ISP Trooper Killed

Tragedy last evening on I-294:

• An Illinois state trooper who was heading home for the night in his squad car but pulled over to help at an accident scene was struck and killed by a vehicle Saturday afternoon in the north suburbs, police said.
  
  Trooper Christopher Lambert, 34, stopped to help at a three-car crash in the northbound lanes on I-294 near Willow Road in Glenview, Illinois State Police Director Leo P. Schmitz said at a news conference.
  
  Lambert, a five-year veteran, positioned his car in the lefthand lanes to protect the people involved but he was struck by a passing vehicle at 4:43 p.m., Schmitz said.
  
  Lambert was given CPR by an off-duty nurse at the scene and was taken to Glenbrook Hospital in Glenview where he died at 7:24 p.m., Schmitz said.

Other media coverage here.

RIP Trooper Lambert.

Participating Restaurants

From a helpful soul (click for larger version):

Enjoy.

Further Clarification

To the "No More Mugshots?" post from the crew over at CWB Blog:

• Hi SCC -
  
  CPD is NOT in compliance regarding mugshots and state law. They are REQUIRED to release mugshots on all offenders within 72 hours of arrest.
  
  The only change in state law is that police agencies are barred from distributing mugshots for misdemeanor offenders ON SOCIAL MEDIA, not on their official sites.
  
  See email below from lawyers for Illinois Press Association that was sent early in the new year.
  
  All the best -
  CWB

So once again, the brilliant minds at HQ (probably Legal Affairs) have misinterpreted the law in such a way as to protect criminals rather than inform the citizenry.

Help on the Way

Let's hope this doesn't fall by the wayside and officers avail themselves of the help being offered:

• Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson announced Tuesday that CPD would be adding more counselors for officers after a difficult year that saw four officers killed in the line of duty and four officers who died by suicide.
  
  [...] Officers seem to be following Johnson's lead in recent weeks with more reaching out for help from EAP counselors and the six CPD chaplains. CPD plans to add six more EAP counselors and other forms of support in light of increased demand.

The number of counselors available to a Department of some 10,000 was atrociously bad and the subject of an entire section of the DoJ report. This help was a long time coming.

No More Mugshots? (UPDATE)

The Southwest Chicago Post noticed something new this year:

• Since the Southwest Chicago Post was founded in early 2012, we have brought news of crime--large and small--to the people of the Southwest Side.
  
  That's important, we know you agree, because folks want to know what's going on. Where the garage break-ins are occurring. Where the home and business burglaries are happening. Details about robberies, batteries and assaults.
  
  Folks also want to know about people charged with crimes--who they are, where they're from and what they look like. That last bit of detail--what they look like--requires a mugshot.

Guess what they aren't finding any more?

• You see, the Chicago Police Department has decided to no longer post mugshots of people they arrest for misdemeanor crimes--in other words, for the vast majority of arrests they make. And when we say "misdemeanor," please don't think we're talking about a guy who steals a pack of gum from a store.
  
  These days, "misdemeanor" often includes burglary, robbery, assault, battery and domestic battery, weapons violations, you name it. People often charged with violent crimes.

The Department has (through spokesweasels) refused to provide the media with a satisfactory answer as to why information is not being disseminated. We know that the Department regularly distributes full descriptions of suspects to the media....who then refuse to publish the actual facts. Perhaps the Department is merely bowing to the prevailing leftist group-think and no one is actually committing crimes - property just goes missing, bullets just fall out of the sky, and two-year-old children just chop themselves into pieces and throw themselves into lagoons.

UPDATE: Comments are saying this is a change in State Law. Because a misdemeanor theft offender has never turned into a home invader. Or an opportunistic rapist. Or a murderer.

So while police are forced to be "more transparent," the justice system becomes more opaque and the sheeple are kept in the dark.

Bad Start to the Year

What is the matter with society?

• Police have released the name of the Shreveport, Louisiana, officer who was fatally shot as she was heading to work ahead of the start of her shift Wednesday night.
  
  Chateri Payne was shot multiple times while in her uniform and died within hours of being transported to a local hospital, Shreveport police chief Ben Raymond announced this morning.

Twenty-two years old and not even on the street two months. And that was only one of two rookies killed this week:

• Natalie Corona was a rising star in her police department with a sparkling smile and a huge heart who had followed in her father’s footsteps and became an officer, fulfilling a lifelong dream just a few months ago when her dad pinned the badge on her uniform.
  
  On Friday, her father and a stunned community mourned the 22-year-old who was shot and killed on duty while responding to a multi-vehicle crash in the small college town of Davis, California.

Another twenty-two year old...at a traffic accident. Two of five officers killed already this year.

Another Chapter of Incompetency

This hack can't prosecute one of the most heinous crimes in Illinois history:

• The family of a two-year-old boy who was killed and dismembered in 2015 says they have been told the charges against the man accused of the murder might be reduced.
  
  The family of Kyrian Knox says they were contacted by the state’s attorney’s office ahead of a court proceeding Wednesday to be notified the charges could be reduced.
  kyrian knox Family Outraged At Possible Change In Charges For Man Accused Of Killing, Dismembering Toddler
  
  Kyrian Knox (Source: Facebook)
  
  Kyrian was killed in Rockford, dismembered and found in a Chicago lagoon in 2015. The Rockford boy’s severed head, hands, and feet were found in the Garfield Park lagoon on Labor Day weekend, but the body parts were not identified until two months later, after a DNA match was made.

This was one of the most intense and thorough investigations the Department ever conducted. The city even drained a body of water covering several acres to recover the victim and detectives spent literally thousands of hours making the case against this asshole.

You seat the jury and you present that best case possible and trust that even in Chicago, there are twelve jurors with some humanity left in them that they would convict this waste-of-humanity within an afternoon.

"Merit" Packages Out

For Detective this time.

This usually means a class within 60 days.

The mayoral election is only 50-odd days away, which could gum up the process.

Supposedly, the "merit" board met Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday to go over captain resumes. Got to get the hacks in before Special Ed is shown the door.

And sergeants before the end of the month? All sorts of activity on the calendar.

"LOOK AT ME!!!"

Prickwrinkle taking all sorts of credit for something she had pretty much nothing to do with:

• Toni Preckwinkle was bombarded Thursday for allegedly inflating her role in exposing the deadly police shooting of Laquan McDonald to distract attention from the $10,000 campaign contribution that Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th) muscled for her from a Burger King franchise owner.
  
  Fired Chicago Police Superintendent-turned-mayoral candidate Garry McCarthy got the ball rolling by attacking the chest-pounding claims that Preckwinkle makes in her first campaign commercial about the behind-the-scenes role she played.
  
  “Instead of Toni Preckwinkle manning up and saying, ‘Maybe I made a mistake’ or doing something about it, she’s trying to distract away from her troubles,” McCarthy told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Hahaha. "...manning up...." Garry is a funny guy sometimes.

Panderers gotta pander and Prickwrinkle is a one-trick race card pony.

Thanks Crimesha

The dead asshole from the failed bus stop robbery:

• Laavion Goings Jr. was out of jail only two months when the 19-year-old walked up to a bus stop about a block from his home, pulled out a gun and tried to rob a woman on the Far South Side.
  
  But the woman had a gun too and fired first, hitting Goings in the chest, according to Chicago police. The teen ran back to his home and made it as far as a stairwell in the foyer of a building before collapsing in the 400 block of West 103rd Street.
  
  That's where officers found him shortly before 6 a.m. Tuesday, just minutes after the shooting. He died within an hour at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

Note that the Tribune has started with the "teen" description again instead of "armed offender" or something similar. And they don't mention the woman's gun was legally obtained, registered, and she had undergone training until paragraphs later. This wasn't the offender's first run in with wrong choices though:

• The teen had a record of arrests, mostly for drug charges. But last June, he was charged with attacking a sergeant and a police officer after he and his father were arrested during a narcotics raid in Englewood where the father lived, according to court records.
  
