Why is Mayor Rahm Emanuel getting a pass on the Chicago Public Schools rape and sexual abuse scandal?

In this era of #MeToo and grand jury investigations of the Catholic Church, Emanuel should have been driven out of Chicago with pitchforks. Instead, the Democrat Party and the media have been giving him high-fives as he takes a victory lap on his mayoralty.

Back in June, a Chicago Tribune investigation uncovered 523 credible cases of rape and sexual abuse of minors at CPS over the last 10 years. Again, note that this enormous number is in just one city over 10 years.

In one case, a 16-year-old track star was raped 40 times by her coach.

Since September, CPS officials have received 624 new complaints of sex abuse, including 133 allegations of adult misconduct.

This should be a national scandal, not just a Chicago scandal. Go back a few years and you might find enough cases at CPS to rival, or surpass, clergy abuse in the Catholic Church.

Emanuel’s appointed heads of the Chicago Board of Education knew about these abuse cases and hid them from the public for eight years. Emanuel controls the Chicago City Council, which refused to hold public hearings for months. A single public hearing was finally held this month, and CPS’ CEO Janice Jackson, another Emanuel appointee, was a no-show.

Has Rahm been forced to resign? No, he’s shopping for a national cable gig and his Hollywood agent brother, Ari Emanuel, will make sure he gets it. He said he won’t rule out another run for public office if Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., calls it quits.

So why isn’t Rahm being held accountable for the CPS sex abuse scandal? One word: racism. Chicago Democrats don’t really care about the CPS sex abuse scandal. When I ask them why, they quietly tell me, “It’s just black kids, right?” They care about blacks when they're voting. At other times, not so much.

For eight years, Emanuel has gotten a pass on Chicago’s homicide rate, too, whose vastly disproportionate effect on black Chicagoans is well-known. So far in 2018, 2,780 people have been shot and 556 people have been murdered, mostly on the city’s South and West sides. The city’s clearance rate on homicides is 17.1 percent, so fewer than one in six murders are solved.

Again, Democrats in power don’t really care because it’s just black kids. For them, race is only an election strategy.

This is a perfect opportunity for Republicans to expose liberal hypocrisy on race and sexual violence. After Democrats falsely accused Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of being the leader of an Irish Catholic rape gang, one would think the GOP would want some comeuppance. But they’ve been mum.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is the only one who has taken action. She revoked a $4 million grant to CPS over their mishandling of sexual assault complaints. CPS recently filed a lawsuit to restore the funding.

I’ve talked with national Republicans about what is happening in Chicago too. They shrug their shoulders and say, “Chicago gets what it deserves.” This is not the reaction of a viable alternative party.

The Party of Lincoln stood up and opposed slavery when it was unpopular to do so. Republicans have an opportunity in Chicago to be on the right side of history again. They can speak out on behalf of the child victims of sex abuse at Chicago Public Schools, regardless of their race, color, or creed because it's the right thing to do.

A native of Chicago’s South Side, William J. Kelly (@Williamjkelly) is the host of the Citizen Kelly Show and the founder of RevDigital.