Oh Shit, It's the Feds!

Things just went from bad to worse for the SOS scandal:

• The U.S. attorney's office has joined the ongoing criminal probe of an elite squad of the Chicago Police Department, working with Cook County prosecutors to investigate why police officials did not stop rogue officers who allegedly robbed and kidnapped civilians over at least four years, sources familiar with the investigation said.
  
  The move raises the stakes for the Special Operations Section officers who now face the specter of harsher federal punishment and also signals that more cops could be swept up in the probe as law enforcement authorities reach back at least a decade for evidence of criminal conduct.

Federal prosecution means the possibility of RICO charges and that means asset seizures.

SOS is finished and probably won't last out the year at this rate. People are bailing left and right and no one is getting in.

Asking Questions

We've been called out by a bunch of people, unhappy for questioning the Memorial, its practices, its methods, where it's headed. We've been called a bunch of bad names, too. When you can't attack the message, attack the messenger we suppose. It works for the democrats.

We've also had a bunch of support in the comments section. Thanks for that.

When we started this series of posts, we knew it was going to be heated. We still don't understand how anyone can give blindly and not expect an accurate accounting, especially given the history of corruption, not just in the City, but in the Department itself. Do we really have to run down the list of exempts who were mob connected, convicted thieves, serial sexual predators, or drug abusers?

Sorry we're so cynical as to have to question the motivations and practices of a job we really truly enjoy. We didn't come on the job like this - the job made us like this. But when we go to the Memorial Newsletter page and find the alleged "accounting" of millions of dollars, we find this:

• Chicago Police Memorial Foundation Financial Information
• From Inception Through 12/31/06
• Revenues/Donations $4,145.2 million 100.0%
• Memorial Costs $3,214.2 million 77.5%
• Fundraising/Event Costs* $575.3 thousand 13.9%
• Cash on Hand $334.7 thousand 8.1%
• Awards/Assistance $21.0 thousand .5%

For comparison purposes, go to this link for the 2005-2006 Annual Report put out by Easter Seals - it's a 68 page document outlining income and expenditures in mind numbing detail. In our opinion, what the Memorial newsletter provides IS NOT AN ACCURATE ACCOUNTING.

We realize that the Memorial Costs ate up a huge amount of the total donations. Construction materials and labor cost a huge amount of money. But its a one-time expense. What concerns us most is the $575,000 (13.9% of total monies) for Fundraising/Event Costs as compared to the Awards/Assistance of $21,000 (0.5% of total monies). What are the future expected costs and layouts? Wouldn't that $575,000 have been better spent as Awards/Assistance to the disabled or families of deceased? Is anyone else bothered that only 0.5% of the Memorial Fund actually made it out as Awards/Assistance? And where is the accounting for a "paid director" position that the former Superintendent is accepting? How much is it? Is that lumped in with "Memorial Costs"?

As to people contending that the "Mission beyond the Memorial" was always part of the plan, we (and dozens of others) don't recall that at all. The early Roll Call videos were about the Memorial, not the continuing mission.

Again, for the benefit of those attacking us - demanding accountability is NOT a fault, is NOT cowardly, is NOT an attack upon the Memorial and what it represents. It is a Duty to our Dead to ensure that their memories are not sullied by shoddy accounting practices and paid directorships that haven't existed in the past, yet suddenly appear when a retired exempt (nominally in charge of the strong arming that went on) needs a job.

Why isn't everyone asking these questions? Are the answers you're getting satisfying you? So far, they aren't satisfying us.

Thanks Greg

Now if this would just get out to the world at large. From Greg Bella, 3rd Vice President of FOP 7:

• Our officers should never be expected to risk death or serious injury when confronted by an armed offender. The choice is simple and it is made for the officer by the offender, drop the weapon and surrender or aim the weapon and be shot. This is how we are trained. We don’t want to lose one officer because of second-guessing. Second-guessing is something reserved for the Jakeses, Montgomerys and Sharptons of the world.

Go read the entire article at the FOP current updates page (linked here for your convenience)

Two Arrests for Tagging

From the Tribune:

• Bail has been set in the case of two men charged with the July 23 spray-painting of a wall at a memorial dedicated to police officers killed in the line of duty.
  
  Prosecutors said Anthony Ortega, 24, of the 2600 block of West Touhy Avenue and Robert Ray, 26, of the 7100 block of West Foster Avenue spray-painted their "tagger" names—nicknames that graffiti artists often spray in high-visibility areas—on a wall at the Gold Star Families Memorial and Park, located at Waldron and Museum Campus Drives.
  
  They were arrested and charged with criminal damage to government property, a felony. On Wednesday, Judge Raymond Myles set bail at $40,000 for Ortega and at $50,000 for Ray, a tax auditor who is on special probation for a case involving possession of a controlled substance.

Government property? Can someone explain? We were under the impression it was private property.

He Doesn't Get It

That's the simplest explanation we could come up with. From the comments:

• CONGRATULATIONS SCC, YOU'VE REACHED A NEW LOW!
  
  [Thanks? We weren't aware that anyone was keeping track.]
  
  SURE IT MAKES SENSE TO ASK QUESTIONS, BUT TO PUT SPIN IT THE WAY YOU HAVE DONE IS DEPLORABLE.
  
  [Spin? What spin? We started this series of posts stating that questions had been raised and we weren't sure how to approach the issue without offending some people]
  
  ALL MEMORIALS HAVE PAID POSITIONS, CHECK OUT THEIR WEBSITES. THE NATIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS MEMORIAL FUNDS SPENDS OVER 1.3 MILLION A YEAR IN SALARIES.
  
  [Are those salaries paid for running things like the gift shop? We don't see one of those here. For fundraising expertise? Maintenance costs? As we stated, an endowment fund could take care of all of these trivial expenses in perpetuity]
  
  MOST MEMORIAL FOUNDATIONS GO BEYOND THE MEMORIAL AND TO DO THAT, THEY NEED DIRECTION AND MANAGEMENT; AND YES THESE PEOPLE SHOULD BE PAID FOR THEIR WORK.
  
  [Which was never how this was presented. This was supposed to be a straight up Memorial honoring the dead of the CPD. We don't recall any of the initial publicity material or videos or presentations ever mentioned a "mission beyond the memorial." We challenge your assertion that "most memorial foundations go beyond the memorial." Perhaps other organizations spring up afterwards, but they are presented and stand on their own.]
  
  THE MONEY FROM OUR MEMORIAL IS SLATED FOR MANY THINGS AND ALL OF IT IS FOR THE FAMILIES OF OUR FALLEN BROTHERS AND SISTERS AND THOSE CRITICALLY INJURED IN THE LINE OF DUTY. Ie. ONE TIME PAYOUTS TO THE FAMILIES OF FALLEN OFFICERS TO HELP OUT RIGHT AWAY; REGARDLESS IF THEY WERE MURDERED ON OR OFF DUTY, SCHOLARSHIP FUNDS FOR THE CHILDREN OF FALLEN OFFICERS (THE MORE WE RAISE, THE MORE THEY CAN PAY), AND WHO KNOWS WHAT OTHER ASSISTANCE THE MEMORIAL WILL BE ABLE TO OFFER AS MORE MONEY COMES IN.
  
  [You mean like the 100 Club? The Gold Star organization? Is the Memorial attempting to supplant or replace these organizations? Enhance? Why not work within the existing framework?]
  
  I AGREE THAT AN ANNUAL REPORT SHOULD BE PUBLISHED AND I’M SURE IT WILL, BUT YOU PEOPLE WILL ONLY BEEF THAT MUCH MORE WHEN YOU SEE THE NUMBERS. BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT YOU DO; YOU CRY AND CRY ABOUT EVERYTHING. LOOK AT THE NLEOMF AND SEE WHAT THEY SPEND EACH YEAR. http://www.nleomf.org/media/pdf/AnnualReport2006.pdf
  
  [See, we aren't sure it will ever be. It should have been done before we started receiving dozens of inquires. Asking for accountability isn't a crime and it isn't whining.]
  
  I HAVE NO DOUBT ABOUT THE SINCERITY OF EVERYONE I KNOW THAT HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN THE MEMORIAL. DONATIONS SHOULD HAVE BEEN VOLUNTARY AND IT’S RIDICULOUS THAT ANYONE HAD TO BE “STRONG-ARMED”. COPPERS WILL PISS AWAY HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS A MONTH ON BEER AND CIGARETTES, BUT GOD FORBID THEY FEEL A LITTLE PRESSURED TO GIVE UP 4 BUCKS A MONTH TO HELP THE FAMILIES OF OUR OWN FALLEN OFFICERS. 48 DOLLARS A YEAR FOR YOU IDIOTS THAT CAN’T DO THE MATH.
  
  [Still, it's our money to "piss away" as you put it. And we believe it's ridiculous that anyone had to be strong armed, too, but not for your reason. Yours appears to be feigned outrage that everyone didn't reach deep to contribute. Ours is that people were denied opportunities if they didn't play the game.]
  
  I’M WILLING TO BET THAT EVERY SINGLE OFFICER ON THIS JOB HAS PROBABLY COVERED 10 YEARS WORTH OF CONTRIBUTIONS IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER WITHIN THEIR FIRST 2 YEARS ON THE JOB. Ie. MEDICAL ABUSE, COURT OT WHEN YOU WEREN’T NEEDED, MILKING OT, ETC.
  
  [Don't go there John. Seriously, don't go there. Do you really want everyone at Area 5 telling stories about you?]
  
  ALTHOUGH I USUALLY AVOID POSTING HERE, I WELCOME THE PUNISHMENT I AM ABOUT TO TAKE FOR THIS POSTING AND YES I AM SIGNING MY NAME TO IT.
  
  [Oh, believe us, you'll be getting some flack - we've already seen some popping up in the comments]
  
  THE MEMORIAL FOUNDATION IS AN OUTSTANDING ORGANIZATION AND ONE I AM PROUD TO BE A PART OF.
  
  [We like to ensure that it truly is an outstanding organization. That's why we question and demand accountability instead of blindly trusting to people who have proven themselves less than trustworthy.]
  
  
  John Garrido
  Area 5 Detective Division

Accounting 101

This is a perfect example of how Daley suddenly ended up with a $218 million hole in his budget:

• Last fall, Chicago aldermen held their noses and expanded a residential permit parking program gone wild -- by creating a $300-a-year parking permit for real estate agents, social workers and home health care providers.

  It was either that or blow a $2.4 million hole in Mayor Daley's 2007 budget.

  Nearly a year later, all but $15,900 of that $2.4 million hole remains.

So suddenly, the revenue "projection" falls short by $2.398 million? This was a completely avoidable shortage. And this is a single instance of "projections" not meeting expectations. And how will they attempt to make up the difference? Raising taxes on other things instead - like bottled water:

• Chicago should cash in on the bonanza of bottled water sales -- and help clean up the environment -- by slapping a tax of 10 to 25 cents on the cost of every bottle, a Southwest Side alderman said Monday.

  At a time when Chicagoans are bracing for post-election tax increases to close a $217 million budget gap, Ald. George Cardenas (12th) said he can think of no better or more lucrative idea to add to the menu than a bottled water tax.

  "People enjoy jogging or driving with a bottle of water. There's a cost associated with this behavior. You have to pay for it," said Cardenas, one of Mayor Daley's staunchest City Council supporters.

There's going to be another cost associated with this behavior of taxing everything in sight to cover the bloated waste and corruption epidemic in this city. It's called "shopping in the burbs" and we know hundreds of people who do it constantly, SCC staff included. Anyone want to call John Daley and ask him how that cigarette tax is working out for the Toddler and his people over on the County Board? We know for a fact that it has helped Indiana tobacco retailers out to the tune of hundreds of thousands in increased sales. Consumers will shop for the best prices and they'll travel to outside of the city and county to get them, thereby denying these governmental bodies revenue.

Nah Nah Hey Hey Goodbye

You've got to love this stuff:

• A former death row inmate who became a symbol of a badly broken criminal justice system harangued prosecutors and denounced a federal judge Tuesday before being sentenced to 30 years in prison for trading in guns and drugs.
  
• Aaron Patterson, who prosecutors claimed coordinated gang activities even as he served 17 years in prison for a double murder he insists he didn't commit, made a 45-minute expletive-laden statement to the court before his sentence was read.
  
• "You're going to put me down for a high sentence, but I'll be back. Back with a vengeance," said Patterson, his hands and ankles bound as he spoke from the defense table flanked by three federal marshals.

Slowly correcting the errors of the George Ryan pardons, one case at a time.

Blago, Jones Seize Power

Not quite a bloodless coup yet, but among the most blatant power grabs in recent history, completely circumventing the legislative process:

• The battle over the budget appears to be over in Springfield. Governor Rod Blagojevich says it is a done deal -- as he uses his veto powers to rearrange the budget passed by the Illinois House last week.
• All of the governor's ambitious health care plans were roundly rejected by Illinois lawmakers this year. But Rod Blagojevich either has some real smart lawyers or he is pulling a fast one, because with one stroke of his veto pen, and the issuance of a controversial executive order, he is getting health care, lawmakers are losing pet projects, and the budget battle does indeed to be over unless Blagojevich is challenged in court.
• "We do not plan to move to override because -- on spending that will put the governor in position where he cannot do anything for health care. That's our position. That's what we're going to do. Case closed," said Sen. Emil Jones , (D) senate president.

So Rod and Jones made a deal - Rod gets to redirect half a BILLION dollars into programs the elected legislature has rejected over and over again for over a year, and Jones won't allow debate on the Senate floor via various parliamentary rules.

Court challenges to follow?

• "Irresponsible is putting it kindly. Again, it's a gross disregard for the rule of the General Assembly and the people that we represent," said Sen. Christine Radogno, (R) LaGrange.

  "The governor can't go out and arbitrarily make changes in the whole budget without legislative approval," said Sen. Frank Watson, (R) minority leader.

  And that's why there's talk around Springfield of a possible legal challenge on constitutional grounds.

Anyone want to bet that some company or project controlled by Jones is one of the primary beneficiaries of this maneuver? (Channel 2 also covers)

More Questions About the Memorial

Just a point or two from the comments:

• Really This dept has raised Millions yet the land was free. Once again we are fools.
  
  Are they bringing in that much money that they can have a paid position to manage the park? I mean don't get me wrong if they are paying Phil lets say 20 grand a year but he can bring in 100 grand in donations thru his connections then its well worth the money. They have a hole list of people on the honorary committee but that doesn't mean they are actually managing anything just a name on a plaque. They need someone to run the day to day operation.

The Park itself is paid for. Didn't the City donate the land? So there is no note and we're pretty sure there are no taxes on a park.

The Memorial is built. Every bit of concrete, mortar, steel and marble belongs to the Memorial.

Maintenance involves what? Cutting the grass weekly? Paying the water bill every month for the fountain? Spring cleaning? We know they don't spend money on security as taggers proved earlier.

Even if none of this is covered by the Park District which maintains the entire lake front, how much could this be? There is no "day-to-day" operation of a Memorial.

Now does everyone see why there are questions arising? Why an accounting is being demanded? Why resentment is building? There ought to be an endowment of some sort for maintenance and then wrap up the Memorial organization. Anything further in the way of fundraising for disabled coppers ought to be brought to the members of the Department and presented as a new mission instead of twisting this one into something it never was.

The Inevitable Lawsuits

The slander continues unabated against the police:

• The lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court claims 18-year-old Aaron Harrison did not have a gun or point one at officers before he was shot to death Aug. 6.
• Attorney James Montgomery Jr., who is representing the family, said at least two video cameras near the scene may have captured the incident, which he calls a "summary execution."

And our favorite line of the entire episode so far?

• "If you were black and in the vicinity, you were fair game," said one man.

Piles and piles of dead black men across the west side - all put there by the police, don't you know? What a crock of shit.

Channel 2, Channel 5, Channel 7 coverage of this stupidity.

