Disaster Alert

What brainiac thought this one up?

• Just saw that Dave Matthwews Band Caravan is coming to play a 3 day festival on Chicago's lakefront on Jul 8-10.
  
  Awesome right?
  
  Flocks of suburbanites will swarm to downtown and spend lots of cash, right?
  
  WRONG!
  
  It's at 8500 S. Greenbay Rd!!!

Why worry about the thugs coming downtown when you can just ship the victims right to their doorstep? And this isn't just a concert - this is supposed to be a full-fledged "festival" with tents and displays and side shows. The venue brags it has 30,000 parking spots and can host 70,000 people. At 85th and Greenbay Road.

Anyone got the over/under for smash-and-grab totals for this little shindig? Because we have a bad feeling about this one coming on the heels of what should be a very interesting year at the Taste.

Bold Statement by Rahm

Nice to see him expressing confidence in his people:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel says he’s confident the city has a plan to prevent any more mob attacks this weekend.

  Emanuel told reporters Friday morning he’s been talking about the issue, with Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy.

  "I'm confident. I've talked to Garry at both, as you know, in the morning yesterday (Thursday) and also I think around six o'clock. We were at an event together and we met for about 20 minutes to go over things,” Emanuel said. “But I'm confident in the public safety of our city regardless of what neighborhood you live in. And that we have a strategy of putting more resources, of putting police on the street which is where we need to put those resources. So I am confident as it relates not just to this weekend, but during the week and every weekend in every neighborhood."

Meanwhile, on the west side, five dead (see below).

West Side Goes Up

We're betting this isn't the first time the words "west side" and "goes up" have appeared in the same sentence:

• An ongoing gang conflict that may have resulted in the deaths of five people on the West Side since noon Friday, according to a police source. At least ten other people were wounded during unrelated shootings in other areas of the city Friday night into early Saturday.

  A police source said late Saturday morning that a gang conflict that started about two weeks ago at Lexington Streets and Pulaski Road is to blame for the five slayings. Details were not immediatley available about the reported conflict.

Between the 010 and 011 Districts, they accounted for five slayings in a little under fourteen hours. Not a bad start to a cool weekend.

Warnings Continue

Truly sad:

• According to David Kaplan of "Chicago Tribune Live" on Comcast SportsNet, he has been told that MLB teams, whether they are coming to Chicago to play the Cubs OR the Sox have been warned to watch out for "Michigan Ave flash mobs."

The Daley legacy keeps digging a deeper hole.

Good Job Officer

An off-duty cop and a passerby grab a DUI offender who just killed a man:

• A landscaper and an off-duty cop chased down a reportedly intoxicated man who fled after allegedly running over and dragging a 66-year-old insurance broker in a fatal hit-and-run in Logan Square Wednesday night.

  “As soon as I saw the guy running, it just kicked in,” said 30-year-old Ogden District Police Officer Zachary Cuatchon. “I got out and gave chase. I said, ‘You’re not going anywhere,’“

  Cuatchon and 39-year-old landscaper Adalberto Aceves were both on their way home from work when they helped catch the man who was later charged, Saul Chavez, 35.

Good job gentlemen.

"The NRA Does Not Like Me"

Nice quote tucked away at the end of this Channel 2 story:

• On Sunday morning, McCarthy attended mass at St. Sabina Roman Catholic Church in the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood, where he revealed another part of his philosophy about cutting crime.

  “The police cannot arrest our way out of crime. It’s got to be done on a different level,” McCarthy said. “It’s got to be done in recognition of the moral authority of the community to change behavior of criminals.”

  The Rev. Michael Pfleger and the congregation at the church applauded at McCarthy’s remarks.

  “The NRA does not like me, and I’m OK with that,” he continued.

Someone couldn't warn McCarthy about Pfleger and his race baiting antics? Honest to pete, the exempt structure still in place must be steering him to all the wrong places and laughing behind his back.

But back to the matter at hand. We like the NRA. In fact, we're joining up. You ought to, too:

• Join the NRA

And speaking of joining, the Illinois State Rifle Association is always looking for members.

• Join the ISRA

Both organizations will like you just fine and send you all sorts of stuff to remind you how much they like you. Unlike Pfake Pfather Pfleger who would rather make you a victim every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Tourist Shot

What WBBM Newsradio called a "drive-along" shooting:

• A vehicle was hit by gunfire on North Lake Shore Drive early this morning, wounding one of the people inside, police said.
  
  The vehicle was traveling south at 150 N. Lake Shore Dr. at 3:40 a.m. when the three occupants heard shots, said Police News Affairs [....]
  
  Police found bullet holes in the vehicle -- which was a rental -- and windows shattered. The shots apparently came from a dark-colored SUV....
  
  [....]A 42-year-old Oklahoma man in the vehicle was wounded in the buttocks, Kubiak said. He was taken to Rush University Medical Center, where he was treated and released. It was not clear if he was the driver or a passenger.

The Tribune immediately closed all comments on this article, citing "heat" as the reason.

Bonuses?

Seriously? His contract provides for bonuses?

• New Chicago Public Schools chief Jean-Claude Brizard has yet to release the details of his contract, but he’s saying that even though the contract includes performance-based bonuses he won’t be taking any this year.
  
  At a taping of WBBM Newsradio’s “At Issue” program to air Sunday, Brizard said his contract has performance bonuses built in, but “the bar is set quite high” and under the district’s current fiscal crisis with a $720 million budget hole, he won’t take a bonus.

If this guy is getting bonuses for running what is arguably one of the most poorly run school systems in the nation, shouldn't we be in line for a little taste of the action following 29 months of crime reduction? And by "taste," we don't mean another ribbon.

CompStat Arrives

And is running headlong into the Chicago Machine:

• Englewood District Cmdr. Anthony Carothers was feeling the heat Thursday.

  He stood at a podium in front of more than 100 supervisors and his new boss, Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy.

  In his Bronx brogue, McCarthy asked about a spike in shootings in Englewood over the last month compared with the same period in 2010.

  Carothers attributed the violence to battles among 45 factions of the Gangster Disciples in the South Side district. But when McCarthy pressed for details, there wasn’t clear evidence of a gang motive in most of the shootings.

Well, you see Mr. McCarthy, Commander Carothers, brother of convicted aldermanic felon Ike Carothers (who got Tony his spot by wearing a wire and telling the mayor not to talk too loud) simply asked his auntie, Judge Anita Rivkin-Carothers, who was a criminal defense attorney for the gangster disciples back before she was given her spot. And there she remains, flouting established law and procedure on a daley daily basis. She told Tony what was up over Sunday dinner.

This sounds more like a Catholic school we heard about once:

• “This is not about ‘gotcha,’ ” McCarthy said. “The sin here is not bad numbers. The sin is not knowing what’s going on and how to address it.”

  Still, McCarthy warned that if he learns of a commander fudging crime statistics, “It’s a career ender.” He also told the group: “If I see anybody sleeping, I’m throwing them out of here.”

Here's something that actually addresses a shortsighted decision of years past:

• At one point, McCarthy asked a detective how long the state crime lab takes to process bullet casings for the Chicago Police. When he was told it typically takes four to six weeks, he asked his staff to look into having the Chicago Police do the work in-house. In Newark, McCarthy noted, it usually took about a day to get ballistics results.

This is a good idea and we look forward to it being explored. But this is just a wee bit over the top:

• McCarthy returned to his battle analogy when the discussion turned to the shooting of two girls — ages 2 and 7 — on Wednesday night on a Northwest Side playlot. The 2-year-old was grazed in the head, and the 7-year-old has a serious back wound. Two men were being held for questioning in the shooting, which apparently was targeting gang members nearby. McCarthy said the department must send a message to the Maniac Latin Disciples, who are thought to be responsible.

