Slum Times Goes There

You still don't hate the media enough - the Slum Times picks up on Channel 7's useless reporting and decides to quote someone in their article WHO WASN'T EVEN THERE:

• A 39-year-old man riding a stand-up electric scooter was killed last Thursday after colliding with a marked Chicago police vehicle in Bridgeport, prompting nearby residents to raise concerns about driving habits and traffic safety in the neighborhood.

  The victim, identified Monday as Bridgeport resident Hao Lin by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office, lived in the 3200 block of South Wallace Street. He was pronounced dead at 1:15 a.m. at Stroger Hospital , according to Chicago police.

Ah...."nearby residents" meaning many such witnesses?

• Sira Rivera, a Bridgeport resident of more than five years who lives less than four blocks from the crash scene. He didn’t see the crash but said he wasn’t completely surprised it involved a police vehicle.

  “The cops always run the stop signs in the neighborhood,” Rivera said. “They drive kind of crazy all the time.”

And....that's it. One guy. WHO WITNESSED NOTHING PERTINENT TO THE INVESTIGATION.

And this bit is amusing:

• The circumstances surrounding the crash remain under investigation by CPD’s Major Accidents Investigation Unit, so it’s not yet known whether the officers or Lin are at fault.

If that's the cases, then why are you writing an article about it with a quote from someone with nothing to contribute except an axe to grind?

Here's something NOT mentioned in the article - scooters (and bikes) are considered vehicles under Illinois Traffic Law. That means they have to be operated in accordance with the Rules of the Road, i.e. obeying stop signs, traffic signals, lane markings, pedestrian crosswalks, right of way, etc. 

When they disobey the Laws and Ordinances, they should be cited and fined....except there's almost no way to track them or monitor them and god forbid you ever chase them.

SAFE-T Act Successes Continue

Did we say "successes"? 

We meant failures:

• A Chicago man was on felony pretrial release when he allegedly tried to kill a 29-year-old man in a shooting on the West Side this summer, officials say.

  Emara Williams, 35, is the 15th person accused of killing or attempting to kill someone in Chicago this year while on felony pretrial release. Those individuals are accused of targeting 22 victims, five of whom — including a Chicago police officer and a Chicago firefighter — died.

Unfortunately, it still hasn't gotten bad enough for people to actually want to hold democrats accountable for their embrace of the criminal element over that of the law abiding.

Wake up. 

The Dues Boat

Instagram Reel time!

• link here

The best thing about these videos is that it makes it damn near impossible to take these idiots seriously ever again.

Violence Visits an Interrupter

Suburban, but predicted here and elsewhere:

• A Chicago man is behind bars Monday facing first-degree murder charges in the death of violence interrupter Andre Thomas, who was gunned down at his Chicago Heights office on Halloween.

  Alex D. Morris, 54, of Chicago, was arrested Friday without incident near 95th Street and Perry Avenue in Chicago, according to a statement from Chicago Heights police, and is expected to appear for a detention hearing Tuesday at the Markham Courthouse.

  The first week of investigations led to multiple persons of interest being identified, including Morris, according to the statement, which also noted information regarding those additional persons of interest as well as specifics of the investigation will not be released at this time.

Sounds personal? Doesn't appear related to his work as an "interrupter"? 

More Indecision

Conehead shifting his stance with the political winds (again):

• The 72% support in an advisory referendum for bringing gunshot-detection technology back to the streets of Chicago has apparently prompted Mayor Brandon Johnson to change his crime-fighting strategy.

  Chief Procurement Officer Sharla Roberts disclosed the surprise about-face Monday while on the hot seat at a City Council budget hearing.

  Roberts said her office initially planned a pilot program with one vendor that wasn’t involved in a lengthy, competitive bidding process for a gunshot-detection contract. But the Johnson administration has now decided to let all of the “short-listed” bidders showcase their violence prevention strategies in the pilot, Roberts said.

  The mystery program will still test a variety of ideas, including more violence intervention, “drone-based situational awareness, license plate recognition and incident response systems for evidence preservation.”

  Gunshot-detection technology is still only part of the pilot.

