$250 Fine?

Sorry about the picture quality, but it's what we got (click for lager version):

A $250 fine for not completing Ethics Training?

First of all, it's an un-failable test. If you get a wrong answer, you just go back and click the other box to go forward. The biggest hassle was the embedded videos and they got rid of those a year or two ago.

Second, we used to post the answers here because it was a complete joke. And back in the Districts, we would post the fastest time on the bulletin board as sort of a challenge to the Watch.

Third, we're pretty sure there are Contractual Rules that forbid monetary fines as discipline for this bullshit. That's why we have a SPAR system. So unless something changed, they can take that threat and stick it where the sun don't shine.

Kwame Gets Kwazy

Blue on blue threats are always amusing:

• Chicago risks being held in contempt of court if Mayor Brandon Johnson insists on slashing spending and staff integral to the Chicago Police Department’s court-ordered reform push, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul warned this week.

  In a letter to Johnson dated Tuesday and obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times, Raoul expressed “grave concern” about cuts targeting CPD units responsible for implementing sweeping changes mandated in a federal consent decree.

  Raoul bluntly told Johnson, “I strongly urge you to reconsider these proposed cuts.”

As numerous readers have pointed out for years, this isn't a real Consent Decree. In a real Consent Decree, the feds send million of dollars to the municipality/department to pay for reforms. We wer supposed to be under a real Consent Decree, and Sparklefart's people tried to force it though, but then Shrillery lost and Trump's DOJ refused to fund it.

But the scam was too good to just let it die, so Lisa Madigan "sued" Chicago and they drafted a retired Federal judge to "supervise" the "decree," and they agreed in court to soak taxpayers for the millions and form an entirely unaccountable government agency to "reform" the CPD. Hackey's law firm is pulling in $3 million per year for this bullshit. Remember, these things last for a decade at least.

When did the "Consent Decree" take effect?

• It was 2017

And what does the linked article admit?

• The latest progress report issued by Hickey’s team found CPD had fully complied with only 7% of consent decree provisions by the end of 2023.

Seven years and CPD stands at seven percent? So only another ninety-three years to go!!!

Conehead should zero out the Office of Constitutional Policing but he has no balls to speak of.

Cash Grab Tickets

Our friends over at The Contrarian notice something that the rest of the media ignored during the election:

• With little fanfare, the Chicago City Council took a break last week from attempting to ban gas stoves, bravely denouncing hate speech, and other empty virtue signaling, and voted on October 30 to reduce the citywide speed limit from 30 to 25 mph. Despite the huge impact this ordinance will have on Chicago residents, it has received surprisingly little press coverage. Perhaps the Chicago media were more focused on Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed $300 million property tax increase, or his appointment of disbarred anti-Semitic attorney Reverend Mitchell Johnson as president of the Chicago Board of Education (disbarred for taking money from his client).

  The ordinance takes effect on January 1, 2026.

We (and many others) rightly called this a cash grab, despite stringent denials from City Hall and Conehead. But The Contrarian points out how a simple reduction in speeding fines would potentially generate tens-of-millions, if not a hundred-plus-million in short order.

Go read it all and be amazed at efforts to alter your fine based on your income tax return.

And then go read this article from the Illinois Policy people about ticket inequity:

• Red-light cameras on Chicago’s South Side issued the most tickets per intersection during the 12 months through September, more than 2.5 times as many as red-light monitored intersections on the North Side.
• Red-light cameras on the South Side issued an average 9,132 tickets between October last year and September 2024, or 5,521 more tickets than each camera on the North Side.

• Despite the high volume of tickets per intersection on the South Side, drivers on the North Side were issued nearly 100,000 more tickets worth nearly $10 million more than the South Side fines.

  North Side drivers were issued more than $16.2 million in red-light tickets. The North Side has 45 of the city’s 150 red-light monitored intersections, while the South Side has seven.

  West Side drivers incurred the next most tickets, with red-light cameras at 33 monitored intersections issuing nearly $14.2 million in fines.
  

We're going to guess the West Side has the lowest rate of paying though, as many plates aren't even registered to actual mailing addresses.

Conflict of Interest?

Just wondering, but why is the 016 District commander allowed to run a real estate business in the District he supervises?

