Englewood Two-Fer? (UPDATE - Not da Wood)

Heating up in da Wood:

• Two men were discovered dead inside a car this afternoon on the South Side in the city's West Englewood neighborhood.
  
  About 3:20 p.m., officers were conducting a well-being check on the 7100 block of South Oakley Avenue and discovered two bodies, one in a back seat and one inside of a trunk of a car, said Police News Affairs [...], citing preliminary information.

And the kicker?

• Residents said the car had been parked a block north earlier in the week, but may have been towed onto the 7100 block because of street work. A city database of relocations in the last week did not show the car as having been towed or relocated, however.

You'd hate to think a city crew relocated the car with two stiffs inside, but it's happened before.Does this vault 007 into the lead?  And is Leo going to pay a price for it? Seeing as how Carothers never was held responsible for a single thing, why would Ric Flair have to?

UPDATE: West Englewood is evidently in 008. Our bad for not checking the beat map.  But who'd have thought that anyone would label a neighborhood as West Englewood?

Is someone trying to sell real estate there? "Don't worry future homeowners - this is WEST Englewood.  Nothing that matter with this neighborhood."

Maybe Leo did have it towed over the border.

Quick Hits

A few stories of interest - the Cook County Morgue can't seem to do anything right. Now they're giving away dead bodies:

• According to records from the Cook County Public Administrator, in many cases family members did not give permission or even know that the bodies had been removed and used for experiments or teaching.
  
  For nearly a decade at the Cook County Morgue, bodies were not made available to medical schools for dissection and research use.
  
  Last September, when newly-hired county medical examiner Dr. Stephen Cina started, that policy changed.

Changed without telling the families of identifiable persons that their bodies were being "donated." Is there anything that the morgue can't screw up?

-----

City equipment breaking down? Specifically, ambulances?

• It could have been a matter of life or death last month when a city ambulance broke down while rushing a gunshot victim to a hospital for emergency care.
  
  How could that happen? [...]

Gee, maybe a lack of routine maintenance, a general disregard for warranty service and running vehicles 24/7/365 into the ground with no replacements in the pipeline for outdated equipment? It couldn't possibly be that, could it?

-----

And Rahm wins again - 50 school closures in less time than it takes to boil and egg:

• History was made in Chicago Wednesday in about 90 seconds, but most of the folks who witnessed firsthand the death of a record 50 Chicago Public Schools didn’t even realize it.
  
  Rather than list the names of the doomed elementary schools, the Board of Education took a single group vote on most of the closings that will affect some 27,000 children. The board secretary read out the numbers assigned to each resolution and asked for the vote.
  
  But onlookers didn’t even get that, as the board president resorted to parliamentary maneuver to speed the process along.
  
  “Madam Secretary, if there are no objections from my fellow board members, please apply the last favorable roll call,” Board President David Vitale said, referring to the previous vote of six ayes and 0 nays. And with that, the bulk of the history — 49 of the 50 schools closed — was made in a unanimous sweep.
  

Four schools were removed from the original list, so Rahm got about 90% of what he wanted, far better than the 75% we had speculated that he wanted.

Boston Investigation Heats Up

"Lone Wolf," remember?

• A Chechen immigrant who was being questioned about his possible links to one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects was shot and killed by a federal agent in Florida on Wednesday after he suddenly turned violent, the FBI said.
  
  A friend of the dead man identified him to Reuters as 27-year-old Ibragim Todashev, who had previously lived in Boston and knew Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older of the two brothers suspected of planting two bombs at the marathon on April 15, killing three people and injuring 264.
  
  NBC News reported that Todashev had confessed to his involvement in an unsolved 2011 triple homicide in a Boston suburb that investigators believe was drug related, citing law enforcement officials.

Good shooting by the fed. In the meantime, there seems to be a lot of info that isn't filtering down to the street level coppers that might be somewhat helpful is spotting stuff like that which went down in Boston.

New Flag

Apologies to Garey McKee, but it's all in good fun.

Well Boo Hoo

Why is this anyone's problem?

• A little girl is running late for school.
  
  She scurries along South Perry in the navy blue skirt required for Kohn Elementary School students and brown boots, fixing the buttons on her red-and-white plaid coat as she makes her way.
  
  The bell at Kohn, at 104th and State on Chicago’s Far South Side, rang a good 20 minutes ago, yet the child — no more than 8 or 9 — walks alone, hurrying past vacant lots, buildings graffitied with Black Disciple taunts and abandoned house after abandoned house. In the last blocks of Perry and 105th before reaching school property, she also passes the homes of two registered sex offenders — one a predator whose victim was under 18 — and the sites of three batteries and two robberies with dangerous weapons.
  
