More Questions About the Memorial

Just a point or two from the comments:

• Really This dept has raised Millions yet the land was free. Once again we are fools.
  
  Are they bringing in that much money that they can have a paid position to manage the park? I mean don't get me wrong if they are paying Phil lets say 20 grand a year but he can bring in 100 grand in donations thru his connections then its well worth the money. They have a hole list of people on the honorary committee but that doesn't mean they are actually managing anything just a name on a plaque. They need someone to run the day to day operation.

The Park itself is paid for. Didn't the City donate the land? So there is no note and we're pretty sure there are no taxes on a park.

The Memorial is built. Every bit of concrete, mortar, steel and marble belongs to the Memorial.

Maintenance involves what? Cutting the grass weekly? Paying the water bill every month for the fountain? Spring cleaning? We know they don't spend money on security as taggers proved earlier.

Even if none of this is covered by the Park District which maintains the entire lake front, how much could this be? There is no "day-to-day" operation of a Memorial.

Now does everyone see why there are questions arising? Why an accounting is being demanded? Why resentment is building? There ought to be an endowment of some sort for maintenance and then wrap up the Memorial organization. Anything further in the way of fundraising for disabled coppers ought to be brought to the members of the Department and presented as a new mission instead of twisting this one into something it never was.

The Inevitable Lawsuits

The slander continues unabated against the police:

• The lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court claims 18-year-old Aaron Harrison did not have a gun or point one at officers before he was shot to death Aug. 6.
• Attorney James Montgomery Jr., who is representing the family, said at least two video cameras near the scene may have captured the incident, which he calls a "summary execution."

And our favorite line of the entire episode so far?

• "If you were black and in the vicinity, you were fair game," said one man.

Piles and piles of dead black men across the west side - all put there by the police, don't you know? What a crock of shit.

Channel 2, Channel 5, Channel 7 coverage of this stupidity.

And of course, the TASER death:

• The family of a 42-year-old man who died earlier this month after Chicago police subdued him with a Taser and pepper spray filed a lawsuit Monday against the city.
  
  The family of Gefery N. Johnson alleges police used excessive force when responding to a call Aug. 4 at the Johnson home in the 8100 block of South Green Street.

Let's just say that anyone who can pull the barbs out of there body after being TASERed, is not someone who's going to go quietly in any circumstances.

Gary Officer Killed

RIP Officer:

• A 28-year-old Gary, Ind., police officer died Sunday after he crashed into another police car during a chase.

  Patrolman Benjamin Wilcher was chasing a suspect late Saturday when his vehicle collided with one driven by Patrolman Arthur Lemme at 35th Avenue and Virginia Street in Gary.

  Wilcher did not survive the surgery to repair his broken bones and his internal injuries, the Cook County medical examiner's office said. Lemme remained at Methodist on Sunday evening in stable condition.

Traffic pursuit.

The Scent of Impropriety

This is popping up in a few spots and we've been asked to address it. We just aren't sure how to bring it up without offending a bunch of people, one way of the other. Here goes the try.

First of all, don't get us wrong - we believe that the Memorial Park is a good thing, a great thing. Our dead have had zero recognition aside from the Star Case at headquarters that almost no one ever saw and the engraved wall at FOP headquarters that even fewer people saw as it was behind a locked gate. We fought long and vocally against the former aldercreature Haithcock's efforts to get a street sign named for Hampton and wrote a couple of passionate essays to shame our brass into supporting our dead (none of whom ever stepped up to the plate publicly if we recall).

We sat through the same presentations everyone else did for the Memorial Park. We bought t-shirts, sent in donations, some of us here even signed up for the automatic payroll deductions, some of us resisted. Toward the end of the fund raising though, it felt more like strong arming. We saw every single recruit wearing the Memorial pins and knew that they hadn't voluntarily bought them. And we heard that the people giving the presentations at the Academy were really pushing hard, very hard, for the Memorial to be the only "appropriate" contribution. And the St. Jude marches where directives came out telling everyone exactly where the pin was supposed to be worn so it didn't feel like an option uniform item. The entire thing became more than a monument to the dead. That in the effort to recognize the deceased, it became more about the fund raising than actually remembering those who have gone before. We didn't like it.

Then we confirmed with a number of HQ sources (and we're not talking one, two or three sources, but more - way more) who related that one of the criteria for "merit" promotion was having the box checked for payroll contributions for the Memorial Fund and if a choice spot opened up in a unit, anyone who wasn't in the payroll program wouldn't be considered. We really didn't like that.

