Tuesday, August 11, 2020

OBAMAVILLE, CHICAGO - BLACK LIVES LOOT!

 

Chicago mayor locks down business district after police shooting sparks looting


11 August 2020

Access bridges over the Chicago River were raised again Monday night, cutting off the business district, known as the Loop, from the rest of the city, as social tensions continue to rise after the police shooting of a young black man Sunday afternoon.

A Chicago police vehicle in front of a raised drawbridge on August 10, 2020 (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

The police shooting and tense confrontation with residents in the Englewood neighborhood on the city’s south side led to looting overnight at several downtown stores, including in the upscale Magnificent Mile retail area. According to media reports, two people were shot, more than 100 were arrested and 13 police officers injured. Additional police have been deployed and an indefinite lockdown of the Loop resumed Monday evening.

The incident began when police shot a 20-year-old youth in Englewood, who, they claimed, had fled after being stopped and fired on officers before they shot him. The young man, whose name has not been released because he has not yet been charged with a crime, is reported to be in stable condition at University of Chicago Hospital.

In comments to the Sun Times, Earl Allen, the victim’s brother, contradicted the police version of events. Allen said he and his brother were in Moran Park when his brother got in an altercation before both left the park with a group of people. Allen said someone in the group made a comment to officers in a police vehicle, which prompted the police pursuit.

Allen said he was walking to his home after the group dispersed when he heard 8 or 9 shots ring out but did not see shooters. Shortly after he said he saw his brother wounded and running into their home. Allen also denied the weapon that police claim was found at the scene belonged to his brother.

About 100 youth gathered at Cook County Jail Monday night to demand police body camera footage from the Sunday shooting.

Shortly after the shooting on Sunday, residents gathered to confront a growing number of police, some in helmets and armed with rifles. Tensions mounted as hundreds of cops formed a line and residents implored young people to get inside, fearing that they would be severely beaten or killed by police.

By midnight on Sunday evening, 400 police officers were deployed in response to hundreds of people reportedly entering the Magnificent Mile and near West Side shopping districts where smashing and looting went on into the early morning. The Illinois state police blocked off ramps from expressways and the bridges across the Chicago River were raised, except for the one on LaSalle Street for police and emergency vehicles.


Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot responded by deploying more police, threatening more aggressive prosecutions and cutting off nighttime access to the Loop. From 8 PM to 6 AM, street and train transit is cut off except at certain points until further notice.

Lightfoot also announced the deployment of “infrastructure assets,” i.e., more security forces, directed by Chicago Police Department, to protect commercial properties.

Lightfoot and Chicago Police Supt. David Brown held a press conference Monday morning to denounce the looting and announce a massive police crackdown. “This is not legitimate First Amendment-protected speech,” Lightfoot said. “These were not poor people engaging in petty theft to feed themselves and their families. This was straight-up felony, criminal conduct.” She said police would use camera footage to track down suspects, adding, “We are coming for you.”


Both the mayor and the police chief blamed Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx for not being aggressive enough in prosecuting scattered instances of looting that occurred during the massive anti-police violence protests over George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis. “Criminals took to the streets with the confidence that there would be no consequences for their actions,” Brown said.Brown said the looting had been “fueled by misinformation” about the age of the police shooting victim and the conduct of the police.

In fact, thousands of youth were arrested, beaten and teargassed from May into July. Many face trial and severe punishment this month.

The Democratic political establishment is using the looting incidents to escalate police repression against an increasingly restive population. Last month, Lightfoot announced that she had reached an agreement with the Trump administration to send a “surge” of 200 federal agents to Chicago, allegedly to fight crime.

Chicago, America’s third largest city, is a social tinderbox, the result of a four-decade-long class war overseen by the Democratic Party. Once thriving working-class neighborhoods have been reduced to poverty and destitution by the shutdown of factories and decades of budget cuts, which led to the closure of public schools, recreation centers, public housing buildings and health clinics.

As thousands of low-rent homes were demolished, Democratic mayors handed over billions in tax cuts and incentives to Boeing and other corporations to set up their headquarters downtown. As powerful financial and real estate interests made a killing, rising rents drove out working class and lower middle class residents and homelessness exploded.

Well aware that social tensions were reaching a breaking point, Lightfoot’s predecessor, Rahm Emanuel, the Obama White House’s first chief of staff who was also known as “Mayor One Percent,” beefed up the police forces. Lightfoot, who repeatedly claims there is no money for schools and teachers, has followed suit, adding $100 million to the budget line of the Chicago Police Department (CPD) last year, a seven percent increase over the previous year.

