Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot attacked the media and “nasty, vicious talk” on social platforms after being asked about a weekend incident that saw Chicago Police Officers, standing vigil over a wounded colleague, turn their backs on Lightfoot during a visit to University of Chicago medical center.
Lightfoot has faced harsh criticism in the days since Chicago Police Officer Ella French was shot and killed during a traffic stop on Chicago’s south side. French’s partner, who was also wounded, remains in critical condition at the University of Chicago. Two brothers — two of the three occupants of the vehicle French and her partner pulled over — have been arrested and charged with crimes related to the incident. One of the suspects, Emonte Morgan, is charged with first-degree murder.
Journalists cornered Lightfoot during a press conference on the city’s budget, but Lightfoot took the opportunity to berate reporters for their ineptitude rather than answer questions about French’s death.
Asked about the incident where a dozen police officers turned their backs on Lightfoot when she showed up to visit French’s partner, who was reportedly shot in the head, Lightfoot called reporting on the incident “sickening.”
“We are living in a time where people don’t respect each other,” Lightfoot snapped.
“Larger than that is this moment where people feel like it is their right to spew hatred at everyone that they don’t agree with or make fun and mock, usually anonymously and cowardly from social media, not confronting somebody directly and talking to them, but using the power of the pen and the keyboard to just spew unbelievable hate,” she continued.
She then called discussion around the subject, “nasty, vicious talk.”
“So this is a larger question than what may have happened with 10 or 15 officers on Saturday night. It’s why do we think it is OK for people to engage in such nasty, vicious talk, orally or worse, on social media, and then have it repeated by media as if it is fact and true,” Lightfoot raved.
She then called the media, “sickening.”
“I think our media plays a very important role in our democracy, but you lose me, you lose me when it’s a race to the bottom and it’s all about the fight and it’s all about the conflict,” Lightfoot said. “I’ve got to tell you, some of the reporting I’ve seen this week is just sickening. We all need to ask ourselves what we can do better to show our people everywhere that we have the capacity to be human beings again.”
The aggressive questioning, though, failed to subside. After Lightfoot finished opining on the media’s coverage of the CPD hospital incident, she was triggered into another tirade by a reporter asking whether she’d like to clarify her statement on why French did not receive a traditional bagpipe tribute. Lightfoot claimed, earlier, that the tribune ran afoul of COVID-19 restrictions. The city’s medical examiner’s office said there were no such regulations.
“The reporting on that is just not true,” Lightfoot responded. “It’s not true.”
She then defended Deputy Superintendent Eric Carter, who is accused of nixing the tribute because of time constraints — an allegation Lightfoot labeled, “propaganda.”
“Eric Carter made the right call. I support what he did,” she said. “And I’m horrified that in this moment, people are trying to savage him for whatever agenda or purpose. And I would just caution you all. Be careful. Be careful. Check your sources,” she added, apparently referring to a recording of Carter sent to media. “Make sure they’re accurate. Get the right context. Because I know firsthand, it’s really hard when the media becomes ferocious in propagating a story that’s just not true.”
Lightfoot reserved her harshest rhetoric for the final question from a reporter who asked whether Lightfoot had barreled her way into the hospital to visit the wounded Chicago police officer, despite indications that CPD’s rank and file were unhappy with how she had handled law enforcement issues.
“I’m not going to respond to that,” Lightfoot snapped before continuing. “I don’t force my way anywhere. And that’s offensive, frankly, that you would ask me that question. I just sat here and talked about the fact that we’ve got to be really careful and you have to be really careful in your reporting and be responsible. And you just keep lobbing this nonsense that’s offensive and insulting and really does a disservice to the moment that we’re in.”
“What else are you going to mine from the bottom of the chum barrel?” she raved. “Come on. You’re better than that. You’re better than that. You’re better than that.”
Chicago police reportedly continue to be incensed by the city’s handling of French’s death. On Thursday, news broke that a third man, charged — by the federal government — of supplying the two brothers involved in French’s murder with a gun purchased in Indiana under false pretenses, was released on a $4500 bond.