Jinx

You'd think that after reading the blog for over a decade, someone would get it:

• For the first time since March of last year, Chicago has gone six full days without a fatal shooting.
  
  The city’s last fatal shooting happened at 11:30 a.m. Jan. 11, when 33-year-old Uriah Hughes was killed and a 26-year-old man was wounded in an Austin neighborhood shooting on the West Side.

Tempt fate and see what you get?

• Two people were killed Thursday morning in Chicago's first deadly shooting in six days.
  
  Two men, ages 27 and 36, were sitting in a car in the 6600-block of South Evans Avenue in the city's West Woodlawn neighborhood around 2:50 a.m. That's when police said someone walked up to the vehicle and opened fire.

Of course, the usual low temperatures would have nothing at all to do with the pause in killings. people are still getting shot at a pace of five or more a day.

Good Question

The primary qualification for "acting up" as an FTO appears to be that you are on the "Sergeant Eligibility List" for promotion, meaning you had to score as well as the dumbest clout hack that Special Ed wants to promote, so somewhere in the vicinity of 57%. If you scored 58%, you might never get promoted legitimately, but you can qualify to teach someone how to be the police.

Is there any actual additional training? We don't plan on finding out, so we'll need to hear from someone in the process. Because teaching isn't easy. You have to make the material interesting and applicable to real life situations. We can do that with a blog, but we aren't being modest when we say we doubt our ability to teach it to another human being. Sure, we can help someone fill in a parker or write a mover and our case reports would win screenwriting Oscars.

 But the stuff that only comes with experience would be far harder. The only way to get that experience is to ...well, experience it. And keeping an eye on a green rookie (or two) along with the situation we're in the midst of, and actually use it as a learning experience while it's going on? Not our cup of tea.

Admiral Clampett

California is begging to be the test case for the Federal Government jailing local officials over supremacy laws:

• Officials from several Bay Area law enforcement agencies said Wednesday that federal officials haven’t looped them in on any plans for major sweeps for undocumented immigrants, and added that they didn’t plan to help with any such operations.
  
  The response from local jurisdictions came after The Chronicle reported that U.S. officials are gearing up for a major dragnet in Northern California, during which they will seek to arrest more than 1,500 undocumented immigrants.

But the picture accompanying the article caught a number of our readers' eyes:

No wonder she left Chicago. Look at all those stars! There are like 19 visible stars on that uniform. And the sleeves...like big gold bands. And are those shoulder pads filling out the blouse? We never met Kirkpatrick, but was she really that blocky?

How Bad Was the Soda Tax?

We've been hoping someone would run the numbers. The Daily Herald finally did:

• Cook County's short-lived penny-per-ounce tax on sweetened beverages not only failed to bring in as much revenue as projected, but it might also have cost the county millions in sales tax revenue as consumers crossed county and state lines to buy their groceries.
  
  In a revenue report released ahead of today's county board meeting, receipts from the first three months of the ill-fated tax show it generated $46.4 million. That's less than the $55 million the tax initially was expected to raise during those three months, though projections later were revised to $49.8 million.
  
  Meanwhile, the county's home-rule sales tax revenue was off by $12 million for the year, the revenue report shows. Cook County Board Commissioner John Daley attributed that to consumers angry about the sweetened beverage tax shopping elsewhere.
  
  "I've never heard so much animosity to a tax than this," Daley said. "People were telling me they'd go to Indiana to buy soda, and they weren't just buying their sodas there, but all their other groceries, too."

The most telling number that drove the panicked Board members to repeal?

• Sweetened beverage tax revenue shrank each month of its existence, according to finance bureau records. The county received $16.6 million in August, $15.3 million in September and $14.4 million in October. The decline in tax revenue from August to September is the equivalent of nearly 2 million fewer 2-liter bottles of soda being sold.

The numbers were dropping every month as people realized how easy it was to shop outside of Cook County, and not just for soda - groceries and gas, too. We're still doing it. Score one for the citizens.

Crime Fighting Conference?

Touting the massive "reduction" in crime:

• Police leaders and prosecutors from 22 cities are in Chicago today to get some advice from the Chicago Police Department. Crime fighters from across the country are at the University of Chicago Crime Lab for a 2-day conference. They'll be taking field trips to see the technology and meet the people that have helped Chicago reduce its gun violence over the past year. Over the last few years Chicago has become the poster child for gun violence. Homicides surged in 2016 to 764, the highest number this city has seen in nearly 20 years.
  
  The CPD asked Los Angeles police for some help implementing a successful crime fighting program which was proven there. It consisted of technology, policing, and a collaboration with a local university to analyze data.
  
  A year later, Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson says, “We’ve got a lot of questions from around the country about what worked here.” “We’ve created a model so powerful, along with our officers," he said. "Chicago saw 22 percent less shooting and 16 percent less murders in 2017 compared to 2016.”

That's a good question - what worked here. And the answer, believe it or not, is happenstance.

Sure, the numbers look good if you compare 2017 to 2016. But what if you compare them to 2015? or 2014? Oh yeah, it's trending upward. We've said it before and we'll repeat it here for the tiny brains:

• 2016 was the aberration.

And if you look at our posts last week, we point out the robberies and carjackings are through the roof. Up 200% and then some in some categories. So while homicides and shootings are down from last year, almost everything else isn't. And the clearance rate continues to circle the bowl. Crime isn't getting solved.

But hey, come to Chicago and marvel at the lack of dead bodies in the streets.

Plowing

Rahm is waiting for the warm weather again to melt the snowfall. As numerous readers noted, the snowplows were out in the "quiet" neighborhoods, but driving around in the "blade up" position, which is great for making deep truck tire tracks on the side streets. But it does nothing to actually clear the streets, which melt and re-freeze into a smooth glass.

Does anyone know if hiring at Streets is anemic like CPD? Or if he's "saving money" by not paying the drivers 12 and 14 hour days plowing?

Hey Dick?

You've forgotten what your job is:

• Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) says his sole focus in Congress is making sure illegal aliens are given amnesty to remain permanently in the United States.
  
  In comments on Monday, Durbin said it is illegal aliens, not his Illinois constituents, who he is working “full time” and around the clock for.

You serve....SERVE....the citizens of the State of Illinois. For a sitting US Senator to acknowledge that he is ignoring the laws of the United States and forsaking his sworn duty to the citizens who elected him means it's time for Dick to Depart.

Faster Please

Hopefully, the recent silence on Chicago, Cook County crime coming from Washington DC means this is going to come here first:

• Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen confirmed Tuesday that her department has asked federal prosecutors to see if they can lodge criminal charges against sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with federal deportation efforts.
  
  “The Department of Justice is reviewing what avenues may be available,” Ms. Nielsen told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Perhaps this is something?

• ICE Director hints a showdown is coming at the Cook County jail. Just last week Dart released two rapists from his jail (one a child molester) wanted by ICE. Dart also slandered the Feds/Justice department recently in speech saying they were incompetent long before the Trump administration.
  
  The interviewer asked ICE Director why federal agents wont demand entry into the CC jail. The director chuckles and hints the showdown is coming!

Dart facing Federal charges would be a good start to restoring the rule of law to Cook County.

