The release of the video of the shooting of Chicagoan Laquan McDonald, that showed police officer Jason Van Dyke shooting him 16 times as he walked away from he, and other police, after calls that the seventeen-year-old was breaking into cars, and armed with a folding pocket knife, has thrust Chicago into an unwanted spotlight, as politicians, pundits, and citizens condemn the actions of the officer.
Most significant are the allegations that Mayor Rahm Emanuel, State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, and former Chicago Police Superintendent, Garry McCarthy participated in a cover up of the crime that prevented not only the release of the tape, but charges against Van Dyke, which has resulted in televised protests of marchers against police brutality, along the city’s main downtown thoroughfares, including a Black Friday demonstration that resulted in a blockade of sales along posh Michigan Avenue, a street lined with expensive shops such as Chanel and Tiffany; preventing shoppers from beginning their Christmas shopping.
Monday’s notice by US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, as a result of a request by Illinois Attorney General, Lisa Madigan, that a federal probe into the actions not only of the McDonald case, but the Chicago Police Department, has made national headlines, along with a Dept. of Justice Civil Rights division probe.
It’s been well established that police departments across the country have used excessive force against young black people that has resulted in their deaths, most specifically Freddie Gray in Baltimore, among others.
The McDonald case has also brought presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton into the fray with Sanders suggesting that all involved resign, and Clinton saying that there should be a federal investigation by Justice.
Last week, the so-called “top cop” McCarthy was out when reluctantly fired by Emanuel in the face of mounting public criticism,and calls for his resignation. Voices have also been raised that Alvarez should resign for her 13 month delay in charging Van Dyke, but, she, so far has refused.
Much of the anger - especially that of Chicago’s black community has centered on Emanuel, who in 2013 closed 50 schools in the city’s black neighborhoods forcing grammar school students to cross gang-infested neighborhoods to get to their new schools, a move that prompted the hiring of citizen guards to protect them.
Adding fuel to the fire was an increase in crime during McCarthy’s four year tenure, with shootings appearing almost daily in the local media, again mostly in black neighborhoods, but which also spread to downtown, affecting tourism. Then the local city magazine,Chicago, accused the police of lying about the number of crimes committed.
Taking most of these events -- many of them racially motivated -- into the city’s long history of segregation has meshed the problems of Chicago’s impoverished blacks with a seemingly endemic racism, that has resulted in a lack of quality education, access to employment and economic disinvestment onto the head of the mayor, whose responses often only feed the anger. For example, when a federal probe was first suggested he called the action “misguided.” But, in the face of mounting criticism, now says that he welcomes it.
Emanuel’s mayorship was seen as fractured, before his reelection, and carried many of the hallmarks that he has despised in his predecessors: rubber stamp city council, a refusal to listen to conflicting opinions, resulting in a near kingship, versus the rule of law. And, then after failing to gain a 50 plus one majority, a first in Chicago mayoral elections, had to face a contender in a runoff election, and which some are saying to ensure reelection, did not release the McDonald video, a charge that his spokesperson, Kelley Quinn, says is “patently false.”
Forced by a federal judge to release the tape, many city hall observers have accused him of “backing and filling” with his responses, and increased their calls for him to step down.
In other areas, most prominently city finances, Emanuel has been at odds with the severe issues that Chicago faces, notably, the pension payment hole that he plugged, primarily with a $588 million property increase, and a host of nickel-and-dime fees, that public finance attorney, David Fernandez, said in our interview for my Examiner column, was like the little boy putting his finger in the dyke to stem the flow of water, in the oft told children's story.
His failure to grasp the importance of a true budget may make the city even more vulnerable to financial distress, and even greater costs in high interest loans and more taxes for residents.
Adding to the mayoral woes are a possible teacher’s strike after protracted negotiations between the Chicago Teachers Union and the school board, but an action that belies years of mutual distrust between the city and the union, but which was further accelerated by the school closings. The vote to strike by its 27,000 members, will take place this week. It requires a 75 percent vote of approval and in 2012, the last time they struck, 90 percent of the teachers approved.
The spotlight on Emanuel has made the fifty-six year old mayor look far less stable in his role, despite a reputation, as a scrappy ingfigher with claws, much of it garnered from his time as chief of staff to President Obama. At the helm of the nation’s third largest city, he cannot afford the ill will garnered by recent press headlines, many of whom now, make him seem defensive, hostile and ineffectual - especially with the McDonald case which makes his earlier campaign promises of transparency seem hollow. Combined with votes of no confidence in he, and his team, the outlook appears dark.
Alvarez, herself, has now faced a lack of support from two Cook County Board Commissioners, one of whom is Garcia, the other its president, the highly regarded board president, Toni Preckwinkle. She has also lost the support of the esteemed U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, whose support, along with the Hispanic vote, is critical for her keeping her job, with the upcoming March primaries. Close on the heels of these losses Alvarez also faces a rival contender for her office, who once worked for Preckwinkle.
With the increased vigilance by DOJ on the national epidemic of police misactions, the McDonald case also forces many to look at previous Chicago police confrontations, and a long history of abuse stretching back to the 1968 Democratic Convention where protesters were beaten in Grant Park, to the 1980’s where suspects, many of them black, were tortured by police commander, Jon Burge.
Most damaging are, as I also reported, accusations of a black hole detention center run by CPD on the city’s West Side, where even lawyers cannot find their clients.
The call now, from DOJ, and others, is an end to not only police brutality, but excusing bad behavior, long standing cronyism, and instead replacing them with lawful and effective policing; actions that have now resulted in the appointment of a special prosecutor.
For Emanuel, the question for many is two-fold: first what does he know and, secondly when did he know it; but most importantly how can Chicago best serve all its citizens, in fairness? Both of which seem in jeopardy, with its reputation in tatters, its economy increasingly fragile, and its leadership beset by federal probes, now CPD, but also former school superintendent Barbara Byrd Bennett, who was charged with kickbacks after a cooked $20.5 million no-bid contract for a suspect school principal training program. But, also the 2014 federal conviction of city comptroller, Amer Ahmad, who was handed a 15-year prison sentence.
Also, on Monday, Alvarez refused to convict another police officer, George Hernandez, accused of killing Ronald Johnson, in an altercation, who she says had a gun, in his hand, a charge vehemently denied by the Johnson family attorney. Increased calls for her resignation are sure to increase, along with more protests, and even more damaging, national media attention.
Many residents are now asking themselves if Emanuel can stay the course, or is this the darkness before the light? When asked if the release of the McDonald tape would have affected his reelection chances, he testily replied, “That’s a hypothetical.”
