tower Place raised the stakes by bringing baseball bats to ward off security officers during a raid on the retailer’s menswear department last week, prosecutors said. One adult and one juvenile are now charged with robbery.

  Loss prevention officers caught 19-year-old Darien Green shoplifting three times in the previous month, according to prosecutors. But Macy’s didn’t press charges in those cases.

Wait...what?

• "...Macy’s didn’t press charges in those cases."

Well in that case, fuck Macy's. You deserve every robbery you get.

• So, when Green and two companions entered the store with baseball bats on the afternoon of November 12, security officers decided to keep an eye on them, said Assistant State’s Attorney Meredith Rudolfi.

  When a guard approached the trio in the menswear department, Green threatened him with a bat while a juvenile threatened to beat the agent if he didn’t stop following the group around. The security officer backed away while other Macy’s employees kept an eye on the crew via surveillance cameras.

  Green and the third offender allegedly took coats from the racks and walked out. Macy’s agents did not try to apprehend the group.
  

Well thank goodness these robbers will finally face justice!

• According to CPD records, Green has been arrested six times in the past eleven months: for criminal trespass to vehicles and trespassing in Englewood; for shoplifting in Uptown; for battery at the Sheridan Red Line station; and for failure to disperse from Trump Tower during riots on May 31.
  

Or maybe not.

Canceled RDO Confirmed

Aside from the comments (via the CWB Blog):

• The Chicago Police Department has canceled days off for three specialized units over the upcoming holiday weekend, according to an email sent to police executives Wednesday night.

  Beginning Thanksgiving night, regular days off are canceled for officers assigned to district tactical teams, Crisis Intervention Response Teams (CIRT), and Community Safety Teams (CST), CPD Chief of Operations Brian McDermott said in the email. A copy of the message was provided to CWBChicago by a source.

  [...] Normal days off for affected officers will resume Monday morning, November 30, McDermott wrote. He gave no reason for the schedule changes.

And the line gets stretched even thinner.

Again, Wrong Message

If this doesn't convince you to stay fetal:

• You should look into why COPA stripped 2 officers from 011 for a shooting which occurred over 2 years ago. The one officer has recovered over 80 handguns in a 3 month span in 011 this year. But clearly in the most violent district, COPA wants to strip the hardest working cop.

  Also, Superintendent Brown responded late to COPA’s allegations outside of 90 days. Now these officers will be put in no pay status and facing separation before police board for a shooting ruled justified by the states attorney, and clearly justified on body-worn camera because they can do whatever the fuck they want with no oversight. Armed with handgun.

  Why were these officers allowed to work for 2 years if they were such a “liability”? Fucked up.

Then maybe this would: 

• As the city was roiled with protests this summer, Chicago police officers committed a host of civil rights violations against many of those who were speaking out against police violence, a new federal lawsuit claims.

  “While the plaintiffs were exercising their First Amendment rights to protest anti-Black police violence, Chicago police officers brutally hit them with batons, including strikes to the head, punched them in the face, tackled them to the ground, kneed and kicked them, dragged them through the streets, used chemical agents on them and kettled them,” attorney Vanessa del Valle said during a news conference Thursday.

  The 203-page lawsuit was filed Thursday in federal court on behalf of 60 people who claim they were victimized by officers during protests largely sparked by the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the shooting of Jacob Blake.

  CPD Supt. David Brown and 20 other officers were named as defendants, though more officers will likely be named as defendants as the suit progresses. Mayor Lori Lightfoot may also be named a defendant, according to the plaintiffs’ attorneys.

You have to go ten paragraphs in to find the eighteen officers sent to the hospital, and the sergeant who lost his eye to these "peaceful" assholes bottling, bricking and shooting fireworks at the police. And they don't mention any of the other fifty or so officers who were treated on scene and not hospitalized.

Makes you want to rush right out and do the City's bidding tomorrow, doesn't it?

Options for Training?

So did Media Affairs just lie to Fox 32 and the pinheads over there ran with it?

• Fox 32 just did a piece on our training issues and according to them the city claimed that we have a choice to take the training on line or in person . Has anyone been notified of this?

