Protesters keep pressure on humbled Chicago mayor

Aamer Madhani | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Raw: Protesters run through Chicago Macy's Demonstrators marched through a Chicago Macy's on Wednesday hours after Mayor Rahm Emanuel gave a speech apologizing in the wake of recent video footage showing fatal police shootings. (Dec. 10)

CHICAGO — Despite a public apology from Mayor Rahm Emanuel for his handling of the high-profile police shooting death of Laquan McDonald, protests in the city are showing no signs of letting up as calls for the ouster of the embattled mayor are intensifying.

Protests continued on Thursday as dozens of medical students from area universities held a “die-in,” laying on the ground for 16 minutes of silence in front of City Hall on Thursday morning. The number of minutes symbolizes the 16 shots that police officer Jason Van Dyke fired at McDonald, 17, in an October 2014 incident that has set off more than two weeks of demonstrations in the city.

Activists held yet another rally across downtown on Thursday evening, where they expressed their displeasure with the mayor.

Emanuel, a former chief of staff to President Obama and three-term Congressman, on Wednesday delivered an emotional address in which he admitted he had much work to do to regain public trust. He vowed “complete and total reform” of the police department that is now under a Justice Department investigation

But anger with the mayor, who was reelected to a second four-year term in April, is showing no signs of abating from protesters who say he is complicit in an attempt to cover up details of McDonald's death. A group of activists and politicians have even begun a push that would create a mechanism for Chicago voters to recall the mayor — something that isn’t in the current law.

“We are in Chi-gate,” said Gregory Seal Livingston, who is part of a coalition of community activists advocating for creation a recall law in the city. “We know Rahm Emanuel from our vantage point . . . is the Nixon of Chicago. We have to do something.”

Politically, Emanuel is at a career nadir. Only 18% of Chicagoans approve of his job performance, and 51% say he should resign, according to a poll published on Tuesday that was conducted by the Chicago firm Ogden & Fry.

Chicago Cubs superfan Ronnie “Woo Woo” Wickers even showed up to a news conference outside Emanuel’s office on Thursday to call for the mayor to step down.

Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez announced on Nov. 24 that she was charging Van Dyke with first degree murder. The charge was announced on the same day that the Emanuel administration released a dashcam video that shows Van Dyke repeatedly shooting McDonald, who was holding a knife and had PCP in his system, even after he had fallen to the ground.

The mayor’s office on Thursday dismissed efforts by those looking to oust Emanuel.

"We understand there's a desire by some to insert politics into this discussion, but the mayor's focus is not on his own personal politics,” said Adam Collins, a spokesman for the mayor. “His focus is on the residents of this city and finally and fully addressing the issue of police accountability, which has challenged Chicago for decades. He is energized by the challenge in front of us, and committed to driving real solutions for our city."

Dick Simpson, a former Chicago alderman and professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said that the city hasn’t seen this level of anger over the issue of police brutality since the late U.S. Rep. Ralph Metcalfe broke ranks with Mayor Richard J. Daley in the early 1970s. Metcalfe held public hearings to probe police conduct in the city’s black communities.

“The mayor has been constantly behind,” Simpson said of Emanuel. “The problems have ramped up throughout this crisis but his answers have come after the fact. He hasn’t been able to find a way to mollify the outrage and the anger.”

Emanuel has come under criticism for his initial resistance to releasing the police video of the McDonald incident, which he was forced to make public by court order after the city was sued by an independent journalist. The mayor on Wednesday acknowledged that, in retrospect, his instincts were wrong to try to keep the footage out of the public eye.

Last week, he first publicly called a Justice Department investigation "misguided," before changing course the next day and embracing such an investigation.

He's been pilloried on the city's editorial pages for first publicly backing Superintendent Garry McCarthy, then firing him days later as public outrage grew.

Protesters and some Chicago politicians say that the McDonald case was emblematic of the larger problem of Emanuel turning a blind eye to the issue of police brutality during his more than four years in office.

Over the last decade, the city has paid out more $500 million in legal fees and payouts for police misconduct. The Independent Police Review Authority, which is tasked with reviewing serious allegations of police misconduct and is controlled by the mayor, has found wrongdoing by police officers in less than 1% of complaints since 2007.

Even as Emanuel was promising greater transparency and accountability of police, city lawyers on Wednesday argued in federal court against the immediate public release of another police video that lawyers say shows officers fatally shooting Cedrick Chatman, a 17-year-old carjacking suspect who was killed nearly three years ago in a confrontation with Chicago cops. Chatman’s mother has filed a wrongful death suit against the city over the incident.

Judge Robert Gettleman said he would keep the video sealed for now, but would reconsider the question next month.

“It’s clear there is a spirit and movement in the city of Chicago is for change,” said state representative La Shawn Ford, who is the chief sponsor of the recall bill in the state’s General Assembly. “Trust in the mayor is an issue. Confidence in the mayor is an issue. When you have issues with trust and confidence, I don’t know how he can govern.”

Simpson, the University of Illinois at Chicago political scientist, said that Ford and other Emanuel opponents will face a tough climb in getting their push for a recall mechanism through the legislature.

At the same time, Simpson said it remains an open question if Emanuel is up to the task of delivering the major reform that many in the city are now demanding.

“I think the question is, ‘How do we move forward even if Rahm Emanuel is mayor?’” Simpson said. “I think he is, in a sense, flexible to making some of the changes the protesters are demanding. But would he be willing to go to an elected police board? Would he be willing to give up his power?

“It really requires comprehensive reform,” Simpson added. “This is about changing a culture of police corruption and that requires new leadership and new policies. It is something that takes a decade, not a day.”

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