Baltimore Threats

The entire situation in Baltimore has descended into the realms of ridiculousness:

• The mayor said she's made her expectations clear to the police union, adding the commissioner is prepared to take action if officers purposely fail to serve and protect.
  
  Rawlings-Blake drew a line in the sand regarding police and their oath to serve and protect the public.
  
  "As long as they plan to cash their paycheck, our expectation, my expectation is that they work," Rawlings-Blake said.
  
  City police officers are showing up for work, but by their own admission they intend to react to situations more than anything else. Two hid their faces and disguised their voices last week on CNN.
  
  "Well the difference is the proactive self-initiated policing has stopped. We're now in a reactive mode. We're in a total reactive mode," the officers told CNN.

Remember, these political leaders have acquiesced to mob rule. The mayor gave rioters "room" to wreak havoc, loot and burn. The mayor ordered police not to engage, and then blamed them. The DA didn't conduct anything like a realistic investigation, interviewed almost no witnesses or principals, massively over-charged the defendants, and is currently engaged in trying to keep autopsy evidence from the defense lawyers, depriving them of the opportunity to put on an informed, capable defense.

The cops are doing exactly what is required of them by law - responding to calls and writing reports. There isn't a law anywhere in this country that requires officers to make observations, get out of the car, confront suspicious people, frisk them and take proactive actions. There are plenty of laws delineating what elements have to be present to lawfully do these things,. but to require these actions?

Can you say "quota?" And everyone knows quota policing is bad policing and is in fact, against the law in pretty much every single state. It's a nice thing to have observant officers. It's a good thing to have cops that care about stopping crime before it happens, confronting suspicious people, being proactive. But requiring it? Not without the support of the citizens and the system and unfortunately for Baltimore, that day is long gone.

Rahm Moves the Budget Timetable

This is a surprise:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Wednesday he will introduce his 2016 budget in September — a full month early — to confront Chicago’s “momentous budget and pension challenges.”
  
  Chicago’s faces a $1 billion operating shortfall and a $20 billion pension crisis. The Chicago Public Schools has a $1 billion shortfall and a $9.5 billion unfunded pension liability that threatens the on-time opening of Chicago Public Schools.
  
  An Illinois Supreme Court ruling that overturned state pension reforms and placed Emanuel’s plan to save two of four city employee pension funds in similar jeopardy dropped Chicago’s bond rating to junk status.

So we'll be at the tail end of the summer killing season, likely a few weeks into a Teachers' strike and Rahm wants to introduce his budget a month early...a budget that's going to have to cover a $550 million payment to the pension.

What does Rahm know? Has Rauner signaled the casino bill is going to pass? Because everything is tied to that bill....everything. Without that bill, Rahm is up Shit Creek without a paddle, as are the taxpayers and the pension funds.

Asshole Kills Ohio Cop with Chicago Roots

And in turn, was killed by responding officers, but that tradeoff is never worth it:

• A Cincinnati police officer killed in a shootout Friday was a Chicago native who had attended high school and community college here before leaving for Ohio, authorities said.
  
  Cincinnati's police chief says a man suspected of fatally shooting the officer, Sonny Kim, apparently wanted police to kill him in what the chief described as "suicide by cop."
  
  Kim, a decorated 27-year veteran of the Cincinnati Police Department, died along with the man involved in the Friday morning shooting in the Madisonville neighborhood, police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell said.

Sympathies to the Cincinnati PD and the family of the fallen.

UPDATE: We reversed the origin of the  cop and the asshole - title corrected to reflect the correction.

Bad Choice of Friends

The subtle undermining continues in the media:

• At the time she vanished in 1980, Karen Koppel was causing headaches for Ben Stein – a mob associate and felon whose Chicago janitorial company had grown fat through local government contracts.
  
  Stein, who was in his 60s and married to someone else, wanted to break off what apparently was a romantic relationship with the much younger Koppel. However, Koppel wasn’t happy. She was making wild accusations about Stein, and demanded a large financial settlement to let things drop, Chicago police records indicate.
  
  Stein asked a long-time friend – then-Chicago cop Richard "Rick" Simon, who moonlighted for Stein’s firm – to help amicably resolve things, according to police records and interviews.
  
  Simon acknowledged to the Better Government Association meeting and talking with Koppel at a Rush Street-area tavern one crisp spring night 35 years ago. She left alone, and wasn’t heard from again, prompting missing persons investigations by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office and Chicago police.

And who is the Better Government Association tagging with the "drip drip drip" of uncovered scandal?

• Koppel has never turned up dead or alive, the case remains "open" and nobody has been formally cleared as a potential suspect, authorities said. Yet Simon has a noticeably different relationship with law enforcement these days: He not only socializes with Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy, as previously reported by the Chicago Sun-Times. He also has donated to and possibly raised money for Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez’s political campaign, the BGA found.

Didn't we lose a Superintendent just a few years back over his choice in associates? Is history repeating?

IPRA Corruption

Crooked City Blog found out why the Evans trial has been delayed:

• An employee of the agency that investigates police abuse was fired last week for allegations of perjury.
  
  Now, new allegations are surfacing that former Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) employee Matrice Campbell is also being investigated by the city’s Inspector General for misconduct in the case against Chicago Police Commander Glenn Evans.
  
  The allegations could be a devastating blow for the Cook County State’s Attorney, who has pursued a high-profile criminal case against Evans.
  
  The state’s attorney charged Evans with battery and official misconduct in 2014 for allegedly putting a gun in a suspect’s mouth.
  
  Media reports originally indicated that DNA evidence from the suspect, Rickey J. Williams, had been obtained from Evans’ gun.
  
  But in a court hearing today, defense attorneys for Evans reportedly revealed that Campbell is under investigation by the city’s Inspector General for a host of other abuses in connection with Evans’ case. Attorneys in the hearing also reportedly indicated that other IPRA employees may be targeted by the Inspector General.

So the organization that is tasked to oversee a supposedly "out-of-control" police department is itself, totally out-of-control. What's the over/under on federal oversight?

A Sea of Red (UPDATE)

What? No, not the Blackhawks parade, although that was a festive event.  No, we were talking about 007 and the south side:

• A 30-year-old man was pronounced dead after he and two other men were shot Thursday afternoon in Chicago's Chatham neighborhood, officials said.
  
  Four other men were also injured in other shootings Thursday, police said.

At one point Thursday afternoon, Englewood recorded something like 5 separate shootings during the afternoon/evening. Officers were so busy responding to and cleaning up shooting scenes that regular police work fell by the wayside. Which, ironically, contributed to a sizable percentage drop in crime across the city - because if the police aren't recording regular crime, it doesn't count!

Crime is down!

UPDATE: According to comments and various e-mails, NINE shootings in under 16 hours. And the only reason it wasn't worse is that even the thugs have to get some sleep.

More Parking Bribes?

Hey Rahm, how about you go to court and see if you can get this contract cancelled?

• The FBI is investigating whether an executive at the firm that manages Chicago's privatized parking meters was paid $90,000 in bribes to steer a contract to install and maintain the controversial meters across the city.
  
  The alleged kickback scheme was laid out in an FBI search warrant affidavit filed in February seeking access to two email accounts tied to the vice president of government services at LAZ Parking, the firm hired by a Morgan Stanley-led business consortium in 2008 to manage the privatized meters in Chicago.
  
  According to the 17-page filing that was made public recently, the LAZ executive met with the president and CEO of another firm, identified only as Company A, at a Florida restaurant in late 2008, as the city's much-maligned $1.2 billion deal to lease the meters for 75 years was being finalized.

With the stink of corruption all over this thing, there just might be a possibility of getting control back over street parking. And maybe, with the right pressure, getting Shortshanks put behind bars.

Rauner Picking a Big Fight

About time someone calls out the twerp:

• Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner launched an unprecedented TV ad campaign Tuesday, attacking powerful Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan as state government teeters toward a shutdown next month.
  
