RIP Superman

A little history for the new kids - this article appeared late last year, although Mr. Novit passed in 2012:

• Arthur Novit, officer who was "Superman of the Subway," dies at age 89. Chicago Police Officer Arthur Novit was an expert at disguising himself as a vagrant or country bumpkin while he worked as a decoy in the subway to attract would-be robbers.
  
  But one day he decided to have a little fun. The adventure earned him a nickname: "Superman of the Subway." Mr. Novit dressed in a Superman costume and hid in a CTA storage closet while he waited for criminals to make their move on a fellow police decoy slumped on the floor - like a man on a bender - at the Red Line station at Jackson and State.
  
  When two robbers pounced, Mr. Novit burst out in full superhero regalia, knocking the closet's steel door to the ground as if it were made of cardboard. (He and other officers had loosened the hinges so they could slip in and out.) And he made a speech that would become departmental legend.
  
  "Halt! In the name of the Law! Law and Order will prevail in the subways of Chicago!" he told Leonard Aronson, who reported the story in a 1976 issue of Chicago magazine. "As long as I'm in this metropolis, law and order will prevail."
  
  When one of his police partners thanked "Superman" for helping officers, he replied, "Any time you need me, I'll be here. It takes me only 10 minutes by cape." When the robbers appeared in court, a judge asked them who made the pinch.
  "Superman arrested me," one said. The judge sent him to see a court psychiatrist.

This is the historical (and hysterical) background missing from today's Department. This story was related to us back in the 70's growing up in a cop family along with dozens of others. And we were lucky enough to serve with men and women who experienced it just before they retired.

We have a hard time thinking of anything similar nowadays.

Part of the HQ Buzz

Hot and heavy:

• MH has her bags packed and headed to hubby
  DB is playing crazy and might have to check into a mental hospital
  SC is putting in applications on line to get hired for another city job
  PWM Brown has already left town
  PM has applied for police job n South Africa
  DW has deflated, she moved into a one bdrm apt last week

First one to talk gets the best seat on the bus:

• Here's the issue, the IG has made their recommendation, now the investigation is back with the Department. The Superintendent now has to instruct the Chief of the Bureau of Internal Affairs to assign the case to someone from IAD to investigate it based on the IG's recommendations. The problem with that is out of the 40 plus sergeants in IAD, only a select handful can handle such a sensitive case. You have to look for someone that doesn't have a personal interest in the outcome of the investigation (sergeant who didn't take the test) and who is not associated with the accused members. I say an IAD Lieutenant should handle the case.
  
  That is the holdup

A "hold-up"? There's no one untainted at IAD who could run an investigation involving so many supervisory members of IAD. Not only that, the roll call of exempt members among the accused and named in e-mails would be enough to bring down Rahm's and Special Ed's entire command staff. There is literally NO ONE among Special Ed's appointees who isn't splashed with mud on this, and the most explosive allegation of using Department e-mail to arrange monetary transfers for a proprietary test created by an outside firm opens up exempts being sued civilly as well as criminal charges.

Rahm to Ban Cars

Here's a dumb idea, four years in the making and (no doubt) costing countless millions:

• The city of Chicago is preparing to unveil an ambitious plan to eliminate fatal accidents on the city’s streets.
  
  Chicago Transportation Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld says the Emanuel Administration is about to outline it’s Vision Zero action plan, which is part of a global movement intended to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious-injury accidents.
  
  Chicago signed on to the effort in 2012, and the plan is finally drawn up.

Eliminate fatalities? And serious injury accidents? This sounds similar what Rahm and lib-tards are trying to do with guns - ban the guns and murders will miraculously cease. How's that working out lately?

• “It’s just the start,” Scheinfeld said. “Following the release of the plan, we’re going to do community engagement especially in areas where we’re seeing the greatest concentration of traffic crashes — and you see a lot of that on the South side and the West side. There’s a disproportionate impact on areas of greatest hardships.”

Gee, the South and West sides again. Is there no affliction that can't be traced to these neighborhoods? How about you try this?

