Latest news with #HandsAcrossChicagoland
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
5 years after killing of George Floyd, protest in Chicago decries Trump directive to empower police
On the fifth anniversary of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, an event that prompted a national reckoning over race and police brutality, a gathering in Chicago joined coordinated protests across the country on Sunday against President Donald Trump's rollbacks of diversity, equity and inclusion — particularly his signing of an executive order aimed at strengthening state and local law enforcement. 'Dexter Reed. Rekia Boyd. Laquan McDonald. Adam Toledo. Reginald Clay Jr.' — as the rally began, the crowd recited the names of people fatally shot by police in Chicago. Activist and Chicago Teachers Union member Kobi Guillory, leading the chants, said Trump was 'the main stumbling block to getting justice.' On the sunny afternoon, the rally amassed a group of more than 100 people in Federal Plaza at 230 S. Dearborn St., attracting curious tourists and passersby. Speakers represented various Chicago organizations, including the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, the Chicago Torture Justice Center, GoodKids MadCity, Southsiders Organizing for Unity and Liberation and the Arab American Action Network. On the other side of the street, over a dozen police officers observed the gathering, which eventually marched up State Street to gather across the Chicago River from Trump Tower. Organizers said the executive order will allow policing to go unchecked by funneling federal and military resources to police departments, forgoing equity policies and eliminating federal consent decrees, or court-ordered settlements that mandate changes to address misconduct. The Illinois attorney general has said that Chicago's consent decree — in place since 2019 — will remain in effect. 'We have to keep fighting. In fact, Chicago is the focal point of the fight for police accountability,' said Faayani Aboma Mijana with the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, or CAARPR, at a news conference before the rally. 'In our view, it's people power that's going to push it forward.' Chicago has the most progressive police accountability ordinance in the country, according to Aboma Mijana. Passed in July 2021 after years of back-and-forth with community activists and shaped by Floyd's murder in 2020, it included mechanisms of civilian oversight such as three council members who, under the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, would serve in each of the city's 22 police districts. 'I came here to say something loud and clear: We will not go back,' said Marquinn McDonald during the rally; he is the newest member of the 2nd Chicago Police District Council and a longtime community safety advocate. 'Not now, not ever, not after the bloodshed that has been spilled, not after the tears that have soaked our soil, not after we've watched Black lives stolen in real time with the world watching, and still had to beg for justice.' Hands Across Chicagoland protest draws thousands Sunday along Ogden Avenue Thousands rally, march through Loop for national 'Hands Off!' protest City touts mission to target employee ties to hate groups; community demands police be the priority While activists say there are many sticking points to address in policing, they expressed hope from recent wins. The commission has worked alongside the Chicago Police Department to unveil the department's policy regulating traffic stops, the first draft of which was unveiled late April. 'Let me say this to the president of the United States and to anyone who dares turn their back on justice: We see you, we hear you and we will meet you. Not with hate, but with truth; not with fear, but with fire — the fire of a people who have had enough,' McDonald said. 'We demand accountability, we demand protection, and we demand respect for every life across this nation.' Reynia Jackson, a youth organizer with Englewood nonprofit GoodKids MadCity, prepared a different kind of speech than she often gives at rallies and protests. In an emotional poem, she recalled growing up with news of people of color being killed in the city — beginning when she was 6 years old, when Boyd was shot in 2012. 'I don't have any more tears. I'm not numb to the pain. I just don't want another brother being shot over nine times like Dexter Reed,' she said. 'I don't want reform or body cameras to be worn. I want armed strangers with immunity, patrolling my community, to be gone.' Toward the end of the initial rally, as protesters prepared to march across Chicago's downtown, emcee and CAARPR co-chair Jasmine Smith expressed hopes that attendees were heartened by the words of encouragement and calls to action from speakers. 'This fight, this war, does not end today,' Smith said. 'Every time we show up, we show them that we can, we show them that we matter.'