So not one vendor - but many vendors.

And not one technology - many technologies. 

Meaning not just some taxpayer money - but lots (that doesn't actually exist)

Another Dumb Choice

 Does this guy not even know what being in a union is all about?

• There was a picket line for protestors affiliated with the laborers for the parking unions . They had a protest in front of the Hyatt Regency the past few days .Elgie SIMMs was supposed to speak at the event hosted by Lodge 7 but he refused to cross the picket line .
  John Catanzara not only crossed the line but approached the protestors threatening them and telling them he was a Chicago Police officer . He then told them he was gonna call for tow trucks to take their vehicles .
  Tow trucks showed up and they got out of their cars and walked in unison with the protestors . One Union supporting another . JRat stormed into the Hyatt after that .  

You know how unions get massive amounts of support? By backing each other when one is being treated unfairly. 

You can live without parking attendants for a while, maybe forever. But you can't live if trucks won't deliver to your business or members of another union won't cross the line. Pretty soon business screeches to a halt and the owner is forced to negotiate with a more open mind.

That isn't to say unions are always correct or play fair. We haven't been shy about our dislike of union politics of all stripes, especially teachers who fund leftist communist policies that a number of their members object to.

Police have to walk a fine line between protecting the legit Right to strike, protest and march (legally) and maintaining Public Order. To threaten another union with some type of "enforcement" (that he has no power to actually accomplish) over a legit beef with the City (that the FOP has nothing to do with) is just stupid and demonstrates exactly why the FOP ends up with zero support from other unions.

Two Takes on the Same Story

So a CSA happened in 006 - here's the thieves over at Channel 7:

• Chicago police are looking for a man who they say broke into a home and sexually assaulted a woman on the city's South Side on Friday morning.

  Police released a surveillance image of the man who allegedly broke into the home near West 77th Street and South Racine Avenue in Auburn Gresham just after 10:30 a.m.

  Once inside, the man, who police said was armed with a handgun, allegedly sexually assaulted a woman and stole property. 

Pretty routine reporting for what is (unfortunately) a relatively routine crime.

But CWB delves a little deeper and points out how the system is failing victims....routinely:

• A woman who was raped at gunpoint by a home invader in Gresham waited for hours for Chicago police to respond to her emergency call because the district had no officers available to handle it, according to police dispatch recordings.

  The Chicago Police Department’s 911 center received nine calls for service about the November 6 home invasion and sexual assault without dispatching an officer. The victim was eventually taken to Holy Cross Hospital for treatment, but police did not send an officer to meet her there until 2:13 p.m. 

That's a nearly four hour response time for a pretty major felony crime. Granted, it wasn't "in progress" at the time, and we certainly aren't blaming the Department for not having Officers available to respond in a timely manner. Remember, we were among the loudest voices warning about this fifteen or more years ago, and pointing out how the various administrations did a "soft defunding" by not filling positions and not hiring to keep up with attrition. 

This is NOT the Department's fault.

But that doesn't mean the politicians should be spared the outrage of not having cops available to respond to rape victims in something less than four hours. Channel 7 ought to be helping CWB lead that charge instead of ignoring it.

Street Cred

That's what she'll get out of the whole deal:

• Melanie “Mello Buckzz” Doyle, the rapper whose River North album release party preceded the deadliest mass shooting in Chicago history, has been sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to illegally possessing a handgun found beneath her driver’s seat during a traffic stop.

  Doyle, 25, resolved the gun case unusually quickly, pleading guilty on October 26, barely four months after her arrest. That is lightning-fast by Cook County standards, where similar gun possession cases often take about a year to resolve.

We pause here for a second to object to the term "deadliest mass shooting." The St Valentine's Day Massacre was far deadlier. She might have the title of "most casualties," but far from deadliest.

Back to the matter at hand - the business hosting the event closed permanently. Four people died and another fourteen were nursing wounds of varying degrees.

Doyle still has a recording contract, is still writing violence-praising lyrics, singing gang BS in her songs, and now gets street cred for prison time.  

Who exactly wins in this scenario? 

