Former Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham
At around 6:30 P.M. on Saturday, July 17th,
2021 - while standing in front of the Lake County Democratic Party headquarters
at 118 North Genesee in Waukegan - an activist friend of mine was assaulted
while standing less than three feet away from me.
The attacker was Sam Cunningham, the former mayor of
Waukegan.
During the half-hour before this happened,
I had been holding a sign that read "The president is a pedophile"
(referring to Joe Biden pinching a young girl’s nipple live on C-SPAN on
January 3rd, 2015), and showing it to cars and pedestrians that passed by the
office of the county Democratic Party headquarters, during one of their business meetings.
I did not make any attempts
to shout or to attract excessive or unwanted attention to myself, nor did I
even show my sign to attendees of the meeting. Nor did I, nor my friend, leave the public sidewalk (where it was our legal right to be) at any point during this interaction.
Prior to the incident which I recount below, my friend had been sitting inside the
meeting, waiting politely for his turn to speak. He took a break from waiting for his turn to speak, to come outside to talk to me. I was standing on the public sidewalk, holding a sign.
Next, my
friend saw an African-American man and a white man across the street. My friend
said "Is that Sam Cunningham? Wait, maybe not." I looked at the
African-American man across the street – standing outside of what I later found
out was A Cuban Experience cigar shop at 119 North Genesee – and I looked at
his face. I said "That is Sam Cunningham”, because it was.
Next, Cunningham, or maybe his friend,
reacted to my sign. I’m not sure who said it because I was looking away for a
moment. But I’m fairly confident that the voice I heard was Cunningham’s.
In response to my chalkboard sign that
read, "the president is a child molester" (referring to Joe Biden, whom had been inaugurated six months prior), Cunningham responded
"That's part of the job!", apparently referring to molesting
children.
I replied, “Molesting children is part
of the job of being president!?"
Next, my friend said – loudly enough to be
heard from across the street – “Is that disgraced former mayor Sam
Cunningham!?"
[Note: My friend said this because
Cunningham had recently lost an election against Ann Taylor, after Cunningham had faced
several scandals. Cunningham and his mother (Mary Ross Cunningham, Vice-Chair
of the Lake County Board) threatened to get a man named Mike Morales kicked out of public housing, and possibly also sue him, in retaliation for posting a picture, to social media, which depicted the
Cunninghams with devil horns on their heads.
Also, Cunningham arguably attempted to
take too much personal credit for his involvement in the so-called “mayor’s”
music festival in Waukegan. Cunningham’s likeness appeared in ads for the
event, and thus could have unfairly influenced voters to re-elect him.]
After hearing my friend say “Is that
disgraced former mayor Sam Cunningham!?”, Cunningham swiftly walked – practically
marched – across the street (North Genesee Street) and got in my friend’s face.
My friend is just over five feet tall, and
stands nearly a foot shorter than Cunningham. Cunningham stared my friend in
the face, and got so close to him that their noses were less than two inches
away from touching.
While I can’t remember exactly what my
friend and Cunningham were shouting at each other at this time, I believe that
my friend called Cunningham a “piece of shit” at some point, and I distinctly remember
Cunningham calling my friend “boy”. I think he said something like, “What’d you
say, boy!?” or “What’d you say about me, boy!?”
[To clarify, if my friend did call Cunningham a "piece of shit", then it was only after Cunningham or his friend (most likely Cunningham himself) yelled "that's part of the job" in regard to molesting children in order to become the president.]
Next, Cunningham poked my friend in his forehead
with the brim of Cunningham’s hat.
This caused my friend to step back, and to cede ground to Cunningham, out of fear.
After shouting and staring at my friend,
and poking his forehead with the brim of his hat, I said to Cunningham, “Could
you stop assaulting my friend, please?”
Cunningham did not only force my friend to
step back; he also covered my friend’s mouth with one or both of his hands, and
shoved my friend in the chest, forcing him to step back again.
Next, Cunningham strolled into the Lake
County Democratic Party meeting, as if nothing had happened; as if he had not
just committed assault in front of several party members and nearly a dozen
customers at La Casa de Samuel at 120 N. Genesee.
In response, a woman from the Lake County
Democrats called the police on my friend instead of Cunningham. After being
chased and assaulted, my friend laid down on the public sidewalk in order to show that he was not fighting
back, that he was not a threat, and that he was being submissive. He did this
to make it clear that he was not the attacker, did not initiate the fight, and
did not wish the fight to continue.
[Note, added on November 3rd, 2023:
An additional reason why - I believe - my friend laid down on the sidewalk, was to show that he had been knocked down onto the sidewalk. To clarify, I do not mean to suggest that he was faking it. While everything happened very quickly, and it is difficult to remember, I have been thinking about this event more lately, and I believe that Cunningham's second shove could have and would have easily knocked my friend to the ground, especially considering that Cunningham was more than a foot taller than my friend. The trajectory of the shove could have easily knocked my friend off his feet. I believe that my friend fell down after Cunningham shoved him the second time, and then stood up again and regained his balance, but then sat down again on the sidewalk in order to show that he had been put there by Cunningham. This is when Mary Ross Cunningham, and/or a white woman inside the Democratic meeting, called the police to report "people laying on the sidewalk" (which is what we heard one of these women saying while calling the police).]
Although the Democrats allowed Sam
Cunningham to enter (after he had not only committed assault, but lost an
election after he was revealed as corrupt); they also refused to allow my
friend to re-enter. My friend, as I said, was sitting inside peacefully,
waiting for his turn to speak, before Cunningham assaulted him. Despite the
fact that my friend posed no threat, while Cunningham did, the Democrats kicked
my friend out and gave Cunningham refuge after he initiated assault.
