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Here’s why Chicago’s unofficial police blog ‘Second City Cop’ went dark Login/Join 
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CHICAGO — Most Chicago cops don’t talk to reporters. They don’t trust politicians. And they certainly have a lot of opinions.

It’s why for the past 15 years the “Second City Cop” police blog has been must-read for many Chicagoans who want to have a better understanding about crime and justice in their city.

It’s also why the blog has bene a thorn in the side of police brass for years and there have been various attempts to identify the operator.

When the chronicle of cop life disappeared from public view on the internet a few days ago some took to social media concerned that “big tech” had pulled the plug.

“We have taken no action,” a spokesperson for Google, which owns the Blogspot platform used by Second City Cop told WGN. “We see that the blog is still live though the readership access is ‘private.’”


A screengrab of the “Second City Cop” blog shows what it looked like before it was set to private
What’s the real story? It’s been difficult to track down since the operator(s) of the blog have taken great lengths to protect their anonymity.

However, in an email to WGN the person behind the blog makes it sound like he/she was concerned they were about to be outed.

“Over the weekend, we received information from a contact at Google that internal chat/e-mails led them to believe that certain precautions we had taken over the years had been breached by Google,” they said.

Second City Cop certainly has opinions. Police bosses are bungling. Reporters don’t get it. City Hall is scheming. And don’t get them started on aldermen (referred to on the blog as “aldercreatures”).

The public comments to articles posted on the blog can be politically incorrect at best – and sometimes offensive.

But Second City Cop has provided unparalleled insight into the opinions of the rank and file. Over 15 years, its operator says there have been more than 22,000 posts, nearly two million comments and “God knows how many attempts to silence us.”

Google denies attempting to interfere with the blog; but the person behind the site points to how technology companies have silenced President Trump on Twitter and made Parler harder to find as evidence of a crackdown on conservative voices.

“The blacklisting has begun, even if you won’t see it, you should” Second City Cop tells WGN via email. “The wholesale abandonment of the President, the denunciations, the, ‘I wasn’t really with him’ self-serving statements. Sound familiar? It should…if you have any recollections of the show trials behind the Iron Curtain, in Southeast Asia, in assorted Middle East kleptocracies.”

The header of the blog states it’s “sarcasm and silliness from a Windy City cop” but the truth is it’s been much more: A venting platform for fed-up officers as well as a place where they can make off-color comments shielded by the anonymity of a keyboard.

It’s also frequently the first place Chicago journalists have been tipped to trouble brewing inside the Chicago police department. There’s no better evidence of the blog’s significance than the first “thank you” Second City Cop offered in a farewell email. It was to former Chicago police Superintendent Phil Cline.

“Without you banning us from department computers, we wouldn’t have jumped from 3,000 visits a day to over 30,000 unique daily visits,” the blogger wrote about Cline. “You, more than anyone, assisted our success.”

Is this the end for Second City Cop? “We don’t know,” the blogger wrote. “We don’t know if this is it, we don’t know if we’ll return. We don’t know what Big Tech has in store for us and the political winds are not fortuitous. We are exploring options and we’ll leave it at that.”

So, at least for now, you can mark Second City Cop as “19-Paul.”

LINK: https://wgntv.com/news/wgn-inv...-city-cop-went-dark/
 
Posts: 17236 | Location: Stuck at home | Registered: January 02, 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Wait, what?
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This statement is also available on “Hey Jackass”. One has to wonder how long it will be before the site listing the clearest evidence of Chicago violence and who is responsible is taken down. Second City Cop is spot on. Orwell’s 1984 is here and is growing. Jackass won’t go dark of their own volition, but at the censorship rate we’re seeing it’s just a matter of time.




“Remember to get vaccinated or a vaccinated person might get sick from a virus they got vaccinated against because you’re not vaccinated.” - author unknown
 
Posts: 15576 | Location: Martinsburg WV | Registered: April 02, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
in the end karma
always catches up
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Usually the first place I looked for news every morning.


" The people shall have a right to bear arms, for the defense of themselves and the State" Art 1 Sec 32 Indiana State Constitution

YAT-YAS
 
Posts: 3693 | Location: Northwest, In | Registered: December 03, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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SCC has been the first website I check when I do my evening surfing for years. Sad to see it go and hope it comes back in some form.
 
Posts: 921 | Location: Midwest | Registered: April 13, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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From the people at SCC-


Well, this was certainly a long time coming. Fifteen years, over 22,000 posts, almost two million comments and God knows how many attempts to silence us. But it might finally be over…at least this version of it.

Over the weekend, we received information from a contact at Google that internal chat/e-mails led them to believe that certain precautions we had taken over the years had been breached by Google. We had gotten similar warnings from others in the past, and we dealt with or ignored them as the situation warranted. But this one was different.

And this one - on the heels of Big Tech’s wholesale attack on the President, Parler and center-right to right-leaning authors, politicians and voices – pointed to a countdown that had far less time than we had thought. Most likely, far less time than you think, too. The blacklisting has begun, even if you won’t see it. You should – the wholesale abandonment of the President, the denunciations, the, “I wasn’t really with him” self-serving statements. Sound familiar? It should…if you have any recollections of the show trials behind the Iron Curtain, in Southeast Asia, in assorted Middle East kleptocracies.

Disavowal and re-education is on tap. What Senator McCarthy is remembered for – “Are you now or have you ever been…” has been twisted, refined (Bake that cake!), and exacerbated (Parler is only the first of many). They don’t want “unity.” They want Compliance and as the last fifteen years have shown, we aren’t really good at compliance. The amount of personal data available to “woke companies” who would deny commerce or service based on beliefs, contributions, investments (not Green enough!), social media posting, employment (cops not welcome here), bumper stickers – Have you heard of Operation Choke Point? Look it up and imagine it drilled down to individual citizens. Orwell’s 1984? It’s here.

In closing, we’d just like to thank a few people:

· Phil Cline – without you banning us from Department computers, we wouldn’t have jumped from 3,000 visits a day to over 30,000 unique daily visits. You, more than anyone, assisted in our success. Some days it topped 50,000, but we thank you for the ten-fold increase. Too bad you can’t ban the next generation SCC;

· HeyJackass.com – the only true source of crime numbers. We know you’ll ferret out a few more hidden bodies to put 2020 over 800. We guarantee that they’re out there. Groot has ordered the Department to sit on over 20 of them;

· CWB blog - you are what reporting should be in Chicago. We don’t know your operation, if it’s phone calls or emails or actual feet on the street, but you do more to create informed citizens than major newspapers and broadcast entities;

· The Chaplains - Fr. Brandt has done and continues to do God’s work. It is the only police charity we contribute to because we know exactly where every dollar is going. And there isn’t a finer man of G-d alive than Rabbi Wolfe. When we hear he’s in the building, around the District or on a crime scene, we’re getting a handshake and our candy - it’s like a scavenger hunt. The rest are decent people, too. Sorry we only ever got you the $50 from WGN Padre. Maybe others contributed anonymously, but that’s between them and God.

· Our readers. Without you, we would have been nothing. Even last week, we still posted over 90% of comments that didn’t run afoul of the guidelines, and in 15 years, we only had permanent bans on perhaps thirty names.

We have a few hundred e-mails waiting for us, begging for info, and all we can say right now is, “We don’t know.” We don’t know if this is it, we don’t know if we’ll return. We don’t know what Big Tech has in store for us and the political winds are not fortuitous. We are exploring options and we’ll leave it at that.

In the meantime, everyone reading should make these sites the first place you go for news and educated opinion:

· Ace of Spades blog - the smartest blog in the world right now

· Instapundit / PJ Media – the Godfather of Libertarian blogging

· Breitbart – even when it’s over the top, it’s more than you’ll get from mainstream sources

· The Contrarian - in depth investigative reporting may just be reborn there

Watch your backs boys and girls. And your fronts. No one else will.


link-
https://www.chicagocontrarian....from-second-city-cop


And a quite sad farewell from an "insider"-
https://www.chicagocontrarian....l-to-second-city-cop


Sad times we're living in!
Stay safe!


______________________________________________________________________
"When its time to shoot, shoot. Dont talk!"

“What the government is good at is collecting taxes, taking away your freedoms and killing people. It’s not good at much else.” —Author Tom Clancy
 
Posts: 8345 | Location: Attempting to keep the noise down around Midway Airport | Registered: February 14, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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That's really too bad. I went to check the blog out tonight and was worried when I saw it was set to private...mostly worried that they had just started locking out outsiders. Turns out, it's worse.
 
Posts: 5163 | Location: Iowa | Registered: February 24, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I read Reddit once in a while to keep up on pop culture. There are way too many people around more than willing to give up their rights to punish those who do not agree with them. Orwell's 1984 isn't coming, it's here right now. None of them sees the dangers, not at all. The schools have done their work very well.

"Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted."

-- Vladimir Ilyich Lenin


*************
MAGA
 
Posts: 5689 | Registered: February 20, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I know that this is almost a year old thread, but it looks like SCC has been writing for the Chicago Contrarian since earlier this year: https://www.chicagocontrarian....ters/second-city-cop

Glad to see whoever SCC is/are didn't just ride off into the sunset.
 
Posts: 921 | Location: Midwest | Registered: April 13, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Thanks for the update. Glad to see the author has found a new outlet.

- Bret
 
Posts: 2465 | Location: OH | Registered: March 03, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Oh stewardess,
I speak jive.
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Flame Suit On: whatever is going on, real or imagined, those statements are chocked full of enough vague and meaningless (on it face) nonsense to fill an Olympic pool.

Who in the everloving fuck talks like that? It reads like a B Movie script plagiarized by some jackass who enjoys FUDy Qanon-esque hyperbole of a large degree.

I'll break it down later, I have some celebrations to attend to, but important parts of those statements are absurdly vague and conspiracy-ish as to be laughably absurd.

I've no problem with the blog, whatever, but the language in those post is off the charts full of bullshit, by way of useless obfuscation or lies or something else.

It reeks, like they were hotboxing blunts of bullshit in a small compact car...

(side glance)

Sounds like Qanon is leaking. My bullshit meter is fucking pegged, lights ablaze.
 
Posts: 25613 | Registered: March 12, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by M1Garandy:
I know that this is almost a year old thread, but it looks like SCC has been writing for the Chicago Contrarian since earlier this year: https://www.chicagocontrarian....ters/second-city-cop

Glad to see whoever SCC is/are didn't just ride off into the sunset.


Yes, they've been at The Contrarian for about a year now. Between The Contrarian and CWB, probably the last bastions of real reporting left in this City, everyone else is toting water for The Machine.

It's sad that "The Blog" / SCC had to disappear. It's unfortunately understandable in today's political climate, especially in places like Chicago. For me, and many other Cops, SCC was a huge finger on the pulse, and had a 99.5% accuracy rate. The comments... Well... That was "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly". Ranging from pure genius, pure humor and pure stupid and vile. Even worse before the moderation.

Funny how that "Insignificant" blog, as our former Supt judy "Gotta run" Weis put it, was checked in on regularly by every media outlet in Chicago. SCC was here before Cromagnon Head was here, and remained around long after his punk-ass was gone. Cline hated it because he couldn't keep a secret, Eddie hated it because it exposed him for all his weaknesses. Brown should thank his lucky horseshoe that it's not around, because he wouldn't be able to handle it.

Daley and Raham... Despised it. But Daley has "Alzheimer's" or something that makes him "forget", or at least not be able to "take the Stand". And the 9 1/2 Digit Midget is now the Ambassador to Japan and everyone forgot how to report on his coverup in the Laquan Shooting days before his reelection.

There's no way this spiteful, bug-eyed dwarf would tolerate the scrutiny. Nor can she.
Sad that they are "gone"... Especially in the time when they are most needed.


______________________________________________________________________
"When its time to shoot, shoot. Dont talk!"

“What the government is good at is collecting taxes, taking away your freedoms and killing people. It’s not good at much else.” —Author Tom Clancy
 
Posts: 8345 | Location: Attempting to keep the noise down around Midway Airport | Registered: February 14, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Looks like as of 7/1/23, SCC is back up and posting again.
 
Posts: 921 | Location: Midwest | Registered: April 13, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Yep, they're back. And they haven't lost their flare for commentary.
 
Posts: 68 | Registered: June 25, 2023Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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