 |
| How packed will this space be on Friday? |
Then-Mayor
Harold Washington braved the wintry January day with his Bears stocking cap,
and the fans rejoiced on that day 27 years ago.
FAST-FORWARD
TO EIGHT years ago – in the days after the Chicago White Sox won the first
World Series title for a Chicago ball club since 1917. The ball club boarded a
bus at U.S. Cellular Field, then drove along a parade route through the Near
South Side neighborhoods and wound up in the downtown area for the public
celebration.
But
when sports fans gather downtown on Friday to celebrate the Chicago Blackhawks’
victory this week, taking the Stanley Cup with a 4-games to 2 victory over the
Boston Bruins, they’re going to see a more intense level of security on hand
than any other athletic victory celebration this city has ever thrown.
Even
compared to the 2010 celebration when the Blackhawks managed to win their first
Stanley Cup championship in 49 years.
The
Friday festivities will have the feel of that White Sox celebration (which
considering the ball club’s dreadful play this year feels like a dream, maybe
it never happened?) in that there will be the parade with hockey players on
board a bus and assorted puck-heads lined up along Washington Street to watch
the players pass by.
BUT
THEY’RE BEING led into Grant Park, where the fans who persist in sticking
around for a victory rally will be spread around a huge area.
Law
enforcement officials say that spreading them out – rather than having them
crammed into the canyon-lake space of a downtown street – makes it easier for
them to maintain order.
Which
in the wake of the explosions that killed a few and injured many at the Boston
Marathon earlier this year is something that officials want.
The
Chicago Tribune reported that there haven’t been specific threats or any
evidence to indicate anyone is planning to do anything on Friday at a
Blackhawks victory rally. But they claim to want to be extra-careful.
THE
LAST THING that Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants is for his victory party (the first in
which he will preside over as mayor) to be thrown awry by someone thinking they
can use it to cause mayhem.
Noting
the fact that the bombs used at the Boston Marathon were small devices brought
into the area in backpacks, officials have made it clear anyone bringing any
kind of bag into Grant Park for the rally will be searched.
It
would be easy to just tell people to ditch the bags. But then again, there is a
whole generation that relies on their overstuffed backpacks to haul around
their possessions.
Telling
people to ditch the backpacks would be as practical as the current orders that
prohibit people from bringing cellular telephones into courthouses.
BUT
IT ALSO means that the hundreds of thousands of people who will be estimated to
attend Friday’s rally will largely be so far from the hockey players that they’re
going to appear to be nothing but red blobs.
 |
| This is a closer view than you'll get Friday |
The
PA system had better work flawlessly, or else no one is going to be capable of
hearing anything anybody has to say. Not that the athletes are all that
eloquent! But the aura of the Cup will mean that nobody will particularly care.
Personally,
I don’t plan to attend.
The
distance will take away any sense that we’re actually seeing the Blackhawks. The
security will make it feel like we’re in a generic crowd-scene – and not one of
the rare moments when a Chicago sports team actually manages to win something!
-30-
No comments:
Post a Comment