Get Ready for Some Theater

This was published last week:

• Work will start in earnest next week on how to reform the Chicago Police Department after federal investigators found that officers routinely used excessive force against minorities and tolerated "racially discriminatory conduct" by officers.
  
  Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday that officials from the U.S. Justice Department will arrive in Chicago next week to begin negotiating a legally binding agreement — known as a consent decree — to ensure that reforms are implemented under the authority of a federal judge.

Rahm was in Washington last week, ignoring the deaths of three children, and meeting with anyone he could - but not the President. He did meet with Sessions, who has made no secret of his disdain for Consent Decrees and that his DOJ won't be spending much time on them.

We don't know about you, but that seems to mean no Federal dollars for what will undoubtedly be an expensive undertaking. Rahm doesn't have the money, nor the political capital to impose another tax increase on tax weary Chicagoans. Rahm is more suited to being Trump's foil for all that's wrong with "big city democratic politicians." Plus, he's getting zero support from Prickwrinkle's machine - she smells blood, and a chance to run Cook County and Chicago all at once if she gets her tool into the 5th floor.

So what's up? Was Rahm begging for non-iterference from DC? Is he going to create some sort of political theater? Say this, say that, do something completely different, divert funds, pretend reforms, political moves, attack the Contract, etc, etc? We have no idea, and the tame media bouncing up and down on Rahm's lap can't be trusted to ask the real questions and come up with real answers.

End the Signs

This has been a bunch of crap for years now - remember the Hampton sign:

• A man whose father was killed at a New York City restaurant bombing for which the militant Puerto Rican nationalist group FALN claimed responsibility lashed out at Chicago aldermen Thursday for approving an honorary street designation for FALN leader Oscar Lopez Rivera.
  
  At the behest of local Ald. Roberto Maldonado (26th), the City Council’s Transportation Committee voted without a word of debate to designate a three-block stretch of North Luis Munoz Marin Drive as Oscar Lopez Rivera Way.
  
  Maldonado did not attend the meeting and could not be reached for comment. Last month, he participated in what turned out to be a successful demonstration outside the White House to plead for now-former President Barack Obama to commute Lopez Rivera’s 70-year sentence.

Maldonado has always been a turd, and it shouldn't be surprising he'd support a terrorist group that planted bombs across the United States that killed numerous people. This street sign practice should have been done away with years ago, never more so when it was used to reward campaign contributions by some guy, then rescinded in a fit of political pique by people who thought Hillary was going to win an election.

It ought to be used only to honor the dead, and then, someone who actually made a quantifiable contribution to the betterment of the City. That would leave out aldercreatures and most political hacks. And exceptions for those who gave their lives defending the City.

FOP Ballots Are Out

And what a cast of characters.

We've been attempting to remain quiet on this front, seeing as how the last few elections, everyone and their brother used our comment sections to spread all sorts of nonsense and stories about the other tickets. We got sick if it early this year and clamped down most of it.

That being said, we've had a lot of beefs with the current occupants and more than a few with most of their opponents, who happen to be previous occupants of the top offices. It's turned into a clusterfuck of immense proportions and it plays into Rahm's hands any way you cut it.

We still haven't received an adequate answer to the golf outing money. Big problem. The previous president is running a solo campaign, and quite frankly, we haven't gotten over the letter issue when egos got the better of a whole bunch of people. Some of the other characters who thought it was more important to go after an insignificant blog than to represent the members are among the roll call of bitter losers.

We have no advice aside from the following:

• Incumbents are bad
• Active members over retirees (or soon-to-be retirees)
• Patrol over Detectives/Units (but not Dougherty)

Take it any way you want it. Impoliteness will be deleted.

More Payouts

We're sure the usual suspects will add these to the totals bandied about for "payouts for police misconduct:"

• Chicago taxpayers will spend $250,000 to compensate a drag-racing motorcycle driver injured in a 2011 collision with a police vehicle driven by First Deputy Police Superintendent Kevin Navarro.

So the injured party was drag racing (illegally) and collided with the then-Captain's SUV, causing the airbags to go off, giving the then-Captain a concussion, and launching himself through the air (physics) and is therefore entitled to a quarter-million for his stupidity?

And that isn't the worst of the payouts:

• Also Tuesday, the Finance Committee is expected to sign off on a $370,000 settlement with Hugo Holmes, a former field service supervisor for the Chicago Department of Transportation. His lawsuit against the police department claimed he was the victim of a false arrest after getting caught up in a prostitution sting.
  
  At 8:30 a.m. on April 25, 2008, Holmes stopped at the corner of 47th and Washtenaw. According to Holmes, undercover officer Michelle Acosta was posing as a prostitute and approached his pickup truck when she said, “$20 for a b—job?”
  
  Holmes said he ignored the solicitation with disgust and a dismissive gesture, telling her, “I’m working.” Acosta told a different story. She claimed Holmes offered $20 in exchange for “h—d” and to “lick her t—y.”
  
  Acosta signaled to her undercover partners, who “swiftly accelerated” out of a nearby alley into Holmes’ path. They arrested him and searched him and his truck.
  
  Prosecutors dismissed the case against Holmes, but not before he was subjected to “great embarrassment, public humiliation and hate mail that ultimately led to his suspension,” his lawsuit said. Holmes said he suffered from shingles brought on by the stress of the case.

He claims entrapment, but anyone who has ever worked an "Angel" sting knows that isn't the drill - the Johns line up to buy some affection. There's no need to "entrap." And furthermore:

• In a separate investigation, the city’s inspector general concluded the 2008 prostitution allegations against Holmes should not be sustained. In 2005, though, Holmes was given a 29-day suspension after an earlier inspector general’s investigation found he had lewd photos on his Department of Transportation computer.

So he's a known pervert who has used city equipment before in furtherance of his perversion. And he's going to get $370K? Where do we sign up for his job?

Serious Question

So Special Ed sends out a notice that he intends to make another 130 or so Detectives before summer time. So if we have this straight:

• 135 or so Detectives already this year
• 140 or so Sergeants
• another 130 Detectives before summer

400 promotions out of the blue shirts.

Just asking - do we have 400 recruits in the Academy due to come out before summer?  Because we know there aren't 400 FTO's to teach them - they're already asking for anyone eligible to sign up for the "FTO-lite" program, and those being taught aren't even able to work unsupervised until after this autumn.

It just has a bad feel to it all, especially as it goes against just about everything in the DOJ report regarding training.

Jail Justice

Probably just a down-payment on future beatings:

• The 19-year-old man charged with firing the stray bullet that struck and killed 11-year-old Takiya Holmes was beaten by a Cook County Jail inmate while awaiting his bond hearing at a county courthouse.
  
  The beating was captured on video and released Thursday by the Cook County Sheriff's Office.
  
  The surveillance video captured an inmate approaching a dozing Antwan Jones while he was handcuffed to a chair in street clothes before his bond hearing Wednesday at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse on murder charges in Holmes' shooting death.

The guy doing the punching is himself, inside for murder, so he's got nothing to lose and all sorts of reputation to gain. Amusing to say the least.

MidWeek Bloodbath (UPDATE)

Hey Rahm, how's that War on the Police working out?

• 11 people have been killed and 11 wounded in shootings over a 48-hour period in Chicago from Tuesday afternoon to Thursday morning, Chicago police said.
  
  On Tuesday, a 30-year-old man was shot and killed in the North Lawndale neighborhood, police said. He was a passenger in a vehicle when another vehicle approached and someone inside fired shots at about 9:30 a.m.

Those are summer weekend-type numbers...in February...where the temps were in the 40's.

Guess what's coming up?

• A long, unseasonably warm weekend is ahead for Chicago neighborhoods that already are coping with levels of violence that are more common to the warmer months of spring and summer.
  
