COPA Fires Whistleblowers

This certainly isn't going to turn around and bite taxpayers in the ass:

• Two high-ranking employees of the agency charged with investigating Chicago Police misconduct were abruptly fired Friday, just days after one of them complained to the inspector general about bias against police.

  Matt Haynam, a $163,068-a-year deputy chief administrator for the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, said he was summoned to a virtual meeting with COPA Chief Andrea Kersten and general counsel Robin Murphy and told he was out, effective immediately. He said no reason was given.

  [...]  Shortly before being fired, Haynam said he got a text message from COPA’s $117,792-a-year supervising investigator Garrett Schaaf, who had also been summarily dismissed. Schaaf declined comment.

  Haynam, 44, said he has no doubt why he was let go. “I recently made a complaint to the [inspector general] directly and was let go today effective immediately and given no justification. I’m being fired because she [Kersten] is retaliating,” Haynam told the Sun-Times.

For daring to be critical of progressive policy and attempting to point out how anti-police bias de-legitimizes the entire COPA organization, these guys are fired.

You know who comes out ahead in all this?

• Larritorious

Because now his complaint about COPA "investigations" being biased and "outcome based" looks completely legitimate and he can point to the firings as indirect proof. He ought see about getting these two to verify his accusations directly, because you know when they sue COPA for wrongful termination, the depositions are going to be eye-opening.

This is a Pressing Issue?

Good thing Illinois isn't $100 billion in debt or anything and we can finally rely on the political class to solve that pesky flag issue:

• Now Illinois is in the market for a new state flag. You would think that given the number of problems facing the state, especially the benighted city of Chicago, Gov. JB Pritzker's people would have more pressing issues about which to worry. Apparently not.

  WGN reports that the State Flag Commission said that it will start accepting new designs for the Illinois flag next week. Participants have until October 18 to submit their ideas. The commission will narrow the field down to 10, and voting will commence in January.

  As was to be expected, Illinois X users took some time to express a few thoughts:
  

The most common comment was pointing out how Illinois - specifically Chicago - has between thirty and sixty people shot most weeks and no politician in Illinois says a word about it.

They'll end up spending a few million dollars on this BS, guaranteed.

Good Riddance....Again

The Slum Times most racist "reporter" ever:

• Mope-rah!

She provided plenty of blog fodder over the years. 

Always the victim, never advocating for personal responsibility, she did more to keep racism alive than the klan.

She was DEI before DEI was a thing. 

Add your own insults in the comment section. Try to keep it clean like we just did.

Dog Catchers

We pointed this out years ago, probably more than a decade:

• Amid excessive overtime and a lack of recruitment by the Chicago Police Department, new data show that CPD police officers have been bogged down with answering animal-related calls for service despite the fact that a city department is dedicated to providing the service.

  Whether it's Chicago police officers loading stray dogs into their patrol cars, or officers spending their own money on leashes and dog food, they've been busy with animals. The problem is putting a spotlight on the city's embattled Department of Animal Care and Control.

Animal Control - if you're lucky - has two vans on the street - one north and one south. They do all sorts of complaints, removals (dead and alive), assist on search warrants, and occasionally an investigation (barking animals, dog being abused, tied up outside with out water/shade, etc) along with chasing strays, which is a low priority job. After all, if the dog is gone when they get there, that's a successful resolution (19-paul).

Cops end up picking up some of the slack, 800 animals the first six months of the year, many placed in foster homes or adopted by cops themselves. But it takes cops away from police responsibilities. 

No one is campaigning on animal control issues, and at a billion dollars short next year, no relief is on the horizon.

Dallas Tragedy

Scant details, but looks like some sort of ambush on the first officer, then waiting around to ambush the responding assist cars:

• Three Dallas police officers were shot, including one fatally, and a suspect who emerged from a vehicle with a long gun was killed by officers after a highway chase, authorities said Friday.

  Just after 10 p.m. Thursday, Dallas police responded to an officer in distress call and found a fellow officer wounded in a squad car, police said. The responding officers exchanged gunfire with the suspect at the scene and two of the officers were shot.

  The three officers were taken to hospitals, where one of them died. The other two were listed in critical and stable condition, police said.

There are a lot of bad actors around the country right now from all sectors - illegals, unlawfuls, peole overly stressed out from personal circumstances. Be aware that any situation could turn south in a heartbeat. Stay safe.

A Billion Dollars

That giant sucking sound everyone has been noticing for a few years? Just got a lot louder:

• Chicago is facing a $982.4 million budget shortfall in 2025 that has Mayor Brandon Johnson refusing to rule out the property tax increase he campaigned against.

  Johnson’s hand-picked Chicago Board of Education approved a $9.9 billion budget that does not include the $175 million pension payment for non-teaching school employees. The city absorbed that payment until Johnson’s predecessor off-loaded that cost to the Chicago Public Schools.

  In an unprecedented rebuke, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez and the CPS board rejected the mayor’s request to take out a short-term, high-interest loan to cover the pension payment and the cost of a new teachers contract. That’s why the mayor is laying the groundwork to dump Martinez.

  Unless the board does an about-face, not only will the 2025 budget gap balloon to $982.4 million, but Chicago also will end 2024 with a $223 million deficit, in part because personal property replacement taxes have fallen $169 million short of year-end projections.

A cascading series of failures, one after the other.

Detroit is just around the corner.

And Captain Conehead is swinging around for another shot at the iceberg.

A.I. Surveillance

It sounds like ShotSpotter Junior:

• Chicago is testing a mass surveillance tool to detect guns at CTA stations, even as debate rages around the effectiveness of another detection system used by the city, ShotSpotter.

  The Chicago Transit Authority announced Thursday it is one month into a year-long pilot program with ZeroEyes, a company that uses artificial intelligence to identify guns in surveillance video and alert police. The CTA says it has deployed the technology on about 250 cameras at L stations — but it won’t say which stations, citing security concerns.

  CTA spokeswoman Maddie Kilgannon defended the new technology as adding more “eyes” to its already expansive surveillance network of more than 33,000 cameras — the largest of any transit agency in the nation. In a statement, CTA President Dorval R. Carter, Jr. said “this added measure of protection provides additional peace of mind to everyone.”

33,000 cameras....and an understaffed CPD Mass Transit Unit to respond to any of it. This is going to provide "peace of mind"?

Great plan!

And the ACLU is unhappy....again:

• ACLU Illinois spokesman Ed Yohnka said the biggest concern of his organization is the lack of public input. ZeroEyes’ technology was implemented without public discussion, he said. And it adds another layer of technology to a surveillance network that has failed to improve public safety.

  “This adds an additional level of surveillance without a corresponding public discussion or debate if that level of surveillance is wanted by residents of Chicago,” Yohnka said. These technologies “all come with allure of adding more safety, but they never seem to deliver on that promise.”

As we've stated here for years, cameras don't do shit for public safety. All they do is ensure that your rape, mugging or murder is recorded for posterity and maybe one of those internet channels that post "real crime" stuff. 

As for the "level of surveillance" Ed is complaining about, there's no expectation of privacy in public and even less on a public transit system. People are always free to walk or Uber or drive or take their own private helicopters to their destination rather than pay money to ride the CTA.

Reading the rest of the article, it seems like a shady pilot program for another connected company to help increase the billion dollar deficit Conehead is running up.

Illegals Acting Illegally

We posted about Colorado the other day, armed gangs taking over apartment complexes, and some troll apologist for Biden-Harris accused us of making stuff up, unable to actually do his own research.

Fine, we'll do it for you:

• Potential gang activity was caught on surveillance camera in a Colorado apartment building after what one former resident calls "no accountability" kept law enforcement from assisting.
  
  The video shows many men armed with handguns, and one with a scoped rifle, bursting through the door of the apartment complex for unknown reasons.

  The group appears to be Tren de Aragua, or TdA, a transnational gang based out of Venezuela. The gang, with reportedly 5,000 members, has a motto of "real until death," or "real hasta la muerte."

Plenty of video and links included at the main article. 

And in other news:

• A group of about 20 migrants terrified young children by trying to get on their California school bus early Wednesday — a day after a smaller group walked down a highway trying to stop another bus, district officials said. 

  The alarming incidents occurred in the Jamul-Dulzura Union School District close to the Mexico border — where school bus drivers are now being ordered to skip stops where migrants might be waiting.

Because hijacking a bus load of kids always ends well....just like in Dirty Harry:

Never Satisfied

People think cops bitch and moan a lot. We might, but no more than average and we usually have good reasons. Guess who complains more? People (and folks) judging cops:

• Chicago police were given a lot of credit for how they handled the protests during the Democratic National Convention and kept the city safe. But a police watchdog group is saying the real test for police is still ahead.

Imagine that.

• During the DNC protests, Chicago police said, officers made 74 arrests and noted there were only eight or nine complaints about police conduct.

  On Friday, CPD Supt. Larry Snelling praised his officers for their restraint. "So as a result of it, you didn't see the activity that people expected to see," Snelling said.

Under one hundred arrests and under ten complaints. That is a victory right there....unless you're a professional complainer:

• One of the leaders of the March on the DNC on Tuesday said that police should not be taking a victory lap.

  "A lot of people from the from the different organizations, different contingents, the protesters themselves said they felt extremely intimidated by those cops being right on top of the protesters the way they were," said Coalition to March on the DNC Spokesperson Hatem Abudayyeh.

  Abudayyeh pointed to the police bicycle lines and the riot gear in particular.

If you and your group had proven yourselves trustworthy over the past few protests, perhaps the show of force wouldn't have been necessary. But given what we all know, better to be prepared than not.

These assholes in the "All Criminals Love Us" group:

• The American Civil Liberties Union noted that police should be credited for showing a lot of de-escalation and restraint when all the supervisors and cameras were around.

  "How does that work the next time there's a traffic stop? How does that work the next time there's a foot pursuit or a stop and frisk, or there's an interaction in the community?" said ACLU of Illinois Communications Director Ed Yohnka.

We don't know under what table Ed's been hiding, but pretty much 99%-plus of recorded incidents since cameras were introduced doesn't show the police acting like assholes - it shows exactly the opposite. 

• Demonstrators were also frustrated by how police and the city sought for months to restrict where and how they could march and rally. The ACLU, which is part of the consent decree coalition, would like to see Chicago police act every day as they did during the DNC.

  "There shouldn't be a difference because the whole world's watching. It ought to look the same on the South, or the West, or the North Side, or downtown, simply because that's the way policing should work," Yohnka said.

Too bad Ed can't say that South, West and North side behaviors should look the same, because that's how a civil society should operate....but then he'd be labeled as a racist instead of just an ignorant communist. It's just easier to blame the police for human failings in stressful situations.

Finally Channel 7's progressive staff had to get their last dig in:

• While the police response during the convention may have helped erase the ghosts of 1968, the department's long-term reputation in the neighborhoods may depend on how well the DNC lessons become part of CPD's DNA.

Why don't you go into the neighborhoods (instead of "reporting" from behind a computer desk) and ask around about "ghosts of 1968." Few remember, fewer care, and those that do tend to agree with old Mayor Daley - the hippies had it coming. Read "Boss" by Royko. He went out into the neighborhoods, usually drunk, and the people there backed Daley and the cops. If we remember correctly, Illinois pols won by their biggest margins in history with city voters. Daley certainly did. 

The only ones hung up on 1968 are the ones who supported the losing side. And they lost their shot at "revenge" in 1996 when that one went off relatively smoothly.

But this all proves that trying to win the approval of leftist, progressive, communist, democrat assholes is always a sucker's bet.

Peaceful End to SWAT Incident

Just how you want it to end - quietly:

• An hourslong SWAT standoff ended early Wednesday with the arrest of a suspect in New City on the South Side.

  The situation began just before 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, when officers on patrol in the 5300 block of South Racine Avenue heard gunfire and then spotted someone who barricaded themselves in a home, prompting a SWAT response, police said.

  Shortly after 3:30 a.m., the suspect was arrested without incident, police said.

No one missed dinner Tuesday night, no one was late for work Wednesday morning, and no one on our side was injured.

Casino Movement

The people betting it wouldn't get approved turned out to be wrong....two decades and more later.

Now the people who bet it wouldn't get built might be feeling a bit nervous:

• As excavators make way for Chicago’s future mega-casino, the leader of the corporation behind the River West development believes Bally’s is poised to start “eating a lot of people’s lunches” in an Illinois gambling market already saturated with numerous casinos and video gaming options.

  Bally’s chairman Soo Kim made that confident declaration after a whirlwind summer for Bally’s was capped Tuesday with crews beginning demolition of the former Chicago Tribune printing plant at 777 W. Chicago Ave. The site is slated to be transformed into a casino by September 2026.

  Kim brushed aside critics — including some from City Hall — who have questioned whether Rhode Island-based Bally’s could complete the $1.34 billion casino project, let alone compete in a region that already has more places to gamble than Las Vegas.

About all that will be left are the people who said it would never open at this location. 

And others (like us) who think it will never make a dime nor contribute to the Pension Funds as promised. The "creative accounting" types will negate any positive revenue streams and taxpayers will be on the hook once again.

Probably Political Theater....

 ....but you never know if something could break loose:

• The “Social Security Fairness Act” would repeal both the “Windfall Elimination Provision” and the “Government Pension Offset” in current Social Security law. In the House, H.R. 82 was introduced by Representatives Garret Graves (R-LA) and Abigail Spanberger (D-VA). In the Senate, S. 597 was introduced by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Susan Collins (R-ME).

  The repeal of the Windfall Elimination (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) has been a top legislative priority for the FOP since 1997.  In this Congress, we have historically high support for both the House and the Senate bills.

  At this time, we are focused on bringing H.R. 82 to the House floor using a procedure called a discharge petition.  A discharge petition is a legislative mechanism to move legislation directly to the floor provided the petition—an actual document--is physically signed by 218 Members of the House.  Members can begin signing this petition on 10 September—one day after the House returns to session.  We are asking that ALL FOP members use this Action Center to send an email to their House member asking them to sign the discharge petition for H. Res. 1410, which will bring H.R. 82 to the floor!

There is a linked form-set within the actual article walking you through the process, not to dissimilar from the "witness slips" we've linked to for Springfield legislation. The more names it gets, the more engaged the FOP lobbyists are with people who may vote on this.

This is the National FOP, not Lodge 7.

No Thanks

We don't particularly care, because we should be gone from this $hithole when it rolls around, but we can still be concerned about co-workers left behind:

• When Gov. JB Pritzker said he’d try to get the Democratic National Convention to come back to Chicago in 2028, he wasn’t exactly kidding.

