The US Justice Department on Monday announced an investigation into the “patterns and practices” of the Chicago Police Department after video of a white police officer’s killing of a black teenager added fuel to ongoing protests against the policing of American communities of colour.
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“This mistrust from members of the community makes it more hard to gain help with investigations, to encourage victims and witnesses of crimes to speak up, and to fulfill the most basic responsibilities of public safety officials”, Lynch said.
When investigations result in findings of systemic violations of federal law and the Constitution they have in many instances resulted in comprehensive, court-overseen agreements to fundamentally change the law enforcement agency’s police practices.
Chicago police have been under scrutiny since the video, which appears to show Van Dyke shooting McDonald 16 times, was made public on November 24.
Michael Oppenheimer, an attorney for the mother of Johnson, told FOX 32 last week that Johnson got out of a vehicle and ran, but was chased down by officers and shot five times.
McCarthy says officers repeatedly shouted at Johnson to stop and drop his weapon but that he ignored these commands.
Last week, officials released hundreds of pages of police reports related to the incident.
The review is of a similar nature to the investigations led by the Justice Department in response to highly publicized and protest-inducing police killings in Ferguson and Baltimore.
AP notes that following the October 2014 shooting, the Chicago City Council approved a $5 million settlement with Laquan’s family-before the family filed a lawsuit.
But some have charged Emanuel with delaying the release of the video, possibly in order to ensure his re-election. This past weekend, we learned those officers wrote reports that supported Van Dyke’s version of the story that McDonald was charging towards him with a knife, a fact that the video shows did not happen. “Building trust between law-enforcement officers and the communities they serve is one of my highest priorities as attorney general”, Lynch continued.
Emanuel, who has faced heavy criticism over the McDonald shooting, has ousted his handpicked police superintendent and replaced the head of the city’s Independent Police Review Authority, which reviews police misconduct allegations.
A 2012 federal investigation into excessive force by the roughly 1,500-person Cleveland Police Department took 18 months to complete. A Guardian investigation exposed in February that Chicago police had the equivalent of a domestic black site where they allegedly tortured detainees who they often held illegally and kept from legal counsel. She’s a former federal prosecutor and was with Chicago’s Office of Inspector General.
“Our mutual goal is to create a stronger, better police department that keeps the community safe while respecting the civil rights of every Chicagoan”, Emanuel said. Activists have railed against the police department and the long lag between McDonald’s shooting and the announcement last month that the officer involved would be charged.
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Alvarez said officers were at the scene due to an earlier shooting.