Now, a number of persons are writing to us about how Cline is becoming the first ever director of the Chicago Police Memorial Fund and this is a paid position within the organization. The guy in charge of the push to get everything built, everything paid for, everything finished, is now the guy taking a paycheck from the organization. One might imagine that the entire creation was to provide a retirement job for one individual.

And we really don't like that we have become so cynical that we could believe for a second that our dead could be used so callously, so thoughtlessly. We weren't born this way, but we've become so. So we push it all to the backs of our minds.

But the old memories of the strong arm tactics are coming to the fore again.

New Policy in Effect

Hi everybody! Monique Bonds here. SCC has kindly allowed me to post here for a minute since we all know that no one actually reads that "official" half-baked site - Hi Pat! Nice tan!

The Department would just like to announce that in an effort to head off claims of racism, profiling and officers not being reflective of the community in which they patrol, only officers who match the race of a given offender will be allowed to shoot said offenders - everyone else must retreat in the face of confrontation until an appropriately matching officer becomes available. Same goes for traffic stops, domestic situations, and report taking. In the case of 311, callers will be given a preference of which race of operator they wish to speak with, though in some cases, calls will be routed to an overflow center in India.

Thanks for your time, and remember, Contact Cards are warning tickets.

Poor Lizards

Why didn't she just kill her abuser? It would have save her some jail time:

• A northwest suburban woman faces felony charges in Kane County after attacking her husband's pet lizards, killing one and severely injuring the other, authorities said Friday.

  A grand jury this week indicted Sara Tinsley, 37, of West Dundee, on one count each of cruelty to animals and aggravated cruelty to animals for allegedly throwing one of the reptiles against the wall and stabbing the other with a butcher knife. Authorities said it was an act of vengeance against her husband, who is accused of battering her.

A jury would be much more sympathetic to a battered wife than an animal abuser.

Welcome to France!

In France, there are certain areas called "Zones Urbaines Sensibles."

Sensitive Urban Zones.

As of last year, there were 751 such zones encompassing hundreds, if not thousands of square blocks that the French government exerts ZERO authority over. All are heavy concentrations of unassimilated muslim immigrants. We would call them "projects." The gendarmes simply call them "no go zones."

Welcome to Chicago's very own "No Go Zones"

• A beat car in 011 3rd watch tonight was stopped in traffic at California and Madison when a crowd of at least 100 who had been gathering for a protest behind Wallace's surrounded their squad car. The officers waited for the crowd to clear from the front of the car, using the loudspeaker for verbal direction. When the crowd (now mob) inched closer and kicked the squad car doors, they radioed for assist cars to help them leave the area. Assist units came and the units all left the area. ADS Williams proceeded to call the beat car into 011 where they were dressed down for for driving by the protest and inciting them. The beat car then responded by informing the ADS that no one had bothered to tell them that their was going to be a protest of 400-500 people on their beat, and that ramming their car into a crowd to escape it would have looked bad in front of the dozen flashing cameras. When asked what his plan was for the situation he replied "Well, we're just wingin' it."
• [SOS was] working last night and they had the whole unit working out in the 5th district. When 11 asked for cars and sort/heavy weapons to respond we were immediately told by Risley that no SOS officers are to be in the 11th district.

We can mobilize hundreds of officers in riot gear for a peaceful war protest downtown encompassing thousands of citizens, but in the face of a couple hundred people intent on violating the rule of law in regard to a gang banger being sent to his just reward, we are ordered to stand down, close our eyes and flee the scene.

Aren't we all proud of the caliber of leadership provided by the Chicago Police Department and it's political masters?

Gene Williams? Risley? Time for you to resign. And take Charlie with you.

Note: post corrected for translation

Officer of the Month

Dick Devine announced his retirement Friday. The list of candidates jockeying for the job has grown quite a bit. One name should stand out in particular to all police officers. A letter we received from a west side copper:

• SCC,

  A friend called us relating the following regarding the press conference where Devine announced his intention to step down at the end of his term. A reporter there asked Devine the following:

  (paraphrasing here) Alderman Harold Brookins has promised to indict one police officer a month should he be elected to the office of State's Attorney. What do you have to say to that?

  Devine stated something along the lines that if Brookins did say anything like that, he has no business running for the office of State's Attorney.

  Just thought you and your readers ought to know

Well, that's some campaign promise to run on, wouldn't you say? One officer a month. We're attempting to find some report or interview in which Brookins is quote as saying this, but we don't actually doubt it in the least.

Altar Boys - Every Single One

Two of the suspects from the NBA player robberies?

• Antoine Larkins, 28, of the 1300 block of South Washtenaw Avenue
• Gregory Reedfields, 23, of the 3100 block of West Roosevelt Road

Both addresses are within two blocks of the shooting at 1100 S. Mozart. And the gang affiliation of both? We're willing to bet it'll be vice lords, just like the dead OFFENDER.

Some neighborhoods produce an abundance of college graduates. Some produce skilled professionals. Others produce factory workers in great numbers because that's all that might be available (it's still honest work). Bridgeport is famous for producing mayors and connected city workers.

Anyone want to guess what North Lawndale has been producing for 40 years and more? But it's all the "po-lices" fault.

Shooting Justified

Gee, imagine that. A trained officer, veteran of dozen or more years on the streets, made the right decision that saved his life and the lives of his partners and even an ungrateful public:

• As ministers and activists called Thursday for a federal investigation of Chicago Police about this week's fatal shooting of a teen in North Lawndale, new details emerged challenging early reports about how the victim was shot.

  An autopsy by the Cook County medical examiner's office ruled that Aaron Harrison died from a gunshot wound to his back, a point that residents have seized on as they have protested the shooting.
  

  But on Thursday, a police source said Harrison, 18, was struck at the top of his left shoulder, not in the back. This is consistent with the police version of the Monday night shooting that Harrison turned a weapon on police before he was shot, the source said.

Of course, that didn't stop Sharpton from grandstanding:

• The Reverend Al Sharpton led a rally Friday night to protest police brutality. Some West Side residents who were at the rally said Chicago Police were out of line when an officer shot and killed Aaron Harrison earlier this week.

Sharpton, who as far as we can tell, holds no medical degree of any kind, was approximately 1,000 miles from the scene of the shooting, and has no training whatsoever in the field of forensic crime scene reconstruction, has decided the police were out of line? And what's Sharpton's main claim to fame? Oh yeah, supporting a false claim of abduction and rape that resulted in a massive libel judgment against him and as an unindicted instigator of the Crown Heights riots that resulted in a man being beaten to death. Nice credentials.

And then we have this Tribune article about neighborhood tensions that closes with this line:

• "I'm afraid they're going to push these boys so hard they're going to start going after the police," Green said, shaking his head in dismay. "They better do something about this. And they better do something about this quick."

We've been going over the Officer Battery Stats released by the Department, and unless we're reading them incorrectly, the 011 District has led the city in "Batteries to Police" in something like 6 of the past 7 years, so it would seem that the community is already "going after" the police. Hmmm.

Please Tell Us This is a Joke?

Dear lord, please (from the comments section):

• Our esteemed interim stupidintendent has agreed to allow the Reverends to address an SOS roll call. If you guys walk out and take time, I will adopt one SOS Officer and give him his day's pay. I am sure I can rally enough others to do the same.
  
  What are they going to do to you, put GPS on your car?

We still remember what happened last time a "community activist" was permitted to address a Roll Call. Charlie Williams better remember, too, because he had to go out and apologize to the entire watch on behalf of the Superintendent for allowing that travesty to go forward.

If this is true, we encourage every single officer to take an hour on the front and skip Roll Call at the very least. Then we'd encourage every single one of them to put in PAR forms and come over to the Districts - because if the Department is going to pull this shit every time you justifiably kill someone who might have made your family's life a living hell, how are they going to back you when you really need someone in your corner? How can any boss ever look you in the eye and ask you to go out on the street to enforce the law?

Being in a Unit certainly isn't worth this crap.

Damn!

Sneed goes for the three-peat.

Suffice it to say though, if we came up with some half assed story about someone losing the paperwork for our application for security clearances not once, but twice, we'd certainly wouldn't try it with the bean counters at the FBI. These people NEVER throw out a piece of paper. Ever.

This excuse that the FBI lost the paperwork from the Interim Superintendent of Police will go down in history with the following:

• The dog ate my homework
• The check is in the mail
• This is the first time I've ever done this
• I swear Officer, these aren't my pants.

This week certainly isn't starting well for the Starks regime.

And the Front Runner Is?

Interesting:

• Dick Devine says he won't run for a fourth term as Cook County state's attorney.

So who steps up? Who moves on? What changes are afoot for that office?

