Time to Break the CTU

Didn't this country fight a civil war about owning other human beings?

• Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) president Stacy Davis Gates said on Monday that “all children belong to” the union.

  At the City Club Chicago event, Gates bashed President Donald Trump for lessening the power of teachers’ unions, calling his education agenda a “relitigation” of the Civil War while complaining about the failing state of Chicago schools.

  Quoting civil rights activist James Baldwin, Gates tells the crowd, “The children are always ours. Every single one of them, all over the globe.” Gates then mocks parents who would respond by saying “CTU thinks your children are its children.”

  “Yes, we do,” Gates said. “We do.”

How many fewer kids are there in the schools, year over year? How many near-empty schools are sucking up millions in tax money? How many criminal acts are covered up annually by the CTU?

Time to show the teachers that parents - who pay their salaries - should be the people calling the shots.

Mendoza is already staking out that territory in the mayoral race. Pay attention for more. 

We Don't Miss This

From the comments:

• 25 days straight of cancelled days off with 12 hour tours, twice, June and August.

We don't think it was actually 25 days straight, but rather two incidences that added up to 25 days total.

But we thought there were OT restrictions?  That manpower shortages were a figment of our imaginations? 

The pay was nice....but you seldom had time to spend it properly before the next set of cancellations.

New Award?

The rumor mill started up again:

• What in the fuck is this new participation ribbon this silly department created? Another bull shit ribbon for some DEI boss to walk around with on his or her chest thinking he or she has done legitimate police work. The name of this ribbon you ask? Drum roll please. It’s called the “Resiliency Award”. I’m not making this up. If you were an active duty member from January 1,2020 through November 29, 2020 during Covid and Sir George Floyd of Fentanyl riots you get this ribbon. Just when you think this job can’t get more ridiculous the department creates an award for this nonsense. Hey , thanks for showing up and here’s your ribbon for coming to work. Nothing more just showing up.

First of all - completely believable. 

Second - do they send it to retirees?

Asking for a friend. 

Cuck FOPA

COPA had issues with this one, seeing as it was pretty much all lies:

• A Chicago Police sergeant who was accused of using excessive force against protesters at a children’s storytime event featuring comedian Tiffany Haddish in 2024 has been cleared of nearly all misconduct allegations, including the central claim that he unjustifiably tackled a demonstrator. Investigators instead found that the officer was the victim in the confrontation, having hot coffee thrown on him and being battered by multiple people at the scene. The woman who filed the complaint, officials said, wasn’t even present at the protest.

And THIS is why the Sworn Affidavit was the best thing to happen to the Department in decades, even if prosecutions were almost non-existent. The complainant WASN'T EVEN THERE, yet made a complaint to events she didn't witness.

But COPA had to get their licks in 

• Of the six allegations against [the sergeant], one was sustained, three were not sustained, one was unfounded, and he was exonerated of the sixth. The only sustained violation stemmed from [the sergeant] calling a civilian an expletive during the height of the confrontation. COPA recommended a reprimand and retraining.

AFTER the sergeant had been attacked with hot coffee, physically battered and the offender was attempting to flee from a lawful and justified arrest, COPA tags the sergeant for using a bad word and recommends retraining.

Fuck. These. Assholes.

Oh, and the "protest" was manufactured outrage over the arrest of two "palestinian" yutes - the yutes being aged 25 and 36.

Criminal Geniuses

We're surprised this hasn't happened here:

• A massive street takeover in California led to a family-run business being overrun by looters over the weekend. During the alleged takeover, A-Z Market convenience store in Bellflower was broken into. The city is in southeast Los Angeles.

  A fundraiser for the family said, "A group of individuals used power tools to break through our front window and security gate." Surveillance video showed three suspects using tools to break the window's glass and cut a security gate lock, allowing up to 40 additional suspects to enter and ransack the business for two minutes before blending back into the takeover crowd, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department said.  

So they didn't just block the streets - they blocked them strategically, knowing police couldn't (or wouldn't) enforce anything without plenty of warnings and public announcements via loudspeakers. Then they used power tools and the absence of any law enforcement to systematically loot the business, all while dozens of getaway cars were just doing their street takeover crap before fading away into the crowd.

