Cops Denied Voice

Anyone with half-a-brain has stopped proactive police work. This message is to everyone else, so if you know someone who doesn't read the blog semi-regularly, let them know:

• Stop doing proactive police work or you are going to lose your job, be indicted or go to prison.

This is fucking ridiculous:

• Promising he will give the Fraternal Order of Police — “and indeed all Chicago police officers” — a chance to be heard, a federal judge Thursday nevertheless denied an attempt by the police union to formally intervene in a lawsuit expected to lead to a consent decree governing reform efforts at CPD.
  
  In a 25-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Robert Dow said the FOP waited too long to try to intervene in the federal lawsuit brought by Attorney General Lisa Madigan against the city of Chicago, “despite its clear recognition” through public comments that the case could significantly affect policing in Chicago.
  
  The judge said the state offered to let the FOP enter into a memorandum of agreement — along with a coalition of community groups — giving it the right to raise objections and give input toward the consent decree. But citing state attorneys, the judge said the FOP refused the offer — a decision the FOP doesn’t deny.
  
  Therefore, Dow said the FOP’s decision to publicly oppose the consent decree but limit its own role in negotiations “appears to have been strategic, and it must live with the consequences of that decision as it relates to this belated attempt to intervene as a party in this lawsuit.”

Parties are added and subtracted from federal proceedings all the time - years after the fact even. The FOP taking its time and assessing all of its options over the course of a few months shouldn't be a big deal. In act, the FOP seems to be the only party actually telling everyone to slow down, take a breath and let cooler heads prevail (kind of like de-escalating if you think about it) instead of rushing around like there's an election around the corner.

Oh wait...

Don't say you weren't warned that the lib-tards involved are going to crucify you the first chance they get.

Once Again....

Kimesha Foxxx drops felony charges:

• Cook County prosecutors on Thursday dropped criminal charges against the brother of a man shot and killed by Chicago police during a confrontation that led to racially charged protests in the city’s Mount Greenwood neighborhood in late 2016.
  
  Michael Beal, 30, faced numerous felonies including aggravated battery to a police officer, attempted disarm and unlawful restraint following a melee that touched off outside a firehouse near 111th and Troy streets that ended with his brother Joshua’s death. But officials with the Cook County state’s attorney’s office dropped all charges against the Indianapolis man during a hearing before Judge Carol M. Howard at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
  
  A state’s attorney representative wasn’t immediately available to comment.

Add these felonies to the list of crimes that the "community" doesn't have to obey.

Exempt Movement

These are unusual to say the least:

• Keith Calloway Chief IAD
  Elgin Deputy Chief Area South
  Joel Howard Comm 005
  Kevin Johnson DC Academy
  Varrick Douglas XO Area South
  Rod Robinson Commander 011
  King-Smith to Farce Mitigation Section Commander
  Skahill to Commander (Civilian) of IAD (again)!!
  
  These are some strange promotions...EJ is trying to take care of his ppl before he leaves!! But why make Calloway who was out the door until his kids got the UC scholarship? Why put KJ (011) at the Academy of all places? Why Skahill at IAD again?? So many unanswered questions, it’s laughable!!!”

As we see it, these are promotions of a guy on the way out the door.

Force Mitigation is preparing for an entire stable of camels.

Skahill, a half-assed lawyer when she was sworn, now a civilian, in charge of IAD?

And does there seem to be a certain lack of....shall we say "diversity" ...in these moves?

Another Guilty Aldercreature

Looks like Cochran is pleading guilty shortly:

• Ald. Willie Cochran is considering whether to take a plea deal nearly two years after federal prosecutors accused him of fraud, extortion and bribery.
  
  But no final decision has been made, according to defense attorney Christopher Grohman. And no hearing has been set before U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso for Cochran to change his previous plea of not guilty.
  
  “(Cochran) has not yet decided whether or not he will plead guilty,” Grohman told the Chicago Sun-Times. “He has been offered something, and he’s thinking about it.”
  
  The feds accused Cochran in December 2016 of looting a 20th Ward fund meant to help children and senior citizens, using $5,000 to pay his daughter’s college tuition and withdrawing $25,000 from ATMs near his preferred casinos. The former Chicago Police officer was also accused of accepting bribes from businessmen who needed favors from him.

So a "Two-Fer" - crooked aldercreature, crooked former cop.

You can bet the media will count him as both even though he hasn't been a cop for fifteen years.

