Gun Grabbers Go Nuts

Rue St. Michel is covering this.

We also got a number of e-mails concerning Illinois Senate Bill 16. The Illinois State Rifle Association is taking the lead

• The Illinois Senate is about to debate a ban on semi-automatic rifles and shotguns.
  
  If passed, you would have 90 days to register your guns with the State Police or face arrest and felony prosecution.
  
  If you were caught with an AR-15 and 4 magazines, you’d get life in prison.
  
  THREE THINGS YOU MUST DO TO SAVE YOUR GUN RIGHTS

  1. Beginning on Tuesday, March 6th, call your State Senator and POLITELY tell him or her that you are opposed to Senate Bill 16 – the Daley Assault Weapons Ban – and that you would like them to vote against Senate Bill 16 when it comes to the floor. If you do not know who your State Senator is, then visit the following web site: www.ilga.gov and then click on the “Legislator Lookup” link in the lower right hand corner of the home page. Follow the instructions at that link.
  
  2. Pass this alert along to all your gun-owing friends; tell them to call their State Senators also.
  
  3. Please post this alert to any and all Internet Bulletin Boards and Internet sites to which you belong.

  IF YOU DO NOT ACT NOW, YOU MAY HAVE NO GUNS LEFT BY THE 4TH OF JULY

Un-freaking believable. Increased taxes and no guns. Keep voting for democrats people.

Back to Work

Well, as we didn't buy lottery tickets in either Georgia or New Jersey, it looks like we'll be headed to work with only visions of eventually winning enough money to one day quit to keep us warm. Oh well.

As a side note, we noticed in some of the comment sections people telling us that we are appearing sporadically on Department computers. Either the filter isn't holding or someone downtown is removing the filter on occasion to check us out and then putting it back in place before someone discovers it.

In the meantime, open post people.

Whoops! Daley Cornered

It's amusing to see the mayor cornered in a lie. Or even a half truth. Usually, when Kass or someone asks him about something he's said that's obviously wrong or untenable or a blatant falsehood, he stammers, flushes, stammers more and changes the subject as quick as he can to avoid more embarrassment.

Good job by the Olympic Committee:

• Mayor Richard Daley today hedged on his pledge to keep city taxpayers off the hook if Chicago wins the 2016 Olympic Games.
• "We're looking at that — the concern the USOC has, rightfully so," the mayor said. "We will be coming up with a plan very shortly." But Daley repeatedly refused to provide any details, dodging the question of whether he was amending his promise not to use any local public funds. Daley repeatedly has said that the city expects the private sector and the federal government to provide the funding.
• Minutes earlier, USOC Vice President Bob Ctvrtlik said that city financial backing was necessary.

So now, mere days after the election, Daley is in the uncomfortable position of reneging on an entire set of promises NOT to put taxpayers on the hook by the USOC which wants EXACTLY that. We're betting Daley swallows the lie and guarantees the taxpayer support. What's he got to lose? Odds are he'll be out of office and running the show as Chicago's ambassador-at-large for the whole thing anyway.

Coverage at Channel 5 and the Tribune (sign in as garbagegoeshere@gmail.com; password 123456).

Tax Tax Here, Tax Tax There

Lovely

• Illinois would see the largest tax increase in its history under Gov. Rod Blagojevich's plan to provide health care for the uninsured and ramp up state support for education.

  Blagojevich also called Wednesday for leasing the state lottery to a private contractor and borrowing billions of dollars in a bid to solve the state's most pressing financial problem -- pension systems soaking up more and more of Illinois' tax money.

So instead of spending reforms, cuts in non productive programs, economic incentives that might boost tax revenues, Blago is going to increase taxes, drive the state further into debt and murder the economic engines of industry by sticking them with higher costs.

We predict Illinois will be bleeding jobs by the time the next election rolls around and everything will still be screwed up. More coverage at Channel 7 of where the massive tax increases will go - it's Hillary-care on steroids!

Sergeant Test Results

And the circus continues:

• Thirteen years ago, the police sergeants exam became a political football in Chicago's never-ending game of racial politics when a test produced just five minority promotions out of 114.

  Tee up the football. It could happen again.

  One month after mailing test scores to would-be sergeants, the Daley administration is refusing to release a racial breakdown of top-scoring candidates.

Of course they are. The results would be politically embarrassing. Again. And this paragraph by our old buddy from the Sun Times (Hi Fran!!) in regard to the 1994 exam is humorous:

• The City Council held hearings in hopes of uncovering evidence the exam or the testing process was unfair. One alderman proposed mandatory lie-detector tests for everyone involved, amid allegations that would-be sergeants "cheated" by obtaining sample questions that mirrored the actual test.

Prior to the last couple of exams we've managed to take, we've received a packet from the testing company that outlines exactly how the test is going to be administered. In that packet are at least 3, sometimes more, sample questions. EACH AND EVERY ONE of those sample questions appeared on the test. Word for word. They were like freebies. And we still didn't break 1,000 on that test.

Fran doesn't say who is unhappy and who's raising a stink. Perhaps she's fishing for information after being rebuffed by the City, though we've always been of the opinion that test results paid for with public money should have the results made fully public knowledge - at least then we'd know EXACTLY who got what and how they got it.

More Terrorist Probes

The next attack is coming. It isn't a question of if - it's a question of when. And if this article at Aviation Nation is any indicator, it's coming soon.

• “This is not meant to scare, but it probably will. Consider yourself informed and warned that the threat is real. This crew reported that they were not prepared that something of this nature could be happening to them.

  Flt 62, Paris to MIA [Miami], a few weeks ago. 2 maybe 4 mid-eastern types causing minor disturbance from the get-go. Nothing that the FAs [flight attendants] couldn't deal with, but, in hindsight, they seemed to be pushing the envelope. Cross-cabin activity, hanging out in the forward galley, complaining about everything, etc. Mid-Atlantic, the FO [First Officer, or Co-Pilot] called to return to the cockpit after his crew-rest break. One of the perps [perpetrators] was in the forward galley, was instructed by a FA to go aft, but didn't. As the cockpit door opened, another perp suddenly appeared from around the galley, dropped his shoulder into FO while the first one got in the way of the FO’s attempt to block the other…here I’m not certain…so….wait for the movie.

  FO (one of our first FFDO’s [Federal Flight Deck Officers*]) was about to pull his flashlight to use as a weapon in a counter attack, but thought better of it not knowing how many more perps he might have to fight, called “lockdown” to the FB [secondary “B” First Officer], inside the cockpit, who slammed the door. As soon as the perps heard the word lockdown, they retreated to their seats.

  I’m not doing justice to the story, but, if not an attempt on the cockpit, this was a serious probe.

Go read the entire article, published in 13 February 2007. How much media coverage have you seen of this incident? We read over 50 websites a day, left and right of the political spectrum, and this is the first mention we've seen of the entire episode. American Airlines CONFIRMED the incident and called it a "disturbance" on board. We're waiting to see how they describe it when another one of their planes is flown into a building killing thousands - probably an "unfortunate event"?

(thanks to LittleGreenFootballs)

John Edwards and Jesus

One term senator and former second banana to John Kerry is running for office and has made the following statement:

• Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards says Jesus would be appalled at how the United States has ignored the plight of the suffering, and that he believes children should have private time to pray at school.

  Edwards, in an interview with the Web site Beliefnet.com, said Jesus would be most upset with the selfishness of Americans and the country's willingness to go to war "when it's not necessary."

  "I think that Jesus would be disappointed in our ignoring the plight of those around us who are suffering and our focus on our own selfish short-term needs," Edwards told the site. "I think he would be appalled, actually."

By the way, this is the new Edwards home currently under construction in North Carolina:

The building sits on 102 acres, covers 28,200 square feet and is valued at over $6 million dollars. It has a basketball court, a squash court, two stages, a pool, a four story tower and a room labeled "John's Lounge."

We'd hope there was a room set aside for Jesus and a few homeless folks, but the home is set back into the woods and invisible from the road. Combined with the "No Trespassing" signs, we'd imagine Jesus would have a hard time finding the place.

Olympic Impressions

The committee to decide what US city will bid for the 2016 Games is in town being feted about at all the trendy restaurants, getting all sorts of gifts and gratuities and (this being Chicago) who knows how many bags of unmarked non sequential bills of varying denominations? That's how Salt Lake City got their games and we can't let a bunch of red state Republicans out do us at our own game, can we?

Coverage at the Sun Times, Channel 5, Channel 7

If brought to Chicago, we imagine this will prove to be one of the greatest, if not THE greatest boondoggle of the millennium.

St Jude Parade Question

St. Jude is a parade for our fallen. Paraphrasing an eloquent quote from an old time boss, we get up and march on Sunday for those who cannot. A noble sentiment. And this year, the parade route is to be changed to begin at the Gold Star Memorial Park. We have expressed our opinion that we preferred the Michigan Avenue route as it was more accessible and more in the public view and our fear that our parade is being shunted to a less public venue so as to be "out of sight, out of mind."

That's our opinion. This is our website. We get to put it out there for debate. It doesn't make us right or wrong. And we welcome other opinions, expressed civilly - and even some of those expressed not so civilly.

We have a question however, and we'd like an answer from somewhere - is the City, by means of the Park District (and by City and Park District, we mean the mayor) going to be charging for parking at Soldier Field, McCormick Place and museum parking lots on the day of the St. Jude march?

This is a legit question and we'd like an answer. Soon. We know bosses read this board. We know certain bosses at 35th Street don't have filters on their computers and read this board from the office. We know the Superintendent gets briefed on occasion of some things that appear on this board (and we heard he truly enjoyed the Midway Airport photo shopping that appeared here).

We think cops, and coppers' families, have a right to know in advance whether the City is going to be making any money off of dead police officers. Because that's what it boils down to. Yes, parking was a bitch in years past, but you didn't run the risk of getting towed or ticketed in 018 on the first Sunday in May. Now we have to wonder if we're going to nickeled and dimed just to show up to support dead police officers.

Understand, WE ARE NOT ADVOCATING A BOYCOTT OF ST. JUDE. We never have and never will. Certain commentators on this site have advocated certain actions and we have let most of these posts stand and fall on their own merits. We supported last year's sign that embarrassed the exempt members of the Department who didn't have the balls to speak up about naming a street after a dead piece of shit. The father of Officer Michael Gordon has commented in a couple of posts answering some of these proposals. We keep our own counsel in these matters and make our own choices. We will say that we have missed only one St. Jude parade ever and don't plan on missing any in the future.

Even a small gesture of not charging coppers (and their families) for parking at a parade that honors those who gave all for this city would go a long way toward repairing the damage done to this Department. But the cynic in us isn't holding out much hope.

Lies of the Left

Not that we need to slap "leftisthebest" around any more. After being outed as a sock puppet for numerous other identities on this site, we've seen neither hide nor hair of him for a while now. The person posting as "coldtype" keeps popping up every so often, but after insisting on a word limit for his rantings, he has remained calm.

We recall the battles of last summer where a number of left leaning posters attempted to spread the story of over 650,000 Iraqi civilians dying violently in the on going sectarian violence and quoting at length the study published in The Lancet. We called The Lancet study bullshit, propaganda, faulty, sample based and numerous other things. Looks like we were right.

• The statistics made headlines all over the world when they were published in The Lancet in October last year. More than 650,000 Iraqis – one in 40 of the population – had died as a result of the American-led invasion in 2003. The vast majority of these “excess” deaths (deaths over and above what would have been expected in the absence of the occupation) were violent. The victims, both civilians and combatants, had fallen prey to airstrikes, car bombs and gunfire.

  Body counts in conflict zones are assumed to be ballpark – hospitals, record offices and mortuaries rarely operate smoothly in war – but this was ten times any other estimate. Iraq Body Count, an antiwar web-based charity that monitors news sources, put the civilian death toll for the same period at just under 50,000, broadly similar to that estimated by the United Nations Development Agency.

• “The authors ignore contrary evidence, cherry-pick and manipulate supporting evidence and evade inconvenient questions,” contends Professor Spagat, who believes the paper was poorly reviewed. “They published a sampling methodology that can overestimate deaths by a wide margin but respond to criticism by claiming that they did not actually follow the procedures that they stated.” The paper had “no scientific standing”. Did he rule out the possibility of fraud? “No.”

No scientific standing. Possibility of fraud. This is a peer reviewed study. And it completely destroys everything the left has been spouting for over a year as gospel. The entire political campaign of 2006 was based on lies, misinformation and bullshit. Here's another web site with the peer reviewed debunking of the left's main article of faith.

Any apologies forthcoming? (thanks to LittleGreenFootballs)

New Banned Words

The following words are hereby banned from the blog:

• P-shades
• Purple shades
• PURPLE SHADES
• P-Shady
• P-Diddy-Shady
  
• anything associating Purple Shades with TRU
• any variations of the above
  

This follows on the heels of the banning of any comments containing the "three letter spanish exclamation," DELETE, anything to do with dining on female posteriors, Scotchbreath, the B-team (though we've let a few in lately), Area 2 gun teams, Area 1 or 2 detectives of either sex, and half a dozen other things we can't recall at the moment.

It was amusing the first three hundred eighty seven times. But at three hundred eighty eight, we just lost our sense of humor.

Vazquez Update

And it ain't good people.

Two people were in Area 4 for two days last week as "persons of interest," but both were cut loose as of the weekend. One story is that a girlfriend snitched them out. One rumor has them flipping on each other and then lawyering up. Another story has one or both of these scumbags as known stick up men.

The problem as we see it (and we could be completely wrong about it) is that nothing is being told to the troops. This entire incident is like a giant festering sore and no one is saying anything about it. The initial flurry of activity has died out, teams have been released and reassigned to other duties, no one is talking. We aren't getting updates that progress is being made; we aren't getting the word that certain people are being looked at; we haven't even gotten confirmation on a motive. All of this leads to mistrust and speculation and a perception that we can lose an officer and nothing is getting done.

We realize that if there was a reasonably strong case, things would be moving forward publicly. We also know that the dicks might be sitting on info as to identities to stave off possible harassment claims once evidence firms up a bit. There might be a dozen reasons we aren't hearing anything (we've been there before), but that doesn't make it any easier to watch it happening.

We aren't sure if we're going to publish any comments for this post, but at the moment we'll leave it open for people to submit info. We welcome any opinion as to why we should or shouldn't publish info regarding the investigation to the boys and girls out there. If you don't want something posted, say so at the top of your comment. Anything off topic will be deleted regardless. Don't expect anything to be published in this section for at least 24 hours minimum. We will notify everyone of our decision when we make it.

Deputy Superintendent's Memo

Ok, we've been reading in the comments for a few days now about this memo from the Patrol Divis.... oops - we mean "Bureau of Patrol" regarding the days of just "getting the keys and just driving around" being over. We'd like to be able to air out this memo and maybe give it some play here on the site, but we can't seem to locate a copy.

We have some of the smartest readers in the world. And some of the goofiest. And we're sure someone somewhere has a copy of this memo or directions on where to find it and can scan it and send to us as .pdf or .jpg file. If, in fact, this memo exists and is as off-the-wall as some of our readers would have us believe from the quotes lifted, we'd like the opportunity to see for ourselves. And if it reaches a certain threshold, we'd like to go to town on it.

Find it people. Tell us where it is or e-mail it to our address in the profile.

Again, Who Cares?

Most of the time, we like Mark Brown's writing. Most times he strikes us as a temperate middle-of-the-road kind of guy.

