The Power of Choice: Chicago’s Black Organizers Refuse a Meeting With Mayor Emanuel

As the city of Chicago continued to await the release of a graphic police dashcam video, on Monday, with officials hinting that unprecedented charges against a Chicago police officer might be in the works, a coalition of young Black organizers announced that they were refusing a private meeting with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel, scrambling in the face of a PR nightmare, had hoped to discuss the pending release of police dashcam footage of the death of Laquan McDonald with Black youth leaders. A refusal issued Monday morning, in a statement jointly issued by the grassroots groups Black Youth Project 100, Fearless Leading by the Youth, We Charge Genocide, Assata’s Daughters, the #LetUsBreathe Collective and Black Lives Matter: Chicago, carried the sentiments of those who have led the charge against police brutality in Chicago during the last year. The mayor was no doubt hoping to harness the power of these groups’ credibility in the coming days as he continues to call for a tempered response to the sight of a white police officer firing 16 shots into the body of a young Black man, who reportedly posed no threat to the officer’s safety. Upon receiving word of the coalition’s refusal, I was both heartened, and unsurprised.
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/33771-the-power-of-choice-chicago-s-black-organizers-refuse-a-meeting-with-mayor-emanuel