Charges - But Why Was She Free?

Quick work on this one:

• A 16-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl were ordered held without bail Sunday after being charged with murder in the shooting death of Jovan Wilson, the grandson of U.S. Rep. Danny Davis.
  
  Tariq M. Harris, 16, and Dijae T. Banks, 17, are charged as adults with first-degree murder in an attack that started as a fight over clothes and shoes, police and prosecutors said. The pair were taken into custody Saturday.

Nice job by the detectives. But this comment popped up in the comment section:

• The offenders are in custody.
  So many things I want to say about this case, but I can't, for legal reasons.
  And the rant would be endless.
  I'll leave it at this: there is NO REASON the offender should have ben on the street. Actually, scratch that...there are LAWS THAT PROHIBITED THIS OFFENDER BEING ALLOWED TO BE ON THE STREET, THAT WERE PURPOSELY BYPASSED.
  I hope every person involved, JUDGE, HEAD JUDGE, PRICKWINKEL, and every other bastard that intentionally did not follow mandated sentencing guidelines, serves time for this one.

Sounds like the Cook County courts once again, released someone who shouldn't have been released? There's a clue in the article:

• At the time of the shooting, Banks was on probation for a robbery conviction.

So who dropped the ball on this one? IDOC? Tommy Dart? Either "day-for-day" credit or "empty the jail/prison!" is to blame for this predator being on the street.

Step up and take your hit. Tell the taxpayers why these convicts aren't in a cage where they belong, serving their entire sentences. Don't worry about fallout - Danny Davis has been supporting this sort of thing all his life - he couldn't possibly hold it against anyone.

UPDATE: On probation for FIVE burglaries? WTF?

Good Deed Makes Mom Angry

Willie Wilson catching some heat over his bailing out criminals:

• A mother is angry and frustrated that businessman Willie Wilson bailed her daughter out of Cook County Jail.
  
  Marcie Rotheiser said her daughter is addicted to drugs and putting her back on the streets put her in danger.
  
  She said she was at her wits' end trying to get help for her 23-year-old daughter. She's spent years dealing with social workers and psychologists, but nothing worked.
  
  Wilson said he had no idea of her background when he bailed her out of jail.

And she promptly went out, met her old friends and started getting high immediately, even disappearing at one point. She might still be missing according to one report. No good deed goes unpunished, especially when you seem to have no screening process in place.

More Ambushes

St. Louis just hours ago:

• A St. Louis police sergeant was shot in the face near Hampton and Pernod avenues around 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Police said he was shot twice, was conscious, was in serious condition but was expected to live.

And San Antonio earlier Sunday, in broad daylight:

• A veteran San Antonio police in the in the Special Victims Unit shot and killed before noon Sunday while performing a routine traffic stop near police headquarters downtown, officials said, prompting a citywide search for the gunman.
  
  SAPD Chief William McManus said the shooting occurred on the south side of SAPD headquarters, at 11:45 a.m. where the officer, identified as Detective Benjamin Marconi, 50, was issuing a traffic citation. As he did so, a black vehicle pulled up behind the officer's unit.
  
  The suspect got out of the car, walked up to the passenger window and fired one round into the patrol car, hitting Marconi in the head, McManus said. He said the suspect reached in and fired again, hitting Marconi a second time.

Head on a swivel Officers.

Oh Yeah....

There was a shooting the other night, too:

• Chicago police fatally shot a male late Friday after seeing him shoot another man, according to officials.
  
  Chicago police officers were in a marked car about 11:50 p.m. Friday patrolling the area when they came across the male involved in a skirmish with another in the 2000 block of West 69th Street in the West Englewood neighborhood on the city's South Side, said [a] spokesman for the department.
  
  Officers witnessed the male shooting at a man [...]. The officers stopped and got out of their car. The officers announced their positions and ordered the male attacker to drop his weapon, according to a news release.
  
  At this point, the male attacker was still shooting at the man....
  
  One of the officers then shot the attacker, fatally wounding him, [...]. The male, whose age was not known, was later pronounced dead.

No word yet on protests because you know that:

• the police shouldn't have intervened in a private dispute,
• they was just funnin',
• he didn't have no gun,
• they planted that gun (and the bullet in the other guy's intestines),
• y'all racist

Etc, etc etc.

Mt Greenwood Protest

Supposedly, there's a big protest planned for today in Mt. Greenwood. All the usual suspects will be there, along with the Phony Phather, protesting the fact that a black man from Indiana decided it would be a good idea to wave a gun around over a traffic dispute. NEWSFLASH! It wasn't a good idea at all.

Hey Special Ed, we know you're in Rome. When are you going to release the other videos that show exactly what happened?

There is also a rumor that we can't pin down - whispers that residents are being told not to wear anything depicting affiliation with the CPD. We don't know if this is because the usual agitators will be singling them out for harassment or up-close filming to paint a slanted picture of the event. Or because certain actors (IAD, bosses, suck-asses) have been told to keep track of those people and what they're doing - you know, like that one gold star taking notes at the City Hall march? Or that other exempt sitting at the right hand of J-Fled and taking down names and unit numbers so people could get dumped later.

Like we said, this is a single source rumor. Might be nothing. But knowing this town? This atmosphere? And who's conveniently out-of-town? Just be careful.

Another Killing

So Danny Davis's grandson was killed the other day, adding to the grim total of Chicago this year. And what led to this tragic event?

• Police say a dispute over gym shoes led to the fatal shooting of Congressman Danny Davis’ 14-year-old grandson in Englewood Friday evening.
  
  About 6:45 p.m. Friday, Javon Wilson was inside his home in the 5600 block of South Princeton when two people came in, started arguing with him and then shot him in the head, according to Chicago Police and a statement from the congressman.
  
  The shooting was “not random” and was not a home invasion, according to police....

Gym shoes. Gym shoes. Just repeat that once more....

Gym shoes.

So, not to rain on anyone's parade, but what matters again? And not to put too fine a point on things, this is Danny Davis' west side office in 012:

Davis has embraced radical, violent persons for years, accepting the endorsement of notorious convicted felon "Gator" Bradley and traveling to Sri Lanka as guest of the Tamil Tigers, a known terrorist organization. We aren't blaming Davis for the death of his grandchild, whom he obviously cared deeply for. But if you embrace a violent culture, you can't be surprised when violence visits you at your doorstep.

Ernie Brown - Unemployed?

Rumors that Downtown Ernie Brown was removed from his County Homeland Security spot late last week.

One rumor is that he was "escorted from the building" which is usually code for "fired." As he was pretty much completely unqualified for the spot, this isn't out of the realm of possibility.

No word if he left as big a trail of sexual harassment lawsuits (and other allegations) in his wake as he did when he left CPD.

Remember, As Taxes Rise...

....so do salaries - for Rahm's people that is. This appeared over a month ago, but it's good to remind everyone as Rahm's and Prickwrinkle's tax hikes hit:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel is giving sizeable pay raises to his personal staff — even as he continues to freeze the salaries of city department heads.
  
  Tucked away in Emanuel’s proposed, 2017 budget is a new, $112,000-a-year assistant to the mayor and pay raises as high as 30 percent for existing members of the mayor’s staff.

Keep working hard - Rahm's minions need raises - while he'll offer you 0%.

Use of Force Feedback

This was the last weekend to provide the Department with feedback on how bad their new Use of Force order sucks. But as less than 100 comments were submitted, the Department has extended the deadline to 05 December.

Dean Angelo mentioned the upcoming deadline in the latest newsletter. A lot of the criticism is that the new policy treats cops as not knowing their job, talking down to them as it were, and providing a whole bunch more mental hurdles to jump over for a situation that typically unfolds in under three seconds. The "reasonable officer" standard is being replaced by mob rule and what some untrained mope, like Pfather Pfleger, thinks is reasonable....based entirely upon racial animus.

Click over on this link and give the order a read - it'll take a bit of time, but it's a cold weekend and it's not like anyone is going to get killed in Chicago. Provide a bit of thoughtful input - it might make someone think. Not Rahm or Special Ed of course, but maybe someone with an actual functional brain at some point.

UPDATE: Link fixed - it was in the blank space between paragraphs due to a coding error, so you'd never find it. Apologies.

No Bond? No Problem

You know this guy is hoping Dart's "no cash bond" proposal comes through:

• Businessman Willie Wilson bailed 46 inmates out of the Cook County Jail Wednesday afternoon.
  
  This isn't the first time he's stepped in to help non-violent detainees who can't make bail.
  
  According to a spokesperson, Wilson has spent $50,000 of his own money to bail out a total of 107 people.
  
  Wilson is also planning a Thanksgiving meal for all of the people he has helped get out of jail.

It's his money and he can do what he wants with it.

But we're curious - what's his success rate? Have all of his bets (and let's be honest, this is a gamble of sorts), made their next court dates? Have they pled out? Been convicted? Nolle Prosequi? That would be an interesting bit of data.

This Again?

Didn't a bunch of Chicago cops go to jail over this?

• The ABC7 I-Team investigated allegations of Chicago police bartering with arrestees, allegedly letting them off the hook to get guns off the streets.
  
  Chicago police take an illegal gun off the streets about once an hour.
  
  South Sider Charles Stokes, 35, said he and a friend were known to police and, he believes, targeted by officers for the gun squeeze. The men said they were arrested by Chicago police and told if they could come up with guns no charges would be filed, and gave the I-Team video allegedly showing it happen.

We certainly hope that the picture being painted here has a plausible explanation. Those days are dead and gone. You want to make deals for guns, you're shortsighted and you're begging to be set up. While it might seem like a noble effort, cops are not authorized to overlook one violation of the law because something "better" might be out there. You have, for all intents and purposes, kidnapped someone off the streets and substantially restricted their movement, while operating under the color of law. That isn't anything to be involved in these days.

In short order, COPA will be looking for cops to hang, and if it isn't for a shooting, it'll be for procedural violations similar to what is being written by the media and some persons of doubtful character. Regardless of the outcome, it isn't a process you want to be anywhere near. Not today.

We deleted about five comments that claim that this is "good police work" and that "nothing stops you from using a criminal to further a separate investigation." No shit. But that isn't what's described in the article. Again, we certainly hope the media is making a mountain out of a molehill, but we've been here too long not to have heard about situations as the one being described. Yes, you're taught to investigate; yes, you can question a subject (post Miranda) about other crimes. What you cannot do is "make a deal" on the street or RWOC someone whom you have caught dirty for the initial crime. You are headed for disaster.

Support is Out There

Florida:

• A driver who attacked a Florida sheriff's deputy Monday morning was shot and killed by a bystander who warned him to stop beating the officer, according to a report.
  
  The incident began at around 9:30 a.m. when the Lee County deputy tried to make a traffic stop on Interstate 75 in Estero. Instead of complying, witnesses said the driver took off, reaching speeds of more than 100 miles per hour. The deputy chased the suspect onto an exit ramp, where a witness said the suspect got out of his car and assaulted his pursuer. Shanta Holditch told WZVN that the suspect pulled the deputy out of his car and "just kept beating him and beating him ... throwing him to the ground and punching him in all different directions."
  
  At that point, WINK reported, another driver got out of his car and ran to the scene. He told the suspect that he'd shoot him if he didn't stop beating the deputy. "[He] refused to get off the officer and the officer kept yelling, 'shoot him, shoot him, shoot him,' Holditch said. When the suspect didn't stop his attack, the third man shot him three times. The deputy was not hit. The suspect later died.

And the County Sheriff was so thankful for the Good Samaritan, you'll never guess what he did:

• A bystander who shot and killed a man who was attacking a deputy near a southwest Florida highway has been given a new gun to replace the one he used in the shooting.
  
  The Lee County Sheriff's Office tells the News-Press the bystander had a concealed weapons permit and ordered 53-year-old Edward Strother to stop attacking the deputy before opening fire along Interstate 75 in Estero on Monday.
  
  Officials have called the shooter a good Samaritan. The sheriff's office is not naming the bystander because the incident is under investigation. No charges have been filed.
  
  With the shooter's gun impounded as evidence, local gun shop owner Mark Williams says he reached out to offer the man a replacement firearm. Sheriff's deputies accompanied the shooter to the store to pick up the handgun Tuesday.

Nice job.

Aldercreature "Burnout"

Rahm sprung one on the City Council:

• Newly elected Chicago aldermen and citywide elected officials will have to serve longer to achieve the maximum 80 percent city pension under a surprise change tied to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to save the city’s largest pension fund.
  
  Aldermen draw their retirement checks from the Municipal Employees Pension Fund, which Emanuel rescued by slapping a 29.5 percent tax on water and sewer bills.
  
  But the mayor still needs the Illinois General Assembly to sign off on his plan for pension reforms tied to that agreement as well as the five-year ramp to actuarially required funding.
  
  That’s where the change affecting aldermen comes in.
  
  The legislation now wending its way through the Illinois General Assembly states that aldermen elected after passage will no longer be able to purchase additional years of service to achieve a maximum pension sooner.
  
  They will be treated like everybody else. No shortcuts. No more opportunity to contribute an additional 3 percent a year to their pensions — to 11.5 percent of their annual salary — to earn additional years of service and the right to retire at an 80 percent pension after just 20 years of service.

Aldercreatures (who aren't even affected by the change as they're grandfathered in) started to howl:

• Ald. Danny Solis (25th), powerful chairman of the City Council’s Zoning Committee, argued that aldermen should be given the opportunity to achieve a maximum pension quicker because it’s a burnout job.
  
  “The pressure you take on, rightfully so, from constituents as opposed to a 9-to-5 job where your main worry is to make sure you do your job and you don’t worry about constituents, pleasing them and making sure services are taken care of,” Solis said.
  
  “For that reason, I’ve always thought that being able to get a pension in an earlier period of time was fair. You burn out. You have many, many bosses. You have constituents, community organizations and the uniqueness of, every four years, having to run and have a number of people try to take your job,” he said.

Really? Try our job Danny. You want to see burnout? Having to answer to many many bosses? Community organizations? People trying to take our jobs? Tell you what Danny - shut up.

• License Committee Chairman Emma Mitts (37th) also opposed the change, particularly after the parade of tax increases that aldermen have approved to solve the city’s $30 billion pension crisis.
  
  “Aldermen do work a lot of long hours. And we take a lot of heat all the time. We’re on the front line far more than any other elected officials. We’re the ones who network the community and connect them with other elected officials. If you’re really doing the job, that’s a lot of work and a lot of heat,” Mitts said.

You mean the crisis you precipitated by stealing pension money, declaring "pension holidays," refusing to acknowledge the numbers were cooked to short pensions? Emma, shut the hell up. Your pension is safe. Ours is not. And your whining about a crisis you had a direct hand in is ill-mannered to say the least.

$71.14???

Possibly flushing a career down the toilet for under $72?

• An Aurora police officer is accused of fabricating a call to extend her shift and get overtime pay.
  
  The officer, [...], 43, of Plano, has been charged with theft by deception after an internal police investigation. She is facing discipline that could include termination from the department, police officials said Thursday.
  
  [She] "deceived the Aurora Police Department by fraudulently creating a service call late in her work shift for the purpose of obtaining funds not due to her in the value of $71.14," according to charging documents.

So what should a "theft of Lieutenant position" be charged with?

