Murder Trial Opens Today

Jury selected Monday, opening arguments expected today:

• The jury has been selected in the trial of a man accused of killing a Chicago police officer.

  Steven Montano is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Chicago police Officer Andrés Vásquez Lasso. Prosecutors say Montano shot and killed Vasquez Lasso in March of 2023.

  Officers were responding to a domestic disturbance call at Montano's home in the 5200-block of South Spaulding in Gage Park. There was a 911 call about a man with a gun chasing a woman down the street. Officers pursued someone, and Vásquez Lasso was shot.

  Vásquez Lasso was with the CPD for five years.

If you're at the Court Building, stop by and show some support for the family. We don't have a room number at the moment but we're sure it'll be available at the Assembly Room and in our comment section shortly.

Logical Conclusion

That post we had up yesterday about the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability wanting to outlaw traffic stops for so-called "minor" offenses? Something became crystal clear to us yesterday.

We haven't completely lost our street awareness as we sail off into retirement and we noticed a lot of cars on the road that have no front or rear license plates....and no temp tags. Back in the day, that was an automatic stop and a couple of movers. But now?

The CCPSA doesn't want you pulling over people (or folks) for no plates. And even if you tried to pull someone over, the number of persons fleeing and eluding has skyrocketed....and the Department has decreed you can't chase.

Not only that, but the car is now unidentifiable by cameras and plate readers, meaning there is no incentive to comply with licensing or registration requirements demanded by State Law and City Ordinance.

You park that car in a garage and it's pretty much invisible from any sort of ticketing, towing and impounding. And that means even less revenue into city coffers.

We might have to try not registering one of our cars, ditch the plates, drive like an asshole through red light/speed camera zones and refuse to pull over should we be observed by CPD and hide the car in the garage when not needed.

It's already happening elsewhere. 

Money Spigot

You want to see what a drain the "Consent Decree" actually is? If you go to the Independent Monitoring Team website, you can download six years worth of monthly statements and hunt through their expense paperwork. The summary page (page 1) is obscene:

• Jan 2024 - $476,312.23 
• Feb 2024 - $360,892.82 
• Mar 2024 - $466,239.62 
• Apr 2024 - $446,884.71 
• May 2024 - $502,926.51
• Jun 2024 - $412,025.14

That's for only half of last year (the last year available) and there are names and hourly breakdowns how they're charging the city. There are tens of dozens of entries that cover "review" and "meeting preparation" and all manner of bureaucratic nonsense.

How efficient are they? Well, what's the Department "compliance" rate currently at? Under 20%? Meaning this is going to go on for another two or three decades enriching Maggie Hickey and how many connected lawyers with untold millions.

Stop Screwing First Watch

You know how you can tell house mouses and "merit" bosses never worked a midnight shift? Crap like this:

• (from an e-mailer) So once again the LMS system doesn’t account for 1st watch officers, many if not all of us are scheduled for Constitutional policing at 0700 during the first week in August! We were told by our watch secretary that this is the only time that the class is being offered! So why not schedule it when it’s available for all watches, our responsibilities to our families and loved ones don’t magically disappear because the lack of classes available to us! I was notified for this same class at 0700 a few weeks ago as a 1st watch officer but others on my watch has a 1100 start and a 1600 start!

Here's an idea since the Department has been over-staffing the instructor ranks for years now:

• since the "instructors" are three year wonders who don't want to work the streets, make THEM change shifts to accommodate the officers already on First Watch

Otherwise, you have midnight people, already on an unnatural shift that disrupts body clocks and experiencing wholesale sleep deprivation, having their work weeks completely derailed by a bunch of morons who don't understand the work day doesn't start at 0700 hours for almost a quarter of the Department - it's starts at 2200 hours the night before.

The Enemy Within

Corporate America is infested with do-nothing drones in made up positions that pretty much suck equity from shareholders.

City government is the same way. Here's a CPD civilian drone on his Linked-In page (click for larger pictures):

 

These positions really exploded after the "Consent Decree" was foisted on taxpayers as a "reform" effort that pretty much wastes tens of millions of scarce tax dollars for little return.

But this mope in particular has an .... interesting back story:

So he was a participant at the pantifa riot at the Columbus Statue that ended up with almost two dozen Officers a laundry list of injures and probably cost the Department hundreds of lost man hours along with a few million dollars in IOD compensation. (paragraph corrected regarding a specific injury)

AND he claims he "will never feel safe around a Chicago police officer again...." but he's taking a paycheck from CPD now as a "macro social worker" and "anti-racist" and "anti-oppressive policy maker." 

Pretty much made up bullshit duties at a pretty penny on the taxpayer dime.

Another Tool Going, Going....

Soon to be gone:

• The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA), the civilian panel responsible for overseeing the Chicago Police Department, is wrapping up a public comment period as it weighs major restrictions on the types of traffic stops CPD officers are allowed to make.

  The group is taking public input through Monday but has already outlined a list of restrictions most of its members support. Among them: barring traffic stops for plates expired less than a year, improperly displayed or missing front license plates, improper rear license plate lighting, having a single non-functioning head-, tail-, or brake lights during daylight hours, and driving with a loud sound system.

  A minority of CCPSA commissioners also support banning stops for failure to wear seat belts or failure to signal turns or lane changes. Some community members are pushing to go even further — calling for a ban on stops for tinted windows, among other minor violations.

  Why? Because they believe traffic stops are disproportionately used against Black and Brown drivers, often as a pretext to look for guns or other contraband.

So the list of Rules and Laws that black and brown people don't have to follow - solely because they're black or brown - continues to expand.

No one on the CCPSA seems to be asking why black and brown people can't maintain their vehicles to be street legal after all that effort in Springfield writing and passing the Laws.

On the plus side, policing in Chicago just keeps getting that much easier. 

Is This Something?

So someone sent us these pictures. They were posted on the Twitter / X platform by reporter Austin Berg:

 

They are the tax exemption forms from 2022 and 2023 from the Chicago Teachers Union. If you notice the red boxes in both forms, you might notice they are exactly the same....as in 100% exactly the same.

Does any organization or individual have two tax returns that are completely the same year over year? No changes whatsoever?

We aren't accountants, but this seems slightly unusual. Any CPAs out there? Or IRS agents? 

Fleeing, Eluding, Dying

You would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh:

• A 15-year-old Queens armed mugging suspect on an e-bike fleeing NYPD cops was fatally struck by an unlicensed hit-and-run Lexus driver with an atrocious driving record after crossing into Long Island, police said Sunday.

  Cops responding to a 911 call about a knifepoint robbery in progress outside a corner pharmacy in Floral Park came across the suspect fleeing on the e-bike about 8 p.m. Saturday, police said. Officers pursued the teen for a little over a mile from Hillside Ave. and 257th St. into New Hyde Park in Nassau County, just over the Queens border, an NYPD spokesman said.

  The teen was headed east on his e-bike on Bryant Ave. when a 2015 Lexus  GX 460 driven by 28-year-old Ruyan Ali slammed into him while going south on Lakeville Road, Nassau County police said. Ali, who had a suspended license and whose car registration had expired, crossed into opposing traffic to pass a car that was slowing to a stop in front of him, according to a criminal complaint.

  The teen died at the scene, and Ali tried to flee but was arrested nearby, Nassau County cops said.

That karma-train hits hard sometimes.

Scandal(s) in Waiting

Just wondering, but how many times is a former high ranking exempt's son going to be stripped and sent to Callback for domestic after domestic, year after year before he faces the Police Board for a Thirty Pending hearing?

Bookmark this post, because one day sonny is going to kill someone and people might start asking why there weren't any warning signs.

There were plenty.  

Another SAFE-T Act Win

Another great job by Fata$$, the legislature and progressives everywhere!

• A reputed two-six gang member was wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet for a pending gun case when he gunned down a man in Little Village last weekend, prosecutors said Friday.

  Daniel Alvarado, 20, was arrested in March after Chicago police said they saw him crash a car and discard a firearm after shots were fired toward nearby CPD officers. Although Judge Antara Rivera initially granted prosecutors’ request to detain him, Alvarado was released on electronic monitoring on May 16, less than two months later, by Judge Charles Burns.

