How Does This Keep Happening?

Gun grabbers and democrats tell us that MORE gun restrictions are always the answer....but then this happens:

• A Chicago man with a lengthy criminal history is facing felony charges after a 2-year-old boy allegedly found his loaded handgun and fatally shot himself inside a Pullman home. Prosecutors said Jamonte Shaw found a loaded 9mm handgun belonging to 31-year-old Johnny Hughes inside the home they shared with Jamonte’s mother and siblings in the 900 block of East 104th Street.

  At the time of the shooting, Hughes was asleep on a couch in the residence while Jamonte’s mother was in the kitchen with her 9-year-old and a 4-month-old. Sometime around 12:41 p.m., Jamonte allegedly found Hughes’ firearm and shot himself, prosecutors said.

  [...] Hughes is prohibited from possessing firearms because of his criminal record, which includes convictions for unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon in 2016 and 2020. Prosecutors said his record also includes convictions for reckless discharge of a firearm and aggravated fleeing and eluding, both in 2016.

  During a detention hearing, Judge Ankur Srivastava ordered Hughes detained pending trial. The judge cited Hughes’ history of gun offenses, the presence of multiple children in the home, and the fact that Hughes was already on felony pretrial release when the shooting occurred.

  Hughes faces charges of possession of a firearm by a repeat felon, aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon based on a prior conviction, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon with two or more prior convictions, and child endangerment causing death.

Multiple felony convictions....and still out, armed and committing more felonies.

You know what would fix this? More Gun restrictions on the Law abiding portion of the citizens! 

Bears Drama

The senate said "Sure," but the house said, "We can screw this up even more!" 

We had a heck of a time understanding this part:

• Illinois senators tossed up a desperation heave by passing a bill that would authorize Cook County municipalities with populations of at least 70,000 to create their own financing authorities for publicly owned stadiums that would eliminate the Bears’ potential property tax bills. But their House colleagues didn’t take up the measure for a vote, leaving the stadium saga in limbo once again.

So the Bears would pay for their own stadium, something along the lines of $2 billion or so, which we fully support. 

Then the Bears would "gift" the stadium to the local financing authority (making it "publicly owned") and thereby relieving themselves of the stadium property tax bills (though they'd be on the hook for any other structures built on the Arlington Race Track property, i.e. hotels, restaurants, casinos, etc).

The distribution of stadium revenues is less well defined for the Arlington Heights location while the Indiana people have said the Bears can keep all of that money.

So a lot more bribes and favors have to be worked into a possible deal, sometime before summer - which is twenty days away, give or take a couple weeks.

Upcoming Street Naming

An Honorary Street naming on tap:

• ....received notice from [...] the Chicago 38th Ward Aldermanic Office, [...], that an Honorary Street Sign Dedication was approved and scheduled to take place on Saturday, June 13th at 12 Noon, on behalf of, Sgt. Tom "Buzzy" Eichler, USMC, CPD. 
   
  The location will be on OPAL (7832 W) and SCHOOL (3300 N) Streets in Chicago, 60634.

  Help is needed, I'm sure, to spread the word to friends of Buzzy and his family for this distinguished event in his honor.

Sgt Eichler had quite the reputation back in the day, an actual war hero for actions at the Battle of Khe Sanh and a record involving multiple Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and the Silver Star - someone who should have a street named in their memory.

(informational post - comments closed here) 

Zero Tolerance Experiment?

Seems like last week there was a minor effort to crack down on Compliance Violations downtown:

• New videos show street vendors being escorted away from their carts in the Loop—facing fines, citations, and possible arrest.

  Experts say this is something that's happening more and more recently and is renewing conversations about the legality of vending in the city's most popular areas.

  Typically, around Michigan Avenue, vendors line that part of Millennium Park, but as of Monday, the majority of those vendors were missing. Those who were there shared videos showing their fellow vendors being whisked away by Chicago police.

And they're complaining that the law hasn't been enforced for years, decades even, so it's unfair to enforce it now:

• "One ticket is maybe alright, but like the police are strict now—every week, every Saturday and Sunday they come," he says.

  Marlen Romero is also a street vendor selling fruit.

  "Because we have needs, we have to support a family, I have four children here," she said.

  Her husband had to run and rotate locations to avoid being seen by the police.

  "Meantime, we're looking to sell. I know there are laws here, I know is prohibited, but we're not hurting anyone, and sometimes they treat us like thieves," she said. 

Um, you're hurting actual established businesses who pay rent, property taxes, business licenses, etc. And you're selling in locations prohibited to be at. Not to mention you have no running water, no health inspections, no refrigeration for perishable items etc. Oh, and your tracking of Sales Tax Revenue leaves a lot to be desired. 

