Day 2 Of NATO Protests: Marchers, Police Clash; Police Van Drives Through Crowd
By Chuck Sudo in News on May 20, 2012 1:30PM
Tensions rose between marchers and police in the streets on the eve of the Chicago NATO Summit during a meandering march that seemed more like a test of willpower on both sides.
Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said six people were arrested during yesterday's protests, which wound constantly through the Loop and South Loop. Police would set up barricades with horses and bicycles to steer the march in the intended off of main thoroughfares. . The two sides scuffled numerous times whenever the front of the march would try to push past police.
At one point a police van drove down the middle of Jackson, in an attempt to disperse the crowd. One protester jumped in front of the van, leading to one of the more galvanizing images of the week's protests so far.
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The man in front of the van was identified as Jack Amico, 24, of Staten Island, NY. Friends of Amico said he was later taken away in an ambulance to Northwestern Memorial Hospital for treatment. Amico's girlfriend, Lauren DiGioia, said:
“(T)he police van started coming straight at us. It was moving slowly at first, and people in the crowd were trying to form a soft block to stop it from running people over. ... The van accelerated when it got by me. It started speeding up. As soon as it went past me I turned and Jack was lying on the ground. He’d just been hit.”
Differing reports on the police van incident claimed that protesters slashed the van's tires, or that protesters tried to form a human chain to prevent the van from moving.
The protesters later massed up with a planned anti-capitalist march near the Haymarket memorial in the West Loop.