Witch Hunt on the Way

Get ready for a raft of bad headlines...and worse lawsuits most likely:

• In a major policy turnabout, Mayor Rahm Emanuel will make citizen complaints against Chicago Police officers available for public scrutiny, according to city officials.
  
  In March, a state appeals court ruled the city couldn’t keep the records secret, and the city vowed to appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court.
  
  But on Friday, city officials said they won’t appeal after all.
  
  “We did think we had a strong case and a viable argument, but we decided this comes in line with our efforts to build relationships between the public and police department and improve transparency,” city spokeswoman Shannon Breymaier said.

That sound you just heard was the sound of hundreds of officers being thrown under the bus for the sake of political expediency.

Bodies Keep Piling Up

There's the weekend twenty....plus a few:

• Two people were killed and at least 21 others have been wounded in shootings across the city since Friday evening.
  
  The most recent fatal shooting happened early Saturday in a Chicago Lawn neighborhood apartment on the Southwest Side, where a 50-year-old woman was seriously injured and her son was killed in a domestic-related incident, police said.

Well, now that Garry has gotten that number out of the way, off to tell everyone that "crime is down" and pop a few cold ones.

Hurry Polar Vortex, Hurry!

Can't come soon enough:

• At least one man has been killed and 13 other people wounded in shootings in Chicago this evening.
  
  In the Austin neighborhood about 7:13 p.m., a 32-year-old man was shot and dead on the scene in a possible drive-by shooting in the 5200 block of West Quincy Street, said Police News Affairs [...]. A man whose age was not yet available was shot in the right arm, but refused medical treatment and was refused to cooperate with police.
  
  Later, a 30-year-old woman who had been shot multiple times in the same attack, showed up at Loretto Hospital, less than a mile away, but was transferred to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital, Zala said. A fourth person, a 41-year-old man, walked into West Suburban Medical Center with a gunshot wound to his hand but gave police a bogus address before they figured out he had also been shot on Qunicy.

So almost another 20 last night. Crime is down!

Nice Shooting There Tex

No doubt this will be used by the anti-gun crowd to show guns are dangerous:

• An accused gang member who told police he keeps a gun to protect himself from rivals accidentally shot and killed a member of his own gang while waving that weapon around outside a Southwest Side Walgreen store over the Fourth of July weekend, Cook County prosecutors said.
  
  Richard Magnan, who has numerous face tattoos, including one that reads, “F--- the world” and a White Sox logo, was friends with Joel Bentley — the man he shot in the early morning hours of July 5, Assistant State’s Attorney Alexandra Molesky said.

Well done dumbshit.

Mystery Money for JJJr

Politics as usual in Illinois:

• A year ago, former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.'s attorneys said his family was in "significant financial peril" as he and his wife, Sandi, awaited sentencing for looting $750,000 from his campaign coffers.Jackson had to come up with that amount to pay a court judgment. Prosecutors wanted to seize the equity in the couple's two homes if he didn't.
  
  The Chicago Democrat ponied up $200,000 before he entered prison last fall. Then he paid off the balance with a $550,000 wire transfer in late May, while keeping both his houses.
  
  The Jacksons aren't saying where the $550,000 came from, but a Tribune investigation points to a mysterious lending company created at a law firm used by Michael Milken, the convicted "junk bond king" of the 1980s who is a longtime friend of the Jackson family.

Must be nice to have rich friends who can pony up three-quarters-of-a-million at a moments notice.

Another" Exchange" of Gunfire

July is setting a torrid pace:

• Three separate shootings left three men wounded, and police exchanged gunfire with a man in another incident overnight.
  
  Preliminary reports said the man police shot at is in custody and is not  injured. Police said a weapon was recovered from the scene.
  
  That police-involved shooting happened about 2:50 a.m. in the 6400 block of South Campbell Avenue. It's not clear what prompted police to open fire.

Um...perchance he was armed with a gun and pointing it at police? Maybe?

In any event, cops go home safe, bad guy sleeps in jail.

