Fraternal Order of Police President Kevin Graham on Monday branded as “wholly false” a “rumor” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she heard from a “credible” source and saw fit to repeat on the city’s cable channel: that the union told officers to “lay back” and “do nothing” over Memorial Day weekend.
“As the city ... endures another week of bloodshed primarily due to gang violence, Mayor Lightfoot’s decision to give voice to some supposed rumor ... is puzzling and alarming,” Graham wrote on the union’s Facebook page.
“Why would a mayor give voice to such claims without attempting to verify them first? Is this a sign of what is to come from her administration? Let us set the record straight: These rumors are wholly false and offensive.”
Lightfoot made the remarks during a May 30 interview with retiring host Ken Davis on CAN-TV’s, “Chicago’s Newsroom.”
“You know, there were rumors floating around about — and I didn’t verify this — but rumors floating around that they were telling their officers, ‘Don’t do anything. Over Memorial Day weekend, don’t intercede. If you see some criminal activity, just lay back, do nothing,’” she said then.
The new mayor’s decision to repeat the unverified rumor threatens to further undermine police morale that is already seriously low.
Chicago Police Department officers have been working under an expired contract for two years.
Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel punted contract negotiations to Lightfoot, who co-chaired the Task Force on Police Accountability that demanded changes to a police contract that, it claimed, “codifies the code of silence” — a code of silence that Emanuel famously acknowledged exists at CPD.
Graham has said his only meeting with Lightfoot was canceled and that the FOP was not included in Lightfoot’s public safety transition committee or in meetings she had to prepare for the expected summer surge in violent crime.
“We have attempted many times to meet with Mayor Lightfoot and to discuss with her common interests on a host of issues, particularly the evidence we have developed pointing to a pattern of false allegations of police misconduct that often end up in the federal courts and cost the taxpayers millions,” Graham wrote on Facebook, pointing to the two-year wait for a new contract.
“Despite all this, our officers continue to do their job with a clear sense of duty and professionalism. Our members and the citizens of Chicago deserve the same from Mayor Lightfoot.”
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