The Chief Judge said What???

This is fucking disgusting:

• The decision to release a five-time felon with four pending felony cases, including two violent robberies, on electronic monitoring was not a mistake, Cook County’s chief judge says, even though that man is now accused of going on to murder a Chicago police officer and gravely wounding the fallen officer’s partner.

  “I wouldn’t call it a mistake,” Judge Charles Beach told WGN’s Ben Bradley in an interview on Wednesday. “The judge made the best decision with what was in front of them at the time, right? Unfortunately, you know, we’ll go back to that concept: How do you predict what another human being is going to do?”

Well you ignorant dumbfucking DEI hire, you look at his history, his past behavior, maybe his FUCKING CRIMINAL RECORD??? It doesn't take that much effort, even for an intellectual midget like you Beach. 

• Court records show Judge John Lyke released Alphonso Talley in December just eight months after Talley — while on electronic monitoring for two other cases — allegedly got a gun, used it to carjack a woman, and then used it again to rob a man minutes later.

He was on EM....TWICE, kind of like "double secret probation" except that was a satirical comedy from forty years ago.

If we suggested, even in jest, what we are thinking right this very moment, there would be a concerted political effort to take down the blog and ban it forever. 

The fact that an asshole judge can say thing like this without any fear of political (or other) repercussions is truly a crying shame.

And this after he admitted that fully 8% of EM felons aren't even accounted for:

• Cook County court officials now say that 8% of the people on the chief judge’s electronic monitoring program are missing, marking the first major disclosure in what Chief Judge Charles Beach described as a renewed transparency effort following the killing of an on-duty Chicago police officer and the critical wounding of his partner last month, allegedly by a seven-time felon who had escaped the ankle monitor program.

  With 3,048 participants currently on electronic monitoring, an 8% AWOL rate means 244 people with pending criminal cases, most likely felony charges, are unaccounted for.

  “Transparency is not optional. It is a core obligation of this office,” Beach said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon. “The public has a right to know how this program operates, what the data shows and what we are doing every day to make it stronger.”

  “We are releasing this information because that is what accountability looks like,” Beach added. His office said escape reports will now be issued regularly, with the next report scheduled for May 26.

Cook County "accountability" now comes with a body count....and this time it was a Chicago Police Office who paid the price.

CFD Training Death

Not much information except that it occurred during training:

• A Chicago Fire Department member died during a training exercise on the city's North Side, CFD said Thursday.

  "The Chicago Fire Department mourns the loss of a 30-year member who died today during a training exercise," a statement read. "A procession to the Medical Examiner's Office is pending."

  The training was taking place in in the 6600-block of North Kedzie Avenue, CFD said.

  The CFD member was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, where the member died, Chicago fire officials said.

It's been a rough spring for Chicago First Responders this year.

Deepest condolences to the family and the CFD. 

Another Non-Demonized Yute

Summer vacation hasn't started yet, right? So this non-demonized creature should have been in school?

• A 14-year-old boy violently carjacked a 75-year-old woman downtown on Tuesday afternoon, only to be caught about an hour later by Chicago police.

  The victim was in a parking lot in the 500 block of West Taylor Street when the boy pushed her to the ground, battered her, and stole her silver Ford Escape around 2:15 p.m., according to a preliminary CPD report. EMS transported the woman to Stroger Hospital for treatment.

  Meanwhile, CPD began tracking her car using the city’s network of license plate readers and caught up with the carjacker in the 1400 block of South Central Park Avenue shortly after 3:30 p.m., according to police. He reportedly had the woman’s car keys in his possession when officers took him into custody.

What kind of community teaches (either directly or by omission) that brutally attacking the elderly is ever appropriate?

Fundraiser

 

And speaking of Officer Crespo:

• Chicago Police Officer Nelson Crespo's family says he is still in the ICU, but the good news is that he is able to breathe on his own for several hours at a time, according to his doctors.

  Now, the family is focusing on raising money to help support the injured officer. For Officer Crespo, the path to recovery may be long. But the support surrounding him is far from short.

  "He just makes friends wherever he goes. He's just he's just a great guy," said Nancy Crespo, the officer's sister.

  Nancy said doctors told their family that her brother is showing progress.

Any progress is good news.

Safety Day Upcoming

The most important tool in your arsenal - make sure it's operating correctly (click for larger view):

 

Doesn't cost you a dime.

About Damn Time

And long overdue:

• The Agenda Review Committee for the Chicago School Board held a meeting Wednesday after Chicago Public Schools announced a plan this week to cut jobs and increase class sizes for the 2026-27 school year, citing a $732.5 million budget deficit as it closes out this school year.

  In a letter sent to families and staff Monday, CPS leaders outlined what they describe as a major budget deficit caused by declining enrollment, rising operational costs and inadequate state and federal funding.

  During a news conference prior to Wednesday’s meeting, School Board members expressed frustration with the budget deficit and the impact it’ll have on CPS schools and students.

How has it gotten so out of control?

• Since 2019, CPS added more than 9,700 staff positions. At the same time, it has seen a decline of 45,000 students.

So for every five students that left, CPS hired one person?

How the Hell does that work? 

They should have been reducing staff every year. 

