Mass arrests at Occupy Chicago tonight

Withywindle

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Sun Oct-16-11 03:32 AM
Original message

Mass arrests at Occupy Chicago tonight

Surprisingly fast, in-depth, and sympathetic blog post in the Chicago Tribune. We'll see how much of it is still there in the morning.

"Chicago Police started arresting Occupy Chicago protestors in Congress Plaza just after 1 a.m. Sunday, about 90 minutes after police issued their first warning that the group was violating municipal code.

Officers approached protesters individually, who had formed a human chain and sat on the ground, to give them the option to leave the park voluntarily or be arrested.

As of 1:30 a.m., at least 50 protesters had been hauled away, while about 150 others stood continued their demonstrations from across the street on Michigan Avenue.

The arrests were mostly peaceful, though many people shouted that the police "were the instruments of the one percent," referring to the movement's popular refrain."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-occupy-chicago-protesters-relocate-to-grant-park-20111015,0,3664663.story

The article does have the usual problem of grossly understating our numbers, though. The 6:30 PM march from La Salle & Jackson (Chicago Board of Trade, Federal Reserve, Bank of America) to Grant Park had at LEAST 3,000 people, and I know I"m lowballing that. We were originally supposed to stay on the sidewalks, but that was soon acknowledged to be completely fucking impossible; by a higher law than the CPD's, the laws of physics.

By 11 PM there was still a very large crowd in Grant Park, and a whole hour of conflicting reports about whether the police were going to try to clear the park or not. When it became (sort of) clear that they would move and that arrests would probably happen, the "people's mike" system (someone shouts out the news and the crowd repeats it line by line) warned people who were not willing or able to be arrested in plenty of time to move.

THis is pretty much exactly the same spot where the DNC police riot of '68 went down, as it happens.

In fact, the cops arrived, and then there was a very weird hour and a half of limbo while two large groups of protesters, the willing-arrestee park occupiers and the group who decided not to but stayed chanting and supporting the others from across Michigan Avenue (the group I was in), didn't know what was going to happen, and the cops didn't really seem like they did either. This was a LARGE police presence, with trucks and horses and the whole bit, but their orders seemed a bit confused for quite some time.

Eventually they did start making arrests, at a little after 1 AM. There were still several hundred people across Michigan Avenue, chanting, bearing witness, and having an impromptu dance party (with sousaphone).

I didn't always have a very good vantage point to see what was going on, so I hope more people who were there can add more info (and some photos, I don't have a camera on my phone), OCCUPY EVERYWHERE!