A Cook County jury Thursday night found a South Side man guilty of aggravated battery with a firearm for shooting and injuring a Chicago Police detective.
But jurors weighing in on Bobby Selvie’s case acquitted him of the more serious charge of attempted murder.
The jury sent at least one note to Judge Timothy J. Joyce that indicated they were “struggling” with whether “shooting a gun at someone means intent to kill.”
Seriously? Can we get a judge to send a copy of the ILCS into the jury room? Jagoff wasn't looking to send flowers to the detective. We can just imagine this defense popping up in courtrooms across Cook County over the next decade.
Hopefully, the judge makes up for the jury's shortcomings by going for the maximum sentence of 60 years.
A gray Nissan kept turning up outside Chicago police patrolman [LH]’s home on a quiet block in Chicago’s Southwest Side, scaring his family.
It circled his home a few times in October 2010, rounding the block, according to Cook County prosecutors. One of its occupants, Trini Morado, stopped and stared down his wife, [...], and their 7-year-old daughter, prosecutors said.
On Thursday, [they] got to testify at the sentencing of the 6-foot-tall, 305-pound Morado, where their stalking case was used by prosecutors to ask for a stiffer sentence on a kidnapping charge against Morado.
Morado, 39, of the 5100 block of Normandy in Chicago, was given 18 years in prison in Cook County Circuit Court in Maywood.
Yet another reason to seriously look at residency. Or the city supplying all active officers with a car and half-a-dozen bodyguards/drivers.
Whilst the govts IMF package Mk2 passed with 155 votes and just as the KKE’s parade ended the police using its riot police launched a brutal teargas war with the hundred odd thousand in the main square. Tear gas was thrown right in the middle of crowds right above the heads of protestors, Chinese made bomb sounding pellets were also thrown to create maximum confusion and panic. But the protestors didn’t panic. They stood firm, as most were prepared with gas masks and sea goggles to avoid the effects of the tear gas which is stinging eyes and burning sensation in all skin surfaces left uncovered. Alongside the tear gas they threw gas which meant you couldn’t also breathe. Brute force without the use of police provocateurs was the order of the day after they had a trial run the night before.
More than 500 people were injured, the police wanting to disperse the top end of Sindagma Sq also in order to ensure the bottom end of the square sections of which are funded directly by the Ford Foundation and Soros in the USA weren’t to be left out. By dispersing the bottom end of the square they revealed that their aim was to show that a banana republic has to crush all resistance to the IMF in order to prove to the banksters that have them on the payroll as to what a good protectorate they are. What they achieved on the ground, they lost in the spirit of the people, who faced the riot police unarmed, with plastic water bottles and their arms.
Whilst the battles lasted for up to 8 hours yesterday and the riot police must have thrown the equivalent of 6 months use of tear gas, they created another set of problems. By dispersing the crowds they set them further afield at least half a mile from the centre and created at least five zones of conflict. Pavements were ripped up and the marble was broken to be used as rocks against the riot police. Fires were set at the central Post Office, the Economics Ministry at a certain 4x hotel, phone booths and bus stations. For hours the youth fought and the riot police returned the rocks throwing them back. At various times they brought the mobile police units on motorbike who drove past the crowds on the side streets and they threw tear gas at them. They even attacked people eating in restaurants and in cafes who didn’t necessarily have anything to do with the demo. They threw tear gas into the main metro station right where there was a standby area for injured people creating a gas storm ensuring the injured became even more injured and hoping that someone may die. During the day two members of Parliament were attacked (one a member of the KKE and another a member of PASOK). The political situation has now changed irrevocably beyond the pale. The peaceful nature of the protests so far reached their limit. One cannot confront the praetorian guards of the IMF with plastic water bottles or with bare hands. The IMF hasn’t usually departed peacefully anywhere on earth. It arrives sucks the blood out of the people leaves behind chaos disaster and despair and provokes rebellion. It appears what happened in Athens yesterday was the last chance for the IMF to leave peacefully. It didn’t happen. Next time the parliamentary junta will be overthrown and the 300 Quisling MP’s will be thrown out. People learn quickly in Greece. In the first six months of the IMF 80’s abstained from local elections, and in another six months 2 million took to the squares. In the next six months they will chase and hound every politician wherever they are, their local offices, their electoral offices, they will refuse to pay for all the new tax rises and they will confront the IMF banksters head on.
As they say on the square with the large banner and the slogans they chanted against the riot police
Bread Peace Freedom, the Junta Didn’t Die in 1973 In this square we will Bury the IMF
From words to deeds will be the next phase. Just as in the Russian Revolution the masses unorganised demonstrated in their thousands with peaceful intentions against the Tsar and were met brutally head on by the praetorian guards of the era, so in our times, the IMF will be buried in Greece. We witnessed the future in the events of yesterday and it is clear the people can no longer be ruled and those who rule can no longer rule in the old way. Greece will be reborn on the ashes of the IMF, the EU and the Euro.
Greece belongs to the Greeks and will remain so despite the giveway nature of the new measures. For that no one who demonstrated had a different opinion and the mood of the masses wasn’t one of defeatism, but resistance till victory.
Whatever you do Friday, do not: Take a hot bath to de-stress; get stuck in a glass elevator; decide to have a marathon baking session in your studio apartment for an upcoming 4th of July picnic.
Do not do these things, or anything else taxing, because it’s forecast to reach 100 degrees Friday, according to the National Weather Service.
In fact the weather service is calling the sizzling heat an “extreme heatwave.”
Since a mere 88 degrees on Memorial Day resulted in a single beach being closed for "heat" reasons, we can't see any purpose in having that same beach open when it's actually going to be 12 degrees hotter.
That would be silly, silly we say, just plain silly. Or just pointing out another lie.
On Friday, July 1st a memorial service will be held for 012th District Police Officer Brian Strouse who was killed in the line of duty on June 30th, 2001.
The service will be held at 6 p.m. at 18th Place and Loomis.
Very hard to believe that this has been ten years now.
Jack Dunphy is the pen name of an LAPD copper who writes on police issues for various websites. We've linked to his articles before and they are almost without equal in our opinion. Wednesday, he took on the national embarrassment that our superintendent has managed to create. You can read the entire posting here, but the best part of the article comes at the very end where Dunphy quotes an NYPD Captain:
For more insight on McCarthy, I turned to an old friend, a captain on the NYPD who, for reasons that will soon be obvious, wishes to go unnamed here. His comments:
It should be noted how counterfeit and disingenuous McCarthy is. This is a man who has spent his entire professional life in an extremely aggressive, no-holds-barred crusade to put as many black men as possible in prison. He has vigorously advocated the wholesale arrests of black men for the smallest of infractions or violations with not a care as to how such actions could hamstring or effect their futures. He has publicly castigated (and humiliated in some cases) other police executives when they failed to pursue this crusade with the same zeal that he had.
