Police Action Questioned in Chicago’s Violence; 1,000 Arrested

The police came under criticism and the mayor faced tough questioning Monday following serious outbreaks of violence that rippled across Chicago on Sunday night after the Bulls won the National Basketball Assn. championship.

Soon after the Bulls beat Portland, 97-93, the partying turned ugly. Sporadic rampages erupted in neighborhoods both poor and posh alike. Dozens of stores, cars and buses were vandalized, burgled or set on fire.

Police Supt. Matt Rodriguez said more than 1,000 people were arrested and 95 policemen were hurt, most when they were struck by flying debris. Two officers suffered minor gunshot wounds when they were hit by sniper fire.

Although Rodriguez had canceled most days off and put his forces on alert in anticipation of post-game trouble, many merchants complained that police took hours to respond to emergency calls and did little to stop the violence once it began.

But officials here, still mindful of the black eye the city received when police aggressively assaulted anti-war demonstrators at the 1968 Democratic convention, clearly determined that too much police presence would provoke things rather than calm them.

“If you moved the policemen in there you would have had a field day,” said Mayor Richard M. Daley. “. . . When you celebrate something in America, you break a window and grab something, unfortunately.”

In one of the worst incidents here Sunday, two shopkeepers--both of Arab descent--were seriously burned while trying to hide in a store that was set ablaze by black looters. However, although there may have been racial overtones to some of the violence, by and large it appeared both spontaneous and widespread--and not confined to any particular group.

Near the well-heeled North Side Gold Coast, hundreds of revelers, whipped into a frenzy by a night of drinking and cheering as they watched the game on televisions in overstuffed pick-up bars, marched into the street and began taunting police and overturning cars.

Looters also scooted up and down tony Michigan Avenue, Chicago’s version of Rodeo Drive, breaking windows and snatching a fancy array of everything from jewelry to clothing to books. In other less affluent neighborhoods, on both the West and South sides, crowds set fire to some shops and smashed into others.

Chicago had managed to escape the violence which rocked several other major U.S. cities in the wake of the controversial Rodney G. King verdict and subsequent Los Angeles riots. And Darnell Hawkins, a sociologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago and an expert on urban violence, said it would be a mistake to try to find some common thread between the troubles in Los Angeles and those in Chicago, where middle-class youths caused as many problems as the poor.

“Young people are going to be wild no matter what civilization they’re in,” Hawkins said. “. . . If there’s going to be a repeat of Los Angeles in American cities this summer, it won’t be because of something like a Bulls victory. It’ll probably involve something like an altercation with the police.”

The latest Chicago incidents were nothing unique in the recent history of urban victory celebrations. Two years ago, for example, seven people were killed in Detroit when widespread violence erupted after the Pistons won the 1990 NBA championship. Last year, when the Bulls beat the Lakers to take their first NBA title, sporadic looting also hit Chicago, though it was far less severe than Sunday’s outbreak.