Trooper Injured

ISP had a trooper hit on the Dan Ryan yesterday.

• An Illinois State Police trooper was hit by a vehicle about 9 p.m. tonight on the Dan Ryan Expressway.

  The female trooper suffered a broken leg, but the injuries appeared to be non-life-threatening, said Larry Langford, a Chicago Fire Department spokesman.

  He could not say whether she was inside or outside her squad car when hit by the vehicle. She was taken via ambulance to Stroger Hospital.

Well wishes and prayers for a speedy recovery here only.

Another Arrest in Burglary

A good job rolling this one up:

• A second person has been charged in a burglary that a Chicago Police sergeant was responding to when his squad car crashed, fatally injuring him.

  Carlos Brown, 28, of the 200 block of 23d Street in Chicago Heights, faces a felony burglary charge in connection with the burglary about 5:30 a.m. Monday at a cell phone store in the 3100 block of North Clark Street.

Again, no one should be expecting Felony Murder charges over this arrest. These assholes weren't thinking any farther ahead than a quick smash-and-grab type burglary and getaway regardless of whatever spin J-Fed want to put it.

Begin the Spin!

They might not be the first, but they're the most obvious at this point:

• [Channel 2] On the Second City Cop blog, some commentators also blamed the city Department of Streets and Sanitation, claiming the department had been ordered to stop salting Lake Shore Drive despite slick conditions.

So our readers are a bunch of malcontents looking to blame other city departments for the conditions that led to the fatal crash of a police sergeant?

• According to other media reports, at least one S&S driver is claiming that they were ordered to stop salting the Drive after 3 AM;
• A high-ranking department member is quoted saying that the sergeant's car was ready to be put out to pasture;
• The media has been reporting for years now when winter speed limits go into effect on LSD and have openly reported that the reason for these reductions is to stop splashing salt onto the planter boxes - how difficult is it to see that less salt and less splashing is resulting in less safe conditions?

Our readers have incredible insight into the inner machinations of the political system here in Chicago. The lore passed among coppers is extensive. We know the political stories. We see the connections every day. People like to talk to cops and cops are natural listeners. There is a big story here if only it were properly investigated and exposed.

But with the media dancing to Daley's tune, well...who knows?

Alternative Media on the Case

InTheLoop.TV picks up the J-Fed tire story and runs with it.

They also ask for other photos of some of the vehicles we drive.

As these are all taxpayer purchased vehicles, we're sure that photographs of them on the public way violates no known law or ordinance.

What would be truly amusing would be photographs of the vehicle along with a shot of the odometer. We drove one last week with 193,000 miles on it and the breeze from the leaky doors and windows was enough to move what's left of our hair from one side of the comb-over to the other.

Sunday is vehicle inspection day - how about some pictures?

Command Changes

Well, that would actually be "Command Change" as in one single change:

• A big THANK YOU to Mike Masters for putting the petulant Bob Lopez in his place yesterday! How dare a 30+ year veteran stand up to the Chief Of Staff. Your CAPS attendance is down Bob! And you need more gang dispersals! True, homicides are down, but we need event #s! Sadly, Masters and J-Fed then assured Bob that his spot was safe. BUT then at the funeral J-Fed changed his mind and dumped Lopez! Now some may say that dumping someone at a funeral for a fallen brother is not classy...but when has J-Fed been classy toward 025?

And how did they break the news to Bobby?

• ... it would interest you to know that the Sup went to Cmdr Lopez at the conclusion of the services at Bethel and told him that he was being demoted and he can retire or be Bt 390.

And the soap opera continues.

Densey & Mary Take the Lead

Don't celebrate yet, there's still a month to go, but as of tonight Densey and Mary had a 300 vote lead. Last night they were in 6th place and over 2,500 votes behind.

The efforts to get Densey's and Mary's story out there have been paying tremendous dividends as we've heard police blogs from Salt Lake, Atlanta, Dallas have taken up the cause along with the granddaddy of them all, THEE Rant (NYPD).

A lead is nice, but we would like to see a lead so insurmountable that other couples simply concede. The link is here - go vote if you haven't already. If you haven't, go tell your friends, families and social networking e-mail lists that Densey and Mary would appreciate your support.

Election Petitions

You little people shouldn't be running for political office anyway:

• Here's a sure sign that Chicago aldermen are petrified about next year's City Council election. Their protectors in Springfield are trying to make it much harder for anybody to run against them.
  
  An Illinois House committee this week approved a bill that would greatly increase the number of petition signatures a candidate has to collect to get on the ballot. And if a registered voter signed petitions for two or more candidates, the signatures wouldn't count.
  
  Bottom line: Less competition! How nice for the incumbents.

Next thing you know, you'll all be making noise about voting against Shortshanks.

The article says that all you need to vote for aldercreature is 2% of the previous election vote totals. The average number of signatures needed? One-hundred-eighty-seven.

That's it? Why the heck don't we have dozens of coppers running for office? Some of these wards only needed eighty signatures for a spot on the ballot. We could see a bloc of coppers getting together and unseating an aldercreature or four or eight. It would be enough to give Shortshanks indigestion for months.

Funeral Today

In an hour or so, the drums will sound, the pipes will play and the ritual of burying one of our own will once again begin. In a few short hours, the flags will be folded, the final salutes rendered and life will go on. Emptier, but onward.

Final remembrances for Sgt. Alan Haymaker can be left here.

What is This?

Does anyone have any idea what this is?

It looks like a snow tire. Brand new judging by the treads. Wrangler. And where did some of our astute viewers find this tire?

That's a Ford Expedition. And it's parked in the Department HQ lot. In an "A" spot right up front. Who has a black unmarked Expedition with 4 brand new snow tires on it?

Why, that appears to be an exempt tag! Anyone have any info on whose car this might be?

[UPDATE: grammar corrections]

Smoke

A noun. Defined as what J-Fed was blowing up everyones' asses:

• Police in Chicago have made an arrest in the burglary that Sgt. Alan Haymaker was responding to when he crashed on Lake Shore Drive and was killed early Monday, but prosecutors don't plan to charge the man in Haymaker's death.

• Police Supt. Jody Weis had said earlier this week that prosecutors might charge anyone involved in Monday's burglary of a cellphone company on North Clark Street with felony murder, based on the legal theory that the commission of the burglary led to the death of Haymaker, 56, a third-generation Chicago cop who worked out of the Town Hall district on the city’s North Side.

  But Simonton said today: “There is not sufficient legal basis to charge the offender . . . . . . in connection with the death of Sgt. Haymaker. While we certainly understand the pain and anguish felt by the Chicago Police Department in the wake of this tragedy, we don’t have the evidence that would be required to meet the burden of proof to sustain a felony murder charge.”

No shit. We saw that one coming a mile away. So did anyone with half a brain, which leaves out most of the media who are hanging on J-Fed's blatherings like he had any experience in actually charging, prosecuting and testifying at a criminal case.

Daley Subpoenaed

Can't wait for some of this:

• Mayor Daley has been subpoenaed by the defense in the upcoming trial of developer Calvin Boender, City Hall disclosed today.

  A statement from City Hall's Corporation Counsel Mara Georges said Daley received the subpoena Tuesday. Boender, who is accused of bribing Ald. Issac "Ike" Carothers in exchange for a zoning change, had also subpoenaed 10 aldermen.

  "On Tuesday, February 23rd, my office received a subpoena from the defense for the Mayor's appearance at trial in the Cal Boender case," Georges said in the statement. "If the court finds that the Mayor’s testimony is relevant and required, he will testify."

We sense a whole bunch of "I don't recall(s)" coming from Shortshanks on this one. It sure would be nice to know how long Ike was wearing that wire and how many meetings he went to while hooked up.

A Billion Dollars?

And the graduation rate is still around 50%? What exactly are we paying for?

• The grim 2011 budget forecast takes into account a skyrocketing pension obligation next year and contractual raises for teachers that together increase costs by about $450 million over this year, district officials said.

