Police clash with protestors downtown in heated exchange

CHICAGO - Protestors clashed with Chicago police Saturday evening after an intense afternoon of prolonged demonstrations.

The afternoon started near the Dan Ryan and 47th Street where protesters wanting to shut down the expressway failed, but effectively forced police to close Indiana Avenue as they marched to Grant Park.

The peaceful demonstration led by Rabbi Michael Ben Yosef ended at Roosevelt and Michigan. Rabbi Yousef said that his group wrapped up the protest with speeches, and then they dismantled.  

Supt. Brown said no arrests were made during the peaceful demonstration. It wasn't until later in the afternoon during a separate protest that agitators hijacked the peaceful protest and began throwing projectiles at police officers. 

The conflict caused protesters to start running down Michigan Avenue. They told FOX 32 things got tense when they attempted to walk east on Wacker Drive. The group squared off with police at Wacker and Michigan. That’s where police say protesters were hurling frozen bottles at them, and protesters say police began confiscating their bikes and umbrellas and hitting them with their batons. 

“Tonight I saw cops like take a lot of the protesters bikes and we saw like big piles of the bikes all in the streets. And then we just saw a bunch of the cops coming out of the cars to here so …where the bridge cuts off by Trump Tower, they pretty much just stopped everyone from walking past so we’re like walking around to try to get home and it’s just really, really hard now and we’re pretty much stuck so we’re trying to figure out how we’re gonna get back,” said Rachel Israel and Kyla Greene, who live nearby. 

Saturday night, uniformed police both in riot gear and without, stood guard at nearly every street corner downtown, hoping to avoid a repeat of last weekend’s looting.

CPD Superintendent David Brown was walking alongside his officers Saturday night on Michigan Avenue.

At a news conference, he told reporters that two officers had been injured, one suffering a hand injury and the other was hit over the head with a skateboard.

There is no word yet on whether police made any arrests.