  Since then, court officials say Alvarado violated the terms of his monitoring agreement at least eight times, including on July 5, the night 47-year-old Moises Juarez was shot and killed near 27th Street and Central Park Avenue.

Part of being a democrat is never admitting when your policy goes wrong and costs people money....or their lives.

The other part is voting for the same thing, year after year. 

Another ShotSpotter Miss

Haven't covered one of these in a while:

• A man was found fatally shot on a Near West Side street this week—the latest gunshot victim to go unnoticed until it was too late in a neighborhood that could once rely on ShotSpotter to detect gunfire.

  Officers responded to a call of an unresponsive person in the 2600 block of West Wilcox around 9:13 p.m., according to a Chicago police statement. They found a 44-year-old man on the ground with a gunshot wound to the head. Paramedics took the man to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

  No one reported hearing gunfire in the area; however, officers at the scene reportedly found 12 shell casings near the man’s body, raising questions about how quickly first responders could have located the victim if the city’s ShotSpotter technology had still been active.

What's the latest from City Hall about re-instating or re-bidding the ShotSpotter-type contract so that Conehead-connected people get their beaks wet?

CWB has a list of 49 incidents now....and growing weekly. 

"Merit" Under the Spotlight Again

We've been talking about this for years, decades now. So much so that the authors of the article reached out to us for information and comment (the first part of the article deals with one particular connected person):

• For most Chicago cops looking to advance through the ranks, the path is through an exam that is notoriously difficult and inconsistently offered—sometimes only once or twice per decade—that has inspired multiple cheating scandals over the years. For a select few, the alternative path is to be nominated by a department higher-up for the CPD’s merit process. 

  After being nominated, such officers are reviewed by a Merit Board made up of additional CPD insiders, including five deputy chiefs and the head of the OPSA, who serves as a nonvoting secretary. For most of the program’s history, members of the Merit Board couldn’t also nominate officers. That changed under Superintendent Johnson, who only required that they recuse themselves from votes on their nominees.

  The city’s human resources and OPSA offices then compile a nomination packet on each nominee, including their complimentary histories and limited disciplinary information from recent years, and the Merit Board interviews some nominees, according to city policies. Merit Board members vote up or down on each nominee and send their results to the superintendent—who has ultimate decision-making power. The superintendent can even select officers for merit promotions who weren’t put forward by the board at all.

That isn't quite how the process goes according to our contacts, but it's close. A lot more favors and phone calls are involved.

But as we've said here numerous times (and what got quoted in the article) is that if you believe the process is transparent and/or fair, you're a moron. Until the City and Department publish what makes you qualified for "merit" then the process is rigged, unfair and political.

Rehashing Morale

It sucks and has sucked for a long time - not much new here:

• Former Chicago police officer Charles Walters says the department is in crisis due to what he calls a collapse in authority, surging crime and a lack of leadership from City Hall.

  Walters, who spent more than two decades with the Chicago Police Department in patrol, gang units and seven years undercover in narcotics, said the department’s challenges begin at the top.

  “The previous mayor (Lori Lightfoot) didn’t seem like they really had our back,” Walters told Chicago City Wire. “And this mayor (Brandon Johnson) really seems like he doesn’t have the back of the police. It starts there and trickles down to the superintendent. Then the fact that it took a lot of powers from us. We can’t do a lot of things we wanted to do, and the criminals know that.”

In our opinion, it's not that we couldn't do what we "wanted" to do - it was what we weren't permitted to do moving forward....like enforcing the Law. The rules of the job never bothered us, but the endless documentation did. 

And then, how the documentation was used was our biggest complaint. It wasn't use to prosecute law breakers, it was used to screw law enforcers to the point continued employment, financial well being and actual freedom was at stake. 

Once everyone saw that writing on the wall, disengagement became the only way forward in order to make it to the finish line, and Chicago citizens ended up paying a hefty price for electing "progressives" and other morons. 

But we made it to the finish line with minimal damage.

Performative Theater

Top story across all media:

• Chicago Public Schools sent layoff notices to 1,458 teachers and other staff Friday due to enrollment shifts, school-specific needs and other programmatic decisions, the school district said.

