Tuesday, June 2 marked the eighth day of protests by citizens nationwide who are outraged over the asphyxiation death of a George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer.
Some social media posts urged looting, pillaging and burning Northern Chicago communities where police and firemen predominantly reside.
“A lot of people panicked in response,” a Chicago police officer told Chicago City Wire on condition of anonymity.
For example, a May 30 tweet on Twitter from @du144997777 replying to @chicagocreatur1 stated, “All the Chicago cops live in Midway, Garfield Ridge west of Austin near Archer. If they have blue lights in front of their houses at nighttime, they are police. Go to their houses and f*#k the houses up where they live.”
When he learned of the threat, the anonymous police officer said, “I personally took my flag in, removed the emblem off my car and the light off my front porch so as not to draw attention.”
Another tweet allegedly aimed at the police stated, “Monday June 1st Burn the Northside to Ashes.”
“They looted some stores up that way but they didn't really go into the residences too much to my knowledge,” the police officer said. “Friday night in the Norwood Park area thirty cars had their windows broken out and 10 car thefts were reported.”
Chicago erupted into “No Justice No Peace” protests led by Black Lives Matter (BLM), an international human rights organization that demanded the arrest of Derek Chauvin, the police officer who pinned an unarmed Floyd to the ground and strangled him to death with his knee on May 25, 2020.
Chauvin was finally arrested and charged with murder on the third day of rallies, some of which have turned into episodes of looting that President Trump and other government officials believe have been instigated by Antifa. Antifa is a far-left, antifascist, network of activists who believe, among other things, that more aggressive resistance to the Nazi Party in pre-World War II Germany would have kept Adolph Hitler from coming into power, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
On June 1, it was reported in Business Insider that the extreme right-wing group, Identity Evropa, called for violence and looting in white neighborhoods on Twitter under the guise of being Antifa members.
When asked if the looters were Antifa or BLM followers, the policeman remarked, “Whoever the rioters and looters are, it's a war between them and the police and it’s the police trying to protect the community wherever they're at and do the best they can with what they’ve got.”
Video posted on Facebook shows what looks like inner-city youths throwing rocks at a police car.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker deployed the Illinois National Guard troops to the suburbs on Monday, June 1, according to media reports, after Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a curfew on Saturday, May 30.
But the police officer said, “It’s too little too late. Downtown has already been burned. The National Guard doesn’t enforce the curfew and the curfew is not being enforced or used effectively. All of the courts are closed. What do midnight officers do when they arrest looters? Kim Foxx doesn’t want to prosecute so all of the people are being bonded out the next morning.”
Kim Foxx is the state's attorney for Cook County.
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