CHICAGO, IL. Aug. 29, 2015 – Hundreds of protesters marched through the streets of Chicago to demand that the Chicago City Council create a civilian police accountability council, which would have the power to conduct community oversight of the Chicago police. The march began at Federal Plaza, located on the corner of Adams and Dearborn, and ended at Chicago’s City Hall.
The march, titled “This Stops Today!- We Can’t Breathe,” was organized by the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, and was supported by the Black Lives Matter Movement, We Charge Genocide, Fearless Leading by the Youth (F.L.Y.), and the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago (CIOGC), as well as other organizations.
Chicago resident, Sharon Pena, holds a different perspective than most who were in attendance at today’s protest. Pena feels that part of the problem lies within the black community itself, rather than police oppression or abuse. According to Pena, rather than spending so much energy blaming others on the outside, she feels that it’s “time to get honest with a self critique of our communities.”
Many Muslims were in attendance, as the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago supported today’s march, which was organized by the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.
In a recent local op-ed piece, Frank Chapman, field organizer for the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, seemed to condone the violence and destruction which came in the wake of the Michael Brown shooting that occurred on August 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri:
Op Ed: Remembering Michael Brown
“As organizers and fighters for justice and freedom, it is our job, our responsibility, to focus on the mass uprisings, but not like chroniclers, pundits or distant observers. The establishment newspapers, media and official society as a whole continue to describe the uprisings as “riots, and breakdowns in law and order that cannot be tolerated.” They don’t understand that so long as the police murder our people with impunity there can be no peace between the people of oppressed communities and the police.”
How exactly destroying businesses of other community members helps move everyone towards “Justice,” or how looting and vandalism hurts the police, was never clearly articulated.
More images here>>> Demotix News
Tell all them Protestors to go down to Ferguson and be threatened Like you were Chuck Jines… They may come home with a Brand New Perspective.
I would hope so, but rational conversation doesn’t seem to work with these folks…
God Bless Ms. Sharon Pena for her courage to tell it like it is…