Chicago Businesses Near Democratic Convention Board Up Their Doors and Brace for Violence, Looting From Anti-Israel Protesters
Chicago business owners, reeling since the lootings and vandalism that occurred during the 2020 civil uprisings, are taking no chances with the thousands of anti-Israel activists who are set to arrive at the Windy City’s downtown area this week to “shut down the DNC for Gaza.”
Although the Democratic National Convention is set to kick off Monday, business owners in the downtown area have already taken measures to protect their stores from belligerent rioters, boarding up their windows and barricading their doors. By Thursday, several storefronts had been shielded by plywood, local media outlets reported.
“As we know, this city has a poor track record when it comes to protecting businesses,” a local store owner, Scott Shapiro, told ABC Chicago. “We felt it was more prudent to board up, since our customers and their employers have told them to stay home throughout the convention for their own safety.”
Mr. Shapiro’s menswear shop on Clark Street, Syd Jerome, nearly went out of business four years ago after it was repeatedly ransacked and lost nearly $100,000 in merchandise. His shop was just one of the businesses that suffered from repeated break-ins during the George Floyd protests that took hold of Chicago in summer 2020.
The owner of Chicago Board-Up Services, Vicki Fichter, said her crew has already worked on more than a dozen businesses in the past week and she has received more than 40 requests for board-up jobs in the downtown area.
“We’re boarding them up tight, so that there’s no entry,” Ms. Fichter told ABC.
The planned protest, which is being called “March on the DNC,” was marshaled by a coalition of nearly a hundred different organizations with the goal of “bringing our demands to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 2024.”
On a website for the march, the coalition criticizes the Democratic Party as being “a tool of billionaires and corporations” and writes that the party’s decision to swap out “genocide Joe Biden” does not “wash the blood of over 50,000 Palestinians off their hands.”
“Their actions, such as financing genocide in Palestine and war in multiple countries; continuing the mass incarceration of Black and brown people; deporting millions of immigrants; and neglecting campaign promises made to the oppressed communities who represent their voting base, show that the Democratic Party only serves the agenda of the rich and powerful,” the coalition writes.
The coalition’s “main demand” is to end American aid to Israel, or what its calls “arming and supporting this genocide.”
The march also lists additional demands “of the people’s movements,” including “immigrant rights and legalization for all,” “LGBTQIA+” and “reproductive” rights, “stop police crimes,” and “money for jobs, school, healthcare, housing, and environment, not for war.”
Although the Democratic National Convention is set to kick off Monday, business owners in the downtown area have already taken measures to protect their stores from belligerent rioters, boarding up their windows and barricading their doors. By Thursday, several storefronts had been shielded by plywood, local media outlets reported.
“As we know, this city has a poor track record when it comes to protecting businesses,” a local store owner, Scott Shapiro, told ABC Chicago. “We felt it was more prudent to board up, since our customers and their employers have told them to stay home throughout the convention for their own safety.”
Mr. Shapiro’s menswear shop on Clark Street, Syd Jerome, nearly went out of business four years ago after it was repeatedly ransacked and lost nearly $100,000 in merchandise. His shop was just one of the businesses that suffered from repeated break-ins during the George Floyd protests that took hold of Chicago in summer 2020.
The owner of Chicago Board-Up Services, Vicki Fichter, said her crew has already worked on more than a dozen businesses in the past week and she has received more than 40 requests for board-up jobs in the downtown area.
“We’re boarding them up tight, so that there’s no entry,” Ms. Fichter told ABC.
The planned protest, which is being called “March on the DNC,” was marshaled by a coalition of nearly a hundred different organizations with the goal of “bringing our demands to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 2024.”
On a website for the march, the coalition criticizes the Democratic Party as being “a tool of billionaires and corporations” and writes that the party’s decision to swap out “genocide Joe Biden” does not “wash the blood of over 50,000 Palestinians off their hands.”
“Their actions, such as financing genocide in Palestine and war in multiple countries; continuing the mass incarceration of Black and brown people; deporting millions of immigrants; and neglecting campaign promises made to the oppressed communities who represent their voting base, show that the Democratic Party only serves the agenda of the rich and powerful,” the coalition writes.
The coalition’s “main demand” is to end American aid to Israel, or what its calls “arming and supporting this genocide.”
The march also lists additional demands “of the people’s movements,” including “immigrant rights and legalization for all,” “LGBTQIA+” and “reproductive” rights, “stop police crimes,” and “money for jobs, school, healthcare, housing, and environment, not for war.”
70-79, M
