McCarthy: Police Already Preparing For G8 Summit
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy says he is wasting no time in preparing his police force for next year's G8 and NATO summits.
As WBBM Newsradio 780's Mary Frances Bragiel reports, just last monththe city learned that the G8 and NATO summits would be held in Chicago in May 2012.
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The Chicago Sun-Times reports police Supt. Garry McCarthy has been planning ever since, by consulting with federal law enforcement agencies and training for the possibility of mass arrests.
He says all 13,000 Chicago Police officers must be trained for arrest and containment procedures for the summit, while at the same time continuing to patrol the city, the Sun-Times reported.
McCarthy told the newspaper that the training includes sending police personnel to Pittsburgh and Seattle.
In 1999 tens of thousands of people protested the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, and in 2009 during the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh, violent clashes arose between protesters and police.
At least one anti-war protester, Joe Iosbaker, has been scouting out potential sites, and several other organizations are reportedly getting together next month to make sure their rights are respected.
Iosbaker was furious last year when he was subjected to an FBI raid last year. The FBI said the raid was one of several in search of "evidence relating to activities concerning the material support of terrorism," but Iosbaker and his wife, Stephanie Weiner, called it an attempt to intimidate and silence them as anti-war activists.
As far as security, Emanuel said last month that he will look for help from the private sector to supplement what the city will have to do.
