Five Arrests, Eight Weeks

It used to be if you violated the conditions of bail, it was an automatic appearance before a judge....so a single night in the lockup was guaranteed, and you usually couldn't commit a crime while in the District lockup.

Now?

• A grand jury has returned burglary indictments against a man who, if Chicago police and court records are to be believed, ran a one-man crime wave through Wrigleyville and nearby Lakeview this summer — getting arrested five times in eight weeks, pleading guilty and drawing a 30-day jail sentence along the way, and then, right about the time that sentence would have run out, getting arrested all over again.

  James Blackman, 48, is now charged with burglarizing a Land Rover on August 30 and breaking into a garage in the same neighborhood nine days later. Those arrests were just two entries in a summer rap sheet that also included allegations of trespassing in a garage, carrying an air rifle near Wrigley Field, repeatedly stealing liquor from a Jewel-Osco, and threatening to beat up a security guard.

Sure looks like this guy gets arrested and walks out before the A/Os even finish their shift, and probably without ever seeing a judge for violating the terms of release.