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 f*cking skull."
Commentary
A blogger has posted the official indictment, assumed here to be a true copy. On May 16, six days after the video of the police stop was posted, it alleges that the defendants were in the apartment making firebombs using beer bottles and cutting up bandanas for wicks. Why cut up and waste good bandanas? Any rag will do for a wick. This sounds to me like a cop idea for making the plot sound more "anarchisty." They wear bandanas don't they?
The CPD had placed two informants/infiltrators in the house, which would be easy since it was a crash pad for 11, nine of whom were arrested that night. Counsel for the defense Michael Deutsch has asserted that infiltrators planted "illegal materials" for the police to find during the raid. The indictment alleges swords, hunting bows, throwing stars, knives, and a mortar tube were stockpiled at the apartment. Then the indictment alleges that defendants were going to "recruit" four groups of four people each, within days, to accept bombs and weapons from people they didn't know, possibly undercover police, for actions against targets which included fortress-like inner city police stations and the campaign headquarters of the president of the United States. These are crimes which could draw life in prison or the death penalty should people be killed.
It is unknown how many martial arts experts or expert bowmen the defendants expected to meet in the coming days, and what they would do against thousands of policemen all with sidearms, and many special teams with assault rifles . It is hard to fathom what would happen to someone walking around with a hunting bow, large and difficult to conceal, in the middle of a protest.
The indictment states that on May 16, Chase went to the BP gas station at 31st and Halsted and then returned to the apartment to help make bombs. The indictment includes details of alleged conversation such as Church stating that:
"he wanted to recruit four groups of four coconspirators (for a total of 16 people) to conduct the raids, and that reconnaissance had already been conducted at CPD headquarters located at 3510 for the purpose of a planned attack."
Prosecution also alleges that defendants had discussed escape routes, targets, and avoidance of detection.
Given the presence of two informants, the prosecution should be able to produce extensive audio, if not hidden camera video as well, supporting these claims, as well as footage of Chase buying gasoline at the BP. Even without a dedicated surveillance camera it is difficult to conceive that an inner city gas station is not monitored by surveillance cameras (GeoCommons.com dataset, Chicago.)
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