Chicago Pride Parade Float Tires Slashed In Possible Hate Crime

Story by Tracy Baim, courtesy of the Windy City Times

In what could be a hate crime, dozens of tires on floats headed for Chicago's Pride Parade were cut with knives just hours before the Parade Sunday.

Chuck Huser, owner of long-time Pride float provider Associated Attractions at 4834 S. Halsted on Chicago's South Side, said the floats were fine when he left 8 p.m. Saturday night, but when he returned at 5 a.m. Sunday to start preparation for drivers to depart, he found two tires punctured each on more than 30 floats.

"This is catastrophic," he told Windy City Times at 8 a.m. "This has never happened before, and we have been doing this since 1989."

The attackers broke in but did no other damage to the floats, and they took nothing else, leaving Huser to believe this had to be a hate crime. No notes were left.

Read the whole story here.