It's a Miracle!

The dead have risen!!!

Or at least one of them has.

Sort of:

• Hours after Chicago police listed the shooting death of a West Side man as the city’s 500th homicide of the year, the department backtracked and said the city has yet to reach the grim milestone.
  
  Superintendent Garry McCarthy had told the Tribune Thursday afternoon that the homicide count stood at 499. Hours later, Nathaniel T. Jackson, 40, was gunned down outside a store in the Austin neighborhood and the department confirmed Friday morning that his death was the 500th homicide. Mayor Rahm Emanuel released a statement noting that "Chicago has reached an unfortunate and tragic milestone."
  
  But then the department issued its own statement calling reports of the tally inaccurate, saying the number remained at 499.  Asked for clarification, a spokeswoman for the superintendent said one of the homicide cases from earlier this week has been reclassified as a death investigation.

Of course, the real reason can be found in our comment section:

• Nope time to update again scc.... It appears gmac shit a brick at the morning phone conference with all of the commanders and demanded we stay under 500... Then poof, [someone] offered the supt a case that could be reclassified to a death investigation... So now the dept officially came out and said we are at 499. This was info from a commander who was on the morning call but has now been confirmed via the statement and story by the tribune this afternoon... Yep it's all legit

What a joke.

Hey media? You're being lied to. Again. And you're lapping it up like ice cream. Why don't some of you "investigative reporter" twits ask how many "death investigations" are currently open? We'll bet more than a dozen. And here you have the some exempt member offering to reclassify a murder. And not a single media type touches the fact that the FBI won't accept Chicago stats, and for good reason.

Here's a Pulitzer gift wrapped for you morons and years worth of material pointing directly at the Machine and the Combine and every other crooked pol out there.  But you don't want to rock the boat?

Here's a little nugget - Chicago passed 500 over two weeks ago if you add in the death investigation totals.

Riot Charges

Misdemeanors all around:

• Accused of joining a violent mob that formed after a Chicago police officer shot and killed a suspected robber on Saturday, five men appeared in bond court Sunday.
  
  The suspects, ages 19 to 31, all face misdemeanor charges of mob action. Four of the five are also accused of other crimes.
  
  The crowd gathered midday Saturday in the Back of the Yards neighborhood shortly after a “very violent encounter” led one officer to shoot and kill Jamaal Moore, 23, of the 5600 block of South Shields Avenue authorities said.
  

Let's hear about their rap sheets. No doubt they're all altar boys and Rhodes scholars, right?

Oh yeah, here's the video:



We can't wait for Mope-rah's column on this one.

Nuke the Site from Orbit

Once again, proving that certain segments of society deserve ZERO police protection:

• A man believed to be one of four robbers who held up a truck driver this morning was shot to death by police a short time later in the city's Back of the Yards neighborhood, sparking a mob reaction at the scene, authorities said. The shooting happened just before 11:30 a.m. in the 1600 block of West Garfield Boulevard near a gas station, police said. Chicago Police Department News Affairs confirmed that police shot someone in that area.
  
  A man in his 20s was shot to death at that location, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
  
  Chicago Police Sgt. Michael Martin, speaking near where the shooting took place, said a mob scene ensued after the man was shot.
  
  "People were throwing bricks and bottles at cop cars," Martin said. "A few squad cars are damaged."

Officers in a pursuit after known subjects. Car chase, crash, three subjects get away, but one slow one decides he will literally pick up a police officer and slam him to the ground. Yeah, that's completely normal by every stretch of the imagination. And then the neighborhood shows up, not because they're outraged that the animals they've raised are running amok, sticking up truck drivers. They're made he got caught and shot for acting like the animal he was raised to be.

And this isn't the only occurrence. After the recent incident where a violent subject was tasered twice before being put down by a lethal injection administered by hospital personnel, his father is declaring that the police, "won't get away" with their behavior.

First up, you supposedly raised this creature. Second he was beating up your wife, a 70-year-old woman. Third, he fought with police at the scene, in the lock-up and with medical personnel at the hospital.