  [...] As police escorted the younger Goings downstairs, he became “very irate, stiffened up’’ and “pushed”’ and “grabbed’’ a sergeant, the report said. Another officer got him under control and into a police car.

Was he charged?

• Goings was charged with six counts of aggravated battery to a peace officer...

Six felonies? That's fantastic. He should be in jail for .....wait a minute:

• ....but they were dropped in October after the teen pleaded guilty to a drug charge. He was given probation and released from jail in early November, just days before his 19th birthday.

Great job there Crimesha. Six felonies pled down to "dead in a justified bus stop shooting because no punishment equals no feeling of consequences."

More please.

Another Dreary Prediction

Zero Hedge is doom and gloom a lot. This hits close to home:

• While the federal government is slowly careening toward permanent, fiscal disaster, many state governments (which don’t have the power of the printing press) are already staring into the abyss…
  
  Take Illinois, for example. It’s the most broke state in the US with nearly $250 billion in debt. And it only brings in enough in taxes each year to cover 92% of its expenses… so the problem is getting worse.
  
  Good thing Rahm “you never want a serious crisis to go to waste” Emmanuel is the current Mayor of Chicago. You may remember, the above quote was from Rahm’s days as Obama’s Chief of Staff, as told to the Wall Street Journalduring the depths of the Great Financial Crisis…
  
  What followed was the greatest monetary experiment known to man.

The "experiment" is outlined in the linked article with all sorts of references and sub-links to stuff. It's not a pretty picture.

Culver's Steps Up

This coming Monday (click for larger version):

The address on this poster is for the Franklin Park location but hopefully, it's all of them.

A quick search shows a bunch of locations in nearby suburbs surrounding the city.

Ed's Hail Mary

Probably not going to pull it off, but you never know until you try:

• Eddie Johnson hopes to remain city’s top cop after mayoral election
  
  Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson on Tuesday said he learned early on in his three-decade career as a cop that it’s best to not worry about things beyond his control.
  
  Taking questions from reporters after he addressed the City Club of Chicago, Johnson was asked if he’d like to stay at the helm of the CPD after the upcoming mayoral election.
  
  “I took this job because I love this city. I want to see this city safe,” Johnson said. “The political part of it, that’s out of my control. One thing that cops recognize early on, we don’t worry about things that we can’t control.”

Ed, you didn't even apply for the job, and you've lurched from one crisis to another without any sort of direction that wasn't given to you by the sawed-off dwarf at City Hall. The things you did deal with involved covering up for the incompetency of your predecessors and their "study group" that your girlfriend benefited from.

Hopefully, we're somewhere under sixty days of your reign.

Nice Shot Lady

Someone buy this woman a box of ammo:

• A man was shot to death Tuesday morning while attempting to rob a woman in the Fernwood neighborhood on the Far South Side, police said.
  
  About 5:45 a.m., the man, 19, approached the woman, 25, in the 400 block of West 103rd Street, displayed a weapon and tried to rob her, Chicago police said.
  
  The woman, who was a concealed carry holder, took out her own weapon and fired one shot, striking him in the neck, police said.
  
  The man left the scene and was found a block away, police said. He was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died, police said.

Notice how the Slum Times calls the offender "...the man, 19,..."? We're thinking there's a not-so-hidden agenda at work here. We also notice that they're specifically avoiding the term "victim" as an armed offender is anything but.

If we're counting correctly, the CCL body count is up to three (one dead, two wounded) and the cops killing the "just-turning-their-life-around" crowd is.....zero.

In the meantime, perhaps a GoFundMe site for buying Concealed Carriers some replacement ammo? And perhaps the FOP could pitch in with a gift certificate to one of the finer local gun ranges?

More Missing the Point

The media just loves play with shiny objects that Rahm waves in front of them:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday announced the rollout of the first of 200 new “license plate reader” police cars that will be able to quickly identify and recover stolen cars and maybe reduce carjackings.
  
  The technology will allow police to match license plates against the list of stolen vehicles so officers can quickly respond.
  
  The city already has 40 vehicles equipped with license plate reading technology. With the additional vehicles, each of Chicago’s 25 police districts “will get roughly six cars for continuous patrols,” Chicago police spokesman Anthony [Google-me] said Tuesday on Twitter.
  
  “The cars build on the city’s larger strategy that has resulted in an 18 percent reduction in incidents of carjacking, and a 31 percent increase in arrests compared to last year,” the mayor’s office said in a news release.

We guess we're back to 25 Districts again. Must be part of the Rahm hiring wave that "filled" the ranks. As for the reductions that Rahm is hoping for:

• part of that "decrease" was reclassifying carjackings and car thefts, like when the car was left running - which we actually agreed with.
• the plate readers can only compare/match plates that are actually listed as "hot." So if you get jacked, (A) the crime has already occurred and a plate reader didn't prevent shit and (B) if you don't know your plate, it might be hours before it gets into the system, during which your car can travel past all two hundred plate readers and not a single "ding" will alert officers to it.

You know what would really deter/reduce carjackings?

• apprehending carjackers
• extensive prison time

But given the current Chase Policy:

and the fact that Crimesha refuses to prosecute carjackers until their twenty-sevens conviction, we imagine plate readers will only be good for recovering cars that have already been used for shootings or other robberies.

Dean Cleared

Inside baseball stuff running behind the scenes:

• Former Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President Dean Angelo, Sr. was cleared Tuesday on charges brought against him by the union he once lead, sources said. FOP 2nd Vice President Martin Preib filed a charge against Angelo on Oct. 5 — the same day Jason Van Dyke’s guilty verdict was announced — alleging Angelo was out of line when he spoke to reporters at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse during the high-profile trial.
  
  Angelo could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon, but sources close to him and the FOP told the Sun-Times that he was cleared of wrongdoing. In December, a three-member panel of the FOP recommended that Angelo — who is still a voting member of the FOP board — not be disciplined, an FOP source said.
  
  Tuesday, the full board — aside from FOP President Kevin Graham, who abstained from voting — cleared Angelo of wrongdoing, though the vote “wasn’t unanimous by any means,” according to the FOP source.

Lots of fractures in the current Board.

This Sounds Familiar

Where have we heard this one before?

• Given all the graft and corruption over the years, mayoral candidate Bill Daley says it’s time for Chicago to overhaul its government, starting with reducing the number of aldermen from 50 to 15.
  
  There is, of course, some irony in Daley, the brother and son of two former mayors who held the office for a combined 43 years, saying it’s time to restructure City Hall. After all, the Daley machine grew from a fiefdom in the heavily Irish 11th Ward in Bridgeport to, under Richard J. Daley, a political power structure of national significance.
  
  Bill Daley, however, argues that times have changed and the days of “50 mini mayors” running the wards no longer exist. He argues the city’s neighborhoods are better connected these days through technology and a more centralized City Hall and that many of the powers aldermen used to enjoy have dissipated. Those that do remain — such as veto power over zoning and permits in their wards — often lead to corruption, Daley argued.

We seem to recall a number of blog posts and a petition drive by....wait a minute. This was an idea by our readers! And the blog assisted in gathering around 11,000 signatures if we recall correctly. It was tens of thousands of signatures short of even getting near a referendum (and the Board of Elections would have killed it anyway), but it would seem that the Tribune is hitching its wagon to the Daley Machine once again.

Rifle Again

Be careful out there:

• A man was killed in a shooting Monday afternoon in the West Englewood neighborhood, police said.
  
