Fire On Milwaukee In "Bucktown"/Some Things I Need To Clear Up

Good morning, everyone. Apparently, there was a big fire on the 1800 block of N Milwaukee around 9pm last night. According to the Chicago Breaking News article, it was an extra-alarm fire to a vacant building. The fire lasted until about 11:25, and traffic did need to be rerouted. You can read the rest on this article. Questions or comments? Send them here, or on my Facebook page for the blog (if you're a fan), or to my e-mail.
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So, getting that out of the way, I thought I would talk about some comments I've seen on this blog. First, I'm going to address the following comment publicly (this is regarding my Beat meeting post last night about the POD cameras) by a guy named "Don Muraco":

"You've got to be a real asshole to volunteer to go look at those POD cameras. You don't even get paid, so what's the point? Secondly, if you do view something and report it, and the cops make an arrest, then guess what? The cops will put you down in the arrest report and you'll have to go to court as a witness.....again without being paid. And I'm sure your work/employer will be really happy to give you the time off so you can go play 'super-hero.' The Sgt. asked for volunteers because he knows some pretty dumb, gullible retards go to C.R.A.P.S. meetings...".

Ok, so, here's my thoughts on it. First, I guess I'm a real asshole then, because I signed up on the sheet to volunteer and do this. To me, it doesn't matter if I get payed. I don't care about that. When they officially start letting citizens monitor those cameras, when I do it, all I care about is doing it is for my community. It's kind of an early career job for me to the 911 Dispatching job I want. Second, like I said, this is VOLUNTEER work. You DO NOT have to be involved with this, and you can come and go into the station as you please to do this. But seeing as how most people in this neighborhood, and on this blog for that matter, only whine and complain about things going on, there will be only be a few of us who actually volunteer to do this. Finally, maybe CAPS wouldn't be "C.R.A.P.S" if these stupid citizens stop only coming to complain. People actually need to get involved. Yeah, we're all a little scared of gang retaliation (even I am), but guess what? You can be ANONYMOUS.

Also, about comments, this goes straight to those POs in 25 who think it's funny to slander Sgt. Halpern by using his name for your goofy/stupid comments: You'd better stop. Sgt. Halpern came to 2523's CAPS meeting (when he could've been doing something else) just to talk to me about those comments. He tells me that it's not him leaving those comments, that he doesn't even go on blogs, so I believe it's one of you silly POs out there in 25. So, just for the record, your Sergeant is aware of the comments made against him, and he has asked me to remove them, which I will do. And if I find a way, I will turn over those IP addresses to him, so he can see which one of you coppers it is.

One last thing before I go, but I want to let all of you know of the following:
- I will be monitoring tonight from 8:08pm-12am
- I will monitor 17 all day tomorrow
- I will monitor the North Center community on Saturday

Thank you for reading everything.

Timmy