Gun Sales Up

We figure Chicago is just catching up to the rest of the nation:

• Demand for legal firearms in Chicago continues to grow even as the appetite nationally and in Illinois has fallen significantly in recent months — something gun vendors attribute to the election of President Donald Trump.
  
  While gun sales nationwide appear to have dropped from the levels they reached during the Obama years — apparently driven in part by lessened concerns under Trump that access will be restricted — changes in state laws and Chicago's crime wave have unleashed a pent-up demand for legal gun ownership in the area.

Funnily enough, crime is down in Chicago a little bit this year - 13 less killings and just over 100 fewer shootings. While no one can attribute it to one specific cause, last year's numbers scared the crap out of enough people that they suddenly realized that the under-manned and under-equipped police can't be everywhere, especially the "quieter" Districts where police have been stripped to the barest minimums.

And in the middle of this, another liberal talking point bites the dust:

• The city also saw an initial rush of about 8,600 concealed carry licenses in 2014, the first year they were issued. By last year, more than 22,000 had been issued to Chicago residents, and the pace also appears to be accelerating.
  
  Gun advocates also say that since concealed carry was legalized, the public has seen that it has not generally led to more shootings or accidents, while many armed crimes are committed with illegal firearms.

Many of our readers have also been advocating to concerned citizens that their safety is ultimately their own responsibility during the "do more with less" era, along with the handcuffing of police to actually deter/prevent crime.

Go Fund Me Page Needed

We're looking to buy Fran Spielman and Frank Main cardboard boxes for installation on Lower Wacker Drive - because when the wind blows cold, we want them to remember what tools they were of Daley, Rahm and the Machine for years. We're also hoping to buy Mope-rah a threadbare towel she can wrap her self-righteous ass in:

• The owner of the Chicago Tribune has entered into a nonbinding letter of intent to buy the Chicago Sun-Times, providing a lifeline to the scrappy but struggling tabloid.
  
  In an announcement Monday afternoon, Tronc, which operates newspapers including the Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, said that Wrapports, the Sun-Times owner, will officially put the paper on the block Tuesday, and that a deal will be struck with Tronc if no other bidders emerge by June 1.
  
  The announcement also said the Sun-Times will remain an independent newsroom.

Which will last all of a year...if they're lucky. Why run two newsrooms when one will do? Econ 101.

Double Jeopardy? Not for Cops

Amazing how this commie witch completely disregards not only Garrity protections, but Constitutional protections as well:

• Against the backdrop of outrage and protests related to the death of Laquan McDonald on October 14, 2014, newly-minted Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx sought office in 2016 on a platform of “restoring faith” in the State’s Attorney’s Office. In a state of high excitement stoked by opponents of law and order, Foxx has plunged into the wilderness by drafting legislation which would compel cases in which members of the Chicago Police Department exonerated after involvement in fatal shootings become subject to a review by the Office of the State Appellate Prosecutor.
  
  Under Foxx’s proposal, the state’s Special Prosecutor Act (SB1843) would be amended to empower the Office of the State Appellate Prosecutor to act as a special prosecutor for Cook County. In this role, the State Appellate Prosecutor would be tasked with re-examining cases in which Foxx’s office declines to bring criminal charges against a member of the Chicago Police Department embroiled in a fatal shooting.

First up, this looks exactly like political cover for Foxxx or future State's Attorneys in the event that they won't (or can't) bring charges that will stick against an officer. The writer calls this out for the other crap that it is:

• A nonsensical proposition aimed exclusively at law enforcement, this motion has more to do with hostility toward police officers than arriving at justice or attaining the “transparency” and “accountability” of which Foxx has perpetually articulated. Lodged to both indulge and energize anti-police agitators and her far-left supporters, this decisive turn is Ms. Foxx exposing police officers determined by two separate investigations to have justifiably used lethal force to a vengeful brand of double jeopardy.

You currently have less Rights than a criminal you arrest and you are about to have even less should this pass. Read it all - very enlightening article.

SWAT Follies

So, has SWAT been swatted?

