Cameron Arcand August 10, 2021 at 4:07pm
A weekend tragedy united police officers against Democratic Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot while she was speaking Saturday night.
Officer Ella French, who was only 29 years old, was fatally shot while conducting a traffic stop about 9 p.m. Saturday, CNN reported.
The suspect in the shooting, identified as Emonte Morgan, is being held without bail, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
WARNING: Oen of the following tweets contains vulgar language that some readers may find offensive.
As Lightfoot was addressing the public at the hospital after the incident, the officers made their stance about her leadership extremely clear.
A photo posted publicly by Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez showed the officers turning their back on the mayor.
Here is your police turning their backs on Lightfoot speaking at the hospital. Use at your leisure sir Alderman pic.twitter.com/GX2NzVEss6
— Irishlords (@Irishlords1) August 8, 2021
“They turned their back to the mayor just as she has turned her back on the rank and file time and time again,” Lopez wrote in a Facebook post, according to NBC Chicago.
Did these officers do the right thing?
The scene, involving 30 officers, occurred about midnight Saturday, according to Chicago Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed.
“They did the about-face — it looked like it had been choreographed,” a witness said, according to Sneed.
The source described the action as “astounding,” Sneed wrote.
Chicago Alderman Matt O’Shea of the 19th Ward told WGN-TV that he is fed up with the hostility from both politicians and their own communities.
“For the past year and a half — longer — law enforcement has been under siege, underappreciated and felt that communities don’t have their back. That elected officials don’t have their back,” O’Shea said.
“We got to get this under control. We gotta partner with our law enforcement. We got to support our police.”
The city is already ahead of last year in the number of homicides to date, with 471 people killed as of Sunday, compared to 462 by Aug. 8, 2020, according to police data.
John Catanzara, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police in Chicago, blamed the mayor and other officials for these frequent shooting deaths.
“She’s a flag in the wind. For two and a half years that she has been mayor, she has vilified the police,” he told Fox News.
“This city is less safe because Ella French was murdered by a violent individual that is absolutely been encouraged to do violent things by the people who run this city and state,” he later added.
After Ella French death, Chicago Cop John Catanzara slams Democrat Mayor Lori Lightfoot: “for 2.5 years that she’s been mayor, she has vilified the police” pic.twitter.com/2Ttc9QWT4o
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 10, 2021
Following the death of George Floyd last year in Minneapolis, Democratic leaders in many U.S. cities have been at odds with their police departments, with Chicago being one of the most prominent examples.
The law enforcement officials sent a bold statement to Lightfoot that they have had enough with the disrespect, and their city is suffering as a result of her poor leadership.
Cameron Arcand is a political commentator based in Orange County, California. His “Young Not Stupid” column launched at The Western Journal in January 2021, making Cameron one of the youngest columnists for a national news outlet in the United States. He has appeared on One America News, and has been a Young America’s Foundation member since 2019.
Location
Orange County
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English