I live in Chicago, and was downtown on the Friday before the NATO conference, and it was a little eerie - the demonstrators were conspicuous only by their total absence, and the police really weren't - a group of about one to dozen officers was present on every street corner I passed.

When I say "no demonstrators", I mean none. The only person I saw do so much as pass out literature on that day was the usual street corner preacher - locals will know of whom I speak, the somewhat elderly gentleman in a suit who stands on state street every day with a megaphone, softly asking everybody if they love Jesus. As softly as one can do anything with a megaphone, I mean.

Despite a report of clearly unacceptable and not at all peaceful behavior I heard from somebody who claimed to be an eye witness, I found myself wondering if the first amendment had gone on vacation.