• Restructuring of Unit 353 (SWAT) and Unit (153) for filing a lawsuit. Midnight shift being added. No take home cars. No D-3 pay. And you will be in your regular Chicago Police Blue Uniforms. No more green because it looks too military. One training day a month. OT intiatives for SWAT being scaled back. More to follow........

We heard there might be fallout from the lawsuit that members of SWAT filed. Is this it? Political theater involving the safety of citizens and officers.

More:

• Big changes coming down for SWAT. 35th Street is pissed at the To/From that all of the SWAT team signed. Basically, none of the SWAT officers will be taking their gear home with them. They will leave their gear at Homan Square and will respond from home to Homan to pick it up. So you live in 022 or 016 and you are going to drive to Homan to pick up your gear, a squad car and then drive back North or South for an HBT job? That's fucked up

Killing a fly with an A-bomb.

Kansas Chases Again

Kansas bucks the trend:

• After a decision in 2014 to not pursue some fleeing drivers, the Kansas City Police Department is changing its stance.
  
  A new initiative, “Project Act: Addressing Crime Together,” allows police to pursue all drivers who flee traffic stops, with probable cause, KCTV5 reported. Initially, officers could only pursue fleeing drivers if they had committed a serious felony.

The CPD is experiencing something like three-to-seven cars fleeing traffic stops every single day if our sources are to be believed. Two-to-five are actually called off as "terminated pursuits." The percentage increase is in the hundreds as the criminals know almost every pursuit it called off as soon as it begins.

Kansas noticed something similar and decided that was the wrong message to send criminals. Of course, without some form of protection for the officers, we imagine that anyone chasing would still face civil liability in the event of injury or death, even though the fleeing driver is the one responsible. It will never happen here in Chicago, and therefore, carjackings and felonious fleeing and eluding will continue unabated.

More Left Coast

Insanity in Seattle:

• When Seattle police officers write use of force reports they no longer call a suspect a suspect.
  
  “Community member” is the new term. Several officers say the term is offensive, explaining their work with violent suspects.
  
  Sources point to the suspect who shot three officers last month after a downtown Seattle armed robbery. When officers involved in that incident were writing their use of force reports they were required to refer to the shooter, Damarius Butts, as a “community member,” not a suspect, police sources said.
  
  Police fatally shot Butts after they said he shot the officers.

Nothing like blurring the line even more than it is. We might ask everyone to try this on the blog, so we can all be "progressive" together.

Media Trolls Again?

You're welcome Sun Times. They should be sending us a check:

• In an apparent breach of protocol, authorities are investigating how a female inmate ended up in a Markham courthouse holding cell with two male inmates in an encounter that was possibly sexual in nature.
  
  Two male inmates last week first told guards they had been placed in the holding area with a female inmate, who threatened them with a syringe and demanded sex; the female inmate claims the men instigated the sexual encounter, a source with knowledge of the investigation said. No syringe was found.
  
  The Cook County Sheriff’s Department has asked State’s Attorney Kim Foxx to investigate claims from jail inmates who have made the opposing claims; the sexual assault is alleged to have occurred in the holding area outside a courtroom at the courthouse.

How about this - every story that the media lifts from our comment sections, they contribute $50 to the Chicago Police Chaplains Ministry. For every story that the get from the main page (by which we mean we post it more than 12 hours before they do), the Chaplains get $100.

So far in May alone, they owe the Chaplains $300.

Countdown to Bullet Holes

We give it four days:

• Rebranding Englewood begins with welcoming people into the community.
  
  That’s what community leaders and aldermen said Friday at the unveiling of a large sign welcoming visitors to Englewood — the first such sign in the neighborhood, they said.
  
  The sign is now at the northwest corner of Yale Avenue and 63rd Street. It features images of the CTA "L" line that runs through the neighborhood, Kennedy-King College and St. Bernard Hospital, among other pictures.

We guess the ambulances running through the hood, the powder smoke hanging in the air, and the gutters running with blood hit a little too close to reality.

We hope the guys and gals of 007 keep us apprised of any bullet damage to the sign.

And Speaking of Cars....

This caught our attention:

• An 18-year-old woman was killed Friday after another woman repeatedly rammed her into a tree with a car in the Morgan Park neighborhood following an argument, authorities said.
  