700 On Tap

Or, as it's in the 70 degree range Thursday, it may have already happened.

Per HeyJackass.com:

• Shot and Killed: 626
  Shot and Wounded: 3288
  Total Shot: 3914
  Total Homicides: 699

Take a bow Rahm - you earned it.

And ask the pope for forgiveness while you're overseas.

Rahm Runs Up the Tab

Finally putting a price tag on Rahm's tax hikes:

• Aldermen had just gotten done Wednesday voting 48-0 to approve a new budget when Mayor Rahm Emanuel started a round of back-patting from the dais in City Council chambers.
  
  "You can say Chicago tomorrow is better because of the work you have done over the last five years," Emanuel told aldermen.
  
  At one point, the mayor even went so far as to say they had "fixed" Chicago's financial woes, before quickly dialing back that assessment to Chicago merely being "on the right path."

And how much is that "right path" going to cost everyone?

• Left unsaid during all of this optimism? The average family will pay nearly $1,700 more a year to the city and Chicago Public Schools than they did before the mayor took office in 2011 once all of Emanuel’s tax and fee increases take full effect. There's been a series of property tax hikes. There was a water and sewer rate increase, plus a new tax on top of that. Not to mention a new garbage hauling fee, 911 phone tax hike, vehicle sticker fee increase and a tax on cable television.
  
  Even with all of that, taxpayers may be asked for more money in the coming years. Emanuel's plans for shoring up long-neglected city worker pension funds will require the city to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars more by the early to mid-2020s.

And that certainly doesn't count the $1.3 billion in Federal money that might be cut should Trump decide to break the democrats over "sanctuary cities."

FOP, you keeping track of all this? Have Rahm take his 0%, 0% first two year raises and tell him to stick it where the sun doesn't shine.

Quick Answer - No

What was the question? Can Rahm deliver on his promise to hire more police:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel is off to Rome to witness the elevation of Archbishop Blase Cupich to cardinal after the City Council on Wednesday approved his $8.2 billion budget in record time without a single dissenting vote.
  
  But now comes the hard part: Delivering on the mayor’s $60 million first-year promise to fill 471 police vacancies, keep pace with rising retirements and still hire enough police officers in 2017 to add 250 patrol officers, 37 sergeants, 50 lieutenants, 92 field-training officers and 100 detectives.
  
  Former Mayor Richard M. Daley once promised to bolster the police force by 600 officers, only to “run out of money,” according to then-Police Supt. LeRoy Martin.
  
  Martin’s candid admission to aldermen so embarrassed and infuriated Daley, the police superintendent abruptly retired a few months later.
  
  The question is whether Emanuel can avoid falling into the same trap.

Rahm has lied constantly about the Department. Manpower, killings, death investigations, 1,000 cops to be hired (reassigned), etc. There's no reason to think he's going to stop now. He'll move some people, eliminate some positions, reorganize some bureaus, cover up cheating, and generally, do just enough to keep the various voting blocs off his back. He's a micromanager who can't keep his 9.5 fingers off the throttle. And we don't see the bloodletting tapering off.

NYC vs Chicago

People have been referring to this article for the past few days:

• Why Crime in Chicago Soars while New York is Safer Than Ever

The article is the source of yesterday's post about "FOP Broadside" that took Emanuel to task for his inept management of the Department and resources that had an inordinate impact on the skyrocketing shooting/homicide numbers for 2016.

Granted, the linked article is written by New York reporters who have a vested interest in "rah-rah-ing" their town and its mayor, but they point out a lot of Rahm's missteps and lay the blame squarely where it belongs - City Hall.

Collective Hysteria

We're getting a bit burned out by all this leftist screeching:

Someone want to tell us where this "registry" bullshit is coming from? Oh yeah, the unhinged leftist snowflakes.

And portions of the media, rather than learning from their mistakes, has decided to push the stupid meter up to 11:

• Trump told the press pool following him that he was done for the night and so they could go home.
  
  Then he -- get this! -- went out with his family to get dinner at the 21 Club.
  
  The media has pronounced this to be a crisis of democracy.
  
  It should be noted they previously enjoyed Obama slipping away from the press, treating it as some charmingly roguish behavior from a man who just wanted to finish his waffle.
  
  Also, the White House attempted to make the idea of Obama slipping out of the White House unannounced a viral meme which people would find endearing. Remember the #TheBearIsLoose hashtag when the White House tried to make Obama slipping out to have lunch at popular local restaurants to Meet the Folks was a thing?
  
  But now it's a constitutional crisis. Because the people who have lied to you for years are telling you so.

What was it Obama said 8 years ago? "I won." and "Elections have consequences." How about all you butt-hurt social justice warriors simply "MoveOn"?

Baby Killer Caught

Charges finally:

• A man who was caring for 2-year-old Kyrian Knox in the summer of 2015 "snapped" and killed the toddler after the lactose-intolerant boy was fed milk and cried for a whole afternoon, police said.
  
  Kyrian's dismembered remains were found in the Garfield Park Lagoon on the West Side on Sept. 5, 2015. Police said in a news conference at the park Tuesday afternoon that Kamel Harris, 41, was arrested on murder charges in Kyrian's slaying after investigators learned that blood they recovered from the man's vehicle belonged to the boy.
  
  Harris, of Rockford, was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder, felony concealment of a homicidal death and felony dismemberment of a human body.
  
  He was brought to Chicago on Monday from the Winnebago County Jail, where he was in custody on unrelated charges.

Hopefully, this brings some closure. Not to the usual suspects who pretty much abandoned the child to strangers for whatever reasons, but to the coppers who responded to the floating body parts, the divers who recovered more body parts, the police guarding the scene, the detectives working the scene and the case - this had to be one of the more horrifying homicides in living memory.

FOP Broadside

The National FOP Lodge is doing Dean's job for him:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel wears the jacket for Chicago’s 50 percent spike in homicides and shootings because he allowed police manpower to dip dangerously low, before reversing course with a hiring surge that will be difficult to execute, a national police union chief charged Tuesday.
  
  “When the mayor wants to look at who should ultimately bear the brunt of the blame for things that have gone wrong with public safety in Chicago, the first place he should look is in the mirror,” said Jim Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police.
  
  “Police officers are running from call to call because they’re short-staffed and there are nowhere near enough investigators to follow up and catch perpetrators. He was the mayor and the department has gotten smaller. The threshold responsibility of any elected official is to provide safety. He has not done that. He runs that department like an arm of his political operation with far greater attention being paid to rhetoric and optics than to the reality of the situation on the street.”
  
  Adam Collins, Emanuel’s communications director, could not be reached for comment.

No surprise there - when confronted with uncomfortable facts, Rahm hides. In the meantime, one has to wonder why Dean is letting the National FOP do his heavy lifting. Dean is supposed to be the voice of the lowly blue shirt, but his criticisms of the mayor are pretty much non-existent.

Another Dart Disaster

Carrying on his tradition of horrible ideas:

• Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart is calling for abolishing the state’s cash-bond system, saying it’s unfair to low-level defendants who can’t afford to pay and puts society in danger when defendants with violent backgrounds have the money to post bail and are freed until trial.
  
  Dart is believed to be the first elected official in Illinois to propose that the General Assembly scrap the system, said Cara Smith, his top policy official. It would require a change to Illinois’ bail statute — a daunting political challenge.
  
  Currently, judges set bail for most people charged with crimes. Defendants typically need to pay 10 percent of that amount to obtain a bond to get out of jail before trial. In some cases, judges allow for a “recognizance bond,” in which no payment is required.
  
  Dart is proposing a system in which a judge would decide whether a defendant should be released from jail until trial based solely on an intensive background investigation by the court’s staff.

Because Dart's crack investigative staff has done so well at deciding who gets to wear electronic monitoring bracelets - at last count, there were upwards of a few hundred felons that Dart's people had no idea where they were. That just screams competence. And his declaration that he won't bother following Federal law regarding criminal illegal aliens. Now he's going to "trust" assorted felons to show up at court without anything to compel their appearance. After releasing dozens, maybe hundreds of violent offenders onto the streets, closing down Divisions of the jail and under-staffing the rest.

Sounds great!

A Capone-type Indictment?

Nice going Fast Eddie:

• The feds aren’t finished with “Fast Eddie.”
  
  Five years after onetime powerhouse Chicago Ald. Edward R. Vrdolyak walked out of prison, federal authorities have quietly unsealed a new indictment outlining Vrdolyak’s role in a scheme to pocket millions from Illinois’ nearly two-decade-old settlement with tobacco companies.
  
  The fact that the former 10th Ward alderman received money from the settlement isn’t news — it was revealed during his original sentencing hearing in 2009. But the new 19-page indictment alleges Vrdolyak was promised $65 million from the settlement even though he “did no work on the Tobacco Lawsuit.”

So this was a combination "No Work, No Show" job? We thought that disappeared when the Outfit went legit.

Things That Make You Go, "Hmmmm"

Here's a map that someone sent us. It shows, via the red shading, the vote for Trump by neighborhood in Chicago:

And here's a map our readers are very familiar with:

This means something.....we just can't put our finger on it.

Rahm to Cost Taxpayers

Amazing how we're expected to follow all sorts of laws, but Rahm can just ignore Federal Law so he can pander to yet another group in search of a third term.

We certainly hope that Trump enforces immigration laws as they're written, and he sticks it to city's that think they don't have to follow the law. Because if Rahm tries to raise taxes to cover the millions, or billions Chicago won't have, we might actually see a populist challenge to the Machine that could get somewhere.

And Dart serving time in prison would make our decade.

Those Protests?

People have been speculating that they aren't genuine. That protestors are being paid and transported in from elsewhere. This would seem to confirm some of that speculation:

• Now, courtesy of a Zero Hedge reader, we have visual confirmation of how a substantial portion of these professional, paid protesters arrive at the site of the protest, in this case Chicago.
  
  As our reader notes, "I have a video of 5 city blocks on the West side of Chicago lined with busses from Wisconsin (Badger Bus Lines) bringing in protestors. The Sears tower is visible in the background."
  
  The video was taken at 3:30pm on South Canal Street in Chicago on Saturday. As our reader points out, hundreds of the participants that took part in the downtown Chicago protests from November 12 were bused in using these vehicles. Other arrived by train.

True? The weather is correct for the weekend. Canal street is one of the few locations that allow buses to park for free, and there was no Bears game at Soldier Field (nor in Tampa as it turned out). Forty-five buses that we counted, many registered with Wisconsin companies.

We also managed to scan the arrest queue in CLEAR to see the addresses of a bunch of those arrested - almost none from Illinois for some reason....it certainly makes one wonder.

Targeted Enforcement

So the "Trump Effect" didn't last all weekend. Even the Tribune was howling about the numbers:

• Five people were killed and at least 32 others were wounded in shootings in Chicago from Friday afternoon to early Monday, a weekend when city, state, county and federal police agencies conducted “targeted enforcement missions” to combat violence on the South and West sides.
  
  The toll was down from the more than 50 people shot each of the last two weekends. But the number was still twice as bad as the same weekend last year when just 18 people were shot, one of them fatally.

The weekend last year actually touched the freezing mark. And no one seems knows exactly how many homicides there are:

• With more than 675 homicides recorded so far this year, Chicago could easily surpass 700 homicides before the end of the year for the first time since 1998, according to data kept by the Tribune.

The Department has the homicide count around 660+ and HeyJackass has Chicago at 690.

But this "Targeted Enforcement Mission." Someone posted that the Tact teams, Saturation teams, and other teams from Area North put on uniforms, lined up 50 or 60 squad cars and drove to all the "hot spots," lights and sirens blaring, ruining the television watching for the evening.That seems to be a slight exaggeration:

• Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said the department deployed an additional "several hundred" uniformed officers as well as officers from the Cook County Sheriff's Department, Illinois State Police and FBI to three city districts: Gresham on the South Side, and the Ogden and Austin districts on the West Side.
  
  Forty-four people were arrested in the targeted zones, including 16 felony arrests and one homicide suspect. Officers also recovered 12 weapons during the mission's 30-hour window, Johnson said at a news conference Monday afternoon.

Too bad we don't have a dedicated city-wide team that could do this all the time....like SOS. Or TRU. Or MSF.

Merit Sgt Packages

Once again, the Department is asking for "merit" packages from those interested (or connected enough) for Sergeant. The paperwork is due 19 December if we have the correct info.

Last week, the "merit" packages for Detective were due. And if past practice is followed, the Department will make a load of Detectives, then a month of two later, make a bunch of Sergeants, many of which will just have completed Detective training, meaning the D-Unit will be short and people on the list will have burned up a spot that could have gone to someone committed to spending some actual career time in the Areas.

Of course, a certain number of those blessed to have spent all of eight weeks in the D-Unit will now be deemed qualified to be supervisors in the Area and drive the abysmal clearance rate down another few percentage points.

More Taxes

Prickwrinkle has to be glad for Hillary's election debacle because it provided cover for this:

• Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle personally ensured her controversial new penny-an-ounce pop tax passed Thursday by breaking a rare tie vote among commissioners.
  
  The two-term board president stepped further into the glare of a spotlight because she's counting on the $224 million a year the beverage tax is expected to bring in to balance the books for a while.

Prickwrinkle doesn't seem to have gleaned any lessons from the mobility of the tax base. When Chicago enacted a dime on every bottle of water, people stopped buying water in Chicago. Suburban grocery stores and shopping clubs had to bring in water by the truckload to keep up with demand. We don't think Shortshanks reaped even half of the revenue projections his bean counters said would be generated.

We predict a similar situation with the County. Especially when we read this:

• It won't apply to drinks bought with a Link card issued to families in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program because additional consumer taxes can't be added under the federal program.

Imagine that.

We also heard that this tax was levied for "health related" reasons. How much of the tax is going to "health related" programs? We're betting zero. And it says they're taxing iced tea drinks - what if the tea has no sugar? Diet sodas? Zero calorie sodas?

We're lucky enough to live close to a border where they don't tax the shit out of their citizens. Hopefully you do to.

What Hath Trump Wrought?

Far be it from us to sing the praises of a guy who hasn't even taken office yet, but this weekend, per HeyJackass, there has been a precipitous dropoff in the amount of dead people in Chicago.

As of earlier Sunday night, only three people had been killed. And the only thing that has changed is there's a new President on the way in.

Looks like some more of that good sort of "hope and change."

UPDATE: Five homicides for the weekend. We suppose the shock wore off. Thankfully, the media will start blaming Obama any moment now...the way they blamed Bush for everything.

Trump Feeds Officers

Another gesture by the President-Elect:

• Another class act by new President-Elect Donald Trump. This time he’s feeding the officers who are forced to babysit protesters.
  
  In a recent tweet by Twitter user and police officer @ChiTownCheese, he shows us the amazing spread that President-Elect Trump had provided in Trump Tower for the police officers working the Chicago Anti-Trump protests.

Pictures at the link above.

You know, we're thinking that if this guy ever visits Chicago, we're going to make sure he gets to park wherever he wants to. No tickets for him. We know some people who can make that happen.

Like a Cheetah!

Look at him go! Over fences! Through walls!

• On his way to a press conference Friday evening, Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson helped officers arrest three carjacking suspects on the West Side, authorities said.
  