SCC - Correct Again

Back on 29 July, we wrote this about the recent home invasions of well known NBA players:

• Seems there's at least one crew around targeting high wealth and high spending sports figures who are more likely to have large amounts of cash lying around. Anyone wonder if it could have anything to do with.., oh let's just say, certain gang affiliations? Yeah, we don't wonder either.

We started taking hits in the comments section from the recently banned "coldtype" about us making overly broad statements. "coldtype" made completely facetious arguments and tried to put words we never typed into his fantasy rebuttal. Of course, it never saw the light of day and led directly to his recent departure from our board.

Tonight, on the WGN News and the Tribune:

• The robberies of two NBA players in the Chicago area are linked, authorities said this afternoon as they announced charges against suspected gang members in both crimes.
• Byrne said the suspects are all gang members from the West Side. Allison has a burglary conviction, and Hill has several convictions for robbery, Byrne said.

We'd open this post to apologies from "coldtype," but he's not around any more. So we'll just point out that we were right, he was wrong, and an open post in the meantime.

OFFICER SAFETY ALERT

Word is filtering in from various Gang Intelligence units that the four-corner-hustlers have put out a cash reward for anyone shooting at or killing a Chicago Police Officer.

One must wonder why a criminal street gang would take such an interest in a dead altar boy, honor student and aspiring heart surgeon.

Unless, somehow, amazingly, SCC and it's readers have been the ones telling the truth this whole time? That the dead OFFENDER was a self admitted vice lord? That all the arrested "near rioters" have been members of the vice lords? That the west side reverends are supporting mayhem, murder and gun violence in their communities by supporting the vice lords? That Sharpton, Jakes, and every other poverty pimping, race baiting scum of the universe is supporting the vice lords over the rule of law and civilized behavior?

Watch yourselves out there. This one feels really bad.

Snakes in a Park

This from FoxNews:

• NOBLE, Okla. — A stray bullet fired by a police officer trying to shoot a snake hit and killed a 5-year-old boy fishing at a nearby pond, officials said.

Aside from the obvious lessons of situational awareness, being aware of what's down range, and overly poor judgment in what will undoubtedly be deemed criminal negligence, why would we even bring up a story like this?

Seems the 011 District captured an 8 foot long snake prowling the area of Garfield Park this past week. Initial report have it as a constrictor of some sort, probably an escaped pet. If you run across a snake, don't shoot it without considering all the possibilities. But as far as we saw this week, no news reports.

Lots of coverage on the ticketing of the wienermobile though.

To Our Readers

We're letting you guys and gals know that we've been censoring a lot of the comments being submitted for publication lately. They seem to be falling into a couple of categories:

• People using the words "savages" and "animals" in contexts that can't be construed as anything but in a derogatory manner.
• Liberals, left-tards and loonies spouting their standard tripe about "Bush lied, people died," "blood for oil," the economy is in the tank, blah blah blah, and the blanket anti police baiting
  
• Lately, anything by "coldtype" or someone calling themselves "Chris Morton"

We walk a pretty fine line here. We try to give everyone the ability to say what they want to on a subject at hand. We automatically censor any of the really naughty terms regarding certain races (i.e. nigger, spic, etc), certain genders (i.e. cunt, whore, etc) , certain behaviors (i.e. all of x's are this or that along with the faggot references). Recently, we're censoring a lot of stuff with the terms "savages" and "animals." We are aware that these are so-called "code words" among various groups to describe some elements of society and we are attempting to filter those out. Where the words are used generically to describe behaviors, we've been giving it a pass more often than not. Like we've said, it's a fine line and we don't know that we aren't erring on one side or the other more often than not. We do our best.

The liberal stuff, we've been filtering out because it contributes nothing to the debate, repeats lies and faulty arguments and just generally annoys us. Our blog, our rules. We've been linked by various liberal blogs as examples of the worst in the CPD. Once again, for the benefit of these tiny brains, the only people here that we know for a fact are Chicago Police Officers are the ones running the blog. Anyone else we have no idea (except for those guys using the HQ IP address - we're pretty sure they're the police, too). We have readers on SIX continents - only Antarctica has neglected to visit.

As for the last category, the poster called "coldtype" has continued to annoy us, repeating tired arguments and lies from the DU and Kos, taking contrarian positions just to provoke, and generally just being an asshat. Anything under his moniker is hereby banned for the time being. He has his own blog and readers - he can publish his nonsense there. Good luck finding it. We're sure coldtype be writing us a nasty comment that no one will ever see and will attempt to publish some stuff anonymously. Some of it might even slip through our screening. But as long as he doesn't get credit for it, we don't care.

Same goes for this "Chris Morton" character. He exists solely to rip Chicago police officers. We don't know if he got shot down by an officer he was trying to date, got locked up by us at some point, or had a relative interrogated by Burge. He is a media driven creation that believes every fiction published about the CPD and refuses to acknowledge that there are thousands of police officers here and nationwide doing a thankless job for an uncaring populace. Every little nitpicking law that the mayor and city council pass is the fault of the CPD according to this putz. Every time the media blows something out of proportion, his only chant is "Abbate, Abbate - you guys defend Abbate" while complete disregarding the fact that the vast majority of our readership advocated his firing. If we recall correctly, he too has a blog somewhere. Maybe he can get together with coldtype and they can read each other's ramblings. But you won't be reading it here anytime soon.

Things the Media Won't Report

Just a few little tidbits for all the reporters reading this site. And believe us, we know there are dozens:

• If you run around with an unregistered handgun in the city, you are an OFFENDER. If you get shot by the police for displaying that unregistered handgun in the city, you are still an OFFENDER. We might not agree with the gun control policies of this city and state, and we work in our own way to change them, but under existing law, Aaron Harrison was an OFFENDER.
• The dead offender was a self admitted unknown vice lord. We're sure there are reporters out there with tame cops on speed dial. But a word of warning to officers - the Department can and will track people pulling up the arrest reports and IR photos of this dead offender. Those media pictures of the dead offender from many years ago don't compare to his recent arrest photos. Amazing what a few felony arrests can turn you into.
  
• The dead offender was also the nephew of a very big chief of the vice lords. The offenders arrested during the "protest" were all self admitted vice lords with upwards of 100 arrests and numerous gun crimes among them. The "reverends" leading the protests are siding with the vice lords. Publish THAT you candy asses.
• This "shot in the back" meme making the rounds is pure bullshit. According to the reports we've read, the wound is consistent with the offender having carried/pointed a gun across his body at pursuing officers. We could tell a few stories from personal experience (and dozens more from war stories) of offenders having pointed guns backwards over their shoulders while firing at other gang bangers while running away! These jagoffs don't have wild west stand-up versions of shootouts face to face - they fire at each other while running away all the time! The dead offender had the misfortune of dealing with an officer who was much better trained than he was and took a round which exited his neck. Too bad, so sad. It's actually amazing more innocents aren't killed by these bangers.
  
• And this crap making the rounds here about the 011 District locking the doors? Go read up on your station security protocols - it's Standard Operating Procedure for station security during civil unrest. It isn't anyones fault that they were ordered to secure the premises.
  

Just things to keep in mind while reading or listening to the media BS.

Starks Whacked Again

Sneed seems to have no shortage of vitriol to be throwing Dana's way:

• Word is Mayor Daley's interim police superintendent, Dana Starks, is minus an absolutely necessary piece of equipment that the last police superintendent had.

  • To wit: Sneed hears Starks does not have FBI security clearance to share classified high-level information dealing with the FBI, CIA and Homeland Security.

  • Translation: "This information can only be shared with people who have FBI security clearance," an informed source said. "The FBI would never withhold information to protect lives and property based on lack of security clearance. What the FBI could not do is share sources, methods or sensitive information from the FBI and other intelligence agencies."

  • The surprise: Sneed hears Starks has had many opportunities in the past to fill out the necessary FBI security clearance paperwork and did not do so. Go figure.

We also got info from a trusted source that Starks kept all the computer geeks on unpaid overtime this week for the sole purpose of taking down everything with Phil's name on it on Department websites and installing his name. Looks like payback is going to be the name of the game during Dana's brief reign. How much additional damage can be inflicted on us during this time?

This is Silly, Silly

You know that you have truly arrived in CPD hell when the mayor is your biggest defender:

• The Chicago Police Department is “not out of control,” Mayor Daley said today, urging family members and community leaders angry about the death of two men at the hands of police in the last week to await the outcome of internal investigations.

  “Every day, Chicago Police are called. They get thousands of calls. Yes, these are two instances. They’re very serious instances. They’re . . . looking at it. But, this is not an easy job out there. It’s very difficult. And we’ll investigate both of them,” the mayor said.

Someone tell us that this is bizzaro world? Please. Because before you know it, the mayor is going to be offering us all sorts of stuff, like pay raises, stipends for living in the city, actual heavy weapons on the streets, computers that work and stay in range more than half the tour, working radio batteries, abolishing Felony Review.

And then our heads will explode and we've heard that it might be painful.