An internal investigation concerning alleged questionable gun transactions by a city of Chicago, IL, employee who is also the son of an ex-city alderman has ignited a major scandal for one government agency.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported Monday afternoon that an inspector-general has uncovered allegedly racist and sexist emails being passed around through the city’s water department. The revelation came while the IG was investigating claims that the ex-employee, former water department district superintendent Paul Hansen, had allegedly been selling guns using his city-issued email account to conduct the alleged transactions.
According to the newspaper, Chicago’s anti-gun mayor, Rahm Emanuel, fired a department commissioner and accepted the resignation of Hansen and a deputy official after the inspector-general, Joe Ferguson, came upon the controversial emails during the course of the alleged gun sales investigation, which had been ongoing since last year.
Sources told the Sun-Times that the commissioner, Barrett Murphy, was being held responsible for allowing the emails to be sent around the department; the newspaper reported the emails were sent by a subordinate of the commissioner. Hansen is the son, according to the newspaper, of ex-Alderman Bernard Hansen, who represented the north Chicago neighborhood which surrounds Wrigley Field, the home of baseball’s World Champion Chicago Cubs.
More from the Sun-Times on this scandal that all started with an investigation into questionable gun sales.
