Nine Arrested In Thursday Trauma Center Protest

By aaroncynic in News on Mar 6, 2015 4:30PM

Photo credit: Jewish Council on Urban Affairs/Twitter

Nine demonstrators were arrested on Michigan Avenue last night in a protest that shut down traffic along the Magnificent Mile. around 70 people picketed near the corner of Michigan and Pearson while others locked themselves to each other in the northbound lane of Michigan Avenue to demand the University of Chicago build a level one adult trauma center on the South Side.

Members of the Trauma Center Coalition, the group who organized this and other similar demonstrations, say that U. of C. is best equipped and funded to build a trauma center in a neighborhood that desperately needs one. Currently, the South Side lacks a trauma center for adults, meaning victims of shootings and other serious injuries may have to travel up to ten miles away for treatment. A study by the Illinois Department of Public Health published last month concluded the University has “sufficient resources” to open a trauma center, and Comer Children’s Hospital recently began treating level one trauma patients up to the age of 17.

In a statement released prior to the protest, Veronica Morris Moore, an organizer who has been arrested at previous related demonstrations said:

“We’re taking our fight to the north side because we are sick and tired of the lives of young black people on the South Side being devalued as [UofC President Robert] Zimmer raises almost $5 billion and seeks to host the Obama Presidential Library.”

The University of Chicago launched a $4.5 billion capital campaign in October. Members of the Trauma Center Coalition say a trauma center would cost less than one percent of that. “I’m putting my body on the line today because I believe I have a responsibility as a U. of C. student to make sure that my institution stops perpetuating racist inequalities in healthcare on the South Side,” said Joe Kaplan, a student at the university.