But here comes Indiana's very own communist property tax cheater Stacy Davis Gates:

• The Chicago Teachers Union, meanwhile, is blaming state lawmakers for failing to fully fund schools, saying that CPS is only funded at 73% of what the state considers adequate.

  Stacy Davis Gates, head of the Chicago Teachers Union, is calling for the district to lobby Springfield, saying there are not enough job cuts to make up for a lack of state funding. The union said CPS is funded at 73% of what the state considers adequate.

Not enough job cuts? We can see 9,700 that shouldn't even exist for starters.

Combine that with schools that operate at under 10% of capacity while fully staffed....there's PLENTY of room for cuts. You just need to sharpen the axe. 

Shots Fired

South side:

• Chicago police officers exchanged gunfire with a man while responding to a “person with a gun” call in the South Chicago neighborhood Monday night, according to CPD. No officers were injured, but the suspect is in serious condition with gunshot wounds, police said.

  At about 10:35 p.m., a 911 caller reported that a strange man wearing a colorful hoodie walked up to their home with a gun in the 8200 block of South Shore Drive, according to dispatch audio.

  Within two minutes, officers responding to the call reported that a suspect was running and, moments later, those officers requested an ambulance for the man, saying he had been shot by police. CPD said the officers had tried to conduct an investigatory stop and directed the man to keep his hands visible before the shooting.

  An officer said shots were fired by both the man and the police. A firearm was located at the scene, according to a CPD statement.

Well done Officers, removing the threat to yourselves and citizens without harm to either....only the bad guy.

It Wasn't Even That Warm

This doesn't bode well for the summer:

• Twenty-three people were shot across Chicago this weekend, four of them fatally, according to preliminary information released by the Chicago Police Department. The weekend total marked an increase from the same weekend last year, when 20 people were shot.

  Saturday was particularly violent, with 16 people shot, making it the city’s highest single-day total of shooting victims so far this year, according to HeyJackass.com, which independently compiles and analyzes Chicago crime data. Sunday was much calmer, though, with only one shooting reported.

You know that feeling you get when everything just seems a bit off? A combination of factors that triggers a sense of caution? We've been feeling that since the start of the year. 

It feels like The Summer of the Assholes is upon us.

Anyone else getting that vibe? 

HANTAVIRUS!!!!!

Panic!!!! Lock it all down!!!

• The Illinois Department of Public Health said Tuesday it is investigating a possible hantavirus case in a resident that is not believed to be connected to a widespread outbreak on a cruise ship that has raised concerns worldwide.

  In a statement, IDPH said the individual, a Winnebago County resident, hasn’t traveled internationally or had contact with passengers of the MV Hondius cruise ship.

  Health officials said the person may have been exposed to the North American strain of the virus while cleaning a home where rodent droppings were present. The cruise ship outbreak involves the Andes strain of the virus, which is carried by a rodent species not found in the United States. The Andes virus can spread from person to person through close contact - in rare cases.

Oh, this is (likely) the non-transmissible version, not the Andes strain. But that hasn't stopped the usual lunatics on the left from calling for lockdowns, masking, and vaccines (which barely exist). 

Be smarter than last time - start lining up your religious objections early.

UPDATE: And get a haircut....the chances of you getting elected mayor and being able to go to your local hair salon like Groot are minimal at best. 

Officers Injured

A traffic accident:

• Two Chicago police officers, a 26-year-old woman and 9-month-old baby were taken to local hospitals after a rollover crash on Chicago's South Side Tuesday morning.

  A marked CPD squad car was traveling north on State Street after 11:15 a.m. in Chatham, when it collided with the vehicle with the woman and child, who were traveling east on 87th Street, CPD said.

  The two officers were taken to a local hospital in good condition for observation. The woman was taken to University of Chicago Hospital in good condition for observation and the baby was taken to Comer Children's Hospital in good condition for observation, police said.

No indications or reports of a pursuit - just an accident.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery to all involved. 

How Far Society Has Fallen (UPDATE)

Our post the other day about the Downtown Takeover where someone used a car as a push broom against a marked squad car was mostly to point out (A) how bad the disrespect has gotten and (B) how hesitant Police are in general to take action in the face of overt law breaking.

It's far worse than we thought: 

• Hey SCC. Thought you should know, there have been numerous reports and documented RDs pulled regarding officers, on duty, in uniform having guns pointed at them.
  
  Just the other night it happened in 003, POs had an offender in custody, car pulled up next to them and two offenders pointed guns at them and drove off.
  
  Couple weeks ago, same instance happened but no one was in custody. POs pulled a car over, offender pointed a gun at a PO and drove off. Probably 3 cases of similar accounts in southside districts within a month.
  
  This isn’t being spoken about and it seems it’s not being documented anywhere besides a case report and an overlooked AMC message. I don’t know if you want to classify this as officer safety, or maybe CWB can get wind of it since ya know, CPD has so many “excessive force complaints”. Having a gun pointed at you and you respond with nothing seems a bit odd. Stay frosty kids. 

Pointing a gun at Police used to be an invitation to being shot. But now?

Well, the in-car camera is pointed straight ahead. The body cam may or may not be running (depending on the situation) and....it's pointed straight ahead. We aren't about to advocate driving around with your pistol in your hand, but if you've ever tried to draw a pistol while seated in the tight quarters of a car, wearing a vest, it isn't getting out in a hurry. 

Tie that into the Department not allowing you to chase....you see where we're going with this.

Although you'd be 100% justified in lighting up someone who pulled up next to your squad car and pointed a gun at you, tactically, you're in a bad spot. The end result isn't anything you'd want to experience more than once. 

Solutions? 

UPDATE: If you reward bad behavior, you're going to get more of it....a LOT MORE of it:

• Happened in 018 not too long ago. Sgt on-views an armed robbery in progress, chases the vehicle , giving out the info and states on the air the rear passenger is pointing a gun at him as he’s pursuing the offending vehicle occupied 3 times with armed offenders. He asks if helicopter is up ……..and immediately 1899 LT JF (Lt tight sleeves ) gets on the air and yells terminate immediately. The Sgt gets on the radio and says “they’re actively pointing a gun at me” and 1899 repeats terminate, I want his location now . It’s overpromoted , coward bosses exactly like him that continue to make our jobs even more unsafe. Listening to the LT try and justify it at roll call the next day was ridiculous .

Not pursuing IS the reward.

Chicago Death Spiral Resumes

After a three-month stutter, Conehead's reign resumes it's resemblance to a toilet flush:

• Chicago-area business activity contracted in April, resuming a long-term decline after three months of expansion, according to the Chicago Business Barometer.

  The metro area scored 49.2 for the month, down from 52.8 in March. A score below 50 indicates decline.

  The return to business activity contraction is particularly worrying because after 25 consecutive months of contraction from December 2023 to December 2025, the baseline for achieving an overall expansionary score is much lower.

Keep in mind the businesses associated with a large business leaving town....say a sport franchise worth a few billion dollars:

• sales taxes on ticket sales; concessions and souvenir sales; parking fees;
• people staying in hotels, patronizing restaurants and bars;
• all the other people who operate or work for those associated businesses

That type of contraction leaves a short-term unfillable gap in tax revenues....and maybe a permanent one, kind of like all those conventions leaving McCormick Place for either Florida or Vegas.

Now imagine two sport franchises leaving within a couple years of each other - one to either the burbs or Indiana and another to Tennessee.

"Death Spiral" barely describes what's underway.

How Much Did Walgreens Lose?

Walgreens is shutting down their Chatham location and the "community" is upset. The aldercreature made one of the dumbest statements ever about "first degree corporate abandonment" which no one seems able to define.

But it seems that this was purely a business decision as revealed at a "town hall" meeting with Walgreens:

• Walgreens executives revealed at the town hall that the location lost over $1 million last year amid softening prescription sales and significant levels of theft, which resulted in the decision to close the store on June 4.

  Johnson said that "theft at this store is 16%," which is "four times above the company average," which contributed to losses at the store.

  The company said that it took measures to counteract theft at the store, but was unable to put an end to the issues at the location.

  "Lock boxes help us protect the merchandise in the store. A lot of the time, those lock boxes were getting destroyed. And that's at a great cost to the company," said Walgreens district manager Jason Vasquez, according to Fox 32's report.

Here's an idea....someone notify Eric Holder (Sparklefart's Attorney General who said America wasn't ready to have a racial discussion) and see if he can chime in here:

• there are currently 14 black billionaires in the United States - successful business persons across a wide variety of fields - entertainment, media, information and infrastructure fields. They're also active philanthropists, giving back to society.
• there are hundreds more worth multiple millions, probably looking to make more as most successful people do. Eric Holder is worth $8 million on his own, Sparklefarts over $70 million.
• is there any reason they wouldn't invest in a Chatham pharmacy to prevent a pharmaceutical desert from devastating this "under-served" community?

Oh yeah....because they aren't in theo business of LOSING money, which is what would happen if they invested in Chatham. 

Maybe the aldercreature could discuss that with Holder and Sparklefarts and a few of those billionaires.

Hey, Look - a Tax Increase

Porkulous strikes again!

• On July 1 the state tax will hit almost 50 cents a gallon. Lawmakers made automatic annual hikes.

  Illinois drivers will see another gas tax increase July 1.

  The state tax will rise to 49.6 cents per gallon because of the automatic annual inflation increase built into the 2019 “Rebuild Illinois” infrastructure program signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

How does this keep happening?

• When Pritzker doubled the state gas tax from 19 cents to 38 cents in 2019, lawmakers also ensured Illinoisans would face automatic inflation-linked increases every year without another recorded vote.

Ah yes....the "automatic" increases so no politician has to answer for it.

A handy chart in case you were interested:

 

But if you're a trust fund billionaire who rides around in a taxpayer funded and fueled automobile, this doesn't affect you at all.

Rule #4

We don't know who need to see this, but it's happening more and more.

Review the Rules on the right-hand side of the main page. Read them all, but especially #4:

• RULE #4: We reserve the right to delete novels. If you have that much to say, start a blog. Same goes for off topic stuff. Also, multiple "hard returns" making blank space.

