Free Republic

A top Chicago police official’s car was stopped on the West Side during a drug arrest earlier this month, a police spokesman confirmed Wednesday. A Lexus registered to Yolanda Talley, chief of internal affairs, was pulled over Feb. 1 in the 500 block of North St. Louis Avenue and officers arrested Kenneth Miles, 34, on drug charges, according to an arrest report and police sources. Talley wasn’t in the car. Her niece was driving the Lexus, said Don Terry, a spokesman for the police department. According to a police report, officers in a gang investigations squad were targeting drug sales...

The Chicago Police Department is conducting an internal investigation into a sergeant who voiced her support for the formation of a Turning Point USA chapter at an area high school. Chicago Police Department Sergeant Ammie Kessem, who's also the 41st Ward Republican Committeeman in Chicago, voiced her support for the potential creation of a TPUSA chapter at William Howard Taft High School in Chicago on Dec. 9, stating on Facebook that several "brave students" are creating the high school chapter of the conservative group. "Some brave students will be creating this Chapter of Turning Point USA tomorrow at William Howard...

CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Friday that she took her fight with the head of the city’s police officers union to court, arguing that his call for officers to ignore the order to report their COVID-19 vaccination status was illegal. The mayor said in a statement that the city’s law department filed a complaint in Cook County Circuit Court for injunctive relief against Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara, whom she accused of “engaging in, supporting and encouraging work stoppage or strike.” Lightfoot asked the court to prohibit the union and its officers from “engaging in...

Chicago has seen a significant increase in shootings and homicides so far this year, compared with the first four months of 2020, police said Saturday. […] So far this year, 997 people have been shot, compared with 718 last year. The city has had 87 homicides — 31 more than during the same period last year. However, police did report some encouraging news about carjackings. According to the department, since adding 40 officers and four sergeants to a task force in early January, the number of reports of vehicular hijackings has dropped more than 55%. …

CHICAGO — A Chicago man known as the “Dreadhead Cowboy” is facing three charges after riding his horse on the Dan Ryan Monday afternoon. At around 4:30 p.m., police responded to the southbound lanes of the Dan Ryan after Adam Hollingsworth, 33, better known as the “Dreadhead Cowboy,” was seen riding his horse on the expressway near 35th Street. He rode for around 30 minutes as traffic slowed to a halt with Illinois State Police and Chicago police following close behind. Police said they asked Hollingsworth and those who were with him to exit the expressway multiple times and said...

The nation’s largest police union, along with its Chicago chapter, has endorsed Republican President Donald Trump’s reelection bid, potentially helping to boost his law-and-order message. While the endorsement might have been expected, it further illustrates a division between law enforcement and protesters who for months have railed against police brutality and called for racial justice after the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. The endorsement isn’t likely to hold much sway for Trump in heavily Democratic Chicago, but John Catanzara, president of the local FOP and an outspoken Trump backer, is happy to antagonize the likes...

FOP president fires back at Lightfoot, calls Rush a 'liar' over video. The head of the Chicago police union is blasting Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Bobby Rush over their response to a video which showed officers taking refuge in the congressman's office while looters ransacked nearby businesses during protests almost two weeks ago. Fraternal Order of Police President John Cantanzara says the looting happened earlier in the night on May 31 and that these officers were "lounging" around after the looting was already over. Cantanzara says the officers had originally been assigned to 87th Street and the Dan Ryan, and...

When Sgt. Michael Nowacki of the Chicago Police SWAT Team had a day off this past weekend, he needed to find something to do. His longtime girlfriend, Officer Erin Gubala, was busy working the finish line of the Hot Chocolate 15K as part of Chicago Police’s bike patrol unit. Nowacki, an avid runner since he joined the Army in 1990, decided he might as well run the race, and represent his department while doing so—by completing it in his SWAT gear. An experienced marathoner with 11 Chicago Marathons under his belt, a 15K wouldn’t be that bad. The gear aspect,...

After a week of heated protests and calls for her resignation, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and African-American leaders condemned Chicago’s police union and defended how the prosecutor’s office addressed an actor’s alleged hate crime hoax. Foxx vowed to remain at her post during a Saturday news conference, despite intense controversy sparked in March when her office dropped a 16-count indictment that accused television actor Jussie Smollett of orchestrating a racist and homophobic attack on himself to advance his career. Foxx declined to address “the substance of the case” with reporters gathered at the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition...