Captains Made

Here ya go:

We'd say, "Congrats to the deserving," but in reality, since captain is a 100% "merit" rank, none of them earned anything. They played the political game and came out on top with a higher salary, an inflated pension, and nothing job-related to point to as a "career path.".

Given, not Earned. 

Another Stadium Proposal?

Not quite as environmentally polluted as the Indiana site:

• A proposal for a new Chicago Bears stadium on the city's Southeast Side is gaining attention as lawmakers work on stadium legislation ahead of the fall veto session.

  NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell accompanied Bears officials Kevin Warren and George McCaskey to a meeting with Illinois legislative leaders in Chicago earlier this week.

  The discussions come as a new potential stadium location is being promoted at the former U.S. Steel site on the South Side, located on a 200-acre site near 87th Street and DuSable Lake Shore Drive.

Now that the elections are over, expect a bunch of horse trading (see what we did there Arlington Heights?) over the stadium proposals. No one important has to face re-election for two-to-four years, so they can force trough all sorts of crap and then ignore voter outrage because voters will forget within eighteen months.

Taxpayers are about to eat this one. 

"Drive me to Cuba!"

A bus hijacking?

• A man who hijacked a CTA bus with passengers while waving a loaded gun around and demanding its driver to run four red lights through several neighborhoods on the Southwest Side earlier this week remains behind bars Friday.

  The chaotic scene began to unfold shortly after Quentin Lewis — wearing a gun tucked in the waistband of his shorts — boarded bus No. 8611 without paying around 8 p.m. Tuesday at Jackson Boulevard and Pulaski Road, police and prosecutors said.

  Lewis rode along on the southbound bus without incident for about 2 miles until suddenly, at Pulaski Road and 26th Street in Little Village, he spotted someone who signaled for the driver to pull over “as if to suggest for someone to get off the bus,” prosecutors said.

  At that point, Lewis pointed a gun with an extended magazine at that person, who ran for cover. Lewis then demanded the bus driver “go, go, go” south on Pulaski Road as he went back to his seat directly behind the driver, prosecutors said.

Other passengers escaped and the driver climbed out the window. We just assumed he was trying to get to Cuba because that's what most of the old-time hijackers used to demand. This jagoff stole another car before crashing into a squad car, being placed into custody and denied bail....for now.

No Chase = More Crime

Golly, another one of those "unintended consequences" that we and hundreds of others warned about ten or fifteen years ago:

• A burglary crew smashed its way into more than 10 businesses along two blocks of the Wells Street business corridor in Old Town early Thursday, leaving broken storefronts and frustrated business owners in its wake. The latest overnight spree has Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) once again calling on Chicago police to adopt technology that could help officers track fleeing suspects without engaging in dangerous vehicle pursuits.

Like....helicopters? 

• no money, no pilots, no desire to buy multiple choppers that require insane amounts of maintenance hours per flight hour (something like 8-to-1);

Drones?

• again, no money, too much training involved to even get a license, no infrastructure to service and power these things....and a ridiculous bidding process to get any of it;

Trackers?

• no one is going to authorize firing a device in public that may or may not attach to a vehicle nd not bounce of some bystander's head;

Flock?

• great for tracking ex-spouses or some hot guy / gal you're stalking, but they aren't usually fleeing from the police....and even if you track a vehicle, you need boots on the ground to apprehend offenders, and that usually involves moving from one location to another at high speed - not a chase per se, but it still has massive LIABILITY attached to the operation of the squad car.

Hopkins is generating press releases that sound great....and accomplish diddly-shit:

• “These crimes violate the security of our neighborhood and leave local businesses to absorb the costs of stolen property, damaged storefronts, and interrupted operations,” Hopkins said. “Business owners should not have to begin their day sweeping up broken glass, and our community should not be expected to accept these incidents as routine.”

  Hopkins said he was told that officers initially pursued the burglars but were ordered to end the chase on Lake Shore Drive under CPD’s no-pursuit policy.

  “It is deeply frustrating that officers responded and attempted to apprehend those responsible, only to be directed to discontinue the chase,” Hopkins said in an email to constituents Thursday afternoon. “Vehicle pursuits can be dangerous, and protecting the public must remain paramount, but placing restrictions on vehicle pursuits without providing effective alternatives is a policy failure I have repeatedly criticized over the past two administrations.”

The only thing that MIGHT work is a automobile Taser of some sort, something that disables the computer(s) that run most cars. But that comes with all sorts of issues that need to be addressed from the Law Enforcement side instead of a "cater to the criminal element" viewpoint.

Gee, No One Thought of This?

This probably should have been part of an actual traffic study before spending almost a million dollars per mile:

• Chicago's fire commissioner says the women and men of her department have been forced to dodge new roadblocks as the city expands bike lanes and other safety-related street changes.

  "Response times are going up," Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt told aldermen during City Council budget hearings Thursday, explaining that bump-outs, safety islands and bike lanes have restricted the width of a number of city streets, and that's making it harder for fire trucks and ambulances to get through traffic.

  "You might have one lane ... or if we're trying to get to a hydrant, we can't get to a hydrant because it's restricted," said the commissioner. "When we add these things, it changes our tactics," she added, saying she and the department are in favor of expanding bike lanes and other safety features.

Well, first up, she's a moron if she says the CFD is in favor of expanding bike lanes. These lanes are denying businesses of needed street parking, cutting down sight-lines that endanger pedestrians, hamper snow-plowing and street cleaning....and depending on the weather, are unpassable / unusable almost one third of the year.

We went to qualify for our IROCC card at a certain Area range last year and the street leading to the Area had changed from two lanes in both directions to a single lane each way. Traffic sucked and added quite a bit of time to our journey.

And then an ambulance appeared....

And no one could pull to the right because there wasn't anywhere to go. Anyone requiring urgent care from the ambulance (or in the ambulance) wasn't getting it in a timely fashion that day. Goodness only knows how a truck or tower ladder would get to a fire quickly up that way.

More Laser Pointers

It's only a matter of time before someone causes a crash....and then what?

• For the second time in less than a month, federal prosecutors have charged someone with pointing a laser at a police helicopter flying over Chicago.

  Allen Florence Jr., 60, is charged with one count of “aiming a laser pointer at an aircraft within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States.” Prosecutors say Florence repeatedly pointed a green laser at a Cook County Sheriff’s Police helicopter on the West Side on September 15.

  Around 10:11 p.m., the helicopter crew notified Chicago police that “a male Hispanic on a scooter going eastbound on Roosevelt just through Pulaski” had repeatedly shined a green laser at the aircraft, according to police radio transmissions. The crew asked CPD to apprehend the man if officers were “not too busy.”

  Several officers responded while the helicopter crew continued monitoring his movements until CPD apprehended Florence in the 3600 block of West Roosevelt Road. He was released a few hours later after receiving a court date on a state misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct, according to CPD records.

Almost as disturbing is that this offender was sixty-years-old and riding a scooter? We're going to go out on a limb here and say he's probably been an asshole his entire existence.

FOP 7 Sugar Daddy?

No accountability at all:

• At the Lodge 7 Board meeting, John described funding this weekend's National FOP event in Chicago as an “olive branch” to National. Apparently, Lodge 7 contributed $125,000, the State FOP contributed $50,000, and the State Troopers contributed $10,000—a combined $185,000. The itinerary includes a welcome reception and cruises on two consecutive nights.

  An olive branch? That’s an expensive way to say the membership is financing damage control for John’s behavior. He picks the fights, then our dues pay for making everyone feel better afterward.

  Now we’re apparently subsidizing entertainment for FOP leadership from around the country. What message does that send—that Lodge 7 members are a blank check? That we’ll swallow any expense as long as somebody calls it union business?

We understanding being a good host, but is this just another "blank check" written by the Lodge? Someone just says, "Union Business" and there's no requests for receipts, no accounting of expenditures and no oversight?

We'd say, "open the books" except this administration has shown a complete lack of willingness to provide access to financial ledgers and attached paperwork involving the Lodge credit card...which their own lawyer has said was previously used improperly. 

