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Tag: Lori Lightfoot

The Chicago Way Awards

The Chicago Way Award

Mayor Lori Lightfoot gave an emotional and impassioned award-winning statement on the situation in Ukraine. She rarely gives passionate, emotional statements over the almost daily murders of innocent victims, especially children, in Chicago. She cares more about a country half a world away than her own city. Dead people no longer vote in Chicago. Why waste the art of rhetorical emotion and passion on them?

Lightfoot is a nominee for the Chicago Way Award (CWA) for Best Actress from the Chicago Way Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Chicago Way Award is the most prestigious political award in the nation. The Chicago Way Academy of Arts and Sciences was established in 1977. The award ceremony takes place in a location in the city known only to members of the Academy and the nominees. The ceremony’s location changes yearly. The event is a formal invitation-only gala.

Lightfoot is not alone in contention for the CWA, a gold statuette in the form of the middle finger. State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is a contender for the Best Actress Award. Her impassioned and emotional acts when accused of cheerfully and willingly failing to do her job are stunning performances. You could see the tears and hear the sobs from her fans, the Chicago news media.

Chief Judge Timothy Evans is in contention for the Best Comedy Award for his performances, especially for his hilarious joke about undeveloped brains in Chicago’s murders. It was one of the best jokes on this city.

Superintendent of Police David Brown is up for two awards. One for his portrayal as a s**t kicking cowboy gunslinger in the big city. The other for his comedic ability portraying an incompetent, bumbling, mumbling, and ineffectual police superintendent ala the famed Barney Fife. Disclaimer: No horses were injured during his portrayals.

In the Fantasy category, Toni Preckwinkle is the hands-down favorite for her portrayal as a puppeteer, the invisible hands pulling and manipulating the strings of the Chicago Way. She is also in contention for an award as a producer and director. She produced and directed the Punch and Judy style show, with Kim Foxx as Punch, punching down Judy, portrayed by Lori Lightfoot.

Alderman Ed Burke is in contention for the Best Drama Award for his portrayal in the Old Man and the Sea, vigorously fighting the elements to land the Big Tuna. Burke was also nominated for a Lifetime Achievement Award for his dramatic and comedic performances and his contributions to the Chicago Way craft over the decades.

The CWA after-parties are some of the most coveted invitations in the city. The most lavish and coveted is thrown by Gregoire Sorostov, an enigmatic oligarch and financier whose goal is to shape governments to the ideals of his Closed Society Foundation. Sorostov finances some of the local political campaigns in Chicago and Cook County. Those who took his bribes campaign donations are achieving his Closed Society ideals by implementing and executing them.

This year’s ceremony will be held on April 1st, in honor of the Chicago voters who support the Chicago Way, keeping Academy members employed.

The picture says it all

Image: PV Bella

The adage is a picture is worth a thousand words. The photo above is representative of Chicago politicians and the Chicago news media.

While violent crime is out of control in Chicago, most alderpeople are silent. If asked about violent crime in their wards, they give milquetoast answers, mumbling about working with the police in their areas, blah, blah, blah. Some, if challenged, angrily shout at and shut down their questioners.

Members of the Chicago City Council, like Mayor Lori Lightfoot, State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, and Machine Boss Toni Preckwinkle, do not care about the rampant crime in all the neighborhoods. They have no pity, mercy, sympathy, or empathy. Hell, they are not even human as they display no humanity.

There is one thing they all are, depicted in the photo above—my apology to horses. If there are no consequences for criminality, criminals will continue their bloody rampages in neighborhoods. Innocent people, including children, will die. Survivors and families will be traumatized, some for life.

The police cannot do this alone. They need partners. They have no partner in the State’s Attorney’s office or the courts. The police cannot arrest us out of this crime pandemic if prosecutors and the courts refuse to do their jobs. Refusing to charge people with felonies, plea bargaining felonies down to misdemeanors, low or no bail, and the failing electronic monitoring system all contribute to the situation.

Boss Preckwinkle brags about the low jail population in her recently released campaign ad. Preckwinkle and Foxx are also represented in the above photo. Once again, my apologies to those noble animals.

Oh, look, those cops refused to get vaccinated or report their vaccine status—what a nice distraction. Columnists and editorial boards are outraged over the police for their resistance, yet not one word of outrage against the trio responsible for public safety, the Mayor, State’s Attorney, and Machine Boss. You better believe if one of their reporters, columnists, or high-paid news presenters were the victim of violent crime, there would be howls of outrage. If there were no prosecution or the criminal let out due to low or no bail, their hair would be on fire. Everyday people, meh.

The citizens should be outraged. They should not be questioning alderpeople. They should be demanding they do something, like hold the trio of horses’ a**es accountable. The citizens should hold their feet to the proverbial fire. Many alderpeople will be running for reelection to their six-figure part-time positions. If citizens do not get some results, they should elect someone else.

The same holds for the Lightfoot, Foxx, and Boss Preckwinkle. If they cannot curb the mayhem and keep us safe, they do not deserve another term in office. They should be tossed to the curb and swept away.

Public safety is the chief responsibility of elected officials. Our elected officials failed us on an epic scale. Any one of us could be an innocent victim of a violent crime. The politicians and news media keep touting police reform. What we need is political reform. Chicago needs people in office who care about public safety. People who have empathy for victims instead of sympathy for criminals. People who will act instead of tossing out cheap words or meaningless publicity stunt distractions.

We do not need horses a**es holding public office dishing out horse manure. We need people who care about public safety and have empathy for the victims of violent crime. We also need to hold the news media in this city accountable. They should be leading the charge instead of being partners in crime with the politicians. They, too, are horses’ a**es, dishing out horse manure daily.

What does it take to get angry and rise up against these total failures? How many more people, especially children must die? Are we that callous? Or, are we so dumb, that we do not hold the elected horses’ a**es accountable?

Chicago is a city of scoundrels

Image: PV Bella

“When will there be justice in Athens? There will be justice in Athens when those who are not injured are as outraged as those who are.” (Thucydides)

When will there be justice in Chicago? When will there be anger over the daily carnage on our streets? Every day the death toll mounts. Every day people are wounded. Where is the outrage that leads to justice?

The criminal justice system in Chicago is dysfunctional. The warfare between the police, State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, and the courts is a disgrace.

The politics in this city is the root cause of violent crime. Criminals know there will be few, if any consequences, for their actions. Justice is a revolving door. It is worse now than when corruption and bribery ruled over the system.

Cui bono? Who benefits? Who profits? The answer is the politicians. They get to keep their jobs because the voters in this city refuse to hold their feet to the fire over their epic failure to protect the public. In effect, voters voted against their self-interest, public safety.

They reelected Machine Boss Toni Preckwinkle and her minion, State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. They will probably reelect them. Mayor Lori Lightfoot is twisting in the wind, which is where Preckwinkle wants her. It is a good bet Preckwinkle already picked Lightfoot’s replacement. Lightfoot will not win 49 wards next time. She burned too many bridges.

We are witnessing machine politics at its worst. People are dying, including children, and the three frenemies pretend to make nice. This is not and never was about progressive ideas, social justice, or correcting wrongs. This is pure machine politics. And you, the voters, believe the lies. So does the aiding and abetting news media in this city of scoundrels.

So-called reform politicians love the words accountability and transparency. They toss them around like kids pitching pennies. Yet, there is no accountability or transparency. It does not exist. The proof is the dead and wounded. Over 3700 people have been shot in Chicago so far this year, 641 fatally. Those figures do not include people shot on the expressways*.

The State’s Attorney’s office refuses to approve felony charges in many cases, blaming the police for shoddy investigations. Worse, they plea bargain too many felonies down to misdemeanors. Toni Preckwinkle’s lenient bail bond initiative allows criminals to return to the streets. The electronic monitoring system is a joke.

Violent crime in Chicago reached pandemic levels over the summer. It is precisely what Preckwinkle and Foxx want. Lightfoot cannot fight back. She always caves into the devilish duo. Lightfoot makes nice while they plot her demise. She, too, bears the blame. She hired an incompetent Superintendent of Police.

If Chicago had a real news media, as we did in the past, Preckwinkle and Foxx would never get reelected. David Brown would be back in Texas. The editorial boards are either cowardly, gullible or willfully blind to the deception.

No one is standing up for the victims. No one is speaking for the dead. No one is speaking for the families in their grief and mourning.

It is not only the injured or their families who must speak out. The vast majority in this city is up to those who are not suffering to express our outrage. We deserve better than this political Ponzi scheme perpetrated on us.

People, you are not helpless. You have voices. Let them be heard.

By the way, where is Superintendent of Police, David “Tex” Brown? Is he on vacation, missing, AWOL? Should we put his picture on milk cartons?

*The Illinois State Police have jurisdiction over the expressways. Their figures are not included in the City of Chicago reporting.

The favor bank crashed

Image: PV Bella

“One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. ..” (The Lord of the Rings/JRR Tolkien)

A while back, I did a favor for someone. It was something for which I would typically get paid. That person expressed their gratitude. I reminded them it was a favor. Another deposit in the favor bank. 

Whether it is politics or business, Chicago relies on the favor bank. Chicago politics lives on the favor bank. You scratch my back, and I scratch yours. That is how things get done in this city of tribal political warfare. Good politicians and business people know this.

The favor bank was never about who wants to be more powerful or thinks they are in control. It is not a one-way or dead-end street. It is part of the Chicago Way. The way things get accomplished. We get by with a little help from our friends.

The favor bank does not rely on love, liking, respect, or loathing people. It is based on mutual need and trust. Just like you trust the bank with your money, favors are based on the gold standard that they will be repaid when needed. No reminder of “Remember when I…” is required or demanded.

The favor bank in Chicago crashed. The proof is the battle between Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her nemeses, State’s Attorney, Kim Foxx, and Democratic Party Chair, and Cook County Board President, Toni Preckwinkle. The war is over who rules Chicago, who is the singular power. Preckwinkle wants to rule it all, the county and the city.

Toni Preckwinkle, the Chicago Machine Boss, AKA, the Godmother, understands power. She knows how and when to wield it. Preckwinkle is beloved by masses of gullible voters and the Chicago news media, who drank the Kool-Aid, believing Preckwinkle is a reformer, a goo-goo*. Preckwinkle is no reformer. She is no goo-goo.

Toni Preckwinkle is ruthless in her quest to control Chicago. Like Sauron, from the “Lord of the Rings,” she dispenses rings- favors- and demands more than a return. She demands total allegiance.

Lori Lightfoot was not supposed to be the mayor of Chicago. Toni Preckwinkle was the shining North Star. Lori Lightfoot did not only win the election. She crushed Preckwinkle, taking 49 out of fifty wards. It was a humiliating rout. A rout Preckwinkle will never forgive or forget.

Since her loss, Preckwinkle has done everything in her power to humiliate Lightfoot. She stays quiet behind the scenes while her minions who owe her do her bidding. All in the name of reform, whatever that means.

Preckwinkle’s chief minion is Cook County State’s Attorney, Kim Foxx. Preckwinkle created Foxx in her image, gave her marching orders, and the war was on. Foxx is no reformer, no goo-goo. She is a hard-edged opportunist. She knows the voters are gullible, and the news media is blissfully ignorant. Reform is a dog and pony show.

Their plan is to destroy the city and bring in a hero or heroine to save it. If you need proof, it is right before your eyes. The murder, mayhem, and bloodshed occurring every day in every neighborhood in Chicago. Preckwinkle and Foxx revel seeing Lightfoot twist in the wind while aiding and abetting the anarchy on the streets.

Kim Foxx is supposed to prosecute criminals. Under the guise of criminal justice reform, she continually refuses to charge criminals with felonies. She raised the bar so high that she created a revolving door for violent criminals to walk through to keep terrorizing the citizens. Foxx is Toni Preckwinkle’s Chief Anarchist in Charge. 

Foxx is more telegenic and likable than Lightfoot. She is a media darling. She is focused on one thing and one thing only, doing the bidding of Toni Preckwinkle by destroying Chicago, thus destroying Lightfoot. Foxx is not alone. There are several alderpeople under Preckwinkle’s spell who do her bidding. They owe her too.

Lightfoot did Preckwinkle a solid by endorsing her nemesis, Kim Foxx, for reelection. That favor was not put in the bank. It was never meant to be returned. Foxx and Preckwinkle revel in seeing the deaths of innocents, especially children and the elderly. They are a blood cult. They do not care about lives. They care about power. All that matters is the dumb voters and the happy compliant press.

They drag out their secret weapons, social justice, and race when all else seems to fail. They toss out race and victimhood to create grievance and division. The mooks who vote believe the beautiful lies. The mamelukes in the press swallow this and churn it out, turning the beautiful lies into a deadly reality.

Mayor Lightfoot needs to learn the favor bank crashed. She owes no one. She will never get repaid. She is alone, fighting a battle with no allies. Toni Preckwinkle is succeeding in Lightfoot’s destruction. She stands silently behind the veil, letting others do her bidding. She wears the One Ring to rule, bring them all in and bind them in darkness.

The question is, how many dead bodies will it take before the citizens in Chicago and the news media realize the evil they created?

*Goo-goo is a political pejorative for a good government type.

Welcome to Deadwood

The new Chicago logo/image: PV Bella

UPDATE: This piece was edited. I originally put the number of people murdered in Chicago versus the number shot This was corrected.

2-70 are the ages of two of the ten people shot between Friday night and Saturday morning. Another toddler and another older person. One starting life and another who lived a life.

Almost 800 people were shot in Chicago, plus over 185 people shot on the expressways.* With the rise of rolling shootouts, it appears the shootings will go on through the winter months. Predictions are that 1000 or more people will be wounded or die by gun violence in Chicago by year’s end. 

The new Chicago Flag/Image: PV Bella

Maybe we should change the name of Chicago to Deadwood, the historic town known for its violence and criminality. Change the Chicago logo to Aces and Eights, the Deadman’s Hand. Die the river red to commemorate all the bloodshed on the streets. Change the city flag to a body chalk figure with four bloody bullet holes.

Who is protecting us? Who is curbing or preventing the warfare on our streets? Where are the accountability and consequences for those arrested?

Day after day, weekend after weekend, and here we are with another three-day weekend with nice weather. How many people must die? How many families must mourn and grieve? How many people must suffer wounds, some catastrophic? 

How many violent criminals must be let on the streets by our catch and release prosecutors and judges? Is criminality now sports fishing?

We refuse to hold anyone accountable. The people responsible for keeping us safe are squabbling like children. They get their backs up in righteous indignation, sometimes pretending to almost cry, and blame each other. The former SNL character, the Thespian, Jon Lovitz, had a word for this, ACTING! 

There is no harsh criticism or outrage over the lack of public safety. The systems in place that are supposed to keep us safe are failing on an epic level. The news media reports the carnage, but their editorial boards are silent. The media may as well put Mr. Rogers and Barney in charge of its editorial boards.

Not one person, elected or appointed, will provide a solution to curb this out-of-control anarchy. There is a solution we can provide. Threaten the elected officials to bring things under control, or we will toss them to the curb, where they belong. Toni Preckwinkle, Lori Lightfoot, and Kim Foxx should get a clear message their jobs are at stake. 

We no longer want to hear about systemic and intractable something or other, social issues, or equity. We do not want to see officials lie with data. We want to see the numbers of people shot driven down. We want to walk or drive down our streets without fear of being innocent victims of gun violence. We want to see the perpetrators of violence held accountable. We want criminals to know there will be consequences for their activity.

Contrary to what their spokes weasels say, our elected officials are not courageous fighters on behalf of the public. They are craven cowards. Their greatest fear is the unemployment line. Citizens should crank up the heat and put that fear into their hearts and keep it there until they do something besides talk and quarrel among themselves.

Lori Lightfoot made a big mistake meeting with Kim Foxx to iron out their political differences. She should have doubled and tripled down on her criticism. Lightfoot should have thrown Preckwinkle under the bus too. Instead, she decided to fold and play nice. When the people responsible for fueling and driving violence all over this city fail, there should be no nice. There should be constant and consistent harsh criticism.

Love them or hate them, former Chicago mayors Daley and Emanuel would never tolerate the level of incompetence and apathy of Preckwinkle and Foxx. Where are the alderpeople? They should be scorching Foxx and Preckwinkle. Where are the Cook County Commissioners who represent areas of Chicago? They should be standing up for the victims and potential victims.

As it stands, more people are killed by guns than COVID. COVID is still a pandemic. Violence is just another problem no one wants to solve. There is no political will because there is no political threat of consequences for failure.

