Ten Year Fight Ends

A funeral service for suburban Detective Tim Jones:

• Park Forest Police Detective Tim Jones died nearly a decade after a shooting left him paralyzed. The community honored his life on Saturday.

  There were heavy hearts at a very emotional celebration of life at Tinley Park High School, the alma mater of Officer Jones, who battled for about a decade after being injured in the line of duty. All of his family and friends spoke to the kind of resilience Jones offered throughout his life

  Detective Jones was 24 years old when he was shot in the head in March of 2016 while responding to a burglary. Jones died earlier this month, nearly 10 years after the shooting. A public walk-through was held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. A first responder walk-through was held from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. The celebration of life service began at 2 p.m.

A hell of a fight you put up for those ten years. 

God Bless and RIP Detective. 

Idiot Judge, Broken System

Aren't judges supposed to be educated persons?

Well, except in Cook County:

• A Cook County judge remarked that a man with a history of randomly and violently attacking strangers “seems to be expending a lot of energy getting into violent incidents allegedly” and that it “seems like we have a little anger management issue”....

Seems like the perfect opportunity to keep him in jail, right?

• ....before deciding to release the man on electronic monitoring rather than keep him in jail. Three days later, prosecutors say, that same man went on a violent spree in the Loop, punching three women in the face while he was supposed to be home on an ankle monitor.

  The man, Marlon Miller, is now detained on felony aggravated battery charges after Judge Peter Gonzalez acknowledged that the electronic monitoring program overseen by the office of the county’s chief judge was “completely unreliable as [Miller] was out and about committing crimes.” 

So the judge KNOWS and ACKNOWLEDGES that this is a REPEAT and VIOLENT offender, and still releases him on a program that he even says is "COMPLETELY UNRELIABLE."

CWB has an awesome graphic that ought to be printed up and distributed at polling places next time this idiot is up for retention:

The other judges who released this criminal deserve their own graphics, too.

Judge Luciano Panici Jr. and Judge Susana Ortiz deserve their own "walk of shame," too.

Election Season Approaching

Remember, don't elect this moron:

• Politics is filled with shallow and intellectually obtuse people, and Chicago pols are no exception. All things being equal, Chicago politicians are probably worse than average.

  One of them, Illinois’ Secretary of State Alex Giannoulias, regularly posts images and videos of himself on social media lifting weights, presumably to distract voters from his cerebral shortcomings and his checkered history as a public official.

Aside from the Broadway Bank fiasco that saddled taxpayers with many hundreds of millions in bailout money (while leaving the Giannoulias bank accounts looking awfully healthy) and his awkward associations to Sparklefart fixer Tony Rezko, there was the Illinois Bright Start college fund that lost over $150 million while under Giannoulias' rein as State Treasurer.

Any single one of these things should have disqualified him from political office and kept him ten-to-twenty years away from public funds, but he's still around, playing coy about running for Conehead's job.

Go over to the Contrarian link and read it all. 

Bodies, Corpses and Crime

CWB has been killing it all year long, embarrassing the lame-stream media, time-and-time again with their crime reporting. This week was no exception.

First, another Brandon Body and a Conehead Corpse:

• Mayor Brandon Johnson’s decision to shut down Chicago’s ShotSpotter gunfire detection network appears to have delayed emergency responses to two more shootings since Christmas night, leaving one man dead and another critically wounded after neither incident triggered immediate 911 calls reporting gunfire.

  Both shootings occurred in areas that were previously covered by ShotSpotter sensors, which had routinely alerted police to gunfire even when no witnesses called for help. 

And then, this historic release:

• A Cook County judge approved a plea deal that allowed a man accused of robbing another driver during a road-rage confrontation to avoid serving any prison time, even though prosecutors said the robbery occurred while he was wearing an ankle monitor for a gun case.

  Robert Bray, 35, of Evergreen Park, was charged in September 2023 with unlawful use of a weapon by a felon. Court records show he was released on electronic monitoring after posting a $500 deposit on September 17, 2023, the final day Illinois courts set cash bail.

One of the last cash bail arrestees - but he wasn't done yet!

• Prosecutors said Bray was still wearing the ankle monitor when he became involved in a minor traffic crash around 4 p.m. on January 2, 2024, in the 100 block of East 47th Street. According to prosecutors, Bray exited his vehicle and aggressively confronted the other driver, a 29-year-old man, threatening him and demanding money. Prosecutors said Bray grabbed the victim’s phone and then instructed his passenger to steal the victim’s Jeep Grand Cherokee.

