Lawyers for dozens of Occupy Chicago protesters arrested in Grant Park said Wednesday that the mass arrests amounted to a "dry run" by the Emanuel administration for handling protests during the G-8 and NATO summits in May.



"This was Mayor Rahm Emanuel being Mr. Tough Guy to show the world that they could come to the G-8 and NATO," said attorney Thomas Durkin, who represents a dozen of the 94 defendants seeking to have their cases dismissed.



Wednesday's lengthy court hearing — punctuated by outbursts from spectators and confusion over the charges — provided a glimpse of the possible legal complications facing the city in May.



"If they can't handle 3,000, what's going to happen when there are 30,000 of us?" Bunny Lee, 31, an Occupy Chicago member, said to reporters.



About 300 Occupy protesters were arrested on two nights in October after they marched from their base in the financial district to Grant Park and refused to leave after the park closed at 11 p.m.



Attorneys for the protesters say the First Amendment right to free speech trumped any laws governing park hours. But city attorney Linda Pauel argued that the demonstrators' right to free speech does not extend to all-night protests in city parks.



"They may feel like they are entitled to Grant Park for those seven hours (when it's closed), but that's not what the First Amendment requires," Pauel said.



City attorneys have said the protesters were charged under a Chicago Park District ordinance, essentially a civil infraction punishable by a fine. But lawyers for the protesters called the charges "quasi-criminal," since the arrestees were handcuffed and held at police stations for hours before being released on bond.



Cook County Associate Judge Thomas Donnelly appeared perplexed by the bonds, saying they are usually set only in criminal cases. When city attorneys could not explain why bonds were set, the judge told them to research the issue and report back Thursday.



"The reason that's an issue is (a bond) is a restraint of your liberty," Durkin said after court. "This was an attempt to be rough and tumble and spread the word that if you come to Chicago and you want to protest 24 hours, you're going to jail, end of story."



jmeisner@tribune.com