Chicago’s branch of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) was outside the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office protesting on April 1.
Protesters were demanding Kim Foxx, the top prosecutor who dropped all the charges in the Jussie Smollett case, resign from her position, CBS 2 reported.
The FOP disagreed with Foxx’s decision to drop the 16 charges made against Smollett for reporting a hate crime that was allegedly staged.
Earlier reports said that Smollett allegedly staged the hate crime because he was dissatisfied with his $1 million salary on the hit show “Empire.”
Who's your favorite Lyon brother? ????
由 Empire 发布于 2017年4月8日周六
The police union said that the protest was open to any residents of Chicago that were also against Foxx’s decision to drop those charges, Breitbart reported.
Chicago FOP President Kevin Graham made a statement about how police officers would see themselves if their work was undone.
“Many of our detectives and police officers worked extremely hard on this case,” Kevin Graham told FOX Business. “They go without eating, without sleeping, sometimes for 24 hours or more because they are trying to do the best for the people in the city of Chicago and the people they serve … it’s unfortunate that that’s how we get treated by the prosecutor’s office.”
Some of the counterprotesters accused the FOP of racism because they wanted Foxx’s resignation.
“You cannot allow people to talk about people simply because of the color of their skin. That’s wrong, okay? I would never stand for that,” Graham said.
“That’s wrong, okay,” Kevin Graham, organizer of today’s FOP protest when asked if they’re only outraged because @SAKimFoxx is an African-American woman. @cbschicago pic.twitter.com/Gvky7kZ71v
— Eric Cox (@EricCoxTV) April 1, 2019
Last week, Mayor Rahm Emanuel also had some choice words over the circumvention of the judicial system using the Matthew Shepard legislation that dealt with hate crimes, the Chicago Tribune reported.
“To then use those very laws and the principles and values behind the Matthew Shepard hate crimes legislation to self-promote your career is a cost that comes to all the individuals,” he said.
“Where is the accountability in the system?” he added. “You cannot have, because of a person’s position, one set of rules apply to them and another set of rules apply to everybody else.”
Emanuel then goes on to criticize Smollett for maintaining his innocence despite the grand jury, state attorney’s office, and the evidence arriving at the same conclusion.
“How dare he?!? How dare him?!?” Emanuel said. “Even after this whitewash, still, no sense of ownership of what he’s done.”
“You have a person using hate crime laws that are on the books to protect people,” he said. “Who are minorities, from violence, to then turn around and use those laws to advance your career and your financial reward. Is there no decency in this man?”
See “Chicago PD Superintendent Eddie Johnson, Rahm Emanuel call Jussie Smollett charges being dropped 'whitewash of…
