Springfield Morons at it Again

There's no way this passes Constitutional muster....and it seems to run against existing Federal Law:

• A first-of-its-kind state law would force gun manufacturers to pay for a portion of the financial toll of gun violence in Illinois.

  Gun violence costs the state about $20 billion annually, according to estimates based on data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That figure includes direct costs like emergency services, medical care, law enforcement resources and funeral expenses. It also includes indirect costs like mental health treatment, loss of income and childcare.

Illinois is paying funeral costs? Why?

• The Responsibility in Firearms Legislation Act, a bill coming before the Illinois General Assembly, would require gunmakers to contribute to a state fund that would help offset the costs shouldered by taxpayers and the individuals directly affected by a shooting.

  If passed, the law would be a first of its kind in the country. Other states have considered similar bills, but none have become law.

  “Name another industry in this country that gets to sell a product, profit from the damage it does and pay nothing for it,” said state Rep. Kevin Olickal during a news conference Tuesday morning outside the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Gee whiz.....how about clothes dryers? Gas ovens? Sharp knives? Extension cords and electrical appliances? Pools, wall mounted TVs, cleaning chemicals, etc. All of these things can damage or kill people....and do kill people on a daily basis.

The key here is to have knowledge of the danger, properly maintain the device and don't use it outside of the manufacturers' instructions.

• “When a car is defective, the automaker pays. When a drug harms patients, the manufacturer pays. Tobacco pays. Asbestos pays. Opioid companies are paying right now. That is how accountability works in every industry but one: firearms,” said Olickal, who is sponsoring the House version of the Responsibility in Firearms Legislation Act.

Wrong you moron. And you actually prove it in your screed - "defective." A gun is a legal device and when maintained and used properly, functions as designed, thereby rendering your entire argument pointless.

You aren't holding Ford, Chevy or any of the other dozens of vehicle manufacturers liable when a drunk misuses their product to kill innocents....because they tell you not to operate the car unsafely or when impaired. If you've ever bought a gun, the paperwork that comes along with one rivals many automobile user manuals.

But holding criminals responsible for the misuse of legal products has never been big on the lib-tarded radar. It would actually solve problems while cutting into their voting totals. If passed, this will cost Illinois more millions of dollars in taxpayer money for a losing proposition.

Old Story

But recently brought to our attention - this is why the lib-tarded idea of "violence interrupters" is among their dumbest thoughts ever:

• Democrat leaders in Massachusetts implemented ‘social workers’ to go on police calls to ‘de-escalate’ situations 

  One of them was just attacked after spending 45 minutes trying to talk to the suspect.  

  A mental health clinician was knocked to the ground and an officer was stabbed in the arm with a sword after 45 minutes was spent trying to talk the suspect into coming out peacefully for help. 

  Critics saying that the ‘social worker’ program is putting both the clinician’s and police officers in danger. 

It is almost a certainty that the Officer got stabbed because he had to split his attention between the assailant with the sword and the social worker being attacked. Lord know what would have happened if the Officer winged the social worker while saving their life. 

And imagine if Massachusetts had a COPA.

The email claimed that shortly after this incident, Massachusetts either discontinued the program or social workers were refusing to go to these calls without a heavy police presence. 

What Exactly is the Point?

More useless new laws in Illinois:

• New rules governing who can use electric bikes and scooters, including where and how fast they go, will go into effect next year following Gov. JB Pritzker’s signature on Wednesday.

  Pritzker signed Senate Bill 3484 which establishes regulations on “micromobility” transportation that include age requirements, speed limits and rules on where they can be operated. The bill takes effect Jan. 1.

  “Technology is evolving, providing expanded mobility options for our neighbors through the rise in popularity of e-bikes and scooters,” bill sponsor Sen. Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago), said in a statement. “But without clear regulations for these devices, we are seeing increased injuries and accidents — jeopardizing community safety.”

So now CPD is going to be allowed to pursue lawbreakers, ticket the drivers, impound and tow the vehicles, thereby increasing the chances of consequences and deterring criminal mischief??

• Well, no

Have you not been paying attention that past twenty years? 

Demote Them All

The Department is waaaaay too top heavy anyway, but Conehead is gutless:

• A group of high-ranking Chicago police officials are pushing to form their own union, setting up a possible fight with Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration.

  In a letter last month to Militza Pagán, Johnson’s deputy mayor of labor relations, an attorney with the Illinois Police Benevolent & Protective Association asked the city to “voluntarily recognize” a new collective bargaining unit of police commanders and deputy chiefs. The union already represents sergeants, lieutenants and captains.

How about "No." It's defined as "Exempt" for many reasons, all of which you VOLUNTEERED for. 

You took no test for your spot. In most cases, you demonstrated no actual job skills aside from who you knew or who you blew. You played the political game, you serve at the pleasure of the administration, and you get an undeserved / unearned pension bump that puts you head and shoulders above just about every other public sector retiree, not to mention the "good ol' boys" network that lands you six-figure retirement jobs ON TOP OF the unearned pension.

• A source with knowledge of the unionization push said it was launched after the city curtailed how much time exempt-rank supervisors can spend on medical leave.

  The issue only surfaced when two commanders were told they needed to return to work, as one remained hospitalized with a serious illness and the other was recovering from back surgery, the source said.

Okay, that's just wrong, but wholly undeserving of all of the other protections that come with unionization. If it's that big a deal, go back to your previous Patrol rank that has a Contract.

• Commanders and deputy chiefs aren’t afforded other benefits that other rank-and-file cops get, including earned time off, pay for being prepared to work during off-hours and allowances for uniforms, the source said.

  Lieutenants are now turning down promotions to become commanders because of the disparities — something that never used to happen, the source said.

That makes them the smart ones, and perhaps the ones that Conehead should be looking at to run Units and Districts. 

Would you want to try to run a city Department with leftover deadweight who owe their spot and allegiance to previous mayors? They could spend their days undercutting the policies you ran and got elected on and you wouldn't be able to remove them because of union rules. 

Screw that. 

School Safety? Hahahahaha

And there it is - the real reason they wanted police out of schools:

• Chicago Public Schools is poised to cut in half the money and staff the district provided to some high schools after they removed police officers stationed at their campuses.

  High schools were given money roughly equivalent to a school resource officer’s annual salary in order to implement alternative approaches to safety, known as Whole School Safety Plans.

  A Chalkbeat analysis of the proposed 2026-27 budget found that funding for Whole School Safety Plans at 54 high schools would go from $8.7 million to $4 million and the number of positions would go from 80 to 42. Most schools would see a reduction from $160,000 or more to around $80,000 and the loss of roughly one position, under the proposed budget.

So they removed the actual police, hired cheaper staff with the "savings," then finally, cut the cheaper staff personnel to redirect the money to favored proommiesgrams.

The other reason tehey got rid of cops was because in certain situations, the cops are REQUIRED to take police action, i.e. arrest offenders....and that fed into the "school to prison pipeline" nonsense the demo-lib-commie narrative was preaching. 

Can't have kids thinking they might go to jail for criminal offenses ya know. Gotta get that entitlement thought process indoctrinated as soon as possible.

School Drones?

It's amusing that anyone thinks this might actually work:

• Schools in Florida, Georgia, and Colorado will begin deploying drones designed to confront active shooters.

  The drones will be put into play as soon as the upcoming school year, marking one of the latest efforts by school officials to use emerging technology to bolster campus security, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

  At least nine schools — three in Florida, five in Georgia, and one in Colorado — will be equipped with nonlethal drones developed by Austin-based Mithril Defense.

How "non-lethal" are these allegedly going to be?

• The drones, stored in on-campus docking stations, can be activated by teachers through a mobile app or classroom panic button and are designed to reach a reported shooter within 15 seconds.

  Operated remotely by professional drone pilots, the aircraft are equipped with flashing strobe lights, sirens, pepper gel dispensers and the ability to ram a suspect at speeds of up to 60 mph. They are also capable of breaking windows if necessary to reach a target.

A couple thoughts here - such as "What determines the schools that these drones will be deployed?" Schools with a history of violence? Because the schools that get labelled as violent aren't the schools that end up with mass shooters - look it up. And then this:

• "....stored in on-campus docking stations..." We'll give it 72 hours before some of the little angels damage, steal or hijack the drones;
• "Operated remotely by professional drone pilots..." It's a government program, so there will be government unions in play, meaning breaks, lunch hours, limited OT, along with failed maintenance schedules, outdated software/hardware, inevitable breakdowns going un-repaired by other union shops, etc. For obvious real world examples, look at Fleet Management here;
• "...ram a suspect at speeds of up to 60 mph." Really? A hunk of plastic, ceramic and metal ramming a human body at high speed is going to be "non-lethal." By the way, we've got a bridge to sell you.

Now it's time to roll out the lying statistics:

• According to a Washington Post tracker, nearly 400,000 students have experienced gun violence at school since the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, with 435 school shootings recorded during that period.

Bullshit - those numbers cover all incidents on (or near) a campus, even those that occur at 0200 hours on a Saturday night that had nothing to do with school or students from a particular campus. The real numbers are closer to under 100 per year.

And it's not gun violence....it's gang violence.

• Two additional Florida schools — one near Fort Lauderdale and another in Tallahassee — will participate in the state's $557,000 pilot program funded by lawmakers.

Could you name the lawmakers and how much each contributed? Oh, it isn't lawmakers? It's TAX PAYER money and it's being shoveled to someone who does a flashy presentation, but is short on the details for this fantasy experience.

• Mithril Defense founder and CEO Justin Marston said the idea grew out of the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 students and two teachers were killed while law enforcement officers waited more than an hour before confronting the gunman.

  Marston said seeing inexpensive drones used extensively in the Russia-Ukraine war convinced him that a nonlethal version could help save lives during the critical first moments of an active shooting.

That is one helluva leap, seeing as how all the Russia-Ukraine footage involves drones carrying either a grenade or a shaped charge, designed to have a sizeable lethal blast radius....and someone thinks they can reduce that to a non-lethal response with any sort of accuracy?

It would be far cheaper to install reinforced doors, better security screening, and :::gasp!::: armed teachers. 

But it's newsmax.com and they're retarded in the extreme.

More Signs? Seriously?

Remember these?

 

They're everywhere. The City even threatens businesses with all sorts of licensing hurdles, procedural stumbling blocks or premise inspections if they decline to post these signs, all in an effort to make Chicago the most gun-unfriendly city in existence, all while gun crime remains steadily persistent and homicide totals are regularly at the top of the national numbers.

You know what we need now? More signs!

• Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke is launching a public service campaign across the Chicago Transit Authority system aimed at warning people who commit violent crimes on buses and trains that her office will seek pretrial detention.

  The campaign will place signs on CTA buses and trains as part of an ongoing effort to reduce crime on public transit.

  "It is a sign Eileen O'Neill Burke hopes anyone boarding a CTA bus or riding a train will read in detail," according to the announcement of the campaign.

  O'Neill Burke said the signs are intended to send a message to potential offenders.

This is a really dumb idea, a significant misstep by O'Neill Burke.

First up, that's a BIG leap, assuming criminals (A) can read and (B) would take time from searching for victims to brush up on potential consequences.

Second, criminals know with 100% certainty that even if they're caught committing a crime, they'll be out on a SAFE-T Act release within hours, BECAUSE THEY SEE IT ALL THE TIME.

Hell, all we have to do is scan the first ten pages of the CWB blog and we can find almost twenty stories about CTA crime by persons out on parole, out on no-bail provisions, or escaped from EM bracelets. 

After all those signs that don't keep the CTA gun-free, anyone with a brain knows that new signs explaining non-existent consequences aren't going to do much either.

Crackhouse Owner Speaks

This alderthief has a great idea:

• Ignoring fears that Chicago was “buying high after selling low,” Mayor Brandon Johnson’s most powerful City Council ally on Wednesday forged ahead with his eleventh-hour plan to create a public infrastructure trust to take back the city’s parking meters.

And where would this "public infrastructure trust" get it's funding to buy back the parking meters?

You'll never guess:

• Budget Committee Chair Jason Ervin (28th) formally introduced his long-shot ordinance that would create a nine-member public trust to pool pension and city funds and match the $2.5 billion winning bid submitted by Stonepeak Partners, a New York investment firm, for the city’s parking meters.

Brilliant.

Might we add a suggestion though? If we're going to be taking existing pension funds, it ought to be funded by the best funded first and then working it's way downward through the funding ratios.

First up would be the aldermanic pension funds, which we're certain aren't short a dime.

Second, the teachers pension fund seeing as how they only contribute 2% of their salaries while taxpayers pick up the rest.

