Clear Those Intersections

One of our sustained disciplinary findings was over a crash:

• Five people were injured after a CPD squad car was involved in a car crash in West Garfield Park.

  Two Chicago police officers were responding to a call when a driver failed to yield to their sirens at an intersection in West Garfield Park and caused a crash, Chicago police said.

  The officers were driving in a marked squad car with their lights and sirens on just after midnight in the 3800 block of West Washington Boulevard. A 42-year-old man driving a gray SUV failed to yield to the officers and crashed into the squad car, according to police. Three parked cars also were damaged in the crash.

  The driver and two male passengers were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital with minor injuries. Two officers were in good condition at a local hospital.

Sounds like no one was seriously hurt, which is a good thing.

Get well soon Officers - summer is coming and Conehead is panicking. 

Privatizing Police Jobs

There has occasionally been noise about "civilianizing" certain police jobs and we've seen it in bits and pieces over the years:

• traffic aides
• lockup keepers
• desk personnel

We don't really recall anyone at the FOP putting up much of a fight - we couldn't strike over it and that may have been the beginning of Desk and Lockup bid spots being locked in - we aren't sure. Hell, we've advocated civilianizing the entire CAPS operation and even front offices to get more cops on the street.

This seems a bit far though:

• For the past two years, the Forensic Services Unit has been going through a major and controversial shift after the City brought in a private company, Ron Smith & Associates. The company was supposed to help get the lab accredited and train Latent Print Examiners. Since then, the City has paid them more than $4 million, and there are growing questions about what that money has actually delivered.

  What started as a limited consulting job has turned into something much bigger. Instead of finishing the work and stepping away, the contract keeps getting extended. Nearly two years later, the training still isn’t done, and the unit is more dependent on this private company than ever.

  At the same time, leadership changes have closely followed this shift. James Snaidauf, a former employee of Ron Smith & Associates, was appointed Director of Forensics. According to multiple sources, the qualifications for this job were written so narrowly that no one else realistically had a shot—it all but guaranteed he would get it. This wasn’t an open, competitive hiring process; it was a position built for a specific person. Since taking over, there’s been a clear push to move out sworn personnel and replace them with civilian hires, including people coming through pipelines connected to Ron Smith & Associates.

  Matt Marvin, who is also tied to the company, has been involved in this transition as well. Multiple people have reported hearing him make comments about how much he enjoys firing people and his hatred for unions. He has also allegedly told supervisors that there are future job opportunities waiting for them with Ron Smith & Associates. If true, that raises serious concerns about what's really driving decisions inside the unit.

  The pressure is now hitting the Latent Print Examiners directly. About two years into their roles, they were told they now need to get certified through the International Association for Identification or risk losing their title. This requirement was never part of the original job, and it isn’t required by any state or national standard.

  What makes this even more concerning is who’s tied to that certification. Multiple employees from Ron Smith & Associates—including Matt Marvin—sit on committees within the same organization that issues it. In other words, the same group connected to the City’s contractor is also helping shape or influence the certification now being pushed onto these officers.

This is a testable spot, correct? And as the writer points out, there is no history of these certifications being required at the State or National levels. This seems like a money grab for some connected company to (A) get rid of unconnected Officers, and (B) create a politically connected job market for the favored few. 

This also opens the door to a entire swath of testable spots being eliminated. The FOP used to fight over bid spots and job titles. Is that a thing any more? 

Axe Guy Arrested

Known offender it seems, and he got scooped up quick:

• A man is now in custody, accused of taking an axe to firefighters’ vehicles across Chicago, with police effectively extinguishing a bizarre crime spree on the same Chinatown block where it began.

  CPD said officers arrested 26-year-old Jacob Bogdan on Saturday in the 200 block of West Cermak Road, home to a CFD firehouse that was prominently featured in the 1991 Hollywood movie Backdraft. The arrest came hours after detectives issued a public alert about the string of attacks.

  Bogdan, now charged with 21 felony counts of criminal damage to property, is scheduled to appear for a detention hearing on Sunday.

How did the detention hearing turn out? It's property damage, so it's a good bet he's another SAFE-T Act success story.

Did he at least have to surrender all his axes? 

Real? Or A.I.?

From an e-mailer:

 Here's the link.

Are these things calibrated properly? And that flag doesn't look very aerodynamic.

Somehow we highly doubt it. 

Not Violent Enough

Surprise! Another blue state $hithole:

• A Florida man walked into a Fall River (Massachusetts) bank last summer, handed the teller a note that said “I have a bomb,” and walked out with $5,000. He got caught the same day with dye on his hands and stolen cash in his pocket. Open and shut.

  But before his case was resolved, a legal question made it all the way to the state’s highest court: could prosecutors hold him without bail as a danger to the public?

  The Supreme Judicial Court said no. Armed robbery, the justices ruled on March 10, doesn’t count as a violent enough crime to lock someone up before trial.

