Chicago Looting Leads To More Than 100 Arrests, Dozens Of Damaged Businesses
Hundreds of individuals who participated in widespread looting and vandalism across downtown Chicago early Monday engaged in “abject criminal behavior” and were not part of an organized protest, the city’s mayor said.
Dozens of stores, banks and other businesses were broken into and burglarized. More than 100 people were arrested and at least 13 officers were injured, according to police. The unrest followed an officer-involved shooting on Sunday.
Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot described the overnight chaos as an “assault on our city,” and called on state prosecutors to hold those involved accountable.
“This had nothing to do with legitimate, protected First Amendment expression,” Lightfoot said during a news conference Monday morning. “What occurred in our downtown and surrounding communities was abject criminal behavior, pure and simple.”
“These were not poor people engaged in petty theft to feed themselves and their families,” she added. “This was straight-up felony criminal conduct.”
UPDATE: Mayor Lightfoot joins CPD Superintendent Brown to provide update on overnight criminal activity. https://t.co/84k7ybMJuY
— Mayor Lori Lightfoot (@chicagosmayor) August 10, 2020
Looting in Chicago’s Magnificent Mile shopping district and other areas of the city’s downtown area began around 11:30 p.m. Sunday, police said.
Video captured by local reporters and bystanders showed people breaking windows to enter and burglarize various stores, including a Nordstrom, Best Buy, Pandora and 7-Eleven. Some individuals who participated in the looting could be seen piling into cars with stolen goods and fleeing the scene.
Photos of the vandalism showed anti-police graffiti in some areas.
Authorities believe the looting may be connected to an officer-involved shooting that occurred in the city’s Englewood neighborhood on Sunday afternoon, Chicago Police Superintendent Dan Brown said during the news conference Monday.
Officers had...
