Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Thursday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“The national president of the Fraternal Order of Police demanded Thursday that Mayor Lori Lightfoot apologize to rank and file Chicago Police officers – and ‘conduct herself with more dignity and less immaturity’ – after Lightfoot was captured on an open mic calling their second vice-president ‘this FOP clown,'” the Sun-Times reports.
“Chuck Canterbury jumped into the controversy triggered by Lightfoot’s off-handed remark, first by tweeting the demand for a mayoral apology, then by accusing Lightfoot of immature behavior that has left Chicago Police officers feeling unappreciated by their new boss.”
Well, Canterbury certainly knows a thing or two about dignity and maturity.


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Retweeted by Canterbury:


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Also, fyi . . .


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Make no mistake, Chicago’s FOP is Trumpy through-and-through. Yet . . .
“Just over two months into a four-year term, Lightfoot has alienated a police union that didn’t trust her to begin with, thanks to her days as Police Board president and co-chair of the Task Force on Police Accountability,” Fran Spielman “reports.”
In other words, thanks to her days holding the police accountable?
(Also, memo to the Preckwinkle dead-enders and “radicals” who spent the campaign telling us Lightfoot was “a cop.”)
Here’s Murray in June, via the Tribune:
“During the public comment period of Wednesday’s City Council meeting, Fraternal Order of Police Vice President Patrick Murray stood before the microphone and asked Lightfoot to include union officials in reform efforts. Lightfoot, from the dais, replied, ‘Anytime the FOP wants to do anything other than object and obstruct (reform).’ She said she’s told FOP President Kevin Graham as much.”
The FOP pointedly refused to participate in the city’s reform effort, including the shaping of its consent decree, and then tried to jump in late and say it was excluded from the process. A judge shot that notion down in January, saying the FOP had no one to blame but itself for being left on the sidelines.
And it’s not as if Lightfoot is a new target for Murray and the FOP – though she’s a sharper and wittier target than the last one.
“Leaders of Chicago’s police union kicked off an emotionally charged City Council meeting Wednesday by telling Mayor Rahm Emanuel he had turned his back on them,” the Tribune reported in May 2018.

With Emanuel standing at the dais at the front of chambers, union Vice President Patrick Murray said police officers think the mayor has cast their interests aside by endorsing a federal consent decree overseeing police reform and not yet agreeing to a new contract nearly a year after the union’s last one expired.
“You are more concerned with consent decrees, settlements, pandering to police-hating groups than negotiating a contract with us,” Murray said. “Our members are starting to believe you have no intention of negotiating a contract with us until after the next election.”
Murray then asked all the FOP members in the gallery to stand. He reiterated that they think Emanuel has turned his back on them and announced: “We are leaving, thank you.” The officers then filed out of chambers and went downstairs to demonstrate.

Yes, the new mayor has to negotiate a new contract with the cops. No, she doesn’t have to be intimidated by them.
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I happen to believe, unlike Spielman and the FOP, that Lightfoot is off to a strong (though flawed) start. For example, via the Sun-Times:
“The mayor’s off-handed remark was picked up on the livestream of the City Council meeting. That’s apparently why the mayor made no attempt to deny the remark during the news conference that followed the council meeting.”
That’s apparently why she made no attempt to deny the remark? Otherwise she would have? Mind-reading is not reporting.
But I digress.

“It was not appropriate for me to say that out loud,” Lightfoot said.

I might concede that.
“Is the mayor planning to apologize to Murray or to the union with which she is now attempting to establish a dialogue and needs to negotiate a new police contract? ‘I think I just did. I think I said I shouldn’t have said that out loud,’ she said.
“Is the mayor sorry she said it or is she sorry the derogatory remark got picked up on a hot mic? ‘I’m sorry that I said it out loud,’ she said.”
I’m sorry, but how great is that? She’s only sorry that she said it out loud, not that she believes it to be true. That, my friends, is fucking refreshing. No fake apologies. No made-up excuses. No “backtracking” on or “cleaning up” the remark. She stands by it, as she should.
Hit And Runs
“The city has had at least 102 fatal hit-and-run crashes since the start of 2014, according to the data, obtained by WBEZ using the Illinois Freedom of Information Act,” the station reports.
“The data show that just 46 of those cases have been ‘cleared’ – the police parlance for solved. That’s 45%. In several of the solved cases, the offenders turned themselves in.
“It means a Chicago driver who fatally injures someone, leaves the scene and does not look back will probably get away with it.”
I’m not sure 55% qualifies as “probably.”
But I digress.
What’s missing here is a comparison to national clearance rates on hit-and-runs. For all we know, Chicago police solve more of them than any other department in the country.
BenZo
“Things can turn very quickly. And the deeper your faith, the stronger your appreciation for what you have, the greater the chance that you can weather storms with the help of God,” Ben Zobrist’s reverend father told the Daily Herald.
“The Cubs have been weathering storms all year long. With a Swiss cheese roster and without the seasoned and reliable ‘glue’ of a Zobrist, Joe Maddon has somehow craftworked a team that wins at home and loses on the road into a tenuous spot atop the NL Central.
“Now, with MLB personnel deadlines straight ahead, the question looms: Is Ben Zobrist coming back to assist in a golden autumn run?

“Ben is a perfectionist,” his father says. “He has also been a very conflicted person for some time now.

About coming back? Or longer than that?

“Without question, his top priority remains his three children. Then, the marriage, if it can be saved.
“As far as baseball, there have been days when I thought he was very close to coming back and other days when I think he’s not coming back.
“I know he has kept in regular touch with Theo (Epstein). And if there are deadlines coming up – and I don’t completely understand all of the new rules – obviously, a decision has to be made.
“Ben will do what’s best for his children and then himself. And with the Lord, and with prayer, things will be right.”

Only if the Lord is lefthanded, can pitch in high-leverage situations and fits into the Cubs’ budget.
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New on the Beachwood today . . .
No More “No Match” Letters
Trump resurrects silent workplace raids.
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End Blasphemy Laws
At least 67 countries have them.
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ChicagoReddit

Regarding enforcement of skateboarding law downtown from r/chicago


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ChicagoGram


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ChicagoTube
ComplexCon Chicago 2019 | Behind The Scenes.

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BeachBook
The United States Won’t Feed 30,000 Starving Syrians Living Under Its Protection.

America is heinous.
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Why Forbes Is Dropping Wilbur Ross’s Net Worth – Again.

Team of Liars.
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Alan Lomax And The Search For The Origins Of Music.

Some troubling information about his “original sin” you may not have heard before about Lomax. Also, a remarkable reminder: “Some of the obscure songs that he discovered and recorded later became global hits such as ‘House of the Rising Sun’ (The Animals), ‘Rock Island Line’ (Lonnie Donegan), and ‘The Sloop John B’ (The Beach Boys).
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The Illinois Artist Behind Social Media’s Latest Big Idea.

Eh.
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You Can’t Copyright A Cocktail, So What’s A Creative Bartender To Do?

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TweetWood
A sampling.


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The Beachwood McRibTipLine: Drama-free.

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Posted on July 25, 2019