Mayor Daley on war protests: ‘What Happened to America?’
If you’ve ever tied on your bandana and headed to downtown Chicago for a demonstration against war—or something else you needed to take a stand on—you probably have a pretty clear memory of how that went.
I know I do.
As a participant and then as a journalist, I’ve been at a number of protests, marches and demonstrations over the years. And you know (if you were there or if you saw the news) that City Hall hasn’t always thrown out the welcome mat to the protesters.
You may recall a recent example—in 2005—on the second anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. Thousands had hoped to make a statement marching south on Michigan Avenue in protest of the war. Instead, they were herded by Chicago police (some in riot gear and on horseback) down Clark Street, instead. Many in the crowd saw the less prominent thoroughfare as a way to diminish the impact and message of the demonstrators.
So what’s this? Chicago Mayor Richard Daley lamenting —in passionate terms—that there aren’t more anti-war protesters in the streets of Chicago? Just listen:
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It’s impossible to miss the conviction and intensity in the mayor’s voice. He means this, don’t you think? These remarks are part of a short address Daley delivered Tuesday evening, about the time it became public that his son Patrick is being redeployed in the U.S. Army. War looms large when it looms close.
Freelance Urban Affairs writer John McCarron sent over the tape. He was part of a crowd of hundreds at the 16th Annual Chicago Neighborhood Development Awards, the sort of academy awards for not-for-profit and for-profit developers who are working on projects in Chicago communities. LISC, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, is behind the event, this year at the Hyatt Regency Ballroom.
And in his address, the mayor did attend to the business at hand: thanking those whose work and talents benefit the city and its people, pointing out areas where improvement is needed, like education.
But where the mayor came alive and seemed to speak from his gut—that was when he wondered aloud why more people aren’t protesting against ongoing wars. He sounds downright disappointed in us. Here’s the address so you can hear for yourself.
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It was an amazing moment in Daley’s loquacious history, turning back the clock on both his dad’s and own police department’s treatment of citizens exercising their 1st amendment rights. Consumed by city budget woes, his wife’s health challenges and now his son’s return to active duty, Daley now questions the fiscal wisdom of blowing billions in the Middle East. (Will the green mayor ban gasoline-powered vehicles from city streets to reduce our dependence on Middle East oil? And the need to defend the pumps?) We should invite him to the next demo. Or better yet,let’s have him lead the next delegation to Washington to convince his friends Obama, Rahm & David to end our Afghanistan adventure now!
Daley is a self-interested, self-serving douche. This pathetic attempt at populism is disgusting. DUMP DALEY 2012!!
I agree; there should be more antiwar protests, and more people participating in them. But there’s a problem here: If Richard “King of Town” Daley is now lamenting the paucity of antiwar activism, why has he been fighting tooth and nail against grassroots antiwar activists for YEARS?
On March 20, 2003, when Operation Iraqi
LiberationFreedom was launched, some 18,000 people took to the streets of Chicago against the war, marching on Lake Shore Drive in one of the legendary protests in Chicago history. Did Daley join in the peace protests, or call a press conference to encourage people to protest, or order the schools and city operations closed so that students and city employees could join in the protests? Of course not. Before the M20 protest (as it became known) ended, Herr Daley deployed massive numbers of violent and violence-prone police to squelch the protest at Michigan and Oak before its planned route down Michigan Avenue. Police then arrested and detained about 860 people (some for as long as two days in lockup), which is more people than were arrested in one night than in a WEEK at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.In 2004 and 2005, activists assembled by the thousands to finish the protest route down Michigan Avenue, but Daley wouldn’t have it. In 2004, the antiwar march was forcibly rerouted down to Clark Street. In 2005, the protest march was blocked entirely, about eight people were arrested at a downtown PRESS CONFERENCE held by organizers. Why didn’t Generalissimo El Daley put on sackcloth and ashes to lament the paucity of antiwar activism instead of ACTIVELY BLOCKING PROTESTS HIMSELF?
In 2006, finally DID march down Michigan Avenue, but only activists tried a different clever approach — applying for a parade permit, holding a protest dubbed the “Festival of Rights”. They noted that some 300,000 people attend the Disney-sponsored Festival of Rights parade with nary a problem, so why not hold a protest along the same route with far fewer people? The tactic worked, but how did Daley react after having lost a fight he kept up for three years? He deployed a battallion of violence-prone riot police in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle gear to line every square inch of the protest to make sure. Yeah, real inviting, boss.
