Bad Ammo

This is the reason the Department suspended qualifications and called everyone in off the street for the past two months:

This ammo is still out there - we just had an e-mail from someone who experienced a bad malfunction due to this. Everyone should unload all their magazines and unload their weapon and eyeball every round, as soon as possible. Don't rely on the Department calling you in - do it yourself. Your life might very well depend on it.

Days of Rage....or Not

We were inundated with e-mails warning us about a so-called "Days of Rage" scheduled for tomorrow in 37 American cities, including Chicago. Assorted media outlets ran with is, including the Washington Times which says the military is telling it's personnel to avoid the "targeted" locations.

But the article further states that this is an unsubstantiated rumor, denied by all sorts of concerned parties.

Even the widely discredited Snopes.com website notes that the list of 37 cities, with all the dates, times and sites listed, is an exact copy of a previously debunked 2014 rumor.

Regardless of the rumors, and in light of events overseas again, due caution should be exercised from this point forward. Be aware and be careful.

Bye Bye Shotguns?

An interesting missive out of the Chief of Patrol's Office this week:

• Commencing the week of 18 July 2016 through 22 July 2016, there will be a District shotgun and ammunition turn-in. The purpose of this weapon turn-in is to collect the shotguns, reconcile the inventory and later repurpose the weapons if necessary. [emphasis added - SCC]

There's an attached matrix for every district and unit to bring the shotguns in - and the Districts may not get them back. One of the more versatile weapons in the Department inventory is being removed from circulation, possibly forever.

Question - Why? And why now? Cops are under siege nationwide. Ambush, sniping, attacked at marches. The firepower arrayed against cops is wide ranging, so why not have shotguns as one of the options available? Sure they aren't the most modern weapon and the maintenance leaves much to be desired, but for the most part they worked.

Is this because we might actually have to use them? And are they checking them for functionality or removing them forever?

Another Narrative Falls

That Baton Rouge shooting? Just got a lot more...interesting?

• 9News reports the details of a previous arrest of Alton Sterling that is eerily similar to the incident that ultimately led to his death.
  
  Sterling, 37, was recently killed in a shooting involving two Baton Rouge police officers on July 5.
  
  It turns out Sterling has struggled with police in the past. Documents show, in May 2009, Sterling fought with cops outside of a convenience store on Rosenwald Road, where he was selling CDs, while carrying a gun.
  
  In the report dated May 29, 2009, the officer said he was dispatched to a convenience store after getting a complaint about a subject “on the corner selling CDs” and that the subject had pulled a gun on someone.

Selling CD's, carrying a gun, threatened someone, fights the police, all in 2016.

Now the media suddenly discovers, that in 2009, he was selling CD's, carrying a gun, threatens someone else, fights the police, seven years ago.

It's almost like he had a habit of doing this sort of thing.

Spread this one around boys and girls.

And be sure to point out that the police being called to the scene negates any accusation of "profiling." If you don't want the police to show up, stop calling.

Bad News for Protestors

Whoops:

• A study by a Harvard professor released this month found no evidence of racial bias in police shootings even though officers were more likely to interact physically with non-whites than whites.
  
  The paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research, which examined thousands of incidents at 10 large police departments in California, Florida and Texas, concluded that police were no more likely to shoot non-whites than whites after factoring in extenuating circumstances.
  
  “On the most extreme use of force — officer-involved shootings — we find no racial differences in either the raw data or when contextual factors are taken into account,” said Harvard economics professor Roland G. Fryer Jr. in the abstract of the July 2016 paper.
  
  Mr. Fryer, who is black, told The New York Times that the finding of no racial discrimination in police shootings was “the most surprising result of my career.”

Well that's certainly inconvenient - a black Harvard professor (someone probably smarter than 90+% of the population) does an extensive analysis of the data, and comes up with something even he didn't expect - "the most surprising result of my career." Especially seeing the body count and property damage totals of the past few years.

We can imagine the abuse he's getting now.

De-Escalante Leaving?

Rumor is he's about to become the Chief of Police at Northeastern University.

Isn't it amazing how these six-figure jobs just pop up at opportune moments for the connected? That should supplement his dancing gig at Great America nicely.

Rumor is Weezie is dropping her name in for the First Deputy opening. Somehow, she got a hold of the interview answers, probably from Mrs. Wysinger, who knows a guy who used to have that spot.

No More Freebies

This popped up in the comments:

• Off topic, just got wind of a new order saying were not allowed to take discounts for coffee, food etc Any knowledge of?

This is the second appearance of this particular rumor. It was here a few weeks ago and we filed it away to address later as more info became available. Numerous people replied to it yesterday, some with the info we were waiting for:

• When the new order is published, everyone will be shocked at the rules. Two officers had DOJ with them for a tour of duty. The officers took them to a hotel for free meal. The DOJ was shocked and now we get a new order for any type of gratuities

Feds are sticklers for this sort of thing, so we assumed something like this was coming. In Washington DC, everything is for sale (you just have to call it by another name), but out here in the sticks, it's not allowed.

That being said, we were told by a lot of old timers, "Always reach for your wallet kid" and we've lived by that advice ever since. If a business wanted to give us the "employee discount" and there was a tip jar on the counter, we'd toss the difference in the cup for the employees. If it was full boat, we paid full boat.

We didn't seek it out, we never demanded it, though we've heard of those who did. And it certainly never affected our choices - if your coffee sucked, we didn't get it; if we wanted a certain coffee, we paid whatever the register said, regardless of any sort of discount. In other words, we were smart about it.

So now what are we supposed to do? Order the cashier at gun point to charge the full price? Video the boss putting his key in the box, ringing off 10% and then report him to whom exactly? What about this manager?

• My staff knows to give discounts to uniformed police officers from any municipality. It is authorized by our corporation to do so. We want you to be around. You guys have helped save our employees and customers from potential risk so many times. None of you ever ask for it either. You guys know our corporation doesn't care how safe we are and have a car out about the time of shift changes to make sure we get to our cars without incident. We are all very thankful.

We had a nice couple pay our bill the other day - never told us, just walked in, paid the cashier and walked out. We went to pay and the cashier told us what happened. What now? Purge the food we didn't pay for? Not likely.

If you have to ask, you're an ass. If someone does something nice for you, thank them, profusely. Shake their hand. Leave a tip on the full amount for the staff.

And be sure to tell the White Sox that "First Responder Day" is a thing of the past.

Tio Speaks

Sometimes we really wish ignorance was painful - it might actually educate the tiny minds:

• The bond set for Ja'Mal Green, an activist who was arrested over the weekend, is too high and the charges against him are meant to "send a message," said community and family members during a news conference Tuesday morning at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
  
  Bail was set at $350,000 for Green, who is charged with five felony counts: two of aggravated battery to a police officer, two of aggravated battery in a public place and one of attempting to disarm a police officer, according to a statement from Chicago police. Green was also charged with two misdemeanor counts of resisting/obstructing arrest.

Um, Ja'mal caught five felonies. $350K isn't out of line.

• Eric Russell, a community activist who has represented a number of  families with relatives killed by police, said Green is a "political prisoner" and the target of a vendetta because of his advocacy work.

A political prisoner would be someone like Mandela or Gandhi. Green is a loud-mouthed attention-seeker who spit on a cop, punched another and tried to disarm a third.

• Tio Hardiman, president of Violence Interrupters, said community advocates are petitioning for a reduced bond.
  
  "This young man is a standup individual in the community at a much-needed time in our history in the United States," Hardiman said. "The police cannot continue to get away with abusing our people."

So his bail should have been more in line with, say, Tio's for wife beating? And guess who didn't set the bail there Tio? The cops. Bail would be set by the Honorable Peggy Chiampas, and actually, she has to follow a set of rules put in place by the Chief Judge....a set of rules routinely ignored by too many judges.

But don't worry, Special Ed is holding a bake sale in the HQ lobby today. Weezie made cookies and brownies.

Five Felonies, High Bail (UPDATE)

It seems Special Ed has been getting calls all day from the Cook County Jail, seeing if he could do something about this high bail:

• A Cook County courtroom erupted with shouts of “black lives don’t matter” on Monday after a judge set bail at $350,000 for a well-known activist charged with striking one police officer and trying to disarm another during weekend protests.
  
