Protesters Demand Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Resignation

There have been regular calls for Emanuel’s resignation since officials released footage showing a white police officer fatally shooting a black teenager in 2014.

At a special meeting of the Chicago City Council Wednesday, the mayor said, “I take responsibility for what happened because it happened on my watch”.

“We can’t continue to have a city that’s in turmoil like this”, said Representative La Shawn Ford, who like Emanuel is a Democrat and sponsored the bill.

But Emanuel also stressed that change has to go beyond the police department to address the availability of guns, poverty and joblessness, as well as a lack of hope that leads too many young people to join gangs – leading them into the prison system. “How can you not say something?” she said.

A poll over the weekend for the Illinois Observer showed 51 per cent of Chicagoans think the mayor should resign, compared with 29 per cent who think he should not.

“I own the problem of police brutality, and I’ll fix it”, he promised.

There’s evidence that Emanuel is trying to get on the right side of the black community – and quickly – after stumbling through the politics of the video’s release.

Emanuel, who is President Obama’s former chief-of-staff and one of the nation’s most high-profile mayors and, has been struggling to regain his grip on Chicago since the video’s release. Before Emanuel’s speech, 25-year-old Jim Rudd called Emanuel “completely corrupt” before the speech and said he must step aside.

Lamon Reccord is taken into custody by Chicago police officers during a march calling for Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez to resign Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015, in Chicago.

Wednesday’s protests in Chicago had their origin in a New York City dorm room a week earlier.

Throngs of protesters meandered through the streets of River North, with many hopping in the Red Line to the next protest at police headquarters in Bronzeville. Like some of the city’s other black elected officials, Rush, who has been involved in protesting the police department’s handling of the McDonald case, has a bit of a personal stake in Emanuel’s survival. And it’s increasingly hard to envision a scenario in which whatever Emanuel does isn’t viewed as a political Hail Mary to save his career by understandably frustrated and suspicious Chicago residents. The Chicago PD is also facing a Department of Justice investigation.

There was no mea culpa great enough, no promises convincing enough to satisfy hundreds of protesters who converged downtown in a vociferous rebuke of how he has handled issues of police misconduct, brought to the forefront in recent weeks by the controversy over Laquan McDonald’s shooting death in 2014.

Chicago authorities have not been able to explain why the footage released to the public, including from other squad cars on scene, doesn’t have audio when department technologies allow for it. Acting Superintendent John Escalante said Friday that he issued a reminder to all officers to check that equipment works each time they get into police cars.

“We will be going up there with people whose children were killed and tortured by police, to deliver this letter to (U.S. Attorney General) Loretta Lynch, demanding that the federal government come in here and indict and prosecute these cops”, said Ted Pearson, a member of the alliance. The video instantly set off demonstrations. At least two protesters were arrested.

Another protest was planned for evening rush hour downtown.

It was announced Monday and will look to determine whether there are patterns of racial disparity in the police department’s use of force. While he was asleep in a jail cell, six officers entered Coleman’s cell and began harassing him.