Police muscle protesters away from one of mayor's publicity stunts, force reporter away from Rahm... Activists confront Rahm Emanuel at one of his staged media events after massive layoffs and additional cuts hit Chicago's public schools
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel may have thought that he was just going to get another of his famous publicity stunts when he showed up at a South Side Chicago site on Friday, June 27, 2014, but he was surprised when dozens of protesters showed up to confront him. The protests took place after the mayor showed up at a Southwest Side health center for one of his typical staged events.
"Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Oak Street Health today celebrated the opening of the organization’s third neighborhood medical center located at 3348 West 87th Street in Ashburn," a City Hall press release announced following the event. "Oak Street Health centers provide neighborhood-based Medicare-eligible residents with options for primary care and dental services."
The mayor didn't take questions from reporters, at least one of whom, this reporter, was barred from the building.
Teachers and other school workers showed up at one of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's media events on June 28, 2014 to protest the recent layoffs of more teachers and PSRPs from the city's real public schools. Substance photo by Kati Gilson.As the events unfolded, at least one of the mayor's staff members was accused of physically pushing and threatening protesters, but for a brief time Chicago police tried to arrest a teacher protester. they then declined the arrest based on a pretext. The police also barred at least one reporter from the event despite the fact that when the mayor holds an event it becomes a public event, even if police try to claim that the event is being held on "private property." What was the latest reason people were so angry at the mayor whose version of reality was recently produced by Robert Redford and affirmed by Hollywood?Rahm and his handpicked seven-member Chicago Board of Education have laid-off 1,150 teachers, paraprofessionals and ESPs. The layoffs, announced on June 26, 2014, came just after school ended for everyone for the 2013 - 2014 school year and were immediately greeted with anger by the Chicago Activists confront Rahm at media event - Substance News: