Police took "soft approach" in dealing with mostly-peaceful demonstrators.
by Chicago Tribune staff
For four days, and nearly around the clock, Chicago police guided, cajoled and blockaded roaming groups of NATO protesters, following a set of strategic goals that laid the foundation for everything they did.
Keep protesters from damaging property or hurting anyone; keep any trouble south of the city's famous Michigan Avenue retail district, where many international dignitaries were staying; and do it all with a "soft look" that belied the overwhelming police presence and kept violent confrontation to a minimum.
By all appearances, it worked.
Police frustrated and defanged smaller groups of the most troublesome protesters while allowing peaceful demonstrators to shout and march day and night in the relative safety of the Loop, as long as they respected the boundaries police set. Helicopters, horses, surveillance cameras, bicycles, CTA buses, Twitter and even undercover operatives were among the tools.
Their priorities came together in what could be the indelible memory of the NATO summit — a violent clash near McCormick Place on Sunday at the end of the largest weekend demonstration. Every aspect of the police response was on display, from police in everyday street uniforms escorting peaceful demonstrators to the "turtle suit" cops in fully padded riot gear.
[The incident] featured the only extended physical altercation between baton-swinging police and protesters who threw everything from water bottles to a chunk of metal fence into the mass of officers who forced a die-hard crowd of several hundred protesters to disperse after a two-hour standoff. There were several dozen arrests and a number of bloodied demonstrators, but the situation never got out of control…
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