“The challenge for us as lawmakers is to strike a balance, between enforcing the law and giving people the ability to redress grievances.” Ald. Joe Moore – 49th Ward – A man in search of a primary opponent.

I’m only going to say this once and I’m going to use small words because I want it to stick with our media friends and the 41 Aldermen who voted for the G8/NATO crackdown ordinance. The United States Constitution has already provided us guidelines that give people the ability to express their views and municipalities the capacity to enforce the law. That Mayor Emanuel is uncomfortable with the Constitution should tell you good citizen that the people he is bringing to our fair city have a lot to answer for and that he should not be trusted with a public office.

The title of this post is likely to be an example of: “Overheated rhetoric and over-the-top hyperbole,” according to said Ald. Joe Moore. This is probably because he will not be on the business end of a knight stick or will ever be in possession enough principles and values to support something as abstract as the right to assemble, libraries in school, public libraries or pensions for teachers.  I'd say Joe's votes on this and the budget indicates that he is either unprincipled and cowardly or very principled and evil. At the very least he has a facile grasp of the concept the public good or common good. That Joe Moore is considered a progressive on anything at this point in his career is beginning to feel like calling the Bush Tax Cuts Tax Reform. See, reform and change are two different words… Mr. Obama has been proving that as well.

Sadly this isn’t about an evil incompetent or a willing accomplice this is about 41 Aldermen deciding that there will not be enough pepper spray and disorder in the air. This is 41 legislators deciding that they do not want to know what sort of contracts, security firms or devices Mayor Emanuel plans to release on the city. I suppose this will allow them to act surprised and outraged as he downplays God only knows what horrible things get unleashed on the good citizens of the city and the press downplays the damage done. One can only imagine how they will act when the preventive arrests, orange nets and tasers go to work with will on the public… I’m sure they’ll be shocked as will we… only we will be literally be shocked and kicked into it. Dante said the hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who do nothing when something terrible happens to their fellow man. I've 41 slots for that particular punishment right where the Devil's haunches are thickest. In the world of civics this vote is about as evil as they come and our 41 aldermen should own up to treating the Constitution like they are escapees from a GOP Primary or the Bush-Cheney Administration. 

This is not overheated rhetoric this is the experience of the G8/NATO events of the past decade. There is nothing in what Chicago is doing that should make anyone feel as if things are going to go any better here. In fact our Mayor is following a playbook that will see preventive arrests and for all we know and for all we’ll ever know he could be hiring private firms to do just that. Something for you and I to dwell on because the press isn’t capable of this act of deduction is under what circumstances should a Mayor of anyplace be able to spend millions of dollars, without any oversight on “special security measures”? I ask this question because nobody else did. Who is he going to hire, what will they be doing and why is this a good idea? There nothing NOT sinister about this sort of arrangement and one cannot speculate enough about what this means in the hands of a man whose compassion, to date, can be measured in milliliters. Don’t believe me, consult his budget built for privatizing executives on the souls and futures of say schools, libraries and anyone reading this or using oxygen that is not in some private club.

Understand something; this is not really about the “parade rules” or fines. That’s like ninja dust to distract you from the fact that Rahm Emanuel, a man who has never made a principled decision for the public good just sucked a few million more dollars out of the public good for some kind of private gain and we will never know what it is. How will he account for the money? How much money will it be? Who will get it? Here’s some guesses that are already true; not libraries, not teachers and not afterschool programs. Not mental health facilities and not public pensions. Our idiot press corps is already calling this a “watered down ordinance” and men in possession of the sort of courage common in field mice are saying the Mayor compromised… with whom, himself?

One last thing to chew over and on as we get ready for what is not going to be a pleasant time to be a Chicagoan assembling to express dissent for the say… well ever or until there is a new Mayor and you know how committed we are to that sort of change. One thing to mull over, as I was saying is that the police force that has the enhanced powers and possibly enhanced rights has a STELLAR record of behavior. One can scarcely imagine that their behavior will be less than exemplary given that they will be dressed for riots and empowered to do so now with near reckless abandon. Get used to the term street battle. Get even more used to them being ignored by the papers of record unless they HAVE to cover them and then we will hear about broken store windows and out of control protestors… maybe even… foreigners or outside agitators. Good to see the old ways coming back armbands and dark shirts for everyone I say. One would think the irony of this would not be lost on a fellow as smart as Rahm but who can say for certain.

Police brutality has been costing Chicago millions a year for years on end. We just spent almost $600,000 on the beating of autistic boy of sixteen. I can hardly wait to see how our peace officers will behave when allowed to act however they wish. It’ll be like we’re being taxed twice when we have to pay for all the havoc they are about uncork on the wary  and unwary alike. Wood shampoo and bareknuckle sandwiches all around and if our police would lay a beat down on an autistic boy of sixteen I think it safe bet to say the only guys dressed for a riot are likely to act like it when those extra bullhorns and unauthorized drums, marches and assemblies start up. Maybe someone will die; it is the sort of confrontation the Mayor is setting in motion.

Now there is an “optimistic” way to approach this. When the Mayor presented a budget that revealed he has the heart of political hatchet man, the values of a Wall Street lobbyist and the soul of an investment banker the vote for that was 50-0. Now when he manifests his disdain for the Constitution and need for unchecked and unaccountable control of millions of dollars he only won 41-5. At this rate should he ask for the right to privatize the police and fire departments we might be able to pick up 15 to say 20 votes. So maybe we should call this progress.