[3] In February 2021, Catanzara was suspended without pay from the Chicago Police Department for authoring a series of obscene and inflammatory social media posts, making false reports and being insubordinate or disrespectful to supervisors.
[12][13][14] In August 2021, he was criticized by mayor Lori Lightfoot, the Anti-Defamation League, and the American Jewish Committee for his comments comparing vaccine mandates to The Holocaust.
[17] In November 2021, Catanzara resigned from the CPD amid a disciplinary case against him in regard to alleged departmental rule violations, inflammatory social media posts, and creating false reports against superior officers.
After Catanzara was disqualified, he endorsed Paul Vallas, the only other white candidate running for mayor at the time.
[19] During the mayoral runoff campaign, Catanzara predicted that if the other candidate Brandon Johnson won there would be "blood in the streets" and mass resignations from the police department.
He survived two previous attempts to fire him, before he resigned in the middle of another disciplinary action where he could potentially have lost his job.