Page 5 - June2021

CHICAGO LODGE 7
Official Magazine
President’s Report
FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE CHICAGO LODGE #7
EXECUTIVE BOARD
JOHN CATANZARA
President
Michael Mette
First Vice President
Daniel D. Gorman
Second Vice President
Fernando Flores
Third Vice President
Rob Noceda
Recording Secretary
Jim Jakstavich
Financial Secretary
Dennis McGuire
Treasurer
Dean Angelo Sr.
Immediate Past President
Sergeants-at-Arms
Nenad Markovich Frank Quinn III Daniel Sheehan
Trustees
Harold Brown John Capparelli Pablo Claudio Frank J. DiMaria David DiSanti Mark P. Donahue Patrick Duckhorn Tim Fitzpatrick Dan Goetz Ken Hauser Tom Lonergan Brock Merck Steve Olsen Monica Ortiz Dan Quaid Ron Shogren Daniel G. Trevino
Field Representative
Andrew Cantore
It’s not safe to let legislators keep doing this to us
A quick opener about HB3653, the SAFE T Act that will do nothing to make the city safe. If you saw my YouTube update from Homan Square on barbecue day during Memorial Day weekend, you know I am calling this the “Anything But Safety” Act.
During the spring General Assembly session that ended on June 1, we tried to do all the work for legislators with a trailer bill to clean up the mess that was passed in January. But this has been a nightmare from the start, and all it has done is give the criminals the keys to the kingdom.
There was conversation about letting the legislators live with what they did, but from a union perspective, we do not have the freedom, nor should we, to just sit back and do nothing. We can’t have our members be sacrificial lambs who are going to be subjected to ridiculous discipline, firing and maybe even jail, the way that law is structured. It’s incumbent upon us to try, until our last breath, to do everything we
can to convince them they need to address the specific working condition issues.
But they refuse to address the biggest problems, especially the dynamic between anonymous complaints and confidential complaints within the bill. It is filled with contradictory language and definitions, and by that simple standard alone, they have to do something with that, because it doesn’t make any sense. We may have to challenge it in court as unconstitutional because it’s a two-topic law when it’s supposed to be topic-specific. We’ll see if we can at least get some traction
there.
Is it a long shot? Absolutely. But it’s incumbent upon us to throw every punch we possibly can. As State Lodge President Chris Southwood noted, “We are nowhere near where we need to be to
support the ‘Anything but Safe-T Act.’ It is still a heaping pile of manure.”
Right now, the law is what it is and goes into effect on July 1. But the FOP will support nothing
short of a complete do-over with our involvement in crafting new language.
Consequently, we have a lot of work to do going forward before this gets any better. Our path is set. We must make changes to the General Assembly, and that is where we will point our political action starting today, with sights set on the 2022 general election to take out the anti-police leg-
JOHN CATANZARA
islators.
The Cover Story
The cover of this issue reflects our increasing path to create community outreach through work- ing with local churches. This is an initiative we started shortly after we took office with the help of Dr. Willie Wilson. Last summer, we had a couple of meetings in the hall, where we invited rever- ends and ministers to express our mission to help make communities safer.
Recently, the ministers - with Doc’s help - have put together a new corporation called Ramo Global Commerce. Check out some of the background and details in our cover story beginning on page 33.
Ramo wants to sell products through this corporation and keep the money in the black commu- nity. The corporation will reinvest the money into the churches to help their communities.
We’ve had a handful of officers express concerns about racial separations or interests that don’t necessarily align with them. The reality is that this organization is democratic. It’s run by majority rule. There are going to be people who may believe something needs to be done, but the member- ship or the board votes a different way. That’s why being involved in the union, having your voice heard and coming to meetings makes a difference.
Specific to the African-American officers, I want them to know that their community matters to us. That being said, I was invited to the Ramo board meeting at the House of Hope church on May 24 for a luncheon, which was pretty eye-popping. We had some conversations about community outreach and what that looks like from the FOP level. It was pretty humbling that I was that readily accepted, whether it was because Willie gave me his blessing and they take it as gospel, or they just liked what they heard coming from our mouth.
They gave Chris Southwood and me some microphone time. We got to talk about the FOP and pledge our support. We’ve already had a couple of ministers reach out to us for hard dates for par-
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CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JUNE 2021 5