Beware the Ides of March

Just found this one. Accomplice? Witness? Or disinterested party? Only history knows the truth.

New Sergeant Assignments

Just saw in the comments section that our favorite Sergeant made it to the 009th District. If anyone has the complete listing, post it here. If we get it, we'll type it and put it up shortly.

UPDATE: We have the best readers on the entire Internet. Someone went and posted all the names already about 10 or so posts in - Thanks! You just saved us a load of typing and searching for this thing.

Red Light Cameras Illegal?

For the second time in 8 months, a remote camera program has been made illegal, in this case because the city couldn't prove who was driving the car and merely assigning guilt to the owner of the license plate. Granted, this judge was sitting in Minnesota and their camera program seems to be a different version of the one in Chicago that tries to snap a picture of the driver AND the plate, but if a persuasive argument could be made that the driver of a vehicle is unidentifiable, we cannot see how these tickets would stand in court (well, actually we could - this is Cook County after all).

In July of last year, the Virginia legislature refused to re-authorize their camera act, in part because an outside agency was collecting money on what is essentially a government function.

Anyone want to volunteer to be the guinea pig?

Where's OUR Security?

Story in the Sun Times Tuesday:

• Most judges want government-paid home security
• Three quarters of the nation's 2,200 federal judges have asked for government-paid home security systems that Congress approved last year after the killing of the husband and mother of a federal judge in Chicago, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday.

No shit Sherlock. And in a related survey:

• 80% of Americans wanted the government to buy their groceries for them
• 86% of Americans wanted the government to get them a nicer car - with rims
  
• 93% of Americans wanted the government to assume their mortgage payments
• and 100% of Americans wanted a free bag of money, every day, for the rest of their lives

First of all, Joan Lefkow's husband and mother were killed by a psycho. And the Atlanta debacle was an administrative failure to secure a known violent offender with shackles and appropriate guards. NEITHER of these cases would have been prevented by a "Home Security System" that Attorney General Gonzales is talking about and that the US Congress authorized $12 million dollars for.

There isn't a cop in this country who wouldn't LOVE to have a "free" security system for their home. And we face quite a bit more in the way of threats than a judge does every single day. If the judges want protection, they seem adequately compensated for their work - they can pay for it. If they want to undergo the proper training, give them concealed carry. Expand the Marshall Service if a threat materializes. Otherwise, stop pissing our money away.

Can't Keep Their Mouths Shut

On 02 March, we ran this thread taking Howard Dean to task and quoting Napoleon about not interrupting your opponent while he is making a mistake. The democrats are at it again. Instead of letting Bush and the Republicans stew in their own juices regarding the recent Dubai Ports issue, the immigration/borders debacle, and other minor missteps, Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) decides now would be a good time to enter a "censure" motion that has ZERO chance of passing and basing it on a series of unproven allegations he attempts to pass as fact. And when the Republicans attempt to call the measure for a vote, the Democrats say, "well, just hold on a minute - we don't want to go on the record here, do we?"

All we can figure is that as Hillary moves right to set up a run for President, Fiengold is attempting to sew up the fever swamps of the Left. Why? We don't know, because an out and out leftist is never going to win the White House and might even drag down the national ticket. Which we would welcome. So keep on talking Russ. Howard needs all the help he can get.

Stroger ill - Time for Change?

Media outlets (Channel 2; Channel 5; Channel 7; Sun-Times; Tribune) report Cook County Board President John Stroger suffered a stroke last night. Although vehemently opposed to Stroger's re-election, we wish no specific ill upon the man and wish him a full recovery.

That being said, we'd like to encourage everyone reading today to vote next Tuesday for Stroger's opponent, Forrest Claypool. Yes, he worked for Daley. Yes, he's part of the Machine politics that infects every aspect of County and City politics. BUT, he isn't the status quo, and any change to the established political order is a good thing. Stroger is an old, broken down Machine politician who ought to step aside, particularly in light of the various scandals wracking his administration and the rather large scandal that is set to break any day now regarding the sheriff's training division. We're actually seriously considering taking a democratic ballot just to vote for Claypool. The last time we did that, it was to vote for Glen Poshard over Burris and we came pretty close to being on the winning side that time.

UPDATE: Post corrected for Burris.

Return of the Fleeing Felon Rule?

No, of course not in Illinois. What are you, nuts? But in Texas, this op-ed piece makes some good points about how the politicians and public are more willing to blame the police for when things go awry than the suspects and felons who actually cause the problems, be it car chases, foot chases or whatever. Some highlights:

• The same goes for police chases. These have been virtually halted in many places because instead of making it more perilous for a suspect to run, we have hampered the pursuit. The media should hammer on suspects who try to escape, pointing out that they endanger themselves, presumably innocent bystanders and certainly the police.
  
• And, no, it is not human instinct to run from cops when a person is not guilty (of something if not the immediate crime). It is actually perverse to resist arrest in civilized society. We need to stress this. One good way would be to make everyone afraid of being shot if they make police give chase.

Go read the whole thing. Then start looking for applications to police departments in Texas.

Ban Everything!

Someone made a funny in a comments section:

• I was at a crime scene where someone was stabbed to death. Lets outlaw knives!! Maybe when someone is beat to death with a bat, outlaw bats!! It's amazing how people can point the finger at anything when they do not want to address the real issue.

Guess what? In Britain, that's exactly what they're trying to do. After banning guns and seeing their crime rates skyrocket out of control, British doctors are pushing a knife ban. From The Scotsman.com
May 2005:

• LONG, pointed kitchen knives should be banned as part of a concerted effort to reduce the terrible injuries and deaths caused by stabbing attacks, doctors warned today.

From the BBC:

• Home Office spokesperson said there were already extensive restrictions in place to control the sale and possession of knives. "The law already prohibits the possession of offensive weapons in a public place, and the possession of knives in public without good reason or lawful authority, with the exception of a folding pocket knife with a blade not exceeding three inches.

Thank goodness this can't happen in America, right? Wrong!

• That was the case as well in the Boston area, where a rise in gang violence involving machetes occurred in the past several years. The surrounding towns of Revere, Everett, Lynn and Chelsea have banned machetes, and there is now a bill before the Massachusetts Senate that would prohibit the carrying, sale and manufacture of the tool-turned-weapon.

Ban guns, as Britain and Massachusetts have done (and Chicago), and guess what? Only criminals have the guns. They are already breaking the law, why would they care what politicians ban? All they are doing is disarming more and more law abiding citizens and denying them the ability to defend themselves. EVERY SINGLE LEGITIMATE STUDY shows that increased gun ownership REDUCES crime. And the minute guns are a more difficult to get, out come the machetes (as Britain and Massachusetts have proven).

Thanks to mAssBackwards blog.

Just a Thought

But since we are obviously going to be sending large numbers of police officers from SOS, TRU, Area Gang Teams, other district tact teams and Closed Market into the hotbed of the Englewood District where weapon fire is a daily occurrence ...

... could we finally get a boss, ANY BOSS, to say that naming a street after some scumbag who advocated the killing of Police Officers is wrong, wrong, WRONG?

Just a thought.

Thank You Tribune!

Hooray! The Tribune just destroyed - DESTROYED - one of the biggest myths of the Democrats and leftists in general regarding the run up to the Iraqi War. Three cheers for the Tribune!

• When the Chicago Tribune searched for Plame on an Internet service that sells public information about private individuals to its subscribers, it got a report of more than 7,600 words. Included was the fact that in the early 1990s her address was "AMERICAN EMBASSY ATHENS ST, APO NEW YORK NY 09255."

EMBASSY "COVER" IS NOT COVER AND NEVER HAS BEEN. YOU CANNOT BE A NOC AND HAVE SERVED IN AN EMBASSY. Anyone who knows anything about covert operations knows this. So everything Plame and husband Joe Wilson have been saying for years is bullshit! Hahahahahahaha!

The headline probably should read something like "Cheney Exonerated" or "Libby Innocent." Hat tip to Ace of Spades

Street Name Protest

We haven't seen anything posted about the Unit Rep meeting. Was this discussed? Was anything proposed? Are the reps taking a survey of people interested in going down to City Hall?

We still think that if this abomination goes forward, someone ought to get a hold of the company that makes pins for the Chaplain's and print up a couple thousand Gilhooly and Rappaport pins for the St. Jude's march. Give them away or sell them, we'd buy a few and wear them on our blouses proudly.

Just When We Thought We Were Out

They pull us back in. Yes, it's time for The Sopranos again and no one shall bother us on Sundays for the next few months between 8 and 9 pm. Last night's episode:

Holy crap! Nothing like dragging you right back into it, eh? We won't spoil it for everyone, but that one lady sure is turning into the Angel of Death, isn't she? Everyone she meets with ends up in a bad way. Even being gone for almost 2 years, the writing and acting is as great as it ever was. If you never watched The Sopranos, you've missed a great bit of entertainment.

You Gotta Love The City Bureaucracy

Once again, Chicago schools become a national punchline:

• CHICAGO - Most high school students eagerly await the day they pass driver's education class. But 16-year-old Mayra Ramirez is indifferent about it. Ramirez is blind, yet she and dozens of other visually impaired sophomores in Chicago schools are required to pass a written rules-of-the-road exam in order to graduate,— a rule they say takes time away from subjects they might actually use.

Anyone want to bet that the only reason the CPS keeps teaching Driver's Ed to the blind isn't because they're "following the rules"; they're probably keeping the student numbers up so they can keep getting money from state and federal programs to spend somewhere else.

Man, we'd love to see Fitzgerald take a crack at the schools after he finishes chewing up Stroger's people at County. And of course, our own little cesspool at City Hall.

Happy Parade Day!

We guess that they have the parades the weekend before St. Patrick's Day because everyone would be too tired (haha) to show up if they actually had it the weekend closer to the actual holiday. At least we guess that's the case. Here's a pic from the parade:


Someone please tell us he painted that on and he didn't just have a really bad cold? And what the hell is that in the background?

Welcome Foreign Guests!

We were just trolling around our visitor stats and noticed a few visitors from London, England, Altstockach, Germany and of all things, a Blackberry hit from Canada. We assume they wandered in thanks to "The Policeman's Blog" link over in the right hand column.

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to contact us if you have any questions, comments or criticisms. Questions will be answered, comments will be appreciated, criticisms - well, we take constructive criticism well, but we ignore other rantings. It's a habit we picked up years ago.

Hey Ms. Mitchell?

• Gunfire kills another girl in Englewood. (Conflicting reports put her age at either 10 or 13 - SCC). 13 year old girl shot an killed in the 2600 block of West 70th Place, only a few blocks from where Starkesia Reed was killed last week. (a reader says it was actually the 2000 block - SCC)
  
• Twenty-eight people -- among a group of about 200 gathered on a South Side street Saturday night to pay tribute to a gang member killed last week [emphasis added - SCC] -- were arrested after throwing bottles and rocks at police.
• Friday night drive-by victim dies. Bernard Norevell, 25, of the 9200 block of S. Blackstone Ave., was pronounced dead at 4:23 a.m. Saturday at Advocate Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner'’s office.

And that's just from your paper this morning. You still want white people to "stay out of their business?" Are you going to push to have a few more street signs named for these killers? Because without black and white and yellow and red and brown working together dressed in blue, you are going to see a lot more headlines like this for a lot more years.

Now how about you start becoming part of the solution instead of the part of the problem?

Speaking of Selling Assets

Has the mayor looked into possibly selling the Police Department? Seriously. It would relieve the City of it's largest employee base. The City wouldn't be liable for all those big settlements they seem so eager to pay (a private company hiring it's own attorneys would be more likely to fight some of those cases anyway). We'd probably be able to live outside the city; we'd probably be able to strike if need be; equipment and training would be more up to date. We think this has been tried at least once before:

We think it worked out pretty well for the people over at Omni Consumer Products. At least at first. As long as it isn't low bid, we could work out some of the kinks.

If it Ain't Nailed Down ...

Sell it! That seems to be the attitude of the mayor as of late. Has anyone else notice this phenomenon? A few years back, Daley needs money to fill a huge gap in his budget, and ::bam:: the Skyway deal suddenly appears, giving him $1.9 billion dollars or so to spend on pet projects. Maybe even some trucking or construction projects for his pals?

Earlier this month, the Sun Times had this article about a plan to privatize some or all of the operations at Midway Airport, city owned parking garages, the Millennium Park garage and the recycling sorting centers. And this article in the Tribune just days later says that the management and running of harbors is also on the board for possible sale.

Now, we are proponents of getting the government out of running things that can obviously be run more efficiently by private contractors. We're just wondering aloud at (1) who's going to get these contracts to run the airports, parking garages, harbors, etc., and (2) where are the job cuts in city departments that MUST take place to actually SAVE the money generated by selling these assets? Are we going to start hearing rumblings from city unions about parking attendants being laid off, harbor workers being laid off, plow drivers and other workers at the airport being laid off? Because THAT is where you'll see the savings.

Daley's budget gets bigger and bigger each year and so does the gap he can't cover without selling assets and raising fines and fees. And we can't see it getting any better in coming years unless someone really takes a knife to a whole lot of bloated bureaucracy and departments - after all, how many assets can he sell until the cupboard is bare? And when the cupboard is bare, the only thing left is raising property taxes which is sure to kill the building boom.

SCC's Favorite Seiser Facts

We were heartily amused at the Seiser-isms in "Shake out Time" while we took a break from the street sign controversy. We like to keep them in one area so as to not distract from other thread issues (the old "stay on topic" routine). We thought we'd share a few of our favorite Seiser-isms with the board. Please ensure all spewable beverages are far from your computer as neither SCC nor Seiser can be held responsible for damage to computers, monitors or keyboards:

• Seiser plays racquetball with a waffle iron and a bowling ball.
• The 1972 Miami Dolphins lost one game and it was vs. Seiser and three seven year old girls as his offensive line
  
• "Brokeback Mountain" is not just a movie. It's also what Seiser calls the pile of dead fools in his front yard who pissed him off.
  
• In ancient China there is a legend that one day a child will be born from a dragon, grow to be a man, and vanquish evil from the land. That man is not Seiser, because Seiser killed that man.

Run with it. If we can't have fun, what's the purpose?

Quick Hits for Friday Night

• The second guessing begins. Were Police caught unprepared for such a HUGE demonstration? All signs seem to point to some sort of Intelligence failure by the Department, but due to some quick work and adapting, everything turned out OK. What does this mean had there been a violent demonstration or terrorist incident? We have no idea, but we hope it's being discussed somewhere.
• Firehouse sex? Again? Maybe not. But check out Aldercreature Beavers quote: "there's a number of uniform freaks out there. People -- especially women -- like to see men in uniform." Wow. And this guy is an aldercreature.
• Job creation beats expectations by tens of thousands and was way over the January totals. And summer constructions season is about to begin. And the first quarter estimates point to a 4.5% increase in the economy. And. And. And the positives are just stacking up all around this economy.