An Interesting Twist

Vallas to negotiate?

• Vanquished mayoral challenger Paul Vallas turned up at police contract talks this week as a consultant to the Fraternal Order of Police at loggerheads with Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

  FOP President John Catanzara said the mere presence of Vallas — a former city budget director, revenue director and Chicago Public Schools CEO — has already produced a “palpable shift” in the tone of previously contentious negotiations.

  The negotiating session Thursday focused exclusively on the FOP’s counteroffer of 17% over four years — with all but 3% of it retroactive — for Chicago Police officers who continue to live in the city and half that amount for officers free to move to the suburbs.

  There was no talk of the mayor’s 17 pages of demands that included 40 disciplinary reforms, including getting rid of sworn affidavits and paving the way for anonymous complaints against police officers, the FOP president said.

  “There was a palpable shift in conversation that dealt specifically with financial issues and our counteroffer. For us. In a good way. They clearly focused on the financial issues that we are seeking to get solved in the negotiations. The other part was left off the table for yesterday,” Catanzara said.
  

Vallas has been a vocal supporter of cops lately. And we had supported him for Governor years ago against Blago. 

Let's see how this plays out. Vallas consistently polls much higher than the Groot and might be setting himself us for another mayoral run.

More Johnson

More questions for Johnson's johnson:

• While he was Chicago’s police superintendent, Eddie Johnson went on at least seven out-of-town taxpayer-funded business trips with his female bodyguard who’s now accusing him of sexual assault, according to city travel records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.

  Johnson and Officer Cynthia Donald traveled to New Orleans, Peoria and Springfield between 2016 and 2019, spending thousands of dollars in taxpayer money on their trips, sometimes with adjacent hotel rooms, according to records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

CD's allegation of "forced" is looking thinner by the minute and Ed's propensity for getting laid on the taxpayers' dime is going to be an issue for the foreseeable future.

And the IG's report shows the casualty list of suspensions increasing:

• Fired Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson consumed the “equivalent of 10 alcoholic beverages” on the night he was found asleep in his running police SUV, then received favored treatment from seven of his underlings, the inspector general said Friday.

  A year after the incident that caused Johnson’s downfall, Inspector General Joe Ferguson’s long-awaited report details an elaborate police cover-up by seven of the fired superintendent’s underlings.

  The alleged wrongdoing started with the two probationary officers who responded to the scene at 34th Place and Aberdeen Street and failed to “gather the evidence necessary to determine whether the superintendent was fit to drive his vehicle.”

  They failed to administer the field sobriety test that would have been required for any other motorist and instead took the superintendent’s word for it that he was fit to drive home after Johnson had rolled down his driver’s window by only two inches.

  Police Supt. David Brown suspended both officers for one day.

The PPO's got a day each for what? Were they supposed to question their FTO's and supervisors as to what the Hell was going on and what kind of crooked ass operation were they being roped into? Or is that why they got tagged - for not questioning? We're so confused.

Six Years - #1 in Rats

Groot, carrying on the Rahm tradition:

• Rats have taken to the streets of Chicago, yet again. Orkin released its Top 50 Rattiest Cities List today, and for the sixth consecutive time, the Windy City takes the top spot. New to the Top 10 this year is Baltimore, taking the eighth spot, and moving into the Top 20 is San Diego, rising 13 spots to secure the #19 ranking.

  Orkin ranked metro regions by the number of new rodent treatments performed from September 1, 2019 to August 31, 2020. This ranking includes both residential and commercial treatments.

We can attest to seeing more rats most nights than we can recall ever seeing in at least the last ten years. We thought for sure New York was going to move up to First Place, seeing as how the commie mayor has cut garbage pickups and the stacks of refuse in the streets are the subjects of many conversations we have with visitors from the Big Apple. Alas, it wasn't to be.

We're thinking of creating a new Award - the Groot-fecta:

• most rats
• most homicides
• most people leaving town

We'll need t-shirts, or a poster over at HeyJackass.com

Three Morons

From a few readers:

Quite the set of clowns.

Districts Still Short

You think someone would feel a tiny bit of shame at how they're endangering safety on the streets.  Here's 009 this past Thursday night:

911, 912, 914, 923, 924, 933, 934, 935 and the wagon (971) down. 

921 is pulling double duty as the wagon and the beat car.

And on the far right, 950 with three 2-man cars downtown.

Remember when the Daley's lived in 009? There's no way this ever would have happened.

Rapist Walks

What the Fuck Crimesha?

