The Next Policy Change

Since CPD ends up stealing every new idea that comes out of New York (and stealing NYPD brass, too), we imagine this is going to be a "Next Big Thing" shortly:

• The NYPD is making a big push to bring the city’s rising crime numbers down — and they’re doing it one rookie at a time.
  
  On Tuesday, [New York] CBS 2 [...] spoke exclusively with Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, who outlined his plan.
  
  At the height of the summer, the number of shootings is up 8 percent city-wide from last year. But with a class of 600 cops just graduated from the Police Academy, Bratton is changing things up.
  
  Gone is the practice of putting rookies out on the streets in pairs. Instead, they get a veteran partner to fight crime.
  
  “I had some great partners who really caught me before I started developing bad habits early on in my career,” Bratton said. “I want these young kids as they come out of the academy to have a similar opportunity to learn the right way and if they make a mistake, they have the mistake corrected before the mistake becomes a habit.”

That would seem to be the intent of the FTO program, but directly contrary to what is practiced once the kids head out to "Operation Ghetto Foot Patrol" where they are nearly completely unsupervised in any meaningful sense of the word. It's a miracle none of them have been seriously injured or worse what with the bad habits they are ingraining into their daily routines....like shooting down dark gangways....and being surprised when someone shoots back down the gangway....if you catch our drift. Closer supervision may prevent incidents like these.

Imprinting

Defined as follows:

• impress or stamp (a mark or outline) on a surface or body

Reasonably observant folks can tell when someone is carrying something in a pocket. Really observant individuals can spot "tells" when someone has a gun in their waistband. There was even a training scenario years back where a crowd was filmed in a parking lot after a disturbance and people were asked, "How many guns were on scene?" Most coppers spotted at least two or three - the total ended up being five or six.

Someone sent us this photo and we had to do a double-take:

What's that in your pocket Pfather Pfleger? We suppose it might be an emergency exorcism kit or a traveling Crucifix. But it would be amusing as all hell if it was....something else. Anyone know if this goof has a Concealed Carry permit?

Electronic Monitoring Hack

This is amusing as heck:

• The Cook County Sheriff’s office is warning its officers to watch out for state parolees who have tampered with their electronic monitoring.
  
  The heading says: “Officer Safety Alert” – and it’s from the Cook County Sheriff’s Office to all patrol and street units – warning about state parolees on electronic monitoring who have tampered with the device and are driving around undetected.

But it isn't a "significant" issue:

• Tom Shaer, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Corrections, says  state parolees interfering with their electronic monitoring is “not a major problem” and he says there’s been no recent uptick in incidents.
  
  “We are not encountering a significant issue here.”

We don't know about that - any time someone "paroled" to electronic monitoring who is able to circumvent the restrictions supposedly placed on them through human ingenuity....well, that pretty much means they're getting away without being punished. That IS significant to any thinking person.

And how are they accomplishing this?

• But Shaer says the state has told the Cook County Sheriff’s office to watch out for any state parolees driving with a monitoring box plugged into their car – a device that should be at home.

So they've somehow adapted the monitor box to be able to be powered by the car cigarette lighter. The sheriff's automated calling system buzzes the box, the "inmate" scans whatever he has to scan into the box, the sheriff thinks that the "inmate," (actually an "out-mate" now) is at home behaving. No GPS in the boxes, so no one is the wiser...until they get caught outside after curfew.

Wisconsin Joyriders

This made us smile, so we're sharing it:

• Police are seeking child neglect charges against the mothers of two boys who have stolen vehicles twice this summer and taken them for drives in the countryside north of Milwaukee.
  
  The mother of the 9-year-old driver is the grandmother of the 4-year-old, so the two thieves are uncle and nephew, according to West Bend Police Captain Tim Dehring. Both families live in the same home.
  
  Police are seeking a charge of child neglect against a third adult at the home, the live-in boyfriend of the mother of the 9-year-old, Dehring said.
  
  After the latest driving incident Sunday, police officers took the two boys into protective custody, he said. "This has got to stop," Dehring said.
  
  The move to protective custody and the request for charges against the adults are intended to reinforce that message, he said. "Our concern is for the safety of the community," Dehring said.

The community obviously doesn't really care or someone would have smacked the tar out of some 4-and-9-year-old asses.

Hubbard and Aberdeen

Is this graffiti? It's near the intersection:

Someone at Chicago Magazine having some fun at Rahm's expense? Or coppers?

Feds Tell Springfield "Back Off"

Another set of elected officials headed to jail?

• The top federal prosecutor in central Illinois today sent a reminder to state lawmakers on the eve of their hearing about Gov. Pat Quinn’s troubled anti-violence program: Stand down because a criminal investigation is in the works.
  
  U.S. Attorney James Lewis, based in the central Illinois office a few blocks from the Capitol, made it clear that he wants a legislative panel to hold off 90 days before receiving testimony or conducting interviews of individuals connected with Quinn’s program, known officially as the Neighborhood Recovery Initiative.

So are the state lawmakers interfering to protect their fellow legislators? Or to help Rauner? Or damage Quinn? And can we have this investigation wrapped up with indictments delivered before the election? Special Elections to fill offices formerly occupied by imprisoned officials are expensive.

Dart Moves In

In light of Preckwinkle announcing she won't be running for mayor, Dart makes a move to increase his profile:

• Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart will focus on catching people wanted on arrest warrants for violent crimes in Chicago to help quell gun violence in the city, officials said Tuesday.
  
  Dart’s office will also boost its supervision of criminal defendants who have been released from jail on electronic monitoring, said Cara Smith, executive director of the Cook County Jail.
  
  Sheriff’s officers are being shifted from south suburban Robbins — where the sheriff has been concentrating on reducing violence — to the city of Chicago, Smith said.
  
  “We will be focused on Chicago warrants — as opposed to countywide warrants — for some period of time,” she said. “We’re aware of crime trends. We respond accordingly.”

Our readers have been pushing this info for a few days now. Dart is sending up to 200 sheriffs into war-torn hoods to "assist" in stemming the violence.

Ten bucks says if crime goes down next month, even a little bit, Dart will claim his efforts are leading the way. We can't wait to see the look on Rahm's or Garry's faces when that happens. So is Dart running for mayor? And who planted him there to siphon off Rahm support?

Preckwinkle Leaves the Field

She won't run against the Machine that created her:

• Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle declared Tuesday that she won’t run for mayor, leaving union and community groups angry over Chicago’s violent crime, school closings and teetering finances searching for a credible candidate to take on Mayor Rahm Emanuel next year.
  
  The decision is a boost to Emanuel’s bid for a second term and ensures he won’t have to square off against a popular, countywide elected official capable of uniting disparate voters from the South and West Sides with lakefront liberals.
  
  For months, Emanuel’s detractors had lobbied for Preckwinkle to become the movement candidate that rode to office on a groundswell, overcoming Emanuel’s enormous campaign fund, political pedigree and support of the city’s elite.

Karen Lewis's numbers just jumped significantly.

So a short, 9.5 fingered, lying, anti-union socialist one-percenter versus a short, loud-mouth, commie, racist. Sounds like another win-win for Chicago.

Only 500?

We're thinking "undercount:":

• Cook County prosecutors said today that nearly 500 people had gathered Sunday afternoon for an unauthorized concert at Montrose Beach that turned into a melee after police officers attempted to shut it down.

Of course, theses numbers probably come from the same people who think they counted 1.1 million people at the Taste this year

Garry Melts Down...

...and an aldercreature spouts stupidity:

• Sunday’s violence on the North Side prompted fresh questions about police staffing and crowd control tactics just a week after a bloody Independence Day weekend left scores of dead and wounded across the city. At a press conference meant to highlight the Police Department’s gun seizures, Superintendent Garry McCarthy grew frustrated as reporters kept questioning him about what went wrong at Montrose Beach.
  
