Saturday, January 24, 2009

Commander Blows Smoke on Non Story


When does a non story become a story? When the Commander of the 24th district puts out false information like this flyer above.

Guess what? This 911 timeline call from an "unnamed source" was sent to me. Whereas I sent this email to Area Chief Bruce Rottner. Who forwarded it to our commander du jour, David Sobczyk. Because of the nature of the accusations by my unnamed source, I had no intention of publishing the information I received until I had both sides of the story. Here's what happened next.
1) Both Rottner and Sobczyk returned my email request.

2) The Chief took me to task for being irresponsible if I published this anonymous information I had received.

3) The newest commanders email response basically just blew smoke up my ass.
With that I decided the story wasn't going to run on my blog. Plus, by this time, it had become national news anyway.

So, what compelled our new commander to make up this story -- of a story that NEVER ran on my blog? What compelled the newest commander to make false information flyers on official Police letterhead and pass them around the community as fact? Go check. The incident happened January 9, 2009. Check January 10th. Check on the 11th of January. I never covered this story mentioned in the flyer on my blog.

RELATED: The 'Broken Heart' is being Harassed by the Chicago Police

14 comments:

Unknown said...

Let's not forget that the problems in Rogers Park are not the result of some evil, criminal police force.

These are the good guys. These are the men and women we call when someone is in trouble or in danger.

Their jobs are tough, and god knows they work under imperfect conditions.

In fact, let's not just cut them some slack; let's support them in every way possible.

Craig Gernhardt said...

Funny enough, the actual day of me getting the information, I had praised a 24th district police officer.

Craig Gernhardt said...

Fox covered the story. I didn't. Why go after a blogger?

Craig Gernhardt said...

CBS covered it too. Why didn't you send out a flyer reprimanding them, commander? Why pick on the blogger?

Hugh said...

The cops were certainly not trying to suppress the news of the vandalism & graffiti, I think they were more worried about the particular aspect of a rumor that flew thru the 'hood alleging slow police response, which from what I have heard at CAPS there's not much to it

Clark St. said...

Sobczyk wrote: "We (the police) cannot dispatch police cars. That is the sole responsibility of 911."

That's a flat out lie!

I know that you, Craig, listen to your scanner a lot.
I'm sure you've heard many calls, as I have of cars being on "station assignment".

Station assignment can be many things, most of the time it seems to be a lunch run for the cops in the station. Sometimes it's some sort of delivery of either a person or materials to a different location.
But other times it's a response to a call directly to the station because of a crime or the accusation of a crime. A lot of politically connected types seem to use this route in getting a police response. They big foot it.
Sergeants & Lieutenants also appear to have the authority to assign cars under certain circumstances.

As for the statement that because there wasn't a police report written up, due to the caller hanging up the phone, just what the hell is wrong with the idiot call taker at the 911 center?
And why is Sobczyk defending him?

Any, and I mean any call of damage or vandalism to a synagogue [or a church,mosque, etc] should get an immediate police response to the scene & a preliminary decision of a possible hate crime. Then a complete investigation will determine if it was just plain vandalism or a real hate crime.

So we have both incompetence & a classic Cover Your Ass response to that incompetence!

Big Daddy said...

A "station assignment" is NEVER a job which involves responding to a crime. It is simply a term we use to cover an assortment of tasks. Lunch for the desk, running to the uniform store, picking a cooper up from court, etc., etc. If it were a response to a crime, we would call it that or refer to it as a "followup. But we would never call resonding to a crime a "station assignment".
We have a dispatch center. It's called the 911 building or OEMC. That is the proper place to call when you need the Police, not the local District. The districts DO NOT dispatch cars,OEMC does.

RP Free Speech said...

So, Craig, if YOU didn't write the story, and Mannis (who insisted his blog was called www.rogersparkbench,blogspot.com--not CNB, as he is touting)didn't write it, and I didn't write it, and Bill Morton didn't write it on www.rp1000.blogspot.com, and the Shadow didn't write it on www.chicagoshadows.blogspot.com, then who did? Toni didn't, and mcl didn't, and fargocats didn't and North Coast didn't.

What's the prob? Are you two guys getting paranoid, or what? Sobczyk's letter says NOTHING about whom he contaced. Were you the "administrator"? You never even covered the synagogue damage, nor did I, nor did Tom--UNLESS someone deleted a post.

I did not.

So, as I see it, MUCH ADO ABOT NOTHING, but you two have RUINED your credibilty in the 24th District.

Big Daddy said...

My thoughts as well. I had thought that I missed a thread or something. As I was reading thread, I was also wondering what the fuss was all about.

Clark St. said...

"Big Daddy said...

A "station assignment" is NEVER a job which involves responding to a crime. It is simply a term we use to cover an assortment of tasks. Lunch for the desk, running to the uniform store, picking a cooper up from court, etc., etc. If it were a response to a crime, we would call it that or refer to it as a "followup."

Then why I both heard & seen cops sent to crimes as station assignments while listening to my scanner?

And of course we all know cops never, ever lie about anything!

Big Daddy said...

OK Sock Puppeteer, I was going to answer your question until I saw your last line, but since you have seen fit to make this personal and call either me or another Police Officer a liar I will no longer be responding to your posts. Sit back and THINK you know what your talking about. I will sit back and marvel at how you think you do knowing that you don't.

Craig Gernhardt said...

Remember - it's not a Rule Violation to lie to the media. It's encouraged. They even run a pool regarding it.

Source/Read more.

Unknown said...

I see that Mannis guy is all puffed up again, ranting on his blog, demanding this and that of the police department and calling the commander a coward.

Strangely, he didn't write anything about personally visiting the commander and calling him a coward to his face.

That guy's losing it.

Clark St. said...

Big Daddy, I'm calling lots of cops liars.
There's even a term for it when they lie in court: It's testilying!

And let's see, some cops that you seem to think have always told the truth:
Jon Burge
Drew Peterson
Anthony Abbate
Johannes Mehserle, the BART cop who shot an unarmed man in cold blood in Oakland, Cal. And then denied it. Only problem, it was on camera.
The cops that beat up Rodney King. They claimed he was stopped because his Hyundai was going 110 MPH. When Hyundai was asked if their car could go that fast, their spokesman started laughing & said it could barely make it to 95.

If I wanted to waste more time I could come up with hundreds more!

Oh Yes Big Daddy, cops never, ever lie!
Wannabet?

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