Chicago Mayor Emanuel wants to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on new policy shields because his police chief has an irrational fear that demonstrators at the G8/NATO summits plan to throw feces and urine at police. There is no evidence to support this fear or any reported incidents it ever happened. In fact, demonstrators even adopted pacts to assure police it was a fantasy.

A contracting firm that specializes in anti-terrorism and force protection training, consulting and management services has been hired to train Cook County Sheriff’s Police in the run-up to the NATO-G8 meetings that are to be held in Chicago in May of this year.

The selling and marketing of upcoming G8 and NATO meetings has fully commenced. The slogan has been unveiled for the meetings: “The Global Crossroads.” The meetings will be all about taking the “global stage.” But, as the host committee for the meetings and business organizations, which plan to promote the event, try to convince media to focus on the “benefits,” tens of thousands of people are expected to come to Chicago to protest the meetings that will take place May 19-21.

To help folks separate spin from fact, we’ve put together this analysis to help you understand how local rules have changed in ways that undercut protest and political speech. While these revisions will not deter us from speaking out and protesting, they do change the excuses the police may use to try to prevent us from protesting.

It’s also important that we understand these changes so we can educate our friends and neighbors – and fight for meaningful change that puts people’s rights and the greater good ahead of the fear-mongering and greed that drove Mayor 1%’s push for these changes.

Ahead of the overlapping G-8 and NATO summits in Chicago May 19th-21st Mayor Rahm Emanuel has ramped up the repression of principled dissent in a city that has quite the history of it. New restrictions on parades and demonstrations go far beyond current rules.

The city of Chicago has finally awarded a permit to Chicago groups seeking to organize a demonstration during an upcoming NATO/G8 meeting, but the city now claims the parameters of the permit awarded depend on the federal government.

Joe Iosbaker, lead organizer of the NATO/G8 Working Group in Chicago, reports the permit process will be scrutinized by the Secret Service. They may allow a protest in the location and a march on the route approved by the city or they may not. It all depends on the “security perimeter” that is set around McCormick Place, the convention center where the meetings are to be held from May 15 to May 22. And, it also depends on the “security perimeter” set around the five major hotels up and down Michigan Avenue where heads of state and other officials are expected to be staying.

Okay, quick business quiz for everyone: What do you do with an employee who is incompetent, insubordinate, and constantly sneaking around behind your back? If you’re Barack Obama you force him to keep working for you.

City to city, officials are deciding it is time for occupiers to pack up and go home. And, city to city there are occupations that are just springing up or re-establishing themselves in new areas of cities.

In an age where so many economies are desperately trying not to lose any more ground in the present, could it be that the ones more responsive to their rank-and-file electorates are the ones in the best position to (to borrow a quickly forgotten phrase) win the future?

Antiwar groups and organizers have come together to demand and ensure Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the city of Chicago protect their right to hold peaceful permitted rallies and marches when the G8 and NATO meet in May of next year. They have submitted requests for permits more than ten months before the NATO/G8 summits are slated to be held and on July 28 they submitted a letter to the mayor’s office urging the city to commit to guaranteeing their civil liberties during the meetings.