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‘Don’t Bait Us!’: Chicago Mayor Snaps At Reporter For Asking If ‘No Consequences’ For Previous Arrestees Encouraged Latest Looting

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Democratic Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot snapped at a reporter who asked whether the “lack of consequences” for the looting that took place following the death of George Floyd may have contributed to the latest round of violence and looting.

After a weekend of looting and rioting sparked by a shootout between police officers and an armed suspect, Lightfoot decried the violence as “brazen and extensive criminal looting and destruction” in a Monday morning press conference.

During the presser, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown suggested looters could have been behaving “as if there are not consequences” because of “what happened previously,” referring to Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx’s decision to drop charges against several hundred protesters arrested for looting and other offenses during the George Floyd protests.

“It almost sounds as though you were saying … the reason we have this is the courts and the prosecutors were not doing their job, that they were going too easy on the looters from the last time around. Is that my understanding?” the reporter asked Brown.

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“Don’t take it from me,” Brown responded. “Just go about what’s been done. I don’t want to do your job for you but go about what’s been done. There were no consequences for the people arrested.”

At this point, Lightfoot stood up and addressed the reporter:

“Let’s be clear,” she said. “Don’t bait us! OK? Do not bait us. Do not bait us. This is a serious situation. People are concerned about their safety. Officers are concerned about their safety. So don’t bait us. What we’re saying is, as a result of what happened last night, there have to be consequences. We’ve got teams of people that are aggressively out there identifying the people responsible, looking at the plates, and working on bringing them to justice.”

“But when we do, and we do make those arrests, our expectation is that is going to be treated with the level of seriousness that it should be, period,” she continued. “Don’t try to bait us, mischaracterize, pit one against the other. We’re not playing that. We’re in a serious situation here, and we need a serious response. That’s what we’re saying, period.” (RELATED: Tucker Laments Double Standard: ‘Normal’ People Must Follow ‘Countless New Rules,’ Rioters ‘Get To Ignore’ Them)

The reporter tried to deny he was baiting them, but was cut off by the Chicago mayor.