• A former Chicago cop charged with multiple felonies after three women accused him of inappropriate sexual behavior while on duty has cut a deal with prosecutors that allows him only to plead guilty to misdemeanors. Corey Deanes, 48, received two years of probation in the deal, although the judge permanently revoked his Illinois law enforcement certificate.

  Deanes, a 14-year veteran of the force, was a beat cop in the Lakeview-based 19th (Town Hall) Police District when three separate women accused him of improper behavior as he patrolled the neighborhood and nearby Lincoln Park in the summers of 2017 and 2018.

  Prosecutors initially charged Deanes with three felony counts of official misconduct, felony aggravated battery, and two misdemeanor battery counts.

  In a deal approved by Judge Angela Munari Petrone, prosecutors reduced the official misconduct counts to simple battery and then dropped the remaining charges in exchange for Deanes’ guilty plea. According to court records, Petrone sentenced him to two years’ probation and ordered his law enforcement certificate’s permanent revocation.

Three crimes that deserve full prosecution without exception - Murder of a Police Officer, Child Molestation in all forms, and Rape. Crimesha pled this down to Simple Battery? Any women's groups out there a tiny bit outraged?

Interestingly, this made it into the article:

• ....and ordered his law enforcement certificate’s permanent revocation.

Golly. We're already licensed? Who would have guessed? Of course, this is the CWB Blog reporting, not the mainstream media outlets. They'd hate for that info to get out and deny them their talking point that cops need to be licensed and all that bullshit they're feeding the community.

Crimesha in Trouble?

This might be good news:

• With less than three weeks until the final votes can be cast, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is heading into the home stretch of her re-election bid with the potential to be outspent nearly two-to-one by Republican rival Pat O’Brien.

  The Democratic incumbent reported having $202,290.45 left in her campaign coffers at the end of last month, and available filings show only $14,300 raised since then, giving her roughly $216,590.45 to spend.

  O’Brien had $225,653.34 in the bank at the end of last month and has reported raising $201,673.28 since then, giving the former Cook County judge at least $427,326.62 to spend.

Crimesha self-exiled herself to the basement and it's had an impact on the polling numbers. We aren't sure it'll be enough though. Suburban turnout is going to be key and if there is enough of the city's monolithic black wards fed up with skyrocketing shooting and murder numbers.

Where Are The Layoffs?

Let's see some staffing cuts Groot:

• Chicago Public Schools enrollment plummeted by 15,000 students this fall compared to last year, the largest single-year drop in more than two decades, according to records released by the school system Friday.

  Officials called the decrease from 355,000 students to 340,000 — a 4% drop — a “crisis” that was largely driven by a significant decline in new families enrolling in preschool programs and elementary schools.

  The district released the enrollment figures, calculated on the 20th day of the school year in late September, along with a news release confirming most CPS students will remain in remote learning at the start of the second quarter of the academic year next month, with the “goal” of preschool and special education cluster programs returning to classrooms.

We don't have the CPS staffing numbers, but a 4% drop should mean a 4% cut in costs. Even with an unrealistic 30 students per, that's 500 less classrooms.

Come on Groot - you are so eager to wield the budget cutting axe a few days ago. This is the ultimate "gimme" of "gimmes." Stuff it in Sharkey's face. You need a good headline after this week.

Holy Crap

Sometimes, school is a refuge from unspeakable horror:

• A man suspected of sexually attacking a child while broadcasting the sex act live online was being questioned by Chicago police detectives Friday. The 7-year-old girl was brought to Comer Children’s Hospital after the attack, which happened about 1:30 p.m. in the West Chesterfield neighborhood on the city’s South Side, police said.

  Police were made aware of the attack when the girl’s teacher saw it on a computer screen during a Google classroom e-learning session, police said. When officers got there, the girl identified her attacker, and he was arrested.

CPD responding to this call had their work cut out for them:

 

Hopefully, everyone involved gets the help they need and the offender meets an untimely end in prison.

Useless Whore for Money

Brownie has jumped the shark:

• Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown repeatedly referenced the police killing of George Floyd in a speech to the city’s newest class of police recruits Tuesday, telling the soon-to-be officers they may need to buck the department’s culture, and even their own trainers, to do what’s right.

  “You know why we hired you? Because your backgrounds said you knew right from wrong. You won’t learn that at the academy,” Brown said. “That you never would let another officer, no matter how much time you have on [the force], sit on someone’s neck until they pass away, until they die. … That you wouldn’t let someone commit a crime in front of you, no matter how veteran or senior they are.”
  

Hey Dumbass - did you read the autopsy report? Floyd didn't die of any sort of neck compression, restricted airway or blood flow. Nada. Zip. Zero. And here you are filling these kids heads with bullshit?