  Forecasters are calling for a sunny weekend, with temperatures hovering in the 50s from Friday to Monday’s Presidents Day holiday, a weekend that comes after a week that already has seen 13 homicides, including the deaths of three children under 13.
  
  The correlation between warm weather and violence has been documented by criminologists — though the extent and cause of the connection is debated — and the city so far this year has already seen 77 murders, trailing the pace of 88 during the same span last year. In both 2015 and 2014, there were two murders over the Presidents Day weekend.

Chicago is down 11 murders? Really? Oh wait, those are CPD numbers, the only numbers less trusted than Hillary Clinton polling results.

In any event, it's going to be a very pleasant 60 degrees for the weekend into next week. Who knows what fresh Hell the west and south sides will inflict upon the citizenry. We predict that Special Ed will be "concerned."

UPDATE: 13 and 13 if you add in the next day.

War on Police Continues

Channel 7 again - is there anything they do that isn't anti-police?

• The ABC 7 I-Team uncovered a stunning number of domestic violence complaints against Chicago police officers and an overwhelming lack of disciplinary action.
  
  In the investigation, the I-Team uncovered thousands of domestic violence complaints against Chicago police officers.
  
  In a database obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, the I-Team found 5,280 domestic violence complaints filed against Chicago police officers since the year 2000. That's more than 340 complaints filed every year and on average, nearly one per day

And how many are filed by bitter spouses, exes, domestic partners and  boyfriend/girlfriend types who know the easiest way to cause problems for a cop is to make up some story and run with it? the complaints die when (A) people make up, (B) people get over it or (C) people realize they have to sign an affidavit swearing under oath that the misbehavior actually occurred, and they realize that a perjury charge and conviction could hinder their futures in some manner (though seldom in Cook County.)

We were over at the Invisible Institute website recently and just for fun we typed in a completely random name to the database. And golly, a Domestic beef and a Conduct Unbecoming complaint, and this person suffered no untoward disciplinary actions. In fact, the sergeant was allowed to keep her spot in IAD, where she investigated many dozens of complaints herself, meting out discipline and sitting in judgement over people who had histories far less then hers. She even ended up in a special study group with all sorts of other IAD cronies and, if the open investigation is to be believed, the answers to a promotional exam. Does this prove anything?

But Channel 7 is determined to make hay out of raw numbers without even the most cursory investigation into what the numbers entailed. That might take actual work, and the Department isn't going to bash itself.

(We know we're going to get a bunch of people saying that we're ignoring a persistent problem yada yada yada. We're not. We know domestic abuse happens. We also know the flip-side where what is said doesn't match what actually occurred. We just don't go off half-cocked with horseshit numbers that can be twisted to fit a media agenda.)

Indiana Chase Goes Bad

East Chicago, Indiana:

• The northwest Indiana police chase that ended in a fatal crash that killed an innocent 13-year-old girl started with a report of a woman shoplifting beer, police revealed Thursday.
  
  East Chicago Police said an officer was dispatched to a parking lot in the 4700 block of Indianapolis Boulevard for a shoplifting complaint Wednesday afternoon. A woman who matched the description of the alleged shoplifter was seen by an officer at the scene carrying a case of beer, authorities said.
  
  The officer told the woman to stop but she ran toward a Dodge SUV and told the driver to "Go, go go," according to police.
  
  The driver then exited the parking lot at a high rate of speed and traveled into the southbound lanes of Indianapolis Boulevard, nearly striking several vehicles on the roadway.

They eventually ran into a 57-year-old grandmother driving her 13-year-old granddaughter. The child died. Hopefully, the shoplifters get charged with murder - in Indiana, they'll probably do significant time.

Be careful chasing boys and girls. We hear it far too often on the radio lately. We all know they're going to run - don't let them run away with your career, too.

Really Ed?

No wonder they call you "Special:"

• Chicago’s police superintendent said criminals view Cook County’s judicial system as “a joke” when it comes to holding gang gunmen accountable for their violence.

  CPD Supt. Eddie Johnson says criminals don't fear courts. "They think the judicial system in Cook County is a joke. They just don’t fear it"

  — CBS Chicago (@cbschicago) February 15, 2017

  Supt. Eddie Johnson, at a Wednesday news conference to announce murder charges in the fatal shooting of an 11-year-old girl, said criminals simply have no fear of the system.
  
  “They think the judicial system in Cook County is a joke. They just don’t fear it, and until we create that mental accountability to them to not pick up a gun, we’re going to continue to see this cycle of violence, and it’s just silly, it is,” Johnson said. “It’s silly on their part, but even more tragic is the leadership doesn’t listen. If you are in charge of these communities, and you have something to say, or you can do something to prevent this, and you don’t, then that’s a failure on you. Shame on you, because you should be.”

We've only been highlighting the inanity of day-for-day sentencing every time a hardened criminal shoots or gets shot while on parole or when they're out halfway through a twenty year sentence for nearly 11 years now.

Start calling them out by name Ed - Madigan, Rahm, Evans, Prickwrinkle, Foxx, the Black Caucus, assorted "revrunds."

Police work isn't rocket science. Neither is superintendent-ing.

February Catching Up

By leaps and bounds it seems:

• Five men were shot -- three of them fatally -- Wednesday afternoon in Chicago's Brighton Park neighborhood, police said.
  
  The shooting happened inside a two-story, multi-unit residential building in the 3900-block of South Albany Avenue just before 3 p.m. Wednesday. The victims were inside the home when an unknown male walked inside and began shooting, police said.
  A police source said the shooting appeared to be related to drugs. No one was in custody Wednesday night.

On the other side of things, an arrest in the killing of one child:

• The 19-year-old charged in the shooting death of 11-year-old Takiya Holmes opened fire because he saw people he didn't think belonged in the neighborhood, police said Wednesday.
  
  Takiya was struck by a stray bullet Saturday night and died Tuesday.
  
  Prosecutors say 19-year-old Antwan Jones was aiming at rival gang members selling marijuana in his neighborhood when 11-year-old Takiya Holmes was hit in the head by a stray bullet.

But, as one commentator pointed out, selling weed is a "non violent" so this can't possibly be true.

Please No

Someone want to confirm or deny this?

• Special ED has a flunky calling around trying to get {Jedediah's] gun and phone released from inventory. The commander doe not want to sign release of the weapon because the kids is a space cadet! Commander trying to put release of the weapon on Detectives division.

How about someone call ISP and get his ability to own or carry a gun revoked?

Two? Seriously, TWO?

Once again, proving #bl(don't)m:

• A man and a 2-year-old boy were shot and killed and a pregnant woman was wounded Tuesday afternoon in North Lawndale.
  
  The woman was on Facebook Live at the time of the shooting, which occurred in an alley in the 2300 block of South Kenneth Avenue.
  
  They were in a car in the alley about 1:30 p.m. when another vehicle drove past and someone got out, pulled out a weapon and fired shots, according to Chicago Police.

So cue up the outrage....that'll last maybe two news cycles. There were two 11-year-old shot this weekend. One has already been removed from life support, the other is probably hours or days away from the same fate. One aldercreature is talking about a march for all the good it'll do.

Gun laws go unenforced - see our post directly below. Offenders are routinely released or sentenced to minimal time, so there's nothing to fear from the judicial side of things - no consequences. No one in the "community" is willing to step up. Shame doesn't work, appealing to a higher morality doesn't work, humiliation doesn't work. We guess it's time to blame the police again.

Low Charges

You'd think this would be a bigger deal:

• Chicago police say they found a stolen handgun, several magazines, and nearly 100 rounds of ammunition when they stopped a south suburban Lansing man near Clark and Elm streets.
  
