Tribune Telegraphs '17 Negotiations

Guess what's happening in 2017?

• In Chicago, police officers rarely pay for their misconduct. Taxpayers do.
  
  Again and again, cops accused of abusing civilians have gotten a pass from the police oversight system and the state's attorney's office. They're back on the street, with nary a blemish on their records, while their victims collect millions in civil damages from the city.
  
  That's largely because the contracts between the city and its police unions are loaded with provisions that shield bad cops from accountability. An officer involved in a shooting has 24 hours to coordinate stories with others at the scene before giving a statement, for example — and can amend that statement later after viewing video of the shooting. Disciplinary records older than five years are supposed to be destroyed. Anonymous complaints against an officer are disregarded. Findings of misconduct that don't result in significant punishment are purged from an officer's record. Investigators are absurdly constrained in how they may question an officer: "The primary interrogator will not ask any questions until the secondary interrogator has finished asking questions and invites the primary interrogator to ask follow-up questions …" That's not about due process; it's about tying the hands of investigators or generating a technical violation that could get a complaint tossed.

Obviously these goofs have no idea how an hostile interrogation goes - especially when transcribed by a court reporter. It's a trick regularly used by plaintiff attorneys:

• The lawyer will ask a question, then a quick follow-up (sometimes a "question-within-a-question) without allowing a pause so that the witness can give a proper and lucid response to the first question that they heard. In open court, a judge or a smart defense attorney will make the attorney wait for an answer. Or make him break it down into a series of questions, each asked and answered in sequence. But when typed out, court reporters can't document that fast, things get garbled, answers to a first question get lost in the cross-talk as the witness attempts to answer while the lawyer has asked a second question, which usually has a completely different answer, often contradicting the first answer.
  
  We've had it done to us.

All that phrase means is that one person does the questioning at one time so as not to confuse the issue.What's truly sad, and unsaid by the Tribune, is that the FOP felt it necessary in years past to actually have to codify this into Contract language because of how badly cops were getting screwed. You aren't getting a Rules violation tossed on a "technicality." This isn't a Criminal Court - this is an Administrative proceeding that could cost you your job and there damn well better be rules in place to protect you from the City's efforts to fuck you.

• The collective bargaining agreements allow rogue officers to run amok, out of reach of the department's disciplinary bodies or the criminal justice system. Both sides know those protections must be scrubbed from the contracts when they expire next year. But guess what? The head of the city's largest police union wants taxpayers to pay for that, too.

Really? The FOP and Dean Angelo "know those protections must be scrubbed from the contract..." Dean, you "know" this? Because it sure seems like the Tribune just slandered you, or massively jeopardized your chances for re-election by putting that "thought" into your sphere of knowledge.

Then the article has the nerve to allege that police "cost" the city money in terms of payouts when it's the city that refuses to fight lawsuits. Under J-Fled, payouts dried up - they were minimal. When Rahm was elected, he did away with fighting obviously frivolous lawsuits because (surprise!) the plaintiff attorneys were kicking back to his campaign. The city wanted to settle with Anthony Porter, but as Martin Prieb has documented many times over, the involved detectives fought the case...and won. The city has paid out time and time again to cases that don't pass the laugh test. That $500 million tab would be less than $200 million if the city fought some of these cases.

And the "code of silence" crap? That's Rahm opening his yapper and saying the wrong thing. And with his "merit" supervisors fucking up nine ways to Sunday and costing the city money because (A) the cheating clowns don't know the job and (B) you put them in positions where their stupidity comes to the fore. How long until Nakia or Davina or Maryet cost the city a few hundred thousand (or millions) for declaring something to be so, in direct contradiction of an Order, an Ordinance or a Law? We give it a year or two and someone will be getting paid "Marianne Perry money" like ten or fifteen years ago.

And finally, the McDonald video. The Tribune is outright lying describing the investigation, about "coordinating" stories and "closing ranks." No one in the media has seen the reports, but we know people who have and guess what? They don't match, they aren't "one story," there is no "coordinating."

You know why?

Because half-a-dozen cops, from half-a-dozen vantage points, are going to have half-a-dozen differing versions of the event! No one is watching the same thing and everyone has a different vantage point from which to recall events as they unfolded. You can't coordinate that.

But you can coordinate suppressing a video for fourteen months to win an election. That chain of events can be pretty simple to prove - cops uploaded video from the car, anyone viewing it has to log into the system, anyone burning a copy has to log into the system. And at some point, the copy (copies) are forwarded to either the States Attorney or Corp Counsel - those dates are recorded somewhere when the Detectives "call it in." And then it sat for a period of time until a judge compelled its release - after an election, if you can believe that.

That isn't a "code of silence" among cops - that's a "conspiracy" among political actors.

Close the Beaches!

But what about the children?!!?!?:

• Police shut down car traffic to Montrose Beach at Wilson and Montrose avenues Monday afternoon because of overcrowding, officials said.
  
  About noon, authorities decided to stop all traffic at both entrances, police said.

At least it was for a real reason - overcrowding - and not because it "was too hot" like McJerseyShore claimed.

(edited for correct supernintendo)

Weekend Wrapping Up

And what a weekend it was.

As the sun sets, We have fifty-seven people shot, four of those dead.

We're counting the crime victim run over on Lake Short Drive as a fifth homicide, regardless of what excuses the Department gives - she died in the commission of a felony and if anyone gets caught, they'll face murder charges; ergo, she's a homicide victim.

All totals will become official as HeyJackass.com updates their site - they started counting at noon Friday, but we're only counting from close-of-business Friday.

Next up, the Independence Day weekend - no doubt another 3-day festival of carnage at time-and-one-half.

Rahm Bests Rauner on Pensions

A stunner to say the least:

• Just days after Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Gov. Bruce Rauner told Chicago taxpayers to “take a hike,” Democrats delivered the same message to the governor.
  
  In a stunning move, the Illinois House on Monday voted 72-43 to override Rauner’s veto of the Chicago police and fire pension bill that had sparked a war of words between the Republican governor and Emanuel. The action came just hours after the Illinois Senate voted 39-19 to override the bill. It will now become law.

The final cost to taxpayers is still cloudy:

• The bill passed in the House with the help of two Republicans who changed their votes from last year, an exceptionally unusual move in the often politically bitter Springfield political environment: Rep. David Harris, from Arlington Heights, and Rep. David McSweeney, Barrington Hills.
  
  On the House floor, Harris gave Emanuel credit for initiating a $500 million tax increase to pay pensions for the city’s police and firefighters.
  
  “The city is down right now. It’s taking its lumps . . . I don’t like to kick someone when they’re down,” Harris said. “I recognize that the idea of stretching out these payments is not good public policy. It isn’t.
  
  [...] After the override, Rauner released a statement, saying: “It’s unfortunate that the legislature voted again to allow the City of Chicago to borrow $843 million at an interest rate of 7.75% from their pensions, putting an additional $18.6 billion on the backs of taxpayers. Clearly, those who supported this measure haven’t recognized what happens when governments fail to promptly fund pension obligations. Instead of kicking the can down the road, local and state governments should instead focus on reforms that will grow our economy, create jobs and enable us live up to the promises we’ve made to police and firefighters.”

A lot of this is political smokescreens to conceal the true cost of adding decades to bring the pensions up to being properly funded (and we highly doubt this was, or is, intended)

• Yes, the can is being kicked down the road;
• Yes, it would be better to have the funding now, especially as the huge waves of retirees leaving the job right now are living longer and longer;
• Yes, Rahm is going to steal every dime he can "defer" and spend it on politically expedient projects he can slap his name or any significant political contributors' names on;
• No, Rahm and Madigan aren't going to cut a dime from the budget, even while adding billions more to the increasing debt

These goofs don't seem to notice the shrinking tax base and the impossibility of maintaining the charade much longer.

Meanwhile, in Rumorville

Now this would be an awesome development:

• Rahm told his security detail to start making your calls to get into a unit, as I am leaving in August.
  
  And he just named Andrea Zopp as Deputy Mayor.
  
  Very very interesting!

Right before the national elections? If only....

Keep an eye on Rahm's detail people.

Rauner Vetos, Rahm Whines

A picture is worth a thousand words:

• Chicago pension plans are massively underfunded to the tune of $18.6 billion. Yet, the Illinois legislature passed a bill that would actually reduce contributions to the fund.
  
