Mark Boster / Pool via Reuters

Los Angeles Police Department officers arrest an Occupy LA protester at the encampment at City Hall on Nov. 30, 2011.

LOS ANGELES -- Occupy Los Angeles demonstrators are suing the city for what they said was an unlawful “shock and awe” attack on their civil rights when 1,400 police officers swept nearly 300 demonstrators from City Hall grounds more than a year ago.

The Nov. 30, 2011 arrests at Los Angeles City Hall came after an eight-week encampment aligned with the Occupy Wall Street movement calling attention to “bailouts for Wall Street and foreclosures for Main Street.”

Five people are suing in a class action lawsuit that represents 292 people detained by officers in the raid. Court documents said those arrested were denied food and water for hours while being detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown, at a jail in Van Nuys or on a bus en route to the lockup.

Some were forced to urinate on themselves after being denied access to restrooms, court documents allege.

Three of the five people suing are members of or participants in the Occupy Los Angeles movement. One person was a videographer not associated with the Occupy protests but who was videotaping the officers during the incident. He claims he was arrested even after he said he complied with officers’ orders to disperse.

The fifth person is a reporter for the left-wing radio station KPFK who was detained when he decided to stay with the protesters during the arrests, court records said.

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One of the women suing claimed in court papers that an officer pinched her nipple and inner thigh as part of a “pain compliance” technique during the arrests and she suffered bruises to her body.

The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Los Angeles on Thursday, said arrestees were forced to urinate and defecate on themselves while handcuffed while en route on a bus to the lockup.

The lawsuit names the city and county of LA, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck.

The Mayor’s Office did not return a message on Saturday. An LAPD spokeswoman said the department doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

Court documents: Read the complaint

The case stems from the sweep on Nov. 30 of City Hall by some 1,400 police officers, that the protesters said in court documents was dubbed by Beck “shock and awe,” a reference made famous by former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Jason Redmond / Reuters

Police stand guard after removing protesters from the Occupy LA encampment outside City Hall in Los Angeles on Nov. 30, 2011.

The protesters said they were ejected from City Hall lawn in an “unprecedented show of force by the LAPD.”

“The only weapon plaintiffs had in this instance was the First Amendment,” wrote Carol Sobel, in the lawsuit. She was part of a law firm that won a nearly $13 million settlement against LA for a police response to an immigrants' rights march on May Day 2007 at MacArthur Park.

The Occupy demonstrators were swept off the City Hall lawn after a two-month encampment and growing fears by city officials of crime and public health threats. Villaraigosa made references during a press conference days before the raid to the presence of children at the protest site as a reason to sweep the demonstrators out.

As many as 500 men, women and children were estimated to have camped out on the City Hall lawn, some in tents and other makeshift homes, city officials said.

Brian Nguyen / Reuters file

A UC-Davis police officer pepper-sprays students during their sit-in at an "Occupy UCD" demonstration in Davis, Calif., in this Nov. 18 file photo.

Updated at 1:42 p.m. ET: The University of California has agreed to pay about $1 million to settle a lawsuit filed by UC-Davis students who were pepper-sprayed by campus police during an Occupy-style protest on campus last November.

The settlement also calls for a personal written apology from UC-Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi to each person hit with the spray. 

UC and plaintiffs represented by the American Civil Liberties Union filed the preliminary settlement in federal court in Sacramento on Wednesday, The Associated Press reported.

Under the agreement, which must be approved by a federal judge, the university will pay $30,000 to each of 21 students and former students named in the complaint and an additional $250,000 for their attorneys to split. 

The settlement also calls for the UC to set aside $100,000 to pay other individuals who can prove they were arrested or pepper-sprayed during the Nov. 18, 2011, incident.

Videos and photos taken by witnesses of an officer methodically spraying orange pepper-spray in the faces of nonviolent protesters quickly went viral. Many of the demonstrators were sitting on a campus pathway with arms linked in a protest against tuition hikes and income inequality.

The outcry led to more campus protests, and some called for Katehi to resign.

A task force report released in April blamed the incident on poor communication and planning throughout the campus chain of command, from the chancellor to the pepper-spraying officers.

Read the proposed settlement (.PDF)

The University of California issued this statement in response to news of the proposed settlement:

“The University of California can confirm a preliminary settlement has been reached in the lawsuit regarding the pepper spray incident on the UC Davis quad last November. This settlement, not yet approved by the court, calls for the University of California to pay $30,000 to each of the 21 named plaintiffs and a total of $250,000 to their attorneys. If a federal judge approves the terms, the University also will set aside a maximum of $100,000 to pay up to $20,000 each to individuals who wish to join the class action and can prove they were either arrested or directly pepper-sprayed. Any money paid by UC will come from the university’s General Liability Risk Program, a self-insured fund.”

Fatima Sbeih, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said in a statement the incident created a divide between students and campus police, The Los Angeles Times reported.

“Since Nov. 18, students have been afraid of the police. The university still needs to work to rebuild students’ trust and this settlement is a step in the right direction,” said Sbeih, who recently graduated with a degree in international studies, according to the Times.

The UC-Davis police officers who doused the protesters won’t face criminal charges. The Yolo County District Attorney’s office said in a statement last week that there was insufficient evidence to prove the use of force was illegal.

John Pike, the police lieutenant who was shown in the videos pepper-spraying the protesters, told The Sacramento Bee he was relieved by the DA’s decision.

Pike was fired on July 31 by the campus police chief who took over the university’s police department after the chief who was in charge last fall, Annette Spicuzza, stepped down under fire.

NBC News' James Eng and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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John Makely / NBC News

Occupy Wall Street protesters leave Washington Square Park at the start of their Saturday march to Zuccotti Park, the first planned march as part of three days of events to mark the one-year anniversary of the movement.

Occupy Wall Street took center stage last fall, galvanizing thousands of people across the country to protest against the abuses of what they called the “one percent.”

But one year after the movement began, it has been reduced to a shadow of its former self: Occupy’s makeshift camps have been shuttered, its membership has dwindled amid internal squabbling and what critics called a lack of direction and goals, and its hopes for social change so far have been unrealized.

Amid this backdrop, Occupy protesters have organized a sit-down protest around the New York Stock Exchange in Wall Street on Monday, their one-year anniversary, hoping to regain some momentum.

Photoblog: Occupy Wall Street protesters attempt to reignite their movement in New York

“Why are we going back to Wall Street? Because the one percent wants it all and they’re not giving anything up without a struggle. Economic conditions are roughly as bad as they were a year ago and for many, many people they’re precarious,” said Bill Dobbs, of the Occupy Wall Street public relations team.

As Occupy struggled to find its footing after being booted out of its camps, the New York flagship, in particular, wrangled with internal conflicts over financial transparency, leadership and tactics.

Jon Reiner, a laid-off New York marketing executive who traveled to many Occupy camps last fall, is disheartened the movement didn't engage in electoral politics.

“I think there’s an opportunity that it has missed,” said the 50-year-old husband and father of two. “I’m still meeting people my own age who are still being laid off. … so the issue has the same prominence in terms of its, you know, impact on people’s lives, and I think that the movement shouldn’t be quiet about any of this, and one way not to be quiet in an election cycle is to get yourself in the face of the … candidates."

“I still identify myself with the movement,” he added, “but I don’t feel like I have necessarily an outlet for my activism.”

Another point of contention was whether the movement should embrace violent tactics. 

“These big arguments took up a lot of time and energy for months over whether the tactics should remain strictly nonviolent,” said Todd Gitlin, a professor of journalism at Columbia University who wrote a book on Occupy. “ … the turning inward of energy was not constructive.”  

New York couple Betty and Dennis Carbone, former anti-war and anti-nuclear activists, still come once or twice a week to Zuccotti Park to maintain a presence at the birthplace of the movement. They are disappointed others haven't done the same.

“We were down here for the winter,” said Dennis Carbone, 69, as some protesters chanted, blew whistles and held up the familiar yellow-and-black banner reading, “Occupy Wall Street.” The barricade-lined park protesters once called home had security officers at entry points on Friday many months after the encampment came down.

