FOP’s Catanzara Too Toxic for Local 2

On today's show we discuss how Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzata may finally be reaping what he sowed with all of his extremist rhetoric and horrific social media posting history. In a recent YouTube post Catanzara informs the FOP's membership that while he attempted to recruit the Local 2 President Jim Tracy to sit down with the FOP and other police unions with the Mayor's office to discuss the vaccine mandate (a mandate Catanzara compared to the Nazi gassing people during Word War II). Apparently Tracy decided he did not want to be associated with Catanzara and his rhetoric on camera and on social media. Of course Catanzara is completely clueless about why Tracy would feel the way he does.

The reality is the media should have long ago treated Catanzara like the extremist he is and either avoided quoting him all together or made sure when they did they put his history in the article so that readers had the context they need to assess his credibility. currently they just treat him as if he is any other FOP President. He is not. He is an officer with a history of 50 complaints, one that the CPD is currently trying to fire for the third time, and that has a history of horrific social media posts targeting just about every minority group in American. This is context you will never see included in reporting that quotes him. So the public fails to understand just who is making the comments that are included in the stories that quote Catanzara.

CJP documented much of Catanzara's history of police misconduct and hate filled social media posts in a report we published this summer titled "Catanzara: 23 years of Misconduct Complaints and Social Media Controversies." it is a history that everyone who cares about police, the criminal justice system, and police reform in Chicago should now well. It definitely shines the FOP and their membership in a different light when you think about the fact that he won an election to get where he is.

Also on the show today we discuss:

Nakkita Brown walking her dog on North Avenue Beach
Mayor Lightfoot's $500 per month assistance to 5,000 of the most vulnerable families in Chicago.

Video from today's show: