Dispatcher Layoffs

Anyone else think the backlogs will get worse when they can't man the consoles at OEMC?

• INFORMATIONAL ASSEMBLY IN FRONT OF CHICAGO’S 911 CENTER (OEMC) on Tuesday Dec. 20 at 3 p.m. REGARDING LAYOFFS AT CHICAGO’S 911 CENTER
  
  Police, Fire and EMS Operators, Dispatchers and Supervisors being demoted and laid off from Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management
  
  CHICAGO, Illinois — The City of Chicago has agreed on its 2012 budget, which contains layoffs to 911 Operators.
  
  Cuts have been made to the front line of defense in Chicago. 911 Operators answer and dispatch equipment to any Police, Fire and EMS emergency and these cuts will effect the normal daily functions for emergency responses. Manpower shortages will lead to longer wait times for someone to answer an emergency call, which may lead to increased response times. Without these trained personnel available to answer the phones, the citizens of Chicago should be prepared for severe changes in the 911 experience.
  
  The Supervisors, Dispatchers and Call Takers take their jobs seriously and are greatly concerned about these cuts. In a statement, organizers of the protest said: “We do our job with pride and professionalism and fear that these cuts will make it that Emergency Services in Chicago will be inadequate, therefore endangering the health and well being of the Citizens and their property.”
  
  For more information on Occupy OEMC, visit https://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-OEMC/148123851961646, on Facebook, or send an email to www.occupyoemc@gmail.com
  
  About Occupy OEMC
  
  This group is comprised of 911 Operators and Citizens that are concerned about the dangerous situations these cuts to the Operations floor can mean to Chicago

Pretty soon, we'll only be handling hand-wavers because there won't be anyone to answer the phones or dispatch the jobs.

Who Screwed the Pensions?

We guess it actually wasn't the worker bees:

• Illinois' pension system was in precarious enough shape in 1994 that Democrats and Republicans came together to solve a crisis threatening the state's financial future.
  
  The agreement they forged was supposed to take politics out of pension funding by requiring a steady stream of payments over the next 50 years. The law was billed as an "extraordinary measure" that would finally force the Legislature to fulfill its "constitutional responsibility" to hundreds of thousands of state workers past, present and future.
  
  The promise proved to be an empty one.

The politicians did it? Who would have guessed?

Go read the entire article. It's a long piece but it explains a lot of what went on the last seventeen years.

Not Again?!?!

Please let this be a joke:

• The superintendent met last night, Wednesday night, with about 60 parolees at the Relectory in Columbus Park. He asked them not to shoot at each other. Every boss in the department was there which meant they out numbered the parolees. I hope he asked them not to shoot at us, or did he forget that part. Parole agents rounded them up and ordered them to show up or it would be a violation of their parole. Complete joke of a meeting, please don't shoot. On a side note, is the superintendent's driver from Chicago? Does he really need a gigantic GPS on his dashboard. At least throw it on the seat before you pull up so it looks like you know what your doing!

If true, we're going to have to start calling this guy McJ-Fled.

Captains Sell Out Again

No idea what they got for their vote, but it looks like they've managed to screw lieutenants, sergeants and police officers from ever earning Out-of-Grade pay again.

They also sold out all the promotion lists since the city isn't going to promote to fill vacancies anymore to save themselves money. They can just order people to work as Acting Desk Sergeants, Acting FTO's, "Station Supervisors" (formerly Watch Commanders) and lord knows what else.

Who's got the scoop on this one?

Never Enough

Shortshanks lands another high paying gig:

• Former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley has joined Coca-Cola Co.'s board of directors effective immediately, the beverage giant announced Thursday.
  
  "Mr. Daley brings significant public policy expertise and experience in creating sustainable growth opportunities for businesses and communities to our company," Coca-Cola Chief Executive Muhtar Kent said in a statement.
  
  As a non-employee board director, Daley's compensation will amount to $175,000 a year, with $50,000 in cash and $125,000 in deferred stock units.

And we actually used to like Coke.

Thanks For Not Shooting?

Can you imagine thanking a gang banger and wishing them a Merry Christmas for not shooting at you, your co-workers or your family? Or how about teaching your kid that these gangssters are worthy of any sort of respect, despite the fact that they traffic in poison, degrade the neighborhood and deal in death?

This woman is doing exactly that in Uptown:

• I have lived in Uptown since the mid eighties. It is different now. Back then it was a bonified ghetto, with burnt out buildings, drunks to step over on the sidewalk and children of drug addicts playing on the streets in rags. Over the years it has changed. Like much of the North side of Chicago it has been gentrified. Starbucks and Borders, condos and a Target. Only there are still gangs.

  [...] The Black P Stones are a few blocks away on Magnolia, and they battle the Uptown Vice Lords who live on our street. In the summer the Vice Lords hang out near our building, behind the school. I hate that they are selling drugs, I hate that their leaders send younger members like so much cannon fodder to kill one another. Lives ruined, mothers crying for dead children. Gangs are easy to hate. It is easy to see the insanity of what they do.

But this woman isn't hating them. She's teaching her kid to respect them:

• In the summer my family walks to where the P Stones hang, a park across the street from Starbucks that has a big water fountain. They are there with their families. The dads play basketball and the kids play with my kids in the water. The adults get a kick out of Jude, my big autistic son flapping and laughing in the water, and Eden, my eight year old, runs around with the other kids. Once one of the men made a joke about Eden’s bright red hair, and he scowled at the group of men, not wanting to be singled out.

  I brought Eden over and had him apologize. These members of the P Stone nation were incredulous, this lady making her kid apologize to them. “Just trying to teach him to be respectful,” I explained. Not because they were P Stones, or because this was their park. Because they were humans, people, who God loves and have mothers and children and matter. How am I going to teach my son that the homeless man on the corner matters if I deny the humanity of someone in a white tshirt? I didn’t say that. Mr. P Stone smiled at me, and nodded respect to my husband.

Respect? Highly doubtful unless your husband was packing a pistol or a something. And then she's thanking them for not shooting her husband, even though they just shot at least one person on her block:

• Uptown is my home, just like the guy with the white tshirt at the park. Just like him I have sin, and a mother who loves me, and I need some direction, somehow to make sense of this sinful, broken world. Merry Christmas, Mr. P Stone. Thanks for not shooting my husband, and try to stay safe. Hope to see you next summer at the park. God loves you, and I am guessing your mother does, too. Take care.

We realize some people hold out faith in the general goodness of mankind and all, but the naivety on display here is just a-fucking-mazing. Man is an animal - a thinking animal - and will exploit other men to that end 999 times out of 1,000. Thanking a gang banger for destroying your neighborhood, shooting bystanders, poisoning the neighbor's kids, burglarizing your home and robbing you of your hard-earned material possessions? Darwin awaits.

Blago to Rehab

As Scott Fawell suggested, the convicted ex-governor has decided he's addicted to something and needs rehab:

• Convicted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich wants to enroll in a substance-abuse program at a federal prison outside of Denver, a move that could shave up to a year off of his prison sentence.
  
  Blagojevich’s legal team, however, has downplayed the request, briefly mentioning the drug program by only its acronym in court Tuesday, resulting in hardly anyone noticing among a throng of reporters. And then, a day later, the attorneys declined to comment at all.
  
  But the move raises questions about whether Blagojevich suffers from a real substance-abuse problem or is simply angling to reduce his stiff 14-year sentence.

The only addiction we see Rod having is an inability to shut the hell up and stop putting his own foot in his mouth. Which, incidentally, we'd like to see more of so maybe some investigator makes a run at Shortshanks, Madigan or another Machine politico.

Shots Fired at Police in 011 (UPDATES)

No one hit, no one in custody:

• No Chicago police officers were hurt when a gunman opened fire on officers on the city's West Side, authorities said.

  The shots were fired at Harrison District officers at about 10 p.m. Wednesday in the 1100 block of North Keystone Avenue in the West Humboldt Park neighborhood, police said.

  Police had no details, but said the shooter remained at-large late Wednesday.