To be clear, Cunningham initiated this
assault not at me for holding my sign saying Biden is a pedophile, but at my
friend, for saying “Is that disgraced former mayor Sam Cunningham?”.
All of this happened while Sam
Cunningham’s mother, Mary Ross Cunningham (the Vice-Chair of the Lake County
Board) was sitting outside – between La Casa de Samuel and the Democratic Party
headquarters – calmly talking on her cell phone.
Sam Cunningham’s friendship with members
of the Waukegan Police Department – and his and his mother’s friendships with
members of the county’s Democratic Party elite – made it too dangerous, in my
and my friend’s opinion, to stick around to answer police questions after this
happened.
We went to my car and drove away because we had a reasonable fear that the police would detain us - or even beat us up - because the Democrat who called the police made it sound like we were the ones who had started the fight, or were being dangerous, or were doing something illegal.
But - I repeat - my friend and I did not harass anyone, and we did not leave the public sidewalk, nor stray into the street at any time. Cunningham, though, did cross the street in order to assault my friend.
________________________________
Evidently, losing his mayorship was not
clear enough of a message that the people of Waukegan do not trust him. The disgraced former mayor still believes that he has the right to intimidate fellow Waukegan residents in public.
The
former mayor must not be allowed to intimidate anyone, let alone activists.
A corrupt politician is one thing, but a
corrupt politician who physically intimidates people and excuses child
molestation by the politically powerful is another thing entirely. And he
intimidates people because they criticize him.
If Cunningham is allowed to get away with
physically intimidating activists in the street, then what is to stop him from
taking a “hit” out on his opponents? Current mayor Ann Taylor would have every right to be worried about such a thing.
By sheltering
Cunningham after several of them witnessed this assault, the Lake County Democratic Party has shown that its ideology - statism under the guise of a representative democratic republic - is one that supports the use of violence for political goals. This is nothing
more than legalized terrorism.
I hate to risk appearing to dehumanize an
African-American person by comparing him to an animal – and I do condemn the
use of dehumanizing language to excuse violence against innocent people – but
Sam Cunningham is not an innocent person.
As soon as a competent police force takes
charge of Waukegan, they should make sure that they have a tranquilizer dart
gun available.
The police should not rule out the use of such weapons, the next time former mayor Cunningham decides to physically
chase and harass someone who is exercising their right to publicly criticize
him while standing on a public sidewalk in his hometown.
I do not recommend the use of tranquilizer guns for comic effect, nor to humiliate Cunningham. I say this because it would have been the only way to act quickly enough to stop Cunningham, in the course of his attack (without resorting to either tasing him, shooting him, or tackling him in order to immobilize him).
Cunningham is at least six feet tall, and strong enough to defeat almost anyone whom he might decide he wants to defeat. The protection he receives from police - coupled with his strength - render him almost like a police force unto himself (even with his mayorship stripped).
Former mayor Sam Cunningham must be stopped. The City of Waukegan must never elect a mayor who will not promise to fire any and all high-level officials in the Waukegan Police Department who may wish to protect the Cunninghams' privilege to intimidate and harass our city's residents.
If current mayor Ann Taylor (who defeated Cunningham in the spring 2021 election) refuses to fire any such officials, then she is acting against the interests of not only the residents of Waukegan, but against the interests of her own neck (i.e., to remain whole and undivided).
Post-Script / Four Updates:
1)
I later discovered - after writing and publishing the article above - that the white woman inside the Democratic Party headquarters, whom I initially believed to have been the person who called the police, might not have been the only person who called the police.
It was either her, or Sam Cunningham's mother (Mary Ross Cunningham); or else they both called the police.
I say this because - as I stated above - Mary Ross Cunningham was "calmly talking on her cell phone" while all this was going on. She witnessed the whole thing.
2)
Several people, whom were dining at the Casa San Juan Mexican restaurant (which then lay directly north of what was then the Democratic Party headquarters, on Genesee Street), took videos of the aftermath of the attack, on their cell phones, when this happened.
However, these restaurant patrons probably did not get any footage of the attack while it happened, because of how quickly it happened, and because of how little time they had to get their phones out of their pockets.
At the site of where Casa San Juan once stood, there is now a restaurant called La Jaiba Seafood Restaurant and Bar. That restaurant is located at 120 North Genesee Street. The Democratic Party headquarters - which was then located at 118 North Genesee Street - is no longer in operation, as of November 3rd, 2023; and Lake County's Democratic Party headquarters has moved to a different location.
3)
The person whom Cunningham shoved to the ground was named Ethan August Winnett.
Ethan did not want me to disclose his identity when I originally wrote and posted this article, because he was afraid of being arrested (for example, for trespassing). But I am revealing his name now, because he passed away on October 19th, 2023; one week prior to the writing, publication, and addition of this update.
I am also revealing his name now, because I recently discovered that Sam Cunningham is running for Mayor of Waukegan again, for the election to be held in 2025. And he must not be allowed to win it.
Ethan August Winnett
(January 31st, 1985 - October 19th, 2023)
Originally written on July
18th, 2021
(the day after the attack).
Edited and expanded on July 25th, 2021;
and October 26th and November 3rd, 2023.
Originally published
(without the Post-Script / three of four Updates)
[now the first, third, and fourth updates]
on July
25th, 2021.
Post-Script / three of four Updates
[now the first, third, and fourth updates]
added on October 26th, 2023;
and edited and expanded on November 3rd, 2023.
Photos of Ethan Winnett added on November 3rd, 2023.
Fourth Update to be posted
[which now appears as the second Update]
was written and added on November 3rd, 2023.
