The Nato summit will come and go, but Mayor Emanuel has authorised a 'new normal' of militarised social control in Chicago
With Nato delegates arriving Saturday night, the City of Chicago has been turned into a police state. Courtesy of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who several months ago began implementing new draconian anti-protest measures, Chicago has gone on security lockdown.
Starting early Friday night, 18 May 2012, the Chicago Police Department
began shutting down – prohibiting cars, bikes, and pedestrians – miles
and miles of highways and roads in the heart of Chicago to create a
security perimeter around downtown and McCormick Place (where the Nato
summit is being held).
Eight-foot tall, anti-scale security fencing
went up all over that perimeter and downtown, including Grant Park; and
the Chicago police – as well as myriad other federal, state, and local
law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI and the US secret service –
were out in force on riot-geared horses, bikes, and patrols – batons at the ready. Philadelphia Police Department
is sending over reinforcements to help out; Chicago has also asked for
recruits from police departments in Milwaukee and Charlotte-Mecklenburg,
NC. Meanwhile, F-16 warplanes "screamed through the skies as part of a pre-summit defense exercise" and helicopters hovered incessantly.
Read on...
Here's a link to some pictures from the Guardian's Facebook page. Tom
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.461756157184790.124189.456740217686384&type=1
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