Friday, March 30, 2007

ROE CONN

Roe Conn of WLS interviewed Phil Cline on Thursday. We wish there was a way to retrieve the audio because a 25th district copper called in and hammered the Supe.
Roe stated to Phil "that officer obviously disagreed with your decision to demote the captain" and Phil answered "I can respect that".
Ask around to anyone who heard it, it was classic.......would love to buy that copper lunch!

IMAGINE THAT

Another version of the events at the Jefferson Tap come to light in Thursdays Sun-Times. Its about time someone pokes around and gets the other side of this story.
Oh! and that major reconstruction surgery on one of the businessmen...we hear it was the resetting of his broken nose.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

SAD TIMES

Headline say it all!

6 Officers Stripped Of Police Powers After Beating
CBS2

Police Superintendent: 'I Am Disgusted'
NBC5

Six officers stripped of police powers
Questions about preferential treatment

ABC7

Police Superintendent Cline Cracking Down on Police Misconduct
FOX32

Cline takes on thug cops
Six stripped of police powers in 2nd bar beating
BY ANNIE SWEENEY Crime Reporter Sun-Times

City must end shameful history of bad cops now
BY CAROL MARIN Sun-Times Columnist

Badge of dishonor
Cop in video attack allegedly tried to bribe, threaten woman following savage beating
BY FRANK MAIN, ERIC HERMAN AND LISA DONOVAN Staff Reporters Sun-Times

Police officials look to reform disciplinary process
By David Heinzmann
Tribune staff reporter


The headlines look bleak and really what can we expect? The department has reacted and the superintendent has implemented a new policy of stripping those (within 48 hours) accused in any instance that a preponderance of evidence would lead to criminal charges. Forget about due process. It is far more expedient for the department to trash your right to due process than to appear to be doing nothing.

There is no excuse for Abbate and we have yet to see the video of the Jefferson Tap incident. Abbate should be facing battery charges (not felony) and should be facing 30 days pending separation. The City shouldn't be liable in this case because he was not acting in a police capacity. In the Jefferson Tap incident we have heard the lawyer's spin in the press. We doubt that four businessmen at 2:00 am were just attacked without provocation by six off-duty coppers. According to the media two of these businessmen were employed at the Chicago Board of Trade. We know plenty of police officers that were previously employed at the CBOT and the MERC including one of the SCS members. That being said we also know that most people at the Board are off the floor and in the bar by 2:30 pm. Lots of drinking being done by 2:00 am. The term "businessmen" makes me laugh the image is that of a gangly nerdy timid guy who wouldn't start a fight and the victim of bully's. From what I hear these "businessmen" started shit and ended up being on the losing end of a fight.
These officers should of done one of two things: walk away or take police action. However the male ego in this case probably prevented either to be done.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

POLICE WEEK

Washington DC Police Memorial Trip - Informational Get Together

When: Wednesday 28 Mar 07 1830 hours

Where: Dugan's on Halsted
128 S. Halsted

Everyone planning on attending this year's Police Memorial Service in Washington is invited to join us for a casual gathering at Dugan's. We'll have information available regarding things to do in DC, Maps, informative web sites, etc. Hopefully any questions you have about the trip will be answered. It's also a great chance to meet other memebers who will join us in honoring our brothers and sisters who made the ultimate sacrifice.

BYOB ( Buy your own Beer )

Please contact Sharon Colby if you plan on attending 312-747-8380 2nd Watch

ARRANGEMENTS




Funeral arrangements for William Grant have been set:

Visitation will take place Monday and Tuesday between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. at the Blake-Lamb Funeral home, which is located at 4727 W. 103rd Street in Chicago.

Funeral mass is scheduled for Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at Christ the King Church. It is located at 9255 S. Hamilton in Chicago.

A fund has been set up in remembrance at Prospect Federal Savings at 6858 S. Pulaski, 4646 W. 103rd in Oak Lawn, and 11139 S. Harlem in Worth.

Insubordination

We had a blue shirt ask us a question about "insubordination"


At what point is insubordination reached?

Are Sgts reluctant/afraid to demand the respect of the rank?

Have witnessed what I would call insubordination on several occasions in the last few years. They all seem to have the conclusion.....nothing. There has to be consequences to those actions.

