My Blog

Tag: Rahm

  • More Bad News on the Pension Crisis

    If I was Rahm I would so totally throw Daley under the bus on this issue.

    The debt from 10 Chicago-area pension plans swelled more than 600 percent to $27.4 billion between 2001 and 2010, according to a study released Monday by the nonpartisan Civic Federation. That’s $8,993 for each man, woman and child in Chicago, according to the report.

    The shortfall comes on top of more than $83 billion in unfunded pension liabilities at the state level, driving the cost up to nearly $15,000 per Chicagoan, the report shows.

    via chicagotribune.com.

    Shear insanity.

     

  • Police Boss: No Emergency = No Police

    As Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy tries to streamline the way his department fights violent crime, he is stepping up his potentially controversial plan to reduce his officers’ load of 911 calls.

    Facing heat over a surge in homicides as he enters his second year in Chicago, McCarthy has expressed frustration over the pace of making the logistical and policy shift necessary to free up officers from what he considers nonessential responsibilities.

    “I’ve been told we handle more types of calls for services than any other place in the country,” McCarthy said.

    He wants to keep officers from wasting their time with what he labeled the “my son won’t eat his peas” type of call.

    “We would set the policy. We’re not responding to calls for A, B and C,” McCarthy said, noting that he hasn’t yet defined “what standard would we apply.”

    via chicagotribune.com.

    Now that I’ve written about Comstat we all understand the manipulation of crime statistics.  Comstat was Plan A.  This is Plan B.

    Imagine the ability to set crime statistics by simply listening to a 911 call and right there without any other information saying what qualifies a police response.  And we already know that in Chicago no report means no crime.  By simply choosing to not send police to the scene of a crime it is nearly assured that no report will be created and thus no crime will be reported.

    When this is implemented McCarthy and Rahm are going to oversee the greatest crime reduction is city history.  Of course blood will still be flowing in the streets, thousands of cars will be stolen, drugs will be available everywhere, homes will be broken into hourly, and tourist beatings on Michigan Ave will continue.

  • Compstat

    I can’t believe that I have not already written a post on Compstat but I can’t find anything.  Grrrrrr!!

    Ok so, for those that don’t know Compstat is a system of policing accountability which originated in New York with the NYPD.  And in case you don’t know Garry McCarthy, the current Chicago Police Superintendent, is from the NYPD and eats, sleeps, sh__s, and wipes Compstat.  If Compstat was a person (woman or man) Garry McCarthy would marry it.  When McCarthy came to Chicago he brought Compstat with him.  You can find many articles about this at the Tribune, SunTimes, etc.

    So what?  Well here’s the rub:  It’s a fraud.

    No Superintendent of any police department wants to oversee an increase in crime.  No politician wants to be in office when there is an increase in crime.  So what happens is that the politicians beat down on the Superintendent who beats down on the Deputy Chiefs who beat down the Commanders who beat down on the Captains who beat down on the Lieutenants who beat down on the Sargents who beat down on the beat cops.  And just like magic, the beat cops make sure that there is less crime.  How?

    I’ve already written about how CPD brass is telling us crime is down crime is down but 911 calls to the OEMC is off the charts.  In Chicago no report = no crime.  So when police are busy and can’t get to you, your crime goes unreported, therefore there was no crime.  In Chicago we have a severe shortage of police officers.  Fewer officers means longer response times means fewer crimes are reported.  Consider this, the way that Chicago tracks crime if there were no police there would be no crime.

    Back to Compstat.  Compstat’s fraud is in addition to the crimes that actually unreported.  Compstat coerces police of all ranks to reclassify crimes in order to create the appearance of less crime.  e.g.  Instead of arresting someone for burglary (a felony) they get written-up for trespass (a misdemeanor.)  Fewer felonies means less crime.

    You don’t think it happens?  Think again.

    February 2010

    There’s something very big here. If you look at the repercussions, this stats program does for police what the Leave No Child Behind program for schools does to teachers– encourages them to shape the data. In this case, it may be putting us all at risk by fudging crime stats.

    A new survey of over 100 retired NYPD captains and senior officers found that they believed that statistics were manipulated to portray lower crime rates for the compsat program that calculates crime rates..

    The survey suggests that police have distorted crime reporting, dropping value of stolen goods so the theft is categorized as misdemeanor instead of felony. They drop categorization of crimes from felony to misdemeanor if suspects can’t be found.

    via HuffPo.

    This story forced the NYPD to clamp-down on officers who were talking about the fraud.  It took some time but two years later the NYPD forced a lawsuit by an officer who was pressured to downgrade crimes.  It was written about here, and here, and here.  A quick search will reveal other stories as well.