This man is one of the architects of the “Stop, Question and Frisk” policy that the ACLU, the New York attorney general, newspapers, and civil rights activists have condemned as racist. For him to now climb up on stage and tell a black audience that he cares about them and that the problems in their neighborhoods are the fault of “gun laws” and some mystical governmental action is bizarre.
Garry knows what the real problem is but he is shamelessly prostituting himself in an effort to get a high approval rating and establish his liberal bona fides.
Seriously, go read the entire article. It is a masterpiece of a takedown.
The brother of the man charged in the death of the bodyguard for Chicago Bears lineman Terry "Tank" Johnson was charged Wednesday with trying to kill a Chicago police detective, police said.
Bobby Selvie, 22, is accused of attempted murder in the shooting of a police detective shortly before 1 a.m. Monday in the 800 block of West 50th Place in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. Bobby Selvie's brother Michael, 34, was charged in December with killing Johnson's bodyguard at a Near North Side nightclub, according to sources.
Bobby Selvie, in a statement he allegedly made to another person, admitted shooting a Wentworth Area detective who was chasing a fellow gang member near the Selvies' home, sources said.
The detective, who was shot in the lower back, was reported in serious condition Wednesday. Investigators have been unable to question him.
And his wife and step-son want to thank their supporters over the years:
Hello my name is Bob Peloza, I am the son of Chicago Police Officer Robert F. Wenzel Killed-In-The-Line-Of-Duty 13 Jan 1973. Today I received news that his killer died in Statesville prison Sunday June 26 2011. This is a great day for my mother and I, we no longer have to go to parole hearings or do petitions. This is such a joyous day, we are so happy. For the first time in a long time, I cried tears of joy... Finally my father can rest in peace knowing his killer will rot in hell..
Quote from my mother: Good morning everyone. This is to thank each and every one of you for anything you ever did to help me keep the murderer of my Bob in prison. It is finally over. HE IS DEAD. As of Sunday. No more parole hearings, no more petitions. He is on his journey to HELL. FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you Rose
On behalf of myself and my mother thank you to everyone who thought of us, helped us and signed petitions to help keep him in prison
On behalf of the crew here at SCC, may the death of this murderer bring you and your mother peace at last.
A Chicago woman who played witness to a beach melee on Memorial Day weekend wants Chicago police and officials to come clean about what happened along the lakefront in May.
On May 30, city officials closed North Avenue Beach because of excessive heat, but Amy Schwartz says no one is talking about the excessive violence that prompted her to call 911 that day.
"There's a fight breaking out on the beach because there's nothing but animals covering this beach today," Schwarz phoned into the police. "What the hell is going on.
Schwartz said she was walking from Oak Street Beach toward North Avenue Beach on Memorial Day when she witnessed a woman being beaten by a gang of people on the beach.
Once again, a case of "Who are you going to believe - the authorities or your own goddamn lying eyes?" In the case of Ms. Schwartz, she appears to be believing her own lying eyes and not the smoke, mirrors, lies and obfuscation put out by the politicos and talking heads.
Where there's one, there are others. Many others in this case.
When Ald. Edward Burke arrives at City Hall, it's in a city-owned car driven by nattily dressed bodyguards, complete with Secret Service-style earpieces.
It's been that way for decades, even as the racially charged Council Wars era that once made Burke such a controversial and perhaps targeted political figure has faded into history.
Now, at a time of tight budgets and a police shortage, the alderman with $8 million in his campaign fund finds himself defending the bodyguard contingent, which takes four full-time officers off the streets.
Maybe instead of bodyguards, Burke could get a sign that says, "I'm important!"
Chicago Police officers have won the right to a 24-hour cooling-off period from the time they shoot someone to the time they must speak to an independent investigator.
The Independent Police Review Authority last year insisted on speaking to officers within two hours of a police-involved shooting.
The feds get at least 48 hours and LAPD gets three days. The reasoning for 24 hours seems specious - it gives an officer a “proper sleep cycle,” but seriously, who's going to get a decent night sleep after a gunfight? It's a step in the right direction though.
The former Illinois governor, imprisoned for his crimes, persuaded a federal warden in TerreHaute, Ind., to let him out for a few hours Monday. He made it back to his wife's bedside at a Kankakee hospital. Just before 11 p.m., she was taken off a respirator and died, following a long battle with cancer. She was 76.
Chicago Police are crediting the “diligence” of a commander for approaching a large group of teens outside Water Tower Place Monday night, leading to the arrest of a man who had a loaded handgun.
[...] Near North District police Sgt. Kenneth Angarone was deploying his officers on foot patrol about 6:45 p.m. Monday in the 800 block of North Michigan Avenue when he noticed a big group of teens leaving Water Tower Place....
We're sure the honor student was just headed to a gun "turn-in" at the local Make Believe church when accosted by the police.
Live Streaming http://www.counterfire.org/index.php/news/news/12727-greece-live-video-streams-from-syntagma-square
Over the past week the situation has developed nightly with many people expressing their desperation at the situation and calling for more precise forms of direct action ie the storming of Parliament. From unemployed truckers to unemployed warehouse workers the desperation is seen on people’s faces when they gather nightly to chant slogans and debate issues amongst speakers or themselves with other people in the square. Alongside this the govt via its Vice President declared a vote for the 2nd round of IMF measures has to occur or tanks will hit the streets’ in the Spanish press El Mundo alongside a statement that all those who call for an exit from the Euro or a return to the Drachma are totally stupid
The 4th General Strike this year has kicked off, with a shutdown in the ports, most of the public sector, timed electricity blackouts and the traditional two different demos starting from two different points. The KKE had left Sindagma Sq by 11.30am this morning and they are supposed to come back this evening in order to repeat the same tomorrow when the vote goes through Parliament. There is much confusion over the past week as to whether they will participate in the vote or if they withdraw they will hand the govt a victory as it will need less votes to pass through its IMF measures. The public sector unions around the Greek TUC and ADEDY have marched as well and many have stayed in Sindagma Sq but so far it appears there are less people than last time as everyone has agreed to return in the evening. There have also appeared what appears to be black hooded characters who have massed at the bottom end of the square and last night an attempt was made by various parties to bring down the tents that have been there for one month now allegedly for health and safety reasons but most people have ignored them and aren’t leaving.
. The peaceful nature of the protests reached their limit. More than 2 million Greeks gathered in squares and the end result was... worse IMF measures after the govt restructuring. The bankers and interest bearing bondholders need to paid. Soible stated that Greeks must give up even the sun. Everything else is to be sold off in a firesale of immense proportions without an actual sale, but a giveaway. No wonder people chant Thieves to Prison for the Politicians in Parliament and a new banner has appeared stating the ‘Biggest type of Violence is that of being Sacked and Unemployed’.
The circling of Parliament seems to have been a call made by a section of the demonstrators and a section of the media as well (with posters appearing with no organisational link to them) but done in such a manner whereby one would need around a million to cover all the entrances from the main roads instead of where the actual entrances are. In other words they are spreading people thin ensuring thus if the numbers don’t show up,(how can they when there isn’t a political organisation that can control this) their actions won’t have the actual desired effect. Coupled with the role of the KKE which marches separately and leaves the scene just as teargas is fired, the new 48hour general strike (which hasn’t occurred ever since the fall of the Junta) we have had a new situation developing.
Alongside that has been the massive media attention now to default and what has occurred in other countries from Russia to Argentina to Iceland. The worlds press has been present in Greece since the 15th June and the issue is why? Since 1985 Greece has paid back E865billion and its economy doesn’t add up to more than 2% of EU GDP. All the new measures don’t reduce the actual size of the foreign debt but magnify it by attacking working class living standards directly and indirectly. Coaches are coming from many parts of Greece and many of the demonstrators this morning seem to be well prepared with gas masks and sea goggles for the eventual tear gas attacks. The mood appears to be that something will kick off, but we don’t know exactly when. 2pm
Afternoon and Evening Events Between 2-6pm the known black hooded police provocateurs started to attack police lines not anywhere near Parliament but at either end of the square giving the riot police the excuse to tear gas everyone away from the main squares as all that remained apart from the ‘indignados’ were the leftist groups. Most people left in order to come back in the evening during the Parliamentary debates. At some point the riot police teargassed both entrances of the Sindagma metro so people who were inside could choke and many did as women with young children ended up needing to be hospitalised. KKE – PAME arrives in order to depart from jeering crowds
At around 7pm the KKE via its union leadership PAME arrived at the top end of the square right in front of Parliament and most people greeted them that finally they had come to join the common struggle against the IMF. They have a very large truck with many loudhailers and this was parked right in the middle in the square and it is usual for the KKE never to be a minority and when it holds its own meetings in squares talks only to itself so to be in an area as just another organisation was too much for its organisers. So when they started to depart people started jeering them and a few scuffles broke out. Many shouted shame or clapped ironically saying also well done, the parade is over. During arguments with the KKE stewards their complaint was that if they arrive on the square (one month after this movement started) people don’t want them and if they leave people jeer at them. This is obviously quite logical as the KKE criticised those who were on the squares when they said the struggle is only in the factories when ironically they had always stated people should hit the streets against the economic measures and when they did they told them to go back to the factories (as if everyone is working!!) What was clearly discernible was that the volume of people on the streets has affected the KKE and it can no longer pretend its policies are actually serving any other purpose than a left cover for IMF-PASOK Tear gas for 5 hours straight-but people don’t go away
After the KKE left the motorbike contingent against the IMF arrived in the square to the crowds who clapped in support and soon thereafter the riot police started a 5 hour barrage of tear gas and little rocket bombs that make a massive amount of noise to shake you and a little explosion. People started to defend themselves and throw water bottles at police lines and anything they could find, but the volume of teargas was so intense that even if you had gasmasks and sea goggles the smoke alone meant it was difficult to see, but at least you could breathe. During lulls in the conflict two individuals climbed over the police barriers and confronted the riot police on their own. The shouting and screaming at the police was constantly interspersed with slogans of Police, Pigs, Murderers which thronged the whole square and Hellas Hellas. Despite the volume of tear gas the people never dispersed just retreated as the police fire tear gas straight at you and you could be seriously injured by the teargas canister. Fires were lit in the square below and aids were handing out Maalox (chemical compound for bad stomach diluted) spray for the burning eyes.
28/06/11
At the same time this morning a minister stated Greece will not be Argentina when by all accounts this is the beginning as the old order is disintegrating and by teargas alone one cannot keep such a large mass of people in check. To what extent people today will accept to be attacked by the police indefinitely without counterattacking in the known ways (Molotov cocktails etc) may be the marvels or our ‘modern era’. At the same time the ‘Special Olympics’ are occurring which have cost around 100million. There are more than 15,000 police who have been on duty now for around 2 days straight and thousands of protestors are arriving from many parts of Greece. The battle begins anew.
In 2007, my husband was shot in the line of duty. Today was the first day of his trial the People vs. Bobby Selvie. At 12:45 pm I turned at looked back in the court room and saw only one Police Officer, our good friend Tom McDonagh. I thank all of our good friends that came and showed support but by 12 45 the courtroom was completely empty and it was scary. Scary to know that this defendent already thinks he is calling the shots, not taking deals offered to him, scary to think that the police don't come out in force to say, Heh this is enough. If you are in court tomorrow, please come to room 602. Don't come for me, don't even come for Pat, come to show bad guys that they don't run the show, they don't call the shots, they can't continue to get away with shooting the police
Room 602 today and continuing until further notice.
Chicago has always been a political town, trading on favors and taking care of the connected. In that way, the supernintendo seems like a perfect fit. In fact, the beginning of this tale is mysteriously similar to J-Fled's actions to protect the FBI following a whistleblower allegation that the agency had failed to heed warnings and take precautions prior to 9/11.
The entire comment can be read at this link here at 6/27/2011 01:34:00 AM. We'll summarize the interesting parallels below:
[...] McCarthy had lied previously and denied reports that he had been reprimanded by the NYPD after he had gotten into an physical altercation with a off duty NYPD Sergeant at a cop bar in the Bronx on City Island the night he was appointed deputy commissioner a few years back. On a separate incident McCarthy who was also out drunk again on City Island one evening was shooting out street lights with other police officers one of whom was McCarthy’s brother whom is a New York State Trooper. When McCarthy was confronted by an NYPD Sgt concerning the shooting incident McCarthy had retaliated against the officer later on especially when the Sgt. insisted on pursuing the shooting incident as a criminal matter. Needless to say the incident was quietly swept under the rug by the NYPD Raymond W. Kelly let Garry McCarthy skate after the New Jersey incident
So Gary was back up to his old tricks again. He involved himself in another car stop, this one involved the arrest of a relative in Manhattan for DWI. When a cop on the midnight tour of the Manhattan North Task Force pulled the relative over, the relative telephoned McCarthy but the cop refused to speak to him. Interestingly enough almost identical to his daughter Kyla's incident. Instead, after consulting with his Sergeant and Lieutenant, the cop arrested the relative of McCarthy. McCarthy was not happy. He began calling the borough commander, Assistant Chief Raymond Diaz, to have the cop, Sergeant and Lieutenant transferred. Behind-the-scenes negotiations with a union trustee ultimately produced a back-door apology.
