PFLEGER TKOs CHICAGO

Priest triumphs over governor, mayor, police chief and state police. What next?

On Saturday, July 7, the highly-anticipated “March on the Dan Ryan” took place in Chicago. For three weeks beforehand, since the moment the Rev. Michael Pfleger, backed by civil rights heavyweight the Rev. Jesse Jackson, audaciously announced his intention to organize a protest march that would shut down Chicago’s busiest highway, excitement filled the community while angst pulsated at city hall.

The objective of shutting down the Dan Ryan Expressway was to bring renewed attention to Chicago’s incessant gun violence, and equally incessant lack of economic and educational opportunity in large swaths of the city.

Pfleger made it clear from the outset this protest would not be on State Street, which runs parallel to the Dan Ryan’s northbound lanes. No, Pfleger was not interested in taking it to the streets. This protest would take it to the expressway and shut the damned thing down.

Not surprisingly, city and state officials, including the governor’s office, Illinois State Police, and the Chicago Police Department, expressed concern about Pfleger’s plan. They tried to talk Pfleger and Jackson out of the notion of disrupting the flow of one of Chicago’s main vehicular arteries, citing costs and the need to re-position police, which purportedly would leave other neighborhoods vulnerable.

In the minds of many Chicagoans, including this ex-Chicagoan (yours truly) who now lives in a nearby suburb, there was never doubt the indomitable Pfleger, an activist and head priest at Chicago’s St. Sabina Catholic Church, would not flinch.

And Pfleger’s assessment was correct. Chicago shuts down streets for the Chicago Marathon. Chicago has shut down stretches of Lake Shore Drive for bicycle-only events. Expressways are shut down when presidents visit Chicago. Streets are shut down when sports teams win championships.

And, with no disrespect intended, the Eisenhower Expressway was shut down, spur-of-the-moment, when the hearse carrying the body of Police Cmdr. Paul Bauers drove to the department morgue, followed by a staggeringly long procession of police vehicles.

Pfleger, who gave a fiery nationally televised keynote speech in Atlanta on MLK Day in 2017, is not one to back down. His passion to help and protect the marginalized, left-behind-to-fend-for-themselves, largely minority communities is equaled by his fearlessness and tenacity.

Yes, many Chicagoans do think Pfleger, a white man, is a controversial, grandstanding, spotlight-seeker. Chicago’s Cardinal Blasé Cupich sometimes seems perplexed by Pfleger. Cupich surely did not encounter anyone like Pfleger in Spokane, Washington, where Cupich was archbishop prior to arriving in Chicago in the fall of 2014.

In 2011, then-Cardinal Francis George proposed reassigning Pfleger away from St. Sabina. The parishioners at St. Sabina were very loud and clear they did not want to lose Father Pfleger. When assignments were announced, the smart decision was made, leaving Pfleger in place with his beloved parishioners, where a special, intense loyalty exists that extends well-beyond the pulpit.

For the uninitiated, Pfleger’s parish is on Chicago’s South Side, in a predominantly black, economically challenged neighborhood. Pfleger’s flock would be bitterly disappointed, and heartbroken, if he was moved away from them.

In the frantic days leading up to the march, timed to occur just days after the July 4th holiday (which usually means lots of shootings on Chicago’s South Side and West Side), competing news conferences were held.

Pfleger, backed by the estimable Jackson, made clear his plan, spelling out in plain English the protest’s immediate goal: to call attention to the underserved and violence plagued neighborhoods in the city of Chicago. Pfleger did not waver, feign or pretend. Like Muhammad Ali predicting the precise round he would knock out his opponent, Pfleger’s was a clarion call: The Dan Ryan Expressway’s northbound lanes would be shut down, unavailable to motor vehicles.

Meanwhile, state and city leadership shifted uncomfortably in their plush leather chairs. They suggested Pfleger revise his plans and march on side streets. Mixed signals came from the police department, with high ranking officials saying the march must be moved.

The Illinois State Police, with jurisdiction over Chicago expressways, said they would not allow pedestrians to access the ramps leading onto the expressway. Anyone who did circumvent the state police and get onto the expressway would be arrested. Period.

Then, in perfect harmony, like soul singers Ashford and Simpson, Mayor Emanuel and Police Superintendent Johnson blinked, saying they supported the people’s First Amendment right to protest peacefully. Emanuel, at the request of Johnson, brokered an agreement with Governor Bruce Rauner allowing protesters to march in the right lanes, while traffic flowed in the two left lanes.

Both Emanuel and Johnson have suffered an erosion of support in the black community. Emanuel, for keeping the video of cop Jason Van Dyke pumping 16 bullets into LaQuan McDonald hidden until after the last mayoral election; and because he is hyper-focused on making the downtown financial district, the Gold Coast, the West Loop and the North Side world-class showcases, while he largely ignores the minority-dominated South Side and West Side.