Not only was no one told of this, the FOP is taking the step of recommending you don't go if you have legitimate health concerns (click for larger version - sorry if it pixelates):

Fuck the Consent Decree training. Safety First.

Crimesha Dropping Weapon Charges

Is there any low this moron won't stoop to?

• Weapons charges have been dropped against two men who were with the rapper Juice WRLD when he suffered a fatal overdose last year.

  Juice WRLD’s bodyguard, Henry Dean, of Chatham, and a second man, Christopher Long of Buena Park, California, were each charged with misdemeanor counts of carrying a concealed firearm at the airport after the rapper’s entourage was searched when authorities raided his private plane on Dec. 8, 2019, at Midway Airport and found a large amount of marijuana.

  A spokesman for Chicago police at the time said both men had valid permits to carry a concealed firearm, but the permit did not allow them to carry guns at the airport.

  All charges against Dean, 28, and Long, 36, were dropped by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office at a hearing Nov. 12.

These people weren't just transporting some personal use narcotics. If we recall, there was a sizable load of this poison. And it, along with the deceased, was in the vicinity of numerous weapons in what is supposed to be a tightly controlled area of property.

But that doesn't matter if you're a "star" to Crimesha. Remember where she was a few award seasons ago prior to releasing Juicy Smellit at the behest of a Hollywood connected Sparklefart lawyer.

This happened a week ago, and everyone is just finding out about it now.

Guess Who's Going to Dinner?

Putzker is rolling out the private jet for Thanksgiving...or so it seems:

• Illinois Democrat Gov. J.B. Pritzker would not say if he would remain in the state for the Thanksgiving holiday as fellow Illinois Democrat Lori Lightfoot, mayor of Chicago, urges residents to avoid nonessential travel and “cancel traditional Thanksgiving plans.”

  “That is my hope, but I will let you know,” Pritzker said after a reporter asked if he would remain in Illinois for the holiday during a press conference on Monday

Remember, rules don't apply to billionaires. They only "follow the science."

Meanwhile:

• Denmark finds that masks don't appear to work well
• A New England Journal of Medicine report has found that strict quarantine, tightly controlled social distancing, and continuous use of masks did absolutely nothing to contain the spread of COVID-19, and might even have increased its spread.

But that's inconvenient science.

Thanksgiving Canceled?

Rumor popping up in the comments that the CST Teams and Tact people will be canceled from the 26th to the 29th of November, ruining any plans these officers may have had made with a week's notice.

What the actual fuck? There isn't a single storm warning on the horizon for anything, yet here we go again. The FOP should be demanding DOUBLE TIME minimum for this crap planning by these assholes. And tact teams should be dropping paper to go back to the watches en masse.

Are we ever going to get a holiday off again?

Non Prosecution Again

Another one of those things you find out only after the election:

So the penalty for stealing a car is.....a series of worksheets? And e-learning? 

Well, we suppose the e-learning is Cruel and Unusual Punishment. Lord knows it is for us.

Signing Off

This is an unusual tribute. But then, this guy sounds like he was an exceptional dispatcher:

• As calm and cool as he may have sounded over police radio, Guadalupe “Lupe” Lopez would still worry about Chicago police officers on the street, especially if they reported they were in danger.

  “I’m worried about all the 10-1s. I get a 10-1 and my heart drops,” Lopez would tell his son, Richie, who recounted his father’s words in describing an emergency call of an officer needing help. “There’s 10-1s at work and there’s people that need help and I wish I could do more.”

  As a 911 dispatcher for the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications, Lopez was responsible for quarterbacking the 911 calls given to officers who work in the West Side’s Ogden and Harrison patrol districts, two of the more troubled areas of the city that struggle with violence.

We've seen newspaper and television articles, and thirty-three years is along time to work Zone 10, especially on midnights.. Most cops don't last a decade in that sort of pressure cooker.

It sounds like he was well known and appreciated, which is a rare thing for any individual in Public Safety work. Godspeed Dispatcher Lopez.

About Damn Time

Teachers are returning to work.....in February: 

• Chicago Public Schools officials are planning to resume in-person classes for elementary school students at the start of February in the most concrete move yet to restart traditional schooling after what will have been an unprecedented, nearly yearlong interruption, according to sources with knowledge of the district’s plans.

