Shortly after 5 AM on Monday as many Chicagoans were just waking up and turning on their televisions, CBS2 was broadcasting footage of a mostly desolate Loop shot from one of its roving vehicles. Police lights flashed across the horizon of the grainy footage. The video was combined with the crackly voice of a reporter phoning in. She told viewers that the Chicago River bridges had been raised. The screen flashed text: “Chicago police respond to multiple smash & grab break-ins all morning,” and “Looting & unrest overnight across downtown Chicago.”
“Police put out that call, ‘all available units,’ asking for help as they were trying to contain an outraged mob scene. The rioters hit the streets just before 12:30 this morning, targeting high-end stores all along Michigan Avenue: Gucci’s, Coach, Macy’s . . . even the Jewel was hit.” As she spoke there were video clips of broken store windows, empty shelves, flashing police lights. The crowd “was turning on police,” the reporter said. We then watched a white armored CPD truck (likely a decommissioned military Humvee) roll through an intersection to the sound of staticky police scanner audio. The segment concluded with a back-and-forth between the reporter and the anchor about just how chaotic the situation still was and how multiple things were happening in different parts of downtown at once. A few minutes later 15th Ward alderman Ray Lopez was on air saying the looting was coordinated through social media.
In the early afternoon, anchors and reporters began discussing the shooting of Allen and reiterated officials’ statements that he was a 20-year-old man who’d shot at cops, and not an unarmed teenager as had been rumored on the Internet. Brown’s statement that “misinformation” on social media was the spark that ignited the unrest was quoted repeatedly. As the day wore on, doubt continued to be cast on the idea that Allen didn’t deserve to be shot while we learned that CPD had no video of the shooting because the officers involved were in plain clothes. There were segments featuring familiar anti-violence voices like Father Michael Pfleger on the south side and Reverend Robin Hood on the west side. Pfleger actually questioned why police didn’t intervene to prevent the looting if they saw it being coordinated on social media, though he quickly added—and the TV reporters reiterated—that he wasn’t blaming the police for what had happened.
“Many are asking how did this happen so fast and why”
“Sudden eruption of violence”
There were many interviews with white people saying things like “This has nothing to do with what’s going on and the peaceful protests, it’s straight up theft.” And with jewelry store owners on Wabash saying things like “We’re gonna end up like a third world country . . . it’s emotionally draining to have them come in for a third time.” And with Black community leaders saying things like “Looting is not the answer.”
