Some Chicago cops napped, made coffee and popcorn, and stayed out of harm’s way in a local Congressional office while looters ravaged the Second City’s South Side, according to reports.
US Rep. Bobby Rush said at least eight cops and supervisors ducked into his district office at 54th Street and South Wentworth Avenue on June 1 while looting stemming from George Floyd protests went largely unchecked outside, the Chicago Tribune reported Thursday.
“One was asleep on my couch in my campaign office,” Rush said at a press conference. “They even had the unmitigated gall to go and make coffee for themselves and to pop popcorn, my popcorn, in my microwave while looters were tearing apart businesses within sight and within their reach.”
Rush said he nabbed the cooping cops after getting a call that his offices had been burglarized, and reviewed his security video. He said he was shocked at what he saw.
“They were in a mode of relaxation and they did not care about what was happening to businesspeople, to this city,” he said. “They didn’t care. They absolutely didn’t care.”
He brought it to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s attention Wednesday, leaving her “enraged,” the outlet said.
“That’s a personal embarrassment to me,” Lightfoot said as she publicly apologized to Rush Thursday. “I’m sorry that you and your staff even had to deal with this incredible indignity.”
“Not one of these officers will be allowed to hide behind the badge and go on and act like nothing happened,” she said.
Lightfoot urged the cops to come forward and said the department’s Internal Affairs Division will review the incident and the state attorney general’s office will investigate, Block Club Chicago reported.
Rush, a one-time candidate for mayor, has been in Congress since 1963. He is a founding member of the Illinois Black Panther Party.
The report of police hiding in his office comes as police in the city are under fire for the handling of widespread protests in the wake of Floyd’s May 25 death while being pinned down by police in Minneapolis.