Chicago's 1855 ‘Beer Riot’ Is a Bridge to the Unrest of 2020
In a 19th century uprising, protesters and police faced off, and the city’s mayor used a downtown bridge for crowd control. Sound familiar?
Bridges across the Chicago river were raised this week control access into downtown Chicago after widespread looting broke out early Monday in Chicago, Illinois. That’s a tactic previous city leaders also attempted.
Photographer: Scott Olson/Getty Images North AmericaIt’s been one of the most striking images of this summer’s season of urban uprising: bridges over the Chicago River drawn up to block access to downtown Chicago’s Loop, the raised structures standing like iron sentinels guarding nearly deserted nighttime streets.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot ordered the drawbridges raised early Monday morning after property damage at the Magnificent Mile upscale shopping district just north of the Loop and elsewhere. The unrest was triggered by a police shooting on Sunday. Officers shot and wounded a 20-year-old South Side man who had allegedly fired a gun at police, a story that has been contested by the accused’s family and eyewitnesses. Fueled by misinformation (that police shot a child), ambiguity (there was no police body cam footage of the shooting), and above all, rage at decades of disinvestment and police violence in Black communities, a large group of people took to the streets, looting several businesses Sunday night and Monday morning.