Another Duty Disability Fumble

Yesterday, we summarized the plight of a wounded officer who has been forced into a "no-pay status" after being shot numerous times because the Pension Board won't speed up the approval process for officers grievously wounded in the Line of Duty.

We understand there are scammers. We understand scammers need to be weeded out. The way you do that is you properly investigate, properly get medical referrals, set up an annual medical check-in/evaluation, AND you properly prosecute the scammers, civilly for reimbursement and criminally for the fraud.

There seems to be a lack of political will to investigate and prosecute scammers. Which leads to bullshit like this (name withheld by request due to the Officer's circumstances):

• It was no surprise that [Officer X] would never return to duty, correct? Well, apparently to the pension board, it was. Not many people know this, (he is very quiet about it) but [Officer X] went into no pay status on 08 AUG 2022. I questioned a now retired member of the pension board, asking why the process was not mitigated knowing that [Officer X] would never come back. He really did not have an answer for me, and said “This is just how it is. It’s been this way for over 30 years, and there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s done this way to weed out people that are scamming. We create an atmosphere, where the officer is hungry and he has no idea when their next check is coming, so it wears them down. Many times they cannot continue to fight us due to their end of the legal costs and they give up, ultimately going back to work.”
  
  
  
  While I understand there being a need for a process for those on bullshit, in a case likes [Officer X] which is clear cut and dry, there needs to be a different protocol. It needs to protect the people who without a doubt will not return because of duty related injuries. EVERY copper who asked me about this had no idea that even in a situation such as this, you go into no pay and in turn have no insurance. Everyone assumed “oh they’ll make sure he’s ok, there’s no way he’ll be in no pay status”. And that can’t be further from the truth.
  
  
  
  [...] I’m also still furious Lappe insinuated to [Officer X] he could come back light duty and sit at a desk. [Officer X] was shot a total of 4 times, twice in the head. He died twice that night. He has hearing aids in both ears. He lost an eye. And Lappe suggested [Officer X] come back to work in some capacity. It still makes me sick.

Our e-mailer was furious over the treatment of Officer X. We're pretty sure most readers can pick out EXACTLY who Officer X is, but he is a private person and doesn't want to make waves. His situation was resolved eventually, but this is ridiculous that he even had to go through this. 

The FOP and the Pension Board need to revisit, reform, streamline and fix this process. We don't give a shit if it has "been this way for thirty years." We could list a few hundred things that have changed in the last thirty years - some of them were even good changes. Different classifications of woundings/injuries would be a good start, because these two examples we've cited involve Officers being either crippled or just short of Line of Duty Deaths by fractions of inches. 

They deserve so much better.

Something Missing Here

Good news from two weeks ago:

• The alleged home invader shot by a homeowner on the city's Northwest Side on Monday [06 Sept] afternoon has died, Chicago police and the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office said.

  Alexis Quiles, 39, of Chicago died Tuesday afternoon, the medical examiner's office said.

  Police said the incident happened in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood's 2100-block of North Meade Avenue just after 12:45 p.m. Monday.

  A 26-year-old man was inside his home when someone entered without permission, police said. The victim fired at the suspect, striking him twice in the chest.

A bunch of media covered this story, but there seemed to be info missing.

Luckily, one of our regular e-mailers found the info:

• His Cook County felony convictions are:
  
  2023 Theft (1 year)
  2017 Att armed robbery (9 years)
  2013 Aggravated robbery (4 years)
  2012 Aggravated battery officer/govt employee (3 years)
  2009 Retail theft (2 years)
  2004 Agg. unlawful use of a weapon (3 years)
  2002 Agg. unlawful use of a weapon (3 years)
  2002 Possession of a controlled substance (18 months probation)
  

Golly. It's almost like he needed to be shot.

We really need to have someone come up with an "Ammunition Go Fund Me" type page for citizen homeowners who manage to thin the pool of criminals.

Corporate Exodus Continues

Big corporations have been leaving. Medium sized ones aren't getting all the headlines, but they're leaving, too:

• The US Soccer Federation is leaving Chicago after more than two decades and relocating its headquarters to Atlanta, joining a growing list of companies moving out of the city.

  The federation plans to build its first-ever National Training Center in Atlanta with a $50 million contribution from Arthur Blank, the founder of Home Depot Inc. and owner of Major League Soccer’s Atlanta United, according to a statement on its website.

