Burge Trial - Like "The Black Box" Frank Sirtoff Seems to Have Vanished, sort of

Everyone, we are told repeatedly, must accept that Jon Burge tortured hundreds of black men between the 1980's and 1990's.

However, wheels keep falling off this bandwagon - hundreds of black men, came down to five two weeks ago when the prosecution in the perjury trial of Jon Burge took flight and the black box electrical torture has yet to appear in anything but rumor and hearsay.

For quite a while, especially during the Cook County Special Attorney's Report development and publication, readers were treated to an eye-witness account by a then Boy Scout in Bluhm Center Literature and Counterpunch articles by Eric Ruder of the Socialist Worker.Frank Sirtoff told of witnessing the torture of black men by Burge with the fabled 'Black Box."

Where is this 'Witness for the Prosecution?"

Like the 'black box' Frank Sirtoff no longer seems relevant to the people who demand that we all must accept that Jon Burge tortured hundreds.


Frank Sirtoff then,

ABC7 Exclusive: Former Boy Scouts claim to have witnessed torture

Two former Boy Scouts say they witnessed the torture of a suspect and they believe former commander Jon Burge was involved.

There was a 1980′s film called “Stand By Me” about kids who stumbled onto a crime scene and it changed their lives forever. Not only are the following memories remindful of that film, they are also the first independent, corroborated witness accounts of possible torture inside a Chicago police station.

“I’ve tried to put it in the back of my mind most of the time and tried to live my life as good as I could. But after seeing something like that, it’s a life-changing experience,” said Frank Sirtoff, alleged torture witness.

Forty-five-year-old Frank Sirtoff says he will never forget what he saw during the summer of 1975 when he was a 14-year-old boy scout living on Chicago’s Southwest Side. Sirtoff says he and a cousin, who was also a scout, entered the Area 3 police headquarters — then at 39th and California — to visit their scout leader who was a detective in the youth division on the third floor.

“We made it a habit of going there quite often, at least once a week,” said Sirtoff.

But that day, the boys went exploring on the second floor. Sirtoff says he remembers opening a door and seeing a black man in distress sitting at a long desk.

“And this man was sitting in the wooden chair, strapped down with handcuffs on his arms, his legs,” Sirtoff said. “The leg of the chair and wires all over his body, wires on his arms, his hands, his forehead, by the temples of his head … and on top of the desk was a black box with a crank handle and all of the wires going into the box.”

Frank’s cousin wished to remain anonymous as he talked about also seeing the black man, the box and the wires and a large, red-haired detective.

“He had red hair, mustache, big guy. He said, ‘shut that n—-r up and get these f—–g kids out of here,’ ” said Frank’s cousin, who was 13 at the time.

Sirtoff says, after seeing news reports during the past 30 years, there is no doubt in his mind the red-haired man was Jon Burge, the now retired police commander under investigation for the torture of nearly 200 black men.

“I look at Burge, and Burge looks at me right in the eye, and says, ‘kill the n—–r and get the kid,’ ” Sirtoff said.

Police department records say that in 1975 Burge was not assigned to Area 3. That year he was a sergeant working as a detective in the intelligence division and for the Fourth District on the South Side.

Sirtoff’s scout leader, Martin W. Conroy, who retired as a detective in 1995, says he remembers Sirtoff and the other boy “frequently visited at the youth division”. By telephone from his home in Texas, Conroy said, “I believe them. Why would they make it up?”

On Burge being at 39th and California that day, Conroy said, “If outside detectives made an arrest in Area 3, they might come there for an interrogation or to take part in it.”

Attorney Flint Taylor has represented alleged victims in 10 torture-related lawsuits.

“It’s been documented that in the ’70′s there were cases where people would be picked up in another area of the city, for Burge, that Burge would either go to him or he’d be brought to Burge,” said Flint Taylor, People’s Law Center.

Sirtoff says, after the confrontation with the red-haired detective, he and his cousin ran to Conroy’s office on the third floor where they were ordered out of the building. It wasn’t until many years later, after seeing news reports on alleged police torture, that he began suffering guilt for not telling someone about what he had seen.

“I want to be able to say to myself and think to myself that I didn’t die taking this to the grave with me, and that guy that was sitting in the chair, he knows that I finally told somebody about it,” said Sirtoff.

Sirtoff says in 1994 he told the FBI in northwest Indiana about what he saw. He says he did not tell the FBI in Chicago fearing it might be as corrupt as police. The FBI will neither confirm nor deny that such an interview took place.

Sirtoff left voice mail messages at the People’s Law Center in Chicago three years ago. He told the same story on the tapes — that still exist — but he did not leave his name or a number where he could be reached.

Neither Sirtoff nor his cousin talked to the special prosecutor who has been conducting the official investigation.

Frank Sirtoff now,

Frank Sirtoff III, 49, of Ottawa was charged with domestic battery, aggravated assault and fleeing and eluding following an incident in which Spring Valley, Ladd and Peru police officers pursued the suspect's vehicle after he allegedly struck a car in the parking lot of the BP Amoco station and left the scene at 4:11 p.m. March 25. Officers were pursuing Sirtoff's vehicle north on Route 89 at high speeds when it went off the roadway on the ramp to Interstate 80 and became stuck in the mud. Sirtoff allegedly struck a 47-year-old female passenger in the face during the pursuit. She was taken to St. Margaret's hospital by 10-33 Ambulance Service as a result of the injury from the domestic battery. A 15-year-old male passenger in the car was

Where is Frank Sirtoff? The Boy Scout Frank Sirtoff swore he saw Burge do it. Scout's Honor.

ttp://mywebtimes.com/archives/ottawa/display.php?id=391498

http://socialistworker.org/2006-1/592/592_05_ChicagoTorture.shtml

Burge Trial - Burge Gives G.Flint Taylor What He Howled For . . . Taylor and Company Are Not Happy.

I know the Fahey family, not real well, but I know Packey and Mike. Their brother Chicago Police Officer William Fahey along with Officer Richard O'Brien was tortured, murdered and their bodies were urinated upon by the Wilson Brothers.

I do not know, nor have I ever met Former Detective Commander Burge. I do know several Chicago Police Detectives who worked under Jon Burge, in Area 2. They universally admire Burge for courage and leadership 'from the front' and say he was a great boss.

All I know about Jon Burge's nemesis G. Flint Taylor is what I have read in the news and other media publications and witnessed on television or heard over the radio. My impression of G. Flint Taylor of the Peoples Law Office is wildly unfavorable. Not a big deal.

The media love G. Flint Taylor because he is edgy and wraps his dubious agenda in rhetorical flourishes that would make Atticus Finch seem like the leader of a lynch mob.

“

There should be indictments and prosecutions of Burge and his men for obstruction of justice, perjury and conspiracy,” said Flint Taylor, Orange’s attorney. He called for hearings for the 25-30 black men imprisoned after allegedly being tortured into confessions of crimes they didn’t commit. . . .Meanwhile, Orange’s lawyer failed to produce a properly drafted document giving him power of attorney to settle, Georges said. . . . an attorney for one of the plaintiffs had not been able to produce a power of attorney executed by his client, a form that would demonstrate he had the authority to settle the case.

Chicago Sun Times


G. Flint Taylor it seems to me is a Marxist millionaire lawyer with the bulliest of pulpits - American Progressive High Ground. He is a nasty piece of work, it seems to me, because he has been at the plate with his Burge bats for decades and never hit one even remotely within the foul line. G. Flint Taylor's most telling moment occurred when career criminal and current Federal inmate Aaron Paterson's day in court went south on the thug. G. Flint Taylor and Urban Translator Gator Bradley as well as another attorney all but came to blows over the money that was settled out of court - yet, Aaron by dint of his thuggish instincts returned to prison.

Three of the alleged victims have remained free, but Patterson is serving a 30-year prison term on gun and drug charges.

In one of the strange twists in Patterson's civil case, a judge allowed Wallace "Gator" Bradley, a former gang enforcer, to sit in court with Patterson's attorney as an "urban translator" to control the volatile defendant. Now Bradley says Patterson's attorney, Frank Avila, owes him $250,000 for his work. Avila and Flint Taylor, Patterson's former lawyer, are fighting over their share of the legal fees.

Chicago Sun Times

G. Flint not only demands the spilled nickels on the courtroom floors, but also demands that the American Justice system be deconstructed. Any and all confidence in Law Enforcement and the Institutions of Justice must be undermined - in that way, G. Flint Taylor can continue to milk the Systemic Racist Police Torture Cow.

Every time, and he will again, Taylor fails make charges stick to Jon Burge and other police officers, he howls like a pig with a hair lip.

A panel of judges must study Burge and his Midnight Crew!!!!!

They did and produced a finding that cost millions of dollars and did not come up with Taylor's script.

Howls!!!! They are related to cops!!! It is more racism and cover-up!

Flint demands and the corporate media choruses along with Flint "The Federal Prosecutor MUST Charge Burge with Perjury!:

They did.

Flint Howls!!!!!!!!!!!"I want Burge on the witness stand!"

There is Burge in all of his beefy splendor!

Flint Howls!!!!!!!!!!!! to Elizabeth Brackin on WTTW. Naturally. Brackin wants Burge stomped -give her a listen. Hack.



I have a feeling that Burge will go back to Florida -John Conroy's editorialized reports for NPR notwithstanding. Many, many, many very good people believe G.Flint Taylor. I do not. I am around police officers very often and I am also around people in the news media very often. Some cops are thugs and most are not. Some journalists are lazy, scripted hacks, most reporters are not that at all.

The Burge Saga has been an orchestrated effort to create the facts -pure Hegelian/Dewey method. Facts are troubling things. What is ignored by the media is the fact that much of testimony in past trials concerning police torture were ruled as inadmissable. The 'black box' is an urban legend. I first read about the black box years ago, when Bernardine Dohrn strapped on her job at Northwestern. Sasha Abramsky echoed the tale and John Conroy then with Chicago Reader hammered it home.

G. Flint Taylor even had a re-production of the torture instrument brought into a courtroom.

A boy scout who later said that he had seen the device -melted into La Salle County Illinois and a series of arrests in Ottawa. UBI Sunt?

The City of Chicago, like other towns and municipalities walked right into G. Flint Taylor's agenda - they tried to toss money at a glutton.

Now, with witnesses against Burge self-impeaching and the high-minded suspender snapping oratory melted, Jon Burge is answering questions with piss and vinegar.

When and if Burge is acquitted and I believe that he will be. G.Flint Taylor and his orchestra will play more loudly. This is not about justice -this is all about money for G. Flint Taylor and his industry. But right now, things are not looking too good and it is torturing G. Flint Taylor.

G. Flint Taylor knows all about torture - he is a past master.


http://jailjonburge.org/tag/flint-taylor/

Friday Night Noise - The Four Tops featuring Levi Stubbs! Play All The Way Up!

The Four Tops! Abdul "Duke" Fakir, Renaldo "Obie" Benson and Lawrence Payton, and the Great Levi Stubbs

Now THIS is a Gracious Concession Speech

Here in Illinois we get Jan Schakwoski, Mike Quigley, Marque Kirque and other assorted fatuous filberts. In Alabama, you get Dale Peterson!

Dale Peterson is back -- with a vengeance.

The straight-talking, rifle-toting candidate for Alabama Agriculture Commissioner, who came up short in his bid but whose, um, offbeat web ad garnered more than 1.7 million hits on You Tube, has released a sequel (and the crowd goes wild) endorsing one of his former rivals in the race.

"I'm endorsing John McMillan because he gives a rip about Alabama," Peterson says in the new ad, in which he also fires a shotgun rifle at a man trying to steal one of McMillan's campaign signs. (Not kidding.)

McMillan, a former state representative, finished first in the June 1 Republican primary with 36.5 percent while farmer Dorman Grace took second with 35.2 percent. Peterson placed third (out of three) with 28 percent.

Much as he did in his first web video, Peterson takes after Grace again -- referring to him as "that dummy with all his illegal campaign contributions" and urging voters to "send him back to his chicken farm."

The runoff is July 13.

Small Person Bart Stupak - Congress's Little King Hypocrite

One of the stand-out hypocrites of this politcial year is Michigan ( UP) Representative Bart Stupak.

This oily little gent played abortion - the death of babies -to parlay his honor for something coming down the pike, I believe. Bart Stupak announced that we does not care to be trounced. Once out of office, watch Bart get a Federal Gig.

Today with every balloon head and phony in Congress lining up to take a pimp slap at BP's Tony Heyword - MSNBC even had resigned Commie Czar Van Jones doing-the-play-by-play with nepotism's Wee Russert -appointed when Dad Tim cashed in this summer.

The King of the Small People is Bart Stupak -

"We are not small people, but we wish to get our lives back," Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich.
Like the aborted babies, Bart pretended to care so much about that he was compelled to vote for Planned Parenthood Approved ObamaCare.

I'll Gas- Up at BP - I Have Friends Who Work at Whiting, Indiana's BP Refinery

Whiting, Indiana is a British Petroleum ( BP)Town and one of the gems of the Lake Michigan area. The town is lock-stock and barrels of oil a BP town - before that Amoco and before that Standard Oil.

I lived in Griffith, Indiana from 1994 until 1998. My neighbors worked at Inland Steel, LTV Steel and Amoco. My son Conor's buddy Frankie Alvarez's Dad was an Amoco Firefighter - yes, they had their own fire department. Amoco had a Piper Cub plane that used to buzz the pipelines along Chicago Avenue in East Chicago with a gas leak detector. Pechous, Danyanovich, Colley, and so many other families took Cline Avenue North to Whiting's Amoco works. Thousands of Indiana and Illinois people work there.

I will not boycott BP. The BP guy at 103rd & Western's station is an Arab American whose livelihood depends on customers from the neighborhood and those passing through.

Today every balloon-head and jerk in Congress will try to "kick some BP ass!" The idiot box loudmouths on CNN,ABC,MSNBC & etc. will go all street on BP. Big Ed Schultz will do his Hermann Goring schtick.

The Irish invented the boycott for a real villain - not some media fabricated one. My heart breaks for the folks in the gulf.Take a breath. You have neighbors close by who depend upon their jobs with BP.

As Day 60 of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill nears and tens of thousands of gallons of crude continue to gush from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, South Floridians are venting their outrage over the spill at the pumps.

Some drivers have been boycotting South Florida BP stations for weeks now, forcing some independent owners to distance themselves from the oil giant. One station owner in Boca even created big signs to let customers know where he stands.

Owners like Max Alvarez, who owns or supplies more than 300 gas stations throughout Florida, many of them BP, said locals are feeling the pinch of the boycott -- not BP.

"The message if not affecting the right people, the message is not affecting BP," Alvarez said. "The messages are affecting the very families who are innocent, who are also very upset and angry of what happened."
On Facebook, the BP boycott has over 640,000 people on board, though BP Oil doesn't own stations in America, it only supplies them with gasoline.

While thousands of people are boycotting BP, there are many more who are not, and price, customer loyalty and convenience are the reasons why.

"I just came in because it was the cheapest gas," said one customer.

"This time, I did think about it, but, like I said, I'm guilty, I put gas in," said another.

Alvarez points to one of his stations, where 30 people are employed. He says those are the people who would be affected by the boycott. Local vendors who supply the store with food and other items would be impacted too.

