Monterrey Security’s lobbyist is Reyahd Kazmi, husband of Chicago City Clerk Anna Valencia. Monterrey CEO and former Chicago police officer Juan Gaytan founded the firm with Chicago firefighter Santiago Solis, younger brother of former Ald. Danny Solis (25th Ward). The company has faced criticism for controversial City Hall contracts, a police misconduct case and a man’s death outside a Chicago Walmart.

“Society gives to the police extraordinary powers — to physically manhandle people when necessary, to deprive people of their liberty, to even take a life. Extraordinary accountability and oversight is required in return, and nothing in a union contract should be allowed that compromises those checks and balances.”

The City Council’s Committee on Health and Human Relations voted unanimously on Friday afternoon to approve a non-binding resolution to create the Chicago Citizens of African Descent Reparations Commission. The full City Council is scheduled to consider the proposal from Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th Ward) on June 17.

“These contracts,” she said, “are a significant problem and challenge in getting the reforms necessary.”

Demonstrators say that these protests will continue, as will the push for police reform on the national level.

Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce President Jack Lavin said, “We need to do everything we can from a regulatory standpoint to help them save money. Cash flow they can save now helps them hire people. The predictability of scheduling — they just aren’t gonna know until they get back up and running. Let’s give relief … small businesses need to get their doors open, find out what their new business model is, what the costs are, what the customers and clients are gonna be.”

“This whole thing is a tragedy, has zero to do with Floyd’s tragic killing, and it’s aggravating to listen to armchair liberals reciting abstract social theories that conclude what’s good for the impoverished in our city. Real life is more complex than fits a meme.”

On April 2, 2019, Lightfoot swept all 50 wards on the way to a 73.7% landslide over Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. If the new poll is right, she has held her ground since then — even after enduring a teachers strike, eliminating an $838 million budget shortfall, firing a police superintendent and leading the city through a pandemic.

Chicago police said there have been no arrests this weekend related to the protests.

Ald. Susan Sadlowski-Garza (10th Ward) broke down while pleading with Lightfoot for help.

“My ward is a s–t show,” Sadlowski-Garza said, adding that cop cars and banks were burned. “They are shooting at the police.”

Sadlowski-Garza began to cry as she said the unrest began about 11 a.m. Sunday, when a group of 40 people broke into a marijuana dispensary, but had nothing to do with a protest.

“We figured out how to handle protecting people from COVID, but there’s no way I can make people feel comfortable with fear of lawlessness,” he said. “I don’t know how to figure that out yet.”

“Downtown Chicago will come back. There’s enough money and politics to drive a return to at least a version of itself, and we journalists will talk gushingly about renewal, and some of us will avoid mentioning all those moving out.But what of 7 5th and Stony, the people who can’t run off to their lake house? What of people who don’t benefit from downtown glitz and media leverage?”

“We know that people are tense and anxious, with the highest unemployment rates in our nation’s history and families worried about where their next meal or their next rent payment will come from,” Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said. “It’s no wonder that some, in their hopelessness, turn to violence.”

On Friday, when asked about officers not wearing masks, the mayor said the department would take action. “If officers are not wearing the mask and protective gear that we provided, then they have to be disciplined…And we expect them to abide by the directives that have been issued.”

“The new president of the police union, John Catanzara, was the subject of 50 misconduct complaints, according to the Citizens Police Data Project, 10 of them sustained, and is believed to be the first FOP president to serve while stripped of his police powers. Illinois law empowers this person to horse trade with the mayor over proper police discipline.”