May 31, 2020 – (Chicago, IL) – With Chicago’s South and West sides neighborhoods under attack from armed bands who are looting stores and terrorizing people, Aldermen Anthony Beale (9th Ward), Brian Hopkins (2nd Ward) and Raymond Lopez (15th Ward) are calling upon Mayor Lightfoot and Governor Pritzker to bring 3,000 national guard to the aid of the city’s most vulnerable communities.
Their call comes in response to a situation in which Chicago’s center city was being focused on by police and now by the Illinois National Guard. There were few police and no National Guard resources available to the neighborhoods where overnight and throughout Sunday armed vandals looted.
“The people of the west and south sides have already been severely impacted by Covid-19, by disinvestment and by the kind of police brutality that killed George Floyd,” said Alderman Beale. “That the stores that provide the food and medicine that we rely on, are now being attacked by marauders who wish to take advantage of the real and righteous grievances expressed by the peaceful protests–is totally unacceptable and must be stopped. Yes, to the protection of the city’s central area but also, if not first, protect the people and neighborhoods that make our city what it is.”
