Sandy MaloneChicago, IL – Two days after Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson announced he would not attend President Donald Trump’s visit to the Windy City, the Fraternal Order of Police’s (FOP) board issued a vote of no-confidence for the city’s top cop.
On Tuesday, Superintendent Johnson let it be known that although he was hosting the upcoming International Association of Police Chief’s conference in Chicago, he planned to skip President Trump’s speech, the Chicago Tribune reported.
“While the superintendent is looking forward to leading the International Chiefs of Police Conference and he’s looking forward to participating in discussions about making our communities safer, he will not be attending the speech of the president because the values of the people of Chicago are more important to him than anything the president has to say,” Chicago Police Spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.
The FOP issued its own statement shortly thereafter, addressing the superintendent’s decision.
“The FOP would be extremely disappointed if Superintendent Eddie Johnson would disrespect President Trump by not attending the President’s speech at the convention, as has been suggested in the media,” the police union posted on its official Facebook page. “Such a gesture would be an insult to both President Trump and the office of the presidency itself and would be a mark of disgrace upon the city throughout the entire nation, including Mayor Lori Lightfoot.”
But the top cop in the city President Trump likes to point to as a crime-infested example of everything that is wrong with sanctuary cities held firm in his boycott.
Chicago has been a sanctuary city since 1985 when then-Mayor Harold Washington issued an executive order prohibiting city agencies from asking about immigration status, the Chicago Tribune reported.
On Wednesday afternoon, the FOP announced the no-confidence vote issued by their board but attached little additional information, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Superintendent Johnson remained unfazed in his response, the WBBM reported.
“While today’s decision is from the Board and not the active FOP membership, I understand and respect that the Lodge is upset about the decision to not stand with the President,” the superintendent said in a statement. “As police officers, our job is to be the voice for the voiceless and ambassadors to the communities that we serve. I can’t in good conscience stand by while racial insults and hatred are cast from the oval office or Chicago is held hostage because of our views on new Americans.”
But FOP leadership told Blue Lives Matter that the overwhelming majority of their membership was upset by their boss’s decision to snub the law enforcement-supporting President.
FOP Second Vice President Martin Preib called the superintendent’s comments yet another attempt to “divide and conquer” the rank and file of the police department.
“Our membership has been disgruntled with the superintendent for a long time,” Preib said.
He told Blue Lives Matter that Superintendent Johnson’s plan to snub the President just “embarrasses the city.”
The FOP’s condemnation of the police superintendent came less than a week after Superintendent Johnson was found slumped over and sleeping on the side of the road in his police vehicle.
The superintendent has called for an investigation into the incident but questions have continued to swirl around the nap he took on the way home from cocktails and dinner with friends.
Both Superintendent Johnson and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot tried to dispel rumors of his impending resignation during a press conference on Monday.
“What I will say to you is this: I am not resigning, but when it comes to the investigation, I have the answers you all are looking for, of course,” the superintendent said. “But because there is an investigation pending now, I really can’t talk about that, because I don’t want to be accused of trying to steer an investigation one way or another. Because remember, there’s going to be folks that have to be interviewed, and I don’t want to prejudice that interview by saying something publicly.”
Superintendent Johnson initially told reporters that he had pulled over because he was woozy from a blood pressure medication switch-up a few days earlier.
He was busted for not having mentioned that he had also been drinking when the mayor said something about it to reporters later.
The FOP has not mentioned the napping incident in connection with their condemnation of the superintendent for planning to skip President Trump’s speech.