First published September 1, 2015
This past Saturday night LGBT organizers with a homeless rights encampment in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood stood up to police threats earlier in the evening to shut it down.Gay alderman James Cappleman has played a pivotal role in harassing and trying to shut down service providers for the poor in Uptown. Under his watch, over 1000 units of low income housing have been destroyed in the Ward — more than all other wards in the city combined.
Little wonder that people need to sleep on the streets, but now the police are tearing up their encampments in the middle of the night, illegally intimidating them to move. This is what prompted the protest.
Saturday night’s victory sets an important free speech precedent following the shut down of Occupy encampments by police forces around the country working in concert with the Obama administration.
Click on the link below to see what DNA Info calls a “clash” between police and organizers, and interviews with LGBT activists as to why they organized the protest.
Watch video of the protest here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-NwC-N87Xw&feature=youtu.be
Read and see pics from the DNA Info story here:
http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150901/uptown/police-activists-clash-at-homeless-rally