• Create new account
  • Request new password

Search form

CIMC Alerts Blog

BREAKING: Press conference TODAY, 5:30pm, 3340 W. Fillmore St,, Chicago Police Department Organized Crime Division

Cops raid Bridgeport home, step up harassment of NATO activists; NLG lawyers to hold press conference tonight. Read more. Be the media -- tweet your coverage here! @natoindymedia @chicagoimc.

Chicago Action Medical opens Wellness Center for NATO protesters

As activists gear up for a week of protests to oppose NATO's permanent war agenda abroad and austerity and inequality at home -- and across the world -- Chicago Action Medical has moved to open its Wellness Center for NATO protesters. Click here for schedule and contact info.

spacer
more

Featured Stories

Mayor must order cops to release protesters, say anti-NATO activists

Posted: Thu, 2012-05-17 22:04
Author: Chris Geovanis, Chicago Indymedia Locality: Local

spacer Mayor must order cops to release protesters, say anti-NATO activists

Chicago police abducted eight anti-NATO protesters last night after breaking in the door on their Bridgeport apartment just before midnight Wednesday. Police are denying they have the anti-NATO activists in custody, even though attorneys have independently verified the raid with eyewitnesses and confirmed that at least some of the activists are in police custody. Cops reportedly produced a warrant that was blank, and also entered and searched an adjacent apartment in the same building. NLG attorney Sarah Gelsomino described the activists as ‘disappeared.’

According to witnesses in Bridgeport, police broke down a door to access a 6-unit apartment building near 32nd & Morgan Streets without a search warrant. Police entered an apartment with guns drawn and tackled one of the tenants to the floor in his kitchen. Two tenants were handcuffed for more than 2 hours in their living room while police searched their apartment and a neighboring unit, repeatedly calling one of the tenants a "Commie faggot." A search warrant produced 4 hours after police broke into the apartment was missing a judge's signature, according to witnesses. Among items seized by police in the Bridgeport raid were beer-making supplies and at least one cell phone.

Call mayor Emanuel at 312-744-5000 and police superintendent McCarthy 312-744-4000 and demand the immediate release of the activists.

Read more.

Cops raid Bridgeport home, step up harassment of NATO activists

Posted: Thu, 2012-05-17 16:50
Author: NLG Chicago Locality: Local
spacer

PRESS RELEASE
Chicago Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild
For Immediate Release: May 17, 2012
Contact: NLG Legal Worker Kris Hermes 510-681-6361 or NLG Attorney Sarah Gelsomino 773-520-8246

National Lawyers Guild Condemns Preemptive Police Raids & Unlawful Searches on the Streets
Early morning house raid in Bridgeport and harassment of activists indicates intolerance of free speech rights

NOTE: Press conference to be held TODAY at 5:30pm at 3340 W. Fillmore Street, the Chicago Police Department's Organized Crime Division

Chicago, IL -- The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) condemns a preemptive police raid that took place at approximately 11:30pm Wednesday in the Bridgeport neighborhood, and instances of harassment on the street, in which Chicago police are unlawfully detaining, searching, and questioning NATO protesters. The Bridgeport raid was apparently conducted by the Organized Crime Division of the Chicago Police Department and resulted in as many as 8 arrests.

According to witnesses in Bridgeport, police broke down a door to access a 6-unit apartment building near 32nd & Morgan Streets without a search warrant. Police entered an apartment with guns drawn and tackled one of the tenants to the floor in his kitchen. Two tenants were handcuffed for more than 2 hours in their living room while police searched their apartment and a neighboring unit, repeatedly calling one of the tenants a "Commie faggot." A search warrant produced 4 hours after police broke into the apartment was missing a judge's signature, according to witnesses. Among items seized by police in the Bridgeport raid were beer-making supplies and at least one cell phone.

"Preemptive raids like this are a hallmark of National Special Security Events," said Sarah Gelsomino with the NLG and the People's Law Office. "The Chicago police and other law enforcement agencies should be aware that this behavior will not be tolerated and will result in real consequences for the city."

In another incident, 3 plainclothes police officers unlawfully stopped, handcuffed, and searched a NATO protester on Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive at approximately 2pm today. According to the protester, he did not consent to a search and there was no probable cause to detain him. The police also photographed and questioned him about where he was from, how he got to Chicago, how long it took, what he was doing here, where he was staying, who he was with, and how long he was planning to say in Chicago. The protester refused to answer any questions and was eventually released.

The NLG has received reports that at least 20 people have been arrested so far this week, and two people are still in custody, not including the Bridgeport residents who are still unaccounted for. One of the protesters currently being detained, Danny Johnson of Los Angeles, has been accused of assaulting a police officer during an immigrant rights rally on Tuesday afternoon. However, multiple witnesses on the scene, including an NLG Legal Observer, recorded a version of events that contradict the accusations of police.

During the week of NATO demonstrations, the NLG is staffing a legal office and answering calls from activists on the streets and in jail. The NLG will also be dispatching scores of Legal Observers to record police misconduct and representing arrestees in the event the city pursues criminal prosecutions.

