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US-CRIME-DEMONSTRATION-CHICAGO
Gun violence protesters partially shut Chicago expressway
CHICAGO, July 8, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Thousands of protesters against
Chicago’s pervasive gun violence on Saturday partially shut down a major
expressway in the third-largest US city, which leads the country in murders.
The demonstrators, led by a local pastor known for decades of anti-
violence advocacy in Chicago’s hard-scrabble South Side, completely closed
off one side of the Dan Ryan Expressway for about an hour.
The major artery bisects the city’s southern urban core which is home to a
predominantly African American population and several communities where gun
violence, fueled mostly by drugs and turf wars among small gangs, is a part
of everyday life.
“Today, we got (politicians’) attention,” Father Michael Pfleger told WLS-
TV.
“The people won today, because the people showed up… saying we’re tired
of the damned violence in Chicago,” he said.
The midwestern city had 254 murders and 1,114 shootings to July 1 this
year, according to police. While murders are down 23 percent compared to the
same period last year, Chicago still has the most of any other city in the
country.
The killing of 17 people at a Parkland, Florida high school in February
helped reinvigorate the national debate on gun control and firearms violence
in a country where guns are linked to more than 30,000 deaths annually.
Chicago officials cooperated with Pfleger in corralling protests and
eventually relented in allowing all of the northbound expressway lanes to be
blocked off.
As they later cleared out, many protesters thanked police for their help,
WLS-TV reported.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0859 hrs