Un-F#$%ing-Believable

How does anyone publish this tripe with a straight face?

• Shannon Gipson says her son, Romarr, will never escape the horror of the Ryan Harris case.
  
  The young man's psyche has been tortured by the interrogation and jail stay that occurred in August 1998 when he was 7, she said. He and an 8-year-old boy were accused of raping and killing the 11-year-old girl.

Jail stay? We don't think it's legal to house anyone under the age of 9, regardless of the crime committed, but maybe someone with a bit more knowledge than we have can confirm or deny Romarr was ever "jailed." As to the rape and murder accusations, the witnesses and the boy's own statements of knocking Ryan Harris off her bike with a brick to the head and penetrating her vaginally with a stick have still never been made public. Anyone wondering why?

• Shannon Gipson also decried Monday what she sees as a pattern of harassment by the police against her son.
  
  "The fact that they continue to harass him is an issue with me," she said, adding that he had recently been accused of stealing a bicycle by police, even though he had borrowed it.

Gee whiz "Mom," your son has a pattern of stealing bicycles. When bikes go missing and people identify him, it's little wonder the police actually go out and find him with stolen bikes. Little wonder too that the victims suddenly change their stories after getting their bikes back - they know what your son is, even if you don't.

• The most recent charge that Romarr Gipson and his brother shot two men at a Calumet Park gas station Wednesday is not the teenager's only run-in with police.
  
  At 14, Gipson, who lives with his brother and mother in the 10700 block of South King Drive, was charged with accidentally shooting a 15-year-old friend. He was later placed on home monitoring.
  
  Prosecutors said during a bond hearing in Cook County Circuit Court Sunday that Gipson was previously charged with cruelty to animals and possession of a stolen motor vehicle.

Well, let's see here - a history of guns, previous charges of PSMV, bike thief and aggravated batteries with bricks and now firearms. Quite the little Rhodes scholar in the making, eh?

More disturbing is the "cruelty to animals" charge. As any student of profiling will tell you, depending on the actual elements of the "cruelty" charge, this is one of the three hallmarks of a potential serial killer. Taking into consideration his propensity for violence and history of theft, we don't think we're too far off the mark labeling this kid as a Grade-A psychopath and future Gacy or Green River Killer. Every year this asshole is off the streets is an unknown number of lives saved. Pure and Simple.

Look Ma! No Gear!

Plane carrying 136 passengers and crew lands safely at O'Hare this morning. Good job by the pilots. You can use this as an open thread in the meantime for Tuesday. Don't forget to study study study.

Sergeants Test Countdown

It's only 4 days away! PANIC! If you've noticed a slight dip in the quality of posts, we've been kind of busy pre-packaging a couple posts when there's time and hanging onto them until we need to publish. If you haven't noticed, well then that's on you.

Anyone have last minute advice for the exam? We know the ones about getting a full nights rest, eat a decent breakfast, review certain orders that are sure to be covered, etc. How about a few answers? We'd be grateful.

Laser Sights

In the previous Quick Hits post, the pros and cons of Laser Sights are being debated, so we thought we'd give it it's own thread. A point or two.

First of all, we weren't second guessing the LA County guys having to use 70 plus shots to take down a bad guy. You fire until the threat is subdued, dissipated or deceased - no question about it. Ammo is free if expended in the line of duty (unless it 's an alternate/auxiliary weapon - but that's another story). Our thought was more shots on target would disable the threat quicker. If it takes 70, it takes 70. If it takes 100, we can deal with the fallout. The shootout in 010 a few month back took well over 50 rounds if we recall, and the gunman survived over 20 hits. It happens.

Secondly, if merely displaying a laser dot on someone is frightening or excessive, how come all the TASERS have them? There is a check box on the TRRs for "painting" a subject with the laser - it is treated as if there was a weapon discharge itself. If there is a "spark display" a TRR will be completed as well.

If it improves marksmanship, we're all for it. If "painting" a subject with a laser makes them surrender quicker, then it ought to be used, regardless of the paperwork involved. And we fully support shooting more than just once a year. If you don't use your skills or training often enough, you forget things and your reactions become rusty. This Department isn't penny-wise and pound-foolish - too often we're penny-foolish, pound-stupid, especially where training is concerned.

The Gang Book

Much is being made of "The Gang Book," a new publication from the Chicago Crime Commission. It profiles 100 gang leaders, covers 70 gangs, runs 272 pages and has lots of nifty pictures. It could prove a boon to numerous suburban departments finally coming to grips with the influx of gangs moving out their way. (Channel 2, Channel 5, Channel 7, Sun Times, Tribune)

Somehow, we think, that the book is going to ignore the largest and most lucrative crime syndicate in the tri-state area, and possibly even the entire midwest. We're talking of course, about the Chicago Machine. It's tales of graft, corruption, voter fraud, influence peddling and bribery dwarf anything the street gangs could come up with. And if you scratch deep enough, you'll find they are part and parcel of a large number of gangs from years past.

Monday Quick Hits

Starting slowly. Recovering. Don't talk too loudly.

• Murder numbers down 2.5%! Hooray! Of course, looking at the actual numbers, we see that its down from 160 killings last year to ... well ... 156. Four fewer. Whoop de freakin do. Four killings is a 6 hours span of "catch up" in Englewood or Fillmore or even Marquette on a hot day. Seems a little premature to celebrate just before the hot months, but we suppose the mayor and his people need any positive headline they can get.
• Maybe a refresher trip to the range is in order? LA County Sheriffs shot and killed a motorist. No big deal there, but it took them 70 shots to do it. An unusual occurrence? Not really - it's the third time in 13 months that they've fired more than 50 rounds at a subject. Once they fired 50 rounds at a suspect in a house and last spring they unloaded 120 rounds at a subject. We've heard of a few similar instances in town here, but they are few and far between - anyone know the average number of shots fired by CPD in a deadly force encounter?
• From Channel 7: "Less than half of Illinois' plans for handling a catastrophe got a passing grade from federal analysts Friday, contradicting the state's own, far more positive assessment." Imagine that - a state report sounding more positive than a federal committee providing oversight to federal funds. We still don't know what the City's plans are or where they're stored or how they're to be executed. But we are sure it'll all be the Department's fault if it all goes to hell.
  

Solving the Immigrant Problem

All the whining on the Left AND the Right about how we can't deport 12 million illegals? Seems that you don't really have to actually physically deport 12 million. From the Channel 2 News website:

• Fewer parents are walking their children to school in this border city's Linda Vista neighborhood. The crowd of day laborers huddled in a parking lot outside McDonald's has dropped by half.
  
• A sense of unease has spread in this community of weather-worn homes since immigration agents began walking the streets as part of a stepped-up nationwide effort targeting an estimated 590,000 immigrant fugitives. Other illegal immigrants are being rounded up along the way.

A few raids, a few deportations, a little enforcement of existing rules and suddenly "A sense of unease" grips the illegals. Start cracking down on businesses that employ illegals and they'll start running back across the border and applying for citizenship properly. Now if only Karl Rove will bend W's ear and provide a little support to what 80+% of all Americans want (including democrats), November will be a complete nightmare for Lefty, William, Malcolm and the rest of the fever swamp leftists.

Thanks for Nothing Cubbies

The White Sox owned Cincinnati this weekend. Owned them to the tune of 12-4, 8-6, and 8-1. And the Cubs couldn't even pull out a single win against first place Detroit and maybe help the Sox close the game and a half gap, getting swept themselves 5-3, 9-3 and 12-3.

