Da Bears

Here we go. The new era begins. Can you feel it? At least now, if Griese screws up, it's all on the rest of the offense. Updates to follow.

HALFTIME UPDATE: 7-3? Hmmm

UPDATE: These guys blow. Where to lay the blame? Obviously, it wasn't ALL Grossman. There is no running game at all. Griese produced more yardage, but three interceptions, two of them at the goal line, were killer. The secondary played all second stringers if we aren't mistaken. The only two highlights worth mentioning were Hester again and Griese's pushing the Bears down field in the fourth quarter. Granted, the Detroit safeties were playing way out there to prevent the big play, but moving the ball without using a timeout was impressive. Too bad the onside kick blew up in their faces.

Going into Green Bay at 1 and 3? They're leaving Green Bay 1 and 4.

5,000,000

Sometime Friday, between 1500 and 1600 hours, we hosted page view number 5 MILLION!

Two years four months and over 1.5 million visitors to reach 5 million page views. Certainly, we wish it wasn't scandals and coppers trying to kill other coppers that was driving the numbers over the past few days, but it is what it is.

In any case, thank you.

As a side note, we took down the "mirror site" over at SecondCityCop.typepad.com. It was only pulling in 100 visits a day, we never opened the comments section because we didn't want to be doing double the moderating, and we just didn't have the time or inclination to move all the links, archives and stuff over that direction.

This is what we have for now and it isn't doing bad.

The Price of Cooperation

$2 million dollars evidently:

• A judge reduced by half the bond for Keith Herrera the same day that Herrera's cooperation enabled prosecutors to charge a fellow police officer with a murder-for-hire scheme.

  Judge John Fleming of Cook County Criminal Court slashed Herrera's bond from $4 million to $2 million Wednesday, court records show. Fleming's order meant Herrera could immediately get back $200,000 -- half of the $400,000 he had put up. Defendants are usually required to put up 10 percent of their bond to get out of jail.

Of course, the real payoff will be at sentencing. Does he get the maximum (somewhere near 30 to life?) Or is cooperating after being caught dirty cut it down to 10 years or so? And if it's Federal cooperation, doesn't the "truth in sentencing" laws still mean 85% of so served?

The upside, if there is any, has to be tiny. Feds never give cops an upside that we've ever seen.

Mette Update

If you want to comment on the CNN story, hop over to this link. We're told that if enough interest is generated, they sometimes do a follow up and bring a bit of heat to bear. It can't hurt and time is running out. The 13 comments we saw are running more against Mike than for, so we need to get a little positive spin out there. Keep it civil.

Cubs Win

In spite of every effort to not make the playoffs, the Cubs manage to defy predictions and have a decent enough September to pull out of the rut of mediocrity that is the NL Central to make the playoffs.

Kind of reminds us of the NHL's old Norris Division (the "Snorris" as we heard it called). All mediocre, but everyone made the playoffs anyway.

Let's see where this train ends. Our money isn't on the curse ending any time soon.

More Rules = More Failure

An interesting letter in the comments section:

• An open letter to the Mayor, Governor and state representatives.
  
  Dear Sirs,
  
  With the recent shootings in the city and such atrocities such as Virginia Tech, the gun debate will perpetuate. Both supporters and opponents of tougher gun laws will undoubtedly present facts and statistics supporting their position. However there is just one fact, just one statistic that no one can refute: gun laws do not stop shootings.
  
  I am a supporter of gun laws and regulation, and believe current laws were designed with the safety and future of our society in mind, but it is painfully obvious that they do not work. One can only look to England for the result of banning all guns, with little impact on crime. The examples are numerous on both sides, but point to the same conclusion: there is no gun law that prevents criminals from possessing guns, and these laws only serve to disarm the innocent. One could also look at the current state of illicit drug abuse and know that strict laws have no effect. Drugs are brought into this country through unprotected sections of our own borders, and so would guns.
  
  Virginia Tech is a gun free zone, but it did not stop Cho Seung-Hui from killing 32 fellow students. How many lives could have been saved if just one of those students was carrying a firearm that day? In 2002, two armed students at Appalachian State University subdued a fellow student who had already killed 3 others. How many deaths were prevented that day, how many were saved because someone was carrying a gun should be the question you ask yourselves. There is no law, and there is nothing that could be said or done to stop someone who is intent on killing people, nothing short of the victims defending themselves. No one wants criminals or mentally ill to have guns, but there is nothing that can stop them, so why take away the ability to defend oneself?
  
  Criminals are just that, criminals. By definition they do not obey laws, and certainly do not obey gun laws. Not to mention what insane people are capable of. I can pick up the news paper on any given day and read of a shooting, and in a city where gun possession is nearly impossible. But this impossibility only exists for the law-abiding citizens of this city who are left defenseless. Criminals are allowed to poison their neighborhoods with drugs, possess guns, and endanger everyone around them with their violence. Criminals break the law with impunity while productive members of society are paying for their crimes, often with their lives.
  
  I am writing to inform you of my support for HB1304, and asking you for your support in allowing honest, respectable members of society a fighting chance to defend themselves and their families. Please join the other 48 states that honor a citizen’s right to keep and bear arms. Allow me to protect myself and my family.
  
  Banning guns only ensures that criminals have them, and that victims stay helpless.

Comments?

Department in Disarray

Also from the comments, someone named "mayday":

• In light of recent developments and the oncoming firestorm of negative national publicity, there is absolutely no way for Daley to appoint an insider as the next Superintendent.
  
  They've circled the wagons on the 5th floor at City Hall. CPD HQ is one big clusterfuck.
  
  Daley's dilemma is compounded by the fact that qualified "outsiders" know that clout has finally come home to roost in the CPD.
  
  Watch the mass exodus of the current political hack bosses combined with the "brain drain" of younger, talented officers.
  
  In retrospect, the pre-O.W. Wilson "Summerdale Scandal" was mere child's play.
  
  Ultimately, federal receivership is a given.
  
  Suffice to say that among other things, the days that lie ahead will be most interesting.

"May you live in interesting times" is both a blessing and a curse. We're certainly got the "interesting times" part down pat. We can't remember morale being this low, manpower being this short and recruiting being this desperate. We received word from Chief Bill Kushner that the interest in his Department has never been higher. We've met and heard from dozens of cops who are looking into jobs with the UN Police Force worldwide just to get away from the CPD for a while, maybe permanently and the hiring picture is bleak.

We can hardly wait to see what the PERF people come up with. It certainly can't get any less interesting.

More Protests Coming?

Another dead altar boy we're sure.

• A Chicago Police officer fatally shot a 15-year-old male Thursday night on the Southeast Side.

  South Chicago District tactical officers in an unmarked car heard a gunshot near East 87th Street and South Commercial Avenue about 9:45 p.m. The officers continued westbound on East 87th Street and saw the teen fire a second shot, police News Affairs Deputy Director Pat Camden said.

  After chasing the shooter on South Exchange Avenue, the teen turned toward the officers with a gun in his hand.

Then the officers did what training dictates and killed the OFFENDER as authorized by General Order and State Law. Another individual was located near the scene, shot, possibly by the teen with the gun. He'll end up being a witness for the dead OFFENDER'S family lawsuit at some point and say that future medical student was just doing some field research into how police will kill any teenager near the scene of gunshots.

Coverage at Channel 2, Channel 5, Channel 7 and Sun Times.

More Bad News for SOS

Perjury? And not the current scandal either:

• The arrest report filed by two Chicago police officers claimed they searched Raymundo Martinez outside a Southwest Side bar because he threw a bottle of Corona down on the sidewalk when he saw them coming.
  
  The officers, members of the special operations section, saw a plastic bag that turned out to contain cocaine poking from his sleeve and arrested him, their report states.
  
