Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Fires Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson After IG Report Reveals Lies
“Mr. Johnson failed the hard working members of the Chicago Police Department. He intentionally misled the people of Chicago and he intentionally misled me.”
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot fired Chicago Police Department Superintendent Eddie Johnson after an inspector general report revealed numerous lies and distortions with his story about him sleeping at the wheel of his car.
On October 17, someone saw Johnson slumped over the wheel of his running car at 12:30 a.m. His colleagues came to the scene and decided he could drive home on his own.
Johnson said he went out to eat with some friends, but “dismissed his driver after dinner.” He asked the department to open an internal investigation.
A source told The Chicago Tribune a video showed “Johnson drinking for a few hours on the evening of Oct. 16 with a woman who was not his wife at the Ceres Cafe, a popular restaurant and bar at the Chicago Board of Trade building.”
Lightfoot received the IG report, which left her enraged. She did not hold back during the press conference:
“The findings … make it clear that Eddie Johnson engaged in conduct that is not only unbecoming, but demonstrated a series of ethical lapses and flawed decision making that is inconsistent with having the privilege of leading the Chicago Police Department,” the mayor told a hastily-called City Hall news conference.
“Had I known these facts at the time, I would have relieved him of his duties as superintendent then and there. I certainly would not have participated in a celebratory press conference to announce his retirement. Mr. Johnson failed the hard working members of the Chicago Police Department. He intentionally misled the people of Chicago and he intentionally misled me. None of that is acceptable.”
Johnson was informed of the decision at a City Hall meeting with the mayor that lasted all of a few minutes. He left the mayor’s office without comment. Pressed to describe Johnson’s reaction, Lightfoot offered a one-word answer: “Accepting.”
Lightfoot did not provide details out of respect for Johnson’s family. She only told reporters, “The facts I know now are fundamentally different than the facts I knew then.”
Lightfoot told Johnson of her decision:
— That he “engaged in conduct that is not only unbecoming but demonstrated a series of ethical lapses and flawed decision-making” in the October incident.
— That the superintendent called a news conference later the day of the incident in which he communicated “a narrative replete with false statements, all seemingly intended to hide the true nature of his conduct from the evening before.”
— That Johnson intentionally lied to the mayor several times, “even when I challenged him about the narrative that he shared with me.”
Lightfoot vowed to clean up Chicago’s of its former ways. She reiterated that promise by stressing “[T]he old Chicago way must give way to the new reality.” She noted that the department always holds “rank-and-file police officers” accountable for their actions, but always let the supervisors off scotfree.
Don’t forget this is the same man who skipped out on President Donald Trump’s speech to the International Association of Chiefs of Police in October. Looks like his high and mighty attitude came back to bite him.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Looks like Trump was right about that “top cop”. This mayor is about to start a war with the Chicago Way. Hope she is well protected.
Inquire further. That mayor IS Chicago, not a protest against it. She’s just a different faction, even further Left than the old one.
BINGO!
Our once lovely city..decades ago, is no longer. The second Daley made a deal with the gangs for GOTV, and it has been downhill ever since.
Still, there’s no harm in cheering her for outing at least one sloppy drunk with power.
Because this was the first time this ever happened.
Lightfoot did not provide details out of respect for Johnson’s family.
Uh-huh. Whatever happened to the “retired so he could spend more time with his family” line?
I smell a Rat honey trap maybe? Although usually the top cop in a Democrat controlled City is on a leash or dirty.
In Chicago, the “dirty” is the leash. His problem may have been the wrong kind of dirty.
Same with DNC and Deep State…….
Johnson had already announced his retirement effective January.
So why fire him a month early?
Why fire Andrew McCabe one day before he was set to retire with full benefits? To make a point.
To make a further point, Johnson will get full retirement benefits. Maybe at a lower pay grade, but he’ll still be collecting six figures a year.
If you, I or anyone else were caught in any city slumped over the wheel of our running cars we would be on our way to jail for DUI. It’s clear that the CPD didn’t give him a field sobriety test or a breathalyzer. Senior precinct commanders and commanders from HQ responded to prevent that from happening. Probably because they knew what they would find. That’s my understanding from the reporting at the Second City Cop blog.
https://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/2019/12/on-going-investigation.html
Now all the cops involved in the cover-up are under investigation. I won’t shed any tears if the senior brass gets hammered, but the patrol officers shouldn’t take the hit if senior commanders in the CPD hierarchy showed up just to prevent them from doing their jobs. Which is how it looks to me.
I’m no lawyer, but if nobody gathered evidence at the scene, nobody took Johnson to jail, and they let him drive himself home, I don’t see how they can prosecute Johnson for the “alleged Dui” unless he shows up drunk to a court hearing, if there is one, or he pleads guilty to the charge and we all know he’s not going to do that.
It looks to me like Johnson skates on the criminal charge. And while he may not get full retirement as Superintendent, he was an Assistant Superintendent at the CPD for years. He will get those retirement benefits at the very least.
To make a second point, thee FBI fired McCabe before he qualified for any federal retirement benefits at all. Zero, zip, nada.
Johnson will still get a very lucrative retirement package.
Something big must happen to get fired in the most corrupt city in the country. Weeks before an announced retirement.
What this liberal mayor is doing is like the chef on the Titanic worrying about burning the toast as the ship is sinking. Too little too late!
Lightfoot vowed to clean up Chicago’s of its former ways.
Sorry, this is not possible.
