Police chiefs from across the country gathered at McCormick Place for a five-day conference about new methods and technology in policing, while protesters demonstrated outside. NBC 5’s Charlie Wojciechowski reports.
After 66 people were arrested during a protest on the first day of an impressive gathering of police chiefs in Chicago, the demonstrations continued Monday as the conference proceeded.
About 150 people gathered outside McCormick Place, where the conference will take place through Wednesday, and took aim at gun makers who were exhibiting at the event. The group, comprised of leaders with United Power for Action and Metro Industrial Areas Foundation, called for "smart gun" technology that would require a gun to have fingerprint recognition in order to fire and help prevent the sale of guns to the wrong people.
About 80 police chiefs indicated they were on board with the demonstrators, but the group has not yet received a response from Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy.
The annual International Association of Chiefs of Police conference is the world's largest law enforcement conference of the year with more than 14,000 professionals in attendance. Its goal is to teach law enforcement officials new policing techniques and introduce the latest equipment and technology, which is what draws the numerous gun makers to the event.
President Obama is scheduled to speak at the conference on Tuesday and address the different ways to make law enforcement and correctional practices more just and effective.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel and McCarthy spoke at the conference on Saturday as protesters rallied outside. They spoke about Chicago's strategy of community policing and the Chicago Police Department's efforts to curb violence by getting illegal guns off the streets.
Demonstrators outside McCormick Place on Saturday protested the police killings of Rekia Boyd and Michael Brown, among others. Many of them also sat in the street chained together and temporarily blocked the intersections at Cermak and Indiana and Cermak and Prairie.
Others chanted phrases such as "We got to stop the cops and fund black futures." By the end of the day, 19 men and 47 women were arrested outside McCormick Place on misdemeanor charges of obstruction of traffic by a non-motorist, according to Chicago Police News Affairs. All of them were released on Sunday.
