Sanity Prevails

 Well lookie here (no link for anti police haters at WTTW):

• A Cook County jury determined Chicago police officers were not liable for the death of a 55-year-old woman who was struck and killed by a driver being chased by officers, records show.

  The Chicago City Council refused in February to pay $8.25 million to resolve the lawsuit filed by the family of Dominga Flores Gomez, who died in the crash that ended the chase launched by two Chicago Police Department officers just before 9 p.m. on Sept. 28, 2022.

  After a three-week trial, the jury determined that the fatal injuries suffered by Flores Gomez, who was survived by five children and eight grandchildren, were the fault of the driver who refused to stop for police, records show.

  The verdict represents a major victory for members of the Chicago City Council who contend the city’s lawyers are too eager to settle cases before trial, which they say encourages those guilty of criminal wrongdoing to sue the city in the hopes of an easy payday.

Back when J-Fledgar was supernintendo, he somehow got Corp Counsel to start fighting a bunch of these cases....and wonder of wonders, Corp Counsel won a bunch of them, saving taxpayers millions and dozens of Officers' reputations.

Of course, the plaintiff attorneys couldn't have that. How were they going to max out their political contributions to Rahm and the Machine if they couldn't use taxpayer dollars? They weren't about to dip into their own pockets. So they threatened to withhold the money.

Rahm told Corp Counsel to stop fighting these cases, settle them quietly and generously, and political contributions resumed, abetted by media tools who pushed the "innocence project" bullshit and claimed taxpayers were being saved money by not risking bigger jury verdicts.

The trouble was (and always has been) two-fold:

1. that if a jury got the correct information presented professionally and competently, they often found that Police followed the Law as written and it was the criminal that was to blame, and
2. Corp Counsel was mostly connected, poorly accredited, pre-DEI hires who were there to fulfill quotas and work a five-hour day while waiting to see if their phone call could land them a judgeship or private law practice gig.

Or, like Shortshanks, a mayoral spot.

For the most part, juries are easily led sheep. But that works both ways if you have a decent Corp Counsel leading the way - a rarity in the best of times, and almost unheard of nowadays. 

Still Not Working

CWB has a whole slew of stories concerning Illinois' failed bail and prison system:

• Story #1 - A 17-year-old Chicago Public Schools student shot a classmate, leaving her unable to walk again and causing her to lose her pregnancy, while awaiting trial on a carjacking case — just two days after he was arrested for allegedly threatening someone with a knife during a “gang check,” prosecutors said.

  [...] Angel Funez-Reyes had been placed on electronic monitoring for a carjacking case in juvenile court, but a judge removed him from the ankle monitor on August 18, about three weeks before the shooting, prosecutors said. Two days before the shooting, Funez-Reyes was arrested on charges of aggravated assault and unlawful use of a weapon after a citizen flagged down police officers and reported that Funez-Reyes had shouted gang-related slurs and asked him, “What you is?” before pulling out a knife and swinging it at him. Officers detained Funez-Reyes and recovered a utility knife and two rounds of 9mm ammunition, prosecutors said. He was released.

• Story #2 (a prison failure) - Just three months after getting out of prison for armed robbery, Benjamin Villanueva is facing new charges after Chicago police say he carjacked a couple at gunpoint near the Lincoln Park Zoo and crashed the stolen vehicle moments later, injuring four people as officers closed in.

  Villanueva, 32, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for a 2020 armed robbery, but his time was reduced to six years under state law. He was released on July 2.

• Story #3 - A 40-year-old man who was released under Illinois’ SAFE-T Act after allegedly punching a Chicago cop at a South Side Red Line station is now charged with attempted murder in a shooting that left two men badly injured last month.

  Terry King is accused of shooting two men, ages 28 and 44, in the 800 block of East 79th Street around 7:45 p.m. on September 17, Chicago police said. During a detention hearing, prosecutors identified King as the gunman and said he stomped on one victim’s head after the man collapsed onto the sidewalk. 

  King was on felony pretrial release at the time of the shooting in connection with a June 24 incident at the 69th Street Red Line station. Officers had responded to a disturbance and tried to remove him from the station when, police said, he punched an officer in the side of the face and swung at the officer twice more, missing both times.

  King was released in that case because, under the SAFE-T Act, aggravated battery of a police officer does not qualify for pretrial detention unless the officer suffers great bodily harm.

What a great exception to the Aggravated Battery statute.

In the meantime, how about we go with "Truth in Sentencing" laws, gut the un-SAFE-T Act, and lose a few judges on the way to restoring Law and Order. 

Smoke More Weed!

Sales up but revenue down:

• Illinois’ cannabis industry saw a big drop in sales numbers over the last year, but it’s not because demand or product sales dropped, a new state report shows.

  According to the report released by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation’s Cannabis Regulation and Oversight Office, total dispensary sales dropped to about $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2026.

  That’s down from nearly $2 billion in sales in 2025.

