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.

The Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 17: Orange you glad Dirty John Catanzara is the FOP President?

One of the absolutely, mind-boggling, infuriating things about Corporate Media is their seeming inability to google someone before they invite them on air to spout rightwing propaganda and lies.  Enter Dirty John Catanzara, President of the Chicago FOP Lodge 7.  After the shooting of Adam Toledo last year, Catanzara was contacted by numerous media outlets for his view of the shooting.  At the time Catanzara hadn't been a cop for over a year.  Because Dirty John Catanzara was relieved of Police powers and duties in May 2020.  Then facing termination last year, Dirty John was allowed to officially retire.  Sadly, the shitbag refused to step down as President of his Lodge, intending to stay on until his term expires in 2023. 

The Orange shirt barely fits his gut
but those pants are almost worse

So, yesterday at the Northwest Irish Parade John Catanzara wore an orange shirt.  (Note the Northside not the Southside).  This is a deliberate provocation and unlike when Catanzara posted "Let's Go Brandon!!!" or expressed his admiration and support for the January 6th terrorists, this insulting action isn't going to gain him many fans amongst the old school Chicago Police community and the historical Irish community in Chicago.

In case anyone doesn't know, wearing Orange on or about Saint Patrick's Day isn't an accidental move but, an insulting declaration and incitement to most people of Irish ancestry.  But, this is America!  And the joy of being a right-winger in America is having No Memory.

Then you can claim there's no systemic racism.  You can deny societal impacts of Republican policies.  You can ignore the history of the American Petroleum Institute and blame President Biden for gas prices.  Because everything just happens Ex Nihilo.

Catanzara got away with a career of misconduct because people forget or don't care to know.  Of course, Catanzara could be claiming to be a Loyalist to the British Crown... as Dirty John is definitely a traitor.

Update:

Incidentally, the candidate's shirt Dirty John is wearing is Chicago Police Detective Erin Jones who's challenging incumbent Robert Martwick for Illinois 10th district State Senate as a Democrat.  Detective Erin Jones doesn't have any sustained police misconduct allegations.  But, Jones was involved in some racially charged kerfuffle with former Chicago Alderman Arena over Jones' alleged racist social media comments in 2018. 

Of course, Erin Jones is one of those bad faith Chicago conservative who, despite being a 2018 Republican precinct captain and posting in 2020 the Democratic Party is a worse enemy than China, North Korea, or Russia pretends to be a Democrat to try and win an election.