In Chicago, distrust toward mayor has turned ‘personal’...

[stringer bell]

But many remain unconvinced.

“Everything he’s doing now, everything he’s saying now: Would he be doing it if a judge didn’t force him to release that video? If it weren’t for the people in the streets?” said Tio Hardiman, an anti-violence activist from Chicago.

The protests have included longtime critics, disillusioned former supporters and a large number of newly rising youth activists.

One of the most vocal has been Green, the 20-year-old who until recently served as an anti-violence volunteer for Emanuel and City Hall in the public schools.

Summoned to City Hall

The day before the McDonald video was released, Green said he and other community activists were summoned to a meeting at City Hall, where Emanuel asked for their help keeping the city calm. But the next day, Green said, when he saw the video, he felt angry and betrayed.

“What the mayor doesn’t understand is that the trust is gone,” Green said. “He can do whatever he wants to do, but it’s not coming back. That’s why he’s got to go.”

Friends believe that Emanuel will weather and survive the maelstrom and that he would never voluntarily resign.

“No one leads through a crisis better than Rahm,” said Sarah Feinberg, one of Emanuel’s closest former aides in Congress and the White House. “He understands that these moments, tough as they are, are the ones that ultimately lead to transformative change.”

There is no legal mechanism to force his resignation. A bill to enable a mayoral recall election has been introduced in the state legislature but is given little chance of passage. And while many in Chicago’s political establishment have been critical of Emanuel, few have joined calls for his resignation.

“If Rahm were to resign, Chicago would only move from one chaos to another chaos,” Rep. Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.), an influential member of Chicago’s black community, wrote in a recent letter to the Chicago Sun-Times. “We have at this time a critical point to bargain for real change.”

Near-daily protests

The more practical question, local leaders say, is how Emanuel will govern in the face of near-daily protests. At the policy level, he has promised reforms in the Chicago police, starting with a plan unveiled Wednesday to reduce police shootings by equipping every officer responding to calls with a less-lethal Taser.

And in recent weeks, Emanuel has reached out to black leaders. Two prominent ministers, the Revs. Marshall Hatch and Ira Acree, said they were called to a private Dec. 8 meeting in which Emanuel seemed to be trying to assess their level of support.

“We told him how diminished his own credibility was,” Acree recalled. “We said if you really want to build trust, you have to go beyond your scurrilous minions in Washington and listen to people who have different views.”

They took the opportunity to press him for an independent civilian board to review police shootings as well as public hearings into the handling of the McDonald video.

The mayor responded, they said, by abruptly calling the meeting to a close.

“The mayor has a reputation for getting people to do things even if they don’t want to do it. But at this point, he’s going to need people to follow not out of fear or power but out of a sense they’ve been convinced,” said Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-Ill.), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. “People want to love their city. But they also love and want justice.”

 

[D. Morgan]

Should've never voted him into office just cause he was friends with Obama

 

[obnoxiouslyfresh]

Protestors stood in front of his house chanting and his neighbors came out and offered served them hot chocolate. Nobody likes this man.

 

[D. Morgan]

Protestors stood in front of his house chanting and his neighbors came out and offered served them hot chocolate. Nobody likes this man.

Somebody liked him he got a second term

 

[soul rattler]

Nigga this shit been personal.

He took a school system on a downturn and pushed it into overdrive, putting children in danger and dedicated teachers and employees out of a job.

But niggas just couldn't stand to have a Mexican as a mayor. Stupid asses.

 

[Elzo69Renaissance]

Protestors stood in front of his house chanting and his neighbors came out and offered served them hot chocolate. Nobody likes this man.

he s cool, i chopped it up w him a few times when he lived in my homie s bldg, just sucks at his job

 

[A.J. Trillzynski]

The seeds for all these problems have been sown many years before Rahm and he's the first mayor to actually buckle down and attempt to make the hard decisions to put our city on the right path rather than just kick the can down the road.

People aren't seeing the big picture and expect dude to just wave a magic wand and wish Chicago out of fiscal crisis. At this point he will either fail trying and the situation will be much worse as the city continues to plummet towards bankruptcy or he will go down as a martyr burning his own career short term for making the tough decisions for the betterment of all in the long term. It's lose-lose for Rahm but I respect dude for taking on the impossible.

 

[MarcusGarvey]

Blame the crooked black politicians who silently backed these moves

 

[obnoxiouslyfresh]

Protestors stood in front of his house chanting and his neighbors came out and offered served them hot chocolate. Nobody likes this man.

he s cool, i chopped it up w him a few times when he lived in my homie s bldg, just sucks at his job

I saw him outside of chicken and waffles once and he offered to parallel park my car when I was struggling with it. Fraud ass trying to be nice.

 

[Elzo69Renaissance]

Protestors stood in front of his house chanting and his neighbors came out and offered served them hot chocolate. Nobody likes this man.

he s cool, i chopped it up w him a few times when he lived in my homie s bldg, just sucks at his job

I saw him outside of chicken and waffles once and he offered to parallel park my car when I was struggling with it. Fraud ass trying to be nice.

lmao @obnoxiouslyfresh on 39th? fuck was he doing there lol

 

[obnoxiouslyfresh]

Protestors stood in front of his house chanting and his neighbors came out and offered served them hot chocolate. Nobody likes this man.

he s cool, i chopped it up w him a few times when he lived in my homie s bldg, just sucks at his job

I saw him outside of chicken and waffles once and he offered to parallel park my car when I was struggling with it. Fraud ass trying to be nice.

lmao @obnoxiouslyfresh on 39th? fuck was he doing there lol

This was before he became mayor. He was still campaigning

 

[Copper]

Protestors stood in front of his house chanting and his neighbors came out and offered served them hot chocolate. Nobody likes this man.

he s cool, i chopped it up w him a few times when he lived in my homie s bldg, just sucks at his job

I saw him outside of chicken and waffles once and he offered to parallel park my car when I was struggling with it. Fraud ass trying to be nice.

lmao @obnoxiouslyfresh on 39th? fuck was he doing there lol

This was before he became mayor. He was still campaigning

He was tryna fuck

 

[soul rattler]

The seeds for all these problems have been sown many years before Rahm and he's the first mayor to actually buckle down and attempt to make the hard decisions to put our city on the right path rather than just kick the can down the road.

People aren't seeing the big picture and expect dude to just wave a magic wand and wish Chicago out of fiscal crisis. At this point he will either fail trying and the situation will be much worse as the city continues to plummet towards bankruptcy or he will go down as a martyr burning his own career short term for making the tough decisions for the betterment of all in the long term. It's lose-lose for Rahm but I respect dude for taking on the impossible.

Chicago isn't the kind of city where you make instant drastic changes without instant drastic consequences.

Daley understood what Rahm doesn't, which is you have to give a little to get a little. The city is a breathing organism that will react to everything you. Chicago needs gradual improvement and someone who comprehends what that requires.

The fact that Rahm's heavy handed and doesn't care who gets in his way doesn't make him admirable. Hell, Bush Jr. was the same way.