Parishioners at churches near the United Center who are used to peacefully attending Tuesday night Bible study or Wednesday night services might pray for a double dose of patience during the week of the Democratic National Convention.
As they approach their churches, many will be asked to get out of their cars while Secret Service agents run hand-held metal detectors up and down their bodies. Bomb-sniffing dogs will check the cars while armed personnel watch.
That’s the procedure Chicago police outlined Wednesday after city and convention officials met with ministers of Near West Side churches about the impact of a security perimeter to be established around the United Center during the Aug. 26-29 convention.
The dozens of residents who live within the zone, which will extend about a third of a mile around the convention site, will bear the brunt of its inconvenience. But the hundreds of church members who drive in from throughout the Chicago area will pose perhaps the greatest challenge to keeping a barrier between credentialed convention participants and the community activity.
At least four churches are on streets that will closed to vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Several others are sufficiently close that parishioners regularly park on streets that will be cordoned off.
Although the security plan will not begin until midnight Aug. 25, well after Sunday services, pastors fear a number of other church-related activities will be disrupted.
They include weeknight Bible studies and prayer gatherings, choir rehearsals, and meetings of church boards and ministries. Several churches also conduct feeding programs and after-school activities, mainly for neighborhood residents who walk to the churches.
“We’re going to be affected the hardest probably,” said Rev. Al Lloyd, pastor of Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, 1901 W. Washington Blvd., which sits next to a United Center parking lot. “I believe there’s going to be tight security, so much that we’re going to be stressed just to come to worship, harassed just to come to worship.”
Police have said that residents within and along the security perimeter will be given placards for their cars that will allow access in and out of the zone, although they still will be stopped for verification.
Although pastors may be given such permits, it is impractical to provide them to every church member, said Harrison Area Deputy Police Chief Eddie King during Wednesday’s meeting at the First Baptist Congregational Church, 1615 W. Washington Blvd.
He told ministers that a Secret Service agent and a police officer will be visiting each church to pick up a schedule of its activities for the week. Security personnel will “make sure people get to your church,” King said.
After the meeting, King was more specific about what parishioners would encounter. Vehicles passing through the security zone will be “sanitized,” though not searched, King said.
“We will have bomb-sniffing dogs on the scene to do this,” he added.
Referring to parishioners, he said, `Yes, they may have to get out of their cars. We’re not going to automatically send them to the church. That would defeat the purpose.”
Ministers were skeptical of King’s promises that parishioners would not be harassed, though they conceded that there is little they can do about it–for now.
“I have to take his word for it. We’ll find out,” said Rev. Albert Tyson, pastor of St. Stephen A.M.E. Church at West Washington Boulevard Street and North Damen Avenue. “And if they’re not telling the truth, there will be time afterward to raise a stink.
“The Democrats want our vote. During their time of occupation, I’m sure they’re not going to inconvenience us too much.”
City officials and pastors from the United Center area have battled over parking. Soon after the facility opened in 1994, ministers complained that signs prohibiting parking during stadium events disrupted church activities.
After weeks of negotiation, the Chicago Department of Transportation installed the city’s only restricted-parking signs that make exceptions not only for neighborhood residents but also for churchgoers.
In their efforts to reassure pastors, city officials boasted of their good faith in bringing about that compromise.
Some pastors weren’t convinced.”It’s going to be kind of chaotic,” said Rev. George Daniels, assistant pastor at First Baptist Congregational Church.
