Judge’s Grant Park ruling is dangerous

Occupy Wall Street protesters were arrested earlier in the year when they violated Grant Park curfew rules and did not leave the park. The city concerns were obvious; the history of this anarchist movement is to disrupt and destroy. A judge then dismissed the charges, en masse, noting that when President Obama was elected and the Grant Park celebration was held, the people stayed much later than curfew and were not arrested.

So what our educated, sworn-to-justice judge decides is that because something was done before, not legal (although understandable), it would be unconstitutional to hold others to that law now. What? This fool should be immediately removed from the bench if this is really his rationale. Whether or not the law was violated in the past does not mean the law is not to be applied in the future. The judge is either vacating the law as unconstitutional, or he is placing himself in the position of lawmaker (something too many judges do) and can decide which laws we allow and which we don’t. This is dangerous.

It’s as dangerous as a president who goes around the country spouting lie after lie and is never held to account. Too bad we do not have an independent, unbiased press corps in this country that reports the issues and not its own political agendas.

Michael O’Brien

Prospect Heights