Refused Promotions

A number of comments saying that up to five individuals have turned down the sergeant promotion that just got posted.

While individual reasons may vary, we've never heard of more than two people actually turning any promotion down at one time.

If you're making a pile more money with OT, we understand. If you don't want to supervise under the current political regime, we get that. 

Anyone know what's up?

Interesting Opinion

You have no Rights as a police officer?

• A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit in which the union representing front-line Chicago police officers accused the city’s police oversight agency, COPA, of flawed investigations that violate due process and equal treatment rights.

  U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso found that the officers have no constitutional right to a fair and impartial investigation. Furthermore, Alonso found that none of the officers have suffered employment consequences because they either successfully defeated COPA’s recommended suspensions through arbitration or their arbitration decisions are still pending.

We understand the second part of that paragraph - if you've suffered no harm, you don't really have a case to bring before the courts.

However, "no constitutional right to a fair and impartial investigation"?

Look, we get it that when on-duty, in uniform, as the lowest functionary of government, you have very limited Rights, like no Freedom of Speech and your peace cannot be violated. That's understood.

But no right to a fair and impartial investigation? What kind of message is that sending to everyone, police and citizens alike? In this age of weaponized law-fare, the process becomes the punishment (OT denials, restricted promotions, etc), and the process sucks ass.

SAFE-T Act Strikes Again

You know what cash bail was good for? Getting people (and folks) to show up in court. 

If there was a chance they'd either get most of their money back or they'd forfeit it all for missing court, you can bet they'd show up. Cash is a great motivator - it's why so many people do overtime.

But....:

• Two adults arrested on minor charges during a “teen takeover” in Streeterville late last month failed to show up for their court dates, Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) said Monday evening. A judge has now issued warrants for their arrests.

  Swarms of people filled the streets near Columbus and Illinois on the evening of March 28. It wasn’t long before a 15-year-old boy got shot in front of the NBC tower. An 18-year-old was stabbed during a takeover-related fight in the Loop, too.

  Among those arrested as the situation boiled over were 18-year-old Evan Jackson and Trinity Barrett, 20. They were both charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct after CPD arrested them about a block apart around 9:40 p.m, according to court records.

  Barrett was released from the Near North (18th) District station with instructions to appear in court on April 24. According to Hopkins and court records, she no-showed. Jackson was also released from the station. He was given a court date for April 25. And, like Barrett, records show he didn’t show up, either.

  Judge Donald Panarese, Jr. signed failure to appear warrants for both of them.

So now, more scarce taxpayer money has to be spent on either tracking them down or waiting for a random traffic stop (increasingly unlikely) to get them back in front of a judge, along with processing, a baloney sandwich or two, transport to court, etc. 

Most of which could have been avoided with a $100 bail these two probably would have shown up for, even if court costs took half of it.

Insurrection!!!

Guess who is encouraging protests and disruption?

• Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called for “mass protests” and “disruptions” against Republicans during a speech Sunday to his fellow Democrats.

  Pritzker made the call for political mobilization at the New Hampshire Democratic Party’s McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner, The Hill reported.

  The governor claimed that he’s never called for such political mobilization before.

  “These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace,” Pritzker said. “They have to understand that we will fight their cruelty with every megaphone and microphone that we have.”

We've been told for years now, by every mainstream media outlet and every prominent democrat, that this is rebellion, sedition and insurrection. And it's all punishable by prison, even death.

Fata$$ wants some sort of a war, so stock up on ammo.

(additional link to the speech itself)

Deportation News

Has anyone been following the news lately? 

Specifically the deportations? 

Even more specifically, the children (two or three at last count) who are anchor babies, but were deported along with their illegal parent(s)?

The democrats are attempting to manufacture outrage that American citizens were deported, conveniently omitting the fact that these are all children, under the age of four, whose mothers' were asked by authorities if they wanted their children to stay behind in the US. What mother would want to be separated from their child? All went back with their mothers.

But anyone with an ounce of sense and the memory of something larger than a gnat might recall this:

Back in 2000, when Slick Willie was in charge and Reno (piss be upon her) was Attorney General, democrats couldn't wait to send armed agents to deport a minor child, whose mother died getting him to America from Cuba. We guess they were afraid that since he was Cuban, he might end up voting Republican when he grew up, so back to Castro's Caribbean commie $hithole he went.

You can argue that they were just returning him to his father. Now try justifying that today, where dems are demanding that the Administration separate children from their parents. Good luck.

Musical Chairs

Kass takes a boatload of shots at Illinois pols, most pointedly Fata$$:

• What of the Gov. of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, who wants to become president?

  He’s much too fat to climb up on a horse. He eats so much and has gained so much weight so that he broke his own leg just by standing on it. True story.

  But his magic talent is that he’s run Illinois—the worst governed state in American history—deeply into the ground.

  And still he wants more. He’s a glutton, stuffing himself, seeking power and more power.

We had forgotten about the broken leg.

In the meantime, Kass describes a particularly interesting political season in the coming year as everyone positions themselves for the midterms.

Divestment NOW!

In light of Fata$$'s calls to boycott El Salvador, a helpful reader pointed this out:

• Immerse yourself in the vibrant culture of El Salvador from your stay at Hyatt Centric San Salvador, located in the center of the city’s best shopping district. Our boutique hotel boasts luxurious rooms and suites that feature works from local artists and floor-to-ceiling views of Antiguo Cuscatlán, the atrium or the mountains.

It certainly seems hypocritical to call for pension funds and state businesses to forgo profits at the demand of a crooked politician (un-indicted co-conspirator A; Toilet-gate; unlawful Executive COVID Orders; etc) while his family rakes in Salvadoran Colóns hand-over-pudgy-fist.

But then, what would anyone expect from a a$$hole who's been crooked since birth?

Darwin Award

St Louis:

• A St. Louis woman was killed on Saturday night after she slid off the roof of a Cadillac Escalade while twerking and was run over by a St. Louis fire truck heading to an emergency.

  The woman, identified as Nyla Simmons, was killed at the intersection of South Compton and Chouteau around 11:30 PM.

  Nila slid off the roof when the Escalade turned left. She hit the cement and was then run over by the fire truck.

It would take someone with a heart of stone not to laugh at this....and we don't have that heart.

::snicker::

This Sounds Fun Actually

If you can't have fun at work, you aren't trying hard enough:

• Law enforcement are supposed to be people you can trust. But what if I told you getting arrested has turned into something of a game for some Bozeman Police officers? Friday afternoon, a press conference was held at the Bozeman Public Safety Center where this significant issue was discussed.

  “Two teams of patrol officers were engaged in a bingo competition. Where success in the game hinged on whether they engaged on actions listed on the bingo card,” says Bozeman Police Chief Jim Veltkamp, who led the press conference.

Too far? Only if you're manufacturing crime to win the game. Bozeman is handing out suspensions for unprofessional behavior, but no citizens got railroaded for anything.