Priorities

It doesn't seem to be the free flow of traffic - you know, commerce, trade, buses and people actually trying to get to work:

The bike lane is plowed, but the traffic lane isn't. Thank goodness Rahm took out a full lane of traffic against the curb where plows might be able to actually remove snow from the roadway and give it over to the bicyclists who are nowhere to be seen during another sub-freezing day.

Room 302 Follies

This asshole needs to be removed:

• Judge Hooks in room 302 at 26th Cal had all the police officers check their guns in before coming into "his" courtroom today. If they didn't comply with "his" order, he had the Sheriffs remove the police officers. I never agreed with the disarming officers at Markham and Bridgeview. If you're the police and working (court), why disarm officers and put them in harms way and make them an easy target. The entire courthouse is filled with defendants that hate the police and it wouldn't take much for things to go sour with officers having no means in defending themselves from weapons used against them. I think we have all seen the lack of security at these courthouses and how unsecure the weapons check in areas are at times as well. Now we have to deal with leftie lib judge that is no fan of the police disarming us at 26th Cal? I know the courts are a different entity but I hope our union and the department step up to the plate and get involved.

They've tried this before, and with all the cutbacks to personnel that Dart has been making, there's no way to guarantee Officer Safety by relying on an undermanned Sheriff Department. Is the FOP going to address this?

Acting FTO's Again?

Wasn't Rahm hiring a boatload of FTO's to handle the 1,000 hirees?

The WC's are reading this at Roll Call again in a desperate attempt to get people to teach the new kids because no one wants the FTO spot. At least you get to stay in your District of Assignment if you do the "temporary" thing, but you can't bullshit coppers - they know the FTO program is a failure and aren't buying into it, and these new kids are losing out due to the poor quality of the training.

Shot Fired

No one hit:

• One person was injured in an exchange of gunfire involving Chicago Police Monday afternoon in the Burnside neighborhood on the South Side.
  
  Officers were responding to a home invasion around 3 p.m. at 90th and Ellis. There were reports of shots fired, but police say they did not strike the offender.
  
  A sergeant on the scene said officers were chasing multiple offenders. Multiple are now in custody.
  
  One of the suspects suffered a dislocated knee but was not shot, as was initially thought, by police.

Watch yourselves. An e-mailer thought that there was another set of shots fired at the police this weekend in 015, but we can't find any reports of it.

Movin' On Out

Yet another article about the shrinking/fleeing population:

• Illinois, New Jersey, and New York were the top states in the nation for outbound moves in 2017, according to data from United Van Lines.
  
  United Van Lines, which tracks state-to-state migration patterns, found that Illinois was the top state for outbound migration with 63 percent of moves going out of state.
  
  "The Northeast continues to experience a moving deficit with New Jersey (63 percent outbound), New York (61 percent) and Connecticut (57 percent) making the list of top outbound states for the third consecutive year," the report states. "Massachusetts (56 percent) also joined the top outbound list this year."

Why would everyone be leaving these mismanaged, corrupt, broke, democrat-run shitholes?

Shithole

From the national scene:

When Dick "Les" Durbin is your primary accuser, a healthy dose of doubt is a necessity.

Another "No Bond" Debacle

What the fuck judge?

• Authorities said a Northwest Side man with 12 felony convictions claimed to be a Chicago police officer when security guards at a Walmart stopped him as he tried to leave the store with more than $90 in cigarette lighters tucked inside his coat.
  
  Police said Cristobal Villarreal was inside a Walmart in the 4600 block of West Diversey Avenue around 2 p.m. Thursday when a cashier saw him stuff several packs of Bic lighters into his coat and walk past the last point of sale without paying for the items.
  
  When three security guards approached him and asked whether he paid for the items, Villarreal — who was dressed in a Chicago Cubs cap, a Chicago police shirt and coat adorned with police patches and an empty blue bulletproof vest cover — told the men he was "the police" and kept walking, according to Cook County prosecutors and police.
  
  Two of the guards then told Villarreal that they were also Chicago police officers working security at the store and all three guards tried to take him into custody after noticing several items concealed under his clothing, according to an arrest report.
  
  The 57-year-old Villarreal insisted that he was a four-year member of the department, prosecutors told a judge Saturday at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

Twelve Felony CONVICTIONS along with something like forty misdemeanors, in a slapdash police uniform, claiming to be the police, and what's his bond?

• Judge Stephanie K. Miller released Villarreal on a personal recognizance bond, but gave him a curfew from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Boy, that curfew is sure going to deter this asshole.

Interesting Video Series

This was e-mailed to us yesterday:

So far, parts 10 (Back of the Yards) and 9 (Greater Grand Crossing) have been released, with the remaining coming out over the next few weeks. The videos we've seen so far give a short historical background of the neighborhood before delving into how and why it headed downhill. There is also extensive crime scene footage.

It will certainly be an interesting series to say the least.

Comedy Break

Funny commentators making us laugh:

• Yah, squad I'm a F/2 with long blonde hair chasing an M/1 juvy with a gun. Are my characteristics ok to continue the chase?
  
  Negative, 2644, according to the 'characteristic table' you may offend the Community. Terminate the chase.
  
  '99 squad, have 2610 meet me at the termination point to download my BWC and ICC.
  
  Hold me down reviewing the footage with the WOL while I do my FPR. (Foot Pursuit Report-- CPD 11.915)

It's getting this bad.

Sheriff Blog

We've linked to a few stories at this Cook County Sheriff blog. Some recent headlines (that the mainstream media has barely covered, if at all):

• Inmates attacking jail personnel
• Fights inside the Markham Courthouse
• A child rapist released on Electronic Monitoring, rearrested within hours when it was discovered there were multiple other victims
• A missing EM subject who is currently taunting the Sheriff via social media

If the media covered even half of these stories, Dart wouldn't even be mounting a re-election campaign. Don't be shy about spreading the word about this site.

Another Unworkable "Solution"

Seems like another waste of money:

• In a bid to crack down on car crashes caused by people texting while driving, Chicago aldermen on Thursday discussed the concept of arming police with devices to tell how recently drivers had used their cellphones.
  
  So-called “textalyzers” could allow officers to scan phones and tell whether they were in use at the time of an accident, Ald. Edward Burke said.
  
  “In many ways it’s the digital equivalent of a Breathalyzer,” he said. While a handful of government agencies around the country are looking at incorporating textalyzer technology in police investigations, none has done so yet, he said.
  
  The 14th Ward alderman, however, did not propose that the Chicago Police Department start using the devices, nor was a vote taken. Burke, the longest-tenured and most powerful alderman, sometimes holds hearings merely to discuss headline-grabbing ideas.

Maybe this goof should keep his bullshit to himself for a year or two and see if actual problems get solved.

Foxxx Quid Pro Quo

Gee, who would have thunk this?

• In August, nine months after she took office, her staff struck a deal with Burke’s firm: It settled three lawsuits, agreeing that various local governments Foxx’s office was representing would refund nearly $2 million in property taxes that AT&T had paid between 2013 and 2015 on a 105-acre campus in Hoffman Estates that now sits vacant.
  
  That is the biggest tax settlement that Foxx’s staff has approved during her first 11 months as state’s attorney, according to a Chicago Sun-Times review of data released by her office in response to a public records request.
  