Of course, if the business doesn't re-open in short order, they'll complain about a "food desert" or something similar.

But knowing that CPD isn't permitted to take enforcement action AND isn't allowed to chase, and after years of non-prosecution and a SAFE-T Act that frees criminals even before the Arresting Officers' shift is over, this ought to be a regular occurrence the way that driving stolen cars into storefronts was a thing just a few years ago. 

One Case Down, One Remains

This would barely be a mention if it wasn't for his last name:

• The son of former Chicago Police Supt. Terry Hillard avoided discipline for his role in a chaotic arrest at a South Side police station after ex-top cop Larry Snelling pushed back on the findings of the city’s police oversight agency.

Well, Larritorious should know the Use of Force rules since he was touted as THE leading authority on them years ago. But that darn PPP scandal keeps popping up:

• Officer Dana Hillard, however, remains stripped of his policing powers in another disciplinary case in which he’s accused of bilking the federal Paycheck Protection Program, a pandemic relief program that was overrun with fraud, records show.

  As the younger Hillard faces potential dismissal in that case, he caught a break last month in the other investigation centering around an on-duty imbroglio.

Those Federal charges are difficult to have former bosses step in on it would seem...especially as so many bosses are among the unnamed offenders.

An Economic Upturn?

This sounds like a very lib-tarded fantasy at best:

• Chicago’s downtown district, the Loop, is poised to enjoy a busy fall going into the holiday season, as new retail businesses open, office vacancies stabilize, and midweek foot traffic increases, according to a Q2 report from the Chicago Loop Alliance (CLA). 

  Like many downtown commercial districts in the post-pandemic period, the Loop has been riddled with vacant storefronts and a lack of foot traffic. But now, the report says, investment in new construction, combined with refurbishment of existing properties, has reached $673 million. More than 20 new businesses opened in the Loop during Q2 (see the full list below), and more grand openings are set to follow in the coming weeks. These neighborhood additions range from crowd-pleasing chains to local businesses opening their first or second locations. Meanwhile, office vacancies, which have been increasing since 2020, have finally “leveled off,” the report asserts. 

Um...."leveled off" doesn't mean repopulated. It merely means Chicago may have hit bottom.

And just for shits-and-giggles, let's see what that partial list of new businesses looks like:

• Chains expanding in the Loop
• Amorino Gelato, 209 S. LaSalle
• Dos Toros, 1 N. Dearborn
• Kilwin’s, 60 E. Randolph
• Panda Express, 85 E. Wacker
• Seoul Spice, Willis Tower Lower Level
• Kanpai Hot Pot & BBQ, 174 N. Michigan
• Local businesses opening in the Loop
• Espiritu, 1 E. Wacker
• Genki, 174 N. Michigan Ave
• Prasino, 33 S Wabash 
• Velvet Taco, 174 N. Michigan
• The Jibarito Stop, 174 N. Wabash
• The Carlyle Club, 316 N. Clark

Of these twelve businesses, eleven are restaurants and one appears to be a fitness-type center.

According to the statistics, something like 18% of restaurants fail within the first year, 50% within five years. Those numbers skyrocketed during the Plandemic and the entire industry continues to limp along amid the burgeoning plywood forests of downtown Chicago. Over 80% of restaurant income comes from repeat customers, and without corporate occupancy rates jumping from record lows, there isn't a customer base to actually serve.

Conehead needs to expand the corporate presence downtown to trigger a boom of service industry businesses, not hope that eleven restaurants somehow fill the empty city coffers.

By the way - no JJ Fish and nail salons? We're disappointed. 

This is a Problem

A rather LARGE and obvious problem:

• Tonight's FOP meeting produced an admission every Lodge 7 member should be paying attention to.
  
  
  President John Catanzara brought out the attorney — the same attorney our dues are paying $450 an hour — to discuss the forensic audit. Members were told that, so far, they “don't believe” misappropriation of funds has occurred.
  
  
  Then a member asked a simple question: Were personal purchases made on the FOP credit card?
  
  
  The attorney acknowledged that there were a number of personal expenses charged to the FOP credit card, but characterized it as more of a  “policy issue.”

Um....that's NOT a "policy issue," no matter what language a paid liar lawyer dresses it up as.

That is corruption, that is misappropriation, that is Theft by a strict interpretation of the ILCS. 

You don't get to use Union Funds for personal purchases. Period.

But hey, what do we know? We were only cops for nearly thirty years.

Tell you what - release the credit card statements that the membership has been demanding for years now and let's put all this scandal-talk to rest once and for all.

UPDATE: bunch of comments claiming "it was paid back, all is good!"

The FOP dues money and credit cards are NOT bridge loans or cash advance services. You don't get to use the money while you're waiting for Payday to arrive because (A) it ain't your money and (B) how the Hell do you get an interest-free loan from membership dues that no one else can get?

What the actual fuck? 

Was this "Pretextual"?

We'll be her lawyer argues it was:

• Police say Jacqueline Beard had a bit of an “oopsie” when she went digging for her ID after cops stopped her for smoking at the Roosevelt Red Line station Friday. As she fumbled through her bag, officers caught a glimpse of a loaded firearm, turning a routine citation into a felony charge for the 24-year-old.

  But facing a gun charge is nothing new for Beard. Court records show she received “first time weapon offender probation” for another gun possession case in 2023. Maybe her second time will be the charm.

  CPD said officers assigned to the department’s Public Transportation Section were patrolling the Loop station around 7:15 p.m. August 14 when they saw Beard smoking inside a train car. They stopped her, asked her to step onto the platform and requested her ID so they could issue her a citation, according to police.

  As Beard searched for her identification inside her purse, officers spotted a firearm, which riders are prohibited from possessing on the city’s transit system, according to CPD. Police took possession of the loaded weapon and arrested Beard after determining she did not have a valid Firearm Owner’s Identification card or concealed carry license, police said.

Gee whiz

• no FOID card, 
• no Concealed Carry License, 
• a previous weapon conviction,
• AND she completely missed the "No Guns" signs all over the CTA property

At least she was punished severely for that charge, right?

• Beard’s previous gun case dates to August 2022, when prosecutors charged her with illegally possessing a firearm in a vehicle in Englewood. She ultimately received “first time weapon offender probation” and 50 hours of community service from Judge Tyria Walton, according to court records.

Walton? Again? Is anyone going to tell the voters?

Trees Are Tough

From the CFD crash we posted about yesterday:

They were responding to a call, lights and sirens, when struck by a pick-up truck.

We would have thought the bumper would have held up better than that, but we suppose it did what it was supposed to do. 

Crooked Judge Again

First, some habitual criminals got caught committing crimes....again:

• Two men already on pretrial release for burglarizing a Loop restaurant together are back in jail after Chicago police officers allegedly caught them doing the same thing again — and recovered suitcases full of Jimmy John’s cold cuts, chips and ice-cold soft drinks as evidence.

These must be two of those criminals that the democrat socialists say are only stealing because they're hungry or something.

Then it gets amusing:

• Williams has been on pretrial release since April, when he was charged with burglarizing an Uptown skate shop. At about 2 a.m. on April 21, police responded to a report of two people burglarizing Citizen Skate, 920 West Wilson Avenue, and found Williams under a parked car with multiple skateboards, clothing and skateboard hardware, a CPD arrest report said. Receipts from the skate shop were allegedly found in his pocket, and surveillance video allegedly showed him committing the burglary. Williams was released to await trial on that case.

  After he showed up for what was supposed to be a routine hearing on August 3, police arrested him at the courthouse to face charges in the June 30 Sweetgreen break-in and an overnight cash theft at Go Grocer, 345 West Wacker Drive, on June 10, according to court records. Despite the fact that those burglaries allegedly occurred while he was on pretrial release, Judge Tyria Walton released him again.

For those unaware, Walton is the judge who found Whitley Temple not guilty by reason of mental illness of running over a Chicago Police Officer with a squad car two years ago. Then after the publicity got to be too much, made unsubstantiated allegations to the media that Chicago Police Officers had made threats against her....

