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LOCAL News :: Protest Activity

Peace activists have day in two courts

Peace activists battled the city of Chicago in two courtrooms Wednesday, saying police improperly halted a protest against the Iraqi war and city officials wrongly denied permits for two other demonstrations.
In U.S. District Court, attorneys sought class-action status for a lawsuit filed 22 months ago that says protesters were herded into an area cordoned off by police clad in riot gear. The suit contends the police then arrested hundreds of the protesters without justification, using excessive force in some cases.

Meanwhile, an attorney for the Chicago Coalition Against War and Racism presented oral arguments before an administrative hearing officer in the Daley Center in an appeal of the city's second denial in as many years of a permit for a march on Michigan Avenue on March 19, the anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Activists hope to put the city on notice that it's "essentially unconstitutional" to disrupt or prevent protests "on hot-button issues," said coalition spokesman Andy Thayer.

The city has defended its handling of the protest that shut down Lake Shore Drive on March 20, 2003, the day after the Iraq invasion.

And Brian Steele, spokesman for the Chicago Department of Transportation, which denied the permits, said the city is merely trying to balance competing rights.

"It comes down to trying to strike a balance between the rights of any group to march or demonstrate on a public way with the rights of all those who will be impacted by it," he said. "It's not based on the content of the event."

Last month, the Transportation Department denied the permit to march along the three southbound lanes of Michigan Avenue from Oak Street to Randolph Street, then west to State Street, south to Adams Street and west to the Federal Plaza at Dearborn Street.

"That route would have a significant negative impact on traffic" including private vehicles, buses and pedestrians, Steele said. "It also would negatively impact a lot of the businesses and residences in the area."

The city has offered an alternative route along Clark Street, south from Bughouse Square at Walton Street to Adams, then east to the Federal Plaza. Protesters used that route last year after the city rejected their Michigan Avenue plan.

Thayer said the city provides a permit every year for the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association's Festival of Lights Parade. "They make accommodations for that freedom of speech, but not our freedom of speech," he said.

Chicago Ald. Joe Moore (49th), who took part in the early stages of the 2003 march and later held hearings on the police response to it, said the city's denial of the permit was a reaction to the "unjustified" fears of Michigan Avenue merchants.

But Steele said the parade is "completely different." It takes place in the evening, rather than the afternoon, runs only along Michigan and involves many police-trained traffic-control volunteers, he said.

In federal court Wednesday, attorneys for the city played videotapes of police arresting protesters on Chicago Avenue just south of Michigan in 2003. Police in riot gear could be seen hitting protesters they arrested on the legs with batons.

"Officer Friendly, we didn't come out here to knock heads with you," a protester shouted on a bullhorn. "This is a peaceful protest." But at least one protester also is heard shouting profane epithets at police.

Protest leaders said more than 800 people were taken into custody. Police said 543 people were arrested, 351 of whom were charged. Charges against hundreds were dropped, but dozens of people pleaded guilty and were sentenced to supervision.

Moore, who took part in the protest before it shut down Lake Shore Drive and before the arrests were made, said police "did overreact, and as a result, we have a lawsuit that could cost the city millions of dollars." U.S. District Judge David Coar asked attorneys to file briefs and replies by March 3 before he makes a ruling on whether to certify the case as a class action. Without that certification, plaintiffs would be forced to file individual lawsuits if they chose to pursue their claims.
 
 

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