Chicago protest against Trump’s racist attacks on D.C. and threats to Chicago

Chicago, IL – 150 protesters gathered in Federal Plaza on Thursday to stand up against Trump’s threats of military occupation and demand an end to racist policing. The protest and march that followed were organized by the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR).

Patricia Williams, one of CAARPR’s co-chairs, opened the rally by reading a letter from the sickbed of Frank Chapman, executive director of the National Alliance (NAARPR).

“This day, on August the 14, we are declaring that Donald Trump’s efforts to turn our country into a garrison state under the guise of an unjustified military state will be resisted, not just by Chicago, but by the working and oppressed people of this nation!” Chapman wrote.

Protesters rallied in solidarity with communities in Washington DC, as President Trump’s racist executive order has unleashed hundreds of federal law enforcement officers into Black and brown neighborhoods in the nation’s capital.

Mark Clements is a police torture survivor who was wrongfully convicted of murder when he was 16 years old. Now an activist with the Chicago Torture Justice Center, he connected Trump’s attacks on DC to the history of racism in Chicago’s police department.

“The city of Chicago pays billions of dollars for the conduct of these police officers, sending innocent people to prison,” Clements said. “It’s become back-page news – I say that’s a shame!”

“We must stop thinking that we have no power,” he added. “Change is in each and every one of you!”

“There are city councilors, who months ago, were using the exact same language to talk about our Black and brown children, that Trump was using on Monday,” said Kobi Guillory, a middle school science teacher and organizer with CAARPR.

He called out Alderman Raymond Lopez, one of the advocates of the proposed “snap” curfew ordinance, and Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen Burke, who declined to charge the officers who fired 96 shots and killed Dexter Reed.

“We, as the people, have to fight back against these criminals, whether they’re in the White House, city council, or the state’s attorney’s office,” Guillory continued. He urged people to demand that their alderpersons support the Community Power Over Policing (CPOP) referendum.

“Black people, descendants of chattel slavery, have always been an occupied people in the belly of the beast, but it is only now that the ruling class so blatantly shows their hand and employs the tactic that they have used in our communities in the past – that they have used on people colonized by them in the Global South,” said Chanel Crittendon, a member of the Anti-War Committee Chicago (AWC).

Rania Salem with the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) connected Trump’s escalation in DC to attacks on immigrant communities with intensifying ICE raids locally, and Israel’s recent murder of five Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza.

“Our struggles are interconnected and our enemies are the same – U.S. imperialism, capitalism, war, exploitation of Black and brown folks and immigrants,” Salem said. “It’s our duty to demand that those in power stop using our tax dollars to criminalize our people and fund genocide, to stop pouring money into state sanctioned genocide and violent policing, and to stop the Trump agenda!”

After the rally, protesters took State Street and marched to Trump Tower. Crowds of supporters raised their fists in solidarity as protesters chanted “From Chicago to D.C., we will fight ‘til we are free!”

Protesters and passersby turned to give the middle finger to Trump Tower. The protest ended with a chant inspired by the words of Black revolutionary Assata Shakur, “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love one another and protect each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains!”

#ChicagoIL #IL #InJusticeSystem #PoliceCrimes #Trump #NationalGuard #NAARPR #CAARPR

Source: https://fightbacknews.org/chicago-protest-against-trumps-racist-attacks-on-d-c-and-threats-to-chicago?pk_campaign=rss-feed