  But that downward financial shift came despite an uptick in demand. Monthly sales figures show more than 5 million adult-use cannabis items sold in July, marking a record high. August sales totaled nearly 4.9 million adult-use items, a 9% increase in items sold compared to last year.

So what's the issue?

• According to the oversight office, there are more dispensaries, and the product is more accessible, so the number of items sold is still going up.

Ah yes, that pesky capitalism - more weed available from more stores means lower prices. And you know the budget people have been basing their spending predictions on imaginary numbers that won't have any basis in actual economic trends.

And with driving all sort of legit businesses out of Illinois, taxes will be going up again. 

Crazy Suburban Crime

Yeah it's the burbs and it has a Chicago connection, but damn, this story is crazy:

• Officials released new details on the Chicago woman charged after a deadly shooting at Oakbrook Center mall last month.

  A judge denied the pre-trial released of Chance Jamerson, 29, on Tuesday. Prosecutors accuse her of orchestrating an armed robbery with Justin Hill, the man who died in the shooting. Jamerson faces three counts of attempted armed robbery in connection to the shooting at Oakbrook Center mall on September 30.

  Prosecutors say she was in a black Mercedes with three other people in the parking lot of the mall, after acquiring a number of Swatch watches. That's when police say a man, now identified as Hill, pulled up behind them in a Nissan Rogue, blocking in their vehicle. Hill then allegedly walked up with a firearm and said he was robbing them.

  Prosecutors believe this was a set up orchestrated by Jamerson and Hill. "The driver of the Mercedes began wrestling with Hill over the gun," DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin said. "While he was wrestling the defendant in this case chance Jamerson began to fight the driver this is what made the driver of the Mercedes believe that chance had set him up."

  That's when prosecutors say the driver shot and killed Hill and shot Jamerson in her abdomen.

So she set up a fake armed robbery with her primary accomplice, and the guy who was supposed to be the unknowing accomplice managed to disarm the fake robber, shoot and kill him, then gut shot her.

Everyone else got RWOC, and somehow, she got detained.

Like we said, crazy. 

Scam Charity - Take Two

The backlash over the FOP prez's attempt to start a "charity" with $50K in "seed money" seems to have put a damper on those plans for the time being.

You would think that would be the end of it.....but you'd be mistaken:

• Since Lodge 7 members weren't exactly lining up to hand over our assets, John apparently decided to go shopping at the State Lodge instead. You know, the one where he just happens to be vice president.

  .... hearing that John has now informed the State Board that he's selling the State Lodge's disaster relief truck and trailer to help fund his charity.

  [...]  this is a disaster relief truck and trailer. Equipment intended to help people when something goes wrong. Apparently, getting John's charity off the ground is now considered an emergency 

Remember, you aren't just a member of FOP 7. We are also members of the State Loge by association, so this is also our asset. Things like this have to go through the State Board, be discussed and voted on. no one asked us our opinion that we recall.

But that's not all:

• John [has a] plan to sell the State Lodge building, which is already paid for, so they can purchase what I'm told is an absolute shithole of a building owned by someone with connections to a State Board member. Apparently, owning a perfectly good, paid-off building just isn't exciting enough when there's an opportunity to spend a whole lot more of the members' money.

Or a plan to fund a charity that will undoubtedly answer to no one and pay the administrative staff some outrageous six-figure salary, kind of like how other police related charities operate.

This crap needs to be dragged out into the daylight and interrogated until answers are given - especially regarding the legality of it all. 

Another Stolen Government Gun

How did we miss this one? It wasn't in our emails or news feed:

• Chicago police are investigating after a gun, ammunition, and a bulletproof vest were stolen from a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent's vehicle on the Near West Side.

  Police said items were stolen on Sunday from a government vehicle located inside a residential garage near Madison and Leavitt

  Sources said a semi-automatic rifle, 1,000 rounds of ammunition, two magazines, and a DEA-labeled bulletproof vest were taken.

  The DEA has also launched an internal investigation and is working with Chicago police to recover the stolen items.

But don't forget to register your rifles and your magazines with the ISP. And serialize all of your ammunition, too.

By the way, has that registration scheme that Fata$$ signed off on ever gotten more than 5% compliance? Has ISP begun searching, arresting and prosecuting all those felons?

Another A.I. Video

Building on the endorsement post from yesterday:

• video link here

Did anyone ever find out why those particular candidates got endorsed? And since hte FOP endorsement seems to be toxic these days, are they losing in the polls? 

Why These Endorsements?

The FOP released its endorsements for the upcoming election: (click for larger view)

 

But then someone said that there were a couple of these names that had been seen before - as in "seen voting for the SAFE-T Act" ....that disastrous piece of crap legislation that releases repeat violent felons back onto the street every single day where they can commit more crimes, including lighting people on fire on the CTA and killing police officers.

So we went hunting around the internet and found the voting records for the SAFE-T Act:

 

Yellow voted FOR the SAFE-T Act, Red voted AGAINST it. Someone of the names have moved on to other jobs since that vote.

