Although protesters, police and press produced crowds well into the hundreds today, it was hard to miss the few dozen people who volunteered as legal observers.
About 20 people met at the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois (ACLU) offices this morning, where they donned orange hats marked with "ACLU Observer" before heading down to Canal and Washington streets — where a NATO summit-related demonstration occurred outside the Boeing Co. in the Loop.
An ACLU member watched during Monday's protest.
Photos by Natalie Battaglia.
Volunteers with the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) also attended the protest and subsequent march that ended near President Barack Obama's campaign headquarters. They wore lime green hats and T-shirts that made their presence known. Both groups observed the events that transpired this morning and afternoon in an effort to ensure authorities did not infringe on demonstrators' right to free speech.
Observing protests to the NATO summit, which started Sunday and ends today at McCormick Place, "was really important. There was a lot of free speech happening and we wanted to make sure nothing prevented demonstrators from exercising their rights," said Karen A. Sheley, an attorney with the ACLU.
ACLU attorney Karen A. Sheley gave directions near the Boeing headquarters before a protest march.
Photos by Natalie Battaglia.
Like many of her colleagues, Sheley served as an ACLU observer for the past few days, during which time she walked the city's streets and kept a close eye on how police and protesters interacted. Lawyers, she said, typically spend a lot of their work days behind their desks so "getting to be outside in the field and engage in this kind of activity has been really rewarding."
And demonstrators appeared to be more thankful that the ACLU and NLG organized teams of people observing the protests.
Blaise Sewell, who identified himself as a participant of the Occupy Chicago movement, checked in with one ACLU observer as he waited for his fellow protesters to arrive at Boeing from Union Park this morning.
A demonstrator held up a peace sign during a NATO protest at the Boeing headquarters.
Photos by Natalie Battaglia.
"I feel so much safer with them here," Sewell said. "The Occupy movement has definitely latched on to legal observers."
Wearing a button reading "We are the 99%," Sewell said today's protest outside Boeing carried a different tone than Sunday, when police and protesters clashed. Police, some of whom wore riot gear, used billy clubs to push back demonstrators, some of whom pushed back.
Some protesters left Sunday's protest at Michigan Avenue and Cermak Road with "busted noses and teeth knocked out," Sewell said. When he and other demonstrators went to a police facility to wait for the release of nearly four dozen others, Sewell said he waited to get close to the station until he knew legal observers were on site.
Rob Poe, an unemployed paralegal who volunteered to serve as a NLG legal observer, said he spent the past week keeping an eye on demonstrators.
NATO protesters marched on Washington Street.
Photos by Natalie Battaglia.
He said he "stayed in the streets until the point of exhaustion." He said he and other NLG volunteers even slept overnight at a nearby law office affiliated with the guild this weekend.
The NLG, he said, currently represents a few protesters who claim police raided their apartment without a warrant, slightly before midnight on Wednesday in Bridgeport. Poe said he went to the Belmont and Western station early this morning, when those arrested in the raid were released.
While the NLG offered its legal help in representing protesters, the ACLU simply observed the NATO-related demonstrations. They walked alongside those marching today, but when one woman appeared to be detained by police outside the Chase building on Clark and Madison streets, green and orange hats scurried to grab a front row seat to the incident.
Police talked to a protester during Monday’s protest.
Photos by Natalie Battaglia.
It appeared police did not arrest the woman and just took down her information. No incidents of violence were reported by ACLU observers this morning and early afternoon.
Kerry A. Miller, an in-house attorney and ACLU board member, said observing the NATO protests this weekend and today provided "a very interesting experience."
"I feel like it's really important for attorneys to be involved in," he said. "I think we played an important role."
NATO protesters marched north on Michigan Avenue.
Photos by Natalie Battaglia.
Miller served as one of ACLU's "senior attorneys," which means he met with city officials before the summit to develop a relationship in case they needed to intervene on the streets.
"It was peaceful and positive on both sides today," Miller said, after describing Sunday's events as "sort of like a carnival atmosphere."
Jack Battaglia, an incoming 3L at DePaul University College of Law, watched demonstrators blow bubbles, throw confetti and chant outside the Boeing headquarters.
He said he volunteered to be an ACLU observer "because I believe in many of the things ACLU works toward and think speech should be protected whether I believe in it or not."