Photo from Congressman Rush's office
CHICAGO – Thursday, Chicago GOP Chair Steve Boulton criticized Mayor Lori Lightfoot's press conference in which she attacked 13 Chicago police officers that were caught on video in Congressman Bobby Rush's office, reclining on sofas and eating popcorn in the early morning hours June 1st.
“We know who you are and will find you,” Lightfoot said in a press conference Thursday after showing a video from inside Rush's closed office. She urged the officers them to come forward on their own and pledged the city would take “the strongest possible action — particularly with supervisors,” who were identified by white shirts.
“Since the Mayor wasn’t on the streets during the riots, she has no idea what dedicated police officers went through to protect this city against rioting over the weekend of May 30-31. Officers went on 12 hour shifts on the streets with little sleep in between, and frequently were simply deposited at various locations by busses with no food, no water and no instructions."
Boulton said Chicago officers had to relieve themselves in the bathrooms of looted stores while standing for their entire lengthy patrols. After days of such duty, by Monday, June 1, when the video was taken, officers were exhausted, he said.
"Like soldiers on a battlefield, some were actually allowed at points to rest and feed themselves when the fighting was elsewhere," Boulton said.
“To distract from the negligence of herself and Governor Pritzker in failing to put the National Guard and sufficient resources on the street, resulting in the looting of the Loop and so many businesses, Mayor Lightfoot has used a video to throw officers under the bus for political points, when we all should be thanking them," Boulton, an attorney, said. "While the Mayor attacks the police, how many officers were stationed by the Mayor’s house and in her Logan Square neighborhood that weekend, doing nothing constructive to defend the other citizens of Chicago?
Boulton said questions are being raised about whether officers entered without invitation or acted without authorization. They are barred from speaking publicly on the matter, leaving others free to distort what actually happened.
"We demand that the Mayor and Chicago Police Department allow the officers to speak in their own defense,” Boulton said. "The Mayor’s grotesque pandering must be rejected by all citizens who know that police officers of all races perform a vital public service at the risk of their own safety, in this instance preventing even greater violence in the riots. Instead, the Mayor has given all officers of the CPD good reason to turn in their stars. She should feel shame, not the officers.”