The appearance of impropriety brings up reminders of when that Commander in 011 and the Deputy Chief of Area 4/former Commander of 015 were running "traffic stop missions" on the streets where they owned property?

Someone (a Chief?) is looking out for this mope, probably hoping to get a deal on a bungalow up north?

Windfall Elimination Passes

It only passed the House. Now it goes to the Senate:

• Today, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 82, the Social Security Fairness Act, by a vote of 327 to 75.

  H.R. 82 has been a top priority for the IAFF. The bill eliminates the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), provisions that unfairly punish retired fire fighters, police officers, teachers, and other public servants.

  “Today’s vote was a major step toward ensuring fire fighters and other public servants receive the full retirement they’ve earned and paid for,” said General President Edward A. Kelly. “While we’re proud of the work our team did to get this bill through the House, this is only half the battle. Now it’s time for Senators to step up and send this bill to the President’s desk.”

The National FOP released this:

Of course, this is a lame duck post-election session of Congress. There is exactly zero impetus to get it done and no votes to be bargained with at this moment. Plus, someone has to wake up Sleepy Joe, inject him full of Adderall and pharmaceutical meth so he can sign it. 

But it can't hurt to contact Durbin's and Duckworth's offices and let them know you're paying attention.

No Politicians Invited

Good for the family:

• The family of slain Chicago Police Officer Enrique Martinez does not want Mayor Brandon Johnson or Gov. JB Pritzker to attend his funeral next Monday. That’s according to a video message posted by John Catanzara, president of the police union, representing Chicago’s front-line “blue shirt” cops.

  The union boss called Martinez “yet another bright star” of the department’s future “snatched way too soon by a piece of garbage who should’ve never been on the street.”

  Officials have said Darion McMillian killed Martinez and the driver of a vehicle McMillian was riding in by spraying automatic gunfire during a traffic stop on November 4. He was on electronic monitoring for matters pending in Will County and cut off his ankle bracelet while trying to run away from cops, prosecutors said.

  Catanzara said Martinez’s family made it “very clear” that they do not want the mayor or governor to attend. While the governor quickly acknowledged and honored the request, Catanzara claimed Johnson had not done so.

Conehead is a classless buffoon and tried to force attendance at a previous Line of Duty wake and funeral with assorted brass threatening P.O.s and the 35th street tools hinting that they might revoke the Honors Funeral if Conehead wasn't allowed to pose and preen.

Funeral Info:

• The wake for Officer Martinez will be Sunday Nov. 17 from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Blake-Lamb Funeral Home in Oak Lawn. The funeral service will be at 10 a.m. Monday Nov. 18 at St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel in Chicago.

Good

The gravy train is in trouble:

• The former federal prosecutor overseeing the Chicago Police Department’s court-ordered overhaul warned Tuesday that drastic budget cuts proposed by Mayor Brandon Johnson could amount to a “devastating blow to future CPD reforms.”

  Maggie Hickey, the monitor tracking CPD’s compliance with a slow-moving federal consent decree, said Police Supt. Larry Snelling has prioritized the reform push and insisted that “Chicago cannot afford for the pace to slow down.

  “The proposed budget cuts would be a step backward for the CPD reform process at a pivotal point — just when progress is starting to be felt,” Hickey said during a status hearing in the federal court case.

Really? Because all we've been hearing for a few years now is how far behind CPD is in compliance, never hitting more than 25% of the "targets" and the monitor asking for (A) more money and (B) more overpaid non-working positions to be filled by political lackeys.

Do more with less Hackey. That's the message going forward and DC isn't bailing anyone out for a few years now. 

And with Conhead's $300 million tax hike being cut down to a mere $135 million (or less) there might be even bigger cuts to the "reform" scammers.

South Side or Burbs?

The Bears are still playing political games, trying to get a boatload of taxpayer money (that doesn't exist) to get a stadium deal for a team that sucks and an ownership group that has no good  plans to improve it:

• The Chicago Bears are considering an alternative to their proposed stadium on the city's lakefront. It's the former site of the Michael Reese Hospital, which has been closed for 16 years. The 48-acre site in Bronzeville is still ripe for development.

  [...] In the past, the Bears have rejected the site, saying it was too narrow and presented engineering and security challenges because of Metra tracks on the property.

