Shooting

Assailant wounded, in critical condition. Cops okay, gun recovered:

• An armed man was shot by police during an encounter that began with a shots-fired call in the Washington Park neighborhood Wednesday afternoon.
  
  Around 2:15 p.m., police were dispatched to a call of shots fired in the 6100 block of South King Drive where they encountered a 24-year-old man with a semi-automatic pistol, said Chicago police Deputy Chief Kevin Ryan during remarks at the scene.
  
  "At one point the officers fired and shot the offender who was then taken into custody," Ryan said.
  
  Police requested aid for him and recovered the weapon. The man was listed in critical condition at Stroger Hospital, according to Ryan and Chicago Fire Department officials.

We thought they were going to stop the statements at the scene lest it lead to exempts getting indicted at some point.

Best wishes to the involved Officer.

UPDATE: Suspect has passed on to his underworldly reward.

Still Not a Bright Idea (Correction)

Let's combine a few Districts! What's the worst that could happen?

That's what happens when you combine 012 and 013, and pretend you're keeping all 500 cops there by lying to the taxpayers and aldercreatures. Then you let the manpower dwindle to less than what one District had before the merger. Finally, put a degenerate gambling thief in charge to further drive out anyone with actual knowledge of the District.

UPDATE: Our friend corrected the mislabeled heading. Thanks to everyone who pointed it out.

No-lympics Again

Someone must have perfected the brain transplant procedure:

• She led Chicago’s failed 2016 Olympic bid, but Lori Healey has zero regrets.
  
  That doesn’t mean she thinks Chicago should do it again, noting it is too expensive for an American city to mount a bid.

Our readers told everyone it was too expensive from day one. We pointed out dozens of articles that showed how Olympics lose money on a constant basis, bankrupting cities, states and saddling future taxpayers with unmanageable debt. The information was all there for the taking, and yet, no one seemed to notice when Shortshanks blew millions on a doomed effort to out-bribe entire countries.

Amazingly, he managed to lose the Olympics with it's crushing debt, and still stuck taxpayers with the Michael Reese debacle and a politically connected suicide.

Didn't Rahm Ban Raids?

Despite Rahm's efforts, ICE is conducting raids in Chicago:

• A Chicago bakery lost 800 workers to an immigration raid earlier this year.
  
  Bloomberg reports that the Cloverhill Bakery on the Northwest Side, lost more than a third of its employees who didn’t have sufficient documentation.
  
  The Swiss-based company makes hamburger buns for McDonald’s and other chains.
  
  A spokesman said the bakery is struggling to replace staff, is facing pressure to raise wages, and has lost $21 million due to the disruption.

Isn't there an under-served minority group suffering high unemployment with actual legal identification who might be desirous of these jobs?

Referendum Nonsense

Looks like Fran has been trolling our archives:

• Questions on the ballot in Chicago on March 8, 2018:
  
  1: Do you love puppies? 2: How about kittens? 3. Isn’t Mom great?
  
  So, okay, maybe the three referendum questions really on the ballot aren’t quite so soft as that, but they’re close.
  
  And if you wonder why, it’s because the people who control what gets on the ballot are happy to make a mockery of the democratic process when it suits their purposes. As Fran Spielman of the Sun-Times reports, they have stuck three utterly uncontroversial questions on the ballot — the most allowed — to crowd out any embarrassingly controversial questions. For them, it’s a game.

We attempted, many years ago, to throw together a referendum to reduce Chicago aldercreatures to a more manageable and comparable in number to New York City and Los Angeles. Our meager (and failed) effort was undertaken in mere weeks and garnered about 10% of the required signatures for the question to appear on the ballot. But even if we had gathered the required total, the Board wouldn't have allowed it on the ballot, instead substituting in three nonsensical questions, as Fran discovered they are going to do this spring:

• 1. Do you support a comprehensive strategy to address the opioid and heroin epidemic?
  
  2. Do you think the state’s insurance code should be changed to preserve health care benefits for people who have signed up for the Affordable Care Act?
  
  3. Do you favor stiffer penalties for gun traffickers and a statewide ban on “bump stocks?”

None of which will lead to leaner, economically responsible, more efficient Chicago governance. But that's the point in the People's Socialist Republic of Chicago.

We're Guessing Insanity Plea

When you read a story like this, you might wonder why you didn't find another job:

• A man accused of brutally killing his father was escorted out of bond court Tuesday after having several outbursts before the judge.
  
  Carlton Edmondson, 26, was arrested Saturday on charges of first-degree murder and violation of an order of protection. He is accused of killing and dismembering his father, Carl Edmondson, 61, of the 11500 block of South Bishop Street in the West Pullman neighborhood.
  
  [...] The victim’s brother knew his nephew previously had been ordered not to contact his father so he contacted the police. When authorities arrived, Carlton Edmondson answered the door and said his father was at the hospital.
  
  Officers then entered the house and found Carl Edmondson’s body at the bottom of the basement stairs. His head had been smashed in, with blood and brain matter strewn on the floor and walls. The victim’s penis had been severed and police located a piece of it in the basement, according to a statement read in court. Carl Edmondson also suffered deep lacerations to his lower body. His body also emitted a stench of gasoline, police said. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene, and the medical examiner’s office later said he died from blunt force injuries.
  
  Posted on Carlton Edmondson’s Facebook page that day was an image of a hand touching what appeared to be the victim’s battered skull.

The offender also had this bit of philosophical wisdom to offer in open court:

• Edmondson appeared in bond court Tuesday in a white jumpsuit and handcuffs. As he entered the courtroom, he shouted something and continued to have outbursts throughout his hearing, at one point peering, wide-eyed, around the room.
  
  Some of his exclamations were lucid. As his charge of violation of an order of protection was read, Edmondson said calmly, “The order of protection is gone. He is no longer living.”

The judge didn't even entertain thoughts of bail.

Sinkhole City

Rahm takes another beating from some financial types - an arena where he supposedly "made" millions:

• As Christmas looms around the corner, it seems as though the only gifts finding their way to the Land of Lincoln have been a wave of unflattering fiscal report cards.
  
  The latest comes from the watchdog group Truth in Accounting, or TIA, and details Chicago’s distressed fiscal condition. To illustrate the severity of the city’s fiscal problems, the organization awarded Chicago an F grade.
  
  “Despite an array of tax increases to help shore up the city’s underfunded pension plans,” the study declares, mounting pension and benefit debt has committed the city to a perpetual cycle of worsening fiscal instability.
  
  TIA’s analysis, which was produced using data sourced from the Chicago’s 2016 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report and actuarial reports from the city’s pension funds decorates Chicago with the status of a “sinkhole city” – a city whose deficits outpace its available assets – noting that every taxpaying Chicagoan is on the hook for $41,700 in city debt.

The whole article is about two pages, and the links extensively outline the "sinkhole" aspect looming just out of sight.

Whack da Pee Pee

Given the state of the jail and the courts, we're surprised anyone had the balls to order this:

• Cook County jail detainees with a history of indecent exposure, masturbation or sexual misconduct will remain handcuffed “at all times” during courthouse visits while a series of recent lawsuits play out, a federal judge said Tuesday.

And this sounds particularly amusing:

• Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart did not oppose the order, which allows for a criminal court judge have a detainee uncuffed. It also says officers “may use appropriate force or handcuffing” to stop detainees from engaging in sexual misconduct.
  
  U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly’s order follows a series of lawsuits by female Cook County jail guards and assistant public defenders complaining that Dart has failed to stop daily occurrences of detainees masturbating in front of them.

That's going to make it awfully difficult for the frustrated prisoners to "take care" of business. Perhaps Dart didn't object because Prickwrinkle made budget cuts to the pizza fund?

Media Covers Retire Healthcare

Hey Fran, we did this article two days ago, so that's another $50 to the Chaplains:

• More than 20,000 city employees and retirees have been dealt a crushing blow that could cost them dearly, but end up saving Chicago taxpayers $130 million a year.
  
