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Showing Original Post only (View all)what chicago learned from '68 [View all]
every demonstration/march that i have been to has had the kind of wall to wall cops that were out this weekend for the nato protesters. because what the cops learned was that when you are hugely outnumbered and things get a little out of hand, bad things happen. cops being cops, they panic and attack. that is what happened in '68. that was a long time ago. most of those that participated are old or dead. please stop tarring my city with it.
nothing like that has been allowed to happen since. the marches that we had around the iraq war were the same. one of the marches grew to the point where the protesters had sort of a mind of their own, and they left the route, and walked up and closed down streets. no one was hurt. because they were truly peaceful marchers.
yesterday thousands marched peacefully and went home unharmed. i watched some of the live stream, several friends watched all day. there were a few people trying to rile up police. i don't know what happened to lead to the thrashings that were dished out, but we all knew as soon as we saw it that that would be the story of the day.
and i come here this morning and see a post calling for my mayor, who was elected with 70% of the vote, to resign. because he presided over a week of demonstrations, some small, some huge, and a couple of people managed to cause enough of a scuffle to need some stitches.
well, guess what? i think they did a good job. the level of anger floating out there now is so high. it could have easily gone so badly. i don't think most people understand what "downtown chicago" really means as far as the amount of damage and casualties that would result from any level of violence. i have seen the good and the bad of chicago cops. imho, they did a great job.
and i'll keep my mayor, thanks. most of us that live in the real world of shades of grey like him fine. those that live in a world of black and white, maybe not so much. but it is my town, my mayor, and a handful of minor injuries is not enough to overturn democratic elections.