Naperville Police Comment On Weekend Protest Response

Press release from the City of Naperville:

June 6, 2020

On Friday, June 5, the Naperville Police Department responded to two protests in the city.

The first protest was located at Route 59 and 95th Street with a group of 30-40 people gathered and walked east along 95th Street to Book Road with the Naperville Police ensuring the protestors’ safety on city streets. The protest was peaceful and ended without any issues.

The second protest was located downtown beginning at Centennial Beach. The group of approximately 200 protestors walked east along Jackson Street and continued their peaceful march to Chicago Avenue and Washington Street intersection with Naperville Police ensuring the safety of the group on downtown streets.

Police developed reliable information that some members of the downtown protest group intended to commit criminal acts in the downtown.

Police lines were established to help with crowd control and allow for the protestors to continue their rally safely, as they had left the sidewalks and continued to walk in the middle of the roadway. As some of the members of the protest group began to actively engage police officers and state their intent to break through the police lines, a lawful order to disperse was given by police command. While the majority of the protestors dispersed, there was a small group of approximately 30 who continued to engage police and made it clear the intent to not comply with the order. A second order to disperse was given and the protestors complied.

A total of two arrests were made for the criminal defacement to public property:

Anthony Cabeza W/M DOB: 09/04/1999

Ashton Thomas W/M DOB: 05/10/2000

This press release was produced by the City of Naperville. The views expressed here are the author’s own.