Join the Police - for Free!

We don't mean it's free to join - we mean you'll be working for free!

• A new class of Chicago police recruits has not been paid since they were hired nearly a month ago, their union told NBC Chicago.

  The class of officers, more than 50 in all, has continued their training without pay according to Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara, but at least one has said they are considering leaving the force that they so recently joined.

  The recruits were hired on May 16, according to the union.

People forget that joining isn't exactly free. You have to quit your previous job, and if you're police, you give them two weeks notice.

then you arrive at the Academy and they give you a list of things you have to buy - uniform(s), gym clothes, gun, equipment, dress uniforms (summer and winter). And you have to buy all this from approved vendors, who aren't charging market prices - they're over-charging a tiny little bit. 

All-in-all to join up, you're out-of-pocket a few thousand dollars before you start to see paychecks from the City. Depending on what part of the month you got hired, it could be three weeks. These kids appear to have fallen into that three week gap.

It's also unfortunate that these recruits came on just before a Line of Duty death where they will be utilized as window dressing for an Honors Funeral. That means a full summer uniform in short order and money might be a bit tight, especially after a missed paycheck.

It's one of those things, but it will give the new kids some immediate insight into how much the Department actually cares about you....and that ain't much.

CFD Injured on Vacation

Lucky to be alive actually:

• Paralyzed ten days ago in the middle of a San Francisco triathlon, injured Chicago firefighter Jose Perez is beginning the battle back after multiple surgeries.

  Perez was on the West Coast for the June 1 Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon when he launched himself off a boat, and a freak collision left him face down in the waters near the Golden Gate Bridge.

  “I just felt a big boom,” Perez said. “[I] just hit the back of my head.”

  Perez described the moment over Zoom from his San Francisco hospital bed. Another triathlon swimmer landed on top of him, leaving him paralyzed.

This entire incident sounds like gross negligence on the part of the race organizers - they motored the contestants out into the Bay and then had everyone pile off the boat in an uncontrolled wave, with no separation or metering, and of course, this happened.

He's doing better and has regained some function in his limbs after a spinal procedure, but he's got a year or more of physical therapy ahead of him. No one knows if he'll ever return to full duty.

GoFundMe link here. Best wishes for a complication-free recovery. 

Here a Tax, There a Tax

Gamblers beware:

• FanDuel announced plans Tuesday to slap a $0.50 transaction fee on every online wager placed in Illinois, an additional juice that the sports betting behemoth says it has to squeeze because state lawmakers are saddling sportsbooks with a new tax on every bet they take.

  Legislators who signed off on the first-of-its-kind per-wager tax to help bridge a $1 billion state budget gap say big gambling corporations like DraftKings can afford another dent in their profit margins.

  But after sweeping sports betting tax hikes last year, leaders of the booming industry claim the one-two taxing punch will lead to worse odds — and drive bettors to the black market.

There's a tipping point, where the cost to RUN a business doesn't work out with the cost of DOING business. It's a balancing act.

There are tiny brains who will insist that even if a business is making a single penny in profit, then they will continue to do business....and they ought to be taxed that extra penny. But the fact is, they'll just move their business over the border to someplace that taxes them less, increases their bottom line for shareholders, and expand into untapped markets with friendlier business climates.

We already do most of our food shopping in the suburbs, we fill up the car in another county (remember - gas tax goes up from forty-seven cents on 01 July!), larger appliance purchases are made out-of-state and we're looking into transferring our friends and family cell service to a cabin in the woods.

If there isn't one already, someone will create a work-around in the electronic betting industry. 

Pepperidge Farm Remembers

Remember when CPD used to park squad cars in a reasonably secure location and then assign a couple of Canine Units to patrol the lots so as to prevent vandalism?

Additionally, an unknown number of001 District squad cars suffered slashed tires, broken windows and outside mirrors removed. Given the pool car situation the past few years, are Officers relegated to foot patrol and bus routes? 

Quite the Hypocrisy

Look who got arrested in Los Angeles the other day:

• Authorities released labor leader David Huerta on bond this week, days after his arrest for allegedly obstructing federal officers while protesting an immigration raid in Los Angeles.

  Huerta, the 58-year-old California president of the Service Employees International Union, one of the nation’s largest labor unions, said he remains focused on immigrants detained in LA.

  An advocate for workers and immigrants in Southern California for decades, Huerta has become a flashpoint in an ongoing standoff between federal immigration enforcement officers and protesters.

Remember, these protests aren't about immigrants - they're about ILLEGAL immigrants.

And the head of one of the largest labor unions in the nation is advocating for ILLEGAL aliens who would then be in direct competition for lower-skilled jobs that many LEGAL immigrants want, need and came here LEGALLY to fill.

ILLEGAL aliens drive down wages and drive up housing costs, completely at odds with what a union typically advocates for. 

Kind of makes you wonder why any LEGAL immigrant would support these communists, but hey, vote democrat for more!

Exceptionally Cleared / Closed

Spectacular news out of Humboldt Park:

• A 36-year-old concealed carry permit holder shot and killed an alleged armed robber in Chicago’s Humboldt Park late Tuesday night. CWB Chicago noted the alleged armed robber was 18-years-old and is suspected of being tied to a number of robberies that occurred in the minutes prior to his being shot.

  In one of those encounters “a gunman robbed a man near the corner of Fulton and Kilpatrick in Austin and drove off with the victim’s gray 2025 Toyota Corolla.” In another, “two women were robbed at gunpoint in the 2500 block of West Haddon.”

  FOX 32 reported that the alleged armed robber then approached the 36-year-old concealed carry permit holder with gun drawn “and demanded his belongings.” The concealed carry permit holder pulled his own firearm and opened fire, killing the alleged armed robber at 10:48 p.m. 

  A gray Toyota and the property of the two women from West Haddon were recovered by police.

So that's at least three armed robberies solved by the armed citizen.

CWB has an amusing graphic up:

 

 

As the deceased was a mere eighteen years of age, there's no telling how many future crimes were just cured by this preventative lead-icillin injection.

Thanks Again Fata$$

What's another million in taxpayer money pissed away on illegal aliens?

• Taxpayers will be on the hook for more than $1 million for a giant base camp tent that was supposed to be built to house migrants back in 2023.

  The construction was scrapped halfway through construction, and, at the time the governor vowed taxpayers would not be responsible.

  The payment was slipped into the budget, and Democrats and Republicans were caught off guard. The last-minute push to get the budget deal done by May 31 meant lawmakers did not have time to review it all before voting on it. Tucked inside was a two-line notation about a payment to GardaWorld, the company hired by the state to build the base camp tents.

Once again, the useless legislators attempt to pass all sorts of bullshit bills, virtue signalling and all manner of crap, then they run around the last seventy-two hours of the legislative session and rush through a massive budget bill that no one even reads.

And they act surprised this made it into Law. 

Next up, check out who GardaWorld makes political contributions too this election cycle. 

Predator Convicted

Good riddance:

• A former Chicago police officer pleaded guilty on Tuesday to felony charges in connection with two incidents of sexual misconduct involving female colleagues — one that occurred at the police training academy and one at a police precinct.

  The case against Eric Tabb was highlighted in an Invisible Institute-ProPublica investigation that found that Chicago police officials have frequently failed to vigorously investigate allegations of sexual misconduct made against city officers.