  But, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office refused to pursue felony charges against the man, citing “insufficient evidence” that he knew that the firearm was stolen, according to a police source.
  
  Police stopped 23-year-old Tarik D. Coleman outside of Table 52 restaurant around 3:40 a.m. on January 26 because the Mercedes he was riding in had expired plates, according to court records.
  
  Cops say Coleman removed a Glock 27 .40-caliber handgun from under his seat during the stop.
  
  Coleman was detained, and police reportedly found a 9-millimeter handgun in the vehicle’s glove compartment.
  
  “Those guns are mine. The Glock and the nine. I bought them at Cabela’s in Indiana,” Coleman allegedly told police. “Don’t put them on anyone.”
  
  An investigation found that the 9-millimeter had been reported stolen from Mooresville, Indiana. Coleman changed his story to say that he bought the stolen gun “on the street from some guy in Chicago Heights,” police said.

Bought it on the streets? That would appear to run afoul of 430 ILCS 65/3(a-10) which, if we're reading it correctly, is a felony, though of varying degrees depending on other factors.

And while Possession of a Stolen Firearm is a felony under 720 ILCS 5/16‑16, knowledge (intent) appears to play a role in the charging - though as the offender's story changed from "bought it in Indiana" to bought in "on the street," a halfway decent interrogation might solicit information that he knew it wasn't on the up-and-up.

Too bad Kim Foxxxxxxxxxx isn't a law-and-order type of States Attorney.

More From Jed

The ghetto drama doesn't stop:

• The story gets funnier. Staredown boy aka Lamon Reccord somehow was allowed to move the vehicle and promptly drives it to the hospital and somehow gets jedidiah and they escape the hospital. Of course all on facebook livestream. Cops with sirens chasing him,, why in the fuck wasnt he handcuffed to a gurney?

So he never even got evaluated. He just up and left the hospital after his buddy Lemon "borrowed" the car Jed was holding himself hostage in.

• I was on scene with the family. They were all talking shit about the police and trying to draw officers into an argument. They were talking to officers like they were above them as well as making racial comments about some of the whit officers s on scene and even about the black officers being traitors. And the best part is, they had the Superintendents phone number and were talking to him directly!! Nothing but ignorance and drama on display. Watch them sue the swat guys for wrecking his car when they pinned it in after he started making attempts to drive into the lake.

So it was all an act, intended to provoke some sort of response from the police. This is what we deal with day in and day out.

• J'Mal Greeeeene got a personal call from S(t)upEd letting him know his "guy" was "LIVE" at BF attempting/faking suicide. J"Mal then asked the Sup to wait for him to get there and have SWAT stand down - hahahahahahahahahahahaha! The nerve of this a**hole.

And they're directing Special Ed via cell phone to have SWAT "stand down."

Hey Ed, any regrets about giving these idiots your direct number? Personally, we find it "concerning."

Don't worry - we'll strip ourselves on the way out.

Happy St Valentine's Day Chicago

We certainly hope Rahm had a nice day trip to DC yesterday.

(post was mis-dated, so it went up late)

Federal Charges on the Horizon

Sounds like a good message to send:

• After calling out rising crime in Chicago six times since taking office, President Donald Trump moved to make assaulting a police officer a federal crime.
  
  In a series of executive orders signed by the president just after former Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions was sworn in as attorney general, Trump ordered his new top law enforcement officer to figure out how to use federal laws to "prosecute individuals who commit or attempt to commit crimes of violence against ... law enforcement officers."
  
  In Chicago, a similar proposal — known as the "Blue Lives Matter ordinance" — has languished in the City Council since being proposed in July by Ald. Edward Burke (14th), a former police officer who is considered the dean of the City Council, serving as alderman since 1969.

Charge it simliar to a Civil Rights statute and they can serve 85% of their sentence in a Louisiana shithole like Bill Cozzi did.

SWAT "Saves" Idiot

Early morning shenanigans:

• A man surrendered to police after officers negotiated with him while he sat in his car, causing Lake Shore Drive near Buckingham Fountain to be blocked downtown for more than an hour.
  
  Authorities were called to the 500 block of South Lake Shore Drive about 5:05 p.m. because of a man in a vehicle parked on Queen's Landing, east of the road, according to police. Police received calls from people concerned about the man after he started broadcasting live on social media.
  
  A SWAT team negotiated with the man, who police said had a gun and was threatening suicide, for more than an hour, and he gave himself up about 6:40 p.m.

Guess who?

• Guess who it was that shut down the lake front and Lake Shore Drive at Queens Landing for several hours tonight in his Facebook Live feed of his promised self termination . . . yep that infamous Mount Greenwood BLM protagonist Jedidiah Brown.
  
  But one has to ask a couple questions of the players in this little charade, first of which is where did Jedidiah get the .45 that he was waiving around throughout the video? I highly doubt he carries it legitimately.
  
  And second, how is it that when mama showed up with her entourage they were only showing desperation and concern for her little angel Jedidiah when they had an audience but as soon as they were on their own they were laughing and joking around like they were at da club on a Saturday night. At one point mama joked she was just to damn cold to be standing around waiting while the poleese did their thing so she went to sit in her car which just happened to be parked right next to the TV cameras and crew. What a complete farce!

It sure looks like some sort of "set-up" to either keep himself relevant or provoke a response.

Special Ed immediately stripped the SWAT Team.

Nice Parking CongressCritter

We'll just leave this here:

Evidently, Fire Hydrants and the yellow lines around them are racist, too.

Again with This Crap?

Evidently, stops being down 85% and homicides being up nearly 80% aren't enough:

• The number of street stops by the Chicago Police Department has plummeted by 85 percent in a year, but African-Americans continued to account for the vast majority of those detained and frisked, a Chicago Sun-Times investigation has found.

Really? And why is that do you think?

Whoops - how did that get there?

• That’s the case even though African-Americans were no more likely to be found with weapons or drugs than people of other racial backgrounds, the Sun-Times found by analyzing data on stops collected by the department for the first time in 2016.
  
  The police reported stopping thousands of people because they fit the description of a criminal suspect, were found near the scene of a crime, or acted in a manner deemed “indicative” of drug dealing.
  
  In most cases, officers checked a box on their reports for “other” to explain the justification for the stop. The department hasn’t released records to show whether further details were provided.

Well if the ACLU isn't bitching, you can probably guess everything is A-Okay with them.

• “It’s kind of a double-edged sword,” says Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th), chairman of the Chicago City Council’s Black Caucus. He says many of his South Side constituents would like the police to be more aggressive in searching for guns.
  
  But Sawyer says he’s concerned the police continue to stop people without a “reasonable suspicion” of a crime, which is required for an investigatory stop to be constitutional.
  
  “Were the reasons legitimate?” the alderman says. “Or is it still ‘walking while black?’ ”

You mean like certain CongressCritters profiled for "driving while black"? Oh wait - those cops were cleared after a politically charged investigation and not a single scrap of evidence could be located to railroad them.

• Police spokesman [some guy] says the department tries to safeguard rights as it protects the public: “Good policing and civil rights are not mutually exclusive.”
  
  [some guy again] notes that “most of CPD’s investigatory stops occurred in high-crime areas, primarily on the South and West Sides, precisely in the districts driving violence.”

Which are predominantly......go ahead spokesweasel.....you can say it.....they all know.

So evidently, the Sun Times is trying to drive that remaining 15% down into single digits, thereby increasing the homicide count and giving Mope-rah another few years of semi-relevancy.

Weekend Surpasses Previous 3 Years

HeyJackass.com has the Butcher's Bill:

• Stupidity Tally as of 4:00p: 6 killed, 17 wounded
  2016 weekend tally: 7 killed, 14 wounded
  2015 weekend tally: 2 killed, 7 wounded
  2014 weekend tally: 2 killed, 2 wounded

And the total may climb with a couple of children caught in the carnage.