And what does it all mean?

• CPS says most of the laid off staff will likely find positions at other schools within the district.

  Overall, CPS says it plans to spend about the same amount on school-level staff as last year, and these actions do not help the school district close its $734 million budget gap.

So nothing at all.

How about closing a dozen underutilized schools, lay off those people and sell the buildings? You'd close the budget gap overnight. 

Shooting Footage

Earlier this year, an Officer was wounded in the leg following a struggle with an armed suspect. We wouldn't usually post video of this sort except for one very important part:

• video link here

The application of the tourniquet to the wounded Officer's leg was very well done, almost flawless, and that's difficult to do in a dynamic situation like that. 

Hats off to the Officers involved.

Hired then Fired

We thought CPD's hiring was bad....check out NYPD's disaster:

• The NYPD is trying to force dozens of officers and recruits who failed to meet the department’s standards to resign  —  but the effort faced a roadblock late Thursday after a state judge blocked the move, the Post has learned.

  At least 30 cops and cadets – hired between 2023 and 2024 under Inspector Terrell Anderson, who has since been transferred out of his role with the Police Academy – were notified of the NYPD’s attempt to purge them Thursday, according to the sources.

  “They all got called down,” a police source told The Post. “They’re being told: ‘You didn’t meet the qualifications. You shouldn’t have been hired. You have 24 hours to resign or be fired.’”

Many of the individuals had psych issues. Others lied about arrests, convictions and previous job terminations. But an allegedly crooked high ranking exempt-type passed them all through the hiring process after the commissioner lowered hiring standards.

For those who were around in the early 90s, CPD had a similar fiasco when a number of people were disqualified during the "psych exam" and deemed unworthy of being hired. Many dozens sued and were later scattered among later hiring classes. 

We met quite a few, and some ended up being decent cops. Others....well, there certainly appears to be some solid reasoning behind those types of exams.

The whole NYPD thing is going to court, but perhaps the first hiring mistake was the exempt who thought he could just disregard established protocols.

Skip a Grade?

Well why not?

• Chicago Public Schools is trying to make sure more students from a range of backgrounds are able to skip an entire grade or accelerate in a single subject.

  Board members were briefed Wednesday on proposed changes to the acceleration policy and will vote at their July 24 meeting.

  In the past, few students were allowed to jump ahead a grade or get accelerated instruction in math or reading, or both, and they were mostly from schools with few low-income students, according to data obtained by WBEZ. In a statement, CPS said most students came from North Side schools.

We can hear the cries of "racism!" already:

• The current policy for skipping a grade or moving ahead in reading and math calls for schools or parents to refer students and says they are only eligible if they exceed standards on the state standardized test. But only 4% of elementary school students exceed standards, and no students in either math or reading hit that mark in more than 100 schools.

It isn't like the teachers are actually helping the kids learn anything.

Best Rant Ever

We didn't know he was still alive:

We were still in high school when Lee Elia let loose with this one, and we heard the censored version for years on the Dahl and Meier radio show opening. He played for both the Cubs and the Sox, but he probably picked up most of his salty attitude in Philadelphia

Without a doubt, one of the greatest rants ever. 

Rapper's Dad Gunrunning

Who would have thought a rapper who "sings" about gun, dope and ghetto violence would have a family members involved in crime?

• The father of rapper Mello Buckzz was arraigned on federal firearms charges Tuesday, just days after drive-by gunmen targeted her fans in River North, leaving four people dead and 14 others wounded.

  Federal officials say Melvin Doyle illegally sold 13 guns since May 20 to confidential informants working with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) — including one transaction that took place after the July 2 mass shooting outside Artis Lounge, where his daughter, Melanie Doyle, had hosted a record release party.

Thirteen guns to federal informants, so he's probably going away for twenty or forty years, perhaps more, all in the federal system.

The presser was quick to rule out poetic justice though:

• A law enforcement source told CWBChicago that investigators have found no evidence connecting Doyle’s alleged gun sales to the shooting outside the lounge at 311 West Chicago Avenue.

That's not to say he wasn't supplying other guns to rival gangs in other crimes....just not this one.

