Some 'Splainin' to Do

Interesting:

Why would a Public Defender need a gun? All of their clients are as pure as the driven snow, right?

Under the Bus!

Not unexpected:

• Two aviation security officers have been fired — and a suspended officer has resigned — for their roles in the April 9 passenger dragging fiasco aboard United Airlines Flight 3411.
  
  The final resolution of disciplinary action recommended by Inspector General Joe Ferguson is included in Ferguson’s quarterly report, released Tuesday.
  
  As always, the names of the fired employees were withheld. They were identified only as an aviation security officer and a sergeant.

The visuals (and politics) of the entire incident were never good, and it was obvious the shit was going to flow all the way downhill from the beginning.

Improper Financing?

Is this something?

• If you could go to your bank for a loan offering to transfer ownership of your future income to make sure the bank got repaid, it would give you a lower rate. That would be reckless, however, and probably illegal.
  
  But that's basically what Illinois recently authorized Chicago and other home rule municipalities to do. Hidden in the state's 756-page budget implementation bill is authorization for Illinois cities and towns to borrow a new way—by transferring to bondholders full ownership of future tax revenue that flows from the state to municipalities, which is an essential public asset.
  
  Chicago is moving quickly toward using that authority for a $3 billion bond issue to be backed by conveying $660 million a year in city sales tax revenue for 40 years. Other municipalities likely will follow.

This sounds mysteriously like the Parking Meter deal where Daley got $1.15 billion upfront, promptly spent it all, and then retired as the finer details came to light that the "deal" had been massively undervalued - by billions of dollars - and that the 75 year agreement meant that everyone involved would be long dead and buried when the outraged citizens arrived with tar, feathers and rope.

It certainly looks like yet another "kicking the disaster down the road" deal.

Cost Overruns? Behind Schedule?

Of course it is:

• The future Navy Pier flyover is over budget and a year behind schedule, according to a report.
  
  While the first two phases of the long-planned Downtown bike path are set to open next year, the flyover won't be ready in full till 2019, a year later than advertised, said Mike Claffey, a spokesman for the city's Department of Transportation.
  
  And the years-long construction project is now expected to exceed its original $60 million price tag.
  
  "We just know that there is going to be more work than originally anticipated," Claffey said.

Unanticipated payoffs, he means.

New Opportunity

Never let a crisis go to waste (click for a larger version):

Introducing....the Rahm-dola. Your gondolier will sing to you and your date from a wide selection of Dean Martin's Greatest hits while poling your boat through the Chicago River-Swim. Scented candles are a MUST. Make sure you are up-to-date on all your shots.

Well Done Dart

Looks like Sheriff Dart has, once again, cost the county taxpayers millions of dollars:

• After years of litigation over the 2012 firing of a single Cook County sheriff’s police officer, dozens of other officers, jail guards and courtroom deputies fired for misconduct could get their jobs back, and hundreds more suspended without pay could be in line for possibly six-figure payouts.
  
  The state Supreme Court last month declined to consider an appeal of a lower court ruling that found Sheriff Tom Dart and the Cook County Board improperly appointed members to the Sheriff’s Merit Board, which hands out firings and suspensions for sheriff’s sworn personnel.
  
  The decision raises questions about hundreds of disciplinary cases brought by Dart, who has aggressively filed charges against officers, deputies and guards during his nearly 10 years in office. The ruling has caused an “administrative and bureaucratic mess” that might take years to unravel, said Cara Smith, Dart’s chief policy officer.
  
  The ruling affects cases that date back at least until 2011, and the sheriff’s and state’s attorney’s offices are researching whether earlier board appointments could affect even more cases, Smith said.

Perhaps Dart should institute some sort of "pizza tax" to pay for his mismanagement and malfeasance?

Time for a new sheriff....and a serious look at disbanding large portions of County government.

Chicago is Safe?

Generally speaking, sort of:

• Despite Chicago’s alarming, if select, murder statistics and routine singling out by President Donald Trump for gun violence, this lakeside metropolis was just ranked one of the safest cities in the world.
  
  The Economist Intelligence Unit, a London-based research firm affiliated with the Economist magazine, named Chicago to its 2017 Safe Cities Index, issued Thursday — one of only three US cities to crack the top 20 — largely based on advances in digital security.
  
  The annual ranking assesses 60 global cities using four factors: personal safety, health security, digital security and the safety of infrastructure.

Well, we certainly feel safer...digitally speaking. But that doesn't mean we aren't carrying a gun most places. And it certainly doesn't mean shit if you're a 64-year-old school teacher walking down a neighborhood street and someone decides to launch a dozen or more shots at a rival and you happen to be standing downrange. Certainly, your chances are better in certain parts of town. But a 1-in-500 chance is still a chance most people aren't happy with.

Stop Pandering to the NFL

Is Leo "WHOOOOOOOOOOOO" Flair still in charge of the Illinois State Police? And is he still providing escorts to the NFL babies? Because the NFL is dead to us:

• NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell signaled last week that a change in policy regarding standing for the national anthem would be approved by team owners at the annual fall meeting next week.
  
