CHICAGO
(AP) — Protesters gathering in Chicago for
the NATO summit were gearing up for their largest
demonstration Sunday, when thousands are expected to march from a
downtown park to the lakeside convention center where President
Barack Obama and dozens of other world leaders will meet.
Several
hundred demonstrators wound through the city's streets for hours
Saturday, testing police who used bicycles to barricade off streets
and horseback officers to coax them in different directions.
Increasingly tense clashes between protesters and police resulted in
18 arrests, Police Supt. Garry
McCarthy said.
Most
of Saturday's demonstrations remained relatively small and peaceful,
including one march to the home of Mayor
Rahm Emanuel, Obama's former chief of staff. But a later march
stretched for hours as protesters zigzagged back and forth through
downtown, some decrying terrorism-related charges leveled against
three young men earlier in the day.
Organizers
pledged a larger crowd when protesters from the Occupy movement will
join forces with an anti-war coalition to mark the opening day of the
summit later Sunday.
"We
want the world to focus on NATO — they're not important and have no
mandate anymore," said Micah Philbrook, an Occupy Chicago
spokesman, who criticized the large police presence Saturday.
"They're pushing us around and not letting anyone get out of the
protest even if they want. They're very aggressive."
McCarthy
said police would be ready with quick but targeted arrests of any
demonstrators who turn violent Sunday.
"If
anything else happens, the plan is to go in and get the people who
create the violent acts, take them out of the crowd and arrest them,"
warned McCarthy, at the scene of protests after dark. "We're not
going to charge the crowd wholesale — that's the bottom line."
"You
can't control what other people are going to do, but I can tell you
our cops are doing a great job, and they're prepared," he said.
Security
has been tight throughout the city, as the heads of state from about
60 countries began arriving to discuss the war in Afghanistan,
European missile defense and other issues. As police gathered en
masse on street corners, near parks and key landmarks, the city's
streets remained largely vacant and many downtown buildings closed.
"It's
strange because downtown is empty," said Gabe Labovitz, a
44-year-old economist out for a walk near his home. "The police
presence is reassuring but unnerving."
Three
activists who traveled to Chicago for the summit were
accused Saturday of manufacturing Molotov cocktails in a plot to
attack Obama's campaign headquarters, Emanuel's home and other
targets. But defense lawyers argued that the police had trumped up
the charges to frighten peaceful protesters away. They told a judge
it was undercover officers who brought the firebombs to an apartment
in Chicago's South Side where the men were arrested.
Occupy
Chicago protesters, some wearing masks, sit in the street outside
Mayor Rahm Emaunel's house during a march and demonstration in
Chicago Saturday, May 19, 2012. Security has been high throughout the
city in preparation for the NATO summit, where delegations from about
60 countries will discuss the war in Afghanistan and European missile
defense. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
This
combo made from undated photos released Saturday, May 19, 2012 by the
Chicago Police Department shows from left, Brent Vincent Betterly,
24, of Oakland Park, Fla., Jared Chase, 24, of Keene, N.H., and Brian
Church, 20, of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. The three men arrested Wednesday,
May 16, 2012, in Chicago, accused of making Molotov cocktails with
plans to attack President Barack Obama's campaign headquarters, Mayor
Rahm Emanuel's home and other targets during this weekend's NATO
summit, according to prosecutors at a court hearing Saturday. The
three were arrested in a nighttime raid of an apartment in the city's
South Side Bridgeport neighborhood ahead of the two-day meeting. (AP
Photo/Chicago Police Department)
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