CHICAGO, Ill. – A new suit filed in federal court today charges the City of Chicago with several civil liberties violations when it targeted an anti-war organizer for arrest during a press conference he was participating in on the 2nd anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Hours after the arrest, two other activists who had been arrested, Pat Vogel and Rev. Dan Dale, heard Town Hall police officer Nenad Markovich say that the police were targeting Andy Thayer for arrest on March 19, 2005, and that police would "wade into the crowd" to arrest him if necessary.

Two days before the press conference, one of the scheduled speakers at it, Alderman Joe Moore, was told by a Chicago police officer assigned to the City Hall Task Force that he and others would be arrested if they attempted to hold the press conference. Alderman Moore therefore decided to not speak at the press conference.

At the heart of today's suit is a challenge to the city's repeated use of its disorderly conduct ordinance as a way to shut down or sideline protest activities that aren't favored by the city's administration. Thayer's National Lawyers Guild attorneys, Jeff Frank, Charles Nissim-Sabat, Jon Loevy and Kurt Feuer, note that several key elements of the disorderly conduct ordinance mimic provisions of the old gang loitering ordinance which has been declared unconstitutional by the Illinois and federal supreme courts.

According to the complaint, "Thayer uttered no more than two sentences [speaking at the press conference] before he was physically grabbed by Commander Chiczewski, placed under arrest, and taken into custody." The press conference had been called to denounce the city's refusal to grant a permit for an anti-war march on Michigan Avenue on the second anniversary of the war.

This year and last year, perhaps reacting to now overwhelming anti-war sentiment in the country, the city has granted permits for anti-war marches on the third and fourth anniversaries of the invasion. This year's march will be on Tuesday, March 20th, beginning with a 6 PM rally at 24 W. Walton Street, followed by a 7:30 PM march down Michigan Avenue to another rally at Daley Plaza.

More information about this year's protest can be found at www.M20coalition.net. The most thorough history of anti-war organizers' 1st amendment battles with the city can be found at www.ChicagoFreeSpeechZone.com. A pdf copy of the suit is below.