Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot vowed to arrest rioters who went on a looting spree in downtown Chicago after news of a police-involved shooting in the city’s Englewood neighborhood.
Mayor Lightfoot joined Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown and city officials at a news conference following a night of unrest reportedly due to a police-involved shooting in Englewood, a neighborhood in Chicago. The 20-year-old victim is in stable condition at a hospital.
After the shooting, a crowd gathered on the South Side, The Loop, Mag Mile and the Gold Coast areas. Social media posts encouraged “a caravan of cars” to go loot downtown. 400 officers were dispatched to the downtown area.
Social media videos shows looters ransacking stores and fleeing with cash registers. In one video, a stolen Audi was rammed into a Tesla dealership. More than 100 looters were arrested on Sunday night.
Superintendent Brown said the looting happened on Sunday night because there were no consequences after the George Floyd riots. Very few criminals were prosecuted after previous riots in May and June.
Mayor Lightfoot was heated, as she called the rioters “felony criminals,” and she instructed one reporter not to “bait” her and the police chief with loaded questions.
“This was not protected First Amendment speech,” Mayor Lightfoot said. “This was not poor people engaged in petty theft to feed themselves. This was straight-up felony criminal conduct.”
The mayor said the shooting in Englewood was not a driving factor in the looting last night. She said the looting was “deeply painful” for residents and merchants, and she thanked the police for their professionalism.
The former prosecutor urged law enforcement to put their best officers on the investigation into the looting.
“To those who engaged in this criminal behavior, let’s be clear, we are coming for you… You have no right to take and destroy the property of others.”
