...Continued into Daylight...

(following up on the post directly below this one)

This was particularly bloody:

• Three men were gunned down in broad daylight outside a building on the South Side this afternoon, witnesses said.

  The attack happened at about 1 p.m. outside a large courtyard building at 7609-19 S. Coles, a few blocks from Rainbow Beach State Park.

  Neighbors said they heard rapid gunfire. Linda White, 27, said two men approached the three men with guns drawn and started shooting.

But don't worry!

• “Thank god we have cameras. They’ll find who did this,’’ said the woman, who identified herself only as Franny. Police had already requested the footage from the cameras, she said.

Cameras. Right. Prevent all sorts of crime, eh?

On the bright side, J-Fled has dispatched half-a-dozen gold stars to go to the south side and tell the gang leaders to "Knock it off!"

Everything should be quiet by this weekend. We swear!

Comments closed in this post - comment on all three posts in the 12:07 AM thread

It Began Last Night...

Only 6 shot!

• On another warm night in Chicago, at least six people were shot in four separate incidents on the South, West and North Sides, officials said.

Unfortunately, one of those shootings happened to be in the midst of Lincoln Park, that trendy urban oasis where violence is fairly rare, the nightlife is hopping and tourist dollars flow like water.

And those "wildings" we've been talking about for months now?

• Four teen boys and two girls -- all 15 years old -- were arrested and charged after allegedly hitting an 18-year-old girl from northwest suburban Barrington in the face near North Avenue Beach Monday night.
  
  
• The second incident occurred about 10 p.m. when two men jogging in an underground tunnel noticed a crowd going through the tunnel, according to a police report.
  
  When one runner said "on your right," while attempting to pass the crowd, Laverrick Crews, 19, allegedly struck that man in the back of the head with his hand, according to the report.

They're attacking the joggers and the suburban tourists. We fear it's just a matter of time before Chicago ends up with a "Central Park jogger" type scenario.

Comments closed in this post - comment on all three posts in the 12:07 AM thread

Salsa Dancing?

If there is a god, please let this be untrue.

Someone related in a comment section that recruits were spending time down at Daley Center on some sort of "cultural awareness" training that involved them participating in salsa dancing?

Unfortunately, the other banter in the comment necessitated it being flushed. But seriously, salsa dancing? Whatever happened to the foxtrot?

Funeral Arrangements

Funeral arrangements are set for Chicago Police Officer Thomas Wortham IV who was shot to death last week in a robbery attempt across from his parent's home in the Chatham neighborhood.

Visitation is scheduled from 3 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Leak & Sons Funeral Home, 7838 S. Cottage Grove Ave. A wake is scheduled Friday at 10 a.m. at Trinity United Church of Christ, 400 W. 95th St., with the funeral expected to begin at 11:30 a.m.

Burial will follow at Lincoln Cemetery in southwest suburban Alsip

Lakefront Problems

Can anyone confirm?

• Once again, tonite saw over a THOUSAND gang bangers at North Ave beach causing disruption. Car 6 on scene in the middle of it, calling for cars.Groups of 50-100 bangers fighting. Yuppies running from the beach. Dugan called for cars on citywide to respond to the scene. And its only Monday night. The next accountability meeting for Bt. 1800 aint gonna be pretty. Lakefront is gone, say bye bye.

We've been seeing comments about the downtown wildings every weekend lately. Just two weeks ago, the Districts were picking up multiple armed and strong armed robbery offenders from the El stops. There was another under-publicized incident involving two young ladies beaten with a board.

How long can Shortshanks and J-Fled keep a lid on things?

Thanks for Playing?

Most votes = Consolation Prize:

• Congratulations to Mary and Densey Cole who received the support of an amazing 21,562 votes from across the country.

We suppose a $500 gift certificate is better than a sharp stick in the eye, but seriously? First in votes and fourth place?

We're never shopping at Crate and Barrel again.

Police & Fire Committee Meeting

Announcement posted here. It's for the 08 June Committee meeting.

