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Activist Interrupts U.S. Mayors Conference to Call for Rahm Emanuel's Resignation

January 20, 2016

An activist called for the resignation of Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday by standing in front of the podium at a U.S. Conference of Mayors event with a poster.

The young woman stepped silently in front of Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake while she was giving a speech to fellow U.S. mayors in Washington, D.C., carrying a poster that read, "16 Shots & A Cover-Up. #Laquan McDonald #ResignRahm."

A couple of people tried to coax the activist out of the way when Rawlings-Blake briefly stopped speaking, but the activist would not budge. One audience member yelled out, "Black lives matter," the name of the protest movement against police violence toward African-Americans.

Emanuel, President Obama’s former chief of staff and a prominent Democratic politician, has faced strong calls to step down after his city hall allegedly buried the 2014 case of a white Chicago police officer shooting and killing Laquan McDonald, a black 17-year-old. Critics suggest that Emanuel kept a recording of the incident under wraps to preserve his reelection bid.

Civil rights activist and Obama administration supporter Al Sharpton has called for Emanuel's resignation as well.

Emanuel vacationed in Cuba in the midst of a city-wide uproar over the McDonald case, and became infuriated with a Politico reporter for revealing his vacation plans during a public interview.