  Johnson was headed to a 9:30 p.m. press conference in the South Austin neighborhood to discuss the department’s anti-violence initiatives this weekend, according to police spokesman [...].
  
  While on his way, he came across a stolen car being pursued by police and helped officers arrest three people when it crashed near Quincy Street and Laramie Avenue. The Lexus sedan had been stolen in Cicero....

After ensuring that ISR's and TRR's were completed, Special Ed suspended everyone on scene.

But we're telling you - like a freaking cheetah!

HQ Infestation

The Public Safety Building is the subject of an anonymous OSHA complaint because otherwise, the City won't do a thing about it:

• State authorities are investigating a bed bug infestation at Chicago Police Headquarters.
  
  [...]
  
  This year officers kept personal belongings in Ziplock bags, desk crevices were taped to trap bedbugs. The goal was to avoid officers getting bit.
  
  In 2014, an officer had bites on his ankle. Another had bites just below the calf. One was bitten on the back of the neck.
  
  “I do not understand why the department would not take the position of being protective on their employees because it is in their best interest to protect the entire building,” said Marlon Harvey, Chairman Safety Committee FOP Lodge 7.
  
  A few months ago, an anonymous complaint was sent to the Illinois Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Illinois OSHA). Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office received this letter. It requests information be sent by November 3, 2016 about the “pest control plan” at headquarters.

Personally, we blame bed bugs on the people bringing beds to Public Safety Headquarters - irefightersfay.

We kid! We kid!!!

Special Ed Surrenders

We've seen all sorts of bosses come and go. Some were less competent than others. Some tried to do good. Some were complete train wrecks.

Special Ed is in a class all by himself - and not in a good way:

• Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson on Friday said he has agreed to meet with Black Lives Matter Youth activists every month to discuss relations between police and minority communities.
  
  Johnson talked of his plans following a meeting between him, leaders of minority youth groups, Ald. Matt O’Shea (19^th) and the principal of Marist High School.
  
  After the closed-door meeting, which ran more than two hours, leaders from Black Lives Matter Youth and the Black Student Union of Walter Payton College Prep told reporters that their demands had been met.

Demands? Are you fucking kidding us? Who listens to "demands" from a group that advocates violence against police? That advocates "shut it down" as a legitimate form of political expression? Whose actions belie any respect for the rule of law, but rather mob rule?

• The teens will now be able to educate Chicago Police officers first-hand on the goals and values of Black Lives Matter Youth, they said.
  
  “They were concerned that police officers don’t understand what Black Lives Matter Youth stands for,” Johnson said. “I told them that if they created a curriculum and they wanted to come in and speak to members of CPD, I would facilitate.”

Um, what? Ex-squeeze me? They? Are going to educate us? Are you fucking nuts? What exactly are their qualifications? That they're black? What are their credentials? Some sort of documentation from an accredited organization that they have anything to offer police officers?

Special Ed's "facilitation" would most likely consist of lick-spittles, kiss-asses, toady exempts and cheating lieutenants. We can't think of a copper who wouldn't walk out of roll call should this dumbassery appear in an actual roll call.

Hey Ed?

You might want to look around for some of these. It'll fill the void in your pants.

COPA Update

This is what Fairley is recruiting over at COPA:

• Q: Who, or what, most impacts how you do your job?
  
  A: Like many agencies, IPRA was constrained by many things: laws, fiscal appropriations, etc. But perhaps the least recognized yet most impactful factor is the police union’s collective bargaining agreement. Those agreements impact how we are able to investigate weapons discharges and allegations of misconduct. The union’s bargaining agreements impact when we’re able to talk to officers after incidents, how long the police department has to respond after a finding is made, the appeals process and the disciplinary process.
  

This is from a 20-something so-called "prison abolitionist," someone who has (and will continue) to put the rights of criminals over those of the police officer. Remember, these are agreements in place to protect our Rights because the city consistently played fast and loose with the Civil Rights of police officers. It actually had to be put in writing to remind the City that cops were still citizens with actual Rights.

These tools over at COPA are going to be sitting right next to the City lawyers at the next Contract negotiations attempting to undercut every single protection we have. The FOP better be on its toes.

What Could Possibly Happen?

Great security you got there:

• Clean drinking water is essential for our health, so when a man with a foreign passport is discovered trespassing in a protected Chicago water plant, the FBI and Homeland security are alerted.
  
  Authorities say Shahroon Augustine entered the Eugene Sawyer Water Purification Plant with a duffle bag, containing a passport from Pakistan.
  
  He was charged with trespassing, then vanished.
  
  [...] A spokesperson for the city Department of Water Management, citing security, will not say how Augustine got access, though he claims he never breached “critical areas.”
  
  “The city regards it as a serious offence to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” the spokesperson says, adding the department is reviewing the incident to determine how security can be improved.

Kind of hard to prosecute someone you can't locate. And claiming he never "breached critical areas" is just bureaucrat-speak for "we don't know exactly how he got in or where he got to, but he was caught eventually so don't worry!"

So What About the DOJ?

The playing field has changed. Abruptly. Severely.

Trump is decidedly pro-police. He's probably more than able to look beyond the heated rhetoric of the soon-to-be-history Administration and see that the agenda driven narrative is full of falsehoods. That the blown-out-of-proportion cases cited by assorted leftists are the exception rather than the rule of police work.

The Slum-Times has noticed this fast-approaching day:

• As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump described Chicago as a virtual Hellscape of violent crime, and suggested the cure was “tough police tactics.”
  
  Those remarks take on special significance now that Trump is president-elect, and the U.S. Justice Department winds down a yearlong investigation of civil rights abuses by the Chicago Police Department.
  
  Mayor Rahm Emanuel this week said he remained committed to the cause of reforming the nation’s second-largest police department, even if the Justice Department under Trump no longer pushes the aggressive police reform agenda it has pursued during President Barack Obama’s two terms.
  
  Obama’s Justice Department has forced 19 departments across the U.S. into so-called consent decrees, court-monitored agreements that mandate sweeping reforms— more than the Justice Department under Bill Clinton and George W. Bush combined. Jonathan Smith, former head of the department’s division that handles police civil rights investigations, said this week he doubts that trend will continue under President Donald Trump.

This doesn't (and shouldn't) presage a return to the 1960's version of policing. Police work should be handled with the professionalism, top-notch training and executed in accordance with law. But the stifling of good police work hurts the honest people struggling to get by and emboldens the thug element as we've seen here and elsewhere.

Maybe the DOJ can look into other aspects of the Department, like the testing process that allows people sleeping with certain bosses and Subject Matter Experts to score high enough to get promoted (yeah Wheezie - we haven't forgotten you or Mrs Wysinger.) Or the illegal quotas being pushed again by degenerate thieving Commanders. Or officers who were taken out of Districts by IAD, yet mysteriously rise to command staff material (lots of those around).

Stop picking on the beat cops - start picking on the corrupt system.

Classy Move by President-Elect

This is a nice change - and he hasn't even taken office:

Kind of feels like....hope and change....of a better sort.

More Shots Fired

Did this one make the news anywhere?

• No mention of the off duty officer who exchanged gunshots with three gangbangers in 17th district that were tagging a garage. No one was hit and all three offenders were caught and the gun was recovered by the 19th district burglary team, tact LT ,SGT and a PO from second watch in 19. Nice job officers and all other officers that showed up to help the off duty PO.

Be careful out there.

You Voted Trump?

Trump supporters are the dangerous ones, right?

The Chicago media is actually covering this, too.

• Sun Times
• Tribune

Assorted television stations have it. We suppose they're going to blame the Trump supporter the same way they blamed Trump supporters for getting in the way of protestors' fists at UIC during the aborted Trump rally.

Funny

Protests Where?