  It’s a fraction of the $16 million in refunds that Burke was seeking when he filed those lawsuits, asserting that Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios and the Cook County Board of Review had overestimated the value of the AT&T campus for three years.

It's never ceases to amaze how politicians managed to get other politicians elected to spots that benefit the original someone's side business.

CCL with a Knife?

This made us smile:

• A 35-year-old woman stabbed a man who was trying to sexually assault her Friday afternoon in Chicago's Austin neighborhood, the Chicago Police Department said.
  
  Police said at around 4:10 p.m., the 30-year-old man was attempting to sexually assault the woman when she took out a weapon and stabbed him in the forehead.
  
  The attack happened in the 1000-block of North Lawler Avenue, police said.

It is a rare human being who can plunge a knife through someone's forehead. She probably should have stabbed a bit lower and would have prevented a repeat offense one day. Nicely done though.

The Changes

Interesting:

• Anthony Riccio from Chief of OCD to First Deputy
  Noel Sanchez from Cmdr 004 to Chief of OCD
  Michael Pigott from Capt 001 to Cmdr 001
  Elizabeth Collazo from Lieutenant 025 to Cmdr 004
  Susan Moss from Lieutenant 012 to Cmdr 017
  Elias Voulgaris from Commander 017 to Cmdr OEMC (lateral)
  William Clucas from Lieutenant 001 too Capt (XO) 001
  Carlos Mostek from Lieutenant (???) to Capt (XO) 022

And maybe some more on the way. Rumors getting stronger of Special Ed prepping his exit speech.

Follow This Money

Not shocking, but disturbing if true:

• Would the media care to investigate this tasty morsel? [...] here's a low hanging banana for ya:
  
  Applicants who fail any portion of the Power Test can - FOR A FEE - register for a PE class at one of a few of the local City Colleges.
  
  There, they (ostensibly) receive additional physical conditioning from gym instructors/personal trainers until they (in theory) "pass" the power test under the watchful eye of City College employees. Now here's where it gets good...
  
  These applicants get a certificate saying they passed the Power Test to bring back to the Personnel Division and get right back where they left off in the hiring process line WITHOUT HAVING TO PASS THE POWER TEST AT THE ACADEMY.
  
  Another slickster money grab hatched by crooked ass scum for a crooked ass job in the crookedest city in the USA.

This is from commentator IFIYGD, who has posted some other connected stories before. Sounds exactly like something Rahm would sanction.

Even CSA Goes Unpunished

Cook County won't even house teen sex offenders:

• A Cook County judge sentenced two teenage boys Wednesday to five years of probation and ordered them to register as sex offenders for the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl broadcast live on Facebook last March.
  
  Judge Patricia Mendoza, assigned to the juvenile division, had signaled she would impose the probation sentences when the two pleaded guilty in November to a single count of child pornography.

And the justification?

• Prosecutors had sought sentences for both boys, now each 15, in prison facilities for juveniles.
  
  In court Wednesday, the judge noted the serious nature of the crime and its impact on the victim but said a potential lifetime as registered sex offenders would have more repercussions for the teens than spending several more months in confinement.
  
  “It’s time for you gentlemen to start adjusting to your new life,” Mendoza told them.

Really? A "potential" for being inconvenienced one day a year to register as measured against the very real damaged and broadcast humiliation they inflicted on a 15-year-old is a "repercussion"? And she called them "gentlemen."

Liberalism is truly a mental disease.

COPA Again

COPA continues to build up "credibility" by recommending firing again:

• Two Chicago Police officers have been recommended for termination for firing at a car as part of traffic stop just before the fatal 2016 shooting of an unarmed black teenager, Paul O’Neal.
  
  Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson “concurred with the findings” of investigators with the now-defunct Independent Police Review Authority, and in November 2017 recommended officers Michael Coughlin Jr. and Jose Torres for firing, CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.
  
  Two other officers involved — including the one who fired the fatal shots — were not recommended for firing by IPRA, Guglielmi said.

Readers may recall that the videos of this incident were disturbing to say the least. One of the involved officers is seen firing across the car toward where his partner was standing, then firing downrange where bullets hit an approaching squad car. This led directly to the officers in that car to assume they were being shot at by occupants of the fleeing vehicle and eventually shooting and killing the unarmed subject.

There's no getting around that this was ugly on many fronts and ran counter to numerous orders. The process grinds forward.

Open Season on Everyone

So Candidate, what's your stand on crime now?

• A candidate running for Illinois attorney general was robbed at gunpoint while he was taking promotional photos for his campaign Thursday afternoon in the Northwest Side ward where he’s also the Democratic committeeman, according to his campaign manager and authorities.
  
  Aaron Goldstein, 42, and several members of his campaign team were in the middle of taking publicity shots when the robbery happened, according to Goldstein’s campaign manager. The robbery took place about 3:25 p.m. in the 4600 block of North Albany Avenue in Albany Park, when three men in their early 20s approached them, according to a law-enforcement source. One of the men flashed a handgun and demanded the camera equipment and other personal belongings from the team, according to police.
  
  The gunman and two other men robbed Goldstein and four others of camera equipment and their cellphones before they ran away, the law enforcement source said. As of Thursday evening, no one was in custody, police said.

And then the usual media reporting:

• Police described the three suspects as between 20 and 24 years old. They did not release a detailed description of the suspects.

So if you see anyone between the ages of 20 and 24, call the police!

Thursday afternoon the temperature was well above 50 degrees. The chances of one of the multiple victims not noticing something as obvious as clothing or exposed skin tone is next to zero. Therefore a description exists. And if a description exists, it was broadcast in some form over the radio and in the form of a press release, especially with a political candidate being stuck up, unless the candidate asked it not be for some unknown reason.

Foot Pursuit Bulletin

Ask and you shall receive:

This seems like common sense. But who knows what they're teaching in the Academy nowadays? The restrictions on everything along with a complete lack of direction and an all-too-obvious absence of political will just demonstrate that the cemetery plot for proactive police work is filled and the daisies are growing.

More Trends

Don't listen to the "crime is down" mantra this year like the bosses did all last year, comparing 2017 to 2016. Look at the multi-year trends - like these (click for large versions):

A 21% increase in robberies over four years.

A 41% increase in homicides over the same four years.

A 209% increase in car-jackings? Over four years.

2016 was the aberration. The trend is four years of increasing crime.

Tribune Amazing Discovery!

Thank goodness there's some investigative reporting going on at the Tribune!

• Over the last 17 years, at least 75 women have been strangled or smothered in Chicago and their bodies dumped in vacant buildings, alleys, garbage cans, snow banks. Arrests have been made in only a third of the cases, according to a first-ever analysis by the Tribune.
  
  While there are clusters of unsolved strangulations on the South and West sides, police say they’ve uncovered no evidence of a serial killer at work. If they are right, 50 murderers have gotten away with their crime.

Wow. A 66% chance of getting away with strangling someone in Chicago. Who would have thought it was that easy?

Meanwhile, at HeyJackass.com, this graphic has been up for almost half-a-moth now:

Almost 9 times out of 10, a killer gets away with murder. But that fact might be embarrassing to someone running for re-election while he is desperately filling Department spots with a rainbow of political hacks who couldn't find their way out of a wet paper bag.

