BY JOHN STUDER
CHICAGO - Five hundred marchers took to the streets in Chicago's downtown Loop district May 19 to protest against police brutality. The march, called by the Greater Chicago Committee Against Police Brutality and endorsed by more than 120 community and political groups, and prominent individuals started at the Federal Building and marched around City Hall to a rally at the Civic Center.

"We are marching today to empower the residents of Chicago, and especially our youth, not to be silent when they are victims of police brutality," Crystal Lekgo- thoane, co-chair of the march, told the press as the demonstrators stepped into the streets at lunchtime. Buses brought marchers into the loop from the Cabrini Green housing project, from Black community churches, from high school field trips, and from Centro Sin Fronteras, an anti- deportation group.

The march was held on May 19 to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Malcolm X and his example in struggle. It culminated weeks of marches and rallies following the second police beating and attempted frame-up of Jeremiah Mearday.

Mearday was brutalized by Chicago cops last fall, sparking a series of protests. After months of hearings before the police department's Office of Professional Conduct, the two cops were fired.

One week later, Mearday was again accosted and arrested. After a search of Mearday produced nothing, cops said they searched his clothing again and claimed they found cocaine in one of his shoes. Sonny Carter, Mearday's father, joined the demonstration.

In the weeks after the march was called, two Black youths were shot and killed by police in the Chicago area. Vanessa Laurence, the aunt of Joseph Winfield, spoke at the May 19 rally about how her nephew was run down by a police car and then shot half a dozen times in the back until he was dead.

The Chicago cops assembled a force of over 1,000 around the demonstrators and along the march. All the doors at City Hall were locked when the demonstration went by, except for one staffed by cops.

Chanting "Hey, hey, ho, ho, police brutality has got to go!," the marchers drew big crowds of downtown workers on lunch. It was one of the largest demonstrations against police brutality in years.

The big-business media chose not to report on the demonstration. Except for a front-page article in the Black community paper, the Chicago Defender, none of the daily press covered the march. The city's two Spanish-language television stations were the only TV media to give it coverage. As the march concluded, organizers announced that the coalition would be continuing to plan marches and rallies to demand justice for Mearday and to protest police brutality. Forty-nine people signed up at coalition tables to get involved.

John Studer is a member of United Steelworkers of America Local 1011.  
 
 
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