Posts Tagged NATO summit

Editorial: Pay Chicago cops overtime for NATO summit duty – Chicago Sun-Times

Posted by Michael B. Calyn in NATO on May 29, 2012



Editorial: Pay Chicago cops overtime for NATO summit duty

Editorials May 25, 2012 8:12PM

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Chicago Police officers line Michigan Avenue to protect the Art Institute from protesters on May 20 during the NATO Summit. | Joseph P. Meier~Sun-Times Media

Updated: May 27, 2012 2:36AM

The mayor better fix this one, and fast.

Less than a week after Chicago police won high praise for their work protecting the city during the NATO Summit, the police union is accusing the city of trying to chisel officers out of summit overtime pay.

The Fraternal Order of Police says the city doesn’t want to give officers time-and-a-half overtime for working a sixth or seventh consecutive day in a week, as the police contract calls for. It has filed a class- action grievance.

In response to a inquiry Friday by Chicago Sun-Times reporter Fran Spielman, a police spokeswoman said, “The Chicago Police Department fully intends to work through these issues with the union to ensure that our officers are fully compensated for their work during the NATO Summit.”

We hope that means the city plans to pay up. The language in the police contract appears clear on overtime payments, but if the city has another reading of the contract, we’re all ears. Barring that, there is no excuse for denying Chicago police their due.

 Editorial: Pay Chicago cops overtime for NATO summit duty – Chicago Sun-Times.

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President Obama Directly Seeks to Make Romney’s Business Experience the ‘Bain’ of His Existence – ABC News

Posted by Michael B. Calyn in NATO, Politics on May 22, 2012


May 21, 2012 5:41pm

President Obama Directly Seeks to Make Romney’s Business Experience the ‘Bain’ of His Existence

 

ap obam bain thg 120521 wblog President Obama Directly Seeks to Make Romneys Business Experience the Bain of His Existence

Kiichiro Sato/AP

At the close of the NATO Summit, taking questions from reporters, President Obama launched his most direct attack yet at challenger Mitt Romney, defending his campaign’s attacks on Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital and full-throatedly saying “this is what this campaign is going to be about.”

“If your main argument for how to grow the economy is ‘I knew how to make a lot of money for investors’ than you’re missing what this job is about,” the president said.

In recent days, some of the president’s allies – Newark Mayor Corey Booker, former White House ‘auto czar’ Stephen Rattner – have criticized the Obama campaign’s attacks on Bain Capital, the private equity firm Romney headed.

“I think it’s important to recognize that this issue is not a quote distraction,” the president said today. “This is part of the debate that we’re going to be having in this election campaign about how do we create an economy where everybody, from top to bottom, folks on Wall Street and folks on Main Street, have a shot at success. And if they’re working hard and they’re acting responsibly that they’re able to live out the American dream.”

The president said that his personal view of private equity firms is that “it is set up to maximize profits and that’s a healthy part of the free market, that’s part of the role of a lot of business people. That’s not unique to private equity. And as I think as my representatives have said repeatedly and I will say today, I think there are folks who do good work in that area and there are times where they identify the capacity for the economy to create new jobs or new industries.”

 

But, the president said, “understand that their priority is to maximize profits. And that’s not always going to be good for communities or businesses or workers. And the reason this is relevant to the campaign is because my opponent, Governor Romney, his main calling card for why he thinks he should be president is his business experience. You know, he’s not going out there touting his experience in Massachusetts. He’s saying ‘I’m a business guy. I know how to fix it.’ And this is his business.”

When one is president, Mr. Obama said, “as opposed to the head of private equity firm, then your job is not simply to maximize profits, your job is to figure out how everybody in the country has a fair shot. Your job is to think about those workers who get laid off and how are we’re paying for their retraining…. My job is to take into account everybody not just some. My job is to make sure the county is growing, not just now, but 10 years from now and 20 years from now. And so, to repeat, this is not a distraction, this is what this campaign is going to be about.”