  Two males walked up to the 23-year-old about 4:35 p.m. in the 2000 block of West 63rd Street and fired at him, according to Chicago police. He was struck in the chest and taken to University of Chicago Medical Center, where he died.
  
  The Cook County medical examiner’s office has not confirmed the death.
  
  Investigators found cartridge casings for a handgun and rifle at the scene, but no weapons have been recovered, police said.

Anyone know if one of those AR-pistol platforms? We'd think that even in Englewood, someone would notice a walking around with a full size carbine.

005 Changes?

A Rule 14 scandal about to break?

The clouted must be protected!

Towing Scam

Anyone doubt that this is exactly what was intended?

• According to a WBEZ analysis of thousands of towing records and invoices, the city regularly pulls residents into a nexus of ticket-related debt and car seizures that is stunning in its scope.
  
  In 2017 alone, Chicago booted more than 67,000 vehicles for unpaid tickets. In about a third of those cases, the driver couldn’t afford to remove the boot, and the vehicle was later towed to a city impound lot.
  
  Of those 20,000 impounded cars, more than 8,000 ended up like Botello’s: They were sold off, with the owners receiving none of the sale proceeds. Instead, the city and its towing contractor pocketed millions of dollars, while residents were left with ticket debt.
  
  All told, there have been nearly 50,000 of these sales since 2011.

So the only people making money were the connected towing companies....who then made the appropriate political donations to Chicago pols. Sure, you can avoid tickets by driving safely and parking properly, but this is mildly ridiculous.

Rule 14

The Rules and Regulations of the Chicago Police Department state in part:

• In addition to the positive requirements of all the foregoing sections, the following rules
  of conduct set forth expressly prohibited acts.
  
  Rule 14: Making a false report, written or oral.

Now don't get us wrong. We are far from pure as the driven snow. We lie occasionally. Most people do...little lies that don't really mean anything in the great scheme of things. We even stretch the truth on the street with criminals and media types.

But if you're the head of a major metropolitan police department, struggling to "rebuild the trust" that so many libtarded politicians insist is "shattered" and the cause of all sorts of problems, don't you think you'd try to refrain from lying so blatantly that even the jaded media sits up and takes notice and steals stories from alternative media?

• The Chicago Police Department tonight stood by its claim that an allegedly illegal handgun that was confiscated during an arrest at 11:28 p.m. on Dec. 31st was the first gun to be confiscated on the streets of Chicago in 2019.
  
  A police spokesman said the police report number for the case, JC100002—literally the second police case of the new year—was generated at 12:02 a.m. on New Year’s Day “making it the first police report generated for a gun arrest of 2019.”
  
  However, during a quickly-called press conference one hour after the report number was generated, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson repeatedly said the gun was recovered, and the related arrest was made, after midnight on New Year’s Day.
  
  “And two minutes after the new year comes in…there you go, our first illegal weapon,” he said.
  
  “Tactical team 363 got the first illegal weapon off the streets of Chicago at 12:02,” Johnson said another time. “Two minutes after midnight.”

Note the spin that Google-me and media affairs puts on this turd in an effort to protect Special Ed from the stupidity of Commander Bangles. Now imagine if you or we attempted this.

Quick Hits

So Mrs. Munoz, seeing her husband's reduced political status and perhaps the reduced income that comes with being shunted aside for a younger model, suddenly remembers what we here have said for years:

• In a petition seeking an order of protection, the wife of Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22nd) claims she feared not only physical abuse at the hands of her husband but threats from gang members connected to him.
  
  “Ricardo has connections (with) local gangs (and) individuals with criminal pasts who … have threatened my family in the past,” Betty Torres-Munoz wrote on the form she filled out Wednesday, seeking a court order barring the Munoz from having contact with her, the couple’s 16-year-old dog, or visiting the Little Village home they shared.

Munoz was always a bitch for the gangs.

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The Water Tower new anti-teen policy is working as well as expected:

• Though officials said the policy would be “strictly enforced throughout the shopping center property, including exterior entrances,” the new approach could be tough to implement at a shopping center with multiple entrances, a theater and underground parking lot.
  
  A walk through the eight-level mall Friday evening showed just as much, as groups of unsupervised teens strolled from store to store.

We heard some morons describing the new policy as "racist," as if being a teenager was now somehow based solely on race instead of behavior. The accusation carries as much weight as those claiming police stop traffic violators based anything except the traffic violation itself.

------

A little birdie whispers that disgraced Skinny Johnson is now surrendering names of fellow lawbreakers in a bid to reduce the sizable prison sentence he's facing. Anyone know what the going rate (years reduced) is per name? Is it by rank? Is it contingent on future convictions?

------

Charles "Cholie" Williams for Superintendent? Please let this be true. We'll have enough material for another twelve years of blogging if that asshole gets into the big office.

Arena Freezes Out Competition

Pay-to-Play is alive and well up north:

• The owners of Hops and Barley set up a First Responder fundraiser for 45th Ward aldermanic candidate Jim Gardiner. They let him promote the event, then decided they want to stay "politically neutral" and cancelled.
  
  Sadly it's no surprise as they are long time donors and friends of alderman john arena. Are they forced to “donate” to Arena to get permits? Sounds like Arena found out about the fundraiser and made them pull the plug. These same Aldermen call for yet another layer of police oversight, while they voted to have ZERO for themselves.

The alderasshole must be feeling some sort of heat if he's resorting to strong arming bars to stop hosting events for his competition. Just so everyone up north knows, we're told the owners of Hops and Barley also own Nite Caps (corrected) on Irving Park Road, so you might want to be careful where you spend your money - it ends up in Arena's pocket one way somehow.

Anyone know if the feds wired Arena's office or cell phone?

He's Baaaaaaaaack!

Go on a leave of absence for how many years, wreck a county car full of political campaign material (in violation of numerous ethics rules), flee the scene of said wreck, get fired by Prickwrinkle herself for fucking up on a near constant basis...

....and return to work at the Chicago Police Department:

• Well well well, guess who is back on the Chicago Police Department payroll. Yep, Delwin Gadlen. Assigned to the 003rd District on 2nd watch but detailed to 045 for retread training. Fuck up at County, commit multiple violations, lie to investigators but hey come on back to the police department. And if Prepwinckle wins you can be assured at the very least he will be a merit sergeant. Not to even mention the fact that he has been carried as being on a leave of absence for how many years??? Does everyone get to do that??

This should open the door to a lot of people who got suspended or fired for far lesser violations.

No "Malice"

Well gee, we guess it's all okay then. No harm done!

• In court, prosecutors said the incident happened Dec. 28, after she logged into her workstation and computer. Two witnesses saw her send the email, which indicated a male co-worker had a gun and was going to bring it to the office and was planning a “mass shooting.’’
  
  Someone called 911, prompting police, SWAT and tactical officers to swarm the building and evacuate it. They later learned the worker had no gun and “had no such plan,’’ prosecutors said.
  
  The IP address came right back to her workstation. Investigators made contact with her, and she admitted sending the email and that she never saw the worker with the gun, according to prosecutors.
  
  The email was sent out of an “abundance of caution,’’ her attorney Robert Pervan told the judge. “It wasn’t done with any malicious intent.’’
  
  Later, outside the courtroom, Pervan said she sent to email after she had a conversation with the co-worker and believed he did have a gun, which are not allowed in COPA offices, and a plot.

One has to wonder - her lawyer says she "believed" the man had a gun and a plot.

So will police officers be afforded that same defense? An officer believes his/her life is in danger? He/She believed a subject to be armed? An officer believes an arrestee had a "plot" to escape once the arrestee began resisting/flailing/battering everyone within reach?

The hypocrisy here is nausea inducing.

Remember This Idiot?