But for many people, boycotting BP is about principle, not economics, and Alvarez said he understands.

"A boycott, it's people demonstrating their anger over what happened, we can understand that," he said.

Tribune Genius Reveals "Jessie" Jackson? Daughter by That Name? Dang. Did Not Know That!

The Chicago Tribune Editorial Board, Boys and Girls! Trib Ed Board packed with Disc Jockeys, Ladies Who Lunch, Real Estate Barons, and Really Earnest NPR Listeners and the noted Business Writer and Medill School of Journalism Graduate and Business/Law Ink-Slinger Ameet Sachdev wanted to smear attorney and journalist Tamara Holder. Why?

Why does the Tribune do what it does?

Anywho, I saw the web edition ( saves me some dough-ray-mee) but a pal tossed me the print copy of the article attacking Tamara Holder's coverage of the Blago Trial in Huffington Post, which I thought was about the only accurate piece in that comic page. Low and Behold! The Chicago Tribune Editorial Masters and Ameet Sachdev reveal that "Jessie Jackson" is implicated!

I know that Congressman Jesse Jackson is named for his Old Man -Rev. Jesse Jackson, but I had no idea that young Ms. Jessie was involved in the Illinois Blagojevich Fire Sales.

A guy once told me, "Hickey you spell well." I told him that I was a well speller from way back - got cuffed and whacked daily by the Sisters of Mercy for my not well spelling.

I blog fast sometimes as I need to get to Leo and do real work by 6:30 AM. Spell checker still requires a wide-awake look see.

That Tribune Editorial Board! Talk a Laugh! Next, they will tell folks that Tamara Holder looks like Ward Bond.

I love Ward Bond, but . . .

It Takes A Man to Tend Bar; It Takes A Woman to Tend Men . . .Bar is superfluous

I tended bar for years . . .



. . .for years I tended bar.

Keegan's Pub
10618 S Western Ave
Chicago, IL 60643
Neighborhood: Beverly
(773) 233-6829

Cry Wolf White House Meet PB Leadership for a Husky Twenty Minutes -And America Thought the Oil Rig Was in Too Deep!

Photo From Chicago Fire Department Hero -Jim McMahon!


From Politico - President's Daily Schedule

10:15 AM Obama and Biden attend a meeting with BP executives.

10:35 AM Obama and Biden receive the presidential daily briefing.

Yeah, that ought to do it.


http://jimmcmahonchicago.blogspot.com/

MSNBC Chris Matthews Poised to Increase Tea Party Membership!

Chris Matthews is an Irish Catholic Urban Icon - the guy you can not avoid. Matthews is the mope every Big City Irish Catholic guy meets in grammar school, pummels on the playground for ratting you out to Sister. Milky Matthews somehow survives high school, shows up in the local saloon, tavern, or neighborhood gin-mill on his breaks from Mount Holyrood College for Dweebs and loudly recalls all of the fun you guys and he had together.

He invents tales of neighborhood adventures that happened to someone else, usually performed by your older cousins, or brothers; yet, Milky wedges himself into the tale, having told it repeatedly at college to mopes who have not been snitched on by Matthews.

Years later, when you have sweated and humped and labored and found a woman far above your worth to marry and begin a family he re-appears -night, after, night, after #$%$^ing night!!!!! " Can't you make him go-away?" your bride begs. "Daddy, he is creepy and scary." the wee-ones whimper.

You are too old to take him out to St. Cajetan's Parking Lot near the school, yank down his Dad N' Lad slacks and toss them over the utility wires. Life is not that simple. We all have a Chris Matthews.

Tonight, Milky micturates in America's Wheaties!

Chris Matthews has talked to a range of conservative thinkers for the special “Rise of the New Right,” which debuts at 7 p.m. Wednesday on MSNBC.

The cable news channel says that Mathews asks: “Who are the people on the New Right? What do they want? And how do they intend to get it?”

Matthews interviewed former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, Orly Taitz of the Birther movement and Internet radio host Alex Jones.

Will you watch?

Not a nano second. He might start showing up at Keegan's Pub again. We can ignore the goof as these folks tell the gent who asked the question above in the Orlando Sentinel

Voila!

Comments


Why in the world would I watch (another) hate-filled angry diatribe centered around the President, his birth origins, his color, health care, and a gazillion other things when I know no solutions will be promised?

This is what I want. Solutions to our problems. Right or wrong, that’s what the President is giving us…not the right wing.

Reply Posted by: Howey | Tuesday, June 15, 2010 at 11:38 AM

Will I watch?——- Oh, hell no I won’t.

Reply Posted by: RockfordFiles | Tuesday, June 15, 2010 at 1:28 PM

I won’t watch, either…Ms. Taitz only recently stopped looking like a panda after a style consultant took her makeup down two notches…that doesn’t give her any more credibility. And no one can wipe that sneer off Dick Armey’s face…

Reply Posted by: Jeff | Tuesday, June 15, 2010 at 2:27 PM

Infowars.com Receives “Rise of the New Right” Script :: Watch out friends, this is going to be a hit story- http://bit.ly/daiHb2 #tcot #tlot

Reply Posted by: TruthSearching | Tuesday, June 15, 2010 at 3:33 PM

You guys won’t watch because the truth hurts don’t it.

Reply Posted by: Dustin | Tuesday, June 15, 2010 at 4:07 PM

Watch that disgusting hate monger slander his fellow citizens. Not on your life. Chris Matthews is a disgusting human being.

Reply Posted by: James | Tuesday, June 15, 2010 at 5:59 PM

Thanks for the info, “truthsearching”! (LOL!)

Looks like I was right.

Reply Posted by: Howey | Tuesday, June 15, 2010 at 6:37 PM

I watch Chris Matthews and I find his programming and line of questioning interesting.

His stance is NOT about hating Obama, rather it is lifting the veil of hypocrisy of the Left and and exposing their hate filled dogma towards those they consider OTHERS! It is very important for all of us to be aware of the hate that is around us and not be fooled.

Reply Posted by: m. | Wednesday, June 16, 2010 at 1:05 AM

Chris Matthews blows.

As do Gabriel and the crowd at the World Cup - Blows Big Time!

Chicagoans - Don't "Sell Your Homes at a Loss," as CTU Threatens - Send the Kids To Catholic Schools - There's Help!

Marilyn Stewart is going out and Karen Lewis is coming in and CPS is broke, busted, Tap City, or as AM 590 Radio Legend and Renaissance Man Mike Houlihan would say "Tapioca!"

Mike Klonsky the Small Schools Initiative who along with Billy Ayers distinguished CPS with God Awful Failure and more Taxes is delighted that fiery Karen Lewis* the CTU She-Bull.

Why not? Mike is set for life with Annenberg Challenge Buckareenos, I would imagine.

Public School teachers, like my neighbors, do not know if they will have a job. They know that they will have many, more kids in class and that they must compete for placement with lazy, incompetent, no-show-but-payday protected losers. Good teachers have a tough rap.

One "Save the Children" teacher warned all of us yesterday that the CPS Board's decision to honor its contract with the swelled like a tick CTU tough guzzlers was not enough! Get this threat to the powers that is -"There are parents who are saying, 'I'm done working this hard when you're saying 35 kids,' " Katten said. "People are saying they'll sell their house at a loss. They are out of here.''

Save your Mortgage down stroke to ReMax folks! Send the kids to Catholic Schools!

Catholic schools get the job done for much less money. There is never a back-to-school "we Might Not Show Up!" Threat by Catholic School teachers. Selling your home will cost much more to Chicago Homeowners than the cost of educating your child in a safe, core-values centered and small classroom - 19-1 student to teacher ration in most cases. There is help available for financial assistance to parents who submit tax-returns and fill out requests for aid from the schools and Big Shoulders.

Here's what CTU - Stewart or Lewis versions -will provide parents and tax payers until Billy Ayers loses that happening ear-ring ( I wonder if Billy also sports a lower back tattoo -nah, probably the Old Lady).

In an unusual display of solidarity, at one point both incoming Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis and outgoing President Marilyn Stewart stood together at the podium as Stewart railed against the class size increase, calling it "educational malpractice.''

"I am ashamed of the Board of Education,'' Stewart said. Lewis hugged her afterward.

Lewis urged the board to first cut expensive curriculum created by outsiders, high-stakes testing and a long line of pricey vendors and consultants. "I would implore you to reconsider,'' Lewis said. "This is a nuclear option.''

Afterward, Burley School parent Wendy Katten, who helped organize a parent rally against class size increases and the state education-funding system, predicted that North Side parents who have raised huge amounts of money for their neighborhood schools will bail out if their children wind up in packed classrooms.

"There are parents who are saying, 'I'm done working this hard when you're saying 35 kids,' " Katten said. "People are saying they'll sell their house at a loss. They are out of here.''

Daley tried to shift the political blame to Springfield, saying, "It's the state of Illinois that basically is cutting [education] funding . . .

"The Board of Education is not the enemy,'' Daley said. ". . . They don't want big classes. No one wants any big classes.''

Stay in Chicago - the greatest City on Earth for all of its faults! Send the kids to Catholic Schools. Give Sr, Mary Paul McCaughey, our Superintendent, a jingle on the phone -

The Office of Catholic Schools is located at:

Archbishop Quigley Center
835 North Rush Street
Chicago, IL 60611-2030
Our Mailing Address is:

Post Office Box 1979
Chicago, IL 60690-1979
To reach the Office of Catholic Schools, please call:
Phone: 312-534-5200
Fax: 312-534-5295



* Congratulations to new Chicago Teachers Union president, Karen Lewis and the Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE) team for their remarkable landslide victory in yesterday's union election. CORE's victory represents much more than just a win over the United Progressive Caucus (UPC) and the six-year CTU president Marilyn Stewart. It is a sign that rank-and-file teachers are fed-up with the business-as-usual politics of traditional union leadership in the face of the current assault on public education, including school closings, teacher firings, mushrooming class size and loss of collective-bargaining rights. http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/
http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/2397688,CST-NWS-skul16.article

Why Ireland Suffers No Maritime Disasters

An American tourist asks an Irishman: "Why do Scuba divers always fall backwards off their boats?"


To which the Irishman replies: "If they fell forwards they'd still be in the f#$^in' boat."

T'is true.

From files of Max Weismann - Center for the Study of Great Ideas

Loevy & Loevy v. Law Enforcement - You Tube Blue & Five Cop Geologists

Arthur Loevy was a labor lawyer for Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union ("ACTWU")and he became the top of the labor pyramid -Secretary Treasurer -International Executive Vice President of ACTWU, International Secretary-Treasurer of ACTWU that is the co-captain of the team along with President. Huge. A Titan. Then he left? What happened?

He became a salaried legal consultant for a Police Union?

Then, Jon Loevy gets tossed a heater case by old Al Holfeld a lawyer who tried to be a U.S. Senator and Illinois Attorney General and Dad came back armed with knowledge about cops and how cops work and think.

He had Cops and Loevy and Loevy still have cops - These five:

William Stutzman Wheeling P D ( RET )

Solomon Smith Maywood P D ( RET )*

Michael Dwyer Evergreen Pakr P D

Marty McGrath Oak Lawn P D

Butch McGorkle Burbank P D

These police officers played an active part in the launching of the Loevy & Loevy law firm and three have an active part with barrister Arthur Loevy - to this day

Kind of like that Man from Glad looking guy on the old Perry Mason show? No. He was a private dick. These are cops. States Attorneys get cops. Loevy & Loevy? Moonlight work, I suppose, and probably lucrative.

Three cops still on the job and two retired do the geological survey and find the gold.

It's an industry and Loevy and Loevy is industrious.

More down the pike, Kids.

* FYI -

Bellwood deputy chief lacks arrest powers
BY JOHN HUSTON
STAFF WRITER
In spite of his involvement in two high profile arrests earlier this year, Bellwood's second-highest ranking police officer is not qualified to place individuals under arrest.
In fact, Deputy Chief George Murray is not even listed on the Bellwood Police Department's official roster with the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board, though he was hired two years ago.
The ILETSB is the agency which oversees all law-enforcement and correctional officers in the state, outside of the Illinois State Police.
Murray was hired by Bellwood in 2003 after he retired from the State Police, where he served for nearly 30 years.
Since the State Police have their own training process, different from that which municipal officers go through, Murray would have had to apply for a waiver from the ILETSB in order to qualify as an officer for the Bellwood department.
But that waiver was never issued and the ILETSB has no record of Murray.
"They have to let us know he was hired and ask for a waiver based on the fact that he was trained by the State Police, but I don't have any of that," said Sheila Albright, spokeswoman for the ILETSB. "He is not listed as a certified officer in Illinois."
Also not listed on Bellwood's roster is Wilson Pierce, Bellwood's public safety director and interim police chief, who was hired at the same time as Murray.
Pierce refused to comment on the matter.
"I can simply tell you that Deputy Chief Murray has (nearly) 30 years of experience as a police officer with the Illinois State Police," Pierce said.
He refused to comment on why a waiver wasn't applied for with the ILETSB that would allow Murray to make arrests.
As for why neither Murray or Pierce were added to Bellwood's official police roster, Pierce responded, "I wouldn't know what that reason was."
Pierce said the public safety director position is purely administrative and that he has not made any arrests, but refused to comment on whether he holds the power to make arrests.
When reached by telephone, Murray would not answer questions about his qualifications.
Since Murray is not recognized as a certified police officer, he is not allowed to make arrests or carry a weapon -- both of which he has done.
One of Murray's arrest came April 8 when Jeanette Johnson, a Bellwood police officer and former Bellwood School District 88 Board president, was charged with battery to a police officer, resisting a peace officer and violating election code.
Johnson's attorney, Tom Crooks, said he filed a motion to dismiss the resisting charge at a Friday hearing due to the information that Murray is not a peace officer.
No judgment was made on the motion and the case was continued until Aug. 5, said Colin Simpson of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office.
"I had a brief conversation with the deputy chief and asked him if he had a wavier and he said he did not and he wanted to talk to the town's lawyers, so I continued it for a short date," Simpson said.
Another arrest Murray made may also hinge on whether he is determined by the court to be unqualified to make arrest, Simpson said.
On March 31, then Bellwood mayoral candidate David Ireland and his campaign coordinator Solomon Smith were arrested at a Metra station and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting a peace officer after allegedly removing campaign literature from car windows.
Murray was the arresting officer in that case, Ireland said.
"He was the officer in charge of the scene and he was the highest-ranking officer that was there," Ireland said. "He actually came to the scene and gave directions and told folks what to do."
He also questioned how Murray could be hired, promoted from captain to deputy chief and allowed to make arrests without the proper protocol.
"What kind of a mayor do we have who would not properly put people in place, (but instead get) people who do not have the qualifications and the training?" Ireland asked. "Not only are people at risk, but our village (is at risk) because you're talking potential lawsuits.
"In my mind, it speaks to the integrity of the mayor -- is he really looking out for our best interests? Or is he asleep on the job?"
Mayor Frank Pasquale said he knew that Murray did not have the proper qualifications with the ILETSB to make arrests and that neither he nor Pierce were on the department's official roster.
"We're aware of it," Pasquale said.
He added that both men appeared to have the proper experience for their posts.
"Their background, I thought, was quite impressive," Pasquale said.

http://www.pioneerlocal.com/index.html

Chicago Tribune News Puppy Smears Tamara Holder

The Tribune editorial board is stuffed with disc jockeys, ladies-who-lunch, real estate 3Card Monte shufflers, but bugger all newsmen.