Johnson’s problems relate to his monumental misstep, ignoring the Civilian Office of Police Accountability’s finding that policeman Robert Rialmo should be fired for unjustly killing two Chicagoans in cold blood.

Johnson’s ridiculous justification that white officer Rialmo faced deadly force, from a black teenager holding a baseball bat, has been proven wrong by all reliable witness accounts. Evidence clearly shows Rialmo overreacted when he shot and killed 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier and 55-year-old bystander Bettie Jones.

Now considered a sell-out by many in the black community, Johnson, himself black, needs to restore his standing every bit as much as does the re-election, vote-seeking Emanuel.

As Saturday approached, the protest march was shaping up to be a potential standoff between city and state police branches. Johnson said city police “have no interest in arresting peaceful protesters. What the Illinois State Police decide is what they decide.” Meanwhile, state police said they would arrest any protester who “broke the law” by stepping onto the expressway.

For his part, Cardinal Cupich put out a statement rallying protesters “to be bold and undaunted.”

About 45 minutes before the start of the protest, The Weekly Opine spoke one-on-one with Father Pfleger.

When asked about Mayor Emanuel’s support, Pfleger said it “surprised” him but would not speculate whether the mayor was currying favor with blacks, as part of his re-election bid. Pfleger did say he’d met with Johnson and was not surprised Johnson got behind the protest. Regarding the state police, Pfleger told The Weekly Opine he had no idea if the state police would arrest protesters.

Later, at a pre-march press conference, 20 minutes before the protest began (and having backed off their statement that protesters who got onto the expressway would be arrested), Leo Schmitz, director of the Illinois State Police, said protesters agreed to use the two right lanes only, while snow plows formed a protective barrier from 79th street to 69th street, allowing vehicular traffic to use the two left lanes.

After the start of the protest, which included a diverse cast representing myriad ethnicities and races from all economic levels, The Weekly Opine left 79th street and re-positioned at 69th street. An hour and a half later, with no protesters in sight walking up the expressway, word spread negotiations, including Illinois Gov. Rauner and Mayor Emanuel both via phone, were taking place at 75th street.

Pfleger and Jackson were not happy the expressway was still open to traffic. Rauner, a man who daily proves not up to the challenge of governing Illinois, argued an agreement had been made to keep traffic flowing. Pfleger, who later said Rauner told a lie, disputed this. Johnson played a pivotal role in convincing state police to grant protesters full access to the expressway.

In a visually stunning defeat for the governor (whose concern for protester’s safety on Saturday is not matched by real concern about violence in their neighborhoods), plow trucks moved to the far-left lane, blocking vehicular traffic, as marchers took over the remaining lanes, rendering the expressway impenetrable by motor vehicles. A loud cheer erupted from protesters, and the crowd watching along expressway access roads and bridges spanning the highway.

Afterward, Illinois’ two most visible politicians, Rauner and Emanuel, behaving like 8th-graders, devolved into smackdown mode on Twitter. A stark contrast to the poignant moment when some protesters, as they exited the expressway, shook hands with police officers.

To his credit, and he deserves immeasurable credit (despite the jealous grumblings of some black pastors), Pfleger recognizes the protest march is a significant step but only a first step. The day before the protest, Pfleger said citizens, Rauner, Emanuel and Johnson must meet to formulate a plan to get jobs and resources into abandoned neighborhoods and get violence out.

Two days after the protest, Pfleger called the situation in Chicago’s impoverished neighborhoods a “fundamental failure of both city and state officials.”

As for future protests, Pfleger said if things don’t improve a “bigger, more disruptive” protest would occur, in the form of civil disobedience and direct action, possibly within the next month. A determining factor will be how the governor, mayor and other gubernatorial and mayoral candidates respond to letters, from St. Sabina’s youth group, requesting sit-down meetings.

Driving around the South Side last Saturday morning, yes there are tough areas. But there is plenty of potential, too. Maintained lawns. Decent housing stock. Neighbors talking on their porches. What’s missing are grocery stores and non-fast food restaurants. What’s also missing are top-quality educational opportunities and new economy jobs, to replace depleted manufacturing jobs.

Like flowers that require sunshine and water nourishment, residents on the South Side and West Side (the majority of whom are upstanding, good American’s, albeit trapped in hopelessness), need less violence and more jobs and resources TLC. That is what the history-making protest march was about.

And it succeeded, based on local and national media attention the march generated.

Last Saturday, Father Michael Pfleger won by technical knockout. Ring the bell!

Douglas FreelandJuly 12, 2018