FOP Finds (tiny) Courage

Along with various media outlets finding their testicles/ovaries, the FOP seems to have located some marbles recently:

• The head of the Chicago police union doubled down on his criticism of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx during a speech Tuesday, once again showcasing the frayed relationship between some police officers and the top prosecutor’s office.
  
  Several weeks after calling for Foxx’s resignation over the Jussie Smollett scandal, Kevin Graham, president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, renewed his complaints during an address at an event held by the City Club of Chicago.

And they're also confronting LightGroot over the two-year-expired Contract:

• Fraternal Order of Police President Kevin Graham on Tuesday urged Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot to start negotiating the new police contract that Rahm Emanuel punted, but slammed the door on disciplinary changes outlined in the federal consent decree.
  
  Lightfoot co-chaired the Task Force on Police Accountability that demanded changes to a police contract that, it claimed, “codifies the code of silence” that Emanuel famously acknowledged exists at the Chicago Police Department.
  
  The City Council’s Black Caucus has threatened to hold up ratification of any police contract that continues to make it “easy for officers to lie” by giving them 24 hours before providing a statement after a shooting and includes “impediments to accountability” that prohibit anonymous complaints, allow officers to change statements after reviewing video and requires sworn affidavits.

Enough with this "codifies" bullshit. Graham, we're talking to you. Next time this comes up, demand that the questioner cite the exact Contract section that "codifies" anything resembling a "code of silence." Chapter and verse.

Then point out that each and every Contract, since the beginning of the FOP, has been ratified by the City Council and that during the debate portion of the hearings, each and every alderasshole was obligated by their Oath of Office to question and object to that "codified" provision of the Contract (which doesn't exist).

Good to see that Graham pointed out this:

• Graham was equally adamant about retaining — and maybe even increasing — the 24-hour waiting period before statements are given after a police shooting.
  
  “Why should federal agents have 72 hours and we only have 24?” he said.

Props for that jab. Now keep hitting them, over and over and over.

Of Course She Does

Guess who doesn't want a Special Prosecutor looking too closely at her office?

• Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office opposes appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the dismissal of charges against “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett.
  
  Foxx had recused herself from the case after saying she communicated with a relative of Smollett’s in the early phases of the investigation but a filing by prosecutors Tuesday argued that Foxx did not have an actual conflict of interest.
  
  Prosecutors also echoed Smollett’s attorneys in arguing that the appointment is unnecessary, since the county inspector general’s office — at Foxx’s request — is already investigating the controversy.
  
  Foxx’s office also sought to quash subpoenas seeking her appearance at a hearing Thursday on the proposed appointment.

Transparency and Accountability? That's for other people, not Crimesha.

Did Lori Really Say This?

What are regular taxpayers supposed to think of this?

• “The city should have been better prepared for spring break, to make sure that kids who can’t afford to go off to Florida for the week actually have something productive to do,” she said. “Obviously I don’t think anybody anticipated that this was something that was trending on Facebook, there were going to be hundreds of kids gathering in the downtown area, but that’s why you need to be prepared to have a plan.”

We don't recall going to Spring Break until well into college. These weren't college kids wilding downtown. These were juveniles, none of which should have any expectation of going to Spring Break for a few years yet.

So Lori wants businesses and taxpayers to foot the bill for a trip to Disney World? It might be a better idea than Dahleen Glanton had in the Tribune the other week:

• Summer is approaching, and Chicago is facing the same problem it has year after year. Black kids are hopping on the Red Line and coming downtown. The notion that there is something inherently wrong with young people wanting to hang out in the city is absurd. But what happens to these African-American kids once they get here is shameful. They are either shackled and arrested or thrown back onto trains heading south.
  
  [...] But think about it for a moment. If black kids can’t go downtown, where are they supposed to go for fun?
  
  [...] So, we have two obvious choices: We can continue to exhaust limited police resources following kids around on horseback and hauling them in for childish behavior like jumping a Chicago Transit Authority turnstile, misdemeanor reckless conduct or “disorderly mob action,” whatever that means. Or, we can invest in neighborhood recreational centers and community-based programs designed to keep teenagers actively engaged and off the streets.
  