  Tabb, 35, pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated battery in a public place, a Class 3 felony, and was sentenced to 30 months of probation. As part of a plea agreement, Tabb’s charges were reduced and he was required to enroll in a sex offender program.

Probation? Another joke.

Until the exploitative culture at the Academy is eliminated (and strict background checks are reinstated), expecting the Department to thoroughly investigate what has long been acceptable behavior by former and current instructors, especially gym instructors, is a ridiculous expectation.

About Last Night....

So what's the scoop?

There was a protest, everyone knew that:

• A large anti-ICE protest was held Tuesday evening in downtown Chicago.

  Demonstrators started at Federal Plaza and were protesting ICE and other federal agents engaged in the mass deportations happening nationwide.

There was another protest / march also, and the two combined at some point.

Then, this odd report:

• A driver plowed into a group of protesters Tuesday in the Loop, striking at least one pedestrian, as thousands marched through downtown Chicago protesting the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration raids.

  The driver was stuck between police vehicles on State Street. Officers wanted to guide her away from the crowd and asked her to turn right on Monroe Street, but she ignored their orders and turned left, speeding into the crowd.

"...plowed into...." but the Slum Times only mentions one casualty? That's not really "plowed into" by any stretch. That sort of verbiage should be reserved for the European-type islamic terror attacks where fifty and more people are run over, bodies flying through the air and multiple dead bodies in the streets.

The Slum Times also mentions a couple arrests, and we've had a comment or three about Officers being deployed on the Line of March without any sort of protective gear and no reserve force in riot gear in case anything went south. Some reports mention half-a-dozen arrests.

It all sounds like a large protest, a few bad actors and a less-than-impressive response that all worked out.

For the moment.

The Department should be using this as an opportunity to check on their mobilization plan, because if it all goes bad, you don't want to find out the plan is less than adequate in the middle of a full scale riot. The current command staff can't think on their feet, any upper echelon people with experience have been chased away, and as we exited the stage, we noted that lower level white shirts (Lts and Sgts) can't seem to think for themselves in any type of stressful event.

Can Anyone Verify?

This would be par for the course (click for larger version):

And don't forget, Hillard got a job with Taser Inc after he retired.

Reminder

This commentator says you don't have to show up for a cancelled RDO:

• I suggest this every summer. Put in a par form for the day off without pay. There’s nothing they can do and the only downside is that they will add a day onto your retirement date. I only had to do that once in my career and they never messed with me again. if everybody on a watch, did it once they would find themselves in a real pickle. If you don’t take a stand, they will continue to ride roughshod over you. There is great power in unity.

There are a few rumors of a concerted effort to either use this or a Medical Roll call-in, possibly for an undetermined upper respiratory ailment that is supposedly sweeping through China and spreading across the globe. No one wants a repeat of the global plan-demic after all.

The FOP can't advocate for anything like this, but now that we're not subject to any Rules, Regulations, Contract restrictions, General Orders, etc., we can see where this goes. Let us know.

Dumbest Comment Ever

Someone posted this stupidity:

• You do not have a bid if you are a buy back.

This came up during our hiatus, and we regretted not being able to address it at the time.

The Department's contention was that when your day off was cancelled, you had neither a watch nor a day off group, so they could deploy you at will. We believe the FOP lost this in front of the arbitrator, a ninety-something year old Biden clone.

What the actual f#$%? 

• if you don't have a Day Off Group on your actual days off, then what's the point of even scheduling days off?
• if you don't have a Watch, whats the point of bidding for one every year? 
• for that matter, what's the point of having scheduled Start Times if the City can just willy-nilly schedule you for Third Watch or Midnights whenever your non-existent days off come around?

Someone could be working what was their Friday on Third Watch and run up against a cancelled day off, and the City/Department could say, "You're working First Watch on your cancelled day off," meaning it was right back into a squad car for a back-to-back shift. Seventeen hours minimum

And that shift could be anywhere in the city.

You ALWAYS have a Day Off Group, a Watch and a Start Time. That's the point of seniority. Otherwise, the Contract is a joke and you are essentially a slave to the whims of the Department. 

There's a lawsuit in there somewhere. Unless the City wants to pay cops for every off-duty hour spent on-call, blowing up their chances to be with their kids, attend family functions and generally unwind from an increasingly stressful atmosphere, then we're sure a bunch of people would take the overnight approximate 40% raise.

A Strange Rumor

This is what passes (passed?) for firearms training?

• Retired Firearms Instructor here: a YUGE problem with Department training has been the inconsistency of training by various sections.

  Around 2010, the Dept. had been running the In-Service Firearms Training Program. As was my custom, at the conclusion of the training I would debrief the officers in order to allow them to provide input on their experience.

  One officer stated "This training is different than what they taught us at Near North (a CPD training site on Larrabee St. where force-on-force training was conducted with role players using training pistols that fired paint marking cartridges). I asked "How so?" He replied, "They told us when confronted with an immediate threat, as you draw your weapon, begin firing as soon as the muzzle clears the holster, and "walk" your rounds up until you are hitting the target."

  I asked him to repeat this, as I was not sure I had heard correctly. He repeated this statement and added "You can see paint marks on the floor where the rounds were hitting".

  To be clear, the training described by this officer is completely contrary to the Dept.'s Firearms Training lesson plan. Range Instructors have always emphasized that if Deadly Force is warranted, obtaining a sight picture is critical so that accurate fire can be delivered to quickly neutralize the threat, as well as minimizing the threat to others, as it is Dept. policy that the minimum amount of force should be used to obtain a lawful objective, (i.e., gain compliance over the subject/offender).

  I did not verify that what the officer said was accurate or true, but during my time as an Instructor I was aware of several instances where training at various sites was not in accordance with what was being taught at the Academy. The story I provided is the most egregious example of supposed "training" I was aware of.

We have no idea if this is true or not, and no way to verify it either way. It would seem that this is a tailor-made opportunity to make a lot of law firms extremely rich as the "training" would be nothing more than manufacturing ricochets to wound any number of persons unlucky enough to be in the background. Who in their right mind would think that was a good idea?

Crime Pays....Pays Very Well

The "outrage" expressed here is amusing:

• Former Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan’s lawyers accused prosecutors of a “gross breach of the rules” Monday, complaining that the feds “gratuitously plastered Madigan’s estimated net worth” in a public court filing leading up to his sentencing this week.

  Late last week, they also accused prosecutors of seeking “to condemn an 83-year-old man to die behind bars for crimes that enriched him not one penny.”

"...not one penny."? Are you kidding us?

After fifty years in government, guess how much Mike is worth:

• Prosecutors wrote in a court filing late Friday that “Madigan has amassed a personal fortune of more than $40 million.” They did so as they complained of his “appalling” greed amid a scheme to trade on the office he once held....

According to this website:

• The base salary for Illinois State Representatives is established by state law. As of the most recent decisions, the annual base salary for a member of the Illinois House of Representatives is $69,464. 

This salary can be augmented by per diem, committee assignments, travel reimbursement, health and retirement benefits, all for a job listed as "part time." Round it up to a cool $100,000 if you like, but even if that was the salary for all fifty years (it wasn't), that's only $5 million. Didn't Mike eat? Pay for a mortgage? Send kids to school, college and for law degree(s)? Weddings to pay for?

Mike was making bank as partner in his law firm, which was well knows as THE firm to appeal property tax assessments, whereby the firm would reap massive legal fees and the partners would get bonuses reflecting their ability to generate business. That's always been a legal way to ::ahem:: funnel money to those voting on the property tax rules. Funny how that works.

But claiming he didn't make "not one penny" is laughable in the extreme.

$50 million - who does this guy think he is, Nancy Pelosi? 

UPDATE: John Kass has an amusing take on the people who used to "oppose" Madigan all of the sudden supporting him and his corrupt behavior - likely because they all got rich while Madigan took the political heat....which wasn't really heat at all. It was an act.

Testing the Response Times

Guess who's coming to town?

Blue state blue cities are going to be summer hotbeds of stupidity until they figure out how hard the feds are going to come down on their bullshit. Don't make any long term weekend plans for the next few months.

Piss Poor Planning

Not only is Yoyo a moron, everyone in her office is a sub-moron:

• SCC, How are we supposed to drop a To-From to keep our days off for this weekend? We're supposed to write a To-From 10 days in advance, and the AdMin notice comes out eight days before the cancellations, and I was off two of those.

From what we hear, they're not even making the effort to do any 12-on-12-off First and Second watches with Third watch being the response platoon. Just all days off cancelled are going to Humboldt Park regardless of bids and assignments. 

That would take some effort and the Larritorious/Yoyo brain trust doesn't have anyone with an ounce of common sense  or Contractual knowledge to successfully run a deployment.

These A$$holes Again

This "fad" is back again:

• The paintball drive-bys are back. At least two people reported being shot with paintballs from passing cars on Sunday night, one in Old Town and the other in River North. One of the victims was taken to a hospital for treatment of an eye injury.

  Police said a 38-year-old man was walking westbound in the 100 block of West Schiller when a red sedan pulled up around 10:48 p.m. Someone inside the car fired a paintball gun, striking him in the eye, according to a CPD spokesperson.

Hopefully, a CCL carrier gets confronted and fires some timely and accurate lead projectiles in return. 

Death Penalty Work-Around

Federal charges:

• Federal prosecutors may pursue the death penalty for a man accused of killing an Uber driver during a weeks-long violent crime spree that also included an armed carjacking outside the Willis Tower.

  Edmond Harris, 22, has been in federal custody for four years since being charged with the March 23, 2021, murder of Javier Ramos during a carjacking in Lawndale.

  Last week, U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland extended deadlines in the case after learning that the Department of Justice is reconsidering its previous decision not to seek the death penalty for Harris, according to court records.

If Porkulous and state dems won't reinstate the Death Penalty at the state level, we fully support Federal executions of murderers.

Charges Announced

This is going to be another SAFE-T Act disaster:

• A wanted felon was charged and detained Sunday in connection with the death of Chicago Police Officer Krystal Rivera, who was unintentionally shot and killed by her partner last week after the man allegedly pointed an AR-style pistol at officers.

  Adrian A. Rucker, 25, of Freeport, faces felony counts of armed violence and illegal possession of a gun, drugs and a fake ID, Chicago police said in a statement Sunday morning.

  A Cook County judge ordered him held until trial during his detention hearing Sunday afternoon. Officers and Rivera’s family filled the courtroom.

Guess where this asshole was supposed to be already?

• CPD reported that Rucker had six active warrants at the time of his arrest, including one from suburban Cook County that had been active for nearly a year.

  Court records indicate Rucker failed to appear in court on an identity theft charge on June 5, 2024, exactly one year before Rivera’s shooting. Judge Ellen Mandeltort ordered her clerk to send Rucker a postcard reminder of his court obligations, but he did not comply. Mandeltort issued a failure-to-appear warrant a month later, which remained active until Chicago police arrested him on Thursday night.

A postcard?!?!  That'll show him!

Paul Vallas points out:

• According to the Chicago Tribune, the person arrested in the tragic death of Officer Krystal Rivera allegedly pointed a rifle at Officer Rivera and other officers during a pursuit, which led to the incident that tragically led to her death.
  
  
  Rucker had 6 WARRANTS and a revoked FOID card due to domestic battery charges. He had an arrest warrant with Cook County since July of 2024. Why didn’t the Sheriff make this arrest? 
  
  
  This is the public safety crisis former Clerk of the Courts Iris Martinez warned county leaders like Toni Preckwinkle about as Sheriff Tom Dart has let almost 40,000 warrants go unserved!  
  
  
  These warrants put CPD officers lives in grave danger, who come across these individuals at traffic or investigatory stops and do not know the person they are approaching has an arrest warrant.  
  
  
  CBS Chicago reports that the Sheriffs office has let 75% of orders of protection go unserved. Has any reporter asked why he does not serve the warrants and orders of protection? 
   
  How many lives of victims of violence and first responders do we have to lose before the leaders at Cook County will do their jobs?

Dart has never been held accountable for any poor decisions he's made - from jail deaths, to hiring media slobs or their wives for six-figure jobs, cutting manpower to dangerous levels.

Why start now? 

One Boat?

From the comments:

• SCC, you should do another follow up post and question why Mark Chapulis of 2FM still has a job. This is guy in charge of maintenance of the police departments helicopters and police boats.

  The city assets that he refuses to perform basic maintenance on and therefor are u down and costing the city more money because ignoring scheduled maintenance is causing more damage to the boats and helicopters.

  The Marine Unit now has one working boat.

  This is also the person in charge who lost a million dollar grant to refurbish a boat that has been useless for 3 years. The grant was awarded years ago and has now been lost since he did not have the refurbishment completed.

This is the same guy who has the helicopter fleet grounded, wheels falling off fire trucks, squad cars bursting into flame, garbage trucks breaking down in alleys across the city. He's obviously incompetent. 

And  with summer right around the corner, CPD has a single boat available?

More Praise?

Gee, first phony pfather pfleger, now an aldercreature?

• Chicago Ald. David Moore says he’s finally starting to see the change he’s long been envisioning when it comes to reducing the city’s out-of-control violent crime numbers.
  
  “I’m not getting the calls and even more than that, when I drive around at night, because I like to see where those hot spots are. I don’t see that activity like I used to in some of those very hotspot areas,” Moore told The Center Square. “I was just commending the District Commanders when we were in our meeting, just telling them, let’s continue to stay proactive on this. Let’s not lay down where we can improve.”

  Chicago Police Department data shows violent crime numbers are now down 24% across the city compared to last year, including the recent Memorial Day weekend, when the 24 people shot represented roughly half the number of 2024 shooting victims.

  [...] While Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has touted his new violence intervention program, which includes greater community outreach to and investment in young people, for spearheading much of the change, Moore is also quick to sing the praises of police.

  “Let me tell you, 90% of it is due to [Police Superintendent] Larry Snelling, but you have to give the mayor credit because he chose Larry Snelling at the request of the community,” Moore said. “When you hear and talk to the rank and file, this is a commander that understands all. This is a commander who all of them respect and they work hard for. The tools that he put in place to hold accountability to his commanders and to his sergeants, it’s unmatched.”

Nothing about the overly cool spring we just had? There were maybe 3 days total that topped 85 degrees and overnight lows were almost always in the 50/60s. That alone is worth more than half of the crime reduction. 