  Read that again. Armed robbery. Not violent enough. …

We really really need this idiots to become victims of their own rulings and stupidity. That's the only way they'll learn.

CFD Alert

From an e-mailer - if you click to enlarge it, the entire picture starts to pixelate, which we can't fix:

How many firehouses have actual gated lots? 

Fences high enough to discourage someone climbing it?

Like we suggested before, swing by, keep an eye out, maybe get some target practice in. 

More Oversight Nonsense

So....what exactly are her qualifications?

• Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has chosen Anjanette Young to sit on an oversight board for the city’s police department. 

  The update comes years after officers once handcuffed Young while she was naked, during a botched police raid in 2019. 

  The footage was made public in 2020.  

  As a result of the botched raid, the city later paid nearly $3 million to resolve a lawsuit Young filed against the city of Chicago.  

Is this a paid position? Because you know that there isn't a single aldercreature with the balls to actually oppose this appointment or hiring based on any actual qualifications. Being the victim of a mistake doesn't make you any sort of expert on police work, oversight or legalities.

This is a political move.

Karen with a Shovel

We can't upload the actual video to the post, but we can link it (don't worry, you don't need a social media account to view it):

• Instagram link here 

Quite a bit of restraint here. She's got a shovel, she's carrying it at port arms, she even swings it at a squad car after damaging half-a-dozen other cars. Truth be told, we probably would have tasered her. 

If you bother to read the comments, everyone is wondering if the Officers didn't kill her because she's of a pale persuasion, conveniently ignoring that she wasn't threatening or advancing on cops or citizens - she was committing property damage and Officers know that if they shot her, they'd be charged within hours.

You have  the police performing exactly how they're supposed to, but the tiny brains have to allege racism where none is even in play. Hell, the cops on scene appear to be :::gasp::: reflective of a diverse Chicago populace.

Good job Officers. 

CFD Cars Attacked

Check on fire houses if you can:

• Friday morning marked the second time someone targeted a South Side firehouse this week.

  A union rep told ABC7 that a man wielding an ax damaged seven personal vehicles in the Englewood neighborhood. About 12 vehicles were torn up earlier this week at a separate firehouse.

  Vehicle after vehicle parked in front of the fire station at East 59th and South State streets could be seen with ax markings slashed into their doors and windows early Friday.

We remember being invited to a few dinners when we checked in with CFD. We also walked in a couple decent sized poker and dice games certain evenings (wagering toothpicks only). 

Plus, you might get to shoot some asshole wielding an axe. 

May Day

Not even hiding the communism any more:

• The president of the Chicago Board of Education is pressuring the new Chicago Public Schools CEO to cave to union demands to cancel classes on May 1 for a day of protests, according to a memo reviewed by WGN Investigates, but the new schools’ chief stood firm late Thursday.

  “My position has not changed,” CEO Macquline King wrote in a memo.  “As a career educator, I believe every minute in the classroom is vital for our students.”  She added the entire school board should take a public vote if they want to cancel classes that day.

Why lose a day of badly needed instruction for kids who can't add, can't read and probably can't even spell "communism"?

As a couple aldercreatures point out:

• “May 1 is a day on class instruction, our students need to learn in the building,” Ald. Ray Lopez (15th Ward) told WGN Thursday morning.  

  Another alderman agreed. 

  “I think it’s a terrible idea,” Ald. Nick Sposato (38th Ward) told WGN. “I respect everyone’s right to protest. Why can’t this protest be on a Saturday?”

If it was on a Saturday, everyone could attend....but then teachers wouldn't get a three-day weekend.

Justice by Bearcat

Wow:

• A California sheriff’s detective was shot and killed Thursday while serving an eviction notice after an armed suspect opened fire on deputies in what authorities described as an apparent ambush that led to an hours-long standoff.

  The suspect, identified as David Eric Morales, was ultimately killed when a law enforcement BearCat armored vehicle ran over him after he continued firing and refused to surrender, authorities said.

  "The suspect was lying prone on the ground, in camouflage clothing, continuing to pose a threat," Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux said later during a news conference. "The situation was resolved, and the suspect is now dead. He was not shot. One of the BearCats ran over him and killed him."

A quick search has the BearCat weighing in at just over eleven tons. You use what you have available under the circumstances and a vehicle greatly reduces the chances of a miss or an unpredictable ricochet.

Sympathies to the California law enforcement community for their loss. 

Another Conehead Corpse

His next mental breakdown is long overdue:

• A man was found fatally shot near a parked pickup truck in Brighton Park early Thursday, and indications are he may have been there for more than two hours before being discovered by a passerby.

  The shooting occurred in the 3100 block of West 39th Place, an area that was monitored around the clock by the city’s ShotSpotter gunfire detection network until Mayor Brandon Johnson ended the program in September 2024, despite opposition from the police superintendent and a City Council supermajority.

  Chicago police said officers responded to a call of a person down at approximately 4:15 a.m. and found the man, who remained a “John Doe” as of midmorning, lying between a pickup truck and some scaffolding. He had suffered gunshot wounds to the head and body and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Twenty-nine shell casings were located nearby, but only two calls came in about it. But there's no way of telling if those twenty-nine were from this shooting or stacked up from three or four other shootings.

This Might be a Deterrent

If you make the punishment painful enough, it might make an impression:

• A man who trafficked fentanyl and cocaine and illegally possessed 17 firearms inside his Wicker Park home has been sentenced to nine years in federal prison, officials announced Thursday.

  Hugo Pinzon, 36, pleaded guilty to federal drug and firearm charges in exchange for the sentence from U.S. District Judge John Kness, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago.

And this was a guilty plea, so you know the feds were pushing for twenty years just for starters. 

This is why Project Exile worked in Virginia for the short amount of time in was in effect - ten year minimum, federal time, far from home, no parole for any federal gun crime conviction.

No One Remembers Her

This is the young girl who was killed a few years ago shortly after Lil Homicide met his completely JUSTIFIABLE fate:

• A 17-year-old girl died after being shot in the head while in a vehicle in Little Village on the West Side Thursday.

  Lydia Jimenez was shot around 7:45 p.m. in the 4100 block of West 25th Place, about two miles from her home, Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

  She was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital and pronounced dead, according to police. The 20-year-old man driving the car was uninjured.

Just riding in a car, minding her own business, when some gang banger (two sixer guessing by the address) decides to fire some rounds down the street and kills a passerby.

Pretty much exactly what Lil Homicide was doing the night he got JUSTIFIABLY killed. We don't recall any protests or petitions over this one. Certainly no one got sued civilly.

Three Years for a Cooler Toss

NYPD Sergeant headed to prison for a manslaughter conviction:

• A former NYPD sergeant was slapped with at least three years behind bars Thursday for killing a fleeing drug suspect by chucking a cooler at him — as police advocates ripped the Bronx judge’s sentencing decision as “one of the darkest days in the history of our profession.”

  Ex-Sgt. Erik Duran — the first NYPD officer convicted of killing someone while on duty in a decade — begged Judge Guy Mitchell to give him “a chance” as he apologized to the family of 30-year-old Eric Duprey, a delivery driver with a criminal record who crashed as he fled arrest during a 2023 sting operation.  

  “Your honor, I am asking for a chance to be there with my kids. I am asking for a chance, just one,” pleaded Duran, a 38-year-old married dad of three who served on the police force for 13 years. 

  But while the judge conceded that he did find Duran to be “remorseful,” he argued the sentence of 3-to-9 years in state prison would serve as a “general deterrent” to other police officers.

The "deterrence" is going to be even more police disengagement across New York City at a time when they can ill afford it.

Was this a smart move? No, not really. 

But was there an intent to use the cooler as "deadly force"? Not even close. The sergeant was just trying to trip up a fleeing felon who was driving a motorbike ON THE SIDEWALK in an attempt to flee a felony drug charge. 

Reversible judicial error? Perhaps. But we also might not have put our trust in the bench trial, especially after New Yorkers proved themselves somewhat sane (and growing intolerant of lib-tarded policy) after acquitting the former-Marine of killing that psychotic homeless asshole who was threatening subway riders.

Going to rough in the meantime. 

"Not Going Back"

Doubling down....or tripling down....on stupid:

• Members of the Illinois House Legislative Black Caucus said they “remain open to thoughtful, data-driven refinements” to the landmark criminal justice reform law known as the SAFE-T Act, but will not consider measures that undermine the goals of the law, which eliminated cash bail as a condition of pretrial release.

  In a lengthy statement released Monday, the 22-member caucus said in part that they’re “not going back to a system where penalty enhancements, jailing more people, ignoring root causes and underinvesting in our communities were treated as public safety policy.”

  “That system was not just. It was not smart. And it did not make us safer,” they wrote. “We will not support legislation that carries the remnants of the system we left behind, because those approaches are adversarial to this work, adversarial to fairness, and adversarial to real public safety.”

Do you think these morons ever heard of the "social contract"? Here's a basic overview:

• ....social contract is an idea, theory, or model that usually, although not always, concerns the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual. Conceptualized in the Age of Enlightenment, it is a core concept of constitutionalism, while not necessarily convened and written down in a constituent assembly and constitution.

  Social contract arguments typically are that individuals have consented, either explicitly or tacitly, to surrender some of their freedoms and submit to the authority (of the ruler, or to the decision of a majority) in exchange for protection of their remaining rights or maintenance of the social order.

In other words, we agree as a society to get along....BUT (and this is the key) everyone has to get actually get along. When one segment decides they don't have to get along with everyone else and those nominally in charge do everything in their power to remove the legitimate authority from enforcing the social contract, then things break down

1. people begin to get fed up;
2. they lose respect for the institutions;
3. they stop participating in a process they consider illegitimate; 
4. they move away;
5. in the extreme, they form loose alliances to do the enforcement that the government refuses to do

In other words, vigilantism becomes more prevalent....and eventually, the norm.

We might be mistaken and we might have missed a step or two, but it sure looks like we're in the midst of Step 4.

You know what discourages misbehavior?

Avoidance of consequences, like fines and prison. 

And do you know what permanently discourages misbehavior? 

The inability to do it again. 

San Fran "Solved" Crime

Well, not really solved, but they put a sizeable dent in the crime numbers via a very simple solution that no one ever thought of before:

• In just two years, car break-ins are down 85% from their previous highs. Robbery is down 30%. Burglary is down 33%. And most impressive of all, homicides haven't been this low since 1954. To give you an idea of how long ago 1954 was in San Francisco terms, the city was on its fourth in a string of five consecutive Republican mayors.

  All of these figures are courtesy of Austin Justice, an X account that tracks "Austin’s rogue criminals, prosecutors, and politicians." I suspect "Justice" looks at San Francisco with Texas-sized envy — and who saw that coming?

  The real question, though, is, "In two years since what?"

  In 2022, voters finally had it up to here [hold hand six inches above head for visual effect] with the city's soft-on-crime/George-Soros-sponsored district attorney, Chesa Boudin, and recalled him with a solid 55% majority. Mayor London Breed appointed Brooke Jenkins to the job as Boudin's interim D.A., and she was elected to a full term in 2024.

  Jenkins has her own troubles, including committing two acts of prosecutorial misconduct, resulting in her placement in a mandatory diversion program to teach her the errors of her ways.

  But there's one thing Jenkins does exactly right, and it's that one weird trick that works so well against crime: She actually prosecutes criminals. 

First, they got rid of the Soros-backed commie prosecutor.

Second, the new DA actually started jailing and prosecuting crimes as written by the legislature.

Who would have thought that YOU CAN actually prosecute your way out of crime? Why had no one ever thought of this before??

Next thing you know, deporting actual criminals might drive the numbers down ever further. 

Someone want to tell Fata$$? Conehead? O'Neil-Burke - though she might have a tiny inkling.

Conehead's Non-Demonized Yutes

Funny that you have to go to England to find this article:

• A shocking video showed a group of young boys in Chicago wearing masks and nitrile gloves while proudly showing off their firearms as they walked through the city in broad daylight.

  One boy could seen with a long gun tucked inside his red coat, with the length of the weapon stretching nearly the full size of his jacket.

  Another flashed a handgun toward the camera, as others in the group also displayed their weapons and shouted out a gang affiliation.

  Some held what appeared to be rifle-style firearms with extended magazines, openly waving them around in public.

  'We out here, b***h,' one of the boys said. 'This [is] our block, n****.'

This is part of some contested real estate between a couple gangs, but it is literally four blocks from where Lil Homicide was blasting away at passing cars on 26th Street before he was justifiably shot by police.

This is also what Conehead and his commie friends support while wanting to disarm every one else. 

Cynthia White Died?

If you're old, you remember her.

What we remember is that an entire Tact team in 002 either went to jail or got fired (or both) while she skated after wearing a wire and testifying in court against them all. It was claimed she was rooting out a corrupt team, but team members said she was in on all of the corruption - she just flipped first.

The trouble is not only did she skate, she managed to get promoted to sergeant, lieutenant, captain (we think) and Inspector. That isn't because she was some super smart test taker. We think she held back just enough info on someone heavily connected and parlayed it into advancement

A more controversial figure would be hard to find.

Nice Shot Citizen

Another happy ending!

• A licensed concealed carry holder shot and killed a man who broke into his home and charged at him early Monday, a shooting that occurred inside a home directly across the street from a Chicago Police Department district station.

  The 33-year-old concealed carry license holder called 911 at 1:24 a.m. and told dispatchers he had shot an intruder inside his home in the 2200 block of East 103rd Street and had already begun performing CPR on the man, who had suffered a gunshot wound to the chest. His home is across the street from the South Chicago (4th) District station.

  Officers arrived and took over lifesaving measures, but the intruder, who remained a “John Doe” as of Monday evening, was pronounced dead at 1:43 a.m.

The homeowner isn't required to attempt life saving measures?

Who would have thought?!? 

Let's get this homeowner a box of ammo. 

Stupidity Gets Co-Sponsors

Like attracts like....and moron attracts moron:

• A North Side lawmaker’s effort to strip Illinois police investigators of one of their most powerful new tools since the advent of DNA indexing has failed to get out of committee. But the bill has two new co-sponsors, both from Chicago, suggesting it is far from dead even though its supporters can’t seem to find any examples of the technology being used to wrongly accuse anyone of wrongdoing in Illinois.

