Wow

We aren't sure what line The Reader is taking on this, but we don't think it's the one they think they're taking:

• Paragraph #1 - A new analysis from the Chicago Appleseed Center for Fair Courts shows that criminalization of firearm possession increases incarceration and fails to reduce gun violence.

Um....so you want to DE-criminalize gun possession? Is that what we're reading?

• Paragraph #2 - The report, Punishing Fear: The Devastating Impacts of the War on Gun Possession in Chicago, confirms what many in marginalized groups have long argued—targeted and racialized policing of gun possession, strict gun laws, and increased investment in surveillance technologies, especially within the city’s Black and Brown communities, fail to address safety concerns and, instead, add to them.

Um....so you DO want to DE-criminalize gun charges, but only in minority communities, which are Ground Zero for....gun crime. We got it.....maybe.

• “The criminalization of gun possession and the conflation of gun possession and gun use have made communities less safe by entangling more people in the criminal legal system,” the report states. “Time and time again, Black men, teenagers, and children are targeted, arrested, and criminalized for carrying guns that they feel are necessary for their own protection in areas with high rates of gun violence and low clearance rates by police.”

There's a lot to unpack there. "Possession" is okay, but "Use" is bad. People (or folks) who are black are carrying guns (illegally) for protection because where they hang out happen to be....areas of high rates of crime.....

You mean like Gun Possession?

And those low clearance rates aren't for lack of effort by the police - it's because of low rates of cooperation with the police, intimidated witnesses and a States Attorney who has destroyed any faith people once had in the system.

And then this word salad of bullshit:

• They pointed to figures that illuminate the current state of gun ownership in Black communities, such as an Urban Institute survey of a nearly all-Black group of participants that found that more than 90 percent of male gun carriers in Chicago do so to protect themselves or others.

  “People who possess guns without the proper licensure are often demonized in the media,” Johnson says. “However, many of these people are themselves survivors of gun violence who are taking measures to protect themselves and their families from violence. We believe it is critical to center their voices in this conversation.”

So, because they are "survivors of gun violence," they should be permitted to break the law?

Here's a novel idea - go get licensed, go get qualified, and carry a gun legally! You jump through the hoops put forth by Springfield and you can avoid all of that law breaking hassle you keep bitching about. 

But that might mean you don't get to play the victim any more....hmmmm.

Speed Ordinance Delayed?

Some political backlash?

• The Chicago City Council delayed a vote to lower the city's speed limit Tuesday, after a committee approved the measure Monday.

  City Council could lower the citywide speed limit from 30 miles per hour to 25.

  The ordinance was introduced by Alderman Daniel La Spata back in July, with the backing of transit and biking advocates. He said this is all about making people safer.

  [...] Mayor Brandon Johnson said he asked La Spata to pull the legislation for now, while still expressing support for making streets safer.

"transit" exists to get people around the city faster.

"biking advocates" are lobbyists for people who don't obey a single traffic law that we've ever seen. Except in cases of "dooring," we estimate that of all the traffic accidents we handled involving a bicycle, the cyclist was 100% at fault.

Something is going on with Conehead asking for a delay though.

Money Grab and More

Here's a bright idea to go along with the ten years of destruction of the city's traffic grid after taking out hundreds of miles of serviceable traffic lanes with little used bike lanes - let's strangle the roadways by making everyone move slower!

• A measure to lower the speed limit on many Chicago streets to 25 mph from 30 mph got the green light Monday from a City Council committee, despite opponents’ fears about an increase in road rage incidents.

  The ordinance to lower speed limits on all city-owned roads was approved 8-5 by the Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety, with its chairman, 1st Ward Ald. Daniel La Spata, saying the measure “sets us on the pathway to save hundreds of lives in the next decade.”

LaSpata is full of crap - this is a money grab for the speed cameras.

There's also a "public snitch" ordinance in the offing:

• One ordinance would introduce a public enforcement pilot program that would ticket drivers based on residents’ photos of scofflaws parked in bike lanes. The yearlong pilot program would give drivers a warning in the mail for a first offense, and fines after that.

Because that won't be abused by Karens with an agenda at all.

This made is laugh out loud:

• La Spata assured the committee the goal is changing driver behavior, not increasing revenue. La Spata said the Chicago Police Department’s head of patrol told him the ordinance would not affect how police enforce speed limits.

