Courtesy Abused

Way to go Yoyo!

• A couple of weeks ago, a woman approached a firefighter standing in front of a downtown firehouse and asked if she could park in firefighter parking lot which was locked. Firefighter responded no that's just for members working that day.

  Woman responded well I'm the first deputy superintendent for CPD open the the gate. While it should be noted didn't identify herself from start, civilian clothes, civilian car, didn't show badge, or ID.

  Firefighter responded I'm sorry but I don't know you but you can park on the street right there that's reserved for us. She asked if she would get a ticket which the firefighter shrugged his shoulders and said I don't know.

  She rolled her eyes and walked away to high-end restaurant across street and FaceTimed someone ranting while showing firehouse. Within minutes CFD exempts pulled up to firehouse to scold the members.

  We have no problem giving you guys parking when you properly identify yourself with ID, professional courtesy goes both ways.

Yoyo makes $226,872 per year - not counting what she might charge her niece for loaning her the vehicle used to deliver heroin on the west side. And here she is hassling a firefighter, calling CFD supervisors, and wasting their time coming to scold someone who was just making sure CFD property was occupied by CFD personnel.

Conehead Deflects

When caught doing something stupid....or racist....accuse that the other guys of doing what you got caught doing:

• A defiant Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday urged the U.S. Justice Department, which is now investigating his administration’s hiring practices, to launch a similar probe of what he said is the predominantly white administration of President Donald Trump.

  With “only one Black person in his administration” and a U.S. Education secretary in Linda McMahon whose “background is wrestling,” Johnson said it’s clear that Trump is “aligned with the ultra-rich,” and has assembled a “country club” administration dominated by white people at the expense of “marginalized” groups.

The current administration has far more diversity than "one black person." 

But a national administration should be reflective of the nation as a whole, and in that case, representation should be in the neighborhood of 13% black, 19% Hispanic, 6% Asian and 58% white. 

Or you could just hire the most qualified people....that might make sense.

Careening Toward the Cliff

The psychos at the CTU won reelection:

• Members of the Chicago Teachers Union reelected Stacy Davis Gates and her team Friday, continuing the 15-year-run of the leadership group credited with installing the city’s current mayor and for support of beyond-the-classroom social justice issues.

Never mind that kids can't read or do math or be equipped with the most basic skills to survive in an increasingly automated and technical society. 

The CTU wants to insert itself "beyond-the classroom" because they've failed at the most basic tenet of their jobs.

And more than any other union, they're the ones driving everyone into the ditch, over the cliff, ramming the iceberg.

CPS Wilding Warning

Sorry, did we say "wilding"? We meant "teen takeover."

There was a letter sent out to all CPS families and a couple people forwarded it here:

• We are reaching out today because we have been notified of several potential teen-related trends that may materialize at our beaches this evening. The Chicago Police Department is continuing to ask for your partnership in encouraging our youth to be safe and responsible throughout the summer. As we have seen from past large gatherings involving teens and young adults, there is a risk of things becoming unruly, and in some instances, violent.
  
  We ask that you and your children please review these important reminders about Chicago’s beaches:

• Chicago’s beaches do not officially open until Friday, May 23
• No lifeguards are currently assigned to our city’s beaches.
• Alcohol is prohibited on all Chicago beaches.
• All beach visitors are subject to search.
• Citywide curfew laws apply on the beach just as they do throughout Chicago.


CPD’s goal is to ensure public safety while maintaining peace. Therefore, in instances of large gatherings, we will use de-escalation and dispersal techniques to encourage our young people to comply with the law. This will be particularly important in situations where young people are walking in roadways and/or obstructing the public way. Individuals who fail to voluntarily comply with lawful police orders may be subject to arrest.

Assuming all the parents got this letter (it came out after 1700 hours on Thursday) and they all read it and then they read it to their kids, we can safely assume that this weekend downtown will be all glitter and rainbows and maybe we'll all see a unicorn.

Mt Greenwood Big Foot?

Humorous post from the southside (click for larger version):

Sounds like some bored adults.

This Sounds Fun Actually

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It used to be easier to have fun.

Egghead Solves Crime

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Seriously?

Oh no, no more flippers:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conehead Doesn't Care

 Petitions? We don't need no stinkin' petitions:

• A petition urging Mayor Brandon Johnson to support an 8 p.m. curfew for unaccompanied minors in the downtown area has gained over 3,000 signatures as of midday Friday. But there are no signs that Johnson plans to change his mind.

  Two people, including a tourist, were shot during separate “large group” incidents in Streeterville last month, leading residents and their alderman to call for an earlier curfew. Charges were filed this week in connection with the tourist shooting.

At last count, Conehead was at a 6% approval rating, so he doesn't really give a shit about what voters or concerned citizens might say. He certainly doesn't care what white liberals in Streeterville have to say. It's not like they're going to vote republican or for someone vowing to crackdown on crime.

Unknown Motive

Dear ol' dad has no idea:

• Aquino called for an arrest to be made in the shooting and questioned who would want to take his son’s life.

  “I want to see who did it and why,” Aquino said. "[Justice] is important.”

But as we posted yesterday, the family wasn't quick enough to purge "shadow's" social media.

Oh, you didn't know he was nicknamed "shadow"? Didn't notice the black and beige clothing?

You didn't see the "down with the crown" hand signs, typically used by two-six bangers to dis the kings? 

Don't worry - someone will get shot over near Central Park or Homan or Kedzie shortly.

Typical Illinois Government

Remember that "crackdown" that was supposed to start happening on that expressway approach ramp to O'Hare where all those driver's park, waiting for flights to arrive?

• A crackdown was supposed to start this year, fining drivers who park on the shoulder to wait before pickups at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

  Cameras were supposed to be installed under a new Illinois state law that just went into effect. But it turns out the law is not being enforced — and email exchanges with state agencies uncovered that the cameras were never even installed in the first place.

What's the point of passing a law that no one has any intention of enforcing?

Juicy Gets Another Win

He won't have to give any of that OnlyFans money to his co-conspirators:

• Two brothers who helped stage a hate crime attack against actor Jussie Smollett won’t be able to collect damages from Smollett’s lawyers for defamation, a federal judge in Chicago ruled Friday.

  Since shortly after Smollett reported he had been attacked by two men near his downtown apartment in 2019, brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo have claimed they were hired to pretend to beat up the former “Empire” star while shouting racist, homophobic slurs at the gay, Black actor.

  That led to criminal charges against Smollett for lying to police, and to a trial where the brothers became star witnesses – and stars of a documentary about the hoax.

  But that meant the pair could not claim they were defamed by Smollett’s attorney, Tina Glandian, U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland wrote in an order dismissing the case.

  “The ways in which plaintiffs voluntarily injected themselves into this public controversy are myriad,” Rowland wrote, listing among other things the Osundairos hiring a publicist to field media requests immediately after their arrest and negotiating a deal for a documentary within weeks of Smollett’s arrest.

"...voluntarily injected...."

Paging the Keesing Bandit.

Can this entire episode finally disappear now?

What the...?!?

This is one way to avoid chases:

• New video was released on Wednesday showing a police officer firing shots at a vehicle in Old Town during an October incident.

  The shooting occurred around 6:50 p.m. on Oct. 13 in the 300 block of West Division Street, according to Chicago police. 

  Officers had attempted a traffic stop after receiving a report of a person with a gun. During the stop, the occupants of the vehicle ignored police commands and fled, striking a police vehicle, police said.
  

The Officer just fires a shot at a fleeing vehicle. Maybe some one-on-one training with the Department's Use of Force "expert" is called for?

Crap like this is going to continue to fuel massive lawsuits and payouts in the future.

Seriously?

