Trial Continues

Rough day of testimony for the wounded survivin Officer:

• Scar by scar, former Chicago Police Officer Carlos Yanez on Wednesday documented the injuries he suffered after being shot repeatedly during a 2021 traffic stop that claimed the life of his partner, Officer Ella French.

  With a slow swinging gait, a lasting result of his wounds, Yanez crossed a fifth-floor courtroom at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse to take the stand on the second day of the trial of the accused gunman, Emonte Morgan.

  Once sworn in, Yanez leaned over and showed jurors an impression on the top of his head where one of the bullets hit him after he, French and another officer stopped Morgan and his brother in West Englewood because the car's registration was expired.

  His right eye had to be removed, Yanez said, and there is a lump on his neck, below his right ear, where a bullet remains because doctors believe that was the safest course.

Hopefully, the jury is moved by his courage.

Nice Contract Conehead

In addition to violating our Contracts every-which-way, Conehead is now creating illegal ones, too?

• The nine-month, $8.6 million contract extension that Mayor Brandon Johnson frantically hammered out with ShotSpotter to give the Chicago Police Department time to transition away from the gunshot detection technology just might be illegal, sources have told the Chicago Sun-Times.

  That’s because the original contract with ShotSpotter's parent company, SoundThinking, was never competitively bid or subject to the city’s normal procurement process, which requires what's called a "request for proposals."

  Because of the way the contract was secured, the city isn’t allowed to extend it at less favorable terms. Instead, the 2018 contract that got the ball rolling on the first of $57.5 million in payments to the company was a “reference” contract, piggybacked onto a similar agreement in Louisville, Kentucky. Reference contracts can be substituted for contract competition only in limited circumstances.

Whoever is giving this dumbass advice, whether political, contractual or legal, really needs to be fired.

Conehead's next mental breakdown is overdue by a few weeks.

X-Sport Housing Illegals

If you spend money there, maybe reconsider:

• The XSport Fitness Gym located
  
  819 S State is housing migrants.
  
  They’re 24hrs and they have amenities such as shower, couches, furniture and electrical outlets.
  
  
  
  My brother is CFD and just threatened the manager there to cancel his membership unless something be done.
  
  Manager told him they are temporal members themselves so it’s their right.
  
  
  
  Here’s the scam: They buy a one week membership. That grants them 24/7 access to the gym. There are about 20 migrants living there. They lounge wherever they can. Phones charging at every available electrical outlet. Yoga mats are their beds with bags of their belongings staking claim of their space. Sometimes they even play with the equipment not understanding gym etiquette and basic civil behavior. Some are found sleeping in tanning beds.
  

One of the only ways to stop this crap is to take your money elsewhere. And with public opinion rapidly switching against illegals, even in blue state shitholes with dem politicians backtracking, now is the time to make a point.

Chicago Acorn

Oh wait, not an acorn:

• The Civilian Office of Police Accountability said Tuesday that no one shot at CPD officers last month before an officer fired shots toward a boy on the South Side. Video was also released of the incident.

  Three on-duty officers in a marked squad car were responding to a ShotSpotter notification in the 8500-block of South Winchester Avenue in Auburn Gresham about 11:30 p.m. Jan. 25, when they saw a boy standing near a home, COPA said.

  "As one officer exited the vehicle, they heard a loud bang, which was later determined to be fireworks," COPA First Deputy Chief Administrator Ephraim Eaddy said.

  The officer then shot in the direction of the boy, COPA said.

Training issues, but with COPA expect the worst.

Contrarian Posts

A couple good articles over at the Contrarian this week.

First up, an in-depth look at how crime stats are driving an exodus from Bucktown and cratering property values in a rapidly declining Hipster Central:

• Bucktown, Wicker Park, Logan Square and Ukrainian Village crime numbers spiral out of control, causing residents to flee and boutiques to close as high-end property values start to decline

You get what you vote for, and these people voted for Crimesha, Groot, Conehead and Biden in massively lopsided margins. 

Another article is a timely lambasting of COPA, pointing out what has been mentioned in our comments section for years:

• Though these pages have expressed a deep skepticism of COPA’s mission, the objectivity of its officials, and the qualifications of its employees, it bears repeating COPA is not authorized by state law to conduct investigations bearing upon officer-involved shootings, vehicular collisions, or deaths in police custody. Under Illinois State Law, individuals empowered to conduct formal probes into fatal shootings involving members of the Chicago Police Department (CPD) are limited to personnel certified as “Lead Homicide Investigators.” To attain this professional training certification, one must undergo a series of thorough instruction on procedures surrounding death and murder investigations. Qualified investigators must also be a sworn police officer, licensed to carry a firearm, empowered to make arrests, and employed by a law-enforcement agency commissioned to authorize its employees to possess firearms and make arrests.

  Established by virtue of a City Council ordinance, even before the agency began operating in January 2016, COPA faced a torrent of criticism from officers, supporters of CPD, and legal observers. One of the strongest objections is that its investigators are not certified police officers and, therefore, not legally certified as Lead Homicide Investigators.

COPA is nothing more than a rogue political agency formed in violation of state law as an anti-police foil for Chicago pols.

As usual, go read it all.

Racial Lawsuit

Make them live by their rules, and use the courts to your advantage:

• A 20-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city, alleging that his race is listed as Caucasian in his personnel file, but he “currently identifies as Egyptian and African American.”

  Mohammad Yusuf, 43, claims that the department only offered Caucasian, Black, and Hispanic as race designations when he joined the force in 2004, so he chose “Caucasian.” But the department now allows incoming officers to choose from “over nine” different racial designations, the lawsuit says.

  The police department has a “blanket prohibition” against changing an officer’s race in its records. Yet, it allows officers to “have their gender identity corrected to match their lived experience,” Yusuf’s suit claims.

  Even after Yusuf presented the results of a “23 and Me” genetic test to prove his heritage, the department said it was “not possible” to let him select another ethnicity for his personnel file.

Back in the 90's, we recall an Officer we knew, paler than we ever were and he identified as "African American." His reason? He was born in or just outside of Pretoria, South Africa and emigrated here as a child, giving him far more credibility in that arena than other officers and families who had lived in Chicago for decades. While we and others had a laugh at the time, turns out he was far ahead of his time. 

Intentional or not, this Officer's lawsuit is sure to ruffle a lot of feathers.

note - we won't be naming our South African friend and any mentions of his name won't be published.

Murder Trial Begins

PO French:

• Jurors reacted visibly to graphic footage of the final moments of Chicago Police Officer Ella French’s life as the trial began Tuesday for the man accused of shooting her and her partner during an August 2021 traffic stop.

  Several members of the jury appeared shaken as they watched footage from Officer Joshua Blas’s body-worn camera showing French lying in a gutter near her squad car and her partner, Officer Carlos Yanez, lying on his back nearby.

  One juror wiped tears from her eyes. Another closed her eyes briefly, but tightly, as video showed officers move Yanez, his face covered in blood, to the back of a squad car to rush him to the hospital.

  French never appeared to move after falling to the ground.

The judge already admonished the murderer's mama for wearing a t-shirt demanding justice for the killer she raised.

If you're at 26th Street, stop in.

Suburban Shooting

Here's why COPA was in the suburbs last week:

• A father of four, Loyce Wright was working as a security guard at an Austin dollar store last week, when he was shot multiple times — a fatal shooting that police now say was likely sparked by an argument with a former co-worker. Wright, 43, who was unarmed, eventually died from the Friday shooting. The next day, the former co-worker, Rodgerick O'Neal, was arrested in south suburban Dolton after allegedly shooting at Chicago police officers.

  "He was simply at the store and doing his job when his life was tragically taken from him," Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling said of Wright, a resident of west suburban Hanover Park.

  O'Neal of Maywood was arrested and now faces 13 charges from both incidents, including first-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder, three counts of aggravated battery against a police officer and six counts of resisting arrest, Snelling said during a news conference on Tuesday morning.

Unverified comment claims that the ISP told COPA to pound sand on scene.

Anyone know if CPD is required to cooperate with COPA if the shooting happened outside of city limits and Chicago detectives aren't handling the investigation? We'd guess no, but aren't sure.

Thirty Million Dollars

These owners are worth double Reinsdorf:

• Looks like the White Sox aren’t the only team seeking public money for a ballpark upgrade, though this isn’t quite the same as asking for $1 billion or more. According to a report in Crain’s Chicago Business, the Cubs are planning to ask Mayor Brandon Johnson for $30 million to increase security around Wrigley Field as part of the club’s bid for an upcoming All-Star Game. They’ve been mentioned in connection to the Midsummer Classic for several years now and the next opening is in 2027, giving them plenty of time to get ready.

  [...] They were constantly at odds with local alderman Tom Tunney and their sparring sessions with City Hall really picked up when Mayor Rahm Emanuel was in office. The sides have wrangled over access to amusement taxes generated by games, alcohol sales outside the ballpark, and street closures during day games. Back in 2017, Emanuel’s administration demanded the team comply with a six-part plan to upgrade security around Wrigley that included the addition of 30 new cameras that were integrated into the city’s network of 29,000 public and private cameras.

So this has little to do with infrastructure improvements and more with security upgrades MLB demands for traffic bollards, pod cameras and other stuff. 

How about another hard, "No."

What the...

So many questions (click to zoom in ):

Is that a Department authorized extension cord?

Vanecko Extension Cords Limited?

If you're charging off your house, is the City paying your electric bill? 

Why isn't Larritorious driving a CPD version? Or all the exempts?

Child Abuse

Conversations overheard:

• Child: Mommy, I want to smoke a cigarette!

  Mother: No, you're only 8.

• Tween: Dad, can I have the car?

  Father: No, you're 12. Go mow the law.

• Teenager: I want a tattoo.

  Tattoo Parlor Owner: State law says you gotta be 18 kid.

• Seven year old male child: I want to cut my nuts off!

  Eleven year old girl: And I need these healthy boobs chopped off!

  Illinois legislator: Well, kids, let's go find a surgeon who can keep a secret from your parents and get this done!
  

It's happening in Springfield:

• A bill introduced in the Illinois House of Representatives would legally define it as ‘child abuse’ for parents to object to gender transitioning of their children by way of puberty blocking, cross sex hormones or surgery.

  The legislation, Bill 4876, introduced earlier this month, would also protect doctors from liability should they decide to prescribe those treatments to children who have not gotten parental consent.

  The legislation would also allow for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to take children away from their parents for opposing such procedures.

The Revolution can't come soon enough.

Jewelers' Row Shooting

Selective prosecution (and eventual non-prosecution):

• A would-be thief who was shot by a concealed carry holder while trying to commit a smash-and-grab at a downtown Chicago jewelry store has been released without charges being filed. The store employee who shot the alleged thief was also released after spending more than a day in custody as prosecutors considered charging him with a crime.

  A Chicago police spokesperson told CWBChicago on Sunday evening that “two individuals related to this incident have been released without charging at this time.” The investigation is continuing.

The CWB link up top has video to the crime.

And yes, we know, strictly speaking, a property crime doesn't rate lethal force, but business owners have a Right to conduct business without  jagoffs coming in with hammers and stealing everything from locked cabinets. And the continuous non-prosecution of property crimes is leading to thousands of businesses leaving Chicago and contributing to the frustrations of businesses and citizens alike. After all, it's just a short step to one of these thieves hopping the counter and beating a worker or customer with the hammer he brought along.

Sometimes, an ounce of prevention....

We'll bet dickhead doesn't go back to that store again.

"Reluctant"?

Fata$$ is making the correct noises, but a democrat "reluctant" to spend taxpayer money? We don't believe it:

• Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday said he is “reluctant” to provide public subsidies for a new $1.2 billion White Sox ballpark in the South Loop unless he’s assured taxpayers will see a long-term benefit.

  The Democratic governor also said the new stadium isn’t high on his priority list. His comments came days after Mayor Brandon Johnson appeared to be receptive to a new stadium — saying “everything is on the table here."

  “I start out really reluctant … unless a case is made that the investment yields a long-term return for the taxpayers that we can justify in some way,” Pritzker said at an unrelated news conference. “I haven’t seen that yet.”

What's the Illinois debt currently? It was approaching $100 BILLION a little before The Hiatus, and we don't think anyone in Springfield has actually been paying anything down recently.

And as we noted last week, Wirtz (and Reinsdorf) built and paid off the United Center thirty years ago without a dime of taxpayer money. 

We would have little objection to street and sewer improvements, maybe even electric grid updates, for the proposed site, because everyone in the area would benefit from the infrastructure upgrades. But if that's done, there better be oversight-up-the-ass to make sure politician aren't playing fast and loose with taxpayer dollars.

Larritorious v COPA

A difference of opinion:

• Despite a freeze on police discipline cases, the superintendent of the Chicago Police Department late Thursday issued a lengthy, stern critique of the city agency that probes police misconduct, accusing investigators of leaning on “personal opinions and speculation.”

  That leads to unfairness, Superintendent Larry Snelling said.

  “When we speculate, when we add our personal opinions, then those penalties become punitive and unfair and unfair to the officers,” Snelling said. “What we’re seeing are egregious penalties for extremely minor infractions. Now, oftentimes when I go through these reports, I agree that the infraction should have been sustained, but a 30-day (or) 90-day suspension is egregious.”

  In the last eight weeks, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability has recommended the Police Department fire 28 officers — an “unprecedented” number, CPD’s top attorney told the Chicago Police Board.

COPA is looking to clear the decks in anticipation of a shitload of work on tap for August. 

And remember, COPA is staffed by police haters and lib-tards with axes to grind because their daddy's didn't love them (when they even know who their daddy's are.) So Larry is correct to call out the obvious bias built into 99% of COPA cases.

But actions speak louder than words, and so far, we're not seeing a lot of action on the part of the top brass.

Unauthorized Policy Group?

Remember that proposed Law in Springfield that would ban so-called "pre-textual stops"? Where no one could be stopped for expired plates, broken windshields, or anything that made a vehicle safe and legal to operate on the streets? 

