CITY HALL — Pilsen Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) will remain part of the mayor’s leadership team after a group of alderpeople failed to generate enough support to remove him as a committee chair for attending a rally where a protestor burned an American flag.
The meeting was organized last week by a coalition of alderpeople who have blasted Sigcho-Lopez’s actions and demanded he apologize and resign from his position as chair of the council’s Committee on Housing and Real Estate.
Following a lengthy discussion where several alderpeople spoke against and in favor of Sigcho-Lopez maintaining his leadership role, the vote to oust him failed 16-29.
The alderpeople who voted to remove Sigcho-Lopez from the committee chair were: Anthony Beale (9th), Peter Chico (10th), Marty Quinn (13th), Raymond Lopez (15th), Silvana Tabares (23rd), Monique Scott (24th), Felix Cardona (31st), Scott Waguespack (32nd), Bill Conway (34th), Gilbert Villegas (36th), Nicholas Sposato (38th), Anthony Napolitano (41st), Brendan Reilly (42nd), Bennett Lawson (44th), James Gardiner (45th) and Debra Silverstein (50th).
The incident in question occurred March 22 outside City Hall at an event where photos show someone — not Sigcho-Lopez — set fire to an American flag on the sidewalk. Demonstrators were showing support for Palestine in the Israel-Hamas war and criticizing Chicago’s hosting of the Democratic National Convention.
Burning the American flag has been a protected right since a 1989 Supreme Court ruling.
In a statement immediately following the event, representatives from Sigcho-Lopez’s office said “at no point was his attention drawn to the flag, nor did he endorse or support such actions.” The alderman attended the rally to address “critical issues such as the genocide in Gaza and the failure of the DNC to prioritize immigration reform.”
Still, Sigcho-Lopez, a member of City Council’s Democratic Socialist caucus, faced heavy criticism on social from some fellow alderpeople. Some called for him to be censured.
Sigcho-Lopez rebuffed demands he resign the committee chair role.
“To me, this seems like political theater,” he told Block Club last week. “It’s the same reactionary voices that want to distract us and divide us. I’m not going to apologize for using my First Amendment right.”
At the start of Monday’s meeting, Sigcho-Lopez said he wouldn’t apologize for not condemning a person’s First Amendment right to burn the American flag, but he said he apologized for how his actions may have appeared.
“I will make my remarks clear that if in any way, shape or form my actions have offended anyone, especially veterans, I take full accountability,” he said during the meeting.
Ald. Maria Hadden (49th), an ally of Sigcho-Lopez, was one of several colleagues who stood up for him during the meeting.
“I haven’t heard or learned anything here, or heard any kind of argument from anybody who brought this resolution that Byron Sigcho-Lopez should be removed as chair, and ultimately that is why we were brought here today,” she said, urging her colleagues to join her in voting against the measure.
Lopez, Conway, Villegas (36th) and Sposato (38th) were among those who reiterated their criticisms during the meeting. Conway said the Pilsen alderman “has a right to be inflammatory,” but he also has a responsibility as a leader to bring people together.
“I believe Ald. Sigcho-Lopez to be a good and decent person, but in looking at the pictures, it strains credulity that he didn’t know the charred remains of our flag were at his feet,” Conway said during the meeting. “I was torn on this, but in the aftermath, he seems to have reveled in that division and fanned the flames of those who wish to incite violence in the city.”
There was also further criticism regarding Sigcho-Lopez’s association with the group that organized the rally, Behind Enemy Lines. According to their mission statement, they are a group advocating for disrupting the “war machine, celebrating resistance and building public opinion against ongoing and future wars.”
Social media posts from the group show they were critical of the City Council’s resolution to support a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas War last year, calling Mayor Brandon Johnson “an ardent zionist and no friend of people who want justice in Palestine.”
The group is also critical of the city’s hosting of the Democratic National Convention this summer, writing “Anyone who is welcoming of that convention is cosigning that genocide, Brandon Johnson chief among those cosigners.”
Ald. Chris Taliaferro, a veteran and former Chicago Police Department officer, led last week’s press conference to rebuke Sigcho-Lopez and demand his resignation as committee chair.
“Every now and then, we have to call ourselves to a higher standard to say whether or not you should associate with certain groups,” he said Monday.
But after speaking with Sigcho-Lopez over the weekend, he forgave him and no longer supported stripping him of his title, he said Monday. He voted against the measure.
“I believe strongly in the democratic process and was pleased to see Ald. Sigcho-Lopez and Ald. Taliaferro reaching a mutual understanding and moving forward,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a statement. “I once again applaud members of City Council for their thoughtful debate and look forward to continuing to work collaboratively to address the urgent needs of all Chicagoans.”
Members of the Revolutionary Communist Party burned an American flag in front of City Hall about an hour before Monday’s meeting and ripped American flags in protest during the hearing.
Following the meeting, Sigcho-Lopez posed for photos with the Marine Corps veteran who identified himself as the person who burned the flag during the earlier protest.
Block Club’s Colin Boyle contributed.
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