PPP Sentencing

This one slipped by us last week:

• A South Holland was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing nearly $20,000 in rent payments from public housing tenants and more than $40,000 in federal Paycheck Protection Program loans. Delvya Harris, 32, pleaded guilty to a felony theft charge after an investigation by the Chicago Housing Authority’s inspector general’s office.

  “I am pleased to see an individual held accountable for taking advantage of tenants and the public by stealing public funds for personal financial gain,” Attorney General Kwame Raoul said Monday.

  Harris was working for the Habitat Co. as an assistant community manager at the CHA’s Trumbull Park Homes in South Deering when she stole 50 money orders worth a total of $18,125 and deposited them into her personal account between December 2022 and March 2023. Prosecutors said that, in some instances, she gave the checks to her significant other to cash.

  In February and May 2021, Harris received more than $41,000 in PPP loans and received an advance on a COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan — both for businesses that did not exist, prosecutors said.

So another single case is closed, while the Statute of Limitations marches onward, letting dozens more cases fall by the wayside, including a number of high ranking CPD exempts, a dozen OEMC leeches and forty or fifty CPS employees.

It's Happening

Conehead will probably go down in history as the mayor who let the Bears get away:

• In an offseason surprise, some Chicago Bears fans got an email this week asking their opinions on seating options and pricing for a new stadium.

  Is this a sneak peek at the new seats, and does it signal plans are moving forward for a move to Arlington Heights?

  Some of the fans who received the email have long histories with the team, and there are a lot of concerns. But at least one expert asked for a quick time out on the speculations, though he does think this signals the team is moving forward with their plan to move to the northwest suburbs.

If the McCaskey's were any sorts of business people, they would have moved out years ago, built a new stadium out-of-pocket (instead of swindling taxpayers), and have a franchise comparable in value to the Cowboys. 

Conehead was willing to sign away all the taxpayer money he could scrounge up, but Springfield was actually smarter in this case since they'll get their cut no matter where the Bears play in Illinois and taxpayers are more than a little fed up with billionaires getting hundreds of millions in "subsidies" for private enterprises.

But this is going to blow another giant monetary hole in the Chicago budget. 

Welcome Home Ed!

We guess Madigan will have to hunt up a different bunkmate:

• Former Chicago Ald. Edward M. Burke has left the northwestern Illinois prison where he’s been held since September for his historic racketeering, bribery and attempted extortion conviction, officials have confirmed.

  Burke transferred Tuesday from a low-security prison facility in Thomson to community confinement, according to a Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson. That means Burke will either continue to serve his sentence in home confinement or a halfway house. His official Bureau of Prisons release date remains Feb. 20, the spokesperson said.

  Burke’s two-year prison sentence raised eyebrows when it was handed down in June 2024 by U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall, now the city’s chief federal judge. And in the end, it appears the punishment for Burke’s abuse of office is a total of nine months behind bars.

So Ed will have time to spend his ill-gotten gains as he shuffles off this mortal coil. Nine months behind bars and a few extra months getting home cooked meals and see friends and family.

Mike is looking at triple what Ed got, so he's desperately looking to stay out of prison while he runs through his appeals.

Chicago Media Catches Up

Remember, you don't hate the media nearly enough:

• ABC Channel 7 - GLEN ELLYN, Ill. (WLS) -- A suburban park district is investigating what happened over the weekend when staffers were overwhelmed by hundreds of young people.
• Fox Channel 32 - A rowdy crowd of teenagers and young adults prompted the early closure of a pool Saturday afternoon in Glen Ellyn.
• NBC Channel 5 - A suburban community pool closed early over the Fourth of July weekend after unruly behavior erupted when a large crowd swarmed the area, police said.

We're sure there's more, but one has to wonder why they waited almost four days to cover what ended up becoming a national story. It probably has to do with the video spreading far and wide to the point they couldn't actually ignore it any more and continue to call themselves "reporters."

Kind of the like the Philadelphia shooting where there were 3 dead and ten wounded - a far cry from Chicago's 4 dead and 14 wounded. What's the main difference?