In Sunday's column though, the supposed liberal guilt is just too much to believe:

• Before Friday, I did not know that my ancestors owned slaves. Now that I know, I almost wish I didn't. As they say, ignorance is bliss. I don't have that luxury anymore. Now I'll have to deal with it.
• My great-great-great-grandfather David E. Richardson was the last of my direct forebears to own slaves. It appears he inherited them from the estate of his father Charles (my great-great-great-great-grandfather) just months before selling them on Feb. 25, 1853, to one of his brothers for $170.
• I just hadn't counted on the examination hitting so close to home.

Let's get out the old SCC calculator

• 2007 minus 1853 = 154 years.

One hundred fifty four years. And Mr. Brown says he didn't really think about his ancestors owning slaves until last Friday. But now that he's discovered this "shame," he's going to ... what? feel guilty about it?

Sorry, we don't buy it. First of all, slavery was a legal endeavor in those days. Repugnant? Yup. Morally reprehensible? Probably all that and more. But still a legal and accepted practice. Fortunately, through industrial advances and moral growth, America progressed to not needing slave labor in it's agrarian economy. And why would anyone feel guilty about what someone SIX generations or more in the past did? What's the point? You aren't going to change anything without a time machine.

This is as much a non-story a story as Strom Thurmond ancestors owning Al Sharpton's ancestors. Or Mitt Romney's great-grandfather having multiple wives under what was then a commonly accepted practice - and a practice still actively promoted by islam. Or Obama's mama's people owning Obama's daddy's people. We aren't getting into this.

Judge the candidate by their own words, actions and deeds. Obama is part and parcel of the Chicago Machine and anyone who doesn't see that is being willfully blind. Hillary has more baggage than we can account for. McCain is a egomaniac who has done more to hamstring free speech than any democrat in recent memory and Rudy is a three time married philanderer who was a gun grabber in NYC. Each and every one of the candidates should be judged on what they've said in the past and actions they've undertaken in support of those positions, not what their ancestors did.

Officers Down

Two incidents today - early. Sorry this isn't up sooner:

• Off duty CPD stabbed in Lincoln Park. Last news reports have him and another patron (offender?) in serious but stable condition. Copper is listed as having 7 years on. Coverage at Channel 2, Channel 5, Channel 7.
• Illinois State Trooper had just pulled over and placed a drunk driver into his squad car when a second drunk driver plowed into his car, injuring him, his prisoner and the second drunk. Trooper is banged up pretty bad, but will recover. Coverage at the Sun Times, Channel 2, Channel 5, Channel 7.

And whichever jagoff posted the following comment...

• Saw on the news! Drunken off-duty cop stabbed and man shot. Gee, should the guns not be kept locked up in the radio room? Off-duty silly stuff?

... you are truly an asshole among assholes. Not one single report we've seen implies anything about the officer being intoxicated. Could that change? Sure. But to openly speculate and throw that out there is stupid beyond words. And if the person shot is the offender, it sure is good that the officer DID have his gun on him and was able to get some lead into him instead of standing around like you probably would swinging your purse and getting your panties in a knot. God help us if you're the police.

And yes, we could have saved a lot of effort by just deleting your stupidity and no one would know but us, but then every one else would be deprived of the abject lesson here that tiny brains still walk the earth and some can even find computers to demonstrate their woeful lack of neurological activity. Asshat.

That Time of Year Again

Winter is ending, so it must be - CONSTRUCTION SEASON!

And if you'll recall last year, IDOT had those white vans parked in the Dan Ryan construction area taking pictures of every single speeder going through the construction zones. Hundreds, if not thousands of people had their picture taken and tickets issued. There was almost NO appeal that would get you out of the ticket.

You'll notice the City and State haven't published any info about the vans that we've seen around yet - they want that quick revenue push before the word gets out. Well thanks to a very dedicated reader of ours, we have the following info for everyone else:

• 22nd and Cermak
• 69th and the Dan Ryan
• 95th and or 99th and the Dan Ryan
• 119th and the Dan Ryan

These are the supposed initial van placements. Yes, we noticed that first one too - Cermak Road is 22nd Street, so we're going to assume it's an error and someone will get us the good info. In the meantime, remember - a camera cannot extend you "professional courtesy" and there is no reason to think you will be extended any in Traffic Court should you get a photo ticket. Reports are the first ticket is $405 dollars. The second one is an automatic license suspension. Anyone with different info can post it in the comments section.

We are SO Out of Here

Right after we win the $340,000,000 Mega Millions Jackpot.

And since we're already going to win, no one else has to join any of those office pools that don't do anything except dilute our share of $340 million - our share being "all of it."

We will continue blogging, but from a warmer location. Maybe

Thanks Rue

This is why we like Rue St. Michel so much and wish he could find the time to write more. He takes a venomous rant we posted on the website and actually boils it down to its bare essence that triggered our outburst. Even if you bought us a couple of beers, we still couldn't point to what exactly disgusted and pissed us off about this whole incident, but if you go through some of our archives, you can see where we've really felt passionately about ripping the Department or certain individuals and cut loose some hellacious broadsides.

This is buried in the comment section 3 days ago, but we think it deserves a spot on the front page:

• Rue St. Michel said... As usual, this thread went way off topic.
  
  Here's why SCC is supremely pissed off by the Checkboard Chat, and why you should be too:
  
  This department has problems; major, dysfunctional issues. The system is rife with bosses who's only concern is protecting their own fiefdoms, feathering their own nests and kissing enough ass in order to climb the ladder at HQ. Meritorious promotions are based on "who you know" and not on qualifications. Therefore, those who climb highest up the "food chain" are only good at one thing - using the political system to get where they want to go. Police that are qualified, and who would be good leaders, are passed over in favor of those who have some clout.
  
  While this is not true for all bosses (McCotter, Williams come to mind) 80% would fall within this category.
  
  The foundation of these issues lies with the 80% that are solely interested in maintaining the status quo and not in "keeping it real" and who refuse to shake up the hierarchy within the department. They play politically correct and shmooz the "reverends" and all the other miserable special interest groups who are riddled with delusions of persecution. (visualize Cline crossing the stage, warmly smiling, extending his hand and embracing "reverend" Meeks......)
  
  The Checkerboard Chat encapsulates what is wrong with this department. First they hold themselves up as a "blog" - which they are not. They are nothing more than a side-bar of news bytes. They won't allow a discussion: it is just a motivational session to slap each other on the back. It may help promote the police but it "enables" the dysfunction to continue unabated. A blog allows debate - there is no debate on the Checkerboard.
  
  Secondly, they claim that their highest concern is the "working police officers" - while this is noble; it is nothing more than lip-service. While they do give kudos to those officers who richly deserve it, they do NOT attack the other side of the equation - The asinine promotions, the ridiculous regs that get shoved down our throats, the working coppers who get thrown under a bus out of expediency, the politically correct rules that we're forced to conform with even though our commonsense tells us otherwise.
  
  SCC is justified in being angry. Checkboard is a slap in the face to all police officers: not directly in what items that they include, but in what they omit. It is blatant false advertising.
  
  And for them to grand-stand and cop an attitude about getting called out on the carpet by SCC's blog is minimally unprofessional, and ultimately a strident admission that the basis of their blog is fiction. They know it, and most rand & file know it.
  
  As usual, the department shows its true reactionary colors. SCC put up his first post on 31May2005. It took almost 2 years for the department to "catch up" and start their own.
  
  How sad, How pathetic - how typical.

21 Dead - No One Resposible

Amazing. You'd think that at the very least, someone from the Mayor's Board - whoops - we mean the City Board of Licensing had something to say? Or someone responsible. You don't just cram 5 times the occupancy of a building into a location and not be paying someone off.

Channel 2, Channel 5, Channel 7 coverage.

Posting Early

We're working on a few technical issues. Has anyone noticed comments NOT being published? We're not talking about the regular ones we refuse to publish (overtly offensive garbage, three letter spanish exclamations, one word repeated over and over, Area 2 gun team crap, etc.) We're talking normal everyday comments that aren't seeing the light of day. Our comment counter has been going haywire and we're trying to get Blogger to fix it, but no help yet.

In any case, we're publishing Friday's posts about an hour earlier than usual but we're leaving the post times as normal so everything appears in order. We're also warning of possible light posting over the weekend as a particularly nasty flu bug works it's way through the families. Keep checking back as we'll be making every effort to stay up to date.

Open post in the meantime.

Cue the Violins

Good job by the police:

• A mentally ill man shot and wounded by Chicago police in the Austin neighborhood Wednesday after he allegedly threatened officers with a knife has died at an area hospital, authorities said tonight.
• A police roundtable discussion, which includes the officers involved, witnesses and prosecutors, has determined that the officers involved acted "in accordance with state law and departmental guidelines," Bond said.
• Police spokesman Pat Camden said the man was armed with a knife when officers arrived and refused orders to drop the weapon. He told police, "(Taser) me or kill me," and a sergeant on the scene Tasered the man as he advanced with the knife, Camden said.
• "He pulled the prongs right out of his chest. It had no effect on him," Camden said. "The sergeant Tasered him a second time because he continued to be menacing. He was advancing on the sergeant with a knife."

"(Taser) me or kill me"? And he pulls the Taser barbs out of his chest? Looks like the citizen already made the decision for the police. Good heads up action by whoever was backing up the sergeant on scene.

Citizens Notice Something Amiss

From the mouths of civilians, something we've been talking about for almost two years now:

• Community leaders are staging an emergency meeting Thursday night to warn women about a series of sexual assaults in the Little Village and Back of the Yards neighborhoods.
• "It'd be nice if we had a little bit more patrol. It would be helpful, you know, the police officers being on the street here with us, it would just be safe that way," said Little Village resident Magdalena Jaramillo.

"...a little bit more patrol."
"...police officers being on the street here with us..."

Psssssst! City Hall? Even the PEOPLE are starting to notice we're shorter than shorthanded. What happens when the citizens find out you haven't put a new class of recruits into the Academy in the past 4 months and we are going to be even more shorthanded as the retirement take their toll? Good thing there isn't any election coming up in the next four years or so.

Arrogance on Display

Got to love that mayor. He just doesn't give a shit:

• If union leaders were sending a message to City Hall about who will fill the political vacuum, Mayor Daley didn't hear it. That's even after labor spent more than $2 million, sent 20 mailings in some wards and put 2,000 pairs of boots on the ground on Election Day.

  "Where's the message? Hello? I mean -- come on. What message? I've been more [pro-] labor than they have. Every crane down here is labor," said Daley, whose big-box veto cost him support from all but one major union.

• With 12 runoffs and three veteran aldermen already defeated, a City Council that has grown more rambunctious with every corruption-related headline could flash an even bigger independent streak.

If in fact (and we have our doubts) that Union support forced 12 runoffs and 3 outright defeats, the mayor ought to be a little contrite. That's almost a third of the Council. You know the aldercreatures are sitting up and taking notice that tying themselves to Daley's coat tails isn't a path to lifetime employment.

We're still betting it has more to do with scandal fatigue setting in, but as unions are among the last of the socialist dinosaurs, even small victories have to be crowed over.

And the Next Superintendent Is ...

From the Sun Times:

• On or before Police Supt. Phil Cline celebrates his four-year anniversary in October, he is expected to announce his retirement from the pressure-cooker job. That will force the Police Board to conduct its usual nationwide search -- and Daley to choose a replacement, either from the Chicago Police Department's thin bench or from outside Chicago, which he hates to do. Former Deputy Police Supt. Charles Ramsey, a runner-up in past police searches, is available again after a stint as police chief in Washington, D.C. In-house candidates include: Chief of Patrol Charles Williams, Deputy Supt. Hiram Graue [sic], assistant deputy superintendents Eugene Williams and Matt Tobias and Frank Limon, chief of organized crime. Two women are also possibilities: Chief of Detectives Maria Maher and Assistant Deputy Supt. Anne Egan.

Certain members are conspicuous by their absence - no First Deputy Starks; no IAD boss Kirby. And the even more amusing part of the above linked article:

• City Hall is putting the final touches on an out-of-court settlement that would establish a $12 million fund to compensate job applicants passed over in favor of political hires. The fund would be administered by federal hiring monitor Noelle Brennan, who would become a permanent fixture at City Hall, at least for the next two years. Those terms are expected to go over like a lead balloon with Chicago aldermen, who have accused Brennan of invading their turf. Despite that resistance, it's high time for Daley to wrap up negotiations without increasing the 1,200 policy-making jobs exempt from Shakman. The biggest roadblock may be finding a way to overhaul a promotion system used to achieve racial balance in the Police and Fire departments.

Damn. Where do we sign up for our portion of the $12 million?

And Now ... the SOS Lawuits

Here they come. The first if what will undoubtedly be one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) waves of lawsuits alleging all sorts of improper behavior on the parts of numerous officers stripped and/or indicted from SOS:

• A Chicago man filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday saying he wrongly served three years in prison because he was framed by three officers -- including one later charged criminally in the Chicago Police Special Operations Section scandal.
• Thompson is seeking at least $24 million in damages.

$24 million? When on earth did this lowlife ever even get a sniff of $1 million, let along $24 million? Doesn't the City employ some actuarial-type bean counters who can research the plaintiff and see what he REALLY would have legitimately earned in those 3 years he spent behind bars? Then toss him an extra grand of so for his troubles. You could even work in the cost of the Section 8 vouchers and what he might have made working the tip.

$24 million? Wonder what Corporation Counsel is already looking to settle for.

The Runoffs

Channel 2 has a pretty good summary of each of the 12 runoff elections that are scheduled for 17 April. We personally are pulling for Tillman and Haithcock to get bumped off to join Natarus. And any other incumbent for that matter.

We're wondering how much the "big box" veto has to do with any of these runoffs - we're thinking very little. After all, all politics is local and most Chicagoans just don't give a rat's ass about "living wage ordinances." They care about property taxes and neighborhood development and getting the garbage picked up on time and the aldercreature being "accessible." And if this was really about the "big box ordinance," why didn't they target Daley who exercised his first ever veto in 20 years of ruling the city?

Maybe it was just scandal fatigue.

Addendum to Below Post

Just for shits and giggles, we are hereby banning any comment or post that links back to the "official" blog of the CPD. We were actually toying with the idea of giving them a link in the sidebar, but not anymore. They don't like us, fuck em. We aren't going to send any traffic their way, good or bad. You want to write about them or make a reference to them, it better be as "that other blog" or it better be on your own website. Let's see how they like generating their own traffic instead of riding on our coattails.

Slapping Around Checkerboard Chat

LONG POST. Evidently, we've been tweaked by the boys over at the "Official" blog of the Chicago Police Department. We say "tweaked" because their effort is a really half assed attempt to seize the high ground after getting punked and owned by a reader of ours. Well, we're about to slap them around big time and hand them their ass - strap in boys and girls. Our comments are in the italics. And by the way, if Pat Camden had anything to do with the below post, we'll eat our hat, but as his name is on the bottom, he's getting the same treatment:
-------------------

Are We For Real. . . or What?

Well, I guess we are "official"! We've gotten hate mail, coded messages. . . the works! It's funny, though. I thought that the biggest critics would be the so-called "unappreciative public" or even the "unscrupulous media". HA! WRONG!!

(We don't know about hate mail and how it makes you "official." Usually, hate mail means someone somewhere really dislikes you. We've gotten a ton of it, too. So now we're "official"? And what makes you think the public or the media actually knows about you? Or cares? You're a bunch of sanitized press releases for crissake.)

