On Friday, Chicago Fraternal Order of Police president John Catanzara pushed back against Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s (D) vaccine mandate for police officers.
Officers must confirm their vaccine status at the end of Friday or be subjected to unpaid leave. Unvaccinated officers can remain on the job if they undergo semiweekly testing.
Catanzara told FNC’s “Fox & Friends” that “around half” of the Chicago police force is unvaccinated but shared that even the vaccinated ones think the forced mandate is “absolutely wrong.”
“The numbers we have are probably around half are not, but even the ones that are still, like myself, believe that a forced mandate is absolutely wrong,” Catanzara stated.
“Everything from this mayor is a dictatorship,” he added. “This is all about policy from the top. There was no public outcry from this policy to take effect. She just decided she was going to do it and push it on the entire city workforce across the board. There’s low cooperation, and this is just not the police department — you include firemen, first responders. We’ve gotten calls from labors unions, streets and sand, the water department — you name it. Everybody across the board is up in arms about this mandate, but it doesn’t matter.”
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