Representative Slaughter was the main sponsor and he claims he proposed it solely to "start a conversation." But we're hearing that Slaughter isn't smart enough to have come up with it on his own, but is merely a stalking horse for another group:

• In a review of the proposed legislation, it was reported that HB 4603 - Prohibition of Pre-Textual Stops was submitted to J. Slaughter by representatives of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office.

  Apparently there is a policy group within the CCSAO and this matter was funneled through the future law firm of State's Attorney Kim Foxx.

So Crimesha has an unacknowledged "policy group" made up of a bunch of liberal asshat lawyers, operating within the States Attorneys Office that will be incorporated into a law firm upon her departure from office?

No doubt it will also include that goof in Crimesha's office who was referring cases to outside law firms to sue police departments over "wrongful convictions," right?

Bankrupt? No Kidding

We've only been warning about the "money tree" running out for eighteen years or so:

• The recent surge of migrants has put major cities across the U.S. under significant financial pressure.

  “I think it’s at this point, politically unsustainable for the Biden administration to maintain this unlimited flow into what’s essentially a welfare state network of cities like New York, Denver and Chicago,” said Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C.

  As pressure continues, cities such as Chicago and New York have begun putting restrictions on the bussing of some migrants from the South. But experts say more federal assistance and funding are necessary to ensure that cities can survive the ongoing crisis.

Of course, it's a conservative think tank making the prediction, so nothing will be done about it:

• “How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked.

  “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”

Welcome to "suddenly."

100 Illegals Attack?

Is this an exaggeration or what?

• Over 100 migrants attacking security some of the security officers are off duty police officers Home Depot 87th and Dan Ryan ... CPD Citywide 1 - City-wide units (SWAT, K9, traffic/transit, marine) 2:04:45 PM 2/20/2024 460.125 MHz https://crimeisdown.com/audio/live/citywide1 #ChicagoScanner #migrants #Chicago #Crime #borderObserver

Middle of last week, 006 District, 87th/Dan Ryan.

We hadn't heard of anyone getting hurt.

Also, COPA was out in Dolton - no, they weren't investigating the mayor:

• A homicide suspect is in custody after a shootout with police in south suburban Dolton Saturday evening.  

  The Civilian Office of Police Accountability was called to the scene in the 15200 block of South Meadow Lane in Dolton around 5:45 p.m. 

  A police source tells CBS 2 that the man taken into custody could be connected to the shooting death of security guard Loyce Wright, who was killed in Austin Friday afternoon.
  

Surprised Dolton PD didn't tell COPA to get the Hell out of their suburb.

Lost Credibility

Truly sad to see how the medical community shot themselves (pun intended) in the foot:

• Amid an outbreak of measles at a Florida elementary school, the state's surgeon general has defied federal health guidance and told parents it's up to them whether they want to keep their unvaccinated child home to avoid infection.

  In a letter to parents of children attending Manatee Bay Elementary school in Weston, where six cases of measles have already been reported, Florida surgeon general Dr. Joseph Ladapo said the state health department "is deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance."

  That advice runs counter to what Ladapo acknowledged in his letter was the "normal" recommendation that parents keep unvaccinated children home for up to 21 days -- the incubation period for measles.

Vaccine "hesitancy" is skyrocketing across the nation, bolstered by info (some good, some bad) about the COVID jab's side effects and the unexplained upticks in deaths. 

Measles is a mostly preventable disease that had been all but eradicated in the US until the waves of illegals started arriving. But the refusal of the medical establishment to rationally discuss parental hesitancy and legitimate concerns concerning a minimally tested "vaccine" that did nothing to prevent the occurrence of and/or spread of COVID and seemingly contributed to a massive incidence of childhood cardiac events.

But hey, get that shot, wear that mask, or you'll be banned from polite society....unless you can afford to fly your daughter and her horse to Florida for the summer.

More CPS Corruption?

Supposedly, sex assaults by CPS employees are on an upward trajectory. Rumor has it there's also a federal investigation underway:

• Speaking of feds, the US Dept of Education personnel have been snooping around and grilling people on misappropriation of funds by CPS principals and network chiefs. It seems their discretionary spending hasn't been so discretionary, Internal Accounts have been used to pay staff for ghost hours and purchases from non-approved vendors, and budget transfers are being on items that can't be found in school buildings. Has anyone seen a $100K sound system?
  
  Word is 3-4 Northside principals will be forced to resign sometime in March. As you may or may not know, CPS rarely fires principals and most often gives them the resign or be investigated ultimatum.

And we still have the unresolved PPP loan stuff in the background.

But the election will probably interfere with all of this.

Why Give Him Money?

Reinsdorf is spending his own money on the west side:

• As White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf seeks $1 billion in taxpayer funding for a new ballpark in a planned mixed-use district in the South Loop, his associates have spent millions of dollars buying parking lots run by his competitors to build what could be a similar district around the United Center.

  Over the past 19 months, a Reinsdorf-connected company has spent $44.7 million buying vacant lots from two politically connected families that have long offered discounted parking deals to fans of the Bulls and Blackhawks, records examined by the Chicago Sun-Times show. A third family has refused to sell its parking lots.

But this is what really caught our attention - we had known this previously, but forgotten:

• Reinsdorf, who is also chairman of the Bulls, and the Wirtz family, which owns the Blackhawks, co-own the United Center, which they built 30 years ago without any government financing. Both teams have since built practice facilities near the arena, which is a major catalyst for economic development on the West Side.

Say what you like about the late Dollar Bill Wirtz, but he led the way on financing the United Center via a consortium of (we think) Japanese banks and paid the whole thing off within a few years. Of course, back then, he and Jerry were filling the stadium almost a hundred nights a year and raking in concert, circus and ice shows another fifty or seventy afternoons and evenings. Not like today's disasters.

So why are Reinsdorf and his people buying up parking lots? 

Because he can't buy up Bridgeport, level it, and build a giant hotel/bar scene like Wrigleyville already is. Or what the Bears have planned for Arlington Heights. Or what they The 78 will be in the South Loop. 

But if he's going to reap the benefits, he ought to be risking and leveraging his own money, they way Wirtz did last century.

New York Post

Even the New York press knows Conehead is currently toast:

• Lord knows we have our problems with Mayor Adams, but all New Yorkers can at least feel relieved they’re not suffering under Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson.

  A pro-crime progressive and tool of the city’s monstrous teachers union, he hasn’t been in office a year, and the honeymoon is definitely over: Just 21% of registered Chicago voters, per one recent poll, approve of Johnson’s performance as mayor. 

  Then again, he’s already made countless moves any rational citizen would disapprove of.
  

But who knows....maybe he can turn it around!

Anyone have a current list of the vice mayor(s) who might take over after Conehead checks into permanent stress rehabilitation?

Grammy Bill Grows

Mary Ann Ahern following up on Conehead's Grammy trip:

• Records show Mayor Brandon Johnson traveled to Los Angeles earlier this month with seven city employees – including four members of his security detail – at a cost to the taxpayers of nearly $8,000, though that figure may be higher given the heavy redactions of the documents obtained.

  Johnson went to Los Angeles on Feb. 2 for a conference of the African American Mayors Association, then stayed to attend the Grammy Awards the evening of Feb. 4, according to his schedule.

  Through a Freedom of Information Act request, NBC 5 Investigates obtained his daily schedule for the trip as well as records showing charges to the City of Chicago’s American Express business travel account in connection with the trip.

This guy is turning out to be a low-rent version of the Dolton mayor who is on the verge of a federal indictment for misuse of funds.

Though we heard that the feds have a nicer facility for treating those "street related" episodes Conehead has been experiencing.

How Many Bitche$ Can He Be?

We told you Conehead was ShotSpotter's bitch (paywall article):

• The city of Chicago has inked an $8.6 million deal to extend the ShotSpotter contract, but the nine-month extension costs more than the prior year, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

  Without a contract renewal on Feb. 16, the Chicago Police Department would have lost access to the acoustic gunshot technology that it has deployed in 12 police districts, mostly on the South and West sides, across the city. That day, ShotSpotter parent company SoundThinking announced it had reached an agreement to extend the contract through Sept. 22, with “an additional two-month transition period to follow.”

So they got over a year's pay for nine-months. Great negotiating there Conehead.

He's the CTU's bitch, and Prickwrinkle's bitch.

And now he's acting like he's going to be Reinsdorf's bitch, too.

No Shooting Bias

A Harvard study by a Harvard professor - which used to be the "gold standard" of research and science.

And he's a black professor, which under the current thinking, means he should be beyond questioning.

Until he defended the police:

• A Harvard professor whose research went against the preferred, politically correct narrative of rogue cops gunning down minorities in the streets was forced to hire armed security guards when he went out in public, Fox News reports.

  In an interview with Bari Weiss of The Free Press, Roland Fryer, a Harvard economics professor, discussed the public outrage he experienced after he published a study about racial bias among Houston, Texas, police officers. 

  That study confirmed what most in law enforcement already knew–that police officers are, in fact, less likely to use deadly physical force on blacks and Hispanics. While the study did confirm that police were more than twice as likely to use some type of physical force on those minority groups, they were 23.8 percent less likely to shoot black suspects and 8.5 percent less likely to shoot Hispanic suspects than they were to shoot at white suspects.
  

And when he obtained these results, he replaced his entire staff of eight assistants, and re-ran the entire study from zero. Same results.  Oops.

Go read it. We had heard of this study before, and Heather MacDonald has written books and papers of a similar vein. Cuck Goudie of course, has never read or heard of any of it.

Carjacking Avoided

He saw it coming:

• Sources tell ABC7 that an off-duty Chicago police officer opened fire while an attempted carjacking was in progress in Lakeview.

  Police said a 51-year-old off-duty officer was driving north in the 2700-block of Halsted when he saw two people running south toward his vehicle, one of whom police said had a gun.

  The off-duty officer got out of his car, pulled out his gun and fired one shot, police said. The two people then fled. No injuries were reported.

Too bad about the miss, but well done being situationally aware. 

Enjoy your thirty days off the street and you'll get them next time, because unfortunately, you have four-years until age fifty-five and the odds are, you'll get another chance.

Finally

About time:

• Dozens of Chicago students gathered outside the Board of Education president’s house in the summer of 2020 calling on the school board to end its contract with the Chicago Police Department that day. In a close and controversial vote, the board opted to keep police in schools.

  Four years later, some of those same kids have since graduated from Chicago Public Schools but were back at the district’s downtown headquarters celebrating what they viewed as a mission accomplished.

And they were there because after "graduating" CPS, they couldn't find actual colleges to accept their diplomas or test scores, nor actual employers to hire them.

It's too bad CPS will never admit to crimes going up in many of these schools, because they will lie and conceal actual criminal acts from ever becoming public knowledge. And when parents eventually find out and call for something be done, CPS will undoubtedly demand additional tax dollars for unarmed non-police "security" from some connected contractors. 

It's a money game.

Sergeant Test Video

A bunch of supervisors telling everyone it's time to prep for the Sergeant Exam!

Well that was certainly....interesting. And "diverse."

Except....something felt like it was....missing.

Anyone?

UPDATE: Hey Goudie? In Chicago, 32% of the population is white, yet in this video.....

:::penny drops:::

CWB Stories

Just a sample of the exceptional reporting going on over at CWB.

Cook County incompetence:

• Charged in August with felony shoplifting while on bail for another felony shoplifting case, 43-year-old James Tolbert sat in the Cook County jail, unable to afford the $1,600 bail deposit he needed to get released on an ankle monitor. Barely three weeks later, Illinois eliminated the cash bail system. Tolbert’s attorney filed a motion asking Judge Kenneth Wadas to remove the cash bail requirement. Wadas agreed, and Tolbert went home with an order to stay in the house from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.

  Since then, officials now say, Tolbert has shoplifted or robbed Sunglass Hut and Ulta Beauty locations in the Loop and on the Magnificent Mile a dozen times. He’s in jail again, at least for now, awaiting trial.

No cash bail, so he goes out and commits twelve more crimes.

Illegals want out of Chicago:

• Two migrants, recently arrested at different locations for allegedly committing completely different crimes, told Chicago police officers they have turned to lives of crime because they want to be sent back to Venezuela, according to their CPD arrest reports.

  In fact, police say Dhian Gomez-Mendoza told them that he is so desperate to go back to his native country that he “will do whatever it takes if that is beating up a police officer or hurting a civilian, he will do it.”

These are what democrats are importing.

And this one just amazed us:

• A West Side man has pleaded guilty to unintentionally killing his back seat passenger while trying to shoot another driver in December 2020, according to court records.

  Quincy Cole, 29, was on bail for a pending arson case when he unintentionally shot 19-year-old Roderick James in the chest four times, officials said. He was found guilty in the arson case last April and received a six-year sentence. Chicago police records show detectives wanted to charge him with murder in the arson matter, but prosecutors rejected their request.

Out on bail, under investigation for an arson that killed someone, manages to shoot an accomplice four times....while trying to kill someone else.

Anyone know if Cuck Goudie and the I(diot)Team are investigating any of this?

Conehead Giveaway

Conehead is set to give away a ton of money that Chicago doesn't have:

• Mayor Brandon Johnson on Wednesday cracked the door open to providing a public subsidy to build a new $1.2 billion White Sox stadium in the South Loop, provided the team and the developer “put some skin in the game.”

  One day after Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and his entourage traveled to Springfield to begin the uphill battle for the $1 billion in state funding, Johnson was considerably more receptive to the concept of using city tax revenue for new stadiums — either for the Sox or the Bears — than Gov. J.B. Pritzker and some legislators have been.

So Fata$$ is making noise that the Sox aren't getting tax dollars, so Conehead is stepping up to give away the store? And where is this money coming from?

• Those sources include a tax increment financing district created to bankroll the infrastructure improvements needed to ready the site for development; the 2% hotel tax increase used to renovate Soldier Field; and a new sales tax overlay district that would require the city and state to forgo sales tax revenue generated within the boundaries of the project.

So (A) a TIF fund that drains money from city coffers. (B) Instead of reducing the tax levy that was used to fund the Soldier Field rehab, keep it in place for another stadium. And (C) a new sales tax overlay used solely to fund the proposed stadium....which means everything that would have gone to the General Fund, will go only to the stadium, and all that missing tax revenue will have to be made up somewhere else. 

Hello Tax Hike!

Abandoning Illegals

Now the the illegals have become political liabilities, big city mayors are abandoning them left and left:

• New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) vowed on Wednesday to cut funding to border crossers and illegal aliens amid record-low approval with New Yorkers.

  In November 2023, Adams authorized city-wide budget cuts where New Yorkers would have public services eliminated to afford waves of illegal immigration to the sanctuary city. The move came as fewer than 3-in-10 New Yorkers said they approved of Adams — a record low for a mayor in New York City.

And at Conehead's City Council meeting:

• Chicago activists are bashing Mayor Brandon Johnson for trying to replace blacks with migrants, and demanding an exemption from the $6,000-per-year property taxes that other groups would still have to pay.

Of course, some of the speakers would gladly sell out for $6K.

This Again?

Lies, damn lies and statistics.....Goudie must be off his meds again (no link for thieves at ABC):

• It's not a new problem for [b]lack motorists in Chicago: Police targeting vehicles with [b]lack drivers more often than [W]hite drivers, and recent data analyzed by the ABC7 I-Team shows little improvement has been made to correct this inequity.

What inequity? Cops make stops based on actions, as in someone breaks a traffic law, then cops attempt to pull them over. Legislators have made every attempt to discourage this, passing all sorts of laws that exempt certain behaviors from being used as probable cause for traffic stops, but it still happens.

Anyone know what the racial breakdown is for persons fleeing traffic stops? (hint - it's over 80% of one demographic.)

• A new I-Team analysis of police records found that of more than 2 million traffic stops by Chicago police since 2016, 60% were [b]lack drivers, even though [b]lack residents make up 27% of the city's population. White drivers made up 13% of traffic stops, and are 32% of Chicago's population.

Which is a bullshit measure of "profiling." How about running the totals of how many actual tickets were issued or are these stops just the Sparklefart TSSSSS two year study, currently in its twenty-first year? The last time we were at Traffic Court, the place was operating at a fraction of it's heyday. With automated speed and red-light cams, the only reason to do a traffic stop nowadays is to tell a citizen his/her plate is expired or their headlight is out and get a name for the blue card. 

By the way, the entire study is from some professors from California going through old data, not even local muckrakers.

Hey Chuckles? Since we're using math today, how about this statistic?

• you say black residents make up 27% of the city population
  
• black homicide victims - 74.1% this year (78.8% last year)
• you cite white residents are 32% of the city population
  
• white homicide victims -  7.4% this year (3.9% last year)

Check out HeyJackass.com. The shooter stats are even worse. 

Chicago is Toast twitter feed has even more stats for Cuck Goudie.

• over 18 years, 61% of all criminal cases have black offenders
• 77% of armed robberies
• 68% of homicides
  
• 77% of all UUW offenders
• 83% of UUW by felons
  

Statistics are NOT racist....but pointing them out is always said to be.

Anyone know why the discrepancy is so huge? We're guessing it isn't because of made-up traffic stop reasons.

This Sounds Familiar....

 ....except for the location:

• A Chicago teen is in custody in Wisconsin following the theft of nine luxury vehicles from a Land Rover dealership that led to a police chase Sunday near Milwaukee.

  The vehicles were stolen around 6 a.m. Sunday, according to Waukesha police. A separate law enforcement agency pursued the vehicles and arrested the 17-year-old, who has not yet been formally charged. Some of the stolen vehicles have already been found, but Waukesha Capt. Dan Baumann said eight of the nine people who allegedly participated in the theft are still at large.

  That group is believed to be from Chicago and the surrounding area and is known to law enforcement in northern Illinois, Baumann said.

Here's the video report.

So the same groups that were breaking into car dealerships and stealing multiple vehicles were finally stymied by dealers locking up the keys, reinforcing doors and hiring extra security, so they've gone north to Cheeseland to ply their trade.

Like locusts or something.

Summer Comes Early

Along with the bad behavior:

• Drivers set fire to a street in Beverly as they drifted and did donuts in the street this past weekend.

  Concerned neighbors said organizers of the street takeover even managed to hold off police for a while.

  The sounds woke Ken Jones from a sound sleep. A home surveillance camera captured just some of it.  "Squealing tires and roaring engines," said Jones.

  People were standing in the middle of a ring of fire as the cars spun around its circumference. That caught Jones and every neighbor living off 103rd Street and California Avenue in Beverly off guard.

No arrests, along with no penalties, so no dissuading the non-demonized yutes. 

Where's the Stop Stick Unit?

Long summer on tap.

Chicken Deserts

Isn't it racist to point this out?

• Without warning last week, a KFC franchisee "abruptly" shuttered three South Side locations. One outlet, located in Chatham, had been "undergoing renovations for months" when the franchise owner apparently just gave up and boarded up the windows instead. According to the same Fox 32 Chicago report, the Great KFC Vanishing came "less than one month after Cinema Chatham, a local movie theater, shut down." That closure also came without warning.

  Sixth Ward Alderman William Hall said, "A closed business is not only a sore eye, but it’s a gateway for violence because when you see abandonment, it looks as if there is no love, no hope in the community."

  "There was no communication," he added. "I saw what the residents saw, disappointed just the same way they are."

And what's causing this so-called exodus?

• A commenter on the Fox 32 story wrote, "What's killing business on the south side of Chicago is no one feels safe anymore. I frequented both the 35th and 75th Street locations, and the food was great. But I'd never go after dark. There's a whole different feel to those streets when the sun goes down."

  I was about to write how sad it is when a well-run restaurant can't survive the lawlessness prevalent in parts of the city, but it's worse than sad, isn't it?

  Some folks, like Twitter/X user Jay here, had fun with the bad news. "I went to that same KFC," he posted. "When I got my order I walked out and I was chased by these two guys with red hats and they were yelling 'This is MAGA country' in a Jamaican accent… no wonder why it’s shut down."

All jokes aside, we're pretty sure the reasons businesses are fleeing the south side are the exact same reasons downtown is a plywood forest. But instead of anyone doing anything about it, you have "media" outlets making up stories like a couple up top today. They'll create racist narratives about traffic stops, but can't see anything racial about street takeovers and businesses closing.

Poor Reporting

We're trying to make sense of this Tribune article:

• Two boys, 12 and 14, were shot Monday afternoon in a car chase in South Shore, police said.

  The boys were traveling in a vehicle on the 7800 block of South Escanaba Avenue around 1:43 p.m. when a black sedan started to chase them. A person inside the black sedan pulled out a gun and started shooting in the direction of the boys’ car, according to police.

  The boys left the vehicle on the 7300 block of South Kenwood Avenue and started running towards the 7400 block.

The report doesn't mention anything about a driver or witnesses or other aggrieved parties.

Was the car being driven by the 12 and 14 year olds? Is this another incident where the minute these kids can reach the pedals, they're out there boosting cars? Did they take the wrong car and got lit up for their shenanigans? 

In other words, is this another FAFO incident? And if so, should it even be a crime?