If you haven't taken the time to really check us out, I'll simply remind you that we ARE "of, by and for the Police". The REAL police, not the clout-heavy police, not the "whining" police--the every day copper who straps on a duty-belt, gets in a squad and does the job. If you think the site is all BS or propaganda or whatever, do me a favor and don't use it. This site has been created to get factual information to the rank and file and also let the public see the everyday success stories of the Chicago Police Department. We are here to give information, provide a voice and FINALLY give credit to the men and women of this Department who truly deserve it. . . YOU. . . the "everyday copper."

(BWAHAHAHAHAHA. You are "of...the REAL police"? Since when? In what parallel universe are you living? When was the last time either one of you bozos strapped on a full duty belt? Besides Closed Market. And we haven't seen Pat in a Closed Market car lately. Bravo on the giving credit to unsung heroes though - that's about the only thing worthy of mention on your site. As to your being propaganda, didn't you notice that every comment must be approved by the Office of the Superintendent? You tools.)

Those of us working on this blog do so because WE WANT TO. Believe it or not, there are still a lot of police officers who take pride and honor in the work they do. There are problems and issues that make us unhappy with the job, that is part of life. But then again, do you know of ANY job that is problem-free? (If so, send me an application--I could use a stress-free gig!)

(Glad you "WANT TO" work on a blog - we'll bet it's a great gig to get paid $60,000+ a year to do also. Thanks for acknowledging that there are problems and stresses on this job - how about addressing a few of them? Like how to get that $60,000+ rewriting press releases and tossing them up on a website. Morons. We take pride in everything we do, too, but we're doing it in the trenches, not from a sanitized cubicle.)

If you simply want to rant, rave, whine, moan and complain without adding anything constructive, find someplace else to spend your time. Coded messages and inappropriate comments (while creative and SOMETIMES humorous) are not what we are about and will not be posted. There's plenty of space to do that. . . elsewhere.

(Hey! You must mean us. Thanks! It must be nice to be so far separated from the reality of District law enforcement that you have no fucking idea what we put up with in an eight-hour shift - backlog 4 or more hours per tour, lunch denials, stupid bosses, dangerous bosses, 2-year wonders working inside, unattainable mission goals based on what some computer geek decides is the "correct" approach to policing, etc. Need we go on? Humor is what we've got - and we are DAMN proud to provide coppers with what they want, not what the bosses THINK they want.)

Criticism is cool. Stupidity is not. Police officers already face enough adversity on a daily basis. There are enough "haters" out there without us having to turn on each other.

(Have you trolled through our comments sections lately? We can cite dozens of instances where our readers have been denied their posts being published on your site because they bring up uncomfortable truths about the Department writ large. And stop with the pretend concern about what adversity officers face on a daily basis - you have no fucking clue.)

If you are proud to do the job, say so. If you don't like the job, quit. It's easy to be "controversial" and "subversive" when you can do so with an electronic pseudonym. If you have a legitimate complaint or concern, you are more than welcome to express an intelligent opinion. If your concern is legitimate, have the courage to sign your name.

We do..... John Henry and Pat Camden.

(That's real mature - "if you don't like the job, quit." This Department can't hire enough bodies as it is - or don't you remember the days of 35,000 applicants dwindling to under 3,000 for three tests a year? And the bodies that are actually hired are either (A) burned out by the time they get 10 years on or (B) so clout heavy that they never see the inside of a squad car outside of their training cycles.

Fuck you, you sanctimonious pieces of shit. It's morons like you who have and are destroying the greatest job known to mankind. We'd love to have a job writing a blog for the Department at $60 grand a year. [post amended - son of the State's Attorney is still in 015 at the moment - but the pool says not much longer]. Or the daughter of a certain retired exempt who gets an entire spot created for her along with take-home vehicle, all paid for by Federal money.

And a great big FUCK YOU to the snide comment about us being "controversial" and subversive" with an electronic pseudonym. Fuck You. You are naive beyond belief if you think for a moment that any one of us here would have anything like a normal career or a normal life or a normal assignment the minute our name was attached to an alternative blog. We'd be hammered. We'd be bricked. We'd be walking a foot post in a district located at the furthest point from our actual geographic home. No thanks. Our name isn't Pat Camden or John Henry and thank god for that - at least we still have our balls attached to our bodies. And we did notice that you allow anonymous comments anyway - are your commentators afraid to be accused of being company suckasses? You speak with forked tongues, hmmm?

Here's a challenge for you jackasses - let's see your numbers. Throw up a Sitemeter counter open to the public. Lets see how your numbers stack up against any of the other blogs out there. Let the Free Market decide who coppers want to read. Of course, it's easier for you to pretend to be the voice of the Department when you can just have the Department censors block out an entire swath of websites that just happen to have the "blogspot" name attached to them. We'll bet we know what the numbers read, because even with an unlevel playing field, we're still pulling in almost 2,500 visits a day and moderating over 200 comments a day. We don't think you've published 200 comments total yet.

So, John Henry, you steel-driving man, that twinge you feel is a steel rod being driven up your ass courtesy of the alternative blogs. And Pat Camden, if you had anything to do with the listed post, we are truly ashamed of you. We hope it isn't really you because you seem to be such an advocate for the street guys and gals on camera (don't forget to pick up your asses on the way out the door.)

POST AMENDED TO REFLECT CURRENT ASSIGNMENT OF SERGEANT IN QUESTION.

Council Shakeup?

Since aldercreatures need a "50% plus one" to win, we're looking an a number of runoff elections on 17 April that could change quite a bit of the make up of the City Council. We have always been an advocate of "any change is good," especially in the case of Chicago and Crook County politics. Some of the races we're watching with interest:

• Natarus - out!
• Troutman - out!
• Beavers (the offspring) - out!

Beavers lost to Mrs. Jesse Jr. Another political dynasty continues.

And trailing (in some cases trailing badly) and facing runoff elections:

• Madeline Haithcock, Dorothy Tillman, Shirley Coleman, Howard Brookins, Michael Chandler, Ted Matlak, Rey Colon and Vi Daley.

Of course, a couple of these might shake out before sun rise, but it's always good to see some of these leeches sweat a little. Hopefully a few are unemployed by morning.

More County Hijinks

First of all, she ain't all that. We've seen the picture and damn, we'd probably ask to be fired if she placed any sort of demands on us. But then again, getting $70,000 a year just to be a chauffeur?

But that isn't the best part. How about this?

• Adams once disciplined her chief of staff for instructing Estes to pick up her dry cleaning on state time, court records show. Wertz has gone by a handful of names, has an undisclosed criminal conviction and holds several Social Security numbers, court documents show.

  Estes also has three convictions from the early 1990s.

Estes has THREE convictions, yet still maintains a government job paying him $70,000 a year to drive around someones Chief of Staff. Wertz (the Chief of Staff in question) has an undisclosed criminal conviction, numerous aliases and multiple social security numbers? What the hell is that? And who is going to be on the hook for any judgements against Wertz? The taxpayers again?

Will someone please disband county government? Mr. Fitzgerald? Faster please.

Oh Please, Let This Come True

From Channel 2:

• Second Ward Ald. Madeline Haithcock might need a little luck at the polls tomorrow. Despite endorsements by Congressman Bobby Rush and Mayor Richard M. Daley, two well-financed opponents seem to be making a race of it.
  
  At the eleventh hour, attorney David Askew is calling as many voters as he can, reminding them that both the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times have endorsed him. He's also accusing Haithcock of paying too much attention to the new super high rise development corridor in the South Loop, and not enough on the hard scrabble neighborhoods on the West Side.

This is the hater who wants to name streets after those who advocate murdering police officers. We know a lot of city workers have been moving into her ward in the past few years as the Western Avenue corridor gentrifies. Anyone who can cast votes against this particularly low class aldercreature really ought to.

AND DON'T FORGET!! It's Election Day Vote early, vote often, but vote.

Embarrassing Report Becomes Public

Another sordid bit of history:

• An audit the city kept secret for more than a decade shows the Chicago Police evidence warehouse was in such disarray in the 1990s that guns vanished from the facility and were later recovered from criminals.

  A federal judge last week lifted a protective order on the audit reports, which revealed the status of 133 guns was "undetermined" because of a failure to record the movement of evidence. Officials also could not account for nearly $7 million in drugs.

  The audit showed at least four confiscated handguns disappeared from the warehouse between 1991 and 1995, and were seized again in weapons and drug arrests on the South Side.

133 guns unaccounted for. $7 million dollars in dope. "Embarrassment" is a mild description of what happened at E&RPS back in the 1990's. No wonder they tried to keep this one under wraps. How many bosses and exempts were held accountable for this debacle?

SWAT Job

Old news, but worthy of recognition:

• Chicago police say they've resolved a hostage situation on the city's South Side without incident.

  Spokeswoman Monique Bond says an armed 19-year-old man took four people hostage in an apartment on the 8400 block of South Bennett around one a-m today.

  Bond says the hostages included a 12-year-old girl, a five-year-old girl, a five-year-old boy and an adult woman.

Of course, most police incidents only make the news when bad things happen. And the coverage of this was minimal at best. But it sounds like a good job all around.

Forgotten Anniversary

We confess - this one even slipped our minds (via Michelle Malkin):

• Lawhawk reminds us that today is the 14th anniversary of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. We always hear "Never forget." But how many still remember anymore?

  And how many have really learned?

Yesterday was the anniversary. And we saw just about zero coverage anywhere. What should have been a wake up call was just another blip that went unrecognized for years and years.

Michelle also has a very haunting video some tourists took of an elevator ride to the observation deck of one of the towers. The video shows the floor counter moving up to 107 and the doors opening to a long hallway that leads to a number of windows through which you can see New York City. Then the camera pans downward and we couldn't help thinking that 8 years later, that was the last view that hundreds of people had prior to jumping. Haunting.

From the Comments

First, the question:

• Too Old to Rock & Roll said...

• Pardon the slightly off topic post.
  
  Has anyone heard anything about the "beating of the bushes" program at 35th Street to roust up 50 bodies for some new unit?

What we've heard:

• They've been sending bodies to a couple of districts to learn how to do reverse stings. Someone had the bright idea that all the house mouses could be utilized outside of "Closed Market" and are supposed to serve their street time as a mobile sting squad. Unfortunately, many of the people sent don't want to have to spend their street days in some of the crappiest locations in the city in all sorts of weather, so the number of volunteers is lower than expected.

Of course, this info was from some young gun who was half gassed at the tavern, so it could be completely wrong. There might be a number of "new units" being created somewhere to do another crazy numbers game. All we know is we're still short about 1,200 bodies on the street. And that's a generous assessment.

Who Cares?

This is just one of the stupidest articles we've ever seen:

• Genealogists have revealed that the Rev. Al Sharpton is a descendent of a slave owned by relatives of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond — a discovery the civil rights activist on Sunday called “shocking.”

  Sharpton learned of his connection to Thurmond, once a prominent defender of segregation, last week through the Daily News, which asked genealogists to trace his roots.

This was all over the news shows tonight and the radio this afternoon. Is there actually a point to this? Associated Press plays up the obvious angles:

• Thurmond, of South Carolina, was once considered an icon of racial segregation. During his 1948 bid for president, he promised to preserve segregation and, in 1957, he filibustered for more than 24 hours against a civil rights bill.

  Sharpton, who ran for president in 2004 on a ticket of racial justice, said he met Thurmond only once in 1991 when he visited Washington, D.C., with the late soul singer James Brown, who knew Thurmond. Sharpton said the meeting was “awkward.”

  “I was not happy to meet him because what he had done all his life,” Sharpton said.

If all you caught was the news reports, you miss this little paragraph though:

• The long-serving senator was originally a Democrat but became a Republican in 1964.

So that would mean in his 1948 bid for president and preserve segregation, Strom ran as a DEMOCRAT! And when he filibustered the Civil Rights Act in 1957, he did it as ... a DEMOCRAT! Strom was one of the original "Dixie-crats." It wasn't Republicans running around Alabama in sheets burning black churches. We wonder if anyone is doing a little historical research on former Klan Kleagle and current DEMOCRAT Senator of West Virginia Robert Byrd to see who his ancestors used to own or advocate the lynching of.

Strom's ancestors are even more ancient history than he was. Get over it already. He's dead and has absolutely no bearing on any sort of debate today. Kind of like Sharpton's career.

Post #2000

Post number 2000.

636 days of blogging.

Over 925,000 total visitors viewing 3,442,000 pages!

Readers from across the country and 5 different continents.

You humble us. Thank you.

Open post in the meantime.

Remember That Olympics Bid?

No, not the 2016 Games for Chicago. The 2012 London Games that Great Britain is preparing for:

• It has been reported that the cost of the 2012 London Olympics could soar to £9 billion, almost four times the original estimate.

• The BBC says that the Treasury and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport are discussing the price, up from the £2.35 billion set out in London's bid document.

  The Government reportedly believes construction alone could cost £3.3 billion, with an extra £2 billion allocated as a contingency fund.

Any of this sound familiar? "almost four times the original estimate"? And we thought "contingency fund" was a Chicago term. Given Chicago's history of crooked contract awarding and checkered political past, cost overruns and the like are pretty much a guarantee.

Just for comparison purposes, £9 billion translates into about $17 BILLION US dollars. You think the Machine and the Daley connected construction firms aren't drooling in anticipation of a $17 billion dollar payday?

Is it Getting Hot in Here?

Once again, the "teflon" mayor in the hot seat:

• Mayor Daley said Friday he has "no problems" answering questions under oath about allegations that -- as state's attorney and as mayor -- he failed to investigate torture allegations against former Police Lt. Jon Burge.
• "If they require me to be deposed, I have no problems with that. That's all I have to say," he told reporters at police headquarters.
• Daley noted he had been "deposed already" by a special prosecutor appointed to investigate the allegations against Burge.

And as we remember, the "I don't recall" defense was exercised to its fullest extent in that deposition. But as the city settles everything that comes its way and is all too eager to give away taxpayer money, we expect another monumental settlement to wend its way to the City Council within the year.

What's up with Old People?

We were writing about a senior citizen farmer chasing down a gasoline thief last month. Now we have a 70+ year old Korean War vet strangling an armed mugger in Costa Rica:

• An American tourist who watched as a U.S. military veteran in his 70s used his bare hands to kill an armed assailant in Costa Rica said she thought the attempted robbery was a joke - until the masked attacker held a gun to her head.

• Suddenly, one of the tourists, a U.S. military veteran trained in self defense, jumped out of the van and put the gunman in a headlock, according to Limon police chief Luis Hernandez.

  Hernandez said the American, whom he refused to identify, struggled with the robber, breaking his collarbone and eventually killing him. Police identified the dead man as Warner Segura, 20. The other two assailants fled.

Score one more for the old folks.

GPS Rumors

Both from the comments section.

Rumor #1:

• Heard it from the horses mouth!!! Tac and Gangs city wide will have gps installed in their squad cars within the next 90 days!!!! Guess the party is over....

Rumor #2:

• Supposedly, gps is not going on cars..too expensive...radios are going to get chipped with gps.

So which one is it? Radios or cars? Cars or radios? Or are they just going to chip us the way they do dogs and cats at the pound and zap us when we misbehave?

Daley Confident

And why shouldn't he be? He has two no name, no chance people running against him. OK, Dorothy Brown isn't exactly no name, but she's a machine creation, brought in to dilute the earlier attempts by Gutierrez and Jackson Jr. to actually run an alternate choice that might have a chance (not that either one of them were any great shakes anyway).

Dorothy Brown has a point though:

• The torture lawsuit, which is about to be settled for nearly $15 million dollars, is another example of what Daley's opponents are calling the "corruption tax" that city residents have to pay. Other examples include a $10 million settlement this week in another police misconduct case, 40 million in the hired truck scandal, and a $100 million minority contract scam perpetrated by the Duff family, longtime friends of the mayor.

  "People should realize that enough is enough," said Dorothy Brown, Candidate for Mayor.

Enough should be enough, but the bar is set so high as to discourage someone who could actually make a difference from even starting the paperwork to explore a candidacy.

Crook County Outrage

This is just coming to light:

• State Sen. Rickey Hendon (D-Chicago) admits he has no background in health care.

  But that didn't stop him from signing a $24,900 contract last year to work as a health care consultant to Cook County government.

  He signed another $24,900 contract weeks later to advise the county on attracting revenue-generating festivals and serve as a liaison between state and county officials.

This 3 month contract (and numerous others) fell under the $25,000 threshold that necessitates full Board approval. Funny how it just happened to fall under by a hundred bucks, eh? Acting President Bobbie Steele managed to hand out at least 6 of these contracts and looks to have facilitated the hiring back of certain connected retirees at wildly inflated salaries - something that we've heard the CPD is doing with certain exempt spots to get around the mandatory age limit.

Got to love those thieves on the Book County Board. Bobbie Steele (or Steal) learned well from Stroger and company - tell us again how Urkel won this thing?

Checkerboard Chat Got OWNED

We have got to have the funniest readers in the world. A little more than a week ago, someone put one over on us, writing a secret message in a comment stating "RIP Anna Nicole" in a thread for Officer Vazquez. Although humorous, we deleted it because that thread was for Officer Vazquez. But we appreciated the humor and congratulated whoever it was for getting one by us.

It has been topped and in doing so, they have PUNKED and OWNED the Superintendent's office. Edward Nigma (E.Nigma - the Riddler from Batman) posted the following comment in the Monthly Department Commendation Ceremony thread:

• Thank goodness there are people there to
  honor our brothers and sisters in blue.
  is there ever a time it shouldn't be done?
  send us more good police officers.
  send us more elite units.
  i for one would welcome them
  to the community I think
  everyone would. And it
  isn't a matter of good p.r.
  save your thoughts on that, instead
  put your faith in the many beat
  cars on the street. Believe me, the
  boys in blue are more than welcome, the more
  units the better. I say
  let us give thanks to the officers and
  love to their families. The more
  support we gather the better. Lets
  have a show of support for the
  intriquite workings of the CPD. Lets
  thank them for their hard work. Bravo.

And if you read the bold letters straight down, you come up with "This site is PC Bullshit." Amazing. Our hat is off to whomever dreamed this one up and got it on the site. We hereby promote you to "Seiser of the Month."

Whoever published it, cross referenced it to our comment section for recognition and we're sure that it's going to be deleted this morning as soon as some little humorless crybaby goes whining to the Superintendent's people. We have preserved it here so everyone can see it before they take it down over there. In the meantime, that is a truly hilarious bit of creativity. Good job. Everyone else ought to try to get a little bit like this published on the "official" site - anagrams, word play, etc.

UPDATE: Still up as of 0645 hours this morning.

UPDATE: Down this afternoon - fun while it lasted. Anyone down at 35th Street get the lowdown on who missed the hidden message?

Dirty Tricks

Getting word of an Aldercreature's people being caught hacking into an opponent's campaign website. Combined with the recent "missteps" of 41st Aldercreature Doherty, it looks like Machine dirty politics is alive and well up north.

Let's see if this one makes the papers.

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

Actually, a couple of million dimes:

• A jury awarded a husband and wife $9.75 million in damages Thursday for a smear and terror campaign aimed at them after they accused a police officer of corruption while working as federal agents.

• Jurors leaving the court scoffed at city officials' claim that they conducted an 18-month investigation of Miedzianowski but never interviewed Klipfel and Casali, and were unable to uncover evidence of corruption at the time.

• The jury awarded Klipfel $7.75 million for violation of her rights by both Miedzianowski and the city. It awarded her $1 million for defamation of character by Miedzianowski while acting in his role as a city employee.

  It also awarded Casali $1 million for Miedzianowski's violation of his rights while acting as a city employee.

  Saltzberg said the city would have to pay the entire $9.75 million because Miedzianowski is believed to have no money. She said the couple's attorneys would ask the court to award them fees in the $1 million range.

From Channel 7's coverage:

• Jurors deliberated for almost two days before reaching the decision Thursday afternoon. They listened to testimony from current police Superintendent Phil Cline and from the former head of internal affairs Ray Risley.

  The couple accused Risley and the department of covering up Miedzianowski's illegal activity. And jurors believed them.

  "It gets down to, Were we dealing with a crooked Chicago police officer? And was the system protecting him? It sure seemed like it," said Joe Karl, juror.

$9.75 million PLUS lawyers fees of another million. Cline and Risley sure looked good on the stand though, didn't they? Un-freaking-believable. Risley ought to be jailed for perjury at this point. And Cline? Well, one can only wonder what other surprises are going to come out over the next few years. Morale is in the shitter and events like this only drive it further underground. What with the SOS trial starting soon and at least one other scandal percolating in the background, we still haven't hit bottom yet.

Change in St Jude's Route?

Anyone care to confirm this from the comments section?

• Did anyone notice that Special Bulletin "From South Chicago to Gold Star Park." According to the bulletin, the St. Jude march is not going to be on Michigan Ave this year. The parade route will assemble at Gold Star Park. That's understandable, but I'm gonna miss Michigan Ave though. It will be a special day, as it always is, no matter where we march. Stay safe.

Personally, we prefer the Michigan Avenue route. Yeah, parking was sometimes a bitch, but at least we were out in the open, down in front of the ritziest shops in the middle of all the lakefront liberals a few thousand strong. Sure, most of them were sleeping, but it was a great show for the early rising tourists who were always impressed by the show.

Now, if this is true, it looks like we're going to be shunted out of the public eye and visible only to the dedicated joggers out on Sunday morning. We're sure they aren't going to shut down Lake Shore Drive just for us so we have no idea of what kind of route they're going to try. Even Roosevelt Road to LSD means we're only showing off for the Maxwell Street vendors. And where would they have Mass? McCormick Place? Lovely.

Who's got the legit info?

Share the Web Traffic

Rue St. Michel writes a great essay regarding Department morale after reading a comment on our blog:

• He or she is completely correct. My biggest issue with the Chicago Police department is that their policies are completely reactive - never proactive. We aren't being run by police officers; we're being run by accountants and lawyers.
  
  Whenever an officer uses deadly force, the press automatically assumes that it wasn't warranted. When some shitheads were running a robbery team downtown and the police chased them in a vehicle pursuit (because the criminals decided to drive away in order to defeat the arrest) and a woman was killed when the shitheads jumped a curb (because the criminals decided to drive fast and dangerously in order to defeat the arrest) then all of a sudden it was "the fault of the police" for the death of an innocent civilian. Therefore they changed our chase / pursuit policy which virtually ceased all vehicle chases because the directive was so prohibitive.

We've touched on some of these points in passing. But we always appreciate when others can take the time to do a little more in depth than we manage to with our limited time. Rue often fills the bill admirably - and his latest on certain diseases making the rounds of the homeless on the left coast is an eye opener for first responders. Go visit.

And speaking of other blogs, SecondCitySarge dissects the recent beating death of a 13 year old kid on the Albany Park neighborhood and the subsequent denials by Mom that a child out past curfew on a school night not reporting in for 9 hours and on the way home from visiting his brother at County could have anything to do with gangs. Right Ma.

The Joys of a Conservative Court

You have got to love the impact Reagan, Bush and Bush have had on the Supreme Court over the past few decades. Sure, they've rolled out a few clunkers of judiciary opinion here and there, but over all, a Conservative court is good for the police.

• WASHINGTON---- A deadline is a deadline is a deadline, the Supreme Court said Wednesday in refusing to allow a man wrongly imprisoned for more than eight years to sue the police officers who arrested him.

  Andre Wallace, whose murder conviction was overturned in 2002, waited several years too long to file his false arrest lawsuit, the court said in a 7-2 ruling.

We'd hope that Bush gets one more chance to put a strict originalist on the Court before he leaves office. It'd be a bloodbath with a democratic controlled Senate, but entertaining politics to say the least and energizing to the Conservative base at the outside. It'll give the liberals nightmares for the next 15 years.

World Wide Influence

Sitemeter stats show a slight decline of about 200 to 400 visitors a day to this site after the Department did a blanket banning of any and all "blogspot" accounts. That's OK by us - we aren't losing any sleep or money over it and we appreciate all the people who check us out daily from their homes, libraries, public school fixed posts and the uncensored computers down at 35th Street (yes, we know you're out there visiting - hi!). But still, 2,500 hits a day is probably 2,450 more than the "official" CPD blog.

We were scanning the other stats checking out foreign visitors and we had a visitor from Albania, Saudi Arabia, and for the first time we can remember, Parow, South Africa. So SCC is now known and read in FIVE continents (North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa). Our plan to take over the world from Seiser proceeds apace. If anyone has friends in South America, we'd like a few visits from our southern neighbors and anyone who can direct traffic to us from Antarctica will be made honorary "Seiser for a day."

In the meantime, an open post to amuse everyone.

SOS Cops Plead Not Guilty

As this wretched saga draws closer to a court date, the rumors continue to abound:

• one more set of indictments coming down - involving supervisors?;
• every one of the people at 311 will be gone before the end of the year;
• charges will be filed with the Police Board to fire the "cooperating individuals" who've testified in front of the Grand Jury - they won't be charged criminally, but administratively separated

This might end up as the largest mass firing in CPD history. It's certainly a black eye for the Department and we'll bet it doesn't get mentioned on their blog. It's also raising the profile of one of the candidates for the Superintendent vacancy due to occur sometime this year - Kirby.

But we also have to wonder if the recent perjury by a former head of IAD is going to besmirch the reputation of anyone coming out of that office. Combined with Maher falling out of favor due to poor clearance rates and personality conflicts, Skahill is looking more and more like a front runner.

Who's got some speculation on the next Supe?

Are We Heartless Bastards?

From the Sun Times and Channel 5 websites:

• Commonwealth Edison customers disconnected for non-payment but ineligible for low-income assistance could get one-time, $400 grants, thanks to a $1.5 million plan unveiled today to prevent a repeat of a Rogers Park fire that killed six children.
• Low-income families and individuals in the dark might get a hand from a new one-time grant available to those whose electricity has been disconnected after failure to pay bills. Mayor Richard Daley and Commonwealth Edison officials on Tuesday announced the creation of the PowerUp fund, which will provide one-time grants of $400 to pay the electric bills of people who have been disconnected for nonpayment, according to a release from the mayor’s office.

Here's a bright idea - pay your bills. Get jobs and earn money to pay, even if it's a fixed percentage of the bill. ComEd contributing to this fund is just passed along to everyone else in the form of higher bills. The mask slips and Daley shows his true colors as a committed leftist and communist:

• The Ramirez family’s plight touched a nerve with Daley, who lashed out at the landlord for ignoring his “moral responsibility” to assist a family in need.

What about the renter's moral responsibility to pay their own way? How many times have we responded to landlord-tenant disputes where the "tenant" hasn't paid rent in a year or so and the landlord is the one jumping through hoops to evict these leeches draining their investment? And this is just the priceless quote that makes the article:

• Neighbors of the Ramirez family were apparently well aware that electricity to the apartment had been cut off because the family had tried without success to make an illegal connection in the hallway or an adjoining apartment.

So instead of applying for aid or some other legal means to acquire electricity, they tried the illegal route. Sorry, our sympathy meter just isn't registering here. If you can't afford to live in the city, then maybe you ought to move somewhere more affordable. We pay so much in taxes to support an already overburdened social services network for people with neither the desire or inclination to support themselves.

Yeah, yeah, we're heartless bastards who don't understand what it's like to try to raise half a dozen kids in poverty conditions and yadda yadda yadda. Too freaking bad - don't have kids you can't afford, don't live in places you can't afford, don't expect us to bail you out of your bad life decisions.

One Week - No Obama

Our self imposed exile of writing anything about Obama ends with this post. We managed to stay away for 7 whole days. But then he goes and says something so inane that we feel obliged to assist in pointing it out to everyone and just poking fun at him.

• Hitting one of the early primary states in the first week since announcing his candidacy for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, Obama told supporters he doesn't believe those who say a black man can't be elected.

  "Twenty years ago, nobody would have believed this crowd in South Carolina," he said of the racially mixed group.

Um, Barack? Twenty years ago, Jesse Jackson of all people WON the South Carolina primary. And he WON in ten other states besides. So Barack's supposed "unbelievability" is at least 20 years past expiration. Anyone in the mainstream media catching this?

Hat tip GatewayPundit

Believe the City? Or the Inmate?

We know who juries have been siding with.

• Three men who were pardoned from death row allege the City of Chicago isn't honoring a $14.8 million settlement on claims of police torture.The filing was submitted electronically Monday on behalf of Madison Hobley, Leroy Orange and Stanley Howard.
• Jennifer Hoyle -- who's a spokeswoman for the city Law Department -- said no settlement was reached and any discussions between the parties are confidential.

First of all, if the City didn't try to settle every damn case that came their way, we'd have a lot fewer problems. But again, Corp Counsel doesn't exist to win cases for the City - Corp Counsel exists to provide jobs for a lot political hacks who couldn't get honest employment elsewhere (and your odd lawyer who actually tries to do the right thing - but they're hidden in the basement).

But then you have Hoyle saying that settlement talks are confidential and nothing has been reached. As a party to a couple of settlements told us, when lawyers make a play like this, they're risking quite a bit - they want to force the City's hand but they also risk alienating judges, juries and the aforementioned Corp Counsel who they have to deal with.

Maybe this is a ploy by the City? Offer all sorts of settlements and then refuse to pay as everything negotiated is "confidential"? Or delay paying so as to have the opposition "violate" the terms of agreement and then negotiate lower? Anything to save a buck or avoid actually having to appear in front of a judge we suppose.

George Ryan's Appeal Coming

This jackass going to jail won't come a day too soon for us:

• Did U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer "abuse her discretion" when she replaced two jurors -- after eight days of deliberations -- for concealing their run-ins with the law?

  That likely will be the focus of questions from the judges of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals today, when they take up the convictions of former Gov. George Ryan and his friend Larry Warner.

We didn't (and still don't) expect Cook County juries to be screened any where near properly as the entire system is corrupt and rife with crooked judges, attorneys (on both sides), and riddled with political hacks. But we were surprised at the time that Federal trials didn't do background checks on jurors as a matter of course. We haven't heard if they're doing it now, but they ought to be.

Must Be Sweeps Week?

Channel 2 covers girl on girl fighting:

• They graduated from pushing and shoving and name-calling to straight up duking it out. Now a furious debate is on over the reasons girls are fighting and how we can stop it.
  
  As CBS 2's Diann Burns reports, the urgency is underscored by the millions of references and thousands of videos of violent fights on the Internet.
  
  The beatings are punishing fists flying, hair pulling and kicking. This is how more and more girls these days handle disputes.

We don't know about other areas of the city, but we'd say 80% or more of the fights in high schools nowadays is girls fighting. Its been steadily increasing for years. Some of it is gang related, some is narcotics related, but loads of it is just BS over some boy.

Seiser said its sure come a long way from jello wrestling through.