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Imagine being named Jimi Hendrix's favorite guitarist...

link

...meet the late Terry Kath (1946-1978).

That song is golden. Chicago was a horny band, but that song was horn-free. The band was tight, and truly inspired for their time. Watch it -- shades of everything in that one.

"Chicago murder on the steps of a church tests the faithful"

Via Instapundit:  You could feel the bravery in the congregation from the moment they began to sing the great spiritual "I Am on the Battlefield for My Lord." And you could see the strength of it as the husbands, wives, grandparents and children stood together to sing out their praise for God.

That strength was in their smiles, although some smiles trembled a bit at the edges and some eyes were wet, remembering what happened. And strength and kindness was overwhelmingly evident in their grasp, when they held hands and prayed with a stranger among them Sunday.

"We are always reminded of who the enemy is," the Rev. Dr. Reginald Bachus told me in his office before Sunday's service began. "Just about this time last Sunday, we were reminded that the thief comes to kill and destroy, to steal your faith, but Jesus won't let that happen."

The previous Sunday, a church usher, Emmanuel Fleming, 34, and another man Michael Swift, 46, were shot to death on the steps of that church as Fleming yelled to his three little children to run.


So this where Chicago is now: Murder on the steps of church.

If silence is consent, then Chicago politicians are remarkably silent about murder on church steps in the city. They must like it that way.

(link)

"Chicago man... sues city for $15M, arrested on murder charges minutes after announcement"

Daily News:  In a press conference at his attorney’s office on Wednesday, Dominiq Greer was set to take on Chicago in an excessive force lawsuit from a chase in which cops shot him seven times in a matter of seconds.

Greer fled from officers on July 4, 2014, and ran into an alley, where he tried tossing a pistol onto a roof when he stumbled and fell, his lawyer, Eugene Hollander told the Daily News.
Chicago officers shot him in his right arm, right leg and foot, and when Greer got back up, fired four more times in his right arm, left arm, chest and back.

Greer looked at the officers after suffering seven gunshots, and asked, “Why are you shooting at me?”
“As a result of his injuries, my client, who is a father to a 5-year-old boy, will have permanent and lifelong injuries. He cannot pick up and hold his son,” Hollander said in a statement.

Minutes after showing the surveillance footage and announcing the $15 million lawsuit, Chicago police arrested Greer walking out of his lawyer’s office.

"Violent crime has shot up due to the nonstop war on cops waged by Shaun King, Black Lives Matter, and the ACLU"

Will the anti-cop Left please figure out what it wants? For more than a decade, activists have demanded the end of proactive policing, claiming that it was racist. Pedestrian stops—otherwise known as stop, question, and frisk—were attacked as a bigoted oppression of minority communities. In March 2015, for example, the ACLU of Illinois accused the Chicago Police Department of “targeting” minorities because stops are “disproportionately concentrated in the black community.”

Equally vilified was Broken Windows policing, which responds to low-level offenses such as graffiti, disorderly conduct, and turnstile jumping. Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King launched a petition after the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, demanding that Attorney General Eric Holder “meet with local black and brown youth across the country who are dealing with ‘Zero Tolerance’ and ‘Broken Windows’ policing.”

Well, the police got the message. In response to the incessant accusations of racism and the heightened hostility in the streets that has followed the Michael Brown shooting, officers have pulled back from making investigatory stops and enforcing low-level offenses in many urban areas. As a result, violent crime in cities with large black populations has shot up—homicides in the largest 50 citiesrose nearly 17 percent in 2015. And the Left is once again denouncing the police—this time for not doing enough policing. King now accuses police in Chicago of not “doing their job,” as a result of which “people are dying.” Stops in Chicago are down nearly 90 percent this year through the end of March, compared with the same period in 2015; shootings were up 78 percent and homicides up 62 percent through April 10. Over 100 people were shot in the first ten days of 2016. King scoffs at the suggestion that a new 70-question street-stop form imposed on the CPD by the ACLU is partly responsible for the drop-off in engagement. If American police “refuse to do their jobs [i.e., make stops] when more paperwork is required,” he retorts, “it’s symptomatic of an entirely broken system in need of an overhaul.” This is the same King who as recently as October fumed that “nothing happening in this country appears to be slowing [the police] down.”

Let’s examine the dilemma imposed on cops by activists like King...

(please read the whole thing)

H/t Michael Haz

Bernie supporters claim responsibility for disrupting a Trump Chicago rally.

"Homicides in Chicago this year double same period last year"

"Four homicides over the weekend and two more Monday morning pushed Chicago's homicide count so far this year to double the same period last year."

The city has recorded at least 95 homicides since the first of the year, compared to 47 last year, according to data kept by the Tribune. The city has also more than doubled the amount of people shot - about 420 this year compared to 193 last year.

Meanwhile, Chicago police "stop and frisks" is down 80% in 2016.

As shootings and murders spike one major component of Chicago police crime fighting is way down. The number of street stops by officers has plunged 80 percent this year.