  Numerous officers, including the district's commander, remained at the scene gathering details on the shooting, according to one district officer.

Be careful out there.

UPDATE: This is the second incident nearby within 12 hours, maybe less. 014 Tact was shot at near Spaulding and Division in broad daylight. That just about qualifies as Humboldt Park proper instead of this "West Humboldt Park."

UPDATE: One in custody:

• Chicago police have arrested a man who they say pointed a handgun at officers on the city's West Side.

  Officers fired shots on the gunman, missing him, but taking him into custody after a brief foot chase at about 10 p.m. Wednesday in the 1100 block of North Keystone Avenue in the West Humboldt Park neighborhood, police said.

Keep safe.

Unholy Alliance

Linked below is the entire Chicago Magazine article outlining the rather cozy and completely corrupt partnership between numerous aldercreatures and Chicago street gangs.

• CLICK HERE for the complete article

It opens thusly:

• A few months before last February’s citywide elections, Hal Baskin’s phone started ringing. And ringing. Most of the callers were candidates for Chicago City Council, seeking the kind of help Baskin was uniquely qualified to provide.

  Baskin isn’t a slick campaign strategist. He’s a former gang leader and, for several decades, a community activist who now operates a neighborhood center that aims to keep kids off the streets. Baskin has deep contacts inside the South Side’s complex network of politicians, community organizations, and street gangs. as he recalls, the inquiring candidates wanted to know: “Who do I need to be talking to so I can get the gangs on board?”

  Baskin—who was himself a candidate in the 16th Ward aldermanic race, which he would lose—was happy to oblige. In all, he says, he helped broker meetings between roughly 30 politicians (ten sitting aldermen and 20 candidates for City Council) and at least six gang representatives. That claim is backed up by two other community activists, Harold Davis Jr. and Kublai K. M. Toure, who worked with Baskin to arrange the meetings, and a third participant, also a community activist, who requested anonymity. The gang representatives were former chiefs who had walked away from day-to-day thug life, but they were still respected on the streets and wielded enough influence to mobilize active gang members.

It names names and pulls few punches. Taxpayer funded venues were used for recruitment and organization. Favors were solicited and promised. In other words, everything Chicago is covered. A good read. We'd even call it a must read.

This Will Show Them!

Thank god the mayor is finally taking the reins into his hands and showing McStreetlights how to run a world class city! If this doesn't keep control of the streets, then we don't know what will:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to raise fines for resisting police as the city gears up for anticipated protests that will come with the G8 and NATO summits to be held in Chicago next May.

  Protesters found guilty of resisting a police officer or aiding escape would have to pay a maximum fine ranging from $200 to $1,000. Currently, the range is $25 to $500.

  The proposal introduced at today's City Council meeting also would allow Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy to deputize officers with other agencies, including the FBI and Illinois State Police.

And pay no attention to this little paragraph:

• The proposal also would appear to give the mayor greater power to sign contracts related to planning security and logistics without City Council approval.

Chicagoans can sleep peacefully in their beds knowing that the Ramn-inator will be fining protestors and anarchists back into the Stone Age. It's almost revolutionary.

Guess Who's Out?

Again. And still up to his old tricks:

• A man who once knocked out a woman’s teeth in the South Loop when she refused to give him a cigarette was arrested again this week when he threatened to kill a man while panhandling in the Uptown neighborhood, according to Chicago police.
  
  Derrick King, 50, was cited by critics of the state’s early prison release program when he threatened a woman in 2009, a day after getting out of prison for the brutal attack against Jennifer Hall on her birthday in August 2008.
  
  King was sent back to jail after the second incident and was released late last year. He has been arrested on misdemeanor charges three times since then.

This piece of garbage is a poster child for "Three Strikes," Concealed Carry and a ready-made poster child for a law-and-order type campaign to beat Quinn and any other soft on crime liberal asshole who believes in rehabilitation for someone like Derrick King is worth the time, effort or cost.

And look where he's hanging out. Uptown!

Prepared for Disaster? Ha!

From Yahoo News, this gem:

• Disasters come in all shapes and sizes. Tornadoes and tsunamis, hurricanes and hail storms. The list of natural disasters is long, but the list of non-natural disasters is probably longer. Nuclear meltdowns, terrorist attacks and pandemic flus.

  Hurricanes have recently hit New York and New England, heat waves have descended on Moscow and massive floods have occurred in Australia. Let’s face it: life is a dicey proposition. In the context of catastrophes, you can run, but you cannot hide. That’s the bad news. The good news is that society has pioneered a powerful survival strategy. It has three parts: planning, more planning and still more planning.

  In this department, some U.S. cities are more equipped than others to survive the full spectrum of worst-case scenarios the universe has in store for them.

The least well prepared cities:

• Pittsburgh; Fresno; Birmingham; Seattle; Albequerque

The best prepared?

• Washington; Albany; Chicago; Dover; New York

Chicago? Seriously? With a grade of 97.3 out of 100? Who the hell is running this bullshit? The criteria must be set pretty low. We honestly can't remember feeling less prepared for a disaster, especially in light of the upcoming G-8/NATO summits with a mere 8 hours of training to prepare over 75% of the department.

Parking Tab Climbs

This is great. Shortshanks is going to be screwing taxpayers for the how many years?

• If Mayor Rahm Emanuel was looking to score political points using Chicago’s widely despised parking-meter lease, he’s found a platform in Chicago Parking Meters LLC’s demand for $13.5 million in compensation for motorists’ use of disability placards and license plates to park for free.

  “I just don’t write blank checks to companies that say that’s what we owe. I’m gonna be the taxpayer watchdog,” the mayor said Tuesday. “Now, they may say that’s what we owe. But, just because they submit it doesn’t mean that’s what we’re gonna pay. We’re contesting that right now in a series of discussions with the company.”

  Whether the issue might end up in court is unclear. An Emanuel spokeswoman said that the city has come up with an estimate that’s “significantly less” than $13.5 million. But both the city and parking-meter company have refused to discuss the negotiations further.

What's truly hilarious (and truly ought to be the subject of a recall or concerted challenger to every alder-asshole who voted for this abortion of a lease) is that Chicago Parking Meters LLC gets to choose what dates they count used parking spaces and how they "estimate" the total cost over the total year. We mean, it's not like they have a vested financial interest in their own estimated bill or anything like that, right? Fox guarding the hen house indeed.

015 Demolished

Someone sent us this from the other day. We aren't sure if the job is done yet, but it tugged at our nostalgic side:

If you were lucky enough to serve in one of the tiny, cramped, ancient stations of yesteryear, you know exactly what we mean.

Even More Crime

They're stacking them four at a time on the west side:

• An acquaintance of a man slain on the West Side last night reportedly came back to the scene this morning and shot four men in retaliation, one of whom died tonight, police said.

  The unidentified 34-year-old man lived in the 4400 block of West Jackson Boulevard but he was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital, police said. His condition was initially described as "grave,'' according to police.

  A lone gunman who is an acquaintance of 18-year-old Onay Lundy who died in last night’s attack shot the four men today “in retaliation’’ for his killing, police said.

So one dead last night, friends go get their guns, four more get shot with one dying at the hospital. The behavior seems so..... so..... so....

If there was only a word that Neil Steinberg could teach us to use in situations like these.

Rahm Apologizes in Advance

Not to the Police and Fire Departments that are going to get a royal screwing next summer. No, he apologizes to everyone who might be inconvenienced by the G-8 and NATO summits:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel is apologizing ahead of time for those who may be inconvenienced when NATO and the world leaders of the G8 gather in Chicago next spring.

  WBBM Newsradio [...] reports the mayor acknowledged Tuesday that some people who scheduled weddings, bar mitzvahs, ordinations and other events downtown next May might feel compelled to change those dates because of the NATO and G8 summits and the expected protests.

  Emanuel said he’s sorry for any disruption the summits and protests might cause, but he also said he believes normal activities can take place during those days and any disruptions will be worth it.

  “For our city that is trying to attract investments and companies; that’s a big opportunity. I apologize up front for any disruption,” Emanuel said. “But I think also we are a big city, a big metropolitan area; people will … be able to be accommodated with their events.”

You think he finally sees what we've been seeing for months now?

Politicians Hooked Up With Gangs?

Not in Chicago!

• In light of the recent gang violence in Uptown, Chicago Magazine could not have picked a more relevant time to publish their investigation of Chicago politicians and their connections to gangs. In the recently released January 2012 issue, the article details several different Chicago alderman and their connections to gangs, in addition to publishing a map of gang territory in Chicago.
  
  The 46th ward is featured prominently in this article. Former 46th ward Alderman Helen Shiller is the one of the primary aldermen featured in the article. The article spotlights Helen's connection to twin brothers, Rahiem and Rahmon Ali, two leaders of the Gangster Disciples. Rahiem had over forty arrests before his death. What attorney was defending him in court? The former 46th Alderman's son, Brendan Shiller.

Well this would explain more than a little of the violence currently wracking the Uptown neighborhood.

Quoting Rudyard Kipling

This is as amusing as it is timely:

• “I have struck a city - a real city - and they call it Chicago... I urgently desire never to see it again. It is inhabited by savages.” Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936; Nobel Prize for Literature 1907)

We didn't realize that we and Mr. Kipling shared a Nobel Prize in our pasts. And that Mr. Kipling was evidently an astute observer of the Chicago condition.

Are Cameras Worth It?

We're pretty sure that the answer is no. At least in any reputable study, that's what the answer would be. This article seems to rehash some of the stuff we covered months ago, but it's a slow news day and we need some filler:

• In May 2010, a 30-year-old Pakistani-American drove his Nissan Pathfinder into one of the most scrutinized urban spaces on the planet and parked along the curb.

  In the hours that followed, more than 80 city surveillance cameras – as well as dozens of private cameras, constant media feeds and amateur tourist videographers - failed to capture an image of Faisal Shahzad and his suspicious, fertilizer-packed SUV in Times Square. All those electronic eyes couldn't even provide police investigators an image of the suspect

Without some to watch and interpret the video feed, all you have is a lot of taxpayer money pissed away to no end. Some other points:

• London city data revealed that police were no more likely to catch the perpetrators of crimes committed in camera-dense areas than in other boroughs, suggesting no link between more cameras and better crime solving.
  
  
• In Chicago, the country's most extensive, integrated network, cameras in Humboldt Park correlated to a 12 percent decline in overall crime, including a 33 percent reduction in drug offenses and robberies and a 20 percent drop in violent crime. Meanwhile, a second Chicago area of study, West Garfield Park, saw no crime drop.

The study never addressed a couple of issues:

1. The FBI won't accept Chicago statistics in their annual report on crime. Why would the camera study people trust anything coming out of these bean counters?
2. Most importantly, what role did gentrification play in the crime reduction around Humboldt Park? If you price the gang bangers out of the neighborhood, they aren't around to do robberies, burglaries and murders.

Smoke and mirrors, but the mirror is cracked and the smoke is rapidly dissipating.

More Crime

And the weather just keeps getting nicer. We might have ourselves a bloodbath:

• Two men and a woman were wounded in a Monday afternoon shooting on the South Side. The shooting happened about 3:55 p.m. in the 1900 block of East 73rd Street, said police News Affairs...
  
  
• A teenage boy is dead and a woman was seriously wounded Monday evening during a shooting in the Albany Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side. The shooting occurred at 7:46 p.m. in the 3100 block of West Montrose Avenue, said police News Affairs...

Crime is down across the board though.

Suicide by Cop Incident

No cops injured, so all is well on that front:

• Chicago police shot and killed a man at an 'L' station Sunday night when they said he pointed two pistols at officers.
  
  A spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Police said it appeared to be a gunman may have committed "suicide by cop."
  
  The incident began with officers responding to calls of a man with a gun at the Western/Cermak Pink Line station in the 2000 block of South Western Avenue at about 8 p.m., according to police and FOP spokesman Pat Camden.
  
  When officers from the Monroe District arrived, they found the 55-year-old man holding a gun to his own head, Camden said. The officers tried calming the man into dropping the weapon and ending the standoff. But the man then pulled a second handgun and pointed both at officers, Camden said.

  The officers, put in a "defensive posture," fired their weapons, striking the man. He was later pronounced dead, Camden said. His identity wasn't immediately released.

The officers came to no harm and no innocent member of the public was injured. These situations are too common so always be aware. Well done officers.

Steinberg Spouts Off

You'd think he'd learn to keep his mouth shut after a while. But he's got to jump on McStreetlight's lap and start dry humping his leg. Some highlights:

• True, Garry McCarthy, the new police chief — just marking six months on the job — is an outsider, and that was supposed to be the kiss of death. But not being from Mount Greenwood would be counterbalanced, I thought, by his heroic 9/11 credentials.

  Wrong.

  McCarthy spoke at the City Club Monday. Given the ability of the angry, racist, misogynist, whiner faction of the CPD (a sliver, I like to think, but who knows? It isn’t like you can take a poll) to bellyache, I assumed that had McCarthy already become a Weis-like figure of contempt, I’d have heard about it.

  Again wrong.

Of course, Steinberg cites no alleged examples of the supposed angry racist misogynist whining. We were never contacted by him and we assume Shaved wasn't either. And seeing as how ourselves and Shaved account for some tens of thousands of clicks per day, you'd think he'd offer us a chance to defend or justify our sites. Shaved is a bit rougher around the edges, but like ourselves, he doesn't intend to prove (and certainly isn't obligated to prove) that even a single visitor spouting off in the comment section is, in fact, a Chicago Police Officer. We know we have trolls pretending here. We know the Occupy people mounted a concerted effort to get their messages into our comment sections.

• To test my hunch, I pulled on hip boots and took a wade in the septic stream of cowardly, anonymous thuggery that passes for police dialogue online. Golly. Journalistic standards plus basic human decency forbid me from even alluding to the catalog of misbehavior that various cheezed-off cop sites lay at McCarthy’s feet, already predicting — no make that yearning for his departure (is there a moderate, non-brutish cop site I’m missing? Because you’d think that some cops — most, one hopes — would bristle at allowing their foulest elements to tarnish the image of police officers 24/7, and set up such a site — notcrazycop.com perhaps).
  

This from a guy who regularly writes columns so off the wall that he has to close the comment section lest someone hand him his ass - verbally speaking of course.

Has Steinberg even done any homework on McJerseyShore? His confrontation with other police officers over a ticket given to his daughter? His liberal use of the "n-word" when confronting other officers? His freewheeling attitude toward weapon discharges while intoxicated? Not to mention the growing number of stories here in Chicago.

Cops hate a phony. Especially a phony who talks down to other cops. And a phony with an attitude a mile wide who thinks policing was invented in New York late last century?

This actually explains Steinberg's attraction to G-Mac. McCompStat is a phony and a bully, plain and simple. And so is Neil - just ask Mrs. Steinberg.

The Full Story

About the janitorial staff in 011:

• A custodian for a West Side police station allegedly stole a Chicago Police officer’s iPhone while he was in roll call preparing for his midnight shift late Thursday night, police said. Epifania Bahena, 35, of the 8900 block of South Exchange Avenue, was charged with misdemeanor theft...

Interesting how a story over a cell phone makes the papers, but a scandal involving the Evidence and Recovered Property Section, that has the potential to derail hundreds, maybe thousands of criminal cases, even if it's just motions to produce evidence in a courtroom, produces nary a whisper in the media.

As a comparison, look at this missing three kilos from the suburbs:

• Before three kilos of heroin were swiped from a Will County sheriff’s outdoor evidence storage container in October, someone parked a “food delivery truck” so it blocked a lone surveillance camera’s view of the container, a prosecutor said in court today.
  
