For reasons CrimeFile covers in this posting, Shaved has taken down his blog, his archives and will remain off line for the foreseeable future.
We fail to see where a non-government agency takes it upon itself to check on the activities of private citizens. It definitely hints at collusion between the government (Rahm) and a supposedly "non-partisan" organization.
There are already entities within the Department to investigate allegations of wrong doing (we should know - we have Barb West's illegal First Amendment investigation of this blog in our possession). For the BGA to wander into these waters has a decidedly chilling effect on things.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Responsibility (UPDATE)
Big chase up north:
- At least one person was in custody in connection with an armed robbery following a pursuit by Chicago that began in one Northwest Side police district and ended in another Tuesday evening.
- The pursuit began after a robbery in the 6300 block of West Diversey Avenue Tuesday evening, and included at least one crash involving two police vehicles, said Chicago Police News Affairs [...].
- The chase began after 6 p.m. in the Grand Central District and ended a while later in the Jefferson Park District, police said.
Evidently, there was at least one termination order given, then countermanded by 1600X at least twice. This set off a lively discussion in our comment section, some of it flat out wrong. First up, if you've been involved in a pursuit lately, you'd notice a box at the bottom of the Pursuit Form for the exempt member re-authorizing the chase. Although rare, it has happened on occasions, the rare part being because a gold star is seldom close enough to make that sort of call on the fly. In this case, it appears 1600X was actually involved, so no problem there.
The only problem we see is the accident(s) during the chase. Any traffic crash is supposed to be an automatic termination. Period. There isn't much wiggle room in the order for that:
- GO03-03-01 III-C The continuation of a motor vehicle is prohibited whenever:
1.a pursued vehicle or pursuing Department vehicle is involved in any traffic crash in which there is a probability of personal injury.
NOTE: This isn't second guessing. This is the pointing out that a directive directly applicable to the situation at hand is available. How the Department handles it is another matter completely.
UPDATE: Word is there were kids were in the car. Given the history of the offender, kidnapping was a distinct possibility. Regardless of personal feelings about the XO and her history, reauthorizing the pursuit seems to be the correct call. These are split-second decisions people and the XO carries the entirely of this one...at least on paper. In front of the Traffic Review Board is a different story.
More Mentals
Besides Rahm's cuts to mental health clinics, you can lay this one at the feet of former aldercreature Helen Schiller for welcoming every halfway house and mental disorder storage facility into her ward for years upon years:
- It’s dangerous being a hands-on Chicago alderman who walks the streets of his ward and is not afraid to get his hands dirty. Rookie Ald. James Cappleman (46th) is living proof.
- Two months after being shoved and pelted with bread crumbs by an Uptown woman known as the “Pigeon Lady,” Cappleman is pressing charges once again — this time against a woman he claims ran after him with a knife.
- It happened at 6 p.m. last Friday at Broadway and Montrose. He said he was calling police after he saw the woman sitting on the sidewalk drinking a can of beer when she came after him. He said he didn’t see the knife, but he had no doubt his life was in danger.
- “She reached into her blouse and was chasing me. . . . Two witnesses told me, ‘She has a knife. You’d better run’ — and I did,” he said. “What went through my mind was, ‘I don’t want to get stabbed and killed over some stupid thing like this, over someone drinking in the public way. That’s not the way I want to die.’ ”
Gee aldercreature, people have died for a lot less.
But it kind of makes you wish you were allowed to carry a gun, doesn't it? Oh wait, you are authorized to carry a firearm by ordinance. You just choose not to. Not the sharpest pencils over there in the 46th Ward evidently.
Teachers Set to Go
Rahm is going to look bad:
- The Chicago Teachers Union filed a 10-day strike notice on Wednesday in an attempt to put additional pressure on Chicago Public Schools negotiators in ongoing contract talks.
At a packed news conference Wednesday, CTU president Karen Lewis accused CPS leaders and the mayor of engaging in a "smear campaign" against teachers, raising the possibility for the city's first teachers' strike in 25 years.
"It has been insult after insult after insult. Enough is enough," Lewis said.
Officer Shot in Knee
Channel 5 News:
- A Chicago Police was shot Wednesday night on the Far South Side.
