NATO anti-war protests in Chicago

[orphanedhawk]

May 20, 2012
APClips: Live updates from NATO summit protests
The Associated Press

2:27 p.m. _ Visitors and residents have differing opinions about the beefed-up police presence in Chicago for the NATO summit. Chicago resident Lori Jones says even though there are "police on every corner, I'm proud for visitors to see that our city has been able to control the situation." But Winston James, a tourist from London, says there are too many police.
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2:21 p.m. _ The group of Iraq War veterans leading the protest march is chanting, "N-A-T-O, NATO has got to go." Chants echo off of downtown buildings, heightening the effect. - NM
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2:20 p.m. _ The hundreds of police officers who are lining both sides of the protest route, including several on bikes riding at the head of the crowd, could also be playing a big part in keeping things organized. - DTS
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2:20 p.m. _ The main NATO protest march is taking its first steps, but already appears to be much more organized than Saturday's marches. The key could be the group "Iraq Veterans Against the War," who are at the head of the march. No one wants to want to run ahead of them, as happened to the leaders at a health-care focused protest march to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's home on Saturday. - NM
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2:14 p.m. _ Members of the Iraq Veterans Against the War group are leading the main protest march. About 30 of them are marching in fatigue jackets and other service uniforms, many of them with medals pinned on them. During the march, they plan to symbolically hand back their service medals. Also in front of the march are three women from a group called Afghans for Peace holding that country's flag. - NM
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2:12 p.m. _ Chicago officials are providing water, rest stations and cooling buses along the route protesters march during the NATO summit. Protesters are marching for more than two miles.
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2:10 p.m. _ "We march for health care. We march for jobs. We march for justice. We march for peace," Jackson told the crowd. "Let nothing break your spirit!"
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2:08 p.m. _ The protest march has started. Jackson told the crowd, "As we march today we must be nonviolent. Not because we're scared, but because we're wise. ... We must go another way. . There's too much violence. There's too much poverty."
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1:55 p.m. _ One of the favorite causes among protesters is the case of Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence analyst facing life in prison for allegedly leaking secret military and diplomatic cables to Wikileaks. Protesters say Manning should not be punished for shedding light on U.S foreign relations and military action. They are handing out fliers, wearing pro-Manning buttons and stickers and hoisting signs calling for his release.
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1:48 p.m. _ Rally speaker Rick Rozoff of the Stop NATO website told the crowd that the NATO delegates who are "eating at five-star restaurants and getting their limousine tours of the city" are going to announce an "interceptor missile system" that's "a threat to the planet" and must be stopped. He was referring to a missile defense system for Europe.
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1:35 p.m. _ Thousands of protesters are starting to move from the center of Grant Park and are massing in lines at the starting point for the main protest march that is set to begin in about half an hour.
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1:26 p.m. _ Angela Walker, a union leader from Milwaukee, addresses protesters with short, punchy message: "I'm going to cut to the chase. I'm here because I'm angry. The people in power haven't been listening to us. . Our young people are being used as a private police force against the people of Afghanistan. Not OK."
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1:22 p.m. _ The massive police presence in Chicago extends to Wrigley Field, where the White Sox are taking on the Cubs in a cross-town series. From his vantage point at Murphy's Bleachers, just beyond the centerfield wall, bartender Brendan Melanson says, "Usually there's one cop on every corner; now it is every 2 feet."
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1:17 p.m. _ As NATO leaders begin to leave their hotels for McCormick Place, summit organizers say rolling street closures will take place downtown until 2:15 p.m.
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1:15 p.m. _ A large banner on stage at the Petrillo Music Shell links Obama to Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and George W. Bush, as well as Vietnam. Two protesters held a sign on Jackson Street that says, "Obama wants his own tril $ war in 2013." Another protester sported a shirt that said, "Impeach Bush and Obama."
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1:06 p.m. _ The latest to address NATO protesters at Grant Park is Kathy Kelly, who says she's with Voices for Creative Nonviolence: "We are winning. They are few." The speeches aren't very long, and it appears anyone who wants to promote a cause will get a turn at the microphone. -
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1:05 p.m. _ One-time Black Panther and former death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal addresses NATO protest rally via recorded message: "We march to build a better future. ... Welcome to the beginning of the end of empire."
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1:03 p.m. _ A Cook County judge set bond at $750,000 for Senakiewicz. Bond is $500,000 for Neiweem.
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12:58 p.m. _ Chicago priest Jim Hoffman has joined the protests in Grant Park. The 73-year-old from St. Peters Church says he is disgusted with the U.S. "for making NATO into this coalition of the willing."
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12:55 p.m. _ Carlos Montes of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression tells protesters: "I stand with the people that NATO and the U.S. government are attacking. I am not a terrorist. I am an activist." The crowd cheers. -
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12:53 p.m. _ Obama made good, however, on the invitation by extending one of her own. She suggested the kids come to the White House, telling the teens the South Lawn could be transformed into a place where they all could work out.
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12:40 p.m. _ Speakers at Grant Park protest call on Israel to release Palestinian prisoners and urge action on climate change, underscoring the diversity of causes among the demonstrators. -
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12:17 p.m. _ Activists are starting to make speeches at the site where protesters have gathered. "Are you ready to march against the war-makers?" said Chicago anti-war activist Joe Isobaker. The crowd: "Yes!"
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12:05 p.m. _ A few people at the corner of Jackson and Columbus hold signs made in the shape of corn stalks that together read, "Don't trade on me." Mary Patten, 61, holds the "don't" sign. She says she is protesting how commodities such as corn are increasingly traded as financial instruments rather than used to feed people.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/news/ap/politics/2012/May/20/apclips__live_updates_from_nato_summit_protests.html

[orphanedhawk]

My point in posting this was not about the small amount of violence that broke out but that this protest was not just one group but many together protesting the wars
. If we are concerned about the economy, then I'd think the first thing we should do is stop sending money overseas.

[brice1967]

Do I think local police are starting this?  They could be.  Do I think real protesters are starting the clashes?  They could be too.  I doubt we'll ever know the whole story.

I spent 20 years basically doing crowd control.  It does not take much to insight a riot... a shove can do it.  

We will never know what it was that started the violence.

[orphanedhawk]

There is a group called black bloc that does believe in civil disobedience to bring attention to the need to change.
It is also easy for police saboteurs to dress in black and then blame black bloc.

I heard stories locally during Occupy Oakland about saboteurs in black causing problems discrediting Occupy last Fall.
( Not that there aren't real people made enough to create mayhem)

[teko]

I heard on the local news this morning that a group called the "black bloc?" instigated the mishap? And yes it has been portrayed as an Occupy event.
Like everything else, the media has made it almost impossible to know what the facts are and are not. Im confused.

[orphanedhawk]

Much of the media is portraying the big anti-war protest in Chicago as being being an Occupy action instead of what it really is: an anti-war protest by diverse groups.

I edited the above to fit it into the space provided. You can go to the link to read it in full.