NYC Truck Attack

Horrific:

• A man in a rented truck drove onto a busy bicycle path near the World Trade Center memorial Tuesday, killing at least six people and injuring several others, police said. The driver was then shot by police after jumping out with what turned out to be two fake guns.
  
  A police official said the attack was being investigated as a possible act of terrorism. The official was not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
  
  The attacker was taken into custody. His condition was not immediately disclosed.

It's a good thing that vehicles can't be used as weapons according to Rahm, Special Ed and the command staff of the CPD. Prayers for the dead and injured

Halloween Fun

Be careful trick of treating:

And watch out for this place - it's scary as heck:

CCJ Records

Remember when jail used to be unpleasant? A place to avoid?

• Musician and songwriter Antony Ablan got to thinking about how crime suspects can spend years awaiting trial inside the Cook County Jail, and came up with an idea — a program, really, to help detainees learn a skill — that he thought might be met with eye rolls.
  
  He floated it to officials anyway: Put a professional music recording studio inside the sprawling jail complex on Chicago’s Southwest Side.
  
  The music teacher and frontman for a local band, Antony and the Tramps, said he found a receptive audience in Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, who runs the jail, and others.
  
  “I thought it was a bit of a pipe dream to build a studio in a jail. And I start calling places and they say ‘sure,’” he laughed.
  
  The only problem? There’s no money in the sheriff’s budget to do it.

Well thank goodness he won't be wasting taxpayer money on that. Unfortunately, there appear to be enough bleeding hearts to fund it, so Dart's jail guards will be listening to mix tapes and rap tunes and Big House Music (pun intended). So if you want to cut a tape to assist you in landing that big record contract, all you gotta do is rob a bank, beat a little old lady or maybe just grievously wound someone and you can be dropping tracks next month.

At least until all the equipment gets jacked or sticky from masturbating inmates.

It's Everywhere

Crime we mean:

• A man was in custody Sunday night after he shot someone and assaulted two others during a robbery at a steakhouse where he used to work near the Magnificent Mile, authorities said.
  
  About 11:45 p.m., the man entered Lawry’s The Prime Rib, 100 E. Ontario St., and found several employees in the locker room, where he restrained them, stole their cellphones and announced a robbery, according to Chicago Police and the Chicago Fire Department.
  
  One of the victims interrupted the robber, who then opened fire, police said.
  
  A 28-year-old man suffered a gunshot wound to his right arm and was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hosptial, where his condition was stabilized, police said.

Right off of the Magnificent Mile.

Crime has burst it's artificial banks and is popping up in previously "safe" areas with astonishing regularity. Someone commented (we can't find it right now) that 016 had four separate shooting this weekend - an area where shootings were practically non-existent a decade or so ago. And Rahm continues with the smoke-and-mirrors of increasing the number of officers on the streets.

Just Beat It! Beat It!

How could this possibly be happening in Dart's jail???

• Staffers in the Cook County Public Defender’s Office are used to clients who may have done horrible things, but over the last two years, female employees say their clients have become more brazen in doing horrible things right in front of them.
  
  Masturbating inmates have become a common sight on the walk to and from holding cells where defense attorneys meet clients, and at the jail and in courthouse lockups. Last week, in a letter to Chief Judge Timothy Evans, Public Defender Amy Campanelli said her staff has reached a breaking point.
  
  Campanelli declined to share a copy of the letter, but confirmed that she warned the judge that her staff won’t visit the jail starting Nov. 6 unless he or Sheriff Tom Dart can offer up a solution.

Golly, it's like being at a Harvey Weinstein business dinner.

• “There have always been these incidents since I became a public defender,” said Campanelli, who has been in the office for more than a decade. “But it’s never been like it is today, where it’s like the behavior we’re seeing now, every day, or every other day. It’s just become pervasive. We’ve tried everything.”

Well, if the behavior is still going on, you obviously haven't tried "everything" Snowflake. Trying "everything" would have led to a solution of some kind. To paraphrase the owner of the Houston Texans, the inmates are running the prison. Some of our readers have more graphic descriptions than the Slum Times was willing to print:

• Just read this on Facebook. Dart tried to negotiate a pizza deal with the inmates and the next day they did a circle jerk around one of his female Directors. The Illinois Sheriff and Public Defenders say no other prison in the country has this sexual assault/masturbation problem. Way to go Sheriff.
  
  It went as far as negotiating with pizza in a div 9 tier asking then to promise not to masturbate after a pizza party, next day they all masturbated in front of a director, they formed a circle around her and did a jerk circle around her. jailguards warned her and asked to escort her, she felt confident that the pizza from the night before was going to stop the jerking off. she trusted the inmates

So these are Public Defenders, employees of Cook County. We are not going to be so callous to suggest they don't deserve a safe working environment (and any comment that does, or strays into that realm will be deleted) but seriously, what do you expect? These aren't altar boys, even if that's the story you're going to try to sell to a jury.

Ed, Hush Now

Don't you have a new marriage to attend to?

• Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson called on state lawmakers to approve legislation to more aggressively regulate gun dealers in Illinois, pointing to a newly released trove of data that shows many guns recovered by police in connection with crimes can be traced back to licensed gun stores in the Chicago area.
  
  The call for legislative action came as Johnson and other advocates for stricter gun rules convened Sunday at police headquarters to highlight findings of a new report tracing so-called “crime guns” — firearms found at a shooting scene, in the possession of gang members or otherwise being used illegally — to their original point of sale.

Neither the Tribune, nor the ABC report, list the number of guns that are stolen - just that 60% come from "out-of-state," meaning that any Illinois law will be ineffective. In fact, the the Admin Fax Message board is filled with Stolen Weapon notices - non-LEO stolen guns - along with yet another stolen FBI weapon last week. The feds (FBI, ATF, other agencies) probably account for one-percent of the stolen guns circulating in Chicago, they lose that many. Hell, how many guns disappeared from that Englewood rail yard? And how many times?

The list of gun shops that end up having sold "crime guns" is amusing:

• The report says Chuck's Gun Shop in Riverdale, Ill. and Midwest Sporting Goods in Lyons, Ill. are the top two source dealers of traced crime guns in Chicago. The remaining stores in the top ten are: Westforth Sports in Gary, Indiana, Cabela's in Hammond, Indiana, Shore Galleries in Lincolnwood, Illinois, GAT Guns in East Dundee, Illinois, Suburban Sporting Goods in Melrose Park, Illinois, Pelcher's Shooter Supply in Lansing, Illinois, Blythe's Sport Shop in Griffith, Indiana, and Sporting Arms and Supply in Posen, Illinois.

We don't think a single one of these shops has faced so much as a review of their Federal paperwork, even during the Sparklefarts administration. What does that tell you? They're following the law, period.

Shore Galleries is one of the places that most departments in northeastern Illinois recommend to their officers to buy duty weapons. We've bought at a few of those places, and we're certain they move many tens-of-thousands of guns a year. How about instead of listing how many "crime guns" are recovered in Chicago from these "point of origin" stores, the media prints how many guns total AREN'T recovered anywhere near a crime scene? That would flip the entire narrative on its head - less than 10%? Less than 5%?

How many guns from GAT Guns end up recovered in Chicago as a ratio to how many they sold? Less than 1%? While we'd love to see it as close to zero percent as possible, the fact is that if 99% or even 95% of guns aren't being used criminally, it looks to us like the system is working and may need some small tweaks.

Maybe a Gun Safety Course?

Or is the Department re-classifying homicides again, making them suicides?

• A woman was killed Saturday night when a gun accidentally discharged inside a Portage Park neighborhood home on the Northwest Side, police said.
  
  About 10 p.m., 21-year-old Nadia Manjarrez and a 37-year-old man were inside a home in the 4800 block of West Hutchinson when the gun went off, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
  
  Manjarrez, who lived in the neighborhood, was shot in the head and taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 10:50 p.m., authorities said. An autopsy was scheduled for Sunday.

And:

• A 16-year-old girl is dead and three other people were hospitalized after shootings Sunday.
  
  The girl was shot in the face about 7 p.m. in the 6600 block of South Marquette Road, according to Chicago police.
  
  The girl, who was pronounced dead on the scene, was in a home when an acquaintance was "handling a firearm" and accidentally shot the victim in the eye, police said.

That's some awfully accurate shooting for "accidents" from "mishandling." Perhaps an  NRA "Eddie the Eagle" course might be helpful.

Camel Commander

Thanks to a old friend of ours:



The internet is forever.

Nice Lagoon Rahm

What makes people (or folks) think they can get away with murder in Chicago?

• Suspected human remains were found packed in two duffel bags near the Lincoln Park lagoon Saturday morning on the North Side.
  
  Fishermen called police from the lagoon near the 2200 block of North Stockton shortly before 11 a.m. when they found one bag containing possible remains, according to Chicago Police.
  
  Police divers responded and found a second bag with additional remains thought to be from the same person, police said.
  
  Detectives were looking into missing person cases for possible leads as the Cook County medical examiner’s office investigated the remains, police said.

Given the time of year, this was darkly amusing:

• Late Saturday afternoon, authorities continued searching the lagoon area next to a Lincoln Park Zoo parking lot, with staff directing drivers toward the other end. Steps away from the crime scene, families attended “Spooky Zoo 2017,” billed on the zoo’s website as an opportunity for families “to celebrate Halloween in a free, safe, and family-friendly environment.”

The irony in that paragraph is almost painful.

Translation Please

This is video of what we think is a recent Police Board public meeting. The speaker alleges that there was a Domestic at Tommy "nice hair" Dart's house and the CPD is complicit in a cover up. Some of the comments allege that there is a PCAD event number at the Sheriff's address.

But we'll be darned if we can understand all of what she's saying. Can anyone translate?

Elderly Casualty

At least she wasn't shot:

• A 37-year- man and an 84-year-old woman were injured in shootings Saturday on the West Side, Chicago police said.
  
  Police released updated information after initially saying an 84-year-old woman was shot in the face Saturday afternoon.
  
  About 12:45 p.m., police were called to the 1500 block of South Homan Avenue in Lawndale on the city's West Side. At first, officers reported finding the woman suffering from a graze wound to her face, according to a media notification. In an update, it later was determined that she wasn't shot, but that a bullet instead likely shattered a window, which sent glass into the woman's face, cutting it.
  
  The shooter was in a black SUV but exited the vehicle before opening fire, aiming toward another vehicle in the same block, police said.
  
  The woman was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital, where she was listed in good condition, according to authorities.

How many elderly have been caught in the crossfire this year?

Are You Ready?

Mad Max coming to town:

Any word if Tact Teams have been assigned?

Days off cancelled?

Overtime approved by Ferguson?

Does this fall under Treason or Sedition?

Can't Hire? Why Not?

It's almost like no one wants to be the police:

• This year’s city budget is going to be even more interesting than usual, Ald. Tom Tunney [44th] predicted last week.
  
  And it isn’t just a matter of dollars and cents this time around, he said.
  
  Speaking at an Oct. 18 Lake View Kiwanis Club meeting at Ann Sather’s restaurant, 909 W. Belmont Ave., Tunney said the Police Dept. is having a hard time finding recruits.

It might have something to do with qualified applicants being rejected out of hand solely for their complexions, being told they're "psychologically ineligible" or any of a dozen reasons as Rahm attempts to curry enough favor to win a third term. Being made into a political football during the last part of your career is one thing. Coming in knowing it - well, that's something else.

Still a Secret

The lengths clout will go to in order to protect corruption:

• Will Chicagoans ever find out what then-Mayor Richard M. Daley knew about the Chicago Police investigation that enabled his nephew to escape criminal charges in a homicide case for a decade?
  
  The Illinois Appellate Court’s answer: No.
  
  A written statement that Daley gave to a grand jury regarding the investigation must remain under lock and key because grand-jury secrecy trumps the public’s right to know what Daley said, a new ruling from the court states.
  
  The statement Daley crafted four years ago came as he and other Daley family members were being interviewed by lawyers working under attorney Dan K. Webb, the court-appointed special prosecutor who ended up putting Daley nephew Richard J. “RJ” Vanecko in jail for throwing a punch that caused David Koschman’s death in 2004.

This will be like the JFK files - released long after anyone who might end up being even remotely responsible is dead, buried and forgotten. We will be leaving detailed instructions in our will for significant dates and locations of graves to piss on over the next century.

$44 Million

Another blockbuster verdict that was the direct result of a clouted individual hiding in the system that protected him over and over again:

• A federal jury awarded a Morgan Park man a record-breaking $44.7 million Thursday after finding that a Chicago police officer shot him in the head after a night of heavy drinking and that the troubled Police Department enabled the off-duty patrolman’s violent behavior.

How troubled?

• Because the jury found that the Police Department has a widespread problem with disciplining officers and failed to maintain an early warning system, the city of Chicago is responsible for the $44.7 million award and LaPorta’s legal fees, which likely also will be millions of dollars.
  
  [...]
  
  Kelly, 36, has been found mentally unfit for duty twice, arrested two times, accused of beating a girlfriend and treated for alcohol addiction. He has been sued six times and has been the subject of more than two dozen investigations into his on- and off-duty conduct, including one in which he was found to have assaulted a female sergeant.

Anyone want to clue us in on who protected him, over and over again? Who excused, condoned or covered this up? Because guess who's paying the price every single time crap like this gets papered over? You, us, 99% of coppers who do the job correctly and go home peacefully, calmly, soberly.

How about attacking the system that protects, promotes and excuses this behavior. Aside from a few DUI's, almost every single scandal that has rocked the Department in recent decades has at its heart a connected or clouted individual who thinks they operate outside of the rules. And unfortunately, their political sponsors allow them to, for a short while any way. Before they cost the city $44 million.

Did You Feel Something?

Whoops:

• Two Chicago police officers are in critical condition after crashing into a construction barrier on the city's South Side.
  
  The crash happened just after 4 a.m. Thursday at a construction site at 83rd and Woodlawn.
  
  The police SUV crashed through a concrete barrier, then dropped into a hole dug into the intersection, trapping both officers.
  
  The Chicago Fire Department had to extricate the male officers, and both were rushed to Christ Hospital in critical condition with non-life threatening injuries.

Officers are stable and might even be home now.

That's a pretty big hole. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Aldercreatures Jump In

Ferguson taking heat from "Ed" was amusing.

Ferguson taking heat from the aldercreatures is obviously a set up - and he stumbled right in:

• In a racially charged attack, Inspector General Joe Ferguson on Wednesday came under intense fire from several City Council members for a blistering op-ed he wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times in response to the murder of a Rogers Park schoolteacher.
  
  License Committee Chairman Emma Mitts (37th) asked Ferguson why it took the murder of 64-year-old Cynthia Trevillion — who taught Ferguson’s children — to convince the inspector general to call out the mayor, Police Supt. Eddie Johnson and all 50 aldermen.
  
  [...] Mitts seized on the fact that Trevillion was white in attacking Ferguson’s criticism of city officials.

Mitts, along with Reboyras (30th) and Austin (34th) immediately jumped on the ....you guessed it.... racist bandwagon, lambasting Ferguson for his faux outrage over a white murder victim he knew in passing as opposed to those of another shade.

And Rahmn, the Puppetmaster, giggles as he pulls the strings.

Ride That Camel

The 002 District CAPS office deleted the camel-riding video.

This survived the purge however:

Yes, that's the Commander of 002.

We're thinking we have a contender for the Burger Queen crown.

No Furlough Adjustments?

It seems the Order and Calendar came out yesterday and no percentage adjustments were noted.

Can anyone verify or disprove the comments that say Furlough percentages are included in the Contract? We're pretty sure they aren't, but we're in no position to check for a couple of days due to circumstances beyond our control. We would assume that the Department has quite a bit of leeway in dictating how furloughs are allocated.

Furlough Adjustment

So the Department is cutting back on summer furloughs?

• OT- Annual watch furlough order is usually issued by now but delay is because: Furlough picks will be 8.75% (1,2,3,4,5,11,12 and 13th periods) and 6% (6,7,8,9,10).

Under these percentages, a lot of people who had summer furloughs aren't getting them any more. This will be sure to raise morale!

The Future?

Suggested many times before if the Department actually wanted experienced help:

• The retirees who contributed to the Dallas Police Department's staffing shortage may soon help plug the hole they left behind.
  
  The department is looking to hire as many as 40 retirees as temporary civilian workers to fill vacancies in investigations, administration and field support.
  
  The hiring program, which is expected to cost $1.8 million, would be beneficial to both retirees and the department, Deputy Chief Scott Walton told the City Council's public safety and criminal justice committee on Monday.

One of the hangups with civilians is there are certain sensitive parts of police work that require sworn personnel. Hiring retirees fulfills that (with some form of refresher course) and exploits literally hundreds of years police/investigative knowledge. But that might actually make sense and contribute to more efficient Department operations.

Bring Me Numbers!

The same names keep cropping up:

• The commander of 025 dumped the cops off of 2535 because they didn't have ISRs. Nevermind that they lead the watch in arrests on afternoons! Not so much because they were go getters, but because that beat is sometimes the only 30 sector car that is not 'beat integrity.' During the summer they were hammered with jobs and arrests. All the other supervisors told EscameRAT that he was wrong and it was a bad idea to dump them off the car, but dumb ass thinks he knows everything.
  
  Besides fucking with these guys, Triple-Merit Tony is having Sgts tell the guys with two years on the job that he is aware of their lack of ISRs. This sack of monkey shit is the epitome of everything that is wrong with this sick joke of a police department.

Maybe if these guys had kept a couple of guns in their lockers?

Hey Dumb-Dumb

The tone-deafness of someone who "works" at HQ:

You're "feeling bummed"? Are you soft? Posting that on Facebook? Why would you possibly be "bummed" working inside? Oh, the early ducks, half days, long lunches, duty availability, uniform allowances without doing a single thing that might require actual risk to life and limb?

SCC Proposal: No one should ever be allowed to work more than two years inside. Cumulative over your career. For all spots. The benefits to the Department and taxpayer are huge. Bosses get an actual officer with (some) street experience telling them EXACTLY what's going on out there. Taxpayers aren't wasting tens of thousands of training dollars paying for some gun-wielding secretary. Anyone working inside gets ZERO Duty Availability. And if you manage to work inside for more than two years, your salary reverts to the civilian rate for comparable work, maybe $40,000....if you're lucky. Feel "bummed" about that.

Your beat car is waiting.

UPDATE: IOD Exception, but very well defined.

Cat Fight!

Someone wrote a "Special EDitorial" reply to Joe Ferguson's screed in the Slum Times the other day and stuck Special Ed's name on it. The person who wrote it calls out Ferguson for his reticence in calling out gang violence until it effected him

• Selfishly, I wish Chicago had heard from you earlier as countless families on the South and West sides were dealing with this very same grief — or when the Mayor and I were fighting in Springfield to create a culture of accountability for repeat gun offenders. Nevertheless, your voice is important, valued and needed to make our city safer.

And then "Ed" starts fighting back:

• However, you are misinformed to suggest that CPD does not have a crime strategy or is not invested in the safety of our neighborhoods. So I would like to take this opportunity to tell you exactly what we have been doing to keep Chicagoans safe.
  
  At the very beginning of this year I outlined our strategy to reduce violence in 2017 based upon three important pillars: targeted, data driven enforcement, addressing the flaws in sentencing guidelines for repeat gun offenders, and renewing our community policing and engagement with the public. While we still have a lot of work ahead of us, we relied not on words, but action to make significant progress on all three pillars.

That "data driven enforcement..." Would that be the ever recurring demand for more ISR's that numerous commanders are pressing the troops on? Where they seemingly forget that numbers driven policing is EXACTLY what brought the ACLU up everyone's ass in the first place.

And those "flaws in sentencing...for repeat gun offenders..." Any word on the Greektown brawlers, two convicted of homicide who somehow got day-for-day credit? How did they get out and get guns? We hope we don't have to run down near-daily examples of gun offenders being released or not charged adequately, leading to more violence.

And then, whoever is posing as Special Ed starts lying:

• In six of our most historically violent districts, we launched intelligence nerve centers that give our officers the data and tools they need to drive a 22 percent average reduction in shooting incidents in those neighborhoods and a nearly 18 percent reduction citywide, with 18 out of 22 police districts seeing reductions in gun violence this year. The Englewood district, which was the first to implement this technology, has seen a nearly 45 percent reduction compared to 2016 and a nearly 25 percent reduction compared to 2015.

Someone needs to re-check the math. Somebody non-Department connected (because they lie) and someone not media connected (because they don't even bother to check the numbers. We had our number guru actually check the stats and he came up with the following:

• Shootings have NOT dropped 18% citywide (They've dropped 5% citywide)   
• Englewood shootings have NOT dropped 45% 2017 to 2016 (They've dropped 4% YTD)

Dueling editorials is amusing. "Ed" is not going to acknowledge the department IS actually rudderless and Ferguson is not going to acknowledge his hand in making it so by failing to address the cheating of Ed's wife, Al's wife and their buddies, lest Rahm (the Puppeteer of all this) have to face uncomfortable questions.

Another Great Idea

Hammer the tourists in town for a weekend:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to go after more cars parked illegally on weekends in busy areas of the city as part of his 2018 budget.
  
  Emanuel’s financial team told aldermen Monday they would expand from the downtown area to other neighborhoods a program to pay parking enforcement workers overtime to work weekends, hoping to take in an extra $4 million.
  
  That amount is a pittance in the context of the mayor’s proposed $8.6 billion budget, but it’s a move that could anger Chicago drivers already smarting from red light and speeding camera ticket programs.
  
  And it shows the lengths to which Emanuel will go to try to balance the city’s books without resorting to more broad tax increases that are proving increasingly politically perilous.

We aren't seeing any promises to make government more efficient, except in one way:

• City Comptroller Erin Keane said the city will look to bring in a firm to provide parking enforcement workers with up-to-date “data analytics” about areas where business owners and others are complaining about cars parking in metered spots without paying. And the city will buy the workers new mobile ticket equipment so they can issue the violations faster.

This way, tourists will be sure to remember their trip to the Windy City and tell all their friends what a great time they had. If they make it out alive in the first place.

14,000

How many will show up?

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Sunday that 14,020 people have applied to become Chicago Police officers.
  
  The Chicago Police Department will give an exam in December, the second one this year and the fourth in six years. The city plans to add nearly 1,000 officers by the end of 2018.
  
  The mayor said his proposed budget includes more than $27 million for increased police training to help departments reach hiring goals.
  
  In August, Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said the two-year hiring plan was moving on schedule, and that an April exam generated 8,700 qualified candidates.

Believe it or not, that's down from the April exam, which City Hall claimed was 14,200. Of course, no reporters stood outside the exam site that day and counted the people entering. Rumor Central says the final tally was under 10,000.

But if the April exam yielded 8,700 "qualified" candidates, why another exam? There's no way  the Department burned through those 8,700 already. Did any of those 8,700 sign up again, fearing they might be left behind? Is Vanecko Testing Services running this exam?

So many questions.

What's Up in 002?

The Quarterly Supervisor Bids came out this past weekend and 002 posted seven sergeant openings.

There are only twelve Sergeant bids per District, so for there to be seven openings at one go in a quarter is kind of odd. From past experience, when bid sergeants start leaving in droves, there's a major problem with the Commander, Captain or Lieutenants.

Anyone want to clue the rest of us in so Officers don't make the mistake of bidding to 002?

UPDATE: We are told there is video of the 002 District Commander riding a camel. Yes, an actual camel at some circus touting the recent "Be the Change" push for the entrance exam. Someone find this and post a link in the comment section.

Four Years for Murder?