But it wouldn't be difficult to find a few dozen situations to fill out a Bingo card and have a little competition on the watch:

• find "X" City sticker violations - those are everywhere. In fact, you could probably make up half-a-dozen boxes on the Bingo card for assorted violations, which would just be doing your job;
• same with a few movers if you do traffic stops;
• respond to "xyz" call - provides backup to co-workers and camaraderie on the watch;
• use a certain phrase on the radio - nothing dirty or a violation of FCC rules, but something funny, like a movie quote;
• scavenger hunt type stuff, legal and harmless, like maybe an autograph from the homeless guy that lives under a certain bridge;

We used to do stupid crap like that all the time. We had a list of license plates to run over the air that ran 40 or 50 pages (to piss off dispatchers), some that came back to funny names (yeah, even that one) and another plate that had been programed into LEADS as the Bluesmobile that most dispatchers memorized so they wouldn't be caught reading it over the air. 

It used to be easier to have fun.

Egghead Solves Crime

The University of Chicago is commonly known as "the place fun goes to die." 

But now, a professor claims to have discovered why certain neighborhoods are more dangerous than others:

• “I think it’s really useful first to recognize ... that gun violence in America is not what we all think from reading the news and watching entertainment and watching ‘The Wire.’ We all tend to think of gun violence as being basically gang wars over drug-selling turf — deliberate, premeditated, it’s got an objective, has some sort of economic motivation.

  “That’s not what most shootings in America are. Most shootings ... are actually garden-variety arguments that escalate and spin out of control and end in tragedy because someone’s got a gun. And it turns out that there are features of these two neighborhoods that lead arguments to be more likely to happen in Greater Grand Crossing and more likely to escalate and end in tragedy.

Got that? "...garden variety arguments that escalate..." and end up in shootings "...because someone has a gun." Golly, the next step is disarming everyone, right? Because that worked everywhere, to the point that Illinois (and other states) don't even have to jail and imprison people for violent crimes.

He's touting a lot of the same old crap that hundreds of lib-tards always seem to believe in:

• “Make even better use of data. There is some predictable structure for when and where shootings are most likely to happen. And you can use data to make sure that we’ve got police officers in the right places in the right times, to be eyes on the street.

  “And we can think of doing things that you wouldn’t even think of as gun violence — zoning commercial so that you have more foot traffic in a neighborhood. We can see in studies that can reduce violence rates by 20% or 30% in the area around where you’ve zoned a store.

  “Cleaning up vacant lots and turning them into pocket parks — seems on its face like a huge distraction from the gun violence problem, but we have really good evidence out of Philadelphia that shows that can reduce the number of shootings around that area by like 20% or 30% by bringing more people out into public.

Yeah, "bringing more people out into public" just provides more backstops for stray rounds, especially in the Age of the Glock Switch where it used to be between six and a dozen rounds at a scene, and now it's dozens, even hundreds.

And putting "police officers in the right places in the right times" might require some sort of automated detection system - like walkie talkies on sticks or something to get cops to the scenes faster. 

We're old(er) and we had nearly three decades on the street. Shootings are about very few things:

• money
• territory
• "respect"
• women
• historical revenge for past wrongs

And sometimes, a motherf#$%er just needs to be shot. Has that changed?

Air Quality Warning

Not only is the Chicago political climate poison, now the air is deadly, too?

• Chicago was recently reported to have been swamped with toxic air chemicals, but people are divided on whether it really happened or not.

  A cloud of hazardous air can be seen via air quality maps, hanging over the entire Chicago metropolitan area Wednesday afternoon, as readings reached 500 on the Air Quality Index (AQI). This score is the worst it gets on Google Maps, signaling extremely hazardous air quality.

  Chicago was recently found to have some of the worst air quality in the US, with a particularly bad rating in relation to particle pollution. This refers to tiny solid or liquid air particles that people can inhale.

Yeah, we know it's not the most trustworthy of sources, and no one checked to see if Fata$$ had ordered half-a-dozen White Castle Crave Cases that evening, but if we can't have fun on the blog....

Boycott El Salvador?

A lot of drama for.....what exactly?

• Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) is asking his state’s pension funds and procurement agencies to examine any investments or contracts they have with companies in El Salvador, the first step toward a possible boycott of the country for assisting President Donald Trump in defying court orders on the treatment of migrants.

  In a statement, Pritzker indicated the moves were in response to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’s willingness to help Trump deny due process to hundreds of migrants deported to El Salvador and now held in a notoriously dangerous maximum-security prison with no potential of release.

If state pensions are investing a significant percentage of money in El Salvador, then a bunch of them need to be audited and the managers jailed.

And remember, Porkulous is throwing his (considerable) weight behind an effort to free a gang-tattooed, wife-beating, human trafficker who had a deportation order in effect from six years ago while tens of thousands of Illinoisans flee this blue-state-$hithole.

Good Question

Hey media:

• Did they arrest her nephew yet for the MacArthur Restaurant Shooting that took place on 06 April 2025 or are we giving him a pass? He’s the dope slanging niece’s brother. I saw the AMC message, a sergeant in CPIC removed his information off of the seeking to identify bulletin. The cover-up has already begun. She’s still using her position to influence investigations involving her hood rat family members. The mayor and superintendent still believes that she’s the best candidate for First Deputy, although she can’t police her family members or manage her personal vehicle.

It certainly seems the long tradition of corrupt, crooked and compromised exempts continues unabated.

Told Ya So

This entire past three days has been more and more of this crap:

• The head of a civilian oversight commission complained Thursday that proposed changes to the Chicago Police Department’s controversial traffic stop policy would still allow drivers to be pulled over for minor traffic offenses.

  The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability said officers should be banned from making stops for certain violations, such as missing only a front license plate, a nonfunctioning headlight or loud music.

  “In a city [where] I can get robbed and it takes them an hour to show up on the scene ... why would we have police officers pulling people over for a light bulb on the top of their license plate?” asked commission president Anthony Driver.

Um....because it's against the f#$%ing law you ignorant dumbass? And as we pointed out the other day, ninety-two percent of these types of traffic stops end with, "Fix it and have a nice day." 

And guess what is revealed?

• The police department is struggling to get by with nearly 2,000 fewer officers than it had just a few years ago, which also motivated the commission’s stance.

And the big wave of retirements is beginning in May. Well over SIX HUNDRED have declared their intent to retire this year, and that doesn't count additional mandatory retirements, spur-of-the-moment fed up cops, lateral transfers, separations or unfortunate deaths. And remember, bosses only have to give thirty day's notice.

One aldercreature gets it:

• Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41st), a former police officer, argues that traffic stops can be effective in uncovering more serious crimes. He pushed back against the commission’s proposed limitations.

  “As you make your stops based on laws and somebody breaking those laws, other crimes are usually discovered at that time,” Napolitano told the Sun-Times. “It’s called good policing. You’re maintaining and monitoring the neighborhoods you’re sent to.”

But he used to be one of us.

This is the way it's going though:

• Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara said he attended two public sessions hosted by the commission but believes his feedback fell on “deaf ears.”

  “I say give them the city they want. ... Eliminate all of these pretextual traffic stops altogether,” Catanzara said. “Don’t stop nobody. Let’s stop getting guns off the street. Let’s stop getting armed robbers and aggravated battery offenders off the street, because that’s what a lot of these traffic stops lead to. Let’s just stop it all. No problem.”

Sounds familiar.

Charges

No bail....yet:

• The man charged with murder and arson in the death of Chicago Fire Department Capt. David Meyer “placed everyone in the area in danger that night,” a judge said Saturday during the suspect’s detention hearing in a courtroom packed with Meyer’s fellow firefighters.

  Charles K. Green, who lives near the fire scene in the 5400 block of West Potomac Avenue, faces murder and aggravated arson charges, Chicago police said. He was ordered held at a detention hearing Saturday by Judge Antara Nath Rivera.

  “What I have before me is a random event,” Rivera said. “It could have spread. ... [But] the defendant placed first responders in danger, which led to the demise of Captain Meyer. ... [Green] placed everyone in the area in danger that night.”

The evidence includes video and chemical residues of flammable liquids.

Among the crowd in the courtroom were a couple of politicians who have been on record prior to this as supporting First Responders, so their actions aren't just words.

Start keeping track of whomever advocates for bail and/or release.

Sergeant List

Thanks to whomever finally sent this over:

Congratulations to the deserving.

 

Interesting

He's got some inside info occasionally....and this one is a doozy!

We don't know how you (in particular) stop it Ja'Mal. You aren't backing any Republicans, though there are real grass root efforts in the community to break the plantation stranglehold dems have, and you're just another "progressive" moron begging for crumbs.

Let us know what you decide.

Here it Comes

Guess who's disappointed in the condition of Soldier Field?

• The Bears and the Chicago Park District have had a contentious tenant-landlord relationship for decades — and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s stalled push for a domed stadium adjacent to Soldier Field hasn’t changed a thing.

  That became crystal clear this week when newly appointed Chicago Park District Supt. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa fired off a testy response to Bears President Kevin Warren’s latest bill of particulars about conditions at Soldier Field — even as the team inches closer to building a new dome in Arlington Heights.

  In an April 16 letter to the park district, Warren wrote that the Bears have “experienced a litany of adverse issues with the physical condition of Soldier Field and its operations, which are due to the lack of routine maintenance and capital improvements.”

The draft is this weekend?

The announcement is alleged to be set for shortly after the draft.

The awarding of the first ever Chicago area Superbowl would be made in conjunction with the new stadium announcement.

Tick Tock Conehead.

Yoyo Rumors

Already demonstrating what a mistake this was:

• Yo-yo strikes again.
  
  One of her staff members had a few too many at her promotional party tonight and got a little loose with some gossip. I was an ear shot away. claims that yo-yo wants to get rid of the honor guard because they just dumped (about too?) dump a clouted member. Yo-yo tried to intervene and got her ass handed too her by snelling and now she wants payback. Apparently snelling told yo-yo to sit her ass down and drop it but you know how these entitled merit hacks are. This staffer was talking a whole lot of shit for someone so connected. Of all the battles she wants to pick on her first month, she attacks the honor guard? Talk about tasteless

There's also another rumors making the rounds about a certain....incident....that took place at Yoyo's promotional party. Anyone have the info?

Arson Induced Homicide

Detectives are now investigating the death of Captain Meyer as a homicide:

• A Chicago firefighter was killed while battling a West Side garage fire Wednesday morning, CFD said.

  It was a difficult day for the Chicago Fire Department and the family of Captain David Meyer as they mourn the loss of the first responder.

  Chicago Fire Department investigators said the garage fire that led to the tragedy was started by someone igniting the contents of a trash bin. The development comes as Captain Meyer is being remembered as a hard working, decades-long public servant.

If and when charges are filed, will there be bail granted? 

That Was Quick

Just yesterday, we posted about Traffic Stops being outlawed.

Today, CPD opened it's "Public Input" website to see how badly the public wants Police to stop enforcing the Law and take "fetal" to a whole new level:

• Over a year ago, the Independent Monitor overseeing the Consent Decree between the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois recommended that traffic stops be included in the Consent Decree. Any changes to CPD’s traffic stop policy would be subject to oversight by the Independent Monitor and the federal judge overseeing the Consent Decree case.

  Per City Ordinance, the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA) has jurisdiction over CPD general orders that are not a part of the Consent Decree. The Commission consistently stated that if traffic stops were to be included in the Consent Decree, it would need to play an important role in shaping the policy.

  If adopted into the Consent Decree, this would place any changes to CPD’s traffic stop policy under the oversight of the Independent Monitor and the federal judge overseeing the Consent Decree case. However, traffic stops have not yet been formally included in the Consent Decree. Doing so would require an agreement between the City of Chicago and the Illinois Attorney General, and the approval of the judge in the Consent Decree case.

Hop over the link up top. When you get to the site, you can read through the first document - it's a four page bit of fluff....with a couple interesting statistics:

• 2023 Total Traffic Stops - 535,166
• 2024 Total Traffic Stops - 293,150 

And:

• 2023 Verbal Warnings - 516,141 (96%); Citations Issued - 19,025 (4%)
• 2024 Verbal Warnings - 269,038 (92%); Citations Issued - 24,112 (8%)

And then:

• 2023 Searches - 4,725 (0.88%); Contraband Found - 3,705 (78%)
• 2024 Searches - 3,561 (1.21%); Contraband Found - 2,684 (75%)

Gee, 96 times out of 100, CPD let people go without even a citation.

Gosh, a two year average shows CPD searched cars around 1% of the time.

Golly, but when they do, CPD finds contraband 3 times out of 4.

It certainly doesn't seem like cops are picking on anyone....or picking the wrong people, contrary to the stories told by the media, activists and democrats (but we repeat ourselves).

If you go down the the third document, you get the CCPSA report with a whole list of stops that they are proposing CPD stop doing, including missing / improperly attached plates, expired plates, burned out headlights, loud music violations, turn signals and no seat belts among others, ALL of which are currently against Illinois Law.

You can leave comments. Not that they're going to actually read or take them into consideration, so go nuts. The decision has already been made and the death spiral committed to. Strap in.

First Out of the Gate

She was first in line to buy weed when Illinois legalized the sale of marijuana. Now she's first up for Dickless Turban's spot:

• Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton on Thursday became the first prominent Democrat to launch a bid for Sen. Dick Durbin’s Senate seat, painting herself as a new leader who can speak for the “working people” and help stand up to President Donald Trump.

  Stratton’s announcement in an early morning two-minute video comes just a day after Durbin announced he’s not seeking reelection for the Senate seat he has held since 1996.

  Stratton wrote on X, “I’m Juliana Stratton, and I’m running for United States Senate.”

If someone had asked us a week ago who the Lt Gov of Illinois was, we'd have had to look it up because she is pretty much just a DEI hire that didn't register with us. 

We're actually wondering if all the weed she smokes (or consumes via gummies) around Fata$$ contributed to his obvious Twinkie dependency. Maybe when the celeb endorsements start coming around, Snoop will be spotted in Springfield.

RIP CFD Captain Meyer

Early morning tragedy:

• After nearly 30 years with the Chicago Fire Department, Capt. David Meyer died “doing what he loved to do” Wednesday morning after a roofing beam fell on him during a garage blaze in Austin on the West Side, an emotional fire commissioner told reporters.

