Blue Lives Matter Group Surrounds Black Activists on Chicago March

CHICAGO, IL — More than 500 people chanting “CPD, CPD” and waving Blue Lives Matter American flags convened at the intersection of 111th Street and Kedzie Avenue late Tuesday afternoon near the site where an African-American man was shot by an off-duty Chicago police sergeant last weekend.

The Blue Lives Matter protest was scheduled in anticipation of a scheduled protest staged by black activists from SURJ (Standing Up for Racial Justice) accompanied by the Rev. Michael Pfleger in the Mt. Greenwood neighborhood where many of the city’s police officers, firefighters and city workers reside.

Activists arrived walking down the center of Kedzie Avenue surrounded by jeering Blue Lives Matter protesters on opposite sides of the street, chanting “13 shots and a funeral” amid heavy protection by the Chicago Police Department.

SURJ is calling for an independent investigation of the death of 25-year-old Joshua Beal, who was shot to death by an off-duty police officer on Nov. 5 during a traffic altercation near 111th Street and Troy streets in Mt. Greenwood. Beal, an Indianapolis man with a criminal past, was part of a funeral procession which had stopped in a fire lane in front of a Chicago firehouse when the altercation ensued.

A preliminary investigation by Chicago police determined that Beal was allegedly holding a gun in his hand when he was shot. Police said that a widely circulated photo on neighborhood social media, as well as witness video taken at scene was “authentic.”

The controversial Father Pfleger led members of the SURJ group in prayer in the middle of the street. The activists marched north down Kedzie in a protective circle of police officers, as Blue Lives Matter protesters surged into the street yelling, “Go back to Englewood,” “Go home Pfleger” and singing “Na, na, na, hey, hey, goodbye.”

At one point a U.S. Postal Service semi truck rumbled down Kedzie. The police supporters started screaming, “Run them over."

The activists held up signs saying “Stop racist police terrorism” and “Cops stop killing.”

By Tim Moran and Lorraine Swanson | Patch Editors