Chicago Tribune
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Christine Ledbetter: The rising revolution is gray-haired and determined
The weather was nearly perfect for the revolution. Previous days of wind subsided as the temperature soared to 70 degrees Sunday for Hands Across Chicagoland, a 30-mile stretch of demonstrators from Aurora to Chicago protesting the Trump administration's policies. About 18,000 people filled in their ZIP code and were given a meet-up location along the route. They were instructed to bring homemade signs, make some noise and wear black to symbolize solidarity and the gravity of what's at stake if people are silent, according to Reid McCollum, chair of DuPage County Democrats, one of the event's organizers. The goal was to create a human chain that would garner more attention than a single-site protest, McCollum said. About 50 people stood on a blocklong patch of land on Ogden Avenue in front of Sunrise Senior Living, where furniture was being moved in for a new resident, and Naperville North High School, where a graduation was taking place. Their signs represented an orchestra of grievances: 'Resist Oligarchy,' 'Free Press,' 'Love Not Anger,' 'Born in the USA,' 'Freedom Dies without Science,' 'Racism in not Patriotism,' 'America is Better than This,' 'Hands off Weather,' 'Democracy not Tyranny,' 'Dump Trump,' 'Impeach, Convict, Remove,' and 'MAGA: Malicious Abhorrent Gestapo Agenda.' Beginning at noon, with Naperville police quietly present, the dissenters waved to passing drivers, many of whom honked in solidarity and offered a thumbs-up. Supporters of President Donald Trump appeared too, early on as a dozen or so trucks roared by adorned with MAGA signs. The protesters continued waving. America's long tradition of assembly began with the Boston Tea Party and has continued throughout history with the women's suffrage parade, Civil Rights Movement, Kent State and national march for lesbian and gay rights. More recent were the March for Our Lives, spurred by the shooting at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and racial justice protests, which occurred after the police murder of George Floyd. Outcries against Trump are coming fast and furious: The Presidents Day protest in February, Tesla takedown in March, nationwide demonstrations in April, the May Day rally. Who's keeping count? One of the leaders of the movement is Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. In a speech last month, he said, 'Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption. But I am now.' Adding, 'The reckoning is finally here.' On this sunny day, many of the participants were senior citizens. A 71-year-old woman, who has voted both Republican and Democratic, was protesting for the first time. She was doing it for her eight granddaughters, she said. A young mother of three daughters explained she came from two generations of feminists. Her sign read: 'We are the grandchildren of the women you couldn't silence.' A couple remarked that this felt like the 1960s, when they were first activists. The present revolution is fueled by those with bad knees, who after standing for 45 minutes sat on the grass or in the folding chairs they usually tote to their grandchildren's soccer game. They have skin in the game. Benefits such as Social Security, Medicare are threatened. Their children may be losing their jobs or putting off buying a home or car. They worry their grandchildren are being exposed to measles and being taught revisionist history in schools and libraries. Meanwhile, Walmart is raising prices, Canada is mad at us and our cultural icons are disparaged. Recently, Trump reviled boomer hero Bruce Springsteen and millennial pop star Taylor Swift. Of Springsteen who criticized the administration for persecuting people for using their right to free speech, Trump said the singer-songwriter was 'dumb as a rock,' and 'ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT.' Of Swift, Trump wrote, 'Has anyone noticed that, since I said 'I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,' she's no longer 'HOT?'' That's a lot of hate expressed in all caps. Who wants their grandchildren to emulate such limited vocabulary, negative language and divisive rhetoric? In this hostility-fueled climate, many know firsthand the harm sowed dividing friends and family. Blocking Fox News-watching and Truth Social-subscribing friends, cousins and siblings from social media feeds has become commonplace. This is indeed the civil war of our generation. The foot soldiers in this army may be gray, but they are not impotent. They are rewriting wills to leave legacies to beleaguered institutions — cancer research, universities, Planned Parenthood, NPR, PBS and others. They are slathering on sunscreen, exercising using their SilverSneakers benefits, taking vitamins and reducing alcohol consumption in order to outlive this presidency. No one wants to die in an America of wrath and vengeance. They want their requiem to be sung in a time of light and mercy. So they march, shuffle, wheelchair-ride, while waving and singing protest songs. Just don't stand in the way of their Skechers.
Chicago Tribune
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Hands Across Chicagoland protest draws thousands Sunday along Ogden Avenue
Holding high a sign reading 'Democracy Dies in Silence! Resist,' Janet Wolf said she fears for America's future under President Donald Trump and a Republican Congress. 'I'm here because the Republican Congress is taking away our rights. Nobody's going to do anything until they're affected and then it's too late,' Wolf said. Wolf, 55, of La Grange Park, stood at the corner of Ogden and Spring avenues in La Grange around 1:30 p.m. Sunday. Many motorists honked horns in support. She was among the thousands – organizers estimated 18,000 – who participated in Hands Across Chicagoland from noon to 2 p.m. Sunday along a 30-mile stretch from Aurora to Chicago's Little Village neighborhood. They lined Ogden Avenue in the suburbs and 26th Street in the city. There were areas with no protesters, and areas with hundreds between Lisle and La Grange. Wolf is especially 'afraid of Elon Musk and the access he has to information.' Musk has been Trump's right-hand man in charge of cutting alleged wasteful spending by the government. One block east, at the corner of Kensington and Ogden avenues, La Grange resident Paul Miller listened as a Trump supporter stopped at a red light hurled insults at protestors, calling them 'idiots.' Miller, 71, called that reaction 'overly aggressive,' but remained glad he came out to make a stand. 'My father is 100. He can't be here today. I'm sending him videos of this,' he said. A history major who graduated in 1975 from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Miller decried what he saw as 'presidential incompetence.' 'What he's doing is bullying. Everything he does is based on some kind of schoolyard tactic he's managed to get away with. He's got some kind of diamond coating on him,' he said. His wife, Sally Miller, 73, and her friend Laureen Dunne, 71, of Westchester, held signs on the north side of Ogden. 'We are making an impact,' Sally Miller said, adding that she's also participated in protests at Tesla dealerships. Dunne said she protests weekly because 'if you're not resisting, you're assisting.' 'Week by week, it's growing and growing,' said Dunne, who protested the Vietnam War in her younger days. Earlier Sunday, Bill Davis, 79, of Arlington Heights, was all smiles as he stood around noon near a 34-foot tall inflatable chicken at the corner of Yender and Ogden avenues in Lisle. 'The first time it ever went up was about two weeks ago up in Northbrook next to a Tesla dealer. We were by the Edens Expressway and (traffic) on the Edens slowed down to almost a stop,' Davis said. 'It was really cool.' He thinks protests like Hands Across Chicagoland 'will impact the White House' and Congress. 'In two years, we're going to change Congress. Slowly but surely, we're changing things,' he said. 'Trump is doing a fine job screwing up. Omaha got its first Democratic mayor ever. That's been happening around the country. Big elections, like the Wisconsin Supreme Court, nobody thought the (Democratic candidate) would win by 17 points,' Davis said. Contsance Cameron, retired from her job teaching English literature at Waukegan High School, held two signs. One read 'Putin's Puppet.' The other read 'Honk for Democracy' and a long line of motorcyclists heading west did just that. Cameron was at the protest because she is worried about the future for her 'two wonderful grandchildren.' 'I don't want them to grow up in a Donald Trump America,' the '70-something' Cameron said. 'This is terrifying. It's not the America I grew up in. 'He's taking away all of the things that make America good. He's taking away respect for institutions. He's taking away our system of justice, the social safety net. He's taking away being able to get along with each other,' she said. Trump supporters have 'been given permission slips to be terrible and disrespectful and obnoxious,' she said. Moments later, as if on cue, a parade of vehicles — mostly pickup trucks and SUVs with Trump and MAGA placards and stickers and American flags waving – drove east on Ogden with drivers and passengers honking horns and shouting jeers at the protesters. Several elected officials, including U.S. Reps. Bill Foster, D-11th, and Robin Kelly, D-2nd, spoke words of encouragement to those gathered near the inflatable chicken in Lisle. Foster, who said he hears rumblings of dissatisfaction among some GOP lawmakers, wore a red tie with physics formulas that he called 'a subversive message to Trump.' Events like Sunday will impact independent voters, he said. 'Different sets of independent voters get upset for different reasons,' Foster said. 'When they saw the United States vote with Russia, with China, with Iran, with North Korea and against the freedom fighters of Ukraine, they just cannot understand where President Trump is leading the country,' he said. Those running small businesses damaged by tariffs and those angry that grocery prices remain high may turn on Trump, he said. Sunday's event had 23 sponsors including the Illinois Federation of Teachers and Indivisible Illinois, said Reid McCollum, chair of the Democratic Party of DuPage County, one of the sponsors. 'The goal is to make it clear there's a growing movement to oppose, through peaceful protests, the authoritarian actions that our president keeps taking,' he said. McCollum was pleased with the turnout. 'This was purely Chicago. I hope other cities do something like this,' he said around 5 p.m. Sunday. Grassroots organizations including Indivisible Naperville are planning protests for June 14, he said. That's been dubbed 'No Kings Day,' a thinly veiled shot at Trump's plan for a military parade in Washington D.C. on his 79th birthday. According to more than 100 events are already planned nationwide on June 14. Sunday was peaceful with no reported violence, McCollum said. However, a small skirmish did break out around 2 p.m. at Ogden and Kensington avenues in La Grange. A man wearing a bright red T-shirt began yelling at protestors as they left, telling them to 'go protest somewhere else' and 'this is a residential neighborhood.' He began arguing with a Tinley Park man. They shoved each other before cooler heads prevailed.
