Cops Hurt

Somehow we missed the incident up north where two cops in an unmarked got clocked near Foster and Austin. Any word on those two?

And then Thursday's article on the Channel 2 website about a copper hurt in a high rise fire. We heard that three cops went to get checked out, but only one went by ambulance. Everyone is supposed to be ok though.

Be careful out there.

Who is this Goof?

From Fox 32. You'll have to click the link and hope your computer can play web videos:

• A former Chicago policeman has now written a book called: "Brotherhood of Corruption." It details how cops can go bad. Mark Suppelsa has the story you can only see on Fox.

We know this goof's name and book title have appeared on this site before in various comments sections. We can only figure that he's getting a bunch of free publicity because of the recent SOS scandal. Every story we've ever heard about him wasn't complimentary. Go figure.

Anyone Hear About This?

We got a letter today from a copper who works on the west side. Everyone who reads this site knows about the recent news story regarding RAP's and slow response times, allegedly based on a nefarious plot by evil white policemen and politicians to short minority communities of police service.

Of course, it's a load of bullshit.

According to the letter, after a certain Deputy Superintendent put the onus for poor response times on OEMC and dispatchers, the staff at 9-1-1 has been playing everything by the book. This led to a number of hurt feelings so the Deputy Superintendent made an appearance and told the dispatch roll calls that he had been misunderstood and misquoted. It WASN'T the dispatchers fault at all - it was all the fault of the Field Sergeants who couldn't supervise adequately enough.

For our money, we're still sticking with the manpower shortage theory, but what do we know?

We'd love to see the boys and girls over at Chicago Dispatchers or the LetsTalkChiTown blogs let us know what was actually said at this roll call. And we would REALLY like to see what SecondCitySarge has to say about all this. Are Sergeants truly the source of all RAP's and evil within the Department?

Darwinism Strikes Again

Why do people continue to do stupid things like skydive or climb mountains? Hasn't human ingenuity rendered the need to climb mountains pretty much obsolete?

• Rescue teams gave up any hope of finding two missing climbers alive on stormy Mount Hood and abandoned the frustrating, 9-day-old search Wednesday at the request of the men's families.
• [Local Sheriff] Wampler said the men's families made the decision to end the search as yet another snowstorm barreled in.

If you are that desperate to do something that could result in your own death, fine. Just don't expect us to pay for your funeral or pay to raise your offspring. But when you needlessly risk the lives of so many people trying to rescue you, you really ought to be stopped. At least someone in the family had brains enough to call this one off. Sheriff Wampler is to be commended for running a very thorough search, but he thinks he failed by not finding these climbers. He ought to be given an award for not losing anyone else during a search for people who just needed to push the boundaries a little too hard. And a little too unnecessarily.

ComEd Rate Hikes

Here it comes! A 20% rate hike. Prepare to take it in the shorts people.

• Electric bills are going up for Commonwealth Edison customers. The utility got permission Wednesday to raise rates more than 20 percent. That increase takes effect in January. The Illinois Commerce Commission approved the increase Wednesday. Last month, lawmakers in Springfield defeated a proposal to block the increase.

This one is going to hurt. How can the mayor base his re-election campaign on the city being such a wonderful place to live when none of the public servants can actually afford to live here anymore? It's getting ridiculous.

Apologies

Woke up this morning and the phone lines were down around the neighborhood. No internet access all day. Ended up getting repaired sometime after 5 pm and by that time, the day was shot. We'll resume normal posting of comments and such shortly.

Was the Ball Dropped on DNA Test?

Well, it depends on whose article you read. First you have the Channel 7 story:

• Could a woman's life have been saved if Chicago police and the state police crime lab worked more quickly to match DNA from a murder scene to a suspect? That's one of the questions being asked after we learned it took more than six weeks for a cable repairman's DNA to be analyzed. Late Tuesday afternoon, the chief of detectives said her team believed the best chance for solid evidence would come from a fingerprint left on a shower curtain, not DNA from the victim's body. They thought most of it would have washed away in the soapy bathwater. Detectives ordered a rush on the fingerprint -- not on DNA found on the victim

And the Sun Times:

• Chicago Police detectives asked the State Police crime lab to put a "rush" on DNA testing in connection with a Hyde Park rape and murder that occurred Oct. 21.
• But the lab didn't alert investigators until Dec. 12 that usable DNA from the presumed killer was recovered on the victim, 39-year-old Janice Ordidge, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

So Channel 7 blames the Lab and CPD. The Sun Times says CPD tried to order up a "rush" on testing. The Sun Times also says that detectives on the case started working other angles as they waited for the State Crime Lab to come up with some sort of results. We'd tend to go with the Sun Times version as they hate the police a little bit less than Channel 7. That's not a ringing endorsement by any means, but it would seem someone dropped the ball on this and we'd (selfishly) prefer it to be the State Crime Lab - we've got a bit too much scandal fatigue going on here.

Again?

Illinois politics isn't about being qualified. It's about being related.

• Surrounded by her congressman husband, her two young children and a throng of sign-waving supporters, Sandi Jackson filed nominating petitions Monday in the race for alderman of the South Side's 7th Ward.

  The campaign turned in close to 5,000 voter signatures, she said, adding that she felt "compelled" to run after watching the recent political maneuvering by new Cook County Board President Todd Stroger and Stroger's mentor, former Ald. William Beavers -- whose daughter, Darcel A. Beavers, was recently appointed to the aldermanic seat Jackson hopes to win.
  

And the bullshit continues.

Let's Deport Her Already

From the Sun Times:

• On Friday, the Sun-Times asked readers whether they thought Elvira Arellano's move to avoid deportation by taking sanctuary in a West Side church would have any effect on immigration laws. Here's what you thought:

  Of 665 respondents:

  605 (90%) said "No"

  60 (9%) said "Yes"

Sounds like a clear majority for instant deportation. We'll even volunteer to lead the raid. Who's with us? Her 15 minutes were up about 14 minutes ago.

Sergeant List Out

Someone type it up? We'll post it if we gt it.

The Wrong Lesson Learned

Trust the liberal media to get it completely wrong:

• City of Chicago officials are preparing to settle a police brutality case that has generated no stories in the mainstream media -- but which watchers in the blogosphere say threatened to expose widespread patterns of abuse in the Chicago Police Department.
• As Kalven reported on his blog, the numbers show that of the 10,150 complaints of excessive force, illegal arrest, illegal searches, racial and sexual abuse filed against Chicago officers between 2002 and 2004, only 18 times were officers suspended for seven days or more.
• That means an officer accused of abuse has a 99.8 percent chance of getting off without any "meaningful discipline," Futterman said. The figure exposes as a lie the department's attempts to portray the abuse under former Police Cmdr. Jon Burge as ancient history and practices as having been reformed, Futterman said.

Maybe, just maybe, the Slum-Times should question why over 10,000 complaints were made that had a high probability of being made with malicious intent and were of such a dubious nature that the Office of Professional Standards could not sustain 99.8% of the allegations.

Notice that the lawyers and the media completely disregard and make no mention of the fact that the Sworn Affidavit law has reduced the number of frivolous allegations made by citizens over nonsense to record lows. The high numbers from 2002 through 2004 had everything to do with the culmination of the entire populace of the CHA being trained to whine and complain about every little perceived slight inflicted on them by officers enforcing the law.

Gun Turn In - Update

Some info from someone who really ought to know:

• The Gun Turn In tally is currently at 2,976. Just short of 3,000. This number is a little misleading, as it includes approximately 150 BB guns that were collected at $10 a piece.
• Most of the stuff is crap, but there are a few pieces that were excellent. Several WWI and WWII era pieces including 1911s, a P38 (all original), and a couple of WWII era Japanese rifles that were obviously collected on the battlefield and sent home by our fighting men.
• the guns are being sent to ERPS piecemeal. The current plan is to do some training with the recruits and allow them to do all the inventories, and then send the weapons to ERPS in small batches as they get done with them over the next several months. Apparently ERPS just finished with all the weapons from the last gun turn in (in April) a few weeks ago, and is just not prepared to deal with a single bulk shipment like that again.
• the City got a deal on the Mastercards they were handing out - apparently they expire in 6 months, rather than the normal year time limit. Wonder how much they saved on that, and where the money went. I guess they forgot to mention that in the press conference.

A couple of points by us:

• maybe the city ought to look into donating or auctioning off some of the museum pieces? Why melt down a World War II collector's piece worth $12,000 when the mayor needs every dime he can lay his hands on?
• Where are these things being stored until they're sent to E&RPS? Is E&RPS that short handed like everyone else in the Department seems to be? Everyone except 35th Street that is. And having recruits inventory the guns? Is this before or after they're tested ballistically for links to crime scenes? What kind of legal ramifications would there be with chain-of-custody issues for a turn in tested at the crime lab and then inventoried months later by a recruit?
  
• We're betting that almost no one knows about the 6 month limit on those Mastercards. THAT would be an extraordinary bit of info to get out into the media.
  

Bad Ideas for Pets

From the Sun Times:

• A 13-foot boa constrictor wrapped itself around its owner's neck and killed the man in his home, authorities said.

  An acquaintance found Ted Dres, 48, inside the snake's cage Saturday and called police, the Hamilton County Sheriff's office said.

  The snake was still strangling Dres when deputies arrived, and the officers had to work with members of an animal protection group to remove the reptile, the sheriff's office said.

Darwin would be proud. Or at least the Darwin Awards people.

"Hundreds" of Guns Collected

Kind of a step backwards from the "thousands" or so collected other times they run this event.

• Hundreds of firearms, including some deadly assault weapons, were swapped for credit cards Saturday during Chicago's second citywide gun trade-in.
• Anyone bringing in an assault weapon received a $100-dollar credit card, a $50-dollar card for a rifle or handgun, and $10-dollars for a BB gun or replica gun.

Who's got the final tally? And how many stories have you heard about true collector's pieces being melted down for scrap metal. What a waste.

UPDATE (prior to publication): The Tribune reports over 1,200 guns.

Just Bizarre. Really Bizarre.

Be very afraid of our neighbors to the north:

• Rick Lisko hunts deer with a bow but found his most unusual one driving his truck.

  One day last month, Lisko found a young buck with nub antlers -- and seven legs. Lisko said it also had both male and female reproductive organs.

  ''It was definitely a freak of nature,'' Lisko said. ''I guess it's a real rarity.''

  He said he slowed down as the buck and two does ran across his driveway Nov. 22, but the buck ran under the truck and was hit.

  When he looked at the animal, he noticed 3- to 4-inch appendages growing from the rear legs. Later, he found a smaller appendage growing from one of the front legs.

Genetic freaks of nature - and we aren't talking about the general population of cheeseheads. Seven legged deer. And that isn't the worst part:

• No matter how freaky, the deer was skinned and consumed.

  ''And by the way, I did eat it,'' Lisko said. ''It was tasty."

Truly frightening people, ya hey der.

Home Field Advantage for How Long?

Blowing a 21 point lead in under 12 minutes makes us think someone is finding the weak spots in the Bears defense. And unfortunately, those weak spots aren't going to be filled any time soon, what with the legal problems and injury bug surrounding the Bears.

Coverage at Channel 2, Channel 5 and ESPN.

What's Up With Harwood Heights?

Getting this story from two different people in recent days:

• Child of a copper (one person's son, one person's daughter) were driving through Harwood Heights. Both pulled over by a radar car. Both times, they are approached by the cop (both times allegedly a female cop) and told first thing, "I see the FOP stickers and I don't want to hear a word about them." The cop's kid is then given a ticket.

OK. First of all, if the kid was breaking the law, fine. Pull them over. If they're jagoffs, write them. Call dad and mom. But to go out of your way to even deny the kid a chance to explain or make an excuse or whatever courtesy you'd give any other citizen before seeing if they're legit is just wrong. And why is this happening in Harwood Heights? An interesting story has reached our ears.

Remember the bank robbery in Harwood Heights a month or so ago? And the off duty guy from 025 witnessed the robber run out of the bank at Harlem and Lawrence with a gun and exchanged gunfire with the offender before the dye pack exploded? The chase went from Harwood Heights into 016 where the offenders were apprehended. After 016 took them into custody, it is alleged that a female copper from the burbs went into a Chicago Police squad car, removed the prisoner from the car, took off the handcuffs and then put her own cuffs on an offender saying that as it happened in Harwood Heights, it was their arrest.

An argument ensued. In one version we heard, the Commander of 016 showed up and the Commander of Harwood Heights showed up and further arguing went on. The end result was that a blanket CR number was obtained on 016th District officers for being disrespectful toward the suburban cops, especially the female. In another version, it is alleged that the daughter of the Harwood Heights police commander was arrested later that week and long-formed by 016 shortly after this incident and had to spend time in one of our fine lockups.

Who's got the real scoop? If anything, this female from Harwood Heights needs to be straightened out in a big way. An arrest is not based on where the crime occurred but where the subject was apprehended and by whom. And isn't the FBI going to take this piece of garbage off our hands anyway for the bank robbery before we charge him with attempted murder? And if the 016 District Commander didn't back his guys on the scene, there ought to be repercussions. And finally, if Harwood Heights is playing games with our kids and not extending the courtesy they'd extend any other citizen, and are in fact TARGETING people with FOP stickers, it's time to crack down on them a little harder than is being done to us. We need info on this incident.

What the Hell Lovie?

First "Tank" gets the gun charges. Now his "bodyguard" gets greased in a night club? We realize that a lot of these guys are inches away from being felons in any other profession and many times are committing what can be generously called legalized assault on the playing field, but this is becoming a bit more than a distraction.

• Troubled Chicago Bears nose tackle Tank Johnson is cooperating with police investigating the fatal shooting of his friend inside a nightclub, authorities said Saturday.
  Police talked to Johnson at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where Willie B. Posey was pronounced dead early Saturday morning, and planned to speak with him again later Saturday, said Chicago Police Superintendent Phil Cline.
  
  Posey, 26, died after a fight inside Ice Bar, a club in the city's trendy River North neighborhood, Cline said.

The Sun Times also has coverage. What does any of this mean to the Bears final few games and the playoffs?

What Time is it Boys and Girls?

Why, it's time to turn in all those weapons!

• Chicago police said Saturday afternoon they had already collected more than 500 guns in a citywide gun turn-in. More than a dozen churches were serving as collection sites where people could turn in guns anonymously and with no questions asked.

We don't know. With the homicide rate allegedly increasing, wouldn't people be more inclined to keep their weapons? Just a thought.

Who Cares?

Why is the media whining for this dumbass?

• Gov. Jeb Bush suspended all executions in Florida after a medical examiner said Friday that officials botched the insertion of the needles during the execution of a convicted killer earlier this week. Dr. William Hamilton, who performed the autopsy, said that the execution of Angel Nieves Diaz took 34 minutes - twice as long as usual - and required a rare second dose of lethal chemicals because the needles were inserted straight through his veins and into the flesh in his arms. Hamilton refused to say whether he thought Diaz died a painful death.
  

Hell, if we had our way, the execution would have taken at least twice as long and would have been guaranteed to be EXTREMELY painful. What's the point of executing someone as a deterrent all that happens is you go into a deep sleep and never wake up? Back in the day, people weren't eager to smell their own flesh burning on Old Sparky; people were scared to face the gallows 8 foot drop; criminals were frightened of a firing squad missing all your vital organs while you were tied to a pole. It was unpleasant to say the least when the blade came slicing through your neck while a crowd cheered.

Now you inflict horrors on other human beings and all that happens is you go off into a happy place of blissful unawareness before you never wake up? Screw that. We'd rather the jagoffs go out in an untold nightmare of psychotic pain and brutality before begging to be put out of their misery. The death penalty is as much about society's vengeance as it is about justice. And if that's bloodthirsty of us, too damn bad.

Food as a Weapon?

A lot of people, experts in their fields, have said that the nations food supply is a prime target for terrorist attacks. Low levels of bio-terror could be inflicted on different parts of the supply chain to disrupt the flow of the food somehow. And not that we've heard anything about organized efforts to this end, large outbreaks of food poisoning do seem to be breaking out with startling regularity:

• More than 300 people say they became ill, and at least three have been hospitalized, after eating at an Olive Garden restaurant last weekend, health officials said Friday. The customers complained of nausea, vomiting, fever and diarrhea.

  "We're trying to isolate what the cause of the illness might be," said Marion County Health Department spokesman John Althardt.

It's good to know that the local health authorities and the CDC can accurately pinpoint the source of an outbreak within days of occurring, but what about prevention of an actual attack that targets something in the production chain?

We're Baaaaaaack!

Rested and ready to blog. Got lots of Christmas shopping out of the way. In fact, we got each and everyone of our readers a Christmas present. Then we realized that was kind of foolish and went back to the "Returns" window and got into an argument with the clerks there because it wasn't really after Christmas yet and how did we know everyone wouldn't like what we had picked out? On with the show.

And now for something completely different

We take a break from blogging - Christmas shopping and all that you know. We shall be up and running later Friday. Don't complain - this is the first break we've taken in about a year.

Shut Up Dorothy

This one trick pony is at it again:

• The City Council's champion for slave reparations accused Mayor Daley on Wednesday of forging ahead with the $563 million privatization of downtown parking garages in a show of "unprecedented favoritism" toward Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

Broken record. Go listen to Dr. Cosby Dorothy.

Suspect Charged

From the police shooting in 014.

• A 17-year-old man was charged Wednesday with the shooting of a Shakespeare District police officer who was injured while trying to break up a fight between suspected gang members on the West Side Monday.

  Roscoe Woods of the 8400 block of South Kenton Avenue was charged with one count each of attempted murder and aggravated battery with a firearm, according to Cook County State's Attorney'’s office spokesman Andy Conklin. Both offenses are Class X felonies and carry penalties of six to 30 years in prison upon conviction, he said.

RIP Peter Boyle

The role of Frankenstein's monster made this man's career as far as we're concerned. If we ever made a list of actor's we think it would be a pleasure to know and to converse with, Peter Boyle would be near the top of a very short list. He really did seem like a normal everyday kind of guy to us.

Portent of Things to Come?

It must be nice to be able to pick and choose a successor for your job without any sort of input from actual voters as Aldercreature Beavers has now done. It must also be nice for the executive of the city to have appointed something like half of the aldercreatures currently serving, thereby granting them the all important gift of "incumbency" when they run for office again. Not too much "quid pro quo" going on in the most corrupt city in the nation, eh? Sun Times and Channel 7 coverage.

And not only did "da mayor" (or "dayor" according to the CBS 2 link) appoint an additional 3 aldercreatures to the City Council Tuesday, he appointed three women. Which brings to mind an interesting question for the police department:

• Kirby or Maher?

Based on the mayor's appointments of aldercreatures, conversations we have had, and just observations of the facts at hand, we are becoming convinced that the next Superintendent of this Department will be a woman - probably one of the two we just named. Two years ago, we'd have said the Chief of Detectives had the inside track, but now the ADS of IAD has been getting a lot of face time due to the recent scandals and everyone knows the mayor runs as a "reformer" when things get tough.

Any speculation in the comments section will be monitored overly closely. No misogynist ramblings. No crude references to body parts. We mean it.

Downtown Shooting Fallout

The "cult of victimhood" is in full swing evidently. We were kind of hoping that this habit of blaming everybody except the actual perpetrator might have died out with the last century. It is one of the most lasting and damaging legacies of the 1960's.

• The gunman, 59-year-old Joe Jackson, was killed by police in Friday afternoon's murderous rampage. Jackson's family and friends have said he felt his portable-toilet-for-trucks invention had been ripped off.

As a result of these publicized reports, the families of the dead are not only burying their loved ones, they have to defend them from these accusations. Jackson took a gun, threatened his way into a place of business, and executed 3 people in cold blood. We don't care how passionately he believed himself to have been wronged, you just don't go and kill 3 people for this sort of thing.

As to preventing this from happening again, we have this from Channel 2:

• A gunman's rampage at a downtown law firm last week has gun advocates renewing an old push for a change in Illinois law.
  
  As CBS 2's Mike Parker reports, some people say more weapons will actually reduce crime.
  
  A gun rights group says the victims of Friday's tragic Loop shooting rampage might still be alive if law abiding citizens were allowed to carry concealed weapons. Richard Pearson of the Illinois State Rifle Association believes armed office workers, might have stopped it.

Of course, the Brady Law people scream about bloodshed in the streets, mass killings, "think of the children!" type tragedies. But statistics show a significant drop in crime where Concealed Carry is a reality. Law abiding citizens trained and licensed DON'T go out and kill people and DON'T store their weapons improperly where children can get them. It'll never happen in Illinois, but it's an interesting debate every so often.

Food Poisoning Event

Getting a couple of reports about the recent American Knights Motorcycle Club Christmas dinner. For those unaware, the club is made up of police officers and they do a number of charity rides for different events and they've done a lot of fundraising (full disclosure - we've bought numerous tickets).

It seems about half of the attendees have come down with some nasty food poisoning. Is it just us or does it seem there are quite a few of these outbreaks occurring lately? The spinach scare; packaged salads being pulled; Taco Bell. What's going on out there?

Daley Running Again

Wow. Big surprise. We'll go out on a limb here and predict an overwhelming victory. We'll also predict that SCC gets about 100 write-in votes. In fact, we might end up closer to the second place finisher than the second place finisher is to Daley. Any takers?

Reports at the Tribune, Sun Times, Channel 2, Channel 5, Channel 7

• Bill Beavers, the newly-elected Cook County commissioner and former alderman, says, with his usual candor, the only thing standing between Daley and another term is a federal indictment, which, according to Beavers, is highly unlikely.

We remain hopeful.

Tour de Force?

An adequate win we suppose. All the regular links in the right hand column have coverage along with ESPN.

Media Attention

Last week, we posted about incidents of gun thefts at O'Hare airport. We asked if anyone knew if they still marked the bags with the orange tags that said "Unloaded Firearm - Steal Me!" or something similar. Our readers were helpful and explained current means of shipping weapons. We also speculated aloud that there might be unscrupulous employees marking bags to tip off workers there might be something worth stealing in a bag - they seem to hit with astonishing accuracy.

Once again, we've attracted the attention of media types who think there might be a story worth telling. Or at least, that's the line we're getting. The question posed to us via e-mail is as follows:

• I'm wondering if you or your readers have any educated guesses about how these thefts are being pulled off. I'm also wondering if you think the airlines or TSA could be doing anything differently to reduce the opportunity for gun/ammo theft.

The simplest explanation would be as stated - someone is marking bags and tipping off workers. It would follow in a long tradition of organized crime rings operating around airports and other ports of entry (i.e. various cartage thefts; the Lufthansa heist; etc.) But we're willing to entertain other thoughts.

Now before anyone goes off half cocked and starts ripping on us for even dealing with reporters, take a deep breath. This is still a public website, accessible to anyone with an internet connection. We know Frank Main and Fran Spielman have been here a number of times and we've been contacted by Mark Brown and others. For the most part, we've been polite to anyone who drops us a line and this reporter asked the question - they're asking for an opinion, nothing that reflects Department policy, and lord knows we have plenty of opinions posted on here every single day. So if you're going to answer, be polite.

Standard disclaimers apply - we cannot guarantee that any reader or poster is actually a police officer, let alone even posting from the United States. We have readers on 4 continents. That is all.

Oh, Poor Baby

Why do they even waste newsprint and ink on stories like this?

• Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph laments in a series of letters to a newspaper that the maximum-security federal prison where he is spending the rest of his life is designed to drive him insane.
• Rudolph wrote that he spends 23 hours a day in his 7-by-12-foot cell, his only exercise confined to an enclosed area he described as a ''large empty swimming pool'' divided into ''dog-kennel style cages.''
• 'Using solitary confinement, Supermax is designed to inflict as much misery and pain as is constitutionally permissible,'' he wrote in a letter.

Insanity ought to be the least of this jagoff's worries. Civilized people agree to abide by certain civilized behaviors. Setting off bombs in crowds, in clinics and hunting for first responders with secondary devices is not civilized behavior. Nice to see that he recognizes that his punishment is constitutionally permissible though. We ought to use that in arguments supporting Gitmo.

Cop Shot

Around 1500 hours in 014 - Division and Artesian. Non life threatening injuries to the arm. Info and well wishes only for this thread.

UPDATE: Links at the Tribune, Sun Times, Channel 2, Channel 5, Channel 7

Pension Disaster Looming

The Sun Times did a couple of articles last week regarding the woeful Illinois government pensions (this is one of them). From the article:

• If Illinois government were a private business, it would be careening toward bankruptcy, an influential civic group said Wednesday in a report that identified $106 billion in liabilities that the state has no money to pay.
• The amount equals a debt of $8,800 per Illinois resident, said the report from the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, a nonprofit association of elite business leaders. It said the long-term bills total nearly three times what the state spends each year in discretionary accounts, money not held aside for a specific purpose.

We don't claim to be the sharpest knife in the drawer. Far from it. But we can read different articles and we have been trained at spotting a lot of bullshit just by the nature of our job. When you spend more than you take in, you create debt. Debt creates interest. Interest drives you further into debt, affects bond ratings and raises the cost of doing business.

As we understand part of the problem, some politicians permit "deferments" of payments to pension plans. The deferments are then spent on various social programs in efforts to buy votes from special interest groups. The reverend Meeks attempt to extort $4 billion dollars from the state for "education" (and his threat to run for governor) was a prime example of robbing Peter to pay Paul - and screwing the pension plans.

The above referenced article doesn't seem to do a good job explaining how the pension plans ended up in the sorry state they are in. And the $8,800 debt per Illinois resident is kind of misleading - there are tens of thousands of people in Cook County alone who live entirely on money that has been deferred from various pension plans. How are they going to be responsible for almost $10,000 in debt? And the solution they come up with? Raise taxes. That's a political winner, eh?

• The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much. - Ronald Reagan

When we retire, we're moving out of state and dumping our $8,800 dollars in debt on someone else. And so are a lot of other people. Would someone care to expound on the pension problems? Succinctly? We don't want book length articles in the comments section.

What is Quinn Running For?

From Channel 2 and Channel 7:

• Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn says he wants to introduce legislation to end so-called "double dipping" by banks that charge fees for using ATM's. The fees are charged to withdraw money and customers are also charged usage fees by their own banks.

Quinn plays a decent political gadfly. We know he's an old time Machine guy, but what's with these populist positions he ends up taking two or three times a year? Is he working off purgatory time for previous Machine sins? What's his angle?

Downtown Shooting - Analysis

Just a few observations on the entire situation based on conversations with involved parties, reading the comments, scanning the media articles and our conclusions:

• For all the beatings SWAT has taken on this site over the past few weeks, they performed outstandingly in this situation.
• The District and Area people, first on the scene, were more than outstanding. They were a credit to the entire Department.

We also read about how the building security and management were giving out conflicting information to building occupants as to "Stay in place" or "Get the hell out!" And then there was the automated PA system that was drowning out instructions the police were attempting to give and leading to more than a little frustration. This more than anything worries us about any type of attack that might occur downtown. Or in any of the large office buildings, complexes or campuses that dot the city.

No one practices evacuation once they're out of grade school. There are some companies that do it once in a great while. But in reality? We've become complacent. Again. What if this was a couple of well armed nutcases? With a car bomb nearby? Or a team of terrorists hitting two buildings or three? Are we paranoid? Or maybe a little hyper sensitive? We should all be thinking this way a little bit - but we don't see the city doing it.

Too Close to Home?

Isn't this in the neighborhood of a large number of exempt brass? And cops in general? And city workers of all stripes?

• An autopsy showed Saturday a 23-year-old Southwest Side woman found in her bathtub was suffocated and strangled to death.
• About 8 p.m. Friday the woman, identified by the Cook County Medical Examiner's office as 23-year-old Ursula Sakowska, was found in her bathtub in the 6100 block of South McVicker Avenue by either neighbors or friends
• The woman, who reportedly was found with duct tape over her mouth, died from suffocation and strangulation, according to a medical examiner's office spokesman.

Griese to Get a Shot?

Report from ESPN says he got half the practice snaps this week:

• While Chicago Bears backup quarterback Brian Griese continues to deflect questions about stepping in for a struggling Rex Grossman, it seems that the Bears are at least preparing for that possibility.

  Griese has been receiving half of the reps in practice this week, the Chicago Sun-Times reported on its Web site, citing an unnamed player.

