The mayor of Chicago and other city officials strongly condemned a house party that took place over the weekend with an estimated 1,000 people in attendance, TMZ reports.
According to the video that went viral nationally, hundreds of young Black men and women can be seen packed closely inside a home, from one end of the dwelling to the other, according to NBC Chicago. No one inside the home was practicing the strongly recommended social distancing measures, and only one partier could be seen donning a mask.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot expressed outrage about the party on her Twitter account.
I have seen the video which shows what appears to be a house party taking place inside a Chicago residence.
What was depicted on the video was reckless and utterly unacceptable.
— Archived: Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot (@mayorlightfoot) April 26, 2020
Not only did Lightfoot reiterate the need for Chicagoans to continue to practice “shelter-in-place” or “stay-at-home” mandates issued by most state governors, but she also plans to hold those responsible as they could place the public in danger by further spreading the coronavirus that has killed more than 55,000 people in America and infected nearly 1 million overall.
As of Monday, April 27, in Cook County, Illinois, 29,058 people have tested positive for COVID-19, and 1,267 with the virus have died from the virus.
While most Chicagoans are doing their part to prevent the spread of COVID-19, reckless actions like these threaten our public health and risk erasing the progress we have made. We will hold those responsible accountable.
I am asking everyone to be in this together.
— Archived: Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot (@mayorlightfoot) April 26, 2020
Illinois state Rep. La Shawn Ford echoed the mayor’s sentiments when he told NBC Chicago that “the video was especially troubling because of the coronavirus’s tragic and deadly impact on the Black community.”
“This should be a teachable moment for the young people who attended this party,” Ford added, asking that officials find out why those young people at the party believe their lives are not valuable.
Chicago police broke up another large party, also on the city’s West Side, and confiscated a stolen car, a handgun and a large stash of marijuana.
Lightfoot is urging those with knowledge of the first party, as seen in the video below, to place an anonymous tip at cpdtip.com.
