“It’s not enough to fire the police chief”, Norman Solomon, who helped organize a petition carrying more than 10,000 signatures calling for Emanuel’s resignation, said in a statement.
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However, at a news conference last wee she said the reason it took 13 months for her office to charge police officer Jason Van Dyke with first-degree murder, was because it was waiting for the FBI to finish its investigation, which is still ongoing. The video, from a patrol car’s dashboard camera, was released on the same day.
He said the police officer involved in shooting the 17-year-old wasn’t charged or the superintendent fired until the election cycle had passed.
Some city aldermen, particularly members of the city council’s black caucus, had also been seeking McCarthy’s resignation, citing the city’s crime rate and questions about the department’s transparency. And this point and this juncture for the city, given what we’re working on, he has become an issue rather than someone dealing with the issue.
“Now is the time for fresh eyes and leadership”, Mr Emanuel said.
He will rely on those connections to maintain his position as mayor, which depends on his being able to divert and ultimately dissipate popular outrage over police violence and corruption, along with the broader anger over declining living standards and deteriorating public services in the third-largest U.S. city. She said she had no confidence in the mayor either.
By naming a commission and removing McCarthy, Emanuel could be hoping to deflect criticism of his own handling of the case.
April 8: Attorneys for the city and the McDonald family agree to settle for $5 million after previously meeting twice.
Video of the shooting – depicting a police officer firing at the teenager 16 times – was released almost a year after the shooting occurred.
The family of another man fatally shot by Chicago police in 2014 is pressing city officials to release squad auto video of the shooting.
Van Dyke left jail on Monday on bail.
A civil rights leader, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, urged an independent investigation led by a special prosecutor. “But for whatever progress we have made, the killing of Laquan McDonald is a vivid reminder that we have much more work to do as a city”.
Former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick will serve as senior advisor to a task force charged with reviewing and improving accountability in the Chicago Police Department. Still, the mayor said, a police chief is only as “effective as the trust that the community” places in him.
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Most officers, Primeau said, would want to make sure the video equipment is working properly so “internal affairs or investigators know exactly what was going on”.