He was hired by the principal of Wildwood Elementary - a CPS elementary school in the Edgebrook community - to tell the children (many dozens of whom were from police and fire families) that cops were bad, evil, killed minorities and were responsible for starvation across the globe?

Guess where he was today?

• Mr “Ethan Ethos” who gave the fuck 12 speech at the CPS elementary school with the permission of the principal, is currently in custody. Shoved, kicked, spit on a CFD Paramedic.  Felony charges approved.  Currently incapacitated and intubated at CCH.

The principal ended up resigning, blaming the backlash against her poor decision making skills and making vague references to the safety of her new granddaughters. Seems like the cops and firefighters were correct and she was just another liberal snowflake "social justice warrior" asshole.

Fundraising Tickets

We heard that there are fundraising tickets available to help defray the lawyers expenses for Ed Burke. Please see the Business Liaison Sergeant in 018.

The line is expected to be long, so arrive early. Brown envelopes of non-sequential low denomination bills are preferred (nothing bigger than a $20 please.)

More Popcorn!

Suddenly, the media finds a set of testicles. This escaped notice for how many years?

• Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s administration hired powerful Ald. Edward Burke’s son to a nearly $100,000-a-year county job in 2014, newly released records show.
  
  Personnel records released by the county in response to a Tribune public records request show Preckwinkle’s administration hired Edward Burke Jr. as training and exercise manager for the county’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department.

And Crimesha benefited from her connections with Burke:

• As the owner of a law firm that seeks to reduce property taxes for big business clients including companies that work for City Hall, it’s important for Chicago Ald. Edward M. Burke to have a good working relationship with the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
  
  When Kim Foxx was running for state’s attorney, Burke hosted a fund-raiser at his home in the Southwest Side’s 14th Ward to help elect her.
  
  [...] In August, nine months after she took office, her staff struck a deal with Burke’s firm: It settled three lawsuits, agreeing that various local governments Foxx’s office was representing would refund nearly $2 million in property taxes that AT&T had paid between 2013 and 2015 on a 105-acre campus in Hoffman Estates that now sits vacant.

And now the rats are turning on each other:

• The Preckwinkle campaign has a response, and it's dragging another mayoral hopeful into the Burke mess: Gery Chico, a longtime Burke friend who once used to work for his finance committee.
  
  [...]
  
  Chico is out with a response, and he’s using a 4-letter word: liar.
  
  From a statement, "In typical fashion, Toni Preckwinkle is being dishonest about her role outlined in a criminal complaint and deflecting responsibility. She personally called me and solicited a donation and requested that I help her raise money. I, along with dozens of others, was present at the event . . . (but) I have no knowledge whatsoever about the $5,600 contribution that she accepted and is referred to in the criminal complaint."

Every Machine politician has a Burke skeleton in the closet. How many will be revealed is going to be entertaining.

Twenty-Three Guns?

So aldercreature Burke was required to surrender all of his firearms after being charged in Federal Court as a condition of bail. Numerous readers note that twenty-three firearms from his office alone were turned in. No word on the ones at home. A number of readers have asked:

• Will these count toward the yearly total that Rahm and Special Ed tout? Probably not - they were surrendered via a Federal Court order, so we doubt they end up on the media table for photographs.
• Why does Burke, who sponsored or was a part of many dozens of anti-gun ordinances passed over the years, have a single gun let alone twenty-three? Seems kind of hypocritical, doesn't it?

We guess there is one set of rules for the "rulers" and another set for the "ruled." Now go back to your dangerous neighborhoods without your armed security escorts peasants! 

Curious...Very Curious (UPDATE)

So no one in the media seems to have the name of the COPA investigator who was recently charged with a felony. We know the Department releases names and booking photos for every single arrestee once they're charged with a felony, particularly government employees.

Is there some "code of silence" going on here regarding COPA? Rahm, you want to comment on this, you being the "expert" on "codes of silence" and all.

UPDATE: The Slum Times posted an article at 10:08 AM this morning. Fox 32 beat them to the punch at 06:33 AM. Both published on a Saturday morning when readership is at its lowest so the political fallout would be lessened.

002 Wins?

With a double:

• Two people were killed and eight others wounded in 24 hours of citywide gun violence Thursday.
  
  The double homicide happened shortly before 1 p.m. in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side. Someone fired multiple shots at a gray Dodge Avenger in the 5000 block of South Indiana, according to Chicago police. The driver was shot in the chest while the front-seat passenger was shot in the face.

Special Ed showed up for this "first homicide" press conference and said we're still down five homicides from last year.

A Two-fer?

Burke made an appearance in Federal Court:

• Ald. Edward M. Burke allegedly tried to leverage Burger King executives to give his law firm business to clear the way for a remodeling project at one of their fast-food restaurants in his ward, federal prosecutors charged in a complaint made public Thursday.
  
  The charges revolve around the Burger King location at 4060 S. Pulaski, the Sun-Times has confirmed. That location was thrust into the headlines after Laquan McDonald was fatally shot nearby 16 times by Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke in 2014.
  
  The company sought support from Burke for the remodeling project, and he aggressively tried to land Burger King as a client for his firm to do property tax work across the Chicago area and suburban counties, prosecutors allege.

We surveyed about 124 people and not a single one has any idea why the media had to identify the Burger King as being near the location where the Laquan shooting took place. We guess they're just assholes.

And Burke might have entangled a bonus politician in his web of corruption:

• Federal charges of attempted corruption against Ald. Edward Burke, 14th, have seeped into the race for mayor, with candidate Lori Lightfoot charging that rival Toni Preckwinkle “apparently” is unnamed pol referenced in the charges as receiving an extorted $10,000 campaign donation via Burke.
  
  In a statement and a later interview, Lightfoot underlined that she is a former federal prosecutor and said that Burke was well known to have been raising money for Preckwinkle’s re-election as Cook County Board president around the time Burke allegedly was demanding financial favors from a fast-food restaurant chain.
  
  “Based on what I know, it would appear the politician referenced is her,” Lightfoot said. “She needs to confirm or deny.”

Quite frankly, this is great news and could blow a giant hole in Prickwrinkle's campaign. It's certainly ammunition for every other candidate to slap her around with.

So now, does Burke - facing 20 years - make a deal for a few other heads? He's 75 and any Federal time is pretty much a death sentence.

Second of all, did Special Ed strip him of his retirement star and is he going to sit at callback instead of the City Council chambers?

FOID

Did anyone report wife-beater Munoz to the Illinois State Police to begin revocation paperwork for domestic violence?

Of course, if his dad is still around, he can have a few counterfeit cards printed up at Foto Estudio Munoz.

Just like old times, eh Ricardo?

Crime is Down?

It's all a matter of perspective:

• After years of reeling from violent crime and homicide epidemic in Chicago, murders in the Windy City fell by about 100 in 2018, but the figure still remains higher than the number of homicides in Los Angeles and New York combined.
  
  According to preliminary police numbers, in Chicago, the third largest city in the U.S., there were 561 homicides between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2018. That’s a decline of about 100 murders compared to 2017.
  
  Meanwhile, as of about mid-December, New York reported 278 murders and Los Angeles had 243.

New York and LA have a combined population of 12.6 million.

Chicago is 2.7 million on a good day.

Rahm and Special Ed must be so proud.

COPA Threats

This is hilarious:

• A threatening email sent last week to the Chicago Police Department’s oversight agency came from an agency employee.
  
  The Civilian Office of Police Accountability issued a statement Wednesday saying it had asked for felony charges to be filed against its employee.
  
  That came after a CPD investigation of what COPA called “a false threat of workplace violence at its West Town office” in the 1600 block of West Chicago Avenue. The email was sent Dec. 28.
  