• take and pass Driver's Ed
• get a license
• practice
• buy and insure a car
• maintain said car
• obey the law
• don't be an asshole

That would cut down on injuries and fatalities overnight.

Bringing the Mayhem to You

Party buses again:

• Three men were shot on Chicago's North Side overnight and one of those men died from his injuries.
  
  It happened at about 12:30 a.m. in the 6300 block of North Broadway Avenue in the Edgewater neighborhood. Police say two men were shot after they stepped off a party bus that had pulled over and stopped near a Dunkin Donuts.
  
  Someone pulled up in a dark-colored SUV and fired several shots. Witnesses say they heard 4-5 shots.

No word on what neighborhood the victims were from, but we wouldn't be surprised if they traveled a long way just to get shot up north.

Wrigleyville Dumbassery

While weekend arrests were down from years past, it's still an embarrassing weekend:

• Community pressure on businesses and the city to rein in Wrigleyville’s wild St. Patrick’s celebrations seems to be paying off—at least by some measures.
  
  CWB Chicago estimates that “only” five people were arrested in connection with yesterday’s Green Invasion of the Clark Street bar strip.
  
  That’s down sharply from 21 arrests in 2014 and 17 arrests in 2015. Seven people were arrested last year.
  
  We also estimate that 21 people were scooped up and hauled out of Wrigleyville by ambulance crews during the revelry. That’s also down from past years.

The CWB blog has video and dispatch transcription of the stupidity.

Spring Ahead

If you didn't move your clock overnight, you're already late.

Gun Permits Up

Guess where?

• A spike in demand by city residents saw the state issue 63 percent more permits to Chicagoans to own a gun in 2016 than in 2015, according to data obtained by DNAinfo from State Police.
  
  In 2016, some 38,712 Chicagoans got a state-issued Firearm Owners Identification card compared to 23,725 in 2015.
  
  About 212,000 people are licensed to own a gun in Chicago, according to State Police.
  
  
• Edison Park and Norwood Park in the northwest corner of the city and Morgan Park and Mount Greenwood in the southwest corner have the highest per capita number of permitted gun owners, according to the data.
  
  Clearing is home of the highest total number of gun owners with permits, while Dunning is home of the highest total number of Chicagoans with concealed-carry permits, according to the data.
  
  Austin and North Lawndale, two of the city's more dangerous neighborhoods, had permit and concealed- carry numbers far below the city leaders.

Gee, you'd think that Edison Park, Norwood Park, Morgan Park and Mount Greenwood would be hotbeds of shootings, maimings, and killings. But it seems the opposite is true for some unknown reason. Anyone want to help DNAInfo and the politicians with that one?

Combining Departments?

It was done once before with the Park District Police:

• The long-simmering City Council debate over whether to arm aviation security officers can be resolved by making them part of the Chicago Police Department, a chief proponent said Wednesday.
  
  Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th), whose ordinance authorizing aviation security officer to carry weapons is languishing in a committee, embraced the idea tossed out by Finance Committee Chairman Edward Burke (14th) during a recent closed-door meeting with Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans.
  
  “Incorporation of aviation security officers into the Chicago Police Department at a lesser level than that of a police officer. By doing that, they would be recognized by the Chicago Police Department and armed without any additional training. That’s an excellent approach,” Taliaferro, a former Chicago Police officer, said Wednesday.
  
  “It’s very similar to what’s been done with the Illinois Secretary of State police. They all carry the Illinois State Police patch. They’re police officers and armed, but they’ve been assimilated into the Illinois State Police without the same degree of being an Illinois state trooper.”

It better not affect seniority.

Burke would hate to surrender any sort of control he has over the airports - which is considerable. But with the necessity of having armed personnel beyond the checkpoints and the alleged scandals brewing within the Department of Aviation, this might be an option.

This however, is unacceptable just in terms of public safety:

• Zalewski noted that the jobs of 42 of the 171 Chicago Police officers authorized to be at O’Hare are vacant. Midway has 131 authorized police officers and 40 vacancies, he said.

Nearly a third of the manpower unfilled - seems perfectly safe!

