It’s not on the video, but last night’s coverage, natch, quoted the guy in the most outlandish costume who would only refer to himself as “Vermin Supreme.” Because after five solid minutes of reporting on various police techniques, you want to cut straight to the nuttiest person in any crowd for “the other view.”
Why were people protesting? Not a clue, going by the TV news coverage. But hey, we’ve got a rundown of the streets that are closed and how this is all going to screw up “your” commute. The protesters having nothing to do with the presumed audience for news reports. YOU and the protesters are completely different groups of people.
There were repeated scrums with police whenever the front of the roughly 1,000-strong crowd tried to push past police, who kept them circling in the general vicinity of the Loop for hours. Some of the clashes resulted in arrests and detentions, but Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said there were only about half a dozen arrests.
Three pathetic people were arrested with the ingredients for like four Molotov cocktails, also. Otherwise known, in a large metropolitan area, as Thursday. So can we stop the fucking freakout with the riot gear and ominous theme music and talk about “clashes” in the same tone as if the story’s taking place in Cairo, now?
(For the sake of your blood pressure, do NOT read the comments at any of those links. They’re mostly from people who were last in the city during a production of Phantom six years ago.)
We often talk about wanting to be considered a world-class city. Then when we have the opportunity to host the world, we have to pull our own teeth to take the straw out of our mouth.
A.