Corruption Corruption Everywhere

One would think that Illinois doesn't even function without some level of corruption built into the very structures of the political framework. They'd be right.

We have the Hired Truck and other hiring scandals taking apart City Hall at the moment. Hopefully, more convictions and prison sentences will be forthcoming. Now we have Governor Blago's own little mini scandal popping up in the news:

• Gov. Blagojevich defended his administration Saturday against a new barrage of allegations that his administration engaged in illegal political hiring, insisting that recent scandals are fallout from his attempts to "ferret out wrongdoing" in Springfield.

Sure Rod. You coming from one of the most politically connected families this side of the mayor's has nothing to do with the fact that the feebs are finding curious habits of the Machine repeated on the state level. And now, Cook County corruption is coming to the fore:

• The niece of a high-ranking Cook County state's attorney employee has been charged with theft in connection with an alleged scheme to shake down people trying to reclaim assets seized during criminal investigations, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

Golly. A relative of a high ranking official (who probably got the job because of the high ranking official) stands accused of corruption. Who'd have thought that could ever happen? In Illinois? Wow.

SCC Revealed ... Again

We can't decide which picture we like better - Mr Incredible was great, but this has its appeal too. Thank you very much.

Cubs Win One!

So now they're only, what? 21 games below .500? Woo Hoo. They're still 100 years from a World Series title. Of course, watch the Cubs fans treat this like some sort of "moral" victory, as if winning 33% of your interleague games against your crosstown rival is something to be proud of. Is it true that the Cubs didn't win one home game in all of June? How sorry is that? Lord we hate baseball. Are the Bears in training camp yet?

Stroger Follies Not Over Yet

The jockeying for position has begun, in spite of the alleged "agreement" put forth by Aldercreature Beavers. This is going to be a fun election locally:

• A day after Cook County Board President John Stroger announced he was stepping down, potential replacement Bobbie Steele stepped into the spotlight Saturday, touting her qualifications to replace Stroger on the November ballot.
• Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.) announced his candidacy Friday after the Stroger camp released an unsigned letter saying that Stroger would resign as the Democratic nominee for board president effective Saturday.

More coverage at Channel 7. We're just hoping Peraica and the Eastern European mafia can pull off the upset.

A Quota? Again?

Why is it the worst ideas seem to pop up with astonishing regularity?

As one of our readers has so helpfully posted in half a dozen threads, there is a rumor of a "quota" system arising again, this time in Area 4. We aren't sure if it's alleged for the Area Saturation teams or includes all Area Tactical and Gang teams. Last time this happened, the captain authoring the memo outlining the point system and the Commander signing off on it weren't disciplined in any way shape or form and the Deputy Chief who approved it was promoted to Chief of Detectives and is the inside favorite for Superintendent. Maybe this is a plot by the Area 4 Deputy Chief to become Chief of Detectives when that spot opens up?

Anyway, a quota system is a bad idea. Always has been, always will be. Everything you do will be judged against "What were you required to bring in to keep your car/spot/team/start time?" Allegations of "railroading" defendants will skyrocket. It'll be a blizzard of defense motions to produce paperwork, grading systems, rating sheets and all the attached nonsense. Then the appeals will demand to know who developed the rating systems, who assigned what points to what types of arrests? Why is this pinch worth more than that one? And once that genie is out of the bottle, oh boy.

Do we need something, some set of goals that officers can strive toward in order to get the choice assignments, the teams, the cars and the truly deserving merit promotions instead of political hacks getting rewarded for bloodlines or phone calls or such? Sure. But developing something fair and impartial? We'll be on Mars long before that happens in this city.

Response to Comments - the Burge Report

From a Comments Section:

• The way SCC has been crowing about this report coming out, it almost appears as if he is awaiting bad news that will be negative for the mayor. I mean dislike of the mayor is one thing, but this has the potential to be a major black eye for law enforcement...yet again.

First of all, we don't crow. We link to stories written in the media that we think might be of interest to coppers. Unfortunately, the Burge report is going to be a huge topic of conversation very shortly. We stated our opposition to release as we object with every fiber of our being to anything that the "People's Law Office" supports. Unfortunately, the Illinois Supreme Court doesn't answer to us (yet) and the report is about to come out.