We would speculate that this is, yet again, another circumvention of the Contract which is supposed to be 50/50 in terms of Management/Bid. Someone said there were recent management moves to one/both of the airports without a matching number of bid spots. That would be something the FOP ought to be keeping an eye on, but with Silent Dean at the helm, who knows what shenanigans are going on behind the scenes.

Official Results

Here they are:

Run off for the top office only.

Supposedly Dean is all over Facebook, asking for a debate between the two candidates and bemoaning the spending of $100,000 to have a runoff election. We would suggest that if Dean is that concerned about the $100K, he ought to be the bigger guy and step aside. After all it's for the children membership. Otherwise, shut up and campaign.

Runoff

So there's a runoff for president. Again. No unanimous ticket won all the spots, so the race for president is now the direction the FOP is going to go. What we mean by that is that the president is under no obligation to to have the elected Vice Presidents, Recording Secretary, Financial Secretary or Treasurer fill the inside spots. He can pick anybody to be inside, leaving the elected representatives who aren't to his liking as nothing more than fancy titles pushing a beat car.

Has there ever been an effort to pass an amendment to the By-Laws that states "the elected representatives" will be the ones actually in the office? That's why we elected them - not so the president could flout the will of the membership and put in his cronies.

Who has the list of Trustees who won?

HQ Buzzing

Something is up.

Johnson surgery?

Indictments? Suspensions?

Another New York strategy being stolen?

Yet another shuffling of the deck?

Stay tuned

FOP Runoff (UPDATES)

Early returns from the Hall:

• 9,000 votes, plus or minus.

That's pathetic to say the least. We'll see what the breakdown is between retirees and active members.

• Runoff - Angelo versus Shields?

That would be truly pathetic.

UPDATE: NOT Shields.

Angelo versus Graham.

Looks like Martin Prieb won his race.

Rahm Mortgaged City Hall?

Seriously, this is legit?

• As it prepares to embark on a sweeping overhaul of city streetlights, the infrastructure trust that Mayor Rahm Emanuel once hailed as a model of out-of-the-box thinking to jumpstart public works has proved anything but.
  
  Launched five years ago this month, the Chicago Infrastructure Trust has accomplished little and done so at a snail’s pace. None of the $800 million in financing that Emanuel claimed he had lined up from institutional investors to bankroll city projects ever materialized, with resources so tight that the trust on several occasions has been late by more than a month in paying staff and once by several months.
  
  What’s more, city records reviewed by The Better Government Association show that trust operations and projects have been largely dependent on public financing even though Emanuel sold the idea as an innovative financing scheme to free taxpayers from cost and risk.

So Rahm lied to taxpayers again, this time to the tune of $800 million that never showed up.

SURPRISE!

But this is what truly amazed us:

• Buried deep in loan documents were details that spelled out how mechanical systems in eight city-owned buildings were to be put up as collateral for the Retrofit One loan. That left open the possibility that, if financing soured, creditors could seize control of parts of the ventilation, heating or cooling systems at City Hall, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Harold Washington Library, the Police Academy and the 11th District police station on the West Side.

So he mortgaged the heating system at City Hall? The Washington Library? The Academy? And 011?

Hahahahahahahaha!!!!!!

City Hall still has that dead garden on the roof stressing the major support structure, the Library is inhabited by homeless sex offenders, the Academy is a disgrace, and according to VRI workers, on the hottest days of the year, the one thing you can count on is the AC not working in 011.

This is the "financial genius" who "made" $11 million or so in the world of high finance...with a degree in dance.

Not My Fault!!!

Kim Foxxx learned the democratic playbook well - blame your predecessor:

• Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx has blamed her predecessor for an "error" that led to the release of a man murdered less than an hour after he left Cook County Jail, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
  
  Kamari Belmont, 23, was released from jail around 11:15 p.m. last Monday and at 11:45, police said a white SUV pulled up alongside his car just a few blocks from the jail and someone inside that second car shot and killed him.
  
  [...] A spokeswoman for State's Attorney Foxx, who was sworn in Dec. 1, said an "error" occurred in the handling of the case under the administration of Foxx's predecessor, Alvarez.
  
