I wrote here last week, following up on a Rolling Stone piece by Rick Perlstein, about the proliferation of FBI entrapment schemes aimed at activists and anarchists in the past decade. Following the arrest of five individuals in Chicago over the weekend who now face terrorism charges, the question of entrapment perpetrated by law enforcement seems more important than ever.

According to an exhaustive report from Firedoglake’s Kevin Gosztola,”three Occupy activists raided on May 16 and disappeared for a period of time by Chicago police were brought before a bond judge [on Saturday] and officially charged with material support for terrorism, conspiracy to commit terrorism and possession of explosives or explosive or incendiary devices.” The young men’s lawyer, Michael Deutsch of the National Lawyers Guild, described the charges as “fabricated” and “based on police informants and provocateurs which is a common pattern that we have seen against people who are protesting.”

Deutsch has gone so far as to suggest that infiltrators from the Chicago Police Department actually planted materials for making Molotov cocktails in the apartment before the police raid and that his clients did not even take the bait. Meanwhile, rumors abound, including claims that elaborate weapons like throwing stars were retrieved from the raided apartment. Perhaps the most interesting tidbit of information fueling the rumor mill is whether the three suspects have been targeted because of a candid video they shot and released the previous week, showing CPD officers searching their car and intimidating them as they entered Chicago. The video, which gleaned considerable online attention, showed one officer recommending that protesters receive “a billy club to the fucking skull.”

Meanwhile, two additional individuals were arrested and charged with planning to make explosives to use at the summit. The two reportedly stated that they possessed explosives that they intended to detonate, but no such devices were recovered when one of the arrestee’s homes was searched, and the police did not perform a search on the home of the other. Nonetheless, he was arrested for discussing the ingredients for making a pipe bomb (presumably with a police informant, but this remains unclear).

Truthout’s Steve Horn, who has been following the story closely on the ground in Chicago, noted that two undercover informants, working under the pseudonyms “Mo” and “Gloves,” appear to be “thread” linking the five activists now facing terror charges. Details of the cases continue to emerge, but Perlstein’s Rolling Stone article last week is reminder enough that accusing authorities of entrapment is unlikely to work in the defendants’ favor, even if evidence is on their side. “Not a single ‘terrorism’ indictment has been thrown out for entrapment since 9/11,” he noted.

And while the facts surrounding the five arrestees remain murky, the furor surrounding the raids, arrests and charges in the past week are enough to illustrate the immediate impact of alleging terrorist threats during mass activist mobilizations. Twitter was abuzz with unsubstantiated, nervous rumors about pending police raids and lurking, unmarked vans. And once again, the terms “anarchist” and “Occupy” have been linked to terrorism in the media and public consciousness. Even if, as the NLG argues, the charges are “fabricated,” the suggestion of terrorism stokes fear and upholds the good protester/bad protester narrative that has long haunted Occupy groups nationwide.

So while the Tribune may be right, that the NATO summit and surrounding protests did not leave a “black eye” on the city, even the worst bruises heal fast. Something more damaging may, however, remain: the ongoing persecution of anarchists and activists with entrapment, intimidation and trumped-up charges.

Eight people were arrested Monday during a protest at Obama’s 2012 campaign headquarters. The rally, organized by social justice and anti-war group Catholic Workers, was the first organized demonstration — and the first instance of arrests — relating to the NATO counter-protests. It was small (just over two dozen participants assailed security and stormed the campaign headquarters and read a statement inside) but set a tone for actions later this week in asserting that the president and Democratic Party are protest targets alongside NATO generals and corporations like Boeing, who receive large government defense contracts.

For months the question has hovered over Occupy supporters, many of whom are attending NATO protests, partly organized by Occupy Chicago, from across the country: How many of them will manifest as Democratic voters come November? Will the energy that has brought hundreds of thousands into streets and parks across the country over the past half year be co-opted by the party machine? Of course, the small Catholic Workers demonstration is no indication either way. It will be interesting to watch, however, as the week of permitted and unpermitted protest actions continue in the city Obama calls home, the ways in which Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the president are willing to crack down on the dissenting crowds whose support they will ask for in November.

The Chicago Police Department is pitching the LRAD largely as a means to communicate with large crowds:

“This is simply a risk management tool, as the public will receive clear information regarding public safety messages and any orders provided by police,” Chicago Police spokeswoman Melissa Stratton told the Guardian.

However, during its first outing at a U.S. protest, during the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh in 2009, police blasted non-lethal sound waves from the device as a crowd deterrent. Unlike firing tear gas or swinging batons, deploying the LRAD does not create a dramatic media spectacle; indeed, videos from the Pittsburgh protests capture the LRAD emitting little more than a high-pitched siren. Those within the sound cannon’s range, however, have described immense pain and severe headaches and — in some cases — irreversible hearing damage. LRAD Corp., which produces the weapon for the military and domestic policing, said that anyone within 100m of the device’s directed sound path will experience “extreme pain,” according to Gizmodo.

“In Pittsburgh, they directed the LRAD at a crowd coming up the center of a wide street, then sent tear gas canisters down the sides of the street. Tear gas is painful, but everyone ran into the tear gas to get out of the LRAD path,” one protester who attended the Pittsburgh G-20 told me, asking to remain anonymous. Chicago’s Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy has recently expressed that he believes tear gas to be an ineffective crowd control device — and based on lessons from Pittsburgh, the LRAD can produce a painful enough effect to force crowd dispersal without the dramatic media impact tear gas creates; it’s certainly a more insidious weapon. (Indeed, the Chicago police riot during the 1968 Democratic National Convention went down in infamy partly because of the excessive use of tear gas.)

Norm Stamper, the former Seattle police chief who oversaw the policing of the Battle in Seattle in 1999, has learned some hard personal lessons about protest policing. Stamper resigned after his department was condemned for excessive use of force and tear gas against the ’99 World Trade Organization protesters; he has since become an outspoken critic of harsh crowd control techniques. Of the LRAD Stamper told Salon, “I’m not a fan. And it’s not just because I suffer from tinnitus. Everyone, without ear protection, is at risk for permanent hearing damage. Not worth it, as far as I’m concerned.”

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has assured Chicagoans that no taxpayer money will go toward covering any summit activity (federal and private money was secured for this purpose). However, Chicago organizers and participants in the counter-summit have nonetheless balked that money can be made available for such purposes, while public services, such as mental health clinics are being shuttered (six out of 12 of the city’s mental health clinics are set for closure, which sparked the week-long occupation of one clinic by staff and clients with the support of Occupy Chicago).

Occupy Chicago’s press committee late last week held a conference to give the media a preview of the week of protests. Although it was made explicit that actions would take place that have not yet been disclosed or even planned, scheduled protests include a march Tuesday organized by National Nurses United (who are paying for 12 busloads of protesters to get to Chicago from across the country). The NNU march will end with a musical performance by Rage Against the Machine guitarist and “guitarmy” instigator Tom Morello, and aims to speak out against austerity measures implemented by the G-8. Having changed original plans to hold the G-8 summit in Chicago the same week as NATO, G-8 leaders are instead meeting this week in the rural seclusion of Camp David. Organizers plan to make their opposition to the G-8 visible in Chicago nonetheless.

Other actions specifically targeting NATO include a procession to the summit headquarters on May 20, during which veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars plan to hand back their service medals to NATO generals in protest against ongoing wars. Occupy Chicago also has plans for an unpermitted march to shut down Boeing’s main office on May 21, in opposition to the government defense contracts the company receives.

Occupy Chicago, CANG8 and other organizing groups have pitched all counter-summit activity as “peaceful,” prompting further outcry that the city is preparing a militaristic crowd control response, especially with the threat of the LRAD.

Clarification: An earlier version of this story suggested the LRAD was a new purchase for Chicago. The riot gear is newly purchased and CPD are preparing to use the LRAD, which they already owned.

