Dear 011, We're Sorry

The other day, we teasingly said that 016 had surpassed 011 in October homicides after the slaughter on Irving Park Road. The totals were around five-to-one.

It seems the denizens of 011 took offense at that and have started up the recently dormant killing machine with two in two days, closing the gap and letting the world know just who are the baddest of the bad.

So to the men and women in 011, we apologize if anything we said in jest increased your workload during what was a promisingly slow October leading into winter.

Seventy is still well within reach - we're just saying.

Hire This Guy

Bulletproof? Or just balls made of brass?

• Boston man Jean-Paul LaPierre, who caught a Blue Line train Sunday morning to the Chicago Marathon, said he didn’t hesitate to act when he heard someone was robbing people on the train.
  
  “I don’t like people that strike fear in people like that,” he said. “I don’t like bullies.”
  
  A man boarded the train about 5:50 a.m. and showed a handgun to passengers while demanding their money in the 5800 block of North Cumberland Avenue, Chicago police said.
  
  “He was very quietly robbing people,” LaPierre said. “I went up front and said to him, give me the gun and we started fighting for the gun.”

It must have been a fake gun, because the CTA has all those signs up that don't allow guns.

But regardless, this guy was in town to run the marathon, turns around and solves crime, takes a gun off the street and seems is a likeable person. Groot could do worse.

More Corruption Probes

Are there going to be a bunch of Illinois democrats and business people headed to jail finally?

• Exelon Utilities CEO Anne Pramaggiore abruptly retired Tuesday amid a wide-ranging federal investigation that includes the company’s lobbying activities at the Illinois State Capitol.
  
  The announcement of Pramaggiore’s retirement came less than a week after Exelon and ComEd acknowledged they had received a second subpoena in the probe. Authorities were looking for “communications” between the companies and state Sen. Martin Sandoval, a Chicago Democrat whose home and offices were raided by FBI agents last month.
  
  In addition, the Illinois Senate was served with a search warrant late last month. The lengthy list of things authorities searched for included “items related to ComEd, Exelon, any employee, officer or representative of any of those businesses, Exelon Official A, Exelon Official B, Exelon Official C, Exelon Official D, and/or any issue supported by any of those businesses or individuals, including, but not limited to, rate increases.”

Just a cursory reading of the article hints at the names Quinn, Zalewski ... and Madigan.

Hi Varrick!

So Varrick Douglas (we think he's the commander of Area South) showed up in 007 the other night and he had a message for the boys and girls in Englewood:

• Stop writing to the blog
• you're hurting Rod's feelings
• "You don't know how good you have it here."

Seriously? In Englewood? With a nut that yells at officers, belittles supervisors, orders people to skip blue cards and write movers to drive numbers (a quota by any other name) and he's telling people how "good they have it"?

How about this instead:

• You guys and gals in Englewood don't know how good everyone else has it NOT being in Englewood working for someone who thinks supervising by intimidation actually works in what's considered one of the three or four worst Districts in the Department.

And Varrick - did you think to maybe ask some of the cops in 007 what exactly was going on with Rod? Or you're just reflexively closing ranks behind another undeserving member of the command staff who makes you all look like idiots?

Never mind. Don't answer that. We've seen the press conferences. You're following the lead of Special Ed.

Keep in touch Englewood.

Scooter Program

This traffic disaster is coming to an end - temporarily:

• The four-month electric scooter pilot in Chicago, both celebrated and reviled by residents, comes to an end Tuesday.
  
  As of last week, people had taken 772,450 rides on electric scooters, according to the city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection. That’s about 7,000 trips a day. The city’s goal for the program was to determine if scooters would improve transportation access, reduce single-occupancy car use and provide a way to get to and from public transit.
  
  Was it a success? It depends on how you measure it, and whom you ask.

It also depends on the ER visits and how many scooters ended up chopped up for scrap, liberated from GPS for personal use and in the river just for giggles.