• video of the shooting 

The Chicago shooting had a single grainy video of the suspect vehicle rounding the corner after unloading on the crowd. The Philadelphia shooting has four or more people upping their pistols and unloading down the block at another set of shooters, including some fool unloading a switched-Glock over the heads of six or more peoples (or folks) heads. 

We have to wonder how many of the dead/injured were friendly fire.

More Suburban Adventures

The mayhem is spreading!

• Shots were fired in the parking lot of Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois, north of Chicago Monday night, but police say there are no known victims.

  Gurnee police were called to the theme park at 8:20 p.m. Officers found evidence at the scene confirming that shots had been fired, police said.

  Preliminary information indicated there may have been a quarrel immediately before the shots were fired.

And don't forget all the gun offenders Naperville cops are finding at Top Golf. Pretty soon it might be safer in the City than the burbs.

Is that Conehead's plan? 

Anti Immigrant Protests

But not where you think:

• It turns out that Mexicans are as happy about US citizens legally moving to Mexico as US citizens are about Mexicans illegally crossing the border to live in the United States. 

  Sure, Americans are bringing their money--not asking the government to pick up the tab for their lifestyles--but the influx is apparently raising housing prices and diluting Mexican culture. 

  Now that's a twist I bet you didn't see coming. We have Mexicans and others violently protesting here in the US, making the claim that they have an absolute right to enter our country legally and get all sorts of US welfare benefits, and we have Mexicans violently protesting in Mexico to keep legal US immigrants out because they are diluting the culture. Even American tourists are too much.  

Golly, Mexican citizens supporting Mexican sovereignty in their own country.

We're just waiting for the left to start screaming "racism!" 

Alder-Racists (Present and Past)

Imagine if Ed Burke said something like this in public:

• When a Chicago Park District lifeguard was accused of shooting and killing a teenager at Douglass Park in late June, Ald. Monique Scott (24th) and her brother, former Ald. Michael Scott, weren’t surprised.

  Both had served as Douglass Park supervisors and feared something like this would happen, they contend, because the park district has too few lifeguards, too little staff training and inadequate park security.

  And, they say, part of the problem lies in assigning white and Latino lifeguards to pools in African American neighborhoods.

Seriously.

• “There’s a certain way you have to deal with these kids,” Monique Scott said. “They’re going to give you a hard time. You need to have an authoritative presence without disrespect. You’ve got to know how to talk to these kids and not demean them.”

  Scott said she got a call recently from a South Side park supervisor who reported that a Latino lifeguard had walked off the job after declaring that he “can’t work with these kinds of people.”

Seriously:

• “If you don’t have a strong lifeguard, and the guard doesn’t look like the community they’re serving, there’s a problem,” said Michael Scott, who is now a Cook County commissioner.

Gee, we've sarcastically suggested exactly this many times after the brain-dead politicians complain about the racial makeup of certain Districts, conveniently ignoring the fact that once an Officer gets some seniority under their belt, they bid the Hell out of crappy high-crime Districts for someplace the citizens appreciate the police presence.

And the "demean[ing]" behavior noticed by aldermoron Scott (both the current idiot and the previous) is a two way street. We could tell stories about Michael running back years in the 24th ward - the disrespect he dished out was nothing short of epic. Much of it comes down to parenting....or lack of, but Eric Holder and Sparklefarts told us we weren't ready for that discussion.

You know what we dream? We look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. 

And guess who's lacking in character content the past six-plus decades?

Suburbia Coverage

Someone finally noticed the two-hundred or more Chicago denizens who invaded Glen Ellyn this weekend:

• A “flash mob” of some 200 Chicago residents swarmed Glen Ellyn’s Sunset village pool on Saturday afternoon, forcing their way past the entrance and assaulting the pool manager.

  A video posted on Instagram shows a crowd pushing manager Christine Giunta-Mayer into the lap pool, which had been surrounded by the mob. (another link to video)

  Sources tell DuPage Policy Journal that the mob arrived around 4:30 p.m. Glen Ellyn Police arrived soon after and closed the pool.

And guess what was instituted the next day?

• On Sunday, Sunset Pool visitors were required to have a physical pool pass issued by the park district, sources tell DuPage Policy Journal.

