LEFTWING-CHRISTIAN.NET
By Richard Edmondson
One thing you can say about Hosni Mubarak. At least he never mass-arrested protesters for being in Tahrir Square after 11 p.m. It’s a different situation in Chicago, however, where Zionist Mayor Rahm Emanuel is in effect attempting to impose a curfew on the protests. On October 16, Chicago Police arrested 175 protesters for being in Grant Park after its 11 p.m. closing time, while this past Saturday, upon a march of thousands, additional arrests took place—some 130 in all—under similar circumstances.
You would think members of the public would have the right to be in a public park, and as one Occupy Chicago protester observed, “Free speech does not stop at 11 p.m.” Quite true. The First Amendment doesn’t stipulate anything about acceptable hours of protest. But apparently in Chicago, the First Amendment is no longer in effect.
Mayor Rahm’s prisoners included a group of nurses who had set up a first aid tent to provide basic medical care for occupation protesters. The nurses union, National Nurses United, responded with an angry press release, announcing its intentions of picketing the mayor’s office on Monday. The press release actually makes for some quite interesting reading. Here it is:
Nurses Condemn Chicago Mayor Emanuel for Arrest of Nurses, Medical Volunteers at Occupy Chicago
For Immediate Release
October 23, 2011
Registered nurses from across the U.S. today condemned Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel for his decision to arrest nurse volunteers, as well as peaceful protesters, in a late night crackdown Saturday night at the Occupy Chicago protest.
NNU is asking supporters to call Mayor Emanuel’s office at 312-744-5000 and demand they immediately drop all charges against the nurses and other protesters, and stop the harassment and arrests of the nurses and others peacefully exercising their free speech rights. Nurses will also picket the mayor’s office at 10 a.m. Monday morning, at City Hall at the LaSalle entrance.
Nurse leaders of National Nurses United who set up a nurses’ station to provide basic first aid to Chicago protesters – as NNU has done peacefully in five other cities across the U.S. – were among the some 130 people arrested by Chicago police. The police also tore down the first aid station, and arrested scores of others who had peacefully assembled to support the station.
“Even in wartime, combatants respect the work of nurses and other first responders. Yet Mayor Emanuel and Chicago seem to care as little about that tradition as they do in protecting the constitutional rights of free speech and assembly.” said NNU Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro. “These arrests are disgraceful and unconscionable, and will not deter our nurses from continuing this mission, setting up the station again, and continuing to support the protests.”
NNU is asking supporters to call Mayor Emanuel’s office at 312-744-5000 and demand they immediately drop all charges against the nurses and other protesters, and stop the harassment and arrests of the nurses and others peacefully exercising their free speech rights. Nurses will also picket the mayor’s office at 10 a.m. Monday morning, at City Hall at the LaSalle entrance.
Nurse leaders of National Nurses United who set up a nurses’ station to provide basic first aid to Chicago protesters – as NNU has done peacefully in five other cities across the U.S. – were among the some 130 people arrested by Chicago police. The police also tore down the first aid station, and arrested scores of others who had peacefully assembled to support the station.
“Even in wartime, combatants respect the work of nurses and other first responders. Yet Mayor Emanuel and Chicago seem to care as little about that tradition as they do in protecting the constitutional rights of free speech and assembly.” said NNU Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro. “These arrests are disgraceful and unconscionable, and will not deter our nurses from continuing this mission, setting up the station again, and continuing to support the protests.”
Emanuel has been perhaps the most aggressive mayor in the nation in repression of the occupy Wall Street movement with mass arrests on at least two occasions now. The Chicago Tribune Saturday reported that city officials are trying to send a message to world leaders of being “tough” on demonstrators in advance of upcoming meetings of G-8 and NATO leaders in May.
“Instead of showing off for world leaders, and paying allegiance to protecting the economic interests of the top 1 percent, Mayor Emanuel should stop, and start representing the 99 percent, the people for whom the occupy movement has become a clear voice,” DeMoro said.
NNU also has first aid stations now established at occupy protests in New York’s Zuccotti Park, site of the first Occupy Wall Street protests, Los Angeles, Washington, San Francisco, and Detroit, and will be opening up others in coming days.
“Instead of showing off for world leaders, and paying allegiance to protecting the economic interests of the top 1 percent, Mayor Emanuel should stop, and start representing the 99 percent, the people for whom the occupy movement has become a clear voice,” DeMoro said.
NNU also has first aid stations now established at occupy protests in New York’s Zuccotti Park, site of the first Occupy Wall Street protests, Los Angeles, Washington, San Francisco, and Detroit, and will be opening up others in coming days.
NNU first aid station in Chicago just before the arrests Saturday night
Notice in particular what the press release says about Chicago officials “trying to send a message to world leaders of being ‘tough’ on the demonstrators.” That certainly sounds in keeping with what we know of Emanuel’s rather vulgar character. Do the nurses a favor, won’t you? Stand in solidarity with them. Call Mayor Rahm’s office and tell him to respect the first amendment.
But there’s more in the press release that warrants our attention. Take special note of the last paragraph. The NNU, it says, is also staffing first aid stations at several other ‘Occupy’ protests around the country and hopes to begin adding to the list. And if you visit their website you can read how they’re additionally calling for a Nov. 3 march on the U.S. Treasury Dept. in Washington to demand passage of a tax upon Wall Street transactions.
That’s quite a union there.
From the Occupy Chicago site:
CHICAGO 10/23/11 – -Early this morning, roughly 130 people from Occupy Chicago were arrested while attempting for the second time to build a new, permanent home for the Occupation, exercising their First Amendment right to peacefully assemble. Arrestees were taken to the District 1 Police Station at 18th & State, where they were charged with disturbing the peace…
Those arrested Sunday morning included registered nurses and other members from National Nurses United, who erected a medical tent at the action. NNU and Occupy Chicago plan a protest outside City Hall at 10:00 AM Monday to denounce the arrests and demand that charges be dropped.
Occupy Chicago questions why city resources are being used to arrest non-violent protestors. First Amendment rights guarantee the right to peaceful assembly, and park curfews should not restrict these rights.
Since the completion of arrests around 3:00 AM, dozens of supporters have been waiting outside the police station with donations of hot food for the release of their fellow Occupiers.
Nice photo from Chicago Indy Media site:
Though born in Chicago, Emanuel served with the Israeli military in 1991, while his father, Benjamin M. Emanuel, is a former member of the Irgun, the Jewish terror group which carried out the bombing of the King David Hotel in 1946. Wikipedia describes Mayor Rahm’s service with the army as being that of a “civilian helping to maintain equipment” during the first Gulf War, and according to YNet, he “served in one of Israel’s northern bases until the war ended…”
Emanuel held a position in the Clinton administration 1993-98, then won a seat in Congress in 2002 but resigned it in January of 2009 to become Obama’s White House chief of staff. In October of 2010 he left the Obama administration to run for mayor of Chicago.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Emanuel “campaigned on reforming the way Chicago is governed,” though at the same time he received millions of dollars “from businesses and firms who have long been accustomed to the old way of doing business with City Hall.” Our boy seems especially fond of taking campaign donations from banks and investment firms. In his 2002 congressional campaign, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Bank One Corp. were among his top contributors, while by the time the 2008 election cycle rolled around he had added UBS AG, J.P. Morgan, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Carlyle Group, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America to the list of top donors. His top contributor that year was UBS AG with a total of $64,700.
This year, in his successful mayoral campaign, one of his highest contributors was Citadel Investment Group, a Chicago-based hedge fund, which contributed $35,000, reported the Tribune.
Back in the heady post-election days of 2008, Emanuel’s appointment to serve as chief of staff received hearty praise from the head of the National Jewish Democratic Council, who opined that it signaled that our country’s new president would not be listening to the “wrong people” when it came to the U.S.-Israel relationship.
Quite a gesture of confidence, that, and apparently spewing insults at White House visitors doesn’t compromise you once you’ve passed this all-important kosher test on Israel. In August of 2009, the White House chief of staff demonstrated his more genteel side when he castigated a group of liberal activists, calling them “f—ing retarded” for suggesting the possibility of taking out campaign ads against conservative Democrats. We can also go here and read a story about Emanuel, one day while launching into a tirade against his political enemies, picking up a steak knife, slamming it into a table, and screaming “Dead!”
So what do you suppose it is with this guy? Maybe it’s just his upbringing. According to Wikipedia:
Emanuel has said of his Judaism: “I am proud of my heritage and treasure the values it has taught me.”
Perhaps too much staying up late at night as a boy reading the Talmud with his dad.
Uprooted Palestinian
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