I’m at the latest rally at Thompson Center to reopen Illinois. There’s a small group of people mulling around with signs and the Beastie Boys’ “Fight for your Right to Party” is blaring over a set of speakers.

We’ve now relocated to a different reopen rally at Buckingham Fountain. There’s a lot more ppl here.

Very few people wearing masks at either rally. Lots of reference to the “plandemic” conspiracy theory.

Some vets are now speaking to the crowd. Speaker just shouted out CPD as they pushed through the crowd to talk to a Fox News photog.

Brian Gibson, a megachurch pastor who spoke at Elim Romanian Pentecostal Church, amped up the crowd by defending the church, which is under fire from the city for operating during the pandemic. He urged crowd to speak out against Mayor Lightfoot’s “injustice.”

State Rep. Darren Bailey, who was kicked out of legislative session last week for going maskless, gets a hero’s welcome. He’s not wearing a mask today. Crowd starts chanting encouraging him to run for governor.

“I love Chicago, it’s part of Illinois. But sometimes when you raise a wayward child, you have to discipline the child,” Bailey says.

Police are now urging organizers to wrap up the event. Organizers appear to be cooperating. Cop just told me they’re trying to have a peaceful dispersal without getting into any “physical situation.”

The news that cops had received social distancing complaints was not met well by the crowd. “Arrest is all,” one person yelled.

Some of the signs and banners

As bike cops are lining up apparently getting ready to disperse crowds, the last two speakers have claimed a vaccine will be mandatory and officials are inflating the COVID case count. Some of the crowd is now barking at CPD.

“Hell no, we won’t go” chant starts ringing out. Speaker invites mass arrests.

The crowd has thinned out a lot. Now a veteran who spoke earlier gets everyone to applaud the boys in blue. That seems to be all, folks.

From Q Anon flags to warnings that COVID-19 is a “plandemic,” conspiracy theories were front and center at today’s events. This literature was handed to me as I left Grant Park: