Thread by @BauerJournalism

Mayor Lightfoot will have a press conference with CPD Supt. David Brown at 6 p.m. I'll live tweet it.

Follow for updates and let me know if you have questions.

Our latest story: blockclubchicago.org/2020/06/05/off…

Lightfoot thanks Supt. Brown for being there: "Truly from your first day, and especially in recent hard, long days and weeks, and that goes for the entire men and women of the Chicago Police Department."

Lightfoot: "In an effort to prevent the widespread violence and destruction we've seen," and in response to stakeholders, "we will be devoting additional city resources in our neighborhoods and commercial corridors to ensure their safety. This includes directing more than 300 ...

"trucks from [S&S, CDOT and Water] to provide strategic traffic support at more than 175 commercial corridors at communities across Chicago, particularly on the South and the West side."

Lightfoot: "Additionally, we have partnered with more than 100 providers for security who will be placed strategically alongside the corridors ... to enhance security in these communities."
Business owners can also text CHIBIZ 67283 for updates from the city.

Lightfoot: "We will be opening Grant Park and Union Park in an effort to support our residents wishing to express their outrage and righteous pain over the murder of George Floyd. We want to make sure that you have the space to lift your voices and make yourself heard."

Lightfoot: There will be changes to public transportation. You can follow CTA for updates. The 9 p.m. curfew remains in effect.
"It goes without saying that our primary responsibility as leaders is the safety and security of our residents. We are doing everything we can to ...

"fulfill that obligation; however, what I don't want is for us to focus and to turn away from really what's most important in this moment. The fact of George Floyd's murder, captured on video, was painful to everyone. Of course, painful for his family to have to bear witness ...

"to his killing, painful for the residents of Minneapolis and the entire state of Minnesota, but painful for us here in Chicago & across the country. It brought up painful memories of others who have died at the hands of police violence both in this city and across the country."

Lightfoot: "That's important that we not lose sight of why we're here, why so many people in Chicago and across the country are lifting up their voices to say, 'Enough is enough,' and rightfully so."

Lightfoot: "While I believe that the vast majority of Chicago Police officers have done their job well and under difficult circumstances have exercised restraint, unfortunately we're seeing evidence of some who have not. ... We will not tolerate people who cross the line. We ...

"will not tolerate excessive force. We will not tolerate profanity and homophobic comments that demean the badge, demean the honor of being a Chicago Police officer and demean the value of who we are as Chicagoans. We will not tolerate that. Officers who choose to do those ...

"things or to tape over their badges or tot urn off their bodyworn cameras — all things that violate very clear directives of the [CPD] — if you are one of those officers, we will find you, we will identify you and we will strip you of your police powers. ... You are demeaning...

"all of your colleagues who are working their tails off on 12-hour shifts to keep our city safe. Shame on you. ... As appropriate, you will be fired from the Chicago Police Department."

Lightfoot: "We will not, not rest until you are identified and until you are weeded out."

Lightfoot: "You will be found, you will be stripped and, where appropriate, you will be fired. And I want the supervisors out there to understand: This is not going to be something that's going to be borne solely by the line police officers. You have a responsibility, as well."

Lightfoot: "Some of the things we've seen aren't honest mistakes. These are people who do not share our values and will not be part of the Chicago Police Department."

Lightfoot: "We have to move forward as a city who understands the interconnectedness of all of us."

Lightfoot: "Each of us has responsibility. I hope we find it in our heart to express ourselves in a way that's peaceful, that's respectful of our neighbors, particularly our neighbors' rights and our neighbors' property. ... Yes, we need to have a reckoning; absolutely. Our ...

"past is very much our present. But the way we change our future is by taking advantage of the opportunity this moment presents to be better ... to be more inclusive, to be more fair and to be more just. That is the Chicago that I see that is right within our grasp, but it's ...

"up to each of us to share that value and to live that value every single day."

Brown: "Chicagoans are looking forward to a beautiful weekend, and the [CPD]" is working to ensure everyone can exercise their First Amendment rights. They're also protecting "people and property in every neighborhood in our city."

Brown: "CPD has been working around the clock, 12-hour days, without any off days. And we will also be partnering with the private sector to help secure our South and West sides."

Brown: "We will not tolerate those who would seek to use planned, peaceful protest to" cause destruction.

Brown: "We cannot afford to let any officer tarnish this star. My best friend in Dallas was a police officer who was killed in the line of duty in 1988. He was one of those officers that did the job the right way. He has served in the Army for 20 years ... . He came on at ...

"42 years old, when I was 22, we were in the rookie class together. I consoled his wife and kids while he laid there, fighting for his life. And he lost his battle ... and gave the ultimate sacrifice. It's the memory of Walter Williams" he thinks of while serving in Chicago.

Brown: "I reject the notion that you can't support police — which I reject police officers — without holding them accountable. ... You support cops by holding officers accountable."

Pastor Chris Harris: "Let me say to this city: Don't forget what got us here. Systemic racism that produces or protects police brutality. This is truly a defining moment for our Black community. ..."

Harris: "There has never been a time in the history of this racist country where so many white people are paying attention and asking, 'How can we help Black communities?' ... This next couple of months will either set the Black community back for decades or push us forward ...

"decades if we handle this wisely and set forth an agenda, make a demand and clarify our asks."

Harris: White people are asking how they can heal wounds, but Black people are still bleeding.
He advises activists: Stay on message. Concentration. Collaboration.

Harris: "There is power in numbers. ... Shot these words: better together."

Harris: "Black looting does not solve the problem of systemic racism that produces or protects police brutality." But he quotes MLK: "Riots are the language of the unheard."

Harris: "The reality is looting wasn't so bad when white people took our matriarchs and patriachs from Africa" and used them as slaves. "That was looting, too. Then, they made us build a country against our will that we now don't feel safe in and we're dying in every day."

Harris: "Stop allowing white so-called 'supportive people' who are really" antagonists to come into Black communities and fire the community up until burning itself down. White people will return to their own, undamaged communities.

Harris: "I wanted the police to march with us. Not because we want to cosign their horribles behaviors of the few bad apples. But we wanted the police to be close enough to hear us tell the good ones, 'We pray for you,' and tell the bad ones, 'You are the prayer.'"

Harris: "Don't stop marching. I'm begging you. Please. Keep on marching. But do it the right way. And yes, we might march again; the faith leaders, we're gonna march locally, we're gonna march vocally, but we're gonna march peacefully."

Harris tells Mayor Lightfoot to "give us" Soldier Field, Sox Park and Downtown parks for worship services for people of all faiths and races. They'll "hold up our fists together and shout the words, 'Black lives matter!'"

Harris: "The police ought to be having their own marches to call out your homies. ... You tell your homies, tell you coworkers, 'Look, I didn't train for this and I don't get paid enough for all of this drama that racism is causing.'"

Harris: "Long live the memory of George Floyd, Laquan McDonald, Sandra Bland and so many others who were humans who became hashtags. Black lives matter!"

Harris: "I can't tell Blacks to stop looting until I tell whites to start listening."

Rich Giudice from OEMC: "We realize that we have 240 miles of city proper to pay attention to and support."

Somebody out of sight calls out, "Love you, mayor!"
She says she loves them back.

Lightfoot on reopening businesses: Universally, even businesses that couldn't reopen this week, "even those business owners said, 'Mayor, we need to open.'"

Lightfoot: Support local stores by going there to buy.

Lightfoot on stadiums as places of worship: "We put our specific guidance today that allows for in-person worship of 25 percent capacity or a maximum of 50. We're gonna start there, we're gonna give churches the ability to see how that goes and then we'll be in constant ...

"dialogue to see if we need to make some modifications or adjustments along the way."

Lightfoot: "To Pastor Chris's bold suggestion, I would say, 'Stay tuned.' I have some thoughts for him."

Lightfoot: "We'll be opening parks west of Lake Shore Drive to start, and we're working on plans to open up the lakefront and I hope to be able to announce those soon. ... I think we'll probably open up the parks first and then the trails next. I just want to make sure that we...

"have a very solid plan to give people access to the lakefront where we don't see huge congregation and run the risk of having a spread and setting us back. All of this is about being careful. ... But we know that people need to have access to the outdoors. It's safer outside."

Lightfoot: "No, I am not. And I can't, obviously, account for what happened [in Buffalo]. The reality is we have 13,420 police officers. Absolutely we're disturbed by ... the images that we've seen on screen. And, again, if you believe that you've been harassed, unfairly ...

"treated by the police, call 311."

Lightfoot: "I also know in my heart that the vast majority of officers want to and are doing their job the right way."

Lightfoot: She spoke to Foreman. "I told him he had to file a complaint, and he has. There's no reason that, that should have happened. He is hurting physically. I think he's hurting emotionally. And what happened to him ...

blockclubchicago.org/2020/06/05/off…

"was unacceptable. There's an active investigation that's been underway." She founds out about it within hours of it happening. Her first regard "was for his physical safety."

Lightfoot: "We're not gonna tolerate people crossing the line. Period. We're just not."

Lightfoot on curfew: "I have a great deal of respect for the ACLU. We've been in dialogue. We will continue to be in dialogue. Look, I can tell you that if you asked me a week ago, 'Will we have a curfew in Chicago?' I would have said no, absolutely not. But we're living in ...

"extraordinary times."

Lightfoot: "We will pull back any measures that we do not believe are necessary to do that."

Lightfoot on gun violence: "We don't take our eye off the ball with violence. Last weekend was distressful, and obviously we were trying to respond to the wildfire of criminal activity that spread through the neighborhoods. But we never, ever take our eye off the ...

"violence. ... I think we have a good plan this weekend to make sure the districts have the resources they need to be able to respond to whatever the public safety issue is that arises."

Brown: Much of what's happened has overlapped with looting and other disturbances, particularly on South/West sides. "It's been a singular issue as far as geography is concerned but where we have had the time we've pivoted to purely crimefighting ... ."

Lightfoot on preventing police brutality: "The issue isn't the policies. The issue is making sure that officers follow their training and that the supervision is clear about what is authorized and what is not." They won't just look at line officers; she will question supervisors.

Lightfoot on road closures: "There will be road restrictions Downtown. We want to make sure that, because we don't know exactly what the route is that some of these Downtown protests will take, we will have road closures to minimize the number of cars." She's been concerned ...

seeing protests going through thoroughfares with cars going down. "We want to minimize that by minimizing the number of cars that are going to be going Downtown and, in particular, areas where we know there's gonna be protests. One of the reasons why we want to have dialogue ...

"with the march organizers is so we can figure out a route that will keep them safe, that we will block traffic ... . The last thing we need is to have somebody who's out there ... get hit by a car."

Lightfoot: She and her staff have been tested for coronavirus and will continue to be tested.

Press conference over.