Welcome to Deadwood.

*Expressway crimes are the jurisdiction of the Illinois State Police and are not reported in Chicago’s statistics, even though they happen within the city limits.

In Chicago only the criminals get compassion

Image: PV Bella

Another mass shooting, five people were shot in Austin. Another toddler was shot Saturday. There were multiple shootings citywide over a twelve-hour period Friday. On Saturday, multiple people were shot over a four-hour period. There were robberies and stabbings too.

Ho-hum, just another typical bloody Chicago weekend. The Summer Olympics of Violence is leading into the Fall Gun Games. The silent apathy in this city is deafening. It is appalling. What does it take for people to get angry? What does it take for people to demand change?

The city is failing miserably. Yet, the citizens and friendly news media editorial boards are mute.  No matter where you live in Chicago, you are not safe. You have a higher chance of getting shot and killed, or being the victim of a violent crime than catching COVID.

Where did this mass apathy come from? Why do most people think something cannot happen to them? Why are we not demanding better? 

So-called criminal justice reform is failing. We are being lied to by elected officials, the activists they are in bed with, and the news media through their silence. Mayor Lori Lightfoot is lying, Kimm Foxx is lying, the Chief Judge is lying, Chicago Machine Boss, Toni Preckwinkle is lying, Superintendent of Police David Brown is lying, the friendly news media is aiding and abetting their lies.

The only truth is in the numbers, and the numbers keep rising. We will smash records this year in shootings and murders. According to HeyJackass!:  

  • September to date- 50 souls shot and killed. 54 total homicides.
  • Last week- 22 souls shot and killed. 24 total homicides.
  • Year to date- 575 souls shot and killed. 2800 shot and wounded. Total shot, 3375. Total homicides- 608.
  • A victim is shot almost every two minutes in Chicago.
  • A victim is murdered just over every ten minutes in Chicago.
  •  The cause of death by homicide is 94.9%.

Chicago should be nominated for entry into The Gun Violence Hall of Fame. The hall of fame is as imaginary as reform or the plans, strategies, and precision deployments from the leadership of this city and Cook County. We only see the boring itemized list of guns recovered or people arrested Tex Brown puts out during his press conferences.

Years ago, back when Chicago cared, there would be collective outrage over infants and children being shot or shot and killed. There would be a collective demand for justice.

Now, there is a callous apathy in this town without pity. Only the criminals get justice, and the justice is a slap on the wrist. It is not justice. They get mercy.

Maybe we should change the name. Instead of the Criminal Justice System. We should call it the Criminal Mercy System. We could replace the prosecutors and judges with nuns. The Sisters of Clemency, led by Sister Mary Hilarius*. We could turn the Cook County Jail into The Home for Wayward Felons. Why not? Since the criminals get more compassion than the victims. We all know that compassion reforms murderous criminals, don’t we?

*There is a Saint Hilarius, a former Pope.

Chicago is lost

Image: PV Bella

“These murders went out of the comprehension of a civilized city,” … “The butchering of seven men by open daylight raises this question for Chicago: Is it helpless?” (Chicago Tribune on the St. Valentines Massacre)

As summer turns to fall, none of the news is good. COVID-19 is still a threat. Getting shot, killed, beaten, robbed, or carjacked in Chicago is a worse threat. Now, experts are warning the upcoming flu season could be “brutal.”

We are lost. We do not know what to fear most, disease or being violently victimized as the Summer Olympics of Violence winds down. If the violence abates during the fall, Mayor Lightfoot and her Police Superintendent, David Brown, will claim victory. All their failed, and failing plans, strategies, deployments, and precision deployments worked. The mayor will award Brown the Gold Cookie. The losers will be winners.

Crime usually drops off in the fall and through winter. Of course, the friendly media will credit failure and convince the gullible naïfs in this city that Brown was a success. The citizens of Chicago are easily fooled and will believe whatever the media tells them.

Chicagoans complain about everything except the things that matter, like life and death on the streets. The bloodshed is hushed up. Brown tosses out dry, boring data. How many guns the police took off the street, how many people were arrested for gun possession, blah, blah.

Whatever is being done is not stopping the violence. It is not mitigating or curbing it. Prevention is almost impossible.

