This is the third installment of an ongoing series about community based solutions to violence, poverty and abusive policing. Originally this was not planned as part of the series, but in the wake of recent events in Chicago it is important to look at community based movements and the reactions of local administrations and police.
Two weeks ago violence and unrest erupted within the ongoing movement against police violence in Chicago. After an officer-involved shooting, early misinformation on social media and a tense stand-off between peaceful protesters and police, a looting spree broke out in Chicago’s downtown area for hours one night. The repercussions have been felt in the neighborhoods, among activists and the city at large.
Since that night of looting that started late on Sunday evening and went into the early hours of Monday, local and national media outlets have misrepresented looting and violence as an ongoing problem. Many have referred to that night as a second round of looting, diminishing the mass and largely peaceful protests that started in early June as a looting spree. Police and local officials are also responding as if looting or the threat of it is ongoing, despite no incidences of loots or even violence in protests since that one night.
Before we parse out the actual facts of what is happening in the city, and fallout from police reactions, let’s look at the underlying tension behind most of the coverage or debates around looting.
The The Two Standards for Chicago
When protests against police violence first gave rise to looting and property destruction in early June, it sparked debate among the American public watching. Those who sided with activists and protesters pointed out that more value and protection was being afforded to private businesses and property than the the lives and well-being of Black Americans. The other side demanded side supported the police and claimed they were only doing their jobs, maintaining peace and arresting vandals.
This time around the city has fully embraced the latter perspective. Chicago’s Mayor and Police Chief have condemned looters in the strongest language possible, referring to opportunistic looting as “organized crime”. And they have backed up that language with strict policies that limit and target protesters. For more than a week after the night of looting police filled the streets of the Loop downtown, set restrictions on traffic and public transit, imposed curfews and even banned any form of protests in Mayor Lightfoot’s neighborhood. The reaction to the looting has been swift and severe, and the CPD and city’s administration have shown every sign that they will use law enforcement and criminal justice resources to prosecute the hundreds of residents involved.
In this full-force indictment of looting and property destruction downtown, the Mayor’s Office has simultaneously depicted downtown businesses and residents as victims and violence, and the life-source of economic activity for the city. Lightfoot has said residents are “justifiably fearful” and afraid to even leave their homes. This is despite the fact that there has been no violence or injuries linked to the looting or protesters.
The Mayor has also expressed sympathy for businesses that were “just beginning to recover” from the economic turmoil of lockdown measures due to the pandemic. It is undeniable that these businesses, along with the rest of the city, have suffered tremendous losses due to the pandemic. They have also suffered from the failed recovery measures, such as small business loans that have been snatched up by big corporations and pressure from landlords as eviction and rent freezes are lifted. However, these factors are effecting every business and resident of the city, and the expensive shops on the Magnificent Mile downtown are better equipped to whether the lockdown than most.
As a show of support for downtown businesses and residents, the city is investing millions to protect them. Extra police officers are being stationed downtown with extended overtime hours. Investigators are also using hundreds of man hours to go through footage and social media to find the one-time looters. Mayor Lightfoot promised the city would “not spare any expense to bring those who are responsible for looting” suggesting there will be severe prosecution, felony charges and jail-time for anyone they can link to looting.
This reaction, the acknowledgement of fear and hurt among Loop residents, is based on conversations between the mayor, those residents, businesses and the police. In the days that followed Mayor Lightfoot bragged that she was in constant communication with community members downtown. That communication with wealthy residents, businesses and the Chicago Police Department were the basis for the “concrete solutions” proposed to solve the issue of looting after it had already ended. Conspicuously missing from those conversations were any of the activists or protesters who came out against the shooting and police violence in the first place.
The absence in that conversation reveals the historical disparity in how different neighborhoods, different residents, receive vastly different treatment at the hands of the city. If protection of citizens who are afraid to walk out of their doors in broad daylight, catching and prosecuting those who commit actual violence, and having a police force to serve the needs of residents, was equally applied throughout the entire city, the Englewood shooting the lit the spark of downtown looting would never have happened. When stores are vandalized or forced in bankruptcy on the Southside, neither police nor city make any change to prevent or rectify the situation. It doesn’t even make the news. The shootings that have led to the deaths of hundreds of Southside residents this year, including several children, have not merited any extra police hours, investigations through social media, or even community conversations. No resources or concern is put into those situations. But after a single night of property destruction in downtown, the city and police have launched an extensive and expensive task-force.
This is the culmination of months of economic suffering for residents of Chicago neighborhoods. They have lost jobs, closed businesses, racked up debt and now face a looming eviction crisis. Clearly, the businesses that face losses from looting on top of the lock-down are victims here as well, the situation has arisen out of a time when the city has failed to take care of its citizens and continues to actively suppress them. Prosecuting looters is a lackluster solution that will not bring the much needed economic aid or resources to the millions of residents that are suffering economic hardship.
In the wake of the city’s swift and punitive reaction to incidents of looting, many activists and city officials worry plans for much-needed reinvestment and community resources in Black Chicago neighborhoods may be withheld. As the new police taskforce receives more funding, and CPD is given more leeway to combat looters, it seems substantive police reform and the multi-million dollar plan to invest in Southside neighborhoods may be undone due to one night of looting. Making efforts to bring historically denied resources to Black and Brown neighborhoods contingent upon the behavior of protestors would be a patronizing form of punishment. It simultaneously ignores the decades of discriminatory policies that have led to the failure of those neighborhoods, the retribution targeted towards first amendment movements, and that the protests are rooted in calling out that systemic discrimination to begin with.
Weighing the Crimes
Early in the protests this Summer, most activists spoke out against looting and violence. Now many of the leaders of Black Lives Matters and protest organizers are changing their tone, either defending looting or dismissing it as inconsequential. Part of this comes out of frustration with the lack of accountability for police after months of protests. But it is also a call for proportionality and perspective.
The facts of the cases of looting in Chicago seem far off from what is being reported, and how the CPD is reacting. Many media outlets, local and national, are reporting on the looting as endemic, ongoing since June and widespread. In reality the looting that affected Chicago, along with every other major city at the beginning of the protests, died down in just a week of heavy police presence and curfews. This “second round” of looting was even more limited, taking place over a few hours in one night, concentrated in the downtown area, and in direct response to a police shooting. As police, media and Aldermen depict the problem as continuous and drastic, it does not match up with what residents and protesters are seeing on the streets.
What has followed is weeks of protests, either in reaction to ongoing police shootings or the suppression of protests. Those demonstrations have been tense and led to clashes with police. But reports vary on whether police or protesters are instigating violence, depending on who you ask.
Through these months of peaceful protests, police have deployed violent tactics against peaceful protesters. They have endangered, provoked, and in several cases critically injured protesters. Even in reaction to completely peaceful protests, Chicago police are employing controversial response tactics such as teargas and kettling. Many other peaceful protesters are being taken to jail in the middle of a pandemic, and being held for as long as possible before allowing bail or release without charges. Organizations like the ACLU and Public Defenders office are accusing CPD of violating civil rights such as access to attorneys or bond hearings.
None of the documented incidents of police violence or violation of rights are being held against the CPD, or even being investigated. However, recent police action is only the tip of the iceberg. These protests are a culmination of decades of far more horrendous abuses from CPD. Everything from recent police killings of unarmed black men and women, such as the Laquan McDonald shooting which was covered up by then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel, to the decades of Chicago police torturing suspects in secret facilities to elicit false confessions that led to harsh prison sentences. The Chicago Police Department has a long history of unconstitutional operation, excessive use of force, and non-transparency that protects its worst actors.
That is the history that led to the federally mandated consent decree passed down by a Department of Justice investigation that found systemic racism, corruption and violence within the police department. The consent decree laid out specific action to address issues such as excessive use of force, and “bad raids” similar the one that led to the Breona Taylor’s murder in Louisville. Despite the desperate need for police reform and the court mandate, the Chicago Police Department has already missed most deadlines imposed by the consent decree. Many aldermen and local activists have accused the police department of intentionally “dragging its feet” to create accountability and better practices demanded by the consent decree.
The year-plus delay in even basic police reforms, the drawn-out internal investigations and lengthy court battles for the few police that are indicted for their violence, is a stark contrast to the lightning-speed that the city hopes to find and prosecute downtown looters. That contrast communicates priorities that place the security of Chicago’s wealthiest businesses over the lives and rights of victims of police abuse.
Now many activists are justifying or at least explaining the looting and violence with the pure frustration at the city’s unwillingness to hold police accountable. On the other side, Chicago Police Chief David Brown, Mayor Lori Lightfoot, and several aldermen have pointed to the incidents of looting and violence to undermine movements against police violence and calls for police accountability altogether. Even after all the history of police abuse overlooked by the city, CPD and Fraternal Order of Police leaders are still given the benefit of a doubt. They are included in conversations for solutions, while activists are not. If activists have lost the trust of the city based on these incidents, it is clear police should have lost that trust long ago.
These shop owners and frightened residents of the Loop are clearly victims when windows are being broken, property stolen and the streets become dangerous. But the disproportionate resources and attention they get, as opposed to the victims of police violence or Southside unrest is all but an insult to the activists who have been demanding action and support for generations. Based on that one incident some political leaders are threatening to bring in the National Guard to quell protests. Arrests and police response won’t undo the generation of disinvestment of police misconduct. If anything it will only ignite more tensions around the systemic problems facing millions in the city. If the mayor and police truly think looting is an endemic and dangerous problem for this city, the answer will come from investment, accountability and resolution, not greater policing.
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