  Or there’s a third option. The next time 500 African-American kids decide to congregate downtown, why not greet them with a summer jobs fair?

Wow.

Retirees at St. Jude's March

As before, here are directions for the retiree contingent that marches with us every May (click for larger version):

05 May. See you there.

Vacate Convictions?

This sounds familiar, right up to the point a Court said "No:"

• City judges have thrown out the requests from Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby to erase convictions in nearly 5,000 cases of marijuana possession.
  
  The decisions Friday by Circuit Judge W. Michel Pierson and District Judge Kathleen Sweeney strike down one of the boldest and most progressive moves of Mosby’s administration. In an email Monday, Mosby said she was deeply disappointed.

Another Soros-funded State's Attorney is trying to do this exact same thing somewhere....if she wasn't busy answering subpoenas and trying to stifle a Special Prosecutor looking into political malfeasance.

Stop Being Criminals!

The first of many "initiatives" to fight crime under Lori's administration:

• Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot on Monday convened the first of two days of meetings with city, county and federal law enforcement officials to hammer out details of their joint plan to combat the traditional surge in summer violence.
  
  The first meeting was scheduled to take place at Chicago Police headquarters at 35th Street and South Michigan Avenue. It includes Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and U.S. Attorney John Lausch.

Whoops! Spotted your problem. Right there in the second paragraph:

• ....State’s Attorney Kim Foxx....

She's the Weakest Link - too many people not being prosecuted properly means they're out on the street instead of sitting in Dart's jail awaiting transport to prison.

Of course, the other three aren't exactly lighting the world on fire with the jobs they've been doing. Special Ed is (still) covering up corruption, playing politics with promotional processes and pretty much a failure. Dart is Dart and part of the Prickwrinkle Machine. Lausch is making some waves indicting aldercreatures, but is essentially untested at this point.

But including Foxxx in anything crime-related is an invitation to failure.

Updates on Future Changes

You'd think a new mayor was coming in or something with all the moves underway. As predicted though, Special Ed was pissed that the scheduled changes made it here before he got a chance to make them. Sorry (not sorry) about that. Our spies are buried deep in HQ's business and have been for years.

• Valadez couldn’t pass the vetting so they had to dig deep into the non-existant decimated Hispanic upper ranks to replace Noel Sanchez.
• Look for one more Commander (Joyce to A/F) and 2 more Captains from the current Captains-in-Training list to be made
• Saldana dropped his resignation today, so Roman is being shifted from 019 to 014.

Expect more "adjustments" as Special Ed doesn't want his moves protecting/advancing his people to be undone by LightGroot taking over and putting her people in places.

Springfield Follies

The new socialists continue to propose insanity in the State Capitol. This one is brought to out attention by a regular reader:

• Please take two minutes to fill out a witness slip OPPOSING HB1115.
  
  There is a currently a bill in the Illinois Senate that proposes to prevent the Department of Corrections from using Electronic Monitoring (aka house arrest) to monitor felons after they get out of prison or jail on parole. Right now, the Department of Corrections can determine if someone needs to be monitored through the parole board. If passed, the bill would take away the option. The state is trying to offer “freedom and support” to people who have been a constant in the criminal system..... People who get out on early release will not be monitored. Keeping them in prison forever is not always a option, so we need some monitoring to be done to these criminals. Would we rather have EM? Or nothing at all to high profile criminals.
  
  There is a hearing on the bill on Wednesday in Springfield. Please go to the link below and fill out the witness slip and mark yourself as an OPPONENT of the bill. This will let the Committee know that the community opposes this.
  
  http://www.ilga.gov/senate/committees/hearing.asp?CommitteeID=2342&GA=101

Elected officials are attempting to remove even that tiny little protection at the State level for tracking early release felons.

Use the link provided to make your voice heard.

Another Crimesha Scandal?

This is from a couple of days ago:

• A jailhouse informant who got a sweetheart deal to testify against a former cellmate charged with killing 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee in an infamous gang revenge shooting isn’t reliable enough to take the witness stand at the trial scheduled for this fall, a Cook County judge ruled Thursday.
  
