An Actual Reader!

I got an e-mail from someone who found this blog by means other than being prodded by me. He was interested in the E2 night club story that is the top of Chicago news right now. So here are some more links on this tragic but fascinating story:


Chicago's Black Heavy Hitters Line Up (Tribune)

John Kass on the powerless Mayor (Tribune)

Tribune's Round-up

General AP Story (Sun-Times)



I am not a media critic or a newspaperman, but the Sun-Times doesn't seem to be on this the way the Tribune is. If you want the very brief summary: stampede; 21 deaths; history of numerous police incidents; club owner was Jesse Jackson's lawyer, prominent black Chicagoan; club in chronic, open violation of court order to close; Mayor Daley backpedaling from any City responsibility to enforce the order; calls for independent investigations. Oh, and the Soviet-style mayoral election is in a week.



The galling thing about this story for me, and why I am following it closely is that Chicago employs legions of bureaucrats, cronies, and outright thugs who can be dispatched for a bewildering array of activities when it suits the power structure in general and Mayor Daley in particular. Read the John Kass column linked above for more detail on how this works. But somehow it is no agency's responsibility to enforce the orders of the housing court. I guess one solution would be to disband the housing court and spend the money on something important, such as more planters or the new football stadium. Something tells me though, that court orders against the average citizen get more follow-through, even though no one is in charge of that.