  "As a result, case law demanded that we dismiss the murder charges," spokeswoman Tandra Simonton said in an email. "Going forward, we are working to improve training protocols for our prosecutors to prevent such errors."
  
  Simonton didn't provide any other details about the error. Alvarez declined to comment, a spokeswoman said.

A few questions:

1. How long until Kim actually is considered responsible for the actions of her office? We seem to see daily headlines about how Trump is responsible for everything under the sun in the USA since 20 January, but Kim isn't responsible for an arm of County government she's been running since December 2016.
2. Kim's office had two status hearings on this case since she took office. That's two opportunities to make sure shit is in order and deadlines met. Or doesn't she remember what job she was running for? The mayoral race is another year away.
3. What did the Machine promise Alvarez to take the blame? A judgeship?

Foxxx got the Sparklefart's Blame Game down pat though.

Dead Last

Well done Rahm. Shortshanks started it, but you've managed to bury it:

• Chicago is not alone among major cities grappling with under-funded city employee pensions, but is clearly in the worst shape among the nation’s fifteen largest cities, a Wall Street rating agency concluded Wednesday.
  
  Standard and Poor’s surveyed pension obligations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose, San Antonio, Phoenix, Jacksonville, Dallas, Houston, Columbus, Indianapolis and Austin.
  
  Chicago performed the worst across the board — registering the highest annual debt, pension post-employment benefits costs as a percentage of governmental expenditures and the highest debt and pension liability per capita.

And worst of all?

• Chicago also had the lowest weighted pension fund ratio, the worst pension contribution vs. required level and the lowest funded return for a single fund.
  
  That dubious distinction went to the Chicago Police Annuity and Benefit Fund, which had assets to cover just 25 percent of its liabilities in fiscal 2015, down from 26 percent the year before.

And Rahm still isn't paying the legally required amounts:

• [Standard and Poor] noted that Chicago “only made 52 percent of its annual legally required pension contribution” in fiscal 2015.
  
  While Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s 2017 budget contributes more toward employee pensions, amounts budgeted still fall significantly short of the actuarially determined contributions levels,” the report states.

"52% of....legally required pension contribution...." That would appear to be a fancy way of saying, "Breaking the law." So what is FOP and the Pension Board doing to fix this? And why isn't anyone facing removal from the Board, charges or prison?

Car Stolen!!!

This is a big deal.....why?

• Police recovered a stolen car early Thursday, only for it to be stolen again from the Harrison District police station parking lot on the West Side.
  
  About 12:30 a.m., Harrison District officers recovered the black 2014 Dodge Challenger, which had been stolen from the 4100-block of West Adams, according to Chicago police.
  
  The officers took the stolen vehicle to the police station parking lot in the 3100 block of West Harrison so they could complete paperwork, but the car was eventually stolen again, police said.

This happens almost daily across the city. We haven't worked in a District yet that didn't have this happen at least once a year. But we suppose when Rahm needs his daily dose of making the cops look bad, the media is all too eager to please. Too bad they don't look at maybe a secure lot or a more readily available (and efficient) towing service to prevent this sort of thing.

Speedy Justice

This one lit up our comments and e-mail:

• A man who beat his murder case when prosecutors failed to give him a speedy trial was killed minutes after leaving Cook County Jail on Monday night, according to authorities.
  
  Kamari Belmont, 23, was being held on murder and robbery charges after he allegedly shot a man during a robbery and robbed another man a few hours later in 2015. The man he shot died weeks later.
  
  Cook County prosecutors dropped the murder charges the end of January after allowing too much time to elapse under the state’s speedy trial statute, according to court records and Belmont’s attorney.  The robbery charges remained and Belmont was ordered held on a $100,000 bond.
  
  At 5:30 p.m. Monday, a friend of Belmont posted the required $10,000 on the bond and Belmont was released at 11:12 p.m., according to jail officials.
  
  Belmont was a few block of the jail when a white SUV pulled up to his car on California Avenue and someone inside started shooting, police said. Belmont was hit several times.

We can already hear the wailing:

• If only the police / sheriff / county kept him in jail, he'd be alive today!

But they didn't, and he isn't.

