Rahm and top cop Garry McCarthy.
On Thursday, Chicago’s sad excuse for a mayor held another one of his press conferences to announce his crime fighting strategy was working.
Friday through Sunday seven people were murdered and 21 were shot.
Typical of what Rahm calls working.
Two men were killed and a woman was injured after they were shot Sunday evening in the Burnside neighborhood, police said.
The trio were part of a bloody weekend in which seven men were killed and at least 21 people were wounded in shootings in the city since Friday afternoon.
The bloody weekend followed a three-part broadcast on national television highlighting Chicago’s increasing violence resulting from Emanuel’s police, schools and social service management disasters.
Embarrassing for The Mayor. Tragic for the victims.
When Rahm ran for mayor a little over a year ago, he managed to raise $11 million in campaign funds to promote the image of a competent manager with Washington connections. As a result of a low turnout and lackluster opposition, the bogus image prevailed.
Once in office Emanuel’s approval rating as sunk to levels that match those that drove his predecessor out of office.
Among those wounded by gun violence Friday was also a 15-year-old boy who was shot in the left side of his chest while walking through an alley in the 11400 block of South Stewart around 7:30 p.m., the Chicago Sun-Times reports. His condition is not known.
Emanuel, along with Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, last weekend introduced another new anti-crime initiative called the Community Anti-violence and Restoration Effort, which aims to implement a safe passage program, increased police response to violence and new after-school and mentoring programs for youth in high-crime areas, according to the Associated Press.
Marina Alonso, president of anti-violence group Mothers for Peace, told WBEZ that she was surprised the city’s Back of the Yards neighborhood was not chosen as one of the first areas of the city where the new program will be implemented. The mayor’s office, in response, noted that other districts had higher crime rates and demonstrated more immediate need.
“It angers me that here we have young people in this area who have no alternative but to join the gangs because a lot of the programs that are offered to them the parents cannot afford to pay for,” Alonso told the station.
Fred Klonsky 