  Bray’s passenger followed those instructions and drove away in the SUV, prosecutors said. Meanwhile, Bray allegedly shoved the victim against a wall and choked him, according to the state’s allegations. Chicago Police Department surveillance cameras recorded the confrontation and captured Bray’s license plate, prosecutors said. Investigators also relied on ankle monitor location data and the victim’s identification of Bray in a photo lineup to make the arrest.

This a$$hole should be Exhibit #1 about how pre-trial detention is probably the most effective deterrent to reducing crime since he wouldn't be on the street to commit more crime. Instead, he's yet another example of what a short-sighted and stupid idea the SAFE-T Act was and remains.

And CTA Yet Again

Cut the Federal money already:

• Chicago police are asking for help identifying three suspects who appeared to be in exceptionally good spirits after allegedly robbing a woman at knifepoint aboard a Red Line train downtown.

  CPD released surveillance images on Tuesday showing the three women smiling broadly as they waltzed along the State-Chicago Red Line platform shortly after the robbery on Monday afternoon.

  Police said the 26-year-old victim was riding the train when the three women confronted her and took her valuables while displaying a knife around 3:27 p.m.

  CPD described the suspects as three Black women. One was wearing a black jacket, pink pants, and white gym shoes. Another was wearing a pink jacket, black pants, and white and gray gym shoes. The third had a nose ring and was wearing a black jacket and light blue jeans.

Can you guess why they were all smiling and laughing?

• Because they know there are ZERO consequences for robbing and threatening victims with a knife, even on the off chance they're caught and arrested

You know what will stop it....and wipe the smiles off their faces?

• A CCL carrier ignoring the "no gun" signs the way criminals do, or an off duty cop, or even a retired cop (though we have no idea why a retiree would be riding the CTA) shooting and killing one of more

This was at 3:27 in the afternoon. Keep your fingers crossed. 

CTA Again?

These "isolated incidents" never seem to end:

• Prosecutors have charged an 18-year-old man and two juveniles in connection with a violent beating that left a 62-year-old man badly injured aboard a CTA bus last week.

  Larry Gilkey was riding a northbound bus in the 700 block of South Cicero Avenue when he was attacked around 5:30 p.m. on December 16, according to Chicago police and his relatives. A family member said Gilkey had gone out to buy cigarettes and one of the future attackers asked him for money so they could ride the bus. When Gilkey took out cash, another offender struck him, according to the relative.

  The confrontation quickly escalated into a group assault that left Gilkey critically injured. He was placed in a medically induced coma and has since been brought out of it, but CPD said he faces a long recovery.

Just another check mark in the denial of Federal money list.

Another S#@$hole Politician

Take a look at this guy:

 

Fire chief in another shithole south suburb, hotbed of corruption and graft, candidate for mayor of Markham. This is some official photo, for the their website or campaign literature, we aren't sure.

Can you see what a sharp eyed reader noticed? 

Deliberate? Knowing what we know about Country Club Hills and Markham, we wouldn't be surprised.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all.

As usual, blogging will be light today and comments might be delayed depending on what and where we end up celebrating.

If you're home, enjoy the day. If you're working, stay safe and stay alert. 

"Serious Harm"

A little noticed and serious implication to the Chicago budget:

• Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s decision Tuesday to allow the 2026 budget created by the city council to take effect Jan. 1 — he will neither veto the ordinance nor sign it, which has the same effect as signing it — leaves Bally’s with some decisions to make regarding its $2 billion casino currently under construction in River West.

  The $16.6 billion “alternative” budget includes the potential to legalize video gaming terminals (VGTs), which are the biggest source of gaming tax revenue in Illinois by a wide margin. They are currently banned in Chicago via city ordinance, though an ordinance to legalize them passed out of the city council’s Committee on License and Consumer Protection in September.

Conehead whines and cries about the aldermanic budget "overestimating" revenues, but Bally's has NEVER hit its targeted revenues for Chicago - most of which were to be directed to Police nad Fire pensions. But that didn't stop the City from spending the "projected revenues" and driving massive deficits.

Now, Bally's is warning about Virtual Gaming Terminals cutting into their projected revenue streams, the promised 3,000 jobs being cut by a third, and throwing the entire future of the physical casino into serious doubt.

Chicago and Conehead are going to go down in history as the only entities that could LOSE money on a casino. 

Inconsistency

This happened in July:

• A Chicago police officer who faced dismissal after testing positive for marijuana can remain on the job, the Chicago Police Board ruled in its first weed-related decision since the drug was legalized.

  Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling had pushed to fire Chicago Police Officer Marshall Andrews Jr. for failing a random drug test in August 2021, but the board instead voted Thursday to suspend the veteran cop for 90 days.

  “While the board has discharged officers from CPD in the past for using cannabis, medical and recreational use of cannabis is now permitted by Illinois state law,” the board wrote in its ruling, noting that future discipline will be assessed “on a case-by-case basis.”

The claim is he ate a brownie, though that story wasn't told during the initial investigation. 

This happened Monday:

• The Chicago Police Board voted unanimously on Thursday to fire a Chicago police officer who tested positive for marijuana, records show.

  Officer Elmer Carrillo Jr. is the first CPD officer to be terminated for failing a test for marijuana since Illinois legalized the recreational use of the drug. Carrillo is also the first to be fired by the Police Board in nearly a year and a half amid a protracted legal battle that has frozen the city’s police disciplinary system.

  A police officer since 2018, Carrillo tested positive for the drug in November 2023, records show. Injured while he was off-duty, Carrillo was on medical leave after undergoing surgery in July 2023. After suffering a “medical incident,” Carrillo reported to CPD headquarters for a fitness-for-duty examination and underwent a drug test.

This claim is he ate a marijuana gummie.

So....:

• the first guy ate a laced brownie, 
• the second guy, a legally manufactured product.
• the first guy keeps his job,
• the second guy gets fired. 

Both claim "unknowingly."

Consistency in discipline has never been CPD's strong suit, but Larritorious recommended firing both (and a third officer), so good for him we suppose. 

But after these cases, we can't wait for the first Officer Involved Shooting to go down where the subsequent "wiz quiz" shows THC in the Officer's system - the payout is going to be MASSIVE. 

$8 Billion (with a B)

So the budget will pass without Conehead's signature, preventing a shutdown and proving Conehead to be a ball-less CTU tool:

• Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson says he will not veto a 2026 budget that he has called “morally bankrupt,” instead allowing it to go into effect and staving off political gridlock and the risk of an unprecedented government shutdown.

But then he starts up with so-called "executive orders" that don't seem to have been passed by any legislative body and we can't recall being codified into law:

• Those executive orders prohibit the city from selling medical debt to third parties and create more oversight on police overtime spending.

  “I don’t want to give a signal to the people of Chicago that I support what I believe is one of the most detrimental and immoral aspects of this budget,” Johnson said, explaining why he will allow the budget to take effect without proactively signing it. He was referring to a part of the budget that will rake in about $90 million in increased debt collection.

$90 million sounds like a bunch, but Conehead's own economic team claims the budget shortfalls will be in the neighborhood of $160 million (slightly less than what Conehead spent on ILLEGAL ALIENS by the way). 

The amount of outstanding debt due to the city (meaning taxpayers) is over $8 billion, meaning the $90 million to be collected (maybe) is just over 1% of the $8 billion owed. If Chicago collected even 10% of the debt owed, it would cover shortfalls for years, negating tax hikes and fee increases. (the Tribune has a paywalled editorial at this link)

This is what Conehead calls "immoral," that everyone else has to cover the cost of these freeloaders. 

Another "Isolated" Incident?

Thank goodness there's a "crime plan" in place to sort this out!

• Chicago police are investigating a fatal shooting aboard a Pink Line train in the Loop early Tuesday that left one man dead and another wounded after a confrontation that escalated inside a rail car.

  The shooting occurred around 1:22 a.m. near 100 North Wells Street. According to preliminary information, a 23-year-old man and a 44-year-old man were riding a Pink Line train when they became involved in a verbal altercation with an unknown male who was armed with a knife. The dispute turned physical, at which point one of the victims produced a firearm, police said.

But....but....there were SIGNS forbidding guns. What happened? 

That person who brought the gun should have just accepted the stabbing peacefully and bled out quietly ....instead of getting shot with his own gun.

That Federal money can't be cut soon enough. 

