Former Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham Excused Joe Biden's Child Molestation and Then Physically Assaulted My Friend

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.
     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.

     My friend, who had been sitting inside the meeting waiting for his turn to speak, came outside to talk to me.
     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", Cunningham responded "That's part of the job!", apparently referring to molesting children.

     I said back, “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 he faced several scandals. Cunningham and his mother (Mary Ross Cunningham, Vice-Chair of the Lake County Board) threatened to sue a man for posting a picture of the Cunninghams with devil horns on social media.

     http://abc7chicago.com/waukegan-il-news-mayor/5267320/

     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”, 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!?”

      Cunningham poked my friend in his forehead with the brim of Cunningham’s hat.

     This caused my friend to step back, and 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.

     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 or stray into the street at any time. Cunningham, though, did cross the street in order to assault my friend.

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      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).

 

Written on July 18th, 2021

Edited and Expanded on July 25th, 2021

Published on July 25th, 2021