TODAY: Latino Families March Against Police Violence in Pilsen

Today at 11:30 a.m., Latino families will march against police violence in Pilsen. Organized by Chicago Latina Moms (CLM) and Organized Communities Against Deportation (OCAD), the march will kickoff at Cultura in Pilsen (1900 S Carpenter), continue down 18th Street to Ashland, and end at the Juvenile Detention Center on the corner of Roosevelt and Ogden where a family-friendly rally will take place.

According to the press release, “after the systemic violence brought to light by the video of Laquan McDonald’s murder, members of the Chicago Latina Moms group began to have conversations about the fears as parents of Black and Brown Latino children of police brutality, surveillance and criminalization, and the need to get involved in supporting organizing being done by Black youth in Chicago. They came together with Organized Communities Against Deportations, a group that organizes against the criminalization of immigrants and the use of immigration enforcement as an extension of police enforcement.”

The collaboration resulted in the march to:

• bring attention to state and police violence against immigrant and Latino families

• show solidarity with the #BlackLivesMatter movement

• show support for the Black Youth Project’s call to defund police, invest those resources in Black communities, and demand the resignation of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez.

At the final destination, the event will feature tamales, ponche, live music, and caroling, as well as a “play-in” in solidarity with “the children of Chicago experiencing violence and incarceration.”