  Three women were taken into custody for shouting after Ja’mal Green’s bail was set, but Green’s mother and sister were later let go. The third woman was detained after sheriff’s deputies discovered two traffic warrants outstanding.
  
  “I will not tolerate any disrespect in my courtroom,” Judge Peggy Chiampas said as two of the women, still shouting, were led into the lockup.

Unfortunately, Chiampas let them go later without the contempt citation. Guess what they just learned? No consequences - exactly what the arrested asshole learned.

• As they left the Taste of Chicago Saturday evening, an officer saw Green climb a fence and ordered him to get down.
  
  Green threatened the officer, saying he was “going to beat his ass” and stood face to face with him, swinging his arms, prosecutors said. Green was allowed to continue the protest, but later struck a police commander, George Deveraux, in the shoulder, prosecutors said, a moment captured by a Chicago Tribune photographer.
  
  Green also spit in a police officer’s face, prosecutors said.
  
  Green was allowed to continue in the protest until, on Michigan Avenue near Water Tower Place, he grabbed the duty belt of a police captain about an inch away from the officer’s service revolver, prosecutors said.
  
  A police lieutenant pulled Green’s arm away and attempted to take him into custody but Green resisted, saying, "You’re going to get it – I’m going to have your badge," prosecutors told the judge.

So Special Ed, is it true? You're going to take the lieutenant's badge and give it to Ja'mal? After all, you told Ja'mal you were going to strip that other officer and remove him from the street for defending his partner's life before anyone else knew it was going to happen. Maybe you're going to hold the other officer down so Ja'mal can "beat his ass" since it's obvious you don't have officers' backs.

Do you see what you created dumbass? Do you even understand the first rule about raising a child? If you reward bad behavior, you get more of it. By removing this asshole from the justice system last time, you created a monster, a jagoff who thinks he's untouchable. He's spitting in officer's faces for god's sake. Now he's claiming he's going to beat up officers, have their badges and grabbing at guns.

He's trying to get clocked, hoping for a big payout. In fact, he's probably trying to get shot, grabbing at coppers' guns. And in the event it actually happens, we don't have any doubts about what your actions are going to be. Not a single doubt.

UPDATE: Word from some County guys - Green is currently being housed in Cermak Hospital, the medical facility on the grounds of the jail. He's in isolation because, you know, jail is dangerous. No word if he's faking an illness or just a giant wuss who only attacks cops from a crowd while his victims are constrained by rules.

And the Winner is....

With 62% of the vote:

• Special Ed

We'll use this as the primary designation for EJ, though you're welcome to use any that come to mind and we might vary it up a little - we used half-a-dozen for McCompStat.

Luckily, we don't even have to run a poll for his cheating Lie-tenant girlfriend:

That one was the only entry.

Zorn Says "Stay Fetal"

In a career made up of dumb ideas, this one has to be one of his dumbest:

• Dear local and state government officials:
  Direct your police officers to stop pulling motorists over for minor violations

Whoa. Seriously?

• A traffic stop for an allegedly broken taillight was the precipitating event for the incident in which Philando Castile, a 32-year-old African-American man, was shot and killed by police Wednesday in the suburbs of St. Paul, Minn. That shooting was one of the precipitating events for protests in Dallas, Chicago and many other cities Thursday.

Actually, that story is falling apart as we speak. Both his tail lights were working, and the radio tapes already leaked show that the officer was pulling Castile over because he matched the description of a wanted offender from a few days ago.

• [...] Traffic stops are fraught. They put officers in danger, make drivers resentful and can have racial overtones due to a history of incidents and disproportionate use against minorities. Reserve them for serious violations. Use cameras and other technology to transmit safety warnings, enforce sticker and plate requirements and strike fear into the hearts of those who change lanes without signaling.
  
  If you want to build goodwill between your police and your community, that would be a good place to start.

Back in 1977, a madman who claimed he was taking orders from a demonic spirit in a dog, killed 6 people and wounded 7 others in a series of attacks that lasted a year. The Son of Sam was captured because of....a parking ticket.

In 1997, a serial killer ran loose for three months killing at will. Among his victims was real estate developer Lee Miglin and designer Gianni Versace. Andrew Cunanan was identified via a Chicago parking ticket and added to the FBI Most Wanted List.

Does anyone remember how Timothy McVeigh was apprehended after the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people including 19 children? It was a license plate violation.

And since this seems important to Zorn, those were all white guys.

So-called "minor violations" can become a big deal rather quickly. So if Zorn would care to outline a list of laws that certain "communities" aren't required to obey, we'd love to read it and publish it. Because people who don't renew their plates, don't buy city stickers, don't obey traffic laws, don't cost taxpayers anything, right? And people who don't carry insurance, who don't maintain their 3,000 pound car, who don't have a valid license because they never passed a road test, well, they didn't mean any harm when they cut in and out of traffic, ran those red lights and plowed into grandma crossing the street.

And if they actually got convicted, Zorn could have his buddies at the "Innocence Project" make up some bullshit to spring them like they did other murderers.

March Scheduled for....

Who are we kidding - there is none:

• A 4-year-old boy shot and wounded in Englewood is the fourth child to be shot in Chicago in just three days.
  
  At 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, the boy was outside a home in the 5700 block of South Morgan Street when a car drove up and someone inside the car fired shots, said [...] a Chicago Police spokesman.
  
  [...] On Monday, a 5-year-old girl and 7-year-old boy were shot just blocks away from Wednesday's incident. An 11-year-old boy was shot in Heart of Chicago the same day.

After all, the cops didn't shoot these kids....as far as we know.

SCC Poll

People have been asking for a nickname for the supernintendo. Usually, one presents itself, either by word or by deed, and we run with it. J-Fed morphed into J-Fled following the brazen cowardice fleeing the scene of a shooting. McCarthy earned a few sobriquets - McJerseyShore, Streetlight Assassin, McCompStat, etc. Escalante was blessed with Mr. Six and De-Escalante. There have been others.

We've come up with a short list, gleaned from comments and conversations. Vote in the comment section.

EJ's nickname shall be

Special Ed

The Accidental Supernintendo

Well Fed Ed

Big Headie Eddie

Pillsbury

The Crisco Kid

other

 

pollcode.com free polls

We're sure there will be more - these might inspire some other good ones, especially as the cheating scandal continues to simmer, the shooting rate climbs and murders spike in July and August.

Unsuccessful Suicide by Cop

South side:

• A Chicago police officer shot a man in the leg in Calumet Heights on the South Side early Sunday after getting a call from someone threatening suicide, authorities said.
  
  Just before 1:10 a.m., a person called 911 saying he was in a second-floor apartment in the 1800 block of East 87th Street and was going to kill himself, a source said. The caller said he had a 9mm handgun, according to the source.
  
  About 1:15 a.m., police arrived to assist with the EMS call, according to Chief of Detectives Eugene Roy. Officers found a man in the apartment "holding what appeared to be a handgun" and they told him to drop it, Roy said.
  
  The man pointed the gun at the officers, and one of them deployed a Taser while another officer fired his gun, Roy said. The Taser connected with the man and he was also shot in the leg, Roy said.

We'd just like to take this opportunity to remind future protestors that the police were called to the scene - they weren't looking for this guy. He was described as suicidal. The caller also stated he was armed. That pretty much dictates how things go from that point forward.

In any event, nice job by the Officers.

Hey Liberals?

You're going to let them beat up horses?

• Protesters threw bottles at police and their horses Saturday night in the South Loop. The group had marched for hours throughout downtown Chicago protesting police brutality.

And CrimeInBoystown posted this in the comments:

• Stumbled across this while reviewing yesterday's arrests....
  
