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Chicago just keeps descending into a maelstrom, as looters ransacked large swaths of the city, hitting high-end stores. The chaos began around midnight (of course, because how many criminals get up for work on Monday?) and lasted throughout the wee hours. While the looting began in the north end of the city, it spread to the Near North side and south to the Loop, Chicago’s main business district.
Even if you don’t live in Chicago or its metro, you’ll recognize the names of these stores the looters cleaned out:
They also struck more plebeian places such as TJ Maxx, Walgreen’s, and a 7-Eleven. Gotta get those Slurpies — rioters, er, “large crowds” (as the media like to say) need hydration, right?
Looters even raided the flagship Macy’s store on State Street, which was formerly Marshall Field’s. It’s a National Historic Landmark, but if you’re out to steal some merch, you don’t care about stuff like history, tradition, or architecture.
Chicago Macys at Christmas. Swimfinfan/flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0.
Here’s an example of a brilliant looter in action. This woman is panicky because she can’t find the tool to remove security tags from the clothing she’s stealing. She’s also putting her crime out on social media. What a genius.
https://twitter.com/ColumbiaBugle/status/1292744439010480128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1292744439010480128%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsummit.news%2F2020%2F08%2F10%2Fchicago-riots-woman-shouts-i-cant-breathe-as-she-loots-luxury-clothing-store%2F
So why did looters descend upon the city like Visigoths invading Rome?
There’s no official reason for the crime spree, but word is that it’s in retaliation for police shooting a 20-year-old man in Englewood, one of the highest crime neighborhoods of the city. The man, who was fleeing police, turned and shot at them. They shot back, but only wounded him in the shoulder. He’ll survive.
But trouble started when rumors began circulating on social media that the police had shot an unarmed teenager. That spun some of Chicago’s finest denizens into a cop-hating rage.
As a woman looter said,
“How much more of this did they think we was gonna take. This been coming.”
While she fumed, pillagers heaved a patio chair through the window of a Salvador Ferragamo store near her. As one does when one is angry.
As a result of the pillaging, the bridges over the Chicago River were raised in order to block looters. Some streets were closed, as were some expressway ramps. Chicago can be tough enough to enter during rush hour traffic; the closures really messed up traffic flow on Monday.
All bridges up in Chicago to prevent access to downtown. @cbschicago pic.twitter.com/KutdT8Nbc6
— Vi Nguyen (@ViNguyen) August 10, 2020
The final tally of the day’s temper tantrum: 100+ arrests, two people shot, and 13 cops injured. Plus some of the finest shopping in the nation trashed. Yeah, that’ll help a financially-strapped city that’s also dealing with COVID.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Police Superintendent David Brown held a press conference afterwards. Brown asserted that the violence was not an “organized protest.”
“Rather this was an incident of pure criminality. This was an act of violence against our police officers and against our city.”
Brown also pointed out that Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx had dropped charges against looters who caused havoc in May and June.
Lightfoot also seemed to throw some shade at Foxx:
Supt Brown goes a step further, saying after Cook Co State’s attorney dropped charges against looters in May and June, criminals feel emboldened. https://t.co/A4LMxajioy
— Ben Bradley (@BenBradleyTV) August 10, 2020
Well, well, well — Kim Foxx. Ironically, on the same morning of the looting, the Chicago Tribune published an analysis of Foxx’s tendency to let felons loose. Indeed, during her first three years as State’s Attorney, she dropped about 30% of all charges. Her predecessor dropped about 19.5%.
Of course, as parents all know, if you don’t punish bad behavior, you’ll get more bad behavior. The same goes for criminals, too.
Last month, Lori Lightfoot pushed back when President Trump wanted to send federal troops to assist her in fighting criminals. She tweeted:
“Under no circumstances will I allow Donald Trump’s troops to come to Chicago and terrorize our residents.”
Today, the mayor instead called for. . . you guessed it . . . “common sense gun control.”
Sorry, mayor, but it’s the residents who are doing the terrorizing. Plus, while “common sense” gun control isn’t necessary in an ordered society, it’s useless in a city where order is collapsing.
If the President offers his help, I suggest you humbly take it. Your magnificent city is going to hell.
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Featured image: Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. Luis Sanz/flickr/cropped/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Garland Twitty says: Help me understand how mayors and city councils benefit from the destruction of their cities, and thus their economic base. Are they so sick they prefer to retain power even over a wasteland? (After all, Detroit showed everyone the way a long time ago.) Perhaps this is the inevitable end state of the spiritually dead.
NTSOG says: In this [Wednesday] morning’s news in Australia:
‘BLM protesters marched in Chicago in an act of solidarity with more than 100 people who were arrested during unrest and violence on Sunday night.
More than 100 individuals were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, looting, and battery against the police on Sunday night into Monday, NBC Chicago reported.
“Protesters gathered at South Loop police station, where they believed that those arrested [on Sunday night] are being held in custody.
“That is reparations,” Ariel Atkins, a BLM organiser told the broadcaster. “Anything they wanted to take, they can take it because these businesses have insurance.
“I don’t care if someone decides to loot a Gucci or a Macy’s or a Nike store, because that makes sure that person eats,” she said. “That makes sure that person has clothes.”’
It’s hard to believe people could be so stupid and ignorant as they try to justify the blatant theft and destruction committed by their fellow citizens who arrived, in many cases, in cars and indulged in organised theft. As for the BLM ‘organiser’, she used the term looting quite correctly and then tried to use past history as justification; what an opportunistic fool. Her comment about ‘insurance’ displays her ignorance: she clearly does not understand that the cost of insurance is paid by all through an impost on goods and services sold by companies to consumers. BLM is clearly a scam organisation as well as a front for political extremists.
[…] Looters Pillage and Ransack Chicago Businesses […]
Eilen says: Anyone who thought something other than this was going to happen when BLM/Antifa/terrorists started their civil disturbances hasn’t been listening. Will you believe them now, when they tell you they are trained Marxists and that they want to ground our way of life to dust? This has nothing to do with black lives. They are using blacks to destroy, steal, riot loot and terrorize the population. Now they have Soros backed prosecutors that won’t prosecute them, and Mayors who refuse the offers of aid to stop this. The Election of Biden and Democrats in total control is what they want so they can usher in communism. Don’t worry, they say, it will be so much better. Sure it’s been a colossal failure for humanity everywhere else, but we can do it the right way here. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing the same way over and over and expecting a a different result. We have loosed the criminally insane on ourselves.
Bandit says: Black Looters Matter
GWB says: how many criminals get up for work on Monday?
Lots of them, actually. Politicians, for one….
Speaking of Mayor Lightfoot and Police Superintendent Brown………
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