  “We’re going to obliterate that gang,” he said. “Every one of their locations has to get blown up until they cease to exist.”

We hate to sound so pessimistic, but the Department has had far too many teeth extracted to do anything of the sort.

We eagerly await the moment in time when a commander walks into an accountability meeting and leaves as a field lieutenant, for then and only then will we believe that Rahm has given over control of the Department to the Superintendent. But until then, clout is going to be the rule of the day.

Wall Street Journal

The "multiple offender" incidents are getting national play:

• CHICAGO—Police here are girding for another weekend of "flash mob" attacks after arresting 29 people in connection with a recent rash of assaults and robberies in and around the city's tony shopping and dining district.

  Twelve crimes involving large groups of young men were reported last weekend, in addition to others earlier this spring. The incidents are some of the first major problems confronting newly appointed Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy.

  The attacks have received wide attention in Chicago because they have occurred around the city's affluent north side, including near the "Magnificent Mile," a Michigan Avenue strip popular with tourists.

Word from City Hall is Rahm just shit a brick. But good news! The weather looks to cooperate for the next few days. Maybe Chicago will catch a break - the next heat wave doesn't hit until Tuesday.

Another Attack - No Descriptions

The Sun Times follows the Tribune Company lead and neglects pertinent info:

• Chicago rocker Billy Corgan described his brother’s mugging early Thursday on a Red Line train as “sad and terrible.”

  “He was just sitting there on the train, listening to his iPod,” Corgan told the Chicago Sun-Times Thursday evening. “They obviously set him up to rob him.”

  Jesse Andersen, 35, of Evanston, was on a Red Line train about 4:30 a.m., heading to his job at the Hyatt Regency Hotel downtown, when he was attacked, Andersen told WLS-Channel 7.

  A woman took Andersen’s iPod, and when he tried to grab it back from her, he was “blocked” by other suspects and then punched in the mouth, Chicago police said. The suspects — described as four males and a female, all between the ages of 15 and 25 — then fled.

Wow. We'll be sure to be on the lookout for these offenders.

The media is slowly reverting to form. We figure their plan is to burn everyone out on the "multiple offender" incidents, and then stop covering it altogether. And then the liberals can go back to feeling good about themselves as Chicago slowly accelerates its decline into Detroit.

Dennis Byrne Gets it Right

A small voice of reason:

• Chicago media must identify the race of the aggressors and victims in "flash mob" attacks.

  There, that wasn't so hard, was it?

  You'd think it was from all the handwringing within and without the media about whether the public should be told whether these are cases of black youth randomly attacking whites. Or of whites attacking blacks. Or of racially mixed gangs attacking racially mixed victims.

  If the attacks are not racially motived, then describing the race of the attackers and victim will clear up the matter. The factual reporting will put to rest any suspicion that random, racially motivated crimes are breaking out. Or feed false stereotypes.

We'll even go a step further - as far as we are aware, in every media reported incident these past ten days or so, the offenders were all black.

AUGH!!!!!!!! The Truth burns!!! It burns!!!!!!

Oh wait. No it doesn't. It didn't even leave a mark. Wow. Didn't Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder call Americans cowards for not being able to discuss race? He did. And why is everyone afraid of it? Because liberals reserve the race card as solely their own to deal when anyone attempts to address racial issues.

We've got big problems here folks. And the silence from so-called black leaders, others making insane excuses, and the complicity of the liberal media in hiding this crap for so long aren't going to solve shit.

Quinn's Fuzzy Math

As predicted here and anywhere someone has passed an Economics 101 course:

• Illinois gained nationwide notoriety in January when Governor Pat Quinn signed into law a 67% hike in the personal income tax rate while lifting the corporate tax rate to 9.5%, the fourth highest in the nation. How is that working out?
  
  The good news is that corporate tax receipts in Springfield are up by about $300 million amid the economic recovery—though the state comptroller's office announced in April that the state still faces $8 billion in unpaid bills. The bad news is that, according to the state's Department of Commerce, Illinois has already shelled out some $230 million in corporate subsidies to keep more than two dozen companies from fleeing the state. And more are on the way.

And guess who else is making noise about moving? Caterpillar. Sears. Motorola. Just to name a few. And how much has it cost Illinois?

• ...in two years in office Mr. Quinn has doled out corporate welfare to at least 80 firms, costing the state nearly $500 million, according to a tally by the Chicago Tribune. Late last year Navistar, the commercial truck engine maker, secured $65 million in handouts. Continental Tire nabbed $19 million. Even deal-of-the-day Web business Groupon, which is preparing an IPO to raise $750 million, grabbed $3.5 million in tax credits to stay in Chicago. U.S. Cellular got a $7.2 million package to keep its headquarters in the Chicago area, while Chrysler received an "investment package" worth $62 million for its Belvidere assembly plant.

Amazing that this jackass ran on a platform of raising taxes. Because it's not like a multi-billion dollar company couldn't afford to move operations to a more business friendly environment, while everyone else who can barely afford their mortgage (if they're lucky) is stuck here paying Quinn's higher taxes and paying more for products that used to be built here in the midwest.

HUGE Day of Posting

So much to cover, so little time. How about a Quick Hits to catch up? This could be the start of something big - "big" as in a lot of businesses relocating outside of Illinois' high tax rates:

• CME's Executive Chairman, Terry Duffy, said the company was exploring a potential move of its corporate base, after Illinois earlier this year sharply lifted the corporate tax rate paid by the Chicago-based exchange company.

It would be a paper move mostly, but still would affect the state budget in a depressed economy. Way to go Quinn!

======

This is a start:

• City employees — from aldermen on down — would be subject to random drug and alcohol tests under a New York-style crackdown proposed Wednesday by the city’s two most powerful aldermen.

  Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th) and Pat O’Connor (40th), Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s City Council floor leader and chairman of the Committee on Audit and Workforce Development, say random testing would minimize “errors in judgment” by city employees on duty.

  “Chicago aldermen should be included . . . because elected officials should lead by example,” Burke said in written statement.

Now how about following Florida's lead - anyone who receives government money in any form ought to drop a sample....and not just on Burke's desk. A testable sample.

======

And while everyone is looking at downtown, children are catching bullets in the neighborhoods:

• Two girls, ages 2 and 7, were shot in a park in the Northwest Side Avondale neighborhood Wednesday night.

  Emergency crews responded to the shooting in the 3500 block of West School Street at 7:48 p.m. and found two injured children, Fire Media Affairs spokesman Richard Rosado said. Both were taken to Children’s Memorial Hospital in serious to critical condition, he said.

We blame the heat. If only the parks had been shut down the way the beaches were closed today, none of this would have happened.

======

There's just too much to cover. We're throwing up around seven different articles today, not a record, but a busy day none the less. Comments are heavier than normal (almost 500 yesterday alone), we did 22,000 hits Wednesday, we passed 15,000,000 total visits and we've been linked nationally by a couple of big blogs. So thanks once again to all our readers, lurkers and commentators. Stay tuned boys and girls.

Shooting in 011

Another day, another person with a gun shot by the police:

• A man was shot after he pointed a gun at a Chicago police officer following a traffic stop near Garfield Park on the West Side late Wednesday afternoon, police said.
  
  One person was taken in serious-to-critical condition to Mount Sinai Hospital from the 3700 block of West Washington Boulevard after Fire Department ambulances were dispatched to deal with a person shot, said fire spokesman Richard Rosado.
  
  At about 5:50 p.m., Harrison District officers were on patrol in the vicinity of Washington Boulevard and Hamlin Avenue when a motorist committed a traffic violation, police said.
  
  Officers tried to curb the vehicle which fled the scene. The offender exited the vehicle on the 3700 block of West Washington and pointed a handgun at the officers, according to police.

All officers OK. Good job again.

More Changes Ahead

The rumor mill is in full swing, and goodness knows cops can't resist a good rumor:

• Your going to love this SCC and readers! Starting tomorrow the last class of recruits from the now empty academy will be assigned with 1 academy instructor top patrol Michigan Ave 10 recruits to 1 instructor! No FTO pay,nothing extra "reality what a concept!"

If they were actually pushing through Academy classes, this would be a good thing. Every new body gets 90 or 180 days downtown. High visibility patrol, walking posts, fresh air, citizen interaction, and all sorts of action due to the mob attacks. But putting the last class through - what are there, fifty of them? It's a start, not a solution.

• All full duty p.os and sgts gone from 35. Including nurses. Admin and district spots next.

Is this an additional dump? Because we thought they had covered this about two weeks ago along with the TRU/MSF disbanding. We realize McCarthy said he'd bring paperwork to a standstill in order to man the streets, but the downside is that the incompetence of the command staff will be brought to full light without .... wait a minute. There isn't a downside. Carry on.

• Central Control Group is on the chopping block.

Good riddance. A useless subdivision of the Department created for the sole purpose of giving Shortshanks' fishing partner an undeserved deputy slot with all the overhead and none of the investigatory responsibilities needed to run an Area.

If Only!!!

This brings back some memories:

• Garry McCarthy was asked about this during a press conference.
  
  McCarthy: "Today we have a new plan of attack. I have been informed that there are several dozen officers currently assigned to the 311 or callback center. Many of these officers are facing discipline, some of this discipline for excessive force."
  
  "We have identified these officers facing discipline and have assigned them to the downtown detail. Here is the plan. We are using our youngest looking female officers as decoys for these mobs. When a mob seems prone to attack, we will call in the former callback officers. When the mob attacks, these officers will attack the mob."
  
  "We expect that this tactic will result in lawsuits. Many of these callback officers are borderline psychopaths. Still, businesses have agreed to pay a .1% 'combat-lawsuit' sales tax. Since we are prepared for the lawsuits, we have no reason to hold back. The callback combat unit will have no name tags. In fact, they will only wear black clothing with no police emblems. They will wear face masks. They wear gloves to cover their fingerprints. At the end of the summer all records of this unit will be burned. No case will be criminally prosecuted. In fact, we will not be making any arrests."
  
  "We fully expect this problem will be solved after next weekend."

Very funny stuff.

Shoot the Messenger

If there was any doubt about what Rahm and Company are trying to do, this ought to put it to rest:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel and newly confirmed police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said Wednesday that they're adding a "marginal" number of officers to the Near North Side to combat a spate of violence, even as they questioned the media's coverage of the attacks.
  
  McCarthy cautioned reporters about characterizing crimes correctly, pointing to the differences between shoplifting, robbery and criminal mischief. And the mayor suggested journalists be more judicious in using the term "flash mob."
  
  "We have to be sensitive to what it conjures up," Emanuel said.
  
  But the administration has played a role in creating the ongoing frenzy. Authorities slapped a mob action charge on some of the youths arrested in the attacks. And McCarthy has pushed "flash mob" into the Chicago crime vernacular since he arrived in May.

When in doubt, attack the messenger. Rahm's been doing that for years - under Clinton, in the House, as Obama's hatchet man. Now he's whipping it out here. And the Tribune Company is folding like a cheap tent, closing comment sections on all their articles as the questioning gets intense. We figure it's only a matter of time until a few other outlets fall into line. Rahm will threaten to deny them "access" to certain events, press conferences, etc., and attempt to bend them to his will. He'll be moderately successful, too.

Witness the spin at work already. These aren't "wildings" or "mob attacks" any more. They're being called "multiple offender incidents," like that's supposed to make the victim feel better and the liberal neighborhoods more understanding. The trouble is, that's not working any more.

The perception of crime being out of control has taken hold because crime is out of control, and that genie being out of the bottle is not going to be hidden as easily as it was with Shortshanks.

Mt. Greenwood Mob Attacks

Multiple reports in our comment sections about a large gang of thugs riding the bus on 111th Street and tearing it up this afternoon:

• ...on todays date 15-20 black teens... got off of the bus and out of cars at 111th and Kedzie and broke buisness windows, car windows and attacked pedestrians... all pedestrians and vehicles were that of white people..
  
  ...a white females car was destroyed as she sat in it and male and female white pedestrian were attacked. Clearly white people are being chosen and targeted among the black offenders... why is this not a hate crime?? what would happen if the same group were white people who went to the ghetto and ONLY targeted black people and left white people alone???? yep, you guessed it.. hate crime. Why did the 111th and kedzie wildings not make the news?

Well, Rahm was questioning the media today, asking why they were only covering the incidents occurring downtown and not the ones in the neighborhoods. We suppose this could be one of the incidents Rahm was talking about.

It's Everywhere

South side thugs causing problems:

• A Chicago man was arrested in Wilmette after allegedly breaking a woman’s hand during an attempted purse-snatching.

  Wilmette police arrested James Myer, 17, of the 6800 block of South Dorchester, at 2 p.m. Tuesday. He allegedly walked into a business in the 1100 block of Wilmette Avenue and took a woman’s purse, according to a police alert.

  The woman tried to stop Myer from running away, the alert said, and during a struggle “Myer caused the victim’s hand to fracture.”

  A store employee ran after Myer and detained him until police arrived, the alert said.

Two things:

1. We didn't realize the Red Line went all the way to Wilmette;
   
   
2. Those damn Wilmette Police put that suburb on dude!

And the Tribune comments? Closed as usual.

And Yet Again...

Another mob attack, this time at Chicago and Orleans, being reported by WGN and WBBM Radio. Victim en route to Northwestern Hospital.

• Chicago police responded to another report of a mob attack Wednesday afternoon.
  
  Police say a man was attacked by four individuals 3 males and 1 female in the 300 block of West Chicago near the CTA Brown Line.
  
  The offenders took the man's wallet and iPhone.
  
  The victim was transported to Northwestern Hospital in serious condition.

Last one in Chicago, turn out the lights.

Travel Advisory

The American Society of Clinical Oncology has to be having second thoughts about their ten-year deal to come to McCormick Place.

PAWS canceled its upcoming weekend event due to "safety concerns from unpredictable crowds and weather conditions" although the City claims PAWS applied for a permit too late. We've never seen a late permit that couldn't be greased through in this town though - witness all the building permits pulled months, even years later (with a fine attached) for all sorts of projects.

Now, the Illinois State Rifle Association has issued a "travel advisory" for any members headed to Chicago:

• The ISRA is warning its members to think twice about selecting Chicago as a vacation destination this summer. This warning was issued in response to a recent dramatic upswing in violent crime in the windy city. Most notably is a spate of so-called “flash mob” attacks where as many as two dozen young men ambush and savagely beat their victims before robbing them of their valuables. One recent flash mob victim was a 68 year-old man.

  The bulk of the flash mob attacks have taken place on Chicago’s near north side and Gold Coast areas to include North Avenue Beach and the Magnificent Mile. The attack locations are within the general vicinity of tourist attractions including Navy Pier, Lincoln Park Zoo, and Millennium Park.

We're afraid this is going to get worse before it gets any better. Much worse.

Here's An Idea...

...only our readers had it about 100 years ago:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s choice to run Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications vowed Tuesday to usher in a “cultural change” in 911 dispatching to free police officers to respond to the most serious crimes.

  At his City Council confirmation hearing, Gary Schenkel said it’s high time that Chicago alter an outdated dispatch policy that sends police officers to respond to 70 percent of 911 calls, compared to 30 percent in other major cities.

