"Justice" is a Joke

We keep hoping that vigilantes will arise to spare the rest of us from this failed system:

• Henry Graham, a 52-year-old man with a lengthy arrest record who killed a man with a single punch on the Magnificent Mile, was sentenced to nine years in prison on Friday, months after a judge found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter, saying state law barred him from being convicted of murder.

  The state’s “one punch” legal standard that spared Graham a murder conviction may surprise many, but it is well established in Illinois, where nearly a century of case law holds that a person cannot reasonably expect a single punch to kill someone. Therefore, in almost all cases, a person cannot be convicted of murder when a single punch proves fatal.

That is a ridiculous standard because there are probably dozens of incidents where a single punch resulted in a death. We can name a couple off the tops of our heads. Certianly there are more and certainly a number were "mutual combatants." But there are a couple "ambush" type attacks that should have resulted in murder charges. This is one of them:

• Graham’s victim, Russ Long, was a 49-year-old River North resident and longtime Northern Trust employee. On June 29, 2023, he was carrying a shopping bag past the Cartier store at 630 North Michigan Avenue when Graham quickly approached him from behind without saying a word. Graham twisted his torso backward, then thrust it forward, driving his fist into the back of Long’s head, prosecutors alleged.

  Long fell forward immediately, striking his head on the pavement. As Long lay bleeding on the ground, Graham sat down on a nearby fire hydrant and stared at him for about five minutes, witnesses said. He walked away upon hearing sirens in the distance.

CPD didn't do anyone any favors with the "investigation" either:

• Two witnesses followed him until they crossed paths with a Chicago police unit. The officers detained Graham and, with their body cameras rolling, heard him admit to hitting Long and knocking him unconscious, prosecutors said. The police then let him go.

  For four days, Long’s friends tried in vain to get the Chicago Police Department to file a report about the attack. Finally, on July 2, a friend of Long’s called 911 from his hospital bedside and insisted that an officer be sent to Northwestern Memorial Hospital to document the attack. Once again, the 911 call taker refused to dispatch anyone because Long could not speak, though they eventually relented and sent a car.

  Only then did CPD begin documenting and investigating what had happened to Long, who died of his injuries ten days later. An autopsy showed “severe injuries” to the left side of Long’s head, prosecutors said. His frontal bone and the base of his skull were fractured.

Four days and no one collected any info from an obvious Aggravated Battery. It sounds like the initial Officers didn't even do a Contact Card, but had body cam video with an admission...and he still walked away?

In the intervening three months, the attacker was arrested SIX more times, including four felonies for attacking Evanston Police Officers. Now he gets nine years - and with three years credit, he'll be out in about eighteen months. 

If we're still in town then, maybe we'll start walking the Mag Mile. 

Speaking of Ugly....

How about those White Sox?

One more chance to put a cap on their Cinderella run.

And since we're talking sports for a moment:

• Mike Ditka, the Hall of Fame tight end who played on the Bears’ 1963 NFL championship team and coached the team to its only Super Bowl championship after the 1985 season, has died. He was 86.

  He died about 9 a.m. Friday surrounded by family and friends, a family spokesperson said. The family had not announced funeral arrangements as of Friday afternoon.

He was a throwback to when the NFL actually meant something. Ditka wasn't a fan of the woke league, expressing disdain for the barely talented hack QB Kapernick, saying if he didn't like the USA, he was free to leave it.

Quite the character. 

fbi = Fondling Boners Indecently?

We suspect a lot more of this with the feebs....a LOT more:

• A retired FBI supervisory special agent from Colorado is being held in Cook County after prosecutors accused him of sexually soliciting a 16-year-old boy in the steam room of a Logan Square health club.

  At about 10 p.m. on September 30, the boy’s father dropped him off at the gym in the 2400 block of North Elston Avenue to work out after he finished his homework, prosecutors said in a detention filing for Jeffrey Green, 59. After exercising, the boy went to the steam room and sat on an upper level with Green and another person. The witness noticed Green masturbating and went to get security, according to the filing.

  Left alone with the boy, Green began walking toward him while continuing the sexual act, prosecutors alleged. Green told the boy, “Don’t worry,” in what prosecutors described as a “sexual tone.” Standing in front of the teenager, Green then asked if he wanted to perform a sex act on him, prosecutors said. The boy, who had never seen Green before, replied, “F*** no. Go away,” or words to that effect, according to the filing. He then sat in shock, prosecutors said.

