Boss Revolt?

Has one or more been pushed too far?

• Kudos to Joe Patterso A/1 Dep Chief for telling Masters and the screaming skull why crime in Area 1 is up ("they are unemployed and have nothing to lose. Its been this way for 40+ years in Englewood. Why should it change now? The only difference is the lack of police presence in these areas due to manpower."). Supposedly happened at a CAR meeting Wednesday for Area 1. The screaming skull went berzerk, and none other than Masters had to explain to Jody why Pterson was so upset.

The truth hurts. And the truth is we're on the verge of a disaster here. Midnights across the city are running at 30% undermanned. We actually had someone from a west side district e-mail us the sheets from the first 35 days of the year and they were operating down 3 to 5 cars per night for 32 of those days. That's not just insane - that's a recipe for disaster.

J-Failure has already lost the rank and file. Did everyone hear about the 16 March meeting at West Side Tech? An e-mailer tells us the total number of officers who showed up was three. Three officers from a Department that numbers nearly 10,000. We verified it through an exempt who has written to us in the past.

Now we hear that a Deputy Chief is finally admitting the manpower shortage is affecting policing? We can only say, "It's about fucking time."