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As my colleague Nick Arama reported this morning, there was massive chaos in the city of Chicago Sunday night after a false story was spread by BLM agitators about the police shooting a black child during a foot pursuit in which a suspect who was reportedly in his late teens/early 20s and who allegedly had a gun was shot by an officer.
The scenes were eerily reminiscent of what we’ve seen happen in Chicago on a weekly basis in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, as rioters and looters take to the street to wreak havoc and assault police officers along the way in the name of “Black Lives Matter.”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) held a press conference this morning alongside Police Supt. David Brown to address questions about the shooting, the riots, and where the city goes from here.
During the presser, both Brown and Lightfoot talked about how there needs to be consequences for rioters and looters who are arrested, seemingly taking veiled swipes at prosecutor Cook County State’s attorney Kim Foxx:
Supt Brown announces 100+ arrests overnight but acknowledges “criminals took to the street with confidence there would be no consequences for their actions.” @WGNNews pic.twitter.com/65rUZNMLLy
— Ben Bradley (@BenBradleyTV) August 10, 2020
“People believe there is no accountability in our criminal justice system… we need the prosecutors and courts to step up” -Mayor Lightfoot appears to take a swipe at Cook State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, whom she previously endorsed. pic.twitter.com/QkfXOb7wHz
— Ben Bradley (@BenBradleyTV) August 10, 2020
ABC 7 reporter Craig Wall at one point made the mistake of saying the quiet part out loud, suggesting to Brown that “it almost sounds as though you’re saying this is — the reason [rioting/looting is happening] is because the courts and the prosecutors were not doing their job, that they were going too easy on the looters from the last time around. Is that what you’re saying?”
As Brown attempted to answer Wall by saying “don’t take it from me, just go by what’s been done … there were no consequences for the people arrested [last time around],” Lightfoot erupted at Wall, telling him “don’t bait us” several times, without noting how exactly he was “baiting” Brown:
“Craig, let’s be clear. Don’t bait us, okay? No, no, don’t — do not bait us! Do not bait us. This is a serious situation. People are concerned about their safety. Officers are concerned about their safety. So don’t bait us.
What we are saying is as a result of what happened last night, there have to be consequences. We’ve got teams of people that are aggressively out there identifying the people responsible, looking at the plates and we’re gonna bring them to justice. But when we do and we do make those arrests our expectation is that this is going to be treated with the level of seriousness that it should be, period.
Don’t try to bait us, mischaracterize, pit one against the other, we’re not playing that. We are in a serious situation here and we need a serious response. That’s what we’re saying, period.”
Sounds like Wall hit a little too close to home for Lightfoot’s liking. Watch:
"Don't bait us! This is a serious situation” — @chicagosmayor Lori Lightfoot snaps at a reporter for saying looters took advantage of the lack of consequences seen in riots after George Floyd's death pic.twitter.com/EE3k2AGZ42
— TV News HQ (@TVNewsHQ) August 10, 2020
Other reporters defended Wall, and noted that the mayor was doing a political dance in her response:
Lightfoot admonishes Ch 7 reporter Craig Wall: "Don't bait us." How is he doing that?
— Fran Spielman (@fspielman) August 10, 2020
Worth pointing out that despite her frustration with @SAKimFoxx
and Cook County judges for not doing enough to punish previous looters,@LoriLightfoot endorsed @KimFoxxforSA. Mayor today lashed out at @craigrwall when he tried to ask more about issue of prosecutions/lack thereof https://t.co/Ix2DMBFnL9— Amanda Vinicky (@AmandaVinicky) August 10, 2020
Mayor Lightfoot and Superintendent Brown implicitly and explicitly criticized State's Attorney Kim Foxx for how they handled looting in the past, but she snapped at follow up questions. It's a delicate political dance for Lightfoot, who endorsed Foxx. Wall wasn't baiting, though. https://t.co/gycGmWKQ6z
— Gregory Pratt (@royalpratt) August 10, 2020
Nice to know that that in the middle of yet another violent week in Chicago, the mayor continues to prioritize self-serving political calculations like covering for a failed prosecutor like Foxx over the safety and security of her city as it burns.
In addition to the periodic anarchistic riots, there is the widespread violent gun crime that occurs on city streets on any given week, which Mayor Lightfoot has bizarrely blamed on President Trump.
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