Federal Sweep

Looks like the "Trump-effect" is impacting the federal side of things already. They're pulling down wires and issuing indictments - something we heard far too little of the last eight years:

• Chicago Police and federal prosecutors said Friday they’ve arrested 15 people involved in a heroin operation that included buyers first calling a hotline to set up a meeting spot.
  
  And that hotline was so busy, the feds say it rang about 1,000 times a day.
  
  U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon said at Chicago Police headquarters, 3510 S. Michigan Ave., that the prosecutors believe the 15 people arrested were selling more than 11 kilograms of heroin every six months through a single phone line investigators dubbed “the Vanna White line.”
  
  He said investigators tapped the phone line and estimated 193,000 phone calls were made in six months to that one land line in an apartment in Wentworth Gardens, the public housing complex between 37th Street and Pershing Road on Wentworth Avenue.
  
  “That is, if my math is right, about a 1,000 calls a day,” Fardon said. “Think about what that means from the perspective of the demand and the heroin problem.”

And that's just the south side.

We have a hard time believing that there were only 15 people involved though. If this is just creating a power "vacuum" at the top, the south side could be in for a rough stretch as things sort themselves out with increased gun play.

Nice start though.

Something is Working?

At last check, February is down over a dozen homicides from last year. There's some warm weather coming up next week, so things could change in a hurry, but at the moment, it's possible that the gangs have run out of people to kill.

How crazy is that?

Ambiguous Reporting

This is from the Channel 7 report about the slander committed by Bobby Rush:

• A spokesperson for Rush released the following statement:
  
  "Congressman Rush said he spoke with the police superintendent and he accepted his apology on behalf of the officers involved. It was never his intention to get the officers fired, he wanted to bring attention to the disparities in traffic stop. The officers contend they pulled him over after running his plates---however, his plates are the only one in the country that is registered in Illinois and to the 1st Congressional District of Illinois. His plates simply read with the numeral one, and United States Congress. With that said, he felt threatened as an African-American elder in the community, and filed the complaint to bring attention to what every citizens in his community experience with dubious traffic stops."

That is among the more poorly written paragraphs we've ever seen - and we've been writing novels for nearly 11 years now. This can be read two ways:

• Version 1 - "Congressman Rush said [Congressman Rush] spoke with the police superintendent and [the police superintendent] accepted [Congressman Rush's] apology on behalf of the officers involved.

In which case, our question is, "Why isn't Rush apologizing in person to the officers? Oh yeah, he's a gutless pussy who can't be bothered to correct the record.

• Version 2 - "Congressman Rush said [Congressman Rush] spoke with the police superintendent and [Congressman Rush] accepted [the police superintendent's] apology on behalf of the officers involved. 

In which case, we have two questions:

• Who the fuck does Special Ed think he is apologizing to this turd for the completely legal, correct and exonerated actions of his officers?
• How does Bobby Rush's dick taste Ed?

We need some clarification.

If it's Version 1, well, Rush is an asshole, and no one expects much from assholes - except shit - which Rush supplies on a near daily basis.

If it's Version 2, it's time for a "no confidence" motion by the FOP as Special Ed has obviously lost his fucking mind, and Special Ed needs to immediately resign as he's lost the entire Department.

Shooting in North Center

Woman with a knife, ineffective Taser hits, advancing on police:

• Chicago police said that a police officer was involved with the fatal shooting of a woman in 3900 block of North Western Avenue in the North Center neighborhood Friday evening.
  
  Police said they received a 911 call from the CVS on that block, saying a woman was inside the store threatening the employees with a weapon. When officers responded to the scene, employees told them the woman had gone to the bus stop outside.
  
  Police said when officers confronted her, she brandished a knife and made threatening statements. Police said officers used their Taser guns on her twice without effect. She continued to threaten officers and then lunged at them with the knife, which was when an officer shot her, police said.
  
  The victim was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead. No information about the victim has been released, aside from her gender.

Special Ed promptly apologized to the assailant.

UPDATE: Note to media morons - the deceased is an Assailant. The victims in this case were the occupants of the store and the police, all of whom went home safely.

No Charges

No kidding:

• The Cook County State's Attorney's office said Friday that no criminal charges would be brought against the Chicago police officer who fatally shot a baseball bat-wielding teen and — mistakenly — a grandmother standing by him.

Just about the only good to come out of this entire event, aside from the copper being cleared, is an increased spotlight on the lack of training handling the mentally ill that has plagued the Department for generations. It still isn't where it needs to be, but improvements are being made.

Can't Wait to Hear This One

Any guesses on the defense to be presented?

• The four people charged in the Facebook Live attack that drew outrage across the city and country pleaded not guilty at their arraignment Friday before Cook County Judge William Hooks.
  
  All the defendants’ assistant public defenders entered the pleas on behalf of their clients. Their next court date will be March 1.
  
  Tanishia Covington, 24, Brittany Covington, 18, Jordan Hill, 18, and Tesfaye Cooper, 18, are accused of holding a schizophrenic white man captive in a West Side apartment last month, forcing him to drink toilet water and cutting his scalp with a knife while making him proclaim, “I love black people.”
  
  While the man was being tortured during the several-hour ordeal, one of his tormentors allegedly said on video: “I don’t give a f— if he is schizophrenic.”
  
  Someone in the apartment also said, “F— Trump” and “F— white people” and Hill, a classmate of the victim, called up the man’s mother and asked for $300 ransom for his safe return, prosecutors said.

Seems pretty open/shut, right Judge Hooks?

Sue, Charge, Sanction His Ass

So.....

Bobby Rush wasn't profiled. Both officers were cleared of any wrongdoing.

So where's the charge for a False Affidavit? He had to sign an Affidavit to proceed with the investigation, right? Otherwise, any investigation is pretty much illegal and the officers ought to be suing. If the officers aren't suing, then the FOP should on their behalf for the improper investigation. Otherwise, this is precedent to undermine legal protections put in place to protect officers from false allegations.

Where's the apology? There should be a prompt and very public apology for this false accusation. We don't care who it is, how important he thinks he is, and what rules he believes he doesn't have to follow, he owes the officers an abject and groveling apology.

Where's the payout for damages for slander? Bobby went public with this in an effort to kick the Department when it was down. To further the schism between the police and the community by means of a false narrative - a hallmark of Bobby's since he was part of the black panthers. The video shows complete professionalism by the officers, and none by a sitting member of Congress.

Finally, where's the sanctions by the US House of Representatives? We're pretty sure they have some sort of Code of Conduct, even if it's a Congress-critters from Illinois, where the bar is set so low, it's underground. Isn't this bringing disrepute or something to the House (again, even if it's Bobby from Illinois)?

He lied, it's on tape, anyone with half a brain can see it.

Economics 101

At least the Englewood store is safe, right?

• Whole Foods Market, facing its worst sales slump in more than a decade, is taking a step that would have been unthinkable in its high-flying days: shrinking the size of the chain.
  
  Though Whole Foods plans to open six stores during the current quarter, including two relocations, the company said Wednesday that it's shutting down nine. That kind of retrenchment hasn't happened since the last recession was underway in 2008.
  
  The company, which about 440 U.S. stores, also said it was abandoning its ambitious growth target and no longer plans to reach 1,200 locations as it tries to get expenses under control.

So with everyone else being charged more to subsidize Rahm's dream of ending a "food desert," how will this impact Whole Foods bottom line?

Social Justice Warriors meet economic reality.

Vigilantes?

We can certainly hold out hope:

• The shooting of a 17-year-old on Sunday might have been "street justice" for his attempts to break into a car, a police official said.
  