If the Cubs could just find a team that scores two runs or fewer on a regular basis, their 3-peat of 3's this weekend would have them winning occasionally. And maybe helping the Sox.

Good Job; Corny Line Though

Good job by the Captain, but did he have to get quoted like this?

• Six hours after coming home from a ceremony Thursday that promoted him to Chicago Police captain, Gerard Carroll found himself in his Morgan Park alley, face to face with a knife-wielding man.

  "Don't do anything stupid, I'm the police," the off-duty Carroll warned before pulling out his gun and uttering a line straight out of the movie "The Untouchables."

  "You don't take a knife to a gunfight," Carroll told the man, identified by police as Edward Smith, 37, of Tinley Park. "Drop the knife."

Actually, the Untouchables line was something along the lines of "Just like a wop to bring a knife to a gunfight," but we're sure that Captain Gerard "don't call me Mr. Connery" Carroll was polite and politcally correct when placing the offender into custody. Good job.

Incident Up North

In this morning's comments, there are a few noting a possible police suicide near Irving and Cumberland. We hope it isn't true and we're a bit selfish hoping that if it is true, it isn't CPD. The chances of that seem remote, given the neighborhood.

This post is merely to inform our readers. Comments are closed and we ask that you refrain from speculating on the situation or naming names in the other threads. Thanks.

Gee Whiz

Remember back when the goof who was pardoned in George Ryan's (may he rot in hell for all eternity) last minute Nobel Peace Prize push was picked up again for dope and gun violations and sentenced to prison? We commented that maybe, just maybe, the cops got it right and Patterson shouldn't have been let out in the first place? Once a scumbag, always a scumbag?

We wondering again if the cops got it right years ago. Actually, we aren't wondering - we know from many accounts that the detectives DID get it right in the Ryan Harris case and this little asshole should have been behind bars years ago. We even wrote about it here. Now he's under arrest again for what will probably turn out to be murder when the victim is removed from life support (Channel 2, Channel 5, Channel 7, Sun Times, Tribune coverage).

The side of us that revels in dark humor says at least he'll be able to afford the best defense money can buy with his $2 million dollar settlement. The other side is more than a little pissed off that the City didn't decide to fight this and show that a 7 year old psychopath was capable of beating a girl into unconsciousness over a bicycle almost 8 years ago. Somebody ought to find Hillard and everyone else who dropped the ball on this one and go kick them in the nuts. Then someone go ask PJ if he feels vindicated all these years later.

A Tie? Holy Crap!

USA pulls off a tie with an Italian "own goal" leading the way. Unbelievable. Now if they can beat Ghana (a tall order as Ghana beat the Czechs and the Czechs already spanked the US 3-nil), they can actually advance.

We know, no one cares aside from us, Lefty, Rue St. Michel and 5 other coppers. Oh well.

Hot Day for Football

USA v Italia. Don't expect much from us today as we crank up the AC, leave the gardening to the hired help and kick back to watch the USA pray for a tie. We'll update this evening.

Anyone Have the Admin Fax?

According to various comments in a previous posting, two Probationary Police Officers were fired this week for ... let's get this straight ... cowardice? And another PO was stripped and sent to Call Back?

If true, we applaud the Superintendent. Not all of us have military type backgrounds, but to leave a fellow officer behind with an armed suspect is a crime in and of itself - ridiculous to the "n-th" degree. We've worked with maybe ten regular partners over the years and been with a few teams and we can state without reservation that we NEVER worried about any of our partners cutting and running during whatever crap we stumbled into.

Maybe we've been lucky. Or very lucky. But we don't for a minute believe that this is representative of the vast majority of Chicago Police Officers. Hopefully, this becomes some sort of training or evaluation or something down the line. We run TOWARDS trouble. We try to do it efficiently and intelligently and without any of us getting hurt. We don't need to be worrying about who's got our back.

Burge Report Delayed - Again

Once again, a judge delays the Burge Report from public view. Channel 5, Channel 7 and the Sun Times all have the EXACT same AP wire report on their sites. Not one of them could be bothered to do a little research and make the story their own - almost like the duplicate To-Froms IAD doesn't accept anymore.

Anyway, the usual cries of "cover up" erupt from the teaming masses and lawyers hint at knowing the identities of certain deposed parties who may have a reason to not want the report revealed. It all makes for an interesting debate as to who stands to lose the most if and when the report is finally released. Maybe it gives a glimpse into why the mayor hates the police so much when so many cops worked so hard to give him cleared cases to grease his run for office.

Human Punching Bags (Post #1201)

Twelve hundred and one posts - damn, we do seem to talk a lot.

On a serious note, once again the justice system has failed us. And not just locally where it is damn near impossible to get felony charges on people who strike, batter, attack or fight the police:

• A grand jury declined to indict Rep. Cynthia McKinney on Friday in connection with a confrontation in which she admitted hitting a police officer who tried to stop her from entering a House office building. [emphasis added - SCC]

She admitted it and a grand jury (which will indict a ham sandwich if the State presents a reasonably competent case) couldn't come up with an indictment? This is just sad on so many levels.

We Aren't Holding Our Breath

From the Sun Times:

• Police made a key arrest Thursday in their investigation into the deadly drugs hitting the streets, nabbing a West Side dealer who could lead to a supplier of fentanyl-laced heroin that has killed more than 60 people in Cook County.

This is merely a distributor. But in order to look like they are doing something, anything at all, this becomes a "BIG DEAL" even if it's just a rung on a ladder. The suppliers are in Mexico. And even though the Feds claim to be working "with the Mexican government" and actually may have found a fentanyl manufacturing plant, the fact remains that the Mexican drug cartels pay WAY more than the government can and run most of the country anyway. If anything comes of this, it's merely a hic-up in the pipeline.

The funniest line in the whole article is this one though:

• [Lemont Police Chief Kevin] Shaughnessy said he hopes people realize no community is immune to a drug problem. "This is a pristine area," he said. "It can happen to anyone."

Um, boss? You're from the suburbs, so we'll excuse your over exuberance while pandering to your liberal population. But it can't happen to anyone. It only happens to members of the community who decide to commit felonies in order to put poison into their bodies. If that's your definition of "anyone," we assume Lemont is filled with 14,000 junkies and your hands must be full.

Open Post for Friday

Have at it.

How Do They Find These People?

Talk about your ambulance chasers. The family of the recently deceased Malcolm Lofton already has a lawyer out there as their spokes-creature. Of course, the story is that Mr. Lofton was merely trying to get help when he was brutally gunned down by an off duty female officer:

• Foutris said Lofton was being chased, and jumped in front of the officer's car in an attempt to get help.
• "There are witnesses who did see him being chased," Foutris said. "There is absolutely no way that Malcolm was trying to steal the car. There was no carjacking involved. He did not have any weapons from what we know. He didn't even have a driver's license."

OK, first of all, how about you present these imaginary witnesses. Seriously. Even one of them would be nice.

Second, people attempting to get help don't usually leap in front of cars and attempt to open the doors. And when they get thrown off of the cars, they don't usually climb back on the car and try to enter through the sunroof. AND they don't usually choose brand new cars that still have the dealer stickers in the windows driven by a lone woman.

Third of all (and this really kills us), there is nothing that says Vehicle Hijacking or Attempted Hijacking has to have a weapon involved (there is no charge for carjacking in Illinois). And what point (if any) does the former Mr. Lofton's driver's license status have to do with anything? Only licensed drivers are allowed to hijack people? We must have missed George Ryan signing that one into law.

Is this guy serious? We aren't lawyers, but we met one once (ran him over with our car - twice) and we know this lawyer is a moron. This is a direct result of (A) the City settling everything that comes their way and (B) not drowning lawyers at birth.

More Building!

We noted the push to build 4 new police stations along with along with other projects in a previous posting. Some of the projects include a "new North Avenue bridge over the Chicago River. A remote garage to relieve the parking crunch at O'Hare Airport. Crushable beds of concrete at the end of Midway Airport runways to halt planes that overshoot their landings."

The re-election push must be in full swing. Either that or the mayor is taking a page from his old man's book - when the indictments start flying, spend, SPEND SPEND! Now he has announced a $1 billion dollar spending spree to build 9 new high schools and 15 new elementary schools (Tribune, Sun Times stories). This despite the fact that school enrollment has been DECLINING for two years in a row.

Perhaps this "spare" billion dollars ought to be invested in say, oh, a pension fund or two that are notoriously underfunded at the moment?

The Worm Turns

Mark Brown, Sun Times columnist and occasional reader of this site (he wrote to us once), notes the Sorich defense in the Hired Truck scandal is turning on the mayor and his inner circle:

• There have been times during the past few weeks when you would swear that Thomas Durkin is as much Mayor Daley's lawyer as Robert Sorich's, so eager is he to put a pro-Daley spin on the evidence in the City Hall patronage trial, even though it's his client Sorich sitting at the defense table, not the mayor.

  Tuesday was not one of those days.

This makes sense of course. Durkin needs to paint Sorich as merely following orders, following an established pattern of misconduct in order to make the jury feel that convicting Sorich and Co. would just be a couple of "small fish," so why bother? And it's probably the only defense that could be plausibly presented at this juncture.

But we hope that the jury can see beyond curtains as the George Ryan jury did earlier this year. The mayor has been throwing "small fish" under the bus for so long, one would hope that eventually, some bait would land a larger fish. It seems the only thing holding the whole system together is a willingness for "small fish" to do 18 to 24 months in the pen for a Machine that shows them absolutely no loyalty in return.

Or should we be looking at what everyone who keeps their mouth shut is getting afterwards?

I Didn't Know Nuthin

The above title is one of the mayor's favorite phrases. For a notorious micromanager, the phrase is as laughable as it is ridiculous. Trib columnist John Kass dubbed it "fedheimer's disease" as it always seemed to be at it's most intense when questions were asked about FBI investigations that surfaced throughout the past few years.

Seems the mayor's lawyer is catching it, too:

• On Wednesday, aldermen were buzzing about Georges' claim she didn't know City Hall's worst-kept secret: that the IGA was involved in hiring -- even for jobs supposed to be protected by the Shakman ban.

  The see-no-evil claim was not new for Georges.

And this little gem:

• Also Wednesday, city Corporation Counsel Mara Georges finished testimony but revised a critical element under defense questioning.

  On Tuesday, Georges said she was unaware of allegations of irregularities in city hiring until the FBI raided IGA offices last year. But she grudgingly acknowledged she was aware of possible irregularities in the 2004 hiring of the 19-year-old son of a top union official for a city building inspector job.

  "Perhaps I was aware there was an allegation, yes," she said.

"Perhaps [she] was aware"? Perhaps? Perhaps she realizes the Feds might have her on tape admitting she knew a whole lot more than she's letting on? Sigh - the Revolution can't come fast enough. And for the cop/lawyer that keeps complaining about how he/she dislikes all the hate directed at lawyers? This is exactly why we hate them so. When the Revolution comes, we'll give you a ten minute head start and a fast horse just because you once wore blue - but only if we can find a horse.

I Didn't Know Nuthin

Duplicate post to the one above - deleted post. Left comments. Closed comments for this post

New Police Stations!

007, 009, 012 and 023 are on the drawing board.

We should see something in the next 3 to 7 years according to the way the City usually works. And if Kennedy-King College is any indication, they'll be 15 to 40% over budget, have the new City approved collapsing concrete floors within 18 months of opening and be obsolete with a decade.

Included in the plan is a 300 space parking garage for the Town Hall District, one third of which will be parking for the neighborhood. Huh?

Hegewisch Mourns

Fully 72% of Hegewisch's cultural heritage was destroyed Wednesday in a fire at a popular eatery (Channel 2, Channel 5, Channel 7 coverage). Rumor has it that Cousin's Restaurant was so named because many of the people who ate there ended up marrying close relatives at some point in time.

We're KIDDING!

Sort of.

Losing Track of Inventory

Think someone is getting their legs broken over this little snafu?

• SOUTHWICK, Mass. - For the fifth time in a week, a stash of drugs was found in a cabinet at a Home Depot store in Massachusetts or discovered after the fixture was brought home. A plumber in Southwick discovered 40 pounds of marijuana and three kilograms of cocaine stashed in a bathroom vanity he'd purchased at a Home Depot in Chicopee.

  A second stash was found at that store and at least two more were discovered at a Tewksbury Home Depot, Southwick Police Lt. David Ricardi said. One of the Tewksbury stashes was discovered June 8 after a homeowner brought home a cabinet and found 50 pounds of marijuana. Police also found drugs in a fifth cabinet. Ricardi would not say where or when it was discovered but said it was within the last week.

Oops.

Another Shooting

From Channel 2 News:

• A man was shot and killed by an off-duty police officer Wednesday evening on the city's Far South Side, according to police. The incident took place near 106th and Wentworth about 7:45 p.m., police said. The man was reportedly shot in the chest.
  

Oh Boy, Oh Boy

Here we go again. Big lawsuit on the horizon. Either everyone knows the mayor is selling everything he can get his hands on for cash or this City has the worst sense of timing for potential mutli-million dollar payouts.

• A Cook County Sheriff's log backs up a witness' claim that a 46-year-old woman charged with drug possession had sought medical attention before she died in a Chicago Police lockup.

Of course, a Cook County log doesn't mean anything without corroborating witnesses and they seem to have one:

• Barbara Flores, who was locked up on a traffic warrant early Saturday, said she was in a cell with Cobige and other women at the station.

OK, so they have a fellow inmate as a witness. Not exactly a paragon of virtue, right? Except putting one and one together, one has to wonder why when she was turned down by the Sheriff's, she wasn't sent to the hospital right away from the lockup. Hopefully, something else comes out that exonerates the Department (as the media and Frank Main are wont to leave out details that make us look good), but in the meantime, we would expect lockups to start turning down prisoners who have even the tiniest of wounds, minor aches and even headcolds.

Helmet; No Helmet

The debate continues, especially in light of Steeler's quarterback Ben Roethilsberger motorcycle crash yesterday. In Illinois, biker fatalities and serious injuries are way up.

On one hand, the amount and severity of injuries suffered by riders are monumental. Quite a bit of the cost of this damage is passed on to everyone else in the forms of higher premiums and taxes for those without catastrophic health care. On the other, we object strenuously to the "nanny state" mentality pervading this country whereby do-gooders decide what rules everyone else lives by.

Readers? Can you tell we're hurting for a topic?

More City BS

This is almost hilarious. Almost.

• Extra $62 million found for new Kennedy-King
• A $10 million city loan, $20 million from "tax-increment financing" (TIF) and $15 million in funds generated by putting off other City Colleges projects will help wipe out massive cost overruns at the new Kennedy-King College, a top mayoral aide said Monday.
• The original cost was $192 million. The new price tag is $254 million.
• Gayles did not explain where the rest of the $62 million would come from, except to describe it as "creative financing."