  In April, the Bears released plans for a new state-of-the art stadium on the lakefront next to Soldier Field, their current home. They offered up more than $2 billion of their own money to build it, but said they also needed at least that much in public funding.

  And that plan has gone nowhere among lawmakers in Springfield. "I think they are just recognizing there's not a lot of political will behind them for the south lot," said Danny Ecker, with Crain's Chicago.

  While the Bears stadium focus has apparently shifted again, they still own the $197 million 326-acre site in Arlington Heights. And the mayor of Arlington Heights said the town remains in talks with the team about building on the former home of the Arlington Park race track.

From a business standpoint, the suburban site makes the most sense. The Bears would own a massive footprint full of future hotel space, sports bars, club and casino space and they wouldn't have to split parking revenue, concession money, ticket sales or any on-site stores/merchandise establishments. It has all sorts of easy transportation infrastructure in place....and it's still in Cook County, so Prickwrinkle would have all sorts of influence over it without Chicago's issues.

Learn to Code Media

The legacy media is dying, and as we've been cheering it on for years now, it's a long time coming:

• CNN is planning to wield the axe on some of its high-paid staff after dismal election ratings that cap off a disastrous period for the cable news network.

  According to an explosive new report from Puck, network executives will unleash sweeping lay-offs in a bid to save the network's flailing reputation.

  It comes after the departure of stalwart Chris Wallace, and amid reports senior stars like Wolf Blitzer and Jake Tapper have both been denied raises.

And not just CNN, but Comcast is looking to unload money losers:

• Comcast said it was considering spinning off its cable networks that include CNBC and MSNBC into a separate company, as the media industry grapples with a decline in traditional TV viewership due to cord-cutting by consumers shifting to streaming. 
• The potential spin-off would exclude the NBC broadcast network and the Peacock streaming service. The company, however, is interested in seeking a partner for Peacock to help grow that business, Comcast president Mike Cavanagh said on Thursday.

For those who don't know, "seeking a partner" means they're looking for someone to split the losses with so it  doesn't affect they're bottom line as badly.

They're mostly propaganda machines for  the left and that didn't work out so well for them this cycle.

Tax Hike in Trouble?

 You don't sit down to "negotiate" if you're winning, and Conehead isn't winning:

• Mayor Brandon Johnson said during a press conference Tuesday he is willing to continue negotiating with City Council members who are working to defeat his $300 million property tax hike. It comes as a special City Council meeting is being delayed.

  Aldermanic sources said, at this point, behind-the-scenes budget negotiations could result in the property tax hike being reduced to $135 million, or maybe even $100 million. The mayor would not confirm any figures, but said he's willing to work with the Council.

There are already enough aldercreature votes to tank the entire thing, so everyone is looking for their own angle before selling their vote to Conehead and the CTU.  They're looking at taxing all sorts of "cloud" services and other business taxes....things sure to push already fleeing businesses toward the exists even faster, which will result in more taxes....which in turn....

You get the idea - death spiral. Instead of closing twenty or so underutilized high school buildings and selling the property which would close the budget gap for the next few years.

It's Happening Again

The wheels move slowly, but they certainly move:

• A jury awarded more than $12 million Friday to a woman who lost her job at a Michigan insurance company after declining to get a COVID-19 vaccination.

  Much of the award — $10 million — is for punitive damages against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, according to the verdict form.

  Lisa Domski, who worked at Blue Cross for more than 30 years, said she was a victim of religious discrimination. The company in 2021 did not grant an exemption from its vaccine policy, despite her insistence that it clashed with her Catholic beliefs.

Readers will recall that after a Canine Officer discovered that CPD was being denied 99% of requests for religious exemptions while the rest of the city employees were succeeding at something like 70% acquiescence, he raised Holy Hell and got a lot of Groot's bullshit stopped.

Now we're finally seeing corporations being held financially accountable. Government cannot compel corporations to do things that the government is forbidden to do (like violate Civil Rights and bodily autonomy) but Joe and the Ho attempted to do just that....and Groot embraced that fascist authoritarian dogma like a bitch in heat.

Tourism to be Saved!!!

Tourists might actually return to Chicago....and instead of being victims, might start assisting drive down crime rates:

• In a powerful statement over the weekend, President-Elect Donald Trump reaffirmed his commitment to protecting the Second Amendment by announcing his push for national concealed carry reciprocity.