The city is deciding if it should roll out a permanent program next year. See if you can spot the connected company that's sure to win some sort of "contract:"

• The city issued 39 citations to scooter companies, for problems ranging from not having a working front light to not responding to complaints. Of the 10 companies, only Lyft, which operates the city’s Divvy bike share system, received no citations. Lime was cited just once. Bird and Chicago-based VeoRide had the most, with seven each.

We're surprised Groot didn't have Special Ed or Special Fred try some sort of Scooter Patrol downtown to supplement or replace the bike units.

School Strike This Week?

The way we're hearing it is as follows:

• The theater continues as seen in this weekend's news articles:
  
  
• Mayor Lori Lightfoot, in a video posted to Twitter Monday afternoon, said she hoped the two sides could use Monday’s negotiations to “build on the progress that we’ve made and come together for the good of our teachers, our students and our city.”
  
  Her message struck a conciliatory tone following a rocky 24 hours over the weekend that saw the two sides attack each other after an “angry” bargaining session Friday, then regroup for a “productive” meeting Saturday.

• The teachers walk out Thursday, just to prove they can do it. Why have a vote unless you can flex that muscle?
• After marching Thursday and Friday, "progress" happens Friday/Saturday and everyone goes back to school Monday.

We actually know some teachers, and they are not happen with the "social justice" stunts being pulled in their names. They're not prepared to lose a full paycheck and delay summer plans over this nonsense and they've told Sharkey's people that. We'll see in short order.

In the meantime, Escamerit's 025 Day Care Pilot Program is filling up fast! Only a few spots remain and if construction starts on reopening Area 5, there might be last-minute overbooking possibilities.

LAZ Assholes

Nothing like generating more useless paperwork, keeping cops off the street:

• LAZ has no respect for CPD. Wrote tickets on uc cars working marathon even after I politely spoke with her and asked not to write them. I even pointed out the placards. Total disregard. She couldn't write fast enough and refused to wait for our bosses to contact her bosses.

Leaving aside the fact that the Department probably shouldn't be burning undercover cars at a public event like the Marathon, the orders clearly stated that anyone utilizing an issued placard could park off route as on-duty police. But because LAZ has a quota and no actual sense, they write the ticket and run away.

How about locking them up for jaywalking?

Fetal Robots

California of course:

• Leave it to California to introduce a policing “innovation” that makes Barney Fife look like Judge Dredd.
  
  When the Huntington Park Police Force rolled out “HP Robocop” in June of this year, it was heralded as a major step for public safety for its supposed ability to keep an extra pair of eyes on patrol without taking an officer off assignment.
  
  “This is a big accomplishment for our city and introducing HP RoboCop shows innovation and the incorporation of new technology,” Mayor Karina Macias said at the robot’s introduction.

But....:

• RoboCop recently got its first test in the realities of policing, and the machine definitely didn’t live up to its imposing name. According to NBC News, when a fight broke out in Salt Lake Park, a bystander rushed to RoboCop and pushed the robot’s call button. Nothing happened.
  
  “I was pushing the button but it said, ‘step out of the way,’” Cogo Guebara said. “It just kept ringing and ringing, and I kept pushing and pushing.”
  
  The woman figured it needed to scan a face, possibly a deterrent to prank alerts, and positioned herself in front of the robot’s camera to no effect. A woman with Guebara then used a cell phone to call 911, and first responders arrived 15 minutes later. By then, the fight had already ended and one woman was bleeding from a wound on her head. Despite the chaos, RoboCop continued to follow its pre-determined route.

In the robot's defense, once it's internal GPS discovered it was in California, it kind of gave up caring.

Special Ed Hems, Haws

Have we got a spy in the administration?

• “It’s a fact, Eddie Johnson was to be fired on Friday morning by the Mayor. He convinced LL/Claussen to give him till Tuesday to rally the Black Caucus in order to keep his job. He meets with them individually and promises various promotions on top of the disastrous promotions already made. His argument to the Black Caucus is “I’ve promoted more blacks than any other Superintendent in the history of CPD...you wanna reverse that...?”. Hence this mornings impromptu press conference with the BC (and Irving as their mouthpiece).”

