Submitted by lorinpda on Mon, 07/19/2010 - 13:22

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By Lorin M Klugman

Mayor Daley's support is in a steep decline. The big question is, can Chicagoans reform local government. Many believe replacing Richard Daley is key to ending the monopoly of Chicago's political machine and a return of local democracy.

In the beginning of April, Daley's approval ratings were at 41 percent, a more recent poll shows approval at just 37%. Ben Bradley of ABC News:

"Results also show that more than half of Chicago voters do not want to see him re-elected.

 

Daley's poll numbers have never been lower."

UIC Professor and former Lakeview Alderman Dick Simpson wrote a great op-ed in gapersblock.com:

"The more interesting question then becomes whether Daley will face any credible challengers in the Democratic party primary slated for Feb. 2011, the election that will determine, ultimately, who gets elected next April.

 

The issues for a challenger are most certainly there.

 

Any successful mayoral challenge starts with public safety. As the investigative magazine The Chicago Reporter noted earlier this summer, Chicago's violent crime rate is nearly double that of New York City and Los Angeles, metropolises comparable in size and complexity to our own city. Taken together, the 11th and 15th police districts on the West Side had the highest per capita murder rate in the country in 2009, an analysis published by the magazine showed.

 

Daley has also left himself vulnerable with the meter privatization, an issue that's come to symbolize his administration's secretive style of decision making and ramrod approach to city council, which meekly passed the deal without asking any hard questions. The meter privatization remains the issue that could allow a Daley challenger to mobilize the most public anger. The deal was, arguably, the most unpopular decision during Daley's tenure. New meter installation was bungled, rates skyrocketed and the city has already spent off what was to be a rainy day fund."

Add to that, the shameful introduction of Walmart in to Chicago. Pushed through by Richard Daley, the devastating effects are already starting to take place. Crains Business Chicago reports that local grocers are aleady reacting:

Jewel, which has long prided itself on offering a wide selection, risks alienating shoppers by removing their favorite brands. .....

 

Jewel realizes that if they are going to compete with Wal-Mart, they will have to cut back their inventory to reduce costs," says John Melaniphy, a Chicago retail consultant"

Of course that's nothing compared to loss in pay and small business closings. The AFL-CIO reported that:

"For every $1 wage cut, the local economy loses a total $2.08 as less money circulates through the local economy.

 

If union grocery workers' wages were slashed to match the wages of Wal-Mart workers, their communities would lose between $1.6 billion and $3 billion annually. "

The Torture Scandal and  Civil Rights Lawsuit.

On June 28, Jon Burge former Lieutenant of the Chicago Police was convicted of lying about years of torture.  Local Chicago Fox News affiliate reports (reference is to Jon Burge):

"accused of suffocating, shocking and beating confessions out of scores of suspects was convicted Monday of federal perjury and obstruction of justice charges for lying about the torture of suspects."

Thus, crimes so heinous that even Fox news could not come up with a euphemism.

The Chicago Tribune reports that Mayor Daley has been named in a directly related law suit filed by Ronald Kitchen:

A man who spent more than two decades in prison after police allegedly used torture to extract a false confession has sued former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge, his detectives and Mayor Richard M. Daley.

Ronald Kitchen insisted on Thursday that his lawsuit is "not about the money."

 

"It's about making those who were supervising and overseeing the city of Chicago take notice," Kitchen said, a day after his suit was filed in federal court.

 

Kitchen was exonerated last year after spending 21 years in prison — 13 of them on death row — for the 1988 slaying of two women and three children inside their South Side bungalow.

 

While he was in prison his brother and other relatives died, his son grew up without a father and his mother, his greatest champion, developed dementia and does not even understand her son is now free, Kitchen said.

 

"She was my sole fighter," Kitchen said. "When I go down to Alabama to see my mother, she don't even know I'm there. That's another blow."

 

According to the lawsuit, Kitchen was arrested on a false tip from a jailhouse informant, then spent 16 hours at Area 3 police headquarters. He was deprived of food and sleep while detectives beat him with their fists, a phone book, a telephone receiver and struck him in the genitals with a nightstick. He was injured badly enough to require medical treatment, the suit states.

 

The lawsuit accuses Daley, both when he was Cook County state's attorney and as mayor, of participating in a conspiracy to cover up torture. The suit claims Daley had ample evidence that Burge and others were using torture to obtain confessions but did nothing to prosecute the officers and belittled reports that found abuse had occurred.

 

Further, it alleges that Daley approved the decision to seek the death penalty against Kitchen and others, despite widespread allegations that Burge and his so-called "Midnight Crew" acted illegally.
 

Democracy Now explains the Daley connection to Burge and the civil rights complaint:

"FLINT TAYLOR: Well, it goes right back to the mayor of the city of Chicago, Richard Daley. Back in the early '80s, when this torture first came to light and the doctor from the jail brought definitive evidence to the chief of police, who then brought it to Daley, who was the chief prosecutor at that time, Daley chose not to prosecute Burge, but rather continued to use Burge as a key witness in the prosecution of the person who was tortured. That went on for six or eight years after that, while Daley was the prosecutor. And Darrell Cannon's case arose during that time. David Bates’s case arose during that time. And scores of others were tortured. If those men—those men never would have been tortured if Daley had acted back in 1982 and prosecuted Burge for torture, rather than for obstruction of justice."

So the question is open. Is Chicago ready for reform?

Our list of why the mayor must be replaced could go on endlessly.  Another issue: the Mayor's push to privatize Chicago schools and bust the Chicago Teacher's union (just shameful). 

We saw a glimmer of the reform coalition that elected Harold Washington while working on the south side, during Rudy Lozano's primary race. Perhaps we can.