  “I’m with him,” Christy George, executive director of the Chicago DNC’s Host Committee, said in an interview with the Sun-Times on Tuesday. The host committee raised a record $94 million — making it the most expensive convention in history.

  “We’re one of the very few cities that were able to raise the money, recruit the volunteers, raise millions more than what we planned on, and recruit thousands more volunteers than any other host city or past political conventions has, Democrat or Republican,” George said. “We want that experience again, and we would happily, happily bid for it. So I’m with JB, and I’m all for another convention here. We can do this. We can do it well.”

Fata$$ wants to raise his national profile to something bigger. We've seen his profile, and they don't get much larger than his and maintain any sort of mobility under their own power.

But why subject the same people to the same inconveniences on a regular basis? We've been through three of these things now - as a child, as young cops, and as older cops leaving it behind. Every twenty-eight years or so is just fine.

Downward Revisions?

You trust the government with numbers, right?

• The US economy added 818,000 fewer jobs to the economy than initially reported from April 2023 through March 2024.

  That's according to a data revision from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which periodically revises job-growth data based on its Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages report.

  The jobs revision is in the middle range of Goldman Sachs' 600,000 to 1 million estimate, and it represents the biggest downward revision since 2009, when the BLS revised employment growth lower by 824,000 jobs.

So the "greatest economy is history" that the drooling vegetable and the kackling moron have been touting all year turns out to have created over three-quarters-of-a-million less jobs than they were bragging about. And all those "gains" the economy has been "growing" on don't actually exist. 

Government jobs are the "growth" sector and more government means....more taxes. And most of those other jobs "created" were actually just people returning to their COVID shut down jobs

It Could Have Been This Guy

Paul Vallas guest posting over at The Contrarian. And quite frankly, the city and Department would have been better off:

• Within hours of the final balloon falling from the ceiling of the United Center to close out the Democratic National Convention (DNC), the order came for Chicago Police Department (CPD) to return to “Normal Operations.” The directive brought an end to months of meticulous planning and preparation for the DNC. One day following the DNC’s farewell from Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson basked in national attention for executing a nearly flawless special event. Of course, having more police personnel than protesters certainly helped.

  While Mayor Johnson deserves praise for overseeing an efficient DNC, so does Superintendent of Police Larry Snelling, who spent years training recruits at the Police Academy. Officers who were assigned responsibilities at the DNC attest that Snelling’s planning and training regimen left them better disposed to address expected protests. CPD’s effectiveness however will offer no respite from the demands for reform. However, it is time to acknowledge the Consent Decree may not be that reform vehicle.

  As the decree enters the seventh year on which millions have been spent implementing and monitoring, it is obvious the decree is not working because it fails to tackle the real and often ignored reasons for the problems faced by CPD, largely the lack of resources and support and the political nature of hiring, promoting, and accountability. The failure of the Consent Decree to address these vital issues has taken a toll on the quality of its recruits, department leadership, and the system of police oversight.

The post is a bit longer than what would be quotable, and we don't want to steal all of The Contrarian's content, seeing as how they do this for a living and we do this as a hobby, but Vallas hits a number of points with unerring accuracy:

• the Consent Decree has failed insomuch as it relies on the measure of two things - controversial police shootings and complaints. Police shootings are essentially flat, because most police shootings are defensive in nature. Complaints, while skyrocketing initially, have fallen precipitously, and Vallas correctly points out that this is (A) a result of under staffing and (B) conscious disengagement (self preservation);
• the most obvious effect of the Consent Decree is how it has provoked a massive uptick in crime, something we and our readers predicted years ago. Imagine that.
• he proposes something that has been kicked around for years - a "reserve force" of retirees doing a bunch of the background work to free up front line Officer and Investigators. An interesting concept that deserves an actual look, and not lip service. He also suggests a return to the early days of CAPS, where Officer worked the same beat every day, knew the citizens and the criminals, and wasn't the bloated, overstaffed, house mouse-hiding, money-stealing enterprise it is today.
  

This paragraph made us laugh out loud though:

• Did we really need a court to tell us that the police need working cameras, tasers, sufficient supervisor-to-officer ratios, ongoing, redundant training, and a state-of-the art training center? Apparently in Chicago we do. The decision to withhold these vital resources were political decisions driven by some combination of budgetary considerations, poor prioritizing, or negligent leadership.

Sheeeit. You didn't even need a Court to tell anyone that. You had a blog, written for cops, run by cops with tens of decades of police experience, and backed by readers with centuries of street time, minimally censored and open to public view with ideas free for the taking....if you could ignore the language and dirty talk.

This Again

There must be an election coming up, because the COVIDiots are on every news station, in every newspaper, crying on every website:

• NYTimes via yahoo.com - In the fifth summer of COVID, cases are surging, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported “high” or “very high” levels of the virus in wastewater in almost every state. The rate of hospitalizations with COVID is nearly twice what it was at this time last summer, and deaths — despite being down almost 75% from what they were at the worst of the pandemic — are still double what they were this spring.
• ABC via yahoo.com - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved an updated COVID-19 shot for everyone 6 months old and up, which renews a now-annual quandary for Americans: Get the shot now, with the latest COVID outbreak sweeping the country, or hold it in reserve for the winter wave?
• Slum Times peddling panic porn - Alpha. Beta. Delta. Omicron. It’s been hard to keep track of the COVID-19 lingo as the viruses evolve and mutate into new variants and strains itching to wreak havoc on our immune systems. The latest variant, KP.3.1.1, is associated with the latest “FLiRT” variants and accounted for more than a third (31% to 49%) of new cases in the country during the first two weeks of August, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Viruses follow a predictable path....every single time - becoming more transmissible over time while losing what makes them deadly. Of the million dead, over 90% had four or more co-morbidities, so unless you're at super high risk AND super unhealthy, this presents as a cold of varying degrees. The only time we had COVID, we didn't even know it until a family test revealed it when someone brought it home from school. Other members of the household were laid low for a few days, but no one ended up in trouble.

How about - after consulting with your medical providers - you make a decision based on your needs and risks? You know, like it used to be.

Crime is Down, We Swear

In a neighborhood that almost always votes for the loudest leftists, commies and progressives:

• A man was shot and a woman was battered during an argument inside an Edgewater restaurant on Monday evening. The incident marks the 14th shooting in Edgewater this year, one shy of the total victims seen in 2022 and 2023 combined.

  The situation started around 9:10 p.m. when a group of men approached a 22-year-old man inside Primo Pizza, 5600 North Clark, according to police. One of the men began arguing with the victim, pulled a gun, and opened fire.

"But it used to be such a quiet neighborhood...."

• After the third person was shot at 6002 North Kenmore in May, Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth (48th) launched a policy of not telling her constituents about criminal activity in her ward unless they “opt-in” to a special mailing list.

  The alderman said she believes informing people about crime is racist and leads to a perception of increased crime. She said her decision was based on her concerns about racism and her belief that “over-reporting of crime leads to an inaccurate public perception about crime rates.”

  Monday’s shooting occurred in the neighboring 40th Ward, which is represented by Ald. Andre Vasquez. He does not withhold basic public safety information from his constituents.

No word if the involved individuals are recent arrivals....you know, illegals....or part of the gang problem never addressed by chronic understaffing.

Reality Mirrors Movie

As things settle down, we find a renewed interest in sports. And that interest is sorely disappointed to find that there aren't any professional sports teams playing in Chicago any longer. It's almost like the old days when we were growing up - everyone sucks. The White Sox just lost their 101st game of the year and are making a serious run at the losing-est record of all time.

It feels like the movie - Major League - where the ownership is trying to blow as many games as possible to drive down attendance in Cleveland so they can move the team to Florida.

Florida is out of the picture at the moment, but we heard Tennessee is looking for a team.

Reminder

Chasing is dangerous, to the public and to the police (we don't really care about the criminal):

• A San Diego police officer and the driver of another vehicle died when the driver crashed into the officer's car following a chase Monday night, police said.

  A second officer who was in the same police vehicle as the other officer was hurt and "fighting for his life" after they were stuck by the speeding car, Police Chief Scott Wahl said at a Tuesday morning news conference.

  The deadly wreck occurred after a police officer saw a vehicle “traveling at a high rate of speed” on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard and tried to perform a traffic stop, Wahl said.

  The driver did not stop and sped away, leading to a brief pursuit before a supervisor called off the chase because of the dangerous speeds involved, Wahl said.

  “Two officers working together in one vehicle were responding to that fleeing suspect,” Wahl told reporters Tuesday. “And ultimately the suspect vehicle collided at a high rate of speed into the side of their vehicle.”

It sounds like the injured and deceased officers were merely responding to the area where the pursuit was taking place as a back-up unit and had the misfortune of being in the path of the maniac. Prayers for them both, their families and co-workers. And a reminder that you don't even have to be participating in a pursuit to be the victim of it. Be safe.

Progressive Idiocy

The Contrarian, finding the video clips that the commies and progressives would rather didn't see the light of day:

• Video Clip here - description is as follows: See the schlub with the hat and the silly plugs chanting the pro-Hamas anthem "CPD-KKK, blah, blah, blah..." at the DNC? He earns $94K annually from the City of Chicago as ward superintendent in the 33rd Ward. He works for @RossanaFor33.

There really ought to be a mechanism in place to reduce or eliminate police service in these wards that are populated by morons who elect idiots who (A) insist crime is down, (B) demand defunding of police services while (C) demanding more police because (A) isn't true at all.

Suggestions?

Conehead Breakdown on Tap

The "glow" from the DNC is already wearing off:

• Mayor Brandon Johnson can’t afford to bask in the glow of last week’s Democratic National Convention. The cold hard reality of Chicago finances is about the slap him in the face.

  The three-year financial forecast that serves as the city’s preliminary budget is due out this week, and the results will not be pretty.

  The “base outlook” in last year’s version projected a $986 million shortfall in 2025. The “negative” outlook included a $1.53 billion deficit. Even the rosiest economic outlook projected a $636 million shortfall.

  A lot has happened since then, placing an even heavier burden on beleaguered Chicago taxpayers.

The article by normally water-carrying media tool Fran Spielman goes on to list numerous financial obligations and along with pitfalls and shortages that await Conehead. The tax increases that will be required are going to be painful and in a responsible administration, inspire some soul searching alongside massive cuts in service. 

But Conehead is a moron, surrounded by morons and advised by idiots.

Vote Dem for More Misery

Colorado is finding out:

• Denver’s decision to welcome migrants with open arms is bringing bloodshed to the suburbs next door. A notorious Venezuelan prison gang has set up shop in Aurora, Colorado — even though the town wanted no part of the influx of asylum seekers in the first place.

  Aurora — a quiet bedroom community with a population of 390,000 directly east of the Mile-High City — has become a base of operations for the brutal Tren de Aragua gang, which has seized multiple apartment complexes and set off a wave of violent crime.

  Denver leads the nation in new migrant arrivals per capita, with more than 40,000 arriving from the southern border since December 2022.

There's also videos encouraging illegals to take advantage of "squatters' rights" taking over abandoned or temporarily unoccupied dwellings, establishing footholds in communities and encouraging armed responses to landlords and law enforcement.

Vigilantes are probably in the near future.

DNC Evaluation

All sorts of praise from the media types, who still can't let go of 1968:

• Yes, there were complaints the four-day event was over-policed, but that may have seemed the case because fewer protesters showed up than some had predicted. Even so, the demonstrators were able to send their messages out to the nation.

  Overall, it was a far cry from the so-called “police riot” at Chicago’s 1968 Democratic National Convention. The answer to the question, “Can we finally put 1968 behind us this time, when the Democrats’ 1996 convention went smoothly and everyone seemed to forget it?” seems to be a strong yes.

We put it behind us after 1996. And NATO. And a few other large events that didn't garner any sort of bad optics. The cops from 1968 were pretty much gone when 1996 rolled around - kind of how everyone who ever served under Burge had long retired when the lawsuits appeared. Burge and 1968 were bogeymen, brought out to scare little children and pussified democrats. It was the media, specifically the Slum Times, publishing pieces from Bill Kurtis and Sneed and others about reporting the 1968 convention and they all had their leftist slant going. Fuck them one and all. 

Anyway, the whole thing went pretty well. We'd probably give it a C-plus up to a B-minus. Obviously, some thing could have been done better, but name us an event that couldn't have. The big thing moving forward is what lessons were learned and will those lessons be applied properly to future events.

PLUS - Larritorious was out on the front lines, when no one had been since McCarthy at NATO. Good to see him there, even if it was just for show.  Larry participated - again, so did Phil Cline on New Years Eve - so real or not, it was good to see.

PLUS - the Bikes were awesome. The mass arrests teams and processing, while minimally used, seemed to go of without a hitch. Administratively, it seemed to work well. Anyone who knows different, comment away, but the lack of complaints tells us something already.

PLUS - Most everyone got fed (aside from the expired and moldy sandwiches one night) and we didn't hear that restroom facilities were unavailable when needed. Stuff like that can always be improved.

MINUS - the planning and information sharing was lackluster. We're told via various sources at 35th Street that the order wasn't even sent to lower level exempts until three days before, assignments were vague and haphazard, no one knew what platoons were assigned to what supervisor, and even personnel changes were seat-of-the-pants due to certain ::ahem:: chosen ones being exempted from street duty.

Speaking of information, we have it from a few federal sources that correspond with us that they were not happy with how Command staff seemed to have no idea what was going on. They were happy with the zones of separation because it gave them plausible deniability (and a scapegoat) if outer perimeter breaches occurred. Thankfully those were minimal.

And -- information again - the cancellation of the cancellations on the final day. It couldn't have been that difficult to make the decision while everyone was still awake. And it shouldn't have been that difficult to arrange an unloading area where equipment could be sorted a bit more neatly than being tossed on the grass or tarmac at an unsecured site.

PLUS - the intermediate supervision - sergeants, lieutenants and even a few captains, was exceptional, and if Larritorious is smart, he ought to be building on that from this point forward for any future mass deployment issues. Find the guys and gals who got it done because of - or in spite of - the haphazard plan. Those are the people who should be thanked. Larry might be the face of the Department, but good leaders always direct the praise downward. It builds a lot of good will, and good will can be cashed in later.

PLUS - after numerous tents staffed by IAD and COPA were out there to accept any and all complaints about butt-hurt feelings, CWB says there were only eight complaints filed. Eight? Holy Crap. Back in '68, they were doing eighteen and more per hour. The restraint speaks volumes, hopefully good, and not because anyone was backing off.

UNKNOWN - the media was predicting upwards of 50,000 protestors. Permits and press releases hinted at a big turnout. Our estimates and those of our colleagues in the aftermath was probably less than 5,000. Actual trouble makers? Probably under 300.

