Anti-Violence Protesters Shut Down Major Chicago Highway

Thousands of anti-violence protesters shut down a major highway in Chicago to rally against gun violence plaguing its communities.

Anti-Violence Protesters in Chicago

The effort was to draw attention to the hundreds of lives that have been claimed by violence in some of the poorest neighborhoods and to pressure public officials to do something about it.

Marchers chanted “Stop the killings”. Some stopped to write on the road with chalk: “Enough is enough” and “Peace.” Toward the front of the march, Rev. Michael Pfleger, who organized the protest, Chicago police Supt. Eddie Johnson and the Rev. Jesse Jackson linked arms.

Dan Ryan Expressway

The march took place along the northbound lanes of Interstate 94, known as the Dan Ryan Expressway, after a roughly hour long standoff between police and the protesters, reports CBS.

CBS reports:

Illinois State Police, which had warned earlier in the week that any pedestrian entering the expressway would face arrest, said early Saturday that an agreement had been reached for protesters to march on a portion of the roadway.

Officers and vehicles lined up, forming a barrier to keep protesters in two northbound lanes, allowing some traffic to pass in other northbound lanes.

But Pfleger and protesters insisted there was no agreement and that they would shut down the entire northbound roadway, with Pfleger noting the city closes major roads for parades and other occasions. The crowd began creeping into other lanes — a situation Pfleger said had the potential to become dangerous.

Illinois State Police, which has jurisdiction over expressways, announced around 11:30 a.m. that they were shutting down all northbound lanes of the expressway. Protesters then began walking northbound along a roughly 1.5-mile (2.4-kilometer) route.

“Today we got their attention,” Pfleger said afterward. He said the next step is accomplishing the actual goal formulating an “aggressive plan” to address the violence . Among the demands the protesters listed were, better resources, jobs and better schools for their communities as well as stronger gun laws.

There is historical factor when it comes to marching on the Dan Ryan Roadway.

It is a roadway which is believed to be built during the 1960s to separate white communities and poorer black ones.

To the west of the interstate were Comiskey Park, home of the White Sox, and neighborhoods such as Bridgeport, home to then-Mayor Richard J. Daley and his clan.

To the east sprung the Robert Taylor Homes, a high-rise public housing complex that became notorious for its violence.

It was the kind of economic and racial segregation that still exists in Chicago today.

Chicago authorities said the city had 252 homicides and 1,100 shootings in the first six months of this year, a decrease from the same period last year. But those crimes have been heavily concentrated in predominantly black, low-income neighborhoods.