KENNEKA JENKINS IS MURDERED YET MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL REMAINS SILENT (BUT HE SCREAMED FOR DACA)

#RAHMEMANUEL

KENNEKA JENKINS WAS MURDERED YET CHICAGO MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL REMAINS SILENT:

HOW IRONIC RAHM SPOKE UP LOUD FOR DACA DREAMERS BUT KEEPS HIS MOUTH SHUT FOR KENNEKA.

PERHAPS IF KENNEKA WERE LATINO RAHM WOULD CARE.

WHAT A SHAME BLACK VOTERS ARE BEING REPLACED AND NO ONE SEEMS TO CARE, NOT EVEN BLACK LEADERS.

#KENNEKA


Sources: Chicago Tribune, CBS News



**** What we still don't know about Kenneka Jenkins' freezer death — despite what's on social media



Nearly three days after Kenneka Jenkins was found dead inside a walk-in freezer in a Rosemont hotel, police have said very little about what happened to the 19-year-old.

No cause of death has been released and police won't say if there were signs of trauma on her body when it was discovered early Sunday morning at the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

Yet that has not kept thousands and thousands of online commenters from accusing and making threats against people they think set Jenkins up and then attacked her. "The day of punishment will come," one person posted, though police have not even said whether a crime has been committed.

Much of the speculation is based on a livestream video that was apparently broadcast from a hotel room shortly before Jenkins disappeared.

The video — which has gotten more than 4 million views — features a woman in mirrored sunglasses talking to the camera. Reflected in her glasses is the other side of the room, where Jenkins appears to be sitting.

The video has been shared more than 53,000 times and has drawn nearly 35,000 comments. Some viewers claim to hear her cry for help, others hear someone say she is being attacked.

But words are often garbled or obscured by music or other people talking. The images reflected in the woman's sunglasses appear clear at times, but it's still hard to tell what exactly Jenkins is doing.

Investigators say they have been reviewing the Facebook video as well as surveillance video, and have been talking with people who were in the room. But they have said very little so far about what they have found.

Here is a timeline of events that unfolded over the weekend at the hotel, as disclosed by family and police, followed by what we do not know about the case.

Yet that has not kept thousands and thousands of online commenters from accusing and making threats against people they think set Jenkins up and then attacked her. "The day of punishment will come," one person posted, though police have not even said whether a crime has been committed.

Much of the speculation is based on a livestream video that was apparently broadcast from a hotel room shortly before Jenkins disappeared. The video — which has gotten more than 4 million views — features a woman in mirrored sunglasses talking to the camera. Reflected in her glasses is the other side of the room, where Jenkins appears to be sitting.

The video has been shared more than 53,000 times and has drawn nearly 35,000 comments. Some viewers claim to hear her cry for help, others hear someone say she is being attacked.
But words are often garbled or obscured by music or other people talking.

The images reflected in the woman's sunglasses appear clear at times, but it's still hard to tell what exactly Jenkins is doing.

Investigators say they have been reviewing the Facebook video as well as surveillance video, and have been talking with people who were in the room. But they have said very little so far about what they have found.

Here is a timeline of events that unfolded over the weekend at the hotel, as disclosed by family and police, followed by what we do not know about the case.

• 12:48 a.m. Sunday. Jenkins is pronounced dead, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. The cause of death remains undetermined after an autopsy the next day, pending further studies and investigation.

• Around 5 a.m. Sunday. Martin is allowed to see her daughter's body. She says the body had been removed from the freezer, which appeared to have been defrosted. “Her hair had soaking water up on there," she told reporters.

What We Don't Know

• What Jenkins was doing between the time she left home at 11:30 p.m. Friday and the time the video began around 1:35 a.m. Saturday.

• Who was in the hotel room. Police have not said how many were in the room and whether Jenkins knew all or most of them.

• What witnesses have told police about what went on in the room. Do they contradict each other?

Jenkins' mother has said her friends’ stories about what happened have changed. Is anyone considered a suspect?

• Whether Jenkins left alone or with someone, and whether anyone else was with her at the front desk.

• Who finally found Jenkins? How? Police have not said whether video shows her entering the freezer or whether there was anyone with her.

• We don't know how Jenkins died or whether there were signs of trauma. Jenkins' family said they were initially told by police that Jenkins apparently let herself into the freezer while drunk and died inside.

But a police spokesman said on Monday that nothing has been ruled out.

The medical examiner's office says the cause of death remains undetermined pending further studies and investigation.

• Police initially said the freezer was running at the time, but a spokesman later appeared to back off that comment.

It's also unknown whether there was a lever inside that would have allowed Jenkins to get out.

TRUMP CANCELS CHICAGO RALLY DUE TO VIOLENT PROTESTERS & DEATH THREATS (IT'S OBAMA)

TRUMP FORCED TO CANCEL CHICAGO RALLY DUE TO VIOLENT OBAMA BACKED PROTESTERS & DEATH THREATS:

DEMOCRATS ARE AFRAID BECAUSE MANY BLACK VOTERS ARE NOW SUPPORTING TRUMP.

IS OBAMA GOING TO ORDER COPS TO KILL MORE BLACK PEOPLE JUST FOR 2016 POLITICS??

Sources: ABC News, Youtube

**** DONALD TRUMP CANCELS UIC RALLY AMID SECURITY CONCERNS

Donald Trump canceled his rally at the UIC Pavilion Friday evening due to concerns about safety, according to his spokesperson.

A speaker came out to the podium and made an announcement.

"Mr. Trump just arrived in Chicago and after meeting with law enforcement has determined that for the safety of all the tens of thousands of people that have gathered in and around the arena, tonight's rally will be postponed until another date. Thank you very much for you attendance and please go in peace," he said.

A spokesperson for the Chicago Police Department tells ABC7 Eyewitness News the Chicago Police Department did not talk to the Trump campaign or tell them to cancel the event, and that the first police heard was at 6:30 p.m. when they were notified by UIC and Secret Service that the event was canceled.

Chicago Police Interim Superintendent John Escalante said in a press conference that police assured the campaign they had more than adequate resources and could guarantee him safe access and exit from the event, as well as the safety of all the attendees, supporters and protesters.

He also said that political views became confrontational on both sides, and scuffles ensued. He said a total of five arrests were made and two police officers suffered minor injuries including one who was hit in the head with a bottle and required stitches. The Chicago Fire Department said two civilians also suffered minor injuries and were transported to Stroger and Loretto hospitals.

In a statement from UIC Police Chief Kevin Booker, he said: "The University of Illinois at Chicago worked with all appropriate agencies to address the security concerns associated with an event of this nature including the Secret Service, Chicago Police Department and Illinois State Police as well as campaign and protest organizers.

The vast majority of attendees at today's events exercised their Constitutional rights of free speech and free assembly peacefully. The abrupt announcement of the cancellation of the event created challenges in managing an orderly exit from the Pavilion, which nonetheless, was accomplished with no injuries or arrests."

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel issued a statement, saying, ""For all of us who cherish the ideals upon which our country was founded, the hateful, divisive rhetoric that pits Americans against each other demeans our democratic values and diminishes our democratic process. I want to thank the men and women of the Chicago Police Department for their hard work tonight in unexpected circumstances, and their continued commitment to protecting people's first amendment rights."

The 10,000 seat Pavilion was nearly filled when the rally was canceled. As the crowd waited for the event to begin, it became apparent that it included at least hundreds of protesters. Activist Jedidiah Brown told me he and other infiltrators were on a mission to disrupt Trump's speech as often as possible.

"How does a man who speaks a message that's going to take America backwards become the possible frontrunner of an entire party that represents American values?" Brown asked.

The crowd of protesters outside the area swelled to at least 1,000 people. Some attendees said they had signed up for tickets, but those tickets were never collected so anyone could have gotten into the event. Protesters surrounded the Pavilion, heckling attendees as they left.

Protesters outside the Pavilion were loud, but peaceful. Inside the Pavilion, there appeared to be thousands of protesters in attendance, mostly young people and UIC students. At the announcement, undercover protesters who had entered the Pavilion as Trump supporters broke into wild celebration, shouting "We stopped Trump! We stopped Trump!"

The ensuing chaos included pushing, shoving and a few fistfights with several people taken away by Chicago and UIC police.

UIC has an especially diverse student body, including many sons and daughters of immigrants. Some questioned Trump's decision to hold the rally there in the first place. The students who came to protest said they were speaking out against Trump's bigotry.

The outbound Eisenhower Expressway was blocked near the UIC Pavilion briefly with protesters before Chicago police cleared the road.

People were stuck for a time in the UIC parking garage across the street from the Pavilion due to protesters blocking the street outside. Some inside the garage were frightened.

"The police, they don't seem to be doing anything to get anyone out of here, so everyone in the parking garage started to get weapons out of their car, they're ready to fight," said a caller named Cathy. "We're stuck in the garage. We haven't moved. We haven't been able to leave."

One driver said someone in the swarm of counter-Trump protesters shot at his car then tossed a brick at the windshield. Cars began leaving the garage not too long after that, with police controlling the flow of vehicles.

DANIEL HOTZCLAW'S REIGN OF TERROR ENDS: BLACK WOMEN MATTER IN 2016

#‎danielholtzclaw‬

DANIEL HOTZCLAW'S REIGN OF TERROR ENDS:

BLACK WOMEN MATTER IN 2016.

WHAT TOOK SO LONG??

~ Victims describe assaults by convicted ex-Oklahoma City cop Daniel Holtzclaw

One of the women assaulted by former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw said she feared for her life when he pulled her over last year and forced her to perform a sex act on him.

"In my mind, all I could think of was he was going to shoot me, he was going to kill me," Jannie Ligons told reporters at a news conference Friday. "I kept begging, 'Sir, don't make me do this, don't make me do this, sir. Please. You're going to shoot me.'

"All I could see was my life flashing before my eyes and the holster on his right side," said Ligons, a grandmother whose daughters stood beside her.

Holtzclaw told her he wasn't going to shoot her, but he made her perform oral sodomy in June 2014, Ligons said.

"All I can say is I was a victim, I was traumatized, I went to therapy, I had a stroke behind this," she said.
"I was innocent, and he just picked the wrong lady to stop that night," she added.

Ligons later went to police and media outlets with the first complaint against Holtzclaw, she said. Investigators later found a total of 13 alleged victims, all African-American.

She was also one of two victims who addressed the media a day after a jury found Holtzclaw guilty of 18 of the 36 charges he faced, including four counts of rape in the first degree and four counts of forced oral sodomy.

Ligons has a pending federal civil lawsuit against Holtzclaw and the city of Oklahoma City, filed on behalf of several victims.

She accused Holtzclaw of sexual assault and violating her state constitutional rights, and accused the city of negligence.

Raped while handcuffed to bed

Shandegreon "Sade" Hill told reporters that Holtzclaw pulled her over in December 2013, and she was later taken to a hospital on the other side of town. Once there, Holtzclaw raped her while she was handcuffed to a hospital bed.

"No nurses, nobody came to check on me," Hill said. "Me being in the room with the police, not expecting to get violated the way I did, the way I was done, I just couldn't even believe it. I was speechless. I was scared.

"I felt like I was in survivor mode, so I had to do what he was making me do," Hill added, with her parents beside her.

Hill has filed a state civil lawsuit against Holtzclaw and Oklahoma City. She came forward as a victim after reading a news item about Holtzclaw on Facebook last year, she said.

'Where is the national outcry for their justice?'

The jury deliberated for more than 40 hours before reaching its verdict late Thursday.

For about six months, Holtzclaw preyed on women -- all African-American -- in one of Oklahoma's poorest neighborhoods, exploiting his police badge to intimidate them into keeping quiet.

Prosecutors say the Oklahoma City officer selected his victims based on their criminal histories, figuring their drug or prostitution records would undermine any claims they might make against him.

Then, he would subject them to assaults that escalated from groping to oral sodomy and rape.

On Thursday, his 29th birthday, Holtzclaw rocked back and forth in his chair, sobbing, as the judge read the verdict.

On Friday, Holtzclaw was under suicide watch in the Oklahoma County jail, and a sheriff's deputy or detention officer was sitting outside his cell to monitor him, Sheriff John Whetsel told CNN affiliate KFOR.

Attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing some of the victims in civil litigation against the city, criticized the national media for not covering the trial in which the victims were "poor, black women."

"Where is the national outcry for their justice?" asked Crump, who has also represented the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown. Martin, a black teenager, was fatally shot by George Zimmerman in Florida. Zimmerman was acquitted of murder charges in 2013.

Brown was killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014.

Crump said other women had earlier called police about Holtzclaw, so "we need to find out how aggressive they (police) were" in their investigation.

Oklahoma City NAACP President Garland Pruitt said is waiting until Holtzclaw's sentencing in January to see if justice will be served. He said "the system has a reputation of not being fair."

"Don't let this be the only time that you come forward when people of color confront you with a situation that is not always favorable to your so-called dialect," Pruitt told the media.

More than 250 years of prison recommended

The jurors recommended a total of 263 years of prison time for Holtzclaw's crimes. Formal sentencing is set for next month.

"We're going to ask the judge to make sure that this defendant never sees the light of day," District Attorney David Prater said. "And we're going to ask him to run consecutive, every count."

Holtzclaw was a former star linebacker on the Eastern Michigan University football team with a degree in criminal justice.

His ruthless scheme started to unravel after one woman told authorities he had assaulted her during a traffic stop in June 2014.

In the months that followed, investigators pieced together the horrifying scale of his pattern of abuse.

He was fired from the force in January after an internal investigation.

"Your offenses committed against women in our community constitute the greatest abuse of police authority I have witnessed in my 37 years as a member of this agency," Oklahoma City Police Chief Bill Citty wrote in the termination letter, according to CNN affiliate KFOR.

