Sunday, October 23, 2011

Police prepare to arrest Occupy Chicago protesters in Grant Park

Police prepare to arrest Occupy Chicago protesters in Grant Park

Occupy Chicago protesters set up tents in Grant Park, Saturday, October 22, 2011. (Brent Lewis/ Chicago Tribune)
Occupy Chicago protesters set up tents in Grant Park, Saturday,
October 22, 2011. ((Brent Lewis/ Chicago Tribune))
Ads by Google

By Jim Jaworski and Peter Nickeas Tribune reporter
12:05 a.m. CDT, October 23, 2011
Occupy Chicago protesters were back in Grant Park early today after marching Saturday night from Federal Plaza, and police appeared to be making ready to arrest scores of them after Grant Park's official closing time.
Initial police estimates put the crowd at about 1,500, but it had swelled by the time the marchers arrived at Congress Plaza at Michigan Avenue and Congress Parkway.
In Congress Plaza, protesters made speeches talking up the cause and declared their event peaceful.
As the 11 p.m. park closing approached, several hundred decided to stay in Grant Park as a few hundred more moved across Michigan Avenue, off Park District property. Police announced several times that anyone still in the park would be arrested, and by midnight, about 100 people remained in the plaza, which had been cordoned off with police barricades.
Police say 175 people were arrested starting about 1 a.m. last Sunday, Oct. 16, when some involved in Occupy Chicago refused to leave the plaza after warnings from police.
Saturday night, as police prepared to make arrests, protesters chanted in call-and-response fashion, with questions such as "how we gonna get healthcare?," or "fix schools," answered with "tax, tax, tax the rich." Meanwhile, a protester walked around the plaza with a black plastic bag, picking up trash. About 11:15 p.m., Police surrounded the plaza with barricades and told protesters that they would be arrested and could no longer leave the plaza, a protester broadcasting on the Web said.
Earlier, during the rally, speakers, who turned the steps in front of the statue into a stage, said they have no intention of leaving. Some speakers didn't give a name, only referring to themselves as "one of the 99 percent."
"When I am asked to leave, I will not go far, and I will be back," one young man declared to loud applause. "The occupation is not leaving."
Marchers cited a variety of reasons for their involvement, from a need for tax increases on the wealthy, war funding and education. Signs ranged from libertarian "end the Fed" to liberal-minded calls to tax the wealthy.
"I have been waiting for a movement like this for a while," said 22-year-old University of Chicago graduate student Patrick Van Kessel.
Van Kessel, who was dressed in a suit and carried a sign that read "separation of corporations and state," said he was marching to put pressure on politicians to limit financial influence on government.
Jim Krok, 34, said he was marching because of what he feels is a lack of econmic equality.
"I think this has been coming for a long time," he said while pulling a bicycle along the crowd.
Occupy Chicago is part of the larger Occupy movement that includes Occupy Wall Street and is targeting what participants see as undue corporate influence in government. The group has been protesting continuously in front of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago at LaSalle Street and Jackson Boulevard since Sept. 23.
The focus of rallies away from LaSalle Street have so far been Congress Plaza, underneath the 1928 statue "The Bowman" by Croatian sculptor Ivan Metrovic. Tonight, activists declared the area their “new home,” but police once again were expected to arrest those who violated the 11 p.m. curfew for the park.
What police estimated were about 1,500 protesters gathered a little after 7 p.m and began to march to Grant Park. By about 7:45, most of the marchers had gathered in the north part of Congress Plaza east of Michigan Avenue, joining a smaller contingent of people who already had gathered there.
Chicago Police Central District Cmdr. Christopher Kennedy said that as of 8:15 p.m., there had been no incidents or arrests. Protesters leading the crowd and officers were cooperating to keep the march on route.
Last Saturday, police decided they could not allow protesters to spend the night in Grant Park because it would be harder to get them out later and set a bad precedent for dealing with demonstrators expected to come to Chicago during the G-8 and NATO summits to be held in May, a police source said early this week.Mayor Rahm Emanuel said this week that he consulted with Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy before the arrests were made, and said he directed the city's Law Department to talk to protesters "to see if we can find a way to go forward so they can continue to express themselves …"
But Occupy Chicago has demanded that the city drop charges against protesters before any meetings take place because protesters believe the arrests violated their Constitutional rights.
"The 1st Amendment guarantees the American people the right to peaceably assemble," the group said in a statement. "Today we are going to use that right. Occupy Chicago calls on all local citizens to stand up and join us in this struggle."
The charges against those arrested on Sunday are being prosecuted in Cook County misdemeanor branch courts, under a city ordinance that gives Chicago police the authority to enforce parts of the Park District Code.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)