#ShutDownA14 Disrupts Chicago Mayor Appearance
March 26, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a reader:
Wednesday evening, March 25—Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel walked on stage at a mayoral election candidates' forum at Chicago State University. Before Emanuel could get a word out, protesters sitting near the front row jumped up with a large banner facing the audience that read "Stop Police Murder—Shut It All Down April 14—#ShutDownA14." They chanted "Stop Police Murder! Stop Stop and Frisk! April 14—Shut It Down!" Some people in the audience joined in the chants, and after the protesters were forced out of the auditorium, many people praised them for the action.
This is the third protest in the three days since the revelations that Chicago police have conducted racist stop-and-frisk at FOUR TIMES the rate of New York City's infamous stop-and-frisk campaign. In Chicago, 72 percent of those stopped and searched by police in 2014 were Black, while Black people are 32 percent of the city's population. On Monday, March 23, protesters did a sit-in at City Hall. And earlier on Wednesday, the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, the Revolution Club, Chicago, and Tio Hardiman of Violence Interrupters Inc. held a press conference at the Cook County Courthouse to demand an immediate end to the police practice of stopping people on the street for no reason except that they are Black.
Photo: Twitter/Ashahed M. Muhammad
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