Flashback - Profiling

Long time readers of the blog will remember back in July, during the height of the reverend Meeks incident, we wrote a large number of threads about the entire incident taking everyone and their brother to task (go to our July archives, start around the 15th and scroll upwards). We also saw that the mayor is home from his little Middle East jaunt and we hope he brought us some new and wondrous policing ideas as he has on so many of his other forays (the better to call it "business" and get the taxpayers to pay for it). You will recall that the camera idea was picked up on trips to Europe, was it not?

Here's a little policing tip we hope the mayor introduces in the coming weeks or months. We referenced it way back on 02 August 05 in a post we titled "A dirty little secret." It is perhaps the DIRTIEST little secret in all of policing:

Profiling Works

Let's pause for a moment to let the screams from our more liberal minded readers die down for a bit. Are they done yet? We still hear some dogs barking. There we go. Take a breath people. Here's some more sacrilege - Profiling has ALWAYS worked. In it's simplest form, it's a matter of seeing something that doesn't fit the surroundings. And reality being what it is, race sometimes comes into it. Chicago is still among the most segregated cities in the nation. Therefore, it stands to reason that a white guy in a black neighborhood MIGHT be there to buy drugs. A black guy in a hispanic part of town MIGHT be there to do garage burglaries. A hispanic guy in a white neighborhood MIGHT be there to do a drive by. Your good coppers - your truly great street guys - can go beyond the initial visual anomaly and make some truly spectacular arrests.

• Run the plate - is it from the neighborhood? Is it hot? Is it on the right type of car?
• Visual clues - is the subject a "fit" for the area? Financially? Is he/she wearing expensive clothes in a rundown part of town? Are they carrying a pillowcase in an alley?
  
• Physical appearances - Hypes? Health nuts? Holding their side? Eyeballing everyone else? Eyeballing nothing at all?

The list goes on and on, but what cops should be looking for is the "totality of the circumstances" which as we all should know, is a polite way of saying "profiling." NOT RACIAL PROFILING. Criminal profiling. Even some civilians can do it - but WE are supposed to do it. Being able to put 2 and 2 together has led to a lot of crimes being solved or prevented. Being able to put it down on paper and selling it to a State's Attorney or a jury is what makes it great.

Which is why this recent push to combat nonexistent racial profiling isn't just a waste of time and money. It's plain dumb.

Sergeant Test Results

If you didn't get them Monday, they're arriving today. Who has the actual cutoff score and can anyone get the results of (A) how many took it and (B) how many passed? We're just looking at what the competition is going to be.

Use this thread to post and brag about how well you did. But remember, it's only pass/fail at this point and you only did as good as the stupidest clout baby.

A Political Tool - Again

Once again, the Department has become a political tool for those seeking to advance an agenda of race driven politics - even in the face of those politics being completely and utterly proven to be nonexistent. Case in point (Channel 7 reports):

• The Chicago Police Department has launched a new campaign against racial profiling. The latest push includes more cameras in police cars and public service announcements telling drivers what they should do when they get pulled over by police.
• There were many calls for a crackdown on racial profiling following a controversial traffic stop of state senator Rev. James Meeks last July.

We wrote a number of articles, taking the Department and Meeks to task: the Department for failing to back the supervisor immediately and thoroughly; Meeks for making an issue out of what was HIS arrogance and expectation of special treatment. The Department surprised us by ultimately backing the Sergeant, saying there was no racial profiling. Then why this push to fix a problem that doesn't exist? After all, we have this summary from the most recent FOP newsletter (no link available yet):

• SB 2368 - Racial Profiling Legislation - That report showed that the disparity between stops of minority and non-minorities was less than 5%, well short of the level of concern that was established by the original promoters of the legislation in which they stated they would not be concerned unless the disparity rate was in the 30-35% range.

So it seems that the "Oversight Board" went in with preconceived notions of racial profiling by police departments and now they're unhappy that the results of THEIR study don't match reality. So they call a new tune and - presto! - we have a new campaign against nonexistent racial profiling. Amazing!

Hahahahahahaha

Sorry ... couldn't help ourselves ... hahaha:

• In a confidential, sworn statement to federal investigators, Mayor Daley said his Office of Intergovernmental Affairs recommended people for city jobs but did not order their hiring, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

HAHAHAHAHAHA. Oh Lordy, that is some funny shit. Heh heh heh heh heh. We mean, haha, "recommended ... but did not order"? Hahaha ... sorry, we can't help ourselves. Hee hee hee. Oh man. Someone get us some towels? We've spit coffee all over our computer again.

First Challenger?

