***** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***** Three anti-NATO demonstrators jailed on ginned-up terrorism charges were likely targeted

after posting YouTube video of police threatening violence. On May 9, Bryan Church, Jarred Chase, and Brent Betterly were detained by police in Chicago after making a three-point turn. In a YouTube video of the incident http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TudIyxxAboA posted the next day, Bridgeport, Chicago Police can be heard making various threats including: Okay, now well beat your white ass. And CPD Officer 1: You like that, he knows these guys know, 68. You guys know all about 68. What did they say back in 68? CPD Officer 2: Billy club to the fucking skull. While certain politicians and police officers have sneered while labeling progressive anti-war, anti-capitalists, environmental, and pro-immigration activists as terrorists for a decade or more, what has happened since to the NATO Three (#NATO3) is a stratospheric escalation and should be reported upon critically by every media outlet in North America. After the YouTube video began making its way through the activist community (we tweeted it on @OccupyBayStreet the day it was posted), an anti-police march and a sit-in were held to highlight the police division at which the threatening officers are stationed. During the first of those actions, five activists, including the NATO3 were arrested. Two of them were lost track of altogether by the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), which has been providing legal support to anti-NATO activists, and are believed to be undercover agents. Around 2am Saturday morning May 19, the NATO3 had three charges laid against them. Two of those charges are terrorism related. While the activists insist that the evidence against them was planted by the undercovers, media around the world have reported the terrorism charges, often uncritically or with no real response from the accused. Here in Toronto, the charges were reported Sunday morning in an above-the-fold front page story by Mitch Potter in the Toronto Star. CBC World has run a news story making a strong connection between the situation and the trumped up charges, dismissed last week, that stole two years of Byron Sonnes life, plus his marriage. Neither piece, however, makes the connection to the billy club to the fucking skull YouTube video. Likely the best reporting to date on the situation has come from Firedoglakes Kevin Gosztola (@kgosztola) who notes that NLG attorneys representing the arrestees have not been shown any police records on any month-long investigation, as is now being touted by Chicago Police as responsible for the arrests. -30-

CONTACT (312) 913-0039 National Lawyers Guild (NLG) in Chicago