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For weeks, people have speculated over the potential for a blooming
“American Spring” this weekend in Chicago, when thousands were expected
to come protest the meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
In the end, it might be more appropriate to speak of a newly born
American Summer, as demonstrators were dosed with unseasonably warm 80-
and 90-degree weather in a weekend that felt more like July than May.

Meanwhile, the sun was not the only source of heat, as the Chicago Police Department welcomed the predominantly peaceful protesters with flailing batons, dozens of arrests, baseless terrorism charges, and an attempted vehicular manslaughter. Despite this spate of state repression, spirits remained high throughout, with many demonstrators staying out into the wee hours of the night Sunday, in solidarity with arrested comrades.

The lead-up to the summit was replete with fear-mongering, driven in part by the city’s political elite and promulgated by the “no questions asked” corporate press. Back in January, Chicago Fraternal Order of Police president Michael Shields warned of “professional anarchists” coming to town with an eye toward disrupting business as usual. Meanwhile, mainstream press outlets continuously spoke of the threat posed by potentially rowdy demonstrators, often evoking imagery from the 1968 DNC protests in the process (despite that violence being initialized entirely by police, and not protesters). Just last week, the local NBC affiliate ran a segment titled “Beware the Black Bloc” to help drum up a little last-minute hysteria before the weekend.