We've been very lenient since reactivating the site, but it's getting out of hand. Someone or someones (with a couple good points to make) are ending their posts with five, six, seven hard returns for some reason. 

Sure, it's easy to type, but it messes with our comment moderation, so we're just deleting them all without reading them. In fact, we've been doing it for a week or more now. 

(comments closed here - informational post only) 

This Fata$$ Hypocrite

An unmitigated disaster and an a$$hole to boot:

• Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is speaking out following the death of Loyola student Sheridan Gorman, saying her family deserves justice.

  In a statement on Friday, a spokesperson for the governor says Gorman’s family "remains in Governor Pritzker’s thoughts."

  "The family of Sheridan Gorman remains in Governor Pritzker’s thoughts as they grieve and navigate the unimaginable loss of their daughter," the statement said. "He believes the person responsible for their daughter’s death needs to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law and with the entire weight and urgency of our justice system that her family deserves."

Well, gee whiz guv, let's start with a list of people directly responsible, shall we?

• first and foremost, the trigger puller. An ILLEGAL ALIEN who should have (and could have) been deported months ago if ICE had been free to do their jobs without interference from an entire list of anti-American, anti-Law-and-Order democrats;
• the previous administration who allowed the ILLEGAL ALIEN into the country, apprehended him a few times, and released him to offend again;
• the judges who released him in spite of a number of arrests and bail violations that should have kept him in custody pending a deportation; 

Not to mention Conehead and Porkulous who encouraged disobedience to Federal Law once a proper Administration was installed by the voters. 

Oh, and the "fullest extent" of accountability might involve something looking like a Death Penalty so as to ensure consequences for actions. 

No Tax Money for Bears!

Look!!! Over there!!! The Bears want taxpayer money for infrastructure improvements while they build a stadium with their own money that will be an economic powerhouse wherever they land!

In the meantime:

• When the Obama Presidential Center opens next month, and its funders are honored and congratulated, there are two major financial contributors worthy of a bow or two: Chicago and Illinois taxpayers.

  The Chicago Department of Transportation said it has spent $123.3 million since 2022 on capital projects aimed at remaking the roadways and green space in Jackson Park and around the center.

  And there’s still more work to be done. The final public infrastructure costs are likely to approach $200 million.

  The costs are not part of the presidential center’s privately-funded $850 million price tag.

Wait, what?

Things that make you go, "Hmmmmm." 

The Center isn't open yet, but the Grift Gift Shop is. You can buy Sparklefart souvenirs, some cheap bling, a $400 wind powered generator kit, and:

• You can even buy a copy of (Saul Alinsky's) Rules for Radicals – The book liberals denied had any connection to Obama or his policies.

You can get it for half the price over on Amazon though.

Well Said Mr. Brooks

For some reason, the local media aren't giving this guy a platform:

• As I recover from foot surgery in Chicago, my break from the Walk Across America has given me time to do more than reflect. I’ve seen so many things on my walk so far through small towns, big cities, ghettos, suburbs, open-air drug markets, posh farmers markets and even the occasional country market. Throughout it all, I’ve seen Americans of so many stripes, and they’re all moving forward, moving with a sense of purpose in their work and in their belief in God.

  And when I returned home to the South Side of Chicago, I was struck by the stillness I felt here.

  It pains me to say this, but it was as if I had never left. The same problems remained. People complained about the same issues they complained about the year before, and the year before that, not recognizing that fateful pattern of doom. Although my team has greatly reduced violence in our immediate community, it remains high on the surrounding blocks. Herds of teens continue to raid the Loop, wreaking havoc and destroying what others have built.

  The pattern is obvious and undeniable. On my Walk Across America, I saw people moving toward something better, no matter if it was one step a day or 20,000. They moved forward in the faith of a good life and an eternal reward.

  Here on the South Side, while many do struggle toward something better, the current moves overwhelmingly in the wrong direction.

And he states that this community is moving toward dysfunction and that dependence on the government is not the correct direction. In fact:

• I want to be honest about something that no politician in this city will say out loud. Unlike Mayor Brandon Johnson’s belief, white supremacy does not run these streets. I saw the KKK march in the streets of Kenton, Tennessee, when I was a boy, but I’ve never seen them march since then, and never in Chicago. 

  There is no external force orchestrating our destruction from the shadows. If there is any racism holding us back today, it is the soft bigotry of low expectations, the quiet condescension of voices that tell us we are permanent victims who need government programs instead of God, family and hard work. They peddle a lie that feels like comfort: It’s not your fault, the system is rigged, just vote the right way and everything will change. And while they are saying it, another generation slips away.

So Conehead is wrong, low expectations are wrong, expecting a community to vote solely based on what the plantation masters have been (wrongly) telling you for multiple generations is wrong....

Why isn't this guy running for mayor?

Gee, I Should Have Cooperated

Regret is a terrible thing....so is being a moron in the first place:

• A New York woman who refused to cooperate with prosecutors after a mental patient attacked her on the subway weeks before he pushed a retired NYC teacher to his death appears to have some serious regrets.

  “Maybe a part of me was just like, I don’t want to put another black man in jail,” the unidentified 23-year-old told the New York Post over the weekend.