  The dire prognosis comes in the middle of an already tough budget year that started with a half-billion-dollar deficit. To balance this year's budget, the district trimmed millions in programs, laid off 536 employees and mandated six furlough days for nonunion staff.

The entire city budget is how much? $6 billion. And the CPS is about to run a deficit of almost a billion dollars? Something is seriously amiss with the school management.

Headquarter Uproars

Rumblings on the 5th Floor of HQ:

• Patrol was a buzz today with stories of in fighting from the Supt's office. It seems that IAD personnel are none to happy about Masters giving an audience to a disgruntled IAD employee and then looking to IAD for answers to her complaints. Even though everybody if asked before hand would of told him not to take the meeting because she is crazy and disgruntled. But Masters have proved consistently that he is smarter than everyone and so the bad advice keeps coming. So with this latest scenerio, IAD as a whole is now disgruntled.
  
  So with this news, comes this tidbit - the Supt asked IAD to run a legit investigation on Wedster. So IAD complies and is seeking to seperate. Masters finds out at tells IAD to change their recommendation. IAD explains that the Supt doesn't have to agree but Masters insist because he doesn't want the Supt to be the bad guy. Only at CPD!!

Well, we're sure Masters doesn't want Brust being dragged through the meat grinder either - after all, he accepted the concert tickets. So much for "Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity." All oaths go out the window in Chicago it seems.

And then there's this:

• looks like Blinky tried to dump a certain Lt who she thinks is the leak. Blinky was told to drop it he's retiring soon.

We're assuming this is the boss quoted about Sgt. Haymaker's car being ready "to be put out to pasture." And "Blinky" is the other nickname for Aunt "the bartender" Bea. How very like the top brass to attempt to attack the leak rather than the actual problem. Of course, that's exactly what J-Fed did when he attempted to use the FBI Disciplinary process to fire Agent Robert Wright - remember this?

• A Chicago FBI agent who has complained to the media and Congress that the bureau bungled terrorism investigations had been targeted for firing by supervisors who vowed to "take him out," according to a memo written by a former high-ranking official in the FBI's disciplinary office.
  
  The FBI opened an internal investigation against Agent Robert G. Wright Jr. in 2003 just days after his appearance at a news conference and on a national television news program, according to the memo obtained by the Tribune.
  
  The top two agents in the FBI's disciplinary office at the time, Robert J. Jordan and J.P. "Jody" Weis, ordered an investigation into Wright for insubordination and had already made up their minds to have him fired, according to the memo.

And we get our own warnings via e-mail and unpublished comments:

• ...word is the SOUP is super pissed at the blog and swearing revenge. He doesn't like the blame being placed on the crappy pool vehicles and icy unsalted streets. Look out...

We're pretty sure that J-Fed has enough on his plate without conducting investigations regarding a blog he has called "insignificant" on a number of occasions. We mean, there's no possible way he would ever let an unauthorized and illegal First Amendment investigation into protected speech occur on his watch by an overzealous lieutenant in the Internal Affairs Division in the face of Consent Decrees, judicial findings and outright bans of "Red Squad" type activities. That would be ridiculous.

Wouldn't it Barb?

Densey Cole Honeymoon

How about it readers? We're sure we can get Densey and Mary a few hundred votes:

• scc, Im sure your familiar with officer densey coles story. when he woke up from his coma he and his fiance were married in the hospital. They have been going through some tough times since then with mounting medical bills. They once dreamed of a proper wedding and a dream honeymoon. Due to the bills they cant afford it. They have registered at crate and barrel in the "ultimate wedding contest." If they get the most amount of votes, they will get the dream honeymoon that they had been planning for. If possible, can you post a thread supporting densey and his new wife. I really think that If he and his wife can win this it would really lift his spirits. After all he has been through I really think this would be an awesome thing to help him out with. Hopefully you can be a big part of this contest in getting them to the finish line.

Voting takes place at this link here.

Bipolar Media Coverage

They don't know which way to turn.

• Fox-32: FOX Chicago News has learned Streets and Sanitation workers were ordered to stop salting Lake Shore Drive around 4 a.m. Monday, about an hour before the fatal accident that killed Chicago Police Sgt. Alan Haymaker. Haymaker was driving southbound on Lake Shore Drive, exiting at Irving Park Road, when his vehicle went off the ramp and into a tree.
  
  
• Channel 7: Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis says it's time to stop placing blame for the crash that killed Sergeant Alan Haymaker. Since Monday, accusations have flown about what caused the one-car crash. Sgt. Haymaker was on his way to a burglary-in-progress call when he lost control of his squad car and crashed on Lake Shore Drive near Irving Park early Monday morning.
  
  
• Channel 5: Supt. Jody Weis on Wednesday denied allegations that a poorly repaired squad car played a role in the one-car crash Monday morning that took the life of a police sergeant. "The car was recently serviced. It had 1,000 miles on it since the service and there were no indicators that there were any complaints about that particular vehicle, so based upon what I know at this time, I would have to say that the vehicle was functioning properly," Weis said.
  
  
• Channel 2: Weis also responded angrily to persistent questions about the safety of the squad car involved in the crash. CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot talked with police sources who have similar concerns about vehicles used by officers. While Weis calls one post about retreaded tires being used on squad cars, "an outrageous claim", police sources we spoke to off camera said retreaded tires ARE used on police cars; and the older fleet, known as pool cars, are not maintained on a regular basis.

They know there's a story here, a big one, but they aren't sure where to approach it from.

• They have off-camera quotes from a CPD boss that the car was in no condition to be on the street.
  
• They have at least two Streets and San drivers on deep background saying the order to stop salting came from very high up.
  
• They have photographic evidence from a couple of local blogs that show Sgt. Haymaker's car went in a straight line off of LSD and hit a tree meaning this part of the Drive was probably a sheet of ice in the early morning hours.
  
• They have a wounded political Machine run by a weakened mayor who everyone knows (knows!!!) has been not salting major arterial streets because of his precious planter boxes.

Our biggest worry here is a Three Stooges scenario where all this information tries to get through the door and in the end, nothing gets accomplished. We have a feeling that this scenario is someone else's biggest hope.

Task Force Applications

You didn't really believe that stuff, did you?

• OT...rumor has it that there is a new PO assigned to a Federal Task Force out of the DOC working with Immigration Customs Enforcement. Wow I didn't even see the announcement. Way to stay legit.

Anyone see the announcement for the spot? Or is this one of those, "we had the application on file previously, so this isn't really an example of us circumventing the process" deals? If someone can dig up the notice, we'll retract the criticisms.

E&RPS Unsecure

Imagine a building filled with many hundreds of weapons and millions in illegal narcotics, much of it evidence in countless trials yet to be held.

• How about a building that has millions of dollars in narcotics, hundreds of guns and can't even lock but it does Have ONE officer to keep secure and who can't leave the desk because the phone has to be answered, check erps and forensic services front door. We have asked to have the front door lock fixed for YEARS we are told "parts on order". Now how safe is that?

  2/24/2010 01:47:00 AM

And this is just a doorway. Just like all those doorways they blamed city-wide when the juvenile police impersonator had his ride-along adventure.

Does anyone really think the vehicle fleet is maintained any better?

Wake and Funeral Info

Visitation - Bethel Community Church
7601 w. Foster, Chicago, IL 60656, on

Thursday, 25 February 2010 from 1500 - 2100 hours and
Friday, 26 February 2010 from 1000 - 1100 hours.
St. Jude- Thursday, 25 February 2010 at 1900 hours

Funeral - Bethel Community Church,
7601 w. Foster, Chicago, IL 60656 on

Friday, 26 February 2010 at 1100 hours.

Interment - Maryhill Cemetery,
8600 N. Milwaukee, Niles, IL 60714.

Unsafe Vehicle Caused Crash?