John Makely / NBC News

Dennis and Elizabeth Carbone still come to Zuccotti Park a couple times a week.

“Everybody was all pumped up: ‘Wait till spring, wait till, wait till spring.’ Guess what? We’re in fall. No spring, no summer. What did we Occupy?” Carbone said. “That was probably the most disappointing … . And now, here we are what, one year, and what’s happened?”

Disillusion over the perception that things weren’t getting done led some protesters to create spinoff groups, such as OccuEvolve, which is focused on bringing more people into the movement and collaborating with the seven Occupy branches in New York city.

“I saw the stagnancy in the movement,” said Sumumba Sobukwe, 44, who started the group in February. Though he had previously been working with others on Occupy outreach and movement building, “even then, I didn’t see enough outreach into the community that represents the 99 percent." 

Unlike other Occupy demonstrators who plan to join the sit-down protest on Monday, those with OccuEvolve will be in the subways, hoping to attract newcomers.

“I think a lot of people kind of naively thought … that things would automatically change and it takes work, it takes organization,” Sobukwe said.

Other social movements have taken years to achieve results, such as the Civil Rights struggle, so Occupy should not be counted out, said Dorian Warren, an assistant professor of political science at Columbia University.

“The underlying social conditions that created the movement are far from over,” he said, citing money in politics, poverty and income disparity. “ … which means the potential for the movement to still exist is there.”

Sue VanDerzee, a 66-year-old retired newspaper editor from Durham, Conn., participated in Occupy Wall Street a few times and in a few Connecticut chapters, but she has turned her efforts to groups focusing more on local issues. She last visited an Occupy camp in March.

“I think that there’s other groups which sort of seek to reach people where they are and not so much out of a sense of anger but out of a sense of possibility,” she said.

When asked if she thought Occupy could carry on, she said: “As a movement, I’m not sure. As an idea, definitely. It’s embedded in our culture.”

John Makely / NBC News

Veteran James Hegler, center, was arrested Friday by NYPD officers at Zuccotti Park for trespassing after he refused to move his backpack for the private security firm that overseas the park on Friday Sept. 14.

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Police clad in riot gear skirmished with protesters, including Occupy demonstrators, in downtown Los Angeles late Thursday, leaving four officers injured and 17 people arrested. At least one man, who said he was not part of the protest, reported being struck by a rubber bullet, local media said.

A woman who said she was an Occupy member told the Los Angeles Times that protesters attended the monthly “ArtWalk” on Thursday to support those who had previously been arrested for writing on the sidewalk with chalk.

The demonstration started at about 8:40 p.m. (11:40 p.m. ET) Thursday, when protesters began taking over the intersection of Fifth and Spring streets, LAPD Officer Karen Rayner said. At times during the first hours of the protest, crowds and police could be seen running from the area. Police ordered the crowd to leave around 11 p.m., and a few skirmishes appeared to break out as officers tried to move the protesters.

Police spokeswoman Rosario Herrera told msnbc.com that protesters threw rocks and bottles at police officers, who responded with baton strikes, rubber bullets and bean bags.

Three police officers had minor injuries while a fourth one suffered a mild concussion, she said. Of the 17 arrests, one was for assault on a police officer and two for assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer.

Read the full story on NBC Los Angeles

'Chalk walk' march
Protesters posted this notice about the demonstration on their Facebook page Thursday afternoon:

"Tonight, #ArtWalk in #DTLA becomes #ChalkWalk! Occupy Los Angeles has had a laughably ridiculous 12 arrests the past 6 weeks for children's sidewalk chalk. Tonight from 7-9pm, occupiers, artists, enthusiasts, rebels, and the intrigued will defend the First Amendment and freedom of speech."

"We were handing out free chalk for freedom of speech," Cheryl Aichele, 34, a member of Occupy L.A. told the LA Times.

Messages written in chalk covered the downtown intersection, including: "You wouldn't shoot your kids for this, why shoot us?" and "Chalk the police."

