Chooses New Interim Superintendent
By Ken Hare
Chicago Defender Staff Writer
While you were celebrating Easter this past weekend, Mayor Emanuel quietly replaced interim Superintendent John Escalante with Eddie Johnson. The Chicago Defender hinted at such a move just last week. See story here: https://chicagodefender.com/2016/03/23/chicagos-next-police-superintendent/
In a twist of irony, interim Superintendent Escalante promoted Eddie Johnson to Chief of Patrol back in December 2015. Escalante was one of the 39 applicants to apply for the permanent position of Chicago Police Superintendent. However, he did not make it as a finalist according to the Chicago Police Board, the agency tasked with interviewing the 39 applicants and narrowing the selection down to three finalists.
The three finalist: Cedric Alexander, Anne Kilpatrick and Eugene Williams initially infuriated the Latino Aldermanic Caucus and further raised concerns among the Black Aldermanic Caucus. Both groups of Alderman held press conferences last week voicing their concerns about the three finalists and threatening the Mayor Emanuel if he didn’t concede to their demands according to media reports.
The Mayor’s latest move has come as a surprise to many political watchers and a press conference is expected to take place later today. The search for a permanent Superintendent continues as Chicago struggles to reduce the daily shootings that already has outpaced the number of shootings for the same time period last year. Stay tuned…
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