Veteran Chicago cop sues local college claiming discrimination because he's white
CHICAGO - A Chicago police lieutenant is suing his law school, alleging it discriminates against white cops.
Lieutenant John Cannon said the UIC School of Law, formerly know as John Marshall Law School, damaged his reputation and his career after he complained about emails from the dean related to George Floyd’s murder.
Like a lot of Chicago police officers, Lieutenant John Cannon recently got a degree from the UIC Law School. But now he’s suing the school, alleging they profiled him because he’s a white cop.
"I was offended to a degree that is hard to articulate," Cannon said. "I come from a long line of honorable police officers."
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Cannon said the trouble started with an email sent by former law school Dean Darby Dickerson to students and staff shortly after George Floyd‘s murder. Cannon said the email linked white police officers with white supremacy.
Cannon said when he asked not to be sent any more messages, he was told by an associate dean, "I could withdraw from the law school or drop out of classes if I wanted to."
Cannon says it got worse when a fellow law student hacked his Facebook account and began attacking him anonymously on Twitter, re-posting his conservative political memes with added commentary.
"He included fake captions on them and then shared them to Twitter pages all over the city, including the mayor, the superintendent of police," Cannon said.
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Cannon says after 23 years on the job, he’s now being disciplined by the police department and is under investigation by COPA. He believes any chance for career advancement is now gone because of the school’s actions.
"There's been a lot of damage to me. One of the reasons I went to law school was because I wanted to further my career. I want to advance, either on the police department or elsewhere," Cannon said.
Cannon’s attorney, Dan Herbert, said the lawsuit is being filed in order to prevent other officers attending the school from being subjected to the same treatment.
"One of our biggest goals here, the law school has to recognize that this type of behavior is so inappropriate, especially for a law school," Herbert said. "It's so inappropriate and I just hope the school recognizes that and takes action to make sure this doesn't happen again."
A spokesperson for the law school says they don’t comment on pending litigation.