Notable figures in the United States have for decades expressed concerns about the existence of a “deep state” or state within a state, which they suspect exerts influence and control over public and foreign policy, regardless of which political party controls the country’s political power levers.
There is a system that is at work in the world, and that system existed long before this last election cycle. This is the twelfth U.S. President since Eisenhower where nothing has changed.
There is a deep state, a military industrial security state. … a multi-national and highly focused state, (or, more accurately a system). It is the system that has to be challenged. That takes work and is never as exciting as talking about some hated politician or political philosophy.
Watch Tales From The Deep State Blog, (http://patsanswersblog.wordpress.com), for previews of “Wake of Vultures” a different kind of political thriller, as well as snippets from inside real-world events ripped from the headlines and details on publication.
Here’s a little sample…
“The Police in Northern Cook County are not prejudiced and do not engage in random police brutality. They hate everyone equally and they treat everyone miserably.”
Sgt. Andy Novak had long ago become disillusioned with the idea of being a crime-busting cop. Mostly he found that his professional life consisted mostly of periods of boredom infrequently interspersed with occasions of being exposed to either irate citizens or absolute scumbags. There wasn’t too much “public service” left in his experience of police work
Pulling up to the address he saw that Tom had started stringing the crime scene tape across the front of the property and as he checked in with dispatch he saw Tom emerging from the side yard to the East of the property.
“Tom, you look like ****. Whata we got here?”
“Well Sarge, what we have is a stiff in the house that looks like he had a close encounter with a herd of stampeding elephants followed by a full body massage by every maggot in the north suburbs. It was bad enough that I tossed my cookies in the alley behind the house. I haven’t done much, just a cursory premise check. Once I found the body I tried not to contaminate the scene any further.”
“Anything on who our deceased might be or why he partied with the grim reaper here in this house?”
“Nothing much Sarge. This was called in by the Greek guy that owns the Little Inn on Golf rd. He was out for his constitutional and smelled something walking past here. I guess he knew the guy that lived here in a casual manner. The guy that he knew was kinda weird… tamed wild squirrels… petted ‘em… even put hats on ‘em. But I’m not even sure that the stiff inside is the same guy. Anyways, the Greek guy said that the guy he knew had been in his restaurant about 3 weeks ago with a female… quite the looker according to the complainant. Looked like one of those plastic real estate broads according to him.”
“O.K. Tom. Not too much more we can do here between us. Let’s just make sure the place is cordoned off with the crime scene tape while I call out the lieutenant. I’m just as happy to dump this in his lap although from what you tell me about what you observed it will be a nightmare for the NORTAF crew with our lieutenant bloodhound in charge. You make sure the tape is up and start on your incident report while I call in to get Litkowiak out here along with the NORTAF crew and someone from the ME’s office.”
Lieutenant Kevin Litkowiak looked, colleagues often said, how a detective in a movie looks. And he played the part well. His suits were tailored. He always seemed to be chomping his trademark cigar, whether at the station, on the streets, or at the bar after hours. He had a booming voice thick with a Chicago accent. He had a hearty laugh and a respectable handshake. He loved to buy others drinks and trade stories. He was the friendliest and warmest man many of his peers had ever met, and he was quick to cut himself down with abundant doses of self-deprecation. It was hard not to love Detective Lieutenant Kevin A. Litkowiak. He was a Skokie cop but he was attached to the North Regional Major Crimes Task Force – NORTAF. NORTAF was a crime investigation cooperative between the Northern Chicago suburban police departments of Lincolnwood, Skokie, Morton Grove, Niles, Glenview and a few others. They pooled their resources in order to bring major metropolitan crime investigation resources to the smaller towns and villages that would not otherwise have this type of expertise.
When there was a NORTAF homicide investigation you would usually find Litkowiak’s partner, Detective Sergeant Paul Berg, a stout man with a trim mustache, a brown comb-over, and skeptical, probing eyes. Where Litkowiak seemed to seek the spotlight, Berg was fine working in the shadows. The Robin to Litkowiak’s Batman, cops around the suburbs joked.
Litkowiak was the star of the NORTAF Homicide Squad. He had solved some of the suburbs’s most notorious homicides, plus scores more that got barely a blurb in the papers. He was tenacious and crafty. He developed close contacts on the streets. He had a knack for tracking down eyewitnesses. And he was a master at getting suspects to talk. “That crystal ball” in his stomach, he called it.
Great detectives, he once said in a television interview, had “the ability to get inside to that person’s soul whatever way you can and get the person to say what you need to hear.” What set Kevin Litkowiak apart, prosecutors and fellow cops believed, were his people skills. “He understood human nature,” says Michael Cunningham, an assistant state’s attorney who prosecuted a few of Litkowiak’s cases. “He could read people. He knew how to talk to people. He was empathetic. He didn’t talk down to them. He was not judgmental. He had a way with people.”
