Lockdowns seen as worsening riots, in turn hitting businesses even harder: 'It’s a perfect storm'

Major cities across America, reeling from monthslong lockdowns because of the coronavirus crisis, are now being roiled by riots and protests — and businesses already buckling under the weight of the economic downturn are being hit even harder as a result.

“It’s a perfect storm. You have COVID, you have the marches and then you have the looters, three completely different things,” Helana Natt, executive director at the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce, told Fox News in an interview.

The two crises are interconnected in a uniquely harmful way. Not only are businesses being crushed under the weight of lockdowns and now widespread looting and unrest, but the coronavirus restrictions potentially have contributed to an even more dangerous situation once riots broke out. Many cities have been virtual ghost towns for months, contributing to a sense that, quite literally, nobody is minding the store.

Natt told Fox News she believes much of the looting could have been stopped if stores were full of people and communities that otherwise would protect them were not locked down.

“They wouldn’t have seen an empty store and what’s more important is that the people protesting peacefully would have seen that ‘hey this is my community, this is my neighborhood and we’re going to prevent you from looting it’ and I think the dynamic would have been completely different,” she said.

Indeed, much of America has been on lockdown since March in response to the novel coronavirus, a move initially done to slow the spread of the virus and “flatten the curve.” But with some states only now beginning to reopen, it also caused catastrophic economic damage. Tens of millions of Americans have been put out of work, while businesses across the country have shuttered.

Now it’s being combined with protests in response to the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis last week. Those protests have spread across the country and frequently escalated into violence and looting in places such as New York City, Atlanta and Washington, D. C.

Observers note that the lockdowns – bringing with them empty streets, empty stores, high unemployment, a well-documented spike in mental health issues, anger and angst – likely contributed to a tinder box that then was sparked by already-simmering tensions over racial injustice and police brutality. The video of Floyd's death shocked the nation and brought thousands onto the streets in a call for justice that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have largely backed.

But the accompanying riots and crime brought a second shock, leaving ... (Read more)

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