Over 1,000 Gather At Fountain Square In Support Of Black Lives

EVANSTON, IL —More than 1,000 demonstrators gathered in and around Fountain Square Sunday afternoon for the Evanston United Black Family Rally to Support Black Lives. The event was organized by the Evanston/North Shore Branch NAACP, Chessmen Club of the NorthShore, Evanston Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Black Evanston Men and SOUL Creations.

Speakers included President of NAACP Evanston/North Shore Michael Nabors, former Youth and Young Adult Division Manager Kevin Brown, Gilo Logan of Logan Consulting Services, Citizens' Network of Protection member Carlis Sutton, Evanston Township High School board member Jude Laude, Cook County Circuit Judge Lionel Jean-Baptiste, ETHS teacher Corey Winchester, Evanston Police Chief Demitrous Cook and others.

Cook said all Evanston police officers were upset over the death of George Floyd, who died last month with a Minneapolis police officer's knee on his neck. Floyd's in-custody homicide, added to the recent fatal shootings of Ahmed Arbery in Glynn County, Georgia, and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, has prompted nearly two weeks of nationwide protests.

"I didn't give up my blackness for this white shirt. I didn't give up my blackness for a bureaucratic society, either. And I didn't give up my blackness to my people in this community," Cook said. The chief, a 40-year police veteran, said people in Evanston that know him know he treats everyone with respect.

The protest earlier. pic.twitter.com/yxc59vdmBh
— Evanston, IL Police (@EvanstonPD) June 7, 2020

"I didn't come here to play games with the police officers," he said. "If a police officer is correct under the law I'm going to stand up for him. But if he's wrong, I'm going to do what I'm supposed to do in terms of discipline."

Cook called for the public to take a look at the proposed Justice and Policing Act of 2020, a civil rights and police reform bill introduced by House Democrats and sponsored by Congressional Black Caucus Chair Karen Bass (D-California).

"The time has been past for reform," the chief said. "The first police department in Boston in 1845 — now you know that was before slavery [ended] — up to this point, we have not persevered in making true police reform."

About 1,500 people attended the event, according to the Evanston RoundTable, with most people wearing masks and doing their best to maintain physical distance from one another to avoid the potential spread of the coronavirus.