Current Events –
Rahm Emanuel Apologizes For Chicago Chaos
After a police scandal involving a murdered teen, claims of cover-ups at City Hall and calls for him to resign, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has finally uttered the words his citizens have been waiting to hear:  “I’m sorry!”
Current Events
On Wednesday, Mayor Emanuel used a special meeting of the Chicago City Council to try to calm his shaken city, apologizing for the fatal shooting of a black teen by a white officer and promising “complete and total” reform.
“I take responsibility for what happened because it happened on my watch,” Emanuel said during the emotional 45 minute speech. “And if we’re going to fix it, I want you to understand it’s my responsibility with you.  But if we’re also going to begin the healing process, the first step in that journey is my step.
“And I’m sorry.”
His remarks were the first real apology since the public saw video footage of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald being shot 16 times by police officer Jason Van Dyke, who is currently charged with first-degree murder.
Critics have accused Emanuel of keeping the footage under wraps so that he could win a tough reelection to a second term earlier this year. Although the mayor has denied the claim, he did acknowledge he should have pressed prosecutors to conclude their investigation sooner so that the video could be made public.
Emanual, the former White House chief of staff turned mayor, finds himself in the weakest position ever in his long public career.  His poll numbers are at an all-time low and his city has lost confidence in his leadership.  However, Emanuel refuses to step down — a promise he has uttered repeatedly.  Chicago doesn’t have a process to recall a mayor, although an Illinois state lawmaker just introduced a proposal on Wednesday to allow for it. Unless this proposal is approved and Rahm Emanuel gets recalled, he will remain Mayor of Chicago until 2019.
Mayor Emanuel may have been sincere and heartfelt in his apology, but his words did little to ease tensions in the streets. Hours after the speech, protesters overtook an intersection in front of City Hall, then marched through the financial district while blocking a major intersection.
Outside City Hall, retired schoolteacher Audrey Davis called the speech “politically expedient” as she carried a sign that read “Mayor Emanuel is morally corrupt!”
Davis, who is black, said she fears for her 25-year-old grandson when he comes home from college.
“Each time he comes home, my heart is in my throat in case he meets up with a racist cop,” Davis said. “We shouldn’t have to live like this.”
Davis added, “I don’t want to hear anything from him [Emanuel] except, ‘I tender my resignation.'”
Since the brutal video emerged, the mayor has been swimming upstream to contain the crisis. He fired his police superintendent only days after insisting the chief had his full support. He also reversed his opinion on whether the U.S. Justice Department should launch a civil-rights investigation, saying he would welcome it only after presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and other top Democrats endorsed the idea.
Despite his apology, Rahm Emanuel has lost his city — and he knows it.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him grapple with anything quite like this,” said longtime ally and adviser David Axelrod, who served with Emanuel in the Obama White House.
“You don’t earn trust back with one speech,” Axelrod said. “You earn trust back with actions.”
If public sentiment is any indication, the only action the public wants from Mayor Emanuel is for him to step down!
