06/25/2020.
Organized the day before by a number of high school Zoomers who needed another BLM event, another protest manifested itself on Wednesday, June 3rd, 2020 outside the McLean County Law & Justice Center, the Black Lives Matter Solidarity Rally. Close to 300 people assembled in the plaza on Front Street. The organizers included Gavin Cunningham and Maggie McHale, both Zoomers of no color.
“Our community has already shown the signs of coming together.” Gavin Cunningham stated. “I’ve seen and heard people of different races already having hard conversations, being honest with each other, and white people accepting that we do not know what people are going through.”
He reminded everyone that just a few days ago, a biker named Marshall Blanchard drove his bicycle into a crowd of peaceful protesters. Cunningham celebrated the fact that despite Blanchard’s family attempting to set up a GoFundMe to pay Marshall’s $40,000 bond, activists from BloNo successfully shut it down.
“This just a first step,” Cunningham continued. “This town and this county can improve in so many other ways.”
“My brothers & sisters, we are the future of providing equality,” Justin Turner declared. “We need to stand up to become natural born leaders. Because it’s not just up to one person; it’s up to all of us.” What I have to say about all lives matter is it is something that disgusts me. Because obviously we know all lives matter, we should all love each other. But when I see years of racism, and segregation and oppression all leading down to this moment, I’m starting to wonder ‘does my life really matter?’” the crowd screamed his life mattered.
“This is our last stand; it’s our only hope.”
The organizers then marched through the streets from the Law & Justice Center to the City of Refuge church, where protesters knelt for 8 minutes to honor George Floyd. We then marched back to the Law & Justice Center which ended the organized event by the Zoomers.
But protesters weren’t done. At one point, I grabbed the microphone and reminded everyone that the Law & Justice Center is also home to the McLean County Jail, where many people were being held under solitary confinement who are too poor to afford their cash bail. Organizers like Ward 6 Alderperson Jen Carrillo and Dominique Stevens rallied the crowd to move towards the jail. Again, from outside–even with protesters chanting–you could hear inmates pounding on their windows in solidarity.
What occurred next was probably the most poignant & powerful challenge to the jail’s powers I’ve yet witnessed here. Protesters called out to inmates by name, saying “We see you. Keep your head up! We love you! We miss you. Ya’ll going to be free soon.” Over & over, they repeated these chants to the inmates, each time undermining the state’s power to incapacitate.
The protesters even took over Olive Street outside the jail as they continued their subversion. Sheriff’s deputies watched from a distance. Out of seemingly no where, a blue smoke bomb appeared close to the sheriff deputies. Protesters intially thought they were being tear gassed by police. Many ran away from the device into the intersection of Olive and Center Street into ongoing traffic. Others ran towards the deputies in indignation, but the deputies made it clear that they did not throw it, claiming it came from within the crowd.
Witnesses on the scene identified the provocateur as a man of colonial complexion with a “Pritzker Sucks” sign. When activists confronted him about who he was, he said his name was James Madison (a most dubious proposition) fled the scene shortly after the device was thrown.
Robert Garcia had this to say: ““We smelt the gas and were covered in it and people came running into the streets. He said his name was James Madison, which was a lie. We thought it was the police but it wasn’t, so our allies began pursuing him.”
The experienced activists were quickly able to regain control of the crowd, refocusing the group towards the inmates still pounding on their windows. That was largely it for Day 5.
The smoke-bomb throwing provocateur was later identified as Andrew Menssen. He turned himself into the police. Andrew Menssen faces one hate crime count (a Class 4 felony) and eight misdemeanor counts of reckless conduct, aggravated assault, disorderly conduct, and child endangerment. He is currently being held at McLean County Jail in lieu of $2500 bond.