  In a six-word ruling on Thanksgiving eve, the Illinois Supreme Court refused to hear the retirees’ appeal of a state Appellate Court ruling that essentially upheld Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s now-completed, three-year phase-out of retiree health care coverage and a 55 percent city subsidy for anyone who did not retire by Aug. 23, 1989.
  
  Clint Krislov, an attorney representing the retirees, said the decision means those retirees are entitled only to bare-bones protections outlined by lower courts.

How bad is it?

• Last week’s ruling is particularly costly to roughly 10,000 city employees who started working for the city before April 1, 1986, and therefore did not qualify for Medicare.
  
  They have been forced to choose between exorbitant premiums that, in some cases, are double their retirement checks or go without health insurance coverage at a time when they need it the most due to their age and declining health.

They're talking about retirees in their 60's, 70's even 80's or their surviving spouses who are Medicare ineligible and now have expenses that will outstrip their pensions. People who gave the entirety of their working lives to the city and now will have looming bankruptcy or insufficient care at the end of their lives.

Who needs Obama's death panels when you have Rahm Emanuel pulling the trigger?

Piggy Move Up

One retirement, and everyone sucking a government salary moves up a space:

• Longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez won’t seek re-election next year, sources said Monday night, setting off a domino effect in Chicago Latino politics.
  
  As a result, Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia plans to start gathering signatures to seek Gutierrez’s congressional seat, sources said. And 22nd Ward Ald. Ric Munoz plans to runs for Garcia's county board seat.
  
  The decision marks a change from Monday morning, when Gutierrez’s campaign filed his paperwork to secure a spot on the March 20 primary ballot.

We see Gutierrez and we wonder whose butt he's been pinching.

Chuy is out of the Prickwrinkle challenge, so that takes the leading Hispanic and top communist out of the County race. Who is left for "progressives" now? Fioretti?

And Munoz, who used to hold guns for the latin kings, whose parents ran a fake ID ring on 26th Street, and who tried to beat up a challenger a few years back, is moving over to the County side.

Now if the rumor that Rahm is leaving takes shape, this might be a very interesting election season.

Customer "Service"

We had a discussion at a non-alcoholic vegan establishment a few nights ago. It kind of went along.....what? Okay. Fine. It was at a dingy corner bar, smelling of old cigarettes and stale beer. Happy?

In any case, it went like this - the job really started to go downhill once some dumbass exempt started using 1980's and 1990's corporate "buzzwords" that called the people we deal with "customers" and we had to "incentivize" or some other similar bullshit. After that, we no longer dealt with "criminals" and then the bean counters started attempting to recast police work to the "police-as-social-worker" that haunts most major departments to this day.

Exhibit #1,043:

• DULUTH, Minnesota -- Police officers put in hundreds of hours of logistical training, seeking to sharpen their skills and prepare for any dangerous scenario that might arise in the blink of an eye.
  
  But cops tend to spend a lot less time training for their day-to-day interactions with community members, Duluth Police Chief Mike Tusken said.
  
  "We're really good about training officers to be tactically sound — to have good critical-thinking skills and decision-making," he said. "But one of the areas we can improve upon is soft skills. Better communication will enhance your perspective and the way you look at problem-solving."
  
  It is with that goal that the Duluth Police Department plans to introduce what Tusken describes as "customer service training" for the 15 newest recruits before they hit the streets for the first time.

Which exempt was it that started this ship sinking? It was in the 1980's if we recall correctly - does some old timer remember?

Carnage Continues

Getting it out of the way early yesterday:

• A 16-year-old boy was shot Monday morning in the Lawndale neighborhood on the Southwest Side.
  
  He was shot in the back at 11:38 a.m. in the 1600 block of South Drake, according to Chicago Police. Details on the circumstances of the shooting were unknown.

Expect more during this warm week.

How Many Days in a Row?

We didn't see any coverage of this in the media for some reason, but our friends at HeyJackass.com didn't miss it. Nice city you got here Rahm:

And the streak continued this weekend.

1.8 dead per day. 8.7 maimed.

Does anyone know if Special Ed had cake at HQ?

2017 (reality) vs 2018 (projected)

One of our regular readers came up with this handy little table, comparing the Department's 2017 numbers with Rahm budgeted in 2018:

And any media-types or non-police reading should take note:

• FTO and Detectives come from the ranks of Police Officers, so Rahm is short upwards of 1,000 Police Officers already;
• Sergeants can come from the ranks of Police Officers, FTO's or Detectives, so any promotions to that rank short the others;
• Retirements come from all ranks and no one can be completely sure where they will come from. With the recent decision on retiree health care, there is less incentive than ever to stick around since the uncertainty is now defined.

 So the question becomes how close is Rahm going to get to what he's telling tax payers?

A Night at the Theater

From Father Brandt and the Chaplains Ministry:

• Christmas is coming... Please consider this gift for your loved ones, as it benefits our vital ministry to the officers, retirees and Gold Star Families of CPD.
  
  Police Chaplains Ministry night at the theater is Tuesday, 16 JAN 2018, 7:30 curtain at Cadillac Palace Theater: 151 W. Randolph. We are taking over the up-front Orchestra Section...and tickets are available for a $135 donation per seat. That's a steal (AND tax-deductible!).
  
  Nothing says MERRY CHRISTMAS like really close theater tickets!

Here's the flyer (click for a larger version):

Upfront Orchestra seating - as the Padre says, a steal...and a pretty awesome gift.

(Comments closed here - informational post only.)

Pin Shoot

Sounds like a fun time (click for a larger version):

All proceeds to benefit the Brotherhood of the Fallen.

Informational post only - comments closed here.

Retiree News (not good)

We don't understand all of it, but here is the letter from Krislov late last week just before the holiday:

• Dear Participants,
  
  I am truly sorry and disappointed to report that the Illinois Supreme Court has denied our petition challenging the lower courts’ rulings on our complaint.
  
  122673 - Michael W. Underwood et al., petitioners, v. Trustees of the Policemen's Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago et al., respondents.
  Leave to appeal, Appellate Court, First District. 1-16-2356, 1-16-2357
  Petition for Leave to Appeal Denied.
  Website: http://illinoiscourts.gov/SupremeCourt/PLA_Ann/2017/112217.pdf
  
  While this might be viewed as only a ruling at the early stage of the case, it will certainly be treated by Judge Cohen as a vindication of his and Justice Simon’s declaration that the only protectable interest is what is stated in the statute.
  
  If that’s so, then the statute still requires the Funds trustees to provide a plan, and subsidize it; albeit at the 1983 and 1985 statutory levels.
  
  Since none of the Funds are “providing” a plan, it may be that Judge Cohen will now require them to do that. However, there is a fair likelihood that Judge Cohen will instead now back off that, to rule that the only obligation is for the Funds to subsidize your premiums for the $55/$21 (Police and Fire NonMedicare/Medicare)and $25 (municipal and laborers) monthly subsidy amounts for life, for everyone who was hired by mid-2003.
  
  I share our great disappointment at the Court’s not even bothering to give us a hearing on the City’s broken promises. I guess the message is you cannot rely on anything the City promises unless there is a statute requiring it.
  
  Since the court has not ruled on the related petition (dealing with the lower court’s refusal to certify the case to proceed for the class), there may be a basis to seek reconsideration of the denial of the petition. I don’t think that’s likely to be successful.
  
  At this point, we will be back before Judge Cohen on November 29th, asking him to order the Funds to actually do their jobs and provide you a plan (indeed, the County’s UHC retiree healthcare plan is much cheaper than the Blue Cross Plan being offered you, even for their Choice-Plus PPO), and subsidize it at least at the statutory rates. We’ll see how this all plays out, and we invite your comments and suggestions.
  
  We’ve devoted ourselves to this effort for you, and share your diminished confidence in the system’s fairness. And while many of you contributed to this effort, and the FOP and Retired Chicago Policemens Association contributed significantly, feel free to contact any of the rest of your unions to thank them for their lack of any help for us at all, especially the Firemen.
  
  And you might give your Funds’ trustees a call and a special remembrance for their switching sides and supporting the City in this battle.
  
  I am and will always be proud of our fight for you. I’m sorry we haven’t been more successful for you. But we will continue fighting to get the maximum benefits and subsidy for all of you.
  
  We sincerely wish you a happy thanksgiving with your families. Sorry we don’t have more to be thankful for at the moment.
  
  Clint Krislov

Krislov says right out that the Fund Trustees switched sides and supported the city in this lawsuit. That should certainly be an issue going forward from this point. Also, that the city pretty much kicked police widows/widowers right in the gut, reneging on years of promises.

Traffic Court Change?

From about twelve different e-mails:

• From an e-mail
  
  FYI to my PO friends, No more sign in sheets at traffic court. You still need to bring OT slip but they sign u in and out on the computer. Also no more printouts of who is on your call so now you have to sit during entire call. If you haven’t done it before you have to start bringing your ticket books

Are they pioneering something to track court time? Swiping is coming (again) and we imagine there will be some form of swiping at court shortly after they work the kinks out at HQ. We can see Rahm trying to attack the contractual two-hour minimum in upcoming negotiations.

Just a point though - you were always supposed to bring your ticket books to traffic court. That order never changed and we are surprised that the Inspection Division hasn't tried to use that as a "mover" for their own purposes.

Phrasing and Rephrasing

A reader noted this and brought it to our attention - and the Slum Times changed it as soon as the editors realized the reporter had violated the tenets of slanted anti-police/anti-security/anti-gun reporting. Here's the original version:

• A person was shot by a security guard Thursday afternoon in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side.
  
  The “male offender” was shot in his chest by the guard at 3:42 p.m. in the 300 block of East 47th Street, according to preliminary information from Chicago Police.
  
  He was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition, police said.
  
  The circumstances of the shooting and the age of the person shot were not immediately known.

Here's version 2:

• A man was shot by a security guard Thursday afternoon in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side.
  
  The 22-year-old was shot in his chest by the guard at 3:42 p.m. in the 300 block of East 47th Street, according to preliminary information from Chicago Police.
  
  He was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition, police said.
  
  Police have not released additional information about the shooting.

Slanted Journalism 101 says that you CANNOT identify anyone shot in the commission of a crime as an "offender." He/She is always the "victim" of the gun-wielding madman. Always.

Everyone reading here knows exactly what would have been printed if the police drilled this ne'er-do-well. It's amusing the first version saw print. You can bet that Hendrickson won't be making that mistake again.

De-Escalation Backfire

Even if you do the right thing, you might get hammered:

• An Elgin policeman was suspended three days after a woman filed a complaint about the arrest of her sons.
  
  Sgt. Travis Hooker's suspension took effect Oct. 31, nearly four months after Melissa Sanders' sons, 15 and 21, were arrested July 2 after a neighbor called police about loud music at an outdoor gathering. The 21-year-old was pepper-sprayed by Hooker and both young men were charged with resisting a police officer.
  
  A police review determined the arrests and use of pepper spray were appropriate, but Hooker violated department rules and policies because he acted too quickly and didn't attempt to de-escalate the situation, according to documents obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request.
  
  "Your actions contributed to a deterioration of the situation," Police Chief Jeff Swoboda stated in Hooker's disciplinary action report.

The offender pled guilty. But since the officers didn't "de-escalante" "de-escalate" a situation that was rapidly getting out of control (and responded within the bounds of State Law), he got three days off.

Now go get Special Ed some numbers and don't forget to sign up for the new Targeted Operations Force.

Targeted Operations Force?

Also known as "SOS Redux:"

• Allegedly, gang enforcement, saturation and gun teams are all being merged into one big unit out of two locations. One that will pull out of 011 downstairs and another south that will pull out of the building that area south saturation currently pulls out of st 117th and Indiana. South will be 003,004,005,002,007,008,009,006, 022 and 001. The rest will be the guys who pull out of 011. All in uniform and makes cars. VRI marked cars along with saturation marked cars are to be split up and used. Not sure I trust people to actually work in some of those VRI cars. One commander, 2 XOs and 6 LTs. A waste of you ask me. Allegedly announcement to come out January to announce the new "strategy" to combat crime in 2018. Lots of 3 year wonders gonna drink this cool aid just like those that went to MSF ...

Gee, a city wide response unit. Just what the readership and we have been saying the city needs for ten years now. But unavailable due to a lack of manpower. The personnel numbers must be up again where the Department can afford to do this. Too bad they're still cutting watch manpower and denying days off.

Now if this unit is not subject to the Contract regarding start times, day off groups, watch bidding, given exclusive access to overtime initiatives, and completely numbers-driven led by the latest generation of "merit" bosses, what could possibly go wrong?

Cranky Commander

Is he putting it all on the line? Or is he doing what he's told?

• Arrests are up from last year but what happens after an arrest is what frustrates the commander of downtown Chicago’s 18th police district. Commander Paul Bauer says there is a “high bar to prosecution” in Cook County, requiring Chicago police to get approval from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office before a suspect can be charged.
  
  
  “Sometimes they want to come out and...talk to the victim,” said Bauer at the annual meeting of River North Residents Association. “If you think about it, we’re sometimes victimizing this person twice. You just got your phone snatched from you. You got knocked down. Now you’re going to be in the station. You got to stay here for another couple hours until the State’s Attorney gets out here.”
  
  [...] According to Bauer, 75 percent of the crime in the 18th district is theft-related, whether it’s theft from a building or theft from a person, including a suspect who, while riding a bicycle, recently swiped mobile phones from people in River North.

If this guy is like most commanders, he's never had an original thought in his life, and criticizing Foxxx's office isn't going to earn him any love from that part of the Machine...unless this is part of an on-going feud behind the scenes.

Rahm has to realize that 018 is going under, and it's going to go faster if tourists keep getting mugged. Is someone making waves among the business community who have noticed the long-term trends in the profit margins and Rahm is reminding the County side that a deserted downtown is in no one's interests?

Fed Up in Philly?

How long until we see this here?

• Teachers in Pennsylvania’s capital city are asking for support after a series of violent altercations with students has led to multiple resignations.
  
  The Harrisburg Education Association says at least 45 teachers have resigned since July and October. Association President Jody Barksdale says more have resigned since then.
  
  Speaking at a school board meeting Monday evening, first-grade teacher Amanda Sheaffer says she has been hit and kicked by her students.

So the "no punishment - increased violence" isn't unique to Chicago, St. Louis, Ferguson and Baltimore. Suspiciously though, it seems isolated only to certain communities. We're hoping for a study one day soon.

Rumor - Rahm Leaving

The Hive is disturbed - Rumor Central buzzing. A lot.

• Sounds like Rahms Security Detail has been given the heads up to find a soft landing spot. Expect Rahm to disappear and go the $$$$$ of a DC Lobbyist ahead of Van Dyke Trial. What a pussy coward. His legacy will be a financially and structurally destroyed city much like his hero Obama. Expect a “health/family crisis” to justify this.
• Holy crap friend is in Mayors Detail and given choices of places to go. Rahm is leaving for either DC or LA before end of his term. Told them of a “personnel” health issue and thanked them. As purely Evil as Rahm is Devil you know is better than Devil you don’t.

The bad news might be piling up too quickly to shovel. And potential bad news is right around the corner. Maybe some people are remembering how Rahm helped cover up the "bimbo eruptions" years ago and the bill is coming due.

That Cost of Living

Just from the headlines the past few days, we certainly hope the FOP is keeping track of all these tax increases to apply to the expansive (and expensive) pay raise we're going to need to continue living in the city:

• The smoothest budget season of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s tenure ended Tuesday with overwhelming approval of an $8.6 billion spending plan balanced with higher taxes on telephone bills, ride-hailing, and large-venue amusements, along with previously approved taxes on property and water and sewer bills.

