Lake Shore Drive and Museums Closed for Nato Summit: TSA Patdowns on the "EL"

Chicago will become another example of the growing police state in America where people aren't free to roam where they please. More details are coming out about the upcoming NATO summit in my adopted home town,   and it may be a preview of what's coming for all America as bill like HR 347, which restricts free speech on federal property were recently passed.

CBS reports of the security tyranny taking place in the Windy City:

A large security zone around McCormick Place will be off limits to Chicagoans, and the Museum Campus, Lake Shore Drive and several major expressways and streets will be shut down before or during the NATO Summit, under a plan revealed on Friday. 


 All of this comes on top of a large restricted air space zone above the city. Anybody violating that airspace could be shot down.

Good thing Mayor Richard Daley at the midnight hour ordered bulldozers to attack Miegs Field after 9.11, a small airport on the shore of Lake Michigan. His tyrannical actions may have saved some lives (sarcasm of course).

Now when I lived in Chicago, I loved riding the train except for late nights coming home from the bars. The street gangs and the occasional homeless woman falling asleep on your shoulder who took the only seat on the "El" next to you were mainly the inconveniences. Now it appears you may get groped on your commute as well.

Metra and South Shore commuters will be able to ride the trains that run under McCormick Place. They may be subject to TSA-style pat downs and screenings and they can expect delays for security sweeps. 


Service may be reduced during the summit, but those details are not yet available. Metra officials said they hoped to have a plan finalized next week. Starting midnight May 19 though May 21, 


The Department Of Homeland Security plans to shut down access in a security perimeter around McCormick Place, where leaders from several countries, including President Obama, will be holding their meetings. That zone’s boundary includes 21st Street on the north, 25th Street on the south, Indiana on the west and the lakefront to the east.


Looking at that silly document again they call the Constitution, I can't find any policing powers that give the federal government any power to shut down Chicago's train services and cause this much inconvenience to people who use these trains to commute. Once again we see just how powerful in such a short time the new American KGB known as DHS has become.

No bicycle rides, jogs, or walks along the Lake Shore Drive bicycle path. No family visits to Chicago's Museum Campus. All of this will be closed off and heavily patrolled by federal authorities? Could we see federal troops there--a violation of Posse Comitatus? Hope you didn't plan your family vacation to Chicago during the NATO summit since there will be fence established to keep you out.

Even part of the Stevenson Expressway and Interstate 90 into the city will be shut down for this event. All in all, what a mess for Chicago!

I would say welcome to the new American police state, but having lived in Chicago for nearly 15 years, they are quite use to police state tactics even though this brings it to a new level.