Why does Brandon Johnson continue to prosecute protesters?
For the last year and a half, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling have taken every opportunity to brag in the media about CPD’s “enhanced” training techniques when it comes to protests, what they call “constitutional policing.” They state that CPD is sufficiently equipped with the knowledge and training to allegedly protect people’s right to protest. “All of our training is rooted in the First and Fourth amendments,” Snelling said at a City Club of Chicago event leading up to the 2024 Democratic National Convention. “It’s important our officers understand the First amendment and the protection of First Amendment activity.” Brandon Johnson, who loves to flaunt his past record as a union activist with the Chicago’s Teachers Union and how he’s been arrested during a protest, has continued to champion CPD’s response to protest across the city and even signed an executive order in September to protect Chicagoan’s “right to protest” against ICE activity (like people in Chicago didn’t have this before?) “In the event the federal government tramples on the Constitution, the police department has a responsibility to make sure we are protecting our democracy,” Johnson said at the signing.
Despite the fanfare, both Brandon and Snelling demonstrate their disdain for protesters, especially those who don’t go along with their program. During the DNC, Chicago police rioted outside of the Israeli consulate and arrested 70 people on August 20th, people protesting the architects of US-Israel genocide in Gaza from the Democratic Party, who Brandon welcomed to Chicago with open arms. Throughout the onslaught of ICE gestapo raids across Chicago, CPD has collaborated in multiple instances with federal agents by protecting ICE from defiant protesters and arresting them. On October 22nd, during Chicago’s National Day of Protest Against Police Brutality (O22) demonstration, police vamped on a crowd of protesters and arrested two after a Blue Lives Matter rag was burned in front of CPD headquarters.
Not only do Brandon and Larry’s boys get sicced on protests that piss them off, Brandon takes it a step further by persecuting them to the fullest extent. DNC protesters had to go to court for months, flying from out of town, and taking time off of work to make court dates, as City Prosecutors tried to make their case against protesters. Case after case, among those who took them to trial, City prosecutors lost time and time again. One of the two protesters arrested during O22 recently had their hearing in front of a judge, who determined the city failed to meet their burden of proof. The arrests occurred moments after protesters lit a Blue Lives Matter flag on fire, leading to the police charging a protester with “disorderly conduct.” In the Judge’s own words, even if the City could prove the disorderly conduct charge, “the first amendment would’ve swallowed this up”, meaning the case was BS from the start and a violation of the right to protest. For Johnson, whose struggled to balance the city budget and is searching for cash flows, we wonder how much time and money did the city wasted to see these trials through, when they simply could have thrown them out?
Larry and Brandon’s “constitutional” police force continuously violates people’s supposed rights every day. Black and other oppressed people are subjected to racist investigatory stops on the street to pretextual traffic stops on the road by the pigs. CPD violated Timothy Glaze’s rights when they pumped 16 shots into him in January, and Nate Fejerang’s when they jumped on him and killed him in May. As his supporters continue to hail Brandon as a hero and “of the movement” (whatever that means), the mayor continues to let his pigs run rampant and calls on his department to prosecute to the fullest extent.
The truth is, Brandon is full of shit. He is a liar that uses progressive rhetoric as a smokescreen to help uphold the same old American Nightmare. What is required by those who are tired of this shit is to pull back the curtain, call a spade a spade, and fight like hell. From Brandon, to the police, to the prosecutors: these people are our enemies and we need to fight tirelessly against them and the system they uphold. If you want to stand with those under the gun of this system and build a fighting movement against the American Nightmare, join us. When we dare to struggle, we dare to win.
Dare to Struggle 