In Los Angeles, authorities launched an investigation Wednesday into how an immigration march of 25,000 people turned violent, with protesters apparently throwing rocks and bottles, while police responded with batons and rubber bullets, sending 10 people to hospitals.
In Chicago, the issues underlying Tuesday’s immigration march were just as volatile, the crowd was six times as big, and trouble could have been one misstep away. But at the end of the day, the police report amounted to two arrests for graffiti.
Over the last 14 months, with two marches drawing more than 100,000 people and another estimated at several hundred thousand, Chicago has established a remarkable track record: The mass demonstrations were larger than predicted, ear-splittingly loud and tough on traffic — but there was less violence than one might expect at a ballgame.
That had police and march organizers patting each other on the back Wednesday for yet another outbreak of peace.
Both sides credit a well-orchestrated combination of self-policing on the part of demonstrators and a soft, just-another-face-in-the-crowd approach by Chicago police.
“With so many people, the police were still nervous because it could have escaped their hands very easily,” said Jose Artemio Arreola, one of the march’s chief organizers. But, “we worked very hard together to conserve the calm.”
The cooperation included 300 volunteer “peacekeepers” among the marchers, armed with two-way radios and dressed in aqua blue T-shirts, who rooted out any potential problem before it got out of hand, said Salome Amezcua, who handled logistics for the marchers.
The peacekeepers were instructed to go directly to police lining the route with any reports of violence and to “shield” other marchers from any negative signs or counterdemonstrations that could provoke a conflict, Amezcua said.
One such instance occurred Tuesday as marchers flooded into Grant Park from the Loop, where they were greeted by Englewood resident Brett Hardy.
Hardy, 38, carried a sign reading “No illegal immigrant should claim a right to stay,” which he said expressed his frustration that his aunt cannot emigrate from Senegal.
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After a small, somewhat hostile crowd formed around Hardy, peacekeepers swooped in and formed a human wall in front of him, obscuring views of his sign and guarding the lone counterdemonstrator from any sudden attacks, Amezcua said.
Chicago police praised such tactics, which they said were developed during last year’s marches and fine-tuned during meetings leading up to Tuesday’s demonstration.
“Everybody was orderly, and it was a completely coordinated event,” said Chicago Police Cmdr. Frank Gross, who handles special events, and was dubbed “awesome” by march organizers.
During the march, police mostly kept inconspicuous, wearing “soft” street uniforms without riot gear or helmets, said Deputy Supt. Charles Williams.
While police tried to disperse a crowd at the end of the Los Angeles rally, apparently sparking the confrontation, Chicago police allowed demonstrators to hang around Grant Park as long as they could stand the chilly lake breeze.
Chicago officials refrained Wednesday from commenting on what happened in Los Angeles, where activists spent the day hurling charges of excessive force, and even police Chief William Bratton called his officers’ response “inappropriate.”
Instead, police brass here enjoyed the relief of being a mere afterthought in coverage of the big march.
“That’s what this country is about, for everybody to express their opinion freely and safely,” Gross said.
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