Church-Goers Take to the Streets in Protest Sunday

Church-goers left their house of worship and took to the streets across the city of Chicago Sunday to take part in a protest against what they see as unjustified police killings. This was the fourth day of marches and protests in major cities after a New York grand jury declined to indict a New York City police officer in the choking death of Eric Garner.

“These tough-on-crime laws have led police to lock up more black men, and have led them to believe that black lives are dispensable,” John St. Preux, 53, of Beverly, told DNAinfo Chicago as he walked in a march led by the Rev. Michael Pfleger. “This movement is just the beginning.”

Garner’s death, the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, and the death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland, have galvanized a movement critical of how police interact with black Americans.

Pfleger took his parishioners into the streets outside St. Sabina Church in Auburn-Gresham, where they staged a “die-in,” with some laying down in the streets to block traffic and chanting “black lives matter.” Others raised their hands in the air in a “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” gesture.

“The enemy might choke the breath out of our bodies but they cannot choke the breath out of our spirit,” Pfleger said.

Similar demonstrations took place on the North Side, West Side and South Side, as well as a few spots in the Loop on Sunday afternoon and evening.