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Reporting from the protest. |
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As I got off of the Red Line train at Jackson, I was greeted by the sound of sirens, as at least a dozen police trucks pulling horse trailers screamed down the street. As we walked down the street looking for Federal Plaza, I could hear small groups of protestors chanting as they also headed to the protest. It was a cool rainy day in Chicago, it had been hailing just a few minutes before during the train ride, but there were still a lot of people at the plaza at 4:30 when I got there a half hour early. The mood of the crowd was in some intangible way different than in past protests, more urgent, and more agitated. There were a wide variety of people there, from teamsters, to Vietnam vets, from little old ladies to young punk rockers, anarchists, and hippies. Before the rally officially began, there were drummers and chanters with megaphones, leading chants like, "drop Bush, not bombs", and "Exxon, Mobile, BP, Shell, take your war and go to hell". There were also a lot of very creative signs, including: "killing for peace is like fucking for chastity", and "when Jesus said love thy neighbor, he probably meant don't kill them". There were many speakers, speaking over a PA that was provided by a supporter. One man, whose name I missed, was a teamster representative and Vietnam vet, who spoke about how his war experience turned him against this unjust war. There were also student peace activists, and speakers who lead protest songs. Many of the speakers were already hoarse from a long morning of chanting at the civil disobedience earlier that day. To me, the most moving speaker, also the last speaker, was Aaron Patterson, a man who was a death row inmate for 17 years who was tortured into a confession and falsely imprisoned. He was pardoned by governor Ryan, and has been politically involved ever since. At this time the crowd started to get anxious to march. The police did their best to block off the street, and not allow people to march, which was defeated by mega phoned shouts of, "Make a hole mother fuckers!" and, "you've got a right to cross the street, they can't arrest you for that". The crowd, unable to march in the direction they wanted to turned around, and took the streets in the other direction, chanting, "Who's street? Our street!" The march went from Federal Plaza through the loop, where we were joined with another march or nearly equal size that came from the left, other than that I don't know where they came from. We then marched all the way to Lake Shore Drive northward. At first we only took up the 4 north bound lanes, as far as I could see ahead of me, and at least a quarter mile behind me, but after at least ten or 15 minutes of marching, the police blocked off the northbound lane, so we jumped over the barricade into the southbound lane as well. At the next intersection the protest spread back across the northbound lane as well, blocking traffic in all 8 lanes, both directions, it was a beautiful thing. A sense of invulnerability seemed to surge through the crowd. Fifteen thousand people marching through the streets is a very powerful feeling, a feeling of victory. We marched past cars stopped in the middle of the south bound lane, im sure some of them were angry, but for the most part, every one I saw was waving peace signs out of their windows, high fiveing people out of their sunroofs and honking in support. We marched all the way past Navy Pier, and further north, after a while I thought we would march all the way to the northern end of Lake Shore, but instead, the march turned off to the left, through a park, and attempted to march down Michigan Ave. This is where the shit hit the proverbial fan. We ran into a wall of Chicago gangster cops in full riot gear blocking the street in every direction, riding draft horses, and swinging clubs. The stand off lasted an hour or so. Some of the protestors had a cart full of drums, and cymbals, others had trumpets and other musical instruments, as well as megaphones. The group played the drums in rhythm, while the trumpeters played Yankee Doodle Dandy, and the theme from Star Wars, along with other songs I didn't recognize. For a while, it was the biggest party i've ever been to. The crowd began to chant, "who's street? Our street!" and, "This is a peaceful demonstration". I could see people staring out of their windows in the Drake building, towering above us. I was towards the back, but the people in the front were less than 10 feet from a row of pigs at least 20 rows deep, with a row of horses in the very front. The sound of the crowd at this point was enough to make my ears ring. We were all chanting, "Let us march!" in rhythm to the beating drums, and the pounding of sign poles on the pavement. Some people, who I believe may have been undercover cops, began trying to convince people to try to march back towards lake shore, to get around the police, but they were also greeted by riot squads with shields and clubs goose stepping like nazi storm troopers. Cell phones played a large role in this conflict. At some point the news reported that the pigs were about to use tear gas on us, and the news got to us by cell phone, some of the organizers went through the crowd telling people that if they have asthma or medical problems, that they should go ahead and leave now. At this point the chant changed to, "We will march!" and the pigs started advancing. They charged forward, their horses high stepping trying to trample anyone in their path. Instantly the crowd decided as a group to march southward on the inner lane of lakeshore, the opposite direction we had been marching, i'm sure the trampling hooves of the pig-horses had something to do with that. This is where everything went bad. The police started beating people, cuffing them with zip strips, and dragging them violently across the pavement, while the crowd shouted, "Shame!" while others shouted, "Fucking Pigs!" Anyone who had a bandana had it up over their face by this point, to protect from the gas we all thought was coming. The pigs drove us further down lakeshore, walling off all side streets that anyone tried to escape down. The crowd was fairly panicked at this point. The police were arresting people and beating them indiscriminately. Finally, we were allowed to march down a side street, trying to get off of lakeshore, we should have known the goddamn pigs were leading us into a trap! Im not from Chicago originally, and I don't live in the Loop, so I don't know the name of the street, but it went past Water Tower Place, and it was the perfect place for a trap. There was a solid row of buildings on the left, a high stone wall on the right, and, as we found out when we got to the intersection, a wall of police at least 20 deep directly in front of us. Meanwhile, the pigs that had been following us since Michigan filed in behind us, into an equally deep wall of blue helmets behind