The budget passed 47-to-3 with all sorts of tax and fee hikes.

Right after that, this hike went through:

• The CTA plans to raise bus and train fares by 25 cents, the transit agency announced Wednesday.
  
  The fare hikes hikes will go into effect Jan. 7 under a newly proposed budget that knowledgable sources say is likely to be approved next month by the CTA board.

The good news is that this fare hike will dramatically cut down on all the Red Line crime in Wrigleyville/Boystown, putting that particular thorny blog out of business.

And announced right at bedtime Wednesday for the five-day weekend:

• An extra $6.48 would be tacked onto the average Chicago homeowner’s property tax bill under the Chicago Park District’s proposed $462.3 million budget for 2018.
  
  The district announced the “nominal” property tax hike — its first in four years — late Wednesday afternoon ahead of the long holiday weekend, as part of a plan officials say will expand special recreation activities, including pilot programs for “adaptive sports, cultural and social opportunities” across the city.

Park District Program participation is near historic lows if we are't mistaken as families flee the city and costs rise. But in the tradition of Chicago/Cook County, less service at higher prices is the "norm."

Tied in with the State tax surprises, all of this adds up a pretty large cost of living increase. So we're going to need a pretty big raise Rahm. Good thing you have all that unspent VRI money on tap.

More War on Police

Can't even use the can in New York:

• A movement is underway to ban New York Police Department officers from the campus of Brooklyn University because students may feel unsafe in the presence of a cop. The university has already banned police officers from using the bathroom at any campus location except for one bathroom at the far end of campus, which students have described as unfit for use, according to The New York Post.
  
  Police officers are outraged.
  
  A petition was drafted to Brooklyn University President Michelle Anderson asking to ban all police officers from the taxpayer-funded campus, which is part of the City University of New York system. The student told the school’s newspaper “that we do not want the NYPD on campus in any respect even if it’s just to take breaks and use bathroom.”
  
  Donald Wenz, director of public safety for the university, told the student paper The Excelsior that he's trying to keep police officers out of sight. Another unidentified university spokesman said that any use of Brooklyn University facilities is "a courtesy" to officers.

As an entity funded by taxpayers, we'd say NYPD has an Right as well as obligation to ensure that the toilet facilities are properly functioning throughout the campus, including the private shitter in Donald Wenz's office.

We'd stop that one up after a big dinner at Lindy's, too.

No One is Safe

Even Walmart homicides are being re-opened:

• Chicago police have decided to take another look at the case of a man who died after struggling with Walmart security guards on the Northwest Side over the summer.
  
  Area North detectives decided Tuesday night to reopen the investigation after the Cook County medical examiner's office found that the primary cause of Donnell Burns' death was "stress and asphyxia during restraint," according to top police spokesman Anthony [Google-me].
  
  “They want to interview the medical examiner, and apparently there are videos that may exist that show the incident,’’ [Google-me] said.
  
  Police had already reviewed one video but want to examine “all angles’’ of any new videos. “They want to look at every single possibility,’’ [Google-me] said.
  
  Detectives also will interview the person who performed the autopsy.

Even the guy who sliced-and-diced the corpse? What are they really looking for? Were these off-duty sheriffs or suburban guys and Kimmie needs a sacrificial goat?

Happy Thanksgiving

As usual, we'll be preoccupied with turkey, ham, trimmings, family, friends, possibly work, and generally staying clear of trouble. A happy holiday to you and yours. Open post for now and comments may be delayed.

VRI Ending

Get your days while you can:

Thanks to the 33 people who sent this in today.

Next up - Airport Protective Detail.

And Here's the Test Case

This is going to set precedent here in Chicago for the next generation, and may have national implications:

• Chicago's police oversight agency has cited a veteran officer for more than 60 rule violations, blasting him for repeatedly posting insensitive racial and religious comments on Facebook and promoting violence against police protesters, Muslims and others.

Sixty rule violations? A bunch of people have already noted that if you brought sixty violations to the Desk Sergeant, Watch Operations Lieutenant, Detectives or State's Attorney, you'd be laughed out of the station. But for COPA? Everything is game.

• In a 95-page report obtained by the Chicago Tribune through an open-records request, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability used unusually strong language to condemn [the officer's] actions, leaving little doubt that it favored his firing even though it publicly declined to give its position.
  
  In its conclusion to its findings, COPA made clear that it had no faith in [the officer] carrying out “fair and impartial” law enforcement to everyone in Chicago, regardless of their ethnic and sociological backgrounds.

Did you get that? He is being charged with what he may potentially do or not do (no faith in [the officer] carrying out “fair and impartial” law enforcement). That's real left-wing speech suppression type shit right there - shades of "Minority Report." And get this:

• But COPA, citing legal precedent, said police officers are subject to greater First Amendment restraints than most other citizens.
  
  Edwin Yohnka, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, said government employees, including police officers, have the right to speak out on issues of public interest, especially when they’re doing so on their private time. But he said certain government employees critical to instilling public trust, such as police officers and teachers, can be disciplined for making statements — even while away from work — if their language undermines that trust.

We'd like to see that legal precedent - United States Supreme Court precedent? Or just one of the oft-overturned Appellate Courts? So now you are less than a citizen if you choose to enter the law enforcement field. How's that for the COPA opinion? And the ACLU supports that - welcome to the new Amerika, courtesy of the left wing socialists.

Now, we will say that reading the entire article, this officer seems to have brushed up against the line that the Department and various other entities have drawn in the sand, Hell, he leapt back and forth across it. Whether by accident or design, we don't know. But he has laid out a perfect textbook case.... to be a test case. As we said before, this has monumental implications to what you are allowed to do, say, or support - on AND off duty.

Why?

What's this all about?

• Anonymous said...
  
  OT - So what's up with the 011-007 District combined Christmas party? I hear lots of PO's aren't too happy about it.

So is this a "twin brother" thing? Or a "Highest Homicide Totals" thing? What else do 007 and 011 have in common besides that?

Another Residency Win

With all this precedent floating around....:

• Freshly arrived in our mailbox this morning is a copy of arbitrators’ decision in labor negotiations between the union representing city police officers and the city. And it appears to be a defeat for Mayor Jim Langfelder.
  
  The city has known for weeks that it would lose the question of residency, which Langfelder made a cornerstone of his mayoral campaign two years ago. While the city prevailed on economic issues, the union won two out of three points, convincing arbitrators that there should be no residency requirement for police officers and that the city’s current policy of sick time sellback, which allows officers who don’t call in sick to collect checks for unused sick time, should remain in place.
  
  The decision on residency and other matters was, essentially, in the hands of Marvin Hill, given that Hill, a fulltime arbitrator who holds a law degree, was the sole neutral person on the three-member panel. And Hill said, quoting from a decision in a prior case pitting Wheaton against that city’s firefighters’ union, that if it isn’t broken, it need not be fixed.

This appears to be a case of the municipality attempting to force residency on new-hires, which would certainly be an interesting avenue to explore. We just need an independently wealthy PPO living outside the city willing to spend a few hundred grand.

Just for Laughs

Maybe You Should Call Someone?

So what brainiac(s) in 012 made entrance into a residence, observed a sealed room, found respirators among grinding/sifting equipment, discovered a suspicious powder all over the place.....and then had the bright idea to transport the entire lab to the 012 District to inventory it?

After a belated call to the Chicago Fire Department (which probably should have been STEP 1), a Level One Haz-Mat Incident declared for the relocated "clandestine lab," an evacuation and shut down of an entire District station, we imagine some refresher training is in order.

Exposure Reports for everyone!

Closing a Court Branch

Prickwrinkle slapping Evans and Dart around:

• Last-minute negotiations brokered deals to save at least 85 jobs in the Cook County Sheriff’s Office and the Public Guardian’s office ahead of a vote Tuesday to plug a $200 million shortfall created by the repeal of a controversial soda tax.
  