The social crisis has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic catastrophe it has triggered. Twenty-five thousand Illinoisans filed for unemployment August 1 and 33,000 filed the week before that. Along with jobless workers across the country, these laid off workers have now had their $600 a week federal supplement taken from them.

Unemployment on the South Side is estimated to be double Chicago’s official unemployment rate of 15.6 percent for June. In working class and poor neighborhoods, the devastation is similar to that seen in wartime. The suicide rate among African Americans in Chicago in 2020 has already surpassed the figure for 2019. This year, there have been 58 suicide deaths and of that total, 80 percent were men and 40 percent were under 30 years old.

At the same time, Illinois is the home to at least 18 billionaires, including the state’s Democratic governor and Hyatt hotel magnate JB Pritzker. The relentless police violence is aimed at defending the wealth and power of the corporate and financial oligarchy against an increasingly radicalized working class.


Nolte: Magnificent Mile Riots, Looting Hit Democrat-Run Chicago

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - AUGUST 10: A jogger runs past a broken storefront window after parts of the city had widespread looting and vandalism, on August 10, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. Police made several arrests during the night of unrest and recovered at least one firearm. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Scott Olson/Getty
JOHN NOLTE
818
3:48

“Hundreds of people swept through the Magnificent Mile and other parts of downtown Chicago early Monday, smashing windows, looting stores,” reports the Chicago Tribune.

There was also gunfire and violence against police officers. As of this writing, downtown Chicago is all but closed to those trying to get to work on a Monday morning.

The details reveal just how organized this was….

The looting and rioting started just after midnight and lasted “nearly five hours.”  Get this…

“People darted through broken store windows and doors along Michigan Avenue carrying shopping bags full of merchandise,” the Tribune reports, adding, “Cars dropped off more people as the crowd grew. At least one U-Haul van was seen pulling up.”

A U-Haul.

People being dropped off like it was just another morning at Looting School.

People load merchandise into a car near a looted Best Buy store after parts of the city had widespread looting and vandalism, on August 10, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. Police made several arrests during the night of unrest and recovered at least one firearm. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Hundreds of them. All at once.

This was not spontaneous.

What we appear to have in Chicago is one more act of organized, left-wing terrorism, similar to what we are seeing in other Democrat-run cities, most especially Portland.

ABC7 has videos of the looting and video of the sound of gunfire, as well as video of a foursome of looters dragging an ATM down Lake Street right, near the legendary Chicago Theater.

According to a police spokesman, “someone fired shots at responding officers and police returned fire.”

Both videos feature looters yelling things like “fuck the police.” According to the Tribune  “in at least two spots graffiti against the police was seen.”

So there appears to be a political motivation behind this.

To get a sense of just how bad things are, the Tribune further reports “People were seen running out of a PNC Bank, its windows smashed.” On top of that a Sally Beauty Supply was “cleaned out,” “Crowds repeatedly tried to bash in the windows of the Omega watch store,” and a “group of people went in and out through a broken window of the Louis Vuitton store.”

Hitting Chicago’s Magnificent Mile is no accident. It is the jewel of Downtown Chicago, one of the most famous shopping districts in the world. If retailers lose faith the police can protect them from criminal marauders and flee the area, it will serve as more than just a symbolic victory for the left-wing terrorists in Antifa and Black Lives Matter.

As of this writing, the after-effects of the night’s terrorism are now hitting law-abiding Chicagoans who are just trying to make it to work during the Monday morning rush hour. Train and bus service into downtown has been shut off. Both bridges that cross the Chicago River are raised. State police have blocked freeway exits into downtown.

As someone who is pretty familiar with Chicago (it’s my favorite city), and who has driven many times through the Windy City’s normal rush hour traffic, the chaos occurring right now, the godawful mess working people are stuck in is beyond my comprehension.

But “chaos” is, of course, a big part of the left’s goal. It’s not just the looting these domestic terrorists crave, it’s not just the goodies — the socialist revolution demands chaos, disruption, agony, despair, inconvenience.

Everyday Americans must be punished, must be made to suffer for our bourgeois sins — like just wanting to be left alone to enjoy the fruits of our hard work; just wanting to live a decent, quiet life…

For those wondering what Chicago’s Democrat  Mayor Lori Lightfoot focused on over the weekend as these terrorists were organizing, she was shaming young people — who are in no more danger from the coronavirus than they are from the flu — for going to the beach.

Police officers inspect a damaged Best Buy store after parts of the city had widespread looting and vandalism, on August 10, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. Police made several arrests during the night of unrest and recovered at least one firearm. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

 Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)