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A protester faces a line of police officers in Chicago on Saturday, May 30, 2020. (Hugo Balta / WTTW News)
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Nearly $2 million of that toll went to pay private lawyers to defend the conduct of CPD officers from late May until mid-August 2020, one of the most tumultuous periods in Chicago history, according to records obtained by WTTW News.

O’Hare International Airport is pictured in a file photo. (WTTW News)

Demonstrators used the traffic shutdown to bring attention to the continuing war in Palestine and push for a cease-fire in Gaza. Traffic flow resumed by about 9:20 a.m. 

Protesters and police officers wearing riot gear have a standoff near Daley Plaza on Saturday, May 30, 2020. (Evan Garcia / WTTW News)
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Former Chicago Police Sgt. Cassandra Williams, who worked for the Chicago Police Department for 32 years, said she faced severe harassment and retaliation for filing a complaint against her commanding officer, Lt. Jason Brown, who remains on the force. “I crossed the blue line,” Williams said.

Protesters yell at a line of police officers at State and 35th streets, about 3 miles south of the Loop, where police set up a blockade on Sunday, May 31, 2020. (Evan Garcia / WTTW News)

Chicago Police Board President Ghian Foreman told investigators he was struck by an officer after Foreman attempted to intervene after seeing several police officers “just whaling away on” a man with their batons, records show.

Protesters march, Sunday, Nov. 21, 2021, in Kenosha, Wis. Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges after pleading self-defense in the deadly Kenosha shootings that became a flashpoint in the nation's debate over guns, vigilantism and racial injustice. (AP Photo / Paul Sancya)

Demonstrators traced the route Rittenhouse took the night in August last year when he shot and killed two people and wounded a third during protests over police brutality. They carried signs that said “Reject Racist Vigilante Terror” and “THE WHOLE SYSTEM IS GUILTY!” A couple of protesters carried long guns.

(Courtesy of the Day family)

The Illinois State University graduate was last seen in late August, and his body was found last month. On Monday, the LaSalle County coroner said Jelani Day drowned to death, but his family is asking federal agencies to get involved.

In this Oct. 2, 2021 file photo people participate in the Houston Women's March against Texas abortion ban walk from Discovery Green to City Hall in Houston. (Melissa Phillip / Houston Chronicle via AP, File)
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A one-page order by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued late Friday reinstated the nation’s strictest abortion law, which bans abortions once cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks. It makes no exceptions in cases of rape or incest.

Demonstrators march outside of the the U.S. Supreme Court during the Women’s March in Washington, Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021. (AP Photo / Jose Luis Magana)
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The first Women’s March of the Biden administration headed straight for the steps of the Supreme Court on Saturday, part of nationwide protests that drew thousands to Washington to demand continued access to abortion.

Workers, community members, and labor organization Arise Chicago rally at the 26th Street headquarters, Sept. 30, 2021. (WTTW News).

Worker walkouts amid calls for improved conditions continue at the El Milagro tortilla plant in Little Village. We get an update on the situation from Jorge Mújica, a strategic organizer for the community labor advocate organization Arise Chicago.

A group of workers with tortilla maker El Milagro march across 26th Street to protest working conditions on Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021. (WTTW News)

Workers are back on the job after last week’s walkout. We hear about their working conditions and the latest on their organizing efforts.

Police stage at a security fence ahead of a rally near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021.  (AP Photo / Nathan Howard)
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In a city still on edge after the Jan. 6 insurrection, law enforcement bore down in large numbers on the Capitol on Saturday over concerns that a rally in support of the jailed rioters would turn violent. It didn’t.

People speak out against the city’s use of ShotSpotter technology at a rally on Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021. (WTTW News)

Activists and youth leaders are calling on Chicago officials to dump the city’s contract with gunshot detection company ShotSpotter, claiming the technology is unreliable and often leads to police being sent into communities on “high alert” for false alarms.

In this June 4, 2020, file photo, demonstrators protest near the White House in Washington, over the death of George Floyd, a black man who was in police custody in Minneapolis. (AP Photo / Alex Brandon, File)

The federal government deliberately targeted Black Lives Matter protesters via heavy-handed criminal prosecutions in an attempt to disrupt and discourage the global movement that swept the nation last summer in the wake of the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, according to a new report.

(WTTW News)

Federal authorities on Tuesday announced that Jose Valdovinos had been arrested earlier this week after a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging him with maliciously damaging and destroying a building in June 2020.

Protesters and police officers wearing riot gear have a standoff near Daley Plaza on Saturday, May 30, 2020. (Evan Garcia / WTTW News)

The city and Chicago Police Department did not have the “policies, reporting practices, training, equipment, data analysis, community engagement, or inter-agency coordination required to respond effectively” to widespread protests and unrest last summer, according to a new report.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, May 13, 2021. (AP Photo / Susan Walsh)
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The House is expected to vote next week on two bills aimed at preventing more attacks on the U.S. Capitol, with one seeking to establish a 9/11-style commission to study what went wrong on Jan. 6 and the other allocating $1.9 billion to address the security problems revealed by the insurrection.