What happened in 2009 just took my breath away. Daley’s attorneys — a lot of them very high up on the lawyer food chain — to block the proceeding of a protest permit which wasn’t even held downtown. Peace activists were forced to spend a great deal of time just trying to win the right to protest (in Pilsen for crying out loud!), and they finally won despite Da Mare’s continuing cold-shoulder treatment of activists. But, as one of the attorneys for the activists stated: “The reason we prevailed…was because the city violated a technicality of the permit ordinance. There was no political will to issue a permit, and there still is no political will to issue a permit.”
A single remark at a single press conference doesn’t hold a candle to a long and sordid history. Daley-boy has a great deal to answer for.
This from Marilyn Katz, a famous Chicago anti-war activist. She sent this to us in an e-mail today:
“As I said to him (Daley) Tuesday night, it is somewhat embarrassing for me to be outflanked on the left by the Mayor.”
(The comment I wrote above wasn’t fully formatted for HTML and missed a few words; here’s a more readable version, hopefully with all the mistakes fixed.)
I agree; there should be more antiwar protests, and more people participating in them. But there’s a problem here: If Richard “King of Town” Daley is now lamenting the paucity of antiwar activism, why has he been fighting tooth and nail against grassroots antiwar activists for YEARS?
On March 20, 2003, when Operation Iraqi
LiberationFreedom was launched, some 18,000 people took to the streets of Chicago against the war, marching on Lake Shore Drive in one of the legendary protests in Chicago history. Did Daley join in the peace protests, or call a press conference to encourage people to protest, or order the schools and city operations closed so that students and city employees could join in the protests? Of course not. Before the M20 protest (as it became known) ended, Herr Daley deployed massive numbers of violent and violence-prone police to squelch the protest at Michigan and Oak before finishing its planned route down Michigan Avenue. Police then arrested and detained about 860 people (some for as long as two days in lockup), which is more people than were arrested in one night than in a WEEK at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.In 2004 and 2005, activists assembled by the thousands to finish the protest route down Michigan Avenue, but Daley wouldn’t have it. In 2004, the antiwar march was forcibly rerouted down to Clark Street. In 2005, the protest march was blocked entirely, about eight people were arrested at a downtown PRESS CONFERENCE held by organizers. Why didn’t Generalissimo El Daley put on sackcloth and ashes to lament the paucity of antiwar activism instead of ACTIVELY BLOCKING PROTESTS HIMSELF?
In 2006, peace activists finally DID march down Michigan Avenue, but only activists tried a different clever approach — applying for a parade permit, holding a protest dubbed the “Festival of Rights”. They noted that some 300,000 people attend the Disney-sponsored Festival of Lights parade with nary a problem, so why not hold a protest along the same route with far fewer people? The tactic worked, but how did Daley react after having lost a fight he kept up for three years? He deployed a battalion of violence-prone riot police in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle gear to line every square inch of the protest to make sure. Yeah, real inviting, boss.
What happened in 2009 just took my breath away. Daley’s attorneys — a lot of them very high up on the lawyer food chain — worked feverishly to block the proceeding of a protest permit which wasn’t even held downtown. Peace activists were forced to spend a great deal of time just trying to win the right to protest (in Pilsen for crying out loud!), and they finally won despite Da Mare’s continuing cold-shoulder treatment of activists. But, as one of the attorneys for the activists stated: “The reason we prevailed…was because the city violated a technicality of the permit ordinance. There was no political will to issue a permit, and there still is no political will to issue a permit.”
A single remark at a single press conference doesn’t hold a candle to a long and sordid history. Daley-boy has a great deal to answer for.
So does he just want to put out a shoot to kill order?
Daley’s sarcasm about anti-war activism is misplaced and self-serving, not that too many people would take him seriously as a political commentator. If anti-war demonstrations weren’t met with robo-cops decked out in riot gear, surrounding protesters sometimes in rows two and three deep, maybe more people would feel that they could join without risking life, limb and jail. World Can’t Wait has had to fight repeatedly for permits, only to get “mini-marches” of a few blocks (Oct 5, 2006), blocked in by CPD and Cook County sheriffs. And our message was and is that no election, no Democratic Party majority, will reverse the direction this country has been headed in since 2001. That was a message Daley did everything he could to suppress. But don’t worry, Dick, we’ll be out on N Michigan Avenue on March 18. Join us at the Federal Plaza at 5:30 – end wars & occupations for empire, it’s on us, the world can’t wait.
