Trial Continues

This is, without a doubt, the fastest we've ever seen a murder case go to trial:

• Jovan Battle rose Tuesday from an otherwise empty defense table, rubbed his hands together briskly and fixed a determined gaze on the 12 jurors who will decide his fate.
  
  “I, as a human being, am on trial for first-degree murder,” he announced before gesturing toward the four prosecutors across the courtroom with carts full of documents and papers piled high on their table. “What you’ll come to find out in the stacks of paper that these soulless individuals gave me (is) that I’ve been falsely prosecuted.”
  
  So began Battle’s opening volley in a likely challenging effort to represent himself without a lawyer in the slaying of off-duty Chicago police Officer John Rivera, 23, and the wounding of the officer’s friend while they enjoyed a night out in the River North entertainment area.
  
  [...]
  
  After a court-ordered mental health examination found him fit to stand trial, Battle insisted on not only defending himself but also demanding a speedy trial, leaving prosecutors scrambling in recent weeks to prepare for a trial that normally wouldn’t take place for many months, if not years.

Officer Rivera was killed in one of the worst cases of mistaken identity in Chicago history and this mutt is the one who directed the killers to Rivera. We just hope that his questionable mental status doesn't merit an appeal later.

Good Riddance

Another Machine politician leaving under a cloud:

• Dorothy Brown, the longtime clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, has decided not to seek re-election next year as she continues to be dogged by controversy and a growing number of challengers.
  
  Brown’s decision not to run closes an almost 20-year chapter for the clerk who assumed office in December 2000.
  
  Brown, 65, said Wednesday her decision to serve out her current term and retire from politics at the end of 2020 has nothing at all to do with the four Democratic challengers who have lined up against her.

And that there are any number of federal investigations into her office along with the recent seizure of her cell phone...that has nothing to do with it either.

Philadelphia

Bad evening in Philly, but it could have been much worse:

• At least one gunman opened fire on police Wednesday as they were serving a warrant in a Philadelphia neighborhood, wounding six officers and triggering a standoff that extended into the evening, authorities said.
  
  None of the officers' injuries were considered life-threatening, Philadelphia police Sgt. Eric Gripp said. They were being treated at hospitals.
  
  The shooting began around 4:30 p.m. as officers went to a home in Nicetown, a north Philadelphia neighborhood of brick and stone rowhomes. Shots were still being fired three hours later, police said.

Reports say it was a Search Warrant gone very badly. Thankfully, at last report, no officers were killed.

Retiring Stars

Far too many over the years:

• The police stars of three Chicago officers — one who was killed trying to thwart a shooting at Mercy Hospital last year, and two others who were struck by a train weeks later while investigating a report of gunfire — were retired Tuesday.
  
  “These men were all fathers, these men were all CPD,” Supt. Eddie Johnson said at the ceremony at Chicago Police headquarters at 35th Street and Michigan Avenue, where their police stars were added to the “Honored Star Case.”

Always Remembered.

Gasp! A Parolee?

It's almost like he didn't learn anything behind bars:

• A man on parole has been charged with turning a gun on two Chicago police officers as they responded to a shooting early Sunday at an Englewood gas station.
  
  Jose Reynolds was charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder of a police officer in connection with the shooting and ordered held without bail Tuesday during a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
  
  Reynolds was released on parole in December while serving a two-year sentence for a felony theft conviction, according to state records.
  
  About 2:30 a.m. Sunday, the officers were inside a Citgo gas station at 251 W. 63rd St. when they heard gunfire outside, Cook County prosecutors said at the hearing.
  
  The officers, who were on-duty, uniformed and driving a CPD squad car, which was parked in the lot, saw Reynolds and a co-offender in a red shirt firing black handguns and using a black SUV for cover, prosecutors said. When Reynolds and the person in the red shirt saw the officers, they turned their guns and fired in the officers’ direction.

No Bail? It's a miracle!

Stay on the Reservation Morons

Once you get outside Cook County, it's a whole different ball game:

• Five teenagers have been charged and another was fatally shot after an attempted vehicle theft in Lake County, Ill., which led to a high-speed chase into Chicago Tuesday morning, the Lake County Sheriff's Office said.
  
  A 16-year-old male, three 17-year-old males, and an 18-year-old woman, identified as Diamond Davis of Chicago, were charged with first degree murder in connection with the incident. They were charged with murder because a 14-year-old boy died of gunshot wounds sustained during the commission of a forcible felony, the sheriff's office said.
  
