The NATO/Occupy protest have all wrapped up here in Chicago. I thought I'd talk a little bit about what I noticed, over the last few days.
First, I missed what happened at the beginning of the protests...I was out of town Friday and Saturday (partly on purpose), and was not downtown very much on Sunday (although my sister and several friends were). I work pretty close to the Boeing Building though, so I saw a lot of the events on Monday.
First, the number of people protesting was waaaay less than anybody expected.It was certainly less than what the cops were expecting, which is why they showed up looking like they were going to invade Indiana, not watch over a few hundred college students. The event organizes were expecting several thousand more protesters, as were Chicagoans in general (which is why so many avoided downtown during the weekend). I understand Sunday was the largest day, but many of the Monday events had less than a thousand people, and I also understand that Sunday's events were boosted by a Nurses convention that was happening at the same time.
There had been anti-NATO graffiti or posters around the city for a fairly long time...I started seeing it in my neighborhood back in March. I'm not sure if the promise of a heavy police presence deterred people, or just lack of interest.
The general consensus is that things went fairly smoothly. There were some minor scuffles on Sunday, and perhaps a bogus arrest right before the Summit (more on this in a second), but given the high tensions, this was NOTHING like say, Oakland. Some of the scuffles can be blamed on an anarchist presence, and also some people actively trying to get arrested. Others could be blamed on bad police work.
One interesting thing I've noticed the OccupyChicago people doing is taking a more local approach. I think this is key. #Chicago likely has one of the largest Occupy chapters...the official twitter account has over 30K followers, and many have estimated that among the various local groups, there are as many as 5,000 actual occupiers. Recently, they've turned their guns at the Mayor's closing of 12 community medical centers (for budget reasons). One of these is just around the block from my house, in a mostly Hispanic neighborhood. There are 2 people that are camping on the sidewalk there, and during the late afternoon, there are as many as 5 people there with signs. I dunno how effective camping is, but drawing attention to a real, tangible issue is a good start.
The most troubling thing for me is the news about the arrest of 3 activists on suspicion of terrorism charges. Lawyers for the defendants claim the 3 were just brewing beer, not making Moltov Cocktails...and info from the city has been sporadic at best. This is a pretty significant problem....Chicago's public institutions (the courts, and ESPECIALLY the Mayor's Office) have not been responsive to the public...and there are a lot of unpopular measures that are being heavily pushed through a rubber stamp city council.
I see Occupy groups as a possible real progressive voice to help check that sort of technocratic power, but only if they start doing real engagement. For one thing, these protests were almost exclusively white (and with a lot of out of towners). Chicago is only about 1/3 white, and has a comparatively small working-class white population. There are a whole lot of poorer blacks and latinos who are being left behind in the city, but little effort has been made to effectively organize their voices. The OccupyPress headline was something about occupying the PGA.
Really? Do you think the Mexicans in the west side, without subway service or police, give a flying crap about discrimination in professional golf? When THIS is the picture of the protest, you are not being effective.
What do you guys think?
First, I missed what happened at the beginning of the protests...I was out of town Friday and Saturday (partly on purpose), and was not downtown very much on Sunday (although my sister and several friends were). I work pretty close to the Boeing Building though, so I saw a lot of the events on Monday.
First, the number of people protesting was waaaay less than anybody expected.It was certainly less than what the cops were expecting, which is why they showed up looking like they were going to invade Indiana, not watch over a few hundred college students. The event organizes were expecting several thousand more protesters, as were Chicagoans in general (which is why so many avoided downtown during the weekend). I understand Sunday was the largest day, but many of the Monday events had less than a thousand people, and I also understand that Sunday's events were boosted by a Nurses convention that was happening at the same time.
There had been anti-NATO graffiti or posters around the city for a fairly long time...I started seeing it in my neighborhood back in March. I'm not sure if the promise of a heavy police presence deterred people, or just lack of interest.
The general consensus is that things went fairly smoothly. There were some minor scuffles on Sunday, and perhaps a bogus arrest right before the Summit (more on this in a second), but given the high tensions, this was NOTHING like say, Oakland. Some of the scuffles can be blamed on an anarchist presence, and also some people actively trying to get arrested. Others could be blamed on bad police work.
One interesting thing I've noticed the OccupyChicago people doing is taking a more local approach. I think this is key. #Chicago likely has one of the largest Occupy chapters...the official twitter account has over 30K followers, and many have estimated that among the various local groups, there are as many as 5,000 actual occupiers. Recently, they've turned their guns at the Mayor's closing of 12 community medical centers (for budget reasons). One of these is just around the block from my house, in a mostly Hispanic neighborhood. There are 2 people that are camping on the sidewalk there, and during the late afternoon, there are as many as 5 people there with signs. I dunno how effective camping is, but drawing attention to a real, tangible issue is a good start.
The most troubling thing for me is the news about the arrest of 3 activists on suspicion of terrorism charges. Lawyers for the defendants claim the 3 were just brewing beer, not making Moltov Cocktails...and info from the city has been sporadic at best. This is a pretty significant problem....Chicago's public institutions (the courts, and ESPECIALLY the Mayor's Office) have not been responsive to the public...and there are a lot of unpopular measures that are being heavily pushed through a rubber stamp city council.
I see Occupy groups as a possible real progressive voice to help check that sort of technocratic power, but only if they start doing real engagement. For one thing, these protests were almost exclusively white (and with a lot of out of towners). Chicago is only about 1/3 white, and has a comparatively small working-class white population. There are a whole lot of poorer blacks and latinos who are being left behind in the city, but little effort has been made to effectively organize their voices. The OccupyPress headline was something about occupying the PGA.
Really? Do you think the Mexicans in the west side, without subway service or police, give a flying crap about discrimination in professional golf? When THIS is the picture of the protest, you are not being effective.
What do you guys think?
None of the usual suspects could figure out how NATO fit into the protest. That should be a pretty clear tip off that the turnout is going to be small. Loads of down town folk were reinforcing their windows and heightening security in all kinds of manners, both business and residential. It seemed way overhyped to me. Most of the working class folk I talked to during the lead up said they didn't think it was going to be a big deal, as well.
