Sergeants and Detective Lists (UPDATE)

So while many were sleeping, the Department put out two promotional lists.

Around 2330 hours.

On a Friday.

Almost like they're embarrassed about it.

We are told the Sergeants list is down to near #700 for names.

Post it if you got it.

UPDATE: Lieutenants too?!

It's like Promot-a-palooza.

Warm-ish Weekend on Tap

We haven't tried to post an Over/Under for a while, so our skills may be a bit rusty. But as this has been a pretty ugly February and there are a couple of 50 degree days upcoming, we thought we'd give it a try.

As usual, the only verified count accepted is via HeyJackass.com. The count begins at 1700 hours on Friday (seven hours ago) and ends at Sunday at 2359 hours.

We're going to guess that March comes in like a bloody lion - five dead and a dozen wounded.

The tiebreaker will be to correctly predict the number of carjackings within city limits. We don't know where we'll find that info, but hopefully someone does.

New CTA Plan....BANG BANG!!!

So everything we feared about this new CTA "plan" is about to come true:

• Chicago police plan to beef up patrols and investigations to address a spike in crime on the CTA’s rail system.
  
  The department on Friday announced it will add 50 officers to the unit that patrols the “L,” bringing the total to 250. And, in a first for the department, each of those officers will be equipped with tracking devices for the department to better monitor and adjust how they’re deployed, interim police Superintendent Charlie Beck said.

That's right. Tracking devices. Real time monitoring. Has everyone heard about these new TASER body cams? Live GPS and remote activation of microphones so that the bosses can turn on the cameras/mics from their office and spy on you in real time. Don't believe them when they say "monitoring." They mean spying. Plain and simple.

And mere hours after Groot and Beck announced this new "plan," a police shooting in the Grand Avenue Red Line station:

• Chicago police shot a man at the CTA’s Grand Red Line station Friday afternoon, authorities said. The man was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he remains in critical but "stable,'' condition following surgery, Police Deputy Supt. Barbara West told reporters at a news conference Friday night.
  
  The shooting happened shortly after 4 p.m. in the subway as officers were calling a 10-1, code for officer in need of assistance. “The whole train stop is gonna be a crime scene,” an officer radioed from the scene after the shooting.
  
  West said two officers assigned to the mass transit unit tried to stop a man who was moving between two train cars, which is a violation of a city ordinance. A struggle ensued when the officers tried to place the man in custody, causing both officers to deploy their tasers on the man. “At some point” during the incident - after the scuffle moved onto the platform - one of the officers discharged their gun striking the man twice, West said.

A couple of citizens filmed a bunch of the encounter, uploaded it around different platforms, and released it to the media. Look around and you can find it pretty easily. We did and ...... well, not much to say about it.

By the way, at the press conference:

• OT....Beck just LIED to the media and the mayor at the CTA press conference. He said the 50 new officers in Mass Transit are coming from disbanded Bureau of Organized Crime. EVERY SINGLE OFFICER IS COMING FROM DISTRICTS IN PATROL!!!! Less people to man beat cars, less time off during the summer.....yeah....makes me really want to work hard. Beck lies and once again screws with Patrol!

For any media trolls reading everyone at Organized Crime is way too heavy to actually end up working the trains unless they are doing CTA Special Employment.

Squad vs Squad

Five injured in a two-car accident:

• Five Chicago police officers were injured when two squad cars crashed Thursday in South Chicago.
  
  An unmarked police vehicle collided with a marked police SUV about 11:40 p.m. in the 9200 block of South South Chicago Avenue, according to Chicago police. Both vehicles were on their way to assist with a traffic stop at the time of the crash.
  
  Three officers from the unmarked vehicle and two from the marked squad car were taken to hospitals in fair condition, police said.

What the heck boys and girls? Slow down, check your mirrors, proceed.

Get well soon.

UPDATE: not intersection related - someone made a u-turn in the middle of the block.

Wheezie Moved Again?

Now she's headed to Area 2 RBT?

Did she even spend a day at MAIU?

Talk about padding your work history.

Back of the Palm

Does Mike know something that no one else does?

• Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is racking up an A-list of key Democratic supporters — including two presidential candidates, the state’s two U.S. senators, the governor and the mayor — but if a 13th Ward palm card is any sign, the embattled incumbent lacks the support of Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan.
  
  One of the state’s most powerful Democrats, Madigan left the first-term prosecutor off his palm card, the handout of endorsed candidates that 13th Ward foot soldiers give to voters before they hit the polls.
  
  Madigan’s card, which was first reported by the Capitol Fax political blog, lists nearly all of the Cook County Democratic Party’s endorsed candidates — with the exception of Foxx and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District candidates M. Cameron Davis or Kimberly Dubuclet.
  
  Madigan’s camp offered no explanation for the slight.

We have a theory. The obvious one:

• Madigan's organization doesn't back losers

She also has the distinct odor of corruption around her after the Juicy Smollett caper and if there's one thing Madigan doesn't need around him at the moment, it's the stink of more corruption that has the FBI sniffing around.

Must Be Nice

The charmed life of the semi-clouted:

• Wheezy lasted a good 3 hours at custodial escort training tonight. She spent that entire time playing on her I-pad before never returning after lunch break. I’m not worried though, the instructors made it very clear that failure to return to training after lunch break was a mandatory SPAR....

Cheat with Special Ed, cheat on lie-tenant test, cheat taxpayers out of an honest days' work, cheat at required training because you think you're special.

And Inspector Ferguson didn't see a thing. Neither did Groot.

Database Under Fire Already

Did anyone not see this coming?

• Aldermen and community activists on Thursday denounced the Chicago Police Department’s plan to upgrade and remodel its error-filled gang database and demanded that it be abolished entirely.
  
  “I don’t know whether we’ll be able to sell the use of the gang database after all the discrepancies that have been reported with it. Not just discrepancies, but the abuses,” said Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th), the former Chicago Police officer now chairing the City Council’s Committee on Public Safety. “It’s the same fight that we fought with the Laquan McDonald shooting. People become less and less trusting of police officers and the Chicago Police Department when we’re trying to build that trust. This gang database — the continued use of it — may not facilitate the growth in that relationship.”
  
  Interim Police Superintendent Charlie Beck has unveiled a series of safeguards intended to eliminate myriad problems that spurred a federal lawsuit and were subsequently outlined in detail by Inspector General Joe Ferguson. They include strict criteria and a “multi-level process” before anyone is added to the database, an appeals process overseen by the Police Board to get off of it and automatic removal of persons who have had no contact with law enforcement for a period of five years. Beck also promised “only bona fide law enforcement partners” would have access to the new list and Chicago Police officers will have access only “when they’re involved in a criminal investigation.”
  
  None of that was good enough to satisfy the activists who gathered at City Hall Thursday. They simply don’t trust the same Chicago Police Department that got it wrong the first time to get it right the second time.

Just remember when Groot gives her next speech about "using every tool" at CPD's disposal to tamp down the shootings in the "community." The toolbox is empty Mayor, and guess who emptied it out?

Former Media, Now Dart Employees

Evidently, you CAN buy good media coverage:

• Off topic tip... After laying off over 2 dozen Commanders to "budget cuts" Sheriff Tom Dart hires two more former Chicago Tribune reporters. Joe Ryan and Matt Walberg tribune investigative reporter, now "policy advisor" for Sheriff. Dart has 14 million settlement for sexual assaults on staff while Tribune completely ignores story.

If we aren't mistaken, one of those two was actually the legman for Kass, doing legit investigative work for a while. But as the media slowly dies a well deserved death, we suppose a steady job with some sort of insurance and maybe a retirement plan begins to look pretty good.

New Supe on Tap?

A small whisper, barely a buzz, has reached our ears - it's going to be Aurora Chief Kristen Ziman.

• SCC,
  
  I didn't even know that there had been interviews yet, but I was out to dinner with the family the other night. A small hole-in-the-wall joint, and who do I see? Groot and Ziman. I look around some more and recognize one of her detail. We worked together years ago so I give [...] a nod and get a text message a short time later.
  
  "New boss."
  
  Catch up with [...] after dinner and they tell me this is the 3rd one-on-one meeting between the mayor and Ziman. Might be an announcement this week or next.

We wanted to get this rumor out early in case it was true and the media were sitting on it. Plus, it'll be entertaining to see what everyone else heard.