  Now, however, she is saying, “I regret it 100 percent and feel really bad that a man lost his life.”

Obviously a liberal retard, brainwashed by years of left wing ideologues, typical of blue-city clue-state shitholes where consequences are not applied to actions. 

We've had local stories like this for years, dating back to when Mope-rah (remember her stupid ass?) refused to help prosecute a car thief caught red-handed in her car, all the way up to last year when ABC's Leah Hope was carjacked and beaten to the point she couldn't be on the air for six weeks....AND SHE BLAMED THE SYSTEM, not the guy who almost broke her jaw in half.

Not much sympathy for those who embrace the narrative and expect us to do the same. 

More Dems Loving Criminals

This time revealed in North Carolina during COVID:

• A New York Post investigation has revealed that nearly half of the convicts sprung from North Carolina prisons under then-Democrat Governor Roy Cooper during the COVID-19 pandemic have already been charged with new crimes, including a staggering 18 murder offenses.

  According to the Post’s review of state records, at least 3,500 dangerous criminals were released in February 2021 as part of a little-known settlement between Cooper’s administration and radical civil rights groups, including the ACLU and NAACP.

  These groups sued to force the early release of inmates, claiming the pandemic posed too great a risk to keep them locked up.

  The results? Predictable carnage on North Carolina streets.

Over 600 of the released felons committed....MORE FELONIES! 

Fully 48% committed more crimes in all categories.

Beware the hantavirus cruise infections being used to political ends at some point. 

Takeover Downtown

We're told Friday night into Saturday, a large crowd of non-demonized yutes took over a number of locations downtown.

We're also told there is footage of them using a vehicle as a battering ram to push an occupied squad car backwards down the street?  

Can anyone confirm? 

And if confirmed, isn't the car being used as a weapon? 

A potentially Deadly Weapon? 

And Deadly Weapons are legally met with....

Let's confirm the footage first - our source says a 10-1 was called, so there's that. 

UPDATE: Footage confirmed via the Contrarian X link. (it plays without a social media account)

This is allowed now? 

Another Court Failure

Another judge to vote "No" on:

• A Cook County judge on Friday found a Chicago man not guilty by reason of insanity on all charges stemming from a 2022 home invasion in which he held a woman at knifepoint before stabbing a police officer who came to rescue her. The officer shot him.

  Romaine Heath, 45, remains in custody and is expected to be ordered into treatment at a secure mental health facility. A follow-up hearing is scheduled for June 18 before Judge Nastosha Toller, who conducted the trial.

The story is hairy enough, but something is missing in the coverage again - any mention of medical examinations that determined the insanity.

We mention this only because we are reminded of the case where crooked and corrupt DEI "judge" Tyria Walton found Whitley Temple not guilty by reason of insanity and there isn't a single mention in the media of a medical examination by qualified experts determining the insanity.

Has this become a thing now? Someone claims insanity and no one checks with a doctor? Judges are now the doctors? 

Burn it All Down

Conehead taking a stand earlier this week:

• Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday mounted the legislative equivalent of a goal-line stand against the Bears’ quest for the property tax break needed to pave the way for a domed stadium in Arlington Heights.

  Johnson questioned why any lawmaker from Chicago would even think about providing a massive tax break for a professional sports team valued at nearly $9 billion, while ignoring the need for what he calls progressive revenue to increase school funding and help working people struggling to make ends meet.

  [...] Hours before joining fellow Chicago-area mayors in Springfield, where he has had little success, Johnson made it clear that he would use whatever political muscle he has to block the so-called megaprojects bill now before the Illinois Senate after clearing the Illinois House on April 22.

  Though Chicago is no longer part of the conversation to build a domed stadium needed to keep the Bears in Illinois and stave off a move to Northwest Indiana, Johnson is still holding out hope to keep the Bears in the city.

  “I’m building things in this city. I want to build more things in this city. Why is that important? Because it creates opportunities for Chicagoans,” Johnson said. “Why would I advocate for something that wouldn’t benefit the people of Chicago? I don’t know why any Chicago legislator would vote for anything that doesn’t benefit the people that they represent.”

Conehead is building nothing and has almost no political muscle. He has no background in construction or economics and no allies in Springfield. His administration is presiding over the smallest number of permits issued to tower cranes in decades - under ten for all of 2026 - and that doesn't sound like a building boom. 

And don't even get us started on the plywood forests of the formerly thriving downtown storefronts. Prickwrinkle should be undercutting Conehead at every turn, seeing as how Arlington Heights would still be in her sphere of influence. 

An intelligent politician would be looking at what Soldier Field could be repurposed as, seeing as how there might be opportunities to exploit instead of whining about the perfectly logical move away from a failing city only looking to line its threadbare pockets.

How Bad Is It? (Washington)

This bad:

• Washington just became the first state in U.S. history to terminate a public employee pension plan.

  The plan belongs to retired police officers and firefighters. LEOFF Plan 1 was 160% funded as of June 2024 per the state's own actuarial valuation. It had not required a single contribution in 25 years. By 2029 it was projected to reach 200% funded with a $4.3 billion surplus.

  The legislature terminated the plan, swept $3.9 billion, and is using $880 million of it to refill a rainy day fund it already drained to cover a deficit it created.