Friends of the Blog

If you haven't checked out a couple of our compatriots lately:

• CWB is on fire. Literally. The front page has more crime reporting and more information that you get from some Detective bulletins with story after story outlining the failures of Cook County "justice," where previously arrested and no-bail releases are continuing their reigns of terror, reporting near-continuous illegal immigrants wreaking havoc across the city. If they aren't part of your daily reading, they ought to be;
  
• HeyJackass.com has a new line of ShotSpotter related t-shirts and sweatshirts. We are the owners of a few items that assist in keeping their site running as it's the only place for truthful and accurate crime numbers.

This is an open post as the news side of things was a bit light today. Keep it clean.

Convict Everyone

This is from a few weeks ago, but we were wondering. When does the law apply to everyone?

• PONTIAC, Mich. — Jennifer Crumbley, the Michigan woman charged in connection with her son’s deadly school shooting rampage in 2021, was convicted Tuesday of involuntary manslaughter in the unprecedented case.

  The unanimous verdict came on the second day of jury deliberations in a landmark trial in which Crumbley became the first parent to be held criminally responsible for a mass shooting committed by their child.

  Crumbley, 45, was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter — one for each of the victims in the attack at Oxford High School in November 2021. Her son, Ethan, now 17, pleaded guilty as an adult to murder, terrorism and other crimes, and was sentenced in December to life in prison without parole.

Chicago is among the tops in the poorly defined "mass shooting" category, but sorely lacking in the media coverage and associated "involuntary manslaughter" convictions. Illinois does have the "felony murder" statutes in effect, but Crimesha isn't charging anyone with that.

Anyone know why that is?

Just Saying....

The science was never "final." Science never is:

• COVID vaccines from companies like Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca have been linked to rare occurrences of heart, brain and blood disorders, according to the largest vaccine study to date.

  Researchers from the Global Vaccine Data Network analyzed 99 million people who received jabs in eight countries and monitored for increases in 13 medical conditions, Bloomberg News reported.

  The study, which was published in the journal Vaccine last week, found the vaccines were linked to a slight spike in neurological, blood and heart-related medical conditions.

The vast amount of deaths were people over sixty and people with - ON AVERAGE - four comorbidities. The rest of us were just fine.

F#$% you Groot.

Force Lawful Contributions

Maybe FOP should look into this?

Yeah, chances of actually seeing this through an Illinois court are close to nil.

Administrative Betrayal

The closer we get to leaving, the more this make sense on many levels:

• In 2023, Police1 conducted a sweeping survey of over 4,100 officers to explore the biggest issues for recruitment and retention in law enforcement. Within the survey results, this latent truth emerges with clarity:

  It may not be the trauma on the streets, but rather the trauma of administrative betrayal within police departments that is causing officers to leave in droves.

The article touches on many issues we've seen in the post "defunding" era and nails the "top-down rot" that has infected departments nationwide where persons with any sort of actual police experience aren't the ones running departments any more. 

Or at least not in the blue state $hitholes.

Go read it all.

Shots Fired!

You've probably seen this one making the rounds:

He resigned, but seriously....suppressed rounds don't sound anything like acorns.

Bad Optics Again

Is she still in charge of IAD?

• Fyi, a few days ago, Talley's felony nephew got pinched in 011 again, this time with a ghost gun. Multiple felony convictions, and the ASA's office immediately shot down felony uuw charges as if it was already decided he was automatically getting a free pass. The corruption continues....

We realize she can't be held responsible for all of her relatives - sins of the father (or nephew) shouldn't visited upon the son (or auntie). But there used to be red flags that would restrict certain assignments. You don't want the son of an alleged mobster in Vice or Intelligence because the temptation might be too great....or the optics are bad.

Though as an aside, we think both of those may have happened.....anyone else remember?

But after the niece got tagged in Yolanda's Lexus with 42 grams of heroin, why would you put Talley in charge of the Bureau tasked with holding everyone else responsible to policy, procedure, ethics and actual laws?

And why would you RWOC a multiple felon nephew with a "ghost gun"? Isn't the entire political structure all about the banning of firearms nowadays?

Speechless

That cracked-out naked woman who stole a squad car and nearly killed an officer in 011 with it, before crashing it after a pursuit? All on video by the way.

Chicago hired her....while she's facing attempted murder charges.

She is working for the Department of Family and Support Services making $85,000 a year.

Who the actual f@#$ is running this $hithole city? Aren't there any background checks any more? Drug tests?

We can almost guarantee an acquittal at the 01 April bench trial now....she's in the Machine.

UPDATE: a bad screen shot

If you go to the City Data Portal and set the filters correctly, she's right there in the system.

Quotas Forbidden....Again

And here we thought these things were illegal for years. Even a couple supernintendos forbade quota-based policing via AdMin Fax policy messages.

Then why does this pop up in Springfield?

• SYNOPSIS AS INTRODUCED:

  65 ILCS 5/11-1-12

  Amends the Illinois Municipal Code. Provides that a municipality may not require a police officer to issue a specific number of citations, warnings, points of contact, stops, or arrests within a designated period of time (rather than may not require a police officer to issue a specific number of citations within a designated period of time).

  For purposes of evaluating a police officer's job performance, prohibits a municipality from comparing the average, percentage, or number of citations, warnings, points of contact, stops, or arrests to be issued on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual basis issued (rather than the number of citations issued) by the police officer to the average, percentage, or number of citations, warnings, points of contact, stops, or arrests issued by any other police officer who has similar job duties.

  Removes language allowing a municipality to evaluate a police officer based on the police officer's points of contact. Provides that quotas may not be used as a criterion for an officer's demotion or penalization, including unfavorable assignments, transfer, termination, constructive dismissal, promotion, or lack of earning of any benefit, including awarded time off.

So if this passes, Officers can bring charges against supervisors who demand numbers to keep car assignments, start times, watches and partners? Fun times on tap!

Another $250 Million

Politicians pretending to have money to burn for their illegals:

• Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on Thursday announced they will seek an additional $250 million from the state and county to respond to Chicago's migrant crisis.

But Conehead isn't participating for now:

• It's an agreement noticeably missing a key partner — the city of Chicago. And it comes after Pritzker, Preckwinkle and Mayor Brandon Johnson met in January and earlier this month to discuss how to fund efforts to fight the crisis.

  According to a source briefed on the discussions, Johnson initially agreed to ask the City Council for more funds but backed off.

  During a news conference Thursday afternoon, the mayor pushed back and asked a reporter if she was “making an assertion that I made a promise.” He also declined to answer repeatedly whether the city will commit to new funding.
  

Perhaps reality is setting in where Conehead needs money for OT, for a bunch of court cases where he's going to lose big and owe cops for more OT, for projected CTU demands....and maybe for health care?

• More babies are being born with syphilis in Chicago, mirroring an alarming national trend that public health experts say is almost entirely preventable.

  Cases of congenital syphilis in newborns more than doubled in the city in just two years, according to data released by the Chicago Department of Public Health in December. A report published last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed cases nearly tripled across Illinois over the same period.