(A)ll (C)riminals (L)ove (U)s

Fuck the ACLU, sideways and nine ways 'til Sunday:

• The mother of an 18-year-old woman fatally shot Tuesday in an Avalon Park convenience store has been charged with kicking a police officer at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
  
  Officers were attempting to clear the emergency room about 10 p.m. when Nyisha Beemon, 35, allegedly pushed an officer from behind, grabbed his vest and kicked him, Chicago police said in a statement.
  
  Beemon was reportedly not allowed to view the body of her daughter, Jaya Beemon, who was fatally shot that night in Avalon Park, according to news reports. She was one of five people shot when three gunmen opened fire on someone inside.

And predictably, the ACLU backs the criminal:

• In a statement, the ACLU of Illinois condemned the officer’s use of force.
  
  “It is puzzling and disconcerting that a police officer — a trained professional who should be able to de-escalate a tense situation — chose the worst moment of Jaya’s mother’s life to arrest her,” ACLU of Illinois’s staff attorney Elizabeth Jordan said in a statement.
  
  “No grieving mother should face arrest in the hospital where her child’s body has been taken,” she said.

How about, "No grieving "mother" should be attacking the police who are clearing the scene of a riot IN A FUCKING HOSPITAL!" Not for the ACLU - an actual assailant who attempted to manhandle a police officer is expected to take it? Fuck you ALCU.

Has anyone been by Mount Sinai Hospital recently? We drove by the other day on the way to court and they've actually put an eight foot security fence around the ambulance bays so when CFD brings in a shot gangbanger, they can put the entire ER parking area on lock down to keep potential rioters away lest they interrupt doctors, nurses and staff from saving lives. What does that say about the "community"?

Wait, a Database?

We thought databases were frowned upon now?

• The Chicago Police Department on Wednesday announced a plan to create a new gang database that department officials promise will be more fair and useful, hoping to answer critics who have long complained the current version is flawed.
  
  The new Criminal Enterprise Information System, which will officially be announced Thursday, comes after more than a year of stinging criticism, lawsuits and a scathing Chicago inspector general report that found the department’s decadeslong practice of collecting gang data to be inaccurate, racially biased and ineffective for crime reduction.
  
  The new system will use only timely and vetted information, police leaders said. Under the new rules, there will be stricter criteria for entering names into the database, and all submissions will be checked by supervisors and police district intelligence officers, the department pledged.
  
  There will be an appeals process for people to get off the list, and the database will be regularly purged, retaining names generally for only five years, police said. The information will not be shared with immigration officials, and access by other law enforcement agencies will require the signing of an agreement committing to that restriction as well.

Remember this when you see the records of CR's released dating back over fifty years, published and logged into (gasp!!!) a database maintained by the Invisible Institute and other leftist organizations.

A gang banger can get his name purged after five years, but fifty years after an allegation was found to be pretty much outright lies/slander and the accused has been dead for twenty years, their name is still going to be available to paint a skewed, biased picture of the CPD.

Endorsing Who?

So the Tribune - former voice of Midwestern Republicanism - endorsed Donna More in the dem primary against Crimesha:

• Three other candidates are seeking the Democratic nomination, one of whom we believe has all the necessary qualifications to become a stellar state’s attorney. Donna More is a former felony prosecutor in the Cook County state’s attorney’s office who became a federal prosecutor in Chicago.

And we're told that FOP 7 endorsed Fioretti. Did they actually survey the membership? FOP 7 needs to get out of the endorsement business.

All this demonstrates to us is that the Tribune is following the Machine's orders, even today, directing their endorsement to the candidate drawing the least support of all four according to a number of polls. Any support she gets will come from one place only - potential Conway voters.

And lord only knows what the FOP is doing. They endorse the other low polling candidate who is there only to siphon votes from both More and Conway, both of whom are more qualified than Bob or Foxxx. We chose Conway only because he's got double the support of More and Fioretti put together along with a bottomless well of Dad's money.

It would be far better for More or Fioretti to drop out and endorse Conway for whatever backroom deals they can get from him. It would probably be enough to win a plurality and oust Foxxx from the General Election.

UPDATE: Northsiders, remember that Lindsey Lapointe character is a protege of alderasshole Arena, social justice warrior and all that crap. She'll assist Martwick in destroying your property values and neighborhood's character.

VRI Returns

That was a pretty quick hiatus.

So now around half of the teams get to ride the trains and the leftover teams get Michigan Avenue.

No idea if you make requests or how it's all assigned. Someone can tell everyone in the comment sections.

Bloody February Continues

It wasn't really warm, but this may be a preview of the coming spring:

• A young woman was dead and four others wounded Tuesday afternoon after gunmen sprayed a convenience store with gunfire in the Avalon Park neighborhood on the city’s South Side, Chicago police said.
  
  The shooting occurred around 5:30 p.m. in the 1200 block of East 79th Street, police said.
  
  Police, citing preliminary details, said three gunmen stood at the front entrance of the business and fired at least 20 shots into the business, striking the five victims.

No doubt Groot will find yet another way to blame the Department and/or the guns rather than the criminals and those who misuse tools.

February is looking increasingly bad though.

JISC Failure?

Amazing what Ferguson finds when he puts his mind to it:

• A $4.8 million-a-year city program that was supposed to divert juveniles away from the criminal justice system and toward social services “may actually re-traumatize” young people or “increase their likelihood of re-offending,” Inspector General Joe Ferguson said Tuesday.
  
  Fourteen years after the Juvenile Intervention and Support Center was created, Ferguson concluded that it’s impossible to determine whether the goal of reducing juvenile recidivism has been accomplished in exchange for the city’s investment.
  
  That’s because of a host of problems ranging from poor record keeping, destroyed case records and lack of collaboration between Chicago Police and the Department of Family and Support Services to inadequate training of police officers who bid for their jobs based on seniority — not on “experience or aptitude for working with youth.”
  
  Ferguson acknowledged it’s “unlikely the program is leading to a greater number of arrests.” But his audit also concluded: “Components of the design do not align with best practices of youth diversion programs and may actually re-traumatize youth or increase their likelihood of reoffending.”

All of which was raised at the time, but dismissed because everyone knows police don't have any experience working with troubled youths or even with the criminal justice system.

We're actually thinking this is a veiled attack on the seniority system as well.

Start Cheating Early

Widespread cheating on the Lie-tenants exam, lord only knows what disaster befell the recent fire exam, why not start cheating at the grade schools?

• For students at some Chicago public schools, a standardized test that typically takes an hour to complete lasted, on average, for many hours over many days.
  
  At one school, the five students who saw the biggest improvement in their math scores each took seven to 10 hours to complete the exam, and were allowed to pause the test as many as 19 times.
  
  They were among clusters of students at 20 CPS schools who saw such large test score increases that the chance of a random sample of CPS students achieving the same result was calculated at less than one in 1 billion, according to a newly released report by the Chicago Public Schools watchdog that found “worrisome” irregularities — including “unusually long” test times with numerous breaks — in the spring 2018 MAP tests taken by third through eighth graders.
  
  Students and staff interviewed as part of the investigation by the CPS inspector general reported “a variety of improper testing procedures. … This included everything from attempts to game the system to coaching to outright cheating."

We've been saying for years, if you reward bad behavior, you get more of it. In direct correlation, if CPS incentivizes cheating, you're going to get more of it.

If the people in charge aren't careful, Chicago will be cheating at elections in short order.

All Over the Road

So Groot had a presser late last week:

• Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Friday implored young people to put down the guns — and urged their parents to secure their weapons and pay attention to their kids — after a weekend that saw eight children shot within an 18-hour span.
  
  Lightfoot ticked off the tragic circumstance behind each of the shootings, then talked about the “common thread:” children and teens with guns they “never should have possessed in the first place” because the “adults in their lives failed them.”

So if we're understanding this, Rahm's and McCarthy's "take it to the alley" thing is a dead issue? And we're blaming adults for supplying teens with guns? Are we finally ready to have Eric Holder's discussion on race? Well, not really.

• “No amount of policing, no superior crime strategy can address these private moments where adults allowed children and teens access to deadly weapons. Adults, we have to be better,” Lightfoot said.

So now police aren't to blame when the message last week was police were to blame? We're getting confused.

• “And for teens and young adults, my plea is put the guns down. You’re not a punk or weak if you don’t carry a gun. And you’re certainly not stronger or safer with a gun. A gun means that your future is gonna be ... irreparably shaped by a trigger pull. You pick up a gun, you picked up a ticking time bomb.”

