Yay, Another New Law!

Hopefully, aldercreature Tunney doesn't think this is a waste of police resources, given that there is so much crime in the city:

• Chicago park officials say they hope to ban smoking at the city's playgrounds, beaches and playlots.
• The change could happen as early as Wednesday, when commissioners will vote. If it passes, the new ordinance would take effect immediately and the city will start cracking down on smokers who are lighting up in those outdoor areas.

Oooooo. A CRACKDOWN! Someone call TRU (Total Revenue Unit) and they can start enforcing this one right away! At $500 a pop, we ought to have that $200 million budget gap filled in by January.

Just one question - are they really going to pull coppers off the street to enforce this? If a citizen calls in a felonious smoker, are they going to put an entire district into backlog with domestics, shootings, and all sorts of actual dope slinging just to go write a ticket? Especially when the smoker can suck down their coffin nail inside of 60 seconds and toss the butt down a sewer? Are we going to start bagging, preserving and testing cigarette butts for DNA evidence?

More BS from the nanny state and a completely impotent City Council desperate to appear to be doing something to justify their existence. It's all "for the children" don't you know?

Why Aldercreatures are Disliked

From a civilian reader:

• Interesting blog...I am not in the Police Department, but know both the Commander and the Alderman. I have had nothing but positive experiences with both. Although I'm sure Alderman have put their foot in their mouth (or ass, as it were)such as this case about chasing more important things (I cringed when I read that), I do not know where the hostility comes from regarding the Police vs. aldermen. I can only recall a few instances where one did not back the police fully- the Natarus incident over dogs and this. Speaking as a civilian, I don't get it. I don't remember the alderman going nuts over the bartender getting her ass kicked or even the Burge mess. Just curious where it comes from...

We can recall dozens of instances where the aldrecreatures didn't back the police when the police were in the right, many of them this year. Watch anytime the police shoot an offender. Aldercreatures routinely blame the police for being heavy handed and then for not being everywhere at once. Certain aldercreatures play the race game constantly. Some aldercreatures get cops bumped off of their cars for nonsense. Some aldercreatures were thugs and criminals before being elected. Some are still involved in criminal enterprises. It's more an institutional dislike, but the specifics abound. Readers?

Media Sting

Trying to land another punch. From the comments:

• VERY IMPORTANT!!!
  
  FYI Boys and Girls...
  
  Several 010th District officers left Duggan's on Halsted two nights ago and as they walked to the parkinglot a man walked up and asked them a question. The question was "hey, you guys have been drinking for 3 hrs. and your also the police- Are you guys getting into your cars and going to drive now?"
  
  The P.O.s also noticed the microphone the reporter was holding and then the ABC 7 news truck parked on Halsted. Im sure they P.O.'s were shocked but handled it by replying...that
  while yes they were coming from Duggans but No they were not going to drive they were going to Taco King for some food. The P.O.s then WALKED to taco king and ate slowly!
  
  It appears the media is probably doing an "exclusive report" on P.O.s drinking in bars. Please watch your backs.

As far as we know, you are allowed to drink in bars. However, with the recent spotlight being shone on the Rules and Regulations (the Rule 47 thing), you are not permitted to be intoxicated on or off duty. The strictest interpretation of this rule means not in your own home while watching the Bears blow another game. Whether or not that last part would survive a court challenge is an argument for another day.

What is important to realize is that because of recent events, scandals, bad publicity, etc., we WILL be hung out to dry if found in questionable circumstances. Maybe it'll be a stint down at Call Back. Maybe it'll be thirty days, two paychecks and a fund raiser (ironically, at a bar). In the current political climate, maybe it'll be your job. And god forbid it'll be your name and face all over the news, doing a decade in prison after killing a couple of civilians in the suburbs. We had a bunch of those a year or two back if you remember.

Walk it. Cab it. Find someone to drive you home. Sleep it off at the station - you wouldn't be the first, you ain't going to be the last. Stay smart.

The SOS List

It doesn't exist.

