Mismanagement

Chickens coming home to roost:

• Mayor Daley said Monday he would eliminate 220 vacant city jobs, cancel cost-of living pay raises for 3,500 non-union employees and order those bureaucrats to take 24 unpaid days off to honor his promise to keep his hand out of taxpayers’ pockets in 2010.

  Together with cuts in non-personnel spending, the latest round of bureaucratic belt-tightening will reduce spending by $64 million.
  

  The remainder of the city’s $550 million budget gap is expected to be filled by raiding reserve funds generated by city asset sales. That’s a controversial move that threatens the all-important bond rating used to determine city borrowing costs.

The 220 jobs are a drop in the bucket - there's plenty of middle management that can be eliminated across the board in any number of departments. The belt-tightening is long overdue, but don't expect any sweeping change the way we didn't see any last time they "tightened" things up. The "reserve funds" are monies the mayor lets the connected people play with at taxpayer expense.

Here's a clue - how about the City trying to live within it's means?

The Death Spiral at CTA

The circle is getting tighter:

• The CTA has sent out just under 2,000 notices to bus drivers and other unionized employees that their jobs will be eliminated in the next two months.

  The layoffs are part of a plan to close a massive $300 million budget hole. The proposal also includes raising El rides fares to $3 from $2.25 for a single ride, as well as the cost of a monthly pass.

  “They want to mimic what City Hall did with the unions — the furlough days, the unpaid vacations and holidays, things of that nature,” said Darrel Jefferson, president of the bus driver and mechanic’s union, which is expected to bear the brunt of the layoffs. “We’re not open to that.”

Of course they're not. But the noose is drawing tighter. More layoffs mean more service cuts and maintenance delays. Higher prices along with the decaying infrastructure means more people will be tempted to use their own cars and carpool and find alternate means of transportation. Less riders means more layoffs and route cuts and service reductions.

And the slide into becoming Detroit II continues unabated.

Examining the "4 & 2"

A whole bunch of feedback in the previous postings. Lots of give and take and more than a little unhappiness, although if others are to be believed, at least one person has posted 20 or 30 comments in an effort to make his argument look more convincing.

The upshot is it looks like the Department is going to a 4 & 2 schedule. Not only does this eliminate the 6th work day, it eliminates the 5th. It also eliminates the 3-day weekend but that seems a small price to pay for the advantages.

Here's a side-by-side comparison someone threw together for us. First up, the regular "6 on 2 off" that may soon be ending:

Just based on this 15 week model, you work 75 out of 105 days, meaning 30 days off.

Now, the same comparison but with a "4 on 2 off" variation:

The same 15 week model, but you only work 69 days out of 105, meaning 36 days off over the same period. Based on this particular day off group, you get an extra Sunday, Thursday, two Fridays and two Saturdays. That's a whole bunch more weekend family events that we couldn't attend suddenly being available. Those complaining about having to burn some hours to get a 3-day-weekend seems shortsighted at first glance. You have 6 extra opportunities to get Special Employment if that's up your alley. If you're on days, that 6 extra chances to get some court time you would have otherwise been doing for free. Holidays are only spread among 6 day off groups instead of 7 and are worth 13.5 hours now.

Does it have flaws? Sure. We have questions about how this "furlough hours" thing works, especially for working day furloughs. The start times seem to have some questionable overlaps that might lead to equipment shortages. The Captains' and Lieutenants' reactions are going to be interesting.

But let's face facts - the City was never going to give us 10-hour days if we were getting 50 or 60 extra days off a year. That would have made too many people happy. And the City will never willingly make us happy. This seems to be making just enough people irritated that Shortshanks is going to be the only one happy.

Sleeping Dispatcher Suspended

A supervisor was suspended also:

• Two employees at Chicago’s 911 emergency center have been slapped with lengthy suspensions without pay for their roles in an Aug. 28 dispatch delay that left an off-duty police officer to fend for himself while being shot at by a car filled with alleged gang members.

  Ray Orozco, executive director of the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications, identified the suspended employees as a dispatcher and his supervisor, but he refused to name them.

• Four men are facing first degree attempted murder charges after allegedly following the unidentified Marquette District officer and firing shots into his vehicle shortly after 3 a.m. The officer reportedly kept driving while returning fire until he reached the Harrison District station, where he sought help while the alleged gang members drove off.

No word if some retraining might be included. And removal from the zone.

Out of Control

Someone want to explain what's going on in Roseland?

• Four people were charged this afternoon after a teen girl was critically injured during a melee in the Far South Side's Roseland neighborhood that one witness said involved up to 25 people.

  Chicago police responded to 111 W. 115th St. at about 9 a.m. to a call of a disturbance...

• A man who answered the phone at a nearby store said the fight broke out at about 9 a.m., just as he was opening up shop. He said the 20 to 25 people--largely teenagers--involved were punching each other and wielding bottles and bats.

  The fight appeared to start when "people just started talking trash to each other," said the man, who declined to give his name.

Why does this sound familiar? Trash talk. Bats, bottles. Someone goes to the hospital in critical condition. Oh yeah - it's just under a mile from the Fenger school beating death.

Quick! Someone blame the police!

Wow

It's awfully hard to blame this one on George Bush:


Almost bigger than all of Bush's deficits combined. And if Obama Care gets passed, his own people are projecting a $2 trillion expenditure on top of this deficit.

Anyone want to bet if Obama keeps to his "no raising taxes" pledge? Bush the Elder lost an election over his.

Night Game

Atlanta has an advantage in most of the offensive categories

The Bears lead in the defensive ones.

It should be a good time at the bar tonight enjoying our non-alcoholic beer and dining on heart healthy low fat chicken wings.

UPDATE: What a way to lose a game. Geez.

Rio Problems

They've had the 2016 Olympics for two weeks now and this isn't good:

• Drug traffickers shot down a police helicopter and killed two officers in a burst of drug-based violence just two weeks after the city won the 2016 Olympic games. Three suspected drug traffickers were also killed.

  Bullets flying from the Morro dos Macacos ("Monkey Hill" in Portuguese) slum in northern Rio de Janeiro hit the police helicopter pilot in the leg as he hovered above a clash between rival drug factions, causing him to lose control and crash.

  The pilot and another officer managed to flee with burns after the helicopter burst into flames on a football field, but two officers were unable to escape, said a police spokesman who spoke on condition of anonymity because of department policy.

Deepest sympathies to the Rio Police.

Another Shooting

Again, we seem to be experiencing an upsurge of police involved shootings:

• An unidentified man was shot by police Saturday night on Chicago's South Side, officials said.

  At about 10:20 p.m. police responded to the 8200 block of South Marquette Avenue, said Chicago News Affairs Officer [...].

  A person was shot by police at the scene [...].

  A 41-year-old man was taken from the scene to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in serious-to-critical condition, said Fire Department spokesman Quention Curtis.

How about a few Public Service Announcements? "Stop Pointing Guns at Police."

Jesse and Phleger can do the voice over work. Oh wait....

What Mafia?

Gee, who'd have even thought such a thing existed? And that they had tentacles reaching into government?

• Illinois state Sen. James DeLeo (D-Chicago) -- who has made public statements questioning the existence of the Chicago mob -- was credited by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's office with trying to help the widow of one of Chicago's most infamous slain mobsters.

  The Northwest Side lawmaker is listed in a secret hiring database the then-governor's aides kept as the political sponsor for Anne Spilotro, the widow of murdered mob associate Michael Spilotro.

  She's among 146 "recommended" job candidates linked to DeLeo by Blagojevich's office, though it isn't clear for what job.

