FOP Prez a Two Man Race

Let's just derail this campaign right now before it even gets started:

• Denis E. Doherty is one of three people running for president. Doherty is assigned to the 018th District, but detailed to Unit 543 - Detached Services
  
• His assignment at Unit 543 is said to be one of Aldrecreature Burke's bodyguards, sitting at one of Burke's houses making sure no one breaks in...like the FBI trying to set up bugs.

Question:

• Isn't this one of those D-3 spots we keep hearing about?
• Do we really want someone that close to Burke and City Hall anywhere near the reins of leadership of our Fraternal Order?
• Did Burke approve this move?
  

More Impersonators

This comment was slated to appear in the "Impersonators" posting. We can't change what people post, we can either publish it or not publish it. So we typed this whole thing out, taking out the web address that we didn't want to advertise:

• Speaking of impersonators, does SCC know that there is an anti-FOP blog out there now changing its name to incorporate "SCC" in its title? How does SCC feel about a union bashing site borrowing its name? By the way, if you want to see a real ripoff artist, take a look at Kevin Jans' blog. Kevin is running for FOP President. Check him out at: [web address deleted by SCC]
  
  The font, colors and print are straight up identical to SCC. Is anyone dumb enough to think this is a coincidence? If Kevin Jans is not SCC, he's got some explaining to do. If he is SCC, he's really got some explaining to do. What's the deal? What say you, SCC?

What say we? We're mildly ticked off.

Jans is a puppet. Everything he has ever done is at the behest of someone else. Anyone who has ever heard Jans speak at an FOP meeting (and we've heard it dozens of times) knows he's a complete softball. We can't say he stole anything from this site because Blogger only offers a few dozen variations on this theme. We can say he was too damn lazy to make his site unique and perhaps in some twisted part of his mind thought copying SCC was homage of a sort. Frankly, we shudder at it. For the record, we are not Jans.

We are also aware of that anti-FOP site using the letters "SCC" in it's title. We consider this to be nothing more than a rip off and an attempt to cash in on what we've spent almost 3 years building here. We also know that the operator of that site is another malcontent running with Jans, Jaglowski and Podgorny. We responded thusly to their attempts to advertise in our comments sections:

• To whomever is pushing that "other" blog:
  
  You are fucking nuts if you think we are going to advertise that crap for you. There is no way in hell we are allowing anything with the FOP7 name to be attached to what we've created. You get ZERO courtesy here. You'd try to ride on our coattails and drag us into your cesspool of bullshit? Go fuck yourself.
  
  Not only that, you get ZIP for the other blog name.
  
  And since we know who you are, you get ZILCH under your real names should you chose to post anything under those either.
  
  Apologies to our readers who won't have any idea what we're talking about, but to the person(s) who do know, F.O.A.D.

Again, for the record, we are not in any way associated with or endorsing those morons. We also find it darkly amusing that they force you to register in order to read or comment. SCC has never done that because we don't want to know who you are. As stated time and time again, almost 40% of our traffic comes from outside of Chicago. We couldn't even prove a posting came from the same continent on which we reside than we can prove it's an actual Chicago Police Officer posting.

So added to the banned list is any reference to these other blogs run by these rip off artists and unimaginative tiny brained idiots who are trying to drag us into their vendetta against the FOP. We won't even publish the names of their websites lest someone give them traffic. Any and all references to their sites will get flushed, so if you don't see your comment, you'll know that you guessed right. That is all.

Coup Attempt at FOP

At the candidates meeting at FOP Hall, we hear that Al Jaglowski tried to file charges against the President in an attempt to throw the election into disarray. It seems Jaglowski is alleging improper conduct regarding the firing of a lawyer employed by the FOP. For the past few weeks, someone has been attempting to generate controversy by alluding to the pending lawsuit over the firing. Here's what we've heard:

• A lawyer who constantly missed filing deadlines and threw a number of grievances into limbo due to sheer incompetence was fired by the FOP.
• As bottom feeding lawyers often do, she immediately announced that she was pregnant and the reason for her being fired wasn't her shoddy legal work. It was because the FOP is populated by drooling neanderthals who couldn't see this EEOC lawsuit staring them in the face.
• She sued and asked for such a low figure that negotiations were entered into, because fighting the frivolous suit would have cost more than the payoff. This, by the way, is what the City does all the time through Corp Counsel.

So evidently, the troll attempting to provoke commentary was Jaglowski and his crew in some half baked effort to drum up support for this stunt at the candidate's meeting Tuesday night. We're surprised he didn't drag his expelled buddies into the circus, too.

Meet Mr. Ben Dover

Great news! The City, which can't seem to fund certain pensions at anything close to solvency, is preparing to spend $2 billion (yes, that's Billion with a B) on an Olympic extravaganza that will be unlike any boondoggle you've ever seen before, since or will again:

• Organizers of the American bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics unveiled plans Tuesday that include $900 million in new and temporary venues, and promises a "spectacular" experience in the heart of the city.
  
