As embroiled Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel faces a chorus of criticism, the choir just got a little bit louder. MSNBC host and activist about town Al Sharpton called for Emanuel to resign.
At the center of the controversy — police-involved shootings.
The Hill reports:
Civil rights activist Al Sharpton wants Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to step down amid mounting criticism over the delay in releasing video evidence of a high-profile shooting and the continuing controversy surrounding police-involved shootings in Chicago. “He’s gone beyond the point where he can govern with the trust of the people,” Sharpton said Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” Sharpton, a minister and MSNBC host, runs the civil rights group National Action Network.“I think the people have to make that decision, but certainly from where I sit, he should,” Sharpton added when asked if Emanuel, President Obama’s former chief of staff, should step down.The rash of criticism began just before Thanksgiving, when Chicago police released a video of officers shooting and killing Laquan McDonald 16 times. McDonald, a 17-year-old black man, held a knife but was at a distance from the officer when he was shot.The video wasn’t released until more than a year after the incident, and reports say the police deleted surveillance video from a nearby fast food restaurant.Sharpton noted the accusations that Emanuel’s administration withheld the tape during his mayoral reelection and questioned why the mayor is still on vacation in Cuba with his family.“I’ve never seen this kind of detachment in the years that I’ve been fighting, whether I got along with the mayor or not,” he said. “This is the height of either insensitivity, lack of intelligence, or arrogance or a reasonable combination of all three.”
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