  Governor Bruce Rauner made the fiscally responsible decision to veto the bill.
  
  As expected, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel points the finger at the Governor instead of looking in the mirror to see what the real problem is.

This author also advocates municipal bankruptcy as a "solution" for Rahm and Chicago - not something responsible like cutting spending, handouts, construction, or reform. Just running up the debt, then having a federal judge sort it out in the end.

Duck Lives Matter!

It's the little things:

• Chicago Police officers made an unusual rescue Saturday morning on the Northwest Side.
  
  Shortly after 10 a.m., Chicago Police officers at O’Hare received a call to assist a citizen on an airport service road, according to a statement from police News Affairs.
  
  When the officers arrived, they found two women trying to rescue a family of ducklings that became trapped in a sewer near the United Airlines Credit Union, police said.

Remember, without baby ducklings, there'd be no Peking Duck later.

Other Media

Just an FYI:

• SCC - There are out-of-town reporters on hand this weekend to cover any violence that may erupt. Please let the guys and gals know they are equipped with boom mic's. These parabolic mic's are similar to the technology used in professional sports and can capture a whisper from a block away. The average civilian doesn't understand that sometimes gallows humor is necessary to stay sane on this job. These "reporters" also plan to live-stream police response on their websites as post shooting events unfold.

Just so everyone knows.

More Police! More Police!

Remember, there are "thousands" more working this weekend. Which to us, merely means that the Department has been deploying them wrongly the past few years:

• Chicago Police will increase their presence on Lake Shore Drive for the remainder of the holiday weekend after two deadly incidents on the North Side within 24 hours, First Deputy Supt. John Escalante said Sunday morning.
  
  Chicago Police districts along the Drive will add patrols and officers in the area over the next couple of days, police spokesman [...] told the Sun-Times.

This after the killing of a 15-year-old girl (out with her 28-year-old gangbanger boyfriend) and a 32-year-old woman run over by a car while she was fleeing a robbery.

And then, the west side decided to act up in dramatic fashion:

• A string of nearly two dozen shootings on the West Side has pushed the number of people shot during the Memorial Day weekend to at least 40, with two more days to go.
  
  As of early Sunday morning, the toll stood at four dead and 36 wounded across the city, including a 15-year-girl shot to death as she rode in a Jeep on Lake Shore Drive near Fullerton Avenue, police said. Last year, 12 people were killed and 44 people were wounded over the holiday weekend.
  
  Nineteen of those shot this weekend were wounded in or within a half-mile of the Harrison District on the West Side, police said. The district, one of the city's most violent, is average-sized but has more officers assigned to it than almost any other in the city. It is frequently the target of both prolonged drug operations and short-term extra patrols over holiday weekends.
  
  Thirteen of the 19 were wounded in the Harrison District and an additional six nearby.

So it looks like we were low in setting the over/under, unless there's a miracle tomorrow. We'll have to adjust it for the Fourth of July weekend - another 3-day extravaganza.

Openings!

Not like there's anything else going on this weekend - the streets seem quiet, the Department is at rest. Let's see where the bid openings are this fine summery evening:

• 002 - 16
  003 - 5
  005 - 5
  006 - 4
  010 - 5
  015 - 5
  016 - 2

That's a lot of openings in the Deuce.

And not a single opening in 019 - has Rahm fulfilled his promise to Tunney for selling out the voters for a few bid openings already? 019 is up to strength?

A Far-Fetched Rumor

Rumors continue to abound regarding Rahm's intentions to disband IPRA, restructure the disciplinary process and gut the Contract:

• A fly on the wall reported that the mayor and the aldermen who are putting together the new oversight agency that oversees complaints against PO want a QUOTA on sustained complaints.
  
  The same fly stated that the alderman want 100 investigators per 1,000 PO'S. These new INVESTIGATORS will be from the COMMUNITY. (Now lets be real here. the city can't afford these numbers). But what does this tell you, that the new investigators will be beholden to their political sponsors.
  
  Also, the alderman want every complaint completed within 60 days with a sit down with the family of the person killed by the police to explain the facts and circumstances of the shooting. (As of this date, these has been several of these sit downs with family members and their attorneys)
  
  The public will not have to sign affidavits on making a complaint.(One of the black democratic state representatives will introduce a bill in Springfield doing away with this law)
  
  Here is the kicker: there will be no waiting time for a PO to give a statement. In other words, a PO shoots someone, he/she will give a statement immediately after the shooting. One aldermen wants to do away with any FOP involvement in shooting incidents. This will mean that when the next contract is up for renegotiations, the mayor will push to gut the contract. Sharon Farley, the present head of IPRA, is setting the stage for some these proposal's.

Stay sharp FOP. Anything even close to these rumors should be dead on arrival.

Another Data Dump

Typical Rahm move - bury the news in a massive blizzard of paper:

• The Independent Police Review Authority is preparing to release recordings of about 100 Chicago Police shootings and uses of stun guns next week, according to a memo obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.
  
  The recordings are “tentatively scheduled” for a June 2 release. They include police shootings, uses of stun guns “as well as incidents of bodily harm to individuals while in police custody,” the memo stated. All of the recordings involve open investigations being conducted by IPRA.

"Open investigations." That is worrying to us and should be to most coppers. It taints the narrative and could compromise legal proceedings if it ever rose to that level.

• Dispatch calls, dashcam and bodycam audio and video, pod camera footage and 911 calls will all be among the recordings released, according to the memo.
  
  An IPRA spokeswoman declined to comment on the memo, which was sent Thursday by Gerald Hollowell, deputy director of 911 operations at the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications. In the memo, Hollowell warns employees that in some instances their day-to-day job performance will be up and available for all to see on the web.
  
  According to the memo, the release of about 100 recordings is keeping with the task force’s recommendation, and the recordings will be released on the task force’s website.

So we're going to have an entire army of armchair quarterbacks running through things.

Wait, What?

We had no idea the command structure had reverted to the university sector:

• Huffington Post Contributor Michael Sitver writes that during the uproar at Milo Yiannopoulos’ event at DePaul last night, Chicago PD officers were not refusing to intervene due to fears of racism accusations, as some had speculated online, but because of a direct order from university administrators to stay out of it.
  
  According to the article, Chicago police “wanted to do their job” but were instructed by campus administrators to “stand passively and watch.”

So a political speech sponsored by the DePaul College Republican was infiltrated and interrupted by protestors (naturally) and on scene security refused to protect the invitee's right to speak, then ordered the Chicago Police to stand down when they observed actual violations of the law not related to the First Amendment? Things like Assaults and Batteries?

What the hell was all this about?

Award Ceremony

We missed any media coverage of the event.

Was there any?

We did notice that the comment section was alive with Gene Williams winning the "Leadership Award," probably for something like the awesome study group he ran that resulted in an astronomical first class percentage that rivaled any historical highs by established study groups like Bernstein.

Anyone know who got the big awards? Or would that be painting the police in a positive light?

Nice Wheel

Typical:

• The grand opening of the Centennial Wheel got off to a rocky start Friday night, when a power outage briefly halted the running of the new Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier.
  
  Shortly after 8 p.m., Navy Pier officials confirmed that a power outage had caused the wheel to stop. Electricians were working to fix the issue and get people down, a spokesperson said, with the priority of keeping people comfortable and getting them down.
  
  Just after 8:30 p.m., the wheel began moving again. A light show was previously scheduled for 9 p.m. Friday and is expected to go on as planned.

We couldn't have made this up if we tried.

3....2....1....Weekend

The weekend is officially here. The weather is warm, the air is humid, the Department is racking up overtime, and HeyJackass.com has doubled their staffing (rumor).

One of the amusing features of the HeyJackass site is their "Shot Clock" showing (on average) how many hours and minutes it takes for another person to be shot or killed. Currently, someone is shot about every two hours and killed every fourteen.

Based on those numbers, and our mysterious intuition, we are setting the weekend bar as follows:

• Forty-two shot, seven of whom will pass on to the Great Beyond (7/35)

Last year, the Official HeyJackass weekend totals were 12 dead, 45 wounded, but last year, there wasn't this OT spending spree and the publicity will cause some hesitation amongst the ne'er-do-wells.