  But cameras on the bar's ceiling and outside caught a very different scene that night in 2004 at Caballo's, 3748 W. 63rd St. Instead of two officers approaching a man drinking on a public street, the video shows more than two dozen police from the SOS unit raiding the bar and searching everyone, and arresting Martinez inside the bar.

And the worst part?

• After taking on Martinez's case in 2004, defense lawyer Scott Levy said he waited to show the video to prosecutors until after the arresting officer testified in October 2004 about the arrest.
  
  "I asked the police officer at the preliminary hearing what happened, and it was blatantly obvious the police officer had fabricated the entire story," Levy said.

If true, slam dunk perjury and official misconduct.

Beyond the Pale

Over at SecondCitySarge, they've got a link up to the entire Criminal Complaint for US v Finnigan.

You want to feel like you've been kicked in the gut, read the entire thing. It reads like all the transcripts you see when various Outfit connected persons are caught on tape preparing to trunk someone.

What the hell is happening?

A Gun Used Properly

Why hasn't this been played up a bit?

• A store clerk on the West Side fought back against an alleged robber, shooting him in the head. Chicago police say Monday evening the suspect is in stable condition.
• "He produced the weapon, announced the robbery," said Sgt. Rich Dowling of the Chicago Police Department. "The clerk produced the cash register, at which time he also produced a weapon, and he began firing at the offender."

Whoa! A gun used to prevent a crime! No wonder the media (a whole compliant parcel of the Daley anti gun machine) isn't shouting this story from the rooftops.

And as a completely amusing side note, get a load of the quotes in the story:

• A man who identified himself as belonging to a local street gang, but declined to give his name, said he is a close friend of the man who was shot.
  
  "He our friend. We be together every day," the man said. "Just so happened today we weren't with him.
  
  When asked if he thought his friend was trying to rob the hardware store, the man said, "He might have. He might was. If he feel he was robbin' that store, he did what he did."

Uh huh. You weren't with him today. Of all days. Anybody catch the description of that lookout? Too bad when the clerk shot the robber in the head he didn't kill him. It would have been the perfect ending to the story.

Mette on CNN

Evidently, CNN finally ran the piece on the Mette case. We have to confess to not seeing it because of the late notification. It's possible CNN will be running it again, but we have no idea when. That's the trouble with updating once a day - no chance to do real time updates and let people know in advance of an important event like this. Still, it's what we've got right now.

Anyone who saw it, post here.

"Smarter" Cameras

Via our good friend Rue St. Michel:

• A car circles a high-rise three times. Someone leaves a backpack in a park. Such things go unnoticed in big cities every day. But that could change in Chicago with a new video surveillance system that would recognize such anomalies and alert authorities to take a closer look.

  On Thursday, the city and IBM Corp. are announcing the initial phase of what officials say could be the most advanced video security network in any U.S. city. The City of Broad Shoulders is getting eyes in the back of its head.

The entire article can be found at this link here.

Rue St. Michel does his usual spot-on surgical dissection of the entire idea and comes to the same conclusion we have so very often - we need bodies in squad cars. Cameras provide only the illusion of police protection. Go read all the links.

New Link

Blue Sheepdog, a Florida police blog, contacted us recently. We surfed over to his site and it has a bunch of excellent police videos and a wide selection of articles on policing.

Hop over and give him a visit. We'll be listing him in the sidebar so you can visit regularly.

What Everyone is Talking About

We certainly hope that Finnigan enjoyed whatever he was doing Tuesday night, because it was probably the last night of freedom he'll ever see in his life.

Tribune, Sun Times, Channel 2, Channel 5, Channel 7.

As an aside, this has got to be the final nail in the coffin of Special Operations. When you have cops conspiring to do hits on other cops, it doesn't matter to the public that there are hundreds of other honest hard working men and women working their asses off in this unit. All that anyone is ever going to remember is that SOS is where an out of control cop tried to get some other cop whacked to cover up misconduct.

Which End is Up?

On one hand, you have settlement talks with a possible murderer getting stalled due to a possible Federal investigation:

• Madison Hobley, one of three men allegedly coerced into murder confessions by former Chicago Police Lt. Jon Burge, is the subject of an arson and murder investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, a top mayoral aide disclosed today.

• "The federal government is pursuing a murder/arson for the same crime that Madison Hobley was originally convicted" of and pardoned for, Georges said.

  The investigation could go a long way toward explaining why the $14.8 million settlement was never forwarded to the City Council for approval. It also explains why Daley has denied there ever was a deal.

And then you have the same Federal investigators pursuing the alleged torturers:

• Once a respected police detective, Burge has become the poster child for police brutality. Now, just a year after state investigators called the cases too old to take to court, federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, known for always getting his man, has Burge clearly in his sights.
  
  "We do officially confirm that the U.S. Attorney's office is conducting a criminal investigation into allegations of perjury, false statements and obstruction of justice," Fitzgerald said Wednesday.

How about we just call it all even, submit to Federal oversight, have a legit promotional process for a few years and have the mayor serve the rest of his term in prison, maybe with George Ryan? No one would be happy, but who really cares?

Mette Fund Raiser

Tomorrow:

• RALLY FOR MIKE METTE
  
  A rally will be held at FOP Hall, 1412 W. Washington Blvd., Friday, September 28th from 6 until 11 PM. Tickets can be purchased at the door for $20 each. Liquid refreshments* and pizza will be served.
  
  Raffle tickets will be sold that night. The lucky winner will be taking home a TOSHIBA 42" big screen TV, donated by Fettner Development & Construction, Northbrook.
  
  We are hoping and praying that all goes well. Currently, Mike is scheduled to surrender his freedom to Iowa authorities by Monday, October 29.

Another Scandal?

Not in Chicago, home to how many Federal Task Forces now?

• Mayor Daley's $169,452-a-year chief procurement officer abruptly resigned Tuesday, leaving behind a department that has struggled to boost black contracting and weed out minority fronts.

  Barbara Lumpkin, 57, said she's decided to "take a pause" after a long career in government and finance that included stints as city comptroller, budget director and city treasurer.

• But under Lumpkin's watch, not a single company has been barred from doing business with the city.

  On her way out the door, Lumpkin disclosed that there are several fraud cases pending.

Fraud cases against whom? What's the basis for the fraud? Is it more mob connected guys posing as minority firms? Or something that might move the spotlight a little more brightly on "business as usual" in the City?

Free Hockey Finally?

Bill Wirtz, the man who did more to destroy NHL Hockey in Chicago than any other human being, died this morning after a battle with cancer. Wirtz was a popular target of fans and media for his frequently expressed desires to win another Stanley Cup, then spending no money to attract actual talent to do so, often allowing All-Star caliber players to leave.

We always figured Wirtz was making so much money at his hotels and liquor distributorships, that it mattered little to him whether the Blackhawks ever won a game. He even stuck with the media blackout for home games, long after other teams were attempting to cultivate a following through free local television contracts. The final result? A team in the shitter and a fan base than can't even generate 12,000 warm bodies per game.

Hopefully, Peter and Rocky Wirtz can pull this Original Six franchise out of the sewer into which it descended, spend a little money, generate a bit of buzz, look into broadcasting games locally, (even an NFL style "no sell out - no broadcast" wouldn't work until they start winning again) and restore a bit of pride in what used to be the best game in town.

Again, Media Coverage

Tuesday's Sun Times - Lightning Rod column on page 6:

• Tim Novak reported that Mayor Daley's nephew, Robert Vanecko, stands to make millions in real estate deals backed by city-connected pension funds representing retirees and current city workers, including police officers. Cops are sounding off online at secondcitycop.blogspot.com:

And they cite seven of our more humorous reader's comments. So evidently, SCC is now a quotable news source? We're not sure how that works but at least this time, they put in the web address so people could find us. We've been noticing a bunch more civilians commentating and trolling for reactions.

We still can't prove that anyone who posts here is a Chicago cop and we have no desire to. We are simply providing a place for people to rant and rave at length over our common situation. Don't make any more of this place than what we tell you it is - sarcasm and silliness.

Part of the Problem

Manpower is the first part of the problem - we have a shortage. The fact that the Department and the City won't 'fess up to the shortage is another problem. We are operating anywhere from 10-20% down on any given night and it's becoming a safety issue.

The other part of the problem is a lack of confidence in OEMC. And civilians are noticing it:

• Newly released 9-1-1 tapes show the confusion and frustration felt by people witnessing a huge fight this summer on the city's Southwest Side. One teenager wound up in coma. Others were seriously injured.

• The tale told by the tape reveals no shortage of calls for help, just an inexplicable lack of response.

  "Don't get me wrong, I have confidence in the police, but the 9-1-1 Center, I want nothing to do with," said Rick Kruis, injured in fight.

008 is too damn big and undermanned. Same with two or three other places that get regular mentions here. And then we have teams shipped out of Districts leaving larger gaps in coverage, and entire watches operating down 10-20% manpower. Are the citizens finally going to demand a change from politicians?

Just What We Don't Need

Impersonators:

• Calumet Area detectives have issued a community alert Tuesday after five incidents of armed robbery by two suspects impersonating police officers on the South Side.
  
  The two offenders approach their victims as they are walk down the street, display handguns and steal the victim's money or valuables, according to the alert. The suspects claim to be police officers.

Nothing like opportunistic scumbags contributing to that neighborhood's distrust of police anyway.

GPS Phones

What's up with this new pilot order in the 008 District? 50 GPS phones and chargers? Officers required to carry and utilize said phones for official notifications. Must be worn in Department approved carriers on the belt?

Is the City getting away from putting GPS in the cars and going with phones? Why not just go with the GPS radios like the Park District and be done with it? Or are we going to be testing the GPS chip implants next?

And who's got the "contract" to supply these things? What aldercreature's nephew is making a bundle on this one?

Cop Hurt Update

This didn't get much attention the other day:

• Two Chicago police officers on bike patrol were injured Sunday while attempting to chase down a robbery suspect on downtown streets.
• The officers — one male and one female — suffered injuries during the chase and were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The female officer suffered an asthma attack and is being held overnight for observation. The male officer was treated for minor injuries and released, Klich said.

The asthma turned out to be a heart attack.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery officer.

Residency Allowance

In current contract negotiations (which are stalled until a new Superintendent is named), there have been noises made about a "residency allowance" being asked for as it has become overly expensive to live within the corporate limits of the City of Chicago if you want to have anything like a peaceful existence. The City is prepared to laugh it off.

In the Sun Times recently, (Monday specifically, but on and off), the Transportation Security Administration is advertising for part time security officers at O'Hare. The part time work starts at $13.90 an hour, but in the small print it advertises "21.97% Locality Pay."

Could it be that the Feds recognize living in Chicago costs more? Or anywhere convenient to O'Hare Airport is getting pricey? 21.97% for part time work?

Perhaps the FOP ought to jack up their request a bit more than what they initially asked for.

Mette Info

BlogTalkRadio is a new phenomenon along the lines of a blog, but audio. One can run a personal radio show over the internet.

TexasFellowship stumbled across the Mike Mette incident and has done a couple of shows. Nice to have the out of state attention. Hop over and give a listen.

An Interesting Comment

What could they be looking for?

• Can someone explain why IAD is sending plain clothes officers to 3 different districts just to walk around and observe officers. Two IAD officers that I went to the academy with were in 011 last wednesday and thursday and were just walking around and sat outside in the court yard and then walked the parking garage. An officer approached one of them and he said they were just waiting to talk to a judge about a warrant but that was bullshit because I asked br43 and br42 and they said nobody talked to the judges. So what are they doing? This past monday I was in a southside district working special and low and behold there are the same two IAD rats walking around and I heard the girl tell the desk she was from Eqiupment and supply and they are looking to see what we needed. TOTAL B.S. This is a WARNING to all districts be on the lookout for a m/4 about 5'9, 170 lbs, short black hair and wears a blue tooth, and has tatoos on both 4arms. and the female is a f/1 5'4, maybe 110 lbs, short hair and a high pitch annoying laugh. They are up to something so be aware.

Bueller? Bueller?

$27,000 Dog?

Once again, ridiculous:

• City officials in Chicago have agreed to pay $27,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a West Side man who said police shot and killed his dog last year while chasing a suspect.
• In the lawsuit he filed last February, Calvin Hale alleged that a police officer ran into his yard during the chase and stumbled on his 10-year-old Akita, Lady. He said the officer shot the dog and then continued the chase.
• City officials have acknowledged the settlement, but declined to comment further. They admit no wrongdoing in the settlement.

Someone brought this up in previous comments, but isn't a dog considered property? And therefore, the City's liability is capped at a much lower number than $27,000 (the comment quoted $250 or so). What gives?

A Moment of Silence

We heard he had the inside track on being the next Superintendent, what with being able to communicate without words.

Bears at Halftime/Final

3 to 3

Once again, "Bad Rex" shows up. And even though the defense is surrendering some large yardage gains, they are shutting down in the red zone.

Back for the final later.

UPDATE: Man, they are getting their asses handed to them.

UPDATE: 34 to 10. Wow. Even though we made the prediction half in jest to try to get a little interaction going, 8 and 8 seems like a real possibility now.

Thicker Than Water

Blood will win out, every time:

• An exclusive story in Sunday's editions of the Chicago Sun-Times reveals questions about the financial dealings of Mayor Richard M. Daley's nephew.
  
  Sun-Times reporter Tim Novak reports that Robert Vanecko stands to make millions of dollars in a new venture selling Chicago real estate. His investors, Novak reports, are pension funds representing 180,000 retired and current city workers."They received $68 million," Novak said.
  
  "They'll have the money until 2014 to invest in various types of real estate deals -- they've only done a couple of deals at this point. It's a very risky venture -- it's a speculative real estate investment where no one is really sure if these projects will succeed because of the neighborhoods that they're in and the projects themselves haven't been defined yet."
  
  Daley and his nephew deny any wrongdoing.

Nothing like giving your nephew a huge pool of money to play with. $68 million to mess around with risky real estate ventures? And in light of current market trends in real estate? Does anyone really think this is a good idea?

The Search Begins - Finally

This is goofy.

• The Chicago Police Board on Friday officially launched its second nationwide search for the city's new police superintendent.

  As the Chicago Sun-Times reported last month, the board has hired the Police Executive Research Forum to conduct the search triggered by Mayor Daley's decision to reject all three finalists recommended by the Police Board -- insiders Charles Williams and Hiram Grau and New Yorker Thomas Belfiore -- and ordering the board to start over.

• Sources said the PERF contract took a long time to negotiate because of the thorny issue of confidentiality.

As someone noted, they can find a new fire chief within something like a week after the old one retires. We've been without a figurehead for a few months now. And if the last search was any indication, it's going to be a few more months before the Police Board, which is appointed by the mayor, comes up with a list of names, many of whom will probably have been appointed with the approval of the mayor.

Roll Out the Dead Horse

Sneed just can't stop herself, but this time, it's amusing:

• Mayor Daley . . . what is going on?

  • • Translation: Dana Starks, the Chicago Police Department's interim superintendent appointed by Mayor Daley -- who is still minus FBI clearance to deal with highly sensitive federal info and who claimed the FBI lost two previous clearance applications -- is at it again.

  • • The shocker: Sneed hears Starks dispatched orders Monday via e-mail to his five top deputy superintendents restraining them from talking to outside agencies without his permission!

  "What the hell is this all about?" said a top source.