  The Rauner ad accuses Madigan of blocking the pro-business, anti-union changes the governor is seeking, saying all the speaker wants to do is raise taxes. At the Capitol, Madigan stuck to his weekslong theme by calling both the ad and Rauner's agenda "extreme."
  
  Rauner's marketing tactic signals a new era in Illinois politics, with the wealthy governor taking his message directly to voters to try to gain leverage against his opponents in a continual campaign that goes far beyond traditional election contests. It's also in keeping with what Republicans privately say is Rauner's long-term strategy of demonizing Madigan in an effort to eventually reduce his power and influence.

Make Madigan the poster child for term limits and out-of-control spending. Point out that no one becomes successful in Illinois unless they're connected to the Combine and everything costs more precisely because Madigan has been fucking things up for so long. It's a good start.

Retired Judge Does What?

Is this ethical? Or legal?

• In a case the FBI is investigating, a retired judge released a dashcam video that shows a Chicago Police officer shooting into a car on the South Side in December 2013, according to the Chicago Reporter.
  
  The Chicago Sun-Times reported last month that the FBI was investigating the shooting in which two black teens were wounded on Dec. 22 near 95th and La Salle. The shooting happened after Chicago Police officers curbed a stolen car packed with joyriders, the department said in a statement after the incident.

This is an on-going investigation. And the judge is retired from the bench - should he even have this in his possession?

So.....

What happened at the FOP meeting Tuesday?

Another Call for Garry's Head

So if the Conspiracy Theory holds, first the media is tipped off Rahm wants Garry gone, then the political blocs get involved:

• New calls have surfaced for the chief of police to step down after 4 people were killed and 24 were wounded in Chicago this past weekend.
  
  Except for a fatal stabbing in Uptown, every other incident happened on the South Side or West Side in neighborhoods that are enduring a big spike in violence this year.
  
  The chairman of the City Council's Black Caucus, Alderman Roderick Sawyer, told FOX 32 News that his group may call for firing Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy.
  
  African-American aldermen plan to meet Wednesday afternoon. Sawyer told FOX 32 that a majority of his colleagues want a new top cop.
  
  South Side Ald. Roderick Sawyer said a series of conversations with his City Council colleagues in the last two days showed that "there is great discontent with Supt. McCarthy."

Now if only the FOP would kick in with a "no confidence" type press release. Something along the lines of hot summers, long sleeves, hats on during the hottest times of the year, general lack of concern for the comfort of the rank-and-file.

Hey, it could happen.

The Changes

The ones everyone was worried about:

• Dep Chief F. Waller from 006 to Area South
• Cmdr D Godsel from 022 to 009
• Cmdr L Panepinto from 009 to Crime Prevention and Information
• Capt R Blissett from XO 007 to Acting Cmdr 006
• Capt M Harmon from XO 008 to Acting Cmdr 022
• Cmdr E. Voulgaris from BOP to 017

Deck chairs, Titanic, some assembly required.

We Really Hate to Do This....

....but we love spending money so much, so we're going to have to borrow another $1.1 billion of it:

• Amid comparisons to “shuffling the deck chairs” on the Titanic, the City Council’s Finance Committee agreed Monday to add another $1.1 billion to the mountain of debt piled on Chicago taxpayers after aldermen were warned the city’s junk bond rating demanded it.
  
  When its bond rating dropped below investment grade, Chicago could have faced paying nearly $2.2 billion to bankers under a series of complex deals dating back to former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s tenure.

Never the words "spending cuts." Just things like "junk bonds," "shovel-and-toss," and our new favorite - "legacy costs," a polite way of saying Shortshanks left us with a giant smoking crater of a hole in the ground that can only be filled by money....money no one seems to have.

New Book

An old-time reporter takes everything we now know about the so-called "Innocence Project" and the crooked Medill "School" of "Journalism and writes a hell of a book about it all:

• Well, unfortunately for Northwestern, the Chicago Tribune, and the entire machine that helped free Porter, there is still one true journalist in Chicago.
  
  His name is Bill Crawford. About five years ago, Crawford, a retired Chicago Tribune reporter who won the Pulitzer Prize, smelled a rat in the Porter case. He sat down with two retired ATF agents, now private investigators, Jim Delordo and John Mezzola, and went through the documents, transcripts, and facts of the case step by step. It immediately became clear to Crawford that the Porter exoneration was a criminal conspiracy.
  
  Crawford typed up a long article about the evidence that Porter was guilty and Simon was wasting away in prison.
  
  Naive on just how much Chicago had changed in the years since Crawford had retired, Crawford thought that the local media would certainly want to review his article, right? Certainly the Tribune and the Sun Times would give it front page coverage? Perhaps there was another Pulitzer Prize in store for Crawford.
  
  Hardly.

Order a copy here.

Look Who Dropped By

Again:

You know, people could get used to this sort of thing. It might actually give them good feelings and a happy outlook on the long cold winters here.

Congratulations to what we consider one of best organizations in all of sports.

Save Your Seat Now

From the Chaplains:

• Come support Police Chaplains Ministry and our outreach to Gold Star Families!
  
  Happy hour on Tuesday, 11 AUG, 5:30-7:30 at O'Briens on North and Wells in Old Town.
  
  $50 donation to Police Chaplains Ministry (an IRS-recognized 501c3 organization) covers unlimited food and drink ... and free valet parking.
  
  We are limited to 100 people. This event is sure to sell out, so respond soon if interested. Your donation to the address below puts your name on the guest list.
  
  Thanks for your constant support of our vital ministry!
  
  God bless you,
  
  Fr. Dan Brandt
  CPD Chaplain

All the info you need is here.

informational post only.

Technical Question (and Answer)

We don't know who posted this, but we only have one way to communicate with them:

• SCC - Is there any chance you can update the blog to allow readers to click the individual post headlines and view single posts? I'm trying to link this article to a few people, but since I can't view the article by itself, I can't link it.

Sure you can - you're just looking at the wrong end of the article. Click on the time stamp in the "Posted by SCC at 00:00 AM" at the very bottom of the post and you'll get your very own hyperlink to include in e-mails.

McCarthy Death Watch

A reasonably independent editorial board has called for replacing the Superintendent:

• No one person can singlehandedly solve Chicago's crime problem. But the Chicago Police Department needs a leader with a grasp of the causes of crime and clear strategies to address them. After four years on the job, it's clear that Superintendent Garry McCarthy isn't that man.
  
  As the Chicago Tribune noted on June 8, the city already has surpassed 1,000 shootings this year, much sooner than last year or the year before. In other words, violence is getting worse in Chicago, even as crime rates continue to drop in other big cities. This is not a trendline that will help Chicago retain and recruit talent.
  
  For years, the Emanuel administration has bemoaned the influx of illegal guns from nearby states with less stringent gun laws. OK, but illegal weapons flow into New York and Los Angeles, too, and the number of shootings in both places is falling.

We've been pointing this out for years. Chicago Magazine decided to do an investigative piece that pretty much destroyed the CompStat narrative. Homicides and shooting are indicative of a larger crime trend - we don't know anyone who, when reasonably informed, thinks that crime is actually down. They are aware of downgrading crime, long response times, impossible waits for Officers or excessive hold times for 3-1-1.

If it isn't reported, it doesn't exist and more citizens every day regale us with stories of "it just wasn't worth waiting" when deciding not to make a report, sometimes as many as three people a week. They don't think crime is down by a long shot.

So let's see if Rahm takes the hint.

Fuck CNN

The communist news network doing it's thing again:

• CNN anchor Fredricka Whitfield called the attack on Dallas Police Headquarters “very courageous and brave” on Saturday’s “CNN Newsroom.”
  
  Whitfield, while discussing the shooting with legal analyst Philip Holloway, said, “It was very courageous and brave, if not crazy as well, to open fire on the police headquarters, and now you have this scene, this standoff. So you believe these are the hallmarks of more than one person’s involvement?”
  
  Holloway’s smile visibly drooped when Whitfield praised the would-be cop killer.