  The decision comes amid increasing public health uncertainty as the city’s spread of COVID-19 infections reaches an all-time high and the school system faces heavy scrutiny from the teachers union and anxious parents. Officials relayed their plans to principals on a conference call Tuesday afternoon. A public announcement has not been made but could come later in the evening.

The Contrarian has an article up on it, too:

• ...the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) telegraphed a desire to return to work. In a letter delivered to the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) over the weekend of November 7-8, CTU lawyer Thad Goodchild requested an arbitrator to assist in negotiations to finally come to an agreement to re-open schools. Predictably, given the reported election returns, the CTU quietly confirmed its willingness to explore options and enter into discussions with CPS officials in a by-candlelight tweet Sunday night.

Florian Sohnke correctly calls the CTU an "absolute menace" and attributes their willingness to come back to work as a sop to the presumed Biden administration wanting peace in the blue cities that provided enough fraudulent votes to wheel him over the finish line.

Time to look into a No-Strike clause for the teachers, seeing as how children are our most valuable commodity....and not bargaining chips.

COVID Snapshot

From a few people (click for larger version):

So this might explain part of the recent shortages. 

The other part would be the constant stripping of manpower for Summer, Autumn, Winter Mobiles and the "Community" teams that seem to be taking three hour lunches, and six hour days to excesses.

A Day Ending in "Y"

Must be time to slap around the media tools again and their biased crooked reporting:

• Unlike a Marxist state in which journalists are reduced to obediently parrot the whims of ruling party, journalists in a republic are charged with using the First Amendment to investigate and keep the public well informed.

  That, ostensibly, is the function of the media.

  In Chicago, however, the collection of editors, reporters, and columnists abandoned this mission of a free press in a republic decades ago. In doing so, the media in Chicago became more a subversive force, attempting to undermine opponents.

  No media outlet reflects this transformation more than the Chicago Tribune, and no writer at the paper more than columnist Eric Zorn. Indeed, the thirty-year transformation of the paper from a lone Republican outlet in the city into an agent of an extremist political movement could very well be called the Zornian era of American journalism.

Frankly, we wouldn't give the soy-boy manling the credit of naming a movement for his apologist bullshit.

But it's a good read as usual from the people over at The Contrarian.

Three at a Time

Still stacking up the casualties:

• A 14-year-old girl and two other teens were wounded in a shooting at a South Side dance studio Sunday night, according to Chicago police. About 9 p.m., shots were fired from outside the studio in the 200 block of East 79th Street in the Chatham neighborhood, police said.

  A 14-year-old girl was hit in the shoulder and taken to Comer Children’s Hospital in fair condition, police said. An 18-year-old man was shot in the torso and taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in serious condition.

That'll teach those kids to be dancing and staying out of trouble!

And 011 stacking the casualties with a triple shooting of their own:

• Three people were shot Monday in West Garfield Park.

  Few details were released on the shooting, which happened about 5:20 p.m. in the 3800 block of West Gladys Avenue, Chicago police said.

The rush to 4,000 maimed continues. 

UPDATE: Add four more in Bloody Fillmo:

• Four people were injured, including two teenage girls, during a shooting Monday afternoon on the West Side, according to Chicago police.

  Around 4:40 p.m., four people were walking down the street in the 700 block of South Pulaski Road in the Lawndale neighborhood when a dark-colored vehicle drove by and someone inside started firing shots, police said.

FOP Responds to Comment

For clarification, this WAS NOT a post. It was a comment where anyone (including Groot's people) can post:

• A Message From the President
  
  There was a post on the blog overnight that was 100% untrue. Every fact and every word was incorrect. It's unfortunate that a member would post such nonsense in an effort to cause chaos at the Lodge.
  
  We will update with FACTS as we have them
  
  President John Catanzara Jr.
  Chicago Lodge 7
  Fraternal Order of Police, Chicago Lodge #7
  

It was quite the active comment thread on the "1,100" post from yesterday, just below this one.

1,100?

We've seen a couple of disturbing numbers in the comment sections regarding cops on the Medical Roll

• One commentator says there are currently 1,100+ officers out sick
• Another comment says it's closer to 1,500

We're thinking the 1,500 number might be total cases since the outbreak began, but we've no proof either way. The Department releasing numbers of sick officers stopped shortly before Halloween when Groot and Brownie approved the Super-Spreader Bus and Training Events that have decimated the Department and show no signs of letting up for at least a projected two weeks.

