Per the Chicago Sun-Times story, these three weren't choir boys, if a mortar was among items police found in the apartment of three men arrested on allegations they planned to attack Obama's Chicago headquarters as part of anti-NATA protests.
At the same time, exactly what they have have planned to do, both before their infiltration by Chicago undercover cops and afterward, is a matter that is certainly open to both conjecture and contention, and may never be solved for certain.
That said, ever since the Seattle G7 protest in the late 1990s, there's been a violence-based fringe element to such protests. Given that the anti-NATO protests have gotten wrapped up with the Occupy movement, it would probably behoove some Occupy spokespersons and leadership (and, yes, contra myth, there are Occupy leaders) to officially distance themselves from the violence to maintain some sort of credibility. That's especially since at least two of them claim connections with the Occupy movement.
My guess? Of the three arrestees, Betterly might have been considering something serious. Possibly Church, but not as a leader. (Interesting that his mom proclaims his innocence even though he allegedly burgled his parents' house in 2010.) Chase? He's the one I wouldn't trust ... he seems most likely, in a thumbnail sketch, to be interested in violence for violence's sake.
All three are surely guilty of non-criminal gross stupidity.
And, all of this is why skeptical left-liberals like me remain wary of the Occupy movement.
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