I guess it started when Lt's and Captains started allowing the Blue shirts to hang out in the W/C's office.

I remember that the worst call to get on the radio was "Go in and see the Watch Commander".


Any sergeants or above wish to comment?

Saturday, March 24, 2007

OUR PRAYERS TO THE GRANT FAMILY & THE CFD


We wish to extend our thoughts and prayers to the Grant family and the members of the Chicago Fire Department. We will keep you all informed to the wake and funeral arrangements.
Let us show his family and the CFD our support.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

POLICE SHOOTING

Police shot an armed offender at Francisco and Devon Avenues. Officers encounter a man who was armed with a Glock and he refused to drop the weapon. The end result is he has paid the ultimate price. Neither officer was injured.

TWO SUPERVISOR'S BEAT DEPARTMENT

Jury ruled their grievances led to retaliation .
In April 2006, a federal jury awarded Sgt. Nancy Lipman $250,000 and Lt. Diane B. O'Sullivan $50,000. About two months later, Lipman and O'Sullivan were notified of one-day unpaid suspensions, which they contested in court, claiming retaliation.


"By attempting to follow through with suspensions against the plaintiffs despite the jury's verdict, the city has conclusively made the case against itself that its retaliatory conduct is likely to persist in the future," Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Cole wrote in a stinging opinion.


The judge in this case is pretty perceptive in his opinion of the city and that its retaliatory conduct is likely to persist. Hmmmmmm we on the job call it a "brick"
Congratulations! Sgt. Lipman and Lt. O'Sullivan.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Mass Slaughter In Our Schools: The Terrorists' Chilling Plan?

Second City Cop has a piece about the FBI giving law enforcement a heads up about the rise in school bus training and ownership by persons of the Muslim faith. The FBI wants to assure you that there is no threat nor is there a history of any threat. SCC calls "bullshit" on the FBI and reminds us of Beslan, Russia where Muslim terrorist occupied a school in September 2004 and killed 331 people, many of them children.
Let us not forget the taking of a Moscow theatre in 2002 where 850 people mostly children were held captive and 129 died as a result.
Hearing about the buses reminded me of Lt. Col. David Grossman's warnings, to us (CPD) officers who attended his in-service training, about inpending terrorist acts against our children. The Lt. Col. made it clear that Islamist have every intention of attacking our schools and killing our children. This piece by SCC caused me to go to Grossman's website for further insight where I discovered a great article called Mass Slaughter In Our Schools: The Terrorists' Chilling Plan?. The piece is a 3 part article that covers subjects in parts 1 & 2 like; why schools, how we know they are coming, terrorist tactical model (Beslan), thwarting the terrorist and Grossman's 4D's
  • Deter
  • Detect
  • Delay
  • Destroy

Part three deals with how to prepare yourself. We all have taken our kids to school at one time or another if not every day. And the emphasis is to "always carry off-duty. Always." the article has suggestions for individual officer preparedness and suggestions for depatment training. There may come a time that you may be the only line of defence until the cavalry arrives.

The bottom line is to stay alert and be prepared to protect our children.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Second Amendment

An online article by Steve Chapman of the Chicago Tribune, for Real Clear Politics discusses how the second amendment has been a total stranger to the Supreme court. Until recently.
The District of Columbia statute in question is one of the most stringent in the country. It bans the ownership of handguns except those registered before 1976, and it requires rifles or shotguns to be not only registered but kept unloaded and equipped with a trigger lock. Such tight restrictions, the appeals court said, can't be reconciled with the Bill of Rights.


The D.C. law looks a little familiar doesn't it?

The Blame-America-First Crowd

While reading over different articles this weekend I found one that sums the "anti-war" crowd.
Read this article by Michael Barone.

"They always blame America first." That was Jeane Kirkpatrick, describing the "San Francisco Democrats" in 1984. But it could be said about a lot of Americans, especially highly educated Americans, today.

In their assessment of what is going on in the world, they seem to start off with a default assumption that we are in the wrong. The "we" can take different forms: the United States government, the vast mass of middle-class Americans, white people, affluent people, churchgoing people or the advanced English-speaking countries. Such people are seen as privileged and selfish, greedy and bigoted, rash and violent. If something bad happens, the default assumption is that it's their fault. They always blame America -- or the parts of America they don't like -- first.

Where does this default assumption come from? And why is it so prevalent among our affluent educated class (which, after all, would seem to overlap considerably with the people being complained about?). It comes, I think, from our schools and, especially, from our colleges and universities. The first are staffed by liberals long accustomed to see America as full of problems needing solving; the latter have been packed full of the people cultural critic Roger Kimball calls "tenured radicals," people who see this country and its people as the source of all evil in the world.

On campuses, students are bombarded with denunciations of dead white males and urged to engage in the deconstruction of all past learning and scholarship.

Not all of this takes, of course. Most students have enough good sense to see that the campus radicals' description of the world is wildly at odds with reality. But this battering away at ideas of truth and goodness does have some effect. Very many of our university graduates emerge with the default assumption thoroughly wired into their mental software. And, it seems, they carry it with them for most of their adult lives.

The default assumption predisposes them to believe that if there is slaughter in Darfur, it is our fault; if there are IEDs in Iraq, it is our fault; if peasants in Latin America are living in squalor, it is our fault; if there are climate changes that have any bad effect on anybody, it is our fault.

What they have been denied in their higher education is an accurate view of history and America's place in it. Many adults actively seek what they have been missing: witness the robust sales of books on the Founding Fathers. Witness, also, the robust sales of British historian Andrew Roberts's splendid "History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900."

Roberts points out almost all the advances of freedom in the 20th century have been made by the English-speaking peoples -- Americans especially, but British, as well, and also (here his account will be unfamiliar to most American readers) Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders. And he recalls what held and holds them together by quoting a speech Winston Churchill gave in 1943 at Harvard: "Law, language, literature -- these are considerable factors. Common conceptions of what is right and decent, a marked regard for fair play, especially to the weak and poor, a stern sentiment of impartial justice and above all a love of personal freedom ... these are the common conceptions on both sides of the ocean among the English-speaking peoples."

Churchill recorded these things in his four-volume history of the English-speaking peoples up to 1900: the development of the common law, guarantees of freedom, representative government, independent courts.

More recently, Adam Hochschild, in his excellent "Breaking the Chains," tells the story of the extraordinary English men and women, motivated by deep religious belief, who successfully persuaded Britain to abolish the slave trade and then slavery itself. Their example was followed in time, and after a bloody struggle, by likeminded Americans. The default assumption portrays American slavery as uniquely evil (which it wasn't) and ignores the fact the first campaign to abolish slavery was worded in English.

The default assumption gets this almost precisely upside down. Yes, there are faults in our past. But Americans and the English-speaking peoples have been far more often the lifters of oppression than the oppressors.

"There is something profoundly wrong when opposition to the war in Iraq seems to inspire greater passion than opposition to Islamist extremism," Sen. Joseph Lieberman said in a speech last week. What is profoundly wrong is that too many of us are operating off the default assumption and have lost sight of who our real enemies are.

Copyright 2007 Creators Syndicate

Friday, March 16, 2007

Christopher Michael Barrios Jr.



If this animal were still in jail or in a hole six feet deep then this innocent child would still be alive. Hopefully the state of Georgia gets it right and rids society of this piece of shit and no more children will ever suffer at his hands.
Give your kids a hug today and thank God for every day you have with them.FOX NEWS

CAMERAS AND THE BIS

Cameras in the squad car is moving from pilot program to city wide implementation. The pilot program,at the present time, has 30 cameras installed in various cars in the 5th and 16th districts and also the traffic unit. At yesterdays recruit graduation ceremony the department announced the intended installation of an additional 280 cameras city wide. In a Fox32 News story there is concern that a citizen may blurt out a statement before his rights are read to him. Admissible!
The goal of the department is to have every car in the fleet camera equipped. Officers will have to be cognizant of the camera and the microphone that will be in their cars. The concern is not so much how they treat the citizen on a traffic stop but their private conversation inadvertently being recorded. We all have heard conversations on the "open mike"..."units watch your radios we have an open mike on the zone".
The best quote we saw was from the Mayor
Sun-Times
"A lot of police officers do a tremendous job and they get C.R. numbers [complaints registered]. The complainant never shows up, so it's unfounded. You say, 'Gee, he had 25 unfounded C.R. numbers. What's wrong with him?' There's nothing wrong with him. If we had this [camera system], we'll prove it," Daley said.

