Leadership Deficit

A no-confidence vote down in Broward County following the Parkland school shooting and subsequent revelations of the chronic mismanagement of the agency:

• Broward County sheriff's deputies took a largely symbolic vote of no confidence against embattled Sheriff Scott Israel, but their leader says he plans to press the issue with Florida Gov. Rick Scott and ask him to reconsider the sheriff's position.
  
  The Broward Sheriff's Office Deputies Association vote was 534-94, with union President Jeff Bell vowing to ask Scott to consider removing Israel and praising the "great courage" of members who voted "under threat of retaliation and reprisal."
  
  "I cannot tell Gov. Scott how to do his job, but I'm asking him ... to re-evaluate the position of sheriff," Bell said. "If he feels that Sheriff Israel must be removed or suspended, we will fully support him in that decision."

This was a vote by just over 10% of the membership, but those numbers are ugly, and it reflects a growing lack of confidence across the nation in the "leadership" that too often reflects political leanings and not the officers they lead.

Philadelphia, backtracking after an initial statement of support:

• A somber and introspective Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross, under heavy criticism for the arrests of two 23-year-old Philadelphia men at a Starbucks near Rittenhouse Square a week ago and his defense of the police action, apologized to the men Thursday and said he had made the situation worse.
  Related Coverage
  
  “I’m here to discuss the unfortunate incident that has been in the news about this great city, an incident that I fully acknowledge that I played a significant role in making it worse,” Ross told reporters during a hastily arranged noontime news conference at Police Headquarters.
  
  “For starters, I should have said the officers acted within the scope of the law and not that they didn’t do anything wrong,” he said. “Words are very important.”

Acting within the scope of the law is pretty much not doing anything wrong. In fact, that's the expected duty of any sworn officer.

Baltimore:

• Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and Police Commissioner Darryl De Sousa took the stage during the reunion tour for hip-hop act Eric B. and Rakim at Baltimore Soundstage on Wednesday night, and videos of the appearance posted to social media suggest they didn't exactly get a warm reception.
  
  Videos posted to Instagram show De Sousa making a brief speech to say sorry about how police have treated black communities since the nation’s founding.
  
  “I want to take about 20 seconds to apologize for all the things the police have done dating back 200 years,” the commissioner said. “Two hundred years ago all the way to civil rights. All the way to the ’80s where crack was prevalent in the cities and it affected disproportionately African-American men. All the way to the ’90s. All the way to the 2000s when we had zero tolerance.”

That's pretty fucking arrogant - apologize for 200 years of police work? You haven't even been the police for 30 years, yet you know enough to judge 200 years?

And we won't even go into assorted others, some with the "CPD Exempt Infection" or NYPD Disease" that have gone on to other departments and pretty much ruined them.

Nice Gold Coast Rahm

An on-duty cop in what? A covert?

• Two people were shot in a series of carjackings on the city's Near North Side, Chicago police said Thursday.
  
  Police said an on-duty Chicago police officer was sitting in his unmarked car at about 5:30 p.m. in the 600-block of West Chicago Avenue when a man approached him and demanded his car at gunpoint.
  
  Police said suspect took off in the unmarked police car and drove to the Near North Side where he attempted to carjack another man sitting in a vehicle at Rush and Oak. When the man refused to give up his car, the suspect shot in him the arm, according to police. The man was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries.
  
  According to police, the suspect then carjacked a Jeep and fled north on Inner Lake Shore Drive. In the 1400-block of Inner Lake Shore Drive the suspect then tried to carjack another man, who also refused to give up his vehicle. Police said the suspect shot that driver, who suffered a graze wound.

So three carjackings or attempted carjackings, two people shot, and a mayor who continues to insist if murders are down, all crime must be down. And right around the corner from the "Viagra Triangle." That's some pricey real estate...populated by a lot of political contributors.

UPDATE: Look who's bucking for a promotion:

• “It is safe down here,’’ [Chicago Police Chief Kevin] Ryan stressed. “If you come down here to do this, you’re going to get caught.’’

Yeah, we won't (can't) stop it, but by golly, you'll be caught after you jack three people and shoot two. Someone ought to frame that quote and send it to Rahm.

Send it to this guy, too - he is NOT on board with the program:

• Steve Brown, an attorney who lives a block away, was walking home from getting groceries when he saw paramedics helping a man with a gunshot wound to the arm out of the driver’s seat of the Nissan. He was placed on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance, Brown said.
  
  Brown, like others in the city, has heard of shootings taking place on the city’s South and West side but thought this was abnormal. “It’s troubling. This is right in the middle of the most affluent part of Chicago. But it’s crazy because they know they are going to get caught.’’
  
  [...] “And this is supposed to be the good side of town,” one man said before leaving.

No Christmas Card from City Hall for these guys.

Retiree Kills Crime

And a criminal to boot:

• A retired Chicago police officer shot and killed a 20-year-old man who tried to carjack him in the Bridgeport neighborhood Wednesday night, authorities said.
  
  The retired officer was in a car in the 2900 block of South Shields Avenue about 7:20 p.m. when three males walked up and one of them pointed a gun at him and demanded the car, police said.
  
  The retired officer shot the gunman in the upper body, police said.
  
  The Cook County medical examiner’s office identified him as Lazarick West of the 3400 block of West Grenshaw Street.

Someone in the comment sections says there is a rumor that the lads were just in need of wheels to get back to the west side to visit a sick grandmother who was feeling poorly lately and bring her some Holy Water from a nearby church. We have our doubts.

In the meantime, nice shooting. A retiree, so no COPA assholes. Taxpayers should be in the clear, though for the right price, you can get a lawyer to file anything. And who knows how many other carjackings these "lads" might have been planning or been involved in? This might actually impact the carjacking rate an entire percentage point of two.

Branch Court Closings?

Supposedly, all because of the failed "soda tax:"

• Two small branch courthouses and a juvenile detention center building would close under a long-sought budget settlement between Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Chief Circuit Court Judge Timothy Evans.
  
  The proposed deal also calls for nearly 2,400 workers in departments controlled by the chief judge to take 10 unpaid days off work or face layoffs if the unions representing most of them don’t agree. Judges would not have to take the furlough days because their salaries are paid by the state, not the county.
  
  Details of the agreement were included in a “memorandum of settlement” that Evans sent to judges and employees under his jurisdiction Tuesday, and were later presented to county commissioners. Attorneys for Preckwinkle and Evans are expected to finalize the deal in court Friday.
  
  The plan would close branch courtrooms at 2452 W. Belmont Ave. and 155 W. 51st St. by September. The preliminary felony hearings and misdemeanor cases heard there would be shifted to other county courthouses.

And get a load of this:

• Evans had to cut costs after last year's repeal of the controversial pop tax, which took more than $200 million out of Preckwinkle’s proposed budget.

Perhaps if they didn't spend the money before they collected it? After all, by Prickwrinkle's projections, the county would have collected the $200 million in about two years.

SVIP Drill

Something that should be a regular occurrence instead of a rarity:

• The first large-scale active shooter drill undertaken by Chicago Public Schools is scheduled for Thursday afternoon at Whitney Young Magnet High School on the Near West Side.
  
  Simulated injuries and gunfire will be used. Students will be let out of school before the drill begins. Police cadets will play the role of students, Whitney Young Assistant Principal Matt Swanson told the Sun-Times Wednesday morning.
  
  The drill is the result of discussions that took place among students, faculty and parents in the wake of the February school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Swanson said.
  
  Whitney Young staff members were allowed to opt out of the training, but the majority chose to participate, Swanson said.

We can't recall the last time the Department ran a full-on SVIP drill. Some of us here participated in one back in 2001/2002 at a local high school with play-actors, CFD support, Incident Team callout, the old HBT squad, perimeter security, etc. It wasn't half-bad according to recollections and probably would have gotten better if it had been a regular event run a twice a year or so.

But it's been nearly two decades and we can say that the Department (along with the schools) are completely unprepared for any sort of SVIP incident that might occur here. No shotguns, minimal rifles, no shields, no ballistic helmets, maybe one class ten years ago about seeking out the active shooter with maybe 20 minutes of scenario training. And Rahm spending millions on ID's for illegals, another few million on "legal defense" for non-citizens, tens of millions for bike lanes, and hundreds of millions more on all sorts of nonsense...except training.

Ban Vases!

It's the only logical conclusion based on liberal "thinking:"

• A Chicago police officer was hit over the head with a vase while responding to a domestic argument in the Woodlawn neighborhood on the South Side Wednesday morning, authorities said.
  
  The officer and a partner responded to a call of a "domestic battery" around 2:20 a.m. in the 6400 block of South Kenwood Avenue, police said.
  
  They met a woman on the street and followed her to an apartment, where a person opened the door and then shut it after only one of the officers entered, police said.
  
  Before the partner could get inside, the person hit the other officer over the head with a vase.

We wonder how COPA would have judged this one if the copper, lured inside and trapped away from backup, had shot and killed the assailant.

Actually, we don't wonder. COPA would find the way to be the biggest dicks possible. Hey Special Ed - how would you like cops to handle this one and are you willing to go to the mattresses for this one?

Reform the Reform!

The Slum Times, attempting to stay relevant, decides to call for reform of a previous reform they championed for years:

• Drug dealing that makes you afraid to wait in a bus shelter or catch a train to work.
  
  Nine shootings in a month within two blocks of your home.
  
  Worst of all, coming home to find strangers sitting on your porch or selling heroin in a hallway. Imagine how much scarier that scenario would be if you were a senior citizen.
  
  West Side residents who packed City Council chambers this week told these stories, and others, to make a powerful case for Ald. Jason Ervin’s ordinance aimed at “prostitution-related loitering.”

Remember when the CPD was accused day after day after week after week after year of hassling the "community" over low level offenses? Part of that was the stealing of the NYPD's "Broken Windows" policing - small problems become big problems if left to fester, so enforce the little things.

Well, that was declared to be racist because.....to tell the truth, we don't know exactly. We're pretty sure minorities manage to live by the law on a regular basis. We do it. Lots of other people do it. But OEMC and the Department came up with a priority system for dispatching:

• Priority 0 - officer/firefighter/paramedic assist
• Priority 1 - shootings, battery, felonies involving great bodily harm
• Priority 2 - misdemeanor type stuff, property crimes
• Priority 3 - narcotics sales, prostitution, ordinance complaints, etc
• Priority 4 - administrative functions

See those prostitution calls? Low priority. As in, the police get there when they get there. We didn't ask for this system, but by golly, we'll adhere to it as if it came from the Burning Bush. Same with the narcotics calls. The bar to leap over in order to get PC is so high as to be insurmountable to the beat cop. And even if you get near it, the judges at 26th Street are throwing out anything under a certain weight. The "community" could do more about it, but they're apathetic far too often, involved too often, or occasionally scared.

Sorry if they're scared, but there are ways around that, too. And one involves becoming responsible members of a law abiding society, and not abetting the ne'er-do-wells....like Ervin and his misguided policies.

Heating Up

Anyone else notice the uptick in shootings the past two days? Almost like the weather had something to do with it? And guess who isn't caring who gets in the way of the bullets?

• A blind man was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting Tuesday night on the West Side.
  
  Chicago police said the 50-year-old victim was standing on the corner in the 3800-block of West Roosevelt Road at about 9:30 p.m. A vehicle approached and police said someone inside fired shots, hitting the victim in the back.

A blind guy. That's not even fair. He can't see where the bullets are coming from.

And where's Rahm Flanders screaming "Won't somebody think of the children!!"

• A 16-year-old boy shot in the Austin neighborhood Wednesday afternoon has died, officials said.
  
  The shooting happened in the 4800 block of West Monroe Street around 2:30 p.m., police said.
  
  The boy was pronounced dead on the scene and taken to Loretto Hospital, according to police and Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Merritt.

Blind guys. Juveniles. Next thing you know we're going to have 30 and 40 people shot in a weekend.

Baltimore Continues Descent

This would be hilarious if it didn't reek of desperation:

• The city of Baltimore has a real problem. It's been suffering from a wave of violence for some time now. Residents of the city thought it was over. After all, the murder rate for the first three months of this year dropped significantly, undoubtedly a good sign.
  
  Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be.
  
  This month, the city has seen at least 29 murders as the violence surged yet again. This led Mayor Catherine E. Pugh to take to the streets to visit some local businesses. One of the exchanges recorded by the Baltimore Sun was a little concerning, though.
  
  You see, Pugh stood inside of an area convenience store and asked what time the store closed. When the owner responded that they closed at 11:30, that wasn't good enough for Pugh.
  
  "Isn’t that late?" the mayor reportedly responded. "That’s a little late. It keeps the crowds around here. Nine o’clock is nice. We need you-all to close at 9 o’clock at night."

So the store is responsible for deteriorating conditions in Baltimore, just like guns are responsible for killing people, pencils are responsible for misspelling words, spoons are responsible for making society obese, etc. And instead of addressing this via the licensing provisions in Baltimore, the mayor comes off as some authoritarian figure that will shut down businesses just when their most lucrative clientele is arriving to exercise their purchasing power. We're sensing another "food desert" argument arising soon.

Why?

We know it's not usually proper to question orders, unless the orders are obviously illegal.

Or nonsensical:

• The attached Amended Decorum Order applies to all employees of the Chicago Police Department. All Chicago Police Department employees are prohibited from releasing or authorizing the release of statements, documents, exhibits, photographs, videos or any evidence related to the case of People of the State of Illinois v. Shomari Legghette (18CR3494). All employees of the Chicago Police Department are prohibited from expressing opinions or commenting publicly outside of court about the merits or facts of the case. Anyone in violation of this Court Order may be subject to Contempt of Court. This AMC message and the attached order are to be posted in the C. O. Book. Moreover, the message and the order are to be read at all roll calls for seven (7) consecutive days.

We don't know what this was all about. The media must have gotten hold of restricted materials or something similar.

So without expressing an opinion or commenting about the merits or facts of the case, can someone tell us why the Department is bending over backwards for this piece of garbage while simultaneously aiding and abetting the current narratives regarding Van Dyke and Rialmo?

We're just curious about the double-standard being applied so blatantly.

Only the Beginning

Oh, now you want the police?

• West Side residents packed the City Council chambers on Tuesday to plead for a stronger anti-gang loitering ordinance action to “take back” neighborhood streets overrun with gangbangers, drug dealers and prostitutes.
  
  “While I was sitting in my chair waiting for this meeting to start, I watched four drug transactions on my phone with my security surveillance cameras. This has got to stop,” Belvie Foster said.
  
  “This was a nice field trip. It was a nice subject matter. We don’t want to come back down here for subject matter. When can we vote?”
  
  The City Council’s Committee on Public Safety took no action on proposals by West Side Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) to start by outlawing “prostitution-related loitering” – by designating areas of the city where hookers could be ordered to disperse for an eight-hour period — then move on to other forms of loitering.
  
  But it was only because it will be so difficult to craft a re-write that can pass legal muster after Chicago’s more stringent anti-gang loitering ordinance was overturned more than 20 years ago.

Remember, this is the aldercreature with the shady bachelor party that partook of a number of "ladies of the evening."

And it is the same aldercreature who was thrown out of 011 by former Commander (current P.O.W.) Glenn Evans for trying to tell him how to run a District and what corners were deserving of more attention...as opposed to those that didn't require as much attention (read that any way you like.)

