Protests continue in Chicago a day after mayor’s apology speech

The protesters calling on Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to resign are getting a boost from two Democrats in Springfield, Illinois.

“We understand there’s a desire by some to insert politics into this discussion, but the mayor’s focus is not on his own personal politics”, said a new statement from Emanuel’s office.

As proceedings dragged on, Mayor Rahm Emanuel doggedly resisted all calls to release dash-camera video of the shooting.

Since dashcam footage showing a white Chicago police officer shooting a black teenager 16 times was made public, city officials have released a series of videos showing police encounters with the public.

The policeman who pulled the trigger, Jason Van Dyke, has been charged with murder.

Despite an overnight poll released Tuesday showing Emanuel with an 18 percent approval rating and over half the city demanding he step down, the mayor received applause at City Hall Wednesday for a story he told of an unnamed young man asking him, “Do you think the police would ever treat you the way they treat me?”.

Emanuel, whose voice cracked as he spoke about families who have lost children to the city’s violence, criticized the police department for being quick to shoot, saying the department’s “supervision and leadership” had failed. Emanuel also pushed through the largest tax increase in city history to deal with a budget crisis.

“Everybody knows that he is passionate and he is tough and he is dogged in making sure that the city of Chicago is not just the coldest city, but also the greatest city”, Obama said during a visit to Emanuel’s campaign office in February.

The mayor said Chicago’s police must patiently build relationships, sit with parents, sit with youths, listen and be mentors.

Among the systemic problems with police, Emanuel aimed particular criticism at the “code of silence” that keeps police officers from reporting misconduct by fellow officers.

The Justice Department investigation of Chicago’s trigger-happy police department, announced Monday by Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, is welcome. “You earn trust back with actions”.

Alvarez has been criticized for not filing charges earlier in the McDonald case, in which the video shows the teen veering away from officers on a four-lane street when Van Dyke, seconds after exiting his squad vehicle, opens fire from close range. To set up some loose boundaries for this thesis, we can say that first there was Homan Square and then there was the almost successful attempt to cover up the extra-judicial execution of Laquan McDonald.

There have been hundreds of shooting deaths of black males by white police officers around the country, creating a necessary dialogue concerning police using excessive force in urban communities.

Less than an hour later, a group of Christian clergy plans to gather at an entrance to the building.

The protest happened at exactly 7:44 a.m. Thursday. I am the mayor who has committed to restoring community policing, because the only way to fight crime effectively is to build trust between officers and the residents they serve. The video of that police shooting was released two weeks ago, prompting protests across the city and, ultimately, the firing of Garry McCarthy as Chicago police superintendent.