  [...] Chicago Fire Fighters Union Local 2 said Meyer, 54, joined the department in October 1996. “He was a loyal member doing his job ... a dangerous job,” Patrick Cleary, president of Local 2, told the Chicago Sun-Times. “Our condolences to his family and co-workers.”

  Larry Langford, fire department spokesman, said he was assigned to Truck 29 located the station at 3509 S. Lowe. “It’s a sad day for CFD and Chicago,” Langford posted on X

  Just after 4 a.m., Meyer was among those who responded to a garage fire in the 5500 block of West Crystal Street when the garage collapsed, [...]. “It had to be a roofing beam, there’s nothing there except a few cross beams in the roof, so something got him from above,” Langford said.

It's been over a year since a Firefighter died in the Line of Duty and a reminder that even what appears to be routine can turn tragic in an instant.

Deepest sympathies to his family, friends and co-workers.

Traffic Stops to be Outlawed

It's coming:

• Brian Ramson, one of the district councilors for the Chicago Police Department’s Harrison District on the West Side, moved to Chicago in 2013. Since then, he said, he’s been pulled over by police roughly 50 times — about four of those coming after he was sworn in less than two years ago.

  A search of Cook County court records suggests Ramson — a physicist at Fermilab who is Black — has never been issued a ticket, let alone arrested.

  And he may not be alone. Law enforcement officials are quick to note the thousands of guns recovered by Chicago police officers during traffic stops each year, but civil rights activists and residents of predominantly Black and Latino communities have long called the Police Department’s traffic stops pretextual — using possible minor violations as a means to try to uncover more serious criminal activity.

You don't get pulled over fifty times in twelve years without driving like an asshole, no matter what color you are.

And "pretextual" stops are perfectly legal when documented correctly. The Legislature deemed certain actions or lack of certain visible features, (i.e. plates, mirrors, lights, etc) to be sufficient Probable Cause for a stop. That an individual didn't receive a citation is a testament to the leniency and professional discretion of the Police as a whole.

• Last week, Ramson was the first speaker during the fifth and final listening session to solicit feedback for the Police Department’s forthcoming general order related to traffic stops. CPD within days will submit the first draft of the new general order that will likely change the rules governing when police officers are permitted to pull over a motorist.

  As he spoke, Ramson urged two members of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability to “really approach the situation with … the perspective that emphasizes the people who have the, I guess, the quietest voices.”

You mean, "the people who obey the law, maintain their vehicles, and don't drive like assholes"?

This mope is one of the District oversight people elected last year and he "represents" that bastion of Law and Order known as the 011th District. Prepare for an outrageous document that hamstrings every form of traffic stop known to mankind and a proven tool for curbing gun trafficking, dope dealing and drive-by shootings.

Remember, this is what they want and what they voted for. Let them have it, good and hard.

Bye Bye Dick

Remember this is the dickhead who once compared US troops to nazis, and Illinois voters never held him responsible for his slander:

• U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin announced in a video message Wednesday that he will not seek a sixth term in office.

  Durbin (D-Illinois) was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996 and has been reelected four times, most recently in 2020. The East St. Louis native began his political career after getting elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982 representing the district that covers Springfield.

  Durbin, 80, currently serves as the minority whip in the Senate and is the longest serving senator in Illinois’ history.

Which is shameful beyond compare.

Now we'll have to deal with eighteen months of Fata$$, Crimesha and lord knows who else jockeying for a chance to disgrace Illinois even further.

Quit Whining Dart

Dart's people are bitching about the jail getting busy?

• Early in the morning outside Cook County Jail, a group of new detainees stepped out of a Chicago police wagon and walked bleary-eyed into the bright sunlight before lining up inside against a brick wall. Brought in from the police districts, the men were among the newest bookings to the jail, where they would wait until a judge ruled on whether they would be admitted or released while their charges were pending.

  And the jail, busy during the early morning hours as police brought in overnight arrestees and deputies shuttled detainees to court appearances, may only grow more bustling: After a decline following statewide bail reform — and years of reductions prior to that — the county’s jail population has begun to tick up once again.

  In an internal report obtained by the Tribune via a public records request, the Cook County sheriff’s office found that the average daily jail population has risen by about 12% in recent months, reaching its highest level in eight months at the end of March. The report also found sharp increases in detention for some charge types for which State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke has implemented policy changes.

Oh no! The easy days of Crimesha are over! The State's Attorney is actually pursuing and approving criminal charges!!!

Shut the f#$% up. You know what they're bitching about?

• When Burke took office in early December, the jail’s population was around 5,200, having increased slightly at the end of Foxx’s term, according to data from the sheriff’s office. As of Friday, the population had grown to just over 5,600.

You know what the jail population was back in the 1980sand 90s? Over 10,000 with some summer weekends ballooning to 12,000. The overcrowding was so bad, they were stuffing bunk beds into the gymnasiums and sticking 1,000 in there, and those were just the low level criminals who'd be walking out Monday morning. Assorted Federal courts fined the sheriff's office tens-of-thousands per day for the crowding issues. 

Fifty-six-hundred is nothing....if you had been running the jail properly.

Blue City $hitholes

So this came out of Los Angeles on Monday:

• Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass released a proposed budget on Monday that would eliminate a nearly $1 billion financial gap by cutting more than 2,700 city positions — about 1,650 of them through layoffs.…

  The $14 billion spending plan, which covers the 2025-26 fiscal year, would provide funding for scores of new hires at the fire department, three months after the Palisades fire destroyed thousands of homes and killed 12 people.…

  At the Los Angeles Police Department, more than 400 workers would be targeted for layoffs, all of them civilians, according to figures prepared by city budget officials. The number of police officers would continue on its gradual downward trajectory, with new hires failing to keep pace with attrition.

Usually, Chicago steals ideas from New York and implements them here (badly). 

Conehead however, is looking at the Los Angeles model:

• With a $1.12 billion budget shortfall and $3 billion more in federal funds on the chopping block, Mayor Brandon Johnson on Monday cracked the door open to the prospect of layoffs and service cuts that he has previously ruled out.

  “We will have to deal with the realities of the billions of dollars that are being threatened by the federal government. That’s a different scenario than we were under before,” Johnson said as he signed an executive order establishing a working group to advise him on ways to confront the city’s fiscal challenges.

  “But I am confident that the collective groups of the city of Chicago will stand firm in our values to ensure that we are investing in people — but we also have to make serious considerations based upon the Trump takeover,” he said.

Maybe he should look at some cost cutting before layoffs?

• like that half-a-billion Trump made Conehead spend on illegal aliens....oh wait, that was Biden;
• or how about that 1.25 million every aldercreature gets for ward projects....something that ought to be covered in normal operating costs in case the alderassholes give "bonuses" to connected employees - who donate a portion right back to the aldercreature;
• maybe close a few dozen under-utilized schools;
• re-vamp the parade and festival season - no funding equals no event;
  
• or the fake "consent decree," which isn't really a consent decree as the Federal government isn't funding those any more (and never funded this one at all). The entire construct is "overseen" by a retired judge, approving fake goals, and diverting hundreds of million for the next forty years.

Hiring isn't keeping up with attrition in any department and maintenance is non-existent - look at the fire apparatus that isn't working and may actually be out of compliance with national standards. 

