Looting, vandalism are behind us, top cop says

Chicago has “moved past this period of looting and vandalism” after a quiet weekend of peaceful protests, CPD Supt. David Brown said Monday as his boss kept her guard up.

“We remain diligent, particularly for looters, because we have some concerns that organized theft rings that we saw operating through our city a week ago are still there and looking for opportunities to strike,” Mayor Lightfoot said, joining Brown for a conference call with City Hall reporters.

Minutes, later, Brown offered a far more optimistic view.

“I believe Chicago has moved past this period of looting and vandalism. We’ve had several days of peaceful protests. Minimal arrests for disorderly conduct or civil unrest and looting,” Brown said.

Brown then gave reporters a statistical rundown of one of the most gut-wrenching and destructive weeks in Chicago history after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.

Over the last nine days, there were 2,665 arrests for “civil unrest and disorderly conduct,” and 788 arrests for looting, Brown said. CPD also recovered 529 guns, he said.

“I’m asking this all over the city one simple question: How can we help? Most often, I’m told, ‘Just increase your presence in neighborhoods, which we have quickly pivoted to soon after the looting Saturday before last,” Brown said.

“Also, we need to listen to the calls for reform. Period. The consent decree provides a mechanism for these reforms to take place within the department. This week, I will be meeting with our consent decree team. I want CPD to address concerns that were voiced by those holding megaphones and holding signs alike.”

Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times file photo

Last week, Lightfoot declared her intention to fire officers who covered their badge numbers and name tags as well as the officer photographed giving the middle finger to protesters.

Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara countered that flipping off a protester is not a fireable offense, but said he would gladly accept Lightfoot’s resignation for telling the “President of the United States, F-you.”

On Monday, Lightfoot said she has seen a “number of disturbing videos in recent days,” including one that showed a Chicago Police officer who “ran for a crowd, grabbed an individual and literally started slugging the individual with their fists.”

Clearly, the officer was “doing something that can only be characterized as excessive force,” the mayor said. But what caught Lightfoot’s eye is the officer who ran up to the abusive officer and attempted to “pull him off.”

“He was pushed off by the officer who was clearly in a rage and striking a civilian. But it’s those moments where I’ve seen progress. Not enough. But, definitely progress. Because it wouldn’t have been too long ago that that wouldn’t have happened,” she said.

“That’s where we need to get to. That we hopefully don’t see officers engaging in misconduct. But when it happens, other officers intervene and stop it from happening.”

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

A former Police Board member, Lightfoot co-chaired the Task Force on Police Accountability. The task force demanded changes to a police contract that, it claimed, “codifies the code of silence” that former Mayor Rahm Emanuel famously acknowledged exists at the Chicago Police Department.

The City Council’s Black Caucus has threatened to hold up ratification of any police contract that continues to give officers 24 hours before providing a statement after a shooting. The Caucus has also taken aim at anonymous complaints and the portion of the police contract that allows officers to change statements after reviewing video.

On Monday, Lightfoot reiterated her commitment to delivering a police contract that makes it easier to discipline wayward officers.

“I know we’re gonna have a fight on our hands. We’ve had a fight on our hands with the contracts we’ve been taking on so far. We’re gonna have an even greater fight with the FOP, particularly given the new leadership. But it’s a fight that we must have,” the mayor said during an appearance earlier Monday on WBEZ-FM.

“I’m committed to making sure that these contracts are no longer an impediment for accountability.”

Catanzara countered: “She likes to use the word impediment as if we’re obstructionists, which is ridiculous. We’re protecting our members’ contractual rights.”

He added, “The same people who are saying the need for all of this change is because officers violate peoples’ rights, they lie about `em, they put `em in jail and don’t give `em representation, are now the same people who expect us to turn around and surrender our protections for our members. It doesn’t make sense. Of course, it’s not gonna happen.”

Chicago aldermen have accused the mayor of being caught flat-footed by violent protests she should have anticipated, then belatedly imposing a curfew and sealing off downtown. They claim that paved the way for the destruction to spill out into South and West Side neighborhoods.

Lightfoot was asked Monday how she plans to mend those “fractured relationships.”

“You saw evidence of that this weekend by the deployment of the resources that were used and additional city resources that were used in support of our businesses and residents,” she said during the conference call.

“We strategized and deployed resources in a way that was very, very helpful. … We worked hard through the course of the week to listen to the challenges that our business partners were facing. … We pre-positioned resources in business corridors all across our neighborhoods. And we had a very quiet weekend when it came to any kind of looting or robberies or arsons across our city.”