The newspaper is becoming one big blog.

Witness this smear of Attorney/journalist Tamara Holder:

On June 9, she posted commentary on the Huffington Post after attending opening arguments the day before. Most of her posting focused on U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who is alleged to have bargained with Blagojevich for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama. Jackson has denied any wrongdoing in the public corruption case against Blagojevich.

Holder concluded before the first witness had taken the stand that Jackson's name should be cleared.

"Of course, we haven't yet heard any of the evidence, but what we did hear leads me to believe that now, after 18 months, Congressman Jackson can breathe a sigh of relief, no matter how you look at this case," Holder wrote.

What she didn't say in her post is that she has professional ties to the congressman's father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson. According to her online biography, Holder created a legal clinic in 2006 at Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition headquarters in Chicago.

She opened the clinic to generate clients for her law practice, which focuses on clearing people's criminal records by getting them expunged or sealed. In an interview Monday, Holder said she reviewed the records for free and if a person wanted to hire her she charged $500 plus filing cost, half of her regular fee.

Holder's work with the Rev. Jackson is a conflict of interest if she is writing about his son, said Kelly McBride, a media-ethics expert at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank. But bloggers who are not journalists are generally not held to the same ethical standards as journalists.

First off - to paraphrase a real journalist Steve Rhodes, "This is news . . .how?"

Secondly, Tamara Holder is offering her insights on the Blagojevich Trial.

Thirdly, Sneerdly, Ms. Holder is quite up-front in her associations.

Fourth and Foremost, I am no friend of the Family Jackson, but believe that Congressman Jackson was jackpotted by Blago and friends.

Ameet Sachdev wrote this about Tamara Holder because . . . someone told him to do so, it seems to me.

A real journalist like Phil Rosenthal, John Kass, or John McCormick would have had some meat to bring to the table.

Ameet has only that which blocks the space between his ears - seems to me.




About Ameet Sachdev - Pocket Pup ( whose pocket? whose pup?)-

Ameet Sachdev is a leading business reporter for the Chicago Tribune, where he covers legal affairs and law firms. His legal column can be read in Tuesday's Business section.

Ameet has been with the Tribune since June 2000 and has covered several business beats, including aerospace and food and beverage. He won a Peter Lisagor award in 2001 for his coverage of the food/beverage beat.

Before joining the Tribune, Ameet worked as a business reporter for the St. Petersburg Times, Lexington Herald-Leader and Poughkeepsie Journal. He is a 1993 graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

Ameet also has served on the national boards of the Asian American Journalists Association and Unity: Journalists of Color. Ameet was born in Chicago, grew up in the western suburb of Glendale Heights and now lives on the North Side with his wife and son.

Copyright © 2010, Chicago Tribune

Prime Minister Winston Obama - " I Inherited Neville's Invasion and I Accept the Buck for Dunkirk -There's No Boats!"'

Tonight it appears that President Obama will change the narrative - British Petroleum crashed hijacked planes into the the Event Horizon Oil Rig at the orders of former President George W. Bush and he inherited the greatest ecological disaster and its not his fault. Then he will announce a really stupid order that will boost American Taxes and MSNBC will warn us that grannies of the Tea Party are dangerous.

Cry Wolf from Our Amateur Hour White House.

President Obama removed the bust of Winston Churchill in one of his first and only acts as President.

Imagine if President Obama were Prime Minister in 1940 Britain - hell, why not, the President imagines that his dandified mincing around the Gulf oil spill parallels 9/11. As if, . . .

Picture this, roughly seventy years prior to the month of Obama's full time inaction on Event Horizon, Prime Minister Winston Obama acts in much of the same manner - this time 336,000 British troops are stranded on the beach at Dunkirk.

Winston Churchill rallied everything that could float and shoved them all across the English Channel and what remained of the British Army was saved and went on to defeat Hitler.

Dunkirk

After the British deliverance at Dunkirk, Churchill, in the House of Commons, rallied Britain with his most memorable speech.

"We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender," he declared.

Then, as the House of Commons thundered in an uproar at his stirring rhetoric, Churchill muttered in a whispered aside to a colleague, "And we’ll fight them with the butt ends of broken beer bottles because that’s bloody well all we’ve got!"

Now, let's shift our historical narrative with our imaginations - No Hitler like BP and GOP -

Hushed Sissified BBC voice:
This IS the BBC - Prime Minister Obama speaks to Parliament on the complete defeat of Crown Forces and the capture of the entire British Expeditionary Force at Dunkerque.Ladies and Gentleman . . .the Prime Minister . . .

“Some of you may have noticed that we have been building this foundation without much help from our friends in the other party. From our efforts to rescue the economy to health insurance reform to financial reform, most have sat on the sidelines and shouted from the bleachers. They said no to tax cuts for small businesses; no to tax credits for college tuition; no to investments in clean energy. They said no to protecting patients from insurance companies and consumers from big banks, make no mistake, I have been on this from day one, I talked to Lord Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney, not because this is some college seminar, but because someone could use the thorough and sound thumping , What? What? Haw? Haw . . This is Neville Chamberlain's Legacy!!!! The French won;t fight! I am annoucing an Energy policy that will make the Third Reich energy dependent - Windmills! I am on it!"

Ripping, Winnie! or is it Whiny?

Here's what really happened

May 10 – WWII:
Battle of France begins – German forces invade Low Countries.
Iceland is invaded by the United Kingdom.
With the resignation of Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

May 10:Winston ChurchillMay 13 – Winston Churchill, in his first address as Prime Minister, tells the House of Commons, "I have nothing to offer you but blood, toil, tears, and sweat."
May 13 – WWII: German armies open a 60-mile wide breach in the Maginot Line at Sedan, France.
May 14 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and her government flee to London; Rotterdam is subjected to savage terror bombing by the Luftwaffe; 980 are killed, and 20,000 buildings destroyed.
May 14 – Recruitment begins in Britain for a home defence force: the Local Defence Volunteers, later known as the Home Guard.
May 15 – The very first McDonald's restaurant opens in San Bernardino, California.
May 15 – WWII: The Dutch army surrenders.
May 16 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, addressing a joint session of Congress, asks for an extraordinary credit of approximately $900 million to finance construction of at least 50,000 airplanes per year.
May 17 – Brussels falls to German forces; the Belgian government flees to Ostend.
May 18 – Marshal Philippe Pétain is named vice-premier of France.
May 19 – General Maxime Weygand replaces Maurice Gamelin as commander-in-chief of all French forces.
May 20 – WWII: German forces (2nd Panzer division), under General Rudolf Veiel, reach Noyelles on the English Channel.
May 20 – Holocaust: The Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and death camp opens in Poland.
May 22 – WWII: The British Parliament passes the Emergency Powers Act, giving the government full control over all persons and property.
May 26 – WWII: The Dunkirk evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force starts.

Loevy & Loevy v. Law Enforcement, Part II - Help from Cops

Loevy and Loevy, That's Jon Loevy, conducting Law in front of the very willing and compliant corporate media: this was from the famous Screwdriver Houdini case. "To avoid further litigation, the City's attorneys agreed to settle for $4 million (plus attorneys' fees and expenses) if the jury found in favor of Coffie, and nothing for Coffie if the jury found in favor of the police defendants."


I received a note from a Law Enforcement Professional and Organized crime expert. This gentlemen worked very close with Arthur Loevy in forming a Police Union. Ironically, the Arthur Loevy the powerful labor lawyer who networked with labor dollar stuffed Amalgamated Bank of Chicago, Sidley and Austin, and founded UNITE seems to have abandoned the working police officers he purported to "organize" and took the power of his knowledge to make mountains of money for himself and his son - Police suing lawyer Jon Loevy.