A completely preventable and curable disease affecting Conehead's current voting base, not the one ten years from now that Prickwrinkle, Fata$$ and potato-brain are importing. Maybe this guy has an inkling of brain?

Nah, it's probably the CTU raises.

Just a Billion

Just the other day, Fata$$ was saying all sorts of things meant to inspire confidence from taxpayers about his priorities concerning a multi-billionaire getting a new stadium:

• The outreach by developers to the governor’s office marks a potential step forward in what could be an uphill push to bring a new ballpark to the vacant site known as The 78. On Friday, Pritzker continued to project caution on the idea of spending public funds on a stadium for the privately-owned team, beyond typical infrastructure costs, just as he repeatedly has in discussions of a new Bears stadium.

  “I set out what I think are the parameters that the taxpayers expect, which is why we need to be careful about how we use public dollars,” Pritzker said. “And a private business like a professional team, even if they’re beloved by so many people, are nevertheless similar to lots of other businesses in the state.”

Then the multi-billionaire said he expected to get....a billion dollars in taxpayer funds for his stadium:

• The White Sox are reportedly prepared to ask for $1 billion in public funding from the state to construct a new stadium at "The 78" near the South Loop, according to an extensive report from Crain's Chicago Business.

  Team owner Jerry Reinsdorf is reportedly confident in his chances of winning over the state's approval for his complex financial plan to fulfill the goal of building an entirely new Sox stadium, in collaboration with real estate firm Related Midwest, along the Chicago River.

  Reinsdorf has not officially met with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, though the report made it clear the White Sox have been in contact with state officials on the subject.
  

So we have is a politician speaking out of one side of his ass, and Reinsdorf (or his people) letting it be known that he expects this politician to come up with a billion dollars in taxpayer funds for a stadium, while businesses and taxpayers flee Chicago and Illinois at a steady rate.

ShotSpotter Extended

Conehead folded, like the giant wuss he is:

• The Chicago Police Department will keep its access to the controversial ShotSpotter gunshot detection system after a last-minute deal Friday — hours before the contract was set to expire.

  Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office hammered out a renewal to the nearly $49 million contract with ShotSpotter’s parent company, SoundThinking, to allow the police department to continue using the technology through Sept. 22, according to statements from the company and mayor's office. The agreement also includes a two-month "transition period" after that date.

You know how you can tell Conehead folded? 

• That last line

SoundThinking got "transition" time after Conehead's said six months. The Slum Times is trying to spin this as "Johnson's office hammered out" a deal, but Conehead offered six months, SoundThinking said, "Nope," Conehead was avoiding press questions like they were contagious and taking all sorts of flak from aldercreatures representing the Wards that seem to have the highest shooting and homicide totals.

SoundThinking got two extra month out of the deal.

No one is saying how much money was spent yet, but Conehead is now not only the bitch to the Teachers' Union, he's SoundThinking's bitch, too.

Even more telling, Larritorious's name isn't anywhere in the article, meaning zero input.

Sex Scandal Lives On

Eddie Johnson sure sounds like a low class sleazeball, doesn't he? (paywall article):

• Former Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson proposed a wager during a Bears game in London that he would get his female driver’s underwear if the team won, according to a filing in a lawsuit accusing him of sexual abuse and harassment.

  The driver, Officer Cynthia Donald, sued Johnson and the city of Chicago in 2020, saying he had subjected her to unwanted sex in his office at police headquarters and on work trips to New Orleans, New York and Springfield. She joined his security detail in 2016 and became his personal driver six months later.

  Johnson said the sex was consensual and that they continued to have a friendly, nonsexual relationship after he was fired from the Chicago Police Department in late 2019.

That poor innocent officer:

• Donald says she had sent photos of her underwear to Johnson at his request on dozens of occasions.

Hm. Well, at least Eddie was single, right?

• [Fenner] and Johnson married in October 2017 as the former superintendent was recovering from kidney transplant surgery.

We guess no one in the media ever followed up on that "no-tell ho-tel" just north of HQ on 26th Street that all sorts of exempts were using for their illicit liaisons all throughout the 2000's. 

We've got a spreadsheet somewhere.

20% Operational?

No investigative reporting on this rumored tidbit:

• Wait until you people (or folks) learn that there are only two Tower Ladders in this entire city right now. Two. Should be 10. There are only two. Ask your alderman why there are only two Tower Ladders in the whole city right now. Wilson/Milwaukee and 51st/Western.

  Tower Ladders are extremely essential and important in large fires. The other 8 tower ladders have been converted to a basic truck now due to mechanical issues which the city doesn’t want to repair.

Unfortunately, when something breaks down, government is slow to repair it. Reasons are extensive, but essentially, they don't follow warranty procedures, the disregard maintenance schedules, they allow unauthorized persons to service equipment, and when repairs are necessary, government attempts to low-bid the work to unauthorized / unqualified / politically connected companies.

So a city that used to have ten working tower ladders is down to two. The engines still work, so it'll get fire fighters to calls, but if anything taller than two stories catches fire, you better have a fire-proof parachute handy

It's not like Chicago is known for tall buildings or anything.

UPDATE: From a fire friend:

• Engine 29 - 35th Lowe

  Engine 18 - 14th Blue Island

  Engine 11 - Foster Cumberland

  Engine 78 - Wrigley Field

  Engine 39 - 33rd Ashland

  Engine 129 - 81 Ashland

  Those are ALS engines downgraded to BLS because the city thinks it cheaper to get fined than to rehire 6 paramedics for the day
  Those Towers downgraded to a simple truck is alarming. Towers are needed in the event of a large fire. City won’t repair them.

  Tower 5 - Cullerton Damen

  Tower 10 - Division Larabee

  Tower 14 - Chicago Lamon

  Tower 16 - 67 Dorchester

  Tower 24 - 119 Peoria

  Tower 54 - 47 Komensky

Who is in charge of CFD now? Someone caught on Ring doorbell camera melting down over marital infidelities and then blackmailed to hire someone who ended up shooting another citizen?

Extensive Corruption

Blogs are providing far more accurate news than mainstream media is nowadays.

Here's another example with Uptown Update completely scooping so-called "investigative reporters":

• As the above photo (taken recently by a friend) illustrates, Helen Shiller is right behind Angela Clay, "counseling" Ms. Clay (who she has been grooming for years) and acting as shadow alderman. And in a brazen move straight out of her Wilson Yard and kitchen renovation playbook, she's trying to kill Uptown's decade-long renaissance by sticking a curfew free men's homeless shelter directly in the middle of the Wilson Avenue business district. 

  Oh, and she's using $4.5 million dollars in local taxpayer TIF funds, killing two businesses, and bolstering old supporters at JPUSA at the same time. A Shiller-Clay win-win-win-win!

Uptown Update caught a meeting of current aldercreature Clay of PPP fraud fame. at a clandestine breakfast meeting with her predecessor alderwitch Shiller. they then draw obvious conclusions regarding some current legislation pending that the community doesn't want, but Shiller does - along the lines of yet another homeless shelter in an area that already has five times the number of any other single ward.

But what is really interesting is the comment section and the info contained within. Seems someone has done a bunch of homework and...

