On December 9, 2015, in a rare early morning speech to the City Council after protests against police brutality had engulfed the city, a teary-eyed Mayor Rahm Emanuel addressed growing demands for police reform, saying, “We can either be defined by what we failed to do or what we choose to do.”

“We have to be honest with ourselves about this issue,” Mayor Emanuel told a packed City Council Chamber ahead of the last Council meeting of 2015. “Each time when we confronted it in the past, Chicago only went far enough to clear our consciences so we could move on.”