By John Dempsey, WLS-AM News
(CHICAGO) Former police Superintendent Garry McCarthy is officially declaring that he is running for Mayor of Chicago next year, challenging the incumbent Mayor who fired him over two years ago.
McCarthy released a biographical video in which he said he will challenge Rahm Emanuel, who McCarthy accuses of failing to stop gun violence or reduce taxes in the city.
Thursday morning McCarthy told “The Big John and Ramblin’ Ray Show” on WLS that he has the ability to tackle the multitude of problems that exist in the city, not just the crime problem.
“I’m a public servant. I’m not a politician” said McCarthy. “Making a difference is what gets my juices flowing. That’s why I did what I did for 35 years. Quite frankly, I’m a manager, so while there might be other issues in the city besides crime, taxes, the economy, the schools, I’m a manager. I have plans for those things.”
McCarthy says Emanuel made him the scapegoat after a judge ordered the Mayor to release video of a white police officer shooting black teenager LaQuan McDonald 16 times. The shooting happened in October of 2014 and Emanuel fought the release of the police dashcam video until the judge issued his order a year later. He fired McCarthy shortly afterwards.
McCarthy told WLS he’s had a lot of support from Chicagoans who think Emanuel should be challenged.
“This is important. People see that Chicago needs change and they actually are coming to me very quickly and now that we’ve declared the phone is just blowing up. There’s a lot of money out there, there’s a lot of people who want to make a difference and it’s really very very exciting, I gotta tell ya.”
The Emanuel campaign issued a statement seizing on the fact that in his announcement video, McCarthy called Chicago “one of the greatest cities in the world”, instead of THE greatest city in the world.
Campaign spokesman Pete Giangreco told reporters, “Anyone who thinks Chicago is only “ONE of the greatest cities in the world” not only does not deserve to be mayor of Chicago but does not make the minimum requirement needed to run for mayor of Chicago. Until Garry learns that Chicagoans do not share his desire to become New York City he is going to struggle in this proud town.”
On WLS Thursday morning, McCarthy called that response, “pathetic.”
“I think that’s pathetic. The video talks for three minutes about his failures and what’s wrong with the city. And they’re going to talk about one of the greatest cities in the world? That’s pathetic.”
McCarthy also reacted to criticism from some black aldermen of a comment he made at a speech several weeks ago, in which he said middle class African Americans are leaving their neighborhoods because of high crime, leaving behind a group he referred to as the “trigger pullers.”
The former Superintendent told WLS the aldermen are criticizing him because they are “surrogates for the Mayor.” McCarthy says he has no regrets about making the trigger puller statement, although perhaps he might have worded it differently.
“I did not say that the only people left are trigger pullers. What I said is, what’s left behind are trigger pullers. Now, I should have said that there’s good people there also. But you know what, that’s included in my thought process and they’re just picking it apart to try and make it into something that it’s not.”
In addition to Emanuel, Chicago principals association President Troy LaRaviere has also declared for Mayor next year. Businessman Willie Wilson, and tech entrepreneur Neal Sales-Griffin have also declared their intentions, while former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas says he is considering it.
@ 2018 WLS-AM News
