More than 100 arrested in Chicago following looting downtown

CHICAGO— All summer, demonstrators have marched through Chicago to protest police misconduct. In many neighbourhoods, gun violence has been unrelenting, soaring to levels not seen in decades. The coronavirus pandemic is resurging, now sickening hundreds of people each day.

Then on Monday, hundreds of people, spurred by a police shooting and by calls on social media to take action in the gleaming heart of the city, converged overnight on the Magnificent Mile, Chicago’s most famous shopping district. They broke windows, looted stores and clashed with police, a chaotic and confusing scene that prompted city officials to briefly raise bridges downtown and halt nearby public transit to stem the unrest. Two people were shot and at least 13 police officers were injured.

The events instantly played into the broader political dynamics of this season, in which President Donald Trump has regularly portrayed Chicago as a poorly governed hotbed of violent crime. Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a Democrat, expressed fury over the violence and ordered limited access to downtown starting Monday evening.

But with a debate still fresh over federal agents sent to Portland, Ore., Lightfoot made it clear that she did not want military troops brought in, despite a call for help from the National Guard from at least one Republican leader in the Illinois House. “No, we do not need federal troops in Chicago, period, full stop,” Lightfoot said. She drew a distinction between the unrest overnight and what she described as a “righteous uprising” after the killing of George Floyd in May.

“We are waking up in shock this morning,” Lightfoot said at a news conference. “What occurred downtown and in surrounding communities was abject criminal behaviour, pure and simple.”