The full Council meets 09 June.

Remember, the arbitrator's decision was handed down on 16 April. That's only 39 days ago. The city has 120 days to process/respond/approve.

We don't expect much movement until July.

Is This It?

Building, and maybe breaking?

• At least nine people were shot on a hot night in Chicago, and one of them was killed, authorities said. No one was in custody for any of the shootings this morning.

On a Sunday night no less. And Tommy Skilling says it's going to be hot all week.

And if anyone is still fantasizing we aren't short handed:

• Four men were wounded in two shootings about a block apart that police said were connected late Sunday and early Monday in the same Gresham neighborhood on the South Side.

  At 11:20 p.m. at 8519 S. Hoyne Ave. at least one assailant who was on foot shot three men, according to Gresham District police.

• At 12:06 a.m. another shootout occurred about a block away in the 8400 block of South Hamilton Avenue and police said it was connected to the earlier one because they were so close in time and location.

  Investigators are looking into the possibility that it occurred in retaliation for the earlier shooting, police said.

So even with officers responding to a triple shooting a block away, the gang bangers felt safe enough pulling off another "shootout" a block away less than a hour later.

Do It Yourself Humor

Remember this amusing little picture?


Well, now you can have your own - FREE!



You can download it and print it as a .pdf file so the kids can wear it around the house and pretend they're the police. We would never ever recommend it for any other use.

UPDATE: Click "print" and chose the "Standard Quality" option so you don't have to register.

Good News

In the midst of all the crap popping up lately, Chicago Police still go out, do their jobs and lay it on the line to save people from their own idiocy:

• A woman was rescued from Lake Michigan after deciding to go for a swim late Friday.

  At 11:54 p.m., three Town Hall District tactical officers were on patrol around 3600 N. Recreation Dr., when they saw a man standing on a seawall, according to a Town Hall District lieutenant.

  When the officers approached, the man on the wall alerted them to a 20-year-old woman floating unresponsive in the water, the lieutenant said.

  Two officers -- Richard Aztlan and David Rodriguez -- jumped in the water to try and save her, while the third officer called for backup.

She was rescued, the officers were OK and life went on. Nice job guys.

Odd Timing

Who's getting money here?

• Eight months after taking over Chicago’s legendary Maxwell Street Market, the Daley administration has more than it bargained for: a federal lawsuit accusing the city of allowing bargain “counterfeit” handbags to be sold there.

  Coach Inc., a manufacturer of luxury leather products, is accusing City Hall of looking the other way while hundreds of Maxwell Street vendors sell knock-offs of Coach purses for as little as $18.

• Late last year, the Daley administration terminated its $1.47 million contract with JAM Productions and opted to manage the market in-house with, what McDonald described as, a more lenient approach to vendors.

  [...] City management turned out to be a financial boon to a clout-heavy security company owned by three of Mayor Daley’s former bodyguards.

We've been to Maxwell Street around a dozen times at various points in our lives and damn near everything there seemed to be either counterfeit, pirated or owned by somebody else who didn't actually know it was for sale.

But all of the sudden, the City takes over and get sued? It seems the City's "deep pockets" are about to prove a financial boon to some connected lawyers.

Global Warming is Over

You know how we can tell? It's not because no one is talking about it any more. It's not because the e-mails the American media refused to cover about "fixing the data" are suddenly accepted as factual. It isn't even that no one has taken pictures of thousands of dead polar bears.

It's because Al Gore's buddy is selling his shares in CCX for $606 million - tax free!

• Richard Sandor, an innovator in the Chicago futures markets, is selling out of the market for trading carbon emissions credits.

  Sandor, 68, agreed to sell his Climate Exchange PLC to Atlanta-based IntercontinentalExchange Inc. for $606 million. His London-based company owns the Chicago Climate Exchange and the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange as a well as a similar business in London.

Smart money always gets out before the crash and Sandor is waaaay smart money. And smart money knows the global warming bubble is about to burst.

