CHICAGO _ Anti-violence demonstrators shut down a section of the Dan Ryan Expressway with a spirited march Saturday, snarling traffic and igniting a war of words between Gov. Bruce Rauner and Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
The protest march, organized by the Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Catholic Church in Chicago, was intended to call attention to the pervasiveness of gun violence in the city.
The march blocked all northbound lanes of the busy expressway for about an hour. Police initially blocked off the right lanes of the Dan Ryan but ultimately relented to allow demonstrators full access to one side of the interstate after a flurry of negotiations.
"We came out here to do one thing: to shut it down," Pfleger said, as the march came to its conclusion. "We came here to get their attention. Hopefully we got their attention. ... Today was the attention-getter, but now comes the action."
Chicago police said they did not make any arrests.
The march and the logistics of the expressway shutdown set off a tense exchange on social media between the Rauner and Emanuel.
The fact that demonstrators eventually blocked all northbound lanes did not sit well with Rauner. The governor posted a message on Twitter expressing his displeasure at the shutdown, saying the full northbound lane closing was not what had been negotiated.
"This is unacceptable," Rauner tweeted at noon. "We had clear parameters that allowed the protestors to be heard while respecting law and order. Instead, they chose instead to cause chaos."
In a second posting, he criticized Emanuel, who said Friday that he supported the event and expressway setting.
"I'm disappointed in the Mayor. There was an agreement in place," the governor wrote. "I am calling on the Mayor to take swift and decisive action to put an end to this kind of chaos. I will work with him in good faith and urge him to do his job so that the people of Chicago feel safe."
Emanuel responded to Rauner in a Twitter post of his own.
"It was a peaceful protest. Delete your account," the mayor posted about 50 minutes after Rauner's post.
Illinois State Police, which has jurisdiction over the expressway, initially said protesters entering the highway risked arrest. But shortly before the march began, officials announced a plan to allow demonstrators to use the right side of the road. A line of emergency vehicles, highway trucks and uniformed officers formed a barricade in the middle of the expressway.
After the march ended about 12:30 p.m., Pfleger disputed there was an agreement in place for only a partial expressway shutdown. Pfleger said Rauner "tried to be an obstruction." Pfleger said Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson was an intermediary between march organizers and the state police, negotiating for protesters to have access to all lanes.
"He stepped up," Pfleger said. "We gave them three weeks notice of what we were doing, figure it out!"
Earlier, demonstrators gathered near 79th and State streets, hoisting signs that read "NO MORE DRUG WAR" and "NO GUNS," with an illustration of a handgun crossed out. Another sign read "They Don't Care About Us," with pictures of Emanuel and Rauner on each side. Some of them held up signs with the names of homicide victims.
Several elected officials were also present, including U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, R-Ill., whose 15-year-old grandson Javon Wilson was shot and killed on the South Side in 2016.
"The violence has to stop," said demonstrator Natalia Barrera, who attended the march with her son. "We need to spread love, not blood. It doesn't matter if you live on the North Side, South Side, West Side, East Side, the point is this is our city at the end of the day."
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(Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas contributed to this report.)
