Chicago protests of George Floyd death and aftermath live blog, June 4, 2020: Kanye West joins South Side march to CPD headquarters

Protests continued across Chicago for the sixth straight day with many targeting neighborhoods where police officers live and CPD headquarters itself.

Here’s what happened in the city Thursday.

8:36 p.m. Kanye West joins South Side march to CPD headquarters

Chicago native and rapper Kanye West marched along with protesters Thursday to Chicago Police Department headquarters on the South Side as part of the “Justice for George Floyd/CPD out of CPS” rally.

Videos posted to Twitter show West among the crowd wearing a black hoodie pulled up over his head with a black mask across his mouth.

According to a Facebook event hosted by activist Ja’Mal Green, the protest aims to call attention to the Minneapolis school district’s decision to cancel its contract with the city’s police department, effectively removing officers from their schools. Protesters are urging Chicago Public Schools to do the same.

Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times

8:11 p.m. Engelbert hosts virtual town hall to listen to players as some express frustration with WNBA’s short statement

No group of professional athletes has been more committed to social activism than the WNBA.

Players have been outspoken about racial injustices on social media over the last two weeks, but one important voice that has been missing publicly is commissioner Cathy Engelbert.

All 12 teams have released statements or videos condemning racism and police brutality in light of the death of George Floyd, a black man who died at the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer last week. The Lynx turned their words into action Wednesday by entering a multi-year partnership with The Minneapolis Foundation to address systemic inequities.

Meanwhile, Engelbert, who took over last July, has not given a public statement, though she has listened and spoken to players in private.

The WNBA, a league that prides itself on its diversity and inclusivity, has remained relatively quiet, with the exception of one short and vague statement.

“The time for change is now. Enough is enough.” the WNBA wrote in a May 29 tweet, which was accompanied with a graphic that read, “Bigger than ball.”

Reporter Madeline Kenney has the full story.

7:32 p.m. When it comes to black/brown racial tensions, no one wins in the ‘Oppression Olympics’

Before friction between black and brown communities in Chicago gets more out of hand, African American and Hispanic elected officials gathered on the West Side on Thursday to plead for unity in the wake of the brutal death of George Floyd.

Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford, D-Maywood, said there was no point for either group “to stand here and fight each other for crumbs — for crumbs. None of us win if we are too busy competing in the Oppression Olympics instead of focusing on getting our fair share.”

Lightford plus other black and brown city, state and congressional leaders — all Democrats — gathered outside the aptly named Healing Temple Church of God in Christ, 4941 W. Chicago Ave., on a hot day to turn down the heat.

They came together as protests continue in Chicago and other cities because Floyd, an African American, died after a white Minneapolis police officer pinned him down with his knee for 8 minutes and 26 seconds.

Reporter Lynn Sweet has the full story.

6:49 p.m. Black Lives Matter protesters march in Garfield Ridge: ‘This isn’t a place to be scared of’

Black Lives Matter activists brought their message for police reform Thursday to the heart of a Southwest Side neighborhood that’s home to thousands of Chicago police officers.

About 300 protesters rallied outside Kennedy High School, 6325 W. 56th St., before marching peacefully through Garfield Ridge, once home to Jason Van Dyke, the ex-officer now behind bars for killing Laquan McDonald.

A bastion of “white flight” dating back to the Civil Rights Movement, the neighborhood is now mostly white and Latino — and a key place to try to change attitudes in the wake of the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, activists said.

“This neighborhood isn’t a place to be scared of,” marcher and Garfield Ridge resident Crystal Gonzalez said. “Black people and all people of color shouldn’t feel like, ‘Oh, that’s a part of town I can’t come by.’ This turnout is important because it shows this isn’t that type of neighborhood, and maybe we can take a small step in the right direction of more peace, more friendliness.”

Reporter Mitch Dudek has the full report.

6:10 p.m. Leo High School students help clean up Auburn Gresham

Cheerful photos of this year’s graduating class at Leo High School lined a fence at the Auburn Gresham school Thursday as part of its efforts to clean up after some of the unrest in this week’s mostly peaceful protests over George Floyd’s killing.

