Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot apparently backed out of a virtual conference at the last minute to avoid being on stage with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
Lightfoot cited a scheduling conflict when she announced that she would not be attending a roundtable discussion on Wednesday with Crain’s Chicago Business. Sources, however, told the Chicago Tribune that she was concerned about appearing next to Frey, who has been widely criticized after George Floyd, a black man, died in Minneapolis police custody in late May.
The event had been touted as a discussion between former Obama adviser David Axelrod and the “mayors of two Midwest cities” about COVID-19 and the recent wave of civil unrest. Lightfoot did not want to discuss those issues with Frey during the virtual event despite both cities battling unrest and issues within their police departments.
Frey, a Democrat, has been blasted by activists for his opposition to the defunding of the Minneapolis Police Department. He was chased out of a Black Lives Matter event earlier this year after he refused to say he supported defunding the police.
Lightfoot has also had a contentious relationship with the Chicago Police Department, but the city of Chicago has not signaled its support for defunding the police. She has similarly been deemed “pro-cop” by activists because of her work as a prosecutor and for her position as chairwoman of the Police Accountability Task Force in the office of her predecessor, Rahm Emanuel.