Memorial Park

Thirty years ago:

• It was decades ago but seems like a headline today: A gunman, with apparently no particular target in mind, enters a Near West Side school and fires a shot that kills a Chicago police officer, solidifying her legacy as an everyday hero.
  
  Now, after years of mass school shootings and the unimaginable losses of life, a reminder of Irma Ruiz — the officer, wife and mother who died in that 1988 shooting protecting students — may surface in a city park on Chicago’s Southwest Side.
  
  On Wednesday, the Chicago Park District board is set to begin the process of renaming Walnut Park in the Archer Heights neighborhood after Ruiz. Board members will vote to launch a 45-day notice period in which park officials will field comments on “public support for, and public opposition to, the proposed name,” according to the Park District’s criteria for naming parks.
  
  Ald. Ed Burke, 14th, is behind a proposal to rename Walnut Park — which is in his ward — after Ruiz. He said her death remains one of the most devastating episodes in Chicago police history.

If we had our way, there wouldn't be nearly as many public spaces named after politicians or business persons or trees for that matter.

Picket the Airport

Remember, if you reward bad behavior (or ignore it), you're going to get a lot more of it:

• He organized the shutdown of Lake Shore Drive that snarled traffic earlier this month and now the Rev. Gregory Livingston wants to do the same thing on the Kennedy Expressway, jamming up travel to and from O’Hare International Airport.
  
  Livingston, of New Hope Baptist Church in West Humboldt Park, staged a news conference Wednesday outside Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office in City Hall to announce his plans for an anti-violence march on the Kennedy Expressway — the main thoroughfare to O’Hare — about 11 a.m. or noon on Labor Day.
  
  “We need to get Rahm’s attention because we are really following (Mahatma) Gandhi’s pattern,” Livingston said. “Gandhi said first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then we win.”

Or in Rahm's and Special Ed's case, first they ignore you, then they pander to you, then they march with you, then they exchange $$$ for promises of votes.

We've got news for the revs - all you're blocking are the passengers. The airplanes are going to keep on arriving and departing with or without the passengers. They ought to try blocking a runway with a 747 wide body coming in at about 160 MPH. We'd actually respect that, though the Federal Government might not.

Police Kill Englewood Woman

Firing blindly through her front door....wait, what? It was the "community"? Again? What the Hell?

• Longtime neighbors on Paulina Street in West Englewood were used to seeing Estelle "Stella" Smith strutting up the street, calling out to residents, sharing laughs and wise words with families she'd grown up with.
  
  But the family lost their bungalow in 2010, and Smith moved her family around the block to Hermitage Avenue and 64th Street. Still, she remained a regular presence on the block, catching up with neighbors and swapping stories and banter.
  
  Smith, 44, was sitting on a couch in her home when shots were fired outside around 8:40 p.m. Tuesday, according to Chicago police.
  
  One of the bullets pierced the front door and hit Smith in the abdomen. She was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

And another lady, 80 years old, caught a round yesterday, too. Rumor is there's no police involvement there either.

Dumbassery

These assholes still get a say in a "consent decree" that hasn't involved the FOP in a single step:

• An activist coalition led by Black Lives Matter on Tuesday pressed its case for major changes to the consent decree outlining the terms of federal court oversight over the Chicago Police Department.
  
  “If the city refuses to include these demands in the decree, this most recent effort to address police violence and racism could fail like every effort that has come before it,” Jonathon Projansky of Black Lives Matter Chicago, told a City Hall news conference outside the mayor’s office.
  
  Ted Mann of Network 49 said the demands go far beyond police shootings that make headlines. It’s about stopping police violence that is “so frequent, it’s not newsworthy,” he said.

Yeah, because the police are routinely shooting people (and folks) in double digits every single weekend. NEWSFLASH - It's not newsworthy because it ISN'T happening asshat.

• “So much of this violence is committed because police have incentives to escalate encounters with our community. And much of this violence is committed when officers claim to be arresting people for minor non-violent issues such as marijuana possession, drinking in the public way and disorderly conduct. Arrests are their own kind of violence and they destroy lives.”

Um, what? What does that mean exactly? The dumbassery on display here is laughable. This is the same type of bitching we hear when out-of-control blockparties lead to gunfire and someone says, "Why didn't the police do something?"

• Some of the recommendations released Tuesday — like removing police officers from Chicago Public Schools and an elected civilian police oversight board — were articulated in May, long before a draft copy of the proposed consent decree was released.

Yeah, we've been advocating getting cops out of the schools for years, but that's to alleviate manpower shortages already present.

