“Chicago officials deny permit for May 20 NATO protest march” @ Chicago Tribune

Posted on March 19, 2012

David Heinzmann — March 19, 2012: “After approving a parade permit for a group protesting the G-8 and NATO summits in Chicago, the city has denied an identical application by the same group seeking to move their parade one day later in the wake of the White House’s decision to move the G-8 conference.

The demonstrators asked to move their march from Saturday, May 19, after word came that the G-8 meeting scheduled to start that day had been moved by President Barack Obama to Camp David. The protesters filed a permit that was identical to the one the city approved for Saturday, except the date of protest was moved to Sunday, May 20, when the NATO meeting is set to start.

But this time the city rejected the request, citing a lack of police officers as well as other security and logistics complications from the very summit the demonstrators are seeking to protest.

“The commissioner finds that there are not available at the time of the parade a sufficient number of on-duty police officers, or other city employees authorized to regulate traffic, to police and protect lawful participants in the parade and non-participants,” wrote Mike Simon, assistant commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation.

The previously approved May 19 permit was to begin at Daley Plaza and wind its way south to McCormick Place, where world leaders plan to meet. The new application for May 20 proposed following the exact same route…………”

Read more at Chicago Tribune.