- It happened shortly after 8 p.m. near 112th Street and Racine Avenue. The officer was shot in the knee and was reported in stable condition.
- FOP president Pat Camden said the bullet went right through his knee.
- One suspects accused of shooting the officer was also shot and was reported in serious condition. Another suspect is at large.
Clue for the Media
See if you can follow this:
- Bank robberies are UP - these are reported to the FBI. Lying to the FBI is a very big no-no. People go to prison for this;
- Auto Thefts are UP - Insurance companies report to stock holders and won't pay out without quite a bit of paperwork;
- Shootings are UP - the Tribune, either by accident or by design, published the actual number of shootings as compared to last year;
- Murders are UP - it is extremely difficult to hide a dead body, Drew Peterson aside.
We can't locate the Arson numbers at the moment, but it was UP earlier in the year. No idea if it leveled off or dropped at the moment.
Now, you can prove that these crimes are UP, but you want to believe everything else is down? Not just down, but down by 9% to 15% according to Rahm and McNumbers? Go read the CompStat book we've touted here a few times. Go look at the Milwaukee PD that is in all sorts of hot water for downgrading assaults, batteries and other crimes. Go look at any other metropolitan police force that is using the CompStat method of counting crime
We're leading you to the water here, but you're still drinking the Kool-Aid. Wake up.
Worth 1,000 Words
What does this picture say?
It shows McTool in the background while his boss speaks.
Now what does the picture say when it's posted with this headline and paragraph?
It shows McTool in the background while his boss speaks.Now what does the picture say when it's posted with this headline and paragraph?
- Cops treading water? Emanuel says no
Mayor Rahm Emanuel tried Monday to skin back — or at least clarify — Police Supt. Garry McCarthy’s claim that Chicago Police are “treading water” in the fight against violence after another weekend bloodbath on Chicago streets.
“I talked to Garry about that. That’s not [what he meant]. What he was talking about is a particular area at a particular point. Overall . . . crime is down 9-to-10 percent.
The picture has a tiny little caption saying it was taken back in July, but Fran Spielman does her dirty work for Rahm well. Our initial take just based on the article is that Rahm is removing McJersey's testicles and waving them around for everyone to see. Add the picture and the public castration takes on even more significance.
And in case anyone missed it, Rahm is now directly involved in deciding police policy:
- After another violent weekend with a concentration of shootings in a single South Side neighborhood, Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Monday said he wants to bring a police crackdown to Greater Grand Crossing.
Nine people were killed and 32 wounded last weekend in Chicago. A third of the homicides and roughly 40 percent of the shootings were in that one neighborhood.
"We now have to deal with what's happening in Grand Crossing over the weekend," Emanuel said at an unrelated news conference.
Emanuel wants a crackdown that involves saturating roughly 16-square-block areas with police, eliminating corner drug markets and having officers stay there to maintain the peace. The mayor has credited the approach with reducing homicides in two of the city's most dangerous areas.
So why even conduct a "nationwide" search for a superintendent, spend months touting his crime fighting skills, publicly and pointedly demonstrate full support for his gutting the specialized units to fulfill your lie about "1,000 more cops on the street" and then turn around and end up personally directing the police to "saturate" a few square miles of an out-of-control populace with what's left of a gutted department? If Rahm is taking the wheel, McLastDays is probably being eased out of the loop.
Why even have a superintendent at all?
More Numbers
We posted most of an e-mail yesterday that pointed out that after all the manpower, teams, operations, and resources poured into the Harrison (Fillmore) District, their homicide totals from 2011 (year-to-date) were exactly the same as 2012 (year-to-date) - 29 dead.
Now, a helpful soul has done the same for Englewood:
Now, a helpful soul has done the same for Englewood:
- Through 26 August 12, 007 had 30 murders for 2012 versus 41 in 2011 which equates to a 27% decrease, however, 007 also had 185 shootings during this same time frame versus 178 in 2011 for a 4% increase.
In a nut shell, through 26 August 12, 007 has had 5 less people with holes in them than they did in 2011 through 26 August 12.
So, they are pretty much even with last year like 011 even with throwing all the extra manpower into these districts.