We got lucky....or we got played. 

We were "line of march" at NATO and there were more than plenty of black bloc and panti-fa jags all over the place and well into the nighttime hours. We didn't see them in any significant numbers at all, and from what we heard and saw, neither did anyone else. The cynical side of us says they were told to stay away or stand down lest it reflect badly on the Koronation of Kamala. We hate being cynical.

Hopefully, when it's all said and done, this is a starting point for a better response to big events and not a high-water mark for someone to look back on and wonder what happened in the intervening years.

Interesting Crime Pattern

CWB reporting what the media won't - that most guns in the hands of criminals are the result of other crimes, not law abiding citizens:

• An unusual crime pattern has emerged in the South Loop, where thieves have broken into eight vehicles and taken firearms from seven of them. Granted, there are a lot of guns in Chicago, but the odds of finding seven guns in eight random cars seem high.

  Police said the burglar targets cars parked on the street and enters by either breaking a passenger side window or opening an unlocked door.

  Exactly how the burglar would know that there would be guns in the cars is unknown, unless the victims left the weapons in plain view.

Seven-out-of-eight hits would get you either banned in a casino or entry into a Hall of Fame.

More likely, thieves are staking out areas where they know (or guess) that law abiding CCL persons will offload their weapon into a trunk or car safe or hide it under a seat when they board the nearby CTA or enter a businesses with a "No Guns" sign. Every hit is within two blocks of Cermak, so it almost certainly an organized crew.

26/Cal Burglary Solved

Arrest made and ::surprise!!:: we're told felony charges were approved:

• A man recently charged with trying to sexually assault a convenience store worker in Logan Square on August 13 is now charged with burglarizing a Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office in July.

  Jordan Ocampo, 44, is charged with theft and burglary in connection with the late-night burglary of prosecutors’ offices inside the Leighton Criminal Courthouse on July 22.

  According to a press release issued by the sheriff’s office late Saturday night, Ocampo confessed to the burglary during an interview at the Cook County Jail on Tuesday.

Gee, root beer assault against the states attorney - multiple felony charges.

States attorney computers stolen, a mere property crime late at night with no one around to be face physical danger - felony charges.

Typical in a socialist Soros-sponsored Crimesha world.

Really Don?

In this day and age, why would you venture any sort of opinion where....well.... 

Let's take a step back and see who's involved:

• As protesters gathered for the Democratic National Convention to protest the war in Gaza, a high-ranking Chicago police supervisor allegedly browbeat a Palestinian American sergeant while making inflammatory statements about the ongoing conflict and the treatment of gay people in the Middle East.

  The sergeant has since filed a complaint with a police commander that described Area 1 Deputy Chief Don Jerome’s comments as “offensive, misogynistic, homophobic, and racist.” A police spokesperson said the department’s internal affairs bureau is probing the allegations.

Well, that explains most of it. A certain segment of the Department has always felt above the rest of us lowly coppers, venturing opinions and not fearing any sort of retaliation because of their connections. We could name a hundred off the tops of our heads and given a week or so, probably a few hundred more.

#metoo never took hold in the CPD because politics and sex were (and remain) the currency of the realm. Just look at Johnson's johnson, McCarthy's stalker, mistresses and jockers filling inside spots, the histories of certain gym instructors. Even that exempt who was programming his phone number into the devices of young ladies in a street parade last year.

Oh wait.....

And if this sergeant doesn't think that palestinians haven't been slaughtering women, children along with trying to teach homosexuals to fly, well....google is your friend.

Coordinated Censorship

RFK Jr ended most of his campaign efforts in swing states and gave a Hell of a speech doing so....and pretty much every major media outlet cut off his speech before he got to the part where he endorsed Trump and ripped the dems for their law-fare efforts to keep him off the ballot:

• RFK says that there are going to be areas of "fierce" disagreement with Trump, but at least he's willing to talk. Harris refused to even engage, which is a driving factor in his decision to pull out of the battleground states and push his voters toward Trump. 

  Fun fact: almost all of the US media outlets cut their live coverage after he accused them of participating in government censorship.
  

Search around and check out his speech though. It's probably one of the best you'll see in your lifetime.

Election season just got a lot more interesting.

Piles of Equipment

Those piles of unloaded equipment at Malcolm X College that people found difficult to believe?

We don't make $hit up - it really happens. 

And that isn't just Department equipment. These are personal items mixed in there and lord only knows what's in the backpacks.

Climate Panic Porn

Gotta distract the masses from the disastrous Kalifornia Kamala Kommunist Kampaign:

• An air-quality alert and excessive heat watch have been issued for the Chicago area in the coming days, according to the National Weather Service.

  The air-quality alert, triggered by residual wildfire smoke from Canada, starts at midnight Saturday and extends through the end of the day Sunday, the weather service said. Meteorologist Brett Borchardt said it’s likely it will be extended through the end of Tuesday when the excessive heat watch ends.

  “Heat waves and poor air quality go hand in hand,” Borchardt told the Sun-Times on Saturday afternoon, noting that high humidity and stagnant masses of hot air can worsen the air quality.

It's mid-August. This happens almost every year. In fact, it's kind of big news when it doesn't happen.

Anyone remember August 2023, a mere year ago? We do:

• 22 August - 88 degrees
• 23 August - 97 degrees
• 24 August - 100 degrees
  

It was mid to high 80s most of last August with a couple 90s sprinkled in. 

So today's high of 86 degrees was actually an improvement. Climate change is over! Kamala saved the world! Maybe she can run a campaign on that?

Hey Look....Sanity

Finally, a judge using facts and common sense and not headlines (no, not in Cook County):

• A federal judge has thrown out major felony charges against two former Louisville officers accused of falsifying a warrant that led police to Breonna Taylor's door before they fatally shot her.

  U.S. District Judge Charles Simpson's ruling declared that the actions of Taylor's boyfriend, who fired a shot at police the night of the raid, were the legal cause of her death, not a bad warrant.

  Federal charges against former Louisville Police Detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany were announced by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022 during a high-profile visit to Louisville. Garland accused Jaynes and Meany, who were not present at the raid, of knowing they had falsified part of the warrant and put Taylor in a dangerous situation by sending armed officers to her apartment.

  But Simpson wrote in the Tuesday ruling that "there is no direct link between the warrantless entry and Taylor's death." Simpson's ruling effectively reduced the civil rights violation charges against Jaynes and Meany, which had carried a maximum sentence of life in prison, to misdemeanors.

Imagine that - an offender being deemed for the death he caused in the commission of a felony. Of course, the "prosecutor" dropped charges against the dope dealer because he claimed he didn't know he was shooting at police. If we had a quarter for every time we heard that, we'd be richer by a couple of bucks, minimum.

Another Crap Headline

The Slum Times:

• 1 killed, another wounded in car-to-car shooting on DuSable Lake Shore Drive in Gold Coast

Anyone ever hear of a "car-to-car shooting"? 

Drive-by....yep. 

Road rage....yep.

In those cases, the actions of an individual are the cause of the mayhem.

But car-to-car is just another leftist trick to blame the object(s) for a murder and a maiming. And a way to avoid a description of the actual offenders doing the killing.

Rumors of Job Openings

Conehead went to some after-DNC party in Bridgeport Thursday night - Ramova at 35th and Halsted.

While there, he got sucker-punched, causing untold damage to his hair-do.

In response, his detail will be increased from 160 officers to 300 immediately following an intense series of interviews....and another $3,000 hair appointment.

