Autocrat Rahm's latest fiasco.

Rahm's police board. What kind of so-called community "leaders" would even go along with this charade? 

A friend of mine in Costa Rica calls this morning and asks, "How's Rahm doing? Any better?"

No, I respond. His ratings are lower than snail poop, especially in the black community which helped elect him. Everything he touches seems to turn to shit and even best friends like the Clintons won't get near him. No politician running in Chicago, will. He's toxic for Democrats and for Chicago's image (and credit rating).

Case in point: In the wake of the city' latest police scandals, involving cop killings and cover-ups at the top, the mayor does an end run around his own police board which just carried out an extensive national search for a new superintendent. To placate supposedly demoralized (video-taped) Chicago cops and take the wind out of the sails of Black Caucus leader and potential rival Ald. Rod Sawyer,  Rahm rushed to name CPD insider Eddie Johnson as interim chief, even though Johnson never even applied for the position and wasn't on the board's short list.

Sawyer and the Caucus had been demanding input into the selection, BEFORE it was made. So had the Hispanic Caucus. But collaboration isn't in autocrat Rahm's playbook. He anticipates dissent and then moves to silence or co-opt it.

His pals at the Sun-Times even ran an editorial, telling the Black Caucus to "butt out".

My friend in shock says: "No way!"

Way...

Rahm tells Eddie Johnson what to say. 

Rahm views his hand-picked police board (the same for his hand-picked school board) for what it is, a gaggle of bobble-headers who serve at his pleasure.

Now he's going to make the board do another pretend national search, spending lots of taxpayer money, only to come up with Johnson as their top choice. What kind of so-called community "leaders" would even go along with this charade? The question answers itself.

The topper: Johnson does his first TV interview and tells CBS 2’s Derrick Blakley that he’s never witnessed police wrongdoing first hand, not once in 27 years. Oops, wrong answer. Didn't Rahm's people prep him? Did they just leave him twisting in the wind? What?

“I’ve actually never encountered police misconduct, cause you got to understand, officers that commit misconduct don’t do it in front of people that they think are going to hold them accountable for it,” Johnson said. “Now that I’m sitting in this chair, if I come across it, I will deal with it accordingly.” 

As S-T's Mary Mitchell puts it: "Nothing against Eddie Johnson, but he’s being tarnished by City Hall’s shenanigans." And so is the board.

All these shenanigans and political maneuverings have little to do with solving the epidemic of gun violence in the city now known internationally as Chiraq since Rahm took over. So long as Rahm and city leaders continue to see it as mainly a policing issue, nothing will be done to change the fundamentals -- poverty, racism, black and Latino youth joblessness, gun flow,  school closings, deterioration of city services, etc...

Gov. Rauner's budget hostage-taking is bound to make things worse. Much worse.

Policing and thousands of stop-and-frisks can't prevent crime and violence. In fact, police misconduct is too often the cause. Police at their best can only try and contain it, usually by arresting and jailing, mostly young black men after the fact.

Then my friend asks, what about the schools?

Watch the news on Friday, April 1st, I tell him. No joke.

What about the Bulls?, he asks.

I'm late. Gotta run.

I hang up.