Progress Illinois

The last day in a week of planned downtown Chicago protests related to the NATO summit were non-violent but tense, following a weekend for which police arrested 60 protesters outside McCormick Place convention center Sunday and the state of Illinois charged four protesters this weekend with plotting terrorist acts.

Sarah Gelsomino of the National Lawyers Guild claimed “there are almost 60 accounts of police brutality” stemming from yesterday’s violence outside the convention center, which is hosting the NATO summit that started yesterday and concludes today. Read more »

More than 2,000 NATO and anti-war protestors gathered in Grant Park Sunday before they took to the streets and descended on McCormick Place where world leaders are meeting for the summit.

Protestors with various causes such as ending drone attacks and promoting women’s rights overseas held signs, chanted in megaphones and waved peace signs as a heavy police presence lined the park and the surrounding streets.
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Hundreds of protesters were met by dozens of Chicago police officers outfitted with riot gear in front of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s North Side Ravenswood home Saturday afternoon. While the Mayor wasn’t home, his house was guarded by a line of officers who created a makeshift barrier using their bicycles.

The protesters, many of whom sat down in the middle of North Hermitage Avenue for about 20 minutes, decried Emanuel’s closing of six city mental health facilities. Some of the mental health advocates in attendance were patients of the now-defunct clinics.
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