  The price tag for the 16 venues, five of which would be permanent and 11 temporary, was included in a questionnaire detailing the plan, submitted to the International Olympic Committee and released by Chicago bid organizers.
  
  It does not include a $1 billion athlete's village, a public-private venture officials said will be built regardless of whether Chicago gets the games.

Oh, thank goodness it doesn't include the $1 billion already on the drawing board. Of course, this is all a preliminary estimate:

• Chicago's price tag is likely to grow if history is any guide. Costs for the 2012 London Olympics are now more than triple original estimates, topping $19 billion.

And don't forget to work in that mysterious 30% cost inflation that seems to accompany any Chicago construction contract. This thing is going to crater the entire Illinois economy. In the past few decades, Chicago has fought to not be lumped into the "Rust Belt" industrial decline. This Olympics is going to leave a path of destruction across the entire Great Lakes area that hasn't been seen since the 1970's.

Thanks Springfield!

You collective asshats:

• Chicago aldermen who pushed Springfield for a Chicago Transit Authority rescue plan are close to getting what they wanted. But if the deal receives final approval from the General Assembly this week, they'll also get a political hot potato some had not bargained for: a vote to raise a tax that's triggered whenever a house or other property is sold.
  
  The mass-transit measure increases the sales tax in the six-county region. But under another provision that has escaped widespread attention, Chicago's real estate transfer tax would increase by as much as 40 percent - to $10.50 for every $1,000 of sales price from the current $7.50. And to the surprise of some aldermen, that increase would have to be approved by the City Council.

And we're going to call bullshit on this one:

• Gov. Blagojevich never discussed a plan to offer free rides for senior citizens with the head of the Chicago Transit Authority before making the idea public last week, the agency's chief said Monday.

  CTA President Ron Huberman said he was concerned Blagojevich's proposal could scuttle final approval of a mass transit funding bill. ''The governor's office did not ask our opinion relative to the senior rides,'' he said in a telephone interview.
  

  But Huberman stopped short of criticizing the governor and declined to say if the lack of prior knowledge upset him.

This thing has Daley's fingerprints all over it.

Hahaha

Justice comes home to roost in North Carolina:

• Former Durham prosecutor Mike Nifong has filed for bankruptcy, listing a debt of $180.3 million, according to documents filed Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Durham.
  
  The filing comes on the same day the former Duke lacrosse prosecutor and others involved in the case were to submit responses to a federal lawsuit by the three men he sought to prosecute.
  
  Nifong lists David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann, as well as three other members of Duke University's 2006 men's lacrosse team who filed a separate federal lawsuit — as unsecured creditors, each owed $30 million.

We hope these kids end up owning Nifong and keeping him in a little enclosure in their new mansions. They can trot him out at cocktail parties and make him do tricks for $1,000 a pop and he'd still end up working off this debt until about 100 years after he's dead. Then we hope they try to bankrupt Duke University and assorted faculty members for their slanders and libels perpetuated for almost a year.

Shades of Things to Come?

After all, our leadership has stolen every other bright idea out of New York and destroyed it:

• The increasingly diverse NYPD wants to get a little more uniform: Cops have been told to say goodbye to their goatees, chin strap beards and designer hair affectations more suitable for, well, designers.
  
  [...] The department also allows officers to grow beards if they suffer from Pseudofolliculitis barbae, a dermatological condition better known as PFB that is common among black men and afflicts those who shave with rashes and scarring, mostly on and under their chins, as well as on their cheeks and necks.
  
  But according to a recent memo circulated throughout the department, officers with such clearance do not have carte blanche to let their hair down, so to speak.

We expect a whole bunch of memos on this and other things very very shortly. After all, there are a shitload of people downtown that suddenly have to justify their existence.

Darwin Again

And suburban police chases seem to be the common thread:

• A Joliet man died Sunday night on Interstate Highway 55 after he lost control of his pickup truck while fleeing police and struck a tractor-trailer truck head-on, injuring the other driver.
• Gatewood slowed and appeared to be pulling over on several occasions, only to speed away from the officer, the release stated. The officer abandoned the pursuit when Gatewood entered northbound I-55 at Plainfield Road.
• Witnesses later told investigators that Gatewood was driving recklessly and then lost control while trying to pass another car on the left shoulder near Renwick Road, according to Illinois State Police Trooper Mark Dorencz. The truck careened into the median, began to overturn and then struck a tractor-trailer truck in the southbound lanes.

Police stopped chasing miles before and the soon-to-be-dead asshole kept "fleeing" before piling it in. Thank god he only killed himself and not a family coming home from grandmas. It must have been an interesting conversation at the Pearly Gates before he got sent to the other place for a stretch.