That $100 peddlers license (valid for two years) doesn't offset the downside of creating a Third World atmosphere.

Another Conehead Corpse

They just keep piling up:

• Police found a gunshot victim lying dead in a vacant lot in South Chicago on Saturday morning, apparently hours after he was killed. Exactly when the murder occurred is not known because nobody called 911 to report the gunfire, and Mayor Brandon Johnson disconnected the city’s ShotSpotter network in September 2024.

  Police responded to a report of a person down in the 8000 block of South Marquette Avenue at about 11:47 a.m. Saturday. Officers found a male who appeared to be in his late teens lying face down in a vacant lot with gunshot wounds to his chest and flank, according to Chicago police.

No one called 9-1-1 and the body laid there for around ten hours....half of it during daylight. 

We get the feeling it's going to be an entertaining summer of bodies.

An Un-collectible Judgement

We doubt the family will ever see a dime:

• A man who was allegedly intoxicated and drag racing at 102 mph when he slammed into another vehicle, killing its driver in June 2023, has been ordered to pay $21 million to the victim’s survivors, according to court records.

  Marvin Bonilla, 28, had a blood alcohol content of .13 as he raced his Ford Mustang around 4:45 a.m. on June 23, 2023, according to a Chicago police crash report. At the intersection of 59th Street and Pulaski Road, he allegedly plowed into a Toyota RAV4 driven by 51-year-old Alberto Onofre.

  [...] He is currently awaiting trial on reckless homicide and other charges.

  Six months after the crash, and more than a year before criminal charges were filed, Onofre’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Bonilla. Cook County Judge Michael Otto later entered a judgment ordering Bonilla to pay a total of $21 million to Onofre’s wife and three children. The award includes $10 million for Onofre’s wife and approximately $3.67 million for each of his children, court records show.

But in the event he ever happens to win the lottery, the family is in line to collect first.

So....why couldn't this be standard practice for Officers attacked and injured by individuals who are never held accountable by the criminal "justice" system? That way if they ever won the lottery or (more likely) got some sort of settlement from the City over some other nonsense, Officers would be in line to collect before the criminal ever saw a dime.

SAFE-T Act Fugitive?

It certainly sounds like someone that the Porkulous Act released:

• A convicted bank robber who was on felony pretrial release and wanted on an active arrest warrant was shot and killed by federal agents after he opened fire during a standoff on the West Side on Thursday afternoon, officials said.

  The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the deceased man as 25-year-old Abdulhafedh Abdulhafedh.

  In 2023, Abdulhafedh pleaded guilty and received a four-year sentence in Will County for financial institution robbery tied to the attempted robbery of a BMO Harris Bank in New Lenox. Court records also show he received a three-year sentence in Cook County that same year for possessing a stolen vehicle and aggravated fleeing.

  More recently, Elmhurst police arrested Abdulhafedh on March 11 on a charge of possessing a stolen motor vehicle. He was released pending trial, failed to appear in court, and has been the subject of an active arrest warrant since April 14, according to court records.

Gee, a convicted felon in Will County AND Cook County....AND picked up another felony charge two months ago....and he got released on THAT charge after he pinky-promised he'd show up for his next court date. Which he didn't. 

He had quite the record, too, according to reporting by the CWB blog. 

And none of it seemed to provide even a whisper of a hint to Cook County judges (like Lyke and Thedford) that maybe....JUST MAYBE....this one wasn't really a good candidate for pre-trial release.

Anyone sick of democrats loving criminals more than law abiding citizens yet? 

Assignments

So the recent Lieutenants and Captains got their assignments (click for larger views):

 

 

Are those Inspection Division assignments are the usual "no-show" gigs for someone on the way out the door?

A Day Late....and a Week Early

Someone sent us these posters, but they ended up in the Spam folder, so we just found them. 

First up, this past Friday night:

Darn, we missed it. Any reports?

But we're early for this one!

Anyone know if these are legit? 

Brain Damaged?

Certainly seems to know what he's doing, where he's at, and what he might need to do inside:

 

Word is that judges Lyke and Thedford have been roaming the halls of 26th Street attempting to get him put on Electronic Monitoring because it's obviously dangerous in Cook County Jail if inmates feel the need to carry weapons inside.

Good thing no one startled him in the shower, right alderwitch Hadden? 

Not a Bright Idea

How long do you think it will be before someone gets beaten with one of these chairs?

• The Chicago Park District will debut 100 green metal chairs around Buckingham Fountain Saturday as part of a new pilot program that takes a cue from European cities like Paris and encourages people to socialize in the lakefront park.

  But having somewhere to sit comes with a price tag.

