Report outlines botched response
Police, leaders missed signs as city slipped toward chaos in May
The protest in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood in late May wasn’t unusual at first, as about a dozen younger men and women walked down a sidewalk along South Halsted Street.
“WE DEMAND POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY” one of their signs read. “GEORGE FLOYD’S LIFE MATTERED.”
They were there to protest Floyd’s killing at the hands of police, which had occurred three days earlier in Minneapolis. Video of it circled the globe and sparked outrage, including rioting and violence in that city some 400 miles from Chicago and in other places around the country.
And it wouldn’t be long before what started in Englewood as a peaceful march swelled in numbers, tempers flared and clashes with police began. After one altercation with a commander, a protester was taken to a hospital with breathing problems.
What wasn’t yet clear to police
was that a fuse had been lit that May 28 evening, the city was about to be rocked by days of violent unrest and looting, and the Chicago Police Department would fail to control it. At least one police leader under Superintendent David Brown had a bad feeling about what was coming.
“In their words, after viewing the (body camera) footage of the incident and seeing the tenor and tone of the crowd, they thought, ‘(This) is going to be a problem,’ ” a report from city Inspector General Joseph Ferguson said of the unnamed police official, detailing how police responded to unrest that followed. “The superintendent was aware of the commander’s use-of-force incident but did not understand the event during which it occurred to be related to the killing of George Floyd.”
Within 48 hours, Chicago would be under siege, as what started as protests over Floyd’s death turned violent and looting spread into the city’s gleaming downtown and then back out into its neighborhoods. In his report, Ferguson outlined a department unprepared for such a happening and nearly rudderless under Brown once it began, saying “strategic and tactical incoherence” from the command level down left officers confused about who was in charge and what they should do.
And what Ferguson’s report also provided was a clear look from inside the Chicago Police Department at how the crisis unfolded. It developed slowly at first, until police were left overwhelmed, Mayor Lori Lightfoot was left grasping for a response, and her city was left to pick up the pieces.
In a statement to the Tribune, a Police Department spokesman said leadership was continuing to review Ferguson’s findings. But they had already conducted their own review of how they must improve their work during largescale events in the areas of “accountability, planning and preparedness, command and control, training and communication.”
Missed signals
Brown didn’t appear concerned at a news conference a short time after things ended in Englewood, telling reporters things had wrapped up peacefully and there was “nothing to report here.”
Police had been dealing with sporadic protests, and even threats. The day of the march in Englewood, the department’s Crime Prevention and Information Center, or CPIC, alerted police brass to social media traffic about someone saying they wanted to burn down the Gresham patrol district police station on the South Side.
“I wanna riot in Chicago and kill the police burn the sixth district police station dwn (sic),” the post read, which was cited in Ferguson’s report as a sign of possible escalation.
Brown, who had become Chicago’s top cop only a month earlier, took the step of forwarding the warning to Lightfoot and her staff.
“What is (happening) to the person who posted this threat?” Lightfoot asked in return, according to Ferguson. One of Brown’s command staffers sent Lightfoot an update and she wrote back, “Thanks, Chief. Please keep us posted. We cannot live in a world where someone posts such a threat without being held responsible.”
Still, Brown later told Ferguson’s investigators he had not seen any reason for concern leading into the weekend. A mayoral aide, however, sent an email to Brown and his deputies on the evening of that Thursday to discuss how to handle any protests that might grow heated.
“(Obviously), we’re all a little concerned about what could happen this weekend given what we’re seeing in Minneapolis,” the aide said.
By the morning of Friday, May 29, then-First Deputy police Superintendent Anthony Riccio emailed other police officials asking that
they plan to attend roll calls that weekend to discuss possible protests.
“The message to our officers should stress de-escalation of volatile situations, and officer safety,” according to the report, citing the email.
The same day, news outlets reported a protest was planned near the Cloud Gate sculpture in Millennium Park, and another was set for Saturday, May 30, at federal plaza in the Loop. Protesters were looking to shut down Lake Shore Drive.
“Generally, over this period, CPIC notifications provided little mention of and no details about the protests and unrest occurring in other cities,” Ferguson’s report stated. “Despite the national protests and unrest, based on the intelligence provided by CPIC, the department prepared for ‘normal’ protesting.”
In her interview with Ferguson’s office, Lightfoot said “there was not necessarily an assumption” that there was “a potential for peaceful protests to turn violent.”
CPD officials also thought that while there was unrest occurring across the country, Chicago could be spared because other high-profile incidents of police misconduct had passed relatively peacefully, including after the release of video in 2015 of white Officer Jason Van Dyke killing Black teenager Laquan McDonald.
