Walid Mohammad’s convenience store located in downtown Chicago was looted last May during riots.
Walid spent $300,000 in repairs to get his store back up and running.
That didn’t last long, as his store was completely ransacked yet again on Monday.
Security cameras showed looters destroying his new steel security door, and ripping out an ATM.
Police took over 25 minutes to respond to this second incident, and Walid has had enough.
Walid says he is furious over police response and plans on suing the city of Chicago.
Fox News has more on this unfortunate story:
The recent looting in Chicago has devastated local business owners who have had their stores vandalized and robbed. One convenience store owner has suffered this fate not once, but twice.
Walid Mohammad's convenience store has been looted twice since May. Surveillance footage showed looters taking items, breaking into the store's ATM and ‘destroying everything,’ Mohammad told Fox News.
“I've been through a lot. A lot of drama, a lot of stress. I don't know what I'm going to do," Mohammad said, whose store is in the central business district in downtown Chicago. He is just one of many business owners reeling with the realities of looters all while dealing with the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus.
The store owner said he watched for 25 minutes as looters broke their way through his store’s metal door, but "but no one came to stop them," because police were overwhelmed across the city.
Mohammad asserts, “Officers are seeing what is going on but are doing nothing.”
“No one responded, nobody to protect my business. That's the first thing I want to know -- who's going to respond for that?” Mohammad said. “I want to see who are responsible for this.”
If the widespread looting and unrest doesn’t end soon, the business owner is afraid he may not be able to recover and reopen his store.
According to Mohammad, he has spent at least $300,000 repairing his store the first time it was looted and wants to know that the city will keep his property safe before he makes any new repairs again.
“I want to know, are we protected or not? I want them to take care of the small businesses,” said Mohammad.
Walid Mouhammad: "Are we protected or not?"
The livelihood of business owners such as Mr. Mouhammad are at stake in Chicago.
If they can't turn to local authorities or city leaders, then what more can they do?
Mr. Mouhammad is feeling the sting of his city abandoning him, and he feels he has no left choice but to sue.
This is a hard truth that many Chicagoans must be feeling lately.
Widespread destruction envelops Chicago last week.
Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot recently said that looting Is 'Never Justifiable.'
Newsweek reports:
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot decried the looting that occurred earlier in the week as being indefensible and behavior that should never be tolerated, dismissing an activist's earlier remarks.
Widespread looting erupted in Chicago's Magnificent Mile late Sunday night, hours after community members expressed outrage over an officer-involved shooting. While Chicago officials condemned the looting, Black Lives Matter organizer Ariel Atkins expressed support for the more than 100 people arrested, saying they can take whatever they want because "businesses have insurance" and likened the theft to "reparations."
Lightfoot didn't mention Atkins by name during her Friday briefing, but said people can never "normalize this behavior or allow anyone to justify it." Regardless of a person's individual life circumstances, Lightfoot said "it is never justifiable to take what is not yours."
"We teach that basic tenet of our democracy to our children and any thinking, any speech, any action that suggests that somehow the taking and looting is justifiable is simply wrong and I reject it in the strongest words possible," Lightfoot said.
When is mayor Lightfoot going to put her money where her mouth is and stand up for innocent citizens and busines owners in Chicago?
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