There's plenty of room for cuts before layoffs.

What the ?!??!

A recruit with dope....

....and this?

Seriously?

And what's this rumor out of 018 about an officer becoming a Jehovah's Witness and claiming she can't carry a gun any more? That's part of the job you applied for, and if you cannot meet that qualification then you need to resign or be separated. 

The Department has separated tens of dozens of others who couldn't carry weapons due to medical conditions or legal issues. Allowing someone this "work-around" would open up an entire can of worms.

Migration Underway!

Spring is here and the geese are headed back north.

And so are some other critters:

• SCC,

  That bedbug infestation that the Department can't seem to get rid of? The bugs have made it to the 4th floor now. It's only a matter of time before they're up on 5.

This has been going on for how many years now?

Wheels Grind Slowly

The Slum Times will cover this one for some odd reason:

• A Dolton police officer is accused of fraudulently receiving thousands of dollars in federal Paycheck Protection Program loans for his Off Duty Security business.

  William Frederick Reed of Hazel Crest was charged Monday with providing false statements to the federal Small Business Administration, bankruptcy fraud, concealment or destruction of bankruptcy records, failure to file a tax return and perjury on tax returns.

  PPP was a federal loan program implemented by the SBA to provide financial relief to small businesses and nonprofits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But they won't look into the dozens of teachers, high ranking CPD exempts, or many dozens of government officials.

"Not My Pants!"

At the Academy, a training scenario got a little too real....and then it turned into a whole bunch of stupid:

• A Chicago Police Department recruit was taken into custody after another recruit found bags of real crack cocaine in his pants pocket during a narcotics arrest training scenario, according to an internal report reviewed by CWBChicago.

  Upon being confronted about the eight baggies of crack found in his cargo pants pocket, the 24-year-old allegedly replied, “These aren’t my pants.”

  According to the report, around 10:30 a.m. Monday, a trainer gave the recruit a small baggie decorated with blue stars that contained simulated heroin for “scenario based training involving narcotics related offenses.”  Another recruit was instructed to perform a custodial search while the trainer observed and critiqued his performance, the report said.

  While searching the subject’s cargo pants, the recruit conducting the search found a clear knotted baggie containing four small zip baggies decorated with green dollar signs, each containing suspected crack cocaine, according to the report.

  Knowing that the phony drugs provided for training were in a blue-starred baggie, the trainer asked the trainee what the knotted baggie contained. “That’s nothing, that’s just garbage,” the recruit allegedly replied.

How many times have we made those jokes? 

• "This isn't my car." 
• "That ain't my gun." 
• "Those aren't my pants."

And here it is, happening in reality. Here's the arrest report narrative (click for larger picture):

Truly unfortunate is who he claims the pants actually belong to. Now there's going to be a lengthy IAD investigation.

Sergeant Class Delayed?

What's going on at HQ?

• Wait till you hear about the scandal brewing up at 35th involving the most recent merit promotions. It’s all centered around [LR]. She really shit the bed this time. She’s the same clown who drafted that amc message about the $250 fine for ethics training a year back.
  

Rumors of "lost" merit packages that were found, then lost again along with dozens of Captain applications tossed for spelling and grammar errors.

Have they read their own AdMin Fax messages on a daily basis?

Not His First Rodeo

We have questions:

• A 57-year-old real estate agent from suburban Los Angeles has been arrested for the first time in his life — for allegedly having nearly 164 pounds of cocaine inside his luggage at Chicago Union Station.

  “Wow. That’s a lot. I mean, that’s a lot,” observed Judge Deidre Dyer during the first court appearance for the agent, Jerome Nalbandian.

  Prosecutors said Nalbandian was arrested at Union Station on April 13 with 75.15 kilos of suspected cocaine stuffed into four roller bags. That converts to 163.47 pounds.

  “I have so many questions, but I know I’m not going to get the answers to them today,” the befuddled judge commented. "I’m totally shocked it’s not a federal case,” the judge commented, “but whatever. Nobody comes from another state with that many kilos. I don’t know. But I guess somebody in the drug unit was just itching to file something.”

We don't know why this wouldn't be a Federal case either - interstate transport on the railroad? 

And no one, we mean no one, gets busted with 164 pounds of cocaine on their first trip. This guy has likely been doing this for a while, probably in smaller amounts before building up to larger shipments, certainly totaling thousands of pounds over the years. 

Oh....and he walked out of court under the Fata$$ SAFE-T Act.

Not a Bad Idea

This is a rather .... dark solution to an ongoing problem, but nothing we haven't suggested on occasion:

• A Southern California mayor is under fire for wanting to eliminate his city’s homeless population by giving them “all the fentanyl they want” — a shocking remark he reinforced by calling for a federal “purge.”

  Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris shared his controversial views during a Feb. 25 city council meeting when a resident took issue with the city’s attempt to address the homeless crisis by “enclosing” the unhoused at an abandoned golf course near a residential neighborhood.

  “What I want to do is give them free fentanyl,” Parris said as he interrupted the woman’s comments, according to footage of the meeting.

Our only objection to this would be spending taxpayer money on the fentanyl. Rather, the city should empty out whatever their Evidence and Recovered Property Section is and distribute the fentanyl before sending in the scoops to empty the parks. The more narcotics they have would be indicative of the size of the problem.

• “I made it very clear I was talking about the criminal element that were let out of the prisons that have now become 40 to 45% of what’s referred to as the homeless population,” Parris told the outlet.

  “They are responsible for most of our robberies, most of our rapes, and at least half of our murders,” he added, without offering proof or data to support his claims. “There’s nothing that we can do for these people.”

Long time readers will know we have steadfastly advocated for discontinuing the NarCan programs prevalent here and elsewhere as after nearly thirty years of policing and an unfortunate family association, we see zero redeeming qualities in heroin addicts and zero chances of any changes despite numerous attempts at rehabilitation. 

There's no downside to less drug addicts that bring families and society nothing but misery.

No More Free Fests?

Golly, this sounds familiar:

• Chicago’s neighborhood street festivals — a staple of summertime in the city — are struggling to survive, according to a new coalition of 20 festival organizers that includes Chicago’s Pride Fest, Taste of Randolph and the Square Roots Fest in Lincoln Square.

  The organizers have joined forces to sound the alarm on rising operating costs and diminishing entry donations. Those two factors, the group said, have made the model unsustainable.

  The coalition called “Save Our Street Fests,” which went public with its concerns Friday, also includes nonprofit street festivals such as Wicker Park Fest, Northalsted Market Days, Lincoln Square Ravenswood Apple Fest and several others.

When we wrote about it just a week ago, we concentrated on parades:

• spare the neighborhoods - Grant Park for all parades, ethnic, cultural, alternative lifestyle...every single one;
• staging area is Columbus, Randolph to Monroe;
• parade route is Monroe to 1100 South;
• disbanding area is 1100 to Roosevelt;
• in a pinch, you could even end parades across Roosevelt at the Museum Campus or toward McFetridge (plenty of room for buses);
• encourage the use of Soldier Field and Grant Park / Millennium Park lots for attendees. You'll sell them out within the first few hours for the big events.