  “COPA takes all violations of law seriously. The waste of City resources in response to a false threat, the unnecessary alarm to our staff, other building occupants and larger Chicago community was egregious,” COPA Chief Administrator Sydney Roberts said in the statement. “COPA staff members are held accountable for their actions and we appreciate CPD’s prompt and professional work in assessing and investigating the anonymous threat.”
  
  The employee has been placed on leave, according to COPA. Their identity was not revealed, and the exact content of the message remains unclear.

So, since this involves an investigatory agency, does every investigation with this asshole's name on it get thrown out of the process? You know, like the State tosses every single case with recently charged officers on it just in case there's a whiff of impropriety sticking to every case? After all, who knows what false allegations, statements and evidence may have been manufactured by this crooked individual?

Ooooo - Scary!

We think North Michigan Avenue will be COMPLETELY safe now:

• The mall used to be one of the few places teens were free to hang out far from prying parental eyes. That’s no longer the case at Water Tower Place on the Magnificent Mile, the latest mall to ban unsupervised teens on Friday and Saturday evenings in an attempt to crack down on disruptive incidents.
  
  From 4 p.m. until the mall closes at 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, trained public safety officers will card visitors at the Magnificent Mile shopping center’s entrances, mall owner Brookfield Properties said Thursday.
  
  Anyone without a valid photo ID confirming they are at least 18 years old won’t be allowed into the mall unless they are accompanied by a parent or other adult who is at least 21 years old, Brookfield said in a news release.

These are armed security guards? Empowered to physically restrain and arrest? And the mall is willing to sign complaints? Follow up in court? Press charges to the fullest extent of the law?

And Crimesha Foxxx....she's willing to prosecute these juveniles? Have CPD detectives process them through the system? House them at the [Audy] Home?

Yeah, we didn't think so.

Timestamps Anyone?

Do none of the idiots in charge realize that even a brand new defense lawyer is going to rip this case to shreds? And a Civil Court is going to find for the plaintiff, saddling the officers with sizable punitive damages? And the Rule 14 findings are going to haunt them for whatever is left of their careers:

• New Year’s Eve Farce?
  
  So the Superintendent sends out to patrol that he will be visiting the District of the first UUW of 2019. Low and behold the Third District magically has a UUW at 1201. One minute into the new year. That’s great. Except it’s a lie.
  
  The arresting officers were told to hold the arrest until 1201 to ensure Eddie’s visit. Who would tell these officers to lie? It was Commander Hanna and Lieutenant Ward. These two were looking for selfish recognition at the expense of false reports, and both were former IAD. What a joke.
  
  So Johnson goes and does a press conference and knowingly and intentionally lies about the time of this arrest with Hanna and Ward at his side. For what? Nothing but trouble for these officers who are now concerned about the upcoming court proceedings.
  
  This can be confirmed through BWC, SDSC video, and the officers going over the air around 2330. This is the type of leadership that needs to be exposed.

The radio tapes and body camera timestamps are going to fuck everyone with a signature on this paper. Does anyone think that (cheating lieutenant) Ward, Hanna or Special Ed are going to be anywhere near the defense table?

The only reasonably intelligent bosses who refused to approve falsified documents were the First watch DSS and WOL....and they'll be called as Plaintiff Witnesses #1 and #2.

Not Surprising

This is our "not surprised" face:

• Ald. Ricardo Munoz was arrested without incident at his 22nd Ward office Wednesday morning after striking his wife on New Year’s Eve, Chicago police said.
  
  Police spokesman Anthony [Google-me] said Munoz pushed and struck his wife during an argument at their home on the evening of Dec. 31.
  
  Munoz fled the residence after his wife called police immediately, according to [Google-me]. The wife suffered injuries but declined to seek medical attention, he said.
  
  The veteran alderman was taken into custody Wednesday morning at his ward office in the city’s Little Village neighborhood, [Google-me] said. No one answered the phone there early Wednesday afternoon.

He was always a punk bitch, even when he was holding guns for the kings. Not surprising at all that he turns out to be a wife beater.

Where's all the #metoo people?

No Voice

Looks like there will be a new FOP Board next election:

• The Fraternal Order of Police has again been denied in its attempts to formally join the lawsuit that could soon lead to a consent decree governing reform at the Chicago Police Department.
  
  The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld U.S. District Judge Robert Dow’s decision, reached last summer, that barred the police union from intervening in the lawsuit between City Hall and Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
  
  In doing so, the appellate court noted the FOP waited “for nearly a year” to try to intervene, despite realizing the consent decree might affect its interests. The court also described as “largely speculative” the FOP’s fear that the consent decree will violate its collective bargaining agreement, or CBA.

Unforced errors, and the FOP is going onto 19 months without even a whisper of a Contract.

Good Trend

We certainly hope to see a lot more of this in the coming year:

• A 29-year-old man sidelined a New Year’s Eve robbery in Logan Square by shooting the two suspects he said tried to rob him, Chicago police said.
  
  Around 9:40 p.m. in the 2900 block of West Cortland Street, two male suspects with handguns got out of a silver Nissan and told the man they were robbing him, police said. The man, who is a concealed carry license and firearm owner’s identification card holder, shot both suspects, police said. They were taken to local hospitals and stabilized.
  
  Further information was not released.

We have a feeling it's going to start happening even closer to downtown in short order, and it's going to cost Crimesha and Prickwrinkle voters.

Not a Good Trend

Yet another suicide, this time up north.

Worked in 007, but detailed out to 35th and Michigan.

Whatever the Department is doing to combat cops killing themselves, isn't working.

The Usual Mayhem

Starting out the year with a bang:

• At least four people were shot, none fatally, since the new year began at midnight Tuesday.

And first up?

• In 2019’s first reported shooting, a 12-year-old boy was shot inside a home in the South Side Englewood neighborhood. At 12:12 a.m., he was looking out a second floor window in the 6500 block of South Union Avenue when a bullet whizzed in and struck him in the left hand, police said. He was taken to St. Bernard Hospital and later released.

Prickwrinkle really should outlaw whizzing bullets.

Happy New Year

Stay safe tonight.

Find a viaduct and wait it out.

And the Winner is.....

It seems they ought to retire the trophy - or at least name it "The Fillmo":

• For the FIFTH year in a row
• the NINTH year out of the past twelve
• the THIRTEENTH year of the 21th Century, 011 has recorded the most homicides (and Aggravated Batteries, Criminal Sexual Assaults and just about every other violent crime category)

And can you believe that the last three commanders covering this span have all gone on to Deputy Chief or higher? They can't be getting promoted on their fantastic crime fighting ability, that's for sure.

Libtarded Thinking

This always amazes us:

• This morning while at Children Lurie Hospital with my daughter who is 4 years old and recovering from a bursted appendix, a close friend of mine who is a P.O. came to visit us and was in full CPD uniform and on duty was denied to visit unless he checked in his weapon. Hospital security asked him if he was on official business such as a call and he informed them no and explain his visit and he was asked again to check in his weapon. This is a hospital that does not have armed guards nor a hospital that searches visitors etc. I am beyond pissed right now.

First up, the hospital doesn't even have armed security. Nor metal detectors. They are essentially the softest of "soft targets." A madman could run loose for minutes without a single person being able to effectively counter a rampage. 

Having a cop around for a quick visit is like free armed security. He or she has a radio and hopefully, the wherewithal to step in if someone intent on mayhem enters. In fact, as recent history shows, someone shooting inside a hospital provokes an immediate and massive police response, something the hospital administration and "security" seems to have forgotten in the wake of Officer Jimenez's sacrifice.

Patients and staff aren't in any danger from the police and are in fact, safer, so policies like this are pretty much a slap at everything we do.

