Police beat corralled protesters in chicago at State and Washington: 19 May 2012 #NATO

Thousands of marchers gathered in Chicago today to continue a week of criticism directed at the arms industry, NATO, and the austerity measures carried out against social service providers on the local level.

The first of three marches on Saturday focused attention on the closures of half of the city of Chicago's neighborhood mental health clinics as 2-3 thousand people congregated in front of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's home at 4228 N. Hermitage.

Around 3:30pm, Saturday, approximately 1,000 marchers gathered at Daley Plaza to protest the raid of a Bridgeport home and terrorism charges levied against three anti-NATO activists -- a group dubbed the NATO 3, inspiring a currently trending campaign on twitter with the keyword #NATO3.

A third march, the Anti-Capitalist march, had been called to meet at the statue commemorating the international labor movement in Haymarket Square at Randolph and Desplaines on the Near West Side.

Several hundred people from the #NATO3 group marched to the South Loop, and in attempting to meet the "Anti-Capitalist" march at Haymarket were divided and redirected by the Chicago Police Department into several smaller groups. By the time the disparate marches converged near Randolph and Desplaines around 6:30pm, the police department had repeatedly stopped the marchers at intersections as the different groups attempted to reach each other, walking through the closed-off downtown streets in 90 degree heat.

One march headed west on Harrison Street over the south branch of the Chicago River, a second became kettled at State and Congress, while the third mustered at 175 N. Desplaines, and proceeded south towards the others. After converging near Madison and Jefferson, the larger gathering moved north, then east, to turn south onto State Street, when double lines of police on foot and bicycles again met, stopped, and kettled the crowd of approximately 1,500, arresting several, while using batons to beat several more. The crowd worked its way south on State Street, and as it neared Taylor, it was again hemmed in, and in response to some provocation (likely the rapid brandishing of metal batons by officers) the noise level in the crowd increased. Around ten people in the assembly were beaten.

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[knkevinuk]

You send soldiers overseas to die in the name of freedom, yet your not free ? I don't understand America

[fortnoxcocksuk]

freedom of protest thats real democracy

[D13247]

right to peaceably assemble=bill of right protesters want to march forward, but cops wont let them. police are violating the first amendment, Fuck cops might as well start bashing jews, muslims,gun owners, journalist FUCK YEAH

[hozo101]

Not enough force used!!!

[warhater]

SHHHHHH,FBI & CIA ARE LOOIKING ON....Yay Spain! Like yours USA gov't must go or get well / American needs are similar to your people / If we must be abused by clubs- sprays-drone-para-military-cop­s / Mercilessly beaten & killed by the worlds largest military (with chops) / Who defend Terrorist War Criminals & unarmed We the People they defend NOT!...It is what it is

[fdt281]

if you shot one protester expecting them to all go home would that not prove the point of the video in that it was a bunch of nonviolent protesters?