Holtzclaw's trial began in early November and was criticized by activists after an all-white jury was chosen to decide on crimes committed against black women. Protesters repeatedly gathered outside.

Holtzclaw, whose father is white and mother is Japanese, is identified as "Asian or Pacific Islander" by court records.

17-year-old raped on mother's porch

Thirteen women accusing him of sexual assault testified in the trial.

"I didn't think anyone would believe me. I'm a black female," one accuser said in court, according to The Oklahoman newspaper. Another said Holtzclaw told her would get rid of a drug charge against her if she cooperated with him.

The assaults took place in range of places, including in his police car. One young woman, only 17 at the time, was raped on her mother's front porch.

"He didn't choose CEOs or soccer moms; he chose women he could count on not telling what he was doing," the prosecution said in its closing statement this week.

The defense questioned the credibility of Holtzclaw's accusers, arguing some of them were high when the purported assaults took place. It also challenged the validity of DNA evidence.

Prater, the district attorney, said that the jurors' decision not to convict the former police officer on half of the counts against him didn't necessarily mean they didn't believe some of the women.

"It may mean that we didn't meet our burden (of proof) in those counts," he said.

Police department: 'Justice was served'

Holtzclaw, whose father is a police lieutenant on another force, waived his right to testify.

The Oklahoma City Police Department welcomed the verdict against its former employee.

"We are satisfied with the jury's decision and firmly believe justice was served," it said.

Some women gathered outside the Oklahoma County Courthouse celebrated Holtzclaw's conviction by mockingly singing "Happy Birthday," KFOR reported.

But others, including one of the victims' mothers, said they were waiting for the formal sentencing before deciding whether justice had been done.

Post Sources: CNN, LA Times, YouTube

RAHM EMANUEL WHERE WAS YOUR APOLOGY WHEN LAQUAN MCDONALD WAS FIRST MURDERED?

RAHM EMANUEL WHERE WAS YOUR APOLOGY WHEN LAQUAN MCDONALD WAS FIRST MURDERED?

AN APOLOGY IN 2014 WOULD HAVE DERAILED RAHM'S RE-ELECTION CHANCES.

So why didn't Mayor Rahm Emanuel apologize when 17- yr old LAQUAN MCDONALD was first Murdered in 2014 after he was Shot by Chicago Police sixteen times?

If he had apologized back in 2014, Rahm Emanuel would Not have been re-elected.

If Rahm Emanuel RESIGNS as Mayor will his resignation improve the quality of life for Chicago's BLACK voters, or bring Laquan McDonald back from the dead?

NO.

~ Emanuel apologizes for Laquan McDonald police shooting, repeats call for change

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday apologized to aldermen for the police shooting of Laquan McDonald "that happened on my watch."

"If we're going to fix it, I want you to understand it's my responsibility with you," Emanuel said in a rare speech to the full Chicago City Council. "But if we're also going to begin the healing process, the first step in that journey is my step, and I'm sorry."

Emanuel — who has dismissed his police superintendent, parted ways with the head of the police shooting review agency and dropped opposition to the release of the McDonald shooting video during the last two weeks — framed up the situation as "a defining moment on the issues of crime and policing — and the even larger issues of truth, justice and race."

The address of about 40 minutes, coming during a crucial time of Emanuel's tenure, was more of a political speech designed to assuage Chicagoans than one filled with specific plans that several aldermen called for this week to deal with entrenched problems in the Chicago Police Department.

Those problems were highlighted nationally by the fatal shooting of 17-year-old McDonald, an African-American, by a white police officer, the 13 months it took for video of the incident to be made public by court order and for a murder charge to be brought only shortly before the video's release.

And so the mayor on Wednesday talked about many Chicagoans' lack of trust in police officers, and returned to his oft-discussed argument that there are too many guns on Chicago streets. He reiterated his frequent argument that elected officials and community leaders have a responsibility "to earn back that trust and to change that narrative," and said there's a need for police to build trust with young African-Americans.
Emanuel spoke of the larger challenges as ones shared by people throughout Chicago.

"This time must be different. It will be a bumpy road, make no mistake about it," Emanuel said. "It is a painful process, and it is a long journey because of the issues we need to confront. But we as a city will not hesitate in the pursuit of what is right. We cannot shrink from the challenge any more than we can ignore the wrenching video of a troubled young man, a ward of the state of Illinois, failed by the system, surrounded by the police and gunned down on the streets of Chicago."

Ald. Roderick Sawyer, 6th, said the mayor still has a lot of work to do to regain the city's trust.

"That's the challenge he has, quite honestly, and it's going to be judged by his actions, not his words," Sawyer said moments after the mayor's speech. "So, we hope the ensuing actions will be substantive and will show real meaning to make that connection back with the community so we can establish that trust."

The Rev. Jesse Jackson sat in the front row of the gallery in the City Council chamber to watch Emanuel deliver his speech, which he called "an impassioned address on the extreme duress" of the city.

"The word must become flesh, and we'll know the value of it then," Jackson said of Emanuel's speech. "It must become a practice, and it must happen immediately. We now know police saw the killing of Laquan McDonald and filed a false report. They should be addressed immediately."

Jackson called on the federal government not to limit its Justice Department probe to the Police Department, but also investigate Emanuel's office and Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez's office.

 He said many questions remain about what Emanuel and Alvarez knew and when they knew it.

"Who saw the tape when and delayed the tape for 13 months?" Jackson asked. "When subpoenas are issued to testify under oath, then we'll know who knew what when."

The real test, Jackson said, will be how Emanuel deals with the stringent Fraternal Order of Police contract that limits police discipline.

Aldermen — many of whom have approved hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements for victims of police brutality while demanding little change in how the department operates — had mixed reactions to the mayor's talk.

Ald. Howard Brookins, 21st, a congressional candidate who has long spoken out about police abuse, said he thought Emanuel's speech was "genuine and heartfelt," but that many in the public will be skeptical and he'll have to follow up his words with actions.

"Everybody will be cynical that we're just doing this, or it was just said to get past this particular crisis at this time," Brookins said. "I'm saying that the public will hold us to the standard that 'talk is cheap, let's see what your actions will be.' "
Ald. Will Burns, 4th, a mayoral ally, said Emanuel will have to take real action. "I think that in order for our city to function, for our city not to tear itself apart, the reforms have to happen," Burns said.

Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, said "it's going to be a tall order" to make the type of real improvements in policing that Emanuel called for Wednesday. "It's going to take a lot of funding, and given the state of the city, we're going to have to find the resources to do this," she said.
Ald. Leslie Hairston, 5th, a frequent Emanuel critic, said the mayor surprised her by not delivering "just the regular speech" she expected.

"It seemed to be real. It hit me. It hit me. It went straight to the core, and that's what I appreciated about it," Hairston said. "This is something we haven't heard before. It was not window dressing. It talked about some of the core and key things that are problems here in the city of Chicago, and I think that's a very big step."