  Speaking at a meeting of residents Tuesday evening, Near West Police District Cmdr. Ed Kulbida said the shooting near Racine Avenue and Huron Street came about 5:35 p.m., after the teen and someone else were seen breaking into a car. They were followed, and the teen was shot in his leg, Kulbida said.
  
  "These people in the neighborhood, they didn't like that," said Kulbida of the break-in, adding of the pair, "I don't think they'll do that again."
  
  On Monday, some in a crowd of more than 250 residents in the basement of the Goldblatt's Bros. Building, 1625 W. Chicago Ave., laughed at the explanation while others appeared uneasy.
  
  After the gathering, Meaghan Thomas, a Humboldt Park resident, said she was "uncomfortable" with the implication that vigilante or street justice is acceptable.

Vigilantes might be a good thing - bring crime under control, free up the Courts, keep the jail empty. Hopefully, it wasn't for some unpaid gambling debts or similar.

Granny Lands Softly

Oakland isn't going to know what hit them:

• Oakland’s choice to head its beleaguered police department will get the highest base pay of any police chief in city history.
  
  Not only will incoming Chief Anne Kirkpatrick have the largest base salary of any top cop in Oakland — at $270,000 — her total compensation package includes a bump for various degrees and other premiums, dictated by an agreement between the Oakland Police Management Association and the city.
  
  Total compensation and benefits come to $299,675. Oakland has a force of 765 sworn officers.

Commanding a force the size of 007 and 011 combined for $300K. For that price, there ought not be a single homicide in Oakland the rest of the year.

ACLU's Fault

As discussed here and elsewhere, someone is finally taking Heather MacDonald's contention seriously:

• Every day seems to bring new tragedy on Chicago’s streets. Three people, including two 15-year-old boys, were murdered over the weekend, according to police, as 19 others were wounded in shootings.
  
  The bloodshed is only reviving questions of whether leaders can find a solution to the city’s violent crime – and whether the politics of policing is costing lives.
  
  "Politics is a cancer to good policing and we're seeing the results right now,” said Chicago’s former police superintendent, Garry McCarthy. “I think the political landscape in this country for the last couple of years has taken us down this path and it’s time to recognize that what we are doing is not working.”
  
  According to a comprehensive new study by the University of Chicago Crime Lab, the city’s exclusive contract with the American Civil Liberties Union could be having a significant impact on Chicago’s crime.

Gee, no shit?

• “This is one of the few dramatic changes where the timing does fit the increase in homicides and so it seems it would be rash to reflectively rule this out as a possibility,” said Dr. Jens Ludwig, the director of the University of Chicago’s Crime Lab.

Golly, exactly as we pointed out when we dissected the 70+ page report that killed the street stop. But what do we know? We've only been doing this for decades now.

The ACLU continues to whine it isn't their fault:

• The ACLU defends the current approach.
  
  Research compiled by the group determined over 250,000 people were stopped by police in the city of Chicago in the summer of 2014. Seventy percent of those “stop and frisks” were for black people and some were illegally harassed and publicly profiled, the ACLU says.
  
  "Most of us never saw this,” said Karen Sheley, director of police practices at ACLU Illinois. “Never saw the experiences of the black Chicagoans around stop and frisks, but it was harmful to the community."

The stops may have been poorly documented, but that's a training issue. You know what is actually "harmful to the community"? 4,500 shot and 800 dead.

Aldercreature Asshole

So up north, aldercreature John Arena is bound and determined to become the new Helen Shiller, importing Section 8 and an "affordable" housing project right across the street from 016.

This is November "tweet" from someone who is representing a rather broad swath of the northwest side:

So if you were one of the nearly one-third of 45th Ward residents who voted for Trump, this is what Arena thinks of you - knuckle-dragging, subhuman, racist.

Not a doubt in our mind he'll be throwing those terms around at the big meeting tonight.

UPDATE: From the comments:

• His people threatened to get city workers fired for speaking out against this project and he told another constituent to move if they disagree with this new building.

UPDATE: Supposedly, Arena is having ID's checked to see if you live in the ward. Plus, he's busing in all sorts of supporters, many of whom don't live in his ward, to crowd out residents. The buses arrive at 1730 hours for an 1800 meeting.

37 Years

But in Illinois, out in 18, minus "time in custody:"

• A man pled guilty Tuesday to shooting his ex-girlfriend and her mother, an off-duty Chicago police officer, and was sentenced to 37 years in prison, according to court records.
  
  Anthony Gates, 30, was sentenced by Cook County Judge Dennis Porter to 31 years in prison for shooting the then-49-year-old officer and six years in prison for shooting his ex-girlfriend, who was 21 at the time, according to court records.
  
  
  Gates arrived at the girlfriend's home in the 2200 block of East 68th Street late on Nov. 11, 2014, "upset because he felt that he had not been seeing his (2-year-old) son as much as he wanted," according to court documents.

Some fantastic conflict-resolution skills there.

• The boy wasn't hit, but Gates fired at least 10 times at the boy's grandmother, who was sitting behind the wheel of her own car, prosecutors said.
  
  The officer got out of the car and collapsed on the ground as Gates stood over her and kept firing, hitting her in the face, both wrists and her knee, prosecutors said.

That doesn't seem like nearly enough time for an attack like that.

Careful Mr. President

• On the day President Donald Trump once again talked about violence in Chicago, Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway told me on Tuesday that Trump will want to speak again to Mayor Rahm Emanuel “before anything is formally revealed” about how the president plans to help.
  
  [...]
  
  “All I can say is, he’s been in touch with Mayor Emanuel and that’s great. It’s nice bi-partisan action to try to solve what clearly, I think, anybody would admit is a vexing problem. So I’m sure they will have another private discussion before anything is formally revealed,” [Conway] said.

After dealing with Rahm, you'd be well advised to count your fingers, check your wallet, and send along extensive numbers of Federal Auditors to watch over assorted shoulders.

More "Merit" Fiction

The media, Fran in particular, slobbering over the same old same old:

• Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson has promoted 142 sergeants — 40 of them on the basis of merit — and followed through on his promise to identify the people who nominated them.
  
  Fraternal Order of Police President Dean Angelo was not particularly impressed. To him, it was same old, same old.
  
  “We saw a couple of individuals on there who were injured in the line of duty. That, we were glad to see. But we also saw some of the old, promote your secretary. Guys have been talking about this guy having worked for that boss,” Angelo said.

Fran didn't even bother going over last weeks' posts that pointed out drivers, secretaries and persons-connected-by-certain-body-parts who ended up getting promoted over coppers who outscored them, in many cases by dozens of points and hundreds of positions.

And the lack of a definable "merit" criteria continues to make the entire process illegitimate.

Acting Up FTO?

So a directive came out from the First Deputy's Office at the end of last week. The title is "Acting Up Field Training Officer - Out of Grade Opportunity." IT seems the Department has suddenly realized that there is a hiring push on and there aren't nearly enough FTO's available to actually....you know....train the people being hired.

The last time this happened, the Department stuffed the kids on vans with one or no FTO's, or put them on foot in the ghetto with next-to-no direction or supervision and expecting them top come in with legal, lawful and proper numbers. The DOJ just about laughed out loud at this.

So now, if you passed the most recent Sergeant exam, no matter where you ranked, you have the opportunity to teach a fresh-faced Probationary Police Officer. It doesn't matter if you scored in the top 100, or top 1,000 or even the top 3,000 with no phone call and zero chance at a promotion. You may have scored approximately 42% on the Sergeant Exam (which was passing), but the Department says you are qualified to teach a PPO the job.

Of course, you can opt out if you want to - there's a form you have to fill out. And many will. But if you don't opt out, you may come to work one day and find a surprise.

