Chicago police arrested at least eight people who had gathered at around 11 p.m. Saturday, July 21, to voice their opposition to the presence of MTV’s Real World show in Chicago’s Wicker Park community, according to the Wicker Park “Real World’ consortium.
Protesters gathered at the 14th district police station in a show of solidarity with those arrested, reportedly two women and six men.
One witness reported that police seemed determined to arrest anyone who voiced any negative opinion about the TV show.
Protesters are staging a series of events to jeer both the TV show’s commodification of counter-culture and the fact that, while the Real World producers chose the neighborhood for its trendiness, the very individuals who gave it cache…artists and low-rent hipsters…are rapidly being gentrified out of the community, according to the Wicker Park consortium.