PS. Marilyn Katz is also a famous publicist for Mayor Daley.
Well this latest comment from D’Mare is really Rich.
As one of those arrested by his police at both the 2003 protest and the 2005 press conference — both illegal arrests being the subjects of ongoing lawsuits against the City — why doesn’t our born-again, peacenik mayor tell his Legal Department to just throw in the towel? How about at least apologizing for spending thousands of city dollars to sue us in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent us from having a permit last year?
Oh, I forgot. Whenever there is a problem in this city, it’s never Daley’s fault. It’s always someone else’s. So the anti-war movement is now the problem according to the Mayor, not the hundreds of riot-clad cops he’s deployed against our protests each year.
In the spirit of turning over a new leaf, Mr. Mayor, will you tell your cops to keep their intimidating riot helmets and billie clubs at home this year? Will you come clean about the City’s past harassment and surveillance of the anti-war movement? Will you steer the disproportionate amount of City resources now going to the military academies instead to the “civilian” sector of our secondary school system?
This year’s big march on the 7th anniversary of the Iraq invasion (and going on Year 9 of the escalating Afghanistan/Pakistan war) will begin with a short rally at 5:30 PM, Thursday, March 18th at Federal Plaza (corner of Adams and Dearborn Streets) and then march up Michigan Avenue past the scene of the largest-ever mass arrest in the city’s history (Michigan & Chicago Ave) which took place on March 20, 2003 at the start of the war. More info is available at http://www.ChicagoMassAction.org or by emailing CCAWR@aol.com
It was announced just a few days ago that Patrick Daley, the mayor’s son, has been called back into the army and deployed.
I’d like to extend a personal invitation to the mayor to move to immediately settle all of the voluminous lawsuits against his police department for unceasingly suppressing the public’s right to protest and march against this war for the last seven years. I’d also like to invite him immediately to open the numerous police files on peace activists that he and his little band of brothers in the Anti-Terrorism Task Force have amassed during the Bush and post-Bush era. Finally, I’d appreciate it if he could replace the entire police presence we anticipate at this year’s March 18 anti-war action with furloughed City workers and laid-off CTA employees, and pay them police overtime scale. We’ll all have a lot in common — including our appreciation of the fundamental hypocrisy of the remarks above.
I responded that I was an individual, that I was not at the prohibited location [Michigan and Oak], and furthermore the Constitution gave me the right to peacefully express my viewpoint. I wasn’t blocking traffic or obstructing shoppers, but they hauled me off anyway.
Visit website for pic.
I’d like to see his phony ass on the front lines, protesting, taking the occasional night stick. Talk is cheap. What is he doing to bring our troops home now?!
At least he realizes that all the money tied up in our bloated global military budget could resolve the Chicago budget deficit and then some. However, in the end, Daley’s populist rhetoric is the same silver-tongued bullshit that got Barack Obama elected to continue our illegal war and occupation of sovereign countries.
You all have been had. This is clearly a prank. The Yes Men have struck again. They pretended to be the US chamber of commerce in a press conference announcing their bold new effort to combat global warming, they pretended to be Union Carbide announcing a settlement for the victims of Bhopal and have done many other such stunts.
Malachi Ritscher burned himself to death in November 2006 in an act of protest and personal immolation against the Iraq war, off the Kennedy Expressway in Chicago. He’d earlier been arrested for holding up a sign saying “Free Speech Yes. Goon Squad No.” at a local antiwar protest, and he’d been a fixture at peace protests for three years, standing quietly holding his handmade signs, including such ‘controversial’ messages as “Lead us to peace.”
I took more than a few photos of Malachi at these actions, where he always stood quietly. Still he was a target. We all were. We still are. Nationally. Just check out recent stories about a string of deportations and detentions of activists and independent journalists from both sides of the US/Canada border for attempting to cover or protest the Vancouver Olympics. As in Chicago, these deportations and detentions are being undertaken with the full complicity — and commonly the active participation — of US border officials. In short, nothing has changed, either with the replacement of Bush by Obama or in the wake of Daley’s pronouncements. Again, take this as an open invitation by the mayor to call back his robocops for the planned March 18 march down Michigan Ave. to protest yet another anniversary of the US government’s disastrous invasion and occupation of Iraq, and its larger policy of endless war — abroad and against dissent right here at home.
