For over a month now, protesters have been congregating in the city of Chicago to voice their opinions on various political topics as part of the Occupy Chicago movement.
Last weekend, these peaceful demonstrators ran into trouble with the Chicago Police. Approximately 175 arrests were made over the nights of Oct. 15 and 16 when the Occupy movement attempted an overnight campout in Grant Park, much like the New York protesters.
Among those arrested was DePaul Ph.D. student Ashley Bohrer, who is also a member of the Occupy Chicago education committee.
Police informed protesters several times that the park closed at 11 p.m. After the demonstrators refused to leave, the arrests began.
Occupiers held steady, citing their First Amendment rights as reason enough for their stance in the park.
"A variety of us chose to exercise these First Amendment rights, and for that we were arrested," said Bohrer.
Bohrer cited several judicial precedents, namely the 1998 court case Clark v. Community for Creative Non-Violence (CCNV), where the issue was whether a National Park Service regulation prohibiting camping in certain parks violates the First Amendment. The issue was whether police could prohibit demonstrators from sleeping in Lafayette Park and the Mall, their actions intending to call attention to the plight of the homeless.
In the case of Occupy Chicago, the protesters hold that when the First Amendment and the city ordinance are in conflict, the First Amendment takes precedent. They state that there is a long history that shows this applies 24 hours a day, seven days a week on public property. Grant Park falls into that category.
"It was very clear that the arrests were a coordinated offensive movement ... This makes it very different than if I were walking alone in the park at 11 and arrested. The CPD was waiting for an order in this situation," Bohrer said.
Columbia student Alina Tsvor was also in attendance that night, and although she wasn't arrested, police forcibly removed her from the park.
"I was there from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. Around 1 p.m. they started arresting people … I was taking pictures and got in the way of the police a bunch of times. They weren't mean or anything, surprisingly, they just gave me warnings a few times to leave the park or get arrested."
This sort of ultimatum was offered to all of the protesters, although the large majority of them chose to stay for the cause, rather than leave to escape arrest.
"Around 3 a.m. they ended up taking me out of the park," said Tsvor.
Bohrer said that after the paddy wagons brought to contain the arrested were full, the police then took a break for two hours then returned for more arrests, bringing with them four additional paddy wagons and a CTA bus to transport protesters to the jail.
"I want to make it very clear that the citizens of Chicago's tax dollars were used to transport those arrested," said Bohrer, "The CPD was using a city bus."
Bohrer was arrested just before 3:30 a.m. and was taken to the police station at 17th and State St., where the rest of the protesters were being held.
"It was very clear that the CPD had no idea what to do with us," Bohrer said. "There was no standardization of procedure, no protocol in place, and there were contradictory statements made about everything … what room to be held in, if our property should be on us or in a different room, if we could use the bathroom, if we could make phone calls, what exactly we were being charged for, whether or not we would be finger-printed."
For two hours, arrested protesters were kept waiting while the CPD attempted to sort out the situation.
"Personally, I asked for a glass of water 15 times over my seven-hour incarceration and each time that request was denied," she said.
Many of the issues encompassed by the Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Chicago movements are specifically related to students and the climbing numbers of recent graduates who are unable to repay their student loans due to the lackluster job economy.
"We go to a private school; we've taken out countless student loans only to be pushed out into a job economy with no security offered," Bohrer said. "The personal debt system in this country is incredibly exploitative in deep and painful ways. Students will find themselves $10,000, $50,000, $100,000 in debt and forced into a deeply punitive system with no chance and no hope to repay."
Bohrer encourages DePaul students to get involved and said that as long as no drug or alcohol use is in effect, they should not be arrested under any circumstance.
She has continued to attend the protests every day since her arrest and plans to remain in attendance each day that the movement is active.
A massive demonstration and large march to Grant Park took place Saturday, in an attempt to reoccupy the public space and reassert occupiers' First Amendment rights.
"We can only hope that Rahm Emmanuel and the CPD decide to comply with the constitution," Bohrer said.
"Part of being a student is learning what is going on in the world. You don't need to be personally affected by debt, homelessness or the police state apparatus in order to stand with those who have been affected."
"I encourage students to join for their own reasons, those personal reasons that reflect the message of the movement, because we are all affected. Even if I haven't been made homeless or had my home foreclosed upon, these morally reprehensible acts need to be recognized. We can all lend a hand to remedy the economic situation."
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