Busy Day for Rahm

And it looks like it all went his way. First up, money from the Taste:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel's plan to charge Taste of Chicago attendees for premium seating to see musical acts in Grant Park and for the chance to eat special meals prepared by prominent Chicago chefs cleared a City Council committee today.
  
  Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events Commissioner Michelle Boone told aldermen the hope is that the revenue will help Taste break even after three years in the red. Under the plan, the city would sell seats at the Petrillo Bandshell for $25 each night and charge $40 for three-course meals...

And speed cameras:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel's plan to use speed cameras to issue tickets cleared a City Council committee today.

  The 7-3 vote came after criticism from aldermen led the mayor to offer up a revised ordinance governing the use of speed cameras in Chicago.
  
  Instead of $50 fines for driving six to 10 mph above the speed limit near schools and parks, a $35 fine would be assessed under the revision, which also will include other tweaks, said Ald. Margaret Laurino, 39th, chairman of the Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee.

And new efforts to shut down problem liquor stores:

• With Chicago’s murder rate up 60 percent over last year, Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday launched a coordinated crackdown aimed at shutting down liquor and convenience stores that serve as magnets for crime.

  “These locations often harbor drug dealers and street gang members and become a cancer on the community,” the mayor told the first graduating class of police recruits since he took office.

And circling back to the second story - the speed cameras. Here's some interesting stats that came out today:

• The Sun Times reported that city crews have installed 10,000 speed humps in streets and alleys since 2005. Many of them are near schools and parks.
  
  Crews have also put in 400 traffic circles, 450 cul-de-sacs and 250 "bump out" curbs.

All those "traffic calming" devices built at a cost of how many millions? And now cameras are going to solve everything? And Rahm has his mouthpieces up at the microphones saying how it's all "for the children" and "no one is counting any money generated."

Bullshit. Speed humps, traffic circles, cul-de-sacs and bump outs don't generate money. Cameras will. And anyone believing Rahm's crap really ought to have their head examined.

Gold Plated Pensions?

WGN had an interesting bit on yesterday. We can't embed their video, but it's linked here. Check out this woman at the 2:29 mark.

• They argue ... [garbled] ...our children are a front to line their pockets, gold plated pensions for the Chicago Police, multimillion dollar pension payouts. They are using, again, that the children as an excuse?

We aren't certain if she's even speaking English. We had a hard time transcribing even that little bit. The linked video doesn't have the subtitles that appeared on the news broadcast, but we believe she was identified as [unknown first name] Tobin?

That name rang a bell, so we Googled "Tobin and pensions" and found we weren't having foggy memories at all. Someone named Jim Tobin runs the "TaxpayersUnitedofAmerica.org" website that uses the pensions of Phil Cline, Dana Starks, Terry Hillard and other gold stars to paint all cops as bankrupting the system.

Seeing as how our average pension is $48,900, we contribute upwards of 10% to our own retirement, we get zero Social Security (thanks Rosty) and we'll have to pay all of our own retired healthcare after this year, we don't know where this ass gets off describing our pensions as "whopping" by any stretch of the imagination.

Anyone know if this woman is associated with/related to/tied to this other ass? And if so, what's her relationship to the Machine, because she talks as bad as Shortshanks.

SkyNet Progress

While awaiting an eventual takeover by the Machines, we found this video clip while surfing the net:



You have to admit that is kind of cool.

Rahm Begins Backtracking

The new school day has gone down to 7 hours:

• Under pressure from parents groups opposed to a 7½-hour school day, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said today he is scaling back his proposal to a 7-hour day for public elementary schools next fall.
  
  The school day would still be more than an hour longer than the current 5-hour, 45-minute day for most elementary schools. But it's a departure from Emanuel's stated goal of making the Chicago Public Schools day among the longest in the U.S.
  
  Most city high schools would still be extended to 7½ hours under the mayor’s new plan; although one day during the week would be shortened by 75 minutes.

Needless to say, the teachers union is gloating a bit:

• Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said this about Emanuel's proposal:

  "Once again, the Chicago Teachers Union has been proven correct. The longer school day is a political slogan and not an education plan. Parents, teachers and community leaders across Chicago have been unanimous in saying we want a better school day for our parents, not just a longer one. Now that the mayor is starting to listen to parents, teachers and research regarding the pitfalls of the longer school day pushed in school districts across this country, it is now time that he use both ears to hear everything we're saying about the types of schools our children deserve. It is not the length of time, but the quality of time that truly matters here."

  The union has been calling for smaller class sizes and for non-core subjects like art and foreign language for all students. Lewis complained there is still no plan on what a longer day will look like, just numbers.

The biggest number Rahm is striving to bring down is the number of CPS students shot, hence the extended babysitting provided to the parent(s). Unfortunately, most shootings occur during the 2100-0300 window when school wouldn't be in session anyway.

And also as stumbling block, Rahm is having a hard time selling the "longer hours for no extra pay" angle. We can't think of a court in the land that would uphold keeping teachers around without paying them for their time. It just doesn't seem likely. Indentured servitude went out before the Civil War. Slavery shortly afterward.

These are campaign slogans without any sort of substance to back them up. In other words, typical Rahm.

Missing Gun, Radio? (UPDATE x2)

Is it true? A certain exempt is rumored to have suffered a car burglary and a gun and radio are reported missing.

Upon being informed of this egregious violation of the Rules and Regulations, McCompStat was heard to inquire, "Was it in the zone?"

Much giggling and snickering ensued.

UPDATE: Now we're being told it may have been a residential burglary? That would negate the Rules violations to some extent. But how did they get the safe out of the house?

UPDATE: Now we heard that the AdMin Fax says from an automobile. Anyone have the real story?

Shortshanks Under Oath

We can see it now:

• Former Mayor Richard Daley has agreed to answer questions from attorneys suing the city over alleged systemic torture under disgraced former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge, city attorneys said today.
  
  “Mr. Daley will appear for his deposition,” Paul A. Michalik, an attorney representing the city, said after a brief hearing before U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer.
  
  Michalik said the “scope” of the questions Daley will face from attorneys representing Michael Tillman has yet to be determined.

Oh swami of the Crystal Ball, what do you foresee?

• "I don't recall."
  
• "I don't recall."
• "I don't recall."
• ::nervous inappropriate giggle::
• repeat ad nauseam

Hey? Do you think they'd let us submit questions for the lawyers to ask Shortshanks under oath? Because we have an extensive list and we're sure our readers do, too. Now THAT would be an eye-opener.

The Greatest Gun Salesman Ever

Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States:

• Gun sales are up in Indiana, to the point where some stores are running short on both ammunition and weapons.

  [...] The FBI says in 2007, it received about 187,000 criminal background requests from Indiana gun sellers. That figure grew to nearly 346,000 last year.

  The number is up nearly double since the time before President Obama took office. And the surge has not ended – another 45,553 requests for background checks came in February, compared with 32,083 in the same period last year.

And that's just in Indiana.

Ruger has stopped accepting orders for new guns citing a backlog of over one million orders. Mossberg International won't even speculate on the wait time for its guns. If you have any sort of gun manufacturers in your stock portfolios, you are making a load of money as Ruger and Smith & Wesson are up over 100% each since April of last year. And this weekend's NRA convention in St. Louis? Record breaker? We'll see.

Ozzie, You Mope

Sure, he led the Sox to a World Series win, but how does he keep getting hired when his mouth lands him in all sorts of hot water?

• Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen was suspended for five games Tuesday because of his comments about Fidel Castro, and he again apologized and said he’ll do whatever he can to repair relations with Cuban-Americans angered by the remarks.

  The suspension by the team will be without pay and takes effect immediately. It was announced shortly before Guillen held a news conference to explain what he said.

Yeah, you wouldn't want to keep your socialist leanings a little under the radar in the biggest enclave of Cuban emigres who fled or were driven out of Fidel's workers' "paradise," would you?

New Strategy? (UPDATED - Gang Audit?)

Driving in tonight, we heard McNewGuy talking about some new strategy he was implementing in response to the uptick in shootings centered around warm weekend weather. It involved something about actually talking to the people working the street, cops in close proximity to the gangs, front line intelligence.

Unfortunately, we can't find the audio on WBBM's radio website. Anyone have any idea where it might be? It sounded somehow exactly like what our readers have been preaching here since McOutsider arrived.

No mentioning manpower though.

UPDATE: Ah yes, here it is. Everything old is new again:

• After a violent weekend during which five people were killed and more than 20 hurt in separate shootings, Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said Monday the police department is implementing a new gangs strategy using intelligence on the ground level.

  "We are conducting gang audits in each district, which means we are sitting down with a map, we are sitting down with the officers who work on those beats," McCarthy told ABC7. "We are sitting down with our intelligence personnel and we're mapping out who are the gang members, what turfs do they claim is theirs and who are they in conflict with."

Ah, yes. The old "map with the push pins" strategy. We haven't seen that one in a few years. Next comes the color-coded map with all the gang territories looking so pretty. And you know what comes next, right?

• McCarthy says the strategy is about responding to incidents before the retaliation begins.
  
  

Paging Officer Deputy Superintendent Maitre'd Goldstein. Officer Deputy Superintendent Maitre'd Goldstein? Report to the Fifth Floor IMMEDIATELY! Polish up your crystal ball...and there are some more balls around here that need polishing, too.

Weekend Totals

CBS has them this time:

• At least five people were killed and 23 others wounded in separate shootings throughout the city that took place from late Friday through early Monday.

  Three of the shootings — one of them fatal— happened at different spots on Francisco Avenue, from the West Side to the Northwest Side, police said.

Avoid Francisco we suppose. Is it in the zone?

It will be soon.

Voter Fraud Made Easy

Attorney General Eric Holder, he of the "Fast and Furious" gun-walking scandal, insists there is no significant voter fraud that would necessitate voters presenting ID at polling places. He has sued numerous states and municipalities from enforcing Voter ID laws, despite a number of court decisions that affirm the legality of said laws.

Well, here's a simple example of how easy voter fraud is:

• U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has declared that there is no proof that in-person voter fraud is a problem. He's about to see proof that even he can't deny.

  In a new video provided to Breitbart.com, James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas demonstrates why Holder should stop attacking voter ID laws--by walking into Holder’s voting precinct and showing the world that anyone can obtain Eric Holder’s primary ballot. Literally.

  The video shows a young man entering a Washington, DC polling place at 3401 Nebraska Avenue, NW, on primary day of this year--April 3, 2012--and giving Holder’s name and address. The poll worker promptly offers the young man Holder’s ballot to vote.

  The young man then suggests that he should show his ID; the poll worker, in compliance with DC law, states: “You don’t need it. It’s all right. As long as you’re in here, you’re on our list, and that’s who you say you are, you’re okay.”

And to add insult to injury, O'Keefe send in the pastiest of white guys to pose as the black Eric Holder, and it didn't make a difference. O'Keefe spent part of this election cycle having people go into Vermont voting precincts posing as citizens on the voting rolls and actually being offered ballots - ballots of people who had been dead for years, but still eligible to vote.

We in Chicago are well aware of the dead rising to vote. Kennedy was rumored to have carried Illinois by the votes of a sizable number of cemetery denizens who cast their ballots his way. Absentee ballots are especially susceptible to fraud. There really isn't any logical reason not to have Voter ID laws on the books, especially as state governments are offering free ID's to those who can't afford them. You need ID to cash a check, rent a car, get any sort of government assistance. Why not to vote?

Did Someone Tell McSkilling?

Our very own superintendent has said weather doesn't affect crime. Cleveland Public Safety Director Martin Flask says otherwise:

• You might also see higher crime, says Martin Flask, director of public safety in Cleveland.

  Flask says people are out, it's light later in the day and there are more children playing. Even though, in the long term, crime is trending downward in Cleveland, homicides and burglaries are up compared to this time last year.

  "We've seen a significant spike that, in our mind, can be caused by nothing else but the weather," Flask says.

Can we get a ruling on this one? Because we'd really hate to see this become the subject of a heated discussion at the next ConStat meeting.

Dumb Dumb Dumb

This is funny:

• A Chicago man robbed a Radio Shack of $17,000 in merchandise, but police tracked him down quickly thanks to the global positioning equipment he stole, prosecutors said.
  
  Raymond Jefferson, 20, is charged with tying up people who were at the South Side electronics store, stealing gear from the shop and fleeing Friday night before police captured him about two hours later. On Sunday, Cook County Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil ordered him held on $350,000 bond on charges of armed robbery and aggravated kidnapping.
  
  [...] Among the stolen items, however, was global positioning gear that led officers to Jefferson, Caceres said, and he was arrested in the 3700 block of West Lawrence Avenue in the Albany Park neighborhood.

Priceless.

Road Trip!

Weekend plans? You know we got em:

• Join us for the 141^st NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits at America's Center in the heart of St Louis, MO April 13-15, 2012.

  With over 500 exhibitors covering 340,000 square feet of exhibit hall space, educational seminars, celebrities, and fun filled special events, bring the whole family- there will be something for everyone! Spend the day exploring the products from every major firearm company in the country, book the hunt of a lifetime in our exclusive outfitter section, and view priceless collections of firearms in our gun collector area. You'll also see knives, wildlife art, shooting accessories, hunting gear, ATV's, and much more!

Seven acres of firearms, accessories, and freedom-loving Rahm-haters just over the border from Madiganistan. Click here for more info. You know where we'll be.

We wonder why Chicago hasn't hosted this event - it's supposed to be the most peaceful, law-abiding gathering of gun owners in existence.

Voice of the People

Ignorant people that is. From the Tribune letters section:

• If guns were outlawed, as I believe they should be, the chance encounter between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin would not have resulted in a death. Yes, the two may have gotten into a knock-down, drag-out fistfight, but no one would have been killed. It's as simple as that.

  — Anita Walker Field, Skokie

Yeah, because no one has ever been beaten to death in the world. Not like twice in Chicago inthe past 30 days from just hitting their head on the pavement, right?

Or this one:

• In "Hoodie stereotype" (Voice of the People, March 30), letter writer Jerome C. Malon says, "While the hoodie never started out to mean something criminal, it has developed to just that."

  He goes on to say, "Having these pictures implanted into one's mind makes one suspicious of any young person with a hoodie up and head down."

  I am a 23-year-old female, a pale, blue-eyed Caucasian, and I wear hoodies on any given day of the week. I own more than 10 of them and substitute them for coats from March to November. I'm wearing one right now, in fact. And never, ever, have I aroused the mildest suspicion as I walk down the street. No one has followed me down the street in a car; no one has asked me what my business is on his or her block. No one has seen me in a hoodie and assumed I was in a gang or holding drugs. And no one has killed me with gunfire.

  No one can tell me that my white skin is completely irrelevant to those truths.

  [...]

  — Marnie Shure, Chicago

Exactly what streets were you walking down Marnie? Location, Location, Location. Totality of the circumstances, stuff like that.

And the Tribune publishes this crap. Thank god we stopped paying for this tripe.

NBC Fires Producer

Some sort of accountability, but they won't identify who they fired, and there hasn't been any other action against the writers who did the story:

• NBC News has fired a producer for editing a recording of George Zimmerman’s call to police the night he shot Trayvon Martin, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said Saturday.

  The person was not authorized to talk about the situation publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The identity of the producer was not disclosed.

  An NBC spokeswoman declined to comment.

  The producer’s dismissal followed an internal investigation that led to NBC apologizing for having aired the misleading audio.

And if you notice, the New York Times hasn't written anything about the entire incident for a week now. Now why would that be? We don't purport to have any answers, but we can read. This investigation should have been allowed to run it's course without everyone from the president on down pushing agendas, left and right.

Wow, Are We Psychic?

