CHICAGO — On the eve of Vice President Kamala Harris formally accepting her party’s presidential nomination here, about a thousand chanting protesters again sought to make the Democratic National Convention focus more meaningfully on the war in Gaza and deaths of Palestinian civilians.
“DNC, don’t you lie. Because of you, our people die,” the crowd shouted as a line of police officers watched on the perimeter. By early evening, the throng of marchers was blocks long. There were no immediate reports of arrests.
The scene was in keeping with other rallies and demonstrations this week. With one convention day to go, no major disruptions have materialized.
At the height of the events, demonstrators have converged on the city’s streets primarily to speak out against the United States’ handling of the fighting in Gaza — Israel’s response to the deadly cross-border attack by Hamas in October.
Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling — who has personally surveyed the biggest rallies, including the one that began late Wednesday afternoon — credits his officers with responding with proportional force. The city, he declared, would not descend into the chaos that defined the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
“It’s 2024,” Snelling said at a Wednesday briefing. “And the Chicago Police Department proved that. So let’s get off of 1968.”
There were some worries that “professional provocateurs” from out of town would be on the scene. Yet the groups calling for “cease-fire now,” among other causes, have largely stuck to organizers’ aim: peacefully airing grievances in a national spotlight.
No one wanted any violence — just for their message to reach those gathering in the United Center, said Nazek Sankari, 33, co-chair of the Chicago chapter of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network.
“They can hear us and they know what’s going on,” she said Wednesday, hours before Harris’s running mate. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, was set to take the stage.
Sankari, whose group helped organize the afternoon rally at Union Park, said she believed that authorities are purposely downplaying the number of people taking to the streets, filling public parks and leading chants outside after-parties. “They try to undercut us and the movement,” she said, though she gave no specifics.
Long before delegates began filling the convention center Monday, police made their presence known. Barriers popped up around downtown hot spots as well as quieter neighborhoods, where some residents have found “Free Palestine” leaflets and other advocacy materials. Officers cycled along the Chicago River, which has glistened through a week of what visitors admiringly described as nearly perfect summer weather.
The biggest confrontation unfolded Tuesday night during a rally outside the Israeli Consulate. A group of demonstrators marched into a police line that had formed to block access. Officers in riot gear encircled some protesters, witnesses said, stopping them from being able to disperse.
About five dozen people, including three journalists, were arrested.
“We declared a mass arrest after our officers were physically confronted,” said Snelling, who insisted that protesters “showed up with the intent of committing acts of violence and vandalism.”
The city plans to prosecute them, he said, adding that 22 in custody were from out of town.
Hundreds of demonstrators have showed up from a southwest Chicago suburb known as Little Palestine, according to Nida Sahouri Ali, president of the local chapter of American Muslims for Palestine. Her group had helped arrange buses to shuttle residents downtown, and some businesses in the community closed to give workers a chance to speak their minds.
Edgar Mujica, 38, went straight from the doctor’s office to the Wednesday protest in Union Park, undaunted by the sling on his arm or the fracture in his spine — the result of a car accident a couple of weeks earlier.
It’s been a tough year, he said, but while the world is watching Chicago this week, he felt compelled to show up and register his anger.
“I lost my job,” he explained. “I’m on my last pennies to pay rent. And yet I see my problems, and I see the suffering of people in Palestine, and mine is nothing in comparison.”
About a half-mile away, supporters of Israel raised their own voices in support of the men, women and children abducted by Hamas during its rampage in the fall.
Josh Weiner, co-founder of the nonprofit Chicago Jewish Alliance, was among them. “Please speak out about the hostages in Gaza,” he told the several dozen people there. “Please speak out about the threat of radical Islam.”
