"Pop Up Trap House"

Whichever anonymous commentator came up with that "Pop Up Trap House" comment, bravo!

• For months, Ald. Bill Conway (34th) has been trying to clear out homeless encampments that have become entrenched under viaducts in his ward, saying they are one of the sources of crime in the neighborhood.

  He may be right.

  Chicago police last week arrested a man in a tent city near the Clinton CTA station after he allegedly sold drugs to an undercover cop. Prosecutors said police found more than $60,000 worth of suspected heroin and crack cocaine in the tent he worked out of, along with a loaded handgun with an extended ammunition magazine attached.

Of course, his bail was....zero:

• A judge rejected the prosecution’s request to keep 19-year-old Tailon Appleton in jail as a public safety threat.

The aldercreature refused to name the judge, the CWB blog isn't squeamish about that:

• In court records, police said they found nearly three-quarters of a pound of heroin worth $52,875 and $8,610 worth of crack. They also recovered about 5 ounces of liquid codeine and $1,188 in cash, according to the court filings.

  Prosecutors charged Appleton with armed violence, a charge that simply means someone is accused of possessing a firearm while engaged in narcotics activity but does not necessarily mean they were violent. He is also charged with manufacture-delivery of heroin, manufacture-delivery of cocaine, and two felony narcotics possession counts.

  Judge Maryam Ahmad rejected the state’s detention petition in writing. She noted that Appleton was alone in the tent and conceded that he was arrested in “an area being ravaged by drugs.” But, the judge wrote, the arrest is Appleton’s first as an adult. He cares for his mother, who has cancer, she continued, and was “very compliant [with] officers.”

Evidently, if you're a nice guy, this judge disregards detention parameters (even the SAFE-T act allows detention for these charges) and lets criminals out.