Amazingly the Mayor seems to be enlightened. So why the hell is the department counting "unfounded" cr #'s in determining placement in the BIS? Please Mr. Mayor shed some light on the Superintendent in this matter.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

PB&PA MEETING TONIGHT

Small turnout tonight.
Copies of the contract should be available on line by the end of next week.
The Association will be looking for member imput for contract issues.
Subjects discussed were pension, retiree health insurance after 2013,and legislation.

Monday, March 12, 2007

MEDIA BIAS

Is there such a thing as media bias? You damn right there is! Are there stories that the "mainstream media" covers or deem more important than others? Absolutely! Take the two following stories for example:

From todays Tribune a story about inequities in how justice is handed out in Paris, TX. The storyline reads "In Texas, a white teenager burns down her family's home and receives probation. A black one shoves a hall monitor and gets 7 years in prison. The state NAACP calls it `a signal to black folks.' On the face of it this appears to be a genuine problem possibly rooted in racism. Of course we have seen plenty of examples of the press ginning up a story in order to grab the reader and inflame their passions. Is this the case here? Maybe, maybe not. The story may in fact have merit and if it does this is a real problem in the Lone Star state. Does the story deserve national attention? State wide coverage is probably most appropriate at this time. The story does have the juice that the liberal media loves, redneck justice targeted at poor innocent blacks.

Why doesn't the story of a young white couple carjacked, raped, and murdered by four black men merit national attention? WVLT-Knoxville,Tn

Saturday night Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom have dinner at a local restaurant. They have plans to go to a friend's house to watch a movie. They never arrive.

Channon's mother becomes worried and calls the Newsom's to say she is filing a missing person's report and that they should, as well.

But it's too late.

Sunday morning: A railroad worker finds Chris Newsom's body between Ninth and Cherry Streets along the tracks.

But still no sign of Channon.

Monday: Christian's family, helping police search, locate her car along Glider Avenue, just down the tracks off Chipman Street.

Tuesday: 2316 Chipman street is swarming with investigators as they uncover Channon's body in a rental home, two blocks away from her abandoned car. Court records show the home is rented by Lemaricus Davidson and his brother, Letalvis Cobbins.

Police call them "persons of interest."

Thursday morning: Knox County, Kentucky state and federal authorities find Letalvis Cobbins and his friend, George Thomas at a home in Lebanon, Kentucky.

Thursday afternoon: Knoxville Police find Lemaricus Davidson at a home on Reynolds Street in the Mechanicsville area.

Friday Authorities serve a fourth person, Eric Boyd, with a federal warrant. Boyd and Davidson make an appearance in federal court in Knoxville. Cobbins and Thomas make an initial appearance in a federal courtroom in Louisville, Kentucky.

US Marshals in Western Kentucky call them all suspects in connection with at least some aspect of the double murder case. All four are being held by the Marshals Service's custody.


Lemaricus Davidson, 25, faces a total of 46 charges. Davidson was indicted on 16 counts of Felony Murder growing out of rape, robbery kidnapping and theft of Channon Christian and Chris Newsom, 2 counts premeditated murder of Christian and Newsom, 2 counts especially aggravated robberies from Christian and Newsom, 4 counts especially aggravated kidnapping of Christian and Newsom, 20 counts aggravated rape of Christian and Newsom, and 2 counts of theft from Christian and Newsom.

Letalvis Cobbins, 24, faces a total of 46 charges. Cobbins was indicted on 16 counts of Felony Murder growing out of rape, robbery kidnapping and theft of Channon Christian and Chris Newsom, 2 counts premeditated murder of Christian and Newsom, 2 counts especially aggravated robberies from Christian and Newsom, 4 counts especially aggravated kidnapping of Christian and Newsom, 20 counts aggravated rape of Christian and Newsom, and 2 counts of theft from Christian and Newsom.

