Sounding as though she's been taken over by the spirit of Donald Trump, Chicago's Mayor Lori Lightfoot, one of the big blue-city jellyfish mayors until now, is singing a different tune.

That's in response to a new round of looting, of high-end stores on Chicago's Magnificent Mile last night, something that left the rich part of the city looking like a Portland hellhole.  It started with a professional criminal who opened fire at Chicago's police, who fired back, and a mob organizing on social media, complete with hauling crates and U-Haul vans to loot and cart off high-end goods from fancy stores in response. 

According to Fox News:

Videos circulating online show widespread looting and clashes with police across Chicago's Magnificent Mile shopping district early Monday, sparked by a police-involved shooting hours earlier that left a young man wounded.

Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown and Mayor Lori Lightfoot are expected to speak about the unrest during a news conference scheduled for 8 a.m. local time.

Social media users posted videos of hundreds of people looting stores such as Nordstrom, Walgreens, Macy's, Coach, Gucci and Louis Vuitton. Some exchanged gunfire with police at one point, although no officers were injured.

"Absolute chaos in downtown Chicago with more overnight looting and vandalism in the Loop," tweeted Ryan Baker, an anchor for WBBM-TV. "Appears to be coordinated effort with minimal police presence."

Here's the lovely group in action:

Looter shouts “I can’t breathe” as she runs through store looking for something to remove security tags. #Chicago pic.twitter.com/uElON1OYmf

— The Columbia Bugle рџ‡єрџ‡ё (@ColumbiaBugle) August 10, 2020

So much for just looking for a loaf of bread.  The Twitter comments deriding this thug are devastating.  Looters, it seems, are a running joke.

Mayor Lightfoot seems to see the light.  Allowing America's third biggest city to turn into another Minneapolis or Portland, a running joke for mayoral ineffectuality, and a perfect target for looters themselves to pay a visit home to is no way to run a city.  She must be hearing from the locals.  She must be responding to ridicule on Twitter.  Because in these remarks, transcribed a bit below, there's no talk about blaming President Trump, no excuses for looters, and none of her customary rubbish about gun control solving the whole thing.  Instead, she said phrases like this, transcribed from her just-given press conference:

We are waking up in shock this morning ... these individuals can only be described as brazen ... this has nothing to do with legitimate first amendment protection ... this is not poor people trying to feed themselves, this is straight up criminal felonies. ... This was an assault on our city, it breathes a sense of insecurity. it also hits our recovery. Stores targeted were more than just chain stores — small stores and jobs. I want to give my sincere thanks to the men and women of our police department for their professionalism. To our residents — safely and securely. And to our businesses, we redouble our efforts to help you reopen and recover[.]

Here's my more precise transcript of the fiery part:

And to those who engage in this criminal behavior — let's be clear we are coming for you, We are already at work finding you and we intend to hold you accountable for your actions. I don't care. I do not care whatever justification was given for this. There is no justification for criminal behavior ever. You have no right to take and destroy the property of others. Our residents deserve to be safe. Our businesses deserve to understand and enjoy safety and security of their property and employees. And our police officers deserve to be able to do their job without having to worry about shots being fired, projectiles being thrown, and being maced. This is not anywhere near acceptable. And I call upon our state's attorneys and our courts to make sure that these individuals are arrested and those to come are held accountable. Put your best people on this. We have made the case, we have the video, we have the officer testimony these people need to be held accountable and not cycled through the system. And judges who are holding these cases, you need to step up and be responsible. We can't continue to allow this to happen. And as the superintendent said, for people to believe that there is no accountability through our criminal justice system. No one wants to hold people in jail because they are poor. But people who engage in this kind of criminal activity, they need to be held accountable. And we can't do it alone. We need the prosecution and we need the courts to step up and do their part as well, and that is certainly my hope and my expectation.

When have we ever heard talk like this?  A lefty mayor telling criminals they are looking for them and they've got the videos, and telling lefty judges and prosecutors to do their jobs, too?  Can you imagine Bill de Blasio saying this, or the doofuses running Minneapolis and Portland?

It makes sense because looters are laughing at them, saying they "can't breathe" as they rummage for security tag removal devices in looted shops — and she's finally onto them and all their enablers in the court system.

She must have a better political sense of how this stuff draws people to move away from her city, makes it a laughingstock, forces businesses out and incentivizes even more crime, both the looting kind and the general murder kind.  She must be hearing from someone.  Just a week ago, she was listening to President Trump on bringing federal help in, so it's been brewing in her for a few days.

Most of all, she must know how these loot-fests, which are outright parodies of themselves as bozo above talks about not being able to breathe, help President Trump at the polls.  Nobody wants this.  Nobody wants this anywhere near his city.  These loot-fests are national issues now, and blue-city mayors are holding the bag. 

Well, at least one of them is peeling off from the pack, just as President Trump begins his rise in the polls.  Something says this is Peak Looter.  Something says this is a trend.

Image credit: YouTube screen shot.