  Come August, she may have to traverse more of it.
  

Well, the problem can be seen in the third paragraph:

• ...yet the child — no more than 8 or 9 — walks alone...

Why wasn't the child awakened 20 minutes earlier? Why isn't the girl walking with a group of friends? And where, pray tell, is the parent?

It isn't our fault that the neighborhood is decrepit. We didn't make untenable loans to people who had no means of paying them off. We didn't bring a tolerance for criminal activity into the hood. And we certainly didn't bring children into this world with no means to support them. We have a hard enough time supporting our own, but we imagine Rahm's going to make us add a few dependents shortly. Can we at least claim them on our taxes?

This is "Reporting"

The Tribune must be really stretching to fill their pages:

• South Side rapper Chief Keef was arrested near Atlanta this week for disorderly conduct after hotel security smelled marijuana smoke coming from his room, police said.
  
  The disorderly conduct arrest comes two months after he was released from custody in Chicago for a probation violation.

So is this another violation? And seriously, who cares?

• An afternoon test drive of a Dodge Charger turned into a joyride Monday when a teenager from Humboldt Park sped off in the car, with a reluctant dealership employee riding shot-gun.
  
  Kendall Jackson, 18, of the 4800 block of West Superior Street, was charged with posession of a stolen vehicle, unlawful restraint of a person, and driving without a license after he visited the World Discount Auto, Inc. dealership on North Cicero Avenue on Monday afternoon.
  
  Jackson drove the car far past the boundaries of the dealership during the test, according to the police report, while a 31-year-old dealership employee in the passenger's seat pled with him to turn the car around.

And this 18-year-old with no license (and probably an entry level job or less) was allowed to test drive a piece of equipment costing tens of thousands of dollars why exactly? The car dealer/salesman ought to face charges of Felony Stupidity. This happens all the time, yet no one seems to learn.

• When Chicago police officers observed a car double-parked on the 1400 block of North Keeler Avenue in Humboldt Park Thursday, they decided to talk to the driver.
  
  But the driver, Francisco Cruz, of Belmont Gardens, couldn't speak, the police report said. He mumbled something when officers asked for his drivers license, which he did not have, but they couldn't understand him. And when officers asked him if he had something in his mouth, his response was still too garbled to understand.
  
  "Spit it out," officers said to Cruz, 41, according to the report, shining a flashlight into his mouth. Instead, he allegedly lunged at the officers, flailing his arms in an attempt to flee. Unable to escape, he pulled three plastic bags from his mouth and uttered his first words since the police arrived.

Again, this happens on a daily basis, but the Tribune deems it newsworthy for some reason. All of this ought to be on a crime blotter somewhere, not taking up pages while Rahm drives this city into the ground and helps connected people steal everything that isn't nailed down.

Rumor Mill Churning

True or false?

• Off topic.... Gang enforcement is finished. They will have the option to become part of a new citywide tru/msf like unit or be sent back to a district. Gmac is going to sell this as not another citywide unit but as an already citywide unit who has a changed mission with higher visibility(uniform) and a more focused and proactive approach to certain areas in the city. This way gmac can stick to his original story of more bodies in patrol and no more ultra aggressive units don't need to be made... It's the "same unit just a changed look and new mission to be more effective with the cities needs". All units will be consolidated to start at homan square in what is now the gang enforcement office. Kevin ryan(former commander of tru will still be the boss. Allegedly this was his plan and McCarthy liked it. Huge objections from Leo Schmitz since gang enforcement was his baby with JFed. One thing that wasn't brought up though was when its going to happed. I can't see them doing mid summer so it's either going to be soon or after summer. Fact or fiction ??? Usually I dont believe this type of stuff but I heard it from a pretty straight guy who works in admin in organized crime so it sounds very legit to me

We haven't seen the out-and-out blanket denials that usually accompany a rumor like this and we can definitely see something like this happening before the schools let out - anything to put a dent in the $1 million-per-week that Rahm and Garry are burning through. At some point, someone is going to shut off the spigot if federal money isn't hijacked.

Perception Is Not Reality

So sayeth McStatMaster:

• Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy reiterated Monday that his department has safety and security under control in the North Michigan Avenue area.
  
  McCarthy spoke to reporters at his weekly news conference held to showcase the amount of illegal guns seized in the city.
  
  
• McCarthy says its being blown out of proportion by the media, creating a perception that there's a problem.
  
  "So far to date, there's been no major incidents, but what's getting reported is mayhem, and it's patently false," McCarthy says, claiming there's been no robberies, thefts or property damage.
  

No robberies? No thefts?

Bartender? We'll have two of what he's having.

+8 from 2011

From our blogging friends over at HeyJackass.com:

• 13 homicides last week now puts 2013 solidly ahead of 2011 - 123 vs 115. Plus a number of those shot in the past week were listed in "grave" condition.
  
  The Tiny Dancer and McGunControl surge seems to be losing steam.
  
  How much money has been spent in overtime, etc... ? 

No idea how much overtime has been expended, but we know it got that much harder to track the other day.  We got this e-mail from an interested party:

•  Not sure why, but all of a sudden CPD and CFD overtime payments have been removed from the City's DataPortal.  As of March-April, this had YTD overtime for ALL City Departments and ALL personnel but it seems that City Hall has now limited it to those few Depts that they feel like releasing.  So much for open and transparent.
  
  https://data.cityofchicago.org/Administration-Finance/Employee-Overtime-and-Supplemental-Earnings/92xk-4rg9

We'll admit we didn't use the site before, so we aren't sure what was there, but our e-mailer obviously has used it and noticed right away that a significant method of tracking spending has been concealed. Anyone want to guess why?

18 Years

Closing a sad chapter:

• A former veteran Chicago narcotics officer was sentenced today to 18 years in prison for using his badge to help a violent crew of drug dealers kidnap and rob rivals of large amounts of cocaine and millions in cash.

Nothing to add to this....just another black eye.

Oklahoma Tragedy

Prayers here for all the victims in Oklahoma, especially those in Moore.

The First Responders and Recovery crews have a long set of days, weeks and months ahead of them.  And whose who lost family members, a lifetime of mourning.

Police Limit

How can you tell what the temperature was?

That's definitely the way to tell in Chicago.

Steady Numbers

A typical May weekend:

• Five people have been killed and at least 14 others wounded — including a 12-year-old boy left in critical condition — in shootings around the city since Friday night.

This one made us shake our heads though:

• About 9:15 p.m. Saturday, a shooter or shooters opened fire at a group of people at Ryan Harris Memorial Park in the 6800 block of South Lowe in the Englewood neighborhood. Shaneda Lawrence, 30, of the 9600 block of South Peoria, was shot in the head and pronounced dead at 12:46 a.m. at Stroger Hospital. A woman in her 20s was shot in the wrist, and a 24-year-old man was shot in the back.

A park named for a 1998 victim of a brutal crime is itself the scene of a triple shooting. IF that just doesn't define the misery and hopelessness of Englewood, we don't know what does.

What Could Go Wrong?

In Rahm We Trust - NOT:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel is pushing lawmakers to pass a gambling bill that would allow the city to weigh its choice of a casino operator in secret and forbid state regulators from taking away its license.
  The legislation also would grant the mayor authority to seize land for a casino and keep not only the gambling profits but also two local taxes and a cut of an upfront fee paid for the right to run the gambling emporium.
  It's a mix of power and privileges that gambling experts say has never been bestowed upon any city or casino owner in the country. They also say the measure raises concerns about whether the state would have ample oversight of the nation's first city-owned casino.

A bat-shit crazy insane idea if ever there was one. How about proposing a counter law that all casino revenues first go to pay off outstanding city debt, including pension liabilities, prior to a single dime going to the "schools." Because part of the problem decades ago with the lottery money was that while lottery proceeds went to the schools, the General Assembly then removed the matching amount from the State school budget and spent it on nonsense.

48 Hours Report (UPDATE)

The entire episode can be viewed at this link here.

Our opinion? It's kind of a "shotgun" approach to reporting:

• Hadiya Pendleton,
• a white suburban junkie,
• a crusader from 011 using YouTube to move dope dealers off his corner,
• more Hadiya, another girl killed and the basement level clearance rate,
• McJersey explaining that 200 extra cops has nothing to do with crime prevention,
• the million bucks per week in overtime,
• the rehab and relapse of the white suburban junkie,
• the Hadiya funeral

Rahm get zinged hard as unresponsive and arrogant when CBS shows their reporter at a press conference getting blown off by Mayor Murder.  But all in all, there is no focus to the entire report. We imagine most watchers would walk away feeling Chicago is hopeless and in steep decline - not too far off the mark. But 48 Hours reports no solutions or paths to solutions. Not exactly hard hitting reporting.

UPDATE: We should have been a little more specific. The 48 Hours report didn't seem to ask anyone interviewed for suggestions or paths to a solution, probably because that would point an unwanted spotlight at who the perpetrators and victims of 85-to-90% of the violence actually are - the white junkie was obviously a sop to what otherwise would have been an uncomfortably truthful report about the president's political cradle.

