Phil Kadner ties Chicago’s stories up in one, ugly package:
From the theft of millions of dollars in public school funds by the mayor’s public schools chief, to the closing of public schools, to Chicago’s financial free fall, there is a line to be traced to the death on the streets of a 17-year-old at the hands of a police officer who within seconds decided to repeatedly fire his weapon.
There is a failure here of an entire system that needs to be condemned, examined, and rebuilt to restore public confidence in institutions that have completely failed the public.
McDonald was a product of that system, in foster care and out, through the public schools, and onto the city streets where, with PCP in his system and a folding knife in his hand, he was seen burglarizing cars and eventually shot down like a dog.
If you see a benign solution to Chicago’s problems, I’m all ears. Do you think the Chicago police department, the states attorney, and the mayor will self-reform? They can’t even be fired or voted out of office.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel has fixed everything! He’s fired Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, and now hopefully no light of reproach will be passed over the mayor himself, as to why the dashcam video was withheld during an election year. This is how a Chicago democrat mediates such improprieties — scapegoat someone else!
I liked Rahm’s statement. Basically he said that the Superintendent had done an outstanding job, but he needed to go because the people didn’t trust him anymore.
So, can we expect Rahm to resign now? Or should someone just leave a pistol with one bullet on his desk?
Ice, the God Father is untouchable! Anyone knows that!
Hey, did the murder rate in Chicago spike over the weekend? Or was it too cold?
Ice, the God Father is untouchable! Anyone knows that!
I’ll bet if things keep going the way they’re going he’ll find out he’s no Mayor Daley in that regard.
Now this is interesting. I hadn’t been following the MacDonald story very closely, so this (from CNN) is something I hadn’t realized:
It took a freelancer to get the video? The cities newspapers and TV stations couldn’t be bothered? Wow. That’s some exceptionally deep rot.
Yes, the city has been fighting release of the video for a year. And has already paid off the family. Sound has been suppressed on the version that has been released.
The CPD has also destroyed the security camera footage from the nearby Burger King.
BTW, my bet is that Cook County States Attorney Anita Alvarez will be the next domino to fall. There’s a long list of high-ranking Democrats including Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle already calling for her resignation.
Yes, the city has been fighting release of the video for a year.
That I knew. I didn’t know the fight was against a freelancer, as opposed to one of those press organizations obligated to afflict the powerful and comfort the weak.
Ellipses: After the killing, the Chicago Police Union spokesperson explained that the victim had lunged at the officers with a knife. Why would a mainstream journalist doubt that?
I wonder when the State’s Attorney got the video. I’m more generous with giving prosecutors the time to gather witness statements before the story goes public and gets corrupted, but over a year seems like a long time when there is video.
I forgot my /sarcasm tag for the first paragraph.
The first story I heard getting into my car at the St. Louis airport on Friday was of mass protests at Michigan Avenue in an effort to stop shopping there on Black Friday. This is the disappointing thing about these protests, people without any involvement get hurt, and here, the most likely result was to send shoppers to the suburbs. I asked my wife why they weren’t at the police station or the mayor’s house? (St. Louis radio coverage was invariably followed by reports of huge turnouts at various local malls)
For anyone who has not seen it, the victim does do a quick spin move, turning his back, before being shot. I suppose the cops attorney will attempt to make the case that when he completed the move and again faced the cop he could have been pointing and shooting a gun. It seems a tortured interpretation to me.
I haven’t heard what the hell was on the a Burger King video, just that the cops erased material under false pretenses. I’ve also heard it said that the gun gets of more than a dozen rounds in a split second.
In any event, the whole thing stinks to high heaven. Even if you could somehow convince yourself that in the heat of the moment the cop had cause, there is simply no good explanation for the Mayor and city’s actions. Further, there is no good explanation for the relative lack of outrage by media, “black leaders,” or the usual agitators. In fact, when do we get a beer summit, or claims that McDonald could have been a well known politicians son. Apparently black lives matter only if there is political gain, or money, to be had.
Appalling.
You allude to the lack of a benign solution to Chicago’s problems. Wouldn’t any solution require a repudiation of what Walter Russell Mead refers to as the “blue model” of governance. If that’s the case we would be talking about the democrats conceding that their policies are disfunctional at best. Hardly likely to happen which would confirm your thesis that a benign solution is not on tap. What then? Revolution, mass defection to the republican party by Chicago voters, a true reformer bucking the system and winning an election. Or perhaps, just a slow slide into irrelevancy like Detroit. I’d suggest that’s the likely outcome.