Page 5 - FOP May 2019 Magazine

CHICAGO LODGE 7
Official Magazine
President’s Report
FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE CHICAGO LODGE #7
EXECUTIVE BOARD
KEVIN GRAHAM
President
PATRICK J. MURRAY
First Vice President
Martin Preib
Second Vice President
Jay R. Ryan
Third Vice President
Greg Bella
Recording Secretary
Michael P. Garza
Financial Secretary
John Capparelli
Treasurer
Dean C. Angelo, Sr.
Immediate Past President
Sergeants-at-Arms
William Burns James Jakstavich Michael Mette
Trustees
Harold Brown Andrew Cantore Mark Donahue William Dougherty Pat Duckhorn Sergio Escobedo Fernando Flores Joseph Gentile Danny Gorman Ken Hauser Rick King Frank Quinn Carlos Salazar Ron Shogren Mark Tamlo Daniel Trevino Michael Underwood
Field Representatives
Robert Bartlett Rich Aguilar
Remembering our fallen brothers and rallying around our members
May is a time to honor police officers who have been lost in the line of duty during the previous year, and we proudly remember Officers Samuel Jimenez, Conrad Gary and Eduardo Marmolejo and Commander Paul Bauer. Please keep these officers in your prayers and in your memories. We are proud of the way our officers/members worked to keep the City safe and lost their lives do- ing just that. Their families have lost a loved one and because of that loss, we will never forget them.
You might have seen on television the rally we held at 69 W. Washington to protest Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx for dropping all charges against actor Jussie Smollett, who allegedly staged his own assault. It was discovered
later that he made a false report to our officers and detectives, all of whom did an outstand- ing job on the case and deserve a pat on the back for their hard work. Unfortunately, the state’s attorney still dropped the charges against the actor, and we believe she dropped the ball as well.
Our vote of “no confidence” and demand for Kim Foxx to resign as state’s attorney came only after she repeatedly failed to prosecute offenders that Chicago Police Officers worked hard to bring to court and were actually the victims. Many of our officers have been the victims of battery, but charges against the offenders in those cases have been reduced or dropped.
The Chicago FOP joined with the associations of police chiefs representing the northern, western and southern suburbs in Cook County to cast that vote of no confidence against the state’s attorney. Their associations reached out to Chicago FOP to put together a news conference. We held it at the FOP Hall and provided a forum for the suburban police chiefs to present their perspective on the failings of Kim Foxx.
There also was a protest rally here at Chicago Lodge 7 that tried to cast us as being unfair to Smollett and Foxx, and that we are racist. This of course is untrue, but the protestors keep regurgitating their smears because they like to make the police the bad guys. Let me make this clear: We are only standing up against Kim Foxx because she is not doing her job. Race and sexual orientation have nothing to do with our fight.
Moving on to other important issues, let’s turn to the status of our contract. We have made it clear to the City that we need a contract and we need it now! Come July, it will be two years working without a new contract. We need a raise and we need an increase in our benefits.
I believe that the City’s negotiators have been told to pick up the pace with the nego- tiations. We are getting real proposals and are having real negotiations about real issues, which previously had not been the case–other than with policies regarding the use of body cameras.
Regarding the consent decree, we have made an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court stating that we have not been treated fairly and that the Illinois attorney general did not have juris- diction in this matter. Please keep in mind that about 5,000 cases are asked to be heard by the Supreme Court each year and only about 70 are actually heard.
However, we still are taking every opportunity to stick up for members. This does not change the fact that we will be negotiating for handling discipline more fairly and collective bargaining rights. If the City unilaterally enacts any changes because of the consent decree, we will file an unfair labor practice or resolve the issues using other legal measures.
Lastly, a quick shout-out: I want to congratulate all the people who participated in the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation Run to Remember on May 4. Thank you for joining us in remembering all the officers who have lost their lives protecting this City.
KEVIN GRAHAM
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ MAY 2019 5