But that isn't the message being taught on the streets, in the gangs, in the music and videos people (and folks) are bombarded with many hundreds of times on a daily basis.

• After talking to the students, Lightfoot openly acknowledged there is “a lot we can do better” to make certain that young people feel police are “on their side” and that those most at risk have the recreational alternatives they want and need. Police need to get “out of their cars” and start “building relationships with young people,” the mayor said. Interim Police Superintendent Charlie Beck strongly agreed.
  
  “I understand that they want and they think they would benefit from a better relationship, a closer relationship, a more normalized relationship with the police that work their neighborhoods,” Beck said. “Because of that and because this is also what I believe in, we are gonna set Chicago on a path to having beat officers … who are not chasing 911 calls but are there to work with young people ... to make communities healthy.”

Ah, okay. So is WAS the police's fault. Phew. Glad we got that straightened out.

Damn you evil police! Can't you raise everyone else's kids right?? Who do you think you are, coming into the community, arresting law breakers and then going home to your own families, coaching your kids sports teams, taking your kids to church, maybe even a movie, perhaps even saving for years for that memory making trip to Disney World or somewhere that isn't Chicago.

The article ends with Groot claiming the "moral high ground" from Rahm. It's entertaining, but we can't make fun of it the way Groot be-clowns herself.

Crime is What Now?

We just can't keep track of it any more. Good thing HeyJackass.com can!

• Final Stupidity Tally: 6 killed, 17 wounded
  2019 weekend tally: 3 killed, 11 wounded
  2018 weekend tally: 5 killed, 24 wounded
  2017 weekend tally: 4 killed, 10 wounded
  2016 weekend tally: 2 killed, 26 wounded
  2015 weekend tally: 0 killed, 5 wounded
  2014 weekend tally: 6 killed, 5 wounded

And once again, exactly zero shot by the police.

States Attorney Debate

Did anyone happen to catch it on TV? Everyone took a shot at Crimesha over the Juicy Smollett case.

But target #2 was Conway. That hints that the Machine is worried about Crimesha's chances, despite the vote splitter(s) they've put in there.

So again, we point out that the only chance of removing Foxxx from office is defeating her in the primary. That means - however painful it is - pulling a dem ballot and voting for Conway in the primary. After that, let the chips fall where they may. It will be far easier to remove Conway in four years than removing Foxxx as a two-term incumbent.

More and Fioretti have nothing left in their campaign chests. Conway has lots of Dad's money left to spend. And we trust everyone saw that Soros is worried, too? He sent another $2 million to Crimesha to prop up her faltering campaign. If the shadow-money is worried, then Conway has a good shot.

Weed Revenues

Remember - legal cannabis is going to save the State from all its debt:

• Recreational marijuana sales in Illinois generated more than $10 million in tax revenue in January, putting the state on track to surpass Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s budget estimates.
  
  The state collects sales tax and an additional cannabis tax on recreational marijuana sales. January sales generated more than $7.3 million in cannabis tax revenue and more than $3.1 million in sales tax revenue, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue.
  
  Pritzker’s budget estimated the state would collect $28 million in cannabis tax revenue before June 30.

So $28 million by 30 June.

And Illinois is currently carrying.....$208 billion in debt.

We're seeing a slight problem here.

PAR Forms Flying

You can tell a lot about what a failure an appointed commander is when the PAR forms start flying around the District to leave. You'd think that downtown would notice this and maybe start asking questions like, "What is it about this particular District that is making everyone want to leave?" It's not a difficult management tool, but then again, seeing how many tools we have in charge, they probably don't even think of it that way.

Take 025 for example. If someone at Personnel had alerted higher-ups about the PAR forms coming out of that place, maybe someone would have looked into what Escamerit was doing and prevented a couple of scandals. Or 015 when Cato was in charge. Or the current disaster in the making:

• SCC, I work at HQ and all of us were amazed at the number of PAR forms coming out of 011 this past period. Over forty PO's, nearly a dozen sergeants and two lieutenants. What the hell is going on over on the west side?

We don't know....except for the current six-year run at the top of the homicide chart. And they're leading this year again. It doesn't seem to affect any of the bosses though who all seem to get promoted even after failing again and again. Oh, and the new multiple "merit" captain is reducing weekend time due to 10% instead of 15%. Why stick around that shithole?

Maybe everyone is getting burned out finally.

Don't Make Any Summer Plans

Especially if you work in 019 (click for larger version):

We don't recall any announcements from the Area Deputies or even Beck's office authorizing such restrictive policies this summer. This covers something like eighty-plus-percent of summer weekends. When are officers supposed to get some time to recover and recharge their batteries? Maybe enjoy a long weekend, catch a show, spend some time with the family?

Not Our Call Lady

The return of Eugene Roy:

• The Chicago Police Department will reconsider using an Illinois homicide law to arrest narcotics dealers whose customers die from their drugs, officials say. For years, prosecutors in the collar counties have been filing such cases. They say it discourages drug sales and reduces the number of overdoses.
  
  Eugene Roy, Chicago’s former chief of detectives, said he met about four years ago with state’s attorneys from DuPage, Will, Lake and McHenry counties to see how they used the law. Roy says he recommended Chicago develop protocols for deciding who should be arrested under the state’s drug-induced homicide statute, but the idea was “mothballed” after he retired in 2016.
  
  Now, Brendan Deenihan, who was promoted last week to replace Chief of Detectives Melissa Staples, plans to take another look at the idea. “He feels very strongly about this issue and is considering assembling a task force to investigate drug-induced homicides,” said Tom Ahern, a police spokesman.
  
  Ahern said such investigations are complex because detectives need to prove the dealer knew that the drugs could kill the customer.

Yeah...."complex." You also have to prove that Crimesha thinks the dope dealer knew that dope could kill a customer. After all, she grew up in the Green and tens of thousands of addicts bought dope there and never died, so why wouldn't a dealer think his product was completely safe?

The mom pushing for this exhibits all the typical deflections of a parent of an addict:

• For Sylvia Schaefer, it’s clear “the law should be enforced.” Schaefer’s son Joshua Bloomfield, a 29-year-old struggling with heroin addiction while trying to finish college, died last May 28.
  
  “Refer to it as drug poisoning and not drug overdose,” Schaefer said. “My son didn’t kill himself. He wasn’t suicidal. He had great plans on the horizon.”

We'll refrain from being cynical bastards for the moment and just say that CPD can't even get Crimesha to charge gun offenders properly, keep cop-shooters behind bars and prosecute shoplifters at all. Charging a dope dealer with homicide?

Cop Injured

It never ends:

• A woman was arrested Saturday after she hit a Chicago police officer with an SUV while trying to flee a traffic stop in Garfield Park on the West Side.
  
  Officers in an unmarked car tried to pull over the Jeep Grand Cherokee about 8:10 p.m. in the 100 block of South Pulaski Road, Chicago police said. When one officer approached the Jeep, the woman sped off, hitting the officer.
  
  The officer was hospitalized with a foot injury, police said. He was in good condition.
  
  The woman, 25, was taken into custody without incident, police said.

"without incident"? You mean, besides the cop getting hit with a car, right? Asshats.

Get well soon Officer.

We Could See This

From the comments:

• There is an effort underway to change how arrested juveniles are handled through the processing process-one of which is prohibiting officers from handcuffing arrested juveniles. Another is not allowing officers to use ANY force (other than on an assailant). So if your uncuffed juvenile runs out of the processing area and onto the street, you will soon not be allowed to tackle them and drag them back to be processed. You must either let them go or convince them to go back to the station with you.
  
  No bullshit. If anyone thinks I’m full of shit...well...just wait and see. The effort is already underway. Some at the top are fighting it, but there is a definite push for this

A definite possibility, given the tenor of "training" that's been underway this year.

Dart Settles Lawsuit?

Remember this from last year?

• Legal fees for cases relating to masturbating detainees at Cook County Jail could reach more than $2 million.
  
  The Cook County Board’s Finance Committee on Wednesday will consider the latest $486,216.39 in fees and expenses for five cases brought by public defenders, sheriff’s officers and other female county employees exposed to the harassment. That comes on top of nearly $1.7 million the Board has already paid out.
  
  It’s been dubbed an “extreme brand of workplace sexual harassment” by one state senator who sought increased penalties for the lewd behavior. The women subjected to it have written letters to county officials and filed lawsuits.

