Lieutenants List Out

Post it if you got it.

UPDATE: Got it

• MERIT
  
  001 Blissett, Rodney D
  314 Liebas St. Phillip
  153 Marianovich, Mark
  189 Moore, Marc
  650 Pena, Maria
  606 Velez, Carlos
  
  SCORE
  
  166 Case, David
  192 Darlin, Randall
  620 Deenihan, Brendan
  004 Doherty, Raymond
  006 Gill, Phyllis
  012 Kingsley, Dale
  650 Klichowski, Gregory
  055 Mack, Paul
  253 Ryan, John
  011 Schmeer, Paula
  018 Serafini, John
  017 Sesso, Jacqueline
  124 Sesso, Steven
  017 Stiscak, Michael

No More Excuses (UPDATES!)

Even the weather is cooperating:

• Thursday... Cloudy. Slight chance of rain in the morning...then rain likely in the afternoon. Highs in the upper 40s. Northeast winds 10 to 20 mph. Chance of precipitation 70 percent.

Looks like protest time will be decent enough for marching. We will try to update as possible. Anyone taking pictures, e-mail them to us and we'll post the good ones.

Good luck and we'll see you there.

UPDATE: We're going to try something never before attempted in the history of SCC - updates from the scene. Actually, we tried it once, but it was a crime scene, it was busy, it was impossible. This might not be. The only trouble is, we can't really check e-mail or post pics live. Our uniform allowance we mean salary economic reality doesn't allow us to afford a really snazzy phone. Anyway, we're headed over to the 001 parking lot, then a free CTA ride. Good thing we've got that parking permit so Sergeant Deputy doesn't tow the car.

UPDATE: Talk from the scene, word is the 008 District bus had to go back for seconds, there were so many people.

UPDATE: Talk from the scene, 016 reports almost 100 people at Habetler Bowl when the bus arrived.

UPDATE: The picket line reaches reaches all the way around City Hall. Laugh that one off Shortshanks. A number of coppers are saying that Goudie's hit job on behalf of the mayor was the last straw. Thanks Chuck!

UPDATE: WBBM is saying "thousands" of police. Seeing as how the Police Department always overestimates crowd sizes for special events and the media underestimates if the mayor tells them to, we're comfortable saying the crowd is in excess of 2,000. Anyone from FOP doing a head count?

UPDATE: Live Pic!

Send what you got. We'll get to what we can.

UPDATE: More pics:Off to Daley Plaza - the crowd is so big it's moving in fits and spurts.

UPDATE: Channel 7 says "a few hundred"

Evidently, Channel 7 is full of shit again, from Goudie on down.

Goudie's Folly

Well that was some horribly half-assed reporting. Chuck left out a bunch of stuff that might have explained why Daley and Beale are attacking the police:

• No one disputes that police and firefighters deserve to be paid as much as the taxpayers can afford. But since 1980, rank and file officers have been paid hundreds of millions of dollars more than their publicly budgeted salaries.

The Unions took those payments in return for accepting drastically reduced salaries at the time. Uniform and Duty checks were not pensionable at that time. To eliminate the City's obligation and help balance the budgets in trying economic times, the Union and the City came together and hammered out a way to give the officers extra money for uniform upkeep and expenses without saddling the City with extra pension debt.

We all see how that's worked out ever since - our pension is funded at something like 42% and dropping every year despite State law that says it must be maintained at almost double that. That would be an interesting I-Team investigation. And a more interesting Federal investigation, too.

• The I-Team has been told by police and fire officers that these payments are common across the country. We checked New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston. Most pay uniform allowances that are significantly smaller than Chicago.

If other places pay it, it isn't an issue, is it Chuck? And if it's a negotiated item in a contract, then how is it the Officers' fault? Channel 7 even supplies a partial list of what is required to be bought by an Officer to be properly outfitted according to General Orders. The basic total is over $5,200. After taxes, the $1,800 Uniform allowance shrinks to under $1,200, so you won't recoup your hiring expenditures for about five years, by which time, you need a new vest, pants, shirts, shoes/boots. Now let's talk dry cleaning or even laundering expenses. Are you beginning to see the picture Chuck? Just to get hired by the CPD, you have to lay out between $5,000 to $7,000. And promotions? Or assignments to Special Units? Another $1,000 or more for BDU's, riot gear, marine and mounted specialized gear. That's out-of-pocket that you pay taxes on and cannot claim against your IRS filing until you surpass the amount granted.

How about this - weapon maintenance and proficiency. We aren't sure what other Officers do, but we like to shoot more than the 30 rounds the City makes us qualify with every year. Ammo costs have doubled in the past year. The Department is finally offering us the opportunity to carry rifles. We disagree in principle with the jumping through hoops, but what would you rather carry? A city supplied rifle that sits in the radio room collecting dust, not zeroed in to your eye, dropped, poorly maintained and pretty much treated badly? Or maybe a decent rifle, sighted in for your body, cleaned and maintained by you and touched by no one except you? That's a years worth of uniform checks to buy a tool that might save your life, your partner's life and the lives of countless citizens one day.

• No one pays 'duty availability.' They do pay what is called 'shift differential' to compensate for overnight and weekend work. But in other cities that is paid per employee, not the entire work force.

No one else calls it "bonuses" like Chuck does in his report either. It isn't a bonus - it's a contractually negotiated item in a contract. And it's not "hidden" as Chuck so casually alleges in his report. It's on the FOP website under "Current Contract" and has been for at least six years since the CityWide Team got elected. And again, since it's negotiated, bring it to the table. Oh wait, Shortshanks took everything off the table, then cried to the media that the FOP was being "unfair" and they better "get real." And Chuck ate it up.

Sergeants Union Caves

What a bunch of pansies:

• Due to our ongoing contract negotiations, the Executive Board of the CPSA has voted not to participate in the upcoming “informational picketing”. The CPSA Executive Board fully understands the frustrations that have prompted the other police unions to take this action, but at this time we believe the interests of the members of the Chicago Police Sergeants’ Association are best served by the ongoing negotiation process.

  Sincerely,

  John Pallohusky
  President
  Chicago Police Sergeants' Association

What happened to uniting under one cause? Are we not all Police Officers? Didn't Daley pull your raise offers also?

The PBPA has always relied on the FOP to do the heavy lifting in contract negotiations. Then afterward, the Supervisor unions come in and do a little fine tuning in regard to discipline, differential and promotions. The "me-too" clauses in their contracts pretty much lock them into everything else.

Does Pallohusky actually believe the City is going to settle with his union first and then everyone else will fall into line? If so, he's delusional and the sergeants better watch their backs, because god knows what deal Pallohusky is brewing with the City.

We realize that this position was taken by the Executive Board and not via a vote by the Sergeants, but it still makes you look like a bunch of hypocritical assholes as most of your benefits come from the FOP's efforts. Pallohusky is dead wrong on this and there's going to be bad blood over it for years to come.

You Knew the Deal...

We've gotten a lot of these comments in the past few days. It appears a troll or two have popped up, attempting to discourage participation in the picketing today and spouting off with the tired old saw, "You knew what you were getting into when you hired on. If you don't like it, quit."

When we signed up, we knew we weren't going to get rich. But we knew it'd be a steady check, decent benefits and a nice pension at the end. In the intervening years, the buying power of the check has declined, the benefits are eroding at a rapid pace and the pension is funded at 42% while Daley's relative steal huge portions of it. It wasn't us that reneged on the agreement - it was Daley, the Machine and the City.