Remember when we could actually clear the corners and keep them clear for an evening or three? Ervin helped destroy that ability...now he's feeling the wrath of voters.

Retirees at St. Jude's

Just because you're retired, doesn't mean you can't march to remember the fallen during your career (click for the larger version):

Comments closed here.

FOP Wakes Up

This probably should have been done prior to yesterday (click for larger view):

This needs to be pushed - and pushed HARD. The Department has effectively hamstrung the rank-and-file with so much oversight, that a cop isn't allowed to make any decision without having it judged, reviewed, re-judged, reviewed again, sent to a committee that dissects every single second, judges yet again, then looks to suspend, fire or jail the officer(s) involved for each and every violation.

Time to play hardball FOP. Demand that the Department draw up some sort of "How To Police" guidebook that will ensure each and every action taken by officers is within legal guidelines, city ordinances, Department Directives and some sort of "community standards" whatever the fuck those may be - as far as we can tell, they depends upon the weather, temperature and day of the weekm biot to mention color of the officer and offender.

Absent these guidelines, the FOP should instruct everyone that no police action will be taken for any situations until such time as guidance is provided. Better re-tool the Academy in an effort to retrain the entire Department. Get it done.

Imagine....

Chicago might be becoming a one-paper town - and not a moment too soon:

• The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published newspaper in the city.
  
  Every day for 174 years, we have been there for you. Now we need you to be there for us.
  
  We’re asking you to please support our daily work by subscribing to our website for $7.49 a month. That’s less than 25 cents a day. In return, you’ll get unlimited access to our web content and will help protect the long-term survival of our newsroom.

We would gladly contribute $10 a month just to see the Slum Times go under.

• Imagine our city without our headlines.
  
  Without our journalists to tell your side of the story.
  
  Without our beat writers to cover sports.
  
  Without our watchdog reporters to keep an eye on government.
  
  Without our columnists and editorial board to be a second voice.

Imagine Frank and Fran standing at the top of an expressway ramp with little cardboard signs that read, "Will toss Rahm's your salad for tips."

Imagine a drunken Steinberg having to scrounge the dumpsters around the ball parks for the last sips of Budweiser in crumpled aluminum cans.

Imagine a world where Mope-rah is living in a cardboard box because some "yutes" stole her car and her sign says, "Give me spare change, you racist."

Imagine it? We'll be looking forward to it.

Only in Chicago

Where the mentally ill wander the streets with dead bodies for company:

• An elderly woman was found pushing a shopping cart with a dead body inside it in the city’s Chatham neighborhood.
  
  Police received a call around 8 p.m. Saturday for a well-being check in the 8600 block of South Calumet Avenue.
  
  When officers arrived, they found the woman pushing a shopping cart that contained the body of a black woman. Police initially said the body was male. Officers described the woman pushing the cart as “elderly” but did not provide her age.

Youi have to love the media describing the dead body better than they do live subjects.

What's This?

Lawyers are now patrolling the streets of Chicago?

• OT: Two Officers stopped and arrest two juveniles in the 019th District. As the officers are getting ready to transport the two juveniles into the District, 2 females approach the officers and display some type of badge and claim to be Public Defenders. The 2 females tell the juveniles not to answer any questions.The officers take the juveniles into the station, where after about 20 minutes 2 males Public Defenders show up and demand to speak to the juveniles. Request was denied because the parents had not arrived. The 2 male Public Defenders left, but a copy of their documentation was obtained by the Watch Commander. After further investigation (and still pending clarification), the Police personnel is told that the Public Defenders are "those hired back" who had been let go after the soda tax fiasco. APPARENTLY THEY WERE HIRED BACK, AND NOW HAVE A JOB FOLLOWING THE POLICE AROUND. Hopefully the FOP inquires and gives the Officers in the whole City the correct information regarding this new practice. JUST BE AWARE AND BE CAREFUL!!!!

Anyone interfering with an arrest should be themselves arrested and we will gladly publish the ARDC contact info so that formal disciplinary charges can be pursued.

Another Off-Duty Shooting

Side job:

• An off-duty Chicago police officer working security at a Far North Side pharmacy exchanged gunfire with someone who tried to rob the store Friday, police said.
  
  The attempted robbery happened at a pharmacy in the 6200 block of North Clark Street in the Edgewater neighborhood, according to police.
  
  The store owner and the off-duty officer confronted the armed robber, resulting in the gunfire.
  
  The robber ran away, and no one was injured, police said.

Be careful.

Bulletproof Therapists

Just when you think Illinois pols couldn't get any dumber, they do:

• SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Some Illinois lawmakers want to give extra money to schools that replace armed security officers with unarmed social workers and behavior therapists, an approach to safety that's far different than a national push to add police or arm teachers following a mass shooting at a Florida high school.
  
  Rep. Emanuel "Chris" Welch, a Hillside Democrat, said he proposed the plan after hearing from advocates who argue that investing in mental health resources is the best way of treating the epidemic of violence.
  
  His plan, which is backed by 16 other Democrats in the House, would allow schools to apply to an optional grant if they promise to reallocate funding for school-based law enforcement to mental health services, including social workers or other practices "designed to promote school safety and healthy environments."

We can hardly wait. No doubt it will cut the workload on Second Watch by 25% plus the School Officers will be back pushing a beat car, alleviating watch shortages.

Another Day...

Another mayoral candidate:

• Young tech entrepreneur Neal Sales-Griffin officially threw his hat into the crowded 2019 mayoral race with a lengthy campaign announcement on Saturday.
  
  During a nearly 90-minute speech at the Shapiro Ballroom, Sales-Griffin dug into the city’s problems, saying people are fleeing the city, with residents disengaged from city officials who are more focused on their donors and keeping their jobs than their constituents.
  
  Sales-Griffin, 30, said Mayor Rahm Emanuel has tried his best but “he’s not been doing a good enough job,” adding that the mayor should “be someone who is from here.”

So just to refresh the scorecard:

• the "fired outsider" for the angry ethnic white city workers;
• the "returning reformer" for the not as angry city workers of all stripes;
• the "nutty uncle" for black voters not to enthralled with either McCarthy or Vallas;
• the "crazy whack job" to sew up the angry-black-guy vote;
• the "under federal investigation" Machine regular;

And finally:

• the successful entrepreneur / businessman who should be a model for the "community" to aspire to, but probably won't be.

Still waiting on Chewbacca's move.

Crime Still Down

Except for stabbings, which are inexplicably skyrocketing:

• One person was being questioned as a man was in critical condition after suffering several stab wounds in an attack in the Uptown neighborhood Sunday afternoon, police said.
  
  The 41-year-old man suffered puncture wounds to the back and leg in the attack in the 1100 block of West Wilson Avenue about 5:45 p.m., police said in a media notification.
  
  The man was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he was in critical condition, police said.
  
  One “person of interest” was being questioned in the attack, police said.

But don't worry - the current global cooling will continue to keep some types of crime within traditional levels.

Three Years

But she's already done fifteen months at County:

• Two hours into a court hearing Friday, Tanishia Covington was ready to receive her sentence for her role in the infamous Facebook Live hate crime-hazing and beating of a white, 18-year-old Crystal Lake man.

Her sister got probation, so who knows what Judge Hooks is thinking. She'll be out in a few more months due to lenient sentencing guidelines in Cook County. We must have missed the riots or civil disorder popping up in Crystal Lake.

Eight Mile Crime Spree

Sounds exciting as heck:

• Police are looking for armed robbery suspects who carjacked at least two people, hit a pedestrian in Lincoln Park and led police on a chase through several city neighborhoods that ended with a crash near Humboldt Park on Saturday morning.

