At least 30 grieving Chicago cops turned their backs on democrat Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who visited a medical centre where a critically injured police officer was being treated for gunshot wounds.
The officers were waiting inside the University of Chicago Medical Centre when the Mayor approached them as they turned their backs on her, as reported by the Chicago Sun-Times.
The male officer’s colleague, 29-year-old Ella French, died in the street after being shot in the head during a traffic stop in the city.
The male officer remains in critical condition following the incident that happened on Saturday night in West Englewood. Officer French and her partner had pulled the suspect’s vehicle over for expired plates.
Emonte Morgan, 21, and his brother Eric Morgan, 22, both convicted felons, have been charged for the shameless and cowardly attack.
Before attending a news conference at the medical centre, Lightfoot wanted to speak to around 30 police officers who had gathered to support the critically injured officer and his family.
Just moments before, Lightfoot tried to talk to the male officer’s father, who himself is a retired Chicago police officer.
According to two sources who were there, the injured officer’s father clearly wanted nothing to do with Lightfoot.
After the father of the injured officer told the mayor to leave, officials then suggested that Lightfoot say a few words to nearby grieving officers, but as she approached them, they all walked away from her and to the other side of a bank of chairs — and turned their backs, the sources said.
“They did the about-face — it looked like it had been choreographed,” said one of the sources present, calling it “astounding.”
Lightfoot appeared ‘shaken’, according to one source.
She then went downstairs to speak to reporters at a news conference about the double shooting.
When asked what message Lightfoot should get from the disdain shown by the rank-and-file officers and the wounded cop’s father, Alderman Anthony Napolitano, a former CPD police officer told the New York Post:
“I would hope she gets an understanding that police officers across this city feel that leadership does not have their back.
“That’s what I’m hearing. That’s what I’ve been hearing for a long time.”
Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara told a reporter from the Chicago Sun-Times:
“The police officers’ decision to turn their backs on the mayor while waiting with the family on the 7th floor was significant.
“Turning their backs on the mayor was an excellent example of how the hundreds of police officers felt waiting outside the hospital.
“Officers no longer support Lightfoot’s leadership”, Catanzara said.
“They have had enough and are no longer going to remain silent anymore.”
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