  The deal obtained by the informant — a five-year sentence on a reduced aggravated battery charge — led to his release on parole in January, but now he won’t have to testify after all at the trial of Dwright Doty.

Nice deal - reduced sentence for testimony too shady to be given. How the Hell did that happen?

• The turn of events came after the informant backtracked on a key detail while testifying at a hearing Thursday, prompting Judge Thaddeus Wilson to question his credibility and bar him from testifying for the prosecution at Doty’s trial.
  
  The informant originally told authorities that Doty confessed to him in graphic detail in 2017 about Tyshawn’s slaying and the separate killing of 19-year-old Brianna Jenkins.
  
  [...] But when he took the stand at Thursday’s hearing, the informant testified he never actually heard Doty say anything about Jenkins’ murder. When he signed the plea agreement indicating otherwise, the informant said, it “must have been a mistake.”

So this asshole gets a great deal on an Aggravated Battery charge and the case against an even bigger asshole who shot a nine-year-old in the face over a dispute with the dead boy's sperm donor just got that much more difficult to win.

Hey Crimesha? These jagoffs are the ones that you might actually want to keep in prison for maximum sentences.

Good News

The proper decision reached:

• A man who fatally shot a would-be carjacker in the Loop has been cleared through investigation and will not be charged with a crime, Chicago police said Sunday morning.
  
  In a shooting around 3:15 a.m. on Friday, a 41-year-old concealed carry license holder drew his own weapon after being confronted with a gun near the intersection of State Street and Ida B. Wells Drive, police said. He was in his 2015 BMW when he was rear-ended by a 22-year-old man in a 2019 Volkswagen, according to officials.
  
  When the man in the BMW got out to check the damage to his vehicle, police have said, the other driver pulled a weapon, announced a carjacking, demanded the man’s keys and shoved the man into the BMW, where he was able to retrieve his own gun from an area on the passenger side of the car and fatally shoot the man in the head.

A couple of questions:

• Did he get his gun back yet?
• Did someone slip him a round to replace what he expended?
• When is the parade?

The grateful thanks of many thousands of taxpayers to the involved citizen.

Great Editorial

This is one of the best take-downs of Crimesha's disastrous tenure in office:

• The Cook County state’s attorney’s office is a mess. In fact, it is the very mess that voters might have anticipated in 2016 when then-candidate Kim Foxx’s credentials and ethics were challenged.
  
  During the campaign, she inflated her felony trial experience and sidestepped questions about her once-lapsed law license. And since taking office she has not cited conflicts of interest in large personal injury cases brought against the county by the same law firm that paid her consulting fees and whose partners contributed tens of thousands of dollars to her campaign.
  
  Up to now, the issue of her credentials has been largely dismissed in the face of her rising celebrity. Today, however, it is clear that a discussion of Foxx’s qualifications was important. Her inexperience, poor judgment and misaligned sense of ethics — not her race — have led to the state of mistrust we endure today.
  
  The core problem is that the state’s attorney’s office is being managed — or mismanaged — by a politician who touts reform but lacks the competence and professional legal judgment to manage a highly complex prosecutor’s office. More alarming, it appears she is unable to balance the scales of justice to ensure that the system serves the community at large.

Go read the entire editorial from a former ASA. The election of Foxxx served to illustrate one thing above all others:

• the complete abdication of media's responsibility to keep voters informed

That is probably what is driving part of the media's anti-Toni/Crimesha narratives of late. The media chose a side, not unlike what they did at the national level, and lost sight of what made them valuable to the voters/consumers. The dead-tree media is shriveling up and the electronic media is so beholden to corporate interests, they've forgotten how to actually investigate incompetence on the part of politicians, directly affecting the Rise of the Blogs (witness CWB for starters). And the Burke indictment (along with numerous aldercreatures), coming so close to an election, really brought the simmering voter disgust with the process to a boil.

Fundraiser

Scheduled for a week from Wednesday:

(comments closed here)

Contract Settled!

Thank goodness. It's been.....what? We're writing a blog here!

::::whisper whisper::::

You have got to be shitting us??

