Missing Text

The Tribune is suing Rahm over text and e-mail messages that should be part of the public record. Rahm has been fighting it for a while now, but there's an article in the Trib Tuesday, and it's interesting:

• For the first time, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has released text messages that show him conducting official business on a city-issued cellphone, a move that comes as he faces sharp scrutiny on what information he makes public after fighting for months to keep the Laquan McDonald police shooting video under wraps.
  
  Emanuel disclosed the text messages in response to an open records request, a decision made as the Chicago Tribune is suing the mayor on the grounds he violated state law by refusing to release emails and text messages sent and received on his personal accounts that pertain to public business.
  
  The mayor's text messages to senior city officials cover a six-day period in late December when a Chicago police officer shot and killed two people on the West Side, including an unarmed mother of five. Emanuel's direct and often shorthand messages show the mayor was concerned about how the story was playing in the media and what policies City Hall should roll out in response.

Most interesting is the redacted text in one exchange - anyone want to speculate?

That first redaction. All we're seeing is Rahm asking the race of the officers involved. Of course, we'll never prove it without the original un-redacted documents, but we'd be willing to bet many thousands of toothpicks on Rahm's direction of thought. So would anyone who is completely honest with the way things play out in Chicago, particularly on the west and south sides.

It's sad, but reality. It's also a sad reality that Rahm immediately used this crisis in an effort to stave off his political demise rather than exert actual leadership and effect some change. But that isn't the animal that Rahm is.