Donate....or Else

Great story out of Homan Square Gang Investigations:

• Off topic but can anyone tell me why a certain gang enforcement supervisor is going Officer to officer in the unit soliciting money for the recently indicted commander johnson?? He’s going up to POs saying they are passing the hat for the commander because he’s a close friend of his and was a good boss who took very good care of him in the past.
  
  When people start asking questions or saying no thanks, as I did this supervisor said, well, there’s always room on the watch for guys like you and it can happen tomorrow so you might want to rethink your choice. Are you kidding me??? Officer in need, a charity, somebody with a big medical issue and I will 100 percent give some money to help. But a indicted commander who stole hundreds of thousands of dollars who I don’t know and did nothing for me??? I once again said no thanks. If I get dumped then I get dumped. It’s on record sarge..

We guess when the illegally cashed Social Security checks stop after 23 years, you gotta make ends meet somehow and pay that lawyer to keep you out of prison.

Big Discrepancy

Big front page headline and article at the Slum Times:

• Chicago’s 2018 murder total falls for second straight year but still tops 530
  
  As of Dec. 25, the medical examiner had declared 539 deaths in Chicago in 2018 as homicides. The Sun-Times has counted 542 murders in Chicago in 2018 as of Dec. 25. The Chicago Police Department has said 555 people have been murdered in the city as of Dec. 23.
  
  A death classified as a homicide by the medical examiner’s office does not mean it will be considered a murder by Chicago Police. For example, the man who shot and killed three people at Mercy Hospital last year was himself shot at killed by a Chicago Police officer. His death, though ruled a homicide, is not considered a murder by police.
  
  The CPD figure also does not include murders on city expressways, which fall under the jurisdiction of Illinois State Police, or killings deemed justified by CPD investigators, as in cases of self defense.

Which partly explains the discrepancy between "official" totals and the only numbers that we use - HeyJackass.com:

• Shot and Killed: 493
  Shot and Wounded: 2454
  Total Shot: 2948
  Total Homicides: 585

So no one, not the M.E., CPD, media nor HeyJackass can agree on a set number.

SDSC Rumor

Re3member when we used to keep gang files? The roster of members, relatives, girlfriends, ex-girlfriends....all the better to locate said banger when he was named in a shooting. Some Districts even kept sweaters and colors confiscated from ne'er-do-wells.

Then the ACLU decided keeping open ended files was some kind of Rights violations, even though many in the gangs took oaths to bang until they died.

Now that everything is recorded on cameras, the specter of "files" is rearing its ugly head again:

• Anonymous said...
  Here’s a good one. And it’s not a rumor. The IG’s office is asking each Commander for the name of their DIO and SDSC coordinator so they can interview them as to how they get their information on gang members, how they document it and how they compile “files” on gang members at the district level. ATTENTION DIO’s....contact FOP immediately and DO NOT answer ANY questions regarding any of that stuff. The IG IS NOT YOUR FRIEND!!! One wrong answer and you will find yourself named as a 1st Amendment violator and the Dept will throw you to the wolves.

Once again, a program that started out as a pretty good idea for gathering intel, suddenly has a high probability of biting people in the ass. As we recall, it was staffed by "volunteers," with no formal training, almost no written directives, and little oversight except by a sergeant and lieutenant who couldn't make the day bid.

Mass Attack on Tourist (UPDATE)

So this All Call message went out to all units tonight, right around 1730 hours:

And mere hours later, this happens:

• A group of about 50 teenagers attacked and battered at least three people Saturday afternoon on a CTA Red Line platform on the Near North Side.
  
  About 7:30 p.m., Xiao Yu Lin, 29, was waiting for a train with her boyfriend, Yue Lei, 28, at the Chicago and State station at 800 North State Street when she noticed a group of teenagers staring at them, Lin said.
  
  The group of teens then walked over and began punching them, Lin said.

An unprovoked attack on a Chinese tourist and - wait a second, was this a hate crime? Fifty against three? Damn - once again, the media fails to describe even a single offender except as a "teen."

No doubt, there were lots of teens gently shepherded to the Red Line to go back to where they came from. How long until the useless commander of Mass Transit is removed from her spot along with her overly useless supervisors?

Guess where they were headed?

• At least four people were injured and CTA Red Line traffic was snarled as large groups of teens and young adults brought havoc to the Magnificent Mile on Saturday evening. One arrest was made.
  
  Alderman Brian Hopkins (2nd) tweeted at 7:47 p.m. that “Water Tower Place will be closing at 8 p.m. tonight due to mob action by large crowds of juveniles.”
  
  The latest Mag Mile mob scene began around 5 p.m. when a victim reported being battered near the Red Line station at State and Chicago. A man was arrested in connection with that attack.

We have to ask, but how long until one of these "angels" gets shot?

Machine meets Machine

A reader notes exactly what would befall Chicago (and Illinois) should Prickwrinkle take the mayor's office:

• New Lt. Governor
  Julia Stratton
  Ex criminal justice advisor on TP’s staff
  
  Newly appointed Deputy Governor
  Christian Mitchell
  Ex senior advisor on [Prickwrinkle]’s staff
  
  Current City of Chicago Treasurer
  Kurt Summers
  Ex Chief of staff for [Prickwrinkle]
  
  [Prickwrinkle] comments negatively about alderman Burke but [Prickwrinkle] is big time BFF with his Supreme Court Justice wife
  
  If [Prickwrinkle] wins she won’t just own city
  but even right now she will have her way with the state laws
  Pensions
  Criminal justice

It's all connected....and it's connected through Prickwrinkle.

And Then There Were...

We don't know....a dozen candidates remaining?

• A document filed with the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners on Friday shows mayoral candidate Ja’Mal Green is withdrawing his name from the ballot, though he insisted on Saturday he’s still in the race as a write-in.
  
  The withdrawal form with Green’s signature was notarized by a registered Illinois notary public on Wednesday.
  
  But the community activist on Saturday said he is still in the race for the Feb. 26 election, adding that he has registered as a write-in candidate.

Which means his chances have dropped to something below zero.

(certain) Crime is Down!

You can tell it's the end of the year:

• Robberies are down 19 percent this year, Chicago police officials announced Thursday.
  
  The decrease is due, at least in part, to a heightened focus on specialized “robbery mission teams” — plainclothes officers assigned to conduct surveillance, connect the dots on robbery patterns and deploy to “hot spots” in order to be in the right place at the right time to make arrests.
  
  “The reason that we are so focused on robberies is because if we look at our shootings … murders … the violence that happens across the city — 90 percent of that is people who are involved in street gangs or involved in that kind of a lifestyle,” First Deputy Superintendent Anthony Riccio said at a news conference.
  
  “But when we look at robberies, those are innocent people, those are people walking down the street, going to work, coming home from work, leaving a restaurant, going about their daily lives … it really impacts the every day citizens in the city,” he said.

Thefts are through the roof though - thefts from persons specifically. We used to call those "Robberies" back in the unenlightened days before McCompStat showed Chicago "The Way" of statistical manipulation.

Bob Makes a Funny

This is actually amusing:

• Mayoral candidate and former Ald. Bob Fioretti made his own pitch to rename an already-named Chicago landmark for Barack Obama Friday.
  
  Fioretti held a tongue-in-cheek press conference Friday morning outside of the Daley Center, which he proposed should be renamed for the former president.
  
  The press conference was intended as a jab at fellow mayoral hopeful Bill Daley, who suggested last week that the Dan Ryan Expressway should be renamed to honor Obama and said he’d “like to see the legislature act on this early next year.”
  
  “I think if we’re going to start un-naming our public institutions that memorialize 20th century politicians and re-naming them for 21st century politicians, we should start un-naming with the ancestor of the mayoral candidate who thinks it’s such a good idea,” Fioretti said Friday at the press conference, which was described in official releases from his team as a “facetious” event.

Thinking people realize that Daley's proposal is an obvious pander to a racial segment he desperately needs to win the mayor's seat. Fioretti deftly makes the point - after all, Daley Senior was a racist of no small measure, kind of like all those guys whose statues are being pulled down.

Too bad Bob is such a tool. He'd be a decent candidate if he wasn't such a two-faced wishy-washy Machine sycophant.

That Time of Year Again

Just shade in three of the squares, sell the other twenty-two (ten or twenty toothpicks apiece):

Randomly assign the numbers 001 through 025 (skipping 013, 021 and 023) and then wait. Winner take all.

More Rumors

Also from our occasional contact with the plausible rumors - additional cameras?

• CPD made contact with 3 vendors that do dash cams, asking for insight and quotes for over 1,500 dash cameras that are aimed INSIDE the squad at officers. They stipulated that the cams have to be 4K, have the ability to be live streamed, and have a microphone for audio recording. Watch every patrol squad have a camera and mic on you for your entire tour, every day, 24/7. Every joke, every comment, conversation, burb, fart, sip of coffee.... all being recorded. It’s coming.

 Contracts and discipline?

• If Preckwinkle gets in, you’re all fucked. She controls the county board and by extension, the budget for county. I’ve seen how she negotiates contracts. Think Iron Fist.... “Yes or no. I’ll allow or I won’t. You’ll get it or you won’t. This is the number you’re allowed, figure out how you want to divvy up the raises/bonuses/perks within that framework.” It’ll be hell. If she is in, look for an overtime/VRI reduction. Instead of $200m in overtime? Think $40 million. Your contracts will focus on reducing the 24hr window for statements after a shooting, to 8hrs. Raises will be smaller but bonuses will go up. She will push for power test incentives, longevity bonuses, annual bonuses and so on.

Don't think the firefighters are immune from "improvements" either if Prickwrinkle gets in:

• As for firefighters, look for 12-hour shifts. Not everywhere, but a “pilot” in 2 or 3 houses and it’ll expand more after that. This will be a reality. Also, manning will be fought HARD by her and she will close houses. Somewhere between 3-5 over 2 years.

Change is coming - how much and how bad is still up in the air.

Damage Control = Warrant

Someone is noticing that Kim Foxxx isn't doing her job:

• An arrest warrant for murder has been issued for a man in connection with the death of a cabdriver who died after being kicked in the head during a traffic altercation, court records show.
  
  Anis Tunkegar, 64, died on Sept. 4, two days after he was kicked in the head following an argument with another driver on the Near West Side.
  
  The driver who allegedly kicked Tunkegar was taken into custody after the incident, but was released two days later without charges. Some time after his release, he went to China, according to Chicago police spokesman [Google-me].
  
  Cook County Circuit Judge Edward Maloney on Wednesday found probable cause to detain the other driver and issued a warrant for the arrest of Lu Fangqi on a murder charge.
  
  Tunkegar’s family, though, fears it may be too late and that the man may have successfully found refuge in China.

Someone commented that Prickwrinkle is noticing the incompetence of her hand-picked States Attorney. It's all well and good to reward your political ass-kissers, but at the same time, they have to actually have a tiny modicum of ability (or surround themselves with a few competent people) lest they embarrass the boss. Foxxx has neither ability nor competent people in her office.

Chico to Fire Special Ed

Poor Mr. Fenner:

• Mayoral candidate Gery Chico would immediately fire Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson as part of his public safety plan, unveiled Thursday.
  
  Chico says the search for a new chief will begin as soon as he’s declared the winner.
  
  “The trust between police and communities has broken down, and we need someone who is going to lead us, who has the full faith of the city to do the right thing when there are any allegations of police misconduct,” Chico said. “There are too many questions swirling around Johnson and how he’s dealt with misconduct to date.”

So Chico has more questions than answers? Interesting. Is Chico going to reopen the misconduct relating to crooked lieutenant promotional exams where wives and girlfriends of top brass mysteriously score in the top two five after not being able to net an actual rank order spot at any time during their careers?

The rest of Chico's platform is the usual progressive, socialist, commie bullshit, but it seems Ed better get his resume together prior to election day.

Murderer Got Five Months?

Combine this with the story two posts above about a slam-dunk murder conviction skating off the China and you have the perfect example of a dysfunctional prosecutor's office:

• [Marques] Gaines’ death, which was captured on a police camera in February 2016, shocked the public, not only because of the assault that led to his death, but the callous response of bystanders in the immediate aftermath.
  
  Seconds after Gaines, 33, hit the ground after being punched, two people approached and appeared to rifle through the unconscious man's pockets. Then, for nearly two minutes, more than a dozen bystanders failed to come to Gaines' aid before a cab accidentally drove over him.
  
  [...] ....Moore was finally arrested in Minnesota in early 2017 and was charged with aggravated battery in a public place, a far less punitive charge than the murder charge Gaines’ family had expected.
  
  Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx’s office did not immediately respond to questions about the case and why more serious charges were not pursued.

Of course she won't comment. People might realize she's completely in over her head and wonder at her political sponsor - Toni Prickwrinkle.

IAD Bounty Hunters

A warning from an insider we have occasional contact with:

• 2 weeks ago, a meeting was had on the CCDOC grounds. In attendance were 10 recruits from the CPD academy (all M/B and F/B mind you), 2 representatives from Kim Foxx’s office, IAD brass from CPD and some OPR guys from County.
  
  The skinny is that these 10 recruits were hired by CPD as recruits, and acting as IAD snitches. They didn’t come from County but County OPR has advised them on what to look for, how to snitch, etc. It was organized this way so as to avoid detection from inside CPD which is why they were at County and not at 35th/Michigan.
  
  These kids are being paid normal CPD salary but also “retention bonuses” on the side from city payroll as a bonus to snitch on officers. Foxx is good with it and will prosecute officers however appropriate. When you’re on the street and one of these snitches is your partner and sees some real police work happening they’ll snitch, you’ll be cracked and they’ll get paid. Watch your backs out there.

This job just keeps getting better and better! There's more, but we'll share that tomorrow. This was the big news.

FOP, you got an opinion on this? There are no allegations of misconduct being investigated - the planted "officers" are fishing....for bounty money.

Free Attacks!

NYPD has their own version of Crimesha it would seem:

• Attacking a cop has joined fare beating and public urination on the list of subway misbehavior Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance won’t bother prosecuting.
  
  Officer Syed Ali -- an Army combat vet who served in Iraq and Afghanistan -- had no trouble fending off five homeless vagrants with his baton and his feet as they came at him one by one on Sunday night. The attack, captured on video, was viewed 4 million times on Twitter.
  
  As of Tuesday night, none of the men were to be prosecuted, said Danny Frost, a spokesman for Manhattan DA Cy Vance.

Guess why?

• Frost said the problem is that the police never charged the men with attacking Ali.

Well golly gee whiz, maybe the actual prosecutors could, you know, use one of those new-fangled computer thingies, watch the f#$%ing video, type up a couple of Complaints, have the Officer attest to the crime, and file a warrant/summons/whatever New York does.

Peace on Earth

But not in Chicago over the holiday. Per HeyJackass.com:

• Final Shoot-o-Rahm-a Tally: 4 killed, 29 wounded

The year to date numbers aren't too shabby:

• Shot and Killed: 491
  Shot and Wounded: 2430
  Total Shot: 2921
  Total Homicides: 582

Barring an all out slaughter, 600 would seem just out of reach. Expect to see a lot of OT initiatives and such being granted at all levels in an effort to keep the number below that total. Yes, we know the "official" CPD total is short another 40 or so bodies, but the Department lies constantly - HeyJackass is the ONLY reputable source of statistics.

How Many Guns?

Numbers twisted so hard, they beg for mercy:

• The Chicago Police Department says officers have seized more than 9,600 illegal guns so far this year and the department is on pace to recover about 900 more guns than were taken off the city’s streets in 2017.
  
  The department has made a concerted effort in recent years to find as many illegal guns as possible, and the total has climbed to the point where police Superintendent Eddie Johnson says in a news release that officers in 2018 were taking more than one illegal gun off the street every hour.

And as in years past, the numbers are inflated by counting weapon turn-ins. In years past, there used to be "deals" made on the street to surrender the locations of certain "security" weapons to avoid arrest, but that is not permitted.

Here is an amusing disconnect though:

• The department says the seizures — along with making more than 4,200 arrests on gun-related charges this year — is part of a strategy that has helped significantly reduce the number of homicides, robberies and other violent crimes in 2018.

4,200 arrests on 9,600 weapons? Sorry - 9,600 "illegal" weapons.

How does that work? Without an arrest attached to the gun, how could is possibly be illegal?

Bad Advice

Here's more bad advice for JaBee the Hutt:

• During his campaign for governor, J.B. Pritzker said he heard countless stories of how Illinois' broken criminal justice system has created hardships and heartbreak for those caught in a cycle of detention, poverty and dead end roads without opportunity.
  
  [...] Advocates for reforms in how juveniles fare in Illinois' court system are hopeful the new office will include juvenile justice on its agenda. Elizabeth Clark, president of Juvenile Justice Initiative (JJI), said Illinois has made significant progress in reforming juvenile justice but more work needs to be done.
  
  [...] Among the reforms supported by JJI are an end to the automatic transfer of youths 16 or older for certain offenses, a ban on detention of children under 13 and raising the age of juvenile court from 17 to 21 for all offenders.

We don't see this actually passing, but the fact that these idiots are actually in a position to make suggestions to JaBee the Hutt is disturbing. What exactly is the purpose of having a juvenile system if you are trying to consider everyone up to age 21 a "juvenile?"

If this would happen to go through, we'd have to insist that everything that comes with reaching the age of majority be delayed those three years, including voting.

Lightfoot Staying in Race

Prickwrinkle withdraws another challenge:

• Former Police Board president Lori Lightfoot will remain on the ballot for next year’s Chicago mayoral election.
  
  The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners on Monday announced it had found Lightfoot submitted 24,483 valid signatures; 12,500 are required to qualify for the ballot.
  
  “I’m a happy person today,” Lightfoot declared after the ruling.
  
  With that finding, the campaign of County Board President Toni Preckwinkle withdrew its challenge to Lightfoot’s petitions. A campaign representative did not respond to a phone call and email requesting further comment.

So the field is remaining large and the chances of a runoff increase with each name. It's politically expeditious to split the voting blocs into smaller and smaller portions, then try to corner the ones you need to finish in the top two. Lightfoot staying in might hurt Prickwrinkle though. Any polling data yet?

Merry Christmas

A very Merry Christmas to each and every reader.

And especially remember the families of the recently fallen, who are no doubt experiencing a particularly trying Christmas this year.

As usual, posting will be sporadic. Stay safe if you're working. If you're home, count your blessings.

How to Save Money

Let's say you have a truck. No wait, let's say an RV. And you don't want to pay for a City Sticker on this RV because, well, Rahm has been raising sticker fees for years (as Daley did before him) and it's just too damn costly and quite frankly, a hassle. Let's say it's this RV:

What is a frugal resident to do? Well the first thing you do is keep the vehicle away from those pesky Chicago cops and revenue people. You park it in a private lot out in Arlington Heights (UPDATE - We're told this is a private lot at Milwaukee and Wilson, right next to a CFD station):

Now, be sure there aren't any odd political connections you might have to explain somewhere down the line....like companies doing business with the City....you wouldn't want to accept any "improper" contributions:

And be forced to return them when caught:

But hey, if you're John Arena:

You can get away with all sorts of things.

Community Policing - Rio Style!

This is an interesting approach to crime:

• Teams of marksmen next year will patrol swaths of Rio de Janeiro with high-powered weapons and a license to kill, said a security adviser to Governor-elect Wilson Witzel.
  
  As many as 120 sharpshooters will accompany police incursions into the slums of Brazil’s postcard city to exterminate gun-toting criminals, according to Flavio Pacca, a longtime associate of Witzel who the governor-elect’s press office said will join the administration. The shooters will work in pairs -- one to pull the trigger, one to monitor conditions and videotape deaths.
  
  “The protocol will be to immediately neutralize, slaughter anyone who has a rifle,” Witzel, a federal judge and former Brazilian marine, told reporters in Brasilia on Dec. 12. “Whoever has a rifle isn’t worried about other people’s lives, they’re ready to eliminate anyone who crosses their path. This is a grave problem, not just in Rio de Janeiro, but also in other states.”

Hopefully, Crimesha is paying attention to this South American experiment. If NYPD picks it up, it'll be in Chicago within a year.

Full Strength Benefits

A couple of e-mailers pointed out the obvious benefits for the Department being at what Rahm counts as "full strength:"

• The 15% restrictions on Time Due can be lessened since we're fully staffed;
• the City is about to save millions on overtime, which can all be applied to our underfunded pension;
• no more Tact Teams detailed out. Since every team is fully staffed, they can stay in the District of assignment and handle tactical things;
• RAPs (Radio Assignments Pending) are now a thing of the past, so OEMC will save additional millions on overtime....and formerly cranky stressed-out dispatchers will be happier;
• command staff can bring their dollies back inside

We can hardly wait to see this new Department.

Two Days, Two Funerals

Sun Times

Tribune

Channel 2

Channel 5

Channel 7

Channel 9

Channel 32

RIP Officer Eduardo Marmolejo

Murderer Escapes Justice

So this happened about a month ago:

• After weeks of wondering how his father was killed while driving a cab in the West Loop, Omar Tungekar finally saw surveillance footage of the September attack: a driver getting out of his car and violently kicking his father in the head, "like it's an MMA cage match."
  
  On Wednesday, Tungekar and family members played the video for reporters as they demanded that the driver be arrested and charged with the death of Anis Tungekar, a 64-year-old immigrant from Pakistan.
  
  "You probably don't know who he was, but you might have met him because for 20 years he worked as a cab driver from dawn until dark driving the city of Chicago to their jobs, to their friends and their family," Omar Tungekar, 36, said during the downtown news conference.

You'd think with video evidence, it'd be a pretty easy charge to make, right? That's what the family thought, but when things didn't seem to follow procedure, they reached out to us with this story:

• Last night I learned that because the CCSAO has failed to act on the evidence they have (including surveillance footage of the attack) and for 3 months have refused to charge the Uber driver who roundhouse kicked my father to death, the offender has now fled the country.
  
  After felony review made the initial decision to release the offender without charges and the case unfolded, they presented CPD with an increasingly long list of evidentiary hurdles they would need to meet before charges would be filed. CPD satisfied each of those requests and again presented the case to felony review last night, requesting murder charges and an arrest warrant to apprehend the Uber driver if he shows up at a US port of entry.
  
  Felony review denied both requests and told CPD they would revisit charges only if CPD brings the offender back into custody. But by refusing the warrant, they have made that very unlikely and effectively ensured this is a homicide that will never be cleared.

Guess who Crimesha Foxxx blames?

• The current situation is pretty perverse. When journalists call CCSAO for an update they decline to comment on a "continuing police investigation" and point the finger back at CPD, but in fact, there's no more information to be gathered. Felony review ignored the video, the eyewitness interviews and won't even revisit charges unless CPD can find a way to track down an international fugitive without a warrant. There's plenty more info if you want to follow up on this story.

This story is only one of many. Where do citizens go for actual justice?