By Jerry Pritikin
I witnessed a police raid at Belmont Rocks consisting of nine police cars and three 3-wheelers to arrest a blond sun-tanned young man dressed in a bikini and armed with a basket of home-made sandwiches for not having a city license to sell on public property. They hauled him off to jail. I was visiting from San Francisco and had forgotten how uncivil Chicago cops could be. I snapped these pictures.
I walked to the nearly Columbia Yacht Club and called the Daily News from a public phone asking to speak to Mike Royko, who I had heard was always willing to go to bat for the little guy, especially in the Chicago neighborhoods or politics. I think the call cost me a dime back then.
I was connected to him and he listened my story and when I was finished Mike Royko said to me loud and clear:
“THEY SHOULD ARREST ALL THE FAGGOTS!”
And then he hung up.
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Previously:
* Jerry Pritikin’s ’70s Show
* Lament of The Bleacher Preacher
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Posted on June 9, 2008