And of course, the TASER death:

• The family of a 42-year-old man who died earlier this month after Chicago police subdued him with a Taser and pepper spray filed a lawsuit Monday against the city.
  
  The family of Gefery N. Johnson alleges police used excessive force when responding to a call Aug. 4 at the Johnson home in the 8100 block of South Green Street.

Let's just say that anyone who can pull the barbs out of there body after being TASERed, is not someone who's going to go quietly in any circumstances.

Gary Officer Killed

RIP Officer:

• A 28-year-old Gary, Ind., police officer died Sunday after he crashed into another police car during a chase.

  Patrolman Benjamin Wilcher was chasing a suspect late Saturday when his vehicle collided with one driven by Patrolman Arthur Lemme at 35th Avenue and Virginia Street in Gary.

  Wilcher did not survive the surgery to repair his broken bones and his internal injuries, the Cook County medical examiner's office said. Lemme remained at Methodist on Sunday evening in stable condition.

Traffic pursuit.

The Scent of Impropriety

This is popping up in a few spots and we've been asked to address it. We just aren't sure how to bring it up without offending a bunch of people, one way of the other. Here goes the try.

First of all, don't get us wrong - we believe that the Memorial Park is a good thing, a great thing. Our dead have had zero recognition aside from the Star Case at headquarters that almost no one ever saw and the engraved wall at FOP headquarters that even fewer people saw as it was behind a locked gate. We fought long and vocally against the former aldercreature Haithcock's efforts to get a street sign named for Hampton and wrote a couple of passionate essays to shame our brass into supporting our dead (none of whom ever stepped up to the plate publicly if we recall).

We sat through the same presentations everyone else did for the Memorial Park. We bought t-shirts, sent in donations, some of us here even signed up for the automatic payroll deductions, some of us resisted. Toward the end of the fund raising though, it felt more like strong arming. We saw every single recruit wearing the Memorial pins and knew that they hadn't voluntarily bought them. And we heard that the people giving the presentations at the Academy were really pushing hard, very hard, for the Memorial to be the only "appropriate" contribution. And the St. Jude marches where directives came out telling everyone exactly where the pin was supposed to be worn so it didn't feel like an option uniform item. The entire thing became more than a monument to the dead. That in the effort to recognize the deceased, it became more about the fund raising than actually remembering those who have gone before. We didn't like it.

Then we confirmed with a number of HQ sources (and we're not talking one, two or three sources, but more - way more) who related that one of the criteria for "merit" promotion was having the box checked for payroll contributions for the Memorial Fund and if a choice spot opened up in a unit, anyone who wasn't in the payroll program wouldn't be considered. We really didn't like that.

Now, a number of persons are writing to us about how Cline is becoming the first ever director of the Chicago Police Memorial Fund and this is a paid position within the organization. The guy in charge of the push to get everything built, everything paid for, everything finished, is now the guy taking a paycheck from the organization. One might imagine that the entire creation was to provide a retirement job for one individual.

And we really don't like that we have become so cynical that we could believe for a second that our dead could be used so callously, so thoughtlessly. We weren't born this way, but we've become so. So we push it all to the backs of our minds.

But the old memories of the strong arm tactics are coming to the fore again.

New Policy in Effect

Hi everybody! Monique Bonds here. SCC has kindly allowed me to post here for a minute since we all know that no one actually reads that "official" half-baked site - Hi Pat! Nice tan!

The Department would just like to announce that in an effort to head off claims of racism, profiling and officers not being reflective of the community in which they patrol, only officers who match the race of a given offender will be allowed to shoot said offenders - everyone else must retreat in the face of confrontation until an appropriately matching officer becomes available. Same goes for traffic stops, domestic situations, and report taking. In the case of 311, callers will be given a preference of which race of operator they wish to speak with, though in some cases, calls will be routed to an overflow center in India.

Thanks for your time, and remember, Contact Cards are warning tickets.

Poor Lizards

Why didn't she just kill her abuser? It would have save her some jail time:

• A northwest suburban woman faces felony charges in Kane County after attacking her husband's pet lizards, killing one and severely injuring the other, authorities said Friday.

  A grand jury this week indicted Sara Tinsley, 37, of West Dundee, on one count each of cruelty to animals and aggravated cruelty to animals for allegedly throwing one of the reptiles against the wall and stabbing the other with a butcher knife. Authorities said it was an act of vengeance against her husband, who is accused of battering her.

A jury would be much more sympathetic to a battered wife than an animal abuser.

Welcome to France!

In France, there are certain areas called "Zones Urbaines Sensibles."

Sensitive Urban Zones.

As of last year, there were 751 such zones encompassing hundreds, if not thousands of square blocks that the French government exerts ZERO authority over. All are heavy concentrations of unassimilated muslim immigrants. We would call them "projects." The gendarmes simply call them "no go zones."

Welcome to Chicago's very own "No Go Zones"

• A beat car in 011 3rd watch tonight was stopped in traffic at California and Madison when a crowd of at least 100 who had been gathering for a protest behind Wallace's surrounded their squad car. The officers waited for the crowd to clear from the front of the car, using the loudspeaker for verbal direction. When the crowd (now mob) inched closer and kicked the squad car doors, they radioed for assist cars to help them leave the area. Assist units came and the units all left the area. ADS Williams proceeded to call the beat car into 011 where they were dressed down for for driving by the protest and inciting them. The beat car then responded by informing the ADS that no one had bothered to tell them that their was going to be a protest of 400-500 people on their beat, and that ramming their car into a crowd to escape it would have looked bad in front of the dozen flashing cameras. When asked what his plan was for the situation he replied "Well, we're just wingin' it."
• [SOS was] working last night and they had the whole unit working out in the 5th district. When 11 asked for cars and sort/heavy weapons to respond we were immediately told by Risley that no SOS officers are to be in the 11th district.

We can mobilize hundreds of officers in riot gear for a peaceful war protest downtown encompassing thousands of citizens, but in the face of a couple hundred people intent on violating the rule of law in regard to a gang banger being sent to his just reward, we are ordered to stand down, close our eyes and flee the scene.

Aren't we all proud of the caliber of leadership provided by the Chicago Police Department and it's political masters?

Gene Williams? Risley? Time for you to resign. And take Charlie with you.

Note: post corrected for translation

Officer of the Month

Dick Devine announced his retirement Friday. The list of candidates jockeying for the job has grown quite a bit. One name should stand out in particular to all police officers. A letter we received from a west side copper:

• SCC,

  A friend called us relating the following regarding the press conference where Devine announced his intention to step down at the end of his term. A reporter there asked Devine the following:

  (paraphrasing here) Alderman Harold Brookins has promised to indict one police officer a month should he be elected to the office of State's Attorney. What do you have to say to that?

  Devine stated something along the lines that if Brookins did say anything like that, he has no business running for the office of State's Attorney.

  Just thought you and your readers ought to know

Well, that's some campaign promise to run on, wouldn't you say? One officer a month. We're attempting to find some report or interview in which Brookins is quote as saying this, but we don't actually doubt it in the least.

Altar Boys - Every Single One

Two of the suspects from the NBA player robberies?

• Antoine Larkins, 28, of the 1300 block of South Washtenaw Avenue
• Gregory Reedfields, 23, of the 3100 block of West Roosevelt Road

Both addresses are within two blocks of the shooting at 1100 S. Mozart. And the gang affiliation of both? We're willing to bet it'll be vice lords, just like the dead OFFENDER.

Some neighborhoods produce an abundance of college graduates. Some produce skilled professionals. Others produce factory workers in great numbers because that's all that might be available (it's still honest work). Bridgeport is famous for producing mayors and connected city workers.

Anyone want to guess what North Lawndale has been producing for 40 years and more? But it's all the "po-lices" fault.

Shooting Justified

Gee, imagine that. A trained officer, veteran of dozen or more years on the streets, made the right decision that saved his life and the lives of his partners and even an ungrateful public:

• As ministers and activists called Thursday for a federal investigation of Chicago Police about this week's fatal shooting of a teen in North Lawndale, new details emerged challenging early reports about how the victim was shot.

