Nights of DNC Noise Demos for Palestine Near Salt Shed, Harris Hotel in Streeterville, T-Pain Show
Chicago, IL — The second, third and fourth nights of the 2024 Democratic National Convention (DNC) got punctuated with loud noise demonstrations near key locations. While noise demonstrations were not usually huge groups, they caught the massive convention police force somewhat by surprise and moved about pushing a loud message.
One march showed up outside the Salt Shed DNC party venue Tuesday night in West Town. Another launched around 1:20 a.m. Thursday morning where Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris was staying, about a block south of the walled-off area around the Ritz-Carlton along the posh Michigan Ave. Magnificent Mile commercial district in Chicago. After the DNC’s final night at the Ramova Theater where T-Pain performed, pro-Palestine crowds made a loud presence until around 1:15 a.m.
Noise demos are a tactic commonly used to send messages into buildings; we’ve covered events like this outside jails on New Year’s Eve which are aimed at supporting prisoners. This type of demonstration is supposed to break up the everyday silence of institutional spaces — like many other types of protest tactics it might be “annoying” as some random passerby snickered about, but because of the stir it makes, it’s difficult to easily ignore. (It also highlights an often-overlooked distinction between efforts to raise issues by making a ruckus and calling attention to them directly, versus election and persuasion campaigns that focus narrowly on garnering support.)
Police Push Noise Demo into Loop from Near North
After the third day of the DNC and a large Palestine march, the noise demo took place in the heart of the luxurious Near North neighborhood of Streeterville.
Some high-end cocktail bars had busy crowds and security could be heard dickering with idling rideshare drivers while looping around.
The demo popped up at Michigan and Ontario Aves. around 1:20 a.m. Thursday morning with large banners, banging pots and shouting in megaphones, on the corner with a Burberry luxury retail store.
About 30 to 40 police responded by making a perimeter in the intersection, giving inaudible dispersal orders and pressuring everyone up onto the sidewalks. Commanding officers in green vests directed bike units and about 25 police on foot to prevent the march from moving west into Michigan Ave. or north towards the hotel, and around 10 independent journalists documented the event. The demonstrators held that space for less than half an hour before getting forced south by police.
Initially a police line prevented anyone from moving south or east but a commander opened an exit to the east. Most demonstrators started heading south on the east side of the Michigan Ave. sidewalk. The pack of about 30 police shouted continuously for demonstrators to keep moving back, while the crowd locked arms and tried to avoid rushing away from police. Building security and a few night owl convention attendees peered out from fancy hotel lobbies decked out with DNC decorations. A line of bicycle police along the curb confined the demonstrators to the east-side sidewalk.
We asked one of the senior police commanders in a green vest how far this push was intended to go – was it a specific distance or just a direction or vector. They responded that they were trying to disperse the group. We pointed out that the bike cops were blocking anyone from dispersing to the west, so effectively the commander was forcing the demonstrators together and not dispersing them, but got no response. One attendee thought there had been three to five arrests but the number was unclear — some events happened around corners to the east where we could not see.
Throughout this process the most prominent source of noise was the blast from a plastic flute-like recorder, a robustly shrieking instrument familiar to anyone who took elementary school music classes in the 1990s. The recorder player declined to be interviewed.
After several blocks moving at a forced fast-walk pace, the demonstrators were pushed south across the Chicago River plaza near the riverfront Apple Store and Michigan Ave. bridge, while some attendees carefully warned participants not to back into bike racks and other hard barriers.
Police pushed the marchers across the south riverfront’s Wacker Drive, then abruptly stopped at that corner. The noise demo continued for another 20 minutes or so then slowly dispersed and the police formation gradually disbanded by around 3 a.m.
It seemed obvious, similar to large demonstrations during the 2020 unrest surrounding George Floyd’s killing, that the Chicago River was again being used as a control point for containing protests in the city. For a time, police also blocked pedestrians from moving north, also blocked a photographer from moving south from the bridge into the area of the noise demo on the southeast corner of Michigan Ave. and Wacker Dr.
Police have moved into the area in numbers as protesters chant near where VP Harris has reportedly been staying pic.twitter.com/mLCp5f3NPZ
— UNICORN RIOT (@UR_Ninja) August 22, 2024
Salt Shed Noise Demo Faces DNC Delegate Party on 2nd Night
On Tuesday night, Democratic Party delegates headed to the Salt Shed, a large riverfront concert venue in the West Town neighborhood, northeast of the Loop. A little after 11 p.m. a group of a couple dozen demonstrators weaved between outdoor garden venues and busy parking lots to march north and south along the Elston Ave. bike lane in front of the Salt Shed, calling for Palestinian rights with a large banner.
The party was hosted by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and first lady M.K. Pritzker; John Legend performed there. Around 120 officers from the Illinois State Patrol and Chicago Police formed a perimeter around the demonstrators; our reporters did not see any arrests. Law enforcement blocked access to the west sidewalk on Elston Ave., however neither city nor state police would explain what justified closing the sidewalk.
Despite its modest size the noise demo made an impression on the thousands of Democratic Party delegates and officials that all had to pass in front of it to join and leave their festivities. Packed buses and vans proceeded slowly up the northbound lane as they drifted away and tried to catch vehicles, some looked on with concern, others snapped photos and videos.
Our live video posted on Instagram from the event:
Noise Demo Protest Outside DNC Delegate Party in Chicago
On Thursday night after the convention ended, some protesters heckled delegates and attendees leaving towards Union Park. Late Thursday into Friday morning, farther south a major DNC party with T-Pain was in progress at Ramova Theater, where hundreds of protesters held a loud noise demo. The crowd marched out around 1:20 a.m. and an attendee told us it started before midnight. Our 50-minute livestream is here.
Images by Niko Georgiades for Unicorn Riot. Cover image by Dan Feidt.
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