* I’ve gone over most of this with you here, but I thought it was important enough to reiterate it in my weekly newspaper column…

The breadth of invited attendees at the event organized last week by Gov. JB Pritzker really stood out for me.

The event along the Chicago River was designed to publicly warn President Donald Trump not to send National Guard or regular military troops into the city. The usual collection of Democratic politicians, union leaders and several anti-violence and progressive activists were on hand and several spoke.

But what made this rally seem different was the presence of people who aren’t usually at these things.

On the list of attendees were six university and college presidents or chancellors, including University of Illinois System President Tim Killeen and Illinois Institute of Technology President Raj Echambadi.

Several business types also showed up.

Derek Douglas, president of the Civic Committee and the Commercial Club of Chicago, called the possible deployment “unprecedented and unwarranted” during his speech.

“Deploying federal troops or federalizing the National Guard without engaging state and local government, business, philanthropic and community leaders — the ones who understand Chicago’s needs and are on the ground working daily to make our city safer — is unprecedented and unwarranted,” Douglas said.

The Commercial Club of Chicago is not a bunch of lefties. It was founded in 1877 by many of the city’s wealthiest people. Fifteen years ago, the Civic Committee was best known for demanding that public employee pensions be reduced.

Billionaire philanthropist James Crown formed a public safety task force in 2022 within the Civic Committee. Crown’s task force set a goal of reducing the number of murders from 805 the year before to below 400 within a half a decade. That looked impossible at the time, and when Crown died the following year, hopes sank.

But Crown’s original goal appears to be within reach this year, two years ahead of schedule. The murder rate has been declining both in the city and around the country for the past couple of years, at least partly because of a big surge in federal funding of the sort of anti-violence programs advocated by Crown. That federal funding has now been cut off.

Douglas admitted during his speech last week that even with the progress, Chicago still “has a ways to go” on violent crime. He also said, “there is a critical role for federal support that could benefit our city,” but that what they need is “aligned action.”

“What we don’t need,” Douglas said, “are disruptions to our economy and our businesses. Active duty military patrolling the streets of our city sends the wrong message and risks slowing our economy and disrupting the progress we’ve made together. It will impact businesses’ bottom lines and ability to operate efficiently. It will impact tourism and employees getting to their jobs. It will impact morale.”

Douglas concluded his speech by saying: “The kind of sweeping, uncoordinated, indiscriminate action being threatened sets a dangerous precedent, and we stand with our city and all Chicagoans to encourage the administration to productively engage with us, to help us continue to make progress on this critical issue.”

Others in the business community attended and contributed written statements.

“We have seen how the sudden deployment of federal troops in other cities can needlessly disrupt communities and businesses, hurt local economies, and deter tourism,” said Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce CEO Jack Lavin. “The best path forward is partnership and collaboration. If the federal government wants to work constructively with local leaders and community partners, we welcome that engagement to keep making progress toward a safer, stronger city.”

Like Douglas, Lavin said he would welcome “constructive engagement” from the federal government.

Civic Federation of Chicago President Joe Ferguson claimed sending in the troops is not “legally justified,” adding, “investment and partnership is what is needed to move this City and State to a better future.”

McPier CEO Larita Clark said none of her convention center’s clients “have expressed the need for federal intervention in Chicago.” She said her team had met recently with nearly two dozen of the convention center’s largest clients. “What we heard from them was that public safety concerns in Chicago had actually lessened in the past year.”

This is not meant in any way to lessen any of the other speakers and attendees, some of whom made strong arguments against a possible federal military deployment. It’s just that I wasn’t all that surprised that they showed up. And, yes, the biz types are all somehow politically connected in various ways.

But they’re not the usual rally folks and, like the other speakers who got most of the news media’s attention, their messages were worth a look. Also, I think Jim Crown might’ve been proud.