We're pretty sure we posted something at the time last summer and that it provoked quite a few humorous responses.

Now we're getting e-mails that claim Dart has settled with the PD's, ASA's, sheriffs and county employees:

• $14 million in taxpayer money

As of this writing, we can't locate any media coverage, though that could change by the time this hits the blog around midnight. We guess the pizza parties didn't work out like Dart had hoped and now taxpayers are on the hook for Dart's incompetence again.

UPDATE: Someone says there's a story at Bloomberg.com. Anyone find a link?

Another "Hard Call" by Kenworthy

The judge who gave a cop shooter a $50,000 D-bond has a body count to go with her lib-tardedness. This is from two years ago:

• A man beaten by fellow gang members in a videotaped punishment fatally shot one of them in December after complaining about being punished, prosecutors said Wednesday.
  
  [...]
  
  After another attack about 6:30 a.m. May 8, 2017, at the same apartment on Kilpatrick, Hernandez was charged again with domestic battery, and a long-term order of protection was issued. He pleaded guilty to domestic battery in June and was given a year’s conditional discharge — a type of probation — court records show. Later in the year, he was charged with violating the terms of conditional discharge and then, on Nov. 14 — a month before Beganovic’s killing — given another year of conditional discharge by Judge Diana A. Kenworthy after pleading guilty to violating conditional discharge, according to court records.

Conditional discharge....on a conditional discharge violation. And Kenworthy let him out so he was able to kill someone. The someone turned out to be another piece of shit gangbanger, so no great loss. But there really have to be consequences to repeated bad behavior.

Carjackings "Spike"

If you reward bad behavior (and non punishment is a reward of sorts) you get more of it....lots more of it:

• Two carjackers battered and carjacked a 72-year-old man on the city’s Northwest Side yesterday evening, just hours after Chicago police announced a new focus on reversing a 75% rise in vehicular hijackings this year.
  
  And two more carjackings unfolded in River North on Thursday night, including one in which an offender fired a handgun. No one was shot, though.
  
  At least three carjackings were reported on Wednesday evening — one in each in the Gold Coast, Fulton Market, and West Ridge neighborhoods. Cops initially thought Wednesday’s cases were related, but further investigation revealed that different crews were responsible for the heists, Interim Police Supt. Charlie Beck later announced.
  
  “The criminal justice system has to get serious about how they deal with some of these juveniles,” CPD Dep. Supt. Anthony Riccio said on Friday. “A lot of what we see are the same crews doing it over and over again. So, we’re gonna have to definitely address the problem of juveniles and the crime that they’re committing.”

Hahahahahaha. Addressing juvenile crime? Did he not see the post the other day about the juvenile murderers being released from the Audy home with nothing more than a curfew? Carjackers will probably get a pat on the head and a new pair of sneakers before being cut free.

• Riccio made the remarks as he announced the reconstitution of a multi-agency carjacking task force. He said 117 vehicular hijackings had been reported in 2020 as of earlier this week, up from 67 during the same time in 2019.
  
  “I can promise we will get to the bottom of it,” Riccio said.
  
  The city saw 113 carjackings during the period in 2018 and 109 in 2017, according to city records.

You know what would address it pretty quickly....and at about 1,200 feet per second?

CO of MAIU?

Some people have posted that Special Ed's soon-to-be ex Wheezie was named the Commanding Officer of the Major Accidents Investigation Unit. This after completely bombing her time as lieutenant in a District.

Confirmation?

Does anyone know what it actually takes to be held accountable for failures around here?

Cop Shooter Makes Bail

This isn't just judicial incompetence - we're pretty sure it's a deliberate "fuck you" to the CPD officers who put their lives on the line:

• Interim Chicago police Supt. Charlie Beck says he’s furious that a man accused of shooting an officer in 2018 was allowed to go free on bail.
  
  “To release somebody that is suspected and charged with attempted murder on a police officer for a low amount of bail is outrageous,” Beck told the Chicago Sun-Times.
  
  Officer Fernando Soto saw Bryce Jones-Lanum holding what looked like a gun while crossing 87th Street and Ashland Avenue on Nov. 20, 2018, police say. As he ran, Jones-Lanum pointed a .38-caliber revolver at Soto, and they exchanged fire, police say.
  
  Soto escaped with a bruise after being shot in the back of his protective vest. Jones-Lanum, who’s now 22, was wounded.
  
  Jones-Lanum initially was held without bail. But at a hearing in October Cook County Circuit Judge Diana Kenworthy granted him bail of $50,000, and he posted the required 10% bond to be released until trial.
  
  “This is what my job is, to some — to make these hard calls,” the judge said, according to a transcript of the hearing.

Again, for the record, there is not a single judge in Cook County worthy of a retention vote. None. Zero. Until we start seeing some push back by their peers (which, by the way, is what libtards demand of every cop) then every single judge should be voted out. We don't care if they get reappointed later to cover shortages. Replace 80 or 100 judges every election cycle, and in two or four years, replace those 80 or 100 again.

Desperation Move

Who's idea is this?

• SWAT team officers described by Interim Supt. Charlie Beck as the “best and the brightest” in the Chicago Police Department started riding CTA trains Friday to get an immediate handle on mass transit violence.
  
  Beck said he and Mayor Lori Lightfoot plan to unveil a more extensive CTA security plan next week. It will call for “a vastly increased presence” that includes “some technology” and “some participation by the CTA,” he said.
  
  But to underscore the urgency of the problem, Beck announced an extraordinary temporary step, effective Friday.
  
  “We’re gonna be putting additional police resources onto the train lines, including SWAT officers. Not SWAT officers in full tactical gear. But SWAT officers that are the best and the brightest of my police officers to make sure that the trains are safe,” Beck said, after joining the mayor at Wendell Phillips Academy High School, 244 E. Pershing Rd., for a related crackdown on gun violence impacting young people.

So the "best and the brightest" but not allowed to carry the gear that they're allegedly the "best and brightest" with?Where is that gear going to be stored in the meantime and what happens if there's a call-out somewhere far away from downtown? Did Beck just add an hour or more to SWAT response times...which are already too long as it is.

Granny Looking for Work

One of CPD's recent carpetbagger hires is fired in Oakland:

• In a stunning show of power, the Oakland Police Commission — a group of civilians — voted unanimously Thursday night to fire Oakland Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick without cause, an action that caught many city leaders by surprise.
  
  The firing required approval from Mayor Libby Schaaf, who hired the chief three years ago. Moments after the commission’s vote, Schaaf phoned Kirkpatrick to inform her that she was out of the job.
  
  The decision followed a long-simmering tension between the chief and the commission, which was created by a voter-approved ballot initiative in 2016 that aimed to rebuild trust between officers and their community.

This is exactly the type of commission that Groot promised was coming here, though now she's dragging her feet establishing it.

Granny Clampett isn't hurting for money though:

• Kirkpatrick will receive one year of her salary as severance. When she was hired in 2017, Kirkpatrick’s total compensation was $299,675, including salary and benefits.

As you can see, it pays to be a mercenary.

Scrambling for Fines

Remember all those fines - overdue and other - that the mayor cut because they unfairly targeted those who brazenly break the ordinances passed by the City Council? We wondered where Lightfoot was going to make up the roughly $120 million in now un-collectable fines:

• Drivers who park, stand or otherwise encroach on bus and bike lanes would have a greater chance of getting caught under a mayoral crackdown proposed Wednesday to ease downtown congestion, speed bus travel and reverse a precipitous decline in bus ridership.
  
  Mayor Lori Lightfoot introduced an ordinance that would allow parking enforcement aides to take a picture of the encroachment and mail the violation — with fines ranging from $60-to-$150 — to the address of the license plate holder.
  
  Currently, the ticket can only be issued if the vehicle is parked in a bus lane or bike lane. If someone drives off to avoid the ticket — even while a citation is being written — the parking enforcement aide is out of luck.
  
  The mayor’s plan would close that loophole by allowing parking enforcement aides to take a picture of the vehicle and send the violation and the photographic evidence in the mail within 30 days and no later than 90 days after the secretary of state notifies the city of the identity of the owner and no later than 210 days later if the vehicle is leased.

With all the bike lanes and dedicated bus lanes appearing, it's getting more and more difficult to simply pull to the curb to drop someone off in order to avoid outrageous downtown parking fees. It's almost like the politicos are trying to keep people from visiting.

