Mars
Lights and Snap Decisions
He stands erect
on the back step gripping the sturdy,
metal grab bars with both hands.: It reminds him of climbing the monkey bars as
a kid. The fire truck, an older model
with a large bell and mechanical siren, races through the streets of 1930s
Chicago. The fireman’s posture is tense and focused. He wants to avoid more
back pain. He braces against the motion
of the truck and the wind whipping past his turn-out coat. The truck’s engine
roars, and the sound of the siren blares, piercing through the urban din. But Engine
89’s headlights blend into the early morning traffic. They are sealed beams,
but so are the lights on the fireman’s personal sedan. There’s nothing visually distinct to announce
the fire truck’s arrival in this matter of urgency. The fireman's face, partly
obscured by the helmet, is set in a determined expression. With air thick with choaking
exhaust and the distant hint of smoke as
the truck approaches the fire, he thinks “ There has to be something better” and he was going to find it. He did. Mars Lights.
Mars lights were developed by Jerry Kennelly, the Chicago fireman who realized the potential benefit of oscillating lamps on fire trucks and engines – and on railway locomotives too. He performed an operational test with the Chicago and North Western railroad in 1938, and Mars Lights soon began appearing on locomotives and emergency vehicles. Why Mars? Nobody knows for sure. Some think it created a sense of excitement and innovation. Then again, maybe the name came to Kennelly after viewing the most recent Si-Fi movie: Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars.
Chicago
installed distinctive red emergency Mars
lights on top of both the city’s police vehicles and fire-fighting apparatus,
but there came a time later when the Windy City decided to make police vehicles
unique. The domed Mars light, euphemistically called a “Gum Ball Machine,” by
some would now be blue. The change was made in 2002 but in a strange way, not
simply by city ordinance but state
legislation.
The specific
details of the legislative process would involve drafting a bill, gaining
support from key stakeholders, and navigating the legislative procedures in the
Illinois General Assembly. The bill would be debated, modified, and eventually
voted upon by legislators before being signed into law by the Governor but the
legislation allowing Chicago police vehicles to use all-blue lights was pushed
through by political and law enforcement leaders…” in response to the needs and
circumstances in the city.” This is
called “snap legislation.” It’s legislation that is passed without an in-depth
review.
“Snap” or “Hasty”
legislation is not uncommon in Illinois politics. Lawmakers have used this because
of a “Budget” crisis, or “Pension” crisis,
for example, and who can forget the 2019
“Cannabis Crisis”? : The legalization of recreational marijuana in Illinois was a major legislative effort
that had to be pushed swiftly through the General Assembly to capitalize
on the momentum of the cannabis reform
movement so the Pot Shops and Weed Stores could open with the New
Year- perhaps in your neighborhood.
“Snap”
legislation is not unique to our state, or any state or to the Congress of the
United States. During a press conference on March 9, 2010, Ms. Nancy Pelosi,
who was then the Speaker of the House, said:
"We have
to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it”…..suggesting that
the full implications and details of the bill would become clearer once it was
enacted and implemented. You tell me how
this thinking makes any sense.
The fast-tracked
Illinois law stipulates that all blue
lights may be used on police vehicles only in municipalities with a population
of more than one million. Only one city qualifies: Chicago.. A blue light
crisis or a matter of prestige?
Chicago is a
city of contradictions, where the political landscape is as complex as its
architecture." — Anonymous
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as always a great story! Dave Z
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