Chicago, IL: Report Back from NYE Noise Demonstration

Report back from New Year’s Eve noise demonstration in so-called Chicago, Illinois.

A gaggle of prison abolitionists gathered on New Year’s Eve to lift the spirits of community members held captive inside the draconian Cook County Jail, the second largest county jail in this whole damn incarceration nation.

People blasted music from speakers and banged makeshift instruments, shooting off fireworks, marching around the entire jail making sure all divisions saw some love, holding up signs and banners like Fuck Cop City and Pretrial Fairness Now.

January 1st was supposed to begin the implementation of the “Pretrial Fairness Act,” a decarceration law passed in Illinois that would abolish cash bail. But the fascist copaganda disinfo machine called this a “purge,” and a single judge in Kankakee county stopped the law in the final hours of 2022, ensuring that thousands throughout the state would continue to remain in jail for the sole reason that they cannot afford bail.

We knew the State would not so readily empty their prisons, miserable torture centers where dozens of prisoners have died over the past few years alone. We know that even though courts may eventually throw out the flimsy arguments about the “unconstitutional” nature of this bill on appeal, the fascists will continue to fight tooth and nail to preserve the racist system of mass incarceration.

We just have to fight harder to end it; we believe that we will win! To another year of bucking the system!