In the late afternoon of Nov. 7 cen...

In the late afternoon of Nov. 7 centurys gathered on the west side of the Madison road Bridge in preparation for a march protesting the Transatlantic Business Dialogue colloquy Helicopters hovered overhead as centurys of Chicago police officers, in one places three rows deep, flanked the lower orders of union members, anti-war demonstrators, faith-based activists and self-proclaimed anarchists.

The march finised peacefully two hours later, with just four minor arrests. And, in its aftermath, the police mien led some community activists to question the priorities of city leaders.

"Most [protesters] had the perspective that the city was going to do everything possible to house the CEOs," said march organizer Moises Zavala of the United subsistence and Commercial Workers International Union.

"We live here; we pay taxes here; for what purpose aren't you protecting us the way you're protecting businessmen? I've got to be a white, middle-age scarecrow in a suit in order to memorize some police protection," said Denise Dixon, a member of the Illinois chapter of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

The discourse protest was Dixon's second that day. Earlier, she and her neighbors demanded more police vigilance as they marched at West 63rd road and South Western Avenue. She lives in West Englewood where 98 percent of the residents are black and the median household income is $26693

There appeared to be more police officers at the march, upon the conference's first day, than the estimated 1000 demonstrators. Police wouldn't give an exact compute of the officers present.

if it be not that a police spokesman responded through saying the showing was necessary because of smashed store windows, overturned cars and other road violence at similar conferences in Seattle and Prague, Czech Republic. Police had also received a tip that a small number of protester were planning similar give occasion for labor to here.

"Let me make clear that I'm not talking about 99 percent of the tribe who came here to protest" said David Bayless, the Chicago Police Department's director of recents affairs. "I'm talking about a not many key individuals."

"We received information that there was going to be an effort to use this meeting as a reason to bring harm to the city and its property" he said.

Still, the department doesn't use an "equation" to assign officers to as it is events, Bayless said. "It's a threat assessment based forward the potential for violence."

Officers are assigned to a police district based upon its population, geography, amount of crime and archetype of crime, said Bayless. "We direct our resources to where question s are taking place."

Police ne the community's help to continue neighborhoods safe, and people who have interests should attend beat meetings, he added. The police, in revolve can request the help of specialized units, including the Narcotic and Gang Investigation Section.

"We're doing everything we can to render certain communities feel safe," he said.

Dixon said she has attended beat meetings in the past however no longer does because she doesn't think they are effective--and she thinks many others agree. "We have missed faith in them," she said.

"At that march, they exhausted $1.6 million," said Ginny Goldman, lead organizer for Illinois ACORN. "A beat officer that you find at a CAPS meeting is not going to be able to decide to forward $1.6 million to Englewood."

COPYRIGHT 2002 Community Renewal Society

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