Nice Marathon Planning Ed

Just when you think the Department could get any less competent:

• Working the marathon detail today. About an hour into the race, majority of officers related that their radios were chirping and needed new batteries. Several of the salt trucks used to block intersections broke down and had to be towed out. Some boss screaming about that he is not afraid to spar an officer. What a circus!

And we got e-mails outlining how the Chief of Patrol released some order at midnight Friday violating the Contracts by sending bid officers and sergeants out of District instead of volunteers.

In any event, who is the "boss" who was screaming about how he wasn't afraid to SPAR an officer? No boss should be afraid of issuing discipline if an order or policy has been violated.

FYI: If you feel the need to tell everyone how unafraid you are, you're probably afraid....and most likely incompetent.

Quick - Switch to Plan B!

All Units - Mission compromised - switch to "Plan B" IMMEDIATELY:

• A kayaker fishing for salmon off Waukegan Harbor on Monday morning found an unexpected animal in the water — a 4-foot-long American alligator.
  
  Chicago resident David Castaneda had been paddling for about four hours when around 9:30 a.m. he saw something floating in the water, he said. Thinking it was a dead salmon, he went closer to check.
  
  Instead, he saw an alligator head, Castaneda said.
  
  “I went closer to see if it was real,” he said. “I was just in shock. I wasn’t sure if it was a real alligator or a toy.”
  
  Castaneda called 911 to report the alligator, and Waukegan’s Animal Control responded.
  
  The animal, which had its mouth taped shut, “was definitely on borrowed time,” said Rob Carmichael, curator for the Wildlife Discovery Center in Lake Forest, where the alligator is being taken.

Secret Agent "Bitey Half Finger Midget" should be assumed to have been tortured and may have revealed further information. All agents are to destroy existing records and assume primary safehouses are compromised. We'll be in touch.

Lack of Outrage

Once again....:

• A toddler fatally shot Saturday night in the Hermosa neighborhood on the Northwest Side has the grim distinction of being the youngest person to be killed by gun violence in the city this year.
  
  At 10:17 p.m., 2-year-old Julien Gonzalez and an 18-year-old man were standing near an alley in the 2200 block of North Kilbourn Avenue when shots were fired from the street’s end, according to Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
  
  Just before the shooting, two females were fighting in the alley between Kilbourn and Kenneth avenues when the shots were fired in their direction, police said.

Remember, police are the problem.

UPDATE: A protest.

And once again, gang-vs-gang violence claims an innocent, with no one coming forward (yet).

Pardon Our Laughter, But....

Hahahahahahahaha:

• A person was killed with his own gun Sunday morning when he tried to break into a home in the Hollywood Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side, police said.
  
  The male suspect was trying to break into the home in the 5700 block of North Spaulding when he was met inside by two other males, according to preliminary information from Chicago police. During an ensuing struggle, the two males wrestled the home invader’s gun away and shot him.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Easing Back into Routine

So the Department flipped the switch back to regular shifts.

We're going to take a day to make sure all of our contributors and contacts are rested up and adjusting back to the normality of day-to-day operations....well, as normal as it will get until after the Marathon.

Stay safe.

Social Security Fairness

From the National Lodge:

Worth following...and it would certainly get us out of here quicker.

The More You Know

Completely legal - everyone records everyone:

• “Hey Siri, I’m getting pulled over.” With that one phrase, drivers can get an added sense of security the next time they’re pulled over. With a new app called Shortcuts, iPhone users can create their own verbal commands to trigger their phones to perform a wide variety of actions – all without needing to press a button or touch the screen.
  
  Now, Redditor Robert Petersen of Arizona has created and publicly released the add-on “Police.”
  
  One quick phrase will discreetly direct your phone to turn down distractions, send an alert to an emergency contact and start recording whenever you’re pulled over by police.

How about, "Hey Siri, I got caught driving like an asshole."

Open Post

The usual (and expected) reactions from all segments of Chicago are easily located in the news links over on the right.

The verdict was a disappointment on many levels, not the least of which is every officer from this point forward will be judged (and convicted) on a shot-by-shot basis.

Have at it in the comments. We're done for the night and maybe the rest of the weekend.

Anyone Paying Attention?

Pretty sure FOP should get more than this:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel has agreed to a deal that would give thousands of unionized city workers raises totaling 10.5 percent over the next few years, his administration announced Thursday.
  
  The tentative deal with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 would cover about 3,500 workers throughout city government. It still requires City Council approval, though that’s largely a formality.
  
  The five-year contract proposal is retroactive to July 2017. It features 2.1 percent annual pay raises but also increases health care premiums and prescription deductibles, according to the Emanuel administration.

Cut it down to four years, eliminate the health care increases (Obama promised everyone free health care a few years back if we recall correctly - it should be here any day now), fix pension funding and this should breeze through a membership vote.

Bait Prostitutes?

Welcome to Prickwrinkle's Cook County:

• Slightly off topic but a good FYI.
  
  Recently at impound court the administrative judge found a couple of Soliciting Prostitution offenders not liable because the female officers they solicited “were not real prostitutes.” The female officers were from VICE and were on duty under cover working an “Operation Angel” (for those of you who remember that) type of mission.
  
  Sounds like the “bait truck defense” is being used as an argument for not being the offenders fault when it comes to buying sex on the street.
  
  Defendant: “Judge, i never would have offered ten dollars for sex if I knew she wasn’t a real prostitute. I’m a victim of prostitution fraud!!”
  
  Judge: “You certainly were defrauded sir. Here is your impound fee back along with the keys to your vehicle. Buyer beware. Have a good day.”

So, just to review:

• Having a nice car? Enticement to carjacking
• Women dress nicely? Invitation to rape
• UPS packages on the front porch? Temptation to theft

Perhaps the Gang Team under indictment can plead that the FBI baiting a stash house with cash was some sort of seduction to the dark side.

Deliberations Continue

Closing arguments and jury instructions progressed faster than a lot of people had predicted. The possibility of a Friday verdict and a full weekend of protests across Chicago is a distinct possibility.

Links to some articles can be found all over the right hand side of the blog. As we stated earlier, we're deployed, same as you, so don't expect timely updates for a bit.

Stay safe.

UPDATE: Gaughan was kind of a dick today. Instead of holding a closed hearing regarding threats made against the defendant's daughter, he lambasted him in public and on camera. You'd think that a judge who has been living with part of McCarthy's command staff for at least the past decade would have attempted to appear impartial.

Bad Week Gets Worse

After numerous officers were shot across the country, seven cops were shot in South Carolina:

• The man who allegedly opened fire on law enforcement officers in a residential neighborhood in South Carolina on Wednesday, killing one and injuring several others, is a disbarred lawyer, records from the Supreme Court of South Carolina show.
  
  A source with the Florence County Sheriff's Office told ABC News on Thursday that the detained suspect is Fred Hopkins, who was at the home where the shooting happened in Vintage Place, an upscale suburban neighborhood in the city of Florence, about 80 miles east of Columbia.
  
  Hopkins allegedly began shooting at Florence County deputies when they showed up to serve a search warrant for another individual at the residence Wednesday. There were four foster children inside the home at the time of the incident, the source told ABC News.

Prayers for the fallen and injured.

Shots Fired

Aggravated Assault with a vehicle:

• The Chicago Fire Department says a Chicago police officer's vehicle was struck by a private vehicle in the city's Albany Park neighborhood Thursday afternoon.
  
  The incident happened about 4 p.m. when the officer tried to pull over a silver Jeep headed west on Argyle Street near Whipple Street, police said.
  
  As the officer was getting out of his squad car, the Jeep struck the police vehicle and the officer fired shots at the Jeep, police said. The Jeep drove off after ramming the squad car and was later located on the opposite side of River Park in the 4900 block of North Francisco.

Officer is said to be okay.

Nice Safe Passage Rahm

So today's rollout of the Crowd Control effort was a poor effort. Entire Districts didn't get anywhere near a "Safe Passage" route and guess what happened?

• A Safe Passage worker suffered non life-threatening injuries, officials said, after he was shot in the back during rush hour Thursday on the West Side.
  
  The brazen 8:15 a.m. shooting along a Safe Passage route in South Austin was captured on multiple surveillance cameras. Footage released by police shows a gunman stepping from a light-colored sedan on the 5600 block of West Corcoran Place and firing across or down the street. Witnesses report hearing multiple gunshots.
  
  The Safe Passage worker, believed to be in his 20s, was shot in the back and transported to Loyola University Medical Center in serious condition. Police do not believe he was the intended target.

Great planning there.

Don't Get Jammed Up

Forewarned is forearmed:

• Please inform your readers that there WILL be IAD and COPA investigators assigned to all prisoner vans and wagons during the potential protests. There will also be the same agencies at all Area protest prisoner processing sites.

We would advise using your body cams to record prisoner conditions before entering a transport wagon and upon unloading.

We would also expect there to be a bunch of lawyers in the green hats standing around the desks looking to drum up business. We're pretty sure they don't belong inside and if they don't have a client name, they don't get to visit prisoners. Let's see which boss screws this one up.

Seeking Volunteers!

HQ is alive with the buzz of people eager to hit the streets!

• “Sworn, full-duty Department members who are assigned to units within Public Safety Headquarters that are non-essential/non-operational on Monday, 08 October 2018, may volunteer to work for the Bureau of Patrol. These sworn members will be assigned to field duties within districts, at the discretion of the Chief of the Bureau of Patrol. Members electing to work will contact Sgt. VG in the Bureau of Patrol no later than 1400 hours on Thursday, 04 October 2018.”

Believe it when you see it.

It Begins

Why 12-hour days begins before the jury even has directions, we don't know. But it did, here it is, we'll all have to deal with it.

Blogging, of course, will be slow. Schedules have suddenly been shifted, arrangements have to be made. Things won't be posted in a timely manner and might even be delayed if we need the sleep. We might even post some stale stuff just to have filler material.

We expect most of you will be busy, too, so much so you might not read or comment as you usually do. Keep your wits about you, stay safe, watch your backs and your partners backs regardless. We'll catch up with everyone at the bar afterwards.