A possible bombshell revelation:

• There are serious questions about the condition of the car being driven by Chicago Police Sgt. Alan Haymaker when he was killed. Officially, the department is insisting the 2005 Chevrolet blue-and-white was in good condition and safe to drive. But, according to CBS 2's Mike Parker, one member of the CPD's top brass is saying something else.
  
  The vehicle that swerved off Lake Shore Drive and slammed into a tree was a "pool" car, not regularly assigned to the streets.
  
  A high ranking CPD officer, who does not want his name used, thinks there was good reason for that. In his words, "this car was like a horse, waiting to be put out to pasture. A lot of these cars shouldn't be driven."

Holy shit.

Hopefully, this is going to open a can of worms the likes of which haven't been seen in the history of the Department. Over the history of the blog, we've been posting comments and complaints about the condition of our equipment, from computers to buildings to vehicles. The hidden scandals of disbanding our own repair shops to shifting the vehicle pool to Fleet where the Outfit-connected sales of damaged yet serviceable vehicles were sold for pennies-on-the-dollar might come to the fore finally. This might only be the beginning.

These unreported scandals have cost us the life of one officer and crippled more than a few for life. Preventable tragedies, each and every one.

Shortshanks Backs Unions!

Unless they're a stumbling block to his new story of being a "reformer," right?

• Mayor Richard M. Daley is considering the idea of privatizing McCormick Place, according to published reports Tuesday.
  
  The mayor told the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association Monday night that "being in the private sector you manage it and get out of the business of McCormick Place, in the sense that it should be fully privatized," the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday.
  
  Daley believes privatization could cut costs, the Tribune reported.

Really? What ever gave him that idea?

Daley is stuck in a precarious position where he needs to slash the cost of doing business in Chicago while at the same time maintaining an impossible level of "services" expected by the reverends and the votes they control. And the only way to do this is to jettison the union support democrats have enjoyed for generations. It's a suicide run. And from our perspective, it's funny as hell.

Is Quinn Poison?

Interesting:

• Gov. Quinn’s top choice for running mate turned him down Tuesday.

  Major Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran, said she felt too strong a commitment to stick with her post at the Veterans Affairs Dept.

  “I made a commitment to President Obama and our Nation's Veterans to serve at the Department of Veterans' Affairs and I want to fulfill my promise before returning home,” Duckworth said from Washington, D.C.

Duckworth is smart enough to see 2010 is shaping up to be a republican year across the nation - why give up a secure job for an iffy proposition in Illinois? And in any case, Madigan has already decreed that Lisa gets the job in 2014 and no one better stand in her way.

Crash Question

There's a tendency for everyone to second guess or Monday morning quarterback a tragic event. Most times, it's an effort to understand why something happened or figure out who's to blame. We suppose it's natural, but can be construed as inappropriate so close to the event. We deleted a few of those comments in the original post yesterday because we stated that it was for prayers and remembrances only.

But reviewing the comments, one stood out. And an e-mail last night reinforced our disquiet. The comment stated the following:

• [from a cop on traffic control at the scene] Would you believe that I was waved down by a City snowplow driver on the inner drive and he stated that they were under orders...NOT to salt Lakeshore Drive!
  
  The City Snowplow Driver seemed sincere and pissed off that a needless accident had to happen because of his direct orders.

The e-mail was a bit more damning:

• A friend who monitored the radio transmission this morning stated that someone from streets n san broadcasted the following...No More Salt On Lake Shore Drive"! That was before the Sgt Crashed. Can someone pull the tapes for that Sgt's family! I figured your the best source of info relay

We can only assume the radio transmission was over the Streets and San radio net and we have no idea if their stuff is recorded and saved like ours and what sort of legal compunctions they might be under to preserve the tapes.

We would really really hate to think that some bureaucrat pinching pennies on salt distribution during what was supposed to be a pretty heavy winter storm may have contributed in some fashion to the death of one of our own.

Testify! Testify!

Get these bastards under oath:

• A federal judge on Monday left the door open to compelling Chicago aldermen to testify for the defense in the upcoming trial of a developer accused of passing bribes for a zoning change.

  Ten current and former aldermen have been trying to block subpoenas brought by attorneys for developer Calvin Boender, who faces a March 8 trial on charges that he bribed then-Ald. Isaac “Ike” Carothers (29th).

  Carothers has pleaded guilty and submitted his resignation.

  U.S. District Judge Robert M. Dow Jr. said Monday he was likely to deny the aldermen’s bid to quash the subpoenas outright but he still questioned whether their testimony would be relevant at trial.

Oh, it'll be relevant all right. It'll be relevant like a spotlight:

• Five of the subpoenaed aldermen sat on a committee that advanced a zoning change allowing Boender to redevelop the 50-acre Galewood Yards from industrial to residential use.

  Authorities charge that Carothers approved the zoning change after Boender bankrolled $40,000 in improvements to the Carothers’ residence. Defense lawyers want to ask other aldermen the reasoning behind their votes.

We sense a whole a bunch of verbal gymnastics and squirming.

More Camera Angst

Red light cameras in the spotlight again, this time for Right Turn on Red violations:

• Red Light cams -- or red-light scams?
  
  One state senator calls them cash stations on a stick. One village made a million bucks before being shamed into taking a camera down.
  
  You don't even think about running red lights when you see them. But now they've found a new way to take your money.
  
  Thirty-eight thousand cars a day speed through an intersection near Great Lakes Naval Training Center in North Chicago. Signs eastbound warn of "Red Light Photo Enforcement," but there is no sign prohibiting right turn on red, which the camera caught a CBS 2 producer doing.

Proper signage has always been at the heart of most of these challenges. There's a reason that every Chicago intersection with a camera has signs on all four corners, even the camera is only watching a single direction of travel. In any event, the media is noticing the beginnings of a anti-camera movement that might one day amount to something. So are some of the politicians.

Officer Injured

Bad accident this morning. Wishing the officer a speedy recovery.

Positive thoughts and prayers only for this post. All others will be deleted.

UPDATE: It was a 023 District sergeant and he has died. Prayers and condolences for family only. All others will be deleted.

Camera SPARs

Nothing like a little discipline to raise morale:

• Approximately 20 3rd watch officers (008) were informed by dugan that we needed to justify why we didn't log onto the in car camera. We had 1 shift to respond to this. Not 72 hours like a normal to from. Fop has been notfied. The to from from all officers is very vague. We are all looking at taking a day for it. Please post this ASAP. Tell all officers to document the working status of the cameras before their tour if the camera isn't working do a to from and get a help desk number.
  

Well, you can't say there wasn't any warning on this. Patrol put out a directive saying they were going to start tracking camera usage shortly and this would appear to be a result of that tracking. It was in the C.O. Book for a while.

That being said, there appear to be a number of issues contributing to this silliness. First up is the car rotation. No one knows what's working, what isn't, what's reported and what's new, especially damage wise. When we had assigned cars, you at least had an idea what the hell was going on with your ride. Now, it's a crap shoot of vehicle boards that are never updated, inconsistent vehicle inspections, vehicle files in disarray and post-it-notes/Misc-X cards taped to steering wheels. The people at 4-DATA must be overwhelmed with duplicate and triplicate work orders. The camera maintenance guys are in our districts twice a week at minimum.

Also, the low-bid installation and poor quality cameras chosen by some connected bidding process, not to mention the antennae problems for uploading video. Not even a month ago, we heard stories of cars that had to be downed for the entire tour to upload something like 50 BILLION bytes of video that had been stored up over a number of weeks. Is anyone even watching this crap? And as predicted here and elsewhere, lack of proper spending, installation and maintenance at the front end is turning this into another city orgy of misspent funds.

Document, document, document. We've said this before:

Meet your new best friend. Log the date, your vehicle's condition and any notable events that may have been recorded visually or on audio. It may make your life easier.

Homicide Totals

Anyone seen the year-to-date report lying around? We're trying to see if the ominous silence this month means something bad.