us. The standoff lasted for several minutes; no one really had any idea what we were supposed to do at this point. We watched while at least 2 sheriffs busses pulled in front of us, and somewhere near 50 paddy wagons pulled in behind us Many people began shouting, "sit down in the street," but when the wall of blue-clad brownshirts began marching forward, beating people with clubs, only a hardcore few actually did sit down. Most people, myself included ran backwards, trying to get onto the sidewalk, in the hopes that people not in the street wouldn't be beaten. I saw hundreds of people dragged away by their arms or legs, cuffed by police, and then beaten. I saw one cuffed man kneed in the head and kicked by pigs, and then dragged limp across the pavement. You might call me a sell out, but I was on the sidewalk, I don't have health insurance, and I sure as hell don't have bail money. By now, most of the crowd was ready to dissipate, but the terrorists in blue held us hostage there for almost 3 hours. At one point, the police in front said that anyone who wanted to go home peacefully should line up on the sidewalk, head towards the lake (behind us), and they would let us leave. Most of the crowd lined up in the going peacefully line, however, when people got to the row of pigs behind the demonstration, they were told that they weren't going anywhere. Anyone who asked when they would be allowed to leave was arrested and beaten. At this point I called 911 for the first time. I told the women that the police were holding us hostage, and she said, "Well, you're out there for a good cause." I asked her what the police wanted us to do, in order to leave peacefully and not be arrested, and beaten. She replied, "well, you'll have to ask the police that." I responded, telling her that anyone who asked that question was arrested and beaten. She said, "Well then, you should probably try to stay away from the police," helpful information. At this point, it was around 9 PM, the protest had started at 5, and everyone was dead tired and scared. I met lots of interesting people in this period of captivity, a bunch of college kids, also as scared as we were, as well as some older demonstrators, who had been through all of this in the 60's and 70's, who seemed less scared. I talked to one man who was a high school teacher, he borrowed my cell phone to arrange for someone to call in for him, and arrange a substitute the next day, in case he was arrested, I don't know if he was or not. Many other people also called 911, none got any useful information, and one woman was hung up on. Other people began calling any media sources that they had the numbers for. Most were told that the police were trying to make us leave, but we refused to go anywhere, instead of the truth, that we were hostages. By 10, the police became more violent, driving everyone off of the left hand sidewalk, circling the remaining protestors (hostages) on all sides, except for the side with the high stone wall. The government thugs then advanced from the front, tightening around us like a noose, arresting and brutalizing everyone who was still in the street. As they advanced, they swung their clubs, forcing people on the already packed sidewalk to jump into the streets to avoid being beaten. Once they were on the streets, they were arrested and dragged off violently. At some point, the sheriff buses left, and then came back for a refill. Somewhere around this point, I called 911 again. I told the operator that we were still being held hostage, and that people were being beaten and brutalized, and she said, "Well, you shouldn't have been there in the first place!" As the song says, 911 is a joke! Luckily, we were towards the back end of the hostage situation, but not far back enough to be within reach of the rear wall of pigs. We were leaning against the high stone wall on the right side, which luckily turned out to be the safest place we could be. I saw many of the organizers of the event arrested, along with most of the people who looked out of the mainstream, like punks, hippies, queers for peace, and kids with dreadlocks. Many of the pigs were laughing or smiling about how fun it was to beat up these pacifist wimps, or maybe it was just the double overtime they were being paid from our own tax dollars to arrest and brutalize people. I grew up in a town full of crooked redneck cops, so I've always hated the police, but these pigs are an entirely different kind of criminal than i'm used to. It's nice to see that Daley the second is living up to Daley the first's shining record of civil rights violations, and police brutality. Around 11:30 the pigs began to let people leave, but we couldn't tell if the people were leaving on their own, or being led off in cuffs, because the cops were blocking our view. We could just tell that the crowd was getting smaller. One young woman near me asked if we were in line to leave, or lining up to be arrested, I honestly told her I didn't know. They let us leave two by two, to make sure that we couldn't regroup and use our constitutional right to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. They also took people's signs, and ripped patches and buttons off of people's shirts, and took peoples flags. I was told that one person wearing an upside down flag patch on his shirt was forced to turn the flag right side up, or be arrested. The pigs said," you people go straight home, if we see you on the street we will arrest you". On the way out, I asked one of the gangsters in blue if he could tell me which direction the red line was, so I could follow his demands to go home immediately, he said, "that's not my job, find your own fucking way home!" We did eventually find the red line, and made it home around 12:30. All, in all, there were 15,000 protestors, and over 800 arrests, more women than men. Most were still in jail by 5 pm the next day, so they couldn't attend the next day's protest, where the police outnumbered the human beings. Reports say that they were held 32 to a 12X12 foot cell, many for over 28 hours, and were only fed 2 bologna sandwiches in that time. They were held in jails that were not in the districts that they were arrested in, and most had no way to get home after they were released. Welcome to the Police State! The clampdown has only just begun, if you doubt that, just do some research into the patriot act. I now know what it must have felt like to be German in early 1933, before people knew what was just around the corner. If you think im exaggerating, read your history, and look around you, the parallels are chilling. I hope that by now, all of you can feel the nooses tightening around your own necks, while your freedoms are taken away under the thinly veiled lie of homeland security. This may be your last chance to do something about it, before its too late, I hope you all take action while you still can, before reading something like this is made illegal. -Justin |
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