Seven people were killed during the St. Valentine’s massacre, a mass shooting heard around the world. Newspapers nationwide were in an uproar. Headlines screamed. Editorials were brutal. The citizenry was appalled. It led to the demise of Capone’s grip on Chicago.

There were over 50 mass shootings this year, most over the spring and summer. Not one peep from the friendly editorial boards. Not one word from community groups or supposed activists. No outrage from the citizens. It is all ho-hum. Lightfoot and the incompetent State’s Attorney, Kim Foxx keep getting the benefit of the doubt. 

Foxx is supposed to be the voice of victims in court. Foxx flipped the script. She is the voice of the criminals. The news media and editorial boards lap it up.

We are heading into another warm weekend. Already, “At least four people were killed and 10 others wounded in a string of shootings across Chicago overnight. A fifth victim was beaten to death.” (WGN9 9/17/2021) These shootings and the beating occurred from one end of the city to another, 78th Street to Irving Park Road, between 8:30 PM and 8:30 AM.

Why is the violence in this city not considered “out of the comprehension of a civilized city?” Are we no longer civilized? Where is the outrage over the daily butchering of men, women, and children, even infants, all hours of the day and night? 

“Is Chicago helpless?” The answer is yes. If COVID-19 does not kill you, a stray bullet might. Yet, the news media is focusing on COVID more than violence. The mayor and Tex Brown are getting a free pass. There is no anger among the citizens. No one is pointing fingers at the real culprits, the mayor, most of the mute alderpersons, the Police Superintendent, Kim Foxx, and the courts. We are being failed on all levels. We are accepting failure as an option.

The weekend is upon us. The weather will be nice. It will be perfect for the Summer Olympic of Violence games to go on. So, mask up, social distance, stay out of crowds, and stay off the streets. Stay alive.

Lori Lightfoot Comes Clean

Image: City of Chicago

“Lightfoot doubled down saying that it will be a condition of employment, making it clear that she will require all city workers to be fully vaccinated by October 15 or they will be fired…. 

“Let’s be clear. We always want to engage with our unions on any issue that’s going to affect their members, and certainly their workplace, but it’s a condition of employment,” Lightfoot said.” (abc 7

Once again, Mayor Lori Lightfoot shot herself in the foot, making the COVID vaccine a “condition of employment” while still negotiating with the public employee unions. What is she negotiating?

She threw down the gauntlet. She threw out the perception that employees could be fired for refusing to be vaccinated. Perception is the reality in today’s world. The unions must be fuming.

Unlike the private sector, public employees, except exempt appointees, are not at-will employees. They can only be fired for just cause. They have due process rights. Even the perception of termination will blow up whatever negotiations she is in with the unions.

There should be no argument. Every city employee should be vaccinated unless there are health issues. Very few religions prohibit vaccinations. Yet, members of her staff are not vaccinated. That is not leading by example. Every appointed member of her staff not vaccinated should be fired immediately. That would be leading by example.

Image: City of Chicago

There are better ways to enforce vaccinations. Employees could be put on unpaid administrative leave until they get vaccinated. Making vaccinations a condition of employment means she can and probably will try to fire employees to set an example for others. That might be one legal battle she will lose.

Once again, Lightfoot is doubling down on being right. Her hardheaded stubbornness is losing the confidence of city employees. This will not end well. The vaccine mandate should have been negotiated while the vaccines were developed. This is not a mandate. It is an edict. Obey or else. 

Her arch nemesis, Toni Preckwinkle, is chuckling. Her political machine is well-oiled, firing on all cylinders, and ready to run a candidate worse than Lightfoot. The dumb voters in Chicago who believe Preckwinkle is a reformer will follow her off a cliff. The city will become a catastrophe.

Lori Lightfoot made one wrong decision after another on too many issues. She handled the pandemic well until this point. I do not know who is giving her legal advice, but they are not the best or the brightest.

Lightfoot is turning into a disaster of her own making. So far, there is not a peep from the alderpersons. Some may weigh in today or Monday. They must be furious, as they rely on many city employees to provide services in their wards.

Lightfoot’s my way, or the highway style of management is failing. The voters see it, contenders see it, and the unions see it. She is an elected official, not an imperial monarch. She cannot issue edicts without sound legal standing or defined consequences. She is an attorney and should know better.

