Second City Cop

Labels: events, officer down

• When Mayor Daley leaves office in a couple of weeks, no one will be throwing any tag days for him. WBBM Newsradio 780 has learned the mayor will be receiving government pensions totaling nearly 200,000ドル a year.
  
  Mayor Daley has already notified the Municipal and General Assembly Retirement Systems he wants to begin collecting his pension on May 17, the day after he leaves office.
  
  When he does, he will be collecting a pension of nearly 184,000ドル a year. Of that, 64 percent will come from the state pension system and 36 percent will come from the city pension system.
  
  [...] Daley has not been in the state legislature since 1980.
  
  And, because Daley has about 40 years of government service, he’s eligible to receive the maximum of 85 percent of that mayor’s salary.
  
  When Daley left the state legislature in November 1980, his salary was 53,000ドル a year. Blair says the state portion of Daley’s pension will come to more than 117,000ドル a year. More than 66,000ドル a year will come from the city pension system.

Labels: pension

• Garry McCarthy — the director of the Newark, N.J., police department — emerged as the odds-on favorite to become Chicago’s next police superintendent on Friday.

  The Chicago Police Board is recommending that Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel pick McCarthy or one of two Chicago Police insiders with less experience to replace police Supt. Jody Weis, whose contract expired in March.

  The other finalists are Chicago Police chief of patrol Eugene Williams and Debra Kirby, a deputy superintendent overseeing the Chicago Police Department’s Bureau of Professional Standards. But only McCarthy was on Emanuel’s separate list of top contenders.

Labels: new super

Labels: blogging

• Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel today said he's waiting for the police board to submit the names of three finalists for police superintendent so he can name Chicago’s next top cop.

  "I have to respect a process, and that’s my goal," Emanuel said. "I look forward to getting those names."
  
  The Chicago Police Board must interview candidates, conduct background searches and recommend three finalists. Emanuel has been been doing his own interviews of potential candidates as the police board does its work.

Labels: new super

• Earlier this month, the Illinois House of Representatives passed a law creating a "murderer registry" that would require criminals convicted of first-degree murder to check in with the state for 10 years after their release from prison.

  The bill was named for Andrea Will, a young Batavia woman who was strangled to death by her boyfriend in 1998, when they were both students at Eastern Illinois University.

  The boyfriend, Justin Boulay, was set free last year after serving only half his 24-year sentence. For taking away an estimated 70 years of his girlfriend’s life, Boulay did just 12 years in the joint.

  Here’s an even better plan for keeping an eye on killers: don’t let them out of prison. I was all in favor of repealing the death penalty, but if Illinois isn’t going to have capital punishment, we should have another method of permanently removing murderers from society. The penalty for first-degree murder should be changed to a mandatory life sentence, with no chance of parole. It’s a lot easier to keep track of people in prison. Instead of asking murderers to check in with the state, we’ll have prison guards check their beds every night.

Labels: we got nothing

Labels: blogging

• An ASA with the Gang Prosecution Unit is requesting that all guns and ammo seized by the CPD be sent for fingerprints, regardless of the circumstances in which it was seized. Defense attorneys are using the lack of a fingerprint request to claim "reasonable doubt" exists in all such cases. It doesn't matter that fingerprints are rarely, if ever, recovered from a weapon. Defense attorneys are showing juries the boxes on the Firearms Recovery Envelope and claiming shoddy investigations are the policy of the day. The US Attorney and ATFE are doing the same thing on Federal upgrades for weapon charges.

Labels: we got nothing

• Cardinal Francis George suspended Rev. Michael Pfleger from his ministry at St. Sabina Catholic Church and barred him from performing Catholic sacraments over public statements Pfleger made about a possible reassignment.

  In a letter from George to Pfleger released to the media on Wednesday, the Cardinal said Pfleger’s public remarks that he would leave the Catholic Church rather than accept a position outside of St. Sabina led to his decision.

  "If that is truly your attitude, you have already left the Catholic Church and are therefore not able to pastor a Catholic parish," George wrote.

Labels: good news

• An off-duty Chicago police officer shot and wounded a man after he witnessed an armed robbery on the West Side this morning, police said.

  The incident happened at about 9:30 a.m. in a backyard in the 1800 block of South Komensky Avenue, said Chicago Police [News Affairs].

  The off-duty officer saw the robbery taking place and shot the suspect...

Labels: shooting

• The competition to become Chicago’s next police superintendent has come down to a three-man race between a veteran Chicago cop and a pair of outsiders, with a final decision possible later this week, City Hall sources said Monday.

  The top three are: Newark Police Chief Garry McCarthy; national drug czar R. Gil Kerlikowske and Chicago’s deputy chief-of-detectives Al Wysinger. Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel was asked Monday whether an outsider can improve the morale problems that dogged career FBI agent Jody Weis.

• The only hitch for McCarthy could be a 2005 disorderly conduct conviction stemming from McCarthy’s attempt to get his daughter out of a parking ticket.

• Wysinger earned his chops on the day in 2007 when he ran down a gunman who shot a woman in a West Side gangway near his grandmother’s 80th birthday party. His appointment would almost certainly play well with the rank-and-file.

