Trump vs. protesters: Playing with political fire

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump challenges protesters at a political rally in Kansas City, Mo., on March 12. /Image via Right Side Network

In America, violence and presidential politics make a volatile mixture that bodes ill for the party linked to the brutality, and the country.

The violent response to protesters at Donald Trump's campaign event yesterday in Chicago is a potential history-repeating-itself moment for the Republican presidential candidate. The last time political protesters in Chicago were beaten in front of a national television audience was during the 1968 Democratic Party presidential convention, when Mayor Richard J. Daley unleashed a police riot that injured at least 100 protesters and 100 officers.

In November 1968, Republican Richard Nixon narrowly defeated Democrat Hubert Humphrey in the popular vote, 43 percent to 42 percent. Destined for impeachment and disgrace, Nixon posted a much more comfortable margin of victory in the decisive Electoral College vote, 55 percent to 35 percent.

Chicago police officers beat and detain political protesters during the 1968 Democratic Party presidential convention. /Image via unretiring.blogspot.com

Black Lagoon: Sudbury Reservoir tributary tainted

PHOTO GALLERY: The Black Lagoon is a contaminated man-made pond near the corner of Maple and Walker streets in Marlborough, Mass. For more than a century, petroleum-product spills have plagued properties on a mile-long stretch of Maple Street. Toxins from those spills now rest uneasily in The Black Lagoon, mingled in massive silt deposits that pose a threat to the nearby Sudbury Reservoir. Read MetroWest Daily News Special Report

MOTHER OF THE BLACK LAGOON: A state Department of Conservation and Recreation-owned pond along Maple and Framingham streets in Marlborough is filled with garbage and oil-tainted silt. This squalid swamp feeds another contaminated DCR pond about 1,000 feet downstream off Walker Street. /Allan Jung photo for MetroWest Daily News

PETROLEUM POLLUTION: An oily sheen floats on top of water in a drainage ditch at a culvert across from 299 Maple St. This ditch drains into a 6-foot-wide concrete aqueduct that flows to the DCR-owned pond off Walker Street. /Allan Jung photo for MetroWest Daily News

DOUBLE THREAT: Two DCR-owned ponds in the Maple Street neighborhood of Marlborough are filled with oil-tainted silt. The Sudbury Reservoir is about a quarter-mile downstream of The Black Lagoon, which is contained behind an aging concrete-and-earthen dam off Walker Street. /Google Earth image and bullworkofdemocracy illustration

NEIGHBORHOOD BLIGHT: Homeowners who live next to The Black Lagoon, including Dionysi McGowan of Walker Street, are calling for DCR to cleanup the pond. About three years ago, McGowan says he saw an alarming oil slick in the pond. "It was every color of the rainbow," he said. /Allan Jung photo for MetroWest Daily News

OIL SPILL LEGACY: An oily substance bleeds from a silt deposit in the center of The Black Lagoon. Most of the volume of the football-field-sized pond is filled with silt. /Christopher Cheney photo

SPILLWAY SPILL: Oil sludge oozes from The Black Lagoon dam's floodgate spillway into the dry floor of the main spillway. /Allan Jung photo for MetroWest Daily News

CONTAMINATION CONDUIT: A quarter-mile-long concrete aqueduct connects The Black Lagoon dam's main spillway to the Sudbury Reservoir. The terminus point of the main-spillway aqueduct pours into the reservoir in Southborough, Mass. /Christopher Cheney photos

TAINTED TERMINUS: The Black Lagoon dam's main-spillway aqueduct, left, and floodgate-spillway drainage stream converge at an inlet to the Sudbury Reservoir that is dotted with silt deposits. /Christopher Cheney photo

PROBLEMATIC PIPE: An oily sheen floats on water at an outflow pipe in the concrete aqueduct connecting The Black Lagoon to the Sudbury Reservoir, which is about 1,000 feet downstream. /Christopher Cheney photo 

POLLUTED RESOURCE: Garbage and other debris float in the Sudbury Reservoir. /Allan Jung photo for MetroWest Daily News

GOING WITH THE FLOW: For decades, tainted silt has been flowing into the Sudbury Reservoir from The Black Lagoon. /Google Earth image and bullworkofdemocracy illustration

Black Lagoon: Oil spill legacy lingers in MetroWest

SUNDAY METROWEST DAILY NEWS COVERAGE: Read tomorrow's investigative report on pollution from a century of oil spills along a mile stretch of commercial and residential properties in Marlborough, Mass. Toxins from those spills rest uneasily in a pair of state-owned ponds, mingled in massive silt deposits that pose a threat to the nearby Sudbury Reservoir.

AGING INFRASTRUCTURE: There are two state-owned Department of Conservation and Recreation ponds in the tributary to the Sudbury Reservoir that runs along Maple Street. A concrete-and-earthen dam, which was built more than a half-century ago, has a main spill way and floodgate spillway. /Christopher Cheney photo

An oily ooze was recently observed leaking from the dam's floodgate spillway to the dry floor of the main spillway. /Christopher Cheney photo

CONTAMINATION CONDUIT: A concrete aqueduct connects the dam's main spillway to the Sudbury Reservoir, which is a quarter-mile downstream of the dam. /Christopher Cheney photo

An outflow pipe in the dam's main spillway aqueduct spews an oily substance. /Christopher Cheney photo

TERMINUS POINT: The dam's aqueduct discharges into the Sudbury Reservoir in Southborough. /Christopher Cheney photo