  • • The buckshot: "Why in the world would Starks stop his men from performing their duties without running to him first for permission? The deputy superintendents have power over policy and their people already. They need to talk to the Cook County state's attorney's office, the U.S. attorney's office, the FBI and DEA and other federal agencies . . . and so do the police commanders under them!

  "This is madness."

  • • The downshot: The Starks e-mail stated: "Prior to anyone requesting a meeting outside the department the undersigned (Starks) will be notified. Any questions regarding policy or deployment is the responsibility of the undersigned."

Evidently, Starks was out of the loop for so long, he's swung completely the other direction. Every single decision, every single iota of information, no matter how insignificant, must now pass through the filter that is Interim Superintendent Starks.

In reality, we're sure this order will be clarified after being widely ignored. The Department would cease to function if every time single time an ADS had to get written permission to communicate with outside agencies, especially in a capacity that has already been established by past practices.

But Sneed just can't help herself.

Note to Below Posting

At the moment, to save ourselves some work, we're not opening comments at the Typepad site. We're keeping blogspot as the primary site. The Typepad site is merely a mirror so everyone can read at work.

Psst! Can you Keep a Secret?

Don't tell anyone, but we're back on Department computers.

We're trying an experiment to see if we can mirror our banned "blogspot" material over to Typepad. So far, it's working, but it's a bit labor intensive. We'll see if it works out somehow and if we want to keep it going. We have no idea if comment crossover would work.

This will continue to be our main site.

What a Softball

The mayor, who was raised and lives protected every minute of every day by men with guns, is in the Sun Times Friday, making fun of Fred Thompson for campaigning at gun shows:

• Mayor Daley ridiculed Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson on Thursday for strutting his stuff -- and showing off his "machoism" -- by campaigning at gun shows.

  Daley said there should be a national debate about gun violence. It should be at the forefront of the presidential debate among Daley's fellow Democrats and among Republicans now consumed by the war in Iraq, he said.

Actually Mayor, there has been a national debate about guns in recent years. And if we're reading the results correctly, you guys lost:

• 90 million gun owners in the USA
• they own some 250 million guns
• more than 40 states have some form of Concealed Carry or shall-issue laws.

And of those 90 million gun owners, 36 million identify themselves as Republican. Then throw in a few million independents and your red-dog democrats. Correct us if we're wrong, but didn't 50 million votes pretty much win the presidency last election? Thompson is campaigning where the votes are Mayor - kind of like you do in the churches and graveyards across the City.

And if the Supreme Court strikes down Washington DC's gun ban, we hope Fred will be here, campaigning among all the new gun owners in Chicago.

The More Things Change...

...the more they stay the same.

Earlier this year, almost 20% of the City Council was replaced by voters. But even among a few of the new aldercreatures, the same old tired song and dance:

• Five Chicago aldermen sent a letter to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald on Thursday urging him to "investigate, indict and prosecute" former Chicago Police Lt. Jon Burge for torturing African-American criminal suspects.

  "We strongly believe that the federal prosecution of Burge and his police helpers is possible and that the statute of limitations is not a bar. Burge and all involved can be prosecuted for perjury, obstruction of justice and for ongoing conspiracy to cover up their torture scheme," wrote the aldermen -- Bob Fioretti, (2nd), Pat Dowell (3rd), Billy Ocasio (26th), Ed Smith, (28th) and Helen Shiller (46th).
  

Fioretti and Dowell seem to have taken up the mantle of Haithcock and Tillman. We aren't sure if any of the listed aldercreatures are lawyers, but we're pretty sure that the statute of limitations IS a bar to prosecution. We'll quote from the United States Department of Justice website:

• [Note: the federal criminal civil rights laws have a five year statute of limitations from the date of the incident, except in cases involving an intentional killing (generally not bound by the statute of limitations) and religious interference incidents (seven year statute of limitations)].

That was located in about 15 seconds of internet surfing, and we aren't being paid nearly as much as an aldercreature or a lawyer. Perhaps the aldercreatures ought to encourage Mr. Fitzgerald to look a little closer to home for some corruption?

This Could Be Huge

Please please please:

• Marco Morales — the crooked Chicago contractor who skipped town in 1997 after he was convicted in Operation Silver Shovel — is back in custody in Mexico, authorities said today.

  Morales was arrested by Mexican authorities on a U.S. warrant for a 2006 cocaine distribution charge, said Randall Samborn, spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago.

  A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Mexico said he was in custody and the government has 60 days to file a formal extradition request with Mexico, if it has not done so already.

John Kass is drooling over this one. So are lots of other people who love to see the City politicos take a giant hit. We're betting on a whole bunch of sleepless nights ahead for a number of people.

What a Modern Department!

Ridiculous (from the comments):

• OFF TOPIC--BUT IMPORTANT.
  
  At approximately 2100 hrs tonite (19Sep)a traffic stop for a 3200 unit went wrong up on 024. A gun was pulled by a driver, the copper busted a cap at the driver who then fled into Warren Park.
  
  An 024 Sergeant requested the helicopter to aid in the search and light up the park.
  
  Two minutes later, the Zone 11 dispatcher stated "The helicopter is off tonight"
  
  What is the use of a helo if they have the day off?
  
  How many people are in the unit? Obviously not enough to man the aircraft 24/7/365. Don't they have people on call?
  
  I don't expect the media to report on [this], maybe Kass will.
  
  Copper is ok, that is all that really matters,,,even though shithead probably got away.

As we understand part of the problem, Harry "the Hat" Holm won't let anyone else fly the bird. No one, and we mean no one, gets any stick time at all. One of the pilots is rumored to have gotten fed up and left the Unit because of Harry's nonsense.

Are we or are we not supposed to be one of the most "technologically advanced" Departments on the face of the earth, but we can't keep a helicopter in the air for more than three hours a day, and not even seven days a week? How many millions are going to be poured into this boondoggle? Either staff the damn unit appropriately so it can be used or disband it and get us a few cars and the bodies to man it.

Is This for Real?

We know that a percentage of our comments are complete and utter BS. Probably a rather large percentage. But this is just too goofy to be believed:

• Recently in 002nd District a convicted felon, with an extensive sheet, gets arrested while driving someone else's car. As it turns out the car belongs to a female officer in 002. The watch commander takes the young officer aside, in a friendly nurturing manner [what we might expect of a good boss] and advises the young officer that it is against the Rules and Regs. of the Department to have such a close friendship with a known felon. Rather than take heed of this very good advice, the young officer has written an extensive T0-From to the Superintendent suggesting that the police department change this rule as it discriminates against black females on the Chicago Police Department because they have no one else to associate with. The young police officer is also attempting to bring an EEOC complaint against her Watch Commander.
  
  This just ain't your father's police department anymore.

Please tell us this is a joke? Pretty please?

Name Them

Who's the lucky one?

• You guys will find this fact very interesting. Five of the six deputies in the police department had to be promoted meritoriously to the rank of Lieutenant. This is the absolute truth and is very sad!

Perhaps it's time to reopen the "Who Made Who?" thread.

Meeks - Keeping His People Down

Gambling to bail out the City?

• The state Senate on Tuesday bypassed a long-term fix for Chicago area mass-transit systems, instead passing a plan for a massive public works program that would expand gambling and offer stop-gap funding for public transportation.
  
  The move was the latest attempt by Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) and Gov. Rod Blagojevich to pressure House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) to take up the same issues in his chamber by testing the resolve of rank-and-file House members who want money for local projects.

But the best quote of all is this from Senator "reverend" James Meeks:

• But Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago) argued against expanding gambling because it is a "tax on poor people."
  
  "To save the integrity of this body, we should all vote 'no' on this bill," Meeks said.

