My Blog

Category: Crime

  • 1 Block Away 2 Arrested

    The wife and daughter head over to the Walgreens about 3 blocks away.  The daughter wants to walk; the wife insists on driving — smart move.

    Two men have been arrested in connection with the robbery of a man’s iPhone outside a dry cleaning business in the Wicker Park neighborhood, authorities say.  …

    The Thursday robbery happened about 5:15 p.m. when a 26-year-old man was texting on his iPhone outside a dry cleaning business at Wabasnia and Western avenues, according to police.  Two men approached him, at least one of them armed with a gun, and asked for the iPhone, police said.  …

    Police were able to track the phone by its locator app to the area of Madison Street and Ashland Avenue, a few blocks from the United Center, police said.  The officers spotted the suspects in a car that was reported stolen, but one of them jumped out around the time police began pursuing it.  That man was taken into custody near Ashland and Washington Boulevard.

    The other suspect headed west in the car on Madison, police said. The suspect stopped near Madison and Leavitt streets and abandoned the car, police said. He was arrested about a block away.

    The perp was taken into custody at Madison & Oakley.  How do I know?  Because the wife saw the police running down the alley with their guns drawn catching the dude.  A txt message from someone on the job later confirmed two in custody.

    Hardly the end of the story:

    Detectives have been looking into a string of robberies that occurred recently in an area bounded by Ashland, Central Park Avenue, Division Street and Diversey Avenue.

    A police alert about the pattern gave the following locations for the 12 attacks:

    –3100 block of W. Fullerton, Dec. 4, 2011, 5:20 a.m.
    –1800 block of N. California, Dec. 17, 2011, 6 a.m.
    –1700 block of N. Central Park, Dec. 21, 2011, 6:15 a.m.
    –1900 block of N. Western, Dec. 22, 2011, 11 p.m.
    –2100 block of N. California, Dec. 24, 2011, 7:30 a.m.
    –2000 block of N. Kimball, Dec. 31, 2011, 11:20 p.m.
    –1500 block of N. Hoyne, Jan. 3, 2012, 3 a.m.
    –1700 block of W. Wabansia, Jan. 4, 2012, 4:32 p.m.
    –2600 block of W. Wellington, Jan. 6, 2012, 8 p.m.
    –2100 block of N. Milwaukee, Jan. 8, 2012, 12 p.m.
    –1500 block of N. Maplewood, Jan. 20, 2012, 8 p.m.
    –1500 block of N. Milwaukee, Jan. 21, 2012, 2 a.m.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    In the 1980’s Wicker Park was a terrible place to live.  The park itself was one of many Heroin Squares that existed in the city (the “Midnight Express” still passes out clean needles on Saturday nights there.)  Over the years the place has gotten better.  But from the looks of things it’s beginning to slide back into the hell hole it once was.

    This is disappointing for everyone.  The increase in the value of those homes provided a massive influx of tax revenue for the city (and county) which is used to support programs that help everyone; not just the rich.  Many of those who live there are single or married couples without children.  These are the “net givers”  in the system who pay tons of  taxes into CPS (it’s 2/3 of your property tax bill) and yet don’t have any kids in school.

    We (the royal we, i.e. we all, myself included) need these people to stay in the city.  We need them to like where they live and feel safe.  If they move everyone suffers.  CPD really has to step-up it’s game and begin making more arrests for these sorts of crimes.  The State’s Attorney must begin to demand longer prison sentences for the perpetrators.   Probation is not enough for these types of crimes.  These guys have to do time.

    There’s too much riding on it.  Crime must be brought under control.

  • Robbery using Pepper Spray (instead of handgun)

    Three men attempting to rob a Loop Old Navy store Tuesday by deploying pepper spray fled without stealing anything.

    Three men entered a retail store at 35 N. State St. about 7 p.m. and one of them deployed pepper spray or a similar chemical agent on three patrons in an attempted robbery, police News Affairs Officer Veejay Zala said.

    (Full story here.)

    I wouldn’t normally post this (it’s really just another crime in the city) but it goes with the story below, about guns not being the problem.

    Bad people will do what bad people do.  Should we read this story and demand a nation-wide ban on pepper spray?  Of course not, that’s not the answer.

    The answer is to demand a nationwide ban on criminals.  We need to enforce the laws we have on the books already regarding not just weapons but robbery, auto theft, assault, etc.  The Cook County Courts system must stop being a revolving door where criminals go in and out month after month.

    Until we get serious about crime, banning handguns, high-capacity magazines, pepper spray, knives, 2×4’s, is making it more difficult for law abiding people to protect themselves in a city that is short 2,500 police officers.

