On Wednesday, during a Chicago City council meeting, new Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was caught on a live mic calling the vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police a “clown.” As Fox 32 reported, “As Patrick Murray got up to speak, Lightfoot could be heard saying, ‘Oh, back again, this FOP clown.’” Play Video
The FOP released a statement calling Lightfoot’s remark “a misguided and dangerous thing to say to a 30-year veteran police officer, particularly at a time when the city is facing such chronic violent crime.”
Murray was attempting to support officers accused of a cover-up in the 2014 death of Laquan McDonald; those officers were fired on July 18 by a city oversight board. Police Officer Jason Van Dyke was convicted of second-degree murder and sixteen counts of aggravated battery in the shooting.
According to the July 18 decision, “Van Dyke’s immediate superior that night (Sergeant Stephen Franko) and three of Van Dyke’s fellow 8th District officers (Officers Ricardo Viramontes, Janet Mondragon, and Daphne Sebastian) who were on the scene when Mr. McDonald was shot … the Police Board finds that Sergeant Franko and each of the officers violated important Department rules and discharges each of them from the Police Department.” – READ MORE