And here's a newsflash - if you hired these kids solely because they know "right from wrong," you've already failed. Most cops - probably 99.9% or more - apply because they want to serve. They want to make a difference. A minuscule percentage come on the job to do bad things. Most that we've known over the years started out as good cops, but turned somewhere along the line, so your background checks didn't do shit to keep them on the straight and narrow.

• “It’s extraordinary that you want to be a cop today,” Brown told the trainees. “You’re actually the first class since the George Floyd tape was released showing his murder by a cop that started [all of the civil unrest]. And myself and other police professionals around the country are struggling to hire people. And yet you all have answered the call.”

Again Fuckface, he died of a drug overdose.... nine-times the lethal dose of fentanyl. And no one has been convicted of anything yet.

• Throughout his 20-minute speech, Brown repeatedly referenced officers who should never have been hired or should no longer have a badge. He warned the recruits they could have these bad cops as trainers in the field or as supervisors.
  

How can that be? Background checks should have weeded them all out according to this carpetbagging ass. Or is there a political element to a lot of these bad hiring decisions? Would you like a list?

The fact is that sometimes good people do bad things. Some are intentionally bad. Sometimes shit goes sideways. That's the nature of the job. And telling these kids - not one of whom has any idea what they are walking into in 2020 -  that they should sit in judgement of a 15, 20, 25-year veteran based on the recruit's complete absence of knowledge? And filling their heads with lies about a overdose death while cops were using a completely legal and permissible (in Minnesota) restraint? Did you tell them where a robot bomb fits into the Use of Force model?

Tell us Brownie, did Groot have to use any lube when she stuck her hand up your butt to make these pronouncements or was your asshole still distended from the Dallas PD and it just kind of comfortably slid right in?

Raping Johnson - Allegedly

This could cost Special Ed his pension:

• Ex-Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson allegedly committed “shockingly violent” acts of sexual assault against his former driver, an officer who was with him on the controversial night that ultimately led to his firing last year.

  In a lawsuit filed late Wednesday, Officer Cynthia Donald said Johnson raped and abused her repeatedly for more than three years, and later destroyed evidence of that abuse on his cellphone when the city Inspector General was investigating his conduct.
  

Is this the missing SIM card everyone was looking for?

• The stunning allegations further complicate a case that has already brought significant embarrassment to the city, including the unceremonious firing of Johnson, who was supposed to take up the charge of reforming the beleaguered department when he was appointed four years ago. Instead he was dismissed after being found asleep at the wheel on a city street, allegedly after a night of drinking, and then lying about it to Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

  “My hope in coming forward publicly … is that other women who are also survivors of abuse and harassment by Superintendent Johnson and other male Chicago Police Department officers will have courage,” Donald said at a news conference Thursday.

This has the potential for MASSIVE embarrassment across the Department, seeing as how there are literally tens of dozens of instances of exempt members trading promotions and assignments for "favors." And yes, there have been female predators, too. The CPD is a cesspool of sex that would get anyone in the private sector fired in an instant. Sex is just another form of currency and it's been going on for decades.

We posted here years ago about the "no-tell motel" just north of HQ in 012 that was the site of numerous exempt sex-capades, involving female recruits from the Academy who were groomed by a well known cadre of lechers. But for the most part, we've tried to keep accusations of infidelity and philandering off the site because we didn't want to get dragged into court over allegations we could never verify. Plus, with the amount of filth we had to read through, we'd need to shower three times a day.

This gem is buried in the lawsuit:

Further evidence that Groot is a "clown" from the Johnson himself.

Groot Lied Again

The big media outlets don't seem to want to cover this because all roads lead back to Groot the Micromanager - Chairperson of the WBC:

• The contract was signed on July 10, 2020, between World Business Chicago (WBC), the city's “economic development agency,” and Adam Hollingsworth.

That would be multiple-convicted felon Adam Hollingsworth:

• A July 6 Chicago Tribune profile of Hollingsworth reported that he has worked most recently as a boxer and exotic dancer. He is paid $1,000 per day under the contract with WBC.

  “You will be out riding for five days total, which will be determined by the census team and weather permitting,” the contract reads. “Days determined are July 13 through July 21, 2020.”

  The contract includes a confidentiality clause that prevents Hollingsworth from disclosing the terms of the agreement.

  Hollingsworth, 33, drew the attention of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot after he attended a series of South Side Black Lives Matter protests on horseback in June and July. The contract specifically calls for a ride with Lightfoot.

