Rahm Emanuel’s brusqueness wins few allies in Chicago amid police brutality furor

A Democratic Party operative in Chicago summed up Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s political crisis this way: “He’s not a people person.”

“It’s not just black people — he doesn’t like people in general,” said the party insider, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “A lot of people dislike the mayor.”

Mr. Emanuel made his mark in politics as a snide and sneering attack dog for the Democratic Party in Congress and at the White House under Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

But the biting style that marked his success in national politics has helped make him a despised figure in his hometown, as furor over police brutality engulfs the city.

Chicago is the latest in a series of American cities rocked by protests over police violence against black residents, but everyday Chicagoans have tightly focused their anger on the mayor.

And elected officials have joined the voices opposing Mr. Emanuel, whose lifetime of bullying opponents into submission has left him few political allies and even fewer friends in the Windy City.

“His attitude and his behavior, [which] obviously has been exhibited from Washington all the way to Chicago, really is part of the factor here,” said Scott Waguespack, a liberal alderman on the Chicago City Council. “There’s a lot of people in the last couple [of] weeks who lost a lot of faith in him and people who voted for him as well in the last election who are now feeling a lot of regret.”

Protesters repeatedly have taken to the streets to demand Mr. Emanuel’s resignation in the three weeks since the city released a police dashcam video that showed a white officer gun down Laquan McDonald, a black teenager who was shot 16 times and killed as he walked away from police.

And it’s more than Black Lives Matter activists seeking to oust Mr. Emanuel, who has been accused of a cover-up because the city waited more than a year to release the video in conjunction with first-degree murder charges filed against the officer, Jason Van Dyke.

Democratic leaders, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, have joined the mob.

State Rep. La Shawn K. Ford introduced legislation that would allow for a recall election to remove Mr. Emanuel, who has more than three years left in his second term and can’t be impeached by the City Council or forced out by voters under current law.

“We have not seen the tip of the iceberg yet,” said Mr. Ford, a Chicago Democrat. “People are hurt, people have died, people feel that they are forgotten about in the city of Chicago.”

Mr. Emanuel has tried to seize control of the controversy. He fired the city’s top cop, Garry McCarthy, and last week made a rare public apology and pledged a “complete and total reform” of the justice system in Chicago.

“I’m the mayor. I own it. I take responsibility for what happened because it happened on my watch,” a somber Mr. Emanuel said of police-race problems.

“We’re going to fix it,” he said. “The first step in that journey is my step, and I’m sorry.”

His acknowledgment that the policing system needs reform fell against the backdrop of U.S. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch announcing a federal probe of systemic civil rights abuses at the Chicago Police Department.

His apology only sparked another street protest and louder calls for him to step down.

The city also released more police dashcam videos of violent confrontations with residents, including Ronald Johnson III, who was shot in the back and killed as he ran from police last year — eight days before the McDonald shooting.

Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez announced that no charges would be brought against the officer who shot Johnson.

Dick Simpson, a former Chicago alderman and current political science professor at University of Illinois at Chicago, said Mr. Emanuel’s harsh style also could help him ride out the storm. “The personality cuts both ways,” he said.

“His stubbornness and tenacity will cause him to weather the crisis,” said Mr. Simpson. “That’s working for him. On the other hand, unlike Bill Clinton, who used to say ’I feel your pain,’ and people thought he was empathetic — they don’t think that with Rahm Emanuel.”

However, Mr. Emanuel has an image of looking out for himself — not for the city.

“To contrast him with his predecessor, Richard M. Daley, there were no real calls for resignation, and people did think that whatever problems came up that he cared about the city,” said Mr. Simpson.

Other mayors caught in riots and upheaval over police killing black residents have emerged relatively unscathed, though few entered the crisis with Mr. Emanuel’s questionable people skills.

Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III, whose Missouri city erupted in protests and riots over the police shooting death of Michael Brown in August 2014, survived countless calls for his resignation and a recall campaign.

But a Justice Department report released in March that found biased and exploitative policing practices in Ferguson prompted the resignations of the police chief, a top police supervisor, a municipal judge and the city manager.

Mr. Knowles vowed to remain on the job to continue “bringing us together, moving us forward.”

In New York, after a medical examiner determined that a police officer’s chokehold contributed to the death of Eric Garner during an arrest for illegally selling cigarettes on the street, Mayor Bill de Blasio sided with protesters against police.

The mayor’s stance fueled anti-police sentiment in the city and caused a rift between the mayor and rank-and-file officers. The calls for his resignation came mostly from supporters of the police.

Mr. de Blasio, a far-left Democrat, withstood the backlash.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, whose city was beset by riots in April after Freddie Gray died of a broken neck while in police custody, quelled resignation calls by announcing that she would not run for re-election next year.

“The last thing I want is for every one of the decisions that I make moving forward — at a time when the city needs me the most — to be questioned in the context of a political campaign,” she said when making the announcement in September. “I knew that I needed to spend time, the remaining 15 months of my term, focused on the city’s future and not my own.”