It seems that 6 Chicagoans were arrested Tuesday night after attempting to burn an Olympic banner after ripping it down from that main Picasso statue downtown. I haven't been able to find much credible reporting about this topic, but one thing that we can be sure of is that Jeremy Sorkin (pictured above) and 5 other protesters were taken into police custody, and today charged with "mob action," according to Chicagobreakingnews.com.
The group isn't believed to be part of No Games Chicago, a group who was also staging a protest that night.
According to Indymedia Chicago, public opinion has turned sharply against hosting the 2016 games. They report:
"The Chicago bid book, which outlines the financial proposal for Chicago's 2016 bid, was written before the recession hit and many of the anticipated funding streams have since dried up. Thus, funding the Olympics could skyrocket into the billions of dollars with the shortfall paid by city residents and from the city's controversial TIF program — an ostensible program to aid development but which has morphed into a mechanism to funnel public funds into unaccountable slush funds controlled by Mayor Daley and approved surrogates."
I haven't been able to find any statements from those arrested, so I don't know what their specific or general goals were. I will say that I went to college with Jeremy, and he's a hell of a good and smart kid. Funny, too. We were in an improv troupe together for a year before he dropped out to travel around Asia. I looked on his facebook page to see if anyone had posted any information, but, alas, no recent activity.
If anyone was there or knows what happened firsthand let me know. Likewise, I'll be checking for updates about their case, but if you have information send it to me at johnknefel@gmail.com.
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