Salon.com > Occupy Chicago

Chicago anarchist sent to boot camp for lie about bomb in Harry Potter book

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 21:30:00 +0000

Sebastian Senakiewicz, 24, never made a bomb. He was never found with any explosive-making materials; authorities thoroughly searched his house. The Polish immigrant did, however, tell a boastful lie that has landed him a stint at boot camp.

Just days before the Chicago NATO summit last May, Senakiewicz drunkenly told undercover agents that he had two homemade explosives hidden in his Chicago residence in a hollowed-out Harry Potter book. A search of his home found the bombs to be as fictitious as the boy wizard -- there weren't even any Harry Potter books at the address. But the 24-year-old anarchist, who Tuesday pleaded guilty to one felony count of falsely making a terrorist threat, could face deportation.

The Chicago Tribune reported:

At a hearing in the Leighton Criminal Court Building, Judge Nicholas Ford imposed the 4-year prison term and recommended that Senakiewicz be admitted into a prison boot camp. If he successfully completes the program he could be released in as little as 6 months, but prosecutors said the Polish native would be subject to deportation on completing his sentence.

Chicago’s fishy NATO arrests

Tue, 22 May 2012 17:05:00 +0000

While thousands of NATO protesters streamed out of Chicago following Monday's final day of organized marches and rallies, the Chicago Tribune concluded that the summit had ended "without giving Chicago a black eye." And, indeed, although shocking images of heads bloodied by police batons have emerged, the city did not devolve into 1968-style unbridled chaos. This weekend's street scenes may not leave a lasting mark on the Windy City, but raids, police intimidation, protesters facing terrorism charges and reports of police entrapment leave a chilling imprint in the summit's wake.

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.

First NATO protest targets Obama

Tue, 15 May 2012 16:47:00 +0000

In the first week of November 2008, tens of thousands of people gathered in Chicago to watch dewy-eyed as Barack Obama won the presidential election, believing, as the then-president-elect said in his victory speech, that "this time must be different." This week, the Windy City is welcoming large crowds again -- but as was made clear by a small protest action Monday -- the president is not the sweetheart of these Chicago masses, which are assembling for a week of actions and protests surrounding the NATO summit.

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.

Chicago cops’ new weapons

Mon, 14 May 2012 15:54:00 +0000

This week, Occupy Chicago welcomes allies from around the country and the world as they descend on the Windy City to protest the weekend's NATO summit. The Chicago Police Department is ready: Not only has the city passed strict new protest ordinances, but it's been stockpiling serious riot gear in anticipation of conflict with the protesters.

According to a report from the Guardian's Adam Gabbatt, in recent months the Chicago police have spent over $1 million on riot equipment, and are preparing to use a controversial LRAD (long-range acoustic device) -- a sound cannon designed to cause extreme pain to those in its path.

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.

Chicago NATO protests hit with red tape

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 22:44:00 +0000

When the White House announced that the G-8 this coming May would be moved out of Chicago to the president's sequestered retreat at Camp David, protesters planning to hit the Windy City streets celebrated the move as a victory: It seemed the mere prospect of their presence, with numbers expected in the tens of thousands, had run the G-8 out of town.

Plus the NATO summit, planned for mid-May in Chicago, would still be occasion for massive protests in the city. But, adding to obstacles posed by a host of strict new rules for protests introduced by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Occupy groups and allies planning mass anti-NATO street actions are running up against reams of red tape. While the city granted a parade permit for a group planning to march during the proposed G-8 summit, a request by the very same group to move the parade back one day to coincide instead with the NATO summit has been denied. According to the Chicago Tribune, city officials cited "a lack of police officers as well as other security and logistics complications" because of the first day of the NATO summit as the reason for the permit rejection. The presence of 5,000 NATO delegates will put the city on lockdown; a mass march that day, they suggest, would overwhelm security and transport resources. The original request for a permit the day before was approved, a Law Department spokesman told the Chicago Sun-Times, because the G-8 is significantly smaller than NATO.

