Editorial: Don't let important goals of social justice movement be co-opted by violence
It will take some time before we know the true sequence of events that led to the looting early Monday in downtown Chicago - whether the violence was sparked by a police shooting in Englewood, as has been claimed, or by something else entirely.
Whatever the cause, while we're pleased that some leaders are stepping up to decry the destruction, other government leaders and public figures should be making it clear that all violence of this nature is unacceptable, whatever the origin.
Statements from both the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr, and Mayor Lori Lightfoot zero in on what needs to be said.
"This act of pillaging, robbing & looting in Chicago was humiliating, embarrassing & morally wrong," Jackson Sr. said on Twitter. "It must not be associated with our quest for social justice and equality."
Meanwhile, Lightfoot on Wednesday scoffed at the notion that the looting was a spur-of-the-moment response to the Englewood shooting.
"It was a planned attack," she asserted, saying the looters came downtown with U-Haul trucks, cargo vans and equipment used to cut metal. She agrees that other people joined in, motivated by social media posts and their own greed. "But the core of what happened - that's organized criminal activity," she said.
We need to hear more of that from our elected leaders in the state - our two senators, our congressmen and congresswomen and others, all making the very real distinction between legitimate protesting and people who use any situation as an excuse for violence, theft and destruction.
What's at stake here is nothing less than the success of the social justice movement in Chicago and around the country.
That movement has gotten up such an impressive head of steam that even skeptics are suggesting this might finally be the moment that produces real change.
What could kill it is this, right here, when ordinary people can't tell the difference between a movement and criminal activity. When that line gets blurred, support for the justice movement will dissipate like fog.
Many law enforcement experts, activists and academics seem to understand that we cannot allow the movement to be co-opted by violence.
"(The looters are) not protesters, they're criminals taking advantage of this movement," David Dial, chair of the criminal justice department at Aurora University and former Naperville police chief, told our reporter Jake Griffin. " ... These people may not even believe in the movement."
What happened in Chicago needs to be investigated - honestly, thoroughly and quickly, with pressure brought to bear by our elected leaders. The success of the social justice movement depends on it.