DeLeo (D-How You Doin?) sure seems to have a lot of "friends" with questionable backgrounds. Of course, that could be said about many politicians in Chicago. The mayor's sister-in-law for one. And his golfing buddies. And more than a few of his political contributors.

Police Shooting

Officers reportedly OK:

• One person was shot and critically wounded in an exchange of gunfire with Chicago police late Friday in the West Woodlawn neighborhood on the South Side.

  At about 11 p.m. police shot a person who fired at them in the 6300 block of South King Drive, said Chicago Police News Affairs [...].

  The suspect was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Quention Curtis. The gender and age of the suspect were not available.

New Schedule for 2010

This is a good thing. It's all over the comment sections. The main points:

• The Lodge has been working to modify the current 6-on 2-off work schedule for at least fifteen years. That goal was finally accomplished today when the Contract Negotiations Team unanimously recommended that the full Board of Directors vote to accept an agreement that will implement a 4-on 2-off work schedule in Districts 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, and 25 beginning the first period of 2010. Areas 1, 3, 4, and 5 will also participate in this schedule. The full Board of Directors unanimously voted to accept the Negotiations Team's recommendation.
  
  This schedule has been piloted in the 014th and 018th Districts for the past ten and one-half months. All details, including sample rotations, regarding this schedule can be found on the FOP website under the Current Contract tab on the left side of the page.
  
  The 005th and 020th Districts will continue to work the Ten-Hour Rotating Schedule in 2010.
  
  The 008th and 013th Districts will continue to work the 6-on 3-off Schedule.
  
  Area 2 will continue to work the Ten-Hour Rotating Schedule in 2010.
  
  All Special Functions Units that participated in any 2009 pilot work schedule will continue to work that schedule in 2010.
  
  It should be noted that all desk, lockup, and watch relief positions will be included in all of these work schedules in 2010.

Read all about it at the FOP website.

Still Not Getting It

We've been taking a lot of heat in the comment sections yesterday for our stance on the G-20 people. We've been misquoted, called names, challenged, etc. And people are still trying to defend the actions of a few idiots.

We assume the supervisors on the scene passed a promotional test at some point. Or at least a part of promotional test seeing as how "merit" pretty much skews Part 2 of any test. And we know from our own experience that the order on Processing Persons Under Departmental Control has been a large part of a few exams we've taken. This is indefensible. We have yet to see even a tiny argument that makes any sort of sense.

• Policy to take photos of a prisoner? In a controlled environment for booking and ID purposes. This wasn't that.
• Mass arrest? Of one person? You've got to be joking.
  
• The prisoner was a willing participant? Try running that one by the Supreme Court. You've already restricted his movement, you think the Court is going to say he had any sort of freedom at all? Not likely.
• No time on the job hair-gels did it all? Not even close.
  
• You never did anything stupid so you must be a pussy copper? We never denied doing anything stupid - but we were wise enough to not take pictures of it and smart enough to learn from others' mistakes. Who doesn't know about cameras everywhere? Especially in a strange city?
• If everyone keeps their mouth shut, they'll never find out? Two shifts of coppers, in a known intersection, with an actual arrest that has some one's name on the report somewhere? Stevie Wonder could pick that platoon out.
  

Yeah, we joke about throwing the cuffs on some jagoff and tossing them in the car and taking them to the station. It's routine. But do you ever stop to realize the awesome power we've been granted by the state? We can remove someone from the streets and completely deny them the freedoms granted them by the Constitution of the United States. Call it what you want, but that is a power not granted out of hand to just anyone. That is why there are Rules, Regulations, General Orders of all stripes, Legal Bulletins and everything else. The system was built to be completely at odds with the monarchy of the day.

Most of the people who show up at these G-20 summits are anarchists, protesters, grievance-mongers of all stripes. They all have cameras (which are better than anything the Department fields), they all have agendas (with media machines to maximize exposure) and they are all trained to provoke a reaction for publicity and lawsuits (which is likely what this was).

So while our post was written out of anger, disgust and frustration with the actions of a few, we'll stand by the message - stop doing stupid shit and making it that much harder on the vast majority of us trying to make a living in what was once a respectable profession.

Camden Gets in on the Act

Pittsburgh reporters actually tracked down the Orange One for quotes:

• Pat Camden, who spent more than 30 years with the department and was its spokesman for several years, harshly criticized the officers for damaging the reputation of a department that has been trying to rehabilitate its image that was hurt by several incidents, including one, captured on film and shown worldwide, of an off-duty officer beating up a female bartender.
  
  "When you put on a police uniform you represent the Chicago Police Department and we've got these idiots with a prisoner right in front of them, and supervisors are standing right there," he said, incredulously. "That kind of childish behavior is totally unacceptable."

When Pat isn't on your side, something went wrong.

You Fucking Idiots

Honest to god, the Chicago Police Department could fuck up a one-car-funeral. Who the fuck was leading this expedition of mentally-challenged sorry excuses for police officers? You can see at least one of them holding the camera and another right there in the front row:



What the hell? How do you even begin to defend something like this? You can't. It's impossible. That isn't a world record grizzly bear being put on display there - it's a prisoner, in handcuffs, and the subject of what is probably the largest General Order in existence for the Chicago Police Department (Processing Persons Under Department Control). And he's being posed in front of a group of Chicago Police who were on loan to Pittsburgh for the G-20 summit. Is this fucking Abu Ghraib? Was that your BIG arrest for the entire trip? A 150-pound nimrod?

You are ambassadors of the goddamned Department and you were being paid time-and-a-half for a 12 hour a day. Who the fuck do you think you are and what the hell did you think you were doing? You are embarrassments. And the white shirts taking the pictures and posing in the front row? You are disgraces of the highest order.

We hope each and every cop there takes heavy time and each supervisor gets fired. You fucking idiots make it all that harder on the rest of us trying to serve out an honorable career.

Shortshanks Craps Gold!

All this money appears as if by magic!

• Arguing that Chicagoans are "suffering" and can't stand to pay any more, Mayor Daley said Thursday he would hold the line on all taxes, fines and fees in 2010 and find another way to plug a revised, $550 million budget gap.

  Two days after the Chicago Sun-Times reported Daley's decision to keep his hand out of taxpayers' pockets, the mayor confirmed that decision and said "everything is on the table" to eliminate the shortfall—except raising taxes.

But how will you do that, oh great mayor of ours?

• The mayor's preliminary 2010 budget assumed that the last $51.3 million of a "rainy day fund" created with parking meter proceeds would be exhausted in 2010.

  The rest of the money was placed in a $325 million mid-term budget relief fund to help balance budgets through 2012 and into a $400 million long-term reserve fund.

  Skyway proceeds were divided into short-, medium and long-term pots.

  As of June 30, the long-term fund had a $515 million balance. The mid-term fund had $122.9 million. And the short-term fund earmarked for "neighborhood and human infrastructure" had just $18 million left.

Gee, that's about $1.3 BILLION just lying around collecting dust. Or interest. And that's after the teachers got 4%, the other unions got 4%, the aldercreatures got 6% and their staff got 5%, and their discretionary funds rose to $1.3 million per aldercreature.

And all as Arbitrator Benn sits down to figure out how much Daley has been lying for the past 2.5 years.

Officer Cole Returning Home?

A number of people have written in to say that Densey Cole is returning to Chicago to continue, and hopefully finish, his recovery efforts. The Densey Cole blog is silent on the matter, but we're sure the appropriate District has people on the ball to escort Densey and his family from the airport to their quarters at the rehab facility.