Federal Complaint

If you want to read the actual complaint for the promotion lawsuit, head over to this link. They summarize the allegations.

The lawsuit can be read here.

No P.O.W.E.R. Test?

That's kind of a stretch - it seems that you still have to pass the POWER test to get into the Academy. That's a rule set forth by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board. You don't pass, you don't get in.

However, Chicago actually had a good idea at one point, making recruits pass the test at intervals during training and to exit, meaning a recruit had to maintain some modicum of health while proceeding through training.

But now, it's one and done if our comment sections are correct.

Foot Chase Policy?

A couple people commented that the Department released a new Foot Chase Policy training bulletin around 1000 hours on Monday....and rescinded it by 1300 hours the same day.

We can only imagine what a glorious example of cluster-fuckery and utter ignorance it must have been for someone to (A) author it and (B) have to pull it in under three hours. Their combined street time must be measured in minutes.

We didn't manage to grab a copy, but someone must have one. E-mail address is in the top right column. A hundred Tact Teams wait with bated breath.

Cleveland - A Rough Town

Someone wrote to us with something that appeared on social media - it has to be a joke. We mean, it sounds like a joke - something made up. We certainly hope it's BS:

• Future of CPD....I heard the mommy of a recruit came to the academy and spoke with a supervisor to complain that her son was sore after a "welcome to the gym day" and they need to tone it down on the physical stuff......anyone with inside academy knowledge confirm?

It has all the hallmarks of a joke and a few elements we've seen in other supposed, "It's TRUE!" stories. And with recent "snowflake" stories, it's most likely the culmination of a well-played troll campaign.

This came over in our e-mail a day or two ago and it is so opposite of the above paragraph we have to wonder if they're connected somehow:

• Eight Cleveland police cadets were hurt last month during a hand-to-hand combat training exercise at the Ohio State Highway Patrol's police academy in Columbus, officials said.
  
  Six of the cadets -- four men and two women -- went to a hospital for treatment. One cadet dislocated a shoulder and five cadets suffered concussions, said Cleveland Police Det. Steve Loomis, who was president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association when the incident occurred Dec. 12.
  
  One recruit remained at the hospital because of a previous injury but was released less than a week later. The other five recruits were treated and released, Ohio State Highway Patrol spokesman Lt. Robert Sellers said.
  
  Two other recruits suffered concussions during the training but were not taken to the hospital, Loomis said.

Geez, did Marsh start running the Cleveland Academy? Maybe a few other sadists from years gone by? Marsh would deck recruits in the hallways who weren't sufficiently aware of their surroundings. Frost was an amateur boxer who would rattle teeth given half a chance. There were others but we'll leave them to the comments sure to roll in. Still, you don't want recruits damaged before they hit the street - that will come with the career.

Twins?

A job VERY well done Officers:

• Two Chicago police officers were named “Officers of the Month” after helping deliver twins at a CTA train station.
  
  Officers Lucyna Murawski and Therese Puchalski responded to a call for help at the Roosevelt Red Line station on the morning of Nov. 1.
  
  The officers were patrolling the train station when the young mother went into labor. Both babies were delivered at the station before paramedics could take the mother to the hospital.
  
  The officers say they were just doing their jobs.

We can think of a lot of places we wouldn't want someone to give birth and a CTA platform ranks among the top three. But the Officers, in the right place at the right time, stepped up and did what needed to be done. Again, a very good job.

Military Service Safer than Chicago

Not only did Trump reduce homicides by over 100 without setting foot in Chicago, he reduced military deaths to under 100, something that doesn't reflect well on Rahm's policies:

• If you’re a young man, you are safer in the military than you are in the most dangerous neighborhoods of Chicago.
  
  In 2017, in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago, which has roughly 98,000 residents, there were 467 people killed or shot. In the city of Chicago in 2017, over 3,500 people were shot, and 675 homicides were committed.
  
  Meanwhile, guess how many military members were killed in the U.S. military in 2017? According to data from the Chicago Tribune and from the Department of Defense’s press office, 37 service members, as CNSNews reported.
  
  Among military deaths, some were combat-related; some were non-combat related. As CNSNews pointed out, Chicago citywide had 17.9 times more homicides than the U.S. military worldwide in 2017.

Time for Rahm to go.

Uh Oh

VRI is over, right?

• Five people were killed and seven others were wounded Tuesday in shootings across Chicago.
  
  The five people gunned down were the latest of 13 shooting deaths in the city in the first nine days of 2018, according to Chicago Sun-Times data.
  
  The violent night wrapped up with a spate of shootings that left seven people shot — three fatally — over the span of four and a half hours.

How many of those shootings were in VRI "boxes"? 

Is downtown going to bring it back now?

Promotional Lawsuit

You go Sarge:

• A longtime Chicago police sergeant is suing the city of Chicago and others, including Supt. Eddie Johnson, challenging the lieutenant’s promotion system as rigged on behalf of favored candidates.
  
  A formal investigation by the city’s Inspector General found no evidence of wrongdoing, but Sgt. Hosea Word alleged in the suit that actions took place which enabled competing sergeants to be promoted “who had not fairly and honestly earned that right.”
  
  “It became common knowledge in the ranks that the chiefs decided to scrap the 2006 test results, in order to administer a new test so they could secretly give their wives and girlfriends the test answers, which helped them to get high scores, promotions, pay raises, and pension increases that they didn’t deserve,” Word said in a statement. “I and others feel cheated and betrayed.”
  
  In his lawsuit filed Monday, Word alleged Johnson, former first deputy Al Wysinger, and former Chief Eugene Williams, intentionally leaked answers to the test to benefit their wives or girlfriends.

The worst kept secret in the history of the CPD is that certain people have access to either:

• the test
• the answers
• or the people who develop the test

Any one of these or combinations thereof give a decidedly unfair advantage to those taking the test. And the unfair advantage translates into tens of thousands of dollars in salary and even more tens of thousands in unearned pension bumps. Taxpayers are't getting the "best and brightest." They get the connected, corrupted and cheaters while the morale of the rank and file is driven into the ground as it becomes painfully obvious that any chance at legitimate advancement approaches zero.

This is different from the Inspector General's report that was pretty much a whitewash and covered up wrongdoing by the simple expedient of placing Rahm's hands over his eyes and saying, "I don't see anything!"

This part of Ferguson's report was as laughable today as it was when he released it:

• “Overall, the analyses did not reveal any trends supporting the allegations of fraudulent behavior,” he wrote.

Would Joe like a list of the "trends" that fully support "fraudulent behavior" being the only logical conclusion? We're sure our readers can come up with a few.

CCL Again

We think we can officially call this a trend now:

• A 23-year-old man was fatally shot Monday evening by a 58-year-old man he was trying to rob in the South Side Austin neighborhood.
  
  Shaquille Gales, 23, of Bellwood, walked up to the older man about 5:45 p.m. in the 5500 block of West Thomas Street, pulled out a gun and demanded his property, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.
  
  The 58-year-old, a concealed-carry permit holder, pulled out his own weapon and shot the attempted robber, police said.
  
  Gales was taken to West Suburban Medical in Oak Park, where he was pronounced dead, authorities said.

