Sunday, around 1:45 a.m., close to 200 Occupy Chicago marchers and protesters were arrested at the northwest corner of Congress and Michigan Avenue in front of the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, and across the street in Grant Park near The Bowman and The Spearman statutes.
As demonstrators shouted, "Whose streets? Our streets!", officers, who some say gave the protesters the choice of leaving or being arrested, escorted the marchers one by one, to nearby paddy wagons, that look more like small U-haul trucks.
Most of the protesters who were arrested on camera, seem to take their fate in stride.
According to Chicago rapper, Lupe Fiasco, cops ripped up tents with knives, confiscated donations, and took several solar powered cell phones, cell phone chargers, hand-warmers, and walkie-talkies.
A similar movement, that has yet to gain mainstream media attention, is brewing throughout the nation's minority neighborhoods.
The protest is called Occupy the Hood. OTC's mission is to get POC, or people of color, involved in the economic-based protest.
However, based on what I have been reading online, most black Chicagoans are hesitant to join the cause, because they fear the Chicago Police Department will not treat South Side and West Side protesters as gingerly as the predominately white marchers involved with Occupy Chicago.
"That's asking to get tear gassed, water cannons shot at you & dogs; they don't care about destroying the hood," said one Twitter user.
Occupy the Hood's Twitter page has 7,330 followers.
Footage from Sunday's arrest:
Occupy the hood?! Why would the hood-rats care? The same government they would be protesting, gives them free money and housing.
ReplyDeleteMost people in black neighborhoods have jobs and mortgages like everyone else. We have the same concerns about the economy as you do. You ought to be embarrassed to spew your ignorance in such a public forum!
ReplyDeleteOh, ok. You obviously have never been to Englewood or the whole of the west side and parts of the south side. Show me a handful of people paying mortgages. And in case you didn't notice, no one said a damn thing about color, my friend. Maybe you need to check your ignorance as you're so quick to assume a hood-rat is black.
ReplyDeletePolice are more likely to tear gas "the hood" because the hood is more likely to attack the police. They know nothing of peaceful protests, just riots.
ReplyDeleteAlso, many of the OWS protesters have iPads/iPhones. If "the hood" shows up, the protesters won't be going home with their expensive apple products. They will be going home with concussions and boot prints on their foreheads.
The hood is not synonymous with ghetto, by the way--the term connotes a community in which predominantly people of color live.
ReplyDeleteTrolls on this board aim to keep POC out of the movement--divide people with the same issues and goals, a common tactic since reconstruction. You can't solve problems without establishing partnerships.
The only people stealing property seem to be the police! And let's not forget the banks who've stolen billions from the people, thrown people out of work, and walk away scot free. If you're going to talk about crime, talk about real crime and real criminals.
Tee Mack is right. Im a whiteboy who's lived in majority black/brown neighborhoods my whole life and I can tell ya point blank the Police do more property destruction and violence every day then my neighbors have done in their whole lives. Most folks just want to get along and take care of their families. Your claim that if 'the hood' showed up ows protestors would be beaten and robbed is nothing but racist fearmongering. You're an embaressment to white people everywhere, slime like you should have died out in the 60s.
ReplyDeleteTee Mack, you are very misguided. The hood, is short for neighborhood. Any neighborhood. The police are not the problem. The gangbanging trash that rape, murder and steal are.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 6:13: In case you haven't noticed, a majority of crime happens in the "black/brown" neighborhoods. Now it just happens to be spilling in along the red line train stops. Why? Because the gangbanging scum figured out how to use their welfare checks to ride the cta to where honest, hard-working people live.
You both sound like a couple of misguided uber-liberals who need to check the facts before spouting bs.
Take a ride down S. Cicero Ave. or S. Pulaski Rd. midday and see for yourselves all the hardworking, tax paying citizens sitting around on street corners with their 40s or cashing in their welfare checks and link cards at the corner liquor stores.
ReplyDeleteLong story short, I am a person of color, I do live on the south side (in the hood), and I do pay a mortgage. 90% of the home owners in my "hood" have worked, paid taxes, and some are now retired. I know this because I know "my hood". I'm college educated (in business) and a veteran. I don't sit and wait on a welfare check or section 8 to take care of me.
ReplyDeleteUnless you knock on every door on the south side of Chicago, and ask them for a background check, you should keep your narrow minded opinons to yourself. We are all in the same boat... unless you are one of the few 1% of the population that has all of the money.