Vote to punish socialist Chicago alderman sputters in city hall 

CHICAGO (CN) — Alderman Byron Sigcho Lopez survived a political attack by the city council's right wing on Monday, keeping his job as chair for Chicago's Committee on Housing and Real Estate. 

Last week, 15 conservative alders called for a special city council meeting to remove Sigcho Lopez, who represents the diverse 25th Ward of Chicago's Near South Side, from that influential position. They hoped to punish him for attending a leftist political rally in front of city hall earlier in March, where another attendee burned the American flag in protest of U.S. support for Israel and the city's hosting of the Democratic National Convention this August.

Removing Sigcho Lopez as housing committee chair would also deprive progressive Mayor Brandon Johnson of an ally in an important position of the city's bureaucracy. 

After a roughly two-and-a-half hour meeting, the vote to remove Sigcho Lopez as housing committee chair failed 29-16. It was the second time in less than six months that one of Johnson's progressive allies dodged public political retribution; last November, Alderman Carlos Ramirez Rosa narrowly avoided censure in a 25-24 vote after he had an altercation with Alderwoman Emma Mitts.

In a speech he delivered at the start of the meeting, Sigcho Lopez said he took accountability for any offense he caused by attending the March political rally, but defended the right of veterans to burn the flag as an expression of free speech. He also criticized some of those who wanted to remove him from his housing committee chair as unnecessarily stoking intra-council divisions. 

"I think some of my colleagues need a lesson on what first amendment rights mean," he said. 

Multiple city councilors offered their own remarks after Sigcho Lopez delivered his, with a common theme among more moderate and progressive alders being that this was an unnecessary and potentially harmful meeting.

Alderwoman Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez, who sits with Sigcho Lopez on the council's Democratic Socialist Caucus, called the meeting "political persecution" that would set a precedent of intra-council political retaliation. Progressive Alderwoman Maria Hadden suggested it would have been better for those alders offended by Sigcho Lopez' actions to speak with him privately.

"We did not need to have a special city council meeting to have this conversation," Hadden said.

Conservative alders, meanwhile, said they didn't oppose the First Amendment right to burn a flag per se, only that a public official was willing to attend a political event that included flag burning. Several alders also criticized Sigcho Lopez for associating with a group that they characterized as extremist.

"It is plain as day what that group advocates for, and you willingly showed up," said Alderman Ray Lopez, one of the city council's most prominent conservative figures, who recently lost his primary bid against Democratic Illinois Congressman Jesus "Chuy" Garcia.

Behind Enemy Lines, the group that hosted the rally Sigcho Lopez attended in March, defines itself as an anti-imperialist resistance organization. It is dedicated to opposing what it calls the "U.S. war machine" and the colonial relationships it says America enforces on peoples around the globe, including Palestinians. Its slogan reads: "The empire is the enemy. From the belly of the beast, we choose to resist it."

Zachary Kam, the two-tour Afghanistan veteran who burned the flag at the Behind Enemy Lines rally in March, also made no bones about his opposition to U.S. imperialism. He said his time serving in Afghanistan left him disillusioned with America and its actions abroad.

"I saw the humanity of the people there and the illegality of what we were doing there," Kam told Courthouse News following the city council vote.

Kam was one of multiple individuals that police ejected from the council chambers during the public commentary portion of the meeting, before the debate on Sigcho Lopez' committee chair status began. He had loudly argued with another man who yelled at a Vietnam vet delivering public comments in Sigcho Lopez' defense; that man was also ejected. Other removed individuals included a third veteran who called Sigcho Lopez a traitor, and a number of pro-Palestine protestors who tore up paper American flags as the city council looked on. 

The meeting highlighted the social and political tensions Chicago faces as it prepares to host the Democratic National Convention in August. While Chicago has been a Democratic bastion since the mid 20th century, and all city council members are either Democrats or independents, there are clear divides in the city along lines of race, class, age and ideology.

Groups like Behind Enemy Lines have sworn to protest the DNC when it comes to town over the Biden administration's continuing support for Israel, despite a mounting 30,000-plus death toll in Gaza and a finding from the International Court of Justice that at least some of Israel's military actions there might plausibly constitute genocide. Chicago is also home to one of the largest Palestinian communities in the U.S., several prominent leaders of which refused to meet with White House officials when they visited the city in March.

"The DNC will not happen here," Kam told Courthouse News. "We're not going to let them roll out a red carpet for themselves."

Follow @djbyrnes1

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit