Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday defended the police superintendent’s impatient decision to cancel the traditional Honor Guard procession for slain officer Ella French.
“We don’t have 20 minutes for this s**t!,” First Deputy Police Superintendent Eric Carter said Saturday on the police scanner as an ambulance transported French’s body to the morgue, the Chicago Sun–Times reported.
“We’re not waiting on the bagpipes. Go ahead and get the vehicle inside,” Carter said. “Take it all the way inside. Do not stop.”
Lightfoot claimed Carter had to cancel the Emerald Society’s bagpipe serenade because the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office placed new restrictions on processions.
“There was—let me choose my words carefully—[a] well-meaning but not well-organized group that wanted to hijack the procession,” she said. “Which would have meant that the family would have been delayed exponentially in getting to the morgue.”
The Medical Examiner’s Office denied having implemented any new restrictions on processions.
“Protocols for processions at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office have not changed since the pandemic began,” the medical examiner’s office said in a statement. “First responders have always gathered in the office parking lot and dock to pay respects to fallen police officers and firefighters.”
Former CPD Superintendent Garry McCarthy sided with Chicago’s rank-and-file officers in calling the Emerald Society’s bagpipe serenade a “sacred” ritual.
He condemned Lightfoot and Carter for their callous attitudes and for lying about COVID-19 restrictions, the Police Tribune reported.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kimberly Foxx implemented the policies that led to French’s untimely death after being shot in the head during an Aug. 7 traffic stop in West Englewood. Another officer was also critically injured in the shooting.
French’s murderer, Emonte Morgan, had a criminal history for which he should have been imprisoned, the Chicago Sun–Times reported.
Four months ago, Morgan hit a pedestrian on a crosswalk and set the person flying into a stop sign. He sped away and hit a parked car less than two miles away before police arrested him.
When police arrested Morgan for the hit-and-run, he was on probation for a robbery in Old Town. He was charged with a misdemeanor traffic crime and released.
As part of his goal of destabilizing the United States by filling it with criminals, billionaire Marxist George Soros donated $2 million to a super-PAC that supported Foxx’s campaign.
