Thousands March Peacefully Through The North Side To Decry The Death Of George Floyd

Thousands marched through Lakeview and Uptown last night in peaceful protests over the of George Floyd.
Photo credit WBBM Newsradio/Steve Miller

CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Thousands marched Monday night through Lakeview and Uptown in peaceful protests over the of George Floyd.

The crowd could be heard chanting, "Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter."

One young woman described the protest, which involved walking on Lake Shore Drive near Hollywood at one point, as powerful, harmonious, kind, and even smart.

Justice Ford said given her name, she was destined to take part in such demonstrations and plans to do so again to force change at the Chicago Police Department.

"There is so much more that we can do than just this - than just disrupting traffic, you know, than just disrupting the streets. And I think that there are not enough conversations happening. There are not enough people talking. There are not enough people checking the racism around them," Ford said.

She was one of many protesters WBBM Newsradio spoke to that was eager to get home before any violence may have occurred - making sure their peaceful demonstrations were not lumped in with bad actors.

Speaker at protest in Oz Park says ' I don't want my kid's name to be a hash tag'. #GeorgeFloyd #chicagoprotest @WBBMNewsradio pic.twitter.com/rXtSwEaDMM

— Nancy Harty (@newsnance) June 1, 2020

Recent Governors State University graduate Quon Shaw, with a bachelor's in criminal justice, sees the need for changes in Chicago police management and training and had many ideas of where to start - such as overhauling leadership, recruiting more minority officers, and retraining on detention tactics. This is to combat what he sees as a continual problem with racial bias in the department. But he also has compassion for the officers, who came out in force along the protest routes.

"There are good cops out there, but it is the racist ones that make it bad for everyone else," Shaw said, "and I feel bad about the innocent officers that got to go through this stuff."

He and others were among thousands who took to the streets on the North Side amid a heavy police presence, who told WBBM Newsradio they were happy with how peaceful it was.