Seems the AWFL wine moms don't like diversity anywhere except their yard signs when it ends up chasing their kids out of the pool.

Strange Flex

Over fifty bodies with extra holes in them, and the Slum Times is helping Conehead out by saying, "At least it wasn't a hundred!"

• Nine people were killed and 40 others were injured in citywide violence over the holiday weekend, making it the least violent Fourth of July weekend in at least six years.

  The weekend runs from 5 p.m. Thursday to 5 a.m. Monday, meaning late Wednesday’s mass shooting — which left four dead and 14 others injured — was not counted in the total.

  [...] By the end of the weekend last year, 19 people had been killed and 86 others wounded. The 68 people injured and 12 killed over the first two days of the July 4th weekend in 2024 surpassed the numbers for the entire 2023 holiday weekend when 11 people were killed and 62 wounded. Both holiday weekends those years stretched over four days, potentially increasing the totals.

  Violence peaked in 2021 when more than 100 people were shot and 19 were killed in shootings across the city through the mid-summer holiday weekend.

Nothing like throwing Conehead a life preserver so he doesn't have to answer for the odd spike in shootings.

It's good that crime is down year-over-year, but there should still be accountability for the surge last week, with four or five "mass shootings" that they'd all be screaming about if they happened anywhere else except here.

Notice how the coverage completely died out? Kind of like the Idaho firefighter killer, or the Minnesota assassin. Once the shooter turns out to be democrat, leftist or approved class, the story is memory-holed overnight. 

No Money

But the teachers want to be at the front of the line:

• Chicago Public Schools is so cash-strapped that its new interim CEO and board president are scrambling to find a way to send out back pay owed to teachers and staff that was negotiated in the Chicago Teachers Union contract, which was settled in March.

  The CTU won 4% raises plus additional salary increases for experience and advanced degrees. Because the old contract expired last June, the raises cover a whole school year and will cost the district more than $100 million. Teachers and staff are expecting CPS to deliver that retroactive pay this summer.

The firefighters have been without a Contract for how long? Four years?

If we recall, CPD supervisors have a court ordered settlement for VRI overtime running back to the very beginning of that program AND a "me-too" raise that the City refuses to pay while the back pay accrues interest.

And the FLSA OT, too.

But since the teachers can hold the children hostage, have the ability to strike and own Conehead, they think they deserve to be up at the front of that line. It's far past time to legislate teachers statewide as "essential."

 

Nice Weekend Conehead

Well....

When we miss, we miss big. Our prediction was:

• ....0000 hours, Friday 04 July and running through 0500 hours, Monday 07 July. Seventy-seven hours total we're going to go with ten dead and twenty maimed - thirty total bodies with extra holes.

There are still about five hours to go for the final totals, but so far:

•  nine dead (so close) and thirty-one wounded - forty total bodies with extra holes

(remember, we're only counting Friday thru 0500 Monday)

HeyJackass.com covers a longer time frame, going back to 03 July. Those totals are 10 and 41.

For the entire calendar week (30 June to 05 July) it was an embarrassing 17 and 72 - 89 total casualties. 

We're guessing Conehead shouldn't have given all the Violence Reduction / Interrupters people the weekend off? 

Fun Times in Suburbia

How far DuPage County has fallen. There was a "teen takeover" planned for Naperville this past weekend:

The Naperville PD was alerted to the plans of the usual suspects and responded with a sizeable show of force, so much so it was broadcast all over social media:

Undeterred, the planners rapidly shifted venues and took over the Sunset Pool in Glen Ellyn instead. Hundreds of "teens" invaded the facility, attacking attendees, throwing a manager in the water, pitching fireworks into the pool, along with the usual smoking and drinking:

Anyone know why there wasn't any news coverage of this?

Glen Ellyn is a notorious refuge of "Hate has no Home Here" signage along with all sorts of liberal virtue signalling. You get what you vote for we guess.

Could This Happen Here?

Frankly, we're surprised it hasn't yet:

• At least some Boston city employees who expected to receive their first paycheck of the month on Thursday will now not be paid until after the holiday weekend, according to a member of the City Council.

