Chicago police arrested about 175 Occupy Chicago protestors in Congress Plaza just after 1 a.m. Sunday, about 90 minutes after police issued their first warning that the group was violating municipal code.
Police completed the last arrests and cleared the plaza of protesters at 3:30 am, more than two hours after arrests began.
The protesters will likely be cited with municipal violations and face fines, police said.
Occupy Chicago volunteers said they were taking bags and other belongings from people who were arrested to Grace Episcopal Church for people to pick up once they were released from jail.
With the din from supporters from across the street long since faded away, the participants were taken away in police trucks and CTA buses, often cheering.
“I did it!” one woman said, beaming. “Did you see what I did?”
Officers individually approached protesters, who had formed a human chain and sat on the ground, to give them the option to leave the park voluntarily or be arrested.
As of 1:30 a.m., at least 50 protesters had been hauled away, while about 150 others stood and continued their demonstrations from across the street onMichigan Avenue.
The arrests were mostly peaceful, though many people shouted that the police “were the instruments of the one percent,” referring to the movement’s popular refrain.
One person chose to leave rather than be arrested while two men were seen refusing to stand and had to be carried away by several officers.
Many chanted “The whole world is watching,” echoing chants during protests at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, some of which took place in and around Grant Park.
About 500 or so protestors — down from 2,000 earlier in the day — had pitched tents early in the evening. Police warned them at 11:30 p.m. Saturday they were violating a municipal ordinance which closes the park at 11 p.m.
As the arrests continued, other officers dismantled the two dozen tents and threw away some of the signs.
“I’d like to ask why (New York Mayor Michael) Bloomberg let the people stay in the park peacefully and clean up their own mess, and Rahm Emanuel won’t let us do the same,” said Joseph Eichler, 23, of Logan Square.
When a group of protesters sat defiantly in their tent and refused to leave, the officers dismantled the tent with the people still in it.
“I’m going down with the ship!” one man shouted, right before the group was arrested.
After police cleared most of the plaza, a group of about 60 protesters remained around 2 a.m., huddled together, shouting over the repeated warnings that they would be arrested if they didn’t leave.
“It’s our duty to defend our rights, our right to peacefully assemble,” said Brit Schulte, 23, of Uptown. “This is our park, and they’re trying to take it away from us. We shouldn’t be arrested right now.”
Participants, expecting to be arrested, pledged to return to the plaza Sunday.
As arrests resumed, people chanted, “Shame on Rahm! Shame on Rahm!”
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yep,been in this movie before,but the bait to bring that many people to one spot was,sly and the family stone, and jefferson airplane were giving a free concert in grant park. during the cold war crisis between russia and the u.s. coming to a height,they needed a bigger looking crowd than the size that were at the conrad hilton protesting the democratic convention being held there. now, knowing that there was never gonna be a concert,the subversion was really taking place in grant park because of “no shows’,the crowd was getting pissed, the cops and k-9’s were igniting,and inciting something to happen. so, on national news that evening,the grant park crowd,was shown as the hilton crowd protesters,and i couldnt believe that,at that time,the news were broadcasting the the grant park crowd were the actual democratic convention protesters. they used footage from the larger crowd,to show world news in other countries,that in fact,american people were protesting government.hence the creators of wag the dog,who were so afraid that russia was gonna blow us up,that they conducted a full scale show,with so many “useful idiots”,just to showed,that we had just as much trouble with our citizens, as they did theirs. you gotta remember, the nam war was smack dab in the middle of it’s life,there was a lot of serious tensions between countries,that wanted nuke the fuck out of us. there is certainly a lot more to it than that. thats exactly how i remembered it,i was standing in front of a stage that was set up with all the gear,just a waitin for sly. ows,who the fuck are they waiting for, their messiah of hope and change and his but buddy RRRAAAHHHMMM.. he’s the lieutenant of crafting obamas martial law plan,thats next…or will there be an election.