Well, according to Breitbart:

• Several anti-Donald Trump protests emerged in New York, DC, Chicago, California, Boston, Seattle, and other major cities Wednesday night, with demonstrators blocking and cutting off traffic among calls of “Not my president!”
  

Okay. So let's review the Electoral Map:

• New York City - New York state went for Clinton
• DC - went for Clinton
• Chicago - Illinois went for Clinton
• California - went for Clinton
• Boston - Massachusetts went for Clinton
• Seattle - Washington state went for Clinton, too

So these so-called protestors are protesting in places that already went for Clinton, rioting, burning, breaking. That's going to earn you a lot of support somewhere along the line? We're missing something here.

Be careful ladies and gents.

Ed Wears Out His Welcome

Letting the personal intrude on the professional side of things:

• OT-Kulbida was allegedly "really pissed off" yesterday and ordered the 2nd watch WOL to call everybody in off the street with Parker, ANOV and mover books in hand. He wants to know when the last violations were written as he is planning to personally choose car and watch assignments for 2017.
  
  Really Ed? Are you really that dense? Did the "work wife" as you so lovingly call her tell you to go fuck yourself yesterday causing you to lose your shit and bully the entire 2nd watch? Everybody has been patiently awaiting your retirement but you are the herpes sore of the 012 Dist that won't go away. DOJ still doing the private interviews? Ed, you are nothing but a bully and were never a leader. Ever. You depend on the so very few that still kiss your ass, laugh at your stupid fucking wise cracks and refer to you as "boss." Unfortunately for you, those numbers are rapidly dwindling. You are the kiss of death for morale.

Did that golf outing money ever turn up? Or that other "stuff?" We heard he's still pissed the guy running the 012 Golf Outing didn't set aside one of the TV's for him.

Cook County Elections

The corruption runs deep:

• A law clerk who faces charges of impersonating a judge has been elected as a judge in the Chicago area even though she’s been barred from taking the office.
  
  Rhonda Crawford had been expected to win Tuesday’s election over a write-in opponent, as she was the only name listed on the ballot. The 45-year-old can’t be sworn in to the $180,000-a-year job unless she’s cleared of wrongdoing.

Even under investigation, she wins a spot (as she was running unopposed anyway.) Great system we got here in Cook County.

Remember.....

....guns don't prevent crime:

• An 18-year-old man attempting to rob a store Wednesday evening in the South Side Gresham neighborhood was shot by the clerk, according to Chicago Police.
  
  The would-be robber was shot multiple times by the clerk at 7:56 p.m. in the 8100 block of South Racine, police said.
  
  He was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in critical condition, police said.

Maybe this was the cure he needed to stop taking stuff that isn't his and he can go get a job and be a productive member of .......hahahaha. Who are we kidding?

Wha.......???

Two immediate thoughts come to mind after the elections:

1. Obama's "Pardon List" just got a lot looooooooonger 
2. Rahm ain't going anywhere until we vote him out

Let's start working on that second one.

Three a Day?

08 November.

28 homicides (per HeyJackass.com)

That's 3.5 killings per day.

When we said it looked like the pace of homicides was increasing, we were being our normal sarcastic selves seeing as how the weather was warm and the number of shootings seemed high for a November.

Turns out, the numbers are looking high for a July.

Safety Alert

Issued earlier:

We'll see if the media picks up on this - we're betting "No."

Another Retirement Seminar

The first one filled up very quickly. So quickly, the people running it have scheduled an additional one. Here's the flyer:

You can register at this link here.

More Shots Fired at Police

Sunday night:

• Two suspects are in custody after gunmen shot at people on an Uptown street and then fired on police officers who pursued them Sunday evening. No one was injured.
  
  Officers on foot patrol near Truman College reported hearing three shots at 7:42 p.m., police said. The officers immediately gave chase to a man who was seen running from the area while holding his side.
  
  That man, possibly a teenager, turned and fired shots at the pursuing officers, cops said.
  
  One shot was captured on police radio as the officers called in the pursuit.

West Side Monday afternoon:

• SCC, some coppers got shot at in the area of Western and Polk. Big chase on the highway into Cicero. Sounds like they got three heads, a gun and a hot car. No one hit. Tell everyone to be careful

And a Trooper on the highway:

• An Illinois state trooper was injured in a struggle during which his attacker's gun went off on the Tri-State Tollway at the Halsted Street Toll Plaza, but the trooper suffered no gunshot wounds, officials said.
  
  The trooper saw a suspicious person at the Halsted Street Toll Plaza on Interstate 294 near Harvey and was injured in a struggle with the man, according to a release from Illinois State Police.

That suspect is still at large. Be careful.

Rahm the Pandering Fuck

What a tool this jagoff is:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Monday condemned demonstrators for "ethnically tinged language" surrounding the controversial fatal shooting by Chicago police officers of a black man in the predominantly white Mount Greenwood neighborhood.
  
  [...]
  
  "There is no place in the city of Chicago for racially, culturally or ethnically tinged language," the mayor said. "It is totally unacceptable. You can have a protest. You can make your views known without it spilling over to anywhere that in any way demonizes anybody for their race, their ethnicity or their culture. That is unacceptable. And that's a unifying principle throughout the city of Chicago, one that we all share.

Don't look now jagoff, but it looks like the "unifying principle" you're spouting off about is a bloodlust unseen since the 1990's.

Did you see or hear the "ethnically tinged language" coming from the mouths of protestors? Have you been briefed about the intelligence that a certain well-known gang has declared "open season" on white children in Mount Greenwood? How about the "Burn it down!" screeches coming from the usual harpies?

We guess everything is excused if you're the correct complexion and Rahm might need your vote. These people (or folks) show up in the face of the visual evidence of criminal wrongdoing and the soon-to-be-released video evidence of blatant criminality and spout their lies and expect society to bend over to accommodate them.

They certainly knew that Rahm was going to fall in line, didn't they?

SeeBS Media Trolling

Forwarded to us via a social media user:

• Please read !!!. As I came home from work about 9:30 am this morning and went in the back to open the gate to the back yard to park my car, two men jumped out of the car , one holding a camera , the other with a microphone and a piece of paper in his hand. He identified himself as Dave Savini from Channel 2 News and asked me what's my respose to ten allegations of domestic something ?
  
  I had no idea what the hell he was talking about ...I don't have any domestic complaints nor CRS regarding any domestic other than 18 years ago when my son's father, who is not the police, would call the department constantly trying to get me fired. I have never done anything. I believe I have an examplary record and I have no idea what the hell he was talking about .
  
  I put my hoodie on my head and then I told him to stop following me and if he was crazy to follow officers at home like that. Of course FOP said that anyone can do that. So please be careful when you go home and ensure no white van or any asshole follows you and keep your family safe . God bless and United we stand !
  
  UPDATE. Someone just told me that they got the FOIA with officers with CRS and it is believed that they got the wrong officer, and they probably wanted my soon to be ex, whose last name I have

Nothing like "due diligence" when confronting a female alone with unsubstantiated allegations.

Ambushes Up

A truly disturbing statistic:

• The ambush-style killings of two police officers in the Des Moines area add to a deadly increase in a disturbing trend for law enforcement nationwide: the number of police officers gunned down has increased 167% this year, according to a law enforcement group.
  
  It ties for the deadliest year for such attacks, matching 2014’s 16 ambush-style killings.
  
  In all, there have now been 40 officers shot and killed in ambushes since 2014, said Steve Groeninger, spokesperson for the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which tracks police fatalities.
  
  Urbandale Police Officer Justin Martin and Des Moines police Sgt. Anthony “Tony” Beminio were the latest fatalities. Both were gunned down separately in their patrol cars while responding to reports of gunfire early Wednesday.

