Mayor Lori Lightfoot has known as for the elimination of 2 monuments to Christopher Columbus after violent clashes between police and protesters broke out closing week when activists tried to rip down a statue of the Italian explorer in Grant Park.
Ald. Brian Hopkins (second) instructed the Chicago Sun-Times past due Thursday that Lightfoot made “a unilateral decision” to take down that statue and every other situated in Arrigo Park at the Near West Side. Hopkins mentioned the aim was once to have them got rid of Thursday night time.
“At this hour, there is discussion about postponing the removal, but the mayor has not indicated any reversal of her decision,” he mentioned.
The mayor’s workplace didn’t reply to a couple of requests searching for remark.
The Chicago Tribune first reported that Lightfoot deliberate to have the Grant Park statue got rid of as early as Thursday night time.
When the inside track broke, over 1000 protesters who have been rallying close to Lightfoot’s Logan Square house had a good time. Soon after, an organizer led the gang in a celebratory chant.
“Thank you for the statue, now defund CPD,” the gang bellowed.
The statue in Grant Park, which, like the opposite monument, has been cloaked in plastic, remained intact past due Thursday.
John Catanzara, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, confirmed up on the park after listening to the statue was once set to be got rid of.
Catanzara has just lately feuded with Lightfoot after he penned a letter to President Donald Trump pleading for federal lend a hand to handle town’s surging gun violence.
“I’m sick of the mayor thinking she can do whatever she wants to do,” mentioned Catanzara, who’s of Italian descent. “She’s no longer a dictator.
“She’s a coward that she wanted to do this in the middle of the night when nobody was paying attention after she said she wasn’t going to take the statue down.”
The mayor’s choice follows a standoff closing Friday in Grant Park, which devolved into chaos when protesters tried to take down that statue. Like different monuments to colonialism, the Columbus statue has come underneath greater scrutiny amid the national reckoning over racial injustice.
While officials guarded the statue, some protesters have been observed lobbing firecrackers and different projectiles of their course and guarding themselves with umbrellas. Amid the chaos, officials swung batons and used pepper spray to quell the gang.
Police later reported that 12 other people have been arrested and 18 others have been harm throughout the incident. On Monday, Chicago Police Supt. David Brown mentioned 49 officials have been injured, with 18 requiring hospitalization.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which investigates allegations of police misconduct, reported Sunday that the company had won over 20 lawsuits associated with the protest.
Though Lightfoot has known as stories of over the top pressure “unacceptable” and vowed they’d be investigated, she additionally solid blame on a small staff of “vigilantes” who she mentioned “came for a fight.” On Monday, she faulted that contingent for “hijacking” the demonstration and throwing frozen water bottles and different gadgets at officials.
“That’s not peaceful protest,” she mentioned. “That’s anarchy.”
Contributing: Sam Kelly, Sam Charles, Fran Spielman