Illegal Sand Jockey accused of slaying dad with weed trimmer now faces cop assault charge

A Woodridge man accused of beating his father to death with a weed trimmer now has been charged with biting a DuPage County sheriff’s officer so hard that he broke the officer’s finger, according to prosecutors.

Yashesh Desai, 21, was brought into court Friday in a restraint chair flanked by a dozen deputies to face a new charge of aggravated battery.

Desai reportedly attacked a sergeant Sunday night as the officer and other jailers were seeking to move Desai so his cell could be cleaned. He had reportedly urinated and defecated on the floor and had shoved his dinner tray into the toilet, Assistant State’s Attorney Helen Kapas said.

When officers tried to enter, Desai first tried to hold the cell door shut, and then struck the officer in the temple, breaking the officer’s glasses, Kapas said. Desai then allegedly bit the officer, breaking the ring finger on his left hand.

Judge Robert Kleeman set bail on the new charge at $200,000, and ordered Desai to submit to a blood draw so he can be screened for HIV.

Desai, who was covered by a blue blanket, did not speak during the appearance.

He has been in the DuPage County jail on $2 million bail since August after he was charged with the first-degree murder of his father, Sanjiv J. Desai, 47, at the family’s residence on Plover Court in Woodridge. Authorities allege Desai used a weed trimmer to bash his sleeping father in the head.

The judge set arraignment on the new charge for Oct. 28. The court is awaiting a psychiatric evaluation on Desai, who was dismissed from the University of Illinois in September 2010 after he allegedly waved a knife at some fellow students and was charged with aggravated assault.

Kleeman said the court is attempting to obtain results of a psychological evaluation from the university that was conducted following his arrest there.

More proof crime is down..... (BULLSHIT)

Boy, 5, critically injured in shooting

A 5-year-old boy was critically wounded in a shooting in Elgin tonight, a police spokeswoman said.

Elgin emergency services received a call about 7:10 p.m. about the shooting, and found the boy wounded in the 1300 block of Dundee Avenue, said Sue Olafson, an Elgin city spokeswoman.

A car the boy was riding in with two other people was backing out of a driveway in the 900 block of Elma Avenue on the northeast side of the city when those in the car heard shots fired, Olafson said in an email.

Soon after, the two realized the boy had been shot, Olafson said. The two stopped the car at a gas station in the 1300 block of Dundee Avenue, a half-mile away from where the shots were fired, and called police.

The boy was taken to Sherman Hospital in Elgin, where he was in critical condition this evening, Olafson said. Initial reports that he wsa airlifted Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge were incorrect, Olafson said.

The Elgin Police Gang Unit is investigating the shooting, she said.

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8th Grade Boy with 'a big heart' shot along with man on South Side
An eighth-grader waiting for football practice to begin was wounded, along with a man, as they stood at a corner in theSouth Shore neighborhood this afternoon.

The boy, identified by family as Deonta Brown, 14, and the man, 31, were shot at about 3:45 p.m. in the 7700 block of South Kingston Avenue, according to Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Daniel O’Brien.

The teen was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital in critical condition, and the man was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, also in critical condition, O’Brien said.

Deonta had just left Bradwell Elementary School and was hanging out with some friends at the corner of 77th Street and Kingston, waiting for football practice, said Capricio Wilson, a teacher and coach at the school.

Noia Downs said she was looking out of her window near Kingston Avenue and 77th Street waiting for her 16-year-old daughter to return home from school when she noticed a man in a brown shirt walking east on 77th street.

The man walked down the middle of the street toward a man wearing a white shirt who was walking west, she said. When they got to the intersection of Kingston and 77th, Downs said the man in the brown shirt pulled a gun from his pants and opened fire on the man wearing the white shirt, who collapsed in the street.

"My heart dropped and I was screaming," said Downs, who ran outside and called police. "He didn't even care that there were kids on the corner."

Joann Brown, 16, said she started to cry when her mother called her from the hospital to say her younger brother had been shot as he walked home from school.

"I was in shock, I couldn't believe it," said Brown, as she stood near a length of yellow police tape that had been pulled across Kingston Avenue at the shooting scene. "He wasn't doing nothing, he was leaving school."

Deonta "was near the target and they hit the target along with him," Wilson said.

Downs, 33, said the man in the brown shirt continued to spray the other man with bullets as groups of children stood nearby screaming.

Brown said her brother had stopped to talk to a friend on the corner when a gunman approached and shot him. He tried to run, but collapsed nearby, she said.

Downs said she then saw one of the kids start running north on Kingston, grabbing his stomach. The shooter fled on foot, running west on 77th street, she said.

"It's terrible," Downs said, shaking her head Friday evening as she looked toward the intersection where blood splatters still stained the road.

"There was a beef with the target and the shooter," Wilson said, saying Deonta had no connection with the other person shot.

Police said initial interviews with witnesses bear out what Wilson learned from his students. Witnesses told police it appeared that the man may have been the target in the shooting, and that Deonta was standing with others who were not with the man when the attack took place.

"This neighborhood, you can only assume gangs," Wilson said. "He was at the wrong place at the wrong time -- right after dismissal. I can't get over that one of my kids got shot. He was due for practice."

Wilson said Deonta’s friends ran back to the school and told him about the shooting.

Family gathered at the hospital Friday evening, holding vigil at Deonta's hospital bedside. They said he had suffered injuries to a major artery and his pancreas before the bullet lodged in his spine.

"He's fighting for his life," said Deonta's mother Lola, in a brief telephone interview after she rushed to the hospital with her husband and other relatives.

Family described Deonta as a spirited prankster who loves hip-hop and football, and has dreams of one day playing for the Chicago Bears.

They said on Friday that doctors had told them the next 24 hours would be crucial, but they were hopeful that if he survived he wouldn't be paralyzed by his injuries.

"It doesn't make any sense that our kids cannot go to and from school without being shot," said Deonta's aunt Michelle Keys, who was also at the hospital. "Now we have to worry about him getting through the night. It's too much."

Deonta plays several positions on the school's football team, which Wilson helps coach. "Cornerback, running back, receiver. He's a talented guy. We can move him in any position.

"He loves sports, he loves football. He's athletic. He just signed up for basketball," Wilson said. "He's just your average kid. He's got a big voice and a big heart."

When the other football players learned about Deonta’s shooting, "their morale was broken," Wilson said. "I love these kids. They show you why you do this. This is poison they don't need."

These Islamic asswipes want to pray 5 times during a work day, wash their feet and still have breaks....Hertz suspends 34 Muslim drivers

SEATTLE (AP) — Thirty-four Muslim drivers for Hertz claimed they were suspended for praying during work hours, but the company contended they were reprimanded for abusing break times.

Backed by their union, the drivers protested Wednesday outside the Hertz counter at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where they are based.
"This is an outrageous assault on the rights of these workers and appears to be discriminatory based on their religious beliefs," Tracey A. Thompson, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 117, said in a statement.
Observant Muslims pray five times a day.

Hertz said the workers suspended last week were violating provisions of a collective bargaining agreement and a settlement with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reached two years ago.
"The breaks were getting extended way beyond prayer time," said Rich Broome, a spokesman for Hertz Global Holdings Inc. "It's important to understand that several Muslim employees who are complying were not suspended. It's not about prayer, it's not about religion; it's about reasonable requirements."

