WBEZ reports on the man running things in Chicago, Alderman Ed Burke:
All this week, Chicago’s political leaders have been debating policing issues in light of the Laquan McDonald case and the firing of Superintendent Garry McCarthy, and those conversations are running up against issues of race.For the problem of police corruption in Chicago click on this link. For a look at Alderman Burke's ties to the Chicago Mob click on this link. For a look at how Rahm Emanuel found out he wouldn't be running things in Chicago. For a look at how Alderman Ed Burke doesn't seem to think all black lives matter.
The debate was on full display at the new Google offices in Chicago Thursday. Reporters surrounded longtime Ald. Ed Burke, asking for his thoughts on the McDonald case.
Burke said he didn’t think the Department of Justice should investigate the Chicago Police Department, something that other politicians have suggested this week.
“But of course, I’m probably a little bit biased, because I have great regard for the women and men of police department and law enforcement in general, having graduated from Chicago Police Academy in May of 1965,” Burke said.
These days, no Chicago politician can escape questions about the shooting of McDonald. The black teenager was shot 16 times by a white police officer last year, and his death and the city’s tight grip on the dashcam video are renewing questions about whether there are systemic problems in the city’s police department.
For his part, Burke says he doesn’t see any.
“There is no institutional problem in the Chicago Police Department,” Burke said. “I personally think it’s the best trained, most effective, most honest big city police department in the nation.”
