Second City Cop

• highway homicides
• police shootings
• death investigations

Labels: events, stats

Labels: sarcasm AND silliness

• GPS printouts of a pursuit were used to "prove" a squad car was going far faster than the officers put down on paper, and the officers are facing discipline;
• GPS was used to track all the cars near a different pursuit, and everyone who didn't upload a functional camera is looking at taking suspension time;
• Command staff and inspectors have had their GPS disabled because some enterprising officers were checking on their status from the desks - the way the Command staff and Inspectors were checking on everyone else;

• My favorite lie related to the cameras is:" The cameras will be good for da coppers!"
  
  Really?
  
  So let me get this straight: If some local Democrat attacks you, in a fit of Righteous Rage, because "Da Man bin keeping me down", and the camera records the attack: Ms. Foxx is going Prosecute?
  
  NO WAY!
  
  However, if a cop strikes one blow more than what the armchair quarterbacks thinks is excessive; you can be sure that there will be a prosecution of that Officer. And the Mayor himself will hold a news conference, apologize and promise punishment for that officer. Nobody should believe for a second, that these cameras are for any other purpose than to nail officers. The Camera is an extension of the Democrat Party Agenda, that Rahm wants to ride to a Third Term; and that is that THE COPS ARE THE PROBLEM.

Labels: info for the police

• A 15-year-old boy was charged Thursday with three felonies in the Wednesday morning carjacking of a FedEx truck on Chicago's South Side.
  
  Police said the teen held a 46-year-old female FedEx driver at gunpoint near West 75th and South Green streets in the city's Englewood neighborhood around 9:15 a.m. and stole her truck.
  
  [...]
  
  Andrew Holmes, a city crisis responder, said asked delivery companies to require all trucks to have two-man crews to deter thieves.
  
  "I am pleading with FedEx and UPS. Put some helpers on the trucks. These packages are not worth them losing their life for," Holmes said.

Labels: dumb ideas

• The Chicago Police Department will be equipping every patrol officer in the city with body cameras a year ahead of schedule.
  
  Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Supt. Eddie Johnson have decided to step up the deployment of body cameras, and have every patrol officer in all 22 districts wearing one by the end of 2017. Originally, the city planned to complete the rollout by the end of 2018.
  
  Police officials outlined the new plan Wednesday morning. Officials said the cameras support the safety of officers while improving transparency.

Labels: department issues

• Chicago’s yearlong shooting rampage picked up steam over Christmas weekend, leaving 61 people shot, 11 fatally. Seven were killed on Christmas Day alone, more than on the three previous Christmases combined, according to the Chicago Tribune.
  
  Gangbangers targeted each other’s holiday gatherings as if in deliberate mockery of the season. Two young girls were shot while sitting in a van at 11:30 p.m. Monday by a presumed gang rival of the younger one’s father.
  
  So far this year, 4,334 people have been shot in Chicago: one person every two hours. Almost all the victims have been black. The police have shot 25 people, virtually all armed or otherwise dangerous — less than .6 percent of the total. That disparity between civilian and police shootings hasn’t stopped local Black Lives Matter activists from continuing to claim that it’s the cops who are the biggest threat facing Chicago’s young black men today.
  
  If there’s any silver lining to the violence, it will be if it acts as a wake-up call regarding the de-policing and decriminalization movements sweeping the country. Chicago is Exhibit A in what happens when the police back off from enforcing public order, having been told that maintaining control of the streets constitutes racial oppression.

• street stops down from 159,000 in 2015 to 21,000 in 2016
• property crime skyrocketing in formerly "quiet" areas
• arrest down tens of thousands
• a 20% homicide clearance rate

Labels: crime, stats

• The 4400 block of West Monroe on Chicago's West Side is a residential street of two-story buildings, senior citizens and a day care center.
  
  It's also the city's most dangerous block of 2016, a stretch plagued by heroin, shootings and murder.
  
  "I don't think it's safe here any time," said a landlord on the block, who asked that his name be withheld out of fear for this safety.

• While the South Side spike in shootings is because of "disrespecting on social media," on the West Side there is a "generational drug problem," Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said. "It's more about drug turf."

• Ald. Jason Ervin, whose 28th Ward covers Garfield Park, said those involved with drugs shouldn't get a pass from the criminal justice system.
  
  "Where you find drugs, you are going to find violence," Ervin said. "There has been a laxer attitude of possession and delivery of narcotics. It has emboldened the climbing violence."

