Thousands of protesters gathered once again at Union Park Thursday, before taking to the streets on the final night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
The Coalition to March on the DNC are pro-Palestinian and want the U.S. to stop sending aid to Israel, but also demand money for jobs, school, health care, housing and the environment, as opposed to war. They call for immigrant rights and legalization for all undocumented workers, defending LGBTQ and reproductive rights and stopping police crimes.
There was another Union Park protest Thursday. Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters were on a final permitted march on the 2024 Chicago DNC.
The permitted, mostly peaceful and loud group of thousands that was roughly four-blocks long started again at Union Park before stepping off on Washington Park and looping through the West Side, past Park 578, up Damen and east to Lake, before returning to Union Park.
While the protest ended peacefully and almost everyone had left, a group of over dozen stragglers remained in the area of the park. One of those lingering protesters was arrested after 11 p.m. after refusing to clear out of an intersection.
For Chicago police, the last night of the DNC looked like the first, and the second and the third. Once again, CPD's strategy of containment and control was on display.
The massive crowds were flanked by an impressive show of police force. Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling was at the head again Thursday with hundreds of officers, some with helmets and face shields, all holding the line
For Chicago police, the last night of the DNC looked like the first, and the second and the third. Once again, CPD's strategy of containment and control was on display.
From the air and on the ground, from city police to federal agencies, from heavily armed checkpoint officers to bomb sniffing dogs, the National Special Security Event has tapped the widest array of surveillance and inspection equipment available to law enforcement.