Someone has the real numbers somewhere.

What a "Leader" She Is

Groot wants you to record every single interaction - every single moment of every single day. But her conducting City business on the taxpayer dime? That's off-limits:

• Mayor Lori Lightfoot doubled down on her proposed $94 million property tax increase during a private meeting with the City Council Latino Caucus on Sunday, telling them they’ll have to pass a hike either this year or closer to the 2023 election, aldermen said.

  Lightfoot also reiterated that she plans to link her budget with changes to the city’s sanctuary city ordinance even though the Latino Caucus opposes tying them together.

  Early in the meeting, Lightfoot told City Council members, “I don’t consent to being recorded,” according to five aldermen who were on the call.

Groot has destroyed quite a few relationsips that are essential to governing effectively. Teachers, other unions, cops, aldercreatures. In fact, one of our readers commented: 

• Before GROOT [...] left town she found out that her plan for City Layoffs was going to be met with an all out attack on her precious Chicago Teachers so she has backed off. Seems as though a couple of the labor unions submitted very creative and effective proposals to avoid the layoffs including furloughing and downsizing Teachers, CTA Workers, and aldermanic offices.GROOT quickly hopped a plane and left town for a long weekend.
  

So rather than entertain, let alone have the public / voters / taxpayers even hear about a proposal that might result in the layoffs for people that aren't even showing up for work, Groot pulled her proposals for a few hundred layoffs, insisted on a property tax hike and fled town.

Truly a "leader."

Rules?

Groot is on vacation? Again?

• GROOT was on a plane with family in tow headed out of town after Friday,s presser.Must be that COVID/HOMICIDE fatigue.Is her entire family considered ESSENTIAL WORKERS therefore exempt from quarantine upon return?So much for that Stay at Home Advisory.

Gotta get that vacation out of the way before the newest restrictions kick in.

Fatass is in Wisconsin again while the family heads to the Florida mansion.

Almost Half Strength

This is 010 midnights the other day:

Two field sergeants, but of the 12 beats in 010, you have the following:

• early side - 1013, 1023 and 1071 down
• late side - 1012, 1022, 1034 down

The only reason there's even a wagon up in one of the most violent Districts (5th place) is 1033 is driving it. Check out the Medical numbers - eleven....same as the number of people on furlough (8%).

Figure 33% of the cops are RDO, Furlough is 8%, Medical is 8%, add in the training and 010 has just over 50% of it's manpower unavailable for a single watch.

MYOB Brownie

From Brownie's e-mail:

• Consistent with the Mayor’s advisory, Department members and their families should limit traveling outside of the home to going to work or for essential needs. Wear masks and practice social distancing when you must leave your home. Do not have gatherings in your home with anybody from outside your household and avoid all non-essential out-of-state travel. If travel is essential, then follow the city’s travel advisory regarding testing and quarantining

This isn't Red China yet chump. Maybe pass an actual law that is Constitutionally sound first? 

In the meantime, how about you advise deez nuts? Hard to believe this mope came from Texas.

Academy Disaster

From one of our many insiders:

• Try being in 124/044 lately- it's a disaster. This all started when Kevin Johnson brought in all his people from 003, 005 and 006. Most of them are garbage and still occupy desks over here, doing as little work as possible, while proclaiming themselves to be the greatest thing since sliced bread.... Then came along Godsel in January/February, who you'd think would've cleaned house, but no... Fast forward to more recent weeks....DC Godsel was threatened some time ago, right around when Barb West dropped her papers- that if training didn't speed up to meet Consent Decree deadlines, he'd be shown the door and made an example of. Hence the reason Procedural Justice, Custodial Escort, Officer Wellness and Use of Force has not stopped. God forbid you'd pay overtime to get more officers trained in the AR carbine program... you know, with all the mass shootings and offenders arming themselves to the teeth.....
  