Labels: silly people

• Chicago’s former top cop blamed the Windy City’s rise in homicides — including 11 over the Christmas weekend — on political pushback against police stops and other proactive measures to curb the ongoing violence.
  
  Garry McCarthy, Chicago’s former police superintendent, noted Tuesday in an interview with the Daily News that the number of police stops is down by nearly 90% this year compared to last.
  
  Also, the department no longer holds CompStat meetings to focus on crime hot spots, he said.
  
  "We have completely flipped the script where we investigate police and not criminals," said McCarthy, a Bronx native who once served as the NYPD’s deputy commissioner of operations under then-Police Commissioner Howard Safir during the early 2000s.
  
  "And as a result, we are reaching a lawless state in this country."

Labels: city politics

• #1 You pay your toothpicks
  #2 You write your code name
  #3 Someone picks the Districts in random order
  #4 You wait for the natural order to determine a winner

Labels: events

• The head of the Chicago Police Department is now admitting that more gun laws don’t necessarily result in less gun violence because criminals don’t "play by society’s rules."
  
  Chicago, a city run by Mayor Rahm Emanual, former White House chief of staff to President Barack Obama, reported double the number of killings throughout Christmas weekend this year than last year. [...]
  
  Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said during a news conference on Monday that most of the shootings between Friday evening and Sunday evening were "targeted attacks" by gang members going after rival gang members who were gathered for Christmas and holiday parties. The Chicago Tribune reported 90 percent of those fatally shot were involved in gang activities, had criminal histories or were previously known to police.

• "These gun offenders have repeatedly shown us that they’re not going to play by society’s rules," the police superintendent told WLS-TV.
  
  As a result, Johnson is now calling for repeat offenders to face tougher penalties for crimes they commit.

Labels: crime, sarcasm AND silliness

• Despite large fights breaking out inside shopping malls across the country, including one at Fox Valley Mall in west suburban Aurora, Chicago area police departments say they’re not anticipating any more problems at malls here.
  
  Eight teenagers are facing misdemeanor charges stemming from the Monday night fight at Fox Valley that temporarily shut down the shopping center on the Naperville-Aurora border, Aurora police said Tuesday.
  
  Police were investigating whether that brawl was connected to the series of similar ones across the country. Fights and disturbances — possibly spurred by activity on social media — were reported at shopping centers in New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, North Carolina, Colorado, Arizona, Texas, Indiana and Connecticut.

Labels: we got nothing

• NBC5 Chicago has learned a massive team of attorneys and investigators from the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department is, on the eve of Christmas and Hanukkah, working feverishly to complete its probe of the Chicago Police Department.
  
  And they're planning to finish their work before the Obama administration ends and the Trump administration begins.
  
  Sources with a working knowledge of the investigation tell NBC5 that the goal, requiring unprecedented speed by DOJ standards, is to issue a detailed "Findings Letter" into the pattern and practice of CPD. And to do so whether or not Mayor Rahm Emanuel or his law and police departments have agreed to the terms of a consent decree for corrective action.

Labels: department issues

• Eleven men were killed and at least 37 other people have been wounded in shootings over Christmas weekend across Chicago.
  
  The gun violence since Friday evening has surpassed the toll over the same four-day holiday last year, when 30 people were shot across the city.

Labels: crime, stats

Labels: department issues

Labels: sarcasm AND silliness

Labels: promotions

Labels: promotions

Labels: promotions

Labels: events

• As Chicago grapples with a surge in killings and a mistrust of law enforcement stemming from police shootings, the number of arrests in the city has fallen by 28 percent versus last year, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis finds.

• The drop is steepest in areas such as Englewood and Austin where violence is common and police have long flooded "hot spots" and drug markets. But the decline isn’t limited to high-crime areas: Arrests are down by double digits in every district in the city.

• Police Supt. Eddie Johnson says the figures reflect the department’s focus on addressing gun violence and improving community relations.

• "We want to arrest the right people at the right times for the right reasons," Johnson says. "But just indiscriminately stopping people? No. We cannot arrest our way out of this."

• The superintendent says the department is moving away from decades of "broken windows" policing — a strategy that emphasizes heavy enforcement of even low-level offenses to send a message that crime won’t be tolerated. While that led to lower crime rates, it also worsened tensions in some neighborhoods where people felt the police were heavy-handed.

• "The time when broken windows theories came in — I think it was effective," Johnson says. "But we have to focus on what’s really hurting Chicago right now, and that is the gun violence.
  
  "Don’t get me wrong — we have not abandoned locking people up for quality-of-life issues. But low-level narcotics offenses — we can continue to do that, but would it affect the gun violence we’re seeing? I doubt that."

• Johnson rejects the idea of the "Ferguson effect" — the theory that violence has risen because cops have been holding back amid protests over police shootings in Ferguson, Mo., and other cities. Yet he acknowledges that many police officers feel "vilified," and others have been slowed down as they learn new legal requirements for documenting street stops.

• The decline in arrests is welcomed by civil rights groups.
  
  "Our perspective is: The fewer people in jail, the better it is for our communities," says Deangelo Bester, executive director of the Workers Center for Racial Justice, which focuses on access to jobs.

• Instead of responding to violence by locking up nonviolent offenders, city officials could divert funds from the police department and into neighborhood development, Bester says.
  
  "Chicago is the most-policed city in the country," he says. "Maybe it’s time to do something different."

• Natalie Howse, president of the Cook County Bar Association, says the African-American lawyers group supports "policing that is more concerned with respect for the rule of law and individual rights, rather than the number of arrests.
  
  "If the Chicago Police Department has placed greater focus on reducing the violent crime that plagues our city, and that new emphasis has temporarily resulted in fewer arrests of non-violent offenders, the CCBA welcomes that strategy so long as the cost is not allowing black communities to descend into lawlessness."

• Some rank-and-file officers say cops aren’t being less aggressive as an act of protest but because they’re worried they’ll be caught on video making an honest mistake, then blasted for it.
  
  "You’re being Monday-morning-quarterbacked for everything," says one officer, speaking only on the condition of not being named.

• Others say that’s not acceptable, arguing that body cameras and increased documentation will help police do their jobs.
  
  "Those people are looking for an excuse," says a veteran North Side supervisor, also speaking only on the condition of anonymity. "What they’re saying is that I liked it better when no one was recording when I trounced on someone’s head."

Labels: un-fucking-fucking-believable

Labels: corruption, silly people

Labels: sarcasm AND silliness

• Days after Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke shot Laquan McDonald 16 times, top brass watched a video of the fatal shooting at a meeting in which "everyone agreed" the shooting was justified, a lieutenant who attended the meeting said in sworn testimony.
  
  Newly obtained documents of the city's Office of Inspector General investigation into the fatal shooting show that the department, from beat cops to command-level officials, quickly came to Van Dyke's defense, even after viewing dashboard camera video at the scene that contradicted officers' accounts. Command-level officers raised few concerns and signed off on their reports, the inspector general's investigation found.
  
  "There was never no question whether the shooting was justified," Lt. Osvaldo Valdez told investigators with the city's Office of Inspector General about the meeting of the top brass. "Everyone agreed that Officer Van Dyke used the force necessary to eliminate the threat, and that's pretty much it."
  
  Among those who huddled at police headquarters for the meeting, about 10 days after the shooting in October 2014, was then-Deputy Chief Eddie Johnson, who was promoted to superintendent after Garry McCarthy was fired in the fallout of the video's release.

Labels: general

• Rahm brags about eliminating health care for retired city workers.
  
  Emanuel’s controversial call to phase out Chicago’s retiree health program will leave some 10,000 of workers on the hook for coverage—a move he publicly touted as a regrettable but necessary cost-saving measure. In the email, however, Emanuel comes off as downright boastful about the move. Wealthy investor Henry Feinberg asks, "Since when did Rahm Emanuel let a judicial ruling get in his way and not find a creative work around solution[?]" Emanuel replies, "Never which is why I eliminated health care. Only elected official to eliminate not cut or reform a benefit. Thank you vey much. A 175 million saving!"

Labels: city politics

Labels: promotions

• Chicago’s police chief says the department will attack the "code of silence" by making it easier for officers to report police misconduct and by making it tougher on officers who harass those who do come forward.
  
  In a Wednesday interview, Superintendent Eddie Johnson says in the coming months the department will provide a hotline for officers to report police misconduct. He also says a policy is being put in place in which officers who try to intimidate or ostracize those who come forward will face discipline and could be fired.

Labels: sarcasm AND silliness

• The union that represents Chicago Police officers says that investigators hired by the city to look into officer-involved deaths don’t meet the state’s minimum training requirements, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court.
  
  The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 7 is asking a court to rule that the city is not in compliance with the requirements of the Illinois Police Training (IPTA) and Police and Community Relations Improvement (PCRIA) acts, according to the suit, which seeks unspecified damages and to compel the city to become compliant.
  
