OpenlineBlog (2025)

27/10/2025

🚨 AURORA Mayor John Laesch, who is seeking warrantless mass surveillance of the public, criticizes ICE and federal agents for “warrantless arrests” over the weekend.

Laesch and the Aurora Police are ramming through a backroom deal at Tuesday’s city council meeting to pay a disgraced killer cop $170,000 for cell phone surveillance of the public without first getting a warrant for data that can also be obtained by ICE.

Meanwhile, the same Laesch is criticizing “warrantless” arrests by federal agents for impeding law enforcement.

Aurora Police also do not get a warrant to arrest someone hindering law enforcement or committing a crime in front of them.

"It’s a very scary time for para military forces to be on the streets of the United States of America targeting Illinois residents," Laesch said.

"They're now making warrantless arrests, racial profiling, and arresting without probable cause. These are constitutional violations and they have to be documented in court."

At the same time, Laesch and Aurora Police want to use surveillance methods on the public, protesters or anyone without a warrant or probable cause.

Laesch has blasted ICE operations as “fascist” but his own administration and police are engaging in actual fascism with mass surveillance.

Two people were detained by federal agents in Aurora this weekend after they first approached federal agents.

One was released after questioning while the other was cited for impeding an arrest.

ICE and the FBI confirm the federal agents were not randomly targeting US citizens but Aurora’s mass surveillance plan would include anyone.

26/10/2025

🚨 STOP AURORA FASCISM
City Hall, Tuesday, 6pm

Aurora Police Chief Matt Thomas, Mayor John Laesch, City Attorney Yordona Wyscoki and fascists on the Aurora City Council, including Carl Franco and Patty Smith, want to ram through a corrupt backroom scheme to pay a disgraced killer ex-cop from Arizona for mass surveillance equipment of the public without first getting a warrant.

Bill Rowley of the Aurora Police Department tried to shove through the scheme by falsely claiming it was from a “sole source” vendor who turns out to be Mike Pezzelle, a killer ex-cop who murdered five people, including an innocent teenage girl.

Pezzelle doesn’t make the German equipment, isn’t an authorized distributor and boasts “have a plan to kill everyone you meet.”

He was kicked out of law enforcement but Aurora Police, with a long history of corruption, professional misconduct, false arrests, excessive force, perjury and abuse of power, welcomes killers, surveillance and violation of civil liberties, law and common sense.

“No responsible police or city official would even consider doing business with a disgraced killer cop even if they come up with false excuses to justify mass surveillance without first getting a warrant” said a legal expert familiar with the extensive history of police misconduct in Aurora.

“Disappointing to see Matt Thomas, who was appointed at the last minute by corrupt predator Richard Irvin, fail to stop any backroom scheme with a killer and clearly explain the legal risks and consequences of doing mass surveillance without first getting a warrant.”

“Even more shocking is the failure of Mayor John Laesch to stop this given he has openly criticized the historic problems of police, fascists and use of exact same tactics by ICE and federal law enforcement who will benefit from the data collected by APD.”

Sources say multiple lawsuits will be filed if the city council proceeds with the corrupt backroom deal to fund a killer for mass surveillance.

So-called city attorney Yordona Wyscocki has failed to protect the community, civil liberties and the law.

According to her own words, she is “not good”
at this.

ICE, which is also seeking more ways for surveillance, says they expect Aurora Police to cooperate fully with them to share any data collected but if they refuse, they will get a judicial order.

“if it’s okay for Aurora Police to collect random people’s data, then no court is going to deny ICE who have actual lists of targets. Anyone critical of ICE should be focused on the fascists at the Aurora Police Palace and City Hall” said an immigrant rights advocate.

Meanwhile, an investigation confirmed Alderman Keith Larson’s statement the same equipment the city wants to pay killer cop Mike Pezzelle $170,000 is available for $25,000.

Since the police chief, mayor, city attorney and fascists on city council don’t have any problem with mass surveillance without judicial approval, should we acquire the same equipment to have law enforcement professionals (non-killers) conduct the same surveillance on city officials and those on Aurora’s Most Wanted List, including but not limited to:

Richard Irvin
Alex Alexandrou
Tony Martinez
William Rowley
Michael Poulakidas
Patty Smith
Keith Cross
Michael Pegues
John Cordogan
Carl Franco
Stacey Peterson
Clayton Muhammad
Yordona Wysocki
Chris Minick
Patrick Collins
Mike Saville
Shannon Cameron
Mike Pezzelle
Matt Thomas
John Laesch

* any city council member who votes in favor of the mass surveillance scheme will be added to the above list

Last Tuesday, chronic wild spender and fascist Patty Smith added the scheme to the “consent agenda” for this coming Tuesday to avoid discussion and taking a direct vote on paying a killer cop for mass surveillance.

