G-8 Summit to Be Held at Camp David, Not Chicago

By Chicago Tribune/Associated Press

05 March 12

he G-8 summit will be held at Camp David, not in Chicago as had been scheduled.

The White House announced the change in the following statement:

"In May, the United States looks forward to hosting the G-8 and NATO Summits. To facilitate a free-flowing discussion with our close G-8 partners, the president is inviting his fellow G-8 leaders to Camp David on May 18-19 for the G-8 Summit, which will address a broad range of economic, political and security issues.

"The president will then welcome NATO allies and partners to his hometown of Chicago for the NATO Summit on May 20-21, which will be the premier opportunity this year for the president to continue his efforts to strengthen NATO in order to ensure that the Atlantic Alliance remains the most successful alliance in history, while charting the way forward in Afghanistan."

The 38th G8 summit was to be held in Chicago alongside the NATO summit. It would have been the first time since 1977 in London that the two organizations held meetings in the same city at the same time.

Chicago police estimated that 2,000 to 10,000 demonstrators were expected to show up for the overlapping G-8 and NATO summits. At least two major demonstrations were already planned for downtown during the summit, and organizers said they wanted to send crowds of marchers down Michigan Avenue in the middle of the day.

Meetings of leaders of international economic organizations like the G-8 have drawn violent large-scale protests for more than a decade.

Perhaps the most infamous U.S. incident occurred in Seattle in 1999, when a protest against a World Trade Organization meeting devolved into widespread rioting. About 35,000 protesters descended on the city, and police used tear gas and rubber bullets against crowds downtown in what became known as "The Battle of Seattle."

Businesses reported more than $2 million in damage. Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper later resigned under heavy criticism of how the department handled the situation.

A 2001 riot at the G-8 meeting in Genoa, Italy, left one person dead and hundreds injured. Before a G-20 economic summit in Pittsburgh in 2009, police fired pepper spray at marchers who threw rocks and rolled garbage bins. Recent meetings have seen less violence, however.