This August, thousands took to the streets of Guatemala to denounce the corruption of the country's president, Otto Pérez Molina. They were assembled there because one woman—Lucía Mendizábal—made a Facebook event. Thousands joined online, then a ton of them actually showed up IRL. Molina's protest eventually ended up toppling her government.

Rachel Brown, an NYU student from Albany, started a similar Facebook event of her own last week, calling for the resignation of Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel and Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez. Brown's event didn't have the same success rate as Molina's but the results were still pretty staggering. Hundreds protested for over five hours in downtown Chicago Wednesday asking Emanuel and Alvarez to step down in response to their fumbled handling of the murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke.

ADVERTISEMENT

After a city-wide walkout at noon, the protesters looped around the entire city. They blocked off a major intersection that put most of the city into gridlock. Photographer Matthew Avignone was there. Check out his photos of Chicagoans below, along with his first hand account of what it was like in the crowd.