# # #

CPD's Plan to Silence Media Coverage

Posted: Thu, 2012-05-17 12:10
Author: cimcww Locality: Local
spacer

Beginning with the foreboding words, “NOT INTENDED FOR GENERAL DISTRIBUTION. FOR MEDIA GUIDANCE ONLY” CPD has begun prepping mainstream press for this weekend’s actions. While the entire PDF can be seen here (generally distributed, nonetheless): www.inba.net/userfiles/file/CPDgroundrules_051612.pdf, some important “Ground Rules” are clearly intended for independent journalists. Such as:

”...media access generally will be the same as public access. Credentials will, however, allow media personnel access to media-only areas. No “cutting” in and out of police lines will be permitted, or “going up against their backs.” Those who follow protesters onto private property to document their actions are also will be subject to arrest if laws are broken.”

”Any member of the media who is arrested will have to go through the same booking process as anyone else. Release of equipment depends on what part the equipment played in the events that led to the arrest.”

”...the Chicago Police Department does not intend to “break ground” in terms of enforcing the Illinois eavesdropping law. In short, police will not interfere if we videotape or record audio of police activities, including arrests.”

”Reporters who carry backpacks should be prepared to show their content to police. You may be asked to fire up and demonstrate any equipment that does not look familiar to officers.”

”It is the intent of Chicago Police to provide close access, with direct vision and contact with those entering and leaving events/marches/rallies. But police emphasized that those who choose to walk amid the protesters are “on your own.”

Chicago protests racist immigration policies

Posted: Tue, 2012-05-15 22:39
Author: CIMC Locality: Local
spacer

For a full list of actions leading up to the 18-21 protests against NATO, see the calendar. All need coverage and participants!

Father José Landaverde and Occupy El Barrio led a march against immigration detention from Little Village to downtown Chicago, ending outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Chicago Immigration Court. CIMC caught up with organizer Crystal Vance Guerra after the event. She noted that, "This is the second day of actions leading up to the NATO summit," and the action is "addressing issues that impact us here in Chicago, but also making connections to NATO."

Vance Guerra asked why "the city of Chicago is willing to put in money to fund a summit of people who are propagating wars across the globe." "How is it we have money for war and [immigration] detention but not education?" she asked. "There's all this money for war but not for the people."

Marchers rallied outside the Our Lady of Guadalupe Anglican Mission in Little Village then marched to the Lincoln Methodist Church in Pilsen. They met up with Occupy members and marched downtown to the Chicago Immigration Court at Van Buren and Clinton to hold a press conference and rally against ICE policies. Activists then picketed the space and several activists blocked the doors for over an hour, restricting access to the building. Two of the activists blocking the doors, José Landaverde and Emma Lozano, were arrested after police demanded protestors vacate the space "at request of building management." While the building management's requests were quickly headed, the protestors requests for and end to deportations were disregarded by the police.

spacer

After Fr. Landaverde and Lozano were arrested, the crowd rallied to form another picket and march where two other activists were arrested after police demanded they stay on the sidewalk. Vance Guerra said, "When we got to the bridge […] the cops lined up with as many bikes as they could find [to block the street]. One of the young guys who was arrested was crossing the street […] and they arrested a guy from Occupy El Barrio who we all saw as on the sidewalk."

Vance Guerra noted how NATO and US immigration policy overlapped in another, perhaps less intimately connected way, systemic White supremacy. She noted that "the way immigration is controlled in this country is racially motivated." Further, NATO's wars are being fought against "non-White nations, it's all connected."

For more photos see the NATO Indymedia facebook page.

For video of the action see Unedited Camera's archived livestream.

Chomsky: A protest against NATO is a protest against endless war and the global military machine

Posted: Mon, 2012-05-14 09:06
Author: CIMC Locality: Local

Leading dissident political analyst and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor of linguistics Noam Chomsky voiced his support for planned protests at the 18-21 May NATO summit in Chicago. Chomsky notes how--according to US and NATO propaganda and the logic of the Cold War--NATO should have disbanded with the Warsaw Pact in 1991. It's continued existence and indeed, extension east to former Warsaw Pact countries, shows that NATO became an "international intervention force under U.S. command" with an "official commitment" to "defend the global energy system." Prof. Chomsky winds up by noting that "a protest against NATO is in fact a protest against a vast military machine which of course has no counterpart anywhere and the prospect of endless war and destruction." Finally, he encourages protestors to link up with the Free Bradley Manning Contingent in support of Manning, who allegedly leaked classified materials to Wikileaks in an action unparalleled since Daniel Ellsberg released the Pentagon Papers.

For a full calendar of actions please visit the NATO Protest website.

See his full statement here:

Mayor 1% blinks: Emanuel restores nurses' NATO protest permit

Posted: Sat, 2012-05-12 00:43
Author: CIMC Locality: Local

spacer Mayor 1% blinks:
City restores nurses' NATO protest permit

In a stunning display of the power of popular outrage, the City of Chicago has reversed its revocation of the protest permit for National Nurses United. The

gipoco.com is neither affiliated with the authors of this page nor responsible for its contents. This is a safe-cache copy of the original web site.