  County board members will vote on a amendment to the budgets for the Sheriff and Guardian’s offices after intense lobbying by Chief Judge Timothy Evans and Sheriff Tom Dart, the sole deviations from a list of targeted cuts handed down last week by board President Toni Preckwinkle. All told, 330 county employees will lose their jobs under terms of the budget, said Commissioner Larry Suffredin, D-Evanston, who has been leading negotiations on the amendment.
  
  The release of Preckwinkle’s budget adjustment on Friday touched off a frenzied 72 hours of back-and-forth that had wound down by Monday evening, said Suffredin, who had become a defacto point man for Dart and Evans as they tried to make their case.

Dart and Evans have been doing as much, if not more, than Kim Foxxx to ensure the jail remains empty and criminals walk free instead of being incarcerated. All this while costs spiral upwards at rates far outstripping any comparable economic indicators.

Also Belmont and Western is to be closed. We're sure that won't have any disparate impact on victims showing up in Court from some of the more economically affluent areas. Of course, that might be part of the plan.

Dubious Distinction

Five years, federal time:

• The first time Chicago police Officer Marco Proano shot someone, he was given a department commendation. Less than a year later, when Proano fatally shot a teen outside an overcrowded dance party, he was rewarded with the superintendent’s award for valor.
  
  But Proano’s third on-duty shooting in a three-year span earned him a much more dubious distinction on Monday: Five years in prison. Proano, 42, who was convicted of excessive force for firing 16 times into a moving vehicle filled with teens in December 2013, became the first Chicago police officer in decades, if not ever, to be sentenced to federal prison for an on-duty shooting.
  
  In handing down the sentence, U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman said that Proano’s actions that night — caught on police dashboard camera video — were “exceptionally unjustified” and an insult to hardworking officers who serve and protect. Two of the teens were wounded, but all five in the vehicle were lucky they weren’t killed, the judge said. “Mr. Proano was not maintaining the ‘thin blue line’ that separates us from anarchy, and chaos and violence,” Feinerman said. “He was bringing the chaos and violence. He was the source of it.”

We weren't there. 99% of our readers weren't there either. He was tried in a court of law and found culpable for actions deemed inappropriate - illegal. We have no idea about appeals on tap or anything from this point forward. We do know that we saw very few comments as the trial date approached and as the trial was underway. The most comments we had were regarding his weapon handling (sideways).

The media take is seldom the correct one but we're sure this will be used as a club to beat the department with, regardless of the judge's understanding of the verdict.

Earned, Not Given

Remember, these are the future leaders:

• Congratultions to the three merit Sgt's that showed up to the academy for their first day of Sgt school. Unfortunately if you had read the teletype you would have known that it was at DeVry. Nothing but the best and brightest we promote. 

Great job. Hope you remember to phone first when you land in a District.

Toad Stroger Again?

Our first impression is that this is the Machine looking to split the black vote:

• Todd Stroger wants his old job back — almost eight years after voters gave the one-term Cook County board president the boot.
  
  Stroger, who finished dead last in the four-way Democratic primary of 2010, made the announcement on WFLD-Channel 32 on Monday, vowing to run a “very, very competitive” race.
  
  He said the county, under Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, is in a “precarious situation.” He also said that recent history has helped restore his reputation.

That's debatable. Cook County voters tossed his ass out over a penny tax. Prickwrinkle ran on rescinding that tax, reinstated it later, then came up with the soda/sugar tax that taxed everything that looked like sugar or might have had sugar in it at one point, hopefully dooming her future.

Fioretti was a pander to the liberal/progressive wing. Stroger is an effort to split one bloc. Is the next candidate another stalking horse or the one to watch?

Never Over

Even if you're "cleared," you aren't:

• A veteran Chicago police officer who was cleared of wrongdoing by Superintendent Eddie Johnson in the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old boy still must face a disciplinary hearing that could cost him his job.
  
  Last summer, Chicago’s police review agency had found Officer [...] used excessive force, calling the shooting of Dakota Bright “unprovoked and unwarranted” and recommending his firing.
  
  But Johnson disagreed that Ternand should be fired, finding that his actions in the November 2012 shooting were clearly justified, according to records.
  
  However, last week, a Chicago Police Board member selected to review the matter rejected Johnson’s recommendation and ordered an evidentiary hearing be held to decide if Ternand should be disciplined. Possible punishment ranges up to his dismissal.

The mayor has his COPA tools in line and his hand picked, politically-connected Police Board (with zero police experience) has overruled Special Ed and will pass judgement Monday Morning Quarterback, looking back with the benefit of FIVE YEARS elapsed time to come to the appropriate POLITICAL outcome.

Special Ed is pretty much pointless from this point forward.

Why anyone would jeopardize their assets or freedom is beyond our comprehension.

Exit, Stage Left

We make it a habit to not wish any particular evil upon any particular person. Karma is a bastard and what goes around comes around with enough regularity that....well, case in point:

• Civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, he announced Friday.
  
  In an emotional letter to his supporters, the 76-year-old said his diagnosis came "after a battery of tests."

Well. That Karma Train keeps on chugging along and perhaps the decades of extortion, race-baiting, lying, slandering, philandering, and excusing all manner of excess, while coddling communists, dictators, murderers and ....

As long as there was a audience to be played to or a dollar to be made.

We certainly won't miss his irrelevancy.

So, Will This Go Anywhere?

Let's see if the media follows the story:

• Carjacking and murder charges have been filed against a Wisconsin man who was in a stolen vehicle during a crash that killed his alleged accomplice Wednesday morning on the South Side.
  
  Deangelo M. Williams, 21, was charged with one felony count of aggravated vehicular hijacking with a firearm, one felony count of robbery armed with a firearm and two felony counts of murder while committing another forcible felony, according to a statement from Chicago Police.
  
  Williams and a 19-year-old man were wearing masks when they carjacked a male at gunpoint at 9:48 a.m. Wednesday as the victim was getting out of his vehicle in the 1000 block of West 61st Street, police said.
  
  They drove off in the stolen vehicle with police pursuing them, police said. The stolen vehicle crashed less than 10 minutes later in the 4900 block of West Wentworth.
  
  The 19-year-old man driving the stolen vehicle was pronounced dead at the scene...

Why do we point this out?

• We were told in roll call in 007 that the surviving offender was charged with murder approved by the ASA only later the great office of Kim Foxxx denied the charges. Then the Chief of Detectives over turned them and charged him with murder again. You can only guess what's going to happen in court. Ridiculous. 

Another comment:

• Per one of the officers handling this charging, the following had occurred;
  
  All charges sought against the offender (including FELONY MURDER) were initially approved by the Assistant Cook County States Attorney handling this matter via felony review. A short time later the detectives assigned to this case received a follow-up phone call from the initial A.S.A. who approved the charges. The A.S.A. informed the detectives that Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxx wants the "felony murder" charged dropped. This decision was not based on legality but on the fact that a disproportionate number of male blacks are charged with "felony murder" .
  
  So in Chicago where car jackings are soaring and in this case where an 88 year old man was the victim.... Kim Foxx wants to send a strong message to the male blacks committing violent crimes..... Cook County will ignore the laws of the State of Illinois and you will get a free pass from her for FELONY MURDER.
  
  The Chicago police detectives did get an OVERRIDE and included the charge against the offender but as many officers know..... OVERRIDE CHARGES are routinely NOLLE (thrown out by the ASA down the line.

Kim has shown an unsurprising tendency to under-charge actual criminals. Our commentator relates that charges were approved overnight, then "un-approved" once Kimmie saw political hay to be made over the "Felony Murder Rule," something we recall her or her people objecting to, even though it remains State Law.

The Chief of Detectives got involved and overrode the "un-approval," but once it makes the next court date, your guess is as good as ours as to what happens. Most exempt overrides are dropped at court - upwards of 90% of them never get past the next status date, because the State's Attorney has to show the police who the actual boss is, and the police have no recourse. And the "justice system" in Cook County once again fails to follow State Law, benefiting the criminal.

