Chicago’s young protesters make it hard to ignore the problems swirling around Chicago.
The fresh faces of activism have taken to the streets in recent months, shutting down Michigan Avenue, staging citywide walkouts and disrupting Black Friday shopping and New Year’s Day brunches to demand change.
In recent weeks, one protester who’s been particularly critical of the mayor released a song titled “Sorry’s Not Enough.” And last week, the Black Youth Project 100 released an agenda calling for everything from raising living wages to reducing the police department’s budget.
Activists are getting organized to attend a police board meeting next week and a solidarity march this weekend.
“This is our moment. This is our generation’s civil rights movement, black power movement,” said Page May, 27, an organizer of Assata’s Daughters and We Charge Genocide and a member of Black Youth Project 100.
Together, activists are calling for justice, for an end to police brutality and misconduct, and for the resignations of Mayor Emanuel and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez particularly over how they handled the case of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, who was fatally shot by Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke 16 times as seen on video released to the public late last year.
For some of the protesters, tragedy inspired their activism such as the killings of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012 in Florida; 18-year-old Michael Brown in 2014 in Ferguson, Mo.; and 23-year-old Dominique Franklin, who died in 2014 after Chicago police used a Taser on him. Collectively, they are pushing the message to challenge the status quo, hold leaders accountable and invest resources and programs in black communities.
Todd St. Hill, who grew up in Washington, D.C., and moved to Chicago for college, said he has never had a positive interaction with the police in his 31 years. He recalled how squad cars slowed down when neared him and how police falsely accused him of a crime.
“It isn’t about young black people hating the police. It’s about young black people being fed up about the state of policing and the nature of policing and the structural inequality that exists in the country for black folks and having the courage and desire to do something about it,” said St. Hill, who now lives in Washington Park and is BYP 100 Chicago’s organizing co-chair.
He has gone face to face with the police in nonviolent—save for a few scuffles and resulting arrests—protests over the McDonald shooting.
Since the recent protests, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy was fired; Scott Ando, the head of the Independent Police Review Authority, resigned; the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the police department’s use of force; and Emanuel is at the center of a public relations crisis and under a national spotlight.
The mayor has condemned a “code of silence” in the police department and apologized for the McDonald shooting but has rebuffed calls for his resignation.
In response to criticism of Emanuel’s leadership, mayoral spokesman Adam Collins said in an email, “Like residents who have made their voices heard in recent weeks, the Mayor is focused on ensuring that we use this moment to address those longstanding issues head on and make the reforms necessary to build the Chicago we all want to see.”
Damon Williams, co-director of the #LetUsBreathe Collective and co-chair of BYP 100’s Chicago chapter, said the protests aim to engage people about issues that go beyond concerns about police brutality.
“To narrow it down to police killings is to undervalue how deep of a problem this is and how widespread it is in the entire social, political, economic system,” said Williams, 23, of Auburn-Gresham.
He got involved after the 2014 fatal shooting of Michael Brown at the hands of police in suburban St. Louis. He initiated a fundraising campaign to bring gas masks and water bottles to Ferguson protesters.
Chicago activists have suggested that the police budget—a little more than $1.3 billion in taxpayer dollars, or 38 percent of the city’s $3.6 billion general operating fund—could go toward mental health clinics, the reopening of public schools, better wages, grocery stores, creation of jobs and other programs to support and improve the lives of residents.
But it’s not all about shutting down traffic in the city. Protesters walked into a few brunch spots in Lincoln Park and Wicker Park on New Year’s Day, making some patrons visibly uncomfortable while others refused to make eye contact or stop their side conversations, May said.
“People in the city think that this is normal, and they get to live their lives and have brunch in their PJs,” said May, who lives in Hyde Park.
Young activists have also turned up at police board meetings, organized public forums such as More Than Bullets in December and picketed in front of the mayor’s Ravenswood home.
Once an ambassador for Emanuel’s “Put the Guns Down” violence prevention initiative last summer, Ja’Mal Green, 20, has created “Rahm Failed Us” T-shirts and even led protests in front of Emanuel’s house after the McDonald video was released. His recently released song “Sorry’s Not Enough” was written to inspire hope and encourage action to promote change.
“We live in communities with absolutely nothing. These are not excuses, but these are definitely reasons attached to the high crime rates and why people aren’t working, why people don’t have anything to do or anywhere to go,” said Green, who lives in Gresham.
“When one community fails, all communities should feel that pain with them and stand together and rebuild,” he said.
@lvivanco | lvivanco@redeyechicago.com
