Chicago Cop Resigns From Police Union 'That Doesn't Represent Me'

CHICAGO — Police union president John Catanzara made it clear that under his leadership the fraternal order of police doesn't want its ranks littered with the kind of cops that kneel alongside protesters.

“Any member of Lodge 7 who is going to take a knee and basically side with protesters while they’re in uniform will subject themselves to discipline in the lodge up to and including expulsion from Lodge 7,” Catanzara told WGN Radio host Bob Sirott.

Police officer Julius Givens says he won't give Catanzara a chance to can't kick him out of the FOP.

The 30-year-old Black police officer quit the union "effective immediately, according to a resignation letter to Catanzara posted on Medium.

"I am bewildered that given your position as the leader of one of the most powerful unions in the United States, that you would respond in such a manner," Givens wrote. "To hear the cry of the people we serve and ignore it is a crime against humanity."

Read Givens resignation letter: "Why I’m Terminating my Membership with my Police Union"

Other Chicago cops have criticized Catanzara for his comments. Officer Carmella Means is one of them. She recently identified herself as the Black female officer photographed kneeling in uniform holding a "Black Lives Matter" sign, her black-gloved fist — a symbol of "Black Power" raised skyward.

Means told FOX 32 the photo, which went viral online, was meant as a message to remind police union leaders they "represent all members."

But Givens could be the first Chicago cop to quit the union, according to a police department spokesman.

Givens told me there isn't a secret political message tucked inside his resignation letter.

He spoke out for himself, as a civilian.

"It has to be clear that this rhetoric, opinion and the images that the FOP puts out doesn't represent me," he said. "And the reality is I'm going to have kids one day and I want to make sure that they know their father is on the right side of history."

Givens grew up in St. Louis, a middle child with five siblings raised by single mother.

As a kid, his mother would take the family to downtown St. Louis before sunrise on Martin Luther King Jr. holiday to march in honor of the slain civil rights leader. They sang Black spirituals — "We Shall Overcome" and "Keep Your Eyes On The Prize" — with lyrics that sometimes were the "last line of defense for a physically, mentally, and emotionally persecuted people at the hands of their own police," Givens wrote in a separate Medium post.

Time spent at marches helped form his "inner sense of right vs. wrong: the foundations of ... a conscience that would be put to the test many years later."

Givens was taught in Jesuit schools. He fell in love with Chicago as a boy while visiting on family vacations, and moved here after graduating from the University of Missouri to work for technology companies.

He founded The Explorer Program, an after-school group that taught high school students that art mixed with creative thinking can help solve real-world problems, before he became "the police," which he calls "the honor of a lifetime."

In his FOP resignation letter, Givens explained his resignation honors his mother, and the education she provided that taught him to seek out and be of good service to the poor, suffering and oppressed, and never remain silent.

"Nobel Laureate, Elie Wiesel, reminds me to “never remain silent… Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere," Givens wrote. "My job as a Police officer shows me that the public wants and desires a healthy partnership with us."

In Chicago, silence — as in the "Thin Blue Line" code of silence — is a tool that has been used to harbor corruption in the police department. There's even a provision embedded in the police union contract, for instance, that gives officers accused of misconduct at least two hours to keep silent before being required to make a statement.

Getting the "story straight" and keeping your mouth shut until the FOP lawyer is in the room is standard procedure when a cop gets jammed up.

Givens wrote that he doesn't want that kind of protection from the FOP contract, either.

"If I require any legal representation with regards to my duties as a police officer I will provide those services independent of Lodge 7 moving forward," Givens wrote in his resignation letter.

Givens said he knows that long-time police union loyalists might not accept his decision to secede from the FOP. But he's not worried about whether he's doing the right thing.

"Change is here. It's right in front of us. If you can't see it, you're choosing not to," Givens said. "And I take pride in my colleagues knowing my position. The folks I work with, it's no secret to them."