  The bill, sponsored by Rep. Kelly Cassidy, would ban any local or state law enforcement agency in Illinois from accessing a facial recognition database, and would prohibit agencies from working around that ban by partnering with or contracting out to a third party to do it on their behalf.

  Tom Weitzel, the retired Chief of Police in suburban Riverside, was blunt in his assessment.

  “Facial recognition is one of the most important investigative tools to come along in policing in 50 years,” he said. “Eliminating it outright is reckless and dangerous.”  Cassidy’s bill, Weitzel continued, “doesn’t regulate facial recognition; it destroys it. It strips police of a critical tool used to identify violent offenders and protect the public. No one in Illinois has ever been charged based solely on a facial recognition match. That claim is a myth, and it should not be driving legislation.”

To be honest, most democrat sponsored legislation is based on "muh feelings" and not actual facts. We could point out hundreds of examples without breaking a sweat. It's about (A) control and (B) loving criminals more than law abiding citizens.

If you look at the co-sponsors, they're the usual mix of idiots. And the ACLU supports this without being able to cite a single instance of anyone being actually charged in Illinois, instead citing a Michigan case from a number of years ago when the technology was in its infancy and the subject was merely detained, not charged. 

Pay Your Bills

If an Officer appears on one of these lists, they are the subject of an immediate SPAR, upgradable to a CR Investigation and suspended without pay until they are enrolled in a payment program, sometimes involving direct garnishment of wages.

But if you're a teacher or a CTA worker?

• A substitute teacher owes City Hall nearly $200,000 for building code violations, fines and traffic tickets he racked up over the past 25 years, making him the single biggest debtor working for the city of Chicago or its sister agencies.

  A convicted bank robber landed an entry-level job with the CTA’s Second Chance program even though City Hall says he owes more than $136,000 in fines, mostly for drinking in public and selling individual cigarettes near Douglass Park — a likely case of mistaken identity since he was in prison when the police issued those tickets.

  The operator of a West Side religious store owed the city more than $28,000 in water bills, but it didn’t keep her from landing a job as a staff assistant to a City Council member who’s pushing Mayor Brandon Johnson to collect money from deadbeats.

  They are among 12,761 people who work for the city or its sister agencies despite collectively owing City Hall more than $19.5 million for delinquent water bills, parking violations, speeding tickets, building-code violations and other infractions, according to data the city’s finance department provided to the Chicago Sun-Times in response to a public records request.

  Nearly 80% of those scofflaws have jobs with the Chicago Board of Education or the Chicago Transit Authority, owing nearly $15.7 million to the city, records show.

We even know of someone who was delinquent on his water bill and he had the nerve to run for mayor!

Lil Homicide Civil Trial

As this bullshit gets underway, remember:

• a ShotSpotter Alert directed Officers to the location;
• cameras and Officer observations saw only two people at the location of the shots fired;
• the suspects fled, one carrying a pistol, and failed to obey orders to stop;
• the time between the offender WHO HAD BEEN OBSERVED WITH THE GUN IN HIS HAND turning to face the Officer and the single fatal shot being fired, was timed at under half-of-one-second;
• even Crimesha found the Officer's actions legal justified 

If a jury finds that Officers shouldn't be chasing people with guns after there were shots being fired at passing cars down 26th Street at 0300 hours, then Larritorious should shut down the 010th District and send all the Officers to somewhere that appreciates the Police attempting to keep communities safe from gang banging curfew violators who shoot at people driving down the street.

Fuck Lil Homicide, his useless parent(s), the "community" that supports these gang banging pieces of garbage and the scumbag lawyers pushing this twisted agenda. 

Shakespeare had it right....but his list was too short. 

Proof of What Now?

The Sparklefart Grift is set to continue:

• You'll soon be able to purchase tickets to visit the museum at the Obama Presidential Center. Tickets for Founding Members go on sale starting April 21. Ticket sales open to the general public on May 6. You'll be able to book a date to visit, starting June 19 through November 30.

  Admission is $30 for adults, and $23 for children ages three through eleven.

So they've stopped calling it a "library."

But this part amused us:

• The museum is also free on Tuesdays with proof of Illinois residency.

How is one supposed to prove Illinois residency? The party of Sparklefart has been telling us for years that black and brown people are either: 

• systemically denied being able to get ID, 
• economically unable to afford ID
• or too dumb to get an ID

Remember, you need ID to shovel snow in New York, buy liquor, fly on a plane, recycle metal, pawn anything, and now go visit the Sparklefart Center.

It's so confusing. 

Cicero Cops Injured

Chasing a burglary crew:

• A four-vehicle crash during an early morning police chase in Chicago's west suburbs left five people injured, including two officers.

  The crash happened around 4:49 a.m. Monday at Roosevelt Road and Cicero Avenue in Cicero, according to town officials.

  "We along with other municipalities have had issues with gaming café burglaries in the early morning hours," said Cicero Police Superintendent Thomas Boyle. "That morning our department was looking for those individuals committing that type of offenses."

