City Denies NATO Protest Date Change
By Samantha Abernethy in News on Mar 19, 2012 9:40PM
The City of Chicago denied protesters' application to reschedule protests to coincide with the NATO summit instead of the relocated G-8 summit. The applicants had previously submitted an application to march from Daley Plaza south to McCormick Place on Saturday, May 19 to coincide with the G-8 meetings. The city approved.
Since the G-8 conference has been relocated to Camp David, they wanted to move it to May 20 to coincide with NATO activities. An identical request was submitted, but the city denied it, "citing a lack of police officers as well as other security and logistics complications from the very summit the demonstrators are seeking to protest." Instead the city offered a route from the Petrillo Band Shell along Columbus Drive, but protesters rejected it.
“Motorcades for the NATO attendees will create significant traffic impediments, which would be exacerbated by the 2.64 mile proposed parade route,” [Mike Simon, assistant commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation] wrote. “Moreover, the proposed parade route winds through the city center on the first day of the National Special Security Event, and would create significant traffic concerns and a drain on existing police resources.”The denial letter also predicts a security situation in downtown that could impede movement for everyone, not just demonstrators.
Well there you go. The city admitted May will be traffic clusterfuck.
Activists have been planning events since August. In January the city issued the first permits for protesters from The Coalition Against the NATO/G8 War and Poverty Agenda (CANG8) and National Nurses United.