So there was a NATO summit ongoing in Chicago over the weekend – which naturally attracts a couple of protest groups, members from the “Occupy” movement among them. It also attracted police and Homeland Security, who proceeded to handcuff protesters, detain them at gunpoint, and ram into a crowd of them with a van.

As Sunday was supposed to be the day of the largest protests, crowds were starting to form around Saturday evening – with commensurate growth in the number of cops patrolling the area. A group of independent web video journalists say they got  harassed, detained, and handcuffed at gunpoint by Chicago police.

Which kind of pales in comparison to what happened later that evening, when, a Chicago Police van “drove into a crowd of demonstrators who were attempting to cross westbound over the Jackson Street bridge at the Chicago River,” according to this video report.

From BoingBoing:

Chicago Police van number 6751, accelerated as it passed through the crowd, striking several people and seriously injuring one victim who was later transported to the emergency room. The extent of the victim’s injuries are not known. The driver of the van made no attempt to ascertain the condition of any of the people that were struck. Witnesses watched as the van passed through the phalanx of police surrounding the scene and drove away from the area. Had there been a civilian driving, they would certainly have been charged with a hit-and-run on a pedestrian in the roadway and taken into custody once they had been apprehended. No order to disperse had been given to the crowd.

By Sunday morning, four more men had been arrested on charges of terrorism – with their lawyers claiming that  undercover agents set up a bomb plot, and entrapped the suspects.

In case you were wondering what police states looked like.

[Source: BoingBoing]