We think the math is off slightly, but the number of people with extra holes is 215 (2012) versus 219 (2011). Four less. So Rahm and Garry are touting a 35% "decrease" to what might be bad aim and medical advances.
We would point out that 007 has received at least as much attention as 011 and the end result is an under 1% improvement in the total numbers.
But "Crime is Down!! Crime is Down!!"
Bernstein Announces Promo Exam
Who is tipping this guy off?
But Rahm is finding another few million dollars from Chicago's broke ass in order to set the next generation of "merit-clout-orious" promotions on their career paths.
- You should know that the City of Chicago is currently planning to give a sergeants exam in 2013. If you are going to be taking the 2013 police sergeant or future police lieutenant promotional exams, the attached information will be important to you. If not, please forward it to someone you think might benefit.
In order to prepare police officers for the new promotional exams, Bernstein & Associates will be offering a series of classes. The feedback from our students on our promotional review has been extremely positive. Bernstein students have had some of the highest scores! Picking the right class for the new test is an important decision. You want to go with a proven winner.
But Rahm is finding another few million dollars from Chicago's broke ass in order to set the next generation of "merit-clout-orious" promotions on their career paths.
To the Unpublished Morons
Every so often, we get a particularly annoying set of trolls who come in here and spout their racist, sexist, antigun, liberal fantasies and expect to get a platform here. Usually, we delete them without comment, but a couple stand out today:
- To the anti gun nut who says the only people signing up for the course offered to our readers are "gun fanatics like you SCC," why would you be against anyone, especially cops, becoming more adept at their jobs and the weapon they carry? You're the one constantly bitching about how untrained citizens shouldn't be armed. Here's training. Now what Asshat?
- And to the other cretin who claimed they'd never take a course offered by a woman - this lady (with McDonald) took Richie Daley, the City of Chicago and the entire anti-gun lobby all the way to the United States Supreme Court.....and won. What have you done lately?
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Are You Fucking Kidding Us?
Really? This is a serious "What the fuck" moment:
- Kelly Davis wonders what would have happened had he been looking the other way for just a few moments.
He was standing in Daley Plaza, watching his 2-year-old and 4-year-old daughters slide down the Picasso sculpture, when he saw a man rushing toward Myla, the youngest girl, Saturday evening.
The man grabbed the girl's arm, muttering "This is my daughter, Goldilocks," but Davis said he wrestled him away and then chased him through alleys and building lobbies before finally flagging down police.
What? Saturday evening? And it's now Tuesday at 1530 hours when this story hits the Tribune Breaking News site? Almost seventy-two hours and this is "breaking news." Honest to pete, we though we were having iPhone issues when the news alert button chimed. How the hell was this kept quiet?
- "I have no doubt that if I had my back turned, he would have grabbed her and she would have been gone in the city and I would have never seen her again," said Davis, 31, who lives in Zion and drives a school bus.
Oh, a tourist. We have not a doubt in the world that Rahm and Rahm's people made a shitload of calls to the media and demanded they sit on this. Can you imagine the headlines?
- Suburban Child Kidnapped
- Chicago Unsafe for Tourists
- Rahm Cuts Mental Health Budget; Delusional Maniacs Run Rampant
Does anyone have any idea how many calls must have been made and how many people told to keep their mouths shut about this one for it to languish for nearly three fucking days?
Chicago comes off looking insanely (pun intended) bad on this:
- As Davis struggled with the man, their mother Amanda Green grabbed the girls away. "I used myself as a barricade and I told him if he takes another step toward me or my kids, I will beat the ever living (expletive) out of him," Davis said.
The man finally stepped down and began walking away, but Davis said he followed him. "We went through a maze of buildings and streets, he’s looping around. . .Sometimes he’s running, sometimes he’s walking, and I was trying not to lose him," Davis said.
The chase even went through the Chase Bank building. "At the desk, I told them my name and a his description." Around LaSalle and Washington streets, Davis said he spotted police officers and alerted them and the man was arrested.
Green said she was frantic after Davis ran off. "I was standing there, there are no cops coming, I have two very upset children and my boyfriend just took off with some crazy man and I’m standing by myself in the middle of Chicago."
