Allegations:
In the early evening of the day the Iraq War began in 2003, thousands of anti-war protesters gathered at Federal Plaza at Dearborn Avenue and Jackson Boulevard for a rally against the U.S.-led invasion. When the rally ended, the crowd of an estimated 5,000 to 15,000 people marched peacefully through downtown, chanting anti-war slogans and carrying signs and banners. Police escorted the demonstrators as they marched east to Lake Shore Drive and headed north. Officers briefly blocked the marchers at Michigan Avenue and Oak Street, then directed the crowd to head south. At Chicago Avenue, officers “herded and corralled” hundreds of the marchers just east of Michigan. About 800 people were detained for hours, forced to stand jam-packed together and surrounded by police, many of the officers wearing riot gear and carrying batons. Eventually, 200 to 250 of the protesters were allowed to leave, but only after police forced them to give up their anti-war signs, banners, flyers and pins. Over 500 people were arrested, handcuffed, searched and taken to police stations miles away—the men to the far South Side, the women to the West Side. Police held them for up to 40 hours in overcrowded and overheated cells and refused to give them food or allow them to make phone calls, receive medical treatment and have items for personal hygiene. Police records were falsified to cover up the neglect. Some of those arrested were not part of the demonstration, but were picked up as they walked to nearby hotels, got off buses or came from restaurants. Of those arrested, over 200 people were released without being charged and about 300 were charged with reckless conduct, a misdemeanor.