Chicago Activist Comes To Joliet To Protest Eric Lurry's Death

JOLIET, IL — With a megaphone in hand, Rabbi Michael Ben Yosef demanded answers — from Joliet police, from citizens in cars driving down Washington Street and from anyone who happened to be walking near the entrance of the Joliet Police Department Thursday morning.

He began by explaining why he and his organization, Tikkun Chai Inter-National, came out to Joliet in the first place — demanding answers for the Eric Lurry case.

“The info to the family, the wife of the deceased was not released expeditiously,” he said. “We thank God for this whistleblower, we want another to come forward. We demand that the wife gets everything she’s supposed to get.”

Yosef was talking about the case of Lurry, who was arrested by Joliet Police Department in January and died at the hospital the next day. A video of the arrest of Lurry has now been viewed by Joliet City Council, Joliet city leaders, local press and has been included in part in television news reports.

At some point Thursday, Yosef made his way into the street and confronted people who were in cars, asking them what they thought of the murder of Lurry. One driver he stopped he asked to beep her horn to signify that Black lives matter. She did so. He asked another driver to pull their car over and join the protest. The driver pulled over, but did not join the protest.

Police started assembling more heavily when Yosef headed into the streets. One officer approached Yosef and told him he needed to step out of the street or he would have to write him a ticket.

“If I get out of the street and that’s one thing I’ll do, follow orders when they’re told to me,” he started and finished his sentence by telling the officer he would need him to talk about the “murder of Eric Lurry.”

He continued to ask the officer questions once both were standing nearer to the sidewalk.

Yosef asked his feelings on the “murder of Lurry” and asked him if he could hear his question.

“I hear a lot of distortion,” Evans answered.

The officer never answered the question that Yosef asked.

Joliet Police officers eventually blocked the area of Washington Street in front of the police station with cones.

“We don’t need cones, we need answers,” Yosef said.