Chicago police arrested OccupyWallStreet protesters who didn’t leave Grant Park on Saturday night when it closed at 11 PM. Some spent 24 hours or more in jail,  some were not allowed to make their one call to family for 16 hours, and one group of 30 men spent 30 hours penned up together with no toilet paper. The previous weekend, as well, 175 people had been arrested for protesting, but it is alleged that they were not treated as harshly. The treatment meted this time was seen as a show of force to deter future protests.  Mayor Rahm Emanuel, is widely regarded as being behind the crack-down.  A group of nurses and medical volunteers was among the arrested.

Hat-tip to Left-Wing Christian for spotting this press release from National Nurses United:

Nurses Condemn Chicago Mayor Emanuel for Arrest Of Nurses, Medical Volunteers at Occupy Chicago

For Immediate Release
October 23, 2011

RNs to Picket Mayor’s Office Monday Morning at 10 am

Registered nurses from across the U.S. today condemned Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel for his decision to arrest nurse volunteers, as well as peaceful protesters, in a late night crackdown Saturday night at the Occupy Chicago protest.

NNU is asking supporters to call Mayor Emanuel’s office at 312-744-5000 and demand they immediately drop all charges against the nurses and other protesters, and stop the harassment and arrests of the nurses and others peacefully exercising their free speech rights. Nurses will also picket the mayor’s office at 10 a.m. Monday morning, at City Hall at the LaSalle entrance.

Nurse leaders of National Nurses United who set up a nurses’ station to provide basic first aid to Chicago protesters – as NNU has done peacefully in five other cities across the U.S. – were among the some 130 people arrested by Chicago police. The police also tore down the first aid station, and arrested scores of others who had peacefully assembled to support the station.

“Even in wartime, combatants respect the work of nurses and other first responders. Yet Mayor Emanuel and Chicago seem to care as little about that tradition as they do in protecting the constitutional rights of free speech and assembly.” said NNU Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro. “These arrests are disgraceful and unconscionable, and will not deter our nurses from continuing this mission, setting up the station again, and continuing to support the protests.”