(The weekend begins 1700 hours Friday, and ends midnight Monday-into-Tuesday. HeyJackass.com will be the only numbers accepted as "official")

More Distractions

First up, you have "thousands" of cops being deployed this weekend:

• After a violent winter and spring, Chicago will start off the summer with “thousands” of officers deployed to city parks, beaches and neighborhoods, Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said Thursday.
  
  [...]
  
  “They’ll be thousands. I can’t give you an exact number,” Johnson said at a news conference on the campus of University of Illinois-Chicago.

Thousands we tell you....THOUSANDS! And Leo is getting in on the act:

• State Police Director Leo Schmitz, said his agency would have additional troopers on the roads, as well as fixed-wing aircraft circling Chicago area expressways. Chicago highways have seen 20 shootings so far this year, eight more than during the first six months of 2016, said Schmitz, a former Chicago Police Department commander whose district included Englewood.

Unless Leo has A-10's with missiles and authority to strafe the expressways, we don't see aircraft making a difference, but he might get some decent pictures if the city catches fire.

The media continues with the "press release" version of news:

• Citywide, the city has seen nearly 250 homicides so far this year, about 80 more killings than during the first five months of 2015. Johnson said the department has traditionally added officers for key weekends each year, and noted that homicides and shootings have declined after a steep upturn that began in December.

The city has almost never offered overtime for key weekends aside from 03/04 July aside from canceling tact team days off or deploying citywide units - units that don't exist and haven't existed for 5 years. Johnson is pretty much lying here.

This is the "decrease in the increase" the media eats up, despite the fact that HeyJackass.com points out that May already has 55 homicides, and SCC has pointed out that May 2013 had 44 murders, 2014 had 41 and 2015 had 48, a number long past. The "decline" is nonexistent. Chicago is on an upswing, and every killing since last week is obliterating Johnson's "decrease."

Additionally, IPRA is adding to the distractions by recommending the firing of Glenn Evans:

• In his first major test on discipline since becoming Chicago police superintendent, Eddie Johnson has so far refused to go along with a recommendation by the city's police oversight agency to fire a former police commander with a long history of excessive-force complaints.
  
  The former commander, Glenn Evans, now a lieutenant, was acquitted in December by a Cook County judge on charges he shoved his gun down a man's throat despite evidence showing the alleged victim's DNA on Evans' gun.
  
  At issue now is what discipline should be meted out to Evans after the Independent Police Review Authority found him at fault for pressing his fist into the nose of a woman who refused to be fingerprinted in 2011. A lawsuit brought by the woman, Rita King, alleged she suffered a broken facial bone.

It's enough to make you forget there's a testing scandal going on involving numerous exempt members.

Curious....Very Curious

Later today, a miracle will occur. The FBI agents involved in a shooting 72 hours ago, will finally give their version of events to their internal investigators.

And the miracle? The media will be completely silent - exactly the opposite of what they were broadcasting as "excessive" when it was learned that Chicago Police have 24 hours to gather their thoughts after the most stressful occurrence in an officers' career:

• Convicted of murder as a teenager, Melvin Toran had spent nearly his entire adult life behind bars when federal agents came to his Park Forest home at dawn Tuesday to arrest him on drug trafficking charges.
  
  Toran, 50, a reputed high-ranking member of the Black P Stone Nation street gang, didn't go quietly. As an FBI SWAT team descended on the quiet suburban cul-de-sac, a gun battle broke out that left two FBI agents wounded and Toran dead inside the home.
  
  The agents both suffered non-life threatening injuries and were treated and released from local hospitals, said Garrett Croon, a spokesman for the FBI's Chicago office.
  
  Few details were being released Tuesday about how the shooting unfolded, including where or how the agents were wounded or whether Toran was shot by the agents or killed himself. FBI investigators from Washington were still processing the scene Tuesday night, Croon said.

The silence on the part of the family saying this old-time gangster, convicted murderer and gun runner, who was about to turn his life around if only the big bad FBI would have left him alone is a wonder to behold. The media hasn't found a single solitary auntie to speak on his behalf?

We'll bet the FBI doesn't release the agents' statements, the names of the involved agents, the race of the agents, nor any video that might exist, and the media will never mention this incident again.

Any takers to bet against the house?

Best wishes to the injured agents on a prompt recovery.

Change the Lies

So your lawsuit doesn't have any chance in hell based on the facts at hand? No problem - blame the mayor:

• The family of a 16-year-old boy fatally shot by Chicago police during a chase on the West Side last month filed an amended wrongful death lawsuit Thursday naming the officers allegedly involved and noting Mayor Rahm Emanuel's anticipated testimony about the police code of silence in an upcoming federal civil rights trial.
  
  [...]
  
  The suit alleges the officers conspired with one another to give "false, misleading and incomplete versions" of the incident to make it look like they were in imminent danger.
  
  In alleging the city has a "pattern and practice" of covering up wrongdoing by officers who have shot civilians, the lawsuit refers to Emanuel's speech to the City Council in December when he called for an end to the code of silence that he described as "the tendency to ignore, deny or in some cases cover up the bad actions of a colleague."

This was the dead jagoff who had numerous Facebook posts of himself with guns, wrote songs about guns, broadcast his drug dealing and use of guns, and who died after pointing one of those very guns at the police.

Oh yeah, and the autopsy showed he was shot in the chest, facing the officer.

But since Rahm claims he knows something about a "code," the family is trying a "do-over" in court and altering their version of events. In fact, we'll bet $1, right here and now, that this is a blatant attempt to get Rahm on the stand. And when the Corp Counsel fights this, the lawyer goes to the press again and screeches about a "cover-up." Nothing reality based - the offender was still a gangbanger with a gun shot dead center in the front of his body facing his intended victim. But in order to avoid having the mayor testify about something his lawyers are stipulating exists elsewhere, a settlement may suddenly appear....for a completely justified shooting.

We think it's time for the officers to counter-sue once again, the way the other officer done for the shooting on Erie.

Jason, Jason, Jason

The Round Mound of Chicago Sound is in hot water:

• Chicago Ald. Jason Ervin is “trying to cooperate” with the FBI as it investigates a nearly $5,000 check he received from a woman now charged with bilking an Illinois youth program to pay for shoes, a rental car and food at Portillo’s Hot Dogs, according to his lawyer.
  
  A criminal complaint filed by the feds in April charges Franshuan Myles with misusing money from Divine Praise Incorporated — money that was supposed to be spent on participants of the Illinois Youth Recreation Corps program. It also alleges someone described only as “Individual A” received a $4,932 check signed by Myles on Aug. 26, 2011.
  
  Ervin spokesman Tom Bowen released an emailed statement Thursday acknowledging that Ervin is the “Individual A” identified in the criminal complaint. Ervin (28th) could not be reached for comment.

Golly, an aldercreature accepting questionable checks from charity organizations in violation of state law?

Whatever happened to plain envelops full of cash?

But hey, an aldercreature involved in owning a drug house Maywood? Of having strippers in the same building that houses his political office? Of any number of licensed establishments in his ward being labeled "problems" yet having their licenses reinstated over and over again?

Anyone is surprised?

Another $7 Billion of Debt?

Way to go Madigan:

• Election-year pressure building on the state legislature to end a near year-long impasse with the governor turned into anger at the Statehouse on Thursday, the animus crossing political parties and the House and Senate chambers only days away from lawmakers' scheduled spring session adjournment.
  
  Senate Democrats were angry at House Democrats. House Republicans were even more indignant than usual toward majority Democrats. Chicago Public Schools students shouted and demonstrated in the Capitol rotunda. And one lawmaker accused an industry lobbyist of improper, if not illegal, activity. Against that backdrop, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner said he remained optimistic of a successful conclusion to the session on Tuesday.

First, shouldn't the CPS kids have been in school instead of being used as political props?

Second, Rauner is "optimistic" to the point of insanity of getting any sort of deal with Madigan.

Finally, Madigan presented a 500 page budget to the media at 5 PM, presented it to lawmakers at 7 PM and had it passed in the chamber by 7:30 PM.

This is a budget with an additional $7 billion in spending shortfalls to add to Illinois' how many billions of money already owed? No spending cuts, just tax hikes, and not even enough of those to close a gap of $7 billion? What the hell is the matter with all these assholes in Springfield who can't even balance the books in the face of the worst financial crisis in history?

