More Than 200 Protest In Daley Plaza Against Police Shootings
CHICAGO (CBS) -- More than 200 people protesting the recent deaths of unarmed black and Hispanic teenagers and men at the hands of police -- both locally and nationally -- staged a Daley Plaza rally and march through downtown and West Loop streets on Tuesday.
Five people were arrested for blocking traffic.
The protest was one of a number that took place in other U.S. cities, from New York to Los Angeles and from Pasco, Wash., to Ferguson, Mo.
Protester Joy Becker said, while hoisting a banner in Daley Plaza, that the Obama administration and the courts have given police an "open season."
"The black attorney general and the black President came out and said they have no objective evidence to contradict the officers' subjective feeling of being afraid," she said. "They gave a green light to police. All they have to do is say they were afraid of an unarmed 18-year-old kid getting ready to go to college, and you're off free."
Chicago police in squad cars, on bicycles and on foot nearly outnumbered the protesters. They were intent on keeping the protesters on downtown sidewalks, but briefly detained the five for blocking streets on the march route. A police news affairs spokesman officers detained one man, two women and two teenaged girls.
Becker said the protesters are far from finished. Organizers plan to meet Saturday in the South Loop to plan their next action.