Stupid fucking assholes are destroying the best part of Chicago.

Wall Street Journal

Looting Deals Chicago Shopkeepers New Blow After Virus

BY JOE BARRETT

CHICAGO—Terry Te pulled gleaming trays of wedding and engagement rings from a safe on Tuesday morning and arranged them in the glass cases of his jewelry shop that had been the site of chaos just the day before.

Mr. Te, 36 years old, got a call around 3:15 a.m. Monday that people were trying to break into the building that houses his store, Imperial Jewelry, along Chicago’s downtown strip known as Jeweler’s Row. He grabbed his gun and bulletproof vest and rushed downtown.

What he saw when he got there was a scene that played out along some of the city’s toniest neighborhoods: looters breaking windows, stealing merchandise and outmanned police trying to chase them away.

Mr. Te saved his inventory and cleaned up. He said he may face looting again. “I’m almost ready to move to find a much quieter location in a less violent city,” he said. “It’s basically a lawless land.”

The looting that began late Sunday and continued into Monday morning marks the second time the city has been hit in recent months.

After George Floyd was killed in May while in Minneapolis police custody, widespread unrest left Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, a strip of high-end stores north of downtown that has long been a showpiece of the city, and other neighborhoods boarded up.

This weekend, caravans of looters responded to calls on social media, hitting stores in a wide swath of the city, following the shooting by police of a 20-year-old man who officers say fired on them first.

Police Superintendent David Brown on Monday said commanders deployed 400 officers to combat the looting, but that prosecutors and the courts had failed to make their first rounds of arrests in June stick, making looters feel there were no consequences for their actions.

Kim Foxx, the Cook County State’s Attorney, said in a separate briefing that her office had gone ahead with prosecutions on 90% of those charged with looting. A slowdown in the courts because of the pandemic meant many of those cases were just now coming to trial, she said.

Large chains such as Macy’s and Saks Fifth Avenue say they have no plans to pull out of Chicago, despite damage to local stores. Macy’s is repairing damage and expects its stores to reopen this week, a spokeswoman said. Kimberly Bares, president and chief executive of the Magnificent Mile Association, said her 650 members, including large retailers and hotels, are looking for a stronger full-time police presence in the area as well as investments in under-served neighborhoods to address longstanding issues of inequality. “We need to act now,” she said.

Looters struck businesses on the South Side first and then raced north to the Magnificent Mile and into Lincoln Park, a high-end residential neighborhood, according to police. Jeweler’s Row, tucked under the L tracks in downtown with its expensive and easily transportable merchandise, was also targeted.

Mohamad Ashiq, 61-year-old owner of Watch Clinic, a watch repair shop, said his entire inventory, valued at nearly $1 million, was cleaned out.

“They hit this case, that case, that case,” he said Tuesday, pointing around his small shop as he paused from working on an item someone had brought in that day. Mr. Ashiq, who immigrated from Pakistan 45 years ago, said he can’t afford insurance and isn’t sure whether to retire or just keep working. “Forty-two years of business—what I have is gone,” he said.

Some business owners said they fear police aren’t responding aggressively to the looters. “Police used to be able to stop trouble before it started. Now, they can’t do that. I don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Earl Geier, the store manager for Graham Crackers Comics, which was hit for a second time Sunday.

The store sustained more damage during looting in June, Mr. Geier said, but on Sunday, the looters cleaned out a case with high-ticket items, including Avengers No. 1, valued at $3,000.

Aris Gallios, owner of Miller’s Pub, said business this year has been off 90%, as office workers, convention attendees and most tourists have stayed away from downtown because of the coronavirus pandemic. The old-school Chicago steak, ribs and seafood house has been in business since 1935. “We’ve been through recessions, lost conventions, 9/11 was a blip,” said Mr. Gallios, who has run the business since 1989. “This is unprecedented.”

The business had broken windows and graffiti on its facade after the first wave of unrest. On Sunday, it wasn’t touched, he said. But the perception of a lack of safety on top of the pandemic may be too much for his business. “You can’t unsee those images,” he said. “I don’t know how we are even still here after all these months.”

Mr. Te is unsure about the future of his jewelry shop, which he has owned for 10 years. “All we want is safety,” he said. “We just want to go home at night and think you will have the same store in the morning when you come back.”

—Suzanne Kapner contributed to this article.