Chicago’s radically liberal Mayor Lori Lightfoot was left humiliated over the weekend as local police officers turned their backs on her following yet another police shooting that killed one officer and seriously wounded another.
Chicago Police Officer Ella French was killed during a routine traffic stop on Saturday night, and her male partner remains in the hospital fighting for his life. Just before the officers turned their backs on Lightfoot, the mayor had tried to talk to the male officer’s father, who is a retired Chicago police officer himself. However, two sources told The Chicago Sun Times that he made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with Lightfoot.
Instead, the father yelled at Lightfoot as he blamed her for the shooting. Sources said that Lightfoot managed to keep her composure as he yelled at her. Afterwards, it was suggested that Lightfoot say something to the officers present at the hospital. Yet when she approached the, “they did the about-face — it looked like it had been choreographed,” said one of the sources present, calling it “astounding.”
Once this happened, Lightfoot left and went downstairs to talk to reporters.
“The police officers’ decision to turn their backs on the mayor while waiting with the family on the 7th floor was significant,” said FOP President John Catanzara. “Turning their backs on the mayor was an excellent example of how the hundreds of police officers felt waiting outside the hospital.”
“They have had enough and are no longer going to remain silent anymore,” he added.
Lightfoot’s office responded with a statement on Monday, saying, “The mayor was present at the emergency room to offer support and condolences to the families involved and the hundreds of line officers and exempts who were there, which she did. In a time of tragedy, emotions run high and that is to be expected. The mayor spoke to a range of officers that tragic night and sensed the overwhelming sentiment was about concern for their fallen colleagues.
“As the mayor stated . . . now is not the time for divisive and toxic rhetoric or reporting,” the statement added. “This is a time for us to come together as a city. We have a common enemy and it is the conditions that breed the violence and the manifestations of violence, namely illegal guns, and gangs.”
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