  This proposal would mean that concealed carry permits issued in any one state would be recognized in all 50 states, allowing gun owners to travel without worrying about crossing state lines with their legally owned firearms.

A driver's license issued by a state is valid in all fifty states - and driving is a privilege, not a Right.

So a CCL - a Right listed in and protected by the Constitution - ought to be valid in all fifty states. 

Illinois recognizes exactly ZERO other CCL permits from any other state. If Trump really wants to f#$% with democrats in Illinois, California and New York, this would be a great start.

We'd have to arrange visits to the morgue to look at the surprised faces on all the corpses that would start rolling in after the first week or three of National Reciprocity.

Defund Sanctuary Cities

Conehead spent somewhere over $200 million housing illegals. Fata$$ pitched in a bunch of money from the State coffers secure in the knowledge that Washington DC would print more money (driving inflation) to "pay" for it.

These people are living in a fantasy world:

• President-elect Donald Trump's plans for mass deportations are raising many concerns from leaders in Chicago's immigrant communities to the halls of Congress.

  There are calls for President Joe Biden to act before leaving office.

  The plans by the Trump administration to begin the mass deportation of millions of immigrants lacking permanent legal status are setting off alarm bells in Little Village and other communities with large immigrant populations. 

They're not looking to deport immigrants - they looking to deport ILLEGALS - people who don't belong here, broke the Law to get here, remain here in violation of the Law. And this media/leftist driven fantasy of mass deportations of all immigrants is driving Hispanic voters toward the right. It's also driving black voters the same direction because it's their job opportunities disappearing.

When Illinois, Cook County, and Chicago taxpayers have to foot the entire bill, we might see real change. Real soon.

fbi "Nervous" (UPDATE)

Good....about f#$%ing time:

• The brass on the seventh floor at FBI headquarters in Washington have been in a daze and wary of a housecleaning since Donald Trump was reelected president on Tuesday, inside sources say.

  The Washington Times learned through several anonymous bureau sources that senior agency executives were “stunned” and “shell-shocked” by Mr. Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.

  “You know the fit test? How they let the standards slack on the fit test?” said the first FBI source, referring to the agency’s physical fitness requirements. “Everyone’s going to have a real problem when they’re running for the door.”

  FBI Director Christopher A. Wray and Deputy Director Paul Abbate have little chance of remaining at the bureau by the time Mr. Trump is inaugurated, sources say.

You know what Trump ought to do as soon as he gets into office?

• call in any remaining "senior executive service" members of the fbi;
• line em up outside the door and have them all frisked before entering;
• read them the Riot Act. Tell them they aren't getting Security Clearances or pensions until they earn them;
  
• demand all the files on JFK, RFK, FISA bullshit, Epstein lists, Diddy files....and ALL the blackmail material they've been harboring for decades be delivered to the White House within 48 hours. Anything found to be missing or withheld will result in prison at Gitmo; (UPDATE ADDED - the J6 tapes showing fbi "instigators" in place including that Ray Epps f#$%er, the hidden tranny manifesto, the Vegas shooter "investigation, the Biden laptop "investigation," and plenty more)
  
• defund them and restructure them from the top down;
• then do the retired members who fled to avoid accountability.

The same for the CIA, which is forbidden by law to operate within the US and against American citizens. They've been unaccountable for far too long.

And finally, some sort of "truth commission" like the Eastern Bloc or South Africa did after those corrupt regimes fell. Clean house, top to bottom. Fun times.

Anyone got Trump's number?

More Bodies Stack Up

Stacked up under the light poles that used to hold ShotSpotter cameras and detectors:

• #13 - When a man was found lying in the intersection at 100th Street and Indianapolis Avenue overnight, passersby and first responders thought he was the victim of a hit-and-run driver.

  He was not.

  It turns out he had been fatally shot. His car was overhead, parked on the Skyway.

  Nobody called 911 to report any gunfire in the area, which used to be monitored by the city’s ShotSpotter network.
  

And another:

• #14 - Police and fire personnel responding to a “person down” call on Saturday evening discovered the individual had been shot to death.

  A 911 caller reported that a man was laid out in the street in the first block of West 125th Street around 7 p.m. According to CPD, he was pronounced dead at the scene from a gunshot wound to the neck. The killer remains at large. Police were still working to identify the man and determine his age.

