Thousands defy cops to protest war
By
Lou Paulsen
Chicago
Published Mar 23, 2005 3:24 PM
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.
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.”
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