On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “the ReidOut,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) vowed that she will “use every tool” she has to prevent the federal government from having federal law enforcement officials operating in Chicago the way they have in Portland and criticized the local Fraternal Order of Police leader as “unhinged” and hungry for attention for his stance on the issue.
Lightfoot said, “Well, first of all, as a former federal prosecutor, I know that if resources are brought in to augment existing federal infrastructure under the control and direction of a local U.S. attorney, there might be a value add. But look at what’s happened in Portland. What we have there is no advance notice to the local authorities, no notice to the local U.S. attorneys’ office, and having these armed, camouflaged individuals, with no insignia on, no nameplates, grabbing people off the street. That’s unconstitutional. So, our democracy is at stake, and I’ll be darned if I’m going to let anybody, even if their name is Mr. President, bring those kind of troops to our city and try to take off our residents. That’s not going to happen in Chicago, and if they try it, I’m going to use every tool at my disposal to stop them.”
She added, “We’ve got an unhinged leader of the Fraternal Order of Police, who is craven in trying to get — generate attention. Now, he has asked for that. But reasonable, local police officials, including our superintendent, know that this is a dangerous road for us to go down. We’re not going to have people that don’t know our streets, don’t know our neighborhoods, and then are engaging in clearly unconstitutional conduct, operating at will in our city. That is chaos. That is lawlessness.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.