Chicago police superintendent Jody Weis may be the worst Chicago ever had. Unbelievable.

Mayor Daley, fed up with corruption, scandals, and missteps in the Chicago Police Department over the years did what a lot of liberals do: they work off gut theory and academic concepts, rather than use what works to fix the problems. And Mayor Daley decided what would be best for the CPD was getting someone from well outside Chicago who was not a police officer at all. He picked former FBI agent Jody Weis.

Weis has been disastrously unpopular. The police hate him, because Weis is quick to blame them for everything that goes wrong. The citizens hate him, because crime rates have soared and nothing is getting done but fingerpointing.

Let the Czar be clear. The FBI are really, really, really, really very good at what they do. And they generally stink at anything else. Being a federal investigator does not translate to being a police officer: a cop needs to be an investigator, psychologist, community relations PR slob, and sometimes bully. And indeed, Weis comes off as a secretive jackass from another decade with little interest in being a cop, but still wanting the large Federal office and staff.

Understandably, morale is painfully low for the CPD, who actually organized a protest against their own superintendent. Imagine that: rank and file police officers are so fed up with the guy that they are having a public protest Wednesday about it. Weis, possibly the recipient of the first such protest in CPD history, had a perfect leadership moment here and screwed it up—accusing the police union of having “no ideas, no lists, and no issues.”

Perhaps the Czar can be of assistance. You are the source of the problem. The idea is to remove you, the list contains only your name, and your attitude toward them is the issue. There. Done. There isn’t much more at stake here.

But Weis fails to recognize this. For all his supposed awesomness powers, he has allowed violent crime to increase—not just against the citizens of Chicago, but no police themselves are being murdered by completely brazen gangs. And Weis’s solution is not to target key individuals, not to make sweeping arrests, not to cripple the gangs, but instead he opts to listen to a university professor, who suggested meeting with them to negotiate and find out their needs. And as dumb as that sounds, Weis screwed it up by losing his temper with the gang leaders and threatening them on their own turf. It wound up with Weis looking like a putz and the gang members getting sympathy from the media. Things have gotten so bad that people would rather have the National Guard patrol the streets of Chicago than risk Weis screwing something up further.

The good news is that Weis has acknowledged that, with Mayor Daley set to retire in 2011, that his days are numbered. However, rather than resign, he would rather wait to be fired. Evidently, the FBI is no longer teaching street smarts at Quantico.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.