Broome said employees are required to clock out to keep breaks within the 10-minute limit. Those who were suspended had not been doing so, he added.
He said managers spoke with each of the workers and posted the rule before the suspensions took place.

The union, though, said the clock-out rule was implemented without warning, adding that Hertz agreed in bargaining last year that its employees would not be required to clock out when they pray.
EEOC attorney John Stanley in Seattle declined to comment on the dispute.
"Prayer is not as other people take it," said Ileys Omar, who has been with Hertz four years and is the union's shop steward. "It's important for us, if you take prayer away, you're taking a part of our lives ... to be honest, we feel like we're being punished for praying, for being Muslim."

Omar, a 24-year-old mother of a 3-year-old and expecting a second child, said the company changed its rules suddenly. She understood that management allowed Muslims to take "mini-breaks" to pray, and didn't have to clock out.
Hertz isn't the only company that has been involved in a prayer dispute.
In 2009, a new manager at a Minnesota Wal-Mart fired a Muslim man because he prayed during his breaks, even though the previous supervisor allowed him to pray. Eventually, Wal-Mart and the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations reached an agreement to give the Muslim man another job at a store near his home. Wal-Mart said at the time that the company was "glad everyone came together to resolve the issue on a positive note."

Since 2008, Muslim workers at JBS Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in Colorado and Nebraska have been in a dispute with the company over prayer breaks, leading to several firings.
Workers alleged the company created a hostile environment for Muslims, including harassment during prayers. They had also requested that lunch breaks be modified during the holy month of Ramadan. The EEOC subsequently filed two lawsuits in 2010 that are pending. The company has said it fired workers after hundreds of them walked off the job without permission.

In Seattle, the union is trying to get Hertz drivers back on the job and has filed an unfair-labor-practices complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against Hertz for failing to notify the union in advance of what it called a policy change.
The union represents nearly 80 Hertz drivers who earn between $9.15 and $9.95 an hour. They receive no health benefits, vacation or sick leave. About 70 percent of them are Muslim.

Crooked politicians grabbing even more of our money... Property tax bills anger Cook County homeowners

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE NEWS VIDEO OF THIS GIANT TAX INCREASE

It's sticker shock in the mail. Tax bills went out to Cook County homeowners this week and the big jump in the amount due to many homeowners has some wondering if they can keep their house.
CBS 2′s Dana Kozlov takes a look at how the dramatic jump in property tax bills is affecting people and what you can do about it.
According to the Cook County Clerk's office, tax rates are up for schools, park districts, municipalities and other government bodies. Some of those tax levies have made double-digit increases in tax rates.
The property tax reality was setting in with Markham homeowner Patricia Taylor on Wednesday.
Asked if she can keep her house after receiving an $8,100 property tax bill, Taylor said, "I don't know right now. It's bad right now, it's really bad."
That's because her property tax bill for her three bedroom, one bathroom house shot up from $6,400 last year to $8,100 this year — a whopping 27 percent jump.
Taylor took time on her day off to head to the Cook County Assessor's office to see if anything could be done for herself and her mother.
"What do they expect? I don't live in Beverly Hills, I stay in Markham and this is ridiculous," Taylor said.
Kelley Quinn, spokeswoman for Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios, said the office has had thousands of taxpayers like Taylor walk through their halls this week, wondering what was going on with their bills.
Countywide, property tax bills will jump an average of almost 2.7 percent, according to Quinn.
"What we're seeing are a lot of anxious people," Quinn said. "But what we're also seeing is once they leave here, they're satisfied and many of them are happy because they are seeing a tax bill that does go down a bit."
Quinn said many of the people voicing complaints about their tax bills are senior citizens who didn't apply for their senior exemption, which they must do every year, because of a new law.
Those seniors can still get their exemption with help from the county.
But everyone else? They could be out of luck, because taxing districts — from schools to parks — needed the extra revenue and the taxpayers were forced to foot the bill.
"So your local tax rates are going up, even though your assessments are going down, which results ultimately in a tax bill that could be a little bit higher," Quinn said.
People who believe their tax bills are incorrectly assessed can appeal through the Cook County Board of Review, but dates for that are very specific and depend on your township.
You can check the Board of Review website or give the office a call at (312) 603-7550 if you have questions.

LOOK! It's a bird, no it's a plane! No! It's one depressed woman! Woman dies in apparent suicide at Thompson Center

Photo: A woman points inside the Thompson Center in downtown Chicago where police work the scene on Friday.

Chicago, IL - A woman died in an apparent suicide after plunging from an upper floor inside the Thompson Center this evening, police said.

Police were called to the Thompson Center, 100 W. Randolph St., just before 6:15 p.m., said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Daniel O’Brien.

A woman was dead on the scene after plunging from an upper floor in an apparent suicide, O’Brien said.

Chicago Fire Department emergency crews were called to the scene but did not provide any emergency medical services there, a department spokesman said.

Belmont Area detectives were conducting a death investigation following the woman’s death, O’Brien said.

A spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Central Management Services, which manages state buildings, said she did not immediately have information on the incident.

UNBELIEVABLE! Man accused of killing Metra police officer acquitted of earlier murder

The man accused of killing a Metra police officer in 2006 was acquitted Friday of an earlier shooting death in Calumet City.

Jurors deliberated all day Friday and found Jemetric Nicholson, 24, not guilty of fatally shooting Aaron Thomas, 20, of Chicago, and trying to kill four of Thomas’ friends on Jan. 17, 2005.

Jurors did not hear anything about the other pending cases against Nicholson, including Metra Officer Thomas Cook’s September 2006 murder and several attempted murders from a shooting spree prosecutors say Nicholson went on in Harvey that same week.

In the 2005 case, Thomas’ friends approached a red car carrying Nicholson at a Calumet City gas station around 8:30 p.m., offering to sell mix CDs and marijuana, prosecutors said. Both cars moved into the alley behind Sibley Boulevard and Oglesby Avenue to dodge security cameras.

That’s where, prosecutors said, Nicholson exited his car, rapped on Thomas’ window with a gun and, without saying a word, started firing shots. One entered Thomas’ chest, killing him.

The case went cold until March 2007, when another prosecutor investigating unsolved cases in Harvey received a letter written by Nicholson to his then-girlfriend. Details in that letter, which were not disclosed at trial, led police to put Nicholson in a new lineup.

Three of Thomas’ four friends identified him as the shooter, Assistant State’s Attorney Joe Kosman argued Thursday to close the two-day trial.

Defense attorney Mark Kusatzky argued that no physical evidence at the crime scene tied Nicholson to the murder. He also questioned how the witnesses could clearly see Nicholson’s face at night, arguing they only picked him out of the lineup because he was the only one wearing a black hoodie — just like the shooter.

Nicholson, was charged in November 2010 with first-degree murder in Cook’s death. Cook, while in uniform and sitting in a marked Metra police car near the 147th Street train station in Harvey, was shot twice in the back of his head. Authorities said Nicholson and Jeremy Lloyd killed Cook so they could steal his gun. Lloyd pleaded guilty in October 2010 to acting as a lookout for Nicholson in the slaying.

Nicholson is still awaiting trial in that case.