As soon as we get verification of an address for visits, care packages and the like, we'll post it. And a huge thanks to the Denver and Englewood, Colorado Departments for all their assistance during Densey's stay and their incredible hospitality to visitors.

UPDATE: 001 is accepting cards and packages. They will deliver.

"Customer Survey" DOA

Since those other two "official" blogs won't exchange links with us, we don't link to them directly. But here's what J-Fed posted yesterday after the shit hit the fan:

• The suggestion that the Department is undertaking a Customer Satisfaction Survey that would involve officers handing out cards to individuals when they respond to incidents is totally inaccurate.

  The Department has long partnered with academic institutions regarding research and other initiatives designed to improve the Department. When one of our academic partners recently proposed a “Customer Satisfaction Survey,” I immediately rejected the idea. This occurred over three weeks ago…well before the article appeared. In fact, in a meeting with Union officials as recently as last week, I mentioned that the Department would not be undertaking any effort such as this. I also understand the reaction that individuals have had to the survey; some of the same concerns prompted me to reject the notion of undertaking one.

  My concern has always been for the men and women of our department; through an increased emphasis on training, equipment and leadership, I believe that we are moving forward on improving the Department together.

Look at the needle go!!! Of course, this begs the question - WHY WAS THE SURVEY STILL UP AS AN ACTIVE WEB PAGE UNTIL YESTERDAY WHEN THE NEWSLETTER AND THE SCC BLOG BROKE THE STORY? We all know why - the Department had every intention of moving forward with the survey if negative attention was low enough. It wasn't.

Unfortunately, publication deadlines cannot be moved on a whim, so J-Fed's contention the information is "inaccurate" and that he told union officials is disingenuous at best. It was accurate when the FOP found out about it and everything in the intervening time had no bearing on the newsletter arriving on everyone's doorstep, generating the righteous indignation, ridicule and outrage that it did.

J-Fed and the "policy group" had every opportunity to never leak this out in the first place, but someone just had to show how smart they were. Then after word started to spread (you can find some of the rumors in our comment sections two months ago), they had not only the two unnamed blogs to correct and defuse the rumor, they had the AdMin Fax Network, numerous Exempt meetings and even this "insignificant" site.

For whatever reasons, they chose not to. Too bad. Another blown opportunity to suck up to the rank and file. And another opportunity for everyone else to have another whack at the J-Fed pinata.

UPDATE: Anyone care to forward us a copy of the Customer Survey cards that were to be handed out? You know there are boxes of these things lying around some districts because the roll-out date was to be 15 October. As soon as this post goes up, the "policy group" people are going to be making flurries of phone calls to try to spare themselves embarrassment and further derision.

UPDATE II: Someone is claiming the cards were never printed. This is Chicago, right? The city of the "wink and the nod" that promised billions in construction contracts long before the Olympics didn't quite make it here? We'll bet $20 right now that not only were the cards printed, boxed and delivered, the connected printing operation that did the job already got paid.

Survey Site Down

(another huge post - sorry, but it needs to be said)

We went to the "Customer Service" survey site late last night. We wanted to see what it was all about before we ripped it. It was up and functional then. Now it's down. We're wondering if that's because the UIC people are tweaking it, the UIC people were collecting a bunch of connected cash from the City and someone noticed the heat being brought, or (the latest rumor) HQ has shit canned the entire venture just like the "How's my Driving" debacle.

But thanks to the greatest readers on the planet, someone managed to type out a majority of the questions being asked by the UIC team:

• What was the race of the police officer you interacted with the most?
  
  What was the gender of the officer you interacted with the most?
  
  What was the age of the officer you interacted with the most?
  
  Did the officer listen to what you had to say?
  
  Do you feel the officer was fair and evenhanded?
  
  Was the officer polite?
  
  Do you feel the officer discriminated against you because of your race, gender, age, religion or sexual orientation?
  
  Did the officer seem concerned about your feelings?
  
  Was the officer patient and not rushed?
  
  Did the officer say or do anything that you considered insulting, disrespectful or rude?
  
  Did the officer take the matter seriously?
  
  Did the officer appear to know what he or she was doing?
  
  Did the officer answer your questions well?
  
  Did the officer explain what would happen next?
  
  Did the officer treat you more like a child or more like an adult?
  
  Did the officer provide you with useful tips to avoid this situation in the future?
  
  Did the officer blame you for what happened?

Talk about your loaded questions. Does everyone see exactly where these questions are headed? Citizens are being asked to profile the police officers. Remember those "Not in my Department" public service announcements? Well, don't worry - now the citizens will get to do "bias-based citizenship." And the second part of the survey?

• Are Chicago police officers doing a good job working with residents to solve local problems?
  
  Are Chicago police officers effective at fighting crime?
  
  Are Chicago police officers held accountable when they do something wrong?
  
  Would you be willing to help the Chicago police find someone who committed a crime in your neighborhood?
  
  Do you trust the Chicago Police Department to make decisions that are good for everyone in the city?
  
  Do you feel the Chicago Police Department today listens to people like yourself and then tries to improve its services?

What a bunch of horseshit questions those are. There seems to be more than a little bit of liberal slant there. How about holding the aldercreatures and the mayor responsible for the decisions and laws they pass? The police have next to nothing to do with any of that. What a bunch of crap.

And who do these idiots at UIC think they are judging the police? They are operating from a non-existent frame of reference. What police experience do they have? How many arrests have they made? How many courts have they attended? How many homicide scenes have they been at? How many battery victims have they met? How many CSA victims have they comforted? We'll bet the number approaches zero quite rapidly.

And here's another amazing bit of info about the site when it was up and running. Each question had 3 to 5 answers. The last two answers were "I do not remember that information" and "I prefer not to answer that question." Each of those answers dumped you to a screen that said something along the lines of "If you cannot answer the questions, you cannot participate in this survey. Thank you." And just below that?

• A "Return to Previous Question" button
  

Now we aren't highly paid university professors. We aren't even lowly paid graduate assistants. But we took a couple of classes once and we're pretty sure that letting people go back and tacitly permitting them to "remember" something they couldn't otherwise recall kind of invalidates the entire premise of a "spontaneous" recollection of their interaction with the police. People want to be helpful and people want to see what's at the end of the survey, so they are going to invent all kinds of BS. Especially if it feeds into their "revenge" feelings about how they just got a ticket they didn't deserve or their drunk uncle just got locked up for wandering around the yard in his birthday suit or the loud party next door turned down the music until the cops left and then cranked the stereo back up to "11."

We kind of hope that someone with half a fucking brain pulled the plug on this disaster. On the other hand, we hope it comes back soon, because we are going to do a post a week so everyone gets a chance to bury the UIC people in "data."

Info from the Community?

While not quite a first, definitely among the few instances occurring:

• Twin brothers are being accused of gunning down a young mother of three last week at an East Garfield Park bus stop.

  Chicago police said an outpouring of community help lead them to Kelly and Keith Pearson in the slaying of Natasha Howliet, 20. The brothers, both 31 with reputed gang ties, were each charged with first-degree murder in the Oct. 7 shooting.

  "I think there was a sense of community outrage over this," Harrison Area Cmdr. Anthony Riccio said tonight. "This was a woman who was not involved in street gangs (or) narcotics. She's a mother of three, she truly was an innocent victim," Riccio said.

Finally some outrage?

Nice Construction Jobs

A road:

• Officials hope the morning rush hour will be much better after crews work overnight to repair pavement damaged during construction work downtown on the northbound Kennedy Expressway at Adams Street.

  Speaking about 9 p.m., Illinois Department of Transportation spokeswoman Marisa Kollias said repairs were "going very well" and officials hope "the morning commute will be better."

  She said if things continue to go as well has they have been, IDOT hopes that at least one and perhaps both lanes now closed for repair will be reopened before the morning commute.

And a building:

• After a piece of granite weighing 600 pounds fell to the sidewalk in August, about 1,000 granite panels will be removed from the street-level arcade that lines the exterior of the James R. Thompson Center, the main state office building in downtown Chicago, state officials announced

Doesn't anyone take into consideration Chicago's sometimes brutal weather? How many millions is this going to cost us?

How's Our Policing?

(Long post - strap in and hold on...)

Dear J-Fed

We know you read this. Or have people who read this and tell you about it. No need to be ashamed about it. All the gold stars do it. All of your "policy group" does it. It's a fact.

It's also a fact that we don't like you much. You've failed on so many levels to connect or earn the respect of the men and women of the Chicago Police Department that it isn't even funny. The damage you've caused will take years, maybe decades to undo. Granted, the previous superintendents undermined the foundation before you even got here, but you pushed it over the edge like a petulant two-year-old pushes over a pile of blocks.

You've ignored much of our advice and the advice of others, some of whom held out genuine hope that you might be an instrument of change. We never held that hope - we know from where you were spawned.

But this is about the stupidest idea we've ever seen, and we've seen some stupid ones. This even tops Department Notice 09-35 "How's My Driving." Greg Bella sums it up in the most recent FOP Newsletter:

• Here is the newest program to be advanced, the “Customer Satisfaction Survey Pilot” Program, which will be conducted by a third party. This program will be piloted in the following Districts: 2, 6, 10, 12, 19 and 23. Upon completion of a job the officer will give the person a card that reads:
  
  “You have just had contact with a Chicago Police Officer(s). We encourage you to report your satisfaction or dissatisfaction with how you were treated by calling, 1-888-648-3988 or by going to the following web address: http://survey.crj.uic.edu/Web
  
  Police services can be improved if residents report what they like and dislike about their experiences with the police. Thank you for taking a few minutes to provide honest feedback. This is an independent and confidential evaluation of police services conducted by university researchers. Your identity will not be known to the Chicago Police Department.”
  
  Letters are going to be sent out to residents explaining the program and how it works. Jody proposes that, “if you report a crime, have a traffic accident, or are stopped by the Chicago Police in this District, our officers are instructed to give you a business card that explains how to complete a short customer satisfaction survey. You have a choice of calling a 1-800 number or going to a website. Officers are very busy, so if they forget to give you the card, please ask for it.”
  
  The only good news with this program is that you will not have to provide a card in the case of murder, criminal sexual assaults, domestic violence or any incident involving serious injury or death.

Bella attempts to take a jab at the entire program, but of course, he has to maintain a certain level of decorum. He is the Vice President of the FOP after all.

We however have no such compunction:

• Who the fuck are you listening to? The so-called "policy group?" After 20 months, have you no fucking idea what kind of job this is? What we deal with? You are listening to 3, 4, 5 year idiots who never served a day in a busy district, never fought in a dark alley, never ever ran toward the sound of gunfire.
  
  Of course, you've never done any of that either, so we really aren't surprised. You've been a pencil pusher and a house mouse your entire career. You've even done the dirty work behind the scenes trying to get Agent Robert Wright fired because he didn't toe the company line.
  
  You had no loyalty to the members of the organization that was tasked to protect the American people from terror on our home soil. You were a company man, through and through. You still are. You have no loyalty to the men and women of the Chicago Police Department. You have no concept of what it is to wear our uniform. You've proven that time and time again. We won't even disgrace the word "mercenary" attempting to describe what you do. Everyone knows what we call someone who accepts money for services rendered, and it isn't "politician," although it's close.
  
  Sixteen more months of your horseshit, then hopefully, someone deserving steps into the breach and begins repairing the damage. We aren't holding our breath, but we'll be damn glad to see the back of you and the assholes you seem to be taking advice from.
  

Vandals Court Date

The Memorial vandals are before the Chief Judge today for assignment to a judge and courtroom. It's more of a procedural event than anything else, so we'll keep an eye on it and let everyone know where it's headed.

Anyone who reads early in the morning and is headed to 26th Street today can peek in.

Speaking of Ugly...

...how about the chronic mismanagement and outright thievery?

• The CTA's plan to cut service dramatically and raise fares as high as $3 for express bus and rapid transit service is "very, very ugly," but so is the 30 percent drop-off in local tax revenue that created the crisis, Mayor Daley said Tuesday.

  Although the plan to erase a $300 million shortfall was crafted by the mayor's handpicked CTA president, Daley stopped short of giving it his blessing in an apparent attempt to avoid taking the blame.

And the typical Shortshanks ploy - set up the minority fall guy in the big chair, then sidestep anything resembling "blame" lest someone get the bright idea of actually being able to run as a "reform" candidate against the corruption of the Machine.

CPD Taken Hostage (UPDATED)

A lengthy post, but it falls under the category of "un-fucking-believable:"

• The other night in the 10th District, junior goes on a rampage and smashes Moma's car windows with a hammer 'cause that's what a hammer is for. Moma takes hammer and hits junior upside the head 'cause that is also what a hammer is for.
  
  In come the police and arrest junior to help raise her kid because that is what the police are there for.
  
  The day wagon crew then takes junior to the emergency room and gets a medical clearance then takes him to the Audy Home because that's what they there are for.
  
  The wagon crew drives in the sally port of the Juvenile Temporary Detention Facility and signs junior in and he is accepted. The wagon crew goes to leave....WAIT! says the Audy supervisor. This medical clearance is not detailed enough and says nothing about examination for facial fractures.
  
  YOU CAN'T LEAVE AND SHE REFUSES TO OPEN THE SALLY PORT.
  
  The wagon crew calls for their Sergeant, and she arrives, drive into the sally port because that is what she is there for.
  
  Same bullshit story, the Audy Supervisor second guessing the E.R. Physician and NOW WILL NOT LET THE SQUADROL OR THE SERGEANT LEAVE. The sergeant calls for reinforcements and the other 10th District Sergeant arrives. He is cannot come through the sally port and is told by Audy Home staff that the door is now out of order and cannot be raised.
  
  Now an hour and a half into this hostage crisis, they call for the Watch Commander because that is what he is there for.
  
  The W.C. is a visitor, but also a Westsider, and when responding says that the officers are going to leave when he gets there or he will breach the door, and ARREST THE SUPERVISOR.
  
  He gets there, the malfunctioning sally port door somehow now functions, the sergeant and the wagon now freed drive out, and when last seen the Audy Home Supervisor was fleeing in her car on her cell phone calling her clout, or a lawyer.
  
  The W.C. and everyone return to the station where a G.O.C.R. is generated for unlawful restraint and the W.C. writes a ten page report on the incident soon to be a major motion picture.
  
  Now this seems like a funny story and we laugh at it as cops do.
  But think about this, could this have happened twenty years ago? Or even ten or five?
  
  If this had been reversed, and the police had held onto the Supervisor for almost two hours she would be doing a news conference in tears in front of Lovey and Lovey's wall of law books. Would the cops be on their way to Call-Back and worried that Jody would do a Cozzi on them even if exonerated.
  
  But, do that to cops and what is going to happen? Is Barack going to invite them over for a beer?
  
  I cannot imagine that anyone would have dared to do that to the cops of twenty years ago, or even ten. The Liberal nazis, the "police are always the bad guys media" and the lawyers who feed off the scum of society have somehow made what she did seem to some people like a rational decision.
  
  So what is going to happen now?
  