We suppose we should be thankful that McGunsAreBad didn't get a chance to do his shuck-and-jive softshoe routine from St. Sabina about government sponsored racist guns killing black and brown children. Or that Rahm didn't get to read his Bloomberg Talking Points memos.

Warm Saturday? Must Be Wilding Time!

Here we go - again:

• Eleven juveniles and one adult were arrested this evening after a large group converged near the Gold Coast and were blocking traffic, police said.
  
  The people were arrested and charges were pending, said Chicago Police News Affairs [...].
  
  The youths were part of a group that had caused a "minor disturbance" in the area, Ursitti said. She said the group members were not being violent and there were no reported injuries.

This appears to be a "boisterous" group as opposed to one of the other group intent on stealing, robbing and destroying. It still doesn't excuse the fact that nearly 100 officers had to be deployed to contain the nonsense.

Where Are My Keys?

Three shot in Lawndale:

• When the shooting stopped in Lawndale late Friday night, three people lay on the ground with gunshot wounds outside a family prom party on Kolin Avenue.
  
  
• It’s not clear why at least two shooters took aim at the group of people partying out on Kolin Avenue, among them at least a few children. They approached from an alley and ran back toward a green conversion van. When police arrived, it was still running.
  
  East of the van, police found the guns at the mouth of the alley on Kostner Avenue. South on Kostner, police found a pair of gloves and even farther south, jackets near a garbage can in a vacant lot.

The guns and clothing were recovered because the shooters left the van running and locked the doors. Oops.

Enforcers Football

Sunday:

• Hey SCC the annual First Responders Bowl football game is this Sunday. The CPD Enforcers vs. CFD Blaze play Sunday at 3pm at St Laurence HS 77/Central in Burbank. The games the first three years all came down to the last minute. 

Proceeds benefit the respective Police and Fire charities.

Flawed Concealed Carry Dies in Springfield

DOA:

• A Senate effort to impose restrictive concealed-carry limits on Illinois gun owners failed to surface for a vote Friday as expected even after the legislation was changed to ease opposition from the National Rifle Association.
  
  "One of the realities that I was keenly aware of when I entered this effort was that there are some extremists," said Sen. Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago), sponsor of the gun-control measure. "There are some extremists with some very loyal followings, and they use intimidation as part of their advocacy efforts. And sometimes that intimidation is quite effective."
  

Liberal Playbook 101 - wanting to uphold the Constitution of the United States, wanting to be able to defend your life and the lives of loved ones, wanting to be able to live in peace without the fear of being robbed or murdered in the streets of Chicago makes you an extremist now. Just so we're absolutely clear.

Hey Kwame? 49 or 50 states don't have blood running in the streets and two national studies show that violent crime is down significantly as gun ownership has risen.

Everything is Fine - Trust Us

Thank goodness that the supposed robbery on Michigan Avenue was a hoax. We'd hate to think that misguided youths left the green pastures of Englewood and deliberately targeted the weak or infirm members of society for whatever nihilistic impulses distracted them from church, homework, and community service.

Meanwhile, back in the hood:

• Three teenagers face sex assault charges after they raped a 12-year-old girl at gunpoint and posted a video of the December attacks on Facebook, prosecutors said.
  
  Scandale Fritz, 16, Kenneth Brown, 15, and Justin Applewhite, 16, were all ordered held in lieu of $900,000 bail in a hearing today before Criminal Court Judge James Brown, said Cook County state's attorney spokeswoman Tandra Simonton. The three were charged as adults.
  
  The assaults took place about 3:30 p.m. Dec. 15 in Fritz's home in the 400 block of West 60th Place in the Englewood neighborhood, according to Chicago police records.

Yup. Everything is fine. This will probably be a hoax, too.

No Exempts in DC?

Well this is just sad if true:

• [McCarthy] hasn't got a clue. He is not respected, nor has he earned any. And he has no respect for us or this department, which was abundantly apparent these past few days in Washington DC at Police Week. About 200 blue shirts were there, 20 or so Sergeants, about a dozen Lt's, and a drove of retired guys including Patterson, Dugan and Folliard, but not one exempt, or Capt for that matter. Not One!!! 

We thought our eyes were deceiving us, but we didn't see a single gold star in DC. We saw one of the retired exempts mentioned, but no current bosses. Of course, we couldn't be everywhere and we may have missed one, but this comment and a couple e-mails we received make us think this might be true. And that's just too bad if our "leaders" are so intimidated by McJersey that a representative contingent can't even leave town for two or three days to honor our dead at the National Memorial.

CPS Bait and Switch

Typical Rahm ploy:

1. Go out and threaten to do something bad.
2. Let everyone get riled up.
3. Back off slightly and let people think they won.
4. Laugh
5. Bask in the glory of the "great compromiser"

Rahm did this with city stickers, proposing an increase in fees for vehicles over a certain weight. When it was discovered that all the soccer moms with minivans would be hammered with massive sticker fee increases, there was much hue and cry.

So Rahm "compromised." All city stickers went up by $10 bucks across the board. Rahm got his influx of money pretending to be reasonable to the minivan owners, when the $10 increase was what he wanted all along. He just pretended to overreach, then backed off to what he figured he needed in the first place. And the low-information sheeple (and media) sang hymns in praise of having a reasonable mayor who was responsive to the needs of the citizens.

But it was all bullshit. And here comes more bullshit:

• At least a few of the 53 Chicago Public Schools targeted for closing could be dropped from the list before Wednesday’s final school board vote, under pressure from black aldermen to follow hearing officers’ recommendations, City Hall sources said Friday.
  
  The chairman of the City Council’s Black Caucus has demanded that Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his handpicked school board follow retired judges’ recommendations to keep open 13 of the 53 schools.
  
  To do otherwise, Ald. Howard Brookins (21st) claimed, would be to “render the whole proceeding a joke” when Emanuel is the one who set it up.
  

No Howard, the joke is on you. Rahm is still going to close 40 schools. We aren't saying that Rahm is wrong closing 40 schools, but Howard Brookins is wrong think that Rahm isn't getting exactly what he wants. Howard is playing to his constituents by "fighting" Rahm and "winning." But we're pretty sure Rahm is letting Howard "win" while Rahm walks away with 75% of his proposed closings taking place as planned.

75% versus 25% - it's not hard to see who won.

McPeacock

A couple of e-mails coming in describing CompStat yesterday.  Seems a national news outlet, possibly CNN was there to tape the meeting, as a sort of rebuttal to the Saturday "48 Hours" report depicting Chicago crime as out of control.  The e-mails are unanimous as describing McCarthy as "preening" and "strutting" around the room, playing to the cameras at every opportunity.  None of the harsh screaming and cursing that have become commonplace, but a veritable love-fest of gentle correction, droll humor and posterior smooching.

This guy is as bad a Jesse Jackson for face time when a camera shows up.

Robbery Hoax

Liar liar pants on fire:

• Chicago police have discredited a 68-year-old woman's claim that she was robbed of tens of thousands of dollars of jewelry during a brazen attack Wednesday afternoon along the Magnificent Mile.
  
  The woman originally told officers that a group of six to eight young men robbed her of more than $135,000 in jewelry as she walked along North Michigan Avenue, according to a police report.
  
  But on Thursday night, Area Central property crimes detectives determined that the story she gave police didn't add up with surveillance video footage that was examined.
  
  "Chicago police have determined that the reported Michigan Avenue robbery of a 68-year-old woman [Wednesday] is unfounded. Detectives confronted the victim with inconsistencies between her account of the incident and recovered video, and learned that the story was not true," according to a statement from the department. 

WBBM Newsradio has an interview with the lady where she says something along the lines of, "Maybe some good will come out of this....maybe there will be more foot patrols on Michigan Avenue."

Nothing to See Here!

Move along!

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel gave a preliminary comment Thursday to a broad daylight mugging on Michigan Avenue this week.
  
  A 68-year-old woman says she was surrounded by a group of young men on the 700 block of North Michigan Avenue and ordered to hand over her jewels and her purse, which amounted to around $100,000.
  
  Emanuel told reporters Thursday that he wouldn't fully comment on the incident until he sees the police report, but he doesn't feel as if there's cause for alarm.
  
  "There are a lot of police, presence on Michigan Avenue and yes, people feel safe because I talk to people constantly who note how safe they are," Emanuel said.
  

Of course, Rahm talks to all these "people" from behind a wall of 22 armed security personnel or from his front porch where another half a dozen police cars guard the streets, sidewalks and alleys around his house, with a heavy weapons team less than 15 seconds away. That gives him a completely accurate picture of the situation downtown on a daily basis.

What an asshat.

Concealed Carry Bill Moves Forward

These idiots in Springfield are going to have to be held by the hand and guided through everything, step by step, by a federal judge at some point:

• Favored by gun-control advocates, a push establishing tight limits on where Illinois gun owners could carry their weapons in public advanced in the state Senate Thursday over objections from the National Rifle Association.
  
  The measure, which passed the Senate Executive Committee by a 10-4 vote, with one member voting present, surfaced less than a month before a June 9 deadline imposed by a federal appeals court for Illinois to end its last-in-the-nation prohibition on concealed-carry.
  
  "I'm trying to do something to respond to the mandate of the court to promote and preserve public safety and to balance the rights of the law-abiding gun owners in the process," state Sen. Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago), the bill's chief Senate sponsor, told the panel.
  
  Within Chicago, Raoul's legislation would require police Supt. Garry McCarthy to sign off on all concealed-carry applicants before they could get permits from the Illinois State Police, setting up what gun-rights advocates fear would be a choke-point that could keep city gun owners from getting licenses.
  
  "I can see Garry McCarthy abusing the snot out of that," said National Rifle Association lobbyist Todd Vandermyde, who opposed the legislation.

Mr. Vandermyde has that correct, and that's not the only political hack lining up to obstruct citizens their Rights:

• Raoul's bill, which could be voted on by the Senate Friday, also would permit Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart and other sheriffs to lodge objections to any concealed-carry applicants that the State Police would have to consider along with 17 other qualifying hurdles.
  
  Among those requirements are the broad standards of whether an applicant demonstrates "good moral character" and whether the issuance of a concealed-carry license to that person is "consistent with public safety."
  
  One legislative critic said that standard is too vague.

"Good moral character" would rule out the City Council. And the police superintendent for that matter. Eighteen procedural hurdles and roadblocks thrown in the way of American citizens exercising a Right spelled out in the Constitution.

State Hires Data Entry Operators

Someone has to help the ISP catch up - might as well hire it out:

• Anyone who has recently applied for a firearm owner's card in Illinois knows that it there is quite a wait.
  
  State police say that's because 70,000 applications have piled up in their outsource processing center - and that's because there are only four state workers doing background checks.
  
  The I-Team has learned that an emergency contract is now in place with a new vendor to process that backlog and to prepare for the onslaught of concealed/carry applications.

So even the bureaucrats know that some form of Concealed Carry is coming.

Not Another Targeted Senior?

In the Red Line tunnel.  By "youths."

• An man in his 80s was hospitalized after he was knocked to the ground and robbed of his wallet at a Loop CTA subway station Thursday morning.
  
  The attack happened at 10:33 a.m. in the subway in the 300 block of South Dearborn, where the Blue Line connects with the Red Line, according to Chicago Police ...
  
  The victim was walking up the stairs to the platform when he was knocked down and had his wallet taken....
  

Someone needs to ban CTA platforms. ASAP.

Wilding Jackpot

The Tribune plays dumb, but this has all the hallmarks of a wilding:

• A 69-year-old woman was robbed of as much as $200,000 in jewelry, cash and other items by a group of young men in front of a North Michigan Avenue department store this afternoon, authorities said.
  
  A victim was robbed of her possessions in the 700 block of North Michigan Avenue about 12:20 p.m., said Police News Affairs [...]
  
  The victim was not injured in the robbery...
  
  [Police News Affairs] had no information on suspect descriptions, or the amount taken in the robbery.
  
  The woman, age 69, was robbed by a group of at least three and as many and eight young men, law enforcement sources said. A detailed description was not available.

As Forest Gump says, "Stupid is as stupid does." Who the fuck would carry/wear $200,000 worth of cash and jewelry on North Michigan Avenue knowing what goes on there every single night? Our comment sections and e-mail were alive with reports of wildings all last night and it continued into tonight with the warm temps - but weather has nothing to do with crime, right?

The Tribune helpfully closed comments for this story - anyone wonder why?

UPDATE: The reading-impaired are out in force today. Yes, we realize that the victim ought to be able to walk around where she likes wearing what she likes. However, here in Reality Land, we would like to think the lady has a TV and watches a minimum of news reports and must have stumbled on some report that says Michigan Avenue isn't safe, no matter the time of day. Common Sense says you don't flaunt $200,000 worth of bling in an area where bling gets stolen with astonishing regularity.This is a crime of opportunity, so why wave the raw meat in front of the predator?

Then again, if Common Sense were common....

UPDATE: See "Robbery Hoax" post following this one.

Mother of the Year Nominee

There really ought to be an exam and license to have children:

• A South Side woman who had parked her car in an alley refused to yield to a marked police squad car, then grabbed a Chicago police officer and dragged her as the SUV with two children inside sped backwards down an alley, prosecutors said.
  
  The officer and her partner were blocked from turning into an alley by the parked 2009 Lexus SUV near 83rd Street and Kerfoot Avenue around 9 p.m. Monday when the driver, Catherine Brown, 38, refused to let them pass, authorities said. Brown, who faces charges of attempted murder and aggravated battery of a police officer, was ordered held in lieu of $25,000 bail by Cook Countyu Criminal Court Judge James Brown in a hearing midday today.
  