  The truck was parked there from the early evening until the next morning, assistant state’s attorney Michael Knick told a judge this morning, not specifying the date. Investigators who reviewed about 168 hours of surveillance video believe the drugs were stolen during that time, he said. The theft was discovered on Oct. 14.
  
  The heroin is tied to a drug case against Jose Zamago-Pena, accused of transporting drugs for a Mexican cartel using a semi with California plates.

That's a big deal in Will County. But in Cook County? Not so much.

This is December, Right?

You'd think it was an early Spring day:

• At least six people were wounded in shootings overnight, bringing the total to two dead and at least 13 wounded in gun violence in the city since Friday night.

And guess where there was yet another shooting? If you said "Uptown," give yourself a pat on the back:

• A man in a car wounded in a shooting Sunday morning in the Uptown neighborhood is the latest in a recent string of shooting victims in that North Side community. The shooting occurred about 4:15 a.m. in the 4600 block of North Broadway, according to police News Affairs...

Can a good cold snap slow it down? Maybe, but as it's headed up to almost 50 degrees this week, we expect more of the same.

Denver By 3

Three?

We were going to say seven.

The windows are broken, the tires are flat, the suspension is wrecked and that noise we're hearing makes us suspect the engine just threw a rod.

Prove us wrong Bears.

Live! On Camera! NOT!

An uncommon enough occurrence that the media notices it:

• Four people were shot in a drive-by shooting in the Uptown neighborhood this evening.

  The victims were shot about 6 p.m. at Sheridan Road and Wilson Avenue, said Chicago Police Department News Affairs [...].

  The four victims were on the street when someone began firing from a small, red car heading east on Wilson that then turned south on Sheridan, police said.

The shooting happened almost directly underneath one of those famous POD cameras. We aren't talking at the end of the block or around the corner, we're talking about right on top of it. So there must be almost live, crystal clear footage of the entire event, right? Subjects identified? Prosecution imminent?

Well, no. The camera is down. Nonfunctional. No footage to be had. The trouble is, this isn't a recent problem. The camera has been down for quite some time. And evidently, the criminals know it because they shot a few other people within sight of this camera before:

• This is at least the third shooting incident with multiple victims near Sheridan Road and Wilson Avenue since Nov. 22, when a 15- and 17-year-old boy were shot about 9:30 p.m.

  About 5 p.m. on Dec. 2, a woman was shot in the thigh while she was working in a nearby store when someone opened fire at another man, also injured, in a suspected gang-related shooting.

  A 20-year-old man was also shot killed nearby, on the 4700 block of Winthrop Avenue, on Dec. 4.

If you have a hot corner, we'd assume you want that camera up and running 24/7/365. And if that camera went down, you'd have it on the repair list and you'd want it fixed yesterday.

You'd be mistaken.

And as a side note, it's nice to see that the entire POD camera debacle is progressing along exactly as predicted here by the readers. The hiring slowdown, the uptick in retirees, and the complete lack of a citywide unit to respond to situations exactly like this....combine this with the "illusion" of police presence via the POD cameras that feed tens of thousands of hours of footage into servers that no one is watching, it is a recipe for disaster.

Once Again...

...someone hired by an outside contractor finds easy pickings inside the "secure areas" of a police station:

• Don't forget to mention that one of our citizenship-challenged female custodians here in 011 boosted a 1/W copper's iPhone out of the men's locker room last night. Victim PO was able to track phone via GPS to her residence in 004. She opened the door to return the phone but "refused to come out to be arrested" (another testament to how college/hairgel fucked this job up beyond repair...but this is a topic for another time).
  
  She was processed when she showed up for work in the morning, then had the nerve to bitch about not being read Miranda in Spanish (she WAS, I was there when they were read to her). Moral of this heartwarming holiday story???? What else have these bastards lifted from the station?
  
  Out checks, personal identifiers, interdepartmental mail, WEAPONS have the potential to be swiped. If mentals and others hellbent on causing chaos wasn't enough, we now have to keep a more scrutinous eye (as we always should've been) on the hired help. It'll be interesting to see if this broad has a criminal history.

This comes up every few years. Your best bet is to never leave anything of value in a locker, and that includes gun(s) if you're headed on vacation. Everyone knows someone with a safe. Use it. Stations are the most unsecured places on earth and we aren't just talking about the lobbies.

Nice Story

Take the good publicity where you can get it:

• Chicago police say a car thief disrupted an Iowa couple's wedding preparations on Thursday when the couple's car — with the wedding dress in the trunk — was stolen from the Lakeview neighborhood.

  West side police officers recovered the dress early Saturday morning in West Garfield Park after they stopped the car because it appeared suspicious, police said.

  Police said the couple, in town for their wedding Saturday morning, parked the car about 8 p.m. Thursday night. By Friday morning, it was gone.

A sharp eye on the west side located the car shortly thereafter and the steal was recovered along with the wedding dress. The media is running with this one during the holiday season. While the involved officers might just call it "routine," it meant a lot to the now married couple and hopefully, their memories of Chicago include kind thoughts and words for the CPD.

Chase, Collision, Arrests

Another good job making the news:

• Four people were arrested early Saturday morning after their van collided with two police cars pursuing it on southbound Lake Shore Drive, police said.

  Police said the black minivan was seen near the scene of a West Side shooting about 12:30 a.m. near Jackson Boulevard and Homan Avenue, were arrested.

  In that incident, a witness saw a black minivan driving away from the scene where a 17-year-old boy was shot while walking south on Homan Avenue toward Jackson Boulevard.

• Police saw the van near downtown about 1 a.m. and tried to pull it over. The car fled north on Lake Shore Drive into the Uptown Police District before turning around and heading back south toward downtown, police said.

  The pursuit ended after an accident between the van and two police cars in the 2300 block of Lake Shore Drive, just south of Fullerton Avenue.

No injuries to the police or bystanders, four jagoffs in custody. You know what that means? Comment section closed at the Tribune! You wouldn't want the police actually getting praise on a job professionally done, would you?

Wave a Flag?

Honest to god, who thinks up this crap? And get's paid for it. And probably gets some sort of kickback:

• The City of Chicago is hoping to improve pedestrian safety at certain unprotected street crossings with brightly-colored flags that people can use to be sure cars know they are there.

  As WBBM Newsradio’s Mike Krauser reports, the flags are in what basically amount to buckets hanging from streetlight poles on either side of the street.

  Pedestrians can take one of the several orange flags from a bucket, and wave it as they make their way across the street. At that point, the flags are placed in the identical bucket on the other side of the crossing.

We almost drove off the road laughing when we heard this one. And the first intersection to have flags in the bucket? 64th and Western.

We give the buckets about a week before they're gone. The flags won't last a day.

Here's a Bright Idea

Lie to the federal penal system:

• Scott Fawell, the former chief of staff of a different convicted governor, George Ryan, is offering a tip on how Rod Blagojevich can cut his lengthy 14-year sentence.

  The former governor may be able to make a request with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to take part in a substance abuse program.

  Fawell said that’s what he did before going into prison.

  “What you do is say that in between the time you’re sentenced and the time you report, you just couldn’t stop drinking,” Fawell said.

This is Fawell brilliant advice for Blago? Fake a drinking problem? What could possibly go wrong?

The head of the Bureau of Prisons kind of shoots it down though:

• But a U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokesman, Ed Ross, said there has to be a documented history of abuse for an inmate to qualify for the program and that an inmate has to be evaluated before being accepted into the program.

Here's some better advice - flip on anyone you can.

Welcome Mentally Ill Patrons!

Again, how about a locked, secure door with a doorbell, closed circuit TV and inch thick glass. In numerous suburbs, this guy wouldn't even get in the front door. But here?

• A Northwest Side man was charged early this morning with heaving chunks of concrete at a large plate glass window at the 16th District police station in Jefferson Park Thursday night.

  Three officers were injured when they tried to arrest the 38-year-old man, Chicago Police News Affairs [...] said.

  Andrzej K. Borowiec, of the 5300 block of West Wolfram Street was charged with three counts of aggravated battery to a police officer, one count of criminal damage to property and one count of misdemeanor resisting arrest. He was ordered held in lieu of $200,000 bail following a hearing today in Cook County Central Bond Court.