Leaving aside the fact that the Illinois legislature hasn't had any integrity in the past hundred years or so, a "tax on poor people"? We weren't aware that poor people had enough money to go gambling. If they have disposable income, we imagine they wouldn't really be poor anymore, would they? Or is reverend Meeks suggesting that his constituency doesn't have any sort of impulse control and they need to be told exactly how to spend their money?

We imagine the rev is a bit nervous that people might be spending a bit of the money that used to go into the collection plate to pay for his $50 million church might end up going elsewhere. He expects his flock to come up with a weekly contribution to his bottom line and if it ends up going elsewhere, how is he supposed to pay for the plane?

Segway Injuries

Anyone have the stats? We just keep hearing about more and more injuries from these things and the latest is about a broken elbow. Why doesn't the City just abandon these two wheeled disasters and go with the stable platform:


We heard it's still made by Segway, so the fact that some aldercreature's nephew or mayoral cousin has the Segway contract should actually make it easier to switch to something that isn't going to kill or cripple someone.

What We Say, What Others Say

From the comments, someone put into words what we end up explaining way too often to tiny brains:

• I don't always agree with SCC, and I am not an apologist for SCC. But I think SCC does provide us a place to talk...to let off steam...to joke...to keep each other apprised of current events (like Mike Mette). SCC doesn't force us to come here; we come here of our own accord.
  
  I don't think SCC has ever claimed to speak for all CPD members (and I've read and re-read SCC posts from the last couple of years). From what I have read, SCC speaks for SCC, and SCC only. The main posts are SCC's. The comments contained therein aren't SCC's (unless marked by SCC's logo); they're the comments of those who choose to comment on SCC's posts.
  
  I think people (police and not) fail to distinguish between what is SCC's (the posts on the dark blue background) and what is not SCC's (comments section for each post), thereby attributing attitudes or comments to SCC which SCC never had or stated.
  
  Critical thinking should enter here.
  
  Anonymity has its merits and its faults. We have no idea whether posters here are the police or not. Those who talk about lying, cheating, stealing, dogging, hating, etc. may be police or may be trolls. Who knows?
  
  Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear.

We've been taking flak in some recent e-mails and a couple of comments from people who don't seem to realize that we do minimal comment moderation and there is no way for us to tell who is the police, who is a civilian and who is a troll. And believe us, we have a bunch of trolls who type silly crap just to get a response. So please, stop writing to us about it. Stuff we write is on the front page or labeled as SCC in the comment section.

Duh Toddler

This was a long time coming:

• Cook County taxpayers spend millions of dollars each year providing prescription drugs to thousands of people living outside the county, sometimes even paying extra to deliver the drugs to their out-of-county doorstep.

  But under a plan approved Tuesday by the County Board, that support could end Dec. 1 unless a patient's home county enters into an agreement with Cook County to reimburse it for the costs.

  And people outside the county who get drugs from the county by mail-order programs should receive a notice with their November shipment that it will be the last time they'll get a delivery from Cook County.

Now how a bout a few indictments for Theft of Services? Restitution to taxpayers? A recall election? Maybe stop raising our damn taxes?

Engage Your Inner Child

It's "Talk Like A Pirate Day!"


So roll out the cannon, load 'em with shot. The pirates of the CPD are continuing their voyage to parts unknown against stupidity, silliness and incompetence where ever we can find it in Daleyland. Yeaaargh!

Recruit Fired

We've been asked to address this issue in numerous comment sections and more than a few e-mails. From the Sun Times:

• A man training to be a Chicago Police officer claims he was terminated from the Chicago Police Academy because he was Polish and "looked terrible."

  Peter J. Palka is suing the Chicago Police Department and Matthew Tobias, assistant deputy superintendent of the police academy, alleging he was kicked out of the academy this year because of his race and nationality.

  Palka was five months into his training at the academy when he went to school early on Jan. 25 for some "extra help with firearms," a lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court says.

The article goes on to print the allegations contained in the lawsuit, including foul language, disobedience of a direct order and disparaging remarks made about the plaintiff's ethnic background.

First up, for the benefit of our civilian readers, recruits at the Academy are termed as "at-will" employees. That means for pretty much the entire first year of their careers, they can be terminated without cause for just about anything. The Academy, and by extension, the City do not owe them an explanation, cause or reason for termination.

That's some pretty heavy consequences going into a new job. You might leave a different life track to join the CPD and the second you screw up, the walls come down. And truthfully, that's probably how it should be. It makes you give serious consideration to the consequences of your actions, or lack of actions as demonstrated on the store video where a couple of Probationary Police Officers were caught on camera fleeing in the face of an armed subject. They became among the first fired for cowardice.

That being said, we have a hard time believing that in this day and age, there would be any boss anywhere who would express him or her self to a recruit in the terms listed in the paper, especially the slurs upon ethnic heritage. It was wrong when it was against blacks, it was wrong when it was against hispanics, and it'd be wrong if the pendulum swung completely the other direction, too.

8020

No, we aren't talking about the watch bid percentages.

8,020 visitors to this site on Tuesday. More than double, but not quite triple the average number of daily visitors.

We've been getting quite a bit of "fan" mail from police both from here, suburban and even out of state. A number of citizens have written to say thanks for letting them peek behind the curtain. We've had some not so nice letters here and there, but we had those before.

Perhaps somewhere along the line, we can look back and say this site made a difference. We aren't making any earth shattering changes by ourselves. We aren't about to dethrone the mayor or any of the aldercreatures. We are much too fractured for that and any political power officers may wield is diluted by living all over the city.

But if we get some people involved, if we get some concerned citizens to open their eyes and see how the Police are treated by the political masters, the play reverends, the often slanted media and lawyers out for a buck, maybe it's all worth it. Maybe some change occurs. Maybe someone waves a whole hand at us one day instead of one finger. Maybe someone says, "Thank you Officer" instead of "fuck you." Maybe someone remembers meeting the police as a positive experience instead of a lurid headline.

We helped stop a street sign once. And by doing so, we honored our dead so that they were remembered, even if just for an instant.

It's something.

Way Too Much Time

Presenting the Rogers Park Cheetos bag blog!


Notice the subtle interplay of the fall foliage with the equally colorful Cheetos bag. Maybe we really ought to look into photo blogging. It'd save us a ton of time from actually have to think up 2,700 more posts.

No More Felons

Of course, that doesn't mean that Blago is going to get rid of the one felon that he knows he has - that might irritate political sponsors:

• A spokeswoman says Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's staff doesn't contain any more convicted felons.
  
  Last week the Chicago Sun-Times disclosed that a high-ranking Blagojevich aide named Steven Guerra spent 23 months in prison in the mid-1980s. Guerra had refused to testify before a grand jury about terrorist activities by the Puerto Rican independence movement known as FALN.
  
  Blagojevich defends the decision to make Guerra his chief of staff for community services.

Remember, we lost a Superintendent because he was associating with a known felon. In the political realm, we guess it all just depends on who's doing the associating and whether of not the political sponsor of said felon is actually running the show.

Welcome New Visitors!

Well, the Daily Southtown article (linked here for your viewing pleasure) steered an extra 1,100 or so hit to us Monday. That article was somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,600 words.

The Sun Times hatchet job of the same piece (linked here for comparison purposes) has surpassed that total by a few thousand and still climbing.

So our new visitors might feel like reading the full Daily Southtown article to get the full scope of what we're doing here. Also, page down through the last 10 days or so worth of articles, then make a start on some of our 2,700 other posts over the past two-and-a-third years.

PLEASE NOTE: Fully 30-40% of our readers come from outside the Chicago area. We have readers on 6 continents, Antarctica being the lone hold out. We have a very minimally moderated comment policy, so be prepared to be offended on occasion.