  The PCRIA, which took effect Jan. 1, requires at least one of the investigators looking into an officer-involved death be certified by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board as a lead homicide investigator, or be approved by the board for training of similar standards, the suit states.
  
  The FOP claims the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA), which investigates officer-involved deaths in Chicago, does not currently, nor did it before, have lead investigators that met the state’s standards, according to the suit.
  

Labels: city politics, scandals

• While working in 018 under Cline's regime he started a program where 'community people' were invited to address the troops at roll call. On the first day, one of the reverends from Cabrini showed up with a female 'community spokesperson.' The reverend spoke for a bit, complained a little, then turned over the floor to the person of the community he invited to accompany him.
  
  She began by berating the police in attendance and overall used the pulpit to spit out her self-serving vile. Our Commander who was (ordered) in attendance, Bill O'Donnell (a Prince) was taken aback and totally embarrassed how this community trial balloon turned out in 018. He felt that it was 'his' fault that that his troops had to be subjected to this crap at roll call as he was a big supporter of the women and men in his district.
  
  Right after roll call, the Commander immediately drove to 35th Street and went in without an appointment or notice to see Phil Cline. He told him in no uncertain terms that the idea, as evidenced in 018 was a complete sham and a failure. He said he was embarrassed that he had to subject his (2nd Watch) roll call members to this type of verbal admonishment as a whole by some alleged 'community spokesperson.'

Labels: dumb ideas

• Chicago has gone four straight days without a deadly shooting
  
  It’s the first time that’s happened this year.
  
  The last person to die of gunshot wounds was a man who got into a fight in Albany Park early Sunday morning.

Labels: crime, silly people, stats

• Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson will introduce recruits to New York-style training methods in 2017 to improve the relationship between cops and a distrustful public, he said in a wide-ranging interview Wednesday.
  
  Johnson, searching for new ways to prevent a repeat of Chicago’s out-of-control gun violence in 2016, is taking lessons from New York City’s police training academy, which he recently toured.
  
  Starting in January, the department will launch a pilot program to change the way recruits are introduced to the neighborhoods where they’ll work.
  
  "Before they go to their district, where they will be formally assigned, we’re going to let them go there for a week or so and meet some community members," Johnson said. "Then, when they go there for their field training, those same community members will partner up with them and take them around those communities."
  
  Johnson said the training will help rookie officers distinguish between "the good people in the community" and the crooks.
  
  "I liked what I saw in New York," he said.

Labels: dumb ideas

• The city's big uptick in murders this year is helping fuel a national spike, according to a study. The national murder rate is expected to rise by 13.1 percent by the end of 2016, and nearly half of that comes just from Chicago, according to a report from the Brennan Center for Justice, which studied 30 of the country's biggest cities to see how violence has changed this year.
  
  Other major cities, like New York and Baltimore, have seen murders fall.
  
  And while the national overall crime rate is expected to remain about the same this year as it was in 2015, Chicago is projected to see a 9.1 percent increase, according to the report.

Labels: crime, stats

• As a result of a BGA investigation and legal action, The City of Chicago and Mayor Rahm Emanuel have agreed to release all of Emanuel's private emails related to city business—subject to any applicable legal exemptions—and institute a new policy that will ban city employees and officials from using their private email accounts to conduct city business.
  
  The city's change in practices comes in response to Freedom of Information Act requests and lawsuits filed by the BGA, and separately by the Chicago Tribune, and follows more than a year of hard-fought litigation and rulings by two Cook County judges that public officials’ emails are not outside the scope of FOIA simply because they are on a private account.

Labels: scandals

• A cluster of Northwest Side auto dealerships is reeling from a drubbing of brazen car thefts from their lots, many committed in daylight during business hours, managers and public officials said.
  
  Managers at three Portage Park dealerships in the 5300 block of West Irving Park Road have reported having cars driven off their lots since November, almost always by the same group of teens. In all, the thieves have made off with more than a dozen vehicles, the managers said.
  
  The group of six to eight teens or young men repeatedly has been recorded climbing into cars waiting to be serviced, according to Billy Bobron, a manager at Marino Chrysler Jeep Dodge, 5133 W. Irving Park Road.
  
  Although Marino hasn't had any cars stolen, employees there caught the thieves in the act twice in one day, he said.
  
  "They brought a car in for service, and someone was hiding in the trunk who then jumped out and got into another car," Bobron said. "Then that night, after we closed, we caught them trying to snip the fence. We had to go chase them away."