Yeah, because CPD doesn't enforce speed limits. Anything over a certain speed is considered a "pursuit" and the Department will hang you out to dry via GPS speed measuring, and we haven't had a working radar gun in Patrol for years.

WTF Blue Island?

A lot of hot tempers out there:

• An off-duty Blue Island police officer is in custody after he allegedly shot at an off-duty Chicago police officer’s car during a road rage incident Saturday evening, according to internal CPD communications provided to CWBChicago.

  CWB is not identifying the Blue Island officer by name because charges have not yet been approved in the case.

  According to a CPD report, a female Chicago officer who’s on maternity leave was riding in the front seat of a car that became involved in a minor crash with the 47-year-old Blue Island officer around 5:03 p.m. in the 4700 block of South Union.

  After the crash, the report stated, the suburban cop “proceeded to pull alongside” the Chicago officer’s car. He “drew his weapon and discharged one round in the direction of [the Chicago officer’s] vehicle, striking the passenger side door barrier and ricocheting off the front windshield.” No injuries were reported.

  The drivers of both cars chased each other and called 911, the report stated.

Ten-to-one no one had any idea who they were in conflict with, but still, blasting away at other vehicles i traffic?

Charges Dropped

One of two:

• Barely a month after two Chicago cops, including a high-ranking deputy chief, were charged with slashing vehicle tires while on duty at Puerto Rican Fest, charges have been dropped against one of them.

  Last month, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office declined to file felony charges against Nieves, 53, and Gies, 26, citing insufficient evidence.

  Despite the state’s attorney’s decision, supervisors at the Chicago Police Department decided to strip both men of their police powers and directly file two misdemeanor charges of criminal damage against Gies and one count of the same charge against Nieves on September 5.

This has rapidly turned into a welcome spotlight on the corruption evident in the Bureau of Internal Affairs / Internal Affairs Division and the yo-yo in charge. She seems more determined to remove opponents and impediments to Conehead's "progressive" agenda....and maybe settling a few grudges along the way.

Better Picture

You know, if you click on the pictures here, you ought to get a larger version.

If that doesn't work:

And yes, we know that in most cases, decals are printed by an outside vendor. But the vendor usually goes by what's written on the Order Form and it's usually checked by an editor. 

What the client wants, the client gets....even if it's wrong

Spell Check Anyone?

No doubt, another CPS student socially promoted without actually passing anything:

Checkout the circular sticker on the window panel.....it's all over the truck:

At least they spelled "police" correctly.

Better Hire Internally

So in the grand tradition of CPD exempts looking for post-Chicago employment, this guy is trying for Police Chief in Des Moines, Iowa:

• The city of Des Moines has announced the two finalists for the chief of police position.

  The search started earlier this year after current Des Moines Police Chief Dana Wingert announced his retirement.

  The city says the two finalists are Maj. Michael McTaggart of the DMPD's operations division and Joshua Wallace, a commander at the Chicago Police Department.

That was from last week.

This broke less than twelve hours ago:

• One of two finalists to become Des Moines' next chief of police, overseeing an $85.6 million budget, is $840,000 in debt and filed for bankruptcy earlier this year

The article is paywalled at the Des Moines Register, but there's a Yahoo video report here.

We're going to imagine he just spent himself out of the Iowa job....and a few others.

Why Did the Chicken.....

The chicken is a narc?

• This cop is working around the cluck.

  A San Francisco cop ditched his peaked cap and badge in favor of a rainbow-hued, inflatable chicken costume for his traffic safety patrol at a busy intersection.

  Lt. Jonathan Ozol donned the flamboyant suit — made to look like he was riding the giant bird’s back — Monday to demonstrate just how many drivers failed to yield to pedestrians, even those as obvious and bright as the officer.

The pictures are something to behold - he dresses as dude riding a chicken, wanders into a crosswalk, then has assist unit pull over motorists who fail to yield to the tune of $400 per conviction.

We're all for traffic enforcement, but this is a bit much. And a lieutenant is the one dressing up? 

We'd propose that every single "merit" pick has to don the chicken suit, play in traffic for a week, and make every court appearance in costume so the judge can see what's going on before they get promoted. At least they could say they went to Traffic Court once or twice.

Circular Expenditure

Isn't this a city run program?

It's like a city wide police explorers program, but without the police. They got a nice van, all tricked out, and they either don't park legally or they're getting red-light camera tickets faster than Conehead.

Really Don?

In this day and age, why would you venture any sort of opinion where....well.... 