Another "Brandon Body"

Or Conehead Corpse:

• A man was found shot to death early Tuesday in a South Side area that was previously monitored by ShotSpotter, even though no gunfire alerts were recorded near the scene around the time investigators believe the killing occurred.

  The homicide happened in the 1600 block of East 95th Street. A private security guard discovered the man unresponsive at about 6:21 a.m. on December 23, 2025, and called 911, according to preliminary police information.

Wait....is ShotSpotter still active in the background? Why would there be an "alert" that wasn't a 9-1-1 call?

Fired Suburban Officer to Sue

She's got a hell of a lawsuit against Markham:

• A Markham police officer who found a loaded firearm in a vehicle owned and operated by a convicted murderer, only to be fired when CWBChicago asked the city’s police chief why he ordered the cop to let the convicted felon go, filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the chief and the city on Monday morning.

  CWBChicago first reported on the traffic stop and the officer’s firing last week.

  Former Markham probationary police officer Kayla Heller alleges she was terminated after reporting to prosecutors and the Illinois State Police that Police Chief Jack Genius ordered the release of Tyrone Muhammad after she discovered a loaded Smith and Wesson inside his Chrysler 300’s center console, according to a complaint filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County.

  Heller initially stopped Muhammad on October 8 because his vehicle’s plates were suspended for lack of insurance, according to a report she filed.

Legit stop, and then it all went to shit:

• Chief Genius Moron orders the release of said car and the unattended weapon;
• command staff interrogates her in violation of the Illinois Uniform Peace Officers’ Disciplinary Act;
• command staff interrogated her over any calls she might have made regarding the stop to ISP and the States Attorneys Office;
• demotes the sergeant she might have talked to....which is what you want the new officers to do (the sergeant probably has a good lawsuit, too);
• and then, "she was allegedly asked to return to the police station to sign a backdated resignation memo."

And, insult to injury, they cheated her out of accrued vacation and sick time to the tune of $10K, adding to the list of State Law violations.

Hopefully, she gets a few million and never has to be the police. 

Being Crooked Pays Off

Of course there are loopholes - these a$$holes likely wrote the legislation:

• Disgraced ex-Ald. Edward M. Burke has been out of elected office since May 2023 and out of prison since summer after a conviction on corruption charges and hasn’t been actively raising campaign money.

  But his campaign coffers stand to grow nonetheless, and one of Burke’s campaign accounts could still someday provide him with a huge personal windfall.

  Convicted in 2023 in a racketeering and bribery case, Burke is allowed to pocket roughly $2.4 million from one of his campaign funds, Friends of Edward M. Burke, and spend that money on virtually anything he’d like — political or not.

  Burke, who long represented the Southwest Side’s 14th Ward, is one of about 100 current and former political figures, or their heirs, who are allowed to still convert campaign money — whatever they had in their accounts on June 30, 1998, when a law changed — to personal use.

The "Friends of Burke" account has gained over $800,000 in interest and capital gains alone over the past few decades. 

Even long dead politicians have much of their old campaign funds interest bearing accounts that benefit their estates (i.e. heirs), providing income streams that will long outlive the people who raised the campaign cash.

Too bad taxpayers can't get it diverted to some of the burgeoning debt these same pols voted us all into while they pocketed "contributions" to be doled out long after their convictions....and lives, ended.

Creative Illinoisans

We used to see license plates that were obviously double entendres or foreign swear words or cleverly designed insults. The DMV has gotten better at catching them though, probably via humorless snitches:

• No Illinois drivers will be “BRICKED” on the roads next year.

  Nor will they bear state registration plates with “TYPESHT,” “IBPOOPN” or “ICUP,” despite praise from Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias for vanity plate applicants’ creativity.

  All four were among the list of more than 550 “inflammatory, profane, offensive or too difficult to read” vanity license plate requests rejected by Giannoulias’ office. They were a small portion of the nearly 56,000 applications it received this year, according to his office.

  “Illinoisans consistently show off their creativity on customized license plates, but anything that hits the road has to meet the standards of good taste and decency,” Giannoulias said in a statement Monday. “Our team is fluent in lewd lingo and sneaky swearing — and they catch it all.”

No, no they don't. Not all of them, that's for sure, but they are getting pretty good at it. We can only name one plate that doesn't pass the "good taste and decency" test over the past couple years.

Speaking of plates, have they cleaned up the State Plate database though? We remember there used to be a plate that came back to Wrigley Field, a la the Blues Brothers movie. And another one that came back to "Jack Mehoff" that we'd trick dispatchers into reading over the air. Someone told us there was another plate that had almost 200 responses that would make your PDT chime for the better part of thirty minutes if you happened to run it.

Fun times. 

NOT a Zero Homicide Weekend

HeyJackass has the total at two:

• Final Demonized Tally: 2 killed, 11 wounded*

  Friday 12/19
  7:20p 2600 W 23rd, Little Village, F/23
  7:20p 200 W 108th, Roseland, M/46
  Saturday 12/20
  12:25a 8100 S Stewart, Chatham, F/21
  12:25a 8100 S Stewart, Chatham, M/25
  12:25a 8100 S Stewart, Chatham, F/26
  12:55a 3300 W 63rd, Chicago Lawn, M/35
  2:00a 5500 S Kostner, West Elsdon, M/31
  8:20a 2200 E 103rd, South Deering, F/22
  5:40p 2800 W Van Buren, Garfield Park, M/31
  10:55p 2900 W Roosevelt, North Lawndale, M/55
  Sunday 12/21
  4:10a 1600 S Pulaski, North Lawndale, M/40
  7:40p 3800 W West End, Garfield Park, M/18
  8:30p Walk-in @ 5th District, M/?

Unmentioned....and uncounted?

• Chicago police are investigating a hit-and-run crash that left two men dead in the street early Sunday in the Morgan Park neighborhood.

  Officers responded to an EMS call around 1:15 a.m. Sunday in the 11700 block of South Marshfield Avenue, where they found two adult men unresponsive and lying in the roadway. One victim was identified as a 30-year-old man. The second victim had not yet been identified as of Monday morning.

Never understood why Vehicular Homicides weren't counted in the totals. Well, we "understood," we just never agreed with it.

Who You Know, Who You....

This was an....interesting....Slum Times HEADline:

Yeah, we're aware it's probably just the left-hand page of a two page report, but seriously, no one noticed this?

Thanks for the laugh. 

Video EVERYTHING!!!

But since it turns out that the vast majority of the video shows citizens acting like assholes and police acting professionally, there's an effort to restrict who can see what. CWB reports: 

• CWBChicago editor’s note: Using Illinois’ open records laws, our team was recently able to secure body camera footage that showed a Markham police officer recovering a loaded firearm from the center console of a convicted murderer’s car. That video also showed a Harvey alderwoman identifying herself to officers at the scene, inquiring about the arrest of Tyrone Muhammad, who was released a short time later after an intervention by Markham Police Chief Jack Genius.
  
  In the following report, the Better Government Association details this year’s efforts by Illinois legislators to restrict public access to police body camera footage, restrictions that, if enacted, could limit transparency that is so critical in policing.

CWB reports there are six different bills (all of which seem to have died in committee) that would have further restricted body camera use, viewing and retention.

It pays to keep an eye on this stuff if you're still working because you will get trick-bagged if you run afoul of the constantly changing rules....and we all know how good the CPD is at keeping you up-to-date on changes to the law. 

Zero Homicide Weekend?

This is a rarity (via HeyJackass.com):

• ‘Twas the weekend before Christmas, and all through wards, aldercreatures were stirring—like budget-hungry hordes. At the CTU stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that Santa Brandon soon would be there. So up to the rooftop the deficits flew, with a sleigh full of spending, Brandon exclaimed, “Happy Christmas to all—and to all a good hike!”

  8:00a Demonized Tally: 0 killed, 10 wounded

It could all change at a moments notice....

....and it might have:

• Two men were found dead early Sunday morning in Morgan Park, Chicago police said.

  Police officers found the men lying in the street around 1:15 a.m. in the 11700 block of South Marshfield Avenue. They were both pronounced dead at the scene, and police said there “was no apparent trauma” to their bodies.

Overdoses?

Or walking carbon monoxide poisoning? 

Still, approaching the end of the year and Chicago is still in the low 400s....420 or so. 

Firefighter Injured

Condition unknown as of this writing:

• A Chicago firefighter was injured Sunday night after a fire broke out at a West Side church and spread to other buildings, CFD officials told ABC7.

  The fire happened at North Lotus Avenue and West Huron Street in the Austin neighborhood, officials said.