How not to stage an Occupy music festival

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 19:30:00 +0000

There's nothing wrong with standing in a park listening to music with lots of other people. As such, there's nothing essentially wrong with Occupy Festival -- a two-day music festival in Chicago's Union Park in mid-May. But essence aside, there's reason to be wary.

The two-day open-air festival, planned for May 12-13 (purposefully, just in advance of Chicago's NATO summit), is being organized autonomously by a group called Solid Clarity LLC, but won the endorsement of Occupy Chicago. Yet-unnamed "top international, national and local" musicians are slated to play across three stages. Half the profits will go to Occupy Chicago -- who will get the rest isn't clear.

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.

Inside that new anti-Occupy bill

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 15:30:00 +0000

In recent days, there has been a considerable amount of online speculation over a bill that made its way through the House and the Senate last week with little opposition -- HR 347, or the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011. Some have decried it as specifically anti-Occupy legislation with the aim to further curtail First Amendment rights. HR 347 makes it a prosecutable offense to knowingly, and without lawful authority, enter "(1) the White House or its grounds or the Vice President's official residence or its grounds, (2) a building or grounds where the President or other person protected by the Secret Service is or will be temporarily visiting, or (3) a building or grounds so restricted due to a special event of national significance."

This would, of course, include the areas restricted in Chicago for the NATO summit and Camp David for the G-8. However, concerns focusing solely on the passing of HR 347 seem to be a red herring of sorts, as most of its content has long been enshrined into law.

A famous Chicago factory gets Occupied

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

CHICAGO — Leah Fried had seen this movie before.

In fact, she'd appeared in it. Fried is the union representative for workers at the former Republic Windows and Doors plant, site of the 2008 factory occupation in Chicago that captured national attention and appeared in Michael Moore's "Capitalism, A Love Story."

“It feels like déjà vu,” she said on Thursday night, standing at the again-occupied factory’s entrance.

She was in the same doorway she and factory workers had stood in three years earlier, when workers occupied the plant for six days demanding legally owed severance, accrued vacation time, and temporary health benefits. In 2012, the company logo on the door had changed, now reading “Serious Energy,” but the desolate industrial backdrop, the roar of passing semis, the miserable winter weather and the dramatic 1930s-era tactic of physically occupying a factory remained the same.

Rahm’s Chicago crackdown aims at Occupy

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:31:00 +0000

The stage is set for dramatic street scenes in Chicago this May during the G-8 and NATO summits. The actors are ready: Mass actions in Oakland, Calif., on Saturday, followed by solidarity marches across the country Sunday indicate that Occupy is far from stagnating. Occupy Chicago has called for a "Chicago Spring" to coordinate protest groups and actions during the summit, while Adbusters, the Vancouver-based culture jamming magazine, last week implored 50,000 people to descend on Chicago in May. Seasoned summit-hoppers from around the world have had their planners marked for months.

Then there's the backdrop: Chicago, the site of the notorious 1968 Democratic National Convention and police riot. The city of Barack Obama's election night rally in 2008 -- when a politician could still pull off a slogan like "hope" and it didn't seem to everyone like a cruel joke. And, as of this month, a Chicago where protest rules and punishments for dissent are stricter than ever, thanks to ordinances recently passed through the city council.

"The ordinances, combined with Chicago's history of spying on political activists, do not bode well for how the City will treat protesters at the upcoming G-8/NATO summits," Heidi Boghosian, director of the National Lawyers Guild, told Salon.

Life after occupation

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 18:55:00 +0000

The post-occupation movement is taking shape across America. In New York, Occupy Wall Street is mulling next steps now that Zuccotti Park has been politically cleansed. Oakland, Calif., and Portland, Ore., have been evicted. And other occupations are staring at imminent police action, including New Orleans, Detroit and Philadelphia.

In Chicago, which has been unable to secure a public space, the Occupy movement is trying to figure out how to sustain a public presence through a harsh winter while staging creative actions that capture attention. And while Occupy Mobile in the conservative stronghold of Alabama was shut down two weeks ago without much attention from the national news media, the local movement has not gone quietly into the night, providing one answer to the question: Can an occupation movement survive if it no longer occupies a space?

The answer, based on my visits to occupation sites around the country, is: "Yes, but ..."