Police used batons and non-lethal projectiles to get the crowd to leave, the newspaper reported. Demonstrators threw bottles and cans at officers. Some people in the crowd also told fellow protesters to remain peaceful.

A man said he was visiting ArtWalk when he was struck in the ribs with a rubber bullet.

"I was walking down the street and I saw a group of people. I was just here for ArtWalk, I didn't know anything was gonna happen," Charlie Shepherd said.

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Grant Hindsley / AP

A unidentified man is arrested by Los Angeles police on Fourth Street and Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles late Thursday.

Skirmishes
Aerial views of the scene showed demonstrators throwing objects at police. A member of the crowd threw a traffic cone at an unmarked police car driving by and some people could be seen dancing in front of police lines.

During the dispersal orders, police told media outlets to stay at least 40 feet away from the standoff between the crowd and officers in riot gear.

The nationwide Occupy movement grew out of contempt for the “1 percent,” and targeted Wall Street, corporate greed and political corruption. Spotted protests have continued after authorities shuttered many of the movement’s encampments late last fall and over the winter.

Occupy LA set up its campsite outside City Hall for about two months last fall before some 1,400 police officers swept demonstrators off the lawn. As many as 500 men, women and children were estimated to have participated in the encampment.

The city council estimates the costs related to Occupy LA could reach $5 million for policing, cleanup and other costs.

Msnbc.com's Miranda Leitsinger contributed to this report.

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Investigators are probing whether contamination at a city laboratory could have led to the match between DNA found at the murder scene of a Juilliard student eight years ago and a chain used at a recent Occupy Wall Street protest, law enforcement sources said Wednesday.

Two sources said investigators are looking at an NYPD lab technician and whether that technician came in contact with both pieces of evidence, causing the match, NBCNewYork.com reported.

Earlier in the day, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office said all employees there were screened as possible source of the DNA and that all of the medical examiner's employees were ruled out as the source of possible contamination.

Further testing to try to finalize the source of the DNA is continuing, the medical examiner's spokeswoman said.

Read the original story at NBCNewYork.com

"We are still actively investigating the DNA match," said the spokeswoman, Ellen Borakove.

NBC 4 New York reported Tuesday that DNA evidence from the scene of Sarah Fox's murder in Inwood Hill Park in 2004 has been connected to DNA from a chain left at the Carroll Street F station in Brooklyn during a protest at 7:05 a.m. on March 28.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Wednesday that he could not comment on the case.

Fox was found nude and strangled in the park in May 2004, days after she disappeared during a daytime jog. Investigators recovered her pink CD player in the woods just yards from her body.

Dimitry Sheinman, 47, has long been considered a suspect in the Fox murder. He was never charged in the case and has been living in South Africa.

Sheinman recently returned to New York City, proclaiming to be a clairvoyant with knowledge of the killer's identity. He asked to meet with police to give them information about the alleged killer; the details he offered are unknown.

Sources said Sheinman remains a leading person of interest. His DNA, which police have on file, was not found on the chain or at the 2004 murder scene. The DNA of the crime-scene detective who handled the chain has also been ruled out, sources said.

Sheinman did not respond to a request for comment.

In March, protesters chained open emergency gates and taped up turnstiles in eight subway stations and posted fliers encouraging passengers to enter for free.

"I hope the person or persons who killed this young woman are found and brought to justice," said Bill Dobbs, a spokesman for Occupy Wall Street. "We don't know anything about it ... I hope no one jumps to any conclusions."

No one was arrested in the March subway protest incidents.

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Officials have linked forensic evidence from the 2004 murder scene of a Juilliard student to the scene of a recent Occupy Wall Street subway vandalism, NBC 4 New York has learned.

Investigators have connected DNA evidence from the scene of Sarah Fox's murder in Inwood Hill Park eight years ago to DNA collected at the scene of an Occupy Wall Street subway station vandalism in March.

Fox, 21, was found nude and strangled in the park in May 2004, days after she disappeared during a daytime jog. Investigators recovered her pink CD player in the woods just yards from her body.

