Chicago City Wire

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is locking horns with fellow Chicagoans over the disbursement of COVID-19 relief funds.

Reports show that Lightfoot is spending almost $300 million in federal relief funds on the Chicago Police Department and some activists are criticizing the move, saying that it could have gone to better use.

But Lightfoot is incensed by the criticism and even called the whole thing “dumb.”

Lightfoot spoke with reporters in a briefing and explained why the backlash on her decision to spend $281 million on the police department is uncalled for. She said that using that money for the police department helped the city avoid larger budget deficits.

She further explained that Chicago was granted $1.2 billion as a relief package in the spring of 2020 through the CARES Act. She said that the city decided to use those monies to pay for the police department’s payroll because if they chose not to then they would have to use taxpayers’ money, which due to the pandemic is already strained to its limit.

But backlash comes from civilians and activists who say that there are other people more deserving of financial support than police officers who “cannot stop beating Chicagoans.”

Black Lives Matter protesters and activists are calling out Lori Lightfoot for funding the police department when ordinary civilians could have used those funds during the pandemic. They said that ordinary people who helped organize aid drives and people who are starving deserve that financial support more than the police department that they say continues to fail in upholding the law through excessive violence toward perpetrators.