  A Chicago Fire Department first responder was injured as a result of battling the flames and was taken to Stroger Hospital, CFD said. Their condition was not yet known.

Hopefully, nothing too serious.

Questionable Chase

A Cook County judge is again, releasing violent dangerous criminals back onto the streets:

• Two men in a stolen car who led police on a 20-mile long chase that ended in a crash after fleeing the burglary of a father and son’s work van in Lake View have now been accused in three more burglaries.  

Wait, what?

A twenty-mile chase? Are you f#$%ing kidding us?

Evidently not, because here's some video coverage:

The reporter in the helicopter says the vehicle was observed:

• flying through red lights,
• blowing by stop signs, 
• being involved in at least one traffic accident,
• going the wrong way on Lake Shore Drive,
• driving on a sidewalk,
• exceeding 100 MPH 

Each and every one of these actions is grounds for termination of the pursuit - BY GENERAL ORDER!

Failure to follow said General Order, is (and has been) grounds for extensive suspensions, up to and including Thirty Pending Separation. Not to mention recent monetary judgements against the City and PUNITIVE DAMAGES assessed against Officers.

Society demanded these new rules and has been enforcing them with jury verdicts. We don't like them, we've never liked them, we don't support them in any way at all....but it's the reality we served under and currently live under. No idea who in the chain of command dropped the ball here, but they need some extensive retraining.

(UPDATE) A comment from a day ago asked who's liable if the criminals think the NBC chopper is actually the Police helicopter and, while fleeing the "pursuit," wrecks and kills someone? We wonder.

Budget Showdown

So the City Council called Conehead's hand and passed a budget without his head tax:

• A renegade coalition of conservative and moderate City Council members opposed to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s corporate head tax has decisively passed a budget balanced without the policy detested by Chicago’s business community.

  The Council voted 30-18 Saturday to pass the spending portion of an opposition plan that Johnson’s office has said could require midyear cuts because of faulty revenue projections.

  The defiant passage left the question of whether Johnson will become the first Chicago mayor in three decades — since the city’s first Black mayor, Harold Washington — to veto an annual budget ordinance.

  Johnson didn’t signal his next move on a budget he’s called “morally bankrupt.”

  “I do think that this proposal is ill-conceived. It sends the wrong message to struggling Chicagoans, and it will not produce the lofty revenue goals that are assumed in this budget,” Johnson told the deeply divided chamber during a rare weekend meeting.

There hasn't been a Chicago budget, let alone a County or State budget in Illinois (or any of a dozen other states we could name) that didn't base spending on "lofty revenue goals" that never came to fruition. That's why certain blue state / blue city shitholes are carrying tens (and hundreds) of billions of dollars in unsustainable bond debt.

We notice that pretty much all of the budget proposals don't say a word about cutting expenditures, merely raising taxes and fees or instituting new ones instead of closing underutilized schools and slashing those $75 million aldermanic "menus" that are conduits for all sorts of graft and corruption.

This Connected A-Hole Again?

Look who the business partner is:

• As a result of deals set in motion nearly two decades ago, five pension plans for Chicago city employers ended up losing more than $54 million on a risky real estate venture run by President Barack Obama’s former boss, Allison S. Davis, and his business partner Robert G. Vanecko, a nephew of Mayor Richard M. Daley.

  Today, Davis owes taxpayers $6 million for a mortgage Daley handed him to build senior apartments — which Davis could lose for failing to pay $270,000 in property taxes, though Mayor Brandon Johnson’s Law Department is trying to block a tax buyer from getting a deed to the property.

  Davis also owes City Hall more than $40,000 in unpaid water bills for the apartment complex and more than $360,000 in fees and fines related to those apartments and other projects, according to Johnson’s Finance Department.

  But that isn’t stopping the Johnson administration from continuing to do business with Davis, 85, a retired lawyer who headed Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, the law firm that hired Barack Obama when the future president was fresh out of Harvard Law School.

$40,000 in unpaid water bills? Conehead thinks that's a ringing endorsement and wants to learn how Davis got away with it for so long without being forced to pay (hint: the first trick is not running for office! The second is be connected to Sparklefarts.)

 And Conehead is making noise about not collecting past due bills for all sorts of stuff, preferring to raise taxes, fees and fines rather than dare to bother the grifter-class.

Milwaukee Judge Guilty

Are we finally going to see some accountability of (federal) judges?

• Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan was found guilty of felony obstruction. She was acquitted on the misdemeanor concealment charge.  “The ​jury ​followed Judge ​Adelman’s ​instructions ​faithfully,” says the jury foreperson as the jury exited the courtroom after handing down their split verdict.

  The jury deliberated for more than six hours after hearing nearly a week of testimony from witnesses on the day that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents came to the Milwaukee County Courthouse with an arrest warrant for Eduardo Flores-Ruiz.

  “The defendant is not evil, nor is she a martyr for some greater cause,” says Brad Schimel, Interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin during a press conference after the verdict. “It was a criminal case like many that make their way through this courthouse every day, and we all must accept the verdict peacefully.”

And this was in near-blue Wisconsin, so could it be indicative of a trend? Or at least a fed up electorate that's sick and tired of being told one thing while out-of-control judges push something else entirely.

Start indicting and convicting some governors and we'll be impressed. 

Oh No, Accountability?

From the comments:

• Hey SCC.
  
  Let the troops know that the CTA special ain’t what it used to be. Had the 0500 start today and boy was it an absolute disaster. You have a take home car? Not using it. You brought a car? Not using it. They are dropping you off in vans to your posts. You’re on a fixed post and high visibility the entire tour until your uber van picks you up and drops you off. They are being heavy on the spars for not being on post. My sergeant was actually watching us on pods today to make sure we were on the platform.
  You might get lucky and get the subway but if not you’re out in the cold, on a platform fully exposed to the elements. Full stop. Anyone that’s got special next coming weeks, bundle up heavy. I am not exaggerating. Oh you also can’t pick your assignments or your partners.
  As for lunch, you are eating in the area of your post. And if you want, you can take the CTA to your lunch destination but don’t go “too far”.

Um, have you seen how "safe" the CTA is lately? How many physical attacks are occurring? Robberies? People getting pushed onto the tracks? Maybe someone being set on fire?

High visibility is kind of the driving force behind it all. And sergeants are supposed to make sure you're where you're supposed to be.

Here's an idea - if you don't want it, don't sign up for it. 

But it might be too late to save the CTA:

• Less than 15 hours after CTA officials announced a plan to put dozens of additional Chicago cops and private canine security teams on the city’s bus and rail lines, the U.S. Department of Transportation on Friday threatened to withhold federal funding if the agency does not come up with a “more aggressive crime reduction” plan.

  Friday’s letter from the Federal Transit Administration directs the CTA to craft a new “Security Enhancement Plan” with what it called more aggressive crime reduction targets and stronger countermeasures. If CTA does not comply within 90 days, the FTA said it will withhold up to $50 million in Urbanized Area Formula funds — roughly 25% of the money allotted to the agency.

  [....] CTA unveiled its new security surge on Thursday evening. The plan relies heavily on CPD’s Voluntary Special Employment Program, which pays off-duty officers to patrol trains and platforms. CTA said it will expand the program from an average of 77 officers per day to 120, a 67% increase that CTA framed as a significant investment in rider safety. The plan also adds dozens of private canine security guards to rail stations and trains, along with additional personnel from a handful of suburban police departments that have similar arrangements.

This could actually be an opportunity to slap Conehead around if everyone DIDN'T volunteer for CTA Special Employment. It's technically NOT a job action, since it's 100% voluntary and you aren't paid by the CPD - you're paid by the CTA and you gain Social Security credits, so it protected from the penalties that might be assessed in the face of an actual job action.

Short Memories

A number of readers took issue with our take yesterday, that the NYC efforts to sent "mental health" people to certain calls instead of the police was a bad idea.

They seem to have forgotten this incident from earlier this year:

• A 28-year-old man was charged in connection with a shooting at an Evanston hospital on Thursday that left a security guard wounded. Christian J. Haywood, of Evanston, was charged with first-degree attempted murder, aggravated battery, and two misdemeanor counts of unlawful gun possession, according to the Evanston Police Department.

  After appearing to be experiencing a medical emergency at a Taco Bell on Sherman Avenue, Haywood was taken by paramedics to Endeavor Health Evanston Hospital on Thursday evening.

  Once inside the emergency room, police said the suspect became agitated, causing hospital security to get involved. He then allegedly lunged toward his belongings, retrieved a gun, and fired at least three rounds inside the ER shortly before 8 p.m.