  Will the Detectives be told to Close/Unfound the case? Will Toddler tell Tom Dart, see that nothing happens to her?
  
  Or will Jody get her a cell in the Woman's Division of the Federal Pen in Louisiana.
  
  We really need to put some respect back into people, and that respect needs to be seasoned with a little bit of fear, and some people more fear than others.

Isn't there one sheriff who could maybe reach over and push the fucking button to open the sally port and spare their idiot supervisor the ass reaming she's about to get? Dart, straighten this out, quick.

UPDATED: A number of commentators have stated these weren't sheriffs and that the Audy home is run by civilians under a consent decree at the moment? If so, then there's no excuse for someone not being in handcuffs and going to jail. Civilians in a county/state facility restricting the movement of police in their official duties? Obstruction at the very least.

We're going to have to start a category named "un-fucking-fucking-believable."

Off Duty Cop Killed in Wreck

All of our blogging partners had covered this at some point or another. Another tragedy befalls our family:

• An off-duty veteran Chicago Police officer was killed in a rollover crash on the Kennedy Expressway early Monday on the Northwest Side.

  Eric Berger was pronounced dead at 4:42 a.m., according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.

  Berger, 52, was a 17-year veteran of the Chicago Police Dept. and was assigned to the Albany Park District on the Northwest Side

Sympathies and remembrances only.

More For Less - Again

The CTA is sinking!!! They need money Money MONEY!!!

Oh wait, it does that every year:

• CTA service would run less frequently and the basic fare would be raised to as much as $3 next year under a dire 2010 budget proposal unveiled today.

  The CTA workforce would be hit hard as well to ease a projected $300 million budget shortfall.

• Up to 1,100 union jobs and 100 administrative position are slated for elimination if new public funding and employee concessions fail to occur, transit officials said.

  "Union employees have been relatively untouched by layoffs [in recent years]," said CTA President Richard Rodriguez. "We are asking the unions to step up and be a part of the solution."

For this being such a "union" town, the union leadership sure seem in a hurry to give back all sorts of negotiated items for zero concessions by the City. We're sure the SEIU, the bus drivers, Streets, Transportation, the trades and laborers are really wondering about those endorsements and give-backs to a Machine that is gutting them.

Homicides Still Down

So are we working smarter? Or harder? Because we're doing it shorthanded - even the FOP backs up that contention:

• Homicides continued to decline this year in Chicago through September, including homicides of school-age children, according to Police Department statistics.
  
  Homicides fell 11 percent through the first nine months of 2009 compared with the same period a year ago, department officials said. Through Sept. 30, there had been 348 slayings, down from 393 for the same period last year.
  
  Through Sept. 15, killings of youths between the ages of 6 and 18 declined by 14.5 percent compared with the same period last year. There were 47 homicides in that time period in 2008 and 55 total in 2008.

Much of this decrease is attributable to medical advances. We're still hearing that shootings are up. Significantly up. Someone has those numbers. And guns taken off the street? That's up, too over last year, so the guns are still there.

Imagine how much better it might be if we were up to full strength.

New Award

Well, we got a call from Stockholm last night. Seems there had been a miscount in one of the vote totals and somehow, we won the Prize for Literature.

We've posted the medal in our sidebar along with the other awards we've been honored to accept.

We're not George Bush, so we guess we've got as much of a claim, if not more of a claim to this prize than Obama has on his. We do our own writing without teleprompters, ghost authors or speechwriters.

Another Quarter Heard From

A whole bunch of people making sense lately. First the columnist from the Austin Weekly (surprising in and of itself) and now this writer:

• Chicago, it’s time to move on. If Mayor Daley and the Chicago City Council could please get back to work, the city is sorely in need of attention. Starting with,

  1. The Police. The Chicago Police Department has been working for two years without a contract, under a leader they don’t trust, and are woefully understaffed.

  2. Violent crime. Taking care of the police is a pretty good start, but certainly not enough. More people are dying here than soldiers in Afghanistan or Iraq. Do something. See above.

  3. Frivolous laws. Stop wasting valuable time passing laws against raising chickens in the city, serving foie gras or keeping barking dogs. There are more important things. See above.

It's supposed to be a "Top Ten" list, and while she skipped #9, her top three have been echoed on this site and numerous other cop blogs for a couple of years now.

We guess this Olympic fiasco has opened quite a few eyes. Now we have to see if it's going to open some voters eyes.

A Woman Who Gets It

How come she isn't running the show?

• A while back, I met a young lady who was probably in her early twenties. She told me she enjoyed reading my columns and that she had noticed that the tenor of my columns has been changing. My columns sounded angrier. And guess what? She's right!

• We have raised a generation of children who have listened to adults emphatically always speaking about "getting their gun and doing this or that," and now we are shocked when our young people actually do it.

  We have also chosen to not deal with the problem of gun violence in a realistic fashion, bypassing the fix by longing for the days when kids fought with their fists and feet.

  Well folks, Derrion didn't die of a gun shot wound. He died because of fists, feet and a 2-by-4. The tape of Derrion's murder is proof positive for the entire world to see that far too many of us have allowed some of our children to become the embodiment of every atrocity that was ever heaped upon us.

  Anyone who watches and listens to just the words uttered on the tape of Derrion's murder would be hard pressed not to believe it wasn't a racist lynch mob in the early 1920s.

Go read the whole thing. Hopefully she gets a whole bunch more people to look in the mirror. That's where it begins.

Economics 101

Once again, if you tax it, people will seek out the lowest option.

• We walk up to the bulletproof glass at the counter.
  
  "Newports, short," we tell the clerk, sliding payment to him through the slot below. He slides back our cigarettes and a receipt.
  
  The damage: $7.50. Smokers looking for economic relief must love this store. It's a dollar cheaper a pack than most stores in Chicago.
  
  But if you're the deficit-ridden city or Cook County, this store is not your friend. Not when the pack bears no evidence that the 68-cent Chicago tax and the $2 Cook County tax have been paid.
  
  As cigarette taxes have gone up, smokers have been finding ways to avoid them, from driving out of state to buying online.
  
  
• In 2006, city revenues from cigarette taxes came in at a little less than $32 million. By 2008, they had declined to about $25 million. This year, they're projected to drop again.
  
  "In most places, tax increases lead to increased revenues," said David Merriman, a University of Illinois at Chicago economist who has studied cigarette-tax avoidance worldwide for 15 years. "Chicago would be the only place I know of where it's gone the other way."

Really? And this is a professor of economics?

Perhaps he could do a case study of the bottled water tax? Revenues went way down in Chicago after Daley imposed that tax. Surrounding suburbs can't keep bottled water in stock since Shortshanks disregarded the laws of economics. Or maybe the hated "head tax" that keeps small businesses out of Chicago and drives bigger business away? There's dozens of examples, all of which fly in the face of this "economist" who seems to have not traveled the world in search of actual economic examples.

No More Daily Bulletin?

Shaved is reporting that it's done. Kaput. Gone:

• More than 70 consecutive years of daily publication will end.
  
  LeftIsTheBest will not have anything to cover his socialist newspaper with...
  
  Young kids will not be able to stop squad cars and ask for a "Hot Sheet"
  
  It's over folks!

We still remember finding old copies of the Daily Bulletin lying around the old man's dresser, some with his name in it, other times the obituary of an old friend. Lately though, it's been showing up days late at the district desk, the info is spotty and the back page next to useless. The DIBs was actually more informative for crime trends. But we'll miss the Bulletin.

Blackhawks Win Marathon

Marathon shootout that is:

• CHICAGO -- Andrew Ladd made sure the Chicago Blackhawks earned a full two standings points in the longest shootout in their history.

