Mayor Daley Would Have Let Them Die (Updated)

The City of Chicago's handgun ban might have caused the deaths of an elderly couple early this morning. Had the couple obeyed the city's ban, they would have been defenseless against an armed intruder and quite possibly killed. UPDATE: WLS 890 AM reports that the 80-yr old man used a handgun. (8:00 p.m., 5/26)

"An 80-year-old man shot and killed an armed man who broke into his East Garfield Park home this morning, police said," reports Chicago Breaking News today. "The intruder, who police believe had a gun, broke into the family two-flat in the 600 block of North Sawyer Avenue about 5:20 a.m., said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli."  

UPDATE: WLS 890 AM reports that the 80-yr old man used a handgun. (8:00 p.m., 5/26)

It is curious that none of the reports about this defensive shooting tell us what type of gun the 80-year old man used to defend himself and his wife. Was it a rifle? Many types of rifles are actually legal in Chicago, which is curious considering the ban on handguns. Was it a handgun? If so, that would be embarassing to Mayor Daley and supporters of the handgun ban. Did City Hall order the Chicago Police Department to suppress this information for political purposes?  

UPDATE: WLS 890 AM reports that the 80-yr old man used a handgun. (8:00 p.m., 5/26)  

What if the elderly man had not had a gun with which to protect himself? Would a call to 911 have gotten the police to his home faster than the bullet could reach the intruder? Would he and his wife be dead today?

Chicago's Mayor Daley hates the Second Amendment so much that he maintains Chicago's unconstitutional ban on handguns despite overwhelming evidence that it does not prevent criminals from using them in their illicit endeavors. While Daley's own taxpayer-paid bodyguards carry handguns, we lowly serfs are not allowed to have our own equalizers.

"Chicago’s gun ban ordinance was enacted in 1982 to stem increasing use of firearms in crimes in the city," wrote Maureen Martin at HoumaToday. "From the beginning, the ordinance has been an utter failure in accomplishing that goal."

Martin continued with some stunning statistics. "The number of murders committed with guns has soared in Chicago since the ordinance was enacted, as has the share of all murders committed with guns. In 1983, the first year the Chicago ordinance was in effect, 290 murders (39.78 percent of the total) were committed with handguns. That rose to 513 murders (60.21 percent) committed with handguns in 1990. In 2003, 442 murders (73.54 percent) were committed with handguns, and in 2008, 402 handgun murders were committed (78.67 percent). In the 25 years since Chicago’s handgun ban was enacted, the number of murders committed with handguns dropped below 1983 levels in only four years (1984-87). All of these data are from the Chicago Police Department."

Related:

• Chicago Mayor Snaps at Reporter Who Questions Handgun Ban‎ FoxNews
• Mayor Daley Threatens to Shoot the Messenger—Namely, Me Mick Dumke, Chicago Reader
• Justices debate Chicago handgun ban CNN.com
• We Need More Guns, Not Fewer Chicago News Bench 
• The More Guns the Better, and Here's Proof Chicago News Bench

Robert Sorich, Patronage and Aldermanic Assistants

Robert Sorich was a "patronage chief" for Mayor Richard M. Daley. Sorich was convicted in 2006 of going around certain laws that make political hiring in Chicago illegal. The US Supreme Court today refused undo Sorich's conviction. Okay, fine, but the patronage continues, and it continues in plain sight (examples below). Patronage hiring can be dirty stuff. Basically, it is the hiring of people who are often not qualified for the jobs they get, but are put on the public payroll solely because of their usefulness in a political capacity. It is "the distribution of jobs and favors on a political basis, as to those who have supported one's party or political campaign." (Source) Today, CBS2 Chicago report the Sorich-Supreme Court story: Mayor Richard M. Daley's former patronage chief and two other former city officials have failed to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to consider setting aside their fraud convictions. The justices, in an order Monday, are letting stand former patronage chief Robert Sorich's July 2006 conviction and 46-month prison term. He was found guilty of skirting laws that ban political city hiring, along with former Department of Streets and Sanitation official Patrick Slattery, and former Sorich aide Timothy McCarthy. Fine, but this post is not about Sorich. It's about the continuing and blatantly open patronage hiring in Chicago. The following people are just a few examples. They are on the city's payroll. They are paid by you, the taxpayers, to staff the offices of city council members. From the Better Government Association website, they are listed below by First Name/Last Name/Title/City Department/Salary/Employer: Frazier, Wayne - Aldermanic Aide - City Council - $34,632 - City of Chicago Vandercook, Elizabeth - Asst To The Alderman - City Council - $63,804 - City of Chicago Land, Michael - Staff Asst To The Alderman - City Council - $51,024 - City of Chicago Lopez, Alicia - Staff Asst To The Alderman - City Council - $51,024 - City of Chicago (Source: http://www.bettergov.org/Research/Employees.aspx) "The Alderman" referred to above is Joe Moore, 49th Ward. Moore is not the only alderman who staffs his office with people paid by the city. This is disturbing because the publicy-paid staff assistants and aides, in many cases, openly campaign for the aldermen in whose offices they work. In other words, people on the city's payroll are paid, in effect, to help re-elect sitting aldermen. Remember: They are legally not employed by the aldermen, they are employed by the City of Chicago. That's you, Chicago resident and taxpayer. Not all of the people working in an alderman's office are public employees. One example, again from Joe Moore's office, is Anne M. Sullivan, "49th Ward Staff Assistant." She is paid out of Ald. Moore's campaign funds, not public tax money. How ethical is it for employees of the City of Chicago to work as office in aldermen's offices? There's probably no problem as long as the only thing they do is shuffle papers and help address the concerns of the aldermen's constituents. However, we have to question the ethics of those public payroll persons being allowed to engage in plainly political purposes. For an alderman to choose a friend and/or political ally to work in his or her office as an aide, on the public's dime, seems to qualify as patronage to us. Just because it's public information doesn't mean it's not wrong. CNB RSS Feed