It certainly is suspicious how quickly the Caucus reversed it's calls from "Special Ed betrayed the community" to "Well, you know, maybe we ought to rethink this thing."

• Flanked by several African American Chicago aldermen supporting him, Supt. Eddie Johnson went on the defense Saturday morning at a news conference to respond to an inspector general’s report released this week noting he was among police brass who viewed video of the Laquan McDonald shooting and did not object to it.
  
  Johnson said that he did not see the video until two weeks after the fatal incident and that as a deputy chief of patrol at the time, he was not involved in any decisions about disciplinary action following uses of force.

And once again, Ed is lying. They brought a special laptop out from Lewin's IT people and everyone watched the available videos on scene. But the media won't report that for some reason.

Meal Train

Helping a fellow cop:

• On October 10, Tyler and Emma received the devastating news that Tyler has Stage 3 Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. Because it’s an aggressive form, he has begun 96 continuous hours of chemotherapy. He’ll have two weeks off, before another 96 hours, then two weeks off. This excruciating process will go on for the next four months.
  
  Any help with meals, childcare, groceries, and housekeeping will be much needed and greatly appreciated.

(comments closed here)

Restricted Time Due?

Better get your days in soon:

• President Donald Trump, who has been attacking Chicago’s handling of crime for years, plans to make his first visit to Chicago as president on Oct. 28 for a high-dollar fundraiser and possibly a speech to a national convention of police chiefs.
  
  Trump hits the city for a lunch co-hosted by Cubs co-owner Todd Ricketts, chairman of the combined fundraising efforts for the Trump 2020 campaign and the Republican National Committee. As of Friday, a source said the location has not been finalized; one possibility is Trump International Hotel & Tower, 401 N. Wabash Ave., or another downtown venue. Wrigley Field has been ruled out as a venue.

This is NOT an emergency. It's a pre-planned event. So you can bet the City is going to violate the Contract once again, attempting to cancel everyone's days off or limiting Time Due.

Saturday Promotions

Six Lieutenants and fifty-six Sergeants or so.

016 Out of Control (UPDATES)

As of a month or so ago, 016 and 020 were the only two Districts without a single homicide in 2019. Now 016 is up to something like four or five, rivaling 011 for the worst September/October citywide. Things like this aren't helping:

• A suspect is in custody Saturday in connection with a shooting that killed one person and wounded four others at an apartment in Dunning on the Northwest Side, police said.
  
  About 5:30 p.m., the five people at an apartment complex in the 6700 block of West Irving Park Road, according to preliminary information from Chicago police.
  
  Four adults were taken to hospitals in serious-to-critical condition and a fifth adult was pronounced dead at the scene, a Chicago Fire spokesman said.

Domestic related? Dope house?

We haven't seen the words "mass shooting" yet.

UPDATE: Four dead (fifth is looking poorly), vaulting 016 into the October homicide lead and the Homicide Hall of Fame. We can't remember the last quadruple homicide off the tops of our heads, it's been so long.

UPDATE: All five?

This Goof Again?

Ed, put a leash on this dumbass before he gets cops sued and costs taxpayers money:

• Rod at it again. Came into roll call screaming about making traffic stops and not writing movers. He threw a fit and said if you pull over anyone, you ticket them! No of and or buts. Forget the blue cards! It’s against the law not to write them! ...then he stormed out of roll call. 

He's exposing cops to monetary judgements and taxpayers to one Hell of an EEOC beef at some point. Perhaps he needs to be moved to somewhere he doesn't have contact with actual human beings, seeing as he can't relate to them.

We will pay 100 toothpicks to whoever can get him on video.

This Goof Again?

She didn't listen to a judge? Who would have thought that?

• A woman identified by police as a “habitual stowaway” was arrested Friday night while attempting to get around a TSA checkpoint at O’Hare International Airport.
  