  It happened about 11:10 p.m. in the 11400 block of South May Street, according to Chicago police, in a residential street where homes are lined with front yards on the Far South Side.
  
  The accused, a 24-year-old woman, was in custody, and charges were pending, police said.

Charge her with what? We just pointed out in the below post that cars can't kill anyone. Otherwise, police would be allowed to defend themselves against someone using a car as a weapon.

• The accused offender fled the scene before being apprehended by police.
  
  A damaged Jeep Liberty with chunks of wood sticking to its smashed bumper was found about a mile and a half from the scene near 115th and LaSalle streets. The entire front of the silver vehicle was crumpled up and concave.
  
  A young child was in the back seat of the car, law enforcement sources said.

[edit] Nice to see the offender left her juvenile accomplice behind in the car following the non-murder. If only the police were there, maybe they could have shot the tree or something, seeing as how the car was the only force being used. Remember:

• Use of firearms in the following ways is prohibited - Firing at or into a moving vehicle when the vehicle is the only force used against the sworn member or another person.

We can hardly wait to see what further restrictions are going to be put in place this summer with the "new and improved" Non-Use of Force policy.

UPDATE: Have Special Ed's bean counters classified this one as a motor vehicle accident? Cars aren't weapons according to the Department.

Half Story = Half-Assed Protests

Connecticut:

• People are outraged over the latest officer-involved shooting where the ACLU and the media are reporting that the officers shot 16-year-old Jayson Negron “who was driving a car.” What the ACLU fails to mention is that Negron was driving a stolen car, and he was driving it over a police officer at the time he was shot.
  
  According to NBC Connecticut, police attempted to stop at stolen vehicle at 5 PM on Tuesday. Jayson Negron sped off, hitting several vehicles and driving in the wrong direction before stopping. The driver then stopped and the officers approached. That’s when Negron accelerated in reverse, hitting an officer, pinning him under the vehicle.
  
  The other officer responded by firing one shot into the car. The bullet fatally struck Jayson Negron, and injured the passenger, Julian Fyffe...

The Chief is standing behind his officers in the face of ACLU lies and planned protests. Rest assured, if this had happened in Chicago though, the Officer would be facing charges as the vehicle was the only force being used against the officer, hence a violation of the General Order 03-02-03 Section III-E:

• Use of firearms in the following ways is prohibited - Firing at or into a moving vehicle when the vehicle is the only force used against the sworn member or another person.

Everyone knows a car can't kill anyone.

SSL List Sees Daylight

The list that everyone knows about, but no one has seen:

• As Chicago endured a devastating surge in gun violence last summer, scores of people with long rap sheets stood atop the Chicago Police Department’s secret watch list, newly obtained records show.
  
  One of the men had been arrested 12 times for violent crimes, all before turning 20. He’d also been charged with illegal gun possession. Two others each had been arrested eight times for violent crimes and caught three times with guns. Another man had been busted three times for illegal guns, racked up four arrests for violent offenses and been shot twice.
  
  “We have 1,400 individuals that drive this gun violence in this city,” police Supt. Eddie Johnson said in August, assuring the public his department was keeping tabs on the people on its closely guarded “Strategic Subject List.” “We’ve gotten very good at predicting who will be the perpetrators or victims of gun violence.”
  
  Yet the list is far broader and more extensive than Johnson and other police officials have suggested. It includes more than 398,000 entries — encompassing everyone who has been arrested and fingerprinted in Chicago since 2013.

398,000? And this:

• Nearly half of the people at the top of the list have never been arrested for illegal gun possession. About 13 percent have never been charged with any violent crime. And 20 of the 153 people deemed most at risk to be involved in violent crime, as victim or shooter, have never been arrested either for guns or violence.

That must be one hell of an algorithm that Lewin developed.

He did get this correct though:

• The police say they do not include race or gender in the risk assessment. But the database includes that information and shows the vast majority of people with the highest score — 85 percent — were African-American men.

That tracks pretty closely with the HeyJackass.com statistics of victims and offenders, which of course, will now be denounced as racist.

016 Quota Memo

Here's the "memo"

Keep em coming.

Surf's Up!