Emanuel has appointed his own five-person task force to recommend Police Department reforms in response to the McDonald shooting fallout, and the task force is set to announce its findings by the end of March.

In his speech, Emanuel said the panel has already recommended the hiring of a "senior officer for civil rights" at the Police Department to implement the panel's recommendations and those of federal investigators.
As he has in recent days, Emanuel focused much of his talk on the broader implications of McDonald's death after being shot 16 times by police Officer Jason Van Dyke in October 2014.

Nothing, nothing can excuse what happened to Laquan McDonald," Emanuel said. "Our city has been down this road before. We have seen fatal police shootings and other forms of abuse and corruption. We took corrective measures, but those measures never measured up to the challenge."

The mayor was at his most emotional when he discussed the need for respect between officers and young black men, and when he mentioned parents who have lost children to violence and people who get out of jail with few options.

He talked about a recent lunch with young men who had been in trouble with the law.

"So I asked them, tell me the one thing I need to know," Emanuel said. "And rather than tell me something, one young man asked me a simple question that gets to the core of what we're talking about. He said, 'Do you think the police would ever treat you the way they treat me?' And the answer is no, and that's wrong," Emanuel said, his voice rising before he began to pound the lectern. "And that has to change in this city. That has to come to an end and end now. No citizen is a second-class citizen in the city of Chicago. If my children are treated one way, every child is treated the same way."

Aldermen applauded the mayor when he noted that double standard.
As he often does when talking about the parents of gunshot victims, the mayor choked up as he recounted "their extraordinary grace."

And without giving specifics, he called for residents to have a forum to talk about their problems with the police. "We have to have better oversight of our police officers to make sure they are living up to the high standards we expect of them, and we also have to create a place for the community to vent their understandable feelings and fears about the police without it devolving into acrimony and finger-pointing," he said.

Emanuel said the next police superintendent who will replace the recently fired Garry McCarthy will need "to address the problems at the very heart of the policing profession."

"This problem is sometimes referred to as the Thin Blue Line," Emanuel said. "Other times it is referred to as the code of silence. It is the tendency to ignore, deny or in some cases cover up the bad actions of a colleague or colleagues.

No officer should be allowed to behave as if they are above the law just because they are responsible for upholding the law. Permitting and protecting even the smallest acts of abuse by a tiny fraction of our officers leads to a culture where extreme acts of abuse are more likely, just like what happened to Laquan McDonald."

Emanuel, who once tried to settle a police brutality lawsuit that found a code of silence existed in the Police Department, said Tuesday evening on "Chicago Tonight" that such a code exists. "The short answer is yes," Emanuel said.

Access to City Council chambers was limited Wednesday. The administration said there was a list of those who were to be allowed in but later said some members of the public were admitted.

Protesters chanted outside council chambers after the speech, and more protests were unfolding against Emanuel later Wednesday.

Sources: Chicago Tribune, YouTube

RAHM EMANUEL FIRES CHICAGO POLICE CHIEF ONE YEAR LATER; FREDDY GRAY MURDER TRIAL BEGINS

Amid public outrage, one year after being re-elected as Mayor of Chicago, RAHM EMANUEL is finally moving forward with the LAQUAN MCDONALD Murder case.

Why was Laquan's Irresponsible Mother paid $5 Million in HUSH money when her 17-yr old Son was still in Foster Care when he was killed?

FREDDY GRAY'S Murder trial has begun to move forward in BALTIMORE.

Freddy Gray's family was also PAID OFF.

Thus none of the six Cops culpable for Freddy's Murder will spend time in Prison.

Under OBAMA'S Administration, Young BLACK Men & Boys in America are worth Dead than Alive.

We need to PRAY and keep demanding JUSTICE!


~ Analysis: After firing McCarthy, Emanuel faces bigger problem

Now that Rahm Emanuel has gone against his political instincts by firing his larger-than-life police superintendent, the mayor faces an even bigger political dilemma that could define his legacy.

He must find a worthy replacement for Garry McCarthy without making worse racial tensions brought to a boil by the Laquan McDonald shooting video.

The video played around the world of a white Chicago Police officer pumping 16 rounds into the body of the black teenager not only sealed McCarthy’s fate.

It also made the job of filling McCarthy’s shoes that much more difficult.

Hispanic elected officials will almost certainly demand that the permanent job be awarded to First Deputy Police Superintendent John Escalante, who will serve as acting superintendent until a permanent replacement is chosen.

But Escalante is already a political flashpoint. McCarthy’s decision to appoint him to replace retiring First Deputy Al Wysinger, who is African-American, infuriated the City Council’s Black Caucus and triggered demands for McCarthy’s ouster even before the Laquan McDonald video was made public.

Hispanics may also lobby behind the scenes for Hiram Grau, the former Chicago deputy superintendent and former state police director who was chosen by Emanuel to recommend police reforms as part of a five-member Task Force on Police Accountability.

Having succeeded in forcing Emanuel’s hand, black elected officials are equally certain to demand that McCarthy’s replacement be an African-American to restore public confidence between citizens and police in the black community so shaken by the department’s handling of the McDonald shooting.

Several aldermen are openly lobbying for Wysinger’s return, even though he is best remembered for being the statue who stood motionless behind McCarthy at news conferences.

“I believe in my heart that Al Wysinger will be a great choice to lead the department. Al has the respect of the community as well as the entire police department,” said Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), former chairman of the City Council’s Police Committee.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who lobbied hard for McCarthy’s ouster, said the new superintendent need not necessarily be black. But it must be someone willing to make the “structural changes” necessary “so there’s not an effort to cover up, deny, misplace evidence and perjure when bad things happen.”

“The mayor complains about the code of silence in the black and Hispanic communities that prevent people from coming forward and sharing information. What about the code of silence in the police department that protects bad cops?” Preckwinkle said.

Another strong black candidate is Charles Ramsey, the former deputy police superintendent who went on to lead the police departments in Washington D.C. and Philadelphia. Ramsey was Emanuel’s first choice in 2011 before pricing himself out of the market by demanding a salary in excess of $400,000.

The case for a black superintendent is strengthened by the fact that the surge in shootings and gang violence under McCarthy’s watch disproportionately impacted the African-American community and left many of those neighborhoods under siege.

They need only point to the execution murder of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee as proof. The boy was lured into an ally by a gang member seeking revenge after his brother was killed in a gang-related shooting.

That initial nationwide search for a new superintendent will be conducted by the Police Board, whose president, Lori Lightfoot, is another member of Emanuel’s Task Force on Police Accountability.

They will narrow the list to 10 candidates then winnow the names to three finalists from which the mayor can choose. Escalante will almost certainly be one of them unless he blows his audition.

On Tuesday, Emanuel was asked whether a new superintendent needs to be an outsider or black.

“I’m not looking for a type. I’m looking for a professional that can lead the department and make sure that they have a robust record of bringing results in public safety,” the mayor said.