Who did it?

• Police have recovered two of the cars that were taken in the attacks and are trying to find the third, which is a green 2000 Honda Accord with damaged Wisconsin plates of 218SPG, said Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson on Saturday afternoon at an unrelated news conference in the Loop.
  
  Police have some “good leads” on the identities of the suspects, who are possibly juveniles, Johnson said.

Great - who were they?

• It started Saturday morning with a pair of attempted carjackings by the gunmen, who were behind the wheel of a stolen silver or gray Chrysler van on the Near North Side, police said.

Okay....descriptions?

• In the first, the victim did not make out a police report and nothing was taken, but about 9:30 a.m., the two robbers pulled up to another person in the 1400 block of North Dayton Avenue, according to police. They tried to carjack the victim but only grabbed cash before driving away in the van.
  
  The suspects then drove 3 miles north to the Lakeview neighborhood, where they stole a Volkswagen at gunpoint in the 1300 block of West Waveland Avenue and left the van.

For god's sake, who the fuck are we looking for?

• A short time later, a tow truck driver flagged down a patrol officer after spotting the stolen Volkswagen, and police gave chase. The pursuit continued about 2 miles south to Fullerton Avenue and Halsted Street in Lincoln Park, where the Volkswagen hit and seriously injured a 23-year-old pedestrian, police said.
  
  Chicago police ended the chase, and the victim, a man who suffered a broken arm, a broken shoulder and a concussion, was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where his condition had stabilized.

For the love of.....

• No arrests have been made, and police did not immediately have a description of the robbers.

Riiiight. Not a single description from anyone involved, robbed, maimed. Does anyone believe this bullshit any more?

Interesting

So the Police Board member who drew upon her vast experiences in the field of police work voted with Rahm's preferred recommendations 54% of the time.

The other 46% of the time, she didn't even show up to vote. Great work if you can get it.

Here's her People's Gas profile.

And speaking of interesting, there's a parking spot in the back of COPA labeled "COPA Supervisor/Director." This car was parked in it:

It seems COPA Supervisors are so well paid for their "work" they have to drive for Uber to make ends meet.

Nice School Cleaners Rahm

The schools are filthy, so what does Aramark get?

• Chicago Public Schools officials have agreed to give $259 million in additional work to a company that couldn’t keep city schools clean, records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show.
  
  Aramark will be handed control of all facilities work at most of Chicago’s schools on July 1, according to its contract, which CPS officials tried to keep under wraps.
  
  The company, based in Philadelphia, is being given all oversight for cleaning the schools, pest control, landscaping and other tasks that in the past typically have been overseen by a school’s engineer — what CPS calls an integrated facilities-management model.
  
  Since 2014, it has managed the cleaning of hundreds of Chicago schools — including all 125 that CPS inspected from December to February and found rife with problems. Just 34 of the schools passed those cleanliness examinations, the Sun-Times reported last month, prompting Mayor Rahm Emanuel to say he was “beyond outraged.”

But not outraged enough to stop a contract worth over a quarter of a billion dollars.

And just who is doing the cleaning? (click for larger version)

No Durg Test - that's a plus.

Preventable

This could be the face of a revolution:

• Weeks after Mike Beedle was stabbed to death outside a River North bar, the slain software entrepreneur’s fiancee on Thursday made an impassioned call for changes to a criminal justice system that let his accused murderer roam the streets of Chicago despite a history of arrests and mental health issues spanning more than three decades.
  
  “Our babies lost their father, and I think someone has blood on their hands,” Barbara Misiur said during a press conference with their toddler Urszula on her lap. “To know that this could have been prevented makes me so angry,” she said.
  
  Gino Bassett, 56, is charged with first-degree murder. Cook County prosecutors say he suffers from schizophrenia and takes numerous medications for mental illness. Bassett stalked Beedle as he stood outside the bar early on March 23 in the 400 block of North State, then shoved him into an alley, stabbed him in the neck with a 5-inch knife and took off with Beedle’s cash and credit cards, authorities said. Bassett’s arrest after the slaying was his 99th on a lengthy rap sheet, according to community activist Andrew Holmes.

If someone gets arrested 99 times, the police are doing their jobs. Someone else isn't.

Someone like Kim Foxxx and her predcessor. Someone like Dart and Prickwrinkle. Someone like those who report to Tim Evans. And someone who closed how many mental health facilities like Rahm.

Actually, there's no "like" about it - those are exactly the people to blame. But no one is listening.

Qualified How?

So can anyone explain what actual qualifications Eva-Dina Delgado has for judging police work? How many agencies she's worked for, how many arrests and court proceedings she might have participated in? What papers she's published or commissions she's served on?

How about evidence interpretation? Ballistics? Crime scene processing? Simple physics?

Anything?

And why aren't the FOP and PBPA making a bit more noise over this extraordinary lack of qualifications for judging an incident that went down in something measured in mere seconds?

Failed Carjacking

Off duty involved:

• Carjackers targeted a black BMW in the Ashburn neighborhood Friday morning, but what they didn’t know was the driver of the SUV was an armed off-duty Chicago police officer.
  
  The officer exchanged gunfire with the suspects, but they got away.
  
  Witnesses said the off-duty officer was stopping at his regular barbershop at 79th and Hamlin to get a haircut, but before he could get out of his car, three suspects jumped in.

No one hit as of last report, but stay aware ladies and gentlemen - it's everywhere.

Decision Shortly (UPDATE)

Everyone finds out shortly if the train derails or continues onward:

• A single, randomly-selected Police Board member has decided the fate of Chicago Police Officer Robert Rialmo and the decision will be announced at Thursday night’s Police Board meeting.
  
  “An announcement of the reviewing Board member’s decision regarding the disciplinary recommendation relating to the shooting of Quintonio LeGrier and Bettie Jones is planned for this evening’s Police Board public meeting, which is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Chicago Public Safety Headquarters, 3510 South Michigan Avenue,” the announcement states.

Is the Department mobilizing Tact teams? Incident teams? Gas teams? If none of this is happening right this very minute, you can probably assume the fix is in and Rahm's personal-9.5-fingered-pick has telegraphed the decision to City Hall.

And then you can officially bury the corpse and coffin of police work.

UPDATE: And the railroad job continues:

• A Chicago Police Board member has ruled that Officer Robert Rialmo will face potential firing by the full board for the fatal 2015 shooting of a teenager carrying a baseball bat and an innocent bystander.
  
  The decision by Eva-Dina Delgado comes after police Superintendent Eddie Johnson disagreed with the finding by the city’s police disciplinary agency, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, that the shooting was unjustified and that Rialmo should be fired.
  
  Delgado, who works in government and community relations for Peoples Gas and was appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to the Police Board in 2016, could have sided with Johnson and ended the disciplinary case against Rialmo.
  
  Her decision means that the Police Board — a nine-member panel that includes eight Emanuel appointees — will take on a divisive case that has stirred strong emotions among both police reform advocates and the department’s rank-and-file.

It's all an act - theater - and Rahm is the puppetmaster.

UPDATE: Post moved from 1631 hours yesterday to the top of today's menu due to importance.

There She Goes

The obvious plant to further fracture voting blocs:

• In 2007, Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown explained her landslide loss to then-Mayor Richard M. Daley by saying voters did not “understand the magnitude of the crime and corruption” that had occurred on Daley’s watch.
  
  With Brown poised to enter her second race for mayor, black elected officials and political pundits are making similar claims about her.
  
  They can’t understand why she’s running for mayor instead of running for cover four years into a federal grand jury investigation into alleged job- and promotion-selling in her office that has already bagged two targets.

It sure looks like she's been promised something, though what we have no idea.

