Sunday marked the five-year anniversary of the homicide of George Floyd. In downtown Chicago, round 200 protesters commemorated the event by gathering in Federal Plaza to protest the Trump administration’s rollback of police reform initiatives. In response to WEBZ Chicago, the protest was organized by the Chicago Alliance In opposition to Racist and Political Repression.
“We’re protesting in honor of the 5 years since George Floyd was murdered by Derek Chauvin and the Minneapolis Police Division,” stated organizer Faayani Aboma. “The primary motive Chauvin is behind bars is due to the folks energy that put him there, and it’s folks energy that’s going to maintain him there.”
The group pointed particularly to President Donald Trump’s Govt Order 14288, which, amongst different issues, permits for extra navy sources to be shared with police departments and enhances authorized protections for native and state police. Aboma stated the order would end in “excessive influence policing on our communities.”
Beneath Trump, the U.S. Division of Justice additionally lately determined to finish Biden-era police-accountability agreements with Minneapolis and Louisville, Ky., that got here because of intensive investigations following the police killings of Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
Whereas the protest was centered on Floyd and the Trump administration’s pro-police insurance policies, there was additionally a deal with the continued Palestinian battle. Some opponents of the protest criticized the demonstration for shifting from one situation to the subsequent, however a few of the individuals who have been really there Sunday would argue the “free Palestine” motion and the combat in opposition to systemic racism in policing in America are inherently linked.
From WEBZ:
A banner hung between two timber within the plaza itemizing the names of victims of police violence.
Demonstrators held indicators studying “Cease police crimes. Free all of them” and “From Chicago to Palestine. Occupation is against the law.”
Rania Salem, 28, from Orland Park, and Nazek Sankari, 33, from West Elston, are members of the U.S. Palestinian Group Community.
They got here out to protest as a result of they consider it’s essential to “mobilize our communities” and demand change in policing, Salem stated.
She stated the solidarity between the Palestinian folks and Black Individuals goes again to the Sixties.
“Our liberation struggles are related. We can’t win our liberation … with out Black liberation, immigrant rights, and combating in opposition to deportation,” Sankari stated.
Southside Chicago resident Kevin Jackson, 43, stated throughout the protest that he had beforehand spent “23 years and 4 months” in jail for against the law he didn’t commit. He stated his false conviction, which was overturned in October, impressed his activism.
“Each morning I get up, I’m grateful for being dwelling. Although I’ve not acquired justice to [the extent] I really feel like I deserve, I’m free. Anytime I’m free, I need to be part of these teams, to be part of these protesters,” he stated.
Jackson stated he plans to proceed organizing and that he’ll work with anybody who he “can presumably manage with to defeat the Trump agenda.”
“We’ll work with Black Lives Matter. We’ll work with the antiwar motion. We’ll work with the LGBTQ neighborhood. We’ll work with the academics’ union,” he stated. “The variations that we’ve got between one another just isn’t as nice because the distinction we’ve got with Trump.”
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