In “Cops, protesters do their jobs” (Editorials, Nov. 12), you lauded our men and women in blue for their massive show of force against demonstrators protesting the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue meeting in Chicago. You stated the demonstrators felt intimidated and smugly concluded that that was as things should be. This stance is highly anti-democratic. In fact, it smacks of totalitarianism. It is also reminiscent of the Democratic National Convention of 1968, when the police rioted under the reign of the first Mayor Richard Daley. Those protesters could well be us. There may come a day, in the not too distant future, when the people of Chicago will take to the streets to protest an aggressive and unjust war, as well as restrictions on civil liberties imposed in the name of that war. The City of Chicago should not be in the business of cowing its citizenry and creating an atmosphere hostile to dissent.
You also wrote that the demonstrators were well-behaved and changed their route at the urging of the police. You seem to have confused demonstrations about issues of life, death and economic equality with Rotary Club luncheons. It is not up to the police to determine the form, size and intensity of a protest. It is up to the people to express displeasure with their government in the way they see fit.
In republican Rome, the tribunes were the representatives of the people. Not this Tribune in imperial Chicago.