A sergeant was injured in a separate car accident down south side way:

• A Chicago Police Department sergeant was taken to an area hospital after a collision at Garfield Boulevard and Indiana Avenue in the city's Washington Park neighborhood.
  
  The crash happened just before 11 p.m. Preliminary reports indicated the sergeant was in an unmarked car that somehow came into contact with a grey sedan.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

14 Becomes 16

Last weekend's casualty count just inched up a bit:

• The death toll from the weekend gun violence in Chicago rose to 16 Monday when two men died from their wounds after being shot late Sunday night and early Monday.

That means that the "reduction" McCompStat was bragging about at the end of June (nine whole homicides!) just did a little catching up. As of yesterday, we were only 6 behind last year.

But not to worry! Plans are in effect. CPD isn't counting the murder on the Dan Ryan the other day of the 25-year-old pregnant mother of five - ISP will be handling that one.

And Tommy Skilling has awoken from his summer slumber and is bringing in a summertime "Polar Vortex" just as a favor to Rahm and Garry:

• Next week will bring a span of unseasonably cool days and nights that could dip into the 40s in some Chicago suburbs, say weather forecasters.
  
  In a tweet on its official Twitter feed, the National Weather Service in Romeoville described the system in terms familiar, if perhaps unwelcome, after this past winter.
  
  "A July version of the Polar Vortex forecast over Great Lakes next week!" began the tweet, which has been retweeted more than 65 times.

Remember - Global warming!

UPDATE: Events are conspiring against the "Rahm and Garry Show" though. Another "death investigation" has been reclassified as a homicide:

• The death of a 32-year-old man found lying on the street in the Lincoln Park neighborhood in late April was ruled a homicide by the Cook County medical examiner's office this week, officials said.
  
  Jacob Klepacz, of the 1200 block of North Noble Street, was found in the 1500 block of West Fullerton Avenue and was pronounced dead at 4:21 a.m. April 28 at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
  
  Klepacz was an avid Chicago sports fan who police said was found fatally beaten after he had left a Wrigleyville bar. Police were called to the scene on Fullerton about 3:55 a.m. April 28 following the report of a possible battery, and found the victim on the street with head trauma, Police News Affairs said at the time.

In light of that Chicago Magazine article, it's amazing that they were able to keep this off the books for over two months as a death investigation. Hopefully, it hasn't let the trail grow cold.

Frank Main Gives Credit

Never thought we'd see the day:

• The first two shootings didn’t kill them.
  
  But the third one did.
  
  Two recent Chicago murder victims survived earlier gunshot wounds before they were killed, police confirmed Thursday.
  

And the very last line of the article:

• The Second City Cop blog first reported that Wright and Weekly were previously shot before their murders.

We actually only learned about Weekly from our readers, so credit goes to all. We're sure these aren't the only two - we know a few of criminal types who have been shot six, seven or more times. Modern medicine is marvel sometimes.

Frank does a good job outlining the circumstances leading up to the multiple woundings leading up to their eventual demise. We'd like to see some follow-up though, like why is this acceptable behavior in these neighborhoods? Why are the police expected to stop this nonsense? How is a force that is short almost 3-to-4,000 officers from peak strength in the 1990's and without a meaningful citywide response unit supposed to accomplish anything meaningful against an entrenched culture of dope, death and destruction?

Welcome to America!

Chicago taxpayers can't thank you enough Obama:

• Sen. Mark Kirk said today that 429 unaccompanied minors from the Mexican border crisis are in Chicago in the custody of a federal agency, and he wants to know if any of the children have criminal records.
  
  Kirk, an Illinois Republican, said the children are in the custody of the Health and Human Services Department. His news release did not say where the children are being housed.
  
  In the release, Kirk also said the State Department is “unable to confirm if any of these individuals has a criminal record or background.”

We'll bet a paycheck that these kids are going to be here a while. And Chicago taxpayers will be footing the bill for school, housing, medical care, etc. Last time we checked, 92 million Americans were out of work or had left the workforce, but Obama and the democrats want to bring over and legalize upward of 20 million more because nothing says "compassion" more than impoverishing and eliminating the middle-class by creating an underclass completely dependent on government handouts.

