Out-of-control brawl at Taste of Chicago [video]

There's a long writeup about the arrests at the Taste.

But one quote caught my eye:

Drew said the flare-ups of fighting at the Taste were dealt with quickly.

"You always have incidences flare up at a gathering that large," Drew said. "The officers were quick to arrive on the scene whenever a problem was reported. All in all, the vast majority of people were there to relax, have some food and enjoy themselves. A few were there to cause trouble."

Looks like officers didn't arrive for at least one minute for this altercation, which might be related to this...

Some incidents were seen or reported. About 9:40 p.m., some 30 police officers had to break up a melee at Congress Parkway and Michigan Avenue as large crowds dispersed west out of Grant Park.

What started out as an altercation with a small group of people involved -- shoving, pushing, yelling -- within seconds became a larger fight with 10-20 people involved, according to a witness. Police quickly handled the disturbance. No one was hurt and Drew had no information about any charges.

Was anyone witness to anything like this at Taste?

As another blogger said, we're not exactly ready for the Olympics, are we?

I wrote about the overall violence on Independence Eve (and how it doesn't jibe with the official story) on Chicagosphere (here's the Windy Citizen thread on the story.)

I linked to this video which was also posted on the Second City Cop blog. That blog, which I referenced in my post, has a lot of inside (though anonymous) CPD information regarding the fight and other events that evening--including an alleged shooting at Buckingham Fountain.

If they add "large uncontrolled brawls" as an event I'd saw we are set.

If that was an event I bet it would draw more spectators than anything but Michael Phelps. And if they were scheduled at the same time it might be a toss up.

Are you suggesting they have scuba brawling?

Charging an entrance fee I fear would just cause more problems. People would be packed into long lines in the heat to pay money to get inside an area to then stand in crowds in the heat. And because they had to pay to get in the Taste of Chicago's bounce rate would drop significantly.

So more people would enter pissed off, then they wouldn't leave and it would slow down traffic a ton. And there would suddenly be tons of crimes committed just by getting into the Taste for free by sneaking in. It happens at Lollapalooza every year.

I am sure Daley would love to get $10 more out of everyone, especially since just the entrance fees from the Taste could nearly cover Chicago's debt.

This video is not of the fight at Michigan & Congress, it was much bigger than this - a lot more people involved. But interesting nonetheless.. there was a lot of isolated instances throughout the night.

I know what will solve this problem of street brawls, lawlessness and disorder: the 2016 Summer Olympics.

And there isn't even an army to throw since we apparently can't afford more cops.