Thanks to the constant news cycle, we get to watch police deal with protesters LIVE. And we get to add the 2012 NATO weekend to this list of Chicago based riots that wikipedia provides (we are apparently a riotous people here ...): the Lager Beer Riot of 1855, the Haymarket affair of 1886, the Aldermen's Wars of 1916-1921, the Chicago Race Riot of 1919, the Memorial Day massacre of 1937, the Division Street Riots of 1966, the 1968 riots which followed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr, the Democratic National Convention protests later that same year and the 1969 Days of Rage.
[And can I just say to the anarchists who allegedly were producing Molotov cocktails (see the video at the link below) ... you should not have chosen the spokesperson that you did (see the mark at approximately 1:14). First, he looks like Jean-Ralphio from Parks and Recreation (played by the talented Ben Schwartz) so it's hard to take him seriously to start with. And then his whole "I told the police to come in and have a beer that I had been brewing" defense sounds a little too rehearsed -- there is a danger in being too clever for your own good -- it just doesn't come off as authentic.]
So far ... minimal damage ... a few arrests ... a heavy handed police presence that I'm OK with ... and a garbled message from the out of towners who arrived to tell us that NATO is bad. Hopefully we're just that much closer to it being added to the list above -- and a thing of the past. Stay safe out there!
THE AFOREMENTIONED NEWS VIDEO:
http://www.cltv.com/videogallery/70026612/News/3-men-face-terrorism-charges-stemming-from-pre-NATO-raid#gl-0
BUT IT WAS ONLY BEER BREWING EQUIPMENT, THEY SAY:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-05-19/news/chi-bridgeport-arrests-molotov-cocktails-or-brewing-equipment-20120518_1_molotov-cocktails-arrests-police-raid
THE CHICAGO RACE RIOT of 1919:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/110488/Chicago-Race-Riot-of-1919
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