Mayor, Legal Experts Dismiss Trump's Attacks On Chicago Police Reforms
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Can President Trump derail the pending consent decree to reform the Chicago Police Department's law enforcement tactics?
Mayor Emanuel insists Trump's latest attack on Chicago is more about politics than policing, CBS 2's Derrick Blakley reports.
"You guys got to stop acting like Pavlovian mice every time Donald Trump says something," the mayor told reporters. "You know the game, and you're getting played. You're getting played."
Here is what the president said: "I have directed the attorney general's office to immediately go to the great City of Chicago to help straighten out the terrible shooting wave."
Instead, in a statement, Sessions took aim at the pending police consent decree.
"At the end of this week, the Justice Department will file a statement of interest opposing the proposed consent decree."
The mayor called it an empty gesture.
"It doesn't have any value," he said
Legal experts agreed.
"If the city and state attorney general remain committed to this agreement, the federal government can't undo it," said Northwestern Law School professor Shelia Bedi.
The consent decree is a direct result after the Laquan McDonald shooting tape was released and a Justice Department report that showed long-term patterns of police abuse.
Bedi called Trump's statements election-eve political theater.
"I think the sabre-rattling was clearly about Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions wanting to come in and say they were on the side of the police, on the side of the [union.]"
Emanuel originally intended to negotiate the consent decree directly with the justice department.
After the 2016 election, Sessions made it clear, the Trump administration saw the agreement as anti-police.
So instead, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan pushed for an agreement, cutting the feds out of the picture.