 

-Jake Tapper and Mary Bruce

 President Obama Directly Seeks to Make Romney’s Business Experience the ‘Bain’ of His Existence – ABC News.

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Sigh of relief: City survives NATO Summit – Chicago Sun-Times

Posted by Michael B. Calyn in NATO, Opinion, Perspective on May 21, 2012


Sigh of relief: City survives NATO Summit

MARK BROWN markbrown@suntimes.com May 21, 2012 10:58PM

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Chicago Police officers keep on eye on the crowd protesting Monday, May 21. | Dan Luedert~Sun-Times Media

 

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Updated: May 21, 2012 11:28PM

Wheels up. NATO is gone. Sighs of relief all around.

No party for the Secret Service, though Mayor Rahm Emanuel took the summit press corps bowling.

Emanuel probably wasn’t among those sighing. It’s not in his nature. But he probably should have been.

Emanuel took a big political risk by bringing the NATO Summit here — lots of potential downside along with very little obvious upside to the regular working stiff.

And he pulled it off.

There were no disasters.

President Barack Obama and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen gushed over Chicago having provided a “great showcase,” presumably reflecting the views of other world leaders.

The video clips of Chicago Police clubbing heads of protesters may not help the next tourism campaign, but overall, it was hard to argue with the performance of Supt. Garry McCarthy’s department.

Some of the protesters weren’t real happy, but their injuries will mend, and their lawsuits will eventually be resolved, plus the First Amendment got some exercise.

Chicago will get back to work Tuesday without any appreciable hangover from the weekend’s activities.

By not failing, Emanuel and Chicago succeeded.

Emanuel naturally delivered a much rosier assessment Monday afternoon, arguing Chicago received the kind of international attention that will drive foreign investment and tourism dollars here in the future.

I hope that’s true, though I would caution it’s tricky to gauge benefits that could take years to materialize, while it was apparent to anybody downtown that Chicago was operating at anywhere from half to three-quarters speed for about four days.

The most obvious immediate beneficiary of the summit was the private security industry, which must have set a record for rent-a-cop employment.

You only had to round the corner of Harrison and Michigan during Sunday’s protest march to be reminded of how high the stakes were for Emanuel.

In the foreground were grim-faced members of the Illinois State Police in full riot gear making the first real display of police muscle on the protest route as they steered the demonstrators wide into the far lanes of traffic beyond the median.

In the background was the apparent object of their defensive positioning: the Chicago Hilton and Towers, better known as the Conrad Hilton during the 1968 Democratic National when it was the scene of some of the fiercest — and most well broadcast — tussles between antiwar protesters and Chicago Police.

The message was clear to anybody with a sense of history: We’re not going to do that again, not here, not today.

After the 1996 Democratic National Convention at the United Center, everyone declared the ghosts of 1968 — and the lingering image it gave the city — to be dead.

But the fact is the police were never tested in 1996 to the extent that they were expected to be during NATO, and doubts remained about whether they were ready.

The real test came at the end of the march, when the crowd was asked to disperse by the event’s organizers.

I was there and witnessed part of what happened, and I’ve watched the video and spoken to my colleagues who were even closer to the action. I think most of us on scene agree the police did a good job, with the possible exception that they didn’t always differentiate between the elements of the crowd who meant them harm and those who just hung around too long.

Some of the protesters who got clubbed weren’t trying to cause trouble, and the tactic of squeezing the crowd almost got some folks seriously trampled.

But this was no police riot either. Police executed a disciplined, tactical strategy that was fairly obvious in its unfolding to those on the street.

The problems were started by a relatively small portion of the protesters who wanted to push through the police lines to reach McCormick Place. Everybody knew the police weren’t going to allow that.

Did Emanuel’s police erase the memories of Dick Daley’s police in 1968? I wouldn’t say that. But there’s no new memory of a major embarrassment to follow around Emanuel or the city either.

Having survived our brush with world leaders, maybe in the future we could just have them back one at a time.

 Sigh of relief: City survives NATO Summit – Chicago Sun-Times.

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NATO Chicago is a tale of two cities – Chicago Sun-Times

Posted by Michael B. Calyn in NATO, Opinion, Perspective on May 21, 2012


NATO Chicago is a tale of two cities

RICHARD ROEPER rroeper@suntimes.com May 20, 2012 2:06PM

 Story Image

At times this weekend, Chicago looked like a scene from “The Walking Dead.”

Updated: May 21, 2012 3:18PM

I’m walking down Dearborn Street in River North on Sunday.

Not the sidewalk. The street.

Traffic closures have rendered Dearborn as eerily empty as a zombie-free street in “The Walking Dead.”

Meanwhile, other pockets of the city have jammed tight with humanity over the weekend — thousands of Occupiers, hundreds upon hundreds of police, nearly as many media.

Such was the dual personality of downtown Chicago in one of the strangest weekends I’ve ever seen. Escalating protests, major traffic shutdowns leading to ghost-town square blocks, some folks just going about their weekend business as if nothing unusual was happening, Sox and Cubs squaring off at Wrigley Field …

And even though there’s a lot of Summit left to be played, I can’t help but ask: Tell me again why this was going to be so great for Chicago?

Two sides to every story

Even with so many professional and amateur camera operators capturing so many angles of the protests, you’re still going to get “Rashomon” versions of confrontations.

Occupiers say a police van deliberately ran over a protester in the South Loop on Saturday; police say protesters tried to push the van and block it from moving through traffic. And Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said Sunday that the driver of the police van suffered a concussion.

Occupiers will tell you some cops are intimidating, bullying, beating. Police will tell you some Occupiers are taunting them and instigating physical confrontations, and they’re just trying to control the situation. There’s footage to bear out both arguments.

Things got ugly Sunday afternoon when protesters and police clashed at Michigan and Cermak. News crews and amateur videographers captured footage and images of cops clubbing protesters, and protesters throwing metal barricades and other objects at police. Some protesters were bloodied. Arrests were made. There was a massive shoving match pitting uniformed cops vs. the most stubborn of the protesters.

If you’re a masked protester, and you’re screaming obscenities in the face of a police officer or throwing something at him, how does that advance whatever cause you’re advocating? How does that help you get your message to NATO? Did you come to Chicago to mix it up with the cops or try to change the world?

The biggest story: the “NATO 3” arrested on terrorism charges.

Friends and defenders of those charged said it was a joke — these guys weren’t making Molotov cocktails, they were making beer. An attorney representing the men said his clients are victims of “a Chicago police set-up, entrapment to the highest degree.” But police said the suspects warned “Chicago doesn’t know what it’s in for.” The police raid yielded written plans for making pipe bombs, a mortar gun, swords, a crossbow, ninja knives.

Interesting craft beer technique.

Rules of engagement

On Saturday, protesters congregated outside Rahm Emanuel’s house.

This isn’t the first time activists have marched past or gathered outside the mayor’s home. Regardless of the cause, I think protesting at someone’s house, especially if the resident has children, is a punk move.

On the silly side, there was the protest against Rush Limbaugh last week outside the WLS-AM studios. From 4-6 p.m., protesters waved signs with messages like, “Rush Must Go,” while a mike-checking activist told us he “hates” Limbaugh and called him a piece of “s—” who must be fired. Kind of a mixed message there if you’re going for, you know, tolerance and free speech for all.

Also, Limbaugh doesn’t broadcast his show from Chicago. He’s a thousand miles away. Not to mention he’s on the air from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. From 2-6 p.m., it’s Roe Conn and me. Different show.

Utterly pointless protest.

 NATO Chicago is a tale of two cities – Chicago Sun-Times.

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For Emanuel, risk hosting summit ‘will pay off’ – Chicago Sun-Times

Posted by Michael B. Calyn in NATO on May 21, 2012


For Emanuel, risk hosting summit ‘will pay off’

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter/fspielman@suntimes.com 

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Mayor Rahm Emanuel, discuss this weekend NATO Summit as the event draws to close today. May 21, 2012 I Scott Stewart~Sun-Times

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Updated: May 21, 2012 10:23PM

Mayor Rahm Emanuel had the most to lose from the NATO summit — having stuck his neck out to get it and squeezed business leaders to spend $36.5 million to fund it — and he appears to have emerged from Chicago’s dance on the world stage relatively unscathed.

“A lot of people were irritated by all the inconvenience. But in the perspective of time, he will come off looking rather well in comparison to the mayor of Seattle, who lost his re-election bid because of disturbances” tied to the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting, said former independent alderman Dick Simpson, head of the political science department at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

“We were able to host world leaders. It came off well. It heightens Chicago’s image and shows that we have come out from the cloud of 1968. It looks like we’ve grown up past that period of confrontation in our history.”

Despite the ugly image of baton-wielding Chicago Police officers squaring off against the protesters who tried to provoke them, Emanuel’s administration is getting high marks for its preparation and performance during the NATO summit.

Snow plows were used as an imposing blue barrier to keep protesters at bay. Bicycles purchased for the summit and strategically used by police gave new meaning to Emanuel’s vow to make Chicago the nation’s most bike-friendly city.

Police officers well-equipped, well-trained and smartly instructed to turn the other cheek kept arrests and confrontations to a minimum.

And if it weren’t for the “Black Bloc” of anarchists hell-bent on destruction, the city’s painstaking negotiations with at least three major groups of protesters would likely have resulted in precisely what the U.S. Constitution guarantees: the peaceful exercise of First Amendment rights.

“I can’t tell you how pleased we are,” the mayor’s chief-of-staff Theresa Mintle said Monday.

“From the nurses on Friday to the protest [against mental health clinic closures] at the mayor’s house on Saturday to the Iraqi war veterans on Sunday, they were all very respectful. It was those other folks who ruined it for everybody else — literally a handful.”

Her boss went a step further.

Emanuel compared the NATO Summit to the 1893 Columbian Exposition and said it showed “While Chicago has the title of ‘Second City,’ because of the NATO summit, we have shown the world that we are a world-class, first-class city.

“If Seattle in 1999 was a lesson of what not to do, I think Chicago will be a lesson of what to do,” the mayor said. “Our police department did a tremendous job over four days, and they handled themselves with incredible discipline and professionalism.”

Nobody gained more personally from the summit than Police Supt. Garry McCarthy, who emerged as somewhat of a rock star.

Dressed in his uniformed white shirt, tie, pants and hat with no helmet or body armor, McCarthy stood on the front lines calling the shots like a football coach calling plays from the sidelines.

If there was any lingering resentment about McCarthy’s New York pedigree, it was washed away by the cool demeanor he showed and apparently learned while doing the same at New York’s Ground Zero after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“It wasn’t just his presence alone at the NATO protests. It was his delegation of authority and his support of the troops standing ten feet in front of him,” said Fraternal Order of Police President Mike Shields, crediting McCarthy with stepping up NATO training and purchasing more face shields for officers in response to union concerns.

“He did an amazing job in leading a group of Chicago Police officers in serious riot circumstances. Our officers did not engage with protesters going overboard, taunting and ridiculing our officers. They remained professional. I hope the public remembers that professionalism during our contract negotiations and during pension reform talks.”

For many Chicagoans, the most enduring image of the summit will be the half-empty trains and buses they rode to work or the Friday and Monday they stayed home because the companies they work for closed their doors.

That makes it tough to imagine how Chicago can possibly cash in on the $128 million short-term boost to the local economy predicted by a NATO Host Committee consultant.

“If you try to argue the post-mortem strictly on dollars, you’ll probably come up short. When you consider the real cost of shutting down business and closing the city, the cost probably exceeds the immediate direct benefit,” said Donald Haider, the former Chicago budget director and mayoral candidate now serving as a professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

But, he said, “I’m not one to jump in and say the whole thing was a disaster. … The benefits of this have to be the intangibles because that was one of the primary purposes: marketing Chicago and opening up Chicago to a prestigious international audience in a way that can lead to tangible long-term benefits: foreign visitation; foreign investment and eliminating a legacy we still have from 1968.”

