Miranda Leitsinger / msnbc.com
Thousands march through Chicago's streets Sunday in protest of war policies at a two-day NATO summit.
By Miranda Leitsinger, msnbc.com
Updated 5:50 p.m. ET: CHICAGO -- Chanting "N-A-T-O, NATO has got to go," rows of veterans marched in formation Sunday leading thousands in an anti-war protest as world leaders gathered here for a two-day NATO summit.
Upon arrival near the convention center where the summit is taking place, one veteran threw his medals on the road, calling them symbols of lies. Dozens more followed suit.
"I choose human life over war," Jerry Bordeleau shouted through a microphone.
"This isn't an easy decision for anybody here,” Steven Acheson, an Army veteran, said before sending off his medals. He served for five years, including more than a year in Iraq.
"Hold this in your heart," Aaron Hughes, a 30-year-old organizer for Iraq Veterans Against the War who served six years in the Army, including 15 months in Iraq and Kuwait, said after tossing two service medals. "We’ve lost too much."
With the veterans were a dozen Afghans who waved the Afghan flag and held up peace fingers.
Organizers hoped 10,000 people would attend the 2.5-mile march that ended near McCormick Place, the convention center where NATO is meeting. But the Chicago Police Department put the crowd at 1800-2200 people.
During the two-day summit, leaders of NATO's 28-member nations were to discuss the strategy for ensuring a peaceful Afghanistan after the United States removes its combat troops by 2014.
Among the protesters was Arianna Norris-Landry, of St. Louis, dressed as an turn-of-the-century suffragette. She said she and 60 other women were protesting military action and a sense that women's rights are being targeted by conservatives.
Calling themselves "Grannies at the G-8" and "Nanas at NATO," some of the women were dressed as World War II feminist icon Rosie the Riveter, others as 1950s' housewives.
"We need to be feeding our children, not the war machines," said Kellie Stewart, a 47-year-old from Saint Croix Falls, Wis. "We need to keep the money, we don't have housing, we don't have jobs. It's just not right what's going on here at home."
Some protesters had provisions for the march, such as food and water, while others had gas masks and bandanas to ward off the effects of pepper spray and tear gas, should they be used. Some have earplugs to shield against the crowd-control noise devices authorities reportedly have.
On Sunday morning, ahead of the march, two activists appeared in court on terrorism-related charges. Cook County prosecutors charged Mark Neiweem, 28, with attempted possession of explosives or incendiary devices and Sebastian Senakiewicz, 24, with falsely making a terrorist threat. Three others made court appearances on Saturday, accused of assembling Molotov cocktails – firebombs made by filling glass bottles with gasoline – to attack, among other places, President Barack Obama’s campaign headquarters in Chicago.
Thirty-seven people had been arrested by Sunday morning, Kris Hermes, a spokesman for the National Lawyers Guild in Chicago. Chicago has assigned 3,100 officers to the NATO summit to protect the city against the sort of violence that broke out in the streets of Seattle at the World Trade Organization meeting in 1999. They are being assisted by hundreds of officers from Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C., NBCChicago.com reported.
Scenes from Chicago protests surrounding NATO summit
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Iraq war veteran Steve Acheson posed at his home in Platteville, Wisc., days before returning his service medals.
Officers on bike, horseback and foot have trailed protesters as they’ve wound through the streets on marches. In one exchange on Saturday between a police officer and a female protester toting a sign reading “NATO=WW2,” the officer said: “We support the First Amendment just as much as you do.”
Before Sunday's march, Hughes said it was time to let go of his medals.
“We came to these symbols of the occupations, which are these medals that we carry around and we still have,” he said. “They’re these … reminders of what we’ve done, that it’s time to let go of.”
“I think it’s something that many of us are conflicted about, but we also feel like this is the right action to take,” he said. “It is a sacrifice, but it’s one that we feel is worth it.”
Three men were charged with conspiring to commit acts of terrorism at high-profile locations in Illinois ahead of the NATO summit. NBC's Kristen Welker reports.
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