Mama Said What?

File this under "un-fucking-fucking-believable:"

• Lucille Floyd's son, 20-year-old Brian Floyd, was among the four men who gunned down Officer Thomas Wortham IV when they tried to steal his motorcycle late Wednesday night, police say. Floyd died when Wortham's father, a retired police officer, fired off his gun while trying to defend his son.
  
  [...] "I don't feel like all those guys have to pay for that one mistake. You know, it was all a mistake on everybody's part, including the people that shot and the one's that died," Lucille Floyd said from her West Side home Friday night. "I feel like we need to let it rest and go on with our lives."

• She stresses that the Wortham family has her condolences, but said that as an officer, the elder Wortham should have known how to shoot without killing somebody.

  "For him to shoot them they way he did, in cold blood... because being an officer, I feel like he should have had knowledge of how to hit those children without killing them," Floyd said.

We beg your pardon, but what the fuck? Lady (and again, we use the term loosely), are you fucking insane? This isn't grade school. There aren't any "do-overs." You don't call back the bullet after it's been fired.

We repeat - you gave birth to a mistake, a waste of oxygen. Your mistake cost the Chicago Police Department a fine officer, a community someone who would have made a difference, and a family their son. God willing, the second offender is breathing his last and the other two will have a date with the needle someday in the future.

Tracking backward, you are an oxygen thief yourself. Do everyone a favor - get a shovel, dig a hole in your yard, bury your turd there and then leave town. Don't worry about watering the grave - we've got it covered.

Marked Cars Torched

First burglaries of houses, now take-home cars being lit on fire:

• The Chicago Police Bomb and Arson Unit is investigating the torching of two locked and parked police vehicles on the Northwest Side early this morning, police said.
  
  The first instance occurred about 2:15 a.m. in the Big Oaks neighborhood, according to Chicago Police News Affairs [...]. In that case a marked 2006 Crown Victoria K-9 unit vehicle was set on fire, police said.
  
  About five minutes later in the Jefferson Park neighborhood, an unmarked police vehicle was set on fire, police said.

The Channel 5 link is labeled "Crazy-Night-for-Cops."

We don't think it's "crazy." It's a culmination of factors:

• politicians and reverends painting the police as enemies;
• a broken judicial system that gives probation for battery and weapon offenders instead of years behind bars, even when they attack police;
• abetted by the media who play a notable incident thousands of times on TV (Abbate) without putting it into perspective (he never should have been hired in the first place, but clout got him through) or covering the fact that 99% of cops were appalled and disgusted by his conduct, and finally, implying he got away with something when he got probation, which is all anyone gets in Cook County Courts.

Here's what's really crazy - someone at Fleet mentioned that the one Canine vehicle has the windows replaced 5 or more times a year because the officer is required to park in front of his house, which makes it a prime target of opportunity on the major thoroughfare he lives on.

Area 2 is Falling Down

Shaved had this up earlier:






Another lovely bit of city building. Of course, Area 2 is quite a bit older than 018 or HQ or any of the other collapsing disasters currently in service.

Does anyone know if there are offices are located above this pillar? Because you guys and gals might want to make sure to (A) download these pictures and (B) make sure all your insurance paperwork and such is updated.

Daley Apologizes

After the national media picked it up and it went viral:

• Mayor Daley said Friday he regrets picking up a bayonet-equipped rifle and crudely suggesting sticking it up the “butt” of a reporter who dared to ask whether Chicago’s handgun ban has been effective. But, the remark had “shock” value.

  The mayor said he was only try to “shock” reporters into shining the light on the havoc caused by gun manufacturers who represent the only industry that is never held accountable.

Really Dick? We don't recall you ever being held accountable for a whole lot of shit.

Did everyone see the video of this idiot?



Have you ever seen the look on some dork's face when he sees the bra advertisements in the Sears catalog? Or Butthead from "Beavis & Butthead" grinning and chanting "fire, fire fire!"