• located more PPP fraud by aldercreature Clay, 
• PPP loans to the son of aldercreature Sawyer, 
• four loans to Melissa Ervin, wife of an aldercreature and office holder,
• some guy named Brandon Johnson doing business under an assumed name at the same location as alderwitch Shiller's son 

Amazing what a little bit of digging can turn up.

Is it Gone?

Seen outside of an SDSC Room (click for larger version):

 The "Spirit Halloween" addition made us snort coffee.

Cover-Up Being Finalized

Media assisting in the details:

• Chicago police could soon issue a final report on the mysterious shooting at a White Sox game last summer. Two women in the stands were shot and injured, and theories have varied about how it happened.

Theories do not vary. 

What story will be told and what the media is willing to sell to the ignorant is varying. The facts known within the Department haven't varied much at all:

• Police may soon provide some answers, but it may not provide a satisfactory answer for fans or the team.

  [...] During the game, two women were injured by bullets that struck them while sitting in the left field bleachers. One 40 caliber bullet was recovered. Another bullet remains lodged in the leg of the woman who was most seriously wounded.

So two bullets? Or one bullet (in a known location) and one shell casing? Because the media is famous for not knowing specifics or reporting specifics accurately.

Here comes the cover-up:

• Shortly after the incident, the acting Chicago Police Department Superintendent Fred Waller suggested the shots had to have been fired from inside the ballpark. "It's still under investigation, we're dispelling a lot of things," Waller said at the time. "It's coming from outside is something that we've almost completely dispelled."

  However, days later White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf told reporters Waller had updated him with different information. "The police have not ruled out the possibility or the probability that the gunshots the other night came from outside the ballpark," Reinsdorf said.

Yeah, right. You know what DID rule out the "possibility or probability" that the bullet (singular) came from outside the park?

• physics - for a SINGLE bullet to travel the supposed distance from the ShotSpotter reading, maintaining a climbing trajectory to surmount the exterior wall, then descending sharply downward to strike a victim in the lower leg - bypassing railings and seats - with enough momentum to penetrate flesh to the point that no surgical recovery was attempted, is beyond the realm of impossible;
• physics again - for TWO bullets, fired in rapid succession, AFTER the barrel deviation from the first shot's recoil, THEN returning to a firing position for the second shot AND hitting another person with the previously mentioned climbing and falling trajectories and avoidance of physical obstructions, is not just beyond the realm of impossible, it's laughable that any moron would believe it. 
• Study up on "Minute Of Angle" and apply it to 1,760 yards. Now apply it to a pistol with a 4" barrel and no optic. Laughable.
  

 What happened is this:

• security failed to detect said handgun which was concealed in the fat folds of a Chicago public school teacher whose address is outside of the city;
• a negligent discharge resulted in a scorch-mark across the belly and a fired bullet in the victim's leg;
  
• the Sox couldn't admit security failed and the CPD failed to shut down either the seating area where EMS responded to or delayed/evacuated/shut down the game - it was an active crime scene for all intents and purposes....no one knew shit;
  
• Reinsdorf, who pays a lot of taxes, leaned on the Department to disavow Waller's completely honest and realistic interpretation of the investigation.

But it'll be covered up:

• Now, sources told ABC7 that police are poised to report that it's most likely the shots were fired outside the stadium based on several factors.

  There was no visible reaction in the left bleachers that would have been expected if a gun had gone off nearby and there was no sign of any muzzle flash. No one tested positive for gunshot residue. Perhaps most significantly, the injuries to the victim's leg would have been much more extensive if the shot had been fired from the vicinity of the left field bleachers.
  

We already told you how the shots didn't come over the wall and hit anyone from a mile away. Based on our long experience, most people don't recognize gunshots for being gunshots, especially if they come through a layer of skin, belly fat and a layer of clothing. Chances are, most cops wouldn't recognize it either. And all of that would hide a muzzle flash pretty effectively. It wouldn't conceal a burn mark though.

As for damage, that's a crap evaluation since it depends too many factors - how the gun was held (which it wasn't), gun maintenance, decent cartridge or not, etc.

Now add in the refusal to cooperate with police by the CCL holding teacher and the victim. Did they swab the belly burn or just the hands? Who decided the bullet couldn't/wouldn't be recovered? Does the CCL licensed weapon match the caliber of the fired round? Were the season tickets for those seats renewed or revoked for next year? 

All questions that we aren't hearing answers to.

Occam's Razor - the simplest explanation tends to be the correct one.

ShotSpotter Follies

Blue-vs-blue battles at City Hall:

• The ShotSpotter gunshot detection system could be cut off this week as Chicago and the company remain at odds over a contract extension following Mayor Brandon Johnson’s announcement that he plans to nix the technology at summer’s end.

As we said yesterday, the prospect of more dead minorities doesn't seem to bother the progressives in City Hall. 

Others aren't so sanguine:

• Some City Council members have expressed grave concerns about how the mayor’s decision could affect public safety in a city that saw 617 homicides and more than 2,400 shootings last year.

  During a City Council hearing Thursday, Ald. David Moore (17th) introduced a proposal that would keep the technology in place.

  [...] Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th), a former police officer who chairs the Council's police and fire Committee, said he’s not surprised that SoundThinking would refuse to stay on through the summer.

  “When you have a product that you’re very proud of and someone says they no longer need your product, or we don’t believe your product is effective, are you going to be willing to stay around?” Taliaferro asked..

  Another alderperson, who asked to remain anonymous, said ShotSpotter declined the extension after the Johnson administration “added insult to injury” by offering the company a “low-ball” figure that was less than the company was paid in 2018.

Larritorious has been publicly de-balled and relegated to the status of "Conehead's Tool":

• The measure would most notably reverse Johnson’s decision and give his hand-picked Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling input “in decisions regarding the removal or reallocation of any police resources.” That’s notable because Snelling has been vocal about his support for ShotSpotter.

Ouch. After Larry's long and storied career of ::ahem:: conquests, being de-testicled in public like that has gotta hurt.

Conehead Grammy Appearance

....and the 16th and 17th District Chicago Police Scanner twitter account has the receipts:

The rest of the photos are at the listed link. 

So far, they've located $10,000 in expenses billed to taxpayers with numerous redactions that might total even more. 

These folks are FOIA wizards.

Cop Sues SeeBS

Specifically, drunk and child endanger-er Savini:

• Chicago police officer Joseph Cappello IV, has filed a defamation lawsuit against CBS News Corp., Chicago television news reporter Dave Savini, and other associated defendants.

  The lawsuit, which was filed Dec. 20 in Cook County Circuit Court, claims the defendants published and disseminated allegedly false statements accusing Cappello of professional misconduct, excessive force, and violations of protocol during a botched raid at a Chicago apartment in 2017. 

  Cappello claims the allegedly actionable reports published by the defendants allegedly followed their acquisition of video recorded testimony rendered by Cappello during a deposition as part of a lawsuit brought against the city of Chicago by the Mendez family, who were allegedly caught up in the alleged botched raid.

Looks like he's doing this on his own, meaning all out of his own pocket. 

With recent seven-and-eight-figure settlements against other media outlets, we wish him all the luck in the world and hopefully some decent backing from other officers.