Labels: crime

• Earlier today President Obama commuted the sentences of another 153 federal prisoners bringing his total to 1,176, more than the previous 11 presidents combined. The president also pardoned another 78 individuals, bringing his total pardons over the course of his eight years in office to 148. Combined, these 231 acts of clemency sets a record for the most ever granted by a president in a single day in history.
  
  This latest move is just further evidence of his stated intention to ramp up commutations throughout the remainder of his presidency. And, while the President often claims publicly that his commutations are only for "low-level" and "non-violent" criminals, 395 of the 1,176 commutations were offered to people serving life sentences...which typically aren't given to "low-level" criminals caught with a couple ounces of drugs on them.

Labels: crime, national politics

• DAN: Illinois and Wisconsin — So I was speaking to a group of commercial real estate brokers at lunch yesterday. And this guy was telling me, you know, about the climate in Illinois from their perspective as a businessperson that operates in the real estate sector, commercial real estate development. Talk to investors. Talks to big companies, in terms of location decisions, right? So he tells me, we’re talking back and forth about and what’s going on politically and where we find ourselves, and all of the intractable, seemingly intractable, problems that afflict us. But he said, "Let me give you an example of what’s happening and where Illinois is vis-à-vis, like, Wisconsin. Two Costco’s — he’s talking to a honcho at Costco. So they put two Costco outlets, one just south of Mitchell Field, just south of Milwaukee. I think it’s in New Berlin. I’m not sure, but just south of the airport in Milwaukee. And another in Melrose Park, here, in the near west suburbs, Cook County.
  
  AMY: I’m familiar with Melrose Park.
  
  DAN: Well, I’m just saying. You know we have people downstate that listen to us, and other states that listen to us. I’m just giving a little geography. Importantly, in Cook County, it costs the same to build the facilities — 33ドル million dollars for both.
  
  AMY: Square footage is the same?
  
  DAN: Yeah. And the same cost to build. The sales are the same, substantially the same, within a few shekels, at the two outlets. The net for Costco at their Milwaukee-area store: 8ドル million a year. That’s what they net in volume business. The net at their Melrose Park location ...
  
  AMY: Oh, can I guess?
  
  DAN: What do you think it is?
  
  AMY: 5ドル million?
  
  DAN: 600,000ドル!
  
  AMY: That’s it? Because of all the taxes?
  
  DAN: It’s the taxes, and shakedown fees. You know ... He talked about, like, there’s a 50,000ドル a year roof inspection fee, and all of these other layers and layers of taxes, and because we have so many units of government, and fees, and basically, shakedown scams. That’s basically a difference of 13x in terms of return. 8ドル million dollars just north of the cheese curtain in Milwaukee, a year, that’s their net. 600,000ドル in Melrose Park in Cook County.

Labels: money questions

• Imagine the entire population of Peoria, Illinois’ seventh-largest city, all picking up and moving across state lines in one year, never to work, pay taxes or create jobs in Illinois again. That’s equivalent to what happened to Illinois over the past year: New migration data from the U.S. Census Bureau show that from July 2015 to July 2016, Illinois lost 114,000 people, on net, to other states, a record high for the Land of Lincoln.
  
  Now consider the permanent loss of the combined populations of Illinois’ 10 largest cities outside of Chicago: Aurora, Rockford, Joliet, Naperville, Springfield, Elgin, Waukegan, Champaign and Arlington Heights, along with Peoria. The loss of these 10 cities’ combined populations approximately equals Illinois’ net loss of population to other states since 2000. Illinois has lost some 1.22 million people, on net, over the past 16 years.

Labels: state politics

• A truck rammed into a crowded Christmas market in central Berlin on Monday evening, killing nine people and injuring about 50 as it tore through tables and wooden stands. Police said the driver was arrested nearby.
  
  Germany’s top security official said that he’s not ready to call the incident at the Christmas market an "attack," but adds that there are many indications pointing to the truck crash as having been intentional.

• The Chicago Police Department is adding extra police resources around the city as a precaution following events on Monday evening in Berlin, where a truck rammed into a crowded Christmas market, killing nine people and injuring about 50.
  
  There is no threat to Chicago or the surrounding area, but CPD will be adding extra officers at the Christkindlmarket at Daley Plaza, including additional foot and bike patrols, and specialized units, according to police spokesman...

Labels: terrorism

• The owner of one party bus company in Chicago says a shooting that occurred over the weekend is a symptom of a much larger problem.
  
  Chris Vechio is the owner of Chi Town Party Bus in Chicago.

