Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the rioting and looting that occurred in her city Sunday night and Monday morning were the result of a coordinated and pre-planned attack, not organic protests of an officer-involved shooting, according to Time.
Businesses in downtown Chicago were damaged and looted for the second time in the past few months, and the situation got so out of control that the city raised the bridges leading into the area to limit access.
The violence was allegedly sparked by the non-fatal police shooting of 20-year-old Latrell Allen on Sunday afternoon. Allen stands charged with first-degree attempted murder and possession of a concealed weapon, and reportedly shot at police first.
“When people showed up on Michigan Avenue in the downtown area with U-Haul trucks and cargo vans, and sophisticated equipment used to cut metal, and the methods that were used, and how quickly it got spun up … that wasn’t any spontaneous reaction,” Lightfoot told Time. “To be sure, there are people that did join in that were motivated by lots of different reasons, and certainly were motivated by social media posts encouraging people to come downtown. But the core of what happened — that’s organized criminal activity. … It was a planned attack.” – READ MORE
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