Sources said Tuesday the DNA found on the CD player is linked to DNA found on a chain left by Occupy Wall Street protesters at the Beverly Road subway station in East Flatbush on March 28, 2012. 

Read the original story at NBC New York

That Wednesday morning, protesters chained open emergency gates and taped up turnstiles in eight subway stations and posted fliers encouraging riders to enter for free.

A "communique" posted online later that day by the "Rank and File Initiative" described the act as a protest against service cuts, fare hikes and transit employees' working conditions.

It was attributed to "teams of activists, many from Occupy Wall Street ... with rank and file workers from the Transport Workers Union Local 100 and the Amalgamated Transit Union."

Sources said they have not connected a person to the common DNA found on the CD player and the chain. There's no immediate evidence that the DNA belongs to the Occupy Wall Street protesters who chained open the gates.

No one was arrested in the March incidents. Police are continuing to investigate, and are now working to identify the source of the DNA found in common with the chain and the CD player.

Dr. Lawrence Koblinsky, a forensics expert at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said the DNA link was a major clue in the investigation, one that could potentially break the case. 

“You’ve got the same DNA left at two distinct sites," said Koblinsky. "Until they find the individual who left that DNA, we won’t know. But the likelihood is high the person who left that DNA on the CD player is the killer of Sarah Fox.”  

Dimitry Sheinman, 47, has long been considered a suspect in the Fox murder. He has since moved to South Africa and started a family. He was never charged in the case.

Sheinman recently returned to New York City, proclaiming to be a clairvoyant with knowledge of the killer's identity. The information he gave police was unclear.

Sources said he remains a leading person of interest.

Sheinman did not respond to a request for comment.

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The NYCLU released an app called "Stop and Frisk Watch."

Believe you are witnessing an unlawful police stop and want to record the moment? There's an app for that, courtesy of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The group released a free smartphone application on Wednesday that allows people to record videos of and report police “stop and frisk” activity, a practice widely denounced by civil rights groups as unjustified stops that they say mostly target minorities and almost never results in an arrest.

The appl was thoroughly criticized by the New York Police Department, which said that the tool might prove useful for criminals.

The “Stop and Frisk Watch” phone app is meant for bystanders watching a police stop, not those subject to it, the NYCLU said. Now available on Android phones, an iPhone version will launch later in the summer. It comes in English and Spanish.

“Stop and Frisk Watch is about empowering individuals and community groups to confront abusive, discriminatory policing,” NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said in a statement. “The NYPD’s own data shows that the overwhelming majority of people subjected to stop-and-frisk are black or Latino, and innocent of any wrongdoing. At a time when the [Mayor Mike] Bloomberg administration vigorously defends the status quo, our app will allow people to go beyond the data to document how each unjustified stop further corrodes trust between communities and law enforcement.”

The recording and report will be sent to the civil liberties group, which will collect the information. One of the app’s three main functions is called “listen,” in which users can learn when and where people around them are being stopped. This would be useful for community groups monitoring police activity, the NYCLU said in a statement.

New York City police stopped and questioned people 685,724 times in 2011, a more than 600 percent increase in street stops since 2002 -- Bloomberg’s first year in office -- when there were 97,296 stops, the group said in a statement. Of that, 87 percent were black or Latino, and nine out of every 10 of the people who were stopped were not arrested or ticketed.

The “stop and frisk” practice has been the subject of many protests in the city, and one of the focuses of the Occupy Wall Street movement. The NYCLU said it developed the app with Jason Van Anden, a Brooklyn-based visual artist and software developer who also created an Occupy Wall Street app, “I’m Getting Arrested.”

Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne denounced the app, saying criminals would find it “useful” because it would alert them to where police stops were happening. He also raised concerns about privacy issues and the rights of those being filmed, noting the group was de facto creating a “database of videos of individuals stopped by police.”

“It's one thing when providers learn what pizza or movies you like. It’s another to create a database of stops and arrests by police,” he said in an email statement. “On the plus side, the videos may capture images of suspects in the vicinity of a stop and be helpful to the police in that regard. Presumably, the NYCLU database will the names of the videographers and provide a rich vein of potential witnesses to crimes being investigated by the NYPD and other authorities.”