This being said, anything (and we mean anything) that embarrasses this Administration is greatly appreciated. The fact that you seem to be supportive of the mayor speaks volumes about you - you obviously have no idea how much the rank and file hate his guts.

As to the potential for "a major black eye for law enforcement," how much blacker can it get? We operate from a position of presumed guilt for every "baby's mamma's drama" that happens in this city. Every time we shoot someone, the altar boy photos come out and we hear about how the "victim" was just about to get his life straight. Screw it. If the story is going to break, it's going to break and we might as well get in front of it and see what we can salvage.

Was Burge as bad as he's been portrayed? Probably not. It was a different time. Burge wasn't routinely grabbing old ladies off of the street and torturing them. He was leaning on cop killers and murderers. You want to hear some stories that'll make you hair curl? We'd introduce you to people who know how certain information was retrieved that gave grieving families closure and justice, but the statute of limitations hasn't run out on some. Some cases only got closed because people like Burge knew they had to push the boundaries a little bit in an era that the US Supreme Court was giving criminals a free rein to wreak havoc and empowering their scumbag lawyers with every manner of bullshit to literally get away with murder. At least the pendulum is swinging the other way nowadays and the Courts (Federal at least) presume we are operating in good faith rather than the other way around.

Do we support what Burge did? We understand quite a bit of why it was done. Does anyone think Burge could get away with what he did then in today's era of video and 72 hours holds and all the other nonsense imposed by Courts, Legislation and Consent Decrees? Not a chance. We'll withhold judgment on supporting it until we see the report. If the typical leftist media course hold true, there will be some completely understandable incidents they've glossed over and a few questionable ones hyped to the extreme.

A Notice About Postings

Our more astute readers may have noticed the volume of posts has dropped off a bit. Part of this has to do with a slight change in our schedules. Another part of this has to do with what we're trying to accomplish with this site. We started this site with the best intentions. A site to exchange information about the job. A site to have a little fun at the expense of the powers that be, political and departmental. A place to have a good time along the lines of the old Second City Cop Network.

So while we are willing to accept a bit of the burden of patrolling the board semi regularly in case people abuse the "bathroom wall" type atmosphere that an anonymous board brings to the fore, we were spending an inordinate amount of time doing it. We've begun closing posts earlier so that only a few days worth of posts remain open at a time so we aren't looking through 10 days worth of postings to ferret out the woman hating, gay bashing, name calling, racist garbage to be cleaned. If this cuts off a particularly good train of thought or a decent debate ... well ... coppers fuck up more good things for each other than anyone else does for us. Why should this board be any different?

At the moment, it's the best we can do short of registering each and every user and monitoring each and every comment. We don't have time for that and we don't want to expend that much effort. Lists are traceable and subject to subpoena. We value our anonymity as much or more than any of our visitors. Let's try to behave and not make us go another route.

Ouch!

Picture via Channel 7 News. Other coverage at Channel 2 and the Sun Times.

Thankfully, no one was seriously injured. But the fact remains that helicopters are inherently unstable aircraft. Any aircraft in which there is a "chip detector" looking for foreign particles in a transmission so you can tell if it might be tearing itself apart in mid flight is not an aircraft we'd prefer to be spending overly large amounts of time in. It would seem the odds will catch up to you eventually.

Just in Case Anyone Forgot

The Burge Report is due out in a few weeks according to various media reports. Supposedly, a number of high ranking former and current bosses might be among those named and at the top of the hit parade is the former Cook County State's Attorney himself, Mayor Daley.

An already wounded mayor is going to be asked what he knew and when he knew it in regard to the Burge investigations. At least one former superintendent is already on record as being aware of the investigations and letting the political powers that were know about it.

So do we have at least one of the reasons the mayor has been pushing so hard for positive news, like bidding for the Olympics?

Aldercreature Revolt?

Seems the City Council is sensing the sweet sunlight of freedom peeking through the dark shadow that is the Daley Machine. And they seem to be liking it. They are openly defying Daley on a number of issues and it's amusing to see.

Unfortunately, none of them seems to be blessed in the brains department (they're Chicago aldercreatures for pete's sake and democrats to boot) and the things that they are running counter to Daley are either unimportant or economic suicide. For instance:

• The entire "foie gras" incident. Why a major metropolitan city council would even spend a moment debating whether people with too much money should spend it at ten restaurants that serve goose liver is beyond us.
  
