Illinois is the punch line of lots of jokes. What's the difference between a prostitute and an Illinois governor? A prostitute has a 10 percent chance of being indicted, 40 percent less than the governor. People are not laughing at our governors. They are laughing at us. When are we going to start doing our jobs instead of waiting for the U.S. attorney's office and the FBI to clean up our mess?
Good job, again U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald on the trial of former Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Al Sanchez. Assistant U.S. attorneys and FBI agents proved once again that governmental bodies in Illinois too often work for those in power and not for the people.
The case of the prison-bound former City Hall patronage chief, Robert Sorich, was the same story. Honest and qualified applicants for City Hall jobs did not have a chance if they weren't connected. The hiring system was wired. Elaborate schemes were created to cover up the charade. Job interviews for the cloutless turned into interrogations. Outstanding reviews were ginned up for those who were connected. Bad government.
But is jailing those who implement bad governmental practices the answer? Are federal prosecutions the road to good government?
Certainly, there are crimes from which we need federal law enforcement to protect us. Assistant U.S. Attys. Gary Shapiro and the late itchell Mars and many others have pounded the Chicago mob and literally shifted the balance of power from the tyranny of the Tommy Gun to the rule of law. The people could not do that alone. The feds have also taken on the gangs in Chicago. To be sure, the public has a key role to play in keeping our kids out of gangs and not buying their life's blood: drugs. But Chicago gangs are too well-armed and organized for ordinary citizens alone to topple. We need the U.S. attorney's office, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, law enforcement and others to help us.
There is a fundamental difference between public corruption on the one hand and gangs and the mob on the other: We choose corrupt public officials. We hand them the combination to the bank vault. Impeached ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich did not change his stripes immediately upon being re-elected. We knew who and what he was. Way before the second election, headlines of this paper detailed allegations of corruption.
Even the Safe Roads investigation broke before George Ryan was elected governor. (Yes, the U.S. attorney's office appropriately announced Ryan was not then a subject of the investigation, because he wasn't, but that is hardly an endorsement.) That Ryan was an old-time, pay-to-play pol was the worst-kept secret, even in Illinois. We once again looked the other way and chose him as our governor.
Public corruption is insidious because it crushes our faith in the system we hold dear. When those we choose use the power we lend them for their own selfish purposes, we throw up our hands and say the system is broken.
That is the easy but wrong conclusion. The system isn't broken. The system is the best in the world. Democracy is not just a concept; it is the right to choose. We fought and fight wars for democracy to triumph. Courageous African-Americans in the too recent past withstood fire hoses, beatings and worse for the cherished right to vote. Too often, we in Illinois have squandered our votes. As long as we elect the most effective fundraisers, we are destined to give power to those who provide the funds. As long as we equate "he's honest" with "he's ineffective" we will continue to get what we deserve.
Our U.S. attorney's office is the best in the nation at fighting public corruption. From Greylord, to the 1st Ward, to Silver Shovel, to Safe Roads, to the hiring scandals, the U.S. attorney's office has done its job time and time again. But good government cannot and should not be won in the criminal courts. It is time to stop looking to them to do our jobs. It is time to wake up and make honesty and integrity voting issues.
Thanks to Ronald S.Safer. Mr. Safer is a former federal prosecutor now in private practice in Chicago. During the 1990s, he headed the Justice Department's prosecution of Chicago's Gangster Disciples.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
US Government Helping Out Organized Crime
New Jersey state Senator Raymond Lesniak thinks the US government is helping no one but criminals by imposing prohibition against sports gambling. The state lawmaker has filed suit to strike the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which prevents states from legalizing sports wagering.
Lesniak says the ban has not prevented sports betting in the least. He insists that no one could seriously claim that sports gambling is not occurring everywhere in the US.
"Rather than supporting thousands of jobs, economic activity and tourism, the federal ban supports offshore operators and organized crime," said the Jersey legislator.
The National Gaming Impact Study Commission says illegal sports gambling in the US may range as high as $380 billion annually. One of the plaintiffs in Lesniak's lawsuit, iMEGA, showed estimates that sports gambling could bring $10 billion to New Jersey business a year, with over $100 million in state tax revenue.
Proponents of legalized and regulated sports gambling repeat the arguments offered by those for online casinos: the goals of those who establish the bans would be far better served by regulation. By seeking to limit consumer exposure to criminals, the law actually chases out legitimate gambling operators, leaving the field to those outside the law.