  The decision comes amid growing concerns by Chicago’s business community over public safety, which has prompted some of the city’s top executives to uproot their operations or express frustration over the violence. Ken Griffin, the founder of hedge fund Citadel, moved his company to Miami last year, citing crime as a factor, while McDonald’s Chief Executive Officer Chris Kempczinski has said it’s become harder to attract talent to the Windy City.

Recalling a famous quote:

• How did you go bankrupt?

  Gradually....then suddenly.

It's happening. It started under Groot, but it is continuing unabated under BJ.

Officer Shot - No Pay Status

How about we work on fixing THIS problem?

• It is easier for violent criminals in Chicago to be found not guilty in court and get away with their crimes than it is for an officer seriously injured in the line of duty to get out of a no pay status and awarded disability benefits.

  I am one of those officers. I was shot in the line of duty in March of 2022. I’ve been in a no pay status since March 29, 2023. I’m fighting and pleading with the pension board just for the minimum of regular disability benefits. Appears I will be waiting at least another month or two for that. Then another hearing to make my case for the full duty disability of 75 percent.

  It’s not just me. It is every officer going through the disability process.

  That leads me to this, which may be wishful thinking on my part. I’ve been following this page for years. I’ve seen how you are always a few steps ahead of the department. I’m not going to ask you how. However that is, I’m all for it. What I would like to see is for you guys or gals to expose the pension board and the process for which officers are forced to go through just to get what we should’ve already been entitled to. Many active duty po’s I have talked to have not a clue that they can go into a no pay status for months and then have to fight for disability benefits. I wish, someway or somehow, that the board and certain members of the board, Michael Lappe in particular, get exposed for intentionally delaying the process and taking pleasure in sending investigators to follow officers. Some officers have been through extremely traumatic incidents. Being followed by an investigator adds to the trauma.

We asked around, and this Officer still has numerous bullets or fragments of bullets in his leg that is contributing to extensive nerve pain. Depending on the day, he can barely walk, let alone sit, and now he's not getting paid.

This isn't the first time we've heard complaints about the Pension Board slow walking Disability Status to wounded officers. We're all for being thorough in granting Disability Status, but six-months with no pay after being shot eighteen month previously is obscene. There's no way appointments with specialists and experts can't be scheduled and evaluated in that time frame. We know people who got cancer diagnoses on a Friday and were in chemo Monday.

Fix this.

Officer Involved Shooting

Southside:

• Chicago Police are investigating after an officer-involved shooting in West Englewood Sunday afternoon. 

  Police say the incident happened in the 7300 block of South Hoyne, and no officers were injured. 

  The person who was shot suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center. 

  Both officers involved in the shooting were checked out.
  

Be careful out there.

Pension Contribution

Missed this one from a couple days ago:

• The city of Chicago plans to contribute a total of $2.7 billion in 2024 to its four woefully underfunded pension funds, which includes $307 million in advance payments, according to a 2024 budget forecast released by Mayor Brandon Johnson's office on Sept. 13.

  The forecast, the first for Johnson since he took office in May, projects an overall $538 million shortfall due to "rising personnel, pension, and contractual costs, as well as the cost to care for new migrants arriving to the city," according to the shortfall report.

  It will be the third year the city is planning to pay the actuarially determined contribution rate. In 2022, the city paid the actuarially determined contribution rate — amounting to $2.3 billion — to the four pension funds for the first time in the city's history. The city passed an ordinance in 2017 that called for contributions to the pension funds to be increased every year until reaching actuarially determined contribution amounts in 2022.

For the record, we've met and talked extensively with two actuaries in our lives....and we can say without a doubt that they were among the smartest people we ever met. They had the personality of wet paper bags, but they knew numbers like no one else and explained things better than any teacher, instructor or professor.

The city refused to follow the advice of the actuaries for decades, leading to the current crisis, all so politicians could spend tax money on pet projects and bullshit social "engineering." That's why it was tremendously important to get the casino money set aside by law to fund pensions before the celebrity investors got paid.

This isn't going to cure anything overnight. The years of shortfalls are still going to have to be corrected and there's going to have to be a miracle run in the stock market....but that isn't going to happen under democrats.

Tourist Shot?

From the comments:

• Anyone hear about the Riot Fest tourist from Milwaukee who was shot while biking home on a Divvy to her Air BnB in Pilsen? Bullet went right through the bone in her arm, spent all night in ER with her Canadian boyfriend.
  