Loevy and Loevy go wherever any voice, usually a career criminal, claims the slighests intimation of abuse. Loevy and Loevy force cities, villages and townships to settle with a huge pie of cash ( 1/3 to Loevey and Loevy) that came out of taxpayers pockets.

Arthur Loevy was proud to see his boy Jon clerk for Judge Milton Shadur, work briefly for the blue stocking firm of Sidley and Austin and then -

Starting these Lawyers ( Arthur and Jon Loevy) on their career - mentioned on your blog Mr. Hickey - on their firm's path - their way forward from the law firms embryonic stage in 1999 - being attorneys suing those in law enforcement - are the following police officers - intimately involved:

William Stutzman - Wheeling P D Just recently retired

Michael Dwyer - Evergreen Park P D

Butch McGorcle - Burbank P D

Marty McGrath - Oak Lawn P D

Solomon Smith - Maywood P D ( RET)

One of the first cases Loevy firm had was against Chief Jim Houk of Oak Lawn P D - another top ranking officer - Terry Voderer and the Village of Oak Lawn.

The above named five police officers initiated - steered Arthur Loevy to that law suit.

The case was settled by the Village of Oak Lawn against the wishes of the police officers because it would cost more for the Village of Oak Lawn to defend the suit rather than to settle the case.

Loevy was representing a Oak Lawn police officer named Carlos Panthera whom Chief Houk had rightfully brought dismissal charges against for amongst other issues bragging of gang involved activity. Panthera left the P D.

Loevy went forward to make more money - the money being the raison d’être for his involvement at that time and presently.

Three Chicago Police Officers have had their pockets picked by Loevy and Loevy only last week, as part of a Jon Loevy $1.3 m dollar settlement. Talk about profiling and police abuse!
Several years ago Second City Sarge, a police blog, noted:

People who live in crime ridden areas often ask the police why they can't do more to the criminal element. I truly believe that the efforts of firms like Loevy & Loevy have hamstrung hard working policemen and the good people of Chicago pay literally and figuratively.
According to the Loevy & Loevy website "the guiding principle governing our decision process can be summarized very simply: achieving justice." Bullshit! Its money!
Read for yourself the Loevy & Loevy Website and see what contempt this firm has for the police.
If its all about justice why hasn't Jon Loevy taken on the wrongful deaths of policemen at the hands of cold blooded murderers? The answer: Money!

I can not believe that police officers are helping Loevy and Loevy, but then again, I still go to Confession on Saturdays. You see Loevy and Loevy not only makes millions of dollars, but they helped create Chicago's Thug Comfort Zone - Thugs feel free and even compelled to savagely kill. I have witnessed the death of great kids at the hands of these savages - Jason Riley Leo 2004 Valedictorian and Golden Gloves Champion was slaughtered at 69th & Ashland. Thugs can murder and if caught they call Loevy and Loevy! Crime pays handsomely.

This is interesting. Should be more to come.

It is funny, Chicago's news media never mentioned this riches to riches tale of the Family Loevy.


http://johnjfloodpoliceunionleader.blogspot.com/

Loevy v. Law Enforcement - Gold Mine of Settlements!

"There are 13,000 officers in the Chicago Police Department, and the proportion who violate rights in proportion to those who generate a lawsuit is very small," said Jon Loevy, founding attorney at civil rights law firm Loevy and Loevy. "Getting sued, particularly more than once, is really crossing the line in a way that could put the city on notice that extra scrutiny is merited.

Yes indeed, "Getting sued, particularly more than once, is really crossing the line in a way that could put the city on notice that extra scrutiny is merited." That said, Doing the suits, particularly more than once, is really crossing the line in a way that should put the city, the tax-payers and news media on notice that extra scrutiny is merited.


Jon Loevy started suing police Departments when he quit Sildey and Austin and after clerking for Judge Milton Shadur. I believe that he started in Oak Lawn, Illinois when the Village settled out of court and the rest is litigation history.


Last week, three Chicago police Detectives were ordered to pay Loevy out of their own pockets. That was stunning.

Donny McGee’s award is to include $330,000 from the officers’ personal funds, according to Loevy & Loevy Attorneys at Law.

McGee, who spent three years in prison, was to face the death penalty in the murder of Ethel Perstlen, 76.

Detective Edward Farley, Detective Robert Lenihan and Officer Robert Bartik fabricated a confession from McGee that was not written, audiotaped or videotaped, the lawyers added.

http://www.pinewswire.net/2010/06/jury-awards-1-3-million-to-man-saying-cops-faked-confession-with-polygraph/

How did lawyer Jon Loevy happen on to the gold mine that it is Loevy & Loevy?

I am just a high school teacher who reads the papers.

It seems to me that Jon Loevy is just about the only really aggressive Police suing lawyer in the business. Marxist Millionaire G. Flint Taylor is a whole other hairball - he has Burge Industries. But Jon Loevy seems to be the Bill Gates of Police Lawsuits. He files suit and cities settle - no muss and no fuss.

I think Jon Loevy does it for money - period. G. Flint Taylor? Whole other hairball. He does it for money and ideology. Jon Loevy? Money. Tons of money. Always taxpayer money - except now he can root nickels out of the modest savings of police officers as well. A new Tsunami.

I became a teacher because I like to read and share my love reading and writing - what a guy. I am also a real trainwreck around tools. My family are all skilled tradesmen.

Jon Loevy followed his Dad into the law and his Dad followed his son into Lawsuits Against the Cops,

Arthur Loevy was groomed some say to be a Labor Lawyer. He was that. He was huge.

Loevy and Loevy, pater et filius, sue police everywhere*. It will be interesting to look into just why. Money, to be sure, but just how Jon Loevy got to the gold.

Well, there's Dad -Arthur Loevy

Arthur Loevy graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1963, and has been a member of the Illinois bar continuously for more than forty years.
Arthur Loevy began his legal career practicing labor law until 1970 when he became an elected officer of a trade union, the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union ("ACTWU"). Arthur proceeded to serve in various elected capacities for trade unions, including International Executive Vice President of ACTWU, International Secretary-Treasurer of ACTWU, and, most recently International Secretary-Treasurer of the Union of Needle-Trades Industrial and Textile Employees (U.N.I.T.E.).
Arthur Loevy has also served as a Director and Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Amalgamated Bank of New York (1990-98), the President, Chief Executive Officer, and Trustee of various Taft-Hartley insurance and trust funds for almost twenty years, the President of the Amalgamated Housing Foundation (1974-98), and the President of the Sidney Hillman Health Center in Chicago (1980-98).
Since January 1, 1997, Arthur Loevy has resumed the practice of law on a full-time basis. In 1998, he joined the law firm started by his son, Jon Loevy, and has practiced here ever since.