No More Chicago Bars?

A reader sent this in....is it true? (click for larger view)

 

IF THIS IS TRUE, it reads that effective immediately, all Halligan-type Bars will be removed from Engines, Trucks, Towers and Squads and ONLY carried by Chiefs.

Just as a professional observation, in nearly three decades of responding to all manner of emergencies, a Battalion, District or Deputy CFD Chief was NEVER the first on scene of any major incident. Many times they weren't even the second or third vehicle on scene. 

Someone from CFD can chime in here, but we don't think there are more than five Chiefs on the street at any given time, probably less. If there's a fully involved fire underway, getting a Chief on scene with a bar to remove doors, burglar bars, locks, hasps, etc is going to take minutes at the very least....and minutes count when a fire is fully involved.

So, is it true? Chicagoans are now in more danger of burning to death inside a locked building because CFD brass and the politicians are butt-hurt over an incident that had pretty much the full support of the community?

Whoops

Scooter rider killed by....uh oh:

• A Chicago police patrol vehicle crashed into a man riding an electric scooter in the Bridgeport neighborhood Thursday morning, killing the man, police said.

  The incident took place at about 12:30 a.m. in the 3200-block of South Princeton Avenue.

  Police said the vehicle was driving northbound when it crashed into the 39-year-old man driving the stand-up scooter. The Chicago Fire Department transported the man to Stroger Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, police said.

The media dug up a witness who blamed the police:

• "There was a pretty solid dent in the front of the car," neighbor Chloe Jackson said. "I think it is just disappointing because it is not extremely surprising. We do see a lot of instances of CPD especially because we are pretty close to the station over here, of them speeding or turning on their lights to avoid stop signs or stoplights."

Yeah, and we also see a lot of scooter riders disobeying traffic laws twenty and thirty times a day around here. None of them wear safety equipment either, and certainly fewer at 12:30 AM.

The "solid dent" in the front of the squad car suggests the deceased was traveling perpendicular to the striking vehicle and the video from the scene makes it appear he was struck while emerging from behind a parked vehicle at the corner while traveling on the sidewalk.

But who knows? We'll see what the investigation reveals. 

UPDATE: reading the witness statement to the crooked ass media again, we noticed this:

• We do see a lot of instances of CPD especially because we are pretty close to the station over here, of them speeding or turning on their lights to avoid stop signs or stoplights.

Um, where do cops end up a lot of times, taking an authorized break, using safe facilities where they can secure their weapons, eating lunch where the public won't interrupt, writing reports, etc?

And when a "hot call" comes out, where do they respond from with lights and sirens?

If you answered "the station," then you're far smarter than this retarded nose-ring wearing dumbass that the media used as their brush to smear the Police without any context whatsoever. 

CPD / CFD Training

Rumors say that new Use of Force training is inbound:

• Instagram reel here

Whoever has the answer to the test at the end, post them in the comment section. Seventy-percent needed to pass.

Last Serious Sentence?

As the elections are over for now and not a single judge was held accountable for their part in keeping criminals free to offend again, don't expect many more sentences like this one:

• A man with a lengthy criminal record has been sentenced to 21 years in prison for shooting at three Chicago police officers who were trying to help his former girlfriend get her dog back during a dispute in Rogers Park nearly six years ago.

  Kenneth Olugbode, 37, pleaded guilty Monday to three counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm toward a peace officer before Judge Sharon Kanter, who sentenced him to 21 years on each count, to be served concurrently.

  No officers were struck by gunfire during the December 8, 2020, confrontation near Clark and Devon. Olugbode, however, was shot multiple times when the officers returned fire, suffering wounds to his shoulders, right hip, and right hand.

It was nice while it lasted.

Taste of Salmonella

Nauseating:

• Overflowing garbage. Backed-up sinks. Food prepped in bushes. More than 800 pounds of food tossed due to improper temperatures.

  These are just a few examples of food safety problems city inspectors documented during one hot weekend in July when one of the city’s largest culinary events, Taste of Chicago, took place in Grant Park.

  The food festival kicked off as the country was still grappling with a cyclospora outbreak that disrupted food systems and left consumers guessing what’s safe to eat, all amid a rollback of federal regulations.

The article is quite the eye-opener with all sorts of violations at the brick-and-mortar locations being carried over to the Taste venue and many vendors being given a "pass" (a.k.a. a "waiver") to infect thousands of attendees with assorted food poisonings, likely for monetary payoffs. 

What Got More Votes?

ShotSpotter outpolled....Conehead?

• Chicago voters delivered a strong message in favor of gunshot-detection technology Tuesday, with roughly 447,000 casting ballots to support its reinstatement. That’s about 128,000 more votes than Mayor Brandon Johnson received when he was elected in April 2023.

And once again, proving that things haven't gotten bad enough for voters to actually care about criminals being held accountable, no judges lost their spots:

• But Cook County voters appeared ready to retain every judge on the ballot — including those linked to controversial rulings in high-profile criminal cases.

• ....despite recurring public anger over judges releasing repeat offenders or handing down unpopular rulings in violent crime cases, every Cook County Circuit Court Judge seeking retention appeared likely to secure at least 60% of the vote to earn another six-year term.

  Among judges who handle criminal cases in Chicago, Ursula Walowski came closest to falling short. She had received just over 62% support as of 11 p.m. Tuesday, with 98% of precincts reporting. Walowski attracted attention during the campaign after Injustice Watch reported that higher courts had overturned her decisions 25 times during her first six years on the bench — “substantially more” than the totals for the other five criminal court judges seeking retention this year, the outlet reported. 

If any other profession had twenty-five decisions in six years second guessed, overturned or sustained against them, they'd probably be gone. But not Cook County judges.

"Pre-Existing Condition"

In-car camera footage of the commander of 010 running over an officer involved in a foot pursuit....or at least how A.I. imagines it occurred:

• instagram reel link here

Any updates on the officer involved? Someone said he had extensive abdominal surgery including removal of a portion of his intestines?

Changes

Fred paying off some old favors:

• Captain Patrick Quinn CPIC to Commander CPIC. This guy’s family is heavy with the Cook County Dems. This reverses an earlier dump by supernintendo Brown years ago
• Lt. Jessica Duckins (011) to Commander 011. 
• Captain Tracey Edwards (Acting 007) to Commander 007. 
• Lt Gennelle Hamilton 189 to Commander 124. 
• Captain Michael Poppish (Acting 008) to Commander 008

Still waiting on someone to replace Walker over at BIA who is bailing out before age 55....is there some scandal brewing over at Internal Affairs? 

CFD Use of Force Model

Sent to us by a number of readers:

 

With all the tools CFD carries, most made for cutting their way into buildings that are already on fire, their force response selections are going to lean toward the red end of that spectrum.

Oh, and guess what CWB found out about the assailant?

• The man who gained internet fame this week after charging at a Chicago firefighter—who then struck him with a steel prying tool—had eight outstanding warrants, according to Chicago police.

  Yes, eight.

So this has turned into yet another SAFE-T Act success story.

Wilson Makes a Move

This certainly made the mayoral election a bit more interesting:

• Mayor Brandon Johnson already faces a rocky road to reelection, with a 30% approval rating, only $400,000 in his campaign war chest and a fractured coalition of progressive unions that helped put him in office.

  Now the embattled incumbent also must survive a potentially costly and time-consuming petition challenge seeking to disqualify him for failing to file the 12,500 valid signatures needed to get on the ballot. When he filed, he submitted 33,000 signatures.

  Former state Sen. Rickey Hendon is leading the drive to knock Johnson off the ballot on behalf of Willie Wilson, the millionaire businessman mounting his fourth mayoral campaign. Hendon predicted Johnson would become the first incumbent Chicago mayor to be disqualified from the ballot.

Hendon claims to have found hundreds, perhaps thousands of photocopied nomination petitions in Conehead's filings, not to mention hundreds more for Melissa Conyer-Ervin last run for office, hinting that perhaps the stacks of nominating petitions are just performative theater and connected candidates merely recycle the same bundles of petitions year in and year out.