Well, actually, it does exist. Somewhere. From the comments:

• Northsider & Old 153 guy: Put down the pipe my brothers! Where are you getting your information from? The "SOS fax list" was not faxed, ask anyone who was there it was hand delivered by the commander directly from HQ. Risley adddressed the unit and had no info about where everyone was headed(list was being prepared @ 35th & MI) We found out when the commander arrived with list in hand. The key here is IN HAND that's where the list remained before, during and after they dropped the bomb."Guys who knew JF" Let it die already what was left of Jake's watch was dumped period end of story."A.K. wussied out and is a company man" for not sending "THE LIST"(You can't be reffering to Big Al he hasn't even been here since they dropped the bomb.) ASSHAT no one held the list in their hands. Do you think they want to make it available? The bosses mentioned SCC by name and commented about future blog entries.You want FACTS not a Fax just ask someone that knows WTF is going on!

A belated thanks to Risley for mentioning the site though. Nice to know the bosses are reading.

Anyway, the list is hand carried from location to location in a locked briefcase. The briefcase is cuffed to Risley, Chiczewski, Green or their driver's arm at all times. The case itself is wired to self destruct should it lose contact with an exempt's DNA aura for more than a minute at a time. It is printed on a "sooper seekret" paper blend that combines the reflective thread and ink used in US Currency with CIA "flash" paper that ignites should the list be photocopied.

Whatever everyone is hearing, we haven't seen it.

Aldercreatures NOT Above the Law

Tribune article:

• A Chicago ordinance banning the use of hand-held cellular phones in vehicles has bitten one of its creators.
  
  Ald. Thomas Tunney (44th) acknowledged Monday that he was ticketed last week in his North Side ward as he was conducting city-related business on the phone while he drove.
  
  "It was what it was," said Tunney, who was among supporters of the ban when it was approved by the City Council in 2005. "Of course, I am embarrassed by it."

Let's keep track of the officer who wrote the ticket though.

Aldercreatures Above the Law?

Confirm? Deny?

• True story! On Friday, a 023 district 2nd watch officer wrote Alderman Tom Tunney a traffic ticket for using his cellphone while driving. The officer is a softball, but I applaud his zero tolerance enforcement. Commander 023 received notice of this and demanded that the Alderman's DL be returned to his residence. Cmdr. Yami was very upset and this officer will now be shipped to midnights due to enforcing the law against a connected person.

Hmmm.

UPDATE: Thought to be a tall tale. You may use this as an open post to abuse aldercreature Dixon who, as we confirmed, took an officer off of Beat 1014 against the wishes of the community for political payback.

Rules and Regulations

What a tangled web we weave.

• An African-American Chicago Police officer contends that a rule barring cops from associating with criminals discriminates against black officers.

  The officer argues the rule is more restrictive on black officers because of the disproportionate number of African Americans who have had contact with the criminal justice system.

• The department is enforcing a "policy that appears to have bias overtones against a specific racial group, namely African Americans," she said to the supervisor in a memo. "It is as though a deliberate trap has been set for African-American police officers."

The current Rules and Regulations of the Chicago Police Department were adopted in 1973. A number of them seem to be basic common sense type rules, but we're not really surprised someone had to put these things down in writing at some point - people still seem to violate a number of them with astonishing regularity. The Rule 47 in question reads thusly:

• Associating or fraternizing with any person known to have been convicted of any felony or misdemeanor, either State or Federal, excluding traffic and municipal ordinance violations.

Pretty straightforward. And specifically enacted to cut off ties to organized crime figures. For years, the CPD operated hand-in-hand with the Outfit. Legend has CPD officers on the safe end of the Tommy-Guns used in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. We had a Superintendent canned barely 10 years ago over friendships with a known mobster and he wasn't the only one visiting the cleaning establishment in question.

To paint this as a "trap...set for African American officers" is, quite frankly, an insult to the hundreds of hard working black officers throughout the Department. They manage to do their job day in and day out (as most of us do) without cavorting with the criminal elements off duty.

Besides, it's not like this was some sort of surprise on the officer. They teach this at the Academy. And she was on the job when Rodriguez got fired for it. Why the demand for special treatment?

Hmmm

A genuine mystery:

• Police have found the body that goes with a pair of human feet found on a south suburban roadway Friday night.
  