  A witness told police that they saw a silver SUV leaving the area, but cops didn’t find any shell casings. The street used to be monitored by the city’s ShotSpotter network.

Also revealed in this article, the EXACT count of Conehead's bodyguard detail:

• “Luckily, he’s in a bubble,” Beale said of Johnson days before ShotSpotter’s contract ended on September 23, “because he’s got 116 people protecting him. You know what? We don’t have that luxury.”

Are all of these personnel included in Unit 543 - Detached Services? Asking for a friend with FOIA insight.

Witch Hunt Continues

These morons need a hobby since the Kackler lost, so they've decided to make the CPD the target of their impotent ire:

• Residents, community activists and elected officials on Sunday called on Mayor Brandon Johnson to fire police officers with ties to the Oath Keepers extremist group and form a task force to address the problem.

  Those gathered at Movement on Montrose, 2951 W. Montrose in Irving Park, urged the mayor to act on the Office of the Inspector General’s recommendations for the task force and to reopen the probe into the eight officers, saying they didn’t trust the CPD investigation.

  “The OIG’s office has compared this scandal to a time in the 1960s when a CPD officer was fired for being a KKK member,” said Grace Patino of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, one of the organizers of the event. “Make no mistake, nothing about this situation is normal or should be made to feel normal.”

Unless they can prove beyond any shadow of doubt that "membership" affected the performance of duties, then it's a First Amendment issue of free association. Most if not all of the Officers signed up for or were signed up for a newsletter, attended no meetings and met with no one even suspected of a felony.

We hope they keep pushing, because at some point, they're going to make these Officers rich off taxpayer money. We'd also say they have a decent case against the media who keep publishing their names despite never being charged with wrongdoing and already cleared by investigations.

Nice Fire Truck Conehead

So not only are firehouses in Englewood operating without any....fire trucks....the ones that are serving Chicago, aren't being maintained very well:

No idea what the CFD budget looks like for maintenance, but we're sure Conehead spent it on illegal Venezuelans or hair gel. Hopefully, they don't try to blame the driver for the equipment they give him to drive.

We aren't sure of the technical terms, but the entire wheel hub (?) rusted through so the lug nuts and bolt disc (?) remained on the truck while the tire went on it's merry way smashing into parked cars.

This is a Tower Ladder, one of maybe six in the entire city, so if you're in anything taller than three stories, your life just got a little more statistically dangerous.

Assault Weapons Ban Negated

But only on paper:

• A federal judge in East St. Louis on Friday struck down Illinois' assault weapons ban on the grounds that it violates the Second and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution and issued an order barring the state from enforcing it.

  That order, however, was stayed for 30 days, and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed an appeal Friday night.

  In a 168-page opinion released Friday afternoon, Judge Stephen McGlynn sided with plaintiffs in the case who argued the assault-style weapons banned under the law are commonly used for legal purposes such as self-defense.

Here's our favorite gun lawyer explaining the decision, good and bad, so it's simple to understand,

Illinois is going to lose this one, but it's going to take another year or more to finish it. It's going to cost untold amounts of time and taxpayer money to finance this losing case.

Meanwhile, there is no plan to figure out the $100 BILLION debt currently on the books against Illinois and Fata$$ is picking a fight with Trump already over the upcoming deportations of illegals - which are costing Illinois taxpayers further billions.

"Rules"?

Guidelines from the FOP Board about viewing the books and expense accounts of your own Labor Organization (click for larger version):

Anyone know how you're supposed to be able to conduct anything approaching a thorough review under these types of "rules"? And with those time restrictions? And no written notes? 

How about you work for the Officers, you are paid by the Officers' dues. What are you hiding? How much are you hiding?

Sgt Pallohusky got twelve years for almost bankrupting the PBPA. Is the FOP headed the same direction?

Really Fata$$? Really Conehead?

The Contrarian noticed something odd going on:

• Though it's tradition for the flags of the U.S., State, and City fly at half-staff following the on-duty death of a CPD, city buildings continue to fly all three flags at summit.
  
  
  We're told neither @ChicagosMayor nor Pritzker have authorized the action for Ofc. Enrique Martinez.
  
  
  We all know why.

What a pair of scumbags.