CBS
If you read the stories in the newspaper or saw the reports on TV about the shootings after the Taste of Chicago on Thursday, July 3, I want you to know you didn’t get the full story.
As usual, the Loop news media did a half-arsed job of reporting the story.
Partly, it’s laziness on their part; and partly, I think the major news media organizations have a vested interest in the success of the Taste. So many of them pony up a lot of money to be official Taste sponsors, rent Taste booths and even broadcast live from the event. And their major corporate advertisers are vested in the Taste, too.
So they paint a rosy picture of the Taste, even when things aren’t rosy.
As a citizen who regularly monitors Chicago Police radio frequencies (to keep tabs on what crime is occurring in my neighborhood and what the police are doing about it), I had my ear to my radio on Thursday, July 3—-as did a couple of other Southwest Siders I know.
We monitored various frequencies (including a frequency used by CTA security) to check on things at the Taste of Chicago.
The written word can’t convey the tenseness and near panic of the situation. I wish I had recorded the police radio calls and then posted snippets on joekulys.com or perhaps on YouTube.
But anyway, shortly before the fireworks started, police radios started crackling with reports of gangs of young men fighting with each other at various locations—first all around Buckingham Fountain, then by the rose garden, then by the ferris wheel.
Because of the density of the crowds, police seemed hard pressed to get to the fights and break them up.
Clearly, police brass failed to deploy enough cops to the Taste; because within minutes, the radio was crackling with an order for all tactical units in Districts 9, 10 and 12 to abandon their posts in the neighborhoods and get over to Balbo and Columbus immediately.
What that means is that about 300,000 taxpaying Chicagoans in three police districts were left vulnerable Thursday night when their tactical units were pulled away.
Great.
Anyway, back to the Taste.
As the fireworks ended and the TV anchors were chattering away gaily about what a wonderful job the City was doing, thousands of innocent men, women and children started moving west, away from Grant Park, to go home—some to parking garages to get their cars, some to bus stops, some to CTA and Metra train stations.
Moving with them were dozens and dozens of menacing looking young men wearing identical plain white t-shirts—-a very common gang uniform that I myself am (sadly) familiar with in my own neighborhood.
I know this because one of my sources happened to be in the City’s command post tent at the Taste, where there were TV screens everywhere, showing dozens of street views provided by police cameras mounted on poles at major intersections in the Loop.
At that point, all hell started to break loose.
Police radios started crackling with reports of young men assaulting people, stealing cell phones, you name it.
Then at 10:48, “shots fired near Dearborn and Congress.”
“Shots fired at Clark and Van Buren.”
“Person down, believed to be shot in the head.”
At 10:51, “10-1 at State and Adams!” a police officer frantically hollers into his radio. Units everywhere swarm to the intersection and down the subway steps to rescue the downed officer—-leaving everywhere else in the Loop momentarily unprotected as the white-shirted gangbangers continue moving west and marauding.
At 11:00 p.m., CTA radio frequencies start crackling with frantic reports of mayhem. “They’re rioting on the Red Line (subway) platform at State and Adams! Get police over here! “
But police don’t seem to be coming where they’re needed. CTA staff call out that they’re getting overwhelmed.
At 11:10, CTA staff report that a young man at the Red Line station at Cermak has used a knife to slash a passenger in the neck and across the face. Offender has fled. No sign of police.
White-shirted gangbangers continue to head west through Loop streets.
At 11:18, “10-1 at LaSalle and Madison!” a police officer hollers into his radio. Police units swarm to come to the aid of the downed officer, leaving other parts of the Loop unprotected.
Police on the scene, not surprisingly, mount a valiant effort to protect the innocent and restore order; but through no fault of their own, they are clearly lacking the numbers they need to get the job done.
At 11:27, police radio reports indicate that the gangbangers have reached Wacker Drive and are heading into the west Loop.
No mention of mass arrests of these gangbangers. Apparently, they laugh and maraud their way back to their home neighborhoods.
Police spokespersons on the scene are a mix of paid public relations staff and officers authorized to speak with the press. Police Superintendent Jody Weis is nowhere to be found.
Until the next morning, that is—-when Weis stages a press conference at the Taste, doubtless ordered to do so by the Mayor’s Office.
In the safe light of day, while the white-shirted gangbangers are still sleeping safely and soundly after a night of thieving, assaulting, battering and murdering, Weis has the incredible nerve to say, “I know this morning a lot of Chicagoans may be asking themselves, should they attend this year’s Taste, and I would say without a doubt, absolutely, 100 percent, yes."
“The safety at the Taste is undisputed."
Weis promises “beefed up” police presence at Friday night’s Taste, implying that he failed to deploy an adequately large force on Thursday night. Amazingly, no reporter picks up on this or even asks where these extra officers will come from or if it means that nearby neighborhoods will have less protection.
Weis shows reporters the cool command tent at the Taste, with all its whiz-bang TV screens. Reporters, as reporters typically are, are wowed by the gadgetry. None asks the obvious question—if these TV cameras and screens could not prevent the mayhem that occurred on Thursday night, what leads you to believe they will on Friday night?
The Weis press conference concludes. Continuing the disgraceful little charade, news reporters in attendance go out and get quotes from Taste-goers designed to paint an air of “Oh no, I’m not afraid. The police have everything under control.” Not surprisingly, the Trib’s coverage is the most “Don’t worry, be happy” of all. The Tribune, as well as Tribune Corp subsidiaries WGN Radio and CLTV, are major financial sponsors of Taste 2008—a fact confirmed on the City of Chicago’s Taste website.
So then Friday night, things are relatively calm at the Taste and post-Taste, except for a man who is shot near Randolph and Michigan.
The implication is that Weis’ allegedly beefed up patrols and cool surveillance cameras did the trick. Perhaps predictably, no members of the press ask if the real reason is that gangbangers got what they wanted on Thursday night—-general mayhem and a few settling of scores with rival gangs—and had no need to come back on Friday, so they didn’t. Only the stupidest of criminals hits the same scene twice in a row—-and gangbangers, while violent and evil, generally are not at all stupid.
Here are a few questions I have for Weis: If the CPD Gang Crimes Unit is supposed to keep close tabs on all gangs in the city, why did they fail to anticipate the gangs coming to the Taste? Why did they not intercept them back in the neighborhoods before they could get to Grant Park? If suburban police anticipate and intercept gangbangers before they can disrupt suburban fests like Rib Fest in Naperville, Orland Days in Orland Park, and Lithuanian Fest 2008 in Summit, why can’t you?
Here are two questions I have for the man who brought Weis to Chicago: Is it possible, Mr. Mayor, that our Gang Crimes Unit, like everything else in CPD, is severely understaffed and underfunded due to years of deliberate neglect? What do you plan to do about that?
– Joe Kulys
joe@joekulys.com
Published in the SOUTHWEST NEWS HERALD on Friday, July 18, 2008
A related story in the Amerikos Lietuvis on Friday, July 18, 2008