Mentally ill people wandering into police stations with rifles, destroying equipment, getting tasered 30 times, and now, bringing concrete into the station to inflict mayhem.

But everything is fine.

More Scandal

This one's been percolating for a bit we imagine:

• Big shake up at ERP's. Lt was selling stuff and taking stuff for his own gain. He is now at call back. IAD handling this one.
• SCC, major scandal at ERPS. IAD locked up the LT in charge last night for stealing tons of shit out of there. How many other exempts were using it as a personal shopping mall? This one will be interesting.
• It's crazy over at Unit 167. I was told that the Commanding Officer was removed and placed in call back. He would be destroying stuff or placing it in his pocket.
• What's the deal with Lt. M. CO of ERPS getting picked up by IAD while leaving work yest? There is already a new Lt. at ERPS who has taken his place.

Thanks a lot. Someone want to point out who put this idiot in a position of authority?

Police Assist Fire

What the...?!

• A Northwest Side Fire Departmenty crew on a run this evening returned to find two men leaving their headquarters with a laptop, a department spokesman said.

  Firefighters who had been out of their firehouse, 4911 W. Belmont Ave., on a run returned to find someone burglarizing the building about 9:30 p.m., said Fire Deparment spokesman Sean Flynn.

  The firehouse's commanding officer called for police assistance and firefighters were able to hold two men--who had been trying to leave the firehouse, at least one carrying a laptop--until police arrived, according to the Fire Department.

We don't know....there sure is a lot of sharp, heavy equipment lying around a fire house. Brass nozzles, rolls of hoses, extinguishers. Why these two weren't carried out...

FOID Info Safe

Safe for now:

• An Illinois judge has ruled that the state police cannot release the names of the state's 1.3 million firearm owner identification cardholders, another victory for gun-rights advocates who had been trying on several fronts to block release of the names.

  The Illinois legislature earlier this year voted to bar the public from knowing who has FOID cards. But Richard Pearson, executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association, said the judge's ruling this week is significant because a future legislature could reverse course on the issue.

  “This is better,” he said.

Remember, it was Lisa Madigan's [Dem - Daddy] office that unilaterally decided FOID data was "open records" and potentially jeopardized the safety of thousands of law abiding gun owners, as well as providing a road map to police officer's homes and endangering the lives of their loved ones.

Of course, if there was no FOID card (which is unique among the 50 states for some reason) there would be no issue at all.

IG Report

An interesting read. But the good stuff starts around page 67 when Aldercreature Tom Tunney starts with a series of 17 questions:

• Questions came from 18 different Alderman, but Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) asked the most, with 17 questions to Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy. [A copy of the IG's report can be found at the bottom of this article.] Among the responses to Tunney and other aldermen:
  •The merged 23rd and 19th district will have 476 officers.
  •The average response time in 2010 for a domestic disturbance or burglary in progress was 6.2 minutes.
  •In 2010 had 12,365 sworn officers received their annual uniform allowance check but only 7,047 officers were actually assigned to work a beat.
  

The question ranged the gamut from staffing to hiring to promotions. It seems kind of obvious he has someone on the inside feeding him questions that have appeared in this and other forums and are of a concern to the membership.

Hopefully, a little pushback building against Rahm and McJersey.

Murderer Murders Again

Gee, didn't anyone ever think this could happen?

• A Rogers Park man who was previously convicted of murder is accused of fatally stabbing a female acquaintance inside of his apartment.
  
  Chicago police said Larry Smith, 57, fatally stabbed Rasheda Tucker, 35, during a quarrel inside his apartment in the 7700 block of North Sheridan Road Monday night.
  
  
• Smith has an extensive criminal history dating back to the mid-1980s, according to court records.
  
  In 2003, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 18 years in prison, but was credited with three-and-half years time served, court records show.

Whoa whoa whoa. Hold the train there. 2003 plus 18.5 equals June of 2021, right? And even backdating his "credited" time, 2003 plus 15 is still 2018.

We heard a really interesting rumor that CompStat is going to start counting these types of killings as "future murders" so it won't actually show up in the statistics until the time that the offender was actually supposed to be on the streets.

So far, 2018 is shaping up to be a bloody year.

Fourteen Years

One of the better sentences handed down in government corruption cases:

• Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison and fined $20,000 for what U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald famously referred to as a criminal corruption crime spree at the time of Blagojevich’s arrest three years ago.
  
  Patti Blagojevich buried her head in her husband's shoulder and the two embraced. He pulled back to brush tears off her cheek and then rubbed her shoulders.
  
  As he left the courthouse, Blagojevich told reporters “we’re going to keep fighting on through this adversity. . .This is a time to be strong."

Dick Mell is laughing somewhere.

Wildlife Taking Over

We're sure it has nothing to do with cuts in the Animal Control sector:

• A Lincoln Park neighborhood woman says she is fearful for people walking their dogs on the North Side after a very close encounter with a pack of coyotes Tuesday morning.
  
  As WBBM Newsradio [...] reports, Kate Dodge was out with her 20- and 50-pound leashed dogs, Gordy and Madara, before daybreak, when she saw the not-so-uncommon sight of coyotes near the corner of Clark Street and Armitage Avenue.
  
  This time, she says there were three coyotes.
  
  “They were maybe 50 feet from me, so we stopped,” she said.
  
  Instead of moving on, Dodge said, they coyotes approached.
  
  “Two stopped 20 feet away and kind of just branched out a little bit around me,” Dodge said. “The third one ran right in, and it was within a foot of us.”

Of course they did - they're hunting. Here's the truly hilarious quote of the year though:

• “We’ve taken it for granted that we can mutually exist,” said Dodge. “I certainly don’t want to create any hype, but I was completely unprepared for this morning’s little episode.”
  
  “This coyote had no fear of me,” she said.

Co-exist? Not a chance in hell lady. You sound like that idiot that used to talk to Grizzly Bears in Alaska. Or the cougar victims throughout the Rockies. Once animals lose their fear of humans, all bets are off, and evolutionarily speaking, the animals are way better prepared for these types of encounters than men,. women and children. That isn't to say we should slaughter every animal we run across (which we're sure some bleeding hearts will accuse us of supporting), but wild animals conditioned to avoid humans and their habitats do much better in the long run.

Death Penalty Off the Table

Mumia wins a round:

• Prosecutors on Wednesday abandoned their 30-year pursuit of the execution of convicted police killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther whose claim that he was the victim of a racist legal system made him an international cause celebre.

  Abu-Jamal, 58, will instead spend the rest of his life in prison. His writings and radio broadcasts from death row had put him at the center of an international debate over capital punishment.

  Flanked by Officer Daniel Faulkner's widow, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams announced his decision two days short of the 30th anniversary of the white policeman's killing.

  He said continuing to seek the death penalty could lead to "an unknowable number of years" of appeals, and that some witnesses have died or are unreliable after nearly three decades.

Thirty more years of breathing the same air that you and we breathe while Daniel Faulkner lies in a hero's grave.

Comment Difficulties

Blogger seems to having some technical difficulties tonight. The comments seem to be disappearing and not going to the published screen. This has happened before and they just spontaneously reappear after an overnight patch job.

Bear with us. Posts will go up at midnight, comments to follow as we're able.

Open post in the meantime.

Safety First? Not Really

Unfortunately, the push for safety (and security) fell through the cracks during J-Fled's tenuous tenure. Now the FOP is reduced to filing safety grievances in the hopes of shaming the City into doing something that should have been covered years ago:

• The Fraternal Order of Police has reportedly filed a safety complaint in Chicago.
  
  The police union is especially concerned about safety at the Harrison District.
  
  "There is more security at a Chicken Shack at this neighborhood than at a police desk," said Pat Camden of the Fraternal Order of Police.
  
  What Camden is talking about is the front desk inside Area 4 Police Headquarters. Located in the high-crime Harrison District, the station has had four security breaches in the last six months.
  
