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It’s been more than three months since 40 Chicago residents were arrested while blocking the I-190 expressway entrance to O’Hare International Airport in protest of the U.S. support of Israel in the ongoing violence against Palestinians, which South Africa labeled a genocide and more than 50 countries support that notion. Their local protest on April 15 was part of a worldwide coordinated economic blockade, known as A15, to free Palestine.
The 40 people who were arrested face misdemeanor charges for obstructing traffic, which the city’s law department brought against them. Some of the 40 were present for a press conference Wednesday’s Chicago City Council’s meeting to speak out against the charges.
The group sent a letter to Mayor Brandon Johnson on July 2, calling for his administration to drop their charges, but they said they haven’t received a response.
“It is so incredibly disappointing that Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration is wasting resources prosecuting us instead of addressing decades of divestment from Black, Brown and Indigenous communities in Chicago,” Superior Murphy said during today’s press conference.
Murphy uses they as a pronoun and is one of 40 people facing misdemeanor charges from the city’s law department.
“We ask that you Mayor Brandon Johnson, show up for us just like we’ve shown up for you,” they continued. “I’m here today to call on Mayor Brandon Johnson and ask himself what he wants his time as Chicago’s mayor to be remembered for protests and civil disobedience suppression or standing with and defending the rights and freedoms of those of us brave enough to unabashedly take a stance against genocide, racial apartheid and collective punishment.”
Obstruction of traffic is a city ordinance violation that includes jail time. The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office previously dropped its misdemeanor charges against the group on June 4, but the city’s law department opened new charges that same day.
There is concern among local organizers that these charges are a precursor to what can be expected from both law enforcement and the city’s law department if there are mass arrests during the Democratic National Convention (DNC), which will be hosted in Chicago from Aug. 19-22 at the United Center.
The 40 protest group alleges that the city of Chicago continues to pursue misdemeanor charges against protestors in other nonviolent actions, too. Those other actions took place in March and April ahead of the DNC.
“So, from what we understand, the city’s lawyers are treating all protest cases similarly and in the same manner, so we’re hoping that this doesn’t set a bad precedent for how protesters are treated in the DNC,” Nash Alam said. She is also one of the 40 people being charged by the city’s law department.
When asked by The TRiiBE about the organizing community’s concerns about the actions taken by the city’s law department as an indicator of how his administration and police will approach the DNC in the event of mass protests, Johnson said First Amendment rights will be protected because they are fundamental rights.
“What’s ironic about this is there are some people that are concerned that I’m too friendly to the right to protest,” Johnson said following today’s City Council meeting. “I’ve led massive demonstrations, and I’ve taken arrests. I know how important it is to make sure their voices are heard. I’m going to protect that right.”
“As a Black man, I’ve benefitted from protesting. This is something that’s under litigation so I can’t comment to the specific element of what happened,” he continued.
During the demonstration on April 15 at O’Hare, 40 protestors blocked the I-190 expressway entrance for more than an hour.
During a separate pro-Palestinian march that same day, 11 protestors were arrested. Organizers from the march said in a written release that, with no warning, Chicago police officers stopped their march and “began violently pushing and arresting demonstrators.” At least four were charged with felonies. The status of those charges is unclear.
The arrest and subsequent charges have been traumatizing, Murphy said. Despite what they’re facing, they remain steadfast in their fight for the people of Palestine.
“I’m not going to stop fighting until we’re all free, and if that means jail time, if that means charges, that’s what it means,” they said.
Thirty-three protestors were arrested on March 8 following a 24-hour vigil for Gaza at Daley Plaza in which they read the names of 10,000 Palestinians who, at the time, had been killed since Israel’s attack in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023. After reading the names, protestors blocked the intersection of Jackson and Dearborn for about an hour. They were arrested by the Chicago police and given citations for obstructing traffic. They were charged by the city. After the city dismissed their case they reopened it and brought new charges for a second time.
Since Oct. 7, more than 100,000 Palestinian people in Gaza have been killed, injured or gone missing.
The ongoing violence against Palestinians in Gaza mirrors the struggle for liberation for Black people locally and abroad. Black thought and movement leaders such as Kwame Ture and Angela Davis aligned with the Palestinian struggle for freedom and self-determination, Murphy said.
“I believe that our liberation is directly tied,” they said, referring to Palestinians. “Thinking about the way that the police treat us. A lot of those tactics are learned from the Israeli government. For example, when police use the knee on the back technique. Those are things that Palestinians have also experienced.”
Murphy is referencing the 2020 police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Derek Chauvin, then a Minneapolis police officer, pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck and back for nearly nine minutes.
“People always ask themselves what they would do during the Holocaust or during slavery. We’re seeing [violence] in real time on our phones, and I think the very least we could do is get outside and do something,” Murphy said. “Yell for those kids, mothers, and people who are being indiscriminately targeted and murdered.”
