Chicago police trying to keep the peace during the NATO summit were set to face a major test yesterday when thousands of demonstrators were expected to march near the site where leaders of the military alliance begin a two-day meeting.
Protests in the run-up to the summit yesterday and today have been lively, but peaceful, resulting in fewer than two dozen arrests over the past six days, according to the Chicago Police Department.
However, terrorism charges against three self-described anarchists arrested in Chicago earlier in the week was a reminder that the threat of violence is out there.
“So far, the numbers have been underwhelming,” said Jeff Cramer, a former federal prosecutor who now runs the Chicago office of the global security consultancy Kroll International.
“We can’t say the police found the only three people who are bent on violence. Vigilance is the word of the day,” he added.
The Coalition Against NATO-G8, the group behind yesterday’s parade, has said it hopes as many as 10,000 people will show their opposition to the war in Afghanistan by participating in the march, which starts in a downtown park and ends more than 3km away near the summit site.
“Sunday will be the day the protesters get closest to the summit and it will be the day we see the largest number of protesters,” Cramer said. “There are certainly going to be arrests and maybe a scuffle or two. I would be surprised if there weren’t.”
Fears that violence would erupt have so far proved unfounded and there has been little destruction of property. Experts credited the low arrest numbers to restraint by both police and protesters.
Chicago Police Chief Garry McCarthy said at the beginning of the week that his goal was to “extract” those protesters who were provocative and let others demonstrate peacefully.
“They are dealing with individuals that are showing signs of aggression, but they are allowing people expressing their opposition to policies to do so,” said Arnette Heintze, a former Secret Service agent who is now chief executive of Hillard Heintze, a security firm that advised the NATO host committee.
The three men charged on Saturday with conspiracy to commit terrorism were planning to attack US President Barack Obama’s campaign headquarters and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s home, prosecutors said.
US Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said on Saturday he did not think the president had been briefed on the alleged plot and praised Chicago police for acting swiftly.
“If these more serious allegations are true, then I think it was effective work in making sure that they could not pose any additional threat to public security,” Rhodes said.
Obama and representatives from about 60 countries are to discuss the war in Afghanistan and other international security issues.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS