Following looting and rioting in Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Tuesday that the violence was a “planned attack” rather than a protest, Time reported.
More than 100 people were arrested and 13 officers injured amid the looting, which targeted high-end stores, with scenes depicting people breaking into businesses and running out with armfuls of clothes and jewelry Sunday. The violence was reportedly prompted by a shooting, but Lightfoot said it wasn’t a “spontaneous reaction” according to Time.
“When people showed up on Michigan Avenue in the downtown area with U-Haul trucks and cargo vans, and sophisticated equipment used to cut metal, and the methods that were used, and how quickly it got spun up… that wasn’t any spontaneous reaction,” Lightfoot said in an interview published Wednesday.
This isn’t protesting. This is looting I’m sorry but there is a difference. ????????♀️ #Chicago #BLM pic.twitter.com/utoetexFa7
— Angela Stanton King ???????? (@theangiestanton) August 10, 2020
Hundreds of people descended on parts of Chicago after officers reportedly shot Latrell Allen, 20, who was accused of having a gun. Police shot the suspect following a shootout and the man was taken to a hospital, according to Newsweek. Allen is reportedly in the hospital and expected to recover.
“To be sure, there are people that did join in that were motivated by lots of different reasons, and certainly were motivated by social media posts encouraging people to come downtown. But the core of what happened — that’s organized criminal activity… It was a planned attack.”
Chicago’s shopping districts were rife with looting, including Magnificent Mile. Police received over 1,800 calls between midnight and 3 a.m., and Lightfoot told Time that the looters knew the times when police staffing would be low, which would allow for the “best opportunity to make a move.”
One sergeant was hit with a bottle and another had his nose broken amid the rioting, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said Monday. Officers recovered five guns over the course of the looting and rioting, he added. (RELATED: ‘We Are Coming For You,’ Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Warns ‘Criminal And Vigilantes’ After A Night Of Mass Looting, Unrest)
Chicago has experienced a massive spike in both gun incidents and murders throughout July. The city’s murders are up 51% when comparing the January-July periods from 2020 and 2019, and shootings have jumped 47% for the same period.
President @realDonaldTrump on the violence, looting, and rioting taking place in New York, Portland, Chicago & Seattle: “The mayors and governors of these states and cities have an absolute duty to use all resources necessary to end the violence and all of the injury and death.” pic.twitter.com/Lw8oJFmla8
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 11, 2020
Lightfoot has repeatedly insisted that no federal assistance is needed in Chicago, but Trump still ordered roughly 200 federal agents to the city in mid-July.
