Chicagoist's Top 11 for 2011: #Occupychi

By aaroncynic in News on Dec 29, 2011 3:30PM

The first piece of press I received from Occupy Chicago was a quick email which read, in part:

Our politicians no longer work for the people. It is time for a change. Today we invite you to downtown Chicago to stand strong with our brothers and sisters in New York. Join us on the steps of historic Sears/Willis Tower at 9am Friday, September 23rd for a march toward the Federal Reserve building in Chicago’s financial district. Let your voice be heard.

Say what you will about Occupy movements across the country and Occupy Chicago, but in three months, they’ve managed to at least capture plenty of attention from media, police and politicians. What began as a few hundred people in scattered cities, some camped out in parks near financial and government districts, is slowly morphing into a political movement that’s already impacted the national conversation greatly.

The first few weeks demonstrators occupied the corner of Jackson and LaSalle, the most common question asked was “what exactly do these people want?” While plenty of different messages still come out of the mouths and signs of Occupy demonstrators, the clearest, most unifying message could be “economic justice and equality.” Even though such an idea is a pretty far off in America, especially considering the latest statistics on poverty, Occupy movements at least done their best to keep it in the eyes and ears of politicians and pundits.

While much of Occupy coverage nationwide centered on battles between police and protesters, with extremely violent confrontations in cities like New York and Oakland, Occupy Chicago has managed to steer clear of such situations for the past 96 days. The arrests which took place in Grant Park in October and subsequent arrests at other demonstrations were usually planned and peaceful, and we haven’t seen any senior citizens pepper sprayed or LRAD cannons used to disperse demonstrators on the streets of Chicago. The relationship between police and the occupation at Jackson and LaSalle these past few months is usually tenuous at best, especially when it comes to bucket drums, but the occupation in Chicago remains one of the most peaceful of any major city.

Arrests and other police interactions aside, Chicago occupiers have also faced their fair share of antagonism from Chicago’s 1 percent at CBOT and local politicians. After first identifying themselves as the 1%, CBOT employees dumped McDonald’s applications and spam email out of the windows. Meanwhile, Illinois House representatives likened “those people” to lazy, jobless rapists and pillagers, Joe Walsh told constituents “clueless” un-American demonstrators “don’t understand this country,” and Alderman Joe Moore wasn’t too happy getting “mic-checked.”

Things may be much quieter these days on the corner in front of the Federal Reserve, but the while the winter may slow things down for Occupy Chicago, it certainly won’t stop it. The group is focused on smaller actions at the moment, but is already planning for bigger demonstrations during the spring. They plan to kick things off with a large rally April 7 and there’s certain to be plenty of protests during the G8 and NATO summits in May.