  NAME: JAMAL D GREEN
  AGE: 20
  CB NUMBER: 19340113
  ARRESTED: Saturday, July 9, 2016 7:22 PM
  ARREST LOCATION: 900 N MICHIGAN AVE
  Charges:
  720 ILCS 5.0/12-3.05-D-4 AGG BATTERY/PEACE OFFICER
  720 ILCS 5.0/12-2-B-4 AGG ASSAULT PC OFFICER/VOLUNTEER
  720 ILCS 5.0/31-1-A RESISTING/OBSTRUCT/PC OFF/CORR EMP/FRFTR
  720 ILCS 5.0/31-1-A RESISTING/OBSTRUCT/PC OFF/CORR EMP/FRFTR

Funny how this isn't reported in the media. Word is he slugged a commander on the street. Rumor is that when he got to the lockup, after the obligatory "Don't you know who I am?" bullshit, he was asked if he wanted to make a phone call.

He called Eddie Johnson's cell phone.

Minnesota Riot

102 arrests. 21 cops injured:

• St. Paul leaders condemned the violence that broke out over the weekend when a peaceful protest over the police killing of Philando Castile turned into what they called a riot.
  
  Castile’s family called for peace Sunday, and activists distanced themselves from those who hurled rocks and other objects at police on Interstate 94. The attacks injured 21 law enforcement officers.
  
  Between the highway protest — and a march that followed on St. Paul’s Grand Avenue early Sunday — police arrested 102 people.
  
  “What happened last night and early this morning does a disservice to those that have lost their lives this last week, whether it was Philando Castile in Falcon Heights or the officers (who were killed) in Dallas,” said St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman Sunday morning. “This is not about grief, this is not about protest, this is about rioting, this is about violence. … This doesn’t honor anyone’s memory.”

Well, when you combine low-information individuals with a media-propagated lie, this is what you reap.

This is Helpful

No wait, not really:

• An Illinois appeals court on Friday vacated an injunction obtained by the Chicago police union that barred the city's release of disciplinary files dating back decades.
  
  The Fraternal Order of Police sued to block the release after a March 2014 appellate court ruling that documents dating back to 1967 should be made public. Several news outlets had requested the records.
  
  As a result of the 2014 ruling, the Invisible Institute, a nonprofit journalism organization, obtained 11 years of records and published an interactive database of police misconduct.

Records dating back through 1967? We weren't even born in 1967. These files shouldn't even exist. And what would be the purpose of releasing them anyway? The vast majority of these are undoubtedly "not sustained" and and statute of limitations ran out decades ago for 99% of these files. We'll bet half the cops named have gone on to their heavenly reward - or hell in some cases.

The only ones worth reading about, and maybe the Invisible Institute can point these out, are the ones naming certain bosses that subsequently got promoted. There might be a clout cover-up list that would connect all sorts of dots and give names to the apocryphal locker room stories of years past. Exempts who got caught climbing in certain bedroom windows, others whose drunken escapades were the stuff of legend, some who got promoted to keep their mouths shut about all sorts of shenanigans. Those investigative files would explain a lot about how we got here.

More Protests, More Ignorance

All based on false narratives (i.e. lies):

• With the nation continuing to reel from the recent killings of two African-American men by police, as well as the deadly attack on Dallas officers, activists in Chicago snarled traffic downtown on Saturday and successfully took their protests inside the annual Taste of Chicago festival, into the Loop and up North Michigan Avenue.

The nation isn't reeling. The nation is concerned. We've been thanked more in the past two days by citizens of all races since 9/11. The nation is dismayed by the divisiveness being exploited by various political actors.

• Activists affiliated with the local Black Lives Matter movement and their supporters also called for tourists to withhold spending on the Magnificent Mile to punish City Hall for failing to penalize officers who kill civilians.

Sure. That'll work. Makes perfect sense to penalize officers who are acting within the scope of their duties and the law without any sort of investigation or finding.

• From Grant and Millennium parks to the Loop and North Michigan Avenue, familiar chants echoed through the crowd from early afternoon into the evening: "No justice, no peace. No racist police" and "You can't stop the revolution" and "Hands up, don't shoot."

Again, none of these chants were heard during the shootings of over 2,000 people so far this year, 80% of whom were shot by other black folks (or people). And we have yet to see a scintilla of evidence of racism - Correlation does not imply causation. As far as this being a "revolution," it would be a lot messier if it was. And the tired refrain of "Hands up, don't shoot" was debunked by none other than the Obama Justice Department - it didn't happen.

• Protests have popped up in Chicago and in cities across the nation in recent days, with officers across the country under close scrutiny over what some see as indiscriminate use of deadly force against blacks.

Again Your Honor, facts not in evidence. This is a media driven movement, leaping from conclusion to conclusion without any regard for a proper investigation. And once the investigation is actually completed, ignored as if it never happened, the narrative being set in concrete by the actors who stand to make money or gain power.

Exhibit A - Ferguson
Exhibit B - Baltimore

Facts are pesky things. In Baton Rouge, the dead offender had threatened a homeless man with a gun. Police were called and responded. They saw a subject matching the description and took police action. The offender resisted as the police used hands on, escalated to a Taser (which didn't work) and when the one officer determined the subject was armed and attempting to get to his pocket, he was shot. The gun was recovered. What's the problem? Oh yeah, the officers are the wrong color. Bad Officers!

In Minnesota, the dead offender matched the description of an armed robbery offender - the "broken taillight" story narrated by the girlfriend is a lie - the authorities released the radio tapes from the officer about his intent to pull over a car with a "BOLO" (Be On the Look Out For) offender. The Concealed Carry narrative is still being investigated. There's a warning screen that usually pops up on police systems, and one Minnesota sheriff has already stated that the dead offender didn't have any permit issued by his office. Is anyone else suspicious how the media isn't trumpeting every quarter hour about how a cop shot a Concealed Carrier? We are, but we're waiting to see how the investigation unfolds. And oh yeah, the Officer is Latino, but the media is calling him white the four times we bothered to listen to the news today. [race corrected]

But the ignorant train keeps rolling along.

Ignorance

Reagan once said, "...the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn’t so." The same could be said about so very many people every time there's a police shooting. The arm chair quarterbacks, street corner lawyers and community organizers pop out of the woodwork with all sorts of ways to "fix" the police instead of having citizenstake actual responsibility.

Take this moron posting on social media:

• An Evergreen Park woman is accused of posting a threat on Facebook to shoot any police officer who pulls her over and asks her to get out of her car.
  
  Jenesis Reynolds, 24, was arrested Friday at her home and charged with disorderly conduct. She’s accused of posting a Facebook message saying: “all I know is if the police stops and request me to get out of the car I’m shooting instantly.”

Has anyone pointed out to her (or those like her) that the police have an absolute right to order you from your car? Pennsylvania v Mimms gives police that authority. Yet here is an ignoramus saying she's coming out "shooting instantly." And she is hardly alone in her ignorant thinking. You think that doesn't play into the scenarios running through police minds?

But this attitude (and worse) runs through the ignorant portions of certain communities, claiming the police have no "right" to stop them, to direct them as to proper lawful behavior, to restrict their movement and indeed, their freedom of movement, especially during an arrest situation. If certain people (or folks) would merely comply with lawful orders, things would be a lot simpler and less violent. A street cop knows way more about the law and what they are or aren't allowed to do.

There is no right to resist - it's written into the law. It's also written that an officer need not retreat in the face of resistance. The government wrote it that way on purpose. Sorry.

The populace have civil remedies in the face of unlawful actions, but two wrongs don't make a right. If a person thinks they were unjustly detained, hire a lawyer and sue the authorities - it's the American way.

You fight it out on the street, a whole bunch of people are going to get hurt or worse.

Ethical Debate?

The hysterics over at the Tribune continue:

• When Dallas police used a bomb-carrying robot to kill a sniper, they also kicked off an ethical debate about technology's use as a crime-fighting weapon.
  
  In what appears to be an unprecedented tactic, police rigged a bomb-disposal robot to kill an armed suspect in the fatal shootings of five officers in Dallas. While there doesn't appear to be any hard data on the subject, security experts and law enforcement officials said they couldn't recall another time when police have deployed a robot with lethal intent.

The only discussion this should open up is, "Where's ours?" and "Can we check one out like a shotgun?" This isn't Skynet - these aren't autonomous machines running around wiping out John Connor and the Resistance. It's a tool under the direct control of the duly authorized agents of the State preventing the further loss of life by a terrorist. That he was killed is incidental, plus any rational human being doesn't really give a shit. That would exclude the a large portion of the media evidently.