We've been warning Officers for years now - don't seek trouble nowadays. It isn't going to end well for you in the current political atmosphere. They demanded certain things and deserve to get them, good and hard. But we've also said if something unavoidable pops up, handle it and move on. 

Like this:

• ....maybe the 1st watch desk crew from 019 can explain why they told an accused homicide offender he can't turn himself into police at 019 east. And yeah he would've been processed at Belmont and Western regardless, most desk crews are filled with do nothings, blah blah blah.....but come on now. I'm all for not doing anything proactive, but it doesn't take much to get him in handcuffs, call a car in, call the Area, etc

If the various oversight organizations (IAD, COPA, Inspector General, etc) wanted to make an issue of this, it's a slam dunk suspension or worse. You have a duty to perform a police function when presented with such a situation. 

Yes, we've seen the posts and experienced first hand, different Districts sending crashes to "the District of Occurrence"and other such nonsense. We had a sergeant back in the day who routinely got CR numbers on entire District desks that sent crashes to his people and he made sure that the barest minimum was sustained.

Someone comes in and says they are wanted for a homicide or questioning or whatever, it takes no effort to handcuff a compliant subject, then find a tact team that needs a head or an FTO that needs to train a PPO. You don't send them away.

Wow

We aren't sure what line The Reader is taking on this, but we don't think it's the one they think they're taking:

• Paragraph #1 - A new analysis from the Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts shows that criminalization of firearm possession increases incarceration and fails to reduce gun violence.

Um....so you want to DE-criminalize gun possession? Is that what we're reading?

• Paragraph #2 - The report, Punishing Fear: The Devastating Impacts of the War on Gun Possession in Chicago, confirms what many in marginalized groups have long argued—targeted and racialized policing of gun possession, strict gun laws, and increased investment in surveillance technologies, especially within the city’s Black and Brown communities, fail to address safety concerns and, instead, add to them.

Um....so you DO want to DE-criminalize gun charges, but only in minority communities, which are Ground Zero for....gun crime. We got it.....maybe.

• “The criminalization of gun possession and the conflation of gun possession and gun use have made communities less safe by entangling more people in the criminal legal system,” the report states. “Time and time again, Black men, teenagers, and children are targeted, arrested, and criminalized for carrying guns that they feel are necessary for their own protection in areas with high rates of gun violence and low clearance rates by police.”

There's a lot to unpack there. "Possession" is okay, but "Use" is bad. People (or folks) who are black are carrying guns (illegally) for protection because where they hang out happen to be....areas of high rates of crime.....

You mean like Gun Possession?

And those low clearance rates aren't for lack of effort by the police - it's because of low rates of cooperation with the police, intimidated witnesses and a States Attorney who has destroyed any faith people once had in the system.

And then this word salad of bullshit:

• They pointed to figures that illuminate the current state of gun ownership in Black communities, such as an Urban Institute survey of a nearly all-Black group of participants that found that more than 90 percent of male gun carriers in Chicago do so to protect themselves or others.

  “People who possess guns without the proper licensure are often demonized in the media,” Johnson says. “However, many of these people are themselves survivors of gun violence who are taking measures to protect themselves and their families from violence. We believe it is critical to center their voices in this conversation.”

So, because they are "survivors of gun violence," they should be permitted to break the law?

Here's a novel idea - go get licensed, go get qualified, and carry a gun legally! You jump through the hoops put forth by Springfield and you can avoid all of that law breaking hassle you keep bitching about. 

But that might mean you don't get to play the victim any more....hmmmm.

Speed Ordinance Delayed?

Some political backlash?

• The Chicago City Council delayed a vote to lower the city's speed limit Tuesday, after a committee approved the measure Monday.

  City Council could lower the citywide speed limit from 30 miles per hour to 25.

  The ordinance was introduced by Alderman Daniel La Spata back in July, with the backing of transit and biking advocates. He said this is all about making people safer.

