Should Rahm Emanuel Resign? Chicago Mayor Reverses Position On Police Oversight, Avoids Scrutiny...

[Purveyor]

hould Rahm Emanuel Resign? Chicago Mayor Reverses Position On Police Oversight, Avoids Scrutiny From Democratic Allies After Laquan McDonald Video

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s announced on Tuesday that he fired police superintendent Garry McCarthy, a statement that comes one week after the release of a video showing a police officer shooting a 17-year-old African-American boy to death. Among the questions asked of Emanuel during the morning press conference, which was originally scheduled to discuss police accountability, was about why his administration kept the 2014 video under wraps until well after he was re-elected in a hotly contested runoff vote.

Emanuel’s political motives have been scrutinized in recent days and activists and politicians around the country have called for both Emanuel and McCarthy’s resignations, but the timing of the video's release is not the only issue that has been called into question. Another set of issues surround statements Emanuel made just weeks ago, criticizing those protesting against the brutal police tactics illustrated in the video. Some have also raised questions about how his connections to Washington Democrats will possibly invite a Department of Justice investigation, like the one earlier this year in Ferguson that called for “immediate, wholesale and structural corrective action."

“Our goal is to build the trust and confidence with the public. And at this point and at this juncture in the city, given what we are working on, he has become an issue rather than dealing with the issues,” Emanuel said Tuesday of McCarthy. “No one person trumps my commitment to the city of Chicago and its future,” he added, calling McCarthy “a distraction.”

About a month before the video was released, Emanuel made headlines when he said activists’ focus on police brutality had left law enforcement in a "fetal" position, making officers afraid to fight crime as aggressively as necessary. Emanuel made comments opposing increased scrutiny of police, though under his tenure Chicago's police department has killed more civilians than any other police department in a large city.

That same police department has also operated a secret interrogation site, which was exposed by the Guardian earlier this year. Chicago police held detainees at the interrogation facility, known as Homan Square, for hours without access to legal counsel or other civil rights.

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http://www.ibtimes.com/should-rahm-emanuel-resign-chicago-mayor-reverses-position-police-oversight-avoids-2205279

[lostnfound]

1. More important than him resigning, I'd like to see truly independent review for possible prosecution

Of any questionable shootings by Chicago police. They've proven that they lie and cover up. They should not be allowed to get away with actual murder.
They could start by investigating that poor little Rios kid that was one of eight people shot by police on 4th of July weekend 2014. That one really bugged me, because there was nothing but the word of the cop and a gun on the ground, and the kid was so young, coming home from a birthday party, little or no indications of criminal tendencies.
My gut feeling at the time on that one was that it was a total lie.same bullshit cover stories out of the vile Fraternal Order of Police spokesman, too. The same guy who claimed that Laquan McDonald "lunged" at officers had a similar bullshit colorful description in the Rios case. But no eyewitnesses except the murderer.

[B Calm]

2. No, he was elected to clean up the corruption in the police department.