Why hasn't Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel resigned?

Because he has not violated any laws and like the Daley’s before him he and his top tier are way too powerful to just step aside because a handful of protesters are a little upset. The City has spent 500 million in the last 10 years to settle and keep police misconduct cases on the down low. Business as usual.

Why should he?

He’s a politician, which means he does no wrong. And as @Cruiser says, he has broken no laws.

The person who should resign is the governor of Illinois, who has singlehandedly screwed up the state’s budget for multiple years.

Hubris—a personality trait Rahm has never been shy to exhibit.

@elbanditoroso Rauner has not even been Governor for a full year yet and certainly cannot be held responsible for our fiscal cow pie. It has been the state Speaker Mike Madigan and his corrupt cronies that have held our state financially hostage for almost 30 years now. Rauner is putting up one hell of a fight though and I do hold hope he can break Madigan’s death grip on our budget.

Getting rid of everyone is not a good solution for some problems. He sees many actions that might aid in a solution.

Because there apparently are no honest politicians in Chicago at all. Why not let him stay if he’s doing good things in other areas and hasn’t actually broken any laws?

@AdventureElephants It is broad strokes of a brush statements like yours that remove all sense of hope to say there are no honest politicians in Chicago. I lived here my whole life and for many years have watch politicians get elected on their wide eyed campaign promises to “fix” what is wrong and it never happens. This does not make them guilty of being dishonest, this makes them victims of the “system” that writes the rules elected officials in Chicago need to abide by or they will be one term politicians. Unfortunately for us this desire to remain in office trumps most politicians to live up to their campaign promises. I still hold hope that there are some if not many elected officials who go to work everyday to fight the good fight for the citizens of Chicago…knowing they are lucky to have more than one term to make something happen.

I was halfway joking. You have to admit that, according to national media, Chicago doesn’t have a great track record.

@AdventureElephants It never had even remotely a good track record and what is worse not many people have had the guts to articulate just how corrupt the system in Chicago is. The Chicago “Outfit” took control of the city in the early 1900’s and I am pretty sure they have not given up that role.

Chicago was named the most corrupt city in the country in 2012, with over 1,531 convictions between 1976 and 2010 for public corruption in “the federal district dominated by Chicago,” according to the Associated Press.

So my point is that if the current mayor isn’t breaking the law then please let him stay!

@AdventureElephants That is just silly to say this. Rahm campaigned on the promises that he would save Chicago from the very corruption that is consuming itself. The mere fact that he is failing miserably at this is enough to say take a hike Rahm…no broken laws needed.

@Cruiser I don’t live in Chicago, so I don’t know… But are you saying he hasn’t done anything good for the city? If we asked every politician that doesn’t live up to their campaign promises to take a hike we might as well not have elections. I think every politician running my town does a shitty job and are terrible businessmen/women, but the constituents voted them in, and now we are paying dearly for it. Thank God for term limits.

Reminds me that the Police Commissioner said I’ve talked to the mayor and he has my back. the night before Emmanuel threw him under the bus.

Emanuel also said it’s not necessary for the U.S. Department of Justice to add the Law Department to its investigation into the Police Department’s use of excessive force. And the mayor gave a vote of confidence to his top attorney, saying Stephen Patton would ensure the city’s legal team is operating “at the highest level that the public should expect.”

The mayor’s defense of Patton, a confidant, comes as a federal judge has cited and rebuked five city attorneys within the last year for withholding evidence in two separate police misconduct cases. In the most recent of those rulings Monday, U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang faulted lax training and oversight at Patton’s department for hampering the production of Police Department records when officers are accused of misconduct.

Everyone has the right to be assumed innocent until the verdict comes in stating otherwise. Assuming that all cops are criminally dishonest isn’t logical. Or right.
Rahm Emanuel, in my opinion, is like the little Dutch boy who stuck his finger in a leak in the dike. But the dike is crumbling all around! What would you like him to do? Quit? And what difference would it make, really? Better to leave him where he is because he MIGHT be on the verge of stopping the deluge!

Stopping the deluge means business as usual, i.e. blatant and open corruption in all the upper levels of Chicago government, @kritiper. Emmanuel supported the police superintendent 100% up until the day he fired him. Now the police misconduct scandal is spreading to the legal department which has – surprise, surprise – Emmanuel’s 100% support.

We’re talking about hiding evidence and blatant lying at the very top levels.

Rham isn’t going to resign over this. Even if he did, it wouldn’t change anything unfortunately. Top level corruption is standard operating procedure in Chicago and has been this way for some time. It’s called the Windy City because of the politics, not the wind.

The deluge Emmanuel is charged with stopping is the deluge of corruption exposure and potential reform.

He’s not outside the dike keeping the government from being inundated, he’s inside the dike tying to keep the corrupt political machine from collapsing under it’s own weight.

I suppose Chicago could just be nuked and solve the entire problem altogether…

He, like some other political figures do not resign because they can and will continue to get away with their actions. If they could not? They would be removed. Period.

In Illinois the the corruption is so endemic that there is no one in the state that can force the removal of top state and local politicians, @si3tech.

It’s up to the federal government, which is problematic at it’s best. Add to that the fact that the focus of the corruption, Rahm Emmanuel, was recently the sitting President’s right hand man. Because they both hail from Illinois. From Chicago, specifically.

The corruption isn’t just Rahm, though. Its nearly every govt/business/lobbiest that has involvement in the city’s infrastructure and planning in the last 50+ years. And in comparison to the Daley’s, Rahm seems to just turn a blind eye to some of it, instead of actually receiving financial gain with back room deals. If the federal govt came in and put their foot down for all the corruption Chicago would fall apart. The federal govt doesn’t even have the experience or resources to govern Chicago. This isn’t like trying to fix some small town in Idaho/etc, it’s the 3rd largest city in America. This is uncharted territory… No one even knows how to begin to fix the issues that gendefication created for the southside.

Unfortunately the fix for all of this will not be quick and easy, but slow and ugly. The Feds investigation on the police is a good start imo.

No, I didn’t mean to imply that the corruption begins or ends with Emmanuel, @Silence04. I think it probably goes back more like 100+ years and once the Machine lost absolute control (embodied by the Daley’s), the corruption just too on a life of it’s own. The ‘blind eye’ reaps silent, untraceable benefits.

Yes, I think the Fed investigation into the police is a good start, and if they would expand into the legal department Emmanuel would have to step down. Exposing precisely who has obstructed what cases is the best exposure, IMO.

@Silence04 makes a good point about the pay to play nature of bid rigging that is endemic in Chicago and has been it seems forever. I was never able to get high profile contracts on projects in Chicago because I refused to buy my way to get them.I now have a customer that is absolutely mind boggling as to the length they have to go to get the big airport like projects. Exotic trips, campaign contributions, skybox tickets etc. No matter at what level these pay off’s start at they undoubtedly trickle their way up the ladder to Rahms empire.