Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot accused a police union of inciting an “insurrection” by encouraging officers to oppose the city’s vaccine mandate.
The Fraternal Order of Police urged Chicago police officers not to comply with Chicago’s vaccine mandate, calling it an unconstitutional order that violates their privacy.
“Do not fill out the portal information,” Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara told members in a video last week. “I’ve made my status very clear as far as the vaccine, but I do not believe the city has the authority to mandate that to anybody—let alone that information about your medical history.”
There is “no way” Chicago will be able to suspend all unvaccinated officers if a majority choose not to comply, he added.
“There’s no way they’re going to be able to sustain a police department workforce at 50% capacity or less for more than seven days without something budging,” he said.
In response, Lightfoot filed a lawsuit against the union and accused union officials of spreading lies to “induce an insurrection.”
“What we’ve seen from the Fraternal Order of Police, in particular leadership, is a lot of misinformation, a lot of half-truths, and, frankly, flat out lies in order to induce an insurrection,” Lightfoot claimed.
“And we’re not having that,” she continued. “And so we want to make it very, very clear that the law is on our side. We feel very confident about it.”
Lightfoot also defended Chicago’s lawsuit against the union as a necessary means to stop officers from participating in “an illegal work stoppage.”