Marc Gordon, president and CEO of the Illinois Hotel and Lodging Association, said the gathering of world leaders gave Chicago “exposure it desperately needs” to bolster international tourism.

“I went to the party and there were so many delegates who said, ‘Gee, I never realized how beautiful and wonderful and clean the city is,’” Gordon said.

“Hopefully, that will translate when they go back to their countries, talk about Chicago, and we get future visits. In that sense, it definitely was worth it.”

The city’s costs for overtime, equipment and operations have not yet been tabulated. But, City Hall is sticking to its long-standing claim that the $36.5 million raised from corporate donors and the $19.1 million in federal security grants identified for reimbursement will be enough to keep Chicago taxpayers off the hook — even if summit arrests trigger another round of lawsuits against the city.

Ald. Joe Moore (49th) said Chicago “stood head and shoulders above” Seattle and Pittsburgh after similar gatherings of world leaders.

“There was obviously a risk hosting this summit, but the risk will pay off in terms of increased stature for the city and increased stature for Rahm Emanuel,” Moore said.

“I was impressed by the fact that Supt. McCarthy was there on the ground watching his officers’ backs — literally. That certainly helped the morale of his troops and made them aware they were being watched and had to behave accordingly — and they did under trying circumstances.”

 For Emanuel, risk hosting summit ‘will pay off’ – Chicago Sun-Times.

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NATO drives Loop workers to couches at home, suburban restaurants – chicagotribune.com

Posted by Michael B. Calyn in NATO on May 21, 2012


NATO drives Loop workers to sofas, suburbs

Worried about protesters and traffic, companies tell employees to telecommute

By Rex W. Huppke, Kristin Samuelson and Jim Jaworski, Chicago Tribune reporters

9:03 p.m. CDT, May 21, 2012

Larry Fritz and two colleagues spread their paperwork out across a small, four-seat table in a Panera Bread restaurant in Oak Brook, preparing for an important client meeting amid potato-chip crunching patrons and the occasional gurgle from a nearby soda fountain.

The three insurance brokers would normally be in the downtown Chicago office of Marsh USA. But this was NATO Monday, and like a lot of people, they found a way to work elsewhere.

“We were concerned about getting out of there and getting to our meeting,” Fritz said. “So we left (the office) a couple hours early and just set up here. It’s working just fine.”

Employees from companies large and small spent Monday behind iPads in suburban coffee shops or dialing into conference calls from their kitchen tables, all to avoid the final day of the traffic-snarling NATO summit at McCormick Place.

By 9 a.m., only about 50 of the 1,300 employees of Morningstar Inc.were in the office. The rest, like Matthew Butz, were telecommuting. He worked from the sofa of his Rogers Park apartment.

“I’ve got some ‘Judge Mathis’ on the TV in the background on low volume and I’m jumping on calls from my cellphone,” Butz said. “My girlfriend’s here too. She’s working on her laptop.”

The absence of a huge swath of the workforce left downtown streets oddly quiet, with many outdoor seating areas empty and sidewalks lacking the usual weekday congestion and bustle. Those who did head to their offices savored uncrowded trains and buses.

Matt Valin took the CTA‘s Blue Line to work as a project manager for Diasend, which makes software for diabetes testing. He said it was one of the best commutes he has had.

“It’s not a problem at all,” he said. “It’s kind of nice. Nobody is out here. The trains were empty. It was beautiful.”

At the food court in the Shops at North Bridge mall on Michigan Avenue, tables sat empty and there were few lines for food.

“This is definitely light,” said engineer Andrew Murray, who eats lunch at the food court once or twice a week. “I usually have to look around to find a place to sit.”

Macy’sspokeswoman Andrea Schwartz said there was a dip in local traffic at the store’s two downtown locations Monday.

“Today we’re not seeing a whole a lot of local area workers in the (State Street) building, but we’re still seeing visitors, and over the weekend, we saw more international customers than normal, and we’d credit that to NATO,” Schwartz said.

The headquarters of Boeing at 100 N. Riverside Plaza on the Chicago River was the site of a large protest Monday. Only a couple of dozen of the 500 employees who work there ventured in to the office, said spokesman John Dern.

“We told folks last week the office was going to be open today — and it is open today — but we encouraged most everybody to stay home or work remotely from a safe place,” Dern said. “It was too unpredictable.”

 NATO drives Loop workers to couches at home, suburban restaurants – chicagotribune.com.

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Rahm Emanuel: Successful NATO Summit shows Chicago ‘city on the move’ – Chicago Sun-Times

Posted by Michael B. Calyn in NATO on May 21, 2012


Rahm Emanuel: Successful NATO Summit shows Chicago ‘city on the move’

BY STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporter seposito@suntimes.com May 21, 2012 6:32PM

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Mayor Rahm Emanuel discusses this weekend’s NATO Summit at OEMC at 1411 W. Madison as the event draws to a close today, May 21, 2012. | TOM CRUZE~Sun-Times

 

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Updated: May 21, 2012 6:51PM

 


Mayor Rahm Emanuel looked back at the NATO Summit weekend Monday evening and calmly declared it a success — on par with one of the biggest events in Chicago history, the World’s Columbian Exposition more than a century ago.

The mayor, speaking at the Office of Emergency Management on the Near West Side, said the meetings that ended Monday after bringing dozens of leaders and thousands of protesters to the city again put Chicago on the map.

“As the exposition of 1893 showed the world that Chicago was a city on the move at the end of the 19th century, the NATO Summit once again showed that Chicago is a city on the move at the start of the 21st Century,” he said.

He said if it wasn’t clear before, the city is capable of huge hosting international affairs.

“As the president said, we are the ‘City of Big Shoulders.’ We are also a world class city that can put on a world class event,” Emanuel said.

Emanuel noted that several world leaders visited the city for the first time, including British Prime Minister David Cameron.

“He met with entrepreneurs … and leaders of Chicago companies to expand our economic ties. The prime minister and I talked about strategies as it relates to education and what we could do to exchange ideas.”

Emanuel said the brutal clashes Sunday between riot-gear clad police and anarchist demonstrators not far from McCormick Place, where President Barack Obama and others were meeting inside, also showed the ability of Chicago Police to keep the peace.

“They did a tremendous job under a very stressful situation,” he said. “ … They made every one of us proud of the finest police department in this country.”

He contrasted the police work to what happened in Seattle in 1999, when tens of thousands of protesters shut down the city and the World Trade Organization meeting. If Seattle “was the lesson of what not to do, Chicago will be a lesson of what to do. Our police department did a tremendous job over four days.”

And Emanuel said he still supported protesters’ rights to be heard — even when it got personal and they marched in front of his North Side home in a demonstration Saturday to protest closings of city mental health centers.

 Rahm Emanuel: Successful NATO Summit shows Chicago ‘city on the move’ – Chicago Sun-Times.

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World is watching Chicago’s NATO clashes? Not exactly – Chicago Sun-Times

Posted by Michael B. Calyn in NATO on May 21, 2012


World is watching Chicago’s NATO clashes? Not exactly

By Lauren FitzPatrick Sun-Times Media lfitzpatrick@suntimes.com May 21, 2012 4:50PM

“The whole world is watching,” crowds shouted Sunday afternoon as Chicago police reacted to unruly protesters with wooden batons.

Only maybe the world wasn’t, at least according to its newspapers. The scuffles after anti-NATO rallies left nary a blip on front pages of major international dailies.

An informal survey of global front pages Monday showed Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb, who died Sunday, held more ground than coverage of the NATO Summit in Chicago.

And only in a few major American papers outside of Chicago —­ The New York Times, Washington Post and Dallas Morning News — did photographs of the clash between blue-helmeted cops and black-clad demonstrators greet morning readers.

