Chicago IL Rep Bobby Rush: "PD lounged, made popcorn in HIS office with looters/riots outside"

[Budi]

Link to tweet

Images have emerged of Chicago police officers kicking their feet up on desks, making popcorn, and brewing coffee in the burglarised district office of US Congressman Bobby Rush last month as rioters were looting nearby stores, the congressman announced at a joint press conference with Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

About two weeks ago, Mr Rush received a call that his South Side district office had been vandalised.

SNIP

When he later reviewed the video surveillance footage, he saw that at least eight Chicago police officers, at least three of whom were supervisors, had entered his office and lingered there while looting was ravaging a nearby shopping centre.

“They even had the unmitigated gall to go and make coffee for themselves and to pop popcorn — my popcorn — in my microwave while looters were tearing apart businesses within their sight and within their reach,” Mr Rush said at the press conference on Thursday.

It was not immediately clear whether the officers in Mr Rush's office had been ordered to stand down to the looters. A spokesperson for the Chicago Police Department could not immediately be reached for comment.

More follows…
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/5343896002

U.S. Representative Bobby Rush D-Illinois

*U.S. Representatives Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) and Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif.) sent a letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National Guard Bureau, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) demanding that the agencies immediately stop illegal surveillance of peaceful protesters around the country.

Jun 9, 2020

[Faux pas]

1. Kickin' with disgust!

[The Magistrate]

2. Worth Noting, sir, Rep. Rush Is Alive Today

Only because he did not go home one night, and that was the night a murder squad from the Chicago Police Department came to kill Fred Hampton and the rest of the Chicago Black Panthers, in an attack authorized by the state's attorney, 'Mad Dog' Eddie Hanrahan.

This was towards the end of 1969. There had been a gunfight between Panthers and the police a month before, that killed two officers. The raid on the Panther headquarters and all-around pad was straight vengeance. Police opened fire on entry, the only shot gotten off by a Panther was fired up into the ceiling as he died. The people who weren't killed but only wounded were beaten and indicted for various felonies, charges eventually dropped. Civil suits brought a couple of millions in judgements against the police. There's no doubt at all about the course of events, it was clear what had happened within days, and it has been exhaustively investigated.

[Budi]

3. Damn! I was aware of Rush being a Panther founder but never read of this item

Honestly, imagine how many times Bobby Rush has skirted death, considering his long activist history..with the BPanthers & in Chicago, no less.

Yikes.


Wiki:

Bobby Lee Rush is an American politician, activist, pastor, and the U.S. Representative for Illinois's 1st congressional district, serving in Congress for more than two decades.
A civil rights activist during the 1960s, Rush co-founded the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers. Wikipedia

[Stuart G]

4. Another example of police being recorded without their knowledge..

I wonder what is going to happen to the 3 supervisors who lounged around while the neighborhood was being looted. What is going to happen?. This was published yesterday. And this was in an office of a U.S.
Congressman's Office. Think about the total gall and total lack of fear of anything happening to them..
....Three Supervisors? What is the Chief of Chicago Police going to do?...Thanks for posting..K and R

[brush]

5. Much respect to Bobby Rush, a long-time activist and badass.