(Matt Lamb, Headline USA) Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson was disinvited from the funeral of a fallen police officer.
Johnson planned to attend Officer Enrique Martinez’s funeral, which was held earlier this week.
Darion McMillian is accused of killing Martinez during a traffic stop on Nov. 4, according to CBS News.
Martinez’s family asked Johnson and other politicians not to attend the funeral, according to the New York Post.
“The family of Officer Enrique Martinez continues to be in my prayers as they prepare to lay him to rest,” Johnson’s office told the media. “I heard from the family and am honoring their request and will no longer plan to attend the honors funeral services.”
The family of another slain cop, Luis Huesca, also had asked Johnson and Governor J.B. Pritzker not to attend that funeral in April, according to Law Enforcement Today.
At the time, Johnson claimed he had to attend.
Johnson has a history of adopting anti-police views.
In June 2020, during nationwide riots over the killing of George Floyd, Johnson introduced legislation to cut funding to the Cook County police.
At the time he was a commissioner on the county board, which includes Chicago under its jurisdiction.
“There is no correlation between the money spent on the criminal justice system and the safety of our residents,” Johnson said at the time. “In fact, as spending on police and incarceration has gone up over the last decade, black and brown people actually feel less safe.”
Johnson issued a policy to move funds away from the police department.
“Cook County should engage in efforts to redirect funds from policing and incarceration to public services not administered by law enforcement that promote community health and safety equitably across the County,” the resolution stated.
Running for mayor in 2023, he tried to backtrack on that position, claiming he wanted to decrease the role of the police in non-emergencies.
“As mayor of city of Chicago, I’ve made it perfectly clear, I’m not going to defund police, but what I am going to do is make sure we have smart police,” he said in March 2023, according to ABC 7.
However, since taking office, he has pushed for cutting police. For example, he wants the Chicago Public Schools to remove school resource officers from buildings.
He also has proposed millions of dollars in cuts to different police training units, which drew a rebuke from the state’s Democratic Attorney General Kwame Raoul.