Labels: new super

• In remembrance and appreciation of the ultimate sacrifice made by the Chicago Police Officers whose names are etched in the granite, the Chicago Police Honor Guard will post a guard at the Gold Star Families Memorial Park for a period of 24 hours on 02 May 2011. Officers and their families are encouraged to visit the memorial during this time to render honors to our fallen brothers and sisters.

Labels: events

• When he first walked into a federal courtroom Tuesday, disgraced former Chicago police Officer Jerome Finnigan appeared calm and comfortable, even exchanging pleasantries with the prosecutor who had been investigating him for years.
  
  But when it came time to admit to a judge that he had tried to have another cop killed, his voice dropped slightly, a hard pounding rain on the courtroom windows nearly drowning him out as he wavered in his admittance of guilt. He first accepted responsibility for planning to hire a hit man but moments later called the plot a "charade."
  
  
• Prosecutors intend to seek a 13-year prison term at Finnigan's Aug. 11 sentencing. He agreed to cooperate with authorities.

Labels: scandals

• The 49-year-old ex-convict was on crutches.

  But that didn’t keep James Roesch from escaping from custody at the Cook County Criminal Courthouse at 26th and California Tuesday morning, authorities said.

  Roesch was being held behind a courtroom Tuesday, awaiting a bond hearing for a recent burglary arrest, when he bolted about 10 a.m., sheriff’s police spokeswoman Liane Jackson said.

  At some point, Roesch "dumped" his crutches as he fled, Jackson said.

  He didn’t get far. Officers caught him as he made his way outside into the damp April morning, witnesses said. He was brought back in — with plenty of time to spare before his bond hearing.

Labels: we got nothing

• Dear Kid,
  
  Congratulations on your recent electoral victory. You managed to capture the presidency, but you ought to give Bella some credit. He ran a half-assed campaign and pretty much handed you the election. Don't read too much into it. You need to actually run the organization now, gain support, mend fences, build in-roads, introduce and support legislation, negotiate, fight battles, etc.
  
  What you don't need to do is address the blog. The blog has been around for almost six years. When founded, it was touted as the new "Rumor Central" (you can ask an old-timer about that...it was before your time). A bathroom wall of sorts. A place for coppers to bitch, moan, vent, commiserate, exchange info, whatever. Your predecessor was in office for nine years and guess how many times he addressed the blog? We can think of two times total - once at a meeting to a direct question (yes, we attend regularly), once in the president's message. That's it. Donahue realized a president is supposed to lead; to be a big-picture guy; to be the face of the organization. If he addressed every little gripe people had, he'd be ineffectual. He'd also look like a petty ass, as you've so ably demonstrated.
  
  Now, addressing part one of your post. You state in the opening paragraph that SCC was "critical of the FOP because the organization has not come out in favor of the proposed legislation [concealed carry]." Guilty as charged. Did you read the entire post though? All of the other supporters of Concealed Carry? Chicago Police Sergeants. Chicago Police Lieutenants. Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police. Illinois Sheriffs Association. That's some pretty dignified company, isn't it? It's also under 4,000 people if we guess correctly. Chicago FOP is twice and more times that, the "big dog" so to speak. Why are we being followers and not leaders? Granted, you can argue that it's Donahue's fault for staying silent for so long, but you decided to make this a debate about our statement and your aims. How better to break with the past than become a leader in the Concealed Carry debate? You did read the Constitution of the FOP, didn't you?
  
  =====
  to cultivate a spirit of fraternalism and mutual helpfulness among our members and the people we serve; to increase the efficiency of law enforcement and thus more firmly establish the confidence of the public in the service dedicated to the protection of life and property.
  =====
  
  What better way to start making a name for yourself than uniting behind something that's already legal in 48 other states and tracks with the Constitution of the FOP in being good Americans. Oh wait, you've already decided the police are better than the citizens we serve. We quote:
  
  =====
  "Chicago Police Officers already have that right"
  =====
  
  That certainly seems to run contrary to the FOP Constitution. We aren't better than the citizens we serve. We are entrusted with certain duties and privileges to ensure domestic tranquility and help preserve the rights of all citizens. Driving a wedge between the public and the police will serve to undermine your stated agenda to protect benefits, wages and pensions by alienating those whose support we need to pass legislation, but we suppose you missed that.
  
  And guess what else? Concealed carry IS an FOP issue. Who is going to be dealing with citizens carrying weapons? Who is going to be investigating citizen-involved shootings? We'll give you a hint kid...police officers. Don't you think the FOP would be better served with a well-trained force of officers not only familiar with the new laws, but actually well versed in investigating and enforcing laws that we might have had some input in? We run into more and more officers all the time who not only support Concealed Carry, but join the ISRA and the NRA to support these goals on a state and national level. Polling the membership and being a leader makes sense. Stop following the chiefs, sheriffs, lieutenants, sergeants, and especially the Daleys and see if a leadership role is a road to better days for the FOP. At the very least, we'd establish ourselves as a political force and not a punchline.
  
  And now to the other part of your post. Yes, we are anonymous. We have been so since the beginning. Your challenge to "emerge from the anonymity of his basement" is childish in the extreme. First of all, we don't have a basement. Second, how long have you been on the job? Do you have any idea what happens to people who don't toe the company line? There's a reason we're anonymous and we're pretty sure you know exactly why. Your grandstanding is exactly that - without substance and a cheap shot. Congratulations. You've demonstrated in one single line exactly how you intend to crush all opposition to your rule. We aren't the Lodge. We've never purported to be anything but the voice of the street cop with no aspirations to anything but needling the powers that be, exposing cronyism and nepotism, and pointing out in our own inimitable style the nonsense that goes along with being a Chicago Police Officer.
  
