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Reverend Michael Pfleger said this week that civil disobedience is what makes authorities and governments aware and listen. The militant priest of the South Side intends to put these techniques to the test Saturday with a big demonstration shot that could send a series of logistical complications and travel to Chicago
Pfleger, a priest of St. Sabina Catholic Church, and others Violence protesters aim to close the northbound lanes of the Dan Ryan Highway on Saturday morning in an effort to push city officials to better fight the armed violence, unemployment and access to quality education
. Headaches for law enforcement and thousands of Chicago motorists, especially those trying to travel across the South Side during a busy summer weekend . The event is expected to begin around 10 am Saturday. Protesters must try to enter the highway at the 79th Street ramp and walk on the highway for about a mile and a half to 67th Street.
For protesters, disrupting a Saturday morning is part of the point. For others, it is a useless and dangerous intrusion on one of the busiest arteries in the city. City officials have tried to persuade the organizers not to go ahead with the protest plan of the highway.
Pfleger pointed out that the march is only the first step to draw attention to the urgency of the problem.
It would act for concerned citizens of the communities most affected by the violence to sit down with Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other officials to discuss how to get more jobs and other resources in these neighborhoods
Anti-violence protesters to close the highway Dan Ryan Saturday: 5 Things to Know »
How to move Saturday if the anti-violence protest blocks the Dan Ryan '
Illinois Police, the agency charged with patrolling the highway, warned Pfleger and other activists they may be left as they continue with the closure of Dan Ryan. Pfleger and Reverend Jesse Jackson remained provocative on Tuesday, tearing up a statement from the state police.
"When people continue to ignore you, you take it a notch," Pfleger said earlier in the week.
State police, meanwhile, warned pedestrians "not to enter Illinois highways, otherwise they will be arrested and prosecuted". The Cook County Public Defender's Office has announced that it would make lawyers available on Saturday in case of arrest. Public defenders will be able to help the Chicago area police stations and the Leighton Criminal Court's Court of Appeal
Reverend Jackson said Friday that the inconvenience for motorists would be temporary, while the conditions the site – the loss of jobs, closed schools and the collapse of industrial and manufacturing facilities – is permanent
"The nonviolent manifestation is sometimes the only way to attract business. attention that will help change things, "said Jackson. "I am perfectly willing to be arrested to draw attention to this crisis.The stoppage of traffic is less detrimental than shooting, killing and imprisonment."
Jackson stated that the event was intended to encourage more reinvestment in the poor neighborhoods of the south of the city, where weapons and deserts were rife.
"We have an obligation to address those who have been abandoned," said Jackson
. The Chicago police said it was ready to ensure only crowd security and traffic control functions
. Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said on Friday that the department would play a supporting role to the state police. Hundreds of Chicago police will conduct crowd control and traffic on the outlying streets outside Dan Ryan and its overpasses, Guglielmi said, adding that these officers will ensure that buses carrying protesters can enter and exit safely.
Pfleger said that it should not be a big order for the state police to plan a disruption on the highway considering that such highways are closed for presidential visits and to Other special occasions.
"This is not rocket science," Pfleger said. "They need to understand."
Armed violence in the city remains a stubborn problem, although the number of gunfire victims in Chicago has dropped since it reached its highest level in 20 years in 2016.
At least 1,378 people have been photographed so far this year in Chicago, data compiled by the Tribune show. And at least 61 of this year's victims were children 15 and under.
If walking arrives on the highway, it will not be the first time that a Chicago highway will be disrupted by protesters. In July 2016, protesters marched on the south lanes of the Dan Ryan Expressway for about five to ten minutes in response to the deaths of two African American men killed in clashes with police in Minnesota and Louisiana. Last year, homeless activists and protesters briefly stopped traffic on Lake Shore Drive to protest the city's decision to clean the areas beneath the Uptown viaducts. There were also some closures of Lake Shore Drive by the protesters after the grand juries decided not to indict the police in the police shootings of the men in New York and Ferguson, Mo.
