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* I highly, highly recommend you read the entire article by Gregory Pratt and Madeline Buckley…
After Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot downplayed her administration’s slow implementation of police reforms during a speech in 2020, a lawyer for the Illinois attorney general responded in court by criticizing the city’s handling of the consent decree.
Lightfoot fired back by texting Attorney General Kwame Raoul directly that his office took a “cheap political shot” by questioning her administration’s handling of police reforms instead of calling her first personally to discuss it.
“Kwame, do you really want (a) public fight with me over the consent decree? Your flak’s comments today in court were way over the line. You have never once engaged with me over the consent decree, so this is shameful,” Lightfoot texted Raoul. “It was a cheap political shot that I would have thought was beneath you, but now I know the terms of engagement.” […]
“Your person didn’t just say it was slow. She mocked my announcement from earlier this week, called me out by name and said the city is intentionally, intentionally foot dragging,” Lightfoot wrote in a follow-up message to Raoul. “I know you are pissed at me, but throwing gasoline on a raging fire is stupid and irresponsible. If you actually wanted to discuss the consent decree process, I would have expected you as the leader of your office to actually reach out to me. I have had zero engagement from you, so the comments today were ridiculous in light of the lack of engagement by you personally.”
Lightfoot promised to “highlight the lack of engagement” if she was asked about it by reporters.
Raoul responded: “I fully expect you to do that. … I will communicate as well.”
Seriously, go read the rest.
* But also read this story from last year for context…
A top adviser to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot resigned in August while raising concerns about the city’s ability to “keep moving the ball forward” on its violence prevention efforts and Police Department consent decree implementation, records obtained by the Tribune show. […]
Lee’s resignation came one week before Chad Williams, the former civilian commanding officer of the Chicago Police Department’s audit division, wrote Lightfoot to say he had been proud to lead the unit but had become disillusioned and was resigning his post.
“Unfortunately, my disappointment with the inability of this department’s top leadership to even feign interest in pursuing reform in a meaningful manner has made it impossible for me to remain involved,” Williams wrote in the email, as previously reported by the Tribune. “Even more unfortunate is that my experience is far from unique. Many well-meaning and talented civilians have signed up to help improve the nation’s (second largest) police department, only to find themselves steadily thwarted by its perverse incentive structures until they inevitably depart due to demoralization.”
…Adding… Also, she should maybe take her own advice…
As a chronic polluter sought city permission to set up shop on Chicago’s Southeast Side, recently released emails show there was a stark divide in the administration of Mayor Lori Lightfoot — one the mayor wanted to keep secret from the public.
The fall 2020 emails, released to the Tribune under an open records request, offer a window into the extent to which Lightfoot hoped to stop the public from learning details of the behind-the-scenes debate over General Iron’s attempted move from a wealthy, largely white Lincoln Park neighborhood to a lower-income, predominantly Latino one on the Southeast Side.
Despite campaigning on a promise to “bring in the light” at City Hall, Lightfoot admonished staffers for sending her emails that could later be made public, if somebody happened to request them under the state’s Freedom of Information Act, commonly known by its acronym FOIA.
The mayor scolded her top environmental adviser for sending her a memo on General Iron, saying the aide’s written recommendations have “no FOIA protections and that just cannot be a thing.”
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 9:30 am
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Maybe Madigan himself could give LL a recommendation on what stores still sell flip phones.
Comment by NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 9:32 am
I just don’t understand LL’s unproductive aggressiveness and name calling. I’ve known a lot of AUSA and BigLaw partners and the vast majority do not behave like LL. Sure, a few did, because that will be true in all professions. But it was always counterproductive - how does she (or her advisors) not realize this….
Comment by WestBurbs Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 9:40 am
Preface: I voted for Lori because I didn’t want Preckwinkle to continue to expand her own fiefdom, and thought at the time that they were essentially interchangeable at least with regard to broad strokes policies.
That being said: Holy cow does every single thing that comes out from the 5th floor make Lori look worse and worse in every regard- as a politician, as a leader, as a manager, and just as a basic people-person.