Who has the inside info?

Back to the Usual Treatment

So the convention ended without too many issues (we'll cover those in a separate post), and the Department reverted to form, showing zero regard for Officers who had just laid it all on the line for six and seven days straight.

Not only didn't they announce the reverting back to the regular work schedule until well after everyone had gone home and hit the hay for a few hours sleep, they had told everyone the night before to leave their equipment in the transport vehicles overnight. Guess what happened next?

• the Department sent the vans, loaded with helmets, turtle gear, backpacks (with department and personal gear still inside), to Malcolm X college and had the recruits unload it all into piles. Some of the recruits, realizing that this was a clusterfuck of untold proportions, attempted to sort and label the piles by vehicle number, to facilitate Officers finding their gear, but others just dumped the equipment into piles. The "plan" was to have the recruits inventory everything that wasn't claimed at some point. No word on how much stuff will end up stolen/broken/lost and how the Department is going to replace said items.

We're going to bet that someone saw an opportunity to return the rental vans a day early and save some money, not realizing that the rental van company was owned by an aldercreature's niece and she contributes heavily to the Ward Offices of assorted politicians.

Another No Bail Success Story

Chief Judge Evans must be so proud, along with Fata$$, Prickwrinkle and Crimesha:

• Prosecutors have charged a man with murdering his girlfriend while he was on electronic monitoring for a felon gun case in February 2023.

  Artura de la Mora had a history of abusing Karena Silva, 30, prosecutors said. In fact, he completed parole just a few months before the murder for a domestic battery conviction in which she was the victim, officials said.

And for Judge Evans, who said there hasn't been a single "horrible incident" related to Illinois' no-bail provisions:

• De la Mora is the 38th person accused of shooting, killing, or trying to shoot or kill someone in Chicago last year while on felony pretrial release. The crimes involved 54 victims; 21 died.

The running five year total already exceeds one-hundred-twenty deaths by people (and folks) out on no-bail.

DNC Delegate Witnesses

A final send-off of convention delegate witnesses to Chicago's lowest crime rate ever:

• A 42-year-old man is in critical condition after being shot while leaving a South Loop diner overnight.

  He was walking out of White Palace Grill, 1159 South Canal, when a man fired shots, striking him in the back, both arms, and hand. CPD said he took himself to Northwestern Memorial Hospital for treatment. He’s in fair condition.

A number of DNC delegates were among the interviewed witnesses and they had no qualms about cooperating since they'll be gone by the weekend, never to return to Chicago, even for a trial. But they'll have amazing stories to tell all their friends back home.

What Now?

 On duty domestic?

• When will the story break of the PO assigned to 010, who is detailed to 610. Rumor has it he was on duty and dragged in PO girlfriend out of a squad car and beat the crap out of her?

Another DEI hire?

Lawsuit for What?

Has the Department finalized the cover-up for the Sox Park shooting yet? Because the lawyers are getting antsy to get paid:

• The Chicago White Sox and the owners of Guarantee Rate Field are facing a lawsuit over a shooting at the ballpark last year. Almost one year since people attending a White Sox game were hit by gunfire, one of the victims is filing a lawsuit.

  Two women in the ballpark stands were hurt in the incident in August 2023. Video from that day shows the reaction as the two women realized they had been shot.

  An unidentified woman filed a lawsuit Thursday, seeking damages in excess of $50,000 dollars.

The story (cover-up) claims that ShotSpotter pinpointed a number of shots from nearly a mile away around the same time (give or take twenty minutes). In defiance of the laws of physics, two bullets fired within a second, traveled in exactly the same parabolic arc for nearly a mile, surmounting a one-hundred-plus foot wall. Said bullets then dropped at a precipitous angle (unexplainable by ballistic science by the way) with enough generated force to (A) penetrate the flesh of one victim, and (B) enough re-entry heat to leave a scorch mark on the belly fat of another.

In reality, a suburban residing CPS employee, while removing a gun hidden in her fat rolls, experienced a negligent discharge, leaving one victim shot and the owner suffering a muzzle burn measuring a couple inches across her torso (per CFD sources). Other members of their party then concealed the gun and got it out of the stadium. 

The media has assisted greatly in the cover-up, refusing to ask a single pertinent or relevant question, such as does the suburban residing CPS employee have an FOID card, a CCL and a registered handgun? A single affirmative answer to any of these questions would lead to a slew of other questions.

You can bet the White Sox lawyers would love to ask them. But Jerry is asking for a new stadium with taxpayer financing, so who knows what they'll be allowed to ask? 

So what's the basis for the lawsuit? Either random bullets fell out of the sky and hit two people, which would pretty much absolve the White Sox of any responsibility. Or the plaintiff knows a gun got smuggled past security, knows who shot her and how, and is looking to get a payday to keep her mouth shut and spare someone some embarrassment.

The Hospitality is Amazing

Welcome to Chicago - lowest crime ever!

• A member of the Texas Democratic Delegation, in town for the party’s national convention, was robbed at gunpoint while walking in downtown Chicago on Wednesday morning.

  The victim confirmed that he was walking with a friend when they were targeted around 2 a.m. in the 100 block of West Randolph. We are working to have a more detailed conversation with the man and are not identifying him by name because he is a crime victim.

No word if the robber was wearing a MAGA hat and carrying bleach and a string noose, nor if the victims were headed to Subway for a sandwich.

Interesting Convention Arrest

A suburban jackass, who has some interesting parentage:

• Speaking of arrests, here's info on one by the DNC and guess who the arrestee's Mommy works for? If you said CPS as a teacher, you win a cookie
  
  CPS teachers are busy this week in meetings in preparation for another dismal school year but that didn't stop their own kids from being arrested downtown. 
  
  Nicholas Bongiorno, 18, of Park Ridge is facing several charges after police say he allegedly battered a CPD officer protecting people protesting in the 1900 block of W. Maypole on 8/19. Bongiorno allegedly tackled an officer, resulting in a concussion to the officer.
  

That's the WGN report, but our commenters seem to know even more:

• Who's Nick's mommy? Why it's Nancy Bongiorno, Taft High School Special Education/Civics teacher.
  
  Mommy is also a CPS Residency violator, a shifty one at that after buying and getting a Homeowner's Exemption for her own place in Park Ridge in 2021. See, Mommy Nancy Bongiorno doesn't have a residency waiver and isn't grandfathered-in with the old policy either.
  
  In the past, Nancy gave CPS her parent's address in Chicago as her primary residence when she and her three kids lived in a home owned by her now divorced husband. It should be four kids as ole' Nancy got knocked up by another CPS teacher (Vincent Rociola) while she was still married and separated from her kid's father and both Nancy and Vincent were teachers at Prosser Career Academy High School in 2008 or 2009.
  
  Nancy resigned from CPS and then popped up at Bridge Elementary School as a Resource Teacher while faking living in Chicago. CPS OIG rarely investigates residency violators, so Nancy was free to keep on lying where she lives and recently she was teaching Civics/Special Education at Taft HS at $104K per year.
  
  Rociola was sued by Bongiorno for child support on the lust child and he has three more years to pay on that. Since Rociola can only be garnished by one creditor, the City of Chicago has to wait to garnish him on over $3000 in parking, red light, and speed camera tickets.
  