George Thomas, 24, faces a total of 46 charges. Thomas was indicted on 16 counts of Felony Murder growing out of rape, robbery kidnapping and theft of Channon Christian and Chris Newsom, 2 counts premeditated murder of Christian and Newsom, 2 counts especially aggravated robberies from Christian and Newsom, 4 counts especially aggravated kidnapping of Christian and Newsom, 20 counts aggravated rape of Christian and Newsom, and 2 counts of theft from Christian and Newsom.


Christopher Newsome's body was found wrapped in a blanket, shot three times and burnt along a set of railroad tracks. Channon Christian's body was found in the home of two of the offenders dumped inside of a garbage can. Both victims had been raped, mutilated and murdered. This is a heinous crime against a young white couple perpetrated by a group of black males. Does the race of either victims or offenders matter? It shouldn't but apparently when a group of white lacrosse players are accused (hoax)by a black women of rape it touches off a media frenzy that lasted months. However, this heinous crime is only covered by the local Knoxville, TN press and not the national media. You have to ask yourself why.

Friday, March 09, 2007

ME TOO!

Teachers' residency near its end?
Could this be the opening of the door for every other union in the city to make a push for the repealing of residency? Well contract negotiations will soon be upon us.
Don't look for the city to offer residency as a part of the negotiation process. The key issues will be discipline (BIS), medical policy (for new hires),health care and possibly 6th work day. State law will have to be overturned before residency can even become an issue. Since the teachers are headed in that direction it could become interesting.
"If you want to recruit the best and brightest teachers, why would you put up a roadblock?" said CTU lobbyist Pam Massarsky

Why do teachers seem to think they are the most important people in society? Do you want the best policemen, firemen and paramedics? Of course we do. Why stop there? I certinly want the best engineers that operate the water filtration plants. In fact I want the best in all fields of city service. Her arguement can be used by all the civil service unions.
Are the motives of these pillars to society really out of concern for quality recruiting or are they for personal gratification? Is it to late for a "me too" clause?

BENEFIT

TICKETS AVAILABLE FOR A BENEFIT TO HONOR PO SAUL CONTRERAS, JR.

Saul died while on furlough in September of 2006 from acute pancreaitis while on a cruise in the Bahamas. The proceeds of the benefit are going to the Chicago Police Gold Star Families Foundation.....the survivors of PO deaths whether on duty, off duty or as a result of suicide. For those of you who don't know, this foundation provides emergency relief to surviving family members by way of groceries, medical bills, etc. It is a non-profit organization in place to pick up the slack where the city leaves off. For those of you who do know the Gold Star Families, you know what they do and that they are a good cause.

Tickets are available for $30.00 apiece by contacting 003rd District or if SCC permits contact me here at EGRESS_10RCN@YAHOO.COM

BENEFIT DATE: 16 APR 07 (EVERYONE WILL WANT TO DRINK AFTER TAX DAY)

1800-2300 AT THE FOP HALL.

BEER, FOOD, POP, DJ, RAFFLE

I also need donations of food, pop, water, plates, trashbags etc. Anybody willing to help, it is greatly appreciated. Excess supplies will be donated to any other PO benefits so nothing will be wasted.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

WE'RE BACK

We are back online on department computers.

UPDATE: Some people are telling us they are not getting the blogs in their districts. We were having a problem with SCC but found that if you type the full address with http:// in the begining. It worked for us and we became aware of the ability to log on from comments on both our site and SCC.
http://www.secondcitysarge.blogspot.com
http://www.secondcitycop.blogspot.com

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

HUBERMAN

From the folks over at Chicago Dispathers:

Okay, so we're reminded that Daley appointed to a post in charge of remedying "patronage," a person who spent one year on the street as a police officer in a slow district, was immediately elevated to exempt rank because of a parent's relationship with Daley, appointed as head of the OEMC, and then appointed to the position of Mayoral Chief of Staff. All of this happened within the course of, say, 6 years of starting the police academy, and this is who's in charge of the "patronage" and "ethics" problems?


You hit the nail right on the head! They further discuss the possibilities of Huberman becoming the next superintendent, by the way the post is titled Laughable

WELCOME

We received an email from another blogger the other day.

From: Andy Hale... As an attorney representing Chicago Police Officers, I like your blog. Good stuff.
You may also find my blog of interest.Check out civilrightsdefense.rockfuscollc.com



If you come across any favorable litigation rulings, let me know, and I’ll post them.


