Joliet & Crest Hill Impose Curfew For Monday Night
Joliet Mayor Bob O’Dekirk and Crest Hill Mayor Ray Solimon will both impose a curfew for Monday night between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. Tuesday.
What started out as peaceful protests on Sunday, ended in Joliet with looters taking to the stores and smashing out windows at the Walgreens across from the Joliet Catholic Academy. Ross Dress for Less and Hobby Lobby were broken into and looted. Police are out this morning protecting stores and institutions including the Rialto Square Theatre and the Will County Courthouse, plus police protecting stores along Route 30 near the Louis Joliet Mall.
Joliet Police Chief Al Roechner says 24 people were arrested last night. Roechner says the activist he was communicating with left the area before the looting began and will investigate whether they were from the area. Mayor O’Dekirk in a live Facebook interview with Scott Slocum on WJOL said he spoke with several officers and asked them if they knew the people that were looting or had seen them before and they answered no.
To keep downtown Joliet safe, police did something they hadn’t done since 1968, raise the bridges in Joliet.
Roechner expects more unrest tonight and advises residents to stay in their homes and lock their doors. Joliet Police will be out in full force tonight and will arrest those doing damage to property.