• While his company did not own the party bus where the shooting took place, he says the shooting is a sad fact of life in Chicago, where there were dozens of shootings this weekend.

• Vechio says his company spells out the rules for riders and the driver has the authority to call 9-1-1, or kick unruly passengers off the bus.
  
  "There’s nothing wrong with having a good time, but when it gets out of hand, our thing is the safety of the passengers, but also the safety of our driver and other people outside the vehicle," he says.

Labels: silly people

• I don't know why the FOP is not sending out books. As a rep, I received mine weeks ago.

Labels: FOP

• In a move that has already sparked a backlash among law enforcement groups, President Barack Obama on Thursday appointed Debo Adegbile, a former attorney for convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, to a six-year post on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The eight-member commission consists of four members appointed by the president and four appointed by Congress. Unfortunately, the six-year appointments are not subject to Senate confirmation.

Labels: un-fucking-believable

Labels: sarcasm AND silliness

• An inmate at Cook County Jail has been charged with aggravated battery after surveillance video shows him punching a correctional staff member, according to the Cook County Sheriff. The inmate was also found with contraband in his cell.
  
  Jimmie Smith, 41, was seen on video punching the female correctional lieutenant in the face in Division 9 of the jail on December 5. Officials said the attack happened as correctional offers were trying to remove a contraband laptop that Smith had.
  
  An investigation showed that Smith had previously been given access to a laptop in order to prepare for his defense, since he was representing himself in an upcoming trial.
  
  The Cook County sheriff said an investigation is going into how he was able to keep the laptop.

• The real story NOT reported by the Dart controlled Media..
  
  Jimmie Smith, 41 was allowed personal access to a laptop computer in his cell. Smith allegedly made numerous Pornographic Videos and even started his own talk show to the outside world. Smith is known for attacking staff members but Sheriff Dart refused to take away his privileges.
  
  Smith allegedly attacked his attorney just last week.. Of course not reported by the press..
  
  Smith attacked his attorney, following parole for 5 rapes, and then bragged about 3 murders (Smith lived in teen Yasmin Acree's bldg. - she disappeared years ago without a trace.) They're only allowed 5 practice rapes and 3 practice murders in a new "get tough on crime" strategy. Is this one of Dart's low level offenders?

Labels: county

Labels: promotions, rumors

• At least 22 people have been shot — eight of them fatally — across the city since Friday afternoon, according to Chicago Police.
  
  Most recently, at least five people were shot and four of them were killed Saturday afternoon in the Fernwood neighborhood on the Far South Side.
  
  The shooting happened at 12:39 p.m. in the 100 block of West 105th Street, according to Chicago Police. Four of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene while the fifth was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in critical condition, Chicago Fire Department officials said. Additionally, a child was transported from the scene to Roseland Community Hospital, although it was not immediately clear whether the child had been shot. Further details, including the victims’ ages and genders, were not immediately available.

Labels: crime, stats

• A woman was critically injured when she drove a vehicle into the Chicago Lawn District Chicago Police station early Friday on the Southwest Side.
  
  Shortly after 4 a.m., the 21-year-old was at the wheel of a car that hit the community room of the 8th District station at 3420 W. 63rd St., according to police.
  
  She was taken in critical "but stable" condition to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, police said. No officers were hurt.

Labels: safety issues

• To Garry McCarthy, then Chicago’s police superintendent, there was no doubt about it: Antonio Brown should have been locked up.
  
  On July 5, 2015, McCarthy told reporters that Brown had been the intended target of a gang shooting at a Fourth of July celebration the night before that instead left Brown’s 7-year-old son Amari dead.
  
  With TV cameras rolling, McCarthy paged through Brown’s rap sheet, which he said included 45 arrests. And beyond that, Brown had been arrested for illegal gun possession that April and then released on bail — an example, McCarthy said, of gun offenders being treated too lightly by the justice system.
  
  "If Mr. Brown is in custody," he said, "his son is alive."

• On April 6, 2015, two West Side police officers responded to a radio call saying that a gold Infiniti had fled from police in West Humboldt Park — and that the driver might have a gun in his lap.
  
  On the Eisenhower Expressway, the cops caught sight of the car, which Brown was driving while another man was in the passenger’s seat, according to their report. When he saw the police, they said, Brown tried to veer off the highway and crashed.
  
  The officers’ report said they saw Brown "exit the vehicle while holding a black revolver in his right hand. Offender then turned and tossed same revolver onto right seat of vehicle."