DOJ Digs Deep (UPDATE)

The data-mining is looking more and more like a strip-mining operation:

• U.S. Justice Department officials have made 86 different requests seeking mountains of information from City Hall regarding their investigation into whether Chicago Police officers might be engaging in practices that violate the Constitution or federal law, according to documents obtained by NBC5 and shared with the Chicago Sun-Times.

What kind of data you ask?

• Among other requests the feds have made of City Hall:
  
  • Lists of incidents in which police officers “used force” and there were “injuries to CPD employees and/or members of the public.”
  
  • The names of and resumes of all “outside consultants and/or instructors” involved in officer training.
  
  • ”Information identifying all CPD officers who have been or are on light duty, medical disability, extended sick leave, or for any other reason are not on active duty.”
  
  • Documents on the department’s “pilot program for body-worn cameras.”
  
  • Information on hiring, training and disciplinary procedures; use-of-force policies; dispatch and service-call records; mental-health crisis response practices; “officer wellness” issues, and policies concerning “video and audio recordings” of police activity, including dashcam recordings.
  
  • “Policies concerning CPD officers’ use of their personal cell phone, camera, video- or audio-recording equipment in the performance of their duties.”

So, medical abusers better get back to work and Facebook-ing officers better cleanse their social media pages. All this in addition to data that might "prove" Rahm's contention of a "code of silence."

UPDATE: And from a reader:

• You know what I noticed that was missing on there? Promotional exams, subject matter experts, merit promotions process, secret study groups, and internal investigations pertaining to these topics, not to mention the list of single, double, and triple merit "appointees". Maybe that'll be in the next batch of foia requests.

Golly, it's almost like the DOJ wants to leave the corrupt command structure in place, which means nothing substantive is going to change, which means this is all a smokescreen/bullshit/red herring - choose your description.

More Questions

Questions about a "post-IPRA" world:

• Top mayoral aides are holding closed-door briefings with small groups of aldermen this week to flesh out details of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to abolish the Independent Police Review Authority, but the sessions are raising more questions than they answer.
  
  Ald. Anthony Napolitano (41st), a former Chicago Police officer-turned-firefighter, said he’s concerned about the multiple levels of oversight the mayor is planning over already wary police officers and about the criteria that would be used to serve on those boards.
  
  “I get that we need some sort of change. But the thing that I’m worried in the end is, when you bring an independent group of people in who don’t understand the law or have no law or policing background, you’re pretty much sending ’em out there to go on kind of a witch hunt for police officers,” Napolitano said.

A witch hunt? With all of this? Proposed and in-place already?

• Napolitano said he was assured by top mayoral aides Anna Valencia and Janey Rountree that “nothing is set in stone,” but Emanuel hopes to create three independent boards to restore public confidence in investigations of excessive force and other police wrongdoing.
  
  “Take those three, add to ’em your department. Add to ’em your IAD. Add to ’em your media. Add to ’em your ACLU. That right there is eight different levels of the onion that every officer is gonna be scrutinized on. What we’re creating is a reactive police department,” Napolitano said.

Reactive? Rahm said we were "fetal." The FBI says it's a "Ferguson effect." Our commentators have called it the "ACLU Effect." With eight levels of second-guessing going on, all with an agenda and the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, anything other than "reactive" is asking for trouble.

Napolitano even quotes actual facts - a political no-no in Rahm's world:

• “When I talk to officers, they’re saying, `We feel like the whole city is coming down on us,’ ” he said. “Fourteen hundred people shot this year alone. How many of ’em shot by police officers? Six. The numbers don’t equal properly. It’s not an officer issue.”

It never was - it was to protect Rahm's ass for his covering up of a video. But until that becomes the issue instead of the media broadcasting Rahm's agenda, "fetal" is what you're going to get.

Some People Get It

A very small number, but normal thinking citizens:

• Just before 5 p.m., a Wentworth District sergeant asked for any available cars to stop by 37th Street and Michigan Avenue for an outdoor roll call.
  
  [...] At 5:10 p.m., a lieutenant called the group to order. The officers formed two lines.
  
  One sergeant introduced another, who thanked the group for taking time during a busy shift. (Officers had responded to a shots fired call a few minutes earlier a few miles away and a person with a gun call about the same time.
  
  The sergeant caught Antonio Davis by surprise when she introduced him. He's a heavier man. He wore a "Put the Guns Down" faded black T-shirt and works with a church outreach group in Washington Park called "Pave the Way."
  
  He spoke for only a few seconds. "I support y'all. Anything I can do to help."
  
  He quickly deferred to Ladell Johnson, co-chair of the Wentworth District's advisory council. "I understand what you're going through. You all can't do this by yourself," Johnson said. "It takes a group effort. Don't worry about what the media says. We're here to support you."

It's something. We remember when the residents of the Deuce used to greet us with canned vegetables from eight or ten stories up.

Paper Trail

You've risked your job for this asshole?

• The blood alcohol level of a high-ranking Chicago Fire Department official was still nearly twice the legal limit almost four hours after he crashed a department-issued SUV last month off Lake Shore Drive just north of downtown, according to city records.
  
  The documents obtained by the Tribune under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act show that internal investigators with the Fire Department didn't administer the Breathalyzer test to then-Deputy Commissioner John McNicholas until 4:32 a.m. April 20.
  
  The crash took place a little before 1 a.m. that day, just off Lake Shore Drive near North Avenue, while McNicholas was off-duty.
  
  McNicholas had a blood alcohol content of 0.154 percent — nearly twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent, according to city records.
  
  It was unclear why the Fire Department didn't test McNicholas until nearly four hours after the crash or why Chicago police did not perform a Breathalyzer test and instead issued only a ticket for negligent driving.

Four hours after being sloppy-drunk at a Blackhawks game with his unnamed companion, he was still sloppy-drunk while in-custody, after wrecking a city vehicle and endangering the lives of anyone who crossed his path - and endangering the careers of numerous CPD personnel - and then ends up skating with a six-figure pension.

What are the chances this incident ends up being another "brick" in Rahm's so-called "code of silence" wall he's going to have to desperately build in short order?

Rat Squad at the Jail

Local 700 is unhappy with Tom Dart:

Tommy has been busy gutting the workforce, ignoring numerous complaints, and presiding over a suicide rate that is something like double the national average for police officers nationwide. He also has been throwing pizza parties for inmates if they don't engage in certain anti-social behaviors on the blocks, covering up numerous sex assaults against female staffers and releasing videos that even Grand Juries don't believe rise to the level of Official Misconduct.

There was even a special guest appearance at the jail:

Tommy is currently enjoying a certain level of "Teflon" status from the media - mostly because he's part of the up-and-coming Prickwrinkle machine, but it is also suspected because he employs the spouses of certain media members in six-figure jobs.

Memorial Day OT Info

This was forwarded to us:

• ...this is how the Department will pay our members if they have a day off on the Holiday:
  
  1. Officer's RDO and does not work the holiday
  2. Officer is NOT RDO and is working his regular day on a holiday
  3. Officer is RDO and voluntarily agrees to work his RDO on a holiday
  
  In each of these situations the officers will pick up the 8.5 hours of holiday time (books only).
  
  For officers who are RDO on Monday but don't work that is all they will get (the automatic 8.5 hours of comp time).
  
  For officer's who are not RDO but are working on Monday they get the normal holiday deal (8.5 hours C/E and 4.25 hours of which they can take in pay or put on the books).
  
  For officers who are RDO on Monday but volunteer to work, they would get the standard 8.5 C/E (books only) and then would get 12.75 hours. They can choose comp time or pay for the 12.75 hours.

The signature line was from the FOP Financial Secretary. It seems like a legit explanation for everyone arguing in the comments a few days back.

Slight Misrepresentation

This is the only guy covering the "Lie-tenant Test Scandal," so we'll cut him some slack:

• On a particularly violent Saturday this month, about a third of Chicago police officers had the day off.
  
  It happened on May 7, and it was the first time since 2004 that the department offered the detective’s promotional exam. In order to get promoted, rank-and-file cops had to take the test on “personal time."
  
  After a 12-year wait, they showed up en masse.
  
