Thursday, May 31, 2012

NATO 2012: Dissidents vs. The War Machine

Source: #OccupyPdxNews @CarrieFoTruth
Date: Tuesday, May 29, 2012 at 4:07am
by: Carrie R. Medina

Story and Photographs By  
@CarrieFoTruth
When I left for the NATO summit, I expected the police in Chicago were going to be oppressive against protesters, if not downright violent. There had been quite a bit of media buzz around the Chicago Police Department having spent a million dollars on riot and tactical gear, as well as them announcing they had an LRAD (long-range acoustic device), a military weapon capable of emitting painful noises to disburse crowds. Residents of Chicago had been advised to not wear suits (so as not to enrage the protesters), stay indoors, have food and water on-hand, and even to leave town if possible. From my perspective, this was obvious fear-mongering on the part of the police. There was little reason to believe that a peaceful anti-war protest was going to turn into the LA riots. I had no idea, however, how the police were going to act.