We made it a point to go visit Illinois Civil Defense Law Blog and were pleasantly surprised to see what this firm is all about.....
Rock Fusco, LLC is a boutique Chicago law firm that specializes in, among other things, defending civil rights lawsuits. Most recently, Rock Fusco attorneys successfully defended ten former Chicago Police Officers in a highly publicized civil rights lawsuit in federal court in Chicago. The plaintiff in that case was Michael Evans, who, back in 1976, was arrested for the kidnapping, rape and murder of nine-year old Lisa Cabassa on Chicago’s southeast side. Evans spent 27 years in prison before being released based on the results of DNA testing. Subsequently, Evans received an innocence pardon from Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. In his civil rights lawsuit, Evans alleged that the ten former Chicago Police Officers framed him for Lisa Cabassa’s rape and murder. The trial lasted nearly four weeks and during closing arguments plaintiff’s counsel asked the jury to award Evans over $50 million in compensatory damages and another $4 million in punitive damages. On August 8, 2006, after deliberating little more than one day, the jury returned a verdict in favor of all ten former Chicago Police Officers on all four counts of the complaint.


Many thanks to the folks at Rock Fusco LLC. We have their link on our sidebar.

POLL

Click on the Pajamasmedia straw poll on our sidebar and pick your favorite candidate.
This poll will only produce the results of our readers only.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Sergeants exam may spark fury again

Sun-Times
Thirteen years ago, the police sergeants exam became a political football in Chicago's never-ending game of racial politics when a test produced just five minority promotions out of 114.

Tee up the football. It could happen again.

One month after mailing test scores to would-be sergeants, the Daley administration is refusing to release a racial breakdown of top-scoring candidates.


Who other than Fran Spielman was questioning the racial breakdown and the reason for the delay in releasing the result? Nowhere in the article does it mention any alderman or group that is upset by the results. Fran only rehashes the results from 13 years ago and the firestorm it created. Me thinks Fran reads Second City Cop and sees the grumblings and theories of anxious coppers.

5 men charged in Lincoln Park cop stabbing

Sun-Times

March 6, 2007
BY LISA DONOVAN AND ANNIE SWEENEY Staff Reporters
Five alleged gang members, including three brothers, were charged with attempted murder Monday for the weekend stabbing of an off-duty Chicago Police officer outside a Lincoln Park bar.

Anthony Borias, 24, of Downstate Genoa, is suspected of stabbing the officer in a fight outside the Deja Vu bar in the 2600 block of North Lincoln.

The off-duty officer and his friends, along with Borias, his two brothers and two others left the bar about 4 a.m. Sunday. That's when Borias and his group began yelling taunts at the officer, police said.

Police say the officer said he didn't want any trouble, but when it was over, he had been stabbed twice by the suspect, knocked to the ground and beaten. And Borias had been shot by the officer. Both remained hospitalized Monday.

Borias, brothers Nicholas V. Borias, 23, and Joseph Borias, 26, both of Chicago; David Podgorski, 23, of Chicago, and Vincent J. Munday, 21, of Elmwood Park, were charged with attempted first-degree murder.

ATTENTION

From One Of Our Readers :

ATTENTION:
ATTENTION:
ATTENTION:

THIS IS AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE

Any department member who feels that he/she was unfairly put into the Behavioral Intervention System.

We must take action outside of the collective bargaining units.

If you're interested in hearing more
send your name and a phone number to this blog, and the information will be forwarded to me. If you wish to include the reason for your placement into the program, please feel free to do so.I will contact you with more information.

None of your information will be posted.


SCS assures any interested party that the above post is from an actual police officer/sergeant. Please feel confident that your privacy will be respected.

UPDATE: If you rather Email your info please send to cpdsarge@gmail.com

Monday, March 05, 2007

Off-duty Chicago police officer stabbed Tribune

A confrontation ensued, after which two men lay bleeding in the street: the officer, stabbed twice in the abdomen, and one of his attackers, struck by a bullet from the officer's gun.
Surgeons at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center operated on both men hours after the 4 a.m. fight outside the Chi-Town Tap, 2642 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago Police Department spokesman Pat Camden said. Both were reported in stable but serious condition, he said.

