Craig:
Not sure if you heard about the goings-on outside Joe's office today... I didn't know anything about them ahead of time myself, but I was picking up my mom around noon (ironically, we were going to Best Buy in Evanston to shop for laptops) and we heard some loud shouting coming from the north somewhere (Mom & Dad live at Chase & Greenview.) It sounded like "We want jobs! We want jobs!" or something like that.
Mom and I both needed some caffeine so we went by Charmers Cafe for some coffee before driving west. All the commotion was right outside Joe's office, about 200 or so people, almost all African American.
At first it seemed like a 100 percent anti-Joe demonstration, because of the "We Want Jobs!" chant, which soon became "We Want Jobs! Fuck Joe Moore!"
Then I realized that, no, this was actually a rumble between two groups...an anti-Joe faction which had bussed in from somewhere (West Side, maybe?) and some pro-Joe folks too.
The anti-Joe group had white T-shirts that said "Don't Box Us Out" or something like that, while the pro-Joe group had pink signs that said "Honk If You Want a Living Wage," or something like that.
They were pretty loud and pretty vocal and I wondered if a fight was going to break out. Joe emerged from his office briefly looking very pissed off. The cops came--at least 10 squads and a paddy wagon--but didn't make any arrests, they seemed to be more just observing.
I'm not sure if they ever actually gave an order to the anti-Joe group to disperse, but after about 1/2 hour the "Don't Box Us Out" folks got back in their bus and the pink-sign folks cheered loudly.
What I don't know, maybe someone can find out...was "Don't Box Us Out" a planned demonstration that maybe someone from Joe's office found out about, then marshalled his forces for a counter-demonstration? Or did the anti-Joe folks suddenly organize when they heard about a pro-living-wage rally at Joe's office? I would tend to think the former, because the T-shirts were much nicer and looked more professional than the pink signs. I could be wrong.
I'd love to dig a little deeper, but I'm going on vacation on Thursday and starting grad school as soon as I get back so I really don't have any time to investigate. Maybe you or someone else can?
I took a couple photos with my cell phone. They're not great because, well, they were taken with a cell phone, plus it was rainy and a little dark. The first one, "Rumble on Greenview," is of the rumble in action, you can see everyone mixing together, most of the folks in white T's were the anti-Joe group (though a couple folks from the pink-sign faction were wearing white "Joe Moore" T's). The second photo, "Joe's supporters," is of the pink-sign faction after the "Don't Box Us Out" group had gotten back on the bus.
Thought you'd want to know, & that you'd want the photos too. Do whatever you want with them...to my knowledge there were no news outlets present, but I could be wrong on that too. There were at least no obvious news cameras/trucks/etc.
Chris
7 comments:
Our tax dollars for the CDP could have been utilized to bust drug dealers and criminals.
If these so called protestors had nothing to do on a workday - their time could have been spent more effectively by going to HAC for some kind of training. But liberal is as liberal does...yell and protest and expect handouts.
Toni - Good point. A law-abiding citizen exercising his/her constitutional right plays second fiddle to catching criminals. Maybe we should suspend all constitutional rights in order to really get a hold of this drug problem. Blame Moore for calling the cops, not the people for protesting.
One more thing - your little tirade about how these people should be looking for jobs is a little off base. A big part of the reason those communities are angry is that they do not have many options on where to shop/work in their neighborhoods. This law sponsored by Moore derailed (at least for the time being) welcomed commercial development in their neighborhood.
My guess on this group supposedly from the west side is that another alderman helped organize the trip to screw with Moore. Maybe a pro-smokers group should go out to Ed Smith's aldermanic office and smoe a bunch of cigarettes in front of there to protest the smoking ban.
Abe, I've never seen a line of people waiting to get into HAC office on Howard to get job training. There's always a line at the kitchen and if one listens closely, one can hear 'Use my Link card for your groceries and give me the cash' outside certain stores. Most jobs require skills and HAC provides direction to getting them. Let's not forget certain groups are stirring the pot.
Toni - I understand your point, and you have a valid one. The irony is that one group of "liberals" made the law (Moore, who would be called an anti-free market, regulationist), and then another group of liberals (economically disadvantaged) is protesting the law.
This case is touchy, because no one wants an alderman from a relatively well-to-do neighborhood (Rogers Park, in comparison to the West Side) telling people in an economically deprived area that the hundreds of jobs that the Big Boxers are going to bring with them aren't good enough, when there aren't enough jobs in that neighborhood to begin with.
The thing is that more alderman than just Moore voted for this, so therefore protesting him was merely symbolic. Given that a few West Side aldermen were pissed off that the ordinance passed, my guess is that their machinations set up this little protest to rib Moore a little bit.
I saw it covered on channel 7 (ABC) news at 5:00.
Reading the comments to this post made Chicago politics more interesting. At least in my life time protests like this near an alderman's office is almost unheard of. But then maybe they happen and I really don't hear anything.
Good job Chris. I'm happy you got it. I wanted the pics but wasn't there in time. I'm keeping your dad in my prayers.
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