The police clipped the back end of a turning semi. They should be okay after some time recovering.

But this piqued our curiosity:

• As officers approached, the driver fled, jumping a curb and heading north on Cicero Avenue. Police then tried to catch up to deploy a tracking device.

  "They then attempted to get behind the vehicle to place a tracker called StarChase, and in the course of that, the collision occurred," Boyle said.

We had seen this a while back but didn't realize it was in service anywhere locally. Here's the link to the company. It looks like a GPS tracker embedded in a big sticky ball of snot that's launched at a suspect vehicle and broadcasts its location. When does CPD get to pilot this?

Next step - an embedded Taser-type device that fries in-car electronics, eliminating all pursuits? 

For a Doll?

Are you f#$%ing serious?

• Chicago police officers sprang into action, even using a helicopter, to rescue a Teddy bear stolen from a Downtown chocolate shop.

  According to police scanner dispatch reports, officers used a helicopter to help track down Truffles, a 3-foot brown bear in a blue hat and overalls that was taken Friday night from his home at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory at 3 N. State St.

  “Operation Teddy Bear, strong work,” an officer was heard saying Friday night.

  The bear was in his usual spot in the window when a group of teenagers who had been hanging around outside went inside around 7:30 p.m. and took off with him, owner Tyson Minnick said.

  “He got a wild ride around the city for about an hour,” Minnick said.

  The teenagers tried to take off with Truffles, boarding a CTA Red Line L train, but they were stopped by police officers at the 35th Street station.

Oh, the Red Line....that explains everything. 

Except for burning through helicopter money at $1,000 dollars per hour for a misdemeanor Theft that - were it a foot chase - would get you suspended for three days to start. 

What Budget Crisis?

Conehead (and Fata$$) keep claiming there is no money, even as they continue to raise taxes and blame Washington DC for their spending problems.

Then Conehead announces this late last week:

• Chicago officials unveiled a plan they say would effectively end homelessness in the city, even as questions over leadership changes and unclear funding streams cast early uncertainty over how the plan will be implemented. 

  The five-year blueprint features data, recommendations and insight into how the city might address the issue of homelessness. It contains seven pillars to address – emergency services, housing, health, education, employment, community cohesion and systems alignment.

  Improvements to homelessness services have already been in progress according to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, but the blueprint will provide guidance for initiatives. The report says it aims to effectively end homelessness, based on a framework called Functional Zero.

  Sendy Soto, Chicago chief homelessness officer, was appointed to the position by the mayor in 2023 to lead efforts creating the five-year plan. Her departure from the position was announced by Johnson early this week.

So the person nominally "in charge" of this effort just left. 

And TheCenterSquare points out there is no actual funding stream to fund the entire plan.

For a city....

• that can't maintain 60% of its CFD Tower Ladders, 
• is seven years into a "consent decree" can't adequately man Districts or supervisory positions, 
• burned through $400 million for ILLEGAL ALIENS, 
• and won't fix potholes that exploded across the city following the usual freeze/thaw cycle of March

.... is going to end homelessness. This Functional Zero would seem to describe Conehead's entire administrative staffs' brainpower.

Color us skeptical. 

Crime is .... Up?

Up three homicides from last year according to HeyJackass.com:

Red is the current month to date.

Gray is the projected month end totals based on current trends (subject to reality). 

Conehead is praying for rain and low temps.

Another SAFE-T Act Killing

The only way to end this is to stop voting for democrats who love criminals (and ILLEGAL ALIENS) more than citizens:

• A man who walked out of court to await trial on a felony stolen vehicle charge in June 2024 killed a 25-year-old man just two weeks later while speeding through a red light in yet another stolen car, prosecutors now say. Dujan Lucas, 24, is now the 37th person charged with killing or trying to kill someone while on felony pretrial release in Chicago that year.

  It started, according to prosecutors, on June 6, 2024, when Lucas was charged with possessing a stolen Dodge Durango. The vehicle was suspected of being used hours earlier in a shoplifting raid at the Louis Vuitton store inside a Nordstrom, where roughly $22,000 worth of merchandise was taken, according to a CPD report.

  Exactly two weeks after he walked out of court, prosecutors now say, Lucas was driving a stolen black 2021 Jeep Cherokee SRT-8 at 73 mph when he ran a solid red light at 83rd Street and South Kedzie Avenue. A CPD surveillance camera captured what happened next: the Jeep slammed into a white Honda HRV heading west on 83rd Street.

CWB has a running total and chart of all the cases they've uncovered at their site.

They also drill down through the data and show that charges are filed in less than 5% of non-fatal shootings and 33% of murders, partly because of dead-ended investigations but also because the States Attorney refused to move forward. That may have changed under O'Neil-Burke.

