{"id":90238,"date":"2021-10-14T15:43:03","date_gmt":"2021-10-14T19:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=90238"},"modified":"2021-10-14T15:43:03","modified_gmt":"2021-10-14T19:43:03","slug":"chicago-police-union-head-urges-members-to-defy-vaccine-mandate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=90238","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Police Union Head Urges Members To Defy Vaccine Mandate"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Chicago Police Union Head Urges Members To Defy Vaccine Mandate, Warns Force To Shrink 50% This Weekend<\/h1>\n<p><!--more--><div id=\"attachment_90239\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-90239\" src=\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/John-Catanzara-700x420-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"420\" class=\"size-full wp-image-90239\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/John-Catanzara-700x420-1.jpg 700w, https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/John-Catanzara-700x420-1-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-90239\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 President John Catanzara speaks to reporters at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse in Chicago on Aug. 10, 2021. (Ashlee Rezin\/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<p>By Isabel van Brugen<br \/>\nThe Epoch Times<\/p>\n<p>The head of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-chicago\">Chicago<\/a>\u00a0police officers union on Tuesday called on its members to refuse to comply with the city\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-covid-19-vaccine-mandate\">COVID-19 vaccine mandate<\/a>, which is set to take effect on Friday.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>\u201cDo not fill out the portal information,\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uWPl--cAG7I&amp;t=7s\">said in a video<\/a>\u00a0to officers posted on YouTube.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve made my status very clear as far as the vaccine, but\u00a0<strong>I do not believe the city has the authority to mandate that to anybody<\/strong>\u2014let alone that information about your medical history.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"Advert_desktop__1J5vD Advert_tablet__3QEBr Advert_mobile__1rlLc Advert_placement__1I4yb Advert_align__N0_fw\"><\/div>\n<figure class=\"caption caption-img inline-images image-style-inline-images\" role=\"group\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/chicago%20police%20commish.jpg?itok=g7trLTp0\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"300\" data-entity-type=\"file\" data-entity-uuid=\"ec72201a-acea-4899-b676-69abd5f78893\" data-responsive-image-style=\"inline_images\" \/><figcaption><em>Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7 President John Catanzara speaks to reporters at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse in Chicago on Aug. 10, 2021. (Ashlee Rezin\/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>According to Catanzara, the police union is preparing a lawsuit against the city if Mayor\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-lori-lightfoot\">Lori Lightfoot<\/a>\u2019s administration attempts to enforce the mandate, which requires city workers to report their vaccine status by Friday or be placed on a \u201cno-pay\u201d status.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>\u201cIt\u2019s safe to say that the city of Chicago will have a police force at 50 percent or less for this weekend coming up,\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>Catanzara said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uWPl--cAG7I\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Epoch Times has contacted Lightfoot\u2019s office for comment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can guarantee you that no-pay status will not last more than 30 days,\u201d Catanzara said on Tuesday. \u201cThere\u2019s no way they\u2019re going to be able to sustain a police department workforce at 50 percent capacity or less for more than seven days without something budging.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em><strong>\u201cThis is very clearly not a job action,\u201d he added, \u201cnot a call for a strike.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The police union head in his video instructs members to file for exemptions to receiving the COVID-19 vaccine but to not enter that information into the city\u2019s vaccine portal.<\/p>\n<p>Responding to Cantanzara\u2019s video during a press briefing on Wednesday, Lightfoot accused him of spreading false information, dismissing most of his statements as \u201cuntrue or patently false.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we\u2019re focused on is making sure that we maximize the opportunity to create a very safe workplace,\u201d Lightfoot told reporters. \u201cThe data is very clear. It is unfortunate that the FOP leadership has chosen to put out a counter narrative. But the fact of the matter is, if you are not vaccinated, you are playing with your life, the life of your family, the life of your colleagues, and members of the public.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after Lightfoot announced the measures in August, Catanzara compared the requirement to how Nazis told their victims the gas chambers were showers.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em><strong>\u201cThis ain\u2019t Nazi [expletive] Germany \u2026 \u2018Step into the [expletive] showers, the pills won\u2019t hurt you,\u2019\u201d<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0he told the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/chicago.suntimes.com\/city-hall\/2021\/8\/25\/22641495\/chicago-coronavirus-vaccine-mandate-october-15-city-employees-police-unions-lightfoot-catanzara\">Chicago Sun-Times<\/a>, before quickly apologizing for his choice of words, saying he was not trying to link vaccinations to what happened during the Holocaust.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has maintained that the known benefits of the COVID-19 vaccinations \u201coutweigh the known and potential risks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/markets\/chicago-police-union-head-calls-members-defy-vaccine-mandate-warns-chicago-police-force\">https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/markets\/chicago-police-union-head-calls-members-defy-vaccine-mandate-warns-chicago-police-force<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chicago Police Union Head Urges Members To Defy Vaccine Mandate, Warns Force To Shrink 50% This Weekend<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=90238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90238\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=90238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}