By Police1 Staff
CHICAGO — A group of officers who worked the disastrous rally for Donald Trump at the University of Illinois Chicago on Friday are speaking out against how their chief handled the event.
In a letter to university leaders and campus police Chief Kevin Booker, seven of the officers who worked the rally claim restrictions placed on them prior to the event put them in unnecessary danger, according to ABC-7.
The rally made headlines Friday after escalating violence resulted in the cancellation of the event. The violence could have been avoided, the officers claim, if they had been given more freedom to make arrests.
The UIC officers were allegedly told not to place their hands on anyone at the event, were not provided riot gear and were not allowed to carry pepper spray.
“We feel that, at every single turn, what we, your officers, needed to perform our job safely and to the best of our abilities was disregarded and ignored,” the officers wrote in a portion of the letter obtained by Mediaite.
The university refuted the claims, saying in a statement that riot gear was available “if needed” and that orders not to place hands on anyone were “instructions…only given to event security and Trump campaign security.”
In response to the pepper spray allegation, university officials wrote: “O.C. spray, or pepper spray, is contraindicated in closed, confined areas such as the Pavilion and could have presented a hazardous situation for event attendees.”