You look at a lot of these supervisory agents and you just think, "What a beat off this guy is." Turns out, you might be right.

Plus, we have inside info from The Keesing Bandit that his little black book has entire chapters of "contacts" contained within. 

Getting Ugly

And due to get uglier:

• As community leaders called for criminal charges against a Chicago police officer accused of using two guns to fire down a Little Village street, new details emerged about the young cop and the circumstances of the off-duty shooting that wounded another man over the weekend.

We'll leave the details to the Slum Times article linked up top. 

But we'll note that falling hiring standards have consequences far beyond what would normally be imagined.

Who NOT to Vote For

Someone posted this link in the comments. It lists all the candidates currently running for the elected Chicago Board of Education.

But most importantly, it lists all of the candidates currently endorsed by the CTU, meaning that they are bought and paid for stooges of the teachers who will vote to raise your taxes, give CTU people massive undeserved pay raises and continuously fail to actually educate the children of Chicago.

If you want to see a better list of candidates, use this one:

 

It was provided by a group that actually did the research and believes that these candidates provide the best opportunities to wrest control of CPS away from Davis-Gates and the CTU and place it back into the hands of responsible adults. 

Is every candidates perfect? Of course not. But these provide an opportunity that hasn't ever existed before. 

Save the Date!!!

Finally, after seventeen years:

• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday the public would be able to watch the firing squad execution of a former Army officer convicted of a mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas.

  Speaking from the USS Abraham Lincoln to the conservative news outlet Real America’s Voice, Hegseth said Nidal Hasan is “going to get a firing squad of soldiers, and we’ll make sure that people are able to watch it.”

  “People need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” said Hegseth, who called the method of execution a “no-brainer.”

And they're going to broadcast it! 

The only thing that would make it even better was if they used bullets dipped in bacon fat before burying him in a bacon-lined pine box.

Maybe some red states will institute pay-per-view for their death chambers? 

CWB Judge Article Part 2

CWB has their second article up about judicial retention. This one covers six judges including a few of our most disliked, untrusted and incompetent DEI types:

• Every four years, Cook County voters cast ballots, deciding whether circuit court judges should be retained or not. It is rare for a sitting judge not to achieve the 60% retention threshold.

  Below are brief biographies, background information, and links to relevant cases involving Cook County judges up for retention during the current cycle who handle criminal matters in CWB Chicago’s coverage area. The first half of our list is available here.

They cover:

• Robert Kuzas, a former CPD member who seems to have a number of fans in our comment section, but who is also politically connected as he was the one who cleared Prickwrinkle's son and has a disturbing habit of drastically reducing bail amounts so violent criminals get out to commit more crimes;
• Teresa Molina-Gonzalez, a former prosecutor who said, "I can’t keep everybody in jail because the State’s Attorney wants me to" before releasing the repeat felon who lit a woman on fire on the Blue line; 
• and everyone's favorite incompetent DEI hire, Tyria Walton who released the woman who attempted to murder a CPD Officer with his own squad car, then accused CPD Officers of calling in threats to her without (A) filing a police report, (B) making a CR complaint with COPA, (C) notifying the Chief Judge or (D) notifying the Sheriff Protective Detail. In fact, the only notification she made regarding all of these "threats" was her campaign website.

Obviously, we're going to recommend against voting for a single judge, but go read the two linked articles up top and make your own decisions. 

Take the five minutes to read everything and then spend the sixty seconds it takes to vote NO on at least a few of these incompetent assholes.

Conehead Lied Again

Or his budget people did, basing vast expanses of the Chicago budget on pure fantasy:

• Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is laying the groundwork for a budget proposal that could rely heavily on new taxes on corporations and wealthy residents as the city confronts an $880 million budget shortfall.

  Speaking about his priorities ahead of the release of his proposed budget, Johnson framed the upcoming debate as a fight over protecting city services while criticizing corporate interests and those calling for spending cuts before tax increases.

Sure, because making your first move "increase taxes" on corporations that are showing a distinct willingness to moving out rather than pay for Chicago unwillingness to spend money responsibly is a fantastic idea.

• His comments come as tensions build between the mayor and a group of 29 City Council members who recently sent him a letter urging the administration to pursue spending cuts and efficiencies before seeking additional tax revenue. That group has taken a hard line against a possible corporate head tax.

  Ald. Samantha Nugent of the 39th Ward said the city should focus first on reducing costs and addressing debt. "You know what we've heard time and time again is before we look to taxes, which is always where this administration goes, we have to look at the efficiencies that have been identified, and and we do have to look at debt," Nugent said.

Gee, an aldercreature wanting to look at efficiencies and spending practices? She must be high on something.

This is typical:

• City Comptroller Michael Belsky said the city is using a data-driven strategy that targets people considered most able to pay.

  "With employees we're looking at people with the highest salaries, highest amount of debt, that improves our collections. If it's people with vehicles in zip codes where they can afford to pay, we're gonna take them all the way through to judgement," Belsky said.

Not the people who aren't following the rules - the ones who can "afford to pay." Which are also the people who can afford to shop elsewhere - or leave town.

Democrats are idiots - vote for more!

Hilarious

This idiot might as well have used something like Facebook Marketplace:

• A Chicago man who federal prosecutors say fatally shot another man and then sold the murder weapon to an undercover agent has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison, officials said.

  Levion Thomas, 31, pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm but, according to Cook County court records, has not been charged with the murder that officials pinned on him.

  But federal prosecutors presented extensive evidence that Thomas used the Smith & Wesson 9mm pistol to kill 31-year-old Troy Pouncey on the afternoon of March 5, 2023, in the 7100 block of South Calumet Avenue, steps from William Meyering Park’s children’s playground.

  Two weeks later, on March 20, Thomas sold the same gun to an undercover law enforcement officer in the parking lot of a strip mall in Burnham, Illinois. Ballistics analysis confirmed that the pistol Thomas sold was the firearm used to kill Pouncey.

He'll likely never be charged with the murder unless he confesses to it. But circumstantially, will the Detectives Exceptionally Clear/Close it for statistical reasons?

Don't Be Dumb Part II

Everything is tracked and traceable to you:

• A now former Joliet police officer has been accused of abusing the Flock license plate reader database, according to Illinois State Police.

  Jeremy Harrison, 50, faces a charge of computer tampering and official misconduct in Will County, according to Illinois State Police, which conducted the investigation after accusations were made against Harrison.

  Court documents say the alleged offense occurred July 23, 2025, when Harrison was serving as a lieutenant with the Joliet Police Department.

  Investigators offered no other details on the case. Harrison is due back in court Nov. 17, per court records.

  Harrison makes for at least the third known case of a law enforcement being accused of misusing the database that tracks millions of drivers’ real-time locations in Will County this year.

Of course, police shouldn't be mis-using tools like these. But perhaps the more pertinent question is why are companies (and government) tracking millions of drivers in real time without some known purpose? Just because they can doesn't mean they should.

Initially Good, but then....

It took the media a day or so to catch up, but almost everyone in the comments saw where this one was headed:

• An off-duty Chicago police officer shot a person while firing two guns at the same time during an argument this weekend in Little Village, the Civilian Office for Police Accountability announced Tuesday.

  The officer was driving in the 2600 block of West 24th Street and encountered a group of people around 12:45 a.m. Sunday, according to statements from COPA and the Chicago Police Department. The officer exchanged words with a male in the group, then fired a gun “multiple times,” officials said.

  The officer then drove toward the 2300 block of South Rockwell Street, got out of his vehicle and “fired additional shots from two firearms simultaneously” toward the area of the initial altercation, COPA said. A male was shot twice and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in fair condition, police said.

If we had just ignored this one, people would say we were assisting in a cover-up.

If we had pointed out that you can't just open fire (with two guns?!?) on a group of people who may or may not have had anything to do with the previous battery, we'd be told to stop pre-judging, Monday-morning quarterbacking, blabbing to the media.

Well the media got hold of this one, not from here. Supposedly, the entire incident is on video, that part of town being loaded with cameras. And while the initial shoot could end up being justified, it's going to be difficult to do so with the second part.

It's only a matter of time before the video gets released, so be prepared.

Bad Tactics

And it ended with a suspension day:

• A Chicago police officer will serve a one-day suspension and undergo additional training after the city’s police oversight agency found he pointed his firearm at a 19-year-old driver and told him, “I’ll light you up!” during a December 2024 traffic stop.

