In a column in The Chicago Tribune, John Kass argues that the reason we had to wait 13 months to see the video of McDonald being shot sixteen times by a police officer was that the Chicago mayor believed it would have prevented him from being reelected. The video, Kass says, would have cost Emanuel Chicago’s black vote, which he could not have won the election without. In April, Emanuel defeated Jesus “Chuy” Garcia in what USA Today called “the most contentious Chicago mayoral race in a quarter-century.”
Garcia himself concurs with Kass’s theory. “There’s just some basic Chicago arithmetic in there. He wouldn’t have received as much votes from the African-American community,” he told the Tribune columnist. “It isn’t rocket science. It’s arithmetic. And so yes, this tragic video would have had a profound impact.” Keeping the controversy under wraps for political gain, Garcia argues, is “the Chicago Way.”