Councilman Requests Chicago Police Not Pull the Plug on Wireless Communications During G-8/NATO Summits

In May, during G-8 and NATO summits in Chicago, IL, protesters will be flocking the city to demonstrate for a variety of reasons, including rising gas prices, costs, unemployment, injustice, and others. Equipped with smartphones, video cameras and real-time links to social media sites, the demonstrators will plan and sharing images caught during the protests. In fact, wrote Associated Press reporter Don Babwin, this information will be collected and distributed right in front of a police force that is known for responding with tough tactics.

Lately, authorities have been cracking down on these protestors with new tactics. For instance, in recent democratic protests in Egypt, as well as in the San Francisco Bay Area, authorities have been disabling wireless communications and shutting down social media networks. So Chicago City Councilman wants to forbid the police department from pulling the plug on the electronic communications during the events, reports Yahoo! News.

The AP report quoted city councilman Alderman Ricardo Munoz, as saying "We're putting down a marker and saying this has happened in other places and we don't even want it considered here." The councilman is planning to propose his anti-crackdown ordinance at a Chicago City Council meeting on Wednesday,” wrote Babwin.

However, as per the report, aides to Mayor Rahm Emanuel and police chief Garry McCarthy said that the city leaders have no plans to put any restrictions on mobile communications. But, the AP report indicates that councilman Munoz is determined to take the tactic off the table as officials and protesters search for a balance between security and freedom of speech.

According to the AP report, “there is a growing nervousness about clashes during the summits in a city where the police force is dogged by memories of officers beating protesters with clubs during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.” Babwin wrote that more recently, “the police were admonished by a judge for the way they arrested masses of demonstrators during a 2003 Iraq War protest, and the city announced last week it was paying more than $6 million to settle a lawsuit over it.”

The AP report quoted Chicago activist Andy Thayer, who is helping plan the NATO/G8 protests, as saying, "In this day and age, social media is central to the First Amendment." He added. “the ability to take photographs and video and post them on the Internet as events unfold is crucial for organizing and to alert the public.”