The Chicago City Council is one step away from creating a commission to study whether — and how — the city should pay reparations to Chicagoans who are the descendants of enslaved African Americans.

“Yeah we’re not gonna do that,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said during a Friday morning press conference when asked if she would consider canceling CPS’ existing contract with the Chicago Police Department. “Unfortunately, we need security in our schools.”

As unrest swept the city Sunday, aldermen pleaded with Mayor Lori Lightfoot to help them protect their communities from roving bands of criminals clashing with police and looting businesses.

“We will not tolerate that kind of abusive, offensive conduct on the part of police officers, period,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Friday.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she supports neighbors being vigilant but that she won’t tolerate people taking up arms. “We’ve seen that end with tragic results across the country,” she said.

Efforts to put an elected board of Chicago residents in charge of the Chicago Police Department — stalled by the coronavirus pandemic — could get new life amid a renewed nationwide push to hold police officers accountable for misconduct.

An increasing number of complaints that Chicago officials decided to protect downtown at the expense of neighborhoods on the South and West sides are “not true and illogical,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Wednesday.

In an address Tuesday night, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot outlined reforms based on improving police training, officer wellness and community relations she said are “critical to resolving our crisis.”

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she made the decision only after speaking with business owners, chambers of commerce and city officials, all of whom she said were fully behind moving into phase three of the state’s Restore Illinois plan.

Officials are worried Chicago may see a spike in COVID-19 cases after a weekend of not just protests but a general abandoning of public health guidelines. 

A weekend of protests, looting and violence rocked many of Chicago’s commercial districts, which were already suffering due to the coronavirus pandemic that temporarily closed many businesses and kept residents at home.

Referencing Chicago’s own “dark days” with police violence, the mayor said additional training and improved relationships between officers and the community are needed following protests and looting across the city.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Police Superintendent David Brown disputed claims that resources were used to protect downtown at the expense of Chicago’s neighborhoods during weekend protests and rioting. The opposite occurred, they said.

At Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s request, Gov. J.B. Pritzker activated 375 guard soldiers – one of several “new precautionary measures” to ensure “health and safety” after peaceful protests boiled over to looting and violence.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said plans to lift some restrictions in Chicago on Wednesday designed to stop the spread of COVID-19 may be delayed after violent protests sparked by the death of George Floyd swept the city.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois is considering taking legal action to rein a nightly curfew Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has imposed on the city for an indefinite period.