  “I'm trying to tell you all about gun violence here in the city, which is our number one thing,” McCarthy said at the Grand Crossing district station on the South Side. “We had people who died over the weekend, and a disturbance at a park is something that we'll fix moving forward, no two ways about it. But we have a problem here, and I'd like to bring attention to it.”

Spin spin spin. Redirect redirect, redirect. Look over here at all these shiny guns! Never mind that they look the same as the ones trotted out a few weeks ago. And the same as the ones from a few months ago. Don't look at the dates on those inventory tags! Get away from those tables!

And then this is among the stupidest things we've heard an aldercreature utter - and we've been listening to them for more than a few decades:

• Meanwhile, Ald. James Cappleman, whose 46th Ward includes Montrose Beach, praised Sunday evening’s police response but expressed concern that nearby Chicago Park District parking lots allow large crowds to gather at Montrose Beach more easily than at other lakefront beaches.
  
  “Look at Oak Street Beach. Do you see this many parking spots there? Look at Lincoln Park. There just aren't this many parking spots in such a concentrated area in other parts of the city,” Cappleman said. “I want the Park District and the police department to come up with a plan to discourage that many people from driving down there and parking.”
  

Go back and read that again - an aldercreature is actually suggesting that people DON'T come down to the lakefront, that the Park District tear up parking spots so that people can't enjoy the parks.

Wow. Talk about your misdirected solutions. Parking lots must now be banned as they lead to unlawful and permit-less gatherings of people determined to be assholes. You can see exactly how this relates to the gun "debate"in liberal minds:

• Guns are evil and are the source of evil, so we'll ban law abiding citizens from being able to own them. No word on disarming criminals because that might be dangerous.

 How about hiring police and adequately staffing the districts? How about Summer Mobile? How about a city-wide response unit? How about some effective fucking law enforcing against the criminal element so decent people can enjoy their city?

Taste...Going...Going....

The perfect opportunity to cancel it forever:

• After powerful storms led to the cancellation of Saturday’s festivities at the Taste of Chicago, final attendance numbers for last weekend’s event also took a bath.
  
  Roughly 1.1 million attended the annual food and music festival in Grant Park this year, according to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office. That’s down 400,000 from last year’s attendance number of 1.5 million.
  
  Attendance also was slightly down when compared to 2012, when 1.2 million people went to the festival.
  
  Overall, however, attendance numbers for the festival – which was first held in 1980 — have been on a skid since the heyday of the mid-2000s. An estimated 3.6 million people attended the festival in both 2006 and 2007.

Rahm and Garry lucked out with Saturday's rain-out, as "wilding" youths were expected to be in full force according to insiders who monitor the social media sites for indications of, shall we say...over-exuberance? And in light of what wasn't/couldn't be prevented at Montrose Beach, perhaps a strategic withdrawal is in Rahm's best interest.

New Links (UPDATE)

Seeing as how it took the major media outlets hours to come up with actual info on the recent happenings at the lakefront and the actual heavy-lifting and reporting was done by bloggers with a scanner, we've added the CrimeInWrigleyville + Boystown" blog and the UptownUpdate" blog to our local news links. They're doing at least as good a job as the mainstream media.

Now if someone could just discover why the YouTube video disappeared so quickly. Luckily, bloggers saved the recordings and continue to post them where they can be discovered by those who wish to be informed and not fed a pile of crap from certain directions.

UPDATE: Since we use so many of their statistics, we added the HeyJackass.com website also. We meant to do that a while ago, but it got lost in the shuffle here. Apologies to the hard working crew over at WH Thompson's site.

Karen in the Lead

Are the wheels falling off the Rahm-mobile?

• For the past couple of weeks, Karen Lewis has been saying she is “seriously” considering running for mayor.
  
  It turns out voters are taking the fiery Chicago Teachers Union president’s potential candidacy seriously as well.
  And Mayor Rahm Emanuel probably should, too.
  
  At least that’s what a surprising new Early and Often Poll suggests.
  
  If the mayoral election were held today, the lightning rod union leader who was the architect behind a 2012 teachers’ strike would beat Emanuel by 9 percentage points in a head-to-head contest, the survey found.

And Prickwrinkle stomps Rahm by a 24-point margin according to the same pollsters. Rahm is going to have to do some major league pandering to regain lost ground...and what better way to pander than throw some New York carpetbagger under the bus?

Lakefront 10-1 (UPDATES)

Gas teams mobilized, all bikes and nearby tactical teams sent to Montrose beach. Officer injured and coppers being bottled. What the hell is going on?  The Sun Times barely covers it:

• Two Chicago Police officers were injured while trying to break up a fight Sunday night at Montrose Beach.
  
  Police responded to the fight at Montrose Beach in the 4400 block of North Simonds Drive about 7:37 p.m., said Ana Pacheco, a police spokeswoman.
  
  While police tried to break up the fight, someone threw a bottle and struck an officer, according to police and fire officials. The officer was taken to Weiss Memorial Hospital in good condition, according to a fire department spokesman. He was treated for his injury and released.
  
  Another officer was injured during the fight but refused medical treatment, police said.

That doesn't explain the gas teams. The Tribune says even less than the Sun Times, burying the lakefront breakdown in a story about Sunday's shootings. Something is seriously wrong in Chicago. No one in the media has a scanner?

UPDATE: CrimeInBoystown blog has much better reporting that the major media outlets, including radio transcripts they typed up.

UPDATE: Video of the mayhem beginning. See it, save it, before they take it down and it disappears at the behest of Rahm.

UPDATE: They removed the video - but it'll turn up soon we hope. The internet is forever.

UPDATE: Channel 7 has portions of the video, including a copper getting hit in the back by a thrown bottle and debris. We can't imagine why Rahm or Garry wouldn't want this video broadcast far and wide - it would justify a crackdown of ....oh....wait...."crackdown," right. Can't have the police defending themselves and making the community safe for the decent law abiding taxpayers.

UPDATE: CrimeInBoystown (and Wrigleyville) blog has the video and other video as well.

Miami Police: Get a Gun

When seconds count, the police are only minutes away:

• John Rivera, president of the Miami-Dade Police Benevolent Association, has warned Florida residents to arm themselves because the police are not coming.
  
  Speaking to WSVN News, Rivera said, “If the mayor’s not going to provide security, then my recommendation, as an experienced law enforcement officer for nearly 40 years, is either buy yourself an attack dog, put bars on your windows and doors and get yourself some firearms because you’re going to have to protect yourselves.”
  
  The comments were made after Mayor Carlos Gimenez decided to cut $64 million from his 2014-2015 budget resulting in a possible loss of 600 police jobs to the county.

That isn't scare tactics - that's reality. Anyone with a brain realized that police can't be there all the time. A visible presence is a deterrent in most cases, but being in exactly the right place when a crime is occurring is a rarity you see mostly on television. You want protection, follow this guy's advice, especially in this era of "austerity" where police budgets are concerned.

Victim Meets Rescuers

Just passing through town last year and ended up having a memorable stay:

• A man nearly died at O’Hare Airport going through security a year ago when he had a heart attack. On Friday, the victim got to meet those who stepped in and saved his life.
  
  [...] For Wade Anderson and his wife, Diane, they appeared relaxed and were able to smile this week. It was no laughing matter last July 9. That’s when strangers were all desperately trying to save Wade’s life after he collapsed from a heart attack as he and his wife approached a TSA screening area. The couple watched surveillance video of the event for the first time this week.
  
  “I thought he was gone and they were like angels out of nowhere,” Diane Anderson says. “If it wasn’t for those people who stepped up right away, he wouldn’t be here today.”
  
  TSA worker Regina Swain was one of the first to help. “I looked down and he wasn’t breathing,” she says. She called for an ambulance and started performing CPR. Her colleague Jacob Neal rushed over to help and quickly took over. “You look at it like someone is part of your family, and you know he probably has kids and family,” Neal said.
  