Two-hundred extra police downtown and none around Daley Plaza? Probably all keeping an eye on the wilding crowd.
Journalism is dead in this burg. No way any old time reporter lets this sit for three days. You can't tell us that no one, on a Saturday night, wasn't tipping off someone somewhere about this one. We just don't believe it.
Wake up Chicago. You are being kept in the dark by a bought-and-paid-for media while politicians rifle through your pockets and turn out your socks for the spare change. They are in it together and you (or suburban tourists) are paying the price.
Rahm Contradicts McBorrowedTime
The end game continues:
- Mayor Rahm Emanuel tried Monday to skin back — or at least clarify — Police Supt. Garry McCarthy’s claim that Chicago Police are “treading water” in the fight against violence after another weekend bloodbath on Chicago streets.
- “I talked to Garry about that. That’s not [what he meant]. What he was talking about is a particular area at a particular point. Overall . . . crime is down 9-to-10 percent. That doesn’t just come your way. You have to go work for it,” the mayor said.
- “Where we have tried new tactics — like in Englewood where you see a 25 percent drop in homicides — how do we take that to other places? In the [Grand Crossing] district, we saw we had a problem, put [in] new leadership [and] we’ve seen a dramatic change in just the last three weeks . . . We have to now deal with what’s happened in Grand Crossing over the weekend — and we will do that.”
Rahm doesn't have people walking back what McFigureHead said - Rahm walks it back himself. What does that show besides a micro-manager desperate to stop the hemorrhaging (both literally and figuratively) that is destroying his political legacy before his eyes.
- At least nine people were hurt in six separate shootings across the city in an evening that included three double shootings, police said.
And the Tribune inadvertently exposes McCarthy's lies from yesterday:
- Through Monday, the city had 1,648 shootings, 152 more than the same time last year, according to preliminary police statistics. The city also had 52 homicides for August, 17 more than all of August 2011.
But yesterday, shootings were down (but only in select communities - don't read the fine print).
NEWSFLASH MEDIA MORONS: Shootings aren't being prevented - they are being pushed from one area to another. We have no police to "hold" a neighborhood, so the jagoffs go down the block or around the corner to do their business....but never the alley for some reason.
The media types are being led around by the nose.
Smell the Desperation
It reeks. In fact, it reeks so bad, McNumbers is resorting to lies:
- It’s another Monday morning after another weekend of violence in Chicago, but this morning, a situation that appeared to be getting better is only getting worse.
"appeared to be getting better"? From what angle? Homicides are up across the city, over 28 to 30% depending on which day of the week it is and what the butcher's bill is for the weekend.
- “The fact is that we still have unacceptable level of violence here. We’re struggling in the month of August,” he said.
- During an interview on the CBS 2 Morning News, McCarthy said – up until August – shootings in Chicago were down for four straight months.
- “We compare month to month. So, last August we had basically the best August in the city in 30 years. The numbers were unbelievably low, but that’s not an excuse,” McCarthy said.
Shootings were down? Is this guy fucking kidding? Which version of the numbers is he using? The number of "incidents?" Or the number of people with extra holes in their bodies. Because if he's using the first measure, incidents might be down, but under the second count, we certainly can't recall so many incidents of multiple casualty incidents since the late 1990's. Three, four, five ambulances are being called to scenes with astonishing regularity.
And then hanging his hat on this?
- McCarthy said, despite the weekend violence that left nine dead, officers were able to diffuse a potentially dangerous situation near Michigan Avenue.
- McCarthy told CBS 2 this morning that about 20 teens were running through a crowd Saturday night, pushing people and then darting into traffic. Officers quickly responded before anyone was hurt.
Twenty captured out of over 200, maybe 300 depending on which version you believe. Our best estimate was over 200 and that's on scene eyeballs.
But this is the real laugher:
- McCarthy said, with added patrol officers in the Englewood and West Lawndale neighborhoods, things have started changing around. The murder rate in those areas is down 35 percent this year.
Really? Well let's just open up the SCC mailbag and see what pops out:
- SCC,
You're going to love this. In 011, there is a running tally of homicides this year as compared to last year on a board in the hallway. In 2011, through today's date, 011 had 29 homicides. Not many compared to historical highs, but enough to keep Fillmore in the running for the title this year.