  
  [..] Not to mention, COVID is exploding in the academy. Most of the kids have been told "don't get tested. The more positive cases, the more likely it will be that we're shut down." Several instructors and even more kids have it.. No coincidence a ton of officers who tested positive recently came from training environments. Everyone uses the same keyboards and mice, urinal flush handles, sink faucets, door handles, mold-infested drinking fountains, railings, etc. Nothing is wiped down or sanitized. There is only so much social distancing you can do in a 40+ year old building the size of a fucking elementary school.
  
  
  In March, when COVID blew up the first time, they shut down all training and sent 124/044 staff to the districts. More people inside the training buildings have it now, but nothing is shut down. The biggest clusterfuck of all? When recruits were sent out, the department offered ZERO online learning for them. So when they returned, they had to pick up where they left off. Nothing like having to remember juvenile law and arrest/search/seizure [...] 6 months after you had it the first time with minimal refreshers.
  

Every time someone sends us the sheets, we always try to point out the people sent downtown, regardless of cars being unmanned. We'll try to point out the same thing with people sent to training - but if you have 4-to-6 officers downtown and another 2-to-4 at training, you've destroyed any flexibility you might have had to address regularly occurring crime.

I Don't Know This Guy

Details on the Crimesha name-dropper:

• A man who’s on parole for carjacking the Chicago Tribune’s overnight crime reporter accidentally shot himself in the leg with an illegal handgun during a police street stop on Wednesday afternoon, prosecutors said. He’s now being held without bail and will likely be heading back to prison.

  Early on December 4, 2017, Noriyhea Evans was “celebrating” his 18th birthday with a friend when the duo walked up to a woman as she sat inside a car on the parking lot of a Dunkin’ Donuts in Bridgeport. The men knocked on the car window and ordered the woman out. Then, they sped away with her vehicle.

  As it turned out, the woman, then 29-years-old, was the Chicago Tribune’s overnight crime reporter. She was sitting in a company car waiting for a story to break when the story came to her — via Evans and the other guy.
  

And the amusing part:

• While speaking with investigators Wednesday night, Evans reportedly told cops that he is a member of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s extended family. One source said he claimed to be her cousin, while another said he claimed that his mother is Foxx’s cousin.

  Foxx’s spokesperson told CWBChicago that Foxx “has no idea who this person is or if they are related to her.”

Which would make him a second-cousin or something similar.

The Tribune has a story at this embedded link. Somehow, they make it through the entire incident without once mentioning the fact that his previous arrest for car-jacking the Tribune's own crime reporter nor the repeated claims of "Don't you know who I'm related to?"

Must have something to do with anything that reflects badly on a democrat is immediately hidden and stuffed down the memory-hole.

And only the CWB Blog manages to do any real reporting.

Thanks-Grooting

Groot has decided the pigeon population is out of control:

• Two weeks to the day before Thanksgiving, Lightfoot implored Chicagoans to shake off “COVID fatigue,” avoid unnecessary travel, order small turkeys and resist the temptation to open their homes to extended family.

"Small turkey" is Groot-code for pigeons.

If anyone wants to take a picture of their Thanksgiving gathering and show everyone flipping the bird to Groot or Fatass, we'd be willing to post a couple pictures. Blank out the faces if you like.

Finally

A little slow on the response we would say:

• The union representing rank-and-file Chicago police officers alleges the city and Chicago Police Department are endangering officers’ safety by disregarding COVID-19 protocols during training sessions.

  In a court filing Thursday evening, the Fraternal Order of Police said officers who attend mandatory in-service training “have the potential of becoming superspreaders of the virus because the CPD is not taking the necessary precautions that have been issued by the city of Chicago Commissioner of Health to avoid a resurgence in community cases of the virus.”

  The in-service training sessions — seminars in which departmental policies and procedures are reviewed — sometimes see as many as 40 officers sitting in close proximity to each other, with insufficient personal protective and sanitation equipment provided and face coverings not required, according to the FOP.

The Groot hasn't cared about our days off, hours worked, officer burnout, etc. 

We don't know why anyone would think she cared about anything except the next headline ripping her hand-picked command staff for failing to meet yet another artificial deadline on an artificial "Consent Decree" foisted on the taxpayers by a federal administration on the way out. This is all built to destroy the Department.

