CHICAGO _ Outspoken Rev. Michael Pfleger and hundreds of anti-violence activists plan to shut down a portion of the Dan Ryan Expressway days after the Fourth of July, a holiday notoriously associated with a spike in shootings.
He took to Twitter and Facebook on Monday to get the message out about the 10 a.m. July 7 protest in the northbound lanes of the Dan Ryan; it's to begin at 79th Street. As many as 1,000 people plan to walk about a mile and half to 67th Street to demand city officials do more to address the violence that has claimed the lives of hundreds of Chicagoans, Pfleger said in a phone interview later with the Tribune.
"As we celebrate Independence weekend, there's not a sense of freedom in many of our communities and for many of our young people," said Pfleger, the senior pastor at St. Sabina Catholic Church. "Instead, there's a sense of fear."
Illinois State Police, which patrols the highway, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last year, the city experienced one of the most violent Fourth of July weekends in recent years, with 15 people killed and 87 others wounded _ all involving shootings.
The marchers plan to demand city officials and lawmakers use their muscle to create more jobs and better schools on the South and West sides, where some neighbors are plagued by violence, and to tighten gun control.
More than 1,300 people have been shot so far this year, according to data maintained by the Tribune _ that's down from the same time period in 2017 and 2016, but higher than 2015 and 2014. This month has already seen one of the worst violent weekends so far this year. The weekend of June 15 through June 18 saw 56 people shot, nine of whom died.
Pfleger said he and the teen activists he's working with _ who hail from the Southwest Side's Brighton Park up to the North Side _ refuse to normalize the continued toll of gunshot victims. That's why they are taking over one of the busiest expressways in the city, which slices through the South Side.
"We feel that the violence ... (happening), in particular on the South and West side, is not being addressed," he said.
The activists haven't asked authorities for permission shut down the Dan Ryan and they don't plan to do so, he said. They are announcing their plans far in advance to give motorists a chance to make changes to planned trips that morning. Pfleger sees the planned shutdown as an act of civil disobedience similar to the protests that marked the civil rights movement.
"They did not ask for permission to march to Selma and to boycott buses," he said.
St. Sabina led another anti-violence protest on June 15 through Auburn Gresham. That march included celebrities Chance the Rapper, Jennifer Hudson and Will.i.am. Proponents for changes to gun laws, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and survivors of the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., also took part in the event. Activists also have staged "die-in" protests around the Loop in recent weeks.
