9 Comments - Where there's Smoke - Tuesday, Nov 2, 10 @ 7:15 am: Why does Tony Peraica always find himself in these types o scrapes? Is he ever in the news for having done something positive? He is the most divisive, angry, unpleasant, bitter, and oddest person I have seen in politics in a long time. Not one Mayor or Village President supports his re-election. Why is that? Like I quote, he is a divider and hopefully today, a loser. - Quinn T. Sential - Tuesday, Nov 2, 10 @ 7:48 am: Prayers for successful treatment and recovery for Alderman Fioretti. - cassandra - Tuesday, Nov 2, 10 @ 9:07 am: If the money is short for hiring police officers, perhaps they could be more strategically placed in city neighborhoods. There must be a number of city neighborhoods which are safe or very safe based on crime rates. Are they overstaffed? On the other hand, some Chicago neighborhoods appear on annual lists of most dangerous neighborhoods in America. Apparently, they need more police, since the inhabitants seem unable or unwilling to tackle the problem, which is largely related to Chicago’s ever-thriving illegal drug trade. The solution may not be to hire more, but to allocate resources more strategically. The CPD’s computer whizzes–yes, they have them–could also expand the use of predictive technology for day to day staffing adjustments, something we’ve read about but not seen much of. The city may not be able to raise taxes enough to hire 1000 or even 500 more police officers who must be paid, then pensioned off at huge expense. Perhaps the money that exists should go into hiring specialized staff to go after the drug trade, since it causes so much of city crime. You have to wonder why the city council is so reluctant to take on the drug trade in Chicago. I guess they’d rather leave it to the Mexican government. It’s safer and cheaper. And I suppose the illegal drug industry makes campaign contributions. Here in Illinois, both at the local and state level, our huge resistance to doing more with less in lieu of taxing the shrinking middle class to the hilt may have to end. Not many signs of that yet, though. - Fed up - Tuesday, Nov 2, 10 @ 9:16 am: casandra The low crime areas of the city already recieve substantially less police service. Let’s not forget that just because an area doesn’t have a murder every week they still deserve to have police service to protect against burglaries robberies and general criminal behavior. No area of the city is crime free but lately several have become police free. One just has to wonder how long it will be before a Rev looking for a platform for say a mayoral run will claim the statistics show that police make more arrests and write more tickets in certain minority areas. All while never mentioning that other areas (non minority) get no police service at all. - Cincinnatus - Tuesday, Nov 2, 10 @ 9:47 am: RE: Tony Peraica I’m thinking if you’re a politician, it’s never a good thing for a front and side view picture to show up in the papers. Just sayin’ - lake county democrat - Tuesday, Nov 2, 10 @ 10:18 am: I’ve had some relatively minor issues with Alderman Fioretti (like his attempt to block the “ex-thug” hotdog stand), but he’s a passionate fighter for what he believes in and I respect that a lot. With Tom Dart out of the mayors race he would have been an important voice in the debate. Every best wish for his fight and recovery. - DuPage Dave - Tuesday, Nov 2, 10 @ 10:23 am: The announcements have been trickling in that this or that guy has chosen not to run for mayor of Chicago. So it looks like the much-anticipated 10-way election will not happen after all. Rahm has intimidated nearly everyone. For entertainment value it would have been terrific. Now it looks like we will have an old-fashioned white guy versus black guy election. Tense but not so much fun for the casual observer. - Quinn T. Sential - Tuesday, Nov 2, 10 @ 10:46 am: No mention of the death of Ron Swanson? How soon we forget. - Him Say - Tuesday, Nov 2, 10 @ 11:56 am: Quinn T: what does that mean? Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.