The Greektown shooting the other day continues to pop up in our comments and e-mail:

• OT: Hey SCC, if you get a chance look at the background of two of the offenders involved in the Greek Town shooting. Both are on parole for Murder, both charged in 2008 and eventually convicted. Offender 1 was sentenced to 18 years and offender 2 was sentenced to 80months. Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought you didn't get day for day good behavior on a murder conviction? How in the world is offender 1 out of prison and how does offender 2 get 6 1/2 years on a murder?!?! Where's the outrage, where's the accountability, where's the protest? News Media, you want to know why our City's streets are lost? Start by looking here!

It seems the shooter was convicted of Murder. That's a felony for starters, so he shouldn't have had a gun according to the law. More interesting is the rap sheet that says he served only FOUR years of his EIGHTEEN year sentence. His accomplice, who actually handed him the gun, was convicted of the same murder and served ONE year of an EIGHTY month sentence.

We're wondering where the outrage is? Where's the media's breathless coverage of democrats releasing murderers back into society where, 'lo and behold, they manage to get a gun, get into a fight, blast a few people and generally be a pain in the ass to the taxpayers.

Airport News

This one has been percolating for a while. It's popping up again and this time, some of hte details are being fleshed out:

• Looks like McCarthys run for Mayor has paid off for him, the chatter from City Hall is McCarthy/Simon will finally get a HUGE security contract at both airports that will employ both unarmed security guards and armed off duty P.O.'S.
  
  Expect massive staffing changes at O'Hare as well in a panicked attempt to meet recommendations brought by an outside Israeli security expert who was flabbergasted by the lack of manpower in one of the worlds busiest airports and a massive expansion of O'Hare.
  
  As a stop gap measure Citywide OT initiative will be put in place until the airports are both completely staffed. The present Aviation Officers unfortunately will be disbanded but will get the first shot at being rehired at a considerably lower pay rate.
  
  The Mayor was finally convinced the only thing that could prevent a disaster is to have a large armed CPD presence. The wake up call was US Special Forces troops in Raqqa Syria found mock ups for multiple airports in the world with O'Hare being one. Hopefully we dodged a bullet!

So Airport VRI as a stop-gap? Does Ferguson know about this or is he busy writing another letter to the editor decrying overtime and the lack of a crime fighting plan by the people he refused to hold accountable for cheating their way into six-figure jobs/pensions?

This might be interesting.

Cell Phone Tax

We had been misinformed as to the tax - it isn't $4 per call, but the correct info isn't any prettier either:

• For every cellphone registered to a Chicago address and every Chicago landline, the city will tack on a $5 per month charge — up from the current charge of $3.90 per month.
  
  [...] The City Council still needs to sign off on the idea when it considers the proposed budget Nov. 21. But the approval is near certain with aldermen unlikely to favor a citywide tax increase.
  
  Consumers would see the higher taxes reflected on their bills starting Jan. 1.
  
  [...] The City Council last raised the phone tax in 2014, when aldermen approved a 56 percent increase as part of an effort to keep the laborer's pension fund from sliding deeper into the red.
  
  Chicagoans' phone taxes will have risen 100 percent in three years — from $2.50 per line per month to $5 per line per month.

A 100% increase in three years is ridiculous. But every solution to a democrat is to "raise taxes" instead of cutting spending and/or reducing the size of government.

Still Giving it Away

This is as bad as building a new NFL stadium:

• The Chicago area’s bid for Amazon’s second North American headquarters includes $2.25 billion worth of incentives — and even more if the company chooses the Thompson Center or the old Michael Reese Hospital site where the city and state could provide free land.
  
  The incentive package includes:
  
  Roughly $1.4 billion in state EDGE tax credits. The newly-revised program provides a 50 percent tax break for every job they create in Illinois.
  
  $170 million in state sales tax breaks for building materials purchased by and new construction completed by “high-end businesses.”
  
  $60 million in property tax breaks through the city and county programs known as Class 7B and 7C.
  
  $450 million in site-specific infrastructure improvements that would come from the Illinois Department of Transportation, the Chicago Department of Transportation, the CTA and other agencies.
  
  $250 million worth of investments in education, workforce development and “Neighborhood Opportunity Funds” to make certain that all Chicagoans can qualify for the 50,000 high-end Amazon jobs and that businesses that spring up or move here to support Amazon locate in Chicago neighborhoods.
  
  Free land worth $100 million, if Amazon chooses to build its second headquarters at the old Michael Reese Hospital site purchased by former Mayor Richard M. Daley as the site for an Olympics Chicago didn’t get. If Amazon chooses either to re-purpose or demolish and rebuild the Thompson Center that the state has been trying desperately to sell, the free land would be worth even more money.

Amazing that Chicago can afford to give up all that to a Top Five market value company. The owner of Amazon trails only Bill Gates among richest Americans clocking in at over 80 billion in personal wealth.

Rahm might be headed for a Shortshanks-type disaster though:

• The incentive package pales by comparison to the $9 billion that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie offered in hopes of luring Amazon to Newark.

Out-bribed again?

$4 a Call?

We suppose that's one way to drive crime down.

Rahm's latest tax includes a provision to increase the 911 "fee" to $4 per call.

If it's too expensive to report crime, we imagine crime will go "down."

It's so twistedly brilliant.

Safety Info

Getting some information from various sources about Officer Involved Shooting from last month.

• On 28 September, Officers in 025 were confronted by members of a well known gang. The offenders identified the police as officers they knew, drew weapons, fired and advanced while continuing to fire, retreating only after a lengthy gun battle and abandoning their weapons.

Information is sketchy but numerous people have told us the most disturbing portion of the entire incident is that the gang bangers continued to advance and fire, almost like the Dallas police killings - advance and engage, quasi-military in nature.

This type of threat isn't exactly new, but it has been (until this point) rare, at least in Chicago. Watch yourselves, your partners and realize that the subject you may be encountering may have training equal or superior to CPD's inadequate efforts.

Nice Public Transit Rahm

Doing less with less - and guess who's noticing? In broad daylight no less:

• Three men were robbed at gunpoint Saturday afternoon at the Grand Avenue CTA Red Line subway station on the Near North Side, police said.
  
  The men, ages 22, 24 and 26, were robbed on a platform at the station, 521 N. State St., about 12:25 p.m., said Officer Thomas Sweeney, a police spokesman.
  
  The three were on the platform when three male attackers came up to them and demanded their property, police said. One of the attackers showed a handgun, and the victims handed over at least one wallet, a backpack and three phones.
  
  The robbers then fled. No detailed description of the attackers was immediately available.

No description, eh? Imagine that. So be on the lookout for some people with guns, which now, come to think of it, would be too late to actually avoid being robbed. What we want to know is how did the offenders get the guns onto the CTA platform? There are "NO GUNS" signs everywhere, so we are truly baffled.

Oh yeah, and Transit is hopelessly undermanned, as is everyone.

Great Idea!

It is said that all CPD policies are birthed in New York.

All stupidity seems to be born on the opposite coast:

• In San Francisco, where no automobile parked on the street is immune from glass-smashing thieves, some people have taken to posting signs on car windows announcing that there are no valuables inside.
  
  The hope, of course, is that a thief will read the notice and decide: "Huh. No valuables in this one.I guess I'll break into some other car."
  
  On Tuesday, a Reddit user posted a photo of such a sign and posed the question "Do you think it works?" to the Reddit community. A lively debate ensued.

This is original? Has no one in San Francisco ever seen a taxi cab (Driver has less than $20) or a delivery truck (Driver carries no cash)? Has anyone seen how well the "Block Club" signs work so very well in impoverished "communities"? Do left coasters actually think that car burglars read? It's a crime of opportunity - see a purse, wallet, CD case, cupful of change, electronics, anything not nailed down that catches someones attention and ::poof:: it's gone, along with your window.

Maybe Rahm could print up a bunch of "No Carjacking" signs or maybe some "No Beating Up Old People" signs to put on the CTA. They'll work so well with his "No Guns" signs.

More Wasted Money?

This is what happens when you let policy be dictated by the mob:

• Prompted in part by high-profile complaints about police use of force, the U.S. government in recent years has allocated tens of millions of taxpayer dollars for body cameras for state and local police departments – and those states and municipalities have invested millions of their own dollars as well.
  
  But a study released Friday reveals that body cameras have little to no effect on police behavior. Officers wearing the devices act similarly to those who don’t, the study concludes.
  
  And there is no significant difference in citizen complaints about camera-wearing officers versus those without cameras, the study says.

And the true cost isn't even realized yet. Remember - the cameras were free in most cases. The cost?

• Storage

When that bill starts coming due, well, you won't hear politicians complaining. They'll just raise taxes again. But it's telling that the study doesn't find any difference in officer behavior. Human nature wins out every time. And the complainers are always going to complain, regardless if the officer is wearing a camera of not. The only way to change that is to prosecute the lying complainants as provided in State Law - the State Law that Foxxx won't follow.

We aren't certain, but with 020 getting cameras this month, we think that 100% of the Districts are now video equipped. No word on the Units yet.

Once Again, A Budget Shortfall

Just like Prickwrinkle spending $200 million she hadn't collected (and had no realistic chance of collecting), Rahm just did the same thing:

• The number of plastic and paper bags Chicagoans used to haul home their groceries dropped by 45 percent after city officials imposed a 7-cents-per-bag tax in an effort to keep the disposable sacks out of area landfills, city budget documents reveal.
  
  Because of the drop in use, the bag tax is now expected to generate $5 million for the city this year. When the tax went into effect in February, city officials had initially expected it to add $9.2 million to the city's coffers in that time, according to Mayor Rahm Emanuel's 2018 spending plan.

The "keeping the bags out of landfills" was a laughable argument, similar to Prickwrinkle claiming the "health" of certain communities was the driving force behind the soda tax. Have you seen how plastic bags come packaged? You can fit a few thousand into a shoe box.

It was a money grab. Again. And Rahm "successfully" altered peoples' buying habits with his tax. People bought canvas sacks, or Tyvek bags, or just reused the ones they had. We personally did more of our shopping in the suburbs anyway to avoid the bottled water tax - the bag tax was just another reason to continue.

But now ::surprise!:: Rahm has a $4 million hole (approximately) in his budget that he must fill. The stories that the increased cell phone tax or some other fee will make up the difference is pure speculation. No one can accurately predict how consumers will react to the increasing tax burden, though the Cook County Board discovered to their dismay that enough pissed of taxpayers started effecting sales tax revenue by the millions. Tens of thousands of children aren't in CPS anymore, meaning their parents have left the city, yet taxes still go up?

We hope that Chicago and Cook County are on the verge of a taxpayer revolt.

Greektown Shooting

Not like that area isn't a thriving nightclub and tourist spot:

• Three people were shot inside a Greektown restaurant after a fight broke out Saturday morning, police said.
  
  The victims and the shooter were involved in a fight inside the restaurant in the 800-block of West Jackson Boulevard when shots were fired.
  
  A 31-year-old man was wounded in the chest and transported to Stroger Hospital in serious condition and a 26-year-old woman suffered a graze wound to her right foot and refused treatment at the scene.
  
  Police said the shooter, a 26-year-old man, was wounded in the left leg and transported to Stroger Hospital. Police said the 26-year-old shot himself.

That list line is humorous, though the continuing fallout from gang crime isn't. Hopefully, Amazon wasn't monitoring the news Friday night.

This Doesn't Add Up

So CPS is losing students at an alarming clip:

• Chicago Public Schools’ enrollment this fall was down nearly 10,000 students from a year ago, a reduction somewhat steeper than the district had expected.
  
  The count on the 20th day of classes was 371,382. The overall student count includes all schools that operate under the district’s oversight, including privately run charter schools.
  
  Last year’s CPS head count was 381,349, which was down close to 11,000 from the previous school year. That difference was largely driven by a lower number of children in district-operated elementary schools and prekindergarten programs, according to the district, while this year, close to three-quarters of the population drop was at district-operated elementary and high schools.

Less students should equal less expenditures, right?

Wrong:

• The district has said it won’t reduce funding for schools where enrollment fell below projections. CPS also said it will not make any midyear budget cuts or order unpaid staff furloughs, as it has in each of the past two years.
  
  The district planned on an enrollment decline of about 8,000 students for this year. That meant district-operated schools in total received roughly $43 million less than they did last year.
  
  Such cost reductions have not eased taxpayers’ burdens. CPS plans to raise its property taxes by more than 8 percent, generating $224.5 million of revenue that will be spent largely to cover steadily rising contributions to the city’s teacher pension fund and school infrastructure projects.

How about making the teachers contribute what everyone else does for starters? Screw this 2% - start coming up with 9-and-10%.

Once Again, the Connected

It must be nice to go through one's career, not even showing up for half of it, but somehow managing to score a pension - by changing the law just for yourself:

• They were a couple of Chicago cops, each serving in the Illinois Legislature, when they helped change state law to give themselves police pensions at taxpayer expense.
  
  The amendment co-sponsored 16 years ago by now-retired state Rep. Edward “Eddie” Acevedo and current state Sen. Antonio “Tony” Munoz gave them — and also any future Chicago cops-state legislators — the ability to get credit toward their police pensions for every day they served in the Illinois Senate or House.
  
  And Acevedo and Munoz took advantage of the change in Illinois law that they helped enact.
  
  Without that, neither would have been eligible for a police pension at all. That’s because they took so many leaves of absence from their duties at the Chicago Police Department to work in Springfield that they didn’t have the minimum 10 years on the job needed to get a cop pension from the city of Chicago.

But don't anyone else worry - that pension money will be ready and waiting for you when you retire. Swearsies!

Are You Fucking Serious?

The Slum Times has hit a new low. They published an Op-Ed Thursday, and the letter deals with the unfortunate murder of a school teacher. The letter was written by a parent whose children were taught by the deceased. The parent blames guns, gang culture, polticians and the Police Department:

• To the police superintendent: Step up. There is much leadership within, but not enough, from CPD. You can fix that. Start by telling City Hall what you think CPD needs to be doing, and demand from City Hall what you need to do it. Take a lesson from your patrol days. Patrol officers exercise enormous judgment in the field, but do so within the parameters of extensive training and guidance from the department to execute strategies developed by experts. In other words, patrol officers are brave, dedicated soldiers who follow orders and direction from leadership. Your role in this scenario: lead.
  
  And let’s admit what we all know: Our city does not have a comprehensive crime strategy. We desperately need one — and a leader to make it a reality. What we don’t need? Spinning an innovative technology-enhanced tactical pilot project as a crime strategy, which it is not.
  
  If you are missing the needed expertise internally, then get help from the outside. People chosen by you, not City Hall. People with experience and demonstrated successes in developing and implementing crime strategies in large municipalities.

The letter writer?

• Inspector General Joe Ferguson

The same fucking Ferguson who couldn't locate any hint of cheating on the Lieutenants Exam, despite first person eyewitness testimony, department e-mails discussing meeting times and locations and monetary compensation to certain NOBLE members. Test-takers who had to be "gifted" a "merit" promotion to even be eligible to take the exam who suddenly scored first, second, third and a few more Top Ten scores, all connected to IAD or Mrs. Wysinger.

You remember the Lieutenant rank? It's where pretty much 100% of the command staff comes from in one fashion or another. The same command staff that Ferguson is insisting come up with strategies. Who Ferguson somehow believes are able to lead and inspire the troops, despite the fact that the troops all know that they're political hacks, liars and cheaters who couldn't lead anyone to save their own skin.

And Ferguson thinks that Special Ed, Wheezie, Hall, Ward, other cheaters and every single exempt are in a position to "tell[...] City Hall what you think CPD needs to be doing"?

1. What are you smoking?
2. When were you last drug tested?
3. You do realize that the Department does what Rahm says and not the other way around?

How many exempts haven't accepted a single "merit" promotion on their way up the ladder? Less than one? The absolute gall of this motherfucker is a sight to behold when he (and his sawed-off midget boss) have done more to destroy morale, desire and the drive to do pro-active police work in this backassward city than even the ACLU managed to do (the ACLU wasn't a surprise).