Now we just need an Hispanic to complete the charade. Who is Chewy pushing? Is Gutierrez coming out of the closet woodwork?

Whack Job

Another "challenger" for Rahm's spot:

• Community activist Ja'mal Green launched his campaign for mayor of Chicago Wednesday, but not without some controversy.
  
  The 22-year-old's announcement was temporarily halted when administrators at Roosevelt University cut his mic.
  
  They said they thought Green was only speaking on the legacy of Harold Washington and didn't endorse his announcement.

So Rahm has someone running for the following categories:

• the "fired outsider" for the angry ethnic white city workers;
• the "returning reformer" for the not as angry city workers of all stripes;
• the "nutty uncle" for black voters not to enthralled with either McCarthy or Vallas;
• the "crazy whack job" to sew up the angry-black-guy vote.

If only there was a reasonably well-spoken black woman who many un-informed people recall as a supposedly capable member of the Machine, but somehow completely miss the stink of continuing Federal investigations running in and out of her office on a near daily basis to split the black vote three ways......

UPDATE: See post above.

Rahm Ain't Afraid!

At least, that's what he's telling his pet media:

• Mayoral challengers Willie Wilson, Garry McCarthy and Paul Vallas have forged a mutual nonaggression pact. They’ve agreed to lay off each other, attack Rahm Emanuel and unite behind whoever forces the mayor into a runoff.
  
  If Emanuel is feeling ganged up on, he’s not about to say. He’s too busy executing his Rose Garden strategy of ignoring his opponents to avoid putting them on equal footing with the two-term incumbent mayor of Chicago.

Of course, if he wasn't really afraid, he wouldn't be paying everyone and their illegitimate children to run in the open election.

Those Pesky Bail Jumpers

Someone is finally putting numbers to Dart's "low bail" problem:

• Two of the four adults charged with beating and stealing money from a man in River North on April 6th have already gone AWOL by skipping court dates, according to Cook County court records. And they are just the tip of the iceberg. Of the 232 on-going criminal cases being monitored by CWBChicago editors, 36 defendants were AWOL as of Friday afternoon.
  
  Other recipients of “affordable bails” who are in the wind include a man charged with receiving a $66,000 methamphetamine delivery; a man charged with 10 burglaries in Lakeview; and a man accused of having a sawed-off shotgun in a car.

The only real Investigative Journalism is being done by far too few bloggers, mostly for free, and mostly unseen. Imagine if an actually well-funded group got behind this effort.

Second Coldest April

What we mentioned the other day:

• Chicago area residents may wake up to snow on the ground Thursday, the latest reminder that winter weather’s grip is delaying so many spring rites of passage, from Major League Baseball games to bridge-lifting season on the Chicago River downtown – the parade of boats heading for slips offering the surest sign of warm weather ahead.
  
  And if those early morning walks to the bus or train stop weren’t convincing enough, forecasters say this is the second-coldest start to April across Chicago in 130 years.

As McCompStat told everyone, weather has nothing to do with decreased crime stats - it's all the fantastic fancy computers, shot-spotters, reduced police districts and detective areas.

Another GREAT Description

And then it was gone. This story appeared the in the Trib the other day:

• One of four people suspected to be involved in the bump-and-run Saturday afternoon carjacking of an Oak Park woman has been arrested, Oak Park police said Tuesday.
  
  Police said Tuesday that the stolen vehicle was spotted at about 5 p.m. Monday by North Riverside police near North Riverside Park Mall. Police said the car was pursued to the 4700 block of Gladys Avenue in Chicago. There were four people in the stolen car, and all four then got out and ran, police said.

The description which appeared in the paper was as follows:

• Two males with black hair.

That was it - black hair - and even that description disappeared before the day was over.

What pillars of the community the media must feel like, providing that extensive description to the public at large in order to keep everyone informed and aware of the dangers of people (or folks) with "black hair."

Old Tricks Aren't Working

Why aren't the police leaping at this opportunity?

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s latest attempt to get Chicago cops and firefighters to spread out into the city’s struggling neighborhoods has yet to draw much interest.
  
  Six months after the mayor dangled a monetary carrot to try to get them to purchase homes in high-crime parts of the South and West sides, just two police officers have taken advantage, according to the city Department of Planning and Development. And both closed on houses in the South Side Chatham neighborhood that’s already known as a favorite landing spot for first responders and other city workers.
  
  Emanuel’s program offers $30,000 loans to police officers and firefighters to buy a home in certain more violent areas of the city. If they stay for at least 10 years, they don’t have to pay the city back. It’s an idea employed by former Mayor Richard M. Daley in previous decades that Emanuel restarted last year.

It's almost like cops don't want to live in the shitholes they patrol. Or maybe the young coppers aren't going to be sticking around long enough to raise a family or something. If the northsiders stick around long enough and alderasshole Arena gets his way, Jefferson Park will be on the list of shitholes eligible for the loan.

Maybe Rahm can take the $3 million set aside and use it to fund pensions? Medical coverage for retirees?

Escamerit Sucking Up

Anywhere there's a camera....and a mayor....and a billionaire:

The Ghost of the 025 Gallows lives on:

Hilarious.

That Time of Year Again

Ah spring, when a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of smash-and-grab:

• Chicago police are looking for a team of smash-and-grab thieves who rammed a stolen vehicle though the entrance of a GameStop store.
  
  The incident happened at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday in the 1500 block of North Cicero in the city's North Austin neighborhood.
  
  Burglars drove their car through the front of the store, and stole cash and merchandise. The suspects then fled the scene, leaving the stolen car behind.

Remember, crime is down! (in the midst of the coldest April in a century.)

Parking Scandal Again?

Didn't the Department ban this practice?

• A high-ranking Chicago Police officer and a lieutenant working under that deputy chief were accused Monday of providing a “preferential treatment scheme to reserve and provide free-parking at the United Center” for off-duty cops, their family and friends.
  
  Last year, Inspector General Joe Ferguson unmasked a similar preferential parking scheme at Bulls and Blackhawks games executed by eight supervisors and traffic control aides working at the city’s 911 emergency center.
  
  The new scheme accuses a deputy chief and a lieutenant, neither of whom were identified by name, of engaging in and supervising a similar system of playing parking favorites.

Well, there are only eighteen Deputy Chiefs and the stadiums fall under the purview of only two or three of them, so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out which politically connected asshole figured they were above the rules again, even after being explicitly banned from doing exactly this.

And once again, that third layer of "connected discipline" comes into public view.

Blago to Rot

Pending a pardon from Trump, he will continue to serve a sentence longer than many murderers:

• The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday morning decided NOT to hear the appeal of defrocked Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich's corruption case. The court's refusal to hear Blagojevich's appeal effectively puts an end to his conventional legal options.
  
  "Rod, Amy, Annie and I could not be more disappointed in the decision today by the U.S. Supreme Court" said Blagojevich's Patti in a written statement released late Monday morning. "From the beginning we've had faith in the system and have felt the court would bring Rod back to us. Now, with the judiciary no longer an option, we'll have to put our faith elsewhere and find another way."

Political corruption deserves harsh sentences as it undermined the very foundations of government, so we can't say we're displeased with the Supreme Court decision. However, we are still of the opinion that Blago was sentenced solely for going against the Machine that spawned Sparklefarts.

Family Connection

Some law firm in Park Ridge decided to fly the flag upside down the other day:

Normally, we would just write this off as a mistake or a misguided protest, but it was interesting to see who worked there:

That's alderasshole Arena's brother, and that makes us wonder.

Serial Stabber?

The more info that is released, the more this looks like a planned attack of some sort:

• Chicago police have released video footage of a man parking his SUV before grabbing a woman and stabbing her as she walked to the Fullerton Red Line station Tuesday night in the Sheffield Neighbors community.
  
