"I did not have sexual relations with that woman..."

Rahm had his own finger-wagging denial moment in the spotlight today:

"The answer, which is consistent with, and also what I've said before, at that point, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. attorney and the state's attorney are looking into it, and that's exactly where it should be so they can get to the bottom of it," Emanuel said.
...
The comments came after the Tribune on Thursday detailed how emails, interviews and copies of public calendars for the mayor and his Corporation Counsel Stephen Patton raised questions about when Emanuel learned key facts about the October 2014 McDonald shooting, which has become the biggest challenge of his time in office.

The records show Emanuel's top staffers became aware the McDonald shooting could become a legal and political quagmire in December 2014 -- more than three months before the mayor has said he was fully briefed on the issue. And lawyers for McDonald's family informed Emanuel's Law Department in March that police officers' version of what happened differed dramatically from the shooting video -- more than eight months before the mayor said he found out about the discrepancy.

Asked Thursday if top aides weren't telling him even though they were aware of the inconsistencies, Emanuel stuck to the same talking point.

"The answer to it is because if you're going to get to the bottom of something, and get to justice, is exactly with the U.S. attorney, FBI and state's attorney," Emanuel said.

On Oct. 20, 2014, Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke shot McDonald 16 times as the teenager walked down Pulaski Road with a knife in his hand. In April, the city reached a $5 million settlement with McDonald's family before a lawsuit was ever filed.

McDonald's death became a major scandal in November after a Cook County judge ordered the video be made public despite the Emanuel administration's efforts to block the release...

~ Chicago Tribune
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 WaPo:

Emanuel, who was fighting for re-election at the time, has said he had not been aware that police reports about the McDonald shooting differed so dramatically from the now-infamous video until long after the incident. The city settled with McDonald’s family last spring.
...
Thursday’s news came as a federal judge in Chicago ordered the release of video footage in another case that shows police fatally shooting an unarmed black teenager.

U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman called the city “irresponsible” for fighting to keep the video under wraps for so long. “I went to a lot of trouble to decide this issue, and then I get this motion last night saying that ‘this is the age of enlightenment with the city and we’re going to be transparent’,” Gettleman said.

After months of opposing the release of the video in the 2013 shooting death of 17-year-old Cedrick Chatman, city officials on Wednesday did an abrupt about-face, asking the judge to rescind a protective order and make public the video, which shows a white officer fatally shooting the teenager as he fled from police in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood. Chatman had been suspected of car theft.

The city had insisted previously that the video should remain under seal while a wrongful-death suit in the case went forward. But Chicago officials, who have faced withering criticism in recent months, said this week that their reversal was part of an effort “to be as transparent as possible.”

The video was released hours after Gettleman’s order Thursday.

See, the thing is, Chicago rules only work in Chicago.  You really can't hide the truth from all the people, all the time.  Not when news travels outside the city to more questioning environments.

Emanuel's comments Thursday followed an appearance at the opening of a risk management company downtown in which his staff had advised reporters he would not be taking questions.  But as Emanuel headed for the elevators after cutting the ribbon with the company's CEO, reporters followed him, yelling questions as TV cameras rolled.

After standing in the elevator bank for several seconds not responding, Emanuel said, "How about this, let's go back," and returned to the podium set up in the office for the event and took a handful of questions.

Does he really think that's going to be the end of it?  He deigned to answer questions, stuck to his statement of denial, and now it's all going to go away?  Ask Mr. Bill Clinton how well that one worked out...
----------------------

Song for the Night:

I'm alright because, despite the laws,
You cannot hide the truth.
And although you will say
I am still too naive
Yet I have not lost faith
In the things I believe...
And if I don't have a this all worked out
Still I'm getting closer, getting closer.

I still have far to go, no doubt,
But I'm getting closer, getting close...

~ Billy Joel
-------------------------------
There's More. Interested?:

The case of Cedrick Chatman, 17, is particularly noteworthy in Chicago because his 2013 death was ruled as justified by the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA), the embattled agency criticized as performing toothless investigations of police misconduct cases.

Since 2007, only two Chicago police officers involved in the shootings of civilians have been disciplined under its authority.

In September, IPRA investigator Lorenzo Davis said he was fired after refusing to change findings in three police shootings that showed officers were liable for wrongdoing.

One of those was the Chatman case.

At the time, Davis said officer Kevin Fry was not justified in shooting the teenager and refused to sign a report that arrived at the opposite conclusion. “If Officer Fry believed his life was in danger, then his fear was unreasonable. (He) should not have taken this young man’s life,” he told CNN.
...

According to data compiled by the Invisible Institute, a Chicago watchdog group, the officer who shot Chatman has had 30 civilian complaints of misconduct filed against him, including 12 involving excessive use of force.

He remains on active duty in the department.

Chatman family attorney Brian Coffman told The Post that the Chatman shooting represents “a cover-up from the very start, from the false police report to the IPRA investigation to the city of Chicago itself…. Everyone is following up as if nothing happened, and that’s the problem.

"There is no accountability anymore from any level for these types of matters. No one is being disciplined anymore.” ...

Last month, amid the ongoing uproar, the mayor also fired Chicago’s police superintendent, Garry F. McCarthy, saying, “He has become an issue, rather than dealing with the issue, and a distraction.”

...
More protests are planned for Friday, beginning with a morning boycott by nearly 60 ministers of the mayor’s annual breakfast with local pastors to commemorate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.

A march also is set to take place, heading through the city’s downtown financial district to Emanuel’s home on the North Side.

Lorenzo Davis, a former Supervising Investigator who was fired from his position at the Independent Police Review Authority poses for a portrait at his home

On January 17, 1984, Davis and several other officers were executing a search warrant in the 6th District, which includes the Gresham neighborhood where Davis served as a tactical officer for half a decade. With him that day was Officer Fred Eckles, a 10-year veteran of the force who died from multiple gunshot wounds after a drug dealer fired on the 41-year-old.

Davis returned fire, killing the offender.

Now, the 65-year-old police veteran has risked alienating himself among current cops who face similar dangers each day.

“Do you decide that an officer’s belief that he was in fear for his life was reasonable just because he says so? Or does the evidence and the witness statements lead you to believe that this was an excuse?” Davis said of his time leading IPRA investigations.

“If we don’t stand back and have some skepticism, than any time some police officer says ‘I was in danger,’ that’s the end of your investigation.

“That’s not the way it should be.”

 That's the man who should be serving as Chicago's mayor today...  He gets it.

Davis said a culture of bravado within the police department may be making cops’ decision to pull the trigger more acceptable.

“I know people coming out of the training academy telling me that it’s a badge of honor to shoot somebody, particularly a gangbanger,” Davis said.

[D]uring a particularly chaotic night in Chicago, officers fired on a shooting suspect but missed. When asked for the condition of a nearby shooting victim, a cop on the scene became confused, thinking the dispatcher had referred to the target of police gunfire.

“If they’re shot by police, they’re not victims; they’re offenders.”

Reread that last line and let it sink in...

While that mentality may make sense in the heat of the night, investigative minds are supposed to be cooler. Davis brought that approach to IPRA, until Ando decided that the veteran cop had to go.

“He should have known that I might go out and talk to people.”

 Getting closer, getting close ...