Our semi-regular series of building issues in the Department. Today, Area 2:

Someone is going to get crushed to death by this paperwork. And if you look down the other way:

It's a giant slip-n-slide. Good thing all the paperwork is stacked in the hallways to absorb any stray tsunamis that might appear. We certainly hope that none of that is for any pending homicide cases, otherwise, the clearance rate might dip below 15%.

Free Tip for Media

You media-types trolling here on a daily basis are far better equipped to look into this....if you dare:

• And it appears that Rahm and his hand-picked board still haven't learned their lesson.
  
  A friend told me that a rumor floats about CPS right now that all of the technology people who work in the schools are going to lose their jobs because IT is going the way of the engineers and custodial staff. The kicker is that the person who is bidding on this lucrative, multi-year contract to perform all IT services is actually a woman who oversaw the department for 20 years or so, and she has serious connections to the guy from Wilmette that hid his wife's wedding dress in the crawlspace of that house on the 4200 block of North Hermitage. This is Barbara Byrd Bennett all over, except the stakes will be even higher with "untagged" merchandise walking out the doors and an even bigger contract awarded. But they don't have the money to keep the doors open.
  
  Are the media snoops reading this? How about either of the Inspector Generals? What about the guy who claims to be friends with a guy who knows Jeff Sessions really well? Someone needs to stop this little Monster Rahm from blowing even more money on connected friends and their corporations.

With CPS short nearly $600 million and Rahm trying to "delay" the summer pension payment, this might be something worth looking into.

Cop Wounded - 011

The vest saved him from extensive damage. He's reportedly talking.

Offender, a female, also got shot numerous times.

Check in for updates.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

UPDATE: Tribune coverage

FOP Jumps In

About time:

• For the second time in a month, a Chicago Police supervisor is coming under fire for sending a memo that appears to set an illegal quota for cops to make stops.
  
  In a recent note to his sergeants, a lieutenant in the Jefferson Park District on the Northwest Side praised his officers for outperforming last year’s activity by 30 percent, but asked the sergeants to focus on those cops “not contributing their fair share, meaning they’re not meeting the agreed upon ‘one good stop per documentation per day worked.’ ”
  
  On Thursday, Fraternal Order of Police President Kevin Graham blasted the memo, saying, “The best way to increase productivity among our members is for the city to make a good faith effort to support police officers, which is not currently taking place.”
  
  In a written statement, Graham said the FOP is “opposed to quotas in any form, regardless if they are deemed official policy or guidelines.”
  
  “They are legally questionable,” he said, “and a poor policy to use against officers.”

Then the Department Spokes-weasel comes up with this laugher:

• In response to the latest memo in Jefferson Park, chief police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the department is “continuing to advance traffic safety initiatives,” including one to target motorists who text message while they drive. But he said “the department does not have arrest or enforcement quotas of any kind.”
  
  “This is a single communication between a lieutenant and his patrol shift from one of the city’s 22 police districts and is designed to serve as guidance,” he said in a written statement.

Once is an accident. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is enemy action.

We already have comments about Voulgaris sweating his guys. He's just smart enough not to put it to paper. That's three times.

Hell, Lt Schmeer is making guys write To-From's when they work CHA Special on a fixed post and come in with zeroes. All the foot traffic around the project buildings avoids the police like the plague and if the officers leave their post, they're subject to discipline. That's four.

Do you want us to keep going? With more names? Those are quotas Anthony. You want to stop lying to the reporters? The ACLU isn't going to like it when you lie to them during the deposition that you had no knowledge of a quota system.

Gun Stops Crime?

How can this be???

• A concealed carry permit holder shot an alleged carjacker on gun-controlled Chicago’s Southwest side on Wednesday morning. The incident occurred around 11:30 a.m. as the permit holder was “standing outside his vehicle in the 5300 block of South Pulaski Road.”
  
  According to the Chicago Tribune, police said two men approached the permit holder and demanded his keys, but he pulled his gun and opened fire instead, shooting one of the two suspects in the groin area. The wounded suspect, an unidentified 25-year-old male, “was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn” and is listed in good condition. Although the second suspect fled when the would-be victim opened fire, he was caught a short time later. Both suspects are expected to face charges.
  
  The police state that a weapon was recovered at the scene.

"Community" protests beginning in 3.....2..... oh wait, no police involved. Never mind.

Cue the anti-gunners instead.

Bubblehead Dollars

Look what is the coin of the realm for all debts, public and private:

Unfortunately, the rate of inflation on this currency is rivaling that of Venezuela, 800% and still rising, so you need about few thousand Bubble-dollars to even get the 2-for-1 special at McDonalds.

Free Cars?

Ah, California, is there nothing you won't spend taxpayer money on?

• In today's episode of "Why The Hell Do I Bother To Work For a Living," we learn that the city of Sacramento, California, has decided to purchase a fleet of cars that will be made available, free of charge, to 300 residents already using that city's public housing.
  
  The $1.3 million used to pay for what the Sacramento Bee calls a "mini fleet," came from the state's California Environmental Protection Agency, which in turn got the money by blackmailing local businesses with cap-and-trade fines.
  
  Gas, maintenance and insurance will also be paid for by the state, which can only mean that the $1.3 million is just the beginning of yet-another very expensive government debacle, but one that will never be repealed because if you take away people's free cars they will die.

As the article goes on to state, California is trying to convince everyone to give up their cars because cars are evil, polluting (and probably racist) machines. But the government is willing to give away electric cars to public housing residents who already receive housing free of charge, utilities free of charge, food free of charge, etc.

What ever happened to the bus/public transit being the way to go?

Reading is a Skill

Evidently, a bunch of tiny-brains don't know how to read an entire post. We'll put it up here again so you don't miss it:

• [Comments in which the only point is "do work or quit" will be deleted as per policy. Same with rip jobs on 016 "lazy cops" and crap like that. The same rules apply to all cops all the time - the enemy is management violating the law that would cost any normal cop his/her job if they did it.]

If you read the right hand side of the blog, you'll see RULE #7:

• Grammar nazi stuff = delete. Same goes for comments where the entire point is "quit the job."

But about thirty of you didn't seem to get the message. There were also a bunch of comprehension-impaired individuals who insist on claiming we typed things that don't appear anywhere in the posting:

• We "endorsed" the ACLU - where exactly? We said they monitor the blog. That's true.
• We are "legitimizing" the ACLU. Are you dense? Legitimizing how? THEY READ THE BLOG. We warned everyone. They've been reading it longer than you probably.
• "Fuck you SSC." Wow, good for you. You can spell "Fuck." Too bad you can't spell SCC.
• We are somehow "communists" for pointing out the fight is against management. Dude, do you even know how to red-bait? Were you born after the Iron Curtain fell? You're an idiot.
• We are deleting "people who disagree." Again, reading is a skill - learn it. We said we were deleting posts that relied on "rip jobs on 016 "lazy cops" and crap like that." If you have a point, make it. If you can't without resorting to the stuff that we TOLD YOU we were going to delete, then that's on you, and you're obviously a moron.
• We are "sticking up for the dogs." Again, where? We clearly stated that rip jobs would be deleted, because we didn't feel like wading through the crap that inevitably shows up in posts like this, where the only "real cops" are from [pick a district.] We know plenty of "real cops" in slow retirement districts and they went there to get away from the daily ghetto grind. Some of them brag about getting a total of three paper jobs a week, while we slog a dozen-plus. Good for them - that doesn't make them "dogs." That makes them smart. We aren't going to get into the manpower thing again - 016 has cars sitting idle every watch because there aren't cops to drive them. 011 has cops riding three and four deep because there aren't enough cars - we have emails from them all. Someone not backing up another cop is inexcusable. If it happens where you work, make noise, file a CR - oh wait, then you're a "rat" or something. We're lucky - dogs are few and far between where we've been. Don't blame us for what the Department has become.
• "It's only one stop, what's the harm?" Yeah, and it was only $2.00 when the health care costs started. Let us know how that one is looking on your check lately.

A quota is bad police work. Period. Once you start down that road, nothing good has ever come of it. Feel free  to disagree, politely and making sense, within the vast latitude we've defined. Otherwise, don't expect to see your comment - we don't feel like wading through the crap.