Democratic Congressman Compares Police Union to the KKK
Amid increasing anti-police sentiment across the country, a Democratic congressman from Illinois has thrown more fuel on the fire by comparing a police union to the Ku Klux Klan.
Rep. Bobby Rush, who represents Illinois’s 1st Congressional District, attacked Chicago’s police union in an interview Sunday with Politico.
“The No. 1 cause that prevents police accountability, that promotes police corruption, that protects police lawlessness, is a culprit called the Fraternal Order of Police,” Rush told the outlet.
“They’re the organized guardians of continuous police lawlessness, of police murder and police brutality. The Chicago Fraternal Order of Police is the most rabid, racist body of criminal lawlessness by police in the land,” he added.
Further upping anti-police rhetoric amid racial tensions and attacks on officers nationwide, Rush — who was a founding member of the Illinois Black Panthers — then likened the union to white supremacists.
“[The Chicago Fraternal Order of Police] stands shoulder to shoulder with the Ku Klux Klan then and the Ku Klux Klan now,” he said.
Rush further told Politico that the union and the KKK “are like kissing, hugging and law-breaking cousins.”
The comments came after Chicago’s embattled police officers have spent weeks dealing with an eruption of homicides and attempting to quell violent protests following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Memorial Day while in police custody.
The city saw its deadliest day in 60 years amid the already tense situation; the Chicago Sun-Times reported that 18 people were murdered in the city on May 31.
For that entire weekend, 25 people were slain in Chicago, with an additional 85 people wounded by gunfire.
The Sun-Times noted that police in the city were stretched thin due to protests, riots and looting on the dates the homicides occurred.
Neither the police union nor the Chicago Police Department had responded to Rush’s comments as of Monday afternoon.
The comments came as officers nationwide have come under attack, with police nationwide being struck by objects, assaulted, stabbed or shot.
Patrick Underwood, a black federal officer, was shot and killed during rioting in Oakland, California, last month, according to ABC News.
Las Vegas police Officer Shay Mikalonis was shot in the head during June 1 protests in that city, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down.
Retired police Capt. David Dorn was killed while guarding a pawn shop from looters during rioting in St. Louis, Missouri, on June 2, while four other officers were shot on the same night in the city, KMOX-TV reported.
Meanwhile, one officer was stabbed and two more were shot in New York City a week ago in an apparently premeditated attack, Fox News reported.
Those are just a few of the attacks on law enforcement officers reported in recent weeks as anti-police rhetoric continues to escalate.
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