A family friend of Sariah Lane, who was 17 years old sitting in the backseat of a car when she was murdered by Mike Pezzelle, told us “shame on Aurora Illinois and anyone in that city who has this much disregard for human life and the ability to live life in peace without getting shot or spied on.”

🚨STOP AURORA FASCISM
CITY HALL, Tuesday, 6pm

24/10/2025

🚨 AURORA Alderman Carl Franco, who voted for all wild spending under the prior administration of corrupt ex-mayor Richard Irvin that created the current FISCAL CRISIS, has a MELTDOWN over tiny cuts proposed for the fire department during a 2026 budget review at finance committee.

Aurora’s fire department staff swelled from 200 to 255 in a decade with many layers of management.

93% of the fire department cost is labor, not counting millions more for capital costs like the new $50 million totally unnecessary and corrupt Aurora Fire Palace.

The city is currently proposing a very small reduction of 18 people which would be phased at the same time 18 new cadets are entering.

Franco, who has never said no to any spending or tax increase, wanted to falsely accuse the Laesch administration of dictating to the fire department how they should make cuts.

Finance chair and Alderman Ted Mesiacos, who has a mixed record recently on spending, smacked Franco back during his tantrum and meltdown.

Meanwhile, the real problem is these proposed cuts are small and Aurora needs to cut much more to prepare for the massive cost increases coming for the fire palace.

notes:

* we support any taxpayer expense for creating a Carl Franco Meltdown Room adjacent to city council chambers (as long as Cordogan doesn’t design it or Wegman gets the contract to build it).

* we have asked police chief Matt Thomas to see if Killer Cop Mike Pezzelle can expedite delivery of the APD’s new cell phone surveillance system to track Carl Franco for his next meltdown.

* we have urged city council to consider a VRIF for chronic wild spenders like Carl Franco and Patty Smith (and Mike Saville).

📍AURORA FINANCE COMMITTEE
October 23, 2025

23/10/2025

🚨 AURORA - while Mayor John Laesch is personally protesting fascism, the history of police and tactics by ICE, his own city administration and police department are fully embracing a violent killer, mass cell phone surveillance without a warrant and making it easier for federal law enforcement to go after anyone.

And for what?

To give $170,000 to a disgraced killer ex-cop named Mike Pezzelle from Arizona for hardware and software he doesn’t make to enable mass surveillance of anyone’s cell phone information without first getting a warrant.

This issue was first presented to the city council back in May 2025 by then Aurora Police Lt. Bill Rowley where he LIED to the finance committee and later city council that the equipment for surveillance was “necessary” and “lawful” and there was a SOLE SOURCE called “Five Eight Group.”

“Sole source” means you can’t get this from anywhere else but Five Eight Group isn’t a group at all and they don’t make anything.

It’s KILLER MIKE who operates from a UPS store in Arizona, already killed five people and has boasted “HAVE A PLAN TO KILL EVERYONE YOU MEET.”

One would assume killing innocent people might be a DISQUALIFICATION for anyone doing business with the City of Aurora.

Doing business with a killer might have made more sense with criminal defense attorney for murderers, close friend of gang members and corrupt ex-mayor Richard Irvin, but in the middle of May, John Laesch took over as mayor.

Just before the corrupt Irvin exited, he appointed Matt Thomas as the new police chief to replace Keith “Double” Cross, who had covered up misconduct by the prior corrupt police chief Kristen Ziman.

Laesch should have insisted that Matt Thomas be interim chief while conducting a national search and still allowing Thomas to make the case why he was the best choice.

Instead, Laesch let Irvin’s appointment go through.

As we have said in other posts, it’s too early to fully judge Matt Thomas as police chief but this specific issue is a strong signal that both he and Mayor Laesch are failing common sense 101.

Even IF you believe it’s somehow ethical or lawful to conduct mass cell phone surveillance without getting a warrant first, who would even consider sending Aurora taxpayer funds to a disgraced ex-cop who KILLED INNOCENT PEOPLE?

Everyone on the city council, the mayor and the police chief know this issue is overwhelmingly opposed by the public at the SAME time there is controversy about ICE using the SAME tactics as Aurora Police.

However, at Tuesday’s Committee of the Whole, there were ZERO questions, ZERO discussion, ZERO presentation by police, ZERO explanation by the incompetent city attorney and ZERO effort by the mayor to put this on “unfinished business” for next week’s city council meeting.

Instead, Ald Patty Smith, the rest of the cowards on city council and the mayor put it on the “consent agenda” so they don’t even have to take a specific vote on the issue, let alone discuss it.

Who are the fascists now?

We could easily look the other way on giving taxpayer money to a killer cop or letting Aurora Police use mass surveillance without getting a warrant first or making all the data collected available to ICE even if you did nothing wrong.