What Was This?

Missed this one a couple of days ago. Coverage was scarce and we have a theory of why:

• A man from the Northwest suburbs remains behind bars this morning, accused of having a pipe bomb inside a room he was renting on the city’s West Side.
  
  A Cook County judge set bond at $250,000 for Michael Debrown, 25, of the 600 block of Autumn Drive in Roselle.
  He’s charged with unlawful use of a weapon, which is a felony.
  
  Debrown was renting a room at an AirBNB in the 3500 block of West Flournoy Street in the Homan Square neighborhood last week.
  
  The home’s owner discovered a pipe bomb in Debrown’s room.
  
  Police evacuated nearby buildings as a precaution before declaring the room safe. Prosecutors say tests on the device, which contained about 6.5 ounces of powder, came back positive as “flash powder or other pyrotechnic mixture”.

A white guy in the heart of 011 renting an AirBNB? Literally a block away from where the mentally challenged white kid was held against his will, scalped, forced to drink toilet water, made to sing the praises of his captors?

We're thinking a retaliatory attack maybe?

Anyone Surprised?

And once again, the Legacy of Sparklefarts:

• A Texas man whose life sentence on drug charges was commuted by former President Obama is back behind bars after cops caught him with more than two pounds of cocaine following a high-speed chase, according to a report.
  
  Robert M. Gill, 68, had been imprisoned in 1990 for for cocaine and heroin distribution before Obama set him free along with other non-violent federal inmates in 2015, the San Antonio Express News reported.
  
  During his eight years in office, Obama commuted 1,715 prison sentences, more than any other president.
  
  Last Thursday, according to federal court papers, Gill met with his probation officers and then went to the parking lot of a food market to buy more than 2 pounds of cocaine.

But remember, these were "non violent" offenders, right?

• But Gill took off and after a high-speed chase collided with another vehicle where deputies were able to disable his car.

We'll be hearing these stories for years.

CPIC Shennanigans

You get a pile of money, and everyone wants to steal some:

• We were informed in late December that 007 was going to get a “mini CPIC” room and that the lineup room would be converted to accommodate the new technology. This was no small feat and involved knocking down a brick wall between the lineup room and the viewing room, removing a huge one-way glass panel and accompanying brickwork, dropping new computer cables and running new electrical wiring. In addition, the room was scheduled to be furnished with 4 60” television screens hooked up to 4 computers that would display the various technology. The room was also supposed to be equipped with a 5’ oval conference table and six chairs, along with two desk workstations. The SDSC room was scheduled to “go live” on 16 January 17.
  
  In true CPD fashion, we all shook our heads and said, “riiiiight….sure thing…all that by 16 January? HAHAHAHA”. To our great surprise, construction work began on 02 January 17. Windows were removed, bricks were taken out, tile was laid where necessary, cable and electrical wiring dropped and all of the hard material work was completed by 13 January 17. In all honesty, it was some kind of a freaking record. Never saw a job like that get done that fast.
  
  But now, ALL of the stuff in the room is NEW. There are four 60” television monitors on the walls that display computer programs. The technology is amazing. It is truly faster than anything we can get from OEMC or CPIC. Great set up. The room is staffed by a civilian analyst from UofC, and two PO’s per watch. The technology includes Shotspotter, Hunchlab software, a real-time CAD computer, immediate access to all POD camera live videos as well as access to Caboodle and Clear. Everything we need to actually fight crime and more importantly, keep our guys and gals safe through real-time information, is available to us virtually instantly. We also got all of our PCAD’s replaced so they are able to utilize the new technology. The room went up live last Friday, only a few days behind schedule. In any case, have to defend Eddie and Rahm on this one. They said we would get the best, and this time, we really did.

Not to say it wasn't without some hangups and attempted shortcuts:

• In the beginning, the room had a few desks obviously snatched from some old warehouse and a 35” tv on a rolling cart shoved in the room. That is, the room looked like that until the Chief of Staff to the Police Chief of Los Angeles (who was overseeing the implementation of the SDSC as they have them in LA) showed up in the station. He took one look around, looked at the City Facility Director and said, “and where is the table and chairs that are supposed to be in there? where are the tv’s on the wall and the computers that are supposed to be here?”. She replied that this was the best the City could do in as far as furnishings were concerned and that we would just have to make the best of it. The Chief looked right at her and said, “if this is what you’re putting in here, what happened to the money that you got to furnish the room properly? What have you done with it?” I really wish you could have seen the look on that lady’s face. She stammered some bullshit and said she’d look into it.
  
  Gotta love the LAPD Chief…what a GREAT guy. He was seriously taking no bullshit. Miraculously, within a couple of days, 60” televisions started to appear. Then they got mounted on the wall as required. Computers got installed. And the city once again tried to pull a fast one. They pulled out the desks from the middle of the room and stuck in an old rectangular conference table and some chairs and said we were good to go. But the LAPD Chief said, “not so fast. Where is the OVAL conference table you got money to buy and the chairs to go along with it?”. More stammering….”what’s wrong with this table?” she asked. He looked at her and said, “this room is set up in a particular way to maximize efficiency and productivity. Get the right table in here or I’m heading to the mayor’s office to tell him the room will not function as planned.” Guess what? The OVAL table got delivered yesterday
  
  It took a high-ranking member of an out of state police department [...] to make sure that the room got exactly the equipment it was supposed to get. He deserves a shoutout for having the biggest balls in the City over the last couple of weeks”.

So is the future here?

Nice Jail You Got There Dart

Brilliant staffing, too:

• Despite efforts to get ahead of the issue, a large number of guards at the Cook County jail again called in sick on Super Bowl Sunday.
  
  Cook County Sheriff’s Chief Policy Officer Cara Smith said 109 guards called in sick for the morning shift, and another 130 called in sick for the second shift.
  
  That’s four more sick calls than 2016, and accounts for about 19 percent of the staff assigned for the day.
  
  Knowing that the Super Bowl tends to bring out sick calls, the sheriff’s office asked 70 employees who were not assigned to work on Sunday to work in case of a sick-out. They also called some 300 guards who have called in sick during the Super Bowl in the last four years. That helped reduce the cost and need for other replacements.

But the jail is empty, right? There's no one there to guard. Dart is having three Divisions torn down.

Sweet Meteor of Death

Missing the west and south sides by a fraction (astronomically speaking):

• LISLE, Ill. - If you were awake early Monday morning, you might have noticed a bright green fireball streaking across the Chicago area.
  
  It happened at about 1:30 a.m.
  
  The American Meteor Society is calling it a bolide, which is is one of the largest meteors that can occur, measuring somewhere between 1 meter and 100 meters. Experts believe this meteor most likely came from an asteroid.

That would be one way to put a damper on Chicago violence. Who would the City bill the overtime to though?

DC Trip Info

Once again...:

• SCC,
  Last year we lost 140 law enforcement officers in line of duty deaths. Especially troubling was the fact that all of these officers on average each left behind two children.
  
  This year will mark my 15th year in a row attending the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial during 'Police Week' in Washington DC to 'Honor Our Fallen.'
  
  For over a decade I've put together our annual updated Chicago Police / NLEOM Information Guide to promote attendance and provide detailed information to our members, especially first-timers.
  
  As in the past, I again respectfully request consideration for yet another Memorial topic on SCC this year that includes posting of the attached (2017) PDF file. Any help again this year would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for all you do on our behalf.
  
  Respectfully,
  'Sgt. Al'
  (Piantkowski)
  (CPD ret.)

Here's the guide:

2017 Dc Info Guide

16,500?

The way this city counts shootings and homicides, can anyone actually believe it?