  Schenkel acknowledged it won’t be easy to wean Chicagoans of the habit of dialing 911 at every turn, calling the emergency number even for minor matters. It will require a major public relations campaign to divert lower priority calls to 311 or convince crime victims to file their reports online, Schenkel said.

  But a two-year hiring slowdown has left the Chicago Police Department more than 2,300 officers a day short of authorized strength, counting vacancies, officers on limited duty and medical leave.

  The only way to ease the manpower shortage — short of a hiring spree the city can’t afford — is to find a way to stop officers from chasing their tails by running from call to call, Schenkel said.

OK, OK, we realize we're starting off negative here. Let's just get this out of the way - this isn't a new idea. It's an old idea that no one has had the political will to address for years. We and our readers have spouted off for years about responding to calls about "junior won't go to school," "I want my flavor of the week ejected from my apartment," or "the dope boys ripped me off." We should embrace any change that lightens the load of nonsense. So we'll open up the comments to "Calls the Police Shouldn't Have to Respond To." Then someone can forward it to Schenkel, McCarthy and Rahm.

If they had listened to beat coppers years ago, this wouldn't even be an issue today.

Is This Necessary?

Seriously?

• For motorists who think bicyclists in Chicago have been granted unconditional rights to violate every traffic law on the books, authorities were out in force today to suggest otherwise.
  
  The sting was conducted at only one intersection near downtown, and only for two hours during the morning rush. But the site that was chosen is a complex intersection that’s a magnet for bicycling commuters, widespread disregard for red lights, and plenty of accidents and close calls, officials said.
  
  Some 240 warnings and one ticket were issued by the end of the law enforcement and education operation, which was aimed at bicyclists pedaling through red lights and taking over crosswalks meant for pedestrians only, officials said. It was carried out by the Chicago Police Department, the Chicago Department of Transportation and the City of Chicago’s Bicycling Ambassadors program in what officials dubbed a “share the road” campaign.

OK, we know we've been beating the "mob beatings" stories pretty much to death the past few days, but for good reason. And we know that bikers are pretty much operating with impunity in Chicago. But 240 warning tickets?

Wouldn't we have been better served cracking down on the beaches? We're short manpower across the board and downtown is spiraling out of control. How about we shut off the main fire at the source before we worry about the outlying brush fires? We don't think the disobedient cyclists are going to be impacting the tourism trade with their antics any time soon. And if a few get run over when they're being assholes, well, that's Darwinism for you - send a traffic car, conduct an investigation, ticket the at-fault party.

BREAKING: Another Mob Attack

All over WGN 9 O'Clock News tonight. The anchors are describing fifteen to twenty black offenders jumping two white victims, beating and robbing them at Wabash and Chicago.

Cook County Commissioner John Fritchey is already tweeting about it.

Someone want to call Rahm before we shut down the entire downtown area?

UPDATE: CBS 2 and NBC 5 lead with the latest three attacks. ABC 7 has to be biting nails since they can't break away from the NBA Finals.

88 Degrees - Guess What?

As of 1100 hours or so - with projected high of 95 degrees or better, so that means no beaches open this evening either. And we see that Rahm is saving money on printing signs, too. Maybe there is hope for this guy after all.

Police Shoot, Kill Assailant

Englewood, of all places:

• Police answering a domestic battery call in the Englewood neighborhood early this morning shot and killed a fleeing suspect who they believed was holding a weapon, police said.

  [...] In a statement, police said that as officers approached the residence, a male suspect ran away attempting to escape. A foot chase ensued, with police identifying themselves and ordering the suspect to stop, according to the statement.

  At that point, "the offender turned towards the officer, pulled an object from his pocket, which the officer believed to be a handgun, and aggressively came at the officer.

No officers injured.

Blame the Victim

Ridiculous:

• McCarthy stressed the importance of awareness, telling reporters, "You don't want to walk in dark areas by yourself after having a fight at a bar with a friend and you're going home. We still have to pay attention to common sense things to do. ... That's the nature of the world today."

Then the victim speaks in the Sun Times:

• Wilkowski said he decided to drive downtown from his northwest suburban home because he wanted to get some shoes and "take a ride."
  
  He said he was sitting on his bike, checking his cell phone around 7:30 p.m. on Chicago Avenue just east of Michigan Avenue when he was attacked.
  
  "I couldn't believe it. It was broad daylight outside, there were people around, and this happened," he said. "There were about 20 guys surrounding me. I saw one guy running after the ball, I guess they didn't want to lose it. Then I saw a bunch of people coming after me."

Wilkowski wasn't coming from a bar. Wilkowski wasn't even headed home, he was going shopping. And we just happened to glance at our phone clock around 7:33 PM Monday and guess what? Broad daylight. In fact, we had enough daylight to hit a 16" softball about three feet over the second baseman for a nice RBI single 15 minutes later (we lost later though).

We also doubt that the oncologist from Seattle and the other doctor from Japan were out fighting at a bar, getting drunk and generally making themselves victims. But we can see exactly why Rahm wants to keep a lid on this story and the potential fallout when word gets back to these doctors' homes that Chicago is a place to avoid.

Tourists Scared

Here comes the tourism hit:

• No one was seriously hurt in the flurry of five random attacks by a mob of young men on Chicago's lakefront over the weekend.

  But the feeling among many visitors and residents that the popular Near North Side stretch where the attacks occurred is safe for strolling on a summer night may have taken a hit.

  "I think it reflects badly on Chicago," said Dr. Jack Singer, 68, a Seattle oncologist who was one of two victims in town for a convention of cancer specialists at McCormick Place. "I've been coming to the convention every year, and this is the first time I've felt threatened downtown."

So everyone can just relax now - no one was seriously hurt. And the Super-to-be has vowed revenge on all the evil-doers:

• Acting police Superintendent Garry McCarthy told reporters this afternoon at City Hall that, while he's satisfied with how the police handled the mob action incidents downtown over the weekend, he'll not be completely satisfied until he's got every offender in custody.

  "The strategy to prevent that from occurring again is not to be satisfied when 10 kids commit an infraction and arrest three of them. The answer is were going to go after all 10 of them," McCarthy said. "We're going to find every one of them, and we're going to prosecute and arrest every single one of them."

Wait a second....wasn't it all blamed on the "heat" a few days ago? No gang issues whatsoever? Wasn't the quote something along the lines of "..what gang problem?" We're having a lot of trouble keeping all the stories straight. Does someone have a program? A lineup card? Something?

Disbanding Permanent

Tucked away in a sentence near the end:

• Acting police Superintendent Garry McCarthy was quizzed by Chicago aldermen for more than three hours Monday before a City Council committee signed off on his appointment.

  In his first act, McCarthy put hundreds more officers on the beat this summer, a shift away from the Chicago Police Department's strategy of fighting crime with specialized units.

  "That's an easy fix and a different management style than I'm accustomed to," McCarthy said of the special units, which "parachute" into hot spots to respond to spikes in violence.

  Those officers "may not go back" to their specialized units when the summer deployment ends, McCarthy said.

Oh, evidently the Acting Super's appointment passed out of committee and goes to the full City Council now. Hooray!

Three Quarters of a Million?

Wonder of wonders - another corrupt connection:

• For years, City Hall maintained that Mayor Richard M. Daley’s son, Patrick Daley, had no financial stake in the deal that brought wireless Internet service to city-owned O’Hare Airport and Midway Airport.

  But it turns out that the younger Daley still reaped a windfall of $708,999 when Concourse Communications was sold in 2006, less than a year after the Chicago company signed the multimillion-dollar Wi-Fi contract with his father’s administration, company documents obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show.

  Concourse disclosed its investors to the city, as required. Patrick Daley wasn’t one of them.

But he still managed to clear over $708,000 while enlisted in the Army. Also making a pile of money - the Vanecko boys. So how long was the media, the so-called "watchdogs," going to sit on all this info? And now that the Machine is firmly ensconced in Washington DC, we're pretty sure nothing will ever come of any of it.

EEOC Lawsuit

Thomas J. Pleines v FOP Lodge 7.

An interesting read.

It certainly doesn't paint a flattering picture of anyone involved.

NRA Wins Attorney Fees

And rightfully so:

• Fairfax, VA—Today, the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals conclusively and forcefully held, without need for oral argument, that the National Rifle Association has the right to recover attorneys’ fees in its lawsuits against the city of Chicago's and the village of Oak Park’s unconstitutional gun bans. The court held that the NRA was a prevailing party in the case of National Rifle Association v. City of Chicago and Village of Oak Park
  
  “This is a Second Amendment victory and a civil rights victory. The National Rifle Association and the Second Amendment prevailed against those who sought to deny the right to keep and bear arms in Chicago and Oak Park,” said Chris W. Cox, executive director of NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action. “The attempt to avoid paying the NRA’s attorneys’ fees was rightly found to be unjust by the Court."
  
  After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment guarantees a fundamental right to keep and bear arms for all Americans in the historic McDonald v. Chicago and NRA v. Chicago and Oak Park cases, it remanded them for the purpose of issuing an injunction against Chicago and Oak Park's unconstitutional gun ordinances. Before that injunction was issued, however, those ordinances were repealed. The City and the Village then argued that the NRA was not a prevailing party and should not be allowed to recover attorneys’ fees. The District Court, which originally ruled against the NRA, agreed and denied the fee award.
  
  Today’s Seventh Circuit decision overturns that ruling, holding instead that the NRA is indeed a prevailing party and is entitled to receive reimbursement for attorneys’ fees. The amount to be recovered will be established by the District Court.

And just how much did Richie Daley cost Chicago taxpayers with his misguided and poorly thought out attack on Second Amendment Rights? Well, the lawyer in the Heller decision is asking for $3.5 million from the District of Columbia, and we believe he assisted in the McDonald v Chicago case. Then there are the other associated costs to be borne by Chicago and Oak Park taxpayers. We figure anywhere between $5-to-$10 million isn't out of the realm of possibility.

From a city that's about as flat broke as it can be. Way to go Daley, you complete and utter asshole! Another pile of money Chicago doesn't have just because you know better than the Founding Fathers and the US Constitution.

Officer Hit by Car - Driver Shot

Early Sunday morning:

• Police responding to a burglary in progress shot a man, who then allegedly hit an officer with a car he was driving near the United Center Sunday morning.
  
  Police shot a man about 6:45 a.m. in the 2000 block of West Monroe Street, according to police News Affairs Officer Michael Sullivan. Sullivan said the incident occurred as police were responding to a burglary in progress call.
  
  After the officer shot the man, that man then allegedly hit an officer in the leg with the vehicle he was driving, police said.

Even the "slow" districts are seeing a seeming upsurge in attacks on police, especially with vehicles. Be extra careful out there this summer - slow don't mean a thing with a two-thousand pound hunk of metal and plastic bearing down on you.

Is There An Actuary in the House?

Special note to our readers - bear with us in this post. We know crunching numbers is boring, but we're really wondering about this stuff.

More crime reduction?

• Overall crime was down for the 29th consecutive month in Chicago, according to preliminary monthly crime statistics for the month of May released by police Sunday.
  
  Total crime in the city fell 5.9 percent compared to crime numbers through May 2010, police said in a press release.
  
  One of the more prevalent drops in May is that of homicide, down 16.3 percent. Through the end of May, there were 27 fewer homicides this year than the same timeframe in 2010, police said. More than half of the 25 police districts citywide reported decreases in their homicide numbers.

Twenty-nine consecutive months of falling crime. Twenty-nine. Almost two-and-a-half years. We've joked here a few times about how "if crime keeps falling, we're going to owe a bunch to the future." Now we're starting to wonder.

As you see from the quoted article, the Department says crime fell "5.9 percent compared to crime numbers through May 2010." No note if that's year-to-date or what, but it makes us wonder. Every number we can recall over the past two years has been in that area, give or take a bit. So let's try a little experiment.

Let's say that twenty-nine months ago, there were 100 crimes in Chicago. Now let's say, for the sake of making things simple, that every month there was a 3% drop in crime. We're attempting to err on the low side because we really don't recall any drops of under 4% (we might be completely off base). And to be statistically honest, we'll apply that 3% to each month's new number of crimes (there are ways to manipulate statistics, but we'll avoid that.) We'll round the numbers in accordance with accepted mathematical processes:

• Month #1 - 100 crimes;
• Month #2 - 100 crimes x .03 = 3......97 crimes occurred;
• Month #3 - 97 crimes x .03 = 2.91......94 crimes occurred;
• Month #4 - 94 crimes x .03 = 2.8......91 crimes occurred;

Now carry that out twenty-nine times. Make a spreadsheet. Use paper, pencil and a calculator. What you get is by Month #29, forty-one crimes have occurred. From one hundred all the way down to forty-one. That's a 59% drop in crime in just under two-and-a-half years.

Does that even seem possible? It doesn't feel possible, but our perceptions, like everyone else's, are colored by media coverage and first-hand viewing of conditions on the ground. We've got way more than 2.5 years on the job and we just don't see it being 59% safer than it was in 2009. We'll admit that we don't have the exact percentages the Department is using to come up with these numbers, but we also don't think we're very far off.

Any geniuses out there?

Transcript Anyone?

This sounds silly to the extreme:

• Did you hear the MacStupid on 102.7 this morning? He was asked outright by the radio host exactly what led to the shutdown of the beach on Memorial Day. Before he answered the host played interviews from individuals at the beach. Each one mentioned gangs, fights, rowdy crowds, etc and then a police presence shutting the beach down. When it was his turn to respond, I bullshit you not, he said, "I've been trying to set the record straight for a week now. That's not what happened. It was extremely hot and the water was cold. People were trying to stay cool but weren't going in the water and they passed out. Emergency personnel had a difficult time getting to them with all the crowds so the decision to shut the beach down was made."

Seriously? The Chicago Fire Department has been responding to beach emergencies for over 100 years now. We think they can manage quite well. And if CFD was even a little slow, we'd either (A) be hearing about it from some aggrieved party looking for a payout or (B) be hearing about how half-a-dozen good Samaritans carried the "victim" to the bike path, parking lot or street for the ambulance to treat. Neither of those things has happened and the DJ played interviews from people on the scene! We'd really like to see a transcript to see if this actually got broadcast.

And this part is looking like "The Return of J-Fled:"

• Second statement regarding gangs. He wants to have a meeting with them and let them know they need to change their behaviour. He is going to tell them, "We aren't going to arrest you, but we will if we have to? Now what can we do to help you change?"

Another meeting to tell them to "knock it off"? That worked so well last year with J-Fled. We think the gang involved only killed eight people the following week. God help us.

Connecticut Connection?

Things that make you go "Hmmmmm.."

• Taking a page from the 2002 film Minority Report, New Haven cops want the feds to help them to predict crimes and preempt perpetrators of crimes before they act.

  In the neo-noir sci fi flick, detective Tom Cruise has a device that shows him who’s going to commit what nefarious deed before it occurs.

  New Haven’s police department hasn’t reached that ambitious goal yet. But it has applied for a federal grant to get started.

  Assistant Police Chief Tobin Hensgen told the Board of Aldermen;s Public Safety Committee about the plan Wednesday night. The aldermen then authorized the police department to apply for and accept, if successful, a $300,000 two-year grant from U.S. Department of Justice for a cutting-edge crime analysis computer software package that “will involve geospatial predictive analysis and threshold analysis.”