State rep Luis Gutierrez has all but thrown his hat into the mayoral ring, giving a statement that sounds suspiciously like a campaign platform. From the Sun Times:

• U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez insisted Monday he hasn't decided about running for mayor, but he sounded a lot more like a candidate than a Washington lawmaker as he laid out his ideas for improving the city and took shots at some of Mayor Richard Daley's pet projects."
• It would be awfully hard for me to say no to a campaign for mayor if that campaign can help Chicago," Gutierrez said at a luncheon hosted by the City Club of Chicago, a nonpartisan civic group.

Daley has his first serious minority challenger. All he needs now is a second one (Jesse Jr.?) to split the vote and he's well on his way to securing another term.

Cops Hurt

Links: Channel 2; Channel 5; Channel 7; Tribune.

Everyone should survive. Thanks to everyone who got the guys out of the car.

Last Chance to Vote for Al

Today is the last day to vote for Al O'Connor as "America's Most Wanted All Star." Be sure you go to this link TODAY and cast your ballot. One vote per person.

Do it. NOW!

Picture of the Sign

Sent to us by a reader. We will not be identifying him/her, but suffice it to say that we've heard a number of decent things about him/her from people we know. Thanks.

We hope every exempt that saw this sign felt a twinge of shame at their silence over the mere possibility of a dead felon being honored at the expense of dead cops.

A Guy Who Gets It

Everyone ought to read this article. We thought we made a few points in our little post about why the Virginia jury (and the American justice system) failed in the Moussaoui case. Mark Steyn in the Sun Times completely buries those who think this should be a "Law Enforcement" action rather than a War.

• "America, you lose," said Zacarias Moussaoui as he was led away from the court last week.

  Hard to disagree. Not just because he'll be living a long life at taxpayers' expense. He'd have had a good stretch of that even if he'd been "sentenced to death," which in America means you now spend more years sitting on Death Row exhausting your appeals than the average "life" sentence in Europe. America "lost" for a more basic reason: turning a war into a court case and upgrading the enemy to a defendant ensures you pretty much lose however it turns out. [emphasis added - SCC]
  

Go read the whole thing. It'll change your way of thinking of the "War on Terror."

The Sopranos Update

... will wait until tomorrow night. In the meantime, use this as an open posting for Monday. Be sure to go back a few threads and read the weekend articles.

St. Jude's Sign

Ok, about the sign.

This is still America. It might be Daley's Chicago, but it's still the United States of America. If people want to make signs and display them at football games, protests or memorial marches, that is their right. Hell, it's their OBLIGATION.

Any organized boycott of St. Jude's was bound to fail. We march for dead coppers - not the bosses, not the public and certainly not for politicians. We can't even remember the last time the sitting mayor attended St. Jude's, if ever. And we can say openly and honestly, we don't miss him or his fake concern. By the same token, any organized protest short of completely inappropriate behavior (A) certainly wouldn't have been noticed by any of the bosses in the reviewing stand and (B) would only reflect badly on the march itself.

That being said, we're glad one of our readers arrived early, set up in a visible space and held up her sign for the bosses to see all during the march. Let's not pretend that any of us could have done something like that without suffering some sort of repercussions for our career, be it starting time, assigned car or unit of assignment. We KNOW our readers aren't that naive and we KNOW that we're that cynical. So no matter what your opinion of the sign carrier, she did something none of us did and none of us could have done. Where would any of the critics have done it? At the next recruit graduation? At the next promotional ceremony? At the DOC meeting? Give us a break.

Any support for our dead is appreciated.

What the ... ?!

As we understand it, the Texas Rangers were (are) an historic law enforcement agency, with a long and storied history (see their website here). They are a kind of unofficial representative of Texas Law Enforcement in general. They also happen to have a baseball team named after them. So what's up with this?
Now before some Saturday night drunk flies off the handle and accuses us of racial insensitivity, Cinco de Mayo is NOT some holiday celebrating Mexican heritage. It is the commemoration of a MILITARY BATTLE, and a losing battle at that. An American baseball club celebrating a foreign nation's military heroes is political correctness run amok and pandering of the highest order. Especially in light of the backlash forming at illegals demanding full rights without any of the duties of citizenship.

Picture via MLB/Yahoo News. Additional commentary at MichelleMalkin.com.

Run to Remember

Anyone have any reports on how the "Run to Remember" went? We guess it's kind of the kick off for Police Week, what with St. Jude's later today, Memorial Park shortly after and the Recognition ceremony Wednesday. The whole thing culminates in the National Memorial next week and we hope to have a couple of reports from on scene from a few readers. We'll update as we get info.

300,000

Somewhere in the past five minutes, we had our 300,000 visitor. Heck, it might have been us signing on to check the site meter and do a few late night posts. Anyway, some people might think we talk about the numbers too much or it seems like we're bragging when we mention the milestones we hit, but we just think it's good manners to thank everyone who visits.