  Marilyn Hartman, 67, was charged Saturday with a felony count of criminal trespass to a registered area at an airport, Chicago police said.
  
  Hartman was taken into custody at O’Hare around 10 p.m. Friday after TSA officials spotted her “moving TSA lane dividers in an attempt to circumvent security,” Chicago police said. She was already on probation for a 2018 incident in which she snuck onto a London-bound flight from O’Hare.
  
  Friday’s arrest is the latest in at least a dozen such incidents in which Hartman has attempted to sneak through airport security. When she was released from custody in January 2019, a Cook County judge repeatedly warned her to stay from O’Hare and Midway airports.

How about letting her on a nonstop flight to Kabul? She'll be someone else's problem then.

Remember to Swipe!

Don't be caught dirty.... like these units (click for larger version):

Seems like some serious non-compliance going on there.

Why is that?

Reorganization Coverage

Here's the media coverage of the re-organization that's going to be sweeping away the questionable decisions of the McCarthy era:

• Mayor Lori Lightfoot will reopen two old detective bureaus and put 151 cops back on the street under a reorganization plan that includes the creation of a new department to merge operations currently done by the Chicago police and fire departments and the city’s 911 center.
  
  Lightfoot Budget Director Susie Park said Chicago police, fire and the Office of Emergency Management and Communications each currently do their own payroll, information technology work and human resources, but those functions would be consolidated under a new Office of Public Safety Administration.
  
  Currently, the city has three detective regions known as Area North, Area South and Area Central. Lightfoot will reopen the Harrison Area on the West Side and Grand Central Area on the Northwest Side in an attempt to increase collaboration by detectives and patrol officers, the mayor’s office said.

Fun times on tap!

Let the Sucking-Up Begin

Forty-four captains before the end of the year?

Looks like the rumor of one per watch is coming true.

Keep your eyes on Wheezie.

Everything Old.... (UPDATE)

....is new again:

• Area 4 and Area 5 to be re-opened by May 2020

There's more, but info is still coming in.

UPDATE:

• Alongside the Chicago Fire Department and the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, we are beginning the process of modernizing our administrative support and information technology functions under the City's new Office of Public Safety Administration.
  
  The Office of Public Safety Administration will integrate the administrative units of CPD, CFD and OEMC into a streamlined division, better supporting the needs of our city's first responders. All administrative functions will be transferred to a new unit designed to bring finance, HR, IT and other administrative functions into a more efficient unit.
  
  The units that will be affected are as follows: Finance Division, Human Resources Division, Timekeeping Unit-Headquarters, Medical Section, Grant Section, Information Services, Information and Strategic Services, General Support, Police Documents, Equipment and Supply Section and Facilities Management Division.

And here's the real kick in the balls:

• All personnel will remain in place until the Office of Public Safety Administration is fully operational. There will be opportunities to find reassignments based upon operational needs in accordance with the applicable collective bargaining agreements, as well as duty status of affected members. We are working with labor affairs and Bureau leadership to ensure an efficient transition for affected members.
  
  The transition of sworn officers and uniform personnel back to the streets will take place over the next six months, with expected launch of the new agency on or before May 1, 2020. The primary locations of the new agency will be located at Public Safety Headquarters, 3510 S. Michigan Ave and the Office of Emergency Management and Communications at 1411 W. Madison.

A whole lot of phone calls are being made right now. And SOB stories being fine tuned.

Big "Whoops"

Officer hit....by an assist unit:

• A Chicago police officer was injured Thursday afternoon when he was struck by another police car as officers were pursuing someone who had just thrown a gun out of a car on the West Side.
  
  Police were near the 1800 block of South Drake around 1:10 p.m. to monitor a “gang funeral” when officers saw someone toss a gun out of a car, Deputy Chief Ernest Cato told reporters.
  
  Officers tried to pull over the vehicle, but the driver took off. One of the officers got out of the squad car to try to spot the car on foot.
  
  “When he entered the alley, at approximately the 1800 block of Drake, he was struck by assisting units,” Cato said.