Why do we care about New Haven, Connecticut? We don't really, except an old friend works there:

• Currently the department does basic analysis of data largely using crime statistics and knowledge of hot spots to predict and to deploy resources.

  That’s pretty primitive by technology standards.

  “We can see hot spots right now, but the new software can actually predict placement of crime based on models where it’s likely to be displaced, and what kinds of resources we put in place,” said Chief Frank Limon.

Hi Frank! A quick question - how is that $300,000 being spent?

• Of the $300,000, $216,000 is for the new software, the remaining $84,000, for overtime.

New software. That wouldn't happen to be software developed in Chicago, would it? The article is kind of vague, but we must confess we have our suspicions about Chicago connections and all. Maybe we're just too damn cynical.

Still No Gang Problem - Just Heat

This time, seven arrests though:

• More than a dozen young men attacked a person Saturday night in the Streeterville neighborhood outside a building on Northwestern University's downtown campus, according to an alert issued by the university.
  
  Seven people thought to be part of that group, mostly youth, were arrested on "mob action charges" when Chicago police and Northwestern police responded, according to police News Affairs [...].
  
  About 8:30 p.m., the victim had parked his motor scooter outside the building on Chicago Avenue, a little west of Lake Shore Drive, when about 15 to 20 males--believed to be in their mid-to-late teens--approached him, according to the alert, which categorized the incident as an attempted robbery. One of the males in that group threw a baseball at the victim's face and knocked him to the ground, the alert stated.

Remember though, this is an isolated phenomenon (with no descriptions of the offenders anywhere in the article):

• Other recent mob action or flash mob incidents downtown include one in April, when a group of about 70 youths stormed a McDonald's restaurant on Dearborn Street and Chicago, and created a disturbance. The restaurant was closed for nearly three hours.
  
  In February, Loyola University warned its Water Tower campus students and staffers about "flash mob offenders," who would exit from Chicago Avenue's CTA Red Line station and allegedly steal items from retail stores around the campus.

And only a mile or so from the dangerous "heat" of North Avenue Beach. Right?

New Side Job - Recycling!

Anyone hear about this stuff?

• The warehouse at 940 W. Exchange should be one of the most secure municipal buildings in Chicago.

  Not only is it home base for city crews that install and maintain security systems at local government facilities, it’s outfitted with surveillance cameras and an alarm.

  So how could four spools of copper-lined industrial power cable that weigh more than 1,000 pounds apiece disappear in March in a still-unsolved theft?

We have an idea exactly how - and so do other people:

• Turns out the building’s alarm system was on the fritz at the time, and many of the security cameras weren’t working, several sources told the Better Government Association.

  What’s more, the cable (worth at least $20,000) had been left out — and wasn’t kept inside a locked storage area as it was supposed to be, the sources said.

  The city’s inspector general now is investigating, and exploring the possibility that the heist was an inside job, the sources said.

Um....duh?

This isn't the only theft of wire though. We've gotten word from a couple people who know and it seems that a bunch of subcontractors are in the habit of leaving spools of this stuff on trailers at job sites - overnight and unsecured. And then everyone is "surprised" when the trailer is found empty the next day.

Anyone want to bet on what kind of connections might be uncovered if someone actually started poking around? Maybe a few "Outfit" connections?

Hooray for Dumb People!

Job security at the very least:

• At first, it appeared that the police call to Frank Moore's Chicago home was a routine domestic disturbance, since he was allegedly standing outside asking officers who responded for help to kick out his girlfriend.

  Then, Moore mentioned the marijuana inside his apartment in the 1900 block of South May Street, Cook County prosecutors said Saturday. The police officers smelled the marijuana Thursday as they approached the Pilsen apartment and found baggies of marijuana on top of the refrigerator and on a coffee table, according to court documents.

  The girlfriend then directed them to a closet, where the officers found more marijuana and a black bag containing a handgun, a black ski mask, a towel, sunglasses and latex gloves, officials said.

Dumb even calling the police in the first place. Then really dumb admitting to having the stash. Then really really dumb having the scorned girlfriend in a position to give the police your other stash and your gun.

Whoops

Something to make everyone smile:

• Officers in Independence, a Kansas City suburb, responded to a call on a Saturday evening about a large alligator lurking on the embankment of a pond, police spokesman Tom Gentry said Thursday.
  
  An officer called a state conservation agent, who advised him to shoot the alligator because there was little that conservation officials could do at that time, Gentry said.
  
  As instructed an officer shot the alligator, not once but twice, but both times the bullets bounced off -- because the alligator was made of cement.

So where did the ricochets end up?

Overnight Carnage

Officials are attempting to blame this on the heat also, but they're having trouble getting around all the bullet holes:

• Four people are dead and at least 12 others were wounded in overnight shooting incidents in Chicago, police said.

You can read all the addresses and details at this link here - it's extensive.

• No one was in custody for any incident and area detectives were investigating.

Reports of another homicide at the 43rd Street beach are in our comment section, but only appears as a "critical condition" in the BreakingNews.com story. Expect that one to be corrected in a bit. That means we've had about three homicides on the beaches already, all due to "heat."

Another commentator relates that Chicago has had 28 murders in 13 days. That's a pretty good clip. Someone should really do something about this since the "cooler by the lake" motto doesn't hold up under all these heat emergencies.

Oh, and Nordstrom and Water Tower report roving bands of shoplifters and battery offenders roaming unchecked throughout the area.

Did we miss anything?

Cops, Firefighter Injured

Nothing life threatening:

• In 80 degree weather, firefighters fought to douse a fast-moving blaze inside a brick apartment building in the 7900 block of South Dobson Avenue Friday evening.
  
  No major injuries were reported, though a firefighter was treated for a minor laceration at the scene, fire officials said. With black smoke still curling out of the building, the injured firefighter was able to return to service.
  
  Two Chicago police officers who suffered smoke inhalation at the scene where taken to University of Chicago Hospitals. They later were treated and released.

Best wishes to all involved for a speedy recovery.

More Crime Up North

Surprisingly, the Department isn't blaming it on the heat:

• Police have issued a Community Alert for the Lakeview area after several people reported getting sprayed with mace, attacked and mugged over the past few weeks.
  
  The robbers approach their victims as they are walking on the street or into their homes during the early morning hours, police said. They then proceed to spray the victims with mace or pepper spray, knock them to the ground and forcibly mug them before fleeing the area.
  
  The robberies have occurred within the following boundaries: Belmont to the South, Addison to the North, Pine Grove to the East and Sheffield to the West.

And this helpful bit of info is hilarious:

• The community alert urges residents to be extra vigilant: don't walk alone, check to see if area surveillance is working properly and inform friends and neighbors of the crimes.

First up, what qualifies potential victims to check on area surveillance cameras? And after that, what are they going to do if the cameras are working - wave to it? Do we really have to go through this charade again? Chances are no one is watching anyway, especially at 3 AM. You're better off carrying a gun.

Here Comes a Fight

Expect a Teachers' Strike if this keeps going this direction:

• Chicago Public School principals late last week received long overdue budgets packing $10.6 million in school-based cuts — but also omitting a negotiated 4 percent raise for teachers.

  The budgets arrived midday Friday with an e-mail from new Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard saying teacher raises weren’t included because they have yet to be approved by “newly appointed board members and they have not met yet. Therefore, we took a conservative approach and left out scheduled salary increases for now.’’

  Although the Chicago Teachers Union is entering the last year of a contract calling for 4 percent raises this coming school year, CPS can bail out of the raises and reopen the contract if officials declare by June 15 that they don’t have the money to cover an estimated $80 million in CTU raises.

The schools are operating at a $634 million deficit. The City itself is running a $500 million budget gap at last count. That's $1.1 billion in the red already and the fiscal year is just starting. Rahm is going to burn this place to the ground trying to make up Shortshanks' budget disasters.

Shooting Near 010 (UPDATED)

Word from BreakingNews.com:

• One man was arrested for shooting at another down the street from a West Side Chicago police station Thursday night, police said, citing preliminary information.
  
  The second man, who told police he was being shot at, also was taken into custody when officers caught up with him and found a gun in his possession, police added.
  
  That sequence of events started about 8 p.m. at West Ogden and South Sawyer avenues, near the Ogden District police station, 3315 W. Ogden Ave.

UPDATE: It seems this wasn't gunfire at all, but rather the heat. You see, the sun heats the plastic in the garbage cans during the warm day, then the rapid cooling when the sun goes down sounds like the "pop pop pop" of gunfire. As a precaution though, police officials have notified Rahm and citizens are being asked to remove themselves from the North Lawndale area.

And it wasn't gangs either, so get that silly idea out of your head. There are no gangs in North Lawndale. Or Little Village. Or Garfield Park. Or Englewood, Austin, and certainly not at the lakefront, so knock it off.

"Heat" Story Goes National

CBS 2 was linked by The Drudge Report. Drudge pulls in a few million hits a day, so this is a rather big deal. We'd also like to point out something we and most of our readers missed during this entire debacle, but Channel 2 didn't:

• If the heat was the reason for closing the beach, why did every other beach in Chicago remain open during the supposed emergency?

Was there some localized weather phenomenon that was unique to North Avenue? Some confluence of superheated air that usually emanates in the vicinity of politicians but somehow gathered in the area of 1600 North and LSD and struck down so many fine citizens on their bicycles?

For an answer, we reached out to renowned weatherman extraordinaire, the only meteorologist to be awarded a Department Commendation by J-Fled, WGN's Tommy Skilling. Tommy had this to say:

• "Um...it's bullshit SCC, plain and simple."

There you have it folks. Right from someone who should know.

And for all you history buffs, here's a little story from Fox 32 dated 03 June 2010 - exactly one year ago today:

• Chicago police have beefed up their presence on the city's lakefront after a series of fights at North Avenue Beach.

  Police have installed new security cameras, and they've started doing random checks of bags and coolers for alcohol along the beach.

  Officers have also been cracking down on people caught drinking illegally on the lakefront.

  Police believe alcohol played a part in several fights on the lakefront last week.

If we remember, this was either in response to or immediately preceding a "youth" being shot pretty much at the doorstep of Lincoln Park Zoo. So it isn't like this is a new phenomena. In fact, can someone explain why the Crystal Ball Unit didn't have this on their radar?

NYC Subway Shut Down for Heat

Actually, the subway was shut down for someone getting cut in half by the train, but she fainted because of the heat, so New York officials are looking into stealing this idea from Chicago:

• An aspiring doctor was killed in a horrific subway accident yesterday when she passed out on a sweltering Upper East Side platform and fell onto the tracks -- realizing what happened too late to escape an uptown train bearing down on her.

  Fatoumata Binta Amina Diallo, 21, "was cut in half," said one shocked witness.

  Diallo fainted at around 3 p.m. at the 77th Street/Lexington Avenue station, which was filled with schoolkids on their way home, said transit and police sources.

Does anyone see how ridiculous City Hall's excuses seem yet? We mean besides our readers.

Florida Leads the Way

Hopefully, the start of a nationwide trend:

• Saying it is "unfair for Florida taxpayers to subsidize drug addiction," Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday signed legislation requiring adults applying for welfare assistance to undergo drug screening.

  "It's the right thing for taxpayers," Scott said after signing the measure. "It's the right thing for citizens of this state that need public assistance. We don't want to waste tax dollars. And also, we want to give people an incentive to not use drugs."

And this is just priceless:

• Shortly after the bill was signed, five Democrats from the state's congressional delegation issued a joint statement attacking the legislation, one calling it "downright unconstitutional."

We were reading the Constitution the other day and for the life of us, we can't find a single thing that mandates giving money to people who don't work, won't work or use drugs. It's almost like the Founding Fathers didn't want to reward misbehavior and kind of believed in the responsibility of the individual to better their lives rather than the state being "responsible" for everything.

Air & Water Show Canceled

Dateline Chicago:

• Citing concerns about the August temperatures, city officials today canceled the Chicago Air & Water show and rescheduled the popular event for February.
  
  The two-day extravaganza typically draws upwards of one million people per day if the weather cooperates. City officials claim the mid-winter show shouldn't affect attendance by any significant margins.
  
  "The water portion of the show will encompass the US Coast Guard and Chicago Police Marine Unit demonstrating cold weather rescue techniques. The icebergs along the shore will just add to the excitement and drama of the demonstrations."
  
  The US Navy Blue Angels and USAF Thunderbirds could not confirm their appearances by press time seeing as how they usually have shows scheduled in the warmer climates during the winter months, but that won't stop the show from going on. The Chicago Police Helicopter Unit has agreed to do a fly over at 1:00 PM and Cletus Granville of Robbins has a radio controlled bi-plane he's been itching to try out.

Sounds like a good time this February. Stay tuned for more.

The Bigger the Lie...

This is a Whopper:
And here's another whopper - a much bigger whopper:

• Gang loitering, intimidation, flash mobs and violence had nothing to do with the Chicago Police Department’s unprecedented decision to close North Avenue beach on a sultry Memorial Day, Acting Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said Wednesday.

  One day after Mayor Rahm Emanuel blamed a surge of calls about patrons suffering from heat exhaustion for the beach closing, McCarthy stood at the mayor’s side and agreed.

  Asked point-blank what role, if any, gang activity or violence played in Monday’s 6 p.m. closing, McCarthy said without hesitation, “None.”

Wow. Seriously, Wow. We guess it's good to get the first one out of the way though. You tell a big enough lie, and all the little lies become that much easier after a while.

What we can't decide is if he's lying on his own or getting bad information:

• “There was no gang activity involved in the commander’s decision to close the beach. ... It was based upon the public safety concerns where we had to get ambulances to victims on the beach and the overcrowded conditions made it difficult for that to occur,” McCarthy said.

  “The folks who showed up at North Avenue, what I was informed of, were suburbanites who were coming to the beach to enjoy a nice day. It was simply an overcrowding situation. It had nothing to do with anything else that was going on.”

Based on this definition, we expect that the "overcrowding" at the Taste of Chicago, the Air & Water Show, the Chicago Marathon, the Polish Constitution Day events, Bud Billiken, and the mayhem at the Humboldt Park Puerto Rican Festival will be dealt with in the same manner.

By the way, here's Cook County Commissioner John Fritchey's Twitter feed on 31 May:

• Based on a couple of conversations that I've now had, yesterday's beach closure had more to do with crowd control concerns than the heat.
• And if the police can't get a handle on beach safety, there are going to be a lot of problems this summer...
• Even more interesting is that the papers so quickly bought into the heat story without reporting any of the real problems that went down.
• There is a growing problem at the beaches, one that I believe that are trying to keep under wraps.

But we suppose he's just making shit up, too. Like these people over at Reddit.com. Honest to pete, even the Sun Times comment sections are alive with first hand accounts of what happened.

Everything Old is Old Again

So who will have the power - Al or Garry?

• A Chicago police official who was once among the leading candidates to become the city's top cop has been tapped to become the second in command under acting Superintendent Garry McCarthy.

  Al Wysinger, 48, was named first deputy superintendent, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said today at a news conference at police headquarters.

  The post had been eliminated under former Superintendent [J-Fled], who stepped down after Emanuel’s election. McCarthy, the former police chief of Newark, was recently appointed Chicago’s police superintendent by Emanuel. His appointment still needs City Council approval.