More than 100 colored folks arrested in massive NYC theft ring

NEW YORK (AP) — Bank tellers, restaurant workers and other service employees in New York lifted credit card data from residents and foreign tourists as part of an identity theft ring that stretched to China, Europe and the Middle East and victimized thousands, authorities said Friday.

In total, 111 people were charged and 86 are in custody; the others are still being sought. Five separate criminal enterprises operating out of Queens were dismantled. They were hit with hundreds of charges, said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, calling it the largest fraud case he'd ever seen in his two decades in office.

"These weren't holdups at gunpoint, but the impact on victims was the same," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. "They were robbed."

The enterprise had been operating since at least 2010 and included at least one bank and restaurants, mostly in Queens. Authorities say the graft operated like this:

At least three bank workers, retail employees and restaurant workers would steal credit card numbers in a process known as skimming, in which workers take information from when a card is swiped for payment and illegally sell the credit card numbers. Different members of the criminal enterprise would steal card information online.

The numbers were then given to teams of manufacturers, who would forge Visas, MasterCards, Discover and American Express cards. Realistic identifications were made with the stolen data.

The plastic would be given to teams of criminal "shoppers" for spending sprees at higher-end stores including Apple, Bloomingdale's and Macy's. The groups would then resell the merchandise oversees to locations in China, Europe and the Middle East.

All told, more than $13 million was spent on iPads, iPhones, computers, watches and fancy handbags from Gucci and Louis Vuitton, authorities said. The suspects also charged pricey hotel rooms and rented private jets and fancy cars, prosecutors said.

Detectives with language skills spent hours translating Russian, Farsi and Arabic during the investigation, Kelly said.

Part of the problem, especially for foreign tourists in the U.S., is that, unlike overseas, credit card companies in the U.S. do not install special microchips that make skimming more difficult, said Deputy Inspector Gregory Antonsen of the NYPD's organized theft and identity theft task force. But he said the companies work with police to help fight theft.

"The credit card companies do a good job at keeping their customers happy," he said. "So if you're a victim of a loss ... you will get your money back. They also work very diligently in partnership with us providing us information that we need to investigate these cases."

And, Kelly said, criminals are getting more sophisticated. "Thieves have an amazing knowledge of how to use technology," he said. "The schemes and the imagination that is developing these days are days are really mind-boggling."

Authorities also say the ring operated lower-rent schemes. In one example, they tried to lift what they believed to be expensive electronics from a hangar at John F. Kennedy Airport, like something out of the movie "Goodfellas." They were stopped by police, and the loot turned out to be construction tools — the thieves had taken the wrong package by mistake, Antonsen said.

Police searched several homes and seized computers, packaged electronics, and $650,000 in cash, along with several weapons.

The charges include enterprise corruption, theft and grand larceny. Many of the accused members of the theft ring are being held on steep bail.

As the e-mailer said... Watch for Chicago to be next.... Thanks for this submission Arizona Eagle

Stunning Revelation by NYC Police Commissioner: Protesters Had a ‘Countdown’ & ‘Charged’ Cops

New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly made some stunning revelations on Thursday regarding videos that surfaced on YouTube Wednesday night showing police beating back Wall St. protesters. According to him, the protesters actually planned to antagonize police, even instituting a “countdown” before they “charged” officers.

“What they did is they counted. They actually had a countdown — 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 — they grouped together, they joined arms and they charged the police. They attacked the police. They wanted to get into Wall Street, they wanted to occupy Wall Street,” Kelly told reporters.

“These people wanted to have confrontation with the police for whatever reason. Somehow, I guess it works to their purposes,” he added. He also promised such protesters would be “met with force when they do that,“ which he called ”just common sense.”

You can watch him detail his version of events below:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/stunning-revelation-by-nyc-police-commissioner-protesters-had-a-countdown-charged-cops/

According to Kelly, the protests have cost the city $2 million for officers assigned to the protests.

And if you’re wondering if the police and force the protesters to move, the answer is “no.” WCBS-TV explains:

The problem for the city and the police is even if they wanted to, they can’t evict “Occupy Wall Street” as long as they make Zuccotti Park their headquarters. It is private space that must be opened to the public

“The charter, it gives access to the park 24 hours a day, seven says a week,” Kelly said.

When asked by CBS 2′s Marcia Kramer if there was an end game, his response was carefully considered.

“You know, we’ll see. Right now they’re on private property and people who own that property don’t have the power to eject them,” he said.

But Brookfield Office Properties, which owns Zuccotti Park, seems to be slowly building a case against protesters, saying Thursday that the protestors are interfering with the use of the park by others and are creating sanitary problems.

And now a Public Service Announcement (PSA) from LEFT-IS-THE-BEST

Rev. Michael L. Pfleger, Pastor, announces VOICES FOR PEACE RALLY on Sat Oct 01, 2011



CLICKING ON ANY IMAGE WILL DISPLAY THAT IMAGE FULL SIZE

25 years later a bunch of old men are invited to the White House, former Chicago Bears Players from the Super Bowl Championship

Da Bears' shuffle to the White House

More than 25 years after their Super Bowl victory, the Chicago team is honored by President Obama. The Challenger disaster derailed their original invitation from President Reagan.


“This is as much fun as I will have as president of the United States.’’

All presidents resort to hyperbole now and again. But one had the sense that President Obama really meant it when he stood on the South Lawn of the White House on a sunny Friday afternoon and introduced the 1985 Chicago Bears, a team that marched to a Super Bowl victory the same year Obama showed up in town as a young, skinny community organizer.

Obama's current job hasn’t been all that much fun of late. A new jobs report Friday showed the economy remains stagnant. But for a couple of hours he got a reprieve, meeting one of the most iconic football teams ever to suit up.

Behind the president was the rebel quarterback, Jim McMahon, wearing his trademark headband even though he no longer has any hair to keep in place.

“Do you need me to speak?” McMahon asked the president at one point.

“No, we’re not going to let Jim have the mike,’’ the president said, ruefully. … “He gave me a headband; I’m not wearing it.’’

Standing to his left was head coach Mike Ditka; to his right defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan – who coached and feuded as they guided the team to a dominating victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX.

“And in a sign that anything is possibl-- even in Washington -- Coach Ditka and Buddy Ryan are here together,’’ Obama said. The audience laughed.

The overdue reception was borne of a national tragedy. The Bears were supposed to have been honored in 1986 by then-President Reagan.

But two days after the Super Bowl, the space shuttle Challenger blew up, killing the crew of seven. It wasn’t a time to celebrate. Years passed and other Super Bowl winners came in to meet other presidents.

When Obama, a Chicagoan, won the 2008 election, the NFL saw an opening. The league called and asked if the White House would invite the Bears to a long-delayed celebration. Obama obliged.

“This city was invigorated and brought together by this team,’’ Obama said. “This team ruled the city. It riveted the country. They were everywhere. They were like the Beatles.’’

A lot happens in a quarter-century. Star running back Walter Payton died of cancer in 1999. And Dave Duerson, a safety, killed himself early in the year as he struggled with a brain disease linked to repeated hits to the head.

Sitting in the front row, representing them, were Payton’s widow, Connie and Duerson’s ex-wife, Alicia.

Obama dropped his voice when he talked about the losses.

“Chicago still loves ‘Sweetness,’ ’’Obama said.

The players said the passing of time made the event richer. Otis Wilson, a linebacker, spoke to reporters afterward along with Hall-of-famer Richard Dent. Both wore their Super Bowl rings.

“I felt the circle was finally completed,’’ Wilson said.

A few team members did not attend. William “The Refrigerator’’ Perry suffers from an immune disorder and could not make the trip.

Dan Hampton, a defensive lineman, chose to stay away, in part because he is “not a fan of the guy in the White House,’’ he told a radio station.

Crooked Country Club Hills demotes part-time cops

One day after Country Club Hills officials received a report that said 10 part-time police officers hired last year aren’t qualified to do police work, the city council voted Thursday night to make eight of them community service officers instead.

One officer recently was fired and another resigned, Mayor Dwight Welch said.

The officers are to turn in their guns and badges, effective immediately. They will remain part-time employees and will be paid the same as they were as police officers.

“The council felt it was fair because they have families and didn’t create the program,” Welch said.

One of the officers, Derrick Singleton, is the husband of Ald. Cynthia Singleton (1st Ward), who was the only alderman to vote against the measure.

As community service officers, the employees will have to go through background, polygraph and physical fitness tests, a process that could take six to eight weeks, Welch said. They also will have to be approved and interviewed by the city’s police and fire commission, which wasn’t the case when they were hired as police officers.

They will be on duty as community service officers in the interim.

Welch, who was the city’s public safety director when the hirings took place, said it wouldn’t have been fair to fire the officers.

“You don’t knee-jerk in the government or the private sector,” he said. “You knee-jerk, and you’ve got problems.”

The report, by Lansing consulting firm REM Management, said the part-time officers do not understand their roles and don’t know whether they are prepared to perform police work.

It said background investigations of the officers were incomplete, the officers are not properly trained, and that three of the officers said their favorite part of the job is “the fact they can now carry a firearm.”

“The Country Club Hills part-time officer program, as it exists, is a failure due to the lack of proper management by the (former) chief of police,” the report said.

The report recommended that the city council end the part-time police program. Welch said after Thursday’s meeting the city will look into hiring REM to develop a new part-time police program and review the entire police department.

The report was issued about two weeks after the SouthtownStar revealed that many of the part-time officers have questionable backgrounds. They have been arrested for everything from theft to driving a stolen car.

Many of the officers’ job applications did not list their brushes with the law, the SouthtownStar analysis found. They also bypassed the city’s police and fire commission, which tests, interviews and investigates all full-time police officer and firefighter candidates.

Instead, former city inspector general and police chief Regina Evans’ husband, Ronald Evans, initialed documents saying he investigated some of their backgrounds — long after they were selected and trained, according to police documents.

Payroll records show the officers, who carry guns and drive city cars, have made about $336,000 since June 2010.

According to the report, Evans, who went on sick leave in August, did not respond to REM Management. She created the program and controlled all aspects of the hiring process with little or no help from anyone else.

Welch said he was not involved in the hiring process, but records show he, Evans and city treasurer Michael Gleason signed a document for a federal grant that covered the hiring of three of the officers.

The report states that there was no record regarding the job description, selection, testing and interviewing of the officers.

Documentation of the polygraph tests for five of the 10 part-time officers was missing, the report states. No application records were provided for three officers.

Part-time officer Sean Girard Charles, 32, of Somonauk, had been fired from his prior three jobs and this was never investigated, the report stated. It says that the admission of drug use by several officers in their polygraph tests is “troubling.”

Most of the officers have not been provided with training for “pursuit driving, use of force, and juvenile training,” among other city or department policies, the report says. Their lack of training could put the city in legal jeopardy, the report said.

What's the odds on this? Black Parolee held in robbery of off-duty corrections officer....Oh I say even money!

Photo: Darnell "Pin Worms" Crume

A colored man on parole in a murder conspiracy case is now back behind bars after he and another man tried to rob an off-duty Cook County corrections officer and three of the officer’s friends in Englewood late Thursday, authorities said.

Darnell Crume, 25, was charged with robbery and attempted robbery after the holdup of four people in the 7300 block of South Aberdeen Avenue about 11 p.m. Thursday, authorities said.

He was ordered held in lieu of $500,000 bail in a midday bond hearing today before Cook County Criminal Court Judge James Brown, said Lisa Gordon, a spokeswoman for the Cook County state's attorney's office.

The officer, who has four years with the Cook County Corrections Department, had recently finished his shift at the jail and was in his car when Crume and another man, who was armed with a gun, came up to him and three friends of his who were on the street, authorities said.

The robbers ordered the three, who included a 16-year-old boy, to get on the ground, and ordered the off-duty officer out of his car, Gordon said.

The two men ordered the victims to give up their valuables, and the officer’s pockets were emptied of his wallet, his cell phone and his badge.

Crume stole a gold necklace with a cross from the officer, and one of the other victims lost jewelry, Gordon said.

When the robbers saw the badge, one of them asked the officer if he was a cop. The robber with the gun raised it toward him, police and prosecutors said. The officer was able to get to his gun, and fire shots at them.

“It was when they emptied his pockets and saw his badge that a confrontation began and shots were fired, including shots fired from the 31-year-old officer with his service weapon,” said Steve Patterson, a spokesman for the Cook County Sheriff’s office, in an email.

The two robbers were not hit, but fled.

Police found Crume hiding under a porch in the 1000 block of West 76th Street, said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli. The other robber was able to escape, but police did find a loaded semiautomatic handgun while searching for him.

The victims identified Crume as one of the robbers, Gordon said.

The sheriff’s officer notified his commander immediately after the shooting “and has been fully cooperative with our internal investigators and Chicago police,” Patterson said.

Crume was released on parole in March in a 2005 case in which he was found guilty and sentenced to 11 years in prison for conspiracy. He also has served prison time on a drug charge. Information on Crume’s next court date was not immediately available.

Calumet Area detectives were investigating.

Crume's next court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 13, Gordon said.

Facebook page creates virtual superhero in Wisconsin

An opera-loving, cage-fighter-in-training has attracted a cult following after stories and pictures were posted on Facebook of the muscular mystery man who is frequently spotted walking shirtless through Milwaukee.

Tim Panicucci, 35, was so curious about the focused man he'd see speed walk past his workplace every day that he started the fan page about a year ago. And because of his hairy resemblance to the comic book character Wolverine and his shark-like movements on the streets of Milwaukee, Panicucci and his friends chose the nickname the Milverine.

The photo-filled Facebook page amassed more than 2,700 fans from Milwaukee and around the world by Friday afternoon, with the number growing and growing.

The Milverine's actual name is John Hamann, and the 48-year-old construction worker who lives with his mother says he doesn't mind the attention. While he doesn't use computers, he learned of the Facebook page recently when someone stopped him.

"It just kind of amuses me, you know? That's all I can think about it," he said. "Somebody wants to take a picture and I say, 'OK.' You know, it's over with, you know."

Hamann walks — usually shirtless when it's warm — the same route for two to three hours a day. And he's trying to keep his weight down to become a cage fighter. He loves opera because of the strong voices.

He said he has intervened several times when he's seen people being attacked, but he doesn't compare himself to fictional superheroes like Wolverine. And he says he's no fan of Hugh Jackman — the actor who plays that role on film.

"He's a phony movie actor, but I'm the real deal, you know?" he said. "Seriously. These movie actors most of them, besides maybe Chuck Norris or Steven Seagal, all these guys are basically phony guys. They couldn't really fight in real life."

