Social Media Riot

Eight coppers hurt based on nothing but social media rumors....and 8 years of portraying the police as the enemy:

• The two women, mothers of young men, cried and shouted as they stood near the Discount Mega Mall in Little Village on Tuesday night. Both heard their sons had been shot.
  
  People around them spoke of a dead boy lying somewhere at the mall on 26th and Whipple streets, killed by police. Someone said four people had been shot. Others drove off to check hospitals.
  
  Finally, an officer yelled to the growing crowd: "Nobody was shot. You can all go home. Nobody was shot."

And then the complete breakdown of order:

• But the yelling and confusion continued into the night, fueled by rumors that drew more and more angry people to the streets. Scattered skirmishes broke out with police as Facebook posts titled "Rest in Peace" named two neighborhood men supposedly shot by officers.
  
  When things calmed down two hours later, eight officers had been sent to hospitals with injuries ranging from a broken hand to cuts on the face.
  
  Eleven people, including three 14-year-olds and a 15-year-old, were arrested and charged with counts ranging from aggravated battery to a police officer to resisting arrest and reckless conduct, according to police.

And these comforting words spoken by the Accidental Superintendent:

• "It just shows you the mentality of folks in some of our neighborhoods," police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Wednesday as he once again denied police shot anyone. "The majority of the people that live in these neighborhoods are really good people. And they’re sick and tired of seeing that kind of crap."

So, um....where was that "majority" Special Ed? Any reason they weren't out on the streets dragging their 14-and-15-year-old assailants back inside and off the dangerous streets? Where were they as the gang bangers were chanting their "CPDK" crap and throwing bottles? Special Ed doth protest too much wethinks.

And how did this asshole get away with inciting a riot?

• As more people showed up, a young man known to neighborhood residents as "TMZ" told people police killed a small boy in the mall parking lot. He said he trying to call the TV stations. As news crews from the stations showed up, after most of the commotion was over, he promised to send them videos.
  
  In one — shared more than 400 times on Facebook and viewed more than 37,000 times as of Wednesday morning — he claims the video shows several things it does not:
  
  • "Elderly women, look at this. The police hitting women now." (The video does not show that.)
  
  • "(Expletive) M-16s here pointing them at people." (Police don't carry M-16s, and the video does not show them being shouldered or aimed.)
  
  • "Over there, by Albany. Shot and killed someone over there." (Police have repeatedly denied that, and the video doesn't show that.)
  
  • "I'm leaning on my car." (The person who shot the video got to the scene on a moped.)
  
  The man said Wednesday morning he did not want to comment.

So Little Village has pretty much become a "no-go" zone from what we can see. Well done Rahm and Eddie.