Remember, these are the folks who say conservative women deserve to get shot at for exercising freedom of speech.

Check the Tires

Once again, a copper was driving home on the south side and heard a strange noise coming from his personal vehicle. As he pulled to the side, the tire tore loose and flew across the roadway. He was able to safely stop the car and the tire didn't hit anyone, but once again, the wide-open parking lots with no cameras and pretty much no security are accessed by all sorts of unsavory characters who loosen lug nuts in the hopes of causing officers harm.

You should check your squad as a matter of course before each and every tour, but when you're looking to get the hell out of work and into a comfy bed, sometimes you don't even look at your personal car. Give it a glance, especially if you have exposed lugs.

See No Evil

Minnesota, that bastion of Walter Mondale, doesn't want police using their eyes:

• Minneapolis has wiped away laws that banned lurking and spitting, responding to critics who said they unfairly targeted minorities.
  
  The Minneapolis City Council voted 12-1 on Friday to repeal the ordinances. Mayor Betsy Hodges called the ordinances antiquated and unnecessary.
  
  Minnesota Public Radio reports that Council President Barb Johnson cast the lone no vote. She said the lurking law allowed police to stop people before they committed crimes in neighborhoods like the north side ward she represents.
  
  But advocacy groups targeted the ordinances after high-profile shootings in other cities raised tension between police and citizens.

So because of supposed "tension" elsewhere, the city council of Minneapolis decided to do away with the old "up-to-no-good" observations that officers make dozens of times a shift, lest the police find someone who was actually up to no good.

Thursday + Friday = Bloody Week

Friday stats:

• A man and a woman have died and at least 11 others were wounded during shootings across the city since Friday morning, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office and police.

Added to Thursday, we're at 5 dead and 19 wounded in just two days.

There are entire states that don't rack up stats like that in a week.

Selling Tax Breaks

Why don't they publish stories like this on weekdays?

• Chicago has become Hollywood on Lake Michigan, captivating residents and tourists alike who gawk at celebrities filming movies like “Transformers” and TV shows like “Chicago Fire.”
  
  State officials say filming has been an economic boon, with production companies spending an estimated $2.8 billion on Illinois goods, services and wages for actors and other workers over the past seven years.
  
  That’s come at a price. Taxpayers stand to lose $204 million because of tax breaks the state gave to 931 movies, TV shows and commercials between July 1, 2008, and Dec. 11, 2014, under the Illinois Film Production Services Tax Credit Program, records show.

Here's an amusing revelation we were unaware of:

• Many filmmakers have cashed in by selling those tax credits to businesses including Meijer, Kohl’s and Apple, as well as to a handful of individuals, among them Oprah Winfrey, who get to deduct the credits from corporate and personal income taxes they pay the state.

These things are portable? We figured the movie companies were getting tax breaks on purchases and leases and such, but not that they were selling them. Can they sell these for a profit? And to individuals and companies that don't maintain a sizable corporate presence here? Apple? Oprah? Someone care to explain how much we're subsidizing people/corporations who seldom spend a dime here? We aren't geniuses, but we aren't completely dense.

Transfer Order Out

A bunch of movement among the rank-and-file.

A lot of it was "clean-up" movement - people who had been transferred by phone orders in the middle of the police period and now the orders have been officially set to paper. But some of it was the biddable movement that is so rare these past months.

And interesting observation - in the patrol-to-patrol Officer movements, 25% were people leaving 005. Of the patrol-to-patrol sergeant movements, 33% were people leaving 005. That is hardly a ringing endorsement of the 10-hour day.

We use percentages because CompStat has taught us that expressing numbers in that manner makes the media and politicians squeal with delight over supposed "decreases" in crime and no one actually bothers to check what the real numbers are. We're trusting the same with happen here.

Command Changes!

Seems there were around half-a-dozen command moves Friday.

Does anyone care?

Dallas Attack

A man in an armored van attacked Dallas PD Headquarters this morning, shooting up the building and planting numerous bombs before attempting to escape. Last report has him killed on scene by a sniper. Any of the news links on the right hand side have reports of the event.

Irony - the van was a surplus sheriff van that had been purchased a short while ago.

More irony - the Police Chief is crediting a military surplus .50 caliber rifle used to take out the van engine block and prevent escape - the same equipment the president doesn't want us to have because it's "scary." What's more scary - a trained officer using this equipment to stop a madman or that madman running amok in a bullet-resistant vehicle loaded with stolen ammo and guns and a vendetta against schools, churches and the police?

As a mental exercise, explore the consequences of an attack on a Chicago Police Station. No bullet-resistance glass, open lobbies, plywood desk areas, open offices, no bollards to deflect vehicles, etc.

Borrowing - Because of the Police

Chicago is broke, yet banks keep lending it money:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel's cash-strapped City Hall is preparing to borrow $1.1 billion to complete his debt restructuring plan, pay off a major court judgment and cover police back pay, among other costs.

Whoops! There it is - those nasty police causing Rahm to have to borrow another $1.1 billion dollars!  Damn those police anyway.

And exactly how much of that $1.1 billion is "back-pay"? Under 7%, a mere $75 million. But there's the Department, front and center of the opening paragraph, and barely mentioned is the 32% in service costs to convert the bad debt to less-bad debt.

We aren't money giants like Rahm, who made millions working in the world of high finance...oh wait, he didn't make that money either - it was a gift salary for being connected at the hip to the Clinton political machine back in the day. But even we know that when expenditures outpace income, you have an unsustainable model, and borrowing only aggravates the problem.

Nice Thursday

Crime is still down!

 - G. McCompStat:

• Three men were killed and at least eight other people were wounded in shootings across Chicago between Thursday afternoon and early Friday, police said.

Does anyone know if the police are still the problem? We haven't gotten a memo lately from the grievance-mongers.

Another Highway Shooting

Expressways are getting more dangerous:

• Three people were wounded when a car pulled alongside their vehicle on the Dan Ryan Expressway and someone opened fire early Friday on the South Side, police said.
  
  “We were on the expressway, and a car pulled up and just let off like 10 shots,” one of the victims said after being treated at Saint Bernard Hospital.
  
  "I just got grazed in the head," he said, asking not to be identified. "I’m fine though, I’m good. I just got a headache.”

Just a headache, while thousands of other people were late for work, late getting home, missed appointments with bar stools, etc. Thank goodness that CompStat can hide these shootings by pretending that since the Illinois State Police investigate, they didn't happen in Chicago.

Get Used to This Picture

Homicide up north and this picture was attached to the article:

A lot of hats there on the uniforms.

Hey Archbishop Blase? (UPDATE)

You going to take care of this?

• The campaign to pressure movie director Spike Lee to drop the name “Chiraq” from his upcoming move on black-on-black violence is intensifying. A rookie aldermen is playing hardball.
  
  Newly elected Ald. David Moore (17th) is refusing to grant a city permit required to close the street for Saturday’s annual summer block party outside St. Sabina’s Catholic Church in Auburn-Gresham for one reason: the party is co-sponsored by Spike Lee and the cast of “Chiraq.”
  
  “He would not sign the permit if Spike Lee had anything to do with it. He said his residents have a problem with the name of the movie,” said Rev. Michael Pfleger, the outspoken pastor of St. Sabina’s who is cooperating with Lee on the Chicago-based movie.
  
  [...]
  
  Pfleger, who backed Glenda Franklin in the race for 17th Ward alderman, said he’s not about to let a rookie alderman overstepping his bounds spoil the party for Auburn-Gresham residents and their children.
  
  The block party between 78th and 79th Streets on Throop will go on — from 2 pm. to 8 p.m. on Saturday — with or without a permit, he said.

Really? Well we certainly hope that the District has the wagon lined up and ready to cart this asshole off to jail for the night. The aldercreature consulted with his speechwriters before issuing the following:

• Hours later, the aldermen issued a statement condemning Pfleger’s defiance as a poor example for inner-city teenagers.
  
  “We cannot ask our young people to respect authority if we’re not going to respect authority. Everyone believes they can do their own thing for their own reasons and when that occurs, it creates the kind of chaos that we experience in the black community all too often,” Moore was quoted as saying.
  
  “If St. Sabina can skirt the rules, then the door will open for every other person in every other ward to do the same thing.”

That's a first for us - an aldercreature actually pointing out the rules are there for everyone's benefit and this asshole breaking the rules because "hey, it's a party for the kids!" is exactly what is wrong in that entire community. We can't think of a single church that gets away with a fraction of what pfleger does - it's a personality cult down there and it's dangerous. Who's running that neighborhood anyway - the elected guy or the asshole the establishment is afraid of?

Archbishop Cupich is stuck with the can that the last two Cardinals kicked down the road. Someone needs to kick pfleger down the road regardless of any fallout to the Chicago Archdiocese. It has been along time doming.

UPDATE: Aldercreature caved and signed the permit. What a dumbass.

Still Looking to Kill Chicago

If we wanted to hollow out the economic center of the city, we'd do this:

• With a huge budget deficit ahead, Chicago city government is desperately searching for new income.
  
  Now, Mayor Rahm Emanuel may be seriously considering an income tax.
  
  CBS 2 [...] takes a look at the smoke signals from city hall.
  
  Emanuel isn’t specifically talking income tax yet. But one of his strongest city council allies, 49^th Ward Ald. Joe Moore, is speaking up.
  
  “In my ideal scenario, it would be a graduated income tax that would be pegged at peoples’ ability to pay,” he says.

"Ideal" being the key word here.

You want to see telecommuting become a real deal? It will under this plan. United will reverse its move into the city and expand it's Elk Grove Village facilities. Boeing might move back to Seattle. The CBOT and other exchanges will carry through on previous threats and move what's left of their trading floors to the burbs, out-of-state of cyberspace. And that's just for starters.

In fact, the people who will be disparately impacted by such a move will be city workers required to live in Chicago. How about the City Council address the overspending habits that have driven this place into the financial ruin it currently occupies?

Still With the Smash and Grabs?

Still in the center of the city:

• Burglars broke into a sports apparel store on State Street in the Loop early Thursday and stole nearly 50 Blackhawks jerseys.
  
  The burglary happened at the Lids store at 125 S. State St. about 4 a.m., according to police.
  
  A store employee said the burglars used a hammer to break a glass handicapped door, and took 49 Blackhawks jerseys that were on display. No other merchandise was taken.

The other entrance to the store is in the Palmer House - which we're pretty sure is manned 24/7/365 by someone.

But hey, crime is down!

Can't Blame You Lady

Judging by the coverage on all the major channels and both papers, there's a boatload of faux-outrage over this:

• Chicago Bears fans aren’t always happy with quarterback Jay Cutler, and apparently, the Cutlers aren’t happy with Chicago.
  
  Cutler's wife, Kristin Cavallari, said in an interview with Elle Magazine that the couple hopes to move to the Nashville area when Cutler’s six-year contract ends because “Chicago’s just not home.”

Well let's see - just about every Bear player came from out of town, the owners aren't known for staying in the city much, the sportswriters are pretty much suburbanites from elsewhere, a sizable percentage of the season ticket holders are from the northern or western burbs. Plus, Jay has been a pretty inadequate quarterback by any measure. We'd leave town, too if we could.

Where is the Interest?

We posted a few days ago about the FOP finally putting together an informational session regarding the latest legislative actions that pretty much gives Rahm political cover for not funding the pensions in a timely manner as written into state law based on a fantasy casino that isn't even approved yet.

According to the comments, under 20 people showed up on Tuesday evening.

The next one is Thursday morning at 0900.

While we would hope that everyone is saving their "venting of the spleens" for the General Meeting on 16 June, we would have expected a little better showing, especially among the retirees - unless they were out sampling the cat food their going to be buying in bulk at Sam's.

Charges in Theft of Guns

Only six of the guns have been recovered so far:

• An alleged thief and his fence have been charged in connection with the theft of more than 100 new guns from a freight train that was stopped overnight at a South Side rail yard in April, federal authorities said Wednesday.
  
  Alexander Peebles, 44, and Warren Gates, 48, were charged in separate criminal complaints stemming from the April 12 robbery of the cargo train at 8000 S. South Chicago Ave., court records show.
  
  The train was carrying 318 firearms from the Ruger factory in New Hampshire to Spokane, Wash., and had stopped in Chicago for the night, according to the charges. About 7 a.m. that day, a railroad employee noticed that several locks and seals on the train had been cut open, and police later found bolt cutters and a Ruger magazine in the yard.
  
  Federal agents who inspected the train when it arrived at its final destination discovered that a total of 111 guns were missing, according to the charges. Six of the guns have since been recovered "in unrelated incidents" throughout Chicago, the complaint alleged. The charges did not specify if the guns had been used to commit crimes.

Um, mere possession of a stolen gun is a felony Tribune reporters. Write that one down.

But remember, it's the NRA and law abiding people gun owners that are the problem. We heard that one from pfather pfleger the other day.

Prayers Needed

Another child of one of our own needs a little intercession:

• Few things say as much about a neighborhood as how it responds to the misfortune of one of its own.
  
  Here's why the Southwest Side (and in this instance, the Clearing neighborhood especially) has always been and remains one of the best parts of Chicago.
  
  On short notice, well over 100 men, women and children filled pews at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 9 at St. Rene Goupil Church--all to pray for Matt Bragiel, a neighborhood teen and graduate of St. Rene School, currently fighting a tough battle with cancer.

Prayers cost you nothing but a few minutes. There's a fundraising page if you are so inclined.

Comments closed here - informational post only.

FOP to Fight Uniform Changes

It's a hot button issue from what we've seen in the comment section yesterday:

• The Chicago Police Department has quietly made changes to its uniform policy, requiring that on-duty officers cover up any tattoos and banning them from wearing baseball caps.
  
  The department’s largest union, which represents rank-and-file officers, quickly voiced its opposition, saying the department should have first negotiated the changes before making any announcement. A number of officers also spoke out against the move, saying their tattoos are part of their identities.
  
  After the Tribune broke the story online Monday night, the department issued a brief statement Tuesday saying it took the action, effective Friday, “to promote uniformity and professionalism.”

From a logical point of view, we don't see how the Department gets to ignore tattoos in hiring for years, then suddenly outlaw the visible tattoos that were not an issue before. But we've also read that such challenges have failed at the judicial level across the nation. We're far too sophisticated to judge anyone based on most tattoos aside from the obvious gang symbolism and representation of gang affiliation (teardrops, stars, forks, letter/number combinations). It's just not an issue in these times.

The shorts, baseball caps and knit hats were (in our opinion) contributing to the hodge-podge appearance at roll calls and the chart the Department had put out for the various combinations of items to be worn with other items lent an entire "Garanimals" feel to the uniform system. Simple is always better - again, our opinion. We always thought the "optional items" were sops to the uniform companies who couldn't count on steady classes of recruits and promotions to keep themselves in business.

You can make progress with the uniform - cargo pants stand up better and gave cops additional space to carry the tools for the job. Turtlenecks were warmer, eliminated the tie-in-the-buttonhole Inspector beef, and looked better around some of the larger necks out there. Exterior vest covers allowed you to "air out" on hot days and provided more pockets and attachment points for ammo carrying, flashlights, anything to get some equipment of the belts that were wrecking spines...plus the black hid dirt better than the blue.

It'll be interesting to see if the Department caves on a few items to preserve the larger idea of making the uniform more uniform.

Disband the Police!

It's a wonder that Rahm hasn't tried this yet:

• Wellston, Missouri no longer has a police department to call their own. The city of 2,300 watched as all 23 of their police officers were forced to turn in their badges earlier this week, after their police department was disbanded, thanks to a city council vote. While the move caught quite a few residents by surprise, those that were plugged into the tensions between the city council and the police department may have seen the writing on the wall.
  
