Word: daleyisms
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...signs, to be sure, were scarcely perceptible. Flying to Chicago in midweek, the President was given a dizzying reception by Mayor Richard Daley's faithful machine. Johnson reiterated his constant theme these days-national unity. "However strong, however prosperous, however just its purposes or noble its cause," he told a dinner of Cook County Democrats, "no nation can long endure when citizen is turned against citizen, cause against cause, section against section, generation against generation by the mean and selfish spirit of partisanship...
...very emphatically and very definitely that an order be issued by him immediately to shoot to kill any arsonist or anyone with a Molotov cocktail in his hand, because they're potential murderers, and to shoot to maim or cripple anyone looting." As for young looters, Daley favored the use of Chemical Mace as "safer." Rapping his top cop, James B. Conlisk Jr., for failing to apply "deadly force" to stop the burning and looting that erupted in the Windy City, Daley appointed a nine-man "blue ribbon" investigating committee to determine, among other things, if a conspiracy...
Applause & Repudiation. Reaction came swiftly, both in applause and repudiation of Daley's orders. "A fascist's response," protested the Rev. Jesse Jackson, head of Chicago's Operation Breadbasket (TIME, March 1) and a longtime aide of Martin Luther King. "The mayor may have a killing program for the dreamers, but he has no program that can kill the dreams." Arthur J. Bilek, a former Chicago police lieutenant now administering the criminal justice curriculum at the University of Illinois, said: "A bullet fired into the body of a suspected looter is, after all, a quite irrevocable...
...Daley did have supporters. More than 4,500 letters and telegrams running 15 to 1 in favor of his stand reached his office. Some even suggested that Daley run for President. Few of the hard-liners noted that in the confusion of a riot, police would have to be veritable Lone Rangers in their marksmanship to pick off arsonists or to "maim" running looters, supposedly hitting them in the legs to bring them down. Moreover, warned U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, the indiscriminate use of "deadly force" could lead to "a very dangerous escalation of the problems...
Upset by the furor, Chicago's Daley later tried to ameliorate the psychological impact of his kill-and-maim statement. "There wasn't any shoot-to-kill order," he said lamely. "That was a fabrication." In fact, Daley's tough new order still stood. Whether the "deadly force" he intends to apply in future rioting will serve as a goad or a preventive may well be tested in the summer ahead...