4 Predictions For Rahm's Next Big Scandal

By Kate Shepherd in News on Dec 18, 2015 5:03PM

The video of Laquan McDonald's tragic shooting, and the subsequent fallout, has shaken up the Mayor's Office like nothing else in recent history.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has adamantly said that he won't resign despite a poll saying most Chicagoans want him to step down. But it looks like 2016 won't be his year. Several other local issues, including the Justice Department's investigation into the Chicago Police Department, are brewing under his administration, leading to a flurry of predictions on what exactly Rahm's "next big scandal" could be. Here's four big ones on our radar:

The Chicago Housing Authority: The problems with the Chicago Housing Authority have been brewing for years. Not enough new housing units have been built to replace the ones torn down by Mayor Richard M. Daley. According to The New Republic:

While over 18,000 units were demolished within the first decade of the plan, the pace to rebuild or renovate has been slow—and particularly slow since Mayor Rahm Emanuel took office in 2011. Between 2007 and 2010, the CHA rebuilt between 700 and 900 units each year. In 2011, that number plummeted by about half, to 424. The following year, only 112 units were built. Only 49 new units were constructed last year.

Chicago Public Schools: The Chicago Teachers Union has overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike. Union President Karen Lewis is without a doubt one of Rahm's most formidable foes, so he can't be looking forward to the possibility of another strike. The Reader weighs in:

At the moment, Mayor Emanuel wants Lewis and the union to sign on to a contract that would effectively cut pay by more than 10 percent by freezing salaries and hiking health and pension costs. Yeah, that ought to bring the best and the brightest flocking to Chicago's public schools.

Even More Police Misconduct Problems: The Chicago Police Department does actually have "an early intervention program" to identify and retrain officers who show signs of misconduct. The problem is that the CPD isn't using it enough, according to the Chicago Reporter:

Of 162 Chicago police officers with 10 or more misconduct complaints in the past four years, just one was enrolled in the department's program as of October, according to a Chicago Reporter analysis of data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Overall, there were just 11 officers enrolled in CPD's two primary early intervention programs, out of more than 12,000 sworn officers in the department—the nation's second-largest law enforcement agency.

"Those numbers defy belief," said Samuel Walker, an emeritus professor at the University of Nebraska, and a leading national expert on police early intervention systems. "It says the system isn't working and is designed not to work."

Homan Square: The Guardian broke the news about Homan Square, the CPD's alleged "black site" and "torture chamber", on the day of the first mayoral race in February. The British newspaper has stayed on the story since, prompting the Cook County Board to hold a hearing recently about the police abuse allegations. From the Guardian:

"As recent events have shown, when left to its own devices, the Chicago police department will revert to a culture that suppresses wrongdoing and protects wrongdoers," added [Cook County commissioner Richard] Boykin. He has repeatedly pressed Barack Obama's administration to examine a facility where his former chief aide and Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel has said his police "follow all the rules" - despite more than 20 people who have come forward with claims of unconstitutional abuse and detention.

Boykin described the task force announced by the mayor as "window-dressing" and called for a federal investigation into Emanuel's role in the McDonald case. The American Civil Liberties Union called for a similar follow-up inquiry and also linked it to interrogations at the facility.

Mother Jones has also described Homan Square as the next big problem under Rahm's administration that is "primed to explode," thanks in part to the DOJ investigation.