CHICAGO _ A downtown rally turned into violent clashes between protesters and Chicago police Saturday night, as the city's top cop blamed "agitators" for "hijacking" the demonstration and protesters blamed officers for violating their rights and blocking their march, hitting them with batons.
At least 17 officers were injured, including a cop repeatedly hit in the head with a skateboard and another officer who may have suffered a broken hand, according to Chicago police superintendent David Brown, who briefed reporters at CPD headquarters Saturday night.
"To protect the peaceful protesters as well as their fellow officers, our officers responded proportionally to get the situation under control," Brown told reporters.
Neither he nor fire officials would discuss injuries among the protesters, but a Tribune reporter witnessed dozens of protesters being treated for cuts and exposure to pepper spray.
Around 24 people were arrested as the confrontation stretched into the night, and four of them were charged with felonies, including aggravated battery to a police officer, officials said.
This was the second straight weekend where there have been clashes downtown. Last Sunday night, hundreds of people swept through the Mag Mile and elsewhere downtown and looted stores. Around a dozen officers were injured and more than a hundred people were arrested.
This weekend, police said they had taken precautions against further unrest by raising bridges over the Chicago River and deploying more officers. Brown declined to give an exact number of cops assigned to Saturday's protests.
The confrontation began after hundreds of protesters gathered in Millennium Park around 4 p.m. to call for defunding Chicago police and diverting the money to the South and West sides _ issues that have dominated demonstrations in Chicago and across the country since the May 25 death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minnesota.
The demonstration was organized by GoodKids MadCity, BLCK Rising, Chicago Freedom School, Fuerte, March For Our Lives Chicago and Increase the Peace.
As about 250 protesters started marching north on Michigan Avenue, officers began pushing protesters at back of the group who were still near Millennium Park, according to Andrea Cespedes, 15, one of the organizers of the protest.
The protesters called over their own medics to help those who were hurt in the scuffle with police, regrouped and formed a circle to give speeches, but officers started to break through the circle, Cespedes said.
The protest escalated again at Wacker Drive and Michigan Avenue when the demonstrators were stopped by a raised bridge, preventing them from crossing the Chicago River. Officers then prevented them from turning onto Wacker Drive toward Lake Shore Drive.
"We started to chant, 'Let us through,' but that didn't work," Cespedes, of Chicago Lawn, said. "A few police officers came up from behind us and began pushing a bunch of the protesters. ... They started beating our protesters with batons ... They started pepper-spraying them and trying to arrest people."
A video posted on social media shows a protester using a skateboard to hit an officer who was striking a protester with a baton at Wacker and Michigan. It appears items were being thrown toward police.
Protesters soon began retreating south on Michigan Avenue as officers advanced toward them. "Y'all gotta not be brave!" one protester shouted, encouraging them to back up and get behind the protesters' line of bikes.
Dozens of officers wearing helmets with face shields, and carrying batons and shields, walked along a line south on Michigan, pushing the protesters toward Randolph Street.
The cops shouted, "Move back!" as protesters yelled back, "Our streets!"
Protesters stopped at Michigan and Randolph, and police forced them west on Randolph. The two sides kept their distance for some time until police suddenly rushed the protesters, knocking at least one to the ground, arresting him and using pepper spray on others.
It was unclear what caused the officers to advance on the crowd.
Police chased protesters toward LaSalle Street and Adams Street. Activists later said officers also chased them down alleys and cornered them as they tried to leave.
A line of officers trapped a group of protesters and media at the intersection. Some of the protesters were allowed through the police line after opening their bags for inspection. One officer was seen recording the protesters with a portable camera as they left the area.
"Our intentions were simply to get our voices to be heard and to be peaceful," Cespedes said. "We did not expect our protest to go this way."
Brown called the clashes "a very, very difficult and tenuous event," but said he was proud of the officers' actions.
Some protesters were seen changing their appearances by concealing themselves with black umbrellas, Brown said. It was a tactic used by some demonstrators in July when they clashed with police in Grant Park while demanding the removal of a Christopher Columbus statue.
Brown said video would eventually be released showing an officer struck repeatedly in the head with a skateboard.
Brown also said an officer filmed the entire protest and it would be used "to support any of the investigations that might come out of the actions of protesters or officers."
Some activists gathered outside the Wentworth District station Sunday morning, demanding the release of protesters who were arrested.
Among those taken into custody was Jalen Kobayashi, a 19-year-old organizer with GoodKids MadCity. He said police were patting down his girlfriend, Alycia Kamil, when she complained about how she was being treated.
He said officers tackled them both to the ground. He claimed one of the officers kneed him twice in the head and then stepped on his head.
Both Kobayashi and Kamil were taken to the Wentworth District station, where they were released Sunday morning. Kobayashi said he was charged with disorderly conduct. "They weren't working with us," Kobayashi said. "Absolutely despicable behavior I saw tonight."
Berto Aguayo, executive director of Increase The Peace, said the demonstrators deserve an apology from the city.
"We would like to see an apology from the mayor's office and the Chicago Police Department ... for the violence they used to attack Chicago residents," he said. "Before anything else happens, that's the prerequisite."
"I've been organizing my whole life, and I've never met so much violence."
There were no violent confrontations or arrests earlier Saturday when a protest stepped off about noon at Robert Taylor Park on the South Side. Demonstrators moved through the Bronzeville neighborhood as Chicago police officers and Illinois state troopers blocked about 200 protesters from entering the Dan Ryan Expressway on foot.
Instead, protesters continued north on Indiana Avenue and finished about 5 p.m. near Grant Park.
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