Comment by Homebody Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 9:46 am
“Don’t press send”
- Herm Edwards, attributed
Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 9:47 am
Usually, if you have to threaten people you have already lost. Adn, for a threat to be effective, the other party has to believe it is plausible.
I am not sensing that the AG was too worried.
Comment by JS Mill Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 9:47 am
This is how to solve crime: improve the police department so that residents trust them enough to provide evidence and serve as witnesses so they can arrest criminals.
Putting people away for life when someone else killed their friend will drive people away from supporting the criminal justice system. That is common sense.
You think people would tell the FBI that their brother or co-worker marched into the Capitol if they knew they could charged and convicted for first degree murder?
No. They wouldn’t.
Comment by Dan Johnson Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 9:48 am
Raoul responded: “I fully expect you to do that. … I will communicate as well.”
Enough time has gone by now for others to understand how to ‘work with’ LL.
Kwame is much smarter than LL.
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 9:49 am
Man she has thin skin. And does she not realize how petty these kind of texts make her look?
Comment by Demoralized Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 9:52 am
well, I would say that it surprises me that she behaves this way because she was an AUSA. but given the total stupidity of the AUSA in the Daley-Thompson case…that AUSA is responsible for making sure witnesses don’t oops…I’m not convinced those AUSAs are anything fancy. Can you imagine if she got the NDist USA job for which she was a co finalist with Zach Fardon? Ridiculous behavior, Lori.
Comment by Amalia Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 9:53 am
==I just don’t understand LL’s unproductive aggressiveness and name calling.==
I do wonder, though, if we have the full story. Like, these texts seem so immediately aggressive that I sometimes think we *must* be missing some backstory. A history of bad blood, or something.
But at this point, it’s so persistent across so many texts that if MLL has bad blood with this many people, that’s still kinda on her.
Comment by Arsenal Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 9:54 am
Ya know, when it comes to texting and this new era of “phones”, electeds should hate phones, and they wouldn’t have one on them at all.
Maybe get all texts second hand, then have others text the people back from that differed phone… or just stop texting, full stop. I mean, it could get so crazy you could have folks, that’s all they would do all day long would be to take care of texts…
Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 9:54 am
You’d think she would have learned from a former president that arrogance, incivility, and name calling do not end well.
Comment by Big Dipper Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 9:59 am
She’s a lot like Donald Trump: petulant, name-calling others.
Comment by Andersonville Right Winger Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 10:02 am
Most of the commenters are burying the lede… after the Tribune got Rahm’s texts released under FOIA why would any senior level City Hall official send any text message or email spicier than “Can you please call me regarding [blank] at your earliest conveniece?” if even that.
Comment by ChicagoBars Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 10:15 am
I’m ready for the end of the Lightfoot years, but am nervous about what comes next.
Comment by Chicagonk Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 10:17 am
===why would any===
I think there’s probably a component of cognitive bias that prevents people from being able to automatically understand that their text messages, though innocuous to them, might not be as understanding to the public when reported by a news paper.
There are plenty of people in Illinois government right now that are letting “someone” collect an amazing trove of their data because they have downloaded the tik tok to their devices and the mindset of “never write anything you don’t want to have to explain to a Senate committee or on CNN” is hard to impart, hard to develop, and hard to maintain.
None of us is perfect.
Comment by Candy Dogood Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 10:23 am
I saw a headline about AG Raoul it’s like she just has no idea what she’s communicating. Let’s ad Rahm Emanuel to the list of people she can ask about flip phones, in fact they can talk about burner phones.
Comment by Levois J Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 10:31 am
“now I know the terms of engagement.”
It’s jarring how often she says this in texts…
Comment by NIU Grad Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 10:54 am
I voted for Toni, because I’ve met her often enough to respect her values, but I also thought Lightfoot would be, on the whole- Ok. I’m now starting to miss Rahm- which seems almost inconceivable.
Comment by West Sider Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 10:55 am
I used to know a bookie who operated out of a bar who said “phones are for ordering pizzas.”
Comment by James the Intolerant Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 10:57 am
All these texts follow the same pattern.