Either way, it's a bold attempt to knock off the incumbent from even making it to Election Day, let alone the runoff.

CARE Failure

So where were these guys at the Firefighter incident?

• Available via 911 throughout the city, the [Crisis Assistance Response and Engagement Program] team seeks to ensure that individuals experiencing a mental health crisis are assisted by teams of behavioral health professionals, with resources to address their unmet health and social needs. When the CARE team responds to an individual in crisis they offer de-escalation, mental health assessment, referrals to community services, and transport to community-based destinations as appropriate. The CARE team conducts follow-up at 1, 7, and 30 days with individuals that they connect to resources.

  The CARE team responds to 911 calls with a mental health component deemed eligible Monday–Friday, 8:00 am–10:00 pm.

SeeBS decided to ask witnesses at the scene if they saw any of these mental health interventionists on scene and inadvertently discovered something that may have disturbed them:

• [Cherokee] Mahomes was with her 3-year-old daughter and other family members and said it was an unsafe situation. She started recording the man and the lone police officer on scene. The officer held a stun gun.
• "He did what he had to do," Mahomes said. "He swung the weapon and he protected himself. And I noticed ... he had empath, because after he swung the weapon, he dropped it on the video and walked up on the man to make sure he was ok."

  [...] Mahomes didn't know if someone asked for CARE, but calls the firefighter her hero. "I feel like he protected us. He's my hero to me. I'm on his side."

The witness, who filmed the entire incident, supported the Firefighter defending himself and the public. She calls him a hero, which he is.

Responsible Spending?

When the government "finds" more money, they never pay down existing obligations. Never. They usually start up a new program to justify raising more taxes to fund it. So this is an unusual development:

• The Chicago City Council voted overwhelmingly to retain control of a $75 million windfall Mayor Brandon Johnson planned to use in his proposed 2027 budget, adding to the challenges facing his $17.6 billion spending plan.

  The Council voted 44-6 to reaffirm that the money generated by last month's sale of the city's parking meters will be used to make a second supplemental payment this year toward Chicago's pension debt. Johnson had proposed putting the money toward next year's budget, despite negotiators' intent for the proceeds.

  "We would like to have collaboration as the mayor likes to say, but what we're seeing is Mayor Mastercard likes to charge everything. And right now we cannot afford that," 36th Ward Ald. Gilbert Villegas said.

  The debate centered on whether Chicago should make an additional debt payment when communities have other immediate needs.

"Mayor Mastercard."  That's a good one.

And preventing the current mayor from kicking the pension can down the road (as all previous mayors have done) is also a good one. 

Now if they could only find more money.... how about closing some of those 5% occupied schools and sell the land?

 

97 and 98

Brandon Body count closes in on 100!

• Two badly injured shooting victims appear to have waited at least eight minutes for someone to call 911 after they were shot in Bronzeville overnight. The shooting happened on a block once covered by the city’s ShotSpotter network, which Mayor Brandon Johnson shut down more than two years ago. The gunshot detection system notified Chicago police of gunshot locations even when humans did not. Johnson’s administration has yet to deliver the promised replacement.

  The victims, a 19-year-old man shot in the head and a 15-year-old boy shot in the stomach, were found in a crashed vehicle near 50th Place and South Washington Park Court, directly behind Provident Hospital. The boy was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital in critical condition, police said. The 19-year-old later died at the University of Chicago Hospital.

Someone said that we seem to be big fans of the ShotSpotter system. 

Obviously, they're idiots who can't read. We've stated on many many occasions that the only reason we keep harping on the Brandon Body / Conehead Corpse totals is the humor value. After telling everyone how much he wants to drive down crime and stop shootings, he deactivates the one thing that calls police when no one else does. 

This incident was yet another example of no one calling 9-1-1 after a shooting. An automated detection and notification system that doesn't see race, color, creed, national origin, sexual orientation or even if you're a space alien....and Conehead shuts it down leading to dozens of deaths.

How is that not hilarious?

Last Reminder

Vote like your future depends on it:

 Because it kind of does.