  Ladd beat Colorado goalie Craig Anderson with a high shot in the ninth round of the shootout to give the Blackhawks a 4-3 victory Saturday night in their home opener.

  "I was just trying not to miss it," Ladd said. "You stick with the one move you have and go for it."

And speaking of marathons, one is going on later this morning. Organizers say the heat won't be a problem this year.

And no Bears.

Police Shooting

Minor injuries to the officer:

• A Chicago police officer shot a motorist who pinned the officer's partner to a fence with an SUV this afternoon, police said.

  The man, whose identity was not being released, was critically injured in the shooting, which happened about 4:25 p.m. near Roosevelt Road and Sacramento Boulevard, authorities said.

  His condition had been stabilized by early this evening, police said. The officer pinned against the fence received minor injuries, police said.

Speedy recovery officer.

Morale Survey Results

Oh, wait...

• word is that the spring morale survey has been completed but was ordered buried because jfed was in fact the cause of the shit morale the department currently enjoys
  
  jfed had promised that if it was learned that he was to blame for poor morale he would quit. another broken promise from the lying non-police fed

Well, he also said he'd promote lieutenants, sergeants, detectives and hire 200 warm bodies. Was anything more really expected?

J-Fed gots to get paid! A resignation might void that part of his contract.

Budget Hole

Here's almost a third of Shortshanks' budget hole. And it's actually a hole in the ground:

• Some critics call the $250 million dollar city project "outrageous" and a bad investment. It's the giant unfinished CTA "superstation" in the Block 37 development across from Daley Plaza.
  
  You've helped pay for it, but you've never seen it.
  
  The plan was to build an underground CTA terminal that would provide express train service to O'Hare Airport from the Loop. It turned out to be much more expensive than planned, and for now it's been mothballed.
  
  
• When the project was abandoned last year for an indefinite period, an estimated $250 million had been spent on it. Of that, an estimated $100 million came from cost overruns. Another $50 million was for mothball costs.

We're sure this isn't the only hole-in-the-ground Daley's been pouring money into. Money in the form of concrete, rebar, and whatever else involved in awarding construction contracts. We're sure that each and every bill was paid to the company from taxpayer funds. We're also sure that some very generous "campaign contributions" were part of the arrangements.

New Inspector General

And Daley's getting praise over it?

• Mayor Daley today won rave early reviews for his decision to replace one seasoned federal prosecutor with another as Chicago’s corruption-fighting inspector general—even though the new guy appears to be lower-key.

  “If you haven’t heard much about me before today, it’s mostly because I prefer it that way,” said Joe Ferguson, who succeeds David Hoffman, who resigned in August to run for the U.S. Senate. “I derive all the professional satisfaction I need from the fruits of dogged investigation and following wherever the evidence leads.”

  Ferguson, 49, said he views public disclosure of investigations as a “critical aspect” of the inspector general’s duties. But instead of going toe-to-toe with department heads who resist his recommendations, he plans to work with them.

Is Shortshanks some kind of employment agency for former federal prosecutors or what? Is he farming out low level corruption busts in return for protection of the bigger rackets? What other reason could there be for these inexplicable choices? Conspiracy theorists salivate at the possibilities.

What?

Could we have a list of accomplishments please? Roll tape!



Seriously, The Nobel Peace Prize? WTF? What's next? Daley wins the Lambert Tree?

UPDATE: The truly amazing thing? Obama was nominated along with 204 other people...in FEBRUARY! He hadn't even been in office for 30 days and he was in the middle of two or three scandals already about nominating cabinet members with tax-evasion problems.

UPDATE: Best comment so far:

• Obama wins Cy Young award for throwing out first pitch

Priceless.

UPDATE: AceofSpades has loads of these:

Casino Time!

As predicted:

• Two aldermen are floating the idea of putting a casino and entertainment complex where Chicago had hoped to build an Olympic Village for the 2016 Games.
  
  [...] In the week since the city lost its Olympic bid to Rio de Janeiro, Daley has said he is confident the 37-acre parcel site of the abandoned Michael Reese Hospital would be attractive to developers. The city recently bought the Near South Side site for $91 million but it hopes to resell it to private developers before the first mortgage payment is due in five years.
  
  The casino pitch from City Council members seems likely to be only the first of many proposals.

First up, the contention that no taxpayer money was spent on the "NOlympics" falls apart with the admission that $91 million was spent by the City on the property.

Second, expect a whole boatload of proposals for casinos to be floated around shortly. Shortshanks is desperate for cash to fill a growing hole in his budgets. We still expect the final site to be closer to downtown than the Reese property though.

Where's the Federal Money?

From Wednesday's Sun Times:

• One day after summoning police and school officials to a high-level meeting on the 16-year-old's death, Daley said he would ask U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan for federal funding to hire more police officers "either dedicated to schools or generally."

Um, correct us if we're wrong, but didn't Shortshanks get a grant for around $13 million this past summer to hire 50 officers? The money was earmarked for three years worth of salaries and the officers had to be hired after 01 July 09. This was shortly after the 45 recruits who graduated today were hired.

So where's the COPS Grant Money? Where are the recruits that should be in the Academy right now? Why is Daley sitting on $13 million that has to be spent by the end of the fiscal year or it goes back to DC?

Update: Grant money totals corrected. Link added.

No More Gambling Unit

They got rid of all the gambling in Chicago. It's true. The boss said so:

• The I-Team has learned that the Chicago Police Department's renowned gambling unit has been disbanded. It's a decision that some call a bad bet.

  Here we are at the height of the football wagering season with the Bears on a roll and the Chicago Police Department has given up on its famed gambling unit.

  The end of the line for the storied gambling squad came in a shake-up of the vice control unit six months ago. But only when the I-Team started asking questions was it revealed to the public.

• "Basically what it was is I would like to refer to it as being hybridized," said Brown.

A master of the spoken word, Ernie is.

We are glad that there is no more gambling here in Chicago. Now if you'll excuse us, we have to buy some squares for this weekend.

Look at All the Money!

Is anyone paying attention?

• Mayor Daley today threw more money and police bodies at a daunting problem no closer to being solved than at any time during his 20-year tenure: the bloodbath on Chicago streets that’s destroying another generation of young people.

  The videotape replayed around the world of 16-year-old Fenger High School student Derrion Albert being beaten to death during a brawl by students from rival neighborhoods has captured the attention of political leaders like so many other youth murders before it.

  Each time, Daley follows a now-familiar script: He summons police and school officials to a high-level meeting, then unveils a scatter-shot program that’s part police, part mentoring and part jobs and social-services.

  Today, the pattern was repeated. Only this time, Daley is hoping the results will be different.

What is the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Throwing money at the problem doesn't work. Throwing cops at the problem only pushes the problem to somewhere the cops aren't at. What is needed is a wholesale change of attitude in the community, and unfortunately, that isn't happening and probably won't happen.

But somehow, Shortshanks found money. Hope the arbitrator is reading the local rags.

More Clues to Manpower Shortage

Another hint of the future:

• You expect when police promise to follow-up on a case they actually will. But apparently, that doesn't always happen in Chicago. In Lakeview, five young women woke up on September 26th to find someone had cut a screen in their apartment and robbed them while they slept.
  
  
• But they say 10 days went by and no detective ever called them, even though they called again to say they had information about the suspect.
  
  
• Police spokesperson Roderick Drew says no fingerprints were found at the scene and because the Red Line station is under construction, there are no security cameras. He couldn't comment on the potential for bus cameras.
  