  The 100 chairs, which were manufactured by the brand Fermob in Paris, cost $54,438 in total, according to a Park District spokesperson. Of that, $24,438 was footed by the city. Lollapalooza, which partnered on the project and will host its 21st festival in Grant Park July 30-Aug. 2, paid the remaining $30,000.

  In a statement, the Park District said, “the seating program will transform the space and encourage social gathering.” The movable chairs will be in the park until September, except, the city says, during major events hosted in Grant Park, although it did not specify which events would prompt chair removal.

Unless they're going to fix these chairs in place with rebar and concrete pads, it'll be a few days, tops. 

Along with the betting on when someone will get beaten with a chair, how long until the first chair:

• gets tossed in the fountain?
• gets tossed in the lake?
• gets tossed in the river?

Our guesses?

• a couple hours
• a couple days
• a week - because they'd have to carry it somewhere

Whom comes up with this nonsense?

Interesting

How many times has "Close the Red Line" been posted in the comments as a way to stop the "wildings" or "takeovers" or general mayhem of the un-demonized?

Is this an "experiment" to see how it would work?

• Red Line trains will be rerouted to elevated tracks for the whole weekend — the first of four weekend detours needed for maintenance work in the Loop subway, according to the CTA.

  The detour will last from 10 p.m. Friday to 4 a.m. Monday. Red Line trains will be rerouted from the Fullerton to the Cermak-Chinatown stations.

  For the length of the detour, trains will not stop at these stations: North/Clybourn, Clark/Division, Chicago, Grand, Lake, Monroe, Jackson, Harrison and Roosevelt. Instead, trains will stop at Brown Line stops including Amitage, Sedgwick, Franklin, Merchandise Mart, Clark/Lake, Washington/Wabash, Adams/Wabash and the elevated tracks at the Roosevelt station.

  Free shuttle buses will operate between the Fullerton and Clark/Lake stations, the CTA said.

Well that's not going to stop anything - it's the wrong side of town.

Maybe next time. 

Gee, Ya Think?

How long has this been said here? And anywhere that intelligent people gather?

• The Illinois General Assembly will deliver the property tax relief the Bears say they need to build a domed stadium in Arlington Heights and throw a bone to Chicago by starting to untangle the traffic bottleneck around Soldier Field and the Museum Campus, a key state lawmaker in stadium talks said Friday.

  With the spring legislative session set to wrap up this weekend, State Rep. Kam Buckner (D-Chicago) said he’s confident that Illinois lawmakers will “find a deal that works to keep the Bears in the state of Illinois” and prevent Chicago’s beloved NFL franchise from accepting a far more lucrative offer to move to Hammond, Indiana.

  Buckner is the chief sponsor of the mega-projects bill that would allow the Bears to negotiate discounted property tax payments with local school districts and other taxing bodies.

It'll be passed close to midnight with little (if any) serious debate as to the actual costs....which will be borne entirely by taxpayers. 

He'll probably run for governor based on "his" bill, too.

CWB Doing Great Work

Yesterday, they called Conehead a liar and proved it....again:

• Mayor Brandon Johnson on Wednesday once again defended his decision to disconnect the city’s gunfire detection network, claiming that a University of Chicago study found CPD responded “four times faster to the city’s most serious 911 calls” in some South and West Side neighborhoods after the city ended its relationship with ShotSpotter. But that is not what the study says.

And what does it actually show?

• Robert Vargas, a sociology professor who leads the UChicago Justice Project, told CWB Chicago the study “was motivated by a specific set of claims made by elected officials that decommissioning ShotSpotter would have serious consequences for police response times.”

  However, Vargas also acknowledged that before analyzing response times, his students removed all 911 calls involving shots fired from the city’s dataset. In other words, the study’s conclusions about faster response times, if accurate, did not include gunfire calls, the only type of emergency ShotSpotter was designed to address and the specific response times elected officials had been discussing.

They took out ALL of the gunfire calls? Seriously? 

So this is yet another "Higher Education" bullshit program similar in nature to the crooked Northwestern "innocence" crap where they bribed convicts, lied under oath, slanted reporting, solicited perjury, aided and abetted by members of the Chicago media.

And the day before CWB had a little retrospective on fifteen years of wilding:

• What has gotten into kids these days? These “teen trends” and “teen takeovers?” This didn’t used to happen, did it? Well, as it turns out, it’s been happening a lot longer than even we remembered, stretching back at least 15 years across three mayors and eight police superintendents. Many of the 50-plus people arrested during this past weekend’s three mob-related incidents weren’t even born when it all started.

  The problem, it seems, isn’t kids these days. The problem is a steady refusal by mayor after mayor to directly address what’s happening.

They recalled McCompStats lies about closing a beach because of "heat," attacks on bikers, the Mag Mile, Millennium Park....like we said, fifteen YEARS of mayhem, much of it covered in our archives.

Give them a visit and read the only decent crime reporting in Chicago any more. 

Lawsuit Re-Filed

This is going to be dragged out in the hope the City settles:

• The family of Adam Toledo filed a fresh lawsuit this week against the city of Chicago and the police officer who fatally shot the 13-year-old boy.

  The case was filed a month after the family abruptly dropped another lawsuit filed in Cook County court, just days before opening arguments were set to begin. Now, the legal process will begin again in federal court, over five years after Toledo was killed.

In the previous trial prep, the scumbag lawyers threatened to have a hundred witnesses to testify - for something exactly ZERO of them actually witnessed - all in the hope of an offer from the City to go away. 

The trouble was the existence of body camera footage, a stop watch, a working ShotSpotter system and the criminal record of "lil' homicide" being part of the official transcripts would severely reduce any sympathy a jury might have.

fbi Shooting

Evidently the feebs are still in Chicago doing something:

• A person has died in a shooting involving an FBI agent Thursday afternoon in the East Garfield Park neighborhood, officials said.

  One adult was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting, which happened around 3 p.m. in the 3700 block of West Lexington Street, according to the Chicago Fire Department and the FBI.

  Chicago police officers initially responded to the scene, but officers have turned the investigation over to the FBI, the department said.

  Authorities have not released information about what led to the shooting. No other information was available.

Nothing about the usual community outrage commonly associate with law enforcement shootings, so that's good. And no law enforcement members were reported injured which is also good.

What are the feds up to on the west side? 

Out of State Corruption

What's with the crooked brass lately?

• The police chief of New Chicago, Indiana, was taken into custody in Ohio and is accused of stealing a gun tied to a criminal investigation and selling it to a pawn shop.

  Earl Mayo, 45, was arrested Friday in Clark County, Ohio after he tried to evade arrest. He leads the New Chicago Police Department in Lake County, Indiana.

  Mayo, who wrote a self-published novel about a bad cop turned good, titled, “When Lines Are Crossed: Love, Trust, Betrayal,” is facing seven felony charges, including theft, official misconduct, attempted obstruction of justice and unlawful possession of anabolic steroids.

That guy sounds like a piece of work.

How about this one?

• Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara, who was hired to oversee reforms in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing, chose to resign rather than face disciplinary action for interfering with an investigation into his conduct, Mayor Jacob Frey announced Tuesday.

  O’Hara, who led local police during the recent federal immigration crackdown in the city, was under investigation on accusations that he was engaging in intimate relationships with city employees.

Investigative interference? Intimate relationships? That's almost like a requirement here.

Fundraiser

 One week away:

 Informational post - comments closed here.

Nice E.M. Program judge Bitch

Damn....the keyboard stuck again....judge Beach:

• More than one-third of the people on electronic monitoring for shoplifting cases in Cook County have gone missing, according to newly released data from Chief Judge Charles Beach. So have a quarter of the robbery defendants. Those are just a couple of the details revealed in a new report issued as part of Beach’s campaign to overhaul the county’s ankle monitor program and improve its transparency.

  Tuesday’s report shows that of the 244 missing defendants, about 24% were on electronic monitoring for domestic-related charges. Alleged shoplifters dominate the balance: 24 people put on ankle monitors after being charged with shoplifting have gone AWOL, but a separate report by Beach’s office shows only 73 people are on ankle monitors for shoplifting, so a third of them have gone missing.

  Also showing above-average disappearance rates: burglars. Nearly 15% of them have slipped away while awaiting trial. And 27% of people charged with battery have gone AWOL, too. For more serious aggravated battery cases, the AWOL rate is 10%.

The main trouble we always saw with EM was that anyone who disregarded the restrictions was more apt to disregard consequences - meaning that when they were in danger of being caught which they almost always were:

• they had broken the law once and got caught, 
• they broke it a second time violating the terms of release,
• then they were far more likely to actively resist arrest and do anything they could to avoid going back inside.

What's a third violation since there weren't any consequences the first two times? This happened time and time again. And now judge Bitch Beach thinks some "study" is going to cure the anti-social tendencies of people (or folks) who had zero regard for the system in the first place?

Conehead Supports Wilding

For all the noise politicians are making about battling the "teen takeovers," guess who isn't a fan?

• Despite a Memorial Day weekend marred by teen takeovers turned violent, Mayor Brandon Johnson said Wednesday that stricter curfew and parental responsibility laws are not the answer to the perennial problem plaguing Chicago.

