Chicago police union boss apologizes for comments downplaying mob attack on Capitol

John Catanzara, who heads Chicago’s largest police union, apologized Friday for comments he made during an interview with a radio reporter in which he downplayed the actions of a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump who stormed the U.S. Capitol building.

In a statement on the union’s website to thousands of active and retired Chicago police officers, Catanzara said he showed a lapse of good judgment in some of his comments about the chaotic scene in Washington that included the shooting death of a woman, the deaths of three other people and injuries to numerous police officers, including one who later died.

“For that I am sorry,” wrote Catanzara, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7. “I brought negative attention to our lodge, the FOP family and law enforcement in general.”

Catanzara didn’t specify which news outlet he was referencing in his apology, but he drew immediate outrage on social media Thursday for comments he made to WBEZ-FM 91.5 about the incident, such as, “there’s no, obviously, violence in this crowd.”