Chicago braces for final day of anti-NATO protests as demonstrators march on Boeing HQ

Protesters leave Union Park, in Chicago on a march to Boeing's corporate offices for a demonstration, as a part of protests held during the NATO summit, on Monday, May 21, 2012 in Chicago. / AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh

Last Updated 1:51 p.m. ET

(CBS/AP) CHICAGO - Chicago braced for more demonstrations Monday, with protesters marching to Boeing Corp. headquarters, a day after police clashed with a group of demonstrators at the end of a march protesting the NATO Summit.

CBS Station WBBM correspondent Marissa Bailey reports the demonstration outside Boeing's headquarters on N. Riverside Plaza in the West Loop will protest the defense contractor building aircraft and missiles for the U.S. military.

The protesters say Boeing is a "war machine that produces war machines."

So far there have been no arrests at Monday's protests according to Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy.

At about 11:00 a.m. CT protesters left Union Park and began walking along Lake Street toward Boeing, about 1.5 miles away, chanting, "We're going to beat back the Boeing attack."

Police are walking their bikes in ahead of them.

Last week Boeing covered its street-level windows with aluminum panels in preparation for possible vandalism during the protest. The Associated Press reported city workers unloaded metal barricades and placed them in front of Boeing's headquarters Monday morning. Guards outside the building include at least one dog handler with a K-9.

Two activists have hung up a sign on a metal fence outside Boeing headquarters reading, "Food not bombs."

The group does not have a permit for the protest, and thus, a large police presence is expected. However, demonstrators are not calling the planned event a protest at all, said Bailey. They are calling it a victory party, complete with food, clowns, music and dancing.

Many downtown businesses have told their employees to stay home during the second and final day of the summit — where world leaders are discussing the war in Afghanistan, European missile defense and other security issues — because of traffic snarls and the possibility of more protests.

More than two dozen Metra rail stations along a line that carries around 14,000 riders in from the southern suburbs on most weekdays will be closed, and stations and platforms patrolled by a larger contingent of law enforcement personnel and K-9 units. The Chicago Transit Authority will have to reroute 24 buses through the summit zone.

On Sunday, several thousand protesters marched through downtown in one of Chicago's largest demonstrations in years, airing grievances about war, climate change and a wide range of other complaints as world leaders assembled for a NATO summit.

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Although the march was largely peaceful, late Sunday police and demonstrators clashed. Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said 45 protesters were arrested.

Four officers suffered minor injuries Sunday, the U.S. Secret Service told WBBM. A spokesperson with Mercy Hospital said seven protesters were treated and released.

Some protesters claimed (via Facebook and Twitter) that police officers attacked peaceful demonstrators without provocation, reports WBBM. But one police blog countered that an officer was attacked with a clawhammer.

Demonstrators make their way towards Michigan Ave. during a protest march as a part of this weekend's NATO summit in Chicago Sunday, May 20, 2012 in Chicago.

/ AP Photo/Kim Johnson Flodin

Beginning late Sunday night a few dozen protesters held a vigil outside the police station on Belmont Ave., waiting for others to be released from jail - and cheering as those who had been detained emerged one by one. Some protesters flew an American flag upside-down as a symbol of protest, reports WBBM correspondent Susanna Song.

Officers outside the police station watched the protesters in case the situation got out of hand.

One woman who had been released from jail told reporters she had been charged with "refusal to disperse, I think . . . It wasn't really that serious."

A protester is helped after sustaining an injury at a protest march and rally during this weekend's NATO summit in Chicago Sunday, May 20, 2012 in Chicago.

/ AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast

Occupy Chicago member Bobby Hines of Chicago was arrested on charges of reckless conduct. He claimed that police officers attacked non-confrontational protesters during the march Sunday.

"It was ridiculous - I mean, just right as we were walking, they started hitting people with their billy clubs. I saw people with their eyes gashed out," Hines said. "It was basically a misuse of power in my opinion."

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Organizers with the Occupy Chicago movement planned to gather at a West Side park at 9 a.m., and an hour later march toward the Boeing building along the Chicago River in the city's business district to protest the company's role in building aircraft for the U.S. military.

Later, immigration rights activists will gather at the same park before boarding a bus to travel to the small village of Crete, about 35 miles south of Chicago, where federal officials are considering building a nearly 800-bed detention facility for illegal immigrants slated for deportation.

Andy Thayer, one of the main anti-NATO protest organizers, said he expected many demonstrators from out of town to leave Sunday night. But he said a strong contingent of protesters still will show up for the Boeing protest Monday morning.

He decried how city leaders and police officials have handled the protests. "I am disgusted, particularly, with the upper echelon of our city," Thayer said.

Sunday's protests drew together a broad assortment of participants, including peace activists joining with war veterans and people focused on economic inequality. But the diversity of opinions also sowed doubts about whether there were too many messages to be effective.

The protests lacked the size and singular message that shaped the last major protest moment in Chicago, when nearly half a million people filled the city's downtown in 2006 to protest making it a felony to be an illegal immigrant.

And some of the most enduring images of the event were likely to be from the end — when a small group of demonstrators clashed with a thick line of police who tried to keep them from the lakeside convention center where President Obama is hosting the gathering of world leaders.

The protesters tried to move east toward McCormick Place, with some hurling sticks and bottles at police. Officers responded by swinging their batons. After nearly two hours, the two sides were still locked in a standoff, with police blocking the protesters' path and the crowd refusing to leave. Some protesters appeared to have blood streaming down their faces.