For decades when Chicago police stopped and frisked someone on the street, they had to fill out a small card called a "Contact Card." It required simple, basic information about who was stopped and why. Beginning January 1, 2016, a new state law regulated when cops could stop and pat down people in public and then officers had to fill out a two page "Investigatory Stop Report."...

More than paperwork or new laws, Chicago police officials say they know that some cops may just be shying away from controversy.

"Periodically somebody will say something to the effect of that they are concerned of being the next 'viral video'. Even when they're doing something right they are concerned that their actions are being questioned and they'll be the next one to go viral," he says.

Viral video is one way to put it. In a fish bowl is another; that's where the president of the police union says his members are forced to their jobs. Fraternal Order of Police president Dean Angelo says less-aggressive policing no doubt coincides with the spike in Chicago murders and shootings.

Do you believe there a correlation between the uptick in murders and the decrease in aggressive police tactics?

Liars Lying About Murders In Chicago

One year after Chicago Magazine reported that Chicago Police Department was under counting the City's murders, the problem persists, and the top brass are up to some new tricks.

This year's tricks are mostly under charging - calling something that was a homicide by a non-homicide name - in order to rig the statistics so it looks like the homicide rate is declining.

It isn't.  In fact, homicides are up.

Chicago Magazine writers David Bernstein and Noah Isackson have written a marvelous story of investigation and deception in Chicago homicide statistics.  I have attempted to excerpt it for this topic, but it is far to rich to be summarized in a few paragraphs.

So this evening when you have a few minutes of reading time, read the full article here.

"Fire extinguisher factory destroyed in massive blaze"

"A Chicago factory that makes chemicals for use in fire extinguishers was destroyed in a massive blaze Thursday night."

More than 150 firefighters responded to the scene and it took them nearly three hours to extinguish the fire. The crews had difficulty getting enough water to the building because of a lack of hydrants and had to perform an "inline operation," in which six trucks were spaced out over a mile and connected by hoses to pipe water, the Chicago Tribune reported.

High flames from the blaze could be spotted from miles away and thick black smoke choked a nearby highway.

Chicago police detaining people at off the book black sites

This whole thing bodes poorly for the city. After all the national debate about what is proper for a nation during and in places of war, a city does on its own during peacetime. Depending on how you define war and how you define peacetime.

The facility, a nondescript warehouse on Chicago’s west side known as Homan Square, has long been the scene of secretive work by special police units. 

Secretive work, special units operating a place where people basic human rights are suspended, never mind Constitutional rights, by keeping arrestees off the books, by beatings so severe that head wounds resulted, denial of attorney access due to the place being "secure," holding people for half a day up to a full day, holding children young as 15 years, holding a man in interview room either abused or neglected allowing him to die there.

Well yeah, but was anyone waterboarded? 

The Guardian piece goes into horrifying detail with individual stories. 

“They just disappear,” said Anthony Hill, a criminal defense attorney, “until they show up at a district for charging or are just released back out on the street.”

Guardian.com/us-news

What the h-e-double Billy clubs, Chicago? 

Until The Sun Comes Up

A story of violent deaths in Chicago, and a Chicago Tribune news reporter's story of covering them on the overnight shift.

For an overnight shift reporter in America's murder capital, the beat is an education in violence and its aftermath, marked by powerful snapshots of grief.

What does the aftermath of murder sound like?

I stood outside the yellow tape, looking at the crumpled body of 14-year-old Damani Henard, whose name I did not yet know, surrounded by an eerie quiet.

That silence, one I’d hear versions of again and again, became a powerful part of my nights. Four hundred fifteen people were murdered in Chicago in 2013, more than in any other American city — and this was an improvement from the year before. I was at the scene of more than 30 of them. Most were killed by guns; many were teenagers. In Chicago last year, more than 2,100 people were shot.

These are murders that never merit protests, nor appearances by well-dressed and immaculately coiffed civil rights activists.  And that is simply, dreadfully, wrong.  

Read the whole essay.

USA Today: Was Toronto Mayor Ford denied entry to U.S. for rehab?

"Was flamboyant Toronto Mayor Rob Ford denied entry into the United States last week after flying to Chicago to check into a drug and alcohol rehab center?"

The tantalizing prospects were first raised in an exclusive story by The (Toronto) Globe and Mail that said Ford turned back after boarding a plane in Canada bound for Chicago.

Ford has acknowledged problems with alcohol abuse and smoking crack cocaine. (read more)

I came across this story while listening to Rush.. or I should say he alerted me to it. Rush sounded perplexed (or pretended to sound perplexed) that the US can, apparently, keep people out of the country. It is possible to keep people from entering the country. Who knew?

Chiraq

"A Facebook argument had apparently sparked a completely unrelated shooting at the start of the weekend. Best friends Jordan Means, 16, and Anthony Bankhead, 18, got into the online spat with a man in his 30s. The man is said to have followed his final post by appearing in the flesh and shooting the two teens to death."

"Two other men were fatally shot later in the weekend as they sat in a car that was also occupied by two kids, ages 3 and 7. The children were physically unharmed but no doubt will join those who are as mentally scarred by living in Chicago as were some combat veterans who returned from the war in Iraq." (read more)

Quotable Chickelit: "Chardonnay is a great way to get sauced!"

Come to the Detroit area and I will treat you to Chicken Chardonnay. You'll be back. pic.twitter.com/6DZUOu4kiD
— Tari (@uncommentari) March 29, 2014

‘Disco Sucks’ Night at Chicago’s Comiskey Park in 1979

"It was a hot, sticky, muggy night. And as the evening wore on, you saw kids trying to climb through the catwalk, which was this chain-link fenced area near the scoreboard. I don’t know how people climbed up the exterior wall. The next thing you know, there were They were literally pouring in from every crevice even though it was sold out, the gates were closed, etc."

"They do the seventh inning stretch. Everybody stands up to sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” Out comes Steve Dahl in this jeep, wearing a demolition helmet, ROTC jacket and a Hawaiian shirt. That was kind of his uniform and there were other people in the audience wearing this stuff. He makes the announcement that they’re gonna blow up the records. And he had a dumpster. You know, like when you’re clearing out drywall and construction material, out in front of your house: they had one of those things filled with disco records."

 

 

"They used dynamite and they blew up the records. And the next thing I know, there’s shrapnel flying through the air. How people weren’t losing limbs with all this vinyl flying, you couldn’t believe it! Smoke everywhere. Fires on the field. Next thing that happens: kids are rushing the field. And they’re going nuts, jumping around, fanning the flames with their shirts."

"And all the ballpark officials are just freaking out. The announcers were trying to get everyone back to their seats. That was not gonna happen."

Cold Weather Causes Higher Rate of Gun Homicides

The question of how temperature levels impact the urban homicide rate in major urban areas has vexed criminology researchers for decades. 

Part of the problem is that there is no effective model, no workable framework, that allows for a comparison of any two cities unbiased by culture and country.  Comparing gun homicides in Winnipeg with those in Wichita, to use two examples, isn't completely accurate because of cultural differences, but more so because of differences in laws between the two countries.

The identification of climatic opposites - cities with high and low average winter temperatures - is fairly simple.  Weather data is reliable and abundant.  And the methods of collecting temperature readings and then norming them into a seasonal average are consistent city-to-city, largely because of NOAA.

Recently criminal scientists have reached consensus that the populations of Houston and Chicago share so many common traits and are composed of nearly identical demographic and economic strata, that meaningful theories of behavior can be tested. 

The results of the studies are here (excerpted from a paper presented at a symposium in November):

Chicago's Astonishing Debt and Pension Liabilities

It's mind a blowing $33 billion, according to this article in the Washington Post.

The City of Chicago has $7 billion of revenue each year, from which is it supposed to pay all city operating costs, service debt obligations, retire debt, and fund several employee pension plans.  But it can't do that, or more accurately won't do it because politicians lack the political courage necessary to make changes.  And because the amount owed is so staggering relative to Chicago's tax revenues.

The WaPo article lists $19.5 billion of unfunded pension liabilities and $13.9 billion of outstanding general obligation bond liability, a total of $33 billion.  All of these obligations are to be paid from revenues collected via the property tax and local sales taxes.

Decades of city government spending means that in 2039, Chicago will still be paying off bonds from 1993. Some of those repayments, the Tribune said, will be for debts on public housing developments that were torn down more than a decade ago. Generous pension contracts signed without allocating future money means the police union’s pension fund has just 31 percent of what it will need to pay out future liabilities; the firefighting union has just 25 percent of the money it needs.

The WaPo article is accurate as far as it goes, but it doesn't go far enough.  It doesn't look at ALL pension obligations that the Chicago must meet.  Taken from a publication of the Civic Federation:

Chicago has unfunded pension liabilities of $14.8 billion plus $27.4 billion, a total of $42.2 billion.  Add the general obligation bond liability of $13.9 billion and the total becomes a whopping $56.1 billion that Chicago owes.

And that doesn't count Chicago's portion of the $75 billion of unfunded state-wide pension liabilities.

The mayor of Chicago has five difficult choices from which he can choose:

1. Protect Chicago from pension liabilities by filing for bankruptcy.

2.  Seek payment of its outstanding obligations in part or fully by the federal government.  Obama can solve this with a stroke of his auto-pen.  And every other major city will expect the same gift.

3.  Restructure Chicago's labor union contracts to require that union employees pay a larger part of their own retirement funding.  Rahm doesn't have enough Kevlar to do this.  And his aldermen would not stand with him.

4. Impose and astronomical increase in property taxes and watch businesses and residents flee to other municipalities while tax delinquencies skyrocket. 

5. Do nothing and let the problem fester for the next mayor to resolve, or more likely, kick further down the road.  Seek higher political office and let some other schlub solve the problem next term.

Welcome to the decline of a once-great American city.