“I want to have somebody that will meet the needs of public safety, help obviously in this issue of both changing the culture, putting in place the building blocks to restore the confidence and trust that we want to see in Chicago and have a record in the police department of invigorating . . . not only commitment to professionalism but the type of commitment I want to see to make the changes necessary.”

Lightfoot added, “It needs to be somebody with a track record of positive engagement with the community . . . There’s also a need for terrorism experience and ideas to combat violence and street crime.”

If Emanuel dares to chose a white superintendent, former Englewood District Commander-turned State Police Director Leo Schmitz would be a strong candidate. Schmitz was a star of the CNN documentary series, “Chicagoland.”

Former Mayor Richard M. Daley was a me-first politician who never hesitated to throw people under the bus, including two police superintendents: Phil Cline and Matt Rodriguez.

Emanuel is far more loyal to his people. It goes against his grain to create political scapegoats.

But the steady drumbeat for McCarthy’s ouster got too loud to ignore, particularly for a mayor who had promised during his second term to listen more to African-American voters, who were alienated by his record 50 school closings.

The Chicago Sun-Times may well have put the final nail in McCarthy’s coffin with a front-page editorial demanding his ouster.

“I have a lot of loyalty to what he’s done and him. But . . . no one person trumps my commitment and my responsibility to the city of Chicago and its future,” the mayor said.

Pressed to explain what his only police superintendent had done wrong, he said: “I have a lot of confidence in the work and results that he’s done. But our goal . . . is to build the trust and confidence of the public. And at this point and this juncture for the city, given what we’re working on, he has become an issue, rather than dealing with the issue, and a distraction.”

Emanuel has been under fire for keeping the McDonald video under wraps until after the April 7 mayoral runoff and waiting until one week after the election to settle the case for $5 million even before the McDonald family had filed a lawsuit. The video was released only after a judge’s order.

On Tuesday, the mayor was asked what responsibility he bears for the crisis of confidence that has, once again, undermined the trust between citizens and police in the black community so essential to solving crime.

“I take responsibility and none of us are above it . . . I have taken certain steps prior to this day. I’m taking steps today. As I told you, this is a work in progress in finding a solution [to police accountability]. It’s not the end of the problem. It’s the beginning of a solution towards the problem,” the mayor said.

Emanuel was asked about demands for his own resignation. He kept his cool and simply said a sarcastic, “Thank you.”

On Black Friday, the same day protesters infuriated by the McDonald video shut down Michigan Avenue, McCarthy insisted that the mayor “has my back.”

Instead, he got a political knife in the back delivered Tuesday morning after a series of conversations with his boss over the last few days.

The Emanuel-McCarthy dialogue started with the superintendent defending himself and making the case to finish the job he came to Chicago to do and ended with a realization that his tenure as superintendent, second only to Terry Hillard’s, had come to an end.

“After repeated meetings with community and faith leaders and conversations with elected officials, the mayor realized community support for the superintendent had gotten so low, he could no longer be effective in his job. It was an evolution of conversations that got him to that point,” said a mayoral confidante, who asked to remain anonymous.


~ First of Six Trials in Freddie Gray Death Begins With Protests

Demonstrations tied to the April police custody death of Freddie Gray continued on Monday evening, hours after jury selection got underway for the first of six officers slated to stand trial in his death.

Carrying signs that read, "Black Lives Matter," and chanting "No justice no peace! No killer police!" several dozen protestors marched through downtown Baltimore, making stops at City Hall, police department headquarters, and several popular tourist spots, including the city's famed Inner Harbor. No arrests were reported.

The protests followed day one of the jury selection process in the case of William G. Porter, 26, one of six officers indicted. He faces charges that include with manslaughter, second-degree assault, and reckless endangerment for his alleged role in Gray's demise.

Sources: Chicago Suntimes, Fox News, NBC News, YouTube

JESSE JACKSON CALLS FOR CHICAGO POLICE DEPT SHAKE-UP (2016 POLITICS)

‪#‎JesseJackson‬

JESSE JACKSON CALLS FOR CHICAGO POLICE DEPT SHAKE-UP:

WHAT ABOUT MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL?


Civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson on Saturday joined a chorus calling for Chicago's police superintendent and a top prosecutor to resign for the way they handled last year's fatal shooting of a black teenager by a white police officer.

More than a year after the October 2014 shooting, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez this week announced a murder charge against Officer Jason Van Dyke in the slaying of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.

Hours later, the Chicago Police Department, headed by Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, released a graphic video of the shooting to comply with a court order.

Van Dyke's lawyer has said the officer opened fire because he feared for his life and the lives of other police officers when he saw McDonald had a knife.

In addition to calling for the removal of Alvarez and McCarthy, Jackson demanded the appointment of a special prosecutor to try Van Dyke. He said he wanted a federal investigation into the police department with the aim of changing what critics say is a culture of racial bias.

“We need bold comprehensive change in the police department and the criminal justice system,” Jackson said during a news conference at his Rainbow PUSH headquarters. “Too much time for too little crime.”

McDonald's death has rekindled a national debate over police treatment of African-Americans and other minorities. The soul-searching was triggered last year by high-profile police killings of black men in Missouri, New York and elsewhere.

Jackson also called for a White House conference on violence for cities in urban areas and innovation to help create opportunities in disenfranchised communities.

The video clip, taken by a camera mounted on the dashboard of a squad car, showed McDonald being shot as he walked away from officers. A total of 16 shots were pumped into his body, even after he lay motionless on the pavement.

Jackson spoke the a day after about 2,000 protesters flooded Chicago's Magnificent Mile, a strip of designer stores, to voice outrage over the killing and how the case was handled.

Some shops temporarily closed their doors because of the protests, which coincided with the start of the holiday shopping season, as demonstrators locked arms and blocked entrances.

At times, police had to escort shoppers inside.

Post Sources: CNN, Reuters, Chicago Suntimes, YouTube

RAHM EMANUEL INVOLVED IN COVER-UP OF LAQUAN MCDONALD'S MURDER

WHAT HAS MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL REALLY DONE FOR CHICAGO'S BLACK VOTERS?

In this video I discuss how Pres OBAMA'S close friend Chicago Mayor RAHM EMANUEL, may have played a significant role in the cover up in the Murder of LAQUAN MCDONALD who was shot 16 times in 2014 by a Chicago Police Officer.

When he died LAQUAN was a 17-yr old Foster Care kid.

Long before 17-yr old Laquan McDonald (Black, male Youth) was shot 16 times by Chicago police, he was a walking dead person.

Laquan's Mother, his troubled childhood and the Foster Care system in Ilinois were actually responsible for his premature death.

So although Laquan recently died due to SUICIDE BY COP, the Police should not be solely blamed for his Murder.

~ After Police Shooting in Chiacgo, Calls for Emanuel to Resign.

"A leader has to be held to account for the code of silence... in the Chicago police department," one civil rights lawyer says.

For nearly two years, he was the second-most powerful Democrat in Washington, a famously confrontational, joyously profane White House gatekeeper who traded in his job as the first black president's right-hand man to run for mayor of Chicago, their shared, beloved hometown.

Now, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, President Barack Obama's former chief of staff, is facing calls for his resignation amid disturbing questions on the latest and, arguably, most egregious, incident of police use of deadly force against an African American citizen.

Tuesday's release of a graphic video showing a white Chicago cop pumping 16 bullets into a black teenager will likely cast a pall over Obama's push to ease strained relations between police and the black community in cities nationwide, an issue he personally elevated to the national agenda last year.

Besides adding the Windy City to the ever-expanding list of places that which have become shorthand for deadly confrontations between police and African Americans:

Ferguson Missouri; Staten Island, New York; Cleveland; Baltimore -- the incident isn't a good look for the president.

Despite Emanuel's strained relations with the black community, Obama endorsed him for office during his first campaign in 2011, and Emanuel surged to office -- and to re-election in 2015 -- in part on the black vote.

Yet Obama's former top aide is suspected of helping police cover up the death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, the newest name in an issue that cuts to the heart of the black community.

When Officer Jason Van Dyke shot McDonald on a city street last year as police responded to reports of theft and vandalism in the area, police administrators and city officials "said things that were knowingly, demonstrably false within minutes of the shooting," says Craig Futterman, a Chicago civil rights lawyer who helped break open the case.

"A leader has to be held to account for the code of silence that continues to exist in the Chicago police department. He has to acknowledge it and address it," he says.

In a press conference Tuesday with Chicago Superintendent Garry McCarthy, Emanuel announced the city would release a long-sought video of the shooting, recorded on a dashboard camera in Van Dyke's police cruiser that night.

Both the mayor and the commissioner said they expect protests from an angry black community, but wouldn't tolerate violence; they also stressed that Van Dyke, who was charged with first-degree murder just days earlier, was a lone bad actor.

Demonstrators on the streets of downtown Chicago hours later, however, didn't seem to agree.

"While we know the system has failed, no one can specifically say how," city Alderman Roderick Sawyer told ABC-7, a local TV station. "You cannot change a system by ignoring a system."

The grainy, nighttime video -- which police and city authorities had refused to make public until a judge ordered it released by Thursday -- shows McDonald jogging past Van Dyke and other officers, a small knife in his hand.

Although McDonald doesn't appear to confront the officers, several of them draw weapons on him; Van Dyke opens fire within seconds, gunning McDonald down.

Although the young man lies motionless on the ground, Van Dyke continues to fire, emptying his 16-round clip.

When the gunfire ends, a second officer walks over to McDonald's body and kicks the knife from his hand. Although several officers are on the scene, no one gives first aid to McDonald.

Shortly after the shooting, Futterman says, the Chicago police released a statement declaring that McDonald was the aggressor, was under the influence of PCP and that Van Dyke shot once in self-defense.

Days later, however, a police whistleblower came to Futterman and independent investigative journalist Jamie Kalven with a tip: Authorities are withholding a videotape, trying to sweep an unjustified shooting under the rug.

After a year of legal wrangling with the department amid growing publicity about the shooting, Futterman says, a judge ordered the release of the dash-cam video from Van Dyke's cruiser -- a decision that triggered a series of rapid-fire developments in the case.

Under pressure, prosecutors who said they'd spent months on the investigation quickly charged Van Dyke with murder, Emanuel and McCarthy met with African American community leaders and braced the city for release of a potentially explosive piece of evidence.

"I believe this is a moment that can build bridges of understanding rather than become a barrier of misunderstanding," Emanuel said in Wednesday's press conference. "I understand that the people will be upset and will want to protest when they see this video. We as a city must rise to this moment."

While Van Dyke's attorney insists his client acted in self-defense, Emanuel says the officer will be held accountable for his actions.

But Futterman says the buck ultimately stops at Emanuel's desk: the mayor let linger a false narrative McDonald's death, didn't compel the police to release the video when reporters asked for it and neither he nor McCarthy have taken steps to demolish the department's wall of silence.

After the shooting, Futterman says, officers destroyed videos of the incident recorded at a nearby fast-food restaurant ("Ironically, other security videos show them doing this," he says), rounded up and intimidated a group of eyewitnesses into silence and used news reporters to feed disinformation to the public.

"All the evidence appears to point to it: That a lie was told to the media," Futterman says.

"No official corrected that lie. And there were actions on the part of multiple officers to intimidate witnesses, to destroy evidence and to lie."

On Twitter Wednesday, ‪#‎ResignRahm‬ was trending, and Futterman agrees the mayor himself must answer for "keeping people in the dark and letting lies be told on behalf of Chicago police officers to hang in the air."

While Futterman doesn't hesitate to call it a "coverup," he stops short of accusing Emanuel of direct involvement, although "it's a fair question" to ask what he knew, when he knew it and what he did to ensure justice in the case.

The mayor "has fallen far short in this case, and I think it's up to the voters to decide" whether he should continue to lead Chicago, Futterman says, noting Van Dyke is the only one who's clearly been punished.

"What about all these officers that participated in covering up what happened and intimidating witnesses?

That's criminal," Futterman says. "Heads need to roll because this has become the practice and culture that's established by leaders like Mayor Emanuel and Superintendent McCarthy."
"I'm too cynical to say I'm surprised" no one's been fired, Futterman says.

While the majority of the Chicago police rank-and-file do a fine job, he adds, the culture at the top "protects the minority of officers who are out there abusing people.

That's fundamentally what needs to change."

If that were actually addressed, he added, "there's a good chance [McDonald] would be alive."

Sources: Chicago Suntimes, US News, YouTube

Obama's Camp Plans To Annihilate Romney On 2012 Trail; Mass. 47th In Jobs!

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Obama plan: Destroy Romney

Barack Obama’s aides and advisers are preparing to center the president’s reelection campaign on a ferocious personal assault on Mitt Romney’s character and business background, a strategy grounded in the early-stage expectation that the former Massachusetts governor is the likely GOP nominee.

The dramatic and unabashedly negative turn is the product of political reality. Obama remains personally popular, but pluralities in recent polling disapprove of his handling of his job, and Americans fear the country is on the wrong track. His aides are increasingly resigned to running for reelection in a glum nation. And so the candidate who ran on “hope” in 2008 has little choice four years later but to run a slashing, personal campaign aimed at disqualifying his likeliest opponent.

In a move that will make some Democrats shudder, Obama’s high command has even studied former President George W. Bush’s 2004 takedown of Sen. John Kerry, a senior campaign adviser told POLITICO, for clues on how a president with middling approval ratings can defeat a challenger.

“Unless things change and Obama can run on accomplishments, he will have to kill Romney,” said a prominent Democratic strategist aligned with the White House.

The onslaught would have two aspects. The first is personal: Obama’s reelection campaign will portray the public Romney as inauthentic, unprincipled and, in a word used repeatedly by Obama’s advisers in about a dozen interviews, “weird.”