  Officer Patrick McGrath and off-duty nurse Raquel Prendkowski also stepped in to help as his wife watch on in shock. It didn’t look good for Anderson, even after a defibrillator was used twice. On the third attempt — to the amazement of everyone – they got a heartbeat.

Between the TSA people, the copper and the nurse (a copper's wife) they managed to avert tragedy. Nicely done folks.

Did You Lock the Door?

No, I thought you did it. Whoops!

• A dead body on a gurney fell out of a coroner's van when a door malfunctioned, sending the corpse into the middle of a busy roadway in Pennsylvania.
  
  The Bucks County Courier Times reports the accident happened around noon on Friday near a shopping center in Feasterville, Pennsylvania.
  
  A photo on the newspaper's website shows the corpse, wrapped in what appears to be a white sheet, lying in the street as cars buzz by. The Bucks County Coroner's Office says the driver realized immediately that the door had opened and retrieved the body within minutes. The office says it "deeply regrets" the incident.

Now that's a bad day.

Witch Hunt on the Way

Get ready for a raft of bad headlines...and worse lawsuits most likely:

• In a major policy turnabout, Mayor Rahm Emanuel will make citizen complaints against Chicago Police officers available for public scrutiny, according to city officials.
  
  In March, a state appeals court ruled the city couldn’t keep the records secret, and the city vowed to appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court.
  
  But on Friday, city officials said they won’t appeal after all.
  
  “We did think we had a strong case and a viable argument, but we decided this comes in line with our efforts to build relationships between the public and police department and improve transparency,” city spokeswoman Shannon Breymaier said.

That sound you just heard was the sound of hundreds of officers being thrown under the bus for the sake of political expediency.

Bodies Keep Piling Up

There's the weekend twenty....plus a few:

• Two people were killed and at least 21 others have been wounded in shootings across the city since Friday evening.
  
  The most recent fatal shooting happened early Saturday in a Chicago Lawn neighborhood apartment on the Southwest Side, where a 50-year-old woman was seriously injured and her son was killed in a domestic-related incident, police said.

Well, now that Garry has gotten that number out of the way, off to tell everyone that "crime is down" and pop a few cold ones.

Hurry Polar Vortex, Hurry!

Can't come soon enough:

• At least one man has been killed and 13 other people wounded in shootings in Chicago this evening.
  
  In the Austin neighborhood about 7:13 p.m., a 32-year-old man was shot and dead on the scene in a possible drive-by shooting in the 5200 block of West Quincy Street, said Police News Affairs [...]. A man whose age was not yet available was shot in the right arm, but refused medical treatment and was refused to cooperate with police.
  
  Later, a 30-year-old woman who had been shot multiple times in the same attack, showed up at Loretto Hospital, less than a mile away, but was transferred to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital, Zala said. A fourth person, a 41-year-old man, walked into West Suburban Medical Center with a gunshot wound to his hand but gave police a bogus address before they figured out he had also been shot on Qunicy.

So almost another 20 last night. Crime is down!

Nice Shooting There Tex

No doubt this will be used by the anti-gun crowd to show guns are dangerous:

• An accused gang member who told police he keeps a gun to protect himself from rivals accidentally shot and killed a member of his own gang while waving that weapon around outside a Southwest Side Walgreen store over the Fourth of July weekend, Cook County prosecutors said.
  
  Richard Magnan, who has numerous face tattoos, including one that reads, “F--- the world” and a White Sox logo, was friends with Joel Bentley — the man he shot in the early morning hours of July 5, Assistant State’s Attorney Alexandra Molesky said.

Well done dumbshit.

Mystery Money for JJJr

Politics as usual in Illinois:

• A year ago, former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.'s attorneys said his family was in "significant financial peril" as he and his wife, Sandi, awaited sentencing for looting $750,000 from his campaign coffers.Jackson had to come up with that amount to pay a court judgment. Prosecutors wanted to seize the equity in the couple's two homes if he didn't.
  
  The Chicago Democrat ponied up $200,000 before he entered prison last fall. Then he paid off the balance with a $550,000 wire transfer in late May, while keeping both his houses.
  
  The Jacksons aren't saying where the $550,000 came from, but a Tribune investigation points to a mysterious lending company created at a law firm used by Michael Milken, the convicted "junk bond king" of the 1980s who is a longtime friend of the Jackson family.

Must be nice to have rich friends who can pony up three-quarters-of-a-million at a moments notice.

Another" Exchange" of Gunfire

July is setting a torrid pace:

• Three separate shootings left three men wounded, and police exchanged gunfire with a man in another incident overnight.
  
  Preliminary reports said the man police shot at is in custody and is not  injured. Police said a weapon was recovered from the scene.
  
  That police-involved shooting happened about 2:50 a.m. in the 6400 block of South Campbell Avenue. It's not clear what prompted police to open fire.

Um...perchance he was armed with a gun and pointing it at police? Maybe?

In any event, cops go home safe, bad guy sleeps in jail.

A sergeant was injured in a separate car accident down south side way:

• A Chicago Police Department sergeant was taken to an area hospital after a collision at Garfield Boulevard and Indiana Avenue in the city's Washington Park neighborhood.
  
  The crash happened just before 11 p.m. Preliminary reports indicated the sergeant was in an unmarked car that somehow came into contact with a grey sedan.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

14 Becomes 16

Last weekend's casualty count just inched up a bit:

• The death toll from the weekend gun violence in Chicago rose to 16 Monday when two men died from their wounds after being shot late Sunday night and early Monday.

That means that the "reduction" McCompStat was bragging about at the end of June (nine whole homicides!) just did a little catching up. As of yesterday, we were only 6 behind last year.

But not to worry! Plans are in effect. CPD isn't counting the murder on the Dan Ryan the other day of the 25-year-old pregnant mother of five - ISP will be handling that one.

And Tommy Skilling has awoken from his summer slumber and is bringing in a summertime "Polar Vortex" just as a favor to Rahm and Garry:

• Next week will bring a span of unseasonably cool days and nights that could dip into the 40s in some Chicago suburbs, say weather forecasters.
  
  In a tweet on its official Twitter feed, the National Weather Service in Romeoville described the system in terms familiar, if perhaps unwelcome, after this past winter.
  
  "A July version of the Polar Vortex forecast over Great Lakes next week!" began the tweet, which has been retweeted more than 65 times.

Remember - Global warming!

UPDATE: Events are conspiring against the "Rahm and Garry Show" though. Another "death investigation" has been reclassified as a homicide:

• The death of a 32-year-old man found lying on the street in the Lincoln Park neighborhood in late April was ruled a homicide by the Cook County medical examiner's office this week, officials said.
  
  Jacob Klepacz, of the 1200 block of North Noble Street, was found in the 1500 block of West Fullerton Avenue and was pronounced dead at 4:21 a.m. April 28 at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
  
  Klepacz was an avid Chicago sports fan who police said was found fatally beaten after he had left a Wrigleyville bar. Police were called to the scene on Fullerton about 3:55 a.m. April 28 following the report of a possible battery, and found the victim on the street with head trauma, Police News Affairs said at the time.

In light of that Chicago Magazine article, it's amazing that they were able to keep this off the books for over two months as a death investigation. Hopefully, it hasn't let the trail grow cold.

Frank Main Gives Credit

Never thought we'd see the day:

• The first two shootings didn’t kill them.
  
  But the third one did.
  
  Two recent Chicago murder victims survived earlier gunshot wounds before they were killed, police confirmed Thursday.
  

And the very last line of the article:

• The Second City Cop blog first reported that Wright and Weekly were previously shot before their murders.

We actually only learned about Weekly from our readers, so credit goes to all. We're sure these aren't the only two - we know a few of criminal types who have been shot six, seven or more times. Modern medicine is marvel sometimes.

