Posted on 02/19/2003 10:48:03 AM PST by KMC1
I sat in disbelief as the news continued to report on the tragic occasion where 21 of my fellow Chicagoans lost their lives early Monday morning.
What should have been a joyous Presidents' Day holiday was spent by many in Chicago's African-American neighborhoods as a day of mourning, a day of grief, and a day of asking why.
The facts are these. For some time the owners of the club where the tragedy occurred have been under a court order to not operate the second floor of the their two-story restaurant/club facility. In spite of this, promoters, event organizers and radio stations had continued to use the space, and the club had made large profits as a result.
No one expected this to happen, but when somebody yelled "Terrorism! Bin Laden, bin Laden!" an all-out stampede ended up taking the lives of 21 young people.
What caused the stampede? Current reports indicate that a fight broke out in the middle of the dance floor. This club is known for not having nearly enough standing room. When the crowd seemed unable to be controlled, the disc jockey on duty was reported to have yelled, "Mace 'em!"
The pepper spray flew, folks formerly enjoying their evening suddenly felt afraid, and all disintegrated from there.
In the aftermath of this deadliest of nightclub stampedes, many questions are necessarily being asked.
"Was there a court order prohibiting use of the second-floor nightclub?"
"Was the restaurant beyond its legal capacity of patrons?"
"Had there been previous incidents prompting people to worry about public safety in this venue?"
The answer to all three questions is yes.
The owner of the club, speaking through his attorney on the news cycle on Monday, denied the court order, but the city of Chicago was quick to confirm its existence.
The capacity of the complex currently allows for a little more than 300 people on site. Eye witnesses put the number at closer to 1,000 on Monday morning.
And only two months previously, the owners of the club had been requested by community groups to abide by its legal operating measures so to insure the safety of its patrons.
So enters the civil rights activist who calls this city his home. He shows up on site. He promptly "encourages" those involved in a prayer vigil not to draw any quick conclusions about the guilt of the owners of the club. He holds a massive press conference later that day but silences voices from his own community who had come to talk about genuine preventive steps that can be taken to save lives in the future.
Later, on Chicago talk radio, this same "civil rights" leader goes on the air, not to offer condolences to the victims' families for the unnecessary deaths of their relatives, but instead to defend his friend, the owner of the nightclub, and to encourage all who are listening not to draw hasty conclusions.
It should also be pointed out that this "civil rights" leader has been fingered as the man who spearheaded the survival of this same club in July and August of 2002 when the city was ready to shut it down for 11 city code violations. Other community leaders have identified him as the man who led the charge against the "racist and anti-black policies trying to drive black business out of town."
The truth is this "civil rights leader," whose name is Rev. Jesse Jackson, has known the owner of this club his entire life.
The truth is that in this case, those who need their civil rights defended are those whose young people were trampled to death because a dance club had only one tiny door through which close to 1,000 people scrambled to get out of.
The truth is the city and African-Americans from this very community had complained about the lack of safety that revolved around the club's existence.
And while Rev. Jackson is busy contacting Johnny Cochran about some bogus claim that there were not enough police officers in the neighborhood at the time of the incident, the true victims will be planning funerals, attending services and wonder why their children died under such tragic and horror-filled ways.
And if the club owner walks, or even re-opens his club, who will march then? Because if there is no justice, there can be no peace.
I know why there were 1,000 people in the club instead of the legal 300. Some brother was selling tickets on the side, maybe to avoid the taxes that legal sales would require be paid, maybe to avoid paying a commission to the band or owner. In fact, everybody knows that, except the media who are are terrified about saying anything that Bareback Jackson might find offensive.
The headline should read "Black profiteers kill more blacks that the Cincinnati police department has in the past ten years." Just watch the media struggle to avoid saying/reporting/showing anything that might offend a black race pimp. If these were white dead, the media would already have picked up ads, flyers, and posters announcing the event and begun to tear them apart. No, the dirtier this gets, the less we'll know about the facts. This will get whitewashed better than a Clinton hooker.
Nobody had the guts to make Jesse Jackson and his friends follow the same laws as everybody else.
He therefore also knew that there was an ant trail back to his wallet, and the lawyuhs would follow that one with gusto.
What to do.
He realized immediately that there is another possible deep pocket here, the Satrapy of Hizzoner II. Jesuh figured that if he could get people to percieve an ant trail over to its pocket, he could nudge all the lawyuhs in that direction instead. He just needed to get out in front of this issue with whatever spin would pull off that little misdirection.
I'm not betting that his strategery will succeed.
That explains pretty much all that he's been doing since.
Well, almost. The Bush/terrorism angle is borne of pure hatred.
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