Chicago Trump Inaguration Protest
I don't really have time to do as detailed of a post as I want - especially with another protest coming up tomorrow morning. So, instead, I have to settle for copy-pasting a description I put on Flickr and add some of the more interesting photos from the set. You can see the entire photo set here.
This protest has been in the works more or less since the moment the November 2016 election results were announced. It helped that Chicago's Trump Tower made for a pretty convenient gathering point. The details started to emerge over the course of last week - it would start at around 5:00 PM and continue until midnight.
I stumbled across the rally at the Daley Plaza after I got out of the City Hall.
I decided to stick around to take pictures.
And when the crowd headed toward Trump Tower, I followed them.
Except getting to the Trump Tower wasn't in the cards. While the Chicago Police Department allowed people to rally near the tower the day after the election, they weren't feeling so generous this time around. Since the 2012 Occupy Chicago protests, CPD got pretty good at using bicycle cops to quickly respond to crowd movements and form barricades, cutting off the way across all bridges crossing the Chicago River.
They also put the more solid barricades on the State Street bridge - the closest bridge to the tower.
There were some counter-protestors - a Republican woman who seemed very determined to make a point that Trump is a president, so she should be respected.
While she was clearly hoping for confrontations, she remained civil and polite throughout - even while debating the protestors.
And then, there were bros who clearly just wanted to piss off some lefties.
A decent chunk of the protesters was eventually allowed to get through on Clark Street bridge
But all of the attempts to get closer were quickly cut off, forcing crowds to turn around and keep going north, turn east and get caught off again. After a few tries, the crowd turned back.
By that point, I wasn't so keep to keep following them. I wasn't keen on another March to Nowhere - especially when I wasn't getting paid to cover it. So by 7:00 PM or so, I went to Argo Tea's Tribune Tower location and started sorting and uploading photos.
Because lighting conditions were far, far from ideal, and my camera is far, far from professional, I had to throw a lot of photos out, and some of the ones I kept weren't that good, either. But, hopefully, this will at least get across what happened.
Oh, and one more thing. As I headed back home, walking north along Michagan Avenue, through the Magnificent Mile, I saw police officers stationed at every corner and guarding the entrances of most (but not quite all) stores and hotels. When a concerned civilian asked whether that was necessary, a cop told her that CPD wanted them there "just in case."
As I kept walking, a heard a dispatcher tell the cops over the police radios to hang in there.
And tomorrow... Tomorrow, we got another protest. Of a more massive, more organized kind.
This protest has been in the works more or less since the moment the November 2016 election results were announced. It helped that Chicago's Trump Tower made for a pretty convenient gathering point. The details started to emerge over the course of last week - it would start at around 5:00 PM and continue until midnight.
I stumbled across the rally at the Daley Plaza after I got out of the City Hall.
I decided to stick around to take pictures.
And when the crowd headed toward Trump Tower, I followed them.
Except getting to the Trump Tower wasn't in the cards. While the Chicago Police Department allowed people to rally near the tower the day after the election, they weren't feeling so generous this time around. Since the 2012 Occupy Chicago protests, CPD got pretty good at using bicycle cops to quickly respond to crowd movements and form barricades, cutting off the way across all bridges crossing the Chicago River.
They also put the more solid barricades on the State Street bridge - the closest bridge to the tower.
There were some counter-protestors - a Republican woman who seemed very determined to make a point that Trump is a president, so she should be respected.
While she was clearly hoping for confrontations, she remained civil and polite throughout - even while debating the protestors.
And then, there were bros who clearly just wanted to piss off some lefties.
A decent chunk of the protesters was eventually allowed to get through on Clark Street bridge
But all of the attempts to get closer were quickly cut off, forcing crowds to turn around and keep going north, turn east and get caught off again. After a few tries, the crowd turned back.
By that point, I wasn't so keep to keep following them. I wasn't keen on another March to Nowhere - especially when I wasn't getting paid to cover it. So by 7:00 PM or so, I went to Argo Tea's Tribune Tower location and started sorting and uploading photos.
Because lighting conditions were far, far from ideal, and my camera is far, far from professional, I had to throw a lot of photos out, and some of the ones I kept weren't that good, either. But, hopefully, this will at least get across what happened.
Oh, and one more thing. As I headed back home, walking north along Michagan Avenue, through the Magnificent Mile, I saw police officers stationed at every corner and guarding the entrances of most (but not quite all) stores and hotels. When a concerned civilian asked whether that was necessary, a cop told her that CPD wanted them there "just in case."
As I kept walking, a heard a dispatcher tell the cops over the police radios to hang in there.
And tomorrow... Tomorrow, we got another protest. Of a more massive, more organized kind.