  As LEO Affairs reported earlier this year, tensions between a certain city councilwoman and the police department had been heating up for quite some time. Late in 2013, Wellston police officers raided the home of Terrance Dixon after getting a tip that he was selling crack cocaine and heroin out of the house. Terrance Dixon happens to be the son of city councilwoman Janet Dixon, and according to sources, Councilwoman Dixon did not take kindly to the raid. A short time after the raid, three officers, including the one that captured Dixon on tape confessing to selling drugs out of his house, were fired by the city council.

We've had plenty of batshit crazy aldercreatures who'd love to give this a try, and a mayor who'd probably sign off on it.

What is CALEA?

Here's a short video about it:



Look like a money making scheme.

Cheaters?

Word in the comment sections is a number of sergeants were removed, physically, from the testing this past weekend. CR's were obtained and their careers are now in jeopardy.

If you didn't make the effort, you get what you put into it.

If you didn't make the secret study groups, well, that sucks, as it's just another form of cheating.

But hiding cell phones and crib sheets?

U04-01 Updated

This is the way their minds work:

Makes perfect sense. The Tribune even wrote about it:

• Chicago police officers will be required to cover their tattoos while working, according to a new directive issued Monday.
  
  "Tattoos and body brandings will not be visible while on duty or representing the Department, whether in uniform, conservative business attire, or casual dress," the memo states.
  
  Hands, face, neck and other areas not covered by clothing have to be covered with "matching skin tone adhesive bandage or tattoo cover up tape." The order is effective Friday.

No sticking caps, no baseball caps. Crown cap with everything, all year round - no hatless summertime.

The turtleneck and mock turtleneck survive as a winter option.

No tats - hello long sleeves and ties. All summer.

How Many Shootings?

Over one-thousand:

• Chicago has hit the somber milestone even sooner than the violent year of 2012, when the city saw 500 homicides for the first time since 2008.  Shootings that year were up 11 percent. The city reached the 1,000 mark on June 9 in 2012. In 2013 it was on June 26 and last year it was on June 15.
  
  This year, Chicago passed the mark sometime late Thursday into early Friday morning, according to data collected and analyzed by the Chicago Tribune.
  
  Through Monday morning, about 1,050 people had been shot in the city since the year began, according to the Tribune's data. Through June 8 last year there were 924 people shot. In 2013 the number was 820 through June 8, and in 2012 it was 981.

Thank goodness they changed the uniform order!

Bad Plumbing

You'd think that the City would want to save water:

We imagine the Detectives Area Central could use this for good OR evil. Evil as in a water torture room, Good in a kind of calming Zen-type of way.

606 Opening Night with a Bang

Prophetic words from a citizen:

• Angel Gonzalez remembers when, as a boy, he would venture up on the Bloomingdale railroad tracks and hunt for garter snakes. He could make $1.50 on each snake at the Animal Kingdom, a Logan Square shop that has since closed.
  
  [...] But since those days, gangs have become more dangerous, he noted. And while he and his wife, Elsie, are both all for The 606 trail, the Logan Square couple also has worries expressed by other residents -- about the criminal element that may use the new trail too.
  
  "I honestly think it's a good thing,” Angel Gonzalez said Saturday before stepping onto the trail. "It gives the kids a place to go."
  
  "As long as they keep it safe, it's alright," added Elsie Gonzalez, 52.

And then a few hours later....:

• A man has been charged with pointing a gun at police, leading an officer to fire his gun early Sunday morning in the Logan Square neighborhood alongside the elevated Bloomingdale Trail, which officially opened this weekend, authorities said.
  
  Rafael Corona, 29, was charged with crimes including felony aggravated assault of an officer after police said he pulled out a weapon about 12:05 a.m. Sunday in the 1700 block of North Talman Avenue and pointed it at officers. A police officer fired a shot in response, but no one was injured in the incident, police said.

And as numerous commentators pointed out, this from a gang McCarthy "obliterated" years ago. We guess they discovered there wasn't any money in designing city stickers, so they went back to guns.

Another Nice Weekend Gar

5 Dead, 30 Wounded:

• Five people were killed and at least 30 others have been hurt in shootings across Chicago since Friday evening, police said.

This third or fourth weekend in a row of 30+ dead and wounded and summer is still two weeks away.

With the daily shootings, every week has a body count exceeding 50 or 60 people.

Chicago is still averaging over a homicide per day.

This is acceptable to Rahm.

Forget it Jake, It's Canaryville

So why does this get coverage:

• Four suspects accused in a brutal mob attack on a brother and sister last month in the Canaryville neighborhood appeared in Cook County bond court Sunday.
  
  Kevin Hoynes and David Rice, both 21, as well as 18-year-old Joya D. Urbikas and Courtney Vega, 19, all face attempted murder charges in connection with the May 30 incident, which left the victims with multiple stab wounds.

But the on-going mayhem can't even get a physical description of the offender 9-times-out-of-10.

Oh, right. Because the offenders were white and white-Hispanic. It's the old "Dog Bites Man" vs "Man Bites Dog" comparison.

Private Business vs Government

Here's what a responsible business does when they're operating in the red:

• The Chicago Tribune is eliminating about two dozen positions, including 10 in the newsroom, in a cost-savings measure, sources said. Notice of the layoffs began Wednesday.
  
  A Chicago Tribune spokesman would not confirm the number of layoffs but said the newspaper is working to improving efficiency and productivity across departments.
  
  "The newsroom continues to evolve to support our expanding content portfolio and digital efforts," Matt Hutchison, Chicago Tribune spokesman, said in a statement. "We continue to add and invest in staff in key areas such as investigative reporting, digital programming, local news, opinion leadership and commentary."
  
  In March, Tribune Publishing said it planned to reduce expenses by $65 million to $70 million to offset a projected 3 percent revenue decline for 2015. At the time, the company said it would look to achieve the cuts mostly through centralized purchasing, and that layoffs were not expected to be part of the cost-saving measures.

Expected revenue decline, so plan for cuts, streamlining operations, layoffs where necessary, etc.

And then you have good old Chicago, Cook County, Illinois government - people and businesses fleeing the state (revenue decline), $100 billion or more in debt, outrageous service costs on the debt, inefficiency rampant.

The state legislature passes a budget that is an additional $3 billion out of whack.

Cook County hires a media personality's son to deliver "policy" on a field he has no experience in.

Chicago kicks the pension can down the road another 15 years while spending untold millions it doesn't have, counting on a casino that doesn't even exist.

Um...What's the Point?

More evidence that the justice system is completely out of whack:

• An assault suspect who pepper-sprayed someone in the face at a fast-food restaurant received similar treatment in court as punishment from a Cleveland-area judge embracing the principle of "an eye for an eye."
  
  Painesville Municipal Court Judge Michael Cicconetti on Thursday told Diamond Gaston she could serve 30 days in jail or be pepper-sprayed by her victim, and she chose the second option.

Yeah! The town of Painesville is going to live up to its name!

• Cicconetti said he couldn't really allow pepper spray, so harmless saline spray was substituted without Gaston knowing.
  
  "He goes, 'I'd really like to use pepper spray,' and I said, 'No, no, we can't do that!" Cicconetti told WEWS-TV. He said what mattered was that the punishment sting emotionally, if not physically.
  
  The Painesville woman, 20, says she learned her lesson.

Leaving aside the judge's atrocious butchery of the language ("He goes...."? You went to law school for that?), what possible lesson can be learned by getting spritzed in the face with water? That pepper spraying someone is like correcting the cat who keeps scratching the couch? Is the judge aware that everyone in close proximity to the discharge is exposed, experiences breathing and eye irritation and the entire business has to be evacuated and shut down for hours?

Thirty days in the can would have been a lesson. Water spritzing is a joke.

More RiotFest Discoveries!

Not only are there drugs nearby....there are guns!

• When Riot Fest moves its music carnival to Douglas Park, revelers attending the three-day music festival might come face-to-face with the neighborhood’s harsh reality.
  
  There’s no easy way to say it.
  
  Douglas Park is home to and surrounded by open-air drug markets — where dealers sell white heroin, weed, cocaine, crack and occasionally PCP, and defend their turf with guns — that terrorize the neighborhood, police statistics show.

Actually, that seemed like a pretty easy way to say it. The link includes a helpful map showing the concentration of crimes in both Humboldt and Douglas Parks. Not an eye-opener to any cop with a few years on, but certainly to the reporter writing about it.

Part of this will be very attractive to a certain portion of the festival-goers. And the sudden influx of naive urban and suburban attendees will be a boon of sorts to another portion of the neighborhood. All in all, it will be an interesting event.

KEEP STANDING BY

It's coming together. Slowly. Another 24 hours between shifts and all should be well. Plus, we've got relatives in from out of town and we can't exactly head to the bat-cave and abandon them while the playoffs continue.

Whoa Dude

Have we discovered something here?

Hmmmm.

Here Comes More Spending

Remember, Presidential Libraries are (usually) built with contributions and then "donated" to the National Archives and Records Administration, which then "maintains"  the library at public cost. Of course, there's always the "start-up" costs:

• If the Barack Obama Presidential Center is built in Washington Park, the city envisions a walking community, where visitors would step off a CTA Green Line train and stroll along decoratively landscaped sidewalks, lined with pedestrian scale lighting and seating areas.
  
  In Jackson Park, visitors might spend an afternoon biking from the lakefront to a well-lit, paved trail through the Midway Plaisance to the Obama center. Others might prefer to take the No. 10 CTA bus from downtown to the Museum of Science and Industry and then on to a new stop at the presidential library.
  
  The two ideas are among a list of proposals Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office submitted to the University of Chicago last year to strengthen its bid to place the Obama library and museum on the South Side in one of the two parks. Most of the proposals address transforming areas fraught with crime and neglect into a safe and inviting environment where visitors feel at ease — a key challenge for the first presidential center built in a low-income, urban neighborhood.

But Crime is Down!? Or so we heard.

And in true Illinois fashion, have you seen the projected fantasy numbers this library will have to pull in to even break even?

• A study commissioned by the U. of C. last year suggested that the library and museum would have a $220 million a year economic impact on the city, primarily due to an increase in visitors. To reach that goal, the Obama center would have to draw 800,000 visitors a year — more than the combined number who visited the presidential libraries of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton last year and significantly higher than the 491,000 who visited the newest presidential library — that of George W. Bush.

Don't look now, but Obama is now less popular than W. and certainly doesn't come anywhere near Ronnie's or Willie's numbers...which might just translate into less visitor numbers, which mean Chicago is going to be eating the associated costs with this monstrosity for decades to come.

But this is a "win" for Rahm and Chicago.

PLEASE STAND BY

We're having a minor glitch with the comment section. Don't worry, the comments will eventually appear, but they'll be a bit behind this weekend. We're getting to them as fast as possible.

In the meantime, open post here....not that you'll see the comments right away.

Maybe we didn't think this out enough....

FOP Finally Updates Members

Check out their website. For the first time, answers to questions that have been asked and ignored for weeks, even months here and elsewhere.

And they're scheduling Informational Meetings to stave off a massive wave of irate members at the next General Meeting.

If they only had some way of connecting with the members on a daily basis. Something in real time. Something that the Officers could pull up in the comfort of their homes at their convenience, any hour of the day or night.

Officers Injured (UPDATE)

West side crash:

• Chicago police officers were injured in a crash in the South Austin neighborhood Tuesday night, according to a police spokesman.
  
  The officers were involved in a crash near Washington Boulevard and Lavergne Avenue about 8:15 p.m., said [...] a Chicago Police Department spokesman.

An unconfirmed report said the officer(s) had to be cut out of the vehicle, but injuries weren't believed to be life-threatening. Best wishes to the injured.

UPDATE: Post moved from 03 June to 05 June with updated info

Life altering injuries to say the least:

• All three officers remained hospitalized Thursday afternoon. One suffered a cardiac contusion, blunt head trauma and a pelvis fracture. He also suffered amnesia because of a traumatic brain injury and needs further testing, prosecutors said.
  
  Another officer suffered a dislocated shoulder and lacerations to the face. He was discharged from Mount Sinai Hospital on Thursday but moved to Rush University Medical Center for shoulder surgery, prosecutors said.
  
  The third officer was unconscious after the wreck and had to be extricated from the car. He suffered a lung contusion, a broken neck and a fractured spinal stem, prosecutors said. He suffered six fractured ribs and a laceration to his spleen, which may require surgery.

And the juvenile driver was high as a kite. He's being charged as an adult at least.

Silly Liberal

A well publicized arrest for a string of robberies in the upscale hoods:

• A 39-year-old man has been charged with a series of knifepoint robberies in Chicago and the western suburbs, including holdups at three high-end boutique shops.
  
  Willie Doles, of the 6900 block of South Oakley Avenue, has been charged with five counts of armed robbery, and one count of felony aggravated robbery. Police said he was arrested Wednesday afternoon, with help from the FBI.
  
  He was ordered held without bond Thursday.

They are going to clear a crap-load of robberies with this arrest. A job very well done.

But surprise surprise, guess what he was on? Give yourself a gold star if you said "parole."

• Doles was on parole for a 2008 armed robbery conviction, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2008, and released on parole in April. He has previous convictions for armed robbery, aggravated battery, and drug charges.

Let's see - 2008 + 13 years equals....2021. So this guy couldn't have been committing armed robberies at all since he's in jail for the next six years, right?

But the most charming part of the entire coverage on CBS is the interview with the head of the Merchant Association for the area and she said the damnest thing:

• “He’s going to be going away again for a long time, and the stores here can breathe a little sigh of relief”, she said.

Yeah. Right. That's what all the victims said back in 2008, too. Willfully blind to exactly who is releasing the predators right back into the community.

Viral Idiocy

Right after the police turn the corner, a giant gang shootout caught on tape!

We used to do the same thing, but with bottle rockets....but we kept it in the alleys and parks. Playing in traffic was dangerous!

Media coverage of the fun.

Hiding Something?

Things that make you go "Hmmmm:"

• Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby plans to seek a protective order that would block the release of Freddie Gray's autopsy report and other "sensitive" documents as she prosecutes the six police officers involved in his arrest.
  
  Mosby told The Baltimore Sun that prosecutors "have a duty to ensure a fair and impartial process for all parties involved" and "will not be baited into litigating this case through the media."
  
  But an attorney for one of the officers said the effort shows that "there is something in that autopsy report that they are trying to hide."
  
  "Mrs. Mosby is the one who did an announcement discussing what she said the evidence was in a nationally televised speech," said Ivan Bates, who represents Sgt. Alicia White. "Now that it is time to turn over the evidence, to ask for a protective order is beyond disingenuous.
  
  "It's as if she wants to do everything to make sure our clients do not get a fair trial.

Once again, after all the hoopla and rioting calms down, it begins to appear that the rush to judgement, may have been exactly that.

Now He Wants More Cops

First he sits by silently while 019 and 023 are combined. Then they lose over 100 coppers after numerous promises that not a single officer would be lost. Now as crime spirals and actual taxpayers and tourists are murdered, he wants more cops:

• Following the Saturday slaying of 25-year-old Kevin O'Malley in Lakeview, Ald. Tom Tunney is asking Chicago's top cop for more officers in the neighborhood.
  
  O'Malley, who was from suburban Palos Park but living in Lakeview, was fatally shot under the Brown Line L tracks in the 900 block of West Oakdale Avenue after a robbery attempt over a cell phone turned violent, police said. Kristopher Pitts, 22, of Humboldt Park, is being held without bond on charges of first-degree murder and armed robbery in the case.
  
