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| Six hours after Sunday’s Pride Parade, police are on standby at Roscoe and Halsted | CWB Reader |
Chicago’s 48th Annual Pride Parade and its aftermath resulted in an estimated 19 arrests Sunday afternoon into early this morning. If that figure holds, it will be the lowest arrest total for a Pride Parade since at least 2012, according to records maintained by CWBChicago.
Two people were arrested for brandishing firearms, and at least five robberies were reported—including two during the parade itself.
But, for the first time in three years, CWBChicago is not aware of any stabbings or shootings connected to the parade celebration.
The arrest total was undoubtedly slashed by the police department’s decision to stop admission to Halsted Street bars at 11 p.m. and to close the bars at midnight.
Even the Boystown 7-Eleven store at Roscoe and Halsted was closed by police orders around 9 p.m. CPD supervisors cited “public safety” for the forced closure after a large fight broke out in the store’s parking lot.
The parade itself ran 4 hours and 8 minutes from step-off until the last entry crossed the finish line—21 minutes longer than last year.
Twenty-four people were arrested in connection with last year’s parade; 52 in 2015; and 46 each in 2013 and 2014, according to records.
Weapons Arrests
Several people reported different men brandishing guns in the crowd during Sunday’s parade, but police were not able to locate any of the suspects.
Then, following up on yet another call of a man flashing a gun around 5:30 p.m., cops made an arrest. After a brief foot chase, the suspect was taken into custody in the 3100 block of North Broadway, and a weapon was recovered. Charges are pending.
Four hours later, police responded to reports of a woman threatening people with a gun in the street near Oakdale and Sheffield. Officers found a woman matching the callers’ description and recovered a weapon. Charges are also pending against her.
Robberies
• A robbery near the Belmont Red Line ended with an arrest around 3:30 p.m. Officers tazed the offender, but he managed to wrangle free from the electrode spikes and run away. Cops gave chase and took the man into custody nearby.
• About 20 minutes later, a man was severely beaten and robbed in the 500 block of West Oakdale as the parade ended. Two male offenders fled in an unknown direction. The victim was taken away by ambulance.
• A man was hit in the face with a brick and robbed just west of the Belmont Red Line station a little after midnight this morning. The offender, described as a black male wearing a black t-shirt with white dots on it, was last seen running northbound in the east alley of Sheffield. The victim was transported to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center for treatment.
• Another man was robbed at Halsted and Waveland around 1 a.m. The victim was going home from work when a man and two women threatened him and took his book bag. They were rewarded with the man’s dirty work clothes and his uncashed paycheck. No description was available for the women, but the man was described as black, wearing a white shirt with gray pants.
• A Boystown man reported that he was beaten up and robbed by two men during the post-parade festivities. The victim was unable to remember exactly where the robbery took place when he reported it at 1:30 a.m.
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| The scene on Halsted Street shortly before the bars closed their doors by police order. | CWB Reader |
The Run-Down
And, by popular demand, a few of the other emergency radio calls that caught our ears on Sunday:
9:33AM – Caller says a “male white ‘little person’ wearing a Cubs hat threatened him with a gun” at Grace and Broadway. No armed “little person” was found.
12:15PM — Whoops! Patrick just stepped outside and noticed that someone stole a Remington shotgun from the back of his Jeep Cherokee.
12:49PM — Drone reported over the 3200 block of North Halsted. Top cop in charge of the parade: “Try to identify the drone flyer. If they find him, we’re going to grab him, we’re gonna arrest him and we’re gonna inventory his drone.” That’s not exactly “Go ahead, make my day,” but it’ll have to do.
1:15PM — At the parade staging area: “I don’t see any protesters. There is a guy with a Trump sign. But they’re in the parade. They just don’t like Trump.”
1:45PM — Reports of a restaurant on Broadway “selling liquor in to-go cups.”
1:47PM — 705 Belmont: EMS call.
“Female Hispanic, 14. She’s very drunk and hit the panic button on her phone.”
“Did you say 14?”
“I did.”
2:10PM — Hold your calls! We have a winner! The first arrest of the day takes place at Belmont and Halsted. Criminal sexual abuse is the preliminary classification.
2:18PM — COP: “There’s four male Hispanics drinking alcohol and smoking weed.”
19th DISTRICT COMMANDER: “Who’s complaining about them smoking marijuana? They all are!”
2:26PM — Second arrest of the day. He’s a drone pilot. Diversey and Pine Grove. Daaaayum! They’re gonna inventory your drone, dude!
3:22PM — “We have a young lady who fell down and busted her face open pretty good” at Wellington and Broadway.
3:33PM — Parade is halted briefly after a parade participant fell down the stairs of a double-decker bus. Also at Wellington and Broadway.
Chicago Pride Parade at a standstill. Injury on entry at Broadway and Wellington. 3:35pm. #chicagoprideparade #gaychicago #boystown pic.twitter.com/hcN5MegHJ4— GoPride Network (@GoPride) June 25, 2017
4:15PM — The Starbucks at Clark and Belmont is forced to close after about a dozen people storm the store, ransack the place, and deploy pepper spray.
4:16PM — “Ya got three male whites waving sex toys in the air” at Belmont and Broadway.
4:19PM — “Two people went into the porta potty and won’t come out. They’re not responding when people knock.” Buckingham and Clark.
4:31PM — “Intoxicated male standing between two cars. He’s been vomiting for two hours.” 600 block of Oakdale.
5:01PM — Random radio transmission: “Hey! The paramedics are looking for the puker.”
5:07PM — An intoxicated female keeps trying to climb a building. 600 block of Barry.
5:16PM — “30 people” stealing from the Walgreens. 3046 North Halsted.
6PM — CPD boss: “I’m releasing the district draw on the line of march. No tact. No gang. Nobody else.”
COP: “What about gang?” No.
COP 2: “What about salt trucks?” No
COP 3: “What about tact teams?” No
COP 4: “Can we get a lunch?”
RANDOM VOICE: “Whoever keeps asking, stop.”
6:36PM — 3900 Broadway: A drunk guy picked up a woman’s purse and then got punched out by a lady when he got caught. EMS and arrest teams ordered.
6:41PM — “Disregard,” says a cop with the drunk purse thief. “They resolved it. He took a licking and realized he deserved it.”
8PM — Resident near the Belmont Red Line says she asked some men to stop urinating in her yard and they knocked her in the head. Also, they’re selling drugs.
8:41PM — “I got someone hit in the head with a bottle of vodka outside Hydrate.”
9:07PM — “We got a pretty good fight in the 7-11 parking lot.” CPD closes the store due to “public safety.”
Video
Police clearing the 900 block of Belmont at 1 a.m. today. “Like a thousand blue lightning bugs,” one passer-by said.
