-By Warner Todd Huston
Champaign Mayor Don Gerard, once a local rock and roll musician, has been accused of assaulting a local musician at a public event.
Champaign musician Jim Bean has filed for an order of protection against Mayor Gerard saying that he physically assaulted him at the Boneyard Creek Community Day sponsored by the Champaign Park District.
Bean told police that he was playing a song on his guitar when Mayor Gerard interrupted him and began to verbally assault him. The argument continued until Mayor Bean called the police on the musician. The police came but no charges were filed at that time.
Gerard claims that the musician had somehow harassed his teenaged daughter, but musician Bean says he doesn’t even know the Mayor’s daughter.
A disinterested bystander by the name of Christine Singer seemed to back up some of what Bean said saying that she felt that Mayor Gerard was the one getting out of hand.
Bean also noted on his Facebook feed that Mayor Gerard called him all sorts of vile names. The mayor also purportedly said that he was going to send the musician to jail where he’d get “f**ked in the a**” by “black dudes.”
Gerard was once a musician himself, having played for several second and third tier rock bands. He even got a shot at playing with REO Speedwagon during one stage show in 2011.
As mayor, Gerard claims that he is an “independent” but his filing with the state seems to make the lie to that claim. Don Gerard filed as a Democrat when he ran for mayor.
Jim Bean isn’t the only person that has alleged that Mayor Gerard has an out of control temper. Last year a former Urbana Alderwoman named Laura Huth also filed for an order of protection against the mayor.
This is adding up to an awful lot of proof, circumstantial granted, that Democrat Mayor Don Gerard has some anger issues. Worse, he seems prone to try and use his position of power to get the cops to harass those he is angry with.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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