  [...] Mayor Brandon Johnson said he asked La Spata to pull the legislation for now, while still expressing support for making streets safer.

"transit" exists to get people around the city faster.

"biking advocates" are lobbyists for people who don't obey a single traffic law that we've ever seen. Except in cases of "dooring," we estimate that of all the traffic accidents we handled involving a bicycle, the cyclist was 100% at fault.

Something is going on with Conehead asking for a delay though.

Money Grab and More

Here's a bright idea to go along with the ten years of destruction of the city's traffic grid after taking out hundreds of miles of serviceable traffic lanes with little used bike lanes - let's strangle the roadways by making everyone move slower!

• A measure to lower the speed limit on many Chicago streets to 25 mph from 30 mph got the green light Monday from a City Council committee, despite opponents’ fears about an increase in road rage incidents.

  The ordinance to lower speed limits on all city-owned roads was approved 8-5 by the Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety, with its chairman, 1st Ward Ald. Daniel La Spata, saying the measure “sets us on the pathway to save hundreds of lives in the next decade.”

LaSpata is full of crap - this is a money grab for the speed cameras.

There's also a "public snitch" ordinance in the offing:

• One ordinance would introduce a public enforcement pilot program that would ticket drivers based on residents’ photos of scofflaws parked in bike lanes. The yearlong pilot program would give drivers a warning in the mail for a first offense, and fines after that.

Because that won't be abused by Karens with an agenda at all.

This made is laugh out loud:

• La Spata assured the committee the goal is changing driver behavior, not increasing revenue. La Spata said the Chicago Police Department’s head of patrol told him the ordinance would not affect how police enforce speed limits.

Yeah, because CPD doesn't enforce speed limits. Anything over a certain speed is considered a "pursuit" and the Department will hang you out to dry via GPS speed measuring, and we haven't had a working radar gun in Patrol for years.

WTF Blue Island?

A lot of hot tempers out there:

• An off-duty Blue Island police officer is in custody after he allegedly shot at an off-duty Chicago police officer’s car during a road rage incident Saturday evening, according to internal CPD communications provided to CWBChicago.

  CWB is not identifying the Blue Island officer by name because charges have not yet been approved in the case.

  According to a CPD report, a female Chicago officer who’s on maternity leave was riding in the front seat of a car that became involved in a minor crash with the 47-year-old Blue Island officer around 5:03 p.m. in the 4700 block of South Union.

  After the crash, the report stated, the suburban cop “proceeded to pull alongside” the Chicago officer’s car. He “drew his weapon and discharged one round in the direction of [the Chicago officer’s] vehicle, striking the passenger side door barrier and ricocheting off the front windshield.” No injuries were reported.

  The drivers of both cars chased each other and called 911, the report stated.

Ten-to-one no one had any idea who they were in conflict with, but still, blasting away at other vehicles i traffic?

Charges Dropped

One of two:

• Barely a month after two Chicago cops, including a high-ranking deputy chief, were charged with slashing vehicle tires while on duty at Puerto Rican Fest, charges have been dropped against one of them.

  Last month, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office declined to file felony charges against Nieves, 53, and Gies, 26, citing insufficient evidence.

  Despite the state’s attorney’s decision, supervisors at the Chicago Police Department decided to strip both men of their police powers and directly file two misdemeanor charges of criminal damage against Gies and one count of the same charge against Nieves on September 5.

This has rapidly turned into a welcome spotlight on the corruption evident in the Bureau of Internal Affairs / Internal Affairs Division and the yo-yo in charge. She seems more determined to remove opponents and impediments to Conehead's "progressive" agenda....and maybe settling a few grudges along the way.

Better Picture

You know, if you click on the pictures here, you ought to get a larger version.

If that doesn't work:

And yes, we know that in most cases, decals are printed by an outside vendor. But the vendor usually goes by what's written on the Order Form and it's usually checked by an editor. 

What the client wants, the client gets....even if it's wrong