  Days ago, retired first responders including former Congressman Dave Reichert sued the state to stop it. The bill passed the House 55-39 and was advanced out of Appropriations without a public hearing. Every yes vote was a Democrat. The governor signed it in April.

Our pension never hit anything near 100%. We think (think) it may have been funded at or near 75% back around 2000, but then Shortshanks invented pension "holidays," refused to follow actuarial funding recommendations, and redirected spending toward pet projects to buy votes, thereby leading to the current crises. 

In Washington, they're just stealing the surplus instead of going through the actuarial recommendations, which will most likely lead to a funding shortfall within a few years.

Funeral Coverage

Assorted media outlets:

• Sun Times
• Channel 2
• Channel 5
• Channel 7
• Channel 9
• Channel 32

Everything Tribune is paywalled.

A truly depressing day. 

We haven't heard any updates in a while about the wounded Officer. Is there any public info available?

Nice CTA Conehead

Anyone know why this is walking around free?

• A Chicago man with more than 60 arrests and a history of violence against transit workers is facing new charges after prosecutors said he stabbed a good Samaritan who came to a CTA employee’s defense at a Blue Line station.

  Eduardo De Jesus, 48, was arrested April 23 at the Addison Red Line station after officers posted there recognized him by his neck tattoos and took him into custody.

  According to prosecutors, the incident unfolded on March 31 at the Western Blue Line station in Bucktown. De Jesus got into an argument with a CTA employee and a 30-year-old man who did not know De Jesus stepped in to help the worker, prosecutors said.

  De Jesus allegedly struck the victim in the face, and as the confrontation spilled outside the station, he pulled out a weapon. When the victim raised his hand to protect himself, prosecutors say, De Jesus stabbed him in the palm. The victim was taken to a hospital and received stitches for the puncture wound.

Sixty arrests and free as a bird.

Along with Hammer Guy, someone who really really needs to run into a Concealed Carrier who didn't see the CTA signs....completely by accident of course. 

How Bad Is It? (Los Angeles)

This bad:

• As of today, LAPD is not allowed to pull anyone over for: 
• - Expired tags 
• - Non-functioning tail lights 
• - Cracked windshield 
• - Broken sideview mirrors 
• - Illegal tint
• - Loud exhaust 
• - Missing license plate 
• Because it "disproportionately affects Black and Brown people."

Exactly what the democrats are trying to do here.

At least there's a list that LAPD can refer to so as to determine which Laws the "oppressed" people don't have to obey. 

In the meantime, we'd be taking suspension time for more than a couple of these violations.

Settlement in Progress?

After Crimesha's amazing sworn testimony the other day where despite believing an offender was guilty as charged (and convicted), she refused to defend the jury finding, it turns out that the (former) offender already has a settlement offer from the City and it's big enough that it's before the City Council at this very moment:

• A man exonerated in a brutal double murder in Bucktown who later obtained a certificate of innocence after the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office under Kim Foxx did not oppose his petition — even though Foxx now says she believed him to be guilty — has reached a settlement in principle to resolve his 8-year-old wrongful conviction lawsuit against the city and the detective whose investigation put him in prison, federal court records show.

  Attorneys representing Arturo DeLeon-Reyes, the city, and former Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara informed the court Wednesday that they had reached the basic outline of a settlement. A final pre-trial conference scheduled before a trial set to begin Monday was canceled, according to docket entries. Details of the proposed settlement have not been disclosed.

  [...] Last week, attorneys for Solache reached a separate settlement with the city that is now awaiting City Council approval, according to WTTW. The exact figure has not been disclosed, but City Council sign-off is required for any settlement exceeding $100,000.

Has anyone filed an ARDC complaint against Crimesha yet? 

Maybe an Official Misconduct charge?

Another Shotspotter Miss

Only a critical wounding at this time:

• A jogger found a man shot and critically injured in Hyde Park on Thursday morning, but the victim may have gone undiscovered for more than 45 minutes because the mayor disconnected the local ShotSpotter network in 2024, and the only call about gunfire in the area was not precise enough for police to locate him.

  At about 4:06 a.m., a 911 caller reported hearing three shots fired near 55th Street and Cornell Avenue and seeing a car speeding away eastbound on 55th Street, according to CPD dispatch records. Officers responded and searched near the intersection, but did not find anything unusual.

  More than 45 minutes later, at 4:54 a.m., police were sent to investigate a person shot call in the 5400 block of South Cornell Avenue after a jogger discovered a 31-year-old man shot near Cornell Park. Officers found the victim with two gunshot wounds to his chest, one to his back, and one to his arm. CPD said he was taken to the University of Chicago Hospital in critical condition.

  Police located three shell casings in the grass next to the street, near where the man was found. That detail suggests ShotSpotter would have pinpointed the location for first responders had the system not been deactivated by the mayor.

It seems the victim was a CCL holder, which is too bad. We're convinced the only way crime is going to go down significantly is with citizens doing the job that police aren't allowed to do any more - removing criminals from circulation.

Contrarian Articles

Another couple good ones up on their site.

