The Frog Test

The editors of the Chicago Sun-Times are calling for the release of yet another dash cam video of a police shooting the CPD has been sitting on:

City officials are said to be wavering in their determination not to release a dashboard camera video that shows the 2014 shooting of a black man named Ronald Johnson III.

They should stop wavering and release the video. At a time when many Chicagoans are angry about what a similar video showed of the 2014 shooting of Laquan McDonald, the city can’t appear to be stonewalling.

Police fatally shot Johnson in October 2014 after police pulled over a car in which he was riding with friends at 53rd Street and King Drive. Johnson ran, pursued by officers. Another officer pulled up, jumped out of his car and fired five times at Johnson, killing him.

Just as in the McDonald case, the police video has been under wraps. Johnson’s mother and a lawyer representing her in a wrongful death lawsuit say the video shows Johnson had nothing in his hands as he ran. They say the video shows the officer beginning to fire within seconds of leaving his car. They want a Cook County judge to order the video be released publicly.

but are still holding their peace on criticisms of the mayor or other city higher-ups. Meanwhile, Chuy Garcia blames Emanuel for the delay in the release of the video of Laquan McDonld’s shooting:

CHICAGO — Cook County Board Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia says Mayor Emanuel is also to blame for the Laquan McDonald controversy.

“The mayor has been involved in an effort to conceal information regarding this incident, this tragedy, miscarriage of justice,” Garcia said in an interview on CNN. “It was obvious that the video would have had profound impact had it been released when it occurred. and the mayor has taken great steps to ensure that it’s concealed.”

Garcia went on to say that the city’s quick settlement with Laquan McDonald’s family is another indication that Emanuel was trying to hide something.

Garcia also says releasing the video would have had a significant impact on the runoff election between himself and the mayor.

while the mayor is trying to dodge the bullet:

CHICAGO — On the day after he dismissed his police superintendent, Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday faced new questions over a police shooting and his administration’s delay of several months in releasing a video of that episode. But he said that he did not intend to resign.

“We have a process; it’s called the election,” Mr. Emanuel, in his second term as mayor, said during a prickly interview with reporters from Politico, a political news organization, at the Willis Tower.

“The voters spoke. I’ll be held accountable and responsible for my actions and decisions I make, and that’s how I approach it.”

I think that argument would have a bit more force if the mayor had stood for election after the video was released. As it is, the video was suppressed until the election was safely over. The people may have spoken but the specific question at hand is whether they would have said the same thing if they’d been in full possession of the facts.

Ron Fournier, writing at National Journal summarizes:

I’ve got noth­ing against Emanuel. I’ve known him since 1992 and be­nefited from his stra­tegic leaks in the Clin­ton White House. And I know this: Emanuel epi­tom­izes a brand of polit­ics that puts loy­alty and elect­or­al suc­cess above all else. He was edu­cated in the school of Clin­ton, where the ends jus­ti­fy the means, and ruled the Obama White House when it ca­pit­u­lated to the cul­ture of Wash­ing­ton that his boss had vowed to fight.

And then off he went to Chica­go, a his­tor­ic­ally cor­rupt city with a po­lice de­part­ment known for hid­ing mis­con­duct and bru­tal­ity.
On Oct. 20, 2014, po­lice of­ficer Jason Van Dyke fired 16 times at 17-year-old Laquan Mc­Don­ald, killing him. The next day, a po­lice de­part­ment state­ment claimed the teen­ager was shot while ap­proach­ing po­lice of­ficers. That was a lie.

A dash-cam video that au­thor­it­ies had ac­cess to with­in hours of the shoot­ing shows Mc­Don­ald hold­ing a knife and veer­ing away from of­ficers when he was shot. Why did the po­lice de­part­ment claim oth­er­wise? Why wasn’t the video re­leased to the pub­lic? Why didn’t the city in­vest­ig­ate the fact that 86 minutes of oth­er video sur­veil­lance foot­age of the crime scene was sus­pi­ciously miss­ing?
The most lo­gic­al con­clu­sion is that po­lice wanted to duck ac­count­ab­il­ity and Emanuel wanted to avoid los­ing his Feb. 24, 2015 reelec­tion amid na­tion­al un­rest over a po­lice shoot­ing in Fer­guson, Mis­souri.

Mr. Fournier opens his column with an imagined actual from the president:

Pres­id­ent Obama needs to mail Rahm Emanuel a dead fish in a box. Hil­lary Clin­ton should de­liv­er it. For the in­teg­rity of the party that rep­res­ents a vast ma­jor­ity of black voters, Demo­crat­ic lead­ers every­where need to send the Chica­go may­or a mes­sage: You’re dead to us.
A long­time lieu­ten­ant for the Clin­ton fam­ily and former chief of staff in the Obama White House, Emanuel nev­er hes­it­ated to muscle weak or dis­loy­al Demo­crats out of power. It’s time to flip the script on the en­for­cer nick­named “Rahmbo.”
Emanuel once sent a poll­ster who was late de­liv­er­ing a sur­vey res­ult a dead fish in a box. The night Bill Clin­ton won the 1992 pres­id­en­tial elec­tion, his aides were cel­eb­rat­ing around a pic­nic table when Emanuel picked up a knife and shouted the names of politi­cians who had “f****ed us.” After each name, Emanuel de­clared, “Dead man!”

There isn’t a chance of this happening. Emanuel knows where the figurative bodies are buried.

I never expected Rahm Emanuel to serve out his second term as mayor—I expected him to be needed to work on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Unfortunately for Chicago, his value to the Clinton campaign is waning as this scandal waxes. The cracks are starting to appear, as reported by CNN:

(CNN)Hillary Clinton supports an independent investigation into the Chicago Police Department, her campaign spokesman said Wednesday, days after the department released video of the Laquan McDonald’s shooting death at the hands of police.

“Hillary Clinton is deeply troubled by the shooting of Laquan McDonald and the outstanding questions related to both the shooting and the video,” said Brian Fallon, Clinton’s press secretary. “Mayor Emanuel’s call for a task force to review practices of the Chicago Police Department is an important step, but given the gravity of this tragic situation, she supports a full review by the Department of Justice.”

This lines Clinton up against Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a longtime Clinton aide who worked for former President Bill Clinton in the White House.

instantiating the wisecrack that if you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog.