Name in Lights

Haha:

Let's Have a Meeting!

But don't let the general public know what's going on in it:

• After yet another bloody summer weekend in which four people were killed and 39 people were wounded, Mayor Rahm Emanuel held a closed-door summit Monday with community leaders and law enforcement officials to discuss violence that continues to grip Chicago.
  
  “I think everybody here knows this is a deeper conversation. It’s more complex than how many ATF agents we have and how many kids we have enrolled in our mentoring program,” said Emanuel, before reporters were escorted out of the conference room at Chicago Police Department’s South Side headquarters.

No need to let reporters see what's going on. Rahm will treat them like mushrooms (kept in the dark and fed bull shit) and they'll run and print what he says to print, especially during an election year. Don't want ot lose that all important "access" you know.

• The summit was held just hours after a crowd of mourners poured out into a West Side street Sunday to hold vigil for Shamiya Adams, an 11 year-old girl who was killed Friday night when a stray bullet that flew into an apartment during a slumber party. So far, no arrests have been made, but police Supt. Garry McCarthy said detectives have some “good leads.”
  
  “The case is progressing nicely,” said McCarthy, who added that he couldn’t discuss specifics. “We have a lot of information and the case is developing quickly.”

"nicely" if you don't count that fact that an 11-year-old caught a bullet in the head in the middle of the "lowest crime stats in decades."

• “Often times you feel like you’re being talked at, or being told all the great things that are being done,” said the Rev. Michael Pfleger, the outspoken South Side pastor of St. Sabina Catholic Church, on his way out of the conference room.
  
  But this time Emanuel opened the floor for community groups, allowing them to air their concerns and grievances — a move Pfleger called “refreshing.”
  
  “I don’t usually leave meetings feeling this good and I felt good today. Obviously ... action has to take place now, but to be able to lay it out on the table, I thought was very good,” he said.

Well, you know if Pfather Pfleger left the meeting "refreshed," then there must be hope for the whole situation. After all, look at what great strides St. Sabina's has made in turning around that neighborhood - hardly a murder to be seen.

Anyone else get the feeling that their pockets just got picked, their Rights just got trampled and we're going to be told to smile-and-eat-shit in short order?

Illinois Still Bleeding Jobs

Dead last in the nation:

• In June, Illinois suffered the largest monthly workforce loss in recorded state history.
  
  June’s workforce loss was worse than the worst month of the Great Recession. Overall, 21,700 Illinoisans gave up and left the workforce in June; in September 2008, 17,500 Illinoisans quit the workforce. (Bureau of Labor Statistics data go back to 1976.)
  
  This hefty workforce loss has driven state’s unemployment rate down to 7.1 percent from 7.5 percent, creating a superficial appearance of improvement. And Gov. Pat Quinn says Illinois needs to “keep the momentum.”
  
  Keeping up this sort of “momentum” would be disastrous.

Disastrous indeed.

Off Duty Killed

Motorcycle accident on the Ryan:

• An off-duty Chicago Police officer was killed in a crash Sunday afternoon on the Dan Ryan Expy., Illinois State Police said.
  
  The Chicago Police Department identified the officer Sunday night as Probationary Police Officer Tito M. Rodriguez, 28, who had been with the department since May 2013.
  
  “We are truly saddened by the loss of Officer Tito Rodriguez who perished in today’s tragic accident,” Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said in a written statement. “On behalf of the entire Chicago Police Department, our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time. Whenever we lose one of our own, it has an effect on each of us, and we will be sure to honor Officer Rodriguez’s memory and spirit appropriately.”

RIP Officer Rodriguez. Arrangements will be posted when they become available.

Forty Again

There's that number:

• Violence continued to strike the Chicago area this weekend with at least 18 people shot in a little more than 12 hours overnight, bringing the number of people shot since Friday to 40.
  
  Four people, including an 11-year-old girl at a sleepover with friends, have been killed, police said.

Did you know that there are cities in Illinois, across America even, where 40 people don't get shot in a month? It's true. And we've heard there are smaller towns and villages where 40 people don't get shot in a year even, sometimes, many years!

Copper Injured

Charges filed for Agg Battery and other assorted charges:

• A 24-year-old man is in custody after he allegedly struck a Chicago Police officer with his car during a motor vehicle stop, officials said.
  
  The incident happened at about 10 p.m. 6500 block of South Langley Avenue in the West Woodlawn neighborhood, said Chicago Police News Affairs [...].
  
  Anthony M. Turner of the 6700 Block of South Langley Avenue was charged with one felony count of aggravated batter of a police officer, a felony count of attempting to elude police and two misdemeanor counts of leaving the scene of an accident and misdemeanor reckless driving.
  
  He also was cited for driving with a suspended license, failure to reduce speed and operating a vehicle without insurance.

A speedy recovery wished to the Officer.

Like Clockwork

The robbery on the Orange Line is falling perfectly within McCompStat's script:

• high profile event occurs;
• powers-that-be acknowledge the brazen event;
• counter with statistics that crime is really down

And right on schedule:

• Orange Line rider Jennifer Carter said she’s been frightened ever since she heard two armed men robbed a train car on that line earlier this week.
  
  Kathleen O’Donnell has instructed her teenage daughter to ride with friends and to keep her eyes open.
  
  But Luis Gaspar isn’t worried about more crime on the train line, which goes from the Loop to Midway Airport.
  
  “It’s not really frequent on the Orange Line,” he said. “This is uncommon.”
  
  Crime data shows just that.
  
  In the past 12 months, compared to the 12 months before that, overall crime on trains and at stations has been down on the Orange Line south of Roosevelt Road, according to Chicago Police Department data.

We're sure that's a great comfort to the riders who had a gun stuck in their faces along with the woman who got pistol-whipped. And the media (aside from Chicago Magazine) just accepts these numbers at face value despite knowing that the CPD numbers are pretty much pulled out of someone's ass.

We don't really care what they think McLiarLiarPantsOnFire says the numbers were last year. This year, two assholes climbed on a train and stuck it up between stations. And why did they feel so safe doing it? Because they rode the trains for a few hours, figured out where the cops weren't and pulled off the brazen holdup. No cops, no heat, no danger to them. Great system.

11-Year-Old Killed

A stray round finds an innocent victim - again:

• Shamiya Adams and a group of her friends were getting ready to make s’mores during a sleepover Friday night when a bullet crashed through the window and struck the little girl in the head.
  
  “It was going to be a little sleepover,” a tearful Rosemarie Jones said hours after the 11-year-old girl died from her injuries.

This was one of seven people shot in 011 yesterday, twenty-plus citywide, easily surpassing the standard "20-per-weekend" in just under a day. We're going to go out on a limb here and say that once again, strategies aren't working and we're going to see another weekend of 40 or more shot. Anyone care to bet against it?

Cops Shoot Assailant

Points gun at police, gets shot:

• A person was shot by Chicago Police officers Saturday morning in the West Side Little Village neighborhood.
  
  About 6:15 a.m., officers from the Ogden Police District responded to a call about a male with a gun in the 2600 block of South Hamlin Avenue, police said in a statement. Police later found a male -- whose age was not immediately known -- at the corner of 27th Street and Avers Avenue pointing a gun at officers, the statement said.
  
  Officers shot him and he was taken to a hospital, police said.

He might even live, but we can't say we care one way or the other.

A Five-Fer

It's shaping up to be another bloody weekend - but crime is down!

• Five people were shot, one of them fatally, in an attack in the Austin neighborhood this evening.
  
  A 21-year-old man was pronounced dead at West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park after he was shot in the head in the 900 block of North Massasoit Avenue about 6 p.m., said Ana Pacheco.
  
  Three other men and a woman were injured in what may have been a drive-by shooting, Pacheco said.

And amazingly, Garry still has a job, while Rahm's numbers tank.

Election Ploy Fails...for Now

Rahm says, "Quick! Find some black guys to split the vote!"

• In the wake of Cook County Board Chairman Toni Preckwinkle’s hasty exit as a possible mayoral contender, Sneed is told there is a move to fill the void with two male contenders in the black community: State Sen. Kwame Raoul and former Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Jr.
  
  Sneed is told that top African-American business and civic leaders are scheduling a meeting in August with Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, who has formed an exploratory committee, but a top source tells Sneed that Raoul should be regarded as a “bona fide contender.”
  
  “There are a lot of bad feelings in the black community that Gov. Pat Quinn passed up Kwame as lieutenant governor, and that could hurt Quinn in the election,” said a top Sneed source familiar with the process of selecting a black consensus mayoral candidate.

Notice that Sneed doesn't say a "qualified" candidate, just a black one. But one of them has other ideas though:

• State Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, said Friday there is no movement in the black community to draft him to challenge Mayor Rahm Emanuel and he wouldn’t respond to a draft, even if there was one.
  