A Bigger "Merit" List (UPDATE)

We got this in a few e-mails. It appears to be a comprehensive "merit" lists of CPD promotions for Lieutenant, Sergeant AND Detectives from 2000 until 2011:

*** DOCUMENT TEMPORARILY REMOVED - SEE UPDATES BELOW ***
*** DOCUMENT TEMPORARILY REMOVED - SEE UPDATES BELOW ***
*** DOCUMENT TEMPORARILY REMOVED - SEE UPDATES BELOW ***

We apologize for the washed-out quality of the document. It appears to have been photocopied many times. Most interesting is the notation "DP" next to a number of names (be forewarned we will be deleting those comments that are sexual in nature.) It stands for Double "merit" Promotions.

Combined with the other "merit" lists we've put up this week, it would be interesting to track the Triple "merit" Promotions. What we really need is some sort of "family tree" outlining how "merit" begets "merit."

We'd also like to find out the identity of the scratched out name on page 6.

UPDATE: There appears to be at least one error on the list. Planey helpfully sent a copy of his  results and he was ranked 138 on the list. He was passed over for time-on-the-job, but promoted in rank order afterwards.

We didn't create this list. It's titled "Bureau of Administrative Services," so it's an internal document, and it was produced via an FOIA request by the Department. It's obviously been photocopied many times as these sorts of things are when being passed around at HQ among the exempts. That it is rife with errors isn't a surprise by any stretch of the imagination.

UPDATE: We've been handed/e-mailed evidence that shows an additional three supposed "merit" picks that actually made it by score. We're going to take down the document for the moment until it can be determined exactly what this list supposedly contains. Much of it matches the previous posted "merit" lists, the vast majority actually. Might it have been a "merit applicant" list? We have no idea, but now that the cat is out of the bag, it isn't going back in easily. FOIA requests will continue to be filed, lists will be leaked and slowly the rotten process of "merit" will be exposed.

More "Merit" Picks

The post a few down from this one was titled ' "Merit" Sgts - 2007 to Almost the Present' because it lacked the recent May 2014 class of sergeants.

This is the May 2014 list:

It's certainly interesting to see how former "merit" picks end up picking up the next generation of "merit" appointees.

Good Riddance

Another homicide in 011:

• Bruce Wright was shot to death while riding a bicycle in the Humboldt Park neighborhood late Tuesday.
  
  Wright, 23, was riding the bike in the 900 block of North Hamlin Avenue when a van pulled up and someone inside opened fire about 10:10 p.m. Tuesday, authorities said.
  
  One of the bullets struck Wright, of the 0-100 block of North Hamlin Avenue, in the head and died at the scene, authorities said.
  
  An autopsy found he died of multiple gunshot wounds, and his death was ruled a homicide, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

He died of multiple gunshot wounds? We aren't sure how they could tell which ones killed him, seeing as how this guy had been shot not once, but two previous times in the past month.

You read that correctly - Bruce was shot twice this summer already and it looks like the third time was the charm. How are the police supposed to prevent anything like that, no matter where you work in the city? Bruce put himself in these situation again and again (he was a ranking gang member) and nothing police did, from traffic missions to house visits to contact cards was ever going to stop this killing from happening.

Some people are just doomed to a bad end.

Trapped in Jail

Looks like County is having building issues:

• A man who came to visit his son was accidentally trapped inside an empty maximum security visiting area of Cook County Jail for about 30 hours over the weekend, authorities said on Tuesday.
  
  He was rescued when he broke a sprinkler head, alerting Chicago Fire Department firefighters who found him about 1 a.m. Monday, said Cara Smith, the jail's executive director.
  
  “We’re tremendously sorry for what this man went through,’’ Smith said.

We're not. We're amused and concerned at the same time. How did he get trapped?

