Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot caught on mic calling police union official a ‘clown’: 'I shouldn’t have said that out loud'
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was heard calling a Fraternal Order of Police official a "clown" in a hot-mic moment. Reports state that the officer, Patrick Murray, was speaking during the prelude to a council meeting on Wednesday when the mayor was picked up by a live microphone saying the words "this FOP clown."
Murray, the union's second vice president, was reportedly present there to defend four police offcers fired by the Police board for covering up for Jason Van Dyke. Dyke is the officer convicted of second-degree murder for shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald on October 20, 2014.
Lightfoot, at one point during the prelude, turned to corporation counsel Mark Flessner and said: "Back again. This is this FOP clown." The statement was instantly picked up on the livestream, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
The mayor then issued a statement after the meeting, saying: "It was not appropriate for me to say that out loud." When she was asked whether she would apologize to Murray or to the union for her remark, the mayor said: "I think I just did. I think I said I shouldn’t have said that out loud."
The FOP, shortly after the mayor's gaffe, slammed her on the union's Facebook page, saying that her remarks were "contemptuous" and a "dangerous" thing to say to a 30-year veteran police officer.
"Mayor Lightfoot’s contemptuous remark is a misguided and dangerous thing to say to a 30-year veteran police officer and FOP representative, particularly at a time when the city is facing such chronic violent crime,” the union said.
“It is also telling that the mayor would not even apologize. The red noses, however, belong on the members of the Chicago Police Board, her former agency, for their despicable decision to fire three police officers and a sergeant last week for no good reason whatsoever.”