• without providing any actual evidence (unusual for a judge)
• without filing a single police report
• without informing the sheriff's protective detail about the "threats"
• without informing IAD or COPA of said "threats"

So not only is she incompetent at her job, she's a liar and fabulist to boot.

Good thing she's running for re-election this fall and can be removed from office....hahahahaha.

Repeat Criminals Repeating Again

More SAFE-T Act failures, squarely on the doorstep of Porkulous and the democrats: 

• Roy Pughsley caught a break last year. The 53-year-old had nearly killed another homeless man with a box cutter inside a River North Walgreens. But instead of going to prison on an attempted murder charge, he pleaded guilty to aggravated battery and walked out with 30 months of probation.

  Three weeks later, he was arrested again. And then again. And again. In all, Pughsley has been arrested eight more times since taking that plea deal, according to CPD records, with allegations ranging from possessing a knife to threatening people with knives at Loop businesses. He has repeatedly missed court dates, cycled on and off electronic monitoring and had judges decline to detain him. In his latest arrest, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office linked him to an overnight burglary at the Macy’s flagship store on State Street.

Eight additional arrests, some of them violent felonies. He really need to run into a CCL holder one of these times, just to save taxpayers money.

And this one is irritating:

• The man Chicago police Officer Krystal Rivera was chasing when she was fatally shot by her partner last year has been indicted on charges of conspiring to traffic fentanyl and cocaine in Chicago, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

  In June 2025, Rivera and Officer Carlos Baker chased Jaylin Arnold to a Chatham apartment, where Baker fired his gun, striking and killing Rivera. Arnold pleaded guilty to gun and drug charges in relation to Rivera’s death and was sentenced to eight years in prison in a plea deal — a sentence Rivera’s mother Yolanda Rivera called “extremely severe.”

  Arnold, 28, was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury for drug trafficking carried out with four other men between January and June of 2025, according to the indictment.

So is this a custodial investigation? Meaning he is currently in prison serving the eight years and managed to land an additional indictment for another case?

This part isn't surprising, but still pisses us off:

• Arnold was previously sentenced to seven years in prison after being convicted on gun charges in 2023, and has been sentenced to prison at least two other times for gun charges.

How about a "three strikes" law for repeat felons? This asshole is on his fourth (?) gun conviction and democrats (who are anti-anyone even owning a gun) can't bring themselves to apply the most severe punishments to someone who keeps violating existing gun laws.

CFD Injured

But not at a fire - in a crash:

• Four people, including two Chicago Fire Department firefighters, were taken to the hospital after a crash on the city's West Side on Tuesday afternoon.

  It happened near Augusta and Long in the Austin neighborhood.

  According to Chicago police, a fire engine collided with a white pickup, sending the fire truck over a curb, into a stoplight and then into a tree.

  Fire officials say all four people were taken to the hospital in good condition.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Stay Classy Sport Fans

It's a freaking kids' game played by millionaires:

• A large brawl broke out in the stands between Cubs and White Sox fans Monday at Wrigley Field during the start of the Crosstown Classic.

  The fight broke out in the eighth inning of the game, with fans from both teams appearing to throw fists during the heated moment, images showed.

Grow up.

Yeah, About that Casino Money

Looking less and less likely to ever appear:

• Bally’s has acknowledged its massive debt creates “substantial doubt about its ability to continue” over the next year, when the company is supposed to open its long-delayed Chicago casino complex in River West.

  The statement of “going concern” was included in Friday’s quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission from Bally’s, which says it “is pursuing a number of financing alternatives intended to enhance its liquidity, including asset monetization, an equity sale and debt financing.”

  The disclosure comes as Bally’s butts heads with City Council members who authorized video gambling terminals that the company says will eat away its revenue — providing fodder for Council members who argue that’s just an excuse to slow down a project Bally’s can’t afford to complete.

  Companies are required to issue going-concern warnings if there’s “substantial doubt” about their ability to avoid defaulting on debt over the next 12 months.

Every bad decision that could be made over this boondoggle wasn't simply made - it was embraced and sold to taxpayers as something it never was and almost never could possibly be.

Simply amazing. 

Bloody Sunday

CWB picking up the HeyJackass.com ball:

• Six people were murdered and another ten people survived being shot across Chicago on Sunday, a wave of violence that drove the weekend’s shooting total to 25 victims, according to preliminary information provided by Chicago police and reviewed by the independent crime data analysis site HeyJackass.com.

  Compared to the same weekend in previous years, 2026 will go down as the “best” in over a decade, with one fewer victim than last year. Since 2015, the weekend has averaged eight homicides with 37 non-fatal shooting victims, according to HeyJackass data analysis.

They're in contact with the HeyJackass people at some level, so that's good.

Crime is still down, though that doesn't make the families of the six dead people feel any better. 

Sig P320 Decision

This one flew under the radar:

• A federal jury in Maine said there were no defects in Sig Sauer's P320 in a case in an unintended discharge of the firearm.

  The jury considered product liability, negligence, and breach of implied warranty, and ruled unanimously in favor of Sig Sauer.

No word on the jury's experience with weapon usage, handling and ownership.

But the unsubstantiated stories were enough to panic many Departments into abandoning the Sigs as a duty weapon.

Any word on whether the City was compensating affected Officers and properly training them up on their new pistols? 

This CANNOT Be True, Right?

Right? (click for larger view)

Twenty-three people taking the test?

We got this via email, so no idea if it's true.

It's tagged as a Rumor. 

Millions "Found"

Is this Conehead's Magikal Money Tree?

• Following an advisory by the Chicago inspector general’s office, the city treasurer has asked the city council to dissolve the Community Catalyst Fund and return its more than $57 million in assets to general funds.

  The fund was set up 10 years ago to increase access to public and private investment capital for businesses and organizations in economically underserved areas.

  Inspector General David Glockner said the city provided half of the $100 million initially proposed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, but the fund has been been effectively dormant since 2020.

Fifty-seven million, just lying around in an account, doing nothing, earning nothing, benefiting no one?

Oh....not exactly:

• Glockner said there is no indication that the money was misused.

  The inspector said the fund only invested about $21 million of the $50 million that it received. No private dollars were ever invested in the fund.

  Glockner said the fund’s investments were all made in 2020 and the money was repaid.

If we're reading that correctly, $21 million was used for some unstated purpose....and then paid back?

For what? Who used it? What benefit was reaped from what appears to be a $21 million loan? Was there an investment? A buy-in to something? A stock market speculation where someone bought low, sold high, paid back the "loan" and kept the difference?

And guess who was nominally in charge of this untapped source of money?

• Chicago Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin is the ex officio chair of the catalyst fund’s board of directors. The fund failed to submit annual reports from 2022 to 2025.

And now, suddenly, she's asking for the fund to be dissolved and the money returned to the General Fund. Why now? Has the account served it's purpose? Are the feds sniffing around this (and other unknown) accounts? How much more is out there benefiting the selected few?

So many questions that no one seems to know - or want - the answers to. 

Here Come the Socialists

They've actually been here for years....Crimesha was the end result:

• A socialist lawmaker in New York City has claimed “biological need” gives shoplifters the right to steal from store shelves.

  State Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher, who describes herself as a “neighborhood organizer” and “democratic socialist,” made her comments on Thursday outside Manhattan Criminal Court, the New York Post reported Saturday.

  She was joined by members of Court Watch NYC, which claimed they monitored hundreds of arraignments for several days and found half of those cases were misdemeanors.

  Gallagher said:

  Most of what we saw were crimes of poverty-people who are stealing things like toothpaste, people who were stealing things like, you know, soap. And that means if you’re stealing those things, you need them. And we are choosing to protect billion-dollar companies, like CVS and Walgreens, over the people who are struggling to get by. So I would say that the true crime is that there is such incredible wealth disparity in this city that there are people who can be thrown in jail simply for having a biological need.

You understand what this Kommunist Karen is saying, right?

• minorities NEED to steal

Talk about the racism of low expectations....from white libtarded female. Everyone else just needs to pay more so certain people (and folks) don't have to pay at all?