Another Crimesha Caper

Betting you won't see this one in the news:

• The two juvenile brothers charged with murder, ages 15 and 13, that killed Muhammad the store owner in Area South, were released from the Audy home on 18 Feb 2020 to the custody of their mother pending their next court date. No electronic monitoring, the only stipulation is a 7pm curfew.

We're thinking someone in the States Attorneys office might have seen this early morning comment and hit the panic button:

• The juvenile homicide offenders are back in custody. The ASAs filed an emergency motion this morning and the Judge has now held them.

Because it's so difficult to keep two juvenile murderers in the Audy Home until trial.

Anyone know if Conway's campaign is aware of this?

Madigan Indictments Coming?

Could taxpayer prayers be answered?

• Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan and several of his closest political allies are named in a new federal subpoena seeking records on a former ComEd lobbyist and his consulting work for a tiny southwestern suburb, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
  
  A significant focus of the subpoena is Raymond T. Nice – a longtime campaign worker for Madigan’s Southwest Side Democratic organization who became an “independent contractor” for the village of Merrionette Park in 2015, according to records and interviews.
  
  Delivered by an IRS agent and dated Friday, the subpoena asks Merrionette Park officials for copies of contracts with Nice, as well as invoices “and payment records, including but not limited to records that explain the purpose(s) and work product for which payment was made, records of wire transfers, copies of checks (front and back) and/or records of cash payments.”
  
  The subpoena also asks that, by March 4, village officials turn over all “correspondence with, or other communications (such as internal email messages) documenting communications with, Michael Madigan, Michael McClain, Timothy Mapes, Kevin Quinn and/or Marty Quinn.”

Imagine if we have an entire summer of subpoenas, Grand Juries and perhaps a few leaks of wire taps and deals to be made by people looking to avoid long stretches in prison.

Hypocrisy on Display

So the mayor tweets this the other day when Blago was about to get out:

• Commuting former Gov. Blagojevich's sentence would be controversial under any president, but President Trump embodies the worst in public leadership through his brazen disrespect for the rule of law and good governance. Given his track record, this action sends the wrong message.

But what has she said about Crimesha's "brazen disrespect" of laws passed by the legislature? Oh yeah, Groot endorsed Foxxx the other day.

How about when Sparklefarts was pardoning FALN terrorists who actually plotted and carried out bombings on US soil? After all, she was a federal prosecutor - she should have had an opinion on that, right?

If democrats didn't have double standards, they'd have no standards at all.

Artwork Offends Groot

Is anyone familiar with some of the artwork adorning the walls by Groot's office on Five? It's being removed and put into storage, out of the public eye:

• Apparently the artwork is too European and racist in its depictions of the settling of Chicago, so [Lightfoot] is banishing those historic, but to her, offending pieces to a basement, to be replaced by more politically correct pieces.[...]
  
  One would think there are bigger fish to fry in Lightfoot’s Chicago, but apparently the short fused shrew has no limit to taking offense to any and everything.
  
  So head over to city hall quickly if you want a last viewing of celebrated pieces of art before they fall victim to the Mayor’s censorship.

It certainly is reminiscent of the habits of bygone totalitarian regimes (and modern day "progressives") to erase the past by hiding paintings, renaming buildings and tearing down statues.

Chicago Ought to Try This

If CPD issued all of our equipment, we could get behind this:

• A New Hampshire police chief stripped down to his underwear and walked into a snowstorm after being stripped of his duties at a local board meeting Tuesday night.
  
  Richard Lee was the police chief for nearly 20 years until a three-member selectboard voted to rely solely on coverage from the New Hampshire State Police during the meeting. He worked part-time as the only member of the department -- which covers the town of Croydon's roughly 700 residents.
  
  He was told to immediately turn in his guns and uniform as well as the keys to his police cruiser, so Lee took off his gear before the board chairman.

Special Ed might have thought twice about getting a knob-job in his Department issued car if he would have had to report to Groot, strip down to his skivvies, and march home in the snow.

But then again, maybe not.

Media Picks Another War

You want to see some triggered snowflakes, check out this BS:

• SCC,
  Chicago Reader editor Maya Dukmasova targeting cop vehicles outside of FOP hall. Drum roll for the comments. Owner of truck should file a complaint for showing license plate. This is Arena type shit right here.
  
  https://mobile.twitter.com/mdoukmas/status/1229917476495994880

Dukmasova posts a picture of someone's truck parked outside FOP Hall with a bunch of bumper/window stickers proclaiming his political leanings. But the snowflakes are agog that someone would dare support Free Speech, gun ownership, police in general, etc. Not something that we'd necessarily do, but last we checked, still completely legal, and here's a media editor taking pictures of vehicles on the public way and posting them on her social media accounts to provoke ridicule, denigration and not-so-subtle threats.

Our reader is correct - this is some Arena-type bullshit reminiscent of leftist/socialist "progressive" regimes, which of course, the media is all too eager to support.

Hi Dave!

So not only is he a child-endangering drunkard who flees accident scenes and tries to beat up teenagers, he's a bit of a creepy exhibitionist on the side (allegedly):

• CBS 2 investigative reporter Dave Savini, 52, allegedly harassed a woman with “obscene” texts and Facebook messages over a year’s time, according to a Chicago Police case incident report obtained by Chicago City Wire.
  
  Flight attendant and author Kathy Browne, 50, told police in July 2016 about a series of messages she had been receiving from Savini – in one he allegedly asked Browne if she wanted a “picture of his penis.”
  
  “She stated this in an ongoing problem for a about a year and asked Dave Savini to stop contacting her,” the police report said.
  
  Browne told Chicago City Wire that she also contacted CBS 2 about the matter.

But SeeBS, especially on the national level, has a history of looking the other way when women are harassed. Why should the local affiliate feel any pressure to correct aberrant behavior by a pervert? Maybe Dave can get together with Special Ed and compare pick-up methods.

Get Your Ballots In

The deadline is fast approaching for the FOP election and believe it or not, politicians pay attention to participation as a measure of how involved we all are regarding our representation.

No one says you have to vote for an entire slate - pick and choose. We went heavily for independents this time around.

Vote.

Low/No Bail UPDATE

We have been sent an article by a couple of sharp-eyed readers. It seems the Tribune actually did publish a piece on the body count attached to low/no bail the other day:

• Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans for months has defended the bail reform he ordered by citing an analysis produced by the office he runs.
  
  His report, released in May, noted that Chicago saw no increase in violent crime after judges began implementing those reforms by reducing or eliminating monetary bail for many pretrial defendants. Far more of these defendants were released from custody, yet only “a very small fraction” were charged afterward with a new violent offense, the report states.
  
  But a Tribune investigation has found flaws in both the data underlying Evans’ report and the techniques he used to analyze it — issues that minimize the number of defendants charged with murder and other violent crimes after being released from custody under bail reform.

But the Tribune seems to have memory-holed the article (removed it from the main page) in a rather expedient fashion since it reflects rather badly on the Machine and pretty much proves Judge Evans a bald-faced liar:

• One central conclusion of Evans’ analysis was that only 147 felony defendants released from custody in the 15 months after bail reform went on to be charged with new violent crimes, or 0.6% of the total. He has called this a “rare” occurrence.
  
  But Evans’ definition of violent crime, while acceptable to criminologists under some circumstances, was limited to six offenses and excluded numerous others, including domestic battery, assault, assault with a deadly weapon, battery, armed violence and reckless homicide.
  
  Hundreds of these charges were filed against people released after bail reform took effect, according to data Evans provided after the Tribune filed a public records petition to the Illinois Supreme Court. If those charges were included in the analysis, the total would be at least four times higher, the Tribune found.

Gee, a Chicago politico using manipulated data to draw the completely wrong conclusion. Who wouldn't have thunk it?

And get a load of this bullshit:

• In an earlier interview with the Tribune, Evans said: "My heart goes out to the families who’ve been victimized by crime.”
  
  But, he added, “The only way you can guarantee that no one will commit a crime while their case is pending, and that no one will miss a court date while their case is pending, is to keep them all in jail. … That’s not the solution.”

Um, that's EXACTLY the solution dumbass. And you're victimizing the most vulnerable members of the community all over again with your crap.

