UPDATED: Instructive: Chicago Officials Recorded Discussing Riots

Chicago's PBS radio affiliate, WTTW, has obtained a recording of a conference call involving the mayor and all fifty aldermen. They are sharing their experiences of the "peaceful protests". Their attitudes are pretty much what you'd expect, although not so much like what you hear in public:

The recording begins with Ald. Michelle Harris (8th Ward) wondering how she could convince businesses like Walmart and CVS to rebuild on the South Side [Black] after the destruction. 

“It’s like, what are we going to have left in our community?” Harris asks her colleagues before answering herself. “Nothing.”

The Chicago City Council’s Black Caucus criticized Lightfoot’s decision to use 375 members of the Illinois National Guard to block off the Loop and the central business district starting Sunday morning, making business corridors on the South and West sides [Black] an “easy target” for looters and criminals because they “did not have the same level of protection.” 

“I feel like I am at ground zero,” Harris responded. “My major business district is shattered. Why would Walmart or CVS come back to our communities?”

Ald. Emma Mitts (37th) said her West Side [Black] ward was like “the wild, wild west out there.”

As everyone knows, the first places targeted were any stores with a pharmacy section. Yeah, like the looters didn't know about George Floyd's troubles?

“There are no easy answers here,” Lightfoot said. 

Organized groups of criminals were responsible for the majority of looting in Chicago, prompting nearly 65,000 calls to the city’s emergency operations center, Lightfoot said 

Ald. Susan Sadlowski-Garza (10th Ward) broke down while pleading with Lightfoot for help. 

“My ward is a s--t show,” Sadlowski-Garza said, adding that cop cars and banks were burned. “They are shooting at the police.” 

Sadlowski-Garza began to cry as she said the unrest began about 11 a.m. Sunday, when a group of 40 people broke into a marijuana dispensary, but had nothing to do with a protest. 

“I have never seen the likes of this,” Sadlowski-Garza said. “I’m scared.”

If that was scary, another aspect was even scarier. To get the full flavor, first we have a snapshot of Chicago's demographics:

In 2016, the population of Hispanics exceeded that of Blacks to become Chicago's second largest minority group with non-Hispanic Whites representing 32.6% of the population, Hispanics at 29.7% of the population, and Blacks at 29.3% of the population. The large Hispanic population is rather recent, with the segregation between Hispanics and non-Hispanic Whites being low when compared to Blacks and non-Hispanic Whites.

Hispanics--heavily Mexican--were uninterested in having their neighborhoods trashed--and were quite prepared to kill to prevent that outcome:

Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th Ward) demanded that Lightfoot develop a plan to stabilize Chicago’s neighborhoods for five days, calling his Southwest Side [Mexican] ward “a virtual war zone” where gang members armed with AK-47’s were threatening to shoot black people.

Ald. Mike Rodriguez (22nd Ward) told the mayor that Little Village [Mexican] residents banded together to protect businesses along 26th Street, the largest shopping district outside the Loop. 

“I’m talking about all segments of our community, including some on this call would prefer to be incarcerated,” Rodriguez said. “I think there are people of all stripes coming together, and I pray that holds tonight.” 

That exchange prompted Lopez to charge that Lightfoot knew that gangs were part of efforts to protect neighborhoods, and that Rodriguez was working with them. 

Rodriguez told WTTW News on Wednesday that some of those who were protecting the neighborhood targeted people “who were perceived to be outsiders” based on their race.

If the police aren't up to the job, maybe the Latin Kings are. Not a happy development, but it's the reality in many big cities. The Left wants to instigate a race war? They probably don't understand the dynamics of the situation and the result would likely be nothing like they expect or hope for.

UPDATE: The riots are over and life in Chicago is back to normal, per Don Surber:

The Chicago Sun-Times reported, "While Chicago was roiled by another day of protests and looting in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, 18 people were killed Sunday, May 31, making it the single most violent day in Chicago in six decades, according to the University of Chicago Crime Lab. The lab’s data doesn’t go back further than 1961. 

"From 7 p.m. Friday, May 29, through 11 p.m. Sunday, May 31, 25 people were killed in the city, with another 85 wounded by gunfire, according to data maintained by the Chicago Sun-Times. 

"In a city with an international reputation for crime — where 900 murders per year were common in the early 1990s — it was the most violent weekend in Chicago’s modern history, stretching police resources that were already thin because of protests and looting." 

Democrats have controlled Chicago for more than 80 years.