Kass was right to blame the political class for this murder - and that includes Joe Fucking Ferguson. He had a chance to bring meaningful reform to the CPD by exposing and ending years of cheating, connected promotions, the "who-you-know, who-you-blow, who-you-marry" culture. Hope that increased budget and new four-year term was worth it Joe.

Amazon Bidding War

Business Insider has a list of potential cities that may win the new Amazon HQ along with its 50,000 jobs:

• (10) - Salt Lake City
• (9) - Boston
• (8) - Portland Oregon
• (7) - Miami
• (6) - NYC/New Jersey/White Plains
• (5) - Pittsburgh
• (4) - Rochester, NY
• (3) - Philadelphia
• (2) - Atlanta
• (1) - Austin

Chicago must have come in at number 1A, which means it's almost a lock since Austin is in Texas and Amazon is run by a bunch of bleeding-heart liberals who hate Texas. Congratulations are in order for the 9.5 digit midget.

Rifle Murder

West side:

• Two men are dead, and two others were wounded Thursday in shootings on the South and West sides, Chicago police said.
  
  The fatal attacks happened Thursday morning in the Lawndale and Greater Grand Crossing neighborhoods.
  
  Shortly after 10 a.m., a person on a bicycle pulled a rifle from a backpack and fatally shot a 32-year-old man who was who was sitting in a vehicle in the 1300 block of South Troy Street.

A rifle in a backpack? And no one in the neighborhood noticed? What did they think it was?

No Bail?

But we thought that defendants were entitled to the bail they could afford?

• More than 14 years after he skipped out on his federal drug conspiracy trial, ex-Chicago police Sgt. Eddie Hicks was back Thursday in a courtroom at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse following his arrest last month in Detroit.
  
  Hicks, 68, was led into U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel Martin’s courtroom in an orange jail jumpsuit with a thin, graying goatee and shackles clanking around his ankles. He spoke only to say, “Yes, your honor,” when the judge asked him if he understood the proceedings.
  
  A 29-year veteran of the police force, Hicks was charged in Chicago in 2001 with running a crew of rogue officers who robbed drug dealers, pocketed the illicit cash and sold the stolen drugs to other pushers.

Of course, that might not apply in Federal Court after 14 years on the lam.

No OT This Year

Rham must be happy.

Selective Outrage

The Slum Times jumps into it with both feet, bemoaning the fact that Chicago Police Officers have actual Rights granted to them under the Constitution:

• Only in Chicago.
  
  On Tuesday, a Chicago Police officer and a retired Chicago police officer both took the Fifth Amendment — declining to testify so as not to incriminate themselves — in two separate courtrooms in two separate cases.
  
  What a sad commentary on the Chicago Police Department. What a sad reminder that reform of the police department must continue full bore, with federal judicial oversight.

Extremely ironic, given that the "federal judicial oversight" (A) isn't endorsed by the current federal administration and (B) is in place because CPD supposedly violated all sorts of Civil Rights, yet the Slum Times is championing CPD not being allowed to exercise their Fifth Amendment Rights. You are considered LESS than a citizen by the Slum Times.

Particularly galling to the screeds at the Slum Times?

• [the officers] ...declined to testify or repeatedly said, "I don’t recall."

Amazing.

Now let's enter the "Way-Back machine" and time travel back to October of 2013. Richard "Shortshanks" Daley is being deposed for only the fourth or fifth time in his illustrious law career regarding a Millennium Park restaurant contract, one in a series of crooked contracts that seemed as common as west side gunshot victims:

• During depositions for the case, Daley answered "I don't recall" 139 times.

We don't recall Sneed ever removing her lips from Daley's ass long enough to mention that. Assorted other Slum Times reporters always managed to snag underlings, but never questioned Shortshanks. Not if they expected to keep their reporting beats, maintain "access" and be spared the wrath of Daley. And that was involving tens of million of dollars - hundred of millions over Shank's political tenure.

So much for unbiased reporting. The media in Chicago is bought and paid for, publishing what they are told to publish, hiding what they are told to hide, and ignoring facts detrimental to the Machine.

A favorite pundit of ours said it best:

• Journalism is about covering important stories. With a pillow, until they stop moving.

He said that about the national media coverage of Hillary Clinton. Amusingly, he lived in Chicago, so we don't doubt local politics may have colored his take on things.

LAPD Drones

Brush up on your quadcopter skills - you never know when the CPD helicopter unit will be looking for pilots:

• The civilian panel that oversees the Los Angeles Police Department approved a drone pilot program Tuesday -- several months after the department first presented what it called a limited plan to use the technology.
  
  Approval of the program by the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners came despite opposition from activists who consider the technology a threat to civil liberties and after only 6 percent of the 1,675 emails the LAPD received about the program expressed support for it.
  
  [...]
  
  According to the guidelines the Police Commission approved, drones would be used in a limited capacity, including high-risk tactical operations, barricaded armed suspect responses, hostage rescues, and situations involving threats of exposure to hazardous materials and the need to detect explosive devices.
  
  The drones would not be weaponized or used during surveillance, and their use would have be approved on a case-by-case basis. The commission also added several more amendments before the final vote, including that facial recognition technology would not be used on the drones.

But those are just hurdles to be overcome in the intervening years. In a few years, probably right after we retire, this will be the face of police work:

Hey, that looks like Englewood!

CATA Training

HQ is going to swipe in and out? This will be entertaining:

For many, this will be the first time "working" a full day in years, decades in some cases.

Come back to the watch - you might get a late lunch if your lucky.

Changes

A quick guide to who went where:

• Promotion - Dwayne Betts from CMDR - 015 to Dep Chief of CAPS
  Lateral - Eric Washington from Dep Chief of CAPS to Dep Chief of IAD
  Lateral - Darren Doss from CMDR 003 to XO (CMDR) of Special Functions
  Promotion - Ernest Cato from Lt 015 to CMDR 015
  Promotion - Gloria Hanna from Lt. 015 to CMDR 003
  Promotion - Randall Darlin from Capt (XO) 007 to CMDR 009
  Lateral - Stephen Chung from CMDR 009 to CMDR 012

015 got shook up and emptied out.

Command Changes...with a Twist

Another day, another rumor of changes to be made in the Department. The biggest change of all? Residency is optional.....if you're an XO bucking for Commander:

• Hey SCC, Looks like an "untouchable" residing out of town is going to be named commander. How you ask? Nothing as simple as a wedding dress. Two houses. Live in LaGrange, own a second house in Garfield Ridge. Have your kids attend [omitted] and have your spouse tell everyone who'll listen how you've scammed the system for years. IAD refuses to investigate where he lays his head.

There have been a number of persons who resided outside of city limits and got away with it, based on how heavy their clout was. We suppose if you're rich enough to have two houses, and pay taxes on both, everything else is a matter of semantics. But most cops don't get rich on this job - it's hard enough to buy and maintain a single house, let alone two. A cheap apartment might be the way to go instead.

But if it were this easy, we imagine a lot more people would be doing it.

Some 'Splainin' to Do

Interesting:

Why would a Public Defender need a gun? All of their clients are as pure as the driven snow, right?

Under the Bus!

Not unexpected:

• Two aviation security officers have been fired — and a suspended officer has resigned — for their roles in the April 9 passenger dragging fiasco aboard United Airlines Flight 3411.
  
  The final resolution of disciplinary action recommended by Inspector General Joe Ferguson is included in Ferguson’s quarterly report, released Tuesday.
  
  As always, the names of the fired employees were withheld. They were identified only as an aviation security officer and a sergeant.

The visuals (and politics) of the entire incident were never good, and it was obvious the shit was going to flow all the way downhill from the beginning.

Improper Financing?

Is this something?

• If you could go to your bank for a loan offering to transfer ownership of your future income to make sure the bank got repaid, it would give you a lower rate. That would be reckless, however, and probably illegal.
  