In 2012, McCarthy and Rahm have supposedly sent 011 hundreds of extra bodies, teams, cars, sweeps, buy/busts, reverse stings, you name it, 011 gets it (unless it's Time Due.) Guess what the homicide total is today with all the extra help?
29. Exactly the same. How you like Chalkie now?
Shooting Course Bargain
A friend of ours and instrumental plaintiff in the McDonald v Chicago lawsuit, Colleen Lawson is offering our readers a specially priced shooting course:
- As a certified Mag range instructor, I hereby offer Massad Ayoob's Mag-20 range course next weekend, to any interested LEO, at a full $100 less than normal, and if they'd like to qualify with their back-ups in addition to their duty weapons, that will be okay too. The entire class will be set aside for LEO exclusively that weekend.
I know next weekend won't work for all, but I hope the dates of Sept 1-2 will work for some - it's a 20 hour course and there are NO other 20 hour weekends available till next year -- I checked. It will be held at Article II in Lombard, which I've chosen since it's the only indoor range suited to the Mag-20. In a conversation with a couple of officers this morning regarding the Empire State shooting today, I decided to shuffle previously scheduled classes and offer the weekend to any interested CPD.
What is the Mag-20? The MAG-20 Range Course was formerly known as the StressFire Course of Massad Ayoob’s Lethal Force Institute. After interviewing hundreds of officers who had survived gunfights, Ayoob drew on their experiences, combined with his own decades long research, and created a powerful combat handgun system, initially known as the StressFire shooting method. Ayoob's research showed that in life threatening situations, human beings experience profound physical and psychological pressures causing deterioration of fine motor skills, and altering perceptions of time and other sensory inputs. Combining proven shooting techniques with principles from various martial arts styles, StressFire is a system that not only works under the enormous stress of violent encounters but actually feeds off it.
In short, Massad Ayoob's MAG-20 Range Course is an eye-opening, two day program designed to bring out the officer's maximum potential for shooting a handgun under stress and to achieve the optimum blend of speed and accuracy while maintaining the highest control possible in concert with what's been learned through a focused study of combat psychology and physiology.
Students will learn drawing from concealment, two-handed shooting stances, one-handed shooting with either hand, shooting from positions that work from behind cover, speed reloading and more with overall emphasis on fast, accurate shot placement. Training includes completion of a police-style qualification and entails an expenditure of approximately 500 rounds during training. While the qualifying student's comes away with a frame-worthy certificate, his body comes away with actions and reactions honed to life-saving response.
For those officers requesting it, I'm fine with a payment plan, rather than turn down any officer who'd like learn to be that much safer while sharpening his or her skills.
I'll be updating my website overnight to reflect the class changes, but interested individuals can just call to register, as my firearm skills beat my WordPress skills by a mile!
The number is 773-234-5053, but I'll attach a business card to this email as well. Hope this strikes you as a good way of saying thanks: the mag-20 is the best I have, out of a roster of 9 classes from greenest beginner to well-seasoned shot.
Stay safe, SCC
~ Colleen Lawson
9 Dead; 28 Wounded
That's 37 shot:
- The city saw another bloody weekend as nine people — including a teenager — were killed and 28 others were wounded in separate shootings since Friday evening.
But don't worry!
- Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy on Saturday defended the department’s anti-violence strategy, which he believes is taking root.“We’re not winning, we’re not losing. We’re basically treading water,” McCarthy said. He said that in the month of August, “we had some trouble because some of these retaliatory shootings are happening quicker than we can stop them.”
Aldercreature Dissed
This is hilarious:
- Fighting crime is not so simple, and that’s something CBS 2 cameras saw first-hand on Monday, when visiting the scene of one of this past weekend’s shootings.
- [...] Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th) joined [CBS personnel] in visiting the 7800 block of South Champlain Avenue on Monday, three days after Clayton was shot in a drive-by. Immediately, they were met with hostility.
- “It ain’t y’all’s business,” one man said.
- Sawyer attempted to talk to two young men on the block about what he could do to help the community. One of the two men claimed to be the brother of the victim. The young men cursed Sawyer and called him the “N” word.
