CHICAGO: Several thousand protesters started marching toward the United Center indoor sports arena where the Democratic Party is holding it...
CHICAGO: Several thousand protesters started marching toward the United Center indoor sports arena where the Democratic Party is holding its national convention, according to a TASS reporter at the scene.
The rally is in support of Palestine and against further US military aid to Israel. The protesters are demanding that the Democratic Party take action to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and work to cut military spending.
The protesters gathered in a park two blocks from the United Center. Over the past two hours, their numbers swelled from a few hundred to at least several thousand. Protest organizers said about 15,000 people are taking part. They are expected to march past the venue of the Democratic convention.
Mass protesters have broken out several sections of the metal fence around the sports arena, a TASS correspondent reported.
Demonstrators piled up near the site, unable to get past the fence. Several dozen police officers with special equipment were lined up along the fence, which had been broken in sections. At the moment, there are no clashes between the protesters and the police. One of the protesters was sitting on the fence.
Lined up in a dense line, the police officers in special equipment forced the demonstrators to move at least 20 meters away from the place where the fence was damaged. Several protesters were arrested. In some cases, police used physical force against demonstrators who refused to leave the area.
No one was hurt in an incident, the city's police chief Larry Snelling said. "No," he said in response to a TASS correspondent’s question.
Additional detachments of law enforcement officers were deployed to the site.
Later police officers have restored sections of the fence. Only a few scattered groups of pro-Palestinian activists remained near the site of the incident.
The action was organized by an association called the March on the Democratic National Convention. It included a number of different organizations, including anti-war, human rights, leftist, pro-Palestinian, pro-labor and pro-migrant organizations.
-News Feed
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