Authorities said six people were arrested during a protest Saturday night near Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s home, where protesting has been made virtually impossible through enforcement of a residential protesting ban.
Four women and two men were taken in custody and charged with misdemeanor counts of residential picketing in the 3400 block of West Wrightwood Avenue after officers were called about 10:30 p.m. to disperse the group, police said.
Those arrested live in New York, Washington, Arkansas and Pennsylvania and have since been released, authorities said Sunday morning. One of the women also was issued a citation for violating a city ordinance about loud music or amplified sound.
The arrests come days after the Tribune first reported that police no longer were allowing protests near Lightfoot’s Logan Square home. It wasn’t immediately clear whether these were the first such arrests since the directive had been communicated to officers in a July email but a spokesman said he was not aware of others. The protesters are believed to have been arrested by uniformed officers assigned to her home.
Chicago police have since repeatedly blocked protesters’ access to the block with groups of officers and barricades, which a local First Amendment attorney said was on “questionable constitutional grounds.” Police have often kept protesters contained at the nearby corner of Kimball and Wrightwood avenues.
Lightfoot has argued that the police presence is justified given the threats she and her family have faced. She also maintains that comparisons to how previous mayors were protected would be unfair because “this is a different time like no other.”
“I’m not going to make any excuses for the fact that, given the threats I have personally received, given the threats to my home and my family, I’m going to do everything I can to make sure they’re protected,” Lightfoot said last week. “I make no apologies whatsoever for that.”
Twitter @JessicaVillag