Who is occupy chicago

The protests, which have spread across the United States and to other countries since starting in New York last month, focus on anger over inequality of wealth, government bailouts of big banks and persistently high unemployment. The breakup of the protest in Grant Park was the second mass arrest of Occupy Chicago demonstrators in the past week.

A week ago, about protesters were arrested. Occupy Chicago spokesman Joshua Kaunert vowed after the arrests that protests would continue in the Midwest city. There are still plenty of us," Kaunert told The Associated Press after the arrests, which took police more than an hour to complete.

The protesters were charged with violating a city ordinance, the equivalent of the lowest misdemeanor, and most were released after agreeing to appear in court, Chicago Police Officer Robert Perez said. Grant Park, the site of large protests against the Vietnam War during the Democratic Party's convention in Chicago in , is supposed to be closed after 11 p.

Police began taking people into custody just before 1 a. Sunday, first taking people away one by one and then in groups to vans and two large white buses. Some waiting to be arrested shouted to police: "Take me next! Take me next! Officers had begun placing metal barricades around the part of Chicago's Grant Park known as Congress Plaza about p. In its continuing effort to defend the right to dissent, the National Lawyers Guild of Chicago is offering to support individuals who are involved in the Occupy Chicago movement in several ways.

If you have legal questions or concerns related to the Occupy Chicago protest or would like to report an arrest, please contact the Occupy Chicago hotline at Whether you are an activist, organizer, or simply an ordinary person, it is essential that you know your rights and feel comfortable exercising them.

To that end, NLG Chicago is offering the following resources for individuals who participate in the Occupy Chicago movement:. The National Layers Guild has a long tradition of standing up to government repression. We recently updated our page manual, You Have the Right to Remain Silent , which is a basic primer for law enforcement encounters. More than a hundred were arrested. Standing outside the bustling Chicago Board of Trade, a symbol of American capitalism, a handful of Occupy Chicago members quietly chatted and held signs.

It looked like a reunion of old friends. For them, the anniversary was not about numbers. The Occupy movement had opened their minds to the possibilities of social change, they said. Jaime Dominguez, a lecturer in political science at Northwestern University, said Occupy Chicago highlighted important issues such as income inequality and environmental justice that had been put on the back burner, even though the ranks of the movement have dwindled locally and nationally.