Rahm Is Named One Of World's Most Disappointing Leaders

By Mae Rice in News on Apr 5, 2016 2:49PM

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Local news has been full of dubious honors this year, and today, we have another one: Mayor Rahm Emanuel made Fortune's list of "The World's 19 Most Disappointing Leaders," but he did not win Fortune's "Prize for the Most Breathtakingly Craven Political Move of the Year." That honor went to New Jersey governor Chris Christie, for endorsing Donald Trump for president.

No, Rahm made Fortune's list for making the "Second Most Breathtakingly Craven Political Move of the Year." Our mayor is not most craven, just extremely craven!

The move in question is Rahm's total change in stance on the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald, a black 17-year-old shot 16 times by white Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke in 2014. Van Dyke has since been charged with six counts of homicide for the shooting (and is working as a janitor for the Chicago police union).

When the dashcam footage of the shooting was first released this past November, after remaining under wraps for more than a year, Rahm characterized the incident as the work of a bad apple in the Chicago Police Department—until he suddenly switched tacks to agree with his critics (and the city's hundreds of protesters, some of them at his house) that the shooting reflected a systemic problem within the police department. In a similar vein, Emanuel stood by police chief Garry McCarthy (until firing him), and insisted the city didn't need a Department of Justice probe into CPD "patterns and practices" (until he later welcomed it).

It's less about one craven political move than a craven pattern, really. Though surely Emanuel himself would call it "evolution" or "accountability"—and then talk to you about parks until night fell.