Chicago businesses are already boarding up their storefronts downtown ahead of Monday’s opening of the Democratic National Convention in anticipation of mass rioting and violence.
Plywood shielding first began showing up Thursday morning as the city’s shopping district opened for business.
“As we know, this city has a poor track record when it comes to protecting businesses,” Scott Shapiro, owner of Syd Jerome, told Chicago’s WLS-TV.
“We felt it was more prudent to board up, since our customers and their employers have told them to stay home throughout the convention for their own safety,” Shapiro added.
It makes perfect sense for Shapiro to take precautions. His store was one of those destroyed during the riots in 2020.
The retailer added that he does not fear peaceful protesters, but is wary of “the people that embed themselves and take advantage of those protests for their own agenda.”
Shapiro is right to worry. News outlets have reported that violent protest groups are organizing. Some expect domestic terror organization Antifa as well as violence-prone pro-Hamas groups to target the Windy City and many worry that members are being bused into the city from outside.
He is far from the only one to board up his business. Plywood barriers are going up all across the Loop area and the rest of Chicago’s downtown retail sector.
One boarding company told the media that they have had 40 calls this week alone to begin boarding up the city’s retail businesses.
Meanwhile, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) is warning protesters that violence and property damage will not be tolerated.
CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling warned that the First Amendment does not act as cover for “criminal acts.”
ABC7 reported that Snelling told CNN:
There is a distinct difference between the riot and a peaceful protest, or people who are simply actually exercising their first amendment rights. The first amendment for tat [sic] actions does not include rioting, it doesn’t include criminal acts … It doesn’t include breaking the law. It doesn’t include violence, vandalism, those things that we are not going to tolerate in our city. But if people are showing up here to exercise their first amendment rights, they’re doing it peacefully lawfully, we’re going to protect their rights to do that.”
“The minute that starts, we have to put an end to it,” Snelling said of violence and rioting, according to Chicago’s WBEZ radio. “When people become comfortable committing acts of violence and vandalism, that’s when it turns into a riot.”
Still, the CPD has also specified use of force rules, such as restricting use of batons to body and leg strikes and not the head or neck. And many officers have been notified of extended hours for next week, sparking worries of fatigue and overwork.
“We’re going to have to extend hours; there are going to be day-off cancellations,” the superintendent told the media. “But there [are] also wellness plans in place for our officers to make sure that, cognitively, our officers are effective when they’re responding.”
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