• Monday, Ed Burke wants to ban cooking with trans fats at Chicago restaurants. What in the hell is he thinking? We bleed convention business, are billions short in pension obligations and Eddie wants to stop people from spending money?
• The City Council demands the mayor hire more cops and the mayor essentially says "Screw you." This has yet to play out. Can the Legislative Branch force the Executive to bend to their will, which is essentially the will of the people? This could be interesting shortly.
• And now, the mayor is trying to get aldercreatures to back off of a number ordinances that will make it difficult for Wal-Mart to open a couple big box stores in town. These include "living wage" and benefits packages.

This is hilarious. And great theater. The aldercreatures don't have a brain among themselves in regard to economic realities and are slowing killing this city on the national stage.

• Mandating "living wages" will keep Wal Mart out of the city. But city residents are still going to go work there - there goes the City's "head tax" they so dearly love.
  
• Wal-Mart, for all it's alleged faults, supplies things that people want and want at a price they are willing to pay - there goes the City's sales taxes.
• City stores will be driven out of business as the people flock to the surrounding suburbs that are happy to have Wal-Mart there - goodbye to even more head taxes and sales taxes - the death spiral tightens
• Here's the best part - the aldercreatures are beholden to the unions who are demanding Wal-Mart submit to their will and their insane economic shackles. Wal-Mart probably won't. So the unions contribute to driving more union people out of jobs as businesses shut and support services disappear.

And if you really want a laugh, the City is declining to enforce immigration statutes, becoming a "sanctuary city" of sorts. More illegals show up and the illegal job seekers increase. Illegals are doing jobs at lower wages, further damaging and eroding the unions membership. Illegals don't have a lot of money, working these lower paying jobs, where are they going to shop? Wal-Mart!

God help us, we love this stuff.

Final Post About Sergeants Exam

We've run the gamut from serious to not so serious posts about the exam. We even gave full coverage to the amusing story making the rounds about a box of missing tests that provoked a flurry of late night phone calls among some of the exempts who surf the board. A last question for others who took the test along with some of us here.

What was the most effective study group that you joined? Was it the Robert's Study Group? Was it the Bernstein people? Or was it a group of coppers who got together and actually studied on their own? We heard a bunch of good things about one of the paying groups. Did anyone have a preference?

That's Not an M&M!!

Making us rethink our sweet tooth, the following coverage from Channel 2, Channel 7 and the Sun Times, M&M Mars is shut down for health code violations. Not only shut down, but shut down for refusing to make corrections following an earlier inspection.

Color us cynical, but we still like to think of our candies made by little orange Oompa Loompas in a magical chocolate factory somewhere far away. Mouse crap and fruit flies just doesn't cut it for us.

Daley to City Council: F#$% You

Looks like we won't be seeing a specialized traffic unit or a minor alleviation in the manpower shortage we all know exists and the Superintendent has admitted exists. From the Sun Times:

• Last week, a City Council committee defied Mayor Daley by agreeing to hire 100 more police officers for traffic enforcement with $7.5 million generated by red light cameras.

  On Wednesday, Daley defied them back.

  Minutes after the City Council gave final signoff to the police hiring, the mayor denounced it as "a useless act" that lacks the weight of law. He said he has no plans to hire more police officers to crack down on what aldermen call an "epidemic" of dangerous driving, including speeding, red-light running and blowing through stop signs.

The mayor wasn't ever going to spend the "windfall" money generated by the red-light cameras on anything as trivial as more police officers. And he certainly isn't going to be laying off any of his precious TMA's and Traffic Aides when he can pay them part time wages and no benefits rather than what actual sworn coppers can earn. And now with the $1 billion dollar property tax hike foisted on us by the Chicago Public Schools, Daley needs every dime he can squeeze from the cameras more than ever.

The Insanity of Aldercreatures

This is getting ridiculous now. It's the "nanny state" out of control:

• Chicago restaurants already prohibited from selling foie gras would be forced to start cooking healthy - without oils containing trans fats linked to obesity, stroke and heart disease - under a crackdown proposed Wednesday by the City Council's most powerful alderman.

  Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th) followed through on a promise to make Chicago the first big city in the nation to prohibit restaurants from using oils containing artificial trans fats in food preparation.

Um, Eddie? Maybe the reason people LIKE eating foods like this is it tastes good? Trust us, if the food tastes like crap, no one is going to buy it. Chicago is a city based on great tasting food. You want tasteless, bland crap, move to L.A. or Seattle. Not here though. You want to drive convention business away even faster than normal, eliminate the great tasting food.

And guess what else? No one is forcing people to eat this stuff. They WANT to eat it. And if they care about their health, they'll do it in moderation and exercise regularly and take care of themselves. But to completely eliminate food that tastes fantastic just because someone somewhere down the line is going to have "the big one" isn't just stupid - it's completely asinine. Chicago has a long tradition of aldercreatures and mayors who couldn't fit into regular size clothes and died of dietary related ailments.

Stop thinking you know what's good for us Eddie. Don't you have some conflict of interest votes to change somewhere in the Council record somewhere?

Compared to Last Year?

Anyone have the homicide numbers? We've got to be neck and neck, right? Because we can't be below last years numbers, can we?

A "two-fer" on the southside.

Hahahahaha

From Channel 2 News:

A would be burglar was shot in the head. With his own gun! Hahahahahahahahahaha. You gotta love it.

Encore!

Stroger to Step Aside?

Sun Times report:

• Three months after suffering a serious stroke - and winning renomination in spite of it - Cook County Board President John Stroger is expected to withdraw this week and ask Democratic ward bosses to replace him on the November ticket with his son.

But the hereditary politics of Cook County live on:

• Ald. William Beavers (7th), self-declared spokesman for the Stroger family, has already started lining up votes for Ald. Todd Stroger (8th) and appears to be well on his way to securing a majority of the weighted votes of 80 ward and township committeemen to place the younger Stroger on the ballot, sources said.

Great. A member of the most crooked legislative body in recorded history is about to be handed the reins of one of the biggest political patronage machines in existence. All because he's daddy's boy. If this isn't a reason to be really disgusted with Illinois politics, we don't know what is.

Another Cop Doing Their Job

Via Channel 7 News (the Sun Times has the same story):

• Police have reports of two people shot, Wentworth District Lt. Joseph Berry said, but he could not provide additional information.

  Apparently, a police officer witnessed the shooting, then chased down and apprehended one of the two suspects involved and the weapon, Langford said.

Too bad we don't get more coverage of stories like these. We're sure it happens a lot more than anyone hears about. The 24 Hour Report doesn't give the boys and girls enough credit for going out there and just doing the job day in and day out. Stories like these are overshadowed by headlines about cowardice or crooked cops getting swept up in narcotics operations. But then, "Dog Bites Man" stories never sell as many papers or commercials as "Man Bites Dog."

Railroad Killer Executed

and other Quick Hits:

• Channel 2, Channel 5 and Channel 7 cover the execution of one of the more prolific serial killers in history. At least his death gurney statement was "I deserve what I am getting."
  
• Only saw this story at the Sun Times of all places. Seems 19 people got arrested at a free DJ led concert at Daley Plaza Sunday night. Nothing happens at Daley Plaza without City approval and it usually has "Presented by Richard M. Daley" somewhere on the literature. So the mayor must be presenting mini-riots downtown now so the media doesn't have to venture into Garfield Park on the weekends. Why no coverage?
• Continuing a long democratic tradition of throwing money at problems, Danny Davis wants more money to treat heroin addiction. We've already expressed our views on this. We'd rather see the money earmarked for D-3 out of grade expenditures.

Lost Test?

Track this one down people. Lots of comments in the "Lost in the Clutter" post about a box of tests going missing on the way to being graded. More City shenanigans? Or more BS rumors at SCC Blog? Let us know.

UPDATE: Rumor appears to be just that - a rumor at this time. But it is amusing to see how many of us are willing to give credence to the story in that we ALL know how the city truly works. Qualifications mean almost nothing in the day and age of Daley. We say "almost" because there is that rare occassion when someone qualified is needed (like Paul Vallas) and they are hired or promoted until such time as the Machine can safely backstab them to put another political hack into place.