Anyone know why the FOP is endorsing these incompetent criminal supporting assholes?

Another CTA Killer

All that effort last summer and people are still getting killed on the CTA:

• Prosecutors have charged a 37-year-old man with murdering CTA employee Julian Mobley at the Damen Green Line station Thursday afternoon. Court records show the accused man had failed to appear in multiple pending felony cases and previously served a short prison sentence for slashing a teenager’s throat in the South Loop almost exactly eight years ago.

  Chevazz Campbell is scheduled to appear for a detention hearing Sunday afternoon at 26th and California. Prosecutors are expected to detail their allegations during the hearing, and CWB Chicago will publish a full report afterward.

Oh, and guess what he was wearing?

• A man charged with killing a CTA janitor at the Damen Green Line station Thursday afternoon was AWOL from two felony cases and wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet as a condition of felony probation when he allegedly fatally stabbed the worker — despite at least four previous attempts by prosecutors to revoke his probation over alleged curfew violations, officials said Sunday.

So once again, a repeat felon ON ELECTRONIC MONITORING which is run by the office of chief judge Bitch Beach successfully killed a taxpayer with a good job.

Our friends over at The Contrarian had an article up just the other day:

• Two Stories. Two Warnings. How Many More Before Springfield Acts on the SAFE-T Act?

• How many more people must be injured? How many more must be killed? How many more families must bury a loved one before Springfield decides that the SAFE-T Act and Illinois' broken warrant system are serious enough to fix? We keep hearing the same political language about studying the problem, looking at the issue, and being open to changes. Meanwhile, real people are paying the price.

  A seven-year-old girl is dead. A repeat offender with 32 felony convictions was arrested and released without even an ankle monitor. An alleged murderer had an outstanding warrant that had reportedly been sitting in the system for more than 18 months. At what point is enough finally enough? 

First up, stop voting for democrats. They love criminals.

Second, ACTIVELY VOTE AGAINST judges. Skipping that section of the ballot is almost as bad as voting for more of this corruption and depravity. 

Lastly, tell your friends and family that if they're actually sick of criminals being released, tired of reading about children and working people being attacked, exhausted of always looking over their shoulder lest they be stalked, beaten, robbed or shot, then they better vote the same way you're going to.

Cold Case Solved?

And will be used for the next few years to beat up the CPD:

• Eight-year-old Gloria Kowalewicz’s school and church were less than a half-mile from her back door in West Englewood.

  On Nov. 12, 1960, a Saturday, her mother Esther was up early to get her dressed. Gloria had received her First Holy Communion recently, and a nun at St. Mary of Mount Carmel Church had urged the third grader and her classmates to receive the sacrament every day for two weeks to impress the ritual into their memories.

  That Saturday was the last day. But her father needed the family car, so Gloria would have to make the 3½-block trip on foot. For her daughter, the older of two kids, Esther picked out a pink-and-brown checkered dress and a blue leotard. Esther kissed her goodbye and watched from the family’s porch as Gloria walked north on Damen Avenue before turning east onto Marquette Road, past a gas station and out of sight.

  Gloria never made it to the church. Her body would be found just a few hours later in a secluded spot in the suburbs. She had been shot twice in the head.

And horror of horrors:

• It was a crime that shocked the city and stayed a mystery for decades, but now police say they have solved the case using DNA technology. And the perpetrator, they say, was a young man who wore a Chicago Police Department star.

The article is paywalled, but there are ways around it. 

This guy has been off the job for almost four decades, out of Illinois for almost as long, and dead for twenty years. There is not a single Officer on the job who worked with or supervised him for years now. But it will be used by the media and assorted bad actors to paint everyone currently on the job as culpable in some way for the history of a psychopath.

Welcome to Federal Charges

The Cook County misdemeanors morphed into Federal felony charges:

• There’s good news and bad news for a Northwest Side man accused of pointing a laser at a Chicago Police Department helicopter this summer. The good news: Cook County prosecutors dropped three misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges against him stemming from the incident. The bad news: Federal prosecutors have now charged him with a felony that carries a potential prison sentence of up to five years.

  On August 11, a CPD helicopter crew reported that someone was pointing a laser at the aircraft as it flew over Hermosa around 9:30 p.m., according to a CPD report reviewed by CWB Chicago. The helicopter’s onboard equipment enabled the crew to locate the person shining the laser, track him, and guide ground units to his location. Sophisticated mapping and night-vision camera systems helped the officers pinpoint the laser to a man standing on the second-floor rear deck of a home in the 4200 block of West Dickens Avenue.

We're glad the pilots are okay and even happier the helicopter is flying again. 

Still Scamming

The story of his life - besides the burglary and armed robbery convictions and suspected involvement in other gang activity:

• He’s no lawyer, but Wallace “Gator” Bradley was doing his best impression of one.

