Meet the Man Trying to Take Down Rahm Emanuel
“There’s no such thing as un-bloody birth,” says the Rev. Gregory Seal Livingston, reclining in his office chair in his South Side Chicago home on a recent afternoon. “Birth is a joyous occasion but it’s a messy one.” A longtime preacher and community activist, Livingston, outsized in both physical and emotional presence, is wont to speak in metaphors such as this, especially when discussing untidy topics — in this case, how his organization, Coalition for a New Chicago, has been using non-violent, albeit occasionally contentious, protest to try and force Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to resign from office.
Livingston has long been critical of Emanuel’s policies on a broad level, but he really saw the need for change after the November release of a 2014 police dashcam video showing Chicago officer Jason Van Dyke fatally shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, seemingly without provocation; recently an email trail was discovered suggesting city officials, including Emanuel, tried to prevent the public from viewing the video. The city, for its part, argued that releasing the video would taint the investigation of the case, but Judge Franklin Valderrama of the Cook County Circuit Court ultimately ordered its release last fall under a reporter’s Freedom of Information Act request. City leaders have now brought first-degree murder charges against Van Dyke for shooting the teenager 16 times.
Livingston’s organization is certainly not the only one calling for Emanuel’s resignation, but it’s undoubtedly the loudest. Coalition for a New Chicago, in conjunction with the Rev. Jesse Jackson and U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, have staged a number of protests over the past two months, most notably in the city’s posh Magnificent Mile shopping district on Black Friday and Christmas Eve; protesters chanted, “Stop the cover-up!” and, “16 shots! 16 shots!”
Livingston recently spoke to Rolling Stone about the power of protest, his group’s upcoming plans and why he feels President Obama should put pressure on Emanuel to resign.
In the wake of the Laquan McDonald case, do you believe responsibility falls not on the police to self-regulate, but on elected officials to regulate them?
We have a social contract with the police that they’re allowed to use lethal force when required. But when you abuse that power and things start to unravel, and it comes forward that you’re [allegedly] falsifying reports, that’s too much. The out-and-out lies and the collusion… it’s frightening when you think about it. Not only should [police and elected officials involved] lose their jobs, but they should be criminally prosecuted. And if the law is supposed to act as a deterrent, it has to be strong enough for them too.
Meet the Man Trying to Take Down Rahm Emanuel, Page 1 of 4