Blue Lives Matter Rally in Chicago - July 25th, 2020
Supporters of Blue Lives Matter rallied in Grant Park on Saturday afternoon, near the empty pedestal from which the contentious statue of Christopher Columbus was recently removed. Speakers lamented this act as a "surrender to the mob” by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, decried Antifa, and expressed their great appreciation for Chicago's police force.
Republican congressional hopeful Jimmy Lee Tillman II, son of the former Chicago alderman Dorothy Tillman, finished his well applauded oration by leading the crowd in the QAnon slogan, "where we go one, we go all". Some of the other speakers at the demonstration included John Catanzara, president of Chicago's Fraternal Order of Police, and Pat O'Brien, GOP candidate for Cook County States Attorney.
Banging pot and pans across the street, a small group of counter-protestors noisily attempted to disrupt the rally. Metal barricades and frequent interventions by police mostly kept the opposing demonstrators apart, at least while I was there. One Blue Lives supporter sported a tee shirt emblazoned "Hillary for Prison - 2016", while shouldering a metal baseball bat.
