Category: Crime

  • Embarassing Americans — And These People Vote

    I received this via email this morning.  I thought it was timely because just yesterday Howard Stern played audio of his producers in Harlem interviewing Obama supporters.

    There is something very very wrong with the educational system in this country whereas so many can be so ignorant of the most basic facts.  There is no way that these people can understand anything about finance, economics, job creation, tax theory, or any other subject that would make them an informed intelligent voter.

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJuNgBkloFE?rel=0]

    These people do not possess the requisite base of knowledge and analytical skills necessary to determine the implications of their vote.  They ought go into the voting booth and flip a coin.

    This is the result of 60 years of modern liberalism governing our schools.  Modern liberalism has created legions of undereducated men and women who can barely take care of themselves.  We’ve told them that they’re “special” and deserving when they are not even average or in fact normal.  They’re unique only in their ability to articulate idiocy and not be even slightly embarrassed.

    They are the poster children proving that ignorance is bliss.

    This is what the modern unionized public school system has given us.

  • Two Stabbed Outside Near North Bars

    Two men were stabbed, another badly beaten and a fourth arrested early Sunday morning after a fight on Division Street spilled over onto State Street, according to police.

    An officer sustained non-life-threatening injuries that didn’t require hospitalization while trying to make the arrest on a 24-year-old man, Chicago Police Department News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli said.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    Four people injured by one crazed lunatic with a knife.  When is this town going to get tough on crime and demand common sense knife laws?

    Hey Rahm!!  On No one’s talking about banning knives.  But shouldn’t we have a knife registry?  What we need is a CKOC (Chicago Knife Owners Card) to make sure that only people who’d paid their fee are able to buy and carry knives.  We clearly need more common sense knife laws in order to prevent another tragedy like this one.

    BTW — Kudos to the police for not just shooting this idiot and sending his to his eternal rest.  CPD shows incredible restraint under tough circumstances.

  • Streetwise Launches Neighbor Carts

    Rick Jones’ booming voice makes him hard to miss on the corner of Broadway and Wilson Avenue, where he shouts “fresh fruit” to passers-by rushing to and from the nearby Red Line station.

    Neatly displayed apples, bananas, plums and strawberries line the stainless steel cart that sits behind him. Jones, a struggling veteran, was recruited by StreetWise — the ubiquitous street magazine sold by the needy — to help operate the cart as part of its latest program for at-risk Chicagoans.  …

    Jones is one of seven trainees selected for Neighbor Carts, a new program designed to help unemployed, underemployed and other at-risk Chicagoans earn a paycheck while learning entrepreneurial business skills. StreetWise and Neighbor Capital, nonprofit organizations that focus on Chicago’s homeless and at-risk population, launched the program this summer.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    I’ve always liked Streetwise as an idea and as a company.  My understanding is that they are a little top-heavy; that too much money is spend on admin and offices, etc.  But they do good work.

    Kudos to Mr. Jones and the Streetwise team.  Best of luck on your new endeavor.

  • Ald. “New Tax” Cardenas Wants $5/mo

    Chicago should impose a “safety and security fee” — as high as $5 a month on homes and businesses — to generate the $70 million needed to hire 700 additional police officers, an influential alderman said Thursday.

    Ald. George Cardenas (12th), chairman of the City Council’s Health Committee, said Chicago desperately needs a surge in police hiring to ease a severe manpower shortage that has hamstrung the city’s ability to stop a surge in homicides and shootings.  …

    Police and Fire are the very definition of general funds.  This is nothing more than a $60/year tax on everyone.

    Fraternal Order of Police President Mike Shields said he would welcome “any new source of revenue” that could be used to bolster a police force that stands at 11,799 after a three-year hiring slowdown.

    Through Aug. 15, 420 police officers had retired, but only 127 new officers had been hired, he said.

    But, Shields said, “Why is it that we have to go to another source of revenue to pay for these officers? Policing is a basic city service that should be in the budget without a new fee. The mayor eliminated 1,252 police vacancies. The 2012 budget should not have been balanced at the expense of public safety. Those vacancies should have been filled.”   …

    Cardenas is the aldermen who championed Chicago’s nickel-a-container tax on bottled water.He also proposed an anti-obesity plan to tax Chicago consumers of soda pop, energy drinks and other sugary beverages anywhere from 15 to 30 cents-a-contain to a penny-an-ounce.

    via SunTimes.

    How about we eliminate the TIFs and put all that money back into the general fund?  Then we’d have money for police, fire, and all kinds of other services.  Heck, we might even be able to fund the teachers’ pensions.

    Ald. Cardenas, we’re taxed to death already!  Enough.

  • Pete’s Fresh Market — Update 09/19

    Reliable sources inform me that Pete’s and people from the city are sitting down and trying to work out a deal to restart construction.

    Reliable sources also have confirmed the facts of the original post.

    If any readers have stories of problems with any politicians please contact me privately with that information.  We have been abused by our elected officials for far too long.  Criminal elected officials are the reason why the West Side does not have the retail and other amenities of other neighborhoods.

    It’s immoral, unethical, and just plain sad that the poor, who needs the most help, are the most abused.

    Rumors are swirling that a community meeting may be held one day next week.  Please visit again for further information.

     

    UPDATE:  This topic updated 09/25/2012 here.

  • Did Joe McGinniss Condemn an Innocent Man?

    MacDonald signed a contract giving McGinniss exclusive rights to his life story, and so McGinniss was given unprecedented access to the defense team – living with them, working with them, eating with them. But when the guilty verdict came down, McGinniss did a one-eighty on them. Apparently, falsely convicted men don’t make for good books. McGinniss decided it was a better story to agree with the jury. MacDonald wasn’t a sympathetic figure. He did himself no favors with some media appearances. So, McGinniss went about writing a book that would convince people the government got the right verdict and we could all pat ourselves on the back and leave Jeffrey MacDonald to rot in his jail cell till Judgment Day.

    via Breitbart.

    Amazing story.  Go read.  You can come back here tomorrow.

  • Shakedown on the West Side

    PR — For Immediate Release

    SYNOPSIS:  LOCAL THUGS AND A QUESTIONABLE ALDERMAN MAY STOP CONSTRUCTION OF GROCERY STORE IN A FOOD DESERT.

    One of Chicago’s food deserts may not be getting a grocery store after all.  After years of wrangling, Pete’s Fresh Market broke ground on a site located at Western & Madison on Chicago’s West Side.  Neighbors had waged a 5 year battle to bring a grocery store to that location.  Alderman Bob Fioretti was on hand for the groundbreaking ceremony.  But it all came to a screeching halt last week after the store’s owner was threatened not only by local thugs, but by the city itself.

    A week ago the store’s site, exactly three miles west of the center of the city, had a construction trailer and several pieces of heavy equipment.  “They worked every day.  Even on weekends.” said a local resident who’s townhouse overlooks the site.  Sunday, the site was just another barren parcel of land which appear to cover the West Side.  The only remnant of construction is a single port-o-let.  Rumors swirl about the neighborhood whether or not construction may resume anytime soon.  Residents fear that they may have lost the only chance they had at getting a grocery store.

    After an arduous process taking years, Pete’s Fresh Market was selected for the site.  Several cut-rate or second tier grocers expressed interest however neighborhood residents feared that such a business would send the wrong message.  Like many gentrifying neighborhoods it can be hard to find the right balance between long-time residents who wish to remain and keep property values, and property taxes, level and urban pioneers who are looking to see some return on their investment.  Pete’s seemed like a natural fit.  It’s selection had the support of nearly all in the neighborhood.

    After the ground-breaking the neighborhood was excited about seeing their new store take shape.  Locals talked while walking their dogs, on porches and patios, and on the phone.  Emails were exchanged about everything from the construction fence going up to the equipment arriving on site.  Photos were taken and news releases sent.  “After being here for nine years I’m really looking forward to being able to walk to the grocery store.” said local resident Jim Bosco.

    The situation changed last week when Pete’s got hit with a one-two punch.

    First, a group of gentlemen who claim to be from the neighborhood stopped by the site and demanded jobs.  They appeared to be organized; not just a few guys walking down the street looking for work.  They came to the site, knew who to ask for, and demanded to be given jobs.  Pete’s owner happened to be on site and suggested they fill out applications for employment; he even provided them with the forms.  The group was told however that unless they were licensed, insured, and bonded that they could not be employed for construction work.  That was unacceptable to the group and they began to get loud, pushy, and generally belligerent.

    When the group was asked to leave the situation escalated.  One of the group’s members brandished a handgun.  Another told Pete’s owner that if they weren’t given jobs they would break every store window after it was open.  Only after the group was informed that police had been called did they break-up and disappear into the streets and alleys.

    Putting the unsettling experience behind them, Pete’s owner and the construction crew got back to work.  However a few hours later they would be interrupted again, this time by a city Streets & Sanitation inspector.  Pete’s was having a bad day; because the inspector proceeded to write Pete’s for 21 violations.

    That was too much for Pete’s owner to bear.  Business owners can deal with a few bullies who are looking for a handout.  However no business can survive in this city when someone in power deliberately makes life difficult.  Given the archaic and byzantine nature of Chicago’s codes any property is subject to numerous code violations at all times.  Further, it doesn’t even matter if you’re fully in compliance.  If the city writes the violation, you have to stop/ what you’re doing and head to building court.  That takes time away from your business and is expensive.