Again, completely normal and acceptable behavior in certain segments of Chicago, with next to no media coverage and nary a word from the supposed community leaders, "reverends" and politicos.

Let's BUY a Code of Silence

Seriously? To deny there's a code of silence, the City wants to purchase a code of silence?

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration asked a federal judge Monday to set aside a jury verdict in the infamous videotaped beating of a female bartender by an off-duty Chicago police officer — essentially agreeing to pay the woman $850,000 now in return for erasing the jury's finding that a police "code of silence" protected the cop.
  
  The unusual request is an attempt to prevent last month's damaging verdict from being cited by lawyers in other lawsuits against the Police Department. The former bartender filed the motion jointly with the city; she stands to quickly collect the jury award she won without risking the chance of losing on appeal or having the trial judge reduce the amount.
  
  It will be up to U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve to weigh the interests of the parties involved in the lawsuit against the interest of the public in having the record of the jury's verdict stand. City lawyers said they plan to appear before the judge Monday.

So they're going to buy a verdict adjustment in order to prevent themselves from having to defend any future allegations of a code of silence?

What about all the rest of Kirby's scandals where the clout heavy were covered up for years? What about the "Friends of Phil" program? And that's only the high profile cases. How about ongoing sexual harassment beefs? EEOC complaints? Grievances ignored/dismissed because bosses close ranks around serial problems and pretend nothing happened?

Above the Law

Once again, the City Council doesn't fail to amaze:

• Chicago aldermen are accusing their handpicked inspector general of overstepping his limited authority — and going fishing — with a demand for time sheets for all full- and part-time City Council employees dating back to November 2010.
  
  The surprise request from Legislative Inspector General Faisal Khan — whose annual budget was recently increased to $354,000 — stunned and infuriated aldermen, some of whom are talking about clipping Khan’s wings or eliminating his position altogether.
  
  Khan could not be reached for comment to explain the time-sheet request he made last month. Over the years, aldermen and committee chairmen have been accused of padding their payrolls with relatives, friends and political allies and of the hiring equivalent of “wife-swapping”: placing each other’s spouses and relatives on each other’s payrolls.

Remember, these are our superiors.  We don't have them investigated.  They know better than all of us.  You just shut up and pay ever increasing taxes to keep them and their cronies in comfort without fear of losing a home, feeding a family or staying employed.

What the F#$%?

He did what with who now?

• A veteran Chicago cop was ordered held in lieu of $100,000 bail Friday on charges he had sex with a prisoner he’d promised to release from the West Side lockup where the officer was stationed.
  
  Officer Nelson Stewart, 59, stood silently in court dressed in a red and white jacket and black pants as prosecutors detailed charges of custodial sexual misconduct, official misconduct and bribery, all felonies. He did not speak except to say he understood he could not have contact with the victim or witnesses if he is released on bond.
  
  Authorities said the incident occurred in early June in the lockup at the Harrison District police station, 3151 W. Harrison St., where the alleged victim was under arrest for prostitution.
  
  Stewart, a 24-year-veteran of the department, was in charge of the station’s male lockup facility when he approached the victim’s cell and offered to release him in exchange for a sexual “favor,” Assistant State’s Atty. Lynn McCarthy said.
  
  The officer then “relocated the victim to a different cell furthest away from the lockup keeper’s desk,” where the two performed sex acts on each other, McCarthy said. The victim later reported the incident to the district watch commander, who contacted the department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs. 

Anyone even vaguely familiar with what travels through an Area lockup has got to be appalled at this, simply from a disease point of view.  This behavior, if proven, is another issue and needs to be dealt with as harshly as the law allows.

Are You Fucking Kidding Us?

Really? This is a serious "What the fuck" moment:

• Kelly Davis wonders what would have happened had he been looking the other way for just a few moments.
  
  He was standing in Daley Plaza, watching his 2-year-old and 4-year-old daughters slide down the Picasso sculpture, when he saw a man rushing toward Myla, the youngest girl, Saturday evening.
  
  The man grabbed the girl's arm, muttering "This is my daughter, Goldilocks," but Davis said he wrestled him away and then chased him through alleys and building lobbies before finally flagging down police.