COVID "Vax" Cancelled

UPDATE: This post was flagged and cancelled by eBlogger because it ran afoul of their "misinformation policy." We don't know what "misinformation" they're referring to as every single day uncovers more and more of what may turn out to be the largest unsupported public health scare in human history.

So instead of quoting from the "JustTheNews" website, we'll quote directly from the Reuters News site that appears to be part of the approved tech-regime information sources:

• LONDON, April 1 (Reuters) - Vaccine makers Pfizer and BioNTech halted a large U.S. trial of their updated COVID-19  vaccine in healthy adults aged 50 to 64, saying enrollment in the trials had been too low to generate the needed data. In a letter to  trial investigators dated March 30, seen by Reuters and previously unreported, Pfizer said it would stop surveillance for signs of COVID illness of all participants in the study after April 3.
  
  Enrollment was closed on March 6, following a review of current epidemiological trends, it said.
  The move comes as COVID vaccine makers grapple with pushback from the U.S. administration and weak U.S. demand for the shots.

Pretty much the exact same reporting.

 

More Planned "Takeovers"

The kids aren't making any secret about it:

• City leaders say five so-called "teen takeovers" are planned in Chicago this weekend.

  One was expected to happen in Bogan Park on the city's South Side. Police made their presence felt there on Friday night.

  Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson posted a video, warning that these gatherings can turn dangerous and even deadly.

  He asked parents to check in with their children to see where they plan to be. He also urged them to find safe alternatives.

Safe alternatives....like Naperville? (paywalled article):

• Four juveniles were arrested on battery charges Monday night during a gathering of about 300 teenagers in downtown Naperville.

  Naperville police Cmdr. Rick Krakow said a group of juveniles congregated in different parts of downtown “during the early evening hours,” with the largest group near the intersection of Chicago Avenue and Washington Street.

  The crowd began to disperse between 8 and 9 p.m. as it started to rain, he said. It’s not known how many of the teens were from Naperville as opposed to other cities.

  Four juveniles were arrested for misdemeanor battery as a result of a fight that broke out, Krakow said. He did not know what provoked the incident and he would not provide the ages or genders of those charged.

This issue has spread far beyond Chicago's borders, but always to blue city $hitholes that don't make any effort at holding offenders responsible for crimes.

"Scrambling" for Eggs

See the headline there? We're so punny:

• Children dressed in their Easter best set off on a hunt for candy-filled eggs on Saturday in East Garfield Park.

  Parishioners at Harvest Worship Center Ministries spread out thousands of colorful eggs for their annual “Easter Eggstravaganza” at Altgeld Park Hope Field at 515 S. Washtenaw Ave.

  Children of all ages raced to collect as many eggs as they could, filling their colorful Easter baskets.

  Now in its 13th year, the parish-run event also featured food, games and music for children and their families.

Readers of the blog will recall a few years back that Altgeld Park is the location where a suburban school had come in to play football against local school, and everyone ended up on the ground as gunfire rang out a few yards away from where children were playing. The suburbanites were appropriately shocked that such a thing could happen - not being aware that the 011th District led the city in homicides most of the past forty years....and led the nation in per capita violent crimes on more than one occasion.

The kids were obviously "scrambling" to get their share of the eggs before the "Shots Fired" calls started up. Again.

One Way to Handle Crime

Let the CTA do it (click for larger version):

Hopefully, no one was actually chasing the suspect as foot chases are prohibited.

You know COPA would file charges in a heartbeat.

Speaking of Equipment Replacements

ISP needs new cars - guess how many and guess how long it'll take?

• More than 1,000 Illinois State Police vehicles are near the end of their life, but the agency might not be able to replace them anytime soon.

  The Illinois Department of Central Management Services recommends that vehicles in the ISP fleet be replaced every eight years or 150,000 miles, but it’s taking much longer, ISP Director Brenden Kelly told a Senate appropriations committee last month.

  “At this rate, with this funding mechanism we have, it will take about 18 years to replace our fleet,” Kelly said. “So while we’re not expecting a miracle in terms of some legislation to solve that for us permanently, we recognize that we’re going to have to continue to, piecemeal, find those sources of funding where they can be found.”

And given that the lifespan of the cars is around eight years, the first vehicles replaced will have been themselves replaced at least once, perhaps twice.

It's a never ending sinkhole. 

Tragedy in Kentucky

Most Officers hope and pray for a lengthy peaceful retirement when they leave the job. Some look for a job as far away from law enforcement as humanly possible. Others take security gigs around the edges of law enforcement. And a small number look for second careers as the Police because they enjoy it and feel they still have contributions to make to the community.

This was that last case:

• A Chicago native and longtime leader on the Chicago Police Department SWAT Team was critically wounded in a shooting in Kentucky, where he now serves on the Crittenden County Sheriff’s Department.

  Deputy Rick Coyle, who grew up on Chicago’s South Side and attended Brother Rice High School, moved to Kentucky with his wife in 2019 after retiring from CPD. After joining the sheriff’s department, he took on a role as a school resource officer (SRO) with Crittenden County Schools in 2024.