Activity Quotas Again?

Once again, why does downtown even spend time exploring things like this? As first addressed in the "Headquarters Rumors" posting:

• Special employment based on activity, eh?
  
  Hey, boss! What's my quota that I need in order to work special employment? What's that? I'm sorry. I didn't hear you. Yes, boss, I asked what is my QUOTA for activity in order to get special employment? Also, could you put that in writing please.
  
  P.S. Hey, you detectives,I guess you better take out some parkers, movers and contact cards with you on that follow-up, or witness interview. Can't work special without activity.
  
  What a bunch of jags! Very equitable and fair system you got there you 35th/Mich brain children.

How do you measure the activity of inside people? How do you measure the activity of D-2 and D-2A positions? You can't. And it will be a cold day in hell that anyone at HQ ever puts a quota on paper seeing as how quotas are illegal and lead to shitty police work, not to mention massive payouts to litigious-happy lawyers.

Instead of trying to work around the seniority issues, how about expanding the opportunities?

Witch Hunts

Unhappy people at IAD? What's going on there?

• It's no rumor. One of IAD agents has turned on IAD prior to her retirement. She had an audience with the Supt and McMasters' telling them about the ills. As a result, sgts must leave to-froms justifying their reasons for being there. This is only the beginning.

Or this one:

• Oh I'm hoping that someone hears the Iad Retiree and makes major changes. Too bad she came forward so late about the bs that goes on over there.
  
  A very well known law firm has just been retained by a po who just came back to work and is now being messed with again.
  
  Stop those witch-hunts that have been coming out of IAD.

It's not like IAD is running illegal First Amendment investigations in violation of Department Policy, General Orders, and existing Federal Consent Decrees concerning protected speech by citizens, is it? Anyone want to answer that one? Maybe a former Lt. assigned to Unit 121?

TASER Training Restarted

Evidently, last week the Department began re-training, new training and qualifications for Officers to carry TASERs once again. We assume that means the equipment is on the way and will be available for deployment in the near future.

A word of caution - we've been on the scene of TASER deployments. They fail on occasion. It is not a substitute for Lethal Force and if it fails, you should be prepared for a fight. Be aware of where your backup is and how far they have to come to assist you.

Even the Dead Hate Daley

Here are some deceased voters who may not be voting democratic anymore:

• Those buried in St. Johannes Cemetery can rest in peace, for now.

  A state appellate court granted a temporary restraining order Thursday night, stopping the City of Chicago from relocating any more graves from the historic cemetery that borders O'Hare International Airport.

  [...] The City had removed approximately 20 graves so far to make way for a new airport runway. The court order, however, bars any further disinterment even if the city has already received permission from next of kin.

We're sure Shortshanks had the initial 20 moved to a predominately democratic cemetery in order to make sure their new found independent voting tendencies were nipped in the bud. The zombie vote is rumored to be up for grabs this next election. We are amused that even the dead of St. Johannes are causing Shortshanks pain and embarrassment.

Making Drew Rich

We'll start by saying we believe Drew Peterson to be guilty of any number of crimes. It's our opinion, we're entitled to it, we don't have to back it up with anything but a gut feeling, and it tells us Drew is a slick character. If you ever have to deal with him, check your wallet and count your fingers afterward. Twice.

But this prosecutor in Will County is going to cost the taxpayers millions of dollars.

• Drew Peterson, the former Bolingbrook police sergeant, likely killed his 23-year-old wife Stacy using a choke hold in their bedroom on the Sunday morning family and friends first noticed she disappeared, Will County's top prosecutor said today.

  State's Attorney James Glasgow, who referred to Peterson as a "knucklehead" and "hideous B-movie stalker," laid out for the first time a theory of how Stacy, who disappeared in 2007, was killed.

  Glasgow's comments came during closing arguments in a unique pretrial hearing on whether hearsay statements can be heard by a jury in Peterson's upcoming trial for the 2004 drowning death of third wife Kathleen Savio.

Is there blood? DNA? Any form of scratch marks, claw marks, body fluids, spatter evidence, grainy gas station video, tollway receipts, cell phone pings, anything remotely available that ties Drew to a crime?

Nope.

And this Will County State's Attorney, who enjoys prosecutorial immunity, is saying Drew strangled Stacy using a choke hold in the bedroom on a Sunday morning? Based on what? A guess? A gut feeling? You can have all the gut feelings you want, but you can't prosecute based on a gut feeling and you can't stand the criminal justice system on its head because the guy making a monkey out of you is a "B-movie stalker." This isn't a game of Clue.

Here's the intelligent thing to do - suspend the case. Wait it out. There is no statute of limitations on murder. At some point, a body turns up, someone recalls a pickup truck driving by in the dead of night, technology catches up with the crime - it took 14 years for the Brown's Chicken massacre to come to trial. The system gets there, albeit not as fast as we like sometimes, but it gets to the finish line in some form or another.

Drew outsmarted the system for the time being. It happens sometimes, especially with psychopaths. But Drew has gotten a taste of publicity and he can't help but taunt the powers that be with how smart he is. Play to it and he'll screw up somewhere if he's guilty. Go to trial on this weak ass "hearsay" evidence that flies in the face of 230 years of law and Will County will blow what may be a single chance to bring a killer to justice. Not only that, the taxpayers will end up paying for lawyers, damages and Drew's ego-maniacal pathology to the tune of millions.

It's Chicago; It's Winter;

It snows!

• Mother Nature may be flirting with Chicagoans with a few days of sunshine followed by a winter storm watch in the same week.

  The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm watch in effect Sunday evening through Monday afternoon.

  Heavy snow is expected Sunday night into early Monday morning with a total of eight to 12 inches likely, the weather service said. Accumulation rates of an inch per hour is expected, but should stop by mid-day Monday.

This was the top story Saturday in both papers' on-line editions and each of the major networks. And the second story? Clear off the lawn chairs, 5-gallon-buckets and 2x4's saving parking spots or Shortshanks will do it for you.

You'd think they never saw a snowflake before 2010.

#10 on the Misery Scale

Hey, it's down from #3 last year:

• Whenever Forbes Magazine puts out a list of most miserable, stressful or otherwise impaired cities, Chicago always seems to be on it.
  
  The latest Most Miserable Cities list is no exception, although there may be some small comfort in the fact that Chicago has dropped to the 10th most miserable city from its ranking last year at third.
  
  The city's high sales tax rate of 10.25 percent was cited as the reason the city is "miserable," as well as long commutes. Forbes also highlighted the city's failure to win the 2016 Olympics last October despite a last-minute plea by President Barack Obama during final presentations in Copenhagen.

Actually, we thought the No-lympic failure was the driving reason behind Chicago's fall to tenth place - no one who wasn't connected to Shortshanks or a clout-heavy construction firm was the least bit saddened by Daley's failure. It actually provided us with days of glee.

Sorry Ruthie, Pete

Bad news kids:

• Elton John said Friday that the summer leg of his joint concert tour with Billy Joel has been canceled. "It's not my decision, it's Billy's," John said at the Beverly Hills Hotel, during satellite TV interviews to promote the Chicago engagement of "Billy Elliot."
  
  "He has decided to take a year off. It doesn't gel with my plans but he's a friend. And as an artist you have to respect his decision."
  
  John said he was "bitterly disappointed" not to return to Wrigley. "That's the church."

Church of what, we have no idea.

Rumor has it that at least a few of the exempts who attended the Wrigley concerts are already asking Ruthie for U2 tickets for Soldier Field in July.

Phleger Phlucks his Phlock

So much for being a voice for his community. He's nothing but a mouthpiece for Shortshanks (again):

• Surrounded by laid-off CTA bus drivers, activist priest Michael Pfleger called on CTA unions today to give back this year's salary increase and accept unpaid furlough days to help end service cuts.
  
