Political Pandeering in Chicago

[JackLuis]

Chicago police chief ousted amid tensions over killing of Laquan McDonald

Chicago’s police chief was ousted on Tuesday following days of unrest over video footage showing the shooting of a black teenager and the filing of murder charges against a white police officer in the young man’s death.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who had stood by Superintendent Garry McCarthy, announced during a news conference he had asked McCarthy to resign. The mayor said he was creating a new police accountability task force.

The announcements came a week after the officer, Jason Van Dyke, was charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Laquan McDonald, who was shot 16 times. The video of the killing was released on the same day.

High-profile killings of black men at the hands of mainly white law enforcement officials in U.S. cities over the past two years have prompted demonstrations across the country, and have stoked a national debate on race relations and police tactics.

The mayor, a Democrat and the former chief of staff to U.S. President Barack Obama, said he was responsible for what happened in the case, the same as the police superintendent.

“I’m responsible. I don’t shirk that responsibility,” Emanuel said. He added that the creation of the task force was meant to rebuild trust in the police department of one of the country’s largest cities.

Guess who's running for reelection?

 

[JackLuis]

WATCH: CNN’s cop-defender gets scolded on air for calling NAACP youth president ‘you people’

CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin called out the network’s law enforcement analyst, Harry Houck, on Tuesday for referring to a black activist from Chicago as “you people.”

After Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that he had fired Police Supt. Garry McCarthy over fallout from Laquan McDonald’s shooting, Baldwin asked Houck and NAACP Youth President Stephen Green for their reaction.

Houck took the side of the outgoing police chief, saying that Emanuel should have been made to resign instead.

“This mayor should be impeached, he should resign,” the former NYPD detective opined. “The National Guard should go into Chicago, take that city back from the thugs.”

Green explained that activists had called on the Justice Department to do a “top-down investigation over the overall patterns and practices of the Chicago Police Department.”

“This isn’t new,” he pointed out. “When you have a police department that has its own domestic Guantanamo Bay [Detention Center], when you have neglect on the South Side of Chicago, when you have cases that go unheard as it relates to young black children and queer and transgender voices, we have a problem in the city of Chicago.”

 

[midwestyankee]

Chicago police chief ousted amid tensions over killing of Laquan McDonald



Guess who's running for reelection?

Rahm was re-elected in the Spring of 2015. Many, many people in Chicago believe that Emmanuel was largely behind the delay in processing the claims surrounding the death of Laquan McDonald. Had the video been released within a month or two after the event, that would have been right in the middle of the mayoral election and it's very likely that leaders in the black community here would have refused to support Emmanuel. They would have urged their followers to vote for his opponent in the Democratic primary, Chuy Garcia.

I'm not surprised that Emmanuel fired the police chief. Also look out for the State's Attorney to be opposed when she runs for re-election. She, no doubt following orders from Emmanuel's office, delayed releasing the results of her investigation into the McDonald shooting until just a day before the federal judge ruled that the video had to be released. She'll go down just like the chief did, only more quietly because she's an elected official.

 

[dan_c00000]

Guess who's running for reelection?

Yeah, like four years from now.

 

[JackLuis]

Yeah, like four years from now.

You can never be too early when you want to be Mayor for life.

(I thought I read it on the interwebs, I was deluded by the derp. )

 

[dan_c00000]

You can never be too early when you want to be Mayor for life.

(I thought I read it on the interwebs, I was deluded by the derp. )

True but the dude before him served six consecutive terms so he's got a long way to go to catch up.