Police Audio Recording Change

As some of you know, it is illegal to record audio without all parties consents, even in a public place. Video is ok, just not audio. CPD Superintendent Garry McCarthy wants to change the law. Under Illinois Law, in order to record audio, BOTH parties must consent to the recording. McCarthy wants to change the law to allow the recording of on-duty Police in public areas. It's a slight change, but no longer will it be an arrestable offense to record police. I'm fine with this. This will award both sides protection, and the ability to prove incidents where the audio can be of great assistance.

(Not A) Call to Arms

Quite a bit, I've been seeing people doing a "Call to Arms" to riot in the streets of Chicago. Why? It'll just work to prevent what message you have from getting through. News won't report on your side, they'll be too busy reporting on the riots. Those on the other, the law, are just doing their jobs. They are there to make money for themselves and their family. During the summits they will be putting in significant overtime. They are just people, like you and me. It's bad enough that they don't know if they'll go home to their families on a normal day, why make it worse. Things like this are why location have a damned army in front of their doors. This is why protesters get a bad name.


What ever happened to peaceful protest? About 4 years back, a group called "Anonymous" protested the crimes of Scientology during "Project Chanology". Beforehand, they called for this very thing, violence. A man named Mark Bunker (Wise Beard Man), who I had the pleasure of meeting, gave them the message to remain peaceful. They did, and you know what, Scientology is being prosecuted even now. Why? The protesters listened and remained peaceful which allowed their message to be heard. It's not a difficult concept.


When there is nothing to report but the message, it will be broadcast. So please, don't incite riots, it'll only take away what you want to give.


Fred Lowe

Chicago's Partial Retreat

I reported a few days back that the mayor was "sorry" about the mistake he made in regards to the new regulations. In fact, he changed the game up yet again. The parade is not going to be limited to 2 hours, but remain at the original time allowed. The regulation regarding resisting arrest, is not going to double anymore, but they will be raising the minimum fine. Lastly, I forgot to report on a regulation that would require one parade marshal for every 100 people, that is no longer being requested.

They're finally posting some cash numbers now. The Summits are going to cost between $45-65 million. Honestly, I thing $100 million sounds better. Again, they claim this will not come out of taxpayer pockets, but you know what, they'll have to pay significant over time to emergency services in the city, and where does that come from?

I find it funny that just last month, we had little information as to what was going on. Now we're being slammed with data. If news keeps flowing at this rate, I might have to do daily posts.


Lastly, congratulations to Coalition Against the NATO/G-8 War and Poverty Agenda, also called CANG8, for getting the first of many parade permits.

Downtown Lockdown

A little bit of breaking new. A proposal for the G8/NATO Summits includes a partial lockdown of a potion of downtown. Borders won't be disclosed until about 4 weeks prior to the summits.


Streets shut down? What kind of mess will that bring. I was planning on a post regarding possible street closures soon too. I'll still do it, but don't take it as a full truth. I'll see if I can't find out sooner for my readers.. This'll mess up everyone...
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Now that I have a bit more time I can cover some other things I wanted to.


With thew lockdown of Downtown, as you know, is NEVER as simple as they claim. For instance, for every day the parts of downtown are closed, each and every parking space will have to be paid for. Most of the meters will be at $5.75 for as long as the locations are timed. Might not seem like that much, but lets do a little math. Let's say 5,000 parking spaces. Let's say the spaces that need to be paid for from 5am, to 9pm. Right there is 16 hours. That's $92 dollars a day for just one spot. $460,000. And that's just one day. We're looking at, including staging, tear down, and the sort, about, let's say 3 weeks. Total would be $9,660,000. Now, they CLAIM it will not cost the taxpayers anything. It's coming from Private and Federal funds. I call bullshit. More they likely we'll get stuck with the bill, we almost always do.


Recently snipers were casing the area around O'Hare, Downtown, and McCormick Place. Now we know what airport everyone will be coming in. Security is going to be tighter then Lake Shore Drive at Rush Hour. People coming into the city around that time would be wise to come in either at Midway or take a train.


A little bit of hard-to-find news about the permits issued. To make up for blowing the new laws out of proportion, the city is offering free portajohns and audio equipment to protesters. What's next, armed escorts, hotels, free pizza? Well, I'll enjoy getting a slice or two. All joking aside, everything I find is making these Summits seem like far too much trouble then what it's worth.