Last night we wrote:

• You know it's bad when the Drudge Report headline reads "Only 1 Dead, 5 Wounded in Chicago."

  No word on tonight's bloodletting. Keep an eye on the local papers for something though - we've noticed they seem to be spreading out the reports instead of lumping them together

And this morning we come home to this:

• 17 shot, 2 dead, overnight across city

We don't know what you all think, but that CompStat thing? It's really working well. Maybe McJersey was counting on this being Easter Sunday and a bunch of the dead rising from the grave.

Another Car Wreck?

Are these assholes driving hot cars deliberately ramming squad cars once they're discovered? Because this seems to be happening more than usual:

• Two Chicago police officers in an SUV were injured during a head-on collision with a stolen car near 108th Street and Perry Avenue on the Far South Side about 12:25 a.m. today, police said.

  The two officers were taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center with non-life-threatening injures, Chicago Police Department News Affairs [...] said.

  Police said the car, a 2008 Volvo, was carjacked about 7 a.m. Friday from the 300 block of East 75th Street. Police said two armed men and two women were involved in the carjacking.

Once again, best wishes to the officers for speedy recoveries. The shorthanded watches are getting shorter as summer approaches.

Revenge Maybe?

Anyone looking for a motive?

• A man shot to death on a Rogers Park street this week was on parole in the 2009 shooting of a 9-year-old boy less than a block away from the man’s slaying, according to records and police.
  
  James Brown, 22, of the 3200 block of North Central Park Avenue, was fatally shot in the 6800 block of North Ashland Avenue about 2:05 p.m. on Thursday, authorities said.
  
  Brown pleaded guilty Jan. 5, 2011, to aggravated battery in the shooting of the boy, who was walking with his family June 26, 2009, in the 6700 block of North Ashland when Brown rode up on a bicycle about 11 p.m., prosecutors said at the time.
  
  Brown fired twice, shooting at the boy's two 15-year-old siblings, whom he missed, prosecutors said at the time.
  
  He then pointed the gun at the younger boy and fired, striking him in the upper left thigh.
  
  Brown was sentenced to 5 years in prison in the attack, and was released on parole on Oct. 28, 2011, less than a year after pleading guilty, according to court and prison records.

Again, this would be a perfect case to push for a "truth in sentencing law." Probably arrested right after the shooting, sits awaiting trial, pleas out and with time already in custody, he's out in under a year for a possible grand total of 2.5 years after trying to shoot three people, but only hitting the last one. The gun charge alone should have netted him a decade behind bars, right? And a few counts of attempt murder?

Anita's minions go for the quick conviction and he's out to contribute to the homicide rate - wait a minute....this might be a good thing. Disregard.

Friday and Saturday Casualties

It was chilly on Friday you know:

• A woman was killed and four men wounded in five separate shootings between 11:30 p.m. Friday and 4 a.m. Saturday.

  A 28-year-old woman standing on a second-floor balcony on the 4000 block of South Albany Avenue in the Brighton Park neighborhood on the Southwest Side was shot in the lower back about 11:55 p.m. by someone standing on the street, police said. She was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, police said.

Saturday maintained the pace...oh wait, that was just the afternoon:

• A man was shot to death in the Lawndale neighborhood this afternoon and at least five others were wounded in unrelated attacks in other city neighborhoods.

  Police responded to a call of a person shot about 1:35 p.m. and found a 23-year-old man shot in the 700 block of South Francisco Avenue this afternoon, said Chicago Police News Affairs [...].

You know it's bad when the Drudge Report headline reads "Only 1 Dead, 5 Wounded in Chicago."

No word on tonight's bloodletting. Keep an eye on the local papers for something though - we've noticed they seem to be spreading out the reports instead of lumping them together (Saturday afternoon as opposed to Friday PM into Saturday night.).

This is Racial Profiling?

This? You've got to be fucking kidding us:

• Tyler Perry's April 1 Facebook post about police pulling him over was no April Fool's joke: The highest-paid man in entertainment is accusing a pair of white Atlanta police officers of racial profiling.
  
  Four days later, Perry's post boasts more than 117,000 "likes," 21,000 comments, and 12,000 shares. Atlanta police have launched an internal investigation, E! News reports.
  
  Perry's predicament began when he admittedly made a left turn from a far-right lane -- a trick his security detail taught him, to make sure he wasn't being followed, Perry explained on Facebook.
  
  Two white Atlanta police officers pulled him over, but apparently did not realize they'd just stopped Tyler Perry.

No, they only realized that they saw a traffic violator with tinted windows make a completely illegal left hand turn across three active traffic lanes from the far right.

Evidently that's "racial profiling" in Atlanta. We had no idea.

And not recognizing Tyler Perry? We couldn't pick this guy out of a photo array on a bet. So what's the big deal that a couple of cops couldn't recognize him? Oh, they were white, so since they didn't recognize him as an actor, writer, producer (because you know cops and Hollywood elites all move in the same social circles), that must be racial profiling also.

And after all of that, the cops let him go. Without a ticket, summons or warning. Just an apology for being so impolite as to think Tyler Perry should follow the traffic laws of mere mortals. So yet again, that must be part of the "racial profiling" we hear so much about on the news.

Famous people break the law, get stopped for it, get a few questions tossed their way and released without so much as a warning ticket. We think too many cops have been doing it wrong all these years. So thank you Mr. Perry for pointing out the errors in Atlanta's racial profiling system. Hopefully, they do better from now on.

Strike Talk Gets Stronger

Everyone jockeying for position before the summer break:

• “Fed up“ with being scapegoated, Chicago public school teachers in 150 schools have voted overwhelmingly in mock ballots to support a strike should ongoing contract negotiations fail, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis revealed Thursday.

  Chicago Public School officials and Mayor Rahm Emanuel have created such a “hostile” climate that teacher leaders in 150 schools polled CTU members about support for a strike, Lewis and other CTU officials said.

  At each school, Lewis said, at least 75 percent of teachers favored a strike “should contract negotiations fail” and “CPS and the mayor do not reverse the hostile climate against us.”

Lewis says she has the votes to meet the new state law regarding schoolteachers striking. Rahm doesn't need a strike coming on the heels of what looks like a nutty NATO event and what shapes up to be the bloodiest summer in a decade.

Any gamblers in the house laying odds?

Brilliant Conclusion

We wonder how long Frank Main had to work on this article before he came to this astounding conclusion:

• Crime was worse in neighborhoods where former Chicago Housing Authority residents used vouchers to move into private apartments, a new study found.

  From 2000 to 2008, violent crime was 21 percent higher in neighborhoods with high concentrations of voucher-holding former CHA residents — when compared to similar neighborhoods without them, the Washington-based Urban Institute found. Property crime also would have been lower without relocated residents in those neighborhoods, the study said.

  Violent crime dropped about 26 percent across the city over the same time period, according to the Chicago Police Department. The Urban Institute attributed about 1 percent of the decrease to CHA’s 1999 plan to knock down Cabrini-Green and other notorious housing complexes.

And evidently, someone had been doing so really hard drugs over at the CHA:

• In the past, CHA said there was no evidence of a link between crime and the relocation of public housing residents. “Until this study, really, there hasn’t been any data that addresses this question,” CHA spokeswoman Kellie O’Connell-Miller said.

Data? Why waste money on a study when you had testimonials like this from the residents of the hardest hit areas?

• Some communities are not very happy to have them. Chatham, where generations of African-American teachers, lawyers and other professionals have called home, has seen an influx of former CHA residents with vouchers — about 120 of them.

  “It has been disastrous for Chatham,” said Keith Tate, president of Chatham-Avalon Park Community Association.

  “Never did we see individuals sitting on their cars drinking 40-ounce bottles of beer.”

And it's amusing how the CHA and Frank Main don't even begin to cover the tremendous upswing in burglaries, shootings and assorted other mischief in the surrounding suburbs that ended up getting displaced CHA residents.

Another Lawsuit

A "wrong place at the wrong time" type suit:

• The family of a woman fatally shot last month by an off-duty Chicago police detective has filed a lawsuit alleging the officer opened fire without legal justification.
  
  Rekia Boyd, 22, died on March 22, a day after she was shot in the back of the head on the West Side.
  
  The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court, alleged that [the off-duty detective] was driving from an alley by his home near Douglass Park when he got in a verbal dispute with a group who were enjoying the unseasonably warm weather at about 1 a.m. on March 21.

No gun recovered, so it comes down to who sells their story to a jury better. Unless Corp Counsel cuts a deal, then no one ever hears a story.

Oops

All we're going to say is the term "accidental discharge" implies there was something wrong with the gun:

• Patrons at a South Shore nail salon hit the floor Thursday evening when a gun inside the purse of an off-duty Chicago police officer accidentally discharged inside the crowded salon, striking the officer in the leg.
  
  The 22-year veteran officer was shot at about 7:20 p.m. in the right thigh while inside Tracy's Nails, 2138 E. 71st St.
  
  Salon manager David Thai said the salon was very crowded and busy Thursday as people prepared for the Easter holiday weekend. The officer had just sat down to get her nails done at the time.
  
  "She dropped the purse and the gun went off," said Thai.

Thank goodness no bystanders were injured. Get well soon officer.

What Was That Noise??

That? That sound like a balloon being stretched tight?

Oh, that was just the sound of a whole bunch of sphincters slamming shut:

• A special prosecutor will re-examine the April 2004 death of David Koschman, who died of brain injuries after being punched in the face by Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko, a nephew of then-Mayor Richard M. Daley, a judge ruled Friday.

  Cook County Circuit Judge Michael Toomin had harsh words for the way the Chicago Police Department and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office handled the poltically charged investigation.

  Of their claim that Vanecko punched Koschman only in self-defense, the judge said, “This was a defense conjured up by police and prosecutors”

  The judge also took note of what he termed the “missing files syndrome” on the part of both the police and prosecutors.

  And Toomin noted that there are sworn statements from witnesses that contradict police reports.

How about the politicians there Toomin? If you think the State's Attorney's office wasn't acting at the direction of the Machine, you're being awfully naive.

Tribune coverage here.

More Aggravated Batteries to PO's

Englewood again:

• A man on parole was arrested after he rammed a police vehicle with a stolen minivan in Englewood to avoid capture, police said.
  
  The incident happened at about 6:15 p.m. Wednesday on the 7000 block of South Normal Avenue and resulted in two female police officers being treated and released from Little Company of Mary Hospital, said Chicago Police News Affairs [...].
  
  Darius Mosley, 23, of the 6900 block of South Normal Avenue, who was driving the minivan, was charged with two counts of aggravated battery to a police officer, aggravated fleeing an accident causing bodily injury and possession of a stolen vehicle. He was also wanted on a warrant for a parole violation, police said.
  
  He was also ticketed for driving without a license, failure to stop at a stop sign and not using a turn signal, police said.

Again, best wishes to the officers for speedy recoveries.

40 Years for Mope-rah's Buddy

The usual suspects showed up, but Howard Morgan will probably still die exactly where he belongs - in prison:

• After they’d filled every last seat in the courtroom, they squeezed into the aisles, some sitting on the floor, blue-shirted police officers and Occupy Chicago protesters and bow-tied members of the Nation of Islam.

  All the doors of Judge Clayton Crane’s room were thrown open so every last supporter of a black railroad police officer shot by Chicago Police in 2005 — and of the four white officers he’s been convicted of trying to kill — also could bear witness in the hallways.

• The judge did not believe Morgan’s account.

  “I have no idea what possessed your actions that night,” he told Morgan.

  The room’s silence held. Crane then delivered his sentence: 40 years.

Amusingly, Mope-rah catches Jesse Jackson in a blatant lie. We're sure it was unintentional. What Mope-rah published Monday morning:

• "We intend to go to court with him on April 5th, and a number of our people intend to be in the courtroom,” [Jackson] said.

What actually occurred in court Thursday:

• He has no other criminal history, [defense attorney] Stone said, quoting from a letter written by the Rev. Jesse Jackson asking Crane to “temper justice with mercy.”

Even Jesse knew this one sucked so badly for the defense he didn't even want to be in town when the sentencing came down and he lied to Mopey.

Wow

The Illinois Supreme Court actually acknowledging there might be a Second Amendment Right to Bear Arms? What's next, a Cubs World Series?

• The Illinois Supreme Court gave new life Thursday to a challenge to Cook County’s ban on assault weapons.

  A judge was wrong to throw out the challenge, and so was the appeals court that upheld that ruling, the state’s high court said in sending the case back to the judge to hear testimony on whether assault weapons should have the same Second Amendment protection as handguns.

And what makes an assault weapon so very scary?

• The county ordinance outlaws the sale or possession of “any assault weapon or large-capacity magazine.” It describes several traits of prohibited weapons — such as a protruding grip or a shroud attached to the barrel — and specifies several types of guns that are in violation of the ordinance.

Well that just outlawed all CPD rifles and derivatives (yes, we know about the law enforcement exceptions....pipe down). This is going to drag on for a bunch more years yet, so don't get all hopeful that Illinois is trending toward joining the other forty-nine states anytime soon.

Ernie Brown and 99 Units

A few people have said that Ernie Brown issued an order some years ago that encapsulated the "agreement" about 10-99 units during the hours of darkness. We'll admit we're drawing a blank here. But someone, somewhere has to have direct knowledge of it.

Of course, if it was a Patrol Division letter, it carries no weight with a new administration or for that matter, with a new Chief of Patrol once Ernie moved on. But for the historical record, it would be something helpful should the FOP decide to cite a past practice in a safety complaint.

Does it exist? And who's got a copy?

More Disabled Readers

There have also been a bunch of comments in the "Media Creates a Crisis" post about how we're making Zimmerman a martyr, how we're supporting Zimmerman, blah blah blah. Once again, those folks are making their own prejudices into something they aren't.

We've only pointed out the liberal media's rush to support an agenda that doesn't quite jibe with the facts at hand. We listed their errors and pointed out their omissions and for that we're accused of all sorts of racism. Racism?

What's the quote? "Better a hundred guilty men go free, than one innocent man suffer." Unless of course, you're a liberal with an agenda and then damn the facts and let's find us a rope and a tree, right?

And the latest from the Zimmerman case? The New York Times again, backing off earlier assumptions for Zimmerman being a paranoid headcase:

• First, Times reporter Lizette Alvarez reported on March 16 and again on March 20 that Mr. Zimmerman "placed 46 calls to 911 in 14 months"; even NPR eventually noted that those 46 phone calls ran from January 2004 to the present, so "46 calls to 911 in eight years" is the phrase they seek. Yet no correction is appended to either story, nor was the error addressed in their big walkback/walk away piece. Is it relevant to the story? The Times thought so when they reported it, and some might find that it reveals a bit about Mr. Zimmerman's paranoia, or lack thereof.

So the New York Times went from reporting 46 calls in 14 months to 46 calls in 8 years? That's what, 6 calls a year? Hell, we call 9-1-1 more than 6 times a year and we don't even run a neighborhood watch organization. So much for paranoia.

Hypocrites, race baiters, hack journalists and agenda driven scumbags, all working together to circumvent the investigatory process and acquiesce to mob rule. We can only hope the world ends this December.

For the Reading Disabled

We posted this in the comment section, but we're putting it out here in case anyone missed it:

• Mope-rah is NOT Oprah Winfrey. Some softballs seem to think that Oprah has a column and wrote the drivel we picked apart the other day. She doesn't and she didn't.
• Mope-rah is the Slum Times resident race-baiter and hack writer Mary Mitchell. M = Mary. M = Mope-rah. Get it now?
  

Just for future reference, Dope-rah is the Tribune's guest race-baiting hack, Dawn Trice Turner. D = Dawn. D = Dope-rah. It's really quite simple.