We also cannot, nor do we have any intention of proving, that each and every poster here is a Chicago Police Officer. We have posers here who try to pass themselves off as police here constantly and the real police are merciless in their criticism. For those who would criticize our maintaining anonymity running this site, we reply that you have no idea of the overly long reach of the political Machine here.

Anyway, read, browse, digest and remember, take everything you read here with a grain of salt. We are the only people here who admit to being Chicago Police and everything we publish is on the front page or has our logo in the comments section.

Think He'd Feel at Home Here?

One of our favorite bloggers, Kim du Toit, wrote about another blogger we have listed in our right hand column, The Policeman's Blog. The site was run out of the UK and authored under the pen name of PC David Copperfield (not the magician). See if any of this sounds familiar:

• The beat bobby who used his internet blog to lift the lid on the endless paperwork and political correctness of modern policing revealed his identity last night to announce he is quitting Britain.

  Using the pseudonym PC David Copperfield, Stuart Davidson, 36, charted his frustrations at the red tape and target-driven culture facing officers.

  His tales of unnecessary bureaucracy at the expense of catching real crooks became so popular they spawned a bestselling book and even saw him denounced in the Commons by ministers.

• Mr Davidson, who resigned from Staffordshire Police in June, said he was sick of the "madness" of British policing, adding:

  "Everyone joins the police with the aim of catching burglars, catching thieves, solving crimes.

  "But as a uniformed officer available for deployment I would spend over half of my time writing in the office.

  "Eighty per cent of what I did was a waste of time. There comes a point where you think, 'This isn't really why I joined'."

• The Home Office is reeling from claims in an official report last week that the target culture prevents police doing their jobs.

  Sir Ronnie Flanagan, Chief Inspector of Constabulary, said officers bogged down by bureaucracy tended to "over-record and under-deliver" for fear of being accused of missing something.

  He warned that they are so busy chasing targets, which can be achieved by pursuing minor crimes, that they do not always act in the "public interest".

  Mr Davidson, who was an officer in Burton-on-Trent for four years, started writing The Policeman's Blog three years ago. It received more than 1.5million hits.

  In it he wrote: "Around 50 per cent of my job is clerical, 40 per cent of it is social work and 10 per cent is trying to catch criminals."

Gee, a "target culture" style of policing i.e. "over-record and under-deliver" (event numbers anyone?) Pursuing minor crimes (seen the totals on SUB's and DOPW's lately?) Seems useless bureaucracies abound overseas as well.

Officer Hurt

Channel 2 covers:

• A Chicago police officer was injured while making an arrest that turned into a violent confrontation at a pharmacy in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.
  
  Police say a man and woman entered the CVS in the 1700 block of North Sheffield Avenue and allegedly began shoplifting around 10:30 Monday morning. The uniformed officer chased the woman outside where she struggled to arrest her. The man ran away with CVS employees chasing him. The officer was stabbed in the hand, but managed to call for help. Police arrested both suspects. They also checked a car parked outside the pharmacy. It's the car the two suspects drove to the store before the incident.

Nice job by responding units. A speedy recovery to the officer involved.

Heavy Weapons

From the New York Slimes:

• MIAMI - Patrol officers here will have the option of carrying assault rifles as they try to combat the rise in the use of similar weapons by criminals, the city’s police chief said Sunday.

  The chief, John F. Timoney, approved the policy last week, before a Miami-Dade police officer was killed on Thursday in a shootout with a man wielding an assault rifle.

  “This is something we do not do with any relish,” Chief Timoney said. “We do this reluctantly.”

Nice comment chief - "reluctantly." How about using the word "eagerly" instead? You want your cops undergunned?

Interestingly, we've been hearing rumblings from numerous sources that the reason the Department took the Tahoes from the watches and gave them to supervisors is because there's a possibility of rifles being assigned to street supervisors. This would actually be a huge step in the right direction of insuring that appropriate firepower is available in a timely fashion.

Which also means we'll probably never see it while Daley is in office.

Poor Reporting

All people have to do is mention the words "police" and "lawsuit" and the media runs with whatever they can find. Cases in point - #1:

• A man who claims he had his mouth and feet duct-taped and was beaten and kicked by three Chicago police officers earlier this year is suing the unknown officers for more than $2 million.
• Marcelo Gonzalez claims in a federal lawsuit filed Monday that he was grabbed from his car and taken at gunpoint by the officers when he arrived at an apartment building at 1646 N. Bosworth Ave. on March 9.
• Tamira Smyth, the resident of the apartment where the officers took Gonzalez, had already been held in the apartment by police for "several hours" when Gonzalez arrived, the suit said. The suit did not say why police may have been looking for Gonzalez, what was his relationship with Smyth or the purpose of his visit to the apartment building.

We recall this case from an earlier blog post (here's the original Channel 2 story from 23 March).

We posted at the time we weren't sure if the officers were unidentified due to legal reasons or because they didn't exist. We noticed that the accusations made in March involving cigarette burns don't seem to have made it to the lawsuit, and we're missing the accusations about the baseball bat, too. Now that the plaintiff is demanding $2 million from unknown officers, we're going to say the officers don't exist and this is a money grab.

Then we have example #2:

• A man who died in police custody last year was strangled by police, a lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court Monday claims.
• Jaime Galvan was arrested about 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 9, 2006. About two hours after his arrest, Galvan was taken from the Austin Police District to a holding cell at Harrison Area headquarters at 3340 W. Fillmore St., according to the suit.
• At approximately 11:59 p.m., Galvan was found "unresponsive and deceased in his holding cell, with his body handcuffed to the prisoner rail," the suit says. According to the suit, "autopsy reports reveal that Jaime Galvan's body contained injuries and marks consistent with having been strangled."

Another fishing expedition? Like the police have nothing better to do than plant dope and guns, strangle prisoners, and run around with duct tape kidnapping citizens?

Oh, That Southtown Thing...

Those who missed it or couldn't get the link, here you are.

And now for our reply.

Mr. Janssen, the reporter who penned the story, seems a decent enough fellow, aside from being a member of the media. We communicated via e-mail and struck up a wary rapport. He confessed to being way left of our politics, but much of his writing seemed to make the effort to be fair. His questions were thought provoking to us and we replied over the course of a week. We felt the final piece was a bit choppy, but given the medium of our conversation, that isn't surprising.

We'll take issue with the following parts of the story though:

• We don't eat doughnuts with anything near "regularly" - that seemed a little too cutely stereotypical.
  
• We should have guessed someone would try to dissect us with a computer program. We'll continue to not admit to being male or female; white, black, brown or other; multiple persons or multiple personalities
• Though we'd like to take credit for the "Mope-rah" label affixed to Mary Mitchell, it was a reader of ours who came up with it - we just gave it front page play. And let's face it, if the shoe fits...she kind of earns it every time she writes
  
• We're not sure we hate all the people he lists - but we do have a total and complete lack of respect for many of them. Most of them we wouldn't compare to prostitutes as that would be an insult to the girls who actually work for a living. But hate?
• He missed our Blackhawks infatuation, but the less said about that, the better
• The Hampton sign issue, Mr. Janssen credits us with mobilizing officers and the national press into covering the issue. In our letter, we called it a group effort that we played a role in - we had a blog to use; we made contact with NYPD Rant and did a number of combined posts; John Northern and a number of others were very active on the site keeping everyone abreast of developments. We don't want anyone thinking we took undue credit for getting the issue killed in committee. Lots of people helped and we said so
  
• The descriptions of some of our fellow bloggers as "less successful imitators" is his wording, not ours. We know how much effort it takes to put this together and it's only a hobby for us. We wouldn't presume to know what other people have going on in their lives that might preclude them from being as prolific as we are lucky enough to be.

We're still laughing at how he smacked the "official" boys around. According to Mr. Janssen, he contacted Pat Camden for an on-the-record comment and Pat got a bit huffy and hung up on him.

