President Trump, who has long been an advocate for law enforcement, is facing much of the blame for the riots that ensued inside the Capitol on Wednesday, but perhaps the second in line are the Capitol Police officers. Many questions remain unanswered: Why weren’t the police more prepared? Why didn't the police do more to stop it? Why did it take so long for the police to secure the premises?
John Catanzara, president of Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police Lodge, said that he shares the frustrations of the more than 70 million Americans who voted for the President, and that the president shouldn’t receive all the blame.
“Do I get why people showed up there? Absolutely. Do I agree with their frustration? I share it 100 percent,” Catanzara told WGN Chicago.
“I don’t agree with storming the building at all,” he said. “The president has to own a little responsibility for that. His words in that rally did not help...they only made it worse. But they don’t get total blame. We’re talking about adults. Personal responsibility goes a long way with me.”
The common narrative among the left-wing media conglomerate is that the riot response was racist; even Joe Biden said during his address to the nation that the police response would have been “very very different” if the group had been Black Lives Matter.
Catanzara dismissed that notion.
“People always want to make it a racial thing,” he responded.
“Even the ones going after officers, I didn’t see any of them throwing frozen bottles, bricks or shooting fireworks at police. They were simply pushing past police to get access to the building,” he added. “Still criminal behavior, no doubt. But that’s not the level of violence we saw across many parts of the country this summer. It was totally different.”
Catanzara is a vocal supporter of the president. He has a Trump flag on his desk, along with a framed picture of a presidential tweet praising him, and has even attended Trump rallies.
But, he was disciplined by the Chicago Police Department for posting a photo to social media praising the president’s message while in uniform.
While the collective masses of Trump supporters are getting labeled with all kinds of names, Catanzara sympathized with them.
“They’re individuals,” he said. “They get to do what they want. Again, they were voicing frustration. They’re entitled to voice their frustration,” he said in an interview with WBEZ. “They clearly have been ignored and they’re still being ignored as if they’re lunatics and treasonous now, which is beyond stupid.
“It’s an inconvenience at this point, is all it is,” he added. “This is not some mass insurrection, coup attempt. They’re not destroying or burning down the Capitol building. This hyperbole and this emotion that the media is spewing now, like this is some kind of end-of-times scenario is ridiculous.”
