Daley Throws Police Chief Under the Bus; What Did the Mayor Know and When Did He Know It?

In a classic situation of damage control and finding the fall guy for scandals that were meticulously supposed to be kept quiet until after the election and Olympic bid, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley threw the Police Superintendent Phil Cline under the bus in an attempt to save the Mayor from further worldwide embrassment from the revelation of videotaped beatings by Chicago Police officers.

What puzzles us about this situation is the presence of mayoral aide Monique Bond in the middle of all this. If you believe Mayor Daley at his strange press conference expressing shock and dismay at the misconduct, one would think this is the first he's heard of all this and he had no phone during the last two weeks of vacation to call up Cline. In a city where Daley micromanages and controls everything, apparently Ms. Bond either completely failed to inform her boss OR the entire cover-up of the scandal was orchestrated with knowledge of the mayor's office.

What does this have to do with the Olympic bid? Everything. We continue to be extremely concerned with any bid process that is controlled by the City of Chicago under Mayor Daley. There are very serious issues of integrity and credibility. It appears the best interests of Mayor Daley are put ahead of everyone and everything else, no matter what expense.

Police Brutality Under Daley | Can't Have This Type of Thing in Chicago

The protesters that voiced concern about how the Daley regime has looked the other way about police torture and brutality cases may have a point based upon the recent bar beating incident of a woman by a Chicago cop, but now we learn there's another major incident that was kept quiet back in December.

Monique Bond, spokesperson and aide to Daley, says whatever it takes for these stories to be diminished or go away, but when there is a video, it's pretty hard to ignore. If we want to bring the Olympic Games to Chicago, we need to address these type of things seriously and not pretend they don't exist.