• More than 16,500 Chicagoans applied to join the Chicago Police Department, city officials announced Sunday.
  
  That is a 16.5 percent increase from the last time the police department accepted applications in 2015, officials said.
  
  The pool of applicants — who will take an exam in April to determine whether they are qualified to enter the five-month police academy — is also the most diverse in the city's history. More than 35 percent of the applicants are African-American, 33 percent are Hispanic and 2.4 percent Asian American, officials said.
  
  Overall, nearly 32 percent of the applicants were female and more than 73 percent were nonwhite, officials said.

Hopefully, there will be reporters at the testing location to get an accurate headcount of who actually shows up to take the test.

Retiree Killed by Retiree

Horrible situation:

• A retired Chicago Police officer has been charged with killing his wife, also a retired Chicago Police officer, on Friday in northwest suburban Spring Grove.
  
  Lorin E. Volberding, 71, was charged with murder in connection with the fatal shooting of his wife and ordered held on $100,000 bail, according to McHenry County sheriff’s office records.
  
  Officers responded at 1:23 p.m. on Friday to a home in the 10800 block of East Riviera Drive after a 911 call was placed by a neighbor, according to the McHenry County coroner’s office. They found Elizabeth M. Volberding, 68, with a gunshot wound to her neck. She was pronounced dead at 2 p.m. An autopsy on Saturday found she died of the gunshot wound.

No idea if there's a retiree network to assist in what would be an E.A.P. situation for regular duty personnel. Sometimes retirement is as bad as the job.

Officer Dragged

Dangerous times continue:

• A Chicago police officer was injured after being dragged during a traffic stop in the Austin neighborhood Saturday morning, police said.
  
  The officer pulled over the driver of the SUV in the 5400-block of West Harrison Street at about 1:26 a.m., police said.
  
  At some point, the driver took off, dragging the officer down the street.
  
  The officer was transported to Rush University Medical Center in good condition.

No descriptions, so no idea who to look for.

By the Numbers

Just some things we noticed about the Sergeant list:

• 26 "merits" from units
• 14 from districts

So much for Special Ed saying that Patrol was the backbone of the Department and unit people were "already taken care of." Just more lies from downtown.

• 13 promotees from 006? 

Must be something in the water.

• Lots of secretaries, 
• drivers, 
• house mice who haven't seen the inside of a beat car in years, over a decade in some
• A lot of exempts nominating people outside of their chain of command

Why is that?

Pipes and Drums Fundraiser

Once again, for an organization that supports us through thick and thin:

• The Bagpipes and Drums of the Emerald Society, CPD will be holding its second ever fundraiser on Feburary 18th 2017 3pm-8pm.
  
  This is a kid friendly event. $25 includes food, beer, pop, wine. 12 and under are free. There will be raffles, a silent auction, and sports memorabilia auction.
  
  St. Stephen's Green will be playing modern Irish rock and traditional Irish folk.
  
  Next, Stereo Types will be playing 80's, 90's and other favorites from today. With a special appearance from some of our band members!
  
  Both bands are donating their time to us. And of course the Bagpipes and Drums will be playing a few tunes!
  
  We will also have separate raffle tickets for sale. $5 each with a $500 grand prize.
  
  There will be a liquor cooler raffle. Only 100 tickets be sold at $10 each for a giant cooler full of liquors.
  
  We already have some awesome raffle items donated!
  
  We are 501c3 charitable origination. Have something to donate? Please let us know! We can provide you with a receipt!
  

Save the date and we'll see you there.

Here Come Some Feds

Every little bit:

• About 20 additional agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are headed to Chicago, less than two weeks after President Donald Trump threatened to “send in the Feds,” sources told the Chicago Sun-Times.
  
  David Coulson, a spokesman for the Chicago field office of the ATF, said: “We are always seeking to enhance the enforcement efforts of ATF … in conjunction with CPD.”
  
  [...] Sources said about 20 agents will join the Chicago field office, which has a total staff of about 120 and covers the city, the suburbs and northwest Indiana.

There should be a serious federal effort to take gun crimes federal...you know, the way that Obama's Department of Justice completely neglected to do. Serious sentences will put a certain dent in crime, giving lie to the oft repeated refrain of, "We can't arrest our way out of this situation."

Bullshit. You arrest the right people and send em away, you'll sentence your way out of 800 dead this year for starters.

Sergeant List Out

142 names, some of which are on a separate "merit" list.

Congrats to the earned, not given.

Still no word on what "merits" a promotion to those given, not earned.

Someone will be sending us the lists shortly no doubt.

Hot Cars Headed to Town

This is becoming an issue lately:

• A luxury car dealership in the North Suburbs is the latest target of car thieves.
  
  Surveillance video shows a group of people breaking the glass at "Autobarn Mazda of Evanston," around midnight, and made off with 5 cars, 4 BMWs and a rare Porsche 9-11 turbo.
  
  The suspects broke into the Autobarn's service area late Thursday night. They seemed to know where to find keys in an office. Shortly after, cameras show them driving away in five cars.
  
  By 4 a.m. Friday, two of the stolen BMW's were recovered by Police and taken back to the dealership. They had been abandoned at Lake Shore Drive and Fullerton.

These cars are being used for joyriding and shootings. They are being stolen from dealerships and remote lots across the city and suburbs. Not only do the thieves break into dealerships, they sometimes hide in cars brought in for servicing and exit after dark, stealing keys and letting their buddies in to take cars five and six at a time. According to an e-mailer, one of the cars was used to "livestream" a rap video when police pursued it all over the west side.

And for the most part, the Department is forbidden to chase the cars. Great plan there.

Safety Warning

Thanks for letting us know:

Weird.

Two Days?

Way to jinx it Fox 32:

• A man was shot Thursday afternoon in the South Side Chatham neighborhood.
  
  The shooting happened about 1:05 p.m. in the 8300 block of South Maryland, according to Chicago Police.
  
  The 18-year-old was shot in the right leg and was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was listed in good condition, police said.
  
  The shooting was the first in more than 14 hours in Chicago. The last shooting happened about 10:40 p.m. Wednesday in the Homan Square neighborhood on the West Side. There has not been a fatal shooting since 7:40 p.m. Tuesday, a span of over 42 hours.

The First Rule regarding a no-hitter is you don't talk about the no-hitter, and you certainly don't interrupt the pitcher while he's throwing one. In any event, last February racked up 46 homicides, and it's supposed to be right around 38-40 degrees the next two weeks.

Maybe Trump is driving down the homicide rate just by sheer force of will.

Shotspotter

So 007 and 011 have these new "mini-CPIC" rooms in the Districts. Aside from the questions it brings up about when are the original CPIC personnel coming back to the Districts to man beat cars, we're interested to hear what people who are working the rooms think about the Shotspotter stuff.

We've already gotten a few e-mails, pro and con. Pro, it seems to work pretty well. Con, it's overloading the coppers with info, which is more of a side effect of the system working we'd guess. We'll confess, we like the general idea. Knowing where the shooting is happening in real time cuts down on response time and enhances officer safety.

But as with anything run by the most corrupt kleptocracy this side of Moscow leads to things like this:

• Anonymous said...
  
  How about Shot Spotter giving the city a million dollars for these two CPIC rooms in 011 and 007. Before the department unveiled the one in 007, it was originally a room filled with desks and two computers.
  
  Shot Spotter lost it saying the City had to account for the 500k for the room. The morning the room was unveiled, HQ scrambled to send guys in to scrounge TV's, computers, desks and phones and put them together for the press conference. They cannabilized the roll call room in 007 for the TV's and only the computers work. This department is a fucking joke

It wouldn't be Chicago if someone wasn't making some coin under the table.

Fake News

That "pastor" claiming to have talked to gang leaders? Bunch of lies:

• An Ohio pastor told FOX 32 that he "misspoke" at the White House. He created a national sensation by telling President Trump Wednesday that Chicago gang leaders would "lower the body count" if given new federal programs.
  
  FOX 32: So, there are no gang leaders offering to reduce the body count in exchange for federal funds?
  
  “No! I mean, c'mon now! (laughs) No!” Pastor Darrell Scott said.

It's good that he can make jokes about nearly 800 dead people. The world needs more laughter.

Brainiac

One of those stories that no one else would believe:

• An Englewood man carrying marijuana and an illegal gun asked Chicago Police officers for a ride home early Thursday, prosecutors said.
  
  The officers were happy to oblige — as long as 18-year-old Christopher Burton agreed to a patdown, court records show. That's when police found a loaded gun with six live rounds and a bag of marijuana worth roughly $10.
  
  "Either you were going to shoot the police or you're stupid," Cook County Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. said during Burton's bond hearing. "You're armed with an illegal gun, and you're going to ask the police for a ride home."

We're going to go with Choice "stupid."

Bad Idea

You don't negotiate with terrorists. You don't grant them legitimacy. These assholes are terrorists:

• Cleveland-area minister Darrel Scott, a longtime supporter of Trump, claimed he'd been contacted by several Chicago gang leaders who want to curb violence with Trump's help.
  
  "I was recently contacted by some of the top gang thugs in Chicago for a sitdown," Pastor Darrell Scott said.
  
  "The guys that reached out to me, those are the ones who I responded to. And if they want to reach out to the mayor they can. But they didn't call me so I could call the mayor," he said.

First, the gang structure in Chicago is so fractured. No one knows who runs one block to the next, so anyone claiming to speak for all of the various factions is lying.

Second, something like this has been tried before under J-Fled and it was used as a set up to assassinate one so-called "leader" when he left the meeting with J-Fled.

Third, this was also tried back in the 1960/70's where criminal enterprises were given federal grant money under the guise of "feeding" the neighborhood poor, and they misdirected the money into drug and gun running.

It reminds us of this:

There's "community organizer" and hero to the poor Jesse Jackson seated at the feet of Jeff Fort. That tells you everything you need to know about who runs Bartertown.

We'd have to demand a show of faith from these so-called "leaders." Something like a couple of 40-yard dumpsters full of guns, another couple full of drugs, and a third set of full of homicide offenders protected by the "community" these many years.

Send Lawyers, Guns and Money

But don't send the president - that might embarrass Rahm:

• After White House officials said Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel hadn't taken up President Donald Trump on his offer to send federal help to the city amid spiking violence, Emanuel had a strong message for the administration: "Just send them."
  
  "Send more FBI, DEA, ATF agents," Emanuel said during a news conference Wednesday. "We don't have to talk about it anymore. Just send them."
  
  When asked if Emanuel wanted the president to visit the city, he simply said, "No.
  
  "What I would really like is the federal resources," Emanuel said.

What Rahm wants is Federal dollars to spend. And Federal personnel he can boss around. But we doubt Sessions is going to allow that. And Trump has a big stick to hold over Rahm's head in terms of money. Personally we're hoping for an anti-corruption task force that will jail aldercreatures, ward bosses and Rahm. We think Trump could have a lot of fun with taking Blago out of prison in exchange for dirt on Mell, Madigan and others.

All Those Detainees at O'Hare

All zero of them:

• So here are your tax dollars at work, supporting a group of lawyers who have helped absolutely zero people while there because NOT ONE person has been held, detained, or deported for anything related to the executive order signed by Trump. Customs Border Patrol has not received any orders yet regarding the new rules so anything they've done with any people trying to enter the US so far has been based on current law and regulations they follow. All of the "detainees" the media blatantly lie about, are people with paperwork issues going through secondary screening as they have forever.
  
  The attorneys have been aimlessly wandering around the area of lower level terminal five with no permit as required by Department of Aviation rules and given an area to set up, again against DOA rules, and soliciting business, again without that pesky permit, since Saturday. On Sunday, your favorite midget ballerina paid them a visit of support and bought them coffee and pastries from an airport vendor. The mayor's office has called and demanded the pictured tables, chairs, lockable cabinets, and electrical run be provided IMMEDIATELY.
  
  The demonstrators have been given inside and outside spaces for their demos based on the lawyer's and media's lies, again without any permitting normally required.
  
  So if anyone has any desire to protest, picket, or solicit at O'Hare, come on down and refer to these groups if anyone tries to tell you that you need a permit.

Free cabinets, tables, chairs and electricity for no one detained (and only two sent back as far as we can tell):

Meanwhile, promised retiree healthcare continues to be an issue.

Nickeled and Dimed

It's Wednesday - time for another tax:

• Beginning Wednesday, you’ll have to pay 7 cents for a bag at many stores across the city — the latest effort to try to cut down on the use of disposable bags.
  
  The new tax replaces the former plastic bag ban, which city officials say didn’t work as well as they’d hoped.
  Here are the basics on the new tax:
  
  When: The 7-cent tax goes into effect Wednesday.
  
  What: It applies to both paper and plastic bags.
  
  Why: It’s the city’s latest initiative to get people to bring their own reusable bags, an effort to reduce the amount of trash going into landfills.
  
  Does it apply to every store in the city?: Yes, but it’s up to retailers to decide whether to charge customers or absorb the costs themselves.
  
  Which retailers will make customers pay?: So far Jewel-Osco, CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens have all said they’ll pass on the cost to the public.
  
  Is anyone exempt?: Yes. The tax doesn’t apply to bags use to carry items bought with federal food stamp benefits.

Fantastic.

Timely Reminder

You'd think there wouldn't have to be a reminder, what with the media coverage, the ACLU nonsense, the DOJ report, but there it is on the Admin Fax Message Page #228449:

• Department members are informed that revised Special Order S11-01 entitled "City of Chicago Employee Ethics Training" has been issued....
  
  The revisions to this directive introduce language that Department member's [sic] will "abide by and" maintain the high level of integrity established by the Chicago Police Department code of Ethics....

Nothing like a timely reminder, eh Wheezy?

Blaming the Right Guy

The Wall Street Journal Op-Ed page knows exactly where to point the finger:

• Regarding Heather Mac Donald’s "In Chicago, ‘the Feds’ Are Part of the Problem” (op-ed, Jan. 26): The ultimate source of Chicago’s problem is the lack of political will by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. In this city only one person’s opinion matters—the mayor’s. Even today, efficient, effective law enforcement takes a back seat to the Chicago Police Department’s (CPD) first priority: perpetuation of the power that controls the department.
  
  It is easier to decry Chicago’s racist police rather than hold accountable those actually sowing the destruction of African-American and Latino families by glorifying and spreading the thug culture of drugs and violence, a culture that brought 4,379 shootings and 796 murders to the streets of Chicago last year.
  
  Out of all that carnage, the CPD was involved in the fatal shooting of exactly 11 suspects and the wounding of 14 others, while at the same time having 31 CPD officers shot at by violent offenders, a startling 82% increase over 2015.
  
  The insolvency of Chicago, a result of three decades’ profligacy, means we haven’t replaced the 2,800 patrol officers which knowledgeable insiders say the CPD now lacks, creating a citywide vacuum that fueled last year’s 24% increase in violent crime.
  
  Meanwhile, the CPD rank and file, comprised of men and women of every race and creed, all know they’ve become politically expendable pawns. So to whom is it a surprise that the shibboleth by which they now operate is “stay fetal”?
  
  Unless real pressure is brought to bear on the one source of political power in Chicago, this Kabuki of the absurd will continue.

You have to subscribe (pay) to get through the actual link up top, so we posted the entire letter.