Mayor Says McCarthy is Out, Time for Change

Rham formally announced the resignation of Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy
Mayor Rham Emanuel  formally announced the resignation of Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy

By Kai EL’ Zabar

Mayor Says McCarthy is Out, Time for Change

After much talk and  deliberation the Mayor stepped forward this morning and announced that he had asked Chicago Police Superintendent  Garry McCarthy for his resignation.  Unlike his perceived persona, the mayor was not brash or raw, but instead careful to be diplomatic. He set-up the senario providing the back story to all that has happened over a period of more than a year since the fatal shooting of 17-year old  Laquan McDonald by a Chicago Officer and all that has led to todays necessary press conference. 

He said, “We have to ask two critical questions, one ‘Was  the investigation conducted properly?’ and two ‘Did the police department act within its rules of conduct?’”

The mayor did acknowledge McCarthy as an excellent superintendent  and yet given the circumstances he concluded that based on the information on hand he ha asked for McCarthy’s resignation.

This has come at a crucial time to the African American Community. Only two months ago  the City Council Black Caucus asked for  it’s top cop–McCarthy to resign. Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th), the chairman of the Black Caucus, stood before 15 fellow aldermen in the second-floor lobby of City Hall and called on Mayor Rahm Emanuel to dump McCarthy.

Things went on a per usual until recently with the developments from the Laquan McDonald case. We saw the youth protestors support the Black Caucus and make the same request as well as the resignation of Alvarez and the Mayor.

Just yesterday/Monday  Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle  called for State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez to step down and for Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy to be ousted because of their handling of the investigation into the shooting of an African-American teen by a white Chicago police officer.

“I’ve had no confidence in (Alvarez’s) leadership for a very long time,” said Preckwinkle, who is backing her former chief of staff, Kim Foxx, over Alvarez in the March 15 Democratic primary election. “I think the way she has run the office is disgraceful.”

“I’ve talked to (Mayor Rahm Emanuel) and told him he ought to ask for the resignation of Superintendent McCarthy as well,” Preckwinkle said when asked about the situation Monday by reporters in the lobby of the County Building.

Preckwinkle said McCarthy either knew or should have known months ago that 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was not lunging at police when Officer Jason Van Dyke shot him 16 times in October 2014.

However, the Emanuel administration has stood behind McCarthy since last week’s release of the police dashboard-camera video of the fatal shooting of McDonald.

Mayoral spokeswoman Kelley Quinn on Monday reiterated Emanuel plans to stick with McCarthy. “We have addressed this before. The mayor has been clear that Superintendent McCarthy has his support,” Quinn said in an email statement.

And yet today’s development is a total turn around so where is the pressure coming from?

Alvarez released a statement saying she would not be “driven by politics” or “bullied by politicians who do not have a full understanding of the facts of this investigation.”

The people nor the politicians may not have all the facts but they’re all intelligent enough to recognize that her office had enough evidence to  charge Chicago Police Officer with something. The complaint has to do with her negligence.  She too has to answer to her choice.

So is Alvarez next?

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