The point of an ambush is, of course, to inflict maximum damage with the least amount of damage in return. There is usually no defense. Be wary and aware. You may only get one chance to defeat such an attack.

November Starts Fast

Another 9 added to the totals this weekend, along with 41 maimed.

And the only protests that popped up?

Cover that one media.

Bad Habit

You really shouldn't make a habit of brandishing a gun around:

Any media types interested in the entire file, it's over here at this link.

Our readers have already done the work for you, so all you have to do it go report it instead of running with the convenient agenda supporting a lie. Or is that asking too much?

No Reciprocity

Much hay is being made by the family of the dead nuclear physicist that he had a valid Indiana Concealed Carry Permit for his gun. As has been pointed out by more than a few readers, that means exactly squat in Illinois.

You see, Illinois, the last state to approve Concealed Carry (and then, only under the direction of a Court Order,) DOES NOT RECOGNIZE ANY OTHER STATE PERMITS.

You read that correctly. Don't believe us? Click on this link here for a map, choose "Permits Honored by State" and click on Illinois. The whole map turns red, meaning any permit is null and void in the Land of Lincoln. Therefore, any weapon brandished is a UUW charge. In fact, any weapon in a functional condition outside of the passenger compartment is a UUW charge (post clarified - you can have it in your car, but not outside of the car).

This.....

.....is a UUW Charge along with a host of other charges - and an invitation to be shot. Which is what happened.

There's Still an Election, Right?

Talk about your obvious bias - get a load of the Sun Times coverage of the Mount Greenwood shooting:

• A small group of demonstrators returned to the scene of Beal’s death Sunday afternoon, and another rally was planned for 7 p.m. Meanwhile, Democratic Cook County State’s Attorney candidate Kim Foxx said during a campaign stop that the question of whether the shooting was justified “will be worked out.” But she also added: “It’s deeply concerning.”
  
  A spokeswoman for Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez did not return a call seeking comment.

So Anita does the correct thing - not commenting.

But someone who hasn't won anything yet is quoted?

Did the Slum Times even try to contact Christopher Pfannkuche? He's running for the same spot the Sun Times has obviously granted to the ethically challenged Foxx. You think she isn't going to try to railroad the cops? She's setting it up already with an assist from portions of the media.

If this isn't a wake-up call to stop voting for democrats, we don't know what is.

Off Duty Shot At

And returns fire:

• A man was taken to a hospital in critical condition following a shooting by Chicago police on the Far Southwest Side, authorities said.
  
  It happened about 3 p.m. in the 11100 block of South Troy Street in the city's Mount Greenwood neighborhood, according to Chicago police spokesman ....
  
  Paramedics were called to the Troy address at 3:06 p.m. and took a man in his 30s or 40s to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in critical condition....

Be aware.

UPDATE: The budding astrophysicist, who was in town for a gang funeral, has expired.

UPDATE: "He din't have no gun!!!" Really?

That sure looks like a gun he's waving around.

Five Million?

We suspect the guys counting the votes for the Machine are the ones doing crowd estimates for Rahm.

It certainly wasn't anywhere over 4.3 million.

Regardless, a great job by all the coppers in the trenches who made it succeed, in spite of the disastrous planning and incompetence on display by the current command staff.

Lost in the Shuffle

Not what should have happened. A bloody end to last week:

• An Iowa man who had several run-ins with police and was banned from his daughter's high school after waving a Confederate flag was charged with murder on Thursday for the ambush-style slaying of two police officers.
  
  Scott Michael Greene, 46, was arrested after turning himself in to authorities hours after the separate shootings early on Wednesday in Des Moines and the city's suburb of Urbandale. Police have not commented on a motive for the ambush-style assaults.

And in New York City:

• The police found the suspect just a few blocks from the Bronx apartment he had stormed into on Friday, armed with a gun and looking for his estranged wife.
  
  One sergeant approached the red Jeep that dispatchers had told the officers to look for. He was shot in the face. Another sergeant was shot in the leg.

The shooter in New York had told relatives he wanted to die at the hands of police on more than one occasion. The war continues.

RIP Officers and a speedy recovery wished to the wounded.

Fundraiser

Help needed:

Informational post only - comments closed here.

Daylight Savings Ends

So an extra hour or sleep, drinking or working:

• When told the reason for daylight savings time the Old Indian said, "Only the government would believe that you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket, sew it to the bottom, and have a longer blanket."

Pretty much sums it up.

Nice Sign Dude

In the midst of the World Series mayhem:

For the world to see.

Hired - Then Fired?

If true, this would be priceless:

• And the fun continues.
  
  Tina Skahill made her triumphant return to the department as assistant general counsel in the office of legal affairs. Her first day of work was Nov 1, Tuesday. She was promptly terminated on Wednesday, Nov 2.
  
  Turns out CPD Human Resources, specifically "The Don", have no idea that we operate under something called a "hiring plan" which is allegedly some type of hiring procedure the city follows to ensure fair and open hiring processes.
  
  There is someone who knows all about the hiring plan though, that is the inspector general, who ordered Tina removed from the payroll. Turns out ole Joe wants to enforce policies that require at least the charade of fair hiring instead of just picking someone based on their flavor or their association with some prestigious or noble organization. Tina will likely be back after the department goes through the song and dance of actually posting the job and "considering" applicants. Anyone who applies other than Tina is a complete fool.
  
  Kudos to whomever blew the whistle on this nonsense, word is it was someone from the inside whose has been on the outs with the new regime for some time (you could FOIA it to find out). Just another example as to what happens when the department is left to its own devices with no oversight. The Don specifically is either complicit in his duties or part of the corruption, either way, not someone who should be running a major department's human resources division.
  
  The best and the brightest indeed!

Would someone please show O'Neil the door? This tool causes the City and the Department more headaches than a CompStat meeting.

Nice Gig

Evidently, "ethics" is just a word in the dictionary:

• Some of us are trying to figure out why our department ethics doesnt apply to the Superintendent? Cub's owners had their "people" give him 2 tickets for Friday nights Chicago game! He proceeded to give them to 2 P.O.s that were supposed to be working the detail! The officers accepted the tickets and watched the game! Last time city employees were given the ethics exam we were told "no gift over $50 value." So why? Oh why? Are they exempt? (Not by rank) but exempt from accepting gifts we all know were at least 10 times over the amount we are allowed to accept?
  
  Correction the Supt. entire staff and a few select HEROS reported in dress uniform ( with their purses and backpacks) after they presented the flag on the field the Supt, staff changed into plain clothes and attended the game with the tickets the cubs gave him. (twenty maybe?) he had two extra so he handed them off to two random cops from 022. So while you all stood around for 12 plus hours, the supt staff was enjoying the game on the cubs. Nice right?

Anyone want to confirm?

Mayor Ricketts

And the circus continues.

The Department and City were all set for a Monday parade. Then the Chairman of the Cubs claimed it conflicted with an owner's meeting, so all the planning was out the window, because you know he's far more popular than Rahm nowadays and if he says, "Friday," well by golly, Rahm says "Friday it is!" Day Off Group 61 gets another cancellation for 11 days in a row.

Guess what's closed Friday? If you said Chicago Public Schools, you get a pat on the back. Are they going to have a "Lost Children" tent?

So everything switches back to 12-hour days, but this time, First Watch gets their RDO's, Second Watch is being bused to the parade route, Third Watch is staying put. Teams are on call.

Day Off

We're taking the night off. It's been a long week for everyone and, quite frankly, we're as tired as anyone.

And it isn't over seeing as Rahm Mayor Ricketts decided to move the parade up three days.

Open post. If you don't hear from us by Sunday, call out the search parties.

Well.... (UPDATE)

This is going to be an interesting night.

Be safe Boys and Girls.

Congrats Cubs.