  Bradley, a former Gangster Disciples enforcer who now calls himself an “urban translator,” was grilling murder exoneree Mark Maxson in a deposition in August over this $345,000 question:

  Is Bradley owed a cut of Maxson’s $8.75 million wrongful conviction settlement? Bradley says he is.

And what does an "urban translator" earn these days?

• Bradley says he logged 4,607 hours at $75 an hour — more than $345,000 — and has submitted about 70 pages describing the work he says he did between 2013 and 2025.

Hm. Seventy-five bucks an hour. Not bad.

Who is he translating for?

• He listed dozens of City Council and Rainbow/PUSH Coalition meetings he says he attended, along with his preparation for those meetings.

  He says there was outreach to the media and “community/political leadership”; a handful of meetings, emails and conversations with Maxson’s lawyers; and appearances at several events, including a 2023 Christmas party where Bradley says Maxson and Mayor Brandon Johnson also showed up.

Oh. And is he translating because these people (or folks) were "educated" or work for the Chicago Public Schools and are therefore incapable of understanding words?

We're just curious. 

Teaching?

 

From a couple of comments and emails:

• We were told the FBI guy was in town to present a training session at A3.

What exactly was this guy supposed to be teaching?

"Justice" is a Joke

We keep hoping that vigilantes will arise to spare the rest of us from this failed system:

• Henry Graham, a 52-year-old man with a lengthy arrest record who killed a man with a single punch on the Magnificent Mile, was sentenced to nine years in prison on Friday, months after a judge found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter, saying state law barred him from being convicted of murder.

  The state’s “one punch” legal standard that spared Graham a murder conviction may surprise many, but it is well established in Illinois, where nearly a century of case law holds that a person cannot reasonably expect a single punch to kill someone. Therefore, in almost all cases, a person cannot be convicted of murder when a single punch proves fatal.

That is a ridiculous standard because there are probably dozens of incidents where a single punch resulted in a death. We can name a couple off the tops of our heads. Certianly there are more and certainly a number were "mutual combatants." But there are a couple "ambush" type attacks that should have resulted in murder charges. This is one of them:

• Graham’s victim, Russ Long, was a 49-year-old River North resident and longtime Northern Trust employee. On June 29, 2023, he was carrying a shopping bag past the Cartier store at 630 North Michigan Avenue when Graham quickly approached him from behind without saying a word. Graham twisted his torso backward, then thrust it forward, driving his fist into the back of Long’s head, prosecutors alleged.

  Long fell forward immediately, striking his head on the pavement. As Long lay bleeding on the ground, Graham sat down on a nearby fire hydrant and stared at him for about five minutes, witnesses said. He walked away upon hearing sirens in the distance.

CPD didn't do anyone any favors with the "investigation" either:

• Two witnesses followed him until they crossed paths with a Chicago police unit. The officers detained Graham and, with their body cameras rolling, heard him admit to hitting Long and knocking him unconscious, prosecutors said. The police then let him go.

  For four days, Long’s friends tried in vain to get the Chicago Police Department to file a report about the attack. Finally, on July 2, a friend of Long’s called 911 from his hospital bedside and insisted that an officer be sent to Northwestern Memorial Hospital to document the attack. Once again, the 911 call taker refused to dispatch anyone because Long could not speak, though they eventually relented and sent a car.

  Only then did CPD begin documenting and investigating what had happened to Long, who died of his injuries ten days later. An autopsy showed “severe injuries” to the left side of Long’s head, prosecutors said. His frontal bone and the base of his skull were fractured.

Four days and no one collected any info from an obvious Aggravated Battery. It sounds like the initial Officers didn't even do a Contact Card, but had body cam video with an admission...and he still walked away?

In the intervening three months, the attacker was arrested SIX more times, including four felonies for attacking Evanston Police Officers. Now he gets nine years - and with three years credit, he'll be out in about eighteen months. 

If we're still in town then, maybe we'll start walking the Mag Mile. 

Speaking of Ugly....

How about those White Sox?

One more chance to put a cap on their Cinderella run.

And since we're talking sports for a moment:

• Mike Ditka, the Hall of Fame tight end who played on the Bears’ 1963 NFL championship team and coached the team to its only Super Bowl championship after the 1985 season, has died. He was 86.

  He died about 9 a.m. Friday surrounded by family and friends, a family spokesperson said. The family had not announced funeral arrangements as of Friday afternoon.

He was a throwback to when the NFL actually meant something. Ditka wasn't a fan of the woke league, expressing disdain for the barely talented hack QB Kapernick, saying if he didn't like the USA, he was free to leave it.

Quite the character. 

fbi = Fondling Boners Indecently?

We suspect a lot more of this with the feebs....a LOT more:

• A retired FBI supervisory special agent from Colorado is being held in Cook County after prosecutors accused him of sexually soliciting a 16-year-old boy in the steam room of a Logan Square health club.

