During May 18th through May 21st, the city of Chicago is hosting a NATO summit. During these NATO sessions, it’s considered normal for thousands of protesters to swarm into the city and cause riots.
Normal. How nice for them. It happens that one particular apartment building, the 17-floor Library Tower building at 520 South State Street, is right in the center of the expected civil disorder. So all the residents have been told to either vacate for the entire time ahead of the summit or else be prepared to stay in for the entire period, since the doors will be locked and no one will be allowed in or out during this four day period.
I guess this must be legal, but I don’t quite see how. How do you legally lock someone up inside their own home without their permission, regardless of who owns the building or if they’ve been given advance notice that the place was going to be locked up? Your home is your home.
The issue, of course, is public safety, primarily the safety of the tenants, and a couple of armed cops will be there to ward off invaders if anyone tries to break in. So the safety of the rioters isn’t much concern, I’d guess. Even so, I’d sure like to know exactly where the authority comes from to lock up innocent people against their will. Hopefully they signed a waiver when they rented, as otherwise this is a serious violation of Constitutional rights.
The bottom line here is that the City of Chicago is allowing this stuff to happen. Back when Daley was Mayor in 1968 there was a huge riot over the murder of M.L. King and the police rioted on the rioters. At the end of it all, 11 Chicago citizens were dead and 48 wounded by police gunfire, 90 policemen injured, and 2,150 people arrested. Two miles of Lawndale on West Madison Street were left in a state of rubble.
That pretty well damped down any desire to hold riots in Chicago for quite a long time. Looks like they need history to repeat itself. A bunch of dead rioters should have a salutary effect on helping people to restrain themselves from mischief, so the residents of that city can go about their business in peace.
Allowing things to get too far out of hand before moving to restore order is why Mexico is in such a mess now. The corruption that permeates all of Mexican society kept bad judges, police and prison wardens in power. Just like in Chicago and Los Angeles. Then the balance tips to the bad guys and it’s too late.
I moved out of the Big City back around 1969 when my bedroom kept getting lit up at night by the powerful search beam of a police helicopter. The cops were looking for some felon who took a short cut through my yard. And then another. And then another. I didn’t wait for number four. I moved to the country and I’ve been a country boy ever since. They can have all that free excitement, it ain’t fer me.