  On June 7, a man entered the station, threw computers on the floor and assaulted at least one officer. On Aug. 11, a man walked in with an unloaded assault rifle. On Sept. 10th, a man jumped onto the station's front desk screaming and waving his fists. And finally, on Nov. 24th, a man walked into the station carrying a fully-loaded assault rifle.

While somewhat "minor" in the fact that no one got killed during any of these breaches, the problems faced by Area 4 are not unique. In fact, each of the Area HQ buildings feature an easy to leap over, unsecured, wide open desk and lobby area. 025, 019, 005 and 002, along with 011 have the same security issues. At least with the new stations, you have to run around a 4 foot high desk area to get at the desk personnel. We're pretty sure it's just pressed particle board, so it provides minimal protection in the event of an attack, but some shielding is better than none in the cases of the Areas.

We're also pretty sure that exactly nothing will be done until someone gets seriously hurt, or god forbid, killed.

McCarthy v FOP President

While it was no "Thrilla in Manila," we'll call it "The Hubbub at the City Club:"

• Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy and the head of the police union got into a verbal shootout Monday over whether there’s a shortage of officers.
  
  McCarthy spoke to the City Club of Chicago before taking questions from the audience and got a tough one from [the] president of the Fraternal Order of Police.
  
  [He] asked how McCarthy could expect to fight crime proactively when there is a shortage of 2,300 officers. Then he asked: “Can you admit the Chicago Police Department has a manpower problem?”
  
  “The answer is no, I can’t do that because I don’t believe it,” McCarthy responded. “Sorry, [dude]. I didn’t want to have these conversations in public.”

And the body shot:

• McCarthy said he is not looking to expand the department’s payroll any time soon.
  
  “Quite frankly, I don’t think it’s a fair thing to do to the taxpayers at this point,” he said to rousing applause. Then he fired a shot at [...] the FOP president: “[Dude], why aren’t you clapping?”

Someone is rallying support for a contentious contract negotiation, and for whatever reason, the FOP president is attacking the political appointee, a guy who can't remove half-assed commanders from their spots, a guy with as many self-control issues as a tweaking meth addict.

The focus should be on the guy pulling McCarthy's strings, not McCarthy. He got in a good shot and it's going to leave a mark. Rahm is controlling the debate already and that's not a good thing.

RIP Charlie Roberts

Arrangements as follows:

• Visitation - Wednesday 12/07/11 from 4:00 until 9:00 p.m. and Thursday 12/08/11 3:00 until 9:00 p.m. at Cumberland Chapels, 8300 W. Lawrence Ave., Norridge, IL 708-456-8300
  
  Funeral - Friday 12/09/11 8:45 a.m. from the funeral home for final viewing and prayers Mass - 10:00 a.m. at Queen of All Saints Basilica, 6280 North Sauganash Avenue, Chicago, Illinois (773) 736-6060
  
  Interment - Bohemian National Cemetery, Chicago, IL
  
  Donations To - Chicago Police Memorial Foundation, 1407 W. Washington, Chicago, IL 60607

Prayers and well wishes for the family only in this thread.

No Moves in 2012?

More half-assed planning by the Department leads to more rumors and the inescapable conclusion that no one from outside the Department (along with meri-clout-orious hacks) has ever actually read a contract:

• The city will have five areas in 2012.
  
  GMAC had no idea that all assignments were by seniority and furloughs could not be changed once chosen. A Compstat computer nerd ran the numbers and realized if the 75 dicks with least seniority were moved to Area South then half the area would be on vacation in the winter and early spring, while more than half of the new Area North would be on vacation in the summer.
  
  They also received word there is no money for construction, desks, computers, or even chairs.
  
  The only reason the entire plan was not scrapped today is because of GMAC's ego.
  
  The new plan is to move the 50 lowest seniority dicks from Areas 5, 3, and 4 to Areas 1 and 2. But, they just figured out that they can't do that until 2013.
  
  In the end, everything will remain exactly the same.

If in fact everything does remain the same, way to fuck with peoples' lives, heads, families and plans. You've just created and/or reinforced a collective perception that this Department is rudderless, hopeless, run by incompetents, and will screw with you in a heartbeat. Rather than attempting to reform a system that, while working well in some respects, could use some adjusting from within, it's best to throw the baby out with the bathwater, sell the tub for scrap iron and burn down the house the tub once stood in. Way to go!

Anyone have the real story? We're mighty curious how this is all going to play out.

Victims Win - Twice

Two heartwarming stories sent to us by readers. First up:

• An overnight worker returning home after dropping off his wife late this morning interrupted a burglar carrying the man's television and Xbox out of his Park Manor apartment building, then won a knife fight with the burglar, police said.

  The burglar, a man in his 20s, was in critical condition at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn with multiple stab wounds, said Chicago Police News Affairs....

• The resident confronted the burglar in the building foyer, and the burglar pulled out a knife, police said.

  After the resident pulled a knife to defend himself, the two got into a fight that spilled out onto the street...

Arriving officers had to pull them apart. End result? Offender in critical condition and awaiting charges.

Next up, and amusing as hell:

• Robbing a man who turned out to be an ultimate fighter proved to be a bad decision for a convicted felon, who is now in bad shape as he is held on bond.
  
  Police say around 11:30 p.m. Friday, Anthony Miranda, 24, walked up to a car parked at 55th Street and Kenneth Avenue, just a few blocks from Midway International Airport.
  
  Miranda asked the driver for a lighter, and the driver said he didn’t have one. Then Miranda pulled a handgun and demanded that the driver hand over his money, police said.

• At some point, Miranda’s attention was diverted and the victim was able to grab control of the gun and the two wrestled.
  
  During the fight, Miranda accidentally discharged his own gun, shooting himself in the ankle, police said.
  
  The victim — who told police he is a martial arts expert and ultimate fighter — was able to pin Miranda down until police arrived.

Pin him down? Get a load of his mugshot:

Looks like he got pinned up against a can of whoop-ass or two. Nice to see the citizens getting a small measure of justice at their own hands.

Promotions?

Rumor from the comments:

• Commanders received request for merit Det. today. Names must be in 22 Dec, list out 6 Jan. Look for Sgt list not far behind.

Anyone actually see the directive, AdMin Fax or Bureau letter?

More Info on G-8

Once again, the city trying to do things on the cheap:

• Hey Second City Cop, suburban copper here and it's true, the City of Chicago will not indemnify anyone that is not CPD.
  
  Most suburban agencies extended the olive branch knowing full well that CPD would need help once the G8 summit arrived. CPD advised The Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System (ILEAS)of this who in turn related this information to the Chiefs of the various agencies representing ILEAS. Those Chiefs basically said fuck that and will not allow any officers to respond.
  
  In total there are 822 officers from 245 different agencies represented on ILEAS Teams. There equipment alone could help: 13 mobile command posts, nine armored vehicles and a host of other specialty vehicles provided at no cost to various agencies in Illinois. Agencies receiving this equipment agreed to maintain it and provide it during large state or regional emergencies if necessary.
  
  Trust me, I'm not part of ILEAS, I just hate to see officers being put in harms way when it can easily be prevent or even greatly reduced. CPD stay safe and keep your heads up.....

Another suburban officer reports that furloughs and time off will be restricted in May for his and other agencies, just in case the city comes to its senses and needs emergency help. We certainly can foresee that being the case in short order.

Useful Idiots

Here's one now:

Seriously? How about your students stop running around with pistols, blasting anything that doesn't wear the right colors or fails to flash the wrong hand signals or sells dope on the corner without paying a "street tax" to the "owners" of said corner? And maybe they stop pointing guns at the police, too.

Honest to god, this is supposed to teaching the next generation. The only lesson we see here is ignorance, but she probably aced that one.