And furthermore, in the interest of clearing the air, calling Mope-rah an "ignorant slut" is a throwback to the good old days of Saturday Night Live (when SNL was actually humorous and cutting edge) where Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtain would go at each other over some triviality during Weekend Update. The comeback Jane would always use was "Dan, you pompous ass."

So all those expressing faux outrage over our writing need to (A) grow a sense of humor and (B) get over it. Sorry your television nowadays is so meaningless. Geez. We even apologized to Aykroyd in the opening line so people would understand where it was coming from.

UPDATE: And the people bitching about the comment about "The Jew is using the Black as muscle against you" obviously never saw The Blues Brothers. Do we really have to rehash the scene for you? Suffice it to say that the people leaping off the bridge? Those are the Illinois nazis - and they look like assholes the whole movie. Bumbling comedic foils. Aykroyd and Belushi made them out to be complete morons. That's how we interpreted the comment, but alas, not all of our readers have the sophisticated comedic wit that we and others possess.

Political correctness claims another generation.

Technical Note

Some of our more popular threads have comments running past 200. Unfortunately, due to some Blogger issue, the comments are hidden.

To see the entire set of comments, just type a single character (a period, a letter, a number) and post it as a comment. the rest of the comments will appear for reading. We'll delete the character comment so as not to have extra clutter around.

Comments closed for this post.

014 Shooting in 015?

Or are we getting things mixed up?

• Chicago police fired shots at a suspect who fled from officers before colliding with another squad car this morning on the city's West Side.

  No officers were injured in the collision, or when officers fired on the suspect following the end of the pursuit in the 1200 block of North Lavergne Avenue in the North Austin neighborhood just after midnight, police said.

  The motorist was taken into police custody.

  Police said the unidentified motorist fled from Shakespeare District officers who tried to curb the vehicle near the intersection of North and Grand avenues.

  The mile-long pursuit ended with the suspect's vehicle collided with another squad car on North Lavergne...

No one on our side hurt according to the article. Hopefully, that includes the officers in the squad car that got hit.

Media Creates a Crisis (UPDATED)

Has the main stream media learned nothing from their rush to judgement during the Duke Lacrosse Scandal? We guess not, as seen by these articles that keep popping up everywhere - everywhere except the main stream media:

NBC Caught Editing 9-1-1 Phone Call:

• Following in line with their broadcast television colleagues who deliberately edited the audio of a 9-1-1 call of George Zimmerman, the Florida community watch volunteer who shot teenager Trayvon Martin, to falsely impute racist motives to him, MSNBC.com, in an unbylined piece did the exact same thing in text form, stripping out vital information which made Zimmerman appear to be racially motivated against Martin, who is black.
  
  (What the transcript said):
  
  ZIMMERMAN: This guy looks like he's up to no good, [begin ellipsis] or he's on drugs or something. It's raining, and he's just walking around, looking about.
  
  911 DISPATCHER: Okay, is this guy, is he white, black, or Hispanic? [end ellipsis]
  
  ZIMMERMAN: He looks black.
  
  (What MSNBC broadcast in text and tape):
  
  ZIMMERMAN: This guy looks like he's up to no good, .... He looks black.

No retraction was ever issued and the correction appeared as if by magic once the blogs started picking up on the deception.

ABC misrepresents tape of Zimmerman at police station:

• (what ABC broadcast)
  
  A police surveillance video taken the night that Trayvon Martin was shot dead shows no blood or bruises on George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch captain who says he shot Martin after he was punched in the nose, knocked down and had his head slammed into the ground.

But then forensics specialists enhanced the video and located this:

Two rather large and obvious gashes across Zimmerman's head. Imagine that. ABC was forced to eat its words.

And finally, the New York Times suddenly realized Zimmerman wasn't a gigantic raging lunatic, while Trayvon wasn't a flyweight either. Zimmerman has been described as anywhere from 220 pounds up to 240, Trayvon as 140. Turns out both weights were wrong:

• Either the NY Times needs to tear out the front page or they have just delivered an epic fail. In either case, they have delivered a tilt to the scales of justice.

  In a long attempt to detail the night of the Trayvon Martin killing they include this description of the fatal scuffle:

  However it started, witnesses described to the 911 dispatcher what resulted: the neighborhood watch coordinator, 5-foot-9 and 170 pounds, and the visitor, 6-foot-1 and 150, wrestling on the ground.

UPDATE: Now CNN has enhanced the 9-1-1 call and their own reporter is casting doubt on the alleged "racial slur" contained within:

• “It certainly sounds like that word to me,” Gary Tuckman said when the audio was first enhanced. But after the latest enhancement, he’s not so sure:

  “Now it does sound less like that racial slur. … From listening in this room, and this is a state-of-the-art room, it doesn’t sound like that slur anymore. It sounds like … we‘re hearing the swear word at first and then the word ’cold.’ And the reason some say that would be relevant, is because it was unseasonably cold in Florida that night and raining.”

  The audio expert agreed it sounded like “cold,” and said the new method gets rid of a lot more background noise but doesn’t change the voice or words.

ABC, NBC/MSNBC, The New York Times and now CNN have all withdrawn, corrected, or disavowed their initial reports. So once again, the media abets the rush to judgement and lays waste to its already tattered reputation for a corrupt political agenda espoused by enablers and baiters of the lowest order. How about letting the system work the way it was meant to?

And that brings up an interesting point - does anyone know if McCarthy and Rahm have a contingency plan if a Grand Jury declines to indict in Florida? Because we're going to need one and we're going to need it in a hurry.

A Cry for Attention

"Pfather" Pfleger again:

• The Rev. Michael Pfleger, the activist pastor of St. Sabina Church on the South Side, says he believes someone was "trying to send a message" by tying a shirt to the door of a parish building and setting it on fire overnight.
  
  Pfleger, known for his campaign against gangs and drugs, said it's the third time something has been nailed to the door of a parish building recently. In one previous incident, it was a bag of excrement.

Really? A bag of shit? Apropos one might say.

Anyone else see this as a cry for attention? Because we're pretty sure Sabina's is covered in video cameras. At least it was last time we were.....ah, never mind. Go forth and seek the evildoers!

Cops Hurt in Wreck

Another one, this time in Englewood:

• Two Chicago Police officers were taken to a hospital after their vehicle was involved in a collision tonight in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side.
  
  It happened about 6:10 p.m. in the 7000 block of South Normal Avenue, said police News Affairs [...].
  
  The officers were taken to Little Company of Mary Hospital in good condition....

Get well soon Officers.

Apple PIckers Busted

Nice work:

• A South Side man and a 15-year-old boy are accused of stealing an iPhone from a man in the Edgewater neighborhood this week, and a second stolen phone also was recovered, police said today.
  
  Michael P. Gray, 21, of the 3000 block of East 80th Street, was charged with robbery while the boy was charged as a juvenile, also with robbery, police said.
  
  Police were already in the area of the 1200 block of West Rosemont Avenue about 3 a.m. Monday when they saw the two push the victim on the ground while the juvenile shouted: “Grab his phone, grab his phone,’’ according to a police report.
  
  Gray ripped the black iPhone from the victim’s hand and they fled northbound on foot, but the Rogers Park District officers apprehended them almost immediately, police said.

That CTA Red Line sure makes life interesting for the northsiders, doesn't it? Is that in the violence zone?

Mope-rah, You Ignorant Slut

Apologies to Dan Aykroyd

Mope-rah does it again with her overinflated sense of drama and regular distortion of the facts to achieve .... well, we aren't sure what she hopes to achieve. It certainly isn't journalism (no links to Mope-rah):

• At a time when the shooting in Florida of Trayvon Martin is drawing supporters from across the country, Chicago has its own shooting scandal.

Really? Do tell!

• Like the Trayvon case, nothing about the 2005 shooting of Howard Morgan makes sense. Chicago police officers shot Morgan 28 times during an alleged traffic stop. However, it was Morgan who was charged with attempted murder, among other offenses.

Yeah, because he shot at the police. Seventeen times. His Glock semi-auto was in slide-lock when it was recovered. And since he was shooting at the police, that qualifies as attempted murder. Oh, and two officers (or was it three?) sustained bullet wounds from the shooting - can we explain that one? Because Mope-rah doesn't even mention it.

• But unlike the Trayvon case, Morgan’s wife and supporters have had a difficult time getting the media to pay attention to the case even though it involved a volatile mixture of cops and race.
  Morgan is African-American. All of the police officers involved in the shooting are white.

Because the media can actually sense bullshit when they try. The trouble is they don't try most of the time. Race has exactly nothing to do with this Mopey.

• [...]
  
  After a second trial, Morgan was convicted of attempted murder and is scheduled to be sentenced at 26th and California at 8 a.m. Thursday amid protests that the second trial amounted to double jeopardy.
  
  “He should have been acquitted of the remaining charges,” Rosalind Morgan argued. “His constitutional rights were violated. He did not have a fair trial.”

He was acquitted of some charges and retried on the charges that the jury couldn't figure out. No double jeopardy there, but Mope-rah gives an ignorant woman a platform to spout her bullshit, and in doing so contributes to the ignorance of thousands more, many of whom happen to be the audience Mope-rah claims is oppressed. How can you be oppressed by following the rule of law? Oh yeah, we forgot.

In any event, the column reaches bottom pretty quickly and starts digging a hole. Mope-rah pretty much sucks as a columnist and advocates support for those who attempt to kill the police. We are reminded of the time her car was stolen and she refused to identify or sign complaints on any of the thieves for one reason and one reason only. Mope-rah is a hack, a pot stirrer, an excuse maker and just another millstone around the necks of decent minority citizens everywhere.

In any event, sentencing is scheduled for 05 April. If you can, stop by the courtroom early. Someone will have the room number on the comments shortly we're sure.

Working 99

FYI:

• There is no provision in the FOP Contract that says you can refuse an assignment to work 10-99 during the hours of darkness. None.
  

The historical record says this was a "gentleman's agreement" between the City and a group of police officer's wives following the ambush killing of an officer working alone. Nothing was ever put into contract language and the city has never once acted as "gentlemen," even when they were stealing land from the Indians 175 years ago.

Refuse a work assignment at your own risk.

Strike Strike Strike

Get ready for a long autumn:

• The Chicago Teachers Union says internal polling shows there is support for a strike if contract talks with Chicago Public Schools break down.

  A new state law requires the union to get approval from 75 percent of its members before a strike, leading many to question if the union could muster support for a walkout.

  CTU spokeswoman Stephanie Gadlin said members at several schools were polled.

  "The preliminary results indicate that if a strike vote were held today, teachers in those schools would vote unanimously for a walkout," Gadlin said.

You know your members think you're really getting screwed in contract negotiations if you can get 75% of the membership to vote down an offer. That type of support is the stuff of legend.

This Isn't a Joke

Someone ought to go around and tear down those "Earned, Not Given" posters in the Districts and Academy, because nothing seems to be earned around here anymore:

• It turns out after Thursday’s Compstat meeting there was an “after-meeting” with the exempts.
  
  The Superintendent and 1st Deputy are upset over not “getting respect”.
  
  As it turns out, Mc-Barstool has picked up on the fact that the exempts think he is a joke and seen it when everyone was laughing and cutting up during the Compstat meeting.
  
  There was also an incident in the past week when a press conference was held at the 007th District. Mc-Dickwad walked into the station and Uncle Garry extended his hand out to a police officer leaning up against the wall with his hands tucked inside his vest and his foot up against the wall.
  The officer stated, “Wus Up?” to the Super and never shook his hand. To say the least, this really fucked over [someone's] ego!
  Now he is pushing for us to be “more professional” and adhere to stricter uniform standards with the help of the new inspectors.

As a "quasi-military organization" (we aren't paramilitary by any stretch of the imagination), we're pretty sure they can interpret the not "coming to attention" as a form of insubordination. You win based on past practice, which is probably why they issued an order about stand-up Roll Calls being held every single day.

But as far as we can recall, there's no Order, Policy or Contract provision stating you have to shake a hand that's offered. Respecting the rank is one thing, but respect is a two way street and must be earned by the individual. The First Deputy received how many "merit" promotions in his career? And the highest award our Department can bestow for shooting an innocent car? How is that remotely respectable? McCarthy has proven time and time again he is nothing more than a carpet bagging political hack who doesn't have the best interests of the police at heart, just the best interests of McCarthy and NYPD style policing (which is on the verge of blowing up in his face). What the hell is respectable about that?

We're glad we retired recently. We don't even have to pretend to respect anyone now.

(post amended to reflect Al's unearned Lambert Tree)

This is a Joke, Right?

Someone please tell us this is a joke:

• McCarthy is redesigning a new CPD patch for patrol. It includes the city skyline.
  
  Everyone's on the street, but apparently there is still time for this nonsense at R&D.

Without even going into the whole "first issue" stuff, don't we have about 100 other things to be worrying about?

Stop trying to leave your mark McCompStat. Our traditions here are just fine. We've been policing in Chicago for over 150 years now. You missed your chance after St. Sabina's with your anti-gun government conspiracy bullshit and maybe even years ago shooting out streetlights and the traffic ticket fiasco.

Marine Unit Rescue

Quick work and some lucky circumstances:

• Chicago Police Marine Unit officers had just finished a training dive several miles out on Lake Michigan when they got a call about 4:30 p.m. to respond to a female trespasser who had made it out to the Locks separating the Chicago River from Lake Michigan.
  
  Still donning their water suits, the officers sped in their marine boats and put that training to use when they saw the 24-year-old woman in nothing but her underwear. The woman seemed noticeably upset and appeared ready to jump into the water, officers said.
  
  "It was nice that we came from that training dive because everything was on and we were all ready to go," said Marine Unit Officer Leticia Kaner.

The woman did in fact jump and Officer Kaner went right in after her, dragging her to the boat with the assistance of other officers and then holding down the distraught woman until they could get her to shore and medical help. A very nice bit of work.

The Correct Call, but....

Charges dropped against the 80-year-old defending himself with a gun:

• Homer "Tank" Wright says he's happy prosecutors dropped charges filed against him after he shot a suspected burglar last week.
  
  But the 80-year-old tavern owner in Englewood is upset they did not return the .38-caliber pistol he used to shoot the intruder in the leg.
  
  "I still don't appreciate them taking my weapon because I need one," Wright said. "You, me or anybody else should be able to have some kind of protection. You have to be able to take care of yourself."

But there's the problem:

• Wright was charged with unlawful use of a weapon because he had been convicted in the past of weapons charges and is not allowed to own a gun. Prosecutors defended the charge, but announced in court early this morning that they were dismissing it. They gave no explanation.

The law doesn't say any felon except 80-year-old Homer Wright can't have a gun. The law is pretty explicit that no felon shall own any gun. Not a lot of wiggle room there. Which is amusingly ironic as Wright, who has reached his golden years in defiance of some pretty long odds, truly needs a gun to protect himself but because of previous bad life decisions, is prohibited from doing so.

And that's to say nothing about how can a felon hold a liquor license?

Brilliant job by the States Attorneys not explaining the dropping of the charges though. A completely teachable moment about how gun ownership can and does prevent crime, how an elderly businessman can defend his property against young thugs by use of a gun, how maybe there needs to be a serious discussion about restoring Second Amendment Rights to those who have served their time and stayed out of trouble for years. Nope, we'll just close our eyes, plug our ears and pretend Homer Wright didn't actually shoot anyone.

CompStat Comes to Indy

And this website has noticed the book we highlighted a month ago:

• The basics of American policing, chasing and catching criminals, hasn’t changed much in the last 200 years, but technology has inspired various nuances to the tactics of “chasing” and “catching” criminals. Patrol officers see “crime fighting” as a very basic and simple process, while the managers of policing agencies complicate the process by trying to reinvent the wheel for various political and self-serving reasons. Much has been made about the perceived ability of law enforcement to prevent and reduce crime. Politicians, police chiefs and public safety directors, mistakenly believe they have the ability to drastically affect crime, while more rational experts declare that law enforcement can only affect crime trends on the margins.

They extensively cover “The Crime Numbers Game: Management by Manipulation” by John Eterno and Eli Silverman and concur with the conclusions drawn by the authors, one of whom is a retired NYPD Captain and knows all the tricks of CompStat.

The storm continues to brew.

Truly Stupid Idea

(Long post - read it all to get a feel for what's going on)

Once again, reinventing the wheel, but reinventing it stupidly. Our comment section is alive with some truly asinine policies invented by downtown:

• God help the 011 district. McGoofs newest idea is going to get a copper killed. If you are on a beat car that has a violence zone, you must stay in that box the whole tour. You must have a PDT in the car, and ask for a relief for lunch and personals. You only take calls that are in your box.
  
  If you are a beat car with no zone, you run your ass off all night, running all over the district ,working off the backlog. 6 beat cars right out of roll call are not taking jobs.
  
  [...] NOW they want a FIXED FOOT POSTS IN THE VIOLENCE ZONE!! Further curtailing the cars responding to jobs and providing backup! Original idea was to have a car drop them off to STAND in 011 for their entire tour. Each a block from each other. And on all watches!!! How insane to expect any copper to stand by themselves on a damn block in a violence zone in 011 on any watch (1st watch- really???)
  
  The first night they were allowed to have cars (must have a working PDT aka GPS) but how long will that last? Also the troops were ask to curtail their requests for time off in roll call.
  011 is not the district to have 4 to 5 cars answering jobs. Back up is non existent and now fixed foot posts. The situation just gets worse and worse for the officers in 011. The bosses have put the 011 coppers in a very dangerous situation , that will only get worse!
  

Another comment on the same subject:

• Last night in 011 on first watch, 9 out of 18 cars were either in a zone or or a fixed posts-responding only to calls in their assigned zone. That's 9 cars remaining for a busy district to pick up the slack.the zone cars have to get relief for lunch and personals. Nothing like asking permission to pee! Mc Goof is an asshat. This strategy is dangerous.

And another:

• I'm surprised to see that no one is talking about what that piece of New York Shit told the 11th district commander. Besides the whole time due thing. He was told to have a police officer posted 24/7 at drug spots that the police shut down. [He] wants a copper standing on the street by themselves (like a lame duck in the middle of the ghetto) without a squad car or partner. [He] was grandstanding when he asked the room full bosses if anyone wanted to challenge him on this great idea. There was NOT one boss in that room that had the balls or even an ounce of courage to stand up to [him] and tell him what a stupid idea that us and that it will jepordize the safety of all officers assigned to that detail. This department has truly turned into a joke. Now I know why they made all the exempt ranks under 50 years old , because they are all to scared of loosing their spots by speaking up and the bosses over 50 are just scared little people that don't even belong on this job!

And e-mails:

• Today we were visited in roll call by Commander Washignton and Captain Bay (XO). They informed us that now IN ADDITION to these ridiculous zones that tie down 3 primary beat cars and 6 rapid/06 cars a night, we will now have 4 fixed foot posts, each manned by a 99 officer on all watches. On third watch today, 1125 and 1131 were removed from their beats and put on these foot posts, which are on 1112's beat. We were also advised that the p/os on said foot posts will not have a car, because according to McCarthy, if you give them a car, they will sit in it. All of this coming less than a week after 3 p/os in 011 went on IOD from having to wrestle with shitheads, and bricks were thrown at the police while they tried to pursue an agg batt offender.
  The REAL kicker though came when Cmndr Washington informed us that time due will be restricted. The number of people allowed to take off on any given day will be greatly reduced, especially on the weekends. If we wanted to discuss these issues with the Commander, we were told we had to wait because he was going out of town with his family (this is before my slip for Easter Sunday that I put in two months ago got denied). Apparently 011 and 007 are experiencing some kind of emergency situation that requires the Department to deny time due??
  Then we were told by Bay and Washington that they aren't looking for more arrests, but more contact cards because if you get out and contact card these people "they won't come back." (These are our "leaders" that actually believe this)
  The backlogs are literally hours long in 011. All priority 1a jobs have an avearge of 30 to 60 minutes on them because there is nobody that can come out of a zone or off of a corner to answer them. We are told that we need to ask permission to use the bathroom because we can't leave our "zone" or corner without a face to face relief. This is such a fucking joke and someone needs to fix it before, God forbid, somebody gets killed.

Another:

• ...twelve cars held down every single shift on all watches. The shift starts in backlog and hands off a backlog --twenty-four hour straight backlog! Downing beat cars to cover violence zones means entire square miles of the district have no police coverage.
  

One person complaining might be just someone with an axe to grind. Two might be a sympathetic ear for the first. Three people with the same basic complaint makes us sit up and notice and think there's something to this after all.

We've gotten a few dozen complaints along with at least that many e-mails, all relating the same thing:

• 011 is holding down three violence zones with 8 cars every single day, all shifts
• 011 is covering four fixed posts with 4 cars, every single day, all shifts
• manpower hasn't changed, but the bosses are restricting time due to three people on some days
  

That's 12 cars down every shift and almost no time due granted. Downing multiple beat cars is the dumbest thing we're heard. We have officers alleging that the backlogs are running 24 hours straight and we are starting to believe it.

We don't have any solutions for the 011 people. We did notice the FOP is making noise to address the time due restrictions but that isn't going to make up for missing holidays, birthdays and family events in the short term. Readers?

CompStat = ConStat

The entire CompStat system continues to be exposed as a fraud of amazing proportions and the Chicago media continues to provide Rahm with political cover by studiously ignoring his superintendent's involvement in perpetrating this bullshit. Story #1:

• There are disturbing claims from a police veteran that the NYPD intentionally tried to under report crime rates.

  He claims, in an exclusive television interview, that in one precinct in Queens, the severities of some crimes were systematically downgraded.

We know some of you out there are probably muttering "Schoolcraft again?" Nope, not at all:

• Sergeant Borrelli is the latest in a growing list of police officers to claim widespread manipulation of NYPD crime data.

• And there was Officer Polanco from the 41st Precinct.

  "An assault would be downgraded to a violation, harassment, a shooting would be downgraded to a reckless endangerment," Polanco said.

And the NYPD continues to harass the whistleblowers:

• Like Officers Polanco and Schoolcraft who have been suspended, Sgt. Borrelli is now feeling the heat too.

  He's been hit with minor disciplinary charges and transferred to the midnight shift at the Bronx Courthouse after a decade as a supervisor at the 100th precinct.

Story #2 is a followup concentrating on Sergeant Borrelli's allegations and the subsequent efforts of the NYPD brass to shut him up:

• In an exclusive interview, a 19-year veteran of the NYPD describes widespread manipulation of crime reports at the 100th Precinct in Queens. The sergeant says when he blew the whistle on the routine fudging of crimes, the department retaliated and transferred him to a midnight shift at Bronx Central.
  
  
• Borrelli says the NYPD has left him with no choice but to go public after months of ignoring his allegations of routine misclassification of crimes at the precinct.

Borrelli also taped conversations with his "Quality Assurance" superiors and has them on tape admitting to a number of misclassifications. Combined with the Polanco and Schoolcraft allegations and resulting fallout, it would appear that Professors Silverman and Eterno are right on the money when they point out that NYPD has a definite problem regarding crime stats.

And that would mean Rahm has a definite problem with McCarthy himself, seeing as how he was part and parcel of the CompStat culture and all the attendant odors attached to this bullshit.

Killer Kills Again - Times Three

Quick work catches a suspect in the triple homicide the other day. And guess what? He has a record for homicide of all things:

• A man who finished serving a sentence for murder four months ago has been charged with a triple-slaying last week that left a South Side home strewn with bullet-riddled bodies.
  