  Rociola aka Rocaine was DNH'd by CPS in 2017 after testing positive for cocaine and misappropriation of students' driver Education money while a PE Teacher at Lake View High School. This after he was cut from Sullivan High School and displaced from Prosser for failing to have his PE, Health, Driver Education, and Aquatics teaching credentials. Later, Rociola was fired by Acero Dela Cruz High School (CPS Charter) for not divulging he was a CPS employee under suspension when hired by Acero...you have to love those people doing the vetting.

There's probably a couple months worth of I-Team exclusives just following these teachers around and seeing where they actually live in violation of residency ordinances. Probably another couple months running names through various Court databases for stuff like this.

Crimesha Refuses Another Felony

Still the party of supporting criminals:

• A Wisconsin man caught carrying a gun near the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee was arrested Monday in Chicago after police saw him parked near the United Center on the first day of the Democratic Convention and later found him with a firearm.

  Despite being on the radar of the feds during both nominating events this year, Cook County prosecutors declined to charge Juan Pablo Zaldua-Vargas with a felony.

  Zaldua-Vargus, who holds a concealed-carry license in Wisconsin, faces only a misdemeanor gun charge, and he was released from custody pending a court date next month.

  A spokesperson for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office said the charging decision was informed by the fact that Zaldua-Vargas holds that license.

Correct us if we're wrong, but Illinois is the only state in the union that refuses to recognize out-of-state permits? No reciprocity at all, aside from the Retired Officer Carry Bill?

So how about persons passing through O'Hare and Midway checkpoints with a gun that was legal elsewhere? Are there potential lawsuits here?

Best Moment So Far

Anyone watching the speeches Tuesday night saw Mrs Obama say her parents were "...suspicious of folks who took more than they needed."

She and Sparklefarts are currently worth over $100 million, reside in a $26 million mansion in a community that is ninety-plus percent white and ranks among the top tenth-of-one-percent in value and have two other homes worth lower eight-digits.

She also held a job at the University of Chicago that was soooo important that after she left, they eliminated it to save money.

This entire convention is ridiculous virtue signaling.

The World is a Stage

At this point, it's just human sacrifice, correct?

• Planned Parenthood offered free vasectomies and medicinal abortions in an oversized van outside the Democratic National Convention on Monday, giving men the chance to get snipped in as little as 20 minutes – and grab a taco on their way out.

  The van, which will also operate on Tuesday, has two separate rooms where patients who filled out a registration form could get the procedure done. The organization had sent out a registration link on Thursday – and all 40 spots for the services were filled by Saturday.

  [...] Planned Parenthood planned on doing “about” ten vasectomies on Monday and a total of 25 medicated abortions throughout Monday and Tuesday, Dr. Colleen McNicholas, the chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood in the region, told The Post outside the truck on Monday.

On the bright side, quite a few less democratic voters in the future. 

Anyone know what kind of laws were waived to have this publicity stunt in town?

Impressive

Footage of the pro-pali marchers at the train station Tuesday night:

• drone footage link via X / Twitter
  

Larritorious is getting ready to take a victory lap after another day or so, but here's where the credit belongs - to the guys and gals holding this line and making this plan work.

Here Comes the Provocations

These are the ones looking for a fight and making sure they get one:

• Chicago’s run of peaceful rallies outside the Democratic National Convention came to an end Tuesday night when a group of protesters marched into a line of police, setting off a violent scrum on Madison Street outside one of the city’s major commuter rail stations. The protesters walked directly into a large group of police officials, four officers deep, around 7:30 p.m. The officers began to push them the other way and yelled, “Move back, move back.” Scuffles began to break out, and officers wearing helmets moved into the crowd.

  Video showed officers overwhelming some of the protesters, pushing them to the ground in an effort to secure the chaotic scene. Afterward, the demonstrators began to move east on Madison toward Canal Street, where hundreds of additional officers were waiting.

  A police supervisor eventually declared it an “unlawful assembly.” “This is an unpermitted event,” a supervisor declared on a bullhorn. “I am giving you a lawful order to disperse. If you do not disperse, you will be placed into custody by the Chicago Police Department.”

  Police could also be seen handing out pepper spray. It all happened near Ogilvie Transportation Center, where the demonstrators gathered to protest the Israeli consulate. Officers also allowed the group to march south toward Union Station.

  [...] A Chicago Sun-Times photographer witnessed police detain more than two dozen people throughout the night. A law enforcement source said eight people had been arrested as of 9:08 p.m. They were being transported to the Area 3 police headquarters at Belmont and Western avenues, where a defunct courtroom is being used to streamline mass arrest cases.

And as posted below, Crimesha will drop all charges shortly. Larritorious would be better off authorizing the Gas Teams and LRAD deployment, just to save the coppers wear and tear on their uniforms.

Stay safe.

ShotSpotter Over-Performs Again

Doing the job that citizens won't do - calling the cops:

• With just over a month to go before Mayor Brandon Johnson is slated to pull the plug on ShotSpotter, the gunfire detection system continues to help police find shooting victims that no one called 911 about and arrive at shooting scenes faster than if they had to wait for witnesses to call.

  Late Monday night, a man was shot and killed in an alley behind 4845 West West End in Austin. CPD said in a media statement that the 33-year-old had been shot multiple times in the face and arms. He did not survive.

  But the only reason Chicago police officers knew about the shooting was because they received a pin-point, accurate notification from ShotSpotter. Nobody called 911 about the shooting before police arrived, according to a source familiar with the case. Police dispatch records appear to confirm that information.

The citizens are so inured to gunfire that they don't even call the police when it happens. The dead guy would have laid there all night and most of the net day attracting flies, rodents and bad karma until someone found him on their way to buy dope....or the garbage men stumbled across him on Wednesday.

Don't Even Bother

Guess who is ignoring the Law and following the orders of her progressive master?

• Soros-backed Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx preemptively announced that she will not prosecute protesters who are “peaceful” at the Democratic National Convention (DNC).

  This sudden turn toward leniency runs against what she claimed in April, Wirepoints reported.

  Despite the attention to “peaceful” protesters, Foxx also announced ahead of time that she will not prosecute anyone arrested for misdemeanors — such as disorderly conduct, public demonstration, unlawful gathering, criminal trespass to state-supported land, and even curfew charges.

  The policy is not new, though. The prosecutor, who was given a $408,000 donation from a George Soros super PAC in 2016, has maintained this policy at least since the riots in 2020 and has released hundreds of protesters over the years — even those who perpetrated property damage.

  Despite this announcement of leniency, Foxx was talking tougher in April when she told the Chicago Tribune that her past policy, confirmed in a November 15 memo, would be set aside and hinted that protesters could expect to be arrested.

We really need a recall mechanism for elected officials who refuse to do their jobs. And a charge of "official misconduct" for intentionally misrepresenting their campaign platforms just to get elected.

Won't Get Fooled Again

The UN has declared a "health emergency" and is encouraging people to get another vaccine....just in time for the election season. Pardon our skepticism, but unless you're engaging in high risk sexual practices with a high risk individual (like one of those panty-fa jags or an "Alphabet Person for Palestine!") your chances of getting this virus are pretty much zero.

In any event, some wisdom in case Groot shows up to give Conehead advice on violating your bodily integrity:

• Mandated ———->Not a law. 
  Decree —————>Not a law. 
  Requested———->Not a law. 
  Recommended—->Not a law. 
  Ordinance———->Not a law. 
  Compulsory———>Not a law.
  

Do not be deceived…again.

Rumor of Weapons?

Anyone hear this rumor?