  Johnson said 15 arrests were made early Sunday after a car veered into five Chicago police officers and injured them as they tried to disperse an unruly crowd of youths gathered on the Near West Side. But those arrests, he added, did not prevent an even bigger crowd from overtaking the 57th Street Beach in Hyde Park and spilling onto Lake Shore Drive on Memorial Day.

  That tells the mayor throwing the book at young people and their parents is not the answer to the problem of unruly gatherings summoned by social media.

Here we go again with the "You can't arrest your way out of these situations" bullshit.

Yes you can - you just have to be consistent with it. Every. Single. Time.

This guy gets it:

• Former Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy’s hard-nosed approach to unruly groups of young people largely succeeded in controlling the flash mobs that plagued Michigan Avenue during then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s tenure.

  “I didn’t have a mayor like Brandon Johnson who made excuses,” McCarthy said. “Let’s stop calling them teen takeovers. That is sending the wrong message. That sounds cute. These are mob actions. … There needs to be some sort of accountability for not just the kids but the parents and elected officials. Permissiveness is not working. It’s never worked. All it does is cause bad behavior.”

McStreetlights was always a secret fan of the blog and here he is almost quoting us about rewarding bad behavior causing more bad behavior. He was also the candy-ass who mothballed the LRAD despite it being the best available tool for dispersing crowds.

Don't Demonize the Dog

Must have been a Chicago rescue dog:

• A woman in Nebraska was injured after a dog inside a nearby truck accidentally fired a shotgun, sending a pellet into her arm.

  Police in Scottsbluff responded to reports of a shooting at a gas station on May 22, initially believing a BB gun was involved. However, officers later confirmed that a real shotgun had discharged from inside a parked truck with a camper attached.

  Investigators said the truck owner had gone inside the convenience store while a passenger stood outside the vehicle. A dog remained in the back seat near a loaded shotgun.

  According to police, the dog moved across the truck and accidentally triggered the firearm, causing it to fire through the passenger-side door.

Who's riding around with a loaded shotgun where a dog can walk on it anyway?

Not Once, Not Twice

What the actual f#$%?  Three times?

• An 18-year-old Plainfield man has been detained after prosecutors said he drove into Chicago police officers not once, not twice, but three separate times, injuring five cops and knocking one of them unconscious as they tried to disperse a massive street gathering on the Near West Side early Sunday. When Rashad Johnson’s car finally came to a crashing halt, officers pulled him from the vehicle and allegedly found a loaded Mac 10 pistol in his waistband.

  According to Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Rausch, a large number of CPD officers were deployed near Roosevelt Road and South Loomis Street around 2:54 a.m. Sunday to disperse a crowd of several hundred people. Officers lined the east side of Loomis and the south side of Roosevelt, Rausch said, and the westbound lanes of Roosevelt were blocked by marked squad cars with their lights activated.

  An 18-year-old Plainfield man has been detained after prosecutors said he drove into Chicago police officers not once, not twice, but three separate times, injuring five cops and knocking one of them unconscious as they tried to disperse a massive street gathering on the Near West Side early Sunday. When Rashad Johnson’s car finally came to a crashing halt, officers pulled him from the vehicle and allegedly found a loaded Mac 10 pistol in his waistband.

  According to Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Rausch, a large number of CPD officers were deployed near Roosevelt Road and South Loomis Street around 2:54 a.m. Sunday to disperse a crowd of several hundred people. Officers lined the east side of Loomis and the south side of Roosevelt, Rausch said, and the westbound lanes of Roosevelt were blocked by marked squad cars with their lights activated. 

We don't know who needs to hear this, especially you new kids, but a car is a lethal weapon. If only we had someone....a gym teacher even....who passed themselves off as a Use of Force "expert" (when he wasn't banging recruits) to explain this to the younger Officers.

Amazingly, judge Ankur Srivastava kept him in custody. 

Final Weekend Tally

Believe it or not, these are actually lower numbers than the average:

• A toddler and man died, and at least 38 others were wounded, in Memorial Day weekend shootings in Chicago in the least deadly holiday weekend in 16 years.

  Despite the fatalities — authorities said the one involving a toddler was an accidental suicide — more people were wounded over the holiday weekend than in 2025, when 25 people were shot in the city’s least violent Memorial Day weekend since 2010.

  Still, gun violence remains lower than the pandemic-era peak. In 2021, during the same holiday period, the city saw 65 shooting victims, including 15 deaths.

And for the first time in memory, the Slum Times numbers actually agree with the HeyJackass.com numbers. Usually the media plays down the numbers and goes with the manipulated totals in an attempt to make the people in charge look better.

So is the media actually doing reporting again? 

UPDATE: Yeah, we noticed the "accidental suicide" phrase the Slum Times invented, too. The media might be accidentally accurate in terms of statistics every so often, but they're old pros at creating stupid terms to advance the "progressive" agenda.

