Palestine Supporters Protest At Israeli Consulate on Day 2 of Chicago DNC, Dozens Arrested
Chicago, IL – Demonstrators demanding the U.S. end support for mass killings of Palestinians in Gaza gathered outside the Israeli consulate in the Accenture Tower at 500 West Madison St. Groups calling for the protest include Behind Enemy Lines, Palestine Action US, and the Palestinian prisoner support network Samidoun. After an attempted snake march around several blocks, police arrested more than 70 participants and several journalists. Later that night a couple dozen people ran a noise demo outside a large DNC delegate party at the Salt Shed venue, more on that below.
The West Loop Gate-area building was guarded by a significant number of officers as the Democratic National Convention at the United Center enters its second night; Chicago Police shut down the Madison St. entrances of the Ogilvie Transportation Center adjacent to the Accenture Tower. Metra police were also expected according to press reports, however our reporters did not spot any among the large contingents of Chicago police.
Protest organizers spoke out against Israel’s policies against Palestinians and the fervent support Israel continues to get from the Biden-Harris Administration. The event did not seek a protest permit from the city. The march attempted to move west on Madison St. and turn south on the Clinton St. sidewalk, with dozens if not hundreds of police holding the street intersection. However police were determined not to let protesters move along the sidewalk, and shoved the crowd back up to Madison, including dozens of journalists. The corner became slippery with hundreds of dropped posters on the concrete.
A pro-Israeli counter-demonstration in the intersection east of the consulate had about 40 people but appeared to disband at some point while the main demonstration continued in front of the Accenture Tower entrance. During the DNC and particularly on this second-night event, Chicago police used lines of bike cops to create perimeters along curbs.
A police press liaison and another city official warned that all journalists could be arrested within that box, and that they should go to the sidewalk, but a bike cop sergeant managing the south line repeatedly blocked journalists from crossing the bike line saying that they didn’t have the right credentials from the city. While the police perimeter wasn’t moving, some of our reporters were on both sides of that line for a while, and the officials would not cite to us an ordinance codifying the policy they were trying to apply. However one of the officials on the street finally directed the bike police to journalists through that line to the south.
The protesters also offered an open mic on Madison St. and at one point a pro-Israel counterdemonstrator managed to get it, shouted something like the slogan “Am Yisrael Chai” and handed the mic back, leaving to the east. Demonstrators managed to cut south on the east side of the Clinton St. sidewalk down to the next block, then turned east up to Canal St. towards the Chicago River and the Loop. They then turned south towards Union Station, and police for a time prevented them from turning west. Eventually they moved along the north sidewalk of Adams St. towards Clinton St., with the flashing blue lights from the line of bike police at the curb casting eerie shadows along the wall.
At the Circle K on the northeast corner of Clinton St. & Adams St. the police again prevented a march from moving any further along the sidewalk. The police leadership had been circulating pretty freely in these spaces the entire time, directing unit actions and aiming officers to arrest certain people (which belied the police pretense that the protest was dangerous at all). Around this point they started arresting more of the protest organizers that had been on megaphones. Marchers turned back east on the Adams St. sidewalk again boxed in by bike police on the curb, but the other police fell back from the street area so a mixture of journalists and some platoons of riot police filled Adams St. The march turned north to a the southwest corner plaza of the Katten building at Monroe St. & Canal St., where the riot police finally closed in and arrested the remaining marchers as well as several journalists.
Senior officers stood high the corner on an elevated ledge or bench directing arrests, while dozens of riot police grabbed the rest of the protesters, and journalists observed from the middle of the intersection while surrounded by lines of riot police along the crosswalks. Some of the few remaining people in the area chanted about how the press had been arrested, and over the next 45 minutes or so arrestees got processed into the Chicago police arrest vans in a scene reminiscent of the 1968 Democratic convention, at a much smaller scale.
With the combinations of bike cops and platoons of riot police, totaling in the high hundreds or perhaps a thousand officers, it was another example for the books of the “Mobile Field Force” style of protest policing which has become the federal government’s main doctrine that is widely trained for, particularly at major events like the national conventions, which are designated National Special Security Events. In 2016 Unicorn Riot published a training manual produced by FEMA’s Office of Domestic Preparedness which outlines the tactics and gear that the Mobile Field Force units so often use to break up protests.
Salt Shed Noise Demo Faces DNC Delegate Party
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, while after midnight as they drifted away and tried to catch vehicles, some looked on with concern, others snapped photos and videos.
One suit-jacked attendee unexpectedly crossed the street, walked through the police lines, and hugged a demonstrator with a megaphone. Our reporter asked why he’d done this as he headed back; his muddled answer indicated he probably wasn’t very sober, but his somber and concerned expression telegraphed that the message of the demo had reached him regardless. Since most of the delegates have been ensconced in high-security venues, luxury hotels and bars, it proved difficult for demonstrators to expose their message to them, but this event caught the delegates out in the open, as they all had to proceed through checks at a sluggish security entry gate under a boastful “Democrats Deliver” banner.
Our live video posted on Instagram from the event:
First Day Demos
During the first day of the DNC on Monday, protesters demanding the Biden-Harris administration and the Democratic Party stop arming and funding Israel breached the outer layer of the security gates at the convention.
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