  The five appeared in bond court late Tuesday afternoon where a judge set bail at $1 million for each of them. They are due back in court on September 5.

Hey Crimesha? Hey Timmy Evans? This is how you (A) stop crime and (B) properly charge criminals with the Felony Murder statute. We're assuming all the miscreants were all from Chicago.

The 75-year-old homeowner did an immeasurable favor to society by removing one felon and severely hindering the ability of five more felons to commit crimes for some time. Hopefully he gets a medal from the Lake County Sheriffs Office.

Zero-for-Five

Perhaps Groot will be spared the ignominy of her own poor efforts to pander for votes:

• Prospects for a Chicago casino took a hit Tuesday after a study found that the state-approved proposal would not be viable because of “very onerous” taxes and that five South and West side sites floated by the city would fail to draw enough tourists because they are seen as unsafe and inconvenient or lack nearby attractions.
  
  State lawmakers now may be forced to restart negotiations on an issue that had eluded resolution for years until an agreement was reached this spring. The Chicago casino and five others statewide are part of a massive gambling expansion bill Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law this summer that was seen as a signature win for the Democrat.
  
  Because of the way the heavily negotiated law was written, however, a Chicago casino operator’s profit margin “would, in a best-case scenario, equate to a few pennies on the dollar,” according to a report from Las Vegas-based Union Gaming Analytics that was released Tuesday by the Illinois Gaming Board.
  
  High taxes and other upfront costs would lead to low single-digit profit margins, at best, on any of the five sites suggested as possible locations, the study said.

Can everyone dispense with the bullshit now? There's a two-year window built into the law to open a "temporary" casino while an actual structure is being built. Put a few thousand machines and tables in McCormick Place, a few hundred machines at the airports, higher stakes table games in a few of the downtown hotels. Hell, let the Odyssey become a floating playground with three hour gambling/dinner cruises out into Lake Michigan and start generating some revenue while the professionals get things up and running.

Good Lord

We cannot even begin to imagine what is wracking the NYPD:

• For the eighth time this year, a New York City police officer has died by suicide, two police officials confirmed to ABC News.
  
  The officer, who was not immediately identified, died just before 3 a.m. on Tuesday in Yonkers from a single gunshot wound to the head, the officials said.
  
  The officer was assigned to the 50th Precinct and was part of the security detail at Yankee Stadium. He had been on the force since July 2012.
  
  This marks the eighth NYPD suicide this year. Four NYPD officers died from suicide in June, one died in July, and two others took their lives earlier this year.

At this point, there almost certainly cannot be a single officer on the NYPD who hasn't been touched by these tragic events. If you have friends or acquaintances there, it may be a good time to drop them a line, give them a call, check in and let them know they're in your thoughts during this horrible year.

Unauthorized Pizza Parties?

So Dart is throwing everyone under the bus on this one:

• A federal judge on Monday gave the green light to a pair of class-action lawsuits alleging a pattern of “masturbation attacks” allegedly orchestrated by Cook County Jail inmates against female jail workers and public defenders created a hostile work environment that bosses failed to address.

(side note - "masturbation attacks" were pioneered by the Keesing Bandit years ago, long before he discovered his now-famous white wine spritzers)

• The public defender lawsuit alleged that in June 2016, members of the jail staff threw a group of maximum-security detainees a pizza party to reward them for “going a period of time without perpetrating additional attacks,” Kennelly said in his ruling.
  
  According to the suit, the pizza reward only encouraged other inmates “to join in the harassment in order to become eligible for such a reward,” Kennelly said.
  
  Dart’s office has strongly denied the allegation. In his ruling, Kennelly noted the evidence showed the party was unauthorized and neither endorsed nor funded by the sheriff.

Is this a particular pizza party? Because there was a bunch media coverage about Dart's pioneering ways that permitted inmates to pre-order pizza - cooked up in the County kitchens - as some sort of reward for behaving and not rioting or something. Now suddenly, inmates getting pizza is "neither endorsed nor funded"? Sounds shady as Hell.

More Gun Database Drama

Who would have thought this dinky little program would irritate so many snowflakes?

• Bond reform activists Monday spoke out against the Chicago Police Department’s new online database showing bond amounts for people charged with gun crimes — pitting themselves against Mayor Lori Lightfoot and police Supt. Eddie Johnson, who support the Gun Offender Dashboard.
  
  “The Gun Offender Dashboard claims to list bond court outcomes for people charged with violent gun crimes. But that’s exactly what it doesn’t do,” said Sarah Staudt, a policy analyst at the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice. “Ninety-nine percent of the people listed on that website are charged with offenses where they are not accused of hurting anyone.”
  
  Instead, she said, many people are on the database for a “mere possession of a weapon.”

The CPD releases booking photos and lists of charges all the time. This is merely an additional bit of data pointing the finger squarely where it belongs - at the Courts and at Crimesha.

Here's some amusing snowflake reasoning:

• “We know jailing people pretrial actually increases their risk of re-arrest,” [Sharlyn Grace, the executive director of the Chicago Community Bond Fund] said. “It increases recidivism because putting people in jail destroys any positive things that are going on in their lives. It destroys jobs, stable housing, positive social connections. By jailing so many people in the past, we have created more crime in Chicago.”

No moron, getting caught with a gun again increases recidivism. Making criminal choices destroys opportunities - choices made of their own free will by the way.

If you need examples of low/no bail increasing crime and teaching criminals there are no consequences to their actions, hop over the the CWB Blog. They have so many examples of gun offenders being caught within days carrying more guns that it's embarrassing. And they only cover two neighborhoods that were at one time notoriously crime free.

Groot About to Drop the Ball?

The "smoke" part of Groot's "smoke and mirrors" is about to get blown away:

• With word on the odds of success for potential Chicago casino sites due this week, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday she isn’t sure whether a gambling operator can make enough money given the upfront costs they must pay under the current state law.
  
  Consultants at Union Gaming Analytics are expected to deliver their view of a city casino’s feasibility by Tuesday — and supercharge speculation about where a massive gambling hall could stand, and if it can make enough money to soften the city’s budget burden.

Quick answer - at any of Groot's five locations, it can't generate nearly enough revenue to make it even remotely desirable to any established gaming company. Here's why:

• Five potential South and West side locations are under review. But Illinois law requires a state board to suggest, based on Union Gaming’s findings, whether lawmakers should reconsider the terms attached to a casino operator license.
  
  As it stands, state law would send one-third of a Chicago casino’s adjusted gross receipts to the city. Currently, the city casino operator also would have to pay a $250,000 application fee upfront, a $15 million “reconciliation” fee when the license is issued and up to $120 million in gambling position fees — which cost $30,000 each.
  
  That might not make sense for a casino operator, Lightfoot suggested.

That's not a "suggestion" Groot - it's a guarantee with the losing sites you're currently evaluation. And that's not even mentioning the fact that this casino is about fifteen years too late to be the massive cash cow it could have been.

Put this thing where it will generate revenue, not votes. The votes will come as Chicago fixes it's busted bond rating, mends the pensions, retires debt and expands the economic footprint of the entire region.

Illinois Dropping the Ball

One has to wonder if Illinois politicians are so incompetent, they raise taxes, then blow this opportunity to make some real coin - or is this all some devious plan to get gambling dollars on top of the already raised taxes, thereby being able to have their cake and eat it, too:

• The race to become the first Midwest hub of legal sports betting is on.
  
  And Illinois is a lock to lose.
  
  While Iowa launches its first legal sports books this week and Indiana gambling dens stand ready to start taking wagers next month, money will keep burning holes in the pockets of eager Illinois bettors as football season kicks into gear.
  
  Even though the state’s massive gaming expansion was signed into law over six weeks ago, the Illinois Gaming Board still has to draft hundreds of rules governing application and oversight procedures that aren’t spelled out in the law. And while state lawmakers initially said they thought sports betting could launch in Illinois in time for the NFL kickoff in September — or at least by the Super Bowl in February — there’s no rollout in sight.

Way to stick it to taxpayers via inaction you idiots.

Overtime

Some readers were questioning the statements made by ourselves and commentators that swiping in AND out meant overtime could be pensionable.

Some people were rather mean about it and hurt our feelings. :::boo hoo::: Some people don't know how to do research and fail to remember past history. From May of 2009 in the LA Times:

• Who knew the badge, the holster and the iconic dark blue threads worn by Los Angeles police officers could make punching the clock so complicated?
  
  A federal judge ruled this week that Los Angeles Police Department officers should be paid for the time it takes them to put on and take off their uniforms and safety equipment, a decision that could cost the city millions of dollars in back pay and higher salaries.
  