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Michael Towson

Photo of bomb plot suspect Brent Betterly, 24, taken by a fellow Occupy protester in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Friends of three activists charged with plotting to hurl firebombs during the NATO Summit in Chicago reacted for the most part with disbelief Sunday, saying that the arrests appear to be an effort to undermine peaceful protest.

Brent Betterly, 24, Brian Jacob Church, 20, and Jared Chase, 24, were charged Saturday with a terrorist conspiracy to firebomb four Chicago police stations, the home of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and President Barack Obama’s local campaign headquarters.

Stephanie Auguiste, a 25-year-old from Hollywood, Fla., met all three of the alleged bombers through Occupy Fort Lauderdale, a Florida offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement. She said the police description of the trio as violent anarchists didn’t match the young men she knew.

Courtesy Stephanie Auguiste

Stephanie Auguiste, 25, met all three of the alleged firebomb plotters through Occupy protests in Florida.

She said that when she spoke with Betterly by phone last week about his time in Chicago, “He was telling me how local police officers were harassing them a lot and how they were pretty violent toward protesters. “ Betterly was “shocked” by the aggressive tactics but didn’t give Auguiste any indication that he was planning to strike back with force, she said.  

Auguiste also said she found it hard to believe that Church -- who she knew by his middle name, Jacob -- is the same person described in charging documents as remarking about the sight of a “cop on fire.” Rather, she remembers Church as a soft-spoken artist who liked making still-life sketches and opposed the National Defense Authorization Act on constitutional grounds.

“He’s not the kind of person who had the desire to commit violent acts toward anyone,” Auguiste said of Church. “He believed in peaceful protest.”

Both Church and Betterly had lived in South Florida. Their friend, Chase, was from New Hampshire. Auguiste said she only met him once but found him to be “extremely friendly, very warm.”

Chase and Betterly have had brushes with the law. According to a Reuters report, Chase was charged with attempt to commit assault and reckless endangerment in June 2003, after he pulled a knife in a fight with another man. The report also detailed an incident a month later where Chase was in another fight, after which he hit a man with his car. The man wasn’t injured, but Chase was reportedly found guilty of assault.

(Chase’s uncle, Michael Chase of Westmoreland, N.H., told the Union-Leader newspaper that his nephew had only become politically active when the Occupy Wall Street protests bloomed. Of the charges, he said, “Seems outrageous and completely out of character for him. … He’s no angel. He’s not happy with the economy. Nobody is.”)

Last October Betterly was charged for burglary of an unoccupied structure, grand theft and criminal mischief when after a night of drinking, he and two friends broke into an Oakland Park, Fla., school to swim in the pool, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Those felony charges are still pending. 

Olivia Ferguson

Olivia Ferguson, 36, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said she believes the charges against Betterly "about as much as I believe in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy."

Olivia Ferguson, 36, said she often shared a tent with Betterly on the plaza adjoining the Fort Lauderdale City Hall during the Occupy protests. An electrician, Betterly would sometimes visit the encampment overnight after having worked 16 hours that same day, she said.

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“I believe Brent is a terrorist about as much as I believe in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy,” said Ferguson, from Fort Lauderdale. Recalling Betterly’s fondness for drinking, she believes that the home-brewing kit allegedly being used to make Molotov cocktails was probably just for making beer. Recalling his blond dreadlocks and goofy charm, Ferguson said she gave Betterly the nickname “Spicoli,” after Sean Penn’s party hearty character in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.”

At one Occupy Fort Lauderdale meeting in October led by Ferguson and Betterly, a man in the group spoke up to advocate more forceful forms of protest – spray-painting and property destruction. “Brent and I said absolutely not,” Ferguson said. “We were totally against that.”

Another Occupy activist, Mike Howson, 25, said he was “really surprised” to see Betterly’s name surface in connection with a terrorist act. “Like most of us, there were political things you’d bitch about, but he didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would actually go through with something like that.”

