About 100 people gathered outside the Central District station on Monday evening in a demonstration organized by Black Lives Matter Chicago. Several protesters held a banner that read, “Our futures have been looted from us … loot back.”
Ariel Atkins, an organizer, said the demonstration was put together as a response to the police-involved shooting Sunday in Englewood, where a 20-year-old man was injured after police said he fired shots at officers, and to support and seek the release of those who were arrested during the downtown looting that followed.
“There’s no such thing as a bad protester,” Atkins said. “Also, (we’re) demanding that police be defunded. Police should not be here. They should not exist, especially because we’re giving them all this money to beat and terrorize us. We’re giving them all this money when it’s like we’re in an actual pandemic and people need care right now, but you’re giving them police.
“We don’t need police,” she said. “We need care.”
After the Englewood shooting, police said a gun was recovered from the scene.
However, word had spread throughout the…
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