Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Monday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

Nelson Algren famously wrote in Chicago: City On The Make that “once you’ve come to be part of this particular patch, you’ll never love another. Like loving a woman with a broken nose, you may well find lovelier lovelies. But never a lovely so real.”
I dunno, I just think Chicago’s ugly. And there’s nothing to love about that.
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Holiday In Chicago: Scenes Observed By A Former Chicagoan With Ample Reason For Anonymity Upon Returning To The Tangled Mess Of Comatose Humanity Found Shivering And Rocking Back And Forth In The Vicinity Of The Southwest Shore Of ‘Lake Michigan.’


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Monday Morning Police Chief
“Former Chicago police Supt. Jody Weis – who ordered the 2011 re-investigation of David Koschman’s death – says he’s troubled that high-ranking cops apparently fabricated a self-defense claim to avoid charging a nephew of Mayor Richard M. Daley,” the Sun-Times reports.

“To me, the entire crux of this matter now is: How did the police department – how did the detectives – arrive at a self-defense claim based upon a comment attributed to Koschman that nobody can attribute to any witness?” Weis says.
“That is, to me, absolutely shocking. If you’re going to draw that conclusion, it’s got to be attributable to someone. You can’t just make it up.”

Oh, but you can.
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“In a 45-minute interview, Weis says the 10 years it took from Koschman’s death in 2004 until last month’s guilty plea by Daley nephew Richard J. ‘R.J.’ Vanecko is ‘a very sad commentary on the investigative prowess of the Chicago Police Department.'”
I disagree. I don’t doubt the investigative prowess of the CPD at all. Weis misses the point: They weren’t investigating. Instead, the case is a sad commentary on the extraordinary ability of the Chicago Police Department – in conjunction with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office – to serve its political masters.
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“[Special prosecutor Dan] Webb’s investigation found that Deputy Chief of Detectives Constantine ‘Dean’ Andrews ordered the case closed without charging Vanecko two days after Andrews and Sgt. Sam Cirone edited the detectives’ report, inserting a line saying Koschman ‘aggressively went after Vanecko, stating Fuck you, I’ll kick your ass.’

“That phrase is nowhere attributed to Koschman or any other witness,” Webb wrote.

“Besides blasting the 2011 police report done on his watch, Weis questioned why Vanecko wasn’t charged in 2004, when the police department was led by Supt. Phil Cline and Richard Devine was Cook County state’s attorney. Both were Daley allies.
“Weis also says he’s troubled that some of the Koschman case files disappeared and reappeared, with many records still missing.

There needs to more inquiry to find out how did this happen,” says Weis, who spent 23 years as an FBI agent before Daley named him superintendent in 2008. “Whoever’s doing the internal investigation – be it internal affairs or [city of Chicago Inspector General] Joe Ferguson’s office – there needs to be a very detailed report identifying the findings . . . to prevent any type of embarrassment like this from happening in the future.”

Yeah, I kinda thought that was Webb’s job. Not to mention Weis’s.

Weis ordered the re-investigation in January 2011 after the Chicago Sun-Times asked to see police records in the Koschman case. He says that at the time he couldn’t believe the case had never been closed because “this was not a complicated case.”
He says he “relied on my subordinates” to make sure the case “was handled right.” They included Deputy Supt. Steven Peterson and Chief of Detectives Thomas Byrne.

And how did that work out, Jody? It’s nice that you’re calling on a continued examination into how this mess happened, but let’s be clear that you’re doing so only after you fumbled the job yourself.
Shredding The Evidence
“A proposed metal shredder near a high school on Chicago’s Southwest Side has cleared a key hurdle,” WBEZ reports.
“The city’s Zoning Board of Appeals voted unanimously Friday night to approve a special-use application for the project, according to Peter Strazzabosco, deputy commissioner of the Chicago Department of Planning and Development, which provides the board’s staffing.
“Board chairman Jonathan Swain and members Catherine Budzinski and Sol Flores were present for the closed-door vote, Strazzabosco said.”
A closed-door vote? The city’s Zoning Board of Appeals votes in secret? Sadly, there is no further explanation to this aspect of the story.
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“The application came from Pure Metal Recycling, LLC, a company with ties to Acme Metal Refinery, a major contributor to a campaign fund controlled by Pilsen’s alderman, Danny Solis (25th). Acme was in the public eye last August after the Internal Revenue Service raided the company’s Bridgeport headquarters.
“Solis endorsed the proposed Pilsen metal shredder in a letter presented to the zoning board Friday.”
Photography Is Not A Crime
Except in Chicago.
For The Children
Even the city’s high school basketball championship game is hinky.
Oh, Toni
Even Toni Preckwinkle is part of the problem.

This is just the latest in the sleazy campaign that Preckwinkle supports.
The Preckwinkles of the city are certainly worse than the Berrios’s. We know who the Berrios’s are; the Preckwinkles keep fooling us.
I’m reminded of the item I wrote last week called Metra Marty. You know who else supported Richard M. Daley in his race against Harold Washington? So-called liberal lion Dawn Clark Netsch.
This is exactly where Barack Obama fit into the Machine here; riding shotgun providing cover in exchange for his own ambition.
The Way They Think
“Whenever you work at a newspaper, particularly a newspaper with high standards, you’re struck by the gap between the story that appears in the paper the next day and what the journalist who wrote that story will tell you about it after deadline,” Gawker founder Nick Denton says.
He’s absolutely right.
“The version they tell over a drink is much more interesting – legally riskier, sometimes more trivial, and sometimes it fits less neatly into the institution’s narrative. Usually it’s a lot truer. The very fact that a journalist will ask another journalist who has a story in the paper, ‘So what really happened?’ – now, just think about that question.”
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The Beachwood Reporter International Hour
Our second podcast is up and we still haven’t gotten ourselves properly formatted for what is to become The Beachwood Radio Hour, so be patient while we at least talk at ya’ about a random collection of current events. In this edition, we go international – and that includes Mel Reynolds.

Among the improvements on the way: Tagging the podcast by topic in such a way that allows you to just listen to the particular segment you may be interested in. Be patient!
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SportsMonday: Hoping Michael Sam’s Stock Drops
That’s how he can become a Bear.
WGN Morning News Better Without Audio
Flagship follies continue.
Chicagoetry: Rainbow Bridge
The Eisenhower’s man-made miracle.
The Weekend In Chicago Rock
Featuring: The Autumn Defense, Touché Amoré, Nick Waterhouse, Steve Earle, Skinny Puppy, Frank McComb, Tanks & Guns, Ed Holstein and Steve Dawson, Deep Dish, and the Occidental Brothers Dance Band International.
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BeachBook
* Documents Reveal Ignorance Of Federal Reserve Officials During 2008 Financial Crisis.
* Secret Papers Reveal Extent Of Queen And Prince Charles’ Vetos Over New Laws.
* Shot 48 Times As A Child, Former West Sider Thrives.
* The Search Is On For Beloved Guitar Stolen At O’Hare.
* Heifers Soon To Be Allowed For Cattle Contract Settlement.
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BeachTweet


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The Beachwood Tip Line: Code red.

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Posted on February 24, 2014