Impersonators

More problems not of our making:

• Two Near Northwest Side men have been charged with impersonating police officers after they reportedly tried to pull over a motorist while driving a car that is the same make and model of some unmarked police cars.

  Carmello Munoz and Aaron Barreto were arrested at 1:40 a.m. Saturday at Kostner and Armitage avenues after they were observed traveling south on Kostner in a black Ford Crown Victoria with a white hood, according to police News Affairs. The car also had an attached spotlight, which the two were using in an attempt to pull over another vehicle, police said.

  The arresting officers were aware of a previously reported robbery in which the car used matched the Crown Victoria's description.

We really wish they'd authorize street executions for this. Maybe with the new guy in charge, we could get a few freebies? Just to show we could handle it?

Aw, who are we kidding? CPD would burn this up like a free donut and coffee joint. We'd have all sorts of altar boys, honor students and reverends stacked up like firewood.

Pension Disaster Looms

We covered this a few weeks ago (months ago?) with retired Captain Chomiak's letter that we published in full. Now suddenly, the mayor is appointing a blue ribbon panel to explore ways to adequately fund public pensions:

• Mayor Daley on Friday created a commission drawn from labor, business and banking to confront a problem that threatens to choke future generations of Chicago taxpayers: underfunded city pension funds.

  The comprehensive solution Daley is seeking within 18 months could include everything from benefit reductions and increased employee contributions to a shift away from "defined benefit" pension plans and toward the "defined contributions" or 401-K plans favored by private industry.

Of course, controversy reigns:

• Fraternal Order of Police President Mark Donahue questioned why the city's two largest unions -- police and fire -- were not represented on the 32-member commission.

And the sad state of affairs is laid out:

• At the end of 2006, the firefighters pension fund had assets on hand to meet just 40 percent of its liabilities. The ratio was 49 percent for police, 67 percent for municipal employees and 92 percent for laborers.

Pay attention people. This panel is going to meet for 18 months and in mid-2009 is when we'll see what completely unacceptable result is to be forced down everyone's throat. Or up their asses. But here's the first clue to pension funding - don't delay paying what is owed to fund BS social programs. You never ever catch up.

New Banned List

Some people are complaining that their comments aren't getting published. That's because we've instituted a new banned words list!

The following words, phrases and comments are banned:

• tonythemouth - you got a beef with him and E-Bay, take it up with the appropriate persons
• J Carroll & D Barret or any variation thereof, either together or separately
  
• Tobias, MT, any variation of such (two week ban)
• fang
• Kirby and any derivative of the word "hottie" appearing in the same sentence. We are not a dating service.

That is all.

Vote Damnit!

And now we know exactly who NOT to vote for:

• After keeping silent for months, Cook County State's Attorney Dick Devine endorsed his top aide to succeed him in office.

  Devine endorsed First Assistant State's Attorney Robert Milan at a Noon press conference Sunday. In plugging Milan, Devine passed over another of his top aides who is seeking the office, Chief Deputy State's Attorney Anita Alvarez.

The FOP has endorsed aldercreature Tom Allen. We aren't sure about that one yet, but we're willing to go along with NOT endorsing Milan.

Another Nice Bust

Get your minds out of the gutter:

• Police on the South Side early Sunday found more than $300,000 worth of cannabis during a traffic stop.

  The stop happened on the 2500 block of South Lowe Avenue, near the Chinatown area, according to police News Affairs. During an investigation of the vehicle, officers found more than 50,000 grams of marijuana, with an estimated street value of about $300,000, police said.

  Also found during the stop was a large amount of cash and a weapon.

Excellent job.

Mope-rah Again?

Sources say Mope-rah has a front page article in the Sunday Sun Times about some incident or another involving 14 police officers and an allegedly illegal search of some poor altar boy's home. According to the source, she addresses the article to J-Fed.

Without even reading the article, let's just say that 14 cops aren't going to show up at someones house, even if there are free donuts involved. If 14 cops show up anywhere, it's because someone somewhere has screwed up. And not one of those "little" screw ups. It's got to be a big screw up to get 14 cops anywhere.

Anyway, we're going to leave this posting up top until we can get a look at Mope-rah's article on line later this morning as we refuse to spend a dime on either one of the local papers.

UPDATE: We're still not linking to Mope-rah. We'll link to Sun Times articles just to save you the trouble of giving them more page hits than are absolutely necessary, but we aren't linking to the hack.

Well, where to start? We have one single side of the story. And Mope-rah has convicted everybody. The most telling line of the article?

• Jordan suspects that her 14-year-old son had been targeted by one of the Hispanic officers who had once confronted him in a mix-up over a bike. She now worries that her two sons -- one a 19-year-old college student -- will be harassed by police.