  Have you been clicking on our ads? Maybe going over to our PayPal account and dropping a few bucks in it just to say "thanks for the entertainment"? Oh yeah, you can't, because this is a hobby for us. A hobby. We post 3 to 5 articles a day, moderate 200 to 300 comments a night, pull in 14,000 visits daily and topped half-a-million visitors last month. And we do it for free. You've been in office for a month and posted two articles: One about the 1,300 SPARs story (that we broke here and drove the media to cover), the other attacking the blog.
  
  Wow. How many visits does the FOP site get? We challenged Aguilar to post a hit counter once so we could compare. He never responded, so we can assume that if people want info, they don't go to the FOP website, despite the fact we've given the FOP the top link in our "Police Related Websites" tool bar for all six years. Instead of challenging the blog and making accusations you can't possibly prove, why aren't you using the blog? Maybe there's a way to bottle the lightning. You had your people all over the comment sections during the election, spouting off about your opponents (and they had their supporters here, too). We let most of it go, deleting only the most outrageous accusations and rhetoric.
  
  This brings us to the other part of your post. The truly childish portion. We have never allowed speculation on the identities of SCC. That includes name, rank, assignment, etc. This blog was founded 6 years ago by police officers for police officers. We work the street in the trenches. Any comment guessing or accusing individuals of being "SCC" is summarily deleted without exception for the reasons previously stated above.
  
  That being said, we know you, your brother and others have been spreading certain names around. It pops up in comments, it is whispered in bars, and it appears in e-mails we've received from others (including your brother and other candidates actually). We will state for the record that each and every name bandied about is wrong. And now, as the President of the Chicago FOP, you have a larger responsibility to protect the organization and its assets from harm. Not harm from us, but harm from those you so cavalierly accuse without any proof and without any ability to prove diddley shit.
  
  You "keep hearing..."? Who the fuck are you trying to be? You have a storefront church that needs another few asses in the pews? You need some sort of federal handout or something? We "keep hearing" you bought cuff links for Rahm. We "keep hearing" you are using the FOP spot to run for a state senate seat. We "keep hearing" you like to drink the blood of kittens. You "keep hearing" crap and spreading bullshit, then you are going to get into a shitload of problems and it's going to be our dues money paying the price.
  
  There is a whole host of other issues to deal with. Delegating responsibility can cover much of the tedium that goes with these things, but the buck stops at your desk. Camden, Farrell and Donahue can help in small ways but they can't give you the gravitas you so desperately seem to be seeking by attacking the blog. You are supposed to be the face of 16,000 active and retired members. Stop acting like a child and start acting like a leader. Learn a lesson from Donahue, concentrate on the big picture, and grow thicker skin. Our criticisms of the FOP started long before the blog and have existed since the founding of the union in one form or another. You aren't immune to criticism, but we never named you as the target. You made this personal. Grow the fuck up.
  
  Sincerely,
  SCC
  
  PS - We'd probably respect you more if you didn't reply to any of this. We've already handed you your ass.
  

Labels: scc responds

• This morning, Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel named the City's technology leadership team and announced an overhaul of the City's information offices. To make Chicago's data management more efficient and allow the City to respond effectively to taxpayers' needs, the Department of Information Technology will become part of the City's budget office.

  Emanuel previously announced that John Tolva, the Director of Citizenship & Technology for IBM, will lead City Hall's innovation and technology initiatives as Chief Technology Officer. Tolva will work closely with Jason DeHaan, who will continue as the City's Chief Information Officer, and Brett Goldstein, who will become Chicago's Chief Data Officer.

Labels: we got nothing

• The bodies of two unidentified men were discovered Sunday buried in a 15-foot-tall pile of manure at a small horse farm in Gary.

  A man who kept horses at the stable noticed an arm sticking out of the massive pile of manure around 10 a.m. Sunday and called police, said Gary Det. Cpl. Mike Barnes.

  Police unearthed the body and used a backhoe to sift through the steaming mound of composting manure in search of other remains, eventually finding the second body, Barnes said.

  "It was the biggest pile of (manure) I have ever seen," Barnes said. "They've been putting it back there for years."

Labels: crime

• North Side detectives are warning businesses in the city’s Near North Police District about burglaries that resulted in many "expensive items" being stolen from three high-end retailers in the last two weeks.
  
  However, while police are asking for the public's help in the investigations, police would not release locations, exact dates or times of the burglaries.

1. respond to crime;
2. write a report;
3. send report to supervisor for signature (electronic or paper);
4. bury the report in the decorative shrubbery around the Area Centers in the hopes that someone spontaneously confesses on video and the State's Attorney can then deny charges in a few years.

Labels: crime, sarcasm AND silliness

• Police are looking for a man who made three bogus 911 calls from payphones Sunday morning, including ones reporting shots fired and an "officer down" on the Southwest Side.

  He made his first call at 7:23 a.m. while at a gas station near the 7800 block of South Western Avenue, according to police News Affairs Officer Robert Perez. The caller claimed he was having a problem or an argument with the gas station attendants there, but when officers got to the scene workers there said that was not true.

