Drama in Northbrook as right-wingers converge on left-wingers' demonstration against right wing

"Covid scoreboard" attracts dissent

(A Friday protester who allegedly screamed for about an hour takes a rest. In the background, another protester hefts a sign, “Our kids do not need to see this sign every day.” Photo by Lee Goodman)

I answered the phone at about 3:30 p.m. today, and there was semi-coherent screaming on the other end. 

“You hear that?” then came the more moderate voice of Lee Goodman, who had erected a “scoreboard” of the nation’s Covid-19 deaths at about 1 p.m. at Shermer Road and Walters Avenue in downtown Northbrook. “These are some of the dumbest people we’ve ever met.”

Lee and his wife Nancy Goodman had come back at 2:45 p.m., and found that a clutch of hooting and hollering men and women had taken over tiny Triangle Park. Goodman said right-wing blogs had apparently posted an Honest Context story and/or a Patch piece about the scoreboard. A mini-invasion ensued.

As many as six Northbrook Police officers arrived, “to make sure no one was hurt.” At 3:15, the wind blew down the scoreboard, but Goodman preferred to leave it down until the area was vacated, since all of the milling arrivals were maskless. 

A total of eight rightest protesters were in the little park, and one kept screaming, sometimes heard through the phone. 

“Men don’t wear masks!” “I’m not afraid of masks!” “One conservative can take on 100 liberals!”

Goodman was calm. “He’s having a heckuva time,” he told me. “He’s on stage.”

Goodman told him I wanted to know his name.

“My name is Fuck You,” he allegedly answered. 

About an hour later, I called Goodman back. He said the police had herded the crowd away from the sign, and he and Nancy were effecting repairs. 

UPDATE: Later Friday, the scoreboard was vandalized. Goodman fixed it, and posted a picture on Facebook.