  Nothing in the news this AM of course, that'd be bad for tourism...

Did this one get lost in the weekend shuffle? Can't have the tourists badmouthing the non-demonized BJ yutes.

Mandatory OT Night (UPDATE)

The media is giving minimal coverage to the downtown shut-down and we heard it was a disaster last night. 

How's it going right now? What isn't the media covering? Everyone is canceled (unless you're on furlo) so there should be a wealth of stories citywide.

UPDATE: This is sickening:

Video is here at this link.

Someone said they're charging the shithead with Attempted Murder.

How about canceling the fucking "parades" until they get it under control? 

The organizers self-canceled the South Side Irish Parade when it got too stupid and drunk. They put in new rules, restrictions, and guess what? It's been nearly problem free - or at least far less of a problem than it had been the past couple years of existence.

What happened this weekend wasn't a "celebration" of culture. It was a shit show. And it needs to be canceled.

UPDATE: Machete attack on 26th Street. Can anyone tell us what culture exactly celebrates this sort of behavior?

Seeing the Cover-up(s)

So a few people were asking in the comments about the status of the Sox Park shooting. We weren't surprised to see it fade into the background:

• CPS employee not cooperating;
• shady/poor security personnel and procedures;
• Waller being shut down by downtown;
  
• Reinsdorf insisting on a shot coming from outside the park

You can see that the powers-that-be want this one to fade into the background and from memory as soon as possible. Hell, even the investigating detectives have been stepped on to keep the reports far away from view.

Having this one embarrass BJ or Reinsdorf or the CPS teacher doesn't serve any particular narratives and might invite unwanted scrutiny to other aspects of the event. The media is a wholly owned subsidiary of the democrat party, so they aren't going to push it. 

Hell, look at Hawaii. Have you heard anything about Maui in the past week or three? Almost five hundred people are still missing. If you know where to look, there are reports of burned out cars on the highway with skeletons of entire families contained within....and not a single whisper of the government screw-ups that closed down evacuation roads, shut down hydrant pipes, the failure of routine power line maintenance.....because everyone involved is a democrat.

Curing Food Deserts

Here's a great idea....NOT!

• Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is exploring opening city-owned grocery stores to address food "inequities," according to a Wednesday press release.
  

  Chicago's newly elected mayor announced a partnership with the progressive national non-profit group Economic Security Project to solve the lack of food access in some city neighborhoods.

  "All Chicagoans deserve to live near convenient, affordable, healthy grocery options. We know access to grocery stores is already a challenge for many residents, especially on the South and West sides," said Johnson. "A better, stronger, safer future is one where our youth and our communities have access to the tools and resources they need to thrive. My administration is committed to advancing innovative, whole-of-government approaches to address these inequities. I am proud to work alongside partners to take this step in envisioning what a municipally owned grocery store in Chicago could look like."

We can tell you exactly what it could look like:

• if multi-billion dollar corporations can't make it work in the "food deserts" to the point that it's cheaper to leave, how the Hell does this idiot think government is going to make a difference? There isn't a single business that doesn't fail spectacularly once the government gets involved. But don't worry....this time all losses are covered BY THE TAXPAYER!
  

This is yet another attempt to launch a friends-and-family-of-government employment agency.

More PPP Fraud

This is at the State level:

• The watchdog for state agencies under Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s control says she’s “disappointed but not surprised” that her investigators have found at least 177 state employees who appear to have defrauded the federal Paycheck Protection Program.

  “It’s especially disappointing that these individuals had full-time employment,” Susan Haling, the state’s executive inspector general, said Tuesday. “The program was designed to help people who were struggling and no longer had employment because of COVID.”

  The 177 workers suspected of defrauding PPP — one of the federal government’s COVID-19 relief efforts — have been referred to the Illinois attorney general’s office for possible prosecution. None has been charged with any crime “as of yet,” according to Haling, who said her investigation is “far from being finished.”

  Of those employees, 132 worked for the Illinois Department of Human Services, one of the state’s largest agencies,with more than 13,000 employees.

Anyone have any idea how many government employees were divided between essential and non-essential? Correct us if we're wrong, but even if they stayed home, government employees still got paid a full salary....and for more than a year we think. 

Hell, teachers were "teaching" from the Caribbean.

Hello Florida!

Another shot fired at a particular blue shithole city:

• Ron DeSantis has taken his feud with Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker to the billboards of Chicago.

  The Republican Governor is funding an advertising campaign in the Greater Chicago area to recruit Illinois law enforcement to his home state of Florida, offering a $5,000 signing bonus to relocate, according to a statement. The effort is part of a broader 2022 recruitment law signed by DeSantis that so far has lured 2,700 officers to Florida — though only about 37 from Illinois.

Porky is one of the  hosts to the DNC next fall here in town and is positioning himself as one of the alternate nominees when president potato is eventually sidelined by the party. As Chicago has become a national punchline to crime stats, this is a particularly pointed shot by DeSantis at a time when CPD recruitment is lagging badly and that cashless bail law is set to take effect this month. 

If you aren't vested here (family/pension/property), looking over there might not be a bad idea.

Too Many Chiefs....Again

So there's a new hire going through the Personnel Division, but no one knows why:

• On Monday, a female by the name of [CR-B] came to the CPD academy for her cert as a new employee. She is coming in as an exempt member, from the county police. She has bad paper following her along with numerous EEO beefs. I do not have specifics about either of those things, I just know they exist.
  
  
  
  Anyone whom has been asked about her knows nothing, or they’re simply not telling. Supposedly she’s in some program CPD has specifically for sworn members coming from county.Why is she coming here? Where is she going? As what? [W]hy all the secrecy?

According to a quick Google search, she was making over $120K as Community Corrections Executive Director.

We don't know of a similar job here in the CPD.

Who is scratching who's balls over this one?

Back Pay, Seniority and Job

Legal victory:

• A group of teachers in New York City who were fired after they refused to take the COVID vaccine must be given their jobs back along with back pay, a New York judge ruled Wednesday.

  State Supreme Court Judge Ralph Porzio ruled that the decision to fire 10 employees of the New York City Education Department and deny them religious exemptions was unlawful, arbitrary, and capricious.

  The group of school principals, teachers, and other educators sued the city after they were fired.

And in New York City makes it more amazing. 

Bad news is that this covered only the ten employees who sued. Class action status was denied for some reason, so there are still hundreds, perhaps thousands who are still unemployed as a result of asserting "my body, my choice" which doesn't seem to apply when liberals are in charge.

Kass Column

Kass on a tear:

• Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is consumed by the color of his skin. It seems that his black skin is all he wants to talk about.

  Someone close to him might want to tell the poor fellow to simmer down, grow up and act like a man—and inform him he is not the first black mayor of Chicago.

  But why talk of the color of his skin? Instead, let’s talk about the thinness of it.

Good to see Kass writing some insightful stuff after his health scare. Also good to see he got out from under the Tribune's ultra-liberal editors that had hamstrung his better political instincts. We remember when he used to be Royko's legman and showed flashes of Royko's acerbic wit. Hopefully, he can recapture that.

Bottomless Pit?

More money.....that Chicago doesn't have:

• With no end in sight to Chicago’s migrant crisis, the City Council agreed Thursday to throw another $34.5 million into what is becoming a bottomless pit for Chicago taxpayers.

  In companion votes that rubbed the same old wounds, alderpersons authorized a $33 million federal Homeland Security grant for the care and feeding of asylum-seekers and agreed to spend $1.5 million in tax increment financing funds to buy a 10.7-acre property at 3034 W. Foster Ave. formerly used by the U.S. Marine Corps and convert it into a shelter for up to 550 migrants.

  The votes followed a debate that, once again, showcased mounting tensions between the immediate need to house, feed, clothe and care for asylum seekers and the equally pressing demand to tend to Chicago’s own regular social service needs.

Amazingly, the above paragraphs appear under the byline of Fran Spielman, who has carried so much water for the Daley, Rahm and Groot administrations, she might as well be named Jacques Cousteau. We don't know where she found the "testicular fortitude" to confront the BJ administration or who at the Sun times actually allowed her to do this. Spielman even quotes this:

• The Council has “the fiduciary responsibility to safeguard taxpayer dollars,” Lopez said, but noted that “none of us can say where” the $115.2 million spent between January and late July went or where the $123 million Johnson expects to spend through Dec. 31 will go.

  “You can wrap it in bacon. But if it’s a turd, it’s still gonna taste like ... ” Lopez said without finishing the sentence.

  “I can’t keep spending backwards without being told where we’re going forward.”

Lopez is making all of the correct noises, but we're also pretty sure he's not letting this crisis go to waste.

Irish Democracy Approaching?

We aren't talking machine politics:

• This policy was adopted by the Irish Republicans as an alternative to directly confronting the British Empire in the early 20th century.  For those unfamiliar with the idea, its clearest expression was given in the movie “Michael Collins”,  when the main character counseled the crowds against going head to head with London: “we have a weapon more powerful… than any in the whole arsenal of the British Empire! That weapon… is our refusal! … There is one weapon that the British cannot take away from us: we can ignore them.”

Guess what's around the corner?

• The updated COVID-19 vaccine will be available in Chicago by next week, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health.

  Doses of the vaccine were expected to begin shipping this week and be available within five to 12 days at clinics and pharmacies throughout Chicago, according to the health department.

  At Walgreens, appointments can be scheduled immediately and will begin nationwide starting Sept. 18, according to a spokesperson with the drugstore chain.

We're going to go out on a limb here and predict the media will be whining about non-compliance numbers that rival the numbers of people not taking the so-called "boosters" after the first jabs were failing to stop anything.

"You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." Aside from the usual Karens and AWFLs, we aren't hearing of anyone who wants this Big Pharma money grab.

"Demands"

It's already an occupation:

• "Currently 134 migrants seeking asylum in XXX district.  We started with 134 and ended with 134.    It is getting worse, more noise, more children screaming, more stench, and the bug situation not getting better.   At the end of the tour citizens wanting to make a police report were having difficulty just getting to the desk due to all the migrants sleeping on the floor.  
  
  
  And it gets better.  Migrants were camping out by the North side door.  Tact corrected this with swift removal.  Chicago residents that are coming into the station are shocked.  Several stated they came in for reports but left saying "I'm not staying for this".  The A/C seems to be turned off, temps in the lobby are between 82-85 degrees.   One migrant approached a spanish speaking officer DEMANDING better services and wanted a phone number to complain against the police/city for not providing more and better services.  No other migrants came in nor were any sent out."

Maybe they can call a general strike, go outside and march around the station.

Then we can lock the doors.

115th and Halsted

One of the new "tent cities," or Biden-villes, has a possible location:

• There are many questions, and not many answers, about the city's new plan to house migrants at base camps with military-grade tents.

  A CBS 2's Sabrina Franza reported, the goal is to move the people who are currently living at Chicago Police stations into military-grade tents. City leaders tell us they plan to learn from other cities that have started doing the same already – before they move forward.

  [...]

  One location for the tents is 115th and Halsted streets – a huge empty lot that our sources say will house up to 1,400 migrants.

  The former parking lot for the long-shuttered Halsted Indoor Mall was supposed to become housing for low-income Chicagoans, retail, and green space. The site had been set to be developed into the Morgan Park Commons, for which the State of Illinois has already appropriated $15 million in funds.

That's something like 10% of the current illegal population? And we heard the neighborhood is in an uproar with a community meeting being held or scheduled to be held to get some answers. 

NEWSFLASH: There are none. You (black voters) are being replaced because you dared to listen to Trump, who asked you (A) if things have really ever gotten better under democrats and (B) what have you got to lose giving him a chance in 2016. That was an unforgivable sin.

Whoops

This is in Newsweek, a brain-dead left-wing lib-tarded publication:

• In Sunday's interview, Fauci said that there was a risk of myocarditis with the vaccine but added that it was very low. Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle, most commonly caused by infection in the body, that can lead to chest pain, shortness of breath and heart palpitations. Most cases are self-resolving, according to a Johns Hopkins cardiologist.

  "We have experience with this type of vaccine in billions of people," Fauci, who retired from his role as the nation's top infectious disease expert in December, told Jonathan Karl.

  "It's a safe vaccine. Of course, with the mRNA there's a very, very, very low risk, particularly in young men of getting a myocarditis. But if you look at the risk of myocarditis from COVID itself is greater than the risk of the vaccine."

The media is desperately attempting to walk-back this comment because they need the new lock-downs, but it's out there. The CDC admitted months ago there was a myocarditis connection, but the media stomped on that one, too. Remember, the most insidious power the media has is the power to ignore.

It's harder to ignore when "saint Fauci" accidentally speaks the truth.