  In all, 3,039 of the department’s nearly 9,200 officers turned up to take the 12-hour test, an exam that stirred up complaints and a new bit of controversy related to how the Police Department handles promotional exams.
  
  Last week, a high-level city source upset about the city’s spike in murders and shootings called wanting me to find out “which genius” in the Police Department thought it was a good idea to schedule an all-day promotional exam on the first Saturday in May during an already violent year.

No idea where he came up with the 9,200 officers - we think it's closer to 8,000 since there are already 800 detectives and the other various D-2 ranks. And to be fair, a largish number of those showing up were already in Saturday/Sunday day off groups, another third were RDO anyway, many were midnight officers coming right from work, so they wouldn't have been on duty anyway, along with the third watch guys and gals who weren't scheduled to start until 1400 hours or later.

But we will agree that going from a two-day format to a single massive 14-hour-day-from-hell wasn't the best of options - but since when has Rahm cared about that? Or the beholden brass?

• It's not fair to jump to any cause-and-effect conclusions related to the events that transpired on the street while 3,039 cops took time off to take a promotion test.
  
  There’s simply no way to determine if the spike in shootings and murders on test day (compared to the first Saturday in May 2015, which saw 14 shootings and no murders) was in any way related to the high percentage of officers who took the day off to take the detective’s test.
  
  Still, there is such a thing as common sense.

Actually, not that many people took off - as we explained above. But also, by union rules, any interested officer who wanted to take the test could not be denied the opportunity simply because they were working. Which again, in years past, was alleviated by having an AM and a PM session.

The reporter uses this as a run-up to that naughty word City Hall has been branding as verboten - "overtime." Some people were offered OT to work their day off to man the cars that would have been downed otherwise, kind of like that Memorial Day OT initiative?

Penny Wise, Pound Foolish. But that's politics.

Traffic Review Board Follies

Anyone getting word about the massive number of "sustained" violations of procedure being handed out by the Traffic Review Board?

• SCC, You might start a post on this. The Traffic Review Board is clearing out a backlog of cases and sustained every single one for violations. They aren't telling coppers what the actual violation is, just citing a procedural error. Most of them are coming back sustained as "Admonishment," but no one knows what all these "admonishments" are going to add up to in the future. The message is clear - if you initially chase for Traffic, you are going to be cited for a violation, no matter how minor. Stop chasing.

Anyone?

Can't Hire Police

Even in Texas, where the police are generally viewed more positively:

• Dallas is an attractive city, and its skyline one of the best in the world.
  
  But, apparently, it's not attractive when it comes to recruiting police officers.
  
  "It's getting to the point that it's critical," said Mike Mata, vice president of the Dallas Police Association, as the department struggles to hire.
  
  The last two academy classes have been canceled because there weren't enough applicants. News 8 has learned it may have to be canceled a third time.
  
  "When you are getting recruit classes that you aren't able to get 10 recruits in there it's not financially workable to carry that class through," Mata said.

Pay is the big issue - the starting salary is barely $45,000 while surrounding jurisdictions offer $10-15,000 more.

But this is a national phenomenon that should be getting more attention - no one wants this job at any price apparently.

Shootings 50% Higher

And that's after a mild spring:

• The number of people shot in Chicago is running 50 percent above this time last year as the city braces for the summer, traditionally its most violent period.
  
  So far this year, at least 1,382 people have been shot in Chicago and at least 244 of them have died of their wounds. Last year at this time, 904 people had been shot, 157 of them fatally.
  
  May already has seen summerlike gun violence. More people have been killed so far this month than in all of May 2015.
  

What did we say just three weeks ago? Don't hang your hat on that "decrease of the increases" in April - one month can make you look like a moron.

Hello HQ morons - are you getting the picture yet?

And there's still a week to go, including a holiday weekend - Rahm's offering time-and-one-half to everyone.

Anyone want to tell us a story? Something along the lines of "Once upon a time, there was a city where violence wasn't tolerated...."

Paperless Department Coming

And by "paperless," we mean "CPD ran out of paper:"

• Just wait...This in just in time for summer...
  
  The supply ordering system is changing again. Districts that used to spend say $1500/MONTH are being told their new budget will be about $1100/QUARTER.
  
  All stand-alone printers going away - they aren't buying more toner for them. Will have to use the xerox instead. Hope it doesn't go down on a long weekend, cause they won't pay premium rates to have it serviced on weekends.
  
  Apparently no one downtown ever had to get anyone to court and realize its 30 pages minimum per arrestee. That's only 16 arrestees per ream of paper. Or maybe the city will tell Tim Evans to print his own stuff - we'll give you 1 arrest report, original complaint, case, and a transportation copy.

We're seeing a whole lot of people missing court in the near future. You can't even get County to make their own copies of anything - you thing they're going to accept prisoners without paperwork?

RWOC - County refused.

And Another Family Leaves

You think the "For Sale" sign went up this morning?

• An Uptown couple looking for a Marine Drive parking spot with two kids sleeping in the back seat were fired on by a shadowy figure who emerged from between two cars and started shooting.
  
  There was no provocation from the couple, who sped away before checking on the kids in the back. No one was hurt, but the couple's car had a shattered driver's side window and two bullet holes, police said.
  
  The couple — a 30-year-old man and 29-year-old woman — was searching for parking spot at 10 p.m. May 7 near Buttercup Park.
  
  As they circled in the 4900 block of North McCutcheon Terrace, a man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt stepped into the street and began firing at them.

Perfectly normal, right? Homeowners, taxpayers, get shot at just trying to park.

Nice Hood Rahm

Shocking:

• Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s neighborhood CVS Pharmacy was robbed this weekend for at least the fourth time in 18 months.
  
  Employees at the 4051 N. Lincoln location called police around 2:40AM on Sunday after a man walked up to the counter, pulled out a knife, and took about $60 from the cash register, police said.
  
  The offender is described as a 40-year-old white man with dingy pants who stands about 5’8” tall and weighs about 190 pounds. He was last seen running across Damen toward Belle Plaine.
  
  Similarly-described offenders robbed the same store at knifepoint at 5:15AM on February 17, 2015, and at 4AM on July 24, 2015.
  
  The store was also robbed at gunpoint by a different offender on January 16, 2015.

Who'd want to live near this decaying neighborhood? First, all these robberies, and second, Rahm lives there.

Memorial Day OT

One week, we have Rahm and the bean-counters bemoaning the massive overtime bill being rung up by the Department - VRI, canceled days off for the teams, Michigan Avenue, etc.

Then yesterday, we see a notice in the CO Book for everyone who is Regualr Day Off the 27th, 28th, 29th or 30th to sign up and work your day off for time-and-one-half.

Could it be CPD is understaffed?

Cops Save People?

We had no idea this was possible!

• Two Chicago Police officers are being credited with saving a woman’s life early Sunday in the Belmont Gardens neighborhood on the Northwest Side.
  
  At 2:10 a.m., the 25th District officers were called to assist paramedics for a call of a woman who wasn’t breathing inside an apartment in the 3100 block of North Milwaukee, according to police.
  
  They found a 27-year-old woman unconscious on the floor with a pale complexion and blue lips, and one of the officers started performing CPR while the other cleared the room and checked for a pulse, police said.

Paramedics arrived, transported and the woman was eventually stabilized at the hospital. But did anyone know that cops actually do good? A lot of the time? That we aren't all greedy, racist, neanderthals?

Nice job Officers.

Warm Weekend.....

....almost 40 shot:

• A city employee caught in gang crossfire was among five people killed and 32 more wounded in shootings across Chicago since late Friday afternoon, police said.
  
  Chicago Police issued a statement Sunday in the middle of one of the first consistently warm weekends of the spring, as intensified city gun violence typically accompanies rising temperatures.
  
  “As we look toward the summer months, Superintendent Johnson has made it very clear that the violence will not be tolerated – period,” the statement said.“The cause of the violence traces back decades, and everyone has a role to play in fixing it – police working with parents, judges, residents, clergy, community leaders, and others. Put simply, we need more values, fewer guns and stronger sentences against violence offenders.”

Most of those groups listed have actively rejected having anything to do with the police recently, driven by any number of false narratives promulgated by the left, from Washington DC on down to the local level. But hey, like a beaten spouse, the cops are expected to return to the table and play nice with everyone, all the while Rahm is plotting to gut our contract at the earliest opportunity.