OR we and all of you could speak up and demand the mayor and police chief use common sense to not fund a killer cop, respect the people of Aurora, the civil liberties of Americans and explain how they are following the law.

If you oppose killing innocent people, wasting taxpayer funds, mass surveillance without first getting a warrant, making it easy to get swept up in federal law enforcement operations or have any expectation of privacy, we encourage you to come to the next Aurora City Council meeting on Tuesday, October 28th at 6pm.

STOP FASCISM
BY THE CITY OF AURORA
AND AURORA POLICE

Demand Mayor John Laesch, Chief Matt Thomas and the entire city council to explain why it’s okay to send $170,000 to a disgraced killer and collect your cell phone information without first getting a warrant.

YOUR TAXPAYER FUNDS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES ARE AT STAKE.

21/10/2025

🚨 AURORA POLICE - it’s complicated.

Mayor John Laesch recently made some controversial comments about the history of police in response to criticism he will be making cuts to the city workforce and budget, including the Aurora Police Department (APD), which operates out of a $200 million police palace and has a nearly $100 million annual budget, around $35 million more than next door neighbor Naperville, one of the safest cities in Illinois.

In recent decades, APD has had a long string of incompetent leaders because of a bad habit of promoting incompetence to the top and rooting out those who are good.

That is how APD ended up with a goofball like Bill Powell or corrupt clown like Kristen Ziman who had zero competence while partying with known criminals.

It’s too early to fully judge new chief Matt Thomas who was bizarrely appointed by corrupt ex-mayor Richard Irvin on his way out in May but pushing new wild spending of $500,000 on a “digital forensics” room and paying $170,000 to a killer cop for mass cell phone surveillance isn’t a positive sign.

And, nobody has yet been held accountable for the false arrest of community leader Ken Maurice because he refused to have campaign yard signs of corrupt ex-mayor Richard Irvin.

That said, Matt Thomas has been far more responsive than the last several police chiefs combined, which is a low bar because that is his basic responsibility.

However, the overall history of APD is mixed.

We know many good cops because over the years they communicated directly with us even when the APD “brass” or corrupt mayors like Tom Weisner or Richard Irvin ordered them not to.

Many rank and file cops on the streets have worked tirelessly to improve our community and take risks for the safety of all.

And, we also know of many bad cops, those who engaged in false arrests, lying under oath, misconduct and wasting taxpayer funds and some who are no different than the criminals on the streets.

In other words, there’s both good and bad both historically and in the current police department.

Aurora’s $200 million police palace built with corruption (aka crime) is part of the problem - it’s created a superiority complex for some upper management and made them too comfortable to hang out at the palace when most officers should be on the streets and in neighborhoods.

Did you know very few officers (12-20 by some estimates) are on the streets at any given time despite a police force of over 400? That’s what you get for $100 million per year.

There is definitely room to significantly cut the police budget and staff without impacting public safety.

We hope Mayor John Laesch and Chief Matt Thomas take a serious look at who is essential, ethical and acting in the best interest of taxpayers.

This also applies to the equally bloated Aurora Fire Department and the corrupt luxury fire palace coming soon.

Instead of elevating incompetence, we need better ways to reward the actual good people.

Aurora needs a lean, ethical, transparent and fiscally responsible police and fire department that is focused on priorities, safety and sheds itself from the last two decades of a culture of bad leaders.

20/10/2025

🚨 AURORA has the “worst fiscal crisis ever” created by corrupt ex-mayor Richard Irvin but it seems the current Aurora City Council doesn’t know how to stop wasting your money.

Last week, they voted 8-3 to waste almost a million dollars on $800k TV’s and change orders for Mosquito Park (aka RiverEdge) just before approving Mayor John Laesch’s Voluntary Reduction in Force (VRIF) plan to address a $30-50 million deficit.

This coming Tuesday, the Committee of the Whole will giving Killer Cop Mike Pezelle (who operates out of UPS Store address in Arizona) $170,000 for mass cell phone surveillance for the bloated Aurora Police Department.

At every opportunity to stop wasteful spending, the Aurora City Council, led by chronic wild spenders Carl Franco, Patty Smith and Mike Saville always find an excuse to waste your money.

15/10/2025

🚨 AURORA - minutes after forgetting about the fiscal crisis to approve wasting an extra MILLION dollars on Mosquito Park, including $851,000 for TV’s, the Aurora City Council voted to offer a “voluntary reduction in force” (VRIF) plan to city employees as Mayor John Laesch said the preliminary 2026 budget would include a $2.5 million deficit with cuts yet to be announced.

Don’t tell the city council the deficit would only be $1.5 million if they didn’t waste a million dollars minutes earlier.

Corrupt ex-mayor Richard Irvin created the fiscal crisis but new mayor John Laesch has yet to convince city staff to stop wasting money from projects like Mosquito Park and the soon to be the next catastrophic boondoggle Aurora Fire Palace.