Garry really stepped in it today, but Al has been taken care of his entire career.

Expect a whole bunch of retirements throughout June as sycophants are rewarded, political enemies are punished and the terminally exhausted decide it's time to move on.

Quid Pro Quo for a Ho

Business as usual:

• Former Mayor Richard Daley is taking advantage of his long political career by joining an international law firm that hopes to tap his expertise and connections as someone known for leasing public assets and developing ties with China.
  
  The announcement Wednesday by Katten Muchin Rosenman, which did legal work for the city during Daley's tenure, ended speculation about Daley's main post-mayoral job.
  
  "He is 'of counsel,' so that will allow him to work on other projects," said Jacquelyn Heard, Daley's longtime spokeswoman. "He won't have to work exclusively for Katten."
  
  Daley also is coordinating an urban lecture series at the University of Chicago as a "distinguished senior fellow" at an undisclosed salary, has signed up for a speaker's bureau to give talks that could fetch tens of thousands of dollars a pop and has set up a Gold Coast office for projects he hasn't revealed.
  
  Exactly how much he'll get paid for all that is not clear, but he's likely to eclipse the $216,000 or so he made as mayor.

Gee, can we get the two cars and five coppers back from him now? He seems more than able to hire his own security and buy his own vehicles and fill them with gas now. And don't forget the city stickers Dick.

It's also amusing how Rahm signed some executive order forbidding anyone in his administration from taking lobbying work with firms that do business with the city for two years after leaving his cabinet, but here's Shortshanks doing exactly that within a month of leaving office. Seems someone doesn't really care about the impression he's making.

Fireworks Canceled Due to Heat

Run with it Chicago media!!! Run with it!!!

• Chicago is getting out of the Independence Day fireworks business.

  There will be no city-run July 3rd or July 4th fireworks show this year — not even a scaled-down version — thanks to former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s decision to hand off the Taste of Chicago to the Park District to reverse $7 million in festival losses over the last three years.

  That means Chicago’s only official fireworks will be the previously scheduled show at 9 p.m. July 4 at Navy Pier. That 15-minute show is paid for by the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority.

We were paging through Craig's List this morning and found an amazing bridge for sale, too.

Oh, and Sneed has broken the embargo on the beach closing story. We figure she's setting the stage for another Daley family member to take over the mayor's spot once Rahm runs for the Senate or the presidency.

Coordinated Mayhem?

The media embargo that held in the face of two years of "wilding" incidents, only to break down when Shortshanks left office, doesn't seem to be holding up very well in the post-Shanks era. WLS-AM 890 has an entire article up questioning what really happened on the beach Monday:

• Was it a flash mob that forced the closure of North Avenue beach on Memorial Day?Chicago Police News Affairs released a statement saying they had to close the beach for safety reasons, as people were suffering heat exhaustion and emergency vehicles couldn't get through to help. But, WLS listeners say there was what they called a "large gangbanger element" at the Oak Street and North Avenue beaches.
  
  Listeners report being at the beach, and seeing dozens of gang bangers pushing people off their bikes. Another listener says those causing havoc were not dressed for the beach and looked like "bad elements."
  
  [...] Chicago Police are denying that a flash mob intent on causing havoc forced the closure of the North Avenue beach on Memorial Day Monday.

Well of course News Affairs is denying it was a "flash mob." Flash mobs are usually happy people. These are thugs intent on mayhem. Unfortunately for News Affairs, Chicago seems to have been part of a larger effort. If you hop over to The Drudge Report, numerous cities appear to have been targets of a nationwide coordinated effort:

• [Boston] - Fights broke out among rival gang members on Carson Beach in South Boston yesterday and spilled out across the city, triggering a massive law enforcement response from at least five agencies to stem the violence.
• [Nashville] -NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Nearly two dozen police officers were called out to Wave Country on Monday afternoon after large crowds of people became unruly. The disturbance forced park managers to close the facility two hours early on Memorial Day.
• [Charlotte] - CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Questions continue to swirl as investigators search for whoever fired shots during one of many fights in uptown Charlotte early Sunday.
• [Long Island] - LONG BEACH, N.Y. - A Long Island police department says it had to call for backup to quell a beach melee involving hundreds of people that spilled out onto the streets and a nearby bus depot.
• [Rochester] - Rochester, N.Y. – A busy Memorial Day evening at the beach ended abruptly when fights broke out among at least 100 youth.
• [Miami] - The police shooting that killed one, wounded four bystanders and shocked South Beach over the holiday weekend may be the death knell for Urban Beach Week.

So who is everyone going to believe about this weekend? The media, which insists that the summer heat (that occurs every year in Chicago) led the police department to shut down an entire stretch of beaches when there's a giant cooling lake just inches away from the suffering people, or their own lying eyes that have incidents in six different cities along with a Chicago media outlet saying something completely different?

Oh, and be sure to read the comments in the Sun Times article. Very eye opening. We'd say read the BreakingNews.com comments, too, but the Tribune already shut those down before we had a chance to link them. How strange!

If Only We Had....

....some kind of mobile force. A task force. Maybe even a Strike Force! Yeah, that's the ticket! Or a response unit. A response unit that could Target incidents like what happened at the lakefront on Monday. Oh well.

(We know we're going to get a bunch of humorless trolls who claim we advocated getting rid of TRU and MSF and what are we bitching about. We didn't. We advocated eliminating the redundancy that existed, and still exists, among so many units in the CPD. We've always been an advocate of a city-wide response unit.)

VERY Interesting Rumor

Popping up in more than a few places:

• Anybody hear the rumor that Tiny Dancer 9.5 is going to use a parliamentary maneuver to circumvent the contracts and put the CPD back on 6 and 2s and 56 day rotating watches due to manpower and equipment shortages. This is taking on a life of its own.

"Life of its own" is right. We were ready to write this one off and the ramblings of a madman, when this other one popped up:

• Interesting news from the Command staff meeting. They are not happy with the 4 & 2. Thousands of man hours wasted every day with the shift change and not enough cars/Beat Tags. J-Fled is being blamed for trying to curry favor with the rank and file(didn't work).
  
  New schedule is being worked out and this will include rotating for the guys with less time on. They feel it is a better Officer that works all three shifts. Rotation to be more than the old 28 days.
  
  That which is old is new again. Should be an interesting contract negotiation time.

A few points:

1. The 4 and 2 is a great schedule (in our opinion). The FOP should fight tooth-and-nail to keep it.
2. Our readers pointed out that the overlap and equipment situation would be the major stumbling block of this schedule. It doesn't function well at all. The City said time and time again that the total number of hours worked in a year wasn't a stumbling block to a new work schedule, but then came up with this inane 9 hour day that results in literally thousands of hours wasted every month. What was the matter with 8-hour days if hours weren't the issue?
3. Rotation - good things and bad things associated with rotating. Last time we rotated, we went the wrong direction which screwed up everything. We also rotated every 28 days which was too short a recovery period.

We have no concrete opinion at this point, so try not to accuse us of taking one side or the other. We would like to hear all sides of the debate - hair gel, no gel, no hair, even retirees recollections of times past. Some people swear by rotating. Many departments still do it. Others figure we've moved beyond those days and wouldn't go back for anything.

Interesting Rumor

Someone starting shit? Or something else?

• This tid-bit just gleaned from H.Q Staff Meeting. Public Transportation Section will become the Chicago Transit Police ala New York, a seperate entity. Grant money from Uncle Obama.
  Didn't someone write a while back about J-Fed interviewing with Claypool. HMMMM

Maybe one or more of our NYPD lurkers can explain this proposal. Is it a separate department? Is it staffed by the same people? Or is it an entirely new department built from the ground up? It sounds way too bizarre as well as way too political to fly in Chicago.