In a cable TV interview about a spasm of violence in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend when 41 people were shot and seven were killed, Mayor Lori Lightfoot sought to draw a connection between the weekend carnage and difficulties she is expected to encounter negotiating a new police contract with the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, which represents thousands of rank and file officers, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. “You know, there were rumors floating around about — and I didn’t verify this — but rumors floating around that they were telling their officers, ‘Don’t do anything. Over Memorial Day weekend, don’t intercede,’” Lightfoot said. “‘If you see some criminal activity, just lay back, do nothing.’ I hope to God that wasn’t true because, man oh man, if that happened there’s going to be a reckoning.”
The interviewer asked, “Do you have any reason to believe that that happened?” Without answering directly, Lightfoot contended past leadership of the police union had previously pushed for something similar. She said that leading into Labor Day 2016, the union “put out a memo telling officers that they should not show up for work, that they shouldn’t do their job, that they shouldn’t be the police.” Actually, the Chicago Tribune reported that the union called for officers not to accept overtime requests during that Labor Day weekend. Asked about this year’s rumor, a Lightfoot spokeswoman said, “the mayor heard it from someone who’s in a position to know and she heard it from a law enforcement source.” Union leader Kevin Graham said, “That’s ridiculous. I am unaware of anyone telling anyone not to do their job.”