  "In a crisis everybody needs to give in ... and care for the whole," Pfleger said at St. Sabina Church.
  [...] Pfleger said he wasn't taking sides in the dispute, even though he called on the union to give back this year's 3.5 percent salary increase and take unpaid furlough days.

Funny, but we didn't see Phleger calling for teachers to give back their 4% a year. Nor aldercreatures to give back their 6% a year and the increase in their $1.3 million "friends and family" slush funds.

We guess for some things, it just pays to keep your mouth shut.

The Ties That Bind

And if anyone had any doubt that George Ryan was anything but a small part of the Illinois criminal Combine that runs Illinois, this should dispel all doubts:

• The Illinois Supreme Court today ruled that imprisoned ex-Gov. George Ryan should not get get any of his state pension because of his federal conviction on political corruption charges.

  The 6-1 decision means Ryan, who turns 76 next week, won't be able to start collecting about $5,900 a month, or around $71,000 a year.

  [...] Justice Anne Burke, wife of Chicago Ald. Ed Burke, was the lone dissenting justice who favored Ryan getting some of his pension back. She wrote that the court majority ignored precedent and "incorrectly construes the forfeiture provision" in state pension law.

The Machine has gone through many permutations over the years since Anton Cermak first founded it as a way to break the Irish stranglehold over Chicago politics. Under Shortshanks, it managed its greatest victory by removing republicans as a serious threat statewide (Daley the elder had managed to keep them out of the city and county only.)

But every-so-often, you see these obvious signs of attempting to take care of the cogs and wheels that kept the Machine chugging along for so many decades. This time it couldn't come through, a decent people everywhere should smile and help push for more such victories.

Armed Subject Shot

Late Thursday night. Cops fine, subject to stand trial, then sue, then get paid:

• Chicago Police shot an armed man who fled tactical officers and led police on a chase through “yards and alleys” Thursday night in the South Side Back of the Yards neighborhood, police said.

  About 9 p.m. Thursday, Deering District tactical officers saw an armed male in the 5100 block of South Honore and exited their police vehicle and announced they were officers, police said.

  The suspect fled and officers pursued on foot through yards and alleys. Responding uniformed officers ordered the suspect to stop, but instead he turned suddenly in the direction of the officers. As a result, officers shot him in the lower leg, according to a police News Affairs statement.

Nice jobs officers.

Gunfight Over a Bird?

Over in Indiana this past Monday:

• A man wanted in connection with the theft of a valuable macaw in Naperville fired 50 to 60 shots with an assault rifle and a handgun as Indiana authorities attempted to serve a warrant Monday, police testified in court Wednesday.

  Naperville police on Tuesday confirmed that Michael Drogosz, 27, is the man believed responsible for the Jan. 19 theft of a green, 7-month-old female macaw from the Petland store on the 720 block of South Route 59, opposite the Westfield Fox Valley shopping center in Aurora.

Felony theft of a bird? The entire article is almost amusing - amusing if you discount the fact he was blazing away at the police with rifles and pistols. It's lucky no one, police or bystander, wasn't killed.

UPDATE: Whoops. Misread the gunfight location. Still, it's a bird, right? Post corrected.

Daley Sued? Hahahahaha!

Shortshanks running as a reformer, pissing off the aldercreatures, alienating citizens, corporations, his own patronage army and now this?

• Mayor Richard Daley was sued today by his top ethics officer who claims that the mayor wrongly suspended him.
  
  Anthony Boswell, executive director of the mayor’s Office of Compliance, earlier this month was suspended for 30 days without pay after an inspector general’s investigation found that he had allegedly mishandled a student intern’s sexual harassment complaint. Daley said at the time he was following the inspector general’s recommendation by disciplining Boswell.[...]

  Boswell also sued Inspector General Joseph Ferguson, claiming Ferguson had “blatantly exceeded” his authority in investigating Boswell, who heads an independent office.

When it rains, it pour, eh Dick?

Daley Announces Re-Election Bid

Well, not precisely, but what else could this mean?

• Who ever heard of an open casting call for a $110,556-a-year government job in Chicago -- a city whose Democratic ward bosses famously said, "We don't want nobody nobody sent"?

  But that's precisely what Mayor Daley is doing before choosing new aldermen in the 1st and 29th Wards. After making 33 aldermanic appointments, most by following the predecessor's recommendation, he's posting the equivalent of a "Help Wanted" ad on the Internet.

  Interested candidates are invited to send a cover letter to Room 406 at City Hall by Friday with an attached resume and three letters of recommendation from community leaders, business types and area residents.

So this, along with Shortshanks' transparent attempt to have the Inspector General investigate aldercreatures, is positioning Daley in the hilarious position of running as a reformer against the corruption he has aided and abetted for the past quarter century! Only in Chicago.

Crook County Study

One-hundred-fifty politicians sent to prison over fifty years. And that doesn't even include Chicago pols - just Cook County:

• Cook County government has seen 150 elected leaders, high-ranking officials and people doing business with the county sent to prison since the 1950s, according to a new study that did the math.

  That's an average of three bad apples a year sent to the pokey, according to the study released today by the University of Illinois at Chicago's political science department and a watchdog group, the Better Government Association.

Just another 150 reasons to disband county government and reduce the tax burden on the already overtaxed, underrepresented, long-suffering citizens of our fair corner of northeastern Illinois.

Cozzi Update

The presentations are finished. Here is a link to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals website.

To access the streaming data you must enter the following case number - 09-2648. You are taken to a Quicktime MP3 player that should play automatically (at least it did for us.)

More information as it becomes available.

Headquarter Rumors

HQ rumors abound!

• The summer festival season must be upon the horizon. HQ has started switching the day off groups of the weekenders to cover the non-existent manpower shortages;
• Informational Services is going to be disbanded and the work farmed out to a connected Shortshanks relative. Just what we need;
• Direct from the fans in the Patrol Division - Special Employment revamp on the way - all based on activity numbers.

Hey, it's rumors. What do you expect?

Look! More Money Pissed Away!

The world's worst run municipality:

• Chicago is turning its back on $40 million in guaranteed revenue over the next 10 years -- and 25,000 free trash/recycling bins -- by ignoring an Aurora company's offer to install "Free Green Cans" bearing advertising across the city.

  Steve Holland, founder of Free Green Can, said he was closing in on an agreement with City Hall after a test last summer that saw the company install 65 free containers at Taste of Chicago.

  But no sooner had the experiment ended than Chief Environmental Officer Sadhu Johnston resigned to take a job in Vancouver. That stopped the deal dead in its tracks. Daley has yet to name a replacement.

Well Mr. Holland, we certainly hope you didn't have any proprietary information typed up in that proposal you gave to the city. Because you are probably about to find out what a Chicago-style screw job feels like. Bring your own lube.

In the meantime, we certainly hope arbitrator Benn sees how well the city's finances are if they can walk away from $40 million guaranteed.

Ryan Pardon Plea

Nothing doing:

• As part of the ongoing campaign to win an early prison release for former Gov. George Ryan, his wife and lawyer said Wednesday that they are seeking clemency from President Barack Obama, citing the couples' declining health.

  Lura Lynn Ryan, 75, who has a terminal lung disease, said that she is on oxygen 24 hours a day. While she still talks to her husband daily, "it's not like having him here," she said. "Knowing that I may have a limited time makes it harder."

  Ryan, in federal prison in Indiana for more than two years, also has health problems, including kidney disease and infected teeth, his lawyer, former Gov. Jim Thompson said. Ryan, sent to prison after his 2006 conviction on corruption charges, turns 76 next Wednesday.

Boo hoo.

In any event, this becomes a political question rather than a question of mercy. Senator Dick "Dick" Durbin (D-Turban) presented the first clemency petition to President Bush in the waning days of his presidency. Bush didn't touch it, probably because he knew what a tool Ryan was.

Durbin hasn't made one move toward clemency with Obama in office, probably because it would be kind of obvious this was a quid pro quo of some sort, seeing as how he, Ryan, Obama and even Shortshanks all belong to the same Illinois cabal of dirty politics. Obama would be damaged pardoning a republican governor who sold licenses, abetted manslaughter and pretty much sold Illinois to the guys who pour concrete and tarmac.

Secret Meetings

Violating who knows how many State laws regarding open meetings:

• In a state where politicians like to brag about government transparency and the budget is alarmingly imploding, the Democratic president of the Illinois Senate on Wednesday decided to bar the public from hearing a national group brief lawmakers on just how bad the financial woes really are.

  The extremely rare closed-door gathering of the entire Senate was held to further a spirit of cooperation between the two political parties, the leaders said. Shut out were voters, potentially curious during an election year about what the people they elected are doing to fix the state's enormous money mess. The Senate sergeant at arms stood in the doorway and denied entry to the public.

  "You're missing the whole point," Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, told reporters. "This is meant to be one where just the senators are there to get information, but where they can also feel they can ask questions and ... have a free exchange of ideas without having to be worried about what the press might report."

So what was discussed?

• Massive tax hikes to balance the budget and fund dwindling pensions? It will be like cutting their own throat as businesses and individuals flee Illinois' already business unfriendly climate.
• Census counting? Illinois may lose a seat in Congress with the population shift. Are deals being struck behind closed doors to keep certain seats in certain hands?
• Blago testimony? Rod's phones were wired up for months, maybe a year before the alleged Senate Seat Swindle. Might some important people be looking at public relation nightmares?

But not to worry about the violations of State law - Lisa Madigan is on the case!

Cozzi Hearing Tomorrow

Here's the information we have:

• The initial hearing in the United States of America v. William COZZI (No. 09-2648) will be held (tomorrow morning) on Thursday, February 18th before a three judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Room 2721 at the Dirksen Federal Building, 219 S. Dearborn Street.
  
  Room 2721 will be open to the public at 9:00 AM with the first case call at 9:30. Seating is limited. First come; first seated. No standing room only (SRO) will be permitted. Appellant Bill COZZI will be represented by Marc MARTIN, Esq. while the prosecutor will be AUSA Stuart D. FULLERTON. Bill will not be present. He remains incarcerated at FCI Oakdale, Louisiana, a thousand miles due south of Chicago.
  
  Retired Sergeant John Northen has confirmed the following information as accurate with the U.S. Marshal Service (USMS), most of whom are retired members of the CPD. Pursuant to the Order of the Chief Judge for the Northern District of Illinois, all officers not responding to an emergency, even in full CPD uniform, must stow their weapons in secured lockers provided by the USMS before proceeding to elevators to the 27th flloor. While we encourage all officers to wear their uniforms, we ask that all active and retired officers attired in civilian clothes to stow their firearms, OC spray, pocket knives, etc. elsewhere to permit sufficient weapon storage for uniformed officers.
  
  While we cannot guarantee admission to the courtroom due to limited seating, our friends at the USMS assure us that no one will be left out in the cold. Regardless of circumstances, uniformed CPD cannot carry picket signs. As you know, only the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is allowed to grant certiorari for appeals from the U.S. Court of Appeals. The Seventh Circuit hears all appeals from federal cases from Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.
  
  "Northside" also unsuccessfully attempted to phone Attorney General Eric HOLDER, Chief Judge James F. HOLDERMAN, USA Patrick FITZGERALD, AUSA Stuart FULLERTON, FBI SAC Robert GRANT, CPD Supt. Jody WEIS and CPD Chief of Staff Michael MASTERS.
  
  Demonstrate your support for our brother Bill COZZI, the WEIS scapegoat.

We'll be getting periodic reports from the building.

US Media Embargo

This is getting ridiculous:

• The absolutely stunning global warming revelations this weekend by the man in the middle of the ClimateGate scandal have gone almost completely ignored by America's press.

  As NewsBusters reported Saturday, Phil Jones, the head of the British Climatic Research Unit at the heart of ClimateGate, told the BBC: the recent warming trend that began in 1975 is not at all different than two other planetary warming phases since 1850; there has been no statistically significant warming since 1995, and; it is possible the Medieval Warm Period was indeed a global phenomenon thereby making the temperatures seen in the latter part of the 20th century by no means unprecedented.

  Jones also admitted that he and his fellow scientists manipulated figures to hide a decline in crucial tree-ring data thereby questioning the validity of the entire global warming theory.

Paraphrasing Star Trek, "It's dead Jim." And the media isn't reporting it.

Fun While It Lasted

Maybe next time:

• Democrat Scott Lee Cohen formally ended his strange political odyssey toward the lieutenant governor’s office today.

  An attorney representing the Democratic Party of Illinois submitted a signed letter from Cohen to the State Board of Elections, indicating Cohen’s wish to be dropped from the November general election ballot.

  Cohen’s move came after disclosures from his divorce case — including allegations that he put a knife to a prostitute’s throat — brought calls from within the Democratic Party for him to step down as Gov. Quinn’s running mate.

It would have been fun as hell and maybe even led to a republican resurgence in Illinois. No one knows what happens next.

Open post in the meantime.

Contract a Done Deal Rumor

As far as we know, it's false.

The FOP site has a list of scheduled dates for Arbitration hearings and the next one isn't until 24 February. And there's a 04 March date reserved if that isn't enough.

It's a long tedious process. No need to rush it.

Biting the Hand That Feeds

The politicians begin to eat their own:

• How could a mayor whose administration has been besieged by the Hired Truck, city hiring and minority contracting scandals claim with a straight face that a West Side alderman's guilty plea "broke the camel's back" on the corruption front?

  How could Daley put aldermen on the hot seat without acknowledging his own pivotal role in elevating convicted Ald. Isaac Carothers (29th) to a position of power?

Um, assholes? You knew what he was when he appointed you to your seats. Remember? He appointed half the City Council going back 20 or more years after deaths, resignations, convictions or when they got elected to other jobs. And he did it with almost zero input from the community - he had his own ideas and committees and reverends to appease and the voters, well hell, what do voters know anyway? They'll do what they're told for the most part as long as the garbage is picked up and the bills aren't too high.

Trouble is, while the garbage is being picked up semi regularly, the buses aren't on time any more, the bills and fees are piling up, the jobs are disappearing along with the parking spaces and by golly, the police just aren't kicking the gangbangers' asses like they used to. Heck, we don't even see the police as much as we used to - it's almost like there aren't nearly as many of them around anymore.

• Ald. Howard Brookins (21st) said Daley has used a bogus argument to try to "box us in on the P.R. side" with aldermanic elections fast approaching.

  "It just seems weird to me that corruption with respect to jobs, contracts and influence happens on the executive side, yet the aldermen get blamed for it as though we're the ones who are corrupt,," Brookins said.

Well Howard, remember, half of your august body has gone to prison in the past 30 years. No one is going to make you idiots out to be Snow White. What is surprising is that not a single one of you paragons of virtue has managed to put Shortshanks in any danger whatsoever - not from the voters and certainly not from the feds.

You abet the corruption. Stop whining when you get painted with the brush Daley is wielding - you gave it to him.

Off Duty Shooting

Cop OK, suspect turns up wounded later:

• An off-duty Chicago Police officer exchanged gunfire with a man in the West Ridge neighborhood early Wednesday on the North Side.

  The shooting happened about 1:10 a.m. when an off-duty officer exchanged gunfire with a man in the 2800 block of West Devon Avenue, police said.

  The officer heard shots in the area and investigated. A man with a gun approached and pointed the weapon at the officer, who responded by firing shots at him, according to a police News Affairs statement.

  The man then fled in a sport-utility vehicle in an unidentified direction, the statement said.

  Initially, police said nobody was struck but a man later arrived at Swedish Covenant Hospital and told emergency personnel he was shot early Monday near North Mozart Street and West Devon Avenue -- about a block west of the police exchange, police said. The injuries were described as non-life-threatening.

Both the Sun Times link (above) and the BreakingNews.com versions share the typical troll comments about the entire incident. But a slight majority actually back the police for taking action off-duty. And when you get down to the brass tacks, the only thing required of the off-duty cop in this situation is make a call to 911, "Hey, I heard shots around such-and-such an address." That's a police action.

But they went a step further and tried to discover if someone was hurt, someone needed medical attention, some victim was seeking of assistance of any sort, and maybe the off-duty would be able to provide some description of a person or vehicle fleeing the scene. We like to think most cops would do the same thing. But after reading some of the comments, sane people should be surprised each and every day we're even willing to make that step beyond a phone call.

Who to Believe?

Are you going to believe what Daley's minions are telling you? Or your own lying eyes?

• While some CTA riders said it appeared service was slower than usual on the Presidents Day holiday, CTA officials reported seeing no signs of a work slowdown that the chief of the bus drivers union threatened over the weekend.

  "Something's going on. I've been here almost 20 minutes, and the Bus Tracker says the next two buses are delayed,'' said Simone Ford, who waited at Wacker Drive and Michigan Avenue for a No. 6 Jackson Park Express bus about 3:25 p.m.

  [...] Everything that was running 15 to 20 minutes apart at mid-day before the (service) cuts is now at 25- to- 35-minute intervals,'' said the driver, who declined to provide his name when a Tribune reporter following Ford started asking questions.

And the voter irritation grows larger.

Global Warming Dead

And anyone who defends it, especially the goof trying to link to discredited "real climate" websites, aren't going to find ground to support it here.

Powerline blog covers it here.

Ace of Spades here.

The Daily Mail UK, which has been beating the crap out of US media outlets which won't cover the Climategate e-mail scandal at all, covers even more of it here.

Here's a handy graph for those of you keeping score at home:

Note the "Medieval Warm Period" that kind of destroys the "unprecedented" warming so often touted by the leftist and greenies. The data to support their hockey stick graph has mysteriously gone "missing."

Science is "settled" our asses. And the same goes for anyone claiming we're running out of landfill space - another artificial crisis.

Rumors Rumors Everywhere

Definitely one of the better rumors we've seen in recent weeks just appeared in our comment section:

• It's been confirmed, yet not yet made common knowledge:
  
  All the goofs finally assigned to the area gun/gang teams will be sent to districts either starting the 6th or 7th period (still to be determined).
  
  There is a MAJOR reshuffling of manpower coming. Unfortunately for those that signed-up for the glory of being on an "elite" area team will have NO say-so as to where they'll be assigned. EXPECT TO WIND UP ANYWHERE MANPOWER IS SHORT, BOYS AND GIRLS. And that means any watch, also. Since you are no longer "detailed", but "assigned" to the area teams, you have given up your rights to get back to your district of origin.
  
  Initiative "Clean Slate" (that's one of the names the brass is kicking around) will end the existence of MSF, TRU, Area Gang/Gun Teams, etc., and ship the patrolmen from these units back to the districts. Only after all manpower in the districts is brought up to snuff will they consider re-forming SOME variation of the disbanded units, but in much smaller numbers.
  
  All you clout babies better start making your calls now. Midnights in the Deuce may be your next assignment.
  
  There's going to be a lot of disgruntled "hard chargers" coming to a district near you in the near future.
  
  And now the bombshell: All this reshuffling is in the works courtesy of a certain boss that resembles a wrestler.
  
  You heard it here first folks.

This tracks with a couple of stories we've been hearing around town. It's the first instance of all of the stories appearing in a single form. That either means (A) it's the source of all rumor, (B) someone is taking a whole lot of effort to cobble together all the rumors or (C) there's something to it all and this is the reality.

Seeing as how the upcoming retirement wave is going to run into almost 2.5 years of non-hiring, choice (C) seems more and more likely.

Now how does this affect the Captains only being assigned to 1st and 3rd watches? Someone else said they heard that 10 Captains were going to be assigned as Inspectors, and seeing as how that was what was agreed to in the recently ratified Captains' Contract, no surprises there. That will make us short almost 20 Captains citywide - enough to remove 2nd Watch from the equation. Are we really headed down this slope again?

Range Rumor Confirmed

Not only is the City ordering over a million less rounds for training and qualification purposes, they are running out of or have run out of paper targets at various locations. This is first hand information and we have no reason to doubt it.

We're waiting for the day we have to double up on targets for qualifications. What a joke.

Interesting Timeline

A reader of ours went through public sources, media reports and spend quite a bit of time putting this together. He even revamped it once or twice to accommodate our limited ability to post it in a readable format, so for this we thank him. Check this out:


He just covers the basics, but we're sure our readers can come up with dozens more instances of Shortshanks spending untold millions after pleading poverty. We certainly hope FOP and the arbitrator get copies of this. It sums up the Daley mismanagement nicely.

Ridiculous Bail

Someone find us the name of the judge over at CBC:

• A Back of the Yards neighborhood woman has been charged with three felonies, two misdemeanors and issued six traffic tickets after she allegedly struck an officer with a vehicle following a chase and crash early Saturday on the Southwest Side.

  Rosa Gutierrez appeared in Central Bond Court Saturday and was ordered held on $25,000 bond.

$25,000? And she posts 10%? What the fuck?

Runs over a cop, vehicle chase, narcotics in the car, felony traffic charges, shots fired and she gets a $25,000 bond? We suppose Anita Alvarez's people dropped the ball once again? What's it going to take?

Red Light Protests

The sheeple are awakening:

• Protesters rallied Sunday on Chicago's North Side against red light cameras that have resulted in more tickets for motorists.

  The protesters waved signed and handed out flyers to drivers. They are urging passage of a Senate bill that bans automatic ticketing in Illinois.

  The demonstrators claim officials installed the cameras not for safety, but to raise revenue, and they say, in 2008, Chicago took in $45 million in fines from camera-generated tickets.

Numerous studies around the country seem to show a trend that intersections covered by a camera have a measurable increase in rear-end collisions as people "panic stop" to avoid getting a picture taken.

Now, if someone just points out to these protesters that when red-light cameras are challenged in court, municipalities lose more often than they win on the Constitutional front.

Cop Run Over

He'll be ok though, thank goodness:

• A Back of the Yards neighborhood woman has been charged with three felonies, two misdemeanors and issued six traffic tickets after she allegedly struck an officer with a vehicle following a chase and crash early Sunday on the Southwest Side.

  Police fired shots at the woman, but she was not struck by the police gunfire. She was hospitalized after being Tasered following the crash. The officer struck by the vehicle was also injured, police said.

Again, more and more, cars are being used as weapons. Think tactically on each and every traffic stop. You are more valuable to us than a bullet riddled car.

No Openings Again

But this time, instead of no actual openings, a screw up by Management and Labor Affairs:

• After a great deal of discussion with Management and Labor Affairs, the Lodge was advised that recognized vacancies for the third police period were scheduled to be posted on Thursday, February 11, 2010. The submission time for these requests was to be increased from seventy-two hours to ninety-six hours due to the Friday and Monday holidays. As of 1615 hours on Saturday, February 13, 2010, the recognized vacancies have yet to be posted. The Lodge will address this issue first thing on Tuesday, February 16, 2010 when the MLAS offices reopen for business. Units will be notified of the resolution which will also be posted on the FOP wwebsite.

Bring on the Slowdown

We're pretty sure we're permitted to advocate for a CTA slowdown off duty from the privacy of our own homes:

• CTA bus riders will have to wait even longer to get picked up if drivers follow through on a threat to ease off their accelerators as part of a work slowdown to try to force the transit agency's leadership to make concessions in an ongoing labor impasse.

  Bus union president Darrell Jefferson said today that if there's no agreement soon to restore service cuts he will ask his membership to adhere strictly to CTA rules, including a 35-mile-per-hour speed limit. Bus drivers rarely stay below that limit now, Jefferson said, because if they did they wouldn't be able to finish their routes in a timely fashion and riders would see significantly larger gaps between buses.