Chicago Health Dept's Shameful Waste

Lousy record keeping and shoddy management at the Chicago Health Department is wasting a lot of money and a lot of medicinal drugs. The audit of a Chicago Health Department warehouse revealed that nearly $1 million's worth of drugs had either expired or disappeared, due to shoddy record-keeping and/or lax security. The warehouse on the Near North Side stored medicines, vaccines, birth control, antibiotics, condoms and baby formula, but nothing harder than that. The city lost its license to handle harder drugs last year for the same reason: poor record-keeping. Read more at Chicagoist... Remember folks, that's government wasting your money and letting life-saving drugs go to waste. And you want government to take over your health care? You'd better think that over a bit more. CNB RSS Feed

CHICAGO TO MOTORISTS: BEND OVER, GRAB YOUR ANKLES, SMILE

CHICAGO - Mayor Daley and the recta on the Chicago City Council voted overwhelmingly to privatize some 36,000 parking meters in the city. The vote was 40-5. (Question to Daley and his puppets: If privatization of parking meters is a good idea, when will you privatize the shitty public schools? And if it's a bad idea for Social Security, why is it a good idea for meters? Hmmm?) In addition to the possibility of “congestion pricing,” the deal calls for meter rates in the Loop to rise to $3.50 in 2009, $4.25 in 2010, $5 in 2011, $5.75 in 2012 and $6.50 in 2013. Central business district rates outside the Loop will go from $1 an hour to $2 in 2009, $2.50 in 2010, $3 in 2011, $3.50 in 2012 and $4 in 2013. Rates will be cut in half between the hours of 9 p.m. and 8 a.m., but meters would have to be fed 24/7. (Chicago Sun-Times) RELATED: Governmental Privitization Public Schools: Make Them Private Parking - Chicago Warnings City of Chicago - Revenue City of Chicago - Parking Tickets Joe Moore Political Operative Shuns City Sticker The Bench: Tom Westgard, Repeat Offender

Music Promoter Ordinance On Hold (For Now)

A proposed ordinance that would require higher standards for public entertainment was tabled by the Chicago City Council earlier this month. On June 3, Alderman Eugene Schulter (47th Ward) and other members of the City Council’s Licensing and Consumer Protection Committee held a meeting with representatives of both the City of Chicago and the Chicago entertainment community. They discussed the proposed event promoter ordinance. MORE from the Chicago Music Commission web site... In the meantime, writes the CMC, "Ald. Schulter made it clear...that 'there is no schedule' yet for the ordinance to move from the Licensing Committee to the City Council for a vote. In the meantime, CMC will continue to remain vigilant in advocating the music community’s interests on this very important issue. Stay tuned to this site for additional updates, and please keep sending us your comments." RELATED: Why the Event Promoters Ordinance Should be Rejected : White Paper ...