  Video of the incident, which occurred as CPD broke up a “street takeover” in the West Loop, circulated widely online, and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) launched its investigation after someone tagged the agency in the video’s comment section on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Note that COPA "discovered" this video after someone tagged them on social media:

• During the stop, Officer (JE) positioned himself in front of Pena’s car and pointed his firearm toward the driver, according to videos recorded by a passerby and someone in Pena’s vehicle. [Officer (JE)] told investigators the stop raised safety concerns because Pena was wearing a face mask, was slow to respond to English-language commands, and the officer could not always see the occupants’ hands. [Officer (JE)] also claimed he spotted what appeared to be a replica weapon through the driver’s window. Pena was ultimately arrested on traffic-related charges and cited for possession of fireworks and a replica weapon, but prosecutors dropped all charges in February 2025.

  [Officer (JE)] described his statement, “I’ll light you up! as a “verbal slip” intended to gain compliance, but acknowledged it could be interpreted as “I’m going to shoot you.” He also acknowledged that standing in front of the vehicle was not the “smartest” or “safest” position, but said it gave him a better view of the driver.

How does the Order read? Something like "Officers will not deliberately place themselves in harm's way" or "in the path of the vehicle" which was interpreted as attempts to provoke a shooting.

No one would have batted an eye if he had stationed himself behind nearby cover (building, car door, tree, etc). It might not be optimal, but directly in the path - front or back - is asking for a review that isn't going to go your way. 

Don't Be Dumb

In this day and age of "accountability," don't be stupid:

• Two former suburban police officers have been charged with misusing their authority to conduct unauthorized Illinois license plate searches, the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office announced Monday.

  According to a news release, a DuPage County grand jury on Sept. 29 returned a 21-count indictment against former Itasca police officer Marisa Ciccola, 30, and a two-count indictment against former West Chicago police officer Gerardo Solis, 39.

  The grand jury alleged 13 counts of official misconduct, a Class 3 felony, and eight counts of computer tampering, a Class B misdemeanor, against Ciccola and one count each of official misconduct and computer tampering against Solis.

Remember that exempt who was stalking some woman, running her plate and phoning her after being told to knock it off? Even a demotion back to lieutenant didn't stop his behavior. Now someone sought and got a twenty-one count indictment (thirteen of those being felonies) against a single former officer.

Even if you can't see it, assume everything is being tracked, observed and recorded - you'll stay out of most trouble that way. 

CWB Judge List - Part One

The crew over at CWB has a list of judges that you ought to do your due diligence on:

• CWB Chicago does not endorse or recommend judges or candidates for political office. In the past, we have provided subscribers with information about Cook County judges who handle criminal matters during biannual judicial retention election cycles. This year, we are publishing that information for all readers.

  Below are brief biographies, background information, and links to relevant cases involving Cook County judges up for retention during the current cycle who handle criminal matters in CWB Chicago’s coverage area.

They list five judges and (being actual media) try to show good and bad sides of them all. The good sides are some of the sterner sentences we've been amazed at, but those are rarities. The bad sides include kowtowing to the SAFE-T Act inanities that endanger citizens far too often.

Regular readers know that we recommend against ever voting "yes" on a single judge, if only to send a message to the Machine that we're getting damn sick and tired of their catering to the criminal element. Especially DEI judges Walton and Lyke - if you can't be bothered to vote "no" a few dozen times, at least vote against these two assholes.

But if there aren't changes at some point, what's currently happening in France, Germany, England, Ireland and other parts of Europe might make appearances here - and this side of the Atlantic might be a bit more....demonstrative of their displeasure

IL Supreme Court Hearing

So about two weeks ago, there was an Hearing before the Illinois Supreme Court. We didn't follow it too closely because (duh) it doesn't effect us. Here's a summary a reader sent us:

• This is oral argument before an Illinois appellate court (or the Illinois Supreme Court) in case 132241, *Chicago John Dineen Lodge No. 7 v. City of Chicago*. The dispute arises from a 2023 Dispute Resolution Board (DRB) interest-arbitration award that set terms for the next collective bargaining agreement between the Chicago police union (Lodge 7) and the City.
  
  
  The award extended the longstanding right to private grievance arbitration (already available for lesser discipline) to the most serious cases—suspensions longer than 365 days and separations/discharge. Officers still have the option of the public Chicago Police Board process; the award does not change Police Board procedures. The City challenged two main aspects: (1) the requirement that arbitration of serious discipline be private (claiming it violates public policy favoring transparency and accountability), and (2) the requirement that officers remain in pay status while challenging serious discipline through arbitration (claiming it is arbitrary and capricious).
  