  The body of a white male in his 40's was found Sunday around 4:15 p.m.by a passerby in an industrial area in Alsip at 123rd St. and Laverne Avenue, county police spokeswoman Penny Mateck said.
  
  The location was about 12 miles from the feet that were found at Vollmer Road and Keystone Avenue in Matteson -- near Saint James Hospital and Health Centers in Olympia Fields -- about 9:30 p.m. Friday, according to a spokesman for the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.

Channel 7 also covers the story. Anyone have any theories? Printable ones, please.

The Truth is Despicable

At least according to Jesse Jackson:

• Reverend Jesse Jackson Friday night is again pushing for change at the Chicago Housing Authority's Harold Ickes Homes. He says police continue to harass public housing residents there.
• William "J.R." Hope is one man who claims to be the repeated victim of police harassment. Hope says he was unlawfully strip searched by police, and just Thursday his car was towed from a lot at the Ickes Homes.
• But Chicago police say Hope is not a resident at the Harold Ickes Homes, and he and others who have had run-ins with officers have extensive criminal records including drug convictions, and are known to be involved with the drug and gang activity in the area.
  
  Jackson calls the disclosure of the information despicable.

Yup, when the truth of the matter is exposed and it makes Jesse look bad, that's despicable.

Kind of like when our readers pointed out that the family he stayed with the other night happens to be related to some of the biggest dope dealers in the Ickes. Or when it's pointed out that the "community spokesperson" in North Lawndale happens to be one of the highest ranking vice lords on the west side with a rap sheet longer than your arm.

Maybe if Jesse didn't spend so much time cavorting with criminals... but then, birds of a feather we suppose.

Amazing

Amazingly awful:

Team Stat Comparison
1st Downs	16	20
3rd down efficiency	5-16	6-15
4th down efficiency	0-0	0-1
Total Yards	444	458
Passing	133	375
Comp-Att	9-23	26-45
Yards per pass	5.8	8.3
Rushing	311	83
Rushing Attempts	43	24
Yards per rush	7.2	3.5
Penalties	2-10	4-28
Turnovers	0	4
Fumbles lost	0	2
Interceptions thrown	0	2
Possession	31:19	28:41

Chart via ESPN. The rushing game was non-existent. 83 yards? The Viking's Adrian Peterson had 3 TIMES that total on his own. 8 and 8 is looking like a pipe dream this year.

No Manpower Shortage?

From the west side:

• Dear SCC,

  Love the blog. Been following your posting and your readers comments about manpower shortages. Attached is a scan of the First Watch sheets from 05 September of this year. Ya think we're a little short handed?
  

  Keep up the good work!

• (Name withheld by request)

We checked out the sheet he sent. Then, since we didn't need a copy a few dozen star numbers floating around the internet, we blacked out a bunch of stuff and high lighted other stuff. Purple means a down car. Green means a car operating 10-99 (one man), which, according to various sources, isn't supposed to be done during hours of darkness, unless the officer is allowed to waive that? We don't know if that's a rule, regulation or contract letter of agreement. Someone wiser than us can tell us in the comments. Here's the scan:

That shows a district down 10 bodies. On a week night. A month or so ago.

So here's your project boys and girls. Find the sheets (midnights especially) and count how many cars your District is downing on a regular basis. Then maybe someone can take those numbers and stuff them in the throats and asses of anyone who claims we're at full strength.

What the Fuck?

This is just insanity. Evidently, we've reached the edge and leapt off:

• A Cook County jury on Friday awarded $1.58 million to a former high school principal who was falsely arrested in 2002 in front of about 300 students at a school assembly. Police arrested Cheryl Marshall Washington, 63, of Chicago after responding to a fight among students at Dyett High School on the South Side.
  
  Police said Washington falsely claimed a student had a gun so police would respond more quickly to the 911 call. Washington said she merely reported what she overheard a student say.
  
  Prosecutors dropped a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct against Washington in 2003. City officials also dropped a civil lawsuit against her.
  
  Spokeswoman Jodi Kawada said city Law Department officials are considering whether to appeal.

Notice the subtle changes. We seem to remember the principal made incriminating statements about telling tales of someone having a gun because otherwise, the police took too long to show up. Suddenly, the ASA drops charges, the City drops a civil suit and then this asswipe gets a million-and-a-half? You better drive lights and sirens to all these gun calls lest you be on the hook like taxpayers are every time some ghetto principal can't control their school.

An Idiot Speaks

Sorry, but we just have to have some fun with this one, and since it's our blog, we can! An asshat comments in the "Mope-rah Speaks" thread:

• Fear for your life?! I don't recall ever hearing someone getting beat to death with an iron. Not to say that it couldn't happen, but you'd really have to be a sissy. I don't think there is a jury in the world (even an ALL white jury) that's going to say that this shooting was justified.
  

Here's a quick homework assignment - google "beaten to death with an iron." You get over 1.6 million hits, many of them stories about people beaten to death with tire irons, iron skillets, iron bars, and yes, the every popular "smooth." So just because you've never heard of it, doesn't mean it hasn't happened.

• The woman called for help. Clearly the man was mentally ill if he was attacking his mother to begin with - it's common sense. I'm sure the guy deserved a beating or a nice tazing, but the officer didn't have to use deadly force! Really now, think about it. He had a night stick, big ass flash light, pepper spray, FISTS, maybe a tazer. Worst case scenario, the PO might have taken a bruise on the arm trying to block the attack. He should be fired if he was in fear of his life. You don't need bitches out on patrol.

She called, help arrived. We don't know what anyone may or may not have deserved, but we know that we aren't required to be punching bags or take the first hit. We defy you to find that rule or law. We also know that your "worst case scenario" is bullshit. Worst case is a dead cop and if you don't think a single blow to the head can kill you, you're a freaking moron. No bitches here except you and your Monday morning quarterbacking.

• "Police OFFICERS claim that the FIFTEEN-year old repeatedly charged at them with the iron before a police officer fatally shot him."
• That means that there was more than one cowardly cop. Someone tell me how two of Philly's so-called bravest couldn't restrain a fucking FIFTEEN YEAR OLD BOY with an IRON. That's bullshit, and anyone with half of a brain could see that. He was a child with an iron. What if he was 14,13,12,11, or maybe 10 years old? Is that when they would consider using less than deadly force? Would you shoot your 15 year old if the little asshole was coming at you with a fucking iron? Get real.

You seen some of the 15 year old boys out there lately? Damn right we'd shoot them if the situation called for it. The only thing that protects an officer in these situations is distance. And unfortunately, officers here aren't issued TASERs yet in effective numbers. What if your baton broke? Now you've only got a gun. And what if the not-so-little asshole (your word) gets close enough to wrestle over the gun. Think that hasn't happened?

• This sends out a clear messages to mothers across the nation. Don't call the police when your SICK CHILD is attacking you. Let the little retard beat you up with an iron because the cops will kill your son.

If you're that scared of your sick child, don't call. We are tasked by the Constitution and the laws of our city, county, state and nation to maintain order. Sometimes, to maintain that order and make sure we go home at night, we have to put hands on people, restrain people, sometimes even kill people. We aren't required to be victims.

• Some of you motherfuckers are just itching to get a kill in, huh? You're no better than the criminals that you arrest, but you've got a badge. Some of you assholes are really twisted. You actually celebrate when a cop kills someone?! Where are your morals? You're talking about human life here.

A human life that would have ended ours given half a chance. We celebrate that a copper went home in one piece. We also have a really dark and twisted sense of humor because we see things that you wouldn't even imagine in your darkest nightmares. You couldn't even comprehend what we see. Don't talk to us about morality. You have no fucking clue.

• SCC, you're a closet racist! How much different would this post be if you left out the fact that the CHILD was black? WTF does Bill Crosby, Dr. Martin Luther King or Jesse Jackson have to do with this? You're just a dick head. Your writing is NO better than the shit I read elsewhere. Get off your high horse, pal.

A closet racist? How so? Where have we used anything except what was published by Mope-rah (Mary Mitchell)? Oh, we get it. Since we take Mitchell to account for her inflammatory language and Mitchell only writes about the wrongs blacks suffer at the hands of white police officers, we must be racist white people for pointing that out. And the fact that we point out Cosby (not Crosby) and Dr. King preached self reliance as a way to equalize the races is ...wait for it... racist! And then you lump in the master race baiter himself Jesse? Have you ever written a cognizant argument in your life? And if our writing is so damn ordinary, why are you here? We don't own a high horse, just a small pony.

• Why don't you just stop writing M/1 and black guys and just call them what you really want to, you racist.

M/1 is Department report writing shorthand for male black. M/2 is male white. M/4 is hispanic. Black is the appropriate color word utilized worldwide. Just because we and others don't ascribe to the political "flavor of the day" term African American doesn't make us racists. Accusations of racism are petty, narrow minded, tiny-brain-symptomatic, and quite frankly, wrong. You're taking our readers comments and making them ours. Try to find real world examples instead of the tired old saw that you're playing.

• I bet you're smiling right now...

Grinning fit to beat the band

• BTW, I vote Republican (really, I do)

Now we're laughing. Why don't you stop by the farm and pick up a quart of bullshit for yourself, because you are running damn low.

Debunking An SOS Rumor

Seems they didn't get disbanded....oh, wait. That one is true. On the other hand:

• 100, 172, or 88 people all went to TRU. No one went to TRU except anyone whose detail was canceled. TRU is being authorized a 5th platoon (80 officers) and is currently accepting applications.

We're getting e-mail and a comment or two about how no supervisors were dumped though. One has to wonder how far up the ladder responsibility and blame will be affixed if no one in power gets the hook. Seems like the same old story, same old song and dance.

The Chicago way.

Mope-rah Speaks

Direct from the Land of Oz:

• Sometimes it's hard to know what to think. For instance, in Wednesday's edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer, there was a detailed account of a controversy related to the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Ronald Timbers. The Timbers shooting is another police incident in which the slain teen's relatives are claiming officers should not have used deadly force.

  Timbers, a young black male, was at home and apparently out of control -- threatening his mother with a hammer, a knife and an iron when she called 911 for help.

  Police officers claim that the 15-year-old repeatedly charged at them with the iron before a police officer fatally shot him.

  His mother, Yvonne Young, and the teen's older brother, Cornell Young, claimed that the police officer shot his brother "from downstairs," and that the officers never asked Timbers to put the iron down. Another relative claims that although the mother was under attack, she had not wanted to call police.

Then don't call the police. Solve your own damn problems. Isn't that what Bill Cosby has been preaching for years? Isn't that what Dr. King marched for? Self reliance, self respect, self determination? Not at all like Jesse lately, calling the police "Gestapo" and sleeping in the apartment of a woman who belongs to one of the more infamous dope dealing families of CHA fame. Mope-rah continues lamenting the fact that a bunch of criminals...oops, strike that... altar boys and future heart surgeons ended up dead after their poor life choices lead them into direct conflict with we can only assume are the unjust laws and racist use of force policies of various law enforcement agencies. She closes with this:

• Indeed, what we need most in these neighborhoods are well-trained police officers who have a great deal of compassion

Gee, you mean the ones that you keep crucifying in your columns, day after day after day? So how's that "Snitches get Stitches" campaign working out in Ickes 'jets and over in North Lawndale lately? Mope-rah and her ilk want to eat their cake and have it, too.

Post Censoring

We've been accused of some heavy handed censorship in the thread titled "And the Inevitable Lawsuits."

Guilty as charged.

We've stated time and time again, certain words aren't going to get published as we find them overly offensive, especially those describing females as "rhymes with Lunt", "rhymes with SWAT," etc. We find the words repugnant. Same with overly broad generalizations about "all females," "all (insert racial group here)," etc., aren't getting published either for the most part.

Does some of it slip through? Sure. We're human. We miss things. We also let quite a bit of crap go through because, let's face it, that's how cops talk most of the time - casual insults, denigrating language, various slurs - it's raw and it's real and it's the face of the blog.

Who Reports This Crap?

