Mayor Emanuel, Jesse Jackson Sr. Weigh In On Facebook Torture Video
(CBS) – Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's attempts to highlight tourism in his city was upstaged Thursday by the outrage over a live-streamed torture video on Facebook emanating from the West Side.
A visibly upset Emanuel called the video "sickening" and said he would not comment further because people have been charged criminally.
The four suspects are charged with kidnapping and a hate crime. Police say an 18-year-old northwest suburban man with special needs was the person taunted and harmed in a live-streamed video that grabbed national attention. The suspects are black, the victim white.
Emanuel added there's much more to the city than crime, as reflected in the fact that a record 54 million visitors were drawn here last year.
Also weighing in on the now-infamous Facebook video Thursday was civil rights icon Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.
"The hateful assault of the victim – a white 18-year-old man with special needs, cowering in a corner in the video as four young African Americans torment and torture him – is a moral and spiritual collapse," Jackson said in a prepared statement.
He said minorities find themselves to be targets in today's racially charged climate.