• Rotunno, a former Cook County prosecutor, says, "I’m not some bleeding heart for the gang community." She didn’t dispute that a gun was found. But she argued there was no proof it belonged to Brown or that the police had seen him holding it. She pointed out that he didn’t own the car and that it had been on the side of the expressway during the foot chase, so someone could have put the gun before or after Brown was in the car.

Labels: crime

• Fraternal Order of Police President Dean Angelo on Friday expressed serious reservations about the push to relax police hiring standards to attract more black and Hispanic officers.
  
  At a time when police officers across the nation have "never been this scrutinized," Angelo said the Chicago Police Department should be looking at raising standards — not lowering them.
  
  Instead, Angelo said momentum is building to move in what he called the "wrong direction" — either by eliminating or minimizing the impact of a candidate’s credit history or by allowing candidates with minor drug and criminal offenses to become Chicago Police officers.
  
  "When a police officer walks into a drug house with a search warrant and there’s mass amounts of currency there, that’s a situation where your moral and ethical compass has got to be pointed in the right direction. You have to ensure you’re not tempted by that. Same thing with drug use," Angelo said.

Labels: dumb ideas, FOP

• A couple accuses an off-duty Chicago police officer of attacking in a case of road rage.
  
  It is the same cop caught on camera beating a man at a Portillo’s restaurant.

Labels: scandals

• The Independent Police Review Authority concluded the Chicago police officer who shot and killed Ronald Johnson was acting within policy. IPRA released their finding Friday night.
  
  Johnson, 25, was shot and killed during a chase near East 53rd Street and South Martin Luther King Drive in the city's Washington Park neighborhood on Oct. 12, 2014. Police were responding to a call of shots fired in the area when the spotted Johnson.
  
  Then-Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez declined to charge the officer who shot Johnson in December 2015. The city also released dash cam footage showing the end of the foot chase between the officer and Johnson.

Labels: good news

• The price to pay for shoplifting in Cook County has changed. But as CBS 2’s [...] reports, some in law enforcement worry it could actually encourage thieves to break the law.
  
  When caught on video, brazen shoplifting makes headlines, but a good number of these crimes are often committed by one-time offenders for minor amounts. They end up with a felony record for life, and the paperwork bogs down the system.
  
  "There will be a concerted effort to change policy, but changing culture takes time," Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx says. In a letter circulated to law enforcement agencies, her office says it will not approve felony charges unless the stolen property is valued at more than 1,000ドル.
  
  That is despite a statewide felony retail theft threshold of 300ドル.

Labels: county

Labels: sarcasm AND silliness

• A sizeable group of retired city workers are set to lose their health insurance just days from now and are scrambling to figure out how they will afford coverage. [...]
  
  "Maybe 86 years is enough" sighed retired City of Chicago employee, Julia Tyagay. The strain of Julia Tyagay’s situation adds to her list of ailments requiring physical therapy and prescription drugs. Years ago the retired civil engineer relied on the City of Chicago for her health insurance, but next year that’s scheduled to change costing her thousands. "They charge an awful amount," Tyagay said.
  
  "The city promised them it should follow through with its commitment, these are retirees where are they going to get this kind of money," said Attorney Clint Krislov. "That’s the problem."

• There is a motion in the Illinois Supreme Court that would force the city to continue paying for worker health insurance near term, occurring Wednesday night. A decision is expected to be made any day now.

Labels: general

• Chicago has spent nearly 140ドル million over the last decade to build a Big Brother network of 2,700 public safety surveillance cameras but has not taken steps either to limit access to authorized personnel or ensure that the system is properly maintained, the inspector general concluded Tuesday.
  
  Mayor Rahm Emanuel did not dispute the findings of Joe Ferguson’s latest audit. Instead, the mayor promised to tighten things up.
  
  "They have valid points about the need for oversight in the sense of access, etc.," the mayor said.

Labels: scandals

• David Juarez, a 3-year-old cancer survivor, became the newest honorary member of the Chicago Police Department on Wednesday, thanks to a collaboration between CPD, The Make A Wish Foundation and charity group Costumers With A Cause.
  
  David, whose dream is to be a police officer, was sworn in by Chicago Police Supt. Eddie T. Johnson before joining police officers at the McCormick Center for a training session complete with tactical scenarios.
  
  CPD filled the convention hall with police vehicles, including SWAT and undercover cruisers, which David said were "too loud with the sirens," and even the bomb disposal unit robot "F68," much to David’s delight.

Labels: good news

• South Side Ald. Willie B. Cochran has been indicted on federal charges he shook down a liquor store manager in exchange for his support and stole tens of thousands of dollars from a charitable ward fund intended to help seniors and children in his impoverished community.
  