Gun Safety Days

Informational post only - comments closed here.

Get your pistol looked at - it's the most important tool on your person. 

Memorial Sign

An honorary street sign was put up the other day:

• Chicago Police Commander Bryan Spreyne called out the names of his 8th District officers one by one Sunday.

  Officer Enrique Martinez’s name was called three times as the officers stood at attention in the 6300 block of South Komensky Avenue before Spreyne spoke again, this time to say “may you never be forgotten.”

  Martinez was shot to death while making a traffic stop in Chatham Nov. 4, 2024, just a month before the 26-year-old would have marked three years with the Chicago Police Department.

  The West Lawn block the officer grew up on, now known as Officer Enrique Martinez Avenue, was dedicated on what would’ve been his 28th birthday.

There was also a list of Officers killed recently in the article:

• He’s among several Chicago officers who have been killed both on and off duty in recent years: Luis Huesca, Aréanah Preston, Andres Vasquez Lasso, Ella French, Krystal Rivera [...] and most recently, John Bartholomew last month.

So many lives, many so very young, stolen from us all.

We hate seeing these street signs because they demonstrate the depravity of Chicago criminals, but every one of these Officers should have one. 

Wrong Direction Conehead

The mayor must have noticed CPD is suddenly short manpower again, this time by five injured Officers:

• Mayor Brandon Johnson decried an early Sunday morning ‘unauthorized large gathering’ apparently involving teens that ended with a car veering into five Chicago police officers, injuring them, as they were dispersing the crowd on the Near West Side.

  Police have not announced any charges Monday against the driver, 18, who was arrested.

  “Unauthorized large gatherings can quickly become dangerous, and early this morning, after curfew hours, we saw that firsthand,” the mayor posted on X Sunday night.

And where does Conehead think the responsibility lies?

• Johnson said the people who participated in violent behavior should be held accountable, but many people, including city leaders and community members, have a responsibility to look out for young people.

Um....the government isn't a parent moron. Government isn't supposed to "look out for" people (or folks) breaking the law - they're supposed to look out for everyone else attempting to peacefully and peaceably go about their lives.

Who the City should be looking out for are their employees i.e. the Officers attempting to enforce the Ordinances and Laws passed by the elected representatives. That means maintaining adequate manpower numbers and maintaining equipment required to do their jobs. 

You don't fund a fire department and give them a bucket with a hole in it (though Chicago is headed that way.) You are supposed to give them a working water system, hydrants, attachments, trucks and pumps so that they can save lives and property.

Same with the police. You don't give them a list of Laws that everyone is supposed to abide by, and then underfund / defund them, disband units that could have responded effectively, hide equipment that used to work (gas teams, LRAD, etc) and take away all the options to defend themselves. Politicians doing that would rightfully be called idiots, morons, progressives and assholes.

Yet Another "Takeover"

Farther south this time:

• Crowds prompted a large police response at a South Side beach after reports of plans for a teen takeover there on Monday night.

  Police are working to disperse groups of people at 57th Street Beach, which is near Hyde Park.

  The Office of Emergency Management and Communications said there is heavy traffic on northbound DuSable Lake Shore Drive at East 57th Drive. OEMC asked drivers to take an alternate route.

  This comes after the University of Chicago Police Department said it received information about a possible teen trend gathering at the beach planned for Monday at 6 p.m. UCPD said additional staff would be in the area.

They're publicizing these things on social media. CPD used to have a unit that monitored social media for EXACTLY these types of incidents. Of course, it is about as useful as that commercial regarding crime "monitors" if you don't have units available to do anything about it. Back in the day, we had SOS, TRU, MSF and a system for mobilizing tactical/gang teams citywide. Now? 

Did Conehead make it go away because it unfairly demonized the undemonizable?

How much effort would it take to set up a couple CFD trucks with spray nozzles to mist the crowds? Nothing illegal or forceful about a gentle rain shower and certainly no TRRs. Maybe hand out bars of soap, too. They'd go home if they were soaking wet.

Someone else suggested a fleet of thirty or forty tow trucks on standby. If you're taking their wheels, they're leaving the neighborhood. Curfew ordinances aren't working, but vehicle impounds might make a serious dent in the misbehavior, PLUS they couldn't run over five cops at a time.

The City Council is making the usual useless noises:

• Some Chicago City Council members are gearing up to take on parents of teens who get arrested during illegal takevovers past curfew.

  The proposal comes as the city reels from a takeover on the Near West Side that nearly turned deadly for a number of police officers Sunday morning.