Panicucci said he started the Facebook page because he simply wanted to know more about the Milverine.

"My wife thinks I should stop because she likes to have the mystique about him, not knowing about him makes him more iconic in her eyes," he said. "I'm interested in hearing people's stories, their backgrounds, where they come from, what made them who they are today."

Liar Liar Democratic Pants On Fire! Cook County worker quits over resume questions

A politically connected Cook County Forest Preserve employee hired by Board President Toni Preckwinkle resigned Friday after being confronted about discrepancies in his resume, county officials said.

John O’Sullivan, the Worth Township Democratic committeeman, served a short stint as a state lawmaker before Preckwinkle in May named him to an $85,000-a-year post as a regional superintendent at the forest preserve.

Preckwinkle, who ran as a reformer, faced criticism for hiring O'Sullivan, who according to an inspector general's report had been fired from a previous county job for falsifying his time cards. Preckwinkle said then that her concerns were alleviated because he had later been rehired with back pay.

General Superintendent Arnold Randall said Friday that media reports and "other concerns" prompted officials to re-examine O'Sullivan's work history, which included more than 20 years in operations and maintenance at the county hospital system.

“We went back and looked at John’s resume and found some discrepancies,” Randall said. “We discussed those issues and he offered his resignation and we accepted.”

O’Sullivan did not immediately return a message left at his home.

Sounds more like they had a burglary and the wife got caught cheating - Police: Thief apparently leaves used condoms behind after stealing jewelry

A Deerfield couple told police that someone ransacked their bedroom — taking necklaces, earrings and wedding bands — and left behind two used condoms.

Two used condoms were left outside a bedroom doorway and no one in the family could account for them, Deerfield police said.

The break-in happened sometime 7:45 p.m. and 9:05 p.m. on Sept. 24 in the 800 block of Appletree Lane, police said.

The homeowners told police that when got home they discovered their bedroom had been ransacked and a large jewelry box was open with its contents missing. Taken was a sterling silver chain, diamond stud earrings, a gold chain, and two diamond-encrusted wedding bands.

The couple’s air soft rifle — normally kept in the closet — was on the bed, police said.

Police say it appears the thief entered the home from a bedroom window that’s above a backyard shed. Police found the window screen lying on top of the shed. There were also pry marks on the window, investigators said.

Police found the two condoms tied together in front of a bedroom door.

UPDATE: FROM THE COMMENT SECTION: Where can we listen to Michael Savage since he is no longer on WIND-AM

YOU CAN LISTEN TO MICHAEL SAVAGE VIA THE INTERNET BY GOING TO HIS WEBSITE:
http://tunein.com/radio/The-Savage-Nation-p20626/

UPDATE:
The 19th Ward Politics and Beyond touches on why Savage was removed from WIND-AM

CLICK HERE TO READ THE POSTING


Second Update: From the comment section: Savage is on WJJG Joe Gentile's radio station AM1530 from 10:00AM till 12:00PM. M-F.

Teacher Breaks Up Fight between two black students who were just about to turn their lives around, Video Goes Viral

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE VIDEO

MADISON, AL — A video showing a Madison, Alabama school teacher breaking up a fight between two southern colored boys has gone viral on YouTube and social media sites. The video shows Liberty Middle School teacher Walter Ruffin breaking up a fight between two students.

However, he doesn't just break up the fight, he also lays down the law with the students telling them how stupid it is to be fighting in the first place. He tells them life it too short to be fighting over such minor things.

Reaction to the video has been overwhelmingly positive from people saying more teachers like this are needed in school systems. Dr. Dee Fowler, Superintendent of Madison City Schools, says he supports Mr. Ruffin. But only because the teacher is black himelf, otherwise all hell would have broke loose!

"My response to that is we have a great teacher that stopped this fight," said Dr. Fowler. "But we also have 600 great teachers that every day, they are doing their job and working hard and maintaining positive classroom discipline."

One area of concern for Fowler though, he says this was clearly not a proper use of a cell phone in the classroom. He says it was a classroom moment that should have stayed in the classroom.

"When is a good time to use your cell phone? When is a good time to record someone and post it to social media or to YouTube?" said Dr. Fowler. "So we see this as a great opportunity to learn."

Dr. Fowler said this was a classroom situation that should have been kept in the classroom.

------------------------------------------------

Here is another video:



Go to 19th Ward Politics and beyond for the full news story on these color kids acting up on the bus. CLICK HERE TO GO TO THIER BLOG AND READ THE FULL NEWS STORY

The police "Garrity rule" is in the spotlight again, this time with Seattle Police

Facing subpoena, 2 cops agree to talk in FBI probe

Two Seattle police officers have agreed to cooperate in the FBI's investigation into the fatal shooting of woodcarver John T. Williams by a former officer, but only after they were subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury, according to police officials.

Seattle, Washington - Two Seattle police officers have agreed to cooperate in the FBI's investigation into the fatal shooting of woodcarver John T. Williams by a former officer, but only after they were subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury, according to police officials.

Both officers initially refused to provide statements unless they were given immunity from criminal prosecution, but the subpoenas prompted negotiations that led to their voluntary cooperation, the officials said Thursday.

One of the officers was identified as William Collins, who was among the first patrol officers to respond to the Aug. 30, 2010, shooting of Williams by Officer Ian Birk, who later resigned under pressure. The other was a student officer of Collins' whose name the officials couldn't immediately recall.

In events that began about a month ago, the Seattle Police Officers' Guild asked the Police Department to give the officers a standard legal warning compelling them to provide statements or face possible termination, said Deputy Chief Clark Kimerer. With that warning, the officers would have been granted protection from any criminal prosecution arising from their statements.

Under the so-called "Garrity rule," named after a U.S. Supreme Court decision, the officer invokes his right against self-incrimination. Statements made after invoking Garrity may be used for internal police purposes, including discipline, but not for a criminal prosecution.

Kimerer said it was the unanimous conclusion of the department's command staff that issuing the warning was "not appropriate," given that the federal investigation is being conducted by another agency and that both officers were being called as witnesses and not targets.

Sgt. Rich O'Neill, president of the police guild, said Thursday that the two officers did not ask for Garrity protection, but they simply sought clarification of whether they were being asked to give compelled or voluntary statements.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI are investigating whether Birk violated Williams' civil rights.

The federal review into the shooting is separate from the Justice Department's broad civil-rights investigation of the Police Department announced in March. That federal investigation is focused on allegations related to use-of-force and biased policing.

Xochitl Hinojosa, a DOJ spokeswoman in Washington, D.C., and Ayn Dietrich, an FBI spokeswoman in Seattle, declined to comment on the cooperation of Seattle officers in the shooting.

Birk shot Williams, a member of Canada's First Nations, about four seconds after issuing three commands to Williams to drop a small knife he was carrying. Other officers did not witness the shooting but quickly swarmed into the area of Boren Avenue and Howell Street.

Birk resigned in February, shortly after the Police Department's Firearms Review Board found he had violated department policies. The board concluded Birk did not properly identify himself, acted too quickly and didn't appropriately assess the situation.

King County prosecutors announced at the same time that they did not have enough evidence to charge Birk.

