What began with demonstrations in Chicago rapidly degenerated into rioting and looting. ABC 7 Chicago reports:
CHICAGO (WLS) — Downtown businesses began the large task of cleaning up Sunday morning, after violent protests erupted across the city Saturday.
Many convenience stores, fast food chains and clothing stores had windows knocked out or graffiti strewn across their facades. Crews could be seen boarding up windows and cleaning buildings early Sunday.
Most of the bridges connecting the Loop to River North remained up, and numerous lane and road closures remained in effect.
Chicago police said they could not immediately provide additional information related to the protests Sunday but said mass arrests were taking place. Those in custody were being transported to various stations across the city.
At least four people were shot, one fatally, amid the protests. The fatal shooting happened about 11 p.m. in River North.
The number of homicides in Chicago in 2020 has already exceeded the toll in either 2019 or 2018 and is well on its way to meeting or exceeding the number in 2017. Last night we received a call informing us of a citywide curfew, the first of my recollection.
There are also some reports of so-called “protesters” actively impeding police officers and firefighters, jamming police frequencies, or even setting fire to police cars. That isn’t protest; it’s rioting. I urge the media to stop sugar-coating things. Rioters are rioters; looters are looters.
I would also point out that if, as a demonstrator, you impede the police you have assumed an affirmative responsibility to restrain rioters including by force. I have also heard of some incidents of that taking place for which kudos and thanks.
None of this should come as a surprise and it’s only partly about the homicide that took place in Minneapolis. Chicagoans have long-standing grievances against the police, too, and the reforms that have taken place have not been sufficient to redress those grievances. One of the reasons that Lori Lightfoot was elected mayor was in the hope that she would bring reform.
Grievances even just grievances don’t justify rioting and looting. Businesses that have been barely struggling by during the lockdown including those that have continued to pay their employees now have an additional burden imposed on them.
Mayor Lightfoot has a challenge ahead of her. She needs to show both more grace and more leadership than she has lately.
I think that the people who claim to oppose hate and racism have both in spades.
They also have the arrogance coupled with ignorance typical of youth.
If Americans have lost confidence in public police forces then these businesses are going to need private ones.
To expound on the problem facing cities.
If the rioting is prolonged, goes into the summer… this is the future of urban areas.
People who can will work outside of urban areas. The past two months has shown WFH for office work is a viable and now accepted alternative.
Retail will leave urban areas susceptible to urban disturbances. Companies will simply point customers to use their online app; goods to be delivered from secure warehouses in the exurbs.
Speculation on my part, but why not.
According to Fox, Officer Chauvin and George Floyd worked security at the same club. Chauvin for 17 years and Floyd for a few months. It was unclear if they knew one another. Again, speculation, the film shows the arrest going well until George reportedly used “bad language”. Perhaps George realized at that point that he worked with Chauvin and tried to plead special treatment, then Chauvin, having none of that, needed to show fellow officers that he was an officer, not security guard, used his knee to shut George up.
Not excuse. But maybe explanation.
Because I don’t believe for a minute that Chauvin wanted Floyd dead.
Not much use in speculating, and I doubt the officer wanted Floyd dead, but it is pretty clear that you dont care about how you treat people and are not willing to put limits on your behavior when you spend 9 minutes kneeling on the neck of a handcuffed man with 2 other people sitting on top of him. If the story is correct he was unresponsive for 3 of those minutes.
Steve
Gray, your speculation is reasonable. However, no reasonable side bars to this event will penetrate justice warriors thinking. Instead, this incident will be weighed and judged only on the optics of a white cop putting a knee on a black man’s neck, after which he died. Any mitigating details leading up to this event will absolutely have no sway. And, if anyone intervenes, offering a fuller picture that may have led up to such a negative outcome, they will instantly be labeled a racist. It seems that “understanding“ the whys behind a tragedy is irrelevant when it stands in the way of “payback.â€
The fact 2 other officers were sitting on Floyd as he was being choked says there was a lack of discipline. There really is not a mitigating factor with Floyd.
Maybe the meta question is why Chauvin was a police officer? His record already had several cases of excessive use of force complaints. The Minneapolis department had issues with police brutality.
One thing that should be investigated is how to move police officers with a record of discipline / excessive force issues out of “frontline†duty without costing their jobs. Job security is a partial cause of why police reforms are so hard.
Chauvin had 17 citations on his record. Long ago he should have received something more than a slap on the hand. But, no matter what his history was, it still does not void looking into all aspects of this police confrontation with Floyd.
Furthermore, had Floyd been white, and a black cop had put a knee on his neck, ending in his death, do you really think we would be seeing the mayhem we are currently witnessing???
“Furthermore, had Floyd been white, and a black cop had put a knee on his neck, ending in his death, do you really think we would be seeing the mayhem we are currently witnessing”
Except that it just doesn’t happen.
“One thing that should be investigated is how to move police officers with a record of discipline / excessive force issues out of “frontline†duty without costing their jobs. ”
My impression is that the police unions make that pretty difficult. That, plus the siege mentality Dave describes. I think it has been pretty well documented that a small minority of police are responsible for abusive behavior, but it is seldom addressed. There needs to be organizational changes but a lot of it is the culture.
https://hbr.org/2016/08/the-organizational-reasons-police-departments-dont-change
Steve
“Except that it just doesn’t happen.”
Comic relief…..
“I think it has been pretty well documented that a small minority of police are responsible for abusive behavior, but it is seldom addressed.”
Kinda like physicians and politicians.
Have I ever mentioned that I collect lawyer jokes? One of my favorites is that 98% of lawyers give the others a bad name.