{"id":597073,"date":"2026-05-06T11:48:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=597073"},"modified":"2026-05-06T11:48:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:48:55","slug":"chicago-lawmaker-demands-walgreens-be-charged-with-a-crime-for-shuttering-store-in-a-high-crime-neighborhood-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=597073","title":{"rendered":"Chicago lawmaker demands Walgreens be charged with a crime for shuttering store in a high-crime neighborhood"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

A nutty Chicago alderman is demanding that Walgreens be charged with a crime for shuttering a store in a high-crime neighborhood.<\/p>\n

According to Ald. William Hall, Walgreens closing down a store in the 6th Ward, where locals have been robbing it blind, amounts to what he calls \u201ccorporate abandonment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWalgreens should be charged with first-degree corporate abandonment,\u201d he confidently asserted during a press conference held Monday outside the closing Walgreens store. \u201cIt should be a crime the way they\u2019re treating our elders [and] our families.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Chicago Alderman William Hall wants to see Walgreens face charges for closing (over a shoplifting crisis) pic.twitter.com\/lZgZRvBdJ7<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) May 4, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Not once in his diatribe did Hall talk about the way locals have been treating Walgreens.<\/p>\n

In a statement to Block Club Chicago<\/a>, a Walgreens spokesperson said the decision to shutter the store was due to \u201csignificantly higher levels of theft and violent incidents than our other locations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite a range of efforts, including previous operating adjustments, these ongoing safety challenges have made it increasingly difficult to maintain a secure environment for our team members and customers,\u201d the spokesperson added. \u201cWhile this was not an easy decision, safety must remain our top priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hall didn\u2019t seem to care about this fact.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not here to beg Walgreens to stay,\u201d he continued whining on Monday. \u201cWe are saying that their decision is the wrong decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Sometimes, people just like to hear themselves belch out words, even though they are ridiculous and stupid. William Hall is just such a man. Notice he doesn\u2019t say anything about the robbers and thugs that forced the Walgreens to close. Not only is he a moron, but he\u2019s a liar too.<\/p>\n

\u2014 John Bulkeley (@bulkeley_john) May 4, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Hall was backed by Ald. Lamont Robinson, who revealed he\u2019s drafting a \u201cbig box ordinance\u201d to prevent large companies like Walgreens from leaving certain communities, even if those communities are abusing them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf corporations like Walgreens and Walmart receive [tax-increment finance] money or any other city money, they owe it to the city of Chicago and the residents to pay that money back,\u201d Robinson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot take resources out of our community and do not put them back. If you have taken city resources that is our taxpayer money, then you need to give it back,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Jeremiah Hinton, a local resident and founder of the Be The Proof Foundation nonprofit, showed up at the press conference on Monday with his children to teach them a point.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday was a moment for us to show that we can stand together and push through anything to overcome any circumstance that comes against us,\u201d he told Block Club Chicago. \u201cI hope [Walgreens] sees the power that can be had by supporting the community. They need to move differently so they\u2019re not just abandoning people who supported them.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear how locals were supporting Walgreens by robbing them blind.<\/p>\n

\n

The arrogance of these people is mind boggling! You won\u2019t prosecute shoplifters and then you whine about businesses closing due to the cost of people stealing. Start treating theft as a felony regardless of the amount and we won\u2019t have these problems<\/p>\n

\u2014 Louis Kosa (@LCDR72) May 4, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Speaking with Fox News<\/a>, Ald. Raymond Lopez, a Democrat (surprisingly enough), had very little patience for Hall and his compatriots.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere was that anger when the stores in our communities were under years and years of assault by criminals allowed to shoplift, vandalize, and destroy neighborhood institutions?\u201d Lopez asked in annoyance.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany leaders say it is simply an insurance matter. They are wrong. There are real-world consequences for crime running rampant. This closure is the perfect example of that effect,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Renice Mays, the manager of a women\u2019s apparel store across the street from the shuttering Walgreens, told local station WLS<\/a> that she frequently sees police outside.<\/p>\n

\u201cWalgreens is a different world. You see the people come out with things. Even if you go over there, you can see people just taking things out of the store,\u201d Mays said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A nutty Chicago alderman is demanding that Walgreens be charged with a crime for shuttering a store in a high-crime neighborhood. According to Ald. William Hall, Walgreens closing down a store in the 6th Ward, where locals have been robbing it blind, amounts to what he calls \u201ccorporate abandonment.\u201d \u201cWalgreens should be charged with first-degree… Continue reading Chicago lawmaker demands Walgreens be charged with a crime for shuttering store in a high-crime neighborhood<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":597060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19,10,21,12,11,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-597073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cancel-culture","category-censorship","category-civil-liberties","category-election-integrity","category-equal-justice","category-free-speech","category-religious-freedom","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=597073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/597060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=597073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=597073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=597073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}