Frank does a good job outlining the circumstances leading up to the multiple woundings leading up to their eventual demise. We'd like to see some follow-up though, like why is this acceptable behavior in these neighborhoods? Why are the police expected to stop this nonsense? How is a force that is short almost 3-to-4,000 officers from peak strength in the 1990's and without a meaningful citywide response unit supposed to accomplish anything meaningful against an entrenched culture of dope, death and destruction?

Welcome to America!

Chicago taxpayers can't thank you enough Obama:

• Sen. Mark Kirk said today that 429 unaccompanied minors from the Mexican border crisis are in Chicago in the custody of a federal agency, and he wants to know if any of the children have criminal records.
  
  Kirk, an Illinois Republican, said the children are in the custody of the Health and Human Services Department. His news release did not say where the children are being housed.
  
  In the release, Kirk also said the State Department is “unable to confirm if any of these individuals has a criminal record or background.”

We'll bet a paycheck that these kids are going to be here a while. And Chicago taxpayers will be footing the bill for school, housing, medical care, etc. Last time we checked, 92 million Americans were out of work or had left the workforce, but Obama and the democrats want to bring over and legalize upward of 20 million more because nothing says "compassion" more than impoverishing and eliminating the middle-class by creating an underclass completely dependent on government handouts.

A Bigger "Merit" List (UPDATE)

We got this in a few e-mails. It appears to be a comprehensive "merit" lists of CPD promotions for Lieutenant, Sergeant AND Detectives from 2000 until 2011:

*** DOCUMENT TEMPORARILY REMOVED - SEE UPDATES BELOW ***
*** DOCUMENT TEMPORARILY REMOVED - SEE UPDATES BELOW ***
*** DOCUMENT TEMPORARILY REMOVED - SEE UPDATES BELOW ***

We apologize for the washed-out quality of the document. It appears to have been photocopied many times. Most interesting is the notation "DP" next to a number of names (be forewarned we will be deleting those comments that are sexual in nature.) It stands for Double "merit" Promotions.

Combined with the other "merit" lists we've put up this week, it would be interesting to track the Triple "merit" Promotions. What we really need is some sort of "family tree" outlining how "merit" begets "merit."

We'd also like to find out the identity of the scratched out name on page 6.

UPDATE: There appears to be at least one error on the list. Planey helpfully sent a copy of his  results and he was ranked 138 on the list. He was passed over for time-on-the-job, but promoted in rank order afterwards.

We didn't create this list. It's titled "Bureau of Administrative Services," so it's an internal document, and it was produced via an FOIA request by the Department. It's obviously been photocopied many times as these sorts of things are when being passed around at HQ among the exempts. That it is rife with errors isn't a surprise by any stretch of the imagination.

UPDATE: We've been handed/e-mailed evidence that shows an additional three supposed "merit" picks that actually made it by score. We're going to take down the document for the moment until it can be determined exactly what this list supposedly contains. Much of it matches the previous posted "merit" lists, the vast majority actually. Might it have been a "merit applicant" list? We have no idea, but now that the cat is out of the bag, it isn't going back in easily. FOIA requests will continue to be filed, lists will be leaked and slowly the rotten process of "merit" will be exposed.

More "Merit" Picks

The post a few down from this one was titled ' "Merit" Sgts - 2007 to Almost the Present' because it lacked the recent May 2014 class of sergeants.

This is the May 2014 list:

It's certainly interesting to see how former "merit" picks end up picking up the next generation of "merit" appointees.

Good Riddance

Another homicide in 011:

• Bruce Wright was shot to death while riding a bicycle in the Humboldt Park neighborhood late Tuesday.
  
  Wright, 23, was riding the bike in the 900 block of North Hamlin Avenue when a van pulled up and someone inside opened fire about 10:10 p.m. Tuesday, authorities said.
  
  One of the bullets struck Wright, of the 0-100 block of North Hamlin Avenue, in the head and died at the scene, authorities said.
  
  An autopsy found he died of multiple gunshot wounds, and his death was ruled a homicide, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

He died of multiple gunshot wounds? We aren't sure how they could tell which ones killed him, seeing as how this guy had been shot not once, but two previous times in the past month.

You read that correctly - Bruce was shot twice this summer already and it looks like the third time was the charm. How are the police supposed to prevent anything like that, no matter where you work in the city? Bruce put himself in these situation again and again (he was a ranking gang member) and nothing police did, from traffic missions to house visits to contact cards was ever going to stop this killing from happening.

Some people are just doomed to a bad end.

Trapped in Jail

Looks like County is having building issues:

• A man who came to visit his son was accidentally trapped inside an empty maximum security visiting area of Cook County Jail for about 30 hours over the weekend, authorities said on Tuesday.
  
  He was rescued when he broke a sprinkler head, alerting Chicago Fire Department firefighters who found him about 1 a.m. Monday, said Cara Smith, the jail's executive director.
  
  “We’re tremendously sorry for what this man went through,’’ Smith said.

We're not. We're amused and concerned at the same time. How did he get trapped?

• “He was told to proceed ahead and stay to the right to go to the visitor area,’’ Smith said. “He encountered a door that was propped open and he went in and the door shut behind him.’’
  
  He was locked in the room, where people visit the “highest classification,’’ super-maximum security prisoners for 31 hours.

First up, isn't there some sort of sign-in / sign-out log at the jail? We would think that a jail is the kind of place where you try to keep track of how many people go in...and go out, during the course of a day. A simple count would have revealed the ingress exceeded the egress by one. That's a problem.

Second, who allows contractors to prop doors open in a fucking jail? Oh yeah.....Tom Dart. Never mind.

On the bright side, he probably served more time in County than most gun offenders seem to. Word through the grapevine is that he's trying to get the 31 hours credited to his son's sentence.

78 TRRs?

We got an e-mail that says in addition to the 77 people shot this weekend, nearly 80 TRR (Tactical Response Reports) were completed this weekend.

For the non-police readers, a TRR is completed when an Officer has to use force necessary to effect an arrest or force is used against an officer. They aren't usually filled out for foot chases and such (unless you have a really shaky boss), but in the event of TASER deployments, impact weapons, fist fights beyond what one might consider "normal," and when an assault or battery is committed against the police.

Seventy-eight TRR's would seem way more than normal, but we don't have anything to compare it to, and we aren't about to run what we could lest we be accused of improperly divulging Department data.

Anyone have any idea if 78 TRR's is a lot?

Can You Believe This Shit?

People like this are allowed to live, breathe, vote:

• The family of Major Davis Jr., the man accused of killing [Indianapolis] Officer Perry Renn, is speaking out about the shooting. His aunt, cousins and his children’s grandmother all talked to 24-Hour News 8 on Sunday afternoon.
  
  The family is still struggling to accept that Davis Jr. could be a part of something like this. He is a father with four children, ages 10 and under. His family has had a long, tense history with Indianapolis police officers.
  
  “You don’t know what he been through with IMPD. We do. He’s scarred for life,” said his children’s grandmother, Pam Moornan.
  
  The Davis family’s history with police began with Major Davis Sr. He served at least three years on a drug conviction and was arrested again in 2003 for public intoxication.
  
  He died of a heart attack in police custody when Davis Jr. was a young teen. Though the coroner’s report said the officers weren’t at fault for any fatal injuries, the family still holds officers responsible.
  
  “He wasn’t a bad person. His father was killed by IMPD. That is enough to hurt a person and scar him for life,” said Moornan.
  
  One of the officers listed in that 2003 police report is Officer Perry Renn.
  
  “I imagine he figured they were going to try and kill him. I mean cause look what they did to his father,” said Moornan.

What a crock of shit. Daddy had a heart attack in custody years ago. No injuries according to the coroner. Just one of those unfortunate things that happens when you live a "high risk" lifestyle that takes a toll on your body. These jagoffs are using this as an excuse for sonny's behavior?

But then it gets more bizarre:

• On Saturday night, the family says they were having a cookout.
  
  “Next thing, I just heard shots and everybody running in the house and everybody hit the floor,” said Yvonne Moornan, Davis Jr.’s aunt.
  
  By the time they got outside, they realized those shots were Davis Jr. and Officer Renn shooting at each other. Davis had an assault rifle.
  
  “Major is not a bad person in spite of what happened. Things happen, ” said Pam Moornan.
  
  Now, the Davis family is worried about their son’s reputation and again, questioning police tactics.
  
  “It’s horrible about what took place, but, I mean, I don’t think it’s fair though for them to keep dragging him through the mud,” said Moornan.
  
  And again, questioning police tactics.
  
  “I don’t know how the police was shooting. I don’t know if they took concern of any kids running around,” said Yvonne Moornan

Yeah, because Davis Jr was so concerned about what was downrange of his rifle fire....fire that goes a lot farther a lot faster and does a lot more damage than a pistol round. What pathetic wastes of skin these people are.

And the topper of them all?

• The family did say it is sorry for Officer Renn’s family, but they believe the tragedy may have been avoided if Officer Renn would’ve stayed at his car since he could see Davis had a gun.

There you go folks, exactly the police that liberal asshats want - see a guy with a gun, a rifle no less, and just drive on by. Don't take any sort of police or enforcement action - everything these "people" do is completely justified by past events.....events that are contrived and imagined specifically to excuse misbehavior of the worst sort.

Blue Flu in Tennessee

Seems to be going around in certain places:

• Memphis police say more than 400 officers have called in sick in the past week in what appears to be a deliberate action to protest planned health care cuts.
  
  Memphis Police Department spokeswoman Karen Rudolph said Monday that 404 officers have called in sick since June 30, an increase from 308 officers who had called in sick through Sunday. The department has about 2,280 officers.
  
  According to The Commercial Appeal, Memphis Police Director said Sunday that the actions come in an apparent protest to a City Council vote that will reduce health care subsidies for city employees so that the funds can be redirected to the city's troubled pension fund.

Another troubled pension fund? Why would that be? Is the city run by democrats? Oh yeah...it is. And this looks like robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Can Rahm Piss Off More Voters?

The city that works!

• Hundreds of drivers who thought they had paid for parking through an app on their smartphones have gotten tickets in Chicago, reports WBBM [...].
  
  317 cars have been ticketed for expired meters since mid-April even though their owners paid using the Park Chicago app, according to Parking Meter spokesman Scott Burnham. He says that is less than one percent of the more than 81,000 tickets issued throughout the city at that time.

Less than one percent error rate is acceptable in most endeavors, but when it potentially costs citizens money, no rate of error is good news. Our readers raised this very issue a few weeks ago - no paper receipt in the window is going to mean problems for people using the streets to park.

"Merit" Sgts - 2007 to Almost the Present

Someone finally "scribd" this:

   Chicago Police Sergeant Merit List

It's the last few "merit" lists of sergeants and their sponsors. We've posted the Lieutenant list right below this one. Comments will be open here, not below, just so we can keep track of it all.

"Merit" Lieutenants - 2001 to Present

Here's the Lieutenants:

Chicago Police Lt Merit list

Amazing how many of these "merit" picks went on to be Gold Stars.

Comments closed here - comment above in the Sgt post.

What a Weekend - Revisited

Not sixty shot - it was 77.  82 if you count the police shootings, but we usually don't:

• For 10 minutes, it seemed like the shooting was everywhere in the South Chicago neighborhood.
  
  It started when someone shot and wounded a couple, then two people fired at the shooter, then there was a chase and shots exchanged and a man sitting on a porch was hit. Responding officers kept cutting each other off on their radios as they reported other gunfire in the area late Sunday night and early Monday morning.
  
  Then the heavy equipment rolled in: A helicopter and SUVs packed with lockers of rifles. SWAT teams in green coveralls patrolled the streets with uniformed officers.

That was truly disconcerting - being at the scene of one shooting, then having another go off just around the corner, not once, but two and three times, culminating in a three-by-four block area being pretty much shut down....and then more shots fired.

Garry has a theory about what happened:

• At a press conference, a briefing regularly used to tout the Police Department’s gun seizures, McCarthy returned to a favorite theme, calling for stiffer penalties for gun crimes as a way to reduce the violence.
  
  The superintendent said the weekend’s violence actually was lower than last year’s holiday weekend – until Sunday’s surge of violence. He described that turn of events as a head-scratcher for him and his staff and wondered aloud if officer fatigue played a part.
  
  “It was yesterday that we lost it,” McCarthy told a crowd of reporters at a West Side police station. “We're square-rooting nine ways from Sunday what is it that happened. Was it a fatigue factor? Did we give (too many) people (time) off? Because the fireworks were Friday and Saturday. That's where we had a lot of folks deployed during those time frames.”

Another brilliant move by McDeepThinker - speculate about exhausted officers, then think about further restricting their down-time, elective time and days off. You better not make any concrete plans the rest of the year - especially if you're on the teams that are already having one day off a week canceled.

EPA Warning

Great article from the only reliable news source out there:

• Highlighting increasingly dangerous conditions within the city, a new study published Monday by Northwestern University’s Department of Environmental Studies revealed that approximately 75 percent of the air in Chicago is now composed of bullets.
  
  “Far exceeding the levels of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and even oxygen, bullets now constitute three-fourths of Chicago’s air supply,” said atmospheric scientist and study coauthor John Molina, stressing that the dense and widespread deposits of jacketed lead and copper in the air pose severe and potentially fatal health risks to all Chicago residents.
  
  “According to our measurements, the proportion of bullets in Chicago’s overall air composition is significantly higher than that of other cities with comparable sizes and population densities. Frankly, if this trend continues—and there is unfortunately little evidence suggesting otherwise—living safely within the confines of Chicago will be almost impossible.” Molina went on to suggest that Chicago’s 2.7 million residents stay indoors whenever possible in order to minimize their exposure

The Onion strikes again.

What the Hell is This?

We can only hope this isn't true - but it probably is:

• Sex offender registration and other felony registrations fall under the Chief of Dicks office. The office is located in the rear of headquarters in the Secure parking area by the hay market statue.
  
  Fast forward to 2014. So there is a huge uptick of SCUM Felons registering monday through friday, I’m talking of at least 15 lined up from 8 am through 2pm.
  
  The felons are lined up outside. Some complained during this past winter and others called CFD for frostbite, etc. you catch my drift. So what does CPD/City/Chief of dicks do?
  
  They are building a waiting room in the lobby on the southwest side of the lobby, right next to the Fallen Star memorial wall. The room even has a large plexiglass window looking out into the lobby. The whole wall looks HORRIBLE, like a child is building it. In reality city workers are building it. So these SCUM offenders, Rapists / Murderers / Agg Batt offenders, will be bullshitting right next to our fallen brothers while they wait to register.
  
  And I’m told they might even get a T.V. to keep them entertained, no lie. How is that for RESPECT for our fallen. You have to see it to believe it.
  
  What can be Done about it?

Well, if they're already building it, probably nothing can be done. It's the city's building. They already decreed that the police department had to give up an entire floor to the fire guys. Parking is impossible - the FOP had to threaten to even get four spots reserved for coppers with injuries/illnesses so bad they couldn't walk to the Medical Section.

There really isn't any good reason to have these sex offenders reporting to HQ anyway - why not the Detective Areas where SVU detective are already at and has lockup facilities in case a registrant needs to be arrested? Plus, if the city is looking to make it easier on the criminals, having three available points to register might be easier.

We imagine we'll have to chalk this up to the city (and Rahm) crapping all over the Department again.

More Free Stuff?

Honest to Pete, does anyone actually RAISE their children anymore?

• Lunch money may be a thing of the past at Chicago Public Schools.
  
  Under a relatively new program called the Community Eligibility Option (CEO) all school meals will be free starting in September 2014, the district confirmed to WBEZ Thursday.
  
  Although the CPS initially rejected the program in 2011, it had expanded it to 400 schools by last fall.
  
  This September, however, will be the first time "well-off" schools join the program as well. Entirely free meals reduce the labor of cash collection and tracking which students have to pay full and reduced prices for their food. This tiered system (with incentives for schools reporting higher poverty levels) led to fraud among CPS employees in the past.

We remember a time when parents (with a "S") had jobs, saved money, bought a house, clothes, even -----get this----- FOOD! for their kids to eat, bring to school, share. It wasn't even that long ago.

Cradle to fucking grave.

Planning Ahead

Life ends. Hopefully, not too soon and hopefully, after a long full run. But it ends at some point. And as we all get closer to that point, certain decisions have to be made. The Chaplains are holding a pair of seminars, north and south sides, to guide and assist in that planning:

Informational post only. Comments closed here.

What a Weekend

Totals are still coming in off the 24-hour report:

• Statistics may show Chicago’s homicide rate is down to levels not seen since the 1960s, but parts of the city are still a war zone, residents of the South and West sides said after another bloody Fourth of July weekend.
  
  As of 11:45 p.m. Sunday, eight people had been killed and another 50 wounded in gun violence over the holiday weekend, according to Chicago Police. Two more were shot dead by police.

That's in the Sun Times.

Channel 7 has the totals a bit higher:

• It has been a violent July Fourth weekend in Chicago, as more than 60 people have been shot and at least nine have died of their wounds. Police have fired their weapons in five incidents.

If you noticed the news reports earlier, the Department is trying to alter the definition of "weekend" again, cutting off the totals at 2359 hours Saturday and claiming that as a "weekend total" hoping that no one will remember Sunday numbers by the time next Saturday rolls around.

The media isn't biting at that though, and has been reporting the usual numbers from Friday afternoon until Sunday evening. 60 is a lot, no matter how Rahm tries to spin it.

CompStat is going to be... interesting to say the least.

Channel 2 Breaks the Embargo

Amazing. We dislike Channel 2 with an intensity matched only to our loathing of Mope-rah, but they actually got this story published and, we assume, on the air at some point, if only for an instant:

• With more than 100,000 people at Navy Pier alone and thousands more packing the lakefront to watch the Fourth of July fireworks, it was a busy night for Chicago Police.
  
  Officers responded to calls for everything from fights to people setting off fireworks right along Michigan Avenue.
  At 7:45 p.m., a call went out to police about teens setting off firecrackers. A dispatcher reported people firing M-80’s at Chicago and State and at Pearson and Michigan.
  
  About ten minutes after a dispatch call about 15-20 people with M-80s, a fight breaks out on the sidewalk in front Nordstrom on Michigan Avenue.
  
  Minutes later, a call of fifty to 100 teens beating a person in the street and then crossing Lake Shore Drive at Oak Street.
  
  From Oak and Lake Shore, the group made their way to Chestnut.
  
  Around 8:45, an urgent call went out for officers to arrive at Michigan and Chicago with a large group fighting at Water Tower.
  
  Chicago Police released a statement saying, “Thousands and thousands of people enjoyed the holiday festivities downtown yesterday, and the vast majority did so without incident. There were a few small, isolated incidents in which 16 arrests were made, mostly for reckless conduct.”

If only someone had warned the tourists months, even years ago, about this phenomenon. Oh wait.....we tried.

The rest of the media, as far as we can tell, was mysteriously silent about the mayhem. Rahm keeps a tight leash on his cheerleaders.

Bad Day in Indiana

Horrible news:

• An Indianapolis police officer was killed in a late night shootout in an alley, law enforcement officials said Sunday.
  
  Indianapolis Metro Police Department officer Perry Renn, 51, had responded to an emergency call about a shooting incident late Saturday, according to city officials.
  
  A man armed with a gun opened fire on several police officers, who fired back. Renn was hit and evacuated to a nearby hospital, where he died a short time later, law enforcement said.

The killer was also shot numerous times and at last report is in critical condition. Indianapolis has had 8 officers shot on0duty in the past year-and-a-half.

But it got worse hours later:

• The shooting death of a veteran Gary police officer and “happy family man” early Sunday morning shocked the city, and set off a manhunt that resulted in “a person of interest” and two others being taken into custody by late afternoon, officials said.
  
  Police had not identified the person as of late Sunday night because he had not yet been charged, but they expected to release more details at a press conference Monday, police said.
  
  Patrolman Jeffrey Brady Westerfield, a Gary resident and father of four who was engaged to be married next month, was found unresponsive in his patrol car in the Northwest Indiana city after a citizen called police at 5:45 a.m., police Chief Wade Ingram Jr. said.

God bless and Godspeed to the fallen. Heartfelt condolences to all the members of Indiana Law Enforcement during these trying times.

Dumbasses

Is it just us or did someone open a big can of "Stupid" recently?

• A northwest suburban man has been charged with punching a police officer in the face after a Dave Matthews Band concert at Northerly Island.
  
  Gerald Chverchko, 42, of Huntley hit the officer twice while the officer tried to remove him from the street outside the FirstMerit Bank Pavilion Friday night, according to court documents.
  
  The officer approached Chverchko around 11:30 p.m. at 1300 S. Lynn White Drive and asked him three times to leave the street, according to court documents. After the third time, Chverchko yelled, “Try and get me out of the street.”

Evidently, the coppers did get him out of the street, into cuffs and on the way to the lockup. Check out the booking photo at the Tribune link. Drunken Euro-trash.

And then this tiny-brain removes himself and a passenger from the gene pool:

• A man and a woman were killed and a third person was hurt when a car fleeing police crashed Saturday night in the South Deering neighborhood, authorities said.
  
  While speeding away from police, the stolen vehicle struck two parked cars and then flipped over on its roof in the 10300 block of South Torrence Avenue about 9:45 p.m., police News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro said.
  
  The driver, 19-year-old Ronald Greenfield, was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn where he was pronounced dead at 10:30 p.m., authorities said.

Pardon us while we enjoy a wry chuckle at the self-inflicted demise that ought to befall all thieves.

Concealed Carrier Shoots Assailant

A military guy, who also seems to shoot pretty well:

• A Gresham man is charged with attempted murder after he fired on a group of people leaving a party Friday night, only to be shot himself by one of the victims, a military service member with a concealed carry permit, authorities said Sunday.
  
  The military member and three others were leaving a party Friday night in the 11700 block of South Union Avenue in West Pullman, Assistant State’s Attorney [...] said in Cook County Bond Court.
  
  One of the victims noticed a cup of liquor on top of her vehicle and asked attendees of a party next door who it belonged to.... When she removed it, Denzel A. Mickiel approached her, shouting obscenities and threatening her and her friends, according to[...] court records.
  
  Mickiel, 22, went into the residence, returned with a gun and began firing at the group.... As Mickiel fired shots at the victims’ vehicle, the military member retrieved his gun and took cover near the vehicle’s front fender.... Two unidentified males also shot at the group....
  
  The service member fired two shots and struck Mickiel twice....

Any bets on the assailant's criminal record and how many legal guns he owned? Or if any he owned were lawfully obtained? The silence from Rahm and McCarthy is deafening.

By the book and exactly how Concealed Carry is supposed to work. Nicely done Sir.

Two More Assailants Shot by Police

Five shootings this weekend:

• Chicago Police fatally shot a 16-year-old boy in the Gresham neighborhood this evening, one of five people shot by Chicago officers since early Friday morning.
  
  The shooting took place a little before 7 p.m. in the 8700 block of South Sangamon Avenue, said Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Pat Camden. Another person was shot by police and wounded in the buttocks about 9:15 p.m. in the 7000 block of South Hermitage Avenue, according to police.