“First, they’ve got to like you, and there’s not a lot to like about Mitt Romney,” said Chicago Democratic consultant Pete Giangreco, who worked on Obama’s 2008 campaign. “There’s no way to hide this guy and hide his innate phoniness.”

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

A senior Obama adviser was even more cutting, suggesting that the Republican’s personal awkwardness will turn off voters.

“There’s a weirdness factor with Romney, and it remains to be seen how he wears with the public,” the adviser said, noting that the contrasts they’d drive between the president and the former Massachusetts governor would be “based on character to a great extent.”

The second aspect of the campaign to define Romney is his record as CEO of Bain Capital, a venture capital firm that was responsible for both creating and eliminating jobs. Obama officials intend to frame Romney as the very picture of greed in the great recession — a sort of political Gordon Gekko.

“He was very, very good at making a profit for himself and his partners but not nearly as good [at] saving jobs for communities,” said David Axelrod, the president’s chief strategist. “His is very much the profile of what we’ve seen in the last decade on Wall Street. He was about making money. And that’s fine. But often times, he made it at the expense of jobs in communities.”

Romney officials shrug off the tough talk, arguing that there’s nothing Obama can do that will turn the campaign away from functioning as a referendum on his stewardship of the economy.

“There’s so many wonderful ironies here: Obama spent his whole political career perfecting the best argument against Bush 43, and now he’s going to run as 43?” said Romney strategist Stuart Stevens, who also worked for Bush. “They can try anything they want — but this race is going to be about the economy.”

The Democrats laying the groundwork for this strategy are well aware of its echoes. In 2004, the polarizing incumbent and his allies successfully raised doubts about the character and fitness of another stiff, wealthy patrician politician from Massachusetts with attacks on his alleged “flip-flopping” and even his war record.

“If you were to write the history of his political career, it would be called ‘Extreme Makeover,’” Axelrod said of Romney.

“What made the Bush people successful and made theirs a very smart strategy was that they pitted something deeply ingrained about Bush against something that they were trying to convince people of regarding Kerry,” said another top Obama adviser. “Specifically, they knew Bush was seen as stubborn but very firm in his beliefs. The opposite of that, of course, is not firm in your beliefs, and that’s how they portrayed Kerry from early on. It was a nice, sharp contrast.”

Obama’s team won’t portray the incumbent as stubborn but principled. Voters can expect to see a portrait of a president making the difficult decisions in tough times set against an opponent they’ll claim has bent, like the windsurfing Kerry, with the breeze. And they may do it before Romney has even formally wrapped up the nomination in the event he ends up on a glide path to the GOP nomination.

“When it’s clear we have an opponent in our eyes and in the eyes of public, we’re going to be in that discussion,” the Obama adviser said.

They don’t have a choice. Even Obama’s top aides don’t expect unemployment to be below eight percent when next November rolls around.

“When you have these difficult economic circumstances, everybody is going to have to make a choice,” said the Obama adviser. “We’re going to have to color both sides of that choice.”

Romney, currently the front-runner for the Republican nomination, isn’t the candidate Democrats would most like to face. That honor goes to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin or Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, vocal conservatives who may not be able to reach swing voters. Romney’s moderate record as the one-term governor of a liberal state — the target of conservative rivals’ criticism — could also make him a strong general election candidate.

Obama officials, however, believe they’ll have more grist for their flip-flop line of attack after the primary because Romney will eventually have to veer right to convince the GOP base he can be trusted with the nomination.

“He’s going to take some unpopular, right-wing stands,” said an adviser. “That was one of the main things that hung McCain up — how he had to go through the nominating process.”

Democrats say it’s Romney’s decade-plus of political maneuvering to win a Massachusetts Senate seat, the governorship and the White House that collectively will be his undoing.

“There’s a question of public character,” said Axelrod. “Are you principled, consistent — are you who you say you are? Can you be counted on?”

The character attacks on Romney will focus on what critics view as a makeover, both personal (skinny jeans) and political (abortion).

“People already knew that he’s a political opportunist of the highest order — changing his positions to suit the day’s polling,” said Bill Burton, Obama’s former White House deputy press secretary who now heads Priorities USA, an independent group expected to lead Democratic attacks on the Republican nominee. “But the last couple weeks, this lack of principles has translated into a total lack of leadership on issues like the debt ceiling.”

Burton said his group has begun conducting polling and focus groups on perceptions of the Republican candidates and has found doubts about Romney’s character.

Democrats also plan to amplify what Obama strategists described as the “weirdness” quotient, the sum of awkward public encounters and famous off-kilter anecdotes, first among them the tale of Romney having strapped his dog to the roof of his car.

None of the Obama advisers interviewed made any suggestion that Romney's personal qualities would be connected to his minority Mormon faith, but the step from casting Romney as a bit off to raising questions about religion may not be a large step for some of the incumbent's supporters.

And Obama officials have made “weirdness” an epithet for Romney the way they tagged John McCain “erratic” in the fall of 2008 after the Arizona senator suddenly left the campaign trail and nearly backed out of the first debate as part of an attempt to get a deal on the bailout

“Presidential campaigns are like MRIs of the soul,” said Axelrod. “When he makes jokes about being unemployed or a waitress pinching him on the butt, it does snap your head back, and you say, ‘What’s he talking about?’”

“It’s not just a matter of dodging the debate, not just a matter of flip-flopping and putting his finger to the wind — it is that he’s not comfortable in his own skin, and that gives people a sense of unease,” added a Democratic consultant expected to be involved in the reelection campaign.

An aide to Obama’s reelection campaign who declined to discuss the campaign’s strategy framed Romney’s careful positioning on the debt ceiling debate as more than a matter of policy.

“He took six different positions — and I can send you bullet points — during the debt debate and then ended up opposing an agreement that was critical to our economy,” said the aide, who followed up with a set of bullet points. “That’s certainly not the kind of economic leadership the American people are looking for.”

The attack on Romney is, to the Massachusetts Republican, nothing new. Sen. Ted Kennedy used elements of it against him in the 1994 Senate race, and his former adviser, Bob Shrum, summarized the current case this way: “You don’t know what he really believes; he’s been on both sides of issues, and by the way, he didn’t create jobs — he destroyed jobs while getting rich.”

The Democrats who are planning the assault on Romney believe they can avoid a referendum on Obama’s handling of the economy, in part, because both political parties are in such poor public favor.

Romney’s campaign is “making the assumption that the American people trust the Republicans on the economy,” said Giangreco. “People are so frustrated with the economy and so frustrated with both parties, so it’s a wash.”

“And so there’s only one thing left,” he said: “Who do I trust to do the right thing? And that’s the president.”


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Sources: Boston Globe, Current, MSNBC, NY Times, Politico, TPMTV, Wikipedia, Youtube, Google Maps

Romney Attacks Obama's Chicago Jobs Record; Rahm Refutes Romney's Lies!

