Police union leader calls ‘teen takeover’ looting, criticizes Mayor Johnson

(The Center Square) – Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson downplayed the recent arrests of teenagers in Chicago, claiming that those individuals were merely “cutting it,” which has led to pushback from police.

According to Chicago police data, there were 27 separate shooting incidents throughout the city last weekend, which resulted in seven deaths.

Johnson last week was asked about large groups of teens who ended up damaging property and causing disruption. Johnson said the group was “cutting it up.”

“You all know I’ve been a public school teacher, and sometimes you have a number of students who want to find spaces where they can cut up,” Johnson said. “You have to Google that. It’s like Black terminology for doing things potentially harmful to someone else or themselves.”

Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 President John Catanzara called it criminal behavior and blamed the mayor for not being tougher on crime.

“The teen takeover on Roosevelt Road was not a teen takeover. It was looting. It was mob action,” Catanzara said. “It is in the ordinance, Mr. Mayor. Look it up.”

Johnson last week pushed back at a reporter for his use of the term “mob action.”

“It’s important that we speak of these dynamics in the appropriate way. This is not to obfuscate what has actually taken place, but we have to be very careful when we use language to describe certain behavior,” Johnson said. “To refer to children as baby Al Capone is not appropriate.”

Catanzara says Johnson has proven he does not care about the safety of the communities or working with police.

“No one has called them mini Capones, but they certainly, in many cases, have the terrorizing effect that Al Capone had 100 years ago with these teen takeovers where they think they can do whatever they want with no repercussions, no parental supervision and no accountability,” Catanzara said. “Especially from the mayor’s office.”

“You’re proving yourself to be exactly who we were afraid you were going to be,” Catanzara said of Johnson. “You are taking CTU lead and making excuses for bad behavior like they have done for many years now in the school system, not giving quality education, endotoring kids and making them victims where they think they are entitled to behave any way they want.”

Johnson ran his 2022 mayoral campaign on fixing issues of policing in the city and came under fire for past comments relating to defunding the department.