That line alone tells us this kid has a record of dealing with the police. "Mix up" is a cute way of saying the kid stole the bike, got caught, and to spare his mother the hassle of actually having to come down to the station and pick up her kid (not to mention the "hassle" to the coppers of actually having to lock up her kid), an "arrangement" was arrived at - namely "no-harm-no-foul." And now, months later, a completely separate investigation of a shooting where something might have happened is blown completely out of proportion by someone with an agenda and a media hack. But of course, IPRA's failures as an investigatory body are the failures of the Police Department (even though IPRA is now "independent").

It's not really amazing that all white and hispanic officers are found guilty by Mope-rah and her ilk without an investigation of any sort while she completely ignores four black officers in Englewood who got something like 80 years between them all. Or spends weeks defending the murderer of a successful black woman while lamenting the fact that Drew Peterson is walking around free because of a little missing thing called evidence. Evidence only matters if it gets in the way of Mope-rah's fairy tale.

What should be truly revealing to readers of the article is that Mope-rah can never seem to find a "victim" who doesn't have a record of run-ins with the police. Seems like the Slum Times laid off the wrong members of the Editorial Board. Keep canceling those subscriptions.

Big Drug Bust

Nice job up north:

• A large amount of drugs that could have made a lot of people sick in area bars ended up in the hands of Chicago police instead.
• Charges were filed against George Arkoumanis, 32, of the 2700 block of West Farragut Avenue, Saturday after police found more than 12 ½ pounds of a substance believed to be GHB, otherwise known as the date-rape drug, during a traffic stop.
• About 8 p.m., Albany Park District Tactical Unit officers stopped Arkourmanis’ car on the 3700 block of West Foster Avenue for a traffic violation, according to Lt. Joe Porebski.

Twelve-and-a-half pounds of this stuff. Good thing they got it before it hit the bars in the 44th Ward. Otherwise "someone" may have used his clout and such to "dissuade" anyone from actually looking for this poison.

Not Us, Thank Goodness

Car chase, then car crash:

• What began as a traffic stop Saturday in Marionette Park became a dramatic crash that ended what witnesses said was a high-speed police chase.
• During the attempted stop, a white SUV allegedly sped off and led police on a chase at speeds up to 115 mph, witnesses said. The vehicle was speeding northbound on Kedzie, when it allegedly ran a red light and slammed into a pickup truck ejecting and critically injuring the driver, sources said.
• Jim Hayden lives just steps away from the intersection of 111th and Kedzie streets. Just before 2 a.m., he said he was about to fall asleep, when he heard what he called a "horrendous noise," and ran outside.

One report said the chase was for traffic, another report said for stolen goods. Either way, if CPD had been involved, we're looking at some major piling on by the media.

Homicide Numbers Up?

Someone claimed in the comments section that we've already hit double digits in homicides this year - the number we saw was 18 in the first 10 days of the year. That seems high.

Anyone have the actual official numbers?

Anyone want to bet on the causes?

Rumor Mill in Overdrive

Just in the past 24 hours, it's kicked into high gear:

1. Corey Flagg out tying up "loose ends."
2. Academy staff told to shape up - literally!
3. Stand up inspections, roll call on the hour, write ups galore!
   
4. Kirby giving her farewell speech to her Internal Affairs staff, telling them to keep up what they're doing.

Just an observation - if they keep doing what they were doing, we're going to have another couple of dozen investigations that miss obvious signs of corruption due to clout and sheer incompetence.

Hoffman Fires Inspector

Nice to see someone that hold his people to a standard. Any standard:

• Mayor Daley’s corruption-fighting inspector general fired one of his own employees Friday, six days after the $77,784-a-year assistant chief investigator was arrested for shoplifting at a Chicago grocery.

  Fourteen-year veteran investigator Tracy Buckley was charged Jan. 5 with misdemeanor theft after Whole Foods employees watched her walk out of a store at 6020 N. Cicero with $131.43 worth of unpaid items.

  Before deciding Buckley’s fate, Inspector General David Hoffman said he conducted interviews, read reports and viewed tape recordings made by Whole Foods security cameras.

We can recall off the top of our heads at least two OPS investigators caught dirty (dope, shoplifting) and we know both kept their jobs. Same thing with at least one IAD police agent.

Blago Panders

After all the BS that's been going on for months about layoffs and service cuts and cash advances for mass transit, this ass has the audacity to hold it up once again:

• Gov. Rod Blagojevich said he wants more people to ride public transportation for free.
• A day after including free rides for senior citizens in the mass-transit bailout, the governor said Friday he'll propose in his next budget that disabled people also ride without charge.
  
  Blagojevich said he considered including that in the latest mass-transit bill but didn't want to give lawmakers an excuse to hold up the bailout. The measure increases sales and real estate transfer taxes in Chicago and its suburbs to prop up public transit systems.

They can't indict this fool quick enough. And that recall measure he's inspired has a better chance of passing every single day.