  At about 10 p.m. on September 30, the boy’s father dropped him off at the gym in the 2400 block of North Elston Avenue to work out after he finished his homework, prosecutors said in a detention filing for Jeffrey Green, 59. After exercising, the boy went to the steam room and sat on an upper level with Green and another person. The witness noticed Green masturbating and went to get security, according to the filing.

  Left alone with the boy, Green began walking toward him while continuing the sexual act, prosecutors alleged. Green told the boy, “Don’t worry,” in what prosecutors described as a “sexual tone.” Standing in front of the teenager, Green then asked if he wanted to perform a sex act on him, prosecutors said. The boy, who had never seen Green before, replied, “F*** no. Go away,” or words to that effect, according to the filing. He then sat in shock, prosecutors said.

You look at a lot of these supervisory agents and you just think, "What a beat off this guy is." Turns out, you might be right.

Plus, we have inside info from The Keesing Bandit that his little black book has entire chapters of "contacts" contained within. 

Getting Ugly

And due to get uglier:

• As community leaders called for criminal charges against a Chicago police officer accused of using two guns to fire down a Little Village street, new details emerged about the young cop and the circumstances of the off-duty shooting that wounded another man over the weekend.

We'll leave the details to the Slum Times article linked up top. 

But we'll note that falling hiring standards have consequences far beyond what would normally be imagined.

Who NOT to Vote For

Someone posted this link in the comments. It lists all the candidates currently running for the elected Chicago Board of Education.

But most importantly, it lists all of the candidates currently endorsed by the CTU, meaning that they are bought and paid for stooges of the teachers who will vote to raise your taxes, give CTU people massive undeserved pay raises and continuously fail to actually educate the children of Chicago.

If you want to see a better list of candidates, use this one:

 

It was provided by a group that actually did the research and believes that these candidates provide the best opportunities to wrest control of CPS away from Davis-Gates and the CTU and place it back into the hands of responsible adults. 

Is every candidates perfect? Of course not. But these provide an opportunity that hasn't ever existed before. 

Save the Date!!!

Finally, after seventeen years:

• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday the public would be able to watch the firing squad execution of a former Army officer convicted of a mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas.

  Speaking from the USS Abraham Lincoln to the conservative news outlet Real America’s Voice, Hegseth said Nidal Hasan is “going to get a firing squad of soldiers, and we’ll make sure that people are able to watch it.”

  “People need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things,” said Hegseth, who called the method of execution a “no-brainer.”

And they're going to broadcast it! 

The only thing that would make it even better was if they used bullets dipped in bacon fat before burying him in a bacon-lined pine box.

Maybe some red states will institute pay-per-view for their death chambers? 

CWB Judge Article Part 2

CWB has their second article up about judicial retention. This one covers six judges including a few of our most disliked, untrusted and incompetent DEI types:

• Every four years, Cook County voters cast ballots, deciding whether circuit court judges should be retained or not. It is rare for a sitting judge not to achieve the 60% retention threshold.

  Below are brief biographies, background information, and links to relevant cases involving Cook County judges up for retention during the current cycle who handle criminal matters in CWB Chicago’s coverage area. The first half of our list is available here.

They cover:

• Robert Kuzas, a former CPD member who seems to have a number of fans in our comment section, but who is also politically connected as he was the one who cleared Prickwrinkle's son and has a disturbing habit of drastically reducing bail amounts so violent criminals get out to commit more crimes;
• Teresa Molina-Gonzalez, a former prosecutor who said, "I can’t keep everybody in jail because the State’s Attorney wants me to" before releasing the repeat felon who lit a woman on fire on the Blue line; 
• and everyone's favorite incompetent DEI hire, Tyria Walton who released the woman who attempted to murder a CPD Officer with his own squad car, then accused CPD Officers of calling in threats to her without (A) filing a police report, (B) making a CR complaint with COPA, (C) notifying the Chief Judge or (D) notifying the Sheriff Protective Detail. In fact, the only notification she made regarding all of these "threats" was her campaign website.

Obviously, we're going to recommend against voting for a single judge, but go read the two linked articles up top and make your own decisions. 

Take the five minutes to read everything and then spend the sixty seconds it takes to vote NO on at least a few of these incompetent assholes.

Conehead Lied Again

Or his budget people did, basing vast expanses of the Chicago budget on pure fantasy:

• Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is laying the groundwork for a budget proposal that could rely heavily on new taxes on corporations and wealthy residents as the city confronts an $880 million budget shortfall.

  Speaking about his priorities ahead of the release of his proposed budget, Johnson framed the upcoming debate as a fight over protecting city services while criticizing corporate interests and those calling for spending cuts before tax increases.

Sure, because making your first move "increase taxes" on corporations that are showing a distinct willingness to moving out rather than pay for Chicago unwillingness to spend money responsibly is a fantastic idea.

• His comments come as tensions build between the mayor and a group of 29 City Council members who recently sent him a letter urging the administration to pursue spending cuts and efficiencies before seeking additional tax revenue. That group has taken a hard line against a possible corporate head tax.

