“Why We’ll March” @ Chicago Tribune

Posted on May 8, 2012

May 3, 2012 — Andy Thayer: “A serious attack on the civil rights of every person in Chicago is under way and should disgust every thinking Chicagoan for its brazenness.

The run-up to the May 20-21 NATO summit has seen an effort by some to spread unnecessary fear of violence. The intention of this fear-mongering is to scare people from exercising the right to protest, a fundamental right enshrined in the First Amendment.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s proposal to reopen the long-shuttered Joliet prison for protest arrestees is simply a boneheaded idea. (Joliet, a hellhole when it was closed two decades after the making of “The Blues Brothers” movie, is undoubtedly much worse now for having been closed for a decade.)

Last week’s announcement of a “red zone” of troops in battle gear, to be deployed by the federal government in the South Loop, falls into the same category. So does the Red Cross sending out a mass email about putting Milwaukee on alert for the possible evacuation of Chicago, as reported by CBS News…………………………………”

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