  But the players and their allies in the media pushed back -- hard. Now it appears that Goodell and the players union will codify a policy that will allow kneeling or any other protest during the playing of the anthem. And the league will justify it by using the NFL brand as a "platform to both raise awareness and make progress on issues of social justice and equality in this country."
  
  In other words, a total, complete cave to the players.

Goodell has almost completely destroyed the NFL's public image. And it leads to this:

• Fans booed New Orleans Saints players who knelt before the presentation of the American flag and the singing of the national anthem Sunday at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
  
  The boos rang down during a moment of silence for fallen NOPD officer Marcus McNeil, who was killed in the line of duty Friday.

The Officer killed:

Officer Marcus McNeil, 29, EOW- Oct. 13, 2017.

Kind of blows the NFL narrative out of the water.

Use of Force Rollout

Today, at 1300 hours, the new Use of Force rules roll out.

The military has expression - Time Over Target. It's the amount of time an aircraft spends over a designated spot to conduct a mission.

The paperwork alone for a single Use of Force incident is going to keep officers and their supervisors off the street for hours on end, denying the community hours of police coverage - Time Over Target. We'll have to see if it has any impact on operations, missions, or crime statistics.

We eagerly await reports from the front lines regarding the new TRR's and assorted justifications that have to be documented and the issues that will arise departmentally, judicially, legally.

We can almost guarantee the the amount of paperwork is going to give further lie to the "paperless department" we were promised decades ago.

Nice Drainage Rahm

That was quite a bit of rain this weekend:

That's how many millions of tax dollars under water? And no one could get authorization to open the locks to drain the river into the lake?

Rahm Discovers More Money!

We'd really like to see some federal auditors come in and go over the real books:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel will dedicate about $27.4 million to Chicago Police reform in his 2018 budget proposal, as the city continues rehabbing the beleaguered department’s image in the wake of the Laquan McDonald shooting scandal and a scathing Justice Department probe.
  
  “With this investment, the city of Chicago is making a down payment on police reform,” Emanuel said in a statement Friday, less than a week before his annual budget address to the City Council.
  
  The $24 million jump in funding compared to last year is set aside for “enhanced training, reform implementation, officer wellness and community policing,” according to the mayor’s office, which didn’t specify where the funding will come from, other than to say it’s part of the city’s full spending package.

$24 million appearing out of thin air should make anyone paying attention ask a lot of questions.

Nice City There Rahm

Run up the white flag Rahm, this one is all on you (and your massive manpower cuts that dis-proportionally effect "low crime" areas):

• Cynthia and John Trevillion, both longtime teachers at the Chicago Waldorf School in Rogers Park, were trying to catch a train at the Morse CTA station, a few blocks from their home, to meet up with friends Friday night.
  
  At the sound of rapid gunshots, John quickly dropped to the ground. But Cynthia, 64, didn’t make it in time. She was fatally hit in the head and pronounced dead at Presence St. Francis Hospital in Evanston just before 7:20 p.m. An autopsy Saturday determined she died of a gunshot wound to the head and neck and her death was ruled a homicide, officials said.

Kass takes the mayor to task (via Kass's social media page that an e-mailer sent us:

• She was a teacher, walking with her husband, and was slaughtered in Chicago's gang wars that City Hall can't stop. Squabbling with Trump gives City Hall cover and makes for news. But people are dying. Forget the politics. Do your jobs. Mayor Emanuel, your first job is to keep order. hundreds of murders, thousands of shootings, most unsolved. that's not order. that's how cities die.
• The mayor's office wants you to call it gun violence. That suits City Hall politicians. But it is gang violence. And the bloody street gang wars that City Hall can't control claimed another innocent life. 64 year old woman walking toward the "L" in Rogers Park when they opened fire. "They just shot that girl like it was nothing,” a witness told the Chicago Tribune. “I can’t believe what I just saw.” Believe it. Wake up Chicago
• Enough. And don't blame this on cops. We've told the cops through various means, most of it political and ugly, to stay in their cars. This is on the politicians. City Hall, either do something or go.

It's going to be an ugly few years.

Go While You're Upright

Time to retire Special Ed:

• A spokesman for the Chicago Police Department said Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson briefly fainted at an event for law enforcement Friday.
  
  Spokesman [...] said while Johnson was at an event in Springfield, he briefly experienced lightheadedness and fell on stage. Johnson got up and was taken to an area hospital for a routine evaluation.
  
  Doctor determined the spell was caused by Johnson's blood pressure medication, which was taken without eating.

Ed, while we appreciate using you as a comedic foil, you're not a spring chicken. You've just had life altering surgery, you're on more medications than many of our surviving junkies, and you're a newly wed.

Time to hang it up, let someone else take the abuse. Don't let poor judgement kill you.

Who Needs These?

From the comments:

• OT...but Interesting.
  
  I work in City Hall (Oh...Not a Cop btw..) and noticed the Department of Finance take in a rather large delivery of Bullet Proof vests from Point Blank Inc.
  
