NATO News Roundup: Arrests And Injuries

By Samantha Abernethy in News on May 21, 2012 9:20PM

We'd like to know why all of the Chicago Police Department's horses have bay markings — brown body with black mane and tail — and hope this isn't a result of discrimination against the greys, pintos and palominos of the horse world. How about a horse of a different color, eh? the pope UO

• Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy announced this afternoon that nearly 100 people have been arrested over the course of the weekend.

  "The news isn't what's happened," McCarthy said. "The news is what has not happened. This is really a non-event. This is what's supposed to happen in America."

• Official injury totals for the protesters from yesterday's scuffle are a little fuzzy today, with some reports saying about eight people were treated for injuries. McCarthy shared police officers' injuries at a press conference last night in which he "choked up." He said four officers were hospitalized, including one officer who was stabbed in the leg during the a separate scuffle with Black Bloc protesters at Michigan and 22nd. Several other officers were treated at the scene, and many were just plain hot, wearing all the riot gear in 90-degree heat.

  “If you think it is easy to ask people to do what they did, it’s not,” McCarthy said. “Asking people to put themselves in harm’s way, knowing that they are going to get assaulted and to be able to stand there and take it. Those guys were amazing.”

• As for arrests, McCarthy has said 45 protesters were arrested at the Sunday evening scuffle, and a total of 19 people were arrested earlier in the weekend. Many of those arrested were taken to the Area North police station at Belmont and Western avenues, and about 100 of their fellow protesters gathered outside the station to hold vigil for their release. The group cheered for each person as they walked out of the station. Some of those arrested were cited for violating city ordinances, some were released with no charges. One protester told the Tribune the police were actually really nice and "They were just doing their job, trying to get us through here as fast as they could."
• Two protesters remain jailed for attacking police officers. Raziel Azuara, 24, is accused of throwing a lightbulb filled with red paint at officers. Yonte Harris, 19, is accused of trying to break through the skirmish line at Michigan and Cermak, but he got tangled, struggled with the officer, then pushed the bike into the officer's chest.
• Another person was arrested for allegedly grabbing a bicycle from a police officer and forcing it against the officer's body at 18th and Michigan Sunday afternoon. Lawyers say Taylor Hall, 23, of Wilkinsburg, Pa., is a journalist for independent media outlet Rustbelt. He's being held on $250,000 bail.
• A live televised tussle between police officers and protesters wasn't exactly the visual Mayor Rahm Emanuel and McCarthy wanted to come out of this NATO summit. The Sun-Times notes that during the skirmish, dispatchers could be heard on police radios reminding officers they were on live television and should show restraint. Every one thought, "Shit is getting real" when officers put on their gas masks, but McCarthy says he never gave that order.

  McCarthy told CBS the word “mask” got repeated several times, and officers thought it was an order, but it was actually a description of someone in the crowd wearing a mask. “I gotta tell ya, when I turned around and saw everybody kneeling down and putting on gas masks I said, ‘Wait a second, I’m supposed to give the order for gas,’” McCarthy explained. “Then I thought, ‘Maybe they’re going to be throwing gas at us.’”

• First Lady Michelle Obama has been leading the NATO spouses around Chicago, and she took them on a tour of the South Side and visited the Gary Comer Youth Center to advocate exercise. She said, "It feels good to be home."