NEAR WEST SIDE — Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders didn't specifically cite the Laquan McDonald case, but used Chicago's recent police misconduct issues to stress the need for criminal justice reform at a speech on the West Side Wednesday.
Sanders spoke as he was flanked by at least 50 Chicagoans and some celebrities, including Harvard professor Dr. Cornell West, rapper Killer Mike and Ben Cohen from the Vermont-based Ben & Jerry's ice cream. He was also joined on stage by a group of young black activists that has been calling for the resignation of Mayor Rahm Emanuel — one even wore a "Rahm Failed Us" T-shirt that has been passed out at recent rallies.
Sanders, an independent U.S. senator from Vermont now running to be the Democratic presidential candidate, said police abuses and social policies have been used to keep minorities in poverty and prisons.
"I don't have all the answers," Sanders told the crowd gathered at Village Leadership Academy, 1001 W. Roosevelt Road. "I intend to work with the African-American community and the Latino community to find answers."
Though he talked specifically about the use of lethal force by police and the technology that has allowed communities to discuss reforming police practices, Sanders never specifically mentioned the turmoil in Chicago that has surrounded the city's handling of McDonald's shooting death at the hand of Officer Jason Van Dyke.
Sanders didn't mention Mayor Rahm Emanuel during his prepared remarks, but asked if he intended to seek Emanuel's support should he win his party's nomination, Sanders plainly said "no." Sanders said he has always supported Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, the Cook County board member who ran unsuccessfully against Emanuel in 2015's mayoral election.
"Chuy is my guy," Sanders said. "He is trying to do in Chicago what I'm trying to do nationally. So the question of if I need or want the mayor's support for my candidacy? With all due respect to the mayor, no, I don't."
Ja'Mal Green was the man wearing the "Rahm Failed Us" T-shirt on stage. Green, who has been active in the protests calling from Emanuel's ouster, said he and other young protesters were courted by the Sanders campaign for their activism, and that it had nothing to do with Emanuel.
"They see us out there protesting," Green said after the speech. "Bernie's team loved it. They reached out."
The meeting between Green and other protesters and Sanders' team — which was in part brokered by state Sen. LaShawn Ford (D-Chicago), Green said — has led Green to throw his support behind Sanders, he said.
"It was a good meeting," he said. "I've always been a fan of Bernie's."
The candidate thanked those standing by him for "fighting for economic and social justice" in Chicago and elsewhere for decades.
Sanders said two of his main goals as president would be to fight "institutional racism" and reform the criminal justice system.
He said it was an "international embarrassment" that the United States imprisons more people than any country on earth.
"After my first term as president, we will not have more people in jail than any other country. Period," Sanders said.
Sanders then mentioned a number of social policies that he said will reduce the number of minorities in prison while providing them a leg up in society. He said he wants to make public universities free, wants to remove marijuana from the federal list of regulated controlled substances and rid the country of for-profit prisons.
“I want those children, their parents and teachers to know, that if they study hard and get good grades, they can go to college and get a good education no matter their families' income," Sanders said.
Sanders began his day in Chicago getting a tour of Little Village from Garcia, who said the city is starting to rally around Sanders's liberal agenda.
"My only regret is we had to turn hundreds of people away," Garcia said of his time with Sanders. "People want to see him."
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