But what's this "speedy trial" loophole? If you can delay, delay and delay again, waiting for the always brilliant and on-the-ball Cook County States Attorney to miss a deadline, you get to walk on murder charges? Is there any sort of leave to re-file? There is no statute of limitations on murder, but seemingly endless opportunities to await a misstep that will get you into the 80% that get away with murder in Cook County.

Well, until you venture outside the walls of the jail that is. Out there, someone may be waiting.

Another Reopened Case

Here's a previously ruled Justified shooting opened for political reasons:

• [DS], who has been in the 018th District for 18 years, needs our help. He is in a no pay status currently and IPRA is trying to fire him for a shooting that happened just over three years ago which was deemed justified at the time. Here's a brief synopsis:
  
  [DS] was assigned to the tactical team in 018 and was working with the area detectives on an armed robbery crew that was creating havoc in the district. While on a surveillance of one of the offenders homes in the suburbs, offender pulled into his driveway and exited his vehicle. The decision was made to take the offender down and [DS] and other detectives converged on the scene. Offender saw what was about to happen and jumped back into his vehicle. Offender then proceeded an attempt to drive over [DS] and another detective at which time [DS] fired 3 times striking the offender. The offender succumbed to his wounds. An immediate investigation by the department ruled the shooting justified and IPRA at the time concurred.
  
  Fast forward to present time and IPRA gets a new Chief Administrator who decides that she is going to re-open numerous shooting investigations due to the Laquan McDonald shooting. [DS] finds out his shooting is to be one of them. In January [DS] gets promoted in the first class of detectives only to find out that he is being taken off the list and being put in call back due to IPRA's re-investigation. IPRA's re-investigation concludes that [DS's] first two shots were justified and the third was not. Superintendent Johnson weighed in and stated that the shooting was justified while IPRA went to a three person review of the Police Board who sided with IPRA. 2 weeks ago [DS] was put in a no pay status and has to go in front of the full Police Board sometime this year.

Did you get that? In a rapidly evolving, violent, loud, dynamic situation, some armchair assholes from IPRA dissected a shooting that took maybe 2 seconds to unfold and determined that the first two shots were justified and a third shot was unjustified.

And how pray tell did they determine this? What if the first and third shots were the justified ones? Hindsight is supposed to be 20/20, but a cop doesn't have that sort of luxury in a highly fluid situation with a guy trying to run over multiple officers with a car.

Special Ed seems to have made the determination that it was a justified shooting, as IPRA did three years ago, but was overruled by political actors operating in a political environment looking for a political outcome.

This finding is crap and ought to be treated as crap. The FOP should be loud and outraged about this and the superintendent might want to think about the fact that Officers are going to see this three-year delay as a witch hunt for scalps.

You think the police are fetal now?

Something is Missing

No idea how we missed this one back in February - no budget for two years, but the assholes in Springfield have time for this:

• Illinois lawmakers are encouraging the state to be undead-ready by passing a resolution declaring October to be "Zombie Preparedness Month."
  
  The state House voted Thursday to approve House Resolution 0030, which calls for October to be declared "Zombie Preparedness Month" as a bid to encourage the state's residents to be prepared for more realistic natural disasters.
  
  "If the citizens of Illinois are prepared for zombies, than they are prepared for any natural disaster; while a Zombie Apocalypse may never happen, the preparation for such an event is the same as for any natural disaster," the resolution reads.

It says people (and folks) should stock up certain supplies in case of a natural disaster....or zombie apocalypse:

• Citizens should have supplies on hand, which may include, water, food, medications, tools, electronics, sanitation and hygiene, clothing and bedding, important documents and first aid...

You know what Illinois lawmakers seem to have left out?

• Weapons. And ammo.

If you don't have a gun and at least a few thousand rounds for that gun, you are going to die in any sort of zombie apocalypse. And depending on where you live in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, the same is going to happen if there's any sort of natural disaster that interrupts power and commerce for an extended period of time - say one week, two tops.

Good Idea

Here's a good idea from the comments:

• "Day without an Immigrant," "Day without a Woman" - where's the "Day without a Cop"? 

FOP, start working on this.