“One member of CPD’s command staff described the department as becoming ‘complacent’ when it came to dealing with protests, stating that CPD should require planning and communication with protest leaders and community members,” the IG report stated.
On Friday, May 29, CPD sent officers to Millennium Park to monitor a scheduled protest. At about 5:30 p.m., a group of about 30 protesters had met up there before more joined in.
They marched through downtown and tried to get onto the Eisenhower Expressway before CPD intervened to form a skirmish line to move the demonstrators off an entrance ramp. At the protest’s peak, police estimated 200 to 400 people were demonstrating.
Vandalism begins
That night and into the morning of Saturday, May 30, things began to turn.
Windows were broken at downtown businesses, leaving shards of glass strewn on the streets and sidewalks. Garbage cans and flowerpots were toppled, and already, the police response was uneven, according to the report.
“According to one officer, a commander ordered officers to form skirmish lines and began to push some protesters north and others south on State Street,” the report stated. “The commander gave these orders without communicating a plan, aside from pushing protesters in opposite directions,” including one direction that was toward police squads, which had tires slashed and windows knocked out.
At about 3 a.m. Saturday, in what the IG called “the prevailing confusion” of the moment, officers responded
to protesters by “kettling,” a controversial policing strategy that forcibly confines large groups of people to small spaces, while also telling them “to leave the area,” according a police official’s account in the report.
Investigators heard different accounts about whether mass arrest procedures were used that night. Per CPD policy, the highest-ranking patrol supervisor on scene is supposed to make that decision, and despite no clarity on whether it was made, more than 110 people were taken into custody.
In a mass-arrest situation, arresting officers are supposed to hand off suspects in custody to another cop who drives them to a police station. This allows the arresting officers to remain on the street to continue monitoring the protests. Suspects are then processed by other cops using “mass arrest cards,” filled out by the original arresting officers detailing why they’re in custody.
If the process doesn’t go smoothly, suspects could be overcharged with crimes, undercharged, held in custody longer than necessary or released. And according to Ferguson, that is what began to happen.
“An officer on scene (Friday, May 29) described the arrest procedures in use to be (confusing),” according to the report.
Meanwhile, vandalism downtown didn’t stop until about 5 a.m. that Saturday, with at least one supervisor telling Ferguson’s investigators there weren’t enough officers around to respond due to overtime issues.
Still, some police officials believed that CPD “won” Friday night, according to the report. A mayoral aide emailed police officials that Saturday morning to say, “Thank you all for your incredible work … you made Chicago proud.”
According to the document, Brown responded, “officers made the city of Chicago and the police profession proud!!!”
A building storm
Even with the claims of success, some in the department were worried demonstrations Saturday would grow in intensity.
The department canceled days off for some teams so they could work downtown, and made preparations for some to report for duty in crowdcontrol gear.
Even before 2 p.m., when one Loop protest was planned, a district commander emailed his bosses to say, “A crowd of 500 is in federal plaza — growing rapidly,” according to Ferguson’s report.
One police official described the department as being caught off guard that so many people might arrive before the protest’s scheduled start time, including a large caravan of protesters who left a demonstration organized outside the Cook County Jail.
One command staffer also said there was no good plan in place to move officers from McCormick Place, which was being used as a mass police deployment center, to the Loop. Meanwhile, the downtown protest quickly swelled.
“Numerous command staff members reported that intelligence they received from CPIC about Saturday’s demonstration was faulty or incomplete,” according to the IG report. “A deputy chief stated that intelligence indicated that the demonstration would be attended by a few hundred protesters, but instead there was 30,000.”
Before long, that group splintered, with some people on the move and dividing the police response.
Some protesters headed north on Dearborn while others headed east on Jackson Boulevard. About 600 protesters headed toward Trump Tower and on at least one occasion, demonstrators blocked Lake Shore Drive in both directions as they marched among stopped cars.
Outside Trump Tower and at the nearby Wrigley Building, things were coming to a head.
Cops said protesters threw projectiles and spat at them. According to Ferguson’s report, protesters said cops used force on them seemingly indiscriminately, tackling some, throwing punches and using batons.
Lightfoot told the IG that she authorized Brown to approve the use of pepper spray on the crowds.
The city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications had earlier contacted the Chicago Department of Transportation about the possibility of raising downtown bridges for the weekend, but the IG noted no plan for it had come together. With things getting out of control Saturday afternoon, Lightfoot gave the direction to do it, according to the report.
By 5:30 p.m., all but the State Street, LaSalle Street and Wabash Avenue bridges had been raised, between Michigan Avenue and Franklin Street. But CDOT had trouble raising the Wabash bridge, which provides direct access to Trump Tower, because protesters were on it.