  An autopsy by the Cook County medical examiner's office ruled that Aaron Harrison died from a gunshot wound to his back, a point that residents have seized on as they have protested the shooting.
  

  But on Thursday, a police source said Harrison, 18, was struck at the top of his left shoulder, not in the back. This is consistent with the police version of the Monday night shooting that Harrison turned a weapon on police before he was shot, the source said.

Of course, that didn't stop Sharpton from grandstanding:

• The Reverend Al Sharpton led a rally Friday night to protest police brutality. Some West Side residents who were at the rally said Chicago Police were out of line when an officer shot and killed Aaron Harrison earlier this week.

Sharpton, who as far as we can tell, holds no medical degree of any kind, was approximately 1,000 miles from the scene of the shooting, and has no training whatsoever in the field of forensic crime scene reconstruction, has decided the police were out of line? And what's Sharpton's main claim to fame? Oh yeah, supporting a false claim of abduction and rape that resulted in a massive libel judgment against him and as an unindicted instigator of the Crown Heights riots that resulted in a man being beaten to death. Nice credentials.

And then we have this Tribune article about neighborhood tensions that closes with this line:

• "I'm afraid they're going to push these boys so hard they're going to start going after the police," Green said, shaking his head in dismay. "They better do something about this. And they better do something about this quick."

We've been going over the Officer Battery Stats released by the Department, and unless we're reading them incorrectly, the 011 District has led the city in "Batteries to Police" in something like 6 of the past 7 years, so it would seem that the community is already "going after" the police. Hmmm.

Please Tell Us This is a Joke?

Dear lord, please (from the comments section):

• Our esteemed interim stupidintendent has agreed to allow the Reverends to address an SOS roll call. If you guys walk out and take time, I will adopt one SOS Officer and give him his day's pay. I am sure I can rally enough others to do the same.
  
  What are they going to do to you, put GPS on your car?

We still remember what happened last time a "community activist" was permitted to address a Roll Call. Charlie Williams better remember, too, because he had to go out and apologize to the entire watch on behalf of the Superintendent for allowing that travesty to go forward.

If this is true, we encourage every single officer to take an hour on the front and skip Roll Call at the very least. Then we'd encourage every single one of them to put in PAR forms and come over to the Districts - because if the Department is going to pull this shit every time you justifiably kill someone who might have made your family's life a living hell, how are they going to back you when you really need someone in your corner? How can any boss ever look you in the eye and ask you to go out on the street to enforce the law?

Being in a Unit certainly isn't worth this crap.

Damn!

Sneed goes for the three-peat.

Suffice it to say though, if we came up with some half assed story about someone losing the paperwork for our application for security clearances not once, but twice, we'd certainly wouldn't try it with the bean counters at the FBI. These people NEVER throw out a piece of paper. Ever.

This excuse that the FBI lost the paperwork from the Interim Superintendent of Police will go down in history with the following:

• The dog ate my homework
• The check is in the mail
• This is the first time I've ever done this
• I swear Officer, these aren't my pants.

This week certainly isn't starting well for the Starks regime.

And the Front Runner Is?

Interesting:

• Dick Devine says he won't run for a fourth term as Cook County state's attorney.

So who steps up? Who moves on? What changes are afoot for that office?

SCC - Correct Again

Back on 29 July, we wrote this about the recent home invasions of well known NBA players:

• Seems there's at least one crew around targeting high wealth and high spending sports figures who are more likely to have large amounts of cash lying around. Anyone wonder if it could have anything to do with.., oh let's just say, certain gang affiliations? Yeah, we don't wonder either.

We started taking hits in the comments section from the recently banned "coldtype" about us making overly broad statements. "coldtype" made completely facetious arguments and tried to put words we never typed into his fantasy rebuttal. Of course, it never saw the light of day and led directly to his recent departure from our board.

Tonight, on the WGN News and the Tribune:

• The robberies of two NBA players in the Chicago area are linked, authorities said this afternoon as they announced charges against suspected gang members in both crimes.
• Byrne said the suspects are all gang members from the West Side. Allison has a burglary conviction, and Hill has several convictions for robbery, Byrne said.

We'd open this post to apologies from "coldtype," but he's not around any more. So we'll just point out that we were right, he was wrong, and an open post in the meantime.

OFFICER SAFETY ALERT

Word is filtering in from various Gang Intelligence units that the four-corner-hustlers have put out a cash reward for anyone shooting at or killing a Chicago Police Officer.

One must wonder why a criminal street gang would take such an interest in a dead altar boy, honor student and aspiring heart surgeon.

Unless, somehow, amazingly, SCC and it's readers have been the ones telling the truth this whole time? That the dead OFFENDER was a self admitted vice lord? That all the arrested "near rioters" have been members of the vice lords? That the west side reverends are supporting mayhem, murder and gun violence in their communities by supporting the vice lords? That Sharpton, Jakes, and every other poverty pimping, race baiting scum of the universe is supporting the vice lords over the rule of law and civilized behavior?

Watch yourselves out there. This one feels really bad.

Snakes in a Park

This from FoxNews:

• NOBLE, Okla. — A stray bullet fired by a police officer trying to shoot a snake hit and killed a 5-year-old boy fishing at a nearby pond, officials said.

Aside from the obvious lessons of situational awareness, being aware of what's down range, and overly poor judgment in what will undoubtedly be deemed criminal negligence, why would we even bring up a story like this?

Seems the 011 District captured an 8 foot long snake prowling the area of Garfield Park this past week. Initial report have it as a constrictor of some sort, probably an escaped pet. If you run across a snake, don't shoot it without considering all the possibilities. But as far as we saw this week, no news reports.

Lots of coverage on the ticketing of the wienermobile though.

To Our Readers

We're letting you guys and gals know that we've been censoring a lot of the comments being submitted for publication lately. They seem to be falling into a couple of categories:

• People using the words "savages" and "animals" in contexts that can't be construed as anything but in a derogatory manner.
• Liberals, left-tards and loonies spouting their standard tripe about "Bush lied, people died," "blood for oil," the economy is in the tank, blah blah blah, and the blanket anti police baiting
  
• Lately, anything by "coldtype" or someone calling themselves "Chris Morton"

We walk a pretty fine line here. We try to give everyone the ability to say what they want to on a subject at hand. We automatically censor any of the really naughty terms regarding certain races (i.e. nigger, spic, etc), certain genders (i.e. cunt, whore, etc) , certain behaviors (i.e. all of x's are this or that along with the faggot references). Recently, we're censoring a lot of stuff with the terms "savages" and "animals." We are aware that these are so-called "code words" among various groups to describe some elements of society and we are attempting to filter those out. Where the words are used generically to describe behaviors, we've been giving it a pass more often than not. Like we've said, it's a fine line and we don't know that we aren't erring on one side or the other more often than not. We do our best.

The liberal stuff, we've been filtering out because it contributes nothing to the debate, repeats lies and faulty arguments and just generally annoys us. Our blog, our rules. We've been linked by various liberal blogs as examples of the worst in the CPD. Once again, for the benefit of these tiny brains, the only people here that we know for a fact are Chicago Police Officers are the ones running the blog. Anyone else we have no idea (except for those guys using the HQ IP address - we're pretty sure they're the police, too). We have readers on SIX continents - only Antarctica has neglected to visit.

As for the last category, the poster called "coldtype" has continued to annoy us, repeating tired arguments and lies from the DU and Kos, taking contrarian positions just to provoke, and generally just being an asshat. Anything under his moniker is hereby banned for the time being. He has his own blog and readers - he can publish his nonsense there. Good luck finding it. We're sure coldtype be writing us a nasty comment that no one will ever see and will attempt to publish some stuff anonymously. Some of it might even slip through our screening. But as long as he doesn't get credit for it, we don't care.

Same goes for this "Chris Morton" character. He exists solely to rip Chicago police officers. We don't know if he got shot down by an officer he was trying to date, got locked up by us at some point, or had a relative interrogated by Burge. He is a media driven creation that believes every fiction published about the CPD and refuses to acknowledge that there are thousands of police officers here and nationwide doing a thankless job for an uncaring populace. Every little nitpicking law that the mayor and city council pass is the fault of the CPD according to this putz. Every time the media blows something out of proportion, his only chant is "Abbate, Abbate - you guys defend Abbate" while complete disregarding the fact that the vast majority of our readership advocated his firing. If we recall correctly, he too has a blog somewhere. Maybe he can get together with coldtype and they can read each other's ramblings. But you won't be reading it here anytime soon.

Things the Media Won't Report

Just a few little tidbits for all the reporters reading this site. And believe us, we know there are dozens:

• If you run around with an unregistered handgun in the city, you are an OFFENDER. If you get shot by the police for displaying that unregistered handgun in the city, you are still an OFFENDER. We might not agree with the gun control policies of this city and state, and we work in our own way to change them, but under existing law, Aaron Harrison was an OFFENDER.
• The dead offender was a self admitted unknown vice lord. We're sure there are reporters out there with tame cops on speed dial. But a word of warning to officers - the Department can and will track people pulling up the arrest reports and IR photos of this dead offender. Those media pictures of the dead offender from many years ago don't compare to his recent arrest photos. Amazing what a few felony arrests can turn you into.
  
• The dead offender was also the nephew of a very big chief of the vice lords. The offenders arrested during the "protest" were all self admitted vice lords with upwards of 100 arrests and numerous gun crimes among them. The "reverends" leading the protests are siding with the vice lords. Publish THAT you candy asses.
• This "shot in the back" meme making the rounds is pure bullshit. According to the reports we've read, the wound is consistent with the offender having carried/pointed a gun across his body at pursuing officers. We could tell a few stories from personal experience (and dozens more from war stories) of offenders having pointed guns backwards over their shoulders while firing at other gang bangers while running away! These jagoffs don't have wild west stand-up versions of shootouts face to face - they fire at each other while running away all the time! The dead offender had the misfortune of dealing with an officer who was much better trained than he was and took a round which exited his neck. Too bad, so sad. It's actually amazing more innocents aren't killed by these bangers.
  
• And this crap making the rounds here about the 011 District locking the doors? Go read up on your station security protocols - it's Standard Operating Procedure for station security during civil unrest. It isn't anyones fault that they were ordered to secure the premises.
  

Just things to keep in mind while reading or listening to the media BS.

Starks Whacked Again

Sneed seems to have no shortage of vitriol to be throwing Dana's way:

• Word is Mayor Daley's interim police superintendent, Dana Starks, is minus an absolutely necessary piece of equipment that the last police superintendent had.

  • To wit: Sneed hears Starks does not have FBI security clearance to share classified high-level information dealing with the FBI, CIA and Homeland Security.

  • Translation: "This information can only be shared with people who have FBI security clearance," an informed source said. "The FBI would never withhold information to protect lives and property based on lack of security clearance. What the FBI could not do is share sources, methods or sensitive information from the FBI and other intelligence agencies."

  • The surprise: Sneed hears Starks has had many opportunities in the past to fill out the necessary FBI security clearance paperwork and did not do so. Go figure.

We also got info from a trusted source that Starks kept all the computer geeks on unpaid overtime this week for the sole purpose of taking down everything with Phil's name on it on Department websites and installing his name. Looks like payback is going to be the name of the game during Dana's brief reign. How much additional damage can be inflicted on us during this time?

This is Silly, Silly

You know that you have truly arrived in CPD hell when the mayor is your biggest defender:

• The Chicago Police Department is “not out of control,” Mayor Daley said today, urging family members and community leaders angry about the death of two men at the hands of police in the last week to await the outcome of internal investigations.

  “Every day, Chicago Police are called. They get thousands of calls. Yes, these are two instances. They’re very serious instances. They’re . . . looking at it. But, this is not an easy job out there. It’s very difficult. And we’ll investigate both of them,” the mayor said.

Someone tell us that this is bizzaro world? Please. Because before you know it, the mayor is going to be offering us all sorts of stuff, like pay raises, stipends for living in the city, actual heavy weapons on the streets, computers that work and stay in range more than half the tour, working radio batteries, abolishing Felony Review.

And then our heads will explode and we've heard that it might be painful.

Liberal View Point

A lively debate over at the liberal leaning "Chicagoist" website regarding the recent misbehavior in the 011 District following the fully justified shooting of an armed subject who was an 8 pound trigger pull (give or take a few pounds) away from becoming a murderer of a police officer.

Go read the 60 or so comments over there. Evidently, we have a number of supporters who read the site, but it also provides an interesting window into how liberals and police haters justify their ill will toward the only thing that protects them from complete anarchy.

Ouch

Sneed lays to rest any possibility that Starks will ever be anything more than a caretaker superintendent:

• A Stalin purge? Sneed hears acting Police Supt. Dana Starks' first order of business Monday was to order the picture and name of former top cop Phil Cline stricken from the department's Web site.
  Scoopsville . . .
  Sneed has learned a paternity suit was filed against Starks in September 2000 by a woman who still works in a top position at the City Colleges of Chicago.

  The request to establish parentage was settled in October 2001, when Starks was ordered to pay child support.

  "That's a personal matter, and I don't comment on a personal matter," said Monique Bond, a spokeswoman for the police department.

  Starks, who reportedly received his high school diploma by getting his GED, likes telling the story of how he was raised in the projects.

  "He's a controversial guy with a lot of personal baggage which is well-known in the police department," said a source.

  "Word is Mayor Daley hastily made Starks an acting police superintendent to alleviate any problem he might have with the Rev. Al Sharpton bringing his police brutality agenda to town," the source added.

  "That is absolutely not true," a City Hall source said. "Starks will never be the police superintendent. He knows that. That's why he did not apply for the job. He is a place holder until a final choice is made."

This has all the hallmarks of a straight out and out hit job, most likely from the 5th floor of City Hall in an effort to stop widespread speculation from the west and south side ministers associations that Starks had any chance whatsoever of grabbing the number one spot.

Let the Police be the Police

We've been getting a number of e-mails and comments in the past few posts regarding the behavior of certain exempts in the face of the gang protests in the 011 District this week - and let's just all agree to call it what it actually is - a large portion of the community and not a few churches are backing the vice lords and the mayhem, misery, dope dealing and death they bring to neighborhoods over the rule of law, order and civilization.

Quite a few bosses showed up at the police shooting, and too many ordered officers to take no action, to retreat in the face of bottle and brick throwing, and overlook blatant damage to city property.

We will also point out that a few exempts were singled out for praise in attempting to uphold the law, defend officers and order police action be taken in the face of blatant misbehavior, but they were outnumbered by those with no balls.

The more police are ordered to back down and retreat, the bolder the lawbreakers become. We've seen this over our careers and the careers of those who came before us. The trouble here is the exact same one that crops up raising children. If you give a child no structure, no direction, no discipline, the child becomes more and more unruly, more and more demanding, more and more spoiled. Until one day this spoiled brat is out there attempting to raise their own children, but they have no idea how to do it because they never had the building blocks in the first place.

By ordering the police to back down, to ignore misbehavior, the brass are buying into the spoiled child syndrome so prevalent in society today. And unfortunately, someone, probably a cop somewhere, is going to pay with their health and well being.

Open Post

Has anyone else ever talked to India at 2 in the morning?

We have.

Through no fault of our own, our entire internet connection went down around 11pm last night without warning. After numerous phone calls and such, we talked to someone from customer service who was no doubt located somewhere in the Hindu Kush. They related that our DSL provider had taken down the network for servicing and it wouldn't be up until 6am. So much for posting on time.

Open post for now.

This is Fucking Ridiculous

Bad language warning - starting with the title

We've heard and read so much shit that the media is spewing in regard to the recent shooting that we figure it's time to take a stand. The media is actively aiding and abetting an atmosphere that is going to lead to police officers being hurt badly and maybe even killed, and it's time it stopped. By reporting various untruths and lies for whatever half ass reasons they can dream up, they are agitating and inciting various mobs to greater heights of stupidity, insanity and disregard for the law. Example (Channel 5):

• Witnesses and his family said he didn't have a weapon, adding that they believe the weapon recovered belongs to the police. Sabrina Johnson, Harrison's aunt, said her nephew was a good kid."He was not carrying a gun," she said. "They're lying."Witnesses said the shooting was unjustified and that the innocent man didn't have a gun.

What's the purpose of this reporting? A gun was seen, a gun was recovered, OPS agrees that a gun was recovered and procedures were followed, yet the statement that "He was not carrying a gun" is thrown out there as fact without any corroboration whatsoever. How many of these family members were on the scene? How many had an unobstructed view of the pursuit? How many saw him pointing the gun across his chest at the officer? None. None of them even came to the Area Headquarters to assist in the reconstruction of the shooting. Golly, that sure is reliable reporting, eh? Or this drivel from Channel 7:

• [Demonstrators] demanded that criminal charges be filed against the Chicago Policeman who shot to death 18-year-old Aaron Harrison.

  "We're not gonna stop until we come together with an indictment of the police that murdered this young gentleman," said Rev. Richard Harris, New Mt. Zion Church.

• "When we see incidents like this it makes us feel and believe that we're not asking the police department to turn in the illegal guns that they carry," said Rev. M.G. Hunter, community activist.

We don't know this supposed "reverend" Harris from Adam, but we'll take the lead in demanding that the Harrison District Commander and Officers stop extending any parking courtesy to these various make believe churches and their congregations. And a great big FUCK YOU to "reverend" M.G. Hunter. We don't usually wish ill upon people, but we'll make an exception in his case. This race baiting, poverty pimping does more to keep his people down and the neighborhood an unlivable cesspool than if we pulled every single copper out of North Lawndale. Carrying illegal guns around? That BS went out of style years ago, decades even.

• "The Chicago Police do not like black people," said one marcher through a megaphone Tuesday afternoon.

We don't know about that, but we're getting there. We certainly don't like black people who point guns at the police, but that goes for white, brown, yellow and green people, too. The police are in these neighborhoods because the criminals have made it impossible to live anything like a normal existence in North Lawndale, Austin, Englewood and a dozen other places we could name. Now the so called "community leaders" are making it impossible to improve the situation.

It's time to pull out of these neighborhoods. They don't want the police? Fuck em. Survival of the fittest seems to be the way to go. Or at least, survival of the most ruthless. We know exactly on which end of that battle the "reverends" will end up and it isn't the winning side. We'd give it two weeks tops before the "reverends" are begging for the National Guard to restore some semblance of order. The "reverends" that are still alive that is.

Mob Actions Arrests

We got an e-mail relating that 4 individuals were arrested on various charges Monday night for mob action, criminal damage, reckless conduct and various assault charges in regard to the 011th District "march."

We also verified by various means that the dead offender was a self admitted unknown vice lord. One of the arrestees is a traveling vice lord and two others are conservative vice lords. Among the one dead and four arrested, they account for something like 100 arrests, mostly felonies for UUW and drug possession

We're going to go out on a limb here and guess that this entire incident is gang related. Which means all the make believe reverends are supporting gang bangers over their flocks who are seeking nothing but a better life. Or at least a life not too involved in drug trafficking, gun running and mayhem.

Where's the media story on that?

Police Shooting on West Side

Posting early to get the word out

Late Monday evening in 011:

• A teenager was reportedly shot and killed by Chicago police in a West Side alley Monday night.The shooting happened at Roosevelt Road and California Avenue, Fire Media Affairs Director Larry Langford said about 8:30 p.m.The shooting took place in an alley "just north of Roosevelt and west of California," Langford said.

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

Fox 32 has started with the sensational angle - the video report has the reporter claiming police shot the teen in the back. Supposedly the offender is from Oak Park, hanging out at one of the worst dope spots in the 011th District, so we're sure he was an innocent altar boy, honor student, future doctor and presidential aspirant.

All the cops are OK, though the news won't mention that.

How a Story Changes

We're almost positive that it has nothing to do with consulting a lawyer. From the SunTimes:

• Gefery Johnson was naked, handcuffed and not physically resisting arrest when police shot him twice with a Taser stun gun, his mother said Sunday, one day after her son died after the incident.

  "He said, 'Momma, they're killing me,' " said his mother, Lula Johnson, from the Auburn Gresham home where her 42-year-old son had also lived. "They executed my son, right here in my house."

That's todays version. Yesterday?

• The subject, upon being Tased sat down, then jumped up and pulled the Taser prongs away from his body and lunged at the police again,"

Hmmm. What could POSSIBLY have led to the alternate viewpoint being advanced? Here's a hint:

• $$$$$$

Mentioned at the end of the article is Johnson's 23 other arrests, including charges for attacking family members. And the fact that drugs were found in his bedroom. We don't doubt that the autopsy will show some level of narcotic intoxication, but who knows what the coroner will ultimately decide? After all, he might have to set himself up for a consulting gig when he retires.

Story that NEVER Made the Media

From FreedomFolks.com:

• The Chicago Minuteman do one protest a month to support agents Ramos and Compean. It was planned for eleven AM and we arrived about quarter till. Though several of the Minutemen were in the area all were in their cars when we arrived. Approaching we were trying to see if any Minutemen were already there or if we were the first to arrive. We had been in phone contact with several people and knew they were right in the area but we couldn't figure out where they all were.

  While we were waiting we decided to get some pictures and videos of the goons in their natural habitat so we walked out to the median and began filming. A lady was selling the Communist paper there and asked us if we were Minutemen. We responded in the affirmative, she noted proudly the headline of the communist paper which had the story of a Minuteman rally in New Jersey that had been, according to her, shut down by them.

  She then began shouting that we were Minutemen alternating that with chanting “Death to the Minuteklan.” The crowd of about 30-40 people on the sidewalk joined in with the chant and soon all forty people were calling for our death.

And they have pictures:

And pictures of the damage caused by the anarchists and communists, right in front of the Consulate Building at Ashland and Monroe we think? American citizens lawfully protesting the insane "open borders - no enforcement" policy of this country were set upon by leftist brown shirts seeking to suppress their rights to free speech? Anyone from 012 want to comment (there was at least one arrest according to the website)? Anyone from the media want to explain their complicity in covering up the attacks? Oh yeah, it's legal citizens protesting illegals. We forgot.

We're thinking that maybe a few off duty coppers interspersed with the Minutemen might be a good thing. After all, we're citizens, too.

A Retiree Who Gets It

From the comments section, a readers named "lincoln park retiree":

• While I have no dog in this residency fight, I'd suggest that members of the CPD, particularly prospective home owners, check today's Sunday Tribune, Real Estate Section 14C, back page. It has a map of Chicago and its 77 neighborhoods (community areas).
  
  The latest median value of homes in each area is listed. For thirty years, I've owned a home in what is now the most expensive (median value: $440,000) of the 77 Chicago neighborhoods. I paid off my mortgage over 25 years ago.
  
  The only homes in Chicago with a median value of less than $200k are in 007 and Area 2 [excluding Beverly ($320k) and Mt. Greenwood($241k)].
  
  Even homes in 011 and 015 come in with a median price of about a quarter million dollars.
  
  Obviously, the younger officers have a compelling argument against residency while older CPD and retirees who have paid off their mortgages in 016 will want to continue residency in order that they shore up their already declining property values.
  
  You don't need to be a real estate genius to realize that current market dynamics have rendered CPD city residency as preposterous, if not medieval.
  
  Residency should be expanded to the suburbs, the collar counties and even northwest Indiana.
  
  If residency is resolved by rational discourse based on cold, hard economic facts, Daley doesn't have a leg to stand on.
  
  For even further evidence, compare the absurdity of the CPD's residency rule with other big-city police departments.

Thank you sir or ma'am, for your succinct and comprehensive analysis of the situation. Would you like a job writing for us? The pay is zero and the pension is worse. But if you can make sense of our ramblings and those of our readers, you'd earn every penny.

Who's in Charge Again?

We pointed this out a while ago:

• Two years ago, Mayor Daley asked a former federal prosecutor who specialized in hunting down street gangs to root out City Hall corruption from within.

  Determined to answer "questions ... about the integrity of my administration" raised by the Hired Truck, city hiring and minority contracting scandals, Daley promised to "expand the power" and staff of Inspector General David Hoffman to improve the performance of an office long criticized as ineffectual.

  "Inspector General Hoffman has my full support ... to root out and prevent misconduct -- whether in hiring, contracts or wherever it occurs," the mayor said then.

  Now, a marriage born of necessity is showing serious signs of strain.

Once again, the infamous micro manager that the mayor is comes to the fore. It's truly amazing that he managed to get away with his "I cannot recall" answers during his recent depositions.

Hillary Uses Police

What?

• Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday criticized President Bush for not spending enough on law enforcement and said police officers were "invisible" to him.

Really? We must have missed that over the past few years when the President spent hours at the Police Memorial in Washington DC. How many times exactly did Bill show up with Hillary at the Memorial?

• Clinton chastised Bush for a 2008 budget that she said would further cut the Community Oriented Police Services program and other law enforcement initiatives.

Ah, this explains it. More CrAPS funding. "Preventative" policing instead of actual bodies on the street, driving in the communities, looking for crime and hassling minority drivers. Now we understand.

TASER Death?

Get ready for the drama:

• "Police killed my baby..." it is just hours after the death of her son and Lula Johnson is still trying to come to grips with what happened. She says her 42-year-old son Jeff had locked himself in his room in the house and refused to come out. So his sister called police. Ms. Johnson says she gave police permission to force their way into the room... but she says she never expected the confrontation that happened next.

  "All I know is they throwed his head on the floor and they jumped on him and was raining things on him and they killed my child," said Lula Johnson.

So which is it? The TASER killed him or the "throwed his head on the floor"? Evidently, the TASER had no effect whatsoever on the subject:

• The subject, upon being Tased sat down, then jumped up and pulled the Taser prongs away from his body and lunged at the police again," said Asst. Chicago Police Supt. Dean Andrews.

  Police say they then used pepper spray and then took him to Bernard hospital, but by the time they arrived he was unconscious. A short time later doctors pronounced him dead. Police say they'll know more about a cause of death after an autopsy Sunday.

"Excited Delirium" or some such similar term is the one we heard used the last time someone died after a TASER application - and that guy had something like two times the lethal dose of crystal meth in his system before he was zapped. In our minds though, "excited delirium" means "City pays out dollars."

Late Posting and a Response

Sorry about the sporadic posting tonight. Sometimes, we end up working later than planned and can't update until very early in the AM.

From the Comments Section:

• First I want to apologize for using this space which should be going to help Mike Mette, for an off topic contribution/rant
  
  I have to call SCC out as a hypocrite and a bullshitter.
  
  In another thread I asked you for your bright ideas about how to safelyy stop a fleeing motor vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed, using another motor vehicle in an urban envireonment.
  
  So far your silence is deafening.

We aren't that strict on off topic stuff unless it's an "Officer Down" thread, so we aren't bothered by that. But the complaint that we're a "hypocrite and a bullshitter" begs for a response.

A hypocrite is someone who advocates one position and then does something different. We don't see where that charge applies. Same for the bullshitter charge. What gives? As for not responding, we moderate some 200 comments a day lately and write between 2 and 5 posts each and every day. If we spent every waking moment responding to everything, we still wouldn't get to it all.

You want a response to how to stop a fleeing vehicle in an urban environment safely? We've never claimed to be a traffic expert or a physics professor. You get a couple thousand pounds of metal moving fast, it's going to be difficult at best to stop it. There is no risk free policing. But the fact is that a "no chase" policy only encourages more people to flee. And then stop-sticks, PIT maneuvers, and any other actions are only going to cause greater risk to the police and public. Maybe someone smarter than us could invent a car TASER that fries the electrical systems - we've heard that it's in the works somewhere.

Once you stop enforcing the law, disregard for the law becomes habit. Lax traffic enforcement leads to more "impolite" drivers. Disbanding Summer Mobile leads to more drinking on the beaches and curfew violations at the lake front. No School Patrol means the high schools go up for grabs on a daily basis. It's a no-win situation

Support Mike Mette

Mike Mette Fundraiser:

• The Mike Mette Defense Fund committee will be hosting a rally in support of Mike, on Thursday August 23rd, 2007 from 6:30-10:30 p.m. at the White Eagle Banquets and Restaurant, located at 6839 N Milwaukee Ave, Niles, IL. Tickets for the event are $60.00, which includes a Buffet table, Open Bar and entertainment. There will also be a silent auction, featuring many great items! All proceeds from this event go towards Mike's legal defense. Come out and show your support to Mike and his family, as they continue their fight, to right this terrible wrong!

Daley Blasts Firefighters

If this is the guy we have to go through to get anything, we're going to demand the union forgo any negotiation and file for arbitration immediately. We aren't going to get any sort of fair deal from this bozo, so we might as well leave it in the hands of an arbitrator who is already bound by precedent:

• The union that represents Chicago firefighters is pushing for a salary increase, and a whole lot more. It also wants a meal and vehicle allowance, plus a stipend for living in the city.
• Despite a time-consuming internal power struggle, the union which represents Chicago's 4,600 firefighters and paramedics has now shown the city its proposals for a new contract. And the mayor is fuming.
• "Double it. Tell them 20,000, make it 100,000, make it 300,000. That's what they do. Unions ask for as much as possible. Then you have to assess what the taxpayers want," Daley said.
• "I'm not begging them to be a fireman. I'm not begging anybody to be a city employee," Daley said. "You don't want to be one? Fine. Go get another job."

The video clip was great - we'll try to find it. Daley all but told CFD to go fuck themselves and find jobs in the suburbs. Real leadership coming from the 5th floor. "If you don't like it, quit." Real maturity. First of all, the suburbs aren't hiring. Second, the suburbs don't require residency.

The mayor is living in some twisted alternate version of reality. We (and the firefighters) are compelled by state law to surrender one of the most basic rights granted to Americans - the right to live where we want. And just because residency was supposed to be a good thing when it was enacted, doesn't mean it's a good thing now. Now all it means is we have to pay for the "privilege" of being a city employee.

Property taxes and home prices have skyrocketed. New cops and firefighters have almost ZERO chance of ever owning a home. We need either property tax relief, a stipend for being forced to live in the city or residency abolished so new cops can actually afford a home instead of pouring their money into rent and losing the battle of wages keeping up with tax hikes.

An Interesting Point

Someone brought it up in the comments section, if Grau and Williams are the #3 and #4 guys in the Department (or at least among the top 6), how can they not be qualified for the job?

And if the selection committee (which is commissioned by the Police Board, which is itself appointed by Daley) couldn't come up with the "best and the brightest" from our very own upper echelons, then why even have a selection committee?

And does anyone know if the committee re-opens the application process? Or are they forced to choose from the previous 50 or so applicants who submitted their resumes during the actual process? Because if they have to use the existing applicants, hasn't the mayor just doomed us to a second tier choice since the entire purpose of the committee was to select the "best and brightest" already?

Seems like the New York guy is the only one with balls - he withdrew his name from further consideration after being bumped.

Here We Go Again

So we spent some time with our vast editorial staff, speculating about the mayor's rejection late Thursday and what it all meant. The mayor states he wants to keep all three rejected names under consideration so as to ensure that he has the "best possible person" for the job.

What does the mayor think the search committee was doing for the past two months? We mean besides doing exactly what the mayor told them to do. The committee, named by the Police Board that the mayor appointed, did what they were supposed to do and gave the mayor the choices he wanted, including a guy from New York with zero possibility of being selected. That made it a coin flip decision.

Now the mayor wants everyone to jump through hoops again? For what dinner theater is this performance being staged?

Here's our take:

• If any of the rejected names appear on the short list again, that's the pick. No ifs, ands, or buts.
• If Maher's name appears on the short list, it's hers. Unless Kirby's appears also. The SOS trials might start in September and Kirby might get some "corruption fighting" credentials to boost her stature.
• It still won't be an outsider.