UPDATE: post moved from midnight to now

UPDATE: It's 0400 hours, and there are still 3rd Watch personnel who haven't returned to the Districts yet - 16 hours and counting. Where are the gas teams? We didn't let the Bulls riots go on this long.

Who's Paying?

So it's been discussed in numerous comment sections - who's paying for the overtime?

One rumor is that MLB is footing the bill. We'd ask, "Why? It isn't their problem."

Another has Homeland Security chipping in due to unpublished "concerns." This would seem more likely given the way the Department is throwing around overtime on non-clinching days and travel days.

Some others speculate that the increased tax revenues from hosting a World Series are equal to the outlays. We'd love to see that accounting process.

Most people figure that if the check clears, what does it matter?

Good Idea

Charge the parents money for their angels' behavior:

• Hundreds of teens who converged Monday night on Hyde Park may have thought they were having a night of Halloween fun, but Chicago Police want parents of the kids involved to pay for their overtime.
  
  “I called the police, because it was a huge group leaning on the door. Someone started throwing eggs,” said Tiffany Page, Hyde Park business owner. “They hit the car. Hit the passenger.”
  
  Tiffany Page was among the scores of business owners who called police when nearly 500 teens converged Saturday night and again on Halloween (Monday) on 53rd street, CBS 2 [...] reports.
  
  Some of the teens destroyed property and police were forced to drive on the sidewalk to control the crowd.
  
  Students from Kenwood, a school nearby, said the incident was fueled by social media.
  
  “Kids being kids,” said teens from Kenwood. “It was mainly freshman and sophomores, not us.”
  
  They said some students came from Lane Tech, Morgan Park, the Agricultural School, and Lindbloom.
  
  ...getting parents to cover costs is a new initiative by police. The price to parents could easily top $500.

$500 and a foot-in-the-ass would prevent a lot of police involvement later on.

What an October!

We knew it was bad. We didn't know it was this bad:

• October 2016: 79 killed, 348 wounded
  October 2015: 31 dead, 203 wounded
  October 2014: 39 dead, 215 wounded

Two years worth of Octobers rolled into one.

Great job there Special Ed.

Thank goodness for the Cubs, right?

And Again....

It wasn't until 1930 hours that the decision was made to cancel all days off tomorrow. Someone commented:

• The entire handling of the World Series "situation" went well beyond incompetence and awful leadership. The cancelling of RDOs for 01 Nov, and then the rescinding of the cancellation 6 hours later was inane at best. People cancelled scheduled appointments, arranged for child care that they then had to cancel, etc.. This was ignorant and insulting. the following was even worse.
  
  Issuing an edict that cancellation of RDOs on 02 Nov was "contingent" on the outcome of game 6 is an incomplete, insidious order. It should have been clearly outlined: Cubs win, days off cancelled. Cubs lose, days off not cancelled. What were they waiting for? The score of the game? The decision obviously was already made. The decision not to inform the troops was a conscious and deliberate ass fucking. This was either special Ed saying fuck you or Rahm saying fuck you. Doesn't matter either way, they left people hanging and treated the entire department, not wearing a gold star, like pieces of shit.

That has been the attitude of all the connected since the mistake of J-Fled. The federal outsider was brought in to stave off a DOJ takeover, and it happened anyway. Anyone with any sort of extensive and institutional knowledge was driven off, demoted, or told "your services are no longer needed" for whatever reason and now the Department is reaping what has been sown for the past decade.

No one is left who remembers how to write and execute an Event Order so that there are actual preparations in place. We should clarify that as "no one downtown." There are plenty of sergeants and lieutenants who remember and could do it, but they're not clouted, so they are ignored and dead-ended.

The Truth Hurts Aldercreatures

So they take away the Trump signs:

• The remaining street sign honoring Donald Trump in Chicago will come down soon.
  
  The vote to remove the sign was just one of the man things on the City Council’s agenda Tuesday.
  
  The push for the order happened after trump compared Chicago to a “war-torn country” in the first presidential debate.

They actually wasted time on this. The deadliest weekend all year, 600 homicides in the rearview mirror and 700 on the horizon.

But guess who's keeping Trump's money?

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel's campaign Tuesday said the mayor won't return a $50,000 campaign contribution from Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
  
  [...] "That was six years ago," Emanuel said when asked if he would return the money.

Amazing how history only matters when a democrat wants it to slime a republican.

Nice Boss

Who over-promoted this goof?

• Well our fearless leader in 003 has 10 p.o. on footpost on 71st and Jeffery. The commander tells the p.o's that the he doesn't want the nice new white vans parked on 71st. He doesn't want them shot. But fuck the P.o's.

Now go get some ISR's and Dispersals.

And Another Great Move

Monday, the Department allowed everyone in Day Off Groups 62 and 63 to enjoy their regularly scheduled day. But the didn't tell them until mid-day Sunday. First and Second Watches worked 12-hour days, their 3rd in a row. Third Watch came in at 1230 with no assignment at all, and no cars to use since the other watches were on extended tours.

This resulted in much confusions. And ridicule. Because the Department brass burned through millions of dollars for two non-clinching games that probably could have been handled by Tactical Teams.

Monday (off day for the teams), the Department decided to cancel everyone's day off for Tuesday in case the Cubs lose and Wrigleyville turns ugly with drunken idiots.

An actually intelligent decision.

So of course, they rescinded it.

This came out about six-hours ago, necessitating thousands of phone calls by watch personnel to make sure that everyone in Day Off Group 63 and 64 stayed home while other coppers work their 8th straight day, for some, their 5th 12-hour day in a row.

If the Cubs lose, available manpower has been cut by about 33%. And if Wrigleyville is full of disappointed drunks.....

UPDATE: Criticizing the stupid decisions and half-assed planning of the incompetent and over-promoted Command Staff is not "whining" as so many comments have been alleging. It's legitimate (and constructive) criticism. It should also be a wake up call to any bean counter reading. Trust us - we've turned in a yellow slip for every single day and we're going to be smiling on 01 December. But when Rahm and Special Ed are whining about budgets and pension payments and training funds and everything else, remember where the money went.

Shoveling Shit

Literally:

Just about now, someone might be regretting his career choice.

Welcome to the CPD.

It gets better.....sort of.

Deadliest Weekend?

According to DNA.com:

• The deadliest weekend of the year ended with 17 shot dead and at least 57 others wounded in what Police Supt. Eddie Johnson called a "tough" weekend for the city and the department.
  
  The Friday-through-Sunday murder count rose to 17 Sunday after a man shot in Englewood Saturday afternoon died from his injuries. That leaves the late October weekend as the deadliest of the year and the worst weekend for murders since August 2002, according to shootings data compiled by DNAinfo Chicago.
  
  "It was a tough weekend," Johnson said after a ceremony Monday morning for graduating new officers. "You would think people would be in a better frame of mind with the Cubs playing in the World Series."

Um.....why? We can count the number of Cub fans in Englewood in about 5 minutes. No one flies a "W" flag that we've seen, and the few we've seen on cars are just bare sticks with the material ripped off.

But while all of Third Watch was over in Wrigleyville, the hood went up. Special Ed is backing and filling as fast as he can:

• Johnson said the heavy police presence in Wrigleyville did not impact police operations on the South and West sides, where much of the weekend's violence was concentrated.
  
  "The communities that we typically see violence in, they didn't get shortchanged," he said. "We had adequate resources there. They [shooters] just don't care. I'm sick of it and I know the people in the communities are tired of it."

Really? So coppers working 5 and 6 days in a row, 12 hours at a time, with tactical teams shipped to the northside didn't have any impact on operations? Yeah, sure, the Beat Cars were manned, even some Rapid Response cars, and calls got answered. But the rest was - by Saturday - tired coppers.