  A 33-year-old female security officer was hit and had non-life-threatening injuries, police said. A 47-year-old security officer also had bite-related injuries while taking the suspect into custody, police said.

Unarmed mental health workers responded to the initial call and determined the subject needed treatment and summoned an ambulance for transport - police were not notified and (supposedly) weren't on scene. 

No one searched the subject or his bag - because why would mental health "experts" do that? 

After he got frisky at the hospital, medical personnel summoned....unarmed security guards! One of whom got shot, another of whom got bit.

Then the actual police were called, and a second gun was located in the offender's bag. 

But hey, untrained and situationally unaware mental health "experts" are the wave of the future! Maybe they can call them "observers" like those CTA rape observers.

Another CTA Arson

This seems to be a trend of some sort:

• A man is in custody after setting his belongings and himself on fire while on a CTA Blue Line train at the Damen stop Friday morning, Chicago police said.

  The Chicago Fire Department said it responded just after 6 a.m. for a man who set himself on fire outside the Damen stop. 

  Chicago police said the 52-year-old man was on a moving train when he intentionally set a small fire using his personal belongings. The fire also caused the man to catch fire, causing burns to his leg, CPD said. 

  The fire was put out. CFD said the man was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition, but CPD said he was in good condition.

Some lib-tard somewhere will claim all these fires being set on the CTA are just the homeless trying to keep warm.

More CTA "Patrol"?

Um, really?

• City officials on Thursday announced a new security surge for Chicago’s transit system, outlining a plan that they said will put dozens of additional police officers and private security guards on CTA buses, trains, and platforms beginning Friday. The move expands a long-running program that pays Chicago cops to work overtime shifts on public transit.

  CTA and CPD leaders said the surge will increase the number of sworn officers assigned through the Voluntary Special Employment Program to an average of 120 per day, up from the typical daily staffing level of 77.

But we were told OT was going to be slashed? 

And in the post directly below this one, there are about one-thousand retirements on tap with only three-hundred-fifty new hires scheduled.

And if they hire hundreds of "private security guards," what are they going to do? Take pictures of rapists, turnstile jumpers, chain snatchers and arsonists?

Manpower is about to become an even bigger issue than it was when we started talking about it ten years ago. 

NYC Bad Idea Begins

All bad ideas seem to start in New York - how long until Conehead and the CPD brass attempt to steal this one?

• The safety dance begins.

  A progressive City Council member pushed a bill on Thursday to create a controversial “Department of Community Safety” pushed by Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani that would reshape the way the city responds to 911 calls.

  Brooklyn Democrat Lincoln Restler introduced the legislation as he claimed a majority of his council comrades support the new department intended to send civilian mental health professionals instead of cops to respond to many emergency calls.

  “We have a long way to go to negotiate the exact responsibilities of the agency, the staffing that will be required, the budget that will be necessitated, and we’ll work through those issues with the administration in the weeks and months to come,” he said. 

It might be coming sooner than you think.

CPD has plans to hire between three-hundred and three-hundred-fifty Officers in 2026.

Retirements are conservatively estimated at one-thousand for the year, meaning manpower is going to plummet another six-hundred-fifty.

This is NOT a Good Thing

But it explains a lot of the corruption and out of control debt:

• Commonwealth Foundation Labor and Policy Senior Director David Osborne says Chicago’s growing reputation as the place where public sector unions flex plenty of political muscle is more than well deserved.

  Osborne points to a new Commonwealth Foundation report highlighting how public sector unions across Illinois spent nearly $30 million on state races over the 2023-24 election cycle, or far more than what union officials in any other state dedicated to such causes.  

  At $5.5 million, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson tops the State Government Union Pac Money List of those most benefiting from government employment unions support. In addition to Johnson, at least six other state lawmakers land on the list’s Top 20, lead by House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, at No. 2 and Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, at No. 4.

  [...] With researchers adding that almost 96% of all donations for Illinois-level candidates went to Democrats, Osborne said it’s past time someone address the imbalance.

Front and center would be the CTU along with the Illinois SEIU chapters, where the numbers are closer to 99% of all donations going to "progressives," democrats and communists. 

They own politicians by the boatload, explaining the leftist pro-criminal laws, extensive restrictions on actual legal consequences for crime and overly expensive teacher pension "sweeteners" that boost payouts from generous to outrageous.