Ammo Questions in NYC

In light of CPD's recent ammunition issue, this was mentioned in the comments:

• Four of the shots that cops fired at a madman waving a knife in Midtown failed to penetrate his jacket — which was not bulletproof — and the NYPD will now check the weapons for malfunction, law enforcement sources told The Post.
  
  “The bullets we have may be defective and that’s very disturbing,” one source said. “When we fire our weapons, we want to make damn sure that our bullets hit our target — neutralizing our target.”
  
  A sergeant and an officer fired a total of nine rounds at 46-year-old Garry Conrad on Wednesday, with one of the shots killing the depressed Broadway stagehand who refused to drop the blade at West 49th Street and Eighth Avenue.
  
  Four of the bullets got lodged in Conrad’s Carhartt jacket, sources said, adding that he was not wearing a bulletproof vest.

The Carhartt we owned once was a canvas-like material with a heavy weave - weather and water proof as we recall. Still, nothing we'd suspect as capable of stopping a decent sized round. Can any of our New York readers clue us in who was the manufacturer of the cartridges in question?

Interesting Proposal

Thinking outside the box at least:

• Chicago would offer homeowners a $200 rebate to purchase exterior cameras as long as they also link the cameras to the city’s vast video surveillance network. The innovative plan is being championed by a rookie alderman to combat the never-ending cycle of gang violence.
  
  Instead of spending $27,000 of his $1.32 million annual allotment of aldermanic menu money for just one crime-fighting street camera, rookie Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) wants to stretch those funds by offering the rebate as an incentive to homeowners.

Inviting the government into your surveillance system?

Not high on our list of priorities.

Being a good citizen and letting the cops know if your cameras happen to catch someone or something that might help solve a criminal matter?

Better option and it appeals to a sense of civic duty, especially in crime-ridden neighborhoods.

In the article though, there is an amusing admission by the aldercreature:

• Lopez acknowledged Thursday that what Chicago really needs is more police officers to stop the surge in homicides and shootings that will only get worse during the warm summer months.

We're shorthanded? Weather affects crime? Wow, this guy has got it on the ball!

DOJ Assigned Ethics Class

Remember, these are people in the same organization that is investigating CPD along with other police organizations across the country:

• A federal judge has ordered annual ethics classes for Justice Department attorneys as a punishment for being "intentionally deceptive" during litigation over President Obama's executive immigration orders.
  
  "Such conduct is certainly not worthy of any department whose name includes the word 'Justice,'" U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen wrote in a withering order released Thursday.
  
  Justice Department attorneys misled the court about when the Department of Homeland Security would begin implementing President Obama's executive order granting "deferred action" to illegal immigrants whose children are citizens. In doing so, they tricked the 26 states who filed a lawsuit into "foregoing a request for a temporary restraining order," according to the judge.

Just something to keep in mind as this train wreck moves along.

Tribune Hit Piece

We don't know what Rahm has on the media, but wow, they do like the taste of his ass:

• From the moment Chicago's Fraternal Order of Police started negotiating its first contract with City Hall 35 years ago, the union identified an issue that would prove key to its members: ensuring officers had robust protections when they were investigated for misconduct.
  
  City Hall had its own focus: money.

No, not "robust protections." Just the same protections afforded to citizens when accused of malfeasance. You know, Constitutional protections. And due to the City's intransigence at providing Officers with due process, contractual protections and case law became the rule of the day.

And the "money" thing was due to the City crying "We're broke!" because the City (Daley, Rahm, aldercreatures) wanted to spend money on political projects for votes, rather than what was owed employees (see the current pension crisis). So instead of saddling the City with more pension obligations, the FOP negotiated increases in non-pensionable raises to alleviate the obligation.

• Since that first contract, mayors from Jane Byrne to Rahm Emanuel have routinely fought to hold tight on the bottom line, while the union that represents thousands of rank-and-file officers has worked to, among other things, build layers of insulation from scrutiny.

Huh? All we have gotten is endless layers of scrutiny.

• One product of that bargain between the city and the FOP has been a flawed system in which officers are rarely held accountable for misconduct. Indeed, since the dashcam video showing Laquan McDonald being shot 16 times and killed by Officer Jason Van Dyke was released in November, the city and Police Department have been roiled by protests over the failure to discipline officers, while a U.S. Department of Justice civil rights probe has been launched.

Flawed how? Dozens of officers have been held to account for all sorts of misconduct. Many have done time in prison. Some remain there. Just because the system works slowly in a politically charged case...moving slowly because the mayor suppressed a tape for political reasons...doesn't make the system flawed, despite the howls from the lunatics on the fringes. We've stated it here many times - Officers aren't above the law, but they aren't below it either.

Now come the attacks, directed no doubt by Rahm, but written up by "reporters" who haven't done the most basic research:

• Amid the fallout, critics have zeroed in on the FOP contract and various rules that protect officers, and have called for a revamping. They have focused on a number of provisions, including one that allows officers to avoid making statements about shootings for at least 24 hours and another that requires internal investigators to notify officers of complainants' names before the officers are even questioned. Also at issue: a state law the FOP lobbied for that requires citizens to sign sworn affidavits to lodge an abuse complaint.

Notice the loaded language - "avoid making statements." That's genuine Grade-A horseshit right there. Did you know the FBI gets 72 hours? How about that many other departments get 48 hours? That there are scientific studies that note that the mental trauma involving a shooting can affect memories, recollections, even time estimations? Other studies that show that officers more often than not, mis-remember how many shots they actually fired at assailants? Twenty-four hours is minimal and more should be mandated.

Knowing your accuser? Gee, where have we read that before? The Sixth Amendment maybe?

• in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right…to be confronted with the witnesses against him."

God forbid coppers get protection from the Constitution!

Sworn affidavits are in play, too? Before the sworn affidavit, something like 95% of complaints were found to be crap. Since the sworn affidavit, the number remains in the mid-90s. Can you guess why? Because no one is prosecuted for lying on sworn affidavits. Sound familiar? Robberies, thefts, gun crime, all up this year why? The Superintendent says it's because the Courts are failing to mete out punishment. In 12 years of the sworn affidavit law, we can't recall a single prosecution for perjury. Someone can point out if we missed one.

More of the article quotes labor lawyers for the city and Dean saying there better be monetary compensation for surrendering any protections. We'd advise screw the money and fight for each and every protection. Otherwise, we're headed back to these types of days as past-president Dineen points out:

• "Back before there was a contract, if someone made a complaint against you or a boss didn't like you or they half-believed the complaint and you were working on the North Side, two weeks later you were at 104th and Avenue O," said Dineen, who served as FOP president until 1993. "And you couldn't do anything about it."

And then the attacks start up again:

• Several contract provisions that task force members and critics today have deemed troubling are among the bricks in the foundation of that first collective bargaining agreement. They include stipulations about how police were to be questioned and where they were to be questioned, requirements that officers be informed in writing about complaints against them and a prohibition against internal investigations based on anonymous complaints.

So a complete dismantling of the Contract is the eventual goal if the media is helping Rahm attack the foundations - foundations based on Constitutional Law. The article again claims "flaws" without providing accurate documentation and based on media constructs - Abbate of all cases - a video loop played about a billion times by the media, which used it to portray a department out of control, rather than a clout baby who was forced through the screening process, despite a record that would have disqualified any normal applicant.

But Hell will freeze over before the media covers clout - just look at the current crooked lieutenant exam - clout rules the day when the accused include the superintendent's girlfriend, the First Deputy's wife and other bedmates of Subject Matter Experts along with members of IAD who were then rewarded with promotions.

It's a craptacular article by a bunch of hacks who, as we said, must really like Rahm's ass. REad it all if you feel like you can stomach it - half-truths, lies, erroneous conclusions, and a list of talking points Rahm will be using this time next year when the Contract expires.

Rahm to Testify?

The mayor may be set to testify on something he has no direct knowledge of, but rather a throwaway-line he uses to promote a war on the police and pander to a community he desperately needs for votes:

• In an unprecedented move, city attorneys on Friday offered to admit to a federal jury that a code of silence exists in the Chicago Police Department if it meant Mayor Rahm Emanuel would not have to testify about it at the upcoming trial involving two whistleblower cops.
  
