Page 31 - June2020 FOP Magazine

Installation Inspiration Lodge 7 is fired up to respond to members’ need for boisterous representation
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
n PHOTOS BY H. RICK BAMMAN
Smoke signaled something special cooking at the Chicago FOP Hall. The smoke wafted off the barbecue on the patio, where steaks simmered as the main course for the Lodge 7 Installation Dinner, finally being held to honor its newly elected executive board members on the last Sunday in June.
A brief respite from the nonstop tu- mult generating hundreds of calls per day to the union from members needing help included a quick bite and a libation. There was even time for a toast to the board members who have stepped up to meet this spit head-on and an op to shoot the group photo that proved to be an illustrious metaphor for the power of standing united.
But where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Conversation around the dinner table emanating from the more than 20 board members in attendance cited battling the Department’s recent series of con- tract violations, how they have been elected to advocate the members’ side of the story, creating one diverse voice that charges, “We’ve got to fight back” and making sure the city gives a good con- tract to working coppers.
Lodge 7 President John Catanzara cre- scendoed the event with remarks about how his father’s union activism has in- spired his devotion to the rank-and-file and where he intends to channel that zeal.
“I just want to leave a legacy behind for this Lodge,” he began. “They’re just trying to break us into pieces. And I hope I can be that rock, along with the phe- nomenal team we’ve assembled, to obvi- ously change that.”
Installation declarations
Installation of a new board has accom- panied installation of a new assertive- ness at Lodge 7. Direct, knowledgeable, emotional and aggressive will be the re- sponse scenario members can count on from leadership whenever the spit hits the fan. Or when it might. Or to keep it from doing so.
They have already been hearing it from their fearless leader, standing up on be- half of his leadership team in front of the cameras to call out city hall and demand the Department follows the collective bargaining agreement. You have heard him speak up for Chicago Police Officers during several interviews with local tele- vision news, Bob Sirott on his WGN radio morning drive-time show, Mancow in the morning, and four-minute Q-and-A with the Sun-Times, posted on YouTube.
He responded to the mayor’s state- ment about Chicago never becoming a Minneapolis by emphasizing, “She threw the police under the bus so she doesn’t get heat from an alderman who called her out for letting neighborhoods be decimated.”
He addressed the incident at Brick- yard Mall by confirming that the officers used the proper tactics when somebody
is resisting arrest. He repeatedly remind- ed viewers and listeners during these interviews that “the simple fact is when you are given a lawful order, you are obli- gated to comply with that order.”
Members also can sleep a little better at night, or at least rest assured, know- ing that their leadership responded to statements from the mayor about add- ing more oversight and wanting to li- cense them by calling it another way to circumvent the collective bargaining agreement.
Above all that, no issue has incited the wrath of the Lodge like the cancelling of days off, the assignment of 12-hour shifts and conditions members had to endure during the wave of protests, looting and destruction at the end of May and into June. The Lodge was particularly peeved about the toll that working extremely long days in extreme heat with citizens berating officers would take on their mental health.
“A lot of officers were dumped in the middle of these neighborhoods with no restroom whatsoever,” Catanzara ex- pressed in the news media. “Female offi- cers were literally forced to go into alleys behind dumpsters to use the restroom. There was no food. There was no drink. It was disgusting the planning and prepa- ration for the men and women of this po- lice department that was not done by the upper brass and the mayor.”
In case members did not hear about
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