Chicago Needs To Elect Bunch Of Snitches To Kill Code Of Silence

Maybe you’ve heard about Chicago’s “no-snitch” code. Back in 2010, the “no-snitch” code of silence was the top reason Chicago cops cited for not solving more than 90 percent of non-fatal shootings.

In 2015, Mayor Rahm Emanuel — after covering up dash cam video of Laquan McDonald’s death long enough to get re-elected — said that a “Thin Blue Line” code of silence is the reason people don’t trust the Chicago Police Department.

Mayoral candidate Paul Vallas has been carrying around a broom for weeks calling out the political status quo for keeping each other’s dirty secrets.

“There’s a code of silence in the City Council. There’s a code of silence on (former Cook County Assessor Joe) Berrios. There’s a code of silence of the cover up of what Rahm Emanuel was doing to cover up the Laquan McDonald shooting. That was a cover-up from the top down,” Vallas said.

“There’s a code of silence among all of them. I’ve been saying it and nobody picked it up.”

That changed Wednesday when Ald. Danny Solis was outed as an “alder-mole.” He wore a wire for the feds to get dirt on his criminally charged city council ally Ald. Ed Burke.

Now, thanks to aldermen who ratted themselves out to the Sun-Times, the existence of a City Hall no-snitch code can’t be denied — especially by the crowded field of mayoral hopefuls and candidates in hotly contested aldermanic races.

Ald. Roderick Sawyer, the 6th Ward boss who votes with Emanuel 100-percent of the time, told the Sun-Times that he proudly participates in the no-snitch code. The son of late Mayor Eugene Sawyer told City Hall reporter Fran Spielman that getting wired up to snare colleagues is “not the way I was brought up.”

“If I was caught doing something wrong, I’d just take my punishment, deal with the consequences . . . and keep my mouth shut,” he said.

Did you hear that 6th Ward voters? Sawyer believes in the City Council no-snitch code and there’s no way he’d ever help the feds root out corruption in city government.

Ald. Michelle Harris (8th) talked about Solis’s actions to help the feds as a family betrayal straight out of “The Godfather” movies.

“I try to think that we’re a family down here and we all work together. So, I got to say it’s probably a little disheartening for me,” Harris told the Sun-Times. “I’m a little stunned because he and I worked together. … But it kind of makes you feel a little . . . uncomfortable about working with people.”

Maybe it’s just me, but I think aldermen with nothing to hide wouldn’t be uncomfortable about doing city business in the presence of people — even potential snitches who they consider family.

On Mancow Muller’s new WLS AM-890 morning show, Vallas demanded his ballot rivals — Susana Mendoza, Gery Chico, Toni Preckwinkle and Bill Daley — explain their participation in the political no-snitch code.

“All four of these candidates need to explain their code of silence on Rahm Emanuel and the mismanagement of city government, the degradation of the police department, the closing of schools. … So, there’s a lot of explaining to do,” Vallas said on the Mancow show.

Instead, the status quo candidates — Chico, Mendoza, Preckwinkle and Daley – dodge tough questions, deflect criticism with political spin, run out of press conferences and avoid tough interviews.

Daley skips out on debates and opts for invite-only community meetings where reporters can’t ask probing questions. His campaign spokesman asked me to participate in the status-quo code of silence by not to publishing quotes dissing Rahm Emanuel.

Chico doesn’t deny his connections to Burke and other powerful insiders, but he doesn’t elaborate on his dealings with them either. On Wednesday, while the whole city is focused on the corruption probe centered around Burke, the guy who gave Chico his political start, he issued a press release about favorable poll results.

Have you seen any hard-hitting one-one-one interviews with Susana Mendoza? Of course not. Mendoza campaigns with press releases and TV ads recycled from her Illinois Comptroller re-election campaign two months ago.

She communicates to reporters in written statements to avoid random questions, including: Why did you get married at Ed Burke’s house? What did he give you as a wedding gift? Was it cash? What was your role in the corrupt Hispanic Democratic Organization under Mayor Richard M. Daley?

Mendoza’s campaign staff told me that she wasn’t available for an interview until after the election. Since then, Mendoza’s camp has responded with silence.

Preckwinkle, the Cook County Democratic Party Boss, continues to use political endorsements, bogus claims in TV ads and blame-game finger pointing, among other tricks, to deflect attention from the facts about her relationship with Burke.

“The spotlight needs to be focused on how these folks are still married to the status quo, the broken political machine. None of these folks want to buck the system and say, this is nonsense, we owe more to ourselves and our community and we have got to go in a different direction,” mayoral candidate Lori Lightfoot said. “They will not bring the necessary change. They will reinforce the status quo and people across the city will continue to suffer.”

Not one of the status quo candidates — “the four horsemen of the apocalypse,” Lightfoot calls them — has volunteered to speak out about their experience practicing politics the Chicago Way and the no-snitch culture that breeds distrust in a city government that refuses to police itself.

And they never will.

Our city needs to elect more snitches.

See Also:

• Rahm's Podcast Isn't Practice For TV Gig; He Stinks On TV (VIDEO)
• Are You For 'Cockroaches' Or Reformers In Chicago Mayoral Race?
• Cash Connects 'Independent' Preckwinkle To 'Good Ol' Boys Club'
• Hmm, Mayor Candidate Bill Daley Doesn't Want To Dis Rahm Anymore

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting and Emmy-nominated producer, was a producer, writer and narrator for the Chicagoland series on CNN.

Photo credit: Associated Press file photo