When times were good, we didn't see the City beating a path to the FOP's doorstep saying, "Times are great! Let's reopen that contract and get you a better raise." Government doesn't usually work like that. And when times were good, we saw people laughing at us for accepting a menial civil servant type job, calling us dumb, uneducated, unambitious. We've heard those all and more. Now that times are bad and the private sector is experiencing layoffs, we have to listen to the jagoff mayor telling us we're greedy, unrealistic and how the taxpayers have been very generous to us.

Last time we checked, we were required to live in this "workers paradise" and that makes us taxpayers, too. Taxpayers who can't leave. And government has increased the tax rates how much in the past 20 years? In the past 10 years? How about in the past two years? And we don't see anyone else being asked to eat shit. Aldercreatures - 6% raises. Aldercreature staff - 5% raises. Teachers - 4.5% raises. Superintendent - 100% plus raise over the last man to hold the job. Cops? Firefighters? Screw you.

So we'll continue to delete those trolls as we see fit. They're part of the established political order that nips at the heels of those trying to make a difference and sniff at the asses of those screwing up this once proud Department.

Officer's Star Retired

A Day of Remembrance:

• A solemn ceremony was held Wednesday for a Chicago police officer killed in the line of duty.

  Officer Nathaniel Taylor was shot and killed as he and several other officers served a search warrant at a South Side home last September.

  [...] police officials honored Officer Taylor. Hundreds of officers were present for the event, along with family members, as they retired Taylor's star.

  Taylor's star was officially added as the 463rd star to the superintendent's honor case. Taylor was killed in September of 2008, as he was executing a search warrant. Police say the subject of that search warrant shot him.

God Bless Officer.

Bolivia 6 Argentina 1

Si después del partido Diego hubiese dicho sobre los problemas de jugar en la altura hubiéramos vuelto al asunto de la excusa inescrutable. Pero Diego prefirió decir que Bolivia superó futbolísticamente a Argentina en todo momento y lugar. Por una u otra vía no hubiese faltado a la verdad. Prefirió respetar el protocolo, cosechar aplausos en vez de silbidos y hacer honor a la defensa del fútbol en donde LA PELOTA NO DOBLA (el 17 de marzo de 2008 Diego jugó allí mismo un partido con el presidente boliviano Evo Morales - FOTO - para decirle a Blatter, transpirado aun, que nadie se muere en La Paz). De todos modos el resultado está puesto: 6-1.

El partido empezó con una infracción a Messi a los 35 segundos de juego antes del primer rugido de la leonera boliviana. Siguió con tres remates de media distancia antes de los cinco minutos, marca pegajosa, vértigo impuesto y pegale de cualquier lado hasta que Martins abrió el marcador (11´).

El gol de Lucho Gonzalez (24´) fue un accidente en todo el sentido de la palabra. Y el gol que pierde Messi al no ver la soledad de Maxi Rodriguez pudo ser EL accidente del partido. Pero de accidentes no se suma mas que eventualidades. El fútbol pasó por Bolivia y Argentina fue una lánguida e insospechada sombra en Bolivia.

Viendo a Gago a 3600 metros de altura uno pueda hasta emocionarse. Viendo a Messi uno puede recordar la frase menottiana sobre su semblante menos argentino que catalán. Viendo a Carrizo no puedo explicar como fue figura con seis goles adentro.

Esperemos que, al menos en Argentina, alguno de los que viajaron como protagonistas pueda ensayar un intento de explicación, al menos como para trocarla en experiencia.

Derrota historica (iguala la peor de Argentina, 1-6 con Checoslovaquia en 1958). Triunfo histórico. Y en las páginas historicas de nuestro fútbol no puede faltar Diego.

Fueron seis y pudieron ser mas.

ARGENTINA: CARRIZO, ZANETTI, DEMICHELIS, HEINZE, PAPA; LUIS GONZALEZ (1 gol) (Angelleri), MASCHERANO, MAXI RODRIGUEZ (Di María), TEVEZ (Montenegro), MESSI.

GOLES

CAIDA CON POCA ALTURA (VALE CHUMBAR)