Thousands Expected at OWS-Themed Protests at NATO Summit
Demonstrators are arriving by the busload in Chicago ahead of this weekend's international meetings.
| Posted Thursday, May 17, 2012, at 12:55 PM
Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images.
Thousands of Occupy Wall Street protesters are expected to arrive by the busload in Chicago to protest during a two-day NATO summit in the Windy City this weekend.
Local authorities estimate anywhere from 2,000 to 10,000 demonstrators will be on hand. OWS organizers have their sights set a little higher, say, in the 50,000-range, according to the local Bellingham Herald.
One rep told an NBC affiliate in Chicago that the group will focus on access to education and housing (including general homelessness), and the environment during their demonstrations, which were set to kick off later Thursday.
The first major busload to arrive Wednesday evening featured the usual cast of unusual characters: a sixty-something woman who said that her 91-year-old father’s disapproval of the movement makes her feel like a teenager again, a lovey-dovey anarchist couple who met through OWS, and a girl who had only 13 cents on her, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.
The newest round of protests come a day after 150 people took to Chicago’s banks and government office to protest evictions and foreclosures, Reuters reports.
Among the many government leaders expected at the NATO summit are President Obama, newly-inaugurated French President Francois Hollande, and Afghan president Hamid Karzai. The leaders are to discuss the military alliance and strategy in Afghanistan.
