Following the Black Lives Matter protestors in Chicago (now with pictures)
This has been brewing in Chicago for weeks, but it didn't really make national news until today.
On October 20, 2014, 17 year old Laquan McDonald was stopped by police while high on PCP and wielding a knife. The official line was that McDonald charged at the officers, and police officer (who was eventually revealed to be named Jason Van Dyke) shot him in self-defense. But there were things that didn't add up. Like the fact that McDOnald was shot a total of 16 times. Or how the city seemed awfully eager to settle with McDonald's family before they even tried to launch legal proceedings. Or how the city seemed intent on keeping the dashcam footage of the incident locked up.
It would take too long to recap all the twists and turns this case took, but the end result was that the judge would up ordering the city to release the footage. And it would up releasing the footage today (November 24).
This morning, I was on the West Side of Chicago, attending a conference of local elected officials who urged area residents to be angry, but not be violent. In the middle of the conference, a few hours before the footage was actually released, Van Dyke was charged with first degree murder.
I spent this morning and parts of the afternoon writing a story about the meeting (a decent chunk of which made it into the article I linked to above, compressed but with the major points intact), and I spent the rest of my afternoon working on articles for Niles Bugle. When I went to check Twitter, I found out that protestors were marching down Roosevelt Street, toward downtown, a bit south of where I was working (remmember - no home Internet).
Earlier tonight, cherrymaryberry asked me why the people were still protesting, even after Van Dyke was charged. And, in my opinion, there are several reasons for that. There is the outrage over the footage itself, the confirmation that McDonald didn't try to attack the officers, and that it sure looked like Van Dyke got out of the car and shot the teen in cold blood. But there is also the fact that grievances against Chicago Police Department aren't new, and the controversy over the shooting of Michael Brown and others only added fuel to the fire. So a lot of it is simply a way of expressing grievances. And another big part of it, I think, is because the activists feel that, if they don't maintain the pressure, the case against Van Dyke would go nowhere, and their effort to end police brutality won''t get any traction, either.
As I followed the protests through Twitter, I was torn. On one hand, I was kind of hungry and I wanted to go home. On the other hand, the protests were close, and my apartment didn't have Internet. So, after weighing my options for a while, I decided to head out and at least get some pictures. After wondering around downtown for a bit, I found them near Michigan and Balboa.
Now, it was already pretty dark out, and my camera is pretty much one of the cheapest digital cameras you can get. But I like to think I managed to get some decent shots.
The protests originally headed north on Michigan Avenue, toward Millennium Park, where the city was holding the Christmas Tree lighting ceremony.
But as the protesters approached Van Buren street, the bicycle raced to intersect the crowds, forming human barricades and directing them west along Van Buren. CPD perfected this trick during the Occupy Chicago protests and has been using it ever since.
They kept heading west on Van Buren
Past a bus that was basically stuck waiting while protesters marched along Michigan Avenue. The fact that it was CTA bus Route 3, which served Cottage Grove, one of the South Side's major artery streets, made for an interesting juxtaposition
The protesters stopped at the intersection of Van Buren and State Street
Where they started forming a human chain along all four sides of the intersection
As people in the surrounding buildings watched
And the police waited
I'm sure the fact that it all took place in the shadow of Harold Washington Library, which was named after Chicago's first (and thus far only) African-American mayor wasn't lost on at least a few people.
After a while, the protesters wound up heading south on State Street.
Past William Jones College Preparatory School, which made for another interesting contextual juxtaposition. Jones Prep is a selective enrollment school which the residents of the gentrified South Loop have long wanted to become a neighborhood school. The closest public school is (a) in Bronzeville (b) doesn't have as good of a record as Jones Prep. While I was still writing for Chicago Journal, CPS agreed to give presence to neighborhood kids for some programs, which residents saw as a step in a right direction, but which didn't go far enough. And, to many residents of Bronzeville, it showed that, if you are white and more well-off, you are more likely to get results. Well, something kind of remotely approaching results.
As they kept walking, a group of black teens who were walking in the opposite direction stopped and cheered in support.
"We're sick and tired of being afraid!" one of them shouted.
"Join us!" the protesters shouted.
But the teens shook their heads and just took some pictures.
The procession continued
At several points, they paused, probably to make sure the march doesn't get spread out too thinly
I thought that they were trying to head toward Chicago Police Department headquarters on 35th Street. But as the protesters approached 18th street, it was clear they had a different destination in mind - the First District station.
Which was actually a pretty good place to stop in terms of sheer exposure. It wasn't just a police station - it was a police station that happened to be sitting at the spot where Green and Orange 'L' lines split apart. As the trains passed overhead, i saw many people looking out the windows, some even trying to take pictures.
Helicopters hovered up ahead. You can't really tell from this picture, but trust me - that's what that image is.
As the group coalesced, a decent chunk of the protesters went to form a line against the line of cops standing in front of the station, to "show [the cops] our power."
While others hung back.
The speakers decried what happened to McDonald, and other black teens and men who were shot under what could be charitably described as questionable circumstances. They decried police brutality in general. Chants of "Fuck the Police"and "Sixteen shots" filled the air. And because, like I wrote earlier, the protests were about grievances against CPD and the city government in general, they decried cuts to social services, school closing and lack of job opportunities. They talked about how, until recently, South Side didn't have any kind of trauma center whatsoever (and even what they got only happened after years of activism and protests).
Some protesters left, but most stuck around, and a few joined the crowd. The stand-off lasted for another half an hour. By around 9:40 PM, the crowd started to disperse. Some looked like they were going to protest somewhere else, while the rest went home.
I could've followed that group of protesters... But I decided against it. I was getting hungry, and my camera's battery was running out of power, and fast. I knew from experience that those protests could last hours, and I wanted to be able to at least upload the pictures I got before the day was over.
Plus, the end of the stand-off gave me a good ending point.
A few final thoughts.
First of all, the protest was smaller than I expected. Way smaller than the 2012 anti-NATO Occupy Chicago protests. Smaller than the Chicago Teachers Union rally held downtown during the 2012 strike. I think even the protests in the wake of Mike Brown verdict were bigger than that. I think the weather may have been a culprit - it's way colder now than it was during any of the protests I mentioned above. The fact that Thanksgiving is coming up probably played a role, too. And it is possible that the fact that Van Dyke was charged meant that some of the people who would've otherwise joined in didn't.
It wasn't a small protest by any means - by I expected bigger.
And another thing. The teachers' union rally was, oddly enough, a happy gathering. The teachers were determined to stand their ground, but they seemed confident and optimistic. The Occupy Chicago protesters were outraged.... But not quite like this. At tonight's protest, the anger felt more raw. More heartfelt.
I am reluctant to say "more real," because I have no doubt that most Occupiers were sincere in their passion. But "more real" is the word I keep coming back to when I try to describe it.
Maybe it's because these protesters' concerns dealt with tangible, day to day realities, while Occupy Chicago fought for broader goals with some Chicago flavor. I don't know.
Word is that that more protests are going to take place on Wednesday and Friday afternoons. I have the times and locations, but knowing how those things go, that may change several times.
We'll see.
On October 20, 2014, 17 year old Laquan McDonald was stopped by police while high on PCP and wielding a knife. The official line was that McDonald charged at the officers, and police officer (who was eventually revealed to be named Jason Van Dyke) shot him in self-defense. But there were things that didn't add up. Like the fact that McDOnald was shot a total of 16 times. Or how the city seemed awfully eager to settle with McDonald's family before they even tried to launch legal proceedings. Or how the city seemed intent on keeping the dashcam footage of the incident locked up.
It would take too long to recap all the twists and turns this case took, but the end result was that the judge would up ordering the city to release the footage. And it would up releasing the footage today (November 24).
This morning, I was on the West Side of Chicago, attending a conference of local elected officials who urged area residents to be angry, but not be violent. In the middle of the conference, a few hours before the footage was actually released, Van Dyke was charged with first degree murder.
I spent this morning and parts of the afternoon writing a story about the meeting (a decent chunk of which made it into the article I linked to above, compressed but with the major points intact), and I spent the rest of my afternoon working on articles for Niles Bugle. When I went to check Twitter, I found out that protestors were marching down Roosevelt Street, toward downtown, a bit south of where I was working (remmember - no home Internet).
Earlier tonight, cherrymaryberry asked me why the people were still protesting, even after Van Dyke was charged. And, in my opinion, there are several reasons for that. There is the outrage over the footage itself, the confirmation that McDonald didn't try to attack the officers, and that it sure looked like Van Dyke got out of the car and shot the teen in cold blood. But there is also the fact that grievances against Chicago Police Department aren't new, and the controversy over the shooting of Michael Brown and others only added fuel to the fire. So a lot of it is simply a way of expressing grievances. And another big part of it, I think, is because the activists feel that, if they don't maintain the pressure, the case against Van Dyke would go nowhere, and their effort to end police brutality won''t get any traction, either.
As I followed the protests through Twitter, I was torn. On one hand, I was kind of hungry and I wanted to go home. On the other hand, the protests were close, and my apartment didn't have Internet. So, after weighing my options for a while, I decided to head out and at least get some pictures. After wondering around downtown for a bit, I found them near Michigan and Balboa.
Now, it was already pretty dark out, and my camera is pretty much one of the cheapest digital cameras you can get. But I like to think I managed to get some decent shots.
The protests originally headed north on Michigan Avenue, toward Millennium Park, where the city was holding the Christmas Tree lighting ceremony.
But as the protesters approached Van Buren street, the bicycle raced to intersect the crowds, forming human barricades and directing them west along Van Buren. CPD perfected this trick during the Occupy Chicago protests and has been using it ever since.
They kept heading west on Van Buren
Past a bus that was basically stuck waiting while protesters marched along Michigan Avenue. The fact that it was CTA bus Route 3, which served Cottage Grove, one of the South Side's major artery streets, made for an interesting juxtaposition
The protesters stopped at the intersection of Van Buren and State Street
Where they started forming a human chain along all four sides of the intersection
As people in the surrounding buildings watched
And the police waited
I'm sure the fact that it all took place in the shadow of Harold Washington Library, which was named after Chicago's first (and thus far only) African-American mayor wasn't lost on at least a few people.
After a while, the protesters wound up heading south on State Street.
Past William Jones College Preparatory School, which made for another interesting contextual juxtaposition. Jones Prep is a selective enrollment school which the residents of the gentrified South Loop have long wanted to become a neighborhood school. The closest public school is (a) in Bronzeville (b) doesn't have as good of a record as Jones Prep. While I was still writing for Chicago Journal, CPS agreed to give presence to neighborhood kids for some programs, which residents saw as a step in a right direction, but which didn't go far enough. And, to many residents of Bronzeville, it showed that, if you are white and more well-off, you are more likely to get results. Well, something kind of remotely approaching results.
As they kept walking, a group of black teens who were walking in the opposite direction stopped and cheered in support.
"We're sick and tired of being afraid!" one of them shouted.
"Join us!" the protesters shouted.
But the teens shook their heads and just took some pictures.
The procession continued
At several points, they paused, probably to make sure the march doesn't get spread out too thinly
I thought that they were trying to head toward Chicago Police Department headquarters on 35th Street. But as the protesters approached 18th street, it was clear they had a different destination in mind - the First District station.
Which was actually a pretty good place to stop in terms of sheer exposure. It wasn't just a police station - it was a police station that happened to be sitting at the spot where Green and Orange 'L' lines split apart. As the trains passed overhead, i saw many people looking out the windows, some even trying to take pictures.
Helicopters hovered up ahead. You can't really tell from this picture, but trust me - that's what that image is.
As the group coalesced, a decent chunk of the protesters went to form a line against the line of cops standing in front of the station, to "show [the cops] our power."
While others hung back.
The speakers decried what happened to McDonald, and other black teens and men who were shot under what could be charitably described as questionable circumstances. They decried police brutality in general. Chants of "Fuck the Police"and "Sixteen shots" filled the air. And because, like I wrote earlier, the protests were about grievances against CPD and the city government in general, they decried cuts to social services, school closing and lack of job opportunities. They talked about how, until recently, South Side didn't have any kind of trauma center whatsoever (and even what they got only happened after years of activism and protests).
Some protesters left, but most stuck around, and a few joined the crowd. The stand-off lasted for another half an hour. By around 9:40 PM, the crowd started to disperse. Some looked like they were going to protest somewhere else, while the rest went home.
I could've followed that group of protesters... But I decided against it. I was getting hungry, and my camera's battery was running out of power, and fast. I knew from experience that those protests could last hours, and I wanted to be able to at least upload the pictures I got before the day was over.
Plus, the end of the stand-off gave me a good ending point.
A few final thoughts.
First of all, the protest was smaller than I expected. Way smaller than the 2012 anti-NATO Occupy Chicago protests. Smaller than the Chicago Teachers Union rally held downtown during the 2012 strike. I think even the protests in the wake of Mike Brown verdict were bigger than that. I think the weather may have been a culprit - it's way colder now than it was during any of the protests I mentioned above. The fact that Thanksgiving is coming up probably played a role, too. And it is possible that the fact that Van Dyke was charged meant that some of the people who would've otherwise joined in didn't.
It wasn't a small protest by any means - by I expected bigger.
And another thing. The teachers' union rally was, oddly enough, a happy gathering. The teachers were determined to stand their ground, but they seemed confident and optimistic. The Occupy Chicago protesters were outraged.... But not quite like this. At tonight's protest, the anger felt more raw. More heartfelt.
I am reluctant to say "more real," because I have no doubt that most Occupiers were sincere in their passion. But "more real" is the word I keep coming back to when I try to describe it.
Maybe it's because these protesters' concerns dealt with tangible, day to day realities, while Occupy Chicago fought for broader goals with some Chicago flavor. I don't know.
Word is that that more protests are going to take place on Wednesday and Friday afternoons. I have the times and locations, but knowing how those things go, that may change several times.
We'll see.