And depending on how you interpret falling arrests and citizens not waiting around to report crime, that could be another "reduction" in crime. 

But as always, reading too much into the cyclical nature of crime (it goes up, it goes down) in the short term will only lead to embarrassing ass-covering when numbers suddenly trend the other direction.

UPDATE: As a reader warns, temps are headed up and CPS teachers had to turn all the grades last week. That means this entire week is going to be kids playing hooky as there's no reason to show up to class. That could be an unexplained "increase" in short order.

L.A. Riots Inbound?

Why is the media describing the LA riots as "mostly peaceful"? It's like the St. George of Fentanyl events all over again.

It also forcibly reminds all sane people that the J6 "fed-surrection" was "RIOTS!" 24/7 despite nothing being burned and only American flags being waved. All we see during the LA riots are Mexican flags. Why are these people protesting for a country they won't even live in?

And the democrat politicians encouraging violent "protests," supporting doxxing law enforcement, protecting illegal aliens over American citizens - all behavior we were assured for months and years was "insurrection" but is now approved since it supports their current thinking. 

The outright refusal of local law enforcement to assist federal authorities who were under attack and under siege necessitated the federalization of over 2,000 National Guard troops. The nation is slowly waking up to the fact that democrats don't serve the middle class any more (not that they ever truly did - they served the accumulation of power).

Porkulous has been making the same noises as Newscum for months now, so it may only be a matter of time before the pantifa and transtifa rioters are deployed here.

Prepare accordingly.

Light Posting Sunday

After the past 48 hours, we're going to take it easy tonight.

We ended up going through over 400 comments, and to be frank there were quite a few that needed deletion, most obviously from outsiders who dislike the CPD and were steered here by certain anti-cop posts elsewhere. It's just one of those things.

Open post for now. 

Firefighters Injured

Minor injuries, but still a reminder of the dangers faced by First Responders:

• Two Chicago firefighters and a teen were injured Saturday afternoon in an apartment fire in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.

  Firefighters responded to a fire on the third floor of a four-story apartment building in the 2300 block of North Ashland Avenue, Chicago Fire Department officials said.

  Two firefighters who were injured were taken to the hospital in good condition. A teenage boy was taken to Lurie Children's Hospital for treatment to be checked for smoke inhalation.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Good F#$%ing Lord

We're speechless:

• Chicago Police Officer Krystal Rivera was “unintentionally” shot and killed by her partner when they encountered an armed person during a foot pursuit Thursday night in Chatham, police officials said.

  Police Supt. Larry Snelling previously said that Rivera was shot about 9:50 p.m. while chasing a person who she thought was armed into an apartment building in the 8200 block of South Drexel Avenue. Once inside, officers were confronted by another person who was armed with a rifle, and an officer opened fire.

  Police now say the officer was the only person who fired a weapon, and that the “gunfire unintentionally struck Officer Rivera.”

Where to begin?

How does the Department address this?

We can only recall one similar incident, possibly on the southwest side many years ago, where an Officer was shot in the leg (possible ricochet) involving a traffic stop, a van, and crossfire. It might have been TRU or MSF. We don't remember it all. We might be wrong on part of it.

But this.... 

This is bad. Very bad. Bad enough that it may call into question every bit of firearm training the Department is operating under. We could go on for hours about basic firearm safety, how the NRA teaches it, how the military teaches it, how it is supposed to be drilled into every single brain cell so that safe operation becomes habit, second nature, and part of your overall tactical awareness.

And then we could go on for even more hours about how continuing Firearm Safety is neglected as soon as you graduate the Academy, because training is expensive, time consuming, and removes Officers from the street. Plus, the City doesn't want you relying on your weapon any more - they want you to de-escalate, be less confrontational, use less-than-lethal options. 

And tactics? That would take days to cover.

Something broke down, utterly and completely, and it cost a young woman her life....and a child her mother.

We are truly at a loss here.  

Inappropriate

Here's a link to the video of numerous exempts with absolutely no sense of decorum:

• LINK

It's all of eighteen seconds long and we can spot at least three incidents of laughter just prior to the press conference about an Officer who was just killed.

This is the command staff - they sure inspire a lot of confidence and respect, don't they? 

Reminder

From our old friend:

• CPD FATHERS' DAY MASS AT GOLD STAR FAMILIES MEMORIAL AND PARK 10:00 A.M. SUNDAY, 15 JUN

  All active and retired CPD members, Gold Star Families, Chaplains Ministry supporters, and their families are welcome...as is the public. Mass will be finished by 10:30 for the sake of on-duty worshipers on their lunch break.

  While this is a Catholic Mass, ALL are welcome to honor dads/grandfathers/father figures whose names are permanently inscribed on the walls of the CPD memorial.

  Bring a lawn chair or blanket...and a picnic lunch if you'd like to stick around.

  IN CASE OF INCLEMENT WEATHER, call Fr. Dan Brandt, directing CPD Chaplain, at 773-550-2369 for status.

  Ample free parking is available on Special Olympics Drive (formerly Museum Campus Drive), adjacent to the park. Uniformed CPD officers will direct you.

  The CFD 5-11 canteen will be on hand providing water, Gatorade, coffee and snacks. And the mounted unit horses will be looking forward to seeing you as well.

  God bless all our fathers and father figures, living and deceased!

  Fr. Dan Brandt - CPD Chaplain

CPD needs all the prayers we can muster.

Officer Killed Overnight

 006 District - details still coming in:

• A Chicago police officer is dead and another is injured after a shooting on the city’s South Side Thursday night, according to the Chicago Police Department.

  CPD Supt. Larry Snelling confirmed a 36-year-old female police officer was shot and killed near East 82nd Street and South Drexel Avenue. She was taken to a local hospital in critical condition, where she was later pronounced dead.

  At a press conference early Friday morning, Snelling said a female officer was a part of an investigatory stop around 9:50 p.m. Thursday in the Chatham neighborhood where a person fled on foot. CPD officers pursued the person into an apartment.

  According to Snelling, when CPD officers entered the apartment, they were confronted by a second individual who was armed with a rifle and pointed it at the officers.

It appears all offenders are in custody at this point.

The Officer had about four years on and leaves behind a child. Prayers and deepest sympathies to her family, friends and everyone in 006. 

UPDATE: Why is there a commander laughing at the scene? ABC has video up at the moment. 

UPDATE: The initial attempt to transport the wounded Officer failed....because the squad car caught fire? 

COPA Can't Police

Remember when they used to send media types through a set of Use of Force scenarios? And they pretty much all failed to follow some obvious rules, like identifying themselves as "police," reacting inappropriately to assailants, or shooting unarmed suspects?

Granted, it was a publicity stunt, but it taught important lessons, the primary one being that police have fractions of seconds to react and another being that mistakes can happen even after hundreds of hours of training. Police work - especially high stress, dynamic situations - don't lend themselves to easy solutions.

But don't let that stop the armchair quarterbacks from f#$%ing cops every chance they get!

• Hey SCC get this, sat in training and was told all of copa went through traffic stop use of force class/DRU-VS.

  Everyone failed, everyone failed to activate bwc and on top of that the excuse the copa investigators gave was “there was too much going on for me to remember to activate my bwc”.