  But that's basically what Illinois recently authorized Chicago and other home rule municipalities to do. Hidden in the state's 756-page budget implementation bill is authorization for Illinois cities and towns to borrow a new way—by transferring to bondholders full ownership of future tax revenue that flows from the state to municipalities, which is an essential public asset.
  
  Chicago is moving quickly toward using that authority for a $3 billion bond issue to be backed by conveying $660 million a year in city sales tax revenue for 40 years. Other municipalities likely will follow.

This sounds mysteriously like the Parking Meter deal where Daley got $1.15 billion upfront, promptly spent it all, and then retired as the finer details came to light that the "deal" had been massively undervalued - by billions of dollars - and that the 75 year agreement meant that everyone involved would be long dead and buried when the outraged citizens arrived with tar, feathers and rope.

It certainly looks like yet another "kicking the disaster down the road" deal.

Cost Overruns? Behind Schedule?

Of course it is:

• The future Navy Pier flyover is over budget and a year behind schedule, according to a report.
  
  While the first two phases of the long-planned Downtown bike path are set to open next year, the flyover won't be ready in full till 2019, a year later than advertised, said Mike Claffey, a spokesman for the city's Department of Transportation.
  
  And the years-long construction project is now expected to exceed its original $60 million price tag.
  
  "We just know that there is going to be more work than originally anticipated," Claffey said.

Unanticipated payoffs, he means.

New Opportunity

Never let a crisis go to waste (click for a larger version):

Introducing....the Rahm-dola. Your gondolier will sing to you and your date from a wide selection of Dean Martin's Greatest hits while poling your boat through the Chicago River-Swim. Scented candles are a MUST. Make sure you are up-to-date on all your shots.

Well Done Dart

Looks like Sheriff Dart has, once again, cost the county taxpayers millions of dollars:

• After years of litigation over the 2012 firing of a single Cook County sheriff’s police officer, dozens of other officers, jail guards and courtroom deputies fired for misconduct could get their jobs back, and hundreds more suspended without pay could be in line for possibly six-figure payouts.
  
  The state Supreme Court last month declined to consider an appeal of a lower court ruling that found Sheriff Tom Dart and the Cook County Board improperly appointed members to the Sheriff’s Merit Board, which hands out firings and suspensions for sheriff’s sworn personnel.
  
  The decision raises questions about hundreds of disciplinary cases brought by Dart, who has aggressively filed charges against officers, deputies and guards during his nearly 10 years in office. The ruling has caused an “administrative and bureaucratic mess” that might take years to unravel, said Cara Smith, Dart’s chief policy officer.
  
  The ruling affects cases that date back at least until 2011, and the sheriff’s and state’s attorney’s offices are researching whether earlier board appointments could affect even more cases, Smith said.

Perhaps Dart should institute some sort of "pizza tax" to pay for his mismanagement and malfeasance?

Time for a new sheriff....and a serious look at disbanding large portions of County government.

Chicago is Safe?

Generally speaking, sort of:

• Despite Chicago’s alarming, if select, murder statistics and routine singling out by President Donald Trump for gun violence, this lakeside metropolis was just ranked one of the safest cities in the world.
  
  The Economist Intelligence Unit, a London-based research firm affiliated with the Economist magazine, named Chicago to its 2017 Safe Cities Index, issued Thursday — one of only three US cities to crack the top 20 — largely based on advances in digital security.
  
  The annual ranking assesses 60 global cities using four factors: personal safety, health security, digital security and the safety of infrastructure.

Well, we certainly feel safer...digitally speaking. But that doesn't mean we aren't carrying a gun most places. And it certainly doesn't mean shit if you're a 64-year-old school teacher walking down a neighborhood street and someone decides to launch a dozen or more shots at a rival and you happen to be standing downrange. Certainly, your chances are better in certain parts of town. But a 1-in-500 chance is still a chance most people aren't happy with.

Stop Pandering to the NFL

Is Leo "WHOOOOOOOOOOOO" Flair still in charge of the Illinois State Police? And is he still providing escorts to the NFL babies? Because the NFL is dead to us:

• NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell signaled last week that a change in policy regarding standing for the national anthem would be approved by team owners at the annual fall meeting next week.
  
  But the players and their allies in the media pushed back -- hard. Now it appears that Goodell and the players union will codify a policy that will allow kneeling or any other protest during the playing of the anthem. And the league will justify it by using the NFL brand as a "platform to both raise awareness and make progress on issues of social justice and equality in this country."
  
  In other words, a total, complete cave to the players.

Goodell has almost completely destroyed the NFL's public image. And it leads to this:

• Fans booed New Orleans Saints players who knelt before the presentation of the American flag and the singing of the national anthem Sunday at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
  
  The boos rang down during a moment of silence for fallen NOPD officer Marcus McNeil, who was killed in the line of duty Friday.

The Officer killed:

Officer Marcus McNeil, 29, EOW- Oct. 13, 2017.

Kind of blows the NFL narrative out of the water.

Use of Force Rollout

Today, at 1300 hours, the new Use of Force rules roll out.

The military has expression - Time Over Target. It's the amount of time an aircraft spends over a designated spot to conduct a mission.

The paperwork alone for a single Use of Force incident is going to keep officers and their supervisors off the street for hours on end, denying the community hours of police coverage - Time Over Target. We'll have to see if it has any impact on operations, missions, or crime statistics.

We eagerly await reports from the front lines regarding the new TRR's and assorted justifications that have to be documented and the issues that will arise departmentally, judicially, legally.

We can almost guarantee the the amount of paperwork is going to give further lie to the "paperless department" we were promised decades ago.

Nice Drainage Rahm

That was quite a bit of rain this weekend:

That's how many millions of tax dollars under water? And no one could get authorization to open the locks to drain the river into the lake?

Rahm Discovers More Money!

We'd really like to see some federal auditors come in and go over the real books:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel will dedicate about $27.4 million to Chicago Police reform in his 2018 budget proposal, as the city continues rehabbing the beleaguered department’s image in the wake of the Laquan McDonald shooting scandal and a scathing Justice Department probe.
  
  “With this investment, the city of Chicago is making a down payment on police reform,” Emanuel said in a statement Friday, less than a week before his annual budget address to the City Council.
  
  The $24 million jump in funding compared to last year is set aside for “enhanced training, reform implementation, officer wellness and community policing,” according to the mayor’s office, which didn’t specify where the funding will come from, other than to say it’s part of the city’s full spending package.

$24 million appearing out of thin air should make anyone paying attention ask a lot of questions.

Nice City There Rahm

Run up the white flag Rahm, this one is all on you (and your massive manpower cuts that dis-proportionally effect "low crime" areas):

• Cynthia and John Trevillion, both longtime teachers at the Chicago Waldorf School in Rogers Park, were trying to catch a train at the Morse CTA station, a few blocks from their home, to meet up with friends Friday night.
  
  At the sound of rapid gunshots, John quickly dropped to the ground. But Cynthia, 64, didn’t make it in time. She was fatally hit in the head and pronounced dead at Presence St. Francis Hospital in Evanston just before 7:20 p.m. An autopsy Saturday determined she died of a gunshot wound to the head and neck and her death was ruled a homicide, officials said.

Kass takes the mayor to task (via Kass's social media page that an e-mailer sent us:

• She was a teacher, walking with her husband, and was slaughtered in Chicago's gang wars that City Hall can't stop. Squabbling with Trump gives City Hall cover and makes for news. But people are dying. Forget the politics. Do your jobs. Mayor Emanuel, your first job is to keep order. hundreds of murders, thousands of shootings, most unsolved. that's not order. that's how cities die.
• The mayor's office wants you to call it gun violence. That suits City Hall politicians. But it is gang violence. And the bloody street gang wars that City Hall can't control claimed another innocent life. 64 year old woman walking toward the "L" in Rogers Park when they opened fire. "They just shot that girl like it was nothing,” a witness told the Chicago Tribune. “I can’t believe what I just saw.” Believe it. Wake up Chicago
• Enough. And don't blame this on cops. We've told the cops through various means, most of it political and ugly, to stay in their cars. This is on the politicians. City Hall, either do something or go.

It's going to be an ugly few years.

Go While You're Upright

Time to retire Special Ed:

• A spokesman for the Chicago Police Department said Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson briefly fainted at an event for law enforcement Friday.
  
  Spokesman [...] said while Johnson was at an event in Springfield, he briefly experienced lightheadedness and fell on stage. Johnson got up and was taken to an area hospital for a routine evaluation.
  
  Doctor determined the spell was caused by Johnson's blood pressure medication, which was taken without eating.

Ed, while we appreciate using you as a comedic foil, you're not a spring chicken. You've just had life altering surgery, you're on more medications than many of our surviving junkies, and you're a newly wed.

Time to hang it up, let someone else take the abuse. Don't let poor judgement kill you.

Who Needs These?

From the comments:

• OT...but Interesting.
  
  I work in City Hall (Oh...Not a Cop btw..) and noticed the Department of Finance take in a rather large delivery of Bullet Proof vests from Point Blank Inc.
  
  Are they getting ready to arm the damn PEA's and Booters?

Interesting to say the least.

HeyJackass.com

Two very important stories on HeyJackass.com this weekend. First, the statistics:

• Shot & Killed: 517
  Shot & Wounded: 2479
  Total Shot: 2996
  Total Homicides: 556

So sometime Friday or Saturday, Chicago is doubtless to pass 3,000 shot. Congratulations!

Second, this little tidbit:

• The citizenry is now tied with the police for the most justifiable homicides this year with 10 each.

The result of this justifiable shooting:

• Police say the fatal shooting of 25-year-old Pleasure Cardell Singleton Jr. was a case of self-defense, and the woman who shot him will not be charged.
  
  The woman shot Singleton after he stabbed her multiple times Thursday afternoon in a domestic fight in his West Side Lawndale neighborhood home, Chicago Police said.
  
  About 4:05 p.m. Oct. 5, Singleton, a father of three, was shot in the chest after he stabbed the 25-year-old woman multiple times in the 4000 block of West 21st Street, police said.

That is a statistic that might trouble the politicians and social-justice crowd - citizens actually taking responsibility for their own safety and justifiably killing their assailants? What the Hell is this, America or something?

Keep up the good work Citizens.

Of Course Foxxx Objected

Politics comes to the fore:

• Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office opposes the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the death of a man fatally shot by a Chicago police officer six years ago, court records show.
  
  Flint Farmer was unarmed when he was shot and killed by then-Officer [GS] in June 2011 in an on-duty incident captured in part by a police dashboard camera. The Chicago Tribune broke the story that fall after learning the Farmer shooting was [GS]'s third — and second fatal one — in a six-month span.
  
  [...]
  
  In a written response, the state’s attorney’s office revealed that prosecutors re-investigated the Farmer case after Foxx won election and again found that there was not enough evidence to support charges against [GS].
  
  Prosecutors also rejected Farmer’s claim that an inherent conflict of interest exists when prosecutors investigate police-involved shootings — a position Foxx supported on the campaign trail.
  
  But since taking office in December, Foxx has implemented new “protocols” to ensure that police shootings are reviewed in “an expeditious and thorough manner,” the filing said.

Foxxx knows her reputation is built on convicting coppers. She's been at the scenes of a few shootings so far and often leaves in a huff when it's clear that the shooting was completely justified. This particular shooting still has political potential, so Foxxx wants to keep it nice and close where she can claim credit if it goes her way.

Remember, Foxxx needs scalps to run on. Just like COPA needs heads mounted on their trophy wall to justify the time and money Rahm is spending on them.

More Money for Rats

Actual rats:

• Vowing to step up the city's efforts get Chicago's exploding rat population under control, Mayor Rahm Emanuel Friday proposed spending an additional $1 million to get rid of the disease-ridden vermin.
  
  That budget boost will allow the city to add five crews of workers charged with reducing the number of disease-ridden critters scurrying through Chicago's streets and alleys, officials said. That will bring the number of rat control crews to 30 in 2018, officials said.
  
  In the spring of 2016, the city had eight rat control crews, records show.

Rahm had slashed the Rat Patrol in an effort to balance the books that Shortshanks had left so far out of whack, that Shanks had to retire rather than face defeat or indictment. Rats however, just keep on doing what they do best - breeding and spreading disease, and now Rahm is stuck spending far more than he should have (or actually has) controlling a problem that was, by most accounts, controlled.

But remember, Police Overtime is the driving force behind all that is politically inconvenient.

More Wasted Overtime

Hey Andy Shaw, how about this OT? (from our e-mail):

• Another Thursday come and gone and CompStat was a rousing success.
  
  In attendance were all sorts of Chiefs, Deputy Chiefs, and Commanders.
  
  Also just about every XO in the city, who either had hours adjusted or received overtime, not to mention Lietenants working out of grade a Commanding Officers.
  
  Countless Lieutenants, including one from every watch for the District/Area up for review. That's a whole bunch of overtime since each got around 4 hours.
  
  And then there's the "statistic people" in every front office racking up Overtime to get binders full of info for the meetings and produce a lot of paperwork, all of which will be filed, stored or shredded, never to be seen again - it takes a lot of overtime to compile all those binders.

Has anyone ever worked out how much a CompStat meeting costs? We're sure it's significant.

More OT for Cubs?

Did they mobilize last year for the Championship Series?

Or was that only tactical teams?

It's been so long, we forgot.

Ferguson is already trying to ban OT.

Good Idea, Bad Execution

This is how people get accidentally shot:

• Police rushed to the scene of what they thought was an active shooter in West Town on Wednesday morning — only to learn the incident was a drill.
  
  About 8:30 a.m., officers were called to a health center in the 1700 block of West Superior Street because there were reports of an active shooter, said Chicago Police Department spokesman [...]. Multiple calls were made to 911 about the shooter, [...], but once officers arrived they learned the incident was a drill.
  
  The Police Department wasn't consulted about the drill....

We understand the need to drill, but we also know that unless the CPD is told about the drill, then we are going to act as if it is real life.

Seriously?

Open enrollment packages are arriving in the mail and this is what readers are seeing:

"So Proud to Call Chicago Home" that they use a picture of London cops?

We feel so appreciated.

Nolle Pros = Lawsuit?

This does not bode well for policing:

• The war on cops is moving from the streets to the U.S. Supreme Court. Last week, the Justices heard a case that threatens police officers with financial ruin if they make arrests and the charges later get dropped.
  
  It started with a late night bash. District of Columbia police officers were called by neighbors at 1 a.m. to investigate a rowdy party at an unoccupied row house. The police found 21 partygoers, liquor, trash, and used condoms strewn about, the smell of marijuana, and women with cash stuffed in their thongs. The partygoers scattered, hiding in closets.
  
  When questioned, some told police “Peaches had invited them.” Some gave other stories. The police phoned “Peaches,” who admitted not having the owner’s permission to use the house. The police then called the owner, who confirmed no one had permission. Two hours after being summoned, the police made the decision to arrest the partygoers for trespassing — the judgment call at issue in this case.
  
  The charges were later dropped, because it wasn’t clear beyond a reasonable doubt the partygoers knew they were trespassing. But sixteen turned around and sued the police for false arrest and violating their constitutional rights.

Luckily, President Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and this suit should die an ignominious death:

• The justices should put a stop to it. Fortunately, the Court has a long record of protecting the police from legal liability, provided there’s no evidence of malice or a deliberate violation of the Constitution.
  
  If merely making an arrest puts cops at risk of getting sued and clobbered with legal fees and damage awards, what police officer will ever make an arrest? One mistake could mean losing their home and everything else. Faced with that risk, who would ever want to be a cop?

But in case you were wondering what the end-game is of the ACLU and Rahm's "consent decree:"

• Twenty-six states and the federal Justice Department are weighing in with a strong warning that allowing the lower court ruling to stand would have “vast consequences” for law enforcement everywhere. On the other side, the American Civil Liberties Union is pushing to shrink or even eliminate the police’s legal immunity. The ACLU wants police to have no room for error.

All sorts of interesting and informative links at the original article. It wouldn't hurt anyone to  read a few.