  “In addition to the ride time, you and your horse will participate in an event with the mayor on Monday, July 13,” the contract reads. “We would like you to arrive at 9 a.m., most likely with you riding in on your horse.”

So much for Groot claiming there was no contract and it was an unpaid position:

• Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot apparently lied to reporters about whether the man known as the “Census Cowboy” was paid for his role.

  In comments in a July 14 press conference, Lightfoot said Chicago was not paying “Dreadhead Cowboy” Adam Hollingsworth for his work as the “Census Cowboy.”

  “It is not a paid position,” Lighfoot said in video taken at the event.
  

This clown lies as much as Hunter and Joe Biden do about Ukraine.

Another $50

Yeah Gorner, we're paying attention:

• Chicago’s surge in gun violence and two rounds of downtown looting have grabbed most of the attention of police and politicians this year, but a review of crime data shows the extent of another crime problem plaguing every corner of the city in 2020: carjackings.

Anyone know why the media is always trolling us for stories. It's like they've completely lost the ability to do actual research into items that might interest the public, so they steal them (uncredited) from anywhere else. 

If our Stat Guy didn't compile the numbers, Gorner probably wouldn't have a paycheck this week.

Even BETTER SWAT Policy

If the bad guy doesn't come out, just leave:

• Aurora police had their man cornered. On Sept. 24 they responded to a home in the Conservatory neighborhood for what they described as a “felony child abuse investigation.” They said the homeowner, Eric Burns, 39, “had a valid misdemeanor no bond DV (domestic violence) warrant out of Denver.” Additionally, APD believed Burns had assaulted his son and abused his daughter. The SWAT team was called and trained their weapons on the house.

  “It was scary,” said neighbor Jasmine Staats who watched the standoff unfold from her home on the next block. SWAT team members were on scene for hours, negotiating with Burns to surrender. They believed there were guns in the house and that he was armed.

  After several hours, Burns released his 6-year-old daughter. Police negotiators continued trying to coax Burns to give himself up. But when that didn’t happen, after about four hours, an internal Aurora police report says “Decision made to vacate.” Dozens of officers, negotiators and command officers packed up and left Burns in his home.

The neighbors were reportedly "shocked:"

• “We were pretty shocked,” said Staats, “We thought for sure they would have arrested someone. It’s quite concerning they would do that.”

  “If someone’s got a warrant out for their arrest, why wouldn’t they have been arrested?” asked Staats.

Why would you think that? Unless you're a total moron, are demented, and have been living under a rock.

We'll just throw out a name at random - Jacob Blake - who had a warrant. Was he supposed to be arrested? Because everything we've seen for months now is he should have been allowed to leave, despite a Court Order - signed by a judge - that he was to be taken into custody. 

So now Colorado residents are shocked the police didn't do anything? Make up your fucking minds and then stick with it.

Media Steals - Chaplains Rich!

The Chaplains Fund ought to be getting a bunch of checks shortly after so many media outlets ripped off the blog again:

• Sun Times
• Tribune
• Channel 2
• Channel 9

There might be more and we ask so little - just a nod that they cribbed the story from an alternative news source because they were too lazy to do the necessary footwork.

Amazingly, the Commander got 28 days - and he was never even on the scene.

And even more amazing, the driver/bodyguard who removed and "lost/destroyed" the SIM card from the city phone she was ordered to turn over, only got seven days for willful destruction of evidence. That'll be a great "precedent" for all future disciplinary proceedings.

The political undertones of whole event was summed up thusly:

• Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara finds it difficult to believe the cover-up stops with Jerome. Catanzara believes that’s why Mayor Lori Lightfoot has emphatically refused to release Ferguson’s final report of the drinking and driving incident.

  “It’s real easy to throw the low-hanging fruit — the blue-shirt policemen — under the bus and let it roll over them. But heaven forbid there is any accountability up the chain from there,” the union president said.

  Catanzara remains stripped of his police powers and assigned to administrative duty for filing a police report against Johnson after Johnson, then still CPD superintendent, marched arm-in-arm with Father Michael Pfleger on the Dan Ryan Expressway during an anti-violence protest march in July 2018.

  “Here are officers who, in Monday-morning quarterback fashion, are being accused of not treating a superintendent like they would anybody else. ... They theoretically, in these peoples’ minds, gave him a pass. And shame on them, they should be punished,” the FOP president said. But, Catanzara added, he filed a complaint against Johnson from the Dan Ryan march to “hold him accountable for what I thought was a violation of state law and I was punished for it. And I’m still being punished for it two years later. You can’t have it both ways.”

Well, this is Chicago - you can have it three or four ways....if you're connected.

New SWAT Policy?

From a few days ago:

• Donnell Gardner had a basketball game to watch. But the outreach worker with the Chicago CRED anti-violence program was busy Friday night helping Chicago police officers negotiate with a man holed up in a home in the Roseland neighborhood on the Far South Side.

  He kept texting the man, encouraging him to surrender and telling him he didn’t want him to die in a shootout. Finally, Gardner found a way to get through to the man. He texted: “I’m trying to watch the Lakers game, come on out.”

  And the man walked out with his hands in his air.

He probably came out because he couldn't believe anyone was actually watching the NBA any more. Did you see the ratings this season? Down 51% from last year. When Jordan was in the Finals, 33 MILLION people were watching. Now they can't break six million on a weekend night with nothing else on.

We had a few questions about using a multiple-convicted felon to negotiate with a barricaded subject, but the results seem to be positive. And certainly, in this environment, it's better than gassing and shooting a non-compliant subject, so there's that. Odd times call for odd solutions.

Whine Whine Whine

We're sure this is a completely homegrown effort by and for the students, right?

• After a month of remote learning, Idalia Rizvic was getting headaches, feeling stressed and struggling to finish her schoolwork early enough to hang out with her family before bedtime.

  So last week, the eighth grader at Boone Elementary in West Rogers Park started an online petition to shorten the virtual school day. “Covid has been a stressful time for all, and online school adds onto that,” Idalia wrote. “We still get the same amount of work, and ‘homework’ has lost its purpose."

  After spring’s abrupt transition to remote learning, many students indicated they wanted more live instruction and engagement. But for some, stricter schedules this year have been too much. As families and educators wait for Chicago Public Schools to say whether the second quarter will bring students back to classrooms, many feel that either way, something needs to change. Like Idalia, others are turning to online petitions in hopes of influencing the decision makers.

Anyone see the shadowy hand of Sharkey lurking in the background, snaking it's way up Groot's ass to nod her head and move her mouth, agreeing with the CTU people claiming it's just too darn hard to work from home, without a commute, and not within miles of their students (many many miles for the hundreds living outside city limits) and still "earning" a full-time salary?

Let's See Where This Goes

This one isn't going to be anything good:

• The Civilian Office of Police Accountability announced Tuesday it had concluded its investigation into the “extremely disturbing” shooting of an unarmed man by a Chicago Police officer at River North CTA train station last February.

  COPA, the agency that investigates use of force by CPD officers, said it had forwarded its findings and recommendations to CPD Supt. David Brown. If COPA believes one or both officers should be disciplined, Brown would have 30 days to decide whether to bring administrative charges against them.

  COPA didn’t say what its findings and recommendations were, though it’s likely the agency called for severe punishments for the two officers. Just days after the shooting occurred, COPA suggested the department strip both officers of their police powers — a move carried out by then-Interim CPD Supt. Charlie Beck.

The complete lid on any sort of information on this shooting is quite astounding...almost like there is some unknown political component in play. What it could be, we have no idea.

County Cannabis Corruption

Did anyone expect anything different?

• After serving as one of Illinois’ top cannabis regulators, Cook County Commissioner Bridget Degnen confirmed Tuesday she has an ownership stake in a company vying for the right to open multiple pot shops across the state.

  A spokeswoman for Degnen told the Sun-Times Tuesday the commissioner is part owner of Americanna Dream and was paid a stipend to write dispensary applications for the company.

  The Highland Park-based firm submitted 36 perfect applications, beating out hundreds of other applicants to become a finalist in the state competition for the next round of dispensary licenses. The company has the maximum 10 spots in a lottery that will determine the winners of the 75 new licenses, each of which will likely be worth millions of dollars.

  But Degnen’s ownership stake isn’t worth anything unless the company wins a license, according to her spokeswoman, who wouldn’t confirm how much Degnen’s been paid so far or what percentage of the company she owns.
  

Does anyone really think her connections won't win two or three licenses? And she'll promptly make numerous campaign contributions to her former employers, ensuring the cycle of corruption continues.

Lovely Parting Gifts

Thanks again you drunken womanizing asshole:

• Final casualty count from Drunken Ed

  2 PO’s got 7 days

  Sgt got 14 days

  Lt got 21 days

  Commander (DJ) got 28 days - and put on the Do Not Promote list for the next couple of years.
  

And Ed? Well, he rides off into the sunset on his pin cushion(s), with a six-figure pension (minus the divorce settlement) and a stolen kidney. 

UPDATE: And the bodyguard he was "partying" with - she got 7 days, too.