Tag: NATO

Protests

Story:

Protesters throw fence on police 5:43 p.m.

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, dressed in his white uniform and wearing sunglasses, has appeared behind the thick line of police in riot gear.

The police are facing off with protesters at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Cermak. A large crowd of protesters is gathered in the street on Cermak.

Police and protesters are nose to nose, pushing at each other. Some protesters fall when police shove them with batons held horizontally in both hands. Periodically, police pull a protester out and take them away.

At one point, protesters facing the police threw a section of metal street barricade on top of the line of police, who caught it with their hands and passed it back through the line of cops.

via Chicago Tribune.

And either a differing account or a wholly new event:

Pizza proprietors fail to ride NATO summit wave 7:21 p.m.

The four operators of Papa John’s Pizza, 80 E. Cermak Road, watched from their closed storefront window as the bloody skirmishes took place outside.

“I had as good a front row view as anybody,” said Steve Feldberg, one of the operating partners.

The pizza proprietors originally decided to stay open during the NATO summit weekend in hopes of picking up extra delivery business from customers who didn’t want to leave their homes.

That turned out not to be the case, and sales lagged below expectations, he said. Just before noon Sunday morning, they made the decision to send staff home and close for the rest of the day, citing safety concerns.

“We could just tell what was coming,” Feldberg said.

He and his colleagues decided to stick around out of curiosity. At one point, the group watched as protestors wielded a barrier fence above their heads and started trying to throw it toward his store.

“We were all watching it as it happened,” Feldberg said. “There was nothing we could do.”

Police were able to take control of the fence and pass it safely to the rear of their flank.

via Chicago Tribune.

Whether this is one incident or two there can be no doubt as to a few facts:  The protesters tried to hurl a section of a metal fence at someone, & this is not the kind of non-violent action the protesters claim to be all about.

So Now What That the G-8’s Gone?

Yesterday’s news:

The White House abruptly announced Monday that it had scuttled plans to hold the upcoming G-8 economic summit in Chicago, and would instead host world leaders at the presidential retreat at Camp David in Maryland.  …

A spokeswoman for Emanuel said the Chicago mayor was informed about the location change in a Monday phone call from a White House official.  …

The summits have become a target for large, and sometimes violent, protests in recent years, making security costs a concern for host cities.  …  But Joe Iosbaker of the United National Antiwar Committee in Chicago said protests would still go on during the NATO summit.

via The Washington Post.

This Iosbaker fellow received more than a passing mention in this article here yesterday about the G-8.  It seems he’s quite the professional rabble-rouser.

I would be curious if Eric Holder thinks that the “Government” could order his execution for creating violence on U.S. soil.

G-8 Summit Moved to Camp David

Big News!!

The Group of Eight meeting will be moved to Camp David, according to the White House, but the gathering of NATO allies and the International Security Assistance Force will go on in Chicago as planned in mid-May.

Camp David will more closely approximate the remote settings in which the G8 leaders prefer to gather. Summits in large cities typically see clamorous protests, while those in the countryside are calmer and more sedate.

via Chicago Tribune.

Of course this has absolutely nothing to do this this:

The Occupy movement is likely to escalate months before the Sept. 3-6 event. A slew of extremist organizations, some tied to Obama, are preparing protests to coincide with major NATO and G-8 summits slated for Chicago in May.

Foreshadowing possible violent confrontations, some of the same radical trainers behind the infamous 1999 Seattle riots against the World Trade Organization have been mobilizing new protest efforts geared toward world summits.  …

One endorsing group, which calls itself the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, is also a main organizer of the protests being scheduled for Chicago’s NATO and G-8 summits in May.

via Klein Online.

And then there’s this:

“To facilitate a free-flowing discussion with our close G-8 partners, the President is inviting his fellow G-8 leaders to Camp David on May 18-19 for the G-8 Summit, which will address a broad range of economic, political and security issues,” the White House announced this afternoon. “The President will then welcome NATO allies and partners to his hometown of Chicago for the NATO Summit on May 20-21.”

Maybe I’m reading English here, but that sounds like the president concluded it would be harder to have a “free-flowing discussion” in Chicago—yet still wanted to throw Rahm Emanuel a bone. NATO summits don’t generally excite people as much as meetings of the most powerful money guys in the world.   …

Not even a carefully crafted statement from the City Hall press machine could conceal his disappointment: “We wish President Obama and the other leaders well at the G8 meeting at Camp David and look forward to hosting the NATO Summit in Chicago. Hosting the NATO Summit is a tremendous opportunity to showcase Chicago to the world and the world to Chicago.”

So far, aldermen haven’t been briefed. “Do you think this administration tells us anything?” says Second Ward alderman Robert Fioretti, who for months has been wary of Emanuel’s behind-the-scenes summit planning.

via  Bleader @ Chicago Reader.

It’s safe to say there is a LOT more to this story than we’re being told.  Of course we’ll never find out.  But it can be a lot of fun to think about.