• For the past seven weeks, the musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra have been on strike over two issues above all: salary and pension.
  
  The musicians voted unanimously Saturday afternoon to ratify a contract settling those matters, following negotiations Friday with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association in Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office. The CSOA board, which manages the institution, was scheduled to vote on the new five-year contract agreement Saturday evening.
  
  Regarding salary, the contract calls for an increase of 2 percent during the first two years of the contract, 2.5 percent the third year, 3.25 percent the fourth year and 3.5 percent the fifth. The contact would be retroactive to September 2018.

On 30 June, Chicago Police Officers and Detectives will have been without a Contract for two years.

That same day, Sergeants, Lieutenants and Captains will have been without a Contract for three years.

And there's Rahm, helping "settle" a contract in mere days.

Maybe we need the Pipe and Drums to negotiate to get this asshole's attention?

Fire Rescue

Fire on the north side:

• Two women were injured, including an 84-year-old who suffered burns to more than 70 percent of her body, when a fire broke out Saturday afternoon at a Lakeview East neighborhood high-rise.
  
  Also among the injured and first to the scene were two Chicago police officers who rushed into the smoke-filled building at 3318 N. Lake Shore Drive, banged on doors and helped the women get out, said 19th District police Cmdr. Marc Buslik.
  
  The blaze started about noon in the elderly woman’s fifth-floor apartment.

They also alerted other residents to self evacuate. A valiant effort under trying circumstances. Well done Officers.

Crimesha Subpoenaed

Prickwrinkle, are you paying attention? Your handpicked States Attorney is dragging your Machine down:

• Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx has been subpoenaed to appear in court as a lawyer seeks the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate Foxx’s handling of the Jussie Smollett case.
  
  Retired appellate judge Sheila O’Brien, who filed the petition for a special prosecutor, also filed a subpoena for Foxx’s top deputy, Joseph Magats, and another document requesting Jussie Smollett appear at the hearing.
  
  O’Brien requested Foxx, Magats and Smollett produce the original documents in the “Empire” actor’s criminal case to “assure” the public “that they have not been altered or destroyed and will not be destroyed throughout this case,” court documents show.

Sneed also has a piece about how Smell-it's past "charity work" is nothing but a scam. It's amusing that she's piling on the "bash Crimesha/Smell-it" bandwagon and using Dart's spokespeople to undermine Prickwrinkle's Machine.

No Bail?

Will wonders never cease?

• A 25-year-old man previously convicted of battering a police officer has been denied bail on charges he fired a gun multiple times at an unoccupied police cruise earlier this week in Montclare.
  
  Joshua Carrasquillo faces felony counts of aggravated battery to a peace officer, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon and reckless discharge of a firearm in the incident, which Cook County prosecutors said happened across the street from the oil change station where he works when he appeared for a hearing Saturday at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

He surrendered peacefully, right?

• When officers showed an hour later up at Carrasquillo’s home in the 2700 block of North Neva they found him still wearing the uniform, prosecutors said. Carrasquillo “became belligerent” when the officers tried to take him into custody and kicked one officer twice in the groin and spit on him. Carrasquillo kicked another in the face and twisted a third officer’s arm. He was taken into custody after the scuffle, and a gun was found in his back pocket, prosecutors said.
  
  Later, Carrasquillo bit a fourth officer in the thigh as he was being moved into a cell at the Grand Central District police station at 5555 W. Grand, authorities said.
  
  Prosecutors noted that Carrasquillo has a pair of felony convictions, including a 2015 conviction for aggravated battery to a peace officer for which he was sentenced to three years in prison.

Gee, a felon with a gun in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois.

Must be a day ending with a "y."

Hey Investigative Reporters?

Since you seem to have found your testicles, here's another freebie:

• Speaking of the county and it’s “budget”, a few of us had Juvy court today and the washrooms there are absolutely disgusting. They haven’t been cleaned in months. How do I know . . . because the same hershey squirts were on the floor that were there a month and a half ago when we were there for the same case and the fungus in the urinals has grown even bigger. They reek of piss and the yellow “wet floor” sign that’s stuck to the floor isn’t there because they recently mopped it but because of the copious amounts of urine on every surface! I’m betting the judge’s restrooms sparkle.

