On the same day that Rahm Emanuel apologized for the police shooting of Laquan McDonald, a state lawmaker introduced a measure in Springfield, Illinois to recall the beleaguered Chicago mayor, according to ThinkProgress.
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Earlier Thursday, more than a dozen people representing various activist organizations stood in front of Chicago Police Department headquarters calling for the resignation and indictment of the mayor and state’s attorney, also emphasizing that the movement was far from over. Several aldermen didn’t think his call for reform was honest. “We don’t want your apology!” His speech was disingenuous and he didn’t address the real reason why he sat on the video for 13 months, to win reelection.
His Rahmea Culpa was OK, but not as good as the dramatic and heartfelt Richie Culpas of the Daley years, when former Mayor Richard Daley would get caught backing some corrupt and costly deal for his pals. Emanuel has said he had not seen the video before its release, something critics of the mayor doubt since the city settled with McDonald’s family for $5 million even before a lawsuit was filed.
Chicago’s ABC affiliate relayed a statement from city hall on the proposal. The recall bill is just one of the many avenues that activists are trying in their effort to fire the mayor.
State Representative Mary Flowers says the recall bill probably couldn’t apply to Emanuel, since it hasn’t been passed and he’s already elected.
“I’ve literally been in my dorm doing my homework this whole time”. No one could have predicted that it would take more than a year to finish the probe.
“I own the problem of police brutality, and I’ll fix it”, he promised. He’s shown effective leadership persuading Chicagoans that he’s made tough but necessary cuts. Alvarez said another passenger in that vehicle told police he heard Johnson cock a gun and instruct the driver to head back to where the shots had been fired.
The Chicago Tribune first reported Thursday that two Cook County officers were present the night of the shooting of Laquan McDonald, but neither filed police reports.
Thanks in part to a series of missteps by the mayor after the shooting, exacerbated by a longer-term failure to address more systemic problems with Chicago’s police department, Emanuel appears to have lost much of the city’s trust. He’s taking on this seemingly impossible job in the conventional way, appointing a task force that will recommend changes several months from now.
Angelina Espindola, of Pilsen, dismissed the emotions the mayor displayed during his speech, calling them “crocodile tears”.
Flowers says Emanuel should step down.
Emanuel is not the only politician facing the wrath of Chicago residents. The video of the teen being shot led to the forced resignation of the city’s police chief and multiple investigations, including one from the U.S. Justice Department.
“The important thing is being able to express those three things: how you’re going to fight crime, how you’re going to do community policing and how you’re going to keep the morale of the department up”, he says.
Still, Ford insisted it wasn’t necessarily a comment on Emanuel himself.
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Second, the mayor discussed the Chicago Police Department and the culture of policing in America. As these stories indicate, the Emanuel administration was involved in both of these urban atrocities. But the crisis in Chicago will put to the test not only his retail political skills but also his strategic wisdom.