Whoever this Gayles is, he ought to be serving some Federal time next to James Laski soon. "Creative financing?" What a crock of shit. This isn't saving diddly squat. All the City is doing is robbing Peter to pay Peter - all of us taxpayers are getting the shaft on this one. Delaying a project doesn't mean it isn't going to get paid for - it only means it will get paid for at a higher cost later.

And a "loan" from the City is tremendous bullshit. Who finances the City? Taxpayers. Government is a non-profit entity. Should government show a profit, it's supposed to be returned to the citizens in the form of tax rebates or tax cuts.

This is ridiculous. Someone who has some sort of accounting background really ought to run as a reform candidate. They might actually garner enough support to rattle the Machine.

Another Liberal Talking Point Dies

Leftist talking point - "Saddam had no connections to terrorists. Saddam was a secularist; fundemental islamists wouldn't have anything to do with him."

Wrong again. From Fox News:

• A newly released document appears to provide evidence that in 1999 the Taliban welcomed "Islamic relations with Iraq" to mediate among the Taliban, the Northern Alliance and Russia, and that the Taliban invited Iraqi officials to Afghanistan.

Oops. But then, being a Liberal means never having to say you're sorry. Or mistaken. Or just flat out wrong. Thank goodness the alternative media is getting the word out.

More SCC Predictions Come True

In case you weren't paying attention, we did it for you. Two more predictions came true in the past 30 days or so and we neglected to point them out. We'll remedy that here:

• We predicted Zarqawi would be captured or killed back on 01 January. We also hoped bin Laden would also be neutralized. Still have six months on that one
• We also predicted Jimmy Hoffa would still be missing. It was tongue in cheek, but in light of the FBI still digging up farmland, we're looking good for another correct prognostication.

Not bad if we do say so ourselves.

"Fitzmas" Canceled

Excuse us, hahahahaha. Sorry Lefty. NOT!!!!!! No indictment for you! Hahahahaha. The Dark Lord lives! Long Live the Dark Lord!

We expect Keith Olbermann's resignation our desk tomorrow since he predicted Rove would be arrested no less than 26 TIMES on his MSNBC program according to a Nexis search. ZERO for 26. We won't even go into the Democratic Underground or Daily Kos totals. Thank (deity of your choice) you guys aren't picking stocks for us.

Now excuse us. We must return to our undisclosed location. There are plans to be made, potions to be brewed and human sacrifices to be offered. Dark powers such as Rove possesses cannot be appeased by mere mortal machinations.

Leading the Nation

Yes, Chicago leads the nation in at least one category - police shooting criminals. According to the Channel 7 story:

• Since January 1, 2006, Chicago police have shot 20 suspects. Nine of them were fatally wounded. In Los Angeles, which has an estimated one million more residents, police have shot only 17 suspects during the same period. Five of them have died. In New York City, with a population two and a half times larger than Chicago, police have shot only 15 suspects. Five were fatally wounded.

  A Chicago spokeswoman cautioned against comparing numbers from different cities. "In every one of the cases, a weapon was recovered and the offender attempted to use that weapon against the officer."

Of course, this doesn't matter to self styled "community activists:"

• The Reverend Paul Jakes, anti-police brutality activist, is outraged by Chicago's numbers and the police department's explanation for them:

  " I just can't buy every time that an individual has a gun or knife -- I just don't believe Chicago is as crazy as they say," said Rev. Paul Jakes, Anti-Police Brutality Activist.

Evidently, Channel 7 has decided it's time to beat on the police again in light of the Burge report on the horizon and Daley's mounting troubles with the corruption trials. When in doubt, slime the cops. You can trace all of society's ills to the police you know - if there weren't any police around, there wouldn't be any crime. Of course, you'd have to wade through piles of dead bodies to see it.

Violent Crime Up Nationwide

According to the FBI stats for 2005.

Table 4 lists Chicago statistics. Burglary and Robbery were up, everything else down. Most of it was fractional movement at best, aside from a 10,000 incident drop in the Theft category. How did we get 10,000 less incidents of Theft? Was there a revamping of the reporting criteria? Because we haven't noticed and reduction in calls on the radio recently.

Disappointed

Not that there was a realistic chance for them to go all the way, but the USA was roundly spanked by the Czechs in their opening World Cup match 3-0 (or nil as football fans say). And it isn't getting any easier when they face Italy on Saturday. If we recall, this was one of the "groups of death" from which only a single team (instead of two) was expected to emerge into the second round, but it would have been nice to see at least one US victory. Oh well, there's always 2010.

SCC's Identity Revealed

Or at least, one of our identities. Go over to Rue St. Michel for the full details. It had to happen eventually.

Send in the Clowns

The circus that will shortly be surrounding the soon to be release Burge report just got a whole boatload funnier. Wallace "gator" Bradley is appearing in court as a self styled "translator" for convicted/pardoned murderer and recently re-convicted UUW offender Aaron Patterson. Read this quote from the article:

• "Mr. Bradley and him come from a different subculture and they are familiar with each other's, let's say, emotional needs," Avila added. "So I'm using this analogy of having a translator in a different language. And I know that sounds kind of radical, but I think that's correct. And I think Mr. Bradley would be critical in communicating with my client."

Is that some primo, grade-A horse manure or what? Wow! Tell you what Mr. Avila - when we kill all the lawyers, we'll let you choose the manner of your demise, just as a small sort of "Thank You" for gracing us with that belly laugh. Damn, that was funny.

Another Classic Overreach

We understand the quote attributed to Machiavelli "Make no small plans for they have no power to stir the soul." But this proposal to add 500 miles of bike lanes to the City is just stupid. Where the hell are they expecting to get the space for this?

• Street parking is already at a premium everywhere we look.
• Parkways and sidewalks take up a lot of space already - is Daley going to remove trees and grass?
  
• We still think that the bike lane on Roosevelt Road is ridiculous. The elimination of an entire traffic lane on Elston ruined what used to be a good shortcut to get north. What next? Eliminate a whole lane on the boulevards?
• The City can't maintain a street for more than a year without potholes appearing everywhere. Now they want "raised bike lanes"? Pardon our laughter.

In short, this seems nothing but a political move to keep concrete manufacturers and road builders in business while inconveniencing everyone else. In other words, business as usual.

New Armed Forces Equipment

We are hereby proposing that all US Military personnel be authorized to carry the following on any raids or such in the Middle East involving high value targets (or any targets - we don't care):

Just a little something to press into the arms of the soon to be deceased to ease their journey into the afterlife. Imagine Zarqawi or bin Laden fading out to their twisted version of Paradise and then realizing they have a handful of bacon and won't be getting anywhere near it? Or in the event that bacon can rot in the brutal desert heat, an alternate proposal:

In a pinch, it'll spice up the MREs.

Zarqawi Guest Blogging

Over at IowaHawk, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi files his first ever dispatch from the afterlife. One of the gems contained within:

• So Zarkman walks toward the light. No s---, it's a lot like 2001: A Space Odyssey, but in 3-D quadrophonic sensurround. And BOOM, plop, I'm in this gigantic white room, completely empty except for this hooded faceless guy and a totally sweet 47" plasma screen.

Language warning - it is some funny funny stuff. Go read the entire essay.

A Relaxing Sunday

Just taking it easy on this end. Needed a break from blogging and we found one of the more relaxing pursuits known to mankind, aside from drowning worms while scaring fish:

Yes, we are among the small minority of Americans that follow World Cup Football - soccer to the rest of you. We suspect that this is one of the few things we have in common with Lefty. Sure, the USA has a snowball's chance in hell, but we still follow the Blackhawks, so we have a history of supporting losing teams. We just don't spend money on them like Cubs fans. Watched Mexico manhandle the Iranians today. Watched England pull a win out of their asses. Watched Poland go down in flames and parts of other games. Looking forward to Team USA playing tomorrow. Anyone else following the games?

Saturday Quick Hits

Just to finish off the week:

• Evidently, the Iraqis are taking Public Relations lessons from some of our West and South side residents. From AP and Channel 2, "an Iraqi man raised fresh questions, telling Associated Press Television News that he saw U.S. soldiers beating an injured man resembling al-Zarqawi until blood flowed from his nose." Of course, it's an unnamed source and everyone knows that AP is blatantly anti-US and cBS has extensive history with forged documents and the like, but we're wondering if OPS got a call on this one too.
• Those of you fortunate enough to have read "Oliver Twist" will recognize the Fagin-like similarities to these dumb kids fronting for adults and slinging dope for them. The old generation teaching the new how to perpetuate their own misery.
• Stroger in the hospital - and back out again? Channel 2; Channel 5; Channel 7. In our humble opinions, Peraica is going about this the wrong way by asking the County Board to declare a vacancy and name a replacement. He's running against Stroger, same as Claypool did. Start scheduling debates and then show up to do a one man presentation and never mention Stroger (otherwise he'll get criticized for picking on a sick man). When voters see the Machine can't field a candidate to rebut Peraica's platform, Peraica's numbers will climb.
• If this isn't one of the stupidest kids in the world, we don't know who is. Someone better fill out at least one GOCR (or whatever they call it in Michigan) with her name on it because she is going to be a victim sooner or later - probably sooner.
  

Funny Video

Yes, yes, one day we'll do the coding that lets us link to videos directly on site, but at the moment we don't mind linking to other sites - they're mostly right wing sites and maybe we can convert more readers to the cause. Beside, Karl Rove told us to.

This is the Zarqawi video - but it's set to music. Make sure your speakers are on good and loud for this one. It definitely made us smile. Thanks to HotAir.com and AllahPundit.

Who Saw This One Coming?

We did! We did! (<--click the link and read it). And so did about EVERY SINGLE ONE of our readers (read the comments section). Give yourselves a pat on the back. In the meantime, read this Sun Times story today:

• The mother of a Los Angeles woman paralyzed in a fall from a Robert Taylor Homes apartment after she was allegedly raped sued the city and the police department Friday, claiming the woman never should have been released by police into the neighborhood.

  Kathleen Paine demanded $100 million in the federal lawsuit, which said her 21-year-old daughter broke her neck and back in the seven-story fall and is paralyzed below her torso.

Yep, all the fault of the police. No one ever takes any responsibility for their own actions or the actions of someone allegedly so mentally ill that they are able to fly halfway across the country with no supervision to engage in what can only generously be described as a questionable business endeavor.

Just for the record, we feel we've fixed enough of society's problems this past week, and we're sure all of our fine readers have done at least their share. So the rest of you slackers better start picking up the pace. SCC and friends can't do it all.

Sorry CPS "Graduates"

We guess our "Congratulations CPS Graduates" post was a little premature. It seems the missing test results have surfaced and quite a few people who THOUGHT that they were graduating next week are now being called at home and told to cancel their plans, parties and vacation plans. "The City that Works" and it's various bureacracies in action. It sometimes amazes us that anything besides raising taxes and generating paperwork ever gets done in this town.

Learning the WRONG Lesson

From the Sun Times:

• The Daley administration has 600 bureaucrats earning more money than Chicago aldermen -- with annual salaries of more than $100,000 -- bolstering the case for an aldermanic pay raise, an influential alderman said Thursday. [emphasis added - SCC]
  

So, because 600 other people earn more than $100,000 a year, aldercreatures are supposed to get over $100,000? Maybe the lesson here should be there are too many people/bureaucrats earning too much money and there ought to be more than a few pay cuts?

At least a factory worker produces something tangible. A construction worker leaves behind evidence of his hard work. Even a ditch digger makes an impression upon the earth. What does a bureaucrat leave behind? Paperwork? Insane regulations of goose liver and fashion chic? Convoluted work rules and procedure manuals? And for this they want $100,000 a year?

Hey Bernie Stone? Go get a real job, you leech. Or do what other aldercreatures do - side job. At least we can grudgingly respect the ones who go out and use their law degrees to scam a few extra bucks in addition to their already inflated salaries for a part time job. Keep pointing out how Daley's administration is probably overpaying at least 550 of those 600 people while raising taxes and user fees and selling everything in sight. Asshat.

NEWSFLASH!

Heroin is STILL BAD for you!

Just thought we ought to let everyone know who has been sleeping under a rock in a cave for the past 250 years or so. Because we know you'd find it shocking to see headlines like these if you had been:

• Report: Bad Heroin Suspected In 14 Deaths This Week (Channel 5 News Story)
• Heroin Overdoses Surge in Chicagoland (Channel 7 News Story)

It's poison people. Tell your neighbors. They might not have heard.

Someone PLEASE Stop These Idiots

From the Sun Times:

• If the City Council can ban foie gras, a fatty liver delicacy that most Chicagoans have never tasted and cannot afford, why not ban a product that's known to cause obesity and heart disease? Chicago's most powerful alderman raised that question Wednesday, then began to answer it -- by thinking out loud.
• Burke said it "might be a good jumping off point" to target french fries and other fast food that's cooked in artery-clogging oil and food that's processed or loaded with additives and preservatives.

We think we already have a mechanism in place to take care of this - it's called a "free market." If people don't want to eat fries or fatty food, they'll stop. Plain and Simple. We don't really need aldercreatures (especially aldercreatures who don't look as though they've missed too many meals) telling the rest of us what to eat.

Shut up, stop spending our tax money on "Fashion Advisory Councils," and try to keep yourself from getting indicted.

Video of Airstrike that Killed Terrorist

Couple of places have it up. LittleGreenFootballs at this link and over at YouTube.com. We're sure it'll be making the e-mail rounds shortly. If you can't see either link, sorry. We're still trying to figure out video links for the blog.

Blogger Down

Blogger was down for a while this evening/morning and it's just starting to come back. Use this as an Open Post for Friday. Try to behave - we're getting bored again having to clean out 20 and 30 comments at a time about bullshit again. We were all playing so nicely for a while and then the juveniles must have come back from their 4th and 5th period furloughs. Knock it off. Thanks.

Big News

Huge news out of Iraq:

• Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida's leader in Iraq who led a bloody campaign of suicide bombings and kidnappings, has been killed in an air strike, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Thursday, adding that his identity was confirmed by fingerprints and a look at his face. It was a major victory in the U.S.-led war in Iraq and the broader war on terror.

Via Gateway Pundit, Drudge, Yahoo News, Captain's Quarters, Michelle Malkin.

The Real Burge Report

What really happened all those years ago in the Area (click to enlarge):

Burge is the guy on the right.

Memories of Eto

From Channel 2 News:

• Notorious mob turncoat Ken "Tokyo Joe" Eto has died of natural causes.
  
  Sources tell CBS 2 News that Eto actually died two years ago, but it's only coming to light now.
  
  Eto is the only known Chicago mob figure to survive an assassination attempt and testify against the outfit.

Some of us remember the missed hit quite well. We also remember a bit of humorous wagering going on about who would turn up "trunked" for screwing up so bad. Five months later, Gattuso and Campise turned up masquerading as hamburger meat. Perhaps some of our vets could fill in the missing details? Or expound upon the seeming lack of any interest in the Outfit anymore (because they all work for the City nowdays?)

Channel 7 also covers the story.

Political Correctness Run Amok

We are a BIG supporter of profiling. Profiling works. Profiling prevents crime and profiling solves crime. Anyone who says differently is either a liar, smoking crack or just plain ignorant. Take a look at this picture from the Toronto Star regarding the recent arrests of 12 adults and 5 juveniles who were in possession of 6,000 POUNDS of ammonium nitrate and a target list encompassing many Canadian landmarks, including Parliament:

Now read the quote right above the picture. We'll even type it out here for you:

• "They represent the broad strata of our community," the RCMP says. "Some are students, some are employed, some are unemployed." Aside from the fact that virtually all are young men, it's hard to find a common denominator.

What? Hard to find a common denominator? We can see one right in the picture of their supporters. We don't even need to read their names to know what the most common denominator is. Just for shits and giggles, here's a list of those charged:

• Shareef Abdelhaleen, Fahim Ahmad, Zakaria Amara, Asad Ansari, Steven Vikash Chand alias Abdul Shakur, Mohammed Dirie, Amin Mohamed Durrani, Ahmad Mustafa Ghany, Qayyum Abdul Jamal, Jahmaal James, Saad Khalid, Yasim Abdi Mohamed

Nope, no common denominator here. Move along people. Don't be racist or xenophobic. Canada is one of the more politically correct societies in history and even they can't bear to say what is staring them right in the face. They want to kill you. Period. No negotiated surrender. No "understanding." They want you dead, your faith stamped out, your women in bags, and your freedoms gone. And how did the RCMP track these individuals? Why, through the Internet and phone records! Just like the NSA is trying to do here. Hmmm.

Thanks to LittleGreenFootballs for the story.

Police Shooting

WGN News running in the background. Police shoot a knife wielding man near 55th and Washtenaw. No reports of Officers hurt. No condition on bad guy, except that he got shot.

Flagg Pleads Out

From Channel 7 News:

• Former Chicago police officer Corey Flagg pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges he used his badge to shake-down drug dealers, and there is potentially an even bigger payoff for prosecutors. Flagg will cooperate in investigations against other former officers.
• Later, during Flagg's guilty plea, a prosecutor said the officers used traffic stops and home invasions to rip-off drug dealers and sometimes worked off-duty in other police districts using CPD vehicles, weapons and other equipment.

Flagg still faces 252 MONTHS in the Federal prison system, subject to final plea arrangements (it could be reduced). What a disgrace.

More HQ Silliness

Remember when we joked about parking getting easier down at HQ with the ongoing purge? Seems that isn't going to happen. We heard that the parking lot at HQ is being/has been re-striped. And the re-striping being marked off by yellow (or gold) stripes to delineate exempt parking has expanded by more than a couple of rows.

So the 20% manpower cut wasn't to alleviate the manpower shortages in the Districts - it was to alleviate parking problems for the Exempts. Anyone else think we have too many chiefs and not enough indians?

Zorn on Burge

We dislike the media in general. They are nosy, self important, ignorant people who think they know everything and the truth can only be told through them and their apparatus. They are also biased beyond belief against anyone who doesn't subscribe to their narrow world view of political correctness and other such nonsense.

We dislike Eric Zorn for all these traits and more. But he wrote about the Burge Report on Tuesday and points out that this could be a major headache for the current City Administration, and anything that brings the mayor and his people pain is a good thing in our eyes. Here's the link - read it if you like.

St. Michael's House

We don't claim to be wired into every little thing that happens in this department, but we know that a whole bunch of people who know a bit more than we do read this site. We must confess to being unaware that St. Michael's House had closed. When did this happen? Any reason why? And as one of our more astute readers asked, is the City still collecting money as a charity check off? We did notice that the Department seemed to be pushing a few other counseling services.

Quick Hits for Tuesday

Just a little Quick Hits:

• In the Sun Times today. First of all, innocent until proven guilty. But what the hell? Why would you even be caught near fake hundreds - especially (A) at a casino where they probably are very familiar with the forgeries and (B) at a currency exchange, where they are probably very familiar with the forgeries?
• Right after we kill all the lawyers, we're propose going after the phony psychiatrists like the ones in this article. Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED for short)? Come on, get real! How about a syndrome called "My Mommy and Daddy didn't teach me appropriate behavior in public and catered to my every whim and now I have issues with how to deal with adversity, complications and when someone doesn't treat me like the most important issue arising in their tiny little lives?" People we run across with a so-called "Explosive Disorder" usually get their asses kicked, pepper sprayed and if we're really lucky to have one around, TASERed. It seems to cure most of them and we rarely see repeat incidents.
• And speaking of "Explosive Disorder" and media people who often take a "holier than thou" attitude, here's a WGN reporter convicted of Battery in a fight over a parking space.
  

SCC's Believe it - Or Not!

Was this document accepted as bail for a number of traffic violations this past weekend during the "Operation Safe Summer"?

Believe It or Not.

Tainted Heroin Bust?

Via the Sun Times and Channel 7 News:

• U.S. drug czar John Walters said Monday that federal agents, working in cooperation with the Mexican government, have closed down a lab in Mexico that might be the main source of the powerful painkiller fentanyl that has killed heroin users in eight states.

Seems like an awful lot of wiggle room in that statement, starting with the phrase "working in cooperation with the Mexican government." Mexico gets more money in the form of cash shipped back by illegals in the US than from their own oil sales.

In any case, the truth won't be known for at least a month while the tainted heroin currently in the pipeline to the US or here already is cut, sold and used up. Don't be wrapping up that Task Force just yet people.

6/6/06 - Aarghh!

It's the Date of the Beast! Or just an open thread for Tuesday. Use this for all your satanic rituals and other pagan silliness. We'll be out praying for all your souls (well, most of your souls - screw the lawyers).

Eleven Days - 1,200 Tickets

Hope our readers aren't among the unfortunates caught speeding by the new State Police camera vans on the Dan Ryan. Channel 7 reports here:

• The tickets and photographs that show cars zipping through construction zones on the Dan Ryan and Kingery Expressways will be mailed to the car owners.

  The speed limit in construction zones is 45 mph. The cameras recorded cars going more than 14 miles over the limit.

  The tickets can be as high as $375 in some construction zones. Already, the tickets add up to almost $500,000.

The End of the West Side?

Aside from the fact that upwardly mobile persons of all stripes are buying housing stock in the areas of Juvenile Court, the State Crime Lab and the brand new FBI Building on Roosevelt Road, Sunday's Sun Times covers what may be the death knell for the wild West Side:

• The bulk of the North Lawndale neighborhood's nearly 2,000 historic graystones will be getting a face-lift under a multiyear initiative formally launched Saturday by the Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago Inc.

  Similar to efforts to save the city's bungalows, several public and private businesses have partnered with the nonprofit organization to help low- and middle-income graystone owners rehabilitate and preserve the century-old structures.

Yes, the rehabers are coming. Once the "artiste" community discovers these granite buildings, the boulevards of the West Side will gentrify exactly like the graystones up and down the 013 and 014 District have in the past two decades and Pilsen in 012 is doing now. Remember, 013 parts of 014 used to be the biggest shitholes in the City. And now? Try buying anything in Wicker Park or Logan Square along the Boulevards cheaply. If you have any cash lying around, think about investing in some West Side speculation - it'll pay off in 20 years or so.

What's Going on at HQ?

Information is starting to leak out of Fort Kool-Aid. Our earlier thread from 15 May entitled "Interesting Rumor" seems to be growing legs and the 20% manpower cut isn't just another fiction. A number of full duty people have been shipped out to other units and we hear that details are being canceled. The rumor has expanded to say that more and more light duty and disabled personnel will be moved from Alternate Response to HQ to take over spots vacated by able bodied persons. All we know is when we visit, parking is getting easier.

FACTS people, we need ... well, we can't expect a lot of facts on an anonymous website, but ... we need STORIES people. Stories with a tiny little bit of fact in them. How about that?

Covering the Pension - Again

One of our readers is taking us to task in the previous comment section, linking to Sunday's Sun Times article by Fran Spielman about municipal pensions. Evidently, this must be a new reader as we've had at least one open thread on the pension and on 10 May 2006 we linked to this article in Crain's Chicago Business regarding the coming pension shortfall. So not only were we ahead of the new reader, we were almost a month ahead of the mainstream media.

According to the article, the pension system will be bankrupt within two decades or so, just as the bulk of this department about to max out their pensions. The reasons for this are multitude including the City and State deferring mandatory contributions in order to fund election year pork and construction projects. This is not just an Illinois problem as can been seen on the national level with Social Security and such - all of these projects have IOU's from the city/state/nation for the past 80 years or so and the bills are coming due as new workers can't possibly pick up the slack to support a burgeoning retirement age population.

Here's your chance to vent on it. See if we can come to some consensus. We know some FOP Board members are aware of this site and read it. How about some ideas for them?

The Sopranos Season Finale

A lackluster closing episode to an overly lackluster season. Chris is once again losing it, Carmela needs a hobby, Phil has some long term recovery ahead of himself and who knows what AJ is up to? And now we have to wait until springtime for the final 8 episodes? We hope real mobsters aren't this lame after a few years in the Outfit. Then again, the show probably captured the true nature of the FBI. Something had to make us smile.

Police Shooting - Many Versions

If you want to read a bunch of different articles with a bunch of different takes on last night's shooting in the Dominick's store, read these links from Channel 2, Channel 5, Channel 7, Tribune and the Sun Times.

Channel 2 has the officers on scene, 2 inside 2 outside witnessing the theft of sunglasses. Channel 5 has a unknown number of officers responding to a "Robbery in Progress" and a gunfight breaking out. Channel 7 has 2 Officers approaching the subjects in line, arresting the woman and struggling with the man. The Trib has it as a "Theft in Progress" call and a confrontation outside. The Sun Times has Officers responding to a call, two of them go to a security office, two others remove the couple from a checkout line, a fight broke out, pepper was sprayed and the subject produced a gun and got himself killed.

At least it ended up bad guy dead, coppers unhurt and a good round table.

Stroger Decision?

As reported in the Tribune, Sun Times and Channel 7, Cook County Board President John Stroger is (more likely than not) completely incapable of running for office, let alone serving out his current term due to the massive damage suffered in a stroke. It's unfortunate that this information didn't come to light in time to help Forrest Claypool win the primary battle, but now residents of Cook County are likely to be saddled with a candidate they had no voice in choosing but was rather appointed by one of the more corrupt organizations to grace the northeastern portion of Illinois.

Canadian Terrorists, eh.

Police in Canada arrested 17 suspected terrorists and confiscated 3 TONS of ammonium nitrate. If you recall, a mere ton of fertilizer and fuel oil brought down the building in Oklahoma City.

The following links are clearinghouses of information of the whole incident. Click on them and surf around the other stories within:

• Hot Air
• Captain's Quarters
• Michelle Malkin

Hello? Border security anyone? George? Don? Little help here?

Results from "Operation Safe Summer"

Anyone got the end results? Arrests? Guns? Tickets issued? Pounds of dope confiscated? Homicides cleared? Cars recovered?

If not, use this as an Open Thread for Saturday night.

A Very Bad Decision

The scenario (via Channel 5 News):

• A Chicago couple who lost their children in the fire are suing the city to obtain the 911 records, saying some calls for help were ignored.
• The judge will listen to oral arguments from both sides Friday. The city of Chicago is seeking a protection order, saying the release of the 911 records is a threat to security because they could potentially be used to overwhelm the city's 911 response by targeting certain police districts at specific times. The city wants to keep the records confidential, but the family's lawyer disputes the city's claim, suggesting the city's real motive is to conceal that the 911 center is understaffed and mismanaged.

The family even set up a website that has been mentioned in our comments section on numerous occasions - www.911failure.com. The decision?

• A judge has ordered the shutdown of a Web site reporting on 911 mistakes, arguing that it might be a threat to the security of the city. Channel 2.
• A Web site that posted detailed information about the city of Chicago's 9-1-1 Center was ordered shut down Friday. A Cook County judge ruled that 9-1-1 call taking information cannot be displayed on the internet because it could threaten national security. Channel 7.

This is likely to be overturned on appeal. And we'd support anything that shows the City is constantly trying to do MORE with FEWER trained personnel. Just look at our Department - chronically understaffed and unable to properly meet the demands for service. And don't even get us started on the "mismanagement" part of that statement.

Homicide Numbers - A Theory

Based upon Friday's Sun Times article which reads in part:

• Forty-one people were killed in Chicago in May -- just two fewer than during the same month last year, officials said.

  The numbers of homicides in March and April this year also were about the same as last year: 37 and 36 in March and April 2005, respectively, compared with 34 and 37 in the same months this year.

  Over the first five months this year, there have been 155 murders, compared with 160 at the same time in 2005.

Presenting the Theory of SCC (copyright 2006, SCC Enterprises, All Rights Reserved, hands off all HQ leeches!):

• We have reached a plateau - or a floor if you will. 2.3 million people (or whatever the number is according to census figures and illegals hiding out in town) cannot live in close proximity to one another without experiencing about 450 killings a year, regardless of what the police do. We have almost two and a half years of statistics to base this on and two and a half years re-alignment of the tact/gang, SOS and TRU units. The only thing that might contribute to a lower rate is (A) to make up the shortages in patrol or (B) advances in medical care. As medicine is always marching forward, (B) is a much more likely course than (A).

Any corollaries to our Theory?

Burge Report Delayed Again

Some people must really REALLY not want this report to see the light of day. Former Superintendent Richard Brzeczek is getting into the act, according to one report:

• Brzeczek wrote to then-State's Attorney Richard M. Daley, seeking his direction on proceeding with an investigation. "I will forbear from taking any steps until I hear from you," Brzeczek said. Daley never wrote, never called.

And according to another report:

• While the name of the former prosecutor who filed the appeal with the Supreme Court was kept under seal, attorney Flynt Taylor of the Peoples Law Office, which has battled the police in court for decades, told reporters he believed he knew the attorney's name. He said the attorney volunteered in a conversation with him that he had taken the Fifth Amendment before a grand jury when asked about the alleged police torture of 1982 murder suspect Andrew Wilson.

This could get very interesting very quickly. We object to releasing the report simply on the grounds that anything the "people's law office" supports is automatically bad for the Department, and Andrew Wilson should have been executed years ago. But prosecutors taking the Fifth before grand juries is never good. This could bring down some big names.

Channel 2, Channel 5, Channel 7, Sun Times, Tribune coverage.

