Results tagged “protests”

              

"I've spent all my life in America," said Saman, 29. "But I feel connected to everything back there. And it's clear from what we're hearing that something is wrong with the elections [in Iran.]" Saman, who gave only his first name, said his mother was singing the Iranian national anthem along with the protesters via cell phone for most of Tuesday afternoon as a fraction of Chicago's Iranian community rallied in protest of the allegedly falsified elections. "She knows all the words, [to the song, Sorud-e Melli-ye Iran]" he said. "They left Iran before the [1979] Revolution." Saman said he had to read the Persian lyrics, supplied by organizers, to keep up with her.

In this week's Chicagoist Podcast, since we've seen a number of high-profile protests in Chicago over the past few weeks, Kevin and I thought we'd take to the air to discuss our experiences and our perspectives on the two No Games Chicago rallies we attended, as well as the more recent Tea Party.

          

Have you seen the new wing of the Chicago Art Institute? Yesterday evening the International Olympic Committee, along with city officials and visiting dignitaries got a private, behind the scenes tour of the venerable institution's Modern Wing as part of the Evaluation Committee's visit to the city. Besides meeting with such luminaries of Chicago as Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama confidant Valerie Jarrett, the IOC was greeted by an angry crowd of about 50 protesters from No Games Chicago and Little Village Environmental Justice Organization. The group of community activists met up at the Bean in Millennium Park and, escorted by a group of (not unsympathetic) Chicago police on bicycles, headed south east to the rear entrance of the museum, where media were lined up along a barricade next to a red carpet, awaiting the arrival of Patrick Ryan and other Olympic boosters.

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 is considering a picket line next week when the International Olympic Committee arrives in town to evaluate Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid. Although FOP President Mark Donahue "acknowledged that a picket line of cops while Olympic officials are in town... is 'being discussed'", the union hasn't made a decision yet. But according to "multiple police sources familiar with union activities," informational picketing is being considered at City Hall, but the exact location is among the issues still being worked out.

By now, you've heard about the problems and protests the Olympic Torch has been having, including right here in Chicago. Yesterday, 100 protesters marched down Michigan Ave on the Near North Side to protest the Chinese occupation of Tibet and the upcoming Beijing-hosted Olympics and to coincide with the torch's super secret route through the streets of San Francisco. It's the fifth Tibet-related protest in the last month in Chicago.

We were downtown at work yesterday when a co-worker said "What's with the protest outside? There's someone chanting for justice or something." Knowing from the "Saturday Plans" post that The Lady herself, Paula Deen was appearing, this was a head-scratcher. Who could be so upset at a TV chef? Besides the obvious, of course.