Working downward from there, the Fire and Police pensions would be near the bottom of having to contribute to this political boondoggle. 

Oh, and the funding that would be raised (unlikely as it seems) would be applied in reverse, so the worst funded would reap the benefits first since those are the pensions that need saving the most. 

Another Blown $$$ Opportunity

Chicago missed the casino boat a long time ago. Then the River North Casino has turned into a boondoggle of construction delays and missed revenue projections while the suburban Rivers Casino turned into the #1 casino in the state that prints money for Des Plaines.

Now it's going to turn into a lawsuit that Conehead's people will likely lose:

• Bally's casino is warning Chicago aldermen it will sue the city if the City Council does not reverse its decision to legalize video gambling terminals in bars and convenience stores — and the company is offering a deal it says would replace the revenue the city was counting on.

  At a committee hearing, Bally's senior vice president reminded aldermen that a 2022 agreement struck by the Lightfoot administration gave the company a monopoly on virtual slot machines within Chicago city limits. Legalizing video gambling terminals, known as VGTs, outside Bally's property would render that contract null and void, the company said.

  The City Council approved legalizing VGTs as part of its late 2025 budget.

  If the contract is voided, Bally's said it would halt its annual $4 million licensing payments to the city and would no longer honor its commitments to diversity and union hiring.

Chicago politicians could f#@$ up a one-car funeral.

Don't Get Middled

Most readers here (not all) are Chicago Police Officers.

You have pretty much zero authority to investigate Federal agents, no matter what Conehead and the alder-morons claim:

• City officials were summoned to a testy City Council committee hearing Friday to provide answers about the delayed implementation of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s order directing Chicago police to investigate potential crimes committed by federal immigration agents.

  Members of the Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights spent about two hours peppering mayoral aides and police leaders with questions about Johnson’s “ICE on Notice” executive order, asking what the decree has accomplished and what additional steps are needed to enforce it.

  Police officials said the department had finalized internal procedures to implement the order, nearly five months after the mayor’s 30-day deadline. However, they wouldn’t say why it took so long.

  “We value CPD and want to believe that officers are indeed here to preserve and protect our communities. But it is long past time for accountability to the public,” said Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th), the committee chair.

They even want third party complaints to be "investigated" when the complainant wasn't there, witnessed nothing, and has zero standing. 

Don't fall for their bullshit, because they WILL NOT back you when the Federal courts decree you operated outside the scope of your local authority. 

This is a Law?

This has been around for almost a century?

• A man who fatally punched a House of Blues patron outside the River North venue in November 2023 was sentenced to five years in prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter, according to court records. Jamie Miller, 32, was originally charged with murder. But prosecutors were unlikely to win that charge at trial, based on nearly a century of Illinois case law holding that a person cannot reasonably expect a single punch to kill someone.

  Miller’s sentence will be cut in half under state law, and he will also receive credit for 912 days spent on electronic monitoring and in jail while awaiting trial, according to an order from Judge Mariano Reyna.

That's a Hell of an assumption because we've known a few Golden Gloves fighters and more than a few street brawlers, and we always assumed that they could kill someone with their bare hands if the decided to go that route. In fact, killing someone with bare hands accounts for more murders than rifles most years, so the possibility is there for anyone who cares to research it. 

Giving this "freebie" to criminals who "didn't know" after they've spent years perfecting the ability to end a fight as quickly as possible is questionable at best, irresponsible at worst. 

But maybe we can use if for the Street Vigilante Committee in the future? 

Heat Wave - Close the Beaches!

It's a bit warm:

• Chicagoans caught outside on Tuesday sought relief from the heat any way they could as the city entered its second stretch of 90-degree-plus temperatures in a month.

  [...] Temperatures peaked at 96 degrees Tuesday afternoon at O’Hare Airport, shy of the record 100 degrees set in 1998, according to the National Weather Service.

  An air quality alert was in effect until at least Wednesday for the area. The air quality could worsen on Thursday and Friday, when wildfire smoke could reach the region, according to the Illinois Department of Health. State health experts encouraged people to stay indoors, use stronger air filters and turn off fresh air intakes on air conditioning. They also suggested limiting time outside.

So when does Conehead shut down the beaches?