Operation Safe Summer Begins

CPD, along with County sheriffs and State Troopers set up shop in the Chicago Lawn neighborhoods tonight, beginning yet another chapter in the long and storied history of stealing ideas from New York City. Not everyone was happy about it though. From Channel 2 News:

• But in this community, which has lost more children to drugs and gangs than any other, there are people who just don't buy it.
• "What you want to come down here in the ghetto and make it seem like it's right here. You're the problem," a man on a megaphone said to police.
• "I think it's just crap. I don't really think it's true. I think it's just a story for us black folks just to believe, and I think it's all a hoax," said 14-year-old Aaron Whitlock. [emphasis added - SCC]
  

Gee whiz, where do you think he got that outlook on life? (sarcasm alert) Five bucks to the first person who tracks down little Aaron's IR# and rap sheet. And from Channel 7:

• A small but vocal group of demonstrators tried to block police superintendent Phil Cline's path into the church where he was describing Operation Safe Summer.
• Essentially, law enforcement is looking for any reason to take any person committing any crime off the street.[emphasis added - SCC]
  

Um, yeah. That's the point of law enforcement. Laws passed by the Legislature are enforced by the arm of the Executive Branch. It's just a little more narrowly focused than usual.

Police Board Stats

From Frank Main's article in the Sun Times, a look inside the final dispositions of cases that go before the Police Board:

• Nearly a quarter of the officers who faced termination hearings before the Chicago Police Board in 2004 and 2005 were found not guilty, according to a report by the board.

  Police Supt. Phil Cline sought to fire the 29 officers over a variety of allegations including drug abuse, excessive force, domestic fights and committing crimes. Of those officers, seven were found not guilty. Ten were found guilty and fired. The other 12 were found guilty and suspended.

So of 29 Officers threatened with the ultimate sanction, 19 (two-thirds) had their charges dismissed or reduced to suspensions and reinstated. We're debating whether to (A) consider that a tribute to the safeguards put into place to protect Officer's rights and due process OR (B) wonder why the Department Administration is in such a rush to go before the Board with cases that NEVER should make it that far. Of course, these comments appear later in the article:

• Kurt Feuer, a civil rights attorney, said the numbers highlight the difficulty of getting rid of the department's bad apples. He pointed out that the disciplinary cases are the outcome of thousands of complaints against Chicago Police officers each year.

  "Even when the police department wants to discipline them, there is another hurdle, the police board," Feuer said. [emphasis added - SCC]
  

First of all, if there were only 29 cases over two years that went as far as the Police Board, we believe that is more indicative of OPS's tendency to take complaints for everything under the sun, regardless of whether it is in fact a violation of Rules and Regulations, Department policy or the law. And we don't consider a hearing before the Police Board to be "another hurdle" as the civil rights attorney does, but rather a SAFEGUARD against half assed prosecutions of the police. Because we believe that the VAST majority of police officers are simply guys and gals trying to do their jobs, go home safe, and make life a little easier on the citizens who are the victims of ne'er-do-wells.

Twenty-nine cases out of thousands? Perhaps the clients of this attorney cried wolf a few thousand times too often. Another lawyer against the wall once the Revolution arrives.

That Time of Year Again

City Sticker time again!

Try not to give the Inspectors the easy ones. You know they look forward to this time of year more than any other - even more so than Christmas, because everyone knows Inspectors don't get gifts from Santa. Hahahahaha.

Death Penalty Debate

Via AceofSpades and a reader of ours:

• COLUMBIA, S.C. - The South Carolina House on Wednesday passed a pair of bills that would allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty for some repeat child molesters.

  Support for the package picked up steam after a man was charged with kidnapping two girls and raping them in a dungeon behind his home earlier this year.

  The related measures could send to death row offenders convicted twice of raping a child younger than 11.

If it were up to us, we'd have the death penalty for quite a number of crimes other than first degree murder and child molesting would be right up near the top of that list. These types of people are completely beyond rehabilitation and the recidivism rate is incredibly high. Society needs protection from predators like these and barring a guaranteed permanent stay in prison, death seems the preferable option. Anyone running on this platform picks up our votes.

Raise Your Taxes Sir?

From the Sun Times:

• Mayor Daley has signed off on an up-to-the-limit school property tax increase -- totaling $55 million -- for the 10th time in the 12 years since his public school takeover, an influential alderman disclosed Wednesday.
• The $55 million increase will cost Chicago homeowners $11.50 for every $100,000 of assessed valuation

And still, Chicago Schools rank near the bottom of most categories. Has any mentioned to the mayor that throwing money at the problem doesn't seem to be working? Or is he just worried about getting the votes of the Teacher's Union?

Silly? Or Not so Silly?

A denial by the mayor today that he was ever granted "tollway privileges" on the Skyway:

• On Wednesday, Daley dismissed as "the silliest thing I ever heard" the suggestion that Skyway toll booths were fully staffed at all times because that's the road Daley traveled to and from his summer home in Grand Beach, Mich.
• "It's the silliest thing I've ever heard in my life. It really is silly. It's silly, silly, silly. It is just silly. Silliness. It is silly ... Completely silly.You've been on [the Skyway]. Come on. It's silly ... You know me. That is the silliest thing I've ever heard."

Evidently, the mayor needs a Thesaurus. And he thinks it's silly. But then we got this letter in the mail today (lightly censored and anonymous for obvious reasons):

• Something hit me when I read Daley's comments on the Skyway tollbooth testimony yesterday. Daley says its silly that they would accommodate him in this way.

  And yet, while working [zone xx] in the '90s, I distinctly remember having "1A" or whatever the mayor's detail was called come up and ask whether there was a major traffic problem on Halsted, as they were stuck. There was an accident further south, [...]. Nevertheless, [someone was sent - beat xxxx I think] to check on the problem, if for no other reason than to make sure nobody was writing paper later.

Of course, the mayor could be telling the truth (for the first time in his life). Perhaps he wasn't aware of his detail people tossing their weight around to make things run smoother. Many people have gotten far just by making sure the car was warmed up, the coffee was hot, and the newspaper was available. Townsend made First Deputy opening doors for old man Daley.

Someone somewhere on this job HAS a story. They either (1) worked the mayor's detail (in which case they probably don't read the blog) or (2) they KNOW people who did work it and heard the stories over beer or (3) the were working the Zone where something like this happened. Let's hear it people - that's why the blog is here.

The Truth Revealed

Back in the late 1990's and early 00's, South Africa established a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" that addressed what had happened under the decades of apartheid. Part of their mission statement was "... a commission is a necessary exercise to enable South Africans to come to terms with their past on a morally accepted basis and to advance the cause of reconciliation." Those who came forward of their own volition were almost universally guaranteed no punishment, no loss of job, no denial of pension. They were simply required to answer all questions put to them - to tell the Truth - in order to bring closure to the era of apartheid.

One of our regular contributors has proposed the same thing for Chicago and we for one are hoping Patrick Fitzgerald takes up this one: You can keep your job, keep your pension, and won't face dismissal (unless you have committed a felony) if you come forward and tell the Truth, the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth to the people of Chicago. Via the newspapers; via the Feds; via SecondCityCop.Blogspot.com; WE DON'T CARE! And if you won't reveal the truth, we'll do it for you. We had a thread up months ago labeled "Who made Who? Who Made You?" Consider this Part II.

Shooting in 010

Preliminary report from Channel 7 News. Anyone have info? Anyone hit?

• May 31, 2006 (Last Updated: 10:25:49 PM) - Police on Chicago's West Side were involved in a shooting in the 1300 block of South Troy Wednesday night.

  No police officers were hurt.

  Investigators were still on the scene at the time this report was filed.