"Chicago police get high marks for NATO protests; Crowd control tactics far cry from violent ’68 images" by Don Babwin | Associated Press, May 23, 2012
CHICAGO - The sight of Chicago police raising billy clubs against demonstrators was the kind of image that has dogged the city’s police force longer than most of those who clashed with protesters have been alive.
But after Sunday’s clash during the NATO summit played out on television, virtually no one was talking about a “police riot,’’ as they did in 1968 when baton-wielding officers waded into crowds of demonstrators during the Democratic National Convention. Nor was there the kind of criticism that was leveled at the Seattle police after a violence-plagued 1999 international summit.
Related: Sunday Globe Special: Seattle Shootout
Protest leaders outside the venue where President Obama was meeting with world leaders offered a harsh assessment of police tactics. But most others praised the police for their restraint....
From what can be assessed from publicly available accounts, officers only used their batons in face-to-face confrontations with protesters pushing against police lines, what McCarthy called “assaults’’ on his officers. They used bicycles, both to escort protesters and as portable barricades. They employed intelligence gathering, starting long before the summit.
Acting like the NYPD now.
That led to the arrests of five men on terror-related charges - including three accused of making Molotov cocktails in a plot to attack President Obama’s campaign headquarters and other targets - days before the summit started.
Oh, right, another ridiculous patsy plot set up by the Fascist Bureau of Instigation.
Perhaps most significantly was the way officers handled alleged troublemakers. McCarthy said the officers were training to “surgically extract’’ individuals who broke the law in a way that disrupted crowds as little as possible - in contrast to confronting entire crowds as the department had done in the past.
On Sunday night, for example, a few minutes after a full water bottle flew out of a crowd of protesters and into a phalanx of riot gear-clad officers in front of the Art Institute of Chicago, a team of five or six officers emerged, rushing across the street.
In seconds, they had grabbed the man they thought was responsible, dragged him back across the street and through their own front line of officers that opened up long enough for them to get by before closing ranks again.
Though there was some shouting, protesters appeared to accept what they had just seen, with some demonstrators even joking to one another that the police had, in fact, captured the man who threw the bottle.
What they did not see was the officers, in the minutes before the arrest, pass information to each other about who they thought threw the bottle, telling each other what he was wearing.
The officers may have had help. A key component in the plan to target individuals was using what is considered the most extensive surveillance system in the country. Inside the city’s emergency center, what was happening wherever protesters gathered was being watched on what looks like a movie screen.
Officials at the Office of Emergency Management and Communications could not immediately say whether workers at the center aided in that arrest but said they provided officers information to help identify Sunday’s law-breaking individuals.
Not everybody agreed the police acted properly. Whatever violence there was, said Joe Iosbaker, a protest organizer, was the fault of police, not the protesters. He tried to compare the events with what happened on the city’s streets in 1968. Dozens were arrested, and protest leaders reported a number of people hurt.
“It’s not the same proportion, but the images have to be discussed in that context,’’ he said.
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"The Americans see little prospect of a breakthrough any time soon. NATO and the United States have been using a circuitous, more costly northern route to bring supplies to the war front....
And you taxpayers facing social service cuts are paying for it.
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Related: NATO Pissed at Pakistan
I'm not.
Also see: Cabdriver gets 7 years in terrorism case
Missile Strikes Kill and Kill Again
More clean-up while we are on Illinois:
"Chicago teachers vote to OK strike" Associated Press, June 12, 2012
CHICAGO - The teachers’ frustration largely centers around Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who rescinded a 4 percent raise last year and then began pushing for a longer school day.
Isn't he a Democrap?
Teachers: the new terrorists
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"Illinois votes to end criticized tuition waivers" Associated Press, May 23, 2012
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - After years of bad publicity over cronyism and clout, the Illinois Legislature has voted to end a longstanding program that allowed each lawmaker to hand out taxpayer-funded college tuition waivers to students....
While they are cutting your financial aid!
For decades, though, waivers were shown to sometimes go to the politically connected rather than the most deserving.
Noooooooooooooo!!!
In the past year alone, a half-dozen lawmakers gave waivers to the relatives of lobbyists or friends, or violated the rules by awarding them to people who live outside their legislative districts....
Criminal charges will be forthcoming I trust?
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Is this terrorism, readers?
"Jury awards $181m to 3 in explosion" June 02, 2012
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. - A federal jury decided against ConAgra Foods Inc. and a subcontractor Friday in awarding about $181 million in damages to three workers severely injured in a 2010 explosion at a southern Illinois grain elevator.
ConAgra, based in Omaha, Neb., and one of the nation’s largest food companies, swiftly pledged to appeal the outcome of the monthlong trial, calling the accident tragic but insisting “we do not believe our actions caused the injuries.’’
“While we have insurance policies that we believe cover the full amount of this judgment, we will further defend our actions and practices as this case continues,’’ ConAgra said.
Jurors, after 10 hours of deliberation, assessed a total of $100 million in punitive damages....
Any such payouts would hinge on the outcome of ConAgra’s planned appeal, which could take months and more likely years to resolve....
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Also see: ACLU lawsuit challenges Ill. gay marriage ban
Ill. hospitals avoid taxes after strong lobbying
Hey, the blitz worked -- in both cases.
