The city’s Mayor Rahm Emanuel told reporters he had dismissed Superintendent Garry McCarthy because of an erosion in public trust.
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In announcing McCarthy’s forced resignation, Emanuel, whom some critics also want to resign, said he had formed a five-person task force to oversee police accountability. Right before the video’s release on November 24, prosecutors had announced they would charge Van Dyke with first-degree murder.
The dashboard camera video was not released. The footage drew national attention to Chicago at a time of increased scrutiny over how police officers use deadly force.
Asked if President Obama’s former chief of staff should step down as mayor, White House press secretary Josh Earnest replied, “That’s a decision for Mayor Emanuel and the voters of Chicago to make”.
Retired police officer Richard Wooten said they support protesters who have criticized the city’s handling of the McDonald case, but he insisted the department is not inherently corrupt.
The backlash from the release of the video was swift, leading to more than a week of protests in Chicago and around the country that left many supporting the decision to terminate McCarthy.
McCarthy was not at the news conference.
Emanuel cited a lack of public trust in the police as the reason for the dismissal of McCarthy.
“No”, he said, during one of several testy exchanges through the course of a almost hour-long discussion with POLITICO’s Mike Allen and POLITICO Illinois’ Natasha Korecki.
He now faced a tough challenge from Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, a liberal who touted himself as the politician who would fight for the people.
Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez defended the excessive time her office took in charging Van Dyke for the murder of Laquan McDonald, saying that she had been waiting on a pending federal investigation into the incident.
“Hillary Clinton is deeply troubled by the shooting of Laquan McDonald and the outstanding questions related to both the shooting and the video”, said Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon.
A civil rights leader, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, urged an independent investigation led by a special prosecutor.
“I’m comfortable with who I am and what I’ve done”, Emanuel said. “He hired McCarthy, he set his parameters, and he fired him”. “The misconduct that you see has been going on for years in this city”.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter got Ramsey to stay in Philly back in 2011 with a $60,000 raise when newly-elected Mayor Emanuel tried luring him to Chicago. “We must reform our criminal justice system”.
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“We have a process called the election”, Emanuel said Wednesday during a Politico event. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Justice Department officials began investigating the McDonald killing just weeks after the fact.