Daley and all of his brothers were draft dodgers during the Viet Nam era, using deferments and then getting very coveted slots in the Reserves via their old man, to avoid going overseas.
Thank you for posting the Mayor’s comments publically!
As an architect involved in community development, I was at the Neighborhood Development Awards Ceremony Tuesday night, and once the momentary confusion passed on hearing the Mayor’s anti-war comments, I was the one in the back of the room yelling these responses to his seemingly genuine questions:
‘Where are war protesters?’ – We’re still here!
‘What happened?’ – You had us all arrested!
I too was present and later detained at the notorious march down Lake Shore Drive in 2003. Not many of us were willing to continue to show up for subsequent marches out of real fear of the consequences, but my husband, I and a handful of friends did and will continue to do so as long as the wars rage on.
As absurd as his comments were/are to anyone who has been paying attention to his position on the war and the anti-war movement, I too stood and applauded for them. As the author of this article also acknowledges, his comments were seemingly genuine – and personally I don’t care what motivated them, selfish or not. The real issue for me, is that this was the first time I have heard anyone publically denounce Obama’s war policies – and they deserve public denouncement. Obama ran as ‘the only anti-war candidate’, and those of us who had been paying attention knew better. But what about all those promises you made to us Mr. President? Why are we still in Iraq? Why are we increasing troops to Afganistan? And why is NO ONE publically calling him on it? As strange as the source was, I was THRILLED to hear Daley say it.
So many of us were just so relieved when Obama won the election and we looked forward to anything but the nonsense of the previous eight years. But the change we were promised has not come, is no longer in sight, and it appears that most of the issues are no longer even part of the political discussion.
Why is it that upon arriving to the Oval Office, Obama lost sight of the most simple realities? He could fund all of the domestic policy issues that he promised us by ending these wars.
So THANK YOU Mayor Daley for saying it outloud, whatever your motivations are, I hope to see you at the next anti-war rally.
I think Miss Cahan broke her back with these gymnasitcs! Daley was calling you and you anti-war cretins hypocrites, Miss Cahan! Daley asked where you people have been since Obama got elected, didn’t you hear that? He’s right, too! Suddenly, now that war orders are coming out of a socialist black man’s mouth, why, now war is nothing to protest at all. How could you possibly have missed that, Miss Cahan? I know, I know, introspection is so hard, isn’t it?
In answer to Warner Todd Huston —- you haven’t read all the comments or you would know that there is a protest march coming up on Thursday, March 18. Andy Thayer reported it in his comment above. I suggest that you show up so you can show your displeasure with the “socialist black man’s” war policies. You can put your body where your mouth is. Here is Andy’s announcement:
“This year’s big march on the 7th anniversary of the Iraq invasion (and going on Year 9 of the escalating Afghanistan/Pakistan war) will begin with a short rally at 5:30 PM, THURSDAY, MARCH 18 AT FEDERAL PLAZA (corner of Adams and Dearborn Streets) and then march up Michigan Avenue past the scene of the largest-ever mass arrest in the city’s history (Michigan & Chicago Ave) which took place on March 20, 2003 at the start of the war. More info is available at http://www.ChicagoMassAction.org or by emailing CCAWR@aol.com.”
I did a double-take when I read the lead-in to the article. But then I have done double-takes quite a few times over the years with Daley in office. Nevertheless, I am sure his comments were genuine but probably spontaneous. If so, he then rationalize a “do-over” that politicians relying on more and more to soften or obliterate their honest remarks.
I am with Cheryl Noel and Chris Geovanis. In particular, I think the stormtroopers need to be replaced. I was genuinely frightened when I saw them lining Michigan Ave. with their faces covered by those helmets, the jackboots, the clubs, etc. The lawsuits are a waste of time and money and serve to wear down the folks involved. Settle them. Just like the brutality cases against uniformed gangsters are settled.
I have grown lukewarm about participating in protests because too often they are dominated by politically correct cops and competing chants. i wonder how isolated Mr. Ritscher felt for him to have taken such a grave action.
To the organizers, why not keep the focus on the war. I think it trivializes this travesty by giving the stage to anyone and everyone who represents groups that include themselves and their friends and no one else.
I will be at the march, but no, I will not come to any meetings to organize it and give my “input.” Been there and TRIED to do that. I will get the word out about the march and show up to make signs if I can find a group that is actually focused on this issue and not the politics.
Mayor Daley, I look forward to seeing you there. I think it is fine if you have a change of heart because of your son’s situation. It happens to the best of us. It is never too late.
Ross, Ross, Ross. You give me ONE new protest in over a year and act as if that absolves the anti-war left for abandoning the anti-war fight since Obama’s election? You make yourself a bit silly. You guys were having marches every fifteen minutes during the Bush years. Obama gets elected and it takes you a YEAR to get one organized? Shame on you for abandoning your “principles.” Further more, I’ll bet you have far, far less participation this time than you’ve had in the past, too.
Actually, if they get the news out about the rally, there might be more people there. I campaigned for a candidate for the first time and for that reason, I think all of the Obama supporters need to actively communicate their priorities to him. NOW.
While I can appreciate Mr. Huston’s efforts to bump up his profile on Google, lets abandon right-wing fantasy and deal with the facts for a moment in analyzing why the anti-war movement isn’t as robust as some of us would like. Couple reasons.
First, in Chicago at the behest of Mayor Daley, the effort to protest publicly has been terrorized, assaulted, harassed, undermined and generally thwarted at every opportunity, particularly when it comes to anti-war protests. To whit: Daley’s cops told people outright who were swept up among hundreds of illegal arrests on March 20, 2003 that the cops hoped their time in jail had sucked and not to protest anymore. Lots of people were sufficiently discouraged by their treatment of our city’s finest to take them at their word.
Second, Mr. Huston, just because you’re not personally aware of it does not mean that anti-war protests and activities happen every week. They do. Neighborhood protests occur across the metro area every week, from Logan Square to the suburbs to the steps of the Art Institute. Open your eyes. Just because it’s not covered in the dailies doesn’t mean it’s not happening.
Third, on a national level the peace movement has been badly hurt by what has effectively been a demobilization every two years while our ‘leaders’ exhort the rest of us to redirect our energy into electing less pro-war (and this always means more Democratic Party) congress members. We can see the results of that today: a Democratic House, a Democratic Senate, and a Democratic President, with no end to ANY of the United States’ wars in reality or proxy abroad in sight.
Forth, there HAS been some serious resistance among both liberals in general and those deeply moved by the election of a Black man to the highest office in this land to be critical of this administration. Both of these tendencies are, to put it bluntly, in serious decline among peace activists, who’ve been bitterly disappointed by the Obama administration’s willingness to perpetuate Bush policies on a range of issues, from persistent civil liberties restrictions to the current escalation of the ‘good’ war in Afghanistan.
So no small surprise that, after being beaten down for years in the press (recall anti-war activists being tarred as unpatriotic and worse in the early months and years of the Bush administration’s rush to war) and in the public sphere (by outfits like Daley’s police department), the anti-war movement is in a state of disarray.
That won’t keep us from the streets on March 18 in Chicago, from the pickets peace activists mount every week across the nation, or from proclaiming our abiding disgust with the U.S. policy of war and occupation in threads like this.
Mayor Daley could support this consistent anti-war sentiment by putting his money where his mouth is and calling off his goon squads for a change this spring.
Well, Warner, just because a protest hasn’t crossed your radar screen or isn’t publicized in the Chicago Tribune doesn’t mean that it hasn’t happened.
We’ve organized sizable protests in Chicago against the war policies of both candidates McCain and Obama in August of 2008, against Obama’s war policy in March of 2009 (being sued by the City of Chicago during our battle to secure the march’s permit), in August of 2009 (marching past President Obama’s Chicago residence), and twice in December 2009 against the President’s “surge” in Afghanistan.
Moreover, there are weekly anti-war vigils at three highly visible locations around the city since at least 2003.
Yes, after the abysmal record of the former president whom you apparently supported, many initially were persuaded that a change in figureheads would change the fundamental dynamics of American domination of other countries. Many of these people are now disillusioned with the two party system and are rejoining the movement in the streets.
All indications are that the big March 18th annual protest on the 7th anniversary of the Iraq invasion will be largest one the city has seen in several years. For those interested in participating in it, I’d suggest visiting the http://www.ChicagoMassAction.org website or the action’s Facebook event, http://www.facebook.com/event.php?invites&eid=320609544465
I have noticed a distinct downturn in the number of anti-war protests since Obama took office and thought it rather strange. Either there just aren’t as many or the media isn’t bothering to cover them.