Collins publicly testified about the shooting at a King County inquest in January, offering supportive words about Birk's actions.

Collins, who served as a training officer for Birk, testified on the dangers of facing someone with a knife, explaining how quickly an attacker could strike.

Kimerer said Collins and the other officer, in seeking immunity in the FBI investigation, were routinely seeking "the highest level of protection."

"In this case, it was not appropriate for us to do, to give that warning," Kimerer said.

Kimerer said the department recognizes the officers' rights, but that the department has strongly urged cooperation in the FBI investigation.

Assistant Chief Jim Pugel, the department's liaison with the DOJ in the matter, said he was contacted by FBI Agent Cory Cote, who said he needed to talk to the two officers.

Cote said the FBI wanted to clarify some statements in their written reports on the shooting, Pugel said. Cote did not specify the statements, Pugel said, adding he didn't ask because it would be inappropriate.

A few days later, the FBI called to say the officers had declined to talk and wanted Garrity warnings, Pugel said.

Pugel said he told the bureau that it would have to decide whether the department should issue Garrity warnings, because police officials had no idea of the context of the questions agents wanted to ask. He said he was told the issue wasn't criminal, so warning the officers against self-incrimination really wasn't necessary.

"What I was told was the FBI was trying to figure out how the officer knew something they wrote" in their reports on the incident, Pugel said.

Both officers were subpoenaed by the grand jury, Pugel said. He said that he was later told by Cote that the officers had agreed to talk without appearing before the grand jury.

O'Neill, the guild president, said the officers were initially confused whether they were being asked to discuss the broad DOJ probe into department practices "or if it was a criminal thing or what."

Police Chief John Diaz had previously told officers they must cooperate with the broad review, so the officers didn't know if they were being ordered to give statements to the FBI in the Birk shooting or if their statements were voluntary, O'Neill said.

The FBI sent subpoenas "just to make it official," he said, noting that settled the confusion.

Will city hire new officers next year? Police give mixed message

Mayor Rahm Emanuel goes touchy feely with the Chicago Cops before Supt. Garry McCarthy escorts him to his Mayoral limo..... The former ballet dancer turned mayor loves to feel young strong muscular cops....

Mayor Rahm Emanuel claimed Thursday to have delivered on his campaign promise to put 1,000 more police officers on the street amid confusion about new police hiring.

After joining Emanuel in announcing the redeployment of 138 more officers, Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said the city would hire more police officers next year for the first time since September 2010. It was an apparent about-face for McCarthy, who said last week that it would be “unconscionable” to hire more officers until he finished retooling the Chicago Police Department and maximizing the performance of the officers he already has.

“We are going to be hiring more. We’re putting that into the budget. The issue is, how many we can hire and when we can do it,” McCarthy said, refusing to reveal specifics.

Hours later, Police Department spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton insisted that McCarthy had misunderstood the question when he was asked, “Is it out of the question to hire more [officers], or is it just not necessary?”

Hamilton said he was referring only to the previously announced class of 50 new recruits expected to begin their six months of training later this month before being permanently assigned to patrol CTA buses and trains.

Those officers are being paid for with CTA funds. They’re not part of the city budget.

Is Hamilton saying no police officers will be hired in 2012?

“I’m not saying that,” she said. “What I’m saying is, he will not ask to hire a single officer until he feels the department is running as efficiently as possible, and he’s getting the most he can out of every officer.”

Emanuel campaigned on a promise to solve a severe manpower shortage by adding 1,000 officers not now on the street, 250 of them newly hired with funds generated by tax-increment financing districts.

Asked Thursday whether he intends to hire more officers, the mayor said only that he was “aware of what I said” during the campaign.

A two-year hiring slowdown has left the Chicago Police Department more than 2,300 officers a day short of authorized strength, including vacancies and officers on medical leave and limited duty.

Former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s final budget called for hiring 200 additional officers — nowhere near enough to keep pace with attrition — but the officers were never hired.

Even without any new hires, Emanuel said Thursday he had delivered on his campaign promise.

The 138 police officers that put the mayor over the top will be made available by hiring civilian detention aides to replace sworn officers and by closing police lockups in four police districts: Shakespeare, Albany Park, Town Hall and Rogers Park.

The civilian detention aides will be hired in mid-November at a cost of $4.4 million. The union representing 72 laid-off Loop traffic control aides will get first dibs on those jobs under a settlement with their union, SEIU Local 73.

Emanuel got mildly annoyed after being reminded that more than half of the 1,019 additional street officers he claims had already been on the street — but assigned to specialized units.

“I’m only 132 days into a four-year term. But 1,019 officers have been applied from where they were before to the street,” he told a news conference at the Chicago Lawn District, where crime is down 25 percent.

“There’s only one question that matters to me: It’s the question that matters to people in their neighborhood, at their kitchen table and when their kids are at school: ‘Is my community seeing the type of safety I need?’ ”

Fraternal Order of Police President Mike Shields argued that the shift from specialized units to beat patrol has led to a reduction in pro-active policing.

“All they’re doing is answering 911 calls and doing a few traffic stops,” he said. “If I was a drug dealer, I would be doing cartwheels with this new crime strategy knowing there’s less of a chance I’m going to be stopped.”

Michael Sneed Reports: Chicago Police, Fire Department moving in together to save money

Pack it up: Sneed has learned the Chicago Police Department is getting a new roommate: The Fire Department.

◆ To wit: The Fire Department is abandoning its high-price lease on two floors of a building owned by the Illinois Institute of Technology at 10 W. 35th Street — and moving one block away into Chicago Police headquarters at 3510 S. Michigan, late next month, a source tells Sneed. Moving boxes have already arrived.

◆ Name Game: “The conjecture is the building will be renamed the Chicago Public Safety Building,” said the source.

◆ $$$$: “It’s an efficiency move . . . it was talked about when Mayor Daley was in office, but it became serious when Rahm took over,” he added.

◆ A cop/fireman rivalry? “Everyone hopes everyone will get along,” said the source.

After 100 years Maria High to close in 2013 after converting to public charter school

Maria High School — a century-old, all-girls Catholic school overlooking Chicago’s Marquette Park — plans to go out of business in 2013 after gradually converting to a coeducational, kindergarten-to-12th grade public charter school officials said Thursday.

The school that counts Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez among its alums “has been struggling for many years,’’ said Sister M. Immacula Wendt, general superior of the Sisters of St. Casimir that run the school.

The Sisters of St. Casimir have contributed “close to $10 million in the last five years-plus’’ to keep Maria High afloat “because we really believed in the mission to educate young women,’’ Wendt said. That includes $300,000 annually in scholarships to Maria, she said.

Even so, enrollment has dwindled from a peak of 1,400 in the 1960s or 1970s to “a tad over 200 today,” Wendt said. “The economics” of running a single-gender private school in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood have “become prohibitive,’’ the high school said in a news release Thursday.

If Chicago Public School officials approve, a charter school chain called Catalyst Charter Schools Network would open a kindergarten-9th grade school, called Catalyst-Maria, in the building at 6727 S. California in the fall of 2012, officials said.

During that school year, Wendt said, Maria High students would share the building with Catalyst students and probably continue to take mandatory religion classes.

But Maria’s days as an all-girls Catholic high school would end at the close of that school year. In the fall of 2013, Catalyst-Maria Charter School would add grades 10-12. Any Maria students who have not yet graduated could apply.

