(NEW YORK) MintPress — Chicago is looking forward to a somewhat more tranquil weekend now that the NATO summit has ended and the onslaught of world leaders and their delegations, not to mention protesters, has left town.
Ever since Chicagoans learned that their city would host the May 20-21 summit, many feared the kinds of scenes that played out during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, when anti-Vietnam war demonstrations erupted into bloody clashes between police and protesters.
But this time, the event was largely peaceful. “My analysis is there was free speech, and in response to that there was appropriate law enforcement,” said Harvey Grossman, head of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Chicago, which sent police observers to most of the protests.
“There may have been some things at the margins,” he added.
Violent protest methods draw ire
Indeed, the police were confronted by a group of anarchists using Black bloc tactics during a pre-summit march on the night of May 19 and again during the massive protest on March 20, when thousands of demonstrators marched to the convention center where NATO leaders were meeting.
“Infantile behaviour committed by some of you, like taunting police, blowing cigarette smoke in their faces and throwing rocks through the windows of small businesses, takes the moral high ground away from the movement, legitimizes the rule of the 0.1% and justifies the existence of an oppressive police state to the average American who we’re trying to reach,” wrote activist Carl Gibson, a co-founder of U.S. Uncut in “Cut It Out: An Open Letter to Black Bloc Anarchists.”
Black blocs first exploded onto the national stage in 1999 during demonstrations against the World Trade Organization in Seattle, when protesters went on the offensive, bashing windows of many businesses, including Starbucks, Gap and others with a global reach. They also damaged property during the 2010 G-20 meeting in Toronto.
On Sunday, a group of about 100 anarchists, dressed head to toe in black, including black bandannas and masks charged “What do we want? Dead cops!” as it left a downtown park on Sunday afternoon and surged to the front of the protest crowd, trying to break through the line of police blocking its path.
It was clear from the outset that the event’s organizers were not pleased about the anarchists’ appearance. As they proceeded along the protest route, marshals in orange vests ordered them to move further back in the crowd.
The police, for their part, showed great restraint, but did manage to intimidate peaceful protesters and onlookers.
When the march reached its destination at a corner near the convention center, some 40 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, now vocal critics of those conflicts, gave speeches before dramatically throwing their medals in the direction of the building where the summit was underway.
The vets then called for a minute of silence before asking the crowd to leave “peacefully to the west.” The anarchists broke out in chants of “NATO’s east! NATO’s east.”
“You disrespected the veterans by chanting through the Veterans for Peace’s call for a moment of silence for lives lost overseas. By starting confrontations with riot police during the ceremony you deprived veterans and their families of their moment of justice for your own selfish need to have all the attention. You didn’t stop war, end capitalism, or even get close to the NATO summit,” charged U.S. Uncut’s Gibson.
Black bloc’s divisive legacy
The two sides then clashed on live TV, with anarchists unleashing a volley of sticks, bottles and at least one rock and police wielding nightsticks. They continued to ignore a recorded police message repeatedly telling them to “disperse to the west.”
In the end, the group was outnumbered and out maneuvered. “All you did was attract more riot police to an otherwise peaceful event, leading to kettlings, beatings and arrests,” wrote Gibson. “Way to go.”
Police arrested some 45 people, and at least 10 protesters received medical treatment on the scene.
On Tuesday, two were charged with felonies. Alex Cerajewski of Indiana was accused of hurling two Gatorade bottles at police and urging anarchists to blend in with other protesters, while Christopher French of Wisconsin was charged with pushing an officer who was trying to make an arrest.
“Nobody asked you to be the self-appointed “Defenders of Dissent” at our actions. Nobody asked you to give us lessons in how to be “real activists,” said Gibson. “If you want to join the movement, join the movement. But stop dividing the movement into ‘true revolutionaries’ and ‘fake activists.’ You aren’t helping anyone except the 0.1%.”
It’s an issue that “true revolutionaries”, such as members of the Occupy movement, would do well to address before the next high-profile appearance at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions this summer.