Chicago Police Department officials released a surveillance video late Monday, taken with existing closed-circuit city cameras monitoring Chicago’s Grant Park, showing a peaceful protest being used as cover to instigate an all-out riot that injured dozens of police officers and led to several arrests.
The video, taken last Friday during a protest to remove a statue of Christopher Columbus located in Grant Park, shows a group of “protesters” suddenly break off from a larger, peaceful demonstration, and move under the cover of trees. Suddenly, dozens of black umbrellas open to shield the group from CCTV cameras.
CPD says the action was pre-planned, and that, while shielded from view by the umbrellas, the “protesters” changed from street clothes to all black and distributed items, including frozen water bottles and fireworks, which they then used to confront Chicago police officers guarding the Columbus statue. In the video, a man in a white shirt dumps out what appears to be bags of these makeshift weapons.