    Pete’s decided it was not wi/lling to fight city hall.  It pulled the plug on construction, removed the equipment, and now the residents question whether or not they will get their grocery store.

    The local residents don’t believe in coincidences.

    Thanks to the ward remapping, Pete’s is in the “old” 2nd Ward and the “new” 27th Ward.  This means that in addition to Alderman Fioretti, who spearheaded the new store, Alderman Walter Burnett is also well aware of Pete’s construction.  It also just so happens that the ring-leader of the group of thugs who showed up at Pete’s is known acquaintance of Ald. Burnett’s ASSISTANT chief of staff.  Further, those in the know have heard rumors for years about Ald. Burnett shaking down other business owners for everything from using the right valet service to hiring the right contractors.

    Many local residents believe that Ald. Burnett was directly involved in the attempted extortion of Pete’s.  They wonder why it is that Burnett is able to keep his job when so many of these stories are floating around openly.  If the ward remap stands as it is, Ald. Burnett is going to have some explaining to do to folks who live in this neighborhood as to why he’s perhaps ruined their chances of getting a quality grocery store.

    THIS POST IS UPDATED HERE.

    THIS POST IS UPDATED 09/25/2012 HERE.

    THIS POST UPDATED on 09/27/2012:  I learned that Ald. Burnett’s “chief of staff: was incorrect.  It was in fact Ald. Burnett’s Assistant Chief of Staff who is not only knows the thugs trying to shakedown Pete’s but WAS ACTUALLY ON SITE WITH THEM.  New post here.

  • For Self-Defense a .22 beats .45

    An excellent video (ok, it’s a tad annoying) about why a .22 beats higher caliber handguns when it comes to self defense.

    via WND.

    Bottom line is you can’t stop what you can’t hit.

  • Several Stabbed At NYC Subway Station

    NYC Subway Stabbing
    NYC Subway Stabbing

    Three people were injured in a stabbing on the escalator of a subway station in Queens Wednesday morning.

    An MTA spokesman said that Dina Saint-Fleur, 25, slashed at least two people after getting into a dispute on a J train around 8:45 a.m. Earlier reports indicated as many as seven people stabbed.

    via CBS New York.

    Mayor Bloomberg and his organization Mayors Against Handguns have so far been silent on this event.  New York, much like Chicago, has extremely onerous gun control laws.  However most criminals don’t appear to worry about obeying the law.  And then we have those that maybe can’t afford a gun yet.  So they carry knives.

    Over 500 people get stabbed each year in Chicago.  No word on the knife control policy of Mayors Bloomberg and Rahm.

  • Obama Admin Warned of Embassy Attack, Did Nothing

    The killings of the US ambassador to Libya and three of his staff were likely to have been the result of a serious and continuing security breach, The Independent can reveal.

    American officials believe the attack was planned, but Chris Stevens had been back in the country only a short while and the details of his visit to Benghazi, where he and his staff died, were meant to be confidential.

    The US administration is now facing a crisis in Libya. Sensitive documents have gone missing from the consulate in Benghazi and the supposedly secret location of the “safe house” in the city, where the staff had retreated, came under sustained mortar attack. Other such refuges across the country are no longer deemed “safe”.

    Some of the missing papers from the consulate are said to list names of Libyans who are working with Americans, putting them potentially at risk from extremist groups, while some of the other documents are said to relate to oil contracts.

    According to senior diplomatic sources, the US State Department had credible information 48 hours before mobs charged the consulate in Benghazi, and the embassy in Cairo, that American missions may be targeted, but no warnings were given for diplomats to go on high alert and “lockdown”, under which movement is severely restricted.

    via The Independent.

    This a story the U.S. media does not want to report.  Currently only the UK papers are touching it.

    And for the doubters…  Consider this:

    U.S. Marines defending the American embassy in Egypt were not permitted by the State Department to carry live ammunition, limiting their ability to respond to attacks like those this week on the U.S. consulate in Cairo.

    Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson “did not permit U.S. Marine guards to carry live ammunition,” according to multiple reports on U.S. Marine Corps blogs spotted by Nightwatch. “She neutralized any U.S. military capability that was dedicated to preserve her life and protect the US Embassy.”

    Time magazine’s Battleland blog reported Thursday that “senior U.S. officials late Wednesday declined to discuss in detail the security at either Cairo or Benghazi, so answers may be slow in coming.”

    via Wash. Free Beacon

    U.S. Marines not even able to defend themselves.

    This story is just at big — or bigger — than Fast and Furious.  The the MSM remains silent; committed to Obama’s reelection.