CHICAGO (CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM) — Chicago police say they arrested about a dozen protesters who were blocking downtown traffic in a demonstration against cuts to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development budget.
Some 300 people gathered at the James R. Thompson Center plaza late Friday afternoon for the protest. Police say that about 10 minutes into the rally, about two-dozen protestors — including four in wheelchairs — linked arms across Clark Street, stopping afternoon rush-hour traffic. A police spokesman says they up cardboard boxes in the street, calling them a “Tea Party Housing Development.”
The arrested people were charged with misdemeanors for disorderly conduct.
The demonstrators were protesting a 21 percent cut to the HUD made last week by the U.S. House of Representatives.