Downtown Protest Ends Peacefully After Police Block March From Shutting Down Magnificent Mile
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A protest planned to shut down the Magnificent Mile on Saturday, in a peaceful demonstration against police brutality. Their march didn't go on as planned, but carried on through other parts of downtown.
The plan was to march north on Michigan Avenue, essentially shutting down the iconic shopping district, but they hit a roadblock in the form of police officers, who kept them on the sidewalk and off the street.
Protesters carried Black Lives Matter signs and held up pictures of victims of gun violence as they urged police to let them onto the street.
When they reached the intersection of Ohio & Michigan, police wouldn't let protesters go any further north.
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Protest organizer Rabbi Michael Yosef tried to negotiate with police, but officers would not let them onto the street, so demonstrators eventually headed south, where police did let them to shut down the northbound lanes of Michigan Avenue as they marched.
A prayer session then carried on for lives lost at the hands of police.
Chicago Police lined the Mag Mile, hoping to avoid a repeat of the looting that has hit downtown after protests in late May and early June. The department has canceled days off for officers on the day and evening watch on Saturday, and the overnight watch into Sunday. Officers are being deployed on longer shifts for those times.
Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) said officers were deployed to virtually every corner of downtown.
The protest eventually went into the Loop, where things concluded.
Police officers followed in a calculated manner. After recent unrest and looting on the Magnificent Mile, CPD beefed up numbers of officers on patrol for this weekend.
Everything seemed to end peacefully after a few hours, and police said there were no arrests during the protest downtown.