Yell at Chicago’s mayor, get arrested
Monday, May 16, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I’m glad nobody was hurt, but what the heck was this copper thinking?…
About 4:45 p.m. Friday, as a crowd gathered to watch Daley say goodbye to City Hall, Janusz Kopycinski, 30, allegedly yelled “F - - - the mayor,’’ police said.
Kopycinski ran, followed by police officers. As he was being arrested, a male officer was grazed by a moving CTA bus, police said.
So, we’re no longer allowed to shout a fairly common obscenity at politicians without the threat of arrest? Really?
* Stay classy, Daley…
Monday’s event was billed as an “open house,” but reporters were barred from the mayor’s office. And even though there was a photo op of the handshaking, the Chicago Sun-Times, which has broken scores of stories on corruption and contract cronyism during the Daley years, was specifically excluded.
I’m glad there’s no pettiness left in Rich Daley’s soul now that he’s leaving. Sheesh.
* Related…
* Sneed: Daley setting up shop with son
* Emanuel ready to do it his way - Chicago’s new mayor to import D.C.-style stagecraft and management
* Emanuel to be sworn in today as Chicago’s first new mayor in 22 years
* Rahm Emanuel: ‘I’m energized as well as pinching myself’
* Marin: Time for Rahm Emanuel to take the reins, tackle city’s problems
* Zorn: Emanuel makes no little list of promises
* Emanuel’s planned spending freeze just a first step - Growing budget woes will demand more action down the road
* Mayor-elect: ‘We all have a role to play’ - He gardens before attending Grant Park concert, invite-only party
* New CTA president’s first goal: Fix finances - Claypool says he would eliminate slow zones — if agency had enough money
* Community activists want TIF funds to help rebuild neighborhoods
- CircularFiringSquad - Monday, May 16, 11 @ 6:52 am:
“New CTA president’s first goal: Fix finances - Claypool says he would eliminate slow zones — if agency had enough money”
Memo to Forest Gump CTA just got a fresh cash stash from SPI better learn to live with what ya got
- Wensicia - Monday, May 16, 11 @ 6:57 am:
I’m sure this incident will be used by Daley to point out why he still needs bodyguards at taxpayers’ expense.
- Sugar Beet - Monday, May 16, 11 @ 7:44 am:
Maybe the cop was just a little too zealous in trying to make Daley’s last public event a pleasant experience for everybody that was there? But, in fairness to the cop, he couldn’t just allow this guy to continue to berate the mayor with obscenities, could he? I am all for free speech but there must be a point when the rights of the majority (the crowd) that was there to see the mayor have to trump those of a lone dissident.
- wordslinger - Monday, May 16, 11 @ 8:04 am:
Once during a City Council meeting, I was in the lobby behind chambers yakking with an alderman. Suddenly, I was shoved from behind, sending me flying into the wall.
I turned around and some mustachioed mayoral bodyguard was giving me the stinkeye. Apparently, I was somewhat in the path of the mayor to the bathroom.
No tap on the shoulder. No “excuse me, sir, could you step aside?” Just a blindside, cheapshot, from a copper to clear a path for the king.
- the Patriot - Monday, May 16, 11 @ 8:31 am:
Par for the course. The man has stricken the second amendment, it was only a matter of time before they came back for the First.
- Jim - Monday, May 16, 11 @ 8:35 am:
Pettiness was probably his best attribute.
- Cincinnatus - Monday, May 16, 11 @ 8:48 am:
Probably a good argument for term limits.
- just sayin' - Monday, May 16, 11 @ 8:54 am:
Well it was probably the running away that got the guy harsher treatment. That does tend to strike cops as suspicious.
Plus the guy obviously didn’t see the sign, “The beatings will continue until citizen morale improves.”
- Plutocrat03 - Monday, May 16, 11 @ 9:44 am:
The national press to this day kowtows to the current White House. It will take time to to learn how much of a pass the local press gives the new Mayor and for how long.
To be fair, the new administration has to do something before it can be praised or vilified.
Chicago has little experience in inaugurations of new Mayors, but it seems to me that there as a bit much of the multiple events. It is not a coronation is it?