  “When I’m ready to do something else — and I’m sure that day will come — I will say it before anybody else says it. This is not the time,” Raoul said.

He's a tool, and has been for years, but he's trying to be a tool on his own terms, not The Machine's.

Parking Feud?

DNAInfo.com says there's an ongoing feud with CPD versus the Parking Enforcement drones:

• A running feud between Chicago Police and city workers who write parking tickets — known as parking enforcement aides — has gotten so bad that city leaders are now trying to iron things out, a watchdog report issued Thursday says.
  
  The quarterly report from Inspector General Joseph Ferguson said an investigation into a "public screaming match ... between a PEA and a sworn police officer" laid bare "the existence of a more widespread discord" between the city's Police Department and the Finance Department employees.

The "screaming match," if we recall correctly, involved a Parking Enforcement Aide writing street cleaning tickets in an area of responsibility usually patrolled by a regular traffic car. This lead to hurt feelings and possibly a CR number being filed along with complaints about the Parking Enforcement bureau.

As we correctly pointed out in October of 2009:

• Compliance violations (front/rear plates) and meters (surprise!) showed large increases while Rush Hour and Street Cleaning tickets (both traditionally police written) had double digit decreases. And as the manpower shortages continue to leave police running from job to job and unable (or even unwilling) to perform ticket writing duties, we expect a bigger shift toward "revenue" writers rather than police.

DNAInfo.com says this makes the blog "...notoriously snarky..." We'd say it just made us observant more nearly five years ago, and as it turns out, completely correct.

Anyone know if we're still actively feuding with the PEA's? We haven't noticed and we'd like to know if we have to tell everyone to pick it up a bit.

Relax, the Feds are Here

Our problems are solved!

• Seven additional agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearm and Explosives will be sent to Chicago to help combat the city’s violence.
  
  U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced plans Thursday to send additional agents to the city following his recent visit, where he participated in a roundtable discussion with Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
  
  The new ATF agents will coordinate efforts with U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon as well as federal, state and local law enforcement and community partnerships to reduce illegal gun trafficking and gun crime, according to a release from the Department of Justice.

Seven! Count 'em, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 additional ATF agents! We certainly hope there's enough office space for them all and they're able to find a locker for their stuff..

This is Bold, but Crime is Down!

No word on the massive shortage of officers at Mass Transit, but hey, this has to be a coincidence:

• Two armed men robbed multiple passengers on an Orange Line CTA train heading into downtown Wednesday afternoon, police said.
  
  The robbery happened at 4:13 p.m. as the train traveled between the Halsted and Roosevelt stations, said Veejay Zala, a Chicago Police spokesman.
  
  Two armed suspects took various items from multiple riders, Zala said. No one was in custody.
  
  According to a police source, one of the suspects pulled out a blue steel revolver. The other yelled at riders to give him their belongings, then began collecting items from riders and putting them in a black backpack, as the man with the revolver pointed the gun at the victims.

Evidently, these two rode the train for hours prior to the holdup. We certainly hope that when they are apprehended, Rahm sits them down and tells them that they must have missed the signs saying, "No Guns!" on the CTA.

Sgt Fired

After dragging this out for five years, you knew Rahm was going to have the Police Board make a statement:

• In a highly unusual move, the Chicago Police Board has overruled police Supt. Garry McCarthy and fired a police sergeant whose gun was used in the shooting death of a Northwest Side woman five years ago.
  
  McCarthy had recommended suspending Sgt. Steven Lesner, a 20-year police veteran, for 60 days. But on Thursday night, the board unanimously voted to fire Lesner, 48, over the 2009 incident in which he bought alcohol for the woman he’d just met while on duty — and for failing to secure his weapon when he returned to her Northwest Side apartment after his shift had ended.

You'd need two or three pieces of paper to list the bad choices made throughout this episode.

Guns Lowering Crime!

Not here of course - Chicago criminals are uniquely immune to cause-and-effect according to Rahm, Garry and other morons. But in Detroit, the reality is catching the attention of the Chief:

• [Detroit Police Chief James Craig] “Detroit has experienced 37 percent fewer robberies in 2014 than during the same period last year, 22 percent fewer break-ins of businesses and homes, and 30 percent fewer carjackings.
  
  ...Criminals are getting the message that good Detroiters are armed and will use that weapon. I don’t want to take away from the good work our investigators are doing, but I think part of the drop in crime, and robberies in particular, is because criminals are thinking twice that citizens could be armed.
  
  I can’t say what specific percentage is caused by this, but there’s no question in my mind it has had an effect.”

All that without CompStat either.

Reporter Speaks Truth - Pays Price

We weren't going to cover this at all at first. We figured it was another moment where the media gives all sorts of air time to police haters and lets them spout their bullshit to the masses. But then things took a curious turn:

• News 12 reporter Sean Bergin has been suspended after he argued on the air that the “anti-cop mentality that has so contaminated America’s inner cities” is largely the result of “young black men growing up without fathers.”
  
  A source with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed to TheBlaze on Monday that Bergin has, in fact, been suspended over his remarks about the black community and may end up being fired. The source said Bergin was asked not to come in Monday and Tuesday as the news station figures out how to handle the situation.

The interview of the spouse of a cop killer was somewhat astounding in that she said her now-deceased husband should have killed more cops before he died. He had stolen a gun and then ambushed responding officers, killing rookie Police Officer Melvin Santiago. It seemed bad enough that the media broadcast her bullshit, but then reporter Sean Bergin related the following:

• “We were besieged, flooded with calls from police officers furious that we would give media coverage to the life of a cop killer. It’s understandable. We decided to air it because it’s important to shine a light on the anti-cop mentality that has so contaminated America’s inner cities. This same, sick, perverse line of thinking is evident from Jersey City, to Newark and Patterson to Trenton.”
  
  “It has made the police officer’s job impossible and it has got to stop. The underlying cause of all of this, of course: young black men growing up without fathers. Unfortunately, no one in the news media has the courage to touch that subject.”

Of course, telling the truth cannot be allowed and he was promptly suspended, had his hours cut and has since resigned rather than work under the restrictions of his station. More importantly, he hasn't shut up about the entire incident:

• “I broke the rules, but I broke the rules because I was doing the right thing,” he told TheBlaze. “You can’t fix a problem if you don’t talk about the problem. The truth is, 73 percent of African-American children grow up without fathers. It’s a topic that needs to be handled delicately — and really, this situation could have been used as a way to explore that.”
  
  But no one in the news media wants to touch the subject, Bergin argued.
  
  “I’m in these housing projects all the time, and it’s all for the same thing: black men slaughtering each other in the streets. Why is this happening?” he continued, adding that it’s nearly impossible to cover the issue in-depth and accurately when surrounded by “stark raving liberals who masquerade as journalists.”

Don't we recall a few years ago when someone who likes to run guns to Mexican narco-traffickers, obstructs Congressional oversight and refuses to prosecute perjurers said something about Americans being cowards over racial issues and it was time for some sort of national discussion on the subject? How, we wonder, can you have a national discussion when one side refuses to approach the subject in any mature way, shape or form? If Holder and his ilk wanted to have some serious discussions, we'd be talking about:

• [29 June] - One person was killed and at least four people were injured in a shooting during an after-hours event ahead of  the BET Awards Sunday in East Hollywood.
• [30 June] -  Police continued searching Monday for two men who exchanged gunfire on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter, leaving nine people shot in the crossfire, including two who were in critical condition.
• [05 July] - A gunman opened fire early Saturday morning in Indianapolis, sending victims scrambling for cover in a trendy neighborhood and leaving seven people injured, one critically, police and witnesses said. 
• [05 July] - Six people were injured at Houston music festival early Saturday morning, authorities said. Several thousand people had gathered at an arena for a Fourth of July party at the Houston Caribbean Festival, which was supposed to run until around 5 a.m., Houston Police spokesman Jodi Silva said.
• Not to mention the 77 people shot in Chicago over the holiday.
  

But lord forbid that people talk about something as mundane as race. We're being inundated with all sorts of distractions in order to avoid talking about this issue while Mr Bergin points out that the emperor is indeed wearing little more than a smile. We salute his effort though.

The Next Policy Change

Since CPD ends up stealing every new idea that comes out of New York (and stealing NYPD brass, too), we imagine this is going to be a "Next Big Thing" shortly:

• The NYPD is making a big push to bring the city’s rising crime numbers down — and they’re doing it one rookie at a time.
  
  On Tuesday, [New York] CBS 2 [...] spoke exclusively with Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, who outlined his plan.
  