These are public areas. You can sneak a camera in and get some undercover pictures, you know, like real reporters.

Big Shakeups

All sorts of rumors erupting out of HQ:

• Mel Roman to 19
  Jill Stevens captain of 18
  Street Deputy Kennedy
  Tirado Area central dep Chief
  Street Deputy Chung
  Nieves to Intelligence
  Rubino to 24
  Chief of OCD Valadez
  Chief of IA Alexander
  Randall Darlin to xo Area CENTRAL
  Don Jerome is getting 9
  Karen Konow Deputy Chief IA
  Commander of 6 now Dep Chief of OCD
  A/S Det Lt.Muhammad to commander of 6
  Chris Poppanio to 12 Dist”
  
  Additionally, Noel Sanchez, former chief organize crime, asked to leave
  Sue Moss asked to leave

There will also be nine lieutenants sent to Captain training - including Eric Carter's wife and a few former pin cushions of assorted exempts getting ready to leave.

We haven't seen these moves on paper yet, but someone did - it's all over HQ and by making it here, might have short circuited some moves.

Carjacker Killed (Hooray!!!)

When the police are kept from doing their jobs, concerned citizens are going to take it upon themselves to protect their lives and property:

• A man with a concealed carry permit told police he shot and killed another man who ran into the back of his BMW in the Loop and then demanded the keys to the car at gunpoint early Friday, authorities said.
  
  The owner of the 2015 BMW said his car was rear-ended by a Volkswagen near Ida B. Wells Drive and State Street around 4:30 a.m. The man said he got out to look at the damage and then went back to the BMW to get his cellphone.
  
  The driver of the Volkswagen walked up with a gun and demanded the keys, pushing the other man into the BMW, police said. Both were inside the BMW when the owner grabbed his own gun and shot the other man, 22, in the head. The wounded man was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The VW the offender was driving was stolen, so he was looking for an upgrade. Unfortunately for him, he got downgraded about six feet.

He was also out on bond.

This is Legal?

If you have less than fifteen years, your seniority just went down by one:

• Remember the [recruit] in the academy in 2017 with the cane? She broke her ankle in the academy in 03, sat on payroll for 14 years because she “fell thru the cracks”. Was told in 2017 to come back or she’s gone. She came back, but zero PT because she’s allegedly “disabled.”
  
  They fired her. She sued.
  
  Guess who won their suit and is supposed to be in the next class? Along with her 15 years seniority? And yes, she’s still supposedly disabled.

So now we're going to hire a fourteen-year medical abuser, who can't/won't do physical training, give them permission to carry a gun that will never see street time?

Oh, and she's five years from a pension. Brilliant.

Double Standard Exposed

Fox 32 builds on CWB blog reporting:

• 21-year-old Candace Clark of Hoffman Estates says she’s the victim of a Kim Foxx double standard, and a Cook County Judge agrees. On April 11, Clark appeared in the Rolling Meadows courtroom of Cook County Judge Marc Martin, facing a single felony count of making a false police report.
  
  Clark is accused of giving an acquaintance access to her bank account and then telling police money had been stolen, something she denies. According to a transcript obtained by FOX 32, Judge Martin hammered prosecutors, asking, “I’d like to know why Ms. Clark is being treated differently than Jussie Smollett. It’s a disorderly conduct case. A lot less egregious than Mr. Smollett’s case. I have a problem with it.”
  
  Prosecutors were demanding that Clark make full restitution of $2,800 and serve deferred prosecution, something not required of Smollett.
  
  “Ms. Clark is not a movie star, she doesn’t have a high-priced lawyer,” said Judge Martin. “And this smells big time. Your office created this mess. There’s no publicity on this case. Press gets ahold of this; it’ll be the newspaper."

And speaking of the CWB blog, they came up with this handy little cheat sheet to show exactly how badly Crimesha's office is "screwing" everyone except Smell-it:

Everyone else had to accept a guilty plea of some sort indicating responsibility and therefore, negating the possibility of some lawsuit claiming.... oh we don't know .... that they were framed by the evil police or something.