And we were contacted by one of the authors of a study that seems to show that crime actually goes up after more offenders are released on low/no bail provisions. Here's their article - with links to their scientific studies:

• In a study posted on SSRN today, my colleague Professor Richard Fowles and I explore the public safety implications of recent Cook County bail reforms. We review the Cook County Chief Judge's study of these reforms, which sanguinely asserted that as more defendants were released pretrial no additional crimes resulted. We believe that, properly assessed, the study's own data suggests a significant increase in crimes as a result of the changes. Our conclusions may have broader implications about the public safety dangers of bail reform.

Remember, these are professors, so they're way smarter than Cook County politicians and judges.

VRI Gutted?

Supposedly cut down to twenty-four officers on a nightly basis? Seems they're very serious about cutting OT, even for a couple months. They did this a year or two ago. The body count was amazing.

Once the warm weather hits and the wilding crowds head downtown (along with a few extra dead people weekends), they'll be reinstating OT or cancelling everyone's days off.

Sad Sad Beta-Journalist

The other day, we had a post about an alternative media source pointing out how the Slum Times endorsement of Crimesha was a little bit "tainted" by the three-quarters of a million dollars they've made to her campaign coffers. We weren't mean about it or anything. We actually complimented the effort that went into the reporting.

No good deed goes unpunished though. The writer, an alleged journo by the name of Konkol, decided to skim through our little anti-Crimesha efforts here and try to make some political hay with his rather over-active imagination (no links for him - he has been Mope-rah-fied). He actually called us "scurrilous" in the headline:

• The always contrarian (often racist) Second City Cop blog has jumped into the election endorsement game with an unusual plan aimed at ousting Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx.

This charge has been leveled so many times, it has lost all meaning. We again ask for specific examples of this alleged "racism" so many lefties insist is prevalent here. And not the dog-whistles that libtards employ for anyone telling uncomfortable truths. His interpretation of words is his problem, not ours. We suppose all the statistics over on the HeyJackass.com site are racist because they show something like 85-to-90% of shooting victims and offenders are minority. Same thing with the CPD DataPortal showing almost 100% of wilding youths are minority.

• The post offered bullet-point arguments for its race-based, get-out-the-vote campaign strategy. An astute political consultant told me they are akin to "the genius that comes after six shots of Irish whiskey."

"race-based"? What the actual Hell is he talking about? Has he not read the papers? The blogs? Watched the news? Crime is rampant and much of it is based solely on the refusal to prosecute criminals. That isn't "race-based." That's a poor performance by an elected official and justifiable voter outrage. We're not happy with Crimesha because she's incompetent. And what's with the slam on Irish whiskey? Oh, right. Irish = white so "racism" again.

Then he starts to get mean, like a really angry chihuahua:

• Without citing a source, the phantom cop blogger wrote: "There's some support for it as voters see the outrageous crimes being committed by persons out on bail, not serving sentences, not even being charged, and being released to terrorize the same communities over and over again."

"Without citing a source." You mean like accusing us of being "racist"? Like claiming some sort of "race-based" strategy? Like making veiled references to "Irish" spirits?

Speaking of nameless "sources," he closes with this:

• The know-it-all offered some unsolicited political advice — anonymous guy to anonymous cop blog: "They'd be better off just keeping their mouth shut like they're taught in the academy."
  
  We'll see what happens on St. Patrick's Day, when voters hit the polls and Irish whiskey shots go down easy.

There's that "Irish" thing again. His "know-it-all" persona is a convenient device he invented (like Slats Grobnik) to further mask his "commentary" as something akin to reporting. Those lefty "journos" sure like their anonymous sources. The pop up all the time in the main stream media whenever they've got something bad to say about anyone even leaning to the right. And they're always telling conservatives to shut up, not to venture any sort of opinions, and generally let their betters run the governing.

Also note that his "source" is encouraging cops to maintain silence "like they're taught in the academy" - you know, that "Code of Silence" everyone insists is taught from Day One, but only ever appears when the connected get caught up in something.

By the way, does everyone remember why Konkol is writing for a minor league website like The Patch instead of  an actual newspaper or magazine? Surely his talents are being wasted there? He won a Pulitzer once you know.

Well, he was fired by the ultra-leftie rag The Reader......for blatantly racist editorial decisions:

• Mark Konkol, who promised to “set a new vibe, take risks and make waves” at the Chicago Reader, was forced out Saturday as executive editor of the alternative weekly after the first issue he oversaw ignited a racial and political controversy.
  
  The cover of the February 15 edition featured a caricature of J.B. Pritzker, the Democratic candidate for governor, sitting atop a black lawn jockey and blowing black smoke while an FBI agent listens in on his phone conversation. Three stories inside focused on Pritzker’s wiretapped call in 2008 with former Governor Rod Blagojevich in which they talked about African-American politicians.

In fact, it was two years ago yesterday he got fired (Happy Anniversary Konks!) And also yesterday, one of the subjects of his editorial missteps had his sentence commuted - the other is hopefully awaiting indictment. So all sorts of happy memories for the sad angry writer who barely lasted ten days at The Reader. In any case, on any given day, our readership far outstrips his.

Low/No Bail Body Counts

It's getting worse....and it's all on Crimesha and Tim Evans:

• An Englewood man is charged with fatally shooting a 15-year-old boy while free on a recognizance bond and electronic monitoring as he awaited trial for allegedly possessing a stolen handgun.
  
  And police say he was carrying another handgun when they arrested him last week.
  
  It’s the latest in a string of violent crimes identified by CWBChicago that were allegedly committed by people who were on affordable bail while awaiting trial for gun crimes and other serious felonies.

Late last year, the CWB blog wrote a couple of articles showing Evans pretty much lied about there being no "horrible incidents" under the affordable bail program. The trouble was the dead bodies that were appearing on multiple occasions:

• 21 November, CWB blog documents three murders and two attempted murders under the Evans plan;
• 27 November, CWB blog reports another city murder and a suburban murder, both by people (or folks) out on bond.

But the main stream media won't touch the story, probably because they have too many spouses and relatives working for the County in different capacities.

Of Course They Did

So Blago gets out after eight years for never taking a dime. Rahm walks around free as a bird after steering $1.3 BILLION (with a B) to a politically connected developer:

• Key to the massive $1.3 billion taxpayer subsidy for Sterling Bay’s Lincoln Yards megadevelopment was a 36-page report declaring that the project met the requirements to get the money.
  
  As Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration promoted the record tax increment financing deal at a November 2018 public meeting inside a church, a planning official introduced the author of that report as “the city’s TIF consultant.”
  
  The consultant took the microphone and said the report was done “on behalf of the city of Chicago.”
  
  What the administration and consultant didn’t tell the crowd: Developer Sterling Bay had both picked the consultant and paid the firm. And that consultant also had been retained by a Sterling Bay subsidiary to lobby City Hall on the final terms of the Lincoln Yards agreement.

In the meantime, pensions continue to dwindle, a casino is still a pipe dream, taxes are going up while population is going down. But Sterling Bay profits are going up and - no doubt - so are their contributions to political campaigns.

Another Great Bail

Yet another reason that we never recommend voting to retain judges:

• A West Side man is charged with possessing a loaded handgun in a car recently while free on bail as he awaits trial for a 2017 armed carjacking in the Loop.
  
  CWBChicago first told you about Savion Canty after prosecutors charged him for his alleged role in an armed carjacking of a Hilton Chicago Hotel employee in April 2017. In bond court for the carjacking, a pretrial analysis recommended that Canty be placed under “maximum conditions” if the judge decided to release him on bail.
  
  Instead, Judge Stephanie Miller ordered him held without bail. Less than a week later, Canty appeared before now-retired Judge Marvin Luckman, who earned the nickname “Let ‘em Go Luckman” due to his defendant-friendly rulings. Luckman reduced Canty’s bail and allowed him to go home the same day by posting a $2,000 bond.
  
  Now, prosecutors have charged Canty with having a handgun in a car during a traffic stop in West Garfield Park. Police said Canty, 21, was in the back seat of a vehicle that fled the scene of an accident. When they removed Canty from the back seat, officers allegedly found a loaded handgun with an extended ammunition magazine under the back of the driver’s seat at Canty’s feet.

And once again, CWB blog doing all of the heavy lifting here.

Blago to Walk Free

Commutation for one of the more outrageous sentences in Illinois history:

• President Donald Trump on Tuesday commuted the 14-year prison sentence of disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, setting in motion a process that could free him shortly from a Colorado prison after serving more than seven years behind bars.
  
  In explaining his move, Trump called Blagojevich’s sentence “ridiculous.”
  