  But U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman rebuffed the idea, saying that even though he was "reluctant" to take up the mayor's valuable time and cause a media circus, he believed Emanuel could offer "much more texture" to the existence of a code of silence by taking the witness stand rather than with a written stipulation from city lawyers.
  
  Feinerman said he agreed with attorneys for the whistleblower cops that the mayor's testimony "would provide further evidence of an unwritten policy and practice." Emanuel could "speak to the pervasiveness of the problem," the judge said.
  
  The ruling was a blow to the city, which has fought tooth-and-nail to keep Emanuel off the witness stand. In a speech in December to the City Council, the mayor acknowledged the police code of silence amid the deepening scandal over the fatal shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald by a Chicago police officer.

Because of a video that Rahm suppressed so he could win an election. Remember, the Department turned the video over to Anita and City Hall, who held it until the election was over.

How about the court deal with the political "code of silence" that enables the mayor (past and present) to buy-off plaintiffs with taxpayer money?

Brass Brags, Woman Killed by HQ (UPDATE)

So there's a press conference going on at Headquarters:

• In a crackdown on the city's burgeoning violence, Chicago police have carried out an extensive gang takedown, arresting nearly 100 people on the department's "strategic subject list" — those believed to be the most prone to violence.
  
  Just last week, following the bloodiest weekend since he became superintendent, Eddie Johnson said much of the bloodshed is being driven by about 1,300 people on the list, compiled with the aid of a computerized algorithm.
  
  Calling the initiative the Police Department's "largest raid in recent history," Anthony Guglielmi, the department's chief spokesman, said 140 people were arrested on narcotics and weapons charges starting at 4 a.m. Thursday in the violence-plagued Harrison and Austin patrol districts on the West Side. Ninety-five of the 140 people are gang members, he said.
  
  Over $45,000 worth of narcotics ranging from heroin to cocaine was recovered, along with 26 illegal guns, he said.

Nice sweep, but as Eddie has said, unless these felons are getting five and ten years behind bars, they're just going to keep re-offending.

But while the presser is letting out....

• A woman who was walking out of a coffee shop was fatally shot and a man was wounded in a shooting about a block from Chicago police headquarters on the South Side Friday afternoon, police said.
  
  The shooting happened just before 4 p.m. outside a Starbucks at 35th and State Streets when a gunman opened fire on a man, a documented gang member, who was struck several times, said Supt Eddie Johnson near the scene of the shooting.
  
  The coffee shop is across the street from the headquarters parking lot and across the street from the edge of the Illinois Institute of Technology campus.
  
  The woman was an innocent victim in her 40s who was walking out of the coffee shop when she was shot in the chest, police said.
  
  [...] The shooting happened as Chicago police brass, including Johnson, were ending a press conference at police headquarters where he and others had been touting the arrests of dozens of gang members in a CPD sweep.

That's just bad timing, literally in the backyard of HQ where tens of dozens of coppers get their coffee every morning.

UPDATE: Deceased is a 311 Operator.

Leo, Fix This

The twentieth highway shooting of the year:

• A semi driver was shot and seriously wounded as he drove north on the Dan Ryan Expressway near 95th Street on Thursday night, the second shooting on a Chicago expressway in five days and among more than a dozen this year, state police said.
  
  The 68-year-old driver was struck in the face around 11:45 p.m. and was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was listed in critical condition, state police said.
  
  Early Friday, state police troopers shut down the northbound lanes of the expressway between 87th and 95th for several hours while they investigated the shooting.

So far, we've heard that Leo had instituted "boxes" on the expressways. The trouble is that the "boxes" were moving at 55 miles per hour (75 on parts of the Dan Ryan) and the troopers were being passed by the actual boxes due to the deteriorating condition of their squad cars.

It is said then that Leo decided to have the troopers only patrol that portion of the expressway that ran through Englewood, but as that only covers about one-mile, the troopers were obstructing traffic more than patrolling it.

Finally we've come across rumors that certain "high scoring" lieutenants have been directing night time traffic onto the expressways in a concerted effort to lower crime numbers and secure their ascension to exempt rank due to these so-called "strategies."

Hey it could happen.

Not a Cartel Hit

A very lengthy, very involved, very trying investigation:

• After six of his relatives were brutally slain in their Gage Park home in February, Diego Uribe was among the grieving family members struggling to cope with the unspeakable loss.
  
  He'd visited the Martinez family's tidy brick bungalow often, coming over to hang out or play basketball with the kids. Uribe, 22, seemed devastated by the killings, even breaking down in tears at the funeral.
  
  "I hugged this kid," said Dawn Valenti, a crisis responder who assisted the Martinez family with the burial.
  
  That image was shattered Thursday as Chicago police announced shocking first-degree murder charges against Uribe, saying the nephew by marriage had killed all six victims — including two children — in a robbery that turned into a massacre. His girlfriend, Jafeth Ramos, 19, was also charged in the six killings, but police were cagey about her exact role in the slayings.

"police were cagey"? Got to get that dig in no matter what, eh? Don't worry, the defense attorney will get all that info at discovery. No need to start laying the foundation for the murderers already Tribune.

Here's a touch we don't hear often enough though:

• "These people behind me have been living and breathing this case for nearly four months now, working well beyond their normal work hours to bring this case to a resolution" said [Chief of Detectives Eugene] Roy, flanked by nearly a dozen detectives. "I can't begin to count how many family and social events they missed because of their dedication."

A job very well done by all involved.

The Proper Response Is....

Bosses still aren't getting it - from an e-mail:

• Department Emails lingering around in unit 313 stating if a car comes in with no activity those officers must turn in a To/From to DC Staples  

And as any veteran knows, the To-From should read like this:

• If the Deputy Chief will relate a number or a goal in writing for R/O to achieve, R/O will gladly fill this quota in order to remain on the Area Gang Team.

And be sure to drop a yellow slip for the overtime if this demand is made at the end of your tour. And if you have a copy of the e-mail demanding a To-From due to lack of activity, print a copy and save another - it'll come in handy at Federal Court.

Of course, to actually do this, you'd need to not be afraid of pushing a beat car on midnights or third watch, because you aren't going to be around Unit 313 for long. But that's the price of being master of your own destiny.

UPDATE: Gangs, not Saturation.

Eddie Negotiates

We've been ripping on him endlessly for not doing the right thing regarding the cheating scandal.

We suppose we ought to point out when he does something right:

• A retired Chicago Police officer who barricaded herself inside a South Shore neighborhood home Tuesday evening came out peacefully after meeting with CPD Supt. Eddie Johnson, police said.
  
  Someone called police about 4:15 p.m. for a well-being check on the former officer, a woman in her 50s who was dealing with “personal hardships,” at the home in the 7700 block of South Paxton, police spokesman [...] said.
  
  When officers arrived, she refused to come out and threatened to harm herself, he said. SWAT team members responded along with negotiators, and the woman said she wanted to talk to Johnson, according to police.
  
  Johnson left a community meeting downtown to go to the house about 8:30 p.m. He went inside to talk to the woman, who came outside with him about 9:40 p.m. [...]
  
  Johnson went with her to Rush University Medical Center, where she was being evaluated Tuesday night.

The right thing. The decent thing. The noble thing.

Now fix the promotional scandal, girlfriend and all Eddie. Otherwise your good acts are tarnished by your omissions.

Look What's Coming

May is shaping up to be the bloodiest in recent years, completely destroying the narrative put forth about April's 3% increase being a sign of a "downward trend."

Bullshit - it was a breather

Already, 44 murders have been tallied in May. Someone said 21 of those were just in just the past 7 days.

And guess what's on the horizon?

• Thu - 69 and clear
• Fri - 71 and clear
• Sat - 73 and clear
• Sun - 74 and clear
• Mon - 76 and clear
• Tue - 77 and rain

That's a warming trend.... with no rain until next week.

Batten down the hatches.

Chicago Values

Is this what Rahm was talking about before?

• Heated tensions between the two families spilled over after Wednesday's emotional bond hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. After some pushing took place outside the courtroom, sheriff's deputies separated the two sides and escorted them outside. But a few minutes later, several members of both families tussled on a parkway, trading punches. One man body-slammed another before numerous deputies ran outside to stop the melee.
  
  No one was arrested.