Another Billion?

Anyone know where Rahm went to Accounting School?

• The amount of overall Chicago debt to be paid off with future city property tax collections rose by more than $1 billion last year — marking yet another troubling financial trend for Mayor Rahm Emanuel as he tries to right the financial ship.
  
  But there's a bit of a silver lining in that cloud — the bulk of the new borrowing was done to execute Emanuel's plan to rid the city of risky borrowing deals that could have resulted in even bigger financial troubles down the road.
  
  The level of property tax-backed city debt was about $9.4 billion at the end of 2015, compared with about $8.3 billion the year before, according to the city's annual financial report made public Friday.
  
  That means that for years to come, the city will continue to spend nearly every penny of the $1.2 billion-plus collected from property taxes each year to pay down debt and fund employee pension systems, leaving almost nothing for day-to-day city operations. A small amount is used to cover library operating costs.

So when do we start laying off aldercreatures?

Hey Eddie?

You still taking this asshole's calls?

Jump Eddie! Jump!

How high Mr. Ja'Mal???

Resign you jagoff.

All your words for Dallas mean shit, you political tool.

And take your cheating girlfriend with you,.

So Now What?

Everyone, and we do mean everyone, ought to be working two man cars. Working alone is not an option for a while.

Station security needs to be evaluated immediately. These "open lobbies" and glass enclosures are an invitation to a bloodbath. Other departments across the state and nation talk to citizens through steel and bulletproof glass. You have to be buzzed into stations. Homeless people aren't sleeping in lobbies.

The Department needs to step up heavy weapon training - desk, street, everyone. Shotgun qualifications ought to be for everyone. Rifles for everyone, not just the chosen few youngsters. There need to be a couple of these weapons easily accessible in the station and at the desk 24/7.

Time to re-evaluate the types of jobs CPD responds to. The "community" needs to learn how to solve their non-criminal problems...without the police. It's what they're demanding anyway.

Since we've been ordered to stand down and ignore when the "protestors" block highways, downtown stores, public events, etc., and the Dallas parade proved itself a ripe environment for ambushing cops, it's time to re-evaluate the entire Special Events Section, as in getting out of it entirely. And get rid of the day-glo vests that pretty much make you an obvious target.

Same for the fixed posts. Parking in one spot invites an attack, like a half-stick of dynamite thrown at your car. Or a sniper in a gangway. Mission boxes restrict your movement, too, making patterns easier to spot or predict. (UPDATE): And outdoor roll calls announced days in advance and run through the aldercreatures' offices - anyone think those guys aren't passing info to the gangs?

That's just for starters - anything else?

UPDATE: thanks to the comment pointing out Outdoor Roll Calls.

Rock Bottom

And starting to dig:

• To a veteran South Side police officer, work has become a "thankless job." Morale among officers, he said, is "complete garbage."
  
  A sergeant with about two decades on the force who patrols all across the city said he feels as though "everybody wants to pile on us."
  
  Another ranking officer said the shootings of African-Americans by officers, as well as growing criticism of police, has created a "perfect storm" that makes attacks on police more likely.
  
  All three said they expect it will get only worse.

"....expect it will only get worse"? We'll guarantee it. In fact, it is right now:

• Police officers in three different states have been ambushed around the time-frame of the Dallas shooting that left five officers dead and many others injured. Officers were shot in what authorities described as “ambushes” in Missouri, Tennessee and Georgia Friday.
  
  A Ballwin, Missouri, police officer is clinging to life on Friday after being shot during a traffic stop. The officer stopped a speeding car at about 11 a.m., the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. As the officer was walking back to his car, the suspect exited his vehicle and walked briskly towards the officer. He then fired three shots at the officer.
  
  [...] A Valdosta (Georgia) police officer was shot on Friday morning while responding to a call of damage to an apartment complex, NBC11 reported. The suspect reportedly called police reporting his vehicle had been broken into. When Officer Randall Hancock responded Hancock allegedly exited his vehicle with a handgun and fired on the Valdosta officer. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Officer Beck was shot in the abdomen, beneath his protective vest. He returned fire striking the suspected gunman.
  
  [...] A Bristol, Tennessee, police officer was shot by a man who allegedly killed one other person and injured two others. Preliminary findings by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations (TBI) indicate the suspect, 37,year-old Lakeem Keon Scott may have been targeting people and officers because he was “troubled by recent events involving African-Americans and law enforcement officers in other parts of the country.”

And the president shits the bed with his usual mealy-mouthed crap:

• "We will learn more about their twisted motivations," Obama said of the suspects. "Let's be clear: There is no possible justification."

Really? Funny how just 24 hours earlier, he was judging all the facts not in evidence regarding two police shootings, but now it's "We will learn more..." He consistently defends the indefensible with "Let's not rush to judgement" when terrorists slaughter gays in Florida, office workers in San Bernadino, soldiers at Fort Hood, and now a BLM supporter in Dallas.

Dumbass

Evidently, the hairplugs have entered his brain and started eating it:

Unless of course, he means armed felons who had just threatened numerous people at the store should stop resisting and fighting the police when they get caught dirty.

Otherwise, fuck Urlacher. We'll post any pictures people send us of them torching his jersey.

Riots at the Jail

All three offenders are in jail awaiting trial for murder:

• Three inmates and a jail deputy were taken to area hospitals after a fight at the Cook County Jail division that houses the facility’s youngest and most violent inmates, officials said.
  
  The fight started between two inmates at Division 9 in the jail about 4 p.m., according to statements emailed from the Cook County sheriff’s office. Other inmates joined the fight, with one using what sheriff’s officials believe was a pen or another writing instrument to injure three other inmates, according to the statement.

An e-mailer says that the Teamsters are going to call on Dart to resign shortly as he has been short-staffing the jail, politicizing videos to demean and endanger officers, and pretty much being an all-around dick.

Dallas Protest Turns Violent

(This post has been moved from 2230 hours last night)

The heated rhetoric has turned to violence.

Link here.

One Dallas cop dead, up to five more wounded.

UPDATE: Ten shot, three dead, multiple snipers?

UPDATE: Five dead, seven wounded. Four snipers? One dead, three in custody?

UPDATE: Single shooter? Any numbers of "people of interest"

UPDATE: A police robot killed the shooter when he refused to surrender.

Nice Job Officer

A extensive effort to do something nice:

• Three years ago, I wrote about several Chicago Police officers who saw a family in need; and instead of playing it by the book, they chose to "play it by the heart."
  
  I wrote that the officers' kindness and generosity shows that behind a typical police officer's badge beats a strong and compassionate heart." (A link to that story is here.)
  
  Today, I am privileged to share another example of a Chicago Police officer who has played it by the heart, this time for the kids at Hubbard High School, 62nd and Hamlin.
  
  Officer John Catanzara has been a school officer at Hubbard since late 2013. He has built, mostly at his own expense, a 3,200-gallon koi pond in the small atrium space between wings of the school.

The pond was completed and dedicated this past 30 June to fallen Officer Brian Strouse. There area bunch of pictures at the link up top, and this was an impressive effort judging by the completed project. Well done Officer.

Perfect Sense

Protestors blocking the Dan Ryan, an expressway that is used as a get-away route for hundreds, maybe thousands of shooters, for shootings that happened in .... Minnesota? Louisiana?

• Protesters marching in reaction to the deaths of two black men in confrontations with police in Minnesota and Louisiana blocked the southbound lanes of Dan Ryan Expressway for a short time Thursday evening.
  
  Protesters gathered outside the Wentworth Police District headquarters before marching onto the southbound lanes of the Dan Ryan Expressway for several minutes. They blocked the lanes south of 51st Street for five to 10 minutes a little before 7 p.m., according to Illinois State Police.
  
  A separate group of demonstrators marched downtown and were foiled by police when they tried to enter the Taste of Chicago festival in Grant Park.

The Taste was protected, thank goodness. And what are they demanding?

• Ruby Thorkelson, 30, said the protesters weren't just calling for the end of police brutality, but for the end of police. Her friend, Angela Campion, also 30, said there was no point trying to fix a "broken system," and that policing should be eliminated entirely.