What? Saturday evening? And it's now Tuesday at 1530 hours when this story hits the Tribune Breaking News site? Almost seventy-two hours and this is "breaking news." Honest to pete, we though we were having iPhone issues when the news alert button chimed. How the hell was this kept quiet?

• "I have no doubt that if I had my back turned, he would have grabbed her and she would have been gone in the city and I would have never seen her again," said Davis, 31, who lives in Zion and drives a school bus.

Oh, a tourist. We have not a doubt in the world that Rahm and Rahm's people made a shitload of calls to the media and demanded they sit on this. Can you imagine the headlines?

• Suburban Child Kidnapped
• Chicago Unsafe for Tourists
• Rahm Cuts Mental Health Budget; Delusional Maniacs Run Rampant

Does anyone have any idea how many calls must have been made and how many people told to keep their mouths shut about this one for it to languish for nearly three fucking days?

Chicago comes off looking insanely (pun intended) bad on this:

• As Davis struggled with the man, their mother Amanda Green grabbed the girls away. "I used myself as a barricade and I told him if he takes another step toward me or my kids, I will beat the ever living (expletive) out of him," Davis said.
  
  The man finally stepped down and began walking away, but Davis said he followed him. "We went through a maze of buildings and streets, he’s looping around. . .Sometimes he’s running, sometimes he’s walking, and I was trying not to lose him," Davis said.
  
  The chase even went through the Chase Bank building. "At the desk, I told them my name and a his description." Around LaSalle and Washington streets, Davis said he spotted police officers and alerted them and the man was arrested.
  
  Green said she was frantic after Davis ran off. "I was standing there, there are no cops coming, I have two very upset children and my boyfriend just took off with some crazy man and I’m standing by myself in the middle of Chicago."

Two-hundred extra police downtown and none around Daley Plaza? Probably all keeping an eye on the wilding crowd.

Journalism is dead in this burg. No way any old time reporter lets this sit for three days. You can't tell us that no one, on a Saturday night, wasn't tipping off someone somewhere about this one. We just don't believe it.

Wake up Chicago. You are being kept in the dark by a bought-and-paid-for media while politicians rifle through your pockets and turn out your socks for the spare change. They are in it together and you (or suburban tourists) are paying the price.

Ignorant Boss

Too often, that seems to be a requirement. And it certainly isn't an asset. Look at this recent missive from Joseph Patterson, the Acting Chief of Patrol (B.O.P. #12-0179 issued 09 August):

• Our personnel are our greatest resource and as managers we must make tough decisions to balance rewarding our personnel with time off against the needs of the organization.

"...rewarding our personnel with time off..."?

Um, Acting Chief Asshat? That's time off we earned. We earned it staying late, attending court, working shit details and holidays, all the while missing time with what is supposed to be our most valued possession - family.

And now you're going to "reward" us WITH OUR OWN FUCKING TIME DUE? Are you fucking insane? Or have you been deep-throating the McCarthy kool-aid right from the source? How's that taste Joe?

Fuck you. And fuck all these sanctimonious bosses who think they're doing us a favor by letting us use what we earned. From the top on down, screw you, screw your numbers, your CompStat, your endless "more with less" mantra and denying us what is rightfully ours.

Anyone bringing in numbers for these assholes is a fool. And anyone not checking the money box (since you won't be allowed to use the time you earn) is being shortsighted in the extreme. And shame on the FOP for not making a huge stink about this. Grieve, sue or have the city buy us out. This is ridiculous.

Sued Over Justifiable Shooting

This is fucking ridiculous:

• Two men charged with murder filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Chicago Police Department, alleging officers used excessive force against them when they were shot.

  John W. Givens and Leland Dudley say they were unarmed and their vehicle was stopped outside of an electronics store on April 30 when the officers opened fire at “close range,” according to the lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court.

The vehicle was stopped because it had plowed through a steel door, rammed a squad car, run over a police officer and struck another squad car before officers disabled the van full of assholes bent on murdering police officers by shooting the driver.

• All three men were unarmed when police officers approached the minivan, in which the plaintiffs were passengers, according to the lawsuit.

