About two dozen people barricaded themselves inside a South Side mental health clinic Thursday, protesting Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plans to consolidate 12 city clinics into six.
The demonstrators, including about 50 people outside the clinic at 63rd Street and South Woodlawn Avenue, said they planned to stay on site until Emanuel agrees to keep all of the public clinics open.
One of the protest organizers, Matt Ginsburg, said he and about 20 others had been arrested for trespassing about 1 a.m. Friday.
He said the protesters put up barricades in front of the doors made of steel gates, piping and quick-dry cement, but that police used chainsaws to cut through them early Friday, arresting those inside.
No one lost any limbs, so that's good. But wouldn't it be better to have sawz-alls and some of those all-purpose circular saws like the CFD guys have for cutting open roofs?