And by seeking to protect games from corruption, they let corruption bloom undiscovered, away from the light and transparency of regulation. European sports leagues have cooperated for some time with Internet casinos to prevent match fixing.
Thanks to Carla Weitz
Lesniak says the ban has not prevented sports betting in the least. He insists that no one could seriously claim that sports gambling is not occurring everywhere in the US.
"Rather than supporting thousands of jobs, economic activity and tourism, the federal ban supports offshore operators and organized crime," said the Jersey legislator.
The National Gaming Impact Study Commission says illegal sports gambling in the US may range as high as $380 billion annually. One of the plaintiffs in Lesniak's lawsuit, iMEGA, showed estimates that sports gambling could bring $10 billion to New Jersey business a year, with over $100 million in state tax revenue.
Proponents of legalized and regulated sports gambling repeat the arguments offered by those for online casinos: the goals of those who establish the bans would be far better served by regulation. By seeking to limit consumer exposure to criminals, the law actually chases out legitimate gambling operators, leaving the field to those outside the law.
And by seeking to protect games from corruption, they let corruption bloom undiscovered, away from the light and transparency of regulation. European sports leagues have cooperated for some time with Internet casinos to prevent match fixing.
Thanks to Carla Weitz
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Did Cicero Police Officers Help the Mob Fight the FBI?
Federal authorities are investigating several Cicero police officers for allegedly trying to thwart FBI agents running surveillance on an Outfit associate and high-ranking member of the Outlaws motorcycle gang who ran a pawn shop in town, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
Cicero police allegedly ran car license plates, pulled over cars they suspected were driven by federal agents and tried to find hidden surveillance cameras around the business of Mark Polchan, according to recently unsealed court records. Polchan is awaiting trial on charges he bombed a business for the Outfit.
Cicero officers and Polchan also are accused by prosecutors of engaging in sexual acts with prostitutes in Polchan's business, called Goldberg's, which was under video and audio surveillance by federal authorities. Prosecutors brought the matter up to counter Polchan's claim that he is a good family man.
The Cicero police officers under investigation are not named in the court documents.
In one secretly recorded conversation between Polchan and one of the officers in 2007, the officer is quoting telling him, "Alright, I got good news. We ran all the f - - - - - - plates on all the f - - - - - - cars over here. They all came back to f - - - - - - people," meaning not federal agents.
At a court hearing sealed to the public, Assistant U.S. Attorney Markus Funk called the police running the license plates to see if they were federal agents "extraordinary," according to a transcript. Prosecutors had no comment Tuesday.
Cicero Town spokesman Dan Proft said the police superintendent was unaware of the allegations against his officers. The town will review them and likely refer them to the police department's internal affairs division, Proft said.
FBI agents interviewed three Cicero police officers in late summer or early autumn last year to question them because they had known Polchan for years, Proft said, but agents told the police superintendent they were not targets. Polchan apparently has deep ties with the Cicero Police Department, where his father was an officer.
Federal authorities have said more people will be charged in the Polchan case. Prosecutors have alleged Polchan rang a burglary ring out of his shop and did frequent business with the Outfit, including overseeing a 2003 bombing of a Berwyn business that ran afoul of the mob.
Polchan's attorney could not be reached for comment. The documents came to light as Polchan appeals a judge's decision to have him held without bond.
Thanks to Steve Warmbir
Cicero police allegedly ran car license plates, pulled over cars they suspected were driven by federal agents and tried to find hidden surveillance cameras around the business of Mark Polchan, according to recently unsealed court records. Polchan is awaiting trial on charges he bombed a business for the Outfit.
Cicero officers and Polchan also are accused by prosecutors of engaging in sexual acts with prostitutes in Polchan's business, called Goldberg's, which was under video and audio surveillance by federal authorities. Prosecutors brought the matter up to counter Polchan's claim that he is a good family man.
The Cicero police officers under investigation are not named in the court documents.
In one secretly recorded conversation between Polchan and one of the officers in 2007, the officer is quoting telling him, "Alright, I got good news. We ran all the f - - - - - - plates on all the f - - - - - - cars over here. They all came back to f - - - - - - people," meaning not federal agents.
At a court hearing sealed to the public, Assistant U.S. Attorney Markus Funk called the police running the license plates to see if they were federal agents "extraordinary," according to a transcript. Prosecutors had no comment Tuesday.
Cicero Town spokesman Dan Proft said the police superintendent was unaware of the allegations against his officers. The town will review them and likely refer them to the police department's internal affairs division, Proft said.
FBI agents interviewed three Cicero police officers in late summer or early autumn last year to question them because they had known Polchan for years, Proft said, but agents told the police superintendent they were not targets. Polchan apparently has deep ties with the Cicero Police Department, where his father was an officer.
Federal authorities have said more people will be charged in the Polchan case. Prosecutors have alleged Polchan rang a burglary ring out of his shop and did frequent business with the Outfit, including overseeing a 2003 bombing of a Berwyn business that ran afoul of the mob.
Polchan's attorney could not be reached for comment. The documents came to light as Polchan appeals a judge's decision to have him held without bond.
Thanks to Steve Warmbir
History Lesson from Former Illinois Governor Touches on Mobsters
Dan Walker sent an e-mail from Mexico because he doesn't like newspaper reporters lumping him in with crooked governors.
Yes, that Dan Walker, governor of Illinois from 1972 to 1976.
The Internet is a magical thing that never ceases to amaze. Sitting in his home down in Rosarito Beach, Baja, Mexico, Walker, 87, read a column that appeared online March 17 in the SouthtownStar and obviously felt the need to respond.
"Phil, I read and enjoyed your good article about (Gov. Pat) Quinn and (former Gov. Richard) Ogilvie," Walker e-mailed. "I'd like to share with you a few thoughts since I lived through those days about which you wrote."
I wrote about Quinn's plan for an income tax increase and mentioned that Ogilvie had created the first state income tax while governor in 1969. In 1972, I noted, Ogilvie was defeated by Walker.
That election has been cited ever since by Illinois politicians as proof that voters will rebel against any elected leader who backs an income tax increase.
Walker suggested that he didn't win the election because of the tax hike but because of scandals in the Ogilvie administration.
"Perhaps you're unaware that I said publicly both at the time time he did it and during my campaign for governor that Dick Ogilvie deserved to be complimented for having the guts to give Illinois the income tax," Walker wrote. "I've said repeatedly, then and now, that the state could not have continued without it. I went on while campaigning, of course, to criticize Ogilvie for the way he spent the money that came in."
Walker reminded me that Ogilvie was the first governor to welcome William Cellini into his administration. Cellini, a Springfield wheeler-dealer, is under federal indictment in connection with pay-to-play politics in the administration of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but he has been cutting deals with governors and lining his pockets with government dough for decades.
Ogilvie hired Cellini to be the state's first transportation director, and Cellini became embroiled in a scandal involving ties to state highway contractors who made large campaign contributions.
"Cellini cut deals with every governor of Illinois, Republican and Democrat, except me," Walker boasted in his e-mail. "My aide threw him out of his office when he came to make a bad proposition."
Walker proudly claims that during his administration, state support for public education reached its highest levels, financing 48 percent of the cost of a K-12 education, "just short of the 50 percent goal set in the constitution."
That's true, but I e-mailed in response that Walker's administration benefited from the hundreds of millions of dollars raised by the 2.5 percent income tax passed by Ogilvie to fund education.
In my column, I called Ogilvie a governor who built a reputation for honesty by taking on organized crime and the original Mayor Daley's political machine.
That apparently really hit a nerve with Walker.
"Phil, I too had the courage to do what was right when I was governor and tried to change the system, knocking down the excessive power of the rotten Chicago machine," Walker wrote. "And my political career ended because of that.
"Phil, I continue to wish that reporters would recognize what I tried to do. Most folks are entirely unaware of what I did as outlined above on education and fighting guys like Cellini and (in) other good government matters.
"I've made my mistakes (they've been well publicized), but I still get sick inside when I see my name coupled with those guys like Ryan, who went to jail for corruption in office."
Walker has a legitimate complaint on that last point. He served 18 months in a federal prison for bank fraud, but that happened years after he left office.
Yet, whenever anyone lists the Illinois politicians who have gone to prison on charges of corruption, his name appears along with those of Otto Kerner and George Ryan.
I asked Walker what he's doing these days, and he wrote back that despite rumors that he made a fortune from his banking days, he lives with his wife on their Social Security benefits "plus such stipends as my seven kids see fit to send me from time to time." He wrote that he lives a "pleasant life" and continues to love politics.
By the way, while mentioning Ogilvie, Walker also dropped the name of Richard Cain. I had completely forgotten about Cain, one of the most notorious figures in Illinois history.
Cain was recruited by Chicago mob chief Sam Giancana as a young man and eventually became a police officer, organized crime's guy on the inside. He ended up heading the Cook County sheriff's special investigations section when Ogilvie was sheriff.