The private all-boys Catholic school, at 7901 S. Sangamon St., wasn’t damaged or vandalized, but its faculty and predominately African American student body was deployed to help tidy up the neighborhood, in part, to combat the images of those who broke into businesses and destroyed properties.

“It’s so damaging to the image of young African American males,” Leo High School President Dan McGrath said. “We work with young African American males every single day, and we know that they almost start out with two strikes against them because of the justice system.”

Reporter Elvia Malagón has the full story.

5:27 p.m. Man who tried to tackle Chicago police is the latest to face federal gun charge after weekend violence

About 200 men and boys were silent Thursday as they stopped traffic and formed three lines in the intersection of 79th Street and Racine Avenue on the South Side.

Soon, they all took a knee, raised fists into the air and reverberated their message through the Gresham neighborhood: “Stop killing us.”

The demonstration organized by St. Sabina church comes 10 days after George Floyd was killed after a white officer pressed a knee into his neck while taking him into custody in Minnesota. Floyd’s death was captured on video, sparking protests in Chicago and other cities across the nation.

The Rev. Michael Pfleger, of the Faith Community of Saint Sabina, said the crowd of African American men and boys wanted to refocus the protests after attention has turned to those who have used the unrest to break into businesses and vandalize property. Pfleger said it was time for the country to listen to the men, warning that what is happening now is only a glimpse of what could happen.

“What started this was decades of black men being killed like animals in America, and nobody did a damn thing about it,” Pfleger said.

Reporter Elvia Malagón has the full story.

4:22 p.m. Man who tried to tackle Chicago police is the latest to face federal gun charge after weekend violence

A man who allegedly tried to tackle a Chicago police officer after he was caught inside a looted liquor store is the latest to face a federal gun charge in connection with the violence last weekend.

The feds say police called to the liquor store in the 5500 block of West North Avenue around 6 p.m. Sunday because of looting and shooting found Jeremiah J. Scott, 21, inside. Police said the front door was damaged.

Officers told Scott to leave the liquor store, but as he did so, he tried to run away, according to a five-page criminal complaint filed Thursday. Then, when police tried to take him into custody, Scott allegedly tried to tackle an officer to the ground by grabbing both of the officer’s legs.

Reporter Jon Seidel has the full story.

3:10 p.m. What do protests do? Quite a bit

So what do these protests do?

Good question. Space is limited, so let’s get to it.

Six purposes:

1). Protests provoke the wrong being protested, flushing it into the light. Civil rights demonstrations worked because Southern sheriffs broke out the dogs and firehoses and showed America exactly what these marchers were talking about. Had they broken out trays of pralines instead, we might still have segregated lunch counters. Protests against police brutality wouldn’t be half as dramatic if some police didn’t, on cue, start being brutal, on camera, blasting peaceful protesters with tear gas. Not many — most showed admirable professionalism and restraint. But it only takes a little spit to spoil the soup.

2). Protests benefit the protesters themselves. Not content to sit at home watching Netflix after — oh, for instance — a police officer is captured on video slowly strangling a black man who may have passed a bogus $20 bill, they leap up, make signs, pour into the street, march, raise their voices. They’re doing something. True, the problem being protested is never fixed by the end of the day. But it isn’t as if they didn’t try. So points for trying; it’s more than most do.

Read the other four purposes in Neil Steinberg’s latest column.

1:33 p.m. Prosecutors describe racial slur as Ahmaud Arbery lay dying

BRUNSWICK, Ga. — Evidence revealed in court Thursday in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery alleges that the young black man was repeatedly boxed in by two pickup trucks as he desperately tried to escape.

A Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent says a white man then shot him in the chest, the first of three shots with a pump-action shotgun. Agent Richard Dial testified that the driver of the second pickup truck, Roddie Bryan, said Travis McMichael then stood over Arbery’s body and said a racial epithet before police arrived.

The evidence was presented to support murder charges against McMichael and his father as well as Bryan. It also could factor into a federal investigation into whether hate crime charges are warranted.

Read the full report here.

12:24 p.m. Family of Mia Wright wants a criminal investigation into officers at Brickyard Mall

The family of Mia Wright called for Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx to open a criminal investigation into the conduct of a police officer who dragged Wright by the hair from a vehicle and knelt on her neck at a West Side mall over the weekend.

“There has to be justice for the family,” family attorney Nenye Uche said Thursday at a news conference held in the parking lot of the Brickyard Mall, a few steps from where the encounter with police took place Sunday afternoon.

Uche also called for the disorderly conduct charge against Wright to be immediately dropped.

The family still doesn’t understand why police targeted their car in the first place and is demanding answers.

Wright was in the front passenger seat of her cousin’s car Sunday when police, for no apparent reason, began to smash the windows of the vehicle with batons and order everyone out. An officer grabbed Wright’s hair, which had been wound into a bun, and yanked her from the car, Wright said.

While Wright was on the ground, the officer knelt on her back and neck. Wright, who got a piece of glass in her eye during from the shattered window, was held overnight at a nearby police station, she said.

“All I thought about was what happened to George Floyd and it could have been another situation like that,” Wright said Thursday.

Read the full story from Mitch Dudek.

9:45 a.m. As city tries to heal, two major police brutality allegations come to light

As Chicago tries to heal, two major police brutality allegations have come to light.

A woman and and her family members had gone to Brickyard Mall on the West Side Sunday afternoon since stores were closed in North Lawndale as shops feared looting, she said. But after they realized the Target they wanted to visit was closed, and they tried to exit the parking lot. “There was a lot of confusion, police had a lot of exits and entrances blocked off and we were stopped at a stop sign about to leave, with a car in front of us, when all this happened,” Mia Wright said. A chaotic video of the encounter showed multiple cops surrounding their car and pulling people out.

Wright said a white police officer yanked her by the hair to get her out of a car, put her in handcuffs on the ground and then knelt on her back and neck, even though she was complying with their demands. In the process, a piece of glass from the shattered window got in her eye, she said.

In a separate incident, another video shows an officer chasing down and punching a protester following a demonstration Monday night in Uptown — a scene a civil rights group called “horrific.”

In the video, posted to Twitter, dozens of officers are seen herding a group of protesters north in the 4600 block of North Broadway.

About 30 seconds into the video, after a glass bottle shatters and a loud thud is heard, an officer begins rushing toward a male traveling with the group. The officer weaves around other cops and protesters before pushing the male to the ground and striking him twice in the head with his fist as another person begins screaming. When another cop tries to grab the officer from behind, the officer swings his arm back and strikes his colleague’s helmet.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability is investigating both incidents.

8:52 a.m. In wake of George Floyd, Obama’s bite-size suggestion for immediate change: end police strangleholds

Former President Barack Obama on Wednesday made his first public remarks since George Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer pinned him down with a knee to his neck.

He made a bite-size suggestion: the nation’s mayors should immediately ban choke- and strangleholds.

“Chokeholds and strangleholds, just saying, that’s not what we do. We don’t need that in order to effectively restrain someone,” Obama said.

Read the full story from Lynn Sweet.

7:40 a.m. Hundreds of protesters pause for 9 minutes to remember George Floyd at Dunbar Park rally

Hundreds of protesters filled Douglas’ Dunbar Park on Wednesday afternoon on the sixth consecutive day of George Floyd protests across Chicago.

But for nine minutes — the length of time ex-Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck prior to the latter’s death last week — the only sounds heard in the park were of honking cars and television helicopters as protesters kneeled and held a moment of silence.

“The only way you can take nine minutes to kill someone while they’re pleading for their life is if you don’t think that they’re human,” protest organizer Kobi Guillory said. “This is something we need to do to put this in perspective and humanize ourselves.”

Guillory and others from the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression planned the protest through social media Wednesday.

Read the full story by Ben Pope.