  
• Brown rolled up her car window, locked the door and started talking on her cell phone, then refused to take out her driver's license and insurance, prosecutors said. The 8-year-old, who had been screaming in the back seat, got into the front seat, onto Brown's lap, and unlocked the driver's door, pushing the female officer into a fence.
  
  When the officer told Brown to get out of the SUV, both Brown and the older girl hit the officer in the head.
  
  Brown then grabbed one the officer by her bulletproof vest and threw the SUV in reverse, driving backward at high speed, prosecutors said. The officer was dragged face first, and rolled over several times after being dragged for about 50 feet through the alley, almost running over the officer, prosecutors said.

Charged with attempted murder, but bail is only $25,000 according to the article. No charges on the 8-year-old, but her day will be coming shortly.

Another Warm Night

And another baker's dozen shot:

• Two men were killed and at least 11 people were wounded -- one of them by police -- in shootings from Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday morning across Chicago, police said.
  
  
• Among those wounded overnight was a man shot by police around midnight after pointing a gun at an officer in the 1600 block of East 83rd Street, authorities said.
  
  Police officers heard gunfire and were told the shots came from a car. When they tried to stop the car, a passenger ran off and the officer chased him, police said. The man turned and pointed a gun at the officer and the officer fired, striking the man, according to police.

Officers are fine and jagoff should live.  And that was just Tuesday into Wednesday - nothing to do with the 80 degree temperature overnight, right?

Wednesday into Thursday isn't looking much better:

• A man was shot and critically wounded inside a building in the Beverly neighborhood this afternoon, one of at least seven people shot in the city this afternoon and evening, police said.

Summer must be here.

Rahm Finds Another $100 Million

Another nail in the City's "we're broke!" excuse:

• Plans are in the works for a $300 million, 12,000-seat arena for DePaul University’s basketball teams to be built near downtown Chicago, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.
  
  Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel is expected to announce plans this week for DePaul University at McCormick Place – a proposal that will call on $100 million in taxpayer dollars. The team currently plays in the 17,500 seat AllState Arena, which opened in 1980.
  
  There are also plans to build two mega hotels on the property in the hopes of aggressively growing convention and meeting business in Chicago.
  
  The men’s basketball team finished 11-21 this season, have just six conference wins in the past three season and have not been to the NCAA Tournament since 2004.

A $100 million gift from Chicago taxpayers for a private Catholic university? While the city is pleading poverty and in the midst of contentious negotiations with how many labor organizations?

This also brings to the fore the land-based casino proposals because, let's face it - an 11-21 DePaul basketball team just isn't that big a draw.

Another PPO Foot Patrol Shooting

Somewhere in 003 Monday night?

They've done a good job keeping this one under wraps - we haven't found any mention of it. No one got hit, so it must not have happened, but some people went to jail over it.

Wait...Red Light Cameras are About Money?

Who would have thunk it?

• City Hall cannot back up claims that its controversial red-light camera program is designed to make intersections safer, according to a watchdog's report released Tuesday.
  
  Inspector General Joseph Ferguson said the city cannot provide documents to prove that the cameras went up at intersections with the most side-impact crashes. He also questioned why cameras remain at intersections with no recent history of such crashes, which the $100 ticket-issuing "cops-in-a-box" are designed to prevent.
  
  "We found a lack of basic record keeping and an alarming lack of analysis for an ongoing program that costs tens of millions of dollars a year and generates tens of millions more in revenue," Ferguson wrote in a letter addressed to Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other city officials.

Golly, scams for money. In Chicago. Shocking.

In other news, the sun rose in the east today. Seriously, where do they find these people?

Another Camera Report

We heard a blurb on the radio yesterday, something about another "investigative report," possibly by Channel 2, regarding police cameras and how they are breaking down, not being repaired, and possibly how they are recording crime, but no one is watching.

Any of this sound familiar to anyone? Because we're pretty sure we wrote about it more than a few times and generated hundreds of comments regarding this exact issue.

Is this breaking in conjunction with the "48 Hours" report this weekend? We can't seem to find the teaser trailer.

City Retirees Moved to ObamaCare

Better start rethinking that retirement if you haven't already:

• Chicago will phase out its 55 percent subsidy for retiree health care by January 2017 but continue that coverage for the oldest retirees, under a mayoral plan that will free taxpayers from a $108.7 million a year burden. Thirty thousand retired city employees will be forced to switch to Obamacare.
  
  [...]More than 35,000 government retirees have been on pins and needles waiting to find out whether Mayor Rahm Emanuel will continue their city-subsidized health insurance after June 30, when a 10-year settlement agreement that calls for the city to share costs with retirees is due to expire.
  