Whatever happens, we'll be posting rumors left and right.

Sorry Crimefile - Heirens to Rot

Looks like the Prisoner Review Board did the right thing:

• llinois' longest-serving prison inmate won't be getting out on parole this year.
  
  The Illinois Prisoner Review Board voted 14-0 to deny parole for 78-year-old William Heirens.
  
  Heirens was convicted of the 1945 killings of two Chicago women and the 1946 kidnapping, dismemberment and murder of a 6-year-old girl. He was sentenced to three back-to-back life terms and has spent 61 years behind bars.
  
  Members of the review board noted the brutal nature of Heirens' crimes in denying him parole. They noted that he's a different man than he was 60 years ago but said it would be disrespect for the law to allow him parole.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Breaking News!!!

Daley has turned down the 3 names from the Search Committee and asked for 3 new names to be submitted.

This is a bit of a surprise. We've been hearing Grau for months now and the Sun Times article relating a second interview with Grau was driving quite a bit of the rumor mill. Now? It would seem the west and south side minister's coalition is taking a largish hit with their guy not making it. Same goes for LAPA.

We're going to go out on a limb here and call Maria Maher the front runner now. She's got the right political connections, the various career highlights and is completely beholden to the Chicago Machine. It also gives Daley a "double minority" promotion (Hispanic and female) and makes him appear to be a pioneer by appointing a woman to run the second largest department in the nation.

What say the readers?

UPDATE: The Tribune has a story up at 3:16 PM. That means we got our post up 6 minutes before the Trib. Ain't the Internet wonderful? You've got to love it when the citizen media kicks the legacy media's butt nine ways to Sunday.

UPDATE: The Sun Times article is fantastic! Go Fran Go!!!!!

• The mayor's decision to ask Starks to serve as interim superintendent for what could be a protracted period won't sit well with Cline.

  Cline and Starks have butted heads from Day One, ever since City Hall dictated that Starks be promoted to first deputy to create a salt-and-pepper team at the top of the Chicago Police Department.

Wow. Salt 'n' Pepa! Didn't they used to fire people for casual comments like these?

And who cares what Cline thinks? He put in his papers already and therefore has no say in anything. Anyone who thinks this isn't the mayor's last little jab at the retiring round one is dreaming.

Ah Well - Supe Watch Continues

Maybe TODAY will be the day? Because yesterday sure wasn't. We'll try to keep everyone updated, but no promises.

UPDATE - From the Sun Times:

• Mayor Daley has conducted a second interview with Deputy Police Supt. Hiram Grau, which could mean Grau has taken the lead in the competition to replace retiring Supt. Phil Cline.

  So far, neither Chief of Patrol Charles Williams, 55, nor New Yorker Thomas Belfiore, 50, has been asked to meet again with Daley. That doesn't mean they won't be. But the fact Grau, 59, was first could be significant.

And Phil's retirement party is tomorrow. To maintain the illusion that the chain of command remains intact, will there be an announcement today?

We just like winding everyone up. And it gives us something to post about.

Obama Steps in it Again

Hillary's people have to be licking their chops. First, they berated Obama as a foreign policy lightweight for saying that he'd meet with enemy states like Iran or North Korea despite that fact that they have, time and again, violated UN sanctions and International Law. Even Bill Clinton didn't do that. Obama fired back that Hillary was just "Bush/Cheney lite" for voting for the Iraq war. Haillary's people had to be giggling fit to beat the band on that one.

Then comes this gem, covered nationally and internationally today:

• Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama warned Pakistan Wednesday that he would use military force if necessary to root out terrorists, the second time in two weeks that he's staked out a dramatically different road for U.S. foreign policy.
• The Illinois senator's tough talk against Pakistan comes after he pledged to meet with leaders of rogue nations who have been rebuffed by President Bush.

Pakistan is a nuclear power. A nuclear power with upwards of 30,000,000 men under arms. With a tiny little strip of land (about 500 miles worth) that borders a waterway for resupply purposes. And it's all mountains with Third World roads. And the mountains and tribal areas that are sheltering the terrorists we seek are at the point farthest from the Persian Gulf.

Can someone get the senator from Illinois a map and an encyclopedia. Please.

Political Correctness Again

When will we learn?

• Every day for nearly 30 years, Walid Elkhatib has sold doughnuts. Glazed, chocolate frosted, Bavarian Kreme and other varieties. As a Dunkin' Donuts franchisee, he expanded the menu to include breakfast sandwiches, such as egg and cheese bagels.
  
  But he drew the line at serving sandwiches with sausage, ham or bacon because his Muslim faith forbids him from eating or handling pork -- a departure from company policy that led Dunkin' Donuts in 2002 to threaten it would take away his two Chicago-area franchises.
  
  So for five years Elkhatib has been waging a legal battle against the Boston chain claiming racial bias, not religious discrimination. The federal court of appeals in Chicago last month reinstated the case, blurring the lines between religion and race.

This is America. And if you aren't willing to sell us a breaded pork chop sandwich or a Wendy's Baconator or any of the "other white meat" products, then you really don't belong in the food service industry. Previous corporate policy notwithstanding, if the corporation changes direction, ownership or policy and you expect to remain part of their franchise, then you better abide by corporate rules. There is no "right" to not follow the rules of your employer, and if your employer says you're going to sell bacon sandwiches because that's what consumers want, then, by allah, you're going to sell bacon sandwiches and like it or you're going to lose your franchise.

And we've also consulted with a couple of imams and there doesn't seem to be any provision that bans the touching of pork products in the koran, only a ban on consuming it. Same goes for handling alcohol - someone better tell all the west and south side arab store owners (each of which swears he's a good muslim if you ask) to stop selling all that Old E.

Taxpayers Spared

We imagine this is a good ruling:

• The Illinois Appellate Court ruled Wednesday that the city cannot be held responsible in the deaths of 13 people after a 2003 porch collapse, according to a release from the City of Chicago's Law Department.

  Thirty-eight lawsuits have been filed against the city after a porch collapsed during a party on the 700 block of W. Wrightwood Ave. on June 29, 2003. The collapse resulted in 13 deaths and numerous injuries.

  The plaintiffs in the case, including a relative of one of those killed in the collapse, Jean Ware, claimed the city was negligent in inspecting the porch. City attorneys argued that municipalities should not be responsible for damages that occur on private property that does not comply with city code, the release said.

Government can't be everywhere. Government shouldn't be everywhere. The only reason the City got dragged into this lawsuit was the potential "deep pockets" payouts. The City could only have levied fines once the malfeasance came to light - which it did in the form of 13 dead people. The only way to prevent crooked construction companies and shady landlord from circumventing the law is to make the fines so onerous so as to deter them even thinking they could get away with something. Otherwise, bribes, fly-by-night construction and more collapses are inevitable.

Today is the Day?

Sources close to HQ tell us an announcement is expected today on the new Superintendent. We'll have word as soon as it becomes available.

We'll also begin the betting on what retirements are imminent following the naming of the new Supe and what reassignments are to take place.

Of course, the mayor might surprise everyone and put it off for another day. In that case, Open Post!

UPDATE: Could it possibly be? From the comments sections:

• grau is meeting with the mayor in his office at 10:00 sharp
  
  then a press conference will be held in time for the noon news
  
  I'm not saying that grau is the new super but read between the lines here people
  
  the given information is fact..from a close sorce of grau
  
  
  and williams HEEEE GOOOONE

The Nose Knows

Something didn't smell right:

• Chicago police shut down a major drug operation growing inside a warehouse on a busy West Side street.
  
  CBS 2 [...] reports it was a foul odor that led Chicago police officers to the warehouse on Armitage Avenue, near Cicero Avenue.
  
  "We were able to pinpoint where the foul odor was coming from at which time we called for canine," said Officer Brian Ustaszewski of the Chicago police.

A huge hydro lab - right in the heart of the city. Has anyone else noticed an up-tick in all sorts of clandestine labs across the city? Shroom labs, hydro labs, etc? Watch yourselves around this crap. Tons of it is caustic and even more of it might be explosive under the right conditions.