It had to happen sooner or later. Given a sufficient amount of time, anything that can happen, will happen. And happen it did, on Monday night, when more than 30 businesses throughout the downtown Naperville area and a few on the outskirts of town were vandalized and looted.
The city of Naperville is a big prize for those wanting to destroy it. It’s full of upscale stores with owners that take pride in their businesses. One business owner was disheartened by the destruction and mentioned she is a “nice person”, as if this shouldn’t happen to ‘nice’ people. Nice people make great targets for not-nice people.
It’s so much better for vandals, and looters, and those with intentions to destroy to make it happen in nice communities like Naperville, Hinsdale, Geneva, Lake Forest and Barrington, than to do it in towns like Wheeling, Cicero, Berwyn or Calumet City.
Mayor Chirico made a valiant effort to defuse the situation with the protestors, which he did. Things were fine for the most part during the day with the protestors, but by nighttime, the thugs emerged and things deteriorated. Thugs tend to sleep-in during the morning and early afternoon.
Tuesday night during the first part of the city council meeting, the mayor looked tired and deflated. He might have been anticipating a lot of negative comments during public forum for ‘taking a knee’ with the protestors. Only one took issue with the mayor and city officials:
By the middle and at the end of the city council meeting, the mayor looked invigorated and energized. The good news, as the mayor said, there was no loss of life, and the buildings were still standing. That’s a huge win. The not-so-good news is there was a lot of vandalism, destruction, and some injury, including one person in the hospital in serious condition.
The concerning news is that it can happen again. Given a sufficient amount of time, anything that can happen will happen, again.
Ditto Marcia, for having the guts to stand up to the gutless wonders including and especially the Mayor for inviting into and participating in their protest march which everybody knew would end up in this disaster.
This crap that it was only property and one injury means it was a success adds insult to injury. When our leaders dance with the devil we the people always get burned!
I find it fascinating that Council and Police Leadership find it acceptable or a “huge win” that 30 stores were looted and 1 resident was stabbed. “We started this protest with 30 Naperville Police Officers, we needed more Officers” Chief Marshall said at the press conference. How is being understaffed a success?
The Police on the streets did a great job that night. They were so out numbered, they could only do so much without risking injury.
The reason the Mayor was so energized by the end of the meeting was because the Council spent hours talking about 5th Ave and he got Council to agree to a workshop.
The young man stab was also one of the peaceful protesters everyone is saying the police should have arrested or done worse too.
Chief Marshall said they started the protest with 30 officers and needed more.
According to their own 2018 annual report NPD has 169 sworn officers, including him.
Why didn’t Marshall get on the phone and order the rest of them to tac up and get downtown?
Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic.
So your recommendation is to leave the rest of the city unprotected and put all our police downtown for the protest. Even if they put all 170 officers downtown and left the rest of the city unprotected of the next 2 shifts, they would have still be outnumbered. This was a no win scenario for local law enforcement from the get go. These looters were well armed and well prepared.
Taking the knee showed weakness from the beginning. Only kneel to God. The violence began because they knew they had met weakness and would be able to riot, loot, burn etc. Our weak mayor and overconfident police should have asked for National Guard
Our weak mayor and police did ask for help. There were 190 law enforcement officers in the downtown area on the night in question. These were NPD, APD, DuPage County Sheriffs, FBI, Homeland Security and officers from other near by communities. The decision to de-escalate has resulted in follow-up protests with fewer and fewer participates and no additional occurrences of looting and vandalizing.
Compare this to what has and is still happening in cities were the decision was to escalate and use tear gas and other weapons on crowds of mostly peaceful protestors. This communities continue to experience looting and vandalism. And the protest are still going strong. Clearly escalating has backfired on these communities and resulted in greater damage and disruption then what occurred on the first night in these communities.
Sorry, but sometimes the greatest strength is to avoid a fight even when you know you are strong enough to overwhelm an opponents. As Sun Tzu wrote in his 13 chapters, the biggest mistake a leader can make is to back and enemy into a corner, leaving them with nothing left to loss. An opponent with nothing left to lose has everything left to fight for.
Jim, you quoted Sun Tzu, in his 13 chapters. You failed to mention the quote from Sun Tzu’s father when he said “Sun Tzu talk and write too much.”
