Mayor of Chicago slammed for failed response to looting & police shooting after focusing on lakeside social distancing
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has been excoriated for the city’s belated response to an outbreak of looting, shooting and chaos that followed a police-involved shooting. The city was quick to shut down beach access, however.
Lightfoot belatedly condemned the looters during a press conference on Monday, urging prosecutors to “put their best people” on the task of rounding up those behind the violence that left 13 police officers injured over the course of a single night.
“There is no justification for criminal behavior ever,” Lightfoot said, adding, “You have no right to take and destroy the property of others.”
However, she made a point of distinguishing between “the righteous uprising in the wake of the murder of George Floyd” in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Memorial Day - an event that also triggered outbreaks of violence and looting in cities across the US, including Chicago - and the weekend’s violence, which she called “abject criminal behavior.”
Lightfoot also lambasted judges and prosecutors who allow criminals to “cycle through the system,” a longstanding problem she seems to have only now discovered.
We can’t allow…people to believe there is no accountability in our criminal justice system.
Thank you for blocking access to the lakefront while your city is looted and smashed. Great work @chicagosmayor ! #Looting#Chicago#ChicagoRiots#ChicagoLootingpic.twitter.com/ch7821uCFu
— Zane (@zanecoop) August 10, 2020
Saturday @chicagosmayor heroically tweeted about “Reckless behavior” as people congregated at the beach. Sunday riots broke out involving looting, property damage, & violence. Still no word of Lightfoot deeming the #ChicagoRiots as “Reckless behavior”. They did had masks on. pic.twitter.com/mMuaY2VHxG
— Lou From DelCo (@IslanderNation) August 10, 2020
Many observed the mayor waited until Monday to comment on the looting.
https://www.rt.com/usa/497607-lightfoot-response-looting-chicago-fail/