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Brutal and beautiful summer
Three stories from the front lines of the 2020 protests, when the bridges went up and the statues came down
Sign up for our newsletters Subscribe The police used pepper spray to subdue protesters attempting to remove the statue of Christopher Columbus from Grant Park. Grace Del Vecchio Just after 6 PM on August 15, 2020, the sun was beginning its descent in the gray sky. The air was humid and the pavement, wet from rain, radiated heat. The officers marched in lockstep south on Michigan, many unmasked, wearing the same black bulletproof vests and light blue riot helmets, banging batons on their thick shields. Their boots pounded the pavement in synchrony. They screamed Move back!
And now, finally, the finish line is in sight.
A year that started like any other quickly took a turn into chaos and uncertainty:
• The coronavirus killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.
• Shutdowns brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the economy, leaving tens of thousands of Illinoisans out of work.
• The police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis prompted protests, rallies and looting, the likes of which this city and country hadn’t seen in decades.
• And a gun violence epidemic reached a grim milestone in Chicago, with more than 700 homicides, a number last seen in 2016.
Along the way, face masks, social distancing, working from home, nose swabs, e-learning, drive-thru graduations/funerals/birthdays/etc. and Zoom meetings all became part of the “new normal.”