Political Correctness Again

Hopefully, this doesn't take hold:

• The police booking photo of alleged child killer Nour Hadid released Tuesday is an "insult against our religion," says Hadid's husband, Alaeddin.

  Orland Park police detectives say the 26-year-old Muslim woman was treated as any other suspect in a murder probe would be, and they did not intend to humiliate her when they photographed her Sunday without her headscarf and wearing only a skimpy top.

  Nour Hadid is accused of beating her 2-year-old niece Bhia Hadid to death over four days at her home on the 9000 block of West 140th Street. The child had 55 separate bruises and was beaten "from head to toe," according to prosecutors, who say Hadid confessed.

Beating a two-year-old to death, no problem. A booking photo so if this piece of sub-human slime ever sees the light of day again, police can readily identify her when she beats the next child to death, an "insult against" religion.

We don't know how you can take a "religion" seriously that preaches death as a reward, conversion by the sword, demands tribute from non-believers and can only spout outrage and issue death threats when questioned on matters incompatible with a civilized society.

Fuck!!!!!!

You know what we're talking about.

Glocks for All

According to the Lieutenants Association website, the weapon policy is about to change:

• We just were informed that the department plans to implement a new policy for duty weapons. This policy will be effective at the end of the year. For more information please read this letter.

The letter is at this link or here's a blurry copy you can click on:

So a "phased-in" all-Glock-Department? That almost sounds like a required "first issue."

As someone pointed out, any other weapon purchases that are not "duty related" (that is to say, not Glock) are going to be charged the City registration fees that were usually waived for Officer's alternate weapons.

Exclusivity in Chicago usually means someone somewhere got a bit of grease. Was FOP consulted for this change? Did other manufacturers get a chance to bid? Something here smells a bit funny and in Chicago, where there's a funny smell, there's usually a connected relative making some dough.

UPDATE: We know what the letter says and we know it isn't a mandatory switch over. Standardizing for recruit training is one thing. Restricting what feels right in your hand and lets you do your job properly once you're off probation doesn't seem like a good fit. Read the letter please, as we did.

Ingenious

By BuckleyTypoGraphics:

Prints in a number of different sizes are available for sale at the BuckleyTypoGraphic site and he is also setting up a CafePress site so you can order the image on an assortment of products.

In any case, we only wish we had thought of this one in time for the march. Good stuff.

A then B then C

It all follows the familiar pattern:

• The Daley Administration says, with the global economic crisis continuing, the City’s budget gap is growing even larger.
  
  WBBM Political editor Craig Dellimore reports that tax revenues are way down and Snow removal costs have been higher.
  
  Chicago’s new Chief Financial Officer Gene Saffold says that a $33 million dollar budget gap a month ago has now turned into a $51 million dollar shortfall.

Um...what snow removal? The streets were in the worst shape we can remember. And as a result of failing to clear the streets?

• Transportation Commissioner Tom Byrne said Wednesday he's mapping plans to "reshuffle" personnel -- and "double up crews in high-density areas" -- to increase productivity.
  
  The redeployment is in the works as city crews appear to be fighting a losing battle. Chicago's 311 non-emergency system still has 13,000 reported potholes, even after city crews filled 4,000 potholes on Tuesday.

"...filled 4,000 potholes on Tuesday"? With what? Evaporating bullshit? Because we haven't seen it. And neither has the 4800 block of Van Buren:

• Residents of a West Side Chicago street who were fed up with the potholes grabbed pavement mix and tools to fill the holes themselves.

  Members of the South Austin Coalition used $100 in pavement mix and a 250-pound push roller in addition to rakes and shovels to fill 15 holes on West Van Buren St.

$100 to fix 15 holes one a one block stretch? Holy crap, hire these people. But listen to what the City says about it:

• But city officials say the residents' action was not a good idea.

  Brian Steele of the Chicago Department of Transportation says the driveway mixture used by the neighborhood group does not match the quality of the high performance cold patch used by the city.

  Officials say city crews fill 3,000 to 5,000 a day.

Again, 3,000 to 5,000 potholes filled a day would mean they ought to be catching up on the 13,000 hole backlog. But they aren't. And they are claiming they have filled 300,000 so far this year. We smell bullshit.

Meanwhile, we're on the fifth rim on our 172,000 mile chariot this year alone. Maybe if the City didn't build roads out of such crap material, they'd have a chance to catch up. We hope the media makes a special trip over to the 4800 block of Van Buren and films the citizen patches. Then, if Shortshanks and Byrne don't have the patches scraped and replaced in a few weeks, see how the citizen patches held up against a similar city patch. We're betting it outlasts the City's "high quality."

Not So Magnificent Mile

And it explains part of the story just above this post about the budget shortfall getting bigger:

• [...] Softness in the tourism and convention businesses -- [...] -- are hurting the Midwest's most prestigious retail district. It has weathered past downturns relatively well, thanks largely to the curiosity of out-of-town visitors.

  But today the Magnificent Mile is enduring its highest vacancy rate since 1992. Retailers Lord & Taylor, Talbots Inc. and William-Sonoma Inc.'s Pottery Barn all recently shuttered large stores.

Also contributing to the problems?

• Last year the number of empty shops hit 6.3%, up from 4.4% in 2007 and just 1.0% in 2002, said Bruce Kaplan, a senior vice president at CB Ellis, a commercial-real-estate firm that conducts an annual survey on the Mile's rents and vacancy rates.
  
  
• The sales tax in surrounding Cook County was raised last year to 10.25%, highest in the nation. This year, after the city privatized public parking meters, downtown rates climbed to $3.50 an hour. State legislators are considering a series of tax increases to close a nearly $12 billion budget deficit.
  
  
• A decline in out-of-town visitors also is hurting business. Downtown Chicago hotel occupancy rates dropped to 48% this February, from 54% in February 2008 and 60% in February 2007, according to STR Global, which tracks the hotel industry. Room rates are down 11% from last year. Among the largest 25 markets in the nation, Chicago has experienced the third-largest decline in hotel traffic, behind only Phoenix and San Francisco, STR said.

A economic death spiral. But bring on the Olympics!

Shootings Still Up

You'd think the International Olympic Committee just left town with the increased reporting of shootings:

• One person was killed and another wounded in a shooting this evening in the Burnside neighborhood on the South Side, officials said.

• Three people shot and wounded with a shotgun on the South Side this evening, officials said.

  At about 9:40 p.m. paramedics were called out to the vicinity of 88th and Wood Streets
  
  
• A 15-year-old boy was fatally shot in the chest on the city's South Side this afternoon, according to police and relatives.

It's brewing.

Jim Keeps Busy

An inspirational tale:

• Mullen was laid off in December from WBBM-TV Ch. 2, where he contributed monthly reports on disability news. But a new business project has kept him busy.
  
  Mullen now sells applesauce made using his mother Audre's recipe. Mullen's Apple Sauce is sold in Chicago stores, including Happy Foods and Whole Foods Market.
  
  A percentage of any profits will go to the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation, which relies on donations to help families of deceased or seriously injured officers.

