The Chicago Police Department says that it is canceling days off for all full-duty members of the department this weekend, with multiple reports indicating that this is being done in anticipation of a verdict being delivered in the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial in Wisconsin.
According to the department, all sworn members of the force will have one regular day off canceled between Nov. 12 and 14. The statement, sent to NBC 5, did not give a specific reason for the cancellation of days off.
Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara was more explicit, connecting the cancellation of days off to the upcoming verdict in the Rittenhouse case, which he told multiple outlets, including the Chicago Sun-Times, is a violation of a meditation settlement over the cancellation of time off in previous instances where officials feared a breakout of civil unrest.
Catanzara argues that the cancellation of days off was not done with enough advance notice for officers, which he says would be a violation of that settlement.
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It is unclear when the Rittenhouse trial will conclude. The prosecution in the case rested earlier this week, and Rittenhouse took the stand Wednesday to testify in connection with the summer of 2020 incident in which he killed two men and wounded a third during demonstrations following the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha.
The former police youth cadet from suburban Antioch had gone to Kenosha with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle and a medical kit, which he said was done to protect property from the damaging protests that broke out over Blake’s shooting by a white Kenosha police officer.
The jury in the case is being asked whether Rittenhouse’s actions were protected under Wisconsin’s self-defense law, which allows individuals to use deadly force “if necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm.”
