Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Monday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“The Chicago Police Board has fired 12 officers in the year that Lori Lightfoot has headed it,” the Sun-Times reports. “Only twice in any year between 2006 and 2015 has the board fired more officers than that.”
The Sun-Times says this is evidence that the police board under Lightfoot is “tougher” than it has been in the past – something Lightfoot also argues. And perhaps that’s true – without examining the nature of the cases that have come before her this year and those that have come before the board in the past, I can’t be sure. After all, the two years between 2006 and 2015 were also anomalies.
But what I really find odd is this:

Lightfoot was asked whether she believes past police boards were part of a “code of silence” that Emanuel has acknowledged exists in the Chicago Police Department.
“I don’t believe that to be true knowing who the board members were. Everybody who served on this board over the years has taken their job very seriously,” she said.

Well, you don’t get to say that your board is doing a much better job than previous boards while stating that previous boards did their jobs just fine.
Obviously, previous police boards failed to do their job properly. There is an abundance of evidence to show it. That’s why Lightfoot was sent over there to clean the place up.
And then this caveat from Lightfoot: “But we are clearly in a very different time.”
A time when the police board is expected to take its job more seriously?
We are “in a different time” only because the police accountability system, including its final destination, the police board, has utterly failed.
And in no time should it have been acceptable for that system to let bad and/or corrupt police officers skate. The rules don’t change according to how the political winds are blowing – only the behavior of people who don’t take their responsibilities seriously.
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That includes the mayor, for whom the times apparently haven’t changed sufficiently:
“In addition to being the final arbiter on police misconduct cases, the board is also charged with conducting a nationwide search for a new police superintendent. Earlier this year, the board went through that process, only to have Emanuel reject all three names and choose insider Johnson, who did not apply for the job.
“The end-run around the board prompted three members to resign: Claudia Valenzuela, Melissa Ballate and William Conlon. None returned messages seeking comment. There are two vacancies on the nine-member board.”
Lightfoot, on the departures, in June:
“We went through a long process to identify three candidates for police superintendent that got rejected. That started people thinking about whether they wanted to serve . . . And there are people who believe if you are associated with the mayor, you have no legitimacy.”
Or, perhaps, Rahm destroyed any legitimacy they thought they had.
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The departed:
Claudia Valenzuela, detention project director at the National Immigrant Justice Center.
Melissa Ballate, president of Blue Daring.
William Conlon, former federal prosecutor.
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From the Beachwood sports desk . . .
The Cub Factor: Marty’s Hate List
See it!
The White Sox Report: Rick’s Picks
Have any of Hahn’s deals really worked out?
TrackNotes: Inverted Arlington
Even the Million can’t thrill him.
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Programming Note
Still making do on a borrowed laptop, so not operating at full capacity. Should find out today whether my MacBook can be saved from absorbing a bit of the High Life (Hey, Miller, sponsor me a new computer!); otherwise I will transplant the hard drive, which has been saved, into another unit.
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BeachBook
Deutsche Bank Whistleblower Turns Down $16.5 Million Payout To Show Industry Problem.

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Lawmakers Overseeing Wall Street Given Bigger, More Favorable Loans Than Others.

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The Dark Side Of Local.

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California Crime Initiative Leads To Lowest Arrest Rate In State’s History.

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TweetWood
A sampling.


See: Jeff Tweedy Oughta Be Ashamed; Jeff Tweedy (D-Rahm) Has Broken Our Hearts.
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Doesn’t this invalidate his whole enterprise?


Plus:


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The Beachwood Tronc Line: In context.

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Posted on August 22, 2016