More than a few hundred of you think we're worth stopping by and looking at for a few minutes every day. Some of you are looking for info; some might just be stopping by to read the BS; some might be gawking at the traffic crash; some might be peeking in to make sure their names or shenanigans haven't made the site; who knows?

Regardless of your reasons or motivations, we appreciate it and we thank you.

A Drug Addict is a Drug Addict?

So where is all of the outrage from the Left now that Patrick Kennedy has admitted being addicted to pain medication after wrecking a car and getting a pass from certain Washington DC police bosses? We mean, they were ready to string Rush Limbaugh up by his testicles for "doctor shopping" and "felony drug possession" and such. Where and how does everyone think Kennedy got his pills? We're almost positive it wasn't by any legal means.

Oh, and by the Way

If you have any tips that the Inspector General can use:

• The new hotline number, 866-IG-TIPLINE (448-4754), will be staffed Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for those who don't have the freedom to spill the beans during work hours. Tipsters can also dump their dirt on the Internet at www.chicagoinspectorgeneral.org. If they don't want to be identified, they won't be, thanks to a "third party host server" that keeps encrypted messages secure.

But then they ruin the whole effect with this:

• But tipsters are encouraged to leave contact information because follow-up conversations can only help investigators strike pay dirt.

We're not sure what they are looking for. The site says corruption , fraud and misconduct. It doesn't say anything about cronyism, nepotism or favoritism, but we figure we're going to report about 20 bosses and underlings on Monday morning, all anonymously, just so the corruption fighters can start off their week feeling like they are making a difference.

Two Sets of Rules - AGAIN!

This isn't the best place to put this post - first thing on a Saturday morning. Our readership numbers are always a few hundred hits lower on Saturdays and Sundays. Everyone has things to do for the weekend, even us. But we can't really sit on this one as it will be stale and outdated by Monday morning. - SCC

A Tale of Two Cities - or one city, two sets of rules.

On one hand, you have the Burge report. Aldercreatures are demanding release of the investigation, the attorneys for Burge and other defendants are arguing that the case must remain sealed as much of the information did not come from discoverable sources. But the aldercreatures are still demanding answers, transparency and blame to be affixed. We know the aldercreatures are going to use it as a club to beat the police department with, passing all sorts of nonsensical legislation tying our hands while playing to their constituents that they are "doing something" about police brutality.

On the other hand, you have the Inspector General's office begging for tips, clues and information about corruption in the city so that the mayor can claim he's cleaning up graft and such before the next election. And the biggest stumbling block?

• [Inspector General] Hoffman is also making a renewed appeal for the power to investigate aldermen -- something the City Council has refused to entertain over the years. "We have . . . not been able to find any other city where the IG's jurisdiction is limited by an aldermanic immunity provision," Hoffman said. [emphasis added - SCC]

Well well well. Imagine that. Alder-asshats won't let the Inspector General investigate them and have granted themselves immunity from any such investigations. Yet they demand transparency in every other city department, especially the Police Department. Can you imagine the outraged howls and screeching if the Department told the aldercreatures to mind their own damn business and keep their noses out of stuff that didn't concern them?

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

We have no idea what a fifth of mayonnaise has to do with anything, but someone told us about it and it seemed to be funny.

Hereditary Employment

Once again, the political machine grooms a son to take over for the father - and no, we aren't talking about the police department at the moment:

• Ald. Todd Stroger (8th) said Thursday he's qualified to succeed his father -- and confident of victory -- if a stroke suffered by Cook County Board President John Stroger prevents him from remaining on the Democratic ticket.

When are we going to get around to disbanding this completely outdated, outmoded and money wasting arm of government? We need to really get serious about reducing the size of municipal and county government. They are overly burdensome.

How to Ruin Your Career

Step #1: Call the guy that Mayor Daley himself appointed to the Inspector General's office to report corruption. At least that's the gist of the article on the Sun Times website:

• The city's top corruption fighter appealed Thursday for tips from employees and the public about shenanigans in City Hall as Mayor Richard Daley's former patronage chief prepares to go on trial.
• Inspector General David Hoffman said tipsters can use his office's new Web site and hot line to report corruption, fraud or misconduct. The Web site is independent of the city and people who call the hot line can talk directly to an investigator.
• Hoffman, who is a former federal prosecutor, was named to the post by Daley in September to replace Alexander Vroustouris, who resigned last June amid allegations that his office's investigations were delayed and incomplete.

So we have a thoroughly corrupt investigative arm of the city asking for information about other corruption so that the corrupt investigative body can report to a mayor who has allowed graft, corruption and fixes of all sorts to breed freely for years. Sorry, but we'll take our chances with the Feds.

Alternate Step #1: Start a blog.