  [2nd Ward Aldercreature Brian Hopkins] says he and City Council colleagues are drafting an ordinance that would give police the tools to go after parents of teenagers who take part in illegal gatherings.

  “All that combined sends a strong message that we are no longer going to tolerate this kind of activity. We need the mayor to step up and stand with us on it. Tough talk is fine, but that doesn't seem to change anything," he said.

Let's be real - no one is going to hold parent(s) accountable. If that was an option, it would have been done years ago. Taxpayers would be far better off with some uncomfortable soaking wet teens or a boatload of impounds that go before hearing officers who are told in no uncertain terms that their jobs rely on liability findings like they did back in the glory days of sound impounds.

Almost Vigilantes

This seems to be becoming a trend:

• Witnesses intervened after a convicted felon attacked and sexually abused a woman aboard a CTA bus on the Near West Side this week, Chicago police said. Morris Love, 36, is scheduled to appear for a detention hearing Sunday afternoon in connection with the case.

  Shortly before 6 p.m. Thursday, a 35-year-old woman was riding the bus in the 1700 block of West Roosevelt Road when Love sat down next to her, police said. The woman later told police she felt uncomfortable and stood up to move away, but Love grabbed her, held her down, and sexually abused her on the bus, according to police. Other passengers intervened and freed her from Love, police said.

  Love then followed the woman off the bus, stole her property, and tried to grab her again, according to police. She was able to get away. Witnesses gave police a description of the attacker, and patrol officers located Love nearby. CTA surveillance video and statements from the victim and witnesses played key roles in the investigation, police said.

While it's good to see citizens becoming more involved in standing up to criminals instead of ignoring it or worse, filming it to stream it somewhere else, what we really need is a concerted push for "witnesses" to start beating the crap out of criminals. Like the other week where two "witnesses" tossed an assailant onto the El tracks and then followed him down to discourage his unlawful behavior to the point that the offender had to be carted off by an ambulance.

THAT is a lesson that just might take hold. 

Arlington Bears Countdown

The manufactured theater is ready to wrap up!

• In the fight for a new Chicago Bears stadium, the mayor of Arlington Heights is counting on a last-minute score this week.

  Sunday is the last day of the spring legislative session in Springfield, so they have under a week to pass the bill that could keep the Bears in Illinois.

  "I'm very optimistic. I believe that it's going to happen. I think that our governor and legislators in Springfield are working really hard to make it happen," said Mayor Jim Tinaglia. "I'd like to make sure we get it done. And so, if it takes till 11:59 p.m., that's what it takes. I'm good with that."

What we've heard is that the site in Indiana would require two years and over $100 million dollars to decontaminate it to the point that every player, coach, vendor and attendee wasn't at a high risk of assorted environmental cancers. That and what we posted almost two years ago about all those businesses relocating to the I-290 / /I-294 / Route 53 business corridors in anticipation of a Bears move. They knew what was up before anyone else noticed.

And it certainly looks like Conehead is waving the white flag:

• Although Johnson wants the Bears to stay in the city, on Monday, he said his current priority in Springfield is progressive revenue. "It's unfortunate that corporate interests have dominated this particular session. The digital ad tax, there's still time to pass that, a millionaire's tax," Johnson said.

With the Bears leaving, Conehead's budget shortfall just went from "huge" to "monstrous" and he's still talking about raising taxes. Econ 101 was definitely NOT his strong suit.

Five Cops Plowed Into

:::GASP!!::

Another one of those "teen takeovers" by the non-demonized yutes:

• A driver plowed into a crowd of people on the Near West Side early Sunday, injuring five Chicago Police officers and at least one bystander, according to witnesses and preliminary information gathered at the scene. At least 14 people were arrested during the incident, including the driver and two of his passengers, sources said. So far, CPD has not issued any statements about what happened.

  Police had been in the area of Washburne and Throop since Saturday night, managing a large teen block party. Justin Peters, head of Chitown Crime Chasers, estimated 500 people were involved.

  By around midnight, police supervisors began towing vehicles to clear streets and stop more people from arriving by car. But the crowd continued to grow and become increasingly unruly. CPD brought in teams from districts across the city to carry out the effort, but the sheer size of the crowd, which at times broke into fights and pepper spray battles, made it difficult for some officers to get close to the scene.

We were unaware that teens were allowed to apply for permits for block parties. They did have a permit, right? 

And the "block party" continued well past midnight. Last time we had a block party, the permit expressly said 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM. It was understood that if that rule was violated, then next year we wouldn't be getting a permit.

Best wishes to all of the injured for speedy recoveries. You wouldn't want to miss the next three months of canceled days off and festive block parties.

Crime is Down

But it was certainly a bad Sunday morning:

• At least 18 people have been shot over Memorial Day weekend in Chicago.

