Dictator of the 47th Ward

It is ironically fitting that a chunk of the Berlin Wall now sits in Chicago's 47th Ward. Like the former East Germany, the 47th Ward has a little dictator. The dictator of the 47th Ward is Comrade Alderman Eugene Schulter, Democrat. The dictator of East Germany was Eric Honecker, the First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of East Germany from 1971 to 1989. Honecker did not build the Berlin Wall. But he happily enforced it with bullets. For those of you who don't know, the Berlin Wall surrounded West Berlin. It was built by the Soviet Union, which controlled East Germany after Germany was divided at the end of World War Two. Berlin sits in the middle of what was East Germany, and was by treaty a free city and part of the nation of West Germany. That's why the Soviet Communists built the wall. Not to keep West Berliners in, but to keep East Berliners from entering West Berlin - and stepping into freedom. "Okay," you might be saying, "I don't get the connection to Schulter and the 47th Ward." Well, here it is. To build the Berlin Wall, the Communist dictatorship of East Germany used a little device called eminent domain to confiscate businesses and homes along the dividing line, upon which the wall would be built. 47th Ward Alderman Eugene Schulter is currently trying to use eminent domain to force business owners to sell to other, more favored private interests. As in the former East Germany, this is being done against the will of the current owners. Like the former dictators of East Germany and the Soviet Union, Alderman Schulter hates dissent. He threatens to sue journalists. He has shut down bloggers in the 47th Ward. Alderman Schulter is a petty thief, a party hack, and a man not to be fucked with. So The Bench happily reminds residents of the 47th Soviet Socialist Ward that there is now a chunk of the Berlin Wall sitting in the Brown Line Western Avenue station. Go look at it. Touch it. Alderman Schulter can't have you shot for disobeying him. Not yet. But given the history of his tactics to date, he is probably working on a way to do that legally. RELATED: Erich Honecker - Encyclopedia.com Alderman Schulter and Eminent Domain