Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot doesn’t just look like a supervillain, she’s waged a war on the largest police union in the country for months over tyrannical vaccine mandated. Lightfoot ended up with egg on her face Wednesday when she was forced to drop her lawsuit after a judge shot down her orders to stop paying unvaccinated officers.
Lightfoot released a statement back in October, revealing her intentions to sue:
“Yesterday, at my direction the City of Chicago’s law department filed a Complaint for Injunctive Relief against the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 and its President John Catanzara for engaging in, supporting, and encouraging a work stoppage or strike.
As Chicago’s Mayor, I cannot and will not stand idly by while the rhetoric of conspiracy theorists threatens the health and safety of Chicago’s residents and first responders. President Catanzara has time and again deliberately misled our police officers by lying about the requirements of the policy and falsely claiming that there will be no repercussions if officers are insubordinate and refuse to follow a City and Department directive or order. Notably, Catanzara has urged officers to reject the City’s vaccine policy and has repeatedly instructed police officers to refuse to comply with the City’s lawful directive which requires all City employees to report their COVID 19 vaccination status by October 15. By doing so, and by predicting that 50% or more officers will violate their oaths and not report for duty, Catanzara is encouraging an unlawful strike and work stoppage which carries the potential to undermine public safety and expose our residents to irreparable harm, particularly during an ongoing pandemic.
This action is brought pursuant to the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act and Illinois common law which prohibits sworn officers from engaging in a strike. Additionally, the City and the FOP are parties to a collective bargaining agreement that establishes the terms and conditions of employment including Article 5 which includes a No Strike Commitment. ”
It was a losing plan, to begin with, but Lightfoot’s doomed tyrannical plan was knocked down by a judge on November 1st, that blocked Chicago “from firing members of the police union who don’t meet the December 31 vaccination deadline until the union’s arguments are heard by an arbitrator,” ABC 7 reported.
Lightfoot tried to pretend that her dropping the suit wasn’t related to the judge’s ruling. In a statement, she said, “The past few weeks have shown what I have said from the beginning to be true: that our brave police officers are smarter than their FOP leadership and care more about their city, their fellow Chicagoans, and upholding their sworn oath to protect and serve, than they do Catanzara’s frivolous demands to stop working,” as Newsweek noted.
Erica Carlin is an independent journalist, opinion writer and contributor to several news and opinion sources. She is based in Georgia.
