Page 5 - February 2021

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
This reform is nothing but bad form
In a city with almost 800 murders in 2020, with no relief in sight, with a Cook County state’s attorney who has been dedicated to giving the keys to the criminals and not taken victims’ rights into consideration, where carjackings have doubled, where shootings have increased, where not just the number of guns on the street but the willingness of criminals to use them has increased, how is any of this reform?
I put “reform” in the criminal justice reform bill the Illinois General Assembly passed during its lame duck session in January in quotations. How is any of this reform going to change any of the outrageous crime stat numbers victimizing the city in 2020 that you saw on the cover of this issue?
It’s going to have quite the opposite effect. It’s going to increase opportunity for offenders to take advantage of the system and make those numbers explode beyond belief. I just read an actual post today where carjackings in Minneapolis increased
by, I want to say, 500 percent since they decided to defund the police and basically make the police the enemy. This legislation, which you can read more about throughout this issue, does nothing but embolden criminals. This logic is beyond backwards, and that’s being kind.
There’s no evidence to support what HB3653 has brought to law will work. When you eliminate cash bail, it absolutely makes the city less safe. It gives violent criminals the ability to roam the streets and commit more crimes before they have their first trial for their first arrest. But that’s going to be on judges. That’s going to be on politicians who have pushed for this bail reform and can be voted out of office because of their goofy policies.
This legislation was all about getting a win, shoving as much down people’s throats as they pos- sibly could and then worrying about the aftermath. I’m hesitant to go too hard at the authors of this, but I don’t know that there’s any other avenue. There was some mild pushback from a handful of members in the General Assembly who support the police.
But there was too much racial rhetoric. The reality is that this legislation, almost in whole, was a push by the Black Legislative Caucus. I don’t write the history. The history is the history. I’m just pointing out the simple facts of how we got here. It’s been pieces of legislation, ideas that have been floated, and they just decided to pile on much crap as possible and call it a bill. Without car- ing about what the effects were. Without even taking victims into consideration.
All they keep talking about is police reform, criminals’ rights and bail reform. But you almost never hear anything in this bill about victims’ rights. None of this does anything for the victims. The two biggest proponents were State Senator Elgie Sims and Representative Justin Slaughter. Both have part of their districts inside city limits in some of the most violent areas. I would love for them to explain how their legislation is going to change those numbers you see on the cover of this issue.
One of the biggest things is that they’re trying to pooh-pooh the fact that law enforcement was not included in these discussions. They’re going to talk about how this has been around for years. They’re going to talk about how they’ve had nine meetings and 30-plus hours of conversations over those nine months. And law enforcement was participating.
The reality is this: Lodge 7 makes up a third of the officers in this state. The rest of the Illinois FOP makes up another third. Literally two thirds of law enforcement in the state didn’t have a seat at the table. So for them to sit there and pretend that law enforcement was involved in these talks is part of the heresy.
The Law Enforcement Coalition that formed to contest the bill brought up some points. But we had no direct access to challenge any of the nonsense that they were trying to spout as factual. And even when they did allow the sheriffs and chiefs to participate and the Law Enforcement Co- alition perspective was heard, that was all it was. They gave us a platform. “OK, we heard from you. Now go sit in the corner,” was pretty much the whole angle that they worked.
It’s beyond disingenuous. And by their own words and their own statute that they’re trying to enact, they would be basically guilty of a Class 3 felony for purposely giving misleading informa- tion and statements. That’s exactly what they’re doing.
These provisions are beyond stupid. You literally have to witness a crime in order to take action.
JOHN CATANZARA
CONTINUED ON PAGE 6
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ FEBRUARY 2021 5