Except for the aforementioned van, which weighs in excess of one ton. And they were "accomplices," not passengers you fucking media whores. That's why they were charged with murder.

• “The City of Chicago policemen had no justification for the use of this deadly force,” the lawsuit said.

Yeah, okay. Any other state in the nation, this is laughed out of court. But here? Who knows.

Counter-Spin

Word is that the bosses downtown have dictated that no mention of CeaseFire will appear on any case report or arrest reports, especially as it relates to any arrests being made. This is probably in response to the numerous instances we pointed out of the "former" thugs getting caught dirty, time and time again.

It also makes it harder to spin instances like this:

• Hey SCC get this right now in area south the offender who shot the two girls leaving the park had through the hard work of fugitive apprehension unit been set to turn himself in.
  
  Now because of political considerations and rumor of a little cash to dad Cease fire is going to accompany the offender to area south in front of prearranged news cameras. The guys who worked this and beat the bushes to get this guy are getting sent away so some felon can say he talked this guy into surrendering. The offender had nowhere to go....
  
  Sing chased his family was cooperating and now for some quick cash and good press the police are being told to walk away. God help us. Please stay safe back each other up and remember the brass will sell you down the river just to make political points.

So the Fugitive Apprehension Unit does the grunt work, chasing leads and beating the bushes, but since we're sharing all our information with the assholes and they need something/anything to counteract the bad press they so richly deserve, they're getting the credit for this?

A-fucking-mazing. Could someone in the press ask exactly what it was that lead CeaseFire to this individual? Any investigatory tips and clues so the CPD could pick up some pointers? As they stammer through some bullshit, everyone can get a clue as to how the public is being played.

UPDATE: Here comes the counter-spin:

• The man surrendered to Area South detectives Thursday evening, according to police News Affairs Officer Daniel O’Brien. Police are calling him a person of interest in the shooting.

  The man’s family contacted anti-violence group CeaseFire Roseland through an attorney to help facilitate the man’s surrender at the Calumet District police station, said Bob Jackson, the head of CeaseFire Roseland.

The Trib also has CeaseFire mentioned prominently. We wonder what it must be like to live your entire adult life as a tool for the Rahms of the world. All in search of that byline and an invitation to the dinner parties.

Pilgrims' Progress

That nasty 40% increase in murders this year? It's those damn white guys from Plymouth Rock screwing things up. McCarthy says so:

• It’s official: With more than 240 dead, Chicago’s murder rate has surpassed the body count in war-torn Afghanistan. But as the city death toll continues to mount, outraged residents are asking questions and city officials are scrambling for answers – at least, the politically correct ones.

  Answers that usually involve blaming dead white guys or ones that are still kicking.

• When asked about the “gap” between law enforcement and the black community, McCarthy reached back 400 years for an answer.

  “It’s a big issue. It’s a long time coming. We’ve done a lot of things wrong in policing in this country. I’m willing to admit that,” said McCarthy. “But this goes back 200-300 years to the time when Pilgrims came here and things developed from that, the African American experience in this country.”

  But the Pilgrims weren’t the only people being blamed for the violence. The superintendent also laid blame at the feet of America’s finest and inferred – without actually stating it - that white police officers are the problem.

  “Who has been the people enforcing those laws that were problematic for the African American community all these years? And that’s to me where it all starts,” stated McCarthy. “It starts with the recognition of how we got here and figuring out how we are going to move forward. By first confronting the issue. Recognition is the first step towards reconciliation. So that’s what I bring to the table. It’s one of those things that a lot of police chiefs in this country are afraid to talk about. I’m not afraid to talk about it because it’s out there and we’ve got to address it.”

Pilgrims and cops enforcing the law. That's to blame for 7-year-olds getting killed at 10:45 p.m., 3-year-olds getting winged at 11:30 p.m., and a body count rivaling Afghanistan.

Thank goodness we finally know who to blame.

Fuck You Wysinger

First up, thanks to SCC for letting us run the site today as they were en route to the hidden bunker.

