EXTRA: Who pays politically for death of McDonald at hands of cop?

One of the first pieces of copy I read Wednesday morning was a rant pointing out the great injustice of the death of Laquan McDonald and the fact that no one was charged until this week – the fact that Rahm Emanuel got re-elected as mayor.

ALVAREZ: Will she pay for McDonald death?

For if we had known back in 2014 when the slaying by a police officer (a cop definitely shot McDonald, what is in dispute is criminal intent) actually occurred, the public would have been so outraged that it would have punished Emanuel.

THERE’S NO WAY anyone would have seriously voted for him (except for the nitwits who like the idea of ‘law and order’ being the killing off of people not exactly like themselves).

We’d have “Mayor Chuy” these days. It would be Jesus Garcia having to cope with the partisan nitwit show taking place at the Statehouse in Springfield, and all the other financial problems the city faces these days.

That may be part of the problem. Instead of trying to address the real issue of why a segment of our society has such a serious distrust of law enforcement, we have some people wishing to place political blame.

As in “throw the bum out” on Election Day will seriously solve anything.

SINCE IT ISN’T possible to punish Emanuel (at least not until 2019), now it seems we’re looking for someone else to blame.

That person could well become Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez – who has never really been that popular with the public. She’s too Latina to satisfy the “law and order” types, while she’s a life-long prosecutor – which offends the activist types.

Can Donna More be the one to beat Anita,...

Which makes me wonder if she’s destined to be the “fall guy” (so to speak) for the death of McDonald.

Alvarez has challengers for next year’s Democratic primary (whose winner likely will go on to whomp all over the GOP nominee in November, it’s not like Gov. Bruce Rauner has really created a strong Republican apparatus in Illinois), and they’re likely to use this issue to beat on her.

KIND OF LIKE the way Redd Foxx’ “Fred Sanford” character used to say someone beat up on “Aunt Esther’s face” with an ugly stick. With apologies to LaWanda Page, it wasn’t pretty.

... or could it be Kim Foxx?

Neither will next year’s election cycle.

Already amongst my motley crew of Facebook-type friends are political people touting the merits of Donna More and Kim Foxx (no relation to Redd that I’m aware of).

As it is, More already is using Facebook to be critical of the fact that a criminal indictment didn’t come more quickly. “While I take some solace in the fact that some action was finally taken, why has it taken Anita Alvarez and the state’s attorney’s office 13 months to indict?,” she wrote.

ALTHOUGH I’M WONDERING if it will turn out that having two women challenging Alvarez will mean the opposition vote (the “Anybody But Anitas”) will split and she winds up winning re-election despite the public outcry from people desperate to point to a political loser as the outcome of the whole McDonald affair.

Could Laquan have cost Rahm the post?

Personally, I’d be more concerned about the criminal trial of the officer himself involved in the incident. No criminal case is ever as open-and-shut as some want to believe that Laquan’s death is.

And it would wind up looking ridiculous to our city’s public image if we were to dump Alvarez, only to have the officer in question wind up being acquitted eventually.

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