Officers with the Chicago Police Department are concerned for their families’ safety after Tweets and Facebook posts encouraged protesters to target the homes of officers.
As protests have escalated in Chicago, individuals on the social media platforms have urged protesters to go to the homes of police officers and act out.
“All the Chicago cops live in Midway, Garfield Ridge, west of Austin near Archer," Twitter user dudu (@du14997777) tweeted May 30. "If they have blue lights in front of their houses at night time, they are police. Go to there houses and [expletive] the houses up where they live.”
A series of Facebook posts written by a user called James Richardson called on protesters to target police officers' homes.
“Protesters, go to those phony police houses," Richardson wrote on Facebook. "Go to where they live before the national guard gets there to protect they MURDEROUS [expletive]! It’s time to let them really feel OUR PAIN!!”
A video shared on Facebook shows protests devolving into chaos at Madison and Pulaski in Chicago on June 1. The video shows protesters blocking traffic, pulling down street signs and vandalizing police cars.
In text messages obtained by Chicago City Wire, a Chicago police officer described the protest and was critical of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s handling of the situation. The Chicago City Wire is not releasing the identity of the officer to protect the individual's safety.
“The night before the city burned, just shy of 200 arrests were made in relation to the 'protest,'" the officer wrote. "They knew as early as then that these people were becoming violent and outnumbering the police. The mayor was aware and sat idly by and let her city burn because calling in the national guard was 'an aggressive stance on the situation.' And now the remaining protesters are threatening violence against police families and are threatening to come to our neighborhoods and burn them down. Bad enough we deal with the stress all day now we have to worry about our families at home.”
The officer criticized Lightfoot’s administration for making a fool out of the whole ordeal and said the mayor should be held accountable for the destruction from the protests.
Images shared by the officer list neighborhoods to target and a message encouraging protesters to "burn the North Side to ashes."
The threats against the families and homes of officers were posted on police family and neighborhood watch Facebook pages, according to the officer.
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