Moving from words to deeds
Thursday, Dec 10, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* This stood out for me the most yesterday…
The mayor was at his most emotional when he discussed the need for respect between officers and young black men, and when he mentioned parents who have lost children to violence and people who get out of jail with few options.
He talked about a recent lunch with young men who had been in trouble with the law.
“So I asked them, tell me the one thing I need to know,” Emanuel said. “And rather than tell me something, one young man asked me a simple question that gets to the core of what we’re talking about. He said, ‘Do you think the police would ever treat you the way they treat me?’ And the answer is no, and that’s wrong,” Emanuel said, his voice rising before he began to pound the lectern. “And that has to change in this city. That has to come to an end and end now. No citizen is a second-class citizen in the city of Chicago. If my children are treated one way, every child is treated the same way.”
Aldermen applauded the mayor when he noted that double standard.
“Tell me the one thing I need to know.” That’s classic Emanuel, which makes this story so believable for me. The mayor teared up, and, to me at least, he clearly showed that he “gets it.”
* But it’s legit to ask what took him so long. Rep. La Shawn Ford (D-Chicago) and I had almost this exact same conversation last night…
Ford said Emanuel’s remarks on Wednesday showed a deep disconnect between the mayor and the black community.
“His speech to me was his recapping what we already know is going on,” he said. “The speech should have been: ‘We have diagnosed the problem. Here’s how we’re fixing it.’ Instead, you’re telling us what we already know? It’s like he’s having a revelation. That’s not good. … For this to be a surprise to the mayor, how the black community is treated, is pretty alarming.”
Ford told me that, while he most definitely welcomed the comments, he now wants the mayor to demonstrate with deeds that newfound understanding.
He’s right, of course. It’s going to take a lot more than heartfelt words to fix this mess.
- LizPhairTax - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 9:43 am:
11 officers suspended for accessing Rahm’s son’s police report.
How many for the Laquan McDonald’s shooting?
- @MisterJayEm - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 9:45 am:
At long last, Rahm Emanuel has discovered gambling in Casablanca.
– MrJM
- walker - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 9:46 am:
La Shawn Ford’s time has come. He’s the real goods, and has been for many years now.
Many pols knew, but were afraid to take it on squarely. He stood out there sometimes alone, without making a big deal of himself.
- Aldyth - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 9:46 am:
Never waste a good crisis.
Make a dent in this problem and you will have done good. Make a significant dent in this problem and you will have done very good.
Take what are touted to be world class problem solving skills and use them.
- JS Mill - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 9:46 am:
=How many for the Laquan McDonald’s shooting?=
Good question.
- perry noya - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 9:47 am:
Politicians train themselves to tear up on cue. Rich, your cynic’s license is hereby revoked.
- A guy - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 9:47 am:
Ford may just be the kind of legislator who could be a party to creating a better liaison. His standing and participation in the community could be extremely helpful. It’s definitely got a deep racial component in this serious problem, but it’s also generational. Rep. Ford could be even more instrumental here, and I believe he’d be willing to. Both of these guys have experienced some hard knocks. There’s a foundation for something good here.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 9:54 am:
===Rich, your cynic’s license===
Never had one. You might wanna discard yours, however. It’s being over-used.
- Albany Park Patriot - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 9:54 am:
It’s one thing to “get it” after-the-fact and when you are in the middle of a political crisis. We got here BECAUSE he wouldn’t listen. Nothing is going to change his m.o. He’s just buying time.
- Cassandra - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 9:56 am:
When the demonstrations are over and the media move on to something else, the police bureaucracy and its mid-level, day-to-day operational leadership will still be there, and that is where the practical change needs to happen. Front line government workers, of whom police are a subset, listen to their supervisors, not some remote politician looking to the next election. Somebody needs to convince the front lines and then make sure they get it, and keep watching. Who will that be? If reformers are counting on the media to do that, they are very misguided. Yet that is often how it ends up. Look at DCFS, under a federal consent decree for a couple of decades,
supposedly being monitored by a host of entities including the ACLU, yet there are periodic scandals-when the press has the time and inclination to report them. Real change? Who knows.
- Cold - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 9:56 am:
No discipline yet against the 7 officers on the scene who submitted false reports and the 4 officers who tried to tamper with the Burger King video? Rahm can save his crocodile tears.