Everything we've ever read about Officer Mullen paints him as a guy who won't even let paralysis keep him down. Keeping busy keeps him going. Good luck with the latest venture Jim.

Thanks from Saints for Sara

A "thank you" from a police wife and mother:

• To Our Police Friends and Family -
  My name is Erin Martorano. My husband, Joe Martorano has worked for the Chicago Police Department for ten years. This past November, our four year old daughter, Sara was diagnosed with cancer. Cancer has no boundaries. Cancer loves to invade every aspect of your life. It is the eternal support of family and friends that is keeping our family afloat in a cancerous sea of good and bad "moments."
  
  April 5th, our friends held the Saints for Sara benefit. I'm writing this letter in response to my emotions from this heart warming get together. The Chicago Police presence was overwhelming. I appreciate your smiles, your looks of concern, your well wishes, your nods, your hugs, your generosity, your jokes, your cheers, your personalities. That's one thing the Chicago Police Department is not short of......unique personalities!
  
  I'm a girl who was born and bred in the suburbs of Chicago. I am not from a police family. Marrying Joe and his job has been quite an experience. Being a Chicago Police officer is a lifestyle. It is not a job choice. It is a chosen life of leaving your family and going to work with a gun and bullet-proof vest. Every day you choose to put yourself in dangerous and unpredictable situations. Unlike other professions, even when you're off duty, you are still a police officer. You are still expected to "do the job." You are expected to keep the city and it's people safe, while having a smile on your face and only nice things to say. You are expected to use your gun at a moments notice to save your life or the life of someone else...and with those same hands, you hold your wife or husband and tuck your kid into bed at night. What is expected of you and your family is extreme. You still do it. If you are not one of us, you do not understand.
  
  You are Chicago Police officers. You do not let one of your own, walk alone. Since our daughter, Sara was diagnosed with cancer, you have not left our family's side. We know a lot of you personally, some...we know your name, some...we know what district you work in, some...we just know you are the police. Thank you for support, friendship, prayers and laughs throughout of family's cancer journey.
  
  Much gratitude and thanks,
  Erin Martorano

We just thought this deserved front page coverage rather than being buried in the comments.

How Did They Earn It?

A humorous story in the Tribune...if you are amused political insiders cashing in big time:

• When President Barack Obama moved into the White House earlier this year, he took several of his fellow Chicago millionaires with him.
  
  Newly released disclosure reports show virtually all of the top Chicagoans serving in the West Wing had assets valued at a million dollars or more at the end of 2008.
  
  In several cases, the reports provide the first detailed look at the finances of some of the president's top aides and friends from Chicago who have risen with him. They also show the salary haircut many have taken to be in the White House, at least until they return to the private sector.

Funny how all the people listed are one and two degrees of separation from the Chicago Machine and all the graft and political favoritism that comes with it.

Another CPS Casualty

They just keep finding trouble:

• A 15-year-old boy was shot and killed Wednesday afternoon near his South Side home in the Gresham neighborhood.

  Chicago Police are investigating whether the shooting at 77th and Carpenter at about 12:30 p.m. was somehow linked to a neighborhood dice game, sources said.

  [...] So far this school year, 32 Chicago public high school students have been killed in street violence.

Thirty-two is a new record. Actually, everything past twenty-seven is a new record and there are still three months left in the school year. Plus summer school because they count everything until September.

But don't worry - we're at 97% of full strength - J-Fed said so.

Daley is an Ass

As pointed out in the comment section, a few protesters stage a sit-in at Daley's office and he calls off plans to shut 4 mental health clinics:

• Mayor Daley said Tuesday he’s putting his $1.2 million plan to close four of Chicago's 12 mental health centers “on hold” until he gets to the bottom of a flawed billing system that triggered the cuts.

  One day after a noisy City Hall demonstration that included a brief sit-in at the mayor’s office, Daley gave at least some measure of hope to mental health advocates who want the clinics to remain open indefinitely.

  “We are looking into that. We take this seriously. We’re putting it on hold to find out some of the issues there,” Daley said.

But 3,600 people march around downtown for two hours and he's deaf as a post.

(sarcasm warning)

We guess our protests are too peaceful. Maybe for the next one we need to flip a few cars, invade Council chambers, and maybe tar-and-feather a few of the aldercreatures. Then we can build a scaffold and hang Daley in effigy.

My Pet Unit

Hey Mobile Strike Force?

Did you catch J-Fed on the "At Issue" program?

His "pet unit."

Oh, and it's all FOP's fault the list got released. They should have had pickets up. J-Fed said so.

Amazing.

UPDATE: He also called the Cozzi incident the most "egregious" violation of Civil Rights he had ever seen.

We'll guess that's because no footage of Ruby Ridge actually exists in the FBI archives. But we're pretty sure there's lots of tape regarding Waco. Wonder if that one even made J-Fed's top ten.

War of Secession Coming?

Even as we speak, President Lincoln Toddler is mobilizing the Army of the Potomac Sanitary and Shipping Canal to bring the Confederate suburban forces to heel:

• *Palatine Township: disconnect from Cook County. Yes 9,684 No 3,503 (85 of 92 precincts, advisory only)

  *Barrington Township: disconnect from Cook County. Yes 942 No 477 (12 of 14 precincts, advisory only)

  *Hanover Township: disconnect from Cook County. Yes 3,492 No 2,021 (50 of 57 precincts, advisory only)

At least one of these townships conducted a study that purported to show they sent $18 million to the Cook County government and receive just a $4 million dollar return for roads, court services and other assorted minutiae. If they secede from Cook County, they can rebate their tax base some portion of the $14 million difference or offer up more and improved services to their taxpayers.

Stroger on the other hand, would have to make up $14 million from the remaining Cook County population just to pay his cousins. If all three townships carry through on the process, the hole in Stroger's budget might top $50 million.

Protest March Video

Hop over to this YouTube link and you can see a ten minute video of the march. Nice footage and you can get a feel for the amount of people who were there. Remember, we surrounded the entire building, so that's about a half mile of police three, four and five deep around the Hall.

Does anyone have footage of the rally at the end? We posted a couple still pics, but video would be nice to see. Channel 7 managed to hide the only aerial shots we heard of.

Blame in Pittsburgh

Our aim in posting this is not to cast a bad light on OEMC, but to point out that for the job to get done, all the pieces have to work together with minimal muss and fuss. This is not how to do it:

• The mother of a man charged with killing three Pittsburgh police officers told a 911 dispatcher he had weapons, but the dispatcher didn't relay that information to officers, the official in charge of county dispatchers says.

  The dispatcher should have asked more questions about the weapons, but didn't, and certainly should have told officers so they could take necessary precautions, Allegheny County Chief of Emergency Services Robert Full told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

  "There is no excuse. It could have been handled better, without a doubt," Full said in Tuesday's editions.

We know there's a list of questions call-takers are supposed to ask when a 911 call comes in. When we're lucky enough to have a PDT, we see where the data is entered, "No known weapons."

We also know that there are some horror stories out there about walking into a shit storm unaware of what's in the house. There are breakdowns and gaps and sometimes the info is unavailable. It happens. But complacency is the enemy of good police work. There are no "routine" calls just as there are no "routine" traffic stops. "Routine" gets people dead, time and time again.