CPD formed a skirmish line of around 150 cops and horse-mounted units on that bridge to halt protesters from advancing.
During the ensuing push, protesters described being beaten with officers’ batons, punched and kicked as cops tried to clear the bridge, Ferguson noted, and police were dodging bottles and fireworks being thrown at them.
According to Ferguson’s report, Lightfoot watched the events unfold over a live video feed and recalled the process of clearing the bridge took more than four hours.
“In clearing it, people fought viciously against the police, hurling objects that were clearly intended to cause harm,” Lightfoot told the IG. “(That) was literally like a battlefield, watching what was transpiring, and that’s not a peaceful protest.”
But one protester at the bridge countered that it was the officers who were the aggressors.
“Police started pushing the protesters back, but it was not clear where the protesters were supposed to go. CPD gave dispersal orders only after they had begun to push protesters back. They did not provide a reason, nor any instructions
as to where the protesters could or should go,” according to the IG report, citing a protester’s account.
Lightfoot eventually imposed a curfew from 9 p.m. Saturday to 6 a.m. Sunday in part because of the violence. At a news conference, the IG noted, she announced the curfew about 35 minutes before it was scheduled to start, characterizing that time as “ample” notice.
But some officers said they received no guidance from supervisors on how to handle the curfew order, including whether to arrest violators.
The protests and unrest continued through Saturday night. SWAT members, after getting permission from Brown, used pepper spray 85 times at 19 locations that day, according to the report.
Looting accelerates
From about 7 p.m. Saturday and into early Sunday, there was looting throughout downtown and in the South Loop. Officers responded to one looting call after another, trying to clear damaged businesses with dispersal orders and arrests.
Even Brown recognized police did not have a handle on the situation at that stage.
“The superintendent described CPD’s approach to controlling the looting as a game of ‘leapfrog’ or ‘whack-a-mole,’ with officers deployed to areas impacted by looting and moving as needed,” according to the IG report.
And as the night wore on, Ferguson’s reports states, looters became more organized. Along the Magnificent Mile, many stores were broken into and shelves were plucked bare. Groups of people moved from store to store, using hammers and two-by-four planks to break glass.
The IG report also noted the Police Department’s operational chain of command was unclear. Despite Riccio, then first deputy superintendent, having sent out an incident action plan the day before, it was not widely understood among the officers who was in charge of the street operations.
Command staffers described Saturday as “a loss” for the department, the IG stated in the report. The next morning, CPD announced that 240 people had been arrested and 101 cops were hurt.
“It was so bad yesterday,” a high-ranking Chicago police official told a co-worker of Saturday’s mayhem, according to the report. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
More confusion
In the early morning hours of Sunday, May 31, a top CPD official emailed a “perimeter plan” to other city officials with the goal to “set up an outer perimeter footprint around the Central Business District.”
The plan entailed the use of heavy equipment, including garbage and salt trucks to seal off traffic to the downtown area, the IG noted.
The plan was met with some confusion. One police official responded by asking: “What is the plan/ messaging for access to the area? Utilities, residents, hospital staff, expecting mothers trying to get to (Northwestern Memorial Hospital), etc?
“Who can come in and what is being told for vehicle entry & exit points? Where will CPD resources come from to control those gates for vehicular access? Assuming we are only concerned with vehicles for this plan correct?”
Later that morning, Lightfoot held a news conference and announced that downtown access would be restricted to those who lived or worked in the area, and that public transportation would be suspended in and out of the Loop. She also announced the curfew would be indefinite.
With more protests scheduled, CPD’s deployment efforts took place at Guaranteed Rate Field. But once again, the plan led to more confusion throughout the chain of command. Officers of different ranks complained to the IG of not knowing how teams of cops would be organized or how many were to be mobilized. One lieutenant described wandering the parking lot putting together a patchwork of platoon volunteers, describing it as “The Dating Game.”
But with much of their effort pointed downtown, police got another unfortunate surprise. Looting quickly shifted into city neighborhoods that were undermanned.
Brown said his department received no intelligence to suggest that looting would spread throughout the neighborhoods, and there were no indications nationally that could have predicted it here.
“The department did not have plans in place to respond to the looting,” the IG report stated. “District command staff described their districts as being in ‘complete chaos.’ ”
Several district commanders reported there wasn’t much they could do to stop the looting Sunday because they didn’t have enough manpower. “One district commander estimated that they had 50 officers for around 300 to 500 looters, but they still attempted to make arrests.”
This commander remembered seeing a group of people using moving trucks to loot business after business.
‘A lot of learning’
In his rebuttal to Ferguson’s report, Brown said his officers were faced with difficult circumstances beyond their control, citing the COVID-19 pandemic and the civil unrest, while still having to do police work.