  According to Kentucky State Police, Coyle remains in critical condition after he was shot in the line of duty Thursday night. Sources with knowledge of the situation tell WGN-TV he was shot in the head and a bullet struck him in the vest.

The praise pouring in from former co-workers here is extensive. Coyle retired to Kentucky and was working as a School Resource Officer. There's a video we saw of teachers and school kids wishing Coyle and his partner a Happy School Resources Officers Day from a few weeks ago and it's obvious that these people appreciated and loved their SROs (if someone has the link, post it in the comments). 

One of the job requirements was one day every week or so, the Officers had to work regular patrol duties, not unusual in smaller departments. This time, while serving guardianship paperwork on a subject, things went south and Coyle was shot in the vest and head. The assailant was killed in the ensuing gun battle and Coyle was airlifted to a trauma hospital where (as of this writing) he remains in critical condition. There is other information, rumors mostly, but it isn't our place to speak of what the Sheriff, Governor or family haven't released. 

Prayers and best wishes to his family, friends and co-workers....here and in Kentucky.

Nice Fire Department Conehead

Courtesy of the Contrarian, this isn't dangerous at all:

• Here is something with which all Chicago residents should be racked by anxiety. Yesterday, as CFD battled a fire at 74th and Yates in South Shore, the Battalion Chief declared an extra alarm and requested a tower ladder.
  
  
  Woefully, the closest tower ladder available across the entire city was located at Grace and Damen. This ladder traveled 156 blocks — some TWENTY MILES — to respond to the extra alarm.
  
  
  This is an utter outrage.
  
  
  Of the ten tower ladders in Chicago, 5, 10, 16, 24, 39, and 54, all are out of service. At the moment, only four tower ladders are in service, TLs 14, 21, 23, and 63, all of which are stationed on the North and West Sides of the city. This leaves the whole of the South Side of Chicago —which unfortunately experiences a higher number of fires — without sufficient equipment to fight large-scale fires.
  
  
  This shortage of equipment is inexcusable and undeniably imperils residents whose taxes pay for fire protection. This equipment shortage also creates dangerous conditions for CFD called on to fight fires.
  
  
  So, now that you know, @ChicagosMayor, are you going to do something about this?

Here's exactly what Conehead is going to do about it:

• declare this is the result of systemic racist within the CFD; 
• spend another $400 million on ILLEGAL ALIENS; 
• have a nervous breakdown

Is any enterprising "reporter"  going to pick up on this story? Maybe figure out the average age of a whole shitload of CFD apparatus? Find out when the last time was that CFD was able to buy a new engine / truck / tower? See if the rumor we had over a year ago about CFD losing it's Federal accreditation due to poorly maintained out-of-date equipment is any closer to happening?

House for Sale

Asking price - $1.5 million:

• This extraordinary custom-built estate redefines luxury living in Chicago's West Elsdon neighborhood. Constructed in 2005 with a full masonry and stone exterior, the residence offers over 5,760 square feet of living spaces, combining high-end mechanical systems with exceptional custom craftsmanship. 
• The privately gated residence features 5 spacious bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, 2 powder rooms, including 3 bedroom suites with private bathrooms, offering comfort and privacy for family and guests. Every closet is finished with custom shelving systems. 
• The first level showcases radiant heated floors, providing consistent and energy-efficient comfort. The second-level elegant living room features a gas fireplace and a stunning Rich Toffee custom library wall complete with a rolling ladder, creating a warm and sophisticated gathering space. The expansive chef's kitchen is equipped with Sub-Zero side-by-side oversized refrigeration, double ovens, two dishwashers, and a built-in trash compactor. The second-floor private garden includes a charming outdoor fireplace and beautifully maintained perennial landscaping creating a peaceful sanctuary above the city. A built-in elevator provides convenient access to every level of the home. 
• The primary suite on the third level features a private balcony, built-in cabinet and a spa-inspired bathroom with a standalone shower and deep Jacuzzi soaking tub. The expansive rooftop deck offers breathtaking 360-degree skyline views, providing the perfect setting for entertaining or relaxing. 3-car heated garage plus additional outdoor parking spaces within the gated grounds. 
• Located just 15 minutes from Downtown Chicago, the property offers convenient access to I-55, I-90/94, and I-294, as well as the Pulaski Orange Line and Midway International Airport, this exceptional property offers the rare combination of size, privacy, luxury amenities, and convenient city access. Schedule your private tour today!

We were thinking of scheduling our own private tour, just so we could take a giant dump one of the bathrooms.

Oh, the seller? 

• Convicted Aldercreature Ed Burke 

We don't know if he's hurting for money or is moving out of town. 

There aren't too many comparables for the neighborhood because the building is so out of place for West Elsdon. The eight-foot brick fence around the yard is a plus if you don't like talking to the neighbors.