Protesters attacked with racially charged slurs, threatened with violence at equestrian derby.
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Antioch, IL 9/10 -– Members of the Trauma Care Coalition including South Side youth, University of Chicago students, members of National Nurses United and clergy, disrupted the Chicago Hunters Derby, luxury equestrian fundraiser in protest over the organizers’ support for the University of Chicago Medicine Cancer Research Center. After approaching the tent where guests paid up to $10,000 for a table chanting slogans, the protesters were stopped by event organizers who yelled racially charged slurs, threatened violence and attempted to illegally detain protesters on the property.
Youth leader Veronica Morris-Moore, who helped lead the protest, explained the decision to disrupt the event: “We wanted to send the message that supporting the UofC comes with a cost. Until the Chicago Hunters Derby decides to stop giving money to the UofC hospital, we consider them complicit in the university’s neglect of black lives on the South Side.”
During the protest, attendees and derby organizers tore signs out of protesters’ hands and yelled racially charged insults at black protesters such as “I bet you’re on welfare – get off your ass and get a job.” The protesters made clear that they were leaving when derby organizers threatened to call the police. However, derby organizers barricaded the gate to the area in which protesters had parked using golf carts, illegally entrapping them. The derby organizers also made violent threats against protesters, including “I wish I had a gun,” and “if you come back, we’ll shoot you.”
The action against the Chicago Hunters Derby is the latest in an escalating campaign for a South Side trauma center: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-south-side-trauma-met-20140803-story.html#page=1
In May, activists staged a week of action including civil disobedience at a UCMC construction site and during the summer, they testified at two state review board hearings on hospital expansion plans. At one of those hearings, regulators denied the UCMC a permit to expand luxury hospital beds after grilling President Sharon O’Keefe on why the institution refuses to help bring a trauma center to the South Side.
The campaign for a trauma center began in 2010 after Woodlawn youth leader Damian Turner was shot in a drive-by shooting on the South Side and died en route to Northwestern Memorial hospital: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/us/03cnchospitals.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
The demand for a South Side trauma center is supported by research by Dr. Marie Crandall showing that the lack of a trauma center significantly increases mortality rates for South Side shooting victims: http://www.wbez.org/news/report-links-chicagoans-distance-trauma-centers-higher-mortality-rates-106732
The campaign is organized by the Trauma Care Coalition, which is led by:
– National Nurses United and various faith groups including the United Church of Christ.
The campaign is also supported by trauma surgeons from across Chicago and various public health groups: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-doctors-add-voices-to-demand-for-u-of-c-trauma-center-20140522-story.html