And lastly… only time will tell if this move will reduce the protests.

Protesters Crash Chicago’s 175th Birthday

Chicago celebrated its 175th birthday Sunday to the tune of protest rants.

A small group shouted during part of the ceremony about Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to close six mental health clinics in the city.

As the mayor stood beside a colorful birthday cake and the Chicago Children’s Choir, protesters yelled that the closings make it harder for people to get help and ultimately cost lives.

Emanuel quickly left the room looking mildly insulted and without responding to anyone in the group. A voice directed partygoers to the next room. “Please join us in the next room for birthday cake,” the voice said.

via NBC Chicago.

So Rahm cannot keep protesters out of a small birthday celebration.  How’s he ever going to keep protesters in line during the G-8/NATO summits?

Just say’n.

The 99% Spring

It’s coming:

From April 9-15 we will gather across America, 100,000 strong, in homes, places of worship, campuses and the streets to join together in the work of reclaiming our country.  We will organize trainings to:

Tell the story of our economy: how we got here, who’s responsible, what a different future could look like, and what we can do about it

Learn the history of non-violent direct action, and

Get into action on our own campaigns to win change.

This spring we rise! We will reshape our country with our own hands and feet, bodies and hearts. We will take non-violent action in the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi to forge a new destiny one block, one neighborhood, one city, one state at a time.

via The 99% Spring.

Let’s see… April 9th through the 15th… if only there was something these folks could be training for.  Maybe something going on say, a month later.  Maybe if there was a big gathering of heads of state and other world leaders and if maybe it was going to take place in May somewhere.

Oh, May in Chicago is going to be one wild ride.  Hang on to your hats ’cause in the Windy City it’s surely going to blow.

Businesses Get the Old Yes No on the G-8/NATO Summits

Well which is it?

Mayor Rahm Emanuel was asked Thursday whether businesses located within the inner-most security perimeter will have a process to recover lost profits incurred during the May 19-21 events at McCormick Place.

“The [NATO and G-8] Host Committee is working on it. They’ll have a process for that,” he answered.   …

Later, after some reflection:

His answers to the questions, once reported online Thursday, set off a flurry of denials. A spokeswoman issued a statement saying: “We have no plans to reimburse businesses – the city is open for business.”

When Jennifer Martinez, a spokeswoman for the NATO and G-8 Host Committee, was asked about compensation, she said: “The plan is for all businesses to be open. We do not anticipate businesses being closed. We will not reimburse businesses that decide to close on their own.”

via Chicago Sun-Times.

Oh, I see.  I guess they didn’t want businesses closing to protect themselves and their employees from what might be 50,000 nutty protesters.  I mean, other businesses are going to be doing just that:

Already, DePaul University has decided to close its Loop campus on the day before and the day after the summits and deny access to classrooms, labs, the cafeteria and offices in the Loop campus over a four-day period.

That seems a bit extreme for a private university.  If there’s one thing the protesters understand it’s education.  They want more of it for free.  So why bother a university?  Maybe DePaul knows something they’re not telling.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago has said it has “extensive contingency plans” that would allow its employees to “work from home” or from an “off-site location” in the event that demonstrations turn ugly during the summits.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago is an old building that has few doors and no windows.  It has it’s own very intense security barriers between the street and the building itself and 24 hour armed guards in the adjacent alley.  It is a fortress.  And yet this place is making plans for employees to work from home or from an off-site location. If this place ain’t safe what chance does the rest of the city have?

And the Chicago Sun-Times reported earlier this week that the civil courtrooms at the Daley Center … could be closed down for security reasons in the days surrounding the unprecedented gathering of world leaders.

Earlier this month, United Airlines employees worried about how they will get to Willis Tower during the summits questioned Emanuel during a roundtable about the potentially $65 million event expected to turn the world spotlight on Chicago.

So it’s safe to say that a lot of people appear to have some very reasonable concerns.  It’s not a much ado about nothing situation.

The mayor played down the inconvenience by describing the summits as a “weekend” event, conveniently ignoring the fact that protesters and world leaders are likely to arrive days before the meetings begin.

But, what was it that the protesters were saying again?  Oh ya…

On May 1, 50,000 people from all over the world will flock to Chicago, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and #OCCUPYCHICAGO for a month.

via AdBusters.

Note to Rahm:  It’s not the Heads of State breaking windows, blocking traffic, and starting squad cars on fire that people worry about.  It the protesters.  And they plan to be here for a month.

 

Lawyers for Occupy Say Crackdown was Practice

Lawyers for dozens of Occupy Chicago protesters arrested in Grant Park said Wednesday that the mass arrests amounted to a “dry run” by the Emanuel administration for handling protests during the G-8 and NATO summits in May.

“This was Mayor Rahm Emanuel being Mr. Tough Guy to show the world that they could come to the G-8 and NATO,” said attorney Thomas Durkin, who represents a dozen of the 94 defendants seeking to have their cases dismissed

via Chicago Tribune.

Hello pot, meet kettle.