• “He was told to proceed ahead and stay to the right to go to the visitor area,’’ Smith said. “He encountered a door that was propped open and he went in and the door shut behind him.’’
  
  He was locked in the room, where people visit the “highest classification,’’ super-maximum security prisoners for 31 hours.

First up, isn't there some sort of sign-in / sign-out log at the jail? We would think that a jail is the kind of place where you try to keep track of how many people go in...and go out, during the course of a day. A simple count would have revealed the ingress exceeded the egress by one. That's a problem.

Second, who allows contractors to prop doors open in a fucking jail? Oh yeah.....Tom Dart. Never mind.

On the bright side, he probably served more time in County than most gun offenders seem to. Word through the grapevine is that he's trying to get the 31 hours credited to his son's sentence.

78 TRRs?

We got an e-mail that says in addition to the 77 people shot this weekend, nearly 80 TRR (Tactical Response Reports) were completed this weekend.

For the non-police readers, a TRR is completed when an Officer has to use force necessary to effect an arrest or force is used against an officer. They aren't usually filled out for foot chases and such (unless you have a really shaky boss), but in the event of TASER deployments, impact weapons, fist fights beyond what one might consider "normal," and when an assault or battery is committed against the police.

Seventy-eight TRR's would seem way more than normal, but we don't have anything to compare it to, and we aren't about to run what we could lest we be accused of improperly divulging Department data.

Anyone have any idea if 78 TRR's is a lot?

Can You Believe This Shit?

People like this are allowed to live, breathe, vote:

• The family of Major Davis Jr., the man accused of killing [Indianapolis] Officer Perry Renn, is speaking out about the shooting. His aunt, cousins and his children’s grandmother all talked to 24-Hour News 8 on Sunday afternoon.
  
  The family is still struggling to accept that Davis Jr. could be a part of something like this. He is a father with four children, ages 10 and under. His family has had a long, tense history with Indianapolis police officers.
  
  “You don’t know what he been through with IMPD. We do. He’s scarred for life,” said his children’s grandmother, Pam Moornan.
  
  The Davis family’s history with police began with Major Davis Sr. He served at least three years on a drug conviction and was arrested again in 2003 for public intoxication.
  
  He died of a heart attack in police custody when Davis Jr. was a young teen. Though the coroner’s report said the officers weren’t at fault for any fatal injuries, the family still holds officers responsible.
  
  “He wasn’t a bad person. His father was killed by IMPD. That is enough to hurt a person and scar him for life,” said Moornan.
  
  One of the officers listed in that 2003 police report is Officer Perry Renn.
  
  “I imagine he figured they were going to try and kill him. I mean cause look what they did to his father,” said Moornan.

What a crock of shit. Daddy had a heart attack in custody years ago. No injuries according to the coroner. Just one of those unfortunate things that happens when you live a "high risk" lifestyle that takes a toll on your body. These jagoffs are using this as an excuse for sonny's behavior?

But then it gets more bizarre:

• On Saturday night, the family says they were having a cookout.
  
  “Next thing, I just heard shots and everybody running in the house and everybody hit the floor,” said Yvonne Moornan, Davis Jr.’s aunt.
  
  By the time they got outside, they realized those shots were Davis Jr. and Officer Renn shooting at each other. Davis had an assault rifle.
  
  “Major is not a bad person in spite of what happened. Things happen, ” said Pam Moornan.
  
  Now, the Davis family is worried about their son’s reputation and again, questioning police tactics.
  
  “It’s horrible about what took place, but, I mean, I don’t think it’s fair though for them to keep dragging him through the mud,” said Moornan.
  
  And again, questioning police tactics.
  
  “I don’t know how the police was shooting. I don’t know if they took concern of any kids running around,” said Yvonne Moornan

Yeah, because Davis Jr was so concerned about what was downrange of his rifle fire....fire that goes a lot farther a lot faster and does a lot more damage than a pistol round. What pathetic wastes of skin these people are.

And the topper of them all?

• The family did say it is sorry for Officer Renn’s family, but they believe the tragedy may have been avoided if Officer Renn would’ve stayed at his car since he could see Davis had a gun.

