NLG: Protesters facing terrorism charges in solitary, over 100 defendents from the weekend,

[EFerrari]

many more expected.

Attorney: "NATO 3" Activists Detained on Terror Charges in Chicago Are Victims of Police Entrapment

Following a weekend that saw nearly 100 arrests of protesters at the NATO summit in Chicago, we speak with National Lawyers Guild attorney Sarah Gelsomino, who represents one of the five activists charged with terror-related crimes. Two are accused of attempted possession of explosives or incendiary devices, and three more are accused of conspiracy to commit terrorism, material support for terrorism and possession of explosives. Gelsomino says the so-called "NATO Three" were set-up by government informants who planted the explosives. “Our clients who are facing the most serious charges of terrorism are actually in solitary confinement right now, we just learned,” Gelsomino says. “A very top priority this week is to get them out of that extremely punitive and extremely dangerous condition that they’re in right now.” [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]
Filed under NATO, Police, Police brutality
Guest:

Sarah Gelsomino, attorney with the People’s Law Office and the National Lawyers Guild. She is representing one of the protesters facing terrorism charges from the NATO Summit.

(video up, transcript soon.)

http://www.democracynow.org/2012/5/22/attorney_nato_3_activists_detained_on




Protesters being kettled by CPD and IL State Police

[coalition_unwilling]

1. Those protesters need a little love Chicago Police Department-style:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/12557216-418/county-oks-600000-settlement-in-police-torture-case.html

for all the police-brutality enablers scurrying around like cockroaches on this board.

[EFerrari]

3. Amy said this morning that while the veterans were marching up to begin their event,

the police were getting into position to kettle the protesters and wouldn't respond to the veterans who asked them what they were doing. Then, she said, three young men ran up to her team and one of them had had his teeth bashed in. He was on yesterday.

Btw, we will find out there is federal cooperation here because the methods are the same as the ones used in New York after 9/11. They picked up people in the middle of the night and hid them from the lawyers. Then, they threw them into solitary.

[coalition_unwilling]

4. The Sun-Times story I linked to gives the sketchiest of outlines of

a police torture scandal that involved not just grunts in the CPD, but commanders (managers) as well. Their targets were primarily African Americans, as I understand it. But if a few anti-NATO protesters get tortured while in CPD custody too? Well, if you want to make an omelet . . .

[EFerrari]

5. Yes. I sent that story to punkboyinsf the day he was stopped with Tim Pool.

I can't wait to hear he's home. And, they do have those three dangerous beer makers in solitary so, your question is pretty much answered, isn't it?

[leveymg]

6. It's a strategy of tension and provocation designed to incite real terrorism.

They know what they're doing - crack down on the Left before they start the next war(s) later this year or next Spring. The Feds are certainly involved, right up to the highest levels of the White House.

[EFerrari]

7. I don't see how they can succeed in disrupting Occupy

since every time they crack down, it just brings more people out and forces people to work more closely together. I guess I don't understand the payoff.

[leveymg]

8. I said it was a strategy. I didn't say it was a smart or historically successful one.

The authorities and the institutions they protect and serve risk a collapse of popular perceptions of legitimacy. There have been episodes like this in the past -- the years 1848 and 1967 stand out.

If that happens again, now, and the sense that the police and elite institutions no longer are playing by rules of a civil society spreads, the dam will burst and the neoliberal elites will be swept away as the middle-class gives up old habits of maintaining obedience to law and order. People will stop cooperating in various ways, and start doing things differently.

Legitimacy is all that keeps the One Percent in power. It's not fear, and increasing force against dissent can't save them - it only speeds the process of loss of elite power. If they were really competent, they would understand and act accordingly to rein in the cops and feds and military, who pose a real danger of becoming a predatory elite in themselves, displacing competing elites. The years 1871, 1932 and 1973 come to mind for that alternative outcome.

[EFerrari]

9. Well, they may be competent but for years now, we've selected for short term thinking.

I imagine the "term" in question is the election although, it may not be since the political elite don't seem to care much about elections beyond all that money going back and forth. Maybe the term is this Congressional term and what needs to be done before it ends.

It's interesting, leveymg, because it feels like my inability to wrap my head around this is a kind of denial. Hmm.

[leveymg]

10. What we hoped for in '08 was tranformational leadership; what we got was an institutional

conservative whose overriding mission seems to be stabilize the status quo, even if that means letting the most destabilizing elements (bankers and black operators) continue to run the show. In the short term, he may have bought another term for himself (and price support for the Dow), but I can't wrap my head around how this is sustainable.

