'Occupy' protester: Week in Chicago jail 'was awesome'
Charged with assaulting officer; case was dismissed by local judge
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By Rummana Hussein
Chicago Sun-Times
CHICAGO — A
Los Angeles man in town for anti-NATO demonstrations earlier this month
has been cleared of attacking a Chicago Police officer. And he spoke
highly Tuesday of his week in Cook County Jail.
"It was awesome," Danny Johnson, 31, said of his incarceration here. "I would not speak badly of my time in Cook County Jail."
Johnson,
a member of Occupy Walk USA, said he cherished his time in jail because
it gave him a chance to educate inmates about the Occupy movement.
He spent seven days in jail before his friends were able to post 10
percent of his $10,000 bail. During his week, Johnson said he and
another Occupy member, who was arrested on a drug charge, had
"teach-ins" and sit-ins."
"It sucks because of what I had to go through, but it was also good
because it opened a lot of people's eyes about the Chicago Police
officers not having integrity," Johnson said.
Prosecutors charged Johnson with punching an officer in the chest
after he asked Johnson to move off the street while Johnson spoke out
during an anti-deportation protest in the Loop on May 15.
But Johnson, who wore a black shirt that read "unf--- the world"
inside out during his bond hearing, said he never touched the officer.
"An officer grabbed me as I was going through the crosswalk and told me I was under arrest," Johnson said.
Cook County Judge Marvin Luckman believed him.
The judge last week dismissed the aggravated battery and obstructing traffic charges, saying there was no "probable cause."
Johnson, who was in Arizona Tuesday, said Luckman "kind of belittled
me, and called me all types of names, but after his tirade, he said he
wasn't going to send me to jail."
Danny Johnson was cleared of attacking a Chicago Police officer during the anti-NATO protests.
Copyright 2012 Chicago Sun-Times |
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