- Abandon Ship - Monday, May 16, 11 @ 10:50 am:
If Daley cannot handle tough talk, how can he call himself a White Sox fan?
- wordslinger - Monday, May 16, 11 @ 11:00 am:
On a related subject, my son, returning from Michigan, just hit the Skyway and called to say that the “Richard M. Daley, Mayor” piece of the “Welcome to Chicago” sign was on the side of the road and workers were on a lift hoisting up the new guy’s name.
Priorities, people, lol. How’s that song go? “Meet the new boss…”
- Bart - Monday, May 16, 11 @ 11:19 am:
The open house was for the public, but God forbid the media was not invited. Boo f’ing hoo.
- anon - Monday, May 16, 11 @ 11:32 am:
Was Speaker Madigan not invited to Rahm’s inaugural, or did he ignire his invite and choose not to go? Either way, its an ominous sign.
- Reality - Monday, May 16, 11 @ 12:17 pm:
“On a related subject, my son, returning from Michigan, just hit the Skyway and called to say that the “Richard M. Daley, Mayor” piece of the “Welcome to Chicago” sign was on the side of the road and workers were on a lift hoisting up the new guy’s name.”
What is this obsession in Chicago with plastering ones name allover anything that doesn’t more (and many things that do)??? Where is FREUD. These guys are headcases. Why don’t they take their small P****** and go home.
- Shore - Monday, May 16, 11 @ 12:24 pm:
wordslinger-I thought the politician name on the taxpayer funded signs thing was supposed to be banned.
As for the chicago media’s obsession over their treatment by the mayor, after the ad that many of them appeared in for daley last week for the furniture company I’m not really interested in the whining. The woman leading this bellyaching was one of the newscasters who appeared in the I love daley ads. Their jobs are to report on the city, not how badly their egos were bruised and how unfair the new mayor is to them.
Daley getting 5 bodyguards is a total waste. neither of the 2 most recent ex governors of new york who left on good terms-pataki/patterson got anything.
- amalia - Monday, May 16, 11 @ 12:42 pm:
wonder how many people will go through today’s handshake line? probably more than, apparently, went through the public part of the line for the mayor. and, interesting that the crowd was small on Saturday and today not very large either for the public available concert and ceremony spaces for Rahmfest.
- Cheryl44 - Monday, May 16, 11 @ 1:12 pm:
I wouldn’t go stand out in this wind if Rahm was handing out $20s as he shakes hands. I’m sick of being cold.
- wordslinger - Monday, May 16, 11 @ 2:05 pm:
–I thought the politician name on the taxpayer funded signs thing was supposed to be banned.–
I think I read that was state officeholders on billboards, but I could be wrong.
I’ve noticed that the State of Illinois welcome signs at the borders no longer carry the governor’s name, as they always did in the past.
- Not It - Monday, May 16, 11 @ 2:23 pm:
CircularFiringSquad: Please no drive by comments. To begin with, the money from Sprinigfield isn’t anywhere near enough to deal with the capital needs of a system as large as the CTA. Secondly, the State didn’t have a capital program for five years. Thirdly, that money isn’t showing up no matter what you read in Pat Quinn’s press releases.
- Ghost - Monday, May 16, 11 @ 2:51 pm:
If they arrest people for swearing Rich will have to double subscription rates to cover his bail and legal expenses…
- Rich Miller - Monday, May 16, 11 @ 2:53 pm:
Good point, Ghost. I think I must have uttered that very same phrase a million times in my life.
- Rich Miller - Monday, May 16, 11 @ 3:03 pm:
===he couldn’t just allow this guy to continue to berate the mayor with obscenities, could he?===
And why not? The guy said it once. No report in the media about how it was constant and ongoing.
- reformer - Monday, May 16, 11 @ 6:35 pm:
When Rahm was recognizing dignataries, I believe he skipped the governor, leaving him in the category of “other elected officials.” I guess that gives Quinn an idea about how important the governor is.
- aaronsinger - Monday, May 16, 11 @ 8:41 pm:
Good thing Mr. Kopycinski wasn’t recording the incident, otherwise he may be charged with a felony by now.