Days after the Chicago Police Department launched an internal investigation of a man for wearing a police uniform while marching in a pro-Palestine demonstration, he got into a confrontation with high-ranking cops during another rally.
The man, wearing a black vest with a Blue Lives Matter patch, was participating in a pro-Palestine demonstration on Michigan Avenue on Saturday when, for an unknown reason, he began shouting at police Cmdr. David Harris, who oversees the Central District that covers downtown, witnesses said.
The encounter lasted several minutes as the man pointed his finger and yelled profanities.
Glen Brooks, the police department’s director of community policing, tried to calm the man, the witnesses said.
Last Wednesday, the same man wore a Chicago police uniform during a pro-Palestine demonstration in the Loop. A Chicago Sun-Times photographer posted pictures on social media showing the man wearing a battle dress uniform — or BDU — which is used during special operations.
The name of a 23-year police veteran and his badge number were on the uniform, along with a CPD patch. The badge number belongs to an officer on a leave of absence since January, according to the department.
That officer is active on social media decrying Israel’s bombing of Gaza following the Hamas attack on Israel. In one post, the officer criticizes Hamas and President Joe Biden in the same sentence. He also compares Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler and says Jews “are not God’s chosen people.”
On Monday, when asked to comment, the officer said, “I don’t want to do anything with the Sun-Times.” The newspaper isn’t naming him because he hasn’t been formally charged with a rule violation.
After Wednesday’s photos were posted on X, the police department launched an investigation into whether the officer violated Rule 42, which says an off-duty cop participating in political activity can’t “wear a uniform or any part thereof that would identify the individual as a Chicago police officer” or “hold himself/herself out as a Chicago police officer.”
A police spokesman said the investigation is continuing and the department hasn’t officially confirmed the man in the demonstrations was the police officer whose badge number was on the uniform Wednesday.
In 2017, two officers were disciplined for a Rule 42 violation that made national news. Those cops were photographed “taking a knee” in the lobby of a South Side police station in solidarity with NFL players who had done the same thing on the sidelines to protest racism.
The officers were reprimanded and given “retraining on applicable policies concerning conduct while on duty and in uniform.”