  A few minutes later he moved to another pay phone near the 7800 block of South Western Avenue and told dispatchers there were shots fired, and then hung up. He called back moments later to say an "officer was down,’’ and hung up again, Perez said.

  Officers investigated but found the reports were not bona fide.

Labels: info for the police

• Chicago’s next Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard was named in two federal lawsuits during his three years as superintendent of the Rochester, NY school district, including one that accused Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel’s controversial pick of age discrimination.

  Both lawsuits were filed last July.

  The first accuses Brizard of firing Marilynn Patterson Grant, Rochester’s former deputy superintendent for teaching and learning, "without cause" last year after making several derogatory comments about her age. Grant, who is 58, had worked for the Rochester City School District for 35 years.

• A second lawsuit, filed by a former coordinator for homeless children and families, alleged that Brizard had instituted a policy of sending teachers under investigation to an alternative work location called a "rubber room" as a form of punishment.

Labels: city politics

• A Chicago man is charged with attempted murder after police said he sprayed a house with gunfire from an AK-47 rifle.
  
  Judge Adam D. Bourgeois Jr. ordered Maurice Tousant, 32, held in lieu of 1ドル million bail Saturday on that charge and another count of aggravated discharge of a gun.
  
  Witnesses said Tousant approached the house in the 2800 block of West Monroe Street in the East Garfield Park neighborhood April 3 and shot at a woman and two men who took cover as the bullets ripped through walls and windows, according to a police report.

Labels: good news

• A former city of Chicago health department employee convicted of running over a cabdriver with his own taxi has been released on parole after six years in prison.

  Michael L. Jackson was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2006 for the death of Haroon Paryani.

  According to the Illinois Department of Corrections website, Jackson was released Friday from Logan Correctional Center.

  Jackson was convicted of second-degree murder in Paryani's death. He was acquitted of first-degree murder and aggravated criminal hijacking.

  He was accused of running over Paryani on Feb. 4, 2005, during a dispute over an 8ドル cab fare. Prosecutors and witnesses said Jackson drove the cab over Paryani three times.

Labels: un-fucking-believable

• In the winter of 2008, then presidential candidate Barack Obama asserted that blacks and whites "are arrested at very different rates, are convicted at very different rates and receive different sentences for the same crime."

  Speaking Tuesday at the Fairmont Hotel during an event sponsored by the Executives Club of Chicago, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle echoed that assertion about Cook County's criminal justice system.

  "Nobody talks about institutional racism, but what kind of a criminal justice system has an outcome where 70 percent of the people are African-American and the rest are Latinos."

• Preckwinkle described Cook County jails as "entirely black and brown people. ... This is in a county where a third of our population is African-Americans, a third Latino, and a third white and Asian."
  

• Steve Patterson, spokesman for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, wouldn't address Preckwinkle's thesis, saying in an email, "At the jail, we just house the people arrested - not sure where that fits with what she's saying."

• Ted Pierson, co-chairman of the National Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression, a Chicago area civil rights organization, agreed with Preckwinkle.

  "I agree with everything she said," continuing, "the system is rigged."

  "The state's attorney won't even bring the case if they're white," Pierson said.

• Nationally, Preckwinkle's notions have been challenged numerous times. Heather MacDonald, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, challenged similar nationwide statistics in a June 2008 article for the City Journal.

  "The favorite culprits for high black prison rates include a biased legal system, draconian drug enforcement, and even prison itself," McDonald wrote. "None of these explanations stands up to scrutiny. The black incarceration rate is overwhelmingly a function of black crime. Insisting otherwise only worsens black alienation and further defers a real solution to the black crime problem."

  John Lott, author of the book "More Guns Less Crime," challenged the idea that the nation's drug laws were biased against African-Americans in a piece for the libertarian Cato Institute, published in March 2009. In it he suggested penalties for drug offenses were set up "because the lives of many blacks were being destroyed by blacks and people thought that they could help by having large penalties on those involved with crack (cocaine)."

  A 1994 study by Stanford University professor Joan Petersila of about 11,000 inmates in California concluded that sentencing relied heavily on prior criminal record, seriousness of the offense and the presence of a gun, while race played a negligible role.

• Chicago police are investigating whether numerous officers improperly looked up internal reports concerning allegations that two patrol officers sexually assaulted a woman while on duty last month, a department spokeswoman said Friday.

  The department's Internal Affairs Division is investigating "who accessed reports for what purpose," police spokeswoman Lt. Maureen Biggane confirmed in an email.

  Officers found to have looked up the reports without justification could face discipline ranging from a written reprimand to a day or two off without pay, police sources said.

  Patrick Camden, a spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Police, which represents rank-and-file officers, said the department can block access to sensitive reports but didn't do so in this case.

  "That's almost like a tacit admission that it's not a problem to take a look at this particular arrest report or case report," Camden said.

Labels: we got nothing

• Gov. Pat Quinn granted 85 clemency petitions on Good Friday, pardoning or expunging criminal records on a number of felony and misdemeanor crimes, including some that were committed more than 50 years ago.
  
  The crimes Quinn wiped from the record include reckless conduct, aggravated assault, robbery, resisting a peace officer, drug possession, burglary, theft, arson and prostitution. Quinn denied clemency requests for another 189 cases.
  
