Al Sharpton is calling on Rahm Emanuel to step down as Chicago mayor


Al Sharpton joined the call for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's resignation in a Monday interview on MSNBC's Morning Joe.
"He's gone beyond the point where he can govern with the trust of the people," Sharpton said.
The civil rights activist criticized the city's one-year delay in prosecuting and releasing video footage of the fatal officer-involved shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Sharpton also referenced continued tension between police officers and Chicago communities. On Saturday, an officer fatally shot Quintonio LeGrier, a black 19-year-old man and his 55-year-old neighbor, Bettie Jones, in responding to a domestic violence call.
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Emanuel had initially opposed a federal civil rights investigation into the McDonald shooting. In a statement on Saturday's shooting, he cited the need for "real changes" in Chicago's police department.
"I've never seen this kind of detachment in the years that I've been fighting, whether I got along with the mayor or not," Sharpton said. "This is the height of either insensitivity, lack of intelligence, or arrogance — or a reasonable combination of all three."
Watch Sharpton's full interview below. Julie Kliegman
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Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.
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