Let's keep an eye on this one. And update us so we can point out once again how the States Attorney's screws the people its supposed to be representing.

Is Bail Re-Vamp Failing?

From the stonewalling coming from Sheriff Dart's and Chief Judge Evan's offices, it sure looks like a failure:

• A prominent Chicago watchdog group is going public with its two-year-long dispute over whether Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans and county Sheriff Tom Dart are sitting on data that's needed to evaluate how well the criminal justice system here is functioning—data it says is routinely available in other jurisdictions.
  
  ​ In an unusual report, the Civic Federation, which usually sticks to financial matters, says the stall means it's difficult to study questions such as whether a disproportionate share of those arrested under a new no-cash-bond system are quickly getting into trouble and are being rearrested.
  
  "Significant challenges to obtaining information have included lengthy delays and lack of responsiveness by public officials," says federation President Laurence Msall. "In 2017, no interested party should have to jump through such unreasonable hoops to obtain court and jail statistics."
  
  Dart is pushing back, with a spokeswoman saying he has fully cooperated with the federation, and any problems must be concentrated in Evans' office.

Awesome that Dart throws Evans right under the bus. That's a clue that something is up. The entire report is here at this link.

The Civic Federation is also looking at why the population at the jail is down something like 40% in the past few years, but expenditures by Dart are up astronomically. We'd say it has something to do with letting manpower dwindle while increasing six-figure middle managers (assistants to the assistant, etc) jumping up by dozens.

Madigan's Consent Decree?

Rahm needs the political cover of a consent decree, one that Trump refuses to grant him. So Rahm is using his puppet supernintendo to get something. Special Ed is playing to his puppet-master with full devotion lest a certain investigation gets re-opened. He sent out an e-mail last week that states in part:

• [blah blah blah]
  
  To that end, this week CPD and the City of Chicago started the process to construct a consent decree with the Illinois Attorney General’s office. My goals in the process are to both provide officers with the tools and resources necessary to do your jobs effectively while at the same time working to restore trust with the community.
  
  
  I want to make sure you all know that as we proceed through the process we are working to create an agreement that is focused on helping you do your jobs with more training, resources, and support. Every member of the leadership team involved in the process is fully aware of your hard work that has helped us to significantly reduce crime this year and we will work to ensure nothing hinders your ability to do your job moving forward. We have an obligation to the citizens we serve to work to improve our department together while at the same time building on the progress we have made to keep our citizens safe.

Lisa Madigan has shown zero interest in the Chicago Police Department since she broke up with what's his name and his shady crew. During her illustrious career, she has uncovered zero corruption in Illinois, even as numerous members of the legislative and executive branches have gone to federal prison or are in the process of being expelled from their respective chambers. What possible standing could she have in a so-called "consent decree" with the CPD? What "expertise" does she bring to any sort of agreement? But she's playing her part with Ed as tools for the Machine doing Rahm's bidding.

Nice 911 Center

State of the Art, right? Hardened against a nuclear attack? Redundant and backup systems galore?

And it gets even better:

• City told OEMC the water would be shut off for 8 hours on Sunday (when all the bosses & admin personnel are rdo), set up port-a-potties outside and gave employees bottled water that was clearly from the Horseshoe Casino in Indiana and had expiration dates from 2015

One good snowstorm and no one is taking a bathroom break.

Doors are Racist?

Just another sign that pfather phleger has lost his mind:

• Watch for activist priest the Rev. Michael Pfleger to lead a protest Friday morning at the Fifth Third Bank & ATM at 8140 S. Ashland to throw down the gauntlet on what he considers a discriminatory practice.
  
  • The target: The bank’s entrance doors.
  
  “This bank has chosen to impede patrons in two African-American communities in Chicago from access to their banks by installing a discriminatory double-door entry system.

We'd call this "sound business practices." Perhaps this dumbass hasn't patronized any of his neighborhood fast food establishments in the past 30 or 40 years? Gas stations? Arab groceries? They all look like this:

In fact, just about every suburban police department around here has the same set up. It's safe, it's secure, it works. If it makes it harder for phleger's phlock to "liberate" someone else's money, too bad.

Mass Stripping

No, this isn't about an east coast nudist colony.

No, not about a church being defiled either.

But once again, nothing is ever closed:

• In a sudden about-face Thursday night, Chicago police said seven cops once part of an allegedly corrupt crew will be removed from street duties while their conduct years ago is investigated.
  
  The reversal came hours after Cook County prosecutors threw out the convictions of 15 men who were framed by the crew — led by former Sgt. Ronald Watts, who did prison time for shaking down drug dealers.
  
  Police spokesman [...] said Thursday night that one sergeant and six officers who worked with Watts have been placed on paid desk duty while an internal investigation is conducted.

It's certainly hard to believe that Watts jailed all 15 of these people (or folks) on his own, and there was a lengthy investigation at the time. There was (most likely) plenty of blame to go around and (most likely) enough to administratively separate multiple officers. Why that was never pursued is a question that certain people should be compelled to answer at some point.

This follows on the heels of another "exoneration" after five members asserted Fifth Amendment Rights. We can't say we blame anyone for asserting their Constitutional Rights as the city, county and Department have tossed Garrity protections to the wind. Even the FOP is not happy:

• In the wake of Cook County’s first mass exoneration, the president of the rank-and-file Chicago Police officers’ union lambasted State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and her staff in a Friday letter to the Chicago Sun-Times, accusing prosecutors of pandering to a “powerful anti-police movement in the city.”
  
  Fraternal Order of Police President Kevin Graham singled out First Assistant State’s Attorney Eric Sussman, who opted not to continue pressing charges against Jose Maysonet in a double-murder case. Sussman’s decision came after five officers who worked alongside former Det. Reynaldo Guevara indicated they would invoke their Fifth Amendment right not to testify in the case.
  
  “Sussman’s decision not to retry Maysonet and then blaming the police for his decision is despicable, another powerful sign of his antipathy to law enforcement,” Graham wrote.

You are literally taking your career into your own hands in the current political climate attempting to enforce the law. And even if you stopped being proactive a decade ago, nothing is ever closed. Ever.

Off Duty Stabbed

The paper says "domestic related:"

• An off-duty Chicago police officer was stabbed while driving a car Friday morning on the South Side, causing her to hit a school bus, according to police.
  
  The officer, 47, was stabbed in the head in a domestic attack and taken in serious condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where she was stabilized, police said.
  
  A child on the bus was taken to Jackson Park Hospital complaining of a headache.
  
  The woman was driving in the 7600 block of South Stony Island Avenue shortly after 8 a.m. when she was attacked in what police described as a domestic incident.

Best wishes on a speedy recovery.

Crime is Up?

It ain't us saying it - it's the Slum Times:

• Police Supt. Eddie Johnson stood before a crowd of civic leaders and business people on Thursday and touted a major decline in the number of shootings in Englewood, long one of the most violent parts of Chicago.
  
  “The crime reduction in Englewood is at a historic high,” Johnson said in an interview expanding on the drop. “I don’t know if people recognize how huge that is. We’re not claiming victory. But that’s progress.”
  
  Johnson had good reason to highlight what’s happened in Englewood but also carefully couch that as just one step in dealing with the violence that’s pushed Chicago into an unwelcome national spotlight.
  
  It’s true that the Chicago Police Department’s Englewood District is on pace to see the fewest shootings there since 1998 — with 34 fewer killings this year vs. the same span last year.
  
  Yet this past week Chicago logged its 600th killing so far this year — a grim milestone the city has reached only twice in an entire year since 2003.
  
  And violent crime citywide this year has fallen only slightly since last year, when 780 people were killed in Chicago — the most the city has seen in any year since the mid-1990s, according to a Chicago Sun-Times analysis....

Can you hear the numbers screaming as Special Ed's people torture them to dance for Rahm?

