“There’s no reason a mother should be burying her kid,” the mother of Marc Anthony Nevarez, who was killed by the police last October, shouted into the microphone. “Enough is enough! We need justice!” Her hands shook, her eyes glistened with tears. The anger and pain in her voice was palpable. She was still grieving.
Surrounding the Logan Square monument, speakers including Únete La Villita organizer Karina Solano, police torture survivor Mark Clements, and the families of police shooting victims, blasted racist and violent tactics by the city’s cops and a lack of meaningful action by powerful local politicians, including Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who made an early appearance at the protest. Preckwinkle, with people to her right and left, posed briefly for a photo before slinking away.
At one point during the press conference, speakers and attendees alike chanted “one shot and a cover-up,” both a reference to Toledo’s death and an allusion to the 2014 police shooting of Laquan McDonald and efforts to withhold video footage of his death by former mayor Rahm Emanuel. Back then it was “16 shots and a cover-up.”
A young Black man, the son of Black Lives Matter Chicago’s executive director, was arrested after a scuffle between protesters and police. A high school senior was also arrested after police say the teen, who is white, spat on an officer while riding past on his bike. Both have since been released.