  On top of that, one of the investigators kept shooting while the role player was shot, on the ground, with no weapon.

  It would be nice to see the media blast that all over the news. Want to give us shit about doing our jobs but you couldn’t last a day in our shoes.

These are the people (or folks) sitting in judgement of cops, while during their own training they're forgetting to turn on cameras and shooting unarmed subjects already on the ground.

It doesn't really matter since all outcomes are politically motivated nowadays. Evidence doesn't matter, only the visuals that can be manufactured and spun for the evening news. But it's good to know they're as incompetent at their "training" as they are at their "investigating."

Larritorious the PreCog

Chicago is going to get sued into oblivion:

• Chicago police Supt. Larry Snelling on Wednesday said he wants a power that Mayor Brandon Johnson doesn’t want to give him: authority to declare three-hour-long “snap curfews” anywhere in the city with just 30 minutes’ notice.

  “What that curfew would be used for is deterrence. We would like to have something like that in advance when we know that there’s the possibility of a gathering that’s going to lead to violence in a particular area that has a history” of it, Snelling told the Sun-Times.

  “This would give us plenty of time to put out notice to everyone involved that teenagers are going to converge on this area if we don’t stop it ahead of time and it could lead to violence.”

The movie that comes to mind is Minority Report where "pre-cogs" (clairvoyant humans) can see homicides before they occur and send out a "Pre-crime" task force to arrest would be perpetrators before the murder is actually committed.

Larritorious wants the power to "deter" crime before it has actually happened by restricting any number of Civil Rights, which the ACLU is going to have a field day with. We're talking tens of millions of dollars, perhaps even hundreds.

Tactically speaking, this is a no-brainer. All authoritarians want the ability to intimidate, arrest and hold their opponents for even thinking about crime. From the standpoint of a Constitutional Republic with a broad interpretation of First Amendment Rights, it's the first step on a slippery slope.

The simplest solution is to arrest, prosecute and imprison people (and folks) for the crimes they actually commit....you know, like we used to. Like all successful societies do to those who refuse to abide by the laws passed. Commit a crime, do the time. Reap what you sow. Actions and consequences. 

It's amusing that fascism is always supposed to be materializing on the Right, but never fails to appear on the Left. 

What's This?

A bunch of people brought this up in the comment section and via email (click for larger version):

Sorry about the quality, but it's a picture from a computer screen.

On one hand, we appreciate the spirit behind the organizations that are attempting to assist the Officers in crisis. The CPD is in a bad spot (and has been for a number of years) where the mental health of Officers took a back seat to pretty much everything. The sheer number of Officers taking their own lives has been crushing. The steps currently being taken sound good, but as with anything run by the government, are astoundingly slow.

On the other hand, we do understand that there needs to be some sort of standardization among the volunteer groups to comply with what is required by State Law and what is required to remain a Police Officer. Mental health persons have reporting responsibilities especially where self-harm is evident or implied, and once that reporting takes place, there is a potential conflict - real or perceived - regarding fulfilling the requirements of the job, i.e. the FOID card.

This is a problem that needs to be addressed promptly and professionally. The EAP program is great....if it's available, operational 24/7/365, and fully staffed. Which we don't believe it is, despite more than how many years now? Volunteer organizations could fill the gaps, if they operated under a central authority and a uniform set of rules. 

Staying alive and mentally healthy should always be the goal, but that's hard to do if your entire future employment is on the line. In fact, that's an entirely understandable set of additional aggravating stressors if you're already suffering.

Countdown Begins?

Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye?

• The White Sox announced Thursday that chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and minority investor Justin Ishbia have reached a long-term investment agreement that will allow Ishbia to obtain a future controlling interest in the organization.

  Ishbia’s brother Mat Ishbia is the controlling owner of the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury. Mat and Justin Ishbia’s father, Jeff Ishbia, will also be a significant investor to the Sox.

  According to a report by The Athletic in Feburary, Ishbia dropped his pursuit of the Minnesota Twins in February and increased his minority stake in the Sox.

  Reinsdorf, 89, will have the option to sell controlling interest to Ishbia from 2029-2033. After the 2034 season, Ishbia will have the option to acquire controlling interest in the team.

Whereupon, the White Sox move out? This guy already owns the Sun and Mercury (NBA and wNBA).

Eight years of planning and politics on the horizon. 

Crooked Larritorious

We're told Larry reads the blog regularly. And we're told he takes it personally when called out on things. 

We've pointed out that he never passed a test high enough to get promoted on his own ability - Given, not Earned. And we've noted that his history of banging recruits at the Academy was the stuff of #metoo Legend.

But now, he's heading up a corrupt investigatory process that allows criminals to escape justice because of who they're related to. 

You see, a few months ago, there was a shooting in 015. A suspect shot the victim numerous times and fled. The victim told the detectives who shot him. Numerous witnesses gave descriptions and the name of the shooter. A number of security cameras recorded the shooting, verifying the victim/witness accounts. Slam dunk, right?

Well, as reported here, the shooter was the nephew of Yolanda Talley, the soon-to-be First Deputy. And after the detectives got video, interviewed witnesses, put together their reports, they went to a number of Tact teams and Fugitive Apprehension and guess what?

• six teams refused to effect the arrest

So Nephew Talley was free to roam around, doing whatever it is west side scumbags do after nearly killing someone, being identified by name numerous times and pretty much acting untouchable because of who their auntie is.

Finally, they forced the issue at court, a single team stepped up and made the arrest, and Nephew Talley admitted everything. Who would have thought?

But how, after the Detectives did a bang-up, by-the-book job, is no one held accountable in the intervening months for not doing basic police work? There should be at least half-a-dozen supervisory dumps, a revamping of all the teams who didn't go after a named Aggravated Battery offender, and a new First Deputy who allegedly was threatening to dump people over this (following her dope transporting niece incident.)

And Larritorious, by his silence, is directly implicated in not enforcing the law when it involves a high ranking political appointee. 

Run!!!

Get to the choppa!!!

But what if there is no choppa?

• Hey SCC, remember how the City and Department were boasting about all the helicopters we’ll be having? Well that number is currently ZERO for the foreseeable future since the mechanics refuse to perform mandated maintenance. The last chopper ran out of air time tonight and now all our choppers are grounded

We can see the Department being forced to skimp on regularly scheduled check-ups, running parts and maintenance to the upper limits of their recommended use, kind of like people do with their cars - why change the oil at 3,000 miles when you can squeeze 5,000 out of it? And if you've gotten 5,000 miles, why not 6?

But at some point, you have a whole bunch of stuff that comes due at the same time, and a helicopter isn't a car. It's a machine operating hundreds or thousands of feet in the air. If something fails, it's a bit more serious than your car grinding to a halt.

So are we entering the summer months with no air support? 

No Thanks

The panic-porn peddlers are gearing up for....a summer COVID wave! 

• A fast-spreading new COVID-19 variant which caused surges in parts of Asia this spring has been detected in several U.S. states, sparking concern about whether it could fuel a summer wave.

  Although the pandemic is over, the virus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, is still spreading. It's also mutating, which causes new variants to emerge. Currently making headlines is NB.1.8.1, an omicron variant that popped up in January and quickly became the dominant strain in China and Hong Kong. In recent weeks, NB.1.8.1 has been detected in the United States, from California to New York.

