Unruly Crowd Shuts Down Immigration Debate

WBBM-CBS Chicago reports:

A community forum on immigration ended just about as fast as it began Thursday night in the Logan Square neighborhood when protesters disrupted the event and shouted down the controversial participants.

"No free speech for terrorists!" chanted the demonstrators who crowded inside the Fourth Congregational Church at 2625 N. Tallman Ave., where the event was being held.

WBBM Newsradio 780's Steve Grzanich reports organizers had barely started the introductions when the noisy protest began.

The demonstrators succeeded in stopping what was supposed to be a debate between advocates of immigration rights and a group called the Illinois Minuteman Project which supports stricter enforcement of U-S immigration laws.

"They have to know that their racist ideas are not going to be tolerated," said protestor Maria Melquiades of Chicago. "Racism kills. You don't debate racism," she said.

"All immigrants are welcomed and Minutemen are not," said protestor John Eriksen of Chicago. "Where they are, they need to be shouted down because they are racists and Nazis," he added.

The forum had to be cancelled when police were called in to disperse the protestors. Officers arrested one demonstrator for disorderly conduct.

Did those hostile to free speech learn this from those "fine" Chicago Public Schools? We don't know but this issue isn't going away