That's Daley whenever he handles a gun.

Two Charged

First Degree Murder:

• Two men have been charged in the shooting death of an off-duty Chicago police officer, gunned down during a robbery attempt outside his father's South Side home late Wednesday.
  
  Paris McGee, 20, and Toyious Taylor, 29, were charged Friday with two counts each of first-degree murder and one count each of attempted armed robbery, according to Cook County State's Attorney's spokeswoman Sally Daly.
  
  A third suspect who remained hospitalized Friday has not yet been charged in the death of Officer Thomas Wortham IV, Daly said.

The third is still hospitalized, so we can only imagine the ASA wants to hold off charging until they can interview him. Never mind the fact that he was shot by a retired sergeant in the act of murdering the sergeant's son and stealing a motorcycle.

Cops Houses Burglarized

Targeted on the southwest side:

• A pair of home burglaries Friday in Chicago has police combing the streets. They're not typical break-ins. They happened at the homes of two Chicago police officers.
  
  CBS 2 [...] reports that thieves got away with a 0.9 mm handgun, ammunition, a gun belt, a Chicago Police Department star and body armor vest -- all from one officer's home on the Southwest side.
  
  
• About three miles away, also on the Southwest side, thieves hit another officer's home. Sometime between 4:30 a.m. and 7:00 a.m., they rummaged through two cars in the garage. Police say they took a stereo, a Chicago Police Department uniform shirt and name plate and a pair of handcuffs.

We don't know what to advise here - get a dog, a safe, an alarm, be aware you may be followed home. We are all targets. Be aware.

Daley's Comment

A new low, even for a scumbag like Shortshanks. The reporter asking this question ought to be ashamed. Shortshanks though, has no sense of shame. Using an Officer's death to further a political agenda?

• Asked whether Wortham's death provides a boost for the city's battle for what he calls "commonsense gun laws," the mayor said: "Oh, I hope so. . . . Here's a young man [who] served twice in Iraq. Father's a police officer, an unbelievable police officer. You better believe it. It does add [momentum], and it should. It should wake up America."

Let's just point out that even with the handgun ban in effect, Chicago's murder rate has remained higher than the national average for years and is climbing again.

And it would be pretty safe to assume that the gun that killed Officer Wortham IV wasn't legally purchased, wouldn't have been registered even if it was, and the person carrying it wouldn't have had either an FOID card or any so-called "liability" insurance.

And finally, let's remind everyone that the only two legal and registered handguns on the scene were the handguns that provided retired Sgt. Wortham a small measure of vengeance for his murdered son - and most likely, the service revolver is the one Daley didn't want him to ever be able to register upon his retirement.

Let us bury our brother in peace Mayor Daley. Then you can rot in hell for your part in turning this city over to the scum, dregs and non-contributing members of society who are given free rein to kill a man who served his country, wished to serve his city and worked tirelessly to better his community.

UPDATE: John Kass goes to town on Shortshanks.

Aggravated Assault

Daley is losing it:

• Mayor Richard Daley offered an odd comment today while discussing what a post-gun ban Chicago would look like.

  During a news conference, a reporter suggested Chicago's gun ban has been ineffective, given the number of shootings that still occur in the city.

  In response, Daley picked up a long rifle from among dozens of seized weapons the Chicago Police Department displayed on a table.

  "It's been very effective. If I put this up your butt, you'll find out how effective it is. Let me put a round up your, you know," said Daley, who chuckled during the remark.
  
  "But that's why you want to get them out," he continued. "You want to get these out. This gun saved many lives. It could save your life."

Leaving aside the fact that he stopped making sense by the fourth line, did he just threaten to stick a rifle up a reporter's ass? That's Aggravated Assault. Tossing in the "in a public building" subsection, that's another aggravating factor. You know, kind of like the ASA tossed in "public place of amusement" to jack up Abbate's charges?

At the very least, Shortshanks ought to be in for a 72-hour evaluation.