Good god....we're doomed! How many bodies are stacking up???

• As of May 29, fewer than 20 cases of NB.1.8.1 have been detected in the U.S., a spokesperson for the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention told NBC News. However, cases are expected to increase.

Um....twenty? As in two-zero? Are you f#$%ing kidding us?

How many dead?

• zero

Is this following some sort of....we dunno....predictable pattern?

• "Over the last several years, there have been waves of COVID during the winter and in the late summer," Dr. William Schaffner, professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, tells TODAY.com. "COVID trends look like a two-humped camel, so it comes up twice a year," says Schaffner.

And the CDC has stopped all tracking of COVID, so you know it's going to kill everyone.

• So far, there's no evidence that NB.1.8.1 causes more serious illness. "Current data do not indicate that this variant leads to more severe illness than other variants in circulation," the WHO said.

  The global risk posed by NB.1.8.1 is considered “low,” the WHO said. 

Let's get down to brass tacks - this is an attempt by a bunch of bad actors to see how susceptible citizens still are to media manipulation, masking requirements, vax-mandates and the surrender of national sovereignty to un-elected UN bureaucrats. So the democrat voting base will be lining up shortly.

Madigan Sentencing Upcoming

Scheduled for 13 June if we recall.

All sorts of letters of support being submitted, all saying that Mike was just looking out for citizens, that he didn't mean to break those silly laws, it was all unintentional, and he was always a good example to his friends and family.

Where do we send the letters encouraging maximum penalties for graft, corruption and turning Illinois into an unlivable hellhole with $150 billion in unpayable debt, crime is unpunished and there are two or three tiers of "justice" where the connected seem to escape accountability?

This is Awkward

A new stadium is finally being built!

Just not the stadium you thought: 

• The billionaire owner of the Chicago Fire FC has agreed to spend $650 million of his own money to bankroll a 22,000-seat, soccer-only stadium on the vacant South Loop parcel known as “The 78,” but tens of millions of public dollars would be needed to ready the long-dormant site for development.

  Joe Mansueto, founder and chairperson of Morningstar, a Chicago-based financial services firm, described the open-air arena he hopes to complete and open in time for the 2028 season as “more than just a stadium.”

Did you read that first paragraph?

• ...of his own money.

That's correct. Via private funds and private financing, this guy is building a new stadium, kind of like how Bill Wirtz did it on the west side a few decades back. If we remember correctly, a consortium of Japanese banks funded the United Center and ol' Dollar Bill paid off the entire note in under a decade. Of course, at that point Jordan was in his prime and the Blackhawks made the playoffs regularly so there wasn't an attendance issue.

The Chicago Fire is worth around $500 million and their owner is financing a stadium.

Compare that to the Chicago Bears (current market value - $6.5 BILLION) and they're lobbying Springfield for massive subsidies and taxpayer dollars so that they don't have to shell out $2 billion for a new stadium. A new stadium that would increase the team value to something comparable to the Dallas Cowboys ($10 billion) and the revenue stream which the Bears wouldn't be sharing with the taxpayers.

We'd say the road to a taxpayer funded Bears stadium just got a lot more difficult to sell thanks to Joe Mansueto 

How About Fight the Lawsuits?

Something we and our readers have been saying for two decades now:

• At what point do the taxpayers of Chicago get to say “enough is enough?”

  So far in 2025, the Chicago City Council has approved over $145 million in police-related legal settlements — more than double what was budgeted — and the year isn’t even halfway over. That figure doesn’t include another $120 million in court-ordered payouts the city is challenging, nor the mounting legal fees, nor the flood of additional lawsuits waiting in the wings. By any reasonable measure, this is an atrocity — not of criminal justice, but of fiscal malfeasance and political cowardice.

  Atrocities come in many forms. Some are moral, some judicial, and some — like this one — are budgetary. Chicago has turned the act of paying out settlements into a grotesque civic ritual, in which aldermen rubber-stamp multimillion-dollar payouts for decades-old incidents while shrugging at the burden it places on taxpayers, who had nothing to do with the original misconduct.

  Let’s be clear: Legitimate claims of wrongful conviction, abuse, and official misconduct deserve redress. But the scale, scope, and timing of this year’s deluge defy all proportionality. The system has become a gravy train for lawyers, a reputational black eye for law enforcement, and an existential threat to the city’s financial stability.

Back when J-Fledgar was "running" the Department, he decided to fight these lawsuits and guess what?

• Corp Counsel won a bunch of them. Even the threat of Corp Counsel taking these cases to trial had plaintiff lawyers backing off the cases - actually having to work for a verdict wasn't in the cards for these grifters and business dried up for a while.

But then, the lawyer associations went to Rahm and begged him to put the brakes on J-Fledgar, otherwise they'd stop contributing to democrats....and the rest was history. The spigot re-opened, J-Fledgar was leashed and contributions resumed to the politicians.

Go read it all at the Contrarian. Maybe taxpayers will wake up at some point.

Move to Chicago?

Employees of this company said, "Hell No."

• In January, Fortune Brands Innovations, whose portfolio includes home and security brands such as Moen and Master Lock, announced it was consolidating its regional U.S. offices into one state-of-the-art campus in Deerfield, Illinois. As part of that effort, they are requiring the majority of corporate employees to move to the Chicago suburb.

  When asked to relocate, most of these employees declined—but the company said it expected that, and in a conversation about the transition, CEO Nicholas Fink framed the changes ahead as a positive for the company. He added that while many opted out of relocation, the company still exceeded industry benchmarks for the number of people who said “yes” to the move.

Deerfield is over twenty-five miles from Chicago, and they still couldn't get a majority to follow their jobs. 

Temperature in Hell Dropping

Freeze warning ahead:

• [P]Father Michael Pfleger heaped praise on the Chicago Police Department during his Sunday sermon, one day after gunmen opened fire on hundreds of people gathered for a post-prom celebration near St. Sabina Church over the weekend.

  “The police were amazing,” Pfleger told his parishioners. “Ain’t nobody like the 6th District.”

  For decades, Pfleger has been outspoken about the city’s street violence. His parish frequently hosts gun turn-in events and peace marches. On Sunday, he spoke about the incident that occurred just outside the church grounds early on Saturday.

Sounds exactly like a remorseful jagoff who just found out he has incurable cancer and now he wants to make good after years of assholery.

Well Pfuck off Phleger. We know you, we know what you've said, we know what you've been accused of despite the inability of investigators successfully pin it on you and Cook County prosecutors unwillingness to charge you. You're to blame for so much of the mayhem, violence, and disrespect prevalent in that neighborhood. You should have been removed from that position years ago just as a matter of policy, but your ego-driven cult of personality (along with no other decent parish wanting you) and constant insertion of the Church into the political realm continues the societal damage to this day.

You're a grifting piece of trash and have a very high place on our list of "graves to piss on" once you're gone.

Proper Charging

It sure feels different having a States Attorney who is familiar with and applies the Law as it was intended:

• A man who allegedly drove his pickup truck into a Chicago police officer Saturday has been charged with attempted murder, police said.

  Carlos Sanchez-Roa, 28, was charged with three felonies: first-degree attempted murder, aggravated battery of a peace officer and aggravated assault of a peace officer, Chicago police said.

