A rookie aldermen on Tuesday refused to explain or apologize for his use of the N-word to condemn the ouster of popular Blaine Elementary School principal Troy Raviere.
Ald. David Moore (17th), who is black, used the offensive and racist language to describe African-Americans in a Facebook post last week.
Moore was essentially accusing Mayor Rahm Emanuel of engineering the ouster of the Blaine principal in retaliation for LaRaviere’s outspoken criticism of the mayor’s education policies.
“All I hear is, ‘Stay in your place n—er.’ Not one elected official, who cares about the education of our children, should remain silent about this DICTATORIAL move!” Moore wrote – though he spelled out the word.
Before Tuesday’s meeting of the City Council’s Zoning Committee, Moore was asked whether he regretted or intends to apologize for his choice of words.
“There will be either a press conference or I will be putting out a statement so you all can get questions answered regarding it. I can’t right now,” Moore said.
Moore was asked why he felt it necessary to use the N-word and what kind of example that sets for constituents of his South Side ward.
“With all due respect, you’re gonna get all the answers. I’m gonna answer it all at the right time. And it’ll be this week. It’ll be this week where you get all of those answers. I promise you. And I’ll come and get you first. I’m gonna come and get you and I’ll give you all the answers. I’m going to give you all of the answers. All of them. You will get all of the answers,” he said.
Last week, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders accused Emanuel of flexing his muscle in a “politically-motivated retaliation” against LaRaviere.
Sanders pinned the principal’s reassignment squarely on the mayor and on what he called “Emanuel’s unhealthy obsession with taking revenge.”
On Monday, the mayor fired back by flatly denying any role in the Blaine principal’s ouster.
“When I first became mayor, I set the city on a course to [get out from] under the Shakman decree, where there was political hiring going on and politics played a role in personnel in the city of Chicago. It took me three years, but we ended a 40-year federal judge oversight of our hiring,” Emanuel told an unrelated news conference at Dunbar High School.
“I do not get involved in a personnel decision. I can understand if I’m getting blamed. But, I’m just being clear. I’m adhering to the Shakman decree.”
Emanuel was reminded that LaRaviere is now vying to become president of the Chicago Principals Association.
The now-ousted Blaine principal also endorsed vanquished mayoral challenger Jesus “Chuy” Garcia over Emanuel in the 2015 election and cut a commercial for Sanders before the March 15 Illinois primary denouncing the mayor’s education policies.
Still, Emanuel said, “I’ve said exactly what I said. I do not get involved in personnel decisions.”
It’s not the first time Moore has been at the center of controversy.
During a down-and-dirty aldermanic campaign, Moore held a bizarre City Hall news conference to condemn as a homophobic smear a letter he claimed was being falsely circulated in his name claiming to come clean about his struggle with his sexuality.
The unsigned letter talked about Moore’s 2011 aldermanic campaign that forced incumbent Ald. Latasha Thomas into a run-off, but fell 321 votes short.
“It’s the lowest of the low that you can go. … It’s untrue. It’s a lie. My friends, my family, my neighbors — everyone knows me. I don’t have to defend a lie,” Moore said then.
The controversy that seems to surround Moore didn’t end with the election.
Last summer, the rookie alderman initially refused, then abruptly granted, a city permit required to close the street for the annual summer block party outside St. Sabina’s Catholic Church in Auburn-Gresham because the party was co-sponsored by Spike Lee and the cast of “Chiraq.”
Two months later, a 22-year-old transgender prostitute was arrested after Moore told police that the offender opened the alderman’s car door and punched him in the forearm.
The alderman claimed the alleged attack occurred after he left a raucous party he was trying to rein in after neighbors complained.