DOWNTOWN — With their city caught in the country’s largest immigration enforcement operation, as many as 250,000 Chicagoans flooded Downtown on Saturday to condemn Donald Trump’s administration as part of the second nationwide No Kings protest.
“We will never surrender!” Illinois governor JB Pritzker said. “Throughout history we have learned that tyranny doesn’t arrive with dramatic proclamations. We learned that it comes wrapped in ‘law and order’ … The reality here in Chicago is this: Black and Brown people are being targeted for the color of their skin. Children are being zip-tied and separated from their families … These people are not abstractions. They pay taxes on their businesses. They work hard — these people are the fabric of our society.”
“They want a rematch of the Civil War,” Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson said to the crowd. “But we are here to stand firm, to stand committed — that we will not bend. We will not cower. The attempt to divide and conquer this nation will not prevail, because when the people are united, justice always prevails.”
Johnson closed out his remarks by calling for a general strike.
I fucking love my city. I truly believe Chicago is among the most beautiful cities in the world. I truly consider it a privilege to ride my bike along the lakefront trail with a gorgeous skyline on one side of me and a beautiful lakefront on the other side of me. We have amazing, truly world-class music, food, architecture, sports, and art.
The night my Cubs broke their 108 year championship drought, I stood on my front steps and hugged and fived random strangers into the late hours, all of us screaming our heads off; and all of those things I love about Chicago were elevated by and multiplied by the sheer sense of Communion I was having with hundreds of like-minded people who all felt the same way about our city and our team. It was the night my love for this city burned hottest.
Yesterday, in the park and on the streets, magnified and multiplied that by a million. I was surrounded as far as I could see in any direction by people who love this city and love this country as much as I do. It truly looked like every kind of person was represented.
It made it feel like we can actually do this, and that is exactly what Trump and co are afraid of.