  Drivers also would follow other rules to the letter, such as waiting until all riders are seated or "standing securely" before leaving a stop and sitting at intersections with stale green lights rather than driving through, Jefferson said.

Hopefully, finally, the battle to say, "Enough!" has been joined by a union that can actually do some real damage to Shortshanks. Maybe we'll start flagging down buses again to get "checks" in the middle of their runs.

Range Rumor

Anyone from the Training Division care to elaborate?

• Heard that the range is going to be about 1.2 million rounds short on ammo this year.
  Seems that the city decided that we could do with less.
  The academy range put 1.5 million rounds of ammo in the annual budget(same as they have for the past several years).
  City Hall decided to cut that down to 300,000 rounds of ammo!
  Good luck qualifying in 2010!

300,000 divided by 10,000 sworn = 30 rounds per cop. Sounds like just enough to qualify everyone if we all do it on the first try!

Have they rescinded the 100 free training rounds order? And what are the 86 recruits going to fire for State qualifying? We seem to recall putting about 1,000 rounds through the gun during training - has that fallen by the wayside?

Is That a Rocket in Your Pocket?

Or are you just happy to see us?

• A light anti-tank rocket launcher was among 14 guns recovered during execution of multiple search warrants Friday on the West Side One person was charged in the Austin neighborhood crackdown.

  Andre Tatum, 41, of the 800 block of North Lawler Avenue was charged with 11 counts of misdemeanor firearms possession and one count of misdemeanor possession of ammunition, according to a release from police. Tatum is a member of the 4-Corner Hustler's street gang, police said.

  Chicago Police executing a search warrant allegedly found five semi-automatic handguns, four rifles, two shotguns and 15 boxes of live ammunition of various calibers at Tatum’s home, the release said.

And viewing the accompanying picture, two crossbows. According to various e-mails, the "rocket launcher" was an inert training device. We're wondering if that was leaked out to alleviate citizen fears of military devices turning up on street corners like in so many of our Central and South American neighbors' streets, yards and running gun battles.

Cozzi Hearing

At the Federal Building, 18 February. Someone had posted some details, like courtroom, judge and restrictions. If anyone has the full info, post it and we'll get it to the main page as soon as we can.

Promises to be Broken

One term:

• President Barack Obama said he is “agnostic” about raising taxes on households making less than $250,000 as part of a broad effort to rein in the budget deficit.

  Obama, in a Feb. 9 Oval Office interview, said that a presidential commission on the budget needs to consider all options for reducing the deficit, including tax increases and cuts in spending on entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

  [...] Obama repeatedly vowed during the 2008 presidential election campaign that he would not raise taxes on individuals making less than $200,000 and households earning less than $250,000 a year.

That promise was made in excess of 40 times according to Lexis-Nexis. Bush the Elder went back on that promise and became the only victorious wartime president to lose an election.

Police Budget

As rumored here a while ago, the budget has come under "scrutiny:"

• Mayor Richard Daley today ordered a review of Chicago Police Department management that he said is designed to ensure more officers are returned to street duty.

  "There's a variety of things we're looking at in terms of management, but the key is police officers on the street," the mayor said at City Hall news conference.

  The police review came as the mayor announced a 6 percent budget cut for city departments, except for those dealing with “critical safety operations.” The cuts also will not affect “service delivery,” Daley said.

That probably means Gun Teams, Sat Teams, hidden teams, all headed back to Districts for a bit until something else is formed up. Super Secret Squirrel Nut Teams or something. We imagine they aren't going to touch all those people they just assigned to their Detail Units.

The Sun Times takes a swipe at Daley in their report:

• Nearly 20 years ago, Daley spent more than $1 million to have a consulting firm study the police department, only to end up ignoring the most dramatic recommendations from the firm, Booz Allen & Hamilton.

  The report suggested altering police beats and shifting them periodically according to a formula that would take into account several key factors — major crimes, all crimes, calls for service and population figures.

  Booz Allen recommended closing seven police district stations, altering responses to 911 calls and ending a policy that allows officers to take to take up to 365 furlough and sick days off every two years.

As the last is a contract issue, we don't see that changing in the near future. The closing of stations is a political suicide mission no one will touch. The only realistic change that could be accomplished on short notice is the 911 response. We respond to way too many non-emergency calls as it is and generate too much worthless paper that could be done via 311. We can only hope they change something quick. Otherwise, we're in for a rough summer.

Aunt Bea Follies

Dear Bea,

This incident alone should disqualify you from holding even a Patrol Officer's badge. But we all know clout saved you and will continue to save you.

If you're actually going to conduct an "investigation" into who in your office is leaking your heart's desire to the world, we'll give you a hint - the brown haired one.

Good luck with that.

This is a Joke, Right?

From the comments:

• Hey SCC I live near 55th and Kostner,my friends mom died she lives on 55th street by Kostner,the walk was not shoveled and a city inspector put a $250.00 ticket in the mailbox WTF! the ward is madigans and olivios 13th ward come on guys go to pilsen,or east side and try that bullshit with non-taxpayers!
  
  section 10-8-180
  
  The snow which falls or accumulates during the day (excepting Sundays) before four p.m. shall be removed within three hours after the same has fallen or accumulated. The snow which falls or accumulates on Sunday or after four p.m. and during the night on other days shall be removed before ten a.m.
  
  3 Hours shit we are all in for some fines in the land of king criminal daley

Someone is pulling our leg, right?

About Time

With Shortshanks grubbing for every dime he can find, this was a long time coming:

• Cook County Traffic Court in Chicago may stop dismissing speeding tickets based on laser gun readings because a judge ruled Wednesday that lidar speed detectors were scientifically admissible in the court.
  
  The court did not conduct its own hearing on the matter as planned. Instead, the judge determined that a recent Illinois Appellate Court ruling upholding the admissibility of lidar detectors would apply in the Cook County case.

The City is still going to go through a Frye hearing on its own just in case. But it's still hard to believe Shortshanks has been giving up this revenue stream for so long.

It's All Legit!

Seriously! We swear! All legit from this point forward we mean:

• The City Council today overwhelmingly approved an ordinance barring aldermen from using a stealth payroll account to hire relatives — after a committee earlier altered the measure to grandfather existing employees.
  

• Under the measure, aldermen would no longer be able to hire relatives, as several have done, but those already paid from the stealth account could continue to work for their aldermen relatives.

  “We are not trying to throw anyone out of a job or prohibit those people from continuing to work, but this would apply only to new hires,” Allen said. “So, the current hires would be grandfathered.”

Well thank goodness the aldercreatures didn't have to put all those wives, cousins, nieces, nephews, brothers, sisters and others in the unemployment line during these trying times.

Daley Destruction Continues

Not content with destroying the convention business, Shortshanks moved to cripple another economic engine in the Chicago area by making it harder to do business here:

• The Daley administration on Wednesday defended its decision to sharply increase landing and rental fees at O’Hare Airport, but said there’s wiggle room to appease airlines now refusing to finance the city’s massive runway expansion project.

  Aviation Commissioner Rosemarie Andolino flatly denied that the 38 percent increase in landing fees and 17 percent hike in rental rates were primarily being used to fund pre-payment of debt not scheduled to mature until after 2030.

• However the controversy came to a head, Andolino stressed that there’s room to maneuver if the airlines are willing to re-start talks aimed at bankrolling Phase 2 of the O’Hare expansion project.

Sounds like the airlines may have drawn a line in the sand. What if the airlines drop 25 or even 50 flights into and out of O'Hare on a daily basis and instead go to Denver, Atlanta, Dallas or Kansas City hubs? Daley's runway project is already a year or two behind schedule and billions over budget and it's only in Phase I of four phases. O'Hare is about the region's largest employer - Daley can't afford any missteps there.