Hundreds of anti-gun rights protesters descended on Chicago Saturday and blocked part of a major freeway to demand lawmakers do something to stop gun violence.
The protesters marched along two of the freeway’s four lanes chanting “Black lives matter” and “shut it down.” Some protesters even carried crosses.
[Related: Chicago gun control march leader says ‘the people won today’]
Illinois State Police said they reached an agreement with protest organizers to allow them access to a couple lanes of what is known as the Dan Ryan Expressway so they could “march peacefully for their cause,” Reuters noted.
“This is not about just a march,” one of the organizers, Rev. Michael Pfleger, said at a news conference this week. “This is not about just an interruption of traffic. This is about the violence in the city of Chicago.”
Chicago is the third-largest city in the U.S., after New York City and Los Angeles, but ranks number one in the amount of homicides. Even though the homicide rate fell 16 percent last year, Chicago still has more murders than both New York City and Los Angeles combined.
On Friday, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel supported the protest, saying that it was important to raise awareness regarding the amount of gun violence in the city.
