Three people among those arrested after the breach of a security fence near the Democratic National Convention site appeared in court Tuesday, while police brass praised their response to the situation and continued to address other threats.
During a morning hearing at a North Side police area headquarters, Judge Mary Marubio ordered two of the protesters released and ordered them to stay away from the United Center area for the rest of the convention.
A third protester, an 18-year-old Chicago man, appeared before a judge Tuesday evening, after prosecutors said he refused for most of the day to tell the officers who he was. Prosecutors said he headbutted an officer as they struggled to detain him, causing the officer to fall and sustain a concussion.
During the only detention hearing so far related to convention demonstrations, Assistant State’s Attorney Jennifer Walsh alleged that the man, charged with felony counts of aggravated battery to a police officer and resisting arrest as well as misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest and obstruction identification, struggled against officers’ attempts to detain him as they tried to move protesters out of the restricted area that was breached.
His public defender countered that it was a “unique case brought upon by unique circumstances not likely to repeat themselves.”
Judge Shauna Boliker denied the prosecution’s petition to detain him while he awaited trial but ordered him to electronic monitoring.
Earlier Tuesday, a 31-year-old Chicago man was charged with a felony count of aggravated battery to a police officer. An officer was trying to resecure the breached fence when the man threw liquid at the officer, hitting him, prosecutors alleged.
A 35-year-old Chicago woman was also charged with a misdemeanor for resisting arrest in connection with the breach and released from custody.
The three were among 13 protesters arrested Monday at a pro-Palestinian march that started in Union Park near the DNC site. Public defenders representing the protesters objected to the judges’ orders that demonstrators stay away from the DNC perimeter, arguing that they have a First Amendment right to protest there.
“Imposing that restriction would prevent him from protesting specifically the DNC,” said Assistant Public Defender Erin Monroe.
Marubio, though, in granting the order at the state’s request, said barring defendants from the place of arrest is a common pretrial condition, and that the ban doesn’t limit them from their “ability to protest or speak.”
Police on Tuesday continued to respond to pop-up protests and other matters, including a bomb threat against hotels emailed to media organizations anonymously. The email referenced the war in Gaza and threatened downtown hotels, including the St. Regis on East Wacker Drive.
Sources said an extra police sweep found nothing and the threat was declared not bona fide.
The CodePink organization reported it had interrupted a DNC-related brunch featuring Illinois politicians at Wrigley Field on Tuesday morning, and provided a video of a member displaying a banner and decrying the treatment of Palestinians. Later the group said it had also disrupted an appearance by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democrats’ presumptive nominee for vice president.The first major protest of the DNC week Monday featured energetic speeches and chanting, but the group of several thousand pro-Palestinian demonstrators remained mostly peaceful.
At a briefing Tuesday, Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling heaped praise on the department for its response to the brief breach of the security perimeter.
“I couldn’t be more proud of how the Chicago Police Department responded under those circumstances,” Snelling said during the morning news conference at OEMC offices, a few blocks east of the United Center. “We put on display the training and preparation that we’ve been engaged in for over a year now.”
The superintendent told reporters that some in the crowd of about 3,500 deployed pepper spray against officers. He also pushed back on a claim from the National Lawyers Guild that some of those arrested Monday were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Sometimes being in the wrong place at the wrong time is indicative of the choices that you make to engage in criminal activity,” Snelling said.
The National Lawyers Guild said in a news release that two of those arrested required hospitalization. Snelling said those two required prescription medication, not treatment for any injuries.
Snelling — who sought to differentiate the permitted protest group from those who breached the fencing — said that all arrests were documented with body-worn camera footage and the department would make that footage public, though he did not offer a time frame.
Monday’s march stepped off from Union Park and went east to Park 578, just north of the United Center. After a brief rally there, the group splintered into two.
Some of those who remained at the park removed portions of a fence blockade and were briefly able to access the United Center’s security perimeter. Water bottles and signs were thrown at two CPD officers.
Speakers appeared in Park 578 in the United Center area Tuesday. Among the first was a nurse and health care researcher who delivered a speech to an empty park on a city-sponsored “speaker’s platform.” She advocated for equitable healthcare for communities of color.
The scene was a stark contrast to the previous day’s protests and heavy police presence. Only a handful of reporters were present to listen as her voice echoed through the area near the United Center, amplified by two tall industrial speakers.
“Our nation is at an inflection point,” said Athena Lerch. “The decisions we make now will determine whether we continue to be a land of more freedom, more rights and more opportunities for all. This is especially true in health care.”
In effort to support free expression, the city has built a stage equipped with microphones and amplifiers at Park No. 578, which will be open for 45-minute speaking slots during all four days of the DNC. All speakers are required to get pre-approved to speak, with the application deadline already having passed on Aug. 10.
About eight uniformed security officers surrounded the stage as Lerch spoke. A yellow concrete barrier separated the area from the rest of the park.
Lerch, who is currently working on a manuscript about racial disparities in health care, said she had hoped that the speakers’ platform would act as a chance to communicate her work to policymakers.
She was disappointed about the absence of an audience.
“My project is focused on the South and West Side communities of Chicago, and I thought this was the best place to get this message out, because here we are on the West Side,” Lerch said. “There’s not a big audience here right now, but I was hoping to inspire people to tell them, hey, your voice matters.”
Other speakers addressed topics ranging from saving whales to poverty.
A speaker who identified themselves as Mist, a community organizer from the South Side, recited a poem with rhymes that highlighted the struggles of underserved communities. They also spoke out against police brutality and challenged societal values.
The park was still mostly empty, aside from a handful of reporters and police officers.
Among the odder interactions occurred when My Pillow CEO and conservative political activist Michael James Lindell showed up at Park 578 just after 2:30 p.m. and began speaking to a small crowd about alleged election fraud by Democrats, arguing for a switch to paper ballots.He was initially accompanied by former New York City mayor and now-disbarred Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
Lindell then got into a screaming argument for over 10 minutes with Anthony Arrington, a man visiting from Iowa who stopped to confront him while riding by on a Divvy bike.
In addition to arguing that electronic voting leads to fraud, Lindell referred to the entry of “illegals” into the U.S. and told Arrington that many former Democratic voters have now begun supporting Trump.
“It’s lies, he’s lying,” Arrington said afterward. “Any businessman, any CEO of a company who tells you they don’t use technology, it’s an excuse.”
A suit-clad member of Lindell’s entourage eventually told him that it was time to go, and the group drove off. Before he left, Lindell said he would be returning to the park tomorrow “incognito” without his signature mustache to continue spreading his message. On the CTA Green Line train heading toward the United Center Tuesday, neighbors Dona White and Kathy Endo from Evanston said they planned to attend a “meditation for peace” at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church.
The church on Hoyne Avenue, which is just a few blocks west of the convention center, will be holding prayer sessions every day of the DNC from noon to 4 p.m. they said. White added that others who could not make it to Chicago for the convention would be joining the prayers from afar.
White, 82, said that she hopes the protesters advocating for an end to the war in Gaza get their voices heard. Yet she added that the first night of convention speeches had emphasized how Kamala Harris also supports justice for the people of Gaza.
“I am just horrified by people having to live in fear of death every day,” White said. “It’s like the Vietnam War every day, pollution of ammunition and death of people. War never solved anything.”
White and Endo both lived in Chicago during the violence of the 1968 DNC, and said that they hoped that things would not escalate similarly this time around.
A coalition of organizations kicked off the major protest Monday, chanting against the Biden administration’s support for Israeli military action in Gaza. It had been billed as the largest planned protest of the week, but drew significantly fewer marchers than the 20,000 organizers had hoped for.
After the fencing was taken down, officers moved in and formed several lines of defense, while some protesters could be seen throwing their wooden signs at the police.
By Tuesday, a third layer of security fencing and concrete barriers had been installed on Washington Boulevard near Park 578. Officials had erected tall fencing on the north and south edges of Washington ahead of the DNC; the third fence was installed in the middle of the street.
“At no point was the inner perimeter breached, and there was no threat to any protectees,” police said in a statement Monday evening.
Later Monday, a group of about 200 protesters attempted to set up tents in Union Park, but dismantled them after a confrontation with police.
Tuesday’s largest planned protest event appeared to be a march by the group Behind Enemy Lines. That demonstration also aims to confront the Biden administration’s support of Israel in its war against Hamas.
It was scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m. in front of the Israeli consulate on Madison Street.
Chicago Tribune’s Karina Atkins and Megan Crepeau contributed.
