Boxing Event Shows Chicago's Inability to Handle Olympics

Children in uniform. A media circus. Traffic jam. Is this what Mayor Daley has in mind - on a much grander scale, of course - for the Olympics?

Several blocks of busy State Street in Chicago were shut down for a media event tonight during rush hour. I'll cut to the chase: For a very minor event, a very big hassle was created in Chicago's Loop business district. To add dark humor, the hundreds of police officers and Illinois State Police troopers brought in "for security" (more like for appearances to impress the observers from the Olympic Committee) were virtually children. They weren't even armed! One of the police "officers" was not, he told me, even graduated from the Police Academy yet, and many of his peers held the same status. Fresh face Illinois State Police looked about the same; fuzz faced kids in uniform. Traffic blocked off. Confused pedestrians. And Mayor Daley thinks this is impressive? Not!