On the eve of NATO... some observations of the week so far

I've taken a walk at lunchtime the past couple of days looking for all the spontaneous demonstrations that I've been reading about.

The Daley Center Plaza was quiet each day. Folks were eating their lunch or taking in the sunshine. One day the Buddhists had a platform and were apparently looking for converts.

I'd walk down Dearborn -- but no one was at the Chase plaza either. If I'd been in the mood to spontaneously demonstrate, that's where I'd have begun. Two billion dollars frittered away trading derivatives? What is this, 2008? Didn't Congress pass some sort of reform legislation or something? I could have sworn I'd seen something in the papers....

Nor were there any protesters out at the Federal Plaza either. I was kind of surprised; at least until the big shots take over McCormick Place on the weekend, one would figure the Federal Plaza to be the best place to gather and spout.

Then it occurred to me: It was still lunchtime. The anarchists must be like everyone else; they don't like working through lunch either. (Some were working last night, apparently, closing down stretches of Halsted for awhile. Maybe some of the kids were just stretching their legs after long bus trips from out of town.)

But if I didn't see protesters on my strolls this week, I certainly saw security.

Detroit's entire recent output of SUVs has been parked around the Dirksen and Klucynski buildings -- some plain black, most white with some Homeland Security agency logo. I thought the government only bought GM stock in the bailout. Apparently, though, We the People also bought a whole mess of Tahoes. Yesterday I saw some very serious-looking people in very serious-looking black fatigues unloading heavy-duty equipment from some of these. I saw guys in fatigues and their dogs. Even the dogs were serious-looking. They just didn't have earpieces.

The policemen I see every day at City Hall as I walk through on my way to the office seemed to have acquired a bunch of new friends. And flak jackets.

Increased private security was everywhere in evidence, too. I saw an armed guard on the plaza at One South Dearborn, near the Rosebud Prime. Some of the anarchists may not be vegans.

But what I saw before was nothing compared to this morning. The subway entrance to the Daley Center is closed, as are most of the entrances at street level. There's police or traffic control everywhere. Nothing is closed -- yet -- but it looks like things could be clamped down mighty quick if someone has a mind to.

Judge James Holderman, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court here, was quoted in the Law Bulletin as saying he's betting nothing will happen. I'm hoping he's right.

But I continue to be concerned. My fears are not assuaged by this post on Second City Cop.

There's an air of uncertainty in the streets of Chicago this morning; we'll know soon enough, one way or the other, how things will turn out.