  • Daley: Giffords Tragedy Show Need for More Gun Laws

    Mayor Richard Daley expressed sadness and outrage in the wake of the Arizona shooting rampage, and said the incident is yet more evidence that stronger gun control is needed.  …

    “But unfortunately, events like this happen far too often in America. We have to come back with some common sense gun laws. I mean no one should have that type of weapon, that kind of magazine on the streets of America.”  …
    “It isn’t what your beliefs are, it’s basically access to guns . . . we have a killing machine going on because of guns,” he said.

    (Full story here.)

    I was waiting for the right time to respond to the Giffords tragedy and I guess this is it.

    First: Rep. Gabrielle Giffords did not deserve to be shot.  Let’s get that clear.  The situation is a national tragedy.  My heart goes out to not only the injured and their families, but everyone who was at the scene and has to live forever with that memory.  It must be brutal.

    Second: despite calls for civility for over 200 years, mudslinging is part of politics.  Free speech is the law of the land (thankfully) and the Supreme Court has ruled — many times ruled — that the solution to bad speech is more speech, not less.  You got a problem with someone you talk it out.  You do not shoot them.

    Now then, with that out of the way…

    Daley’s reaction, and the media’s reporting of the story as a whole, is itself abysmal and tragic.  Is this news?  Of course.  But this story is blown way out of proportion.

    First: Daley’s quote,  “It isn’t what your beliefs are, it’s basically access to guns . . . we have a killing machine going on because of guns,” shows just how dumb this guy really is.   This event occurred because of guns about as much as DUI’s occur because of cars.  If this lunatic drove a van full of explosives into the crowd and went boom would the mayor want to ban vans?  Of course not.  This event happened because of one thing, an evil man.

    Second:  Six people dead and 14 injured.  That happens nearly every week during the summer in Chicago.  Every week in June, July, August.  Over and over and over again.  Year in and year out.  And where is the national story, the outrage, the discussion by the talking heads?  Where’s the policy wonks talking about why and how to solve?  Why isn’t Dianne Sawyer on location in Lawndale interviewing survivors?

    A one time spree killing by a madman is going to happen from time to time.  Such events simply cannot be prevented.

    Another national tragedy is that we’re allowing hundreds of our youth, mostly African-American males, to be gunned down in the street and it receives little to no attention.  Either the media doesn’t care, or the society doesn’t care.  Either way it bodes badly for our city and for America.

  • Convicted But Still on the Payroll

    Chicago, the city that works, is also the city that keeps on paying city employees long after they’re convicted of corruption.Nine former city employees were paid a total of $383,205 after they pleaded guilty or were found guilty in corruption cases, records show.

    (Full story here.)

    Simply unbelievable.

    Another clear example of how one no is looking out the taxpayer.  When people have had enough they will toss all the bums out of the city counsel and demand more from their elected representatives.

  • U.S. Attorney’s Office Disclosure

    [T]he entire annual $32 million budget of the Chicago U.S. attorney’s office [is covered by collections.] …

    The U.S. attorney’s office here collected from criminals and civil defendants three times as much money as it spent in taxpayer dollars this year, bringing in $99 million in settlements, fines, forfeitures and restitution in 2010.  …

    About $10 million this year went to pay back private victims of crimes in the Chicago area.  …

    The conviction rate this year hovered above 95 percent.

    (Full story here.)

    Wow!!  Excellent work on the part of Patrick Fitzgerald.

    Ok Ms. Alvarez, Ms. Madigan, your up.

  • Bad Judge is Soft on Crime

    Relatives of a teenager shot to death in Evanston in 2007 were angered Wednesday when a judge sentenced the killer to just 10 years in prison.  …

    Cook County Circuit Court Judge Larry Axelrood also sentenced Wright to five years in prison for aggravated discharge of a weapon related to the crime. The sentences are to be served consecutively.  …

    The day of the shooting, Pickett’s brother had been injured in an altercation with several other people, prosecutors said. Later that day, Wright went to the 1900 block of Dodge Avenue in Evanston — blocks from the high school — armed with a 9 mm pistol and shot Pickett three times after a second altercation between the two groups of teens.Wright shot at the other teens as they were fleeing, authorities said.  …

    Wright has been in jail since his arrest shortly after the murder and with time served could be released from prison in as little as seven years.(Full story here.)

    So kid’s in a fight.  Goes home and gets a gun.  Returns to fight some more.  Shoots one dead and at others.  10 years!!  What?!  Moreover, it was one-half the sentence that the kid could have received.  So my questions is, if premeditated murder of one and the attempted murder of others doesn’t warrant the maximum, the what does?

    Judge Larry Axelrood, you just made the list of Judges we need to remove.