  Ald. Samantha Nugent of the 39th Ward said the city should focus first on reducing costs and addressing debt. "You know what we've heard time and time again is before we look to taxes, which is always where this administration goes, we have to look at the efficiencies that have been identified, and and we do have to look at debt," Nugent said.

Gee, an aldercreature wanting to look at efficiencies and spending practices? She must be high on something.

This is typical:

• City Comptroller Michael Belsky said the city is using a data-driven strategy that targets people considered most able to pay.

  "With employees we're looking at people with the highest salaries, highest amount of debt, that improves our collections. If it's people with vehicles in zip codes where they can afford to pay, we're gonna take them all the way through to judgement," Belsky said.

Not the people who aren't following the rules - the ones who can "afford to pay." Which are also the people who can afford to shop elsewhere - or leave town.

Democrats are idiots - vote for more!

Hilarious

This idiot might as well have used something like Facebook Marketplace:

• A Chicago man who federal prosecutors say fatally shot another man and then sold the murder weapon to an undercover agent has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison, officials said.

  Levion Thomas, 31, pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm but, according to Cook County court records, has not been charged with the murder that officials pinned on him.

  But federal prosecutors presented extensive evidence that Thomas used the Smith & Wesson 9mm pistol to kill 31-year-old Troy Pouncey on the afternoon of March 5, 2023, in the 7100 block of South Calumet Avenue, steps from William Meyering Park’s children’s playground.

  Two weeks later, on March 20, Thomas sold the same gun to an undercover law enforcement officer in the parking lot of a strip mall in Burnham, Illinois. Ballistics analysis confirmed that the pistol Thomas sold was the firearm used to kill Pouncey.

He'll likely never be charged with the murder unless he confesses to it. But circumstantially, will the Detectives Exceptionally Clear/Close it for statistical reasons?

Don't Be Dumb Part II

Everything is tracked and traceable to you:

• A now former Joliet police officer has been accused of abusing the Flock license plate reader database, according to Illinois State Police.

  Jeremy Harrison, 50, faces a charge of computer tampering and official misconduct in Will County, according to Illinois State Police, which conducted the investigation after accusations were made against Harrison.

  Court documents say the alleged offense occurred July 23, 2025, when Harrison was serving as a lieutenant with the Joliet Police Department.

  Investigators offered no other details on the case. Harrison is due back in court Nov. 17, per court records.

  Harrison makes for at least the third known case of a law enforcement being accused of misusing the database that tracks millions of drivers’ real-time locations in Will County this year.

Of course, police shouldn't be mis-using tools like these. But perhaps the more pertinent question is why are companies (and government) tracking millions of drivers in real time without some known purpose? Just because they can doesn't mean they should.

Initially Good, but then....

It took the media a day or so to catch up, but almost everyone in the comments saw where this one was headed:

• An off-duty Chicago police officer shot a person while firing two guns at the same time during an argument this weekend in Little Village, the Civilian Office for Police Accountability announced Tuesday.

  The officer was driving in the 2600 block of West 24th Street and encountered a group of people around 12:45 a.m. Sunday, according to statements from COPA and the Chicago Police Department. The officer exchanged words with a male in the group, then fired a gun “multiple times,” officials said.

  The officer then drove toward the 2300 block of South Rockwell Street, got out of his vehicle and “fired additional shots from two firearms simultaneously” toward the area of the initial altercation, COPA said. A male was shot twice and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in fair condition, police said.

If we had just ignored this one, people would say we were assisting in a cover-up.

If we had pointed out that you can't just open fire (with two guns?!?) on a group of people who may or may not have had anything to do with the previous battery, we'd be told to stop pre-judging, Monday-morning quarterbacking, blabbing to the media.

Well the media got hold of this one, not from here. Supposedly, the entire incident is on video, that part of town being loaded with cameras. And while the initial shoot could end up being justified, it's going to be difficult to do so with the second part.

It's only a matter of time before the video gets released, so be prepared.

Bad Tactics

And it ended with a suspension day:

• A Chicago police officer will serve a one-day suspension and undergo additional training after the city’s police oversight agency found he pointed his firearm at a 19-year-old driver and told him, “I’ll light you up!” during a December 2024 traffic stop.

  Video of the incident, which occurred as CPD broke up a “street takeover” in the West Loop, circulated widely online, and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) launched its investigation after someone tagged the agency in the video’s comment section on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Note that COPA "discovered" this video after someone tagged them on social media:

• During the stop, Officer (JE) positioned himself in front of Pena’s car and pointed his firearm toward the driver, according to videos recorded by a passerby and someone in Pena’s vehicle. [Officer (JE)] told investigators the stop raised safety concerns because Pena was wearing a face mask, was slow to respond to English-language commands, and the officer could not always see the occupants’ hands. [Officer (JE)] also claimed he spotted what appeared to be a replica weapon through the driver’s window. Pena was ultimately arrested on traffic-related charges and cited for possession of fireworks and a replica weapon, but prosecutors dropped all charges in February 2025.