As usual, the Second City Cop has details and speculation:
http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/2019/12/interesting-choice-of-words.html
Well, this sounds ominous, doesn’t it? A police superintendent, slumped over the wheel of his parked vehicle after having several off-duty drinks with a woman other than his wife. And, he doesn’t give the whole sordid story to the Mayor. Who, roundly praises him at his retirement announcement. So, where is the corruption? where is the graft, the systemic violation of civil rights, the theft of public money? Wait, there is none. So, why the public castigation of the Super by the Mayor? It is likely because the mayor is going to be embarrassed after the IG report winds up in the hands of the press.
The Super was out in 30 days. He committed no crimes or even significant violations of departmental policy. This was nothing more than an example of political BS, designed to make the mayor look good to the voters.
Um, no, go read the commentary and posts at Second City Cop. I live near Chicago. SCC has it right — Mr. Johnson was an AWFUL, terrible, corrupt chief. In other words, it was business as usual in Chicago. The last good chief was a member of the Potawatomi tribe.
But don’t worry, whoever Mayor Lightfoot installs as chief will be just as awful, terrible and corrupt — and that chief will be HER chief. Again, business as usual.
There are NO honest politicians or civil servants in Chicago. Arguably in Springfield too. The interesting thing is that as Chicago is reaching the point of collapse, there is going to be an inter-factional war among the Left there. As I have said elsewhere, anyone in any position of power in any of those Democrat factions would be wise to have someone else start their cars. It will be amusing to watch.
Subotai Bahadur
First, Second City Cop is habitually anti-police administration and is really not much better than a gossip circle. Take anything posted there with a large grain of salt.
Now, you misunderstand my point. The point is that Johnson was not removed for any real corruption. He might have been corrupt to the core, but he was no more corrupt on the day thaat the Mayor fired him than he was on the day she praised him a month ago. What changed? the IG report which was very unflattering for Johnson, who Lightfoot had praised just weeks before. So, she took a wholly political action and threw Johnson under the bus, while claiming that she knew nothing, nothing, about his possible philandering, before the report was made public.
What was gained? Not the removal of a corrupt Police Superintendent, if he was corrupt. He was gone by January anyway. So, nothing was gained by the city. So, again, what was gained? What was gained was a BIG CYA for the mayor. The mayor did this to be able to claim that she knew nothing about this and canned the Super to make it look like she was some virtuous crusader. It was politics as usual.
So what you’re saying is don’t have clue one about what you are talking about.
The Chicago city administration is rabidly anti-police. Lightfoot more than most. So the only way to get the top police jobs in that city is to be Lightfoot’s yes men (and women).
Second City Cop has been rated, by cops, one of the top police blogs in the country. So, no, it’s not a gossip circle. They are consistently correct because they traffic in factual information because they have inside knowledge because the bloggers either are cops or retired cops. And they have contacts throughout the city that provide them the inside knowledge.
“A police superintendent, slumped over the wheel of his parked vehicle after having several off-duty drinks with a woman other than his wife.
The Super was out in 30 days. He committed no crimes or even significant violations of departmental policy.”
He was slumped over the wheel of his parked car after drinking for several hours at a popular restaurant & bar. I have heard from other sources the car was still running. I tend to believe that because he didn’t park his car; a passing motorist made the call to 911 because he was slumped over the wheel AT A STOP SIGN. When you are passed out drunk in a public way, engine running or not (but seriously, if he didn’t bother to pull over and park, if you believe he bothered to turn off the ignition I have a bridge to sell you), in any jurisdiction in America that’s called “DUI” because you are still in control of the vehicle. Newsflash: that’s a crime. Ask any cop or district attorney.
The woman wasn’t just “not his wife.” A) the surveillance video shows him kissing her during the hours he was drinking her and B) she is also a known Chicago cop.
Another newsflash: his very public fraternization with a subordinate (by definition all Chicago cops are subordinate to the superintendent of the department) is a violation of department policy.
Just because they traditionally don’t enforce those policies, at least not against upper echelon violators in the CPD, doesn’t change the fact it’s still a violation.
What is Bill Cosby’s Mini-Me doing in Chicago?
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/motorist-calls-911-after-seeing-eddie-johnson-slumped-behind-wheel-of-car-563321011.html
This is the same basic story that all the Chicago news outlets are reporting.
“…According to a press release issued by the department, Johnson was driving at approximately 12:30 a.m. Thursday when he began to feel lightheaded. Johnson pulled his vehicle over and parked.
A passing motorist called 911 and reported that a person was asleep at the wheel of their car at a stop sign. When officers arrived at the scene, they checked Johnson’s well being and “did not observe any signs of impairment,” according to the press release.
Officers did not administer a breathalyzer test during their examination, Johnson said.”
Johnson has already proven himself a liar. His story is he pulled over and parked. But the motorist who called 911 reported that he was slumped over the wheel of his police-issue SUV at a stop sign.
I believe the other driver for a simple reason. He or she probably wouldn’t have noticed someone asleep in their vehicle if it was properly parked. But if the guy is passed out and slumped over his steering wheel at a stop sign that definitely gets your attention.
Even if Johnson’s story is true, that he only had “a couple of drinks” (has any cop who may comment her never heard the “couple of drinks” story) and he failed to take his proper medication but instead took his old medication and had a bad reaction, that is still an admission of guilt. If you’re taking medication that impairs your ability to drive, even if it’s prescription, or in combination with alcohol impairs your ability to drive it is still DUI. DUI simply means driving under the influence. The laws in most states don’t specify what you may be under the influence of as long as it’s impairing your ability to drive. It can be alcohol, illegal drugs, legal over-the-counter drugs, prescription drugs, or any combination of the above. It’s illegal.
And lying Eddie Johnson in his own attempt to minimize his actions has admitted he is guilty of the charge.
And how much does anyone want to bet that Johnson dismissed his official driver because he knew he intended to violate department policy with a “woman not his wife” and he didn’t want any police officers to witness it?