23 June—Cops: No longer will Chicago police be permitted to chase people on foot simply because the suspects run away or have allegedly committed minor offenses. Evidently the new Windy City PD directive is a reaction to a foot chase that resulted in the fatal shooting of two people a year ago.

Of course, the restriction doesn’t apply to suspected felonies or more serious misdemeanors (which should be classed as felonies anyway). But it sounds like overkill to me. No pun intended. Wouldn’t it make more sense to simply prohibit the cops from discharging their weapons (i.e., firing their guns) or employing other violent, injurious tactics (whatever they may be) in those situations?

The new protocol reeks of San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin’s pro-petty-crime policy that led to his absolutely necessary recall a few weeks ago. Now Chicago shoplifters and small-time muggers, among other petty criminals, will have nothing to worry about and in theory will be able to commit their crimes while thumbing their noses at the passive police. And walking away.

On the other hand, consider that the new CPD directive may well have been drafted for the benefit, safety, and survival of the cops rather than the suspects. Other than newbies, how many cops do you know who are fit enough to run after anyone, let alone criminals running for their freedom?

Chicago cops must be relieved that they no longer have to exercise on the job.

Robber: Henry Centrella, Winchester’s (the town, usually referred to as Winsted, which is actually the city at Winchester’s center) finance director who embezzled over two million dollars in the almost three decades he worked for the town, was sent up the river in 2014 for 11 years—a plea deal for a 20-year sentence with nine suspended. A far more lenient sentence than the creep deserved.

Winsted taxpayers had to come up with a supplemental payment in 2013 to cover Centrella’s embezzlement. The town has gone after his assets and everything that could be found has been liquidated. Henry maintains that with his former assets and whatever proceeds it’s been able to screw out of the insurer, the town has been made whole. The nerve of the felonious bastard.

Centrella has expressed remorse and regret. Why not? He doubtless regrets that he was caught. The nerve of the felonious bastard. Since he was and still is a financial pro, it’s not unlikely that he has a stash offshore or under a mattress that nobody knows about.

With time off for being such a great guy, Centrella is due to be released from MacDougall-Walker in Suffield on 2 May 2023. His application for parole was denied in 2018. He’s applied again. Premature parole should be denied again. But why has he even bothered? He has less than a year to go, so why try for parole? Doesn’t he like his boyfriends?

Sure, that’s easy for me to say, since I’ve never been incarcerated. (Except at Hebrew-speaking summer camp.) But Henry Centrella has been in the slammer long enough so that, unless he has a great job waiting for him, another several months shouldn’t be an inconvenience. Doesn’t he like his boyfriends?

Killer: Richard Crafts was released from MacDougall-Walker a couple of years ago, at 82. Remember him? He was the Eastern Airlines pilot who murdered his wife, then cut her up with a chainsaw and woodchipped the poor girl into Lake Zoar. He was arrested in 1987 and sentenced to 50 years in 1990.

Had he used a garbage disposal and been on a sewer line, he’d probably never have been caught.

Crafts got out after only 33 years thanks to an old sentencing formula known as statutory good time. That was dumped in 1994, but Crafts was grandfathered. Centrella was 20 years too late . . .