Numerous news outlets have tried to piece together the events of that weekend, painting a much more complicated scene than that of peaceful protests devolving into violence.
Using multiple firsthand accounts of protesters on the ground, South Side Weekly captured officers clashing with protestors pinned against a raised bridge at the Chicago River near Trump Tower. According to reporting by the Chicago Sun-Times, Black people made up 75% of the arrests for violating curfew in the first five days it took effect.
“Look, what happened two weekends ago was like a wildfire that burned through our city,” Lightfoot said last week. “The scale of the criminal activity and the looting that happened, that was clearly organized by criminal gangs and crews, and then obviously there were people in neighborhoods who took advantage of the moment and added to the looting that took place, that was at such a scale and happening with such rapidity that it was difficult for us to respond.”
While one of the largest protests began peacefully downtown Saturday, May 30, the scene became violent as evening approached with reports of looting, vandalized police cars and clashes with officers. Later that night, Lighfoot announced a 9 p.m. curfew at a press conference, giving protesters little more than a half-hour to get home.
On Sunday, May 31, 375 Illinois National Guard soldiers were deployed to further enforce restrictions on the Loop. That, coupled with abrupt CTA closures, aldermen said, pushed the crowds into residential neighborhoods across the South and West sides, which they argued were ill-prepared.
“There were police there, there just wasn’t enough to deal with what was going on,” said West Side Ald. Jason Ervin (28th), chairman of Chicago City Council’s Black Caucus. “Part of the challenge with the message that was sent about downtown was that with the bridges up, the National Guard there, state county and CPD guarding, per se, downtown, that people thought that the neighborhood’s were up for grabs,” he said.
“What potentially should have been, ‘Hey, the city is secure’ was perceived as downtown is secure and, therefore, the rest of the city is open for whatever happens.“
Lightfoot has called the criticism “not true and illogical.”
Most of the damage in Ervin’s ward occurred in the commercial business district between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Sunday, the alderman said. According to arrest records, no looting-related arrests were made at that time in his ward.
After surveying the damage that weekend, South Side Ald. Howard Brookins Jr. of the 21st Ward told the Chicago Sun-Times that 95% of businesses that sold merchandise in his ward were hit by looters including Jewel-Osco, Home Depot, Marshalls, Dollar Tree, Walgreens, TCF Bank and a Walmart that took Brookins nearly two terms to bring to his ward.
The feud between Black and Brown aldermen and the mayor over the response to looting was exposed last week with the leak of a testy phone call in the aftermath of the destruction. In her profanity-laced defense, Lightfoot said it took three hours to clear a crowd near Madison Street and Pulaski that “didn’t give a sh*t” after being gassed with “pepper spray” twice.
“If you think we’re not ready, and we stood by and let the neighborhoods go up, there’s nothing intelligent that I could say to you,” Lightfoot said on the call to Ald. Raymond Lopez, who harshly criticized the city’s response. “That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard.”