The sisters hope to eventually provide optional Catholic education classes in an adjacent building, now a vacant convent, either before school, after school or on Saturdays, to allow male and female Catholic students and others to continue Catholic studies, Wendt said.

In addition, she said, members of the Sisters of St. Casimir may be allowed to teach in the new Catalyst-Maria or sit on the new charter school board. The sisters would continue to own the building and merely rent it to Catalyst, which operates two other charter campuses using a values-based model developed by the De La Salle Christian Brothers, Maria officials said.

The Sisters of St. Casimir are heartened that the plan now pending with CPS will “provide a seamless education from K-12” by a charter operator who shares similar values — of academic excellence, strong character values, a college-prep ethic, and commitment to produce “people of service,’’ Wendt said.

The new school “cannot teach about the Catholic faith; that is one thing we are saddened about,’’ Wendt said. “But in everything else, they mirror our values.’’

Charter schools are public schools that are allowed many of the freedoms of private schools but receive taxpayer dollars on a per-pupil basis. the Chicago School board is expected to review the Catalyst-Maria proposal during its November board meeting.

Emanuel, McCarthy shift 138 officers from jail lockups to beat patrol

Nearly 140 Chicago police officers will move from jail lockups to beat patrols, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy announced today.

By the administration's count, the latest move means 1,019 more cops are on beat patrol since Emanuel took office in mid-May.

During the campaign, Emanuel said he would put 1,000 more officers on city streets. As the mayor started redeploying officers, police union leaders said Emanuel was merely shuffling officers around. Many of those moved to beats already were on the streets in special crime units and the like, union leaders said.

In recent weeks, Emanuel has changed his phrasing, saying he's putting more cops "on the beat" instead of "on the street."

Today, Emanuel acknowledged that hundreds of the officers already were on the street.

“Around 600 were administrative positions that are now driving our streets and are in our neighborhoods,” Emanuel said at a news conference. “Prior to that they were in our buildings. The way you fight crime is with a beat officer, not a bureaucrat.”

The city plans to hire 104 civilian detention aides to replace the officers who were working at the jails. Emanuel said he hopes to have them on the job by December. Several lockups also will be consolidated, which allows 34 more officers to be redeployed to beats, the administration said.

Whack Job & Former Chicago Cop Sylshina London sued for perjury

Photo: File photo of a similar looking female cop

A former Chicago police officer who allegedly concocted a false story after interfering with a funeral procession while driving to work late one day last year was sued by a woman who was wrongfully convicted of hitting the cop with a bottle.

The officer, Sylshina London, was charged last month with perjury for allegedly fabricating the allegations against Debra Green, who was on her way to bury a sister but missed the service after she was handcuffed and detained by police who had their weapons drawn.

Two of Green's friends, Anthony Fisher and Taneal Jones, who were handcuffed and detained as well, also joined in the federal lawsuit, according to their attorney, Samuel E. Adam Jr.

According to the perjury charge, London falsely accused Green of tossing a bottle through her car window and striking her in the face. But investigators ultimately uncovered footage from a police camera that showed the window of her car was closed.

Before the camera feed had been discovered, London's testimony led to Green's conviction on a misdemeanor battery charge. Fisher and Jones were acquitted of misdemeanor assault charges.

Black Ex-football player now registered sex offender guilty of sexually assaulting white girl

A judge has found a former Glenbard West High School football player guilty of sexual assault against a 15-year-old girl.

Demarco Whitley now faces a minimum of 16 years in prison when he is sentenced next month.

“There is no doubt in my mind that the sex occurred, and there is no doubt in my mind that it occurred the way the victim described it,” said Cook County Judge Thomas Fecarotta, Jr., as members of Whitley’s family cried from the gallery.

The judge then revoked Whitley’s bond, and he was taken immediately into custody.

Whitley, now 19, had denied the charges that he sexually assaulted the girl in a car in a Rolling Meadows church parking lot in January 2010.

But Fecarotta found Whitley guilty of four counts of criminal sexual assault, each of which carry a minimum four-year sentence that must be served consecutively, authorities said. Whitley was acquitted on one count of criminal sexual assault.

“Obviously, we’re disappointed with the decision,” Whitley’s attorney, Donna Rotunno, said after the verdict was announced. “I don’t’ think anybody wins.”

When he took the stand in his defense on Wednesday, Whitley admitted that he and his friend and teammate, Pierre Washington-Steel, arranged to meet the girl for sex but insisted it was consensual and that she never resisted.

After dropping off the girl at a friend’s house, Washington-Steel, who prosecutors have said participated in the assault, crashed the car. He died of his injuries days later; Whitley was also seriously injured but has recovered.

In closing statements today, his attorney, Donna Rotunno, went further, saying the girl made up the rape story because she was dating another boy and didn’t want him to know she had sex with Whitley and Washington-Steel.

“She’s a liar. She lied to her mother, she lied to police, she lied to her friends,” Rotunno said.

Prosecutors again focused on the fact that Whitley signed a statement to police admitting the sex was against the girl’s will. They also noted how easily the two football players could have overpowered the girl.

“She became afraid to run. They were bigger. They had a car. She didn’t want to make them angrier,” Assistant State’s Attorney Maria McCarthy said.

Whitley waived his right to a jury trial.

I am truly sorry my blog sounds like a broken record but it's the news and I can't change it - Chicago Police warn of black armed robbers & rapists

Above Photo: Police seek a car similar to this 1997 silver Chevrolet Lumina. (Police photo)

Police today released community alerts warning of various recent armed robberies on the South and West Sides, including a series involving sexual attacks against female victims.

Few exact details were released, but a vehicle description was available for a robbery against some victims on the South Side Wednesday.

In that robbery two youths, including one armed with a chrome handgun and wearing a black hoodie, approached the victims on the 7300 block of South Aberdeen Street about 11:20 p.m. and demanded personal property, according to police.

Those youths fled in a 1997 silver Chevrolet Lumina, with possible bullet hole damage on the rear passenger side quarter panel. Police did not discuss how the damage may have occurred.

Anyone with information about this robbery is asked to call Wentworth Area detectives at 312-747-8382.

A second community alert warns of a series of recent robberies and sexual attacks against female victims in six police beats in the Harrison, Monroe and Austin districts.

The alert provides no exact dates for the recent attacks, but said they have taken place in the early morning hours -- between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. -- on the 1112, 1113, 1122, 1211, 1523 and 1531 police beats.

Any connection between the attacks is not discussed, but some similarities to the attacks are noted.

The offender or offenders approach the victim on foot as she is walking on a sidewalk, leaving a parked car or entering her residence. After displaying a handgun the attacker or attackers take property -- including purses, money, jewelry and cell phones -- and then sexually abuse or assault the victim before fleeing, police said.

The attackers have been described as black men in their 20s or 30s, ranging in height from 5-foot-5 to 6-foot, weighing from 130-170 pounds. Various vague clothing descriptions were provided, such as black jeans and black jackets or sweaters, a black skull cap and/or a black ski mask.

Anyone with information on these attacks is asked to call Harrison Area detectives at 312-746-8253.

chicagobreaking@tribune.com

Police seek a car similar to this 1997 silver Chevrolet Lumina. (Police photo)

Kendall County Sheriff seeks the identity of black man who gave a false name.....