  At the height of the summer, the number of shootings is up 8 percent city-wide from last year. But with a class of 600 cops just graduated from the Police Academy, Bratton is changing things up.
  
  Gone is the practice of putting rookies out on the streets in pairs. Instead, they get a veteran partner to fight crime.
  
  “I had some great partners who really caught me before I started developing bad habits early on in my career,” Bratton said. “I want these young kids as they come out of the academy to have a similar opportunity to learn the right way and if they make a mistake, they have the mistake corrected before the mistake becomes a habit.”

That would seem to be the intent of the FTO program, but directly contrary to what is practiced once the kids head out to "Operation Ghetto Foot Patrol" where they are nearly completely unsupervised in any meaningful sense of the word. It's a miracle none of them have been seriously injured or worse what with the bad habits they are ingraining into their daily routines....like shooting down dark gangways....and being surprised when someone shoots back down the gangway....if you catch our drift. Closer supervision may prevent incidents like these.

Imprinting

Defined as follows:

• impress or stamp (a mark or outline) on a surface or body

Reasonably observant folks can tell when someone is carrying something in a pocket. Really observant individuals can spot "tells" when someone has a gun in their waistband. There was even a training scenario years back where a crowd was filmed in a parking lot after a disturbance and people were asked, "How many guns were on scene?" Most coppers spotted at least two or three - the total ended up being five or six.

Someone sent us this photo and we had to do a double-take:

What's that in your pocket Pfather Pfleger? We suppose it might be an emergency exorcism kit or a traveling Crucifix. But it would be amusing as all hell if it was....something else. Anyone know if this goof has a Concealed Carry permit?

Electronic Monitoring Hack

This is amusing as heck:

• The Cook County Sheriff’s office is warning its officers to watch out for state parolees who have tampered with their electronic monitoring.
  
  The heading says: “Officer Safety Alert” – and it’s from the Cook County Sheriff’s Office to all patrol and street units – warning about state parolees on electronic monitoring who have tampered with the device and are driving around undetected.

But it isn't a "significant" issue:

• Tom Shaer, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Corrections, says  state parolees interfering with their electronic monitoring is “not a major problem” and he says there’s been no recent uptick in incidents.
  
  “We are not encountering a significant issue here.”

We don't know about that - any time someone "paroled" to electronic monitoring who is able to circumvent the restrictions supposedly placed on them through human ingenuity....well, that pretty much means they're getting away without being punished. That IS significant to any thinking person.

And how are they accomplishing this?

• But Shaer says the state has told the Cook County Sheriff’s office to watch out for any state parolees driving with a monitoring box plugged into their car – a device that should be at home.

So they've somehow adapted the monitor box to be able to be powered by the car cigarette lighter. The sheriff's automated calling system buzzes the box, the "inmate" scans whatever he has to scan into the box, the sheriff thinks that the "inmate," (actually an "out-mate" now) is at home behaving. No GPS in the boxes, so no one is the wiser...until they get caught outside after curfew.

Wisconsin Joyriders

This made us smile, so we're sharing it:

• Police are seeking child neglect charges against the mothers of two boys who have stolen vehicles twice this summer and taken them for drives in the countryside north of Milwaukee.
  
  The mother of the 9-year-old driver is the grandmother of the 4-year-old, so the two thieves are uncle and nephew, according to West Bend Police Captain Tim Dehring. Both families live in the same home.
  
  Police are seeking a charge of child neglect against a third adult at the home, the live-in boyfriend of the mother of the 9-year-old, Dehring said.
  
  After the latest driving incident Sunday, police officers took the two boys into protective custody, he said. "This has got to stop," Dehring said.
  
  The move to protective custody and the request for charges against the adults are intended to reinforce that message, he said. "Our concern is for the safety of the community," Dehring said.

The community obviously doesn't really care or someone would have smacked the tar out of some 4-and-9-year-old asses.

Hubbard and Aberdeen

Is this graffiti? It's near the intersection:

Someone at Chicago Magazine having some fun at Rahm's expense? Or coppers?

Feds Tell Springfield "Back Off"

Another set of elected officials headed to jail?

• The top federal prosecutor in central Illinois today sent a reminder to state lawmakers on the eve of their hearing about Gov. Pat Quinn’s troubled anti-violence program: Stand down because a criminal investigation is in the works.
  
  U.S. Attorney James Lewis, based in the central Illinois office a few blocks from the Capitol, made it clear that he wants a legislative panel to hold off 90 days before receiving testimony or conducting interviews of individuals connected with Quinn’s program, known officially as the Neighborhood Recovery Initiative.