- Asked what the young men’s reaction said to him, Sawyer said, “Generation lost. I don’t know, I really wish I could say. … All I’m trying to do is help, and I’m getting a roadblock. I’m trying to help. I want to help.”
Monday, August 27, 2012
Could You Describe the Ruckus, Sir?
Still one of the funnier movie lines to come out of the 1980's. Now the media uses "ruckus" to describe Michigan Avenue wildings:
- About 20 juveniles and four adults were arrested after police responded to reports of people being pushed in the Gold Coast Saturday.
- The disturbances occurred at 5:40 p.m. at West Chicago Avenue and North State Street, police News Affairs Officer Laura Kubiak said.
- About 20 juveniles and four adults were charged with reckless conduct.
- No further details were immediately available.
"Pushing."
And not a single description of the offenders.
And not a whisper of a mention that there were something like a few hundred assholes running around smacking tourists and passers-by on what is arguably among the top 3 draws for out-of-town visitors.
300 Arrests; 100 Guns
McNumbers is playing this one for all it's worth:
- Chicago police busted street drug sales operations in 10 district across the city over a three-day period ending Saturday, police superintendent Garry McCarthy announced Sunday.
- Police arrested over 300 people and confiscated more than 100 weapons.
- Of those arrested who have been identified, 99 percent were gang members, McCarthy said.
- “Efforts such as this are part and parcel of our broader violence reduction strategy,” McCarthy said.
- “Looking at the guns recovered and keeping in mind that this is just a snapshot of the number of guns Chicago police take off the streets daily, it’s clear these efforts are paying dividends but work remains to be done.”
All this effort and we still have around 40 shot and 7 dead, mostly where the police weren't.
If these 100 guns were actually seized in three days, and the seizures were from people who are currently ineligible to have guns, then well done. But we seem to recall numerous incidents from years past where legally owned guns were taken by certain units and paraded about as "seized" weapons. We also remember guns being taken out of E&RPS that had been taken weeks, even months prior and passed off on photo ops with Shortshanks as the product of recent busts.
We were wondering though - how does this sudden influx of 300 arrests, mostly for dope, jibe with Cook County Board President Preckwinkle's recent assertion that Ronald Reagan deserves a special place in hell for his efforts to enforce drug laws while incarcerating lawbreakers of minority descent? After all, aren't these 300 arrests just an extension of Reagan's War on Drugs begun back in the 1980's?
Creative Math
Another amazingly flexible statistic:
- Wow, is it true that shootings are down four months running as GMAC stated? Yet Homicides are still up?
Is the aim of these honor students becoming more true?
Perhaps an EMS and trauma center drop in performance as a result of Obamacare?
Or maybe just some more creative crime accounting by the east coast abacus?
Is this another incident of "less shootings" because they are counting each incident as one and not the number of casualties from each? In other words, the wounding of eight the other night on 79th Street, the wounding of four in Little Village and the single guy catching a bullet in 017 are classified as "three shootings" even though there were thirteen bodies with extra holes in them.
It's just a different way of counting.
Medical Abuse Coverage
According to various comments, Channel 2 is gearing up for a special report regarding people on the Medical Roll doing all sorts of things they shouldn't be doing. Again, expect this to be part of Contract negotiations as Rahm uses the few to punish the many.
We're still waiting for the Special Reports regarding LINK fraud, SS fraud, free cell phone fraud, utility bill fraud, etc. Those must have been pushed back. Again. Fraud is fraud is fraud, no matter how you slice it.
We're still waiting for the Special Reports regarding LINK fraud, SS fraud, free cell phone fraud, utility bill fraud, etc. Those must have been pushed back. Again. Fraud is fraud is fraud, no matter how you slice it.
PayFlex Change
From the comments:
- OT, SCC, but not sure how much people may be paying attention to things happening at the national level that affect us here in Chicago.
Per IRS guidelines, and as a result of "healthcare reform," the amount that can be saved in your FSA/HSA (for CPD, that's Payflex) account is being reduced to $2500 per year as of January 1. Might make a difference to those who contribute more than that to cover expenses for a large family or for a family member who has a chronic illness.
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