And take a look at this part of the article:

• An autopsy Tuesday found Gales died from a gunshot wound to the chest through his arm, according to the medical examiner’s office. His death was ruled a homicide. Police initially reported that Gales was shot in the back of the head.
  
  A weapon was recovered at the scene, police said.

There's a big difference between being shot in the back of the head and being shot in the chest. We have a hard time believing that any officer on scene would tell the media that, so that leaves a either a blatant disinformation attempt by Media Affairs to smear a Concealed Carrier or (more believably), a media lie to do the same thing at the behest of Rahm and the anti-gun agenda. And they get to blame the police for being incompetent enough to think a body shot is a head shot.

After all, an "execution" is a better sell to the lib-tarded crowd.

This Guy Makes Sense

Who does this guy think he is, criticizing the mighty sheriff?

• When Sheriff Tom Dart’s office announced last month that the Cook County Jail population had dropped below 6,000 inmates for the first time in a decade, the media was all over it. The Tribune. CBS. NBC. They all reported Dart’s chief policy officer’s talking points without any counterpoints. NBC even said there was "uniform support for bond reform by the head of the county’s court system, the sheriff and prosecutor, as well as County Board President Toni Preckwinkle."
  
  Oddly, not a single outlet seemed able to locate anyone with reservations about the jail story. Like the police chief in west suburban Riverside. He's more than happy to offer his thoughts. “I have been telling our state and county elected official that criminal justice reform, including bond reform, is not protecting our citizens,” Riverside Chief Tom Weitzel told us today. “My concerns fall on deaf ears.”
  
  Weitzel issued his own press release about the jail population. We could not find any media outlets that have reported on it. “Our elected officials in Cook County and the state keep calling me an ‘alarmist,’” Weitzel said today. “After 33 years in law enforcement I know I am telling the truth!”

Thirty-three years in law enforcement. That sounds like more than Dart, Prickwrinkle, Foxxx and Evans combined.

Maybe he ought to run for something.

Unaccounted OT?

How true is this?

• Off-topic: there was much made about the list of personnel from HQ of not swiping in and out. But what wasn't mentioned is that list also had the amount of overtime registered and not paid. Not only does the system calculate the hours worked, it also calculates hours of overtime worked. The city is required by state law to compensate emoloyees when the city is aware of who worked overtime. No one has been compensated yet because it's a test run, but the law doesn't exclude test runs. There are many people in HQ owed overtime by the city.

We don't know about everywhere else, but many places we have worked, officers stay the extra 15 or 30 minutes (or even an hour sometimes) it takes to finish a report, arrest, inventory, whatever. And instead of dropping a slip, their sergeant or lieutenant tells them they'll take care of them tomorrow with a late lunch. If administered fairly, the system works pretty well and the city actually ends up ahead in most cases. Think about it - a 30 minutes late lunch as opposed to 30 minutes of OT at time-and-one-half cash.

Swiping doesn't allow for that option. And nickel-and-dime accounting could end up costing more than expected. We doubt anyone from HQ is going to raise a stink because they'll get dumped. But others?

Crash

Two cops injured:

• Two Chicago Police officers were among four people hospitalized Monday night after a West Englewood neighborhood crash on the South Side.
  
  The officers were pursuing a suspected robber in a Hummer SUV when the vehicles collided about 8:30 p.m. near 67th Street and Marshfield Avenue, according to Chicago Police and the Chicago Fire Department.
  
  The two officers were taken to a hospital in serious condition, authorities said. Two other people were also at hospitals in good condition. None of the injuries were thought to be life-threatening.

Some comments said they had to be extracted from the squad. No further word. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Secret COPA Hangout

Thanks to a reader, we've been clued in to where COPA hangs out:

It's over on Clybourn, so if you're looking for a good time....

Whoa Whoa Whoa...What's This

Who hired this snowflake?

• Stay safe and be careful around these new recruits. Remember, they have been brain washed, and many are like Rahm, not even from "Shitcaga". They talk about "Change", but since they are new around here, they do not even know what they are changing from. Change to them may include getting rid of the Evil Cops who are the Real Problem. Don't forget the recruit who was assigned to 019 who went on line to check if the FTO he was assigned to had CRs. When he saw that the FTO had CRs, he "demanded" a Different FTO, because he felt the one assigned could be bad for his career!

We remember getting all sorts of advice from coppers with CR numbers. What not to do, how to write tight paper, how to answer the BS drama that came with OPS taking every single complaint that got called in without evaluating it for veracity, reality or even legality. We wouldn't want to be taught by someone who hadn't been around the block at least a couple times.

The Ed and Melissa Show

Another one of those "merit" people with a skyrocket attached to their ass:

From the February 2017 class with a graduation date of March - guess who's headed to the D Unit?

• Who is Sgt. Tom Crain? Merit? With less than a year in grade as a Sgt? What happened to Special Ed’s hard rule about moving newly promoted Sgt’s?!  Must be pretty special for Staples to move him to 620, on the Homicide Team, demand Commander RB put him on days and move another seasoned Det. Sgt off the team. This guy can’t stop running his mouth about how tight he is with Staples and how quickly he’ll ascend once she’s Superintendent. 

Must be nice to be able to parade your connections around and brag about it so everyone can see them. 

Crooked CPS?

This is from last week:

• Chicago Public Schools employees “stole or misappropriated” thousands of dollars worth of school-purchased gift cards that were intended to be used as incentives for students and families, according to an annual report from the district’s inspector general.
  
  In one case, a principal of a school for vulnerable students stole presents of at least “$500 in gift cards that were donated to the students and were intended to help address their specialized needs,” Inspector General Nicholas Schuler’s office found. The same principal gave to an acquaintance 30 new backpacks filled with school supplies that had been donated, according to Schuler.
  
  The misuse of gift cards was among a long list of alleged wrongdoing by teachers, principals and district families in the IG’s annual report, which was released Wednesday.

Who would have thought that in a monumental bureaucracy there might be a scandal or two lurking?

Crime-Free Zones

Why didn't we think of this? It's utterly brilliant:

• Immediately upon Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s recent declaration of the entire city of Chicago as an official “crime-free zone,” every criminal in the city suddenly and miraculously left the urban area, according to a statement released by the city council.
  
  “We declare every part of the city of Chicago a crime-free zone,” Emanuel announced in a Thursday appearance on CBS This Morning. “It is now physically impossible for any crime to be committed in our great city, because we declared it a zone of peace and harmony and criminals have no choice but to abide by our new rule.”
  
  Emanuel claimed he didn’t want to resort to such extreme legislative measures, but as the crime situation in Chicago didn’t seem to be getting any better, his hand was forced.
  
  “I finally decided to use the strongest weapon at our disposal: declaring things illegal,” he said.
  
  Stunned onlookers claim the second the legislation banning any criminals from the city was signed into law, dangerous gangsters, conniving drug dealers, and thieving hooligans fled the city on foot, as though compelled by some kind of strange, alien force.

Property values promptly tripled in some of the harder hit areas of the "community" so all those lots Daley and Rahm sold for a dollar are worth.....three.

Fifty-three? Stand Back!

Reinforcements have arrived!

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Sunday 53 new police officers have been deployed to their first district assignments as part of the plan to grow the Chicago Police Department by nearly 1,000 officers.
  
