NATO 2012

The fight began in New York, it escalated in the Bay Area and it's new front line lies directly in the windy city.  As of this weekend Chicago has become a battle ground.  Protesters from all walks of life and with vastly diverse political interests converged this week leading up to today's start to NATO and the G8 meetings.

To get a better idea of the events leading up to last nights melee take a gander at this publication entitled, NATO So Far...

Make of this what you will, but there's a big uproar over this police van supposedly hitting a protester.

Just last night the We Are Change crew had a nasty run in with some of Chicago's finest.

Meanwhile earlier in the week...

Supporters of three men arrested in a Wednesday night raid at the Bridgeport apartment of Occupy Chicago activists were gathering at the Cook County Criminal Courthouse at 26th and California for the arrestees’ noon bail hearing. Each was slapped with a bond of $1.5 million; Cook County States’ Attorney Anita Alvarez had originally asked for $5 million bonds for each, and trotted out a litany of charges deployed in the first-ever use of the state’s anti-terrorism statutes, claiming the Florida residents, Brian Church, Jared Chase and Brent Betterly, were making Molotov cocktails and planned to hit targets that included Obama campaign headquarters and Emanuel’s house. All three men had earlier in the week released a video that documented their targeted harassment by Chicago police, a tape which is said to have enraged local cops.
OWS

This is getting scary now, police officers with a grudge arresting three men and charging them with terrorist crimes, those powers should not be in the hands of low level officers with petty self interests in mind.  The lives of three men now lie in the hands of the system because of the word of a few embarraced police men.  What a sad state of affairs.

The Chicago Tribune sounds like they support the actions of the police when they say:

The three were charged Friday with conspiracy to commit terrorism and other crimes. The men planned to attack Mayor Rahm Emanuel's home, President Barack Obama's campaign headquarters in the Loop and "certain downtown financial institutions," prosecutors said.

Prosecutors say the men were members of the "Black Bloc" — a group of self-proclaimed anarchists whose tactics typically involve wreaking chaos within otherwise peaceful protests. The challenge for Chicago police has been to guard against that sort of trouble while shepherding thousands of nonviolent demonstrators around town safely.

I'll leave you with this for now...
"Be safe, look out for one another, organize in small, accountable groups of affinity and trust, Stay calm, and remember why we traveled to Chicago - to stand in the face of a war machine that acts recklessly beyond transparency and accountability to the people it affects and claims to represent - and to say we want a world free of war and oppression."

3 Anonymous Occupiers

UPDATE:

“His mother was watching a live stream and she saw him in the front line,” Dee said. “Then it panned away, then she saw him holding his head. Then it panned away, and then she saw him being carried off by three police officers.

“His mother is so worried about him. We want to know if he is okay.”

A police officer eventually confirmed that Dee’s boyfriend was indeed there. However, she had no idea how he was doing.

This sounds eerily like the beginning of straight up disappearing people.  Rounding up a few hundred protesters, claiming they were plotting a terrorist attack and holding them indefinitely without any information being given to their loved ones.  The article goes on to say:

“There have been a lot of people calling asking if we know what happened to this person or that person,” said another attorney waiting outside, who said she was with the National Lawyers Guild but who declined to be identified. “Most of those arrested will probably never get a phone call, never get food, and often times, never get medical attention.

The police club you over the head, drag you down to the station, disregard your rights and treat you worse than an enemy combatant.  Sometimes just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Other times for breaking laws that are hardly ever enforced, and many times for merely stating ones beliefs too loudly.  Learn more over at the Sun Times.