US veterans to return medals as NATO protesters march

NBC's Kristen Welker reports from Chicago, Illinois, where authorities are getting ready for an expected wave of protests while an ongoing NATO summit is in town this week.

By Miranda Leitsinger, msnbc.com

CHICAGO -- Anti-war protesters from across the country will march on downtown Chicago on Sunday, hoisting signs, chanting slogans and observing veterans returning their war medals as world leaders open the NATO summit.

?NATO is at the root of a lot of the problems that we?re seeing in the world and the imperialist agenda that they are enforcing is something that?s deeply wrong and it?s very important to me to take some kind of a stand,? said Abigail Parrish, a 23-year-old from Wichita, Kan., who took time off from her call center job to carpool with three others from her local Occupy group to Chicago.?

Friend and fellow protester, Bill Anderson, 69, also of Wichita, said they were engaged in the ?right fight.?

?We?re at the heart of the empire. We risk the least and we have the greatest possibility of changing it. People in the third world who are the real grunts of this crap risk their lives, their children?s lives by speaking out. We haven?t reached that point here yet ? we have a chance to impact this because we?re right at the heart of it,? he said. ?This is the right fight, this is truly the right fight. These people are fighting for justice for everyone.?

Organizers are hoping for 10,000 people in the streets over the course of the 2.5-mile march that will end near McCormick Place, the convention center where NATO is meeting. Some of the protesters have prepared provisions for the march, such as food and water, while others have gas masks and bandanas to ward off the effects of pepper spray and tear gas in addition to ear plugs to protect against the LRAD noise devices authorities reportedly have on hand.

During their two-day summit, leaders of NATO's 28 member nations are trying to iron out details of what happens in Afghanistan when U.S. combat troops leave. There is also the question of who will foot the bill for Afghans to protect themselves as U.S. and world forces draw down.

Though protesters have called for peaceful demonstrations, the week has not been without incident: three people were charged with terrorism conspiracy for allegedly plotting to use Molotov cocktails in attacks on four police stations, the local campaign headquarters for President Barack Obama and the mayor?s home. A fourth man is facing a similar charge, but it?s not clear if he is linked to the trio.?

Overall, 14 people have been arrested in the lead-up to the summit, Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said Saturday. Chicago has assigned 3,100 officers to NATO's two-day summit to guard against the kind of violence that broke out in the streets of Seattle at the World Trade Organization meeting in 1999. They will be assisted by hundreds of officers from other cities such as Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C., NBCChicago.com reported.?

So far this week, protesters have rallied against?home foreclosures and the shuttering of city schools and mental health clinics. And in the biggest protest to date, they called for a transaction tax on Wall Street to help fund public services.?

Scenes from Chicago protests surrounding NATO summit
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Attacks on police, Obama HQ were planned, prosecutors say

Officers on bike, horseback and foot have trailed protesters as they?ve wound through the streets on marches. In one exchange on Saturday between a police officer and a female protester toting a sign reading ?NATO=WW2,? the officer said: ?We support the First Amendment just as much as you do.?

The city has imposed limits on how close the protesters, which include dozens of unions and anti-war, environmental, education, healthcare and civil liberties? groups, can get to McCormick Place -- within ?sight and sound? of it, according to the Chicago Tribune -- raising the ire of the demonstrators. The American Civil Liberties Union has released guidelines for protesters to consider under a new federal law that it said has ?expanded the ability of the Secret Service to suppress protests? near people under its protection.?

Three men were charged with conspiring to commit acts of terrorism at high-profile locations in Illinois ahead of the NATO summit. NBC's Kristen Welker reports.

A number of the protesters said the highlight for them will be when 30-50 veterans from the post-9/11 era conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq return their service medals on Sunday in a rare form of protest that was last done on a large scale in 1971 by anti-war Vietnam vets.?

In the process of searching for a way to heal after their time in conflict zones, ?we came to these symbols of the occupations, which are these medals that we carry around and we still have,? said Aaron Hughes, a 30-year-old organizer for Iraq Veterans Against the War who served six years in the Army, including 15 months in Iraq and Kuwait. He will return two medals. ?They?re these ? reminders of what we?ve done, that it?s time to let go of.?

?I think it?s something that many of us are conflicted about, but we also feel like this is the right action to take,? he said. ?It is a sacrifice, but it?s one that we feel is worth it.?

One great-grandmother, 75-year-old Nan Wigmore of Portland, Ore., rode a bus for some three days to Chicago. The ride was paid for by National Nurses United, a coalition of nurses unions that bused in protesters ahead of the group?s rally for a Wall Street tax.

Standing late Friday with her walker and her sign, ?Grateful Great Grandmas Circle The Wagons, Support Occupy,? she said the journey was worth it despite the discomfort.??

?My feelings are too deep to keep me in my old comfortable place, so I had to learn some new things and that means to move out of my comfort zone,? she said, while sipping on a hot chocolate as helicopters clattered overheard and protesters played drums. ?If I lose my life in the process of all this, it?s the best way I would let myself go.?

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