Protest organizers are currently in discussions with city officials about alternative routes. However, it’s worth noting that protesters may still march without official permits. Indeed, on the first day of the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh in 2009 an unpermitted march led by anarchists — during which police used tear gas — set a radical tone for the mobilizations, both permitted and unpermitted, that followed. Furthermore, the context of the upcoming NATO summit suggests unpermitted protests will hit Chicago. Occupy actions have encouraged individuals to reclaim space, take to the streets and speak out without asking permission. Many thousands of people — beyond seasoned summit-hopping anarchists well versed in spontaneous direct action during political conferences — are now open to the idea of dissent that is not circumscribed by city ordinances.

Mayor Emanuel and Chicago bureaucrats will no doubt build further barriers to hamper mass protest and prevent riotous scenes at all cost. But long-term anarchists and those radicalized by Occupy actions (and the harsh police responses to them) have again and again proved themselves willing to challenge authority and risk arrest and injury — attempts to enact a “Chicago Spring” evidently will not be killed by 1,000 (bureaucratic) paper cuts. As Occupy Chicago’s Twitter feed responded Tuesday to the news of the the parade permit rejection, “Think it will stop us? ”.

Festival organizers made an embarrassing early move (aside from using cringe-inducing phrases like “music – the heartbeat of our cultures”). They advertised VIP passes, with access to a private lounge, special viewing areas and more. An Occupy event with VIP tickets: The idea is truly laughable. Evidently, public responses made this more than clear. Just over a day after the VIP passes were announced in a press release, they were scrapped.

“There is no VIP or premium access … That was an oversight that was pretty big,” Grahan Czach, an organizer with Solid Clarity LLC, told RedEye Chicago.

However, that the idea was floated in the first place suggests that those behind Occupy Festival might not be familiar with the horizontalism underpinning Occupy organizing, despite Czach’s claim that they are “part of the movement.” It’s worth noting that standard-price tickets are already $35 for one day, $55 for two, which will exclude many Occupy supporters anyway.

At best, the festival is a fundraiser, which will push some much-needed funds to Occupy Chicago (hopefully without strings attached). At worst, it is the sort of event that co-opts energy and anger and pacifies, rather than stokes, challenges and threats to the status quo. No one needs another WOMAD festival, and I fail to see how Occupy Festival’s permits, strict rules, elevated stages and pricey tickets have much to do with Occupy at all. I also fail to see how a music festival can “peacefully embody the struggle of social and economic inequality,” as Occupy Festival promises to do – a complex challenge indeed.

As Occupy brushes off its winter dust and springs back into regular, highly public action, the many-legged co-optation machine will follow suit. Another cultural event at the end of March, for example, will see the language popularized by Occupy funneled into a distinctly liberal cause. “All in for the 99%” is an arts event hosted by hip-hop producer Russell Simmons and former White House environmental advisor Van Jones, and sponsored by MoveOn Civic Action, SEIU, Rebuild the Dream – a nonprofit focused on economic inequality. Ed Norton, Marisa Tomei, Moby and other big names are on the host committee for the Los Angeles event, which will feature curated DJ sets alongside community activist training sessions.

“Artists, musicians, writers and activists will gather and use creative collaboration to amplify the voices of the 99%, demanding an end to Citizens United and calling loudly for real campaign finance reform,” announced the event release (noting too that the day is pretty much free and open to the public, save for a private party at the end for more important members of the public). It’s more of the same sort of non-threatening consciousness raising — celebrity endorsement included — reminiscent of the weakest antiwar and environmental activism in recent decades.

The amorphous, confusing assemblage that loosely constitutes the Occupy movement did not resonate just because it raised awareness. All across the country — in unpermitted marches, occupations and short-lived squat attempts — people re-appropriated spaces, determined their use and found each other. It’s a false proposition that “the voices of the 99%” could be amplified by celebrity artists and musicians. These voices were heard most loudly when they autonomously took space, got arrested and beaten for it, and came back again and again.

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that a portion of proceeds from Occupy Festival would go to The 8th Day Center for Justice. In fact, this group is just the fiscal sponsor for Occupy Chicago.