Friday, July 11, 2008

Breaking In The New Guy Part II

I guess da Mare took his top cop to the woodshed this week. Apparently Jody Weis got a loud dressing down about gangbangers getting a foothold at the Taste of Chicago over the Fourth of July celebration. Some people got shot when the crowd was headed to trains and buses on Michigan Avenue. When it was over, a girl was dead. 

Since Weis got to Chicago six months ago, crime has escalated. But apparently crime is up all over the country. So you could cut him some slack and say the timing of his arrival was unfortunate. But he made it worse all by himself. His sweeping firing of almost all the commanders was brought up on the news tonight, yet again.

Because of the Fourth of July fiasco, he now has to publicly face the City Council shortly to answer questions by the aldermen. Besides the rise in crime, they're also pissed because Weis hasn't been keeping them in the loop when he decides to make high level personnel changes in their districts. That's a courtesty call at the very least. He hasn't been doing it.

He forgets that, unlike the FBI, which can ignore whining politicians, he has to pucker up in Chicago. You got to kiss 'em or they'll fark you.

I wonder if he talked to any former big city police chiefs about their recommendations for doing the job right, since he's never done it before.

Heck I would have gone to visit the notorious Mark Fuhrman who, for all his arrogance was still a good detective. Or Vincent Bugliosi, who was a very successful LA prosecutor and author of one of the best books about how the O.J. trial got so screwed up.

Of course, given the track record of the top cops in New York and LA and/or their departments, Weis may want to think about talking to somebody in a less "controversial" venue. Who am I kidding?  Too late.

It's also way too late for Weis to make a good first impression. But he could make a bad one better. But I don'tsee that happening.

On the good news front, I found out that Weis is married. Thank goodness. Of course, he's married to a fitness trainer. So I can't rule out an S&M fetish.

What do you mean the media would have outed him by now? How about what happened to tall, dark, handsome and rich Jack Ryan, the ex-hubba bubba of Jeri Ryan, who played 7 of 9 on one of the Star Trek spinoffs. Jacko was running for office here in Illinois. He didn't think his divorce decree would be made public, when ta-da! it was. Turns out he liked to visit sex clubs, intimidating his wife to join him. There was more, but that was plenty. Needless to say he withdrew from the race.

Oh please oh please oh please -- I am so hoping that someone or something from somewhere surfaces to out Jody Weis.

Meanwhile, there are only oblique references to Weis' carpetbagger status. The cops don't talk about it in public. Although the head of their union said they werent happy when he was hired. 

Besides the dressing down behind closed doors, the mayor was so ticked off about Weis' handling of the Fourth that he took one of his jobs away from him. He moved the current fire commissioner over to the position of head of emergency services. When there's a disaster, the former fire commish is now in charge.

That used to be Weis' second job title, along with top cop. It supposedly justified his 300k salary which is more than the mayor makes. I don't know what they'll do to justify his salary now.

After demoting Weis by promoting the old fire guy, the mayor announced the fire department's new leader. He's only the second black in that position, but surprisingly that's not what everybody's picking up on, even though the fire department has been rife with racism over the years.

The head of the firefighter's union was interviewed after the announcement. He made a big show of pointing out that the new Fire Commish [unlike the new top cop] "rose through the ranks, starting out as a regular fireman and working his way up. . .we can work with him."  They have one of their own.

Point taken.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My bet would be Weis was brought in to prevent the PD from being slapped with a Consent Decree, which is about the same as bringing in U.N. Peacekeeping troops. Truth be told, if no one likes him he is probably doing the job that needs to be done.

If you need a visual of what his job entails, rent "Street Kings."

Anonymous said...

Gee, we have a mayor who would much rather make love than war. Too bad he used his work phone to write it all out in detail.....xoxo

Anonymous said...

I'm happy to report my in-laws had a great time in Chicago.  Said they felt safe and were impressed with the cleanliness of the city.  

Robin in Texas

Anonymous said...

There is no way anyone who doesn't live near Chicago could clearly understand what truly goes on in our fair Chitown.   Jody Weis, the poor guy walked into a bad situation that no matter what he does he seems to be digging himself in deeper and deeper.

I am tired of hearing about kids getting shot though, and the father on the news the other day who found his 9 year old daughter in the alley with her throat slit makes me sick.  

Gotta say though there's never a dull moment around here!

Rose from Oswego.