  “Yes, we commuted the sentence of Rod Blagojevich,” Trump told reporters Tuesday before he departed on Air Force One. “He served eight years in jail, a long time. He seems like a very nice person, don’t know him.”

Eight years for a phone call - a wiretapped call between Blago and JayBee "the Hutt" Pritzker, that was mysteriously ended mere seconds before either was able to utter the name "Obama."

Not a single dime exchanged hands (in this deal - lord knows about other deals) and he gets a fourteen year sentence because he endangered Sparklefarts. Bobby Rush, who outright refuses to account for a missing million dollars, hasn't faced so much as a rude question from the bought-and-paid-for media.

Now hopefully, the rumors of a as-yet-unknown jailed politico laying out a roadmap of corruption for federal investigators here in Illinois can finally be confirmed.

And by the way.....Blagojevich didn't kill himself.....just in case.

Multiple Guns - No Arrests/Charges

So Groot had a meeting last week, having "difficult conversations" with forty-one police commanders about the crime numbers so far this year. Groot demanded (DEMANDED!)  that officers use all the tools available to clamp down on crime and stop the shootings.

Then this happened outside of the NBA All Star game, to absolutely zero media coverage:

• So last night at NBA event, suv breaches the secure lot where command van and other police vehicles are, 3 shitheads bail out and run, driver tries to tell cops they can keep car and tries to leave, they grab him and search car, 5 guns and tool box full of drugs found. DC Carter, soon to [be] chief decides to 19P it because it's one of the DJs hired for the event. Are you fucking kidding me. He needs to be dumped immediately. Mayor you paying attention?
• Detailed to the United Center tonight, NBA entertainment entourage pull into parking lot. Verbal altercation with several occupants and United Center security. Parked their vehicle in a no parking area and walked away. Five firearms and drugs recovered from said vehicle. Nobody goes to jail. Unbelievable!!!
• On Sunday a private company with bomb dogs was working the ALL STAR game. As a vehicle was inspected a dog alerted the handler. I've even heard more than one alerted on the same vehicle. CPD units were requested via radio along with bomb techs. Here is where things get interesting- the vehicle occupants who were apparently guests of a celebrity, exited the vehicle and just walked away and into the venue. Inside the vehicle officers discovered narcotics and several guns. That is when newly anointed Chief Carter stepped in and said to let them -the occupants- walk. I was also told that the Chief's daughter was seen hanging out with said celebrity during the NBA weekend...

Perhaps Groot missed what else happened this weekend - four dead, twenty-five wounded - including over a dozen under the age of eighteen. She certainly was quick to blame "ready access to guns" as the leading cause of the carnage.

Any guesses on how "readily" these guns were accessible? Many of these attendees are supposed celebrities and "heroes" to numerous at-risk youth. What kind of examples are they setting with guns and drugs? And isn't the United Center one of those "no gun" zones we see all the signs for?

Any info on charges? If they weren't Illinois residents, there are exactly zero ways they could be carrying/transporting loaded weapons legally according to State Law, celebrities or not. Surely there were cameras around?

And how was Chief Carter was able to exercise this much "discretion" as to charging? Does he think he's Crimesha Foxxx or something? Is he aware that Groot wants coppers using "all available tools" to attack the burgeoning crime problem?

We have so many more questions than answers.

Nice CTA Groot

Can you believe that there still hasn't been a single change in the command structure of the Mass Transit Unit?

• Three people were shot, one fatally, in a CTA pedestrian tunnel downtown overnight, police said. No one is in custody.
  
  Just after 2 a.m. Monday, a witness flagged down police to report shots fired in the pedestrian tunnel that connects the Blue Line and Red Line at Jackson.
  
  Officers responded to the scene and found two men unconscious with gunshot wounds, according to initial reports.
  
  Medical personnel pronounced one victim dead at the scene. He was shot in the stomach and chest, according to CPD. The other man is in critical condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital with gunshots to his head and arm, police said.

At some point, you have to make a change, if only for the express purpose of looking like you're doing something.

That time has long since passed for Mass Transit. Our readers have provided numerous examples of general incompetence on a daily basis, but because the people running the place are wives, girlfriends, pin-cushions of bosses, they're allowed to stack up a body count, even get blasted at CompStat, and not a single consequence is handed out.

Fore!!!

So aldercreature Burke is facing a federal indictment, ethics questions, and a whole litany of questions over years of allegedly corrupt practices. Now comes word of yet another "unethical" practice closely associated with him:

• SCC, they cancelled the O'Hare golf outing. Forever. The new commander claims it was "unethical" and shut the whole thing down. I wanted to let you know since you've written in the past about Burke taking his city-owned car and city-paid-for bodyguards up to Wisconsin for the outing for years. How come the media never covered that?

We've heard stories about the outing - raffle prizes of round trip airline tickets, autographed jerseys for all manner of sports teams, and other goodies as prizes - all legit as donations. Dozens of Districts and Units do this annually.

Was something being "kicked upstairs" to Burke? Everyone who pays attention knows that Burke ran the airports. No one got there as a management pick without being vetted and approved by Burke's operation. We wouldn't be surprised if the entire supervisory staff had to buy the obligatory "fundraiser" tickets for Machine events.

And everyone already knew there were a bunch of FBI wires on Burke - did his operation take down the golf outing for as yet unrevealed reasons?

A Dead Horse...Seriously

What an amazing city we have here. You can find anything if you wait long enough....even a dead horse:

• Several Chicago alderman are calling for changes to city ordinances after a horse was found dead in Englewood.
  
  Chicago police and Animal Care and Control found two horses in a yard near 61st and Carpenter, after receiving multiple calls requesting well-being checks on the animals.
  
  One of the horses was dead. No word yet on what caused the horse’s death.

Fortunately, we have inside information from a number people on scene. Using their amazing powers of deduction, the detectives have narrowed down the cause of death to two possibilities:

• heroin overdose 
• gunfire

Because no one dies of natural causes in Englewood. Even horses.

Ten Cops Hospitalized

All sorts of injuries last night resulting in the hospitalization of at least ten cops that we've heard. Three from this fire:

• Three Chicago police officers entered an apartment building in the Bronzeville neighborhood Saturday night to knock on doors and let people know the building was on fire, according to police. While inside, the officers suffered from smoke inhalation and had to be taken to a hospital along with four of the building’s residents, including a 5-year-old boy.
  
  Firefighters were called to the extra-alarm fire before 10:45 p.m. Saturday at an apartment complex at 4820 S. King Drive on the South Side, according to the Chicago Fire Department.

Six others went to the hospital from a multiple squad car collision on the west side:

• Two Chicago police vehicles were involved in a crash Saturday night that sent six officers to a hospital, according to the Chicago Fire Department.
  
  The crash occurred about 8 p.m. in the intersection of West Jackson Boulevard and South Springfield Avenue in the East Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side, said Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.
  
  The officers were responding to a call that another officer needed help, according to the Chicago Police Department. The crash involved a marked Chicago police squad car and one unmarked police vehicle.

Another ended up at the hospital after an unknown incident.

Police Memorial Info

It's that time of year again - planning a trip to the annual Police Memorial in Washington DC.

As usual, Retired Sergeant Al Piantkowski has put together THE definitive guide to anything and everything happening in the nation's capital.

And (unfortunately) as usual, we are unable to get Scribd.com to accept the document so we can post it here as a readable/printable document.

Fortunately, the Sergeants Association website did get it uploaded and it's available for viewing and printing at the link below:

• CLICK HERE for the 2020 Police Memorial Guide

Give it a minute to load - it's nineteen pages of maps, photos, event calendars, etc.

We apologize for our technological shortcomings. We are working on it and if we manage to get it uploaded, we'll link it. It is truly a work of love and dedication that deserves widespread exposure to everyone making the pilgrimage to DC.

Making Propaganda

After eight or more teens were shot this weekend, many by "accident," Groot sends exactly the wrong message in a propaganda exercise that would make Goebbels proud:

• In a weekend that saw eight children shot within an 18-hour span — including at least three juveniles hit by accidental gunfire — Pastor Corey Brooks described Chicago as a “city of two different worlds.”
  
  The lead pastor of New Beginnings Church of Chicago and executive director of Project H.O.O.D. described these two worlds Saturday afternoon while standing outside the Parkway Gardens Homes on the South Side, where three of the children were among six people wounded in a single shooting late Friday.
  
