Occupy Chicago
Part of the Occupy Movement that swept the country in 2011 after Occupy Wall Street began in New York City. Protests focused on corporate greed and self-interested corporate influence within Government. Occupy Chicago positioned themselves in the heart of Chicago’s financial center, on the corner beside Bank of America (formerly the Continental Illinois building, origin of the term “Too big to fail”), and across the street from the Federal Reserve and Chicago Board of Trade. Protestors occupied this corner day and night, no matter the weather and marches/demonstrations happened regularly. Just prior to a NATO and G8 summit in the city in 2012, Chicago Mayor, Rahm Emanuel, passed an ordinance that restricted the rights of protestors which became widely viewed as an attack on the right to peacefully assemble guaranteed in the federal Bill of Rights. This spurred further protests and the notion that the very foundation of our government had become under attack by politicians trying to cling to seemingly unlimited power.