Following the main skirmish, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said 45 protesters were arrested. Police said four officers were hurt, including one stabbed in the leg. Those numbers seemed certain to rise, as new clashes erupted later.

Hundreds of protesters gathered late Sunday night near the Art Institute of Chicago as first lady Michelle Obama hosted a dinner inside for spouses of NATO leaders. At least 100 Chicago police officers in riot gear were also at the scene.

The group of several hundred tried to send a message to the spouses of NATO leaders attending the event inside, sitting in the middle of Michigan Avenue in a driving rain chanting, "Our Streets, Our Streets." The group started dancing as the rain fell.

A protester stands before Chicago Police at the Art Institute, where First Lady Michelle Obama hosted a dinner for the spouses of NATO dignitaries during this weekend's summit in Chicago Sunday, May 20, 2012.

/ AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast

[TimeToEvolve]

Since the disaster of Reaganomics, the start of the failed Republicon capitalist system, the Top 1% have seen their income skyrocket while the workers who create the wealth have seen no increase.

In America, if you include property, sales, payroll and income taxes, the less you make the more you pay in taxes (and fees). I know because I have to pay them all.

Why can't people who have even half a brain accept this reality?

[TimeToEvolve]

Maybe a good name for the American system as exemplified by Mitt Robmee would be not predatory or vampire or vulture capitalism but Republican capitalism (no cares about the workers or the environment, no cares about human or other life on earth). Although the Democrats and Obama are complicit by their complacency in not standing up for the 99%.

[darkhorseky]

WOW stand up for 99%.
Acording to Bussiness Insider only 47% of Americans have full time work. 1% is Rich. So how about the rest of you please find something to do. Sorry to say when all the 1% run off to oversea's counties the 47% will have more buden on our backs.

[TimeToEvolve]

Listen the fact is that we have a serious problem with the Top 1%, this is NOT left vs. right. We should all be out there protesting these filthy war mongers who are completely owned and operated by the world's richest few. Democrats and Republicons should be ashamed of themselves and their country.

[darkhorseky]

Where do people get this stuff? Michael Moore? Why don't you go after China? Thier a whole lot richer then the top 1%. Also you and everyone else buys from the corperations you wish to punsh? This is stupid that you even buy into this. When ever in history people feel lost they after the rich. Well or kings or whom ever. People have allowed all these groups into the US. They have purchased everything from foreign counties (even your i what ever god communicators) You are so even more guilty then the rest. You did not even want to stupport those poor Chineese that worked day and night for your I what ever. You and all that have allowed this for so meny years now you deal with it. Lets keep letting more in and keep not stopping jobs from leaving.

[TimeToEvolve]

I agree with you guys, let the very rich turn the world into their own profit machine. The heck with workers there are plenty more where they came from. The heck with the environment, it's god's will that the oil and chemical companies destroy it for profit.

Listen to Mitler, the rich need more, more, more. They have STILL not done well enough. They have STILL not destroyed enough lives and careers of the middle class.

Where do people get these good drugs? How else do people learn to be so greedy and stupid and out-of-touch with reality? It's downright scary folks.

[TimeToEvolve]

The imperial powers run by giant corporations brought this on themselves. There is only so much rape and pillage of the workers you can do to people. There is only so much exploitation that people will put up. America is run by Wall Street Banksters and other filthy rich crooks and it is time to stop them before we are cooked.

[darkhorseky]

Wan't this in a movie? I really think it was on Russia.

[credibility2]

...legitimate protest is one thing, but those causing the problems were only intent on causing harm, injury and damage...their actions also diminished any so-called legitimacy to the gripes of the mostly peaceful protesters...the police were too accommodating and should have bashed in more heads given the attacks the anarchists caused on them...the majority, who don't abide by the protests will be extremely happy to see this beautiful city rid of its rodents, malcontents, whiners, losers, and anarchists...

[Mag234]

I just want all of the protesters out of Chicago. You're all a disgrace to this country. You don't even know what NATO stands for. Get a job and become a productive member of society. If you think you're making a difference you're not. No one cares. We just want you out of our city.

[ABigs]

Millions of Americans are unemployed and these people are protesting a company that employs hundreds of thousands of people? What are they suppose to do join the unemployment line because you protestors don't want the USA to make weapons to protect this country? You are the dumbest, wackos that ever lived. If you get a job, you wouldn't have time to occupy the streets across this Nation...dumb heads!

[newparadigmneeded]

so let me get this right we should build weapons to sell to other people to kill other people so other people have jobs. that has got to be one of the most insane lines of logic i have ever heard. because that is what is going on the weapons are not for us they are for other countries. you know the egypt's and the pakistan's of the world.

[rightofwrong]

I'm curious to know what planes they flew on to get to Chicago from San Francisco? Did they refuse to fly if it was a Boeing 737, 747, 757 etc.? Protesting a company because they build airplanes and employ thousands of Americans seems silly and ignorant. Defense contractors fill the orders of the government's needs. Protest the President's decision to remain in foreign countries. Ask Mr. Obama why Guantanamo Bay is still open when he promised it would be closed in the first 100 days.

If they want to make a change, get a job(now hiring signs are everywhere), pay taxes(you have to be legal), and vote(again legal except in Chicago). Get enough like minded people to vote the same way and then change will come. Right? Or more of the same...

[newparadigmneeded]

defense contractors sell their weapons to nations all over the world then they are used to kill americans don't you get it yet. you think the protestors support obama? that is funny. you think change can happen politically in this corrupted mockery of a democracy that is even funnier.

[crypticvalentin]

Weekend In Chicago
https://vimeo.com/42522561