Michael Howson

Mike Howson, 25, of Sunrise, Fla., said Betterly "didn't seem like the kind of guy who would actually go through with something like that."

Howson, who resides in Sunrise, Fla., remembered Church being more reserved than the outgoing Betterly-- the type who “observes before he interacts with people.”

One activist who met Betterly and Church in Florida, and spoke about them on condition of anonymity, was not as surprised as their other fellow protesters, saying they were more inclined than most to push the limits of peaceful protest, 

“Jacob (Church) was immature and he was angry -- that’s a dangerous combination,” the activist said. 

The same activist was more surprised that Betterly was implicated in the plot, but recalled his increasing frustration when the Fort Lauderdale movement cleared out its camp in December.

“He went to Washington, D.C. for that national Occupy convention,” said the activist. “He then stayed near McPherson Square, and I can only surmise that he became somewhat radicalized by people he met there, because when he was here he was very much committed to nonviolence.”

facebook.com

Evan Rowe said suspect Brent Betterly "didn't seem to have a coherent ideological motivation, but he was tactically eager to pursue actions which might get him arrested in the pursuit of the Occupy cause."

Evan Rowe, 34, who met Betterly through Occupy Fort Lauderdale, answered questions via email. “Brent was always super-eager and hard core,” he said. “He didn’t seem to have a coherent ideological motivation, but he was tactically eager to pursue actions which might get him arrested in the pursuit of the Occupy cause.”

In Rowe’s opinion, the arrests were a “public relations exercise” by law enforcement agencies that need to invent sophisticated terrorist plots to justify their out-sized budgets, he said.

In a statement to reporters Saturday, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said that the investigation of the NATO bombing plot had been going on for weeks and that the Chicago Police detectives were assisted by the FBI and U.S. Secret Service. Alvarez called the men “domestic terrorists” who had come to Chicago “to hurt people.”

Kris Hermes, a spokesman for the National Lawyers Guild, which is representing the three accused bombers, said Sunday that prosecutors have yet to show evidence to support police claims of terrorist acts. “This is a direct attempt to stifle protest and to turn the public opinion against peaceful protesters.”

Defense attorneys hope to learn more about the state’s case at a court hearing Tuesday. “We strongly believe that undercover cops in this case were manufacturing crimes,” said Hermes. “They were provoking these guys to do things that they would not have otherwise done -- and it’s not even clear that they did engage in any criminal activities.”

Hermes said that the same two undercover cops who busted Betterly, Chase and Church were behind the bust of Sebastian Senakiewicz and Mark Neiweem, both of Chicago. Senakiewicz was charged with falsely making a terrorist threat while Neiweem stands accused of attempted possession of an explosive device. Police have said the two plots were unrelated.

Sunday afternoon, thousands of protesters marched from Jackson Drive and Columbus Drive, near Lake Michigan, to McCormick Place, the setting for the NATO Summit. Some 60 countries are sending delegations to the event, where diplomats are discussing the war in Afghanistan and missile defense in Europe.

There were reports of clashes between protesters and police at the conclusion of the march, but it appears that the demonstration was largely peaceful.

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Jared Chase, Brian Church, Brent Vincent Betterly, Sebastian Senakiewicz, Mark Neiweem were charged in Cook County Court for preparing explosives or making threats during the NATO summit this weekend.

Updated at 4:55 p.m. ET: CHICAGO -- Prosecutors said Sunday they have charged two more people as part their investigation into activists who planned to take part in demonstrations at the two-day NATO summit.

The Cook County State's Attorney's office said Sebastian Senakiewicz, 24, a native of Poland who lives in Chicago, is charged with falsely making a terrorist threat. Mark Neiweem, 28, who authorities believe to be from Chicago, is charged with attempted possession of explosives or incendiary devices.

Senakiewicz had bragged about having explosives, a prosecutor told a judge, claiming that he hid them in a hollowed-out Harry Potter book. But searches did not find any explosives, the prosecutor said.