You know, like McStreetlights did for Rahm at North Avenue a number of years back - it was just too darn hot to have the beaches open next to the cool refreshing water. 

Or has City Hall revamped that opinion these days? 

Shots Fired; Second Guessing Begins

Was this the Tire Deflation team?

• A driver in a group of speeding vehicles evaded a deflation device and headed toward police downtown early Sunday, prompting an officer to fire shots, CPD said.

  Police said officers responded to a call about a large gathering in the 300-block of East Balbo Drive, near Grant Park, just after 3 a.m. There, officers saw a group of speeding vehicles and deployed a tire deflation device.

  Police said one of the vehicles, a black sedan, went around the device and headed toward an officer. That officer fired shots, striking the vehicle, but no one inside of it was hit by gunfire, police said. The officer suffered a minor ankle injury and was treated and released from the hospital.

So much to unwrap here. There has been a long standing policy that banned shooting at vehicles. We think it was Hillard who implemented it, but it was written into the Orders that Officers would remove themselves from pathways of vehicles because it was argued by lib-tarded morons that Officers only stepped into the pathway of a two-ton hunk of steel, aluminum and plastic simply so that they could shoot at it.

Yes, they actually said that.

And so began the long descent into the current policy:

The result being a couple thousand percent increase in vehicles fleeing from the police and these "takeover" incidents popping up all over. So what did the Department do?

• formed a unit where Officers are required to place themselves into the potential path of on-coming vehicles to deploy Stop Sticks.

Now the fleeing driver has two choices - (A) run over the Stop Sticks or (B) swerve around them where the Officer who just deployed the sticks is standing or moving, thereby placing the Officer in the position of either violating Department Policy by shooting at someone attempting to kill them with a two-ton hunk of metal and plastic or making a split second decision to turn left, turn right or leap over....whoops, you're dead, because we all see what they did to the Officer who made a snap decision in about six-HUNDREDTHS of a second in the lil homicide shooting.

Don't....Just Don't

First up, "gold braid" pensions need to be rescinded, outlawed, ended. You test for promotions that result in salary increases and your pension contributions go up accordingly as does your pension payout. Logical even if the math doesn't quite work out.

But a political appointment to an exempt rank resulting in a massive pension bump? You didn't test for that, you didn't earn that, there aren't even a list of qualifications or career goals that would enable everyone to have a shot at those ranks. It's all who you know or who you blow. The number of people who "earned" a gold braid pension on their backs or on their knees would be a scandal of massive headlines if the media ever did their actual jobs.

And this is another bad idea that needs to die:

• Disparti Law Group, alongside co-counsel Linden & Bustamante, is proud to announce a $7,000,000 settlement on behalf of a group of Cook County Sheriff’s Office commanders who alleged they were unlawfully terminated after exercising their right to organize and form a labor union.

  The case stems from events that began in 2017, when a group of Correctional Department Commanders employed by Cook County sought to unionize. After a lengthy legal process, the commanders prevailed before the Illinois Labor Relations Board, which issued a Recommended Decision and Order recognizing their right to organize and authorizing the formation of their union.

  According to the claims asserted in the litigation, shortly after the commanders successfully exercised those rights, Sheriff Thomas J. Dart terminated the commanders who had participated in the unionization effort. The lawsuit alleged that those terminations were not coincidental, but rather constituted unlawful retaliation against employees for engaging in protected labor activity.

  The right of workers to organize, collectively bargain, and advocate for better working conditions is a cornerstone of labor law in Illinois and throughout the United States. Those protections exist to ensure that employees can exercise their rights without fear of punishment, retaliation, or loss of employment.

The article says they were "terminated" which (if we're understanding it) equates to being fired. That's not proper, but they should be demoted to their last testable rank.

The elected executive should have the power to put his people in charge and remove them when they aren't carrying out his/her policies. After all, that's what the voters put him/her in there for. The US Supreme Court just restored the right of the Executive Branch to shitcan the bureaucratic "deep state" and put his people in.

Locking in "exempt" promotions for people who aren't doing the job or refusing to carry out the executive branch policies is how you get a "deep state" of  useless drones sucking up scarce time and scarcer money.

Congestion Fee?

Has this dumbass even been downtown recently? Does he have a view from his rubber room?