The Philadelphia Inquirer and Atlanta Journal Constitution showed the Iraq Veterans Against the War march but not the violence that erupted after it.

Berlin’s Der Tagesspiegel featured a photo and story of the NATO summit, as did Athens’ Ethnos. Tokyo’s The Japan Times featured a large photograph from the G8, originally scheduled to be held Friday and Saturday in Chicago but moved months ago to Camp David in Maryland.

The dearth of global coverage isn’t surprising, said Kelly McBride, a senior faculty member at the Poynter Institute.

“That doesn’t mean that the protests aren’t big news if you live next to them, but there tends to be a certain predictability to the protests,” she said.

“Usually the only time they make news is if there is an inappropriate police response. It tends to get attention if it’s deemed way over the top.”

Chicago Police arrested at least 45 people. Four police officers and several protesters were treated for injuries related to Sunday’s march and aftermath, at least one of whom was taken to a hospital.

 World is watching Chicago’s NATO clashes? Not exactly – Chicago Sun-Times.

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Obama on NATO Summit: Leaders ‘loved’ city – Chicago Sun-Times

Posted by Michael B. Calyn in NATO on May 21, 2012


Obama on NATO Summit: Leaders ‘loved’ city

By Lynn Sweet and Abdon M. Pallasch Chicago Sun-Times Staff Reporters May 21, 2012 5:48PM

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President Barack Obama smiles during his news conference at the NATO Summit in Chicago, Monday, May 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

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Updated: May 21, 2012 7:14PM

 


Closing out the Chicago NATO Summit, President Barack Obama said Monday “Chicago performed magnificently,” encouraged global leaders to shop while they were here, thanked residents who endured traffic jams and said the protestors had a right to demonstrate.

“Obviously, Rahm was stressed. But he performed wonderfully,” Obama said of the mayor, his former chief of staff who brought the summit to the city.

Obama made his comments at a press conference at McCormick Place where he revealed that among the gifts the U.S. gave global leaders were small replicas of an iconic Chicago landmark, the “Bean” sculpture in Millennium Park and footballs–to mark the leaders dinner Sunday night at Soldier Field.

“I have to tell you, I think Chicago performed magnificently. Those of us who were in the summit had a great experience. If you talk to leaders from around the world, they loved the city.

“Michelle took some of the spouses down to the South Side to see the Comer Center, where wonderful stuff is being done with early education. They saw the Art Institute.

“You know, I was just talking to (British Prime Minister) David Cameron. I think he’s sneaking off, doing a little sight- seeing before he heads home.

I encouraged everybody to shop. Want to — want to boost the hometown economy. We gave each leader a bean, a small model for them to remember, as well as a football from Soldier Field. Many of them did not know what to do with it.

“ So I — people had a wonderful time. And I think the Chicagoans that they interacted with couldn’t have been more gracious and more hospitable. So I could not have been prouder.”

Obama gently scolded the Chicago press for its coverage of the downside side of the Summit–the inconveniences and the demonstrators drawn to the city to object to the world’s strongest military alliance.

“Now, I think with respect to the protesters, as I said, this is part of what NATO defends is free speech and the freedom of assembly. And — and you know, frankly, to my Chicago press, outside of Chicago, folks really weren’t all that stressed about the possibility of having some protesters here because that’s what — part of what America is about.

“And obviously, Rahm was stressed. But he performed wonderfully.

“And the Chicago police — Chicago’s finest did a great job under, you know, some significant pressure and a lot of scrutiny. The only other thing I’ll say about this is thank you to everybody who endured the traffic situation.

Obviously Chicago residents who had difficulties getting home or getting to work or what have you, you know, that’s — what can I tell you? That’s — that’s part of the price of being a world city.

“But this was a great showcase. And if it makes those folks feel any better, despite being 15 minutes away from my house, nobody would let me go home. I was thinking I would be able to sleep in my own bed tonight. They said I would cause even worse traffic. So I ended up staying in a hotel, which contributes to the Chicago economy. “

 Obama on NATO Summit: Leaders ‘loved’ city – Chicago Sun-Times.

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Chicago braces for last day of large NATO protests – NATO – Salon.com

Posted by Michael B. Calyn in NATO on May 21, 2012


MONDAY, MAY 21, 2012 12:27 PM CDT

Chicago braces for last day of large NATO protests

As the NATO summit winds down, protests continue as commuters deal with heightened security in downtown Chicago

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS, AP

 

Anti-NATO protestors form a barricade in front of mounted police officers during a march, Saturday, May 19, 2012, in Chicago. On Sunday, the start of the two-day NATO summit, thousands of protesters are expected to march to the McCormick Place convention center, where NATO delegates will be meeting. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)(Credit: AP)

CHICAGO (AP) — Demonstrators launched another round of protests Monday in the final hours of the NATO summit, targeting Boeing headquarters and a suburban community that could become the site of a detention facility to hold illegal immigrants.

On the second and last day of the international meeting, the demonstrations were notably smaller than weekend protests that drew thousands into the streets.

Outside Boeing Co.’s headquarters, a relatively small crowd of protesters gathered in the street. Some released red and black balloons and confetti or blew bubbles. Others staged a “die-in,” lying on the ground as if dead.

An orange barricade blocked off the building’s entrances, and dozens of police officers stood guard. A police boat idled in the nearby Chicago River.

Occupy Chicago contends tax breaks for the aircraft manufacturer have deprived the state of millions of dollars. The group also objects to Boeing’s role in producing military hardware for the U.S. and its NATO allies.

Illinois leaders see such tax incentives as a way to attract large companies that bring thousands of jobs.

Targeting Boeing Co.’s Chicago office makes symbolic sense: The company is a major defense contractor that makes fighter jets, bombs and missiles.

But the Chicago office is just the headquarters for a much larger operation. The company employs more than 170,000 people across the United States and in 70 countries. Illinois doesn’t even rank in the top eight states in terms of the number of Boeing employees.

Boeing’s building was largely deserted Monday because it was among many Chicago companies that told workers to stay home because of the risk of traffic snarls and more protests.

In a statement, protesters seized on that as a victory: “Our call to action shut down the Boeing war machine.”

After the Boeing demonstration, immigration-rights activists planned to go to the small village of Crete, about 35 miles south of Chicago, where federal officials are considering building an 800-bed detention facility for illegal immigrants slated for deportation.

For commuters, the threat of more large protests meant navigating numerous transportation changes and tolerating inconvenient security rules.

More than two dozen rail stations were closed along a line that normally carries 14,000 riders in from the south suburbs. Platforms were being patrolled by a large contingent of law enforcement personnel and K-9 units. The Chicago Transit Authority rerouted 24 buses through a zone that included the lakeside convention center where world leaders were gathered.

On commuter trains, passengers were prohibited from bringing food or liquids — including coffee — and could only carry one bag.

“Now I have to buy my lunch. They are making me spend money,” said Pete Dimaggio, a credit manager.

But commuters who did brave their daily trip were finding something unusual: an abundance of seats on trains and buses, a sign that many workers heeded warnings to avoid going to the office.

Sunday’s protest march was one of the city’s largest in years, with thousands of people airing grievances about war, climate change, economic inequality and a wide range of other complaints. But the diversity of opinions also sowed doubts about whether there were too many messages to be effective.

Some of the most lasting images of that march were likely to be from a clash at the end, when a small group of demonstrators tried to push beyond a line of police blocking access to the site where world leaders were discussing the war in Afghanistan, European missile defense and other security issues.

Some protesters hurled sticks and bottles at police. Officers responded by swinging their batons. The two sides were locked in a standoff for two hours.

Forty-five protesters were arrested and four officers were hurt, including one who was stabbed in the leg, police said.

 Chicago braces for last day of large NATO protests – NATO – Salon.com.

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