Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel Tries To Win Support From Black Community

Chicago’s Mayor Rahm Emmanuel Campaigns For Black Support

If you’ve been following Chicago’s mayor Rahm Emmanuel for any length of time you may have noticed his Twitter feed has gotten significantly blacker in the last few months since city officials came under fire for attempting to cover up the police shooting of Laquan McDonald.

Mayor Emmanuel’s shift towards embracing the black community is no coincidence, according to the Chicago Sun-Times who did some excellent reporting this weekend covering what they termed his “post-video forgiveness tour”:

After the release of the police dashcam video in November — showing now-indicted Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting the teenager 16 times as he walked away from officers — Emanuel began making more visits to African-American churches.

His staff posted photos on Twitter showing him eating at soul food restaurants.

He pressed to keep minority political allies on his side.

Those were among the steps Emanuel took in the face of the deepening political crisis he faced just months after black voters were key to his reelection, according to mayoral schedules and staff emails released to the Chicago Sun-Times in response to public records requests.

A spokesman for Emanuel wouldn’t discuss details of his visits with community residents and religious and political figures in the two months after the release of the video.

“Those private conversations are meant to be a real dialogue with the people who will play an important role in addressing a decades-old challenge in Chicago and restoring trust in our police department,” Emanuel spokesman Adam Collins said.

But Collins also acknowledged, “They have certainly increased in frequency over the past few months.”

The article goes on to highlight specific steps Emmanuel has taken since November, including meeting with community leaders, releasing a statement about police body-cams and calling for the resignation of police Supt. Garry McCarthy — so there is a case here that Emmanuel is working to take real steps toward positive change. But is the obvious public relations campaign being run from his social media a sign that he’s not truly trustworthy?

What do you think?

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