![]() The fact that Emanuel withheld the video of McDonald’s murder until after he was re-elected suggests that the mayor was unsure his campaign would survive the scandal. According to the DOJ report, one Chicago police officer told a sex worker during a prostitution arrest that he would “tase her ten fucking times” while another officer at the scene threatened to kill her and her family: “I’ll put you in a UPS box and send you back to wherever the fuck you came from.” The DOJ report also described a “ pervasive cover-up culture” and, in keeping with that culture, Emanuel chose to withhold dashcam footage of McDonald’s murder until after he had secured his re-election, a revelation that led to calls for his resignation as the city erupted in protests. In 2015, after damning footage of McDonald’s murder was belatedly released, the Department of Justice (DOJ) launched a civil rights investigation into the Chicago police that led to a scathing report, detailing a climate of racist policing, excessive force and shocking brutality. In 2014, after hearing from a delegation of Black Chicago youth and studying a shadow report presented by Chicago youth, which activists described as revealing “the disturbing and intolerable truth that police officers regularly engage in torture,” the United Nations Committee Against Torture expressed “deep concern at the frequent and recurrent police shootings or fatal pursuits of unarmed black individuals,” stating that, “In this regard, the committee notes the alleged difficulties to hold police officers and their employers accountable for abuses.” In 2015, Emanuel defended police practices at Chicago’s now-infamous Homan Square facility, despite The Guardian’s finding s that “no contemporaneous public record of someone’s presence at Homan Square is known to exist,” meaning that a person jailed at Homan Square is effectively “disappeared” into the system - a practice that significantly increased under the Emanuel administration. ![]() But in politics, narratives are often composed of reshuffled parts, assembled by pundits in order to tell a more appealing or strategic story - and it appears that Emanuel just might escape the checkered legacy of his administration by crafting himself a new role in the world of punditry.įrom the second-degree murder conviction of Van Dyke, to Emanuel’s sacrificial dismissal of Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy after the cover-up of McDonald’s murder was exposed, Emanuel’s administration has been marked by high profile acts of state violence. The timing of Emanuel’s decision not to seek a third term, coupled with the legal consequences of McDonald’s death playing out in the final days of his administration, makes for a pretty damning narrative. Full of bravado in his early days as mayor, Emanuel has spent recent months legacy shopping and attempting to shore up his next act. Last year, Emanuel announced that he would not seek a third term just days before the trial of former police officer Jason Van Dyke, who murdered 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in 2015, was set to begin. As his tenure as Chicago’s mayor comes to a close, Rahm Emanuel is attempting a public relations metamorphosis. ![]()
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