So are the state lawmakers interfering to protect their fellow legislators? Or to help Rauner? Or damage Quinn? And can we have this investigation wrapped up with indictments delivered before the election? Special Elections to fill offices formerly occupied by imprisoned officials are expensive.

Dart Moves In

In light of Preckwinkle announcing she won't be running for mayor, Dart makes a move to increase his profile:

• Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart will focus on catching people wanted on arrest warrants for violent crimes in Chicago to help quell gun violence in the city, officials said Tuesday.
  
  Dart’s office will also boost its supervision of criminal defendants who have been released from jail on electronic monitoring, said Cara Smith, executive director of the Cook County Jail.
  
  Sheriff’s officers are being shifted from south suburban Robbins — where the sheriff has been concentrating on reducing violence — to the city of Chicago, Smith said.
  
  “We will be focused on Chicago warrants — as opposed to countywide warrants — for some period of time,” she said. “We’re aware of crime trends. We respond accordingly.”

Our readers have been pushing this info for a few days now. Dart is sending up to 200 sheriffs into war-torn hoods to "assist" in stemming the violence.

Ten bucks says if crime goes down next month, even a little bit, Dart will claim his efforts are leading the way. We can't wait to see the look on Rahm's or Garry's faces when that happens. So is Dart running for mayor? And who planted him there to siphon off Rahm support?

Preckwinkle Leaves the Field

She won't run against the Machine that created her:

• Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle declared Tuesday that she won’t run for mayor, leaving union and community groups angry over Chicago’s violent crime, school closings and teetering finances searching for a credible candidate to take on Mayor Rahm Emanuel next year.
  
  The decision is a boost to Emanuel’s bid for a second term and ensures he won’t have to square off against a popular, countywide elected official capable of uniting disparate voters from the South and West Sides with lakefront liberals.
  
  For months, Emanuel’s detractors had lobbied for Preckwinkle to become the movement candidate that rode to office on a groundswell, overcoming Emanuel’s enormous campaign fund, political pedigree and support of the city’s elite.

Karen Lewis's numbers just jumped significantly.

So a short, 9.5 fingered, lying, anti-union socialist one-percenter versus a short, loud-mouth, commie, racist. Sounds like another win-win for Chicago.

Only 500?

We're thinking "undercount:":

• Cook County prosecutors said today that nearly 500 people had gathered Sunday afternoon for an unauthorized concert at Montrose Beach that turned into a melee after police officers attempted to shut it down.

Of course, theses numbers probably come from the same people who think they counted 1.1 million people at the Taste this year

Garry Melts Down...

...and an aldercreature spouts stupidity:

• Sunday’s violence on the North Side prompted fresh questions about police staffing and crowd control tactics just a week after a bloody Independence Day weekend left scores of dead and wounded across the city. At a press conference meant to highlight the Police Department’s gun seizures, Superintendent Garry McCarthy grew frustrated as reporters kept questioning him about what went wrong at Montrose Beach.
  
  “I'm trying to tell you all about gun violence here in the city, which is our number one thing,” McCarthy said at the Grand Crossing district station on the South Side. “We had people who died over the weekend, and a disturbance at a park is something that we'll fix moving forward, no two ways about it. But we have a problem here, and I'd like to bring attention to it.”

Spin spin spin. Redirect redirect, redirect. Look over here at all these shiny guns! Never mind that they look the same as the ones trotted out a few weeks ago. And the same as the ones from a few months ago. Don't look at the dates on those inventory tags! Get away from those tables!

And then this is among the stupidest things we've heard an aldercreature utter - and we've been listening to them for more than a few decades:

• Meanwhile, Ald. James Cappleman, whose 46th Ward includes Montrose Beach, praised Sunday evening’s police response but expressed concern that nearby Chicago Park District parking lots allow large crowds to gather at Montrose Beach more easily than at other lakefront beaches.
  
  “Look at Oak Street Beach. Do you see this many parking spots there? Look at Lincoln Park. There just aren't this many parking spots in such a concentrated area in other parts of the city,” Cappleman said. “I want the Park District and the police department to come up with a plan to discourage that many people from driving down there and parking.”
  

Go back and read that again - an aldercreature is actually suggesting that people DON'T come down to the lakefront, that the Park District tear up parking spots so that people can't enjoy the parks.

