NATO summit protests (Chicago: income, estate, friendly)

[jdiddy]

This whole thing was silly.

I'm not sure what the protestors thought they'd get out of this, but the only thing they accomplished was a nice overtime paycheck for the police who babysat them all weekend.

[8loody]

Protesting at 11 Pm at night attempting to destroy our beautiful city is not going to cut it here in chicago. All i saw was people with nothing going in their life walking around making themselves look stupid.

[themag62]

Squemish-There was a similar gathering of world leaders in 1999 that is now known as the Battle In Seattle. I realize you may be young enough that you weren't even reading then, but you can read about it here. http://www.emergencymgmt.com/safety/...nization-Riots.

See what can happen? Before you dismiss me as one of the people "who has never thought your way before", I support many of the principles of the original Occupy Wall Street movement. This was different. There is no way that the city was going to risk a repeat of Seattle 1999, not with Obama up for re-election. And domestic terrorism was not the only risk. 60 world leaders were here, some from terrorist hotspot countries. Of course there was a heavy police presence, that doesn't mean Chicago is becoming a militarized police state.

The paranoia "My post might be removed" and penchant for accusing police of brutality undermines the goals and message of the Occupy movement. It's embarrassing.

[55degrees]

I know the protesters are causing a lot of inconvenience for everyone, but I'm surprised at how right-leaning this discussion has been. I know we're not from San Fransisco, but we're not supposed to be like Mobile, Alabama.

[GoCUBS1]

Originally Posted by It'sAutomatic

And it's positively silly how many people in this thread don't understand the meaning of profit. Rent used to pay the mortgage and expenses and break even is not profit. Clearly whoever is protesting this issue isn't against all evictions, for there would be no need for the "profit-oriented" clarifier.

I'm pretty sure that many of the smart people on this thread have a good understanding of what profit is and how it relates to real estate investment. And, btw, the mortgage/expenses does not take into account the total opportunity cost/risk of a venture. Please tell me why an investor would risk money without the reward of profit? Because business should be altruistic?

But, to clarify your post... The evictions where the owner (may or may not be a big bank financier) "breaks even" and makes no profit (is not "profit-oriented") would be acceptable to the Occupy protestors? So, they are just protesting those trying to make a profit from real estate investment. Because profit is bad, right?

I'm trying to think who would invest in real estate that is not "profit-oriented".... hmm. Oh right, the big govt. And how would they afford to do this? Oh right, more taxes.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by 8loody

Protesting at 11 Pm at night attempting to destroy our beautiful city is not going to cut it here in chicago. All i saw was people with nothing going in their life walking around making themselves look stupid.

EH, you know damn well that happens every weekend in Chicago anyway in certain areas.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by themag62

Squemish-There was a similar gathering of world leaders in 1999 that is now known as the Battle In Seattle. I realize you may be young enough that you weren't even reading then, but you can read about it here. http://www.emergencymgmt.com/safety/...nization-Riots.

See what can happen? Before you dismiss me as one of the people "who has never thought your way before", I support many of the principles of the original Occupy Wall Street movement. This was different. There is no way that the city was going to risk a repeat of Seattle 1999, not with Obama up for re-election. And domestic terrorism was not the only risk. 60 world leaders were here, some from terrorist hotspot countries. Of course there was a heavy police presence, that doesn't mean Chicago is becoming a militarized police state.

The paranoia "My post might be removed" and penchant for accusing police of brutality undermines the goals and message of the Occupy movement. It's embarrassing.

100% agreed. Anybody who doesn't know why there was all this security is completely biased in their thinking. I guarantee you most of these people would never even come to Chicago if they didn't have tight security. God help us if any one of those heads of state or diplomats got killed by some idiots. Need I remind anyone who's calling this crap "police state" why World War I was started?

We're all going to come outside tomorrow, and in 2 months most people won't even be thinking about how for a few days, there were a bunch of police patrolling the loop and part of downtown. Anyone who actually thinks there will be more police in the city now, needs to take a chill pill and get some sleep. Tomorrow and the next few days, things will return to how they were before the summit, and most people will forget about the number of cops within a few months because everything will return back to normal like *that*.

[Attrill]

Originally Posted by Squeamish

Please read this with an open mind. It's hard to consider a perspective that clashes with what you are used to thinking, but that doesn't mean there isn't truth to it.

Here's the Guardian article:

Welcome, Nato, to Chicago's police state | Bernard Harcourt | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

And a related article about Rahm Emanuel:

The Nato summit template for policing the 'other Chicago' | Keeanga Taylor | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

And another:

Rahm Emanuel, king of Chicago, goes into battle as Nato comes to town | World news | guardian.co.uk

Guardian is a reputable news source.

These are very reputable reporters, who I actually enjoy reading on a frequent basis. I do think it is very important to have an understanding of British politics and an understanding of what went down in London last summer to have perspective on what they're writing. I'm actually kind of disappointed in their writing about the NATO summit, and don't feel that they put enough effort into looking at Chicago (and the US in general) when writing about what happened last weekend. They seemed to be enamored of the Chicago '68 riot image in pieces they wrote both before and during the summit.

I'm certain some cops went too far, and I'm certain some protestors asked for a good beat down. The important thing is that there was no major destruction or disruption (other than authorized traffic disruptions) and the vast majority of both cops and protestors kept their cool. The number of arrests for an event this size was minor, the fringe cases of both police and protestors will work their way through the courts in due time.

[callmemaybe]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying SOME of the protestors behavior (mostly Black Bloc and not Occupy) was unacceptable, but what do you guys suggest we do? Just be complacent and accept whatever the Powers want, because obviously anything they do is out of humanitarian love for our species?

Our planet is dying and our liberties are surely but slowly being stripped away in the name of corporatism and 'security', what are we supposed to be, just be quiet and go with the punches? Do you guys think people's right to assemble and protest should be taken away just so you can get to work a couple minutes quicker?

A lot of my friends are there in Chicago and some of them have been arrested and probably beaten too. The police are NOT being very nice.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by callmemaybe

A lot of my friends are there in Chicago and some of them have been arrested and probably beaten too. The police are NOT being very nice.

You are over sensationalizing this a little bit. For the most part, except for a small handful of police, they have been very good. I'm not one to say "God, I love cops so much" but they did an excellent job refraining themselves for the most part. Did some protestors get the band end of the stick who didn't deserve it? Abso-****ing-lutely. Did the police refrain from lashing out for the most part? Abso-****ing-lutely. There's only a few things I've heard about the police that actually pissed me off, like Timcast being followed and some others getting their cameras ripped. Overall though, I actually have to hand it to the cops this time. They did a great job, even when Black Bloc were being idiots.


I'm not alone on this, and while I think there is some definite stupid crap going on with our economy, jobs, etc *for sure* the pure fact is that your life is really not that bad. Unless you're getting beaten every single day and what not, it's not that bad.

My own grandparents and great grandparents fled areas of the world with absolutely nothing on their backs, not even money walking through hundreds of miles of wilderness hoping to not get caught and killed. You want to talk about a hard life and path? I have friends here who grew up in Eastern Europe basically during wars, being stripped of everything. Go try telling my relatives or some of my friends YOU have a hard life? For everything you think is bad, we don't have it as bad as others around the world.

Could it get better? Absolutely. Is it really that terrible? Not relative to the rest of the world in NUMEROUS countries. Is it bad here and can it get worse? Yes, without a doubt. You know what a lot of the world thinks when they see all this? I don't even want to tell you, but I know first hand exactly what they think. Travel overseas to a country who needs some help, and then come back here and tell me your life is so amazingly bad when you whip out your smart phone to tell me about it.