Only a few months ago McCarthy again involved himself in the Manhattan North Task Force car stop. This time, it involved a friend of his who was summonsed by a cop for talking on his cell phone while driving. When the cop asked McCarthy’s friend why he had been talking while driving, the friend answered,“Because I got a fucking phone call.” Again, McCarthy was not happy, he attempted to have the cop transferred. The cop, however, comes from a police family. A relative is an inspector. So far there have been no transfers. Neither McCarthy nor the Task Force Captain, William Crossan would comment on the case.
[...] Ray Maitland, FL
So going after people who register complaints against his behavior? Check!
Try to have underlings transferred when they write his relatives? Check!
Attempt the exact same thing again if they attempt to write his friends? Check!
Having his behavior covered up again and again and again where he learns nothing and repeats the same embarrassing nonsense? Check!
Haven't we lived through a few of these scandals already? Where all the warning flags were up, people in power knew what was coming, incidents were minimized, hushed up, covered for, and in the end, the Department suffered irreparable harm at the hands of problems that should have been dealt with years previously?
Yeah, we can think of a few incidents ourselves right off the tops of our heads. How about the readers?
The head of the Chicago police union says the city is not ready to host two major summits that would bring both international leaders and protestors. [...], the president of the Chicago police union, said summits like the G-8 and NATO bring a "bunch of wild, anti-globalist anarchists."
Protestors notoriously clashed with police officers in Seattle and Pittsburgh at previous political summits and [he] says Chicago's police force doesn't have the manpower needed to deal with thousands of potential protestors.
"The City of Chicago needs to take a serious look at how much revenue they're going to allocate immediately for new hirings because we are not ready prepared for a large summit such as this," [some guy] said.
If the stories out of recent parades are true, along with the 010 District melee and all the recent wilding/gooning/flash mob incidents downtown, then the dreaded "manpower" issue is going to be front and center very quickly. Academy classes ought to be started in very short order to make up the steadily declining numbers, because we can name a dozen people who will retire before May of next year just to avoid this thing.
A Chicago venture capital fund whose projects paid more than $1.2 million to former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s son has been taken over by the federal government, which says the fund owes taxpayers $21.4 million.
Cardinal Growth L.P. — which was run by attorney and former federal prosecutor Robert Bobb Jr. and accountant Joseph McInerney, a close friend of Daley’s son, Patrick Daley — borrowed nearly $51 million from the U.S. Small Business Administration over the past decade but has been unable to repay $21.4 million, court records show.
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald filed the civil lawsuit on behalf of the federal agency on June 15. The SBA is seeking to liquidate Cardinal Growth L.P. because of mounting losses that threaten the fund’s ability to repay the taxpayer money it got from the agency.
So everything Patrick Daley touches either turns to shit or manages to evade all the so-called "ethical safeguards" put in place to prevent exactly this sort of profiteering by connected individuals from the public monies.
But remember, greedy teachers and coppers are the cause of all financial problems.
Honestly, when we saw Blago on TV again, we thought he was being processed out of the Terre Haute prison and headed back to town. We were getting ready to see if he was taking up his old job of delivering pizzas on the north side.
Two governors in a row going to prison. Really classy.
This was pointed out by an astute reader of the NYPD blog, THEERant
FROM NYPD RANT: HYPOCRISY ON HIGH: I'm sure Police Officer Garry Francis McCarthy sure felt that very same way back on that St. Paddy's Day in the 46 Precinct, when off-duty and in the bag, he and his brother, Jimmy, (NYSP Trooper - also off-duty and in the bag) allegedly started a near riot by allegedly shouting the ‘N’ word at the locals while allegedly attempting to shoot out the street lights while allegedly being “intox” to the point he (they) almost couldn't stand.
Yep, Garry, that sure was a dozy of a 10-13(CPD 10-1) that you allegedly started that night with that mostly black crowd.
Shame on you for playing the race card for political gain! - Mike Bosak
Another NYPD commentator replied:
NYPD PBBX said...
1:16 PM
McCarthy and his brother were shooting out streetlights in the 45th Pct.(NOT the 46th Pct.) after they left Rhodes, a cop bar on City Island in the Bronx.
No wonder he hates guns. They get used to shoot out streetlights.
No wonder he has to go to Pfleger's church to pander to the masses. He's got to work off some of that guilt he feels.
Five Chicago Police officers were injured early Sunday during a brawl while responding to a complaint of loud music on the Southwest Side, police said.
Thirteen people, including two women, were taken into custody after the fight in the 2800 block of West 25th, police said.
Officers arrived to find more than 30 people in the alley and some immediately began throwing bottles and debris at the cops, police said. Some even threw cans of food.
When others began fighting with police, officers called for additional help.
One officer required three staples after having a glass bottle thrown at his head, O’Brien said.
Gee, if only we had a mobile force of a hundred or more officers that could target a certain out-of-control area and lock up every single jagoff around for a few weeks.
Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget office spokeswoman will be making nearly 50 percent more money after receiving an additional job title this spring.
Kelly Ann Krapf, a former broadcast reporter who uses the name Kelly Kraft, received a salary boost from about $71,000 to more than $105,000.
Last year, an Associated Press analysis revealed that Quinn had given 43 salary increases averaging 11.4 percent to 35 staffers over the previous 15 months. The raises were handed out at the same time Quinn was proclaiming a message of “shared sacrifice” and calling for deep spending cuts because of the state’s financial crisis. A Quinn spokeswoman said half of those salary increases were the result of a promotion or a change in job title with an added workload.
But hey, enjoy that income tax hike, corporate tax hike and double digit unemployment Illinois! And you better not even think about owning a gun for personal protection, you dirty serfs. Don't be getting ideas above your station in life.
At least 14 people were shot in separate incidents around the city, beginning with a violent half hour on the South Side.
Between 10:39 p.m. and 11:01 p.m. in the Back of the Yards and Englewood neighborhoods, five people were shot and taken to area hospitals, police said.
At 1:40 a.m. in the South Shore neighborhood, a 45-year-old man was driving when he suffered a gunshot wound to his shoulder...
[...] At 1:50 a.m., five people were shot--all in the same incident--in the Lawndale neighborhood.
[...] In the Logan Square neighborhood, at least three people were shot near the intersection of North Springfield Avenue and North Harding Avenue...
So how is Rahm's plan of making sure the neighborhoods are as safe as the lakefront working out now? Seems like the citizens of the west and south sides were onto something when they complained that if it doesn't happen downtown, no one cares. In fact, we find ourselves not caring right now, but that might be because most of us are on furlough right now.
After six years of trying, it was the first championship for Chicago’s finest — known as the Enforcers -- during the game inside Brother Rice High School’s football stadium on the Far Southwest Side.
The 24-13 victory over the Philadelphia Blue Flame team was mostly a bonding experience for the officers on both sides of the ball, a time to unwind away from the crime that puts their lives at risk every day.
Again, congratulations to the entire team. You did a great job this year.
The officers working Operation Protect Youth, which is a joke anyway, are being ordered to follow 5 food trucks all day long to the ghetto to watch them hand out free lunches. That's 5 two man cars and a Sergeant down for 8 hours a day five days a week for the whole summer to be private security for a program initiated by Michelle Obama and her friends. My guess is it is costing taxpayers $25000 a week Couldn't these officers be used for something better? Especially if we are so short on the street.
Can anyone confirm? This isn't what the OPY Program was initially conceived to do, but then again, that program started in Chicago ever ends up being anything but a monumental waste of time, man-hours and resources?
A 7-year-old girl was shot in the leg when gunshots rang out Saturday following an argument in the Back of the Yards neighborhood.
Police are questioning a “person of interest” in the shooting, which took place in the 5700 block of South Hoyne Avenue and also left a 45-year-old man wounded.
Two people were arguing when one pulled a gun and began firing, striking the 7-year-old girl in the leg and the man in the back, police said.
How long until we're spread so thin we can't even blow-up the corners any more? Or are we there already?
At least ten people were injured overnight in separate violent incidents around the city, police said.
This list of mayhem from Friday into Saturday can be found at this link. Looks like Tommy Skilling might be in line for another award as rain moves in to tonight keeping the violence at an ebb. But the rest of the week?
In case you were distracted by everything else going on, Rahm's promise that downtown is safe and adequate manpower is available to preserve law and order? It's working just great!
The teenage robbery mobs are at it again on North Michigan Avenue.
Some 50 young people barged into a Walgreens at Michigan and Chicago on the Magnificent Mile on Tuesday afternoon. They took bottled drinks and sandwiches off the shelves, then ran off, CBS 2′s [...] reports.
A police report says authorities were able to nab three of the thieves.
We still haven't settled on a nickname for the Supe and the comment sections are alive with half a dozen monikers. This is a good response from the Illinois State Rifle Association though:
In a blistering counterpunch, a leading pro-gun advocate Friday called Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy’s racially loaded attack on the National Rifle Association as “too nutty to dignify with a response” and denigrated the city’s new police chief as a “political hack.”
“As much as we wouldn’t expect to hear McCarthy speak in opposition to gun control, it is equally certain that few of us were prepared to hear what actually came from McCarthy’s mouth when he spoke to the St. Sabina’s congregation,” said Richard Pearson, executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association.
“After several minutes of gratuitous self-promotion, McCarthy launched into a racially charged tirade in which he accused the NRA and law-abiding gun owners of participating in a government-sponsored program to kill black people. Like most of you, we believe an assertion such as McCarthy’s is too nutty to dignify with a response,” Pearson said in statement posted Friday on his group’s website.
“But, then again, any suggestion that McCarthy is a law-enforcement officer is a sham. Rather, McCarthy is merely another in a long line of political hacks who have resided in the office of police superintendant,” Pearson said. “McCarthy’s job description has nothing to do with law-enforcement and everything to do with enforcing the political agenda of his boss, Rahm Emanuel.”
The department spokes-weasels cower in their holes:
A statement issued by McCarthy Friday did not address Pearson’s criticisms nor the St. Sabina flap, other than offering a toned-down assessment of the scourge of illegal guns on Chicago’s streets.
Oh, illegal guns? But there are already rules against those, right?
WLS AM spent a good portion of their morning show on this story. All the networks, too. Even the Drudge Report and the NRA themselves picked up on this embarrassing display.
Does anyone know if ISRA's Richard Pearson is running for anything? Because that was a Class-A pasting he just gave McCarthy.
Evidently, there are no real reporters left in Chicago if they have to keep coming here for ideas, hints and clues. They spent most of Friday reporting on the Department's response to the 911 tapes:
In a statement released late Thursday evening, police officials said the release of the calls changes nothing, and maintained that the decision to close the beach was made "in the interest of public safety and public health."
As one of our commentators suggested, how about looking at the radio traffic tapes? The calls show what people phoned in and we have no doubt the City was happy to release those because they can spin them. They just made the media jump though hoops because they can and time works in their favor now. The radio tapes would be the damning evidence needed to really give Rahm a kick in the shorts and show how inadequate the manpower has become.
But they're only required to keep those available for 30 days unless a hold is put on them, right? Tick tock. Tick tock.
UPDATE: We didn't notice, but a sharp eyed reader did. Of the 20 or so calls covered by the media, not a single one of them dealt with a medical emergency or heat-related illness. They were all about crime at the beach. So once again, the "in the interest of public safety and public health" excuse must be code for something else.
Following a series of police incidents in recent weeks on North Michigan Avenue that have led to anxieties about crime downtown, city officials also employed one more noticeable change: more police.
Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy announced earlier this week that there would be more plainclothes officers in and around the Taste this year, working at “choke points” such as train stations near Grant Park.
In addition, uniformed officers and private security guards would be stationed around the festival to ensure a smoother food-sampling experience than in years past, when some Taste events have erupted in violence, McCarthy said.
WBBM Newsradio 780 actually had a piece about how "you and your family will be safe this year" playing this past evening. But hey, everything is under control. Nothing bad here. What gang problem? If it gets bad enough, we'll just blame the "heat" and close down a single beach because those damn paramedics can't answer a call that they've handled every summer for 100 years.
Although we prefer, "Serpentine Shel! Serpentine!"
Peter Falk, the gravel-voiced actor who became an enduring television icon portraying Lt. Columbo, the rumpled raincoat-wearing Los Angeles police homicide detective who always had "just one more thing" to ask a suspect, died Thursday. He was 83.
The show often made light of Columbo's lack of fashion sense. Taking note of the detective's tatty attire, a suspect once asked him, "Are you undercover?" Replied Columbo, "No, underpaid."
Remember when Heroes used to get parades and statues? Monuments are supposed to be grand things. Large, sweeping, majestic pieces of architecture, statues, fountains, etc. designed to inspire and memorialize heroic deeds, sacrifices or individuals. They should move us. Washington DC is filled with shining examples of such: The Washington Monument, the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, the National Law Enforcement Memorial.
Chicago has its share of monuments and memorials all over downtown and in most of the larger parks. Sculptures, statues, fountains.
Chicago attorneys and activists are planning a monument to memorialize the victims of police torture.
The group is asking artists to submit proposals for the monument.
Group members say their goal is "to honor the survivors of torture, their family members, and the African American communities affected by the torture."
The launch for the project is set for Tuesday at the Hull House in Chicago.
The launch will include attorneys who have represented police torture victims and a man who says Chicago police tortured him into confessing to murder.
