Another incident occurred in downtown Chicago where hundreds of black youths looted stores, vandalized property, and threatened innocent civilians.
According to the Chicago media on the 31st, about 400 teenagers gathered around the Roosevelt subway station near the Chicago tourist attraction ‘Museum Campus’ at 8:00 pm the previous evening and started a group disturbance.
The police said that they planned and carried out large-scale gatherings through social media (SNS), saying, “As the number of the group increased, it became more and more disorderly. It is known that the disturbance on this day also originated from the ‘Teen Takeover of the city’ event that black teenagers in the south of Chicago are planning and executing through social media.
They swarmed nearby stores, looted goods, smashed the inside and outside of the store, sprayed fire extinguishers, and swept the streets, sometimes engaging in gang fights. Local police news outlet CWB said, “Some broke windows into a police uniform store and some broke into a mail delivery vehicle.” One witness posted a video of the scene on social media and urged, “Look at what your children are doing here. Please crack down on the children.”
The Chicago police authorities set up a policy to take a hard line against the ‘large-scale collective action trend’ that is not weakening and recommended front-line police officers to arrest delinquent teenagers. A 17-year-old minor,” he said. While most of those arrested face misdemeanour charges for reckless behaviour, some were charged with trespassing and bodily harm, and two were charged with felonies after being found in possession of illegal firearms.
Police said they seized three guns from those arrested. CWB said, “It is the first time since the arrest of 60 people on July 4, 2021, that Chicago police have arrested so many suspects in an urban riot case.” The police explained the background that they had arrested two people on the 25th, five days before this incident, after causing a rather small-scale disturbance in the same area.
Earlier, on April 15, 1,000 black teenagers broke into downtown Chicago and rioted. Two people shot each other, but only 15 people were arrested. At the time, a video in which a group of black teenagers collectively assaulted a white woman in her 20s on the street spread on social media, inciting public outrage. Also, on the 26th of last month, they advanced to the Lakeview district in the northern part of the city, where many white people live, and broke car windows and attacked pedestrians, and two people were arrested.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (47, Democratic) related to the incident said, “Destructive collective action is never tolerated,” but “but demonizing opportunity-hungry youth in the community is not constructive.” “We need to create spaces where these youth can safely gather,” said Mayor Johnson.