• Other ideas are brand new. They include:
  
  • Prohibiting Chicago Police officers from unholstering their firearms unless lethal force becomes necessary.
  
  • Requiring police officers to file a report every time they point a gun or Taser at someone — or even observe a colleague using force.

We've been assured by two different Deputy Chiefs at roll calls that this proposal is Dead on Arrival. Even the brass knows this would spell the end of any sort of police work.

• • Mandating that police officers pass annual psychological evaluations and receive “supervisory authority” before making minor arrests and requiring officers to “engage in best efforts to create diversion partnerships, including restorative justice and community mediation.”

Um, how about "Go fuck yourself sideways"? And "supervisory authority" to initiate a "minor arrest"? Talk about activity grinding to a halt. Wait for a sergeant to respond to every job, duplicate officer's previous efforts on scene, making a few calls and then telling you, "Sure, you ought to arrest this person." Do these idiots have any idea how stupid that sounds?

• • Making de-escalation the “rule and not the exception” by providing incentives to officers who “refuse to use force and solve problems without making arrests and strengthening language that authorizes officers to de-escalate “when safe and feasible.” In addition, officers must not be penalized for taking time to resolve an incident without using force. They must also be prohibited from taunting, humiliating, threatening and using racial or gendered slurs that escalate incidents.

Incentives? Like a cash reward system for not arresting people? If that's the plan, count us in!

• • Prohibiting police officers who continue to be assigned to schools from carrying firearms or handcuffs or using force “except in exigent circumstances.” Officers would also have a “duty not to intervene in incidents on school grounds absent a real or immediate threat.” They would be barred from interviewing or interrogating youth on school grounds.

So no guns in schools? One more reason to get out of schools. And ignore crime off of school property. We're actually getting into this part of the proposal. If we could just include eight-foot-fences, topped with barbed wire, surrounded by a moat and patrolled by rabid feral cats, you've got our vote.

There's more to the insanity and all it does is create a furtherance of "Laws that don't have to be followed by the community or else we call everyone a racist!"

Get Your Opinion In

The FOP is encouraging officers to participate:

• Speak now or forever hold your peace.
  
  So says the minister at the wedding, and it’s excellent advice now.
  
  Chicago is about to embark on a historic overhaul of the training, practices and accountability of the Chicago Police Department, and you have until Friday to offer your ideas for reform. You can go online and read a draft of the proposed reforms, negotiated between City Hall and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, and add your thoughts.
  
  Go to: chicagopoliceconsentdecree.org.

We've got nothing to lose.

This Might Be Interesting

Any truth to this rumor?

• Ferguson is in hot water. Stay aware and watch. He’s been too crazy. Rahm is going to get embarrassed. It’s a lot more than just davina now that he refused to investigate. It’s also Rahm’s donors committing environmental stuff and cases are not prosecuted. He’s in deep water. Watch it unfold. Gonna make Rahm look really bad. And Rahm’s lawyer knows all about it. 

If true, this would most likely torpedo Rahm even making it to the finish line of the election. It might also end up reopening all sort of cases people think are closed - like the Lieutenant cheating scandal.

Stories That Fell Through the Cracks

A couple of things that give the impression that Rahm is in electoral trouble:

• CPS Sex Scandal - Won't someone think of the children?
• Earlier this year, when investigative reporters at the Tribune began gathering information about sexual assault and abuse within Chicago Public Schools, they hit a cement wall. CPS stalled requests for public records for months and relented only when the Tribune threatened to sue.
  
  By then, reporters Gary Marx, David Jackson, Jennifer Smith Richards and Juan Perez Jr. had pieced together — through police reports, court files, state records and interviews — an alarming revelation. Police investigated 523 reports that children were sexually assaulted or abused inside city public schools from 2008 to 2017, or an average of one report each week.

If there was a sex assault every week in Englewood, you can bet there would be heads rolling, command changes imminent and a massive push to solve the crime. CPS students though? Almost nothing.

• Willie Wilson fires back at Lisa:
• Responding to what his mayoral campaign called an investigation by Attorney General Lisa Madigan, a defiant Willie Wilson on Thursday defended his recent cash giveaways and said there’s “nothing wrong” with his charitable foundation’s paperwork.
  
  Speaking at the Chicago Baptist Institute International alongside supporters, the mayoral candidate also called on Madigan to investigate Mayor Rahm Emanuel over the Laquan McDonald shooting and said Emanuel talked down to black Chicagoans in response to the recent crime wave.
  