And do you notice the Slum Times printed this report on a Friday afternoon, after 5:00 PM? It doesn't even register as a blip on the news cycle. It's already forgotten, Rahm ignores it, Special Ed doesn't have to comment, the media can claim they covered it - and the killing/robbing/raping/shooting/carjacking goes on.

Nice Map Rahm

This should be helpful for citizens and tourists alike:

• The number of carjackings in Chicago has increased in the past few days by dramatic amounts.
  
  With 12 carjackings reported in the area in less than 48 hours, Chicago police have been on alert for suspects, making at least four arrests in the last two days.
  
  In total, there have been more than 700 carjackings in Chicago so far this year, authorities said. Though, they add, arrests are up 50 percent.

There's an interactive map at the link. This is a still shot:

So according to this map, you're safe in.....Texas maybe.

Promotions (UPDATE)

Looks like the promotions went through and the commentators excusing the delay were mistaken. Anyone have a copy without employee numbers and such?

The list has the merits and nominators listed separately so McCarthy's policy is still around. That's refreshing.

UPDATE: List is in the comment section, two-thirds of the way down or so.

No Ghetto Lottery Payout

Is the tide turning?

• A federal jury sided with Chicago police Friday and awarded no damages to a woman who alleged that detectives coerced her into confessing to the killing of her 4-year-old son more than a decade ago.
  
  Nicole Harris spent nearly eight years in prison before a federal appeals court in 2013 overturned her murder conviction. After her release, Harris sued eight Chicago police detectives and officers involved in the investigation, alleging they coerced her confession during a 27-hour interrogation that involved questionable use of a lie detector test.
  
  After hearing three weeks of evidence, the jury deliberated for about seven hours before finding in favor of the officers on all seven counts, including conspiracy, fabrication of evidence, malicious prosecution and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
  
  Harris was not present for the verdict when it was read in U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve’s courtroom. Her lawyers said in a statement that they were “very disappointed” with the outcome.

Good to see there are still some intelligent jurors out there - federal courts draws from outside Cook County, so that's a plus.

Perspective

Just a little reminder before Special Ed and Rahm take too many bows:

As our statistician tells us, since Rahm got elected in 2011:

• - That's 8.2 people shot PER DAY for 8 years straight.
  - 24,000 is about the circumference earth in miles. (So drive around the globe at at every mile marker someone gets shot in Chicago).
  - There are 24,000 minutes in 16.6 days. (Imagine someone getting shot EVERY MINUTE for 16.6 days straight)
  - That's about 2.75 years in hours (imagine someone getting shot EVERY HOUR for 2.75 years straight)
  - That's about the ENTIRE seating capacity of the United Center (Next time you're at United Center, imagine a packed house plus about 600 more)

Kind of sobering.

Looking in the Wrong Direction

A lot of horn-tooting going on yesterday:

• Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson on Thursday touted the department’s efforts in the Englewood patrol district, saying homicides and shootings have plunged this year in what has historically been among the city’s deadliest neighborhoods.
  
  Speaking at a City Club of Chicago luncheon, Johnson said both homicides and shootings have dropped by more than 40 percent over the year-earlier period in which violence hit levels unseen in two decades.
  
  "Today, and I never thought I'd say this after being a cop for nearly 30 years, Englewood is leading the city in violence reductions this year," Johnson told a couple of hundred business and civic leaders.

And who gets the credit?

• Johnson credited the department’s use of “nerve centers” in Englewood and five other police districts for helping reduce violence.
  
  The nerve centers combine crime analysts with predictive crime software and use gun detection technology known as "ShotSpotter," as well as high-definition surveillance cameras.
  
  “These state-of-the-art tools allow officers and civilian analysts to work smarter and faster, monitor gang conflicts in real time and make changes to our strategy as the situation dictates,” he said.

And nothing to do with the 400-plus coppers tripping over each other in the few square miles that make up Englewood? Good to know we're all so appreciated. Meanwhile, 016, 017, 022 and a few other districts make do with about 170 cops each covering far greater mileage.

Answer This One Rahm

This should be at the top of every FOP press release for the next few months or years:

• From our leader at a luncheon at the City Club of Chicago.  Emanuel was long gone by the time Johnson fielded the most controversial question of the day.
  
  It came from a police widow who asked how the city “justifies stripping” police widows and retirees of health insurance benefits, which the unidentified woman said has lead to “widow homelessness in some cases.” She was referring to Emanuel’s now-completed, three-year phase-out of the city’s retiree health care coverage.
  
  Johnson said he “wasn’t aware of” the cut that saved Chicago taxpayers more than $100 million-a-year. “It’s an embarrassment to me that that question even has to be raised because that’s not right. I pledge to you I will look into that to see what we can do to stop that from happening,” he said.
  
  He wasn’t aware of this. Is he hiding under a rock. Has not retiree friends isn’t aware that po’s are retiring after 55 because of the health insurance. What else is he not “aware” of. Just how stupid does he think we are

Pretty stupid we'd say.

Body Cams Violate What Now?

Once again, the leftists have no fucking clue what they want:

• The number of U.S. police departments outfitting their officers with body cameras increases each year, but the cameras can pose a threat to civil rights if the departments fail to set rules that govern when officers review footage from their cameras, according to a new report.
  
  The vast majority of the nation’s biggest police departments allow officers to watch footage from body cameras whenever they want, including before they write their incident reports or make statements, said the report, which was released Tuesday by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
  
  “Unrestricted footage review places civil rights at risk and undermines the goals of transparency and accountability,” said Vanita Gupta, former head of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and current head of the Leadership Conference, in the report’s introduction.

Gupta was part of the Holder/Lynch Department of Just-us that drove the body camera movement, authored cut-and-paste "consent decrees," and spent hundreds, if not thousands, of hours determining how cops should do their jobs without ever having once actually done the job, because they knew better. And now they are having a problem with Officers being....accurate?

• Because an officer’s memory of an event may be altered by watching body camera footage, doing so will likely alter what officers write in their reports. That, in turn, can make it more difficult for investigators or courts to assess whether the officer’s actions were reasonable based on what he or she perceived at the time of the incident, states the report, “The Illusion of Accuracy: How Body-Worn Camera Footage Can Distort Evidence.”

Um, the entire point of cameras was to have an unbiased factual recording of what occurred. We, along with hundreds of other actual officers, pointed out it was a flawed presumption as a camera only records what it is pointed at, not what happens in the periphery, off-camera, from behind solid objects (shielding), and a million other possibilities that supposedly "intelligent" people thought about before imposing technologically limited solutions to an over-exaggerated problem.

The trouble is that the cameras aren't showing what the left wanted, to wit - police misbehavior.

What it is showing is completely the opposite - criminal misbehavior. And this is obviously cutting into (or about to cut into) lucrative "civil rights" settlements, so Gupta does what any lawyer/whore-for-money does - attack the system they put in place to get paid coming and going.

Oops

Sometimes, the wages of being an asshole are death:

• The 88-year-old man had been to the gym and had just parked in front of his Englewood home when the two masked men walked up Wednesday morning.
  
  One of them pulled a gun and asked for the keys to his silver Lincoln.
  
  “They got him in front of the door,’’ said the man's 89-year-old wife. “He was kinda scared but he agreed when they said to give him the keys and they didn’t hurt him."
  
  They sped off from the 1000 block of West 61st Street around 9:45 a.m., but it wasn't long before they were spotted by police headed north on Aberdeen Street, then north on Wentworth Avenue. At 49th Street, the carjackers struck a semi and slammed into a retaining wall, according to police.
  
  "Squad, he just crashed," an officer radioed around 10:20 a.m. "Send an ambulance ... 49th and Wentworth."
  
  A dispatcher responded, "49th and Wentworth, an ambulance, 10-4."
  
  "Get that ambulance over here right now," another officer is heard saying on the radio

Of course, the police will be to blame, after a weekend that saw nearly twenty car jackings and unprecedented media coverage of what a broken judicial system can inflict absent any punishment for wrongdoers.

Fantastic

New rumor out of HQ:

• SCC, the promotion classes previously set to begin on 20 November and now delayed until 27 November? You'll never guess what they delayed them.
  
  They don't want the blog to be right.

Wow. And here was J-Fled telling everyone the blog was "insignificant."

Retiree Hearing

Hearing later today on Health Care:

• As you’ll recall, Judge Cohen’s ruling has been that the Funds have a primary responsibility to provide plans for their annuitants.
  
  Since none of them are doing anything about that, and the City “sponsored but not subsidized” Blue Cross Plan is so expensive (even Judge Cohen has expressed the thought that the Blue Cross rates are crazy), and so, following up on his repeated statements in the past that he wasn’t going to tolerate everyone leaving all of you without coverage in 2018, we had moved for a preliminary injunction to force the Funds to actually provide plans to cover you annuitants.
  
  It was initially tabled while the judge was on vacation and he encouraged all of us to meet, which we did without much progress,
  
  The City was supposed to respond by November 15 to our motion for preliminary injunction, with a hearing on November 29 (still late in the game, but before the December 7 and 15 cutoff on applying for Medicare or ACA coverage).
  
  Last Friday, at 5pm, the city filed a motion saying that their appellate division thinks that the Supreme Court will rule on whether it will take our case on either November 22 or 29, and that the judge should defer the city having to respond until a week or so after that.
  
  From our view this makes no sense at all, because the purpose is to order the Funds and the City to provide a cost-feasible plan for 2018 while the case is pending, and until we get a final resolution. And despite Judge Cohen’s view that people should sign up with the ACA, none of those plans provide the coverage that the City and Blue Cross plans provide.

The hearing:

• Regardless, whether it was the validity of my argument, or the City and Funds’ disavowing any obligation to do anything, he eventually went back into his case file, and finding that he had ruled that the funds have such an obligation, came around to at least directing the city to respond by next Tuesday on the issue of his jurisdiction to enter a preliminary injunction, us to respond on Wednesday and a hearing next Thursday, November 16 at 11:00 a.m., 50 W. Washington, Room 2308, on the jurisdiction issue, and we’ll see what he does from there.

Short notice, but every appearance is important.

Suck It Rahm

Imagine that - Rahm has to follow the law:

• An administrative law judge has recommended that the Illinois Labor Relations Board throw out the Chicago Police Department’s new disciplinary guidelines, dealing an early defeat to the city as it attempts to standardize the punishments of an erratic and often toothless police disciplinary system.
  
  The finding in favor of the city’s largest police union, the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, determined that the department violated labor law by failing to bargain with the union over the new guidelines.
  
  The recommendation from Administrative Law Judge Anna Hamburg-Gal calls on the state board to force the Police Department to rescind any discipline imposed under the advisory guidelines since they were adopted in February and reassess the punishment to be imposed under the more informal system in place before the guidelines existed. While it is unclear how many cases could be affected, the city closes hundreds of disciplinary cases in a typical month. Through the first five months of this year, for example, the department had closed more than 2,000 disciplinary cases, though historically the department has found misconduct and levied punishment only in a slim percentage of cases.

That didn't stop the media from attempting to cast the FOP in the worst light possible (probably to provide cover for Rahm's colossal fuck-up):

• In the case of the disciplinary guidelines, the administrative law judge sided with the union in finding that the department had made a unilateral change to a mandatory subject of bargaining. The city argued that the guidelines resulted in limited change by simply putting in writing the department’s informal process for formulating discipline.
  
  The union challenged the new guidelines before elections in April swept in new FOP leaders who have been vocal in their opposition to the city’s efforts to revamp discipline and make other changes in the Police Department.

The union wasn't fighting discipline and the FOP ought to be calling out the bought-and-paid-for media types who keep writing this. The FOP has merely asked for a seat at the table - something denied to them in the formation of the new COPA and every other "reform" Rahm is pushing. And Tuesday, ILRB agreed - the FOP gets a seat at the table. That's how Labor Law reads.

Now if only Rahm would learn to read...and comprehend.

Car Jacking Arrests

A chase, a crash, and a manhunt:

• Two West Side carjacking suspects who led officers on a chase on the Eisenhower Expressway that ended with a police car crashing have been charged, police said.
  
  Police said the two, Davontae Jones and Jason Dortch, may be linked to at least a dozen carjackings in the last couple of days but have been formally charged with only one - in the 800 block of North Racine Avenue on Monday night.

A dozen carjackings? Seriously, if these two put half that effort into something legal, they might be running a Fortune 500 company in short order. Of course, they'd probably be doing a stint at Club Fed for insider trading or something, but then they go the Martha Stewart route and all is well.

Investigation Ends

And the bosses skate free:

• A Cook County special grand jury has been disbanded without charging any additional Chicago police officers, including department higher-ups, for their handling of Laquan McDonald’s fatal shooting by an officer.
  
  At a hearing Tuesday at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, special prosecutor Patricia Brown Holmes said the grand jury that convened to look into the controversial shooting has completed its investigation.
  
  
  That means no other officers — including higher-ups who signed off on allegedly false reports of the shooting — will be indicted.
  
  The only indictment brought by the special grand jury charged just lower-level cops — a detective and two patrol officers — stopping short of criminally charging department higher-ups in the alleged cover-up, even though several had been recommended for firing by the city inspector general’s office for their actions.

All the bosses were permitted to retire with full benefits and pensions including the exempt who ordered the District supervisors and detectives to push through an incomplete (and uninvestigated) TRR so he could finish his portion of the report and go home. The Round Table the next day included Special Ed, who hasn't answered a straight question since then about the entire incident - probably because to break ranks might jeopardize a certain cheating investigation.

Close the Courts?

This is an interesting rumor from a long time reader:

• Meanwhile, reliable sources are saying Preckwinkle will close all misdemeanor courts in the City and combine them into suburban courthouses. No more Belmont and Western, Harrison and Kedzie, etc. If this occurs, CPD officers will not make misdemeanor arrests, and if possible they will just issue citations. One hour and a half round trip travel time, is not worth it to appear in court.

No Branch Courts? This sounds like a Prickwrinkle game of chicken to force some budget issues. Closing Branch Courts would eliminate numerous judge spots, countless sheriffs in court, transport personnel, etc. Probably upwards of fifty people per location plus support personnel in other places.

Frankly, we like it. Painless to taxpayers, ball breaking to Dart, and pretty much less work for CPD, too, because arrests are going to crater overnight. Go for it Toni! People will be buying a lot of personal defense ammo - out of county though.

Nice College Rahm

But, hey, crime is down.....or something:

• Two violent robberies happened just blocks and days apart in the Loop sparking campus safety alerts to go into effect at Columbia College and Roosevelt University.
  
  One of the robberies happened on November 9 near Michigan and Balbo. A mob of seven teenagers attacked two female victims.
  
  The other robbery took place on Sunday night near Michigan and Congress. A large group of teenagers wearing sweatshirts and dark colored hoodies targeted two 18-year-old women and a 20-year-old man.
  
  They attacked the victims around 8 p.m. on the 500 block of South Michigan Avenue. They knocked them down and took their belongings. At least one of the victims attended Columbia College.

No descriptions once again, but one arrest - a juvenile, so no picture of the offender because that might accidentally lead to her accomplices.

Truth

Here's a guy about to get his butt chewed for telling the truth (right around 00:30 seconds):

• "What happens with juveniles is that they don't get...any real time. They kind of get released back onto the street and they commit the crime again.
  
  [dumb question from a member of the tame media]
  
  What it tells me is that they aren't being held accountable."

Wow. So the failure isn't at the police level? It's at the courts? Specifically the juvenile courts?

Of course, Chicago is all about avoiding accountability - hiring, contracting, voting, promoting, parking meters, bribed red light camera companies, Lieutenant testing, etc.

Rahm isn't going to like this.