Has anyone actually looked at who these "victims" are? Lifelong scammers and criminals, many of whom were released on technicalities, manufactured evidence and "foggy" memories that surfaced decades after the fact. Many were backed by a university professor who has been accused of offering better grades to students who could come up with "evidence" or witnesses to clear convicted offenders, using a young co-ed as eye-candy to at least one inmate, and who recently resigned his tenured position due to his questionable tactics.
More than a few of their "innocent torture victims" have already returned to a life of crime and are headed back to prison. One of their more famous releases was the subject of a parallel outside agency investigation that concluded he probably did set the fire that killed seven people, including children.
These are to be the subjects of a "memorial" to uplift and inspire us? All we're inspired to do is take a leak on this thing.
Gee, who'd have thunk it? A Chicago mayor lying and his handpicked supernintendo keeping the public in the dark?
A number of emergency calls on Memorial Day could pose a credibility problem for Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his new police superintendent.
The official word from city officials has been that North Avenue Beach was closed that holiday due to concerns for public health. But calls made by beach-goers to Chicago's Office of Emergency Management and Communications seem to support claims that gang activity was also at play.
"There's a fight breaking out on the beach, because there's nothing but animals covering this beach today," one caller is heard saying in recordings obtained by WLS-AM radio through a Freedom of Information Act request.
"You can't even walk along the bike path or ride along the bike path. There's the crowd control. What the hell is going on?" the caller fumes.
"What the hell is going on" indeed. Go through the last couple of years of our archives and it will explain quite a bit of what's "going on."
And the bigger the lie, the bigger the rush to defend it:
In a statement released late Thursday evening, police officials said the release of the calls changes nothing, and maintained that the decision to close the beach was made "in the interest of public safety and public health."
Indeed, with temperatures in the 90s, about a half-dozen people at North Avenue Beach were treated for heat exhaustion. Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said ambulances could not get to victims.
CFD has been responding to the beaches for at least the past 100 or so years, probably even longer than that, so McCarthy's excuse holds as much water as his Sabina speech. And since the Department is now labeling gang fights as "public health" matters, maybe there's some CDC funding we could tap into to alleviate the $500 million deficit Shortshanks left Rahm?
Police Supt. Garry McCarthy declared war on the Maniac Latin Disciples after two young girls were shot in a Northwest Side park earlier this month.
The shooter was a member of the gang and was gunning for rival Latin Kings when the girls, ages 2 and 7, were wounded on June 8, prosecutors said. The younger girl was grazed in the head and the 7-year-old was seriously wounded in the back.
“We’re going to obliterate that gang,” McCarthy told a roomful of police supervisors shortly after the shooting. “Every one of their locations has to get blown up until they cease to exist.”
Two weeks later, 120 Maniac Latin Disciples have been arrested and seven guns recovered in what police are describing as phase one of their effort to cripple the gang of 300 to 500 members.
The count so far?
Of the gang members arrested since the shooting, 19 remained in jail while the others posted bond.
About five have been sent back to prison for parole violations such as testing positive for narcotics
We certainly hope this is the basis for a longer conspiracy-type investigation with hard prison time at the end for some people, because we have our doubts that one-hundred-one I-Bonds are going to "cripple" these jagoffs, but it's a good start on short notice.
05 June, the superintendent gives a speak so chock full of bullshitty goodness, it attracted the attention of a number of our commentators. The blog was in the middle of the sudden media interest of downtown "flash mobs/wildings" so we deferred the story for a few days. We covered the story on 11 June before knowing the Sabina tape existed, then more in depth on 20 June, then the attempted hiding of the video on 21 June before it was unveiled again on Shaved's site.
The pervasion of illegal guns in America's black and Latino communities is a result of "government-sponsored racism," akin to "slavery, segregation, black codes [and] Jim Crow," Rahm Emanuel's new police chief, Garry McCarthy, told parishioners at St. Sabina's Church earlier this month.
"This is sensitive. You know, because everybody’s afraid of race. Have you noticed that? Everybody’s afraid of race. I'm not afraid of race," said McCarthy, who told of growing up in the Bronx with guns, gangs and drugs plentiful.
"Let’s see if we can make a connection here. Slavery. Segregation. Black codes. Jim Crow. What, what did they all have in common? Anybody getting scared? Government sponsored racism."
We'll just point out that his list was part and parcel of the democratic party platform for years, so besides being just plain dumb and a panderer of the highest order, he's historically ignorant.
And his speech sucked on many levels, especially describing walking through a crime scene destroying evidence. How does that sound to the greenest rookie in the field who knows better than to wander into a scene and start kicking over things. It sounds like bullshit.
And the Palin crack? She wasn't there because law abiding citizens don't usually hang out at crime scenes they have no connection to. And in case you forgot, those shows are taped weeks and months in advance. So you seeing her hunt caribou in Alaska probably happened a long time before your evidence destroying rampage.
Honest to pete, this speech gets dumber every time we see it. And it's not just us - the comments on the NBC site are shocked, amused and disgusted, too. A great impression being made.
The new chief of Chicago Public Schools wants teachers to visit students at home, even in violent neighborhoods.
WLS-TV in Chicago reports that Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard said at a Thursday news conference that "our students go there every day. Why can't we?" Mayor Rahm Emanuel also was at the news conference.
Brizard says teachers and staff should each be assigned about ten home visits to students each year. Chicago public schools have about 430,000 students.
Is this guy truly that much of a dumbass?
First up, the teachers aren't going to do this for free. Their time is worth money, perhaps not as much as they think it is, but it's certainly worth something. Many teachers don't live in the neighborhoods they teach in, but you want them to burn extra gas on their days off to "home visit" certain students? If we recall correctly, your School Board just voted to disregard contractually negotiated raises while jacking up executive compensation. You're also wanting them to work longer school days this coming year. Anyone else see the danger ahead?
Second, how can we put this politely Jean-Claude? There are certain neighborhoods where some of these teachers are going to stick out like a sore thumb. And if they stick out, they are going to get hurt. Some might even get hurt badly. There are neighborhoods in Chicago where we wouldn't even think of wandering without a gun, a partner and a radio. And you expect teachers to just show up there on their own time? Are you insane?
Home visits and the like are no substitute for poor parenting and outright neglect. It's almost like this asshat and the mayor are deliberately provoking the teachers into a job action. Even old man Daley wasn't that dumb. Teachers aren't like auto workers, truckers, dockworkers or any other union members. Teachers are sympathetic strikers and they end up affecting large voting blocs.
Nothing ever truly dies on the internet. A bunch of readers pointed to the Google cache and Shaved had this video up all day. For those of you who missed it previously, here it is in all its glory:
After you watch the nonsense, make sure you click on the NRA and ISRA buttons in our right hand link page and join up.
