By noon Sunday, some activists had been outside the Wentworth District police station for more than 12 hours, with plans to remain until all arrested protesters were released. “As a Black person, as a Black woman, this s— has been personal,” one 19-year-old activist said.

Further, the contract to renovate the facility went to a politically connected company instead of one that said it would waive fees or donate such money to coronavirus relief organizations.

“Our intentions were simply to get our voices to be heard and to be peaceful. We did not expect our protest to go this way,” said Andrea Cespedes, 15, one of the organizers of the protest.

Lightfoot said Sunday that agitators “have embedded themselves in these seemingly peaceful protests and come for a fight” though the clashes were “over very fairly quickly because our police department is resolved to make sure that we protect peaceful protests.”

According to police, the video shows “the initial incident that sparked yesterday’s violence and arrests, as well as the aggravated battery against a CPD officer with a skateboard.” But activist Ja’Mal Green Sunday called for the police superintednent’s resignation, asking Mayor Lori Lightfoot to “appoint someone that understands the city and the landscape of protests.”

“Neither Kass nor Cannon, however, gets to the heart of why the July 22 column is not anti-Semitic: criticizing a person for actions that have nothing to do with being Jewish – without attacking the person for being Jewish or connected to Jews, and without attacking Jews as a group – is not anti-Semitism. Funding election campaigns to change public policy has nothing to do with being Jewish.”

The Magnificent Mile once touted itself as “fashionable, convenient, scenic, and open to enjoyment.” But that image has been challenged. Between COVID-19 and episodes of social unrest, it seems certain that the changes and challenges that are occurring at Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s will not be the last to occur within Chicago’s Magnificient Mile district.

“Well, I’m not a police fan myself, because I am a Black man who lives in Chicago all his life,” said Dennis Thomas, a parent. “I just like the fact that I can send my child to school and not worry, in case something does happen. I want my child to leave the building and be able to get home once they’ve left me.”

Before the group could attempt its march toward the expressway, the rally got tense when it was interrupted by a handful of counterprotesters led by Yashua Aton of the Original Men in Black, which he described as a community patrol in Englewood. “You’re going to shake the trees and leave,” he said.

One of the groups, Good Kids, Mad City, posted to Twitter that two of their organizers were “beaten and arrested…Cops are separating & surrounding protesters! They won’t let people leave!” the group wrote on Twitter.

John Catanzara, president of the Fraternal Order of Police in Chicago: “Foxx blames systemic racism and other ills for the increase in crime — but if she wants to find a major reason for the recent surge in the crime rate and rioting, all she has to do is look in the mirror. When she keep dropping charges against criminals she invites more crime.”