Saturday night live: Hundreds of protesters march through Loop, financial district, on Michigan
BY STEFANO ESPOSITO AND NATASHA KORECKI Staff Reporters May 19, 2012 9:26PM
Police stopped the crowd from proceeding North on Michigan ave. from Balbo but let them continue through after several minutes Saturday, May 19, 2012. | Rich Hein-Sun-Times
ARTICLE EXTRAS
Updated: May 19, 2012 9:45PM
Hundreds of protesters headed to the Board of Trade building Saturday night as they protested NATO, taunted police and blocked traffic on normally busy streets.
They were met by large contingents of police officers, some in riot gear, and others on bikes, who generally let the demonstrators remain in the streets.
At one point, a police van with sirens flashing drove down the middle of Jackson, forcing the marchers to disperse. A protester jumped on the front fender of the van, then got off, and someone screamed, “They hit him! They hit him!”
A law enforcement source late Saturday said there had been about 40 arrests throughout the day, mainly on misdemeanor charges.
Some of the arrests might have taken place at 8:30 p.m. near Wabash and Balbo, where police in riot gear carried a woman to a waiting police van. A man was taken as well, but few details were available.
Officially, police at 9:30 p.m. would only confirm one arrest had taken place.
That came after a crowd — possibly numbering more than 1,000 — had marched down State Street and eventually ended up on Balbo, where they were greeted by police in riot gear backed by police on horseback. The police then relented and let them march North on Michigan.
The mayor’s office said the crowd was between 750 and 1,000 at its peak.
Back, in the financial district, some protesters dressed in all black grabbed orange plastic barriers and dragged them to the street at LaSalle and Monroe.
The protesters headed to corner of Jackson and LaSalle, where Occupy Chicago had set up a long running camp last fall.
At one point Saturday night, the driver of a Jeep stuck in the crowd in the middle of LaSalle cranked his stereo in solidarity with the protesters. As he filmed the crowd, members took video of him.
Others members of the crowd stood on garbage cans looking around.
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- 3 in Chicago Face Terrorism Charges Tied to NATO Protests (nytimes.com)
- NATO Summit Leaves Lasting Impression on South Loop Businesses (chicagotalks.org)
- Tensions rise during NATO 3 march (suntimes.com)
- Prosecutors: Trio in Chicago planned to attack Obama’s campaign headquarters (boston.com)
- Cops: Protesters wanted to hit Obama HQ, mayor’s home – chicagotribune.com (mbcalyn.com)
- Chicago Militarized for NATO (sjlendman.blogspot.com)
- 3 charged with terror conspiracy ahead of NATO (foxnews.com)
- The Nato summit template for policing the ‘other Chicago’ | Keeanga Taylor (guardian.co.uk)
- The NATO summit template for policing the ‘other Chicago’ (fromthetrenchesworldreport.com)