A smart politician (haha - sorry) could probably figure out what parks and neighborhoods could be utilized for festivals without the massive disruptions the parades have wrought. Maybe even use a bunch of the under-utilized high school campuses. Lots of these have built in parking areas and gigantic flat spaces for use.

Or just cancel anything that can't fund itself - the days of the free ride are rapidly approaching un-sustainability.

Another?

This is getting ridiculous:

• Chicago police officers found a 16-year-old boy shot dead among a large group gathered on an Englewood street overnight, according to CPD. Nobody called 911 about the shooting, but officers at the scene said it appeared the victim had been dragged across the street after being shot.

  It’s unfortunate that Mayor Brandon Johnson disconnected the city’s ShotSpotter gunfire detection system in September. Before he did that, the area where the boy was murdered was monitored by gunshot sensors that could bring police to the scene even when humans, for some reason, don’t bother calling 911.

Well, if the "humans" don't care to call 9-1-1, then perhaps the Department needs to re-direct the mission from "prevention" to "clean up" and hire some second tier non-pensioned laborers to pick up the dead bodies when they start to stink. Send the trained cops to the perpetually undermanned tax-paying parts of town that want the police around.

Oh, and let them actually work. 

Advertising?

We used to take a reprimand or worse missing Beat Tags. Now, we see nearly as many cars without Beat Tags as with.

Is this a new thing for recruiting efforts? Might as well start selling ad space on the quarter panels, fenders and make up some window decals.

Keep Stacking 'em Up

No one is calling about gunfire....again:

• Passersby found a man murdered in a West Side alley on Friday evening, dead from a gunshot wound to his face, officials said. Chicago police believe the man was shot around 5:39 p.m., although nobody called 911 to report the gunfire.

  Officers arrived on the scene about ten minutes after CPD suspects he was shot, a response that was delayed because nobody called 911 to report gunfire in the area. First responders went to the alley only because two passersby called 911 to report a “person down” behind the 5600 block of West North Avenue.

Conehead is about to "award" a connected contract to whatever company offers him or his connected people the most money, but as usual, we don't see the neighborhood caring much. And with threatened Federal funding cuts, perhaps it's a better idea to save what meager tax dollars still exist.

LEADS Deactivated?

When we were working, they threatened this a few times.

Someone said it happened this week?

Is this Department really that far gone?

Cut the Budgets

From over two decades ago:

• Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters..

  A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a ‘Siberian’ climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.

  The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.

And exactly none of this came to pass.

But hey, spend more money on "green" boondoggles via higher taxes, and that will solve all the world's problems. That's how all those politicians got rich.

Which makes us laugh to ourselves about this:

• As many as 5.9 million households may have to go without heat or air conditioning soon if the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s proposed budget gets passed, the National Energy Assistance Directors Association warns.

  A leaked HHS budget proposal for fiscal year 2026 shows zero dollars allocated to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, which provides financial assistance to help customers on limited incomes pay their energy bills. The federal government’s fiscal year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.

  In 2023, more than 330,000 households in Illinois received LIHEAP with an average of more than $724 per household, Gov. JB Pritzker’s office said in a November news release.

Oh. Boo hoo. Right now, People's Gas charges all customers to "assist" those who cannot pay their bills. ComEd doesn't charge anyone (yet) but their customers are also eligible for "assistance." How about asking if their customers have (A) a car, (B) a cell phone, (C) a television and (D) a cable or satellite service? Then check if they have LINK, SSI, or any other grant money coming in.

If we had trouble paying a heating bill or anything else, you know what we did? We cut something else. We budgeted properly. We scaled back expenditures....and we looked for an overtime opportunity. If we wanted a new car, we saved. If we wanted a vacation, we made damn sure to plan ahead.

These "scare tactics" by the media to guilt the workers into providing for the leeches is getting old. It's been old for a while now, so it's good to see an Administration pushing back a bit.

Wanna Be Emperor Lies Again

 

But he's always trying to outdo himself, especially in the Lying Politician category:

• Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker lambasted the Trump administration Thursday for eliminating or threatening to end a range of anti-violence programs, saying “public safety is under attack by the Trump administration.”

  At a South Side event celebrating research on a publicly funded anti-violence program in Chicago neighborhoods, Pritzker rattled off a litany of cuts and proposed cuts by the administration. They included the dissolution of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, threats to slash funding for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the repeal of “zero tolerance” for “rogue gun dealers.”

The "gun violence" office was merely a propaganda outlet, the ATF a$$holes routine manufacture gun "offenses" by redefining definitions, such as "gun," "ammunition," and "accessory," not to mention the paperwork offenses they routine were charging FFL's with, such as using State abbreviations instead of fully spelling out State names.

Not a word about eliminating cash bail, bonding out repeat felons on signatures or sentencing guidelines being ignored across the board in direct defiance of State Law as written (looking at you Crimesha!) 

Keep reminding people about his toilet scam and his appearance on the Blago tapes where Rod got indicted and Fata$$ skated.

Real or Fake?

It's amusing when a satirical website so accurately reflects reality (click for larger version):

 Conehead got those Crazy Eyes going hard.

An Interesting Link

Click here and see the latest broadside the Administration launched against the Covid-iots:

• WhiteHouse.gov Link

They declassified a bunch of stuff backing the "lab leak" information about COVID origins and directly blame illegal gain-of-function research for allowing this plan-demic to occur.

Too bad those directly responsible got those "preemptive pardons" for crimes they claim not to have committed.

Another Dumb Idea

You have a politically connected commander, who probably didn't do anything as a lieutenant and certainly isn't versed in actual Law or the application of Law....and you're going to trust them to do this?

• A Chicago alderman has changed his proposal to impose an earlier teen curfew in the downtown area. The new idea from Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) would allow police commanders to impose emergency curfews for unaccompanied minors at any hour and at any location in the city. He previously sought an 8 p.m. curfew for the downtown area.

This is just dumb. First up, most commanders are morons. More are morons on ego trips. The rest are as we described in the opening paragraph. You're going to let them "declare" curfew areas in a city that already has an extensive curfew ordinance?

Remember the Gang Loitering Ordinance? Where you had to announce, via loudspeaker on the public way multiple times about dispersing from a designated corner - and ONLY that corner - that arrests would be forthcoming if people (or folks) didn't disperse for a set amount of time, usually for an hour or two. It was written in consultation with city lawyers and the ACLU and was essentially unenforceable since the gang would just move 100 feet away to "restart the clock" because that was now a separate dispersal area.

Meanwhile, all sorts of routine calls would stack up and the District would go into a backlog while the announcing supervisor would be on three other calls and then at a shooting scene somewhere else and....

You get what this is going to be like? Conehead might as well get out the checkbook again and write another rubber check that will bounce higher than the last thirty or forty.

SAFE-T Act Success!

This guy was walking around free?

• Four-time convicted felon Davon Fullilove had ten felony cases pending in three states when he robbed a woman near Chicago’s Union Station in 2023. He can rest easy now, knowing that five of those cases are now behind him.

  He resolved them by pleading guilty to armed robbery in exchange for a nine-year prison sentence. Judge Michael Clancy gave him two concurrent three-year sentences for felony theft cases he had pending in the suburbs. Prosecutors dropped two other suburban theft cases.