  
  Matt Pierce argued for the Lodge (appellant, seeking confirmation of the full DRB award). Aya Barnea (Ms. Barnea/Bernier) argued for the City (seeking affirmance of the appellate court’s ruling against private hearings and reversal on pay status so that portion of the award is vacated). The court took the case under advisement.

We're told that Mr Pierce pretty much gave a stellar performance and destroyed much of the City's arguments, which under normal circumstances, would result in a tremendous win for the Lodge (also from the email).

• Oral argument is not a final decision (the case was taken under advisement), so there is no formal winner. On the strength of the exchanges, the **Lodge (union) performed stronger**. The judges pressed the City hard on the foundations of its public-policy claim—whether Chicago’s local practice can create statewide policy, the lack of record evidence about other jurisdictions, the novelty and potential forfeiture of the First Amendment theory, the limited role of a consent decree, and the risk of disrupting settled private arbitration statewide. The Lodge’s statutory carve-outs, emphasis on deference, and consistency with decades of private labor arbitration appeared more tightly grounded in existing Illinois law. The City’s transparency and public-trust arguments are powerful as policy advocacy, but they faced steeper legal hurdles under the public-policy exceptions demanding standard. The pay-status issue received less sustained questioning and looked more like a classic “arbitrary and capricious” fight the City could still win or lose on the record. Overall, the Lodge left the stronger impression on the dispositive privacy/public-policy question. 

Unfortunately, Illinois is not "normal circumstances." Logic and sense don't usually exist here. Politics rules the day and distorts everything with its foul stench. 

You can hear the Court arguments here at this link. 

Amy opinions here one way or the other? 

Who Are These Guys?

So what is the OT schedule looking like? Days off cancelled yet?

• Braden Montgomery lined a two-run double down the right-field line, Sean Burke allowed one hit in 5 1/3 innings of splendid relief and the Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Guardians 4-3 on Monday to take a 2-0 lead in their AL Division Series.

  The surprising White Sox improved to 4-0 in these playoffs — all on the road — and are one win from advancing to the American League Championship Series for the first time since winning the World Series in 2005. Chicago became the first team to reach the postseason after three straight 100-loss seasons, including a post-1900 record 121 defeats in 2024.

Four road wins in a row, now on the verge of making a liar out of Conehead's vow to cut OT expenditures. The only good news might be that this is what the last White Sox World Series parade looked like:

 

Plenty of parking, too.

What a Way to Go

The comedy has started up over the botched Tennessee execution with the Babylon Bee leading the way - Ten Surefire Ways to Execute Criminals.

Number Five is Illinois' contribution:

• Place them between JB Pritzker and a hamburger: Oof. What a way to go.

Go read it all for the full amusement.

Off Duty Shooting

Little Village area:

• An off-duty Chicago police officer shot a man twice after being attacked and punched in the face on the city’s Southwest Side overnight, according to a statement released by the Chicago Police Department.

  Police say two men were injured, including the the one who was shot. That offender was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital in fair condition and is now in custody. Another man who had been standing with a group on the sidewalk took himself to Mt. Sinai Hospital in good condition.

  The officer who was attacked was taken to an area hospital for injuries sustained during the altercation, police say.

Sounds like he shot the guy who reached into his car and punched him. 

No idea yet how the second guy got winged. 

Best wishes for a speedy recovery. 

FOP Friends and Family Plan

Good news - if you're dating the FOP president, you don't have to pay for your own lawyer!

• latest A.I. generated video here 

It pays to know the right people.

How Many Felonies?

Thank goodness for the SAFE-T Act:

• A 57-year-old man with 32 felony convictions and a long history of stealing electric scooters is back on the street after prosecutors charged him with stealing five more scooters, part of a citywide crime pattern that left Chicago scooter owners frustrated all summer and sparked two Chicago police community alerts.

  Incredibly, Randall Brown was released from custody without even being placed on an ankle monitor, and Judge James Costello indicated in a court document that there was “no obj,” apparently meaning there was no objection to his release.

  CPD’s newly formed Area 5 Motor Vehicle Theft Team arrested Brown on Thursday afternoon, capping a weeks-long effort to identify a man who has stolen so many scooters that victims formed their own Facebook group to post pictures, compare surveillance video and report sightings in real time.

Otherwise, all of these guilty people might be stuck in prison, unable to enjoy terrorizing and victimizing the law abiding and costing taxpayers countless millions of dollars in wasted money.

Dems love criminals!