Protesters march through Bronzeville, Loop but blocked from Dan Ryan

Anti-police brutality protesters march Saturday in Bronzeville. | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Chicago police and Illinois State Police troopers blocked protesters Saturday afternoon from marching onto the Dan Ryan Expressway.

In the evening, a second demonstration marched downtown, with skirmishes breaking out when officers rushed protesters and aggressively patrolled the crowd to contain and direct marchers.

The afternoon march, which started about noon at Robert Taylor Park in Bronzeville, was organized by activist Michael Ben Yosef, who said state police officials told him the protest had to draw at least 2,200 supporters to go onto the Dan Ryan.

In the end, the rally was well below that amount.

Yosef, who works as a Rabbi, mainly online, said protesters shut down the Dan Ryan in spirit.

“It was not a defeat … It wasn’t a loss, it was a blessing,” said Yosef, who had hoped to draw about 3,000 demonstrators.

Instead, the protesters took their calls for police reform through the Bronzeville neighborhood along Indiana Avenue, with many carrying signs bearing the names of people killed in police custody.

“I don’t see no riot here, why you got that riot gear?” protesters chanted at body armor-clad officers.

Protesters march Saturday in Bronzeville.

By 4 p.m., as marchers were disbanding after walking to Roosevelt Road and Michigan Avenue, a second, larger demonstration was forming in Millennium Park.

Organized by six youth-led organizations, including Good Kids Mad City, the group marched to Wacker Drive and Michigan Avenue where they chanted before one of many downtown bridges ordered raised by Mayor Lori Lightfoot following unrest and looting in the city’s downtown Sunday night.

Police ripped umbrellas and bikes from protesters’ hands and sprayed the crowd with a chemical irritant.

Marchers moved on, but confrontations with police continued sporadically, leading to arrests, including at Monroe and LaSalle streets when police ordered the demonstration to disperse.

A spokesman for police could not confirm the number of people arrested.

Emotions ran high at times, including for Latoya Howell, whose son Justus was fatally shot by an officer in north suburban Zion in 2014.

“Every day is a struggle for me. Everyday I’m fighting for justice,” said Howell, who lost her civil case against the suburb in 2018. “I’m here because I need people to wake up. I’m tired of all these murders continuously happening and then there’s justified qualified immunity for every officer. We need them to be held accountable in every city, every state.

“This movement is not just about anger and bitterness, it’s routed from love — for the love of my child and for the love of yours,” Howell added.

Illinois State Police block protesters from the Dan Ryan Expressway Saturday on the South Side.

As organizers called for the defunding Saturday afternoon, counter-protesters chimed in, claiming the demonstrators were contradicting their movement because they were helping police notch overtime pay.

“Stop coming into our neighborhood,” said Yashua Aton, a community activist who lives in Englewood. “This isn’t how you get justice.”

Aton said a Black business crawl had been planned for the afternoon, which was disrupted when streets were blocked by police due to the marchers.

Trez Pugh, owner of Sip and Savor coffee shop in Bronzeville, said he didn’t find the afternoon protest disrupted business.

“Usually people that walk come to my place,” Pugh said. “For some businesses, where people come get food and they’re traveling from some other places, it probably inconveniences them.”