Video: 12 Arrested At Loop Anti-Deportation Protest That Blocked Morning Commutes
By Sam Stecklow in News on Feb 16, 2016 5:03PM
Anti-deportation protesters blocked Congress Parkway at LaSalle Street for over an hour Tuesday morning, holding banners reading things like "Dismantle ICE. Defund the police!" according to the Tribune. There were words exchanged, as well, between the protesters and a crowd cheering on police arresting them. Children in the crowd chanted, “We love you, we’ve got your back," to the police, according to the Tribune's Matt McCall. Twelve protesters were arrested in all.
Our @may20p just arrested while shouting out "it is our duty to fight for freedom!" #stoptheraids pic.twitter.com/utAbuwKiBl
— We Charge Genocide (@ChiCopWatch) February 16, 2016
The protest was organized by Organized Communities Against Deportation (OCAD), a Chicago activist organization. In a statement, OCAD's Francisco Canuto said, “I am here to say that there needs to be an end to raids and deportations. [ICE] agents entered my home under false pretenses, they fingerprinted me and my roommates, and took me into detention. I spent 13 awful days in a detention center that I don’t wish on anyone.”
Activists chained together, chanting "who's streets? Our streets" as police arrive to scene. #stoptheraids pic.twitter.com/8c8T8gCCYJ
— OCAD (@OCAD_CHI) February 16, 2016
Members of other groups, such as BYP 100, We Charge Genocide, Assata's Daughters, Fearless Leading By Youth, Palestinian Youth in Action, also participated. A statement by Assata's Daughters read, in part:
The State continues to create ways in which to criminalize our people in the same ways it criminalizes Latino communities. The War on Drugs is a War on Black people and The War for Border Control is a war on undocumented people, and in the context of Chicago, on Latino people. We will not stand for this criminalization of our bodies and those of our brown allies.
#StopTheRaids trended on Twitter in Chicago this morning as a live-stream shared by the protesters went viral.