“Moreover, the most important resource in the department, the men and women who proudly serve this city were burdened beyond anything they had previously experienced,” Brown said in a letter to one of Ferguson’s deputies. “Many worked long hours without days off due to staffing shortages and despite what was asked of them, many served without issue.”
Brown also addressed some of the difficulties officers had in executing a mass-arrest plan, including that “many streets were blocked by protesters, rioters and looters.”
“This limited access to these locations, and when transport vehicles did arrive on scene, they were subject to attack and in some cases destroyed,” Brown said in the letter.
On Friday, Mayor Lightfoot responded to the report by saying the Police Department has learned from the unrest and defended Brown, who had faced calls for his firing, and whose department faced a subsequent round of unrest and looting in August.
She said Chicago was prepared for large but peaceful protests after Floyd’s death, but they were “hijacked by agitators who came to fight the police,” and criminals took advantage of the opportunity for systematic looting.
“I think there’s a lot of learning that went into what happened,” Lightfoot said, not only in Chicago, “but across the country.”
At 17, Kendall Jackson has found her way into history books as one of the first Black female Scouts to earn the prestigious Eagle Scout rank from the Boy Scouts of America.
Part of the inaugural class of more than 1,000 female Scouts nationwide since the organization opened to girls in 2019, the Schererville resident is one of 14 young women in the Chicago metropolitan area’s Pathway to Adventure Council to earn the Eagle Scout designation. She is the lone Black female in the council to do so. Nationally, Jackson is one of 21 Black females to join the elite rank.
“It’s definitely been an honor,” Jackson said. She said she never thought about the significance of being among the first African American young women to earn the title, especially during Black History Month. “To say I have made Black history is a blessing. It is very humbling,” Jackson said.
The Lake Central High School senior has been around scouting her entire life. Her mother, Kellauna Mack, was a volunteer troop leader while her brother, Kenneth Whisenton, made his way through the program.
Jackson said she learned the ropes from her brother, who is nine years her senior. Whisenton earned the rank of Eagle Scout in 2011.
“At first I just wanted to annoy him,” Jackson said, recalling pestering her brother and his scouting friends when she was younger. As time went on, she started to learn scouting skills from them and wanted to be more involved.
“He was really a big influence. I was able to see all he accomplished,” Jackson said. At the time, she understood she could not be
part of Boy Scouts of America, but was just happy to be able to learn the skills.
So when the opportunity finally arose in 2019 to formally become a full member, she jumped at the chance.
In the 19 months since joining, she met requirements for 39 badges and completed a community service project that earned her the Eagle Scout designation. Jackson was awarded the designation Feb. 7 along with two of her fellow Eagle Scouts from Troop 53, based out of St. Timothy Community Church in Gary.
Mack said she was excited and proud to see her daughter follow in her brother’s footsteps to earn
the Eagle Scout rank.
“I believe in the program deeply. I knew Kendall would learn all the skills,” she said.
In a statement, the Boy Scouts of America said the organization is honored to recognize Jackson during this historic time.
Jackson and her fellow female Eagle Scouts will be recognized Sunday in a nationwide virtual program highlighting the participants’ accomplishments. She will be one of four young women whose journeys will be featured in the program.
“Trailblazing young women from across the country took the final steps toward earning Scouting’s highest rank amid a pandemic to claim their place in
history as members of the inaugural class of female Eagle Scouts,” the BSA statement said.
The statement went on to call the accomplishment “an inspirational call to action for all young people to continue working to make a positive impact on their communities and the nation.”
Jackson named her Eagle Scout project “Project 21,” an effort that brought together 21 high school seniors from the class of 2021 for a day of workshops including health and wellness, timemanagement, financial responsibility, essays and resumes and relationships and networking.
“I got the idea after my
best friend asked for help,” Jackson said. Participants in her program received a binder filled with resources to help them along their next steps in life, be it going on to college, learning a trade or entering the workforce.
Jackson said she decided on her project because she learned some of her friends did not have the access to the information and resources she was exposed to through scouting.
Jackson recently made the decision to follow in her mother’s footsteps and those of Vice President Kamala Harris to attend Howard University, a historically Black college or university, known as an HBCU. She is hoping to be the third generation
of women in her family to join the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, where Harris was also a member.
“I’m just pleased as punch with her decision,” Mack said.
Jackson encourages young people — both male and female — to consider scouting and plans to volunteer with a local troop when she heads off to college.
“I felt lucky to be a part of the scouting program. I would say definitely give it a try,” Jackson said. For those who do join, she said, “Try to the best of your ability to get all the way to the top.”