Federal Scandal?

Some would say this was a long time coming:

• off topic but interesting. Look for some federal activity to start up again...Not among the police department but at the FEDERAL BUILDING!
  
  I hear that a few clerks at the federal court building are about to bet indicted for taking money to assign certain cases to certain judges. The reason this effects us is because it was being done by several lawyers involved in civil cases, some of those cases which involved the city and police department getting sued. I would imagine that the lawyers would have to get indicted too right.. and if the lawyers are trying to get certain cases to a certain judge does this mean that the judge has knowledge of it and is just as liable?? Even though they are jury trials the judges have plenty of influence over these cases by granting or denying motions that make or break the case and demanding in some cases that a settlement be reached and for it to not go to trial.
  
  I would call this a rumor but according to the guy I talked to he/she is very in the know at the federal building and very buddy buddy with the federal prosecutors.... sit back and watch, it could get interesting...

Interesting doesn't even begin to describe what this could be.

U of C Rumor

This would be amazing if true:

• Can you imagine CPD giving a promotional exam...and nobody signed up to take it? Or showed up to take it? Sounds crazy, right?
  
  Well, that is exactly what's happened at the University of Chicago PD. How could this happen? Two words: John Doty.
  
  Doty has got the be the most hated man ever in the employ of the UCPD. From watch commanders to the newest rookie patrolman, you won't find anyone with a kind word to say about this guy. Even our civilians do everything in their power to avoid speaking to him.
  
  A new Sgt./Lt. promotional exam was announced. A few (maybe 3) showed up for the pre-test seminar. It was expected that someone would register online to apply for the promo exams. But no one did. And that pissed off the upper command. Phone calls soon started. People were called at home, at all hours, and 'urged to apply to take the test.' Now the calls have turned into threatening phone calls. 'Take the test unless you don't plan on working here in the near future.'

Everywhere former CPD exempts go, they bring mediocrity, dissension and low morale. It's almost like they're trading on the supposed prestige of their position and not actual ability.

Golf or Memorial?

Not surprising in the least:

• President Obama left the White House this morning a little after 9:30 am. He wasn’t on his way to the Capitol building, where grieving friends and families of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty hold a yearly commemorative service. Though he was invited to recognize the fallen and offer condolences by speaking at the annual Peace Officers’ Memorial Service, he instead spent this fine Sunday playing a round of golf with aide Ben Finkenbinder, White House trip director Marvin Nicholson and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk.
  
  Every president deserves down time. But after offending police earlier this week by hosting a rapper at the White House whose corpus includes a song lauding a convicted cop-killer, blowing off their service in order to golf seems tone-deaf, if not outright callous. Badly done, Mr. President.

We're surprised anyone in the media noticed actually. Thanks Washington Times.

Still Not a Cover Up?

Seriously, there are people who still think this is all on the up-and-up:

• Bridget Higgins McCarthy and her husband, Kevin McCarthy, found themselves in a tough spot early on the morning of April 25, 2004.

  Their friend Richard J. “R.J.” Vanecko, a nephew of Mayor Daley, had just been involved in a drunken confrontation in the Rush Street area that left a 21-year-old man from the suburbs severely injured, the result of a single punch the police would conclude seven years later Vanecko had thrown.

• The McCarthys — born into wealth, with a circle of friends that includes Daley’s children, nieces and nephews — knew that their friend R.J. was the guy the police wanted to talk to but hadn’t been able to identify.

  But they weren’t telling.

Of course they weren't. The full list of connections Novak and Fusco turned up:

• Bridget Higgins McCarthy, 33, is the daughter of developer Jack Higgins and his wife, Marty, who are regulars at high-society gatherings around Chicago. Jack Higgins runs Higgins Development Partners, whose projects have included building the headquarters of the Chicago Police Department and the FBI’s Chicago regional headquarters. The Pritzker family, proclaimed Chicago’s wealthiest, teamed with Higgins to build a Loop skyscraper that includes the headquarters for the family’s Hyatt hotel chain.

  Jack and Marty Higgins are friends with Daley and have contributed to his political campaigns. From June 2002 to February 2007, Daley’s son, Patrick Daley, 35, registered to vote from a Gold Coast condo owned by the Higginses.

Surprise surprise. And since we haven't read the entire file, this certainly should sink any thoughts this isn't exactly what it smells like:

• The police reinvestigation this year determined that the 6-foot-3, 230-pound Vanecko threw the punch. It also found that Koschman never struck Vanecko and had been arguing not with him but with Denham. Still, the police decided Vanecko had acted in self-defense and formally closed their homicide investigation, declining to ask the Cook County state’s attorney’s office to decide whether to file criminal charges.

So Vanecko pretty much blindsided the victim. And some are still pushing the "self defense" angle? Give us a fucking break.

Inauguration Day

Someone said "Swear him in" and Rahm embarrassed everyone by letting off a string of four-letter words. The judge actually dropped the bible.

Strap in people. The next four years just got really really interesting.

Dust Off That Helmet

The Bulls manhandled Miami last night, winning by 21 points.

The Finals are looking like a distinct possibility.

And we can only cringe at the imagined aftermath.

UPDATE: Whoops - drunk blogging isn't pretty.

First Female Superintendent

AdMin Fax out this past Friday.

Terry Hillard's second term ended along with Shortshanks. And the acting Supernintendo?

Bea "the Bartender" Cuello.

So does this count toward her pension? And did she have anything to do with the sudden cancellation of "The Chicago Code"? Because someone said that this town wasn't big enough for two female superintendents, so Jennifer Beals had to go.

Another Pic From DC

Any old timers remember driving these?

Honor Guard in DC

The CPD Honor Guard put on a good show in Washington:

• The Honor Guard placed 2nd in the D.C competition and received the chief judge award for the freestyle portion for the 2nd year in the row.

Congratulations Officers.

Here's a shot someone sent from one of the events.

California Insanity

Before Illinois and New York go bankrupt, California will lead the way. And the following is exactly why this country is on the skids:

• High pay and benefits for lifeguards in Newport Beach is the latest example of frustrating levels of compensation for public employees. More than half the city’s full-time lifeguards are paid a salary of over $100,000 and all but one of them collect more than $100,000 in total compensation including benefits.

  When thinking about career options with high salaries, lifeguarding is probably not one of the first jobs to come to mind. But it apparently should. In one of Orange County’s most desirable beach destinations, Newport Beach, lifeguards are compensated all too well; especially compared with the county annual median household income of $71,735.

  It might be time for a career change.

• Lifeguards are able to retire with 90 percent of their salary, after only 30 years of work at as early as the age of 50.

Seriously. Lifeguards. 90% of a $100,000 salary. We remember lifeguards here in town working for minimum wage all summer long. Hell, some of them would have done it for free just to pick up chicks and drink in the boathouse after hours.

St. Jude March

By "Musical Memories in Motion"

St. Jude 2011 from Musical Memories In Motion on Vimeo.

Something to reflect on during the conclusion of Police Week in Washington DC.

Propaganda War

The aftermath of the bin Laden operation continues to reverberate throughout the world. This story popped up in most major papers:

• A stash of pornography was found in the hideout of Osama bin Laden by the U.S. commandos who killed him, current and former U.S. officials said Friday.
  
  The pornography recovered in bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, consists of modern, electronically recorded video and is fairly extensive, according to the officials, who discussed the discovery with Reuters on condition of anonymity.
  
  The officials said they were not yet sure precisely where in the compound the pornography was discovered or who had been viewing it. Specifically, the officials said they did not know if bin Laden himself had acquired or viewed the materials.

Thanks to our extensive contacts in the CIA, the NSA and the Pentagon, SCC can exclusively reveal a partial listing of the porn-stash Osama bin Laden kept around (for fatwa research purposes only):

• Between the Sheiks
• Broke-Yak Mountain
• Hard as Iraq
• Packin' Stan
• Tora Bora Whora
• Turban Cowboys
  
• I Dream of Weenie
• I Slam
• Arabian Tights
• The Love Goat (Seasons 1 and 2)

We suppose anyone viewing these titles would think America was a decadent, infidel, Great Satan nation. And if the Navy Seals caught us with any of this, we'd pray they killed us and hid our body underwater, too.

These and more can be viewed over at AceofSpades.

Sneed Still Dishing Daley II

Even more Sneed droppings. This time, the bodyguard question appears to be settled:

• Protect ’em: Sneed has also learned Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel will have fewer bodyguards than Mayor Daley.

