© 2024 WNIJ and WNIU
Northern Public Radio
801 N 1st St.
DeKalb, IL 60115
815-753-9000
Northern Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Report for America is a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities.

More Arrests At Rockford City Market

Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco
Corner of Joe Marino Park

14 protesters were arrested Friday during a demonstration organized by the May 30th Alliance outside the Rockford City Market. Upwards of 50 protesters gathered across the street from the market at the Joe Marino Park and called for solidarity. 

 

 

Protesters could be heard throughout the city market chanting, "It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains. We have nothing to lose but our chains."

 

Protesters took to the intersection of State and Water streets, but remained on the crosswalks, effectively stopping traffic. A group of onlookers from the market cheered as protesters were rounded up and in some cases carried away by police officers.

 

The charges brought against the protesters included disordely conduct, resisting arrest, mob action and aggravated battery.

 

  • Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco is a 2020 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project which is a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms.
Juanpablo covers environmental, substandard housing and police-community relations. He’s been a bilingual facilitator at the StoryCorps office in Chicago. As a civic reporting fellow at City Bureau, a non-profit news organization that focuses on Chicago’s South Side, Ramirez-Franco produced print and audio stories about the Pilsen neighborhood. Before that, he was a production intern at the Third Coast International Audio Festival and the rural America editorial intern at In These Times magazine. Ramirez-Franco grew up in northern Illinois. He is a graduate of Knox College.