  “We are putting more police on the street — from the far north side to the far south side to the west side and neighborhoods in between — and we are getting gangs, guns and drugs off the street,” the mayor said. “Each of these men and women who are hitting the street today know that they can make a difference, and each of them will help us all achieve a better tomorrow.”

Rahm must have needed some timely positive press. The ones in our District have been here a month, maybe more. There must be a wave of retirements in the offing that are going to leave the Districts strapped for manpower again. Or maybe a giant Airport bid? In the meantime, NYPD graduated it's smallest class in recent memory - 400 Officers.

Rahm seems to be falling a bit short (again) of his promise to hire "nearly 1,000" officers because those pesky officers keep retiring or moving on to other jobs. All of this, while those in charge of "screening" potential candidates manage to disqualify a disturbingly high number of applicants based on god knows what.

Where Did They Go?

Whenever we post about low bails in Cook County or mention the hundreds of missing criminals on Electronic Monitoring, someone invariably says, "There ought to be a website that tracks all these missing criminals. SCC, get on that!"

(We find it amusing that people are willing to volunteer our already limited time for something they are unwilling to expend the effort on.)

But someone is making the effort - the Crime in Boystown and Wrigleyville blog:

• About six months ago, we published our very first story about people accused of committing crimes in our area who had skipped bail and gone missing.
  
  Well, our list of bail-skippers has grown significantly since then, so it's apparently time for an update.
  
  With Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans ordering judges to lower bail amounts to something defendants can afford, we expect to continue seeing many more people going AWOL than in the past.
  
  The following information about persons missing on bail reflects court clerk information on January 5, 2018.

We aren't going to steal their content, so click the link up top and give them your internet traffic. Obviously, their efforts are centered around the neighborhoods they serve, which happen to be a politically active neighborhood with many willing to donate to causes and politicians. Hopefully the CWB blog efforts demonstrate to the citizens how poorly served they are by the Cook County criminal justice system.

Wrong

Here comes Dart and Prickwrinkle's minions whining about layoffs:

• Over 300 more Cook County employees were laid off Friday due to budget cuts, ABC 7 has learned.
  
  Officials with the Cook County Sheriff's Office said 77 people were laid off from the department, including deputies and high ranking department members.

Politics is raising its ugly head though:

• Over 100 employees with the Cook County Courts are part of the layoff, but a temporary court order has put those layoffs on hold.

And guess what they blame?

• In November, the Cook County Board of Commissioners approved a $5.2 billion budget that included the layoffs of 321 people and the elimination of 1,017 vacant positions to make up for the $200 million in revenue lost when the sweetened beverage tax was repealed.

The sweetened beverage tax was NEVER going to generate anything close to $200 million, just based on the receipts that leaked out from retailers. Not only that, it was costing the County tens of millions in additional sales tax revenue as people shopped elsewhere.

Furthermore, if Prickwrinkle hadn't spent the $200 million prior to actually, you know, collecting it, she might have had a better handle on her budgetary process.

And what's this "elimination of 1,017 vacant positions" to help balance the budget? If they were unfilled, then those salaries weren't being spent, right? Let's do a little math:

• 1,017 spots, at an average salary of $50,000 is just over $50 million.
• This being Cook County, the average salary is more likely in the $75,000 range, meaning over $76 million wasn't paid out.
• A couple of websites we checked out says that salary is around 68% of the compensation costs - Insurance accounts for another 31%. That's another $36 million that wasn't paid in for insurance for non-existent employees.

$112 million in savings just by eliminating 1,017 spots THAT WERE ALREADY VACANT and not costing you a thing? So what was the purpose of a $200 million tax hike when $88 million would have been fine?

Welcome to the wonderful world of political accounting - where you spend money you haven't collected, save money you never spent, and charge the taxpayers almost 150% of what you "need" to get by.

Nice Bar Scene Rahm

This is why Chicago shouldn't have nice things:

• Hundreds of people spilled into the street and broke into fights outside of a River North bar early Saturday, according to witnesses and police.
  
  More than a dozen Chicago police officers flocked to 149 W. Kinzie St. at the Old Crow Smokehouse bar on the Near North Side around 1 a.m. to try to disperse the unruly crowd that spread across the block near Kinzie and LaSalle Street.
  
  Patrons of Old Crow Smokehouse said some customers grew rowdy in the bar, and people began fighting, until police officers flooded the establishment.

A dozen officers are now considered a "flood" to quell a riot of "hundreds."

If only there was enough manpower to have a citywide response unit.

Who are we kidding - they'd all be ducking at 1230.

Copper Injured

Car accident:

• A Chicago police officer and two men were injured in a Near West Side crash after the officer was responding to shots fired Saturday morning.
  
  The officer was responding to a report of a person shot in the 2300-block of West Adams Street at about 2:49 a.m., police said. The officer was then involved in a three vehicle crash in the 2000-block of West Madison Street.
  
  The officer was transported to Rush Hospital, where he was treated and released.

Over 3,500 people got shot in 2017. Don't worry - there will always be plenty more.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

2017 Final Numbers

Disregarding the Department's extensive manipulation and outright lies, the final Butcher's Bill for Chicago is as follows (all numbers per HeyJackass.com)

• Final 2017 Totals
  Shot and Killed: 624
  Shot and Wounded: 2937
  Total Shot: 3561
  Total Homicides: 675

Remember, HeyJackass counts police shootings in their totals (9 CPD, 1 Amtrak, 1 ISP) so that leaves fourteen homicides the Department is hiding so far.

HeyJackass.com also sums up the year as follows:

• It’s that time of year when we make a piss poor attempt to summarize the year that was. We classified 2016 simply as a “shitshow”. We’re going to say that 2017 was slightly less shitshow-y, but a shitshow nonetheless.
  
  For more than half of the year, 2017 was running ahead of 2016 with such performances like the disastrous July 4th weekend that tallied over 100 shot or the annual Father’s Day Shoot-O-Rahm-a. By August-time, the idiocy, for whatever reason, retraced back to 2015 levels where rainbow farting unicorns grazed along the lakefront and songs of “#crimeisdown” filled the air.
  
  Come midnight Jan 1, 2018, 16.5% less people were dead and nearly 20% less people were found themselves with additional ventilation. Aside from comparing 2017 to the worst year in two decades, a decline in the incline is parade worthy (just don’t invite the carjackers or the $200 million overtimers).
  
  Fortunately, we fell way short with our 2017 prediction of 850 homicides and 3850 shot and wounded. 2018 may likely fall somewhere in-between 2017 and 2015 with 600-650 homicides and 2500-3000 shot and wounded. If the Polar Vortex decides to hang out for much the winter, we think we’ll end up closer to the lower end of that range.
  
  Finally, many thanks to everyone who visited, liked, retweeted, emailed and hit the tip jar this past year. Have yourself a safe and prosperous new year.

Maybe they were running out of people to shoot, leading to the end of year slowdown. We're still betting on well over 500 this year in any event.

Cook County West

Liberals never seem to learn, even from each other:

So something like a 66% sugar tax? Let's see if Seattle voters can sway their politicians like Cook County voters. They are way more liberal on the west coast though. They may like high taxes.

