What began in Los Angeles over the weekend was disturbing and instructive. A protest over aggressive federal immigration raids gave way to scenes of destruction: fires in the streets, attacks on law enforcement and frightened families caught in the middle. The deployment of the National Guard and Marines escalated tensions rather than calming them. America saw once again how quickly righteous anger can descend into chaos — and a reminder to leaders at every level that inflammatory rhetoric and show-of-force politics come with real-world consequences.
We wrote earlier this week that we believe sending in troops went too far. We’d like to take a moment to issue a message to those who might seek to induce similar scenes here in Chicago.
While we laud your constitutional right to assemble and make your voices heard, we beseech you: Do not come here to destroy.
We cherish this city. We love our parks, our architecture, our restaurants, our schools, our streets. We will not tolerate them becoming collateral damage in a campaign of chaos.
Don’t bring bricks, don’t light fires, don’t hurt people, don’t attack police officers who have families just like you and are doing their jobs.
Destruction is not speech. Arson is not advocacy. And mayhem will never lead to meaningful reform.
With tensions high, we hope calm prevails over the coming days, especially Saturday when Chicago and the suburbs will see expansive “No Kings” protests.
Protests already have begun this week. Fortunately, as of this writing, we haven’t seen an escalation similar to what’s happening in Los Angeles, but the Chicago Police Department did make some arrests Tuesday. Protests blocked Loop traffic and parts of DuSable Lake Shore Drive on Tuesday, disrupting ordinary Chicagoans — not distant politicians — just trying to get to work, pick up kids or buy groceries.
Other major cities are gearing up for increased protest activity as well, including New York City, which also has seen people begin taking to the streets. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott said on X that the Texas National Guard “will be deployed to locations across the state to ensure peace & order” ahead of planned protests in San Antonio.
We need city leaders to be prepared. Having handled widespread Democratic National Convention protests less than a year ago, we believe the men and women in uniform here know what they’re doing. We suspect many CPD dads will be spending this Father’s Day on the job in a situation that will test their strength and mental fortitude. For that, we, too, are grateful.
Chicago has much at stake beyond the immediate tensions. Unrest and wreckage similar to the summer of 2020 would be a devastating setback for our city. Chicago has recently been able to cheer declining violent crime after years of escalating activity. Scenes of looting and rioting that wrecked our city’s neighborhoods after George Floyd’s killing still mar Chicago’s reputation.
In this charged moment, we have to keep faith in our democratic republic. Gov. JB Pritzker joins the national conversation on this issue today as one of three governors of so-called sanctuary states testifying before the U.S. House Oversight Committee, an opportunity to steer the conversation back to the issues instead of fanning the flames as Mayor Brandon Johnson did by using the word “war” during a Wednesday news conference.
We need cooler heads to prevail right now.
Make no mistake, this board stands behind our country’s long-standing right to peacefully protest.
Let’s not forget that many who gathered in Los Angeles did so as a peaceful act of conscience, upset as they were by the spreading reach of President Donald Trump’s push to deport people in our country without legal authorization.
But we must clearly distinguish between peaceful protest and violent extremism.
Scenes of vandalism and looting only serve to reinforce a law-and-order narrative that erodes public sympathy for the immigrants these protests aim to support. To avoid that, the people in charge in America’s cities — primarily Democratic mayors and governors — should make clear they stand for peaceful protest. This is a moment for politicians on the left to demonstrate they learned something from the 2020 riots and draw a clear line against those who exploit unrest to create havoc.
There is a darker side to the Los Angeles protest landscape, an insidious vein of folks breaking glass, throwing large rocks off of bridges at police officers, setting Waymo cars on fire. Los Angeles police Chief Jim McDonnell said Sunday his forces were overwhelmed and under attack. “Tonight we had individuals out there shooting commercial-grade fireworks at our officers that can kill you,” McDonnell said. In no world is this sort of activity helpful in addressing the very serious conversation surrounding immigration policy.
Trump has been pouring fuel on a combustible America. Those who oppose him must resist the temptation to fan the flames.
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