Here's how it ought to go - Grossman gets the first half to prove himself. If Grossman sucks, he sits. If Grossman does better than a 1.3 rating like last week, Lovie and company kick it down the road another week. Griese is getting something like $14 million over 5 years to sit around. He ought to get some playing time, especially with the playoffs looming. And if the Bears are far enough ahead, start getting him some playing time.

If This Was You...

... you'd facing some serious problems. Like no more job, no more pension, no more a whole bunch of things. But if you're connected?

• Chicago Fire Commissioner Raymond Orozco Jr. has paid the state a $15,529 fine for excessive college aid his daughter received based on phony claims made by a paid financial adviser.
• Although Orozco considered himself and his family as victims, he's paid the $15,529 fine as part of a deal with Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office to end an investigation into the matter.
• In a sworn statement, Orozco said that he only briefly met Martin in an initial meeting at their house. Instead of discussing the scope of Martin's worth, the commissioner left that task to his wife and chose to spend most of the time painting a daughter's bedroom.

If you can afford a $15,000 dollar fine for a $4,400 irregularity, what the hell are you doing applying for financial aid in the first place? How much does the Fire Commissioner make that financial aid is so readily available? Or is this another one of those "perks" so peculiar to the ruling class in Illinois?

It must be nice to have a spouse that can step up to the plate and be willing to take the fall for any financial missteps that happen to surface in your household.

All Bosses Read This

Just so you're aware:

• A 71-year-old Arlington Heights woman will get $4.1 million because a van driver last year ran a red light and crashed into her while he was looking down at his BlackBerry, attorneys said Friday.

  Don Svec, an employee of Berry Electric Contracting Co., was lost and using his BlackBerry's navigation device to try to find his destination, it emerged during interviews leading up to the trial in the case, said Tim Cavanagh, attorney for Dorothy Barnes, who was badly hurt in the crash.

Every time we see bosses walking around, they have their noses buried in these BlackBerry things. They go off constantly notifying them of aggravated batteries (even the ones not in their districts), e-mail, AdMin Faxes and probably stock prices and interest rate fluctuations. And since these things are still so new, EVERYONE uses them for the tiniest little thing. It's amazing no one has been in an accident yet with them - unless we haven't heard about it.

Command Changes

From the Comments Section:

• COMMAND CHANGES
  
• James Keating promoted to D/C CCG
• Steve Georgas promoted to Commander of 018
• Kevin Ryan promoted to Commander of 001
• Ralph Chiczewski reassigned to D/C Special Functions
• Steve Caluris is reassigned to D/C Narcotics and Gangs
• Robert Evans is reassigned to Commander of Traffic

and from Second City Dick:

• CAPTAIN PROMOTIONS
• ANAGRONE, Kenneth 014 From 189
• ELMER, Richard A. 021 From 170
• O NEILL, Donald J. 009 From 126
• PARRA, Arthur R. 002 From 007
• RAYMOND, Alberta 003 From 006

Home Grown Terror?

This event reminds us of the one a few decades back where a goof tried to buy a LAW rocket to shoot into the police station at Harrison and Kedzie. That incident was notable for the fact that every single individual involved was a member of some law enforcement agency aside from the jagoff who ended up getting arrested. The LAW rocket was never even close to being real and the police station was never in any real danger. The only thing real was the Libyan money involved as Khaddafy tried to buy inroads to various street gangs:

• A Rockford man allegedly planned to set off hand grenades in garbage cans at a shopping mall near Rockford as part of his plot to let the world know "the time for jihad is now."

  Derrick Shareef, 22, targeted the Cherry Vale shopping mall, which has about 130 retail stores. But in recorded conversations he said the mall was "just one potential place," and that he hoped to one day "smoke a judge," according to the federal charges.

  Should he die before the attack, Shareef made a videotape statement to explain his actions.

This post isn't meant to diminish any real danger that might be faced in the coming years from individuals like this. In fact, we're surprised we haven't seen more types of incidents like these along the lines of the DC Beltway snipers or the El Al shooter at LAX - these lone wolf types are out there and you usually don't find them until they go off. This guy seems to have fallen for some well crafted bait and that's all well and good - he belongs behind bars. But your really dedicated types aren't out there to trade speakers for grenades. Those types are completely self sufficient and we shouldn't confuse the two.

Coverage at the Sun Times; Tribune; Channel 2; Channel 5; Channel 7

Downtown Shooting

Just a quick set of links and comments for this afternoon's incident:

• Sun Times
• Tribune
• Channel 2
• Channel 5
• Channel 7
  

We're Getting Sued?

An interesting letter we got:

• Dear Sir/Madam, Please be advised that we represent Sgt. Christine Hitney. Please immediately remove and cease from posting the disparaging and defamatory comments and photos of her on your Blog page. In our opionion [sic], the photos and comments which are being posted of Sgt. Hitney are violative of her rights. This is a a [sic] serious matter. If you fail to comply with our request, we shall advise our client accordingly.
  Barry A. Gomberg, Esq.
  Barry A. Gomberg & Associates, Ltd.
  53 W. Jackson, Suite 1350 Chicago, IL 60604
  (312) 922-0550 Office
  (312) 922-0066 Fax

Aside from the fact that whoever typed it doesn't bother to use spell check, the writer also seems to have a tenuous grasp of actual law.

First of all, we weren't the ones who took pictures inside a crime scene (unauthorized pictures that are a violation of General Orders by the way) and then sent them around the Internet. We received the original set of pictures from 3 different individuals and the address lists of forwarded recipients was around 180 names. By her own actions, the sergeant made herself a public figure. By wearing a badge inside a designated crime scene, the sergeant was acting as a public official - private citizens weren't allowed within the tape.

Secondly, satire is protected speech. According to the FirstAmendmentCenter website:

• satire tends to invent a fictitious situation (though possibly with elements that actually occurred) for the purpose of ridiculing someone or even some idea.

As we stated months and months ago, no reasonable person could be expected to believe that the sergeant actually was at or appeared in any of the following (click the links!):

• Iroquois Theater fire, Hindenburg disaster, Eastland sinking and St Valentines Day massacre;
• the Kennedy assassination and funeral;
  
• the caves drawings of France;
  
• the Lincoln assassination;
  
• the Oswald shooting, the Wizard of Oz or a Gulf hurricane;
• an Afghani hovel;
  
• Saddam's trial;
  
• the 1968 riots and the Brady Bunch
  
• The Munsters;
  
• Brokeback Mountain;
• crossing the Delaware with Washington;
  
• chiseled in Mount Rushmore;
  
• dog sledding in Alaska (ok, this one is possible);
• marching with a giant shamrock (this is also possible we suppose);
• assassinating Julius Caesar;
  
• the moon;
  
• surviving the Titanic;
  
• rising from the dead;
  
• and attending hearings in Washington with Trump

We didn't graft the sergeant's head onto anyone else's body. We took a photo she provided to the public, a photo that is STILL AVAILABLE on the Channel 7 website archives, and put it into ridiculous situations to make a point - don't get caught doing stupid shit, especially shit that is a violation of not only General Orders, but common sense and common decency. We wonder if Channel 7 got the same letter we did?

In the case of Hustler Magazine Inc. et al v Jerry Falwell, a directed verdict cleared Hustler of invasion of privacy and libel because "no reasonable person would believe the situation depicted" would be true. The US Supreme Court further denied an emotional distress award "as public figures and public officials could not recover damages for the tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress without an additional showing that ''the publication contains a false statement of fact which was made with 'actual malice,' i.e., with knowledge that the statement was false or with reckless disregard as to whether or not it was true.""

Though it pains us to stand anywhere near Larry Flynt, he did the First Amendment to the Constitution a great service in this case.

As to the comments section, the recent California Supreme Court decision in Barrett v Rosenthal pretty much covers anything from there:

• The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that bloggers and participants in Internet bulletin board groups cannot be sued for posting defamatory statements made by others.

  In deciding a case closely watched by free speech groups, the court said a federal law gives immunity from libel suits not only to Internet service providers, like AOL, but also to bloggers and other users of their services.

If the sergeant is demanding an apology, here it is - we're sorry you got caught doing stupid shit. We're sorry for depicting you dog sledding in Alaska and at the Southside Irish parade if in fact you attended neither. As to any of the other situations, we're afraid we don't owe you anything due to satire, freedom of speech, court decisions, etc.

By the way: have you apologized to the family of Joshua Woods? That's his family's car you can see in the background of your picture.

Happy 1 Year Anniversary!

And once again, this is SATIRE for our slower readers and any lawyers reading (note to the lawyers: we added you to our spam filter, so we won't be getting any more of your e-mail - it goes straight to the garbage):

SATIRE: tends to invent a fictitious situation (though possibly with elements that actually occurred) for the purpose of ridiculing someone or even some idea. (note: this was posted Friday morning aroud 0745 hours - but we wanted to keep the "We're Getting Sued?" post up top)

The Mayor Wants a Present

From the Tribune:

• A memorandum sent out last month on city stationery asks department heads and senior staffers to give a "$35 voluntary donation (no checks please)" toward a gift for the mayor and his wife, Maggie.
• When the Tribune asked what the present would be, mayoral spokeswoman Jodi Kawada revealed Wednesday that a $2,300 charitable donation will be made in the Daleys' names. The money will go to After School Matters, a program overseen by Maggie Daley that offers activities for city teenagers.

John Kass of the Tribune speculates that the money for the gift was hastily re-directed when the story hit:

• Once they called City Hall, I figure there was much desperate damage control and scrambling. It turns out Daley's people won't buy him a toy but will donate the cash to charity in Daley's name instead.
  
  How wimpy has City Hall become? If it weren't for Lighty and Cohen, Daley surely would receive a special toy, like he did last year and the year before. Now he'll be in a foul mood and toyless.

Kass doesn't speculate on it, but we will - if the donation of $2,300 in cash is made in the Daley's name, do they take the tax write off on it?

And what's with the "cash - no checks" thing? Does anyone else get the idea that someone somewhere is skimming something off the top? $2,300 divided by the $35 suggested donation works out to about 65.71 people. Surely there are more than 65.71 people who owe their jobs to the 5th floor?

Law? What Law?

This is just hubris - arrogance gone wild. From the Sun Times:

• City Hall has raked in more than $200,000 in fines from trucking companies over the last five months by having compliance officers in the Department of Consumer Services pull over trucks that appear to be overweight.
• Civilian compliance officers have no authority to make traffic stops using city vans with yellow lights, according to Tom Stellman, president of Geneva-based Catom Trucking, and retired Master Sgt. Charlie Hamilton, a former State Police official specializing in truck enforcement.
• The Illinois Vehicle Code talks about failure to yield or stop for "authorized police vehicles" and requires them to be marked with blue lights, Hamilton said. Consumer Services vans with yellow lights do not fit that description, he said.

Once again, a police function being carried out by civilians. First of all, this is a violation of State Statute - a rather LARGE violation. It certainly looks like someone from City Hall decided to get cute with compliance violations and tried to get away with what they could until they got caught at it. Secondly, this would appear to be a violation along the lines of the recent grievance won by the FOP when the City attempted to "civilianize" the security around Soldier Field for large events.

It is this type of arrogance coming out of City Hall that led the administration to thinking they could tear up runways in the dead of night just because they thought they could get away with it. That decision cost a half a million dollar fine, the return of millions in Federal grant money and untold lawyers fees - all paid for by the taxpayers.

"Merit" Overhaul

Excuse us while we laugh out loud here. Hahahahaha. From the Sun Times:

• "Complainants allege that some individuals are promoted -- not based on ability, but due to their relationship with the superintendent's office, the mayor or an alderman. One retired commander reported that he received phone calls from an alderman requesting that he nominate someone for a merit promotion," Brennan wrote in her annual report to the federal judge who appointed her.
• Chief of staff Ron Huberman embraced Brennan's recommendations on merit promotions after outlining the many changes City Hall has already made to reform its scandal-scarred hiring system.

Someone forgot to list "certain fraternal organizations" alongside the Supe, mayor and aldercreatures. As pointed out in our comment sections, every reader can point out half a dozen examples of "merit" being based solely on who you know.

Either everyone has been scared into silence by this administration or Brennan is out of her depth - she only has ONE retired commander on the record? We guess every other retired commander is worried that they were unqualified for the positions they held and won't rock the boat.

A Message That Needs Airing

Bill Cosby came to town. And he said a lot of things.

• in the Sun Times: Entertainer Bill Cosby, who has sparked controversy for biting public remarks about blacks and parenting, delivered a strong charge to parents Wednesday: Step up. "It's not the schools. It's not the streets. It's not even the church," said Cosby, speaking at a conference hosted by Chicago Public Schools. "You've got to build confidence in your child in your home."
• on the Channel 5 website: "These are people going around stealing Coca Cola. People getting shot in the back of the head over a piece of pound cake. Then we all run out and are outraged, 'The cops shouldn't have shot him.' What the hell was he doing with the pound cake in his hand? I wanted a piece of pound cake just as bad as anybody else, and I looked at it and I had no money. And something called parenting said, 'If you get caught with it you're going to embarrass your mother.' Not: 'You're going to get your butt kicked.' No. 'You're going to embarrass your mother."
• On the Channel 7 website: During his speech, Cosby challenged adults to take responsibility for the lives of their children. "But, as a parent, you have to understand, I know what I'm doing, I'm in charge," said Cosby. Two years ago Cosby surprised many people by criticizing certain lifestyle choices made by poor African Americans. Since then, he has toured the country speaking about the importance of self-empowerment and responsibility. At the conference, his focus was on education and helping children succeed. He did not mince words. "We can stay in the projects, but they can't," said Cosby. "They mustn't look for a check."

And then we troll through our comments section:

• Malcolm X's little brother said...

  You left out one thing, SCC. Just about all of those politicans [sic-SCC], be they Democrats or Republicans, were European-Americans. Just about none were Asian-Americans, a couple of Hispanic-Americans thrown in the mix, and a few African-Americans.
  
  The blame which you wish to dish out lies at the feet of (as lefty would say) YOUR people. You are part of the problem of which you proclaim. I will not even get into the social-economic factors which are attributable to the rise in crime.

Dr. Cosby preaches self reliance, personal responsibility and taking steps to make your life and the lives of your children better. And Malcolm spouting hate filled platitudes to perpetuate the victimhood of an entire people. Quite a comparison, eh?

Jail is Dangerous

Who would have thought that you could get killed in jail?

• Murder charges were filed Wednesday afternoon against a 17-year-old man who allegedly strangled his cell mate at the Cook County Jail.
  
  Andre Patterson, of 221 155th St. in the southern suburb, is charged with murder in the death of Kimani Muhammad, who was found dead in his cell at the jail on Tuesday night, according to Andy Conklin, a spokesman for the Cook County State's Attorney's office.

R. Eugene Pincham immediately issued a ruling that said the Cook County Sheriff violated Patterson's civil rights by barging into his dwelling without a search warrant or consent to search and all evidence contained within should be considered "fruit of the poisonous tree." Pincham was reminded shortly thereafter that he wasn't actually a judge anymore.

Bigger and Bigger

Now the Austin 7 can no longer be called the biggest scandal in recent memory.

According to published reports (we're tired of linking to them all - surf our media links in the right hand tool bar) , upwards of a dozen unnamed (and uncharged) officers are cooperating with the investigation, appearing before the Grand Jury and signing affidavits. This is getting insane. At what point do they call it off? At what point should they call it off?

Anyone have the Vegas line on whether or not SOS gets disbanded this year or next?

What a Bunch of Hicks!

At least we can say New York did it before our own city council could get off their asses:

• The Board of Health voted Tuesday to make New York the nation's first city to ban artery-clogging artificial trans fats at restaurants - from the corner pizzeria to high-end bakeries.

  The board, which passed the ban unanimously, did give restaurants a slight break by relaxing what had been considered a tight deadline for compliance. Restaurants will be barred from using most frying oils containing artificial trans fats by July and will have to eliminate the artificial trans fats from all of their foods by July 2008.

Banning food. In America. Where are the shrieks of "Think of the children!"? If people should be healthier, educate them to take care of themselves. Stop the spread of the nanny state! Next thing you know they'll be banning guns, making seatbelts mandatory, enacting helmet laws, ... oh, wait a minute.

Thanks to AceofSpades for the story.

Keep Electing Democrats People

We don't really care if any democrats are insulted by this title. The fact is that democrats have done more to hamstring police procedure and criminal prosecutions than any other group in history. Their touchy-feely approach to crime fighting is a proven loser and does nothing to deter crime - it encourages recidivism, early release and has cost hundreds, if not thousands, of people their lives over the decades that democrats stuffed the court systems and national legislatures with their pap.

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

For much of the 1970's and 1980's, courts granted criminals so many more rights than their victims, it was a wonder anyone ever got convicted of anything. R. Eugene Pincham is hiding behind some BS about how he doesn't recall the case that appeared before him. We say bullshit - any judge who doesn't remember letting off someone who strangled 4 human beings including a 3 year old boy deserves a special place in lawyer hell.

You want sanctions against the police for violating certain "procedures," fine. Write the law as such. But to toss out a slam dunk conviction like this where the evidence was so overwhelming and then throw out all of the evidence is just wrong. This woman's blood is on Pincham's hands and the hands of the other two judges who freed James Ealy.

Technical Difficulties

We had a complaint that the links section got bumped down out of sight recently. This is a programming glitch in Microsoft Internet Explorer. When we put the Bear/Vikings stat table in the football post, the margins bump out farther and kick everything down. As we post more threads, the table will push past the links margin and everything will appear back where it belongs. In the meantime we're going to try to re-size it.

We recommend switching to a real internet platform like Firefox. Internet Explorer blows chunks and it's unfortunate that the Department computers all have it. But as we don't use Department computers for anything except working, we don't see when the site gets goofy.

Treat this as an open post for now.

Corruption Links so Far

This is what the current media sites have up so far. No doubt it will expand a bit before receding into the background again:

• Tribune/Channel 9
• Sun Times
• Channel 2
• Channel 5
• Channel 7
• NewsRadio 780
  

To date, we have 11 people stripped so far (7 PO's, 1 Detective and 3 Sgts). A few people have contacted us and a couple of comments have stated this is going to result in around 20 officers facing some sort of criminal or disciplinary action, ranging from the indictments so far to administrative actions - probably separations.

We have a difficult time believing that 20 people were involved in all of these incidents, so it would seem that people are being stripped for NOT taking action, NOT informing supervisors or NOT following procedures in place.

UPDATE: #12 stripped today. Now it's 8 PO's.

The Hidden Story?

Get a load of this one:

• A 22-year-old motorist was in police custody early Monday after his car struck a police squad car and he fled the scene while apparently driving under the influence late Saturday on the South Side.

  At 11:30 p.m., the man was driving a 1993, two-door Nissan Sentra east on 61st Street when he passed a Grand Crossing District police squad car traveling west on 61st Street, according to Calumet District Police Lt. Tim Bickham, who was assigned to the Grand Crossing District the night of the accident.

Did you catch it? No, we're not talking about the drunk who hit the squad car. The cops are ok and the goof is facing lots of charges. We're talking about this:

• Calumet District Police Lt. Tim Bickham, who was assigned to the Grand Crossing District the night of the accident.

A Lieutenant from 005 assigned to 003 for the night. That means 003 was short a Captain and any number of Lieutenants if they had to go recruiting across the entire Area for an Acting W/C for the night. This is not nearly as uncommon as you'd think. Would it be untoward to imagine the manpower shortages being experienced by every single district across the city is being felt by the supervisor ranks as well? At least in the Patrol Division?

Rumor Mill in Overdrive

No, not promotions. Indictments.

It's popped up in more than a few conversations here and there. Now it's making it's way into our comments sections. We would be remiss if we didn't address it. The title says "Sarcasm and Silliness," but everyone knows that crap gets flung by the bucket full on this site. We knew it'd be that way when we started. It will continue in some form or another forever.

It is being whispered that new indictments are expected as soon as this week. Also, some old names will be slapped with additional charges. If the rumors are to be believed, this is going to get very ugly very quickly. Old rules still apply - we'll post links to any stories we are directed to. Foul weather ahead boys and girls. Batten down the hatches.

UPDATE: Cool - since we posted this around 1045pm last night so we could go to bed early, we scooped the Sun Times by over 4 hours.

UPDATE: Scooped Channel 2 by almost 8 hours. We have the best readers in the world.

UPDATE: Channel 7 has the story - everyone else is still using the Sun Times early report.

Gun Thefts?

Anyone remember the warning that was circulating through the Department early this year or late last year about guns going missing from luggage? According to this Sun Times article, a CPD copper was the victim in at least one case. We thought we remembered more than that though.

In any case, someone has been arrested for stealing ammunition out of luggage. Does anyone know if they still mark the outside of the luggage with a bag tag that states "Firearm" or similar on the exterior? Either the airlines are being overly stupid about marking the bag with a bright blaze orange tag that tells everyone who bothers to read it that "Hey! Here's a free gun!" or there is some organized crime ring at the airport where the people who check the firearms are tipping off the ramp workers which bags might be worth stealing.

As police are now allowed (for the most part) to carry in all 50 states and some form of concealed carry is allowed in something like 40 different states, maybe someone ought to come up with a better system for shipping weapons cross country.

And They Still Won?

These are NOT the types of stats you want to see from a playoff bound team. Some people will say it doesn't matter how you got there. But once you get there, you have to prove you belong there because everyone is stepping it up a few notches. (table from ESPN.com)

Team Stat Comparison
1st Downs	21	6
Total Yards	348	107
Passing	156	24
Rushing	192	83
Penalties	12-69	9-65
3rd Down Conversions	4-17	2-11
4th Down Conversions	1-1	1-1
Turnovers	5	5
Possession	39:21	20:39

Bears vs. Vikings

Well, we know that the Bears will be looking to rebound from the Patriots loss. We'd like to see some of the other quarterbacks get some snaps though. Grossman isn't looking like the one to lead the Bears into the Championship.

We Have to Get This Contract

Anyone feel like pitching in with us to buy some half-assed camera company and then selling units to the City at wildly inflated prices? From Channel 7:

• The Chicago Transit Authority is testing high-tech cameras and other technology to combat terrorism, robberies and other crimes. The six-month pilot project will begin this month at rail stations and on 40 buses. The tests will be in all parts of the city.

  CTA President Frank Kruesi said the mobile security network uses fiber optics, a wireless transmitter and global positioning. It allows the CTA, Chicago's Office of Emergency Communications, and police in squad cars to monitor video from the cameras.

From everything we've heard about the current cameras in CTA buses, they're just about useless. The citizens regularly vandalize the cameras and steal the video. Or they just don't care. We can relate a number of stories of gang members dragging other bangers and dope customers off buses they took refuge in and having the daylights beaten out of them.

Cameras AREN'T stopping crime. But we'd like to make a few bucks off of the gullible taxpayers, too.

What's This?

A winning streak? A new coach?

Denis Savard took over as Head Coach of the lowly Blackhawks on Monday, and by Saturday night, they're 3 and 0 under his leadership. Of course, being 12th in the division is a helluva hole to dig yourselves out of and the season is almost a third over. A win streak is something the Blackhawks haven't done all year. But we still wish Bill Wirtz would sell the damn team.

Problems for Daley?

Not that it's going to make a lick of difference. If there was a viable alternative candidate, things like the following might actually cause the current occupant of the 5th floor some unease. But Dorothy Brown? Bill Walls?

• From Channel 5: It wasn't the kind of welcome Mayor Richard M. Daley wanted, but NBC5's Mary Ann Ahern reported that loud protesters greeted guests attending a fundraiser Thursday night. Interesting fact - Cortez Trotter, Chief Emergency Officer attended and donated $1,000. Quid pro quo? Mr. Fitzgerald?
• From the Sun Times: The Daley campaign is demanding that petition circulators sign a sworn affidavit that Democratic ward bosses call a "slap in the face" from a mayor who has ignored them. [...] "He's trying to, all of the sudden, be Mr. Clean and say, 'Look how pristine it's being run.' But people are reading this and saying, 'Why should I do anything? If I sign this paper, you guys can do nothing for me.' It's a one-way street [with Daley]. There's no two-way streets here," the committeeman said.

Is anyone really surprised it's all "one-way" with this mayor? He's been throwing people under the bus since day one. It's not just one-way, it's the only way.

South of the Border Politics

Shouldn't someone be keeping an eye on this little situation?

• Felipe Calderon has taken the oath of office as Mexico's president in a chaotic ceremony that was preceded by fistfights and chair-throwing by lawmakers.
• Calderon quickly swore to uphold the constitution amid jeers and whistles from lawmakers still divided over the nation's tight presidential election.
  
• Opposition leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who calls himself Mexico's "legitimate president," led tens of thousands of his supporters on a march in Mexico City after Calderon was sworn in.

So you have someone claiming to have won holding alternate swearing in ceremonies for himself and leading marches of tens of thousands and the alleged winner being jeered and ridiculed while violence breaks out around him within the Congressional chamber.

Along with an official government policy that encourages it's citizens to violate the borders to head north and send money back home to prop up a corrupt government (a border about as porous as cheese cloth) and a government only too willing to look the other way when it suits them. We really ought to be concerned about what's happening in Mexico nowadays.

Rules for Police

Shamelessly stolen from The Johnny Law Chronicles. Give him a visit - he's got good stories and an old style policing attitude. This is a takeoff on a number of bureaucratic jokes usually dealing with policy. As usual, the Detective Division gets the last laugh.

Rules of Modern Law Enforcement

Narcotics units
Immediately grow facial hair, tell everybody you were ordered to.
Start watching every episode of Monster Garage.
Buy a biker wallet with a big chain.
Make every case involve overtime $$$.
Buy bunches of boats, RV's, and motorcycles with that overtime.
Learn to play golf drunk.

SWAT units
Wear team T-shirts, Oakley sunglasses and boots everyday.
Try to fit the word breach in to every conversation.
Have a mirror handy to check hair, if you have hair.
Never say hello to anyone who is not an operator, just practice your SWAT head nod.
Subscribe to Soldier of Fortune and Muscle and Fitness.
Learn to play golf wearing a gun.

Community Service units
Hate SWAT.
Work to make everybody love you.
Paint your office in pastel colors.
Think Feng Shui.
Subscribe to Psychology Today.
Learn to play miniature golf.

Traffic units
Write tickets to EVERYBODY.
Spend every weekend cleaning your bike and polishing boots.
Annoy everyone on the radio calling out your stops.
Talk about nothing but how many tickets you wrote in one day.
Ride by a building with big windows to see your reflection.
Golf is lame, motor rodeos are cool.

Administrative Units
Three-hour lunches everyday, tell everybody it's a meeting.
Upgrade department cell phone every month.
Tell everybody you are published in a national law enforcement magazine.
Update your revenge list on a weekly basis.
Golf Rules! Play lots of golf.

Patrol Units
Has nerves of steel.
In a terminal state of nausea from department politics.
Inability to keep mouth shut.
Has defining tastes in alcohol.
Is respected by peers.
Beats the crap out of his caddy on any bogeyed shot.

Detective Bureau
Solve no crime before it's overtime.
Develop important leads for cases somewhere near home right after lunch.
See how far from city you can actually go to lunch without getting caught.
Learn to play golf while on duty.

Oh No! Snow!!!

It's going to SNOW! In Chicago! In December! Quick, load the ark with two of every type of animal! Carnivores on the left please!

The media is in panic mode - Trib, Times, 2, 5, 7 are all in full disaster mode. Tommy Skilling was seen in loose fitting pants and storing food for the next 5 days in case he gets snowed in over at WGN.

We here at SCC have laid in a full week worth of provisions and enough ammunition so that we can either hunt deer in the Forest Preserves or conduct armed raids on the neighbors' houses. If worst comes to worst, we can always eat the neighbors.

Traditions Are Important

It's time for our second favorite Chicago tradition.

First of course, is voting "NO" on every single judge on any given ballot during the election season.

Second is the Parade of the Overnight Parking Ban victims. Every December 1st, without fail, there is a line of people looking to bail their cars out of automobile jail because they didn't read the street signs that ban overnight parking on 107 miles of city streets from 01 December through 01 April regardless of the weather. Then the media always runs some piece where they can air their sob stories about how they're new to town, new to the neighborhood, new to snow, etc. And they're almost always yuppies, so we can laugh about it.

This year should prove especially bountiful as the scheduled snowfall is going to make another 500 MILES of city streets into No Parking Zones when snow is 2" or more. Let the fun begin!