  Sam Dillon, president of the Boston firefighters' union, said he heard from some members who were not paid. He wants an investigation and is asking the city to pick up any overdraft fees incurred by employees.

  City employees were sent a memo stating, "We are aware that the availability of funds may be impacted by different banks' processing schedules" related to the holiday. "Most of the deposits went through yesterday," Mayor Michelle Wu said on Friday. "Some even came through earlier today."

Yeah, and some didn't. 

Everyone does Direct Deposit now. The last guy we remember not having it retired two years before we did. And if you have Direct Deposit, you probably have some automated payments set up for various bills - gas, electric, mortgage, car, etc. 

And now you're on the hook for bounced checks? 

Has the FOP ever considered a remedy for this? We were never one to live check-to-check, but some aren't as lucky as we were with a decent financial plan, no crushing student debt and a cushion we built up over time.

Walls Work?

Look how Florida is protecting its police properties:

• DELAND, Fla. - City officials in DeLand have approved construction of an eight-foot wall surrounding the police department in an effort to better protect officers and staff following recent security incidents on department grounds.

  DeLand city commissioners have unanimously approved the construction of an eight-foot security wall around the police department in response to recent threats, including a drive-by shooting, vandalism, and damage to patrol vehicles. 

  The wall will include a gated access system to restrict unauthorized entry and improve safety for officers and staff. The estimated base cost is $20,000, though final expenses could rise depending on the gate specifications.

Compare that to CPD's three-foot fencing, open lots, unsecured buildings, and lobbies built for easy access to all manner of homeless, terrorist and psycho.

How many times a year do we see comments and AdMin fax messages about trespassers on CPD properties? 

Off to a Roaring Start

Literally in front of Cook County Jail and Courts:

• Four people were wounded in a drive-by shooting early Saturday in Little Village.

  The victims were in a parked car about 1:45 a.m. in the 2700 block of South California Boulevard when someone in a dark sport utility vehicle fired shots as they drove by, Chicago police said.

  Three men, ages 25, 26 and 32, were shot multiple times and listed in critical condition at Mount Sinai Hospital, police said.

This is something like the 4th or 5th multiple casualty shooting in July so far.

And still a day to go for the weekend. 

Deez Guys? Again?

Is it "deez," "dem"or "doze" guys?

• Three high-profile Illinois casinos have now faced allegations over contractors with reputed mob ties

Is anyone surprised that any form of gambling and the associated support businesses has an Outfit connection?

You shouldn't be:

• The largest fine levied by the Illinois Gaming Board in recent memory — $3.2 million — was paid in 2003 by Grand Victoria Casino in Elgin, whose investors at the time included Gov. JB Pritzker and members of his family.

  Now overseen by Pritzker, who took office in 2019 and no longer owns a piece of Grand Victoria, the gaming board will decide if and how to fine Bally’s Chicago Casino for a similar offense: hiring a contractor with reputed mob ties.

Golly, and a shady connection to the governor? Who used to own a piece of the Casino? But doesn't anymore - he just appoints the members o f the "oversight" board.

The only thing that would make worse would be some sort of CPD connection:

• In 2015, the gaming board proposed fining Rivers Casino in Des Plaines — which landed a lucrative gambling license after the Rosemont project was tanked over fears of mob influence — $2 million after a Sun-Times reporter found that United Service Cos. was hired for security and cleaning work there.

  United was long run by former cop Richard “Rick” Simon, who has had business and personal ties to reputed mob figures, including Ben Stein, his late friend and boss.

The Outfit ties to legalized gambling never went away, they just went underground, mostly out of sight. But they're still scamming, skimming and raking in millions while buying politicians to help hide it all.

Shut Up Porkulous

What an odd thing to brag about:

More money collected from taxpayers than ever before, the result of increased in taxes, fees, and fines.

And there's still a projected budget deficit of $3.2 Billion for 2026.

The Illinois debt is around $158 Billion.

There's less money coming from Washington and if Fata$$ continues to give ILLEGAL aliens Medicare in violation of Federal Law, all those numbers are going to go up even more.

But yeah, brag about what taxpayers are being forced to pay.