- Thanks to the magic of YouTube, it’s a fairly simple matter to go back and take a second look at the speech last January where mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel unveiled his crime platform.
His campaign posted the video at the time, along with this caption: “Rahm Emanuel introduces his crime plan to put 1,000 more cops on our streets and expand after-school programs to keep kids off them.”
If you listen for a few minutes, you can hear Emanuel make this pledge:
“Earlier in this campaign, I proposed using $25 million in TIF funds, unused monies, to put an additional 250 police officers on the streets of our most violent communities. But frankly, 250 more police is not enough. Chicago must do better. Chicago can do better.
“As mayor, I will put 1,000 additional police on the streets working closely with Chicago residents to fight the guns, to fight the gangs and to fight the drugs that now pervade.”
Over the final weeks on the campaign trail, the promise to put “1,000 more police on the streets” became part of Emanuel’s talking point mantra that was drilled into us through daily repetition.
And so it was with some amusement that I heard Police Supt. Garry McCarthy tell the Sun-Times editorial board Friday that he’d never heard the mayor say anything about putting police on the “streets” when he’s been present.
“I heard him say districts. I heard him say beats,” said McCarthy, who of course didn’t get here until after the election.
Ah, McTool. Playing Rahm's numbers game. And the semantics game. And any other game the Machine wants you to dance to, credibility among the rank-and-file be damned.
Hunker down people, rough sailing ahead.
Hunker down people, rough sailing ahead.