  They are not likely to be relieved when they find out how Emanuel has decided to resolve the politically volatile issue.
  

There was this though:

• But 5,500 of the oldest and most vulnerable retirees—known in the marathon litigation as the “Korshak class”—will be guaranteed a 55 percent subsidy as long as they live. They retired before Aug. 23, 1989. Specifics of the three-year phaseout for the remaining retirees will be unveiled by the end of the year.
• The annual costs do not include police and fire early retirees, who receive free health care under the active employee benefit plan until they become eligible for Medicare.

This is going to change a lot of retirement equations. It will probably end up in court for years, too.

Aldrecreature Burke to Practice Law

It's seldom so obvious, but does anyone else think the fix is in?

• Spotted in branch 44 today was former alder woman Sharon Dixon who looked just like a hype searching for a rock on the west side. She is being represented by none other than Ald. Burke himself, yes he looked like a lost puppy attempting to figure out how to operate in a courtroom. Anyway, Sharon will be staying a bit longer at Cermak hospital while Alderman Burke figures out how to get the charges dropped and fill in Sharon on how and who to sue on the Police Department 

Eddie hasn't practice criminal law in how many years?  If ever?  Anyone have a continuance date for this case?  Anyone drop a line to Kass?  You want to see the Chicago Machine Fix in action, drop by Branch 44 and check this one out.

CFD to "Escort" Students

If you don't have enough cops, bring in the firemen!

No word yet if the FOP or Firefighters Local will be filing some sort of job action on this one. According to the memo, it's supposed to run for three weeks.

Nice Background Check Ladner

Good thing she's weeding out the cops kids, the military veterans, and psych-disqualifying every applicant who doesn't meet her personal criteria. Wasn't Hilliard's firm supposed to be do these instead of Department investigators? Or didn't that ever happen?

• great job in screening applicants. A P.P.O. in 006.. yes, I said a P.P.O. has just been stripped and more than likely will be facing charges after he was found stealing over 2000 dollars at a domestic. After pressure and a beef was put in the kid folded and went to the watch commander to give the money back... too late kid. Since he is a P.P.O the city is moving for immediate termination so he wont be stripped for long. IPRA has the case and is giving it to the states attorney for charges. Oh by the way, Ladner if your reading this kid didnt have any family members on the job in the past and is not in the military. So much for your idea of not giving coppers kids a chance because they might end up bad cops...

Sometimes bad eggs slip through - we've all seen that. But those usually surface after a few years of working the street and figuring out how much smarter they think they are than the people they arrest, never realizing that someone else, at some time, tried the same bullshit. This must have set some sort of land-speed record though.

"48 Hours" Feature

Here's a link to the aforementioned television segment:

• Chicago’s street violence will be getting more national attention this weekend.
  
  CBS News’ ’48 Hours’ will air “The War In Chicago” on Saturday at 9 p.m.–the result of a six-month investigation into the gang and drug wars blistering the city’s South and West Sides.

Rahm is not happy.

Chicago PD - The Series

Yet another television show, this time about the CPD:

• District 21 of the Chicago Police Department is made up of two distinctly different groups. There are the uniformed cops who patrol the beat and go head-to-head with the city's street crimes. And there's the Intelligence Unit, the team that combats the city's major offenses - organized crime, drug trafficking, high profile murders and beyond.
  
  Leading the Intelligence team is Sergeant Hank Voight, a man not against skirting the law in the pursuit of justice. Demanding and tough, only those who can take the heat survive under Voight's command. Take Detective Antonio Dawson - despite his troubled history with his boss, Dawson has ambitions of running the unit... so if that means facing off against Voight every day, he'll persevere.
  
  From the street cops with dreams of moving up to the elite crew who are already in, "life on the job" is a daily challenge. The enormous responsibilities that come with the territory take an emotional toll, as we'll find when we follow the personal lives of our characters outside the walls of District 21.
  
  From Emmy-winning producer Dick Wolf and the team behind "Chicago Fire" comes "Chicago PD," a gripping, character-driven new police drama about those who put it all on the line to serve and protect. One-hour drama.
  

So are they going to have a bunch of firemen cast as the villains in this series? You know, the way they cast the cops as the assholes in the Chicago Fire series?

Another Migration?

Upwards of 30 PAR forms filled out for officers to leave 019 next period.

You'd think that things like this would capture the attention of someone....someone who'd ask the uncomfortable questions about why so many people want to leave a formerly nice place to work.

Maybe an aldercreature or two who might ask why their police protection is evaporating just as the Cubs season starts and certain factions start shooting at each other in the neighborhood.