Lightfoot: Mayoral run ‘ not about turning on’ Rahm
BY FRAN SPIELMAN, CITY HALL REPORTER fspielman@suntimes.com | @fspielman
Shaking off the ingrate label, former Police Board President Lori Lightfoot on Thursday used the platform Mayor Rahm Emanuel gave her to hammer him and begin the longshot quest to take his job.
“It’s not about turning on anybody. It’s about saying that our city is going in the wrong direction and that we need to chart a different course,” Lightfoot said to laughter and applause from her supporters at a downtown hotel.
“I don’t think the mayor gave me anything, OK? So, let’s be clear. I stand here today because of my family, my friends and my hard work.”
Emanuel raised Lightfoot’s profile far beyond what it was when she became a finalist for the U. S. attorney’s job that went to Zach Fardon.
The mayor appointed and reappointed her as Police Board president and chose Lightfoot to co- chair the Task Force on Police Accountability, whose scathing indictment of the Chicago Police Department laid the groundwork for the U. S. Justice Department to do the same.
By using that platform to go after Emanuel, Lightfoot is committing the “ultimate act of betrayal,” said Ald. Nick Sposato ( 38th), who has had his differences with the mayor.
“It’s unconscionable what she’s doing,” Sposato said Thursday.
Fraternal Order of Police President Kevin Graham accused Lightfoot of presiding over a kangaroo court.
“I have not seen any examples in which Ms. Lightfoot has remained impartial and respectful of police officers,’’ he said in an emailed statement.
Lightfoot offered a counter- argument about her three- year stint on the Police Board.
“Listening to the daughters of Bettie Jones come before the Police Board at a time when they were still deeply grieving the loss of their mother. Rekia Boyd’s brother was a frequent presence. ... It’s impossible not to be moved by that.”