Probation...Again

Cook County "justice"

• A 15-year-old boy who earlier this year fooled Chicago police officers into believing he was one of their own will spend three years on probation after pleading guilty to impersonating a cop and later stealing a car he persuaded a dealer to let him test drive.

  Juvenile Court Judge Andrew Berman warned the boy he would have to comply with the terms of his probation, including participating in a mentoring program, serving 30 days home confinement, spending much of his time at a monitoring center and taking part in in-home therapy.

  "One of the things that you have done, and have been very candid about, is you like to manipulate other people and situations," Berman told the boy. "That's going to stop right now. You are not going to manipulate me. If you mess up with this probation ... to say nothing of if you get arrested, that's it. Next stop is the Department of Corrections."

Yeah, right. This kid did numerous impersonations, got caught once, and is working on an increasingly destructive rap sheet. We give him six months before he gets caught violating probation.

All he learned here was how to game the system.