  In a 39-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Gary Feess found that the several minutes it takes an officer to dress for duty is a vital part of the job because “police uniforms convey and legitimize officers’ authority, increase officer safety, and help deter crime.”
  
  The dress time, which is generally thought to be between five and 15 minutes on each end of a shift, Feess decided, falls under the compensation rules of the U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act, a long-standing law that requires employers to pay their employees for all hours worked.

We have no idea if this ruling stood up to any appeals or if it was codified in an LAPD Contract, but it's out there - your swipe time is when your shift begins and preparations for work are covered by FLSA rules. At checkoff, you are required (required!) to be in full uniform. But when you swipe out, you ought to be in your civilian attire - again, FLSA rules.

As to the pension-ability of the overtime, that would be an interesting court battle. Any LAPD readers?

Another Great Bail....

....and guess what he did?

• A man who's been free on a recognizance bond since being charged with carrying a firearm illegally in March was arrested at O'Hare International Airport this week after another gun was found in his carry-on bag, according to police records.
  
  Police said a TSA X-ray operator saw a handgun in a bag while working at the Terminal 3 checkpoint around 11:45 a.m. Wednesday. Chicago police reviewed the screening images and then recovered a loaded 40-caliber handgun from 18-year-old Jaden Goldsberry's carry-on, prosecutors said.
  
  Upon seeing the gun, Goldsberry allegedly told an officer, “I’ve never seen that."
  
  Goldsberry, of the Grand Crossing neighborhood, has been charged with felony aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and felony boarding of an aircraft with a gun. Police said he was booked on an American Airlines flight to Portland.
  
  Judge John Lyke set bail at $10,000 and ordered Goldsberry to go on electronic monitoring if he can post a 10% bond of $1,000. Lyke also ordered Goldsberry held without bail on a violation of bail bond charge in connection with a pending firearms case.

This story was broken by (who else??) The CWB Blog.

The Tribune did some extra digging and discovered that the offender, who isn't old enough to even own a handgun, is facing....not one....not two....but six UUW charges from the earlier incident. But hey, ten grand and leaving the jurisdiction.

Nothing to see here.

Another Mass Shooting

On the west side of all places:

• Five women were seriously injured and a man was in critical condition Sunday following a drive-by shooting in the East Garfield Park neighborhood on the city’s West Side, according to police.
  
  Around 2:45 a.m. about 100 people were standing on the street in the 3500 block of West Lake Street, according to Chicago police, near the intersection with North St. Louis Avenue and not far from the Garfield Park Conservatory. Officer [...], a police spokeswoman, said it wasn’t immediately clear what they were doing there.
  
  A light-colored sedan approached and someone from the vehicle began shooting into the crowd, police said. Six people suffered gunshot wounds.

One hundred people standing in the streets?

2:45 AM?

This is the north end of Garfield Park?

Parks close when?

There are laws, right?

Is the media going to ask any of the obvious questions?

Shots Fired at the Police

In the 010 District:

• As Chicago officers in a marked squad car approached a stop sign in the Lawndale neighborhood early Sunday, someone from a nearby vehicle started shooting at them, police said.
  
  About 3:20 a.m. the officers were in the 1800 block of South Kostner Avenue, stopped at a stop sign, when someone from a black Nissan sedan “fired shots in the direction of the officers,” according to an online media notification from police. No one was hit, police said.
  
  Officers pulled over the black Nissan in the 1700 block of South Kostner Avenue, near West 17th Street, authorities said. A weapon was recovered from the vehicle, and a man and a woman inside were arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault, according to police.

Shooting at marked squad cars. Be very aware boys and girls.

Shots Fired by the Police (UPDATE)

Misses all around (correction!):

• Chicago police officers witnessed two men shooting into a crowd near a South Side hospital early Sunday morning, according to police. The officers drew their service weapons and shot at the men, police said.
  
  No one was hit by a bullet in either shooting, according to a news release from the Police Department.
  
  It started about 2:30 a.m. outside St. Bernard Hospital in in the Englewood neighborhood, police said. The officers saw two gunmen firing at a group standing in the 200 block of West 63rd Street, officials said. “The officers discharged their weapons at the offenders without striking them,” an online media notification stated.
  
  The two gunmen took off running toward the 6400 block of South Yale Avenue, under the highway where the Dan Ryan Expressway and the Chicago Skyway split, police said. The men got into a black SUV and were able to elude officers.

Comments about range work will be deleted as usual. We post so everyone else is aware, not so all the internet snipers can tell everyone how they would have picked off the gunmen with head shots at fifty yards with not a care about what the backstop was.

UPDATE: Someone turned up at the hospital hours later carrying lead. Detectives were able to conduct interviews and verify the cops hit one. Excellent job all around.

The Connected Never Learn

It's almost like they don't care about taxpayers footing the bill:

• A former Chicago police officer who sued the city for retaliating against her when she reported misconduct involving a co-worker was awarded nearly $2 million by a Cook County jury this week.
  
  Laura Kubiak was a veteran officer in the department’s Office of News Affairs in 2012 when she reported to supervisors that a fellow officer, Veejay Zala, had yelled and threatened her at work.
  
  In retaliation for her complaint, Kubiak was transferred to a midnight shift patrolling in “an unsafe neighborhood,” according to a 2015 lawsuit she filed against the city in Cook County Circuit Court.

First up, boo hoo.

Unsafe neighborhood? That's most of them, you were trained, you have a gun, go do your fucking job.

Second, we have never worked at HQ, don't plan on it, and wouldn't under any circumstances we can think of. That being said, even WE have heard about this ass with the thirty-one CR numbers, many of which were filed by other officers and most involving threats against said officers. Why in god's name was he allowed to (A) remain at HQ and (B) work in close proximity with anyone he had provoked to the point of CR's being filed?

And the supervisors? Good lord. Some of this settlement ought to come out of their checks. Always with the eye on the next gifted job rather than actually being capable at the spot they were in.

Two million dollars wasted.

Unforced Error

Sure, it looks cool. But in reality? It's going to cause a lot of heartbreak:

• A Chicago police officer and his supervisors are facing an internal department investigation after a video was posted to Hulk Hogan’s Facebook page showing the officer giving the former superstar wrestler a ride across the tarmac at O’Hare International Airport.
  
  The Aug. 2 video, posted under the caption “Thank you Chicago PD much love!!!!!,” shows Hogan in the front passenger seat of a Chicago police squad car, with wrestling manager Jimmy Hart and an unknown cameraman in the back.
  
  Sirens activated, the squad car traverses the tarmac while Hogan and the other passengers praise the Chicago Police Department. “My Uber’s got a siren . . . Chicago PD for life,” Hogan says at one point, before shouting “Watch that truck!”
  
  When asked in the video if the officer would get in trouble for driving the trio, the officer says, “Trust me, no. My sergeant, he’s all for it.”

Courtesy is extended to a lot of celebrities - and most of it is undeserved. The reality is trying to control the crowds around a public figure detract from actual law enforcement resources, so it's easier to shuttle them off under the radar. We get it.

The trouble here is it ended up out where anyone could see it. And now there are questions arising from violations of not only Department protocols, but federal ones.

Call us silly, but we're pretty sure there are going to be two spots open at O'Hare in short order, along with some suspension time handed out. And if you lose a spot like the airport, you aren't getting another one any time soon.

Guns in Cars?

Who would have thought the gangs transport guns around in stolen vehicles?

• Two males were taken into custody in connection with a crash involving a stolen Audi with weapons inside and a Chicago police vehicle Friday night in the South Chicago neighborhood, officials said.
  
  About 11 p.m., the police squad car was heading west on 81st Street near South Jeffery Boulevard when the male driver of an Audi traveling east swerved into the wrong lane and struck the police car, according to Chicago police.
  
  The Audi was reported stolen prior to the crash, and multiple weapons were found inside the car. Officers arrested two males in connection to the crash, police said.
  
  Two male officers inside the police car were hospitalized in good condition, police said.

Nice arrests there - the Public Defender is very angry about this one. It's not like they were firing the guns. Like these:

• A police pursuit started Friday night after cops saw a man firing at a group in the River North neighborhood and continued onto the Eisenhower Expressway before the chase was terminated, Chicago police said.
  
  About 2:40 a.m., an officer observed a man firing at a group in the 700 block of North Franklin Street before he fled in a black Chevrolet Impala. A police pursuit ensued onto I-290 but was stopped at Jackson Boulevard and Loomis Street, police said.
  
  Later, the Impala was found unoccupied in the Logan Square neighborhood in the 2800 block of North Sawyer Avenue, police said.

No guns left in that car though.