The pinnacle of the union representing Chicago’s entrance line cops is blasting Mayor Brandon Johnson for calling legislation enforcement a “illness” that he plans to “eradicate.” Additionally talking out in regards to the mayor’s feedback, albeit in a extra measured tone, is Cook dinner County State’s Lawyer Eileen O’Neill Burke.
As CWBChicago first reported final Wednesday, Johnson erupted at a press convention, calling “jails and incarceration and legislation enforcement” a illness that “has not led to secure communities,” and vowing to “eradicate” it.
Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 President John Catanzara launched a spicy YouTube video of his personal on Friday, a video he recorded whereas standing in entrance of the mayor’s dwelling, which is protected 24/7 by a number of CPD items.
“Three squad vehicles blocking it, patrolling it, defending it for him and his household,” Catanzara mentioned. “But, he calls legislation enforcement a illness. What a hypocrite. Piece of rubbish.”
Catanzara advised viewers that Johnson’s phrases had been no mistake.
“He has all the time hated us. He nonetheless hates us. He simply can’t say what he needs to publicly. However two days in the past, the reality got here out slightly bit as a result of he misplaced management. And consider him when he says it, that he believes we’re a illness. That’s simply who he’s.”
The mayor’s critics have lengthy accused him of hostility towards police, pointing to his previous work with the Chicago Lecturers Union. Catanzara went down that highway, too.
“The fact is that if Brandon Johnson was not mayor of the town of Chicago and nonetheless working for CTU, he’d be picketing, protesting, and demanding defunding of the police division each single probability he acquired. Interval,” mentioned the union chief.
Catanzara additionally mentioned Chicago’s enhancing crime numbers don’t have anything to do with the mayor.
“Disgrace on Mayor Johnson for considering he has something to do with it,” he scolded. “The women and men of this police division have all the things to do with it. They’ve all the time had all the things to do with it. Interval. Full cease.”
Catanzara additionally credited O’Neill Burke, who took workplace in December, for making an actual influence.
“The main distinction within the decline numbers is attributed to a brand new Cook dinner County state’s lawyer who believes in legislation and order and accountability, previous to her predecessor’s ridiculous ‘let all people free’ and really feel extra sympathy for the offenders than for the victims and their households.”
O’Neill Burke, for her half, mentioned final week that partnerships with legislation enforcement are important and distanced herself from the mayor’s harsh language.
Talking with a neighborhood information outlet a few totally different subject, the county’s high prosecutor known as Johnson’s assertion “disappointing and disheartening.”
“We’re a part of legislation enforcement,” she mentioned of her workplace. “I’ve 1,300 individuals who work on this workplace, who’re devoted public servants, who stand up each single day to make it possible for they hold girls secure from home violence, to make it possible for we’re doing our jobs in defending youngsters from being intercourse trafficked, to make it possible for we’re prosecuting homicide instances. What we do every single day doesn’t name for our eradication.”
Authentic reporting you’ll see nowhere else, paid for by our readers. Click on right here to help our work.
