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Thursday in Chicago: Happy Protesters Lovely, Bored Policemen Nasty

Thursday night's anti-war demonstration in Chicago:
crowd full of postive energy
police force unnecessarily violent



First I want to say that all the protesters I encountered tonight were extremely sweet and peaceful. As we were gathered in the face of the dreadful reality that war had begun, people connected and kept their humor during the long wait to find out what the law had in mind for each of us.





I was among those released from the holding area on Chicago Avenue at 10:45. Here is my account of the unnecessary verbal and physical abuse by policemen that I both experienced and witnessed.





I tried to leave the crowd and was told I could not take the empty sidewalk and quietly exit. Instead, I was ordered, by a male police officer, to go through the mob in the middle of Chicago Avenue to get to Michigan Avenue. I headed that way, where police were lined up on the western end of the crowd, and the paddy wagon buses were parked. Then these policemen and policewomen started to move toward the lake and push the people together. As I felt myself getting crushed, I recalled the recent e2 nightclub disaster. I thought of how useful this would be as an example in crowd control training at the cop academy. I don’t think they covered that topic. As I backed up and returned to where I had tried to get permission to escape, that same officer pushed me in the chest BACK INTO the CROWD, and when I tried to explain that I was just getting away from being smooshed, he barked his order to get off the sidewalk. Fortunately, I managed to get out of the mass of bodies within a few minutes so I could catch my breath and notice how hard that policeman had pushed me.





I also witnessed a man being dragged by four cops, each taking a limb with one hand and beating him with billy clubs with the other hand. How could he have needed to be batted down when they had all of his limbs. I doubt that he could have even used his teeth on anyone, based on his body’s position. I did not witness what prompted the policemen to carry him off in this manner, but there were more peaceful, civil ways to remove him from the crowd.





Around 10:15, a woman who may have been a mediator/lawyer told us that we could go if we lined up in threes and were peaceful. I followed the request and lined up with two newfound friends from the evening. I was wearing my banner like a shawl and a very nice policeman told me to take it off and asked if it had any pins sticking out. I took off the anti-war pins and put them in my pocket without any trouble. Then a different officer took my banner and tossed it behind him on the ground.





I had painted the words “no more violence, please” on this sheet right after 9-11-01, when the U.S. made the decision to bomb Afghanistan. I didn’t think I’d be hanging the banner in my window so often throughout the course of a year and a half. I also didn’t think I’d be untying it from the curtains to bring to bi-monthly protests, whose frequency had escalated to once a week, and twice since Sunday. And, I didn’t plan to I would lose the peaceful banner to police custody. No one told me I was not allowed to write words on cloth and wear them around my shoulders. My words were subtle, polite, and not even read by those who threw it onto the street.





Following the request to be peaceful wasn’t such an easy thing to do. It’s not because people were obnoxious or destructive. It’s because using a soft, polite, tone-of-voice to ask a question is not peaceful enough. A guy in front of me in the exit line was carrying a banner. A tall officer with a brown-and-graying mustache named Boone snatched it out of his hand abruptly. He did this with a frightening venom seeping out of his pores, with the anger of someone whose initial requests to hand over an item were refused. The presumedly college-aged man said, “Why are you taking my banner?” and Officer Boone yelled at him. He ordered the other policemen to cuff the guy. Then he badgered him as to why he would question the officer. The guy said, softly again, “I just wanted to know why you took my banner.” Boone couldn’t stand it. He roughly grabbed an empty plastic bag that the guy was carrying and smacked it to the ground. Then he pushed him toward the police, ready with handfuls of plastic handcuffs.





The guy was arrested just for asking why harmless personal property was taken away.


Is this even legal? Does anyone know the answer to this question? (Please don’t take me to the clink for asking. J )





Another legal question for those in the know: Unless the police reviewed their surveillance cameras, they could not prove which of us were on Lake Shore Drive. Several people joined the crowd after it left Lake Shore Drive, which leaves the possibility that some of us were not on LSD. While a great deal of people were on Chicago Ave. at the time we were blocked in, some were walking on the sidewalks, which seems like something we should be able to do in our “freedom-loving nation.”





In response to an article from a couple of hours ago, I think the general mood of the crowd was indeed jubilant. People were a bit tired and at times frustrated that we didn’t know what was happening and what the police were planning to do. But, all in all, everyone I encountered was accepting of the consequences of the protest. And while dealing with being held, having to pee, & not knowing what was up, it was the most good-natured crowd I’ve ever seen.





My feeling is that protesters were energized by both each other and the impact of the event. Of course we have not achieved our goal to stop this war, but we did gain attention in the form of extended live coverage on local media, where we showed that our intentions are peaceful.





“War! War! What is it good for?


Absolutely nothing.


Say it again!”
 
 

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