  • Trib’s Sad Story on Child Abduction

    The man in the Chevy Impala tried to stop 15-year-old Lucero Blanco three times before he got out of the car and came after her on foot. …

    After police picked the man up, mother and daughter both said they recognized his impounded 2005 Impala as the car that had trailed Lucero as she walked to school.  And both identified the stocky 30-year-old driver in a lineup at the Wentworth Area police station.  But like most suspected child abductors in Chicago and the Cook County suburbs, this man went free. …

    Prosecutors decided they couldn’t press charges.   …  Even when a suspect was identified, police didn’t always present the case to prosecutors for felony review.  And prosecutors occasionally overruled the detectives and declined to press charges.  In the end, only 30 cases resulted in prosecutions, the Tribune found.   Of the 23 defendants with a completed case, just seven were sent to prison or jail.  Others received probation, or had their cases dropped or end in acquittals.

    (Full story here.)

    First, congrats and kudos to the Tribune for an excellent investigation.

    Second, WHAT THE @#*! is wrong with the State’s Attorney’s office and Judges in Cook County?

    Grrr….

    These cases are hard to investigate.  The perverts change cars, neighborhoods, clothes they wear, and tactics making it hard on police.  But when the police do get someone, the SA’s office needs to push these cases to trial.  If there was ever a set of cases where no mercy should be shown is it not these?  And what judge gives probation to some waste of space that tries to lure a kid into a car?  How is it possible that this person retains their job as a judge?

    The system is just so broken.  From top to bottom and side to side.  It is unbelievable that we cannot get convictions on cases where assholes are trying to abduct children.  Makes me sick.

  • Why Is Illinois So Corrupt?

    Chicago Magazine has a great story about corruption in Illinois.

    Big truth here:

    Of course, most generous donors don’t give merely out of purity of heart. “Those large sums of money from all kinds of special interests—they’re invested for a purpose,” says Adlai Stevenson III, the former U.S. senator and two-time unsuccessful candidate for governor of Illinois. “Who’s going to invest in an honest politician?” Many donors expect to be rewarded with lucrative contracts, changes in policies that favor their interests, or other politically directed largesse.

    Thank you Adlai for telling it like it is.

    And then there is this:

    It’s easy to fault public servants and criticize unsound laws, but ultimately the local political culture “comes down to what the voters will put up with,” says James Merriner. Over the years, Illinois voters have shown themselves to be a tolerant lot, viewing corruption as the grease that helps get things done. “It’s worked well enough for most of the people,” says Cindi Canary. “It’s been seen as the price you pay for relatively efficient government.”

    (Full story here.)

    Basically, it’s because the voters say it’s ok.

    The story comes up with all kinds of ivy-tower answers from ivy-tower kinda folks.  Some may have some merit, maybe not.  But I agree with these two reasons right here.  Money and apathy.

    It’s worth reading the end of this story.  The truth is that apathy may be ending because people are about to get tax at a level never seen before.  You take enough money from someone and you get their attention.

  • FOP vs. The People

    The stage is set for a confrontation over Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis’ upcoming plan to reallocate police resources from lower-crime districts to those that need more officers.  Days before the plan is expected to be unveiled, the Fraternal Order of Police is serving notice that it intends to strictly enforce a union contract that could severely limit Weis’ options.  …  “It would be a mistake to believe you can just move personnel at a whim without regard to the agreements the union has with the city. We will enforce the contract to the best of our ability.” FOP President Mark Donahue said Friday.

    (Full story here.)

    The reallocation plan is a poorly thought out bad idea that naturally would not be required if the CPD was operating at its fully authorized operational capacity. i.e. If it wasn’t 2,500 cops short.

    That said, it is the city, through the Superintendent of Police, that tells officers where to go, not the FOP.  If the FOP had it’s way half of the department would work the Marine Unit and the other half would patrol Lincoln Park Zoo.  You would not be able to find a cop south of 18th Street or West of Western.

    This makes me think that FOP is part of the problem and not part of the solution.

  • Fioretti Anti-Building Protection

    Powered by a solar-powered device akin to a car battery, the fences send 7,000 volt jolts every 1.3 seconds into the hands of people who touch the fences, which have never proved fatal in the states and cities that allow them….

    The systems are allowed in California, other major cities and Illinois suburbs including Bolingbrook, Elmhurst, Rockford and Schaumburg, city officials said. They also are allowed under state law at railroad facilities in Chicago, Burke said.

    Ald. Robert Fioretti, 2nd Ward, opposed the measure.

    “I’m not convinced this is even useful in the city of Chicago,” he said. “I don’t think this is good for us.”

    (Full story here.)

    What I trimmed from the article said that these fences would NOT be allowed on the public way.  So it would be impossible to get zapped unless you were already someplace you didn’t belong.

    It’s time for everyone, including Alderman Fioretti to realize the theft is a huge expenses to businesses.  Criminals try to steal anything and everything.  And if you cannot secure your property then you will move — outside the city — to someplace where you can.

    Further, with the police department 2,500 officers short it takes even longer to respond to calls.  So it’s not like alarms (which are over regulated themselves) are the answer.  The alarm can sound, but when seconds count the police are just minutes away.