The men were scheduled to make an initial court appearance later Sunday, when prosecutors were expected to offer more details about their allegations. Also expected in court Sunday is a third man, Taylor Hall, who was arrested during protests on Saturday night and is charged with aggravated battery to a police officer. Authorities did not immediately release Hall's age or hometown.

Three other activists appeared in court and were accused of manufacturing Molotov cocktails and having plans to attack President Barack Obama's campaign headquarters and other targets during the NATO protests.

Kris Hermes, a spokesman for the National Lawyers Guild, which has represented many of the activists pro bono, said the new charges were an "effort to frighten people and to diminish the size of the demonstrations."

Hermes said dozens of lawyers had donated their time over the weekend and that hundreds had called the guild's hotline. By Sunday morning, they had represented 37 people who had been arrested.

He said one man was clubbed over the head, causing heavy bleeding, and that another was transported to the hospital after being run over by a police van. That man, Hermes said, was shackled to his gurney during the four hours he was at the hospital.

Hermes said that while the five cases may not be related, his group believes the same police informants turned them in.

The trio charged Saturday are Brian Church, 20, of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; Jared Chase, 24, of Keene, N.H.; and, Brent Vincent Betterly, 24, of Oakland Park, Fla. They were arrested on Wednesday and face felony charges of conspiracy to commit terrorism, material support for terrorism and possession of explosives.

Senakiewicz was arrested a day later and there was no immediate indication that he had links to Church, Chase or Betterly. It also wasn't clear when Neiweem was arrested and if he had any links to the other charged activists.

Defense lawyer Michael Deutsch on Saturday accused police of setting up their clients in an attempt to frighten peaceful protesters. He said undercover officers brought the firebombs to a South Side apartment where the men were arrested.

Critics say filing terrorism-related charges against the protesters is reminiscent of previous police actions ahead of major political events, when authorities moved quickly to prevent suspected plots but sometimes quietly dropped the charges later.

"Even if charges are dropped or reduced later, they will have succeeded in spreading fear and intimidation," Hermes said.

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy on Saturday flatly dismissed the idea the arrests of the initial three suspects were anything more than an effort to stop "an imminent threat."

Prosecutors said Church, Chase and Betterly used fuel purchased from a Chicago gas station for makeshift bombs, pouring it into beer bottles and cutting up bandanas to serve as fuses. If convicted on all counts, they could get up to 85 years in prison. They are each being held on $1.5 million bond.

Msnbc.com's Isolde Raftery contributed to this report.

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Dozens of demonstrators calling for an end to war rushed into President Barack Obama’s campaign headquarters in Chicago on Monday morning, and eight were arrested, NBCChicago reported.

The protest, led by a group associated with the Catholic Worker movement, was the first of a series of planned demonstrations and marches by groups highlighting poverty, environmental, and education issues during the May 20-21 NATO summit in the city and the May 18-19 G8 summit at Camp David in Maryland.

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"We are here today to boldly proclaim our desire to live in a world where we say no to NATO and yes to community," said Chantal de Alacuaz from Chicago in a release by the Chicago-based White Rose Catholic Worker posted late Sunday night. "As Catholic Workers, we serve the poor by practicing the works of mercy — feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, taking care of the sick and the works of war are directly opposed to that."

The plan, according to the release was to “invite Obama and other NATO leaders to break bread over a symbolic meal to discuss how to transform NATO from an instrument of war and empire into an instrument of peace and love that embodies the biblical works of mercy instead of the works of war.”

About 100 people took part in the demonstration, according to the Chicago Tribune.  As eight protesters were led out of the building in handcuffs, other demonstrators danced and sang folk songs and gospel, and handed rolls to commuters, it said.

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A protester is seen being taken from President Barack Obama's campaign headquarters in Chicago on Monday.

"We see NATO as using up a lot of resources in the city and the world," said Jesica Arents, a member of the group speaking to the paper.

She said some of the demonstrators had come from across the Midwest and would be joining NATO protests throughout the week, the Tribune reported. The group was committed to remaining non-violent, she said.

Those arrested were charged with criminal trespass, according to NBCChicago.com.

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