Chicago Mayor Personally Patrolled City To Enforce Social Distancing

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot personally patrolled the city’s streets, Tuesday night, in an effort to encourage social distancing.

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Lightfoot spoke about the patrol during a press conference the following day, as reported by the Chicago Tribune: “I personally drove around yesterday, and I was up on the North Side, in the 50th Ward, and I’ll continue to do that,” Lightfoot said. “I told people that I saw gathering in clusters not abiding by the social distancing rules to break it up. Yes. And I’ll continue to do that. I mean what I say: We have to protect ourselves. We have to be smart about what we’re doing in the course of this pandemic. And if it means that I drive around and check whether people are in compliance, I’m happy to do it.”

“Most people do a double-take and are like, wait, is that the mayor? And then as we roll away, you’ll hear somebody saying, ‘Hey, that was the mayor. Hey, that was Lori Lightfoot,'” the mayor said regarding the public’s reaction to her patrol, during a Connected to Chicago interview.

The state of Illinois will be under a stay-at-home order until, at the earliest, April 30. In the United States, there have been over 500,000 confirmed cases and 20,000 deaths.

[Via]