So far Rahm Emanuel himself does not agree, but the surging demand for his resignation as Chicago’s mayor came literally to his doorstep yesterday. Protesters angry over the cover-up of the Laquan McDonald shooting protested outside Emanuel’s house yesterday, chanting and holding a press conference that declared Emanuel’s recent efforts at reform to be too late. In a signal of just how bad it has become in Chicago for Barack Obama’s former chief of staff, one of the protest leaders outside his house used to serve on Emanuel’s anti-violence campaigns, according to the Chicago Tribune (via NewsAlert):
A small group of protesters gathered outside Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s North Side home Tuesday, when he was expected to cut short a family vacation in Cuba so he could tend to another high-profile police-involved shooting.
About two dozen activists chanted “Who gotta go? Rahm gotta go!” outside Emanuel’s three-story colonial house in the Ravenswood community. Four uniformed police officers stood guard.
“Today, we’re asking you, right in front your house, for Rahm Emanuel to step down,” said activist Ja’Mal Green, who until recently participated in the mayor’s anti-violence campaigns. “A real leader knows when to step down and when you can allow someone else to lead.”
The protests over the McDonald shooting and the refusal to release the video until after Emanuel’s re-election have not yet faded away, and now another police shooting has set the city on edge. Police responding to a domestic disturbance shot and killed an unarmed 19-year-old engineering student and the family’s 55-year-old neighbor in what they describe as an “accident.” The neighbor got shot while opening the door for police:
The father of Quintonio LeGrier, a 19-year-old college student shot and killed by a Chicago police officer, is suing the city and alleging his son was wrongfully killed during the holiday break.
The shooting claimed the lives of LeGrier and the family’s 55-year-old neighbor, Bettie Jones, in what authorities described as an “accident.” Jones was struck by the gunfire during a domestic disturbance call in the Austin neighborhood Saturday.
It’s unclear what prompted the unidentified officer to open fire, though a 911 call stated LeGrier was a “little agitated” while wielding a baseball bat.
Relatives claimed the engineering student, who was home during his break from Northern Illinois University, was dealing with a mental health problem.
As Antonio LeGreir’s son lay dying from a gunshot wound in the foyer of their apartment, the father said he was forced to leave “his dying son and family” and answer to detectives at a district station.
Al Sharpton has seen enough. He told the Morning Joe panel that “he’s gone beyond the point where he can even govern,” and has lost the trust of his constituents. Sharpton took a veiled slap at Emanuel for going on vacation — to Cuba — in the middle of this crisis:
So Sharpton threw Emanuel under the bus, and Rahm’s losing his allies in the city. Why haven’t Obama and Hillary Clinton weighed in on their close friend and political ally? Here’s a better question: why haven’t the national media demanded answers from Obama and Hillary about Rahm? They run to every Republican candidate to demand a response to every occasional inanity uttered by people who only share their party affiliation. Why won’t the media demand answers about Rahm from two of his closest political allies and friends? You get three guesses, and the first two don’t count.
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