There you go folks, exactly the police that liberal asshats want - see a guy with a gun, a rifle no less, and just drive on by. Don't take any sort of police or enforcement action - everything these "people" do is completely justified by past events.....events that are contrived and imagined specifically to excuse misbehavior of the worst sort.

Blue Flu in Tennessee

Seems to be going around in certain places:

• Memphis police say more than 400 officers have called in sick in the past week in what appears to be a deliberate action to protest planned health care cuts.
  
  Memphis Police Department spokeswoman Karen Rudolph said Monday that 404 officers have called in sick since June 30, an increase from 308 officers who had called in sick through Sunday. The department has about 2,280 officers.
  
  According to The Commercial Appeal, Memphis Police Director said Sunday that the actions come in an apparent protest to a City Council vote that will reduce health care subsidies for city employees so that the funds can be redirected to the city's troubled pension fund.

Another troubled pension fund? Why would that be? Is the city run by democrats? Oh yeah...it is. And this looks like robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Can Rahm Piss Off More Voters?

The city that works!

• Hundreds of drivers who thought they had paid for parking through an app on their smartphones have gotten tickets in Chicago, reports WBBM [...].
  
  317 cars have been ticketed for expired meters since mid-April even though their owners paid using the Park Chicago app, according to Parking Meter spokesman Scott Burnham. He says that is less than one percent of the more than 81,000 tickets issued throughout the city at that time.

Less than one percent error rate is acceptable in most endeavors, but when it potentially costs citizens money, no rate of error is good news. Our readers raised this very issue a few weeks ago - no paper receipt in the window is going to mean problems for people using the streets to park.

"Merit" Sgts - 2007 to Almost the Present

Someone finally "scribd" this:

   Chicago Police Sergeant Merit List

It's the last few "merit" lists of sergeants and their sponsors. We've posted the Lieutenant list right below this one. Comments will be open here, not below, just so we can keep track of it all.

"Merit" Lieutenants - 2001 to Present

Here's the Lieutenants:

Chicago Police Lt Merit list

Amazing how many of these "merit" picks went on to be Gold Stars.

Comments closed here - comment above in the Sgt post.

What a Weekend - Revisited

Not sixty shot - it was 77.  82 if you count the police shootings, but we usually don't:

• For 10 minutes, it seemed like the shooting was everywhere in the South Chicago neighborhood.
  
  It started when someone shot and wounded a couple, then two people fired at the shooter, then there was a chase and shots exchanged and a man sitting on a porch was hit. Responding officers kept cutting each other off on their radios as they reported other gunfire in the area late Sunday night and early Monday morning.
  
  Then the heavy equipment rolled in: A helicopter and SUVs packed with lockers of rifles. SWAT teams in green coveralls patrolled the streets with uniformed officers.

That was truly disconcerting - being at the scene of one shooting, then having another go off just around the corner, not once, but two and three times, culminating in a three-by-four block area being pretty much shut down....and then more shots fired.

Garry has a theory about what happened:

• At a press conference, a briefing regularly used to tout the Police Department’s gun seizures, McCarthy returned to a favorite theme, calling for stiffer penalties for gun crimes as a way to reduce the violence.
  
  The superintendent said the weekend’s violence actually was lower than last year’s holiday weekend – until Sunday’s surge of violence. He described that turn of events as a head-scratcher for him and his staff and wondered aloud if officer fatigue played a part.
  
  “It was yesterday that we lost it,” McCarthy told a crowd of reporters at a West Side police station. “We're square-rooting nine ways from Sunday what is it that happened. Was it a fatigue factor? Did we give (too many) people (time) off? Because the fireworks were Friday and Saturday. That's where we had a lot of folks deployed during those time frames.”

Another brilliant move by McDeepThinker - speculate about exhausted officers, then think about further restricting their down-time, elective time and days off. You better not make any concrete plans the rest of the year - especially if you're on the teams that are already having one day off a week canceled.