  Officers found Sanchez-Roa in the 3100 block of North Central Avenue in Belmont-Cragin about 2:10 a.m. when they responded to a call of a battery and shots fired, according to Chicago police. A witness told police that Sanchez-Roa fired shots and got into a red pickup truck. Police told him to get out of the vehicle, but he stayed in the car and pressed the accelerator, police said, driving toward officers and striking one.

  Officers fired shots toward the truck, and Sanchez-Roa fled the scene. Police later found him near Belmont and Central avenues with gunshot wounds to his body. They rendered aid before Chicago Fire Department paramedics took Sanchez-Roa to Advocate Masonic Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition, officials said.

Anyone remember how Crimesha would have charged this one? It would have been either a misdemeanor or no charges at all.

Armed Photographer

Must not be very safe, hanging around the least popular politician in Chicago:

• A photographer for Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office was fired this spring after his colleagues reported him for allegedly carrying a firearm in a city-issued vehicle.

  Terence Crayton was found to have violated City Hall policy by bringing a gun “on to City of Chicago property and in a City of Chicago vehicle” in April, according to a copy of his personnel records obtained via a public records request. He was terminated April 24, the same day his co-workers reported him.

  Crayton’s boss, communications director Erin Connelly, wrote in an April 29 memo that two of her staffers alerted her about the firearm and after that, a third employee reported that Crayton had mentioned carrying a firearm to previous mayoral events “at his own personal discretion.” That employee said they reported Crayton to his former boss, Ronnie Reese, but Reese “did not report the incident or issue any report or disciplinary action,” per Connelly’s note.

The Tribune article (sorry about the paywall) uses variation of the word "alleged" a few times, but not a single mention if this photographer was a CCL holder. It still wouldn't prevent his firing nor being placed on the Do Not Hire list, but that would make the gun carrying a bit of a larger issue, correct? A potential UUW offender in close proximity to Conehead?

The media seems to mention it every other time.

Here Come the Lies

One of the shootings last week:

• A late-night shooting in Humboldt Park left one Chicago police officer injured, a male suspect dead, and grieving family members disputing CPD’s account of the incident.

We're told the family is frantically erasing any social media presence of the dead shithead.

• Chicago police’s preliminary investigation suggests that the incident occurred around 10:30 p.m. Thursday when officers attempted to conduct an investigatory stop in an alley in the 4300 block of West North Avenue in Humboldt Park.

  According to police, as the officers approached the suspect, identified by family members as Nathaniel Fejerang, he allegedly fled into a nearby backyard on foot, leading officers on a chase.

  Carrie Garza, a family friend and mother of Nathaniel Fejerang’s girlfriend, told WGN-TV that’s not what occurred. “He was chilling in the yard with the neighbors, so there was no running from police,” she said. “He was already in that yard.”

Not what the body cams and security cameras are showing. It was a pretty active foot chase over a number of addresses:

• CPD said that officers eventually caught up with the suspect, but while working to detain him, a struggle ensued. According to police, Fejerang’s weapon discharged, striking one of the officers in the leg. Police add that following the gunshot, one of the officers opened fire and fatally wounded Fejerang, who was pronounced dead at Mt. Sinai Hospital.

Amazing isn't it? When a suspect struggles, his gun "discharged," implying zero responsibility for the gunfire, but when police shoot someone, it's always "opened fire" at the subject, squarely attaching the action to the result. (this paragraph rewritten for clarification - SCC)

We're told the body cams show an active struggle and the offender actively attempting to draw his weapon, managing to squeeze off a shot that wounded the officer. What the media isn't reporting (and believe us, we're trying to find this footage) is a nearby security camera has vivid video of the offender achieving the "room temperature challenge" almost drawing his weapons and losing that race via a perfect set of head shots. Supposedly, it's better than the Zapruder film.

The family is (of course) positioning themselves for a ghetto lottery payout, and no doubt, Conehead will be knocking on their door to write them a check at some point. But again, sources are telling us that the neighborhood was terrified of this shithead and are actually relieved he's no longer around to terrorize their families. 

Let's see if the media does any of the necessary footwork to find the real story. We're betting no.

Pony Up....Again

Once again, Illinois democrats making it economically impossible for the middle class to remain in the state:

• SPRINGFIELD — After months of negotiating through one of Illinois’ toughest budget seasons in years, state legislators on Friday unveiled a $55.2 billion spending bill that Democratic leaders say bridges an estimated $1 billion shortfall in part through increased gambling and tobacco taxes, along with controversial cuts to immigrant health care.

  The budget proposal — revealed about 30 hours before a key state constitutional deadline to pass it — largely follows the spending priorities laid out earlier this year by Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, coming in about $200 million lower than his February proposal, officials said.

  It includes more than $1 billion in estimated new revenue through heightened “sin taxes” on some casino games, tobacco and vape products, as well as through an amnesty program intended to collect more money from tax delinquents.

We don't know how these morons keep missing the Econ 101 lessons every single year:

• when the "sin" taxes rise, most smart people cut back on their spending;
• the other smart people go shopping somewhere else....like Wisconsin or Indiana or other nearby states.

That $1 billion in "new revenue" is completely imaginary, as in there is zero chance Illinois will see that amount at all. It's a fantasy.

We were especially amazed at this objection from the Latino caucus:

• And it follows through with the governor’s proposed savings of some $400 million by cutting the Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults program — a politically perilous reduction that threatens health care coverage for nearly 33,000 people between the ages of 42 and 64 in Illinois without legal status. [emphasis added]

$400 million just for ILLEGAL ALIEN medical care from Illinois taxpayers who are already on the hook for $158 BILLION and after Trump won a growingshare of the Latino vote.

One bit of good news is that the Bears didn't get any of tax breaks they've been trying to grift. And legislators got a 5% raise as they drove nails in to the coffin that is the worst run state in the midwest.

How Bad Did it Get?

Starting with the Soros-funded DA's and SA's, climbing during the #blm bull$hit and reaching it's peak under Drooling Vegetable's open borders disaster, it got really really bad:

• Assaults on NYC cops have surged a shocking 63% over the past six years — and police officers and experts warned this week that the trend will continue because of a criminal-friendly justice system that fails to “deliver any consequences.”

  There have been 970 assaults on uniformed police officers in the city so far this year, up from the 595 officers attacked at the same point in pre-pandemic 2019, NYPD data show.

  The number of assaulted cops, which includes all city law enforcement officers, is up 57% so far this year compared to the same span three years ago, and climbed 4% compared to the same period last year, the data show.

And that's just blue-state blue-city-$hithole New York, but indicative of a wider problem among all democrat run $hitholes.

Anyone got the numbers for Chicago, LA, St Louis, Minneapolis, Seattle, San Francisco, Denver, New Orleans? We're betting on similar numbers, perhaps not as bad as 63%, but certainly significant increases.

Sergeant Assignments

Where they went:

Good luck boys and girls.

Some Notes

First up, thank you for all the kind words and wishes in our 20 Year post. We appreciate them all.

Second, we aren't going anywhere quite yet. We've been looking and keeping options open, but at the moment, we're stuck here in town for a few reasons. And once those reasons head off  - to their adult lives or to their heavenly rewards, more options open up to ourselves. Obviously, it would be weird blogging from hundreds of miles away, 

Third, as it's been twenty years, we've lost a few passwords, misplaced a few log-in credentials, the blogging platform has gone through a few changes and we're having an issue uploading the twenty-year star into a suitable graphic format. So we're stuck adding a fourth "service bar" at the moment. It's on our list of things to puzzle out, but nearer to the bottom than the top. 