The first one deals with the SAFE-T Act leading directly to violence against the police:

• When you build a system that frees violent criminals, you don’t get to act surprised when it kills a cop

  Anybody who lives in Chicago knows what’s going on.

  Anybody who reads the papers knows what’s going on.

  Anybody who’s paying even the slightest attention knows this city has turned its criminal justice system into a revolving door for violent offenders.

  Except, apparently, the people running the criminal justice system.

  Because if they understood the reality they created, maybe Officer John Bartholomew would still be alive.

The second is Porkulous lying about the SAFE-T Act:

• During the 2022 campaign, Bailey made the exaggerated but memorable claim Chicago was “living The Purge when criminals ravage at will and the cops are told to stand down.”

  Bailey was alluding to The Purge movie franchise, where one day a year, people can commit crimes without facing punishment.

  The Loch Ness Monster

  Not true, Pritzker answered back. The SAFE-T Act was written to protect a mother. A mythical mother, the Loch Ness Monster of petty criminals.

  The governor, many times during the campaign, repeated this lie.

  “Making sure that we’re also addressing the problem of a single mother who shoplifted diapers for her baby, who is put in jail and kept there for six months because she doesn’t have a couple of hundred dollars to pay for bail.”

  ‍Yes, I said Loch Ness Monster, because such a woman — sorry “Nessie” believers — never existed, except in Pritzker's imagination.

  Eventually, Pritzker added baby formula to the mother’s “the heist.”

  In response, Patrick Kenneally, who was then the McHenry County state’s attorney, and 100 other Illinois county prosecutors — out of 102 — opposed the SAFE-T Act, and in a lawsuit called the law a “clear and present threat to public safety.” And Kenneally said that under Illinois law prior to the SAFE-T Act it was impossible for Loch Ness Mother to be jailed pretrial for simply stealing diapers, calling Pritzker’s claim “misinformation appealing to emotion.”

  And amid that discussion, Pritzker launched another lie.

  "Well, let’s just set the record straight with everybody. The SAFE-T Act is designed to keep murderers and domestic abusers, violent criminals in jail.”

  Yet Talley, despite being a seven-time felon who was accused of violence, a parole absconder, and someone who stopped charging his electronic monitoring ankle bracelet, was not locked in a jail cell on the morning he allegedly murdered Bartholomew.

The articles are far to extensive and detailed to quote, so head over to the links up top and take your time reading them.

Keep spreading the word - there's something brewing out there. Don't know if it has momentum yet, but people are getting sick and tired of the lies being told.

DC Brass Being Fired

That post we have a few days ago about Washington DC bosses falsifying crime data is having real world fallout (click for larger view):

Now imagine if that sort of accountability was enacted here. There might be a shortage of "merit" bodies to fill all the holes. 

Media Trust Continues to Die

This was the Slum Times a few days ago:

Why would they use a CFD ambulance graphic for a death in Evanston?

Oh yeah, because they're lazy, unprofessional, DEI hires assisted by A.I. 

Cleared After Almost Two Years

In car camera, body cameras and outside security cameras captured the shooting and it still took almost two years to clear the Officers:

• Chicago’s police oversight agency has cleared two officers in a 2024 Pilsen shooting, finding one was justified in fatally shooting an armed 16-year-old and the other was justified in firing at a person who ran from the scene.

  The Civilian Office of Police Accountability released its findings on Thursday night in the August 18, 2024, shooting death of Alex Cortez, of Plainfield. COPA previously said state law barred it from releasing video of the incident or identifying Cortez by name because he was a juvenile. CWB Chicago identified him through other public records.

  CPD has said its own investigation found that Cortez was one of two people who opened fire on a nearby vehicle before the officers arrived, critically wounding two occupants. Again, CPD did not identify Cortez by name.

The Officers fired through their own windshield to neutralize the threat - an armed offender pointing a gun at their squad car from at most, ten feet away.

An excellent job all around and hopefully put to rest now. 

Rootbeer Said What Now?

At a deposition? Under oath?

• In a series of stunning revelations made under oath, former Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said last month that she personally believed two exonerated men whose certificates of innocence were not opposed by her administration were, in fact, guilty of “a heinous act of murder.”

  One of those two men recently reached a wrongful conviction settlement with the city of Chicago so large that it is awaiting City Council approval. The man accused of being his accomplice is preparing to take his lawsuit to a federal jury next week.

Are you fucking kidding us? She's admitting she enabled the grift? 

This is legal malfeasance of the highest order. 

Crimesha ought to be paying out of pocket for what taxpayers are on the hook for. She had a legal and ethical obligation to prosecute criminals AND defend those convictions, especially if she believed the offenders to be guilty.

She certainly shouldn't be practicing law ever again - and never from the bench as the rumors about her being in line for a judge spot keep popping up. 

No Bail Fail....in New York

Looks like this "no cash bail" thing is a failure everywhere:

• Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch released new crime statistics indicating that, compared to last April, crime in New York City last month was down 9.5% overall.

  That is very good news, and kudos are due to her and to the men and women of the NYPD.

  But before we start popping the champagne corks, we have to understand that comparing statistics year over year obscures the real crime story in NYC.

  You really have to compare crime in NYC pre-bail reform to crime post-bail reform.

  Crime in NYC began its historic rise not last April but in 2019 when bail reform was passed, releasing thousands of career criminals onto our streets.

  While murders are down 14% from April 2019 to April 2026, robberies are up 8.8%, grand larcenies are up 9.4%, felony assaults up 50% and auto theft a whopping 171%.

  We are seven years into this bail reform “experiment” and felony index crime overall is up over 26% from what it was before the law passed

CWB recently did a piece about how crime was actually up after the yearly stats caught up with the warming weather, and we really hate to ask their number crunchers to dig deeper, but....

• What are the chances of a New York Post-type comparison, i.e. before and after SAFE-T Act numbers?

The best way (in our opinion) to get a look at trends is (A) year over year or (B) after some significant event that altered behaviors. In this case, we'd look at:

• the election of Crimesha and her non-prosecution of felony cases
• COVID interruptions to crime
• SAFE-T Act implementation

Numbers on both sides of those significant events would expose a lot of number manipulation and more than a few lies. 

Circling the Drain

As we have been saying for decades, if you don't have consequences for bad behavior, you will get more of it. Here it is again:

• Forty percent of Chicago Public Schools students miss 10 percent (or more) of school without a valid excuse. How do we know that? Because the Illinois State Board of Education produces an easy-to-understand “report card” for every school in the state.

  But that report card is changing as the state pushes to better gauge improvement, regardless of a school’s individual challenges.

  Part of the rebrand is deleting the term “chronic absenteeism.” Schools will no longer be downgraded if students fail to show up, but a school’s overall grade can be “lifted” if students demonstrate “consistent attendance.”

So if students "consistently" show up 89% of the time, well....that's consistent, right? Even if it tops the 10% threshold that indicates a problem.

And they won't be holding school personnel, administrators or parents for that matter accountable. 

But you know what their solution will be when kids can't read at grade level when they're pushed out the door? More taxes for a failing product.

Ghost Hammers

A bunch of good suggestions in the comment regarding the unregistered purchases of hammers by the mentally ill:

• Hammers should have serial numbers and be controlled
• You should need three forms of ID to buy a hammer
• you really should have a background check before you are allowed to buy a hammer. Fingerprints and a DNA sample should go to the Feds for every hammer sale
• What Illinois needs to do is create an H.O.I.D. card so that we know when people buy a hammer they have been trained and the hammer is registered

All good suggestions....but they don't address the most concerning aspect of this entire class of weapons:

• Ghost Hammers

Did you know that you can actually build your own hammer? Without any sort of government oversight? And then you can sell these blunt instruments on the street....for profit....and without any sort of background checks? 

Look at some of these we found on-line:

You can tell some of them were recovered at crime scenes because there's a evidentiary ruler in the picture so as to document the barrel, handle length and caliber of the hammer. 

And according to fbi statistics, hammers are used in far more homicides that "assault rifles"

Are they 3D printing hammers yet? There ought to be a law about that. 

Blaming Who?

Aldercreatures say dumb shit all the time.

This DEI alder moron said just about the dumbest thing we've heard all year:

• A Chicago alderman, incensed by the upcoming closure of a Walgreens store amid safety concerns, stated that the corporate retailer should be charged with "first-degree corporate abandonment."

  Ald. William Hall, along with several community members, held a news conference Monday to voice their anger over the company's decision to close the location in Chicago’s 6th Ward in the Chatham neighborhood.

  "Walgreens should be charged with first-degree corporate abandonment," Hall said. "It should be a crime, the way they're treating our elders. It should be a crime, the way they're treating our families."

Not a word or a mention about how his constituents are treating Walgreens though?

And is this one running for mayor or something?

• Ald. Raymond Lopez, a Democrat, said he understands the community's frustration but questioned the timing of the outrage.

  "Where was that anger when the stores in our communities were under years and years of assault by criminals allowed to shoplift, vandalize, and destroy neighborhood institutions?" Lopez asked in a statement to Fox News Digital. "Many leaders say it is simply an insurance matter. They are wrong. There are real-world consequences for crime running rampant. This closure is the perfect example of that effect."

He certainly isn't making any aldercreature friends talking like that.

Whoops

Suburban school "oops:"

• A person of interest is in custody after a resource officer misplaced his gun while using the bathroom at a northwest suburban school Monday afternoon, leading to the cancellation of classes on Tuesday.

  According to Arlington Heights police, the incident unfolded just prior to school dismissal at Forest View Educational Center, located in the 2100 block of South Goebbert Road in Arlington Heights.

  Police say the school resource officer removed his firearm from his duty holster while using the restroom, but realized the gun was missing shortly after students were dismissed for the day.

  The resource officer searched the restroom for the gun, but did not locate it and contacted authorities to help in the search.

The gun wasn't located that day, but a review of security footage has led to an arrest of a "person of interest."

Any bets if Porkulous and Kwame will insist on more gun restrictions because Indiana has looser laws that enable gun running over the border?

PPP Indictment

A white shirt who must not have had enough time on to retire with a pension the way so many others did:

• link here

Over $40,000 scammed for a loss of a pension amounting to almost six-figures.

Smooth move there.