CHICAGO, Ill. – Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is back in the news yet again for her anti-police rhetoric.
This week, the rookie mayor was caught on a hot microphone calling the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police union leader a ‘clown’.
Now she’s apologizing… but officers and their supporters aren’t exactly accepting her backpedalling. Most say, just as we usually see in politics, that she’s only offering her apologetic remarks because she got caught.
On Wednesday, Lightfoot was present at a City Council meeting. FOP union leader Patrick Murray stood up to speak when Mayor Lightfoot said aloud, and over a mic’d up system, “oh, back again, this FOP clown.”
“Oh, back again,” @chicagosmayor Lori Lightfoot whispered from her seat on the dais in the City Council chamber. “This is this FOP clown.” https://t.co/wKyQDTPVc2 pic.twitter.com/EkarbA4rDn
— CBS Chicago (@cbschicago) July 24, 2019
Many are calling for the mayor to resign after her comments.
Fox reported that Murray was at the council meeting to support the officers who were fired by the police board last week for their involvement in the Laquan McDonald shooting.
It’s no secret that the two do not typically see eye to eye, and since Lightfoot took over as Mayor of Chicago, the two have clashed on a number of occasions.
It probably doesn’t help that she began her reign by insulting her entire police force.
As she took the over the mayoral reins in Chicago, her first edict was to dump the Chicago Police security detail that has protected Chicago’s mayors for decades.
“This FOP clown.” – Chicago Mayor, Lori Lightfoot, gets caught by a hot mic slamming a police union official as he defends four officers in a controversial shooting. pic.twitter.com/gPcubiVtYU
— Fox & Friends First (@FoxFriendsFirst) July 25, 2019
Her security team is headed by James Smith, a former United States Marshal and consists of officers from the U.S. Marshals and other law enforcement departments outside the CPD. What role Chicago Police will play in the future protection of Chicago’s mayor is unknown.
These uncharted waters created new challenges for the detail; do they hold the correct certifications to work as law enforcement agents in Illinois and Chicago?
Are they indemnified through the city in civil actions taken against them? Is their collective experience sufficient to protect an individual in unfamiliar surroundings?
Are they given police powers in a municipality that they do not work for? All interesting and intriguing questions.
Perhaps the most captivating question is why she would make such an unusual move that clearly disenfranchised a thirteen thousand member force of police officers dedicated to the protection of the City of Chicago.
Besides the complicated legal questions involved and the simple operational needs that will be wanting, what is the back-story of such an egregious move?
Lori Lightfoot was the President of the Chicago Police Board that had final decisions of major disciplinary actions against officers that found themselves in violation of department rules. She held the right of firing officers she deemed in violation of her standards.
Lightfoot was also the author of the scathing and controversial 2016 report condemning police accountability.
This report used terms like” callous and disrespectful ways” in which the community was treated by some CPD officer.
“Some CPD officers are racist and have no respect for the lives and experiences of people of color, and approach every encounter with people of color as if the person, regardless of age, gender, or circumstance, is a criminal,” Lori Lightfoot’s report said.
It continues, “…people of color loudly expressed their outrage about how they are treated by the police.”
Lori Lightfoot is already fundamentally changing the Chicago Police Department as did Rahm Emanuel did before her. The push for minority candidates, as well as female and other genders is a priority of recruitment.
The latest police academy graduates represent what the political left believes is necessary to symbolize the progressiveness of Chicago.
Chicago may soon be the next San Francisco, or Detroit, depending on who you speak to.
“They will not team up with ICE to detain any resident. We have also cut off ICE access from any CPD databases and that will remain permanent,” Lightfoot said. “Chicago is and will always be a welcoming city that will never tolerate ICE tearing our families apart.”
Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi released a statement on Lightfoot’s move. He was careful to avoid politics, but said the city’s Citizen and Law Enforcement Analysis and Reporting (CLEAR) database will not be available to ICE officials.
He said the department wouldn’t prevent several federal government agencies from having access.
“All other federal agencies still have access to these systems, as sharing this information is crucial to active criminal investigations in which we are partnering with federal agencies along with intelligence sharing functions that are vital to national homeland security functions,” Guglielmi stated.
Last Sunda, Ken Cuccinelli, Acting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director, made the announcement in the media that ICE is prepared to remove approximately one million people not in the country legally with final orders for deportation.
“[ICE agents are] ready to just perform their mission which is to go and find and detain and then deport the approximately one million people who have final removal orders,” he said. “They’ve been all the way through the due process and have final removal orders. Who among those will be targeted for this particular effort or not is really just information kept within ICE.”
A Harvard/Harris survey shows a majority of Americans back plans to deport those not here legally if Congress can’t get their act together.