MLL: You don’t want to mess with me
Recipient: Whatevs
It’s like someone in a 1960s style hospital bed-full body cast, arm propped up by a stick, leg in pulley thing, neck brace- screaming that anybody else who wants a piece should step up. Weak.
Comment by TradedUpForMitch Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 11:07 am
“I do wonder, though, if we have the full story. Like, these texts seem so immediately aggressive that I sometimes think we *must* be missing some backstory. A history of bad blood, or something.”
You would think so, but I can say from personal experience, that’s not the case. To publicly criticize her is to be her enemy (even though she has no problem doing that herself). All rationality goes out the window.
Comment by Montrose Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 11:19 am
===I think there’s probably a component of cognitive bias that prevents people from being able to automatically understand that their text messages, though innocuous to them, might not be as understanding to the public when reported by a news paper.===
There’s absolutely, positively nothing innocuous about these texts. Zero.
Comment by Miso Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 11:25 am
Heh. I miss Rahm also too bad he’s in Japan right now….
Comment by Levois J Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 11:27 am
The thing I have trouble wrapping my head around is the dichotomy that she’s worried about FOIA requests on the one hand so doesn’t want written reports etc. but on the other hand she freely uses texting, something that keeps a written record.
Comment by cermak_rd Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 11:44 am
Amalia - yep. I know Fardon professionally and his demeanor/attitude is the antithesis of LL. ZF is super tough and competent but unfailingly polite, even in highly stressful situations. LL could learn a lot from him…
Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 12:08 pm
Sorry, that anon @12:08 was me.
Comment by WestBurbs Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 12:08 pm
I’m happy with my flip phone. I don’t believe in smartphones.
Comment by Correcting Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 12:11 pm
==Ok. I’m now starting to miss Rahm- which seems almost inconceivable.==
Rahm Emanuel is a petulant, thin-skinned bully who knows exactly how to get things done when he wants to.
Lori Lightfoot is a petulant, thin-skinned bully who has no idea how to get anything done, and that’s why people more professional than her have to hold back from laughing in her face when she pulls out the bully act.
Comment by Roadrager Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 12:16 pm
As I’ve said before in updating an old saying “Do right and fear no man. Don’t text and fear no FOIA request.” Maybe LL could either learn from Mike Madigan or just join AARP to get a discount on a Jitterbug phone.
Comment by West Side the Best Side Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 12:24 pm
@ Anonymous who knows Fardon, he was my pick from the start of announced names and I don’t even know him! Seemed like a good guy with lots of experience who understood how to act in a very political environment. as we approached the pick for the spot, I dubbed the choice Fardon Lightfoot and the Wreck of the Patrick Fitzgerald.
Comment by Amalia Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 1:42 pm
LL continues to fail so badly it’s not even funny anymore. I’m not 100% in the tact and discretion department, but she works overtime to annoy and insult people that are supposed allies/partners in various situations.
As for the Jitterbug phone; the call records themselves would still fall under FOIA as official City business. She needs charm school lessons or have someone publicly take her down a couple of pegs next time she spouts off like this.
Comment by thisjustinagain Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 1:55 pm
=== The mayor scolded her top environmental adviser for sending her a memo on General Iron, saying the aide’s written recommendations have “no FOIA protections and that just cannot be a thing.” ===
When policy people send you emails that are subject to FOIA, it is not by accident.
Comment by Thomas Paine Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 2:14 pm
It’s fun to watch googoos get tripped up by googoo laws…it’s as if they think the googoo laws only apply to “other” politicians.
Comment by IHOP Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 3:33 pm
Is it me or does anyone else envision LL, if she loses reelection next year, immediately signing a talk show deal? Not a radio one, a TV tabloid trash talk show, in hopes of being the next Jerry Springer. Or perhaps the new Judge Judy. She sounds like someone that would be most likely to get into the trash talk business.
Comment by NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 4:30 pm
Everyone wanted a reformer with no political experience to be the chief executive of the 3rd largest city in the US. Bad idea. For an office like that you really need to have held at least one political office. I dont care if it was dogcatcher, just something.
I really dont see how she wins again unless its against someone even more distasteful in the runoff.
Comment by low level Thursday, Feb 10, 22 @ 7:53 pm