City employees who take the VRIF would get 8 weeks of pay and insurance.

Depending on how many volunteer to exit and which labor unions cooperate, the next step would be mandatory layoffs.

During Irvin’s two terms, the city added about 269 employees to an already bloated workforce so even if all those were eliminated, it would go back to 2017 levels.

Without cuts or layoffs, the city’s projected deficit next year would be $30-50 million.

13/10/2025

🚨 AURORA SCRAMBLES to justify wild spending during a fiscal crisis for $800,000 TV’s for Mosquito Park (RiverEdge).

In response to our story and community outrage over more wasteful spending for the failed park and insane new design, city officials and the failed park manager ACCA (Paramount) are trying all kinds of excuses on why $800,000 TV’s are necessary.

After spending $50 million to create a dysfunctional park, the Irvin regime pushed to spend another $26 million with the same corrupt contractors on an “upgrade” that causes part of the park to be fully blocked from any view of the stage.

WATCH inside this video:

📺 Rick Lawrence (Sept 24)
📺 Aurora and ACCA lie (Oct 7)
📺 Sandi Schmitt (Oct 7)
📺 City Council Discussion (Oct 7)
📺 One More Thing (Oct 7)

***See comments for breakdowns on costs***

🚨UPDATE: Aurora City Council voted on Tuesday night to go ahead with buying $851,000 TVs despite fiscal crisis and options to rent. An amendment by Alderman Dan Barrerio to delay extra TVs was rejected.

11/10/2025

🚨 AURORA and ICE

10/10/2025

🚨 AURORA recently became the ONLY city in Illinois and one of the few in America to impose a MORATORIUM on new data centers, warehouses and economic development just days after APPROVING a data center that addressed all concerns and misinformation.

Yes, you read that correctly…the same city that just approved a new data center project is the same city spreading misinformation about data centers and blocking new ones.

We encourage our viewers to watch presentations and see for yourself as a new data center is approved and then a moratorium is proposed one day later.

The city can and should update ALL ordinances but a moratorium is unnecessary as illustrated by the city’s own action approving one.

It’s a reminder this irresponsible city council will vote for anything you put in front of them - even when one vote completely contradicts the other.

If only they could pass a moratorium on wild spending, tax increases, skyrocketing debt and incompetence.

One more thing…if anyone seeing this is opposed to data centers, remember you are using several by being on Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, YouTube, Tiktok, Netflix, email, storing photos or doing ANYTHING on the internet.

07/10/2025

🚨 AURORA - corrupt ex-mayor Richard Irvin isn’t handling well the reality of being thrown out of city hall since May.

Between drunk (or drug?) infused email rants attacking us for obliterating his governor campaign fantasy and kicking his dirty rear end in the election for mayor, he is clearly depressed and angry.

Not only everyone is rejecting him, but the entire city is learning he created a massive fiscal crisis with a record of wild spending, debt, tax increases with all his schemes and gimmicks backfiring.

That doesn’t include the many investigations underway for corruption, fraudulent spending and sexual misconduct.

Before becoming mayor, Irvin was an incompetent criminal defense attorney profiting from defending rapists, gang members, drug dealers and child molesters but it seems the last 8 years has caused people, even “alleged” criminals like him, to realize he isn’t good at anything, including law.

Since getting thrown out as mayor, he has setup a consulting entity for “technology” with Michael Pegues, the sidekick who along with Irvin spent thousands of city funds on strip clubs, booze, travel and cash advances for personal gain at your expense.

Maybe more bizarre, Irvin has setup a “land development company” called Stone Construction to exploit ways he can scam into real estate development deals.

“Little Richard saw all these corrupt developers like Tony Rezko and Michael Poulakidas getting wealthy for their access to politicians so he said he wants to get a piece of the action, too” said a source.

Stone Construction operates out of a FedEx store’s mailbox rental from Lombard.

Irvin’s other “activity” since being kicked out as mayor? Partying with lowlifes from drug users to st*****rs.

We have many policy differences with new Mayor John Laesch but we can’t say he is corrupt or a sleazeball like his predecessor.

Irvin is upset because Laesch has declared a fiscal crisis and is being forced to stop some of the wild spending.

If anything, Laesch has been too slow and needs to do much more and take a sledgehammer and blowtorch to the $760 million city budget, inefficient structure and bloated workforce.

Richard Irvin is a narcissist predator who needs attention and wants everyone to think the world can’t exist without him.

Just ask any of his kids (from many different women) who hate their absent father - they prefer he just stay away.

So, if you see the predator roaming the city, just walk away and let Irvin go scream at the true source of all his problems - the freak he sees in the nearest mirror.

note: send tips on the corruption and crimes of Richard Irvin to us and/or the FBI so we can all put him in the place he really belongs, a prison for life.

https://tips.fbi.gov/

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