And Seiser still runs it. He runs it all.

(corrected for spelling)

The Riddle of Pat and John

After being owned by a reader of ours under the pen name of Edward Nigma (The Riddler of Batman fame - E. Nigma), the "official website of the Chicago Police Department" attempted to save face by berating SCC for being a bunch of malcontents hiding behind anonymous web sites.

Edward Nigma has now reappeared in the comments section of their website (no, we won't link to it) under his newest pseudonym:

• Why aren't we getting newer equipment?
  Is it really too much to ask? I mean
  This is supposed to be the "most advanced"
  Site (dept) in the country! And yet we
  Still have problems! Is L.E.A.D.S. ever
  Up?
• Posted by: Reed M. Downn

And once again, they missed it completely and have left it up there for more than a few weeks. They've also had the media label them the "widely ignored official rival to SCC."

That's going to leave a mark.

Aldercreature Follies

If anyone questions why there needs to be a blog, this ought to stand as a prime example.

From the Comments:

• SCC - this needs to be its own thread!
  
  Supreme Bitch aldercreature Dixon is using her recently-obtained aldermaniac powers to exert improper authority over rank and file district personnel in 010 (and I'm sure soon same in 011)
  
  She personally called GED Starks woofing about a BLACK 20-year veteran copper (DW) who is a bonafide worker, for not kissing her ass when she snapped her fingers. She DEMANDED that he be removed from the beat he's worked for years and has established a great rep and high levels of cooperation and appreciation from the good citizens of his beat.
  
  Hibbitty dibbitty Dana (seeing the negative connotations of messing with hard-working cops might have) called High-Yella Charlie W who immediately called DC Cuello in 010 and ordered her to launch DW to the hispanic side of the district. She replaced him with possibly one of the most useless empty uniforms on the job.
  
  CAPS is supposedly all about building partnerships, establishing rapport with the community and reducing crime. Here is a hard working ex-tac veteran who chooses to step up to do police work, only to be kicked in the teeth by his OWN sworn members at the request of some PMS-ing "it's MY time to be a shot caller" asshole.
  
  She did not consult with the Beat Facilitators, DAC committee members or anyone who lives on the beat (not the beat Dixon lives on BTW) and exerted possibly illegal influence over his failure to bow and scrape in her royal presence.
  
  Remember, there has been NO CR#, no allegations of wrongdoing, no actual discipline, just harassment and mistreatment. Step-N-Fetchit Charlie buckled like a house of cards and demanded that Cuello just can him and, I'm sorry to say, she went along with the whole thing. Her credibility has been severly damaged by this.
  
  Telling Williams to go fuck himself would have meant her going back to Lt. rank and pay but would have been worth millions in respect and admiration from her troops.
  
  Remember the old cop movies where some guy was getting pinched and yelled "I'll have your badge for this!"? You KNEW it wasn't gonna happen cuz what kind of police department would you have if cops could be so easily harassed or demoted/fired? So now this Mary Mitchell wanabe picks up the phone and gets her hatchetmen to shit all over a working cop for ruffling her feathers. She's not even in office a year and already throws her "authority" around like she was King Richard J. himself.
  
  Taking negative job action for purely political reasons is ILLEGAL, right??? Fitz, are you listening? How about the citizens of 1014? Why are they deprived of the stellsr service of this officer because of someone who doesn't even live on that beat, alderman or not?
  
  Morale is at an all-time low from shit like this. I hope he files some kind of lawsuit or grievance or complaint. The 2 pipms who catered to this bimbo's wishes and threw Danny under the bus (oh, yeah.....they're BOTH still candidates for the SUPT spot) should be ashamed and immediately removed from their exempt positions.
  
  Mike Mette was arrested for throwing a punch to defend himself. Danny doesn't get the ability to even throw a punch, having his career torpedoed by higher-ups to kiss the ass of a freshman alderidiot.
  
  PLEASE CONSIDER MAKING THIS IT'S OWN THREAD. THIS CONDUCT IS ILLEGAL AND UNFAIR AND HAS TO STOP!

Illegal? Probably not. No officer has a "right" to a car.

Stupid? Oh yeah. On so many levels. Let's list a few:

• Dixon is rapidly making a royal pain in the ass of herself. We've heard she expects 24-7 protection at her house, which doubles as her office. We've heard she wants coppers to run political errands for her people, which is a violation of we don't know how many rules. We've even heard a number of stories of her throwing her weight around at the 010 District desk, demanding all sorts of crap and favors.
• Starks stepped out of the way of this freight train and left the dirty work to Charlie Williams, who as has been noted before, has much to answer for himself after mishandling the Jefferson Tap incident among other things
• Cuello collapsed like the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis. Wow.

The north end of 010 covers what little of North Lawndale that 011 doesn't. It's all the same shit. Anyone who can strike up a functional working relationship with the citizens of North Lawndale, especially considering the recent events all over that gang infested, dope dealing, murder capital of the city ought to be saluted.

Maybe if the VOTERS if beat 1014 made their displeasure known, the aldercreature would be a little more considerate of their wishes.

Sneed Beats a Dead Horse

Dead, buried and worm food:

• Sneed's keeping tabs: At last peek, the FBI was still in the process of determining whether interim Chicago Police Supt. Dana Starks will be granted FBI security clearance to share classified info dealing with the FBI, CIA and Homeland Security should a terrorist threat occur on his watch. The FBI shot down claims they misplaced or lost the clearance forms Starks claims he submitted twice before. The forms were submitted more than a month ago and are still being studied. Stay tuned.

Who the heck is she carrying water for? We get the picture - you don't want Starks. Neither do we. But geez. Is Phil really that bitter?

Hire These Guys!

Who does their negotiating?

• The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association and the Chicago Federation of Musicians reached a tentative agreement Saturday on a new contract.

  The multiyear agreement still must be approved by orchestra members and the CSO's board of trustees.

  Both parties have agreed not to release details of the tentative agreement until it is ratified, expected by Thursday. The old contract expires at midnight tonight.

No retro for these guys and gals. It sure must be nice to work for people who don't yank you around for two and half years before being forced to accept an arbitration decision.

And Again...

Which Rex will show up? We figure we know which Defense will show up.

UPDATE: 17-3 halftime lead. Defense fine, Special Teams great, Offense still anemic.

UPDATE: Final score 20-10. See above comments. The defense has held two opponents to 24 points? That's fantastic - top ten in the league and with their talent should only improve. The Offense has scored only 23 points - 6 from special teams and 11 from the kicker. That's pathetic. If they want to beat our 8 and 8 prediction, they're going to have to step it up.

We saw a humorous post the other day but we can't remember where. The blogger ranked the NFL teams by Star Wars character. The Bears measured out at "Anakin Skywalker - Brash and Talented, but has no arm." We'll try to find it somewhere.

UPDATE: The smartest readers in the world find the link for us. We're moving it here from the comments section. Click over and laugh. Post corrected for quote.

Inventory Order

As of 12:01 this morning (approximately two and half hours ago), a new system of rules came into being across the entire state of Illinois. We have been told that this is NOT a Chicago issue. It is a direct result of the Illinois Department of Corrections cracking down on various municipalities and county organizations (Cook County especially) who aren't following standard rules.

All persons taken into custody will be allowed only the following items in their "Prisoner Property" bags:

• under $500 cash
• one ring (wedding band type) with no stone
• one government issued ID
• prescription eye glasses
• prescription medications
• shoelaces and belts
• any court papers or inventory slips
• keys
  

That's it. No wallets, no purses, no cell phones, no extra jewelry, no coats, no extra clothes, nothing except what's listed. This isn't going to be a burden on lockups, but it's going to be a hassle for officers who lock up someone with a wallet full of money and credit cards and an extra necklace or two. The way the order reads, the bulk storage areas in each district are going to be used as a temporary holding area until someone can Form 54 property back and E&RPS is going to make pick ups every 4 days or so.