  Tunney has spoken with Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy about "how imperative it is that we receive more police manpower in the 19th district," said Tunney spokeswoman Erin Duffy.

You had them Aldercreature. You had over 400 if we recall. Now, you have under 300 patrolling what is essentially two complete districts which include the densest concentration of bars in the city, a major league ballpark, theaters, festivals, businesses, etc. Oh yeah, and an El train line that delivers the worst of the worst directly to all of those taxpayers and businesses front doors.

Congratulations. If you had paid attention when we predicted this years ago, you might have a leg to stand on.

The Ferguson Effect

Social scientists are having a field day with this one:

• Sunday The Wall Street Journal crunched the numbers on America’s startling new crime wave (after a two-decade decline) and listed seven cities that have seen noticeable, and sometimes shocking, spikes in murders and other violent crimes.
  
  Seven cities were worthy of note. To no one’s surprise, all seven of those cities are run by Democrats. With the exception of New York City, Democrats have enjoyed one-party rule in these cities for decades.

Wait....no one on the left is having a field day with this because no one on the left wants to point out the obvious. Silly conservative website...you can't say things like this! OR at least you won't be able to once the left finishes off the country.

Some highlights:

• Gun violence is up more than 60% compared with this time last year, according to Baltimore police, with 32 shootings over Memorial Day weekend. May has been the most violent month the city has seen in 15 years. (no Republican mayors since 1967)
• In Milwaukee, homicides were up 180% by May 17 over the same period the previous year.  (no Repulbican mayors since 1906)
• Through April, shootings in St. Louis were up 39%, robberies 43%, and homicides 25%.  (last Republican - 1949)
• Murders in Atlanta were up 32% as of mid-May. (1942)
• Shootings in Chicago had increased 24% and homicides 17%. (1931)
• Shootings and other violent felonies in Los Angeles had spiked by 25%; (1993)
•  in New York, murder was up nearly 13%, and gun violence 7%. (this is just since 2014 - a single year - ending Rudy's and Bloomberg's effective policing strategies)

But you know, democrats are for the people - and folks. Law and order is for squares.

They're Still Here

Just be aware Officers. People exist who mean to do you harm:

• A Massachusetts man is in custody in connection with Tuesday’s shooting of a man police say was radicalized by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) propaganda, reports CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues.
  
  Evans says the shooting was caught on nearby surveillance cameras, and the video shows police guns weren’t drawn at first.
  
  “And they kept retreating, verbally giving commands to ‘drop the weapon, drop the weapon,”‘ Evans said. “At some point the individual — proximity came [so] close that the officers were in danger.”
  
  Federal law enforcement sources say Rahim had been on joint terrorism task force radar for several months, but in recent weeks they began tracking him around the clock.

And why would the feds start tracking him "around the clock?"

• It now appears that the authorities have a good handle on what Rahim and his accomplice David Wright, arrested on Tuesday night, were planning. “We believe the intent was to behead a police officer,” an official told the Boston Globe on Wednesday morning. “We knew the plot had to be stopped. They were planning to take action Tuesday.

And if you don't think that these monsters-in-waiting aren't part of the radical leftist agenda...:

• His brother, an Imam in a mosque in Oakland, tweeted that, before Rahim was shot, he was on the phone with his father and his last words were, "I can't breathe."  

Not likely, but numerous chest wounds will do that.

Did Dean Just Detroy the Pensions?

We got this in an e-mail:

• To all CPD,
  
  The following excerpt is taken from Senate Bill 777 that just passed and is headed to Gov. Rauner for approval. The governor's approval or veto is meaningless as this bill passed with veto proof majorities. This is the bill that reduced by several hundred million dollars the City of Chicago's Actuarily Required Contribution (ARC) to the pension fund. What I am showing you here is new language that was quietly inserted into the bill. THIS LANGUAGE IS VITALLY IMPORTANT AND POTENTIALLY RENDERS THE CITY FREE FROM EVER PROPERLY FUNDING OUR PENSION!
  
  Any payments required to be made by the city pursuant to this Section are expressly subordinated to the payment of the principal, interest, premium, if any, and other payments on or related to any bonded debt obligation of the city, either currently outstanding or to be issued, for which the source of repayment or security thereon is derived directly or indirectly from any funds collected or received by the city. Payments on such bonded obligations include any statutory fund transfers or other prefunding mechanisms or formulas set forth, now or hereafter, in State law, city ordinance, or bond indentures, into debt service funds or accounts of the city related to such bonded obligations, consistent with the payment schedules associated with such obligations. [emphasis added - SCC]
  
  It appears that this new language lets the City of Chicago off the hook from any court ordered payments to our pension fund. It clearly states that any payments to the pension fund are "SUBORDINATED" to payments for any bonded obligation debt outstanding or to be issued. In essence, the City will pay any other outstanding debts before it pays any court ordered pension payments due to failure to comply with the new payment schedule contained in this new law!
  
  Senator Pamela Althoff (R - McHenry) questioned the co-sponsor Senator Cullerton regarding this new section. Senator Cullerton then did something curious. Senator Cullerton asked to pull the bill for a private discussion with Senator Althoff regarding this issue. A short time later, Senator Cullerton brought the bill back for debate. The bill was debated along party lines but this issue was never mentioned again. The bill was summarily voted on and passed along party lines. Several times during the debate, Senator Cullerton stated that this bill was crafted with police and fire union representatives.

We will confess to being less than perfectly informed about certain issues and not up on all the legal jargon that accompanies the legislative process. But at first glance, this looks very bad. At second glance, it looks even worse and it isn't getting any better. Did the heads of the CPD and CFD unions just let Rahm off the hook for funding? Someone commented that the PBPA reps didn't, but their websites aren't very helpful, though we did find this link from Bloomberg:

• Chicago bonds rose after the Illinois legislature cut more than $200 million from the city’s required 2016 payment into the police and fire retirement systems, a move to provide a partial reprieve from its pension burden.
  
  Illinois’s General Assembly gave final approval Sunday to a bill that would reduce Chicago’s pension payments over the next five years. The average price of a general-obligation bond maturing in 2040 climbed 1.5 percent Monday to 91.7 cents on the dollar. That pushed the yield to 5.6 percent, the lowest since May 12, before Moody’s Investors Service announced that it cut the city’s credit rating to junk.
  
  “It alleviates an immediate fiscal pressure,” said Gary Pollack, who manages $6 billion of munis as head of fixed-income trading at Deutsche Bank AG’s private-wealth management unit in New York. “That’s obviously positive for Chicago, which means it’s positive for the bondholder.”

It would appear that the market is already assuming the Bill has been signed by Rauner...and Rahm is off the hook at no cost and without a casino in existence. Sorry, but the FOP is doing a piss-poor job of keeping anyone informed.

The next FOP meeting is 16 June at 1900 hours. We'd expect every single retiree to be in attendance to find out exactly what is going on along with everyone even close to retiring and anyone currently hoping to get a pension - pretty much everyone.

Anyone See a Problem?

Tom Dart, the "never was the police" sheriff, has hired a new policy guy:

• Tom Dart hires recent college graduate Patrick Flannery as Chief Policy Officer at the Cook County Sheriff's office. Patrick Flannery is the son of Fox News Political Editor Mike Flannery. Patrick Flannery beat out hundreds of applicants despite ZERO law enforcement experience. Patrick is a self-proclaimed environmental activist who will now be implementing Sheriff policy.
  
  Resume:
  Investigating sources of polluted soil in Chicagoland.
  - Research revolved around Chicago's Pilsen and Little Village neighborhoods.
  - Collaborations were held with community organizations, a professor at Harold Washington University, Chicago's Social Justice High School, and Northwestern University chemistry classes.
  - Steps included a research plan, map building, soil gathering, digestion, ICP-AES and ICP-MS analysis, and Arc-GIS 10 analysis.
  - Culminated in an Environmental Science Department honored senior thesis.
  - Project is ongoing

We aren't against the kid making a living. We've met lots of environmental activists living in the parks, under bridges, haunting the shelters and such. We just don't think he ought to be making a living in law enforcement without....you know...some sort of law enforcement background. But we suppose that would mean Dart and his crazy hair would be out of office, too.