- JB13 - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 9:59 am:
Rahm is not sincere. That said: Should we ruin a potentially great turning point in Chicago’s history by squabbling over who gets to participate? There should be political consequences. But if the focus of all this remains on Rahm’s political career, vs. the real problems in the city, which run much deeper than the phony, power-crazed pol in the mayor’s office, nothing real will get accomplished. Don’t think so? Well, did anything real change when Chicago swapped Daley for Rahm? What would change if Rahm resigns tomorrow? Keep the pressure on, but don’t fool yourself into thinking “punishing the mayor” equates to “solving the problem.”
- Distant Viewer - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 10:00 am:
Ford is right but I also think Rahm hit the right notes in his speech. It is a problem that he’s just now realizing (or probably more accurately acknowledging) the problem of race relations and systemic inequality in Chicago. But, declaring the problem is also important. The actions that follow (or that don’t) will determine if Rahm is serious though.
- The Teflon Rahm - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 10:02 am:
Agree with Perry Noya. The mayor needs to resign.
Absent protests and pollsters, he never would have given this speech. It’s like he keeps trying things–firing the police superintendent, agreeing to a federal civil rights investigation–to see if the anger and protests will go away, and when they do not, he tries something else. He’s nearing the bottom of the trick bag, which explains the tears.
Shutting down the Magnificent Mile is a big deal, and the protests don’t seem to be going away. Quite the opposite. The powers that be, including the mayor, need to figure out a successor, and the city needs to move on. It is difficult to imagine the mayor, at this point, given what he’s done (and not done) doing an about-face and suddenly becoming an agent for change. Talk about a chameleon on tie dye.
- Tone - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 10:06 am:
There is very little the City of Chicago can do about generational poverty in Chicago’s black community. The only ethnic group losing population in the City is african americans. Honestly, the City has been the holding zone for the vast majority of the metro areas poor for far too long. Hence the Plan for Transformation instituted by Daley.
- Streator Curmudgeon - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 10:15 am:
If the LaQuan video had not been made public, would we be having this conversation at all? I think it would be business as usual.
Eldridge Cleaver: “If you are not a part of the solution, you are a part of the problem.”
Being part of the solution is going to make Emanuel very unpopular with some powerful people. We’ll see if he’s sincere.
- Tone - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 10:17 am:
Rahm has not been shy about attacking powerful interests. Look at his relationship with CTU.
- Anon221 - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 10:17 am:
“Tell me”…I’m listening. And by that request, it got significant media coverage. It exposed the double standard for all to hear/read and reflect on. This is part of the pivot point to start a cultural change. I agree with the other posters who say, don’t let the politics of the moment overshadow the real change that can begin here and now. This will take communities of change, from the police force down to the neighborhood levels.
- Cook County Commoner - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 10:18 am:
The south and west sides of Chicago are right out of Dickens and getting worse. The politicians protecting their sinecures, the clueless elites and the stressed out taxpayers don’t seem like the ideal group to bring about meaningful change. And I have a problem accepting a Wilmette carpetbagger investment banker running Chicago as an agent for change. All I see is hubris, temporarily humbled.
The bottom line: The Chicago taxpayers cannot afford the additional headcount and training required to turn around a beleaguered CPD. Show trials of a few bad apple CPD will only make things worse.
- cdog - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 10:19 am:
Rahm has lost, therefore he has nothing to lose.
Get ahead of the Fed’s bud. Hillary is watching.
Hint– Start here….
“No discipline yet against the 7 officers on the scene who submitted false reports and the 4 officers who tried to tamper with the Burger King video?” (h/t Cold@9:56)
tick, tick, tick……
- cdog - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 10:20 am:
oh wait, maybe Rahm thinks the Feds answer to him? /s
- low level - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 10:27 am:
In politics, timing is everything. I think the Mayor certainly has known this BUT with this video the momentum and political climate is ripe for making the changes needed and overcoming FOP opposition.
No one should doubt their clout. It’s been eroded now & it will be much easier to start to change that culture.
This has been going on for years, but the technology exists now so everyone is aware and forced to confront it. It’s somewhat like how television exposed the blatant racism in the south to the point where public opinion was raised and the climate became ripe for new laws (Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights, etc)
It had been occurring for at least 150 years. People had read about it, but northerners seeing it with their own eyes made the difference.
- Tone - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 10:36 am:
Hillary won’t touch Rahm. That’s laughable.
