On Saturday night, Chicago’s Mayor Lori Lightfoot suppressed a genuine democratic expression against police brutality with more police brutality. With no major demonstrations in the Chicago’s Loop in the days before, Saturday was the first day the city gathered en masse to demonstrate against the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis under the Black Lives Matter banner. Within 8 hours of its humble beginnings in Federal Plaza, though, Mayor Lightfoot ordered the entire city shut down in a cloud of tear gas and spray of rubber bullets. The decision to shut down CTA and declare curfew on a moment’s notice was not about looting — it was a punitive measure to create the pretext for the police to begin arrests en masse. Most people downtown at 9pm were exercising a constitutional right to peacefully demonstrate, and Lori treated them all like criminals cutting them off from transport home and arresting on sight.
There will be those out there who point to the violence against property and commend Lightfoot’s bold leadership. To them, I would ask them to consider the deliberate acts of provocation and escalatory policing practiced on Saturday. I’d ask them whether Lightfoot would respond with the same militaristic fury to the property destruction we’ve become ambivalent to when one of our hometown teams win a championship. I’d ask them why we can’t stomach the costs of one night’s damage to lifeless property when the protection and recognition of real, black lives are the stakes of the demonstration.
In contrast, New York City mayor DeBlasio led his city through four nights of comparable demonstrations without imposing curfew or calling in the military. Why did our Cop-Mayor implement both on night one? The answer is that Lori Lightfoot is outmatched and running scared, showing none of the judgment or command necessary to lead our city through this tragedy. Instead, she has doubled down on what the ex-prosecutor knows best: fear and intimidation to suppress. What we need now is not a terrified mayor, hiding behind unaccountable police violence that is at the root of these protests. What we need someone who will step out to show leadership to look forward by reigning in the unaccountable police power. Unfortunately, Lightfoot showed us this weekend that she is unwilling to do so, and she must resign.