  The 21-year-old woman was walking east around 10:50 p.m. in the 1200 block of West Webster Avenue when the man grabbed her neck and put her in a choke hold, Chicago police said in a community alert.
  
  After the man stabbed her several times in the upper body, video shows her attacker fleeing west to Wayne Avenue and leaving heading north in a dark colored Cadillac SRX, police said. Earlier surveillance video shows the man parking the SUV.

So he drives into the neighborhood, finds a likely victim, strikes, then flees the neighborhood?

From what we've read about serial killers, they work their way up to killing via different paths. Assaults, rapes, animal torture, etc., often near home but oftentimes just somewhere they're "comfortable," i.e. where there isn't much danger of being stopped, i.e. Chicago.

This sounds like a serial killer working up the nerve to do some real damage. And unlike in previous decades, everyone can watch the progression unfold via surveillance cameras - after the fact.

Bats? Again?

We don't know where the criminals are getting the idea that bats are weapons:

• Robbers armed with a handgun or baseball bat have robbed people at least three times in recent days on the Northwest Side, Chicago police said.
  
  The first robbery happened Wednesday around 9:45 p.m. in the 5000 block of West Windsor Avenue in the Jefferson Park neighborhood, police said in a community alert.
  
  A second followed Thursday around 8:55 p.m. in the 5000 block of West Grace Street in the Portage Park neighborhood, the alert said.
  
  Also in Portage Park, a third robbery happened around 9:30 a.m. Friday in the 6000 block of West Grace Street.

A gun we can understand. But as the mayor's ass-kissers have been telling everyone for over a year now, bats are not dangerous. At all. And if you confront someone who is misusing a bat, you better be prepared to feel the full brunt of the mayor's anger.

Dart Wins in Landslide (UPDATE)

Is this the only guy running against Dart?

• Off topic but important. Dominic IZZO who is running for Cook County Sheriff needs to go! Now we are in a real bad spot here. We have to two canidates for Sheriff, Dominic IZZO and Little Tommy Dart. I think we all know how we feel about DART but let me tell you a story about IZZO that has been making its way through the grapevine lately.
  
  So I guess its Confirmed that IZZO got a CR number recently on a CPD officers. The officer, a female got into a facebook disagreement with him and she then called him a... well, to keep it PG she called him another word for the female genitalia that starts with P and ends in Y. Ok, so a disagreement about politics gets heated and words fly.
  
  So IZZO gets butt hurt, calls COPA... Yes, COPA, and gets a CR number on her and provides the facebook argument to COPA. Just the other day, the officer got called down to COPA to give the official statement. IZZO also signed the affidavit for it. So here he have IZZO, cant take any criticism and gets CR numbers after he posts about how corrupt COPA is yet he runs to copa with his thumb in his mouth because a little girl insulted him.
  
  Don't be fooled by this idiot.

Is this guy taking lessons from Alderasshole Arena?

Cook County is doomed.

UPDATE: You'll have to search for it on his Facebook page. We aren't connected, we aren't going to link to it or post the paragraphs where he names the officer more than a few times. We do find it amusing that if you put yourself out there as a "public figure" that you're surprised when you get criticized and then complain about it, especially in a profession that is judgemental in the extreme.

Texas Exports Crime?

Must have thought it was easier to get away with it here:

• Five days after inexplicably leaving their Fort Worth home, Cook County prosecutors said a Texas man fatally shot his girlfriend in the neck on the city’s West Side.
  
  Kendrick Owens, who was briefly hospitalized after his arrest, wasn’t present at Saturday’s hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, where a judge denied bail for the Thursday morning shooting death of Tiwaconda Williams, 36.
  
  Owens, 38, faces first-degree murder charges and is expected to make an appearance in court next week.

He won't be facing a death penalty here.

Off Duty Shot At

WGN makes it sound like it's just folks (or people) funnin'

• A person opened fire on an off-duty police officer Friday morning on the city’s Northwest Side.
  
  The officer was dropping someone off in an alley near Keeler and Roscoe.
  
  A driver behind him got angry over having to wait.
  
  The officer tried to calm him down, but as he returned to his car he heard gunfire.
  
  The car was hit four or five times, but the officer wasn’t hurt.
  
  No one has been arrested.

Let's call it what it was - attempted murder. Don't downplay it.

Arm Teachers With....

Bats? Seriously?

• A Pennsylvania school district is arming its teachers with baseball bats to defend themselves and students against potential gunmen in the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
  
  Officials from the Millcreek School District in Erie, Pennsylvania distributed 16-inch baseball bats to its 500 teachers as a "last resort," district Superintendent William Hall, told Erie News Now.
  
  Teachers received the bats, which cost the district about $1,800 to buy, after they attended a training day on how to respond to school shootings.

So a few weeks ago, it was a bucket of "river rocks" that school administrators were expecting first-graders to be able to hurl at gunmen with unerring accuracy while under fire.

Now it's baseball bats - not even real bats, but 16" souvenir bats - which (as every one in Chicago knows) aren't even real deadly weapons, even if they're full sized and wielded by mentally ill individuals intent on mayhem.

Here's What Gets You Shot

This is one thing:

This, too, when you make a habit of it:

Not the bullshit that the Slum Times is claiming. Perhaps if you acted like civilized human beings, you wouldn't have half the problems you manage to bring upon yourself.

The Future of Policing

At least in California:

• In my April 6 column here on PJ Media, I mentioned the legislative effort in California to address police shootings and change the legal standard by which they are judged. Assembly Bill 931, bearing the Orwellian title of Police Accountability and Community Protection Act, would make it unlawful for a police officer to use deadly force unless it was “necessary.” It sounds reasonable, of course. After all, don’t we want police to refrain from shooting people unless it’s necessary?
  
  But the question then arises: Necessary to whom? At their April 3 press conference introducing the legislation, the bill’s authors and other speakers made it clear. If a police officer’s use of deadly force is deemed to be unnecessary to them and to people who share their beliefs, that officer can expect to be prosecuted and, if not imprisoned, run through a years-long ordeal that will ruin him physically, emotionally, and financially. And this, they promise, will protect the community.
  
  It will not.

Jack Dunphy (LAPD) outlines how "progressives" are drafting this legislation with absolutely ZERO input from the law enforcement professionals, circumventing US Supreme Court decisions along with settled law, and discarding nationally recognized standards in order to fire, jail and/or bankrupt officers based on the political winds of the day.

Go read it all.

Random?

Sure - because picking someone out of a group, all of whom were handpicked by the mayor - is the epitome of "fair:"

• A randomly chosen member of the Chicago Police Board will decide if an officer will face potential firing for a controversial 2015 shooting that killed a teenager who carried a baseball bat and an innocent bystander.

Any bets on how this portion plays out? Choo choo! All aboard!

Knives Again

It's almost like if people are determined to injure or kill, they'll find a way regardless:

• A woman was walking to the Fullerton Red Line station Tuesday night when a man grabbed her from behind and stabbed her repeatedly, Chicago police said.
  
  The 21-year-old woman was walking east around 10:50 p.m. in the 1200 block of West Webster Avenue in the Sheffield Neighbors neighborhood when the man grabbed her neck and put her in a choke hold, police said in a community alert.
  
  He stabbed her several times in the upper body, police said.
  
  The woman was stabilized at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.

And once again, the description of the offender is sorely lacking.

Shooting

In 012 District:

• A person was shot after an altercation with police, according to officials.
  
  An offender was shot on the 2000 block of West Washington Boulevard Wednesday evening around 8 p.m., according to police spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi.
  
  No police officers were injured.

Best wishes to the involved officer.

Special Ed Says What?

Anyone know what planet Special Ed is living on?

• Anonymous said...
  
  Superintendent says recruits are working "One on One" with field training officers. What a lie, working two or three deep in 022 or throwing them on the desk for weeks at a time.

If PPO's were actually getting one-on-one training, there wouldn't be a class of "acting" FTO's starting next Monday at the Academy. Where we're at, they wouldn't be riding two deep with the existing FTO's...or three when someone wants a day off. They wouldn't be assigned to the Desk for a week or riding with the sergeants.

One-on-one is a fantasy and remains a fantasy for the foreseeable future.

193 New Graduates

One small step for 1,000 hires, one giant leap for the summer rush:

• After welcoming 193 new Chicago police recruits, Superintendent Eddie Johnson spoke at the City Club about new reforms for the police department.
  
  During a speech, Johnson revealed that later this year the department will launch an early warning program to identify officers struggling with issues at home or on the job.
  
  "This early detection and intervention will not only protect the emotional and physical health of our officers, it will also protect the community to ensure their officers are acting professionally in their capacity on the street," Johnson said.

Well, seeing as how everyone and their brother has a new agency to second-guess coppers months, even years after the fact, it's little wonder the stress levels have gone up around the Department.

It's also leading to record levels of "disengagement" from the "community."

Sgt Class Coming

"Merit" letters are in and the theater has begun. The only question remaining is how big is the class going to be? 

We've heard 50 to 60, we've heard up to 115.

We've also been told the sergeant manpower is only down a few dozen, unless you go by Rahm's imaginary "I hired 1,000 cops" and then he'd need the higher supervisor numbers.

The unnaturally high number of "merit" picks solicited from each exempt leads ups to believe this new "merit list" might be around for a while and might hint at a larger than normal class.

Use this post for your rumors and "what I've heard posts."

Jail Camp Out!

We wonder if there will be s'mores?

$40? Is this one of the closed wings?

Or is there a "realistic" night at the jail with pizza and shower sex? Maybe a riot or a shanking, too?

UPDATE: It says "Chisago" right at the top and the star/shield are from Minnesota. Here's the article about it (we neglected to include it thinking everyone would have a laugh.) It was a throwaway article hoping people would think Toni and Tommy were raising money in a closed jail wing....hey, that's not a bad idea!

Disgusting Article

We aren't going to quote it, but the link is here. Chicago Magazine spends way too much time attempting to explain the actions of a career criminal who ended up murdering Commander Bauer. The authors attempt to soften it up by interspersing information about Bauer, but then they attempt to draw parallels between Bauer and his killer. Why the fuck would anyone do that?

We don't really give a rat's ass about his difficult upbringing. Plenty of people had it worse (or better) and most of them didn't end up with extensive felony records, prison careers and being a net drain on society for their existences - oxygen thieves to be mildly polite. Pretty much no one is going to miss this piece of shit when he shuffles off into oblivion.

This quote...:

• We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions. - Ronald Reagan

...ought to be studied by more than a few "journalists" and their editors.

South Side Trauma Center

This might actually cut the homicide numbers further:

• U. of C. Medicine is set to launch the first adult trauma center on the South Side in decades next month after gaining approval from the Illinois Department of Public Health.
  
  The Level 1 adult trauma center will fill the hole left in trauma care since Michael Reese Hospital closed its center in 1991.
  
  U. of C. stopped offering adult trauma care in 1988, and underserved South Side residents have long advocated for the opening of such a center.
  
  The center will provide specialized care for traumatic injuries, including gunshot wounds, and will also include services such as outpatient psychiatry to help patients transition back into the community.

About damn time.

Shotspotter Success

This is amusing as heck, coming out of New York City:

• This de Blasio administration official set one heckuva bad example for the teens she was hired to keep out of jail.
  
  Reagan Stevens, a deputy director in the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, and two young men were arrested for illegal weapons possession while sitting in a double-parked car near the scene of a Saturday night shooting in Queens, cops said.
  
  A loaded, 9mm semi-automatic pistol with its serial number defaced was hidden in the car’s glovebox, and there was a spent shell casing on the floor near Stevens’ feet in the rear of the 2002 dark red Infiniti SUV, law enforcement sources said.
  
  The trio’s arrest followed a burst of five gunshots that activated an NYPD “ShotSpotter” device in Jamaica at 9:42 p.m. Saturday, sources said.

And she's the daughter and step-daughter of a pair of judges. Amazing how the politically connected leftists expect everyone else to follow the law while they run around smoking weed and firing guns.

Knife Control

With stabbings out of control, Londonistan makes the obvious move:

• London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced a crackdown on knives Sunday in response to the rising levels of violence in London, which recently surpassed New York City’s homicide rate for the first time.
  
  “No excuses: there is never a reason to carry a knife,” Khan tweeted. “Anyone who does will be caught, and they will feel the full force of the law.”
  
  There have been more than 50 homicides in London so far in 2018, and much of the violence is tied to gangs.
  
  Guns are strictly regulated in the United Kingdom and the rising homicide rate in London is directly attributable to a rise in knife-related crimes, with stabbings claiming at least 31 lives to date in 2018. By contrast, New York — which has a population roughly the same size as London — has seen a steady decline in violent crime.

Gee, good thing they outlawed guns. After knives, maybe they can work on acid attacks, then bats.

Robin the Racist

Robin Robinson pretending to earn that exempt "salary" (click for a larger version)

Golly. That list of Districts seems awfully.....one sided? It's almost like they don't want the input of a cross section of Chicago....just a certain side.

And in the meantime

• if traffic stops aren't exactly one-third, one-third, and one-third
• and arrests aren't exactly one-third, one-third, and one-third
• and the jail isn't one-third, one-third, and one-third

Well then you all are just a bunch of racists!

Not Good Advice

Lie to the police to get them there faster?

If you run the name, you find out that Shelley is a Cook County Public Defender who has actually been attacked by one of her "clients" not too long ago. But here she is giving advice to someone to lie to 9-1-1 to get a faster response.

Stop Already

Shootings are down, right?

Killings are down, right?

In fact, according to Special Ed, crime is pretty much non-existent - except for those pesky carjackings, endless property crimes, assaults and batteries downtown....but those don't really count.

So why is this still happening?

• Area North Dep Chief went into a rage at the commanders demanding more activity and ordering them not to grant more then 15% time due on any day. If you are denied , demand the rejected slip back from the WOL and use for grievance and litigation.

Can't everyone just be happy for the moment that it's been cold enough to keep killings at a reasonable pace? It's going to be 70 degrees later this week.

Slash Transit

Yet another CTA knife attack - is this London or what?

• A Chicago man who allegedly slashed a woman in the face with a knife at a CTA bus stop was ordered held without bail Saturday. Deandre Cavaness, 36, was charged after the stabbing, which happened Thursday about 9 p.m. in the 300 block of North Central Avenue.
  
  Cavaness approached the woman at a bus stop and slashed her across the left side of the face, prosecutors said in court. The victim, a 54-year-old woman, suffered a deep gash to her left cheek and jaw, and had to be hospitalized, police said.
  
  It’s not clear what prompted the incident.

And not a single citizen permitted to carry a gun nor a cop in sight

Nice Bus Mayor McNamara

We guess you could blame Rahm for this if the party buses were driven out of Chicago due to more oversight and expensive fines:

• Three people were found shot to death on a party bus early Saturday in the Rockford area, authorities said.
  
  About 3:30 a.m. officers were called to the 400 block of North Springfield Avenue for a report that several people had been shot. Officers from the Rockford Police Department found three people on a private charter bus who had been shot to death, according to a news release from the agency.
  
  Police said the shooting happened in the area of Auburn Street and Johnston Avenue and the driver kept going as he called police before stopping on Springfield Avenue.
  
  The party bus had been rented for a Friday night event, police said. The three people who were found dead have not yet been identified by the Winnebago County coroner.

Any word if Chicago addresses are listed for the "victims."

Firefighters Injured

Freak accident:

• A group of firefighters rushed inside the smoldering bakery when a gust of wind slammed the door closed behind them. Their fellow firefighters frantically tried to open the door, but the minutes ticked by while the acrid smell of the fire fell over the street, said Ruben Cruz, who watched the scene unfold early Saturday from his Southwest Side porch.
  
  After about five minutes, they yanked open the door, and pulled two firefighters out of the building by their vests. “They took off all their equipment,” Cruz said. “They made sure they were breathing.”
  
  Three firefighters were burned in a blaze that started before 12:30 a.m. in the 3000 block of West 42nd Street in the Brighton Park neighborhood, according to the Chicago Fire Department. It was struck out later Saturday morning.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Political Games

This might be the most fun election in years:

• Off topic but there was a secret Pow-Wow between Vallas and McCarthy and Wilson in which they agreed to play nice and run against Rahm not each other. In addition snippets of some ugly “Rahm-versations” were provided by McCarthy that all 3 agreed would be used against Emanuel. Rahm will have to get to McCarthy somehow because these will humiliate and destroy him. McCarthy HATES Rahm and just wants use a scorched earth strategy.

Some men just want to see the world burn - count us in.

Snowflake Idiocy

Evidently, the police are always wrong, even when legally justified:

• The University of Chicago community protested Thursday the police shooting of fourth-year student Charles Thomas, who ran toward an officer with a metal bar while seeming to be having a mental health episode.

So a bunch of eggheads, who know exactly dick about police procedure and State Law are experts in police work? That's almost as dumb as letting high school students dictate national gun policy - who'd be that fucking stupid?

• Kenwood Academy junior Alycia Kamil Moaton, with the anti-violence youth organization GoodKidsMadCity, called attention to the fact that the University has not released the officer’s name. The University did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
  
  Moaton said there were multiple officers at the scene, as shown in the body-camera footage released by UCPD, and she said they could have restrained Thomas without shooting him.
  
  “I’m confused as to why Charles couldn’t have been gently taken down by another officer and why he had to be shot on the scene that night,” she said. “Police need to be held accountable for their wrongdoings; they need to learn how to handle a situation when someone they are chasing down has a mental health issue.”

We will extend our previous offer to this moron also:

• We will give you a pistol, Taser, baton and handcuffs along with a short course on Illinois law and Use of Force policy;
• we will arm ourselves with a blunt instrument - probably a metal bar;
• you will get us into handcuffs by any means possible - but if you resort to stick, Taser or gun, you lose and must commit ritual suicide;
• by the way, we get to yell, scream, resist passively, then actively and finally, we get the first swing of the blunt instrument for free. Otherwise you lose and have to commit suicide on camera 

Will no one take us up on this offer? Put up or shut up snowflakes.

Stabbing Arrest

Clearing a heater case:

• After plunging a knife into the neck of a software CEO outside a River North bar last month, a South Side man boarded a CTA train and began counting the cash he grabbed from the victim, prosecutors alleged in court on Friday.
  
  Gino D. Bassett, Sr., 56, appeared before Judge Michael R. Clancy, who denied bond during a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building on Friday afternoon.
  
  Bassett, of the 6100 block of South Ingleside Avenue, was charged with first-degree murder and two misdemeanor counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, police said.
  
  Bassett is accused of stabbing Miguel Beedle, 55, of Park Ridge, on March 23 around 2:30 a.m. after following him into an alley in the 400 block of North State Street on the Near North Side.

Nice job tracking down all sorts of video to retrace the offender's escape, but we maintain our criticism of that the cameras are only there to record you getting assaulted and (in this case) killed. They do nothing to prevent crime and six kids don't have a father now due partly to chronic officer shortages and Rahm's failure to address the situation.

Safe Passage Arrest

Of a Safe Passage worker:

• This one is definitely originates far from of our usual coverage area. But we’re making an exception because it’s sooooo Chicago.
  
  Police arrested a 60-year-old Safe Passage worker Tuesday after allegedly seeing her sorting and holding two bags of heroin at her school route post.
  
  Around 8 a.m., cops in the 11th (Harrison) District were monitoring a pod camera feed from the corner of Gladys and Pulaski in Garfield Park. The area is “known for a high volume of narcotics trafficking,” police would later write in the Safe Passage worker’s arrest report.
  
  Police said they watched as Betty Brown walked a few feet from her post and hid behind a fence to “manipulate an item consistent with narcotics packaging,” according to court records. A patrol car was sent to investigate.

We're sure the junkies appreciated that they were buying their heroin in a "safe" location.

005 District Openings

There are about to be a boatload of vacancies that will have to be filled:

• ...an officer claiming to have a CPA background tells fellow coppers that he'll amend their prior three years tax returns for $500 a year, promising them bigger/additional refunds then they had already received. Sure as shit, coppers start getting 10, 12… even $15,000 checks from Uncle Sam. Supposedly one of the fifth district commanders secretaries netted a total of +/- $47K for her three years' amended returns.
  
  This copper/CPA abruptly and quietly resigned within the last week, all but disappearing. Didn't show up for his exit interview, phone number out of service, etc.
  
  Yesterday and/or today, Federal agents accompanied the IRS, internal affairs and the city's law department into the building. [T]here are a TON of clinched assholes and some of the likely suspects are openly panicking and having frequent powwows in the shadows. [...] NORTH OF 100 COPPERS INCLUDING SEVERAL IN SUPERVISORY CAPACITIES - POSSIBLY SOME EXEMPT - ARE INVOLVED. Some of these coppers also turned family and friends onto the scam, charging them more than the $500 for the PO/CPA and pocketing the difference. These people may be part of the +/- 100 people involved, but the vast majority are coppers.
  
  Mayor Midget is supposedly aware and has insisted on facilitating complete cooperation with federal agents. Licking his chops at being the reformer of police corruption just in time for the election, no doubt.

One-hundred coppers - all up on IRS tax charges - oh wait:

• ....the "list" of involved officers earlier today and it is now closer to TWO HUNDRED people. They mentioned that since it involves so many coppers the [Department is] scrambling to brainstorm a way to minimize the damage. They're kicking around the idea of a blanket CR and dinging everyone with X amount of days. Only thing wrong with that idea is this scandal falls way outside the realm of department discipline - I don't believe the IRS would be cool with just 15 day suspensions across the board.

Great. Just great.

Swiping Schedule

Here it comes:

This is supposed to be the same system that LAPD instituted...then abandoned after two years because it was impossible to use, amend, or attach to the payroll system. The Department ended up pulling additional officers off the street in order to make corrections to the constant number of errors.

California Insanity

This stupidity will be embraced by lib-tards in every blue-enclave nation-wide:

• California wants to change their legal standard from the “reasonable force” rule to “necessary force,” according to the Associated Press.
  
  They define "necessary force" as force used when “there were no other reasonable alternatives to the use of deadly force.”
  
  This initially seems close to the old standard, as they both require reasonableness. However, it does not allow for the officers to use force based on how circumstances appear to them at the time. Instead, it allows the officer to be judged in hindsight if the force was actually necessary.
  
  For example, if a suspect pulls a pellet gun on an officer, they are not actually presenting a deadly threat. The officer would have no reasonable way to know that the gun isn't a lethal firearm, but under the new law, they could be charged if they shoot that suspect.
  
  This law would also appear to apply if somebody pulled an unloaded gun on an officer, or drew a malfunctioning gun. In these circumstance, unbeknownst to the officer, the suspect is not actually presenting a deadly threat. If the officer reasonably responds by shooting that person, they could be criminally charged.

Get out while you can.