Recent media reports flooded social media, and many of them had Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s name all over. With a seemingly blind eye relating to the many “peaceful protests” being mostly nothing but violent, riotous behavior on the daily, the Chicago police force has been stretched beyond imagination and tooled around by Chicago’s largely anti-police governance. Sure, folks have a constitutional right to protest; no one is denying that.

To watch a major American city get trounced and incinerated by the likes of combatants bannered by Antifa and Black Lives Matter…is despicable and shameful. Merchants in the Windy City have watched their life’s work either trashed by hoodlums roaming the streets or get notified by city fire or police personnel advising their lifeblood business has been reduced to ash.

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That such anarchy is allowed to fester…begs the question Why? The trend and pattern has been formed for decades: Democrat-run locales typically tolerate barbaric behavior resulting in tragedy for innocents who have invested themselves and their families in a land of free enterprise.

In all this sordid chaos, reputable and novice street photojournalists have roamed and recorded the mayhem for millions upon millions to see, exposing the ugliness born of reprehensible behavior. So much so that a steady diet of all this daily destruction interestingly underscores freedom of the press principles, allowing coverage of dark days. Since much of the meltdown has been happening on public streets, it makes sense that media crews are there, affording real-time glimpses of stark reality.

But when it comes close to home —literally— Mayor Lightfoot has a different tune. A bona fide film crew with Blaze TV went to film a piece on Mayor Lightfoot and were interceded by Chicago police…even though they were factually upon public property (not within the mayor’s private confines). In the following brief video, you actually see passersby having to walk around the cop and film crew, all of whom were standing on the public sidewalk. Paring it down, it seemed the Chicago cop had orders. Was he instructed to forbid any media activity, regardless of their right to broadcast?

It was Mayor Lightfoot who recently ordered over 100 Chicago police officers to essentially curtail public right-of-way on her street, to safeguard her home, and to protect the lives of she and her wife. I’m sure every taxpayer would love the same excessive coverage; you know, the type of thing for which mayors are elected and paid to see to fruition on behalf of the constituents who granted leadership. Hypocrisy? Seems so.

A recent example of Lightfoot’s stance dripping with hypocrisy and questions of unconstitutional practices is the following tweet whereby Chicago cops prohibit a legitimate media crew from filming upon public property which happens to be on Mayor Lightfoot’s street.

Despite the film crew correctly articulating the constitutional rights to film from precisely where they stood, it was nonetheless contested. At one point it appears the policeman was verifying his own body-worn camera was activated. Here is how it played out; please feel free to provide your thoughts after watching:

So, was this film crew posing a threat? Were there constitutional rights violated?

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This piece was written by Stephen Owsinski on August 23, 2020. It originally appeared in DrewBerquist.com and is used by permission.

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