"Pending" meaning out on bail for a couple of these and not extradited for the others.

Light Posting

Busy night tonight, so only a couple items of interest. 

Could extend into the weekend, but we'll see.

Open post in the meantime.

Career Ending

There was a fundraiser the other day for the Officer injured in the Dexter Reed incident. We didn't mention it explicitly because putting up the poster would have been an invitation to all sorts of assholes to either disrupt, protest or travel to the area to damage off-duty officers vehicles.

But during said it event, it was learned that the Officer, who was shot in the hand by the deceased piece of shit, will never return to the job. 

Ever.

Extensive physical therapy will give him some function back, but permanent duty disability is his future, after less than a decade in what he described as his "dream job."

And certain alderassholes and mayor asshole still want to give away taxpayer money to another asshole who denied this young man a future. The Officer was willing, and could have done so much for the city, while the dead asshole only supplied dope, gunfire and misery.

"I Need Another Phone"

This seems to be the excuse all democrats make for crime:

• A man accused of trying to punch and rob a CTA passenger of their phone in Wrigleyville allegedly offered an explanation to officers who stopped him minutes later: “I need another phone.”

  Terrance McGraw, 24, was on pretrial release for criminal damage when he allegedly tried to punch a 45-year-old man who was seated on a Red Line train near Addison around 5 p.m. on April 8.

  Standing over the man, McGraw allegedly ordered him to “Give me your f*****g phone” while trying to snatch the device from the man’s hand, according to a criminal complaint.

  When the robbery attempt failed, McGraw allegedly ran to the back of the train screaming and kicked out the rear train window.

"He was hungry." "She didn't know what she was doing" "I need another phone."

 No effort to get a job or take responsibility for your own situation. Just, "I need it so I take it." 

Typical.

At least pretend to be an illegal Venezuelan - they got everything for free. So much so that Conehead ended up half-a-billion short in the budget, but every illegal had a phone and Link Cards with thousands of dollars on it.

Drooling Racist Vegetable

So Biden was in town the other day, giving a speech and telling lies. It went as well as was expected with the media slobbering all over Joe's fully-packed Depends. He wandered on stage, started talking while the intro music was still playing, could barely read the teleprompter, started yelling as dementia patients do and couldn't find his way off stage for almost a full minute after wrapping up the stage.

The Slum Times has a large article about it, but we aren't going to link it. We'll link the real report over here though.

Guess what the Slum Times didn't mention about Joe's speech?

• Former President Joe Biden referred to black children as "colored kids" Tuesday as he explained what motivated him to get involved in politics during his first public remarks since leaving office.

  Biden, 82, used the outdated and offensive term while telling an anecdote about his childhood move from Scranton, Pa., to Wilmington, Del., in which he noted that before his family relocated to The First State, he'd "never seen hardly any black people."

  "I was only going in fourth grade," he said as he recalled his mother driving him to Catholic school in Wilmington. "And I remember seeing kids going by, at the time called 'colored kids,' on a bus go by -- they never turned right to go to Claymont High School."

  Biden said learning that black children were not allowed to attend public school with white students "sparked my sense of outrage as a kid."

The Slum Times missed that entire portion of the speech. Somehow, we imagine if anyone with even a passing association with the Right whispered those words to an empty room, it would be headlines for months.

Trooper Injured

Radio report said "minor" injury, but even those can be life altering:

• An Illinois State Police trooper was injured in a crash Wednesday on the city's South Side. The crash happened around 4:56 p.m. at West 51st Street and South Wentworth Avenue, ISP officials said.

  State police said the trooper was driving northbound on Wentworth when someone ran a red light and hit the trooper's vehicle. The trooper was taken to a local hospital with injuries, ISP said. Their squad vehicle was damaged and towed from the scene.

A speedy recovery for the injured Trooper.

Hahahahahahaha

 Excuse us, but HAHAHAHAHA:

• Mayor Brandon Johnson is now being forced to reconsider his decision to shut down the controversial ShotSpotter system — a move that set off a search for police technologies that some business leaders have slammed as slipshod and frantic.

  SoundThinking, ShotSpotter’s parent company, is among eight firms that submitted proposals to provide citywide “gun violence detection technology,” according to records from the bidding process, which ended Friday.

  ShotSpotter relies on acoustic sensors designed to pick up gunfire, but it was slammed by Johnson as “a walkie-talkie on a pole” and a waste of taxpayer dollars. SoundThinking CEO Ralph Clark wouldn’t comment.

  A source with knowledge of the ongoing procurement process said Johnson’s administration seemingly didn’t weigh the ramifications of nixing ShotSpotter in September, leading to “a mad dash” to open up bidding.

Meanwhile, just three days ago, CWB documented the fortieth of Brandon's Bodies:

• An 18-year-old man was found murdered, shot multiple times and lying alone in a Far South Side alley early Saturday morning, even though nobody reported hearing gunfire in the area.

  The victim, who remained unidentified, was wearing a ski mask when officers responding to a “person down” found him in the 13000 block of South Avenue M around 1:18 a.m.

Eight companies have submitted bids, but we're told only ShotSpotter has inside track on equipment in place, affordable prices and years worth of data collection to assist in placing monitors. All they have to do now is hire a connected nephew and they're the odds on favorite.

Controversy

So this comment appeared yesterday. We posted it knowing it was going to generate controversy, and now we're probably going to provoke even more:

• So a copper in 020 pulls over a 73 year old woman for making a left turn at 4:10pm where it says no left turn from 4-6pm. Copper sees the fop sticker and asks if it’s hers. She says no it’s my son’s. Copper then writes her a ticket for the left turn and no insurance because she can’t pull it up on her phone. He then takes her to the station and takes her car. He claims it’s the law and he has no discretion. This guy needs a fucking life.

So let's get this straight:

• elderly driver;
• disobeys the law;
• falsely represents her vehicle as being owned by an officer;
• can't provide proof of insurance;
• gets TVB-ed;
• car gets impounded....

And the officer, in this day and age of body cameras, POD cameras, in-car cameras, all mic-ed up and recorded in living color....writes tickets and applies the law as written, but he's going to get hassled because:

• she's old? Maybe someone should take away her license if her faculties are that bad;
• she's related to a cop? That's going to look really good at the IAD/COPA investigation;
• she can't produce insurance? She brings it to court and that one is dismissed;
• we won't even speculate as to racial profiling....but imagine that one;

The impound seems a bit over the top, but if there an underlying circumstance that necessitated the impound? They exist and the comment isn't clear, but can you imagine if the car wasn't impounded? You'd be lucky to get a three day suspension.

We're sorry, but this is what the citizens of Chicago have voted for, more so the lakefront liberal crowd, but pretty much citywide, countywide and statewide....nationwide if you like. We've advocated for (and the city is insisting on) NOT enforcing traffic laws across the board. but if you dip your toe in that pond, you better be 100% in the right lest you get suspended. 

You aren't going to be popular, your personal vehicle might take "parking lot damage," you might even be confronted by the mother's offended son. But you can rest assured that you probably created a voter who thinks government (that's you) has gotten too mercenary, too rapacious and too out-of-control. It might even work out in thirty or forty years.

