NATO Protesters In Chicago Seek Permit Change After G8's Relocation To Camp David (VIDEO)

Activists planning to protest the NATO summit in Chicago this spring have announced a tweak to their plans.

ABC Chicago reports that activists will move the start date of their march from May 19 to May 20, the opening day of the NATO summit at McCormick Place -- a change prompted by the city losing the G8 summit earlier this month.

Andy Thayer, one of the activists leading the demonstrations against the summit, described the city's loss of the G8 as a confidence builder for protesters.

(Scroll down to watch a report on the protest changes.)

"Everyone that I have talked to in the protest movement has actually taken confidence from the removal of G8 from Chicago," Thayer said, as reported by ABC. "It shows protest works."

Joe Iosbaker, an organizer with the CANG8 committee, told CBS Chicago that European legal observers will be coming to Chicago to help ensure that summit protesters' "civil liberties are protected."

Mayor Rahm Emanuel admitted last week that he was given only an hour's advance notice of the G8 summit's move from Chicago to Camp David, Maryland. President Obama said the change had nothing to do with security concerns and that the Camp David site's "casual backdrop" was an important perk.

And while the Group of 8 summit will no longer be in Chicago, tens of thousands of protesters are still expected to come to the city in May. Mike Shields, president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, maintains doubts over how police will be able to secure the NATO gathering.

"Guess what? The protests are going to happen anyway because if (protesters) are upset about G-8, they have just as much reason to be upset about NATO," Thayer told the AP.

WATCH activists discuss their tweaked NATO protest plans: