When The Culture War Had Armies

Reunion last night for 1968 Chicago DNC Disorder Preservation Squad; counter-reunion planned by Chicago Copwatch. (h/t Steve Rhodes of the Beachwood Reporter inspiring the choice of graphics.)

From WGN Radio:

Reunion Planned For 1968 DNC Riot Police

(WGN-AM)- The violent clashes between police and protesters during the 1968 Democratic National Convention aren't typically considered proud moments in Chicago history.

But some members of the Fraternal Order of Police want to change that. On June 26, the Chicago police union will hold a "Chicago Riot Cops Reunion" at its hall to set straight "what really happened," according to the reunion's Web site.

"The only thing that stood between Marxist street thugs and public order was a thin blue line of dedicated, tough Chicago police officers," the Web site says. "Chicago police officers who participated in the riots continue to endure unending criticism -- all of which is unwarranted, inaccurate and wrong."

Former Police Supt. Philip Cline is scheduled to be a keynote speaker.
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Predictably, a protest to counter the event is being planned. Chicago Copwatch, a watchdog group, is organizing a march to the FOP hall the same night after a rally at Union Park at Ashland Avenue and Lake Street.
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What a strikingly fucked up occasion for a reunion; nostalgia for the days when you could open up a hippy's skull with a club on national teevee and get away with it.

Of course these days, when protesters want to roll through the streets of Chicago to make a statement (like these cheerful, nekkid people and their, uh, Schwinns



the general rule of thumb is to meet with calm, even-toned reps of the Chicago Police Department and plan the whole thing out jointly, like the "Dark Knight" Production Management team and the Chicago Film Office figuring out how to stage the car chase on Lower Wacker.

This is a striking and auspicious change, and reason for the City to be proud, because once upon a time, the Chicago front of the culture war bristled with guns and clubs and mace.

That world and its politics are grudgingly, haltingly passing away, but it’s worth noting how sharply the opinions of many from that era still define the bright, white fault line that continues to run right through the heart of America and make people like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly absurdly rich.

It is all based on the belief that there was once a Golden Age of social order. A better, finer time with conservative, crew-cut white American men on top, everyone else on the face of the Earth shutting the fuck up and doing what they were told, and virtually every major social institution doing its part to aggressively enforce the hierarchy.

Its divinely ordained virtues were preached from the pulpit.

Its brutal discriminations were enshrined in the law.

Its righteous Murrican-ness was taught in the schools.

And when smartasses or punks or uppity minorities questioned the code?

Well that's why America had the CIA and FBI:



That's why Chicago had cops:


Back in the day, Mare Richard the First did not have po-lice as you or I might experience or understand them

He had a private army of Janissaries. Of cossacks.

And for many who will came to the FOP in walkers or wheelchairs or on two, strong legs, the moment it became unacceptable for cops to torture, beat down or simply murder anyone that stood in their way was the moment the world fell off its axis and the Real Murrica died.

In history, there are rarely any clean breaks with the past, and so from the story of “Torturin'” Jon Burges:

Feds Arrest Ex-Chicago Cop Jon Burge

CHICAGO, Oct. 21 - Retired Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge was arrested at his home near Tampa, Fla., today on charges of lying in a civil case about whether he and other officers under his command participated in torture and physical abuse of suspects in police custody dating back to the 1980s, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

Burge was charged with two counts of obstruction of justice and one count of perjury in a three-count indictment unsealed today following his arrest.

The charges alleged that Burge lied and impeded court proceedings in November 2003 when he provided false written answers to questions in a civil lawsuit alleging that he and others engaged in torture and abuse of suspects.
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To the fate of Tony “Girl-beater” Abbate

the Chicago Cossack ideal that packing a badge means an absolute entitlement to do whateverthefuck you want still haunts corners of the CPD to this day.

And while I’d like to believe that the noble and irresistible tide of enlightenment is responsible for dragging the CPD towards the light, the truth is, the persistent pressure of litigation has driven the price tag for letting the Vic Mackeys of the world play cowboy on the public dime

past the point where City budget gnomes can laugh it off.

Hell, when you add it all up, paying for the continuing bad habits of douchbags with badges is no small part of the reason the City is [allegedly] so broke it has to sack workers by the thousands and hock its airport, bridges and parking meters... (from The Reader:)

Chicago forks over more money in lawsuits—especially lawsuits against the police—than LA, Houston, Phoenix, Philly, and Dallas put together.

By Mick Dumke

November 27, 2008

In January, after years of legal and political battles, the city agreed to pay $19.8 million to settle lawsuits by four men who were tortured by police under former commander Jon Burge. Signing off on the deal, aldermen condemned the abusive officers and hoped aloud that the settlements would let the police department start a new era. “I’m glad this is over,” said the Fifth Ward’s Leslie Hairston. “It’s definitely a black eye on Chicago and on our history. But it’s also an opportunity for us to get a chance to turn the page.”

Maybe not. The Burge cases are only the most notorious of hundreds of police-related lawsuits the city has been forced to contend with this year alone. And though their cost to the city’s reputation may not be as high, their financial impact is. By June the city already had paid out more than $62 million in 295 police-related lawsuits. Even if you deduct the torture cases, the city still spent more to close police suits in the first half of 2008 than it did for the entire year in 2007, 2006, or 2005.

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Lawsuits involving the police account for about 44 percent of Chicago’s settlements and judgments. In New York and LA they account for only about a quarter. And the amount Chicago is spending to close police-related lawsuits is increasing—from about $23 million for all of 2005 to more than $62 million for the first half of 2008.

And so as time slowly closes over the True Believers as inexorably as the Red Sea closing over Pharaoh’s Army, it is hard for this liberal entrepreneur to know what to do.

Sit quietly and watch them slip away past the event horizon and into a history that has already fitted them for an eternity of harsh judgments?

Or knock together some crappy, tasteless collectibles

head on down to the FOP and make a few bucks overcharging them for ersatz memorabilia from their bullshit halcyon days that never were?