Thousands defy cops to protest war

Despite Democratic Mayor Richard Daley’s suspension of constitutional rights in Chicago on March 19, thousands stood up to the police and marched in protest of the Bush administration’s wars on Iraq, Palestine, Haiti, Colombia and the rest of the world.

Chicago, March 19.

After a one-hour standoff with the pol ice, a thousand protesters marched down Dearborn Street to Federal Plaza, where they joined 3,000 who had gathered for a permitted rally keynoted by Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney.

The main march was preceded by a dozen neighborhood actions and feeder marches, including pickets at the Colom bian and Israeli consulates, the offices of Leo Burnett—the Army’s ad agency—and the headquarters of Boeing.

Hundreds of heavily armed police and sheriff’s deputies turned the “Magnificent Mile” shopping district into a war zone in their determination to prevent a scheduled news conference at Michigan and Oak and a sidewalk march down Michigan Avenue.

Police busted up the press conference, arresting organizer Andy Thayer for attempting to speak to reporters.

Veteran community organizer the Rev. Paul Jakes led chants as the protesters were forced away from the news conference site and met protesters from the other feeder marches. Surrounded by a police cordon, the bulk of the protesters refused to take a police-dictated route down a more isolated street, and finally were able to proceed down Dearborn.

In the weeks preceding the demonstration, organizers of the protest had fought a grueling and ultimately unsuccessful court battle for a permit.

Coalition organizer Chris Geovanis, writing at the Chicago Indymedia Web site, concluded: “We should never, ever again participate in the sham that is the ‘permit’ process in Chicago... [T]he thugs in power make—and change—the rules as they go along.”