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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
Kevin Graham
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
Laying it on the line
Lodge 7 members’ current plight reverberated all the way to the White House when our delegation took up a position on the South Lawn for Pres- ident Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention. The National FOP invited us to attend as recognition that Chicago is clearly Ground Zero for the battle police officers have been forced to endure.
The other reason we’re Ground Zero is the bloodbath in this city year af- ter year after year. I think even the president knows that, or at least we felt that way when he once again pledged his support for the police during his speech.
If only elected officials closer to home were listening and had the same guts. There seem to be at least a few aldermen who are willing to try to support the women and men of this Department and Lodge by having a conversation about possible solutions, such as the National Guard supplementing the efforts of CPD during these historic times.
Sadly, not enough have stepped up. Too many are kissing the mayor’s...ring, shoving the approval of asking for federal help back to committee where it will die or sit until it’s too late. And so we had to endure another run of cancelled days off and more 12-to-16-hour days during the Labor Day weekend. No end is in sight. One member confided that since the end of May he has had no more than 10 total days off.
It’s not a sustainable schedule. Officers not only need decompression time, they de- serve it. No job asks as much of a person as this profession does currently in this city. The president knows this, but we still have a mayor who will not admit that she has lied about supporting us and treating us fairly.
There is a growing sentiment in the city council that what we’re doing is not sustainable. I was right there alongside Aldermen Raymond Lopez and Anthony Beale discussing the National Guard intervention. We put the council on notice because our women and men need a break, and the only reason you wouldn’t see how bad it has become is if you believe there isn’t any civil unrest in this city.
How hard it is to understand the perfect solution of calling in the National Guard? Post 10 on a corner and cover 50 corners. They would be limited to what they can do, but it would still be a deterrent. And would that be better than taking cars from across the city to send them downtown and robbing citizens in the districts that need their police protec- tion most? Or making them rove all over the city and wearing them out?
If this continues, I’m afraid somebody is going to snap soon, and then we will have a wild one with people rioting and shouting about why that officer would do something like that. Or, God forbid, somebody snaps and takes their own life.
If this resonates all the way to the White House, then why isn’t it rippling through City Hall? The mayor must have deaf ears because she won’t even compensate us fairly.
In fact, she continues to try to change the conversation with regard to our retro pay and the expired contract. She is trying to add conditions that were not part of the original con- tract, conditions related to discipline. That was not attached to the money, and for it to be a condition now is an absolute bait and switch.
JOHN CATANZARA
I’m not going to let that go.
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CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ SEPTEMBER 2020 5