Chicago Is in Shock After Hundreds of Looters Overrun Luxury Shops in ‘Assault on the City’
From WWW.MSN.COM
More than 100 people were arrested Monday, and at least two were shot, following a night of chaos in Chicago’s upscale Magnificent Mile shopping district and other parts of downtown after crowds smashed windows and looted storefronts in a move that city authorities are calling “pure criminality.”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot called the looting an “assault on the city,” and officials have stressed it was not connected to any organized protest, but seemingly spurred after a police-involved shooting in the city’s Englewood section on Sunday afternoon.
Hours after the shooting, police responded to reports of widespread vandalism just after midnight on North Michigan Avenue as hundreds of people, caught on video, swept through Chicago’s downtown, injuring 13 officers and damaging extensive amounts of property.
Ken Londe, the owner of Londo Mondo, said his store got hit around 2:30 am. He said there’s well over $25,000 worth in loss merchandise. He also said the cash drawer was stolen. pic.twitter.com/rsRI08irVk— Madeline Kenney (@madkenney) August 10, 2020
“Criminals took to the streets with the confidence that there would be no consequences for their actions,” Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said at a Monday morning news conference. “This wasn’t an organized protest. It was an incident of pure criminality.”
Brown said the Sunday shooting occurred at around 2:30 p.m. when authorities responded to a call about an individual with a gun. When deputies tried to control the 20-year-old man, he fled the scene and fired at officers during a foot chase, he said.
The officers then returned fire, hitting the unidentified man, who authorities stated Monday has four previous arrests for burglary, child endangerment, and domestic battery. He was brought to a nearby hospital and is reported to be recovering.
Brown said “tempers flared, fueled by misinformation” following the shooting, and dozens of residents gathered in Englewood in outrage. Police then started noticing social-media posts encouraging looting, he said.
Looting continues in downtown Chicago as of 5:45am. These people are coming out of the Block 37 mall on Randolph west of State Street. Looting has been going on all over downtown and the Magnificent Mile since around midnight. Police are all over the place. @WBBMNewsradio pic.twitter.com/qrBwm8KCZX— Bernie Tafoya (@BernieTafoya) August 10, 2020
While the crowd dissipated, police later noticed “several social media posts” prompting a planned looting along the Magnificent Mile, the 13-block stretch of high-end shopping outlets along North Michigan Avenue that runs to Lake Michigan. Brown said about 400 officers were deployed to the area, just as the first looting incident took place, and crowds of people began to smash windows and rush into storefronts on 87th Street and the Dan Ryan Expressway. Soon, Brown said, “car caravans were headed into the Loop” and began mass looting.
According to the Chicago Tribune, d... (Read more)
Tweets mentioned:
https://twitter.com/madkenney/status/1292829335754342401
https://twitter.com/TomAhernCPD/status/1292592711271362566
https://twitter.com/BernieTafoya/status/1292776127359066112
https://twitter.com/VickyBaftiri/status/1292825087087980544
https://twitter.com/TomAhernCPD/status/1292761935415521281
Submitted 1354 days ago
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