  Noting he was raised in the Jim Crow South, Wilson, who is black, said, “I’m just tired of white people telling me what to do.”

Wilson is taking a shot directly at the Illinois Combine with that line. And he's probably the only one who could get away with it.

• Rahm is victim shaming?
• Mayor Rahm Emanuel was accused Wednesday of “victim shaming” for citing an absence of “values” and “character” in the African-American community after the weekend bloodbath in which 71 people were shot, 12 of them fatally.
  
  Shari Runner, until recently the president and CEO of the Chicago Urban League, said the mayor’s blame game is offensive and insensitive. “I cannot see the victims of racist policies and bigoted practices shamed by anyone who says they need to do better or be better in their circumstance. I won’t accept it,” Runner said.
  
  “Scolding the African-American community for the ills of what’s happening in those communities is not only not helpful. It’s not correct. There’s no more religious, conservative, amazing community than the African-American community. The African-American community is resilient. The African-American community survived this strife. … It is not fair to blame the victims of policies that have created their circumstance.”

Can you tell us on this anatomically correct doll exactly where the truth hurt you? Always the "victim" and always someone else's fault.

Escamerit Follies

Someone who was taken out of a police station in handcuffs should NEVER even get a sniff at a "merit" promotion. You can't trust them not to embarrass the Department or their sponsors. This goof has gotten multiple bumps based on politics, and now he's got an Inspector General beef:

• Good morning, I wanted to pass along to you some information that has been making the rounds in 025 regarding Crazy Tony. I emailed you about a month ago regarding the CAPS office picking up Escamerit‘s son from Summer camp in city vehicles.
  
  Well it looks like someone finally had enough and beefed on him regarding this situation.
  
  All officers from 025th District CAPS office has been called individually to IAD to give statements regarding picking up his son not only from summer camp but school as well.

There are rules against transporting non-police personnel in Department vehicles - the City liability is incredibly high should something bad happen. Escamerit has been using his CAPS sergeant as some sort of free Uber or Lyft service and then using the CAPS officers as babysitters for 4 hours a day or more, when they should be at least pretending to do CAPS related stuff. You'd think a commander could afford some sort of daycare or a babysitter, rather than have taxpayers footing the bill.

So, how long until this one gets swept under the rug? IAD is in possession of pictures. That should make the issue harder to hide.

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Laws

In addition to the list of laws that the "community" doesn't have to obey, it looks like we're going to need another list of laws that the "comunidad" doesn't have to follow:

• A Chicago alderman Monday questioned whether the city violated its own sanctuary city ordinance, and criticized the Police Department after a raid targeting counterfeit sportswear in Pilsen allegedly led to federal authorities taking a woman into immigration custody.
  
  Ald. Danny Solis, 25th, who represents the Latino Pilsen neighborhood, said an Aug. 1 police raid in his ward violated Chicago’s pro-immigrant Welcoming City Ordinance by collaborating with homeland security officials, a charge police disputed. Solis also criticized the department for focusing on what he considered a relatively low-level crime, such as counterfeit clothes, when the city recently experienced its most violent weekend in years.
  
  “With all the crime we’ve got going, this is how we spend our resources?” Solis said.

Well gee whiz Danny, last time we checked, this was still a nation of laws, despite the left's efforts to make it not so. We'll continue to encourage officers to make anonymous calls to ICE anyway.

Counterfeiting of all types cost the United States Economy something on the scale of $600 BILLION a year. That's a lot of money - Chicago's entire budget is still under $10 billion - so this isn't exactly a victimless crime. Everyone has to pay higher prices because of counterfeiting, businesses lose profit, government loses tax revenue....

...and then Danny happily votes to raise taxes.

Crime is Solved!

Rahm and Special Ed are sure quick to grab credit for burning out the Department:

• Chicago’s five most violent police districts will get 600 additional weekend officers — and police will continue to break up large unsanctioned parties — “until we’re comfortable things are stabilized,” Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Monday.
  
  The costly overtime that is difficult to sustain was hastily authorized to prevent a repeat of the bloodbath last weekend that left 71 people shot, 12 of them dead — and it worked.
  
  Another hot summer weekend came and went without a single homicide and 33 shootings, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
  
  During an unrelated news conference on CTA security, Johnson was asked how long the additional attention and manpower would last at a time when the Fraternal Order of Police has warned of burnout by officers whose requests to take time off have been refused.

