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.

'Whites Had Ghettos,Too'

The following story comes from a remarkable out-of-print 1971 book called "I, Pig" and is subtitled "or how the world's most famous cop, me, is fighting city hall." The book was transcribed by Paul Neimark from taped recordings of Jack Muller. I blogged some of Muller's thoughts on policing the Chicago conventions in 1952 and in 1968.

The following excerpt is the opening salvo in the book and helps explain events which shaped Muller's character:

For me, World War II began in 1928.
      In 1931, at eight-and-a-half years of age I was stopped on the way to Hebrew school by a gang of Dago toughs and ordered to suck their pricks if I wanted to make it to schul that day.
     In 1936 I had the toughest hood on the west side of Chicago tell me to get out of town within twenty-four hours or get dumped on a pile of ashes in the alley.
     In 1943 I stood frozen while a horde of Japanese dive bombers spewed bullets between my legs, felt my intestines go to dry ice when we were torpedoed and dozens of my buddies died just yards from where I was.
     But those times I knew how to fight. In fact, I learned goddam soon how to battle the world's dirt with the dirtiest fighting I ever saw.
     But in 1928 I was helpless.