  Drew was asked about the 10-day response and if detectives have too many cases on their hands. He says no one will ever hear him or anyone else in the department say detectives have too much work.
  
  But in a statement, he said, "We're like any other industry, we have to make do with the resources on hand. Ideally the call would have been made sooner, if for no other reason but to check in and introduce themselves to the victim(s). But that does not mean the detectives care any less about the incident because no one was hurt."

Gee, do you think maybe the D-Unit is shorthanded? Do you think the entire Department is shorthanded? We've touched on this issue maybe a million times. Our readers have been warning everyone that the shortfalls are going to become evident in different ways for years now - a falling clearance rate, longer response times, ticket fall offs (not entirely because of a slowdown, but because everyone is humping from job to job all night), poor execution of technology, bullshit missions, a non-existent promotional track, RAP after RAP after RAP, etc.

The signs are all there - we've reached the tipping point and the abyss looms.

Three Man Rapids

Well, it's finally happened. Reports are coming in that certain districts are so short cars (with ZERO pool cars available citywide) that after manning all the primary cars as 10-4, they have to put three officers to a car just to get people out of the station.

What the hell is Fleet doing to alleviate this?

Double Standard - Again

Three trips to IAD. Recanting previous answers. Brust making waves. Rules 14 violations in the offing. And still, an exempt gets to keep their rank in the face of allegations that would have anyone else cooling their heels at Unit 376:

• I was there and heard the conversation....hysterical and loud!! RW requested a transfer from Howard the Coward!! He got very pissed and asked her why and she said you know and he said no I don't and she said the request is in you talk to Weiss or I will and walked out. Next thing you know she is leaving. No love lost there and I think he was literally [in fear] of her...like she was going to punch his face in...which she could of course. She can be a very intimidating broad in case you haven't noticed...that fucking look she can give has probably made more of then a few of the eastside savages piss his pants. He was on his line bitching the rest of the day. Anyway a little birdie heard her say she didn't need the BS and would be happy to be bumped back to captain but looks like Weiss did not want to demote her.

We're sure J-Fed was told not to demote her. Ginger wouldn't like that. Of course, Ginger has problems of her own making coming down the pike.

Remember, these are the people teaching us Ethics. These are the people molding young officers. These are the people we are supposed to strive to emulate, especially when they lead armed incursions onto airport property to meet celebrities, glom free tickets and thumb their noses at the Rules and Regulations they would hang each and every one of us on if we had a toe over the line.

We are so fucked.

From Shaved

Scumbags playing the system:

• COMBINATION OFFICER SAFETY ALERT & REQUEST FOR OFFICERS TO SHOW UP AT THE PROBABLE CAUSE HEARING TO SHOW THESE LATIN KINGS THAT THE CPD STANDS STRONG!
  
  Officer Safety Alert:
  
  There have been numerous interactions between the Latin Kings in Garfield Ridge lately and its citizens. This has culminated in an attack on a fellow Policeman behind his garage at 2:30 am on Sun the 4th around 57th and Austin . The off duty copper went out to investigate a loud domestic behind his garage and ended up being surrounded by 5 Latin Kings. He asked them to leave and after they told him they didn’t give a fuck he was the Police, commenced to attack him. The fight continued until the 008th District arrived and placed all five in custody, two charged with Agg. Batt. to the Police and 3 charged with mob action. Copper had a trip to the emergency room for a possible scratched cornea and had taken multiple blows to his face and the back of his head.
  The good commander of 008 put a “Just Cause” on the Latin Kings.
  This is ridiculous where we have come in this city in regards to respect. The event culminated in the Copper being handed a CR# by the visiting Watch Commander (not from 008) because the piece of shits said they were just pissing in the alley and were attacked by the pajama wearing copper.
  The probable cause hearing for these vermin is 13 Oct 09 in Br. 48-4. If you have the time please show up and support this copper as I’m sure friends of the Kings will be there.

So what "boss" took a CR number from five self identified gang banging shitheads who admitted pissing in the alley and turn it into a beef against the off duty? It's amazing.

Blame the Teachers!

Evidently, State Rep Monique Davis couldn't figure out a way to blame the police without looking like a total asshole. So she blames the teachers and somehow, still manages to look like a total asshole. Here's a partial transcript of a piece on WBBM Newsradio yesterday:

• Taken from the 4:30 p.m. News to Go for 10/07/09. It starts at 1 minute 58 seconds in (no timer on recording).
  
  Bernie Tafoya intro: Even though the framework for a solution is multipronged, State Representative Monique Davis says more police is not the answer. She pins the blame on teachers for not showing students how to be better citizens.
  
  Monique Davis: If you’re not taught to value human life, or to respect your fellow man, if that is not taught through belonging to clubs, through art, through music, through literature, if these things aren’t being taught, then you’re just, you’re just like a figure. You know, we’re putting this in your head and that in your head, but we’re not making you a human being.
  
  BT: Shouldn't that be taught at home?
  
  MD: We can say should or shouldn't, but we pay teachers.
  
  BT: Shouldn't it be taught at home?
  
  MD: We don’t pay, we don’t pay home...
  
  BT: Should it be taught at home?
  
  MD: Of course. We’d love for it to be taught at home. But in most schools, it’s taught in school.

Wow. Just wow.

The "cradle-to-grave-welfare, blame everyone else but the face in the mirror" society just hit a new low. A-fucking-mazing. We wonder how many new social programs and tax hikes this idiot is going to spawn based on this little news item.

Alternate Schedules

We heard that if one district on the zone has an alternative work schedule, the other district not on the schedule will be switched for next year.

We also heard the D-unit is going to one of the pilot programs.

What we haven't heard is any official word.

Someone clue the readers and us in.

Heroes

Well done Officer:

• Joe Martinelli and Charles Daly grew up across the street from each other in the Budlong Woods neighborhood. They went to Transfiguration Elementary School together. They played baseball and football together.

  [...] On Tuesday, the two boyhood buddies were re-united as heroes.

  Martinelli, 38, a Chicago firefighter, was awarded the Lambert Tree Award, this year’s highest award for fire bravery.

  Daly, 39, received the Carter Harrison Award, the year’s most prestigious police award.

• Daly’s heroics occurred in October, 2008, after he and another officer engaged in a foot chase with a man they saw creating a disturbance at Chicago and Homan.

  During the chase, the offender was observed pulling a handgun from his waist band before stumbling to the ground. As the partners attempted to disarm the man, the offender bit both officers on the hand as he tried to grab one of their weapons.

  The man then pointed his own gun directly at Daly’s partner from point blank range. Daly calmly fired a single shot, wounding the offender and saving his partner’s life.

And a good job by the firefighter also.

Police Technology?

Who approved this?

• The Chicago Police Department is breaking out a piece of its most advanced crime scene technology to crack a mystery that dates back millions of years: how did Sue move?

  The police will use the scanner to help the Field Museum better figure out answers to that question and others about the museum’s beloved Tyrannosaurus Rex specimen.

  Police will bring a portable laser surface scanner used to create digital images of crime scenes to the museum this Saturday. The scanner, which weighs about 70 pounds, will take images from six different locations.

Over the past few years, we've been on the scene of maybe 100 homicides all told. And we've never seen this piece of equipment. Ever. But they are going to roll it out for a 65 million year old fossil?

We're told that three forensic experts have to be pulled off the streets to run it and even then it doesn't work worth a damn. How many hundreds of thousands or millions did this cost? And it has solved how many crimes?

Just an Observation

It sure looks like if you do DUI's, you will be targeted for lawsuits, publicity and all sorts of innuendo. This is like the third or fourth DUI writer facing all sorts of accusations.

