How do you protest a genocide?

The arrests started pretty quickly. About 15 minutes after protesters gathered outside the office building housing the Israeli Consulate in Chicago, they tried to march toward the United Center, the hub of DNC proceedings. They were thwarted by a phalanx of Chicago police refusing to let them proceed. A scuffle broke out, cops seized banners and placards, and began making arrests. Protesters were pinned to the ground, cuffed, and led away. We witnessed about eight arrests by 7:30 PM.

Our livestream captured some of the police mayhem.

The protest was organized by a group called Behind Enemy Lines, which rejects “protest as usual” and argues for more confrontations with police: 

“Let’s be fucking serious here: while our own government is incinerating human beings in Gaza daily, when US made bombs are forcing parents to watch their children be buried alive, when the money sent by Genocide Joe and Killer Kamala arms the rapists in the Sde Teiman concentration camp, why do people in the US have the right to prioritize their own safety? How is any protest going to be successful if it doesn’t challenge and disrupt business as usual to actually disturb the normal functioning of a society that is aiding and abetting a genocide? And why should any of that be safe?”

The Chicago Police Department was happy to comply and ensure the protesters would not be safe. As at the previous marches this week, the police presence was massive.  After the initial confrontation and arrests, protesters returned to occupy the street in front of the Israeli Consulate. Cops in riot gear outnumbered protesters at least 10 to one, and bike cops lined each side of the street – effectively creating a barricade so no one could leave without asking a cop to be let through. 

At about 7:45 PM, CPD announced a dispersal order and mass arrests seemed imminent. We streamed the action live on X/Twitter.

You can see the Deputy Director of News Affairs for CPD ordering members of the media to “get behind the bikes” and onto the sidewalk. He threatened them with arrest and revocation of their press passes. But the bike cops were antagonistic to this directive, preventing journalists from leaving the street unless they showed a press pass. (Nevermind that if cops issue a dispersal order, they must allow anyone who wants to leave a way to leave). I was denied access to the sidewalk until I showed my press pass.   

We saw police pushing journalists who were trying to document the arrests and the protest (multiple times). According to Jinx Press, at least four members of the media were arrested. 

At about 9 pm, the protesters tried to march again. They squeezed through the police lines, this time marching away from the United Center, toward the Loop (Chicago’s downtown). They marched for a few blocks before police again kettled them. Protesters who wanted to leave to go home were not allowed to. Instead, they were arrested, zip-tied, and loaded onto police vans. About 70 people were arrested.

According to Kevin Gosztola at The Dissenter, CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling “expressed pride for how officers had handled themselves and made it clear that the police never intended to allow Behind Enemy Lines to assemble for more than a brief amount of time.” Snelling claimed the arrests were necessary due to vandalism and violence, but there was no vandalism, and the only violence we witnessed was at the hands of riot police.

Over and again, Snelling has boasted to the media about the wonderful deportment of his officers. But, over and again, and especially on Tuesday evening, cops have intimidated protesters, harassed journalists, and made unnecessary arrests. He has sought to portray protesters as violent and engaged in vandalism, with little evidence. He has argued that outside agitators have tried to stir up trouble. We’ve seen this all before, and documented it in our report, The Cost of Police Violence and Mayhem: A Report on Police Misconduct during the George Floyd Protests. There will be two more nights of the DNC and two more days of protest. We’ll be on the ground reporting and will livestream over Twitter as events merit.