Political Corruption in Chicago

Now with Blago finally going to go to jail corruption ends in our fair state right? Well at least it will put the local politicians on notice her in Chicago right? I mean Blago only did things the “Chicago way”.

The City Council of Chicago is quaking in fear right? Hello?

Let’s get down to bare bones facts here, I intend to allow those who wish to read to enjoy themselves a little at the history of our great city. One thing that has always bothered me is the terms used by some to describe the Chicago Police Department as “Out of control”. Aldermen sought to get put into public records the top 50 officers with the most complaints for all to see.  This was such an outrageous thing to ask for and make names public for little or no reason other than political gain that even the spineless one, JFled refused to turn over the names to a judge.

You want to roll against me Chicago Politicians, let’s get started. The Chicago Police Department employs 13,500 officers, that number varies here and there depending on the year. Every so often you will hear about a scandal within the department, rogue officers. The news media loves this as is evident by the playing of a drunken officer beating a bartender every time any negative press comes down, even years after the case was settled that footage is dragged out. Now this writer is acknowledging that there have been bad seeds within that same department, but if CPD is out of control, what is the City Council?

You see, every year a couple of officers get brought in for their own stupidity, it happens. Every three years or so a minor scandal hits the news, maybe involving one or more officers. Finally it seems from my experience about every 7 years or so a really bad scandal hits, this usually involved a team of rogue officers, either from a specialized unit, or a tactical team. I am acknowledging this fact because I wish to compare numbers. We all know the latest two big government indictments from the news, the SOS scandal where Jerome Finnegan and crew were taking money from drug dealers for themselves, and William Cozzi, who I mentioned in a prior thread, who got completely railroaded by JFled, Jody Weis. Also of note is an ongoing investigation into CPD officers using tow companies and getting money for it. To my knowledge a couple of officers have been indicted for these charges. So federal indictments over the past couple of years? Let’s go with a high number and say 20, no let’s be safe and say 40. 40 out of 13,500 officers that is .29% of the department, yes under 1 %

Now let’s look at that city council that wants to have oversight over those “out of control” cops. With a very little digging around the web I found this juicy tidbit, over the past 36 years, 31 Chicago Aldermen have been indicted and convicted for federal charges, an additional 3 others have been indicted but either died or were judged too sick to stand trial. That’s just federal charges, not local. Over the past 35 years the Feds have launched Operations: Safebet, Gambat, Incubator, Greylord, Haunted Hall, and Silver Shovel to name just a few. That seems to be a lot of manpower to watch over 50 aldermen!

Want a list of names? Oh snap here we go!

Aldermen                                 Date convicted             Crimes

Fred Hubbard                            1/6/1973                        embezzlement

Joseph Jambrone                     4/12/1973                      bribery and income tax evasion 

Joseph Potempa                       10/30/1973                    extortion, mail fraud, tax evasion          

Casimir Staszcuk                       6/25/1973                      bribery for zoning changes

Thomas Keane                          10/9/1974                      mail fraud &conspiracy 

Frank Kuta                                9/4/1974                        extortion, mail fraud, tax evasion

Paul Wigoda                             10/10/1974                    tax evasion and received zoning bribe

Edward Scholl                           12/2/1975                      extortion, bribery, tax evasion

Donald Swinarski                      3/14/1975                      tax fraud

Stanley Zydlo                            10/22/1980                    bribery attempt to fix fire dept test

William Carothers                      8/23/1983                      conspiracy and extortion

Louis Farina                              12/7/1983                      extortion conspiracy

Tyrone Kenner                           5/24/1983                      bribery, extortion and fraud

Chester Kuta                             3/19/1987                      fraud, income tax evasion, civil rights violation

Wallace Davis                           10/131987                     bribe taking and extortion

Clifford  Kelley                          4/23/1987                      extortion, mail fraud, racketeering

Perry Hutchinson                       9/28/1989                      bribe taking, previous: insurance fraud

Marian Humes                           5/1/1989                        taking bribes

Fred Roti                                  1/15/1993                      bribery, extortion, racketeering

Ambrosio Medrano                    1/10/1996                      extortion, bribery, ghost payrolling

Allan Streeter                            4/17/1996                      bribery and extortion

Jesse Evans                             6/16/1997                      extortion and racketeering

Joseph Martinez                        1/23/1997                      ghost pay rolling

Lawrence Bloom                        12/4/1998                      tax fraud and taking bribes

John Madrzyk                           4/30/98                         ghost pay rolling and kickbacks

Percy Giles                               11/9/1999                      taking bribes, tax evasion

Virgil Jones                               1/28/1999                      taking bribes

James Laski                              6/13/2006                      bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud

Arenda Troutman                       8/6/2008                        mail fraud and tax fraud

Edward Vrdolyak                       11/3/2008                      conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud

Isaac Carothers                         2/1/2010                        Tax evasion, Zoning fraud

Sources: Curing corruption in Illinois: Anti corruption report Number 1 Feb 3 2009, Sun Times, Chicago Tribune

That is not including the two who died before going to trial. Just as an example 1973, 74 or 83 there were 3 aldermen indicted and convicted, that’s 6% of the city council. You would have to indict and convict 810 police officers in a year to match that! In 1987 4 were indicted and convicted or 8% of the city council, again to compare that would be 1080 officers indicted and convicted in a year.

Yes, it really is the CPD that is out of control, pay no attention to the workings of the city council….