Chicago Bar Saves the Day

Mental attacks firefighter....cop just stands there, forcing the firefighter to defend himself:

• video link here (click the link, then X-out the "sign up" box and play the video - we tested it, it works fine)

The firefighter lays out the assailant with a piece of steel that weighs well over ten pounds if we recall correctly. 

The assailant is lucky he got hit with the flat end of it.

And then the cop handcuffs the assailant...in front....which is among the Top Ten stupidest things we've ever seen. 

Fundraiser

A CFD Firefighter / Paramedic, married to a CPD Officer:

• Chicago, IL - Firefighter and Paramedic Jennifer Karaboyas has served with the Chicago Fire Department for the past 22 years. Her husband is a Chicago police officer, and together they have two young children. In December 2025, Jennifer suffered a fall that resulted in a fractured femur. Following her injury, she was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer that had spread to her bones. Despite her terminal diagnosis, Jennifer has begun an experimental treatment that is showing promising results and offering renewed hope.

   
  Jennifer continues to fight for her life while undergoing treatment and spending time with her family. Although the new medication has shown positive results, it comes at a significant financial cost. At $17,000 per month, the treatment has placed an overwhelming burden on Jennifer and her loved ones. Let’s get some support to the Karaboyas family as they fight alongside her.

   
  https://www.theyardfoundation.org/mayday/karaboyas

Let's see if we can get some donations headed their way.

Comments closed here - informational post. 

Reel Time!

The ghost of Ric Flair:

• instagram reel here

If these reels are accomplishing anything, it's making it impossible to take the current administration seriously at all.

Pay Raises?

Doesn't Conehead's budget have a hole in it? Like $700 million or something?

• (paywalled Tribune article) As Chicago’s 50 aldermen scramble to balance the city’s budget, they will have one new cost to pay for: raises they gave themselves.

  Every member of the City Council elected to take the 2027 pay bump, according to budget documents. Meanwhile, Mayor Brandon Johnson decided to forgo it.

  The widespread move to not opt out of the inflation-tied boost of around 2.3% sends the highest aldermanic salaries to $159,264, an amount 29 council members make. The lowest salary will sit at $128,892.

Conehead turned it down? Is he running for re-election or something? Trying to appear like a common man or something?

• Altogether, the decisions by aldermen to give themselves raises will cost taxpayers almost $200,000 more, a minuscule amount compared with the $17.6 billion Chicago budget Johnson proposed for next year.

  The move comes as many in the council blast Johnson for proposing new spending. In their calls for cost cutting amid financial challenges, some Johnson opponents have called on City Hall to reconsider similar raises given to thousands of city employees, a key reason the city spends more every year.

So the aldercreatures bitch about Conehead's new spending initiatives, claim he's irresponsibly spending everywhere else, and the gift him the opportunity to call them all hypocrites for taking optional pay raises while he turns his down.

Idiots. 

Welcome to 011

For those out of the loop, 011 recently had pretty much the entire basement locker room gutted after decades of water damage, mold growth, environmental hazards and large electrical fire if we recall, back in the early 2000s.

We say "recently," but a number of emailers told us this project started over a year ago and everyone was living out of their cars for the entire time there were no lockers available.

Good news - the locker room is back!

 Well.....that's....interesting.

You Want to Save Money?

Of course, everyone wants to save money....except politicians. 

And no politician is going to want to cut this money - they get to spend it without any annoying taxpayer oversight:

• While Chicago's mayor works with the Chicago City Council to pass a 2027 budget, each councilmember has money set aside to dedicate to projects in their wards as well. In most cases, constituents can have a say in which projects are selected.

  Right now, each of the city's 50 wards – regardless of their size – has $1.5 million in annual spending for neighborhood-specific improvements.

  "People want a say in what we are spending their money on," said 48th Ward Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth. Each alder decides how much of that money goes to projects chosen by the people who live there in a process called "participatory budgeting."

Which is essentially, a lie. This money is directed to favored constituencies that few voters would ever approve of....as well as favored individuals who suck up to aldercreatures.

And 50 times $1.5 million is $75 million spent annually on nonsense.