So a public brawl and no one arrested - par for the course. And we'd bet, directly attributable to the circumstances that led to the stabbing death of a 15-year-old by a 13-year-old, with a knife supplied by Mama.

After all, stuff like this has been going on at Jackson and Western for months (remember the firework fight?). Actually, it goes back decades if you count the old Rockwell Garden days:

Was This One Charged?

Anyone hear the end result of this?

• Or how about when a F/1 14 year old shoots at the police arresting her boyfriend, is apprehended, identified on the scene by the officer who the attempted murder was committed against, finds that the F/1 14 years is not charged ( for the good of the city perhaps) (happened over the weekend) the gun was recovered by K-9 the next day and she is still uncharged. 

Evidently, there's audio of the incident available at this link here.

14-year-old shooting at the police - shouldn't be surprised when 13-year-old are stabbing people to death we suppose.

Nice Job Big Mouth

Rahm's political instincts must have been on the fritz:

• A federal judge put City Hall in a pickle Wednesday, ruling that Mayor Rahm Emanuel may be called to testify during a civil trial about the Chicago Police Department’s notorious code of silence.
  
  But U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman said he reluctantly made the ruling only because city lawyers turned agnostic in court on the question of whether such a code exists — promising not to deny it when a whistleblower lawsuit goes to trial, but refusing to confirm it. Meanwhile, Emanuel has already acknowledged the code in a speech to the City Council last December.

Too bad we can't slip the lawyers a few bucks to ask some truly pointed questions if the mayor ends up under oath. Rahm might actually spontaneously combust.

Transparency? Where?

More smoke to provide less transparency:

So release more videos to distract the masses, call it transparency, "participate," (as if the Superintendent would actually be getting his mitts dirty wrestling dope boys, robbers and thieves).

But if that spotlight gets a little too close to the Super's girlfriend, her best friend (wife of the former First), three or four of her co-workers, all connected to the Bureau that is supposed to be "watching the watchers...."

Real fucking transparent. How transparent was Gene Williams' skull that they could see the fucking answers?

And the media, looking a gift horse in the mouth, neglects to do even the cursory research that might bring real change to the Department by clearing out actual corruption, expose clouted connections and loosen the rope that is strangling coppers who want to do good.

Advocate Newsletter

Again, with this crap?

IAD certainly has some balls publishing stuff like this:

• False Statements While Working
• False Statements Outside of Work

This after how many members of IAD got promoted via cheating? With Mrs Wysinger and her coffee-klatsch scoring in the upper stratosphere after being "merit" promoted to sergeant, spending all their time off the street at HQ, but suddenly getting top marks on a test that's supposed to measure their ability to apply Patrol solutions to Patrol issues.

It boggles the mind.

Ask HQ Anything!

From our active duty friends, this tidbit from the Orifice of New Affairs:

Now you can "get facts from CPD Command Staff about anything that's on your mind"!!!!!

And "We all have a hand in making our Department even better and your submission will go a long way in helping to separate fact from rumors"!!!!

That's an amusing phrasing of "your submission," isn't it? If you submit to the will of the Exempt Staff, everything will be all good! And the check is in the mail, right?

Didn't this exist back in our day as Rumor Central? And didn't Jody try this once, with his "Checkerboard Chat" that SCC buried after the Orange One tried to call them out? That board got shut down after everyone starting asking uncomfortable questions about why Aunt Bea was launching people out of spots when they questioned policy at the so-called "ask-anything open forums."

How about everyone start asking how they can get the answers to the next promotional exam? Or how certain people managed to get perfect/near-perfect scores without being able to pass the previous promotional test and having to rely on "merit"?

Maybe ask Barb West - she just got Gene Williams old spot AND she used to work IAD as a Sergeant and Lieutenant, running illegal First Amendment investigations with nary a care in the world.

One Saga Ends, Another Begins

The ending one:

• Chicago police Detective Dante Servin has resigned days before hearings were to begin into whether he should be fired for an off-duty 2012 incident in which he fatally shot an innocent 22-year-old woman, the chairman of the Chicago Police Board confirmed Tuesday.

The beginning one:

• A veteran Chicago police officer was charged with felony official misconduct Tuesday after a surveillance camera captured him beating a patient in handcuffs at a South Side hospital two years ago, Cook County prosecutors alleged.

What was the quote from the "Ocean's Eleven" remake?

• You of all people should know Terry, in your hotel, there's always someone watching.

Get it? Got it? Good.

This isn't 1960 any more. It's isn't 1970, nor 1980, nor 1990.

Mom of the Year

This sounds so....familiar:

• A 13-year-old girl and her mother have both been charged with first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of a 15-year-old girl during a fight on the South Side over the weekend, according to police.
  
  The girl is accused of stabbing DeKayla Dansberry, a popular track standout at Johnson College Prep, in the chest Saturday night, according to police. Her mother, Tamika Gayden, 35, provided the knife, police said.

Shades of this homicide from a few years ago:

• On Monday, Mr. Flora, now 27, was sentenced to 100 years in prison — 65 years for Endia [Martin]’s murder, plus 35 years for the attempted murder of the other girl. The authorities said the motivation for the shooting by Mr. Flora’s niece, who is awaiting trial for murder in juvenile court, was a dispute about a boy. Officials said the handgun used in the shooting had been illegally transferred and then falsely reported stolen before it ended up in Mr. Flora’s possession.

So Mom has about 100-years to look forward to. But what is it about adults providing juveniles with weapons to wreak havoc on the community? Maybe Mope-rah can answer? Or Phleger? Or Rahm? Or #blm?

New TV Drama - This Fall

This might give Rahm some ideas:

• Police work isn’t rocket science.
  
  It’s harder.
  
  Inspired by true events, APB is a new police drama with a high-tech twist from executive producer/director Len Wiseman (LUCIFER, “Underworld”) and executive producer/writer Matt Nix (“Burn Notice”).
  
  Sky-high crime, officer-involved shootings, cover-ups and corruption: the over-extended and under-funded Chicago Police Department is spiraling out of control.
  
  Enter billionaire engineer GIDEON REEVES. After his best friend is murdered in a botched attempted robbery, and the killer remains at large, Gideon demands justice. Putting up millions of dollars of his own money, he makes an unprecedented deal to take over the troubled 13th District – and reboot it as a private police force: better, faster and smarter than anything seen before. With cutting-edge technology created by Gideon himself, this eccentric yet brilliant outsider challenges the city’s police force to rethink everything about the way they fight crime.
  
  But the near-overnight transition to the city’s most advanced police district doesn’t sit well with all of its members.

Wow! This sounds fantastic!! A privately funded police force, an outsider billionaire funding the technology - Rahm has to be having heart palpitations just reading about this!

Of course, RoboCop did it first. And better. And they did it in Detroit.

We wonder if they need "consultants," someone to show them the ropes as it were.

Heroin OD Spike

Anyone else notice an uptick in heroin overdoses?

• SCC,
  
  CFD paramedic on the west side. Don't know if you heard, but we have ambulances doing 30 and 40 runs a shift the past few days, all related to another f&%^ed up batch of heroin. So far we're saving maybe 75% of junkies, but the number of deaths is at least as high as a few years back when the media was all over it. Why not now?

Maybe the media has learned that no one really cares about dead junkies.

So...anyone notice?

Cameras - 24/7

This sounds like something that would happen in Chicago:

• ROUND LAKE PARK, Ill. -- For more than eight months, police body cams at a northwest suburban department mistakenly recorded all the time, even as officers were taking bathroom breaks and involved in other non-essential police work.
  
  Police body cams are supposed to automatically document what frontline officers see in the line of duty - interactions with civilians and suspects. But for the past eight and a half months in suburban Round Lake Park, the cameras never blinked. They were recording all the time, even when officers didn't know they were on.
  
  Nobody has a good answer how it happened. But it has infuriated officers and their chief and has the manufacturer pointing a finger at them.

Guess how it happened?

• The Texas company that makes the devices promotes a feature that allows officers to recapture evidentiary video even if they have forgotten to record and in a statement the company's president says, "this feature can be enabled or disabled by department administration." He says they are working closely with the leadership of the Round Lake Park Police Department to assist and support them as they investigate this incident."

Anyone know if that "feature" is included on our cameras? And how much do you want to bet that someone already told the vendor, "Hell yeah, we want that!" if it's available?