Let's take a step back and see who's involved:

• As protesters gathered for the Democratic National Convention to protest the war in Gaza, a high-ranking Chicago police supervisor allegedly browbeat a Palestinian American sergeant while making inflammatory statements about the ongoing conflict and the treatment of gay people in the Middle East.

  The sergeant has since filed a complaint with a police commander that described Area 1 Deputy Chief Don Jerome’s comments as “offensive, misogynistic, homophobic, and racist.” A police spokesperson said the department’s internal affairs bureau is probing the allegations.

Well, that explains most of it. A certain segment of the Department has always felt above the rest of us lowly coppers, venturing opinions and not fearing any sort of retaliation because of their connections. We could name a hundred off the tops of our heads and given a week or so, probably a few hundred more.

#metoo never took hold in the CPD because politics and sex were (and remain) the currency of the realm. Just look at Johnson's johnson, McCarthy's stalker, mistresses and jockers filling inside spots, the histories of certain gym instructors. Even that exempt who was programming his phone number into the devices of young ladies in a street parade last year.

Oh wait.....

And if this sergeant doesn't think that palestinians haven't been slaughtering women, children along with trying to teach homosexuals to fly, well....google is your friend.

Lawsuit for What?

Has the Department finalized the cover-up for the Sox Park shooting yet? Because the lawyers are getting antsy to get paid:

• The Chicago White Sox and the owners of Guarantee Rate Field are facing a lawsuit over a shooting at the ballpark last year. Almost one year since people attending a White Sox game were hit by gunfire, one of the victims is filing a lawsuit.

  Two women in the ballpark stands were hurt in the incident in August 2023. Video from that day shows the reaction as the two women realized they had been shot.

  An unidentified woman filed a lawsuit Thursday, seeking damages in excess of $50,000 dollars.

The story (cover-up) claims that ShotSpotter pinpointed a number of shots from nearly a mile away around the same time (give or take twenty minutes). In defiance of the laws of physics, two bullets fired within a second, traveled in exactly the same parabolic arc for nearly a mile, surmounting a one-hundred-plus foot wall. Said bullets then dropped at a precipitous angle (unexplainable by ballistic science by the way) with enough generated force to (A) penetrate the flesh of one victim, and (B) enough re-entry heat to leave a scorch mark on the belly fat of another.

In reality, a suburban residing CPS employee, while removing a gun hidden in her fat rolls, experienced a negligent discharge, leaving one victim shot and the owner suffering a muzzle burn measuring a couple inches across her torso (per CFD sources). Other members of their party then concealed the gun and got it out of the stadium. 

The media has assisted greatly in the cover-up, refusing to ask a single pertinent or relevant question, such as does the suburban residing CPS employee have an FOID card, a CCL and a registered handgun? A single affirmative answer to any of these questions would lead to a slew of other questions.

You can bet the White Sox lawyers would love to ask them. But Jerry is asking for a new stadium with taxpayer financing, so who knows what they'll be allowed to ask? 

So what's the basis for the lawsuit? Either random bullets fell out of the sky and hit two people, which would pretty much absolve the White Sox of any responsibility. Or the plaintiff knows a gun got smuggled past security, knows who shot her and how, and is looking to get a payday to keep her mouth shut and spare someone some embarrassment.

Standardized Tests are "Racist"

Stacy Davis-Gates of the CTU (Indiana Division) has a message for all the minority students and parents about how poorly their kids are doing on standardized tests: (paywalled article)

• Chicago parents have been wondering when Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates was going to address the disastrous reading and math scores in Chicago public schools. Now she has.

  In an interview in early August with Chicago radio news station WVON 1690, Ms. Gates was asked to respond to the union’s critics who are concerned that so many of Chicago’s students aren’t reading or doing math at grade level. Her novel answer: The tests are racist so they should be ignored.

  “The way in which we think about learning and think about achievement is really and truly based on testing, which at best is junk science rooted in white supremacy,” Ms. Gates said.

Not that teachers suck - it's the testing.

On a completely unrelated note, you've seen the last of CPS minority graduates advancing to Johns Hopkins University, one of the top medical schools in the world:

• Johns Hopkins University will resume requiring ACT or SAT scores for undergraduate admissions to the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Whiting School of Engineering, starting with applicants seeking entry for the fall 2026 semester. For students applying to enter Hopkins in fall 2025, who may face time constraints preparing for or accessing the SAT or ACT, the submission of test scores will be encouraged but not required.

  Hopkins adopted a temporary test-optional policy in 2020 due to impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic, including severely limited access to testing. The submission of standardized test scores was made optional for applicants through the entering class of fall 2026.

So we can assume that Johns Hopkins University is now the most racist higher education establishment in existence.....so far. You can be sure other universities are re-implementing standardized testing to find actual qualified candidates for their degrees.

Yes, Please

A non-lethal automated paintball / nylon bullet / pepper-ball / beanbag gun?

• South Africa ranks third in Africa on the Global Organized Crime Index. Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban are among the most dangerous cities in the country, suffering from high levels of violent crime, carjackings, robberies, and murders.

  Given the South African government's inability to protect individuals and businesses from the chaos, one South African company has developed a non-lethal remote control gun mounted on light poles that shoots intruders. 

  Johannesburg-based Sublethal developed the non-lethal remote-control gun that fires standard .68 caliber paintballs with solid nylon bullets or pepper balls.
  

The embedded videos are amusing to watch,

The headline claims San Francisco might be the first US city to implement these, but we can't see that $hithole allowing robotic guns to do what they won't even let the police do. 

Fact is, the places that need them the most, won't allow them, mostly because it would deprive them of a cop to blame.

Just Drop It Already

It seems "reporter" Leah Hope is attempting to take up the mantle of shit-stirrer Cuck Goudie:

• A new report from Chicago's Office of Inspector General is raising concerns about alleged connections with extremist groups in the Chicago Police Department. The inspector general said not enough is being done to extract extremism and repair trust.

  "We cannot ask people to trust a police department whose members are allowed to dabble in hatred and extremism," Chicago Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said.

  Witzburg said Tuesday her recommendations to further investigate and oust officers with connections to extremist organizations have not been heeded.

Conehead and the Department counter:

• Last month, the IG recommended CPD reopen its bureau of internal affairs investigation of eight officers associated with the Oath Keepers. CPD declined, emphasizing there was a thorough investigation, and there was not evidence the accused officers actively participated in the Oath Keepers.

  And, in April, the IG suggested the city convene a task force.

  The mayor's office responded last month, saying the office is "fully committed to rooting out extremist, anti-government and bias organizations" and outlined efforts to address and prevent these issues, but did not agree to set up a task force.

There was already an investigation....a pretty thorough one from all we've been told. And the main issue is that there is no evidence - aside from being named on some mailing lists - that any officer participated in any questionable behavior while representing the CPD, on CPD property, or while being attired in a CPD uniform.

Now, if you go though assorted social media posts during the St. George of Fentanyl "protests," you can find all sorts of photographic evidence of police officers, in uniform, on duty, in police stations, actively participating in prohibited behaviors. 

Guess why that isn't an issue?

We think there are a few pics in our archives, we probably saved a few others in our records, and we know for sure that many other officers have dozens of these pictures, just in case they're needed as evidence in a politically motivated persecution of officers exercising their freedom to associate off duty.

Supreme Hypocrite

Remember this moron dissenting in the McDonald v Chicago US Supreme Court case?

• Breyer/Ginsberg/Sotomayor contended, “I can find nothing in the Second Amendment’s text, history, or underlying rationale that could warrant characterizing it as ‘fundamental’ insofar as it seeks to protect the keeping and bearing of arms for private self-defense purposes.”

  Later in the dissent, after criticizing a prior SCOTUS decision — District of Columbia. v. Heller (2008) — Breyer/Ginsberg/Sotomayor stressed, “Further, there is no popular consensus that the private self-defense right described in Heller is fundamental.”

  In the early portion of the dissent’s conclusion, Breyer/Ginsberg/Sotomayor claimed, “In sum, the Framers did not write the Second Amendment in order to protect a private right of armed self-defense. There has been, and is, no consensus that the right is, or was, ‘fundamental.’”

Essentially, there is no "Right" to self defense.

Then this happened a few days ago:

• In July, one of Sotomayor’s armed guards shot a would-be carjacker outside her home.

  According to the New York Post, the incident occurred shortly after 1:00 a.m. on July 5, 2024. At that time, 18-year-old Kenneth Flowers allegedly pointed a gun at a U.S. Marshal assigned to protect the justice, and the Marshal opened fire, leaving Flowers with non-life-threatening wounds.

We certainly hope that Justice Sotomayor has the offending US Marshall fired for exercising what she considers a non-existent Right.