We're told that the officer rounded a blind corner and was struck a glancing blow by the squad car. Immediate aid was rendered and he was rushed to the hospital for treatment of a concussion and possible broken bones. An accident that could have ended badly - but an accident nonetheless.

Be careful out there. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

No Confidence in Special Ed

We pointed this out years ago and the aldercreatures are just catching up now?

• Chicago’s African American community will have trouble trusting CPD Supt. Eddie Johnson now that it’s known Johnson saw the Laquan McDonald shooting video before it was publicly released and was among the police brass who believed the shooting was justified.
  
  That’s the bottom line from influential black aldermen, who urged Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday to take Inspector General Joe Ferguson’s investigative report into consideration when she decides whether to permanently retain the superintendent she inherited.
  
  Ferguson’s long-awaited report, released this week, placed Johnson, then a deputy chief, at a meeting of police brass held “on or around” Nov. 1, 2015.

Here's some more "bombshells:"

• the command staff on scene saw it;
• McCarthy saw it ;
• Rahm saw it;

You think Rahm signed off on $5 million before seeing exactly what he was suppressing before the election?

Crime Down in the Big Apple

Look what New York is doing:

• New York’s overall crime rate is 3% lower than last year — while the city is on pace to record the fewest murders in nearly 70 years, NYPD officials said Tuesday.
  
  Murders, robberies, burglaries, grand larcenies and auto thefts were all down through the first ninth months of 2019 compared to the same period last year — 69,995 vs. 71,871, the NYPD said.
  
  There were 237 homicides through September, a nearly 2% drop from 241 from last year. For all of 2018, there were 289 murders, three fewer than the 292 in 2017.

237 homicides is something like the 011, 015 and 025 combined, and New York is looking at 237 total.

We're joking of course, and we've written plenty of posts about how NYPD "kills" crime via the crooked CompStat program and wholesale reclassification of index crimes - lessons applied here to a lesser extent.

And look how they brag - Groot is going to demand the same thing here shortly.

Courtesy Parking

So if courtesy parking is a thing of the past, does that mean:

• aldercreatures parking in police lots is going to be reported by Ferguson and fines/sanctions will be filed against politicians?
• District level "courtesy" for certain events is done now?
• churches, especially on the south and west sides, can expect strict parking enforcement by officers - and the "revrunds" and aldercreatures who call to complain will be told to stuff it?

Sunday is coming, and we're asking for a friend.

Here's a Great Idea

And we can apply it across all levels of Chicago, Cook and Illinois government:

• Eleven people were arrested in southern Mexico on Tuesday after the mayor of their village was dragged out of his office, beaten, and then tied to a pickup truck and dragged through the streets of the town, according to officials.
  
  The State's Attorney General's Office in Tuxtla Gutiérre said in a news release that the incident happened early Tuesday in the town of Las Margaritas, when a group of people stormed Mayor Jorge Luis Escandón Hernández's office and caused damage to real estate, in addition to assaulting him.
  
  The angry group of farmers was demanding the mayor build a road he promised to construct during his campaign, Mexican news outlet Excelsior reported.

We're going to need a tractor to drag JayBee the Hutt.

Teachers Want What Now?

We thought they represented....you know....teachers:

• Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has raised another issue that she said is holding up an agreement with the teachers union: affordable housing.
  
  In a statement late Tuesday — nine days from a strike date set by the Chicago Teachers Union — the mayor said the union is “demanding that the city enact CTU’s preferred affordable housing policy as part of their contract.”
  
  [...]
  
  In a response early Wednesday morning, the CTU tweeted that “we have nearly 17,000 homeless students in CPS.”
  
  “Our proposals demand more staff to support families in danger of losing housing, and advocate for a program that financially helps (support staff members) and new teachers purchase a home,” the union continued. "The mayor finds them ‘unreasonable.’"
  
  [...]
  
  But [Groot] said the CTU’s collective bargaining agreement “is not the appropriate place for the city to legislate its affordable housing policy.”