Chicago's school board is expected to decide today if it will grant a waiver allowing its new chief administrative officer to live outside the city.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel has endorsed the two-year waiver so that Tim Cawley, the third-ranking CPS executive, can continue to live in Winnetka.
CPS grants waivers for teachers in high-need areas like special education and math, but this would be a first for an administrator, district officials said. And the waiver would come at a time when the district has been vigorously enforcing the residency rule.
Rules are for peons, not big politically-connected individuals who stand to make hundreds of thousands in tax payer money from being in Rahm's good graces.
More than 1,000 angry teachers encircled the Chicago Board of Education Wednesday, chanting “Rahm Emanuel has got to go,” just before Emanuel’s hand-picked school board members voted to approve raises for top executives a week after they rejected raises for teachers.
The throng — as many as five deep — wound around the entire block, stopping morning traffic and urging drivers with their signs to “honk if you support teachers.” As a result, blaring car horns often accompanied chanting protesters.
For being so pro-union, all the screwing around these here parts seems to be done by democrats.
We're surprised some enterprising reporter hasn't filed some kind of FOIA to get a copy of the supposed Burke court order.
As a number of our commentators pointed out, even Orders of Protection come with expiration dates and fall under a semi-regular reevaluation process. Can anyone else imagine a court order lasting in excess of 25 years without any sort of review, adjustment or evaluation?
Mayor Rahm Emanuel said today he's not focusing on the size of Ald. Edward Burke's bodyguard detail, which he suggested during the mayoral campaign would need to be cut in the spirit of shared sacrifice.
Emanuel said he's concentrating on getting large numbers of police officers back on the street rather than whether Burke, 14th, should continue to have six Chicago police officers assigned as his guards.
"My main goal wasn't about the six officers related to Ald. Burke, but the 650 officers we put into the streets. And now the commanders have the resources to do what they need to do," Emanuel said.
The 650 officers, 500 of which came from street units and were returned to the streets they were already patrolling. Right.
Remember, this is going to be a "transparent" mayoral administration. The lies certainly are transparent so far. Stevie Wonder called and asked what the hell is gong on in Chicago. And being aided by the willful blindness of the media doesn't hurt matters any.
With a $310,000 per year salary, the $76,000 vacation buyout raises J-Fled's asking price to a cool million over the span of the now expired contract.
A government employee paid with taxpayer funds...that contract ought to be public record, right? But funnily enough, it never was. Or if it was, the media did a wonderful job of not looking for it and publicizing it.
World leaders will gather in Chicago next spring to assess the situation in Afghanistan and discuss the future of the war effort there, President Barack Obama will announce in an address from the White House tonight.
The NATO summit will serve as a chance to review goals laid out by the security alliance in Lisbon last fall, when leaders agreed to begin transition to full Afghan responsibility for security in 2014, a senior administration official said.
The summit, to be held between May 15 and 22 of next year, will coincide with another international meeting in Chicago as the Group of Eight industrialized nations convenes to focus on global economic issues.
Rahm's already begging for money to pay for the security arrangements for the back-to-back conferences. We'd hope there are going to be plenty of hire-back opportunities.
The state signed a deal Wednesday with the Norfolk and Southern Railway to build the long-awaited “Englewood Flyover” that would clear up delays on the Rock Island Metra line.
The $133 million project should begin this year and be completed in two to three years, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation.
"Flying over" sounds like a good idea. In fact it sounds so good, they ought to look into relocating every major street, highway and thoroughfare so it can pass directly over Englewood without stopping, passing Go, or collecting $200. Then they can look into doing the same thing with the west side.
The report by the Congressional Budget Office says that the debt will eat up the government’s spending ability, and offers two scenarios -- both potential trajectories -- that they say by 2035 will push the debt either to most of the annual gross domestic product or to nearly twice the economic power of the U.S.
Living outside our means and our fairy tale social experiment have all but failed. We need to realize that true success comes from living out of basic principles: personal property, value of the free market, limited governemnt and protecting our boarders.
The problem with our debt both in Canada and the US is our inability to understand the value of a dollar. We don't work...we stick our hand our and cry for more. We falsely think it is loving to cater to this when in reality the loving thing to do is build relationships with people and walk life out together.
I assure you my comments are a fraction as harsh as the crashing reality this debt will inevitably bring. We need to get the message and change our ways.
(Conservatives are blue...but don't worry...they had lots of excuses as to why it's not really their fault)
Former Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis walked out with a $76,308 check for accrued vacation days when he resigned his $310,000-a-year job on March 1 — a lump-sum payment for 64 unused days that’s raising eyebrows at City Hall.
His former $168,438-a-year chief-of-staff Mike Masters left police headquarters with a check for $30,448. That’s the equivalent of 54 unused vacation days
Masters Masters Masters strikes again, along with J-Fled. And look at this:
Weis’ lump-sum payment — for the equivalent of 56.2 percent of his allotted total — raises eyebrows for several reasons.
For one, he started work on Feb. 1, 2008, but still claimed 25 vacation days that year when he was eligible for none. The former superintendent also got 25 vacation days in both 2009 and 2010, even though civilian employees are only eligible for 13 vacation days.
And the biggest insult of all:
In June, 2010, after entering the final year of his three-year contract, Weis made a policy decision that increased his vacation payment even more.
He changed the policy governing vacation carryover to allow “command staff members” including himself and Masters to carry up to 39 unused vacation days from one year to the next “when circumstances prohibited the use of current and prior year’s allotments.”
[...] Copies of Weis’ so-called “command staff vacation carryover requests” obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show that Weis and Masters took full advantage of the policy change—by carrying over 39 unused vacation days from 2010 to 2011.
Both men used identical wording to justify the request: “Unable to use due to operational needs.”
So he (and Masters) directly benefited from a policy change decision that originated on J-Fled's own desk? There's a word for that, too. And we're pretty sure people have lost jobs, positions, promotions and maybe even gone to jail over decisions like that. This reeks of impropriety at the highest levels of government.
That must have been a helluva contract Shortshanks signed with J-Fled. Someone must have had Daley dead-bang on some dirty paper or a wiretap.
New Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s campaign trail idea of taking away Ald. Ed Burke’s security detail to put a few more Chicago police officers on the streets won’t be coming to fruition.
The mayor’s handpicked police superintendent, Garry McCarthy, said today that he can’t pull back Burke’s police bodyguards.
“It's mandated by a court,” McCarthy said. “So I don't have the authority to change a court decision.”
What court was this? A court can order up police details? Based on what? Threats from 30 years ago? And that other threat that just happened to pop up after Rahm initially made noises of cutting the Burke detail? That was awfully convenient and predicted here weeks in advance of the actual occurrence.
Oh wait - it must have been Judge Ann Burke, right?
When you're reduced to claiming 500 additional officers on the streets by disbanding two street units and putting them "back" into the exact same districts they already worked in, making up imaginary officers is easy as pie:
The city plans to increase the number of undercover officers patrolling the upcoming Taste of Chicago to head off problems before they start, Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy announced on Tuesday.
The move comes in the wake of recent mob attacks downtown — and the possibility that those roving groups of young men could head to the Taste — which runs Friday through July 3.
“We’re deploying the same number of uniformed officers we’ve used in the past, [but] we’re deploying more undercover officers,’’ McCarthy said a news conference at Buckingham Fountain. “We’re not going to tell you the numbers [of officers] because that would be imprudent for us to do that.”
"Trust us."
"The check is in the mail."
"We're going to have lots of undercover officers at the Taste, but you might not see them because they're undercover!"
And where are these officers coming from? The Department has already stripped the units, front offices, desks and lock ups. We aren't hiring. The D-unit isn't in uniform. Tact teams are already scheduled for their days off. We haven't heard they're doing Special Employment. We'd certainly like to see these people.
This sounds like more robbing Peter to pay Paul:
Sources said that 40 probationary police officers will be reassigned from Michigan Avenue to the Taste on Thursday. The officers-in-training — who have completed two of their three required training periods in police districts after graduating from the police academy — had been assigned to Michigan Avenue in wake of the high-profile mob attacks. Their reassignment raises questions about who, if anybody, will take their place on Michigan Avenue.
“They’re out to give people the illusion that there are a lot of police officers on Michigan Avenue,” said one 18th District police officer, who asked to remain anonymous. “They don’t even have enough radios for these guys.”
McCarthy, asked whether Michigan Avenue was losing its beefed up police presence, declined to talk specifics, but said: “We’re going to be covering everything, that’s what it boils down to.”
What is that smell? Did we step in something?
Hopefully, they'll dress up a few cops as clowns and they can blast a few assholes back to kingdom come.
A controversial proposal to require all adults who currently live in, or apply for Chicago public housing to be tested for drugs — including senior citizens — is dead, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
Also, the agency decided to keep the so-called “innocent tenant defense” for residents, referring to evictions initiated when a drug-related or violent crime has been committed by a relative or guest of the leaseholding tenant — without the tenant’s knowledge or involvement.
“CHA is not making any changes to its ACOP regarding the proposed drug testing policy and the proposed revision to the tenant defense,” CHA spokeswoman Kellie O’Connell-Miller confirmed. “The CHA received a tremendous amount of feedback during the public comment period, and simply, the result of that is that CHA will not move forward.”
Where did all that "input" come from? Because everyone we talked to thought it was an extremely good idea. Of course, we spoke to taxpayers, people with jobs, people with houses and kids in schools, people who haven't been on the public dole for three, four, five or more generations. In other words, people not beholden to the government for their every need.
The Chicago Police Department has boosted patrols on the CTA by deploying officers alongside commuters, and plans are under way to double the number of cameras at train stations, CTA officials said Monday.
Officers formerly assigned to schools have already begun riding trains in highly visible “Wolfpack” teams of four to six members to deter crime, Lt. John Wittenberg said.
The increase in security also includes plainclothes officers who will concentrate on preventing the theft of electronic devices, CTA President Forrest Claypool said as he unveiled the summer initiative.
Initially, school officers not assigned to summer school sessions will be augmenting the police presence. The Department and the CTA declined to say what would happen when school was back in session, but we have a small idea - the force will be scaled back in the hopes that the trouble makers will be in school.
CTA President Forrest Claypool says more cameras will catch more thugs in the act of committing crimes.
But the cameras will only bear silent witness to the attacks seeing as how they can't actually arrest anyone. Which should be comforting to the victims as they recover from their injuries.
After a five-month post-mortem about the Blizzard of 2011 fiasco, Chicago’s top emergency officer was asked Monday how he intends to prevent another shutdown on Lake Shore Drive.
Gary Schenkel’s answer had nothing to do with the 12-page report’s proposal to install cuts in median planters along the Drive to provide access for emergency equipment and give stranded motorists a place to turn around.
“We’re gonna pray a lot and hope that God doesn’t dump another 40 inches of snow on us,” said Schenkel, executive director of the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications.
Wow. We supposed praying will save a bunch of money, but you're going to run into problems with the atheists and the different religious factions claiming their god is best.
And this is just ignorant:
Asked whether anybody needs to be taken to the woodshed for what happened on Lake Shore Drive, Schenkel replied, “Absolutely not.”
In fact, if he had it to do all over again, Schenkel said he would “probably not” close Lake Shore Drive before the storm hit. Instead, he would “wait for the situation to develop” as his predecessor did on Groundhog Day.
Then you're probably an idiot who took lessons in disaster prevention from Henny Penny. Prayer? Anyone working that zone could have told you after the first spin-out that the Drive had become impassable. Any plow driver could have told you they weren't keeping up with the drifts, winds or lake effects. But no one wanted to admit to Shortshanks that his neglect of the snow removal plans had led directly to being unable to cope with a large amount of snow. If you promote nothing but "yes-men," then one day, you're going to get bitten in the ass by piss poor planning and lack of preparation, like this past February.
Within 9 hours of our posting about the Supernintendo's anti-gun, anti-NRA, pro-government conspiracy speech at Pfather Pfleger's Pfchurch, the video is down and listed as "unavailable."
Did Pfleger the Pfaker pull it on his own, realizing what a political boondoggle it was?
Did McCarthy call to have it removed, realizing what an ass he looked like?
Did Rahm have it pulled since it isn't going to play well when he runs for president in 2016?
Regardless, you'd think one of these big three thinkers would have the balls to stand by such a decision or the words spoken or the ideas presented.
Actually, no you wouldn't. And neither would we. We're not idiots, even though these jackasses think we are. Typical Chicago spineless politicos.
Police shot a man and three officers suffered minor injuries Sunday near Father’s Day celebrations at a South Side park, officials said.
The man was critically wounded after he allegedly shot at police in the Grand Crossing Park at 76th and Ingleside, police said. The officers, who were not shot, were taken to a local hospital in good condition, fire officials said. It is unclear how they were injured.
Good witnesses, all saying the gunman was armed, shooting in the air and at the police without regard for anyone before being shot. Three officers were also injured in the ensuing chaos.
But guess what else?
No comments open. Even when the police do good work, have the support of numerous witnesses quoted in the article, and are injured in the performance of their duties, the Tribune Company can't find it in their liberal makeup to open the comment sections to a tiny bit of praise from the citizenry. But you can bet they'll have them open the instant there's even a tiny question about police actions. You can bet the house on it.
(US)