Nothing left to lose was the store owners who worked all their lives to build their businesses. The punks thugs and thieves had everything to lose by being apprehended in their treachery. As usual Jim, you always get everything ass backwards.
You are equating peaceful protesters to vandals and looters. As usually you got it wrong. Tear gassing and arresting peaceful protesters would not have prevented the vandals and looters from doing what they did.
All arresting peaceful protesters will achieve is tying up police officer to do this meaning less available to block streets and limit access to downtown stores.
Also all the stories I read online said seven stores were looted and around 30 vandalized (broken window, painted, etc). And at least two of these stores were not in the downtown area. And nothing was burned. That is a lot better then happened in Chicago, Aurora, Rockford, Cicero, etc.
Yes, it was bad, but escalating the situation would have only made it worse.
There is an old adage, “Pay me now or pay me later”! Allowing anarchy emboldens these punks and thieves and will in the end cause far more harm, injury and death than nipping it in the bud at the very beginning .
Everyone has the right to PEACEFULLY protest NOT block streets, terrorize bystanders and damage and loot stores, cars and public property!
Justifying this behavior is insane, and by authorities allowing it, cowardly and a abrogation of their duties.
Blocking streets is a recognized form of peaceful civil disobedience protesting. Has been for decades. Equating this to looting, vandalism and acts of terrorism is a misrepresentation of what is really happening.
It has been repeatedly reported by many PDs, media and bystanders that the people doing the looting and vandalizing are not the same people involved in the peaceful protests. That there are clearly two different groups involved here. In fact the young Naperville resident stab while trying to stop the vandalizing of Barnes & Noble was a member of the peaceful protesting group that blocked the street.
The problem for PDs is that these bad actors are using the peaceful protesters and bystanders as human shields. They have mixed themselves in with these people making it impossible for the police to act against them without placing innocent people at risk.
The NPD chose to not risk harming the innocent just to get at a handful of bad actors (many of which they have been able to catch later). Businesses have insurance to cover loses and damage.
This insurance is why, before these protests and incidents of looting started, businesses were not pursuing criminal charges against the groups/crowds that were grabbing handfuls of merchandise and running from the stores. Getting the police involved in criminally pursuing these “looters” only slowed up the insurance claim process so they stopped doing it.
It is interesting how a business community can accept these kind of loses (looting) when it is a failure of their own security and lose prevention measures. But get upset when these kind of losses occur with police near by that chose to protect innocent people from harm over protecting insured property and merchandise.
Sorry but human lives are simply more valuable then merchandise &d property that is covered by insurance and I am proud of the NPD for acknowledging this and acting accordingly. They did not act cowardly or abrogate their duties, they acted rationally and protected the public, which is their first duty.
You obviously never heard of being a willing accomplice to CRIMES. Cheering-on and blocking police and firemen from doing there jobs makes them equally guilty of crimes committed.
Mixing-in-with, hiding culprits, sharing in the loot and obstructing justice is all part of the game these jerks are playing and people that support them only serve to prolong the inevitable.
Eventually either the police will do their jobs or citizens will undertake their own defense. This will result in death(s) which would never have happened in law and order was preserved. BTW blocking streets has never been acceptable as it prevents emergency vehicles getting through to SAVE LIVES. Lastly insurance doesn’t cover acts of God, war or riots.
I have watched all the videos posted as well as what was shared by NCTV on the first protest were the looting and vandalizing occurred. I saw nothing indicating the peaceful protesters and other bystanders (people watching and recording the protest and media outlet representatives) were intentionally trying to shield or protect the looters and vandals. They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and got caught in the middle.
Protesters blocking streets has been going on for decades and happens regularly in cities all across the US without police intervention. This is being done by protesters of both liberal and conservative leanings. In fact I was on hand at the first Trump rally in Chicago and saw Trump supporters blocking a major Chicago intersection just outside the venue were he was holding his rally. The police did nothing to stop them.
So any claim this type of protest is not an accepted practice has no basis in the real world. And blocking a couple of streets has never prevented emergency vehicles from getting to where they were needed.
Business insurance policies do cover loses due tor “looting” as demonstrated by the fact they have paid for these type of claims in the past. This is the reason businesses have stop filing criminal complaints for these type of loses. Looting is not a riot, act of God or act of war. Looting can and does occur without these type of events.