  No one has died from the shootings since Saturday and most of the victims — the youngest of whom was 14 — are in stable condition, according to Chicago police. The majority of the violence happened in a two-hour stretch from 1:30 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. Sunday.

The number has since climbed to 20 wounded and the lone fatality was Friday afternoon. 

But it's still far below the historical weekend averages of the past eleven years (9 dead, 42 maimed) per HeyJackass.com.

Memorial Day

Remembering the Fallen.

Posting and comment moderating will be sporadic today. 

Enjoy the day if you're off. Stay safe if you're working. Spare a thought and a prayer for all those who gave their lives over the years. 

Paroled for Gun Charges - Gets More Guns

Nice Parole Board Porky: 

• When Maurice Reddick arrived at his ex-partner’s home in South Chicago on Tuesday night, things went sideways quickly. Within an hour, prosecutors say, he would open fire on a woman, shoot at two uniformed CPD officers, and then hide in a basement crawlspace surrounded by three guns, one of them an AR-15 style rifle equipped with a working machine gun conversion device.

  Reddick, a 34-year-old on parole for his second gun conviction, faces multiple felonies, including two counts of attempted murder of a peace officer. Judge John Hock detained him following a detention hearing on Friday. The state is also moving to revoke his parole. 

You know how you keep parolees from getting more guns? Stop doing this:

• Reddick’s criminal history includes a four-year prison sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Public records show he was paroled on May 27 last year after serving half that sentence. In 2021, he received a one-year sentence for illegal gun possession but did not serve prison time, having accumulated enough credits while awaiting trial on an ankle monitor.

And keep them in f#$%ing prison. 

This is Legal?

We see a lot of challenges to it:

• Requires the Secretary of State to administer the Intelligent Speed Assistance Program. 
• Provides that a driver who commits 2 qualifying offenses within a 12-month period is required to enroll in the Program, and the Secretary shall suspend the driver's license or driving privileges which shall remain suspended until the driver participates in the Program for 365 days for a driver's first Program enrollment, 730 days for a driver's second Program enrollment, or 1,095 days for a driver's third or subsequent Program enrollment. 
• Sets forth requirements for notification, application for an Intelligent Speed Assistance Permit, and installation and proof of installation of an intelligent speed assistance device. 
• Requires a participant in the Program to pay the Secretary a Permit administration fee in an amount not to exceed $30 per month. 
• Creates the Indigent Intelligent Speed Assistance Device Fund and the Intelligent Speed Assistance Permit Fee Fund. 
• Establishes....

You get the idea. you get caught speeding twice and you are required to install government monitor in your car and pay $30 per month for a year ($360 for the year).

If you get a second set of violations, it's $30 per month for two years. Third time is a three year enrollment with the $30 per month "administration fee."

You can read the whole thing at the link up top. We don't see how the government gets you to forcibly enroll in a subscription series of fines for something that used to cost you about $100 for the moving violation.

Are speed camera tickets part of this? Does the Traffic School option still exist? Since police can't chase for "minor" violations, we're seriously considering putting magnets on our license plates and taking them off when driving around town.

UPDATE: this monitor tracks the car, not the person driving it? So exactly like Chicago speed and red light tickets - the owner of the registered vehicle on the hook? Great - we'll keep Grandma's name on the title (R.I.P Nana) and keep the car at our out-of-state property.

UPDATE: Amazing that these politicians think they'll be able to monitor and track vehicles without an issue, but Electronic Monitoring for violent felons is a total failure. If this worked so well, how come child molesters and gun offenders aren't tracked at all? The failure rate of GPS trackers on domestic violence offenders is rumored to be north of 80% in terms of timely notifications.

Wishful Thinking?

We're sensing a bunch of disappointment on the horizon:

• The Obama Presidential Center's grand opening is less than one month away.

  The museum and library are expected to bring tourists to the city, and businesses near the center are expecting a big boost. ABC7 spoke to business owners who say more customers means more jobs for Chicagoans.

  In the shadow of the Obama Center, many on the South Side are eager for that promised economic boost. A beautification project in Woodlawn is among the new jobs for MGE Property Solutions. The owner, Malki Brown, told ABC7 that with more development happening around the Obama Center, they are getting more clients and hiring more workers.

These "expected" impacts never last much longer than a few years, if that. Americans have notoriously short memories and Chicagoans even shorter ones. The only way this thing makes money is forced field trips by CPS and suburban schools for a few years, maybe a few political fundraisers or left-wing conventions. 

Supposedly, they haven't even funded the endowment that's going to cover regular maintenance and grounds-keeping so Chicago and Illinois taxpayers will be tagged for that soon. Taxes will kill the rest of it.