Divisions over Chicago protests highlight challenges
for activists and police
By Mark
Guarino
August 15, 2020 at 4:30 p.m. CDT
CHICAGO
— An unexpected wave of looting
throughout Chicago's downtown business district last weekend
has led to heated debate about who was responsible for the violence here,
involving almost all of the city's major players: the police department, the
Cook County State's Attorney Office, the Circuit Court of Cook County, business
leaders, downtown property owners, state officials and Chicago Mayor Lori
Lightfoot.
The
divisiveness also has wound its way to social justice activists, as
demonstrated here Saturday when an expected major rally in support of the Black
Lives Matter movement was shouted down and splintered when local business
owners denounced activist groups for causing problems on the city’s streets
rather than solving them.
At a
midday rally on the city’s South Side that was to include a four-block march
along the Dan Ryan Expressway, as speakers from various activist organizations
spoke on topics of police reform, a separate group showed up to disrupt the
protest.
“We
need black power, not Black Lives Matter,” said Khalil Lofton, CEO of a
wholesale company in the Englewood area. He said the week-long looting that
followed the killing in Minneapolis of George Floyd in May destroyed essential
businesses in his neighborhood. Now people can no longer bank, or buy groceries
or clothing, he said.
“All in the
name of Black Lives Matter,” Lofton said Saturday, blaming the looting and
unrest on people from outside the neighborhood. “We didn’t ask people to come
protest.”
His
accusations proved to be accurate: The Chicago Tribune reported Saturday that
of the 43 defendants who appeared in bond court this past week facing felony
charges related to Monday’s looting on the “Magnificent Mile,” all were either
convicted felons, college students, or out-of-work parents. None were from
Englewood, where the tension with police originated Sunday afternoon after a
police-involved shooting there.
Speaking
through a megaphone, Lofton drew the crowd away from Rabbi Michael Ben Yosef, a
co-organizer of the march. After a tense back-and-forth with dueling
megaphones, both men met in the middle and exchanged business cards. But Yosef
quickly turned and led the crowd away from the expressway ramp and east into
the streets of the adjoining Bronzeville neighborhood.
That
change of plans was evidence of another phenomenon in Chicago: The many protest
groups lack cohesion.
In
2018, a Catholic priest led protesters down the Dan Ryan to bring attention to
the gun violence that was plaguing the city. But on Saturday, Yosef could only
summon a group of about 100 people and was not successful in blocking the
highway. At the same time, more than 20 other activist groups had coordinated
at least four separate marches in other parts of the city.
Eric
Russell, a coordinator of the Dan Ryan march, said the purpose of the event was
more about “putting out the message” than it was about the number of people who
showed up. He said that he does not support lawlessness but that people should
not be shocked when looting begins.
“Unrest.
That is the voice of the oppressed,” Russell said.
There
was an overwhelming Chicago Police Department and Illinois State Police
presence on Saturday, as they protected intersections along the planned march
route after Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said all officers would
work 12-hour shifts with no days off. Lofton took note of the irony: “You say
‘defund police’ but all you’re doing is giving police overtime,” he shouted
through his megaphone.
Marcher
Daniel Blalock, 38, who carried a painting he had made of President Trump, said
that he was discouraged by the turnout and that he felt activists were “afraid”
of committing to take more dramatic action.
“This
is a step forward,” he said. “But it is not good enough.”
There
are no signs tension here is abating.
Gun
violence remains rampant — the police department reported a 51 percent
increase in homicides and a 47 percent increase in shooting incidents by
the start of August compared with the first seven months of 2019 — and there
have been two separate waves of looting downtown since June.
Lightfoot,
Brown, and Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx presented a unified front
Friday, after earlier in the week Lightfoot and Brown complained that Foxx’s
office and the Circuit Court needed to set higher bails, charge more felony
cases, and do more to keep repeat offenders from being cycled through the court
system.
Foxx
said the finger-pointing was unnecessary and defended her office, saying only a
third of the cases this summer brought to her office were worthy of felonies.
“Our
office is not in the arresting business,” she said. “We get cases when they are
brought to us.”
Foxx
said Friday that the 43 felony cases her office is pursuing are in addition to
the 350 felony cases related to looting and protests that have been presented
to the courts since May. Lightfoot and Brown announced a special task force
focusing on looting that is in partnership with the FBI. On Saturday, the task
force announced the arrest of Aaron Neal, 20, who broke into an ATM with a
hammer Monday and live-streamed it on social media. He is charged with two
felony counts of burglary and criminal damage to property.
Many
business leaders and state and local officials have been warning that Chicago
is at a breaking point. Steven Levy, the president of a property management
firm that represents 100 downtown condo associations, sent Lightfoot an open
letter last week saying that homeowners “do not feel safe” and are “adjusting
their routines out of fear.”
“This
is not a way to live, and I can’t fault homeowners when they tell me they’re
considering leaving Chicago,” he wrote.
The
Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce also posted an open letter, saying that “the
violent action we have seen cannot be tolerated and those that have
participated in criminal activity must be held accountable and prosecuted to
show our business owners and their customers that Chicago is still a safe and
good place to work, shop and live.”
The
city could face another test next Saturday, when Black Lives Matter organizers
are planning an early evening march starting in Millennium Park and continuing
up Michigan Avenue through the commercial district where Monday’s looting took
place.