  Curtis A. Davis Jr. was once friends with the three men he’s now charged with shooting to death March 27 at an apartment in the West Woodlawn neighborhood, prosecutors said.
  
  Dozens of shell casings littered the scene, and one victim was found on the porch, his body disfigured by 33 bullet wounds, authorities said.

Out for four months and now headed back inside. Who would have thought that prison could fail so spectacularly to actually rehabilitate a hardened criminal?

Off Duty Attacked

Not even safe at home from assholes:

• A 59-year-old off-duty Chicago police officer was hit in the face by a man soliciting business for Direct Energy, according to police.

  Vincent Taylor, 22, was arrested about 3:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon at the officer's home on California Avenue on the Southwest Side. Taylor, of the 5900 block of Superior Street, in west suburban Berkeley, was wearing an orange polo shirt with what appears to be the Direct Energy logo on the left side of his chest in his police booking photo.
  
  The officer declined Taylor's offer and asked him to shut the gate in his front yard as he left, police said.
  
  Taylor slammed the gate and the officer approached him to ask why he didn't shut it, police said.
  
  The two started arguing, police said. Prosecutors said he threatened the officer. And two people who witnessed the argument told police Taylor was arguing with the officer before Taylor hit him in the face, breaking the officer's glasses and causing swelling around his left eye, police said.

Was this just a guy having a bad day?

• This is Taylor's fourth arrest on battery charges, and at least one of those was domestic, police said.

Guess not.

Nice to see the State approved the Aggravated Battery charge. And also keep in mind Direct Energy doesn't seem to do much of a background check on those individuals soliciting for their business.

Broken Record

Friday into Saturday was pretty much what you'd expect. Saturday into Sunday continued in that same vein:

• At least nine people were shot between 11:10 p.m. Saturday and 5 a.m. Sunday, according to Chicago police, including four outside a West Side club about 3 a.m.

We certainly like how the media is spouting the meme that "murders are up 56%, but overall crime is down 10%."

The thing about statistics is they're very manipulable. Take that 35% number. That's year-to-date of 2011 compared to 2012. It's still a bad number, but it sounds waaaaaaaay better than the almost 118% increase when you compare just March of 2011 to March of 2012.

And the 10% decrease in crime? If you're counting raw numbers, maybe crime did "go down." But if there is a population decrease, then the per capita rate is changing a lot less (if at all) from year-to-year.

And trust us, if homicides (killings) are going up, then the other crime is climbing, too. They just use tricks like those we pointed out to make things sound better than they are. Remember, OEC is handling more calls than ever and paying more overtime than they can keep track of - that doesn't sound like crime is down, does it? What happens is the manpower dictates that we can't respond as quickly to minor crime/disorder and people get sick of waiting around for a cop that might not show up for an hour or more.

Officer Pearson Says Thanks

From the comment section:

• Dear SCC and readers. I am police officer Del Pearson. I'm a devout reader of this blog and as with anything on this job take the information i receive with skepticism but enjoy the humor.
  Id like to use this forum to thank each and every member of my police family for the incredible job of not only saving my life but also for the incredible and professional police work done on the street the night i was shot.
  We've all formed opinions about coworkers and bosses on this job but its times like this that you genuinely learn the heart of people. I certainly have. To all the incredible cops in 004 i cannot and will never be able to express the gratitude i feel towards all of you. To all the units citywide that rushed to the call of me being down, you all showed that we dont need a world stage like NATO to show the world we are the greatest police department on the planet
  To the medical staff at both hospitals, you saved my life, thank you from my still intact soul. I especially like to say a personal thanks to the security guard at trinity who locked eyes with me as a i walked to the stretcher. The last vision i would have as i entered unconsciousness. Dr. Lee and the trauma team at Christ. I thank god everyday for the skill hes given all of you! Its fucking unbelievable that just a week ago i was at deaths door and now im home with no reason why i cant return to normal after rehab. Its amazing. I remember fighting to stay awake in the back seat as we raced to the hospital. I kept thinking that if "Dude" can get shot 29 times and walk away, so could I.
  SCC, i especially want everyone to know about the new friends ive made at 35th st. Readers, you can say what you want. Superintendent McCarthy is a real guy. Al Wysinger and Nick Roti as well! These three have been unbelievable to me and my family. I cannot say enough of how cool its been to get to know these guys as friends. I realize coppers will say they infused me with some coolaid while i was under, body snatched me, but its not like that. The Super is my friend. Im proud to say it! Not as a boss or because he had to be there, because he would sit and we talked bout stupid shit we've done out there and lived to laugh about it. Yes the story about my new star number is true.
  Like i said SCC, we all form opinions about people on this job based on things we've heard. I just want some coppers to hear my opinion on Gary McCarthy the man, my boss and now my friend.
  Thanks for the space SCC. I know its kinda long and im sure ive left some people out. I wanted to say something to everyone but im not an in front of the cameras type guy so i decided this was a good place for it, after all, nobody reads this insignificant little spot anyway
  Thank you, everyone!
  P.O. Del Pearson#16462/6254

Best wishes for a speedy and complication free recovery to Officer Pearson from everyone here.

And while we and others may have differing opinions on the superintendent, we'd ask you respect Del's comments as he's the guy with the bullet wound through his body.

More Pension Looting

Buried in the Saturday paper, we don't know if this will make the Sunday editions:

• At first blush, a pension bill adopted by the General Assembly in 2007 seemed to have a laudable goal: extending retirement benefits to local police force employees’ widows after they remarried.

  But buried within the legislation was something considerably less altruistic: a provision that enabled a member of one of Chicago’s better-known political families to boost his pension by more than $30,000 a year — while saddling unsuspecting taxpayers in Oak Brook with nearly $750,000 in funding liabilities, the Chicago Sun-Times and Better Government Association have learned.

  The recipient of that larger pension, Thomas Sheahan, is a former police chief in Oak Brook, the current village manager in Lyons and a member of a Democratic clan that has helped rule Chicago’s Southwest Side for decades.

  Sharp-tongued and unapologetic about benefitting from the provision that no one else has used, the 59-year-old Sheahan said of his pension: “I worked for 24 f------ years [in the public sector], I deserve every penny of it and I deserve a lot f------ more.”

Come on Sheahan, you were a pencil pusher, a connected political heavyweight, and pretty much unworthy to carry the title of Police Officer. Let's not pretend you actually earned anything.

Late Notifications

This is just great:

• I had been hearing a lot of grumbling about late notifications for 26th and Cal and experienced it myself this week and thought people should be made aware. Apparently someone cut down on the number of personnel who notify officers for dates at 26th street. This cutback has resulted in a long delay in notifications being made to the districts/units and thus to the affected P.O.'s. I counted at least a dozen notifications for trials on 29MAR that arrived in district on the 28th. This included a three day trial notification for Thursday, Friday, and Monday that the officers received on Wednesday, if they weren't RDO. In my opinion this move was made for several reasons. 1. Adding to the magic number of officers allegedly moved "to the street." 2. Cutting down on officers who show up in court and thus eliminating paying overtime, and 3, the more sinister motivation, forcing P.O.'s to take deviations and possibly incurring punishment. Maybe this is just a couple week backlog, but its not restricted to where I work because I heard people in other areas mentioning it as well. Let me know what you think or if you've heard anything about this.

We thought this was a glitch or something when we got notified for a court date that was two days past. Now we're find out it's citywide and it's pervasive across the board.

No doubt, the Department is going to fall back on the "officer is ultimately responsible for his/her own court notifications" crap. But if you're RDO (or RDO-plus-a-day to enjoy a three day weekend) and you're not notified until after you return, we're pretty sure that some deviations are going to slip through.

They'll have the manpower to hammer you but not to notify you in the first place. Better start making copies of everything again. If only the copiers weren't out of paper all the time.

More DC Memorial Info

For any retirees headed to Washington DC to maintain and uphold CPD's traditional showing at the Memorial:

CLYDES 2012

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