Demonstrators on Thursday blocked two miles of Lake Shore Drive, the main road that runs alongside the shoreline of Lake Michigan in Chicago, for over two hours, during a march against endemic gun violence that has claimed more than 300 lives this year in the neighborhoods where African-American communities live. CHICAGO – Protesters are set to march on the Windy City’s iconic Lake Shore Drive Thursday to express outrage over Chicago’s endemic gun violence and call for the resignation of the city’s mayor and police superintendent. Police, however, announced out of concern for safety for protesters and motorists that they would preemptively close a roughly two-mile stretch of Lake Shore Drive to vehicular traffic shortly before the scheduled start of the protest. At least a thousand people participated in the July 6 march, led by Roman Catholic priest the Rev. Gregory Livingston, one of the march’s lead organizers, said demonstrators decided to bring the protest through the heart of the city’s more affluent enclaves on the North Side to “redistribute the pain” of gun violence and economic disinvestment plaguing some of Chicago’s black and Latino communities. The protesters - not more than 200 people according to the police - chanted slogans to demand the resignations of the Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the superintendent of Chicago Police Department, Eddie Johnson. The man, a Cubs season ticket holder, sold his seats for Thursday’s game in anticipation of the protest but said he was supportive of the demonstrators if they remain nonviolent.
Anti-violence protesters take to the streets of Chicago to draw attention to the problem of gun violence in Chicago, which briefly shuts down Lake Shore Drive. Protesters also call for Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie T. Johnson and Mayor Rahm Emanuel to step down for their handling of racial incidents in communities of color.