( emphasis my own) Pretty spare resume (CV) for a Labor Lion like Loevy, Pere


Unlike Lad Jon Loevy -

Jon Loevy is an extremely accomplished trial lawyer, having won more than $100 million in jury verdicts for his clients, all in cases involving challenging fact patterns and difficult to prove allegations against the government. Loevy has won 18 out of his last 20 jury trials, and his $100 million total in career jury awards includes twelve separate jury verdicts of $1 million or more. For more, click here: Recent Successes - Trials.
Loevy is also a highly successful appellate lawyer. Civil rights cases are notoriously hard to win, but Loevy was won 13 out of the last 16 he has argued before the federal appellate courts (including wins in the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Circuits), the majority of which were on behalf of the appellant seeking to overturn an adverse ruling. For more, click here: Recent Successes - Appeals.
Jon Loevy's $28 million jury verdict in Regalado v. Chicago in 1999 is still the largest civil rights verdict in the City's history. Since that time, he has received million dollar-plus jury verdicts as lead counsel in eleven other "long shot" cases, including Duran v. Chicago in 2008 ($4.2 million for interference with child custody); Johnson v. Guevara in 2009 ($21 million for 11 years of wrongful conviction); Borsellino v. Putnam in 2009 ($11 million for fraud by the former president of the NYSE); Newman v. Squire in 2010 ($6 million for wrongful death); Coffie v. Chicago in 2007 ($4 million for police brutality); Dominguez v. Waukegan in 2006 ($9 million for 4 years of wrongful conviction); Manning v. United States FBI in 2005 ($6.6 million for wrongful conviction); Ware v. Chicago in 2007 ($5 million for fatal police shooting); Garcia v. Chicago in 2003 ($1 million); and Russell v. Chicago in 2003 ($1.5 million for fatal police shooting); and Waits v. Chicago in 2002 ($1.5 million for police brutality).
After one victory, the Honorable James F. Holderman, Chief Judge of the Northern District of Illinois summarized Loevy's trial skills in a written decision reported at Garcia v. Chicago, 2003 WL 22175620 (N.D.Ill. 2003):
Jon Loevy is an outstanding trial lawyer. His ability belies his years of experience, and he certainly should not be held in a lock-step position based on his law school graduation year with regard to his hourly rate. . . Not only did Jon Loevy display tremendous advocacy skills during the trial before the jury, he handled all the matters involved in this litigation with great aplomb. His case was well-organized. The evidentiary progression was easy to follow. His examinations of adverse witnesses [1], and his dealing with the sometimes improper tactics of his opposing counsel, were highly professional.
Jon Loevy's poise, analysis, and demeanor in front of the jury, as well as his rapier-like cross-examination style, are reminiscent of the trial skills displayed by some of the nationally recognized trial lawyers in this community when they were the age that Jon Loevy is now. [1] Among those nationally recognized trial lawyers whose trial skills the court is familiar with when they were Jon Loevy's age are: Royal B. Martin of Martin, Brown and Sullivan; Michael D. Monico of Monico, Spevack and Pavich; Thomas R. Mulroy of McGuire Woods; Anton J. Valukas of Jenner & Block; and Dan K. Webb of Winston & Strawn. Additionally, Jon Loevy's overall performance ranks among the finest displays of courtroom work by a plaintiff's lead trial counsel that this court has presided over in several years.
For more on Jon Loevy's trial practice, click here.
In addition to the $100 million in jury verdicts, Loevy has also obtained tens of millions more for his clients in settlements.
Loevy graduated from Columbia Law School in 1993, where he served as a Senior Editor of the Columbia Law Review. At Columbia, he was a Kent Scholar (approximately top 1% of the academic class), as well the recipient of the Young B. Smith Prize given to the student with the top examination in torts, and the Paul R. Hayes Prize given to the student with the top exam in civil procedure.
Upon graduating, Loevy clerked for Judge Milton I. Shadur of the Northern District of Illinois for a year, after which he took a year off and travelled around the world. Upon returning home, he joined the firm then-known as Sidley & Austin, where he spent a year and a half before leaving to start his own firm, first as a solo practitioner, and then in partnership with his wife, Danielle Loevy.
The firm he formed, Loevy & Loevy, has since grown to 14 lawyers, and is now one of the largest firms devoted to civil rights in Chicago, if not the entire country.
Loevy is also a lecturer at law at the University of Chicago, where he co-teaches a clinic on wrongful conviction litigation with other members of his firm. Loevy also teaches Trial Advocacy to clinic students at the University of Chicago.
Loevy was previously named one of the Law Bulletin's prestigious "40 under 40" attorneys to watch in Chicago, as well as one of Chicago Lawyer's "Next Generation Rising Stars of the Trial Bar." Loevy was also invited to speak at the National Lawyers' Guild's (NLG) National Police Accountability Project Conference in Austin, Texas in the Fall of 2006 on the topic of "How to Win Big Jury Awards in Police Abuse Cases." He presented on that topic to more than 50 police abuse lawyers from around the United States. In 2007, Loevy was asked to be the moderator for the NLG's National Police Accountability Project conference in Washington D.C.
Loevy lives in Chicago with his wife, Danielle, and three sons, Carter, Ethan and Oliver.
Located in the West Loop just west of downtown, our Chicago-based law firm represents clients throughout the nation, including the Chicagoland metropolitan area, including Cicero, Harvey, Kankakee, Joliet, Chicago Heights, Dolton, Markham, Aurora, Rockford, Waukegan, Champaign-Urbana, Elgin, Cook County, Will County, Lake County, DuPage County, and Kane County.

(emphasis my own)

Police Officers in Chicago do not come to the Law from Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Northwestern. They come from Gresham, Jefferson Park, Ukrainian Village, Mount Greenwood, Hegewisch, Englewood and other working class neighborhoods. They used to come from families of police officers, as Jon Loevy followed Dad in the practice of Law. They are working men. It seems to me that the Loevy family has no problem targeting working men and doing whatever it takes to make money and they are very good at it.


Here's but a very few.

At Loevy & Loevy, we are trial lawyers who seek justice for those whose civil rights have been violated and for whistleblowers. Based in Chicago, we are one of the nation's largest and most successful civil rights law firms and we handle cases around the nation. We go to trial often and our record speaks for itself: $21 million for a wrongfully convicted man, $16 million for another, victory in a class action of more than 100,000 people, $28 million for the victim of a police beating, and many more. We've won dozens of jury trials and more than $150 million for our clients.

http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=253

*

McGee, who was acquitted of the murder in 90 minutes by a jury in 2004 after serving three years in prison, filed a lawsuit against the City of Chicago, detectives Edward Farley and Robert Lenihan and Officer Robert Bartik. DNA evidence excluded McGee from committing the crime, Ainsworth said.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-police-murder-frame-20100609,0,5156702.story

T

ROY, Mich., June 4 /PRNewswire/ -- A class action lawsuit alleging that the Detroit Police Department (DPD) systematically abused and mistreated arrestees was filed on Tuesday, June 1, 2010 in the United States Federal Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. A copy of the complaint is available at www.fhwnlaw.com.
The suit, Jonathan Brown, et al v. City of Detroit, was filed by the Chicago law firm of Loevy & Loevy and the Troy, Michigan law firm of Frank, Haron, Weiner & Navarro. The suit alleges that thousands of individuals were arrested and denied basic constitutional rights by the DPD from May 27, 2007 through the present date. A similar class action lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department recently settled for $16.5 million.
Specifically, the complaint alleges that the DPD engaged in a repeated pattern of detaining individuals for long periods of time – often in excess of 48 hours – without allowing them access to a judge. These individuals were denied food, water, and sleep during their detentions. The complaint charges that these inhumane conditions were often used to obtain false confessions from suspects, while genuine perpetrators were left free to continue committing crimes.
The suit has three classes of plaintiffs. Class one is comprised of thousands of people who were detained by the DPD overnight or for more than 16 hours in a 24-hour period and who were deprived of basic human needs for rest and hygiene. Plaintiffs in the second class were arrested by the DPD and detained in excess of 48 hours without a judicial determination of probable cause. The third group of plaintiffs consists of individuals detained by the DPD in excess of 24 hours without being provided at least two meals.
Loevy & Loevy (www.Loevy.com), based in Chicago, is one of the largest civil rights firms in the country.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/class-action-alleges-abusive-treatment-by-detroit-police-department-

CROWN POINT | Lake County Jail officials and plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit alleging medical and other mistreatment in the jail failed for the second time Wednesday to reach a settlement in the two-year-old case.
Loevy & Loevy, the Chicago law firm representing the plaintiffs, is seeking the court's approval of a class action lawsuit in which the complaints mirror many of the findings by the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.
The government's report, released in December, disclosed conditions the DOJ found to be in violation of inmates' constitutional rights. Jail officials released their response to the findings in May along with a plan to meet the concerns.
The federal lawsuit was filed in May 2008, prior to the DOJ investigation, which was launched in September. Since the lawsuit was filed, Loevy & Loevy attorneys have said the number of jail detainees with similar complaints has grown to more than 100 from the original seven.
The nearly daylong settlement conference Wednesday, the second since February, failed to resolve the lawsuit.
As is typical, the settlement conference was not held in public.