I have to wonder, instead, is what got traded away and what else the American middle-class will have to sacrifice when the note comes due.

[EFerrari]

13. That has always been my question.

Does Cheney or Obama or RMoney think he can teleport his grandkids off of this planet?

Maybe they do. lol

[leveymg]

19. Needn't go that far. Exec jet to Monaco, Cayman Islands or a floating libertarian offshore barge.

Hell, Greenwich, CT might as well be an island in the middle if the Pacific . . . a separate America, indeed.

[HiPointDem]

18. There's a second possibility which i hate to mention because it's seen as "conspiracy theory".

But provocation of dissatisfaction with national elites has been used in lots of third world countries to restructure them by breaking them up and making bigger (or smaller) pieces. Why not in first world countries?

iow, maybe the dissatisfaction is being ramped up on purpose?

[leveymg]

20. The popular discontent created is secondary to the primary purpose of restructuring, which is

to lower the costs and increase the returns to Foreign Direct Investment. If it's necessary to destroy popular government and policies, that's just the way things are done in difficult cases. Usually, local elites are much more cooperative.

That's not a conspiracy theory. Just ask any international development specialist or global banker.

[EFerrari]

21. That's not a theory. lol

And for sure, the stuff that is dreamed up as "foreign policy" always comes back here -- like disappearing people, hiding them from lawyers and holding them in solitary.

[sabrina 1]

11. I saw that happen I believe it was on one of the Ustreams. As soon as the Vets finished

the cops moved in like an army that had been lying in wait to take out an enemy unit.

As for as federal cooperation, I don't think there is any doubt any more about that. There was report of a 'command/control' center in Chicago where 40 different groups, law enforcement, intel etc watched all the activities on big screen, in some secret location, for the entire week of the protests. Big Brother sure is growing bigger.

Saw a photo of the guy who had his teeth knocked out.

Homeland Security money is being used to buy all that miitary equipment the cops now have, so no doubt about Federal cooperation, not to forget the recent FOIA released docs proving it.

We should be very worried. I think there is fund for bail being set up for those accused of terror. Haven't found it yet, though. Their bail is huge, over one million dollars btw.

I wonder when they are going to go after some real criminals, war criminals, Wall Street criminals etc.

I know, silly question, they work for those criminals.

But don't despair, the cops are good, just a few bad apples are the reason for all this brutality and oppression.

[EFerrari]

12. These people aren't community cops any more. They're federally funded militias. n/t

[sabrina 1]

14. Yes, it seems that way.

I was listening to an interview with Tim Pool on RT and both he and the other Ustreamer who was also arrested, said they were arrested at gunpoint. The scary part of that is either one was apparently, close to being shot. But one of the cops said 'don't shoot, it's a cellphone'. It's getting dangerous for the media out there. The cops took the phone and removed all data.

But I was told yesterday that arresting journalists, more than ten a month over the past seven months, is okay in so many words. Looks like a complete takeover will be easy from now on since we have even on the Left, people who have these kinds of views. No longer capable of seeing the significance of the silencing and abuse of the press. Propaganda works, and not just on the Right.

[EFerrari]

15. Today I raised the question with the Committee to Protect Journalists

aka, to protect neoliberalism, why they've been silent about the attacks on journalists in Chicago. punkboyinsf, one of the livestreamers cuffed at gunpoint with Tim Pool, sent it out to his network.

I think it's long past time for the question to be raised.

[sabrina 1]

16. Good for you. I'd like to know why they've been so silent also.

Not just in Chicago, they've been doing this to journalists in NYC and elsewhere for months now. Doctors Without Borders have filed a complaint with the US Government regarding the treatment of journalists and have lowered the US free press rating to around 47 on the Global Free Press scale as a result. A truly disgraceful rating for the 'best democracy in the world'!

Not sure if they received any response. I guess it was punkboyinSF who was interviewed with Tim Pool. RT probably has it on their site by now. I feel certain Tim will be a target now constantly in retaliation for his video being used in the OWS cases in NY.

They managed to control the MSM, but weren't prepared for the citizens anticipating this and creating their own, very effective, media.

[EFerrari]

17. There were two other people with Tim and I don't think punkboy

went on camera. He's pretty careful about that. Though how he's managed to keep his mug out of the way after all this time is a mystery to me, lol.

[hobbit709]

2. Evidently Rahmbo is channeling Daley.