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We got your PAC
Now is the time for all good members to take political action.
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
Lodge 7 political presence has already begun to swell. Politi- cal Action Committee (PAC) Co-Chair Mike Cosentino procured an invite for Lodge leaders to a gathering Iris Martinez, clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, recently hosted for Demo- cratic legislators and candidates.
Anybody who is anybody running for positions from water reclamation commissioner to judge to state rep attended, in- cluding some progressives. During the introductions portion of the event, Martinez had Lodge 7 President John Catanzara and members of his team come forward. She backed up that gesture by articulating how much the City and state need the police.
“You should have seen the faces of some of the people there,” explains Lodge 7 Trustee Brock Merck, who co-chairs the PAC. “They couldn’t believe this major event was elevating the po- lice.”
Clearly, a day of reckoning for the police and their presence on the political landscape has come. Members should know how critical this is because of what they have witnessed on the City’s landscape.
They are planted in the middle of neighborhoods that have become complete wastelands, with businesses destroyed and public transit with no-go zones at certain times of the day. They have been asked to battle an unprecedented and unfathomable escalation of crime that is decimating public safety.
Consequently, Lodge 7 is taking unprecedented political ac- tion built on pumping up its PAC fund and cultivating candi- dates at the state and city level who have had enough of this freakin’ crime. The time is now to make sure the police presence is felt in the 2022 state and federal elections and build off that momentum for the 2023 city elections.
The birth of political action and funding is a call to members to take action for the sake of their jobs and their families.
“So we’re in a war,” Merck continues. “And at this time in the war, the issue that is on the minds of almost everyone in Chica- go is rising crime. That falls right into what our strength is as the FOP. Because if government cannot follow the first rule of a so- cial contract, which is to keep its citizens safe, government has failed. And we think that our message of keeping people safe is
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CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JANUARY 2022 29
And Lodge 7 has a plan