• A follow-up report commissioned by Mayor Brandon Johnson lays out an array of revenue-generating options that includes a sales tax on virtually “all consumer services,” taxing high-volume electricity users at a higher rate, and imposing a congestion fee on “vehicles entering or exiting a designated central area during peak periods.”

  To chip away at Chicago’s $36 billion pension crisis and erase the city’s structural deficit, the 23-member group of civic leaders is also suggesting offering retirees lump-sum payouts in lieu of monthly pension checks, consolidating actuaries and administrators of the four city employee pension funds, and restoring the automatic escalator locking in annual property tax increases at the rate of inflation.

Downtown is a ghost town compared to pre-plandemic numbers. Plywood storefronts are everywhere. Restaurants that used to serve the downtown workers are few and far between. Parking is a breeze.

Congestion is something that happens in a thriving metropolis....which Chicago isn't at the moment. Any sort of "congestion fee" will only make people avoid downtown even more so that usual. As will the increased sales taxes and electricity rates.

How about cutting something, like fully-staffed 90%-empty-schools? 

Teen Takeover Discussion?

Why are politicians "discussing" lawbreaking? 

• As more so-called teen takeovers could be planned in Chicago this week, the concern over the gatherings seemed to be split in a South Side room, literally, on Tuesday night.

  "They're saying they want places to go, things to do. We have park districts and everything in our communities. Let's open it up for them," one woman said.

  Organizers with Acclivus, a community health organization, hosted a teen takeover listening session in Washington Park.

  "The kids are just dangling. They don't have nothing to do," one young person said.

  Tuesday night's meeting came as Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth said there will be intermittent closures of DuSable Lake Shore Drive ramps if necessary in response to planned large gatherings at Foster Beach on Thursday and Friday.

  Parking restrictions will be in place along the lakefront from Lawrence to Foster on June 4 and June 5 from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., and the DuSable Lake Shore Drive off-ramps at Lawrence and Foster will be closed if necessary, Manaa-Hoppenworth said.

They have plenty to do - they just don't do it. 

They could also get....we dunno....jobs?

There are twenty-six MILES of beaches, many within walking distance of where these teens live:

• 12th Street
• 31st Street
• Rainbow Beach
• 57th Street
• 63rd Street 
• South Shore 

Just to name a few that are far closer than Foster Avenue. What's the attraction of going that far away from home, besides the abundance of victims and the lack of police manpower?

There are laws in effect - enforce them aldercreature. Stop making excuses for misbehavior.

Not a Bright Idea

How long do you think it will be before someone gets beaten with one of these chairs?

• The Chicago Park District will debut 100 green metal chairs around Buckingham Fountain Saturday as part of a new pilot program that takes a cue from European cities like Paris and encourages people to socialize in the lakefront park.

  But having somewhere to sit comes with a price tag.

  The 100 chairs, which were manufactured by the brand Fermob in Paris, cost $54,438 in total, according to a Park District spokesperson. Of that, $24,438 was footed by the city. Lollapalooza, which partnered on the project and will host its 21st festival in Grant Park July 30-Aug. 2, paid the remaining $30,000.

  In a statement, the Park District said, “the seating program will transform the space and encourage social gathering.” The movable chairs will be in the park until September, except, the city says, during major events hosted in Grant Park, although it did not specify which events would prompt chair removal.

Unless they're going to fix these chairs in place with rebar and concrete pads, it'll be a few days, tops. 

Along with the betting on when someone will get beaten with a chair, how long until the first chair:

• gets tossed in the fountain?
• gets tossed in the lake?
• gets tossed in the river?

Our guesses?

• a couple hours
• a couple days
• a week - because they'd have to carry it somewhere

Whom comes up with this nonsense?

Nice E.M. Program judge Bitch

Damn....the keyboard stuck again....judge Beach:

• More than one-third of the people on electronic monitoring for shoplifting cases in Cook County have gone missing, according to newly released data from Chief Judge Charles Beach. So have a quarter of the robbery defendants. Those are just a couple of the details revealed in a new report issued as part of Beach’s campaign to overhaul the county’s ankle monitor program and improve its transparency.

  Tuesday’s report shows that of the 244 missing defendants, about 24% were on electronic monitoring for domestic-related charges. Alleged shoplifters dominate the balance: 24 people put on ankle monitors after being charged with shoplifting have gone AWOL, but a separate report by Beach’s office shows only 73 people are on ankle monitors for shoplifting, so a third of them have gone missing.