  But about 10 miles north of there, NBA players, celebrities and tourists were arriving at the United Center for the NBA’s All-Star Weekend.
  
  “The NBA All Star game has come to Chicago on what happens to be a very violent weekend,” Brooks said. “So while the eyes of the world are on our city, we’re asking for the world to come alongside and help us.”

"...two worlds..." Anyone want to guess what difference Pastor Brooks is referring to?

Groot immediately went to work spreading lies:

• The past 24 hours have been extremely painful as we’ve seen more children impacted by gun violence—due in large part to children and teens having ready access to these deadly weapons.
  
  As a city, we have a fundamental obligation to ensure the safety of our children so that they can pursue their dreams and live a life free from violence. Each and every one of us needs to step up and play a role in fulfilling that commitment.

Violence?

• half of the eight were shot "by accident" - the kids didn't own the guns
• parent(s) failed to secure the weapons properly AS REQUIRED BY LAW
• Crimesha has (so far) failed to prosecute a single parent AS THE LAW IS WRITTEN

And as a final note, "Each and every one of us" doesn't need to step up. One person has to step up (maybe two) and that person is a RESPONSIBLE parent - you know, someone who isn't leaving a weapon lying around where children can get it and negligently discharge it. One of our readers pointed out that the last fourteen-year-old girl wounded actually had a pistol found in her pocket while paramedics were treating her.

As far as we've been able to tell, not a single "assault" weapon was used and not a single NRA member was involved in any of these shootings, but there's Groot claiming "ready access" based on nothing actually factual. Funny how NRA people are the ones securing/locking up their guns and getting their kids educated regarding proper handling/use of firearms.

Thinking Out Loud Here

So Special Ed is gone.

He's been placed on the "No Hire" list we linked the other day.

That means the CR number with his name all over it is not being investigated - it's closed since he's no longer employed by the Department.

And since it's closed, it's eligible to be the subject of an FOIA request for anyone who wants spend the time on it, including the affidavit and any attached video.

Any bored retirees out there?

Get Behind the Vest Week

Just a reminder:

(comments closed here - informational post only)

Cops Rescue Swimmer

Well, not a swimmer actually:

• Chicago police officers dove onto ice at the edge of Lake Michigan and pulled someone out of the frigid water Saturday morning in the Gold Coast, Chicago police said.
  
  After receiving a call for a person in the water, SWAT officers who were patrolling the area saw someone bobbing in the water around 7 a.m. in the 600 block of North Lake Shore Drive, police said.
  
  The officers hopped over a breakwall, slid across the ice and pulled the person from the water, according to police.
  
  The person was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in critical condition.

There's video floating around (floating...haha) somewhere and it's very good. These two officers almost went in themselves before other city workers grabbed their legs to help get the victim out of the water. Very very well done.

Nice Weekend Groot

You thought last weekend was bad - and it was in terms of dead bodies in February. But it's probable that this weekend will be considered a bigger problem, based solely on the number of children catching lead across the city:

• An 11-year-old boy was wounded Friday in what police said was an accidental shooting in Lawndale on the West Side.
  
  He was accidentally shot in the neck by his 7-year-old sister at 7:49 p.m., according to preliminary information from Chicago police.
  
  
• At least six people were wounded in a shooting Friday inside a South Side apartment.
  
  [...] A 14-year-old girl with gunshot wounds to the back, shoulder and lower backside and a 15-year-old girl with gunshot wounds to the leg and foot were both taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, according to police. The younger girl was in critical condition while the older girl was in good condition.
  
  Another 14-year-old girl was shot in the leg and taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition, police said.
  
  
• A teenage girl was accidentally shot in the face Saturday afternoon in the Little Village neighborhood, marking the fourth juvenile hit by accidental gunfire in the city since Friday night and the seventh child wounded in Chicago gun violence over an 18-hour span.
  
  
• An 8-year-old boy and 12-year-old girl were accidentally shot by another child Friday in Bronzeville on the South Side.
  
  The boy, whose age was not specified, found a gun and was playing with it about 10:20 p.m. inside the home when he shot the other two children, according to Chicago police. All three kids are related.

Seven kids catching bullets. We can't wait to see "Accountability Tuesday."

About Damn Time

ICE SWAT teams on tap for "sanctuary cities:"

• The Trump administration is deploying special tactical units akin to SWAT teams to Chicago and other sanctuary cities to assist in everyday immigration arrests.
  
  News of the deployment, first reported by The New York Times on Friday, has triggered an immediate response from city officials and immigrant groups who decried the move as an intimidation tactic.
  
  A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection confirmed the planned deployment to the Chicago Sun-Times.
  
  The agency will send 100 officers to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which oversees arrests and deportations in the interior of the country.

The usual anti-American citizen politicos began bleating:

• Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a video response released by her office Friday evening that the Trump administration is “yet again targeting our immigrant and refugee communities through its usual fear mongering and xenophobia.”
  
  “If anyone thinks that they can come here to our city and terrorize our residents into the shadows, let me say this: they’ve got another thing coming,” she said.
  
  Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) said although it’s not the first time Trump has used federal agents to “target” Chicago, it’s chilling nonetheless.
  
  “It’s extremely important, even if he is crying wolf, that we take this seriously,” he said.

Remember, they hate actual American citizens and legal immigrants because they might get the idea you can succeed without government help.

Step Two - cut funding to "sanctuaries" that refuse to follow Federal Law.

Conviction Stands

So good police work can overcome the narrative occasionally:

• Gerald Reed’s shot at freedom came just before Christmas 2018, when a Cook County judge threw out his murder convictions amid accusations he was tortured into a false confession by detectives under notorious ex-Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge.
  
  On Friday, those hopes were dashed.
  
  In a stunning reversal, a different judge on Friday reinstated Reed’s convictions and his life sentence for a gruesome, decades-old double homicide. After decades in state prison, Reed was being held at Cook County Jail as he hoped another jury would hear his case and end his incarceration for good.
  
  Instead, Judge Thomas Hennelly ruled that all the proceedings leading up to Reed’s exoneration actually centered around an oral statement that was never used at trial — not his separate written confession. Reed, 56, alleged that Burge detectives tortured him into that statement.

This is at least the second case that, when looked at dispassionately and without granting blind allegiance to the litany of lies spouted by Zorn and the corrupt Northwestern University minions, stands up to legal challenges and shows that CPD got it correct.

What the Hell is "Trolling"?

This is among the dumbest opinion pieces we've ever read, and we've been reading for nearly half-a-century now. Surprise, it's written by an ACLU attorney:

• Each of us wants government to work for the people, not its own interests. When we see public officials manipulating the system to make money for themselves or family members, we all feel a sense of outrage, no matter the party.
  
  Shouldn’t our police be held to the same standard?
  
  A recent report exposed anew the practice of “trolling” by CPD officers. Trolling is when an officer actively seeks a traffic stop, an arrest for disorderly conduct or other violation at the end of a work shift, so the officer can artificially manufacture the need for overtime. According to Chicago Inspector General Joe Ferguson, many trolling arrests are made “as a result of escalating a situation which could have been within the officer’s discretion to dismiss.”

What is this "discretion" the writer speaks of? We remember a long time ago, the old timers spoke of a mysterious power called "discretion" but it was killed off by liberals. Nowadays, we have cameras in the cars, cameras on the body, cameras in everyone's cell phones, cameras on the lampposts, cameras everywhere. For many years now, the ACLU has claimed police wielded too much power, so they removed it by every means possible. "Discretion" is about as extinct as the dinosaurs.

• In other words, trolling exposes Chicagoans to unnecessary arrests and increased contact with law enforcement with no increase in public safety. For Chicagoans of color, these additional contacts with law enforcement jeopardize not only liberty, but may jeopardize life itself. It is time for the city to reign in this practice.
  
  In the inspector general’s new report, a follow-up to a 2017 report, Ferguson writes that the Chicago Police Department “did not acknowledge the existence” of trolling and other abusive practices “even though CPD management acknowledged the practices during the audit.”

So a practice no one admits exists is supposed to be reined in how? Are the police just supposed to put on the blinders when someone blatantly breaks a law in front of them? Something like sixty minutes before quitting time, no crime can be observed? No jobs can be dispatched?

Newsflash lady - we're already there - and the ACLU drove us there. Hopefully, you don't get mugged, kidnapped, shot, or assaulted too close to quitting time.