We think that covers it for now. Open post in the meantime as the weather hits the 90s the next two days. Perhaps the first real test of Conehead's violence interrupters actually having something to deal with? 

Another Shooting

This time, instead of shooting at the Officers, he hit one with a pickup truck:

• A man is in critical condition after he was shot by Chicago police during an altercation early Saturday, police said.

  Officers were called to the 3100 block of North Central Avenue around 2:10 a.m. for a reported battery and shots fired at a business on the block, Chicago police said. An employee told officers a man had just fired shots and was getting into a red pickup truck.

  Officers ordered the suspect to get out of the vehicle and he didn’t comply but hit the gas, driving toward the officers and striking one, police said. Officers fired shots at the vehicle, and the suspect fled the scene in the truck.

  Police found the suspect, 28, on the ground outside the vehicle in the 3200 block of North Menard Avenue in Portage Park. He suffered gunshot wounds to the body, and officers rendered aid before the Chicago Fire Department arrived. He was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition.

  Police recovered a gun in the suspect’s car.

The article neglects to mention the Officer's condition, but we did hear he was going to be okay. A speedy recovery wished to him. 

And a lengthy painful demise to the offender. 

Effective Steet Clearing Method

You have a crowd of people, refusing to leave, ignoring police orders to disperse, gathering for no apparent purpose....what to do? What to do?

Remember, this is the age we're currently living in:

That was five years ago.

This was yesterday:

• Seven teens were hospitalized after a drive-by shooting during a gathering of people near St. Sabina Church in Auburn Gresham early Saturday, police said.

  Around 1:55 a.m., police were on patrol trying to disperse a large gathering of people in the 1200 block of West 78th Street when someone in a passing vehicle fired shots into the crowd, according to Chicago police.

  The victims were taken to different nearby hospitals in various conditions.

After the ambulances left, the corner was mostly clear.

In the meantime, no word from Phlaky Pfather Pfleger about how gun shops are bringing bloodshed and mayhem to the steps of the mostly peaceful Auburn Gresham neighborhood. 

He must have been shopping at that high end suburban mall where he gets his sweaters? Or perhaps entertaining a dozen or so young altar boys at Home Run Inn Pizza like he did for so many years?

Unaccountable "Peacekeepers"

What happens when you shovel government money out the door to "community groups" with no screening process and zero accountability to authorities?

Read The Contrarian to find out:

• By the time Chicago Police arrived at Grace and Peace Church at 1856 North Leclaire in the North Austin neighborhood to respond to shots fired in the late morning of April 22, the gunmen had fled.

  A neighborhood familiar with threats lurking around every corner and exhausted by random gunfire, as officers begin their investigation into the latest shooting incident in the area, investigators swiftly established two masked men had stepped from a gray Alfa Romero — likely stolen — to target a man who had exited Grace and Peace Church. An institution which shares office space with the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago, it did not take long for the Chicago Police Department to speculate the alleged target was a street outreach worker, a “peacekeeper.”

  As CPD proceeded with their probe and took statements from witnesses, officers surmised the alleged target had left a peacekeeper training session at Grace and Peace. Yet, when officers sought to interview the alleged victim of the shooting, police were unable to locate him, and outreach workers withheld the victim’s name and refused to assist law enforcement as they sought to complete a police report documenting the event. Aggravating matters, police say no one involved with the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago — including officials with the program — were willing to cooperate with CPD.

The Contrarian discovers and reports that numerous members of these groups - besides being criminals - are actively undermining police investigations, intimidating witnesses, coaching others, and gathering information to be funneled to gangs who will no doubt, end up threatening and killing witnesses in the near future.

And remember, these groups are funded by taxpayer dollars to work against actual Police Department protocols. So we're are paying for Police service....and paying for "groups" to hinder Law Enforcement efforts. 

Go read it all. 

 

Cops Injured in Rollover

015 District:

• Two Chicago police officers were injured after they lost control in a crash on Saturday, CPD officials said. The crash happened at about 3:11 a.m. in the 400 block of North Central Avenue near the CTA Green Line station, police said.

  Officers were driving northbound on Central Avenue in a marked vehicle, when the officers lost control. Their vehicle rolled over in the middle of the street, police said.

  Both officers in the vehicle were injured in the crash. A male officer had a hand injury. He was taken to an area hospital and is expected to be okay. A female officer had a leg injury, She was taken to an area hospital in serious condition.

A passing cyclist was also injured by flying debris. No mention of any other vehicle being involved.

We always disliked First Watch. We realize it's a necessity for a 24/7 operation, but it's not and never has been anything that lends itself to a natural sleep cycle. 

Best wishes to the injured for a speedy recovery. 

Relax

A lot of people commenting about the Hoover situation the past few days. Quite a few let their Trump Derangement Syndrome get the better of them, claiming outrage on the part of thousands of crime victims they cared little for in years past or resentment on behalf of cops, few of whom had direct or indirect involvement with Hoover or the g.d's.

We let most of the comments go through unless it got personal or outright wrong. For a little perspective, here's the former Head of the Prisoner Review Board saying Hoover isn't getting out under the current committee:

• “I think it’s all just drama” said attorney Jorge Montes, who was a member of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board for 16 years including six years as chairman.  “The president (Trump)  well knows that Mr. Hoover isn’t going’ anywhere. And that he’s not going to be released; he’s not going to be given freedom."

  Hoover has “to come back and fulfill his Illinois sentence – I think he (President Trump) is trying to impress his friends, Kanye West, and other celebrities who have been pushing for this pardon; but it’s a pyrrhic victory,” contends Montes. “At the end of the day, (Hoover) isn’t going anywhere. “

  Just a couple years ago when Hoover last came up for parole, the state board denied release by a vote of 10 to 1. That single parole board member on Hoover’s side is no longer even on the board. But a majority of the others are, and they voted against Hoover’s release less than three years ago. This time they will be the only people standing between Larry Hoover and freedom. 

We already opined that this was (and remains) a bad look for the president, but not a deal breaker for continued support. Let's be realistic:

• this was concurrent federal sentencing (six life sentences) to go with 200 years of state time for homicide. While we support Hoover dying in prison alone, "overkill" is a legit argument in this case;
• people with institutional or personal knowledge of Hoover and his crimes are minimal and getting more minimal by the day. Again, that doesn't excuse the release, but it factors into the political decision making process;
• Trump isn't facing Illinois voters ever again and the system ensures a Republican won't be competitive in Illinois for the next six to to ten years minimum; 
• the "pardon pen" has been abused for decades - Clinton was selling them for cash, Biden was covering crimes, Obama, Bush, W, Reagan, Carter. Until there's a concerted effort to reform the system, we give exactly zero fucks about someone else manufacturing a political advantage out of it;

In the end, it's going to come down to Fata$$ and what price - if any - he'll pay for going against the Prisoner Review Board, every member who was appointed by him. And those political ads WILL play to a national audience. Funny how national democrats are completely silent on this. 

Politely agree or disagree, use logical arguments and considered opinions.