  Another alleged shakedown involved a federal program intended to assist poor communities in getting vacant homes up to code and occupied as soon as possible, prosecutors said.
  
  The 15-count indictment, which was returned by a federal grand jury late Tuesday and first reported by the Tribune on Wednesday morning, alleges Cochran used the ill-gotten gains for personal expenses, including gambling at casinos and paying a portion of his daughter's college tuition.

Labels: city politics, corruption

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday emphatically denied he was treading water with his ambitious plan to hire 970 additional police officers over the next two years over and above attrition.
  
  Emanuel did the political dance known as the sidestep as he welcomed 100 more recruits to a police academy he promised would soon be "busting at the seams" while churning out a conveyor belt of classes.

• It happened when the mayor was asked about the declining police manpower under his watch and about whether he has any regrets about his heavy use of overtime to mask the manpower shortage.
  
  "The question is not right. So, I’ll let Eddie [Johnson] speak to that," the mayor said, deferring to his police superintendent.
  
  Johnson then stepped up and took the political heat for his boss.

• Anne Kirkpatrick, chief of the Bureau of Organizational Development, was asked about the Police Department treading water under Emanuel with the hiring surge merely reclaiming ground lost over the last five years.
  
  "I’m here to speak to you about what I can do and what my mission is," she said.

Labels: we got nothing

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday opened the door to allowing candidates with minor drug and criminal offenses to become Chicago Police officers to attract minorities at a time of high crime and deep distrust.
  
  Emanuel said he’s leaning toward relaxing the hiring rules at the behest of three powerful aldermen: Finance Committee Chairman Edward Burke (14th); Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th), chairman of the City Council’s Black Caucus, and Hispanic Caucus Chairman George Cardenas (12th).
  
  "I want to take a look at the general idea that, if somebody did something when they were 16 or 17, that doesn’t become an entire impossibility, as long as it’s not serious, to joining a police department," the mayor said.

Labels: department issues

• NEVER EVER meet with a Sergeant / Watch Lieutenant / Captain / Commander alone where he or she can threaten you.

• What a ridiculous statement. If you're given an order to report to the W/C or Commander's office what are you going to do, bring your partner or watch rep with you? So let's say you do just that, then the boss tells you to step in and close the door. Are you going to refuse unless your witness is present? You don't have the right to refuse an order. And you don't have the right to have a "representative" present since it's not part of an investigation or hearing. This is very bad advice that could get someone a big suspension for disobeying an order. I've seen first hand someone refuse to report to the Sergeant's office when ordered to do so and they got 30 days for disobeying a direct order after the CR investigation was completed.
  
  SCC, you're generally on point but on this one you're way off. You should think through your advise before posting.

• During an investigatory interview, the Supreme Court ruled that the following rules apply:
  
  Rule 1: The employee must make a clear request for union representation before or during the interview. The employee cannot be punished for making this request.
  
  Rule 2: After the employee makes the request, the employer must choose from among three options:
  --grant the request and delay questioning until the union representative arrives and (prior to the interview continuing) the representative has a chance to consult privately with the employee;
  --deny the request and end the interview immediately; or
  --give the employee a clear choice between having the interview without representation, or ending the interview.
  
  Rule 3: If the employer denies the request for union representation, and continues to ask questions, it commits an unfair labor practice and the employee has a right to refuse to answer. The employer may not discipline the employee for such a refusal.

• If you are "ordered" into an office with the door closed for a private threat session or berating, pull out your phone and tell the boss you'll be recording this for your own and his/her own safety, just so there isn't any misunderstanding of what was said. That way, both parties are aware of existence of a recording. The supervisor can then choose to back down or continue with the meeting.

Labels: scc responds

• In one of the stranger chapters of Mexico's drug war, townsfolk have kidnapped the mother of an alleged drug gang boss to demand the release of their loved ones.
  
  The government of the southern state of Guerrero said Tuesday it dispatched 220 soldiers and police in hopes of defusing the situation in the town of Totolapan.
  
  Totolapan has been essentially controlled for years by a drug gang boss known as "El Tequilero."
  
  His gang in recent months has been fighting turf battles with other cartels.
  
  The gang members known as "tequileros" kidnapped about a dozen Totolapan inhabitants who they apparently suspect of supporting rivals.
  
  A group of armed townspeople on Monday posted a video saying they had his mother and would exchange her for their loved ones.

Labels: we got nothing