Protesters and Police Clash at NATO Meeting; 2 Held on Terrorism Charges

CHICAGO — Protesters at the NATO summit meeting clashed with the Chicago police late Sunday as officers tried to disperse thousands of people who had gathered several blocks from the site of the meeting and refused demands to leave.

The standoff, which lasted several hours, grew intense as police officers, some in riot gear and gas masks, and protesters, some wearing all black, confronted one another, and shoving and scuffles broke out.

Some among the hundreds of officers repeatedly struck protesters with police batons, and some protesters threw red paint, a bucket, sticks and more at the line of officers. As the clash went on, mounted police officers could be seen equipping their horses with protective masks.

At one point, an officer emerged from a scrum of people with his arm firmly around the neck of a protester, who appeared to be in distress. At another point, a demonstrator shoved an officer to the ground, before another officer pulled him to safety.

About 45 protesters were arrested on Sunday, and at least four officers were injured, according to the Chicago Police superintendent, Garry McCarthy. It was uncertain how many protesters were injured.

The confrontations followed a march through the streets downtown, the largest demonstration during days of protests that have led up to the NATO meeting here. Led by about 40 men and women in American military uniforms who said they wished to return their medals as symbolic gestures, thousands of protesters opposed to war and to NATO or motivated by other issues marched down Michigan Avenue, winding their way as close as they could get to McCormick Place, where world leaders were holding the summit meeting.

For weeks, tensions here have grown over what it might mean in Chicago to host the first NATO summit meeting held in a United States city outside of Washington and face the political protests that would accompany it. Even before the tense confrontations, five people had been arrested miles from the street protests, but with what prosecutors described as plans involving bombs and other devices aimed at disrupting the summit meetings. Those arrests seemed to put a nervous city still further on edge.

On Sunday, prosecutors announced that they had filed charges against Sebastian Senakiewicz, 24, of Chicago, accusing him of falsely making a terrorist threat by claiming that he had homemade explosives — hidden in a hollowed-out “Harry Potter” book at his house — that could blow up a highway overpass. No explosives were found in a search of Mr. Senakiewicz’s home, the prosecutors said.

Separately, Mark Neiweem, 28, who was also believed to be from Chicago, was charged with “solicitation for possession” of explosives or incendiary devices. Prosecutors said he had discussed making a pipe bomb with an associate. He wrote a list, the prosecutors said, of all the items he thought he needed for the bomb.

Lawyers for both men denied the charges, and suggested that the authorities in Chicago were overstating the claims as a warning to the thousands of protesters, some of them linked to the Occupy movement, who have descended on the city for the summit meeting.

Law enforcement officials in Chicago dismissed such assertions, and said they planned to continue an approach that allowed for free speech and dissent, but did not tolerate crimes.

The new arrests were unrelated, the authorities said, to a plot that prosecutors had earlier described involving three men they said had considered attacks against President Obama’s re-election campaign headquarters, the house of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, police stations and financial institutions.

Lawyers for those three men said that they had been entrapped and that a man and a woman who were either informants or undercover law enforcement officials had come up with the plans and provided the materials for explosives.

Lawyers for the two men whose arrests were announced on Sunday said the same man and woman — known as “Mo” and “Gloves” to their clients — were also informants in their clients’ cases.

Chicago officials were also investigating whether the city’s official Web site — which was down for part of the day on Sunday — had been the target of a cyberattack. At least one group seemed to claim responsibility in a YouTube video that has since been blocked from general view, and Pete Scales, a spokesman for the mayor, said the city was working with the federal authorities to investigate the matter.

During the demonstration on Sunday, city officials estimated the crowd at 1,800 to 2,200 people, but protesters said the number was higher and estimates varied widely. People came from all over the country, some wearing costumes, all black outfits and face coverings, or carrying handmade signs and chanting.

At times, the march was calm. Some protesters could be seen joking with the police. But some protesters said the mood — and all the talk of arrests and plots — had raised emotions.

At the end of a march route, about five blocks from McCormick Place, the small group of military veterans stood on a flatbed truck in a packed intersection, and, one by one, told stories of service and disenchantment. Then they heaved their medals into the empty street behind them.

Afterward, some protesters left, but others stayed. Though the police had been present throughout, more officers, some in riot gear, gathered at the edge of the remaining crowd.

Protesters began to press the crowd east, in the direction of McCormick Place, and the police lines began to press west, away from the meetings, as messages for the crowd to disperse were heard on loud speakers. In some cases, officers and protesters were pressed face to face, nose to nose, and scuffles broke out.

Within an hour, some protesters could be seen being carried away by officers. One lay face down, screaming for help as he was arrested. At one point, officers donned gas masks, leading some in the crowd to suspect tear gas would be deployed, though it never was. Eventually, the group dispersed, as the number of officers grew into the hundreds.

Andy Thayer, an organizer of the march, blamed the police for what had happened. “I think that they were pushing rather aggressively at people,” he said, “and certainly it wasn’t helpful for those of us who were trying to keep things nonviolent.”

Superintendent McCarthy defended his department’s handling of the events and said some protesters had been at fault. “Ultimately, the officers were assaulted,” he said.

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