  The stats: Emanuel will have approximately 17 police officer bodyguards — compared with the 22 on Daley’s detail.

  It’s a wash: Daley will be assigned five officers already serving on his detail to stay with him — for an unspecified period after he leaves office.

  New brass: Mayoral bodyguard Brian Thompson, an African-American patrolman who was elevated to commander status months ago, will lead Emanuel’s detail. (Thompson will not be the first African American to head a mayoral detail; Mayor Harold Washington tapped Howard Saffold to run his security team in the 1980s.)

  Phew! Let’s hope Emanuel’s bodyguards won’t have to haul bags of recycled garbage from his vacation compound in Michigan back to Chicago like Daley’s bodyguards did. (Is it a measure to keep prying eyes off private paperwork?)

  The big question: Will Daley’s post-mayoral security detail still have to haul his trash?

  Back to the beat: Word is 10 of Daley’s bodyguards will be re-assigned to do regular police work in Chicago neighborhoods — but must go through the training academy again before doing so.

Can someone tell Sneed she can stop writing about Shortshanks finally? He's gone now.

Sneed Still Dishing Daley

We're busy...out of town type busy. Today's posting is going to be liberally stolen borrowed from the local rags.

All sorts of good stuff here:

• Sneed has learned Mayor Daley has set up his new office at 900 N. Michigan, a site which once housed the doctor’s office where his father, Richard. J. Daley, died of a massive heart attack in 1976. (A new building has since been built at the address.)

  All in the family: Sneed is also told Mayor Daley has set up shop with his son, Patrick, who has an MBA and speaks at least three languages fluently. Although the duo has had a loving relationship, it has also been an uneasy one.

  To wit: The younger Daley has expressed frustration conducting business in the glare of his father’s influence. Patrick subsequently ran a business in Russia after leaving the military, where he served in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan. Sneed hears the pair might be considering attracting foreign investment for American infrastructure projects.

We guess Daley will be telling people how to sell taxpayer financed infrastructure like parking garages, parking meters, toll roads and airports to foreign investors for quick cash that you can burn through in three years while locking taxpayers out for 75 or 99 years.

Thanks Again Daley

Another $30 million the city doesn't have:

• After years of legal battles, a federal appeals court on Friday ruled that Chicago must hire 111 African-American firefighters and pay about $30 million in damages to applicants who were unfairly denied Fire Department jobs because of a discriminatory entrance exam given in 1995.

  The ruling by the 7th U.S. Court of Appeals likely ends a 13-year legal battle waged against the city over the exam, which kept more than 6,000 qualified applicants from getting jobs because results continued to be used through 2002, according to attorneys in the case.

Back pay, back seniority, the city didn't win a single portion of the appeals that have been going on for 14 years. The lawyer bills are going to be obscene.

But in one of Shortshanks' last official acts, he gives away a piece of property worth millions of dollars:

• A former police station on the North Side that once was a symbol of discrimination to Chicago’s gay community will become part of a housing development serving gay seniors.

  For $1, the city will sell the old Town Hall District station, 3600 N. Halsted, to Heartland Housing Inc., sources said. The nonprofit developer will incorporate the old station into new construction of about 90 apartments for senior citizens.

  The apartments will be priced for lower-income renters. The project is a final favor for the gay community from Mayor Daley, who leaves office Monday.

A corner lot. On a busy intersection. In Wrigleyville. What does anyone think the property alone might be worth to a city that at last count, had a projected budget deficit of $500 million? We couldn't really care less about who got the property - gays, straights, black, white, Martian, demons from Hell, whatever. But one fucking dollar? How about we'll bid $2 and turn it into a SRO where drunk Cub fans can sleep off a hangover?

If Daley was so intent on giving away property on the cheap, how about unloading the old 009 District station for $1 and someone can finally reopen the old Police Museum that is probably stuck in storage somewhere?

Pray for Cold

Otherwise, these stories are going to be more commonplace than last summer:

• At least seven people, including a 12-year-old boy, were wounded Thursday afternoon and evening in several shootings across the city, authorities said.
• A 21-year-old man was fatally shot Thursday in the West Englewood neighborhood, police said.
• A 32-year-old man was fatally shot Thursday in the South Deering neighborhood on the city's Southeast Side, authorities said.
• A 19-year-old man critically shot in the head Wednesday in the Oakland neighborhood on the South Side has died, authorities said this morning.
• A 24-year-old woman was being questioned this morning following the stabbing death of a 28-year-old man in what police described as a domestic incident late Thursday in the West Englewood neighborhood.

Two uncomfortably warm days, not even truly hot by the standards of July and August, and we end up with almost thirty people shot and five or more dead. In the middle of the week. But hey, crime is down!

Darwin Award Winner

After all the warnings about train attacks, we're sure many people were on pins and needles when this story hit. Then as the day wore on, we began to wonder why this asshat was driving at all:

• A truck hauling chunks of concrete made an illegal left turn and drove around crossing gates before slamming into a Metra train in Mount Prospect this morning, officials say.
  
  The truck driver, Kazimierz Karasek, 59, was killed. At least 26 passengers were taken to hospitals and 10 others were treated on the scene. Officials said none of the injuries aboard the train appeared life-threatening.
  
  Karasek, of Prospect Heights, had been cited for more than 50 traffic violations, including a DUI, since 1986.

And then we began to wonder, was this one of George Ryan's gifts that has plagued and most likely continues to plague Illinois roadways years after his imprisonment? He was averaging two moving violations a year for a quarter century. At least his reign of terror is over and he didn't manage to take any innocent lives with him.

Technical Difficuilties (UPDATED)

Blogger crashed Wednesday.

To fix it, they had to make the entire network "Read Only" and then they removed all posts from Wednesday evening onward. We've been checking it every couple of hours from various locations, but we weren't even able to post an update to let everyone know what was going on. This gave us a mini-break and allowed us to finish some packing for a weekend trip you may have heard about.

It also has put us two days behind in posting threads, two days behind in going through comments and from what we can tell, may have wiped out dozens or hundreds of comments from Wednesday onward. So if something is missing, or you had some brilliant observation, or if you had solved world hunger and brought peace to the globe, it might be gone forever.

In the meantime, we're going to try to put things together here before departure. Updates will be sporadic.

Open post for now.

UPDATE: The Thursday threads are back in place but without the comments that were posted in each thread. As far as we can account, the total number of comments lost is around 100 or so. It is possible that at some point, the comments will reappear. The last time this happened, the comments returned about 10 months later, so any brilliance (or the polar opposite of brilliance) may pop up in a year's time.

Thursday Posts All M.I.A.

Blogger has "misplaced" everything posted for Thursday 12 May.

We are trying to recover, recreate or restore it.

See post directly above this one 13 May.

Closed post - informational purposes only.

UPDATE: We are recreating the Thursday posts with a note at the top of each. Please be patient.

Well Lookee Here

Please note: Post recovered from a cached copy. All comments previously attached to this post are still lost in the cyber-wasteland. This originally was to appear at 12:04 hours on 12 May 2011.

The wall of silence put up by the main stream media begins to crumble:

• A warning to those who come downtown: Chicago Police are on alert for a new brand of criminal.

  Sources say in the past three weeks, there have been more than 35 arrests for wilding and flash mob attacks.

  CBS 2′s Suzanne LeMignot reports, Chicago police are stepping up patrols to try to put a stop to it. Recently there was a large police presence in front of McDonald’s at State and Chicago and officers on horseback at North Avenue Beach.

  The increased patrols have been noticeable among residents.

  “I saw cars, [officers] on horseback and just walking around,” said Joseph Golz, who was cycling along the lakefront. “They were present, now I know why.”

  Sources say the lakefront has been targeted by large groups of teens, carrying out wilding incidents. Two people riding bikes on the path at North Avenue Beach were recently surrounded by about 100 teens.

  Both were knocked off their bikes, then thrown into Lake Michigan. The same thing happened to a person who was walking along Navy Pier. The pier was shut down for a few hours after the incident.

  “I think it’s terrible,” said Jill Gomberg. “I think it’s really scary. The lakefront is like a sanctuary.”

Gee, we've only had our readers commenting on this for what? About a year now? Hell, our contacts across the Central Control Group predicted it following two years of Taste debacles. And we imagine that if Shortshanks had run for re-election instead of retiring, you still wouldn't be hearing shit about it. The media has been in the bag for the Machine for so long, they have no idea how to actually cover news anymore.