FOP Wins A Round

Who would have thought that the city actually has to follow Labor Law? Someone alert Rahm:

• An administrative law judge says the Chicago Police Department violated state labor law when it failed to negotiate expansion of its body camera program with the city’s largest police union, according to court documents.
  
  Administrative Law Judge Anna Hamburg-Gal found the city failed to bargain with the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police when it expanded use of body-worn cameras to 14 police districts in 2017. In a recommendation order handed down this week, Hamburg-Gal advised the city to begin a dialogue, as required by state law, on safety and disciplinary matters surrounding the 2017 body camera expansion.

The no-so-good news - the city can still drag their feet:

• The recommendation won’t have teeth unless adopted by the state Labor Relations Board, and does not stop police officers in those districts from using body cameras issued in last year’s expansion. Nor does it reverse any disciplinary action against officers based on footage obtained from the cameras, the ruling says. It does overturn any discipline meted out as a result of misuse or loss of cameras, and it halts any future disciplinary action until the city and the police union complete the bargaining process.

Hopefully the FOP doesn't squander this opportunity.

Hey 330 Third Watch?

You might want to review this Admin Fax Message:

We know it wasn't on the test.

CWB Confirms - No Cameras

As rumored here Wednesday:

• Chicago police officers who are assigned to sit outside of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s home at 4228 North Hermitage have been ordered to not work with the body-worn cameras (BWC) that other officers are required to wear. News of the development came this morning on the Second City Cop blog.
  
  Now, CWBChicago has learned that the no-camera order was issued by someone who “out-ranks” 19th District Commander and BWC champion Marc Buslik. Whether that person is a police executive or a member of the mayor’s office was not immediately clear.
  
  We have also learned of a gang-related foot chase, gun recovery, and arrest that took place just two weeks ago directly across from the mayor’s home. The apprehension of the suspect—who’s on parole for shooting a man in Uptown—was assisted by the no-camera house units.

So if these "no-camera house units" happened to use any sort of force during the apprehension of the gun offender, then what? Who's going to take the weight for that lawsuit when the defense (or future plaintiff) demands to know where the footage is since every single patrol officer now has a camera? The Commander? Rahm? The so-called "out-rank[er]" who ordered them not to wear cameras?

Not fucking likely.

And still, not a single mainstream media outlet picking this up, wondering why Rahm doesn't want cameras around the residence.

Talk Shit, Get Shot

One of those Facebook Live shootings:



Hilarious.

12 and 14-Year Old Carjackers

Where did they learn this behavior? Who is encouraging it?

• A 12 yr old and a 14 yr old tried to jack a car in Oak Park last week. Lady resisted. They ran and were caught a few blocks away.
  
  14 year old was already wearing an ankle bracelet because of his involvement in other jackings.
  
  Both released to their parents without being charged

Dart is even emptying the Audy Home it seems.

First Deputy to Retire

Numerous comments stating that Navarro has put in his papers for 15 February.

And the new First Deputy will be....?

Quotas Again

Is the ACLU monitoring any more?

You see how 330 Third Watch couches the demand for numbers by insisting there's "discretion" while demanding traffic stops. That's because the TSSS Cards (Obama's lingering 2-year study to prove racism exists, now in it's 10th or 11th year) are the new Contact Card - the Contact Card that got the entire Department into trouble with the ACLU in the first place.

If the bosses would just put a number on how many cards they expect.....

Leaky 003

We've seen some leaky buildings before, but 003 takes the cake with this one:

That's like six or seven buckets, a mop and collapsing ceiling tiles. We're sure that isn't too moldy in the summertime either.

Only $10,000? (UPDATE)

Low bails for multiple felonies again (via the CWB blog):

• Sierra Copeland looks nice enough, but prosecutors say she has some mean surprises waiting for security guards who try to stop her for shoplifting downtown.
  
  A Bloomingdale’s security guard told police that he saw the 21-year-old Washington Park resident slip a $365 purse into a shopping bag and then head for the exit at 900 North Michigan around 4:30 p.m. on December 22. When the guard stopped Copeland and started walking her back toward the loss prevention office, the pint-sized perp unleashed a wicked surprise: She pulled a tire iron from her sleeve and repeatedly cracked the guard in the head with it, police said. The security guard received stitches for his wounds, police said.
  
  But that’s not all. Police also determined that Copeland pepper-sprayed a security guard who tried to detain her at TJ Maxx's Loop location, 1 North State Street, in January 2017. She’s charged with felony retail theft; misdemeanor retail theft; felony aggravated battery with a deadly weapon; felony aggravated battery causing great bodily harm; and two felony counts of aggravated battery of a merchant.
  
  Judge John Lyke set bail at $10,000.

If we weren't already voting "no" on every single judge, we'd add him to our list. But feel free to put Lyke on your own personal list.

UPDATE: For comparison, this comment:

• Anonymous said...
  
  But the female who shoplifted 20 Lego Kits in Orland Park without harming anyone is being held on $100,000.

Only in Cook County.

Strategic Gentrification

Nice turn of a phrase by a moron:

• Democratic governor candidate Chris Kennedy on Wednesday accused Mayor Rahm Emanuel of leading a “strategic gentrification plan” aimed at forcing African-Americans and other minorities out of Chicago to make the city “whiter” and wealthier.
  
  “I believe that black people are being pushed out of Chicago intentionally by a strategy that involves disinvestment in communities being implemented by the city administration, and I believe Rahm Emanuel is the head of the city administration and therefore needs to be held responsible for those outcomes,” Kennedy said during a news conference about gun violence in North Lawndale.

Black people are leaving to escape the out-of-control violence in their neighborhoods abetted by the failure of the criminal justice system to hold law breakers accountable. As for the "disinvestment," Kennedy is pandering to the voters Rahm is desperately attempting to court for his own election.

It's certainly interesting that a democratic candidate for governor is attacking a democratic mayor to get the votes both will need to win.

No Cameras?

Can anyone confirm? And can anyone think of a reason why?

• Anonymous said...
  
  Speaking of the Mayor, has a new policy for 2018 for the 019 house watchers. They are not permitted to wear the fan d BWC’s. This is very confusing for me. These canera’s were touted as officer safety by the beloved commander Buslic many years ago. There has been several incidents when arrests were made on hermitage st. , so what is up with this verbal order? Why would these officers be the only officers in any district be excluded from big brother??? Does the mayor feel transparency should go so far? These officers are not inside his residence, so I’m perplexed.

Now (if true) why wouldn't the powers-that-be want cameras on Rahm's block? Perhaps the mayor isn't spending the requisite amount of time at his "residence" to maintain eligibility for the next election? We did hear a rumor that the wedding dress left town a while back, so there would actually have to be a body living in the house.

Does anyone remember when intrepid reporters would actually follow pols and camp out somewhere to get video of corrupt practices? Now they just re-write City Hall press releases and troll blogs for stories.

Revisiting Police Limit

Some cartoons that bring a chuckle...and a shake of the head:

If only cartooning paid enough for Garey McKee to do it full time.

A Garbage Strike?

At least it isn't summer:

• As if the Deep Freeze isn’t enough of a slap in the face, how about this worry for winter-weary Chicagoans? A strike with the potential to paralyze city snow removal, garbage pick-ups and pothole repairs.
  
  Teamsters Local 700 has scheduled a “contract meeting and possible strike vote” for 10 a.m. Sunday to protest the union’s displeasure with contracts talks with the city to replace a 10-year agreement that expired six months ago.
  
  Local 700 represents 2,032 city employees, the biggest chunk of the city’s unionized workforce outside police officers and firefighters.

At least it isn't summer, though the snowplowing could be an issue later this week.

Hey, we just remembered - you know what other Contract expired six-months ago? The one with the police, and that's just the rank-and-file.

New Link

We could all use a little humor here and there. We strive to provide some. Here's another site that has been doing the same thing:

• The Salty Sarge

We'll be adding a link to the right side. He covered serious topics, satire and humor. Give him a read.

Slanting the News

Channel 7 is already "shaping" the narrative, probably for Rahm's campaign or something.  Check out this headline:

• 2 dead, 24 wounded in Chicago shootings over New Year's weekend

That leaves out the dead woman in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. And the one, maybe two death investigations that appeared in our comment sections. It's almost like they don't want the public to know the numbers.

This Isn't Good

The homicide rate has increased three-fold:

• A man who was fatally shot on New Year’s Day on the South Side has become the third homicide of 2018, police say.
  
  The shooting happened about 5 p.m. in the 4700 block of South Princeton Avenue in the Fuller Park neighborhood, police said.
  
  The victim, a 34-year-old man, was shot multiple times in the neck while behind the wheel of a car, police said. He was pronounced dead on the scene, police said.
  
  Circumstances of the attack were not immediately clear.
  
  Earlier, a 29-year-old woman was found suffering from blunt trauma to the head about noon in the 2900 block of North Hampden Court in the Park West neighborhood. She was pronounced dead on the scene of the basement apartment.

So in the course of a single day Chicago went from a predicted 365 homicides to a potential 1095!

And this is even worse:

• No arrests have been made in any of the homicides.

The Department has gone from a 20% clearance rate to zero in the course of a single day. We expect some heads to roll over this.

Trend Line

A graph showing homicides over the past few years (click for larger pic):

And another showing shootings (click for larger pic):

If you draw a line between the first and last numbers, you see an upward trend. 2016 was the aberration year (and we've said as much dozens of times.) The trend is unmistakably upward and that should be worrying to anyone who actually pays attention.

(Thanks to HeyJackass.com for the numbers - the graphs were created a day or so before the end of the year, but the trend is right there.)

Covering for Foxxx Again

Remember that hotel party last week? The one that didn't have anyone wander into a freezer? The one where three guns were recovered, a bullet narrowly missed some tourists from India and not a single person faced weapon charges? The Crime in Boystown blog had a heck of a report on it:

• It was quite a party at the Homewood Suites hotel in River North early last Sunday. Three handguns were recovered in room 918 after shots were fired around 3:30 a.m, police said. Ten adults were arrested along with two minors, almost all for trespassing. No one was charged with any gun crime.
  
  Now, the CWBChicago team has pulled up the police and court records of the attendees.
  
  It turns out the ten adults—average age 21.4 years—had collected 48 arrests in Chicago. And that was before last weekend’s shenanigans.
  
  Four of the ten adults have firearms convictions and a fifth is awaiting trial on gun charges. One of them is on parole.
  
  No one has been charged with any weapons violation in the hotel incident, which reportedly sent a bullet flying through “common walls” between guest rooms.

Maybe we missed it, but did either newspaper cover these criminal reprobates? Maybe a TV station did a follow up on the incident? You'd think that the citizenry might be outraged about assorted felons not being charged after being caught in the vicinity of three more guns. But then, the media would have to actually report the news so the citizens would be informed. And that would endanger democrats.

Reap What You Sow

We won't say we told them so, but...we told them so:

• Baltimore had 343 homicides in 2017, a number which set a new record for the most murders per capita in the city’s history. Today NPR published an interesting interview with a Baltimore pastor named Rev. Kinji Scott who says the problem is that police in the city have pulled back in the wake of the Freddie Gray case. Interviewer Lauren Prayer asks Rev. Scott, “After the death of Freddie Gray, yourself, families of victims, didn’t you want police to back off?” Scott replied:
  
  No. That represented our progressives, our activists, our liberal journalists, our politicians, but it did not represent the overall community. Because we know for a fact that around the time Freddie Gray was killed, we start to see homicides increase. We had five homicides in that neighborhood while we were protesting.

So it wasn't the "community" that was marching all over the place, agitating and screaming for indictments, burning and looting stores? That was progressives and journalists and politicians? We had no idea!

You have to love when the left starts to devour their own.

017

Once again, a dark horse district:

• In the city’s first homicide of 2018, a 51-year-old man was shot and killed a little more than two hours into the New Year while driving on the Northwest Side.
  
  The man was among 12 people shot Sunday and early Monday in attacks across Chicago, as city residents rang in the New Year amid sub-zero temperatures.

And the number of people shot is already in double digits.

The good news is, by pro-rating out the numbers, Chicago will be down to 365 homicides for the year which is a 50% reduction.

Shootings however, will jump to 4380, an increase of nearly 800.

See how playing with numbers is fun?

Congratulations 011

Sitting here counting toothpicks.... and for the fourth year running, 011 lands at the top of the homicide pile.

This after being given a few hundred PPO's, five tact teams, a full compliment of lieutenants, fifty sergeants, ShotSpotter, a Pod camera room, and according to numerous e-mailers, a completely new desk and paint job.

At what point do you stop sending money into a place that obviously wants to kill everyone else?

UPDATE: Our stat people say that this is the second "four-peat" in 12 years. Anyone who commanded 011 in the past decade probably shouldn't be promoted based on that track record.

Happy 2018

Stay Safe.

We can't say it enough.

Especially this year.

2017 Last Gasps

Multiple wounded up north:

• It was Tiana Harston’s first time at American Ale House, a bar with Christmas lights hanging in the window and a green awning, on the Far North Side.
  
  She was there early Sunday to celebrate a friend’s birthday. But uninvited guests slipped in, cutting the celebration short, she said.
  
  A shooting inside the bar at West Howard Street and North Claremont Avenue left four men injured, one critically, police said.
  
  Harston, 37, was sitting by the front entrance and did not see anyone who might cause trouble come inside.
  
  “Somebody had to let them in from the back door,” Harston said after the shooting. “They never came in through the front. I know all the men who are intertwined, I know their faces.”

"...all the men who are intertwined..."

Sounds like a Boystown shooting.

Denver Ambush

A previous call that escalated into an ambush:

• A man fired more than 100 rounds at sheriff’s deputies early Sunday, killing one and injuring four others, before being fatally shot himself in what authorities called an ambush. Two civilians were also injured.
  
  Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock said the shooting happened at a home at the Copper Canyon Apartments, a landscaped complex in Highlands Ranch, 16 miles south of Denver.
  
  The suspect was well-known to authorities but Spurlock declined to name him until his identity was confirmed. Authorities had left the home about four hours earlier to address a noise complaint and returned to in response to reports of a disturbance at the home.

Thoughts and prayers to the Douglas County Sheriffs. Stay alert boys and girls.