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| ALVAREZ: Still most despised |
After
all, the city is facing embarrassment for the way that 2014 shooting incident
occurred and people want somebody’s head on a pike. Although not anybody too
important – a state’s attorney may be high enough on the political totem pole.
BUT
FOR A time, it seemed that Alvarez was going to be displaced as the femme many
people wanted to see suffer.
For
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan had the unmitigated gall (some would say) to suggest that
the Justice Department come in and investigate the way the Chicago Police
Department handles things.
I
can already hear the spirit of Richard J. Daley rolling over in his grave,
while her very own father, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, was probably
wondering where he went wrong in teaching her the ways of politics and
government.
For
the last thing our political people ever want is to invite the feds into the
scene. Who knows what they might dig up? Or might decide is important and
worthy of further attention and action.
AFTER
ALL, THEY don’t even answer to “da mare.” They think the president of the
United States is the big guy.
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| MADIGAN: Challenging the prosecutor? |
So
even though this would be a Justice Department headed by people with ties to
our city’s very own Barack Obama, saying that the federal government is needed
to tell Chicago how its police department ought to operate is perhaps the
ultimate heresy.
You
might as well suggest that some outside entity ought to tell Emanuel how to do
his job!
Plus,
I’m sure the type of people who think that too much is being made of this
McDonald mess (how dare anyone challenge a police officer’s authority or
judgment) resent the idea that Lisa Madigan would suggest the need for the
United States government to intervene in any way.
THIS
RESENTMENT, MUCH of which will come from the “right wing” of our political
society, might have been enough to make Madigan the most unpopular woman of our
local political scene.
 |
| CLINTON: Support for Lisa's stance |
After
all, the lead story of the Chicago Tribune on Thursday wasn’t Madigan’s request
for federal intervention, but local hostility toward the idea. Mayor: No need for fed probe was the
banner headline on Page One.
Yet
there are those sources of support for such an idea, including Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and the presidential
aspirations of Hillary R. Clinton – who said she also thinks a federal
investigation of our police is a worthy idea.
And
even Emanuel had to back off his opposition to the idea, what with Crain’s
Chicago Business reporting in mid-day that Emanuel
now ‘welcomes’ federal probe of Chicago police.
IT
MAY JUST be that our mess of a law enforcement situation is going to have to
result in some sort of outside intervention in order to save ourselves from
eternal damnation!
 |
| EMANUEL: Must he go? |
Which
puts Anita Alvarez back in the position of the woman despised by Chicagoans for
letting this situation spring up – particularly those who delivered 32,000
petition signatures Thursday of people demanding her resignation. Although
messes within law enforcement are rarely one person’s fault – and there are
those who are determined to believe that Rahm Emanuel himself MUST BE the one
who suffers in the end.
As
I previously have written, I think it shortsighted to demand one person’s
resignation. I don’t think the departure of Garry McCarthy as police
superintendent changes things, nor would that of Alvarez, even though state’s
attorney candidate Donna More said in a statement, “the McDonald case is just
another in a series of missteps by the chief prosecutor that bring into
question her handling of politically-charged cases.”
Because
I still wonder how ridiculous will we all look if, by chance, we do boot all
these people from office – and in the end Jason Van Dyke (the cop in question)
winds up being acquitted! That very real possibility could wind up provoking
the riots we managed to avert during the past week.
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