Voices: Emanuel faces biggest political test

CHICAGO — America’s best-known mayor is drowning.

This city has been on edge since Rahm Emanuel was forced by court order to release disturbing dashcam video last month that shows officer Jason Van Dyke pumping 16 shots into Laquan McDonald, a troubled 17-year-old black kid who was a ward of the state at the time of his death.

Since then, the mayor has stumbled in his efforts to deal with the backlash from the killing, which is held up as emblematic of Chicago’s historic problem of police brutality in the black community.

Emanuel, who was first elected mayor in 2011, has pushed the narrative throughout his mayorship that the long-festering distrust of police in the city was a problem created by his old pal Mayor Richard M. Daley, who spent tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money fighting allegations of torture and brutality by police officers.

He insists that he’s part of the solution, pointing to his backing of reparations to benefit victims of police torture long before he came to office. Emanuel says he should receive credit for working with the American Civil Liberties Union — without court intervention — on fixing controversial “stop and frisk” searches in which police targeted African Americans for 72% of searches.

But the mayor finds himself at the red-hot center of anger in the city’s African-American community, where some say Emanuel is complicit in a coverup and should step aside for the good of the city.

In the days after the video was released and Van Dyke was charged with first degree murder — a whopping 400 days after the incident — Emanuel has tried and failed to explain himself to Chicago’s black community, whose support was crucial to him winning re-election after being forced into the first runoff in city history  this year.

Young activists who have taken to the streets, and some Chicago politicians, point to the fact that the Emanuel administration was negotiating a $5 million settlement with McDonald’s family in the midst of a tough re-election battle. Had the video come out before the election, they argue, Emanuel would have the lost the black vote — and his mayorship.

After the video’s release, he insisted Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy had his full confidence. Last Tuesday, Emanuel fired the police chief as the demands from activists and black politicians for a scalp grew too loud to ignore.

Wednesday, he proclaimed that a Justice Department investigation would be “misguided” before a federal criminal probe of Van Dyke was completed. The next day — after Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign voiced her support for a federal probe — Emanuel changed course and said he welcomed federal intervention. A Justice Department official told Paste BN on Sunday evening that a formal announcement of an investigation of the department is imminent.

Just when it appeared the worst week in Emanuel’s political career was coming to an end, his administration ceded to journalists’ demands  Friday evening and made public police reports from the McDonald shooting that put the blue code of silence that critics have long said existed in the Chicago Police Department on display.

The police statements show that Van Dyke and at least five other officers at the scene gave statements describing McDonald moving in a menacing way toward Van Dyke, a narrative that contradicts the dashcam video showing McDonald veering away from the officers.

For the better part of the past 25 years, Emanuel has cultivated an image as one of the savviest operators and toughest guys in American politics.

As a senior aide to President Bill Clinton, he sealed the reputation by hammering lawmakers who crossed his boss with profane invective and threats. He once even sent a dead fish to a pollster who had angered him.

The former three-term congressman was the architect of Democrats winning control of the U.S. House in 2006, when he raised unprecedented campaign cash and pushed the party to toss purity tests on issues such as abortion to support candidates who could win in red patches of America.

As President Obama’s first chief of staff, he played a critical role in rounding up the votes the White House needed to pass the president's signature health care law.

The biggest test of his political life is the one he currently faces, and his situation will only get more difficult in the days ahead. The Chicago Teachers Union is likely to vote to strike next week, and the city is likely to release another controversial police shooting video.

In his Washington days, Emanuel said you should never let a serious crisis go to waste, because it offers you the opportunity to do things you thought you could not do before.

For the sake of Chicago and his own political hide, the mayor needs to put that theory to the test.

Madhani is a Chicago-based correspondent for Paste BN.