Feel free to disagree - politely. We stopped writing tickets for anything other than accidents once cameras were installed on light poles, squad cars and police officers because we knew eventually, they'd be used against any "discretion" we once had.

Sinko de Mayo

They cancelled the parade because everyone was "afraid" ICE would show up and create a few hundred residential vacancies in Little Village:

• Chicago’s Cinco de Mayo parade has been cancelled yet again, this time with organizers blaming fear of ICE raids. But the real reasons may run deeper, involving crime, political clashes, and years of instability.

Crime? Instability? What?

• The Cinco de Mayo parade in Chicago was cancelled over fears of potential ICE activity targeting illegal immigrants.
• Organizers cited safety concerns and declining sponsorship as key reasons for calling off the event.
• The event had not been held from 2018 to 2022 due to COVID, gang violence, and internal disputes.
• In 2024, the parade was cancelled by police after gunfire erupted, leading to 25 arrests including weapons charges.
• Organizers say they hope to resume the parade next year, though nothing is guaranteed.

Yeah, okay.

Here's the thing - the parades are a  huge waste of money and resources. Too often, parade fees are waived by connected aldercreatures and police and traffic service is (or was) provided for free, though this may have changed for certain events. We know big banks picked up OT costs and such for the Chicago Marathon, and if it isn't being done so, it should be the model moving forward.

As suggested many times over the years:

• spare the neighborhoods - Grant Park for all parades, ethnic, cultural, alternative lifestyle...every single one;
• staging area is Columbus, Randolph to Monroe;
• parade route is Monroe to 1100 South;
• disbanding area is 1100 to Roosevelt;
• in a pinch, you could even end parades across Roosevelt at the Museum Campus or toward McFetridge (plenty of room for buses)
  

You can store traffic and crowd barricades up and down LSD from Navy Pier to McCormick Place. Parking revenues would be massive with the garages and Soldier Field lots (the Bears won't be using them after 2028). All parades would provide their own security or pay traffic aides or all Police overtime....and there's plenty of event parking for them, too. It's a ready made venue, saves millions while making more millions, and is built to handle the traffic demands of a busy weekend. 

It makes sense....so Conehead won't do it, like every other politician before him.

Conehead Shooting for 5%

Maybe his approval rating will fall even lower?

• One of the policy positions that has earned Mayor Brandon Johnson his 6.6 percent approval rating is his insistence on putting the interests of illegal immigrants ahead of the citizens who actually live, work, and vote in Chicago — especially the black voters who put him in office. Johnson's latest reaction to being personally sued by the Trump administration, along with the threat of losing billions in federal funding, proves he hasn’t learned a thing. If anything, he’s doubling down.

  This week, Donald Trump announced a renewed push to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities — places like Chicago that have turned themselves into magnets for undocumented immigrants by refusing to cooperate with immigration enforcement. The president posted on Truth Social that he’s working to “withhold all Federal Funding” from any city or state that allows these “Death Traps” to exist. It was classic Trump: Provocative, broad-brush, and guaranteed to make headlines. And it sent Brandon Johnson’s press shop into full spin mode.

  Instead of grappling with the policy implications or the staggering risk to essential city services, Johnson’s spokesperson Cassio Mendoza went straight for the buzzwords: “Unconstitutional,” “unlawful,” “vigorously defend.” Mendoza assured Chicagoans that the city complies with all federal and state laws — a bold claim given that sanctuary policy, by definition, limits cooperation with federal immigration authorities. However, Mendoza’s real job here wasn’t clarity. It was damage control.

  Here’s what’s at stake: Johnson’s 2025 budget includes $2.72 billion in federal funds. That’s not pocket change — that’s the lifeblood of the city’s social services, housing programs, and public safety operations. Chicago Public Schools stands to lose another $1.3 billion. The CTA’s Red Line Extension, Johnson’s pride-and-joy transit equity project, would get kneecapped without $1.9 billion in federal grants.

The Contrarian article is far too extensive to quote fully, so you're best bet is to head over and read it all. It pays to be informed as to why Conehead is probably going to end up jacking up taxes and fees even more once he uses even more non-existent tax money to lose in court.

Sixteen Percent!!!

Progress!

• The Chicago Police Department has fully complied with 16% of the court order that requires CPD to stop routinely violating Black and Latino residents’ constitutional rights by the end of 2024, according to the court-appointed monitoring team charged with keep track of reform efforts.

  The 7-percentage point jump in the level of full compliance with the consent decree reached between July and December 2024 is the largest increase in the nearly six years that the federal court order has been in effect. The last report from the monitors found CPD had fully complied with just 9% of the consent decree.

  The report released Friday by the monitors is the first since WTTW News and ProPublica reported that the reform effort was at a tipping point, with advocates for police reform losing faith in the process and increasingly concerned the opportunity for lasting reform is slipping away.

So using our grade school mathematics:

• six years is to 16% as X years is to 100% 
• Since 6 : 16 = X : 100 then we know 6/16 = X/100
• Multiplying both sides by 100 cancels on the right
  100 × (6/16) = (X/100) × 100
  100 × (6/16) = X
• Then solving for X
  X = 100 × (6/16)
  X = 37.5 years to complete the Consent Decree

Thirty-seven-and-one-half years of corruption, stealing money, making up bullshit "training" opportunities for crooked contracts steered to connected companies....and we're all of six years in. 

Only thirty-one-plus years to go, meaning there will be thousands of cops who will have served their entire careers under the "Consent Decree."

New Low for New York

Remember how the governor of New York was bragging about how safe the NYC subways were?

• Police are on the hunt for a sicko accused of sexually asaulting a dead man on a New York City subway. The alleged necrophiliac is believed to have carried out the depraved act on an R train at Whitehall Street subway station just after midnight on Wednesday, April 9.

  He then fled the station and is now the subject of a manhunt by the NYPD. The unamed perpetrator is described as being around 5ft9 inches tall and weighing roughly 195lbs with black hair and brown eyes. According to the New York Post, his last known address was Manor Avenue in the Soundview section of the Bronx.

  The deceased man, who has also not been named, died of natural causes, sources said. They do not believe the two knew each other.

At this point, New Yorkers are probably begging for more illegals setting women on fire.

Seriously?

Oh no, no more flippers:

• A bill outlawing license plate flippers has passed the Illinois Senate.

  Senate Bill 1883 to explicitly ban license plate flippers is sponsored by State Sen. Steve Stadelman (D-Rockford). The flippers enable motorists to avoid tolls and identification by police when potentially violating the law with just the push of a button.

  “Many drivers are using plate flippers to avoid tolls and police, evading the consequences of their actions on our roadways,” Stadelman said. “Banning flipper devices is a crucial step toward keeping our roads safe and holding drivers accountable.”

Since Chicago doesn't want cops doing traffic stops, we just have our plates attached via a magnet. If we're driving in the city, we don't put them on and don't even think about speed cameras or stop lights any more - much less stressful and we know the cops can't chase.

If we're on the highway, we have the upper half of a paper Indiana registration. ISP is even more undermanned than CPD so we like our chances.

Are these things that prevalent that Springfield has to pass a law against them? It's going to go over as well as the "gun registration" that achieved all of 3% compliance across the state.