Chicago's political system has long been a cesspool. Its politics are horrible, its schools are horrible, its finances are horrible and its policing is horrible.Yet the Democratic party's stronghold is as strong as ever. Jonathan Gruber had it right about American citizens playing the role of helpless blind sheeple, I guess.
Of course, Chicago's politicians aren't the only self interested 'public servants.' Sheldon Silver of New York provides another current example of 'public service' at its best, or worst, as the case may be. See Sheldon Silver ... Found Guilty on All Counts.
Yes, politics sucks, cover-ups prevail and all too often the cover-ups prove to be worse than the crimes committed, as in Watergate of the Nixon years. Sadly, that's the way the political 'system' works. And We the People continue to be gullible and largely misrepresented, just like Gruber says.
Rahm Emanuel should resign as Mayor of Chicago. And the good people of Chicago should make it a two party race for who will serve them in the future. Competition is good.
Chicago's Killer Videotape is subtitled 'The tape of a police shooting finally surfaces after two elections has the analysis:
"The Black Lives Matter movement has often been wrong and inflammatory with its attacks on police, but a murder charge and a long-hidden videotape suggest that Chicago may be an exception. The question is whether the city’s Democratic political machine tried to cover up the nature of the shooting to help Mayor Rahm Emanuel win re-election.
Last month the Cook County State’s Attorney charged police officer Jason Van Dyke with murder in the October 2014 shooting death of Laquan McDonald. At the time of the shooting a Chicago police spokesman said McDonald had behaved erratically and the officer was defending himself. But the release of a video in late November, some 13 months after the shooting, is deeply troubling because it shows the officer firing at the black 17-year-old from more than 10 yards and repeatedly firing as he lay on the ground. Officer Van Dyke will have to explain to a jury why he fired, and police will have to account for why no one approached the teenager as he was dying.
The bigger question for Mr. Emanuel is why the videotape took so long to surface. Police turned over the evidence from the shooting shortly afterward, but the city said the video couldn’t be released during an investigation. It took a FOIA lawsuit from freelance journalist Brandon Smith and a judge’s order to release the footage.
People will properly wonder if the delay was a cover-up to prevent bad publicity before two elections. The shooting occurred days before the November 2014 election in which then-Governor Pat Quinn was fighting to retain his seat against Bruce Rauner.
Mr. Emanuel faced his own tight re-election race this April. How would that have turned out if the shooting footage had been released before April? “Rahm would have lost the election. Why? Because he would have lost Chicago’s black vote,” Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass wrote. Mr. Emanuel won on April 7, and the City Council approved a $5 million settlement with McDonald's family on April 15.
Mr. Emanuel said this week the “public deserves that information” but defended the delay by saying the city “has a practice, not unique to Chicago, that you don’t do anything as it relates to material evidence that would hamper, hinder, compromise an investigation.” He then fired police superintendent Garry McCarthy and ordered a new review of police training and practices in what looks like an attempt at mayoral self-preservation.
Chicago has been a one-party city for decades, and rot tends to build without political competition. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has called for a Justice Department investigation, but the question is whether the Obama Administration would honestly investigate a Democratic city government in the President’s hometown. Someone certainly should."
Summing Up
Yes, politics sucks.
And We the People are all often willing to sit by and play the role of helpless and gullible sheeple.
As a result, we are ill served and a compliant part of the sick stories not being told.
That's my take.
Thanks. Bob.
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