Rahm Emanuel Screams At Mental Health Activists As Election Tightens

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been having a rough go of it lately. Not only could he potentially lose a runoff  to maintain his office, he is under increased scrutiny for his shady contracting practices. And now Emanuel has been caught screaming at activists for the mentally ill.

Though Mayor Emanuel has shown nothing but generosity towards his campaign contributors, he has been closing schools and services for the poor and in need. One of those who have suffered under Emanuel's leadership is the mentally ill who have seen a major cut in services.

Mental health activists confronted Rahm about his cuts and received quite an earful in return once they got away from the cameras. At one point the mayor screamed at them "You're gonna respect me!"

Mental Health Movement members Debbie Delgado and Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle just confronted Rahm face-to-face about his mental health clinic closures. Rahm was about to address a small room of developers and residents at the Wicker Park field-house. 3 years after he closed half of Chicago’s public mental health clinics, he may have thought the issue had gone away. But then Debbie, sitting in the front row, a few feet from the mayor, stood up to tell her story. She told of losing her son to gun violence. She told him how her other son was holding him as he died. She told about how the city’s Northwest Mental Health Clinic in Logan Square saved their lives, helped her and her son deal with the PTSD and depression....

After trying to keep his cool, he told us that he would speak to us after the event in a separate room. There, we saw the Real Rahm. Now off camera, Rahm’s voice raised, his demeanor changed, in no time he was shouting in Matt’s face, nose-to-nose “YOU’RE GONNA RESPECT ME!”

Mayor Emanuel then reportedly accused the activists of "creating a circus" and offered questionable statistics on his administration's record of providing mental health services.

Rahm Emanuel has a history of problems with the mental health community once famously insulting his political opponents as "fucking retarded." Now his deranged tough guy act is finding fewer and fewer supporters. Chicago votes on April 7th.