* Alderman`BRUISER' Moore Throws Phone Punches

COPS GET COMPLAINT ABOUT LAKEFRONT LIBERAL
Chicago Tribune
July 16, 1996
Author: John Kass, Tribune Staff Writer.

Chicago aldermen, especially the more vigorous debaters, have been known to scatter broken teeth on the street like so many Chiclets while discussing their political philosophies.

The exception has been what remains of the liberal lakefront, where angry aldermen stamp their feet, accuse their enemies of insensitivity but weep for them anyway

Now, change that. Add Ald. Joseph "Dick the Bruiser" Moore (49th) to the list of tough-guy politicians, even though Moore is about as physically intimidating as Chicago Bears President Michael McCaskey.

Moore didn't slap anybody, but he did put his threats on the answering machine of a constituent and ex-aldermanic opponent, Francis Corrigan. That's why police are investigating.

He told Corrigan that he better start watching his back--as though Moore were from the South Chicago neighborhood in the 10th Ward or from Harlem and Grand Avenues in the 36th, instead of the place where the purchase of Michigan chardonnay is grounds for divorce.

City officials conceded Monday that if Corrigan made the same threat to an alderman, he would have spent the weekend in jail.

But Moore? He was downright pithy, befitting a lakefront alderman/lawyer who knows that his police district commander wasn't about to knock on his door.

"Just call me Dick the Bruiser now," Moore crackled. "I guess I'll just wait for the police to arrive. Do you think I should call Johnnie Cochran?"

Usually, these kind of neighborhood political debates have a stylized quality, like avant-garde modern dance, but with broken hands, men bumping chests, women screeching and glass smashing. First, the voices get raised, the right hands cock back, the noses get broken, bad hats get knocked off. Somebody grabs somebody's tie and starts yelling. Trouser knees get torn. Sometimes a gun gets pulled.

Ten minutes later, people are slumped on the curb, stuffing tissues into their nostrils, the wives screaming at the cops, the husbands screaming at the wives, the political aides demanding justice.

It's a neighborhood thing. But it's not supposed to happen in the liberal and polite lakefront precincts near Evanston.

There, the professional good-government types (called "goo goos" at City Hall) are so loudly virtuous that they spend most of their time demanding that voters recognize them as saints, even though they couldn't get a neighbor's poodle out of the pound with a $50 bill.

So why is there a police report with Moore's name on it that alleges he threatened a constituent?

"Because he made a clear threat and because I made a complaint and got the runaround from the cops," said Corrigan, 28, who lost to Moore in 1995.

"You know, these good-government people, these reformers, they're just so publicly genteel," said Corrigan, who plans to go to law school in the fall. "Then when nobody's looking, they strike at your back like he said."

The clash began last week when Moore called a meeting at his ward office to discuss a gang problem. But Moore's wife, Elaine Weiss, became ill and he skipped the meeting.

"I just said that I thought he should have been at the meeting. Everyone else got baby-sitters," Corrigan said. "Then the next day, he calls my house and leaves threats."

Moore confirmed that it was his call.

"Francis Corrigan, this is Ald. Joe Moore. Francis, if you'd like to make political hay with the fact that I had a family emergency, feel free to do so. But I would watch my back if I were you. All right? All right? Thank you."

Corrigan said he replayed the message for three friends: a judge, an assistant Cook County state's attorney and a public defender. They persuaded him to file a police complaint, which he did at the Rogers Park District.

But Corrigan said the police were not interested and tried to get him to take up the matter with the city's inspector general, who has no power to investigate aldermen. The police finally made a report, filed it and forwarded it to the detective division. Officials said Monday that detectives hadn't been assigned to the case.

"That's what I'm talking about," Corrigan said. "If I said that, I'm in the can. If he says it, he's out walking around. I said I hoped his wife wasn't deathly ill, but I did say that he still should have been there. And so he threatens me."

For his part, the unrepentant Moore has made this a question of honor. He said that he was under stress because of his wife's illness and that being harangued in absentia by a political enemy was too much aggravation to take, even for an alderman.

But the former Southwest Sider also started to talk tough, "You can take the boy out of the South Side, but you can't take the South Side out of the boy."

And he laughed that he could always hire himself out as a bodyguard, maybe even wear an eyepatch for effect like Hawk, the quietly efficient fellow who used to watch the back of former 10th Ward Ald. Eddie Vrdolyak.

But after dropping references to Palermo's Pizza, beef sandwiches, 16-inch softball, the taste of Hamm's beer from the can on a hot summer day and other miracles of Southwest Side life, Moore reverted to the lakefront type he has become.

"I was speaking metaphorically when I left my message," Moore said. "It's not like I broke his nose for real. It was just a metaphor.