Pittsburgh initially appears to be a breakdown of the highest order.

Oxymoron Investigates Junior

Jesse Jr in trouble again:

• A congressional ethics board has launched a preliminary inquiry into U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill), related to President Obama’s vacant Senate seat and the corruption investigation of ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

  The Office of Congressional Ethics, formed just last year, voted in late March to conduct a “preliminary review,” of actions surrounding Jackson’s bid to be appointed to the Senate seat, according to documents released to parties involved in the probe. The committee launched the action Thursday — the same day Blagojevich was indicted on corruption charges.

Congressional Ethics? Please.

Anyway, Junior is the second member of the Illinois Congressional delegation to be investigated by the newly formed committee. The first is Burris. Shouldn't that tell everyone something about Illinois politics?

Scandal Falling Apart

As a result, it appears more and more like J-Fed was brought here under false pretenses. The Department as a whole was never "out of control" and much of the alleged wrongdoing seems to be a media driven creation:

• Very quietly, the Chicago Police Department has given badges back to three police officers who had been caught up in the Special Operations Section scandal and relegated to desk jobs as part of the ongoing investigations into wrongdoing, department officials confirmed today.
  
  
  With police powers restored, Greg Insley, Dave Case and Paul Zogg can return to the street and real police work, department officials said. For Case, reinstatement brought a promotion, from sergeant to lieutenant. The officers could not be reached for comment, or declined to comment publicly about their reinstatements.

And word is trickling in that a fourth Officer who was cleared in court, received his gun back and is again on the payroll. How many more will be cleared before it's all over? Aside from two people, this is starting to look like another politically motivated clusterfuck and not entire teams out of control.

More Tahoe Problems

Interesting design error:

• Anyone notice the serious design flaw in the new Tahoes concerning the cage? The gap on each side of the cage partition is wide enough for a whole ARM to fit thru and grab the driver or passenger in the front seat! And what did they do to correct this gap? The installed FLIMSY plastic secured with VELCRO- that's right- VELCRO!
  
  FLOP was notified and didn't seem very interested. I know of officers who have sent a to-from to FOP notifying them of the safety issue.
  
  In the meantime, boys and girls, be careful if you choose to transport anyone in the rear of your new Tahoe. Always handcuff anyone in your backseat, but we all know that some skinny crack-heads can get those cuffs in front of themselves. I swear, the gap is large enough for 2 skinny arms to poke thru and harm or annoy the POs in the front.
  
  We should all be writing To-froms regarding this serious safety issue.

Watch yourselves while transporting or detaining subjects. Why they couldn't weld something a bit more permanent, we'll probably never know.

Vote Tomorrow

Vote Republican in the 5th District for Rosanna Pulido:

• This special election presents a window of opportunity to send a conservative voice to Washington — someone who will fight for the families and freedoms that are currently under attack. But I am just a regular citizen. I don’t have the support or financial backing of a huge, corrupt party behind me — that’s why I need people like YOU behind me.

  And because this is such a rare opportunity, it’s crucial that we all exercise our right and responsibility to make our voices heard. April 7th is right around the corner. I encourage you to participate fully in this election, and to remind your family and friends in the 5th District to do so as well.

She marched with us this past week. She advocates fully funding the pension. She supports enforcing immigration laws.

Do we really need another Daley politico in Washington?

UPDATE: Did you vote? Record low turnout. Every vote counts a bit more today.

Opening Day

One hundred years down....

• Carlos Zambrano tossed six sharp innings to get his first opening-day win in five chances, leading the Chicago Cubs to a 4-2 victory over the Houston Astros on Monday night.

  Zambrano allowed one run and five hits in his first start against Houston since his no-hitter on Sept. 14 in Milwaukee. That game was played at Miller Park after Hurricane Ike damaged the Houston-area.

At this rate, the Cubs will clinch by July and be 162-0 by season's end. At least, to hear the north siders talk that is. Sox snowed out.

Pension Fund

In these times, one needs to think "outside the box" like the mayor does when he's looking for more money for his "Quest for Fire" Olympic dream. This bright idea was given to us by a reader:

• Why not have the Pension Fund provide a large portion of the backing for the Parking Meter deal? In addition to the interest generated by the loan, write into the management contract that a sizable percentage of the quarters collected go directly into the Pension Fund, something like 50 or 60%. Then, how about the ticket revenue be handled similarly? 50%? 75% into the fund until the shortfalls are erased? That way, coppers would be encouraged to write tickets again since they'd be working for their retirement guarantees.

We aren't economists, but it sounds like it could work on some level. We don't see anyone else with viable suggestions and it has to work out better than Venecko and other mayoral relatives skimming management fees while losing a million-and-a-half of our money.

So Where Do We Go Now?

We had the march - 2,000 plus cops along with 1,600 and more supporters seems to be the consensus. We definitely rattled some cages.

Now what? The next FOP Meeting isn't until 21 April. That's a pretty big gap where we ought to be doing something. Another march? Billboards? Radio ads? We need to keep the message at the top of everybody's mind.

Supposedly, there was to be a negotiating session the day after the march. Any word on if the city re-offered the raise package pulled of the week before? Shortshanks is playing chicken and betting that we're going to fold or lose big. We need to keep him embarrassed and uncomfortable. We need to continue to hammer home the point that other unions got big raises based on the fact that they could strike to bring the city to the table. We need to point out that the aldercreatures voted themselves a huge 6% raise for a part time job. We need to counter the city's contention on a daily basis that we're greedy and we're just looking to cover the city, county and tax hikes we (and every other resident) are forced to endure.

We need Daley to look like this:



Suggestions? We know the FOP monitors the blog, so maybe they'd let us know what they think we ought to do.

No Answer for the IOC

We get letters all the time, mostly from cops, but many from citizens readers. And sometimes from someone who can see behind the curtains. This is one of those times.

The IOC is making visits to a number of sites around the city and one of the members asked the mayor and his staff a question that wasn't anticipated:

• ...for a city as large as Chicago, they feel that there are not enough engine companies, truck companies and ambulances as it is. How is the city is going to handle the Games with current staffing when approximately 1.5 million more people will swell Chicago's population. The mayor and his staff was taken off guard by this question and had no answers for the committee. They also asked about the number of police personnel...

Resources are stretched kind of thin at the moment. Regardless of what the mayor says, J-Fed says or the talking mouthpieces at City Halls say, we know what we're driving, we know what others are driving, we know what's in the trunk and we know the call volume. When 1500 hours rolls around, we're going into backlog and we aren't getting out until well past 1st watch starting times. No one thinks about the city and suburban population increasing by over 1.5 million for three weeks and the strain that's going to put on infrastructure, services and amenities.

Perhaps the IOC reads the blogs?

Zone Down Again

This time, Zone 2 covering the 019 and 023 Districts. You have to love a software patch/upgrade that manages to render a sizable percentage of your force unable to communicate with their lifelines and with each other.

And that along with the not-available-for-prime-time super-secret OEMC mirror site going up at O'Hare that Fran Speilman doesn't mind revealing to terrorist masterminds.