Of course, no one understands why he got shot:

• Robinson’s mother, Georgina Utendahl, expressed frustration with officers at the scene, who she said gave her no information about the shooting.
  
  “The police killed him,” Utendahl said. “Why they killed him, I don’t know.”

We'll give everyone a guess why:

• Police caught up with the boy and he began to get out from under the car, still holding the gun, and officers told him to drop the gun, but he did not, Camden said. The boy's hand was still on the trigger of the gun and when he did not drop the gun, police shot him, Camden said.
  
  Police recovered a small .380-caliber semiautomatic handgun at the scene, Camden said.

But you know he was "jus' funnin"

• She acknowledged that he’d had trouble with the law and went to school at Beacon Therapeutic School, but didn’t think he was a “notorious gangster.”
  
  At the same time, he would sometimes accompany his grandmother to church.
  
  “He was a good young man,” Utendahl said. “He didn’t deserve to be gunned down.”

He went to church occasionally, don't you know? And he wasn't "notorious" or nothing. Except for that "gun" thing, he was just a kid......with a record.

Up to 31 Shot

Three fatals out of the bunch:

• Three people were killed and 28 others have been wounded in shootings across the city since Thursday night.
  
  The most recent fatal shooting happened around 10:20 a.m. Saturday in South Chicago. Deandre Brown, 23, was in the 8700 block of South Houston Avenue when he was shot in a leg and the abdomen, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Brown, of the 9000 block of South Mackinaw Avenue, was pronounced dead at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

We might be mistaken, but this could be the first 30+ weekend of the year, though you should put an asterisk by it due to the three day weekend.

Three Police Shootings

A busy 18 hour stretch where a bunch of people needed to get shot:

• Chicago police shot and wounded three people in 18 hours Friday.
  
  The most recent incident happened at Cicero and Berenice avenues on the Northwest Side about 9:30 p.m. Details about that incident weren't immediately available.
  
  In the first incident, around 4 a.m., an officer shot a man during a chase down an alley in Englewood, authorities said.
  
  Police had responded to a 911 call of a man with a gun at 74th Street and Princeton Avenue, according to Pat Camden, spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Police. When a beat car pulled up, a man ran off and an officer chased him into an alley just east of Vincennes Avenue and north of 75th Street, he said.
  
  The officer turned the corner and heard gunfire, Camden said, and saw a man with a gun in his hand. The officer returned fire and shot the man in his chest. The man also complained about having a leg wound as he was wheeled into an ambulance, Camden said.
  
  The man was taken to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital in serious condition, he said.
  
  Police took a gun into evidence from the scene, according to Camden. “That’s the one guarantee in life. You shoot at police, they’re gonna shoot back,” he said.
  
  Later this morning, police shot and wounded in the Rogers Park neighborhood, authorities said.
  
  Around 11:25 a.m., police shot a man in the 1500 block of West Birchwood Avenue, authorities said.
  
  The man was taken in serious to critical condition to Presence Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston, according to Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.

No officers hurt at last report. Be careful boys and girls. Good jobs all around.

1 Dead, 14 Wounded...so Far

And it's only Friday night:

• At least 13 people have been shot in Chicago at the start of the long holiday weekend, including a woman killed as she sat on a porch near Garfield Park and a man slain in front of a hair salon on the South Side, police said.
  
  Shambreyh R. Barfield, 21, was sitting with a friend at a two-flat in the 3800 block of West Monroe Street around 4:17 p.m. Thursday when four or five masked men drove past in a blue sedan and fired, apparently aiming for someone else, police said.

Way to go 011! Leading the city by almost 10 homicides and double last year's total. McCompStat sure has the right guys in charge over on the west side.

And this part of the story had ourselves and numerous readers shaking their heads:

• Another shooting overnight left one dead and one wounded in West Englewood. The two were hit when someone fired from inside or near a black car about 2:40 a.m. Friday in a stripmall at 63rd Street and Damen Avenue.
  
  Corey Hudson, 34, was killed and a 35-year-old man was wounded in front of a salon where children were getting their hair done overnight. Shell casings littered the sidewalk and bullets had pierced a nearby gyros restaurant.

Getting their kids hair did.....at 2:40 in the morning. Think about that for a moment. This is what passes for parenting in Englewood? Good thing it wasn't a school night or anything, right?

Another Million Pissed Away

Once again, Rahm and Lisa fighting the law of the land is going to cost taxpayers:

• Gun-rights advocates have delivered a one-two punch to the city of Chicago.
  
  The first blow came on Jan. 6 when a federal judge ruled the city’s longtime ban on gun stores was unconstitutional.
  On Thursday, the second blow landed when the judge approved $940,000 in legal fees that the city must pay to the attorneys who challenged the ban. Charles J. Cooper, one of those plaintiffs’ attorneys, charged $975 an hour for his work.
  
  Cooper, whose law firm Cooper & Kirk is based in Washington, is also looking for a big payout from the state. He submitted a $618,000 bill for work he and other plaintiffs’ attorneys performed in a gun-rights lawsuit against Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

So as taxpayers, we're more than a little irked at this waste of money.

As members of most of these organizations fighting Rahm, Lisa and their ilk, we're glad they're helping to keep our membership dues down.

Now pay our pension you assholes.

Another Half-a-Million Gone

Parking meter deal strikes again:

• City Hall paid $6.5 million during the past year to the company that's leasing Chicago's parking meters — about $500,000 more than Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration predicted when it renegotiated the deal.
  
  Although there was a higher tab to reimburse Chicago Parking Meters for spaces taken out of service, there was some good news as well. The city could end up paying millions of dollars less each year for free parking provided to disabled people, thanks to a new state law that limits free parking to those who are physically unable to use pay boxes.

So that whole "renegotiation" thing Rahm was spouting about still cost taxpayers an extra half-a-mil more than expected. We certainly hope that Rahm brings these mad negotiating skills to the table for the upcoming FOP contract - maybe we'll get an extra half-a-million or more.

Happy Fourth of July

Enjoy the day...safely.

Open post for the holiday.

Good News on the Pension Front

A win for retirees:

• The Illinois Supreme Court ruled today that subsidized health care premiums for retired state employees are protected under the Illinois Constitution, signaling potential trouble for an overhaul of pension benefits that’s also being challenged in court.
  
  Today’s ruling also could affect the city of Chicago’s ongoing phase-out of retiree health insurance subsidies, a program Mayor Rahm Emanuel was counting on to save millions of dollars a year, as well as legislation recently approved to modify the pension plans of city workers and laborers.
  
  The 6-1 decision centers around a 2012 law that allowed the state to charge retired workers for health care insurance premiums, which many did not have to pay depending on how long they worked for the state.
  
  Retired workers sued, arguing the changes violated a provision in the state constitution that declares pension benefits “shall not be diminished or impaired.” Attorneys for the state argued the constitution did not specifically declare health care benefits were protected.

Rahm is fighting a system that was set in concrete long before he pretended to move out of Chicago and then suddenly rediscovered some lost women's clothes that allowed him an opening. We'll read more into the decision in the coming days, but it appears to be a foundation for maintaining benefits as promised years ago.

"Medical Hardship"

Fed-heimers disease no doubt:

• Former Mayor Richard M. Daley's attorneys say it would be a medical hardship for him to testify in the city's lawsuit against operators of the Park Grill restaurant in Millennium Park.
  
  His lawyers did not explain in their motion filed Wednesday why testifying would be a medical hardship for Daley, 72. He was hospitalized in the intensive care unit at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in February after falling ill during a business trip to Arizona.

Not everyone got the memo though:

• Asked last week how Daley was feeling, his brother, Cook County Commissioner John Daley, told reporters the former mayor had been traveling and was "in excellent health."
  
  "He's doing fine. He's in excellent health, and he's traveling and enjoying life," John Daley said following an appearance with Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle at an event to discuss the county budget. "He was down in Texas last week at the mayor's conference, and he's doing well. Thank you very much for asking."

