A couple dozen people gathered Friday night at Federal Plaza in the Loop, where speakers decried what they called an “unjust” Kyle Rittenhouse verdict.
“He is part of a whole fascist movement that is gaining ground around the country and it will not stop until we recognize it and take matters into our own hands nonviolently refusing to accept a racist America,” said Jay Becker, who spoke at the event, which began about 6 p.m.
People gather at Federal Plaza in Chicago to protest the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict on Nov. 19, 2021. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)
Friday afternoon, a Kenosha County jury acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse of all charges against him, finding the teenage gunman acted in self-defense when he fatally shot two men and wounded a third in downtown Kenosha on Aug. 25, 2020. All four were in the southeast Wisconsin town amid social unrest following the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white police officer.
Lamar Whitfield, another attendee who delivered comments, was in Wisconsin protesting since the trial started. Shortly after arriving back to Chicago, he joined the march.
“If we don’t take to the streets which is our constitutional right then how would they understand that we’re disgusted by the decision and we don’t feel that it was fair,” said Whitfield, who started the No More foundation.
Whitfield, who is Black, believes the decision in Kenosha is just the latest in a long list of examples where people of color are found guilty and spend more time in prison while white defendants are either acquitted or get shorter sentences.
“If it was a young Black man that young man would have been found guilty of all charges,” Whitfield said. “And we’ve seen it over and over again … and so we’re at a place right now where we have to say ‘no more’ and take to the streets as peaceful as we can. Because I believe our voice is the most powerful weapon that we have.”
Carrying signs such as “Reject racist vigilante terror” and chanting “Rittenhouse guilty, the people’s verdict guilty,” they marched east on Monroe Street to Michigan Avenue, as a few passersby heckled them. The crowd swelled to about 50 people, blocking the intersection of Madison and Michigan.
Several cops on bicycles and a few squad cars stood close watch as they followed along.
About 6:45 p.m., the boisterous, though nonviolent crowd began marching back toward Federal Plaza, some chanting “Rittenhouse, lock him up.”
Others chanted: “The whole damn system is guilty as hell. Indict, convict, send Rittenhouse to jail.”
At about 7:20 p.m., the crowd began to disperse.
Meanwhile nearby, there was no sign of demonstrations at Millennium Park, which was packed with holiday revelers who’d attended the Christmas tree lighting ceremony around 6:30 p.m.
Around that same time, police were on the scene of a retail store a few blocks north, where several thieves took off with “large amounts of merchandise,” in the 700 block of North Michigan Avenue, according to Officer Steve Rusanov, a spokesman for Chicago police.
The thieves fled in two or three vehicles and nobody was arrested.
It wasn’t clear if the theft was related to the protest or verdict.
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