The Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 35: Dirty John Catanzara threatens "blood in the streets".

In the annals of the Chicago Police, there have been a few supremely dirty cops; but few of them have been as outspoken as Dirty John Catanzara.

Best known, nationally, as the defender of the Insurrection of January 6th, Catanzara blazed such a path of criminality he was forced to resign as a Police Officer.  But, Dirty John did not resign as the head of Chicago FOP Lodge 7, and as the leader of Union lodge Catanzara has pledged support for Paul Vallas for Mayor of Chicago.  And despite his criminal activities as an Officer and his penchant for supporting rightwing terrorism, Dirty John won another term as the head of the FOP Lodge a few weeks back.

So, Dirty John Catanzara probably felt empowered when he declared, in a Trumpian turn of phrase, that if Brandon Johnson wins election on April 4th, "we're going to see an exodus, like we've never seen before."

This is so much bullshit, Catanzara's FOP members aren't going to follow him out of their jobs.  But, Dirty John has a history of blowing smoke and threatening duly elected Mayors with outsized threats of Cops Quiet Quitting.  It's always made me laugh when rightwing Cops grumble about "quiet quitting" or bemoan 'Nobody wants to work anymore', when Police Officers invented this shit with the Blue Flu and habits of hiding out while on duty, sometimes in plain sight.

Paul Vallas has denounced Dirty John Catanzara's blood in the streets rhetoric because he's already secured Catanzara's support.  Meanwhile, Vallas is also spinning a bunch of bullshit about retirees and those Officer who've quit the Chicago Police of rejoining the Force;

“I know for a fact that there are hundreds of officers who will return if there's new leadership,” Vallas said during a WGN-TV debate last week. “The bottom line is, fill the vacancies, and invite those who have retired and those who have transferred to return and, under new leadership, they will.

First off if you're taking you Pension via Article V of the Illinois Pension Code you can't just come back.  And if someone who quit is going to reapply to work in Chicago I expect they have all sorts of red flags.  Brandon Johnson pointed out this is just so much poppy-cock.

Vallas is currently leading and has a good shot of winning election, he's playing the game of telling white liberals one thing and Republicans the opposite (as he did by publicly denouncing Catanzara even though hammering Johnson and Lightfoot before him as soft on crime and mean to the Police is his entire campaign strategy) as he has probably rightly concluded, no big story about his duality will make an impact in this last week before the election.

Let's Go Brandon (Johnson) for Chicago Mayor

Chicago's Next Mayor?

“Sometimes you have Caesar Augustus, sometimes you have Tiberius or Caligula,” During a March 18th Mayoral debate, Paul Vallas compared former Chicago Mayors to Roman Emperors.  I know Rahm was bad but I don't believe Emmanuel every made his horse into a City Alderman. 

The February 28th Chicago Mayor election ended with Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson as the top two voters getters setting up the run-off on April 4th.

So, the Lori Lightfoot era is over.  One of the key benchmarks for equality in the United States was not when President Barack Obama, an generational talent and highly qualified candidate, was elected President, it's when the black or female equivalent of George W. Bush (a career fuckup and incompetent) was elected.  Thus, Lori's 2018 election showed how far we've come...

But, Lori Lightfoot was a political neophyte or more correctly Lori showed a complete lack of political skills and instincts.  Upon becoming Mayor, Lightfoot immediately picked a fight with the Chicago Teacher's Union and alienated the only force in Chicago which was predisposed to side with her.

Lori then tried to sidle up to the Chicago Police, an effort doomed to fail from the start, since they hated her and nothing she could do could change that initiation opinion.  Police Officers throughout Chicago and the Cook collar counties called her "Beetlejuice", and since Police are still overwhelmingly white, male, and Reactionary it was a category error for Mayor Lightfoot to believe she could make inroads with the Police.

But, Lori's lackluster 3rd place finish leads to a run-off between Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson.  To Lori's discredit and further highlighting her lack political skills, she's pouting and not yet endorsed Brandon Johnson.  So as the April 4th draws near Vallas appears to be favored. 

Vallas is from the South Side and is the type of white boomer Chicago "liberal" favored by the populace, but Vallas has also already secured the endorsement of long-time Secretary of State Jesse White, a not inconsequential endorsement as Jesse White is still a revered elderly black Illinois statesman.  Vallas is also running ads with President Bill Clinton praising his work in the 1990's Chicago school, so his strategy seems to be to target the elderly black voter.  However, Vallas is an infamous Charter School proponent having foisted those monstrosities upon Philadelphia and New Orleans.  But, more concerning was the "Pension holiday" when Vallas stopped contributions to Chicago teachers pensions and under the auspices of Mayor Richard M. Daley, and then the "defending your life" style attack on teachers and administrators from so-called underperforming schools were fired and had to reinterview to get their jobs back. 

Now, back in the 1990's one could possibly forgive those who believed in Charter Schools promise just like you could forgive/understand those who believed 401k's were a viable alternative to Pensions and defined benefits.  But, Vallas systematic attacks on Public Education was a forerunner of the current Vulture Capitalist and rapacious Republican attacks.  Vallas tenure as a school system Administrator has  

However, for the April 4th election Vallas' strategy is simple: Paint Brandon Johnson as a High Taxes, Defund the Police Radical and rely on the support of rich Chicago white people, and the older black community to whom he trots out the aforementioned Jesse White and connection to Bill Clinton.

Meanwhile, Brandon Johnson has Toni Preckwinkle in his corner but, he's going to need to gather up all the votes which went to Lori, as well as Chuy Garcia, who has endorsed B. Johnson, and the venerable gas station attendant Willie Wilson.

Johnson has proposed a pretty audacious plan for increasing taxes on the sale of multi-million dollar real estate sales to help fund shelters for the unhoused as well as a raft of police reforms; canceling the city’s contract with the dysfunctional and problematic ShotSpotter gunshot detection company; ending no-knock warrants; and reopening public mental health clinics.

Brandon Johnson would seem to be a real progressive and Paul Vallas would seem to be a Eric Adams clone.  We'll see which way Chicago goes on April 4th...