I ran into the rally as I was about to pay to get on the train at Clark & Lake. I decided to follow the protestors. I was one of the protestors in the March 2003 protest that led us to Michigan Avenue and Chicago Avenue. I remember being disgusted by the actions of the Chicago Police when they started to beat protestors for no reason. I thought they had the protest earlier in the day and being the type of person I am, I cannot resist a protest rally. As I walked south on Clark, one thing caught my eye and that was the number of police officers working the protest march and their new militarized outfits.
There are never enough police around in certain Chicago neighborhoods yet they can have 100s of police in shiny new storm trooper outfits for a bunch of peaceful marchers. They were trying to intimidate the marchers and the intimidation factor probably played a role in the event ending peacefully. I applaud the people who participated in the march and rally but they were lacking a couple of things. The people marching lacked passion and they lacked the willingness to do anything to get their point across. The number of people marching was fairly large and if this large group of people had a determined leader, the scene might've resembled something out of 1968. I'm not saying that violence solves everything but sometimes you have to be willing get a little bit bloody to get your point across.
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