City Hall Sit-In Ends Peacefully
UPDATE: 10:20 p.m. (11/25/14)
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A planned 28-hour sit-in at Chicago's City Hall ended early and without any arrests Tuesday afternoon.
Several activists from the group Black Youth Project 100 began a planned 28-hour sit-in at about 10 a.m. on the 5th floor of City Hall because they said a black person is killed by a police officer every 28 hours in the U.S. They said their act of civil disobedience is their duty.
After leaving City Hall, some demonstrators continued to protest and even appeared to get into a brief scuffle with police outside the Park Hyatt, but there weren't any major incidents.
"We have nothing to lose but our chains. It is our duty to fight," they chanted as they gathered outside the mayor's office at City Hall, a day after a grand jury in Missouri declined to indict Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson on any criminal charges for fatally shooting 18-year-old Michael Brown in August.
City Hall officially closes at 5 p.m. and demonstrators had vowed to stay all night and into tomorrow. After 6 p.m., police officers started to order the few hundred demonstrators to leave and they did without incident.
The protesters also staged what they called a die-in, staging a shooting death, with red on their shirts to symbolize blood.
Black Youth Project 100 said they stand behind the protesters in Ferguson, but they said their call for action goes beyond the Michael Brown case.
Like so many other protesters marching in Chicago on Tuesday, they said they stand united to "decriminalize" black youth.
The protesters implied they want to look at bigger-picture issues, such as the systemic problem of poverty and racism.
When asked about the violent protests in Ferguson, one activist said it was justifiable, given the grand jury's decision.
"Black people have the right to be angry. That is righteous anger," Charlene Carruthers said. "Every single person who was out on that street, who was a part of an organized resistance, was there to protect each other."
"We will never shame black people for taking action," she added.
Breanna Champion said "Our lives are in danger the moment of our conception, and nothing about that is fair or just."
Fellow protester Jan Gaetjens said he wasn't decrying all police as racist.
"I recognize that the individuals that compose the police force aren't racist. It's not overt racism. It's a structure, and it's a system that disproportionately affects young black men and women," he said.
The protesters were joined by another group of activists who marched through the Loop earlier Tuesday morning – a group of mainly young white men and women whose ranks swelled from about two dozen people to around 100 over the course of two hours.
"It's not okay to continue on racism that's been going on for decades," one woman said. "It's not okay, it's not right, and you just can't allow this to happen, because if we allowed it to happen, then it's just going to keep on happening throughout the years."