A sample of the chaos this past weekend in Chicago

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Large groups of African-American youths took the train to downtown Chicago this past weekend, as they’ve done in the recent past. There, unsupervised, some roamed the streets and wreaked havoc in the city’s prime tourist destination, sometimes looting and robbing with impunity.

In addition, they vandalized property and battered innocent people walking past just for laughs. All in all, they brought chaos with them, tying up police for hours dealing with the crime wave.


Saturday
8:22PM — “Mayhem,” says the downtown police dispatcher, taking a few brief seconds to summarize what she and Chicago cops are dealing with.

8:26PM — Lakeview: Officers call for backup. Fifteen to 20 people are beating up a boy who tried to prevent them from stealing a bike at the Lane Tech High School Memorial Day carnival. Story here.

8:39PM — 70 or 80 teens coming off the Chicago Red Line. “Tell Water Tower to close their doors; otherwise, they gotta let ‘em in.”

8:42PM — Fights behind the historic Water Tower. Crowd: 200 people, per dispatcher.

8:45PM — “Water Tower is closed. There’s one door open so people can exit.”

8:46PM — Cop: “Got a large fight on Pearson just east of Michigan.” “Have Water Tower lock their doors.” “They are, they are.”

8:55PM — Rush & Chicago Avenue: A group ran into Nordstrom Rack, saying someone has a gun outside. Issue appears to be fireworks set off near the historic Water Tower. Also: More cars needed outside the location for a fight.

8:56PM — Millennium Park: “Caller says a Hispanic male has a baseball bat in his pants.”

9:11PM — Sergeant: “We have a Cubs game letting out. Send teams down to the platform at Chicago and State to make sure order is being kept” as the arriving Cubs fans mix with teens waiting to leave via the same station.


9:21PM — Big fight outside the Park Hyatt, says an officer.


9:39PM — “We need everybody we have to try to get rid of these people” at Chicago and State. “Push ‘em to the Red Line.” “Maintain the perimeter, do not let anyone out.” At least four arrests for resisting police.


10:05PM — “Hundreds” running wild in the streets near Roosevelt Red Line station. The train from Chicago and State—which was supposed to run express to 47th Street—stopped at Roosevelt by mistake, an officer says.


10:12PM — Back at Lane Tech, a 17-year-old boy has been punched in the face and robbed by three offenders. Story here.

10:11PM — “I got a group of about 150 running into the Target” store on Roosevelt. “Start blocking these little assholes off!” Three arrests at Roosevelt and State.

10:31PM — 1st District Police station front desk: “Uh, yeah. I guess that group is heading down toward our station, so let the units know we’re locking the front door.”

10:33PM — Up at Montrose Beach:
Dispatcher: “I’ve got a ticket for a female trying to carry her heavy-set intoxicated friend to a car. Can I get a code for that?”
Sergeant: “Yeah…She needs to start working out or get better friends.”

10:39PM — Back downtown, CTA is now holding a train at Roosevelt so all of the kids they let off by mistake can get on and, you know, run express to 47th Street like they were supposed to.

10:46PM — Update on the heavy-set drunk girl at Montrose Beach: “She’s laid out in the sand, face down… Fire’s not responding and neither is she.”

11:31PM — River North: Shots fired. Taxicab struck by gunfire at 500 North Wells. No one hurt. Black BMW with two occupants sped away westbound. No arrests.

Just hours later, cops arrested a 19-year-old for fighting with Chicago Fire Department paramedics. She knocked one of the paramedics out and injured another. The woman’s family also began fighting with first responders and eventually the ambulance itself took a gunshot in the melee.The Chicago Tribune had that story:


A 19-year-old woman was charged in connection with an attack on two Chicago Fire Department paramedics in the back of an ambulance that was also struck by a bullet during the episode in Englewood early Sunday, police said.

Latorya Thigpen, of the Parkway Gardens neighborhood, is accused of hitting, punching, kicking, scratching and spitting at two uniformed paramedics as they tried to treat her in the 2700 block of West 68th Street in the South Side’s Marquette Park neighborhood about 4 a.m, police said.

The paramedics suffered scratches, abrasions, bruising, and loss of consciousness, police said.

During the incident, a bullet lodged itself in the passenger side door of the ambulance as medics were treating a patient whose family became irate when they weren’t allowed in the ambulance.

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