The city of Chicago today yanked a permit for the first demonstration planned for the weekend of the NATO summit in a dispute over where the National Nurses United can hold its rally May 18.
The organization says it has begun talks with American Civil Liberties Union lawyers about a challenge to the city’s about-face. "If the nurses are a threat to Rahm Emanuel, then heaven help the U.S.," said RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United.
Chicago's Department of Transportation approved the march from the Sheraton Hotel in Streeterville to Daley Plaza months ago, but on Tuesday the California-based group received word the city had changed the terms, according to DeMoro.
In a letter to march organizers, city officials said they needed to move the ending rally of the march from Daley Plaza in the center of the Loop to the Petrillo Music Shell because the nurses' group had recently added rocker Tom Morello, formerly of Rage Against the Machine, as a speaker and performer.
We can only hope he gives Thayer's chain a big yank in the coming days.