Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Thursday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“Interim Chicago police Superintendent Charlie Beck unveiled a massive restructuring Thursday that will move hundreds of detectives and narcotics and gang officers from specialized units to police districts in a bid to bring added resources and better coordination to combating violence,” the Tribune reports.
“The reorganization also creates a new office to carry out policing reforms required by a federal consent decree – headed by the highest-ranking African American woman in the department’s history.”
If history is any guide, hundreds of officers will be moved back to specialized units in a few years to better combat violence. But creating a new office to carry out reforms required by the consent decree is probably a good thing, though ultimately it will be up to the new permanent chief and the rank-and-file to embrace reform.
One thing is for certain, though: Beck is not merely a caretaker police chief. To some degree, at least, he’s a reformer who is sympatico with Mayor Lori Lightfoot and he’s laying the groundwork for the next chief that should get some difficult decisions out of the way and smooth the path for his successor (who just might end up being his pal Sean Malinowski).


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More . . .
“To overhaul training and enact other reforms, Beck created an Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform, appointing as its head Barbara West, the first African-American woman to ascend this high in the department.
“The reform office will be placed at the very top of the department organization structure with the Office of Operations, which will spearhead the effort to continue to tamp down violence after three consecutive years of declines in shootings and homicides. That office will be led by First Deputy Superintendent Anthony Riccio.”
West is often named on media shortlists of potential chiefs. Riccio is most recently known as the guy who pissed off Lightfoot last summer for going on vacation after she had cancelled time off department brass, though it turned out the trip was pre-paid and pre-approved.
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Meanwhile . . .
Garry McCannabis
“Former Chicago Police Supt. and mayoral candidate Garry McCarthy has a new gig: Security consultant to a weed company,” Block Club Chicago reports.
Shouldn’t every mention of McCarthy come with the appellation “disgraced,” as in “disgraced former Chicago police chief Garry McCarthy?” After all, he is the only person in the known universe to leave two departments under federal consent decrees for widespread civil rights violations.
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Anyway . . .
“MOCA Modern Cannabis, which is in a race with three other companies to open a dispensary in a small area of River North, brought McCarthy on as a security consultant to advise on measures for their planned dispensary at 216 W. Ohio St., located a few blocks from where McCarthy lives.”
MOCA’s Logan Square location is the one that was burgled for 200 large a few days after legalization, as Block Club notes.
Also . . .
“[McCarthy] aims to help MOCA as they work to open the dispensary in River North, working with Michael Chasen, a retired police detective and MOCA’s chief security officer.”
Chasen’s name is familiar to reporters who often found him on the other end of their phone calls to his Area, among other things.
And . . .
“McCarthy said it was an easy decision to consult given that he worked to decriminalize cannabis in both Chicago and Newark, where he also served as top cop . . . News reports from the time paint a murkier picture.”
Thank you for saying so, and not letting him get away with such a claim unvetted. You can click through for the picture those news reports painted.
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Busting Black Migration Myths
“The story of black Chicagoans leaving the city is largely mired in speculation and sometimes makes for grand political theater. Among the narratives offered by some have been: black residents leave because of violence; they are embarking on a reverse migration to the South; and they’re being pushed out,” Natalie Moore reports for WBEZ.
“A new report from the University of Illinois at Chicago busts some of those myths. Instead it finds a much more complicated story: black population trends in Chicago are strongly correlated to racial inequities in the city – and the pattern goes back decades.”
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Surveilling Bridgeview
“Since 2016, documentary filmmaker Assia Boundaoui has been waiting for answers from the FBI to one question: Which parts of her Arab American community in Bridgeview were surveilled after 9/11? After a court hearing last week, she learned she will have to keep waiting,” the Tribune reports.
“A journalist by profession, Boundaoui said she needed to know why her community was being tracked so in 2016, she submitted questions through a Freedom of Information Act request to the FBI. Eventually, she received more than 33,000 heavily redacted documents that contained more than 500 names of people and organizations from Muslim communities around the country . . .
“In late December, the FBI acknowledged having about 40,000 more documents related to the operation that it hadn’t initially released. At the agency’s normal processing rate of 500 pages per month, according to an affidavit by Hardy, the first release of these pages to Boundaoui would be in March of this year.”
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New on the Beachwood today . . .
Soda Taxes Work
The soft drink industry uses every trick in the book to try to convince politicians a tax on sugary drinks is bad policy. But the evidence is clear.
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The 12th Annual (More Or Less) Beachwood Super Bowl Halftime Show Prop Bet: Shakira & JLo Edition
“Look, we’ve all got bigger fish to fry right now and we can do it over the embers of a once-promising democracy, but dammit, JLo got screwed.”
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Why Public Wi-Fi Is A Lot Safer Than You Think
Advice to avoid public Wi-Fi is mostly out of date and applicable to a lot fewer people than it once was.
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ChicagoReddit

Found: brown knitted hat with fur pompom near Wacker and Stetson. Distinctive pattern. from r/chicago


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ChicagoGram


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ChicagoTube
The Soul Avengers at Martyrs’ on Monday night.

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BeachBook
When Ghost Kitchens Become Mysterious Grubhub Listings.

I call them Gruber.
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Afternoon Of The Pawnbrokers.

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TweetWood
A sampling of the delight and disgust you can find @BeachwoodReport.


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I go there for the articles.


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The Beachwood Wing Line: Fly right.

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Posted on January 30, 2020