No shit. Even though we live in Chicago - unlike many hundreds of teachers - we don't get to choose CTU delegates. We choose aldercreatures who are supposed to represent the citizenry. CTU dictating policy for 2.6 million citizens is a non-starter here and Groot really ought to hammer them on it.

Make Your Plans for Next Year

The schedule change is a done deal. All that's left are the details to be hammered out on paper:

• A controversial plan to change the starting times for Chicago police officers across the city will take effect in January over the objections of the Fraternal Order of Police, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and First Deputy Police Supt. Anthony Ricco said Tuesday.
  
  “This isn’t the sign of the Apocalypse. Everything will be fine,” the mayor said after her weekly “Accountability Tuesday” meeting with police brass that went on without Supt. Eddie Johnson, who just returned from a vacation in London.
  
  “This is something that’s really consistent [with] and maybe mandated by the consent decree.…We got a little ahead of ourselves….The union absolutely has to be read into it. And we’ll give people time to adjust their schedules accordingly. It’s gonna be part of a pilot program that is launched in January.”
  
  Riccio said the scheduling change was announced last week, then temporarily pulled back because the FOP was not notified in advance.

Special Fred was no where to be seen during this presser. Interesting. Someone talked some sense into the brass:

• Although the union is up in arms, Riccio characterized the time changes as “minimal.” It’s not enough to disrupt the personal lives of officers whose days off have already been canceled throughout the summer.
  
  “I believe it’s 30 minutes that the shifts will change in time, so it’s not a big time change. It’s nothing dramatic,” Riccio said.
  
  “I understand that that could cause some child care issues. Some issues at home. But the change in time is very minimal. And…not rolling it out between now and January gives everybody time to plan for….child care issues are or anything they have going on at home.”

Which is what should have been done in the first place instead of alienating the men and women working the actual new hours. Riccio's never had a bad spot in his career and certainly not one that required him to show up anywhere on time. Neither has anyone working for him. Which is fine - the is Chicago after all.

But don't pretend to care now. It's insulting our intelligence and the intelligence of all the men and women of the CPD.

Trial Begins

This one might be a doozy:

• A Chicago police sergeant and an officer on his gang team “used their police powers to lie, cheat and steal” by obtaining bogus search warrants to routinely rob drug dealers of cash and narcotics, federal prosecutors said as the officers’ federal corruption trial got underway in earnest Tuesday.

The judge who signed off on these bogus warrants is also in trouble and the reverberations might be echoing for quite some time among the specialized units.

This should also be (again) an indictment of the "merit" system and phone call units. But it won't be.

Slow News Day

This is what the IG and the media spend their time on:

• Chicago police officers improperly used department-issued placards to park illegally with their personal vehicles in police station parking lots so they or their friends and relatives could attend Cubs and Bears games, an investigation by the city’s government watchdog found.
  
  Officers also regularly parked their cars in a tow-away zone along a narrow street near City Hall, creating potential safety hazards by blocking fire lanes and emergency exits, Inspector General Joseph Ferguson’s office reported Tuesday.
  
  Ferguson also chided Police Department leaders in the seven-page report for not reminding officers during roll calls about a February 2018 directive prohibiting such preferential parking.

Fergie doesn't name names, which make it obvious to the cynic in us exactly who is abusing the parking. Anyone paying attention could (and did) predict it back in 2018. Nothing changed and the connected stayed connected and Fergie has an opportunity to slap the Department around using the media to do Groot's dirty work.

More Windows

A few weeks ago, we mentioned the Colour Nail Salon that has drawn the ire of the "community" for expecting payment for services rendered. One of the "activists" had taken it upon himself to throw bricks through the windows of the salon, saying that:

• "We’re pretty much at this point commandeering this place and any neighborhood store that disrespect our women and children."

Because property damage is always the answer to "disrespect."

We're told by some south side readers that the salon has lost it's windows once again, not for the second time, but for the third, making us wonder how long they're going to stay in business seeing as how the "community" doesn't want them there.

