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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=tanstl@aol.com href="mailto:tanstl@aol.com">David Sladky</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=dlj725@hughes.net
href="mailto:dlj725@hughes.net">dlj725@hughes.net</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Monday, January 09, 2012 5:21 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Proposed Chicago anti-protest laws to be
permanent</DIV></DIV>
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face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
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<H2>Proposed Chicago anti-protest laws to be permanent</H2>
<H5>By Alexander Fangmann <BR>9 January 2012</H5>Not even a month has passed
since Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, a Democrat, requested that the Chicago city
council enact what he termed “temporary” and “one-time only” anti-protest
measures in advance of the overlapping NATO and G-8 summits that will be held in
the city from May 15-22. During a press conference held on January 4, Emanuel
claimed that he “misspoke,” and that many of the proposed antidemocratic
ordinances will in fact be permanent.<BR>Emanuel, who resigned as President
Obama’s Chief of Staff in October 2010 to take the position of Chicago mayor,
told reporters: “I made a mistake. Real simple, OK? I thought when I answered
the question, I was answering the question about contracting, OK? So, if I made
a mistake, I bear the responsibility.” According to Emanuel, only the powers
given to the mayor for the purpose of concluding contracts in relation to the
meetings will be temporary.<BR>The new laws will impose drastically increased
fines on protesters, increasing the maximum fine assessed against those found to
be resisting arrest or “aiding escape” from $500 to $1,000. The maximum duration
of demonstrations would also be reduced by 15 minutes, to two hours. In
addition, public parks and beaches would “open” at 6 AM, two hours later than
they do currently. Loud noise, music or amplified sound would only be legal
between 8 AM and 10 PM.<BR>Other provisions impose onerous requirements on
parade organizers, and allow the city to levy punitive fines when they are
violated. For example, one of the new regulations demands as part of the permit
application process “a description of any recording equipment, sound
amplification equipment, banners, signs, or other attention-getting devices to
be used in connection with the parade.” Another regulation requires the presence
of one parade marshal per 100 marchers.<BR>One notable change gives the police
superintendent the power to deputize law enforcement officials from other
agencies, including the FBI, DEA, ATF, Illinois State Police, Illinois Attorney
General, Department of Justice, Cook County State’s Attorney and other
unspecified agencies.<BR>Even the temporary measures relating to contracts,
referred to in the <EM>Chicago Tribune </EM>as “blanket spending authority,”
have implications for the protesters, as they allow Emanuel to conclude
contracts for, among other things, security and logistics.<BR>Democratic mayors
such as Emanuel have spearheaded efforts, coordinated with the Obama
administration, to shut down, intimidate and stifle emerging social protests.
The proposed Chicago ordinances, taken together, represent an escalation of
these efforts.<BR>As with other NATO and G-8 summits, no expense is being spared
to facilitate the crackdown. For a combined meeting of the G8/G20 in Toronto in
2010, the Canadian government spent nearly $930 million. The French government
brought out nearly 12,000 police, gendarmes and troops earlier this year for the
G-8 meeting in Deauville.<BR>The Department of Homeland Security—the ostensible
purpose of which is to combat terrorism—has already given the city $55 million
to cover preparation costs, with much of it going to the police department to
cover security and overtime. The CPD has announced that during the summits,
police officers will work 12-hour shifts in order to deploy a third of the
city’s 12,000 officers against protesters.<BR>Underscoring police hostility to
protesters and freedom of speech, Chicago Fraternal Order of Police president
Michael Shields declared, “these aren’t 14-year-old kids running wild downtown
stealing iPhones. These are people who travel around the world as professional
anarchists and rioters. We’re concerned not only for the safety of our own
Chicago police officers but for the safety of citizens of Chicago and the
security of local business properties.”<BR>Emanuel’s appointee to the office of
Chicago Police superintendent, Garry McCarthy, was previously the director of
the Newark Police Department. Under his leadership, that department developed a
reputation for excessive use of force, discriminatory policing and retaliation
against those who legally observe or record police activity, resulting in an
investigation by the Justice Department.<BR>While the new laws were written from
the standpoint of maintaining “order” during the summits, there can now be
absolutely no question that the political establishment intends to use them
against Occupy Chicago and any other protest movement or mass movement that
develops.<BR>Already, Rahm Emanuel and the CPD have made over 300 arrests of
Occupy Chicago protesters, in attacks which are now widely acknowledged by the
media to be the precedent for those that will be employed during the NATO and
G-8 events. The justification cited for the Occupy Chicago arrests was the
violation of “park closing hours.” Those attempting to protest near the Federal
Reserve Bank of Chicago were threatened with arrest for “blocking the
sidewalks.”<BR>Emanuel was installed as mayor of Chicago in large part due to
his ruthlessness, which was deemed an essential quality for a politician charged
with the imposition of substantial budget cuts and layoffs. Since then he has
brushed aside numerous sit-ins and protests by groups whose perspective is to
apply pressure on politicians.<BR>On January 4 members of the Kenwood Oakland
Community Organization staged a sit-in at city hall to demand school reforms.
Emanuel did not meet with the parents, students or teachers who participated,
and who were told by police that they would have to leave by 5:30 p.m. or face
arrest. When the protesters tried to come back for a second day, they were
denied the use of folding chairs, placing additional burdens on some of the
older participants.<BR>As with all the other antidemocratic and reactionary
measures being passed around the world, the source of Chicago’s new ordinances
lies in the basic incompatibility between the agenda of austerity demanded by
the ruling elite and the needs and desires of the working class.<BR>On January
2, 172 workers at the Chicago Public Library (CPL) were laid off—a consequence
of Emanuel’s $3.3 million in budget cuts to the system. The CPL administration
recently announced that branch libraries would no longer be open on Mondays,
rather than the reduced hours originally envisioned when the cuts were
announced.<BR></DIV></DIV><!-- end of AOLMsgPart_1_225e05f4-7edb-4d2b-adc6-bed966ac9dae -->
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