Englewood pushes back against BLM protestors from outside of the neighborhood

[VIDEO] I've been saying this on our twitter account since I found out about it. Englewood residents led by Darryl Smith of the Englewood Political Task Force stepped out to disrupt a planned Black Lives Matter protest outside of the Englewood police district HQ at 63rd and Loomis Streets. As you see in the dramatic footage from ABC 7, we saw it did get tense.

Check out this Tribune write-up:

A planned protest outside the Englewood police station Tuesday evening over a recent police-involved shooting devolved into shouting matches among demonstrators, with threats and insults hurled back and forth, after a group of older residents derided the event as “a party” and demanded that outsiders leave.

Eventually tempers cooled somewhat after several small confrontations, and people started talking. In the end, a much smaller group of demonstrators marched through Englewood while a large number of protesters headed home.

The event was billed as a car caravan to the South Side police station and a protest march in the neighborhood, organized by groups including Black Lives Matter Chicago, Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation and Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

It was in response to the recent shooting of Latrell Allen, who was wounded by police Sunday afternoon after he allegedly pulled a gun and fired at officers near Moran Park. The cadre of organizations support initiatives to defund police departments, remove officers from public schools and increase social services, among many other aims.

...

On Tuesday, about 10 minutes before the 6 p.m. event was to begin at 63rd Street and Loomis Boulevard, a small group of Englewood men, some of them residents of the neighborhood for decades, began to loudly deride the demonstration and demanded the group go home.

Things got heated.

“Get the (expletive) out of here!” one man yelled at the demonstrators.

The men are aligned with various Englewood groups that often work with police to ease tensions. They consider themselves community elders and said they didn’t appreciate a protest in their neighborhood during such a tense time. Some of them say they helped calm things after objects were thrown at officers on Aberdeen Street on Sunday.

“They (protest organizers) didn’t let the community know,” said Duane Kidd. “They didn’t put flyers on the door. They got the streets shut down. What about the elders that have to get up and down 63rd Street? Now they got to take the side routes.

“Coming into our community for just one day and then run out,” Kidd said. “Everyday. If they got something to say about the police, we got to deal with it tomorrow. The community. Not them. They’ll be somewhere sipping sangria.”

I got news for you, the loudest ones talking about defund police or abolish police are probably the ones who has the least issues with the police. They may not have experienced first hand police brutality. They may also be very well off and have attached themselves to this cause.

I can support BLM in principle especially on issues of police brutality. What I don't support is defunding or abolishing police. And I'm glad in Englewood, the men stood up and said you're not going to mess up things in our community. We're going to take care of our business, you outsiders will mess it all up!

Also with spokespeople like this young woman Ariel Atkins of BLM who believes looting is a form of reparations, it's a good thing the Englewood community doesn't want to be associated with this now. [VIDEO]

WGN News: Cook County Commissioner on city's response to looting

[VIDEO] I'm sharing this with you to show one response to the looting that took place early on Monday overnight. Brandon Johnson is a sitting Cook County Commissioner representing the first district of Cook County.

The WGN anchors states Commissioner Johnson is calling for defunding the police. Johnson explains why these individuals were looting on Monday. Johnson explains that what we saw earlier this week is an expression of frustration and anguish with regards to poverty over many generations....

Here we go he's excusing this behavior. The worst part of this behavior is it wasn't just another Black person shot by police, it was misinformation that even the Mayor of Chicago had to take to twitter to address.

There is a false rumor on social media that police officers killed a 15-year-old on Sunday. Here are the facts:
- Officers responded to 911 calls about an armed man in Englewood
- A 20-year-old suspect fired at officers, gunfire was exchanged
- The suspect is in stable condition

— Mayor Lori Lightfoot (@chicagosmayor) August 10, 2020

Misinformation causes anguish and frustration over proverty during the course of many generations. I had to turn this off once I heard him start with the excuses. Is there any leader in the Democratic machine that is willing to stand up to this lawlessness. Where is the leadership?

CapFax: A night of looting in Chicago

Rich Miller is looking into the looting that took place downtown overnight. We get an idea of what was going on and how organized this mayhem was.

A night of looting in Chicago https://t.co/taKPivLDCw

— Rich Miller (@capitolfax) August 10, 2020

I understand that this rash of mayhem started in Englewood with a police involved shooting. Probably will find an article on that later.

NO, not this again!!! Looting downtown overnight

[VIDEO] The last time this activity happened downtown, especially in the last weekend of may in national demonstrations over what happened with George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minn - it came here. Peaceful demonstrations great and then came the rioting, vandalism, and looting. Worse still once it happened downtown, it came to the neighborhoods on the west and south sides which are still recovering from them.

I'd say check out the comments in the above video. A lot of people making their own references to who committed the most recent acts of looting and violence downtown. Some of it offensive from some of you.

It lets me know that we really haven't settled down from what happened over two months ago. We're still under some forms of unrest in this city. Granted there were other hiccups such as what happened at a Christopher Columbus statue on the lakefront.

And you know 2nd City Cop had something to say about this and noting that Mayor Lightfoot over the weekend crashed Montrose Beach after a significant group of people congregated there during a pandemic.

I want to share this video from The Hill which often covers what's going on in the US Congress about the chaos from overnight. Even they're paying attention. [VIDEO]

I hate to ask this question, have we started to lose control?

The Aftermath: Who’s Staying and Who’s Going

Worlee Glover at Concerned Citizens of Chatham has been doing a great job keeping everyone updated on the aftermath of the George Floyd unrest from over a month ago at the end of May. Many of us are concerned about some of our retail establishments reopening after the vandalism and looting of that time.

Many of us were concerned about being able to shop in our communities for groceries. Also some of us are concerned about where to pick-up our prescriptions. Those are the main things of great concern to many as we take Jewel, Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, etc for granted until they got hit by looting & vandalism.

Some of these establishments are returning to operations for our convenience. I was honestly shocked to see the Rothschild's Liquor (717 E 87th St) appeared to be closed one day I went up to 87th Street. From Worlee Rothchild's other locations throughout the city and their downtown offices were looted so they may not reopen at all. He even addressed the idea that with the disappearance of our local liquor stores - including Kenwood Liquors per their website is permanently closed - alcoholism will suddenly disappear.

We see the Walmart 8331 S. Steward or on 83rd Street and the Walgreens 11 E. 75th Street or on 75th & State Streets will take at least 2 to 6 months to reopen as they took extensive damage due to the looting. If I recall the 83rd Street Walmart was said to be on fire that last weekend in May due to the civil unrest. Also the Walgreens on 75th & State still had issues with looters even after the unrest.

Those among other updates and information you will see in the Concerned Citizen's of Chatham posting below.