Chicago cop will keep job despite links to Proud Boys, failing to disclose he was under FBI inv.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2022/10/14/23405180/chicago-cop-keep-his-job-links-proud-boys-failing-to-disclose-under-fbi-investigation

A Chicago police officer won’t be fired for fraternizing with members of the far right Proud Boys and failing to tell police officials he had come under FBI scrutiny, the city’s watchdog announced Friday.

Officer Robert Bakker was instead suspended for 120 days after a lengthy internal investigation was resolved through a “mediation agreement” in which he agreed not to contest the allegations against him, according to the Office of the Inspector General’s most recent quarterly report.

Bakker wasn’t named in the report, but the Sun-Times has previously reported on the probe and his association with the Proud Boys, an extremist group now at the center of the sprawling criminal inquiry into the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The investigation was sparked after Vice reported on his ties in May 2020. The initial reporting centered on leaked chat logs showing Bakker communicating and organizing meetings with members of the Proud Boys, which has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Canadian government.

While Bakker previously told the Sun-Times he was never a member of the group, he didn’t deny taking part in a Proud Boys Telegram channel.

In the chat logs, Bakker spoke harshly of a rainbow-colored police emblem the police department posted on social media to celebrate the LGBTQ community. “I’m not wearing any rainbow bull - - - -,” he said.

[ProfessorGAC]

1. Apparently, We Need Wiser Mediators

I don't see how association, even tangentially, with a known anti-government group with a history of violent confrontation is compatible with a public service j9b.