You Can Go Home Again – If The Statue of Limitations Has Run Out, by Mike Gold

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You Can Go Home Again – If The Statue of Limitations Has Run Out, by Mike Gold - Brainiac On Banjo #115

Posted by Mike Gold at 27th April, 2009

(Author’s Note: This is an expanded version of today’s Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mind podcast on The Point. It contains more verbiage and a pretty picture of Richard J. Daley, but it doesn’t contain awesome music from Mike Bloomfield, CSNY, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Buddy Guy, nor do you get to enjoy my snotty tone of voice. To get the full experience, read this, listen to The Point, burn some incense, and put on a crash helmet.)

This is my anniversary. It was 41 years ago today that I attended my very first police riot.

Not that we knew it at the time. I was a lanky, tassel-haired youth of 17, and I was in downtown Chicago for a peace march. We had permits, we had about a quarter-million friends, we had about 12 million cops and we sang Country Joe McDonald while we toed the line. The police had other ideas.

When we reached the Civic Center for our rally, the police decided we had enough fun. In direct violation of the agreements that were made and noted in the permit, they began using their police clubs to disperse the crowd just as the speakers started to talk.

That’s when I learned a valuable lesson: you don’t disperse a crowd with truncheons. You beat a crowd with truncheons.

Teachers, nurses, veterans, students… it didn’t matter. Back then, the cops were equal-opportunity head-bashers. For a kid raised on cold-war era civic classes, it was quite an education. Seeing “old” people get beaten on by the police was interesting enough, but seeing returned Vietnam vets get bashed with clubs really put the whole matter in perspective. The cops weren’t supporting the soldiers, they weren’t supporting the war, and they certainly weren’t supporting law and order. They were deeply offended by us. To these guys and to many others of their generation, the act of protesting was unpatriotic.

Somewhere, the ghost of George Santayana was snickering.

The April 27th police riot turned out to be a dry run for the Democratic National Convention, held while the whole world was watching four months later. The cops’ behavior, where I was beaten along with thousands of other average American citizens, made me the person I am today. The official government inquiry called it a police riot.

I say this as I’m about to go home for a week – a convention, some meetings, and a lot of Italian beef: I remain a proud Chicagoan. The cops from 1968 have since retired. It’s a whole different police force today; they have conquered the international reputation earned by their predecessors. It’s also a whole different Mayor Daley.

I’m looking forward to going home.

—
Mike Gold’s Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mind rants can be heard every Monday and Friday on The Point podcasts, , available right here at www.michaeldavisworld.com, as well as at comicmix.com, getthepointradio.com, zzcomics.com, and ravenwolfstudios.com. You can subscribe to The Point at iTunes by searching under “The Point Radio.” Tell ‘em Groucho sent you. Maybe they’ll give you a DeSoto.

Category : Brainiac On Banjo

Comments

pennie April 27, 2009

@Mike G:
“The April 27th police riot turned out to be a dry run for the Democratic National Convention, held while the whole world was watching four months later. The cops’ behavior, where I was beaten along with thousands of other average American citizens, made me the person I am today. The official government inquiry called it a police riot.”

You shook my morning coffee with memories–not easy to do with the strong shit I gobble down.
I missed the first party but was there in 1968’s Grant Park soiree with Abbie, Jerry and the Yips getting my tender skull and various limbs rearranged gratis. Like you Mike, the experience changed me forever–made me confront an American reality as you wrote–the cops didn’t pick and choose–they beat us because they despised us for being. It was Ginsberg’s “Be-In” reversed–a “Be-Not.”

For white kids, these police riots all over the country served as baptismal rips. American racism demonstrated with beatings, water cannons, and other horrific brutalizations during earlier Civil Rights marches were common but the crowds here covered the social spectrum. These police riots weren’t supposed to happen to White kids, now were they?

In the late 1960s,I had the pleasure of taking in the sights, sounds and wounds during other riots in several cities in other demonstrations. They only served to toughen my tender skull and harden my resolve. They helped turn me into the stubborn Pacifist bitch I remain. And I still let my freak flag fly.

All that glitters IS Gold!
PS: Great music. Bloomfield got chops First two Butter albums remain on the turntable. Born in Chicago, indeed! Just dated myself again. But I do that every night…}’;>)

Vinnie Bartilucci April 27, 2009

“The cops … certainly weren’t supporting law and order. ”

Someone has to post it…

“The police are not here to create disorder, they’re here to preserve disorder. ”
–Richard J. Daley

To paraphrase the classic Foundry song, I think the proverbial pendulum has swung too far the other way. Protest is the standard now, as opposed to being anathema. But too many protesters seems to be following the “What are you protesting?” “I dunno. Whadya got?” mindset. Too many kids are protesting because their friends are, and it’s a good place to pick up chicks.

OK, maybe it hasn’t changed all that much.

Mike Gold April 27, 2009

Penny: You know, it’s weird getting all nostalgic for the days when we got the shit beaten out of us. I’ll be back at those sites in a couple days — the Chicago History Museum is across the street from the south end of Lincoln Park, where the first beatings and tear gassings happened in August 68. We’ll be there to see Lincoln’s handwritten Gettysburg Address. That seems ironic. During the Conspiracy trial in 1969, we held our guerilla theatre training sessions at the Lincoln statue behind the museum.

Vinnie: Kids learn from playing follow the leader. What starts out as “yeah, sure, I’ll go along” can easily (with a bit of time) become a meaningful experience, particularly if the cops are beating the shit out of you.

And, of course, picking up chicks could be a meaningful experience as well. Ahhhh, I was lucky to his puberty during that magic period between the invention of the birth control pill and the onset of HIV.

pennie April 27, 2009

@Mike and Vinnie:

“And, of course, picking up chicks could be a meaningful experience as well.”
Could be…}’;>)
I had some other commitments–both momentary and more than an hour–develop from political commitment. Live Biology and Poly Sci in one scoop!

“Too many kids are protesting because their friends are, and it’s a good place to pick up chicks. OK, maybe it hasn’t changed all that much.”

Some of the generations that followed our Wild in the Streets act have been accused of complete political and social apathy. If the pendulum has swung the other way you won’t see me complaining. At least there’s a social conscience now. If that’s how some kids learn and discover, I’m thrilled they’re off the couch laying down the pipe in every respect.
}’;>)

Russ Rogers April 29, 2009

Does the Statue of Limitations look anything like the Statute of Liberty?

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