Crowd Cheers After Chicago Teachers Union Pres. Jokes About Killing the Rich

(Photo: YouTube)

Karen Lewis, the president of the Chicago Teachers Union, spoke at an event called “Salute to Labor’s Historic Heroes from the History Makers of Today" last month, where the crowd applauded when she spoke of killing rich people.

Though the event happened roughly one month ago, YouTube video of the speech is just beginning to circulate.

EAG News described her speech:

“… Do not think for a minute that the wealthy are ever going to allow you to legislate their riches away from them.  Please understand that.  However, we are in a moment where the wealth disparity in this country is very reminiscent of the robber baron ages.  The labor leaders of that time, though, were ready to kill.  They were.  They were just – off with their heads.  They were seriously talking about that.”

Some in the audience laughed and clapped at her remark.

“I don’t think we’re at that point,” Lewis laughingly replied, without specifying when “that point” might arrive.  “And that’s scary to most people.  But the key is they think nothing of killing us.  They think nothing of putting our people in harm’s way.  They think nothing of lethal working conditions.”

She then used schools without air conditioning as an example of “lethal working conditions.”

It should be noted that Lewis was paraphrasing a presumably "historic hero" of the labor movement, but regardless of whether the sentiment originally belonged to Lewis or not-- people in the crowd still clapped.

Michelle Malkin wrote an article about the video, describing Lewis as "Chicago thuggery personified" before referencing a previous article about the union president:

Derision is her specialty. Her tirades at teachers’ confabs are infamous. Don’t feel sorry for her when she moans about Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s bully tactics and trash mouth. Lewis has one of her own.

EAG News concluded with a statement on the significance of Lewis' position:

With such a cynical, un-American attitude coming from their union president, does anyone really expect Chicago teachers to introduce students to the many virtues of the free market system, or the nobility of taking a risk to become an entrepreneur and therefore a “job creator”?

As domestic terrorist-turned-professor Bill Ayers acknowledged, leftists have the power in our schools and classrooms, and they’re taking full advantage.

Here is the entire, 13-minute video (skip to around 4:10 for relevant comments):

(H/T: Gateway Pundit)