A man charged after a single-vehicle crash near Plainfield earlier this year gave police someone else's identification -- which authorities discovered when the ID theft victim responded to a court summons and proved he wasn't the man who had been arrested.

So a man now identified as Bobby D. Williams, 22, of the 1300 block of Crabapple Court in Naperville has been named in an arrest warrant alleging forgery and is being sought by the Kendall County sheriff's office, authorities said today.

Williams was first arrested and charged with various traffic charges on Feb. 7 after being involved in a single-vehicle crash on the 1900 block of Wheeler Road in unincorporated Kendall County near Plainfield, police said.

At the time he provided a false name and identification, and signed out of jail. But when the man summoned to court showed authorities he wasn't the man who had been arrested, the forgery charges were added and a new arrest warrant issued.

Williams also faces charges of driving under the influence, driving with a suspended license and various other traffic offenses. The arrest warrant sets his bail at $10,000, police said.

In the release asking for the public's help in locating the suspect, police said Williams is known to frequent the Naperville, Joliet and Bolingbrook areas. Anyone with information is asked to call the local police department.

Grocer shot in robbery: 'If police don't catch this colored guy, we all might as well leave Chicago'

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE VIDEO OF THIS INCIDENT

Brazen. It's the only way people up and down the block in Park Manor on the South Side could describe how two Negro armed robbers hit the corner meat market and coldly shot the owner as he lay on the floor. "These colored folks are completely out of control in Chicago!"

Cameras were trained both inside and outside the market at 71st Street and Rhodes Avenue, according to Dominick Riccordino, who manages the building that has housed the store for about six years.

"If the police don't catch this guy, we all might as well leave the city of Chicago," Riccordino said. "He is a good guy."

The owner, a 52-year father of three, was wounded in the abdomen and head but was reported as stable. Employees said the Jordanian immigrant has had the store since 2000.

Police say two armed men entered his store at about 6:50 p.m. Wednesday and announced a robbery. They shot him in the abdomen, then jumped over the counter and grabbed cash from the register, according to Police News Affairs Officer Robert Perez.

On the way out, the store owner was shot a second time, Perez said.

"I'm shocked, he didn't deserve this," said Robin Moore, 46, who works nearby and goes into the store every day. "If you were short a dollar, it didn't matter with him. He helps everyone."

Riccordino said several of the shop's employees rent apartments from him, and the owner would often help them pay the rent. "It comes out of his pocket," Riccordino said.

People who work on the block say they are frightened. Many of them refused to give their names as they talked about the robbery.

"Everyone loved him," said the owner of a barbershop nearby. "I'm shocked this happened to him. He was a good guy. I just pray he's able to recover."

A fruit and vegetable vender, who would only give his first name as Oron, said he has known the store owner for 10 years, when he first began selling to the man.

"[He] buys things from me that he doesn't need, to put money in my pocket," said Oron, who came here from Israel. "He was the last person who deserved this."

An employee agreed. "He was a good person, everyone [who] came in, he would say, 'I love you.' Everyone loved him."

Jury awards 3 male LAPD detectives $2.5 million - Female bosses wanted all female supervisors

Photo: Police Chief Charlie Beck declined to discuss the specifics of the detectives' case, but disputed the notion that he goes easy on supervisors

A jury has awarded three veteran Los Angeles police detectives $2.5 million in a gender discrimination and retaliation lawsuit against their supervisors.

The verdict, delivered Friday after only a few hours of deliberation, is the latest in a long string of costly lawsuits brought by LAPD officers against fellow cops and supervisors for retaliation, harassment and other workplace abuses.

Police Chief Charlie Beck has identified the internal strife — and the Los Angeles Police Department's inability to address it quickly — as one of the most pressing issues facing the agency. The recent case is likely to increase pressure on Beck to follow through quickly on reforms he said were intended to bring the issue under control.

A recent Los Angeles Times investigation found that from 2005 to 2010, LAPD officers sued the department more than 250 times and that the city had paid settlements or verdicts totaling more than $18 million in about 45 of those cases. Because taxpayer money is used to cover the payouts, such lawsuits have come under increasing scrutiny as the city's financial problems persist.

The latest case was filed by Dets. Peter Bakotich, Michael Fanning and Debbie Guerrero. In 2009, the three were senior detectives assigned to the department's Fugitive Warrants Section. Problems first arose during a training exercise, when Bakotich, who joined the department in 1972 and recently retired, spoke up to disagree with a lieutenant, Natalie Cortez, who instructed detectives to call a SWAT unit to handle certain fugitive scenarios. Cortez, who, according to Bakotich's attorney, had little experience in fugitive cases, angrily rebuked Bakotich in front of the other detectives, documents show.

Cortez had allegedly confided to Guerrero that she wanted only women officers to fill coveted night-shift supervisor assignments, the lawsuit alleged. Guerrero recalled Cortez saying: "You can say I'm guilty of gender bias, but oh well.... I want women to succeed in this job. You do what I tell you, you'll make it here," according to the court documents. She also allegedly directed Guerrero to spy on the male detectives for her.

Shortly after Bakotich's confrontation with Cortez, a captain stripped the detective of his role running a squad of detectives and relegated him to a desk assignment, Bakotich said in an interview. Fanning and Guerrero tried to intercede by speaking with the captain, Justin Eisenberg, about Cortez's alleged behavior and statements. Eisenberg allegedly rebuffed them, telling them "they had good jobs and they could leave if they wanted," the detectives' lawsuit alleged.

Fanning was soon transferred out of the fugitive section. His new supervisor told him he had been warned that Fanning was "a bad influence" and "poison to a unit," Fanning recalled in the lawsuit. Guerrero claimed Cortez forced her to work despite a knee injury and eventually was pressured to leave the section as well.

The officers filed formal complaints against Cortez, Eisenberg and Cmdr. Kevin McCarthy, who oversaw the fugitive section, but investigators from the department's Internal Affairs Group declined to investigate their claims, according to the lawsuit.

Cortez and McCarthy did not return phone calls or emails seeking comment. Eisenberg denied wrongdoing. A spokesperson for the city attorney's office declined to comment on the verdict other than to say the office was "disappointed" and had not yet decided whether to appeal.

The case echoes other recent ones. In April, for example, two motorcycle officers were awarded $2 million by a jury that found their captain retaliated against them when they complained about being ordered to meet an alleged traffic ticket quota. Gregory Smith, the attorney who represented Bakotich and the others, said he has won five verdicts of more than $1 million against the LAPD in the last year.

Such cases underscore the perception held by some rank-and-file officers that problem supervisors are not held accountable for their roles in workplace discord. "There's a certain arrogance among the brass that they think the rules are different for them," Bakotich said.

Beck declined to discuss the specifics of the current case, but disputed the notion that he goes easy on supervisors. "I am tough on my supervisors.... As with every case, we will look into this one completely. If it turns out there was management misconduct, we will deal with it.

But Beck has acknowledged department supervisors need to be better trained to recognize and resolve simmering problems before they erupt into courtroom battles. He added that coordination between the department and the city attorneys handling the cases is often flawed, and internal affairs investigators need to be more aggressive in looking into officers' claims. Beck said that by the end of the year he expects to hire an outsider to oversee reforms, and he hopes the addition will go a long way toward improving the situation.