Police again arrest protesters in Grant Park Chicago

[mucifer]

Chicago police arrested about 130 Occupy Chicago protesters starting about 1 a.m. today after the group returned to Grant Park for the second weekend Saturday night and tried to maintain a camp in the park after its official closing time.

Police estimated that the crowd that showed up for a rally earlier in the evening peaked at around 3,000 people by the time protesters arrived Congress Plaza at Michigan Avenue and Congress Parkway after a march from Federal Plaza in the Loop.

As the 11 p.m. park closing approached, more than 100 people decided to stay in Congress Plaza in Grant as several hundred more moved onto a nearby sidewalk or across Michigan Avenue, off Park District property. Police announced several times that anyone still in the park would be arrested, and by midnight, about 100 people remained in the plaza, which had been cordoned off with police barricades.

The plaza was cleared by about 2:40 a.m., with about 130 people arrested, said Central Police District Cmdr. Christopher Kennedy. A few hundred remaining on sidewalks on the east and west sides of Michigan Avenue for a short time after the arrests ended, but most left by about 3 a.m. Those taken into custody were taken away in police vans and Sheriff's Department buses for booking at police district stations.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-occupy-chicago-aims-to-try-occupying-grant-park-again-tonight-20111022,0,3226865.story

A big thank you to all who participated. I wish I could have been there.
Page 1 of the Chicago trib online.