Response to Not-So Groovy Alley Story

Thank you for posting the item about the sadistic "new and NOT improved" alley design east of Sheridan ("Sadistic Alleyways a Bit Too Groovy") I have often used this alley as a north-south bike route, as do many other cyclists. I forwarded a link to your post to contacts at CDOT's bike program and Chicagoland Bicycle Federation to see if they can nip this problem in the bud. This kind of dangerous design is really unacceptable. Keep up the good work! Anne

Sadistic Alleyways a Bit Too Groovy

Some sick, twisted sadist at Chicago's Streets and Sanitation, who has apparently never ridden a bicycle, designed some of the newer alleys in Rogers Park. They were recently repaved in a torturous manner that can only be called cruel.

The alleys run north-south just east of N. Sheridan Road, from Albion north to Greenleaf. They are frequented by many bicycle riders, especially in warm weather when they provide safer access to beach front than does busy Sheridan.

The problem is two-fold: Deep grooves run up the middle of the alley, and occasionally cut across it at strange angles. These grooves are just wide enough that a bike rider could be in serious trouble if their tires go into them. Damage to the wheel, injury to the cyclist. Also, the new and more painful speed bumps, apparently designed by somebody who resents motorists and cyclists alike. The older, more gradual bumps were rough enough, but these could prove dangerous if hit too hard by a moving bike.

The grooves are obviously for drainage. But in the previous eight or nine years, I've never once seen these alleys flood.

Also see: Response to Not-So Groovy Alley Story

15 City Employees Charged in Bribe Taking

This, sadly, is no shock to Chicagoans. We live in a corrupt city, with corrupt politicians and corrupt business people. What is midly surprising, however, is the scope of this federal investigation. Seven city inspectors are among the 15 people charged Thursday in a new round of corruption charges targeting bribe-taking in Chicago's Zoning and Buildings Departments, federal authorities have announced. The investigation targeted city employees who allegedly took money to influence zoning applications or alter building plans, authorities said. Full Story at Chicago Tribune... Hat tip to Uptown Update

Loyola Park Pathways Repaired (No Thanks to Joe Moore)

Nice! Yesterday, a crew from the Chicago Park Department repaved the pathways in Loyola Park.

The pathways had been in severe disrepair for years, and posed many hazards to bicyclists and pedestrians alike.

Ah, the smell of fresh asphalt! That's progress, folks, and the crew did a great job.

This would probably have been done years ago if 49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore had any sway with Mayor Daley. The mayor hates Joe Moore.

I'm told that they will paint the paths next week.

Even Lake Westgard was repaired (bottom photo).

Unfortunately, the dangerous Westgard Canal Zone remains, with its deep gouges in the earth.

In the bottom photo, a woman with a cane is seen carefully negotiating her way through the dangerous hazard that was illegally dug last summer by a local mechanics lien lawyer.

Toni Duncan Getting It Done! (Joe Moore Slacking)

Toni Duncan, Mistress of the 49th Ward Blogosphere, convinced some understanding Street and Sanitation workers to fix a hazard on the sidewalk.

"Thanks to the sensible, understanding workmen this morning, the seniors in wheelchairs can safely get across," Toni writes. Will Alderman Joe Moore take credit for yet another good thing that he had nothing to with? According to Toni, "the ward office had absolutely nothing to do with the patch on the former Hole On Howard." (FULL POST...)

Gee, this reminds me of a pile of gravel next to a bus stop, in front of some stores, that Alderman Moore's office has known about FOR OVER A YEAR NOW. The excuse: It's Streets and San's responsibility. Yes, but it's an alderman's job to liaison with Streets and San (and other other city bureaus) TO GET THINGS DONE. But that's not Joe's style. He's too busy campaigning in other states for Oback Barama and working on his run for Congress in 2009.

Trash Talk Chicago

Mayor Daley, the dumbest lump of protoplasm ever to run a large U.S. city, finally agreed to trash the much criticized Blue Bag recycling program. Many of us knew years ago that the program was a joke. Finally, even the Joker Daley realized it - after more than 10 years of this nonsense. The Sun-Times writes today: The program has been a collossal [sic] flop. Only 13 percent of city residents bother to participate and an even lower percentage of their recyclables are actually diverted from the city's 1.2 million tons of trash a year. So what did the sycophants do? The Chicago Recycling Coalition applauded Mayor Daley for facing reality. The group opposed blue bag recycling from the start and called the city's about-face "vindication" for its persistent opposition. What a joke. They applauded him? They should have mocked Daley for not seeing the light years ago. And when will the failed Blue Bag program end? By the end of 2011, every one of the 600,000 Chicago households that get city garbage pick-ups will make the shift to suburban-style curbside recycling from blue carts, instead of bags. So Daley gets applause for admitting defeat, but allowing it to go on for another two and a half years. That's garbage.