  The earliest offense dates to 1960, the latest was committed in 2004. Most of those who received pardons were initially sentenced to probation or paid small fines.

Labels: dumb ideas

• Click Here to read Jim Padar's site

Labels: blogging

• A list of superintendent candidates with more baggage than a charter flight to South America;
  
• Another try by Anita Alvarez to boost her career and secure a federal judgeship by indicting police officers for crimes that couldn't and wouldn't be charged the same on a regular joe;
• Thirteen hundred SPARs for reading and/or printing a report without any proof anyone except one person ever distributed it outside of approved channels;
• And the newest rumor that J-Fled is sticking around town in hopes of landing the IPRA job under the new administration

Labels: city politics

• Chicago police joined gun control groups Wednesday to voice concerns about flaws in Illinois' mental health screening system for would-be gun owners, problems that could be amplified with passage of a bill to allow permits for carrying concealed firearms.

• Chicago Sgt's Association

  Chicago Lt. Association

  IL Association of Chiefs of Police

  IL Sheriffs Association

Labels: gun issues

• Judge Thomas Fecarotta Jr. didn't know if he could believe the teen standing in his courtroom anymore.
  
  He'd given Mathew Nellessen, who was back in court because of a probation violation, chance after chance, and the judge's frustration seemed to be bubbling to the top.
  
  "The public is going to say what is with this crazy judge, he got a kid that he gave a break to," the Cook County Circuit Court judge said at a hearing in March, according to transcripts.
  
  Even Nellessen's public defender and the prosecutor had agreed to four years in prison. But Fecarotta opted to give Nellessen one last chance: He credited the 19-year-old Arlington Heights man with time served, released him from custody and recommitted him to probation.
  
  Less than a month after his release, prosecutors say Nellessen murdered his father.

Labels: we got nothing

Labels: un-fucking-fucking-believable

• Jerome Williams kissed his mother on her forehead Monday night in her Englewood apartment house when he told her he was going to run a store errand.
  
  Two hours later, the 27-year-old was killed when, police say, he exchanged gunfire with Chicago police at a Family Dollar Store a few blocks away, leaving one officer wounded. Police said the shooting was sparked by Williams -- a parolee who was also a father of two with a third child on the way -- sticking up the store.

• Court records show that Williams was sentenced to 5 years in prison for aggravated discharge of a firearm in 2001 and 14 years for conspiracy to commit murder in 2005. He was paroled in December 2009 for the conspiracy conviction, and his parole was set to end later this year, according to a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Corrections.

• "What made him go in that store? I don’t know. I don’t know what was going through his mind," his mother, Vanessa Williams, said Tuesday afternoon from the hallway outside her apartment. "But I know he’s not a killer."

• Vanessa Williams had an older son, Tony Williams, who was shot and killed on the South Side in June 1999. She has two other children, a son and daughter.

Labels: un-fucking-believable

• Venture capitalist. An assistant for a cable sitcom on Spike TV. Amateur podcaster on the fortunes of the Chicago Bears.

  Richard J. "R.J." Vanecko, a nephew of Mayor Daley, is all of that — in addition to being at the center of a 7-year-old homicide investigation that’s now itself the subject of an investigation by the city of Chicago’s inspector general’s office.

• Vanecko’s most current address — the one he used when he updated his Illinois driver’s license and voter registration two years ago — is a South Loop apartment building that his oldest brother’s investment firm bought with city pension money it’s managing. But according to interviews with people who know him and an industry website, Vanecko, 36, now lives in Southern California, where he’s pursuing a career in the entertainment business.

Labels: un-fucking-believable

• A Chicago police officer and former member of the department’s now disgraced Special Operations Section pleaded guilty today to a federal misdemeanor civil rights charge that stemmed from his false arrest of a suspect in 2004.
  
  Eric Olsen, 38, pleaded guilty to falsely stating in a report that he saw the suspect drinking alcohol in front of a Chicago tavern and then conducted a search, finding cocaine in the suspect’s waistband, according to court documents.
  
  Olsen’s sentencing was set for Aug. 23 in federal court. He faces up to a year in prison.

• Two men were ordered held on bail today after being charged with breaking into cars in a hospital parking lot and trying to run down several off-duty police officers, officials said.
  
  The incident happened Monday in the parking lot of Resurrection Medical Center in the 7500 block of East Talcott Avenue, police said.
  
  Several off-duty police officers spotted two men in the parking lot breaking into vehicles.
  
  The officers identified themselves as police and ordered the men to stop, but they instead got into a vehicle and started fleeing the scene, police said. In the process, police said, the man tried to run down pedestrians, including one of the officers.
  
  
• Both men were ordered held on 300,000ドル bail by Criminal Court Judge Adam Bourgeois

Labels: crime, scandals

• Filmed by the Lumiere Brothers, this is said to be the first thing ever filmed in Chicago. Can anyone recognize the building? My best guess is that it's Bridewell Prison (too dark to be the coliseum). I thought it might be the Chicago Day Parade in October, 1896, but I think it was actually earlier than that.

Labels: video

• A South Shore teen who was allegedly struck by a Chicago police sergeant last fall denied Tuesday the officer's claim that the teen tried to spit at him.

