Occupy Chicago Prepares for NATO

Even though the G8 participants have fled the great city of Chicago in order to bunker down at Camp David, organizers and protesters continue to diligently prepare for the other major conference scheduled for this week, NATO.

Protest plans were announced by activists during a press conference held in an empty warehouse loft on Chicago’s South Side last week, where press gathered to hear the next steps for the Occupy movement. The conference, organized by Occupy press committee member Rachael Perrotta, and speakers from Occupy affiliated groups, included the speakers’ listing grievances against NATO and also what the public can expect for the week-long protests.

Occupy City Hall: Protesters Want Permits For NATO, G8 Summits, Want Charges Dropped

Occupy Chicago protesters will gather outside of City Hall Wednesday afternoon to protest the alleged police harassment they experienced over the weekend, and to vocalize their desire to demonstrate "within sight and sound" of the G8 and NATO summits next May, NBC Chicago reports.

The Chicago Coalition Against War and Racism will join Occupy Chicago at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the intersection of LaSalle and Jackson for the rally. According to CCAWR, the arrests of more than 300 peaceful protesters in recent weeks were basically practice for the crackdown the city is planning in May.

Over the summer, activists expressed anger with comments made by Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy, who told the Chicago Sun-Times that police would be trained for "mass arrests" in advance of the summits.

Jailed Occupy Chicago Protesters Describe Harsh Treatment By Police, Plan To Picket Rahm Emanuel's Office

Occupy Chicago protesters are angry and plan to make their feelings known to Mayor Rahm Emanuel after many of their supporters spent 24 hours or more in jail over the weekend for refusing to leave Grant Park when it closed Saturday night.

Officers began placing metal barricades around the area of Chicago's Grant Park known as Congress Plaza about 11:10 p.m. Saturday, minutes after the park had closed. Afterward, police then went through the crowd and warned people to leave or risk arrest for remaining in the closed park in violation of a city ordinance.

Protesters were hoping to spend the night in the park, and petitioned Emanuel earlier in the week asking for a place to demonstrate without risking arrest. Apparently, they were not granted that request.

Several of the protesters who stayed inside the barricades in the park sat on the ground. Others locked arms as police circled and then began arresting people.

"One: We are the people! Two: We are united! Three: The occupation is not leaving!" demonstrators shouted. Others joined in from just outside the park.

Police again arrest Occupy Chicago protesters in Grant Park

Chicago police arrested about 130 Occupy Chicago protesters starting about 1 a.m. today after the group returned to Grant Park for the second weekend Saturday night and tried to maintain a camp in the park after its official closing time.

Police estimated that the crowd that showed up for a rally earlier in the evening peaked at around 3,000 people by the time protesters arrived in Congress Plaza at Michigan Avenue and Congress Parkway after a march from Federal Plaza in the Loop.

As the 11 p.m. park closing approached, more than 100 people decided to stay in Congress Plaza in the park as several hundred more moved onto a nearby sidewalk or 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.