Eight Stripped

They are telling you - in no uncertain terms - to be fetal:

• More than 500 complaints have been filed against Chicago police officers since late May on allegations that they mistreated protesters during the demonstrations that followed the Memorial Day death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, officials said, and eight have been stripped of their police powers.

No specifics on the eight, such as assignments or allegations, but at least a few were forwarded to "federal" law enforcement. 

The message couldn't be clearer.

As the World Turns...

Definite soap opera:

• New revelations surfaced Wednesday about a domestic incident at former Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson’s house, and how officers were alerted to it.

  Sources said the domestic incident involved fire and underwear.

  As CBS 2’s Suzanne Le Mignot reported, police sources with knowledge of the investigation said former Supt. Johnson was burning his wife’s underwear on a bed inside their Bridgeport home. We have been told he used an aerosol can to ignite the fire.

  Our sources tell us he pushed his wife away when she tried to stop him. That’s when she called a commander at Area Two.

This whole debacle continuously calls into question every single management decision this dumbass ever made.

Shortages Continue

So these are the sheets from 011, second watch the other day (click for larger version):

As you can see, only two street supervisors and the bare minimum of 15 beat cars (all but one a 10-99 unit) plus the wagon. Groot is still getting her sergeant and six officers downtown though.

The disturbing part isn't the 10-99 units. The disturbing part is the two down cars in the busiest and bloodiest District in the city. 011 has ninety homicides this year and may be the first District to break one-hundred in over twenty years.

It can't get any worse that this, can it?

Yep:

The very next day - FOUR beat cars down. 

In the Homicide Capital of Chicago.

And six officers sent downtown. Again.

And 011 had four homicides this week.

699.....(DING!) There's 700

HeyJackass.com has Chicago listed at 699 homicides.

700 is right around the corner - if it hasn't happened already.

Let the Brownie Countdown commence. 

UPDATE: 025 comes through with #700.

UPDATE: Whichever Groot apologist keeps chiming-in in the comments about "it's only 681, ISP has highway killings" you must be new around here. It doesn't get reported by investigative agency. The City lies or delays reporting via "death investigations" etc. 

HeyJackass.com has been the ONLY trusted source of numbers here for years.

Groot the Popular

Let's just kill off Thanksgiving:

• Warning that up to 1,800 more Chicagoans could die by year’s end, Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday issued a 30-day stay-at-home “advisory” and slapped a mandatory, 10-person lid on social gatherings to control a second surge of coronavirus cases that’s worse than the first.

  Two weeks to the day before Thanksgiving, Lightfoot implored Chicagoans to shake off “COVID fatigue,” avoid unnecessary travel, order small turkeys and resist the temptation to open their homes to extended family.

  “While this is tough — this whole year has been tough — you must cancel the normal Thanksgiving plans,” Lightfoot said Thursday. “If we continue on the path we’re on and you, me and others don’t step up and do more ... we could see at least a thousand more Chicagoans die” by the end of this year, she added.

"...must cancel..." Even after a secret birthday party, personal haircut appointments, an almost Halloween party, and numerous vacations in violation of all sorts of quarantine restrictions. Nothing about the 700 homicide victims though.

And she's making all sorts of friends with the City Council:

• If Mayor Lori Lightfoot is so certain she has the 26 votes needed to pass her “pandemic” budget, why is she attaching political sweeteners and threatening aldermen who dare to oppose her $94 million property tax increase?

  That’s the question after Lightfoot held two calls this week with members of the City Council’s Black Caucus, followed by Thursday briefings for a larger group of aldermen on the management ordinance tied to her $12.8 billion budget.

  [...] “She said if we don’t vote for this budget, don’t ask her for s- -t for the next three years,” said one alderman who was on the call, but asked to remain anonymous to avoid alienating the mayor.

  “We were all floored. It was like, wait a second. You’re supposed to represent the entire city. You’re telling us that you’re not gonna represent certain areas because they don’t vote for you and or they don’t vote for your budget? That ain’t right.” Sources said the mayor’s threat prompted a rebuke from Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th), who told Lightfoot, “This is some bull-s- -t ...We’re elected just like you are.”

Maybe the City Council can find its collective balls, tell the troll to fuck off already and reestablish the Council as a check on the dictatorial impulses of the bitch-queen.