Lollapalooza security guard allegedly called in a terror threat to get off work early



On Friday, July 29, 2022, Chicago Police arrested Janya Williams, 18, and charged her with terrorism and issuing false threats. Williams, a security guard at the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago, is said to have transmitted an anonymous message to her Andy Frain Services supervisor using the TextNow app, which said, "Mass shooting at 4 pm location Lollapalooza. We have 150 targets." She allegedly told her supervisor that her sister also saw a comparable threat made on Facebook.

According to WDBD, prosecutors say Williams had allegedly admitted to manufacturing the threat "because she wanted to leave work early."

After seeing the TextNow message, Williams' supervisor called Chicago Police. The FBI was subsequently notified.

Williams was instructed by her supervisor to screenshot the threat and is said to have then created a Facebook account for "Ben Scott." Under this alias, she posted another version of her original threat: "Massive shooting at Lollapalooza Grant Park 6:00 p.m." Williams screenshotted the resulting post and provided it to her supervisor.

CBS Chicago reported that FBI Joint Task Force members subsequently conducted an emergency disclosure request and determined the source of the message. Williams' IP address allegedly indicated she was the culprit.

In Illinois, falsely making a terrorist threat is a Class 1 felony.

Williams, who was has been arrested twice since May, is being held on $50,000 bail, per Cook County Judge Mary Marubio's orders.

Lollapalooza was not a 'superspreader event,' Chicago health commissioner declares



Chicago's health commissioner said Thursday that the massive, multiday Lollapalooza music festival held in the city two weeks ago does not appear to have been a "superspreader event."

What are the details?

"There's no evidence at this point of a superspreader event, and there's no evidence of substantial impact to Chicago's COVID epidemiology," Dr. Allison Arwady said at a news conference, according to CNN.

Arwady did say that of the approximately 385,000 people who attended the festival, 203 have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the Chicago Sun-Times reported, adding that none of those who tested positive died or have had to be hospitalized or have died.

"The bottom line is we've not seen anything that has surprised us related to the Lollapalooza outbreak," Arwady said, according to the paper.

Health officials estimated that about 90% of attendees were vaccinated, the Sun-Times said, adding that to enter the festival in Grant Park concertgoers had to show proof of being vaccinated or proof of having tested negative for the coronavirus within the previous three days.

Arwady also said that of the 203 positive cases, 127 were among vaccinated attendees and 76 were among unvaccinated attendees — which translates to about four cases in 10,000 among the vaccinated and about 16 in 10,000 for the unvaccinated, the paper reported.

"We obviously will continue to do further investigation if necessary. ... Any person diagnosed with COVID-19 on or after attending Lollapalooza is included in the analysis," the health commissioner added, according to the Sun-Times. "So these cases may or may not have resulted from transmission at Lolla itself. We've been very broad here. Anybody who is potentially associated, we want to investigate."

Chicago residents account for 58 of the positive cases — and 13 of them reported attending Lollapalooza when or after their symptoms began, Arwady added, the paper said.

What else?

"This is a really important reminder that we need everybody in Chicago not to ignore symptoms, assume it's a summer cold, regardless of your vaccination status because we know the vaccines aren't 100% protective," she noted, according to the Sun-Times.

More from the paper:

In the days leading up to Lollapalooza — despite a spike in cases caused by the delta variant — Arwady said she was comfortable with the event going ahead as planned because of the precautions organizers were taking, including air ventilation for any indoor spaces and making sure backstage workers were vaccinated.

Arwady said Thursday that despite the prevalence of the Delta variant, Chicago isn't seeing the kind of surge that some Southern states are experiencing.

"If we were in New Orleans, ... I don't think we would have been able to move ahead with this event," she noted, the Sun-Times said.

Idiocracy is HERE & Some States SUCK | Ep 485

Idiocracy is HERE & Some States SUCK | Ep 485

'Our mayor is lying': Video shows vaccine 'verification' at music festival praised by Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot



Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was peppered with backlash over the weekend after permitting hundreds of thousands of people to gather in the Windy City for Lollapalooza, one of the biggest music festivals in the world.

What are the details?

Despite the surge in COVID-19 cases that Democratic leaders say is serious enough to warrant new restrictions and mandates, Lightfoot allowed Lollapalooza to take place over the weekend.

An estimated 400,000 people attend the annual event that spans four days.

To justify hosting the massive festival, attendees were required to either show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of the festival. For the unvaccinated, organizers made them wear face masks, but, as the Chicago Tribune reported, "in practice few concertgoers have been seen with one."

Lightfoot claimed that 90% of festival attendees were vaccinated.

"I feel very good about what we've done," she said, the Associated Press reported.

But is that true?

According to one video showing concertgoers enter the event space, Lollapalooza workers stationed at the front gate were hardly checking the vaccination status of those entering.

In fact, as long as someone held out a small, square piece of card stock that resembled the proof-of-vaccination cards, they were allowed entry.

"This is how Lori Lightfoot's lollapalooza is checking Vaccination cards & our mayor is lying saying 90% are vaccinated," former mayoral candidate Ja'Mal Greene said.

This is how Lori Lightfoot’s lollapalooza is checking Vaccination cards & our mayor is lying saying 90% are vaccina… https://t.co/mQH6AMDG4m

— Ja'Mal Green (@JaymalGreen) 1627860360.0

Dr. Emily Landon, executive medical director for infection prevention and control at the University of Chicago Medical Center, had warned last week that Lollapalooza could cause "wildfires of infection."

"I think a lot of people are going to get COVID at Lollapalooza," she said, WMAQ-TV reported. "The real problem is not so much that a bunch of young people who come into Chicago getting COVID at this event. The real problem is them taking it back to places that have very low vaccination rates."

Chicago about to get shut right back down 🤦🏾 https://t.co/ZQJGek0Tze

— Chan C. (@chancsmith_) 1627621200.0

Anything else?

Perhaps most ironically, Lightfoot threatened last week to implement COVID-related restrictions amid the surge in cases.

"We're not only going to look at a mask mandate, but we're going to look back at other tools that we've been compelled to use," Lightfoot told the New York Times. "I hope we don't get there."

However, following Lollapalooza, Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady sang a completely different tune.

"We have no goal or current plans to close down Chicago again," Arwady said Sunday.