George Floyd Chicago Protests: Mayor Lori Lightfoot Vows To Block Federal Troops From City

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Tuesday she would go to court to prevent President Trump from invoking the Insurrection Act and sending U.S. military troops into the city. Lightfoot told a news conference adding the military to an already volatile situation would just make matters worse.

Protesters began taking to city streets last week in the wake of the death of a black Minneapolis man at the hands of a white police officer. The incident sparked violent protests around the country, prompting Trump’s threat of military action.

At her daily news conference, Lightfoot noted Trump has been threatening to send the military into Chicago since before she took office, and she was determined to keep him from doing so. The bad blood between the two boiled over last week when Lightfoot said she had two words for the president, “beginning with F and ending with U.”

Lightfoot and her new police superintendent, David O. Brown, said the military is not trained in de-escalating situations in the same way police officers are. She said that “muscle memory” leads to unnecessary injuries and deaths.

Chicago has been rocked by violence since Saturday when demonstrators rampaged through the Loop, shattering store windows, looting and setting buildings and police patrol vehicles afire. That violence since has spread to other neighborhoods as well as surrounding suburbs, resulting in at least three deaths.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has activated 625 National Guardsmen with military police training to help police with crowd control in Chicago and elsewhere. Curfews have been ordered and the Chicago Transit Authority suspended overnight service. Commuter train service was suspended for a second day Tuesday and only essential workers and downtown residents were being allowed into the central business district.

In a CNN interview Monday night, Pritzker called Trump a “miserable failure.”

"The fact is that the president has created an incendiary moment here," Pritzker said, accusing the president of trying to change the subject from his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

During a conference call with Trump Monday, Pritzker told him rhetoric “coming out of the White House is making it worse.” Trump responded by criticizing Pritzker’s handling of the pandemic and told him, “I don’t like your rhetoric that much either.”

"It's clear that he doesn't listen to anyone that tells him the truth. … [T]his inflammatory rhetoric is bad for the country. You know, when we had the riots in Ferguson [Missouri], President Obama started to bring the temperature down. He talked about calling for calm. When, you know, when Martin Luther King was killed, Robert Kennedy stood up and talked about seeking justice, you know, and bringing the tension down within the country," Pritzker told CBS affiliate WBBM-AM, Chicago, later Monday.

"This president doesn't understand any of that."

Despite the unrest, Lightfoot said Chicago would proceed with plans to implement the third phase of reopening the economy Wednesday, allowing restaurants, hotels and businesses to reopen with reduced capacities and rules for keeping COVID-19 in check.

“I want to tell the city now after a lot of consultation and, yes, a lot of prayer, we will reopen tomorrow and take this important next step as planned,” Lightfoot said.

Lightfoot had indicated during the weekend the reopening might be delayed amid fears the protests could lead to a spike on coronavirus cases.

Illinois recorded at least 5,412 deaths from COVID-19 as of Monday.