A Plethora of Bad Ideas

Lightfoot outlines exactly how she'll fix Chicago if she wins:

• Mayoral candidate Lori Lightfoot has argued that Chicago’s never-ending cycle of gang violence has triggered a “public health crisis” that requires rebuilding impoverished neighborhoods and restoring shattered trust between citizens and police.
  
  Now, the former Police Board president who co-chaired Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Task Force on Police Accountability is unveiling that “Marshall Plan” to give Chicago neighborhoods the level of safety they desperately need and deserve.
  
  [...] The new office will ensure that public-safety resources are “equitably distributed throughout the city.” It also will oversee a public-safety board with authority over the Police Department, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability and the Police Board.

Really? So we'll get the manpower needed to actually patrol our neighborhood? Because we haven't seen the beat car around these parts in months. When we drive by the District, we see ten and fifteen unmanned squad cars parked in the lot with no police to drive them. When we get to work, we run a Unit Summary of home and are constantly amazed at how many cars are listed as "DOWN" but there never seem to be any bid openings for us to get closer to home.

• With illegal guns pouring into Chicago from Indiana and Wisconsin — and even from as far away as Texas and Mississippi — Lightfoot’s plan also includes creating a department within CPD to target gun traffickers and pressure the U.S. Attorney’s office to increase the “relatively small” number of prosecutions for “serious gun-related crimes like trafficking and selling guns.”

You mean like the 400 stolen guns - stolen by a career Chicago criminal on home monitoring - that just missed making it here by a whisper? Or the gun-runners that Kimmie seems to plea out for months on crimes that should be punished for years (and that punish victims for a lifetime)?

• After hearing from a “startling cross-section” of Chicagoans who view police officers as racist, Lightfoot also made the case for “some kind of racial reconciliation” that would allow Chicagoans who have felt harassed or disrespected by police to publicly air their grievances across the table from police brass. 

You mean like when officers pull up on a scene and are immediately assailed with accusations of racism, not caring, being blamed for the acts of people/folks that want nothing to do with anyone in a blue and white?

• To bridge the divide between citizens and police, she’s proposing a citywide peace and reconciliation process, community-level summits and even allowing community leaders to teach scenario-based classes to police recruits.
  
  Following New York City’s lead, rookies would be required to spend two weeks meeting with community leaders before starting work in their assigned districts.
  
  The Police Department would also: hire a chief diversity officer; eliminate clout promotions and redesign “sergeant selection criteria”; overhaul its gang database; make mental health professionals “co-responders” on calls requiring crisis intervention; and implement an early-intervention system to identify problem officers.
  
  And Chicago Public Schools would be charged with developing a K-through-12 curriculum that teaches students how to resolve conflicts.

Community leaders who hold onto every racial grievance (real and imagined) they can for years? Decades even? Two weeks with such stellar examples of "community leadership" like who? Jesse? Louis? Phleger? Maybe Jamal or Lemon?

You had our interest for a second with eliminating clout promotions, but we suspect an ulterior motive there. That "co-responders" sounds like a way of getting civilians killed by mentals and there's already a curriculum that teaches conflict resolution - it's called a family and usually consists of parents and a supportive family structure.

Once Prickwrinkle starts pulling away in the polls, this one is toast.

Spree Killer Update

First, did everyone notice how ridiculous the media was being?

• “Given the frequency of these homicides and what we know about the investigations, detectives have been working aggressively to cultivate leads," police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said.
  
  Asked whether police were investigating the shootings as a possible hate crime because Watts was gay and Moscowitz an observant Jew, Johnson said it was too early to rule anything out.

So the reporter is assuming that gay people give off some visible "gay-vibe" that makes them stand out as the target of a madman? Is that what we're reading? Okay, okay....the Keessing Bandit. We'll concede that one. The other victim was wearing the distinctive clothing. Must be anti-Semitic!

How about this:

• Two guys, walking alone, who were white?

Special Ed says the detectives are working, attempting to develop leads. Perfect answer. But some reporter, eager to put their mark on a crime where the bodies aren't even cold yet by casting them as a "hate crime," disregards the three most obvious facts in order to come up with.....what exactly?

In the meantime, back on Earth, meetings are being held, resources and teams are being deployed. Everything that can be done is being done. And as hot as it was Wednesday, this guy isn't going to pop out again until Thursday or Friday when it cools off and his clothing doesn't stand out as much.

Mt. Greenwood Shooting

Even the suburban cops come to Chicago to do their shootings - and get the same treatment from the media:

• A police officer from Alsip shot a motorist who hit two squad cars after being followed from the south suburb to the Far South Side of Chicago early Wednesday, officials said.
  
  Both Alsip and Chicago police were releasing few details of the shooting, which happened around 2:10 a.m. in the 4000 block of West 115th Street in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood.
  
  The 25-year-old motorist was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in serious condition with gunshot wounds to his shoulder, Chicago police said.

He wasn't a "motorist" when he started bashing squad cars with a 3,000 pound guided missile. He was an assailant, and assailants, using deadly weapons, get shot. At least they usually do. Nice job by the suburban police.

Special Ed immediately stripped the Alsip police officer and demanded his vehicle be impounded.