Houston, TX

Winfrey sued San Jacinto County, its current and former sheriff, a former deputy, and Fort Bend County, its sheriff, and former deputy Pikett. He seeks damages for conspiracy, constitutional violations, malicious prosecution, abuse of process, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He is represented by Gayle Horn with Loevy & Loevy of Chicago.

In 2008, attorney Aaron Mandel of the Chicago law firm Loevy & Loevy filed a federal lawsuit on Lyons' behalf against Woodridge and police officers James Grady and Donald Janus, both of whom declined to comment.

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=387569&src=2

Busy

Cry Wolf White House v. Dances with Wolves? Costner's Gizmo Tested by BP

Kevin Costner has an oil seperating gizmo. Like most Americans, I needed to strain to learn about this, because the corporate media is doing a gang-pile on British Petroleum

The hemp smokers of Huffington Post and MSNBC and CNN are Cry Wolf White House cheerleaders.

Well Dances with Wolves was a reworking of Sir Waler Scott's novel Waverly and Costner seems to have original ideas that are based in what worked in our past.

Let's hope this works.

"I'm not on a white horse," Costner said. "I'm not the savior to this thing. But I'm kind of saying, like, I got a life preserver."

The device, which is designed to be brought to the spill site on barges, can separate 99% of oil from water and recycle up to 2,000 barrels per day. Costner spent 15 years and $20 million of his own money to develop the machine.

"If 20 of my V20s would have been at the Exxon Valdez, 90 percent of that oil would have been cleaned up within the week," Costner said. . . . The "Dances with Wolves" and "Waterworld" star said he got the idea to develop the centrifuge while watching the Exxon-Valdez spill in 1989.

"... [W]hat happened is as a young man, as a boy, I would see these things, these images, and I could tell my parents would stop and look at the TV," he said. "And when you're young, you look at them and you go, 'Something stopped them.' And what stopped them was these images.

"So I looked at those images myself and it was rubber boots. And it was straw. And it was pitch forks. And then I looked at it again ten years later and I wasn't a boy anymore. And I'm looking at it. And now I'm going, the same images, the oil coming up like pudding and people again on beaches with rubber boots and straw."

BP tested a version of Costner's device earlier this year, but the test failed after the machine gave the oil a peanut butter-like consistency. That problem has since been fixed, and BP is retesting the machine now in the hopes of getting it to the Gulf soon.

Despite the fact that the oil has reached the shores of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, Costner is confident that his oil separator can step in and make an immediate impact on the clean-up process.

"That oil's going to keep coming towards those people," Costner said. "That well has not stopped. So we have to be out at the source, sucking it up on some major, I mean, we have to treat it a little bit like a war. We mustered logistically everything we had to get the Beaches of Normandy. We have to muster everything we can to keep it from hitting our beaches.

And the actor hopes that the machine can help prevent large-scale incidents like this from occurring in the future.

"... [W]e know accidents are going to happen, "Costner said. "But if we're going to operate on our high seas, we have to have-- we have to have this equipment there and ... it should be able to operate the minute the oil comes into contact with water."



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/06/14/2010-06-14_bp_to_test_out_actor_kevin_costners_oil_spill_cleanup_machine_for_possible_use_i.html#ixzz0qqJPCx78




Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/06/14/2010-06-14_bp_to_test_out_actor_kevin_costners_oil_spill_cleanup_machine_for_possible_use_i.html#ixzz0qqJ6lCU7

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/06/14/2010-06-14_bp_to_test_out_actor_kevin_costners_oil_spill_cleanup_machine_for_possible_use_i.html#ixzz0qqHcG0p8

Our Cry Wolf White House Again! "Gulf fuels new energy-bill push"

Sure looks like President Ponzi.

President Obama handled the Gulf Spill like Jimmy Carter handled the Iran Hostages. The leak was not his fault, as we all know is was British Petroleum (BP) - The Ken Lay and Bernie Maddof of Hope and Change.

Now, President Obama and the Mandarins of the DNC are set to do more damage -

“In the aftermath of the spill, people firmly believe Congress needs to do more than just make BP pay. Even when pressed with opposition messaging that now is not the time for some ‘job killing energy tax,’ people coalesce around comprehensive clean energy reform. Consequently, support for a comprehensive energy bill is very high. With the right messaging, that support holds strong in the face of harsh opposition attacks.”

Consequently, you can take all of your Markey/Waxman Carbon Credits and place them where no solar energy can reach them.

I'm going to gas- up at BP on 103rd & Western Avenue - I have many friends who work at BP in Whiting, Indiana.



Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38488.html#ixzz0qptvbP2D

Catholic Worship - Mass with Jimmy Swaggert & Bennie Hinn!

I went to a suburban Catholic Mass . . .I think, because it was a memorial for a close family member. This particular Church was one of the too many Mega-McMansions of the Gender Neutral Triune God, like the photo above, being built wherever Catholics thicken the Zipcode.

If you did not know that this was a Catholic Church - there is a cornerstone blessed and dedicated by Cardinal Bernardin - one might think that he were doing the 3rd Commandment with Benny Hine and Jimmy Swaggert. Ek Kyew Miny Kal!!!!!! Prayz Jayzus!

Not my cup of Gethsemane.

I'm an Old Timey Catholic - I like a Catholic Church -Polish, French, Irish, Italian, Croatian, or Pygmy to reflect Universal -Catholic traditions, liturgy, architecture, music & etc. De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum. to be sure, but Latin, or English Smells and Bells optional, but for Christ's sake something like a Catholic Mass! If I wanted to be a Unitarian, I'd take tranquillizers and stay home.

Place was huge and I guess round - statuary and stained glass negative - and Frank Lloyd Wright in its warmth.

The oratory ( where they do the Readings Epistle & Gospel) faced the altar and point of focus was the piano/organ where two women who looked like bartenders at the Wilde Pug, in Andersonville - the singer had as lousy a voice as the Charlie Brown Liturgical Hymnal of unsingable and equally forgettable Nouveau Faux-Catholic ditties. Taste and Eat! Smell My Feet! Sorry. That was the best of the toe-tappers.

There is an enormous Font with free flowing Holy Water ( Who blesses it? Do they a have a midget priest tucked in under the floor boards or behind the lathing in one of the walls? Did they hire a guy from Pipe Fitters Local 597 to Sanctify the water right out of the pipeline????) that sounds like the surf off of Cape Cod in November. It was a riot to watch all of the Flomax poppers dash off to the Gents once the whispering Holy Waters did that Pavlovian magic.

We did the standard King David was sorry for having Uriah whacked; St. Paul's Galatians Luther epistle and the Simon the Pharisee dressing down over the forgiveness of the jade who washed Christ's feet I'm Okay;You're Okay Homily.

Everybody Dance Now! Duh,duh, duh,duh!!

The Creed was mumbled - No Memorare which is standard at Sacred Heart and then more appalling tunes from the two female gents from Wilde Pug.

It was one of those everyone gets wine -two species Eucharists.

I am sure that Father/Pastor Cupcake rolls over and does whatever his masters ( the Liturgists) tell him to do.

Lay Liturgical Nazis are doing to worship what nitwits are doing to American culture.

I like going to Mass. I missed it this Sunday.


http://chicago.gaycities.com/bars/1927-wilde-pug