Rumors of a New Unit

The rumors keep getting stronger and stronger:

• A fly on the wall at 35th told me that the bosses are afraid that we won't have enough Tier 1 officers on the front lines to handle the G8/NATO protests. Starting early next year they're creating a 200 P.O. force, and the old MSF'ers will be offered the chance to be brought back. They figure they already have the training and equipment. After the city burns, the unit will remain to work as summer saturation teams (West and South). They're looking at housing the teams out of the current Area 4 after it's cleared out.

We suppose if you live north and drive south every day, this might look like an opportunity to ease your commute, save some gas money and once again, get out of Patrol. Until they dump you south again, probably as the summer mayhem dies out again with winter's arrival. A ready made force of officers volunteering to live outside the contract doesn't exactly help things. It affects hiring, promotions and manning of the so-called "quiet" districts.

In the meantime, what's a Tier 1? And why do we keep hearing the city or Department aren't accepting outside agency offers of assistance?

Why is Illinois Broke?

Here's a major reason the pension systems are broken:

• CLICK HERE for an interesting table

Let's just grab a few examples at "random:"

• Jim Edgar, former governor, made pension payments totaling $164,000. For his troubles, he collects an annual pension of almost $135,000 per year. His total since leaving the governor's office - $1,229,827. And from everything we can see, Edgar is reasonable healthy and like to live a quite a few more years;
• Dawn Clarke Netsch, holder of many offices, paid a whopping $87,000 in pension payments and collects an annual return of $125,372. Her grand total - $1,644,511;
  
• James Thompson, former governor, made pension payments totaling nearly $85,000. He collects an annual pension of $131,000 and change. Total payout to date - over $2,000,000. Half the contributions of Edgar, but double the payout.
  

The table we linked above has 25 names on it, a mere drop in the bucket of Illinois politico's feeding at the trough. We're sure the complete list is more than awful enough to even imagine.

It would be interesting to compare the payments put in by these folks over the course of their political careers compared to those of say, Chicago Police Officers, who right off the bat, contribute nearly 10% of their base salaries to a pension fund that is nearly insolvent and that percentage is sure to rise during the next contract negotiations.

Keep an ear out for calls to be made and letters to be written.

Really Chuck?

Chuck Goudie gets his panties in an knot:

• In this Intelligence Report: Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is traditionally one of the biggest shopping days of the year, but this year Illinois residents weren't just looking for deals on TVs and toys.
  
  On Black Friday, guns appear to have been popular gift purchases. According to Illinois State Police records, there was a giant jump in gun owner background checks on Black Friday. And, if all those gift guns are used on Christmas, it may be anything but a silent night.

What an asinine comment to make. Everyone knows the ranges are closed on Christmas.

Fair Warning

Lost in the shuffle is this little item taking effect 01 January:

• OT. Effective 01Jan2012. Alcohol testing will be part of the random drug test for PO's. Check appendix T of the current fop contract. Don't get jammed up

Breathalyzer tests will be given along with the "whiz quiz." A positive test will result in being relieved of duty without compensation. Return to duty is contingent upon a 0.0 reading. No discipline will be administered, but you will be placed in a "special pool" for six months of what can only be described as "closer observation." A second positive result means IAD gets involved.

Don't be the test case - you know they're looking for any excuse to trim manpower.

Bears Favored by 7

This is exactly the type of game the Bears have to win to make the playoffs. It's also the perfect type of game for Hanie to acclimate to the learning curve necessary to play at this level while keeping the seat warm for Cutler:

• The Chicago Bears indicated they still have faith in their No. 2 quarterback despite a difficult performance last week. Their next opponent doesn't appear to feel the same way.
  
  While Chicago sticks with Caleb Hanie, the Kansas City Chiefs could end up turning to former Bear Kyle Orton over struggling starter Tyler Palko in Sunday's game at Soldier Field.
  
  The Bears remain in position for a wild-card berth, but a 25-20 loss in Oakland last Sunday halted a five-game winning streak and left them as one of three NFC teams with a 7-4 record. To build a lead over the other contenders, Chicago could use some better games from Hanie.

And a reasonably warm day for December on tap.

Buy a Ticket or Else

People aren't spending money on parties so much this year:

• Something totally unrelated to this:Commander of 007 deems it appropriate to have the watch commanders/lieutenants threaten po's with shorter furlos and denial of time off if they do not purchase a district Christmas party ticket. I guess nobody is buying tickets and thus he will lose some money he paid out of pocket. Gee, when you treat your officers like crap and your racism is blatantly on display then I guess nobody will support you and buy tickets. You reap what you sow.

The commander of 007 exemplifies everything that is wrong with the Department, with a family history that probably makes the Daley's blush at times. The superintendent can't seem to move him, even with dynamite. And he expects what exactly? To make people's lives miserable?

NEWSFLASH! It's Englewood. Misery isn't exactly a stranger in 007. Not to the citizens or the people working there. Besides, just about every officer we've spoken with across the city reports lower than usual ticket sales for Christmas parties this year. We're in a recession you know. Plus, cops aren't stupid.

Black Friday Bestseller

This is heartening, at least for the rest of the country:

• Americans were big spenders on Black Friday–especially on guns.

  Numbers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation show an all-time one-day high for background check requests from gun buyers last Friday. There were 129,166 requests to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS)–a third more than the previous record of 97,848 on Black Friday 2008, FBI spokesman Stephen Fischer said. On Black Friday last year, there were 87,061 requests.

  The numbers, first reported in USA Today, reflect the experience of gun-sellers on the ground. “It was the biggest rush we ever had. Some of the people at the gate sent their kid running to the gun counter to get in line,” said Tom Ritzer, store manager at MC Sports in Springfield, Mo., which opened its doors at 5 a.m. on Black Friday. Gun buyers had to wait until NICS opened at 7 before they could leave with their purchases, he said.

Hey Rahm, that's a lot of sales taxes missed out on. And the ammunition? More sales taxes. And the range fees? Tax money. And when the well-armed well-practiced citizen takes out a burglar, robber or assailant, that's more tax money saved.

First One on the Bus...

...gets to throw everyone else under the bus:

• Wearing a black-and-white striped prison outfit, former Chicago police officer Antonio Martinez Jr. admitted Friday morning that he used his badge to help steal drugs, guns and money from people in Illinois and Indiana for the Latin Kings.

  “Do you agree you abused your position of trust as a Chicago police officer?” U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano asked Martinez in U.S. District Court in Hammond.

  “Yes, I do, your honor,” Martinez answered.

These indictments just came down on the 18th of last month -just over two weeks ago. That means this impersonator was either cooperating the whole time or was in so deep, his only recourse is to sell out everybody he can in the hopes of breathing freedom somewhere down the road before age 60.

The sound you just heard? That was the sound of a dozen sphincters slamming shut all at the same time.

Shots Fired By, At the Police

Two different incidents as far as we can tell:

• A man was taken into custody today after he pointed a weapon at officers and one of them fired back during a chase in the Washington Park neighborhood on the South Side.

  The officers were conducting a narcotics investigation in the neighborhood around 11:45 a.m. when they tried to question the man and he took off running, according to Police News Affairs [...]

  The officers began chasing him, and the man turned around and pointed a gun at them near 6100 S. Indiana Ave., [...] At least one of the officers fired but did not hit the man, Perez said. The man was arrested and a weapon was recovered, he said. No injuries were reported.

And then later:

• The officer was driving near 63rd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue at about 11 a.m. when he heard gunshots, Perez said. Soon afterwards, the back window of the squad car shattered.
  
  The officer, who was on the way to a high school detail, was not injured. As of 1:45 p.m., no one was in custody.

  The two incidents did not appear related.

The article as written is confusing. Anyone have the actual play-by-play? Two separate incidents hours apart?

Who's Paying for This?

From another blogger, the 19th Ward Politics:

• It was 1-Dec-11 and two CPD cops took extra precautions tonight at their mediocre paying security side job at the U.C. The usual violent hip hop concert was back in town. As this Jay-Z kanye concert turned out to be relatively calm compared to past concerts, the disturbing incident actually included Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
  
  Mayor Emaunuel has preached fiscal sacrifice to other public officials in reguards to bloated Security details. But the sacrifice does not include him or his own family. Sitting on stage left three rows up was Mayor Emanuel's middle age son surrounded by a Presidential like Security detail of ivory in a sea of chocolate. Thats right, the taxpayer was paying so little Rahm could attend his first Hip Hop Concert. The usual Security at the U.C was told to keep an eye on that section as so the big time VIP in attendence was kept protected.
  