    So… what’s important to understand here is that you cannot trust the crime numbers put out by the police department.  It’s 100% pure manipulated hogwash.  You know that CPD is losing control of the city.  You know that your friends don’t feel as safe after Cubs games as they used to.  You see there are more street fights outside of bars.  You read in the paper that more people are getting shot than ever before.

    The difference between the truth and what the CPD reports is Compstat.

     

    UPDATE 06/30/2012:  Silly me had “comstat” instead of “compstat”.  I need an editor.

  • Robber Armed with 2-by-4 on West Side (Rahm demands lumber registry)

    A police alert warns Lawndale residents about a robber who threatens and beats his victims with a 2-by-4.  …

    The robber was described as a black man with a dark complexion, between 5-foot-9 and 5-foot-11, weighing 150 to 160 pounds. He was last seen wearing a dark-colored baseball hat and a dark top, police said.via chicagotribune.com.

    Rahm immediately called for a lumber registry.  “What we need are common sense lumber laws to make sure these sorts of crimes don’t happen again.” the Mayor said at an unrelated press conference.  He followed-up saying, “No one is trying to ban lumber. That’s extremist language by the extremist National Lumber Association.”

  • Emanuel Plans Changes to City’s Gun Law

    A few days ago…

    Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to rewrite Chicago’s firearm ordinance in response to a ruling by a federal judge who struck down a section of the city’s law he called vague and unconstitutional.  …

    Last week, U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan called that regulation “indiscriminate and arbitrary.””There is something incongruent about a nonviolent person, who is not a felon but who is convicted of a misdemeanor offense of simple possession of a firearm, being forever barred from exercising his constitutional right to defend himself in his own home in Chicago against felons or violent criminals,” Der-Yeghiayan wrote.  …

    Having strong gun laws is part of the city’s overall approach to stemming violent crime, Emanuel said at an unrelated news conference.”Sensible, smart, targeted gun laws keep guns out of the hands of gangbangers and drug dealers,” Emanuel said, calling such laws “key to a strategy of reducing violence.”

    via chicagotribune.com.

    How’s that again Rahm?  You have the nation’s most restrictive gun law.  It’s failing miserably by any standard.  You have failed to ‘keep guns out of the hands of gangbangers and drug dealers.’  You have also failed to create any ‘strategy of reducing violence.’

    Rahm:  You should start by enforcing the existing state and federal laws already on the books.  First show that they are somehow inadequate before creating a whole new system of bureaucracy to harass law abiding citizens.

    Get a real Cook County State’s Attorney.  Get a real Illinois Attorney General.  If these prosecutors would charge crimes already on the books (e.g. felons with guns do federal time) you would not need any new laws to lock-up gangbangers and drug dealers.

  • Fighting Crime The Chicago Way!

    CeaseFire Illinois, a group that works against violence, is being recruited by the city of Chicago as part of a pilot program to help reduce crime in two police districts, one on the West Side and the other on the South Side.  …

    The city will give the group a one-year grant for $1 million to hire 40 “interrupters” who will mediate conflicts in the Ogden and Grand Crossing districts, where gun violence has spiked.  …

    This is the first time CeaseFire has received funding from the City of Chicago. Previously, it was largely funded through state and county sources.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    So says the Tribune.  The SunTimes story is similar.  Both FAIL to mention what CeaseFire really is… the public relations arm of coordinated Chicago street gangs.

    In this city known for rampant corruption and cronyism the politicians know what to do with the money they extort from taxpayers! Whenever possible taxes here are only used to support thieves, thugs and liars.  …

    Chicago’s politicians have agreed to hand over $1,000,000.00 to a group calling themselves, “Cease Fire”. They were founded simply to take city tax money and pretend they’re working on violence reduction. Of course Cease Fire will be working in “secret negations” to make Chicago safer. I’m sure the time and money will be easy to audit that way.

    Cease Fire is a group of, not so retired ghetto gangsters with significant rap sheets that are supposed to convince their pals not to kill each other, or innocent civilians.

    via CRIME, GUNS, AND VIDEOTAPE.

    This is insanity.  The gang bangers are going to completely fabricate the number of “interruptions” in violence.  McCarthy will permit it because it creates the appearance that the money was well spent.

    Shouldn’t the city counsel have to weigh-in on this sort of spending?  Where’s the Alderman (and Aldermen) stand on this?

  • Google and the Merchandise Mart

    Good News!!

    Crain’s Chicago Business reports: Google is in talks to lease some 500,000 square feet in the Merchandise Mart, sources say.  The deal would include a rooftop deck.  The Internet search giant, looking to move employees from the Libertyville headquarters of its recently acquired Motorola Mobility, has an office for tech workers near the Mart.

    via Chicago Tribune.com.

    Chicago is ripe for a tech explosion.  Of course we have a serious debt problem in this city, and state.  That will make some companies too scarred to move/expand here.  But if we can get that under control Chicago can become a major player in the tech space.

    If Rahm and Quinn can get our pension issues under control companies will relocate here from California.  Our taxes in Illinois are way too high and complicated — a/k/a suck — but the situation is far worse in California.  It’s freakishly expensive to do business there.

    This could just be the beginning of hope.  Now we just need to fix race relations, balance the budget, improve our schools, hire more police, find a State’s Attorney who will actually ask that criminals be placed in prison, find an Attorney General who’s not related to the most corrupt politician in the state, and fix an aging infrastructure.

  • City Hall’s New TIF Troubles

    This story is actually from early April:

    According to a report issued today by Chicago Inspector General Joe Ferguson, a fluke of state law means that many neighboring business districts that collect an extra property tax to pay for security, advertising and the like actually have had to pay twice — once for security, et al., and once to the TIF.

    The report specifically deals with Special Service Areas: little neighborhood shopping districts such as Lincoln/Belmont/Ashland, South Shore, Greektown and Wicker Park/Bucktown in which the shop owners agree to impose an extra tax on themselves to pay for things of mutual interest. …

    The problem is that 80 percent of the city’s more than 60 SSAs also overlap wholly or partially with TIF districts.

    The way a TIF district works is that property taxes are frozen at a current level, with the TIF getting the growth over the next 23 years — known as increment — to spend on TIF projects. But when an SSA levies an additional tax for its needs, the amount of the levy is imposed both on the old base levy and the increment.

    In other words, to help themselves, merchants have to pay twice. And that’s amounted to an extra $7.5 million to TIFs last year and about $7 million in preceding years, according to Mr. Ferguson.

    via Crain’s Chicago Business.

    Man I really hate TIFs.

  • The ‘Wild, Wild Midwest’

    The city’s murder rate is quadruple New York City’s. Homicides since 2001 total twice the number of U.S. military personnel killed in Afghanistan in the same period. Police have moved to reduce the carnage, but activists say gun use must be reined in—and they will stage a peacemakers’ rally on Friday.

    via The Daily Beast.

    We’re making national headlines on a regular basis now.  In the meantime Rahm and The Machine that run this town are still telling everyone that crime is down.  The local news media is fully complicit with the ongoing lie.

    It’s like they’re all Frank Drebin:

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NNOrp_83RU?rel=0]

  • The Media’s Unholy Relationship with Obama

    On the evening of Tuesday, June 30, 2009—just five months into his administration—Barack Obama invited a small group of presidential historians to dine with him in the Family Quarters of the White House. His chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, personally delivered the invitations with a word of caution: the meeting was to remain private and off the record. As a result, the media missed the chance to report on an important event, for the evening with the historians provided a remarkable sneak preview of why the Obama presidency would shortly go off the rails.  …

    Over the two-hour dinner, Mr. Obama and the historians discussed several past presidents. It wasn’t clear from Mr. Obama’s responses which of those presidents he identified with. At one point, he seemed to channel the charismatic John F. Kennedy. At another moment, he extolled the virtues of the “transformative” Ronald Reagan. Then again, it was the saintly Lincoln…or the New Deal’s “Happy Warrior,” Franklin Roosevelt….

    Mr. Obama told the historians that he had come up with a slogan for his administration. “I’m thinking of calling it ‘A New Foundation,’ ” he said.

    Doris Kearns Goodwin suggested that “A New Foundation” might not be the wisest choice for a motto.

    “Why not?” the president asked.

    “It sounds,” said Goodwin, “like a woman’s girdle.”

    via Fox News.

    Absolutely amazing the collusion between  these “historians” and a sitting President.  How can they claim to be objective when they participate in such pandering?  Why doesn’t the media point out the obvious problem with these sorts of meetings?  …

    That last one I can answer.

    Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed:
    everything else is public relations.
    ― George Orwell

    There continues to this unholy relationship between the media and Obama specifically and politicians generally.  The media wants, no needs, access to the pols and the pols need access to the media.  It’s a symbiotic relationship where each benefits the other.

    The New York Times was just last week busted printing stories whereby national secrets where “leaked” from the White House.  What we have is a major news organization dishing out exactly that the White House wanted printed.  That’s not journalism; that’s public relations.

    Thankfully the internet is killing the mainstream media faster than the plague raced across Europe.  At least with citizen journalists the bias is out in the open.  People can make up their own minds considering the source.