• But prosecutors said surveillance video that captured the incident showed Jeffries was cooperating with police and never acted "in a physically provocative manner." A number of officers who allegedly stood by during the assault were stripped of their police powers.

Labels: we got nothing

• A former Chicago police officer pleaded guilty today to federal felony charges stemming from one of the worst misconduct scandals in the department's history.

  Keith Herrera, 33, admitted taking part in three robberies in which he and other officers with the Special Operations Section stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from suspected drug dealers and other citizens after making illegal searches of their homes or traffic stops.

  He faces up to 13 years in prison when he is sentenced July 14.

Labels: scandals

• According to the Chicago News Cooperative, the biggest name is Gil Kerlikowske -- currently President Barack Obama's drug czar. Kerlikowske met with Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel last week in Chicago and was back in town over the weekend for an interview with the Chicago Police Board, the CNC reported.

  Kerlikowske's official title is director of White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Before his current post he was the Seattle police chief for 9 years and also had been Buffalo New York's police commissioner.

  The CNC also lists the following applicants:

• Garry McCarthy -- Newark New Jersey's director of police, also a former NYC deputy commissioner
• Gene Williams -- Chief of Patrol, CPD
• Al Wysinger -- Deputy Chief of Detectives, CPD
• Deb Kirby -- Asst. Deputy Superintendent, CPD
• Michael Shields -- Head of security for CPS
• Dan Isom -- The Chicago Tribune reports that St. Louis' police chief has also thrown his name in the hat.

Labels: new super

• With a pledge to hold the line on CTA fares, Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday chose a proven reformer with no background in transportation to serve as CTA president: former Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool.

  "I don’t believe it’s time — given how the middle-class feels that they’re nickel-and-dimed on taxes — to be raising rates at this time," said Emanuel, who campaigned on a promise to extend the CTA’s Red Line on the South Side and rebuild it on the North Side.

  "My first order of business is to see how operations are working to make sure we’re doing it in the most efficient and effective way. ...They have to go through the operations line by line ... and find savings."

• If Claypool’s CTA tenure is anything like his stint at the Park District, CTA unions could be in for a rough ride.

  He presided over an unprecedented expansion of recreational programming and capital spending while holding the line on property taxes and cutting 800 jobs from a payroll of 4,100. Park District harbors and Soldier Field were turned over to private managers, more than doubling non-tax revenues.

Labels: city politics

• A Chicago police officer was shot in the leg and a suspected robber was fatally wounded Monday night at a Family Dollar store in the West Englewood neighborhood, officials said.

  Shots were fired by police at about 8:35 p.m. to stop an apparent robbery at the store in the 6300 block of S. Ashland, police officials said.

  Witnesses said they heard at least a dozen gunshots.

  "I saw the cashiers running out," recalled Kevin Pride, 51 of Englewood, who was outside a nearby store during the incident. "They were screaming. Then police ran in. And then you the shots."

Labels: officer injured, shooting

• Two men were arrested this afternoon after off-duty officers spotted the suspects breaking into cars in a hospital parking lot on the Northwest Side, police said.

  The incident happened at about 2 p.m. in the 7500 block of West Talcott Avenue in the parking lot of Resurrection Medical Center, according to a police statement. Resurrection College Prep High School is on the same block.

  Citizens and off-duty police officers were exiting the hospital when they spotted two men in the parking lot apparently breaking into vehicles.

  The officers identified themselves as police and ordered the men to stop, but they instead got into a vehicle and started fleeing the scene, police said. In the process, police said, the man tried to run down pedestrians, including one of the officers.

  Fearing for his safety, the officer shot at the vehicle, police said. No one was hit in the incident.

Labels: shooting

• Former Chicago police Officer Stephen Del Bosque pleaded guilty today to a misdemeanor civil rights charge stemming from his work in the infamous Special Operations Section, which was disbanded because of a scandal.

  Del Bosque, 35, admitted lying on a 2005 police report by falsely claiming he saw a suspect drop two bricks of cocaine. He also lied in testimony before a grand jury, leading to false charges against the suspect.

  Del Bosque, who agreed to cooperate with authorities, faces up to 12 months in prison when he is sentenced. Del Bosque joined the department in 2000 and resigned after a probe by state and federal authorities began.

  Del Bosque was one of four current or former Chicago police officers who were charged earlier this month in federal court in connection with the SOS scandal. Lawyers for the other three have also indicated each plans to plead guilty to wrongdoing.

Labels: scandals

• City education reform groups are praising Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel's selection today of Jean-Claude Brizard as the new Chicago Public Schools CEO while community groups are raising concerns.

  Phyllis Lockett, who heads up the Renaissance Schools Fund, which raises money for charter schools in Chicago, gave Emanuel high marks for the team he put together.
  
  "I think the mayor elect did a phenomenal job in welding a team with a good balance of business experience and education experience," Lockett said. "That’s what you need to run a 6ドル billion system with the complexity of what strong education reform requires."

  But Julie Woestehoff, the executive director of Parents United for Responsible Education, says she’s been getting "condolences" from community groups in Rochester, where Brizard spent a controversial three years.

Labels: city politics

• Police Week 2011 information: In our 15 years attending, we have never seen this many officers from Chicago going on the wall. I hope that we have a record turnout from our department.
  
