Alderman chased by angry mob and it’s about time
For the past week, my little Chicago neighborhood has led the local news thanks to a proactive neighbor with a video camera, a well trafficked Web site, and some really pissed off voters. A gang brawl in the street and summer-long crime wave has made residents so angry they chased the local alderman from a meeting, down the street and into her car.
This is Uptown and you cannot make this stuff up.
Uptown resident Joe Gray captured a melee on the streets below his condo. Dozens of young men posturing, throwing bottles, threatening and preparing for much worse. It was shortly after 9 pm, cars swerved to avoid being hit, nearby restaurants had customers and regular people were out and about. It was the third night in row of such activity, and while you won’t hear any gunfire in the video, experience proves it wasn’t far behind.
This is gang territory under dispute, in a city where the gangs and thugs and petty criminals are taking over. This was Sheridan Road, on the North side, just a few blocks from the lakefront.
Sadly, it’s nothing new for Uptown, a volatile community that has struggled with crime and poverty for decades. It’s a neighborhood with a storied history. Al Capone operated speakeasies here and ran booze through underground tunnels. The Rat Pack played here both on stage and off, and my grandparents raised two boys just blocks from where I live now. The wide streets are filled with beautiful gray-stones and mid rises with terra cotta facades. Stately single family homes and elegant Victorians sit next door to SROs and subsidized housing in various forms.
If I had to find an equivalent, I suppose Uptown could be compared to Harlem. A community built during better days that fell on hard times. Like Harlem, there have always been residents who cared and tended for the architecture, boulevards and legacy. And like Harlem, Uptown has enjoyed a renaissance of sorts, with new residents, restorations and condo conversions.
But we still have violence, gangs, homelessness and drugs. There is no single reason this stuff lingers, but a good deal of blame lies at the feet of local government that has pushed a self serving agenda and refused to acknowledge a large portion of the constituency. They have taken money meant for commercial development, schools, parks and police, and funneled it into badly run social services and ill conceived subsidized housing.
After a summer of violence, declining police presence and absolutely no response from the elected “leader,” this erupted into something far more powerful than the peaceful protest that had been planned. Armed with picket signs in lieu of torches, the villagers chased their monster through the streets.
And it all happened in front of cameras at a Town Hall meeting to support Chicago’s Olympic Bid. Alderman Helen Shiller doesn’t return phone calls, attend block club events or CAPs meetings. She does, however, serve the mayor’s bidding because this is Chicago, and this is how the aldermen retain power in their small kingdom’s. Do as the mayor says or else and Mayor Daley wants the Olympics. Shiller did her part that night by showing up and sitting in the front row, where her constituents finally found her, and chased her from the building.
I don’t think it’s going to make the mayor happy, how this played out just weeks before the Olympic host city is chosen. Uptown continues to lead the local newscasts and is getting national coverage. CNN is soliciting stories about “the mean streets of Chicago” for a special weekend report.
We hope the Olympic committee is watching.
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That mob does look a little ticked off, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s an “angry” mob.
Angry mobs – at least, properly organized ones – produce public officials swinging by their necks from lamp posts.
Post an article when that happens. Until then it’s just constituents demanding answers and accountability from their elected representatives. Last time I checked my copy of the National and State Constitutions, as well as local policies and regulations, that was their right (and duty) as citizens of a free country.
Sorry, but I cannot see how bullying anyone is well deserved. I have worked for local government and most of the time that kind of “angry citizen” is usually just a plain bully.
This is the kind of civil discourse that is condoned across the country, then it is sad.
Face it, our large cities are going to have a great deal of fall out from the economic crisis. Violence is just one manifestation of decades of no real public policy.
If one condones this crowds behavior, then the town hall bullies should be acceptable. Nope, not gonna buy it.
You must not understand government very well nor have you ever had to deal with it. I’m sorry, but the squeaky wheel gets the grease (or however that saying goes).
An example: I’ve been unemployed for 8 months. I hold an MA and have many years experience. I’ve been on unemployment for about 5 months then went off for 3 weeks (temp position). Now, I’m unemployed again and can’t get in touch with anyone at the unemployment office and the automated voice system tells me to do something I can’t do. Leaving voice mail does nothing and yields no return call. I finally called the Governor’s office. The rep said he’d call back in a day or two. It’s now been 9 days. No return call. I’ve called and been told someone is supposed to return my call.
So…now I start yelling and getting angry. That gets people’s attention, I get a return call almost immediately and my benefits start again.
If people don’t get loud and complain, elected officials do what they want to do, on their own time, following their own agenda.
Sometimes you have to get loud to get heard.
In response to another comment. See in context »I’ll fall on the side of “town-hall bullies” before I would fall on the side of unaccountable bureaucrats and lying, cheating, career-politicians any day of the week.
Give people an honest, accessible, redressable, accountable government, and these “town-hall bullies,” as you call them, will go the way of the dinosaurs.
In response to another comment. See in context »No, it’s not exactly a lynch mob (nor would I condone or applaud that action). But it’s really unusual for a North side group. Protest at all decibels is indeed what make democracy work and this little action made my heart sing.
I’ll gladly write about every escalation.
The sad follow-up to this story is that a CAPS meeting was held a day or two after this meeting and Schiller only sent reps to the meeting. She didn’t have the b@lls to show up herself and speak to her constituents.
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