(Alleged Chicago Police Department Agent Provocateurs "Gloves" (left) and "Mo")
Mayor Rahm Emanuel is not happy, from WLS Chicago:
Occupy Chicago protesters have put up on the internet photos of two individuals they say are undercover Chicago police officers who supposedly entrapped them.
Mayor Emanuel is not pleased.
"If what has been reported is happening – any issue that deals with what police are doing on a professional basis, more than just upsets me. Second is – ah – I'll just stay with that."
And Emanuel said "the proper people are working on any issues that deal with that."
But what exactly did these officers do anyway?
Occupy Chicago activists on Tuesday disseminated over the Internet photos of a man and woman — nicknamed "Mo" and "Gloves" — who they believe are the officers or informants whose undercover work led to the arrests of NATO Summit protesters on bomb charges.
The Chicago Police Department won't confirm or deny whether the man and woman are cops or snitches — but police Supt. Garry McCarthy told the Chicago Sun-Times that the release of the pictures unethical and "personally disgusting."
"I have never seen it done before," McCarthy told the Sun-Times...
Representatives of Occupy Chicago and the National Lawyers Guild say they believe "Mo" and "Gloves" infiltrated activist groups before the NATO Summit and egged on the five suspects to commit crimes.
The photos have been circulated widely among activists and published in
Truth Out and
Anti-War Blog among other places.
There is, without question or equivocation, no excuse for violence. The hallmark of Occupy Wall Street has been its commitment to non-violent change. What needs to be known now is to what extent were the NATO 3 provoked or were they even setup completely?
Let's look at some things we know, from the Associated Press:
Three activists who traveled to Chicago for a NATO summit were accused Saturday of manufacturing Molotov cocktails in a plot to attack President Barack Obama's campaign headquarters, Mayor Rahm Emanuel's home and other targets.
But defense lawyers shot back that Chicago police had trumped up the charges to frighten peaceful protesters away, telling a judge it was undercover officers known by the activists as "Mo" and "Gloves" who brought the firebombs to a South Side apartment where the men were arrested...
The men had been stopped by police after turning their car into a private driveway.
In the video, one officer asks another what Chicago police would have said in 1968 when they clashed with demonstrators at the Democratic National convention.
"Billy club to the ... skull," the officer responds. Another officer says to the men in the car, who the police take as protesters, "We'll come look for you."
Clear and present intimidation and open threats of illegal violence - not a long walk to framing people.
Hopefully justice will prevail and let us not lose sight of what the NATO protests were really about.