On August 20th, 2024, while Brandon Johnson was rolling out the red carpet for the Party of Genocide, Behind Enemy Lines, and several hundred people attempted to militantly confront the Death and Nakba Coronation (DNC), which had invaded Chicago. Instead of being allowed to march anywhere near the United Center, we were met with a police riot, personally supervised by CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling. On August 21st, with many of our members still in custody, BEL volunteers hit the streets to expose the repression against righteous protest and demand that the charges against all DNC protesters be dropped, making it clear that it’s right to rebel against genocide! 

For 8 months, we’ve been going out to the people across Chicago, raising this demand and talking to people about what really went down at the DNC. For 8 months, we’ve been packing the courthouse to monitor the proceedings and support the arrested protesters as they wind their way through the legal system. For 8 months, we have been rallying outside the courthouse, holding press conferences, and disrupting the Mayor, demanding that he answer for the political prosecution happening under his leadership. 

Even as a number of DNC cases were dropped because the cops couldn’t bother to show up to court hearings, or because the state’s attorneys declined to prosecute arrested protestors, the city attorneys who work directly for Brandon Johnson vociferously prosecuted every protester they could. At the beginning of 2025, Behind Enemy Lines brought together a group of protesters who refused to take any plea deals with the city and insisted on their right to go to take their cases to trial. Over the last 2 months, every single one of the charges has resulted in a not liable verdict, or had the case dropped. Between the resilience of the protesters who refused all deals offered, the political support and pressure that we were able to bring forward, and the astute legal work of the Chicago National Lawyers Guild attorneys, we were able to beat all of these cases. 

Brandon Johnson has made his position abundantly clear: protest is only allowed, insofar as he and his thugs in blue approve of it. If you dare to demand your day in court, they will treat you to months of administrative punishment, dragging you into date after date in court, and call cops to the stand to lie about you. Behind Enemy Lines has been able to make our position clear as well: it’s always right to resist. The City of Chicago found no legal basis to justify the dozens of arrests they made against DNC protesters, because none exists, and we exposed that. 

The repression against Palestine protesters that’s being expanded under Trump was built by Genocide Joe and the blue-city mayors who cracked down on the student encampments. The only way it will come to an end is if people draw a line in the sand and refuse to go along with the program. In a small way, our victory over Brandon Johnson and the City of Chicago contributes to building the much-needed culture of resistance. In the face of continued and ongoing genocide in Gaza, renewed assaults on Yemen and Lebanon, deportation threats against student activists, that culture of resistance is urgently needed. 

Behind Enemy Lines sends our heartfelt salute to the people to refused deals and insisted on going to trial, along with the lawyers from the NLG Chicago who have stood with us every step of the way. And we encourage everyone reading this to continue to follow and support the remaining DNC protesters facing charges. 

It’s right to rebel against genocide!