Secondly, can anyone reach over and slap Wysinger for us? Talk about forgetting where you came from. We got this after the CompStat meeting today:

• CompStat is out of control today SCC. McCarthy raked ol' Carrothers over the coals again for some low performing Area teams. One team that produced only 1 arrest and 105 Contact Cards in a month was recommended for immediate dumping. Wysinger concurred stating, "Maybe they should go back to a slow district where they don't have to do anything." While I understand teams are a good spot if you produce for the boss, why be so deliberately negative toward traditionally slow districts? Are they looking to cut manpower ever more in the slow parts of town?
  
  Then it got real bad.
  
  McCarthy and others kept harping on manpower considerations. McCarthy actually asked if Time Due should be removed from the Watch/District control and given to the Areas for granting/denying time off. Then Wysinger, in a kool-aid induced fit, actually stated to the assembled gold stars and other attendees of all ranks that "There should be NO TIME DUE GRANTED FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE." I didn't get to write down the exact quote, but Wysinger told everyone that the city had given the Department the "4 on - 2 off" schedule, so Time Due shouldn't even be an issue. After all, you get 15 extra days off a year. No need to take off Saturdays, Sundays or plan for family days, ball games, whatever.
  
  This place is truly circling the drain.

OK, so no more Time Due for anyone? All summer? All year? Fuck you Wysinger. You were a worthless cop when we knew you, a multiple-time promoted merit hack, a thief of awards that better cops than you have paid for in blood and you've only gotten worse with age. Now you're drinking the Rahm/McCarthy koolaid by the barrel full and we're pretty sure that isn't a sugar glaze on your face. You disgust us and we're damn glad all we see of this Department is in our rearview mirror.

Anyone who was at this meeting ought to be calling FOP and asking if the Department, specifically Al Wysinger, can deny you time off that you've earned. Time Due means that it's "DUE" to the men and women who have it. Stop fucking with the troops.

The Biggest Failure

This is truly in the "un-fucking-fucking-believable category:

• Dear SCC,
  
  "You ain't going to believe this shit..."
  
  Every good copper story starts out with that phrase, but this one is anything but good.
  
  I was assigned to the downtown area yesterday. For part of the day, my group was on high visibility patrol. Sweet gig, nice scenery, beautiful day, walk and talk with the citizens, made a lot of people happy. The other part of the day we sat around Navy Pier, did some drills, saw some demonstrations from the MFF, and got the speeches from the gold stars. The theme was "we're all in this together, let's watch each others' backs." You've probably heard them before.
  
  Then we sat and listened to the radio as downtown and Rahm's neighborhood descended into chaos. We watched our brothers and sisters downtown confronting/being confronted by these assholes on the live helicopter feeds from the various news stations.
  
  And we sat. We listened to the calls for EMS and paramedics for a couple of injured P.O's and hoped everyone was OK.
  
  And we sat. We listened to the bike teams race from one end of the protest to the other after being bused all the way from Rahm's house to downtown, set up and block streets, and then redeploy when their efforts failed - again and again and again, probably 5-6 times.
  
  And we sat some more. Two hundred cops sitting around listening to the situation devolve. Finally, we got the word we were loading the buses. We got on, started prepping equipment and were told that we were headed.....home. Back to Sox Park. Released for the night, while our brothers and sisters were being run to the point of exhaustion, assaulted and lord knows what else. Not only that, but the buses to take us back drove within sight and sound of the demonstrations up and down Michigan Avenue.
  
  I have never been more disgusted with the leadership of this Department. I can only figure that in the name of nickels and dimes, my fellow officers were put into harms way. Two hundred coppers could have made a big difference, cost be damned.
  
  So Tobias and Gulliford and Kirby? Your speeches to the supervisors we were told about all of us being a team and we're in this to make sure no coppers get hurt? You're full of shit. You had a ready force of 200-plus cops set to deploy, even blocking traffic to allow you greater freedom of movement of the meager forces at your disposal and you failed in the name of nickels and dimes. That isn't leadership. That's an accountant with a badge. You fucking beancounters ought to be ashamed. Any trust I had left is gone.
  

We are speechless.

Hacked

We've been informed about "virus warning" type windows popping up on the Department computers lately. We're told it occurs dozens of times during the processing of a simple arrest.

Guess what happened? And guess who predicted it?

• NATO protestors have infiltrated the CPD computers with a worm that is wreaking havoc across the board. 35th Street and OEMC are in a full panic. The entire Department Intranet is in danger of a meltdown on an unimaginable scale, just in time for a potential "mass arrest" situation this weekend that would bring the Department to a grinding halt. (from our e-mail)
  

Did you see that latest AdMin Fax that told everyone to change their passwords if they haven't been altered in a few years and that efforts were underway to have passwords changed every 90 days? That gaping security risk, pointed out by SCC readers almost a year ago, is coming home to roost. Good thing CPD trimmed the in-house I.T. people and never spent the money/effort on a decent internet security protocol.

This is going to cost big time. And be careful with those detachable drives - you might bring home presents for your own personal computer by accident.

Helmet Problems?

Um, true or false? Because it would really be helpful to know seeing as how we're just under five weeks away from NATO:

• Spent a few hours at 9th Dist yesterday LT . had been notified to send 4 guys to training that day regarding the new face shields being issued for the G8 summit.
  
  What these guys were told is hard to believe.The large majority of helmets in use do not have screws or rivets on the sides. The "fix" is to remove the trim piece which slips over the unfinished edge of the helmet and glue it back on using department issued Gorilla glue. After waiting 24 hours for the clue to set the new face masks will be clamped to the newly glued trim piece. Everyone hopes the glue will hold. Many if not most of the helmets currently in use have exceeded the expiration deadline given by the manufacturer (5 years).
  
  If CPD had not missed a deadline to file a request they could have gotten 13,000 actual kevlar helmets with face masks for DOD for free. Nobody put the request in.

This would be unbelievable if we didn't actually work for the Chicago Police Department. As it is, we're reduced to asking on behalf of the entire rank-and-file for accurate information.

For the reading challenged, you can see we give this rumor no credence one way or the other - we are asking for confirmation or refutation, simply that.

No Sticker Art At All

This is a bit sooner than we had predicted:

• In another bad turn for a 2012-2013 city sticker design contest for Chicago students that last week became mired in controversy over gang symbols, the artwork of the runner-up winner will also not be used, City Clerk Susana Mendoza announced Saturday.
  
  The “Chicago Heroes” design by Caitlin Henehan, a senior at Resurrection High School, was chosen after Mendoza nixed the previous winner’s entry because of questions posed by former police superintendent Jody Weiss and others about perceived gang signs incorporated into that 15-year-old boy’s drawing.
  
  But because of “unwanted media and public scrutiny and criticism of her artwork,” Henehan’s family “has now requested that their child’s artwork not be used,” Mendoza said in a statement released with the family.

We figured that next year they were going to cancel the contest.

Good call by the parents of Ms. Henehan to quell this before it started getting really stupid. It was a lose/lose for their daughter no matter how it played out.

Roe and Rope-a-Dope Story

On AM 890 just now.

They just discovered that dear old dad has an Interpol warrant.

How long has Shaved and ourselves been running with this part of the story? Three days? And the FBI (foiled by intelligence) has a representative on the radio right now explaining how this is new?

UPDATE: Now they're debating if the "m.l.d." are actually different from the "latin kings" since dad allegedly supplied cocaine to the one gang and the word "latin" appears in both gang names.

UPDATE: Roe and Roeper seem to have heard rumors of Herbie's alleged criminal record.

UPDATE: The kid's lawyer says Herbie never put up any gang related pictures or representations on his Facebook page. We refer readers to the Channel 2 story:

• Pulgar did acknowledge that his Facebook page, which has since been made private, had pictures of him flashing gang signs, but he said that was a “stupid” mistake from his past. He admitted he’s been in trouble before...

That sure sounds like Herbie admitting he put up pictures of himself representing.

Assailants' Estates Get Paid?

File this one under "un-fucking-fucking-believable:"

• A federal jury awarded $1.35 million to the family of a man shot to death by an off-duty Chicago Police officer after a confrontation at a Northwest Side bar, an attorney for the family said Thursday.

  Officer [...] fatally shot Kenneth Elrod and his friend Demetri Centera on April 7, 2006. Attorney Gregory Kulis represented the family of Elrod in a lawsuit against [...], the city and other officers.

  Kulis said a jury awarded Elrod’s family $1.25 million in the shooting and $100,000 in connection with an allegation that another officer used excessive force on Elrod in a bar before the shooting.

  Centera’s family dropped out of the lawsuit in 2008, records show.

  In 2006, police said [...] helped break up a fight involving Elrod at Magic Touch Club, 5728 W. Belmont. Elrod was thrown out. Later, Elrod and Centera were in a pickup that pulled up to [...]’s Hummer at a stoplight at Belmont and Kilpatrick and pointed guns at [...], police said.

  [...] told investigators he shot the men because he feared for his life. At the time, investigators found he followed guidelines for the use of deadly force. Two guns were recovered from the pickup, police said.

These two pieces of shit were known gang bangers with extensive criminal records, and if we aren't mistaken, had at least a few weapons offenses in their past. One gets tossed from a bar and goes to his home where he gets an illegal handgun that was hidden in a radio and gets his buddy (who also has a gun) to go hunting the off duty cop. They find him and confront him with drawn weapons. Fortunately, the officer is better trained and manages to kill both assailants.

And the City is on the hook for $1.35 million?

Up is down ladies and gentlemen. Chicago is done. A federal jury has decided that if you are confronted by armed assailants, you must either (A) pay them or (B) die. God forbid you defend yourself.

A Confession

Can we please stop with the "poor gang banger" routine? It's getting stupid:

• Pulgar said it was especially upsetting that police officers would say on police blogs that he was trying to promote a street gang.

  “How can they say that I’m representing a gang member? How dare they say that I’m doing that if I’m really representing them? Get that through their head that I’m representing them, not no gang,” Pulgar said.

  Pulgar did acknowledge that his Facebook page, which has since been made private, had pictures of him flashing gang signs, but he said that was a “stupid” mistake from his past. He admitted he’s been in trouble before, but claimed working to win the contest was his way of trying to turn his life around.

  “That’s why I entered this contest, that’s why I’m doing this, to turn myself around … from that negative that I was doing, you know what I mean?” he said. “What they saw on Facebook was me doing stupid stuff as a kid.

Um, you're 15. You're still a kid.

Has anyone asked him about his juvenile record? Any gang tattoos? Maybe on the shoulder? We're just wondering.

It's Dead, Jim

The gang-banging-glorifying city sticker is officially dead.

Now the blame game begins:

• Hours earlier, the boy's mother fought back tears as she denied the allegations. Since they became public Tuesday, the boy has suffered anxiety attacks and couldn't sleep last night, according to his mother and their lawyer.
  
  "I am very upset. I feel very upset that something so positive could be so negative," Jessica Loor told reporters crammed inside a classroom at Lawrence Hall Youth Services, where the boy attends school. "I feel there's a lot of haters. They can make anything out of anything."

You know who else can't sleep at night lady? The residents of certain Chicago neighborhoods who have to listen to gunfire all night. The victims suffering post traumatic stresses after being mugged or shot by gang bangers. How about those two little girls who managed to catch a couple of bullets fired their direction by some piece of crap gang bangers that your son probably hung out with and will live with the aches and pains that in previous years were only suffered by wounded soldiers?

We love how the media is giving play to momma and her "tears" while conveniently ignoring the school for troubled youth this individual attends. How about the "forks up, crowns down" pictures we and Shaved posted? Or absentee dad with his guns, drug money and Interpol record? Or the particularly damning Facebook conversations so thoughtfully captured and preserved by a reader?

Darn those police for pointing out all these other things that don't quite fit into the narrative of a poor downtrodden youth just about to turn his life around. He's got a lawyer you know. And the lawyer is pulling out the stops:

• "Now this is a bunch of nonsense being blown way out of proportion," said Horwitz, describing the boy as a "special needs" child who is on the honor roll.

Where's the altar boy reference? Every gang banger playbook says you have to have an altar boy reference. It's the law.