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Chicago police union boss rips city politicians: Cops are ‘f*cking sacrificial lambs’

May 2, 2026 | | Print Article

The tragic end of watch for a Chicago police officer found the union president blasting the “never too many” attitude of leftist politicians: “We are f*cking sacrificial lambs …”


(Video Credit: WGN News)

In a striking contrast, the same week that Democrat politicians were attempting to deflect from an attempt on President Donald Trump’s life, posture that “no one is above the law” and seemingly support unions — so long as they favor communist labor holidays — the oft-detracted “thoughts and prayers” were rolled out by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D).

Their sentiments did little to dissuade Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara from slamming the soft-on-crime policies seen as partially responsible for the killing of 38-year-old CPD officer John Bartholomew, who unloaded on the lack of action to prevent the suspect and “the despicable acts that this piece of sh*t did.”

During a Thursday press conference that followed the detention hearing of 26-year-old Alphanso Talley, alleged to have killed Bartholomew and wounded his 57-year-old partner while out on pretrial release for an alleged carjacking and robbery, the union head decried the suspect’s behavior in the courtroom.

“His smug attitude, the smiling, the smirking, the laughing, the I love yous from the family, even after hearing the despicable acts that this piece of sh*t did, it’s appalling. It’s disgusting. It’s the reason the death penalty should still be in Illinois.”

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“When is enough? We keep talking about one is enough when we talk about a police-involved shooting. One is too many,” said Catanzara before turning to the flipside. “What about one police officer being murdered? It’s never too many. We are f*cking sacrificial lambs for the politicians in this city and state. It needs to stop. It just does.”

According to court documents, the officers had escorted an ambulance transporting Talley to Swedish Hospital on Saturday after the suspect was alleged to have pistol-whipped a Family Dollar store employee and robbed her. After being taken to the hospital over complaints of trouble breathing following the ingestion of drugs earlier, the partially handcuffed suspect drew a secreted firearm while being taken for a CT scan.

Bartholomew was shot in the head, and his partner took a bullet to the chin that was said to be lodged in the back of the officer’s neck, while the naked suspect fled the scene before he was later arrested again.

“Nobody knows if it was tucked in a fat fold or if it was inside his body,” said Catanzara. “I don’t know if we’ll ever have that answer. The reality was if it was inside his body, no amount of searches would have found that without a full cavity search … there is, within the police department, a reluctance to be as aggressive or thorough as we have in the past with searches because of complaints.”

Speaking with WGN, Pastor Donovan Price of Solutions and Resources commented on the reactions inside the courtroom and said of Bartholomew’s widow and one of his stepsons, “I watched his family literally physically move as they heard these words spoken of their loved one’s last moments as if the bullet was still traveling through and through.”

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Looking to changes, the union president said, “I fully expect conversations to occur, policies to change, training to change. Procedures for prisoner custodial escorts are going to absolutely change. That’s for the department and the city to figure out.”

Meanwhile, statements from Johnson and Pritzker expressed the need for prayers as the city’s soft-on-crime policies were what led to the release of the suspect with an extensive rap sheet.

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Kevin Haggerty
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