Chicago Looting: Cleanup Underway In Lincoln Park After Stores Vandilized
[ABC NEWS]
CHICAGO (WLS) — A Lincoln Park shopping center is among areas across Chicago that were targeted by looters overnight.
As the sun rose over Chicago, the light of day revealed a fresh trail of destruction. City streets were littered with piles of shattered glass, discarded mannequins, and high dollar merchandise and the boxes it came in strewn all over sidewalks.
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“I heard glass being shattered at 7-11, Walgreens; people screaming and running all over the place, cop sirens all around the area,” said Gold Coast resident Marcus Navo.
Looters again raided the Best Buy in Lincoln Park dragging out anything they could grab and leaving containers and whatever they couldn’t hold littering the parking lot.
“They hit DSW, Nordstrom Rack, marijuana store up the street, Best Buy, Ulta and Binny’s,” said Lincoln Park resident Yates Walker.
The overnight looting is like a sequel to what stores and residents just recovered from in June in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
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“I looked outside and I saw the TV boxes out there so I knew it was another night,” said another Lincoln Park resident.
“I think that it just doesn’t look good for our city, for us fighting really hard to make sure there is advancement of the cause of racial equality,” added JP Estrada, who also lives in the neighborhood.
“I’m horrified. This is my neighborhood, this is where I lived,” said Bruce Alper. “I’m a lifelong Chicagoan and this is completely unacceptable.”
Alper is among the many who came out early Monday morning to help with cleanup.
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“It becomes more and more unsafe, and I wonder why I am living in Chicago with all of this,” another man said.
“Last time it took a while for everyone to clean up, so this time I thought I could go and help,” said one of the volunteers.
A few people just started with dragging boxes, but soon others showed up with garbage bags, leaf blowers and pick-up trucks.
“You don’t want to see this in your neighborhood either,” Estrada said.
On a dystopian-feeling Monday morning, cleaning up seems to be a form of coping.
“You have to take care of where you live,” said one volunteer. “It definitely feels better to do something, get some of that anxious energy out in a constructive way.”
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By noon Monday, the physical remnants of the latest round of looting was mostly cleaned up but it’s the mental damage the exhausted and confused city is now left with.