- Lincoln Lad - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 10:40 am:
Rahm acting as if all of this is a revelation as a result of the McDonald video being released is not believable to me. It’s his city, the city’s $5M settlement, multiple instances (not a single one), an issue across the country with several shootings being publicized over the past year or two, etc. It’s not a revelation, there was effort to cover it all up, and now his political career will take a significant hit. His micro-managing, in your face style tells us all that he had to have knowledge. It was his job to know, and I don’t believe he can fix this. Alvarez is in an even worse position.
- Chris - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 10:41 am:
Ford isn’t wrong, BUT–he actually expected Rahm to have solutions to one of the more intractable problems of the past 40 years? I didn’t realize that Ford held Rahm in such high esteem!
- low level - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 10:46 am:
Chris - agreed completely. Maybe the last 100 years as African Americans began moving to the north in great numbers and were met by an all white CPD….
- Amalia - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 10:48 am:
anyone notice a headline about 11 shootings over a day or so recently? there are several problems that need to be solved at once. Police misconduct system must be clarified and actual justice meted out. Poverty must be addressed but that is a long term project. But 11 shootings, that is an immediate issue. everyone has to participate in fixing that. if you live in Chicago, do you hear shooting in your neighborhood? Probably not. what is going on in the areas where most of this is happening? What measures are we willing to take to handle the gangs at war?
- Jockey - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 10:50 am:
Why I have disbelief over the speech is with regards to the former SOS team scandal @ CPD. In 2011, when Rahm assumed office, the city was still reeling over the Jerome Finnegan incidents. Even 60 minutes did a story about it. Many of the tactics that were used then are still being brought up by protesters today. Why wasn’t reforms made back in 2011?
- wordslinger - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 10:57 am:
Emanuel knew the contents for the McDonald video for more than a year.
His epiphany on its significance didn’t occur until his efforts to suppress it failed.
Quite a coincidence.
If the judge doesn’t order the video release, yesterday’s “emotional” speech does not happen.
As the Trib story made crystal clear, Emanuel’s words yesterday are in stark contradiction to his actions as mayor.
- @MisterJayEm - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 11:01 am:
“What measures are we willing to take to handle the gangs at war?”
Step one might be to learn more about the topic: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/07/magazine/chi-raq-and-the-myth-of-chicago-gang-wars.html
– MrJM
- Snucka - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 11:04 am:
It’s true that Emanuel should have, and probably did, know a long time ago that the justice system treats blacks worse than whites. However, let’s not forget that this system has been broken for many years… and Emanuel won over 57% of the vote in majority black wards. The leaders in those communities also should have known that the mayor’s administration was not doing enough to fix the situation, and they did not speak up.
There’s more than enough blame to go around, is all I’m saying. The important thing is what happens next.
- Jockey - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 11:10 am:
@MJM:
http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/10/07/446300514/when-social-media-fuels-gang-violence
Contradicts NY Times story a bit…
- nona - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 11:17 am:
SOP for Springfield is to blame all the world’s ills on the other party. What makes Rep. Ford stand out is he is critical of a powerful official in his own party. When was the last time a GOP legislator did that?
- Wensicia - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 11:19 am:
Emanuel’s shock, horror and remorse would play better had he took the job of mayor four weeks ago, instead of four years. He personally enabled the cover ups and status quo. He ignored the mayhem in black neigborhoods and attacked the media whenever they focused on it. Is he able to effect change now? No, he’ll wait for the Justice Department to intervene.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 11:36 am:
BTW, very clueless of people here to frame this as only a black issue. Police misconduct has hit the Hispanic community very hard as well. The crowd I saw marching yesterday in the Loop was not so clueless. Extremely diverse in race, ethnicity, age and class.
- crazybleedingheart - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 12:28 pm:
== He’s nearing the bottom of the trick bag, which explains the tears.==
This. While Emanuel stood at the podium crying (and yelling at the city), his lawyers argued against the release of another video. And Emanuel’s “use an apocryphal disadvantaged child to sell a story while throwing real ones under the bus” routine is so old by now it has gone positively moth-eaten.
If he can’t get a conscience, he should get a new speechwriter.
- Cheryl44 - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 12:43 pm:
I wonder how much Rahm is paying Ronnie Woo Woo to make this story a “facre” as Bill Cameron tweets.
Whoever he is.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 1:27 pm:
From the Trib story:
–Emanuel noted that he raised politically difficult topics a big-city mayor doesn’t typically touch, but his track record undercut the message at times.