  Please help honor our FIVE brothers in blue as well as the other men and women being added to the National Law Enforcement Memorial Wall in Washington DC.
  
  Airfare: This is code is valid for 10% off the lowest published airfare for travel from 09 May to 19 May 2011 on American Airlines.
  
  The Promotion Code you will need to enter is 5251DH. Book asap as gas prices rise, so will the fare.
  
  We will be hosting a party again at Clyde's in Chinatown. All Departments are welcome to attend. The party will take place on May 14th, 2011 from 7-10pm. Tickets are 65ドル each and are available from Marikay O'Brien Unit 124 773-677-4397 (northside) or Sharon Colby Unit 640 773-544-2908 (southside).
  
  Tickets must be purchased prior to May 6th.
  
  We had over 75 people purchase at the door last year. This year we need to have a more accurate headcount for room space and food and beverages. We must insist no tickets will be sold at the door. If you did not receive a info packet, please let us know. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to call either one of us or email CPDPOLICEWEEK@aol.com
  
  Thanks and we hope to see you there!

Labels: events

• Michael Masters
  Co-Founder at Shield Point
  Location - Greater Chicago Area
  Industry - Security and Investigations
  
  Michael Masters's Overview:
  
  Current: Co-Founder at Shield Point
  
  Past: Chief of Staff at Chicago Police Department
  Assistant to the Mayor at City of Chicago
  Administrative Assistant at Partnership for Public Service
  Fellow at United States Attorney's Office
  National Advance Team at Office of the Vice President/Gore 2000
  
  Education: Harvard Law School
  University of Cambridge
  University of Michigan

Labels: rumors, we got nothing

• A gunman caught in the act during a convenience store shooting on the South Side Saturday afternoon was run over by cops and arrested, prosecutors say.

  Demetrius Allen, 28, appeared in court Sunday morning with two black eyes, wearing a large bandage wrapped around his head.

  Prosecutors allege he shot a 30-year-old man twice in the shoulder in the store in the 5800 block of South Morgan before police officers spotted him running away with a revolver in his hand, and then pointing the weapon at them.

  Fearing for their safety, the officers ran him down with their unmarked squad car, according to a police report.

  Allen, of the 6100 block of South Morgan, is charged with unlawful use of a weapon and two counts of aggravated assault of a peace officer. He scowled as Judge Adam D. Bourgeois set his bail at 250,000ドル.

Labels: crime, good news

• Former Homewood supermarket cashier Cecilia LoCicero recalls seeing shoppers using state Link cards to buy steaks and lobsters, a shopper who fumbled for his second or third card when the first one had no money on it and other customers who took cash back from the cards to buy cigarettes or alcohol.

  The Link cards are "abused so much, you just don’t know," she said.

  As state lawmakers mull a plan to study abuse in the food assistance program known as Illinois Link, some say putting users’ photos on the debit card needlessly invades privacy while failing to curb larger abuses. Others believe the program is hobbled by abuse.

Labels: scandals

Labels: department issues

• A 16-year-old boy was critically wounded this afternoon on the South Side when a handgun accidentally fired and the bullet struck him, police said.
  
  The teen was wounded about 3:50 p.m. in the 0-100 block of West 71st Street, according to a news release from Chicago police.
  
  The boy was rushed to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was listed in critical condition for a gunshot wound to the lower left abdomen.
  
  Police didn't say whether the teen was handling the weapon when it fired. Wentworth Area detectives were investigating the shooting.

Labels: gun issues

• Even on his days off from working overnights for the Chicago police, John Lewison usually stayed up through the night and slept during the day.
  
  It was often early in the morning, after having his fill of CNN, that he turned to a hobby of sorts. Sprawled on a couch in his North Side home in a T-shirt and sweatpants, Lewison tried to unravel a murder mystery that has mystified law enforcement and crime buffs for decades: the identity of the Zodiac killer, who is believed responsible for at least five homicides that terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960s.
  
  Lewison, who has risen to lieutenant in nearly 25 years with the department, thinks he’s come up with a solution to one of a series of coded messages the serial killer sent along with taunting letters to the news media. The cryptograms, composed of alphabetic, mathematical and astrological symbols, are thought likely to contain vital information about the suspect.

Labels: we got nothing

• Michael Shields is rumored to be one of the top candidates for the job of Chicago Police Superintendent. But some Chicago neighbors want to do a better job of policing his own rental property.

  Shields has a high-profile resume. He is a former deputy superintendent, current head of security at Chicago Public Schools, and a cousin of First Lady Michelle Obama.

  But residents of the one South Side block said they have a question for Shields: "Where's the landlord?"

Labels: city politics

• Brutality charges have been filed against a Chicago police sergeant caught on video slapping a handcuffed man -- but an attorney says the officer was justified because the suspect tried to spit on him.
  
  "If I tried to spit on you, wouldn’t you find that offensive?" asked Robert Kuzas, who is representing Sgt. Edward Howard Jr., 48, a 24-year veteran of the police department. Howard is charged with aggravated battery and official misconduct.

Labels: we got nothing

• A parolee on electronic home monitoring was found shot to death in the backyard of his South Chicago neighborhood home this morning, police said.

