Chicago -
By Steve Rhodes
“Three men who were allegedly caught with more than a ton of pot saw the charges against them dropped after a Cook County judge ruled that police did not have enough probable cause to search their truck,” the Tribune-Daily Southown-Post-Tribune reports.
Prosecutors dropped charges of possession of cannabis with intent to deliver against the men – two from Chicago and one from South Bend – who were arrested in August after authorities said 2,300 pounds of marijuana worth about $6 million was seized from a truck the men were loading at a Des Plaines-area warehouse.
The move to halt the case came Thursday after Judge Bridget Hughes had earlier quashed the men’s arrests, ruling that police violated search and seizure standards.
Officers from the Illinois State Police narcotics unit had been watching the men before conducting a search without a warrant and, defense attorneys argued, without having seen or detected any contraband.
“The police didn’t have a warrant or a definable reason to stop them,” said Ralph Meczyk, a defense attorney in the case. “The officers had a hunch and they said it was a consensual search, but the judge didn’t believe them.”
In court, Meczyk argued that the officers’ reports of the arrest were inconsistent and changed during testimony in pretrial hearings.
Emphasis mine.
Posted on February 2, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
The Washington Post’s Radley Balko expands Saturday on DNAinfo Chicago’s report that 80 percent of the Chicago Police Department’s dash-cam videos are missing audio due to “officer error” or intentional destruction.
The DNAinfo report, which Balko excerpts from and links to, reveals what is essentially known, widespread, systemic pre-planned obstruction of justice and destruction of evidence. There is little doubt that the command chain has known about this – and tacitly approved of it by not disciplining offenders for clear and serious violations of department rules and, likely, the law.
But it doesn’t end there. You know who else has known? Anita Alvarez. Balko’s description of her response compared to her response to citizens she has prosecuted is devastating:
Posted on January 30, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
The governor continues to play chicken with human lives.
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Also:
“Dozens of southern Illinois families still awaiting new housing after they accepted government buyouts following the 2011 Mississippi River flood instead got socked by another round of damage amid the prolonged political fight over the state’s budget.”
Posted on January 29, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
The Danville Commercial-News on Bruce Rauner’s State of the State address:
“Simply talking about reforms, then calling for everyone to jump in line to support them, will never work.
“The governor could have used the State of the State to outline a new plan, offer compromises to his political opponents and show his willingness to put goals he holds as important aside in an effort to begin digging Illinois out of the financial quagmire it finds itself in.
“Instead, we heard ‘We have the ability to lead the nation in growth and opportunity.’ That might well be true, but a leader would set a new course to get there after following the same path for the past 12 months with no appreciable results.”
Posted on January 28, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
“Gov. Bruce Rauner is set to give his second State of the State speech Wednesday, one that aides say will focus on reshaping state government,” the Tribune reports.
“The administration late Tuesday released a list of talking points short on specifics that indicated Rauner will talk about making state government more efficient, including how taxpayer-subsidized health care is delivered and how the state buys goods and services.”
Too bad Rauner hasn’t focused on reshaping state government and delivering services more efficiently. That’s the Rauner that won the election, anti-union rhetoric notwithstanding. That’s what people expect when someone says they will run government like a business – even though anyone who has worked in the private sector knows business does not run efficiently. Look around your workplace right now. See what I mean?
Posted on January 27, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
“Quintonio LeGrier called 911 three times on the morning after Christmas to seek help from Chicago police shortly before he was shot and killed by an officer who responded to his father’s West Side residence, according to newly released recordings by the Independent Police Review Authority,” the Tribune reports.
“I need to talk to an officer,” LeGrier, 19, identifying himself only as “Q,” told a dispatcher. “Someone’s threatening my life.”
“Minutes later, LeGrier was fatally shot by Officer Robert Rialmo outside his father’s residence in the 4700 block of West Erie Street after allegedly swinging a baseball bat at the officer. Bettie Jones, 55, another resident in the building, was fatally shot by the same officer in what police have called an accident.”
Posted on January 26, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
1. Bruce Springsteen Offers Free Download Of Chicago Concert.
2. Nearly Half Of Young Black Men In Chicago Are Jobless And Not In School.
3. Rare Panhandler Jury Trial Starts In Federal Court In Chicago.
Posted on January 25, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
“On September 9, 2002, as the George W. Bush administration was launching its campaign to invade Iraq, a classified report landed on the desk of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It came from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and it carried an ominous note,” Politico reports.
Posted on January 24, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
Look, I just finished recording The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour #86 with Jim “Coach” Coffman and now I’ve got to prepare it for posting, so I’m gonna just roll everything into the weekend. I will catch up with Rahm and Rauner, I swear. Also: good news, Twitter has fixed their embed coding issue, so the Beachwood’s pages containing embeds should have returned to their normal sizes, and TweetWood will once again appear in this space.
Posted on January 22, 2016
