A Chicago Police officer watches the crowd as fellow officers arrest protesters during a melee that ensued after a mostly peaceful march that wound it's way from Grant Park south to Cermak Road on Chicago's near South Side. Protesters clash with police at the intersection of Cermak and S. Michigan Avenue on Chicago's near South Side. The protesters had just finished a mostly peaceful march led by the Iraq Veterans Against the War when the protest turned into a more confrontational situation between police and the marchers. The situation had been brewing for a number of days as protesters from outside Chicago gathered to voice their displeasure for the actions of the North American Treaty Organization. The Chicago Police Department were joined by many other police forces from the surrounding area and states including the Illinois State Police. Their numbers massed more than an estimated 1000 officers throughout the area in anticipation of the planned event. The show of all out force was arguably the largest witnessed in decades in the Windy City. Originally, the G8 and the NATO were planned for this week, but President Obama nixed the idea and moved the G8 to Camp David on the East Coast of the United States. I have spent more than a decade documenting life on Chicago's South Side and seen the impact on the community of the consistent and unending police presence in Chicago's poorest neighborhoods many of which exist less than a mile from where the NATO took place. It was important to document this historic moment in which police and protesters clashed.

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