• Orland Park PD found a largish "cache" of weapons in a house overnight. The downtown protestors are hugely over-represented in Orland Park

Might be nothing....as we said, rumor.

Complaint Tents

A rumor from a few days ago with numerous commentators claiming we were making $hit up.

The IAD part is true:

There shelters are outside of Malcolm X college we're told, with a second one outside of Belmont and Western to take complaints from I-bonded arrestees. Supposedly there's a third at the south side processing Area.

Now who has pictures of the COPA tents? Again, we're told there are up to ten of them scattered around downtown and the UC for taking complaints about coppers who mean mug protestors or anyone making a snide remark.

Be Our Guest, Be Our Guest

Illegals are being housed in hotels across the region. Air conditioning, maid service, probably a continental breakfast laid out every morning.

The almost 300 cops who arrived here to assist CPD?

• they're sleeping at the Academy on cots.

That building is fifty years old and the AC only works sporadically. We've also heard the amenities leave a lot to be desired.

The National Guard (between 60 and 120 personnel) is deployed out of 35th Street, but get this:

• those guys and gals are sleeping on the 3rd floor (the bedbug floor) at HQ.
  

The air conditioning at the Armory went out and internal temperatures soared to about 100 degrees, so they've been camping there ever since. 

There was food being delivered from military contractors and the Guard, being military types, offered to share with the civilians working at HQ. The civilians started walking out with entire trays of food, and the guardsmen had to post security in the media room to restrict access to their own food.

GSR Positive? (UPDATE)

Everyone wants answers, even before the investigation is complete:

• The family of a Plainfield teen fatally shot by Chicago police early Sunday are looking for answers.

  Alex Angel Cortez, 16, left Sunday afternoon to go to a party with some friends in the Pilsen neighborhood. His father, Fulgencio Cortez, said he never imagined the teen wouldn’t return home.

This is the on-view "Shots Fired" and cops are confronted by two individuals with guns. We're told there were a bunch of holes in the squad car and Officers returned fire, killing one gunman and recovering the weapon while discovering two shooting victims in a car nearby.

• Near where officers heard the gunshots, a man and a woman were found inside a vehicle with multiple gunshot wounds. They were taken to area hospitals in critical condition.

  Police had no update on their conditions Monday.

  Officials determined Alex was one of the gunmen who opened fire on the vehicle, according to police.

You know how "officials" make that determination?

• witnesses and video footage;
  
• gun in the pocket or hand of the dead guy;
• spare ammo and magazines on the person;
• gun shot residue tests on the hands of the shooter

Anyone want to guess how many of the above were positive? 

Parenting 101 tip - if you move your kid out of the $hithole to avoid gang influences, you probably shouldn't let him go back there to visit the exact influences you moved him away from. 

UPDATE: And the family has a lawyer already. Someone smells a lottery ticket.

UPDATE: Seems Alex has an ongoing juvie court case for....UUW.

Standardized Tests are "Racist"

Stacy Davis-Gates of the CTU (Indiana Division) has a message for all the minority students and parents about how poorly their kids are doing on standardized tests: (paywalled article)

• Chicago parents have been wondering when Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates was going to address the disastrous reading and math scores in Chicago public schools. Now she has.

  In an interview in early August with Chicago radio news station WVON 1690, Ms. Gates was asked to respond to the union’s critics who are concerned that so many of Chicago’s students aren’t reading or doing math at grade level. Her novel answer: The tests are racist so they should be ignored.

  “The way in which we think about learning and think about achievement is really and truly based on testing, which at best is junk science rooted in white supremacy,” Ms. Gates said.

Not that teachers suck - it's the testing.

On a completely unrelated note, you've seen the last of CPS minority graduates advancing to Johns Hopkins University, one of the top medical schools in the world:

• Johns Hopkins University will resume requiring ACT or SAT scores for undergraduate admissions to the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Whiting School of Engineering, starting with applicants seeking entry for the fall 2026 semester. For students applying to enter Hopkins in fall 2025, who may face time constraints preparing for or accessing the SAT or ACT, the submission of test scores will be encouraged but not required.

  Hopkins adopted a temporary test-optional policy in 2020 due to impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic, including severely limited access to testing. The submission of standardized test scores was made optional for applicants through the entering class of fall 2026.

So we can assume that Johns Hopkins University is now the most racist higher education establishment in existence.....so far. You can be sure other universities are re-implementing standardized testing to find actual qualified candidates for their degrees.

Touring Last Stops

The other day we said that Bill Ayers' grave is one of the ones we'll be visiting after his demise and "watering the grass" as a fitting tribute. 

Someone reminded us about another scumbag owed a visit - Rep. Dan Rostenkowski. Turns out he's buried in Niles, not too far from Papa Bear Halas, so maybe we can leave some flowers at one spot while we leave some other material at the other.

Anyone have a list of other graves worthy of a "visit" as we tour the places we never got around to during our careers.

Perimeter Breach(es) - Open Post

We won't even try to describe what we're seeing on various feeds, but the order to mask up has been given and numerous columns of cops are headed to the UC,

Are we going to see tear gas deployed?

We'll update as possible. 

Stay safe.

UPDATE: Four arrests so far, perimeter is re-secured and the media is saying it's just a small group of the thousands marching.

Private Highway

So that giant construction project on the Kennedy that was going to take three years? First the in-bound lanes in 2023, then the reversible lanes in 2024, then the outbound lanes in 2025.

Looks like they got the reversibles finished early this year:

• Hey SCC, coming home today and guess what's open for limousines and VIP buses only, escorted by police? The Kennedy reversible lanes! ISP escorting from the junction and to the downtown hotels.
  

Probably only for low priority delegates because we can't see the Secret Service isolating themselves in a limited access highway....and some of those changes in roadway elevation angle are way more than a sloped roof in Pennsylvania.

Night One

A protest that was supposed to be about "reproductive rights" morphed into a palestinian march, meaning the permit was probably granted under false pretenses. Expect a lot of this type of democrat "magic" the rest of the week.

As of this writing, almost everything has appeared mostly peaceful and we have no real comments to the contrary. There have been a few "incidents" at outlying events welcoming delegates and such, but not at the highly secure venues. 

There was a picture circulating around various social media sites of pallets of bricks, and a couple of high-profile professional media types fell for the scam and that gave it oxygen. CWB - an amateur media outlet - determined these were pictures from Dallas four years ago.

Tomorrow marks the official DNC opening and the start of speeches by big names. If anything is going to be disrupted, expect it then. That National Guard is on standby at 35th and Michigan, but Fata$$ doesn't want to be embarrassed into deploying them. It might cost him a Cabinet position.

Feel free to post info here as you're able. We'll do our best to update things.

Shades of Riots Past

Remember years ago when we were doing 12 hour shifts and longer for NATO and the 2020 riots? And the city pretended to care about the cops and sent pallets and pallets of snacks and water? 

And then, people noticed the water tasted funny and it was discovered the bottles were two or more years old, meaning the PCB plastics had been leeching into the water for months, perhaps years, exposing everyone to all sorts of health issues. And the snacks should also have been land filled years before. 

We're getting reports of the same thing at Sox Park yesterday:

• ....can you immediately warn the troops not to eat those sandwiches provided by the department. Today, several guys from my company opened the sandwich bags only to find the entire or even parts of the sandwich to be moldy. Who knows how many officers didn’t bother to check the sandwiches before consuming them.

Good times, right?