  Are they getting ready to arm the damn PEA's and Booters?

Interesting to say the least.

HeyJackass.com

Two very important stories on HeyJackass.com this weekend. First, the statistics:

• Shot & Killed: 517
  Shot & Wounded: 2479
  Total Shot: 2996
  Total Homicides: 556

So sometime Friday or Saturday, Chicago is doubtless to pass 3,000 shot. Congratulations!

Second, this little tidbit:

• The citizenry is now tied with the police for the most justifiable homicides this year with 10 each.

The result of this justifiable shooting:

• Police say the fatal shooting of 25-year-old Pleasure Cardell Singleton Jr. was a case of self-defense, and the woman who shot him will not be charged.
  
  The woman shot Singleton after he stabbed her multiple times Thursday afternoon in a domestic fight in his West Side Lawndale neighborhood home, Chicago Police said.
  
  About 4:05 p.m. Oct. 5, Singleton, a father of three, was shot in the chest after he stabbed the 25-year-old woman multiple times in the 4000 block of West 21st Street, police said.

That is a statistic that might trouble the politicians and social-justice crowd - citizens actually taking responsibility for their own safety and justifiably killing their assailants? What the Hell is this, America or something?

Keep up the good work Citizens.

Of Course Foxxx Objected

Politics comes to the fore:

• Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office opposes the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the death of a man fatally shot by a Chicago police officer six years ago, court records show.
  
  Flint Farmer was unarmed when he was shot and killed by then-Officer [GS] in June 2011 in an on-duty incident captured in part by a police dashboard camera. The Chicago Tribune broke the story that fall after learning the Farmer shooting was [GS]'s third — and second fatal one — in a six-month span.
  
  [...]
  
  In a written response, the state’s attorney’s office revealed that prosecutors re-investigated the Farmer case after Foxx won election and again found that there was not enough evidence to support charges against [GS].
  
  Prosecutors also rejected Farmer’s claim that an inherent conflict of interest exists when prosecutors investigate police-involved shootings — a position Foxx supported on the campaign trail.
  
  But since taking office in December, Foxx has implemented new “protocols” to ensure that police shootings are reviewed in “an expeditious and thorough manner,” the filing said.

Foxxx knows her reputation is built on convicting coppers. She's been at the scenes of a few shootings so far and often leaves in a huff when it's clear that the shooting was completely justified. This particular shooting still has political potential, so Foxxx wants to keep it nice and close where she can claim credit if it goes her way.

Remember, Foxxx needs scalps to run on. Just like COPA needs heads mounted on their trophy wall to justify the time and money Rahm is spending on them.

More Money for Rats

Actual rats:

• Vowing to step up the city's efforts get Chicago's exploding rat population under control, Mayor Rahm Emanuel Friday proposed spending an additional $1 million to get rid of the disease-ridden vermin.
  
  That budget boost will allow the city to add five crews of workers charged with reducing the number of disease-ridden critters scurrying through Chicago's streets and alleys, officials said. That will bring the number of rat control crews to 30 in 2018, officials said.
  
  In the spring of 2016, the city had eight rat control crews, records show.

Rahm had slashed the Rat Patrol in an effort to balance the books that Shortshanks had left so far out of whack, that Shanks had to retire rather than face defeat or indictment. Rats however, just keep on doing what they do best - breeding and spreading disease, and now Rahm is stuck spending far more than he should have (or actually has) controlling a problem that was, by most accounts, controlled.

But remember, Police Overtime is the driving force behind all that is politically inconvenient.

More Wasted Overtime

Hey Andy Shaw, how about this OT? (from our e-mail):

• Another Thursday come and gone and CompStat was a rousing success.
  
  In attendance were all sorts of Chiefs, Deputy Chiefs, and Commanders.
  
  Also just about every XO in the city, who either had hours adjusted or received overtime, not to mention Lietenants working out of grade a Commanding Officers.
  
  Countless Lieutenants, including one from every watch for the District/Area up for review. That's a whole bunch of overtime since each got around 4 hours.
  
  And then there's the "statistic people" in every front office racking up Overtime to get binders full of info for the meetings and produce a lot of paperwork, all of which will be filed, stored or shredded, never to be seen again - it takes a lot of overtime to compile all those binders.

Has anyone ever worked out how much a CompStat meeting costs? We're sure it's significant.

More OT for Cubs?

Did they mobilize last year for the Championship Series?

Or was that only tactical teams?

It's been so long, we forgot.

Ferguson is already trying to ban OT.

Good Idea, Bad Execution

This is how people get accidentally shot:

• Police rushed to the scene of what they thought was an active shooter in West Town on Wednesday morning — only to learn the incident was a drill.
  
  About 8:30 a.m., officers were called to a health center in the 1700 block of West Superior Street because there were reports of an active shooter, said Chicago Police Department spokesman [...]. Multiple calls were made to 911 about the shooter, [...], but once officers arrived they learned the incident was a drill.
  
  The Police Department wasn't consulted about the drill....

We understand the need to drill, but we also know that unless the CPD is told about the drill, then we are going to act as if it is real life.