Chicago Mayor Lashes Out at Reporter for Asking if Lack of Consequences Encouraged New Looting: ‘Don’t Bait Us!’

Rudy TakalaAug 10th, 2020, 2:57 pm
 

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot whacked a reporter for asking if the “lack of consequences” for summer looting that took place after George Floyd’s May 25 death led to unrest in the city over the weekend that led to more than $60 million in property damage and at least 40 people being shot.

The exchange came after a reporter directed a question to Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown during a Monday press conference with Brown and Lightfoot, saying, “It almost sounds as though you were saying — the reason we have this is the courts and the prosecutors were not doing their job, that they were going too easy on the looters from the last time around.”

Brown demurred, replying, “Don’t take it from me. Just go about what’s been done. There were no consequences for the people arrested.”

Lightfoot stood up to the podium to interject — and repeatedly suggested the reporter had attempted to “bait” officials with the question. “Let’s be clear. Don’t bait us! Do not bait us. Do not bait us,” Lightfoot said. “This is a serious situation. People are concerned about their safety. Officers are concerned about their safety. What we’re 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 working on bringing them to justice.

“When we do — when we do make those arrests, our expectation is that is going to be treated with the level of seriousness that it should be,” she added. “Don’t try to bait us, mischaracterize, pit one against the other. We’re not playing that. We’re in a serious situation here, and we need a serious response.”

The reporter replied. “I’m not trying to bait you, ma’am. I’m just asking a question,” he said, before Brown cut him off to ask if he had another question.

Moment earlier, Brown said the looters were acting “as if there are not consequences,” and that they had it “based it on what happened previously.”

“We’ve made a lot of arrests during May and June ,and not many of those cases were prosecuted to the fullest extent,” Brown said. “We have to have consequences for the arrests that Chicago police officers make through great threat to their own safety. They’re being shot at to make these arrests.”

Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx announced in July that she was dropping charges against hundreds of protesters who were arrested during unrest over the summer.

Looting in downtown Chicago over the weekend led to more the 100 arrests on charges including theft, disorderly conduct, and battery to officers. Thirteen officers said they were injured in the violence, which involved hundreds of residents smashing windows and looting storefronts that included Apple and Best Buy.

Watch above via the Chicago mayor’s office.

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