The future of embattled Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is for the people of that city to decide, Hillary Clinton said Sunday.
{mosads}Emanuel is under fire following the release of a 2014 video showing a white Chicago police officer fatally shooting an unarmed African-American teenager. Many Democrats have joined a number of prominent African Americans in calling for the mayor to resign.
But Clinton largely steered clear of the question this weekend, saying the fate of Emanuel, who was a top advisor to President Bill Clinton, is in the hands of Chicago voters.
“Mayor Emanuel has said that he is committed to complete and total reform, and I think that he should be held to that standard,” Clinton said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program.
Pressed whether Emanuel maintains credible following the incident, Clinton said, “That’s going to be up to him and up to the people of Chicago to prove.”
Released last November, the police dash-cam video showed a Chicago police officer firing 16 times at teenager Laquan McDonald as he walked down a city street a year before. Officer Jason Van Dyke wasn’t charged with first-degree murder until it was clear the video was being made public.
Emanuel responded by firing his police superintendent, Garry McCarthy. But he’s insisted he had not seen the video before its release, and he’s fighting back against the chorus of voices urging his resignation.
Clinton noted her early endorsement for “a complete Department of Justice investigation.”
“In fact, [I] urged that it include the entire Chicago Police Department,” she said.
She said the tragedy exposes broader, systemic problems in law enforcement practices that policymakers at all levels much address.
“This is not a problem that is unique to Chicago, unfortunately,” she said. “And we’ve got to do a lot more to deal with the systemic racism and the problems that policing has demonstrated.”