|
 Rauner also vowed to block funding for Chicago’s severely
cash-strapped public schools, which have warned of massive layoffs
in the months ahead without a state rescue, unless Emanuel’s
administration backs the Republican governor’s efforts to pass
business-friendly legislation making it harder for injured workers
to collect damages and to weaken public-sector labor unions.
Rauner’s aggressive stance toward Emanuel added to the mounting
public criticism against the mayor and Cook County State’s Attorney
Anita Alvarez for their response to the 2014 fatal shooting of
17-year-old Laquan McDonald, an African-American, by white Chicago
police officer Jason Van Dyke, who has been charged with murder.
 While immersed in a tight re-election battle earlier this year,
Emanuel fought unsuccessfully to block the release of a police
dash-cam video that showed Van Dyke as he fired his weapon at
McDonald 16 times while the teen, armed with a pocket knife, walked
away from police. Alvarez waited nearly 400 days to charge Van Dyke
with murder.
Resulting protests have roiled the nation’s third-largest city with
calls for both Emanuel and Alvarez, who is running for re-election
this year, to step down as the U.S. Justice Department conducts a
civil rights investigation into the Chicago Police Department.
“I’m very disappointed in the mayor and in the state’s attorney for
Cook County,” Rauner told reporters after being asked to assess
Emanuel’s job performance. “I’m not going to say more than that
right now.” Emanuel’s office delivered a measured response to the
governor’s criticism.
[to top of second column] |
“The mayor’s focus is not on his own personal politics,” mayoral
spokesman Adam Collins said. “His focus is on taking the action
necessary to finally and fully address an issue that has challenged
Chicago for decades and reform the system and culture of policing in
Chicago.”
A spokeswoman for Alvarez’s office said she did not know why the
governor was disappointed, noting the office enlisted the help of
the FBI and charged the officer with murder.
Rauner also lent his support to a push in the Illinois statehouse to
allow Chicago voters to recall their mayor, a step that has gained
bipartisan traction in the Illinois House of Representatives but
faces opposition from the leading Democrat in the state Senate,
Senate President John Cullerton, an ally of the mayor’s.
(Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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reserved.]
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