Police spokeswoman Monique Bond said department authorities had not spoken to the officer. But after viewing surveillance video from a nearby business and interviewing witnesses, they had ruled that if the officer deliberately fired his gun, he acted in self-defense and within department guidelines, Bond said.

It's still unclear whether the officer fired intentionally or if the weapon discharged accidentally, she said.

The seven-year veteran of the Near North District and two friends were walking north on Lincoln after leaving Deja Vu, a bar several doors south of Chi-town Tap. A group of six to eight men approached them and "verbally accost the officer and the acquaintances as they're walking by," Bond said.

"The off-duty officer responds to the offenders, basically saying, 'We're not looking for trouble,'" she said. "At that point, the offenders advance toward them."

The men surrounded the officer, who took out his handgun and held it at his side as he identified himself as a police officer, police said.

"Suddenly, the offender lunges at him and stabs him twice in the abdomen," Bond said. The officer is "on the ground, and the rest of the offenders are beating and kicking him. His weapon discharges and hits an offender in the abdomen."

It was unclear if the man who was shot was also the man who stabbed the officer, she said.

A witness told investigators that one of the attackers grabbed the officer's gun and threw it across the street. The gun was found later, police said.

The officer was not intoxicated and alcohol was not a factor in the incident, Bond said.

Besides the man who was shot, several of the attackers, who police said are gang members, were in custody and charges were pending, Bond said.

Neighbors said the two bars on the block are full of people well into the early morning hours on weekends, and it's not uncommon to hear shouting and arguments.

"You have lots of yelling and hollering," said Maggie Koons, 23, whose apartment is near the scene of the fight. "There's always something, but never gunfire."






ASSHOLE! Steve Janowski
Bail was set at $100,000 Sunday for a cabdriver accused of knocking over a police officer and ramming at least two cars while trying to escape.Tribune

Thursday, March 01, 2007

What does The Future Hold?

LABOR NEGOTIATIONS
Contracts with city unions expire June 30 and a showdown looms. Last time around, the police contract was handed down by an arbitrator, and it took 28 months to nail down an agreement with the building trades that ended up denying retirees back paychecks. This time, the stage is set for even more tension after most major unions denied Daley their endorsements and worked to elect a more independent City Council. Daley also must confront a pension underfunding problem that threatens to saddle future generations with a debt they can't handle. Painful solutions include benefit reductions and increased employee contributions.


Be prepared for for a long fight. Charlie Williams has made his view on our medical abundantly clear. Williams insist that a two teir system should be in place where sworn members will keep the existing benefit of 364 days in a two year period and and that new hires would be given something in line with other departments i.e. 12 days a year. We have also mentioned in a prior post that a two tier system has been proposed by a civic group concerning our pensions. Watch for the department to dangle the 10 hour day in our direction. What we would have to give up may be costly.

POLICE SUPERINTENDENT
On or before Police Supt. Phil Cline celebrates his four-year anniversary in October, he is expected to announce his retirement from the pressure-cooker job. That will force the Police Board to conduct its usual nationwide search -- and Daley to choose a replacement, either from the Chicago Police Department's thin bench or from outside Chicago, which he hates to do. Former Deputy Police Supt. Charles Ramsey, a runner-up in past police searches, is available again after a stint as police chief in Washington, D.C. In-house candidates include: Chief of Patrol Charles Williams, Deputy Supt. Hiram Graue, assistant deputy superintendents Eugene Williams and Matt Tobias and Frank Limon, chief of organized crime. Two women are also possibilities: Chief of Detectives Maria Maher and Assistant Deputy Supt. Anne Egan
Sun-Times

ADS Debra Kirby (IAD) is conspicuously missing from that list, could that make her the true front runner?
As for DS Charlie Williams, his latest memo sent to the districts, I quote " No longer are the days of handing out car keys to police officers to just ride around". He wants to see activity in the DOC. This man has lost touch with reality. Lets see, backlogs for 10 months out of the year, denied time due, denied lunches P.O.'s just off probation and working as acting FTO's and morale in the shitter and he seems to believe they are just riding around. You want to know why morale is so bad? Look no further than the top! Shame on you Charlie Williams!
Please keep in mind that this is an open blog
that can and is read by people other than Chicago Police Officers.