Wow. Talk about your misdirected solutions. Parking lots must now be banned as they lead to unlawful and permit-less gatherings of people determined to be assholes. You can see exactly how this relates to the gun "debate"in liberal minds:

• Guns are evil and are the source of evil, so we'll ban law abiding citizens from being able to own them. No word on disarming criminals because that might be dangerous.

 How about hiring police and adequately staffing the districts? How about Summer Mobile? How about a city-wide response unit? How about some effective fucking law enforcing against the criminal element so decent people can enjoy their city?

Taste...Going...Going....

The perfect opportunity to cancel it forever:

• After powerful storms led to the cancellation of Saturday’s festivities at the Taste of Chicago, final attendance numbers for last weekend’s event also took a bath.
  
  Roughly 1.1 million attended the annual food and music festival in Grant Park this year, according to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office. That’s down 400,000 from last year’s attendance number of 1.5 million.
  
  Attendance also was slightly down when compared to 2012, when 1.2 million people went to the festival.
  
  Overall, however, attendance numbers for the festival – which was first held in 1980 — have been on a skid since the heyday of the mid-2000s. An estimated 3.6 million people attended the festival in both 2006 and 2007.

Rahm and Garry lucked out with Saturday's rain-out, as "wilding" youths were expected to be in full force according to insiders who monitor the social media sites for indications of, shall we say...over-exuberance? And in light of what wasn't/couldn't be prevented at Montrose Beach, perhaps a strategic withdrawal is in Rahm's best interest.

New Links (UPDATE)

Seeing as how it took the major media outlets hours to come up with actual info on the recent happenings at the lakefront and the actual heavy-lifting and reporting was done by bloggers with a scanner, we've added the CrimeInWrigleyville + Boystown" blog and the UptownUpdate" blog to our local news links. They're doing at least as good a job as the mainstream media.

Now if someone could just discover why the YouTube video disappeared so quickly. Luckily, bloggers saved the recordings and continue to post them where they can be discovered by those who wish to be informed and not fed a pile of crap from certain directions.

UPDATE: Since we use so many of their statistics, we added the HeyJackass.com website also. We meant to do that a while ago, but it got lost in the shuffle here. Apologies to the hard working crew over at WH Thompson's site.

Karen in the Lead

Are the wheels falling off the Rahm-mobile?

• For the past couple of weeks, Karen Lewis has been saying she is “seriously” considering running for mayor.
  
  It turns out voters are taking the fiery Chicago Teachers Union president’s potential candidacy seriously as well.
  And Mayor Rahm Emanuel probably should, too.
  
  At least that’s what a surprising new Early and Often Poll suggests.
  
  If the mayoral election were held today, the lightning rod union leader who was the architect behind a 2012 teachers’ strike would beat Emanuel by 9 percentage points in a head-to-head contest, the survey found.

And Prickwrinkle stomps Rahm by a 24-point margin according to the same pollsters. Rahm is going to have to do some major league pandering to regain lost ground...and what better way to pander than throw some New York carpetbagger under the bus?

Lakefront 10-1 (UPDATES)

Gas teams mobilized, all bikes and nearby tactical teams sent to Montrose beach. Officer injured and coppers being bottled. What the hell is going on?  The Sun Times barely covers it:

• Two Chicago Police officers were injured while trying to break up a fight Sunday night at Montrose Beach.
  
  Police responded to the fight at Montrose Beach in the 4400 block of North Simonds Drive about 7:37 p.m., said Ana Pacheco, a police spokeswoman.
  
  While police tried to break up the fight, someone threw a bottle and struck an officer, according to police and fire officials. The officer was taken to Weiss Memorial Hospital in good condition, according to a fire department spokesman. He was treated for his injury and released.
  
  Another officer was injured during the fight but refused medical treatment, police said.

That doesn't explain the gas teams. The Tribune says even less than the Sun Times, burying the lakefront breakdown in a story about Sunday's shootings. Something is seriously wrong in Chicago. No one in the media has a scanner?

UPDATE: CrimeInBoystown blog has much better reporting that the major media outlets, including radio transcripts they typed up.

UPDATE: Video of the mayhem beginning. See it, save it, before they take it down and it disappears at the behest of Rahm.

UPDATE: They removed the video - but it'll turn up soon we hope. The internet is forever.

UPDATE: Channel 7 has portions of the video, including a copper getting hit in the back by a thrown bottle and debris. We can't imagine why Rahm or Garry wouldn't want this video broadcast far and wide - it would justify a crackdown of ....oh....wait...."crackdown," right. Can't have the police defending themselves and making the community safe for the decent law abiding taxpayers.

UPDATE: CrimeInBoystown (and Wrigleyville) blog has the video and other video as well.

Miami Police: Get a Gun

When seconds count, the police are only minutes away:

• John Rivera, president of the Miami-Dade Police Benevolent Association, has warned Florida residents to arm themselves because the police are not coming.
  
  Speaking to WSVN News, Rivera said, “If the mayor’s not going to provide security, then my recommendation, as an experienced law enforcement officer for nearly 40 years, is either buy yourself an attack dog, put bars on your windows and doors and get yourself some firearms because you’re going to have to protect yourselves.”
  
  The comments were made after Mayor Carlos Gimenez decided to cut $64 million from his 2014-2015 budget resulting in a possible loss of 600 police jobs to the county.

That isn't scare tactics - that's reality. Anyone with a brain realized that police can't be there all the time. A visible presence is a deterrent in most cases, but being in exactly the right place when a crime is occurring is a rarity you see mostly on television. You want protection, follow this guy's advice, especially in this era of "austerity" where police budgets are concerned.

Victim Meets Rescuers

Just passing through town last year and ended up having a memorable stay:

• A man nearly died at O’Hare Airport going through security a year ago when he had a heart attack. On Friday, the victim got to meet those who stepped in and saved his life.
  
  [...] For Wade Anderson and his wife, Diane, they appeared relaxed and were able to smile this week. It was no laughing matter last July 9. That’s when strangers were all desperately trying to save Wade’s life after he collapsed from a heart attack as he and his wife approached a TSA screening area. The couple watched surveillance video of the event for the first time this week.
  
  “I thought he was gone and they were like angels out of nowhere,” Diane Anderson says. “If it wasn’t for those people who stepped up right away, he wouldn’t be here today.”
  
  TSA worker Regina Swain was one of the first to help. “I looked down and he wasn’t breathing,” she says. She called for an ambulance and started performing CPR. Her colleague Jacob Neal rushed over to help and quickly took over. “You look at it like someone is part of your family, and you know he probably has kids and family,” Neal said.
  
  Officer Patrick McGrath and off-duty nurse Raquel Prendkowski also stepped in to help as his wife watch on in shock. It didn’t look good for Anderson, even after a defibrillator was used twice. On the third attempt — to the amazement of everyone – they got a heartbeat.

Between the TSA people, the copper and the nurse (a copper's wife) they managed to avert tragedy. Nicely done folks.

Did You Lock the Door?

No, I thought you did it. Whoops!

• A dead body on a gurney fell out of a coroner's van when a door malfunctioned, sending the corpse into the middle of a busy roadway in Pennsylvania.
  
  The Bucks County Courier Times reports the accident happened around noon on Friday near a shopping center in Feasterville, Pennsylvania.
  
  A photo on the newspaper's website shows the corpse, wrapped in what appears to be a white sheet, lying in the street as cars buzz by. The Bucks County Coroner's Office says the driver realized immediately that the door had opened and retrieved the body within minutes. The office says it "deeply regrets" the incident.

Now that's a bad day.

Witch Hunt on the Way

Get ready for a raft of bad headlines...and worse lawsuits most likely:

• In a major policy turnabout, Mayor Rahm Emanuel will make citizen complaints against Chicago Police officers available for public scrutiny, according to city officials.
  
  In March, a state appeals court ruled the city couldn’t keep the records secret, and the city vowed to appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court.
  
  But on Friday, city officials said they won’t appeal after all.
  
  “We did think we had a strong case and a viable argument, but we decided this comes in line with our efforts to build relationships between the public and police department and improve transparency,” city spokeswoman Shannon Breymaier said.

That sound you just heard was the sound of hundreds of officers being thrown under the bus for the sake of political expediency.

Bodies Keep Piling Up

There's the weekend twenty....plus a few:

• Two people were killed and at least 21 others have been wounded in shootings across the city since Friday evening.
  
  The most recent fatal shooting happened early Saturday in a Chicago Lawn neighborhood apartment on the Southwest Side, where a 50-year-old woman was seriously injured and her son was killed in a domestic-related incident, police said.

Well, now that Garry has gotten that number out of the way, off to tell everyone that "crime is down" and pop a few cold ones.