  Also showing above-average disappearance rates: burglars. Nearly 15% of them have slipped away while awaiting trial. And 27% of people charged with battery have gone AWOL, too. For more serious aggravated battery cases, the AWOL rate is 10%.

The main trouble we always saw with EM was that anyone who disregarded the restrictions was more apt to disregard consequences - meaning that when they were in danger of being caught which they almost always were:

• they had broken the law once and got caught, 
• they broke it a second time violating the terms of release,
• then they were far more likely to actively resist arrest and do anything they could to avoid going back inside.

What's a third violation since there weren't any consequences the first two times? This happened time and time again. And now judge Bitch Beach thinks some "study" is going to cure the anti-social tendencies of people (or folks) who had zero regard for the system in the first place?

This is Legal?

We see a lot of challenges to it:

• Requires the Secretary of State to administer the Intelligent Speed Assistance Program. 
• Provides that a driver who commits 2 qualifying offenses within a 12-month period is required to enroll in the Program, and the Secretary shall suspend the driver's license or driving privileges which shall remain suspended until the driver participates in the Program for 365 days for a driver's first Program enrollment, 730 days for a driver's second Program enrollment, or 1,095 days for a driver's third or subsequent Program enrollment. 
• Sets forth requirements for notification, application for an Intelligent Speed Assistance Permit, and installation and proof of installation of an intelligent speed assistance device. 
• Requires a participant in the Program to pay the Secretary a Permit administration fee in an amount not to exceed $30 per month. 
• Creates the Indigent Intelligent Speed Assistance Device Fund and the Intelligent Speed Assistance Permit Fee Fund. 
• Establishes....

You get the idea. you get caught speeding twice and you are required to install government monitor in your car and pay $30 per month for a year ($360 for the year).

If you get a second set of violations, it's $30 per month for two years. Third time is a three year enrollment with the $30 per month "administration fee."

You can read the whole thing at the link up top. We don't see how the government gets you to forcibly enroll in a subscription series of fines for something that used to cost you about $100 for the moving violation.

Are speed camera tickets part of this? Does the Traffic School option still exist? Since police can't chase for "minor" violations, we're seriously considering putting magnets on our license plates and taking them off when driving around town.

UPDATE: this monitor tracks the car, not the person driving it? So exactly like Chicago speed and red light tickets - the owner of the registered vehicle on the hook? Great - we'll keep Grandma's name on the title (R.I.P Nana) and keep the car at our out-of-state property.

UPDATE: Amazing that these politicians think they'll be able to monitor and track vehicles without an issue, but Electronic Monitoring for violent felons is a total failure. If this worked so well, how come child molesters and gun offenders aren't tracked at all? The failure rate of GPS trackers on domestic violence offenders is rumored to be north of 80% in terms of timely notifications.

Cops Singled Out Again

What is it that we've always said?

• cops are not above the Law, but neither should they be under it

You're under it again:

• The City Council moved Wednesday to ban cops with ties to extremist groups like the far-right Proud Boys or Oath Keepers from serving in the Chicago Police Department.

  The ordinance from Ald. Matt Martin (47th) prohibits officers from engaging in “extremist activities,” defined in the measure as any attempt to overthrow the U.S. government through violence or “unconstitutional means.” The measure also bans police from actively participating in extremist groups, such as doing fundraising, recruiting or displaying tattoos to uplift extremist groups.

  It passed 28-21.

  Under the new ordinance, alleged extremist activities or ties to extremist groups will be investigated by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, an independent city watchdog, instead of the department’s internal investigatory unit.

  In his appeal to colleagues, Martin said Chicago must defend against federal acts such as President Donald Trump’s Day 1 signing of roughly 1,500 pardons and commutations for those convicted of attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Martin added that the ordinance protects against extremism beyond Trump’s presidency. 

Believe it or not, there isn't a single illegal thing about the Jan 6 pardons - there is no restriction on the President's power (though there probably should be some guardrails) so this local ordinance is just so much smoke being blown up asses.

So shortly, if you're a registered Republican or a member of the NRA or advocated for bodily autonomy regarding mandatory jabs or contributed money to Turning Point USA, you'll be labeled an extremist, charged and fired.