He condemned a Police Department “code of silence” that encourages cover-ups, though the mayor and his administration’s lawyers tried to wipe out a jury verdict that found such a code exists. The mayor insisted the city needed “better oversight of our police officers,” though he’s defended the department’s practices while signing off on millions of dollars in police brutality settlements. And Emanuel said the statistics on how few officers get disciplined for excessive force “defy credibility,” though he’s backed the police oversight board and endorsed a police union contract that makes it difficult to discipline officers.–
Pay attention to politicians do, not what they say.
And remember, if the judge doesn’t order the release of the McDonald video, that speech doesn’t happen yesterday.
But Emanuel knew what was on the video more than a year ago.
- @MisterJayEm - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 1:34 pm:
Jokey,
NYT: “It boils down to interpersonal disputes now in the black neighborhoods — arguments over money, over girls,” says Eddie Bocanegra, director of the Y.M.C.A.’s South Side violence-prevention program. “You don’t see large-scale, gang-motivated warfare anymore.”
NPR: “Bocanegra says the potential for violence spurred by social media extends even to those not in gangs. “This kid could simply say, ‘Hey, I was in class today, and the girl next to me was really cute. Her name is so and so. I thought she was fine,’” he says. “Well, this girl has a brother who is in the street who really already has a reputation of being violent or has a boyfriend, and he sees that post. Now it’s like, ‘Hey, why you making comments about my girl?’ ‘Why you making comments about my sister?’ And it just escalates.”
I confess that I don’t see the contradiction.
– MrJM
- The Teflon Rahm - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 2:21 pm:
==there are several problems that need to be solved at once==
That’s true, but trying to solve all problems simultaneously, especially ones over which you have little or no control, pretty much guarantees that no problem will get solved. You have to prioritize and pick the problem that is most yours. Sure, 11 deaths by gun violence is awful, but what does that do with the fact that Chicago police lie and cover up for each other and have a history of racism? The mayor can’t be expected to fix society, but he could and should be expected to fix the police department because he is, by is own admission, responsible for the police department.
- Square Pegs - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 2:36 pm:
I listened to the speech on WBEZ last night. It struck me that 1) it sounded like a lecture: to parents, police, alderpeople; 2) his comments about respect and trust seemed ironic; he does not have the reputation or practice build trust and relationships.
I thought it was a losing speech. Not inspirational. Not solutions based. Not forward thinking.
Blaming police. Blaming parents. Blaming himself.
It bordered on narcissistic. And just blind. And revealing of his arrogance.
Does he drive around the city? Does he know how people live? Does he speak to constituents?
I voted for him. I’ve defended him. But that speech lost me.
He needs a new speechwriter.
- Amalia - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 2:55 pm:
@The Teflon Rahm, I agree. he should do something about the police and misconduct and I wrote that. but the problem is much bigger than the police . who is doing all the shooting in those cases of the 11 victims? we must do more than one thing at a time to lead to more peaceful communities. also, note that nationally the percentage of police involved shootings that are found to be wrongful is very small. Nationally. not just Chicago.
- @MisterJayEm - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 3:14 pm:
“the percentage of police involved shootings that are found to be wrongful is very small”
When discussing systemic problems, that fact certainly cuts both ways, doesn’t it?
– MrJM
- Reality Check - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 3:50 pm:
Oh, come on people! This isn’t anybody’s fault except for the people, who live in/made the war torn, third world countries, called the South and West sides! Remember bad things happen during wars, it ain’t pretty!
Maybe we should set up a perimeter around both, pull out CPD and all civilized individuals and let the rest do their thing!
Why are we wasting our precious resources?
- Wensicia - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 4:04 pm:
==Why are we wasting our precious resources?==
Chicago’s precious resources are gunned down daily. That kind of “waste” should not be tolerated any longer.
- LizPhairTax - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 4:06 pm:
“Everything I learned about the City was between Irving and the Loop on the Brown Line” by Rahm Emanuel
- Amalia - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 4:21 pm:
Reality Check, you are being harsh to the good people who live in those neighborhoods. that said, the violence is concentrated in certain areas. some of the people gunned down are good folks and their neighborhoods are war zones not of their making. the reality check should be that certain places need some different kind of concentration in policing. time for the discussion to move to that.
- Striketoo - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 6:14 pm:
The mayor willfully participated in a felony coverup of a murder. He should face indictment not commendation for a tearful apology.
- anon - Thursday, Dec 10, 15 @ 11:20 pm:
–Cold—You hit it on the nail. I see no compassion or change when those seven Officers remain on the job after filing false reports in the McDonald Shooting. It’s outrageous if they keep their jobs, and clearly a public safety issue as they are currently on the job “serving and protecting.”