We're also wondering how long until the words "nail desert" are uttered by the "activists."

Father Mulcrone Letter (UPDATE)

The Fire Department Chaplain is outraged and he puts it in words (click for larger version):

He puts into words, far better than we did, the outrage every decent person (and especially every first responder) should have regarding the casual disrespect shown to our brothers and sisters on the fire side.

This guy is now our third favorite sky pilot after Father Dan and Rabbi Wolf.

UPDATE: A half-assed apology offered:

• Ald. Maria Hadden (49th) is apologizing to the Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2 for her chief of staff’s “insensitive” Twitter takedown of Ald. Jim Gardiner (45th) that ended up infuriating rank-and-file firefighters.
  
  [...]
  
  “She’s sorry. It was a stupid comment. She wasn’t really thinking. We’ve been in communication with Local 2 making sure [they understand]. She’s making a written statement of apology,” Hadden said
  
  “She worked for Ald. Arena. It’s politics. Leftover hard feelings with the election results. Sometimes, people let their emotions get the best of them . . . She wasn’t trying to put down the firefighters. It was an insult aimed at Gardiner. Their personal, leftover things from their dealings in the 45th Ward.”

That's probably all the CFD is ever going to see.

Schedule Change Makes the Paper

Waller says it's coming regardless, which just shows everyone he's as big a tool as Special Ed. And the FOP insists it's an issue for collective bargaining:

• The Fraternal Order of Police is furious — and exploring its “legal options” — in response to a proposal to change the starting times for officers across the city to rein in runaway overtime and reduce down time between shifts.
  
  The sweeping proposal, though, has been “rescinded temporarily,” according to Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony [Google-me].
  
  Other sources said a recent memo from CPD brass outlining the changes was held up for “legal issues” tied to command and control matters outlined by the consent decree and that the shift changes “will happen.”

How about you sit down with a few parents who are working the different shifts and try to figure out what works best?

• Some midnight officers aren't going to be home in time to make lunches and take kids to school. 
• Neither will second watch parents. 
• Some afternoon officers won't be able to pick up kids after school with the 3:45 dismissals and 4:00 PM start times.

Rational humans ought to be able to figure out something to accommodate working parents instead of Special Ed and Special Fred pretending that they forgot where they came from so Groot isn't angry with them.

This is a Joke Right?

We can't believe we actually have to ask this, but reality is stranger than fiction lately:

• So an offender commits murder executing his ex, tell his family he intends to kill himself, and later that night officers drive up on his car whereupon he executes himself inside the vehicle. COPA is debating issuing a CR number because the officers presence caused the suicide!! This is phucking madnesses!! There nothing outside of the realm of sanity this people won’t blame the police for.

You know why we have to ask if this is true? Because we verified through various trusted sources that COPA is actually looking to jam up coppers on non-duty related weapon purchases. There isn't anyone in Illinois who has to register a gun...except CPD, and COPA is looking to get cops fired and save Groot some pension money.

We had thought this one was a bit far fetched, but we were mistaken. Watch your asses.

Blackhawks Fundraiser (CORRECTIONS)

Click for a slightly larger version. The pixelation factor kicks in pretty hard on this photo, so it's difficult to read. In essence, the Blackhawks are hosting a Law Enforcement appreciation night, 22 October, and a portion of the ticket sales go to the 100 Club, as fine an organization that exists to support families of officers killed in the Line of Duty.

Tickets go quick, so get on it boys and girls.

CORRECTION: Last year's poster - we're looking for an updated version. Link fixed.

ADDITIONAL: Fightfighter Appreciation Night is two days later on 24 October.

Former Cop on Divorce

Part of avoiding or stopping officers from harming themselves is dragging some issues out of the darkness and addressing them. Divorce is (unfortunately) common among the Department and a driving factor in many police suicides.

A former officer does some freelance writing for the Law Enforcement Today website and opens up about his recent struggles. Click over and give it a read.