Now there's a thought. Eddie, get on that. In the meantime in Reality Land:

• Year to Date
  Shot and Killed: 309
  Shot and Wounded: 1761
  Total Shot: 2070
  Total Homicides: 344
  
  Stats courtesy of HeyJackass.com

Last year, Chicago had 2,996 people shot - it's July and the total is at 2,070.

4,000 is well within reach.

The Fix is In

Dean tries, but guess who isn't interested in constructive input?

• The Chicago police union president suggested Thursday that only a task force of outside law enforcement could fairly probe police shootings and maintained that the city's civilian agency is now handling that job in violation of state law.
  
  But aldermen shot down Fraternal Order of Police President Dean Angelo's legal claim and fired back that at a time of widespread distrust of the Chicago Police Department, allowing other police to be in charge of looking into police abuse claims here would not provide strong enough oversight.

And these are the assholes who de-funded the entire office that was supposed to investigate them. Talk about the height of hypocrisy.

Agitator-in-Chief Says "Stay Fetal"

Never shirk a chance to pre-judge everything before the facts are in:

• After the latest deadly shooting of a black American by police, President Barack Obama on Thursday said US police departments needed to move more quickly to reform.
  
  Obama offered condolences to the family of the black motorist, who was killed by a Minnesota cop, and insisted the country had seen "tragedies like this too many times".
  
  Citing a litany of evidence to show that non-white Americans are more likely to be pulled over, searched or shot by police, Obama appealed to white Americans not to see this as a fringe issue.

Nothing like a rush to judgement while the riots are still being planned. We mean, this isn't Baltimore for goodness sake.

And There it is....

The "Death Spiral" has become painfully visible, even to those willfully blind:

• Cook County taxpayers are outraged after property tax bills showed up in the mail. The bills are skyrocketing this year. The city of Chicago and its public school district's fiscal problems literally hit home over the weekend, when property owners saw their second installment tax bills.
  
  Outside the assessor's office, city homeowners told one property tax horror story after another.
  
  "Our taxes increased fivefold," said William Phillips of Rogers Park. "I was expecting it to go up maybe twice as much but not four to five times as much."
  
  "My tax bill increased almost $1,200 dollars," said Cornes King of Chatham.
  
  "More than tripled. The city's piece more than tripled," said Logan Square resident Janelle Squire.

The common complaint?

• "I don't think that I'm getting the services for what I'm paying for," said King.

Neither do a lot of the people paying a lot more than you. Who is the media blaming most of all?

• The bills that arrived over the weekend reflect rising Cook County real estate values and, in Chicago, the city's $588 million levy increase. Most of it is to restore police and firefighter pensions that Mayor Rahm Emanuel says his predecessors underfunded.

Rahm can't even say "Daley" out loud and relies on the media to say "his predecessors." His only "predecessor" ran the city for how long? Twenty-two years. But he throws the First Responders out there front-and-center.

And the pain isn't over - not by along shot:

• Sensing taxpayer unrest, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle promised not to consider a property tax increase to resolve her government's deficit.
  
  [...] But the Chicago Public Schools Board is expected to approve a $250 million property tax hike to pay for teacher pensions. The new levy was enabled last week by the Illinois General Assembly and Governor Bruce Rauner. The additional charges, hundreds of dollars more for an average city house, will appear on tax bills a year from now.
  
  [...] Homeowners could also have less money to pay their property taxes if the Illinois income tax is raised eventually to address the fiscal problems in Springfield.

What are these people going to do? Not all of them, but some are going to simply pack up and leave. Look for someplace more affordable. Someplace that they feel they're getting their money's worth. Somewhere that isn't Cook County.

How many? That'll be the interesting part - one-in-twenty? One-in-ten? Chicago lost something like a quarter million residents in the last census. In reality, it was probably a wash due to illegal conversions and illegal aliens. But in terms of properties that are generating property tax revenue? Places like Englewood have well over 2,000 vacant or abandoned properties, and those are the parcels with buildings on them - how many bulldozed lots? What about Austin? North Lawndale? How many lots were sold to assorted make-believe churches for $1? They might enrich a pastor at some unforeseen future date, while he endorses the flavor-of-the-day aldercreature, but what kind of taxes are being generated today?

And what happens in a few years when the politicians reassess and find even fewer citizens (and businesses) to tax, and the same unpaid pension obligations and the crushing debt in Springfield?

Mix and Match Numbers

The mayor plays with the stats again, and the Sun Times gobbles up Rahm's shit like it's expensive caviar:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday credited the potent but costly mix of police overtime, summer jobs and a preemptive gang takedown for Chicago’s least deadly July Fourth weekend in eight years.
  
  It’s a function of how violent Chicago has become that a three-day holiday weekend with four homicides and 50 shooting victims is considered progress. But it’s the reality in a city that has seen a 49 percent increase in both shootings and homicides during the first six months of this year while police activity has plummeted.

Amusingly, the Sun Times used the SCC definition of "weekend" that we created to set the over/under (1700 Friday until 2359 Monday.) They also must have used the only reliable counting website out there, HeyJackass.com, because their numbers track ours exactly. They also conveniently ignore the HeyJackass.com "overtime" mayhem counter, which counted an extra 24 shootings (17 after the 2359 cutoff) after Eddie tempted the Fates, making the "unofficial" count far closer to years past:

• 2013: 15 dead 63 wounded (78)
• 2014: 16 dead 66 wounded (82)
• 2015: 11 dead 55 wounded (66)
• 2016: 6 dead 62 wounded (68)

Here's the truly amusing portion of the article:

• This year’s July Fourth weekend reversed the trend, albeit briefly, with murders falling to nearly half the two-day 2015 weekend, when there were seven killings. That’s why Emanuel was patting the extraordinary number of moonlighting police officers on the back Tuesday instead of bemoaning the bloodshed on Chicago streets.
  
  “I want to compliment every person on the police department who worked this weekend. Who did overtime or basic tour. Who signed up for extra hours [for] having a quieter weekend,” the mayor said.
  
  “I don’t want to misstate. There was still gun violence,” he said. “But we had fewer homicides than, I think, the last eight years.”

Well, if you took the entire weekend, sunrise-to-sunrise, we actually had more shootings than last year. So shouldn't Rahm be patting the backs of the doctors, nurses and paramedics who saved far more people than the Eddie and John Show, who spent a boatload of money, resulting in two additional people being shot? That won't help Rahm shed the title of "Murder Mayor," but the Sun Times is doing its best to help.

IPRA "Reform" Stalling

Rahm lurching from the property tax explosion to the police reform debacle:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel can’t win, no matter what he does when it comes to restoring public trust shattered by his handling of the Laquan McDonald shooting video.
  
  That became painfully obvious on Wednesday, as the City Council’s Budget and Public Safety Committees kicked off two days of public hearings to solicit input on Emanuel’s plan to abolish the Independent Police Review Authority and replace it with a new, multilayered system of police accountability.

All this tells us is that the "cure" is going to be far worse than the supposed "disease" ever was. People with no knowledge or background in police work dictating rules that will be in contravention of best practices and established law, all at the expense of Officer safety.

Stay fetal indeed.

Hey Look - It's the No-lympics

One of Shortshanks' parting gifts to Chicago:

• In two weeks Chicago would be hosting the world if it had won its bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Instead, the city lost to Rio de Janeiro, which some are saying is a victory in and of itself.
  
  Rio's governor has declared a "state of calamity," a financial emergency, ahead of the games. A promised subway line isn't complete. There are major concerns about crime and health.
  
  It could have been Chicago. In 2008 there was enthusiasm in the city, as even the newly-elected President Obama campaigned on behalf of the bid.
  
  [...] That energy and enthusiasm would be snuffed out in a stunning first-round defeat just months later. The bulk of Chicago's Olympic bid was paid for with private money and Mayor Daley promised no taxpayer money. But there was one glaring exception that remains an eyesore to this day: the Michael Reese Hospital campus.
  
  The campus would have become an athletes' village if Chicago had won the bid. The city hasn't been able to sell it in the past eight years. Mayor Daley put taxpayers on the hook for $91 million and it won't be paid in full until 2024.

