Foes of Chicago closing six of its 12 mental health clinics in
April will air their grievances today in a new venue – the Cook County
Criminal Court.
Five protesters charged with trespassing at the
since closed Woodlawn mental health clinic will use the
“necessity defense” according to their attorney James Fennerty, who
spoke at a press conference this morning outside the courthouse.
Defendants invoke the necessity defense when they claim to have
committed a crime so as to benefit the public good.
“These people
don’t deny that they trespassed,” Fennerty said. “But they were doing it
to prevent a greater evil — meaning the closing down of the clinics and
people not getting their mental health care, and not getting their drugs
or seeing their therapist.” Read more »
UNITE HERE Local 1 members kicked off what they bill as a week-long
global boycott of Hyatt Hotel Corp. yesterday, organizing rallies in
coordination with hotel housekeepers across the country. The protests
started yesterday with a demonstration outside downtown Chicago’s Hyatt
Regency.
Teacher union leaders staged a charged rally in downtown Chicago yesterday punctuated by Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis asking the assembled crowd, “What are we here for?” and the crowd chanting back, “Strike!”