National Lawyers Guild to Provide Legal Support for Chicago NATO Demonstrations
Support effort to include recording police misconduct, staffing a legal hotline & criminal defense
Chicago, IL — The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) will be providing legal support to political protesters in Chicago this week as several demonstrations are set to occur in advance of and during the NATO summit on May 20th & 21st. The Guild has already been working with protest organizers to secure rally and march permits, and will extend those efforts to include: staffing a legal hotline, conducting Know Your Rights trainings, dispatching Legal Observers throughout the city to record police misconduct, and representing people who have been arrested and criminally charged.
The NATO summit has been designated as a National Special Security Event (NSSE) and the policing apparatus set up to respond to protest activity is under the authority of the U.S. Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Historically, NSSEs have led to widespread violations of people’s constitutional rights, including heavy surveillance and infiltration, preemptive raids by police and other administrative agencies, as well as harassment and intimidation used to chill political protest.
The city’s intolerance to political protest was brought into question after it refused to allow Occupy Chicago activists to demonstrate in Grant Park last October, arresting more than 300 people in the process. More than 90 of those cases are still being prosecuted. In February, the city settled an NLG-led class action lawsuit for $6.2 million, in which more than 700 anti-war protesters were wrongfully arrested in 2003.
“The police have again been harassing activists in the Occupy movement who came to Chicago to protest this week,” said Sarah Gelsomino with the NLG and the People’s Law Office. “The city should be on notice that the Guild will be vigilant in recording actions that are aimed at preventing political protest.”
The Guild is widely disseminating its legal hotline number, which is 312-913-0039, to provide activists with a way to contact legal support staff and for friends and loved ones to find out the status of people who have been arrested.
National Lawyers Guild media liaisons are available for interviews:
Kris Hermes 510-681-6361 or krishermes@earthlink.net
Sarah Gelsomino 773-520-8246 or sarahgelsomino@gmail.com
Other ways of getting information from the NLG include:
www.NLGChicago.org
www.Facebook.com/NLGChicago
Twitter: @NLGChicago
