Page 5 - May2021
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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
   As we remember our fallen officers, we will not let them take shots at us
The words are very personal for every Chica- go Police Officer. “They will never be forgotten” is part of our duty, so let’s take a moment to re- member the brothers and sisters honored on the cover of this issue.
Chicago Police Officers Marco Di Franco, Clifford Martin Sr., Ronald Newman and Titus Moore were remembered at the Illinois Police Officers Memorial on May 6. We will add their names to the Lodge 7 Me- morial Wall in October, which will be the
month of remembrance this year because of the pandemic. National Police Week is also being held in October.
The words “They will never be forgotten” headline the Lodge 7 Memorial as a testament to what you all never hesitate to do every day. It seems even more personal as the city tragically moves every day toward a record number of shootings, probably more than 10,000 this year.
All officers are asked to make split-second decisions every day that can put them on both sides of a shooting. Most of the time, they don’t end in loss of life in any fashion. Sometimes they end up in loss of life of civilians or of criminals. Sometimes they tragically end in loss of life of an officer. And as such, this is the month we remember those officers and their loss of life in the line of duty.
So, yes, it’s personal. If you’re working on the same watch, in the same car, went to the academy with or wore the same uniform, you feel a unique connection to a brother or sister law enforcement officer who was tragically killed in the line of duty.
And it’s not always a shooting either. There are many other risks, like COVID, which took Brothers Di Franco, Martin, Newman and Moore from us this past year. The frustration over this was very pal- pable from our members because of the city not giving a damn about tabling all in-person mandated learning during the COVID pandemic.
While everybody else was allowed to just avoid and hide, we were forced to not only go to work, which is understandable, but to go to training, which was not necessary, subjecting our members to even greater possibility of catching a deadly virus. It made no sense whatsoever. Our members were frustrated. We were frustrated. That’s why we went to court several times. But it doesn’t lessen the sacrifice that those four officers gave.
We feel like the city has become so oblivious to the risks, to how one lucky shot is all it takes to end your life. And it seems to be a belief now that officers should have to receive gunfire before they even pull a trigger, which is absolutely stupid.
Can you believe they are actually considering a completely asinine and idiotic idea of officers needing approval from a supervisor before taking off in pursuit of a criminal? Typical overreaction to the shooting of Adam Toledo, which was a perfectly good response.
Imagine what would happen if we have to wait for a boss to give us the go-ahead to pursue? By the time the supervisor says, “Go ahead,” the offender will have already escaped. Those offenders are, in turn, going to commit more crimes until they are apprehended in some way, shape or form, which I don’t know how they will ever be apprehended if they run every time and you’re told don’t chase.
There would be no mechanism for apprehension other than the scumbags saying, “OK, I’m sick of running away every time. I want to turn myself in.” Yeah, I’m sure that’s going to happen in droves.
If the bosses and the City really want to make a statement that they will never be forgotten, they need to stop listening to the bullshit about an excessive amount of police-involved shootings occur- ring. How about not forgetting the simple fact of how many lives police officers save every day?
   JOHN CATANZARA
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