  Was it not Rahm Emanuel who preached to Former Mayor Daley and Ed Burke about this very topic. Well my friends who work at the U.C were told by their superiors to keep this hush-hush. So we will keep this one too ourselves!

So evidently, the Shortshanks-era perks for mayoral family are still in full evidence. No word on who's dropping the kids off at school or picking up the Emanuel dry cleaning yet, but we're sure it's happening.

What's That Smell?

There's a great nickname somewhere in here for this idiot:

• A prison inmate who escaped from a moving van near Lockport while in transit from a court appearance was captured six hours later south of Joliet after police dogs caught his scent in a yard storing portable toilets and a helicopter crew using infrared technology located him in one of the toilets, authorities said.

  Cesar Sanchez, 37, who state records show is serving a 7-year sentence for burglary, escaped about 2:15 p.m. near 159th Street and Farrell Road, a commercial strip not far from Lockport Township High School’s East Campus.

"caught his scent"? We'll bet that afterwards, those poor police dogs are going to be bleaching their nasal cavities for a month.

In the meantime, "Port-o-let" Sanchez will be getting a few extra years tagged onto this previous sentence.

FOP Sues ACLU

Well, not really, but we liked the way the headline looked. We'd pay to see that actually happen. In the meantime:

• The Fraternal Order of Police filed a legal motion Thursday with the ultimate goal of dismissing an ACLU lawsuit that accused the city of Chicago of depriving some inner-city neighborhoods of adequate police protection.
  
  If a judge grants the union’s motion to intervene, the FOP plans to initially ask that the law firm of Sidley Austin LLP be disqualified from assisting the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois and, ultimately, that the case be dismissed.
  
  “It’s horrible public policy if a single chancery judge is allowed to determine how the police department operates in the field and how they’re made up,” FOP lawyer Paul Geiger said. “That’s madness. It would be unlike any other big city in the United States.”

If Shortshanks or his predecessors had actually redrawn the beats and districts semi-regularly according to crime trends and population shifts, we wouldn't be having the discussion today.

But the truly amazing part of this lawsuit is that the ACLU has it all wrong. Where was SOS deployed? Mobile Strike Force operated where? Targeted Response? The "Jump Out" boys? Housing? Every large citywide unit, regardless of crime patterns, spent the majority of its time in the communities the ACLU insists are under-served.

Tow Truck Troubles

Anyone who's thinking of having any kind of "dealings" with most tow operators are, quite frankly, nuts:

• Three people have been charged in connection with an undercover Chicago Police investigation that targeted tow truck drivers stealing cars, stripping them for parts and selling them to scrap yards.

  Javier Garcia-Cruz, 27, of Bolingbrook and Anthony McMorries, 52, and Jose Sanchez, 44, of Chicago, were charged with possession of a stolen vehicle, police announced this afternoon. They could face additional charges, and police are searching for more suspects, Harrison Area property crimes Sgt. Joe Petrenko said during a news conference this evening.

  "We're continuing the investigation, and we're uncovering new evidence as we go along," he said.

Bringing back memories of the Lincoln Park Pirates.

City Sues....the City?

Amazing how these things work out:

• The city today sued the operator of Park Grill restaurant at Millennium Park, asking a judge to end a generous 2003 concession agreement with the Chicago Park District.

  The city wants the Park Grill operator, which is trying to sell the restaurant, to pay more for the privilege of operating at the park, a city spokesman said. In addition to the operator, the city-controlled Park District also is named as a defendant in the complaint.

  “Since 2005, the city has attempted to renegotiate the concession agreement and put in place a competitive and fair-market rate concession agreement,” Steve Patton, the city’s top attorney, said in a statement. “The negotiations to date have been unsuccessful.”

A sweetheart deal, granted to a connected political crony, and the crony is attempting to cash out additional monies by selling the ill-gotten asset, probably because in this economy, it isn't doing as well as it was.

We're sure we'll be finding out about these Daley disasters for the next 10 or 20 years.

Only 188

Few than last year, but in light of the shrinking city work force, not surprising:

• Fewer Chicago motorists had their cars towed this year than last on the first morning of the city's annual winter parking ban, officials said.

  The city's Winter Overnight Parking ban took effect at 3 a.m. City trucks towed 188 vehicles this morning, down from 215 last year, according to the Department of Streets and Sanitation.

  City officials have worked much of the week to remind motorists of the annual seasonal ritual that restricts overnight parking on 107 miles of the city’s most critical arterial streets -- regardless of snowfall -- until April 1.

Flurries tonight, but not enough to trigger the 2" parking ban.

Nicely Done

On view shots fired, chase and apprehension:

• Authorities arrested three people after a West Side shooting led to a miles-long chase on the Eisenhower Expressway that ended near the city border with west suburban Oak Park, police said this morning.
  
  The shooting, which occurred during an attempted armed robbery, was heard by a nearby police officer.

  Just before the 5-mile chase, a white Dodge minivan approached three men standing on the street near the intersection of Central Park Avenue and Roosevelt Road just after 9 p.m. Wednesday, police said.

• Officers from two police districts pursued the vehicle west until the minivan pulled over near the Austin exit and the driver got out and turned himself in, police said.

  A suspect in the passenger seat quickly got into the driver's seat and continued west until a traffic jam slowed them down, police said.

  The remaining two suspects then jumped out of the minivan near the Harlem exit and fled, but were quickly apprehended near the scene.
  
  The Chicago officers were aided by Oak Park police and Illinois State police, who managed traffic, police said.

Good job all around.

Overnight Parking Ban Time

The Tribune has a big old reminder up with a bunch of interesting statistics:

• 215 victims tows the first night last year
  
• 127 victims tows the second night

The Sun Times has a list of fees:

• You’ll face a $150 towing fee, a $50 ticket and a storage fee of $10 per day, which increases over time.

Remember, this is the complete winter parking ban - it doesn't matter if there's snow on the ground of not. One hundred seven miles of road off limits between 3 AM and 7 AM, which means if you're an insomniac and you live on one of these streets, you have just under three hours to move it or lose it.

The over/under is 205 tonight.

The Latest JibJab

Always good for a laugh:

• CLICK HERE for the latest JibJab, this time starring Rahm

We also added a link in the right hand toolbar that has all of the JibJab submissions for your enjoyment.

Gun Shop in Oak Park

And the lib-tards are in a tizzy:

• Try to open up a gun shop in the traditionally staunchly anti-gun suburb of Oak Park and you can expect to get some resistance.

  That’s what Justin Delefuente got this week when he attended a public meeting to talk about his plan to start selling guns in a small storefront on Roosevelt Road near Ridgeland Avenue.

  More than 80 people filled the Irving School Auditorium, expressing concerns about having a gun dealer around the corner from their homes and a block away from a public school.

  Delefuente said he would only sell rifles and shotguns to the public. Handguns would only be sold to law enforcement personnel, he said.

Long guns are legal in Illinois and should be even more legal as various lawsuits work their ways through the courts and restore stolen freedoms to the citizens of Illinois. Eighty people worried about a gun shop catering to cops?

Not a Turkey Leg

Not even over food:

• A Wisconsin man who allegedly attacked a fellow guest at a Thanksgiving Day dinner after she ignored his claim to a specific chair at the dining table has been charged with attempted homicide.
  
  Kendrick Carr, 23, allegedly pulled a foot-long butcher knife on the woman after she refused to stand up from the chair he said he wanted to sit in, according to the criminal complaint filed in Racine County Circuit Court on Monday.
  
  The woman defended herself with a broom and was unharmed, according to the complaint.

Over a chair? Man, those cheeseheads are nuts.