Monday, July 18, 2016

Conventional Behavior

The following is excerpted from a chapter called "Some Real Pigs--the Politicians" in Chicago cop Jack Muller's memoir "I, Pig." His words were dictated to author Paul Neimark. Muller is long dead. I previously posted about his take on the '68 Chicago Convention here.
The President of the United States drunk.
  Naked women running wildly down hotel halls, with the men who were running this country running after them.
  A U.S. Senator pulling down his zipper and taking a leak against the side of a shiny limousine in front of one of the world's most famous hotels.
  That was just some of what I saw when I was assigned to the 1952 Republican and Democratic National Conventions in Chicago.Three years had passed since my tangle with Edward Shumak,* three long years, fighting judges and politicians and learning the hard way--the hardest way--that it isn't the "public enemies" you've got to watch out for.
   It's the "public servants."
   But I really got the message at the '52 Conventions. From the lowest alternative delegate all the way up to the President of the United States, these sons of bitches acted like they had complete immunity against the law!
   The Republicans weren't as bad as the Democrats. That's because they'd been out of power a long time, and were dead serious about nominating somebody who'd let them cut up the pie again. At the time I was on solo motorcycle and when the politicians came to town was assigned escort duty and patrol for some dignitaries. My commanding officer then was a good guy who kind of sympathized with how I kept coming back for more against the boys with influence. Actually, most of my commanding officers have been good people. Any gripe I ever had against the police was usually due to the fact that my superiors had been forced to do something by the politicians or judges or private kingmakers who run the show.
____________________
 *Shumak was a deranged thug who shot Muller in the head.

10 comments:

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

What if the cool kids hide a Pokémon at the convention and nobody looks for it.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I read the New Yorker piece this morning about the guy who co-wrote (wrote) Trump's Art of the Deal.

He is sorry he helped make the Trump myth... and he is donating the money.

chickelit said...

"He is donating the money"

Probably needs a follow up confirmation.

edutcher said...

We knew Chiraq was like that before he wrote his book.

So why did we "elect" (some aspersions cast on how many legal votes he got both times) someone who lived there?

PS Lem, it's a little late to turn into April's twin brother.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

"Probably needs a follow up confirmation."

Funny, the article claims that suspicion is true of Trump.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Ed. If I'm going to jump in front of the Trump train, I want to do it with my eyes wide open ;)

edutcher said...

Most people who aren't professional writers have someone help them, usually assigned by the publisher as a hedge against the advance.

What, you think Willie and Cacklepants wrote their books all by themselves?

Even the Smartest Human Being In The History Of Whatever needed help on his autobiographies.

Although not too many ghost writers include their old dead girlfriend in the rewrite to make the author look heterosexual.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

There's a lot of bikers heading to Cleveland... I'm imagining an unusual amalgam of people getting to know each other.

edutcher said...

The bikers protect the Republicans from the BlackLives crowd.

The cops protect the BlackLives crowd from the bikers.

I can dig it.

Leland said...

Lem, I'll donate $5 if nobody at the DNC comes out playing Pokemon GO just to show how hip they are. What we won't know for sure is who convinced Hillary that doing the Macarena again was a bad idea.