OPINION | This article contains the author's opinion.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has a hostile history with the city’s police force.
In August, Lightfoot was accused of making anti-police remarks following the death of 29-year-old Chicago police officer Ella French.
She was murdered during a traffic stop and another officer, Carlos Yanez Jr., was shot and paralyzed.
Lightfoot used the incident as an opportunity to acknowledge and fuel the left’s attacks on police. Taking to Twitter, Lightfoot claimed that “some say we do too much” for police officers.
A number of officers sent her a scathing message by turning their backs on her as she visited Officer Yanez Jr. in critical condition at the hospital.
Now Lightfoot demands that all city workers must report their vaccination status to the city by Friday.
If not, she’s threatening to place police officers on unpaid leave.
Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara said that the union is fighting back and resisting this mandate.
Catanzara said they will take the city to court over the mandate on vaccine reporting.
In a nasty response, Lightfoot said, “He’s threatening litigation, I say, bring it.”
This battle will likely have devastating consequences for the Democrat-led city of Chicago.
NBC reported, “It’s safe to say that the city of Chicago will have a police force at 50 percent or less for this weekend coming up.”
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Catanzara said that if the union heeds his advice and the city plays hardball by implementing its threat, Chicago streets will be very different…
“Whatever happens because of that manpower issue, that falls at the mayor’s doorstep,” Catanzara said in a Youtube video message to Chicago police officers.
He made it clear that he expects to win a war of wills.
“I can guarantee you that no-pay status will not last more than 30 days,” Catanzara said, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. “There’s no way they’re going to be able to sustain a police department workforce at 50 percent capacity or less for more than seven days without something budging.”
He said that the city has refused to work with the union.
“The reality is the city acknowledged from the beginning their obligation to bargain in good faith over this subject,” Catanzara said, according to WGN-TV. “They have refused.”
Catanzara has said that the union’s issue is not whether or not to be vaccinated. He said he opposes the mandate and the requirement to disclose an officer’s vaccination status.