Spoke too Soon

A few days ago, we opined that Rahm and Garry were thanking Tommy Skilling for the beautiful fall weather that was sure to keep the body count down under thirty. We shouldn't have underestimated the resiliency of the criminal element during the spring shooting season:

• Six people were killed, including three on Sunday, and at least 24 others were wounded by gunfire across the city over the weekend.
  
  And a stabbing inside a Pilsen bar early Saturday left another person dead, police said.

Two later shootings pushed the number to thirty-two. We're so glad to see that effort on the part of Chicago's chronic underachievers.

And speaking of numbers, Crime is up!

• More than 300 people were shot and 37 people were killed in shootings throughout the city during May.
  
  That's an increase in shootings and gun deaths compared to May 2014, when 237 people were wounded and 36 were slain in shootings.

And that's just shootings. Total homicides for May were 46, up from 40 last year.

Of course, McCompStat's contention will be that, "Sure, the number went up slightly, but it went up slower," or some similar such bullshit. This Slum Times link shows shootings are skyrocketing, even outpacing 2012, which McJerseyCity always seems to use as a baseline that's when he invented policing.

Remember, it hasn't even gotten warm yet. Be careful

Repeat Offender Out on Bail

Thanks to the Cook County "Justice" System:

• The man charged with robbing and killing 25-year-old Kevin O'Malley in Lakeview this weekend was awaiting trial for threatening police with a machete when the incident occurred, according to court documents.Kristopher
  
  Pitts, 22, was charged with armed robbery and first-degree murder after he allegedly shot O'Malley about 2 a.m. Saturday in the 900 block of West Oakdale Avenue, police said.
  
  He was out on bond at the time.

And of course, the usual politicians are making hay over this:

• "This senseless act of violence cannot be ignored. I am pushing for increased police resources to our community, including from area and citywide units, to ensure that our residents and visitors are safe walking on our streets at all hours of the day," said 44th ward Ald. Tom Tunney, in a community email.

Anyone know how Tunney has been voting on police-related funding issues?

• Tunney's office did not immediately respond to a request for more information on his push for more officers. In April, however, Tunney told DNAinfo Chicago he did not believe the Chicago Police Department would increase the number of officers in the Town Hall district.
  
  Instead, he said he hoped to make sure the district was staffed at critical times, specifically nights and weekends.
  
  "What I've always believed is there are enough police officers, they're just not always there at the time of day you think you need them. But that's a management issue, and I don't walk in their shoes," Tunney said in April.

Riiiiight.

Boystown Wilding

No serious coverage in the established media outlets, but over an another "insignificant blog:"

• Video has begun to emerge of Saturday morning's looting of the Boystown Circle K convenience store at Halsted and Addison.
  
  As CWB reported exclusively here yesterday, a Chicago police officer who happened upon the scene shortly after 4a.m. reported "100 people looting" the store.
  
  This video, which was first posted on Facebook by Christopher Courtez, shows the initial moments of the incident before police arrived.

This follows on the heels of the a number of high-profile crimes that have actually made headlines, culminating in the cell phone murder referenced in the post just just above this one.

Unfortunately, we think the folks over at the Crime in Wrigleyville and Boystown blog are going to be extra busy this summer.

They've also noted that the statistical manipulation (CompStat) is again in full swing in Tunney's ward, driving down actual crime numbers to make the neighborhood look safer than it actually is - now why would Rahm allow a thing like that? Surely not for political reasons?

The Death of the Street Stop

Should this pass, why would anyone perform a street stop again?

• Illinois Senate Bill 1304 which passed the House on 28 May 2015 and is back in the Senate to vote on the House amendments thereto. This Bill has a real nice addition which is the equivalent of passing out a Ghetto Lotto Ticket at each police encounter.
  
  (b) Upon completion of any stop under subsection (a) involving a frisk or search, and unless impractical, impossible, or under exigent circumstances, the officer shall provide the person with a stop receipt which provides the reason for the stop and contains the officer's name and badge number.

So you hand them a "receipt" with your name and star, redeemable for a payout from the city once they get three or four witnesses to claim you violated their rights and used naughty language and spoke ill of their parentage. Brilliant. 

Please Stop-and-Frisk Us!

The full circle came around pretty quickly this time:

• A surge in New York City murders — including four people slain in just five bloody hours as the weekend began — has grieving family members begging Mayor de Blasio to bring back the NYPD’s right to search for guns.
  
  “We need stop-and-frisk,” Stacey Calhoun, the devastated uncle of one of the four fatalities, said Saturday afternoon, tears filling his eyes over the nephew he had just lost.
  
  Jahhad Marshall — a charismatic 23-year-old with a promising future as a chef — had died of a stray bullet to his back early that morning outside the Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City, police said.
  
  “Somebody has to put their foot down,” the anguished uncle said.
  
  “A lot of people would agree with stop-and-frisk if it’s for the safety among us,” he said.

Really? So you're willing to have the police conduct wholesale violations of Civil Rights in the name of taking illegal guns off the street and save the lives of innocents?

• “It’s scary how many guns are out here now,” said a resident of the Brownsville project, who gave her name as Ann and her age as 72.
  
  “They shouldn’t just stop and frisk any of our young black men — but they need to do something about these guns,” she said.

Well Ann, if we were NYPD, we'd tell you "too damn bad." It looks like you'll be going to a lot of funerals in the foreseeable future.

And do you know why? Because you perpetuate the stereotype that NYPD was stopping young black men indiscriminately and tossing them up against the walls and going through their persons violating all sorts of laws, procedures and Civil Rights. And nothing is further from the truth.

NYPD operated in a very narrow legal window involving reasonable articulable suspicion and probable cause - as do the vast majority of Departments. That's not to say there aren't officers who choose to operate outside of the boundaries set by the Law and the Courts, but that is a miniscule percentage. But hey, Al and Jesse and Eric and BO say that police are the problem and minorities are being picked on and the deck is stacked against people and blah blah blah. It's all bullshit. No one legit study or survey indicates anything like that. But the perpetual victims need someone to blame for their inadequacies and failures as non-functional societal castoffs.

Lieutenant Exam Problem?

Typical city exam - lawsuit!

• All the newer Sgt's with their year in grade are just waiting till the new Lt Exam is taken on 06 June to file a grivance and start a class action lawsuit because they were denied the right to take the Lt Exam.
  
  Several groups of Sgts that reached their year in grade in May & June 1st of this year 2015 will be denied their chance to take the exam. The city stated the only requirement to take the test is 1 year in grade. Now that they have their year in grade but are still denied their right to take the exam they can grieve with the city.
  
  I am part of the May 2014 class of sgt's. I am all ready for the legal challenge. I know the next LT Exam will not happen again till 2023. Get ready for a legal fight. I will not sit back quietly and let the city run over me. I have my year in grade, I should be able to take the exam on June 6th.
  
  Call the union boys & girls or you will miss out on the only Lt Exam many of us will ever see!!!!

If the city forgot/neglected to put in language that closed this loophole, this is pretty much a slam dunk. The FOP got an entire Detectives Exam cancelled once because someone downtown forgot this exact same restriction, so past precedent is on the side of the newly promoted. Given the 8-to-10 year gap in exams of late, a judge might be even more inclined to give every eligible person a chance.

Former AG Needs a Job

This would be entertaining:

• A scoop for you SCC, and as usual you will be the rags to the punch: Eric Holder will be installed as the head of an oversight agency which will have IG type authority over CPD and IPRA. I'll save my opinions for the future, I just wanted to get it out there. If I was making this up I'd come up with something much funnier-I'm not. It's real. (Also, McCarthy is PISSED about it)

What a step backward. He could make way more giving speeches and stumping for Hillary.