Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was recorded during a heated and expletive-ridden exchange with a city alderman while addressing protests that turned violent after George Floyd’s death.
During a May 31 conference call with 50 aldermen, Alderman Raymond Lopez told Lightfoot that the city was unprepared for the demonstrations, according to a recording of the call obtained by a CBS affiliate in the city.
“When downtown is in lockdown, our neighborhoods are next, and our failure to fully get ready for what’s going on in the neighborhoods, we’re seeing this destruction, and we’re thinking that it’s going to somehow end tonight. We have seen where, in other cities, this has gone on for days; and we need to come up with a better plan for days, at least for the next five days, to try and stabilize our communities,” Lopez, who is a known critic of Lightfoot, said.
Lopez said that looters might spill over into residential areas and wanted answers on how the city would handle that.
“Once they’re done looting and rioting and whatever’s going to happen tonight, God help us, what happens when they start going after residents? Going into the neighborhoods? Once they start trying to break down people’s doors, if they think they’ve got something,” he said. “I’ve got gangbangers with AK-47s walking around right now, just waiting to settle some scores. What are we going to do, and what do we tell residents, other than good faith people stand up? It’s not going to be enough.”
Lightfoot initially didn’t answer Lopez’s inquiry and wanted to move on to the next question. But Lopez said, “It’s not something you ignore. This is a question that I have.”
The phone call then took a profane turn as the two elected officials began exchanging expletives.
“I think you’re 100% full of shit, is what I think,” Lightfoot said.
“F— you, then,” Lopez responded. “Who are you to tell me I’m full of shit? … Maybe you should come out and see what’s going on.”
“If you think we’re not ready, and we stood by and let the neighborhoods go up, there’s nothing intelligent that I could say to you,” Lightfoot responded. “That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. I understand you want to preen.”
“Mayor, you need to check your f—ing attitude. That’s what you need to do,” Lopez replied.
Chicago saw a spike in crime amid protests over Floyd’s death while he was in police custody on Memorial Day. In some cases, demonstrations devolved into riots, including looting, arson, and vandalism. The city experienced its most violent day in 60 years on May 31, with 18 people murdered and 65,000 calls to 911. Twenty-five people were killed between May 29 and May 31, and 85 were wounded by gunfire.
“We’ve never seen anything like it at all,” said Max Kapustin, the University of Chicago Crime Lab’s senior research director. “I don’t even know how to put it into context. It’s beyond anything that we’ve ever seen before.”
New York reported similar violence amid the protests, seeing 13 murders between June 1-7 and 40 reported shootings.