  Killed was Cedric Davis, 31, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. Davis was found by police officers who went to the home in the 7900 block of South Manistee Avenue about 8:15 a.m. after calls to 911 reporting gunshots

• Slain only five days after his birthday, Davis was on parole for a 2006 conviction for receiving/possessing a stolen vehicle, according to state records. He had two prior convictions on the same charge, as well as a felony drug conviction, records show.

  Police had not made any arrests in the shooting as of tonight and didn't offer a motive.

Labels: crime

• Parts of Chicago would become "prostitution-free zones" under an ordinance introduced by a West Side alderman.

  Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) said the ordinance would bar those convicted of prostitution-related offenses from public parks and walkways in the zones. The police superintendent would designate the zones with input from elected officials and community groups.

  [...] Ervin, the 36-year-old son of a former Chicago police commander, said he believes the proposed ordinance would pass constitutional muster.

  He pointed to the city’s anti-gang loitering ban, which prohibits known gang members from congregating in designated hot spots.

Labels: we got nothing

• A 20-year-old Canadian man methodically stalked and tracked a Westmont woman before killing her Wednesday night in Oak Brook — even stopping to reload his gun and continue shooting during the attack.

• [DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert ] Berlin said Smirnov had done research on the Internet to determine if Illinois had the death penalty, deciding to go through with Vesel’s murder when he discovered it does not.

Labels: crime

• Well, I'm not exactly sure how this happens, and the police aren't either, but a man on fire ran out of an adult entertainment store in SoMa Wednesday night, says the SFist.

  Lt. Kevin McNaughton said at 6:10 p.m. at the Golden Gate Adult Superstore on the corner of 6th and Mission Street, a man ran out fully engulfed in flames.

• Lucky for the unidentified man, emergency personnel just happen to be in the area. Lt. Troy Dangerfield told AP several onlookers tried to help the burning man as he ran past them. He said a fire department unit who was responding to a call just up the street eventually grabbed the man and extinguished the flames.

  He was taken to St. Francis Memorial Hospital where he was treated for burns he suffered over 90 percent of his body, varying from first- to third-degree burns.

Labels: sarcasm AND silliness

• The decision by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office not to charge a nephew of Mayor Daley in the one-punch death of 21-year-old David Koschman in 2004 hung largely on the fact that witnesses couldn’t positively identify the nephew, Richard J. "R.J." Vanecko, in a police lineup, according to prosecutors.

  State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez and the Chicago Police Department have refused to release photographs, though, of that lineup and of a second lineup in which witnesses identified two other men as being there with Vanecko when he threw the punch in a drunken confrontation on Division Street at Dearborn in the early morning hours of April 25, 2004.

  Now, the police are asking Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office — where one of the two retired detectives who supervised those lineups now works — to ensure that those pictures, as well as some other records, aren’t made public.

Labels: we got nothing

• Owners of gas-powered cars in Chicago could get some city sticker shock to go along with the pain at the pump if one alderman's plan to increase the cost of the annual stickers is approved.
  
  Ald. Proco "Joe" Moreno, 1st, hopes to raise about 21ドル million a year under a proposal that also would make the stickers free for drivers of electric cars and cut the cost for those with hybrid vehicles.
  
  
• Moreno, who said he hopes to offer exemptions for heavy trucks that people need for businesses, suggested the higher sticker prices are justified because larger vehicles do more damage to city streets.

Labels: dumb ideas

• The Flash Mob Offenders may be back around Loyola University Chicago’s Water Tower Campus.

  According to Campus Safety, about 70 teenagers stormed the McDonald’s at Chicago and State this weekend.

  Here are more details from an email sent out by Campus Safety:

  Loyola Community,

  This past weekend, a serious incident took place at the McDonald’s located on the corner of Chicago and State. Due to the establishment’s proximity to the Water Tower Campus, we want to be sure you are aware of the situation.

  On Sunday, a group of about 70 youths stormed the restaurant and created a disturbance. Approximately 10 Chicago Police Department (CPD) units responded and ultimately closed the restaurant for nearly three hours until peace was restored. Both CPD and Campus Safety believe this activity is related to the same group of individuals who have attempted to create havoc in the area before. In February, we alerted you to a similar incident in which these "Flash Mob Offenders" were allegedly committing thefts within local retail stores around the Water Tower Campus community. The offenders exit the Chicago Red Line stop, they go to various shops or restaurants, usually clothing stores, and then storm the stores, taking as many items as they can carry. The incidents seem to occur most often on weekends, between 5 p.m. and 11 p.m.

Labels: crime, media

• The Illinois House today passed a ban on the use of artery-clogging trans fats in food served in restaurants and in school vending machines that would start in 2013.

  Although many cities and counties have passed bans, if the bill passes the state Senate and Gov. Pat Quinn signs it, Illinois would be only the second state in the nation to pass such a measure. The first was California.

  If it becomes law, restaurants would not be able to serve food with trans fats starting Jan. 1, 2013. The ban also would apply to vending machines in public and private schools.

Labels: dumb ideas

• More than 40 people have applied to become Chicago’s next top cop, officials said Tuesday.

  The Chicago Police Board will interview the candidates for Chicago police superintendent and present three finalists to Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel, who takes office May 16.

  Many of the candidates are members of the Chicago Police Department.

  "Of the external candidates, many are current or former leaders of large organizations," said Demetrius Carney, president of the Chicago Police Board.

Labels: new super