Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has vowed to identify 13 on-duty police officers caught on camera lounging for several hours inside Rep. Bobby Rush’s (D-Ill.) burglarized campaign office as anti-racism protests and unrest took place just blocks away.
The officers appeared to be relaxing in images that Lightfoot presented at a news conference Thursday. The stills were taken from footage filmed early June 1 after the officers visited Rush’s office, which had been broken into during looting the previous day, reported The Chicago Tribune.
“One was asleep on my couch in my campaign office. One had his head down on the desk, one was on his cellphone,” Rush said of the images. “They even had the unmitigated gall to make coffee for themselves and to pop popcorn ― my popcorn, in my microwave ― while looters were tearing up businesses within their sight, within their reach.”
Rush said the officers left a crisp $1 bill. “They insulted me by leaving a dollar on the table,” he told The New York Times. “It made me feel totally disrespected as a member of Congress and an African American male.”
Lightfoot, a Democrat, urged the officers to “come in” as she announced an internal police investigation.
“You know who you are. You know what you did,” she said. “Don’t make us come find you.”
Lightfoot later told CNN’s Anderson Cooper it was “one of the most disgraceful, disrespectful things I have ever seen.”
Check out the interview here:
Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown promised to find the cops and “uphold the nobility of this profession.”
“I’m not playing with you that I mean what I say when I say we’re going to hold you accountable and that your behavior reflects my leadership and it reflects all of your leadership,” Brown said.
The incident was downplayed by Fraternal Order of Police union President John Catanzara, who accused Lightfoot of using it to further her campaign to license all officers in the state.
“It’s disgusting that they would challenge the honor of those that were in the office that night, as if they would stand there and let people die,” Catanzara said.
Check out the news conference here: