May 28 On May 28,
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot compared Floyd's murder to the
murder of Laquan McDonald, saying "there but for the grace of God goes Chicago."
Chicago Police Department Superintendent
David Brown required officers to watch the video of Floyd's murder and undergo training on
positional asphyxiation.
May 29 Protesters gathered on May 29 in
Millennium Park and marched through
the Loop chanting Floyd's name. Demonstrators shut down several downtown streets and blocked traffic on the
Eisenhower Expressway. Near the intersection of State and Harrison streets, several protesters were seen throwing bottles and climbing onto cars. One individual was arrested while carrying a gun. The Chicago Police reported multiple arrests and damaged property. Superintendent
David Brown said 132 officers were injured, including one who suffered a broken wrist. Around 108 arrests were confirmed on the night of May 29–30, Another demonstration was planned for 2:00p.m. on Saturday the 30th, and Mayor Lightfoot stated that "we're not going to tolerate" lawlessness. A large downtown parking ban was enacted, with vehicles unable to park anywhere from
Chicago Avenue in the north to
Ida B. Wells Drive in the south, and from
Lake Shore Drive in the east to
Wells Street in the west, roughly correlating to the downtown area plus the
Magnificent Mile and
River North neighborhoods. Protesters carried signs and wore face masks saying "I Can't Breathe." By 3:30p.m., hundreds were marching north, with some protesters reportedly throwing fireworks and bottles near officers. Some also tagged buildings, cars, and a bus shelter. Another group of protesters climbed on top of a
151 Sheridan CTA bus. Demonstrators gathered on three sides of a police vehicle that was backing up on Dearborn Street, and confrontations broke out between officers and protesters when a police car tried to drive down Monroe Street in the Loop. By 4p.m., the crowd had split into several groups heading in different directions, including
Trump Tower, where it became markedly chaotic, with some throwing bottles and fireworks at officers. Authorities pushed protesters out of the way of a police vehicle. Along
State Street, marchers heading northbound chanted "Black Lives Matter" and "
I Can't Breathe," most of them wearing masks and many holding signs that read "
Defund the Police" and "Justice for Floyd." On the
Magnificent Mile, a demonstrator wore a mobile stereo around his neck as the song "
Fight the Power" by Public Enemy played from it. Simultaneously, church bells rang from the
Fourth Presbyterian Church. Protesters marched on Lake Shore Drive and
Michigan Avenue, and the crowd began to enter the outer drive through a northbound entrance ramp. By 5p.m., officers had responded to at least one dozen "10-1" calls, a police emergency. Some demonstrators reportedly tried to overturn a police car; others tried to hop onto another CTA bus. The
Ohio and Ontario feeder ramps were closed by authorities as well as the ramps leading to Eisenhower Expressway (I-290). Additionally, the CTA temporarily suspended
Red Line service between the
Clark/Division and
Sox-35th stations. A few minutes later, officers flipped it back again and protesters moved closer to the intersection of Kinzie and Dearborn streets. By the evening, there was at least one report of injuries to police officers, including a sergeant who had broken his arm near Trump Tower. Mayor Lightfoot held a press conference just after 8p.m., stating that the protests had "evolved into criminal conduct". He added that several buildings were vandalized, had broken windows, and that police utilized pepper spray and "arrests to prevent looting.'' Almost every storefront on Michigan Avenue saw some form of damage on Saturday evening, including the Loop locations of
Zara,
Nike,
CVS,
Walgreens,
Neiman Marcus, and the
Macy's storefront on State Street. Shortly after 11:30 pm, the Chicago Fire Department responded to a fire at the
Central Camera Company store on the 200 south block of Wabash Avenue. As a result of protests, the CTA temporarily suspended its services in the downtown area, and the northbound lanes of Lake Shore Drive at Roosevelt Road were closed. By the morning of May 31, most of the drawbridges spanning the Loop and River North remained up. 20 officers were confirmed to have been injured.
May 31 The
Illinois National Guard was summoned to the downtown area by Governor
J.B. Pritzker, who said he had done so following a request from Mayor Lightfoot on early Sunday morning. "I want to be clear and emphasize: the Guard is here to support our Police Department," Lightfoot stated. "They will not be actively involved in policing and patrolling." The decision is considered the first time since
1968 that a Chicago mayor had asked for the National Guard's help in dealing with civil unrest and disturbances. Just before noon, Lightfoot called for a moment of silence at 5pm. At approximately 3 pm,
Metra suspended its services to and from Chicago's downtown. Starting at 6:30 pm, at the request of authorities, the CTA suspended service on all
bus routes and
rail lines, according to its website. Crowds marched through the
Hyde Park and
River North neighborhoods on the evening of the 31st. In River North, officers utilized batons to beat protesters. In
Old Town, a standoff between demonstrators and police lasted hours. Farther south in the city, the
Walgreens location at the intersection of 79th Street and Racine Avenue was "emptied out". Around 9 pm, a group of mostly peaceful protesters were marching in downtown Chicago, and the crowd entered Lake Shore Drive, heading northbound before exiting. Also at about 9 pm, a fire at a shopping strip near was put out. Multiple stores in
Washington Park were looted during the evening, and another wave of looting appeared in the
Wicker Park neighborhood, starting on Sunday night and lasting well into the early hours of Monday, June 1. Dozens of people were seen near a Foot Locker in the vicinity of the
Milwaukee and Ashland Avenues intersection in Wicker Park. Firefighters responded early Monday to a fire at the
95th Street shopping center in the
Jeffery Manor neighborhood. It was later discovered that in the early morning hours of June 1 as unrest swept the South and West sides of the city as many as 13 Chicago police officers lounged, slept and snacked in the burglarized South Side office of U.S. Rep.
Bobby Rush. The group of officers – which included three supervisors – were captured on video surveillance footage discovered by Rush's staff. Representative Rush was quoted as saying “They even had the unmitigated gall to go and make coffee for themselves and to pop popcorn, my popcorn, in my microwave while looters were tearing apart businesses within their sight and within their reach." Shortly after the 9 pm curfew began, police officers confronted a group of men on Broadway Avenue who were throwing rocks and bricks. The group was dispersed by the officers, who did not use any chemical irritants. During the weekend, it was reported that the hacktivist group
Anonymous had infiltrated the Chicago Police's radio systems, blaring "
Fuck tha Police" by
N.W.A to disrupt radio communication. The economic cost of the riots and looting in the final days of May through June 1 were estimated at $66 million. ==References==