Pretty much every field unit in the Department has been told that they aren't getting two days off - they're getting one until the beginning/middle of September. Districts are hiring people back on their RDO's.

Amusingly, we saw this last week:

• The Chicago City Council is considering an ordinance that would punish employers who don’t have crystal balls. It’s a boneheaded proposal.
  
  Are you a boss? Do you manage people? Do you run a business? Pay attention.
  
  The ordinance would require Chicago employers to post work schedules for their employees at least two weeks in advance. Employers would be required to pay their employees for at least one hour extra if the schedule changed or work was added or subtracted. Companies also could face fines of $500 for each employee affected in each pay period if they fail to comply. If employers make changes with 24 hours’ notice or less to on-call workers, the workers would have to be compensated.

Amazingly, the City Council (and Rahm) think that they know how to run a business, despite having zero practical experience in the field, and after spending Chicago into insolvency. Even more hilarious, the "rules" they're attempting to put in place against businesses are those that the Department is currently demanding officers submit to, despite family plans, vacations, appointments or just living life away from this grind.

Streets and San Moron

So this was all over the place at Billiken (click for larger version):

Whatever. Freedom of speech. We don't really care except for the fact it gives proof to the argument for a change of venue. Remember the liberal heads exploding when they spotted a red Trump "MAGA" hat on the dashboard of a squad car?

Does this endorse some sort of City position on a trial that hasn't even had a jury seated yet? Because it certainly looks like it. We guess some city employees are more equal than others.

The Department Cares!

It would seem that it isn't just the Policeman's job to "preserve disorder." It's also the aldercreatures main purpose:

If the aldermoron knows that there's a potential for gang conflicts,why does he even issue the permit? And depositing a single CAPS officer into the middle of a potential war zone? That's some top-of-the-line exempt type thinking there.

Taking the Night Off

Been a busy few days lately and we had some technical issues with the comments. They're still there - we just can't get to them all. Hopefully later today.

In the meantime, open post.

Rearrange the Deck Chairs!

Supposedly, a bunch of exempt movement this week as Rahm attempts to tweak his chances for re-election and Special Ed attempts to staunch the flow of blood.

Also, an Inspector General investigation of a certain escamerit exempt seems to all but doom his chances of moving upward.

Stay tuned.

Newest Plan

Via the comment section:

• Send the News Media in first to film and document the behavior. Then get their opinion on how to handle it.
  
  Then forward that to the Reverends for approval.
  
  Then the Aldermen and Mayor. Then State Attorney and Judges for review.
  
  If all OK by all of them, commence Immediate Action!

We'd call this a joke, except we remember the 1990's and the guys we worked with who policed the 1970's. They just weren't looking far enough into the future when they warned us what was coming.

Spending Twice for Safety

A community trying to assist the police - and help themselves in the process:

• Residents and business owners in Chicago's Roscoe Village neighborhood have installed new security cameras as part of an effort to help police fight crime.
  
  The high-definition cameras are being installed at key undisclosed locations in and around the North Side neighborhood. A secure cloud will hold uploaded camera footage which can be accessed by police.
  
  "Residents and business have the option to tap into a seed network of 27 cameras in Roscoe Village. We hope that we show with the initial 27 cameras how effective the program can be," said David Kerber, president of the Roscoe Village Neighborhood Association.
  
  The cameras are part of the Roscoe Village Neighborhood Watch's Neighborhood on Watch video camera program. The group, which represents 10,000 homeowners and businesses in the neighborhood, raised the $40,000 need to pay for the cameras through fundraising at neighborhood festivals.

They also reached out to the always shorthanded Department:

• The community's efforts to work with police come as the group celebrates Police Appreciation Day to honor the roughly 300 officers in the 19th district. A neighborhood restaurant will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner at the station.
  
  "In the last few years, politics made the job more difficult. The shortage of 2,000 officers in Chicago made that more difficult. So they're being stretched thin. We're trying to find a way to say thanks," said Brian Daley, a Roscoe Village resident.

We're pretty sure if 019 has 300 officers, it's down from the 500 that used to patrol 019 and 023. We're surprised that Channel 7 let the "shortage of 2,000 officers" pass the editorial process. No one wants to admit that when Clinton was in office, CPD numbered over 13,500 and nowadays, we barely have 11,500.

While we always appreciate the kind effort, it's disheartening that a community that pays massive amounts of taxes has to reach into their pockets again to try to make up for the officer shortages that Rahm and Special Ed strip from them in and endless attempt to chase votes at an obscene cost.