Now we get word that the entire AIRA (automated case reporting) was giving out duplicate Record Division numbers for a portion of last week resulting in who knows how many man-hours wasted by Review and the D Unit to straighten out.

Please, can we get a decent technology team together?

What's Missing?

It seems J-Fed is hanging his hat on getting us new vehicles. He was bragging about it in the recent PAX 501 and on WBBM's "At Issue" show. But something seems to be missing....

Oh yeah, gun locks.

So we're going to end up downing these vehicles for how many days to install gun locks and wiring and hope that the batteries and electric systems can take the extra stress, unlike most of the current cars.

What a marvelous feat of planning.

Oh Dear God

OK, this is getting ridiculous:
You can order your very own at this link here. It comes in two versions - Happy and Determined.

We can hardly wait to meet the Chia-Obama at one of our Domestic Battery calls.

Burger Queen Strikes Again

There are a couple different versions of this story floating around:

• On Thursday, 02 April, Chief Byrne, who is truly one of the good guys out here, came to the 003rd District, as per Jody's orders to the Command Staff to goo out to the districts and try to feel out how morale can be bettered. it was a closed door meeting with the 0800 roll call. During the meeting with the officers and a sgt. he asked what the problems were in 003. Apparently during that session the sgt. made comments about the commander being the root of all evil in the district, (which is about as to the point as it can be...mmmm hmmmm).
  
  Apparently one of The Burger Queen's little minions, a snitchy bitch went to her and let her know what this certain sgt. said during the meeting. She later ordered the W/C to get a number on this sgt. When axed by the W/C what the allegation should be, she was unable to give a valid reason. She then ordered the 3rd watch W/C to call in all officers who were present at the roll call to submit reports detailing exactly what was said by this officer...another fine case of gold star hibbity jibbity.
  
  To the best of our knowlege, a call was made to FLOP and Bella was contacted. He in turn contacted Chief Byrne to get more info on the incident. Chiefs Byrne and Dugan, another one of the few good guys, later came to the district and had a meeting with all the officers who were present at the roll call meeting, apologizing for S F L's demands for reports, stating in effect, what goes on in these meetings stays in these meetings. While Chief Byrne was addressing the officers involved, Chief Dugan apparently went into the front office and chewed The Burger Queen a new one!!!!!

While there are at least two other versions of this in our comment sections, we don't doubt a word of it. The basic story is the same and tallies with an e-mail or two we've received.

The Burger Queen should have been demoted a long time ago, but not for her burger team-building inanity. Attempting to take a gun past a secure airport checkpoint is a jail-able offense last time we checked. In fact, there a couple of people locked up for taking guns to checkpoints last year, even when they claimed ignorance of the presence of the gun. But we suppose that when the lieutenant at the airport (who happens to be married to an exempt, who can't even recall to whom he sold a health club to) says it's ok to bring a gun to the airport in violation of Federal law, well, anything is possible.

Byrne and Dugan are merely scratching the surface of what's wrong in 003 J-Fed. And 003 is just the symptom of a larger problem.

UPDATE: This was supposed to be the top post for the day. There was a glitch that pushed it down the page. We've moved it to where it belongs.

Rifles Now Please

In light of the recent mass murders of police officers in Oakland and Pittsburgh, we'd like see the following:

• Gun locks in the cars NOW;
• Rifles and shotguns on the street NOW;
• Elimination of the ridiculous requirements to carry a weapon that should have been on the street years ago. We'd rather have the rifle in the hands of a capable shooter with a bum knee and a twisted back than sitting in the radio room, collecting dust, doing nobody any good.

We'll explain this so even a caveman could understand it. We have an assortment of tools that were invented decades ago. They are called a rifle and a shotgun. For some reason, an anti-gun mayor has decided that we can't carry these tools despite clear evidence they could save the lives of officers and citizens.

Now, in the event that one or more individuals are cut down by an assailant wielding superior firepower, those who were shot will bleed to death while officers hunker down at a distance with inadequate weaponry waiting for backup. Unfortunately, some of those shot may be our coworkers. And those rifles that may have permitted officers to return fire, pin down the assailant, maybe even end the assault and save lives? So sorry, but the mayor doesn't like guns.

You want to raise morale, make officers safer and maybe even get a few brownie points from the rank and file? Authorize rifles and shotguns first thing Monday morning, no preconditions. We'll bet your "policy group" will be pissing themselves to present this idea as their shining moment. Try to remember we've been saying it here with our readers since before you came to Chicago.

Merit Pool to Grow?

Once again, the Sun Times gets an important fact incorrect, but it's the Sun Times. We expect them to be half assed:

• Police Supt. Jody Weis said Friday he is working to expand the number of officers who can be considered for merit promotions and, ultimately, make it a system where "you don't have to know someone.''

  One of the more far-reaching ideas -- and one still in the planning stages -- would open up merit selection applications to anyone who has passed a test for advancement.

Um, newsflash? If you pass part one, you are already eligible for the "merit" selection process. It says so in the test order. And some people are so confident of their ability to get "merit" promoted, they don't even show up for part two of the test. Hey J-Fed? Did anyone ever tell you that part of the "merit" process? Maybe for the next round of picks, you could see what their combined score and actual test rank is? Bet you'll be surprised.

Here's an interesting thing we noticed. The Sun Times article is written by Anne Sweeney. If you go to the Southtown Star article, also written by Anne Sweeney, you get this incorrect tidbit:

• Under current promotion practices, 20 percent of the positions are filled by those who are recommended based on merit. Most positions are filled based on a test score.

It's only 20% for Detective spots. For Sergeant and above, the "merit" selections are 30%. But it's amusing that two completely different errors can make it through into two different papers both owned by the STNG conglomerate and both errors convey to the reader that everything on the CPD is on the up-and-up when it isn't. Anne better have a couple of talks - one with her source and the other with her editors.

Wristbands

And we recently saw that Chalkie2016.blogspot.com passed $1,000 in contributions to the 100 Club of Cook County. Very well done.

Now how about this:These are actually for sale at this link here. Chalkie is EVERYWHERE!

Pittsburgh Loses 3 Cops

Breaking news:

• PITTSBURGH (AP) — A man opened fire on officers responding to a domestic disturbance call Saturday morning, killing three of them, before barricading himself in the home, a police official said.
  
  Three officers were killed, said a police official at the scene who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
  
  At least five officers were wounded, police spokeswoman Diane Richard said. It's not clear if that included the slain officers.

Thoughts and prayers for Pittsburgh only in this thread.

UPDATE: Thoughts and prayers ONLY - we had to delete a lot of stuff that wasn't really appropriate for this remembrance thread. Please, we have hundreds of other open posts - use those to rant.

Clueless

He can't really believe this, can he?

• Weis once again defended his actions regarding Officer William Cozzi, who was charged last year with federal civil rights violations for allegedly beating a handcuffed man at a hospital after video surfaced of the beating. He said he merely notified federal authorities about the existence of the tape but did not facilitate Cozzi's charges. But he also said the officer's alleged conduct was among the worst brutality he's seen.

