Where is Rahm? *

Appears his police are at it again...
God have mercy.

The police arrived at a small beige residence in a neighborhood about six miles west of downtown after a relative reported that Quintonio LeGrier, 19, was behaving oddly and carrying a metal baseball bat around the second-floor apartment where his father lived. Mr. LeGrier, whose mother told reporters he was a college student who had been experiencing mental health issues, was fatally shot.

Bettie Jones, who was 55 and a first-floor tenant, was also fatally shot, apparently as she attempted to answer a shared front door for the arriving police officers and was standing between Mr. LeGrier and them as shots were fired, said her brother, Melvin Jones.

“None of this needed to happen,” Mr. Jones said as relatives gathered hours later in the house to mourn and pray. “And they say there will be an investigation into the shooting? I already know how that will turn out. We all know how that will turn out. When is this going to end?”

When is this going to end?
When the people stop settling for appearances over substance; When we stop rejecting the use of force, and start hiring police officers for their abilities to think and reason...

When they start killing unarmed innocents opening their doors, it's time to take the cops' guns away and see how effective are their policing skills armed only with their brains and billy clubs. I'm serious. No more military mentality in our police forces; we need justice born of reason. That's not exactly the skill set cops are hired for these days, obviously.

#BadBoysInBlueBullyToo!
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* In Cuba, of course. Playing full-time father. The mayoral job can wait; family first!

Meanwhile, back in Chicago: parents and children will be burying their loved ones, thanks to the ill-advised actions of the Chicago police... I wonder how many Taser stun guns the mayor could have donated to the city himself, had he saved the money he spent on his children's plane tickets to Cuba this holiday season. What a gift that might have been to them had they stayed home on vacation and worked for justice, instead?

"It’s something my parents did with me, because I think it’s not only great family time, but most importantly—and it’s a great family time because they don’t have to share me as a mayor but they get to have me totally, 100 percent as their father," he said. "But more importantly, they get to be exposed to other cultures, other parts of the world, and one of the things that we want is for our children to know that the world has people of different faiths, different backgrounds, with different ways of living and coping with similar situations. Our kids have seen other parts of the world."

Ah, but have the seen other parts of the city of Chicago? Do they understand what is happening in their hometown: do they know their Chicago history, Mayor?

I wonder if the black protesters are smart enough to demand a mayor who will put the long vacay plans on hold while he addresses an important part of his job: reforming the justice system in Chicago to protect innocents and get the unqualified officers off the streets.

Work first, play later.
If he's not up to the job, step aside and let someone lead who understands the mayor needs to be in Chicago after a revealing year like 2015. You want a Cuban junket? Run for national office, Rahm. This mayoral gig is a local thing, and hoo boy, there's work to be done...

Your lips apologize and agree that Black Lives Matter, but your actions are sending the message that black lives in Chicago matter less than exposing your children to the poor people of Cuba. Is this an issue that the mayor is going to devote his time and energy to, or just something to be put on the back burner while he takes his family time-out?

Say what you will about Mayor Richard J. Daley: he loved his city and understood he was the mayor 24/7, 365 or -66 days a year. He'd never disappear on vacation at times like this when the city needed strong leadership.