Tensions
built in Chicago well before the NATO summit was held on May 20th
and 21st when protestors from around the globe gathered to protest
earlier that weekend. Three thousand demonstrators showed their anti-war
sentiment, even veterans of the Iraq War participated in a peaceful march that
ended with the fifty veterans symbolically returning their medals as they threw
them down the street in the vicinity of the summit. However, not all of those
who marched through the streets of the city were quite as compliant and
peaceful as a total nearing 50 were arrested on the day of the summit. Most of
these arrests occurred when demonstrators refusing police orders to disperse,
but some other charges were much more serious.
Sebastian
Senakiewicz, a 24-year-old Polish citizen living in Chicago, was charged with
falsely making a terrorist threat. Senakiewicz had been bragging about how he
had homemade explosives stashed within a hollowed out copy of a Harry Potter
novel and he had enough explosives to destroy a train overpass. He had no idea
this he had shared this information with one of two undercover police officers,
who had allegedly befriended many other arrested demonstrators beginning in
early May. A search was later conducted, but there was no sign of explosive
materials. Sebastian’s defense attorney, Melinda Power, argued that her client
was drunk at the time of this encounter and running his mouth to other
protestors. Prosecutors attempted to paint Senakiewicz out to be an anarchist and
member of the group Black Bloc and presented documentation of a Facebook
posting that stated he was “upset with the lack of chaos in Chicago.”
Senakiewicz
was held for 65 hours before his initial court appearance, which according to
defense attorney, Sarah Gelsomino, was a violation of his civil rights. The
judge set bond at $750,000. The defense
attorney felt such a large bond was “punitively high” as the 24-year-old had no
chance of producing such an amount of money. He was also held in solitary
confinement while in jail at this time. His mother who had been living in
Florida flew in to visit her son before his trial.
Clearly
Senakiewicz was not deemed a flight risk despite being a Polish citizen, and
was given the opportunity to bond out. Yet if this was the case, doesn’t
$750,000 bond seem a bit over the top? Yes, obviously threats of terrorist
activity are not to be taken lightly, but no explosives were found and perhaps
the young man had only been speaking a bit too freely. He had no idea he was in
the presence of two officers that deceived many other protestors into believing
they were friends, some could even argue that the way in which these officers
gathered information could be considered a mild form of entrapment. Even though
Senakiewicz had no explosives in his home and had never committed any crime,
are his statements enough to warrant a dismissal of his civil liberties due to
the extreme nature of his threats?
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