A top Chicago police officer has come under fire over footage of her DJing at a casino while she was on sick leave recovering from shoulder surgery.
The 28-second video posted shows Saadia Carter – who heads up the department’s Special Investigations Unit – turning the dials at the Horseshoe casino in Indiana, just minutes from downtown Chicago, on January 15.
The incident was publicized by Paul Vallas, a Democrat running for mayor. He claims Carter was raising her arms during the set, although that moment was not caught on camera.
In a Facebook post last month, Vallas criticized Carter for ‘moonlighting’ as a DJ and ‘holding her hand in the air. He called it an example of the police department ‘promoting unqualified and undeserving personnel into positions of leadership and affording them preferential treatment.’
Carter is the wife of Chicago PD First Deputy Superintendent Eric Carter, who is the second most powerful police officer in the Windy City.
The senior cop also shared a Facebook photo of herself raising her arm and DJing in December, although its unclear which arm she had the surgery on – and whether the snap was taken before or after her operation.
Video posted to social media allegedly shows Chicago Police commander Saadia Carter performing a DJ set at the Horseshoe casino in Indiana while on medical leave in January
Carter (right) leads the Special Investigations Unit, which looks into child sex abuse claims. Her husband is Eric Carter (left), the department’s First Deputy Superintendent
A photo posted to her Facebook account in December shows Carter waving her arm in front of DJ equipment.
In a lengthy response, Carter called Vallas’ comments ‘political games’ and said she followed ‘all rules regarding my recovery from a work related injury.’
She insisted she had done nothing wrong, only DJs as a hobby, and that the past-time sees her ‘basically push buttons,’ meaning it doesn’t strain any injuries.
It is unclear if she was paid for her DJ set. The Horseshoe Hammond and the Chicago Police Department did not respond to requests for comment from DailyMail.com.
Carter leads the Special Investigations Unit, which investigates allegations of the sexual assault against children under 13 along with family related sexual abuse cases involving underage victims, according to Chicago police.
In the video, Carter wears a red wig as she bops energetically to the music while standing in front of a laptop onstage. She doesn’t appear to raise one of her arms, which remains by her side at all times.
Carter defended herself in a lengthy Facebook post on February 18, calling Paul Vallas’ comments ‘political games’ and saying she has never been employed by the Horseshoe
‘Deejaying is my hobby and I absolutely love love love it! Music is life!!!’ Carter said
She plays near a banner that reads ‘Horseshoe’ while her image is projected onto a large screen for the crowd surrounding the stage.
In her post defending her behavior, she said she started a group of Chicago police DJs ‘when officers nationwide were being targeted for the actions of the few back in late 2020,’ referring to months-long nationwide protests against police use of force.
‘Deejaying is my hobby and I absolutely love love love it! Music is life!!!’ she said.
She denied ever having been employed by Horseshoe and said that she puts together ‘free music sessions online to spread love through music, but most importantly, to show police in a different light.
‘Please note that I am smart enough to know that everything I do will be played out for the benefit of those incompetent politicians that have nothing substantial to say, other than target innocent individuals in hopes of getting their moment in the media based on fabricated BS,’ she added.
Carter noted that DJing is relatively easy compared to everyday tasks like driving.
‘I did have shoulder surgery and to be honest with you, it takes more strength and effort to turn a steering wheel than it does to Deejay.
Chicago mayoral candidate Paul Vallas, a Democrat, suggested that Carter’s DJ set was another example of ‘promoting unqualified and undeserving personnel into positions of leadership and affording them preferential treatment’
His February 18 Facebook post prompted a response from Carter on the same day
‘Current equipment requires you basically punch buttons. My hobby brings me much needed peace and happiness while I struggle to recover and as I watch my husband work his AZZ off daily for this great City, and still be targeted for the benefit of politics,’ she said.
She went further by promoting her Twitch channel, where she streams some of her sets.
‘By the way, please follow me on Twitch. I will be doing a set dedicated to all of you this Saturday. Make sure you activate the notification button so you will know when I am live. Please make sure that you pass this information along to all of your friends,’ she wrote.
Back in August, Carter’s husband Eric faced criticism after he became impatient when the Emerald Society of cops arrived at the parking lot of the medical examiner’s office to honor late officer Ella French, 29, who was killed during a traffic stop.
Eric Carter, Saadia’s husband, was criticized last year after he chose to skip a ritual honoring an officer who was killed in a traffic stop
Ella French, 29, was killed during a traffic stop in West Englewood on August 7. When the Emerald Society showed up to the medical examiner’s office to honor her, Eric Carter said, ‘We don’t have 20 minutes for this s***’
Former police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said the tradition was ‘sacred’ and that it was ‘inexcusable’ that Carter chose to skip it
‘We don’t have 20 minutes for this s***,’ Carter said in a recording, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
‘We’re not waiting on the bagpipes. Go ahead and get the vehicle inside. Take it all the way inside. Do not stop.’
Former police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said the tradition was ‘sacred’ and that it was ‘inexcusable’ that Carter chose to skip it.
‘There’s always enough time. Let’s put it that way. If we had to wait two or three days, I would have done it,’ McCarthy told the Sun-Times.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot later defended Eric, who is second-in-command of the police department.
‘There was no official honor guard that night. There was, let me choose my words carefully, [a] well-meaning but not well-organized group that wanted to hijack the procession. Which would have meant that the family would have been delayed exponentially in getting to the morgue,’ the mayor said.
‘Given the new restrictions that the new coroner has put in place, that wouldn’t have been fair to them. So, a call was made under those circumstances to focus on the family. Eric Carter made the right call. I support what he did.’
Emonte Morgan, 21, was charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and other charges in French’s death. His brother Eric Morgan, 22, was charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon and obstruction of justice.
Vallas, who posted about Saadia Carter’s hobby and prompted her rant, was the CEO of Chicago Public Schools from 1995 to 2001. He also headed up school districts in Philadelphia, Louisiana and Bridgeport, Connecticut.
He ran for governor of Illinois in 2002, losing the Democratic primary to former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. In 2019, he ran for mayor of Chicago, losing that primary to Lightfoot, whom he later endorsed.
Crime and police accountability is a hotter topic in Chicago than ever before.
Overall crime in Chicago is up 34 percent compared to the same time last year. Crime is up eight percent from 2020 and six percent from 2019.
Overall crime in Chicago is up 34 percent compared to the same time last year. Crime is up eight percent from 2020 and six percent from 2019
Theft has gone up by 61 percent and car theft by 45 percent compared to last year, according to the latest statistics from the Chicago Police Department.
There have been 87 murders in the city this year alone, up 85 percent from 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Late last month, an elderly Chicago couple were brutally attacked by a stranger as they walked home from a subway stop in yet another instance of the city’s spiraling crime wave.
Bob Tataryn and his wife, Kathryn, were walking home last week from the Chicago Transit Authority Blue Line stop in the city’s upscale Irving Park neighborhood, where houses go for $550,000 to $750,000, when a man started following them.
As the suspect, who has not yet been identified, continued to stalk the couple, Bob confronted him and asked why he was following them.
The man started punching them. It was only when Bob yelled that his wife was battling cancer, that the assailant left.
Bob Tataryn and his wife, Kathryn, were walking home from the Chicago Transit Authority Blue Line stop on February 17 when they were brutally attacked
Following the attack, Bob took to Facebook to share this photo of himself with a swollen nose and gauze taped to his face
Bob was left with a broken nose and severe bruises to his face in the aftermath of the attack, and Kathryn needed two surgeries to deal with broken wrists and a broken jaw. She is now unable to open her mouth, Bob told CBS 2, and can only eat liquid food.
‘My wife and I are not doing well,’ Bob told DailyMail.com, adding that they are ‘mentally weak’ and ‘physically improving.’
Bob clarified that his wife does not suffer from cancer but he had yelled it in a desperate move to try and get the attacker to stop.
At the CPAC conservative conference last month, Donald Trump lashed out against liberal cities for their ‘soft-on-crime’ policies that he claimed had left America’s streets ‘drenched with blood.’
Donald Trump said ‘Democrat-run cities are drenched in blood,’ during his speech at CPAC on Firday as he blamed ‘soft-on-crime’ policies for a rise in violence across the nation
Trump said Democratic leaders were to blame for the recent rise in homicides across the country, which saw an uptick in 2021 of 5 per cent last year after a 44 per cent rise the previous year, according to the Council on Criminal Justice’s last report.
‘Murders are setting records in our cities,’ he said. ‘The streets of our Democrat-run cities are drenched in blood.’
Trump’s comments are the latest rebuke against Democrats like Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and New York Mayor Eric Adams, who vowed to curb a continuing rise in violent crimes but have little to show for it.