We also expect that she surrenders her government supplied vehicle to the criminal, so that he may pawn it to pay for his hospital bills and legal fees.

And finally, we pray she pencils another opinion about using Deadly Force to protect private property that results in a re-evaluation against those who rule one way while living behind armed guards that none of us common persons can afford.

This Guy Was a Teacher?

 

This would help explain the sorry state of the schools and the appalling ignorance of its graduates.

• In recent years, Chicago’s leaders have blamed a wide range of external factors for the city’s infamous street violence. They’ve pointed fingers at Donald Trump, Indiana, Kim Foxx, and gun manufacturers, among others.

  On Monday, after 108 people were shot, 19 fatally, during the Independence Day weekend, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson became the first leader to blame Richard Milhous Nixon.

  “We are standing here today talking about a violent weekend because of generations of disinvestment,” Johnson told a room full of reporters.

  “Black death has been unfortunately accepted in this country for a very long time,” Johnson claimed. “We had a chance 60 years ago to get at the root causes and people mocked President [Lyndon] Johnson and we ended up with Richard Nixon.”

Has Chicago's BJ been talking to "president" JB?  Is senility transmissible?

Nixon resigned fifty years ago and has been dead for thirty years. We barely remember his presidency. We'd even bet actual money that 33% of Conehead's voting base has no idea who Nixon was. The country ended up with Nixon because LBJ declined to run again. 

We're also aware of the quote by LBJ, and apocryphal or not, are amazed Conehead would attempt to make this "Nixon-crime-LBJ" link after a few decades of crime numbers. (attempts to accurately quote it will be deleted)

Does he think that he and LBJ are related via last name? Because that isn't really anything to be proud of.

UPDATE: HeyJackass.com - always ahead of the game - already has a T-shirt up for sale. Go visit and support their site.

Hey, You Wanted This

Amusing to see the Hollywood class getting tired of what they advocated for, supported financially, and voted for:

• Hollywood's bright lights are fading fast for Goldie Hawn, and she's ready to get the heck out of Dodge. The actress, 78, admitted her home in Los Angeles was "robbed once" recently while she was out to dinner for a few hours with Kurt Russell, her partner of over 40 years.

  "What if we couldn't live in LA, where would we live? We both decided, I think it's Palm Desert. … It's so safe," Hawn reminisced about her dream location to plant new roots while appearing on the SiriusXM podcast "Let's Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa." 

  "It's just 'cause L.A. is terrible. I mean, we were robbed once."

Now imagine you're not rich enough to have a tall fence, a burglar alarm, possibly some armed security nearby.

Teachers Demand What Now?

Seriously, what does any of this have to do with an "organization" that can't teach kids to read or do basic mathematics?

• Teachers in Chicago are using their powerful union to fight for climate action in city schools.

  The Chicago Teachers Union opened public contract negotiations with the city today, demanding electric school buses, cuts to buildings’ planet-warming pollution and clean energy job training programs for students, among other provisions, writes Adam Aton.

  The move marks the latest in a growing trend of unions fighting for workplace improvements that go beyond the traditional scope of wages and benefits. And the worsening state of the climate — from summer heat waves to flooding in Florida to the wildfire smoke that blanketed Chicago last year — have pushed some unions to embrace the cause as a workplace issue.

How about this then:

• eliminate parking lots at schools to "encourage" teachers to ride to-and-from work on Public Transit. After all, the RTA goes out to the suburbs with two or three transfers now. And Stacy Davis-Gates can take the train and two buses in from her South Bend residence.
• eliminate the air conditioning prevalent in schools now - the amount of coal-powered electricity these appliances gobble up causes how many tons of carbon emissions? We suffered (and survived) thirteen-plus years of grade and high school without any air conditioning.

Set the example teachers....or shut the hell up and start teaching kids.

Silly Aldercreature

On one hand, a publicity stunt.

On the other, at least he's out there:

• Starting Friday night, one alderman on the South Side is sleeping outside in the neighborhood in an effort to put an end to some bad behavior on the block.

  [...]  A few streets over, near 73rd Place and Ada, an alderman also hopes to reduce violence but in a quieter way with his presence – by sleeping in a tent in the middle of the block. 

  "I may be out here to the winter. I have no idea. Whatever it takes, this is my new address right now," said 17th Ward Alderman David Moore. Moore has set up shop where he said drug dealers routinely do their business.
  

Who knows? Maybe he can make a difference. 

Here's to hoping he has a Kevlar tent.