Remember When....

Someone mentioned this was one of the only good things from the tenure of J-Fledgar, patrol rifles being the other one. We tend to agree:

• In 2009, Chicago’s court system was hopelessly clogged by cases alleging police misconduct. For years, the city’s Department of Law had watched as the number of misconduct allegations crept upward. With the increasing strain on municipal resources, Chicago’s attorneys were forced to settle many cases out of court, which reflected poorly on the city’s bottom line and police force.
  
  But Chicago found a somewhat counterintuitive way to save money and save face -- by taking every single police misconduct case to court.
  
  In July 2009, Chicago Superintendent of Police Jody Weis wrote to James F. Holderman, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, to notify him that the city would be changing its strategy for dealing with lawsuits filed against police officers. Rather than settling these cases out of court, the city would take them to trial.

Instead of quick payouts amounting to tens of millions, even hundreds of millions, law firms would have to actually practice law, depose officers, interview witnesses, pay experts, etc which would cut into the river of cash.

In fact, the only reason that this practice was stopped was that after the plaintiff lawyers started losing business, they had a meeting with the 9.5 fingered dwarf and told him that due to Chicago not paying out millions of dollars, their political contributions to democrats across Chicago, Cook County, Illinois would be severely curtailed. 

Rahm got the message loud and clear because he's a bought-and-paid-for tool, all the way back to the Clinton's.

Remember, when you reward bad behavior, you get more of it....and in these cases, the reward can be as simple as paying off someone to go away.

Thanks to the reader who remembered and posted the link.