When it comes to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago, the rules are strict and quite different for protesters as the Occupy Chicago protesters find themselves arrested late Saturday night.
After a peaceful demonstration lasting the better part of the day on Saturday, many of the 2,000 protesters moved to Grant Park, expecting to be given the same leeway given peaceful protesters in other parts of the country. However, protesters were warned to leave Grant Park and ultimately arrested when they refused to leave the public park. Early Sunday morning after 1:30AM, protesters began shouting ‘Shame on Rahm!’ which reminded observers that there was much more tolerance of the Occupy Wall Street-styled protests elsewhere, including New York City where the protests began some weeks ago.
Prior to the move to Grant Park where the arrests took place, individuals spoke before the protesters about their views on America and their reasons for taking part in the protests. The many reasons persons gave included tremendous dissatisfaction with and distrust of the U.S. government, as well as concerns about wealthy Americas.
While sitting, protesters formed a human chain, refusing to leave the area when police told them individually to leave late Saturday night. When they refused to leave the Park, the police arrested one-by-one. When the arrests were enacted, there were a couple hundred persons remaining amongst the protesters. Earlier in the day, at its peak, approximately 2,000 Occupy Chicago protesters were in the city rallying to voice their concerns and causes.
There were other chants from the protesters besides:
Shame on Rahm!
WGN radio reported that protesters also chanted:
[The Chicago Police] were the instruments of the one percent.
Also, it was reported that protesters revisited the chant of Chicago’s 1968 Democratic National Convention protests and riots by yelling:
The whole world is watching.
Chicago Police claim they were enforcing a municipal code which closes city parks overnight.
Source: WGN, CBS
Comments