W.J. Kennedy Stories | Chicago City Wire

Second City Cop: 'Nobody wants this job (cop) that has half a brain'

By W.J. Kennedy | May 18, 2023

Last week’s disturbing tweet by the 16th and 17th District Chicago Police Scanner said that the city’s 25th District had eight police beats down one recent night, “meaning had no one assigned to patrol or respond to calls in the area…”

Study finds half of Chicago residents witness shootings by the age of 40

By W.J. Kennedy | May 17, 2023

The astonishing findings of a 25-year study, recently published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), showed that 50 percent of city residents witnessed a shooting by the time they reached the age of 40.

GOP public safety bills face big challenge in legislature, but future of Chicago - entire state - may depend on them

By W.J. Kennedy | Apr 28, 2023

House Republicans face a herculean task of moving a package of public safety bills recently introduced in a legislature where the Democrats, who late last year approved the controversial SAFE-T Act, have a super majority in both chambers.

Free speech under assault by federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in mortgage lending case

By W.J. Kennedy | Apr 27, 2023

A victory in the appeal of a lawsuit filed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) alleging discrimination by a mortgage broker could result in unprecedented government restraint in speech by all in the lending business.

Foxx announcement comes as watered down charges filed; Child's tragic death charged as misdemeanor

By W.J. Kennedy | Apr 26, 2023

Kim Foxx’s announcement that she will not seek a third term in 2024 came just days after her office charged two teenagers who killed a child while speeding in a stolen car with only misdemeanors.

Reliable police tool that detects gun shots could be on chopping block under new mayor

By W.J. Kennedy | Apr 21, 2023

A gunshot detection software, ShotSpotter, that police rely on – and have praised --to respond more quickly to potential crime scenes may be eliminated under mayor-elect Brandon Johnson.

Head of police accountability board (COPA) deposed in FOP case charging COPA with unlawful investigations

By W.J. Kennedy | Apr 19, 2023

Andrea Kersten, administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), has recently been deposed in the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #7 lawsuit against COPA, attorney Joel D’Alba, who is representing the FOP in the case, confirmed to Chicago City Wire.

Kim Foxx among the most elevated of local prosecutors backed by progressive billionaire George Soros

By W.J. Kennedy | Apr 18, 2023

Of the 30 prominent prosecutors supported by liberal billionaire George Soros, Cook County’s Kim Foxx is “probably the most famous,” writes Parker Thayer of the Capital Research Center (CRC), the Washington D.C.-based government oversight group.

Arrests down, crime up trend almost certain to continue under new mayor

By W.J. Kennedy | Apr 7, 2023

Arrests in Chicago have plummeted 81 percent over the past two decades, a Sun-Times analysis shows, and with the election of progressive Brandon Johnson for mayor, who early on supported defunding the police but later backed off, arrests are likely to continue going one way and crime the other, say criminal justice experts.

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Plaintiffs’ attorney seeks removal of special prosecutors who challenged legal authority of controversial police torture and relief commission

By W.J. Kennedy | Apr 5, 2023

An attorney representing a convicted murderer claiming that police forced him to confess to the crime is seeking the removal of special prosecutors in her client’s wrongful conviction case.

Activists target law enforcement tool valued by Chicago police and other law enforcement agencies around the country

By W.J. Kennedy | Mar 30, 2023

A class action lawsuit against the city of Chicago over its use of a technology, ShotSpotter, that detects the sounds of gun shots and immediately notifies police, is at odds with law enforcement’s, and the community’s, endorsement of it.

Legal authority of torture relief commission challenged in wrongful conviction cases

By W.J. Kennedy | Mar 27, 2023

The very legal authority of an obscure state-level commission created to address claims of police torture is under fire in two wrongful conviction cases naming a former Chicago police detective.

Sheriffs consistent in opposition to ban of so-called assault weapons says Second Amendment advocate

By W.J. Kennedy | Mar 24, 2023

A leading guns rights advocate has taken issued with a Chicago Tribune story saying that the Illinois Sherriff Association has flipped its position regarding the new law banning so-called assault weapons.

Plaintiffs’ firm asks city to stand down in wrongful conviction cases

By W.J. Kennedy | Mar 23, 2023

A powerful plaintiffs’ firm this week announced it had filed 11 more wrongful conviction cases, and asked the city to settle them, not fight these and other cases alleging police brutality now percolating in the courts.

Plaintiffs’ firm, on record as engineering a media campaign in a wrongful conviction case, accuses former investigating detective of waging campaign of his own

By W.J. Kennedy | Mar 21, 2023

A plaintiffs’ firm that orchestrated a media campaign to help further a wrongful conviction case surrounding the 1993 murder of a college basketball star is accusing a former detective, who investigated the murder, of launching a media campaign of its own.

Exoneration industry churns on in Cook County; Man convicted of killing two children to get new trial

By W.J. Kennedy | Mar 17, 2023

Two recent legal developments shows that the exoneration industry, with the prospect of big paydays for once convicted murderers and their attorneys, is going strong in Cook County.

'Zero deterrence' against crime is real world side of argument over constitutionality of cashless bail

By W.J. Kennedy | Mar 15, 2023

The reckoning is at hand for the cashless bail provision in the General Assembly’s overhaul of the criminal justice system, the SAFE-T Act approved in the Democratically controlled legislature with no debate late last year.

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Big win for Chicago police in lawsuit charging police accountability board with overstepping its bounds in officer-involved death investigations

By W.J. Kennedy | Mar 10, 2023

The chief administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA) can be deposed as part of a lawsuit brought by Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 alleging COPA’s investigations into shooting deaths involving police officers are unlawful.

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Foxx owes her survival in office to a vague state law, and powerful political allies

By W.J. Kennedy | Mar 9, 2023

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s recent move to fire a soft-on-crime circuit attorney is a public safety check that the attorneys general in many states have over their regional prosecutors.

Former Gov. Pat Quinn facing his own trial of sorts in wrongful conviction case

By W.J. Kennedy | Mar 3, 2023

A key part of a wrongful conviction case against former city detectives is coming back to haunt former Gov. Pat Quinn.

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