The Surprising Mainstream Media Photography That Is Covering Your Protests

I said it before: The Chicago Tribune is changing, and what a change it's been

The media loves words like “iconic.”

Sometimes, I do, too. The photographs by Chicago Tribune photojournalist Stacey Wescott covering the ICEstapo protests in the Chicago suburb of Broadview fall into that category.

Screenshot of Tribune article; fair use claim

Wescott’s image, shown in the screenshot above, made the rounds big time on the internet, especially on BlueSky.

The photograph featured a former Marine named Curtis Evans, of Evanston, Illinois, carrying a U.S. flag as ICEstapo thugs shot teargas into a crowd of protesters at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on September 19.

Evans, according to the Tribune story, “said he was a Marine during President Ronald Reagan’s term.”

Teargas and Pepper Spray can’t hurt you. They only hurt. Do not be afraid

That’s the message from the Marine who carried the flag through the teargas hurled by deranged ICEstapo agents. These chemical weapons do no lasting damage, he said. They just hurt. So he marched right through it, yanking the word “patriot” from the maga lexicon and redeploying it like the kind of hero that people like Pete Hegseth can’t imagine being in their wildest dreams.

Chicago Tribune Reporter Caroline Kubzansky spoke to Evans:

I was struck by how upbeat and seemingly nonchalant he was about standing in front of the gate. He’s 65, lives in Evanston and said he’d recently retired from a career in public works. We talked about why he’d felt like it was important to be out there that day, his experience of the standoff with the white SUV, his history with the Marines, what he hoped to accomplish that morning and the fact that he felt himself in uncharted territory.

I end every interview by asking people if there were any questions I should have asked them. Most people initially say no but then they think of something they forgot. Evans did exactly that.

“I know what you should know,” he said. “Let people know that tear gas only hurts, and that’s what it’s designed to do. Pepper balls only hurt. You’ll be okay.”

Wescott and Kubzansky provided their timeline of events in a story that appeared in the Tribune.

You can read it by click-tapping the button below. This is a gift link from yours truly, meaning no paywall, no nag screens, all free.

You can also view all 57 of Wescott’s and other Tribune photographers’ photographs of ongoing protests at the Broadview ICE facility here — also a gift link (yay, more free stuff for my readers!).

The Tribune was proud enough of Stacey Wescott’s work that they posted a free link for everyone here. If that link fails you or asks for a paywall, my apologies. I checked it on a browser that doesn’t have Chicago Tribune account cookies, though. So it should work.

Or…

Notes

If this article feels like an ad for the Tribune and you’re thinking, “Whoa, does CB have some kind of affiliate marketing scam going?” Nope. I’m just noticing the rare occasion where a mainstream media pub is actually reversing direction away from Trumpland, and yeah, I want to promote that.

I want them to get more readers.

I recently wrote about the evolution of the newspaper from its origins as a conservative newspaper into its current iteration. Now, it almost feels like it’s on our side: The side of decency, the side of freedom, and the side of rebellion in the face of growing fascism:

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