There is not much to salvage from Lightfoot’s numerous mishaps. The city is a junkyard full of Lightfoot’s wreckages, including rampant citywide violent crime. Maybe Lincoln Towing should step in to tow them all away.

Mayor Lightfoot Defended the Indefensible

Rituals are important. Part of the ritual for a police officer or firefighter killed in the line of duty is to have an honor guard and bagpipers march the ambulance from the street into the receiving dock of the Office of the Cook County Medical Examiner’s facility.

The ritual is not just to honor the officer. It is for the personnel lining up to salute their fallen comrade. More important, it is for the family. I say again. The ritual is FOR THE FAMILY.

First Deputy Superintendent, Eric Carter, tried to cancel part of the ritual for fallen Officer Ella French. “We can’t wait for the bagpipers. We don’t have 20 minutes to wait for this s**t.”

Carter turned the ritual into “This s**t.”

Mayor Lori Lightfoot defended Carter. How does one defend the indefensible?

“There was no official honor guard that night. There was, let me choose my words carefully, [a] well-meaning but not well-organized group that wanted to hijack the procession. Which would have meant that the family would have been delayed exponentially in getting to the morgue,” the mayor said.” (Chicago Sun-Times)

“Given the new restrictions that the new coroner has put in place, that wouldn’t have been fair to them. … So, a call was made under those circumstances to focus on the family. Eric Carter made the right call. I support what he did. And I’m horrified that, in this moment, people are trying to savage him for whatever agenda or purpose.” (Chicago Sun-Times)

The Medical Examiner’s office refuted the mayor’s statement. By the way, there is no coroner in Cook County. The position was changed to the Office of the Medical Examiner in the mid-1970s. Details matter. Just like Superintendent Brown’s mistake in calling Officer French Ella Fitzgerald twice.

Either Eric Carter lied to the mayor, or the mayor lied to the citizens to cover up for Carter. The citizens of Chicago should be horrified that Carter is being lionized for his disrespect and dishonor to Officer Ella French and her family by the mayor.

These rituals are carefully planned in detail well in advance. The honor guard procession is part of that meticulous plan. It has been for years. Some mysterious rogue group did not hijack the plan. There was no agenda or purpose. There was only a meticulous plan. 

Eric Carter deserves to be “savaged.” Eric Carter decided things were taking too long for his taste. It had nothing to do with regards to the family or Medical Examiner protocols. That is just a fabrication to justify his dishonorable impatience.

A story was concocted to make Carter look like he was doing the right thing, the noble thing. That is all it is, a fairy tale. Chicago is a city of tall tales when people get caught doing something they should not do. It is all “Once upon a time” and “Twas a dark and stormy night.” There is a happy ending for the disreputable.

The rituals are important. Eric Carter knew this. The mayor should know this. There was no need to bum rush things that fateful night. The planned ritual should have played out. The family should have witnessed the honor afforded their daughter, Officer Ella French.

Lightfoot’s tall tale cut the last thread of morale that was left in the Chicago Police Department. By defending the indefensible, mayor Lori Lightfoot lost the Chicago Police and Fire Department members, the retirees, and the people they are connected to.

Police officers are angry. Their families are angry. The retired cops are angrier than usual. On election day, if Lightfoot runs, we will vote with our anger.

God forgets and forgives. We never forget the fallen. We never forget the disrespect given to our fallen. We never forgive those who dishonored our fallen. We will never forgive or forget Eric Carter. We will never forgive or forget Mayor Lori Lightfoot for defending his dishonorable behavior.

The Chicago Police Department has no more time for Eric Carter’s s**t. Carter is devoid of honor. His actions that night were despicable. The rank and file no longer have confidence in him. When leaders lose the confidence of their subordinates, they cannot lead.

Carter should do the honorable thing and resign or retire for his dishonorable behavior. If he lied to the mayor, he should be fired from his position, reducing him to his former rank.

Ella French is a hero. The missteps over her death, from calling her Ella Fitzgerald twice to denying her an honor guard is horrific. 

It appears that Dumb and Dumber are running the Chicago Police Department. We need smarter people to lead the members of the Chicago Police Department.