Daley's buddies still made a bunch of money, even as pension funds and other non-connected types took a bath. You can re-live the moment Chicago dodged most of the damage here:

That was a particularly amusing day seeing Daley realize he got played by people he considered amateurs. Those yokels took his gifts, political capital and dignity, and then pants-ed him on international television. Poor Richie thought that when people got bought, they stayed bought. He forgot that there were three other kleptocracies with far fewer scruples competing for the same corrupt pie.

Bad Timing Eddie

Time and time again, we've seen superintendents get on camera and brag about how they drove down some number, only to have it blow up in their faces. This weekend was no exception:

• Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson credited targeted arrests of gang members ahead of the Fourth of July weekend with the relatively small number of shootings and homicides during the holiday.
  
  Addressing reporters at Washington Park on Monday evening, Johnson called the four-day total of 39 shooting incidents and three fatalities a sign of progress as his department tries to tamp down a surge in killings through the first half of the year.

That went up on the Sun Times site around 2200 hours on 04 July. The totals stood at 4 dead, 39 wounded (43 total shot.)

By the time the sun rose, 24 more people had gotten shot and the HeyJackass total was 5 dead, 62 wounded (67 total shot.) The late totals included two doubles, two triples and a quadruple. Why tempt the Fates like that? Every intelligent copper......oh wait.

Did the bangers make bail at Holiday court and headed back to the hood to take care of unfinished business? Did the gangs get word that, once again, downtown fucked up and paid overtime from 01 July thru 04 July, completely forgetting that the night of 04 July is actually 05 July for midnight cops and First Watches across the city were shorthanded...again?

By the way, for gambling purposes (toothpicks only!) the HeyJackass.com totals for our time restricted window (1700 Friday thru 2359 Monday) were 4 dead, 46 maimed (50 total shot).  Settle up with your bookie.

The entire weekend by the HeyJackass timeline ended up at 5 and 62 (67) if you play the overtime option.

More Cook County "Justice"

Here's a link to the CrimeInWrigleyville blog that covered the dropping of charges against the mope who attacked the off-duty copper, knocking him out.

We also got an e-mail regarding this case from 2014:

• A man has been charged with attempted murder for firing a bullet that ricocheted and struck a Chicago Police officer in the face Sunday.
  
  James Garland, 53, is charged with attempted murder and aggravated battery with a firearm in connection with the shooting in the 2700 block of East 92nd Street, according to police.
  
  About 8:45 p.m. Sunday, officers were executing a search warrant for narcotics when someone inside the home fired a shot that eventually struck the officer between the eyes, Police Supt. Garry McCarthy told reporters.

According to our e-mail, this jagoff was found not guilty in Judge Carol Howard's courtroom on or about 01 July. We cannot find a single mention anywhere in the media, nor the Department website, nor the FOP website. Typical for a Friday afternoon before a three-day-weekend,

This occurred during a Search Warrant, one of more dangerous endeavors undertaken by any law enforcement. To have the word out there that firing even a single round at police serving a legal warrant ought to have a chilling effect on all police work.

Rahm to Pay Rezko Debts?

Ben Joravsky digging where other reporters fear to tread:

• For the last few days I've been looking for takers on my bet that Mayor Emanuel will eventually spend about $17.4 million of your property tax dollars to pay off some of convicted felon Tony Rezko's obligations.
  
  Not exactly at the top of anyone's priority list of expenditures—except, perhaps, the people who made the mistake of lending Rezko their money.
  
  This has to do with the mayor's mouth-frothing determination to spare no public expense to develop "Rezkoville," the 62 acres of vacant land between Roosevelt and Chinatown that Rezko once owned, into a neighborhood filled with condos and townhomes.
  
  Apparently, Emanuel will do just about anything to avoid spending that money on boring things like our dead-broke schools.

Or underfunded police pensions. Go read it all - pretty amazing stuff, and all within the realm of possibility.

What Did We Learn This Weekend?

If the trend holds, shootings this year as compared to last, will be down in the area of 50%. On its face, this is a good thing, but the numbers that came out of the weekend are still pretty bad - between 40 and 50 people shot.

But how was this accomplished? Anyone from the media want to answer? You've been printing it on and off for days leading up to the weekend. C'mon, we're just dumb coppers and we've been talking about it and pointing it out for years.

No, it wasn't ISP sending a few dozen troopers. Or County sending some sheriffs to patrol the south and west sides. Here's a clue - this quote from Frank Main:

• The Chicago Sun-Times reported earlier this year that the Police Department spent a record $116.1 million on overtime in 2015 — up 17.2 percent from the previous year — to mask a manpower shortage that has mushroomed under Mayor Rahm Emanuel, with police retirements outpacing hiring by 975 officers.

:::GASP!!!::: A manpower shortage? Why didn't somebody say something?

Here's what really happened:

• the brass rearranged tactical team days off (as usual);
• they put everyone in uniform;
• overnight shifts stayed an extra half-a-tour;
• the ran an operation taking 88 high level problems off the street letting others know there was something serious going on;
• anyone who was RDO was offered the chance to work one or both days off for time-and-one-half in their district, on their regular shift - not somewhere far from home

Were they 5,000 extra cops? Not even close. All told, the number of cops working a day off was probably between 1,200 to 1,500 or so, all watches, all shifts.

A huge number of house mice were manning cars. Were they lighting the world on fire? Not where we work. Were they jumping out on dope tips, chasing the pack, hiding in the bushes? Good lord, no. Were they a visible presence, deterring crime, manning cars that aren't usually up and making the numbers of coppers seem like they were suddenly reinforced? You bet they were. And what happens when they all go back inside this week and end up RDO again on Saturday/Sunday and the gangs don't feel like there's a street presence again? Go on.....guess.

Now which news outlet is going to have the balls to ask for the actual numbers of cops and the actual OT paid out this weekend? And who is going to point out to Rahm that if he had properly manned the Department while McCarthy was here instead of trying to do it on the cheap, there might be more than a few innocent lives saved?

Cop Saves Cyclist

Quick action:

• The swift actions of an off-duty Chicago police officer may have saved the life of a bicyclist seriously wounded after a violent crash Sunday morning on the city's North Side.
  
  Sean Hayes, a Chicago Police Department firearms instructor, was driving with his 6-year-old son around 9:45 a.m. Sunday in the 3500 block of North Damen Avenue in Roscoe Village when he spotted a young man who appeared dazed and was holding a hand to his neck.
  
  "I asked him if he was OK," Hayes said. "Then, all of a sudden, blood came out of his neck. He said, 'Help! I'm hurt.'"
  
  The 21-year-old man had been riding his bicycle to work when he crashed into a car door that opened in his path, completely folding the door against the front of the car. At some point during the wreck, an edge of the car door apparently clipped the cyclist's neck, causing him to bleed profusely.

Good job Officer.

Cops Injured by Fireworks

This first one is just stupid games:

• A Chicago Police officer was injured by a firecracker Monday morning at the 17th District station in the Albany Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side.
  
  The man went into the restroom at the station in the 4600 block of North Pulaski about 5:50 a.m. and was injured by a novelty firework most commonly known as a firecracker or "noisemaker," police said.
  
  The officer was taken to Swedish Covenant Hospital as a precaution in good condition, police said.
  
  The station’s bathroom was not damaged.

Thank goodness the bathroom was okay! Now who's going to step up and take the suspension time on this one?

This other one is how stupid ideas get coppers hurt:

• Two Chicago police officers were injured when someone threw a powerful firecracker at their squad car in the South Shore neighborhood Sunday, authorities said.
  
  [...] The South Shore incident happened around 4:20 p.m. Sunday, according to police.
  
  Two officers were on patrol in the 7400 block of South Exchange Avenue when a red Toyota Camry pulled up and someone inside threw the large firecracker at their squad car and it exploded, said [...] a police spokeswoman.