UPDATE: Yes, we know everyone else isn't getting "screwed" except in the sense that Smell-it got off while they have criminal records. In this case, Crimesha screwed the taxpayers.

Untouchable One, Not the Other?

The Machine covers for one Burke:

• A state oversight board concluded that Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke did not violate judicial conduct rules when a political fundraiser was held at her home for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.
  
  The Judicial Inquiry Board completed its review into Burke’s conduct related to the January 2018 fundraiser and “determined to close the matter,” according to a letter it sent this week to political consultant Jeffrey Orr, who had called on the board to investigate.
  
  The panel offered no explanation, stating that it was prohibited “from disclosing specifics regarding its decision, findings or information about its deliberations on any matter.”

A Machine politician being held accountable? Or the Board investigating Anne giving taxpayers an explanation? Not in this corrupt shithole.

But can the Feds make one stick on the other Burke?

• Federal prosecutors want more time to seek an indictment against Ald. Ed Burke (14th) in the corruption case that earlier this year rocked City Hall in the middle of campaign season.
  
  Facing a May 3 deadline to seek what is generally expected to be a wider indictment from a grand jury against Burke, prosecutors asked a judge Thursday for 35 additional days. If the judge grants their request, their new deadline would be June 7.
  
  That means the indictment likely wouldn’t arrive until five months after Burke was first charged with attempted extortion in a criminal complaint. The longtime alderman managed to win re-election in the meantime.

A extension plays both ways. Either the feds are looking to fine tune the indictment or the web has suddenly gotten a bit bigger due to other malfeasance uncovered during the initial investigation.

Chase Refresher Course

After this happened:

• The family of a 37-year-old woman who was killed by a stolen van being pursued by Chicago police during a high-speed chase through Englewood in 2015 will receive more than $21 million from the city of Chicago, attorneys for the family announced Wednesday.
  
  Late Tuesday afternoon, a jury reached their verdict, awarding $21.3 million in the civil case before Judge Joan E. Powell at the Daley Center.
  
  The trial lasted three weeks, said Andrew Touhy, a spokesman for the law firm Romanucci & Blandin, which represented the family of Maria Carrion Adame. It took the jury all day Tuesday to come to a decision, according to Touhy.

Until they come up with a car disabling laser of some sort or a standard "kill switch" it is not worth it to chase for pretty much anything.

Liberal Eyes Opening

Once it starts to impact the bottom line, everyone becomes a Law and Order type:

• Business owners say since the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office stopped prosecuting lower-level retail theft, things have gotten worse. They’re hoping to see that change, and are also calling for more police presence along Michigan Avenue.
  
  “The more police activity and presence on these corners does help, without question,” said Clayton Sussman, a jewelry store owner.
  
  In the past week, police have arrested more than 50 people in connection with the groups.

Ya think?

Shakeups?

Are the paybacks are beginning before LightGroot takes over?

• OCD Chief Noel Sanchez has been demoted back to Captain.
  
  FatHeadEd getting his retribution before Rham leaves.
  
  D. Alexander named acting Chief of OCD. Sounds like Kennedy to take Dep Chief OCD

And yet, Escamerit remains.

Judge Reddick, Squash This Quick

This is an insult and most likely illegal:

• An attorney for a four-time felon charged in the killing of Chicago police Cmdr. Paul Bauer said in court Wednesday that he is exploring an argument that Bauer was shot in self-defense — a tactic that would surely prove controversial in the high-profile case.
  
  Attorney Scott Kamin, representing Shomari Legghette, requested access to Bauer’s disciplinary and training records in preparing his defense.
  
  Cook County Judge Erica Reddick said she would review the records in private before deciding if they would be relevant to the defense.
  
  In raising the need for the records, Kamin noted that Bauer and Legghette were alone together at the bottom of a stairwell outside the Thompson Center at the time of the shooting, so “there is a question of self-defense,” he said.

Except there is no provision for "self-defense" where an arrest is concerned.

Persons are REQUIRED BY LAW to submit to an arrest and then seek redress via the civil process should said arrest be determined to unlawful. Otherwise, everyone will be resisting on the street for even petty offenses and the law of the jungle will apply - with a lot more people getting shot.

Officers at court registered their disgust with this line of defense:

• The comment earned murmurs of disdain from police officers and civilians who routinely pack the courtroom for hearings for Legghette at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. The group remains standing for the duration of each hearing as a show of support for the slain commander.

This better get squashed quickly, unless you want a wholesale fetal movement to take hold across the State.

Gallows Issue #2

For your reading pleasure (click for larger version):

Escamerit is in for a long summer. Maybe if LightGroot demoted a few of the more egregious assholes, she could rally some support from the rank-and-file.

Another Governor to Prison?

We can only hope:

• Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, his wife and his brother-in-law are under federal criminal investigation for a dubious residential property tax appeal that dogged him during his gubernatorial campaign last year, WBEZ has learned.
  
  A law-enforcement source familiar with the investigation confirmed to WBEZ that the probe, which has not been revealed publicly until now, began last October and remains active. There are no signs that criminal charges are imminent.
  
  WBEZ has also confirmed that Illinois First Lady MK Pritzker’s personal assistant who was involved in the property tax appeal, Christine Lovely, is being represented by one of Chicago’s most high-powered lawyers. Her attorney, Reid Schar, is a former federal prosecutor who helped convict ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich on corruption charges.
  
  The developments demonstrate that the billionaire governor and his wife may face a serious legal threat arising from their controversial pursuit of a property tax break on a 126-year-old mansion they purchased next to their Gold Coast home.

Unfortunately, we think there might be a tiny little double-standard where rich people are concerned. So while Jaybee "the Hutt" is most certainly a typical rich scamming Illinois politico, this is more likely to end in a fine than jail time.

Bunny Arrested

This is why Floridians can't have nice things:

• The costumed star of a viral video of the "Easter Bunny" throwing punches in defense of a woman on a sidewalk in downtown Orlando, Florida, on Sunday night has been identified — and, according to law enforcement, he's got a lengthy criminal record that includes multiple armed robberies and a warrant out for his arrest in New Jersey.

It was fun while it lasted.

Quality Control Oops

Who knew that heroin was bad for you?

• Two people have died and at least 14 others have been hospitalized in a series of drug overdoses Tuesday on the West and Northwest sides.
  
  A 50-year-old man was found dead of an apparent overdose at 6:28 a.m. in the 600 block of North Homan Avenue, according to Chicago police. [...].
  
  About 9:40 a.m., multiple overdoses were reported in the area around Chicago and Homan avenues, police said. About the same time, multiple callers also reported a silver-colored SUV driving around the area selling drugs.
  
  At least 14 people have been hospitalized at Mount Sinai Hospital, Norwegian American Hospital, Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center and West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, police said. A Chicago police officer used Narcan, an opiate overdose antidote, on two of the people who were taken to hospitals.

We have an e-mail that says 011 actually ran out of Narcan last week. Hopefully, they get some more just in case a cop comes into contact with this garbage.

We guess you can't expect the best quality control from west side dope dealers.

Transparency? Accountability?

Not for Crimeisha! (sorry about the continual Crimesha posts, but she's the one in the news):

• State’s Attorney Kim Foxx will not meet with the Cook County Board to discuss her office’s handling of the Jussie Smollett case, according to a letter from Foxx obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.
  
  In her letter to the board, Foxx cites her recent decision to refrain from publicly commenting on the matter during the ongoing investigation by the county’s Office of the Independent Inspector General.
  
  “Until the conclusion of this ongoing review, I do not feel that it is appropriate for me to comment publicly on the Jussie Smollett matter,” the top Cook County prosecutor said in the letter.
  
  Cook County Commissioner Sean Morrison, R-Palos Park, last month, had asked for Foxx to appear before the board to explain her office’s abrupt decision to drop 16 charges of disorderly conduct against Smollett for allegedly staging a fake hate crime attack.
  
  “I’m aware we can’t compel her to speak to us, but the Cook County Board does control her budget, but this transcends beyond that,” Morrison said at the time.

