- Credibility:
LOGAN SQUARE — Hundreds of protesters marched by Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s home block in Logan Square on Sunday night.
The protest, which continued well after the 9 p.m. curfew, appeared to be one of the largest in the city after officials shut down the Downtown area and fractured protest groups.
The group gathered at the Logan Monument earlier in the day and then marched throughout Logan Square, waving signs and chanting.
“Say his name! George Floyd!” protesters chanted as they marched by the mayor’s block.
A long line of police officers blocked marchers from going onto Lightfoot’s block. Some people gathered at the intersection, chanting and shouting at police. One man told the long line of officers to get new jobs.
The large group moved on and traveled throughout Logan Square, marching even as darkness fell and the 9 p.m. curfew slipped by.
“Black lives matter!” protesters shouted at different points. “Hands up! Don’t shoot!”
People continued to join in the protest as it went through the neighborhood. One woman, ecstatic, sprinted out of her apartment building to join, holding up her phone and smiling as people passed her by. She said she was shocked to see the movement in Logan Square.
People in cars joined at the back of the protest, following those who walked and rode bikes. They honked their horns and held up signs with statements like, “Whose child is next?”
Officers followed the group on bicycle and on foot. At one point, officers used their bicycles to create a barricade and keep the protesters from marching. Protesters told the officers to stop blocking them and to join the movement.
The officers didn’t join, but they did move aside their bikes and let the protesters continue to march.
The march continued even as the neighborhood has been rocked by separate incidents of looting throughout the day.
As the protest waned, a Block Club reporter saw men attempt to rob Cash America Pawn, 2437 N. Milwaukee Ave., but sprint away as police pulled up. The police stayed only a few minutes and then drove on. Broken glass from the store’s windows littered the sidewalk.
Just a block away, another store had been looted and the men who lived above it were frantically calling around, worried people would be able to easily break into their apartments through the store.
There has been a heavy police presence in the neighborhood throughout the day.
At 10 p.m., long after the protest had moved on from Lightfoot’s house, a large group of officers and police cars remained on her block.
Subscribe to Block Club Chicago. Every dime we make funds reporting from Chicago’s neighborhoods.
Already subscribe? Click here to support Block Club with a tax-deductible donation.
