Occupy Chicago arrests are seen as a trial run for international summits to come next year

[mucifer]

By Kristen Mack, Dahleen Glanton and Becky Schlikerman, Tribune reporters
10:33 p.m. CDT, October 16, 2011

With two international summits coming to Chicago in just seven months, the city got a chance to conduct a trial run early Sunday in arresting a large group of protesters without it escalating into violence.

Throughout Saturday evening, police remained in constant contact with organizers of the Occupy Chicago demonstrations, warning that anyone remaining in Grant Park after the 11 p.m. curfew, violating a city ordinance, risked being hauled off to jail, city officials said.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel was kept abreast of the situation, receiving regular updates from police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, said Chris Mather, the mayor's spokeswoman.

"The mayor made it clear that he wanted protesters to have ample warning that the park was closing as well as time to leave should they choose to do so," Mather said.

Occupy Chicago organizer Kelvin Ho said about 500 protesters who had camped out at the park Saturday night were divided into color-coded groups — red for those who did not want to be arrested, yellow for those who were undecided and green for those who were willing to remain behind and go to jail.

At 12:45 a.m., McCarthy made the call for police to move in and arrest anyone remaining in the park. Shortly after 1 a.m., police began leading 175 people away in handcuffs.

more at
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-occupy-chicago-arrests-20111017,0,4962455.story


I have to say I was at the protest from 4pm until 8pm and it did look very clear to me that the organizers were in close contact with the police.