First of all, the officers weren't "on patrol." They were on a fixed post for an aldercreature. This particular aldercreature wants the cops parked at that spot every day because of crime in the area - that way, no one has to pay for a separate security guard. In fact, right after the cops went to the hospital, there was another squad immediately assigned to the spot, one of three the aldercreature has manned every day:

• All because the aldermen want fixed posts so the district downs three rapid cars every day to babysit three corners and put huge targets on the POs heads. And each fixed post needs relief for lunch, personals or any arrests they go in for. So at any point there may be up to six cars down in a busy district because the aldermen want it.

This makes the coppers sitting ducks for any asshole who wants to throw an explosive at the car. Brilliant idea! And such a wise use of manpower - and taxpayer money. Hey Eddie, you think we could get that around our neighborhood?

Judges Don't Follow the Rules?

Gee whiz Batman, who would have guessed this happens in Cook County?

• Cook County judges routinely make bail decisions for crime suspects contrary to what the judges’ new risk-assessment system calls for, according to a review of more than 1,500 cases this year obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.
  
  A review by the Cook County sheriff’s office showed judges’ bail decisions differed from the guidelines about 85 percent of the time. The review tracked cases in 30 weekday sessions — between Feb. 10 and March 29 — in Central Bond Court at the main Leighton Criminal Courthouse at 26th and California.
  
  The sheriff’s study found bail decisions were “inconsistent,” even when defendants’ backgrounds and the charges they faced were factored in.
  
  The 90-page study, the results of which Chief Cook County Judge Timothy Evans disputes, also found that the amount and conditions of bail varied widely depending on which judge was presiding on a given day.

Toni is insisting there are too many black and brown defendants in the jail, Dart is releasing them as fast as he can process them out (and demoralizing his workforce), and judges are fucking up bail requirements 85% of the time. And Evans "disputes" the study? How about he has the judges follow the bail recommendations for say...the rest of summer? And we'll see if crime drops significantly as the "risk factors" dictate certain assholes stay in jail until trial.

Happy Fourth of July

Be safe. Open post for the holiday. We'll be checking in here and there.

Cook County "Justice"

Amazing:

• Keep sticking your neck out
  
  Charges have been dropped against a man accused of battering an off-duty police officer who intervened in a Wrigleyville street disturbance on June 22. The officer was rendered unconscious in the attack.
  
  One count of felony aggravated battery to a police officer against 29-year-old Tremaine Wilson was tossed out with a finding of no probable cause by Cook County Judge Marvin Luckman. The state then dropped a lesser charge of reckless conduct, according to court records.

We can debate the wisdom of  taking any sort of police action (aside from dialing 9-1-1) all day long. But this just reinforces the feeling that not a single entity has our backs.

Priorities?

The "stop-gap" budget passed had some odd stuff in it.

• SCC, thought you'd like to know, CeaseFire got funded in the budget.

That's nice - perhaps someone can send us the line item that funded them? In the meantime, we got this e-mail:

• SCC,
  I need to help to get the word out about the Illinois General Assembly and Governor Raunor's  [idea] to save Illinois taxpayer money. My wife is a disabled police officer from an on duty fight with an asshat in 2004. She was awarded the 75% compensation and all of the benefits afforded to disabled officers until now. My son is a Sophomore at UIC and was awarded the Disabled Police Officers Grant for dependents. He used the grant without issue in 2015 at Western Illinois University, but as of spring semester transferred to UIC. We applied and he was awarded the grant again for the Spring semester. Earlier in June, I received a letter from UIC that we were delinquent on his account by $7748.39. I thought this was an oversight and showed up with a copy of his award letter at the Financial Aid office at UIC. I was informed that the Illinois General Assembly has not funded the Disabled Officer Grant, and that UIC has a "roster" of eligible grant recipients and my son's name is not on it. He went on to explain that their office has received advanced word that this Grant will not be funded this year and my son is responsible for the balance on his account. I placed a call to my Illinois State Representative, Kelly Burke, today, but have not received a response as of yet. The General Assembly is currently meeting and it seems that the politicos have decided this Grant is not worthy. This is another attack on the heroes that defend this city from ruin. I have contacted the FOP with all of the documentation that I have....

So a disabled copper's family is saddled with nearly $8,000 until Springfield can get their act together.

Slow Start

Only 5 shot? On a Friday? That's what HeyJackass.com has listed. Saturday picked up a little bit - 1 dead and 6 wounded by early afternoon. This might have something to do with it though:

• Raids targeting street gang members ahead of the Fourth of July weekend resulted in 88 arrests Friday, the Chicago Police Department announced.
  
  The raids targeted gang members in the 11th and 15th districts on the city’s West Side, police said.
  
  Of the 88 people arrested on felony and misdemeanor charges, 76 were on the department’s Strategic Subject List and 55 were convicted felons, police said. Sixteen were on parole for earlier crimes.
  
  Police seized eight firearms, including an assault weapon and two handguns during a traffic stop Friday in the 5500 block of West Potomac Street. Members of the department’s Gang Enforcement Unit found the weapons while monitoring suspected gang activity in the 4900 block of West Crystal Drive when they stopped a Chevrolet Impala, and three people ran from the vehicle, police said.

You take 88 jagoffs out of the mix early, word gets around, quickly. Hammering 011 and 015 makes the under a good bet. This was a smart move, meaning it didn't come from HQ, but it only works if:

• the cases stick
• the warrants are good
• the courts carry out sentences
• IDOC rescinds paroles and sends jagoffs downstate

Otherwise, it's a one-time deal as Chicago marches toward 600.

Civilianization Failing?

Already?

• How's everyone else's civilians working out on the desk? We had one on 2nd and one on 3rd in 015 - both quit within a week of each other. Someone said they are getting paid about $9000 less than they originally were told?? Anyone got the scoop?
  
  (a posted reply)
  
  A few days before the civilian desk people left the academy, O'Neil from HR came to the class and said their starting salary was not the $44,000 they were promised. OOOPS! They made a mistake. Their pay now is $37,000. Oh no! Sorry but nothing can be done. The budget for the city showed the starting salary as $44,000. How does O'Neil make such a big mistake then say it is nothing to be worried about. Is O'Neil that incompetent? Move on nothing to see here.

An e-mailer writes that another civilian in 011 quit after one day. And another says three quit south, but we can't verify that one. Someone else wrote that it was revealed to the civilian clerks that they weren't actually replacing anyone on the desks (those are contractually guaranteed spots) so that when the budget gets cut (and it's coming again), the first ones gone are ::surprise!:: them.

"Give Up" Disabled Status?

Someone explain please?

• OT, but today at the Pension Board, a letter was read into the record. I understand that the letter was from FOP President Angelo. In it, he gave up his "disabled" status. Why would he do that if were actually disabled? Maybe because he isn't disabled, but was just another drain on the already broke pension fund.
  
  Big thanks to Lt. Maloney for FINALLY getting Angelo off the rolls of the disabled. As for Lappe and Hauser, they can go to hell. Thanks for looking the other way while the pension went bust, sell-outs! 

You can surrender a disability status? So what now? You take the P.O.W.E.R. test and come back to work? Is this some sort of miracle... should we call Rome?

Does this or can this affect post-FOP employment? Something in the six-figures range like previous past-presidents have managed to land?

Cops Hurt in Chase

Ran into a house during a pursuit:

• Two people were dead, and at least four Chicago police officers were injured late Friday morning in a police pursuit that started following a Tinley Park robbery and ended in the city's West Pullman neighborhood.
  
  According to preliminary information from authorities, two suspects were dead from the crash at 125th Street and Union Avenue. Four Chicago police officers suffered non-life threatening injuries and were taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, authorities said.
  
  Reports indicated one officer suffered a broken arm, and another suffered a broken leg.
  
  The chase began after a robbery in Tinley Park , and police took four suspects into custody, all of them injured, two of them critically, said Chicago police spokesman....

Oh, and some wastes-of-protoplasm died during all this. We're mostly concerned for the coppers, who are looking like they're going to be off for a while. A speedy recovery wished to all involved....except the criminals.

Watch Out Chicago!

Eddie is sick! Sick and tired!

• Saying he was "sick and tired" of the violence plaguing the city, Chicago's top cop announced Friday that thousands more law enforcement officers would hit the streets, lakefront and major tourist attractions, including Navy Pier, this Fourth of July weekend.
  
  Within the past 24 hours, three people had died and 21 more were wounded in violence across the city: this on the eve of the July Fourth weekend, typically one of the most violent holiday weekends of the year.
  
  On the heels of the violence between Thursday and Friday morning, police Superintendent Eddie Johnson called a news conference to discuss this weekend's policing strategy, and he called the level of crime in the city unacceptable.

This is what? The eighth time Eddie has been "sick and tired" of violence? Or is it the ninth?

He isn't pissed off enough to have demoted a single commander from their spots though. No Captains have been re-assigned. Not a single Deputy Chief, from Patrol to the D Unit has been removed from their spot.

And of course, the following:

• giving anti-police political operatives his "all-hours-cell-phone," 
• discussing internal disciplinary matters with that same cop hater, 
• stripping an officer for a completely justifiable kick, 
• lying through his teeth about what he somehow missed on video (even though a judge saw it plain as day),
• sending minions around with the most half-assed explanation we ever heard,
• and spouting off nonsense crap about "Policing at the Speed of Trust" and "building trust" while at least three cheaters are collecting paychecks for the most corrupted exam in history

 Anyone see the bill for this weekend? It's going to be a doozy.

Are These the Numbers?

Remember those "new" cops, sergeants and lieutenants Rahm pulled off the street for a graduation photo op? Someone posted these numbers:

• By the way media, 150 cops from inside spots to outside spots means nothing when 113 coppers will be official retired after they finish their 7A furlough segments in a week or two. We lost 46 sgts since may 1st and we lost about 86 P.Os in may and June. So 86 in may and june, and 113 in july equals 199 police officers lost. Add in Sgts lost and its about 245 bodies lost since may 1st. So really, those 150 just added a band aid to a gushing gunshot wound.

And those retirements are probably going to accelerate as the "55-and-out" expires this time next year.

Ten a Day

Something like twice the rate of LA and NYC....combined:

• [...] As Chicago heads into the often violent July Fourth weekend, these kinds of stories are all too common in pockets of the West and South sides. At the halfway point of the year, homicides have jumped by 49 percent citywide to 312 through Tuesday, reaching levels unseen since the late 1990s. Shooting incidents have risen by even more, marking the third consecutive year of double-digit increases.
  
  While it doesn't rank as the nation's murder capital on a per-capita basis, Chicago is the runaway leader in the sheer volume of killings and shootings. New York and Los Angeles don't even come close. Through June 19, Chicago had more homicides than those two larger cities combined, records show. The two combined had fewer than 1,000 shooting victims during that same period, while Chicago by Tuesday topped 1,900 — about 10 a day.

You know which strategy might work better than all the brainstorms downtown is failing at? Something along the lines of the Third Punic War in 149 BC - burn the hood to the ground and sow the vacant lots with salt.

Cause and Effect

Jack Dunphy wrote a follow up to the article we covered the other day in this post. In it, he takes on the "Ferguson Effect:"

• Do you still think there’s no such thing as the “Ferguson effect”? What about the “war on cops”--is that a myth, too? Crime is going down, we are reassured by Politifact, which gave Donald Trump’s assertion to the contrary earlier this month the “Pants on Fire” classification, its lowest rating. “Donald Trump said, ‘Crime is rising,’” said the Politifact headline. “It’s not (and hasn’t been for decades.” And just above that headline was the Politifact logo, which everywhere it appears boasts, “Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.”
  
  Yes, says Politifact, we have won journalism’s most prestigious award (whatever that’s worth these days), while Donald Trump is . . . Donald Trump, so only a fool would give credence to his claims over ours.
  
  Or maybe not. Our friends at the American Enterprise Institute took the trouble to practice a bit of journalism and give those Pulitzer Prize winners some schooling. “There’s a big problem with their conclusion,” says AEI, “Politifact just stopped looking at data in 2014.”

Gee, what happened in 2014 that might have caused crime to rise?

• So let’s look back to that year. Did something happen that might have influenced crime? Was there some event or series of events that caused America’s police officers to lose heart and slow down their efforts in combatting crime? On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner died in Staten Island after struggling with NYPD officers trying to arrest him for selling cigarettes. Less than a month later, Michael Brown was shot and killed in Ferguson, Mo., after committing a robbery and attempting to disarm a police officer. And out of those deaths arose the Black Lives Matter movement, whose members have since been peddling the lie that the ills of America’s inner cities can be blamed on a racist criminal justice system and the “prison-industrial complex,” which depends on racist police officers to feed helpless and blameless blacks into its gaping, insatiable maw.
  
  The media bought it, over-educated elites bought it, and of course politicians bought it, from local rabble-rousers right up to the Rabble-Rouser in Chief. All of them engaged in a shameful campaign of disinformation intended to distract from the genuine problem of black crime. And as a result, more black lives have been and will continue to be lost before this trend is reversed.

Go read the entire article - we've borrowed enough here to pique your interest. He does a helluva number on the state of policing under the "progressive" agenda.

Chiampas Again (UPDATE)

The disrespect for First Responders seems to be spilling over to the fire side:

• A suburban woman slapped a Chicago firefighter when he wouldn't let her ride a Divvy bike past a reversing fire truck, prosecutors said Wednesday.
  
  The 56-year-old fireman had stopped traffic near Wells and Van Buren streets about 4 p.m. Monday to accommodate a fire truck that was backing into the Chicago Fire Department station at 419 S. Wells St., court records show.
  
  Maegan Kurtz, 26, approached the station on a Divvy bicycle and tried to continue cycling past the truck, which was
  flashing its lights, according to an arrest report. The fireman tried to stop Kurtz, and a verbal altercation ensued, Assistant State's Attorney Lorraine Scaduto said in court Wednesday.
  
  That's when Kurtz allegedly slapped the firefighter. The man pushed Kurtz away, court records show, and she tumbled to the ground.

Judge Peggy Chiampas was not amused:

• "I do not take lightly the fact that an officer tells someone to stay out of the way, and the response is to get slapped in the face," Cook County Judge Peggy Chiampas told Kurtz on Wednesday before setting bail at $25,000.

The firefighter suffered a cut to his face, and ought to be slapping this entitled special snowflake with a lawsuit.

UPDATE: From the comments:

• I wonder if Ms. Kurtzs employer, The Peninsula Chicago, would appreciate knowing how one of their concierges acts in public?  https://www.linkedin.com/in/maegan-kurtz-50168235

Anyone blow a call in to the Peninsula?

Release the Tapes!!!

Eddie and Rahm are quick to strip officers when they do the correct thing, even in the face of irrefutable evidence. How about releasing this one?

• On 28 Jun 16, 3rd Watch desk Sgt A. was bitten by an offender in the station.  Everything captured on multiple officers camera.  Offender tasered and Sgt. also taken to St. Mary's Hospital.  Since Stripper Eddie likes to release video of Officers supposedly doing wrong, let's see if he releases this.

Let's go. Get it out there. You're so eager to tell everyone what steps your taking to make sure the Department is under control. How about releasing a few incidents of citizens being assholes? Doesn't that fit the narrative?

We guess the FOP is going to have to get the tape and release it like the Teamsters did for the sheriffs getting attacked in the jail.

Um....Upgrade?

Is the State going for the higher charge at the preliminary?

• A young man was stabbed in the chest for trying to help a woman and her kids who were being harassed on a city bus.
  
  Now, that Good Samaritan’s mother is speaking out and tells FOX 32’s that she's thankful there were good people around when the tables turned on her son.
  
  Jose Santiago was the only one who stepped up when he saw a group up to no good on the Diversey bus Monday. But his good deed ended with him in the hospital being treated for a stab wound.
  
  “My son is suffering, he's in pain,” said mother Gladys Santiago.

But then we read this:

• Luckily, his family says bystanders took photos of the stabbing suspect and handed them over to police at the scene. Those photos led police to 23-year old Gildalthi Rodriguez, who’s now been charged with misdemeanor battery.

Misdemeanor? For sticking a piece of metal into someone's ribs? Did he get I-bonded from the station? This sudden tendency to under-charge or RWOC only further endangers the officers/detectives who have to go get the offender again, who knows exactly why the cops are knocking on the door the second time.