  "If any officer thinks that behavior was reasonable, I just don't understand that," Weis said.

But 8 to 12 years on top of punishment already served in the Federal Pen is "reasonable?"

A Few More Pictures

Thanks again to everyone who sent them in:


And a blast from the past:

Daley Goes Round the Bend

No grasp of reality:

• Daley agreed that, “We’re in a serious economic crisis. ...Taxpayers are feeling the pinch.”

  Today, the mayor changed his story — by pointing fingers at the union.

  “In all fairness, I did not take this off the table. They took it off the table. Let’s set the record straight so you understand that,” Daley said after launching the annual Spring Clean program at Harper High School, 6520 S. Wood.

Really? The above is the Sun Times report. They quote FOP President Donahue as saying, "That’s absolutely not true. ... I can’t believe he said that."

The Tribune's Clout Street blog goes a bit further:

• After the news conference, Daley spokeswoman Jacquelyn Heard acknowledged that in fact it was the administration that had withdrawn the 16 percent offer.

  “The spirit of what he said is absolutely true. The offer of the 16 percent increase in pay had been on the table for about a year. That’s a clear indication that [the police union] thought it was inadequate. The reaction to that was to withdraw the offer. The city’s response was to the union’s reaction," she said.

  Heard said the mayor’s comments today were meant to counter an “effort to lead the public to believe he doesn't value [police] enough to offer them a raise.”

So what do you do when your boss goes completely around the twist and out-and-out lies to the media who reported just over a week ago that the City (Daley) is the one who pulled the offer off the table, contradicting actual published reports? Jackie is spinning fit to burst because she knows Shortshanks has been caught in a provable lie, so she says "The spirit of what he said is absolutely true."

The spirit? The spirit ain't paying the bills Jackie. And the spirit isn't covering the tax raises by the city, county or state that are sucking our wallets dry.

Blackhawks in the Playoffs

For the first time in 7 years:

• Nikolai Khabibulin made 25 saves, and Jonathan Toews scored his team-leading 32nd goal as the Chicago Blackhawks clinched their first playoff berth in seven years by beating the Nashville Predators on Friday night.
  
  Samuel Pahlsson scored in the first period and Martin Havlat added an empty-net goal for the Blackhawks, who qualified for the postseason for only the second time in 11 seasons.

Rocky Wirtz is making all sorts of moves his old man would never have made and is really making Chicago a hockey town again. Congratulations.

Oh, and the Bears got some quarterback the other day.

More Pics

An interesting perspective. It really shows Channel 7 is missing something:

We were told this is Cooter. We don't know if he's the one holding the sign or the other guy.


More as we find good ones. We have around a hundred sent to us. Possibly some movies, too.

More Pictures

We're going to upload a few more during the day. We have way too many to do all at once.

Can You Hear Us Now?

If you read the WBBM or Channel 2 websites, they've taken to quoting the blog at length, actually naming the site and linking to it.

• The blog Second City Cop, which his written by Chicago Police officers, has extensively discussed the picket.
  
  The blog indicated that the picket has widespread support among officers, and that the National and State FOP Lodges had also pledged support, with scheduled appearances by National FOP President Chuck Canterbury and State FOP President Ted Street.
  
  
• Second City Cop said signs were being provided, but suggested that officers might also bring some other signs that family members could carry.
  
  "Something like "My Daddy needs a Contract" will almost guarantee your kid face time on TV and will bring home the point that we've been trying to raise families in this city for the past two years while the aldercreatures and their staffs got large raises and the other unions got better than average offers in return for ten years of labor peace," Second City Cop wrote on Monday.

They even quoted the word "aldercreatures." Mike Royko is laughing his ass off somewhere. A-freaking-mazing. We had some 16,000 visits yesterday with 26,000 page views. That's pretty insignificant or so we've been told by somebody. Whatever.

But we'd like to deflect most of the credit and point out a bunch of people who really made a lot of this possible with their unending support and willingness to lay it out there when it needed to be done:

• First up, although we dislike a vast majority of them, the media. Without their reporting Daley's tirades and asinine quote, we'd have a hard time generating outrage;
• The FOP. We disagree on many issues. But like it or not, they are the public face of the rank and file. SCC isn't going out and spending money on signs or providing buses or putting their face on camera. We couldn't function like that. Maybe the blog provided the impetus, maybe not. We are merely a medium to communicate unedited raw emotion.
• Each and every officer who made it their business to show up Thursday. The naysayers, the mayor, the media were all wrong when they said we wouldn't show up. That we weren't willing to buck Shortshanks. That we couldn't get it together

And special thanks to the following:

• Our civilian supporters. Office workers in the Loop. Passersby and non-cops who care about this city the way that we do;
• The retirees. It was damn good to see a lot of you there, shaking hands, renewing acquaintances, telling war stories. We miss you guys, now more than ever;
• Off-duty CFD. Your union didn't want to come, but you know better. We're in this together and we'd do better together;
• Mancow, who came down and marched among us. Love him or hate him, we need support and he's got a 50,000 watt transmitter that reaches a bunch of people we can use;
• The head of the Chicago Teachers Union marched. The drivers for Ozinga Concrete blew the airhorns on and off all morning. We're sure there were others we didn't see and our readers will point them out in the comment section later. But thanks!
• The sky pilots, Nangle and Wolf. We've had minor disagreements with Nangle about the content that appears here occasionally. But both Nangle and Wolf are class acts that rise above the fray and care more about the men and women of this Department than many people do;
• Rosanna Pulido, Republican candidate for the 5th Congressional District. What a kick in the teeth it would be for a Republican to win Rahm Emmanuel's old seat. We don't care if she's not your typical candidate. She was there. Quigley wasn't. What does that tell you?
• There were two aldercreatures there. Allen and Waguespack. Both represent Wards with pretty heavy concentrations of City workers. While we've called the entire City Council to task and advocated the elimination of half their jobs and much of their salaries, well just say you've got a long way to go to earn our thanks. This might be a start;
• The bosses who spoke words of encouragement to the marchers. We know you had to do most of it out of the sides of your mouths lest you piss off the dwarf and his tools, but at least you weren't writing down the beat tag numbers of a Special Employment car that drove by to blow their horn and then get on your phone to call in the numbers like a certain Sergeant Deputy did.

Again, we salute you all for the fantastic job today.

Resignation Offer

From J-Fed?

• Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis said today that while he was disappointed with the police union's picketing on the day that an International Olympics evaluation committee arrived in Chicago, he supported their right to express their views.

  He said he faults himself for not effectively communicating changes to the department's rank-and-file officers.

  "It tells me I haven't done a good enough job getting our information out,'' said Weis. "That tells me I have to work a little bit harder. At the end of the day, the morale of the department is on me.''

Actually J-Fed, you've communicated exactly what you're about. And we aren't buying it. We not ignorant provincial rubes here. This is still Chicago.

• He said he has ordered his command staff to go to every roll call with talking points to help build up the morale of the officers.

Your command staff? Wow. That's going to work wonders. These are the ones ruining the Department as we speak. You've picked Daley clowns, political hacks, four-time "merit" promotees, the best man at your wedding, other FBI bozos with no police experience whatsoever, a "policy group" with a combined street-time measured in months, an Assistant Superintendent who's family was running a dope/gun house, do we have to go on?

• Weis said that if he ever learned that he personally was responsible for lowering the morale in the department, he would be the first to go.

  "If I ...saw that I was the cause of [bad] morale in this department, no one would have to ask me to leave. I would leave on my own.

Do we have to run another poll? Have another vote? Another march?

ChicagoBreakingNews edited the article a bit and removed the item about how J-Fed sees officers responding to 10-1's and thinks that is an indicator of high morale. That just shows how out-of-touch and incompetent this guy is. We don't go to 10-1's based on morale.

Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

Sergeants Union EXECUTIVE Board

From the comments, we have this portion of a larger comment posted at 3:05 PM in the post titled "Sergeant Union Caves"

• To, SCC, I appreciate, your blog tremendously, I just wish in this regard, in this particular case. You would have been a little more objective, then, what seemed to me, trying to throw an actual good cop, under the bus. Because he did support the protest. It was those merit tools on the Board that had more votes. He had to put his name on it, we shouldn't be shooting the messenger in this case.

If John Pallohusky supported the picket, he should have said so. Plain and simple. But he's the one who released this statement after the 6-5 vote:

• "The CPSA Executive Board fully understands the frustrations that have prompted the other police unions to take this action, but at this time we believe the interests of the members of the Chicago Police Sergeants' Association are best served by the ongoing negotiation process."

That quote is under President Pallohusky's name. If Pallohusky was so inclined to support the picketers, he should have let the vote stand on it's own, noted his own abstention or negative vote, then showed up to march. We don't know that he did any of this. But we'll give him a chance:

• List the vote by roll. Who were the 6? Who were the 5? Who didn't show up to vote?

We don't envy the spot Pallohusky is in. We've been informed that he doesn't even serve in the off-street capacity that FOP's field reps do. He chooses, for whatever reason, to work in a Detective Area and has one of the vice presidents work at the CPSA Lodge. Unfortunately, that makes him susceptible to outside pressure from the City, because Sergeant of Detectives is an "at-will" spot. You don't test for it. It's granted, like a blessing. And according to at least a few of our commentators, much of the CPSA Board is made up of not only "merit" sergeants, but sergeants in "blessed" spots who don't want to lose those spots. God forbid they'd have to go back to Patrol and mingle with the great unwashed blue shirts.

We understand a huge number of Sergeants turned up to march and good for them. We appreciate that they support the troops. We'll note that is was the Executive Board of the CPSA that voted to not picket and most sergeants probably are as frustrated as the Officers at the pace of contract negotiations and City shenanigans. We remain of the opinion that this was a blown opportunity for the CPSA and Pallohusky and we question that undue influence over job assignments was the catalyst for it.

Channel 7 Boycott

Of all the media outlets, Channel 7 has been the most egregious lately in half-assed anti-police reporting. Chuck Goudie's piece was merely the peak of a recent wave of crap they've been dishing out. They continued their downhill slide on Thursday with their harebrained insistence that merely "hundreds" of police officers had showed up to picket, while every other media outlet accurately cited "thousands" and the FOP released figures of 3,600.

This was a big deal and Channel 7 managed to just about not report any of it by their evening newscasts and inaccurately reported the "NoGamesChicago" protest while showing the police march, which is just plain sloppy.

The following is a list of sponsors who bought ads during the 01 April 09 newscast that included Chuck Goudie's thinly disguised hit job that was almost certainly put together at the behest of the mayor and his cronies to try to make the police look bad:

• Dunkin Donuts
• Homegoods.com
• Value City Furniture
• Disney Nature
• Southwest Airlines
• Jewel Osco (2x)
  
• JC Penney
• Comcast
• 1-800-Dentist
• Cheerios/General Mills
• Lowe's

Disney doesn't seem to have an easily locatable complaint form, but they own ABC Broadcasting. They also let the indicted former governor vacation down there this past week, so they suck on many levels. It's their station, so you'd be talking to a brick wall anyway.

Most of the links above are directed toward the company's "Contact Us" pages. You might have to do a little searching to find the Complaint page or phone number. Be polite. Explain that ABC 7 has joined in a battle over a contract on the side of a corrupt political organization and you'll be looking to take your increasingly scarce dollars elsewhere.

We realize everyone isn't going to switch to Dominicks. And coppers aren't going to quit going to Dunkin Donuts. But most of the other companies have viable competitors who would welcome your money in these trying times.

Blago Indictment Out

Nice:

• Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, his brother Rob and Christopher Kelly, a former top fundraiser for Blagojevich, were all indicted today on corruption charges, the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago announced.
  
  Also charged in the indictment were Lon Monk, a lobbyist and former Blagojevich chief of staff; John Harris, also a former chief of staff to Blagojevich; and William Cellini, a Springfield insider for decades.

What happened to foul mouthed Patti Mell-Blago?

Lieutenants List Out

Post it if you got it.

UPDATE: Got it

• MERIT
  
  001 Blissett, Rodney D
  314 Liebas St. Phillip
  153 Marianovich, Mark
  189 Moore, Marc
  650 Pena, Maria
  606 Velez, Carlos
  
  SCORE
  
  166 Case, David
  192 Darlin, Randall
  620 Deenihan, Brendan
  004 Doherty, Raymond
  006 Gill, Phyllis
  012 Kingsley, Dale
  650 Klichowski, Gregory
  055 Mack, Paul
  253 Ryan, John
  011 Schmeer, Paula
  018 Serafini, John
  017 Sesso, Jacqueline
  124 Sesso, Steven
  017 Stiscak, Michael

No More Excuses (UPDATES!)

Even the weather is cooperating:

• Thursday... Cloudy. Slight chance of rain in the morning...then rain likely in the afternoon. Highs in the upper 40s. Northeast winds 10 to 20 mph. Chance of precipitation 70 percent.

Looks like protest time will be decent enough for marching. We will try to update as possible. Anyone taking pictures, e-mail them to us and we'll post the good ones.

Good luck and we'll see you there.

UPDATE: We're going to try something never before attempted in the history of SCC - updates from the scene. Actually, we tried it once, but it was a crime scene, it was busy, it was impossible. This might not be. The only trouble is, we can't really check e-mail or post pics live. Our uniform allowance we mean salary economic reality doesn't allow us to afford a really snazzy phone. Anyway, we're headed over to the 001 parking lot, then a free CTA ride. Good thing we've got that parking permit so Sergeant Deputy doesn't tow the car.

UPDATE: Talk from the scene, word is the 008 District bus had to go back for seconds, there were so many people.

UPDATE: Talk from the scene, 016 reports almost 100 people at Habetler Bowl when the bus arrived.

UPDATE: The picket line reaches reaches all the way around City Hall. Laugh that one off Shortshanks. A number of coppers are saying that Goudie's hit job on behalf of the mayor was the last straw. Thanks Chuck!

UPDATE: WBBM is saying "thousands" of police. Seeing as how the Police Department always overestimates crowd sizes for special events and the media underestimates if the mayor tells them to, we're comfortable saying the crowd is in excess of 2,000. Anyone from FOP doing a head count?

UPDATE: Live Pic!

Send what you got. We'll get to what we can.

UPDATE: More pics:Off to Daley Plaza - the crowd is so big it's moving in fits and spurts.

UPDATE: Channel 7 says "a few hundred"

Evidently, Channel 7 is full of shit again, from Goudie on down.

Goudie's Folly

Well that was some horribly half-assed reporting. Chuck left out a bunch of stuff that might have explained why Daley and Beale are attacking the police:

• No one disputes that police and firefighters deserve to be paid as much as the taxpayers can afford. But since 1980, rank and file officers have been paid hundreds of millions of dollars more than their publicly budgeted salaries.

The Unions took those payments in return for accepting drastically reduced salaries at the time. Uniform and Duty checks were not pensionable at that time. To eliminate the City's obligation and help balance the budgets in trying economic times, the Union and the City came together and hammered out a way to give the officers extra money for uniform upkeep and expenses without saddling the City with extra pension debt.

We all see how that's worked out ever since - our pension is funded at something like 42% and dropping every year despite State law that says it must be maintained at almost double that. That would be an interesting I-Team investigation. And a more interesting Federal investigation, too.

• The I-Team has been told by police and fire officers that these payments are common across the country. We checked New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston. Most pay uniform allowances that are significantly smaller than Chicago.

If other places pay it, it isn't an issue, is it Chuck? And if it's a negotiated item in a contract, then how is it the Officers' fault? Channel 7 even supplies a partial list of what is required to be bought by an Officer to be properly outfitted according to General Orders. The basic total is over $5,200. After taxes, the $1,800 Uniform allowance shrinks to under $1,200, so you won't recoup your hiring expenditures for about five years, by which time, you need a new vest, pants, shirts, shoes/boots. Now let's talk dry cleaning or even laundering expenses. Are you beginning to see the picture Chuck? Just to get hired by the CPD, you have to lay out between $5,000 to $7,000. And promotions? Or assignments to Special Units? Another $1,000 or more for BDU's, riot gear, marine and mounted specialized gear. That's out-of-pocket that you pay taxes on and cannot claim against your IRS filing until you surpass the amount granted.

How about this - weapon maintenance and proficiency. We aren't sure what other Officers do, but we like to shoot more than the 30 rounds the City makes us qualify with every year. Ammo costs have doubled in the past year. The Department is finally offering us the opportunity to carry rifles. We disagree in principle with the jumping through hoops, but what would you rather carry? A city supplied rifle that sits in the radio room collecting dust, not zeroed in to your eye, dropped, poorly maintained and pretty much treated badly? Or maybe a decent rifle, sighted in for your body, cleaned and maintained by you and touched by no one except you? That's a years worth of uniform checks to buy a tool that might save your life, your partner's life and the lives of countless citizens one day.

• No one pays 'duty availability.' They do pay what is called 'shift differential' to compensate for overnight and weekend work. But in other cities that is paid per employee, not the entire work force.

No one else calls it "bonuses" like Chuck does in his report either. It isn't a bonus - it's a contractually negotiated item in a contract. And it's not "hidden" as Chuck so casually alleges in his report. It's on the FOP website under "Current Contract" and has been for at least six years since the CityWide Team got elected. And again, since it's negotiated, bring it to the table. Oh wait, Shortshanks took everything off the table, then cried to the media that the FOP was being "unfair" and they better "get real." And Chuck ate it up.

Sergeants Union Caves

What a bunch of pansies:

• Due to our ongoing contract negotiations, the Executive Board of the CPSA has voted not to participate in the upcoming “informational picketing”. The CPSA Executive Board fully understands the frustrations that have prompted the other police unions to take this action, but at this time we believe the interests of the members of the Chicago Police Sergeants’ Association are best served by the ongoing negotiation process.

  Sincerely,

  John Pallohusky
  President
  Chicago Police Sergeants' Association

What happened to uniting under one cause? Are we not all Police Officers? Didn't Daley pull your raise offers also?

The PBPA has always relied on the FOP to do the heavy lifting in contract negotiations. Then afterward, the Supervisor unions come in and do a little fine tuning in regard to discipline, differential and promotions. The "me-too" clauses in their contracts pretty much lock them into everything else.

Does Pallohusky actually believe the City is going to settle with his union first and then everyone else will fall into line? If so, he's delusional and the sergeants better watch their backs, because god knows what deal Pallohusky is brewing with the City.

We realize that this position was taken by the Executive Board and not via a vote by the Sergeants, but it still makes you look like a bunch of hypocritical assholes as most of your benefits come from the FOP's efforts. Pallohusky is dead wrong on this and there's going to be bad blood over it for years to come.

You Knew the Deal...

We've gotten a lot of these comments in the past few days. It appears a troll or two have popped up, attempting to discourage participation in the picketing today and spouting off with the tired old saw, "You knew what you were getting into when you hired on. If you don't like it, quit."

When we signed up, we knew we weren't going to get rich. But we knew it'd be a steady check, decent benefits and a nice pension at the end. In the intervening years, the buying power of the check has declined, the benefits are eroding at a rapid pace and the pension is funded at 42% while Daley's relative steal huge portions of it. It wasn't us that reneged on the agreement - it was Daley, the Machine and the City.

When times were good, we didn't see the City beating a path to the FOP's doorstep saying, "Times are great! Let's reopen that contract and get you a better raise." Government doesn't usually work like that. And when times were good, we saw people laughing at us for accepting a menial civil servant type job, calling us dumb, uneducated, unambitious. We've heard those all and more. Now that times are bad and the private sector is experiencing layoffs, we have to listen to the jagoff mayor telling us we're greedy, unrealistic and how the taxpayers have been very generous to us.

Last time we checked, we were required to live in this "workers paradise" and that makes us taxpayers, too. Taxpayers who can't leave. And government has increased the tax rates how much in the past 20 years? In the past 10 years? How about in the past two years? And we don't see anyone else being asked to eat shit. Aldercreatures - 6% raises. Aldercreature staff - 5% raises. Teachers - 4.5% raises. Superintendent - 100% plus raise over the last man to hold the job. Cops? Firefighters? Screw you.

So we'll continue to delete those trolls as we see fit. They're part of the established political order that nips at the heels of those trying to make a difference and sniff at the asses of those screwing up this once proud Department.

Officer's Star Retired

A Day of Remembrance:

• A solemn ceremony was held Wednesday for a Chicago police officer killed in the line of duty.

  Officer Nathaniel Taylor was shot and killed as he and several other officers served a search warrant at a South Side home last September.

  [...] police officials honored Officer Taylor. Hundreds of officers were present for the event, along with family members, as they retired Taylor's star.

  Taylor's star was officially added as the 463rd star to the superintendent's honor case. Taylor was killed in September of 2008, as he was executing a search warrant. Police say the subject of that search warrant shot him.

God Bless Officer.

Chuck Goudie - Daley Whore

How does that taste Chuck?