To say this is a strongly worded letter is a bit of an understatement. As you’ve no doubt heard, Illinois State Attorney Kim Foxx is in the middle of a firestorm for her apparent corrupt handling of the Jussie Smollett case. After inexplicably dropping all charges, she’s told several different stories, including some that are objectively false. She’s under FBI review, under fire from the Chicago PD, and she’s now taking hits from the Illinois Prosecutors Bar Association. Excerpts from the letter are as follows. The Illinois Prosecutors Bar Association serves as the voice for nearly 1,000 front line prosecutors...

...Jussie Smollett arrested and faces a felony charge for allegedly filing false police report...

about attack in Streeterville Jussie Smollett Jussie Smollett participates in an "Empire" panel during the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Aug. 8, 2017. (Willy Sanjuan/AP) Jeremy Gorner, Megan Crepeau, William Lee, Tracy SwartzChicago Tribune “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett has been charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false police report about an attack he said occurred as he walked to his apartment building in Streeterville last month. The charge, a felony, was announced by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office Wednesday evening, hours after police called Smollett “a suspect in a criminal investigation...

Authorities have issued subpoenas to obtain records from Empire’s Jussie Smollett amid reports the actor-singer allegedly staged a racist and homophobic attack on himself last month, according to a report Wednesday. MORE: @ABC7Chicago has also learned subpoenas have been issued to obtain records from Jussie Smollett.— Rob Elgas (@RobElgasABC7) February 20, 2019 The report comes as lawyers for Smollett meet with prosecutors and police investigators. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said he did not know if Smollett was attending the meeting or the specifics of what was being discussed. He declined to confirm reports that subpoenas had been issued for the...

CHICAGO -- Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi confirmed Wednesday afternoon that Jussie Smollett is officially a suspect in a criminal investigation for filing a false police report, a Class 4 felony. Guglielmi said CPD detectives are currently presenting evidence before a Cook County grand jury. Earlier Gugliemi confirmed prosecutors are speaking with Jussie Smollett's attorneys as part of their investigation into an alleged attack on the "Empire" actor. "We are hopeful that we'll have a chance to ask the questions that we have," Guglielmi said. "It doesn't matter what the investigation shows; if you have information that's helpful to law...

(VIDEO AT SOURCE)Chicago (CNN)Two law enforcement sources with knowledge of the investigation told CNN that Chicago Police believe Jussie Smollett paid two men to orchestrate the assault. The brothers, who were arrested Wednesday, were released without charges Friday after Chicago police cited the discovery of "new evidence." The sources told CNN that the two men are now cooperating fully with law enforcement. Smollett told authorities he was attacked early January 29 by two men who were "yelling out racial and homophobic slurs." He said one attacker put a rope around his neck and poured an unknown chemical substance on him....."It...

A white Chicago officer was convicted of second-degree murder Friday in the 2014 shooting of a black teenager that was captured on shocking dashcam video that showed him crumpling to the ground in a hail of 16 bullets as he walked away from police. The video, some of the most graphic police footage to emerge in years, stoked outrage nationwide and put the nation’s third-largest city at the center of the debate about police misconduct and use of force. The shooting also led to a federal inquiry and calls to reform the Chicago Police Department. Jason Van Dyke, 40, was...

Chicago police released body camera video on Sunday of the fatal police shooting of 37-year-old Harith Augustus, which sparked a night of protests in the South Shore neighborhood. Supt. Eddie Johnson said he made the decision to release the video "because the community needs some answers and they need it now." He said he wanted to clear up misinformation about the shooting. After the shooting, crowds gathered near where the shooting occurred Saturday evening at 71st Street and Clyde Avenue. Four police officers injured and four protesters arrested. Protesters threw rocks and bottles at police officers and jumped on squad...

Institutional problems within the Chicago Police Department have led to serious civil rights violations for years, including racial bias against blacks and a tendency to use excessive force, according to a U.S. Department of Justice report released Friday. The Justice Department launched its investigation of the 12,000-officer force — one of the nation’s largest — in December 2015 following the release of dashcam video showing a white police officer shoot a black teenager, Laquan McDonald, 16 times as he walked away holding a small, folded knife. The video of the 2014 shooting, which the city fought to keep from being...

After threatening to sue, the Chicago Tribune has obtained data from the city’s police department that tracks every time an officer has opened fire in the city over the past six years. The vast majority of those hit were black men or boys. There were 435 police shootings from 2010 through 2015, in which officers killed 92 people and wounded 170 others. In all, officers fired 2,623 bullets. The newspaper’s findings show about four out of every five people shot were African-American males. It found that about half of the officers involved were African-American or Hispanic and most of them...

The video is a must watch. The vehicle passes between two officers essentially shooting at each other. At about 5:41 on the video an officer reloads while pointing his weapon at another officer.