Mayor Apologizes As Chicago Cops Caught Lounging In Congressman’s Office Instead Of Arresting Looters

Thanks to her history as a local prosecutor, many of Chicago Mayor Lori LIghtfoot’s critics during her ultimately successful campaign to succeed Rahm Emmanuel warned that she was “The Fraternal Order of Police’s first choice”, a reference to the powerful police union. Now, after accusing an alderman of being “100% full of sh*t” when he claimed that Chicago PD cops were ignoring looters in poorer neighborhoods in the city, Lightfoot is apologizing after 8 cops were caught lounging in a Democratic Congressman’s office, making coffee and snacking on popcorn, while nearby neighborhoods were looted.

The district office of US Democratic Congressman Bobby Rush – best known outside Illinois as the Congressman who survived a primary challenge from Barack Obama, who would go on to be president of the US – was looted 2 weeks ago during the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.

When Rush reviewed the film from the evening, he saw 8 Chicago officers, including 3 supervisors, who responded to reports of the looting used his office as a temporary lounge, hanging out for hours drinking coffee and snacking on popcorn that had – according to Rush – been purchased for his office, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Meanwhile, the area surrounding Rush’s office at 54th Street and South Wentworth Avenue was looted, but the cops did nothing to stop that.

Instead of taking the footage public on his own, Rush alerted Mayor Lightfoot, and the two held a joint press conference to bilaterally denounce the Chicago PD and promise that all the officers involved and their commanders would be punished – though Lightfoot stopped short of promising that the officers would be fired.

Rush accused the officers of treating his office with a galling level of disrespect, while Lightfoot assured the assembled reporters that she and her staff were “enraged” by the news.

“One was asleep on my couch in my campaign office,” Rush said.

“They even had the unmitigated gall to go and make coffee for themselves and make coffee for themselves and to pop popcorn, my popcorn, in my microwave while looters were tearing apart businesses within their sight and within their reach,” Rush said.

Rush brought the matter to Lightfoot’s attention on Wednesday, and the information “enraged” her and her team, Lightfoot said.

Lightfoot apologized to Rush during the news conference on behalf of the city for his office being treated “with such profound disrespect.”

“That’s a personal embarrassment to me,” Lightfoot said. “I’m sorry that you and your staff even had to deal with this incredible indignity.”

Lightfoot publicly apologized to Rush for the incident, saying ultimate blame for the incident “lies with me”.

Lightfoot apologized to Rush during the news conference on behalf of the city for his office being treated “with such profound disrespect.”

“That’s a personal embarrassment to me,” Lightfoot said. “I’m sorry that you and your staff even had to deal with this incredible indignity.”

It’s particularly disrespectful when you consider that Rush was a member of the Black Panther Party of Illinois, a fact that lends the incident an unflattering racial tinge.

As Lightfoot’s popularity sags in Chicago due to her longstanding ties to the police, another black female former prosecutor is topping the polls to be Biden’s VP.