• Scc, just watched 6pm news. Wed 10pm channel 7
  I-Report with Chuck Goudie called Buried Treasure. They say it is a bonus of 4700.00 that city employees have been receiving for decades and the Alderman says cutting it could save the city millions right away. They are coming after our pay and all the officers who want to sit it out on the sidelines on Thursday should know that they are about to take a pay cut if city hall gets its way.

Hey Chuck? Be sure you point out the following with your "I-Report"

• Chicago has no shift differential like most major police departments. It's a standard feature for officers working the afternoon and midnight shifts nationwide.
• Chicago has no educational differential like most major departments. That's to say, the better educated you are, the higher your salary. Check LAPD and Boston for two examples.
• Chicago aldercreatures just took a 6% pay hike for their "part time" jobs, putting their base salary somewhere around $100,000. CPD doesn't hit their top salary until 25 years.
• Chicago aldercreatures also took an increase in their "discretionary" fund. It's now about $1.33 million per aldercreature.
  

So after you're done sucking off Daley and Beale there Chuck, wipe your chin. Second, how about looking into cutting the number of aldercreatures, their staff and their expense accounts. We just read where City, County and Illinois corruption have cost the taxpayers $300 million (a lowball figure) and 30 aldercreatures have gone to jail in less than 25 years.

Uniforms and Duty Availability have been part of the Contract for years. Decades even. We even get taxed on it. So after your obvious hit job airs tomorrow night, we're going to make sure everyone knows exactly what companies bought air time on your newscast and we'll call on the FOP to begin a boycott of those sponsors.

Buried Treasure? Let us know what kind of treasure you find with your nose buried in Daley's ass. Who pointed you at this BS Chuck? Did they at least buy you dinner before you put out?

Protest Getting Bigger

State and National attention:

• National FOP President Chuck Canterbury and State FOP President Ted Street will join Lodge #7 on Thursday, April 2, 2009 to support their brothers and sisters with a show of fraternalism. This is exactly what the FOP is all about. Please come out and show your support for them.

Also, the FOP has added at least two buses to the schedule and listed an additional stop for pick ups.

A word of warning from our 001 District readers though:

• ***** WARNING *****
  Dont plan on parking in the 001st Dist on the big day!!! Just recently got word from a reliable source that an inspector along with a couple of tow trucks will be in the lot removing vehicles. Check the C.O. book.
  
  Stay safe,

Supposedly Deputy Sergeant Keating, who owes his entire career to spending afternoons in a boat with Shortshanks, has decided that he can't be accommodating to cops who protest. That's kind of humorous seeing as how the 001 District is so understanding when it comes to holding condo association meetings in their Multi Purpose room and extend parking courtesy to them.

J-Fed's Blackberry message aside, they are going to fuck with the marchers in any way their tiny minds can devise. Parking tickets by TMA's or supervisors; tows if they can find a reason; they will find a way. Use the FOP buses whenever possible, car pool, take the train. Make THEM be the assholes, not us.

Raise Taxes!

The democrats answer to everything!

• Mayor Daley said today he would support Gov. Quinn's call for a 50 percent increase in the state income tax, only if it's tied to property tax relief and only if the governor scraps a plan to withhold millions in income tax growth from cities.

  Daley also demanded an infusion of capital funding to the CTA to ease pressure to raise fares and at least $200 million and pension relief for Chicago Public Schools to avoid classroom cuts and another local property tax increase.
  

And as you raise taxes, corporations and industry will flee the city and state, leading to this:

• The jobless rate in the Chicago metropolitan area spiked to 9 percent in February, up from 5.6 percent a year earlier, exceeding the nation's 8.1 percent rate and the state¹s 8.6 percent rate, the Illinois Department of Employment Security said Tuesday.

  The area lost 126,400 jobs over the year.

Strap in people. It's going to be a rough ride.

He Said There Was No Money?

Does the media even read what they publish on a day to day basis? Shortshanks pulls all raises off the table one day, then he calls us greedy and says we ought to come back to the table even though he took his ball and went home, then he announces this crap:

• A draft of Chicago's plans for the city's central area through 2020 calls for $15.5 billion in public works, mostly for transportation improvements, and asserts the projects are attainable with or without the 2016 Olympics.

  The projects include a West Loop transit hub beneath Clinton Street with an estimated price tag of almost $6 billion. The hub would connect Metra and CTA rail and bus lines with a proposed Carroll Street rail line, itself a $260 million item, near the north bank of the Chicago River.

  Other big-ticket items include $1.5 billion for CTA express train service to the airports and a $500 million for a landscaped roof over the Kennedy Expy. from Monroe to Washington around which new office buildings could be added. A $377 million plan foresees moving part of Lake Shore Drive east from Navy Pier to the Oak Street curve, creating space for bike and pedestrian paths.

Our math might be a little off, but just canceling the $377 million plan to move Lake Shore Drive again could provide police with a 14% raise each year over the next 19 years and still leave room to increase the aldercreatures "discretionary" fund to $2 million a year.

No wonder the Sun Times is joining the Tribune in bankruptcy.

Daley's House of Cards

Typical Daley:

• Mayor Daley's $2.5 billion plan to privatize Midway Airport has run into turbulence -- and it just might be grounded entirely -- because of the nation's credit crunch and Wall Street slide, City Hall sources said Monday.

  An April 6 closing date that would have made Midway the "first privatization of a major American airport" has been cancelled -- and it's likely to be put off for six months to give Midway Investment and Development Company LLC an opportunity to salvage the deal by lining up more equity investors or bank financing.

So that's a $2.5 billion hole that won't be filled, including:

• An estimated $1.15 billion of the proceeds would have been used to pay off Midway Airport debt. The deal also included: $225 million for police and fire protection; $126 million for soundproofing and Midway capital projects already underway and $19 million for transaction fees and legal expenses.

  State law requires 90 percent of the $1 billion profit to be used to bankroll city infrastructure projects and shore up under-funded city employee pension funds.

  That left $100 million to be spent at Daley's discretion. Chief Financial Officer Paul Volpe has said the money would be parceled out to balance the next four city budgets.

Shortshanks is scrambling to find money again. Now we're going to have "sponsored" street patching?

• Mayor Daley on Tuesday warmed to the idea of KFC filling Chicago potholes — even if it means KFC logos on city streets — so long as the fried chicken chain serves up enough gravy.

  Last week, Daley’s Lincoln Town Car suffered a flat tire on Pulaski Road after hitting a giant pothole.

  On Tuesday, the mayor upped the ante so many times he sounded like an auctioneer attempting to sell pothole patching to the highest bidder.

  “If they give us $25 million or $30 million, we’d be glad to look at it. . . . I want the money up front. I’ll take $50 million if you give me $50 million,” he said.

Wow. And this guy wins elections.

UPDATE: Here's an interesting tidbit tucked away in the article:

• Asked to assess the chances the blockbuster deal will ever go through, the source said, "I wouldn't put odds on it. No matter what happens, the city gets $126 million. That's more for the city budget than the city gets" if the deal goes through, because of strings attached to the larger pot of money.

Even if it fails, the City gets $126 million? Who's stealing that money?