Chicago Tribune
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Hands Across Chicagoland event stretches from Aurora to Chicago to protest Trump administration
Julie Stuebner, 74, of Batavia calls herself a 'late in life protestor.' She's started going to all the protests she can in the area during President Donald Trump's second term. Among other issues, she's concerned about possible cuts to programs like Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, she said on Sunday. Her husband died of cancer, she said, and she now volunteers at Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital in Geneva and at Fox Valley Food for Health. 'If I'm just a number with a couple of signs, I'm making my voice heard,' she said on Sunday on Ogden Avenue in Aurora, as cars honked in the background at the protestors gathered on the sidewalk. Stuebner was one of over 18,000 gathered over a 30-mile stretch across DuPage and Cook counties from Aurora to Chicago on Sunday to protest Trump administration policies, per a news release from the Hands Across Chicagoland event organized by the Democratic Party of DuPage County, Indivisible Illinois, the Illinois Federation of Teachers and other political organizations across the Chicago area. The idea was to 'form a human chain of solidarity against Trump's illegal and authoritarian actions and the GOP's failure to defend the Constitution,' per the release. Protestors signed up in advance based on their ZIP code, and lined the sidewalk along Ogden Avenue and 26th Street, from Aurora to the Little Village neighborhood in Chicago, on Sunday afternoon. The idea arose out of past protests organized by the DuPage Democratic party, according to the group's chair Reid McCollum. In March, the group hosted a 'Tesla Takedown DuPage' protest against Elon Musk's efforts to slash and restructure the federal government and decided they wanted to stage a protest that stretched further. Sunday's demonstration was spurred on by the Trump administration sending individuals — like Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported from the United States — to detention centers, McCollum said. The protest's goal is to reach a significant number of people passing by the protest so that the people of the U.S. won't 'just slide into authoritarianism without fighting back,' McCollum said. Amongst a few dozen protestors gathered in Lisle, several local officials offered their remarks. Standing in front of an inflatable chicken meant to be a caricature of President Trump, U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Matteson, told The Beacon-News that these kinds of demonstrations show that people are 'ready to resist' the Trump administration. She described concerns about Medicaid, SNAP and tariffs as some of the everyday issues that are affecting ordinary residents' lives. 'We just have to be resilient, and we have to be consistent,' Kelly told the crowd of protestors gathered in Lisle. U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Naperville, also spoke in Lisle on Sunday, calling the current political situation 'hell on wheels,' describing a need to push back on the Trump administration through the courts and in the coming elections. He said he thinks there's concern among his Republican colleagues about the pushback to the current administration. 'The Republicans are not comfortable with what they're seeing on the streets of the United States,' Foster said. 'Don't let yourself think they're not listening.' Other local elected officials gathered in Lisle on Sunday included Illinois state Sens. Laura Ellman and Karina Villa. State Rep. Barbara Hernandez, a Democrat who represents portions of Aurora, North Aurora and Batavia, said she is focused on hearing from local residents, to bring their stories and concerns back to Springfield, and encouraging her constituents to become more educated on political processes. And she said demonstrations like these are an important reminder for elected officials. 'I tell them (her constituents) to keep getting involved, to keep communication with us,' Hernandez said on Sunday. 'Keep us accountable for what we do or don't do, and if you don't understand something, ask us.' Across the street from the protestors in Lisle, Dan Davies, 55, the owner of general contracting company Earthwerks, decided to stage a counter-demonstration at his business in Lisle when he heard about the Hands Across Chicagoland protest to provide a place for people on the other end of the political spectrum to share their perspectives. 'I just like to promote patriotism, and the American way,' Davies said. 'I lived the American Dream.' Over in Aurora, at the western edge of the demonstration, Luanne Lo Monte, 66, of Aurora said Trump's second term has been 'a lot scarier' and that's caused her to get involved in activism. 'He showed us the playbook, so no one should have been surprised,' Lo Monte said on Sunday. 'It amazes me when people drive up and are like, 'What are you protesting?' … It's scarier to me than somebody (who) at least knows they like Trump … the ignorance is what's the scariest to me.' Lo Monte said she's worried about retiring in the near future because she's concerned about threats to Medicare, as well as threats to LGBTQ individuals. 'We are so diverse,' Lo Monte said of her neighborhood in Aurora, where she and her wife live. 'It's wonderful so, at least that closeness, we're not afraid, but you never know what's going to happen when you walk out.'
