Chicago: Daley's Defense

At his first press conference after the battle of Chicago, Mayor Richard Daley was gruff and to the point. "Gentlemen," he said last week, thrusting his jaw out for angry emphasis, "get this thing straight for once and for all. The policeman isn't there to create dis order. The policeman is there to pre serve disorder."

It was, of course, a verbal slip by a man famous for his bouts with the lan guage. Yet it said perhaps more than the mayor intended. Despite a 77-page official "white paper" and a blanket endorsement of his police by Daley him self,...