Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot called the “vast majority” of protests in her city “peaceful.”
On Saturday, 17 officers were injured, and 24 people were arrested after protests turned violent in Chicago.
Lightfoot said, “Unfortunately, what we’ve seen in cities all across the country, not just Chicago, is a continuing wave of protests. The vast majority of these have been peaceful. But what we’ve also seen is people who have embedded themselves in these seemingly peaceful protests and have come for a fight. What happened yesterday was really over very quickly because our police department has resolved to make sure we protect peaceful protests, but we’re absolutely not going to tolerate people who come to these protests looking for a fight, and are intending to injury our police officers and injury innocent people who just come to express their First Amendment rights. That is a very different thing than what than what happened yesterday. Last Sunday was absolutely a planned attack. It is not spontaneous when you bring U-Haul trucks and high-end robbery tools.”
She added, “We’re working with our federal partners to identify exactly who the ring leaders are. We’re actively pursuing cases against others. We’re determined to make sure we get to the bottom of this and bring those responsible for this organized crime effort to justice.”
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