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.
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