Ariel Atkins also blasted Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s tough response to the looting. “Winning has come through revolts. Winning has come through riots,” she said.

John Tillman, chairman and CEO of the Illinois Policy Institute: “What has happened today is that balance is completely out of whack now where the police no longer feel empowered to try to preserve order, and they don’t feel protected by their administration. Frankly, they don’t feel protected by many people in their own community who have turned on them. This is a recipe for disaster and we’re watching it unfold, not just in Chicago.”

According to researchers at PolicyLab at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Chicago has a high transmission rate and inadequate social distancing measures.

Toni Preckwinkle: “The tendency for law enforcement to shift the blame to courts, which are simply following the law and best practices, is not productive. The recent rise in shootings during the Covid-19 pandemic has more readily traceable causes: rampant access to guns coupled with the economic crisis of a lifetime.”

“On State Street, in Chicago’s River North downtown neighborhood, Bill LaMacchia, 54, estimated about $20,000 damage on his bar and restaurant, Bijan’s Chicago…A group of looters had heaved a marble-top table through a massive picture window overlooking the outside patio. They took nearly every bottle of liquor from his shelves. Some of them even sat and drank the bottles in his patio seats. The whole scene was captured on his security camera.”

“The only person who can potentially unite us and bring us together is the mayor, because that’s the way the city has always worked, going back to the Richard J. Daley days,” said Ald. Brian Hopkins. “There’s a way to do it, but she hasn’t found it yet. And I hope she finds it soon, because otherwise we’re just going to continue spinning our wheels, or arguing over false solutions that don’t amount to anything.”

“A well-resourced police department remains critical as we attend to the other needs of communities, as well,” Lightfoot said. She rejected using any of the nearly $1.8 billion policing budget to fund this plan. But cities have grown to rely too much officers “to solve every need in the community,” and that’s causing residents to suffer, Lightfoot said.

“Given the many ways Trump has debased the office of president of the United States, it would be entirely consistent of him to drag this fall’s election down to the level of a Chicago ward brawl.”

“I’m not just nervous for my business, but my neighborhood. And for the city in general,” retailer Michael Blossom said. “I support the cause, as long as it’s peaceful.”

“It just reaffirms that when you do it right, people see themselves in the project. Unfortunately, when you have this level of coverage of a random event that led to some organized crime, it makes it far more difficult to get the next corporate investment,” Mall owner Leon Walker lamented. “In addition to highlighting the pain, we need to celebrate the joy and successes.”