On the surface, it seems utterly unbelievable that Mayor Rahm Emanuel—with his popularity in the gutter as he continues scrambling to hold onto his job and career—would continue to attack the poor and working people of Chicago so aggressively.
What has been his first major police “reform” in response to the Black community’s outrage against police racism and murder? Outrageously, his regime has just signed a $10 million contract with Tasers International for the purchase of 780 taser guns.
Make no mistake. Tasers kill. They are lethal weapons. They are also torture devices, especially in the hands of racist police forces. In 2015, cops in the United States killed 50 people with tasers. That’s more than all the people killed by cops in Canada, Finland and Germany combined!
The Emanuel regime this week also threatened to make $120 million in cuts to public education and layoff teachers in the middle of the school year in order to put pressure on the teachers during contract negotiations. In other words, Emanuel has money for tasers but not for our children. That’s some truly despicable stuff right there—right in plain sight.
Does Emanuel really think for even one second that he is going to resuscitate his public image by threatening to cut the public school budget and lay off thousands of teachers? Remember, the teachers are the very people who helped turn the city against him by standing toe to toe with him and winning their strike in 2011.
Taken together, arming the cops and attacking public education, doesn’t seem to make much sense strategically for a guy who was forced a few short months ago to prostrate himself and apologize in front of the world for the lynching of Laquan McDonald—a lynching he covered up. Emanuel is not popular. He is a hated man. That’s no exaggeration.
Buying the tasers and encouraging cops to use them is a risky gamble for a man who is implicated in the cover up of Laquan McDonald’s execution. Now that more cops will have tasers and will be expected to use them, how long will it really be before the first serious injury or death by taser at the hands of some racist CPD officers? In reality, Emanuel’s purchase of the tasers is a green light to the CPD to carry on with their violent occupation of oppressed communities.
Attacking public school teachers and students seems very unlikely to result in a positive outcome for the mayor. According to a Chicago Tribune poll, 60 percent of people in Chicago side with the teachers union while only 20 percent side with Emanuel. That is an astounding poll—but completely predictable.
So what’s up with Rahm? To answer this question, we have to get down to the core orientation of the Emanuel regime and the billionaire ruling class of this country that he has spent his career serving.
Who does Rahm Emanuel serve?
Taking on the teachers once again can only mean one thing, really. Emanuel is primarily concerned with how he looks in the eyes of the country’s billionaires. They would be very happy if he defeated or weakened the teachers and he is going to try to do it.
The ruling capitalists of this country have their sights set squarely on the destruction of public education and the decimation of teachers’ wages and benefits. They want more control over what working people are taught. They want to cash in on the billions to be made by privatizing education and getting sweetheart deals to provide goods and services to school systems. They want more control over the paychecks of teachers and, by extension, the rest of the population.
Teachers make up the largest unionized force in the country. That is why weakening the CTU, in many ways the vanguard of teachers nationwide for their victory over Emanuel, can be clearly identified as central to the anti-union orientation of the Waltons, Zuckerbergs and Gates of the world.
Giving cops more weapons as a “reform” after being caught covering up for a police lynching speaks for itself. One can only assume that Mayor Emanuel is in favor of Black people being killed. He seeks to maintain the status quo of second class citizenship for Black people and he will continue to protect the right of police murder and brutality with all the powers of his office. Police violence, predominantly against people of color, is not an aberration, it is the bulwark of the segregation and poverty inherent in the U.S. order.
Emanuel, a very powerful politician, is vulnerable right now. He is exposed. Removing his regime through mass struggle would be a big step forward. So too would his arrest for the murder of Laquan McDonald. Emanuel could easily be indicted under Illinois law for helping McDonald’s murderer escape arrest and prosecution.
We must rally around the Black community in an all out effort to stop police brutality and murder. We must rally to the side of the teachers. We must unite to defeat the Emanuel regime—not in 2019, but now. What is needed is a City Hall run by and for the people and not in the interest of white-supremacy and the billionaire class. Indict Rahm Now!
