If you’re going to Chicago, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
Will the current spate of violence in Chicago hurt tourism?
Not if the news doesn’t get around.
I refer to this article on the fact that the Chicago murder rate for the first three months of 2013 was down to 70 from 120 last year. Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and Mayor Rahm Emanuel patted themselves on the back for putting more officers on the street, which they believe accounted for the drop.
All very well and good; I applaud it. So what am I grousing about? This, from the same article [emphasis mine]:
Emanuel and McCarthy also fielded questions about weekend troubles in downtown Chicago, when a group of young women attacked another woman on a train and several young people ”” in full view of shoppers and tourists ”” jostled passers-by and fought each other on Michigan Avenue. More than two-dozen young people were arrested.
Several young people? I wrote about the incident yesterday, but here’s a description in case you didn’t see it [emphasis mine]:
The warmest day of the year so far brought hundreds of teens to Michigan Avenue on Saturday. Police were calling it “mob action.”
CBS 2 has learned about multiple incidents in at least four different locations along the Magnificent Mile and in the Gold Coast, yielding a slew of arrests. In all, 25 juveniles and three adults were charged.
Many innocent shoppers and tourists became caught in the middle of a very chaotic situation. Hundreds of teens littered Michigan Avenue and State Street near Chicago…
Community activist Andrew Holmes witnessed some of the problems, while shopping with his family.
“You had a group of teens, close to maybe 500. They assaulted a Chicago police officer that was mounted on a horse and all of a sudden they assaulted a citizen walking the streets, just a normal citizen shopping and enjoying the weather,” said Holmes.
Here’s the mayor with some further spin:
Emanuel said police have increased their presence there, particularly at night and on the weekends, and that he did not believe what happened over the weekend would affect tourism.
“We have a big (police) presence on Michigan Avenue and the moment something happened the police were on it and people got arrested,” the mayor told the AP.
See? Nothing to worry about.
Like this:
Chicago pols lie more because they have more to lie about.
“If you’re going to Chicago, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.”
A hard hat, a glock, and a sap might be appropriate as well.
When are the police in this country going to start employing water cannons to deal with these “wildings?” Wash them down the street like bowling pins. Nothing takes the fight out of a bunch of hooligans like a good high pressure hosing down. An excellent mob control measure with minimal exposure for the police to the mob’s venom.
J.J.,
Rather than water, I’d like to hose them down with paint. Let them walk around for a while with orange hair so everyone can see what trash they are.