Every decision Crimeisha has been making (or been told to make) has been exactly the wrong one. She demands transparency across the board... but provides none of her own. Everyone is accountable...except her and her office. This arrogance is not playing well in the city, the burbs or the sticks. In fact, seeing as how Toni just got pasted by almost 75% to 25%, every reminder out there that Crimesha is part-and-parcel of the Prickwrinkle Machine is cutting into their support.

An Actual Recusal?

We seem to remember a fake "recusal" just a few weeks ago. Is this one for real?

• The case of a man accused of scuffling with Chicago cops will be handled by a special prosecutor after officers involved in the incident cited links between State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and the defendant.
  
  Eight Chicago police officers filed a petition last week asking for the special prosecutor in part because Foxx appeared at a news conference April 6 at Rainbow/PUSH headquarters and later posed for photos with Jedidiah Brown, who has been charged with battery against police officers.
  
  On Tuesday, Foxx’s office filed a recusal request with Circuit Judge Leroy K. Martin Jr. and Martin granted the recusal. A hearing for the appointment of a special prosecutor was set for May 9.

This is the case referenced here and elsewhere a week or two ago where gadfly and mouthy pussy Jedidiah Brown committed a Battery to the Police....and Crimesha passed on actually prosecuting a case where video proves the charge. The FOP and eight plaintiffs filed suit to remove Crimesha and reinstate the case.

Hey Prickwrinkle? Tick-tock. Tick-tock.

Priceless

There isn't enough popcorn in all of the world:

• Two bodybuilding brothers say their reputations were trashed by lawyers for Jussie Smollett, but proving the actor’s celebrity attorneys owe them damages may mean proving the same case against the “Empire” actor that Cook County prosecutors dropped last month.
  
  Brothers Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against Smollett’s lawyers, Tina Glandian and Mark Geragos, claiming the two lawyers smeared them on national television and in podcast interviews after Cook County prosecutors abruptly dropped charges against Smollett a month ago. But defamation lawsuits often hinge on one issue: whether the alleged harmful statements were true.

We're imagining that this is a play for a payoff, but it may have the unintended consequence of validating the police investigation as portions (or all) of the sealed records become public - including cell and text messages from some politically heavy players being forced into the light.

That probably won't be allowed to happen, so expect some sort of settlement (i.e. a bribe) to drop the lawsuit shortly.

Looks like Crimesha will be left behind to deal with the fallout.

Seriously Crimesha?

We're getting a sense of deja vu:

• Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx has received a series of threats against her life and safety in the wake of her office’s decision earlier this month to abruptly drop criminal charges against “Empire” star Jussie Smollett, according to a high-ranking staffer and a political ally.
  
  Jennifer Ballard Croft, Foxx’s chief of staff, confirmed Monday that Foxx’s “physical safety” has been threatened in the wake of the Smollett case.

So a case that started with fake threats via the US Mail is ending on a similar note. According to the article, Crimesha has hired "private security." Why not sheriffs? After all, she works for Cook County. Oh wait, that would mean she would have to show actual threats had taken place, not vaguely worded mail that was probably mailed by the same person who sent Smell-it his "threats."

Don't worry Crimesha - you can always drop the charges against yourself.

Flor-idiots

We need some of this here:



Apologies, but it was too funny not to post.

Great Job 003

A great job by 003 District officers:

• As Johnny Stokes was driving on 71st Street, he knew his pregnant daughter, Kaliyah, would not make it to Comer Children’s Hospital in time to give birth to his grandchild. So when he got to Cottage Grove Avenue and saw the District 3 police station, Stokes pulled over onto the sidewalk and asked Chicago police officers for help.
  
  Stokes’ daughter, who was in the passenger seat of his 2006 Black Chevy Tahoe, was in active labor during the car ride to the hospital. Stokes said his daughter’s due date was last week and she had been experiencing contractions, about 12 to 13 minutes apart. Her water had broken that morning.
  
  “I guess she was ready today,” Stokes said at a press conference Sunday morning.
  
  The baby girl, Ava, was delivered by police officers early Easter Sunday morning. The mother and baby were transported to Comer Children’s Hospital and are reported healthy and safe.

Very well done Officers.