On Saturday, protests in Chicago led to twenty-four arrests and several injuries after clashes between civilians and police turned violent. The demonstrators had gathered to protest police brutality in downtown Chicago.
“We were at Michigan and Wacker, we wanted to go east on Wacker, and then the cops wouldn’t let us, and there was a bike barricade with the protesters and the police,” Womyn Wonder, a protestor, said.
Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown reported that “agitators” changed their appearances, opened umbrellas, and shoved officers and that police “responded proportionately.”
Seventeen officers were injured and one was assaulted with a skateboard.
Here’s a copy of the video, that was later deleted by the original poster, showing rioters beating on a CPD officer.
h/t: @CWBChicago pic.twitter.com/JvipmYodZa— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) August 16, 2020
Jeremey Johnson, 25, has been charged with felony aggravated battery to a peace officer after repeatedly striking a #ChicagoPolice officer in the head with a skateboard at yesterday’s downtown protest. https://t.co/OChnGsGmBd pic.twitter.com/CF4Y6gtCpO
— Chicago Police (@Chicago_Police) August 16, 2020
Protesters were also met with deliberate aggression. When they moved away from officers and continued marching, officers followed closely behind in a line formation before clashes continued.
“The cops started grabbing people’s umbrellas and ripping them apart and throwing them into the crowd of protesters, and then they started beating people with their batons,” Wonder said. “Eventually they started descending upon us and marching faster into our rear, and they started beating people at the rear.”
Officers used pepper spray, considered a chemical weapon banned in war, to de-escalate the protest.
#Chicagopolice make arrests in loop following a night of looting. @cbschicago pic.twitter.com/3AiQ0NvLHB
— Vince Gerasole (@vincegerasole) August 10, 2020
