Occupy Chicago Demonstrators Seek Meeting About G8/NATO Summits
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Demonstrators had a two-pronged agenda when they took their protests to Mayor Rahm Emanuel's doorstep Wednesday afternoon.
As WBBM Newsradio Political Editor Craig Dellimore reports, some of them were looking ahead to next May.
Protesters brought two petitions when they marched on City Hall.
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One called for the curfew arrests at Grant Park and a place for Occupy Chicago to base its demonstrations. But the other petition asked for a meeting with city officials, in anticipation of the demonstrations around the G8 and NATO summits next spring.
Spokesman Andy Thayer said Emanuel administration officials have blown off a meeting.
"Mayor Emanuel instead seems to be gearing up for the same kind of violence and police wrongdoing that we saw during '68," Thayer said, referring to the police beatings that took place outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
A mayoral spokeswoman said officials want to meet the Occupy Chicago leaders, but they have been unwilling to have only a few representatives present.
Chicago and Cook County have received a $54 million federal grant for security in anticipation of protests around the G8 and NATO summits, which are set for May 15 to 22 of next year. Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said earlier this year that al 13,000 Chicago Police officers are being trained for arrest and containment procedures at the summit.