  [Officer (JE)] described his statement, “I’ll light you up! as a “verbal slip” intended to gain compliance, but acknowledged it could be interpreted as “I’m going to shoot you.” He also acknowledged that standing in front of the vehicle was not the “smartest” or “safest” position, but said it gave him a better view of the driver.

How does the Order read? Something like "Officers will not deliberately place themselves in harm's way" or "in the path of the vehicle" which was interpreted as attempts to provoke a shooting.

No one would have batted an eye if he had stationed himself behind nearby cover (building, car door, tree, etc). It might not be optimal, but directly in the path - front or back - is asking for a review that isn't going to go your way. 

Don't Be Dumb

In this day and age of "accountability," don't be stupid:

• Two former suburban police officers have been charged with misusing their authority to conduct unauthorized Illinois license plate searches, the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office announced Monday.

  According to a news release, a DuPage County grand jury on Sept. 29 returned a 21-count indictment against former Itasca police officer Marisa Ciccola, 30, and a two-count indictment against former West Chicago police officer Gerardo Solis, 39.

  The grand jury alleged 13 counts of official misconduct, a Class 3 felony, and eight counts of computer tampering, a Class B misdemeanor, against Ciccola and one count each of official misconduct and computer tampering against Solis.

Remember that exempt who was stalking some woman, running her plate and phoning her after being told to knock it off? Even a demotion back to lieutenant didn't stop his behavior. Now someone sought and got a twenty-one count indictment (thirteen of those being felonies) against a single former officer.

Even if you can't see it, assume everything is being tracked, observed and recorded - you'll stay out of most trouble that way. 

CWB Judge List - Part One

The crew over at CWB has a list of judges that you ought to do your due diligence on:

• CWB Chicago does not endorse or recommend judges or candidates for political office. In the past, we have provided subscribers with information about Cook County judges who handle criminal matters during biannual judicial retention election cycles. This year, we are publishing that information for all readers.

  Below are brief biographies, background information, and links to relevant cases involving Cook County judges up for retention during the current cycle who handle criminal matters in CWB Chicago’s coverage area.

They list five judges and (being actual media) try to show good and bad sides of them all. The good sides are some of the sterner sentences we've been amazed at, but those are rarities. The bad sides include kowtowing to the SAFE-T Act inanities that endanger citizens far too often.

Regular readers know that we recommend against ever voting "yes" on a single judge, if only to send a message to the Machine that we're getting damn sick and tired of their catering to the criminal element. Especially DEI judges Walton and Lyke - if you can't be bothered to vote "no" a few dozen times, at least vote against these two assholes.

But if there aren't changes at some point, what's currently happening in France, Germany, England, Ireland and other parts of Europe might make appearances here - and this side of the Atlantic might be a bit more....demonstrative of their displeasure

IL Supreme Court Hearing

So about two weeks ago, there was an Hearing before the Illinois Supreme Court. We didn't follow it too closely because (duh) it doesn't effect us. Here's a summary a reader sent us:

• This is oral argument before an Illinois appellate court (or the Illinois Supreme Court) in case 132241, *Chicago John Dineen Lodge No. 7 v. City of Chicago*. The dispute arises from a 2023 Dispute Resolution Board (DRB) interest-arbitration award that set terms for the next collective bargaining agreement between the Chicago police union (Lodge 7) and the City.
  
  
  The award extended the longstanding right to private grievance arbitration (already available for lesser discipline) to the most serious cases—suspensions longer than 365 days and separations/discharge. Officers still have the option of the public Chicago Police Board process; the award does not change Police Board procedures. The City challenged two main aspects: (1) the requirement that arbitration of serious discipline be private (claiming it violates public policy favoring transparency and accountability), and (2) the requirement that officers remain in pay status while challenging serious discipline through arbitration (claiming it is arbitrary and capricious).
  
  
  Matt Pierce argued for the Lodge (appellant, seeking confirmation of the full DRB award). Aya Barnea (Ms. Barnea/Bernier) argued for the City (seeking affirmance of the appellate court’s ruling against private hearings and reversal on pay status so that portion of the award is vacated). The court took the case under advisement.

We're told that Mr Pierce pretty much gave a stellar performance and destroyed much of the City's arguments, which under normal circumstances, would result in a tremendous win for the Lodge (also from the email).

• Oral argument is not a final decision (the case was taken under advisement), so there is no formal winner. On the strength of the exchanges, the **Lodge (union) performed stronger**. The judges pressed the City hard on the foundations of its public-policy claim—whether Chicago’s local practice can create statewide policy, the lack of record evidence about other jurisdictions, the novelty and potential forfeiture of the First Amendment theory, the limited role of a consent decree, and the risk of disrupting settled private arbitration statewide. The Lodge’s statutory carve-outs, emphasis on deference, and consistency with decades of private labor arbitration appeared more tightly grounded in existing Illinois law. The City’s transparency and public-trust arguments are powerful as policy advocacy, but they faced steeper legal hurdles under the public-policy exceptions demanding standard. The pay-status issue received less sustained questioning and looked more like a classic “arbitrary and capricious” fight the City could still win or lose on the record. Overall, the Lodge left the stronger impression on the dispositive privacy/public-policy question. 

Unfortunately, Illinois is not "normal circumstances." Logic and sense don't usually exist here. Politics rules the day and distorts everything with its foul stench. 

You can hear the Court arguments here at this link. 

Amy opinions here one way or the other? 

Who Are These Guys?

So what is the OT schedule looking like? Days off cancelled yet?

• Braden Montgomery lined a two-run double down the right-field line, Sean Burke allowed one hit in 5 1/3 innings of splendid relief and the Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Guardians 4-3 on Monday to take a 2-0 lead in their AL Division Series.

  The surprising White Sox improved to 4-0 in these playoffs — all on the road — and are one win from advancing to the American League Championship Series for the first time since winning the World Series in 2005. Chicago became the first team to reach the postseason after three straight 100-loss seasons, including a post-1900 record 121 defeats in 2024.

Four road wins in a row, now on the verge of making a liar out of Conehead's vow to cut OT expenditures. The only good news might be that this is what the last White Sox World Series parade looked like:

 

Plenty of parking, too.

What a Way to Go

The comedy has started up over the botched Tennessee execution with the Babylon Bee leading the way - Ten Surefire Ways to Execute Criminals.

Number Five is Illinois' contribution:

• Place them between JB Pritzker and a hamburger: Oof. What a way to go.

Go read it all for the full amusement.

Off Duty Shooting

Little Village area:

• An off-duty Chicago police officer shot a man twice after being attacked and punched in the face on the city’s Southwest Side overnight, according to a statement released by the Chicago Police Department.

  Police say two men were injured, including the the one who was shot. That offender was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital in fair condition and is now in custody. Another man who had been standing with a group on the sidewalk took himself to Mt. Sinai Hospital in good condition.

  The officer who was attacked was taken to an area hospital for injuries sustained during the altercation, police say.

Sounds like he shot the guy who reached into his car and punched him. 

No idea yet how the second guy got winged. 

Best wishes for a speedy recovery. 

FOP Friends and Family Plan

Good news - if you're dating the FOP president, you don't have to pay for your own lawyer!

• latest A.I. generated video here 

It pays to know the right people.

How Many Felonies?

Thank goodness for the SAFE-T Act:

• A 57-year-old man with 32 felony convictions and a long history of stealing electric scooters is back on the street after prosecutors charged him with stealing five more scooters, part of a citywide crime pattern that left Chicago scooter owners frustrated all summer and sparked two Chicago police community alerts.

  Incredibly, Randall Brown was released from custody without even being placed on an ankle monitor, and Judge James Costello indicated in a court document that there was “no obj,” apparently meaning there was no objection to his release.

  CPD’s newly formed Area 5 Motor Vehicle Theft Team arrested Brown on Thursday afternoon, capping a weeks-long effort to identify a man who has stolen so many scooters that victims formed their own Facebook group to post pictures, compare surveillance video and report sightings in real time.

Otherwise, all of these guilty people might be stuck in prison, unable to enjoy terrorizing and victimizing the law abiding and costing taxpayers countless millions of dollars in wasted money.

Dems love criminals! 

Conehead Corpse Count Climbs

Once again, a dead body lying around, this time for TEN HOURS:

• A 23-year-old man found fatally shot in Grand Crossing on Friday morning apparently went undiscovered for more than 10 hours before someone called 911, according to Chicago city records.

  The man was found in an area previously monitored by the city’s ShotSpotter gunfire-detection network, which automatically alerted police to suspected gunfire even when no one called 911. Mayor Brandon Johnson ended the city’s ShotSpotter contract in 2024.

This is number ninety-five.

Good News

Lake Forest Officer Filip Czarnecki who was stranded in Managua before being flown back here for more advanced treatment is moving forward in his recovery efforts:

• We have some truly remarkable news to share! On September 29th, Fil officially transitioned out of the hospital and into a long-term rehabilitation facility—a massive milestone in his journey toward a full recovery. Even more exciting, Fil is showing incredible signs of progress every day. He is officially speaking, demonstrating sharp mental acuity, and showing strong memory recall. On the physical side, he is already working hard in therapy: standing up with assistance and actively participating in everyday tasks like putting on his own clothes. Seeing his determination and hearing his voice again has brought so much hope to his family, friends, and care team. While there is still work ahead in rehabilitation, these leaps forward are a testament to Fil’s strength and the power of the support, prayers, and donations you all have provided. Please continue to keep Fil and his family in your thoughts as he takes on this next chapter of healing!

Keep fighting the good fight Officer. Continued thoughts, prayers and best wishes in your efforts.