Marathon Pundit: Chicago OccupyCityHall protest pics

As I mentioned in my prior post, the theme of today's Occupy Chicago protest was OccupyCityHall. Chicago Police have arrested over 300 protesters who volunteered to be arraigned so they could garner publicity for the "Greed is bad" message and whatever else is in their trick-or-treat bags.

The protesters claim their free speech rights are being violated because they can't live in Grant Park and in Twitter-ese, #takethehorse. Chicago parks have closed at 11pm for decades, the city turns down boy scout troops who want to camp in them--but this scrum thinks they should be treated differently.

"Whose sidewalk? Our sidewalk!" Actually "Whose streets, our streets" was among their chants as they marched north on LaSalle Street to City Hall.

Yes, that sign reads, "When u don't vote, it still counts." Does he mean if he votes and his candidates lose, then his next step is to yell and scream until he gets his way?" Or don't vote--but have a tantrum? This is not, to use one of the movement's favorite phrases, "what democracy looks like."

"Break economy?" Break the economy? As my USSR-born wife tells me, "In the Soviet Union everyone was equal--we were all poor." Communist Party members excluded, of course.

Oh, do the OWS people love to use foul-language...

That's the official Occupy Chicago pace car on Quincy Street. Notice that it's parked in a tow-zone.

Eventually the group of about 200 made it to City Hall and rode elevators to the storied fifth floor and Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office. They never made it past the lobby. The former White House chief-of-staff wasn't in, so an assistant communications manager received the group's petitions, which, among other things, asked for charges to be dropped for those Occupy Chicago arrest volunteers. They are also demanding, in essence, front-row rabble-rousing seats when the NATO/G8 Summit takes place in Chicago in May.

In regards to my prior OccupyCityHall post, a Twitter follower remarked that the group's chanting was cult-like. Why didn't I think of writing that? I should have--because Occupy Chicago uses cult-like chants. Also, they do this weird finger thing during the chants, similar to the quotation-mark gestures that were popular in the late 1990s. In fact, I felt like the president character who was befuddled when Dr. Evil, in the second Austin Powers film, did the finger-thing when he diabolically said, "Lay-zer."

I just don't get it.