This thing has "clusterfuck" written all over in letters 4 feet high with flashing neon lights all around. Can anyone imagine the CR's and Theft of Lost/Mislaid Property reports that are going to be generated? The mind boggles.

UPDATE: List updated to include keys, coats don't have to be inventoried, other info trickling in. Comments advocating illegal actions against prisoner's property deleted.

"Alleged" Burglar Shot

The unbiased media at work:

• A man was shot by an off-duty police officer Saturday morning after he allegedly broke into the officer’s home on the Southwest Side near Midway International Airport.

  The Chicago police officer and his wife were sleeping in their home in the 6000 block of South Austin Boulevard when the officer heard a noise and went to investigate, police News Affairs Assistant Director Pat Camden said.

  The off-duty officer saw the offender, who apparently entered the home through the back door, and was in the process of arresting the suspect when the offender was shot, Camden said.

As one of our resident comedians stated:

• off topic...man shot allegedly breaking into off duty cop's house..(allegedly) fuck you chicago news media...the ass was in a home in the middle of the night..he did not live there..he did not have family there.he was shot in the home...so what makes you think it was alleged that he broke into the house...i guess the shithead's lawyer will say..the cop put that house on me..

We're a big supporter of the "Castle Doctrine," which advocates that a person's home is their castle and there is no obligation to retreat in the face of an intruder. Anyone caught in someone elses home by the homeowner should be able to leave in one manner only - on a stretcher in a body bag.

And the homeowner, whether cop or civilian ought to get a medal, a key to the city, and ammo to replace what was expended.

Run Obama Run! (run away)

Taking a page out of the Democrat's Vietnam play book:

• Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is calling for the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. combat brigades from Iraq, with the pullout being completed by the end of next year.

  ''Let me be clear: There is no military solution in Iraq and there never was,'' Obama said in excerpts of the speech provided to The Associated Press.

Surrender Iraq to the Iranian terror masters and their ilk, because we can hardly wait to live under this regime:

• The leader of al-Qaida in Iraq offered money for the murder of a Swedish cartoonist who recently produced images deemed insulting to Islam, according to a statement carried by Islamist Web sites Saturday.

  In the half hour audio file entitled ''They plotted yet God too was plotting,'' Abu Omar al-Baghdadi also promised a new offensive in Iraq during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

  On Aug. 19, the Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda published a cartoon by Lars Vilks that depicted the Prophet Muhammad with a dog's body.

$100,000 for the death of a freaking cartoonist. And he's not even a good cartoonist. But in the spirit of solidarity and of not submitting to a bunch of 11th century throwback advocates of a religion of murder and violence, we present the offending cartoon:

Geez, that drawing sucks. We could do better blindfolded. But still, we welcome the opportunity to stand with this half baked cartoonist. Islamo-fascist assassins welcome to swing by at any time of day. We'll have a pot of coffee on and a nice skillet of bacon waiting.

Ex-squeeze Us? Baking Powder?

Stuff like this really annoys us:

• PHILADELPHIA - The city's embattled police chief, acknowledging that police alone cannot quell a run of deadly violence, has called on 10,000 black men to patrol the streets to reduce crime.

  Sylvester Johnson, who is black, says black men have a duty to protect more vulnerable residents. He wants each volunteer to pledge to work three hours a day for at least 90 days.

  "It's time for African-American men to stand up," Johnson told the Philadelphia Daily News, which first reported the story Wednesday. "We have an obligation to protect our women, our children and our elderly. We're going to put men on the street. We're going to train them in conflict resolution."

It's all well and good for the chief to say it's time for black men to stand up and take a more positive role in their neighborhoods - Bill Cosby has been saying it for years. But putting 10,000 untrained, unarmed, and uninterested volunteers on the street is doomed to failure and is putting lots of people at risk and municipalities in danger of liability.

And doesn't it seem like the chief is pretty much emasculating his entire department and admitting that he's lost the war on crime in Philadelphia? Maybe the National Guard could restore some order.

Note - comments will be heavily regulated for this post because things like this really seem to bring out the worst in people.

Now Hiring!

Time to see if the grass is truly greener - the Berwyn Police Department is hiring:

• Application availability begins on September 17th; completed application must be returned by September 28th.
• Starting salary for 2007 $49,255.33; increases after 12 months to $56,409.02
• Starting salary for 2008 $50,979.27; increases after 12 months to $58,383.34
• Comp time/paid OT, liberal vacation/personal days Uniform allotment, 5 county residency requirement
• Education stipend; $500/year for Associates Degree, $1,000/year for bachelors, $1500/year for Master’s or above. Tuition reimbursement
• Blue Cross/Blue Shield PPO (comparable to Chicago ) with no employee costs
• Liberal weapons policy, all vehicles equipped with shotguns and carbines in passenger compartment.
• Motorcycles; ATV,s Segways, Bike Patrol; Canine Unit, Traffic Unit, Detectives, Juvenile, Tactical, Multi Agency Gang Task Force; Narcotics unit.
• Lateral entry process will not begin until next spring; any currently certified officer who is hired off the eligibility list will be given an academy waiver, and placed immediately into field training.

Those of you unfamiliar with the Berwyn PD, it is currently headed by former CPD Lieutenant Bill Kushner. Chief Kushner has been a fan of our site almost since the beginning and writes to us on occasion. He had a lot of fans on the CPD (and more than a few detractors, too.)

In any case, Chief Kushner has given us this info to share with our readers, probably hoping to grab a few people currently fed up with the CPD. We don't know how many officers they are looking for, but right away, no residency, no employee costs for insurance, real guns with training - it already looks like they'll treat you like an adult.

Sneed is Amazed

Unfortunately, we aren't:

• Here's a traffic stopper: Mayor Daley may be eager to find a new Chicago Police superintendent, but his decision to extend the search for a top cop has resulted in zip, zero, nada, squat -- thus far.

  • • Translation: "They've not gotten one application from anyone outside the city of Chicago that hasn't already been looked at," said a Sneed source.

  Amazing.

No, it's not amazing. It's sad, truly sad, that the mayor has managed to make the top job in the Chicago Police Department so unpalatable to anyone and everyone outside the Department that he can't even get a semi-legit candidate to even pretend to apply. The last two outside finalists were both from New York. Four years ago, the New York candidate told newspapers that he didn't think that Daley was ever serious about hiring an outsider and felt used. The most recent outsider was torched in a media hit job.

The police fraternity is pretty close knit, more so the higher you go. It's no coincidence that outsider interest in a Department that is micromanaged by a ego-maniacal mayor and beset by problems of endemic cronyism and unqualified political patronage hacks is virtually non existent.

Until the taxpayers and voters are fed up with the Daley Machine, expect nothing but more of the same.

Camden and Henry Owned Again!

A while ago, one of our humorous readers sent a comment to the "official" blog of the Chicago Police Department. We wrote about it after the fact and pointed out that the first letters of each sentence spelled out "This site is PC bullshit." The comment remained up for days on the "official" blog and after it was removed, we were slammed by John Henry and Pat Camden for hosting a bunch of whiny readers. We proceeded to rip them new assholes and neither one of them has been able to sit properly since.

Then we banned any and all usage of their blog name in any context whatsoever. They want to run a blog, they're going to do it on their own and not piggyback on our success. We hear they are up to almost 50 visits a day now. All for two guys earning over a combined $160,000 a year - a great use of taxpayer funds, by the way.

Our resident comedian is at is again. Since we know that downtown reads this site, we aren't going to tell Henry and Camden where the comment is just yet. They can tear apart their comment sections looking for it - we figure it'll take them the whole weekend. If the comment stays in place past Sunday night, we'll point it out. Happy hunting.