Cain apparently did bring down some big-time mobsters, but some of them were guys the mob wanted to take out. In the meantime, he provided information to the mob on government investigations.
He eventually was whacked by hit men who entered a neighborhood restaurant, lined the patrons up against the wall and put a shotgun to Cain's head. The blast, according to reports at the time, blew off his face.
Illinois politics: If you don't know the history, you don't know the half of it.
Thanks to Phil Kadner
Yes, that Dan Walker, governor of Illinois from 1972 to 1976.
The Internet is a magical thing that never ceases to amaze. Sitting in his home down in Rosarito Beach, Baja, Mexico, Walker, 87, read a column that appeared online March 17 in the SouthtownStar and obviously felt the need to respond.
"Phil, I read and enjoyed your good article about (Gov. Pat) Quinn and (former Gov. Richard) Ogilvie," Walker e-mailed. "I'd like to share with you a few thoughts since I lived through those days about which you wrote."
I wrote about Quinn's plan for an income tax increase and mentioned that Ogilvie had created the first state income tax while governor in 1969. In 1972, I noted, Ogilvie was defeated by Walker.
That election has been cited ever since by Illinois politicians as proof that voters will rebel against any elected leader who backs an income tax increase.
Walker suggested that he didn't win the election because of the tax hike but because of scandals in the Ogilvie administration.
"Perhaps you're unaware that I said publicly both at the time time he did it and during my campaign for governor that Dick Ogilvie deserved to be complimented for having the guts to give Illinois the income tax," Walker wrote. "I've said repeatedly, then and now, that the state could not have continued without it. I went on while campaigning, of course, to criticize Ogilvie for the way he spent the money that came in."
Walker reminded me that Ogilvie was the first governor to welcome William Cellini into his administration. Cellini, a Springfield wheeler-dealer, is under federal indictment in connection with pay-to-play politics in the administration of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but he has been cutting deals with governors and lining his pockets with government dough for decades.
Ogilvie hired Cellini to be the state's first transportation director, and Cellini became embroiled in a scandal involving ties to state highway contractors who made large campaign contributions.
"Cellini cut deals with every governor of Illinois, Republican and Democrat, except me," Walker boasted in his e-mail. "My aide threw him out of his office when he came to make a bad proposition."
Walker proudly claims that during his administration, state support for public education reached its highest levels, financing 48 percent of the cost of a K-12 education, "just short of the 50 percent goal set in the constitution."
That's true, but I e-mailed in response that Walker's administration benefited from the hundreds of millions of dollars raised by the 2.5 percent income tax passed by Ogilvie to fund education.
In my column, I called Ogilvie a governor who built a reputation for honesty by taking on organized crime and the original Mayor Daley's political machine.
That apparently really hit a nerve with Walker.
"Phil, I too had the courage to do what was right when I was governor and tried to change the system, knocking down the excessive power of the rotten Chicago machine," Walker wrote. "And my political career ended because of that.
"Phil, I continue to wish that reporters would recognize what I tried to do. Most folks are entirely unaware of what I did as outlined above on education and fighting guys like Cellini and (in) other good government matters.
"I've made my mistakes (they've been well publicized), but I still get sick inside when I see my name coupled with those guys like Ryan, who went to jail for corruption in office."
Walker has a legitimate complaint on that last point. He served 18 months in a federal prison for bank fraud, but that happened years after he left office.
Yet, whenever anyone lists the Illinois politicians who have gone to prison on charges of corruption, his name appears along with those of Otto Kerner and George Ryan.
I asked Walker what he's doing these days, and he wrote back that despite rumors that he made a fortune from his banking days, he lives with his wife on their Social Security benefits "plus such stipends as my seven kids see fit to send me from time to time." He wrote that he lives a "pleasant life" and continues to love politics.
By the way, while mentioning Ogilvie, Walker also dropped the name of Richard Cain. I had completely forgotten about Cain, one of the most notorious figures in Illinois history.
Cain was recruited by Chicago mob chief Sam Giancana as a young man and eventually became a police officer, organized crime's guy on the inside. He ended up heading the Cook County sheriff's special investigations section when Ogilvie was sheriff.
Cain apparently did bring down some big-time mobsters, but some of them were guys the mob wanted to take out. In the meantime, he provided information to the mob on government investigations.
He eventually was whacked by hit men who entered a neighborhood restaurant, lined the patrons up against the wall and put a shotgun to Cain's head. The blast, according to reports at the time, blew off his face.
Illinois politics: If you don't know the history, you don't know the half of it.
Thanks to Phil Kadner
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