By Linn Washington, Jr.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel made a bold yet belated move when he fired his embattled police superintendent in the wake of a national uproar surrounding the release of a chilling video that captured the police killing of a teen--a ward of the city of Chicago.
Included in that uproar is anger over mounting evidence of a cover-up connected to the brutal and unjustified shooting graphically displayed on that video. Political and civic leaders in Chicago had demanded the removal of Chicago top cop Garry McCarthy months before Emanuel's uproar-triggered ouster.
If Mayor Emanuel is really serious about his stated desire to rebuild “public trust” he needs to do two other things and do those two things quickly.
The first thing Emanuel needs to do is issue a strong public rebuke of Chicago’s top prosecutor, Anita Alvarez.
This prosecutor dragged her feet for over a year on indicting the policeman shown in that video firing 16-shots in fhs space of 15 seconds into Laquan McDonald. That police video clearly shows the 17-year-old McDonald walking away from police, not lurching towards officers, as Chicago’s Police Department and its police union had maintained falsely since McDonald’s fatal shooting in October 2014, while the video remained sealed from view.
Alvarez did not charge Officer Jason Van Dyke with murder until after the release of the police video that captured McDonald’s wrongful death. Mayor Emanuel had fought against release of that video for over a year, claiming it would undermine ongoing investigations into McDonald’s death –- a stance Alvarez embraced as her explanation for not filing charges against Van Dyke earlier, though of course as a prosecutor she always had full access to the tape.
Hispanic leaders in Chicago –- political and civic –- are among those calling for the resignation of Alvarez, the first Hispanic to hold that post in Chicago.
The second thing Emanuel needs to do is resign. The mounting evidence of a multi-layer cover-up surrounding the killing of McDonald includes actions by Emanuel himself.
Chicago’s mayor contends he did not view the McDonald murder video until hours before its release -– a release ordered by a Chicago judge over Emanuel’s objection. Yet, months ago Emanuel approved a $5-million payout to McDonald’s estranged family. The mayor authorized that payout before that family had even filed a lawsuit over the shooting.
If Emanuel approved that payout without first viewing the video that contradicted the official "justified shooting" posture of his Police Department then he was irresponsible with the purse strings of aa cash-strapped city.
If on the other hand Emanuel was aware of the contents of that video and approved the payout that occurred at the time he was locked in a tough struggle to beat back a surprisingly strong electoral challenge to unseat him, then that payout was arguably silencing money...
For the rest of this article by LINN WASHINGTON, JR. in ThisCantBeHappening!, the new independent, uncompromised, five-time Project Censored Award-winning online alternative news site, please go to: www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/2929 [1]