Have they done anything wrong? There's a process for determining allegations of misconduct and the process should move forward.

But it sure looks looks like a witch hunt.

More Waste

No wonder Shortshanks is looking at a $600 million hole in his budget. These nickels and dimes add up:

• On Labor Day 2000, folks in Pullman had reason to celebrate.

  They had just gotten news their historic neighborhood's "heart and soul" -- the charred ruin of Market Hall -- would rise again after 27 years of blight.

  A $1.1 million state grant from the Illinois FIRST public works fund was going to ensure that.

• The taxpayer money that was supposed to bring it back -- the state cash plus $200,000 from the City of Chicago -- is gone.

This and a thousand other projects like it - flush the money down the toilet and never attempt to recover a thing. The Daley-way.

March or No March?

It's been popping up all over the place. We've gotten a few dozen e-mails and about twice that in text messages. The comments are getting repetitive. Even Shaved has a full post on it.

It appears to be a wildcat march. No one is admitting being behind it or organizing it. There doesn't appear to be any transport to or from downtown.

Is FOP going to get out in front of it? Or are they resigned to the fact that arbitration is underway and claim a march serves no purpose? We like a full accounting as to where all the money Shortshanks is hiding from selling everything not nailed down. And a larger accounting of what money was spent to acquire the Michael Reese land.

There's still a lot of questions that demand answers.

Stroger Corruption?

Say it isn't so:

• $100-million dollars. That’s the amount of money Cook County has been awarded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security since 2003 to protect its citizens in times of terrorist attacks or emergencies.

  The grants are a direct result of the tragedy of 9/11.

  But are we any safer? It depends on whom you ask.

We're going to go out on a limb here and say "no."

• At issue is Project Shield, a controversial program begun under the administration of the late County Board President John Stroger and continued by his successor and son Todd Stroger.

  “I think the federal government has to investigate what’s happened with Project Shield so far and re-evaluate its effectiveness,” he said after writing a letter asking for the probe.

  The County has, according to a Freedom of Information Act request, spent nearly $43-million to outfit suburban police cars with cameras capable of feeding back live video to a command center. During times of emergencies, the cameras are supposed to give first responders a better idea of what is happening on the ground.

Who would have thought that John Stroger was involved in anything underhanded and nefarious? And Urkel Stroger? A paragon of virtue if all the stories are to be believed. Now the question becomes is Quigley acting on orders and who's giving those orders?

Bystanders Pummel Purse Snatcher

It's nice to have this sort of help out there:

• Freelance photographer Mike Anzaldi was on his way to lunch in Chinatown on Tuesday when he happened upon a scene of several men holding an alleged purse-snatcher. Chicago police soon arrived and arrested the man, who was later charged with misdemeanor theft and battery.

There's a slide show, too. We can't embed it but here's a link. The offender gets in a few good bites on clothing and a hand before being clocked.

And as noted by a few wags here and at the BreakingNews site, if this had been the police fighting this jagoff, it's be front page news for days, the cops would be at Call Back and the offender would have thirty different bottom feeders knocking at his door looking for a contingency fee.

An Amusing Observaton

From the comments:

• If this ain't some shit ...
  
  NOW, after the powers-that-are de-policed the police department loverly Jessie Jackson has this say ...
  
  "The killings keep coming -- one need not to be guilty to be killed in this war zone," Jackson told reporters before the service Saturday at the Greater Mount Hebron Baptist Church in South Side Chicago. "We must declare a state of emergency. We have an obligation to prepare for our children safe passage."
  
  It's been a war zone for some time you fool, but you keep taking away police powers, and every single reverend runs to the aide of the offender within seconds of their committing their crimes and NOW, NOW you're requesting a call for a state of emergency!!!!

State of emergency? Safe passage? Jesse is actually invoking shades of Little Rock, Arkansas:

• Jackson reminded mourners that in 1957, the National Guard was needed to escort black students into a previously all-white Arkansas school to provide them with safe passage.

  "We need the same intervention today," Jackson said, to cheers and shouts of "amen" from the crowd. "They did it in Little Rock. Do it in Chicago!"

Jesse needs a history lesson we think:

• The governor of Arkansas sent the National Guard in to prevent the Little Rock Nine from attending a segregated school;
• Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne Division in to enforce the Supreme Court ruling and then nationalized the entire Arkansas National Guard to take control away from the Arkansas governor;
• Following a year of tension, the Arkansas National Guard was redeployed, this time in accordance with the Supreme Court order.

That was to combat segregationists. This situation is a little different we'd say:

• gang on gang crime;
  
• no one is fighting to keep these kids out of school - they don't want to be there;
• the deceased is on video throwing punches - while this doesn't mean he deserved to die, it does call into question the extent of his participation;

And Jesse is forgetting that the National Guard isn't really appropriate in this case. These are, for a large part, combat troops, veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. They aren't really suited, and have never been suited, for police work. Their Rules of Engagement are different than the laws the police operate under. We'd imagine the "reverends" and street corner lawyers would have a field day interpreting alleged violations of civil rights.

So once again, hyperbole for the sake of publicity and ignorance fed to the masses via a compliant and complicit media. Everyone makes noise, then everyone forgets. The Chicago Police Department will continue to be undermanned.

And someone else will die.

Last Chance for Chalkie

At least in this incarnation:

• chalkie2016.blogspot.com
  
  It's been a good run. But it looks like this is the end of Chalkie 2016.
  
  We've been able to donate over $1,250.00 to The Hundred Club. That's way way beyond our wildest dreams. Chalkie is a very popular guy.
  
  Thanks to SCC, Shaved and Second City Sarge for their support.
  
  We will be taking orders for one last printing.
  
  Send an email to
  chalkie2016@gmail.com.
  
  THANK YOU
  
  chalkie2016.blogspot.com

A worthy cause. And we expect to continue seeing Chalkie in some form or another for years to come.

Cops Hurt in Crash

Right in front of 011 it seems:

• Five people, including two police officers, were seriously injured after a police car collided with another vehicle early Sunday in the Homan Square neighborhood on the West Side.

  About 1:45 a.m., a squad car was responding to a call when it collided with a civilian vehicle at Harrison Street and Kedzie Avenue, police News Affairs Officer Amina Greer said.

  Two police officers and three civilians, whose ages were not yet known, were transported in serious to critical condition to area hospitals, according to Fire Media Affairs Chief Kevin MacGregor. All had non life-threatening injuries, MacGregor said.

Reports have the cops assigned to MSF. The civilians were DUI. Get well soon Officers.

UPDATE: post edited for clarity.

Chalkie in Kass Column Again

Perhaps Chalkie's last appearance as an Olympic mascot:

• The T-shirt racket has been on my mind ever since "Chalkie 2016" became wildly popular. As you know, Chalkie became the unofficial mascot of the anti-Chicago Olympic movement. He was featured on a T-shirt that drew the wrath of City Hall.
  
  Chalkie is a hypothetical, chalk-outline homicide victim. He would have held his chalk-outline Olympic torch high, though he's most comfortable sprawled dead on the ground, his tiny legs akimbo.
  
  Chalkie would have been easy to blame for losing the Olympics. But Chalkie can't accept blame. He has no lips with which to speak and say, "I'm sorry."
  
  So if we can't blame Chalkie, I'll take the heat for trying to play it both ways.

Hopefully, the spirit lives on.

Since the "Chalkie 2016" tour is winding down, we hope to see a sequel - "The Chalkie and Shortshanks' Political Career Movie." Take the kids. It's rumored to be in 3-D.