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Romney Slams Chicago Economy in Anti-Obama Ad, Emanuel Hits Back


Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney is out with a new ad against Obama that slams Chicago’s economy, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel is not happy about it.

The ad starts with Election Night 2008 in Grant Park, then talks about how the unemployment rate in Chicago has gone up under Obama, Chicago’s slumping housing market and businesses leaving Illinois.

“If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition,” you hear Obama’s voice say in the video.

Emanuel showed a glimmer of his former role as White House chief of staff when he addressed Romney at an unrelated press conference Wednesday.

"I'd just like to note to the governor, in case he needs a rendezvous with his record, when he was governor, Massachusetts was 47th out of 50 in job production. In case he forgot that, I'd like to remind him of that," Emanuel said.

Emanuel also said he can get Romney a good deal on a seat for this fall's Chicago Ideas Week festival.

Since the video came out, FactCheck.org noted that the Romeny ad says Chicago unemployment is up 48 percent under Obama, but that starts counting on Election Night. Obama didn’t take office until Jan. 20, 2009 FactCheck notes, from which point unemployment is up 26.7 percent.



Romney’s Windy Web Video


A Mitt Romney online video overstates the growth of Chicago's unemployment rate under President Obama. The ad says that Chicago's unemployment is up 48 percent, which is true since November 2008. But Obama didn't take office until Jan. 20, 2009, and the city's unemployment rate has increased 26.7 percent since then. That's still a large jump, to be sure, but not nearly as high as the video claims.

The Web video — titled "Obama Isn't Working: Chicago" — was released Aug. 2, a day ahead of Obama's 50th birthday fundraiser in the Windy City.

The video — which has no narrator — is intended to demonstrate Obama's failure to change the economic situation, even in his hometown. It starts with a clip of Obama delivering his victory speech in Grant Park on election night in 2008, and then displays the words, "GRANT PARK, CHICAGO 3 YEARS LATER." It shows a series of dilapidated Chicago structures overlaid with negative economic news about the city. The first is a billboard that reads, "Chicago Unemployment [up] 48%."

We contacted the campaign to ask how it arrived at a 48 percent increase in the city's unemployment. Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said the campaign compared the city's unemployment rate from November 2008 with May 2011, the most recent month at the time the ad was being produced. The data came from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (To access the city's unemployment rates, enter LAUPS17010003 as the series ID).

Sure enough, BLS shows a 48 percent increase during that time frame. But there's one obvious flaw in the campaign's methodology: Obama did not take office until Jan. 20, 2009. During Obama's time in office, the city's unemployment rate went from 9 percent (January 2009) to 11.4 percent (June 2011) — a 26.7 percent increase.

Fehrnstrom said the campaign used the lower unemployment rate from November 2008, because "the video specifically deals with that night in Grant Park when he promised change was coming to America." But that's simply misleading to viewers. The ad does not explain that the 48 percent figure includes two particularly bad employment months before Obama even took office. The city's unemployment rate rose from 7.3 percent in November 2008 to 9 percent in January 2009 before Obama's inauguration.

Some news outlets were even deceived by the campaign's sleight of hand. The National Review wrote that the Romney campaign is "highlighting the 48 percent jump in unemployment in the Chicago area since the president took office." That, of course, is wrong. But the article is featured on the campaign's website, anyway.

Chicago's unemployment situation is bad. But even Obama's most ardent critics cannot fault him for job losses that occurred before he became president.


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Sources: AP, Fact Check, MSNBC, My Fox Chicago, Youtube, Google Maps

Happy 50th Birthday President Obama! Jennifer Hudson Serenades

HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA! MAY GOD RICHLY BLESS YOU WITH 50 MORE HEALTHY YEARS & A SUCCESSFUL RE-ELECTION!

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Obama calls for end to 'partisan games' at 50th birthday bash

President Barack Obama was back in full-throttle campaign mode Wednesday night, attending two high-profile fund-raisers in Chicago during which he took aim at congressional Republicans after weeks of drawn-out debt negotiations.

"I hope we can avoid another self-inflicted wound like we saw over the last couple weeks," he told an enthusiastic crowd of 2,400 in Chicago's historic Aragon ballroom, where the ventilation system struggled to keep the room temperature below 90 degrees.

"We don't have time to play these partisan games," continued the president, huddled over the podium with his voice breaking at times. "We have too much work to do. Over the next several weeks I hope Congress is focused on what the American people are focused on: Making sure the economy is growing.

"It doesn't matter what kind of week I have in Washington, because I know you have my back," Obama added, scoring his loudest applause of the night.

Obama was introduced by Rahm Emanuel, his former chief of staff and the current Chicago mayor, while singer Jennifer Hudson led the crowd in singing "Happy Birthday" as he came on stage. Also in attendance were Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Jan Schakowski.

Before addressing the ballroom, the president delivered a video message to more than 1,100 house parties around the country while top surrogates fanned out to several cities to hold smaller fund-raising events -- all part of the president's renewed focus on 2012 after a weeks-long battle with congressional Republicans that resulted in a debt deal many of his supporters oppose and an approval rating that has stubbornly sagged to below 45%.

Addressing the ballroom crowd, Obama acknowledged the change he promised three years ago has been slow to come.

"When I said change we can believe in, I didn't say change we can believe in tomorrow," he said to laughter. "Not change we can believe in next week ... we knew these challenges weren't made overnight and they aren't going to be fixed overnight."

Also among the president's fund-raising events Wednesday was a high-dollar dinner with 100 supporters -- most of whom paid $35,800 each to attend, the max contribution allowed to both the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The first $5,000 of each ticket sold will go to Obama's re-election effort while the remainder is allotted to the DNC's coffers.

The Obama campaign isn't saying how much they expect the events to net, but it's safe to estimate the total will soar well into the high seven figures.

The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, was quick to pounce on Obama ahead of his fund-raising trip with a tongue-in-cheek jab suggesting the president is trying to avoid the latest round of indicators of a still-struggling economy.

"With 9.2% unemployment, he could work on creating jobs, but I suppose the White House is thinking he should stick to the part of his job he really likes," RNC spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said.

But the president was all smiles on the eve of his 50th birthday, telling the crowd, "We have made some incredible strides together. Yes, we have. But the thing we all have to remember that as much good as we have done, precisely because we inherited so many challenges, we aren't even there yet."

Despite Wednesday night's expected cash windfall, the president has some work to do to keep pace with his fund-raising clip last quarter, which resulted in an eye-popping $86 million for his campaign and the DNC. While the third fund-raising quarter began more than a month ago, Obama and his surrogates were forced to postpone or cancel several events while the debt ceiling negotiations dragged on in Washington.

Adding to that challenge is the fact that August is traditionally a difficult month to raise funds, with most donors' minds on vacation, the beach and summer's waning weeks. The result is a campaign that has to go into overdrive to report a big cash haul by September 30.


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Sources: AP, CNN, MSNBC, Youtube, Google Maps