When in doubt, just throw it out there that the police did it:

• Years after the deadly stampede at the E2 Nightclub, the owners are accusing the city of misconduct.
  
  [...], a lawsuit claims Chicago police or other city employees stole more than $100,000 in cash and liquor from the club.
  
  "We know the liquor didn't evaporate, and we know the dollars didn't just dissipate," club co-owner Calvin Hollins, Jr. said
  
  According to lawyers for Hollins, Jr. and his business partner Dwain Kyles, video from inside E2 was taken within 48 hours of the tragedy showing two well-stocked bars, liquor the owners say later vanished, along with substantial cash during the months the building was under city control.
  
  "I know for a fact there was $20,000 in the office, cash. I have 2 witnesses to that observation," Hollins, Jr. said.

First up, these goofs were operating an illegal nightclub and it's a damn shame 21 people died and none of these jackasses is in prison. That being said, there were hundreds of other persons in that club after it was shut down - building inspectors, insurance adjusters, court people, the list is damn near endless. To have the media lay it at the feet of the police in their headline is just asinine.

Starks Getting the Nod?

Hmmmm:

• Interim Police Supt. Dana Starks' decision to abolish the Chicago Police Department's scandal-scarred Special Operations Section shows that Chicago's next police superintendent need not be an outsider, Mayor Daley said Wednesday.

  Police Board President Demetrius Carney has said Daley rejected the first three finalists for superintendent -- and ordered a new nationwide search -- because he wants a "change agent" to clean up the Police Department in the wake of the SOS scandal and embarrassing barroom brawls involving off-duty officers.

Of course, it won't be anyone from Sneed's latest droppings:

• Sneed hears the targets of the ongoing probe of the Chicago Police Department's Special Operations Section are two commanders, two sergeants and one lieutenant.

  • • Tipsville: The investigation into the elite unit, which was disbanded Tuesday, will reportedly center on a federal probe of civil rights violations as well as official misconduct and obstruction of justice claims. Federal charges extend the statute of limitations.

  • • The upshot: The probe centers on whether top cops knew or should have known what was happening at SOS, a source said.

  • • The downshot: Officers in the elite unit were indicted for robbing and kidnapping people -- and one cop was charged with plotting to murder another officer. "Victims of these crimes were deprived of their right not to be terrorized," the source added.

  • • The buckshot: "It will make the old Summerdale police scandal, which resulted in the arrest of crooked cops back in 1960, look like an English tea party," said the source.

They're looking at big bosses. Are they looking at retired big bosses who moved bad cops around?

Oops

Can you believe this crap?

They actually canceled the Merit Nominations for Lieutenant.

Suicide watch on AZ from 011.

And the Inevitable Lawsuits

We'll be hearing about these for the next ten years:

• The day after an elite Chicago police unit was disbanded, a new lawsuit has been filed against some of its officers and former Police Superintendent Phil Cline.
• It is a lawsuit filed by a South Side bar owner and a patron, who was arrested by Special Operations Section officers
• It is a case that involves a videotape that lawyers believe contributed toward the decision to disband the city's Special Operations Section.

The trigger was set a long time ago on disbanding. And the reason it was pulled on Wednesday was because Daley decided it was time to pull the trigger. Something was needed to push the biggest tax hike in history off the front page - looks like Daley got it.


If that isn't the most biased and anti-police front page we've ever seen, we don't know what is. Finnigan is still in jail, revoked bond, will never see daylight again, and has been gone from the job for probably months now, and this is the headline? Finnigan's gone. Long gone. And so are the co-defendants. And so are a bunch of people caught up as collateral damage.

There was really no need for this inflammatory headline.

And now we're reading that 25% of SWAT got tossed? Including some of the officers involved in the gun battle on Augusta in 2006 that saw them kill two heavily armed gunmen en route to a hit with AK-47's? But don't worry Chicagoans!!! The Interim Superintendent is bringing in almost 20 highly qualified officers who will be able to step right into these openings based on...what was it again? Oh yeah - more phone calls.

Anyone else get the feeling that SOS was advertising for openings just so they'd have enough bodies to dump when Daley finally gave the approval to pull the trigger on disbandment?