John always was the idiot-Daley.

Cops Acted "like...crossing guards"

If you beat a dog, a child or a police Department long enough, they learn "pain avoidance:"

• As Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) considers whether the annual Gay Pride Parade should be moved downtown, the manager of a Boystown bar said the real issue is a lack of cooperation from police officers after the parade is over.
  
  “There were quite a few people on the street smashing their beer bottles, sitting on steps of residences; and the police, basically – from my perception – stood there and just allowed it to happen,” said Brenden Chrisman, general manager of Roscoe’s Tavern, which is located along the parade route in Boystown.
  
  [...] Chrisman said police have been responsive in the past when his bar needed them during the parade, but officers were not doing nearly enough in the hours after the parade this year. He said, after the parade ended, police essentially left the neighborhood to fend for itself at night, when a different group of people descended on the area, even though they weren’t there for the parade in the first place.
  
  “They were acting more like crossing guards,” Chrisman said. “I feel, from a management standpoint, that our security staff was more engaged with the problems on the street than the police themselves.”

Well, we're kind of under orders not to make arrests in these situations. It was in the briefing that incidents should be avoided. If you send 2 coppers in with even a single head, they aren't on the street where they're needed immediately and you have to spread the thin line even thinner. The "mass arrest" protocols are designed to discourage arrests by the police if you must know the truth. Welcome to the Police Department the liberals always wanted.

We certainly used to be able to control the streets, or at least keep up with the mayhem to an extent. But 019 is gone and the new 019/023 is down a hundred cops or so from the combined strength that was promised. The Department itself is down some 1,500 from peak strength a few years ago. Just because Rahm cuts 1,200 positions doesn't mean we're suddenly at full strength - we're just smaller.

We just love how the Department is only touting eight arrests, including one guy who damaged a squad car. The pictures over at the CrimeinBoystown blog show at least 8 people on the destroyed police vehicle, so at least 7 got away. The eight arrests would have had more of an impact if it were 80 or more, but McCarthy got rid of the units that could have poured 100 or 150 coppers on short notice and locked shit down.

Failed State

Way to go Quinn!

• It’s report-card season in Illinois, as the journey and efforts that began last August have come to fruition for students across the state.
  
  State governments can be graded too, in particular on the subject of jobs. How Illinois fares on job creation is critically important for local high school and college seniors, who have just graduated into the state’s weak job market.
  
  Illinois created only 500 private-sector jobs in the nine months of this past school year – August 2013 to May 2014 – the worst of any state in the Midwest and the second worst in the country.
  
  For context, that’s one job for every 300 high school seniors in Illinois, another terrible stretch of job creation for a state that already ranks last in the Midwest for job recovery from the Great Recession.

And for everyone who just likes to look at pictures:

If you are able, get out while you can.

Niles Gun Range Meeting

For you northsiders and suburban readers looking for a nearby practice range, time to support a Chicago neighbor:

Make some time to support a fully-legal, safety-oriented business that is supportive of numerous police departments, even in the face of the hysterics of the anti-gun crowd.

Nice Headline

You go Tribune:

• Boy, 17, shot dead blocks from Obama's South Side home

We're sure that everyone is shocked by this...everyone who doesn't pay attention much.

We imagine they'd be amazed at the number of murders that occur within a map of graduated concentric circles emanating from the home of the president. Say, within half-a-mile, one full mile, one-and-one-half miles, two miles. It would make for a very interesting statistic.

Anyone have a map and a compass?

Paving the Way for Fraud

How is this a good idea?

• Gov. Pat Quinn today signed into law a measure allowing Illinois residents to register to vote and cast a ballot on the same day this fall.
  
  The governor has touted the relaxed registration rules for the Nov. 4 general election as making it easier for more people to be able to exercise a basic democratic right, while Republicans are concerned the move is an attempt by Democrats to increase their vote totals.
  
  The measure limits same-day registration to selected sites within each election authority.
  
  The legislation, which Quinn signed at Oak Park Village Hall, also expands the number of days and extends the hours for early voting. And it removes the provision that people taking part in early voting show a photo ID, such as a driver's license.

Gee, we have to show an ID to purchase liquor. We have to carry a license to drive. We carry a work ID so we can fill up the 120,000 mile blue and white. We have to show two forms of ID to buy a gun. But hey, show up at a polling place and just claim to be a citizen, register on site with any name that strikes your fancy, and you can cast a vote for the most radical leftist libtard that promises you increased welfare payments, free health care and a bottomless supply of food, gas, and shelter.

Yeah, no problem here.

Get Those Stickers

Deadline extended:

• Chicago car owners will have one more week to buy their city sticker online.
  
  The City Clerk's Office extended the last day to buy a city sticker online from June 30 to July 7 due to "quick processing times," according to a news release.

This year also marks the last time everyone has the same deadline. Pro-rated stickers are available so that everyone will be purchasing city stickers 6-months after they buy a plate sticker.

Homicides Down

Well, you knew this was coming. Homicides are down since last year....allegedly:

• Chicago Police have announced that through the first six months of the year there were nine fewer murders than in 2013 and 79 less than in 2012.
  
  Police reported 171 murders through June 29. During that time, the Cook County medical examiner’s office tallied 180 homicides. The difference comes from cases detectives ruled self-defense or involuntary manslaughter.

And of course, deliberate falsification of the numbers as outlined in the Chicago Magazine article about miscounting crime. How many "Death Investigations" does the Department have open at the moment?

In any event, shooting incidents are up:

• 2013 - 833
• 2014 - 880 (+47)

Shooting victims are up:

• 2013 - 1018
• 2014 - 1103 (+85)

So from those numbers, we can safely say that Contact Cards, ANOV's, home visits and "taking it to the alley" has resulted in increases to the violence totals.

But thanks to modern medicine, Chicago is allegedly down 9 killings for the year. Better response times by ALS equipped fire apparatus and ambulances along with medical advances pioneered on the battlefields of the War on Terror, deserve all of the credit. We'll done!

Deadly Force to Stop Chases OK

We're not betting on a policy change here in Chicago, but the US Supreme Court says it's legal:

• A new Supreme Court decision has been added to the ongoing controversy in law enforcement circles about whether officers should be permitted by policy to shoot at moving vehicles. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that officers were justified in firing fatal rounds at a driver to end a dangerous high-speed chase. Further, the court declared, the officers were not guilty of excessive force for sending a fusillade at the offender’s vehicle — 15 shots in all.
  
  “The Supreme Court is making it clear that the Fourth amendment allows the use of deadly force to stop drivers in those exceptional cases when their actions pose a very serious threat to public safety,” says police attorney Bill Everett, a legal consultant to the Force Science Institute. “By limiting legal liability in these circumstances, the Court is allowing agencies to put more emphasis on keeping the public safe when developing their policies.”

That sobbing noise is the lawyers over at Loevy and Loevy gnashing their teeth at a possible revenue stream being cauterized.

You can read the PoliceOne.com article at this link here. Again, don't count on any changes here, but in a worst case scenario, the decision might keep a cop out of jail for a justifiable use of force.

Beavers Appeal Fails

Former Aldercreature Beavers had his conviction upheld even though he's already out:

• A federal appeals court today upheld the conviction of former Cook County Commissioner William Beavers a month after he was released from prison after serving a six-month sentence on tax fraud charges.
  
  Beavers, 79, was convicted by a federal jury last year of failing to pay taxes on hundreds of thousands of dollars he took out of his campaign fund and used for gambling and other personal expenses. Prosecutors alleged at trial that Beavers used his campaign funds from 2006 through 2008, blowing much of the money on slots at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond.
  
  In addition to the prison time, Beavers was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and almost $39,000 in back taxes. The former commissioner was also ordered to perform 400 hours of community service and refrain from gambling for one year after his release from prison.

We suppose he'll run again seeing as how a conviction doesn't preclude him holding a County position.