More Car Whining

The bile continues to pour in from 35th Street and the number of IP addresses from Homan Square is staggering! Someone must have taken the filters off for the day so everyone with a take home car could come here and attack us.

Unfortunately, we don't publish ad hominem attacks on ourselves and the Department at large. You want to justify a take home car, fine, justify it. But don't call everyone else a "bitch" or a "whiner" or attack us. These are tough times - the mayor said so - we happen to agree. Therefore, we should join in the belt tightening and cut out the nonsense spending. Didn't the Department just lay off a boatload of civilians? Take home cars for non-first-responding personnel should be cut number one.

And we've seen the comments saying the BMW over at Asset Forfeiture was a seizure and didn't cost taxpayers a dime. We beg to differ:

• Who's filling the car with gas? Taxpayers;
• Who's insuring the car? Taxpayers;
  
• When it gets a flat or needs maintenance, does Fleet have BMW parts, tires and qualified BMW mechanics? Guess we have to farm that one out at (you guessed it) taxpayer expense;
• Asset Forfeiture didn't seize any beaters? A few nice fuel efficient Toyotas or Hondas? Sure they did. But that isn't good enough for the mucky-mucks over at there. They have to drive a Beemer because... because... because why exactly? To show off? To be arrogant? Because they can?

If it's an asset, sell it at auction and fund Department programs instead of filling it with taxpayer funded gas and driving value off the Blue Book price. Someone said "The seized auto has to be used in narcotics for a year before it can be sold. So much for the expensive MB. Many of high line cars sit in the garage for a year until they can be sold. State requirements." Then garage it in one of Vanecko's warehouses. Or use it for buy/busts if the payoff is greater than the resale value of the car. What value is gained by stroking egos? That goes for the expensive SUV's and other luxury sedans seized.

And to the person multiple posting from the same IP address about how this is a Daley plot to divide and conquer the Department to the detriment of the contract, it isn't the use of take-home cars that's dividing the Department - it's the fact that Daley is going to fuck each and every one of us by pleading "poor" in the media while tacitly allowing millions of dollars, maybe tens of millions, to be pissed away giving two hundred or more unnecessary take home cars to people who have no discernible use for them.