NATO 2012: Dissidents vs. The War Machine

Source: #OccupyPdxNews @CarrieFoTruth
Date: Tuesday, May 29, 2012 at 4:07am
by: Carrie R. Medina

Story and Photographs By  
@CarrieFoTruth

When I left for the NATO summit, I expected the police in Chicago were going to be oppressive against protesters, if not downright violent. There had been quite a bit of media buzz around the Chicago Police Department having spent a million dollars on riot and tactical gear, as well as them announcing they had an LRAD (long-range acoustic device), a military weapon capable of emitting painful noises to disburse crowds. Residents of Chicago had been advised to not wear suits (so as not to enrage the protesters), stay indoors, have food and water on-hand, and even to leave town if possible. From my perspective, this was obvious fear-mongering on the part of the police. There was little reason to believe that a peaceful anti-war protest was going to turn into the LA riots. I had no idea, however, how the police were going to act.

Chicago Police Van Runs over Protesters and Journalists Raided by Police

The day before the first day of the NATO summit had some unusual and highly disturbing events. A police van apparently encountered a group of protesters and the driver gunned the engine to force them aside. One man (Jack "Mayhem" Amico) was seriously injured and taken to the emergency room.

Video Description
At approximately 10:40 p.m. on Saturday, May 19th, 2012 a Chicago Police van drove into a crowd of demonstrators who were attempting to cross westbound over the Jackson Street bridge at the Chicago River.

Chicago Police van number 6751, accelerated as it passed through the crowd, striking several people and seriously injuring one victim who was later transported to the emergency room. The extent of the victim's injuries are not known.

The driver of the van made no attempt to ascertain the condition of any of the people that were struck. Witnesses watched as the van passed through the phalanx of police surrounding the scene and drove away from the area. Had there been a civilian driving, they would certainly have been charged with a hit-and-run on a pedestrian in the roadway and taken into custody once they had been apprehended.

No order to disperse had been given to the crowd. The van was running it's siren, however police vans in close proximity to the rear of the crowd had been running their sirens all day, so it was not immediately noticed that the van was intending to pass through the crowd. The occupants of the van made no attempt to use the public address loudspeakers to warn those in their path.

Here is a close-up of the man being hit:


In addition, some peaceful live streaming journalists Luke Rudkowksi, Tim Pool, Jeoff Shively, Dustin and Jess were driving home after covering a NATO protest in Chicago only to have their car raided by police. They were approached by 12 Chicago police officers with guns drawn and spent the rest of the night checking their gear for planted evidence or bugs and looking for new lodging.